creative.mother.thinking

I actually went to bed on time (insert happy Snoopy dance!) and I did not pick my phone up before breakfast (much). I wrote for 20 minutes and had that scene go completely different than I expected which makes it really exciting.

We had breakfast and my husband and I talked some more about my „am I doing enough or not“-problem. To which the right answer is of course „it depends“.

We are continuing with the new schedule for the mornings which means we have to push ourselves a little to get stuff done on time but it also means that we eat lunch around 1 as intended, hurray!

But first I ran errands. I renewed a prescription, bought toilet paper, interdental brushes, yogurt and chocolate, then went to the health food store for one or two things. And more different chocolate.

I came home pretty early and my husband was right in the middle of the extra stress phase of cooking which is the worst time to be putting away groceries. Oh, and I was so out of it when leaving before because I was thinking so hard about that problem that I left without my list and wearing the wrong glasses. I realized when I was about 5 minutes away from home, briefly considered going back but then thought I can do without.

Well, I should have gone back because my husband had found two things we also needed from the health food store but didn’t catch me before I left.

Anyway, so I unpacked everything, then turned around and went back to the health food store.

The cashier recognized me and asked, for the second time today?

Yep.

There was lunch:

I wanted to do the dishes right away, you know so I would go to bed on time, but when I was looking for a container to put the rest of the pasta in I found another round of bugs in that box. We had had bugs in that cupboard just recently and had gone through everything and thrown stuff away and my husband had cleaned everything very thoroughly.

Well, turned out there was some flour left that was the source of the infestation. There weren’t many, though, so I cleaned the part that was dirty after throwing away the flour but had to skip doing the dishes because I still had to hang up the load of laundry my husband had started in the morning.

Then there was teaching which was fun but I’m still very exhausted and brain-dead.

I had a brief break between teaching and going to coaching over Zoom, so I ate some dinner rather quickly before attending.

The group coaching session was rather helpful. (Her main advice after offering a few suggestions that I had to counter with „I’m doing that already“ was – to go to bed earlier. Duh.)

I then started to write this post, tidied the kitchen, made a list for today and played my video game for the first time that day.

Today should be a little less busy which is good because I could use a bit of breathing room.

Well, not really the grind but back to normal life.

Not that I felt normal in any way, I was extremely tired, very exhausted and my brain still needs some time off. We learned a lot last week.

I did set my alarm as usual and was very determined not to pick up my phone before breakfast. And I didn’t. I just started researching stuff right away on my laptop.

I did my morning pages and five minutes of yoga and five of meditation, and then had breakfast with my husband. We talked quite a bit, mostly about the retreat but also about some stuff of his, and then he suddenly said he had thought about those frequent conflicts around lunchtime and that he wants us to stop talking in the morning at 10 and the dishes done by 11.30, so that everything else we want to do fits in, including cooking with minimal stress.

He thought I’d be unhappy about those restrictions but I was so happy and relieved. It’s exactly what I’ve been thinking and I usually do better with structure than with free-flowing whatever.

So we stopped talking at 10 and I got my laptop out and started working on the manuscript for twenty minutes. Brushed my teeth, did the breakfast dishes and then decided to walk to the health-food store because we were out of oats and fruit.

And then I came back, turned around and went for a short walk/run:

When I came home lunch was already on the table, hurray! And we did not fight in any way:

The price for a peaceful lunchtime was that my husband (and me to a certain extent) had to just go from one thing wo the other without stopping. But I’d say it was worth it.

I took a short break and then a shower and then I taught my usual Monday students.

Afterwards I played the piano for a couple of minutes, helped the boy with the wording of an email and then the two of us did bodyweight training. Wow, am I out of shape! I only missed two workouts but I did spend most of my trip sitting somewhere without moving. My knees already started hurting again.

We both ate dinner, I started writing this post, we did our weekly boss fight together, and then it was time for the dishes and bed.

And today I’ll walk to the health food store again, I guess.

I did go to bed super late. It looks like I actually use my late evenings as compensation for the alone-time I’ve been lacking before. Now I need to figure out how to train myself so I see sleeping as alone-time.

I did feel a little less tired in the morning, though, so that was interesting.

I started packing all my stuff up while getting ready for breakfast and even squeezed my morning pages in.

By the way, I was very, very happy about my minimalist packing and I ended up using everything but the „just in case“-stuff like bandaids, pain meds, pocket knife and nail file. Those are all things that are super annoying if you need them and don’t have them. And it’s not like the small town we were in was full of shops where you can get everything.

I checked out right after breakfast, paid for all the snacks I had binged on from the mini bar and the one beer I had, and confessed to have destroyed a plastic stand for a small piece of paper because I used it to prop a window open and forgot about it when I closed said window.

I didn’t even have to pay for it, hurray!

We then all met in the conference room with everybody’s rolling suitcases plus backpacks piles against one wall. And my small backpack under my seat. Ha!

We had our last hours of workshop and you could see everyone visibly drooping. It was still all very nice, and I’m happy to have met all these writers.

Then we had our last meal together:

There was some rucola with fried tofu and some cherry tomatoes, and then rice with turkey ragout:

And then some yogurt cake with mango and strawberry sorbet:

After that we talked a bit among ourselves and then I sat there with two more hours or so before my train was leaving. My original plan was to visit the craft fair but I had already looked at everything the day before.

So I took an earlier train to Karlsruhe, the weather was really nice, and when I saw that the zoo is right next to the main train station I briefly considered going there for 90 minutes until I saw that tickets cost 15 €. I looked for a nice bench and read some more „This Kingdom will not kill me“. I started really glomming on to it some time the day before and actually finished it later on the train just before reaching Munich.

I bought myself some snacks for dinner and a bottle of coke and waited for the train.

My trains were all on time, the high speed one to Munich was even two minutes early so I arrived home earlier than expected.

While still traveling I had gotten messages from both my husband and the boy offering me soup for when I’d come home. The boy had made himself ramen for dinner and had something left and my husband had bought chicken thighs and was offering to make chicken soup which was very sweet but I declined because I was not hungry.

I arrived back home and was greeted by the rest of the family and I was very happy and relieved.

Verdict on the new way of packing:

I am loving it but had still taken more than I would have liked but that was mostly because I needed lots of print outs, and some sets of cards and I took more yarn than I usually would. I knew the hat would need 117 grams or so, the first ball that I used was only a partial one so I took two full ones. When I travel I usually take a sock project and that means 100 grams of yarn. I also took a tiny tape measure because I needed to know the length of the hat.

The backpack looks very good but the back and straps are not all that comfy to wear for longer stretches of time. On the other hand I was walking around with it all day without any problem.

Whereas the rest of the group was all dealing with rolling suitcases plus backpacks bigger than mine.

Granted, I was the only one who wore all her clothes two days in a row and the skirt and leggings all for days but then one of the other writers was surprised when I told her I live in sweatpants at home because she found me rather elegant.

It’s all in the skirt.

I am also very pleased that my go-to travel outfit these days includes so many pieces that I made myself, handknit socks, of course, and leggings, a t-shirt, a skirt and a cardigan that I made myself.

Today there will be the planning of the week, the walk/run, a shower and lots of teaching.