Gersimi

Day 6, week 1 - Saturday 9 January Önd (Breath/Spirit) Morning walk first thing, 5 minutes or more. Check!Ten minutes walk, to and from the village store. Snow everywhere, and more coming! Outdoors time during daylight (walking, shoveling snow, playing with the kids), 30 minutes or more. Fail.Lots and lots of more snow coming and youngest kid didn't want to go outside all day, so I stayed inside with him. Óð (Inspiration/Ecstasy/Soul) Evening meditation, 3 minutes or more. Check!3 minutes standing in front of one of our altars, tree meditation. Lá ok litu góða (Voice/Behaviour and Good Looks/Godlike Form) 13 cups of water a day Not sure. I need to invent a good way of keeping score. 5 servings of fruit/veggies a day Check!We hade dinner guests. Meal plan kind of out of order during the day. (See below for what I had today.) Recruit Workout (NFA), including warm-up and cool-down, 2 times a week. Rest day - Check!Kind of sore, but not terribly. Today's meals: (* = organically grown/raised ingredient). Breakfast: Scrambled eggs*, a few slices of ham, salad with beetroot, cucumber*, ruccola, olive oil* and lemon juice, coffe with fat milk*, water. Lunch: Coffee with fat milk, a thick slice of ham, a small citrus. Snack: Hot cocoa made with milk*, cocoa powder* and sugar*, a splash of Tullamore Dew in it (aperitif for guests just arriving from bobsleighing the whola afternoon), two small portions of popcorn. Dinner: Salad mad with tomato*, ruccola, cucumber*, carrot slices*, olive oil*, lemon juice*. Stew mad with lean pork, carrots*, broccoli, tomatoes*, garlic* adn spices. Served rice, but didn't have äny. Two and a half glasses of red wine, water inbetween. Dessert: Fruit salad with banana*, apple, small citrus and lemon juice, whipped cream and a fes squeezes of store bought chocolate sauce. One glass of pink bubbly with dessert. Water. Evening snack: One slice of homemade bread, butter and a slice of ham, fat milk*. Proud of logging my meals even though it's nearly midnight and I'm tired from drinking wine and talking to guests 3-33 years old all evening. Also pround of drinking so much water, not getting very drunk and not having any bread in the morning or rice with dinner. Go me! Night! Gersimi

Day 5, week 1 - Friday 8 January Önd (Breath/Spirit) Morning walk first thing, 5 minutes or more. Check!Went out five minutes after waking up, at 6.45 am, earliest walk yet, 8 minutes. Surrounded by virgin snow, soft snowflakes and darkness - what a morning! Outdoors time during daylight (walking, shoveling snow, playing with the kids), 30 minutes or more. Check!Picked up the kids from daycare and went shopping in the village, had to use a bob sleigh. We had a great time together. Óð (Inspiration/Ecstasy/Soul) Evening meditation, 3 minutes or more. Check!3 minutes standing in front of one of our altars, tree meditation. Lá ok litu góða (Voice/Behaviour and Good Looks/Godlike Form) 13 cups of water a day Check!Lots of water during the day, fizzy water in the evening. 5 servings of fruit/veggies a day Check!We had homemade Indian food. Nom nom! (See below for what I had today.) Recruit Workout (NFA), including warm-up and cool-down, 2 times a week. Second workout day this week - Check!See my last entry above for details. Today's meals: (* = organically grown/raised ingredient). Breakfast: Fat yoghurt*, left-overs from yesterday (cucumber*, green salad*, ruccola, avocado, garlic*, sour cream, taco sauce), black tea, water. Lunch: Half a homemade bagel (as I said, my husband is an excellent baker) with cream cheese, two slices of ham, ruccola, beetroot and cucumber* with olive oil*, lemon juice and spices, coffee* with fat milk*, small citrus*, water. Snack: Banana* and later leftover vegan mince "meat"*, tomato*, ruccola and a small piece of homemade tortilla bread. Dinner: One small homemade naan bread (hubby again), homemade lamb rogan josh (meat bought from a neighbour) with tomatoes*, onions*, garlic*, red wine*, olive oil*, butter and spices, homemade yoghurt* sauce with coconut flakes*, half a teaspoon of sugar*, salt and cayenne, homemade plum* (from our own garden) chutney, half a glass of red wine*, water. Evening snack: Herbal tea and a small citrus. Extremely proud about the workout session going so well, though I kind of dreaded it befor I started. had a wonderful dinner with the family, would like to have eaten less carbs, but refuse to beta myself up. I had HALF a bagel instead of one, I had NO rice and ONE piece of naan, I had HALF a glass of wine. Talk about cutting carbs! Night! Gersimi

