That was a really productive week. I like it. And I almost got enough sleep, even.
Writing:
The writing went okay. Somehow I got my determination back and wrote almost every day. On Friday I even did my words in the evening. I focused mostly on doing two pomodoros per day and that usually results in the word count I’d like to achieve. Since I’m about halfway into the story – or maybe a little more – things are flowing better.
I finally transferred the edits to the Eva Mandel short story into the Scrivener document. Then I converted that to an ebook file and looked at it on my ebook reader. Which showed me that I really need to structure my paragraphs differently. Interesting experience.
I also finished one of my online writing workshops and made progress on another.
Reading:
I’ve been reading quite a bit, even with everything else that was going on. Mostly Christmas stories from the WMG Holiday Spectacular and they keep being extraordinary. I’ve been diving into other holiday stories as well which is rather unusual for me. I’m reading „Christmas in the City“ and am enjoying it a lot. It’s still free, so if you enjoy steamy romance go and have a look. I got it because it has an Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen novella in it with two of my favorite characters ever.
I’ve also been downloading samples like crazy and starting and abandoning Christmas novels. I’m a bit restless in my reading at the moment. One that I really loved was „Christmas for Commitmentphobes“ by Rhoda Baxter. I read another one in that series last year and then went on to read the others as well.
I’ve been hopping from one non-fiction book to the other. I’m reading another book about time management for writers that leaves me unimpressed. Since I already bought it I will go through to the end but I’m skipping most of it at the moment. That doesn’t really mean the book is bad, it’s just that I’ve read so many books about time management that it doesn’t tell me anything new.
Something I found really helpful and useful was Mark Manson’s thing about self-discipline. It is a short ebook that you can get when you subscribe to his newsletter on his site, I think. I can’t find the link anymore. I found it rather illuminating.
Exercise:
No strength training again, that remains hard to schedule but I did run four times. Running feels easier at the moment and while I’m still walking a lot things are going well. Monday with a little snow left:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
All of those runs were 5K. On Saturday I went out for 11K. The wind was strong enough that I was a little afraid to be blown off the bridge. On my way back there were long stretches were the headwind was so strong that even my husband resorted to walking:
Almost in the next town over:
Fortunately all the branches came down before we went out:
Teaching:
I’m starting to get used to teaching later and that much. I taught another potential new student and will meet her brother this week. While I still want to improve the teaching website it almost seems pointless. I was good and got all the lessons prep done in time. Well, apart from finding a new piece for a student I’ll see today but I’ll do that in the break between two students this afternoon.
Teaching is pretty interesting and challenging at the moment. I have all these singing students, every single one completely different. That week I taught musical, romantic choir music, classic rock and jazz. There were a lot of Christmas songs and „Lady Gaga“. Fun. I do get to sing a lot, play the guitar and piano.
Health:
I didn’t get quite enough sleep but napping continues to be a great idea. Seems I will continue doing it. Despite all the running my knees feel good. I think I am developing habits of movement that help prevent injury. There were a few days where I thought I was getting a cold but then I went out running again and things righted themselves.
Other stuff:
My new monitor came on Monday. Installment was fast and easy and I really like it. The desk I’m using is not idea but having the bigger screen is helping. I think this will be excellent for revamping the website and the design stuff I want to learn. So getting that monitor was a good idea after all.
On Tuesday my husband and I went to a local furniture store and bought a new sofa for our living room. Basically, we went there on our bikes, waltzed in, looked at three couches and chose one. It took a few more minutes to decide which red fabric we wanted and to finalize the order. Now we only have to wait for eight more weeks.
Afterwards we went to a new to us Indian restaurant that was rather nice, did the grocery shopping together and went back home.
The boy had gone to Munich that day, eating burgers with a friend, getting a library card for the university library and the Bavarian state library and buying himself some climbing shoes. He went all out in socializing that week, going to the climbing gym with a friend on Friday and visiting another friend on Saturday and going to the local Christmas market.
On Saturday I finally pulled out the sewing machine and finished a t-shirt and on Sunday I recorded the podcast.
Next week:
This will be the last week before Christmas break. I’m not quite sure how to handle the grocery shopping logistics. There will be one potential new student, all the teaching, hopefully more writing (I think I’m almost at the ‚all is lost‘-moment) and I want to publish the podcast on Friday. I have to wrap all the Christmas presents and put packages into the mail. But the most important thing will be the boy’s 17th birthday. There are plans to have cake for breakfast, have lunch at that new Indian place and spend the evening with ‚Star Trek: Discovery‘ on Netflix while eating junk food.
And then we will have two whole weeks off.
Exhale.
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