This is the toughest goal for me, I hope you are successful at this! Following along  

#accurate   Now that it's officially August I am in a full panic about school starting in 13 days 😵

Not sure why one would repeat this given the outcome after the first night.     I love crossing things off a list!

FIFY

Chanting in this zen lineage is called okyu. There is a small book of different chants that are used in various situations. The words have been translated (or maybe just transmitted) from Sanskrit to Chinese to Japanese. They are written in syllables for pronunciation. The English translations are given in the back of the book - the chants are not just meaningless sounds. Some of them are simple Buddhist prayers. The Heart Sutra is a longer passage that is very well known. One of the chants that the monks do every day is a list of all the teachers in the lineage going back to the Buddha. It has marked when the location moved to China and later to Japan. In another generation it will have names of teachers from North America.   Actual practice of chanting is a form of meditation. The goal is to have the sound come from one's diaphragm and vibrate the whole body. The voice should be strong, not timid. The challenge is to keep up with everyone else while chanting unfamiliar words. I like the feeling of being caught up in a flow of sound when we all chant together. That was pre-covid. Now we are struggling to keep up. Just keeping track of where we are in the chanting is an exercise in focus.   My current craft project is to sew my own meditation cushion. I measured the one I use for meditation at work because I know that size is okay for me. I gave serious thought to buying one before committing to making my own. I am not going to save much money this way. I bought two yards of navy blue linen (it was on sale cheaper than cotton!) and 10 pounds of kapok. Commercial ones are about $60. I have enough materials to make two, possibly three. The deciding factor is that I can make it to the size and firmness I want. No guarantee of that from a commercial one.   I got the fabric a couple weeks ago and cut it out on Tuesday. Tonight I want to do the sewing. Wish me luck. 😅

I dunno, that's a decent mile time for us muggles. Doubtless you have faster times ahead of you but nice work.     This is so real. It's like spending alone time is a skill, and sometimes when I have alone time, I can feel so rusty, like I'm wasting the time.     Fingers crossed!

Thursday August 1 Finishing up work and then packing for vacation. Leaving at 7-ish tomorrow morning so I'm aiming to get sleeping pills and 420 in me by 7 tonight and then play skyrim until I pass out. I'm officially the world's worst sleeper when I'm deviating from my normal midnight - 8am sleep schedule.  A gym bro complimented my squat depth today, which was frankly homophobic (this is a joke). I was wearing baggy below the knee shorts, and that's when a stranger complimented my ass squat depth?? No goddamnit, you save that shit for when I'm wearing a 3" inseam or less!  I didn't build a vacation mode into this challenge, with me planning to keep up with everything from the Airbnb. I'm aiming for a combo of solo retreat and Dionysian fun times, and most of the challenge goals support the former. So, we'll see...  Magic Formula Alevica's Deliverables Challenge Change Log

Update!   Food has been great, exercise has been a teeny bit shaky but this is because I haven't had much sleep, like, at all for the whole week. I had one good night and it was the second night I was tripping balls on bleach fumes. Not worth trying to repeat it for medicinal purposes because the first night I was tripping balls on bleach I had a terrible sleep so it's a gamble to say the least. A long as I am getting appropriate rest I getting my morning workout in, but when I am not I am choosing the extra sleep.    I have been playing Hogwarts after work and also doing more sorting out. The office is completely done now and I have made some dedicated space for the cat to come and chill with me if she wants to. I will go back to the main post and cross that off the list because I am happy with where I am at with that.    Think that's it. Hope you're all doing well!     

From the nation that gave the world Henri Lansbury and Hugo Lloris, they're going the right way about it.      They definitely have their place!      Same, honestly. 

Happy to have you here! ❤️     Maybe not as much as I'd like, but making some progress. 😁     Thank you! 😁It's been wonderful so far.   I am already at reduced hours (32 hours), though technically I'm still considered full time. And they'd take me back up to 40 the second I gave the ok. The only reason I have it is because it was grandfathered in pre-merger. I'm sceptical that new upper management would be as... flexible.   I hope that part time can be available for you and works for your situation! ❤️     A most valid and compelling reason, to be sure!  Happy to have you here 😁     Hi y'all!!   I got a run in today! And it's a new post-baby PR: 11:15 mile!!  This mostly due to the  difference in temperature/weather. It's easy to run fast* in a breezy 70 degrees as opposed to the stick 90-100 degree heat in Texas. I think any PRs from this vacation will stand for a while.  *Fast for me.   My mom and husband took the kids and I got an alone day for my birthday. 😁 It was amazing, even though I spent a good chunk of it worrying I was wasting precious alone time and trying to figure out how best to spend it... Maybe mindless browsing in the city wasn't the right answer but I did pick up a couple new shirts (that I actually got to try on because I didn't have 3 kids with me) so that's something.  I need to normalize alone time as...     I did polish a resume and sent it off, but I'm not overly attached to whether it goes anywhere. It has got me thinking about my career in general though. I haven't thought in terms of 'career' instead of 'work' in years... Will update when whatever is percolating in my brain can be expressed in words! 😂