Archives for February 2019

It was thirteen years ago that I started blogging. First on blogger under „Diapers and Music“ and then here. And now I have been blogging daily for 517 days in a row.

The other day I was bemoaning the fact that I can’t seem to get into a daily writing habit. Duh.

Yesterday I woke up from the alarm and had actually gotten enough sleep. That was good. But my energy levels were still not where I wanted them and so it became clear very soon that the only possible thing would be a day off.

I basically spent all my day sitting around reading.

There was a bit of knitting:

Over the course of the day I did finish that hat but it turned out to be too small. I will either rip back and re-knit or I will surgically remove the ribbing at the bottom and knit on in the wrong direction. I’m not quite sure yet.

There was some yoga:

There was wonderful lunch, warm and filling:

The beans were a little undercooked but still.

I did play some games on the iPad in the afternoon and knitted while listening to my audiobook (that guy is completely, certifiably crazy but it’s still an interesting book), read a little, erased all the progress from my running app so I can restart half marathon-training again today, then watched an episode of „Deep Space Nine“ with two perfectly intersecting storylines, then procrastinated a bit, did some dishes, set my bullet journal up for this week and still managed to go to bed on time-ish.

That’s my big goal for this week, by the way, getting enough sleep every single night. And to write lots and lots of words. And to do all my workouts.

I can’t promise that I’ll be blogging for another thirteen years but for now I’m not going anywhere.

Thanks for reading.

I woke up at the usual time even though I had turned my alarm off. I knew I should have gone to bed earlier. And since this was Saturday and I had all the time in the world I made the rookie mistake of not writing first thing. One of these days I’ll learn.

I got up at the usual time, made myself breakfast and set out to wait for the rest of the family. About 2 1/2 hours later I went to look if my husband was still alive. He was. No wood stove that day, we cooked everything with electricity.

The boy was late as well so we had a typical Saturday start. I made great progress on the crochet blanket, by the way.

Dishes and such and then I set out to run. My original plan had been to run 8 k but since it was so late already I changed that. I also turned around after entering the wood path almost immediately. The snow was melting and there were patches that were rather slippery. And since I’m a wuss I knew I would only walk on that and I didn’t want to. So I took to the pavement.

It was a slightly weird run, I walked a lot because my heart rate was going up so much. I didn’t really feel that bad, though. Maybe the Fitbit heart rate monitor is the culprit.

I felt a little disheartened. I’ve been running regularly for years now and I still am not fit. Or fast. Or anything.

I’ll try again on more sleep the next time but I decided to start the running program over yet again. We’ll see how it goes this time.

Then we made lunch, something pretty quick. We’re trying to learn from our mistakes:

Then it was time to prepare for the dreaded Saturday slump. First I countered it by doing the dishes right away and then I tried to help the boy with some video game issue. It seems that my Origin account has been deactivated and since the email address I used for it doesn’t exist anymore things would have gotten a little complicated. It has only one game on it, so we decided to drop it. And then I asked the boy to help me with the video game I’m currently playing, „Pirate Chronicles“. It turned out to be a case of rubber ducky debugging. (That is when you find out what the problem was because you explain it to someone or something.)

By then the afternoon was half over already.

I finished playing the game which was, of course, my top priority for the day, not. And then I realized that I wouldn’t get anything done that I had wanted. To do list fail. So I gave in, asked the boy if he was in for a bit of strength training, wrote for 18 minutes, did strength training, watched some Star Trek while crocheting, wrote a little more and got myself off to bed early.

By admitting defeat I at least got another strength training session in for that week. Which is a major win.

All of that means that I need to do all the things today but I think that’s alright.

Not bad, though.

Woke up early, dawdled a bit but managed to meditate and touch base with the novel before breakfast. Seems we are actually having a new morning routine now. We’ll see how it translates into weekends over the long run.

My husband started fiddling with his new guitar right after breakfast and I started crocheting the next part of the Sweet Pea CAL blanket. I’m a little sad that it will be two weeks until we get the next part of the pattern but then that will give me time to work on the Dalek hat.

I had wanted to write some more late morning but instead played games on my iPad. I was just so tired.

Did manage to clean the house and make pizza only a little late:

My husband made the red beet salad for us. He met a friend for Greek food leaving us behind. Pizza was rather good and I think after making the exact same dough for years now I’m finally getting the hang of it. Note to self: use the rolling pin it makes things much easier.

Then I did the dishes and only had a little time before teaching. There was a one hour break between students that I used to work a little more on the book cover design course. I’m right at the beginning, still, where you set up your workspace and finding out how to do things in Affinity Photo does take quite a bit of time. Interestingly it is much easier to use than GIMP.

Then I met a new singing student and she was delightful. Am looking forward to work with her.

Then the boy and I watched a little TV and then I went off to bed even though I hadn’t written enough words yet.

Sleep is more important than productivity. Especially since tired people aren’t really productive anyway.

So I’m hoping for more writing today and some running and the usual stuff and then I’ll force myself to pull out the sewing machine again.

Looking forward to a nice empty weekend…

I’m happy but need to go to bed earlier.

I put on my fake discipline again and wrote and meditated and such before my husband showed up at 6.45. Seems we are having a new morning routine.

There was breakfast and crochet and everything like usual. But then we moved things around a bit because the guitar was scheduled to arrive that morning while we had planned to visit the guy who used to own the local music shop. There is no local music shop anymore, which is sad.

So I left the dishes dirty and went grocery shopping first. I totally expected to do them when I came back but instead my husband had dealt with them. He had also started lunch-making already. Bolognese sauce doesn’t mind simmering for a few hours and that made lunchtime less stressful.

I came back and put the groceries away and then my husband went off for his visit.

