Archives for December 2024

I woke up, fell tired, lounged in bed and decided to – skip the morning routine. Bad move, as always.

There was cake for breakfast again because someone needs to eat that. There was some crochet after breakfast and then I stepped on a train to the next town over to renew a prescription and buy things at the nicer health food store there that I can’t get here.

When I wanted to take the train back and stamp my ticket the machine was broken. I tried buying a ticket on my phone instead but the server was not reachable for some reason? So I actually called the number on the ticket stamper, had a nice chat with the person on the other end who thanked me for calling but also told me there was another machine at the other end of the platform. Huh. I had thought that platform only had one entrance but hadn’t thought about the fact that they made it more accessible recently and so I trekked all the way to the other end (my watch was sure I was exercising) to stamp my ticket and then back again. Good thing I had ample time.

Back in my hometown I went to the new supermarket for vegetarian bratwurst, to the pharmacy and to the other health food store before getting back home. Where my husband was stressed out by cooking on the wood stove again. Lunch was nice but a bit too salty:

I only had very little time after that but managed to eat all the Christmas cookies one of my students had given me. As I said – dumb.

Then there was all the teaching all afternoon, one Christmas song after the other until my tension headache was back.

After teaching the boy and I did bodyweight training, my husband asked me to help him order a new hifi amp. He has been having trouble with his for months now and both replacements that he found around the house weren’t working properly as well. Seems that even the best equipment fizzles out after just a few decades.

Then I finally got to eat dinner. The boy and I were sitting around companionably looking at our phones for a bit, then I started writing this post, did my foot exercises and Duolingo, and watched something on TV while spinning.

Then to bed.

Two more teaching days until Christmas break.

As is often the case, when I have a bit more time I get less done.

I seem to have settled for a bedtime between 11 and 11.30 which means I get an hour less sleep than I need on the regular. I did manage to write some new words and my morning pages but skipped the yoga and meditation yet again.

The whole day was full of misunderstandings and emotional conversations up to the point where the tension headache I had all day turned into a sharp piercing pain at my left temple for a bit in the morning. Speaking of pain my feet seem to be a little better and I would have said my arthritic fingers are fine by now until I took my midday painkillers too late. Oops. It is getting better, though, so I’m sure the current flare will subside soon.

It was one of those days, I made several mistakes while crocheting and had to rip back not only the last four rounds on this:

Because I had used the wrong color yarn, I also made the exact same mistake a couple rounds further along.

I went for a walk that helped clear my head and gave me very exciting ideas for the next part of the novel in progress:

There was risotto for lunch:

There were more conversations and some teaching and by the time I was finished with that and had plans to work on publishing tasks I was completely out of energy up to the point where I spent almost two hours staring blankly into space (okay, I did Solitaire and went on social media) it was already too late.

The boy wanted some help in writing a Christmas card to an aunt, I tried roping my husband in because I was so low on energy and I didn’t want him to feel left out, that led to a series of misunderstandings again that took hours to sort out, the boy took his shower late and I started watching something at the time I should have turned the lights out.

So, splendid day, let’s hope today is better.

As is often the case, when I have a bit more time I get less done.

I seem to have settled for a bedtime between 11 and 11.30 which means I get an hour less sleep than I need on the regular. I did manage to write some new words and my morning pages but skipped the yoga and meditation yet again.

The whole day was full of misunderstandings and emotional conversations up to the point where the tension headache I had all day turned into a sharp piercing pain at my left temple for a bit in the morning. Speaking of pain my feet seem to be a little better and I would have said my arthritic fingers are fine by now until I took my midday painkillers too late. Oops. It is getting better, though, so I’m sure the current flare will subside soon.

It was one of those days, I made several mistakes while crocheting and had to rip back not only the last four rounds on this:

Because I had used the wrong color yarn, I also made the exact same mistake a couple rounds further along.

I went for a walk that helped clear my head and gave me very exciting ideas for the next part of the novel in progress:

There was risotto for lunch:

There were more conversations and some teaching and by the time I was finished with that and had plans to work on publishing tasks I was completely out of energy up to the point where I spent almost two hours staring blankly into space (okay, I did Solitaire and went on social media) it was already too late.

The boy wanted some help in writing a Christmas card to an aunt, I tried roping my husband in because I was so low on energy and I didn’t want him to feel left out, that led to a series of misunderstandings again that took hours to sort out, the boy took his shower late and I started watching something at the time I should have turned the lights out.

So, splendid day, let’s hope today is better.

I went to bed too late, slept well and woke up early. And then I didn’t want to do anything at all and just lounged in bed scrolling through social media. I did none of the things that I usually do to make me feel better.

I had a somewhat early breakfast while reading and later that day finished the Miss Phryne Fisher short story collection. I really liked it and now I’m all through that series. I hope there will be more books eventually.

I made my usual phone call to my mother and this time she was home and we had a nice talk. My husband was making a new recipe from a YouTube video, tagliatelle with dried porcini. It was very good:

After lunch I folded the load of laundry on the rack and hung the next load up while my husband did the lunch dishes. I also started a load of wool things that included my new shawl. This is a picture of the unwashed shawl:

I took a break and waited for the boy. And waited some more. We had agreed to bake the Christmas cookies that afternoon but had never made our plans concrete, so there was no alarm for him and no calendar entry. But. He finally came downstairs around 3.30 to eat lunch, we talked and only an hour later we started making cookie dough.

It took us about three hours in total but our usual two kinds of cookies are done:

My husband did the dishes while we were still forming kipferl. You can clearly see who made which, mine are skinny and sloppier, the boys are fatter, smaller and prettier. On the other hand I made two in the time it took him to make one.

Then we finally ate dinner and afterwards we met again for bodyweight training. Which felt really hard at that point.

Then I planned the week and the next day, did Duolingo, started writing this post, did my foot exercises while my tea was steeping, watched the first episode of „Love is a Poison again“ while spinning and crocheting and went to bed.

Now it’s the last week before Christmas break. Onwards and upwards!

I went to bed too late, slept well and woke up early. And then I didn’t want to do anything at all and just lounged in bed scrolling through social media. I did none of the things that I usually do to make me feel better.

I had a somewhat early breakfast while reading and later that day finished the Miss Phryne Fisher short story collection. I really liked it and now I’m all through that series. I hope there will be more books eventually.

I made my usual phone call to my mother and this time she was home and we had a nice talk. My husband was making a new recipe from a YouTube video, tagliatelle with dried porcini. It was very good:

After lunch I folded the load of laundry on the rack and hung the next load up while my husband did the lunch dishes. I also started a load of wool things that included my new shawl. This is a picture of the unwashed shawl:

I took a break and waited for the boy. And waited some more. We had agreed to bake the Christmas cookies that afternoon but had never made our plans concrete, so there was no alarm for him and no calendar entry. But. He finally came downstairs around 3.30 to eat lunch, we talked and only an hour later we started making cookie dough.

It took us about three hours in total but our usual two kinds of cookies are done:

My husband did the dishes while we were still forming kipferl. You can clearly see who made which, mine are skinny and sloppier, the boys are fatter, smaller and prettier. On the other hand I made two in the time it took him to make one.

Then we finally ate dinner and afterwards we met again for bodyweight training. Which felt really hard at that point.

Then I planned the week and the next day, did Duolingo, started writing this post, did my foot exercises while my tea was steeping, watched the first episode of „Love is a Poison again“ while spinning and crocheting and went to bed.

Now it’s the last week before Christmas break. Onwards and upwards!