Weekly Mileage #179 and Product Photos

Monday after school in the morning, I started sourcing tools for my tool kits. It took longer than I anticipated since some of the names of different items are not as obvious as I'd think. I have sources for most of the tools, now I need to order samples so I can make sure I actually want to buy 100, 200, or more of that item.

looks super comfy, right?

I want to open for registration/enrollment around the middle of November so I can ship kits the last half of December and start classes the beginning of January. But I need to have everything ready to go before then: videos recorded and edited and their corresponding materials kits for the first four projects, and the tool kits for at least 100 families. I have no idea how many will enroll, but I'd rather have too many than too few. I may offer perspective students a signup so they receive notification when enrollment actually opens. That should give me a ballpark to work off of.

cute little dragon neckerchief slide I made for Sunshine

Monday evening Sunshine and I went to her socially distant court of honor. She received her first class advancement and several merit badges.

pretty sunset during the court of honor

Tuesday Jeremy and I celebrated our 19th anniversary! Our celebration consisted of ordering Five Guys so neither of us had to cook dinner. Sunshine suggested going out to eat, but most dining rooms aren't open, and even if they are, we don't want to eat in them right now. It was easier just to stay home.

After school and music lessons I worked on my batch of buckets from last week. I also worked a bit on the structure of my course. I'm thinking 3 semesters a year = enrollment open three times a year. I researched the difference between courses and memberships a bit more, then tracked down some companies that offer physical product subscription memberships (a lot of people offer digital product subscription memberships). Got some good ideas from what others are doing, but still thinking about how I want to do it.

little boys jumping on the trampoline with the hose

Wednesday after school I finally finished the batch of buckets. I also finally moved the trunks from the basement upstairs, which opens up some space in the basement. Jeremy got a good start sorting all the papers still in the basement (the trunks were full of army crap). We had the boys haul all their toys up to their room. Half of them were already up there anyway and they're forever leaving toys scattered across the floor. Moving them upstairs will allow me more storage space for all the tool kits and materials kits. Once Jeremy finishes sorting his papers, I'll sell the train table I built years ago. It's the right size for me to work on, but it's too top heavy for me to add legs to, so it's time for it to go so I can bring in a taller table or two.

she loves snuggling on soft cushions

Thursday I worked on lighting, setting up backgrounds, taking pictures of buckets, and so on. Having a proper setup makes photos so much easier. I also tried out positioning cameras for video and moved things around in the basement a bit more. I also purchased my school domain!

We had a large deposit show up in our bank account that took us a minute to figure out its source. Turns out it was back VA disability payments. They date it back to when the process was originally started. We haven't received the paperwork yet, but apparently he's got at least a partial disability rating.

sitting quietly in the car

Friday we went for a hike to the river with kids and friends. The heat is draining me so bad- even just sitting outside for two hours leaves me feeling awful. I made an appointment to see my sleep doc next week- hopefully she's got some ideas that will be helpful.

I worked on my school logo, which is a variation of my shop logo.

Saturday I started cutting out music notebooks, notebook covers, and medium totes (two each) to list in my shop for sale.

I stayed up late Friday night chasing a random thought, which was a big mistake. I've finally been getting to sleep at a decent time for most of the last week or so and was feeling fairly decent for me. Saturday and Sunday I didn't feel so great. It's disappointing, but is added incentive to make sure I get to bed on time each night- no more late nighters.

I did 5 mile bike rides Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday (doing some catch-up). The shorter distance fits into my schedule better than 10 miles and is less tiring.

looking for minnows

Weekly Mileage
Tuesday- 5.00 miles biked
Wednesday- 5.00 miles biked
Thursday- 5.00 miles biked
Friday- 1.30 miles hiked
Saturday- 5.00 miles biked
total- 21.30 miles

2020 totals

29 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

166.79 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
22.50 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
250.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
439.29 miles total

Sunday Funny

Now that we have another member in our family, we have another contributor to the Sunday Funnies.

The other day, Jeremy got the propane tank filled and hoisted it from our parking area onto the railing of the back deck. Then he went through the house and out to the deck to put the tank away.

