creative.mother.thinking

Because I didn’t get much done.

Or at least that’s what it feels like.

Since I only went to bed at 1.30 I was pretty low on energy. Also sore everywhere from the bike ride the day before. I’m assuming that three minutes of swimming don’t make much of a difference.

So I was very, very slow all day.

I wrote morning pages, did yoga and meditated, then ate breakfast with my husband and we talked a little longer.

I called my mother and told her all about my exciting two weeks. I did the breakfast dishes, cut my fingernails, and read „Rules for Ghosting“ while waiting for the boy. Since my husband was meeting a friend for lunch the boy and I decided to go to the nearby pizza place.

Very yummy:

And I’d say the fact that everybody else in the restaurant spoke Italian was a good sign. All the Germans were probably at the lakes, or something.

We resisted the temptation to eat dessert or walk a little further for ice cream and then I read some more, played my video game and somehow the whole afternoon was gone.

There was a little break when I heard thunder outside, and since my husband wasn’t home I closed the greenhouse, pulled the tomato pots under cover and got the drying laundry inside.

The boy and I did bodyweight training. I was not at my best with the soreness all over but I did it.

The plan was to clean some, deal with laundry, plan the week, write for at least an hour and all that but in the end I sat there and watched one YouTube video after the other.

Oh, I also resubscribed to YouTube Premium, my subscription had gone up in price by 5 € and it turned out subscribing in my browser made the whole thing much cheaper than subscribing through the app. That often happens when doing subscriptions through the Apple store, meh.

And I booked a hotel room for our trip to my mother in August, talked briefly with my husband when he came back, tried to make myself get up from the kitchen bench so I could write at my desk in the living room while the boy made himself ramen, realized the soy milk had gone off and he had to through everything away and start over, and all through that I was watching more and more videos.

At least I gave up at some point, started writing this post, planned the week ahead, played my video game some more but not for long and went to bed.

And time got a bit away from me so this will be just a short post.

Weirdly enough I slept through my alarm and got – eight hours of sleep.

Did all the morning things (apart from writing) and was very determined to do everything very efficiently so that we could leave the house at 11.

We did not leave the house at 11.

I did force myself to open the manuscript after breakfast and then didn’t want to stop writing. I had such a cool idea!

And then my husband and I took our bikes and rode them all the way to Wörthsee. It took us roughly 75 minutes to get there. We were both very happy that the biking itself felt easier than we remembered. Since we haven’t biked much lately that must be a result of generally better cardio fitness, exercise works.

It was very, very hot. But quite a bit of the way went through the woods which was much cooler and nicer.

We decided to eat lunch first:

Husband always takes the pork roast (which was excellent) but I decided to try the Kasspatzn. I stuck to alcohol-free beer, I didn’t want to drink alcohol in the heat while thirsty.

Afterwards we got ourselves some ice cream on our way to the beach where we wanted to go swimming. Note to self: next time we should totally get the ice cream at the kiosk near the other part of the beach because that one is much better.

This is the spot where we sat on the jetty:

It looks more idyllic than it actually was because I tried to get as few people in the picture as possible. You have to imagine many, many people on all sides of this, their towels on the grass so close to one another that there was just enough space to walk between them.

And then it was time for swimming and we walked a few minutes along the lake to spread our towels in the grass as well, change into bathing suits and go into the water.

Speaking of bathing suits, my husband had actually forgotten his. He had done preparations in two stages, I had fetched the bike pannier from the shed and that threw him off. He ended up taking three shirts and no bathing shorts. So he went swimming in his regular shorts and it was warm enough that biking back in wet shorts was not a problem.

I had originally thought that getting back home in time for my weekly writer Zoom would not be a problem.

I mean, I did make it and I also had enough time to take a shower beforehand, but just barely.

Writer Zoom was very nice and we actually talked about writing. I also had a lot to tell about last week where I was away and this week with the lake adventure.

Then I ate dinner, I played too much Genshin, decided to skip my second writing session of the day, and decided with the boy to go out together for lunch today.

I went to bed way too late again, just around midnight. The boy and I were talking and a part of me just wanted some alone-time, you know how it is.

In the morning I kept being tired and hot and slow, so while I did force myself to do the usual morning pages, yoga (10 minutes) and meditation (5 minutes), that was it.

Talked with my husband over breakfast, found out that I had forgotten I had promised to make gnocchi from scratch and became even more cranky than before.

I did find my bathing suit and new bathing shoes, though, so that’s good. It might also be a good idea to try the suit on before venturing outside with it but if it is too big I’m screwed because the other one I own is much smaller. I would need to lose at least 10 kilos (22 pounds) to fit into it.

Anyway. I had big plans to vacuum and clean washbasins and toilets but ended up not doing that.

