Archives for July 2018

No writing at all which is bad. But otherwise it was a god day.

I went running a little earlier than usual:

We do need rain.

7.2 k with lots and lots of walking.

Then I helped to make lasagna:

This time I forgot to take the picture before starting to eat. I was really hungry.

Did the dishes, want to write but there wasn’t enough time because I talked with the boy for too long.

I taught a few students and in between I watched the Tour and spun:

Then I taught another student and went off for my monthly meeting with parents of gifted children.

The good thing was that I talked to my husband before leaving and he said that I should take a jacket even though the weather forecast said it would be hot and dry.

I started biking and it was much cooler than I had feared and then the first drops started to fall and it became really windy and then I ended up riding through a veritable downpour. At least I had my rain jacket. My skirt, sandals and hair were dripping wet but at least my tank top wasn’t soaked. I really should get a rain cover for my bike helmet.

The meeting was really nice and there were far more parents there than usual.

When I biked home everything was dry again. That downpour had been over fast and had only been in that area. There had been no rain at all at home.

When I came back home around 10 there was still light in the kitchen and the boy just had dinner. He had met with my husband at the school summer party and they had heard my husband’s students play with the school band. They had just come home.

Consequentially the boy overslept this morning.

Today I will go grocery shopping and record the podcast. There will also be teaching, of course, and I want to card some more spinning fiber because I spun up everything I had carded the day before.

Two more days before summer break …

I fell asleep around the end of the webinar, woke up when it was over and brushed my teeth.

Interestingly I slept very well that night and only woke up from the alarm.

My last student rescheduled and all in all lessons were moved around. We have to accommodate all the summer festivities that everybody has to attend. The boy’s school’s summer thing will be tomorrow.

Then I decided to go to the health food store before going for my run. Which turned out to be a good idea because my infected foot – that had almost been well already – has been acting up again and walking hurt. So I decided against running 5k in shoes that press on the infected area. This is getting ridiculous.

So I sat and watched the Tour before lunch and spun a little. Then I helped to make lunch:

Tomato rice, fried zucchini and fried zucchini blossoms filled with cream cheese and olives. My husband said that one of the zucchini plants seems to produce nothing but blossoms. (There are male and female zucchini blossoms. The female ones produce zucchini, the male ones don’t.) We had to open a bottle of wine because we needed the for the batter. Of course.

Started teaching, had a break that I used to do the dishes and watch some more cycling. Taught some more.

Retreated to bed to elevate and ice my foot and wrote more words. Writing more is actually de-stressing me.

Went to bed on time.

Today there will be running (I hope) and cooking (my husband has been threatening to make lasagna) and a little teaching. I want to prepare the podcast. And in the evening I’ll ride my bike to Munich for a meeting in a pub.

Woke up really early because my MIL was rummaging around over my head. Since she was leaving on a five-day trip I was okay with that.

Wanted to write first thing in the morning and – didn’t. Again.

But I was rather early and had breakfast ready on time and things went pretty smoothly.

No writing after breakfast either.

Really nice conversation with my husband then, and then a rather awful run. It wasn’t too hot but it was really humid. Also, I was in that state were you feel completely un-energetic and somewhat desperate. I would have given up halfway in but I still had to get back home, unfortunately. So I just walked most of the way:

At least it didn’t rain while I was running.

I am wearing my „You read my t-shirt. That’s enough social interaction for the day.“-tee which felt appropriate the day before. (And that day as well.)

There wasn’t much to help with lunch because we had capellini with some arugula pesto that my husband made the day before:

I cooked the pasta, my husband made the salad. Cucumbers, arugula, and carrots are all from our garden. This food is incredible, you can’t beat eating something that you just pulled out the ground.

The boy came home a little later than expected. He did run 15 laps (a little more than 10k) for the charity thing. Without training at all. Sometimes I envy teenagers.

He was also rather excited about receiving an invitation to an event where some of the young scientist-types from his school are going to visit another school next fall for a week. They will give presentations about their projects there and will visit all kinds of scientists and see exciting projects. Pretty cool. I hope he gets in. He and his friend were asked by their favorite physics teacher.

Talking about that meant that I was little late in preparing for my lessons.

I taught a few students. Wasted some time when I had a break but did manage to finally do the lunch dishes.

After work I went and pickled some cucumbers.

Then I finally sat down and wrote some words on my novel. I am getting so stressed out about this that I am binge-eating like crazy again. This is a little disheartening because I thought I was over my eating disorder. Seems I am not. For most of the day I had to fight the strong urge to go out and buy gummy bears because I had a hard craving for them.

I remained strong, though.

And I decided that the only way out with this novel is through, so I will write a little more than usual and that thing will be behind me soon.

