I took last week off from work and made a little bit of progress on my decluttering, but there's much more to go.  I'm hoping to do some on weekends over the next month and may hire professional help during July to increase my progress.  But that depends partly on other expenses.  I had an unexpected car repair bill of nearly $1,400 this past week, and I still have another $1,100 of repairs (rear differential bushings) that are required before my car can pass its safety inspection, which is due in October.  I'll take care of it over the summer before I drive any distance.  

I also noted that my portfolio (retirement and taxable investment accounts) at long last hit the million dollar mark this month.  I updated my sidebar, as this has long been a goal.  I'm hoping to get these accounts up to somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5 million before I retire.

I'm still struggling with fatigue, but I've only been on the new supplements I started for less than 3 weeks, so I'll give those time to kick in before testing and seeing if there are any improvements.  For the next go-round, I'll order one of those direct-to-consumer panels that allow you to test over 100 biomarkers, including many that are not often included in the annual lab panels ordered by your physician.  There are several such services now:  Function Health, Superpower, Empirical Health, Inside Tracker, Vital Labs, etc.  I haven't decided which I'll use.  

Despite the fatigue, I've managed to pick up the exercise routine.  I signed up for a 5k training program at the beginning of the month.  I find that I often miss the mid-week runs, but I have been managing to run 2-3 miles at a time on the weekends.

Also, I bought a rebounder (mini-trampoline), and this is helping increase my step count a lot.  I had owned one in the past but got rid of it after a friend injured herself on one.  My old one had springs and did not have a handlebar.  The new one has bungees and will have a handlebar.  The handlebar was a separate-order item and was not in stock when I ordered the rebounder, but I've been using a 5-foot piece of PVC pipe so I have something to hang on to for balance if needed in the meantime, and the handlebar should arrive this coming week.  There's evidence that rebounding can help not only with cardiovascular fitness and can increase VO2 max but also is helpful for improving balance, mobility, and even strength.  There are also studies with diabetics and pre-diabetics showing improvement in blood glucose and even a study with children with cystic fibrosis showing benefits for peak expiratory flow. And the best part is that there is a very low barrier to using it.  It's in my living room and it's easy to put on a song and just bounce for a couple of minutes while the coffee is brewing or after dinner, in addition to doing longer sessions.  I don't have to go anywhere or change my clothes, so it's an easy win.  I spent a few hours doing research before choosing one to order and ended up spending a bit more than I'd first planned, but the one I ordered has a lifetime warranty on the frame, 4 years on the bungee cords, and the tension is adjustable, which isn't true of many such devices.

Also while I was on break last week, I reached out to one of my second cousins and learned that he has two sisters, who actually live fairly close (1 hour & 20 minutes, though in different directions) to me.  I grew up with my grandfather, but they didn't grow up with theirs, so it was fun to be able to share a classic family photo, stories, and even films--my grandfather was into photography, so we have videos of his family from 1929 to about 1936 or so. The photo is from about 1906. My grandfather is the youngest child in the photo.

My great-grandfather and great-grandmother were born in what the old census data lists as "Poland, Austria" in 1861 and 1867 respectively.  They had 3 children in the old country (standing in the center) before coming to the US in 1890 (him) and 1893 (her and the 3 children).  They then had six more children--the youngest hadn't yet been born as of this photograph.  I dug around in the census data to figure out who was whom--a bit of a challenge since most of the children ended up changing their names to be more americanized--for example, Rivke became Rebecca.