Jayniana Jones

I totally agree. How good you not like hobbits? Maybe your calorie/eating plan needs to mimic the hobbits'. Breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, lunch, tea time, dinner, supper... I think you are doing a great job at extending grace to yourself when things don't go exactly as planned. May this week be cooler and even smoother.

I enjoyed your guitar music. I will confess I was totally waiting for you to belt out some Salty Dragon bluesy lyrics. I'm assuming your guitar doesn't join you on your ship but I think it'd be fun to hear bluesy guitar with waves crashing over the sides of the boat. It may provide entertainment for your crew too. Haha. Good luck on getting your schedule back into a routine. Your running time sounds awesome for being slow. I hope your knees don't complain too much. You sure cover the country in a short time. It sounds like just about the time you adjust to a new climate you have to change it.

Enjoy the time with your nephew. It sounds like he'll have lots of stories to tell when his visit is over.

Following! Your picture of you and your little guy looks great. It sounds like things are falling into place. I love Habitica. I have my hubby and kids using it with me. It helps prevent some lectures with teens for not doing their chores and schoolwork. There's a section where you create a group and fight against creatures. The only downside to having us all in a group is that some members are a bit forgetful about checking items off and we all get injured. The peer pressure works well though.

Thanks for the words of encouragement and for following. It means a lot. So things are cruising right along. Here's the status of stuff: Yoga Streak: I just completed day number 203 on my yoga streak. Unfortunately, my daughter missed yesterday because she didn't do it in the morning before she went to a friend's birthday party. So while she starts over, I'm carrying the yoga streak torch. In away, I think it'll be harder since not letting her down was a big motivator. We still have a trip to Madison to do as a reward for day 200. Rehab: I backed off on my rehab intensity until I speak with my physical therapist on Wednesday. Something keeps triggering pain in my ankle. I'm assuming it's from the plantar fasciitis which is better but not completely. I'm trying not to fall into my superhero mode and power through pain since, in this case, it will probably make things worse. I'm still doing the easier exercises. Novel Rewrite: My novel was sorely neglected last week. I got 2 hours in. On Saturday I wrote down all the things I wanted to do versus all the things I think I need to do and reviewed it with my hubby. I think both of us were a bit surprised on how skewed the balance is (other than my yoga and rehab session the rest of my time is used up in activities related to caring for others). We didn't come up with a solution but the awareness got me thinking about how I need to learn to delegate a lot more. This week, I'm test running getting my novel time logged first and then starting my day. Create: My art journal gets a small amount of attention each day. At the moment nothing photo worthy, but a little bit of paint gets splashed onto pages daily. Extras: Buddy (my miniature australian shepherd) is learning that other people and other dogs are not terrifying. The two of us are enrolled in an obedience class. The first day he drooled constantly and preferred to hide in the corners. Last week he wouldn't go in the main door, hid behind me each time the trainer approached, but he didn't drool. I have another class with him tomorrow night and, hopefully, he'll be a normal happy dog.

I love the towels. I just bought a bunch of flour sack towels that now look like they need some decorating! It sounds like your week it definitely going much better. Congrats on all the yes items.

Mid-week check-in Somehow I missed a day this week. All day today I was thinking it was Wednesday, even though I took my daughter to Theology Thursday at church. I just looked at the calendar and somehow knew it was the 21st. My family members pointed out I was super busy this week so they could see how I got mixed up. I feel a bit cheated, but at least Friday will be here sooner than I expected. - My yoga streak is still going. I still need to do my practice after I type this which will put me at day 199. I'm resting my foot and figured I may as well type while I have it elevated. - My rehab stuff is getting its daily attention. I tried to increase the intensity with more reps (this was okayed with the physical therapist) but it caused my ankle and foot pain to flare up. So I figure I'll just do the usual reps and sets and try again next week. -My novel and art haven't gotten more than an hour and a half of attention this week. I thought I'd have Tuesday to work on my novel and then my son had a major poison ivy outbreak that caused his face to swell. We're suspecting Buddy as the culprit since he was pretty sure he didn't touch any on our camping trip. My job was to be the runner and get the meds, which took a chunk of my day. Then teaching and Buddy's obedience class took me to the end of the day. Thank goodness I didn't lose the weekend. It was a rough afternoon mentally today. I had some not so nice judgments thrown at me from a family member that doesn't live with me. I couldn't defend myself because I couldn't be heard (for real, my voice is a pitch that people hard of hearing can't hear) so I kept quiet. I'm hoping that my workout and yoga will help me let it go or at least gain a bit of perspective. Off to do my stuff.

