Juliebarkley splashes forth

[juliebarkley]

As spring days warmed the world, the ground in the swamp thawed and made walking difficult once again. However, Julie had made a commitment. And so the mild-mannered librarian ventured out into the muck as Midnight, to familiarize herself with the world to which she was now intimately bonded. Today, she decided to head to the northwest. In just a few steps, she was out of view, lost in the shrubbery and cattails.

 

This particular reconnoitre improved her mental map of the swampland slightly, but the tall vegetation and thick mud made it slow going. With so many creatures still hibernating or away in their summer homes, the visit was proving quite dull. After a half hour of sloshing about, she decided to head home for a good supper (and a good shower). Just as she turned, however, she heard a noise further ahead. It sounded for all the world like a tiny creature having some sort of tantrum, which is in fact what it turned out to be.

 

As she pushed on through the reeds, the shouting became louder. The reeds petered out and revealed an open area covered with a thick spongy moss. Pools of water lay dotted about. Off to the right stood several large, flat rocks, on which huddled a group of twenty or so mushroom-like creatures no more than a foot high. This was the source of the shouting. They all went silent and turned to look at her. Most seemed a bit frightened, but one met her gaze with an angry glare.

 

Julie approached them. "And just who are you to be barging into our clearing?" said the pissy one, slipping on the edge of the rock as he stepped forward. "Hey!" he cried, as Julie caught him. "What gives you the right? ... Oh, so you're Midnight, eh? That still gives you no right to go grabbing innocent folk uninvited like this." He looked like he was gearing up for a good rant.

 

"You will help us, Miss Midnight?" said a shy mushroom in the back of the cluster. "Well, I'll try, but I don't actually know what's wrong..." she replied. "Yes help!" answered another, and another. They seemed very pleased with this answer. "But what exactly is the matter?" "Yes help!" "Yes help!" The mushrooms were now holding hands and hopping up and down, too lost in their joy to respond.

 

"Idiots!" spat the friendly fellow that Julie still held. She looked at him inquisitively. "All right, so how about you tell me what's going on here?" she asked. "How about you put me down first?" he replied.

 

Julie sighed. "Look, I just promised them I would try to help. It is my job, and you seem to need it. Would it hurt to at least answer my questions?" He softened a little. "I suppose not." "Wonderful," she said, breathing an inward sign of relief. She placed him on one of the smaller rocks. "I'm Midnight. And your name is?" "Endwiss." "OK, Endwiss. Please, enlighten me."

 

He stood up to his full height. "Ain't much to tell," he said. "I was rudely awoken in the middle of night by being crushed into the ground and underwater. I managed to drag myself out to this rock here, as did the others." 

 

"Wait, what? What crushed your mound?" Endwiss shrugged. "Dunno. I was asleep at the time, then underwater. I didn't see it. Don't interrupt." "All right, carry on."

 

"As you can see," and he gestured to a water pool, "our mound is ruined. Most of us got out okay, but our little sprouts are still buried under there. They'll all drown if we can't get them out within the next week or two, but we can't swim. We only float, you see. And if we can't connect the the Great Root soon, we'll all be done for as well. But try getting that lot to do something other than sit and cry! Idiots." He could not quite hide the waver in his voice.

 

Julie thought for a moment. "So we need to rescue the sprouts and move you to a new..." "No!" he exclaimed. "Don't you know anything about the Bluecaps?" He rolled his eyes and muttered something about ignorant swamp guardians these days. "You can't just uproot us and dump us anywhere you please. We have needs, you know." He pointed to a blue spot on his head. "You see?" She didn't see. "Here, you fool!" And he pointed at a thin gold line running through the blue spot. "We need gold in the soil to survive. Without it, the Great Root will die, and so will we." "But if your new mound has gold in it, you'll be fine?" He nodded curtly. "How much gold are we talking here?" Endwiss shrugged again.

 

"So, you'll help?" he asked, holding out his hand. "I'll help," Julie answered, shaking it. "Yes help!" cried the other Bluecaps, their excitement renewed. Endwiss glanced at them and rolled his eyes again.

 

Julie splashed over to the puddle where the mound once stood. The water in this area was almost knee deep, and the mound had presumably once protruded above it. Now, it was pressed flat on top, the sides bulging below the surface. Whatever had crushed it had been big, that was clear. The mud on top still held the clear impression of a footprint. She glanced at the rest of the clearing and saw several other similar footprint-puddles in a line. They stopped as suddenly as they had begun. This clearly required further investigation.

