Archives for March 2024

Because it was the last morning without either a doctor’s appointment or the overdue cleaning. And of course I did not succeed in tackling the list.

I did sleep well and woke up before the alarm, then was slow and skipped the morning routine again. Talked with my husband, crocheted, did the dishes, was about to get ready for proofreading when my husband asked me if I could clean the sprouts for lunch which made me sit there staring blankly into space before realizing that I was paralyzed because I didn’t know if the sprouts needed to be dealt with before or after the health food store.

So I had a bit of an argument with my husband who thought I blamed him for not communicating clearly. Which I didn’t. It took me half an hour to figure out that I got caught in a loop of not knowing what to do first. After making it clear that picking through the sprouts would be better before grocery shopping instead of after I finally got started. It takes 20 minutes, by the way, when I just do it in a normal way instead of the usual panicky frenzy when we’re too late.

And there went proofreading time, by the way. Probably until Saturday if that. Husband didn’t understand why I was so cranky.

I walked to the health food store and back, then helped some more with cutting veggies and such after putting the groceries away. Me coming back home, by the way, was the reason my husband forgot about the noodles on the stove. They might have been a little overcooked. But still tasty:

We ate half an hour late and then talked. I did wash the dishes afterwards but only because my first student canceled.

Then there was teaching, in a break between two students I did a vocal warm-up and my voice exercises because my voice was hoarse again.

I still met a new singing student, a very nice one, I’m looking forward to teaching them.

Then dinner, more sitting around, writing this post, doing Chinese and giving up on taking a shower and watching something. There also was a huge pile of dirty dishes in the sink. After lunch when I put the plates back I saw that there were very few dishes still in there so I asked the boy to bring his dirty ones downstairs. I should have asked him to wash them as well. I was so tired and exhausted that I just wanted to go to bed. So I made myself a cup of chamomile-fennel tea, read a bit and turned off the lights.

Today brings another doctor’s appointment, as you’re reading this I’m being poked with needles. I’m looking forward to having more information, as always, but I am not looking forward to the poking.

Oh, and while I’m away my husband has to deal with the chimney sweep. Fun!

I woke up before the alarm again. And skipped the morning routine because I didn’t have the energy. Again. Had breakfast, talked with husband, crocheted, read, did the rest of the morning things and used my new writing desk for the first time:

I went out and bought yogurt and tissues. At the supermarket I almost gave in to temptation and put a chocolate bar in my basket but in the end I honored my pact with the boy and put it back. It was hard but a promise is a promise. Funny enough knowing that I have both chocolate and ice cream at home helps, even though we decided to not eat the ice cream before the end of the month. I returned back home, put everything away, started to hang up laundry, then ate lunch:

Then I took a break, remembered the rest of the laundry too late, tried hanging it all up and failed. I wrote a message to the boy to please take care of the rest. Which he did.

I wore a mask while teaching because of my cold but had to take it off when it turned out that the mother of the potential new student is hard of hearing. I mostly remembered to look at her when talking, phew.

I really didn’t want to do anything else after teaching, ate dinner, went on social media, played a few iPad games, started writing this post, did the dishes and Duolingo, watched a bit of C-drama and went to bed.

I went to bed too late and slept okay considering that my nose was stuffed. I skipped the morning routine again and started my day with reading and some social media.

At one point I was very determined to take a shower before calling my mother on the phone but ran out of time because doing the breakfast dishes before cooking took priority. After talking with my mother for almost an hour (it was a busy week for both of us) I decided to open the box with the new writing desk to see if everything was in there. And then I went looking for my cordless screwdriver. Husband informed me that he had been looking for it a couple of days before and hadn’t found it. Well, it was sitting right on top of the work bench in the basement in its case. Unfortunately the charger was nowhere to be found. Since it’s a micro-USB charger I’m considering just using the one I use for my eReader. While in the room with it, putting it on a non-flammable surface.

Anyways, when lunch was ready I was more than half-way done with the desk.

