The Travelogue of Vries Chapter 1: A Hobbit gets out of her hole

[Ann of Owlshire]

17 hours ago, Drake Alexander said:

"Anytime you learn, you gain."

- Bob Ross

 

I've found roaming amid the planners and bullet journalers that setting out anything a month--or even a week--in advance tends to be folly for me. I don't know what it is about my life: I don't consider myself to be spontaneous and I'm generally regarded as well-organized, but it never fails that whatever plan seemed like a good idea two weeks ago will inevitably be shred to bits by the winds of fate. This is not a situation I expect that a newborn is going to make easier

 

Perhaps I need to consider goals "in the spirit of" and more narrative tracking like @annyshay and @Wolfen rather than ones that attempt hard metrics and specifics. In the meantime, I'm still not changing my goals for this challenge, but I'm going to worry less about the hard numbers and more about what they're meant to represent. 

[Sylvaa]

Your challenge has been entertaining me as I fully remember having to waddle around everywhere before having my children. 

 

I love the idea of not worrying so much about actual numbers and more about the spirit of the challenge. It's super important to remember that things that should be easy aren't necessarily  going to be at the moment. 

[Ann of Owlshire]

13 minutes ago, Sylvaa said:

Your challenge has been entertaining me as I fully remember having to waddle around everywhere before having my children. 

 

I love the idea of not worrying so much about actual numbers and more about the spirit of the challenge. It's super important to remember that things that should be easy aren't necessarily  going to be at the moment. 

 

Happy to be entertaining XD

 

Having the goals--even when I'm not meeting them--is still getting me to do more than I might have if I hadn't joined the challenge, so I'm still getting a lot out of it.

 

 

[annyshay]

20 hours ago, Ann of Vries said:

Magnificent Seven London Cemeteries

*eyes full of dreams*

[annyshay]

Not sure how you feel about cursing... but this article summarizes my thoughts on numbers for numbers' sakes pretty well.

 

https://stronginsideout.com/fk-metrics/

 

PS - there's not much more cursing than the title, really.

[Ann of Owlshire]

6 hours ago, annyshay said:

*eyes full of dreams*

 

 

I know, right?!

[Ann of Owlshire]

6 hours ago, annyshay said:

Not sure how you feel about cursing... but this article summarizes my thoughts on numbers for numbers' sakes pretty well.

 

https://stronginsideout.com/fk-metrics/

 

PS - there's not much more cursing than the title, really.

 

It's a good article, thanks for linking! A semi-related one I like is Zen Habit's No Goals (although this is a particular ideal that I have not fully embraced, I like the emphasis on the journey and seeing where you end up.) And a follow-up.

 

I was thinking last night that in the last two challenges I've done, I've:

 

1. Kicked my juice/smoothie addiction that started in the first trimester (morning sickness, yay).

2. Increased my hydration through other means. This is probably the one metric I try to stay with, although I've found that now that it's a habit which is an even bigger win.

3. I've been more active. No, I'm not hitting my (frankly, arbitrary) metrics so I'm technically "failing" but I'm moving more consistently than I was before, and that's win.

4. I'm getting out more, which is good for my mental health.

5. Although the writing goal I made at the beginning of this challenge ended up not being a fit to my writing process (and, thus, I'm failing that goal), it's helped me focus what I'm working on right now. (Also, I've written and explored possibilities waaaaay beyond what that goal stated.)

 

So, if I look at the metrics, I'm a total failure. But if I look at the spirit of what those goals/challenges/metrics were supposed to represent, I'm totally winning. I choose to win

 

Not bad for a few weeks.

 

(Writerly aside: cursing doesn't bother me, as long as it's not so gratuitous that the impact/meaning of the message is lost--and at that point it's not the swearing so much as the bad writing that annoys me XD)

[annyshay]

YES.

I also really enjoy ZenHabits.

You are totally winning. Glad you can see it.

 

(Same page re: cursing then, hehe)

[Ann of Owlshire]

I gave blood for a study today. Which is a first for me. Giving blood when I don't need to, that is.

 

I mean, pregnancy requires a lot of blood tests, and I've mostly managed to make peace with them--but the last time before all of that was nearly 20 years ago. That's how much I hate getting bloods done.

