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Monday, March 1: Pretty good start to the month

March 2, 2021 by Susanne Leave a Comment

But I did fall down a bit in the evening.

Well, I lied. Because I just remembered that I didn’t sleep well and was wide awake at 4.40. The upside to this was that I did morning pages, yoga and meditation without much stress, made breakfast and ate it with the boy and even wrote a few words on the novel before my husband showed up.

Then I made the mistake of looking at the numbers for our county and, um, let’s just say I will be avoiding in-person teaching for now. And when I looked at the numbers again in the early afternoon they had climbed some more. Yikes.

Nonetheless I did the dishes, wrote and email to my father and a text to my mother, called the optician back and made an appointment for dropping my glasses of so I can get new lenses, balanced my budget and went running. This time I didn’t care if I was running or walking I just wanted to do the 6 kilometers any which way and I did:IMG 2277

The weather was gorgeous if a bit cold:

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And windy.

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My husband made Thai curry:

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I did the dishes right away, finally took a shower and started teaching. Then I made good use of the extra time I got because a student had rescheduled. I went through all the sheet music I had lying around, found a piece for one of my piano students and something fun for my ukulele student. I’m not done yet, though, this is how my desk looks right now:

 

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These are stacks for piano, singing, guitar, ukulele and miscellaneous. There was also a huge pile of paper on the floor. I decided that I don’t need to keep every song that I briefly worked on with that one student. Especially if it’s stuff I got from the internet where you just have the lyrics and the chords. I can always find those again online, I don’t need to keep them all in a folder.

Next step will be to file all of those. That will be fun.

I taught some more, found that one of my students was not at home but instead on her way to my studio for her lesson. Unfortunately, nobody had talked to me beforehand and the garden gate was closed. We rescheduled. I am very determined to let the teaching be all online until Easter or so.

After my last lesson of the day I wrote some more emails and researched sheet music for a piece someone wants to learn and then it was time for the Facebook live-thing I wanted to watch. I did that by carrying my iPad around with me while eating dinner.

And then I collapsed. And felt that eating a whole bag of potato chips would be a great idea. And then I waited for the boy to finish taking a shower and spent some time on the internet. And went to bed too late.

So that day seems to have been a bit much.

Today there will be the walk to the health food store and I’ll mail two toner cartridges back for recycling. I will teach a few students and maybe talk with a friend in the evening. More video chat, I guess. Strength training would be a great idea as well, we’ll see how that goes.

My to-do list for this week might be a little insane…

Filed Under: daily journal

Sunday, February 28: Lots of planning

March 1, 2021 by Susanne Leave a Comment

I overslept. Apparently. I remember my alarm going off just before six and the next time I looked on the clock it was half an hour later. In the end I only wrote morning pages and did nothing else before breakfast. There is definitely a lot of room for improvement regarding my morning routine.

My husband woke up and built a fire in the wood stove. He had breakfast and we talked while I was working on the border of the Meadow blanket. I phoned my mother. I started watching a Zoom thing I had missed on Thursday. I even took notes. Then it was time for lunch:

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My husband is studying the big Italian cookbook in depth at the moment. The grocery list is growing exponentially and I’m seeing a lot of gorgeous meals in my future. Also, a bit of work with cooking.

I die the dishes with the boy’s help. He has been telling me about the new video game he got. Then I started planning for March and for this week.And copying some lists into my new journal. And refilling two fountain pens. And then it was time for dinner. And watching ‚Star Trek: Enterprise‘. This one was another snooze-worthy episode. I think this might have been the third or fourth episode where one crew member is the only one awake on the whole ship. Horror! Hallucinations! Weird and improbably interactions between people and then it turns out it wasn’t real after all!

After that I watched the last two episodes of ‚The King’s Avatar‘. I’m still finding it excellent even though a lot of the loose threads just remained loose. Like, what’s with his twin brother? Why don’t we see him ever again? How can a big club be sold within a few hours? What happened to Su Mucheng’s brother?

I guess I’ll never know.

Now I have to decide what to watch next, or if I should maybe pause the Netflix bingeing in favor of doing other things. Like sleeping, maybe. Stay tuned.

Today there will be the running, maybe the cutting of my husband’s hair. Some teaching. Finding something new to play for a student. Writing, blogging and a Facebook live-thing in the evening.

