Artemis Prime

I love all of this, Sal! Well, except for your foot being iffy, obviously. Very excited to hear about the interview and the funding apps.

Sticking with AF options when everyone else is drinking is rock star level sobriety, Sal! I love the husky picture with the bubbles. 😂

Rounding the final bend and heading for home, now! But first! Last week was an off week for me. I was very low energy, low interest in doing things, low appetite, which is quite unusual for me. Not sure what was going on there, but I'm happy to report that I'm feeling much more like myself this week. Despite setbacks, I managed an even 100 points last week, including a spontaneous community theater outing with a friend on Sunday, which was excellent, and a reminder that I really need to be more open to last minute get togethers. I joke that plans must be submitted to be at least 48 hours in advance, and while I do in general prefer to have things planned out ahead of time, I need to work on my knee jerk rejection of anything that comes up unexpectedly. I did not do well with Morning Prayer at all last week, and took quite a beating from the Imp. My Fitbit alarm experiment appears to have been a bust, although it was an off week, as I said, so perhaps it's unfair to judge it based on that alone. But I'm going to anyways. Reverting back to using my sunrise alarm, and going to test out going the opposite way and getting up earlier than I have been. Days I've had to be up and moving earlier than usual, I've had no problem rolling out of bed. It could be because I've had stuff going on that meant I had to be up and moving, but it's still worth a test run. Tomorrow I have to be up early anyways to help with election day stuff, so I'll just leave my alarm set for that time for the rest of the week, and we'll see what happens. I'm thinking with an earlier start, I could get Morning Prayer in and even do some lifting before I have to move on to chores and work prep and everything. 199 points away from my goal. I really have to finish off a Dread Warrior or an Imp this week to "win" this challenge. All the more motivation to do better with Morning Prayer and make sure I don't miss any workouts.

Congratulations! Well done on the goals! For the snacking - it is kind of surprising to me the difference it makes whether a snack is planned or not on how it affects the rest of my day, particularly my mindset.

Art club sounds like fun! And I'm super excited about SPARK for you. Sounds right up your alley, and like a nice source of income for you.

🤞🤞🤞 There are not too many hobbies where those two phrases go together. I am still only about halfway through C2, but I saw something similar from C3 (not enough to actually spoil anything, but enough to make me go, "oh, that's interesting") and it makes me wish I was not approximately 4 years behind.

Week Three in the books! Quick recap: Monday - Aid points for the farrier, Sanctuary points for interior stall work. Exploration points for dog retrieval, mending point for chicken coop cleaning, and Turn Undead for going through dresser drawers. Tuesday - Morning Prayer, finished class assignment for Borrowed Knowledge points. Wednesday - Morning Prayer, Guiding Bolt for Spiritual Direction, Ceremony for Parish Discernment Committee. Thursday - Class night - Borrowed Knowledge Friday - Social points for going to the Newsies Saturday - Combat points, Sanctuary points Sunday - Exploration points for running Still whittling down a Dread Warrior. Morning Prayer has been iffy lately. Going to try switching to my Fitbit alarm to wake up to see if that mixes things up enough to get me moving. I only had 9 hit points at the end of the week, but I'm still standing! 148 points brings me to a total of 4,951, so I'm 299 points away from my goal for this challenge. Should easily happen, especially with a Dread Warrior hanging on at 2 hit points. Mama Prime seems back to full form, so the Prime household is mostly back to its normal routine. Had some crazy weather over the weekend, but things are looking better for this week, so hoping to get serious about staining the south wall. Going to grab some caulk on my lunchbreak and today's goal is to get the 3 southern windows caulked and ready for stain. But to break it down for the whole week: Monday - barn work Tuesday - dinner with sister Wednesday - Parish Discernment Committee, lift Thursday - Help neighbor Friday - cardio, barn work Saturday - lift, barn work, Bible study Sunday - teach Sunday school, run, barn work Hoping all that barn work is staining, but if it's wet I'll have to switch to interior walls. For Channel Divinity I want to go through half of my closet and get rid of things I don't wear. Spells prepped: Bless* Cure Wounds* Sanctuary Healing Word Ceremony Spiritual Weapon* Lesser Restoration* Borrowed Knowledge Gentle Repose Locate Object

If I ever do any relationship counseling, may I use this anecdote? Seriously, this is peak relationshipping here. And a good reminder that people don't know what we need if we don't communicate it clearly, even when it feels to us like it should be obvious. Good job on your end to initiate the conversation, and excellent response from Dave. You both get an A+ in Partnership 101 from me today.

Very well said. And I'd agree that this isn't about attacking Dave, but that it can easily become that if this is left to fester. Brene Brown has some great quotes on accountability, including this one: “When we fail to set boundaries and hold people accountable, we feel used and mistreated. This is why we sometimes attack who they are, which is far more hurtful than addressing a behavior or a choice.” Dave's behavior, from this outsider's perspective anyways, needs a little shaping up. And I think it's important to address that openly and sooner rather than later, before resentment breeds and accountability becomes blame.

How's the first half of your week been, Sal?

It's so tricky trying to juggle everything into a schedule. How long is church? Maybe you could shoot for food before the service rather than in between service and gym.

Hey, Sov, finally making time to catch up. Sorry you have to deal with a very long and unexpected guest and that it is interfering with your reintegration time with Dave. I commend you for handling it as graciously as you are. I do think you and Dave ought to have a conversation in the future regarding ground rules for houseguests in general and this one in particular. Being blindsided by this visit is totally unfair to both of you, and obviously any real processing and rule-making will have to wait a while, so this time around really does seem like it's a "grit your teeth and make the best of it" situation. But in the future, having boundaries that you both agree on and are willing to help each other enforce can hopefully help avoid unpleasantness in other visits. To that end, it is all well and good for Dave to be laid back about things, but if I could distill Partnership 101 into a single sentence, I think it would be this: "If it's a problem for your partner, it's a problem for you." That could mean finding fixes for the problem, it could mean helping you brainstorm coping mechanisms to use when guests are present, the important part is that it means acknowledging that there is a problem and that it needs to be addressed. (Sorry, went on a little tangent there, my brother is also a very laid-back person and it annoys me when I see him ignoring things that irritate his wife because they don't bother him.) As others have said, you have been more than gracious to your guest (and to Dave, in recognizing that this is an important person to him). Make sure to be gracious to yourself as well.

Hi - just spent a very enjoyable 15 minutes catching up and soaking in all your flower pics. You are making me rethink my minimalist landscaping approach.

I love lilac bushes, and can confirm they grow well in our area. We accidentally ran one over with an excavator and it's still going strong.

Yay lifting! Boo taxes!