creative.mother.thinking

I woke up from my alarm, did not write first thing (I should stop writing about this because I never do, don’t I?) and promptly forgot to take my thyroid medication.

Lounged in bed with my computer for an hour, then took my medicine and so the whole morning was a little later than I would have liked. Great morning, though, I finished reading Jim Butcher’s „Brief Cases“. It’s really great, highly recommended. Well, if you like the Dresden Files.

I had breakfast, my husband showed up, we did the dishes, I went for a run:

I don’t think I’m getting any better (though today I ran/walked a whooping 8.30 minutes/kilometer) but the running is more fun than it used to. There were a few moments in there where I didn’t even want to stop and walk. Progress!

I took a shower, got a message from the boy that he was safely sitting on his train, and helped making lunch. Yummy, yummy Indian food:

I had started to look up what to do if the boy missed his train. He had one of those cheaper train tickets that require taking a specific train. And if you miss that you have to buy a completely new train ticket. And he didn’t have enough money with him for that. I decided that if it were necessary I could buy a ticket online and send him the order number to load it into his phone.

But he didn’t miss the train.

I was perfectly prepared to not get anything done throughout the day but surprised myself by not only doing the dishes right after lunch but also finally writing for twenty minutes before meeting the boy at the station. Phew. Day 23 of my #100daysofwriting.

He actually told me a bit about the past few days which is pretty unusual. Maybe catching him right when he came back was the key. I bought him a piece of cake and he proceeded to tell me all about methods of encrypting data. Not that I understood a word of it. And about what he did while away. And then we talked about the state elections at length. I even had bought a newspaper which I never do. Now I still need to read it.

Then I finally started my teaching day.

Only three students later I helped the boy choose and print a picture for art class in school, and then he reheated the lunch leftovers and we sat down and watched the new Doctor Who episode. I have to say it is really good, brilliant even, I am enjoying it tremendously. So much fun!

Then I came back into the old part of the house, wanting to get ready for bed, brush my teeth and write a bit more.

Well, I was greeted by a mountain of dirty dishes and there was a nice note on the kitchen table, „Hand up laundry, please.“ Well, it was me who wrote that note and we leave it out whenever one of us has started a load so that we don’t forget.

So dishes it was and hanging up laundry.

And then I started this post and wrote some more words on the novel. Not quite the 4,000 I would need in order to finish it before NaNoWriMo.

I wasn’t too disappointed about that.

Today there will be a trip to the health food store, and to the optician for another set of test lenses. And quite a bit of teaching but not as much as last Tuesday. And then the monthly Orna Ross webinar for creative entrepreneurs.

I’n guessing writing in between, no sewing, and no strength training.

I woke up from the alarm and didn’t write first thing but I did manage to get up on time.

Had breakfast, managed to write:

And sewed the last few buttons on my Cria cardigan.

Talked with my husband and found out that there would be massive disturbances in the train service to Munich again. Still, there was a way for him to get where he wanted, it only took longer than usual.

I did the dishes and went running:

Beautiful day, fun run:

The farmers are moving massive loads of earth around on this field, and have been doing so for a while now. Every Saturday there are tractors up and down that road. They are the source of dust in the middle of the picture.

This was my halfway point where one can see houses again.

Then I took a shower and went to reheat the rest of Thursday’s soup for lunch. But. There was no lunch. I was a little disappointed and thought that my husband had eaten it despite us talking about leaving it for my Saturday lunch. So I had this for lunch:

Plus more cheese and ham.

Then I rode my bike to the spinning meeting. I hadn’t been in ages and it was really nice to see everybody again. Quite a few people had opted to go to the wool festival on the other side of Munich which made the spinning meeting smaller than usual.

I went home rather early as usual. I find that about 2 1/2 hours of sitting, spinning and talking are usually enough for me. Rode back through fall leaves and acorns on the bike path.

My husband was already home and cooking tomato sauce.

I had a package, I had ordered a new cable for my phone and new headphones because the old ones have a frayed cable. Unfortunately the phone cable was broken so I need to send that back.

I didn’t really get anything done until dinnertime but it still was nice. For once I did eat dinner, I had the soup at last. Very yummy.

Then I wrote a bit and read a lot and went to bed early.

For today I had planned to go to the wool market but after much deliberation I decided that I won’t go. The day will be busy enough with yoga and voting and writing and all. I’ll save the time and energy and might spend a little money on ordering self-striping sock yarn online. And the fiber advent calendar that I’ve been thinking about.

I think I have a plan.

Not sick either. I’m still in that in between place.

Woke up rather early, read (no writing), made breakfast. Was happy to see the boy and help him to squeeze two more things into his backpack. Got ready and left for my doctor’s appointment.

I was in a funk, full of anxiety over nothing. Not even the boy’s trip, I’m thinking it was a combination of hormones and having to leave the house early.

