Archives for December 2018

Woke up at 5.30 after a night of plenty sleep and could hear my mother-in-law walking around upstairs. The way she tries to walk real quiet is rather sweet but completely pointless.

Couldn’t make myself write but got up on time, had breakfast, meditated and read the „Four Tendencies“-book. It is really fascinating and is making me question the whole way I’m setting goals and making plans and am going about my days. Exciting! Then I wrote a few words and then my mother-in-law knocked on the door. She has been having bad headaches during the night that are probably a side effect of the antibiotics she is taking so she decided to go back to the hospital.

I got to carry her suitcase down the stairs and got a big list of things to do and whoosh, off she went in a cab.

That was basically it for the day.

I did manage to do yoga, at least, and then I helped to make lunch. We had duck and since I had forgotten that we like to have red cabbage and dumplings with duck my husband decided to make something Asian. With the rest of the leek from the yard. And since I have been preaching about marinating and salting meat way in advance he actually defrosted the duck yesterday and marinated it in soy sauce today. What can I say, most tender meat he has ever made:

I folded two loads of laundry and put them away and washed and hung another one, I finally vacuumed the old part of the house and then I stalled. Major procrastination happened. I did finish the book about the tendencies, though.

We started watching Star Trek a little later than usual because of ski jumping which my husband likes to watch and that was it for the day. At least I did turn out the lights on time.

Today there will be running and some more grocery shopping because my husband spontaneously decided to have Weißwürste for lunch which means visiting three shops. Three shops that will be pretty crazy, I’m sure. (Bakery for pretzels, butcher for sausages and the health food store for the fake sausages for the boy.)

Our New Year’s Eve plans involve watching something on TV, cheese fondue and copious amounts of snacks and drinks. As usual it will only be the three of us. I’m looking forward to it but not to staying up until midnight. I am definitely not a night owl these days.

Let’s just say for a day where I got less than six hours of sleep the night before I did very well.

Woke up at 5.30, wrote my morning pages and then actually started writing some fiction after publishing the blog post. Phew. I had great plans of continuing after breakfast but got totally distracted over breakfast. I desperately needed to buy yet another non-fiction book, one that promises to tell me how to make myself do the things I want to do.

Seems the December book-buying ban is officially a bust. Though I must say I bought way less books than usual, so maybe the whole thing was okay after all. Not quite sure yet.

I knitted a bit. The boy had to get up early to walk my mother-in-law to the pharmacy. I did the dishes and went for a run. It was clear and freezing and wonderful and there were completely different people out there than usual. And not very many:

Then I came home to a husband who was rather stressed because we didn’t have anything we needed to make lunch. Or so he thought. The lentils were hiding in an unusual spot because there was no space in the place we usually put them. So lunch was a little late but wonderful:

My list was long, I wanted to do some more writing, practice, vacuum, clean washbasins and toilets, cut the fabric for the yoga pants and go grocery shopping.

So first I had to wait for an hour until my mother-in-law had finished her nap because I wanted to ask her what she needed from the grocery store. Then I walked there and back (twenty minutes each) and then I was pretty much done for the day.

I had looked at the book cover design course in the morning and talked to my mother-in-law then as well.

The boy and I watched some Star Trek, we are having some slower episodes at the moment. Since I have finished plying the advent calendar (sorry, still no picture) I have pulled out the second spinning wheel with the project I’m having on it right now. Because one of my goals for this month was to spin every day. And the month isn’t over yet.

Since I binge-ate in a spectacular fashion the night before I was very determined to prevent a repeat performance last night. I declared that I would get myself ready for bed the minute I entered the old part of the house again after watching TV and to do my journaling and more writing in bed instead of the kitchen. Because the kitchen holds all the food and that can be a bit tempting, especially when you’re overtired and discontent.

Anyways, it worked which also meant that I managed to turn the lights out on time for once. Phew.

Today. I will do all the things I had wanted to do yesterday plus a little yoga. And plan out the week ahead.

Another one of those in-between days. Which is normal for what we Germans call the ‚time between the years‘.

I woke up stupid early again after having read until 11.30. I might have been a little tired throughout the day. I wrote my morning pages and worked on the novel for ten minutes before getting up slightly late. Breakfast, five minutes of meditation and another eight minutes of writing before my husband showed up.

