creative.mother.thinking

I’ve been thinking about motivation and priorities again (yeah, I know) because I watched Chris Fox’ video about it. Basically he says that a) you can only have one priority and b) if someone would give you 100,000 dollars if you wrote 5,000 words each day for the next 30 days, a lot of us (and certainly most writers) would sit down and somehow get 5,000 words done.

I mean, I already know that I’m making all kinds of excuses but that brought it home for me big time. So, I woke up around 5.30, skipped the morning pages and wrote 900 words almost first thing. And then I was all happy, bubbly and motivated for the day.

Found out that I’ll be out of thyroid meds after Sunday but wrote an email to renew my prescription. Which means taking the train to the next town over, probably on Friday.

Did all the usual things, even had a kind of meeting with my husband where we talked about his projects and his workload. He is having more students again and certainly more than I which means we need to shift chores around again. Then we talked about our teaching website and had a nice one-hour fight. Of course, it was all a misunderstanding and so we kept talking and everything is fine again.

I did the dishes and went running:

Well, I say running but I was actually mostly walking. The ground was frozen and one could choose between very slippery ice or very hard, crunchy, frozen snow. The weather was gorgeous, though, and I had a ton of fun.

I met my husband at the point in the picture above and we ended up walking back home together. Well, he ran the last bit but I was content just walking.

We made lunch:

Yummy but a bit too much for me. And rather spicy.

I prepared the podcast, then thought that I had it wrong and that next week was podcast week, then found I had been right the first time.

And then I saw that there was a message on voicemail. That turned out to be someone from a German knitting magazine who wanted to talk to me about my podcast. Exciting! And a little scary.

I got myself ready for teaching and then tried to call her back for thirty minutes. When I finally reached her we had a rather nice chat. A chat that made me realize how awkward this here blog is to navigate, so for those of you interested in the podcast – there is now a handy link to the podcast category at the top of the blog.

I did promise her a picture of me knitting and thought I’d just take that right away because the light was okay-ish and I still had thirty minutes before my first student.

Finding a suitable location proved to be difficult because all the plush chairs in the house are sitting in places that are exceptionally dark and cluttered. So I decided to fake it and use my piano as a backdrop. I fetched my knitting, only to find that there was no knitting to be done because I need to pick up stitches for the Owligan’s button bands first. So I fetched a sock.

Then I couldn’t remember how to work the remote for my camera. Then the battery on the remote was dead. Then I took a few pictures, realized that there was a bit fat reflection of the window in the piano. Then the camera’s battery died. (I had a spare.) Then I tried different angles a little frantically because I was running out of time and I realized that my contingency plan of taking pictures later today would not work because it is supposed to rain. Which means no light. (I really need some lighting for taking pictures and video. I should put that on my birthday list.)

I think I have one or two pictures that will worked when cropped. Note to self: when you take pictures in front of the piano you better remove all the crap that sits on top of it.

Phew. I still need to do the cropping and to send the picture out.

Then I taught non-stop until dinnertime. My last student showed up and I was so preoccupied and then concerned with her tuner not working that it took me ten minutes to realize that instead of the dingy, old, cheap guitar she had been using ever since she started she had brought a nice, shiny, big, new guitar. With steel strings.

A very nice guitar at that. I found myself grinning through the whole lesson because I was so happy for her.

I have to say I was a bit wrung out emotionally after that.

At least the webinar didn’t start until 9 pm.

I made the boy play piano, helped with dinner, started writing this post, got ready for bed and finally watched a bit of the webinar. Long day.

Today there will be grocery shopping and podcast recording and a late teaching day and strength training. I’m also hoping to start getting the podcast ready. Bonus points for writing fiction.

I woke up from the alarm and wrote morning pages. I did not manage to write before breakfast yet again. It was raining, so now snow-shoveling.

Had breakfast with the boy and then my husband showed up. We were pretty early.

I did attempt to run but it was mostly walking and sliding in the end, the ground is hard to run on at the moment:

I only did 3.6 k because of that. I was super-slow but it was fun. And I really like my new running shoes. Unfortunately I forgot to waterproof them beforehand. But my feet only got totally wet when I was already halfway done.

