Archives for October 2018

Woke up at five. Which was a little too early.

Didn’t write and didn’t work on the podcast but I did read more of the „Atomic Habits“ book. That one is rather excellent.

Made breakfast and enjoyed a toasty kitchen. Yeah for functioning heating.

Since I had so many things to do I started by doing none of them, of course.

I talked with my husband, cleaned the house a little, took a shower and helped making pizza. Unfortunately, I was way too late with helping to cook which derailed lunch considerably and made my husband somewhat cross. The fact that the boy came home half an hour later than usual didn’t help. (He was talking to a friend. The friend’s mother had already started calling around, apparently. We weren’t worried yet because the two of them always come home late on Thursdays and Fridays.)

I did the dishes in a hurry and started panicking because I still hadn’t written a single word and hadn’t done anything on the podcast.

I taught my students. Since the last one canceled I used that time to get the audio podcast in order and write show notes. I had taken project pictures after before lunchtime so I could put them in as well.

Then the boy and I watched an episode of „Deep Space Nine“ and ate leftover pizza. He was in a rather talkative mood then. Which I do enjoy but I still wanted to get more stuff done. So we compromised.

I worked on the novel a bit and started putting the audio and video together. I’m hoping to get that done this morning but it isn’t looking good.

Today will be even more busy than yesterday. I want to write, run 8k and get ready to meet a podcast listener (and podcaster – I am really looking forward to this). And all of that before 11.30. Might get a little tight. I also am having a hard time to decide on a purse and outfit. Do I want to wear my new handmade cardigan or do I want to go for the all handmade, all purple outfit? Do I look like a crazy person in any of them? (I’m guessing yes.) Will I be totally miserable and too warm wearing the cardigan? Or will I shiver all day in the purple dress? Do I take a purse that can carry everything including a knitting project, a spinning project, my jacket, a shawl, cardigan and fingerless mittens plus eventual yarn that I need to buy because I’ll be visiting a yarn shop? Or do I go with the cute handmade purse that is lightweight and can be carried as a backpack but just barely holds the essentials and a sock-in-progress?

I know, this is ridiculous. Also, completely irrelevant.

Know thyself, they say. Bigger purse it is. When I’m feeling insecure I like to have all the things with me, even if that means my shoulder hurts all day from carrying them.

I’ll leave the ebook reader at home and just take my phone. Yep. Much lighter. (Remember the one hour train ride. There will be train chaos in Munich today again. There is construction on the main line that runs all the way through the city. That will be fun.)

I already got my ticket and looked up the connection and how to get to the yarn shop. Of course.

I’ll try and get the podcast out as soon as I can but if things go sideways it might be tomorrow. Sorry.

I did have a very good day after the *energy saving mode’-epiphany the day before.

I woke up really early and while I felt like I had slept well my Fitbit thought differently. I care more about how I feel, though. I did my usual reading and lounging in bed, and when the wifi turned itself on again I downloaded James Clear’s „Atomic Habits“ book. (I’m only 50 pages in but it is really, really good.)

And then I wrote for twenty minutes. Day 26 of 100 done:

Then I got up, made breakfast, talked with the boy a bit (who had a geography test and was planning on studying for it while in school – not something I’d recommend) and when he was gone I wrote some more. Yes!

Then my husband showed up, we talked, mostly about politics because he is still reading the newspaper I bought on Monday, and then we realized that the heating was actually broken.

We had been wondering about that for close to two weeks now. The radiator in the kitchen was cold in the mornings despite it being winter-cold outside. But sometimes one or the other of the radiators would be warm again. The furnace was obviously working because we always had hot water. There was no error message. We couldn’t figure it out. But yesterday my husband realized that the heating in the annex wasn’t working as well.

So he called the heating guy. We talked some more. All this talk about politics and similar stuff made me feel bad and I felt under-appreciated and like I never got to say anything. I felt bad enough to tell my husband and that, um, spiraled into a lengthy discussion.

Morning wasted. But we managed to talk about it in a way that we were good again by lunchtime.

Then I rode my bike to the post office to mail a letter. There are only two mailboxes left in the whole town. The one that used to be near our house has been torn down a few weeks ago. Then I went to get new handcreme for the boy. I was so fuzzy that I only found face cream and bought that.

Then I went on to the grocery store. Where I found that in my fuzziness I had forgotten to take the bike pannier. Which presented a slight problem.

I bought all the groceries. And managed to transport them using my backpack and the basket I have in front of my bike. But it was a close call.

I came back home and helped prepare lunch:

The boy was upstairs with his grandmother. And while it was sunny it was a little too cold to eat on the porch.

Then I took a short break, then I started talking with the boy (I couldn’t resist explaining what I’m doing for makeup when he asked me, even though I was a little late for recording the podcast already.)

I did my singing warmup and set-up for the podcast. Then I recorded the podcast, always eyeing the clock because my first student of the day is frequently early.

When I opened my door after recording the podcast (fifteen minutes before the student was due) the heating guy and my husband were crouching in the hallway, looking at the annex heating.

Heating guy changed a valve for the annex, something we had been talking about for ages, and diagnosed the general problem as a broken sensor that was supposed to measure the water temperature in the boiler. Since it was showing a temperature much lower than what it was supposed to be it kept prioritizing heating the water in the boiler over moving water around in the pipes.

Fortunately, he had a sensor in his van and so our heating should be working again.

Which means that I won’t be as cold. Probably. So maybe not my thyroid.

Today will be another full and busy day.

There will be cleaning and pizza-making and the getting the podcast ready for publishing and writing and maybe music as well. I’d also like to watch Star Trek with the boy tonight. Oh, and there will be students.

