Archives for September 2025

Yet again. The morning went well, though,. I did find that I had counted the scenes I had proofread wrong and was not as far as I thought but that is not that big a deal. And I’m starting to get ideas for the second book in the contemporary romance series.

When I left the house for my walk/run it was too late yet again, this time because not only had I done an interestingly high pile of dishes, I also had folded three loads of laundry. The weather was very nice outside and there were barely any people around:

I passed a car crash on my way to the woods, there was a fire engine in the middle of the street and lots of police. Three cars were stuck together. I couldn’t see any of the passengers and the firemen had closed a whole part of the road off. I hope everybody will be okay.

Other than that running was really nice.

I came back home to lunch already on the table, so we ate, then the boy showed up. He had planned to go to uni in the morning but then was too late anyway. But he was awake before noon. I think he wants to try again today.

Lunch was delicious with homegrown eggplant:

I thought I had loads of time before my first student but of course I ended up scrambling to get myself showered and dressed in time. I taught a bit, tried sending an email, fiddled around with the computer and that was it for my afternoon break.

I had had trouble with my computer not finding the internet despite being connected to functioning wifi (or ethernet).

Well, it turned out that the VPN I sometimes use decided to be turned on permanently. And since I’m on the free plan it then decided to time out every few minutes. Restarting the computer would reset it, and a few minutes later it told me my computer was blocked from the internet again.

But. I did figure it out. VPN is disabled and things seem to be working again. (And as I was writing this I started wondering if there was an update to the VPN app, and yes, there was.)

I finished teaching and then met the rest of the family in the kitchen again. Each of us made their own dinner and then we spread out to eat in peace.

After that I started writing this post, did Duolingo and my foot exercises, also all the dishes, watched some C-drama and went to bed.

Today I might have a singing student at 6 – or I might not. They said a couple of months ago they’d maybe come in but they’d make sure to call me beforehand. So I don’t know.

Either way we have planned to do bodyweight training again, so there is that.

I overslept, so I did get enough sleep all in all, and was pretty good with the morning routine. I knitted a bit and am at the point where the end of the current sock is near, and I was still hoping to finish that proofread of book 2.

I called my mother on the phone. I talked with my husband. I helped chop some things for lunch:

This is something paella-like and it was very good.

I told myself I would read a bit and play games but start doing the dishes at 3.

I did not do the dishes at three. Just when I was about to get up from my chair the boy showed up and reheated some food. So I sat down again and we talked a bit. I played more games. Half an hour I was just about to start again, I had even tied my hair back already, and my husband showed up. He wanted to talk with me about something. And then he forgot what he wanted to talk about and left. And came back.

More reading, more games, same thing over until it was almost time for bodyweight training and I still hadn’t opened the manuscript again.

And my computer is acting weird. Starting the day before, it all of a sudden couldn#t access the internet. On Saturday I thought it was the router’s fault and restarted it twice but yesterday I realized the computer was the problem because the internet was working fine on my phone. I thought it was the browser but in the end the only thing that helped was to restart the laptop. Three times all in all.

I have no idea if that has anything to do with the OS update or if that means my computer is getting too old. I don’t really think it is too old, though, because my phone is even older.

We’ll see.

Anyways, I thought doing bodyweight training would help reset myself, and it did in a way, but then I was hungry and ate dinner, and then I read some more, in between I also planned the week and made a list for the week and for today, I had to restart the computer again to start writing this post, and then I just gave up, brushed my teeth, watched some C-drama and went to bed.

I’m hoping for better luck today. This means I did not reach the goal of finishing the proofread for book 2 last week, but well.

But no writing and no morning routine. I actually sat down to write morning pages, then started looking something up in the middle and that was it.

Husband and I had a nice conversation over breakfast, I did the dishes, he went running and I managed to squeeze the rest of the cleaning in before leaving for my own walk/run:

Meanwhile my husband had made lunch:

We were done early for a Saturday, so after a short break I went and mopped the kitchen and bathroom floor. I took a shower and cut my nails.

