creative.mother.thinking

I went to bed a little late but slept in and got almost eight hours, not bad.

I then had a super slow morning which led to me skipping yoga again.

There was breakfast and the realization that I had knitted 15 rounds more on the leg of the sock-in-progress than I had wanted. Because it turned out I had miscounted rounds on the first sock. And then it turned out my husband actually likes shorter cuffs on his socks. Good to know.

I talked to my mother on the phone but only briefly because we’ll meet in person today, and then I helped a little with making lunch. Which was late. I should maybe stop calling it that because by now we might be hitting a new regular lunchtime:

The thing that is not on this photo are the bell peppers stuffed with feta cheese. They weren’t ready in time, and words were exchanged about the fact that we always have to eat the baked potatoes cold because my husband always starts cooking with making those. And he only put the peppers in the oven after the potatoes were done.

The boy really liked them, apparently.

All throughout the day I was putting more stuff on the pile of things I wanted to take with me. The last tasks were to refill shampoo and conditioner and put all my medication in my bag, and charge all the things. A task that went on all the way until this morning.

My husband decided that he didn’t want to eat in the dining car on the way because the boy had had a train without one last week. But that was a completely different kind of train, and also we’ll be having ample time to get food somewhere when changing trains. But no. So he did some more cooking.

I packed everything up, it all fits in my small 16 liter backpack, even my purse and the knitting project. I did not manage to start said project so I guess I’ll do that today on the train.

Talking with my husband made me feel weird for not taking more things. I should pack the ukulele! And another change of clothes! And some running gear! And bigger toiletries!

But no, I can wash stuff if I need to, I can also wear the leggings and t-shirt I’m taking as pajamas in a pinch and things will be fine. I am taking more stuff than I did in April, not only did I add the tablet computer back in (which adds another kilo of weight) I am also taking all this contact lens stuff and two kinds of eye drops. Well, needs must.

In the evening I gave my writer friend a piano lesson over video call, then met the boy for bodyweight training, ate dinner, hung around reading for a while, then finally took a shower, started writing this post, made a list for today, spent a little time revising, and went to bed.

And now we’re off to Northern Germany while the boy is taking proper care of the house.

I didn’t know it was about twice as long as feasible.

It was the usual thing, I had been pushing a list of things that need to be done from day to day, and today is the hard deadline. Because we’ll be traveling tomorrow.

So. I did go to bed an hour late but slept for a little over eight hours again. Score! Of course that made me late in the morning. I still did my complete morning routine, not manuscript time, though.

There was breakfast with one of those conversations that husband and I both would have loved to have skipped, we’re both a bit stressed at the moment.

I did the breakfast dishes, sorted recycling, folded a load of laundry and hung up part of another one and then, just as I wanted to go out for my walk/run there was a thunderstorm.

I’m not dumb enough to run through the woods in that on purpose. But my husband had just come back from his run and said that the storm was passing us to the south. If I waited for ten minutes I would be good.

Well, I did get rained on a bit but he was right, no thunder and lightning, phew:

When I came back we were already late with lunch but there was still time to take a shower before eating:

This was the rest of the lamb from the other day (the boy got tomato sauce only) and pasta from my mother-in-law’s pantry. We still had leftover capellini from another day, so there is a lot of leftover pasta in the fridge right now.

My husband had spent most of the morning and all of the afternoon going through his mother’s kitchen. Several weeks in he is still finding more perishables. And we haven’t even gotten started on the freezer but that will keep a bit longer.

I did help him a little with decisions, and I also advised him to just put all the bits of paper into a box to look at later. It is important to get all the spoiled food out of the house but if we look at the papers this week or not doesn’t make much of a difference.

After lunch I sat down to play some Genshin again and came away extremely frustrated having failed spectacularly fighting the same boss as the day before. In the end I gave up and handed the boy the controller. Who determined that the problem was a) I was using the wrong weapon, b) said weapon wasn’t leveled up enough, and c) the controls on the controller make playing that kind of fight extra hard.

Anyway, he did manage to slay the boss for me, phew.

I did more dishes, carried all of my mother-in-law’s paperwork back into her living room and put it in neat piles, preparing to sort it later.

But.

I also was determined to do at least a cursory cleaning of the house. I had vacuumed the old part before (thought it was already looking dirty again) and my husband had said he’d do the annex. But he was so tied up in all the decluttering that I just took the vacuum and ran it through the middles. And I cleaned the washbasins and toilets, phew.