This week will be slightly crazy. My schedule is full of teaching and evening video call things. Every evening but Friday. So yeah, I better don’t start watching a new series…

Filed Under: daily journal

Saturday, February 27: At least there was writing

February 28, 2021 by Susanne Leave a Comment

I woke up around six, got out of bed because I had decided to do yoga first, took my thyroid meds, thawed a handful of blueberries, sat down at the kitchen table and did the whole ‚stare into space‘-thing for half an hour or so.

Decided that movement was not going to happen, got dressed and had breakfast. Then opened my laptop and started writing on my novel. Win!

My husband showed up when I had only one minute of my pomodoro left and yelled at me for leaving the porch door open. And the heaters on. Basically, the poor heaters in the living room tried heating the outdoors for 45 minutes or so. Oops. No idea how that happened, I usually make sure to close all the windows about four minutes after opening them. And I did, all the other windows were shut.

So my husband expressed the deep-seated feeling that the whole house would fall apart if he didn’t supervise everything. It made for a fun hour first thing in the morning.

I have to admit I’m even more confused than usual. It’s not that I’m not trying but there is a reason I am reading yet another book about organization for people with ADHD. There is also a reason why I live by lists and checklists and my bullet journal. On the other hand while that was a bad mistake nobody died. Everybody makes mistakes from time to time. For someone who is scatterbrained I’m usually pretty good at taking care of all those tiny moving parts.

I started crocheting the border on the Meadow blanket and am liking it very much. I played Duolingo for a bit, did the dishes, sorted the recycling and restocked the fridge with alcohol free beer and soda. Put a load of laundry in. Then I went for my run. The plan was to do 5.8 k of intervals. Slow and fast running. In reality I ran for about 400 meters and then lost all will to live. Walked for about 2 k and turned back around. I just couldn’t be bothered. I forgot to take a picture.

Walked back home to a husband who was still stressed out and refused all help. Took a shower and then waited for lunch:

IMG 2275

Hung up laundry, couldn’t be bothered to do the dishes. The friend I had wanted to hang out with over video chat couldn’t make it, so I made big plans of more writing and doing all the things. In the end I spent most of the afternoon reading stuff on the internet, crocheting and watching Youtube videos. Practiced Chinese a bit more.

Then the boy and I watched and episode of ‚Eternal Love‘ while eating dinner. This one was rather good again. Things are heating up. We’re only four episodes away from the end.

Then the boy and I did all the dishes, I started writing this post and then watched an episode of ‚The King’s Avatar‘. I managed to go to bed on time, even.

Today there will be the weekly phone call with my mother, more crochet, the planning of the week and the next month and maybe some more writing.

Filed Under: daily journal

Friday, February 26: Well, the house is clean

February 27, 2021 by Susanne Leave a Comment

I think I might have dozed off again after turning the alarm off but I’m not sure. I am sure that I woke up at 5.20 but it took me ages to get out of bed. I wrote my morning pages and then somehow I was late and couldn’t do yoga. Boo. When I had breakfast almost ready I realized that I had forgotten m thyroid meds. So I had to wait for thirty more minutes.

The boy texted me that he was up at 6.50 but didn’t show so I went upstairs twenty minutes later and found him still in bed. Good thing that it was a day of distance learning. School in pajamas. Another good thing is that he doesn’t have to turn his camera on.

My husband came over just as the boy was going back upstairs, we talked some, then I did the huge stack of dirty dishes from the day before (took me 45 minutes) and started cleaning. I barely made a dent in that until it was time to help with the pizza making. Pizza was delicious. Tuna for my husband and me:

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Mushrooms for the boy:

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With the boy’s help I did all the dishes again, took a very short break and taught my first student. Then I got overwhelmed by everything I wanted and needed to do and spent half an hour on the internet until pulling myself together somewhat. I hung up a load of laundry, changed the sheets on my bed and cleaned the house. It’s still not what my grandmother (and mother) would call clean but better than before.

I did not do anything else. I had a list but that had not included 45 minutes of washing dishes or an afternoon cleaning, so I guess it’s alright.

I taught my second student of the day and then watched an episode of ‚Torchwood‘ with the boy. Watched two episodes of „The King’s Avatar“ while the boy took a shower and such, finally got to look at the border for the Meadow CAL, started writing this post, wrote in my bullet journal and went to bed.

