shadowmoonsedai

Hello new guys! This is my third challenge and let me tell you - it gets easier as you go along, if only because you realize that you only have so much bandwidth and trying to build new habits takes a lot of that bandwidth so sometimes you need to scale back. Like, a lot. You also have to be realistic with yourself. There's excuses and then there's life. I didn't do a whole lot last week but my husband was sick and worked late three days which left me as primary parent to our energetic, teething 10-month-old. Nothing else got done but the baby stayed happy so... yay?

This is my Week 1 check-in, because I definitely did not do my midweek check-in. Sick and whiny household is sick and whiny, uuugh. 1) Water cat - 2x aquafit classes and GO EASY. 0 star - I didn't go, I didn't even *think* about going but I can't be too harsh on myself - my husband was sick (again) and had to work late both nights that I would have gone to class. 2) Long cat - PT stretches, 10 minutes, 2x day - everyday I didn't track this and I know I didn't do them enough but I have been given the go-ahead from my therapist to try some super lightweight weight lifting stuff. Like, lighter than bodyweight. More like babyweight - as in, I've been doing squats while holding the baby. She thinks it's hilarious. 1/2 star. 3) Cash cat - get money for the phone bill Was promised payment on Friday, did not get payment. I guess I'm gonna have to shake him down - or something. I give myself 1 star for not holding him upside down and trying to shake the change from his pockets when we met up on Saturday. 4) Roomba cat - 5 minutes of cleaning before bed, minimum + document what I did Yeah, still didn't document (I have no discipline, apparently) but lots of things were done! The kitchen is now 70% of where I want it to be, including the cupboards. I have EMPTY cupboards - I don't even know what to do with them. They might stay empty because I've gotten rid of so much stuff. 1 star! (helpful forest cat is helpful) 5) Editing cat - just do some editing. Any editing. No editing but lots of moving parts. 0 star but I'm okay with that.

I am apparently a GoogleSheets failure - or my work connection is, not sure. It's not letting me type in the grey boxes. D: Hmmm, steaming. I could definitely steam some fish but I'm always ehhh on steaming veggies. To the google!

This is my Week 0 check-in, so I don't break my twice-weekly update habit. 1) Water cat - 2x aquafit classes and GO EASY. I tried too hard last week and ended up with a two-day migraine because I strained the muscles I'm trying to fix in PT. Much sick, such wow. No class last week - 0 stars. 2) Long cat - PT stretches, 10 minutes, 2x day - everyday I didn't really track this but I know I did them most days. Eh, 1-star! 3) Cash cat - get money for the phone bill Person Who Owes Me Money had until the 19th to pay me, which was yesterday. Did not pay me, therefore, I am.super.ridiculously.annoyed. Ugh. Maybe I should have followed up with him some time last week? I will take a 0 star on this one for not keeping on him to pay me. 4) Roomba cat - 5 minutes of cleaning before bed, minimum + document what I did Didn't document, but definitely did stuff everyday. 1 star! We're caught up all of the old laundry and now just need to do the stuff that we wore while we were doing all of the other laundry! Yaaaay 5) Editing cat - just do some editing. Any editing. 1 star! I did, like, three days where there was at least a little editing. Whoo!

I must have been mentally linked to @miw_sher last night because I randomly made some Crash Hot Potatoes to go with our burgers. I hadn't been planning on it but I saw the half bag of potatoes and went for it! I do mine a little different from the recipe - I use redskin potatoes, boil 'em up, mash 'em on baking sheet, butter AND olive oil, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Heat and baking time is the same, though. Now I'm thinking about the pound of Brussels Sprouts leftover from the last veggie challenge that are still in my fridge...

These are well thought out and I like that you already have a plan in place for when you'll go swimming. I love swimming as exercise! When it comes to other people, you must channel the cat and know that the only one who can effect your life is you. Outside forces (aka other people) are only temporary, no matter how annoying.

Whatever this cat is smoking, I want some. Aww, I want to be in this workout class. It looks adorable! Yesss, Bee and Puppycat. Bee is my spirit animal - I love it!

I briefly considered going to daily updates so I could track my Roomba Cat cleaning but then I decided that create a spreadsheet was easy. So, there's a spreadsheet in my signature now, if you're at all interested in just how much work I end up doing in my "5 Minutes". Maybe I'll post pictures too, eventually. Whatever it takes to keep me motivated!

It's not Sunday yet, therefore, it's still in the future.

Cats cats cats cats. 1) Water cat - 2x aquafit classes and GO EASY. I tried too hard last week and ended up with a two-day migraine because I strained the muscles I'm trying to fix in PT. 2) Long cat - PT stretches, 10 minutes, 2x day - everyday 3) Cash cat - get money for the phone bill 4) Roomba cat - 5 minutes of cleaning before bed, minimum + document what I did 5) Editing cat - just do some editing. Any editing.

I will admit that I saw the [CAT TAKEOVER] tag and thought that @fleaball was just taking over all the threads. CAT TAX, week 1!