My husband had gone for a short walk with my mother-in-law. Since she is feeling rather dizzy and weak she is too anxious to come downstairs or leave the house. My husband thought getting her outdoors might be a good idea so they walked around the block and then sat in the garden for a few minutes. I went over and we talked. It seemed, the little outing had done her good. I’m also quite sure that she lost muscle while in the hospital and maybe she can gain some of it back.

I had hopes of opening the manuscript in the afternoon but there was not enough time left.

We had our weekly writer Zoom. I had thought we wanted to talk about maybe changing the time or frequency of the calls but we talked about other things. It was very nice and I made good progress on the sock.

Afterwards it was time for watching ‚Columbo‘, we’re on season 7 now and the first episode was excellent. Not only did it feature William Shatner of ‚Enterprise‘ fame, we also saw Walter Koenig in one scene from the same series.

And then I sat there unable to decide what to do first. I did not remember to ‚brush my teeth first‘ and so I wasted a bunch of time.

Then I started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed.

Despite my best intentions I somehow kept losing time throughout the day.

I still did get some stuff done, so that was good. Morning yoga made me feel like I’ll maybe, someday, be a little less stiff. And I cut my morning pages a little short in order to have time to open the manuscript, at least for a few minutes.

Breakfast with my husband was nice and I got a few rounds done on the sock-in-progress.

Then I did the dishes and dropped the slippers the boy didn’t like off. That took a bit longer than expected because the mailman was busy shoving packages around, opening and closing compartments, and I had to wait until he could fit my package in. Which also meant it was whisked away immediately.

My original plan had been to do the cleaning in the morning and use what time I had besides teaching in the afternoon for more proofreading. But instead I decided to switch things around and do the proofreading in the morning. Which turned out to be a good idea. I am about an hour away from finishing the proofread of book 2. So there is still a decent chance I’ll finish that this week.

Husband was a little confused and kept waiting for me to leave for running but I haven’t run on Fridays for years and years. There was a very brief period in my life when I ran (well, mostly walked, you know how it is) four times a week but that’s where I hit the limit of how much time I am ready to put into this.

Anyway, lunch was just an omelette because my husband has decided he doesn’t want to cook every day (because an omelette isn’t cooking, apparently):

Yes, those are fresh herbs, this is what my husband talks about when he is not cooking.

I had an early start to teaching. My second student didn’t show without saying anything. Always a bit irritating because I’d like to do something other with my time than sitting around waiting, and then having to decide at which point I stop waiting. I had even picked out a few new pieces for the lesson.

I was done with teaching pretty early and then wanted to start cleaning. Only I sat down in front of my computer for a bit and, oops, 45 minutes vanished into thin air.

I still started the cleaning but didn’t get very far. So I know what I’ll do today, I guess.

The boy and I did bodyweight training, and my new way of doing pull-up-like things was so successful that I had to modify one of the exercises I do later because my muscles were already rather miffed. Feels weird when you’re used to doing something with 5-kilo weights and then you have to go without.

Also, my hands are a bit painful at the moment, so I decided to give them a break.

In the afternoon the boy had run errands for my mother-in-law and I had asked him to get me some chocolate as well. For two weeks in a row the health food store didn’t have the chocolate I usually buy and I really don’t like the kind I got instead. Well, the other health food store only had one bar.

A bit of research showed us that this chocolate is not discontinued (Phew!) but that they are switching from 100 gram bars to 80 gram bars. I guess that’s a way of making it more expensive.

Anyway, I found ten bars online for a reasonable price with free shipping. Which means I’m all set for the next five weeks.

The was dinner and the temptation of silly iPad games, I started writing this post, brushed my teeth and watched some C-drama.

So, today there will be more cleaning, also walking/running and the usual Saturday stuff. And maybe I’ll even finish proofreading book 2, that would be very, very cool.

