July update

In July, I…

• Wrote a prayer for AJR’s High Holiday supplement
• Went to Paris and Amsterdam with my family (Sweet Girl’s first overseas trip!)
• Returned home to a hurricane that left us without power for 6 days, so spent those in Austin
• Then went directly to Washington DC to visit a dear friend and took the train to New York
• Saw Noah Kahan (twice!) at Madison Square Garden, plus some other NYC fun
• Was given the honor of speaking to my temple at our Yom Kippur Symposium this October
• Finished Summer Trimester courses and final papers and exams

August will be my catchup time. After my Hebrew exam tomorrow morning, I plan to enjoy a long exhale, clear off my office desk, take a nap, and then assess my projects. I’ve got some spiritual introspection to do for the Symposium talk, and I’ll also be writing an essay for The Mussar Institute’s Elul program. This year’s high holidays will be very different, given the situation in Israel. I am tapping into my feelings of hope and strength.

I’m in the middle of a bunch of books, which I will report on next month, but I don’t think I finished one complete book this month. I hope to finish reading How to Tell a Story by the storytellers at The Moth, which will help with the Symposium speech. I’m going to get back to diamond painting too while I listen to the many recordings of webinars and Mussar classes that I’ve had to miss while being away from home for 20 days. We have some doctor appointments before SG begins tenth grade on August 12. We are also doing some driving instruction. And today, we are getting our air conditioner fixed so we can sleep in our bedrooms again. It’s always something.

Maybe there will be time remaining to clean some closets…