Oreo followed him out to the deck, got agitated, and started barking loudly. She rarely barks, so this was notable.

She was looking in the direction of the propane tank, but we thought maybe there was a critter behind it, near the cars. Then Jeremy grabbed the tank and brought it over to the grill and we realized that no, she was barking at the propane tank. Maybe she didn't like the looks of the small blue rhino on the label? Who knows.

In the picture, she's trying to bite the offending label off the tank.

Weekly Mileage #178 and a Big Step Forward in My Leather Working Business

Monday we officially started our school year. This year my goal is to be better about separating school time from work time, which I haven't done as good as I'd like the last couple years. I'm also working on getting started at a consistent time, which we also haven't been good at. I like getting started on school work earlier in the day since it means I can have the afternoon for work, but it's tiring getting up earlier. Hopefully that's just the keto flu talking (a fun part of eating low carb), in which case next week shouldn't be quite so bad as I get more adjusted to eating low carb.

Since they weren't able to do their Spring Session, the kids' music teacher has them recording one of the songs they've been working on so they can be uploaded to a central location for the students to watch. We did River's recording this week and isn't he so adorable?!

Part of eating low carb is making sure to supplement electrolytes, and I've realized I have to keep a close eye on them, especially if I've been outside. Friday morning was a little cooler, so we went down to the river, but we stayed too long again. I was so wiped out. I felt a little better after drinking some electrolytes, but I was still more tired than I'd like. I've decided to go back to  my sleep doc and see if there's anything we can do about the heat affecting me so badly.

her first hike!

I've been working on a batch of 10 buckets this week. The assembly line process really is good for identifying weak points in the manufacturing process and tightening things up.

just hanging out on a fallen tree

Thursday night we met with a few of our YW for class activities. The other leader there just launched a course on how to unschool your children (her oldest is a year older than Sunshine and she's homeschooled from the beginning as well), and she saw one of my buckets and mentioned she'd love to have me teach her kids to do some leatherwork and that she thought I could offer classes in our home to small groups.

Sunshine and her friend made a bench out of rocks and a piece of driftwood, but the wood was wet so they put large leaves on the board

As we talked, I realized this is the idea I've been looking for. I've known for awhile now that I wanted to teach some kind of online course, but I hadn't figured out who my target audience would be or even my topic. Considering that my target audience for my buckets and totes is homeschool moms, it should have been an obvious leap to teach their children the basics of leatherwork. I'm so glad she said what she did since I had managed to miss this.

just sitting on the bench

I'm not sold on the logistics of hosting in-home classes, though. Aside from the whole social distancing thing, our basement where I work is not large (and is currently cluttered with stuff Jeremy still needs to finish sorting) and people would have to traipse though the house to get there, which would mean the house would need to be cleaner than it currently is... However, the benefit of teaching this in-person first would be invaluable when it comes to recording lessons that would be available as part of a membership or course (still deciding which one- there's pros and cons to each).

little boys taking the offshoot trail that diverges, then converges with the main trail

In a membership, I'd provide new patterns and materials every other month or quarterly, along with videos on how to put that item together. In a course, I could have a variety of patterns that get progressively more difficult, and can be completed at their own speed. What will most likely happen is that I start as a membership, adding new patterns every other month or quarterly, then when I have enough, I convert it into a course, using the patterns I previously released.

There's some logistics I still need to figure out, like whether people could sign up anytime or only at specific times, which would in turn impact the materials kits and tool kits that would be needed. I don't want to be sending kits out every day- I'd rather do it all at once, every other month or so. And the kits would be an integral part of the membership so that busy parents don't have to find the tools and materials needed. They arrive at their doorstep, they watch the video, they do the project. Kind of like KiwiCrate, but a bit more involved.

my shirt arrived for the next race I'm registered for, but it's still a month away

Before I can move forward with any of this though, I need to start doing a lot more videos and get comfortable in front of the camera. I also need to source the tools to go in a beginner leatherworkers tool kit that will be offered for sale along with the videos and materials kits for each pattern. Speaking of which, I also need to come up with simple patterns that kids can hand stitch. I have patterns that would work, but they're someone else's designs and I'd need to pay royalties if I used them. I'd rather keep as much money as possible and invest in hiring people to help with other aspects of the business: social media, videography, cutting fabric and leather for products, and maybe even helping with the sewing if I can loosen up my control issues enough.