Final Update for Week 4- 1 - Sailor Neptune - go to aqua-aerobics 2x a week 1/2 star. I think. Last week is kind of blur. The Offspring brought home some sort of daycare-incubated supervirus so I was super sick and she was super sick and then she was better but then The Husband brought home the flu from work and then I had supervirus/pink eye/flu all weekend and into yesterday and this winter needs to be over, like, NOW. 2) (Wendy Marvell) Morning stretches 2x a week 1 star! Doing my PT stretches and they really help, so that's nice. 3) (Fox's Sin of Greed, Ban) Push ******* to pay his bills 1 star - sent friend a bill through paypal. Haven't heard a thing about it from him, so I'll follow up. Also changed our plan so that it's cheaper overall. 4) (Hannelore) 20 minutes of cleaning, on a timer, a night. No stars. We did this one night and then we were all sick and it's impossible to get motivated to pick up anything when bending over makes you dizzy. The Husband did some good cleaning on Sunday after we got back from Iowa but it took all my effort just to put pajamas on and go to bed. 5) (Yomiko "The Paper" Readman) 15 minutes of editing 2x/week 1/2 star! Did some editing! Wanted to shake the author but that comes with the territory. So, ending it out with 3 stars, which isn't bad at all, considering just how crap-like I feel right now. Bring it on, challenge 3!

Welcome back! I liked fleaball's suggestion last week of doing a new preparation. Maybe that's something we can do in the future - instead of doing veggie, say, "make soup" or "roast that mother-effer".

So pretty! More successes than fails is good! Just keep working at those habits - you'll get there!

How did the rest of the week go???

I'm not sad I missed beets - my mom adores them but they always taste just... weird. Even the fresh ones. Good to see some great recipes came out of it, though! I don't suppose that Fancy Carrot Cake counts for carrots. Leeks would be interesting, though. I've done soup with leeks but it was pureed so you couldn't tell.

Not a new movement but something that I haven't been able to do for awhile - go for walks! It's now officially Spring in Michigan, so it's going to 60 today so I'm going to take a mother-effing walk during my mother-effing lunch break, instead of sitting inside and being cold and grumpy all day.

Good morning! Things were a little crazy this weekend so I'm just now able to sit down and update. Final Update for Week 3- 1 - Sailor NEPTUNE (not Uranus, brain, you've failed me) - go to aqua-aerobics 2x a week 1/2 star - only went Monday this time because my sinuses were killing me on Wednesday and I was just exhausted. 2) (Wendy Marvell) Morning stretches 2x a week 1 star! Doing my PT stretches and they really help, so that's nice. 3) (Fox's Sin of Greed, Ban) Push ******* to pay his bills 1 star - chatted with friend about this and have a plan more or less in place. Going to move on it today. 4) (Death the Kid) 1 hour a week in the junk room 1 star+ - Story time! I volunteer at a no-kill cat shelter and volunteered to bring home a foster cat, which (amazingly) The Husband agreed to. In order to do this, we needed a quiet room for the new cat to adjust and to have a door between him and our current cat until they get used to each other - which means we completely emptied out the junk room on Saturday morning, took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill and threw a bunch of stuff away. There's still some stuff left that needs a home but not a lot. We should be able to finish it tonight. 4) Modification - (Hannelore*) 20 minutes of cleaning, on a timer, a night. I get to do a modification because I finished something! Whoo! Much better than having to do a modification because I'm a hot mess of a person. 20 minutes of cleaning, on a timer, per night. Right now, the house is in disaster mode and it's driving me up the wall. This is partially more for The Husband than me because he's a Project Cleaner and doesn't like to clean unless we're having people over, etc. He's starting to see the light, though, after maintaining the living room for a good four weeks post-Ikea shelves. We'll eventually be able to wittle this down to fewer minutes a night, but he's committed to 20, so we're gonna do 20. On the cleanliness front, I've been reading "How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind" and I have to say, it's legit. For someone who is ADHD and high anxiety, this book has been like a serious of epiphanies. I definitely recommend it if you have a hard time "being clean". 5) (Yomiko "The Paper" Readman) 15 minutes of editing 2x/week 0 - still playing catch up. Maybe this needs a modification for the next challenge, because playing catch up is KILLING ME. 3 1/2 stars! Whoo! Bonus rounds: Memrise Japanese - 1-day streak - The new Legend of Zelda game FINALLY came out and I'm not sorry that I spent most of my free time this weekend playing it. I haven't sat down and played a video game in at least a year and it's the sole reason we bought our Wii U in the first place, more than two years ago now. Jeez. Memrise Spanish - 0-day streak Memrise ASL - 0-day streak *Hannelore's not an anime character BUT she's my favorite neat freak, so we're doing this.

I've espoused my new love of Memrise enough, so I'll second YouTube as a great resource. It's a good place to find native-language media to practice your listening skills, such as commercials, music and TV shows. For Japanese, I use CrunchyRoll a lot, not only for anime but also live-action dramas and comedies.