Meanwhile I tried writing some more while looking after the boiling beets, the simmering sauces and the celery to be prepared for freezing. I wonder why that writing session was not quite as productive as I had hoped.

Just before we sat down for lunch the guitar arrived. It is gorgeous. It’s also pretty heavy. I have not idea yet, how it sounds but my husband says it is a joy to play.

Then there was lunch:

After lunch I did okay at first, did the dishes and all but then started procrastinating.I wanted to do all the things and that usually leaves me paralyzed.

So I pushed myself a bit and started sewing the yoga pants. I now have two legs. And hours later I finally realized why I had so much trouble with the thread. I should have used a different needle. Duh.

I also think that the pants won’t fit me but there is only one way to find out.

Then I made a little music, taught one student, researched music teachers’ websites and WordPress themes, converted the two CDs that came with the vocal workout book to MP3 so I can play them on my new computer, the one without a CD drive, taught two more students, waited for the boy to come down, started this post and did some strength training. Oh, and made pizza dough.

I should have written some more but I found myself so tired that I opted to get ready for bed immediately and just read a little before turning the lights out early.

Today there will be the weekly cleaning, some writing, the making of pizza, quite a bit of teaching including two new students, one I’ve never seen in person and one that already was here once before. In between I might try to work a little more on the book cover design course.

I have no idea if the boy and I will watch anything, I’ll be teaching rather late. And then it will be the weekend.

I woke up from the alarm at 5.30 having gotten enough sleep for once. Yeah! This did not send my energy levels through the roof, though, because several days of not enough sleep demand more than one night of enough.

I was a little later today with writing which meant I only had fifteen minutes before my husband showed up but at least I had those.

There was breakfast and crochet and all the usual. Since we were expecting three packages (one of them the new guitar!) we only left the house one at a time. My husband went to the farmer’s market for potatoes and then running, and when he came back I went out for my run.

I’m still listening to the David Goggins memoir and I’m still loving it.The weather was really, really gorgeous:

Wonderful run. Not slippery much.

Then there was lunch that my husband mostly made without my help:

Pointed cabbage stew.

I had to think of a student of mine who had said to me, „Well, when you don’t allow yourself to eat anything, like when you’re trying to lose weight, that’s no good because you need things that taste good. I guess I can’t reach my goal weight because I like eating too much.”

And there I was sitting in front of that stew, starving, because I’m trying to lose the weight I have been gaining back, and let me tell you, real food when you are totally hungry and have been hungry for several hours already and especially if you have been exercising, well, nothing tastes better.

So in a way I’m enjoying my food much more when I am really hungry before eating. When you just stuff something on top because you have been constantly snacking all day, that doesn’t taste half as good.

Then I pinned the yoga pants together that I want to sew. I’m crossing my fingers that I did it right so that I end up with something wearable.

I practiced a bit and then I had big plans of doing website research but that never materialized. I did look through my books about singing, though, because I wanted to research something for one of my students and I have found something promising. Now I just need to work through the exercises myself first which means I need to pull the optical drive out and connect it to the computer. Or I could use the old laptop which is sitting right there and has an internal one. Huh. That was easy.

I taught a few students, one of them the new ukulele student who bought herself a really beautiful ukulele. I got a little envious even.

I started writing this post, the boy practiced piano without me nagging and that was mostly it for the day.

The boy seems to have a really productive week as well, he told me he tricked himself into starting his homework right after school by not going into his room but sitting down at the kitchen table right away. Which meant that he had time to do the things he wanted to do as well.

There was a Facebook live-thing I thought about attending but then I decided against it.

I rewarded myself with reading some more of the current novel in bed and turned the lights out early.

Today will be another busy day yet again. Sine the guitar didn’t show up yesterday we are expecting it today. We also have plans to go visit the former music store’s owner and I need to get groceries. I’m hoping to get all of that done in the morning all the while somebody is at home all the time because of the guitar.

Then I really need to do that website research and there will be a bit of teaching.

I managed to go to bed too late the night before because I was too tired to get ready for bed, as one does.

The alarm went off at 5.30 nonetheless and after half an hour of faffing around I wrote again. Also meditated and such. Then my husband showed up and I went outside to put fresh gravel on the sidewalk because it was freezing and that made it pretty icy.

Then.I had to wait for breakfast a bit because it always takes longer with the wood stove. Husband was in a slightly bad mood because of the day being insanely packed. I completely understood but I still had the feeling that being cranky wouldn’t make things better.

The boy came downstairs on time again, we had breakfast, he got ready for school, my husband had breakfast, we talked, there were dishes and crochet and all the usual.

We went out and signed the petition and I was happy to see so many people there. There were about twenty people in line before us but we only had to wait for about ten minutes.

Then we hit the health food store and bought all the veggies. My husband doesn’t usually go shopping but he does all the cooking. There is nothing more inspirational than seeing all those luscious, fresh vegetables when you are starting to get hungry. We went back home, my husband got soda and alcohol free beer and we made a quick lunch:

Yes, those are baked beans from a can. Sometimes you just need something quick and easy.

There were dishes to wash again and then I made a little music and waited for my first student. Turned out her mother had called to cancel because that student was sick. Earlier I had gotten another phone call from one of the new students, she’ll be getting a lesson later today.

I taught my students and all the lesson prep I had done made teaching more enjoyable. I also have prepped more than one week in advance which is very good.

My last student was late which made the strength training a little late as well and made it overlap with some YNAB video training. I did mange to mostly listen to the training while doing my twenty minutes of exercise so I guess that was time well spent.

Then I started this post, finally went back into the old part of the house, did more dishes, got ready for bed, wrote a few more words and crashed.

Today there will be running and maybe the farmer’s market and quite a bit of teaching.