As much as I like the idea of not having to worry about employees and all the things I'd have to do for them, if I want to grow my business to the point where it replaces Jeremy's income, I will need to hire help. Some people can run a business all by themselves, but I can't do it all, especially with my health issues. And I don't want my life to revolve around my business- I want to be able to take time off. Hiring help will free me up to focus on the more enjoyable aspects as well as allow me more free time in general, which is needed since I have no desire to keep working at the pace I've been going- I would like to work a lot less each week.

Sunshine's out there on the dock, waiting to dive in and retrieve a weight off the bottom

Saturday Sunshine went to an aquatics event at the local Scout camp so she could work on her swimming merit badge. I thought about driving home, then returning to pick her up, but ultimately decided it would be a better use of my time to stay out there and just work in the car. I worked on posts for both my websites, prepped social media posts, and tried to stitch a neckerchief slide.

I'd gathered everything the night before, but forgot to put my cutting board in my tote bag with the rest of the stuff I needed. Without the cutting board I was dead in the water.

Sunshine didn't quite finish her swimming merit badge- she doesn't have the endurance for the longer required swims and wasn't able to complete them. This December we'll have her do swim lessons and build up her stamina. The council offers another aquatics event in January, so she should be able to finish the merit badge then.

The original plan had been for her to do swim team this spring to build her skills and endurance. Then she'd go to Scout camp and do her merit badge there. But we all know how this year's gone, so neither happened.

Last night we had another casualty of Oreo's teeth: one gray running shoe, size Ocean.

Add that to the chair in the library (she chewed one arm, one corner of the seat cushion, and one corner of the frame), my phone charging cord, her first doggie harness, multiple tennis balls, and every soft chew toy we've bought her. She does like to chew on things....

Weekly Mileage
Friday- 1.30 miles hiked
total- 1.30 miles

2020 totals

28 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

165.49 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
22.50 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
230.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
417.99 miles total

Sunday Funny

This is a box that Sunshine had turned into a LEGO dollhouse a couple years ago. She finally got rid of it and Ocean claimed it before it ended up in the recycling bin. Because who doesn't want to wear a box house?

Weekly Mileage #177 and Our New Puppy!

Tuesday Sunshine had an orthodontist appointment and the kiddos had their music lessons.

I'm working on shop products again, starting with the buckets. I'm working on 5 at a time, which has been eye-opening and resulted in some changes in how I will put together future buckets. I need to cut down on production time, so any time-saving measures I can employ are good.

Wednesday it wasn't raining, so I power washed a bench and the roof of the RV, then replaced the rotten vent covers. I was afraid it would be a huge pain, but it was quite easy to do (for once!). Since I power washed first, it was wet and dirty, but I figured that was better than sitting on who-knows-what that was on the roof. 

what it looked like last week

more holes and cracks appeared, just from touching it

clean and shiny new cover

We finally gave in and bought a new dishwasher. We'd hoped we could put it off till we re-do the kitchen, but it's gotten to the point where it wasn't even washing the dishes. It had a good run, though. I think it was original to the house, so it was about 22 years old.

Thursday I rode my bike before going to the chiropractor and running errands. I'd worked on my buckets on Wednesday, but then decided to change up the handles from what I'd originally planned. So Thursday I tried a few different options before deciding on what I wanted to do.

Friday morning it wasn't raining so we had a socially distant playdate with our friends. We brought Oreo (more on her in a minute!) along and she did pretty well.

I finished my batch of 5 buckets and immediately started thinking about what I wanted to work on next. I want enough to have on hand when I list them in my shop, but I also want to get going on tote bags, so I don't want to do too many just yet.