 

Julie waved farewell to the Bluecaps and began to wade home. She would need to do some research on footprints and the habitat of Bluecaps. After a good long shower.

 

Midnight now has a mission! Rebuild the Bluecap's mound, and investigate the source of the footprints.
 

[juliebarkley]

That story was longer than I had planned. Ah brevity, I have never been good at you.

 

My challenges for this round:

 

Physical/Health: Rebuild the mound.

Digging, lifting, pulling, shoving - it all requires strength! And a lot of walking. And I'll need to take care of my health.

 

1. Continue bodyweight workout 3x per week. This is much the same as last time.

Pass: 3x per week, unless sick or injured. Modify as needed. Fail: Any voluntary skip.

 

2. Walk to or from work. This is a level up from last time, and the next step toward a long walk I have planned for later in the year. Start by walking to or from work (whichever makes the most sense) once per week, and increasing these by one each week, until I am either walking to or from work 3/4 times a week (I have a variable schedule).

Pass: Walk to work the appropriate number of times. Continue walking to the mailbox on non-strength days if not also a walk-to-work day (clear as mud?). Total of 4 walks per week minimum. Fail: <4x per week unless I am injured or it is too dangerous, or fewer than 8 walks to work throughout the challenge. If I have greater than 8 total, I can level up!

 

3. Brush teeth and do dental rinses 2x per day. Repeat from last time. This time, I am going to try doing the early rinse at 1pm rather than the more nebulous "after lunch". On days when I am at work then, as soon as I get home.

 

Pass: 2x per day at least 5x per week. Fail: 2x fewer than 4x per week or 0x on any day. This can be moved off my challenge list and considered a habit if I miss no more than 2 all challenge.

 

4. Make and eat one container of yoghurt per week. The sprouts were a very enjoyable challenge! I would like to try to make yoghurt now. i have a yoghurt maker, but haven't kept in the habit of using it. This is another thing that I should be doing to improve my digestive health. I believe it makes 4 cups worth, and I would like to have some every day.

Pass: Make yoghurt once a week, and eat it all. Fail: Don't make it, or don't finish it. Missing some days is OK if the yoghurt is eaten before it is time to make more. Sharing some with others is also OK.

 

Knowledge/Spiritual: Research, research, research!

What the heck are Bluecaps? And what creature made those footprints? Time to hit the books and pray for guidance.

 

5. Pray 3x per day. Level up from last challenge. This is going to require some vigilance on my part. I'm worried about this one, so I've given myself some wiggle room for missed days.

Pass: 2x per day 4x per week, at any of the appropriate times. Fail: 2x per day 3x or fewer per week, 0x on any day, or any day that I chose voluntarily not to do it (this is a psychological goal). Level up to a more rigorous schedule if I pass every week, and never choose to skip.

 

6. Enter one homeschooling subject into Firetask per week. This is a continuation of last month's challenge, and will continue until I get it done.

Pass: 4 subjects done. Fail: Fewer than 4 subjects done at challenge end (unless there are fewer than 4 to do).

 

 

Money: Fetch some gold!

The Bluecaps need gold to live, and I shall have to provide it for them.

 

7. Earn something on transcription site every day. Now that the habit of logging in is built, I need to do some actual work! There isn't always work available, but if I show up with the intention of doing work, that counts.

Pass: Work 5x per week. Fail <4x per week.

 

8. Record for LibriVox. I need more practice! Sign up for and record at least one chapter per week. A short story also counts. If I am truly short of time, even a poem will do (for emergencies though, not as an easy way out). But something must be recorded every week.

Pass: One chapter per week signed up for and recorded. Fail: No recording done.

 

I have one fewer item on my list, but the ones that are here are harder. This will indeed be challenging! Wish me luck!

 

Challenge begins on Monday, ends on Sunday.

[Manarelle]

Love the story and the challenge - both good continuations of the last one. Out of curiosity, does praying at mealtimes not "count" toward your goal? 

[juliebarkley]

Ah. I think my vagueness here has been confusing.

 

I am a Muslim and I follow the most common interpretation regarding prayers, that there are required at 5 ones that fall into specific time periods each day. I have tried to go all in in the past and always quickly burned out and failed miserably. So I am trying to slowly work myself up to where I would like to be, but it's going to take a while to build the habits if I want to ensure that this time is different.

