Sunday's TidBits

Sunday.  Another weekend over, and another busy week coming up.  Ugh.

I was all excited about FitBit's "Goal Day" - and set my goal at 10k steps, which is difficult for me on a weekend.  Work, of course, means lots of walking, but walking around the block, or around the house, just doesn't cut it.  Outdoor walking or hiking isn't a good thing in the heat we get in the desert, so that means early morning walking. Which I love to do!   However, after a busy month, I needed to use my optimal energetic hours in getting my house cleaned up and chores done.   And then a day of terrible IBS or something hit me -- and I got my 5k steps going from couch to bathroom to bed to bathroom ... well, you get the idea.  Another Ugh.

Tracking my sleep has been interesting ... I seem to be getting a total of nearly 8 hours a night, but it's not all in a row - so I guess there's something to improve on, if I can find the secret to that!  According to FitBit I'm awake an average of 5x a night, and I sleep rather restlessly.  I blame that on Sadie.  She likes to snuggle up until she gets hot, then moves, but eventually moves back again and I'm sure that causes me to be the "restless" it senses because I'm moving about, trying to get into a comfy position.  Again.  lol  The perils of owning a dog, I guess.

Worked on this grand idea I have of building a headboard out of old pallets.  This was my original inspiration.  I have gotten a few old pallets from work, I've cut a few of them into usable boards, and experimented with how to make them look a little more "weathered".  According to online sites I sourced, mixing vinegar with some steel wool bits and let sit would create a staining like solution.  That didn't work for me, even when I left it sitting in the warm sun, and then overnight.  So, I took it upon myself to invent something else.  I added a few drops of acrylic paint into the vinegar and sprayed it on.  It sort of dyed the wood without actually applying paint. Right now, they have a hunter green tinge, and if I add a little bit of blue splotches, they may look a little more turquoise, which would be perfectly fine.  Adding a thin layer of some stain, then varnish --- I can see this working.  Or not.  lol

I puttered in my spare bedroom yesterday, touching up paint on the baseboards, etc.  It didn't last too long as the moment I sat on the floor to start painting, Sadie wanted to sit right between me and the wall -- painting around an active dog isn't the easiest thing in the world.  I did manage to get a few things hung on the wall.   :)   A little every day is better than nothing.

Off to finish some laundry, and get some groceries for the week.
Hope it's a good week for you, too!

Finally Friday

Finally Friday!  It always seems like the best day of the week, the one that holds the most promise.  Maybe that's a hold-over from earlier days -- like in my 20s when it meant good things on a weekend!  Orrrrrrrr .... maybe not.  lol

Once I got home, however, I was tired, dragged out, and after a salad for supper, and a few episodes of Fixer Upper (I was hoping for inspiration!) , the evening was over.

The only thing I tried was the recipe I found online for combining steel wool and vinegar to make a kind of stain to weather boards.  Sadly, I don't think it worked.  It sure sounded too good to be true, too simple, too inexpensive.  Maybe tomorrow I'll have a different opinion of it.  In the meantime, I found that a few drops of acrylic paint in the mix make for an interesting combination to spray on them.  And if that's the case, my boards may turn out to be a little more colorful than just rustic woods!   Time will tell.

I skipped the gym today, I have a sore left arm and thought it needed a rest.  It hurts to straighten it out fully, as if the muscle is pulled.   A day's rest won't hurt.


Tomorrow, 5/21, is "Goal Day" for FitBit users.  It'll be tough getting to my goal of 10k steps on a non-working day, but I'm going to give it my best shot.  I wonder how Sadie will like it??  hahaha

My FitBit buzzed me, I reached my 10k steps again today!  and I checked my sleep numbers for last night.  7 hours, 55 minutes of sleep, but awake 6 times, and restless 17 times.   Not sure how that works out, but I know that I feel like I'm not getting enough sleep, which is why I started this in the first place.   I wonder if the weekend will change the numbers at all.  We shall see.