Saturday I started working on a batch of 10 buckets. Doing a bunch at the same time is much easier when it comes to stopping and starting. Assembly lines are more efficient and I can pause in between each step if I need to.

skipping the edges of the handles so they have a slight rounded edge

I sit down, cut a bunch of handles, trim them out, coat them in neatsfoot oil, then set them aside. Then I get my tags engraved and cut and then coat them in neatsfoot oil and set them aside. Then I cut all the canvas pieces. Then I sew the center seam on all of them. The longest part is sewing the leather strips to the canvas and then the bottom to the rest of the bucket.

I'm not done with this batch, but I did make good progress on it.

And now for the buried lede:

Over the weekend we adopted a 5-6 month old puppy named Oreo! We found her on our local shelter listing, but it took about a week for them to get back to us, so we weren't sure if we'd get the chance to meet her.

her listing photo- not a great one, and definitely doesn't show her personality

They're currently doing appointment-only visits, so we couldn't just drop in (this is a larger shelter than the two we visited last week).

Anyway, they finally got back to us, so we went to meet her and take her for a walk on the grounds. She'd actually been adopted around the middle of July, along with 4 litter mates, but she was returned at the beginning of August because of "high energy". While she does have energy, it's not consistent, so we can't figure out what exactly the complaint was.

RIP phone charger....

She does like to chew stuff, so the house is more tidy than it's been since the boys were born 😂 Shoes are put away, toys are off the floor, counters are cleared off... it's great!

Her paperwork said she's an Australian cattle dog (also known as a blue heeler) cross, I'm guessing because of the markings on her chest and feet. However, going off her ears and face shape, she looks a lot like a miniature black lab. She doesn't have the stocky body of the blue heeler. Maybe she's got some whippet in her as well?

Ocean wasn't super thrilled about her at first- our neighbors with the Great Dane moved more than a year ago, and we really haven't been around any dogs since then. We'd forgotten that he is hesitant around dogs. He's doing better, though she thinks he's a puppy and keeps trying to play with him like one. But overall, her issues aren't too bad, all things considered.

she thought she heard something...

She does seem to be mostly house trained, though she's had a couple accidents.

We don't have a fenced yard, so multiple daily walks are a new thing, so everyone is getting more exercise than they usually do. Once it cools down a bit, I'll start taking her for trail runs a couple times a week. We've had two weeks of daily rain, so the trails are way too wet to even attempt a run right now.

I'm definitely glad we didn't do this earlier. While she's not a young puppy, she does need constant supervision since she likes to chew on things and investigate all the places. It's just like having a toddler around again. I would not have had the energy for this when the boys were younger. It's debatable that I have the energy now, but with Jeremy home most days and Sunshine more than old enough to help, at least it's not all on me to take care of her. The boys want to help with walks and stuff, but she's got a strong pull and can bowl them both over.

heard another sound outside... and she's knocked the blinds and lamp shades askew because she thinks the table behind the couch is the perfect spot to sit and watch what's going on outside (not a lot, unless you count the squirrels)

She's a sweetie and seems to be adapting well to life in our family 😀

Weekly Mileage
Thursday- 10.0 miles biked
total- 10.00 miles

2020 totals

27 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

164.19 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
22.50 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
230.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
416.69 miles total

Sunday Funny

Another one to file under "Why, Ocean?"

Though I do think that River had a hand in this one: it wasn't a solo job.

All the paint cans stored behind the laundry room door found their way in front of the washer and dryer.

I guess they needed room for the baby doll and the stuffed doggies to play?

I looked in later and Ocean had stacked the cans in a pyramid as tall as him and quite proudly showed it off to me. I didn't get a pic of that one, unfortunately.

Weekly Mileage #176 and All the Rain

I'm not down to the keto level of low carb yet, but in general, I'm feeling better. More energy, less brain fog, less day time sleepiness, better nighttime sleep. There's still room for a lot of improvement, but at least I'm not feeling nearly as crummy as I have been.

Monday I went grocery shopping in the morning and tried unsuccessfully to find a new kayak for Sunshine. She's grown too big for the blue one we bought a few years ago and was riding pretty low in it last Monday at Scouts. Walmart.com claimed the store in town had one sit-in and two sit-on-top kayaks in stock.