[Manarelle]

That makes so much more sense.  Good plan to slowly add them back in, I could see how going straight to five times per day would be overwhelming. You can do it!

[juliebarkley]

End of zero week; challenge begins tomorrow!

 

I confess I have been slacking a bit the last few days, so looking forward to getting back on track!

[juliebarkley]

Week 1, day 1:

 

Physical/Health: Rebuild the mound.

 

1. Continue bodyweight workout 3x per week. 0/3 for the week. Not time yet.

2. Walk to or from work. 0/1 for the week. I think Friday would be ideal, as I have a meeting and there is a chance it will end early. I walked with the Beavers today instead of the mailbox, but I'm going to call that good.

3. Brush teeth and do dental rinses 2x per day. 1/5 for the week. I'm going to commit to doing these at 1PM/1AM to help me remember. So far, so good!

4. Make and eat one container of yoghurt per week. 0/1 for the week. Not yet. I should actually probably check that I have the stuff (poor planning here!).

 

Knowledge/Spiritual: Research, research, research!

5. Pray 3x per day. 1/4 for the week. So far, so good!

 

6. Enter one homeschooling subject into Firetask per week. 0/4 for the challenge. Not yet. And I totally slacked on this for zero week, too.

 

Money: Fetch some gold!

7. Earn something on transcription site every day. 1/7 for the week. Done!

 

8. Record for LibriVox. 0.25/1 for the week. I have requested a chapter. I plan to record on Thursday, and edit on Friday (this one and the two that I signed up for earlier and recorded yesterday).

 

I read a very discouraging article on getting into voice acting today, and it's got me a bit down. I suppose they are trying to warn people off who are looking to get rich and famous and rake in big bucks (not me!), and warn you that there are lots of people quite happy to sell you that dream through classes and coaching and whatnot, but still. I am not at the money stage anyway, but if I decide to go there then for sure and certain I need some kind of training. Now I am all paranoid about scammers. Ick. Ah well, one step at a time, I guess.

[suzyQlou]

Love the earthy tones in your challenge.

[juliebarkley]

Week 1, day 2:

 

Physical/Health: Rebuild the mound.

1. Continue bodyweight workout 3x per week. 1/3 for the week. About to do right after this post!

2. Walk to or from work. 0/1 for the week. Not yet.

3. Brush teeth and do dental rinses 2x per day. 2/5 for the week. Doing well so far...

4. Make and eat one container of yoghurt per week. 0/1 for the week. I carefully opened the yoghurt I made at least a month ago. The jar was sealed very tightly and never opened. There was some mold on the outside of the lid, but the inside was pristine and tasted lovely. So I am going to use that to make some more yoghurt ASAP and get to eating that batch. Because seriously, it might even be older than a month, and I've just opened its container. But it's still good. I'm amazed.

 

Knowledge/Spiritual: Research, research, research!

5. Pray 3x per day. 1/4 for the week. Not today.

6. Enter one homeschooling subject into Firetask per week. 1/4 for the challenge. I had to write this subject on the fly (cooking), but I think I got a good thing going on with it.

 

Money: Fetch some gold!

7. Earn something on transcription site every day. 2/7 for the week. Yes.

8. Record for LibriVox. 0.25/1 for the week. No more work on this today.

[suzyQlou]

I didn't realize you were making the yoghurt from scratch.  Somehow, my yoghurt maker is the grocery store and fridge.  How does one go about making yogurt?  Do you have any favorite recipes?

[juliebarkley]

I've only made it. like, twice before, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

 

Yoghurt is really easy to make at home. I have to look up the exact directions again, but basically it is "heat the milk to pasteurization temperature or thereabouts, let it cool a bit so you don't cook the bacteria you are adding next, add a spoonful or two of live yoghurt (storebought or from the last batch), stir it up, and let it sit in a warm place for 12 hours or so until it is as thick as you want it to be". I have a yoghurt maker that I got second hand a long time ago, but it's basically a giant thermos. I know you can do it in a normal thermos. Also in jars in a slow cooker. I know that the longer you leave it, the thicker it gets, and that if you don't heat it it doesn't always thicken up, and that some people add milk powder if they want it extra thick (I have not had problems with it being too thin myself). That is literally all I know.