 

Anyway, I was having a late stage ultrasound (routine at my hospital), and they commented that they were asking pregnant people to give blood, medical history, etc. for research about identifying and treating pre-eclampsia before it happens. So I sweated, grit my teeth, signed the consent form, and gave them my vein. 20 seconds of courage, and all of that.

 

The late stage ultrasound has indicated a potential delivery complication. It's not an emergency and it shouldn't be dangerous because we caught it early, but they're now keeping a closer eye on me and I have another scan in a couple of weeks to decide if we need to take more proactive steps.

 

It may, however, go in part to explain some of the physical struggles I've been having in these last weeks (beyond the just being very pregnant one :P). So there is that.

[Ann of Owlshire]

A mini-adventure to Oxford Street--one of the major shopping areas of London, constantly full of hordes of people. This counts as a mini-adventure because I don't really like shopping and I don't like crowded places, so unless it's Christmas (they do a serious light display; I still don't shop there), you usually won't find me here.

 

But one of the department stores had some baby items I wanted to see in person before ordering, so I ventured in. I think trying to find my way around there was an adventure in itself O_O

 

Then I took the buses back across town, which took about 3 times as long as the tube would have, but I saw a lot more of London (and it's a lot more chill than the Jubilee line). So, hey. I wanted to walk the last leg, but wandering circles in the department store seemed to be my limit for the morning and although the bus dropped me off near my house, it was still a route I'd never taken before.

 

 

[Drake Alexander]

1 hour ago, Ann of Vries said:

A mini-adventure to Oxford Street--one of the major shopping areas of London, constantly full of hordes of people. This counts as a mini-adventure because I don't really like shopping and I don't like crowded places, so unless it's Christmas (they do a serious light display; I still don't shop there), you usually won't find me here.

 

But one of the department stores had some baby items I wanted to see in person before ordering, so I ventured in. I think trying to find my way around there was an adventure in itself O_O

 

Then I took the buses back across town, which took about 3 times as long as the tube would have, but I saw a lot more of London (and it's a lot more chill than the Jubilee line). So, hey. I wanted to walk the last leg, but wandering circles in the department store seemed to be my limit for the morning and although the bus dropped me off near my house, it was still a route I'd never taken before.

 

"One does not simply walk back home after grocery shopping"

 mini adventures are great no matter where they take you.

[Ann of Owlshire]

This week has been good for mini-adventures, which is good because I haven't had it in me for a longer "field trip"

 

This morning, I joined Mr of Vries at London's famous Borough Market--a foodie's haven. Mr of Vries (himself, a dedicated foodie) goes almost every Saturday morning. The last time I went with him was... a year or more ago? It can get extremely crowded at the market, so we aim to be in and out before 11AM. 10:30 is better.

 

Much delicious foods bought and a good start to my daily steps (although, admittedly, I'm pretty knackered now).

 

 

 

[Ann of Owlshire]

(Photos taken from my first visit, not this most recent one--but it all looks the same. In fact, I think Mr of Vries was wearing pretty much the same outfit today! XD)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[annyshay]

Oh that is looooooovely. I'm going to need to return to your thread for ideas whenever I'm in London again.

[Ann of Owlshire]

1 hour ago, annyshay said:

I'm going to need to return to your thread for ideas whenever I'm in London again.

 

We love giving recommendations

[Ann of Owlshire]

Week Three:

 

Keep on Waddling Wandering (Goal: 10 Points - 1 Point for 6k steps in a day; 1 point for 30+ Active Walking Minutes)

8/10 points—I really made a point of getting in 6k steps whenever I could, and focused less on continuous active minutes (which are getting quite difficult). I think it paid off.

 

Hydration (8 glasses/day): 

Yes!

 

Life Quest: Exploring/Essay Writing:

• (Re-)read Level Up Your Life by our illustrious founder
• Finished reading Marco Polo Didn’t Go There by Rolf Potts
• Began reading Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
• Mini-adventure to Aldwich
• Mini-adventure to Oxford Street
• Mini-adventure to Borough Market
• Watched more Travel Writing course videos.
• 30+ pages of freewriting/brainstorming/journaling pages written, trying some new styles, angles and ideas.