And I was so motivated!

I started out well with the morning routine until it was time to wake the boy up. I mean, I didn’t even need to actually wake him, I just needed to check he was awake. Which he was. And then, somehow, time got away from me. The boy had to print something out and showed it to me for proofreading and that was it.

I wanted to say that was it for the day. It wasn’t, not really, but it felt that way.

I did yoga and meditated and talked briefly with my husband. The boy had left the house already because he was meeting a friend at uni for registering their bachelor’s thesis. Which means the boy is now committed to a deadline.

I got ready and did the dishes and finalized the grocery list, and my husband went upstairs to his mother and brought her grocery list downstairs.

I biked to the supermarket. Which was extra fun again because of construction on the way and then the traffic lights at one of the bigger crossings was broken. I did cross safely. There were quite a few pedestrians who obviously were not used to crossing multi-lane roads without lights. You can’t wait until all the lanes are free, you cross them one by one. I mean, back when we were walking to school my mother always told me not to do that but, well.

Everything went fine.

I returned home, unpacked the groceries, talked to my mother-in-law, and then there was lunch. My husband had taken some of our rutabaga stew upstairs to his mother:

She is doing well but is unusually confused at the moment which is a bit worrying.

I talked to the boy after lunch, then taught my first student, failed to make use of my generous 90-minute break, taught two more students, in between I asked the boy to check in with his grandmother and to escort her to the doctor if needed.

After my last student of the day I met the two of the in hallway and I went upstairs to hear what the doctor had said.

Not much.

She should take her meds every day, regardless of the blood pressure at the moment. And that seems to be it. On the other hand she didn’t really remember much. So I guess we’ll see.

My husband and I did the dishes together, then I ate dinner, fell into a silly iPad games rabbit hole, finally finished „Chants of Sennaar“ (nice!) did Duolingo, started writing this post, made a new and shiny list for today where I will make up for everything I didn’t get done the rest of the week, finally managed to put the bread I bought into the freezer, watched some C-drama ad went to bed.

I am a bit disspirited about my wonderful new plan, seems it might have been a tad more unrealistic than I thought. Well, if that’s so I guess I’ll have to adjust the plan.

And my mother-in-law came back home.

I had gone to bed too late, didn’t sleep well, and woke up early. I know I’m harping on about this but it did make a difference in the day.

I skipped most of my morning routine but decided to at least do yoga and meditate. Breakfast was extra delicious because I used my favorite, full-fat yogurt again. Yum!

Husband and I talked a bit, then I did dishes and went out for my walk/run. More walk than run because I have been starting over, and for the first time the running intervals were not only fun but also felt not long enough:

Before I went out, though, just as I was putting my shoes on, the doorbell rang and my mother-in-law stood there. Her sister’s husband had picked her up from the hospital. Good thing we were still home because she hadn’t taken her keys. So we talked with her for a while, and asked her if she wanted some of our lunch. She loves soup and was happy to get some pasta e fagioli:

After lunch I took a short break before jumping in the shower and then it was time to teach.

I had a break between students that I used to make copies of my mother-in-law’s discharge report and to look up everything I didn’t know. Looks like her dizziness is caused by her inner ears, pacemaker data says she had an arterial fibrillation episode at the end of August and anti-coagulant meds might be a good idea. Nothing major, no stroke, no heart attack. Her sodium-levels are too low again as well. (I didn’t know that was a thing until she had that the first time.)

Then more teaching. Afterwards I went to my mother-in-law’s bank and paid the bill for the balcony repair, then I ate dinner, the boy asked for my help with a message to his advisor and to a fellow student, then my husband showed up to get some dinner as well, the boy again, and somehow there was Facebook and dumb videos right there on my computer.

I did manage the dishes, Duolingo and a few minutes of C-drama and went to bed at a reasonable time.

And now it is Thursday, apparently.