Artemis Prime

Week Three is upon us! But first, Week Two's wrap up: Thursday: Having a lamp by my bed helped so much. No snoozing, Light cast which gave me time to cast Word of Radiance (Tadpole saved). Went to noon Eucharist for St. Matthew's day, so Ceremony cast. Friday: Once again got up without snoozing, so Light cast again, but I got caught up in something else (can't remember what now, though) and didn't get Morning Prayer done. On my lunch break I went to do my altar guild duties, which are usually very light and I probably wouldn't count for Bless, but we got new candles so I had to swap them out which was more tedious and time consuming than I was expecting, so I'm counting it for Bless. Saturday: I did some work cleaning up my garden for the first time in forever, then put some more siding up, then took my Grandma out for dinner. All good stuff, but nothing that nets me points. Sunday: Had the laziest day I've had in ages. Went to church then napped and read for most of the day. Tried out a new dry rub on some ribs for dinner, and it was delicious. Never did get my second workout in, so the Tadpoles get to attack, hit with a natural 19, and did 5 damage. (Sort of meaningless, since I reset today, but still, they earned an attack.) Got 38 points for the week and am sitting at 116/300. The weather is looking lousy for this week, which isn't all bad as it makes it more likely that I'll get my workouts in. For spells I am prepping Guided Bolt and Ceremony.

We have a few black bears in my area, but I've never felt like I had to be constantly on alert for them. While I was in the Sierra Nevadas on the other hand, was definitely glad to stick close to my brother. I'll enjoy the bears vicariously through your videos.

Just doing a quick scroll-through as I try to sort of catch up on challenges, and I can't help but notice there is a definite dearth of puppy pictures on this thread.

Hi. I've missed a lot, so not sure what's going on in these parts, but I'm sorry you're having a mopey day. I hope the walks were enjoyable, and good on you for getting some movement in.

That is rough. If it were me, I'd probably spend some time thinking about what is taking up all my time and whether I could free up some schedule space anywhere. I am discovering that it's apparently very difficult to balance a schedule. I went from being very busy all the time to spending way too much time not doing anything, and now that I'm making an effort to emerge from my hermitage a bit more, it seems like I'm quickly becoming busy again. That moderate middle ground is proving very elusive. I'd also think about what you need/want. Is a habit of taking 30-minute walks something you personally really want to develop? Or is it a healthy thing that you feel like you should do? If the latter, maybe just let go of those expectations and think about what feels like it would actually be beneficial to you in your current situation. If the former, then I think you're back to re-examining your schedule and possibly resetting your goal to a 5 or 10 minute walk. Especially if you're viewing it from a mental health lens more so than a physical health perspective, even just a very short window of "this is my time that I am taking for me to prioritize my well-being" can be very restorative.

Yay for moderate Septembers and lovely walks!

Oh no! Hope you all rebound quickly.

Congrats on the consistent yoga. I think taking time for healthy thoughts before jumping into a plan of action is wise.

Hey, Sal! Sorry I've been missing out on so much. I know you've got a ton to do, but you are awesome at putting these shows together. Take a breather whenever you need it - you can do this!

Okay, I am starting to feel like I am caught up at work and back into my normal routine. A quick update with some thoughts: Monday - walked on my lunch break so I got 1 Exploration point. It was a beautiful day when I got home, so I made the conscious decision to skip my workout and sit outside instead. Tuesday - Took my truck through the car wash for 1 Mending point, and clipped my old guy's bad hoof for another Mending point. Timing did not work out great, as I went from hoof clipping to deadlifting which was hard on my back, but I knew if I didn't get a workout in yesterday, I probably wouldn't get 2 in this week. As is, I only did my main lifts and skipped my accessory circuit since I had a leadership meeting for my church's fall women's retreat last night. Took the 10 Combat points, but gave myself disadvantage on the attack roll, so of course I rolled a natural 20. But my second roll was an 8, which missed. Wednesday - Only hit the snooze once this morning, so 1 Light point, and that means I had time for Morning Prayer, so 1 Word of Radiance point. Going to my neighbor's after work, so probably won't get any other challenge points today. Word of Radiance is a damage spell. The Slaadi rolled a 6 for a Con Save, which doesn't do it, so they take 1d6 damage. I rolled a 1 (boo!) so continue to hack away at the same Tadpole who is now down to 4hp. Thoughts on Light - one of the reasons I have been struggling to get up is that my dad has offered to help with my morning chores. Now that the horses are in their new barn, he has volunteered to go down later in the day to let my mustang out after he has a chance to eat his breakfast. This is great, both for me because it makes my mornings easier, and for my mustang because it means he can take as long as he wants to eat. But it also means it is no longer imperative that I get out to the barn as early as possible, hence the extra snoozing. First thought - the old 'move the clock across the room' trick. I think this could help, but it means I need a clear path across my room to turn it off. I'm working on this, but it might take a little while. Second thought - I really like my sunrise alarm clock, but I think turning it off and plunging the room back into darkness makes it extra hard for me to get up, particularly now that we're at the time of year when it's still a bit dark when my alarm goes off. But, I also now have a piece of furniture beside my bed, which I've never had before. A relatively easy fix that I should be able to institute tonight is to put a lamp beside my bed. Alarm goes off, I turn on the lamp, then I turn off the alarm, but having the light on keeps me awake. That's the theory anyways, I'll let you know how it goes. Final thought, not on Light - I have every intention of catching up on other people's threads, but I think I am going to have to be okay with jumping in with where people are now and giving up the idea of actually catching up on all the challenge stuff I missed while I was on my trip.