 

I have no recipes. I don't add anything to the main batch, but I mix in some jam when I'm eating it to give that "fruit on the bottom" effect. I'm hoping to eat a cup or so a day, so it is much cheaper to make it, plus then you don't have any extra sweetener or other stuff added. Plus, I have heard that in a lot of the storebought stuff you have limited bacteria because they have to pasteurize it, then they add like one strain back in so they can call it "live" (I have not verified this; I could be wrong). I got my starter batch from a local brand at the health food store that I don't think does that, so I'm hoping that gives my batch all sorts of probiotic goodness.

[suzyQlou]

That sounds really cool.  I like the idea of being able to control the sweeteners.  Thanks for the details!

[Loveable_Bouncer]

Hello thought to stop by because I saw you following my thread. 

Awesome story, and love how you added in the challenges. Really cool to see unique challenges and how you are breaking them down. Has me thinking of how to view my own challenges, especially to see if I can get a story made out of it. Will be reading your old posts to see what else you have written!

 

Also didn't realize how "less complex" making yogurt is. I remember hearing about yogurt makers a few years ago, but thought it was way more complicated. Along with actually being cheaper.

 

9 hours ago, suzyQlou said:

That sounds really cool.  I like the idea of being able to control the sweeteners.  Thanks for the details!

I actually read a few years ago, somewhere on how people started to cut back sugar by just making their won yogurt (sometimes the kicker was, a lot of them had a goat of their own. But that's a whole other story). 

[juliebarkley]

 

On 25/04/2017 at 0:10 PM, suzyQlou said:

Love the earthy tones in your challenge.

 

Thanks! I realized when I was brainstorming my epic quest that I had a lot of naturey things in there - foraging, identifying birds and plants, camping, hiking - so I decided to just run with it when making my character.

 

On 27/04/2017 at 8:07 PM, Bouncer the Resilient said:

Hello thought to stop by because I saw you following my thread. 

Awesome story, and love how you added in the challenges. Really cool to see unique challenges and how you are breaking them down. Has me thinking of how to view my own challenges, especially to see if I can get a story made out of it. Will be reading your old posts to see what else you have written!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

I've only got one other challenge with a story element, so you haven't missed much ( I haven't been around all that long). I am not planning to make a large overriding narrative (though I have an idea for a shortish one), but more of an episodic series of small adventures. I'm glad you like it! I was inspired by stories I saw other people writing, too. I'm not a "writer", but it seemed like a fun thing to do with the character and I like the roleplay element. If it helps, I come up with the challenges I want to work on first, then make up the story around that. For example, I have a long-distance walking goal I'll be working on for the rest of the year, so I will probably write something that involves travelling around for the next while. If I had a water goal, maybe something about potions, or curing an illness. It's fun, and trying to shoehorn everything in actually makes the story easier to come up with! I look forward to seeing what you dream up next time!

 

On to the reporting:

 

Week 1, day 5:

 

Physical/Health: Rebuild the mound.

1. Continue bodyweight workout 3x per week. 2/3 for the week. I spent part of yesterday setting up an outdoor space for exercising. It's not fancy - just a picnic table next to some stairs, and a sturdy pole to lay between them - but it gives a place to do pull-ups (the level I am at, anyway), hip and knee-height surfaces for pushups, and a flat patio area for other exercises. I used it today and I'm pretty excited about it.

2. Walk to or from work. 1/1 for the week. Done! But now I have a couple of blisters, so I will have to figure out how to a) not make them worse, and b> keep this from happening again. (apparently b and a bracket makes an emoticon and I don't know how to stop it!)

3. Brush teeth and do dental rinses 2x per day. 4/5 for the week. Messed it up today, but very much on track!

4. Make and eat one container of yoghurt per week. 0.25/1 for the week. Ate some yesterday, but realized I didn't have enough milk to make more. This is my job for today, as this has to get done ASAP!

 

Knowledge/Spiritual: Research, research, research!

5. Pray 3x per day. 2/4 for the week. This is a bit of a guess - I think I did yesterday. I did very badly on this today, too. Having to wake up early messes me up bad - I get really tired by early afternoon, and can either try to stay awake and be mostly useless for the rest of the day, or sleep for 2-3 hours and be much more functional, but still not great.

6. Enter one homeschooling subject into Firetask per week. 1/4 for the challenge. No more work on this yet.

 

Money: Fetch some gold!

7. Earn something on transcription site every day. 5/7 for the week. Now THIS I have been good at.

8. Record for LibriVox. 0.5/1 for the week. Recorded my new chapter, but now I have three to edit. I was unfortunately not functional enough to pull this off today. I hope tomorrow will be better, but I have to do D&D planning too, so we'll see.

