Archives for August 2019

This is actually the fourth try writing this post because my laptop froze up four times in a row. I’m not quite sure why. The blogging software usually saves automatically but apparently not this time.

So. I woke up super-early, wasted an hour or so, meditated, wrote morning pages and decided it would be a good idea to have breakfast first and write later. (It wasn’t.) Which made me somewhat crabby right away. (I seem to be rather good at making myself crabby these days.)

I had breakfast, finished a novel and started the next one, found out that I had neglected to document my reading for a few days, my husband showed up, had breakfast, we talked and we did the breakfast dishes. The boy still hadn’t gotten downstairs.

So we went running. I did almost nine kilometers. The weather was great, cool but not cold and drier than it looked:

Halfway point. And here’s the view to the right where I came from:

When I came back home my husband was already cooking and it looked as if the boy had had breakfast. Shower, then I helped cooking. Lunch was very yummy:

We ate early and that was the first time I saw the boy that day. We did more dishes, I had some chocolate, wrote a few e-mails (and just realized that I had wanted to write another one but forgot), watched a few videos about writing and knitted some more, did my voice warm-up and my piano exercises for the first time in weeks, was totally determined to write and then start sewing but – didn’t.

Meh.

I started writing this post, the computer froze several times, I finished most of the draft anyway. Brushed my teeth, put the paper recycling bin at the curb, watched some Star Trek while spinning and knitting and went to bed early. After doing my knee exercises. Better late than never.

Today there will be errands and the health food store and an attempt to pick up strength training again. Also sewing and such, you know the drill.

I had turned my alarm off but woke up at 6.30 again. Did manage the new morning routine of taking thyroid medication, reading the „Daily Stoic“, five minutes of meditation, morning pages and 25 minutes of writing and got up at eight. (Yes, there is about twenty minutes of faffing around in there too.)

And that marked the second writing day in a row which means the novel is basically done. Ahem. Or maybe not. I always think that way but of course it doesn’t really work like that.

My husband and I had breakfast almost at the same time. Then I knitted a bit and we talked a little and the boy showed up and by the time the dishes were done it was almost time for the weekly bout of exercise in front of Youtube. I had neglected my knee exercises all week, my knees had started hurting again and so that bout of uncomfortable stretching and isometrics in front of TV came in handy.

Read a bit online and then it was time to make lunch. Which we ate early:

The boy got a new kind of fake meat that I wanted him to try. He thought it tasted pretty much like real meat and deemed it a nice change. We also made plans to rebuild one of the salads we had the day before and looked up different types of beans, as you do.

By then my oomph for the day was mostly gone. I did the dishes, folded laundry, put it away and hung up some more, watched a bit more of the current writing lecture, played around with iPad and pencil, had a snack or two and declared the day over.

We did all meet to watch the film about the Woodstock festival with it being 50 years my husband had decided that the boy needed to learn about it.

And then I went early to bed.

Today there will be running and a lot of rain and my mother-in-law will be back. I am hoping for a third writing day in a row and some more productive things in the afternoon, so stay tuned.

Well, I still haven’t cleaned the bathrooms. I had set the alarm for six but apparently turned that off, turned around and fell asleep again for thirty minutes.

I didn’t let that get in my way, though, and meditated, wrote morning pages and some words on the novel.

I spent quite a bit of time thinking about productivity and systems and my kanban board and I talked to both my husband and the boy about it at length.

So I finished my breakfast when my husband was making his. A little late but alright. Then I knitted a bit on the boy’s new scarf, looked at Gibson guitars with my husband and commiserated with him because the one he would have wanted to buy wasn’t available anymore, helped him decide on another one and then I sat down and ordered some more yarn for yet another crochet blanket that we don’t need. I am really looking forward to it. I had been mulling it over for days now and decided that I really wanted to.

Did the dishes and then went running. I’m now at the point in my 10k-program where I have to run for the same amount of time as I’m walking and while I’m finding that rather hard I actually managed to do it for once. This is the halfway point after 29 minutes:

Why yes, that is the exact same tree I took a picture of on Wednesday. Because I had to run and walk for exactly the same amount of time. Next week it will probably be another tree because I’ll be running more.

Then I helped to make lunch and took a shower. Lunch was pretty low-key because we knew we would be eating all the food later in the day:

My husband formed that rice just for the picture, by the way, both he and the boy got their rice in shapeless heaps. That is how much my family cherishes you blog readers.

Lunch was very tasty. Afterwards there was only a little time. So I watched a bit more of the writing lecture I bought recently, read a little, did the dishes, put on makeup, packed for an afternoon away and then we rode our bikes for about an hour for a garden party. Well, sort of. There is this tradition of Leberkäs at the house of the couple who founded the society for improvised music that we belong to. It’s at their house and usually rather nice. If we were taking the trains there it would take longer than the bike ride and I find the biking rather fun. (I am still not quite sure how I became a person who goes for a run/walk for an hour in the morning and then enjoys two one-hour bike rides in the afternoon but apparently I am now somewhat sporty and outdoorsy. Weird)

The whole thing was rather nice and I found that I have run out of blogging/podcast business cards. Oops. I still have a few for the music teaching and for the authoring but I need to print new ones to promote the podcast and blog. (My husband is still rather surprised by my author business cards because I choose one of his family names for my pen name. Seeing that name on something looking official throws him off big time.)