I went in (after parking by the garden center and then finding out that the closest doors were closed to the general public and having to walk to the door farthest from the sporting goods section), couldn't find any, and went back to the car. I checked the site again, downloaded the app, both still claimed there were in-stock kayaks. So I parked a little closer and went back in. This time I was able to find an employee to talk to- there was no one around the first time I went in. She said, "Yeah, no. We don't have any kayaks in stock. We get one in every once in awhile, and it's gone right away." Stupid, unreliable website inventory reporting. I could have saved myself a decent chunk of time and energy if I'd known that. Oh, and you can't call the store to check on inventory in stock- you have to go in and talk to an employee.

When I got home I checked around some more and no one has kayaks in stock (bikes are hard to find as well). Understandable, but a bit annoying. I'll have to keep an eye on craigslist in the off season and see how many people list the kayaks they bought this summer.

We had heavy rain in the afternoon and evening as we got the edge of the hurricane moving north. We're far enough inland that we rarely get more than the outer edges. No damage and we didn't lose power.

Tuesday after music lessons Jeremy and I went to a couple local shelters, checking to see what dogs are available (shhh! we haven't told the kiddos yet!). The kiddos have been wanting a dog for years, and we were just about ready to get one when I got pregnant with River, then Ocean, and then I just didn't have the energy to deal with a dog.

But I'm feeling like we're in a better place for it now. Unfortunately, like bikes and kayaks, there's not a lot of dogs available because so many were adopted during the early part of quarantine. I did find a rescue organization up near DC with a lot of dogs available, but they also charge high fees. Call me cheap, but part of why I've resisted saying yes to a dog is the cost. We didn't find one yet, but we will eventually.

shards of plastic resting on the screen, the walnut resting in the lower right corner is the culprit for that particular hole

I also climbed up on the RV roof with Sunshine to patch the vent covers. We'd noticed the holes when we went camping in June, but kept forgetting to take care of them. All the rain we've had recently had us worried, and rightly so: a fair amount of water came in and got the dinette cushion wet.

All three vent covers had holes in them- they're so cheap. Our trailer vent covers never had problems and we had it a bit longer than we've had the RV. These are absolute garbage. The holes got bigger as we were patching them! We did the best we could, and it should hold till the replacement covers arrive. I made sure to get covers made by a different manufacturer, so hopefully they last a lot longer.

used clear FlexTape to fix the holes and cracks, but it was almost disintegrating as we did it

I didn't hit my deadline to get my batched posts finished, so I spent some time working on them. By the time I got done running around on Monday, I just wasn't feeling up to sitting in front of my laptop and writing.

Wednesday morning I took Ocean in for his every 6 month ear tube checkup. His right tube has fallen out and the hole is healed, so that's good. The left tube is still in place, so we'll go back in 9 months to make sure it's out and healed. As long as he doesn't have any further problems with his ears, he won't need another set. Yay!

Ocean was ridiculously excited to go to this doctor appointment. He's only left the house a few times since the middle of March, so any excuse to leave is a big deal for him. I asked him if he was excited for a big adventure and he said he was excited, but it wasn't a big adventure. 😂

After his appointment we stopped by Harris Teeter to ride the green dragon (he'd been talking about it a few days earlier), then got an ice cream cone at the McDonalds drive thru. He had a great time and tried hard not to touch everything, but I think he's just a tactile child. Even with reminders and gloves that I changed a couple times, he was still touching things. It wouldn't be a huge deal if he kept his hands out of his mouth, which he is getting better at, but there's still room for improvement. So he'll continue to stay home for the next while.

I worked some more on the batched posts. I added two posts to the line up (pushing one back and squeezing an extra one in), which made more work for me, but it works better with the timeline of publishing my posts.

Thursday I started the day with a bike ride, but I was trying to keep my time down and I think I expended too much energy. I felt a bit off the rest of the day. I have to remember moderate exercise, not hard exercise.

Ocean got stung by a wasp Wednesday afternoon/evening. He and River have each been stung before in the last week or so, along with my sting in June, which is more stings than we've ever had here. We have super aggressive wasps this summer for some reason.