[juliebarkley]

It has been mostly downhill since last post. I have not felt well over the past three days, so my results have not been great.

 

Week 1 summary:

 

Physical/Health: Rebuild the mound.

1. Continue bodyweight workout 3x per week. 2/3 for the week. I will try to do this today (indoors, though).

2. Walk to or from work. 1/1 for the week. I did, however, miss my daily walk yesterday.

3. Brush teeth and do dental rinses 2x per day. 5/5 for the week. I am pretty sure I did this on Friday.

4. Make and eat one container of yoghurt per week. 0.25/1 for the week. I have hit a snag. I made my yoghurt, but it didn't yogh. I think because my yoghurt was so old, the bacteria had all died. So I need to get a new batch before I can make more.

 

Knowledge/Spiritual: Research, research, research!

5. Pray 3x per day. 3/4 for the week. Close, but not quite there.

6. Enter one homeschooling subject into Firetask per week. 1/4 for the challenge.

 

Money: Fetch some gold!

7. Earn something on transcription site every day. 6/7 for the week. Almost there.

8. Record for LibriVox. 0.5/1 for the week. Editing didn't happen today due to D&D today, and noise and exhaustion on other days. It probably won't happen tomorrow either as I am already way overscheduled, but I have all three recorded, so at least there is that.

 

This week has not been strong, but where I didn't succeed, I was mostly quite close. So next week only has to be a little bit better!

[juliebarkley]

Week 2, day 1:

 

Physical/Health: Rebuild the mound.

1. Continue bodyweight workout 3x per week. 0/3 for the week. Not yet.

2. Walk to or from work. 0/2 for the week. It was not going to happen today, just impossible schedulewise. Even the walk to the mailbox didn't happen due to pouring rain all day and needing to sleep during the short time I was home in daylight.

3. Brush teeth and do dental rinses 2x per day. 1/5 for the week. I am counting my dentist visit today as my first one (I think that's fair).

4. Make and eat one container of yoghurt per week. 0/1 for the week. I did a stupid thing, which shows just how tired I have been lately. You know how my yoghurt failed? Well, it failed because I did it wrong. It might still be dead, the starter was very old, but I added the starter and then put it straight back in the fridge instead of into the yoghurt maker. So no wonder it failed. I am giving it another try tonight, plus I bought more of the same brand, so if it fails today it will darn well succeed next time. Didn't eat any, though.

 

Knowledge/Spiritual: Research, research, research!

5. Pray 3x per day. 1/4 for the week. Success!

6. Enter one homeschooling subject into Firetask per week. 1/4 for the challenge. No more work here today.

 

Money: Fetch some gold!

7. Earn something on transcription site every day. 1/7 for the week. Yes!

8. Record for LibriVox. 0/1 for the week. Negative really, as still no editing. I have several days in front of me where I can FINALLY SLEEP! Then I should be alert enough to be able to do this!

 

Summary: bad week past, but about to get better!

[juliebarkley]

Week 2, day 1:

 

Physical/Health: Rebuild the mound.

1. Continue bodyweight workout 3x per week. 0/3 for the week. About to go do this now!

2. Walk to or from work. 0/2 for the week. I'm not sure how this is going to work this week. It has been raining so much that the river is over its banks again and some roads are also flooded (I cannot recall ever seeing this happen). My usual route is going to be really muddy, so I'd prefer to avoid it if it is raining, especially as we are supposed to get EVEN MORE rain this week and I have no idea if this will cause flooding on my route. However, I am committed to walking an equivalent distance if I cannot walk to or from work.

3. Brush teeth and do dental rinses 2x per day. 1/5 for the week. I missed the morning one today. Boo.

4. Make and eat one container of yoghurt per week. 0.5/1 for the week. Interesting times. I checked the yoghurt I refrigerated by accident, then put into the thermos like I was supposed to to see what would happen. I didn't add any fresh yoghurt, even though the starter I added was very old (my family thinks it may be like, 4 months old!). It LOOKS like yoghurt now, but it tastes like fresh milk. Just curdled. My theory is that the acid in the old yoghurt was enough to curdle it, but there was no bacteria to make the happy yoghurt. So, I have heated milk for a new batch, and I am seeing if I can salvage the first batch by draining it and making some sort of cream cheese-like product. Yay for food adventures!

 

Knowledge/Spiritual: Research, research, research!

