Archives for April 2018

Pretty good day. I didn’t really want to get up in the morning, though.

These days I’m sleeping from somewhere between 9.30 or 10 until my alarm goes off at 6.30. Sometimes with a brief break somewhere around 4.30. So it seems my step has improved. Which is good.

I’m making slow progress on the Carbeth cardigan. I’m at the point where the rows are the longest so things will pick up speed again soon.

I went for a run pretty early, and then helped making moqueca  or at least an approximation of it. I managed to write 600 words before teaching (and I also wrote 630 words the day before after all) and practiced and taught my students and the I actually managed to make myself do strength training. It was push and pull day and by the last exercise my arms felt limp and weak and I only managed six reps on each set. I am expecting to be really, really sore by Saturday. I’m also feeling my legs which is weird because this was not about legs at all.

I guess it’s time to get back into shape.

Then dinner and a little more writing.

Today there will be the cleaning of the house, and the making of the pizza (I’m only helping this week.) and then the teaching and a little practice, and then I’ll be off to Augsburg for the sewing blogger meet up part one for dinner.

I’ll probably be back home rather late, and then I’ll be off to Augsburg again Saturday morning for a visit to a fabric store and a guided tour of the Augsburg textile museum, and another dinner.

So my blog post tomorrow morning might just be a little short.

Busy day ahead. And I still can’t quite decide if I want to wear the purple Swing dress tonight, or the new t-shirt with the denim skirt, or if I should wear the skirt on Saturday because big pockets are always a plus for a day-long excursion or the orange dress with red polka dots.

I’ve been wondering if the orange dress is a little too kindergarten for me at this point of life. Especially worn with orange and red stripy leggings.

At least I only have three outfits that I have to decide between because, of course, for a sewing blogger thing I need to wear something that I made myself.

This is all so exciting. And a little scary. As these things are.

Well, that was not my most organized day. But productive enough. We will stay silent about fiction-writing.

I have to confess that I have started to write these blog posts the night before, and then I usually plan to write some fiction afterwards but I almost never do. Which would be disastrous today because so far there have been zero words. Zilch.

The morning went alright up to the point when my husband showed up rather early. Which made me realize that I was pretty confused. First, I was talking gibberish, and then I managed to buy a train ticket for the wrong day. Instead of Friday at 6.15 pm and Saturday at 9 I actually bought a ticket for Friday 9 am. The good thing was that a) I noticed it right away when the train ticket site sent me the calendar link, and b) I could cancel that ticket at no cost. Phew.

So now I’m all set regarding the sewing blogger meeting. At least I have all the necessary train tickets. And the money for tram fare and museum entrance in an envelope. With my name on it. And the form that we’re supposed to fill out. I also downloaded the map of Augsburg to my phone. And I’m almost sure what I’m going to wear.

Then I did most if my usual housework stuff after breakfast. Seem to have forgotten about recycling and such because come lunchtime there was no alcohol-free beer in the fridge. Second oops of the day.

Then my husband went over the nursery list with me in great detail. Which turned out to be a very good thing when I tried to take said list out of my purse at the actual nursery. Because it was still on the table at home.

So I bought everything I remembered, and researched apricot trees. Rode my bike with two big bags of earth back home. Talked to my husband about apricot trees, Got the list, turned around and went back to the nursery. Bought the tree and two more packs of seeds. Put everything in the bike trailer. Checked the list again. Found that I had forgotten seeds again. Went back in, looked for seeds and twine and gardening gloves. Was afraid that someone would steal my tree out of the trailer. Rode my bike home with the tree sticking out of the bike trailer.

Then it was too late for running.

But. Not only did I do all that, I also cleaned another window, and went to the hardware store (which is right across the street from the nursery) to buy that sieve-thingy that you screw into the faucet. Because we were having one faucet that wasn’t working properly without said thingy, and it had been going on for months now, and it had been bugging me like crazy. And every time I talked to my husband he said, „Well, I have a huge list for the hardware store, and one of these days I will go there and buy that part too.“ Only he never did. And so I decided that my piece of mind is worth going to the hardware store twice in.a row. Also my husband’s hardware store lists are even more convoluted and complicated than his nursery lists. And it’s usually three or four lists and a couple of post-its, so every time he actually does go to the hardware store he needs to consolidate lists for an hour or two. After finding them, of course.

Then I helped making lunch, and took a shower, and did the dishes and hung up laundry, and practiced and then I taught quite a few students. In between I found out again how to log into the website where I do my taxes.

Then I forced the boy to play the piano, and then I told him how to make pancake soup while I was busy tidying up and changing out of work clothes and cleaning doorhandles. (Don’t ask.)

More dishes, and hour of procrastination, and there we are.

Today there will be running (for real this time) and writing (dito) and music and teaching and email and strength training (possibly). And the pressing of the dress fabric, something that apparently is a task so monumental that one needs weeks to do it.

Phew. This was brought to you by 25 minutes of procrastinating about writing fiction.

Sorry.

Pretty good Tuesday all in all. And sometimes I think I should stop judging my days.

I didn’t write quite as much as I wanted to (what else is new), and I didn’t make progress on the tee I wanted to sew. I did run errands and went to the health food store, and even washed two small windows. And swept the kitchen floor. And did a load of laundry.

The sewing didn’t happen because when I looked at the fabric left over from my Plantain Tee I thought there was enough to make a Boogie tee as well. And there was. Only there was no piece of it big enough that I could cut the back piece out. I considered making a center back seam for about ten seconds after I had placed the back pattern piece everywhere I could think of and had to admit defeat.

I then briefly thought about buying new fabric right away. And then I came to my senses again and realized that I will be buying lots of fabric soon, and that there is no need to go wild so that I can have something new to wear to the sewing blogger meeting. No one there has ever seen me or any of the clothes I have made for myself so I will be perfectly fine wearing something that’s already in my closet now.