Recruit Workout Friday 8 January Warm-up - Check! 3 circuits of: 10 inclined push-ups (used a lower piece of furniture than last time) Progress! 15 body weight squats (went deeper than last time, definitely 90 degrees, and my right knee didn't hurt) Progress! 15 dumbell rows per arm (+5 reps since last time, and with a heavier book) Progress! 12 semi-assisted body weight lunges (had to put a hand out to hold something from time to time to keep my balance, but also did 2 more than last time, and with better form) Progress! 0.20 minutes knee-plank (+5 secs since last time) Progress! Cool-down - Check! (At one point I could actually touch my toes!) Awesome sauce!!

Day 4, week 1 - Thursday 7 January Önd (Breath/Spirit) Morning walk first thing, 5 minutes or more. Check!Heavy snowfall. Felt great. Outdoors time during daylight (walking, shoveling snow, playing with the kids), 30 minutes or more. Check!Had to make use of the last minutes of daylight, but made it. Óð (Inspiration/Ecstasy/Soul) Evening meditation, 3 minutes or more. Check!3 minutes standing in front of one of our altars, tree meditation. Lá ok litu góða (Voice/Behaviour and Good Looks/Godlike Form) 13 cups of water a day Check!Had fizzy water instead of the usual Thursdag dinner beer. Feels great. 5 servings of fruit/veggies a day Check!Pretty good.. (See below for what I had today.) Recruit Workout (NFA), including warm-up and cool-down, 2 times a week. Rest day - Check!Was planning to do the second workout this week today, but I'm still too sore. Will do it tomorrow and still be on schedule. Today's meals: (* = organically grown/raised ingredient). Breakfast: Fat yoghurt*, coconut flakes*, one piece of crispbread, butter, cheese and a slice of ham, black tea. Lunch: Omelet made with cream and one egg*, butter fried ruccola, black beans and beetroot, cheese and herbal spice on top, coffee* with fat milk*, water. Snack: Two small bowls of popcorn and two fingers Tullamore Dew on the rocks. Awesome! Thursdays are the days the family celebrate the god Thor and the goddess Freyja, we make extra good food and eat it together in a ceremonial fashion,.This also means goodies for the kids and often alcoholic drinks for the grown-ups. Dinner: One homemade tortilla with wheat flour* (my husband is an excellent baker), garlic* dressing made with fat sour cream*, homemade guacamole (just avocado, garlic* and spices), readymade taco sauce, some grated fat cheese, tomatoes*, cucumber*, ruccola, green salad*, vegan mince "meat"*, fizzy water. Skipped beer, except in the ceremonial horn (just a few sips). and had one piece of bread instead of my usual two or three (but lots of veggies and other stuff). Evening snack: Herbal tea and a small citrus. Feels great to be able to have one drink, one piece of bread, just a small portion of popcorn, et cetera. Religious celebrations are extremely important to me, as well as to our family, and I want to be able to celebrate in an traditional way, without falling off the wagon. So far, so good! Nighty night! Gersimi

Hey there and welcome to the rebellion! Nice to see a fellow Heathen around. Yeah, and SKÃ…L!

