Hi all! Good to “see” you. A lot has happened. IL2 started preschool. D11 and M8 are doing well in school and gymnastics. I have been feeling super duper tired on and off due to the post-COVID. According to the internet (though not to my doctor) I now have long COVID.

I will update in pictures again, this time trying some videos, too.

Aaron started LARPing again, and part of hos costume included handcuffs. He checked that the key worked before-hand, and then he put the cuffs on his wrist, when the key stopped working. I wanted to go to the store and buy some bolt cutters, but he insisted on sawing them off. He only broke the kin a little.

Puck actually sat on someone else’s lap.

We got a family photo for Loki’s preschool.

Loki loves this little old dress of Deirdre’s. We didn’t get a good photo of it, though.

My friend Raj and I went axe-throwing.

I gave up on Walk to Mordor, which was a lot of work, for a virtual tour of Ring Road in Iceland. It’s 828 miles. I want to do the Appalachian and Pacific Crest Virtual trails,

The impossible list was invented by Joel Runyon. He wanted not a bucket list of individually easy things to do, but a list of things that felt impossible. My list is probably a little long, but I had Fun with it. I have described my quarterly focus here.

Health & Fitness

• Try 25 new recipes in one year
• Go without junk food for a year
• Switch to “mostly” mediterranean diet
• Lose 100lbs
• Maintain weight at 140lbs for 5 years
• Run a 5k
• Walk a marathon
• Run a mud race
• Do a century ride
• Think about posture every day for a year
• Complete Zombies, Run!
• Virtual Walk Appalachian Trail
• Walk take 10k steps a day 260 times in a year
• Switch from soda to tea
• Go uncaffeinated for one year
• Drink 1 gallon of water a day 260 times in one year

Travel / Adventure

• Visit every National Park in the US
• Go to all these parks in one summer
• Camp in every State Park in Minnesota

Environment

• Unpack house
• Paint the inside of the house
• Paint the outside of house
• Remove rocks and make beds beautiful
• Create a pollinator garden
• Keep up cleaning (car and home) maintenance on a monthly basis for 12 months

Education and Reading

• Complete Well Educated Mind reading list
• Complete NPR 100 Best Fantasy and Science Fiction list
• Read a book that takes place in every country
• Read the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
• Read the Mahabharata
• Read 50 consecutive editions of The Economist
• Learn to speak Spanish fluently
• Watch all Doctor Who seasons
• Watch all Star Trek in order of release
• Listen to all of my owned books
• 75 books in a year for 5 years

Hobbies

• Cross-stitch Groot
• Cross-stitch Loki
• Cross-stitch Creeper
• Cross-stitch unicorn
• Cross-stitch Cthulu
• Cross-stitch Starry Night With Tardis
• Cross-stitch The Scream
• Have a pen pal on all 6 continents
• Make it through this set of D&D Campaigns
• Have a lifetime of scrapbooks

For my Soul

• Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk
• Study a Sacred Text from all major world religions
• Attend service religiously for 1 year

Financial Health

• Pay off Home Equity Loan
• 6-month “emergency fund”
• Debt-free for 1 year

Hi! It’s been a while, so I think I will mostly update by pictures:

That’s Myra.

That’s Puck.

That’s Hero.

Good picture of the kids, which Walgreens won’t print because it shows too much skin.

D11 and I had a good time going out on an impromptu date.

IL2 plays fetch.

I made some delicious gumbo.

Aaron finished one of our beds, which we’ve decided will house tulips.

We went to the park, and tired out the boys.

I started writing inmates who either had life sentences without parole or death sentences. I thought maybe they were in more need of solace. About half of them have written back. So I have many pen pals now. I’m getting letters faster than I can write back.

I took some new jobs to get myself over 40 hours a week – mainly asleep shifts. The extra money will help us pay off our new home equity loan, which goes along with our new bathroom. It will also pay for IL2 to go to preschool.

The older kids have enrolled in gymnastics.

I had a breakthrough case of COVID while Aaron and the older kids were in Oregon on vacation. I had to take care of IL2 alone while I could hardly stay awake.

Aaron and I started going out on dates. He’s also going to start Werewolf LARPing.

The Dixie fire got a mere 3 miles from my late grandmother’s house.

Loki wore clothes.

That’s it! Hopefully I’ll write more frequently now. 🤣😂