5. Pray 3x per day. 1/4 for the week. Oops. No.

6. Enter one homeschooling subject into Firetask per week. 1/4 for the challenge. No more work here today.

 

Money: Fetch some gold!

7. Earn something on transcription site every day. 2/7 for the week. Did it, even though the selection of audio was awful today.

8. Record for LibriVox. 0/1 for the week. Oh my god, I am SO BEHIND! Must. Do. The. Work! Actually I ran into this last challenge - procrastinating on something I hadn't done yet due to irrational fear or hesitation or something. Sadly, I was very behind in other things due to the week of awfulness I just completed, so I really did run out of time. I know I have to get this done, but I don't want to feel like it's looming over me. I'm sure it will be fine when I just get started.

 

Summary: Weird food is weird.

[suzyQlou]

Hope you made it through the floods safely!  You are so persistent with the yoghurt.  I just know it will pay off  

[Loveable_Bouncer]

Oh my gosh so many things are getting in your way, but still you are being persistent!

That yogurt will turn out well by how you keep working on it.

And those mushrooms will have enough gold to at least live off of a bit!

[juliebarkley]

Thanks for the support everyone! @suzyQlou There is ANOTHER flood alert out for the area - last year at this time we were begging for rain, so I guess it got the memo a little late. @Bouncer the Resilient I hope that I can get back on track now that the only thing to get in my way is myself! My work with the mushrooms is pretty on track, so they're doing fine. Now I just have to do the "take care of my health" parts, as they are the ones I am falling down on.

 

Week 2, day 4:

 

Physical/Health: Rebuild the mound.

1. Continue bodyweight workout 3x per week. 1/3 for the week. On track.

2. Walk to or from work. 1/2 for the week. I will have to try for a walk on Saturday or Sunday, rain (gulp!) or shine.

3. Brush teeth and do dental rinses 2x per day. 1/5 for the week. Wow. So much fail. I have three days to pull this back to an almost-pass, I guess.

4. Make and eat one container of yoghurt per week. 0.5/1 for the week. New yoghurt = success. Now I just have to actually eat it. Since it was made so late, it doesn't have to be finished until the end of next week. I still have to finish the old batch this week, which should be doable. The failed yoghurt, sadly, is no more. I strained it successfully, which was kind of fun, and got a sort of spongy cheese-like product. However, the concentration of the milk solids also revealed a slight off-flavour (presumably due to the milk having sat in a warm environment for a long period of time to try to make it into yoghurt). Still, it was a fun experiment!

 

Knowledge/Spiritual: Research, research, research!

5. Pray 3x per day. 1/4 for the week. Eep.

6. Enter one homeschooling subject into Firetask per week. 1/4 for the challenge. About to work on this after reporting in!

 

Money: Fetch some gold!

7. Earn something on transcription site every day. 3/7 for the week. Yes today, no yesterday.

8. Record for LibriVox. 0/1 for the week. Ok, tomorrow this is my #1 priority, and if I do nothing else, I will do this! I should be able to edit and submit two chapters given that they are already recorded and not very long, right?

 

Summary: I am on track to not-quite-pass most of my habits. I sense that many of these will return next challenge too!

 

On a side

[WhiteGhost]

I really like how you tie your goals into a story line.  You have motivated me to try and do something similar!

[juliebarkley]

On 05/05/2017 at 11:35 AM, WhiteGhost said:

I really like how you tie your goals into a story line.  You have motivated me to try and do something similar!

 

Cool! The roleplay element is a lot of fun, and if more people do it, I have more neat stories to read! (Selfish, I know)

[juliebarkley]

Okay, first off. WHAT IS  UP WITH THIS WEATHER?! The road is flooded again (I have never seen it go twice and I've lived here more than 20 years), and it was SNOWING today. I probably shouldn't complain too much, several nearby communities have declared official states of emergency. Anyway.

 

Week 2 summary:

 

Physical/Health: Rebuild the mound.

1. Continue bodyweight workout 3x per week. 2/3 for the week. Missed the last one. Darn.

2. Walk to or from work. 1/2 for the week. This went to pot with the rising water.

3. Brush teeth and do dental rinses 2x per day. 2/5 for the week. This doesn't even take a lot of time. I have no excuses.

4. Make and eat one container of yoghurt per week. 0.5/1 for the week. I made it, but it's not gone yet. I'll not be making one next week, as I have enough yoghurt to eat to easily finish out the next week.

 

Knowledge/Spiritual: Research, research, research!