Day 3, week 1 - Wednesday 6 January Önd (Breath/Spirit) Morning walk first thing, 5 minutes or more. Check!-16 degrees Celcius! Used 20 seconds of Berzerk Mode and stepped outside the door and was greeted by the sun in the south east. Totally worth it! Outdoors time during daylight (walking, shoveling snow, playing with the kids), 30 minutes or more. Fail.I saw the rest of the family off to town and parents-in-law. Post-Yule cleaned the kitchen and then took a rest day, watching Heroes. Óð (Inspiration/Ecstasy/Soul) Evening meditation, 3 minutes or more. Check!3 minutes of breathing exercise. One whole breath per 33 seconds. (Old PB: One per 45 seconds.) Lá ok litu góða (Voice/Behaviour and Good Looks/Godlike Form) 13 cups of water a day Check?Again, I lost count. Had big glasses of water with all my meals though, and some in between, so I'm probably doing ok at least. 5 servings of fruit/veggies a day Check!Awesome. (See below for what I had today.) Recruit Workout (NFA), including warm-up and cool-down, 2 times a week. Rest day - Check!Still sore, but am able to both sit down and rise up again from the couch without moaning. Today's meals: (* = organically grown/raised ingredient). Breakfast: Scrambled eggs*, bean salad left-overs from yesterday's dinner, fat yoghurt*, one slice of cheese, one slice of lean ham, water, black tea. Lunch: Salad made with avocado, beetroot, ruccola and diced left-over Yule cheese, small citrus, water, espresso* with fat milk*. Snack: Smoothie made with coconut milk*, peanut butter*, flaxseed*, cocoa powder* and honey (one teaspoon actually made it a bit too sweet to my recent taste! ) Dinner: Went to a friends house and had to make do with what was served. Had bean salad, some game meat, hoummus, cole slaw and some home made sausage rolls. No cookies, no bread! Herbal tea. Evening snack: Chamomille tea, one piece of crisp bread made with rye (Swedish girl not ready to give up that just yet!), butter, cheese and one slice of ham. A good day, and surprisingly easy not to eat cookies and bread when it's expected of me. But, I'll talk to you guys about that again once I've went to see my mother-in-law for coffee... Night! Gersimi

Today I went out for my first-thing-in-the-morning walk. In -16 degrees (Celsius). It was worth it.

Thanks! I never had any doubt about in which guild I would fit in best, actually. Great to be here! The tree meditation you describe is pretty standard, and yes, in my opinion it is very powerful. I have built on that and visualize my awareness/power starting at heart level, as a well or a flame or sometimes a small plant, and slowly seeking ets way thorugh my feet as roots and down in the Earth, then up again through my head up to the sky as branches. In the evening I let the roots sink far down into the world sea and the branches be lit by moon and stars, in the morning I go all the way to the hot core of the earth and up above the clouds to get touched by the sun. I find it very calming, and yet energizing at the same time.

Day 2, week 1 - Tuesday 5 January Önd (Breath/Spirit) Morning walk first thing, 5 minutes or more. Check! Even colder today, -9 degrees, still very slippery, and with a slight hangover from the wine last night. Even so, I got out, first thing. Impressed by myself! Outdoors time during daylight (walking, shoveling snow, playing with the kids), 30 minutes or more. Check! A lone walk halfway around the village, took me under 20 minutes (it's a small village), plus a few minutes of sweeping snow and pouring gravel on the path up to our house to prevent slipping. Then the sun went down. Óð (Inspiration/Ecstasy/Soul) Evening meditation, 3 minutes or more. Check! Did 5 minutes of sitting meditation, a Kundalini Yoga breathing exercise where the aim is to breath as slowly and quietly as possible, at a regular pace. At the end I was down to 2 breaths (2 x In and out) per minute. Felt very calm, and realised how my breath feeds my inner world tree and helps it grow. Lá ok litu góða (Voice/Behaviour and Good Looks/Godlike Form) 13 cups of water a day Check? I lost count in the middle of the day, so I'm not sure how I did, exactly. I have noticed a new sense of thirst, though, and I managed to react to it by drinking water in stead of eating something sweet. 5 servings of fruit/veggies a day Check! I did good. (See below for what I had today.) Recruit Workout (NFA), including warm-up and cool-down, 2 times a week. Rest day - Check! I am pretty sore, especially my legs! Sitting down is the hardest part. I've started a food diary somewhere else, but I feel it's going to be too much work keeping more than one record. So, here goes (* = organically grown ingredient). Breakfast: Fat yoghurt*, one slice of homemade potato bread* with peanut butter*, water, black tea (I've recently given up milk in my tea - baby steps!) Lunch: Four traditional Swedish small fried sausages, fried onions*, half a fried egg*, one slice of fried potato bread*, pickled beetroot*, small glass of fat milk*. Snack: Espresso* with fat milk*, two small pieces of dark chocolate*. Dinner: Salad made with ruccola, black beans* and beetroot, vinaigrette with olive oil*, apple cider vinegar, salt, black pepper and some herbal spice. Thai wok made with red curry paste, broccoli, white cabbage, carrot* and coconut milk*, water to drink. (No rice and no animal products, pretty pleased with myself! ) I will have an eventing snack before a go to bed, probably one slice of bread with butter and fat cheese, some fruit and at least one big cup of herbal tea. I am happy with the amount of veggies and fruit and organic food, and with my ability to cut down on carbs (which is kind of a new move for me). Thanks for reading! Gersimi

