daily journal

I slept until 6.18. No idea if my alarm went off or not, I didn’t sense anything. I use my Fitbit as an alarm and it vibrates. Usually that is enough to wake me up. I also use the smart alarm setting which wakes you within a certain window of time according to your sleep patterns. For the past few days I didn’t get anything.

I got up right away again which resulted in me not scanning the news first thing and in managing to meditate and write morning pages. There was not enough time for fiction writing yet again. And yes, I am perfectly aware that this is a story I tell myself and that I did lots of other things all day. Some of them I could have skipped in favor or writing. I did continue reading and knitting, at least:

All of us are still rather tense but I get the feeling that we’re starting to settle in with the new patterns. I even got most of the weekly cleaning done while my husband was out running. I still need to clean the washbasins and toilets later today.

I picked up takeout for the first time in ages. I’m actually worried about the local restaurants. We debated getting our food delivered to minimize contact but in the end decided against it. I wore a face mask and gloves for the first time and it did feel a little weird. I used the mask that I keep with my dyeing supplies. Everybody at the restaurant was very mindful of keeping the appropriate distance and there was cling film put up as a barrier between the staff and the guests.

The food was delicious:

Apparently I was very hungry. Not only did I forget to take a picture of my spring rolls before eating the first one, I also completely forgot to take a picture of the main course. Fried noodles with chicken for me, fried duck with Thai sauce for my husband and some vegetarian sushi for the boy. Getting the takeout also reminded us why we stopped doing this on a regular basis. First, it is somewhat expensive and second, everything comes wrapped in plastic and the curry and noodles you get in styrofoam containers that are partly melted from the hot food. We used to prefer eating at the restaurant instead. Not right now, though.

I did the dishes, struggled to prepare the lessons for the afternoon (and failed) and then started a long afternoon of video chat after video chat. Had to restart often. But most student had adequate equipment and internet connection. I am so grateful for the chance to continue teaching, even if the conditions are not perfect. It’s also interesting how much I value the social connections to my students. I tend to think of myself as a fierce introvert but I was rather happy and relieved to see all the familiar faces.

Singing lessons remain the most challenging of all. Both for me and the students. But we are still making music. And nobody really played music all week. Real life was rather distracting. I did start teaching all of my students the „Wings of a Dove“ song and it felt like they really appreciated it. It’s also interesting how much less I am singing and playing the piano right now because I can’t make music together with my students. When I taught that song using call and response I felt myself for the first time in weeks because I really got to sing again.

Yesterday marked the day I came full circle on a week of teaching online, it was all first times on FaceTime and Skype until the last student of the week. She was the one that started the batch of online lessons a week ago.

My husband and I are still working out the kinks. And one of the new things is that we get a lot more homework. Usually, our method of teaching means that we often decide on the spot. Start a new song, search for something, my husband often will sit down right there and transcribe something the student wants to learn but all of that is not possible over the internet. So every teaching day requires more prep work and after each day I am left with a list of things I need to do. Emails to send, links to share, it’s quite a bit of work.

Still, we both very much agree that it is a great blessing to continue working under the circumstances.

After teaching I met with the boy. For the second day in a row he was working on his German essay. And every time I met him he had a question, was unsure about how to say something. He had to analyze an Eichendorff poem and kept asking me for my opinion. Seems I have gotten better at this sort of thing since I last had to do it for school. The funny thing was when he started the whole essay with what he deemed unnecessary florid sentences and over the top artsiness and both my husband and I had to tell him that that was what the average German teacher would consider just right. Probably. My kind of writing never passed muster in school either. I was pretty delighted at some figures of speech that were essentially the boy and found that he has indeed inherited a rather dry sense of humor. No idea where he might have gotten that.

Still, he could be persuaded to leave essay writing for dinner and watching the last episode of the first season of ‚Star Trek:Picard‘. We both found it rather enjoyable. The end was not unexpected but very satisfying and we had a nice discussion about the general premise of the episode. (We don’t really agree, by the way, but the whole premise is highly hypothetical, so no way to be sure.)

Then there was more essay-writing which meant that I was sitting there, scrolling through Instagram while answering the boy’s questions until I finally got myself to start writing this post. Until he followed me into the kitchen for more questions about his text.