Anyway, Thursday afternoon I looked at his arm as he scratched at it and noticed it looked a bit red and swollen. I felt it and it was warm to the touch. I took off the band aid (that he'd insisted on putting on the night before) and the sting site looked a lot worse. The first time Ocean and River got stung, it was just a small red dot that healed quickly, but this one looked like when I got stung- angry and kind of nasty. I gave him some allergy meds and spread cortisone cream on his arm and monitored him for the next 12 or so hours.

I'm worried, but not as worried as I'd be if the reaction had shown up a lot sooner. It was at least 12-18 hours after he got stung that we noticed the reaction. But it does mean we'll have to keep a close eye in the future if he gets another sting. He needs his 5 year checkup still, so I'll bring it up then and see if we need to have an epipen on hand just in case. By the next day, his arm was no longer swollen or warm.

I finally found a kayak, in stock, in town! It was a bit more expensive than the mythical kayak at wally world, but we'll take it. It's better than waiting a few more months to find one once everyone starts selling theirs after deciding they don't want to keep it up. I ended up finding it at Dicks- we had one nearby that closed a year or so ago, but I finally had the thought to check if they had another location nearby and realized that when they closed the closer store, it was to relocate to a new shopping center on the south side of town.

We had a storm move through in the late afternoon and it got very dark, with thunder, lightning, and rain. We didn't have any damage or lose power, but I know others did. Apparently there were two tornados that caused some damage- a lot of trees and power lines down not that far from us. Guess we'll have to wait a bit before we try out that new kayak- water levels will be too high for the next while.

Weekly Mileage
Thursday- 10.0 miles biked
Friday- 2.00 miles walked on the treadmill
total- 12.00 miles

2020 totals

27 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

164.19 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
22.50 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
220.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
406.69 miles total

Sunday Funny

Ocean: "You need to go to the store and get more popsicle juice so you can make more popsicles!"

** Store-bought juice for homemade popsicles = popsicle juice, apparently

July Mileage

River wanted his picture next to the orange flowers

Like June, July was hot and humid, but worse. I hibernated in our air-conditioned house as much as possible. This definitely contributed to July having the fewest miles of the year to date. I need to switch modes from trail running to treadmill running, but that's a tough switch.

I missed a bike workout because of online YW camp and then trying to catch up after it, but I'm still close to where I should be.

Still short on my foot miles and I'm now three hikes short. I may not make those up till the weather cools down, though. I'm just not motivated to hike in the heat and humidity; not if I want to be functional and productive afterwards, which I need to be.

So, I'm a bit short, but so much closer to being on track at this point in the year than I have been in the past, so I feel pretty good about where I'm at.

July mileage: 
0 treadmill workout + 3 hike/trail runs + 1 race + 2 outside walks + 2 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 38.70 miles

52 hike challenge: 27 hikes

365 mile challenge:  210.0 bike miles + 164.19 outdoor foot miles + 18.00 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 392.19 miles

June mileage:
0 treadmill workout + 1 hike/trail run + 2 trail races + 1 outside walk + 3 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 77.08 miles

52 hike challenge: 24 hikes

365 mile challenge:  185.0 bike miles + 157.49 outdoor foot miles + 11.00 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 353.49 miles

May mileage:
1 treadmill workout + 4 hikes/trail runs + 1 trail race + 3 outside walks + 3 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 50.10 miles

52 hike challenge: 21 hikes

365 mile challenge:  150.0 bike miles + 115.41 outdoor foot miles + 11.00 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 276.41 miles

April mileage:
0 treadmill workout + 3 hikes + 2 races + 2 trail runs + 1 outside walk + 3 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 50.10 miles

52 hike challenge: 16 hikes

365 mile challenge:  120.0 bike miles + 78.68 outdoor foot miles + 8.00 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 206.68 miles

March mileage:
1 treadmill workout + 4 hikes + 0 races + 4 trail runs + 4 outside walks + 3 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 53.38 miles

52 hike challenge: 13 hikes

365 mile challenge:  90.0 bike miles + 58.58 outdoor foot miles + 8.00 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 156.58 miles

February mileage:
2 treadmill workouts + 4 hikes + 0 races + 3 trail runs + 0 outside walks + 3 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 59.08 miles