I did finish weaving the ends in on my new sweater and washed it and a skein of yarn I had plied a while ago.

While doing that I found that the washbasin I used was leaking profoundly. Some time in the afternoon I removed the cupboard underneath the sink and put a bucket there. And I have to tell you, I really should clean under that cupboard more often, it was filthy under there and, of course, wet.

On the bright side, this warrants calling a plumber which means we could also ask him to fix the leaking faucet in the kitchen and when I looked at the company’s website I saw that they are doing heating as well and install heat pumps and solar. So the plan is to ask them to fix our faucets and then talk to them about other possibilities.

My husband had started cooking the potatoes right after breakfast, so after washing my sweater and doing the dishes (At least that faucet is only constantly dripping into the sink. Much easier to deal with.) I started making the gnocchi dough and formed the gnocchi.

Husband came back when I was almost done with that.

He had ran to the local small lake, then gone swimming, and ran all the way back. In the midday heat.

He made the sauce and I made the gnocchi and we had a lovely lunch that was actually almost on time:

We talked a little longer, then I sat and played my video game and felt bad about not doing the dishes.

I had intermittent teaching all afternoon, two students, then a break because my husband was teaching my next student, then another student, another break, another student and that was it.

With that student he is good enough on guitar that he really should get lessons from my husband but my husband doesn’t really have any time for additional students. So we are trying something new, when the other student my husband teaches in that time-slot can’t make it, he teaches my student.

I did not use my time well that afternoon, the only thing I did get done was folding the laundry. Meh. Oh, and I refilled two fountain pens.

After my last student I sat around some more, talked with my husband a little, then did bodyweight training with the boy, ate a quick dinner with too much chocolate, and met my writer friend for another writing sprint.

I had to drag myself to the manuscript kicking and screaming but I ended up with some new words, at least.

Husband offered to do the dishes this time,

Then there was reading and playing Genshin and not much else, and then bed.

And today is the day where we bike to Wörthsee, go for a swim and bike back. My friend from New York was a bit flabberghasted that we were planning to bike for a total of 3 hours (I’m actually not quite sure how long it will take) but then we used to do that in the evenings after dinner all the time.

Anyways, I guess you’ll hear all about it tomorrow.

And that was just the first day of many hot days in a row.

I have to say, though, my new fan is really helping, now that I moved it further away from where I sit while teaching, it makes the room feel cooler.

I went to bed so late, it was terrible. I got hyperfocused on playing my video game and kept doing just one more thing over and over.

I did sleep very well, though, more sleep pressure makes for better sleep. Jmpf.

In the morning I was in a bad mood and very slow again, husband keeps having FOMO and I keep resenting it because I don’t have FOMO at all. Also, if I want to travel somewhere or do something I might just do it on my own whereas my husband is the kind of person who’d rather do it with someone else.

In the end we decided to bike to a lake on Sunday and go swimming. Which means I will have to unearth my (new) bathing suit. I lost a little weight since I bought it but it should still be fine. (I am wearing my jeans a size smaller but I think bathing suits are more forgiving.)

I am dreading the whole thing because it will be hot and full of people and loud but I also am looking forward to teating my new bathing shoes and use that bathing suit for the second or third time since I bought it.

I had many plans for yesterday (of course, and yes, the trip to the lake tomorrow is replacing other plans that I had before) but things did not quite go as I wished.

Husband and I talked longer than expected, which was fine, and then he did the dishes instead of me, I started a load of laundry with all the cleaning cloths that had gotten wet under the sink, and walked to the nearby supermarket.

Came back home, unpacked, the boy came back from uni right when lunch was ready and the three of us ate outside together which is a rare event:

I did forget to finish the sweater I worked on the day before but I’m hoping to remember later today.

After lunch I played a bit, my first student canceled, so I hung the laundry up and contemplated the dishes but I didn’t do them. I did eat the bag of coated peanuts I bought and had meant to be my dinner, and some gummy bears, though. Meh.

I dusted the house, talked with my husband some more, taught three more students, briefly talked with my husband some more and went to my online writing meeting with my friend right away.

There I started this post first, then switched to the manuscript. I’m fighting the current scene, it is one that is in book one but needs to be in book two as well, only from a different viewpoint. And I definitely don’t want to repeat every line of dialogue but also all the important bits need to be there.

I did as best as I could while being exhausted and tired.

After that I did the dishes, then drank a beer and ate some extra cheese, made a list for today, played some more and went to bed.

Nothing serious, though.

It felt like I had not gotten enough sleep and what I got was not the best but my smartwatch claims I got a little over eight hours. Okay?

I was slow again and decided to shunt writing after breakfast.

Over breakfast my husband aired a few complaints. Because I was away all weekend I feel like not seeing anyone at all whereas he feels like he needs more social interaction and those are competing needs. While we were talking I started weaving the ends in on a sweater I finished knitting 14 months ago. It still needs a bit of work but not all that much.

