Archives for January 2018

And yesterday was another full day.

It started out a little weird because I didn’t want to get up at all, and sat in bed with my phone for an hour before having breakfast. And then the boy slept and slept and slept until I finally woke him up at noon which is really unusual. Well, we do have a rule that he needs to be downstairs for breakfast at 9.30 but he forgot to set an alarm, and also seems to have needed the sleep.

I waffled about baking for ages but finally decided to make salty rolls after all. So I made the dough, went running, made the rolls and put them in the oven, took a shower, and went to spinning meeting a little late.

I had thought about riding my bike but was afraid it would be too cold, and also maybe a little icy on the way back but in the end biking would have been completely fine.

The bus takes a little longer but not really long, and on my way back I was so fed up with sitting all the time that I got off the bus two stations early so I could walk a little.

Spinning meeting was really nice as usual, and we sat and talked and spun but then I was getting a little restless, thinking about all the things I want to do, and also in need of a bit of downtime so I left early.

At first I had wanted to make good use of the hour or so I had until dinnertime but then I decided to just hang around and do nothing for a change, and now I’m hoping that that was enough of a weekend slump for this week.

We all had dinner together, and then we all did the dishes (my husband thought if I’d leave them until later they wouldn’t get done – since I had been away nobody had washed anything since breakfast), and then it was so late that the boy and I only watched one episode of „How I Met Your Mother“, and then I basically went to bed, turned out the light at nine and slept for 9 1/2 blissful hours. I really need to go to bed earlier during the week.

The boy has decided to get a grip on his life (again, but then that really never stops, doesn’t it?) and cleaned his room yesterday including cleaning the toilet and changing the sheets on his bed (without prompting!). And then he told his grandmother that he wants to change for the better, and that he needs more sleep during the week, and wants to attempt getting ready for bed at eight every night. Which is a good plan, if he does that he will be able to spend some time reading before turning out the lights, and will get his ten hours of sleep.

Well, he shouldn’t have talked about needing ten hours of sleep. She basically went at him saying that we’re the only people who think that people need that much sleep, and that nobody else thinks this. Did you know that teenagers need more sleep than children who are a little younger? Yeah, I found that surprising as well. (And no, that’s not just my opinion, look it up on the internet.) I think that’s the reason why they all sleep all day on the weekends. So if the boy turns out his lights at nine he should be good.

But then we live in a world where everybody thinks that six hours of sleep is plenty, no matter what science and your own experience says. Of course, if you’re all sleep deprived and you sleep in once in a while you feel terrible. Your body basically goes into hibernation mode, and you’re foggy and tired. But. If you get enough sleep every single day your life is so much better. You feel better, your brain works better, you don’t get fat as easily, and you reduce your risk of cancer.

So what’s better: watching another thing on Netflix while being brain-dead, or getting an hour more of sleep?

And the cool thing with sleep is that it is really hard to overdose. If you just go to bed early every day, and then you sleep soundly you’ll just wake up when you’ve slept enough.

Speaking of sleep, tomorrow I’ll have my ENT appointment where we discuss my sleep test. That will be interesting. Or not.

And then yesterday was go, go, go all through the day until I turned the lights out too late at eleven.

I did manage to clean the house in the morning, and we had delicious homemade pizza, and then I sang a bit before teaching all.the.students all afternoon. Did not hav enough energy for strength training yet again, then dinner and some „Enterprise“ with the boy, then I finished getting the podcast ready for today and that was it.

Doesn’t sound like much, doesn’t it?

I was out of energy by four in the afternoon but kept going. Not something I like doing. Bad idea. At least I had written in the morning this time so at least that got done.

And it was too late to bake something for the spinning meeting so I’ll have to do that this morning.

Today there will be: writing, running, showering, baking (probably), and then rushing off to spinning meeting where I will stay all afternoon, then hopefully practice some time afterwards, and a leisurely evening doing nothing.

Funny how crowded the days become when you put a major project (like learning three new songs and preparing a house concert) on top of an already pretty full life.

Seems that’s what it is right now every day. Whirlwind.

I felt wonderful after sleeping well yesterday, and was determined to get stuff done. I even started writing my 500 words right after breakfast but unfortunately my husband showed up after 42 words.

Then things got a bit hectic because it turned out that in addition to running I also needed to go to the health food store yet again. There was a grocery list fail. That thing happens way too often, we need to revamp our system.