Turns out I can write a 1,000 word blog post in the time it takes the boy to write the last three paragraphs of a 1,000 word essay.

Somehow I went to bed a little late. Wonder why.

Today there will be running and cleaning the bathrooms and preparing the podcast. Bonus points if I actually manage to record the episode and record another one tomorrow to publish next Friday but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Recording singing warm-ups for my students would also be fantastic but I don’t see that happening.

And in the evening we are having plans to watch „The Martian“. And eat chocolate truffles. Priorities. So important.

I actually slept in until 6.50 or so. Which also tells you that I’m usually cheating a bit by writing my daily post the night before. If anything turns out wildly different than I thought it would I change it in the morning but not if I oversleep. I am starting to feel rested, though. Since I always procrastinate like crazy in the mornings and spend too much time on the internet first thing I got up as soon as I was awake for a change. Got dressed, read „The Daily Stoic“, meditated and wrote morning pages.

It was too late to writ fiction but that was way better than the days before. I made breakfast and ate it. My husband showed up early because he couldn’t sleep. We’re all still out of sorts. There was a lot of talking.

The boy’s big project for the day was a German essay. I’m sure he could have done that in a slightly more focused way. As it was he still wasn’t finished by dinnertime.

I went upstairs to ask my mother-in-law about what groceries she needed. That turned into a long talk where I tried to keep an appropriate distance. Then I went to the supermarket by bike. We had run out of more things than I would have thought. I could barely fit it all on the bike. I realized that that is one of the reasons why I am still going to the store every week. I don’t really have a way to carry that much food. Also, the shelves are mostly empty even though that is starting to change. Still no yeast in any form. And no dried beans.

I was pretty late for lunch, so I ate quickly:

And then I hurried to prepare the day’s lessons. I did my very first singing lessons. Playing together was out of the question but I still managed to teach slightly modified lessons. And we also did some things I had never taught before. So while these online lessons are in some way lesser than the usual ones I do find that we are all more focused and working harder on the music. Which is good.

I had planned to do strength training afterwards but was hit with an attack of the dunnwannas again. So I started writing this post, ate some chocolate instead, spun a bit, read some more of „Blood and Ash“ by Deborah Wilde (highly recommended, I am halfway through right now). The boy came to talk with me while I was still in my studio and told me that my husband had helped him with his essay, even.

Then I watched a video on how to make sleeves fit while spinning a bit:

And then I procrastinated about the dishes and de-calcifying the kettle for an hour or two. I finally got around to doing everything way to late and went to bed after eleven. That’s always fun.

Since today is Friday there will be all the teaching all afternoon and all the cleaning all morning with hopefully a break in between and some time to prepare the afternoon’s teaching.

And in the evening a new episode of ‚Picard‘. I’m really looking forward to that.

I did get enough sleep, at least. Woke up early and spent the first hour or so online again. I really should change that. Yes, I know I said that yesterday. And the day before.

I did meditate for five minutes, so that was good.

Nerves were frayed in the house, there might have been words. I went to the local tea shop to pick up my order. We’re set for another two weeks or so. I wanted more of my favorite breakfast tea but they were out. The owner of the tea shop looked rather frazzled. I got to help her by putting a sign on the door when I went out that only one person was allowed in the shop at a time. It is a very small shop.

People outside were generally very friendly, smiling and greeting each other. We had a line in front of the tea shop spaced 2 meters apart and I talked to the woman in front of me.

I went back home and did my walk/run:

There were quite a few people out, all keeping their distance from each other. I was happy about this sign of spring:

By then I was already feeling better but for most of the morning I felt so exhausted that I wasn’t sure if I would fall asleep on the spot or burst into tears first. The answer turned out to be ‚burst into tears‘, by the way. Briefly. All of us were feeling the strain.

After my run I still felt like melting into the floor but at least my mood was better. When I came back home my husband was busy cooking. We talked back and forth and he made a joke that had all three of us laughing for minutes. (That’s rather nice, by the way, that the boy is spending most of his day working in the living room. It means we spend more time together. This was lunch:

After lunch I wrote more emails to students, finally took a shower, did the dishes (yes, in that order) and started teaching over Skype. The first student had a problem with his guitar but I was able to actually show him how to use a screwdriver to tighten up the screws in the machine head. (Look! I learned a new word. Didn’t know how to say that in English before.)