Day 1, week 1 - Monday 4 January Önd (Breath/Spirit) Morning walk first thing, 5 minutes or more. Check!-7 degrees, slippery as hell, but I did it! First thing! Felt nice once I was on the move. Outdoors time during daylight (walking, shoveling snow, playing with the kids), 30 minutes or more. Check!​Took a walk to the village store with my eldest, we also took care of some recycling and stayed at the store café for coffee/coke and a traditional pastry, semla, consisting of white bread, whipped cream and almond paste. I ate all of the (unsweetened) cream, some of the (very sugary) paste and none of the bread. Trying to cut carbs, a little at a time. Óð (Inspiration/Ecstasy/Soul) Evening meditation, 3 minutes or more. Check!Did 3 minutes standing up, visualising myself as the world tree. Felt nice, though my focus was hardly perfect - I went to a birthday party last night and was actually a bit tipsy when I came home. Lá ok litu góða (Voice/Behaviour and Good Looks/Godlike Form) 13 cups of water a day Check!Also drank most of the wine mixed with soda water. An excellent tactic, if you ask me! 5 servings of fruit/veggies a day Check!We usually cook with lots of veggies, so this will be an easy part of this challenge. I had yellow bell pepper, carrot, parsnip, onion, tomato, corn, banana, pineapple and strawberries. Recruit Workout (NFA), including warm-up and cool-down, 2 times a week. Day 1 - Check!Completed my forst Recruit Workout, ever. I'm proud of myself! All in all, a successful day.

Hello everyone. I am back for my second challenge after almost a year's absence from NF. So, someone fill up my horn with mead and I'll tell you my plans. What will be your biggest goal? Nursing myself back to health. A sweet balance between good rest and hard work. Nurses are pretty badass in my experience. What do you want to achieve? Besides health, a sufficient amount of self-discipline to take me where I want to go as a priestess of the Norse faith (I am a gydja of Forn Sed Sweden, aiming to deepen my personal spiritual work as well as building up an initiatory practice in my community.) For this year? To be a morning walker, a strong woman with a straight back and an excellent vegan/vegetarian cook. For the first half? Developing habits for walking, strength training and meditation. The second one? We'll see. For the first challenge? Daily habits: Five minutes morning walk Half an hour outside in daylight Three minutes evening meditation Five servings of freggies 13 cups of water Weekly habit: Two complete NFA Recruit Workouts, incl warm-up and cool-down Good luck everyone! Gersimi

Your elemental structure inspired me, actually.

Hello, I'm Gersimi. My name means "precious" and is the name of one of the goddess Freyja's two daughters. I am a gydja (priestess) of the Old Norse faith in Sweden. I am happily married to a fellow Heathen and a mother of two. This is my second challenge. As I didn't follow through with my first challenge (mainly because my youngest child fell seriously ill and we spent several months in the hospital in the beginning of 2015) I am starting again at level 1. My first challenge was called "Gersimi becomes precious to herself", and I dare say I achieved at least part of that during the last year. I have been on extended sick leave because of adrenal fatigue/burn-out for more than one and a half years now, and I am finally getting it - I need to take care of myself. Without my health, nothing else will work out the way I want. So. Norse myth (in this case Völuspà ) tells the story of how Odin and his brothers/aspects Höner and Lodur creates wo/man from trees lying on the sea shore by giving them three gifts: Önd gaf Óðinn, óð gaf Hœnir, lá gaf Lóðurr ok litu góða Roughly translated this means that Odin gave breath/spirit, Höner gave inspiration/ecstasy/soul and Lodur gave voice/behaviour and good looks/godlike form. My goal for this challenge is to start to recieve and make use of those gifts, because they are my birth right in a way. They are what I was meant to have. Breath/Spirit Morning walk first thing, 5 minutes or more.Outdoors time during daylight (walking, shoveling snow, playing with the kids), 30 minutes or more. Inspiration/Ecstasy/Soul Evening meditation, 3 minutes or more. Voice/Behaviour and Good Looks/Godlike Form 13 cups of water a day5 servings of fruit/veggies a dayRecruit Workout (NFA), including warm-up and cool-down, 2 times a week. Will update on how to grade my achievements once the new system is up tomorrow. Gersimi

Older paths are good. Following, encouraging, expecting results.

