Archives for September 2018

So I did finally manage to force myself to write just before going to bed the night before. In fact, I fell asleep while typing in bed and had to delete some rather weird sentences. I woke up about an hour later and went to brush my teeth.

Because falling asleep while writing is a little unpleasant and gives you a crick in the neck I decided to do things differently yesterday. I woke up really early again, 5.38 or something like that, wrote into my journal, finished the day’s blog post and then started writing immediately. I set myself a timer for 25 minutes and told myself very sternly that I couldn’t do anything else until that timer dinged. I was rather mad at myself but I did write 890 words and was in an extremely good mood for the rest of the day.

I also managed to force myself to do my one drawing exercise. Sloppily. Took all of seven minutes.

And then I was basically done with the most important things for the day.

I knitted and I read more in that design book that sounded interesting but is not quite as much as I thought. I might know more about design than I thought, though. I definitely know more about how people work and what kind of reactions they have to things and such. Being interested in people and psychology and reading a lot does make a difference at some point. I am determined to finish the book because I am still learning stuf but I have to say there are other things I’d rather be reading. Like „Competence“ which I have almost finished. So that I can start „Night and Silence“.

Then I talked to the boy about the weekend because there is a “medieval fair with horses and such“-thing going on near us on the weekend. We decided to go (none of us has ever been to something like that) and so I tried to get tickets. Well, after half an hour of research I found out that in order to get tickets I had to go to the town where the thing is held. So, we’ll try our luck when we’re actually ready to go there. Which costs more. Next time I might want to get tickets earlier, maybe.

Then I went running:

Beautiful weather, lots of dog walkers around. I was rather late.

Then I helped to make lunch which was delicious yet again:

The only thing from the garden is the carrot and the tomato for the sauce. Lamb burgers where leftovers.

Then I unpacked some packages, the birthday presents for my father and brother-in-law arrived. Also:

I have new sandals. But I didn’t buy new sandals. I had been wanting barefoot sandals and was not happy with my old pair of Birkenstock all summer. But barefoot shoes are ridiculously expensive. Well, these sandals are not that bad but still. I browsed barefoot shoes online one day last week, as one does, and thought about the fact that I own a pair of barefoot sandals that I don’t really wear because they look meh.

And then I realized that I could just get a new pair of shoestrings for them. The ones I had were beige, and I also had some bright orange ones but I didn’t really want to use those because while orange does gor with a lot of my clothes it doesn’t work with everything. So. One pair of brown leather shoestrings later I have a pair of really comfortable sandals that I love wearing and looking at. They make me very happy.

Then I wanted to finally tackle the sewing but it turned out that when my husband and the boy decided to go through the boxes of books that still clutter the living room-to-be I had to constantly tell them where things went and which books were mine. Half an hour later I pulled out the sewing pattern, saw that the next step would be „iron on interfacing“ and gave up for the day.

But none of that mattered because I had already written. My writing stats for the past few months had been abysmal. Around 6,000 words per month. I’ve had better writing days than that. Okay, only once or twice but still.

Then there was the guilt-free watching of Star Trek and a little more writing and early to bed.

Today there will be the grocery shopping and then the boy and I will go out for sushi because my husband is meeting his friend who lives in Spain for lunch. They have a tradition of going to the nearest Greek restaurant.

Then I will record the podcast and I even thought of a topic at the last minute.

I’m starting to look forward to teaching again. I still feel like I want the free time but I’m also craving structure. And today taught me again that when the boy leaves for school in the morning I have more space for my own stuff.

I did wake up rather early again. I’m feeling like I don’t get enough sleep, despite going to bed around ten every night but then I wake up before six. Or even around five. Weird.

My husband was up early-ish too. We had one of those days where we rub each other wrong right from the start. That did improve, though.

Just when I was ready to get going the boy got up. And we even talked. But there went my morning writing time. I had decided to skip running in favor of writing and ended up doing neither.

