Archives for January 2024

After going to bed at 10.30 the day before and being very proud of it I woke up at 2.30 in the night, used the bathroom and that – was it. I lounged in bed trying to think soothing, sleepy thoughts until 4 am, then gave up on sleep and finished reading „Lucky Bounce“ by Cait Nary. Highly recommend, it is fun and fluffy and cute and funny.

I might have fallen back asleep around 7.15 but that’s time to start the day so I wrote my morning pages and then my determination started waning and I skipped yoga and meditation. I was really tired but not as tired as I would be in the late afternoon.

It was rather interesting, by the way, I didn’t have any racing thoughts or worries keeping me up or anything, I was just not sleepy. In the middle of the night. I don’t usually have trouble falling asleep or falling back asleep, no idea what that was about. My throat and stomach weren’t feeling well, maybe that was it.

So I looked at my list for the day and crossed a couple things off. I did do the usual housework stuff and then took the bike to the supermarket because for once the streets were clear. Came back home, threw part of the groceries in the freezer and fridge, helped to make salad and sat down to eat pasta:

It was very good though I would have preferred not to have lemon zest in my tomato sauce but that’s what you get when my husband wants to cook properly. He thinks it tastes much better that way. I still had a bit of time before teaching and for once I used that time to both take a break and a shower. It made me realize that the struggle with taking showers at the moment is partly due to the fact that I want to be considerate. My husband goes running four times a week and needs to take a shower on those days before teaching but after cooking. Since I never quite know when he does so I just sit in the kitchen waiting until it’s too late. Something I do a lot and it drives me crazy.

Yesterday I was so out of it from the lack of sleep that I didn’t even think about him at that point. Because the shower I use has priority for hot water over the one he uses. My husband also was very annoyed all day about my fuzziness and it made me realize once again how much energy I use every day just tamping down my inner muddleheadedness and on communicating clearly. Even with my own husband.

I was rather relieved when two of my students canceled, did not use my break in the afternoon to call potential new students on the phone (see communication problems above), ate dinner, had a nice conversation with my husband, did a minimum of Duolingo, the dishes and watched an episode of „Old-fashioned cupcake“ at the kitchen table before going to bed.

Oh, and I looked at the documents for my scintigram next week, and found that I should have stopped taking my thyroid meds 2 1/2 weeks ago. I am seeing a phone call in my future to determine whether that means I need to move the appointment or if it’s not that big a deal. Ugh.

This morning I’m feeling much better after a good night’s sleep and am hoping for a more energetic day today.

I went to bed at a reasonable time, slept well and did my complete morning routine. Yoga was full of rather intense stretches for my poor hamstrings and hips, exactly what I needed. The boy had showed up when I was still writing morning pages so I cut that short, listened to him complaining about uni a bit, cut that short as well and did my yoga and three short minutes of meditation as well.

Breakfast was had while my husband showed up and took care of the oven. His mood seems to be lifting which is very good. I decided to drink chamomile and fennel tea instead of the fruit tea that also has ginger in it. I think my stomach doesn’t like the ginger. My big plan was to do all the exercise and take a shower but that didn’t happen. Instead I did open the manuscript for half an hour, the first time this year. Phew.

I did do some mobility exercises for my neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists and feet. I’m trying to learn those new routines and it’s slow going. It is clear those exercises are doing something, though, because I started being sore that same afternoon. In a good way.

Lunch was polenta, beans and ground beef and very tasty:

Then my husband asked the boy about his gundam models so he brought them downstairs to show us. We talked a bit and then I only had a short break before teaching.

I taught all the students non-stop and got another message about potential new students. With the three new students I took on last week and the one returning student yesterday I’m full so now I have to tell people sorry, I know I told you to ask again in January but no one quit. That will be a fun activity for the afternoon today.

When I was finished teaching my husband had already done the dishes which was very considerate and then he set out to finally fix the broken lamp over the stove. It’s probably not a permanent fix but at least it works for now.

I ate dinner while reading „Lucky Bounce“, did some rather frustrating Chinese lessons and Duolingo, started writing this post, briefly contemplated taking a shower after all, watched some C-drama while crocheting, read some more and turned out the lights.

Today will be supermarket day. I’m not quite sure which one I’ll go to and if I should take the bus, the bike or walk but will decide shortly.

Really, I need to change my schedule to make more space for things that matter. Like sleep.

I had turned the lights out at midnight, slept until the alarm, was slow to get up because of not enough sleep and decided to skip the morning routine in favor of reading. By the way, I finished that book by mid-morning. I had plans to at least do yoga but the boy came downstairs for his breakfast exactly when I was debating whether it was too late for yoga or not…

After breakfast I stayed seated a little longer because I only needed two more squares on the blanket so I did finish one of them. As expected my husband had forgotten that the oven was stinky and gross and needed to be cleaned before we could make lunch and was completely thrown when I mentioned the fact so I let the oven soak while I was doing the dishes, then scrubbed the big black stains off and now we have an oven that is usable again without giving you instant cancer fumes.