 

I’ve kind of veered off my original plans for this goal, but I can’t say that I haven’t been working at it...

 

Extra Quest for the Week - No TV

I watched a movie and a half… but really the point of this goal was “don’t get sucked into binge watching a show with hundreds of episodes” which I succeeded at.

 

Check in: 

Hurrah!

 

Week 4 Extra Quest: Reduce the sweet treats. I’ve had a massive sweet tooth the last few weeks and feel like I've eaten more candy/cookies/etc. than I usually do in a year. While I’m hoping that this issue will largely resolve itself after pregnancy (this is not my normal, so I'm blaming the bump ), for the week, I’m going to try to gradually reduce my daily sweet treat intake and replace them with cheese, fruit, nuts, etc. (I'm not intending to cut calories because that's not an issue here. I just want to replace the sugary calories with other ones.)

 

I’m not going to metric this one—I’m going to stick to my “spirit of” style as that seems to be working well for me.

[Ann of Owlshire]

This week has definitely been a struggle. Pretty much any position other than lying down has been difficult--lots of intense Braxton Hicks when I am even lightly active and apparently my knees have hit their threshold and don't want to carry any more extra weight. So I haven't been straying far from home.

 

It's frustrating, but I'm trying to accept that I'm likely to deliver within the next 2 weeks, and maybe there was a time earlier that I could have been doing exercises to strengthen my knees but right now probably isn't that time.

 

So I'm trying to do light activity--keeping up with the housework, very local errands, and not spend all day lying on the sofa but I think I just am where I am right now. Give me a few weeks and I'll get back to trying to conquer the hills....

[Drake Alexander]

This week has definitely been a struggle. Pretty much any position other than lying down has been difficult--lots of intense Braxton Hicks when I am even lightly active and apparently my knees have hit their threshold and don't want to carry any more extra weight. So I haven't been straying far from home.
 
It's frustrating, but I'm trying to accept that I'm likely to deliver within the next 2 weeks, and maybe there was a time earlier that I could have been doing exercises to strengthen my knees but right now probably isn't that time.
 
So I'm trying to do light activity--keeping up with the housework, very local errands, and not spend all day lying on the sofa but I think I just am where I am right now. Give me a few weeks and I'll get back to trying to conquer the hills....

The expectation now is great. 2 weeks is around the corner. You will embark in a great quest soon. Congrats and keep at it.

Sent from my LG-M210 using Tapatalk

[Ann of Owlshire]

1 minute ago, Drake Alexander said:

The expectation now is great. 2 weeks is around the corner. You will embark in a great quest soon. Congrats and keep at it.
 

 

Thanks. It feels too soon, and not soon enough.  

[Ann of Owlshire]

Week 4 and Challenge Conclusion:

 

Keep on Waddling Wandering (Goal: 10 Points - 1 Point for 6k steps in a day; 1 point for 30+ Active Walking Minutes):

0/10. I’m not stressed about this week’s results. I’m nearly 38 weeks pregnant. I move when I can, and rest when I need. Which is often.

 

Hydration (8 glasses/day): 

I think I have this one down. I won’t have it on future challenges, unless I need to refresh the habit. 

 

Life Quest: Exploring/Essay Writing:

Watched Travel Writing Videos—although did not finish this course.

Read more of Woman Warrior, but returned it to the library about halfway through. I had read what I needed to of it.

Began reading The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery by Sarah Lewis

Began reading The Enchanted Life by Sharon Blackie—I think this will inform some future challenges.

Wrote about 20 pages in my journal.

No field trips this week for reasons discussed in an earlier post, although I did go out last night to meet a bunch of pirates at the Golden Hind and joined them at a pub on the Thames*. (Mr of Vries being one of them.)

 

(*A friend of ours had rented out the replica ship for 3 hours for a pirate LARP game for a seminal birthday. It was, by all accounts, pretty epic. Since most of it took place on the ship deck, Mr of Vries reckons they were in about a thousand tourist photos XD)

 

Week 4 Extra Quest: Reduce the sweet treats.