Day 7 of week 3 (yesterday) Main quest: Had lunch and one glass of wine with husband, just the two of us, big kid in town with baby-sitter for a few hours. Quest 1: Took a nap, alone in our room. The stillness! Quest 2: Several walks to and from the hospital. Quest 3: Apple with breakfast, white cabbage, onion, carrot, dried tomatoes with lunch, and perobably something ense. Day 1 of week 4 (today) Main Quest: Had a massage from a visiting friends and took a nap afterwards. Quest 1: Naptime, glorious! Quest 2: Walk to the hospital in the sun (!) and an extra walk to the store in the late evening. Quest 3: Banana with breakfast, broccoli, leek, carrot and white cabbage with lunch, leek with dinner. Quite alright if you ask me.

Day 6 of week 3 (yesterday) Main Quest: Formulated my new quest and adapted this challenge accordingly. Empowering. Quest 1: Had a moment of silence, darkness and rest in bed before I fell asleep. Also before the other two started snoring. I used earplugs to be safe, though. Quest 2: Took a late evening walk by myself and visited baby in Intensive Care. No daylight. Had to stay indoors all day with ill (of a more average degree) big kid. Quest 3: Almost nailed it at breakfast already. Apple and banana, tomatoes and cucumber. Iceberg salad and apple with lunch, orange with afternoon snack, cucumber and an orange with evening snack. Today is sunny and a beautiful winter landscape outside (though I miss my home village, it is not the same this close to the city!). Will try to find time and energy to go outside for a bit.

So. I am a happily married mother of two, 6 and almost 3 years old. Our youngest (I'll be calling hir baby from now on) recently fell seriously ill and is now in Intensive Care with the rest of the family staying at the Ronald McDonald House. We have been informed that the process of (re)investigating baby's condition(s) is going to take at least a month from now, probably double, possibly triple that time. This of course means I will have to adapt my on-going challenge. Since the main goal of this challenge was to boost my rehabilitation from burn-out, I still need to make those changes just as badly, if not even more badly, now that there is a crisis to deal with. My original challenge looked like this: Main Quest: To be mentally and physically fit enough to work 75% by December 22th 2015. Quest 1: Meditating for at least 7 minutes every day. I manage to meditate for a few minutes once in a while, but I want to make it a daily thing. Measurement: A = 7 minutes for 35 days, B = 28 days, C = 21 days. Reward: A = +3 WIS, +2 STA, B = +2 WIS, +1 STA, C = +1 WIS Quest 2: Do a full yoga routine 3 times a week. Same thing as with meditation. I do some Kundalini Yoga now and then, but want to build a habit. Measurement: A = 15 days, B = 12 days, C = 9 days. Reward: A = +3 STR, +2 DEX, B = +2 STR, +1 DEX, C = +1 STR Quest 3: Eat 5 freggies a day. I usually have at least one or two, but want to build the habit of having it with every meal. Measurement: A = 35 days, B = 28 days, C = 21 days. Reward: A = +3 CON, +2 CHA, B = +2 CON, +1 CHA, C = +1 CON No Life Quest. I want to be able to concentrate on my health. Motivation: I want to be able to take care of myself, my kids, my marriage and my patients. In that order. I am thinking of formulating my adapted challenge something like this: Sitting down alone and undisturbed for 7 minutes in a row, let alone doing strange singing and breathing while stretching myself to death on the floor for half an hour, is hard to arrange given that most of the time I am either by baby's hospital bed or in a room with the rest of the family. And of course, work will have to wait. Family is what's important for the time being. New Main quest: To keep myself as mentally sane and physically healthy as possible for as long as it takes for baby to get well. Quest 1: A few minutes in silence, alone if possible, no screens allowed, If no other opportunity arises, two minutes in the bathroom with the lights out, my hands covering my ears will do. To be done every day, more often if needed. Quest 2: A short walk outside, in daylight if possible, with or without company. Just a few minutes will do, if that is all that day's schedule has room for. Quest 3: Same as before - five freggies a day. This has been quite easy so far, but also a very effective way of boosting my well-being and my cooking, as well as the general eating habits of our family, so I will keep this goal from my old setup. Rewards: Since there is no way for me to assess exactly how hard and in what ways these quest are going to be challenging (it all boils down to the state of my baby and the rest of the family), I will have to wait at least until the end of this challenge to make a decision about how many and what types of ponts to award myself. Motivation: Simply put: I am the queen of this family. I am one out of two in charge and the only one who can do what I do - there are no substitutes. I am obligated to set a good example as well as to partner up with my king to make wise short-term and long-term decisions. As I have no personal guard, I myself have to see to my safety and well-being, keeping my head cool enough and my heart warm enough. And since my lands are in a crisis, the need for a healthy queen has never been greater. So. What do you guys think? I like the idea myself, but I need support, badly.

