Archives for August 2020

But then I could say that about the whole year.

I slept in, wasted some time and then the day went, slightly weird. I feel as if I need time off which is absurd since I just finished week five of summer break.

The morning went by with talking with my husband first where we had one of those discussions that I find confusing because I thought he had already decided on something a few months back but now it seems everything about his project is still up in the air and then I made gnocchi from scratch. So we had a slightly fancy lunch:

Fried zucchini blossoms in pancake batter filled with goat cheese, herbs and roasted pine nuts.

Homemade gnocchi with tomato sauce and fried eggplant. The eggplant and tomatoes were from our garden.

I took a short break, watched the Tour de France while spinning and then my sister kindly reminded me that I should call my mother. Which I promptly did, we talked for half an hour. She is feeling a bit better but is still a little loopy from the pain and medication. She hasn’t been able to eat much lately, probably because of the pain medication and certainly because of the pain. There isn’t much that can be done at the moment.

My sister seems to be working like crazy to get my parents house in order and to feed everybody. I can’t say how grateful I am that she is doing this. And I hope that she gets to go home soon.

Then I watched some more cycling, did the ginormous pile of dirty dishes and pots and then it was time for dinner and watching Enterprise. That episode, „The Catwalk“ was surprisingly good. Then the boy and I talked for a bit and my husband and I talked for a bit, I started writing this post, read, did not do my homework for the publishing course and went to bed.

I had an epiphany yesterday morning that one of the reasons I feel so overwhelmed is that there are so many things that drain my thinking energy. Time is not the problem, not at all, I have plenty. It is energy. And so I am thinking about what things to let go. I unsubscribed from about a dozen newsletters in the past few days, and I’m thinking that it might be a good idea for me to step back from blogging every day. I’ll go back to just posting when I feel like it for a while again.

No yoga, no writing but there was running:

In the rain:

Only a little, though:

I ordered new shoes before lunch because of a newsletter and I didn’t want to say no to 40% off for returning customers. I have been dreaming of barefoot shoes like this for ages. We had Indian food for lunch:

I watched both the woman’s race in the morning and the tour in the afternoon:

Es, the living room looks a little cluttered. I can assure you that the other side is much better.

Yarn was spin:

The boy and I watched an episode of ‘Star Trek: Enterprise’ and one of ‚Eternal Love‘.

Then I was tired and went to bed. I haven’t even made a list for today yet, that will have to wait until after breakfast, I think.

I wanted to get as much sleep as possible so I set my alarm for 6.30 but woke up twenty minutes early. Found a compelling reason not to do yoga again. I also skipped bodyweight training. Breakfast was great and then I did some more course stuff before my husband showed up.

I was totally set on doing all the cleaning in the morning but somehow didn’t. I did try to solve the annoying problem with my husband’s e-mail address where my provider changed something so that I need to do something that I don’t quite understand so he can continue using it. This was my third try of solving that problem. I will have to make a phone call to support next week.

I did fold all the laundry and hang up a second load, my husband started making pizza and I helped but we still had lunch late. It was totally worth it, though:

In the afternoon I mostly hung around killing time and it took me several hours to realize that I was waiting for the live Q&A in the evening. Dumb.

I got on that Zoom call a little early and while it was nice and informative I didn’t like sitting around listening for that long. I should have taken my knitting.

After that I started writing this post, downloaded yet another book (a free one for a change) and read a bit.

Today there will be running, maybe the rest of the cleaning, maybe the greenhouse repairs but it will probably rain so maybe some indoor maintenance stuff instead. Also, I need to do all the things but I don’t want to. That will be fun.

I woke up around six and did pretty well with my morning routine. No writing again, though. But yoga and meditation and a leisurely breakfast. I talked with my husband and knitted a few rows on my cardigan and read a few pages in the current novel „Storm Forged“ by Lindsay Buroker and then went out to get groceries.

It turned out to be quite a bit warmer than expected and so grocery shopping felt like a real workout again. (Side note: in the course of the day I accumulated 73 minutes of ‚training‘ according to my smartwatch, 15,755 steps and a distance of 12.2 kilometers – not too bad)

I took a short break and switched from backpack to purse and from sneakers to Mary Janes and then we walked all the way to the other end of town to an Italian restaurant. We decided to get the menu:

My husband did not eat the Ravioli (homemade with porcini filling) but the cutlet:

And then we had some strawberry sorbet with whipped cream:

All of that was delicious, even the sorbet. I happen to heartily dislike strawberries but this was good. Not sure if it all agreed with me but everything was very good. I even took a selfie:

We walked all the way back home again, talking about languages, of course. The boy might be a tad obsessed. There was a short break again and then my husband and I got on our bikes and went to the hardware store. We emerged victorious with several things we need, went back home, put everything away and greeted the boy who had been so nice to rake and mow the lawn. The new push mower is a real hit with the rest of the family. I, on the other hand, tend to stay away from the mowing because of my hay fever.

In between the restaurant and the hardware store I did do the day’s homework and then it was time to watch ‚Enterprise‘ again. That episode started out well but then fizzled out. There were a few illogical things in a row and then it ended up being a ‚it was all just a dream‘-episode. Hmpf.