My husband had the sudden urge to clean the fridge so we emptied it and turned it off. I ran all the errands and went to the health food store and when I cam back my husband was back from his dental cleaning and the kitchen had a huge puddle right in the middle. Note to self: don’t turn the fridge off and walk away, the freezer part will defrost and the water needs to go somewhere.

It was raining like crazy while I was out and people where in a bad mood. Distracting.

We made lunch in the middle of a kitchen in uproar which is why there wasn’t much cooking involved:

Don’t worry, I ate more than that. In fact, I ate twice as much but you leave the Weißwurst in the pot until right before you eat it because cold Weißwurst tastes horrible.

We finished cleaning the fridge right after lunch and then my husband made the mistake of looking at the bathroom properly which resulted in a two hour cleaning session with a lot of cursing. I did mop the kitchen and the bathroom, and there went my third writing slot of the day. (Theoretically there was one between 6 and 7 in the morning but that one rarely gets used.)

I taught a student. It was fun.

I wasted half an hour on the internet, and just when I was thinking about maybe writing my mother sent me a message, berating me for not sending my father the photos of the family reunion. I get that for him a week is a very long time but for me last week went by in the blink of an eye. So I found a way to make the pictures accessible to him (I hope but technical shenanigans might ensue) and then I had to find out how to work the scanner again and how to get the files onto my computer. I have the suspicion that the printer/scanner (also fax but who uses that these days?) doesn’t really work with my computer’s OS but I’m not quite sure. In the end I did plug a USB drive into the printer and manually transferred everything.

Wasted some more time, Did about 15 minutes of strength training with a boy who was all excited about a new iteration of one of his favorite video games. Helped my husband again. Watched some Star Trek with the boy while knitting on the handspun Cria.

Did my drawing exercise. First time since August 22nd. Stacked tables are fun and I am actually contemplating spending a few more days doing more of those.

There was a bit of conflict with the boy the day before because I dared to ask him about his Latin studies. Turned out that out of twenty chapters of the „Latinum for Dummies“-book he has managed to do five throughout five weeks of summer break. I was a little appalled which did nothing to improve our relationship. (My husband said, „He actually did that many?“) I did manage to smooth things over by just asking him how many chapters he had done and how many he had left in a carefully neutral tone a few hours later, and yesterday morning he actually told me. Also, committed to doing two chapters. Which he did. So he only has to repeat that again today. And tomorrow.

His eczema is looking much better. Prescription cortisone is helping better than the meek one you can get without seeing a doctor. Apparently. Next step will be to start cleaning his face regularly again, turns out that the stuff he is using on his face is hurting his hands. He also has started to use handcreme after every time washing his hands and that is helping too. So that is getting better.

After watching Star Trek I did everything to procrastinate about writing again but after drawing and starting this post I decided to finally tackle the writing after all. I set myself a goal of writing for 25 minutes per day, each day, which I already missed because I didn’t write on Monday. While I did write last thing in the evening I also fell asleep while doing it, not the best setup methinks.

I am totally determined, though. Not quite sure how much of a difference that makes.

I also downloaded samples of four more books on writing and productivity. Because that’s what I need. As if I didn’t know all I need to know about that.

Today there will be running and all the usual plus drawing and writing. Extra bonus points for getting out the sewing machine,

I’m basically starting each day psyching myself up so that I get something done for a change and then I sag into sloth right after lunch. I think I need to change a thing or two.

I woke up super-early, around 4.30, no idea why. Started reading samples on my ebook reader. And then went online. Of course.

Had breakfast at an almost normal time, started reading and knitting, continued knitting while my husband had breakfast.

I finished the second sleeve of my Bria cardigan and spent some time ripping back the body all the way back until all the buttonholes were on the same side again. I had put the cardigan down at one point for a few weeks because I needed to spin more yarn, and when I picked it up again I just assumed I knew which side I was making the buttonholes on. I only found out last week when I laid the cardigan out to take a picture and somehow couldn’t make the buttonholes line up properly.

My dear podcast listeners already gave me a ton of suggestions for fixing this without ripping back but I decided that I don’t really mind knitting it all again. Knitting is straight-forward and can be done without thinking but everything else would involve fiddly bits and a lot of thinking. And it wouldn’t look quite right either.