I am hoping to get some more things done today. There will be running in the morning, rice and chicken salad for lunch and a virtual knitting meeting with a dear friend in the afternoon. I will probably start crocheting the border on the Meadow blanket. Tonight the boy and I will watch an episode of ‚Eternal Love’

I know my life might seem boring but I’m rather happy with it.

Filed Under: daily journal

Thursday, February 25: Things might be looking up, maybe?

February 26, 2021 by Susanne Leave a Comment

Woke up at 5.30, not enough sleep again. Note to self: get up from your chair immediately after turning the TV off. No, I mean it. Really.

Did that thing where I lie in bed staring at the ceiling much longer than usual. I had to think about the fact that music schools will be allowed to go back to in-person lessons starting next week. Before the end of ‚lockdown‘. While the numbers which had been steadily declining in a very good fashion have been climbing again starting the week before.

Right.

Um, my husband and I are feeling extremely bad about this and have decided to not offer in-person lessons next week. Most of the students I talked with are completely on board so far. Two of my singing students recoiled in horror at the thought of standing in the same room, blasting aerosols at each other. Even with masks and open windows I’d say this is far from safe.

I finally managed morning pages, yoga and meditation. I had to shorten my meditation to three minutes but three minutes are better than nothing.

Made breakfast and fetched the boy who was late. He was sitting in front go his computer at 7 in the morning fully dressed trying to cram for a test about „Much Ado about Nothing“. Apparently he was supposed to know exactly what happened in each scene by heart. Fun! He also left a little late…

Then there was crochet and talking with my husband while he was eating breakfast. I practiced Chinese for half an hour, did the breakfast dishes, ordered some stuff online, talked with my mother-in-law briefly who is feeling fine after her vaccination, and then walked off to the supermarket.

I was wearing my new red boots!

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I had ordered them in September and hadn’t even tried them on yet. I had been waiting for a special occasion to wear them and yesterday I decided that walking to the supermarket in gorgeous spring weather had to be special enough. I’m happy to say that they fit and don’t chafe anywhere so far.

Back from the supermarket my husband told me that lunch would be late. I helped form the dumplings and yes, lunch was very late. It was a lot of work, though:

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We had a whole chicken with filling. The potato dumplings were from a package. So there was almost no break after lunch and no time to do the dishes.

I thought I’d have a long, long day of teaching ahead but then two students canceled and I had a nice comfy break right in the middle. That was nice.

Started writing this post, had dinner, watched some Chinese TV again, gave up on the dishes and went to bed almost on time.

Today there will be the cleaning of the poor, neglected house, teaching only two students and maybe something productive in between.

Filed Under: daily journal

Wednesday, February 24: Seems I can’t make myself do hard things at the moment

February 25, 2021 by Susanne Leave a Comment

I did wake up early-ish, wrote morning pages, did yoga and meditated, so that was good. I had gone to bed too late again, so that was bad.

The morning went well.

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I crocheted and I finally wrote an email to a friend that I had been wanting to write for ages. Turned out to be not that big a deal. Said friend is the main reason I bought tulips the day before. The picture she had posted made me realize I wanted some too:

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I went running/walking. My training plan said to do interval training with slower and faster running intervals. I trotted along for five minutes or so before something in me decided it had enough. From then on I mostly walked. Couldn’t make myself run.

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The weather was gorgeous and so warm that I didn’t wear a jacket.

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At one point I realized the main reason I can’t make myself do hard things these days is because life itself feels like I’m playing in hard mode. We all are. So maybe, in times like these it is alright to just walk for exercise. Or to not write fiction. Maybe. I’m not giving up yet.

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My husband made lunch while I took a shower:

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That is falafel, potatoes, peas and carrots and leftover Brussels sprouts.

I did the dishes right away because I knew I wouldn’t want to do it after the really long teaching day I would have. I took a short break and then taught one student after the other until 7. Went upstairs to see how my mother-in-law was doing after her covid shot. She was fine. Then I ate dinner, did more dishes, started writing this post, wrote in my journal, watched an episode of „The King’s Avatar“ and went to bed.

Today there will be the walk to the supermarket. My husband is planning to cook a chicken and there will be potato dumplings (from a package – I have yet to master the art of making dumplings). Then there will be a lot of teaching again.

Filed Under: daily journal

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Subscribe to know when Susanne’s next book comes out

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