Archives for December 2023

Pretty good day at that but still went to bed too late.

I think there are several factors to this, one that I am actually rather busy, two that being tired all the time means everything takes longer, three the waiting for the wood stove situation means I have half an hour less to myself and four I had to disable the screen time function on my phone because somehow it meant my sleep app was not responding either. Even though I made it an exception.

The screen time thing is one example for really simple and often dumb things making disproportionately big ripples through the day.

So. Yesterday I spent most of the day on my mother’s mittens, I knit all morning, finished the thumb after lunch, then taught all the students and after dinner I ripped the thumb out again because something had gone horribly wrong and re-knitted it. Lo and behold, mittens:

They are scratchier than I would have liked but, well, it is what it is. I now know the points where things usually go wrong and why which means the next time should go better.

My husband finally got to eat his lentils, there was dal, veggie rice and spicy eggs for lunch:

After lunch I had a nice little knitting break with a cup of tea, cookies and chocolate:

After finishing the mittens in the evening I finally did the millions of dishes from lunch while talking with the boy and then I almost forgot to do Duolingo. The owl was not amused:

I’m not quite sure what to do about Duolingo, I’m all the way through the Chinese course, the only thing that is teaching me anything new is the writing practice. Now I could do some other language, at one point I started Russian, Latin, Italian, French, Portuguese and Latin but I’m not sure I have the headspace for another language. And I definitely want to continue Chinese, I mean, I have barely started.

I turned the lights out just before midnight. Guess who is very tired today as well. And has another very long, very busy day ahead.

Yeah, somehow getting enough sleep seems to be even harder on weekends. I mean, I probably could stop setting an alarm but my days go much better if I have a bit of time to myself first thing in the morning.

I did manage yoga but not the rest of the morning routine because there was just too much to do. First there was cake for breakfast because of the boy’s birthday:

I called my mother on the phone like every Sunday where she reminded me not to wait too long to buy a Christmas tree for the third time and asked me if I even had decorations for it. The answer is yes, of course, we have a new tree stand and a full set of lights, balls and ornaments in the attic.

I had to hurry after that to do the breakfast dishes and start making spaetzle. When I came back to the kitchen the boy was up and eating breakfast. He unwrapped his presents, a set of Gundam models from my mother, a comic book from me, some fancy lebkuchen from my husband and the desk chair he already got.

I almost ruined the spaetzle dough by misreading the recipe and only putting half of the required flour in. I also found that while I had been sure I had bought everything I needed we were alarmingly short on flour and I had to use some spelt flour instead. Spaetzle making at the wood stove is very, very hot and takes a long time. I was very grateful for the leather apron I had gotten my husband at one point:

Lunch was very delicious kaspatz’n:

We had celebratory champagne. That champagne was part of the wine delivery from the day before, it’s made by the friend of a friend and very, very good.

After lunch I only took a rather short 15-minute break before the boy and I dove in doing the dishes and then making Christmas cookies. I totally forgot to take pictures of that. We did use up the last crumbs of spelt flour. Fortunately I had made the cookie dough the day before, unfortunately I had misread the recipe (I’m sensing a theme here) and put the powdered sugar that was meant to be put on the cookies after baking in the dough instead of the regular sugar. Which means they are a bit too sweet now.

The boy and I worked pretty well together, forming a kind of assembly line. We finished the cookies around 6.30 and by then the apartment was rather warm what with the wood stove all day and the constant baking all afternoon.

At one point in the morning I ripped back most of the second mitten I was knitting because I had made yet another error in the setup. Again.

The boy and I did all the many dishes that we had used for baking at one point, ate potato chips and ice cream while watching the third ‚Doctor Who‘-special, then I watched half an episode of C-drama, did some Duolingo somewhere in between and realized that while I had made myself some fruit tea in the morning I hadn’t actually drunk any of it which explained why I was feeling so droopy. Completely de-hydrated and champagne with lunch and beer with dinner didn’t really help with that.

I almost fell asleep around 9.30, then the boy came downstairs to tell me something and so I turned the lights out around 11.30 which is too late.

This morning went accordingly, I think I’ll give up on getting anything done. I am re-knitting the mitten, though, am thinking I might have the setup right now and also I might have an idea where I always go wrong.

If I manage to post the mittens by Wednesday they should arrive in time for Christmas, we’ll see. If I manage to finish them by tonight I might even wash them before posting them.

In a good way.

Despite going to bed at 1 am I set my alarm for 7.30. Was a bit slow (wonder why) but did my yoga and meditation. I wanted to write morning pages later but that didn’t work out.

After breakfast, while my husband was building the fire, I ripped everything back on the mitten I’m knitting because I had one stitch too many. Started it all over.

We had been expecting the friends who always bring us our big annual wine order. It’s a former schoolmate of my husband and her husband and they know a guy who makes excellent wine. They always order for many of their friends, the vintner then delivers to them in person and they distribute it from there.

They arrived earlier than expected, I hadn’t even brushed my teeth yet. (It also tells you something about me that at that point I had finished reading a book, ripped back half a mitten and started re-knitting it but still had to brush my teeth.

They stayed for almost three hours. Which was nice but delayed lunch a lot. Therefore the boy and I decided to only make the cookie dough that day and leave the actual baking for later today. I’m really hoping the recipe is right when it says to leave the dough in the fridge overnight.

Lunch was simple but very tasty, fish, potatoes and red beet salad:

In between my husband and I kept talking about the TV show we saw the night before, „Why didn’t they ask Evans?“ Until I caved and bought the book. I started reading it right away and I really like it so far.

With lunch being so late the afternoon was rather short. The boy and I made dough for cinnamon stars and Vanillekipferl, then we spent another hour putting his new desk chair together and then I did an epic washing up. By then it was almost 9, I did some barebones Duolingo, watched an episode of C-drama and went to bed.

Today is the boy’s birthday so I’m sure boredom will not be a problem at all. Which reminds me that I still need to wrap his present.

Oddly shaped day, full morning routine then waiting for the wood stove to get hot and boil tea water for a long time, bike ride to the supermarket and a pharmacy, then back home, another pharmacy, lunch and teaching.

We had Weißwürste and Brezen for lunch and I drank the first beer in weeks:

The teaching, bodyweight training between two students, finding that there was no bread left for dinner, heating up frozen rolls in the oven, dinner while reading, somehow waiting for two hours for the boy to bring the dirty dishes downstairs (I was unsure if I should just start washing up, go upstairs, or do something else, ahem), do the dishes, watch some C-drama even though it was already a bit late, and then going to bed.

I’m not quite sure if today will just be extra super busy or extremely crazy, we’ll see. The things I would like to fit into the day are cleaning the house, taking a train to the next town over to renew a prescription, walk to the pharmacy again, teach all the students and take a shower. Not quite sure if that’s possible.