juliebarkley

You sound like a super interesting person from you description (and from what I remember, you challenges bear that out). Glad to have you back!

Ohmigod that is adorable!

Sounds like a great challenge! Following to watch you rock it.

Following to root for your tai chi journey! If you have any resources that you stumble upon that you would like to share, I'm all ears!

Looking forward to your camps and hikes!

Welcome to the Rebellion! I’m so sorry to hear that you hurt yourself doing something that you love. When you are already feeling down, that’s a real kick in the pants. It’s understandable that you feel that nothing is going right. But there is always something that you can do, and coming here is a great start. It is really hard to change your personal habits. It doesn’t make you a failure that you are struggling. Try just changing a little thing at a time. Having a small success will show you that you can do this. We are all rooting for you! It sounds like you are doing a lot of thinking about what you truly want from life. It is so easy to do the things that others expect of us (or just whatever is usual) without thinking about whether that is actually what we want. You seem to really respect your old teacher; have you considered getting in touch with them to talk about career stuff?

Heh, you sound a lot like me. Welcome to the Rebellion! You’ll fit in great. Also, there is a new challenge starting up soon, so please feel free to join in!

I am absolutely also an underpants gnome.

I have done a terrible job of summarizing my results for the last couple of weeks, but I have actually been doing very well with my goals! Today I did all of the things, finished up my weekly random encounters (reactivated a dormant bank account, woo!), exercise, an extra hour of work at home sorting books for easier processing... all the things. I will do a wrap-up tomorrow. This challenge has given me some ideas of what works and doesn't for me, things I need to think about, and things I need to work on for the future.

Damn, you’re inspiring, Teros. I will be lurking along and rooting for you!

Cool. Since we have the same exercise days, if you want to enlist online reinforcements, let me know. I don’t have my exercise scheduled till 10 pm, but we could work something out, I’m sure.

I missed last Tuesday. I was super tired after four long days (two at Beaver camp, then two split shifts), I had to get up early for another long day, didn’t get home till 9pm, and just didn’t have it in me.

Regarding #2, with winter coming in and it getting so much easier to make excuses to avoid going to the gym, do you have a backup no-excuses exercise routine that you can do at home?

I’m thinking of assigning things to specific days next time, to see if it makes things easier. I never forgets workouts, because I know Tues-Fri-Sun are workout days. But since the challenge items aren’t necessarily forever items, I’m not sure. These are my ideas: 1. Group the x per week items, so that between two challenge items, something happens every day. 2. Try to do the x per week every day (if I am working them up to ultimately being daily). 3. Assign them to specific days, instead of just x times per week. 4. Assign certain days of the week as challenge days, when the x per week happens. What do you think? I haven’t decided yet. Also, I didn’t do my walk on Tuesday, but I haven’t made the Post of Shame yet.

Okay, so another less than stellar entry, but a good day challenge wise. All of my daily challenges were successfully completed, but my non-daily ones were not. This seems to be a pattern for me; it is much easier to do something every day than x times per week. My exercise today was not Zombie running as I had planned, due to the ice rain and generally awful weather. I was very tempted to do nothing, but then I thought of @scalyfreak’s PVP and thought harder. In the end, I put a 10-minute video on my phone and walked up and down my basement stairs as it ran. It was a pretty good workout actually!

It sounds like you grew a lot this challenge. You are a strong woman, Annyshay!

I’m a bit late here, but we used a program called Funnix to teach phonics. It’s meant to take 10-15 minutes a few days a week IIRC. My son enjoyed it. It had an interactive portion followed by a longer reading portion to practice what they learned. Once he grasped the phonics rules, he didn’t need any sight word practice and jumped straight to a fourth grade reading level. Since Ghostlet is older and already knows how to read a different language, you could see very rapid gains in his ability when the technique ‘clicks’. A lot of homeschoolers here use a book called Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons (phonics based but not interactive in the way a computer program would be). It’s supposed to get the child to second grade level in 100 days.

I promise a better update tomorrow. I’ve just been so, so tired. I did not do work at home today (planned, as it is just impossible on Wednesdays), but was successful in everything else. My cat’s teeth have not been brushed yet this week, though, and that will have to be remedied!

Hooray for not giving in and scrapping exercise when you couldn’t find your keys in time! Now you have a new exercise toy to play with. Double win.

Argh for sucky updates! Have done all but toothbrushing today, but I should have been in bed an hour ago. Tomorrow will be the last super tiring day, so yay for that.

Since you mentioned that the lack of sleep was due to stress, could it be that the exercise is helping you sleep by relieving stress? If so, you can investigate other stress relief options if you find you need the rest days.

I am so tired. 13 little kids + 2 older kids + 4 adults + attempted 8:30 bedtime does not make for restful sleep. I did my challenges today (including my random encounters, yay!), but I did nothing else but email. No energy. I think this means I pass everything but tooth brushing, as I didn’t get my cat’s teeth done? I’ll verify tomorrow when my brain is working again.

I have signed into the spreadsheet as starting on Sunday. I will be chasing small children around all day on Saturday, so I cannot commit to a walk.

It was freezing cold here, too. Time to break out the winter gear to keep the walks going! Also, I am rather late to the party, but I will accept your walking challenge!

Okay, time for a proper, gather-the-info post: Week 3, Day 5: Physical: Strength for the journey ahead. Gargoyles are heavy! 1. Move every day. 4/7. Crap, it was cold today! I didn't even make it to the mailbox; there was just too much wind coming over the open field, so I had to turn back. 2. Brush teeth with rinses once per day (with a friend). 5/7 for me; 2/7 for my cat. Spiritual: Create a more peaceful world. Gargoyles are frightened. 3. 2 prayers per day. 5/7. Mental: Don't journey alone. Gargoyles are lonely. 4. Post to Nerdfitness every day. Post on someone else's thread everyday. 4/7. Financial: Sustenance for the road. Gargoyles are hungry. 5. Do some online work every day. 4/7. There is one day a week that I simply do not have time, but I did it every other day. Random Encounters: Anything can happen on the road. Gargoyles are vulnerable. 6. 3 random encounters/week. 0/7. Err... This has been a bad week for internetting. We had a thunder and lightning, wind, freezing rain, and snow storm last night, which made me very glad that I had gotten my run in earlier! I have been trying a time blocking technique to make time for work from home, hobby time, family time, etc. I am going to have to take a serious hard look at some of my email subscriptions to cut down on my email/internet time. That is where my time has been going, and while I enjoy the stuff I read, it is not part of my ideal life to spend most of my free time reading email and watching videos, and not making things, reading, and doing stuff with family. The time blocks have let me have a family reading hour for the last several nights, a tidying session (DVDs), some much-needed vacuuming, cast on and knit 7 rows of a Ravenclaw beanie, and work on a jigsaw puzzle with my son. Seems much more fulfilling, don't you think? Looks like I am also not going to get a story posted this week. Since we are out of the fight, had a sleep, and have chowed down (not on the rabbit - we let her go!), we are resuming our walk to the gargoyle home. We know where we are going, now all we have to do is walk there. The number of successes determines how far we go - if I pass them all, we will be nearly there! I am going to count anything that I couldn't do tomorrow as a pass as I was genuinely unable. Tomorrow I am headed off to Scout camp so I will not be able to post (or do several challenge things). It is supposed to be a high of 0 Celsius and we can only go inside to sleep. Pray for me.