I can still make progress on the dress today and tomorrow and everything will be fine in the end.

Today there will be running, and then I’ll ride my bike to the nursery for heavy garden stuff because my husband is all frazzled because he needs bigger veggie beds for the potatoes which means about a week of digging. (No kidding. The ground here is mostly gravel with rocks and tree roots. So for every shovelful you lift out you then have to spend about fifteen minutes sifting through it picking stones. Fun.) And then I’ll write like the wind, and then start on that dress already. This might be the day where I finally press that fabric.

But what I really wanted to write about today was

The daily writing habit

A few days ago I found yet another writer who is sending out helpful e-mails to other (mostly aspiring) writers and I liked what I read and then he had this paragraph in his newsletter saying that I could sign up for free so that I could develop a daily writing habit and be accountable and part of a group and possibly unicorns. (Okay, there were no unicorns.)

I clicked the link and thought, „Oh yes! I want a daily writing habit! I’m so disappointed with my progress! Sign me up!“

I did come to my senses, though. Just when I was about to put my email-address into the signup form a small voice in the back of my head started saying, „Wait a minute. Are you sure? I don’t think you need this. You already have a daily writing habit, you dumbo!”

Oh.

I had forgotten.

I have been writing here on this blog every day without fail for the past 209 days. I might not be completely happy with the amount of novel-writing I do but, um, I’m still writing several hundred words per day on average on the novel plus the blog writing. Okay, I’d rather write more consistently, and I’d love to have a higher output but I definitely don’t need to sign up somewhere so that I can develop a ‘daily writing habit’.

Sometimes I’m a bit slow. Blogging does count as writing. This is certainly not high literature or aspirational but – it certainly is something I am, indeed, writing every day. And several hundred words at that,

Duh.

That was a day where I made excellent use of Monday-energy.

Falling back into routine is great, I went running, and taught my students, and worked on the novel, and decided to make a t-shirt, and glued the pattern pieces together and cut everything out.

When the poor boy came home on his lunch break lunch wasn’t ready yet. My husband and I had both forgotten that he comes home earlier on Mondays. So I gave him a sandwich, and he had his warm meal at night.

Teaching was fun, I have my energy back. Well, most of it.

I didn’t quite write as much as I wanted but I did sift through one of the big heaps on the bedroom dressers, gave away two sweaters and a pair of shoes, and I helped my husband with teaching admin, looking through his bank statement to see if all the students had paid. They all had, and now this task is done for the month. He keeps procrastinating about it while I do the same thing at least twice a month.

On the other hand I had been looking at the pile of dust and dirt on the bottom of the hallway closet for months, and when my husband came to put his hiking boots away he took one look at the mess and went off to fetch the vacuum. Which led me to finally getting rid of the pair of winter shoes I haven’t worn in about ten years. This year I finally got new ones so I don’t have to keep them just in case.

Today will be another long day with a long to-do-list. It can’t really be helped. Since I’ll be away Friday evening and all Saturday I have to make sure to get everything important done beforehand.

So there will be the going to the health food store, and the writing, and the music, and the teaching, and the cutting out of fabric, and maybe a little tax preparation. Or maybe not.

Not a bad day, not the best either.

I actually started writing before lunchtime so that was a win.

Lunch at my mother-in-law’s was very good but she forgot that my husband and I can’t have onions. Oops. We were there for two hours or so.

Then I went and procrastinated a bit before writing some more. I sang and I played the piano. Then I tried to make myself start with the dress I want to sew but unfortunately the boy needed my help with some homework again. So, you see, it wasn’t me, I just didn’t have a chance. (Never mind the hour I wasted beforehand.)

I’m almost finished with the second sleeve for my Carbeth cardigan.

My husband is turning more lawn into veggie beds. This time it’s for the potatoes again.

I’m laughing at myself because I used to think that I wasn’t an anxious person. Until I realized that all of that organizational and planning stuff I do is because I am, in fact, anxious.

I’ll be going to a sewing blogger meeting in Augsburg next weekend. I looked up trains weeks before. And put them in my calendar. And thought about what to wear. And then I got the confirmation e-mail with all the addresses and times. And looked up more trains, and looked up the locations on google maps, and today I pulled out the list of attending bloggers and looked them all up.

Yeah. Not anxious at all. Funny. At least I won’t stay home because I’m feeling uncomfortable.

Oh, and today I found out that I’m no longer getting an email when someone leaves a comment. That’s why I haven’t been replying to them. I just didn’t know.

No idea what’s wrong, the settings are fine. I’ll try to remember to check more often, and I hope I’ll catch everybody’s comment. Sorry, I had no idea.

And tomorrow there will be running, and then teaching and in between making music and writing some more and knitting. Sounds good to me.

I almost did everything on my list which is always a win.

Went for a run in the morning:

 

Then I set up a new bullet journal because I had run out of pages on the old one, had lunch:

 

And then I worked on the podcast. This was the first time I recorded audio and video completely separately and then put them together in iMovie. That program is not as intuitive as I had hoped. I wrote show notes, and put in pictures, and learned how to sync video and external audio, and how to separate the recorded audio from the video so that I could discard it.

And then I had to wait until the whole thing finished uploading to youtube. That took a few hours.

In the meantime I had dinner and watched Star Trek TNG with the boy, and made Hefezopf for tomorrow, and then I wrote a little but not the 2,000 words I had hoped for. But when I had made those plans I had also planned to be done with the podcast in two hours or so. So I guess that’s okay.

Today there will be writing, and some music, and the eating of the Hefezopf, and some sewing, and early to bed to get ready for teaching again. Easter break is almost over. I’m okay with that, though.