Public Service Announcement: For those you of who do any Kindle reading, Amazon is having Stuff Your Kindle for the next three days. Lots of free books available. Skews heavy to romance and thriller, but if you dig there's other stuff available as well.

Happy Monday! To finish up Week One, I did not get any points on Saturday. No workout in, and I did do barn work, but not enough for Sanctuary. There are days when the building process goes very smoothly and things feel easy. Saturday, dear reader, was not one of those days. But progress was made and I'll keep chipping away at it. Sunday I also did not get a workout in, so the Slaadi got an attack. They missed, with an 8 to hit, and it would have been fairly meaningless anyways since they couldn't have killed me and my points regenerate on Sunday nights, but I rolled for them regardless. I did go do a Turtle Trot 0.5k with my coworkers, which was ridiculous and a lot of fun and netted me 20 Social Encounter points. There was a costume contest involved, and they all went as Pac-Man characters, but I had a turtle costume I really wanted to wear to the turtle trot, and I'm glad I did because I won Best Individual Costume! *cue We Are the Champions* Joking aside, though, it was a lot of fun for a good cause and it's exactly the type of ridiculousness I want to start doing more often. So that takes me to 34 points for the week and a total of 78 points for the challenge. I had hoped to have a few more points than that by now, but it's still not bad for vacation and travel recovery. This week I want to focus more on getting my cantrips in, although I did hit snooze twice this morning (I got up before it went off the second time, which almost counts, but rules-as-written I did say it only counted if I hit snooze once, so no Light cantrip today.) Extra snooze time means I don't get morning prayer in, so I really need to lock Light down to get my morning in order. For spells, I'm prepping Ceremony and Purify Food and Drink. I don't have my whole week organized yet, but I am going to shoot for getting a workout in today.

All righty, welcome to the weekend! I have Bible Study today, but had time this morning to sit down with my fun sunflower journal and get all caught up on challenge stuff. Last I updated you, I had taken a short rest on Wednesday and was sitting at 11/12 hp. Thursday I did the Ministry Safe child abuse training my church requires before I help with children/youth programs. I prepped Ceremony specifically for this, but upon further reflection, decided this is more of a Bless activity. Either way, 10 points. I also had dinner with my sister. She's watching our cousin's dog at the moment, who is a very large, very cool German Shepherd and I had fun running around with her. Friday I was wiped. I had a headache and my neck was very tight all day, which I think was mostly my cross country travel catching up to me. I got home from work, did my chores, ate dinner, and collapsed on the couch. I put Cinderella on the tv (the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical) but slept through more of it than I watched. Up to bed after that, and slept in a little later than usual this morning, but woke up feeling much better. OH! I shared this on discord during my trip, but never posted it here. We got the DFC Grant we applied for! My coworker texted me the news, and usually I hate when work texts during a day off, but that was very good news. That's $125,000 each year for the next 5 years, with a possible 5 year extension after that. The money itself is exciting, and going to be very useful for running drug and alcohol education programs, but also for me personally, it may open up some opportunities to do more grant writing for the county, which has some exciting potential. Anyways, back to challenge stuff. I wanted to get a workout in this morning, but I slept instead. I needed the sleep, but I am going to let the Slaadi get an attack if I don't get one workout in this weekend. I'm off to Bible Study in a minute here, and this afternoon my dad and I are going to work on my barn. Tomorrow afternoon I'm doing a Turtle Trot 0.5k with my coworkers, but if I haven't gotten a workout in by then, I should be able to do one after.

It's definitely a good place to have family to go visit. Although next time I go out, I may find a place to rent instead of staying with them. They're already crowded in their trailer before you start adding guests. I could go off on how they're using all available lots to build vacation homes for people, making it almost impossible for the people who actually live out there to find housing, but I'm still enjoying my vacation vibes and don't want to bring them down. There are some very nice hikes in PA, but those are all California pics. We technically have mountains, but nothing on that scale. Dosage is the perfect way to describe it. It also doesn't help that we are on complete opposite ends of the Introvert/Extrovert spectrum, so the more we go out and do stuff, the more amped he gets and the more depleted I get. He's finally starting to grasp that I need quiet alone time, but in a very fundamental way, it just does not compute for him. Hiking is a really good activity for us, though, because it's active enough to satisfy him but solitary enough to keep my reserves intact.

Looks like I have to go to the library again, then. Darn...