Following! It sounds like you have some clear goals for this round. You'll have to climb and kayak for me this summer. Those are two activities that are prohibited for me until next spring thanks to knee surgery. Watching people play Pokemon GO is hilarious. We've been seeing people as we drive around staring intently at their screens and moving their phones in odd ways. My kids are a bit envious because their smartphones aren't smart enough to play Pokemon (we bought them the uber cheap smartphone). My husband's phone is already equipped with it and our kids prompt him to search when they are around.

@Ferngirl thanks for following. For some reason, I can't comment below your quote so I'll do it above. It sounds like we have the same writing aspirations. What types of novels have you written? I just received feedback for a middle-grade mystery novel from my writer's group. It's about 145 pages and needs some editing. The one I finished last challenge is a romantic comedy that I plan to smooth out the rough edges and send off to my writer's group for final review. I was nervous to send them my first one and more nervous about my second one because comedy is tricky.

While I was doing my yoga session today, I was thinking about tracking down your boat and spending a few days on it. It's a bit toasty here today and I could use a few more daylight hours. Thanks. Thanks.

I stumbled across a book at the library called No Excuses Art Journaling by Gina Rossi Armfeld. She has some super simple ideas on how to do a little bit of art each day (basically picking a color of the day, a word of the day, a doodle of the day, and recording the weather) and one sketch/painting/doodle/ an art piece each week. My brain tried to make it bigger over the weekend and I discovered that as soon as I did that I didn't feel like I could squeeze it in. So I went back to simple. Unlike her suggestion of using a calendar, I'm using a watercolor pad and creating the weekly calendar as I go. That way when I'm done I know I won't have empty pages to stare at (not that I have troubles finishing something, but sometimes I miss a few days/weeks).

Following again. Welcome to the non-moving ground.

Moving back to the druids this round: http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/85863-jayniana-jones-rests/

I'm hopping back to the druid guild for this round because I'm not sure what to do next and sometimes moving forward requires going back to where I started. My life is completely nutty at the moment and I find that I can't look beyond the current day on the family calendar without feeling immense panic about how I'm going to survive the week. So I've been living one day at a time and letting things play out as they may. Normally, I feel compelled to up the ante for the next challenge. This time around I feel mentally exhausted and I don't think I'm up for making my challenge any more challenging than it already is. So for this round, I want to continue what has worked for me in the last few months. Continue my daily yoga challenge. It started on a whim with my daughter back in January to see how many days in a row we could keep doing yoga. As I type this we are on day 196. I think it is safe to say that this is the longest I have stuck with anything (besides being married) and haven't missed a single day. Because I didn't want to ruin our yoga streak I even did my yoga through recovering from ACL surgery back on April 8th. Over the weekend, my daughter and I did our yoga practice on our camping trip. Day 200 (which is Friday, July 22) will give us a reward of going to Madison, WI to tour the capitol and do a girl's day in the city. It's about a four-hour drive from here and I'm looking forward to it. I haven't planned the trip yet just in case we mess up. Continue my rehab. My physical therapy schedule shifted to once a week every other week. I'm cleared for many exercises so I'll be figuring out a routine that will give me some variety and challenge in the exercises. My main goal is to get my left leg (the one that had surgery on it) to have the same strength as my right leg. There are a few exercises I have to do nearly every day. Edit my novel. My novel draft is done and now it's time to edit. My deadline for having the manuscript ready to send to publishers is August 30. I'd like to spend 10 hours a week working on my novel. Create. Art is my escape from some of the not so fun things I have to deal with right now. I have a painting on a large canvas that needs finishing. This round if I can get to it at least two times in the next four weeks I'll be happy. I also have an art journal that I'd like to keep adding to daily. The daily entries are small and simple but are designed to maintain the habit of letting myself play. This round I really want to stay steady and moving forward on things that are important to me.