My husband had made risotto, fish and shrimp:

After lunch I went back to screwing plywood and ended up with this:

Then I played some silly games, talked with the boy a bit and sat nearby while he was eating until my husband showed up at 4.30. He saw the desk and decided that we needed to move the furniture around right away to put it in its new place. So we took the bit basket with all of the boy’s stuffed toys out of the living room, moved the fabric dresser where the basket was, the couch a bit to the right, the cabinet that is supposed to hold more yarn in the bedroom eventually in front of a bookcase and the writing desk next to the window. I need to take a picture today, I didn’t get around to it before. I also finally managed to string the extension cords behind the sofa instead of in front of it, then had to rescue one of the two boxes of „sewing projects in progress“ that my husband thought wer clutter and should go in the garage or something after getting him to agree that the fabric dresser should be places in a way that it is possible to actually open the doors and get to its contents, then I talked to the boy some more, went online again, talked to my husband, rescued an almost boiling frying pan after he had used it to fry some pasta and had forgotten to turn the heat off (good thing he had filled it with water to soak), ate dinner myself, wrote this post, planned the week, did the dishes, finally took that shower, did Duolingo and watched some C-drama for the first time in a week.

Today I’ll do as little as possible, not sure if I should wear a mask, I bet I was the most contagious some time last week. I also should go out and obtain some more tissues because I’m about to run out. Other than that I am feeling better which is good.

I have another insane week ahead including the thyroid biopsy and some more shockwaves. Oh, and the chimney sweep. Of course.

I woke up without an alarm after going to bed at 10.30 because I decided rest was most important in dealing with that cold. I had a stuffed nose, aching head and sore throat all day with an extra helping of headache and nausea. Fun times!

So I just spent all day sitting around doing nothing. I did not stay in bed, though, didn’t want to.

Lunch was warm pasta salad:

The afternoon brought more of the same, then dinner, finally doing the dishes, some Duolingo, C-drama, more reading and bed.

The headache and dripping nose I woke up with yesterday continues to become worse, so I’m scaling way back. No cleaning, no nothing, just sitting around blowing my nose.

I’m fine and I went to bed early and slept very well but I will continue to just sit around doing nothing today.

We did have Chinese takeout for lunch and it was delicious:

Very good spring rolls and chicken:

And now that I’m writing this my space bar seems to be stuck. Only intermittently but I just had to copy and paste a space in. Fabulous!

(And then somehow the blog was unresponsive and it took until now to get this posted.)

I woke up at 7 and skipped the morning routine because I needed to be at the orthopedist at 9. Which is when I’m usually finished with breakfast. I did manage to leave the house on time and listened to the last Wollkanal-episode. There was no ticket stamping machine on the bus, no way to get my ticket validated. Oops.

I didn’t have to wait for long and then got the first round of shockwave therapy for my left foot. The assistant doing the therapy was very nice and kept warning me about the (rather mild) pain and also kept saying she could do less if I couldn’t bear it and to speak up. I mean, yeah, it was painful at times but, well, I’ve been walking around on that foot with constant stabbing pain for months. A bit of prickling and a bit of sharpness doesn’t faze me. I did spend the time focusing on my breathing. And then I got to enjoy a new, exciting and completely different kind of pain than the last months. Progress!

(It is supposed to hurt, from what I remember the therapy makes something like micro-tears in the fascia to encourage proper healing. But I might remember wrong.)

I went back home on the same bus, so no ticket again before my husband had even eaten the first bite of his breakfast.

Then I slumped around a bit, failed to do the dishes or open the manuscript until I set off for the supermarket run. I also went to print out photos and bought new underwear for the boy in the wrong size. And a new flavor of Ben and Jerry’s despite our rule that I can only buy sweets after talking with the boy beforehand when there is a special occasion. But we talked later and the ice cream is now the special „Easter plus end of exam“-treat. Which means I need to leave it in the freezer for the rest of the month. ::sad face;;

There was lunch, chicken, rice and mixed veggies:

After that I played some silly games, read a bit and talked with the boy. Then there was teaching, the student who never shows did show for the first time in a month and I finally sent a text to his mother so that she can maybe tell me when he can’t come the next time. Sitting there and waiting is really uncomfortable and a part of me always worries that something happened to the missing student. I also called one potential new student back and texted another. Then some more teaching, dinner, social media and silly games again, Duolingo, other Chinese, finally the dishes and my piece of classical music, I made a list for today, talked with the boy and went to bed.

Phew.

And today is cleaning and laundry day and there should be takeout for lunch.