The boy and I did all the dishes, I started writing this post, he took a shower and I got ready for bed.

Today there will be the cleaning of the house and a Zoom call for this week’s workshop. My husband will be teaching right before then. So no TV watching with the boy. And tomorrow will be the start of the Tour de France.

The answer, of course, is bad planning. This is what we call the ‚aspirational to-do list‘.

I did start out pretty good and waking up early. Then I did the ‚I’ll just look at my phone real quick‘-thing. Yeah, I know. No yoga, the usual. I did have breakfast almost on time and then it was too late to write. I did start watching the videos for the two courses I’m doing at the moment, though, so at least I didn’t waste more time.

My husband showed up, we talked, I knitted. I finished the second sleeve on my Eureka cardigan the day before and got started on knitting the rest of the body. Chores were done and then it was time to go running and walking. After a conversation with my husband and the boy the night before about my running-problem I was super-motivated and actually ran all through my 2-minute running intervals:

It was sunny but not hot. Very windy, though:

I’m still only wearing one earbud but my earache is as good as gone. Phew.

I came back home, took a shower and then helped with making lunch. My husband had wanted to make aioli from scratch for the first time ever. Well, that didn’t go well. We both tried and only managed to ruin some egg yolks and olive oil. And that panic of not getting the aioli right was so distracting that the tagliatelle were cooked too long and the sauce that we had meant to eat was ruined as well. My husband was not happy. Fortunately we still had one jar of pasta sauce that my husband had gotten from a friend and so we did not have to go hungry:

My husband has sworn off trying French cuisine or anything mayonnaise-like ever again. Me, I might try again in the future but not when I’m hungry and stressed beforehand.

The boy and I did the dishes, I took a short break and then watched some more videos. Talked with my husband who was trying to repair an amp that broke the day before and then some more videos and course materials. I’m not that convinced about the classes I’m taking, I mean, I am learning stuff for sure, but maybe not enough for the price I paid? On the other hand I’m only about halfway through both of them, so we’ll see. And I’m video-ed out. The beauty of audio podcasts is that I can walk around while listening to them. With video I’m chained to my seat. That’s okay if there is something for my eyes to process but video that’s only talking heads? Probably not worth it.

I wrote some e-mails, I did not answer comments and such even though that was on my list, I did not sew and I did not write. Meh.

Dinner was had and we watched episode 17 of ‚Eternal Love‘. So sweet! We are getting a better grip on who is who and what is happening. I still can’t remember most of the names but I’ll get there eventually.

I decided to leave the dishes because it was just a few plates and knives, started writing this post, was very determined to do my ten minutes of yoga, fell down the internet rabbit hole, saw that my sister had sent me a message asking for my parents’ wifi password, tried finding it but needed three tries to get it right. At least I hope that was the right one.

Today will be a rather full day. In the morning I want to go to the supermarket, that’s usually about an hour of walking, then we will go out for lunch to the nice Italian restaurant that was closed on my birthday and then I will cap the day off by accompanying my husband to the hardware store. I have no idea if we’ll walk to the restaurant or not but we will be biking to the hardware store.

I woke up at six, did ten minutes of yoga and five minutes of meditation and made breakfast. Took a quick look at e-mail which meant no time to work on the novel. I guess I’ll never learn. I started looking at the lessons for the publishing workshop and found that this week’s homework will be, um, pretty heavy. I’m excited about it but it will need quite a bit of time.

My husband showed up, we talked and that took, I don’t know, three hours? I would have preferred to spend a little less time on that. I went upstairs when the boy was about ninety minutes late for breakfast. I really wish he would adjust his bedtime and get up on time.

I got a message from my mother telling me that she will go home tomorrow and that my sister will be coming up to help my parents. I am beyond grateful to her for doing this. My mother will get help three times a week with things like taking a shower but is currently unable to even make herself a sandwich, much less do the grocery shopping, laundry or anything.

So I called my mother on the phone and we talked for half an hour. She is feeling a little better with less pain.

After that I walked to the health food store and then helped a little with cooking. Lunch was rather good:

I only had very little time until my first student. I taught her, had a short break, then taught some more and then went out to see my husband’s uncle and aunt. We hadn’t seen those two for a few years, due to the uncle’s health problem and it was really nice, sitting outside, having cake and talking. My last student canceled, so I didn’t have to tear myself away and they left right in time for dinner.

The boy and I watched an episode of ‚Enterprise‘ that was actually good for a change. Earlier that day he had suggested we’d become accountability buddies again for strength training, I want to do bodyweight exercises three times a week and he wants to add squats and chin-ups to his daily pushup-routine. That suggestion made me do twelve minutes of bodyweight training after doing a huge pile of dishes. I had help from both my husband and the boy this time.

I then started writing this post while yawning profusely, did most of my homework for the second day of the „special menu“-class, brushed my teeth and went to bed.

Answering all the emails and comments and such will have to wait until later today.

Today there will be running, more homework and class and maybe some sewing. I won’t give up hope!