Success! I didn’t cut out sweets completely, that wasn’t the goal. But I consumed drastically less on a daily basis than I had been and focused more on nuts, fruit, etc.. I think I even went a day or two without any sweets at all. One thing I learned: if I don’t get the taste of the sweets out of my mouth I want more. So I need to clean my teeth or eat something else (nutritious) to follow a sweet.

 

Check in: 

Hurrah! I'm still here! Two challenges in a row!

 

End of Challenge Thoughts:

As for the challenge overall, I’m pleased. It was really only the last week that I started having major issues getting around, and friends that had recently been pregnant themselves have been impressed by how active I stayed--and how stubborn I was about it

 

I've got hydration more or less down now. And while my travel writing ambitions are still fledgling, I feel like I learned a lot these last few weeks....

 

What's next? Well, first the baby... I'm going to put in a placeholder for the next challenge because I don't want to get out of the habit, but it'll be a bit of a token challenge just to give me something to check in with.

 

Cheers!

[oromendur]

On 4/15/2018 at 9:26 AM, Ann of Vries said:

Began reading The Enchanted Life by Sharon Blackie—I think this will inform some future challenges.

 

If you can find time in your crazy next few weeks to type out a line or two in review of this book, I'd be grateful. As a fellow mythologist working in concepts of the natural world I expect I would find her inspiring, but her books aren't available at any of my libraries and I've been hesitant to spend money on any of them sight unseen when I can't really justify the time to read them anyway

 

On 4/15/2018 at 9:26 AM, Ann of Vries said:

What's next? Well, first the baby... I'm going to put in a placeholder for the next challenge because I don't want to get out of the habit, but it'll be a bit of a token challenge just to give me something to check in with.

 

Yay! Looking forward to reading about your new adventure. You've been such an inspiration, stubbornly overcoming both societal pressure and physical discomfort to continue your adventuring. You remind me of a modern-day version of the Viking or Mongol female warriors who would be riding and fighting right up until the day they delivered   Good luck with your delivery, welcome to the new little of Vries, and check in with us when you can!

[Ann of Owlshire]

1 hour ago, oromendur said:

 

If you can find time in your crazy next few weeks to type out a line or two in review of this book, I'd be grateful. As a fellow mythologist working in concepts of the natural world I expect I would find her inspiring, but her books aren't available at any of my libraries and I've been hesitant to spend money on any of them sight unseen when I can't really justify the time to read them anyway

 

 

 I had the same dilemma as you--I wanted to read it (and her other books), and my libraries didn't have it, but I'd been reading some of her blog and other blogs that referred to her blog, and the book sounded like the right book for me at the right time, so I just coughed up the £10 and bought it. (I could spend that on worse.)

 

 I finished reading it today and adored it, but I think it depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for ideas on restoring a sense of personal enchantment in the modern, disillusioned world, how to find sense of belonging in a place, using mythic imagination to find a healthy narrative for yourself, and things like that, it's a great book. If you're looking for a rigorous, academic analysis of mythology or folklore, it's not that she doesn't know her stuff, but that's not what this book was about. I plan to reread the book and do the exercises soon, but I have two books due to the library soon and need to get on those XD

 

(Does that help?) 

 

1 hour ago, oromendur said:

 You remind me of a modern-day version of the Viking or Mongol female warriors who would be riding and fighting right up until the day they delivered   

 

*blushes* I certainly have not been that bad-ass, but when I'm telling a friend that I've been finding it a struggle to walk to and from the grocery shop (about 20 min each way) and her response is that she spent her entire last month (of her own accord) literally lying in bed all day except for food and other biological needs and that I should consider doing the same... well, I do feel a bit more like I was pushing myself

 

I actually had a great walk today. My tube line was having shenanigans, so I ended up getting off at a stop about 2 miles out and sauntered my way home in the sunshine. It was slow going, but I managed it, and I didn't feel wrecked when I got home. Granted, that's not how this sort of thing usually goes lately. 

 

 

 

[PettyMort]

Woo! Bravo. I'm eager to hear about the climax of this challenge adventure - a mini vries!

I'm amazed by how much you kept at it too. It's an inspiration as we start getting ready for the next challenge.