Gersimi respawning So. Hell broke lose. Baby is in Intensive Care, again. In a medical ventilator, again. With one pig-tail drain in each plural cavity, draining baby of an amount of lymphatic fluid the equivalent of hir blood volume every 48 hours, as well as about a million other pipes and tubes stuck into hir body. We have been informed that the doctors have numerous ways of helping hir, but that the process of reinvestigating and treating baby's conditions(s) is going to take at least a month, probably two, maybe three or more. We have now moved into Ronald McDonald House more long-term and are starting to settle down. We are in exile, but together. I have been trying to formulate a new and suitably adapted quest for this challenge, and it goes something like this: Main quest: To keep myself as mentally sane and physically healthy as possible for as long as it takes for baby to get well. Quest 1: A few minutes in silence, alone if possible, no screens allowed, If no other opportunity arises, two minutes in the bathroom with the lights out, my hands covering my ears will do. To be done every day, more often if needed. Quest 2: A short walk outside, in daylight if possible, with or without company. Just a few minutes will do, if that is all that day's schedule has room for. Quest 3: Same as before - five freggies a day. This has been quite easy so far, but also a very effective way of boosting my well-being and my cooking, as well as the general eating habits of our family, so I will keep this goal from my old setup. Rewards: Since there is no way for me to assess exactly how hardand in what ways these quest are going to be (it all boils down to the state of my baby), I will have to wait at least until the end of this challenge to make a decision about how many and what types of ponts to award myself. Motivation: Simply put: I am the queen of this family. I am one out of two in charge and the only one who can do what I do - there are no substitutes. I am obligated to set a good example as well as to partner up with my king to make wise short-term and long-term decisions. As I have no personal guard, I myself have to see to my safety and well-being, keeping my head cool enough and my heart warm enough. Ans since my lands are in crisis, the need for a healthy queen has never been greater. Pic made at www.dolldivine.com/queenly-portrait-maker.php

Thank you. See above.

Thanks everyone for supporting me! I can't seem to get the quoting to work on this computer. Taking your words to heart and battling on. <3

Day 14 Yesterday was my turn to stay at the hospital with baby, who is getting both worse and better, this is a very complex and unusual clinical situation. During days beside the hospital bed I find it hard to sqeeze in any yoga (not very surprising, I guess), and I was too worried to manage any meditation. However I took advantage of the few minutes husband and big kid were away at a friend's house and baby sleeping at the same time, as well as the hour between baby's and my faling asleep - I enjoyed the silence, had a cup of tea and bit of leisure reading (it has been quite a while since I could wind down enough to settle for light reading and at the same time concentrate on anything involving text - win!). Freggies come quite naturally for me these days, so no problem there. Quest 1: No meditation, though really winding down a couple of times. Quest 2: No yoga. Took a couple of short walks. Quest 3: Apples with breakfast and morning snack, fresh corn with lunch, carrots with dinner and a pear with evening snack. (Probably something else, too, I don't really remember).

