Jayniana Jones

Following! I'm totally afraid of scuba diving in the ocean. For some reason, I can swim underwater with my eyes closed, but as soon as I can see I hyperventilate. I've been to the ocean and stuck my toes in, but was very hesitant to actually swim. I grew up swimming in rivers and I'm not sure why it's so different. Anyways, I have scuba diving on my list of things to conquer because I have to stop being a chicken.

I'm jumping in. For this challenge, one of my goals is to write 8,375 words per week on the first draft of a novel I've been plugging away at. My goal is to have the rough draft done early July. This week I have 8,509 words in the bag. In answer to the topic question for week one: I love to paint with acrylics. I took an online painting class with my kids for homeschooling just about two years ago. They dropped out, but I keep plugging away. I've been experimenting with Inktense pencils, watercolor pencils, and colored pencils to try and find something that can travel with me or be used outside easier than acrylics can. I'm fascinated with nature sketchbooks and urban sketching (I don't live close to an urban area). I've done sketches of things that capture my eye while on vacation, but, at the moment, I don't often implement this at home.

If anyone walks in on you during a handstand, you totally need to have some one-liners at the ready. It's definitely not something expected, but it could be a ton of fun to roll with. Especially, if you can pull off an attitude of this is a completely normal thing to see. No to mention, you're setting an excellent example for your students. Anyone who can join you should get an A on an upcoming assignment. What do you teach?

Yesterday, despite having a completely different schedule, I got my goals in. Week in Review: Yoga: Yes - I'm still going. Today is day 131. I had to take it really easy today because something is up with my knee. I'm hoping it's just the new exercises and not that I reinjured it. I stepped funny yesterday and noticed things haven't felt right since. Writing: Total words written: 8,509. Whew! This goal is more challenging than I expected and I found myself writing later in the evening. I noticed that by doing so I'm adding a layer of stress that isn't needed. Next week, I'm going to try writing at least half my word count in the morning. Rehab: I've gotten my rehab exercises in two times a day. Getting the third round for half of the exercises has been a bit of a challenge, so I've broken them into pieces when I'm waiting on something I do one of them. Epic Challenge: Dog Agility Three days of training. I didn't bother to try Friday because Buddy was too busy playing with my parents' dogs. He's pretty tired today, but he humored me with leaping on stumps. One problem I noticed is that since I can't run, he doesn't move very fast because he likes to be by my side. Get Organized. Things worked until Thursday. Friday I wasn't home when I expected to be so my original plan was dumped. I still got my top three things (Yoga, Writing, and Rehab) in, which is the main goal of the organization. I don't bother to plan my weekends because I like the room for spontaneity. My office is now in three different rooms with everything not orderly since my husband and I are doing an office swap. Painting happened today in his office. Mine will probably get put together mid-week. Not a huge deal since most of my stuff has been getting done on the couch. Follow other Nerd Fitness folks Yes. This week was a bit easier to keep up because I've been making a point to log my time on the mini and post my updates here. Since I'm at the computer, I peek at someone's thread. I may not be able to keep up with everything as time goes on, but it's been fun to see other people's progress.

Fingers crossed that it works.

I'll post my challenge updates later, but I wanted to share some news about my mom's surgery. The surgery went well. My mom has ovarian cancer (this is her second time) in her spine. The spine is a very rare location for it to grow in and she's found reports of only a handful of woman in the US who have had it in the spine as well. The tumor is in the L4 and L5 vertebrae and was causing immense pain. She basically was to the point where all she could do was walk to her bed and the living room couch because the pain was unbearable. She's a pretty tough cookie, so when she complains of pain we know it's bad. The surgery she had is in experiment stage. (She's exhausted all other options of treatment so this was kind of a last resort.) Apparently, people who have bone cancer get a treatment called Cryogenic Ablation where doctors go in and freeze the cancer that's in the bone and the nerves around it in hopes to keep it from spreading. It's never been used to manage pain, so my mom agreed to be a test case. When the doctors started working on her spine, they were expecting to only be able to two spots. Instead of freezing the cancer they used high heat and basically incinerated it. Things were going super well so the doctors ended up working completely around her tumor destroying cancer spots. After burning out as muc of the cancer they safely could they filled the bone with a special cement to strengthen her spine. It was a long day but she was already experiencing pain relief. It turns out that because she is willing to participate in the study, the doctors will keep monitoring her pain levels and if things start hurting they will do more work at no cost to her. She has a nurse assigned to her to call regularly to ask questions needed for the study. The greatest part is the fact that she has special doctors on standby to help manage her pain for the rest of her life. Hopefully, that'll be for a long time (she's only 57). We'll know in a week how well it worked. The other cool thing is that if what the doctors did works, it could actually be another key to make some of the cancers (especially bone cancer) more treatable and possibly curable. My mom said the doctors were pretty excited about the results yesterday afternoon and she felt like a celebrity because everyone knew who she was.