5. Pray 3x per day. 1/4 for the week. I don't even think I did any more after like, Monday. Wow.

6. Enter one homeschooling subject into Firetask per week. 2/4 for the challenge. At least I did this!

 

Money: Fetch some gold!

7. Earn something on transcription site every day. 6/7 for the week. Almost a pass. Almost.

8. Record for LibriVox. 1/1 for the week. I didn't record anything, but I had two chapters to edit because I recorded two last time. I had to learn a lot of stuff to finish it off, and it took a long time, so I'm going to call that a pass.

 

Summary: I threw out all of my other goals to get myself caught up on my two most time-consuming challenges, #6 and #8. I am having blister troubles on my heel and the weather is weird and awful, so the walking to work/mailbox goal won't pan out the way I had hoped. However, there is no reason for my other goals to keep falling apart, so let's do this thing!

 

I am looking at options for my walking goal. I still have lots of time to train for my adventure, but I think I need some advice.

 

First, has anyone used the Zombies, Run! 5k, marathon, etc. training sessions for walking? Would that work? I am trying to build stamina for walking long distances, but am not interested in running them.

 

Second, I am having problems with my heel because I broke it a few years back and have very little feeling in it. I cannot feel rubbing very much, so I can't tell that a blister is forming. The shoes I have been wearing are too small now, I think, as I have a bit of swelling there still and I bought them before my injury. But because of the nerve damage or scarring or something, I can't wear many kinds of shoes because the padding or top edge presses on things and it's very uncomfortable. I can only wear shoes that have no padding around the ankles and are fairly low-cut. Long-winded way to say: I have been thinking about barefoot walking shoes; does anyone have any experience with them? Or maybe moccasins? I like to be able to feel the ground through the soles, but not so much that I can't comfortably walk down my gravel road.

[juliebarkley]

Week 3, day 3:

 

Physical/Health: Rebuild the mound.

1. Continue bodyweight workout 3x per week. 1/3 for the week. Had to skip the pullups due to flooding issues.

2. Walk to or from work. 0/3 for the week. This is just not going to happen. I will try to resume walking to the mailbox now that the water is low enough for that, though.

3. Brush teeth and do dental rinses 2x per day. 1/5 for the week. I do believe I have already failed this one.

4. Make and eat one container of yoghurt per week. 0.5/1 for the week. Ate a lot of yoghurt yesterday, and actually feeling good about this one.

 

Knowledge/Spiritual: Research, research, research!

5. Pray 3x per day. 1/4 for the week. I got Monday, but despite setting myself up to succeed for the last two days, I messed them up.

6. Enter one homeschooling subject into Firetask per week. 2/4 for the challenge. No more work on this yet, and I'm concerned, to be honest.

 

Money: Fetch some gold!

7. Earn something on transcription site every day. 3/7 for the week. Good so far!

8. Record for LibriVox. 0/1 for the week. I'm concerned about this one, too. I may have to take the "record a poem" easy route.

 

I have a lot of extra work this week, and my challenge is based on my normal non-full-time workload. So since I am working overtime this week (10 days straight), I am struggling again. It all came on my kind of at the last minute, too, so it's not like I could have planned for it. On the plus side, I will be working at Ottawa ComicCon with the library this weekend, so yay for that!

[Manarelle]

On 5/9/2017 at 1:20 AM, juliebarkley said:

I can only wear shoes that have no padding around the ankles and are fairly low-cut. Long-winded way to say: I have been thinking about barefoot walking shoes; does anyone have any experience with them? Or maybe moccasins? I like to be able to feel the ground through the soles, but not so much that I can't comfortably walk down my gravel road.

 

I haven't tried them, but quite literally every person I've known who has tried the Vibram five fingers shoes adores them. If there are any stores near you where you can try them on, you can "test" walking on gravel by stepping (carefully) on your keys, or bring some gravel in a sturdy plastic bag so you don't get the shoes dirty while testing. 

 

Give yourself some leeway when your workload (or really any part of life) goes haywire. If I recall correctly from the last con/event you did, you ended up walking a LOT - that counts! Is there anything you can do at home to still get exercise in, even if not what was planned? Bodyweight movements might help out here. 

Life does seem to be dumping on you right now (or is that the clouds?). If you need to scale back and readjust due to time constraints, do so. You'll still be making progress, but without stressing yourself about the things you truly don't have time for. Deep breath, hang in there, you've got this.