We only stayed for three hours and were the first to leave but it was starting to drizzle a bit and we both are such introverts that three hours with people feel like enough. And then we zoomed back home. My Fitbit told me that it took us 1 hour 7 minutes to get there and only 50 minutes to get back.

We sat together and talked for a bit back home, then I fetched the boy to tell him that we were back. He had spent the afternoon and evening eating all the potato chips and sweets, apparently. Which is a rather sweet way of celebrating having the house to himself for a 16-year-old.

And then I went to bed too late.

Today there will be some stretching and some writing and I really want to move some project forward today as well. It might also be a good idea to write all my ideas about productivity and the Kanban board and goal-setting down somehow. And I had a great idea for how to structure the teaching website. Because I think I’m stuck on that because my vision for what it should look like isn’t working and thenI remembered an interview on the Creative Penn podcast with André Chaperon who was talking about „attraction marketing“ and stories. And now I’m thinking that it would be a good idea to think about how potential new students could find us and what they want and how to help them.

Because we are attracting rather different people. Parents who want a teacher for their kids, adults who either want to start playing an instruments or who had lessons in the past and want to dive in again, teenagers who are fed up by having to learn a certain way, all kinds of students with all different kinds of problems that we are all helping but building a website that reflects all those approaches is tough.

But then we are creative people. So I guess we can come up with something.

Sorry for the wordy post. I hope you don’t mind.

I woke up from the alarm but then had a hard time to get going. And that was basically the theme of the day.

I did manage to mostly clean the house, and I made pizza for lunch:

 

Because my husband was eating out with a friend. I’m getting better at making the dough but the pizzas are still square instead of round.

I published the podcast and cleaned some more in the afternoon. Not that I was doing that much cleaning, it was one of those days where every bit of cleaning was followed by some video game playing or reading or something similarly distracting.

The electric kettle was descaled and the water filter cleaned and I watched some more of the new writing lecture. And a video from that online writing summit. Too bad that no actual writing happened. But I’ll do better today.

The boy and I watched some more Star Trek and I spun:

He told me that he likes it better when I knit because it’s quieter.

I did turn the lights out a little late but only a little.

Today there will be writing and meditation and all the things including going for a run and in the afternoon we are invited to the annual garden thing held by the couple who founded the society for improvised music that we belong to. Last year was rather nice.

Which means we’ll ride our bikes for two hours or so as well and in between will sit around for eating, drinking and talking.

I need to remember to pack my knitting and spinning. I’m a much better conversationalist when my hands are busy.

I had set my alarm for six but fell asleep again and only woke up half an hour later. I did manage to take my thyroid medication, read the „Daily Stoic“, meditate for five minutes and write morning pages but again thought I could write the next bit of novel a little later. (I don’t know when I will learn that that never works. Not ever.)

Had breakfast, wove the ends of my Comodo cardigan in, talked with my husband and son when they had breakfast and researched stuff on the internet. It is rather interesting how often each day I tend to go down a rabbit hole, finding out about something I’d like to buy or do.

I had started to read the „Ultralearning“ book the day before and that got me thinking (I’m only a few pages in, but still. Oh, and I have yet to finish any of the other non-fiction books I started reading over the past few weeks.) And I read a few articles and blog posts on mental load and that got me thinking.

I had a pretty slow morning because I didn’t have to do grocery shopping. I also thought we would have barbecue for lunch but it turned out that my husband had forgotten all about it and that we didn’t have everything we needed.

Lunch was really yummy and for once we were on time. And the boy showed up both for breakfast and lunch almost on time!

Dishes were done right away and then I read a little before starting to get the podcast ready. That took me most of the afternoon. In between I decided to buy yet another online lecture about writing and watched a video in an „online writing summit“. I’m not that impressed but then I have been doing these kind of things often enough. I signed up to see two instructors specifically and those session are yet to come.

Then I watched the first few session of the lecture I had bought. I found those much more informative but I’m not quite sure they are worth the money. But then I have only started. And I have to remind myself that I used to go to singing and improvisation workshops all the time and most of those were a waste of money but not all.

I got the podcast ready and uploaded but had forgotten to take project pictures before the light became bad. It was a pretty gray day with on and off rain. I’ll have to take those today.

Then it was time again to watch Star Trek, I brushed my teeth beforehand again so skipping dinner gets easier, spun a bit, made pizza dough for today, wrote in my journal and turned out the lights.

Today there will be all the things again, cleaning, pizza-making, writing and all that stuff. Oh, and I’ll publish the podcast.