It's definitely more of a weekly-basis grading than a daily-basis - that's why I only do a midweek and a final week check in. It's probably overly simplistic but I'm more likely to do it if I set small goals. I've been keeping an eye out for the Duolingo Japanese module, for sure! And you've definitely hit on one of the issues with Memrise's open-sourced lesson creation. I've definitely dropped a few of the non-language lessons because of spelling errors and ridiculous amounts of repetitiveness. It helps that you can skip ahead to "harder" lessons if you feel like a section is really dragging - I've done that once or twice too.

Not having fresh on hand does make it challenging. Are you able to get anything delivered, like with a CSA? I think I'm going to be doing a mini-spending freeze this week, because we are way over budget for "shopping" for February and I know a good part of it is my fault (dang it, thrift stores, I love you soooo). I do admit that her face seems a little... thin? It might just be the way her hair falls. I love the subtle pattern on the bodice.

Thank you! Thank you! You guys are awesome - the encouragement is just what I need. I've been getting some push back on taking it easy but I'm holding firm. It's pushing that's coming from a well-intentioned place but it's also coming from someone who doesn't have my body and hasn't had to put up with the crap that it does. I'm going back tonight for sure! It seems to be a really popular class, which is good. The more people looking goofy in the pool, the better. Final update #2: 1 - (Modified) (Sailor Uranus) - go to aqua-aerobics 2x a week 1/2 - only actually had the chance to go once because the class is Mon/Wed and I started on Wed. Ah well. 2) (Wendy Marvell) Morning stretches 2x a week 1 star! The physical therapist has me doing a bunch of stretches throughout the day to work out the kinks in my neck and shoulders, so I'm counting those. 3) (Fox's Sin of Greed, Ban) Push ******* to pay his bills 1/2 - chatted with friend over the weekend but didn't talk about bills stuff. He gets gun shy if you press too much, so I'm taking baby steps. 4) (Death the Kid) 1 hour a week in the junk room 0 - spent the time doing more work in the offspring's room. She has curtains now! 5) (Yomiko "The Paper" Readman) 15 minutes of editing 2x/week 0 - still trying to catch up on other admin stuff for the publisher. Ugh, so far behind. 1 out of 5 possible stars but it's only Thursday! Tonight is going to be a productive night, that's for sure. Bonus rounds: Memrise Japanese - 0-day streak - got distracted watching "Read or Die" during my usual Memrise time Memrise Spanish - 0-day streak Memrise ASL - 0-day streak

I have Memrise set to 5/day per language (so 15 total) but that includes review words. I'm just trying to keep up right now, haha. I'm currently listening to a podcast called 'One Bad Mother', which is usually two women but today is one woman and her husband as a guest. They are raising their kids with Mom speaking English and Dad only speaking Swedish, which sounds interesting. I have an offspring who is starting to come into her linguistic abilities, so we watch a lot of subtitled anime - but I don't actually know how much she gets from that. It's a really interesting listen!

I'm actually becoming a huge proponent of Memrise over Duolingo but I think it depends on how you learn. Duolingo is very academic in its approach while Memrise seems to be more adaptive. The offset is that Memrise is open-source but it seems like the good lessons are the popular ones, so that helps. Spanish on Duolingo was okay but I didn't feel like I was learning how to actually speak Spanish. It's also Spanish as spoken in Spain, which is nice and all, but the majority of the people I interact with on a daily basis are from Mexico. Memrise has Mexican Spanish.

Midweek update #2: Week #1 Final 1) (Sailor Jupiter) Go to gym by myself 1x a week for 30 minutes Welp, it's time for another modifier. It turns out getting nearly-paralyzing tension headaches after lifting weights isn't normal (psh, what do doctors know?) so now I'm starting PT tomorrow for my upper back. I was also told that swimming was a good thing but I missed the sign up for the adult-intermediate swim class, so I went to aqua-fit last night, which is like jazzercise but in a pool. It was actually a really good work out and I'm a little sore but not enough that I'm worried about getting another headache. 1 - Modified) (Sailor Uranus) - go to aqua-aerobics 2x a week 1/2 2) (Wendy Marvell) Morning stretches 2x a week 1/2 star - did a good bit this morning for my upper back and hamstrings. 3) (Fox's Sin of Greed, Ban) Push ******* to pay his bills 0 4) (Death the Kid) 1 hour a week in the junk room 0 5) (Yomiko "The Paper" Readman) 15 minutes of editing 2x/week 0 1 out of 5 possible stars but it's only Thursday! Tonight is going to be a productive night, that's for sure. Bonus rounds: Duolingo Spanish - Haven't used it all week. I really like memrise, you guys. Memrise Japanese - 2-day streak - got distracted by lessons on international relations, statistics, project management and R. All work related, all good ideas, but doing 7 different lessons right at bed isn't sustainable. I've dropped the project management and international relations modules, so that helps. Memrise Spanish - 2-day streak Memrise ASL - 2-day streak