I wasn’t the only one who was a little late and so I didn’t manage to finish the cleaning before it was time to start making lunch. I still need to vacuum the old part of the house and I need to clean washbasins and toilets. I did get the potatoes ready in time, though. Pity that I didn’t give them enough salt but everything did taste fine eventually:

By then my mother-in-law had called twice. First to say that she wouldn’t come home that day and then to say that she might come home that day after all.

So there was more waiting.

After lunch when I was sitting around trying to make myself do the dishes the doorbell rang. It was a neighbor. It’s the 90-yo. neighbor who is a friend of my mother-in-law. She wanted to know how she was doing and if we knew anything. Well, I couldn’t tell her much.

Five minutes later the doorbell rang again. This time it was our direct neighbor with an old, broken guitar. If we could use it? He’d throw it in the trash anyway. Huh. We now have a broken guitar sitting in the annex hallway waiting to be looked at.

I spent some time with the book cover design course after that and I might be almost finished. There is still a little more than an hour of material but I’m thinking that that might be stuff that’s covered in a much better way in the other book cover design course I have. The one I want to go through a second time. We’ll see.

Then I finally did the lunch dishes and my husband and the boy were outside. They wanted to finally take care of the vines on out garage. There are wine berries still hanging there that fall to the ground all the time and my husband wanted to cut those back and clean the whole mess up.

And just when they started a car pulled in front of our garage with my mother-in-law and her sister in it. She was coming home after all.

We talked a bit, she told us what she needed, lots of errands for the boy, and we’re happy she’s back home. Her first load of laundry is already washed and hung up (by the boy) and some salmon is defrosting in her fridge for today’s lunch.

While my husband and the boy were working against the setting sun outside the annex bell rang. Two of my husband’s students were standing outside. They had confirmed their lesson by email but my husband hadn’t gotten it in time. Luckily I was in the annex at that point so I could fetch my husband and he could teach them.

Then the boy and I had dinner and watched Star Trek. Both episodes were a little meh. But I finished plying the advent calendar yarn!  Now I only need to make sure I remember which of the three skeins belongs at what point of the yarn, and then I will be able to knit something with it.

Today there will be running and grocery shopping and all the things for once. I hope.

I have reached that part of Christmas break again, the one where it feels like I’m mostly for it to be over. I’m hoping to get out of it again real soon because I still want to have some fun over the next ten days.

I woke up early but was already a little out of it because I had no idea what the day would bring. I really don’t like that. I know, it’s not a big deal and I really strive to become all calm and stoic but I’m still not there yet.

Had breakfast, did not write morning pages and did not write fiction or meditated. It’s all the fault of the new book I started the day before, „The Kiss Quotient“. It’s fabulous, worth it for the first sentence along and it was only 1.99 € on top of that. First sentence:

„I know you hate surprises, Stella. In the interested of communicating our expectations and providing you a reasonable timeline, you should know we’re ready for grandchildren.”

Stella Lane’s gaze jumped from her breakfast up to her mother’s gracefully aging face. A subtle application of makeup drew attention to battle-ready, coffee-colored eyes. That boded ill for Stella. When her mother got something into her mind, she was like a honey-badger with a vendetta – pugnacious and tenacious, but without the snarling and fur.

„I’ll keep that in mind,“ Stella said.

Over my husband’s breakfast we decided to not go out today, there is just so much stuff we wanted to do at home and also we still had no idea if my mother-in-law would be coming back home or not. We actually didn’t hear from her all day, we’ll call her later today, I guess. I also decided to do the podcast next week for a little breathing room.

The boy got up at a reasonable time and offered to accompany for the grocery shopping. We went to the health food store and to the smaller grocery store, ended up without quite a few things we’ll still need to get later but instead with a varied assortment of sweets and potato chips. As one does.

Meanwhile my husband made chili for lunch:

Just before we were eating (and throughout, much to our chagrin) one of the boy’s friends asked him if he wanted to go bouldering with him and his father. So the boy got ready, we printed the permission form and filled it out and then he was whisked away to Munich.

So I was sitting and waiting for news of my mother-in-law and I realized that I had no idea when the boy would be back.

I finally managed to tape the yoga pants pattern together and cut it out and I also managed to find my self-drafted leggings pattern, put one on top of the other and started thinking about how to meld them into something that might fit me.

Then I did another module of the book cover design course and had trouble with GIMP yet again. Slightly steep-is learning curve but I’ll get there. I might even finish the course until next week as I hoped.

Then we watched some Star Trek and I plied the never-ending advent calendar. I started watching yet another webinar, this one about sketch notes but it was not for me and I really wanted to do some writing instead. I also want to learn how to draw but I guess I’m just making excuses. It’s the same with everything: draw more and get better. Then I got ready for bed read and read and read and that was that.