I did the usual morning things but talking with my husband a little longer than usual had not left any time for writing. no problem, I had a later than usual start to my teaching day so I’d just write a little after lunch.

I did the dishes and such and then went outside for my walk/run. The plan was to do a 58-minute workout. The same one I did on Monday.

I left the house, I listened to music, I started the app on my phone. Ten minutes in I looked at the screen and it told me I had 68 more minutes to go.

Oops.

My phone decided to not let me repeat the workout, it decided I should do the harder one that I had planned to do on Saturday.

I am very proud of me. I just stopped the app, chose a shorter workout more or less randomly and followed that until an arbitrary point and then just turned around until I was back home.

But I had looked forward to that run and walk and had wanted to compare it to the one before but I didn’t get to.

At home husband was in turbo-stress mode but told me to go ahead and take a shower first.

I later learned that he would have preferred for me to help him first and shower later but I didn’t know that.

I showered, then I helped with salad and herbs in a hurry:

Lunch was pretty late. Late enough that when I decided to do the dishes first before taking a break the break that was left was a 5-minute one. Oops.

When I was getting ready to teach my husband showed up, saying that he couldn’t unlock his basement computer because the keyboard wasn’t working. And that the same had happened the day before.

I have no idea why but plugging the keyboard into another socket helped. Maybe the keyboard is broken, I don’t know.

Then I taught all my students and that went well.

Only at one point there was a beep and afterwards I couldn’t get a wifi connection.

Husband again, saying that the power was out for a short time and now he couldn’t load YouTube.

Well, the router was restarting. Phew.

When I was packing my stuff up after work my laptop’s screen was black and the computer wouldn’t react to anything. I tried to restart, I made sure it was plugged in, no dice.

In my head I was already rearranging my week to include a trip to Munich to get my laptop repaired but then I decided to try a different charger.

The computer had only 1% batter left. No idea what happened and that is another thing I need to check out today.

Afterwards I cleaned the mirrors and then wanted to dust the house. Superficially.

I opened the cabinet under the bathroom sink to get a dust rag out and – every single rag in that bucket was dripping wet. Also, a few other things I had stored under the sink had been wet.

The days before I had scolded the boy for washing his hands to sloppily because there had been things getting wet under the sink.

Seems it was not the boy’s handwashing technique. And no, I have no idea what it was, we’ll probably look at it some time today.

Maybe mercury is in retrograde or something.

So I made a list for today, I started writing this post, and then I opened my manuscript and stared at it for ten minutes before playing Genshin for the first time that day.

And then I fell into bed.

Oh, and along the way, yesterday I somehow bought three new novels. Two are part of the series I am currently reading and the last one is „Rules for Ghosting“ that a friend recommended online.

It feels a little as if I’m sliding back into bad habits. Which wouldn’t be surprising because those are way more ingrained at this point.

But. Despite going to bed too late yet again (and how I hate that fact) I did do my complete morning routine including a little manuscript time.

I started turning the heel on the sock-in-progress and after doing the dishes I only left fifteen minutes late for an epic grocery run.

First I went to the drugstore for interdental brushes and something for my mother-in-law, swung by a supermarket for yogurt, frozen mushrooms and some fake meat, and then all the way to the tea shop to pick up the two pounds of Darjeeling/Chinese mix that I ordered the day before plus two pounds of my husband’s everyday Darjeeling and some green tea for the boy.

When you buy two pounds at once there is a 10% discount, so that can be worth it for the tea that we drink every day. We did not buy two pounds of green tea, though.

Carrying all of that I went to the health food store and got the usual food plus a big bag of muesli and some other heavy stuff.

It’s a good thing I have a sturdy backpack.

At home husband was surprised I was back so early, so I had to unpack while he was in the most stressful phase of cooking. Again. Sometimes I think that phase of cooking wouldn’t be as stressful if I wasn’t unpacking at that point which is understandable. Having a second person in the kitchen walking back and forth and cluttering the whole table with stuff that needs to be put away is stressful and distracting.

Anyway, we had potatoes, fish, peas and carrots:

Then I only had a little time for reading and gaming before it was time to teach.

I had more breaks bettween students than usual, one didn’t show at all, and two canceled at the last minute, so I was finished an hour earlier than expected.

The boy and I moved our strength training to an earlier time slot but I still spent the time between teaching and training and the time between training and my evening routine mostly on social media.

I did eat dinner early, though, before working out which was good, and I also brushed my teeth pretty early but then my willpower left the building.

So I ended the day with a less completed task list than I had hoped but on the other hand the most important things got done and that is what counts.

Today should bring quite a bit more teaching and a little more exercise. Hopefully a better working executive function as well, we’ll see.