Somehow everything was late and so I did not open the manuscript or exercise but instead helped making lunch. The potatoes could have cooked a little longer and there wasn’t enough salt but other than that it was very tasty:

I know it doesn’t look like much.

Then my new slippers came and are wider than the other ones. Which means I need to grip them more which is bad but I’ll wear them anyways and try to get used to them. And that on a day where I felt everything was itching and being touched in any way hurts. I guess I need some sleep and rest.

We started eating lunch forty minutes before I needed to teach and then the boy wanted to sit and show me things on Twitter until I rushed off. I decided that I also couldn’t stand it anymore that my two pairs of jeans are way too tight and so I caved and ordered a new pair a size bigger. Even if I manage to lose weight I’ll be able to wear those for a couple of months.

I taught all the students, texted the one who I thought would cancel and, yep, she did want to reschedule and now we have a new regular time slot for her. Which means I’ll never ever get the house cleaned on Fridays ever again because her new slot was the one break I had left on Friday afternoon.

After teaching I started writing this post, did the dishes, Duolingo and then sat in front of TV crocheting the last blanket square. Next up will be crocheting the border and weaving in all the dozens of tiny ends. Yes, I’m already regretting leaving those for so long but I just couldn’t.

I’m hoping for a restart today. On the other hand my usually pretty chill Wednesday got an additional two students including one who is sort of new. But who knows, maybe I will manage to exercise anyways.

Let’s see, I went to bed half an hour too late, woke up from the alarm, wrote my morning pages, did yoga, took my pills and such and forgot to meditate and take my blood pressure. Had breakfast with a husband who was still in a very bad mood and told me so repeatedly.

The plan was to crochet a lot because I was only four squares away from finishing the body of the blanket but I didn’t have time. I did the breakfast dishes and then got ready to go grocery shopping. We were almost out of yogurt and I needed to get some stuff for the pizza we wanted to make because we had salad that needed to get eaten. You know how it is.l

I walked around for 40 minutes (and my feet hated me for it later), came home to a husband who was still in a mood, unpacked the groceries and started to help making pizza and salad right away. All that stress did mean that pizza was ready on time, so that was good. By then my husband was completely stressed out up to the point where he wasn’t hungry anymore and didn’t eat the calzone he had specially made for himself. The boy and I had mushroom pizza made from frozen mushrooms:

After that it was almost time to teach. I had one student cancel which meant I could start a load of long overdue laundry but when I went to do it I found my husband had beaten me to it. I taught three more students, played the piano for a bit, put my studio back in order, ate dinner, talked with the boy and my husband individually and messaged with a friend while reading the book I had bought that afternoon and tried making a plan for the rest of the evening. Mind you, at that point I had already gotten my daily reminder that I should get ready for bed.

Anyways, I finally did the dishes, took a shower and watched a bit of TV before going to bed. Oh, and Duolingo, bullet journal and Chinese handwriting.

Today should be a little less full, I already did all of my Tuesday things yesterday.

And I could just whine and complain all day. Which wouldn’t be fun. Just one thing, though, the slippers I bought at the end of August are already broken. They are made of felt with a partial rubber sole sewn onto the bottom and unsurprisingly a bit of the rubber has come off, the stitches have come undone and now I’m walking around with a tripping hazard. I bought these for my custom insoles. Seems I’m too hard on my house slippers for a model like these. My husband was nice enough to try glueing the thing back together but it has come apart after just one day again:

That weird yellow-ish spot is the glue my husband used. I was very skeptical about glueing anything to felt from the start. I have ordered replacement slippers, same company but with a rubber sole that covers all of the slipper.

I had gone to bed half an hour late after having a beer. Which was a bad idea, my stomach did complain and I had a hard time getting ready for bed. Not quite sure if I will ever learn, we’ll see I guess. I did get enough sleep but got up too late for my morning routine.

Getting the wood stove going took half an hour longer than usual so we were running late then as well. On the upside the boy was actually up and having breakfast at breakfast time. I called my mother on the phone, started the dishes too late and got in my husband’s way while he was cooking and so lunch was late as well:

Pretty tasty rice-thing, somewhere between paella and pilaf with some sprouts thrown in. I then proceeded to eat too much chocolate against frustration and exhaustion. I had a nice afternoon watching videos and crocheting. I’m on my last row of squares and too impatient to sew in ends. And yes, I know that that will come to bite me later.

Like the day before I tried working on my manuscript again and like the day before I got stalled by my cute pomodoro app not working any longer. I have been using PomoFarm for quite some time, long enough that it is baked into my writing routine and so I spent the time I would have had trying to troubleshoot the app instead of trying to troubleshoot the manuscript. Meh.

I watched some TV after doing Duolingo and planning the week and am hoping this week will be more productive than the last one.