creative.mother.thinking

I did manage morning pages and some fiction writing but not much else yesterday morning. To be fair, even my husband has already reached a point where he was asking about the next school break which is completely unusual.

I did not plan the week (again) but I did write two important and urgent emails, one to a student and one to my webhosting service. I tried switching hosting plans weeks ago for my author website and nothing has happened yet. I need to change plans to be able to use an SSL-certificate…

I had plans to take a walk and a shower before lunch but that never quite happened.

My husband left shortly after 11 for a dental cleaning that took 1 1/2 hours. When he came back he was exhausted and told me he’ll have to have dental work done over the next two years. Yeah?

I had woken the boy up two or three times in the late morning and he did leave the house at one point, only to miss his train and come back defeated. He then went back to bed, planning to eat lunch with us but that didn’t happen either. In other news his new PC is coming along nicely.

Meanwhile I tried to remember how to do dishes and got started on pretzels for lunch:

Lunch was a bit late but not too much.

My husband had started a load of laundry and we both started teaching. I had a one-hour break between students and had planned to do some proofreading then but ended up folding laundry and hanging the new load up and talking with the rest of the family instead.

After teaching I went upstairs to the boy’s lair to use the new pull-up bar with the brand-new resistance band. The plan was to use the band with the bar because both the boy and I are not strong enough yet to actually do a pull-up.

Well, turns out we’re not strong enough for assisted pull-ups either. And I’m pretty much unable to actually get myself into said band as well. Ahem. So we started with the very first step of learning pull-ups: hanging from the bar for a couple of seconds.

I did 3 sets of 3 reps of hanging for 5 seconds and let me tell you, my shoulder muscles are very sore today. I also wanted to try wearing my compression gloves for training but forgot until I was downstairs again. I can tell you that doing push exercises with the gloves feels much better, though.

I’ve been trying to research strength training with fingers arthritis but haven’t been able to find a lot. I might have to look into tips for rock-climbing instead. Turns out the demographic that has arthritis in their hands doesn’t seem to do a lot of pull-ups and pushups. Weird.

After that we finally ate dinner. I had big plans to start this post and watch TV, spin and crochet but instead I just had a cup of tea in bed while reading and went to bed early.

And now I’m late again today but well, nothing I can do about it right now.

I did get enough sleep and felt like a veritable zombie all day. Until I was super awake in the evening. So I’ll keep trying, I guess.

I did write my morning pages but the rest of the morning routine just fell to the wayside – again.

I had a slow morning, not getting much done, called my mother on the phone and we had an easy and quick lunch:

After that time just happened to pass. The boy was excited and a bit scared about putting his new computer together, I actually managed to open the manuscript and write a bit in the afternoon and then I tried new eye shadow that I had bought weeks (months?) ago:

I know it doesn’t look like much but that’s kind of the point. My concealer wasn’t working and I actually ordered new on until I realized that there was more concealer in the drawer, just something I never used before. I also want to experiment with brown eyeliner and/or contouring with dark brown eyeshadow but this is okay for a first try and doesn’t look like I’ve painted a whole different face on. It also only took about ten minutes if that. And yes, I’m aware that shows. I need makeup that fits into my life, not something I have to free an afternoon for.

The reason I even thought about makeup that evening was that my mother-in-law had invited the three of us, her sister and the sister’s daughter for dinner at the nearby Asian restaurant.

There were appetizers:

This is prawns in potato net for me and spring rolls for the boy. I opted for alcohol-free beer that night as did my husband. I kept with the theme of prawns for my main course as well, here is Pad Thai:

It was all very good even if the noodles were a somewhat overcooked.

We got back home at a reasonable time so I sat down and watched some C-drama while crocheting and drinking a beer. Which turned out to not be the best decision I could make but then I knew that beforehand.

And now another week.

I woke up and pushed myself through my morning routine. I did spend half an hour on the manuscript but mostly wandered off doing unnecessary research.

After breakfast I did the gauge swatch for the new blanket:

I’m really loving the yarn, it is merino wool for a change, not acrylic. I’m still being sensible and will finish the blanket in progress first.

The boy and I did bodyweight training and used the new pull-up bar for the first time. In the end we decided to go upstairs with it because the third floor has the only doors in the house with doorframes suitable for it. Those frames are also metal so I’m hoping they won’t get all bent out of shape by the weight.

We still went back to the kitchen for the rest of the exercises, it’s just cozier down there.

After that I went for a 30-minute walk outside. Wearing my five fingers. It was great, I really love walking in them – even if it was very cold – but at the end of the day my feet weren’t all that happy about it. I guess I’ll try around some more. I’m not quite sure if rest is bad for my feet or using them, I guess I need to do a mixture of both.

Meanwhile my husband had made lunch, wieners, peas and carrots and mashed potatoes:

After that I was mostly done for the day. I took a break (setting a timer this time, yeah!), talked briefly with the boy, we coordinated all three of us wanting to take a shower, I showered, cut my toenails and went over into my studio because I had wanted to do some proofreading and/or writing.

I don’t do well with plans that involve „and/or“. I also was pretty exhausted so I just wasted half an hour, then went on my weekly online meeting with other writers. This time we were only chatting away which was really nice. And I made some progress on the blanket. The meeting only went for an hour this time because the one who provides the Zoom link needed it for something else at that time.

I went back to the kitchen, we cut up all the cheese and served crackers and ate in front of TV watching another episode of ‚Columbo‘. And I kept nodding off until both my husband and son scolded me for not getting enough sleep and basically sending me off to bed.