52 hike challenge: 9 hikes

365 mile challenge:  60.0 bike miles + 37.20 outdoor foot miles + 6.00 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 103.20 miles

January mileage:
1 treadmill workout + 5 hikes + 1 race + 3 trail runs + 2 outside walks + 2 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 44.12 miles

52 hike challenge: 5 hikes

365 mile challenge:  20.0 bike miles + 22.62 outdoor foot miles + 1.50 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 44.12 miles

Weekly Mileage #175 and Shop Stickers

Monday we cleaned the house, which it desperately needed. I detest cleaning. It's one of those futile tasks that gets undone as soon as it's done (if not while it's being done), especially with little boys in the house. But at the same time, I hate living in a dirty house.

I was still feeling more anxious than I'd like, but definitely better than the previous few days. That afternoon I took the RV in for its annual inspection, which it passed this time.

That evening we had a socially distant kayaking activity for Scouts. Sunshine did some stand up paddle boarding as well as kayaking.

The lighting setup I ordered last week arrived, now I'm just waiting for my backdrops, which have been ordered. Then my product photos should look a lot more professional. My stickers also arrived. They have a matte finish, which I like. The square one didn't photograph very well, but the color is a dark blue gray slate color.

Tuesday I worked on getting back in the groove of getting stuff done. Last week threw me off and I've got a lot to do to catch up, which doesn't help my anxiety levels.

My second order of waxed canvas arrived, so I now have the materials for all my initial projects, if I just had the time to actually work on them. Everything in their time though, and there's other tasks that have to be finished before I get back to actual leatherwork.

Speaking of other tasks, I worked on blog posts for my shop site and almost finished them on Tuesday.

Ocean was playing with the felt letters and made this design on the floor. Then he ran downstairs and came back with an xbox controller to make sure he got it right :)

Wednesday I ordered a rubber stamp and two brass stamps with my logo. The rubber stamp will be used on packaging, the brass stamps for marking on leather. I considered just using my acrylic stamp for awhile longer, but I kind of wanted to just get it done and not have to worry about the inadequacies of the acrylic stamp (which it definitely has). Though it'll probably take a month for the stamps to arrive, so I'll still have to use the acrylic stamp in the meantime.

I finished catching up the blog posts for my shop site and then started on some other site updates. I also updated my social media logos.

And then it was time to stop and pivot back to my travel blog. My last batched post was published last week and now it's time to batch another round. Last time it took me a bit more than a week to batch two months' worth of posts, but I'd really like to shorten that timeframe. I've got another two months' worth of posts in the works, and I want to finish them by Tuesday so I can finish my site updates (just a few things left), then start making tote bags.

After I took this picture, Ocean rearranged the letters and brought in a green one so that the colors matched up. He was a little put out that he could match the letters, or the colors, but not both.

Thursday I did a bit more site work as well as updating a few things on my Etsy shop. Then I worked some more on the batched posts.

I also took some time out to go through the keto cookbooks I ordered last week. I went through and marked recipes and made a list of ingredients I need. Most are pretty repetitive and we already have most of the ingredients, but there were a few oddball ingredients like hazelnut meal, peanut flour, and lupin flour. Some can be bought locally, others online at sites like Amazon and Thrive Market.

I realized if I'm going to stay low carb/keto long term (which I need to do to manage my narcolepsy), I need to put a little more effort into it. I've only been using the same couple recipes over the last year and a half, which has not been helpful for staying on track. Sweets are a real issue for me, so I need to find some good recipes I can make, that I like, so that I have substitutes that won't knock me off track when holidays and celebrations come around. I seem to get derailed around holidays and celebrations much too easily, which is why I haven't been able to stay low carb long term. I bought keto breakfast, dinner, and dessert cookbooks, but I also bought a keto baking cookbook. That one has some intriguing recipes that I'm looking forward to trying.

My new business cards and product tags arrived. The care tag is double sided, and I'll punch a hole at the top for string. I was aiming for rustic tags and business cards, which I got, but I'm not completely sure I like the end result. The waxed canvas care instructions didn't turn out as clear as I'd like- I should have used a different font. Overall, though, they're not terrible, and I doubt anyone will look at them as critically as I am.