Following again this round. I hope things went smoother for you today.

Thanks.

Congrats on your success! I'm super proud of you.

I think the process of creating is almost at the same level as meditation. Maybe doing something small a few times a week will help establish balance between busy and creativity.

I can't really blame you for not enjoying push-ups when you end up kissing the floor. I loved the pictures of the area where you are running. It's beautiful. Great job this round on your challenge.

I'm sorry I fell off the planet. I missed keeping up with everyone. I know it isn't a huge deal but I feel I must apologize for my silence on your thread. I've been juggling alot and unfortunately most of my online items were cut because I simply didn't have time. Challenge recap: Overall things went well. My yoga streak is still going. Today is day 190. I'm a bit amazed that the number continues to grow and I'll confess there were a few times when I really didn't want to keep it going. Sanity and my daughter's encouragement kept me from quitting. The rehab and bodyweight items continue. I didn't work on my uppers as much as I liked but my lowers and core are getting regular attention thanks to physical therapy and yoga. My eating wasn't perfect but this last week when life was super crazy I managed to eat well and not fall into the stress eating habit. My novel draft is complete. I plan to work on revision on this next challenge. There are a few gaps and scenes I want to rework thanks to my ending. My painting didn't get attention for the last two weeks. Again for the reason that I took on more than I could juggle and things had to be dropped. However, I did make progress on my art journal and since it's portable it has gotten regular drawings and paintings put into it. It's really fun to have something creative to work on while I'm waiting for someone or something. Next round, I need to figure out how to work in acknowledging reality and how much time things really do take to prevent myself from getting overwhelmed, overcommitted, and overtired.

Buddy and I went to our first class on Tuesday. I'm on the right track for agility because he needs to pass his good canine citizen test to be able to compete in agility. He has some work to do because he's very anxious in new surroundings with new people. However, there are lots of things I'm doing right and the instructor told me that he'll get braver. My novel draft is finished a week ahead of schedule and now it's on to rewrites. I guess I'll have to pick some new items for the next round.

Hope you have a fun weekend.

I'm terrible at calorie counting. However, one thing I did that helped was create a food journal with a small memo pad (the ones smaller than an index card) and set it next to the table or in my purse. Often, I would write in it much later after a meal - sometimes the next day. I record what I ate for a few days at a time as more of a check-in to see how I'm doing. If I had to do it every day beyond a week I'd stress too much. I also learned to estimate my portion sizes visually to things around me (such as a serving of meat being about the size of a deck of cards or, in my case, my fist). If you do a search for "visual portion size guide" you'll find tons of graphics that are handy to keep in mind when you are out and about and far from a food scale. The goal is to build long-lasting change rather than a quick fix.

Update: Yoga streak continues. Rehab is good. Eating clean is much better. I did a meditation on emotional eating and it was enough to help me chill and avoid eating when I'm not hungry. (4 days out of 7 so far) Writing my novel. I decided to declare my novel draft complete. I have 57,832 words. There are a few holes that I need to repair and some subplots I want to add. I figure the word count tracking will be too tricky with all the edits and tweaks I do. My deadline for the final draft is August 30. I've been playing around with an art journal. My mom has been wanting to draw more, so when we were at an art store on Tuesday I suggested we hold each other accountable for doing a little something every day. The goal is texting a picture we created 5 out of 7 days each week. The picture can be a ten-minute piece of art or longer whatever we're in the mood for. We're on day two. She is super excited and I'm hoping it's enough of a distraction from her cancer stuff. Here's my creation I did while waiting for my daughter to finish up her afternoon activity. I learned there's a space limit to the total number of pics I can post directly to NF my account. I deleted a few but I'll have to find an alternative storage spot for future items. Any suggestions?

Trying to keep up with the speed of NF and life. Here's my painting progress from last week. It isn't much, but the shapes are pulling it together. This is for Week #2.