I hope that works.

And then I attended another webinar. No, I’m not addicted. It was about email marketing without being spammy. Which is a very good thing if you can pull it off. Now I just have to send my very first email to my subscribers. (If you’re interested, these emails will eventually be about my fiction writing and you can sign up on the blog in the top right corner.)

So. Today. There will be a short run (not looking forward to it) and I want to go to the health food store. I will specifically not buy any gummy bears. I am allowed to buy some dark chocolate, thought. I will have a long afternoon teaching because my first student will show at 2 and the last one will leave some time around 7.30. But I will have a long break in between.

I was highly motivated to wake up early and start writing.

Then I slept until 6.20 and didn’t write until ten or so.

I did manage to have a rather early breakfast, though, and after that I finally wrote my pattern newsletter. Phew. I like to put these out at the beginning of the month, not the end. Procrastination was weighing me down like a big fat millstone.

Did write a few words in between other things.

A friend of my husband’s came over for an hour which was rather unexpected and then my husband’s aunt visited my MIL (who lives upstairs) so the day didn’t quite feel our own.

We made a very German lunch:

Then I spent several hours lounging in front of TV spinning and reading. In between I did the lunch dishes and washed some yarn.

Then the boy and I watched some Star Trek. We started a new series. I have finally managed to convince him to watch Deep Space 9 in addition to The Next Generation. That series is just so good!

Then it was time to make cucumber pickles:

Only I had again forgotten that you’re supposed to let the cucumbers sit overnight.

And thus my evening was wide open again.

Went to bed on time.

Today I will do all.the.things. There will be running and the pickles and the writing and quite a few students. And some music, I hope.

The boy will run for charity at school (which he’ll hate) and has a dentist’s appointment in the afternoon.

And guess who is attending yet another webinar? About email marketing the good way this time.

Yeah, it’s nuts.

I woke up early after excellent sleep.

Choked down my thyroid medication with awful tasting water. You see, some dumb person dumped a truckload of waste on a field in the water protection area around here which means there might be nasty bacteria in the water coming out of our faucets. So they started putting chlorine in as a precaution. It isn’t much and you barely smell it but drinking tap water has stopped being fun.

This thing will go on for four more weeks. Our water filter that we use for making tea does filter the chlorine out but the water tastes funny when not boiled. Maybe I’ll try boiling the water I drink in the morning first.

I did manage to go for my run. I’m still walking a lot but did walk/run a little more than 11 kilometers:

The big field is starting to look a bit weird. I’m hoping that there won’t be construction on there.

It was raining, hence the hat and ugly coat.

The fences are new.

Also around the small chapel.

Why yes, it was wet and muddy.

I came back home where I realized that I had forgotten my key but my husband was already home and in the kitchen so knocking on the window made him open the door for me.

We cooked, both rather hungry and exhausted:

Rice, chickpea curry, spinach and chicken. It was all very good.

Then I finally took a shower and plonked down in fron of TV for spinning and watching the Tour. As usual there was more watching than spinning but I did make tiny progress. I even finished a cob and started fresh:

The rest of the day I spent procrastinating about doing the dishes and procrastinating about writing. I am a master procrastinator by now. I did buy yet another book about writing a novel in thirty days but unfortunately that didn’t make new words magically appear.

I did manage to write some, though. I told myself I could have a beer if I sat down and wrote so that worked. The boy came home around ten so I did go to bed slightly late.

I’m still aspiring to get back to writing first thing in the morning. I never felt better than that time last year when I got up at five and did just that. Going to bed around eight is rather early, though, and doesn’t really mesh with the rest of the world. Especially when you have a husband and son who are rather active in the evenings. And particularly when you have a husband who tends to practice drums and electric guitar right underneath the bedroom between 8.30 and 9.30 pm.

Something needs to change, though, because not writing is no fun at all.

Woke up early, failed to write, breakfast.

The boy overslept but I did wake him up just in time that he could still have a quick breakfast and go to school on time regardless.

My husband was up early.

I managed to clean most of the house while he was out running, then we made the traditional pizza:

By the way this was what the kitchen looked afterwards:

Half my students canceled so I had enough time to clean all of that up. I even sang a bit and played the piano. Maybe things are looking up.

Then I sat and spun while watching the Tour, taught some students and watched some more.

Had leftover pizza for dinner and watched some shows with the boy. We finished the IT crowd and had trouble finding a good substitute.

I finally wrote a little. An went to bed on time.

Today there will be a long run and more spinning and watching TV. The boy is actually meeting friends in Munich for a change.

I’m really looking forward to a weekend with no obligations aside from canning a few cucumbers.