Around here we count audiobooks as reading. My youngest has dyslexia and won't touch a book unless I force him too. Audiobooks is my solution. He's going through the Harry Potter series so I've been grabbing the book he is on from the library so he can get a feel for how huge of a book he's reading. There's usual an audiobook or podcast running when I'm driving around. Hunger Games I remember finding excuses to run to the store so I could listen to more of the story (I played it in the CD player in my car and didn't want to lose my spot), plus I got alone time. Are you grabbing the sketches of people while on the bus? I love looking at what you're up to with your sketches.

It looks like despite being tired you didn't let it stop you that's a win in itself. I hope you have a great weekend.

Yes and nomnompaleo too. She has a Pressure Cooker Kalua Pig recipe that is among my favorites and is super easy to make. It's not a veggie dish but it does have cabbage in it.

It looks like you are starting out the challenge pretty strong. When I first started avoiding bread it was tough, but after about a year and a half of no bread I've found it tastes funny to me. Hang in there and eventually you won't miss it. It is a bit strange at first eating hot dogs, hamburgers, and brats with no bun. Are your parents coming in the middle of your challenge or towards the end?

Keep up the good work. I'm sure you'll get some time in this weekend for some of your projects. As a side note, in the team PM you mentioned getting tired of salads for paleo. Have you peeked a Everyday Paleo by Sarah Fragoso? There're lots of veggie options and suggestions. I also have utilized vegetarian cookbooks for ideas on different spices to add to steamed or roasted veggies. OMGPaleo.com is another of my favorites to add variety.

It looks like overall your chugging away pretty steady. Thanks for answering my questions. Geocaching is an excellent way to leave tracks. I had a geocaching travel bug that ended up somewhere in Karlsruhe, Germany. The geocaching website now translates the messages from people, but when I received messages about my bug they were written in German and Google translate didn't translate well. It was a hoot. The travel bug was supposed to go to the Carribean, but it must've gotten lost in customs or in the bottom of someone's pack. After my last ACL surgery I didn't go back to climbing because I worried I'd mess my leg up. Since I messed it up being normal, I figure after I'm healed I'm going to being not normal. That way if I get hurt again at least I was having fun when I did it. So from reading everyone else's comments, if our teams compete I should made sure I discourage you from your pursuits, right?

Good morning! Nice work on your sketching. I fiddled with drawing with ink around Christmas and I found I loved working with no eraser. The perfection monster haunts me when I use pencils. I'm trying to teach myself to draw a bit faster because I'd love to get a nature journal started. Going through the book pile sounds like a fun challenge. I might add that one to a future challenge. I have books that have moved with me to four different houses and are still waiting. I've been good about avoiding bookstores for similar reasons as yours. However, then I bought a few Kindles for homeschool use. Now my digital bookshelf pile is almost as big as my physical book pile. Little steps on your goals are better than none. Perfection would be boring anyway.

It looks like your making some great progress on your goals. Congrats on your mini yoga streak. The Internet one is definitely a challenge because it's so easy to follow rabbit trails. When I'm writing, I've had to turn off my wireless connection so I don't fall into the trap of "I need to research this right now!" I'm trying to teach my teens the habit of disconnecting from tech by having certain times of the day as tech free times (usually it's when we're doing things together). My hubby and daughter squirm the most. Although I cheat a bit because I turn off my tech to help resist the temptation. Ana White's site is one of my favorites and gets me dreaming about what furniture I need to make next. So far we've made three beds (including a captain's bed) and some basic shelves.