Meanwhile my husband did a second round through the garden to show the boy what and how to water.

And then we all met for dinner and the penultimate episode of ‚Columbo‘. I had high hopes for this one about a composer and conductor for the movies but it did have some lengths.

After that my husband took over the kitchen to make baba ganush from the eggplant he grilled the day before while I sat in the living room at my dedicated writing desk and started writing this post. I also did a teensy bit of revision, made a list for today and played more Genshin.

I did not refill my travel toiletries and have reached the stage of packing where it feels like it will never come together. I have a big untidy pile of things on the spare bed and need to compare that to my list. I also need to move stuff around from my purse. I’m not quite sure if I should take the purse or a lighter and smaller sling. I will definitely not lug everything around that is my everyday carry.

So, today is packing day. And started the travel knitting day. But we already decided against making wine jelly and apple sauce. There is just no time.

And – as always – of course I did things, doing nothing is pretty much impossible.

I did get enough sleep, and that did me good but also made me sluggish again.

I wrote half-hearted morning pages and skipped yoga and meditation. I ate breakfast with my husband and knitted a few rounds on the current sock, cut my husband’s hair, and then went online before doing the breakfast dishes around noon.

And only then did I brush my teeth.

Husband had planned to fire up the grill for lunch but only after doing some more decluttering perishables in his mother’s kitchen and going for a run.

So lunch was rather late. I did help a bit with sorting, washing and chopping ingredients.

We actually did eat outside even though it was raining pretty heavily at this point. Good thing we have two outside seating areas with roofs over them, one house the grill and the other one our table:

It was cozier than it sounds.

After that I read for a bit, ate some chocolate, and then played a quest in Genshin Impact until it was too late to vacuum before my one student of the day.

Teaching was nice and then the boy and I were supposed to meet for bodyweight training. He asked if it was okay to move it back 15 minutes which gave me the perfect opportunity to vacuum the apartment.

Then I ate dinner, asked the boy to do the dishes and played some more Genshin. I tried that one boss three frustrating times and failed and decided to call it a day.

I started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed at a reasonable time.

I also finished reading „A Restless Truth“ by Freya Marske and really liked it. And started the next book in the series right away. And I charged my power bank and my ebook reader to prep for our trip.

Oh, and I started revising book 1 in the new Urban Fantasy series. Very exciting!

I was also extremely low on energy, I slept for nine hours straight and then my body demanded more rest.

Since I slept in I skipped yoga and meditation, husband and I had a leisurely breakfast, and then I just couldn’t get myself going.

I did eventually get outside for a walk/run:

The weather was gorgeous and too hot again:

It was rather hot but I am pretty happy with my fitness. I am slowly vamping up again, though that will mean doing easy training until next week, then a week off, more easy training for a week and then – a break for the second cataract surgery.

Well, it is what it is.

Husband had been out running (and swimming) as well and so lunch was rather late. He cooked it in the tajine again, and it was delicious:

I read for a bit and knitted a little, and then talked with the boy while he ate his lunch before following my husband’s suggestion to go out for ice cream. Which meant a nice short walk, then sitting outside on a bench while eating and talking about the boy’s time with my mother and a leisurely stroll back.

After that the boy and I talked about Genshin and he cleared some endgame levels for me and answered all my many questions.

Meanwhile my husband had started cleaning his mother’s fridge. Which turned out to be a bigger task than he thought. And then we realized that there was a whole big drawer of baking ingredients underneath the fridge. So I looked through that as well and threw most of it away because it was no longer good.

I mean, I sympathize with owning five bags of grated almonds and four packets of grated chocolate more than I used to because I tend to buy ingredients for Christmas cookies every year and then I don’t actually bake them. But we usually go through what we have before buying more.

And most importantly: only one bag or packet is every opened at a time, and when something expires we throw it away.

There was a newspaper clipping in that drawer about which ingredients can be used even after their best by-date expires.

And then it was time to tick the rest of my list off: wind a skein of sock yarn into a ball, deal with the three pieces of paperwork for my mother-in-law that are urgent and fold all the laundry.

I had already finalized my packing list for next week in the morning and had spent some time throughout the day putting stuff I want to take with me on a dedicated pile.

I then played some more Genshin and went to bed.

Huh, it felt like a day where I didn’t get anything done but in hindsight that’s just not true, isn’t it?