I came back and didn’t even help to cook. My husband had skipped running in favor of errands, recycling and moving wood in from outside. I did manage to get a pile of boxes to the recycling bin as well. It’s not much of a detour on my way to the woods. There was chili for lunch:

I also finally installed the blogging software on my husband’s computer. His OS is so old that I had to find an old version of the software and the old registration key. But it works. I should update his OS as well but that will probably take ages.

I also decided to test Affinity Photo. I have been trying to learn GIMP for months now and today I stumbled upon yet another recommendation for Affinity. So I am now the proud owner of the free test version and have borrowed a book on it through Kindle Unlimited. I like the look, it does CMYK which GIMP only does after serious tweaking and it only costs 56 €. Much cheaper than Photoshop. It also looks easier to use but right now I’m still stumbling and fumbling around.

Playing around with that took quite a chunk out of my day. But that’s okay.

I made some music and I taught very few students and then I spent too much time playing Candy Crush. I always think these things are fun but actually it made me rather cranky and irritated. So I deleted the app again. Much better.

Then I ate too much because I was angry that I hadn’t written. Very reasonable, of course. I talked with the boy and a little with my husband and did the dishes. Five minutes later the sink was full again but I’ll deal with those later today.

Today there will be the chimney sweep and the health food store and quite a few students (one of them with her new electrical guitar that she got for Christmas, I showed her how to play „Smoke on the Water“ last week). I am hoping to get some words in and get a few small things done as well but there won’t be much time for those. Oh, and strength training would be great.

Woke up early again, wrote morning pages, meditated and listened to the daily piece of classical music. I had expected to like the Mendelssohn octet more than I did. Maybe I should give it another chance.

My husband got up super-early again so we could make breakfast on the wood stove and then I went out and did a rather sloppy round of snow-shoveling.

Breakfast was had. I read a bit and I crocheted a bit. The boy showed up for breakfast.

When donning shoes and going outside I had found that the nick on my heel from the cupboard falling on me the day before while I was vacuuming chafed when I was wearing shoes and walking. So I decided to not only skip running but also the spinning meeting. I wanted that heel to heal quickly so I can go running again. In my nice new running shoes.

Which meant that I had an unexpected day off. And I enjoyed it very much.

My husband and the boy did some world-class shoveling while I did the dishes and changed the sheets on my bed, and then we had leftover lasagna for lunch:

Laundry, dishes, and I finished watching the book cover design course on Udemy. I was very glad about that. While I did learn some things about doing book covers with GIMP that will come in handy the covers the instructor designed were just, um, not to my taste. At all.

Next up everybody can make fun of me when my delicate taste won’t prevent me making awful covers as well.

My husband had a friend over who brought a bottle of wine so we all tried some. This is one of the exceptions to our January without alcohol.

The boy and I did some strength training (no shoes required so I could do those without hurting my heel) and then settled down to watch the fifth Star Trek movie. I can’t quite decide if this one is the worst or the first one but I thought it would be a good idea to have the boy see it for educational purposes.

Of course I had had planned to do all the writing in the afternoon but then couldn’t be bothered again. Maybe I need a more exciting writing project but then I’m basically at the middle of the middle, as in the middle of the second novel in a trilogy. And everybody knows that the middle is always a slog. Which is a good reason to proceed with speed. Ahem.

I did manage to write a word or two before going to bed on time, though.

Today I have the usual plans, there will be more snow-shoveling, some writing, maybe I’ll draft the yoga pants pattern and I want to do yoga. Also, we’ll be eagerly awaiting the verdict of snow day on Monday or not.

Woke up at 5.08 again which was a little too early. Morning pages, and a little writing. My husband showed up when my tea was almost ready, a little disappointed that I had already made breakfast without the wood stove. But breakfast was ready in time.

The boy showed up a little later. After I was finished with breakfast I went and shoveled some snow. For 16 minutes. I only did the sidewalk rather sloppily. I wanted to be back in time to sit with my husband when he had breakfast.