After lunch I wanted to record the podcast, and I did, only my first student showed up half an hour early while I was right in the middle of recording. I’m really hoping that he’ll get the time right from now on, this is driving me crazy. But since I attempt to be flexible I just stopped recording for half an hour, taught the student, and then recorded the rest.

After that practice time was gone somehow, and I taught the rest of the students, forced the boy to practice piano (I don’t really have to force him all that much at the moment, I just send him a message saying, „piano playing at 6.30?“ and he comes down and plays), made dinner, did the dishes, practiced the songs for the concert next week, listened to the first half od the podcast and wrote shownotes, and then I wrote my 500 words. They weren’t good words but at least I wrote.

Since my energy had run out some time before the last student I ended the day shivering and cold in bed but this morning I got most of my energy back.

Today will be slightly insane as well, there will be cleaning, and non-stop teaching all afternoon, and more podcast shownotes, and preparing it for publication tomorrow, and practice, and maybe strength training, and some baking for tomorrow’s spinning meeting.

I will probably flop down and do nothing all Sunday if this goes on until then which it probably will.

Apparently yesterday was the day I didn’t get anything done at all.

Okay, I’m exaggerating. I did get some things done.

Since I didn’t sleep well I felt low on energy, and that went all through the day. Went for my run and walked most of the way, helped with lunch-making, took ages to start the dishes, did only practice a little before my first student, did not clean anything, did practice but only because a student canceled and I had more time than expected, and in the evening I felt so tired and blah that not only I did not sew, I also didn’t write for the first time this month.

Of course that means I „failed“ the „write 500 new words of fiction every day“-challenge but I have decided that I don’t really mind. This is not about challenges, this is about fitting writing into my everyday life.

But writing earlier in the day would be a great idea because I’m usually pretty spent after dinner.

I still have no idea how to fit everything into my life that I want to fit. I’m already contemplating canceling spinning meeting on Saturday yet again. Or to not bake something for it.

At least I slept for 8 1/2 hours last night, and slept well. And today there will be running, practice, the recording of the podcast, and probably not much more because recording the podcast is pretty draining. It is 45 to 60 minutes of solo performance after all, even if it’s pretty low-key.

I actually have no idea when I will be able to listen to the recording and to write the shownotes. Since I’ll be away all Saturday I won’t be able to fall back on doing it Saturday afternoon. And my Friday is packed already as well.

Just the thought of having to be all productive every second makes me tired.

So I better don’t think about it. What gets done gets done, and if something falls by the wayside – so be it.

Busy is nothing compared to my days at the moment it seems. I’m making up for two weeks hanging around reading.

I did have an excellent plan for yesterday and that went out the window basically from the start. The boy had the two first periods off so he and my husband had breakfast at the same time which threw me. Of course.

I had planned to go grocery shopping, and check out the new supermarket, and I did but only after helping my husband with some research for about an hour. Which meant I was late with the grocery shopping which meant I could not help with making lunch which meant that everything got really hectic around lunchtime.

Then the boy had problems getting the front cover of his computer case off, so I helped with that, then did the dishes and got ready for teaching, and then only had time to practice singing and ukulele real quick.

Then teaching. In between my husband asked me to look over the concert invitations he had written, and to help him put a photo in. Then the boy had trouble getting his wifi chip to work. More teaching. I actually managed to practice the piano and sing through the last song for the concert before teaching my last student.

Then I made the boy practice piano, we did a very short strength training session, and then I helped him find a different wifi chip for his computer. And made dinner. And then helped the boy some more. My husband was nice enough to do the dishes which was great. But then he had trouble printing invitations because the printer was acting up.

Which meant that I only got to write a quick 500 words before falling into bed.

I feel like I didn’t catch a breath all day.

I had had hopes of getting to the sewing machine in the evening but no dice.

So. Today’s a new day.

There will be running, and teaching, and practice, and writing, and maybe even a little sewing tonight. I did look at the pattern last night, and have finally understood what to do next, and it seems less complicated than I thought, so that’s good. And I started to read through the first novel in the trilogy again because I need to look at it and I need to pull the song lyrics out because I don’t want to violate copyright.

I still haven’t had time to sit down and start my epic to do-list. I am seeing more and more things that need to go on it, though.

So business as usual, I’d say.