I did go for a run, at least:

I was happy that it was not raining at all.

And then there was lunch:

Lamb burgers and roasted potatoes and the last green beans and some carrots and fried eggplant and bell peppers (all veggies including the potatoes from our garden).

And that was mostly it for the day. I did try to repair my husband’s blog yet again in vain, I played „The Room Three“ for more than an hour (it is an excellent game but maybe not the best use of my time, then I decided that the boy and I should watch Star Trek early, and then I turned out to be rather tired.

So. Today there will be more running (not that much, really) and my husband will be having his teeth cleaned and I will go to the health food store and teach a student. And do everything I didn’t get done yesterday. Of course.

Woke up early determined to have a better day than the day before.

Lounged in bed for 1 1/2 hours. Husband was up rather early so I didn’t even meditate.

Made great progress on the Cria sleeve while talking to my husband.

Sat around reading. Spent a huge amount of time freeing space on my iPad for a new game I wanted to buy, finally found out it needs iOS 10, spent an even bigger amount of time freeing space on my phone, downloaded game.

Helped to make lunch:

In between I started changing the sheets on my bed but gave up.

Played new game for an hour. Thought about birthday presents for my father, talked with my husband about it. Husband had an idea that turned out to be not quite right, then I found something in the end. (Book about trams in a city that has meaning for him. He likes trains.)

Since I still didn’t feel productive I cleaned out my inbox. Ordered birthday presents for my brother-in-law. Procrastinated on the dishes. Updated the list of pre-ordered books in my bullet journal. Found out that the next Mercy Thompson-novel will be out in March and pre-ordered it. Updated my budget with all the books. Made a plan for next week in my journal

By then my husband was slightly confused by me still sitting in the kitchen with my computer. He reminded my about the documentary we wanted to watch together in the evening. He had seen the first part the week before and had rewatched it with the boy and me during the week.

Opened Scrivener, stared at the screen, closed it again.

Thought about playing the new game some more.

Finally managed to pull out the heavier down comforter, pack away the thinner one, and change the sheets.

Yawned a lot. Turns out that sitting around doing nothing is rather tiring.

Booked a train ticket for the boy in October. Had to go through the whole process twice because I had my credit card detail wrong the first time. It didn’t tell me to change my payment details, no, it just threw me out of the whole booking process. Fun.

Now I’m not sure if all of this can be counted as productive procrastination but then I did take care of quite a few things that needed to be taken care of.

Star Trek with the boy, documentary with the whole family, early to bed.

Today is the beginning of a shiny, new week! This week is the last week of summer break! So this week I will do everything I’ve been wanting to do all summer.

Yeah, sure.

 

Not quite the productive day I had envisioned.

I did wake up early, had a leisurely breakfast and looked forward to the day. I was oddly dizzy, though.

My husband and I had one of those conversations that start pleasant and then spiral downwards. Not a fight by far but somewhat unpleasant. We're good again, by the way.

I went to the optician and got my new glasses. I love them. I tried to take a good picture but didn't manage to. They are round and brown. The boy didn't realize that they weren't my old glasses. A) he is not very perceptive, and b) my old ones were brown and slightly less round.

I love the glasses and everything looks nice and sharp but I still need to get used to them and my eyes feel a bit tired. I'm wearing them anyway because I know from experience that this way I'll get used to them as fast as possible.

I decided that I felt still too dizzy to run. Dizziness got better in the course of the day so I'm guessing that might still have been an aftereffect of the colonoscopy.

I didn't manage to write as much as I wanted (boo!) but I finally managed to write the, um, August newsletter for my patreon subscribers so that was a big weight off my chest. I also wrote the September newsletter in advance, go me.

I tentatively made plans to write two novels in three months and then realized that I hadn't written at all for a week or so and that the current novel-in-progress had been going on for more than half a year now and took a step back.

I was also drawing up plans for the next three sweaters I want to knit so it seemed to have been one of those days.

Star Trek with the boy while knitting. Early to bed.

My days are just thrilling, aren't they?