I only taught three students because two hadn’t answered my emails. I tried calling both of them and finally got hold of one who has been a student of mine and my husband for many years. 12 or so. Turned out that his cell phone broke right as the shops closed so he couldn’t get a new one and he never checks email on his desktop computer.

My husband had a pretty long day, teaching from 2 to 6 with barely a break, each lesson the first one with that particular student over Skype or FaceTime.

Then there was bread and cheese for dinner, 15 minutes of spinning and the start of this post and then bed.

Today there will be grocery shopping for us and my mother-in-law, my very first singing lessons over the internet and if I have some energy left after that I’m planning to do strength training.

I woke up super-early and spent the first two hours of the day or so online checking the news. This is not recommended. So no writing, no meditation, no morning pages and then I forgot my thyroid pill which meant a late breakfast.

The boy came downstairs for the daily meeting almost on time again. There really wasn’t anything to discuss but if there had been we would have been ready.I read and I knitted and there was a lot of talking.

I also went out to the health food store and because I didn’t get what we needed I went to the butcher and the bakery and a nearby supermarket as well. There were very few people around, everybody kept the distance and some shelves were still rather empty. There is still no yeast to be had in any form. Or canned tomatoes and such.

My mother-in-law was feeling better already, well enough to go to her scheduled eye appointment. 

Then I helped to make lunch. Mostly leftovers but also chicken. And papadums:

Then I took a little break, did the dishes and started teaching through my iPad.Things went well, I taught all my regular students. There are of course major drawbacks to this but it’s the only way to have music lessons while keeping the right distance and therefore I love it. We are still figuring out what is possible. And today both my husband and I had to learn how to share documents with the students (and vice versa).

It is rather exciting but also pretty draining.

I had lofty plans of doing strength training afterwards but instead I ate some bread and cheese for dinner and watched a webinar about moving live events to livestreams by Patreon. It was aimed at musicians and so those ‚tools and tricks‘ they were talking about were pretty relevant for me. Even though I probably won’t do live events on my Patreon. But then maybe I should.

By the end of the webinar I felt myself nodding off so I just started writing this blog post, brushed my teeth and went to bed. I moved the journaling to this morning.

Today there will be running and pickup at the tea shop and then more teaching. I might teach my first ever singing lesson online. I didn’t have the time to record backing tracks or warm-up exercises but the whole thing doesn’t have to be perfect right away. I see more research heading my way later today. And this will be a very long day.

I woke up around five or so and didn’t get anything done at all before breakfast.At least breakfast was on time. I didn’t sleep well because of brain weasels. But then there was soothing knitting:

Daily family meeting went alright, the boy was almost punctual. The I did the usual morning chores and was just about to leave for my walk/run when the boy came downstairs and said that my mother-in-law wasn’t feeling well, was all dizzy and wanted to take a taxi to the doctor’s office. We both tried to make her stay at home but she was determined. When I asked her if she had looked at her blood pressure she said she hadn’t measured anything but that it was surely way too low and she needed to see the doctor right away. If she called beforehand they would just tell her to come in an hour later and by then she would be lying on the floor unconscious. So the boy did not start his school work as planned but instead went with her in the taxi. He helped her from the taxi to the doctor’s office up the stairs and all and then walked back home. It’s just five minutes if you’re not frail and dizzy.

Then I went walking/running:

By then I was already pretty late and lacked the oomph to run a lot. I cut the whole thing short by ten minutes or so. I also was so out of it that I forgot to start my running app at the beginning. I only realized when I didn’t get a reminder to start running after the warm-up after five minutes.

Came back home just in time to help with cooking, explained what had happened to my husband and just when we sat down to eat the boy got a call to come back and get my mother-in-law again. He had to eat later. Food was yummy:

The boy came back and told us that the doctor doesn’t know what’s wrong either, that her blood pressure was way too high and that she had gotten another blood pressure pill. She already felt better on the way home but still not all that great. So, in hindsight it would have been better if she had taken her blood pressure at home and phoned the doctor’s office. What with the coronavirus and all.

