creative.mother.thinking

Fingers crossed I’ll be back in shape before my trip on Friday.

I had a pretty full day with my nose running non-stop, some sewing (not as much as I would have liked), a dental cleaning in the morning, lots of teaching including a potential new student, some manuscript time and some video game playing.

I don’t have the time or energy for a real post, sorry, but we did have a delicious lunch:

And now I need to run because I left the dishes unwashed last night, have an early start to teaching today and need to go to the health food store.

Maybe I will even sew the sleeves into the t-shirt but probably not.

And I helped the boy with exam prep. Crystallography. It’s all very weird.

But it was the non-productive part of the process.

I got almost eight hours of sleep but it wasn’t that great of a sleep. I felt sluggish all day and have a runny nose. Fingers crossed I’ll be back in shape for my trip on the weekend.

So my morning pages were late and everything was late, meditation, breakfast and all. Husband and I talked over breakfast and I knitted a bit, I talked to my mother on the phone and then hung up a load of laundry. It was a bit weird, the only thing of mine in there was a hoodie I had bought the day before.

Lunch was late but tasty:

Green beans from our garden, this was the third try of my husband’s to get green beans this year and this one was actually successful.

After lunch I took a break, then played Genshin. It was very frustrating, both things I attempted failed spectacularly.

And then I cut out all the pieces for two new t-shirts. When I ordered the fabric I had thought they would be more different:

the left one is mauve, by the way and the right one burgundy.

After cutting the fabric out I ate dinner and talked with my husband who had repaired the file cabinet under my desk in my studio, phew. He did the dishes while I was planning the week.

Planning the week also included making a packing list for next weekend and looking at the itinerary.

And then I had planned to start sewing but I felt so awful with my runny nose and low energy that I wasn’t sure. I did open the manuscript, though, so that was good.

This week will be slightly insane even without the addition of a cold, so we’ll see how that goes.

So just a quick sign of life.

I went for a walk in the woods:

I helped a bit with making lunch:

And I sewed for most of the afternoon and the skirt is finished:

I know this picture isn’t helpful at all, I’ll try to get one in daylight with me wearing it.

Today I’ll do more sewing, I still want to make two new t-shirts, so off I go.

So just a quick sign of life.

I went for a walk in the woods:

I helped a bit with making lunch:

And I sewed for most of the afternoon and the skirt is finished:

I know this picture isn’t helpful at all, I’ll try to get one in daylight with me wearing it.

Today I’ll do more sewing, I still want to make two new t-shirts, so off I go.

Though there were times right after breakfast where I was just sitting there all paralyzed and felt like I couldn’t move.

I had gone to bed at midnight yet again but slept like a log. Woke up at 7.30 and got moving a little earlier than the other days. There were morning pages and my five minutes of meditation and then I had breakfast with my husband.

I started the gusset increases on the sock I’m knitting and later I found some more leftover yarn that I can maybe use for when the other blue yarn will run out. Now I just need to decide whether to switch right away and use the proper shade of blue for the toe or whether to knit on and only use the new, different shade of blue once the first one runs out. Not sure yet.

After breakfast I did the dishes and such and then I went and started picking out that fabled line of zigzag stitches. It took ages but in broad daylight with extra strong reading glasses I could do it at least.

And then I went on sewing right until lunch was ready:

Yes, there are no veggies on this plate. Yes, that was not quite enough to eat.

What happened?

Apparently my husband forgot to make veggies because making mashed potatoes was overwhelming enough. He really need a break, having all that stress that is hanging over us plus the beginning of the school year, plus harvesting everything, getting the garden ready for fall, plus having a tooth removed was a bit much.

After lunch I had that feeling of, „maybe I should just do the dishes right away even if that leaves you no rest time before teaching“, you know the one and I – actually did it. Felt good.

And I still got to play Genshin for twenty minutes.

I taught a few students and managed to reschedule next Friday’s lessons, I used a 30-minute break between students to vacuum the old part of the house, I taught some more and then I cleaned the washbasins and toilets and changed the towels.

I ate the second half of the bag of potato chips for dinner, read a bit of „War and Peace“ and went on Instagram.

And then I went back to sewing. Until I was at the point where I need to insert the zipper next. I thought I’d better do that in daylight while I’m not so tired that I feel like falling flat on my face all the time.

I played with the new Chinese app I had downloaded in the morning (Hanzifeed) and then opened the manuscript for twenty minutes. After which I started writing this post, made a list for today, played some more Genshin and went to bed.

Weekend time! There will be lots of sewing and we’ll watch that Chinese mystery show, and there are plans to have an Oktoberfest beer in the evening. At home. From bottles. The Oktoberfest only starts next weekend and for me that is usually a sign to avoid Munich at all costs.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to do that if I want to get to Schwerin next weekend but we’ll see.

I slept until 7.30, then dawdled, wrote morning pages and meditated.

Husband was not in a good mood and rather overwhelmed from many different things which led to a couple emotionally draining conversations throughout the day. While we were talking in the morning I was also knitting a sock only to find that I did too many rounds and had to tink back again. I’m also pretty sure I will run out of one color of yarn. Fingers crossed I still have something similar in stash.

All day long I was also texting back and forth with a student, so far we haven’t found a time slot that works for them this week. Or next.

I rode my bike to the bigger supermarket, the weather was nice but not too hot, so that was good.

I came back home slightly later than I had hoped but lunch wasn’t ready yet. So I put the groceries away, talked with my husband some more, helped chopping a few things and we had pasta salad for lunch:

And then I had just barely enough time to continue reading „War and Peace“ and eating some chocolate before my first student of the day.

Student played in a way that caused me a headache, then I had a break, then my second student of the day who was a delight, another break and then I waited for a new student.

I used my break for various household things and for admin, more texting because of time slots. It also turned out that I had forgotten to buy sheet music for two students, then I found out that that particular piano book seems to be out of print, found it online anyway but it looks as if I need to find something new. Meh.

On the other hand it said it would be back in stock in October, so who knows, there might be another print run.

While I waited for that new student the phone rang and I decided to pick up because I thought it might be them.

Instead I talked with a potential other new student and agreed on a test lesson next week. Of course I forgot to get their phone number.

And the new student who was supposed to come in had called earlier that day to cancel because they were sick. Poor thing.

Since I was done with teaching earlier than expected and since I had forgotten to pick up carrots and cream cheese and I also had a prescription to be refilled at the pharmacy I then went out to the pharmacy and health food store.

After all of the day’s frustration, interspersed with conversations with my husband where he kept stressing how stressed out he was and how bad everything was, I ate some potato chips and chocolate for an early dinner.

And then I met my writer friend for a co-writing session. I made nice progress and I am still liking the story which is always a bonus. My writer friend has been stuck on the manuscript for weeks now and was just about to go and do something other than writing during out video call but I told her she wasn’t allowed. Me saying „No, you’re not watching C-drama on a co-writing call“ seems to have left an impression and, funny that, she said she felt better afterwards. Duh.

Then I tried picking out the zigzag stitches that were a mistake but failed, then played some more Genshin where I almost cleared a domain (there were only two enemies left) and then managed to run out of said domain so that it reset.

The boy offered to get me to that same point again while I was brushing my teeth later but I decided I had enough. Oh, and I tried at least four different puzzles in the game and failed those as well.

The boy showed up just as I was overdue for starting this post and getting to bed again, so I brushed my teeth, then talked a little with him, started this post, made a list and went to bed.

Phew.