Archives for April 2020

I mean, in a way they are all strange. I went down another research rabbit hole right after waking up, forgot my thyroid meds at first, you know the drill. I did pull out the novel-in-progress and started reading it from the beginning, though. For all of fifteen minutes.

We were all out of sorts.

I forgot to ask my mother-in-law if she needed something before heading to the health food store. I thought the tea shop would be open but it wasn’t. My husband vacuumed and mopped the annex.

We made lunch (spaghettini, mushrooms in cream and salad):

I did the dishes right away and then it was already time for teaching. I had four students with short breaks in between. And after teaching the boy and I actually did strength training. It was my first time ever finishing the 20-minute hotel workout by Nerd Fitness. Instead of the one-arm luggage rows we used the pull-up bar, the boy did actual pull-ups and I did quasi-pull-ups with my feet on a chair. I tried putting most of my weight on my arms. It looks rather ridiculous but I could feel my muscles getting sore even while doing them.

I got a reminder to schedule my first one-on-one coaching call for the „Strengths for Writers“-course. And I did. For Monday right before teaching. I’m terrified already which is a little funny.

Then dinner, then slumping around while being too tired to go to bed for a while and then I went off to bed a little late again but not stupid late. I think I might be getting better at maintaining routines and structure. At least I hope so.

Today will be a whirlwind. There will be running and a quick trip to the farmer’s market for potatoes. Quite a bit of teaching and some teaching prep. Bonus points for making deodorant, something that has been on my list for several days now. (Don’t worry, we still have some.) And for going to bed on time.

The things I’m learning in the „Strengths for Writers“-course are continuing to percolate. I’ve had various epiphanies over the last few days. Very exciting.

I woke up early after having gone to bed very early (hurray!). Then I proceeded to meditate and write morning pages and then – wandered off. I have basically given up on writing fiction for the moment but have compiled the novel in progress so I can read everything I have by now. Funny enough, the thing didn’t ready itself.

My to-do list for the day was ambitious but I made good progress. I also helped the boy with school stuff a bit and talked about various issues with my husband. I did a lot of laundry. Because of the yeast infection I didn’t want to wash my underwear on 40° with most our laundry but had asked my husband to put them in with the 60° laundry. So I stripped my bed, carried the sheets downstairs to the basement, looked at the humungous pile of whites sitting there and – couldn’t find my underpants. I only had two pairs left upstairs, one clean and one dirty. Huh.

So I started looking for my dirty underpants. Or a pile of clean ones that I had forgotten about. Neither materialized. So I asked my husband who was very confused by my question. „I put them with the bedsheets and towels, just like you wanted.“ „But they’re not there.”

We both went and looked a second time but by then I had already started the first load. We both thought that stopping the washing machine mid-wash would be a bit too much.

It was all very mysterious.

I went running and the weather was almost perfect if a little too windy:

I loved it, it was cool and nice and running went fine:

While I was wearing a t-shirt, leggings and no jacket my husband was in long johns, sweatpants, a tee, a sweatshirt, a jacket, scarf and hat, by the way. The other people seemed to have thought that the weather was too brisk for being outside because we met almost no one. It wasn#t even raining! I guess that’s their loss:

I came back, did the breakfast dishes, folded the load of laundry that was occupying the drying rack and then started to hang up the freshly washed load from before. Guess what I found in there?

Yeah. I’ll be having clean and dry underpants shortly.

Lunch was rice and dal:

Then dishes, a lot of small, niggly things and not enough of the things on my list but I did fine. Wrote emails to students and such. Then I started teaching and – as I said – for the first time since teaching online I put on makeup.

Teaching went well. I feel that it’s getting less exhausting. Might be the week off, though. Or getting enough sleep. We’ll see. My husband put the tarp over the skylight in my studio and that helped as well. I didn’t have to spend the whole afternoon overheated but instead was just pleasantly warm. You can tell that I’m living in hot flash-territory. These days I’d rather be too cold than too warm.

One of the reasons I threw myself into laundry and dishes so much was because I’m finding that I need more time for thinking. And if I just sit somewhere I never sit and think, I usually read or listen to something or knit. But folding laundry and doing dishes is a time where the thing I’m doing only needs a small portion of my brain and the rest is free to ponder. I have been trying to minimize these times, not wanting to waste time I could use to listen to podcasts or something but right now they feel like a breath of fresh air. The housework offers me the opportunity to let my mind wander and I love it.

Of course, every time I’m diving into thinking time someone walks in with a question or story, and in the case of my husband mostly, offers to help me. Not quite sure how to explain that I was looking forward to hanging up laundry by myself.

After my last student I started writing this post. I had thought of skipping dinner but then decided not to. And I still managed to go to bed at a decent time.

Today there will be a trip to the health food store and to the tea shop. I’m all out of black tea – the horror! Then quite a bit of teaching, maybe a phone call or two and prep for teaching the rest of the week.

I think I might start to feel a little less paralyzed. That would be neat.