The train was twenty minutes late which made me five minutes late for my appointment. I barely had to wait and everything was fine. I was still off, and I think I confused my doctor a bit. He’ll live.

I went to the nice health food store, got almost everything I wanted and walked back to the train station to get back home. And then I waited for the train. And waited. And waited. Apparently there had been an incident in Munich earlier and that had resulted in big train chaos. I have to say I was rather happy that I had told the boy to take a train earlier than planned. And I was even happier when I was standing on the platform and getting his message, „Am on the train.“ That was for the big one, the one bringing him all the way to Erfurt.

After an hour of waiting I was finally back home. And my ground beef and lamb was still miraculously frozen. Good thing I took an insulated bag and a cool pack.

Then I helped to make lunch, past e fagioli:

Very good. And this time we could cook the sausage in the soup instead of separate because the vegetarian in the house is absent.

I took a pain pill but it didn’t help, did the dishes, ate some chocolate, folded laundry, told my mother-in-law that the boy had reached his destination in one piece, practiced a little and taught two students. Tried to do something productive and failed. Taught another student.

That was basically it for the day. Went to bed early and hoped for a better day today.

Today there will be the usual Friday cleaning. My husband and I will have lunch at the Greek restaurant and then I will teach all.the.students.

And then the weekend. The rather busy weekend.

Slept until the alarm went off again. Weird. Also good but usually means no writing before breakfast.

And then I found that I wasn’t feeling all that great. I’ve been wondering if I’m getting a cold for days now. My husband is wondering if he has a GI infection, so clearly something is making the rounds.

So there was breakfast. Again no writing because I felt the urgent need to research my symptoms.

Slow morning. Then we realized that the heating wasn’t working. I went down to the basement and after turning the furnace off and on again a few times it seemed to work again.

I went to the tea shop (and had a lovely conversation about branding and marketing with the owner), the pharmacy and the drug store. Well, actually two drug stores but didn’t find what I wanted.

I didn’t help with lunch lot and also forgot to take a picture. It was great, though, potatoes, burgers and peas. Then I did the dishes, hung up laundry together with my husband and ate a little chocolate.

Then there was all the teaching until rather late. In between I researched GIMP again. I am waffling about getting Photoshop but I don’t like the subscription model and it is a little pricey in the long run. So I invested in a new book about GIMP instead. Beforehand I did make sure that the program will do what I need.

When I came back into the kitchen the radiator was ice-cold. Furnace wasn’t working again. Seems we need to call the heating guy again.

I got ready for bed almost immediately afterwards. Then I managed to finally write a bit.

Today there will be running and some grocery shopping (we need potatoes from the farmer’s market and there won’t be time for the supermarket on Thursday this week). Only two students so I’m hoping for sewing and writing and GIMP-learning in between. And helping the boy get ready for five days away.

I actually slept until the alarm went off. That was almost disorienting.

Which also meant no writing before breakfast. I did manage to make breakfast on time, though.

I pulled out a sock that had bin lingering in a project bag for, um, quite some time, and made a decision about the next step. I had mentioned that particular sock project in my patreon newsletter so I got curious and found that the reason the thing wasn’t going forward was, again, that there was a problem. Once I made that decision things were much easier.

I did write right after breakfast. I am rather excited for the next bit. That happens pretty often after getting stuck, all of a sudden things start moving again.

Then I did the dishes, went to the health food store because we were still needing things for lunch, ran my 4.8k:

And it was even fun today.

Then I started to make the dough for spaetzle, cut up some mushrooms, took a shower, made the spaetzle, and the did turn out rather nice. It was funny because for some time we just couldn’t find the thing you need to make them. We both thought it should be in the basement because that’s where the old one lived. And then we both thought that it might be upstairs in the kitchen in one particular cupboard. And we both looked in both places repeatedly but couldn’t find it. Making the noodles without it would have been beyond my skills, frankly.

By the third time looking into that cupboard my husband finally found it. For a moment he even thought that we had thrown away the old one from his grandma without buying a new one. Now, you can just use a cutting board and a knife but none of us knows how.

But in the end we prevailed and got lunch ready in time for the boy to eat with us:

The boy got a lecture about different kinds of beer over lunch because we are having a new alcohol-free beer that tastes exceptionally good. It is Zwickelbier  and my husband keeps telling me that it reminds him of an IPA when in fact it tastes a bit like ale.

The boy didn’t want to try it, though.

I had a long, long list of things I wanted to do before teaching in the afternoon. I only got to do two of the four things or so. The boy came home from school again a little early and we started talking so it was time well spent.

Then there was the teaching. And then the watching of the newest episode of „Doctor Who“. I love it, by the way, and so does the boy. It is very exciting!

Then there was a bit of writing and an early bedtime.

Today there will be some errands and loads of teaching and that will be mostly it. Typical Tuesday.