creative.mother.thinking

I did wake up half an hour before the alarm and wrote my morning pages. No fiction writing, though. Breakfast, five minutes of meditation, knitting, my husband’s breakfast, the usual. We decided to not build a fire because it was unseasonably warm and we were planning to make pizza. Not something you cook on a stove.

Not building a fire made us pretty early, which was good. My husband made the pizza dough before going for his run (excellent plan) and I cleaned the house. Well, some of it anyway.

When he came back around noon we immediately started with the pizza. We were both pretty shaken from all the fighting over cooking throughout the week and didn’t want a repeat.

So we started early, made pizza in complete harmony and managed to get lunch ready early. I’m thinking the key might be that I need to approach the cooking as if I were cooking alone with all the thinking and planning, even when my husband is head cook on something. Pizza was really tasty:

Unfortunately after that there was barely enough time to take a shower and get ready for teaching, no washing of dishes. Oh, and I published the podcast and announced it on social media.

Then back to back students until six. Then strength training. With the boy! He hadn’t done any strength training for a year or so and it is starting to show. His shoulders are sloping again and there might be a hint of paunch. So I tricked him today over lunch. I said, „So, tonight at six, do you want to do strength training alone in your room or together downstairs?”

He said, „I don#t mind doing it together.“ And so I got him. Since I’m me I also explained to him what I had done and that that is a strategy that is often helpful in getting people to do what you want them to. They get a choice but they don’t really get to say no.

So, after my last student he came downstairs and we worked out. Not that I really wanted to at that point, I was exhausted and hungry and wanted to be done with the week. I still don’t regret doing it. But getting back to form will take some time.

I’m also very proud of the boy because he brought home a Latin test that’s a C and a math test that’s an A. Very good. There might be a Latinum in this for him after all.

Then we ate leftover pizza in front of TV while watching Star Trek and I spun my advent calendar fiber.

There were still all those dishes and bakings sheets to clean (and the oven – roasting a whole chicken did leave some residue after all). And I still needed to write my daily words. I’m happy that I wrote every day for the whole week, less happy that I only wrote for 15 minutes each day. But hey, at that pace writing one of the novels in the series will only take 237 days.

Today there will be running (still not sure if I should attempt 9 k or not), the making of chili and guacamole, spinning, writing, watching more Star Trek and the packing for tomorrow’s spinning meeting. Which might include mending a pair of handspun socks, blocking a shawl and carding the rest of the fiber for the cowl. Well, for the first color for the cowl.

I should take good care not to fall into my usual Saturday afternoon slump, then.

I only woke up from the alarm and would have preferred staying asleep to be honest. So I skipped the morning pages. My plan had been to only write before breakfast and do nothing else. My intention had been very firm and I had pictured myself while doing it, you know, like you’re supposed to.

And then I woke up feely totally woolyheaded and just couldn’t do it.

I did write for fifteen minutes but only after I had gone online, and I only managed 230 words during that time.

I was a little late in making breakfast but the tea was just ready when the boy showed up. Phew.

Since I really had to finish reading „The Omega Objection“ I lost some more time after breakfast but I did meditate and then started preparing the podcast in earnest.

I did also finish knitting a hat while my husband was having his breakfast:

Interestingly this fits both me and my husband even though we have completely different size heads. He likes it.

Then I started a pair of fingerless mitts from the leftover yarn but had to rip the first three rows back.

I did dishes and talked to my husband and went grocery shopping. I still was feeling fuzzy and the whole grocery shop seemed to be full of people standing in the way while chatting to each other.

Then I came home, started to unpack the groceries and had yet another misunderstanding with my husband. This week we have fought while making dinner each and every day. Not because of some big rift between us, just because we are not really compatible in the way we do practical things and communicate them. Today’s conversation went like, „Do you think we need to precook the lentils?“ „Um, I think we should start now.“ And that set off a heated one hour conversation while we were both frantically cooking.

Nope, not much fun. Especially when you cook Spätzle  from scratch on a wood stove. My husband has been complaining about being way too hot standing there in front of the stove, and I get it. But today I ended up with big, angry, red patches on my thighs. They have started to fade so I guess I’ll be okay.

We did agree on only making Spätzle on the electric stove top in the future. Lunch did taste wonderful, even though we switched pots midway and had no salt in the pasta pot and salt in the lentil pot:

The boy had lunch with his grandmother. We did make some extra for him, though, and he ate that for dinner.

Then I took a little break and then went on to record the podcast. I finished just in time for my first student. I had briefly tried using a new microphone for recording but there were too many variables. Finding out how to set everything up properly was stressing me, so I just used my regular old mike instead.

I had another break after that first student and started getting the podcast ready for publishing, and since the boy was busy walking his grandmother to the doctor (she seems to be having that dreaded cold that we all got and is feeling weak because of it), he missed his piano lesson.

Then more students, and more podcast.

My husband had been really nice and had done the dishes twice and hung up the load of laundry he had thrown in around noon. When I showed up again after my teaching day was done everything was all tidied up and clean. I’m really grateful for that.

I actually got the podcast all ready last night and it will go live in the afternoon.

Then I spun my daily advent calendar fiber while watching some videos, started writing this and went to bed barely in time for my 10 pm bedtime. I have to say that I much prefer 9 pm but at the moment I just can’t do it.

The boy just told me the other day that he has now found out how to get adequate sleep: he needs to get ready for bed at eight and turn the lights out at nine. He feels a little foolish doing this because that is the exact same bedtime routine he used to have years ago.

Well, welcome to my world. I feel best when I turn out the lights at nine as well.

