Reyna

Hi everyone! I'm back!! March was a really painful month for me. I'm very glad its over. Things are still a bit crazy but crazy in a good way, rather than a bad one. Everyone cross your fingers for me! Something extremely good might be happening in the next couple weeks and I need all the good luck I can scrounge up. So, this is the last week of the challenge, right? How are y'all doing? Has it been a rough challenge for you? Easy? Why do you think it was that way? I can't wait for the next challenge to start. I am BACK and roaring to go! oh...and this happened... Still waiting on one more egg to hatch.

They weren't (that I remember) actually bad just odd tasting and looking. I did love the teeny tiny bottles of Tabisco. The honey tree find was so awesome. I wish we'd taken pics but for some reason we didn't. Everyone got stung at least once but we managed not to wreck the nest completely and get a couple sheets honeycomb out. Spent the next couple days a sticky mess since no one could figure out an easy way to get the honey out of the comb. We finally started to just chew on a chunk like the world's most tasty wad of gum. But oh man, being sticky without any chance of a real HOT water shower for a couple days! We were so filthy when we got home.

MREs (like real, army surplus type) have been the only odd cooking food I've had. We went hunting when I was 12 and that's all the food that was brought. It was...odd. Otherwise-frozen enchiladas, cooked ground beef, hot dogs, jerky, and dried fruit has been a mainstay of my camping activities. Supplemented by wild caught trout, wild harvested weeds and greens, and the occasionally lucky find of a honey tree.

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So...Week 2. Eats-eh, ok-ish. Could have been better, probably dropped down to 75/25. I did eat more and I think that really helped my mood and energy levels, on the other hand it was really difficult sometimes TO eat and I resorted to nibbling on the carby things Hubby loves. My plan of having lots of leftovers worked great for about three days, then I ran out/grew sick of leftovers. Exercise: Better but still inconsistent, logged two whole miles toward Rivendell. Zero Crossfit activities completed. Stress: Lots of gardening, and breathing exercises. Lots of extra stress (if I start explaining I'll probably start bawling, it was just not a good week) that's flowing into Week 3 so I'm trying to do several stress-relief sessions a day. Its helping, kinda. Well, its a new week so a new chance. : )

Aren't they good? I'm not a big fan of eggs (even these) but the kids sure gobble them down. I tried to get pics of the hatching eggs but they came out as blurbs. I should have taken a couple last week, now all you can really see is a dark blob that wiggles. It is so cool! I can't wait till they hatch (especially since hatching has its own list of problems to stress over).

These are Muscovy eggs so they take foooooorrrrrrrevahhhhhhh! Most ducks and chickens take 20ish days, these guys are closer to 30. So far it looks like there are 4 little babies wiggling in the shells. Which isn't great, 4 out of 12, but considering the temperature issues I've had I'm happy to have any. I'll try and get a picture, it looks so cool! Like scary red spiders inside the shells. Yep, I technically live in town but I'm right on the city line and I have a huge backyard. We have chickens (the eggs are so tasty-kids won't eat supermarket eggs anymore) and we're branching out into ducks this year. Supposedly their eggs are just as tasty, bigger, and they scarf up snails and slugs. Last year the slimy creatures took out whole chunks of the garden and mowed down at least half of my greenhouse plants, even though I was putting out traps and bait and all that stuff. Hoping the ducks will take care of the problem. And, if not, they are sure cute.

Day 2 of getting up before the kids resulted in a second couch crash. Yesterday I gave myself some slack since Tadpole is teething and was up most of the night. Today...today I sat down to put on shoes so I could run on the treadmill and woke up when I rolled off the couch. Guess I needed the sleep? Man this habit is going to be hard to break. Eats are good but could be better, I'd say 80/20 now but I feel better when it close to 90/10. Struggling with eating more but I feel more awake during the day and less stress so eating more is doing good. I'm a little worried about the extra calories, the last thing I need is more weight to lose but will just have to cross that bridge when I get there. Stress wise I've spent several days out in the garden and its been a huge help. Sometimes I just sit there and do breathing/meditation type exercises (basically what I can remember since I'm not going to trek back to the house for the book/website) and sometimes I just watch the critters: I am now the bemused owner of two ducks. When a friend heard I was incubating eggs she offered me two drakes who were raping her chickens. I figure if they annoy me enough I'll make roast duck for dinner but right now they are zooming through the garden eating slugs. The way their tails waggle is flat out hilarious, as is how they stare through the fence at the chicken coop. Sorry boys, not going to happen.

Thai curry....drooooooool...now I want it too.

Week 1 Recap They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, here's Week 1's picture: Eats: I had better days but no good ones. Which is silly, its like my willpower up and ran away. Exercise: I did one day of Week 1. I DID do more air squats and push-ups (whenever I had a free moment) but... Stress Relief: I worked in the garden one day and that was great. Otherwise I mostly stewed and fretted rather than chilled. Which is probably why I had zero will-power since I want to munch when I'm stressed, and when I munch I feel more stressed, and...can we say Catch-22? AHHH!!! Today I'm prepping for Week 2. I'm hoping if I have more leftovers that are quick to warm up that might help with some of the snacking. I am also going to to try and eat breakfast more often. I didn't keep a food journal but I noticed toward the end of the week I was skipping meals, sometimes going all day without eating. Fasting has rarely worked for me so I need to some how eat even though I don't feel hungry. Which is much harder that it sounds, for some reason. My week goal will be to get out of bed by 7am. I've fallen into a bad habit of waking up, then crashing on the couch for another hour or three until the kids get up. That's time I can use to work out, write, or meal prep. Sure, that hour or so seems to be the best sleep I get, but maybe if I start the day earlier I'll sleep better at night. Its worth a try.

Thank you Candi! I will look into that app, I need to do something. Still haven't heard back from the tai chi class. I tried to do a yoga class on YouTube and...yeah...I basically turned into Doug from Up-"squirrel!!" every five seconds, I was sooooo bored. Also, so uncoordinated. By the way-how did you put the Distance to Rivendell counter on your signature? I have that as a year goal (last challenge showed there was no way I would make it in 6 weeks) and it would be fun to watch it move. Yep, ducks. Last year I tried to hatch out chickens but, out of 19, I only got 1 hatch. Two of the eggs were rotten but the others just had a yolk, no growth. This year the kiddo started to nag about eggs so I thought I would try ducks. Plus, the snails are going bonkers in my garden and anything that will eat those nasty critters needs to live at my house. Unfortunately I've got a feeling I've lost this batch. Its Day 5 and I'm not seeing any veins or growth. I have 4 thermometers in there, 1 I know is broken, a digital and 2 bulbs. I was going off the digital but someone at Backyard Chickens mentioned that the humidity can screw those types up if they aren't specifically made for incubators. Mine's just a household one so I'm betting that's what happened. I'll give them a couple more days and if nothing new I'll see if I can get another batch of eggs. I may have found some Swedish Flower eggs so I'm excited. Though, I'd really like it if this batch works out since they should hatch on Munchkin's birthday (which will just blow her mind).

There's going to be another PotC?? SQEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!*JUMPSFORJOY* I love how your goals all have a theme, especially a pirate them. Keep up the great work!

Nope

Hi everyone! I'm down south of PDX bit but would love to meet up with other Rebels!

*shrug* works for me. I can get my own flowers and candy. How is "wooing" defined for you?