Fun!

Woke up real early. Wrote first time in the morning for once.

Breakfast, helping the boy getting ready for school, managed to not write after breakfast because I was busy with other stuff.

Spent the rest of the morning running errands, got another pair of test lenses from the optician, send a return package back with the broken cable and went to the health food store. Then I helped to make lunch:

Lots of veggies…

The boy came back home a little later than usual, so I sat with him while he ate lunch (and while he tried explaining some chemistry). I did the dishes and then it was already time for teaching. Had back to back students until six or so, then the boy came over for his piano practice and we talked about intervals and dissonances and all kinds of stuff for half an hour.

There was still an hour before the webinar left. I had wanted to watch it in my studio but by then I was feeling rather tired and cold so I decided to retire to bed.

I really liked the online workshop this time. Maybe I liked it better because I was actually doing the exercises she led for once. Note to self: sitting on the sidelines is no fun.

I have been feeling all cold all the time again a short while ago. The other day I was sitting outside on the porch in the sun wearing a heavy fleece sweater, jeans and wool socks and my hands were all white and cold. While my husband was sitting next to me barefoot in shorts and a sleeveless tee. He was perfectly fine, by the way, it was actually really warm.

It might be time to look for an endocrinologist and have someone look at my thyroid again.

My mother-in-law keeps telling me that I’m only cold because I’m sitting around all the time. Funny thing is that when I come home from running I am happy and warm for about ten to fifteen minutes and then I start being cold again. I’m getting enough sleep and I’m eating enough (often more than enough) as well.

Meanwhile I’m going to bed earlier and earlier because it’s really cozy and warm there. There are worse things than that.

Today I will go for a run, teach quite a few students, write, prepare the podcast and maybe pull out the sewing machine even.

I woke up from my alarm, did not write first thing (I should stop writing about this because I never do, don’t I?) and promptly forgot to take my thyroid medication.

Lounged in bed with my computer for an hour, then took my medicine and so the whole morning was a little later than I would have liked. Great morning, though, I finished reading Jim Butcher’s „Brief Cases“. It’s really great, highly recommended. Well, if you like the Dresden Files.

I had breakfast, my husband showed up, we did the dishes, I went for a run:

I don’t think I’m getting any better (though today I ran/walked a whooping 8.30 minutes/kilometer) but the running is more fun than it used to. There were a few moments in there where I didn’t even want to stop and walk. Progress!

I took a shower, got a message from the boy that he was safely sitting on his train, and helped making lunch. Yummy, yummy Indian food:

I had started to look up what to do if the boy missed his train. He had one of those cheaper train tickets that require taking a specific train. And if you miss that you have to buy a completely new train ticket. And he didn’t have enough money with him for that. I decided that if it were necessary I could buy a ticket online and send him the order number to load it into his phone.

But he didn’t miss the train.

I was perfectly prepared to not get anything done throughout the day but surprised myself by not only doing the dishes right after lunch but also finally writing for twenty minutes before meeting the boy at the station. Phew. Day 23 of my #100daysofwriting.

He actually told me a bit about the past few days which is pretty unusual. Maybe catching him right when he came back was the key. I bought him a piece of cake and he proceeded to tell me all about methods of encrypting data. Not that I understood a word of it. And about what he did while away. And then we talked about the state elections at length. I even had bought a newspaper which I never do. Now I still need to read it.

Then I finally started my teaching day.

Only three students later I helped the boy choose and print a picture for art class in school, and then he reheated the lunch leftovers and we sat down and watched the new Doctor Who episode. I have to say it is really good, brilliant even, I am enjoying it tremendously. So much fun!

Then I came back into the old part of the house, wanting to get ready for bed, brush my teeth and write a bit more.

Well, I was greeted by a mountain of dirty dishes and there was a nice note on the kitchen table, „Hand up laundry, please.“ Well, it was me who wrote that note and we leave it out whenever one of us has started a load so that we don’t forget.

So dishes it was and hanging up laundry.

And then I started this post and wrote some more words on the novel. Not quite the 4,000 I would need in order to finish it before NaNoWriMo.

I wasn’t too disappointed about that.

Today there will be a trip to the health food store, and to the optician for another set of test lenses. And quite a bit of teaching but not as much as last Tuesday. And then the monthly Orna Ross webinar for creative entrepreneurs.

I’n guessing writing in between, no sewing, and no strength training.

I woke up at five. Not the best time to wake up. Note to self: If you have to eat dinner don’t eat so much that your stomach hurts because that will disrupt your sleep.

I spent a leisurely hour in bed reading before getting up and having breakfast.

And I even managed to meditate and write right afterwards:

This was day 22 of my #100daysofwriting-challenge. I don’t count the days I don’t write (three missed days so far).

Talked to my husband and worked on the crochet blanket. Did the dishes, read some more. A little later we went to vote in the Bavarian elections today. Then we had an early lunch:

Since I had decided to stay at home and write a lot I procrastinated rather thoroughly first. Of course. I set up my bullet journal for the upcoming week and got cranky because I didn’t get as much done as I wanted. As usual.

I managed to write for a bit anyways.

Thought about the boy and the fact that he’ll come back home tomorrow. I have been missing him but I was much more relaxed this time than last year. Now he only has to get to his train on time tomorrow morning and come back home safely.

I won’t be watching the new episode of Doctor Who tonight, I’ll wait for him to come back.

Went to bed on time.

Today there will be running and waiting for the boy and lunch and then maybe I’ll meet him at the train station (not sure yet) and then I’ll teach.