Friday I hopped on my bike for the first time in several weeks. I also adjusted how it sits in the trainer, which unintentionally resulted in no more easy spinning. But I wasn't getting a lot of benefit from those easy spinning miles, so that's not a bad thing. I also worked on my batched posts.

Saturday I walked on the treadmill and tidied up the desktop on my computer, went through the millions of open tabs and windows, and brainstormed a socially distant product feedback party where I have fellow homeschooling moms look at and examine my products and give feedback on them. How's that for multi-tasking? I thought about running part of the time, but I can't run and work on the computer at the same time, and I really needed to get that work done.

Did a little more shop site work (I keep thinking of random things to look into or take care of, so I stop and do them while I think of them). Then onto the batched posts. The last two need a bit more research before they'll be at draft stage. I leave final edits till after I get the pin images and alt texts done, which gives me time to go back to the posts with fresh eyes. So, good progress, but the research stage always takes longer than I'd like.

I made some low carb peanut butter cookies that were pretty good. They used peanut flour instead of almond flour, which I liked, since coconut flour and almond flour (the usual low carb flours) don't always agree with me. I used half the low carb sweetener the recipe called for, which affected the rise a little, but they tasted good.

I used a new brand (Lakanto) of sugar free chocolate chips, and I like them better than the other brand I've used (Lily's). They're both sweetened with erythritol, which has an unpleasant cooling effect in the mouth. It's worse in the Lily's chocolates than the Lakanto chocolates, which are also sweetened with monkfruit. One thing I liked about this recipe: it only made two cookies, so there's no extras sitting around, begging to be eaten. They're less tempting than sugar-sweetened cookies, but there's still a good chance I'd eat more if they were there.

The friendly(?) neighborhood bear made another visit Saturday night, strewing trash across the driveway and pulling several bags into the woods. The kiddos were not impressed with being tasked with the cleanup. Sunshine asked about animal control services (they won't do anything with a bear unless it's aggressive) and River thought shooting it with a machine gun would take care of the problem.🤦‍♀️ Really, we just need to figure out a better way to store our trash cans so they're not tipped over so easily.

Last week I started teaching River how to do his and Ocean's laundry. They've recently started changing their clothes 3 or 4 times a day, which has resulted in them running out of clean clothes much sooner than they should. They play outside in the hose or the rain, come in and put dry clothes on. They go back outside and play in the water some more, maybe changing beforehand, definitely changing again after getting wet.... Anyway, so far it's going well. I think Sunshine was 10 or 11 when I started teaching her, so they're getting a head start on her. Never too early to start learning life skills!

Jeremy had online training with the military all week. They're supposed to do two weeks a year, but they did one now and they'll do the second week later. I'm not sure if it will be online as well, or if they're waiting to see. Anyway, lots of fun. Lots of telling the kiddos to "be quiet, daddy's on a phone call!" and "go upstairs, or downstairs, or outside, but get out of the library!" (where daddy was working). Ideally, I would have taken them off on an adventure, but if it was ideal, he wouldn't be doing training at home, so it would be a moot point. As it was, I wasn't willing to take the kiddos anywhere because it's been so hot and humid and I'm trying to get caught up on my work. I've gone two weeks without doing any leatherwork and I'm getting antsy about it.

Weekly Mileage
Friday- 10.0 miles biked
Saturday- 2.50 miles walked on the treadmill
total- 12.50 miles

2020 totals

27 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

164.19 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
20.50 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
210.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
394.69 miles total

Sunday Funny

The older he gets, the more we realize that Ocean marches to the beat of a different drummer than the rest of us. Which is fine, I love seeing some of the things he comes up with. But he definitely leads us scratching our heads and asking "why?" on a regular basis.

File this picture under our growing pile of "Why, Ocean?" questions.

He likes to completely unwrap the TP before putting it in the hall cupboard, except this time he stacked it in our bedroom. Why? Only he knows.

Though when he saw me posting this picture, he told me it's a racetrack for feet.

I don't think that really cleared things up for me. 🤣