After lunch the boy went to take a nap, I did the dishes and then wrote all the emails to all the students because of our new online teaching. My husband needed to discuss a ton of things with me. I had to teach people how to use Skype while still learning about it myself and the boy wanted help with his school stuff. At least we got him set up in the living room with my old laptop and that made him marginally more productive:

I helped connect my husband with Skype for his first student and managed to put on a skirt just in time to start my own teaching day. I would have preferred to be better prepared but there was no time left. I taught four students over FaceTime and Skype and it went pretty well. It’s not perfect but we’ll manage. I got the impression that the students and their parents are as happy about that slice of normalcy as we are. And I am really missing my students. This is what it looks like, by the way (and this is the less messy part of my studio at the moment:

Teaching over tablet. For piano lessons I move the tripod, the music stand and the chair and turn the iPad so that the students can see both my face and my hands on the keys.

The whole affair is still rather exciting, and somewhat exhausting. I miss the transition periods between two students when one packs up and leaves the room and the the other comes in and unpacks. When I teach the students in person I can put things away in those moments or go to the bathroom real quick. Also, the big wall clock in my room is behind me in this setup and that makes it much harder to keep track of time. I kept glancing around the students’ homes in search for the time. Maybe I should move mine in the future.

Afterwards I was totally ded. Then my husband and I compared notes. I helped make dinner, the boy had lots of questions regarding school stuff again, I did the dishes, he talked to me some more, I started writing this post and then I got ready for bed.

In the morning I finished Lindsay Buroker’s „Battle Bond“ and immediately preordered the next in the series. I waffled about what to read next all day (because the next in series comes out in ten days), started a book or two and finally settled on „Blood & Ash“ by Deborah Wilde. The first fifteen pages were very promising. Seems I’m in an Urban Fantasy kind of mood.

Today there will be a trip to the health food store, more phone calls and emails with students and quite a bit of teaching through my little iPad. And if things go extremely well I will record the warmup exercises for my singing students. Or I might move the recording to another day and have them warmup with something else. We’ll see.

Lots going on at the moment. For all of us.

Woke up at 5.30 and didn’t get much done at first. I did meditate for five minutes and wrote rudimentary morning pages, though. This is what greeted me when I opened the curtains:

Not very spring-like.

Then breakfast on time. My husband showed up at 8 and built a fire while I started a new bullet journal. It is unfortunate to start a new journal with only nine days left in the month but there was nothing I could do. I decided against migrating everything because it didn’t seem worth it which means I’ll have to carry two notebooks for the next week or so.

My husband had his breakfast and then the boy came down for the first ever daily family meeting. Well, more like a huddle. It was funny, my husband was just about to leave the kitchen, thermos and tea mug in hand when I told him we were about to start the meeting we agreed on the day before. Turned out he didn’t realize he was included.

I think it was a good thing to talk about what each of us wanted to do that day.

Then dishes. And some yoga:

I’m stiff as a board right now but my hope is that yoga will make that better. It is physically impossible to sit on my heels at the moment so more yoga is clearly the answer.

Then I folded a lot of laundry and talked with my husband who still is having a hard time with the cooking. It ia a little puzzling to me how someone who has cooked every day for years now can still find it that overwhelming and confusing but, well, at least I am not doing it.

There was pancake soup:

And homemade potato salad with Leberkäs. And eggs:

This potato salad is much greener than usual because we went a little overboard with the arugula, cress and cucumber.

I did the dishes right away with the boy’s help because I had scheduled a virtual knitting meeting at two.

Which I attended and we talked for more than two hours without realizing where the sun went.

After that I had a date with my husband to teach him how to use FaceTime and Skype for teaching. It went rather well. Only we found out that the spot he is sitting in usually had the worst lights in the whole house. He unearthed two lamps and in the end there was enough light to actually see what he was doing.

Then more laundry and the boy and I watched ‚Interstellar‘. Very good movie, I can heartily recommend, found it great.

And then I tricked the boy into watching the beginning of the documentary „Alive and Kicking“ about LindyHop (and he liked it), then talked with him about his schoolwork and then I watched half an hour of the documentary.

Then off to bed way too late.

Today there will be running and email and two Skype-lessons.

No Tv today we decided to be sensible for once.