Today there will be writing and cleaning and helping my husband make pizza from scratch. Yes, he said he wouldn’t do it anymore. Yes, we probably will start fighting again, even if we both try not to as hard as we can. And I just remembered that we might not have any tuna for the pizza. Well. Then we’ll have to put other things on it instead.

Today will be really busy yet again (and I hope really productive as well – I like productive). Lots of students. My husband will have to go out to the youth center and watch students of his play rock music again. The boy and I will stay in and watch ‚Star Trek‘. I’m really looking forward to that.

I woke up at 5.35 again and wrote morning pages. Managed to get up on time, wrote 400 words, had breakfast, meditated and watched a few minutes of the book cover design course before my husband showed up. Then I knitted on the handspun hat I’m making for him.

Then it was time for epic erranding. I got yet another test contact from the optician, went to the bakery, and another bakery, the butcher and to a drug store where I met a woman that I did jazz dance with ages ago (I stopped when I was pregnant with the boy). We meet each other in the street every few months, She does feel a little unhappy to me and is one of those people that I can’t stop thinking about.

Then I went to a grocery store for oats and coffee creamer and to the health food store and back home where my husband was in bad need of clarified butter so I went back out to yet another grocery store. Phew.

Packed everything away and tried to help with lunch but there wasn’t much to do. We had potatoes, sauerkraut and Leber- und Blutwurst which is as Bavarian as it can get. I didn’t take a picture because a) I forgot and b) it doesn’t really look all that appetizing, It’s really good, though.

Then I procrastinated a bit, did my singing warm-up, taught a few students, printed new grocery lists, taught some more, made the boy practice piano, decided that I need a new spinning project for Sunday’s spinning meeting and started preparing an carding the fiber, started this post, waited for a webinar to start (this time on finances for women), and started to watch the webinar while spinning my advent calendar fiber:

I decided that the webinar was not something I needed, watched some things on youtube instead, did a ton of dishes and went to bed a little late.

On my list was also ‚drawing‘ and ‚mike test‘. I guess I’ll move that to today.

Today there will be running and teaching and yet another webinar. This one will be earlier, though.

Woke up at six after a long, wonderful night of sleep. As usual I spent the rest of the day in a mild fog because my body demanded more sleep ASAP. I did manage to get up early and meditate right after breakfast, then I started a new hat:

It’s very squishy, I mean, the yarn is. And what you’re seeing in the picture is just the gauge swatch, of course.

Then we started making lunch. We were roasting a chicken and that always takes a bit of time so we basically started right after breakfast. While the chicken was in the oven I did some yoga. It’s funny how much of a difference those 25 minutes make, even when I’m not doing them every week. I felt so good that my first thought was that I need to do some yoga every day. I’ll just squeeze that in somewhere…

Lunch was excellent with really good wine:

(That’s half a chicken with stuffing. Doesn’t look as good as it tasted.)

That was basically it for the day. I did spend a lot of time staring blankly into space, I read most of my way through a web comic the boy recommended (and now I will have to wait for new installments which is just agony), planned the upcoming week, talked with my husband while he was watching ski jumping, avoided writing and spinning and was rather happy when it was time to watch Star Trek with the boy. I spun my advent calendar fiber while drinking some new-to-me local beer:

Since I’m reading another Sarina Bowen book I turned the lights out half an hour late but at least I didn’t wait until I had finished the book.

Today there will be running and a little teaching and maybe a microphone test and writing and some learning and who knows, maybe I’ll even manage to practice again.

I woke up from the alarm and felt bleary-eyed and tired and that never really went away all day.

I did clean the house but it took me ages with a lot of breaks in between. And then I made pizza. I was really tired of the frozen ones so I made real pizza again.

No writing, no strength training, no music practice. Boo.

But the pizza was great:

And my mood got much better when my yarn package arrived for the Sweet Pea CAL that will start in January. I really love the colors and I’m really looking forward to that:

Then I took another break and let the dishes sit there all dirty.And then it was time to teach. All afternoon.

Then I saw yet another webinar, this one on book cover design and branding. I abandoned the webinar after less than thirty minutes because I just couldn’t focus. I’ll catch the replay later but have to say that as beautiful as that guy’s book covers were I could barely figure out the genre of the respective books. Not quite what I’m after.

We ate dinner and went to the concert at 7.30. When we arrived they hadn’t even started yet. Concert was better than expected

The opening band was actually quite good. As often you mostly could hear drums, then a wall of sound and a bit of the singing, um, growling. The main band wasn’t bad either but the sound was somewhat muddy again with the voice not coming through. We’ll all be listening to the CD to hear what we missed, though. (I have to say that if your guitar is so loud that you have constant feedback you can tell the technician to up the volume on the vocals all you want but it won’t help. You’ll just have a ton of feedback on them. I also have opinions on amplifying drums in a venue that small but, well it’s metal.)

Only after we arrived did I realize that I hadn’t thought about what I was wearing. Let’s say I was the only one in a fuzzy, orange, handspun sweater. My husband and the boy were blending in much better.

There were loads of guys with long hair, of course, and I got to explain to the boy why you don’t just let your hair grow all the way without a little trim once in a while.

All in all a more enjoyable evening than expected. It was a very good thing we took out earplugs, though, I even found a spare pair for the boy. My own dampen the volume without distorting the sound too much but they look really ridiculous. Well, better to look ridiculous than to lose your hearing.

I went to bed just after midnight and woke up at the usual time even though I had turned my alarm off. So I’ll probably spend the day in a stupor and will stop to be good for anything right after lunch.

Other than that there should be quite a bit of writing, and some running and the first look at the advent calendar. Maybe some music, even.