Today there will be all the cleaning. And strength training. And the cutting out of the fabric for the yoga pants. And all the things.

No slump at all. Of course.

That’s what we call it in Germany. Today the shops will be open again but yesterday all was pretty quiet.

I did sleep until six, wrote my morning pages, read a bit and got up. Had breakfast, thought about my Owligan-dilemma and decided to rip the whole thing back and start over.

Ripping it back took two hours while my husband was building a fire, making coffee and tea on said fire, having breakfast and got ready for his run:

Before:

After:

I did a few calculations based on the swatches I had done with a single strand of the yarn. I think I will be alright with making the third size with a 6 mm needle, mostly. I will have to adjust the length, especially of the yoke because while I almost have stitch gauge my row gauge is way off, 19 rows per 10 centimeters instead of 14.

I re-started the sweater after lunch and I have to say that knitting with just one strand of bulky yarn is much more comfortable than with two.

Since I was late for running I peeled the potatoes and set the table before I left. And then I only did a lazy 5 k. Tsk. It was pretty crowded out there, the weather was gorgeous:

When I came back home there was bresaola for an appetizer:

And then fish, broccoli and potatoes for the main course together with a very good Blanc de Noir:

Then the boy and my husband got into a lengthy discussion of microphones, capacitors and loudspeakers as one does while I was knitting. There might have been more chocolate truffles.

Then I did the dishes with help from both of them, knitted some more, worked on the book cover design course, folded some laundry, did another load and hung that up and decided to move the podcast preparation to the next day.

Then it was time for watching Star Trek and spinning,

Today there will be an epic grocery run or maybe not so epic, I still need to make a list. I also would like to record another podcast episode and move the yoga pants project a little forward. Maybe my mother-in-law will come home today as well.

And I will knit, of course.

I went to bed a little late but woke up around 5.30 as usual. Was tired all day.

I wrote my morning pages, failed to write fiction yet again, had a late breakfast, started reading the next in the mystery series I have been making my way through, and realized that I had forgotten to tell my husband that I was supposed to teach at 11.

He showed up as usual. I told him about my lesson, checked my email, and lo and behold, the student had canceled. (Nobody shows up on Christmas for music lessons.) I wrestled with the Owligan for.a bit. I finally got to start the owls. I’m pretty sure that I don’t have enough yarn, so the whole thing remains exciting.

We made spaghetti arrabbiata for lunch because we all were still feeling full from dinner the night before:

Then I ate too many chocolate truffles and almost fell into a slump again but I resisted. I folded a load of laundry, hung up two (husband had started them) and put the clean laundry away. Then I did the lunch dishes and then I looked for the free yoga pants pattern I knew I had somewhere on my computer (you can get it at craftsy if you’re interested) and I even printed it out.

The plan is to meld this pattern with my self-drafted leggings pattern for yoga pants that actually fit.

My husband and the boy mounted all the smoke alarms throughout the house. It only took a year. The boy was not amused. Then they listened to some Beethoven. Meanwhile I had the pleasure of calling my mother on the phone. She complained about me not calling often enough and a few other things. I need to make a note to call her more often, I guess.

I sang a bit, I played the piano for a short while and then I forced the boy to do strength training. After lunch I had told him that it was strength training day and he flat out refused. So I told him he could get some chocolate truffles but only if he agreed to strength training. He said, „If it’s forty minutes long I’ll leave without the truffles.”

I gave him the truffles and refrained from telling him that it was indeed the forty minute training. Instead I told him we’d do ten sets of three. Which at one minute per set for four different exercises does amount to forty minutes of training but I was hoping he didn’t do the math. He did eventually but then he went through anyways.

The was Star Trek and the plying of the first part of the advent calendar yarn. Beautiful. Well, apart from when I set up the wheel wrong and spent twenty minutes plying in the wrong direction:

This is how much yarn I had already plied. It was looking horrible, stringy and hard and twisty. Winding it around my hand like that took some time too and then I plied it the right way after that and that was my spinning time for the day. So there will be more plying over the next few days. I keep forgetting that while plying is faster than spinning it still takes more than two hours to ply yarn that took almost 24 hours to spin.

Then there was only very little writing but I did manage to turn the lights out on time.

Today there will be running and all the usual. Maybe I’ll put the yoga pants pattern together and cut it out, we’ll see. I also want to prepare the next podcast episode.