I did not go to bed at 8.30 but soon after. So now I have gotten a full 8 1/2 hours of sleep for the first time in ages and am feeling accordingly mushy. I’m not sure my brain will get full online today…

I did do the complete morning routine by doing yoga first. Not my favorite schedule but, well.

Husband was in a talking mood again. I did wake the boy up but he was super cranky and fell back asleep immediately. He is still nocturnal, meh.

The main thing for the morning was doing a huge grocery haul. I was a bit afraid because the weather forecast was speaking of storm and I didn’t really want to ride my bike to the other side of town in that. I got lucky, though, when I left just before noon everything was calm and sunny.

I went to the drug store for tooth-brushing paraphernalia including a new toothpaste the hygienist recommended. I am a bit skeptical because every time I switch to one of the recommended toothpastes I get scolded at the next cleaning for not brushing properly. But I’ll try it out anyway.

Grocery shopping went well, I ended up with two heavy bike panniers full to the brim, a backpack and a pack of paper towels. When I put the grocery cart back I had a hard time lifting the panniers out and there wasn’t a lot of space and some people milling around, so I put the pack of paper towels on the row of carts. While lifting my bags out I almost hit a guy behind me and then a supermarket employee arrived with a long line of grocery carts that he wanted to wedge in beside me so I fled. Outside I put my panniers on my bike. Then paused. Oops, I had left the paper towels inside.

I decided to leave the panniers on the bike and pray that no one would steal anything.

When I looked the paper towels were gone.

I went back to the cash registers, maybe someone had left it there, but no. So I had to get back in, get a new pack or towels, stand in line, again, and pay for them. Again. All the while peering through the windows at my bike and the panniers full of costly food.

When I arrived back home I was afraid I’d be too late for lunch but no, my husband had just started. Funny enough making calzone from scratch does take a while:

It did taste very good but the texture reminded me of focaccia instead of pizza. I would have liked it if I could have eaten before two as well.

At least we got a lot of laundry folded and hung up in the meantime. I did air my frustration with being the only one in the house who knows how to hang up laundry properly. And yes, I am overly picky. But also, I have one nice viscose shirt and when you pick the drying rack up and move it, it would be nice to also straighten the laundry back out after so that we don’t all end up with weird wrinkles in the middle of our chests. And no, I do not iron stuff if I can help it.

I also like socks straightened before they get hung up and underwear hung a certain way. Oh, and socks hung in pairs. I mean, I am not as picky about this as my mother, that has to count for something. My husband didn’t like my criticism (fair enough) because he is just taking over more housework and all he gets for it are comments on how he is doing it all RONG!

Anyways, I had felt so frustrated that I bought a pastry at the store. I had plans to share it with the boy but then I was angry at him as well and ate it all on my own:

And yes, I am already working on changing that coping strategy.

Which is why I seem to have lost a minuscule amount of weight in the last week. I just stopped buying certain foods and reduced my alcohol intake. Because I had eaten all the sugar in the early afternoon I, of course, was even more hungry in the evening and followed my completely reasonable and delicious dinner with a whole package of grissini.

In between all of these things our new duvets arrived. They were advertised as „warm“ but when they got here they were very, very thin. We decided to try them out anyway and I can say they are, indeed, at least as warm as our old one and feather-light on top of that. Very nice. I still will need a while to get used to the change. Of course.

The thing that went well was that in between students I actually spent some time proofreading the second novel, so that was good.

I only had four students but did teach until past seven, then had dinner, sat around and did nothing for an hour or so, watched twenty minutes of C-drama while crocheting, did not do my foot exercises, spin or floss and went to bed way too late yet again.

I already started this morning by imploding my morning routine so this will go super, I’m sure.

No yoga and meditation again, though.

I had turned the lights out a little late. I’ve moved my bedtime have an hour earlier, otherwise turning the lights out at 11.15 would have sounded perfectly reasonable.

I wrote morning pages and spent half an hour on my manuscript while my husband was busy with the wood stove. And then the water for tea was already boiling and I didn’t want to wait another 15 minutes for breakfast so I skipped yoga again.

We talked a lot again, very nice conversation, then I did the dishes and went out for a walk somewhat late. My husband had told me the streets were not slippery at all, I bed to differ:

The lightweight sneakers I was wearing didn’t help either. Lunch was as good as ready when I returned so there was no chance to take a shower before eating. Food was delicious, nearly perfect:

There was only a very short break, short enough that I did not take that shower after all because I didn’t want to hurry through it and then teach dripping wet.

So I taught a little sweaty and not super fresh instead. Teaching went all the way to 7 again but with a break in between this time because one student canceled. And after teaching the boy and I met for bodyweight training with a small interlude getting his new headset ready to be returned and talk about headsets.

Bodyweight training was nice, if strenuous, but unfortunately our pull-up bar is starting to disintegrate. Most of it is metal and that is fine but there are rubber parts at certain points that proved not up to the task. Also, when I bought that bar both the boy and I were not as heavy as we are now.

So I guess it’s time to get something else.

Then I talked with my husband a bit more, ate dinner, let the boy take a shower first, talked with everyone again, started writing this post, wrote in my bullet journal, finally got myself cleaned up (and had to be very careful with the hot water, did Duolingo and foot exercises and watched C-drama briefly while spinning and crocheting. Not at the same time, mind you.

Phew.