Thanks! Your concern and encouragement warms my heart. We are still at Ronald's (big kid and me) and in the hospital (baby and husband), we take turns staying with the kids over night as well as spending time with them during the day. I just ended my night and day shift with baby. Hir health is slowly but relatively steadily improving. Our main concern at the moment i getting hir to eat properly and with a new diet which is supposed to improve hir condition. (If you ache to google, baby has, among other things, chylothorax, and the diet is called MCT.) The new diet means virtually NO FAT, only special oil from coconut, and it is going to mean big changes in our kitchen. Tonight and tomorrow is my shift with big kid, who is already asleep in our room. This gives me today's first and only half an hour (relatively) alone, in silence. Tomorrow me and big kid are going to visit some friends in town. Looking forward to dressing up properly and taking the tram somewhere. A hospital is a strange place. So, quests. Quest 1: No 7 minutes meditation today. Spent all day beside baby's bed, except for a run down four stairs, ten deep breaths standing just outside the hospital doors, no shoes on, in the last few rays of the afternoon sun, touching an evergreen bush and thanking it for staying alive, then running up the four stairs to our room again. In this extreme situation I'll count that as meditation. Quest 2: No yoga, though a few good stretches now and then during the day, and a little bit of strength training while in the bathroom (the only place I am able to close a door and be totally by my self at the moment). Quest 3: I getting more and more easy. Today I had cucumber with my morning sandwich, a big chicken salad which iceberg salad, tomatoes and more for lunch, green peas with dinner and a small citrus with my evening snack. I am thinking of awarding myself with some extra XP after this is over (for now), what do you guys think about that? And what kind of points should I award myself? Wisdom? Stamina? Something else? Until tomorrow.

Day 10 Woke up at 3.30 am, husband calling from hospital, crying. Baby very sick, in medical ventilator, sedated, lungs failing. Comforted husband, cried a bit, managed to get a couple of hours of sleep. Got big kid to school in the morning, packed my bags and got on first the bus, then the train. Arranged for big kid to stay with grandparents over night. Visited baby in Intensive Care, saw a counsellor, moved into Ronald McDonald house. Survived. Quest 1: 7 minutes meditation on the bus. Quest 2: No yoga. Quest 3: Two apples, salad, tomatoes, onions, cucumber. Day 11 Stayed at hospital with baby while husband went all the way home and back (400 kms) to bring big kid to hospital with us. Could lift my baby of 11 kgs, sedated, on slightly bended arms (static biceps) for quite a while, nurses changing sheets. Felt extremely empowering - I couldn't do that (tried, same kind of situation) when baby was just 4.5 kgs!) Took a long walk and saw counsellor again while baby was asleep, still in Intensive Care. Had my brother over to Ronald's for dinner. Felt strangely calm. Quest 1: Not a full 7 minutes but still a short meditation. Quest 2: Four full rounds of Sun Salutations/Surya Namaskara. Quest 3: Apple, carrot, broccoli, peas, yellow bell pepper x 2. Day 12 Took big kid down town for shopping and adventures and had pastries and fizzy water/good coffee with a friend. Husband stayed with baby and when baby slept joined us for sushi. Saw counsellor together while big kid watched a movie and had popcorn with a bunch of other hospital kids. In the afternoon baby got out of Intensive Care, though still in hospital. Evening spent whole family around hospital bed, though baby mostly asleep, great to be together. Now alone with baby (big kid and husband at Ronald's), sounds of baby snoring and the occasional beep from hospital eqipment. Calm. Quest 1: 7 minutes, sitting in chair beside baby's bed. Quest 2: No yoga, back hurts from yesterday and strange beds. Lots of walking though. Quest 3: Yellow bell pepper, avocado, cucumber, peas, corn, salad, white cabbage, pine apple, banana. As I told @Munin the other day, before all of this happened: Hell provides an excellent opportunity to test your ability to focus.

Day 9 Difficult situation in the family, little one and husband still stuck at the hospital. Worried, of course. Having a hard time settling down for yoga. Did som strength training and lots of low intensity cardio today. Had i good time with big kid, playing games. Quest 1: Almost didn't make it but eventually got my fanny down on a pillow and closed my eyes for 7 minutes, trying to be still. I keep telling myself that is all that it takes. Quest 2: No yoga. To anxious to start. Got a bit of exercise anyway, as stated above, and the week is still young. Quest 3: No problem. Apple and pear, tomatoes, white cabbage, salad, cucumber, red and yellow bell pepper, and maybe something more. Half my dinner plate was covered in greens. Yay!

I must say, that literally sounds like hell to me. If nothing else, an excellent opportunity to test your ability to focus.