Viola Week - Day 1

So, today is the beginning of viola week. Today, I pulled out my viola and tried to get in tune. It's really sad, but I never knew how to tune my instrument by myself. I think part of it's because I am not naturally able to do things "by ear" and that was how everyone tuned their instruments in my high school orchestra. I never had a tuner and I don't remember a piano that we could use. So I always thought I was just unable to tune my own instrument. It's been 9 years since I was in orchestra and I've only pulled my viola out a very few times in those 9 years. Whenever I did, I couldn't seem to figure out how to tune my instrument. Today, I was much more determined to actually do it. I, mostly, succeeded. My "A" string is having some trouble; at first I thought it was the actual string, but I realized that the peg is just slipping. I found a tip online to help loose pegs, but I didn't have time to try it before Charlie woke up. It felt great tuning those other strings, though. I feel like I'm finally making steps toward something I should have learned more than 10 years ago. My poor viola has been through a lot in the past 9 years, including 5 moves in 3 different states. All of that seems to have been a little hard on the viola; one of the seams looks like it's starting to separate and the varnish is cracked a little bit, but I don't think it's a huge deal because it seemed to work just fine today. Tomorrow I will do more inspecting and see if I can get that peg to stay in place as well.

Running Week - Day 7

We walked to and from church today, but I wasn't going to do more than that because it's Sunday.

Summary of Running Week:
Running Week totally did not work. A big part of that was due to my legs just not being physically up to it. I don't have the necessary strength in my leg muscles and my bones aren't able to handle that much shock or weight. Another thing that kept me from really trying again was a major attack of hives that swelled my ear to twice its normal size; I was taking Benadryl nearly every 4 hours for 2 days, and then I needed time to heal up. I think I want to have a Running Week 2 later, after I've had time to keep walking and do some other exercising.

Running Week - Day 6

My kids woke up before my alarm even went off, so I wasn't able to run today. We didn't even end up walking anywhere today because it was so hot.

Running Week - Days 3, 4, & 5

On Tuesday, I got this crazy rash that got worse and worse over Wednesday. It slowly started getting better yesterday, but I'm still super itchy. So running has not been on my mind the past few days. I'll probably be walking to the park today, but that's the extent of it until this rash isn't so bad.

Running Week - Day 2

I tried running this morning. Apparently, my bones aren't ready for that kind of thing. I was trying to do the Couch to 5k, so I started with 5 minutes of brisk walking and then tried alternating 60 seconds of running with 90 seconds of walking. As soon as I started running, my left tibia was protesting. It was so bad that I was limp-running. I tried it a couple more times, but it was just too much, so I walked the whole way home. I was out for 20 minutes, though, so I know that was good. I guess I'm just going to have to walk more and build up what my leg can handle.

Running Week - Day 1

I usually decide what the next week is going to be on Sunday night. Last night, I was thinking of doing Gardening Week, but I realized this morning that we can currently fund that project, so I had to change. I decided on Running Week. 

So I didn't do any running today because I'm planning on doing it in the mornings before the kids are up. It's okay, though, because I'm going to do the Couch to 5k, and you only run 3 days of the week. So today, I just found the routine and pinned it to the start screen of my phone as well as two pages with recommended before- and after-run stretches.

I'm a little bit scared to do running because I haven't really done any running since my surgeries and I don't know how my legs are going to take this. I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed and try my best. I'm excited, though, because I used to love running and I've been wanting to pick it back up for years.

Piano Week - Days 5, 6, & 7

I didn't play any piano the past 3 days! I had a migraine on Friday, so I didn't really feel up to playing then. And we've hardly even been home yesterday or today, so I didn't have time to play. It's kind of sad because I enjoy playing.

Summary of Piano Week:
I had fun! I loved pulling out my old books and playing again. It wasn't as difficult to find time to practice as Singing Week because I only really needed Charlie asleep. And I didn't feel as self-conscious about having people hear me practice. I think I will try keeping the keyboard out and still try to practice somewhat regularly.