Quick update: My day was turned upside down a bit. I had to shift some things around schedule-wise. My mom is having surgery (we found out about it this morning) tomorrow morning and my job is to dog sit. I'll be up at an ungodly hour (4:30am) that really isn't morning in my opinion but it'll put her mind at ease. I know it sounds like a crazy thing to do, but my mom has an incurable form of ovarian cancer and I figure whatever I can do to ease her mind (especially when it's on chemo brain) I'll do it. Plus, I'll be a bit closer to the hospital so if something goes wrong, I'm at the ready. Yoga streak still going: Day 129. Rehab: I couldn't get the 3 rounds in because I missed the early morning window. Not the end of the world it's mainly wall sits and 1/3 of the way squats. Writing: I got 1,843 words in. My strategy is to build a buffer. I like to have Saturdays completely free. Organize - Filled in my handy planner as soon as I got out of bed. Then didn't look at it. I did get my top three things done, but the other items were ignored when my hubby offered to take me out for a lunch date. Epic Quest: Buddy got a rousing game of fetch. As for the clicker, I need to figure out when he's a bit more attentive. He's got an attention span of a gnat especially when there are sounds. Since I'll be at my parents' place with nothing to do but let dogs run free on 70 acres and I have a house to myself, I figure I'll make the most of it and do things that make me smile.

Thanks for following. The courage to send what we write is a battle in itself. I'll be snooping on your thread soon.

I'll make sure I do that. He's just over 18 months and the two of us are hilarious. He sees agility equipment and spends more time cheering (barking) and running through the tunnel than he does listening to instructions. I'm usually waving my arms in the direction he needs to go and he goes around most of the equipment to get to me faster. It's a hoot. Thanks. My yoga streak was actually how I discovered that my ACL was torn completely for the second time. I've watched a large number of "yoga for the knees" videos on youtube for my recovery side and most of the ones I've seen so far are done by instructors who clearly don't have knee issues. So far I have found one that I can do safely start to finish. As I've learned to listen to my body during a yoga session, instead of trying to be a super gumby hero (which I'm not), I'm noticing that many of the poses follow the same guidelines required for squats and lunges (e.g. knee not going past the ankle, feet aligned correctly). In short sessions, you may want to try not going as deep. I've had similar musings. However, having to teach the things to my kids (and sometimes learning the topic the night before) I decided I'll wait until I'm 65 to go back to school. I read that UW Stout has a program for retired people to go back to school for either free or very inexpensively. I figure then I'll go back and take all the fun classes I didn't have time to take the first time around. I think eventually our dogs get used to our quirky ways. I had a Siberian husky previously. As he got older he couldn't hear me, but my hand commands were enough for him to figure out what I wanted him to do. I totally relate. My idea was inspired by a very lengthy chat with my hubby because I tend to light the candle at both ends and then get discouraged when I start missing my goals. We'll see how well it works.

Glad you got your run in despite feeling tired. Twelve needs a little cake for being so sweet. Good thing you have a chocolate bundt cake handy. Wait, are kids supposed to have cake? Maybe it's better if kids don't have cake since they are still growing and all... Ah, the things we grown-ups have to do to keep kids healthy.

Just wanted to let you know I'm following along. Good luck on your challenges. I'll be back to read how things are going.

Following along. I'll have to come back and read tomorrow because I have four minutes before bedtime.

Welcome aboard, fellow teammate! I've found I'm a bit of a split personality when it comes to guilds. The assassin's guild seems to cover a little bit of everything. How are your goals coming?

Hey fellow team member, I just wanted to let you know I'm following. I'll catch up reading in a bit. My bedtime is quickly approaching.

Hi, teammate! I thought I'd pop over and let you know I'm following you. Good luck on your goals. I'm using the fluent forever method for Spanish and I'm finding my recall to be stronger. Not quite at conversation level. Anki is a handy little program.

Welcome aboard. Your goals sound like good ones and well thought out. Just be careful not to hurt yourself. I don't want anyone joining me on the recovery track. Good luck and I'll be peeking in when I can.

Hey, fellow team member! I'm following along. I like the layout of your goals. It sounds like you have some pretty challenging goals ahead of you. Don't be too hard on yourself because one of the things I've learned along the way is staying positive and tweaking on the fly helps keep burnout and discouragement at bay.