We talked. There were dishes. And I did some laundry. I was actually keeping track of how much time I spent on each. I got myself a new app so I can see where my time goes. Right now the biggest part of my day is housework. I didn’t manage to catch everything, though.Finally, I went to the supermarket. Walking there and back and getting everything we needed. Well, almost. It turned out that I had gotten the completely wrong kind of lasagna. So, after putting all the groceries away I put on my shoes and coat and hat and mittens again and went to two other stores for a different kind of lasagna and a different kind of salad.

My mother-in-law sent me on a quest for a particular kind of khaki but I couldn’t find that kind in any of the stores. The good thing about having to go in the other direction as well was that I could get a bus ticket for Saturday’s spinning meeting.

Then I came back and had put everything away again I helped a little with the salad and setting the table but my husband did all the rest:

The rest of the bolognese sauce will go into lasagna later today. And there will be more salad.

Then the boy had a sudden urge to talk. He got a fabulous grade on a chemistry test and his math teacher had asked him if he had ever thought about taking a class at university after he had asked her something she didn’t know. So we looked into classes for people who are not university students. Though, studying math is a little like studying philosophy, isn’t it, the practical applications aren’t obvious.

Then I talked to the boy about book cover design at length and we compared covers and critiqued them. Poor thing. He wasn’t bored but might have more practical application for math than book cover design. Then he helped me with the dishes.

I made my way over to the annex after applying makeup and changing into a handknitted sweater, did my singing warmup and ten minuted of piano exercises. Well, almost because my first student was five minutes early.

Taught that student, watched the book cover design course while not really paying attention, waited for the boy who forgot about his piano lesson but I think he was out helping his grandmother so that’s alright.

I taught two more students, did strength training with the boy for thirty minutes, changed into pajamas, did more dishes, lounged in bed for an hour and turned out the light.

Today the boy is giddy to start the weekend early. Because of the snow, all schools will be closed. I’m hoping that that won’t confuse my students. There will be lasagna and the next part of the Sweet Pea CAL (can’t wait!) and it will be the start of the „Knitting Seasons“- thing. I will also write like the wind and clean all the things.

So, a lot of things to look forward to. Plus, a bit of snow-shoveling I bet.

Woke up around 5.30, wrote morning pages and then started reading. There are so many books I want to read right now, the Urban Fantasy I’m almost through, a novella that came out this morning and „Etiquette & Espionage“ for the read-along and then I’m deeply immersed in some non-fiction as well.

So many interesting things in the world, not quite enough time.

I got up at seven and my husband showed up even before the boy. We had breakfast while my husband was starting the fire. He might get up even earlier starting tomorrow so that we can make water and tea with the heat from the fire instead of electricity. (Of course, I could start the fire but I found that that is just one thing too many in the morning when the boy needs to be at school on time.)

We talked a lot about a conversation I had yesterday and then were a little late again.

I went to one store for toilet paper (they stopped carrying our favorite brand at the supermarket I usually go to) and to the health food store. And then I only helped very little with lunch. Pancakes with spinach and feta:

This time I took a picture before wrapping it because otherwise you only see pancake.

Then I hurried over to the annex for my first student of the day. Or so I thought. I waited for about twenty minutes before I looked into my emails and realized that she wouldn’t be coming. Then I spun a little while watching the book cover design course. I am at a point where you’re just watching the teacher put bad covers together and I couldn’t be bothered to make my own bad covers. I want to watch the videos, though, in case I can learn something from it. You never know.

Then I taught and taught and had a lot of fun.

Then the boy was late for piano practice and strength training. And so exhausted that he just played his piano piece once and then decided not to do strength training. I was okay with that because a) he had had PE at school that day and b) he spent an hour scraping the half-frozen slush from the sidewalk in front of the house. My husband and I both thought that we didn’t need to shovel but my mother-in-law thought otherwise so the boy got the short stick.

I did strength training on my own because I’m a grown-up and don’t need someone to hold me accountable even if I’m tired and hungry and it’s late. Went to bed early-ish.

Today there will be running and teaching and all the usual.