Archives for November 2025

I almost slept enough, tried doing all the Saturday things plus the rest of the Friday list and failed.

But I did finish putting the revision into the novel-in-progress, so that one only needs to be proofread. I’m still not sure if it will become four short books or one very long one, the format is a bit problematic.

Husband was very cranky most of the day, he is trying to focus on recording the bass line of one of his more complicated pieces and his hand is still hurting from the fall he took on Monday.

I went for a short walk/run after dealing with the dishes from the day before:

Husband made the pasta e fagioli we all had been looking forward to all week. It was delicious but we were all rather exhausted and snappish:

I did some research into romance covers, listened to lesson 2 of my new Chinese course (and only understood a word or two here and there), crocheted, played Genshin Impact, changed the sheets on my bed, took a shower and cut my toenails and was almost late for my weekly writer Zoom.

I had asked that we get back to check in with each other about our writing first, and that went very well. It doesn’t mean we don’t talk about other stuff as well but the focus is different and that makes all the difference.

Because of the whole family being slightly stressed out and cranky we agreed to skip watching ‚Columbo‘ and I think that was the right thing to do as well. The boy worked on his application for the master program (and finished it) and there were many conversations about the motivational letter and the formalities of a CV. Fingers crossed he did everything right and gets accepted. Which he should because he already did the bachelor at the same uni.

The boy also helped my mother-in-law sweep the sidewalk and tidy around the house a bit. And he did the dishes in the evening.

As always Saturday felt too short. Today I have a very long list as well, so I guess I won’t get everything done again. I mean, I could shorten the list, of course. I guess we’ll see.

My plans of the day were upended when it turned out that I had to go to the supermarket again, so I didn’t clean.

I got a new kind of white sausage for the first time and they were very good:

I taught a few students, I tried helping the boy with his master’s application. We did bodyweight training. I made pancake soup for dinner that didn’t have enough salt:

And usually the pancakes are sliced completely different. My husband still appreciated it because he is usually the cook in our house.

I played some Genshin, and read and talked with my husband, then realized it was too late and I still hadn’t done the dishes, then decided going to bed on time was more important and that was that.

I also wrote several emails and ordered a new laundry rack because I broke the old one the night before when I was trying to evacuate a mean-looking spider, stumbled over a wood bin and caught myself on the rack which promptly broke.

I am really hoping today will be a slightly less chaotic day. Fingers crossed!

Well, time kind of got away with me both last night and this morning, so just a brief note to relieve the tension:

Yes, the boy passed his bachelor defense and his thesis went well, so phew.

That was the main theme the whole day.

I also skipped yoga and meditation, went grocery shopping, and taught some students.

There was lunch:

And a lot of Genshin Impact and then I was really late, oops.

Oh, and I got the first draft of the cover for book 2 and it is – hideous. Good thing this is not the final version.

I did not get enough sleep because I only started doing the dishes at 11.30. Which made for a rather tired day.

I still did loads of stuff. Not morning pages, though, and instead of opening the manuscript in the morning, first, I bought yet another Chinese course (it was on sale) and then I wrote the cover brief for book 2 and sent it off to the designer.

The was yoga, and meditation (5 whole minutes!) and breakfast, and talking with my husband and then I got dressed, tidied the kitchen and went off to catch the train.

I renewed a prescription in the next town over, went to the health food store there, then back on the train (and forgot to stamp my ticket, oops). I went to the supermarket where we get our yogurt but there was no yogurt to be had. Good thing I sent the boy the day before. I went to the pharmacy, and then to a second health food store and only then did I realize I had forgotten to pick up a package.

The story of the package was especially irritating, the mail person claimed they were unable to deliver when, in fact, at least two if not four people had been home all day.

So I had to figure out where to pick that package up and then wait in line, and then the barcode on my smartwatch didn’t work but I got my package after showing my ID.

I returned home, put everything away, talked with my husband again and then it was time for lunch:

I ended the meal with chocolate and then played Genshin for a bit and finally finished the quest that had defeated me on Sunday.

I only had a few minutes, though, before my first student. Teaching was fun, motivated students, different instruments and progress.

I had a break in the middle that I used to brainstorm the blurb for book 2, then more students. Afterwards, the boy and I did a very short 20-minute bodyweight session, I finally ate dinner and then I got to listen to the first version of his presentation.

The presentation was fuzzy (and he was very, very tired) and a little long. Now he has to make it more succinct while adding some more stuff in. That will be a little challenging. He had a good idea for structuring it differently, though.

After that I played more Genshin, wrote a list for today, did some Chinese, started this post, finally did the dishes and went to bed.

Today will be laundry, organic solar cells and some writing, I guess.

Which I don’t recommend.

I got almost enough sleep again but was too wired so I woke up often during the night. There was the morning routine and lots of thoughts about the day before, and writing and publishing projects.

In between I made sure the boy left on time to get his thesis bound and delivered on time. Which meant leaving the house very early for him, and then there was train chaos. Of course. And he slipped on ice right in front of our door, poor thing.

I did yoga and meditated in my studio because my husband was busy boiling water on the stove in the living room.

We ate breakfast and told each other what we had done the day before, there was crochet, and then the usual dishes.

I tried getting away early but failed. The weather was rather uncomfortable, relentless icy rain. My husband came back from his run before I left the house and reported that everything had melted in the meantime. Apart from one frozen patch where he had slipped and fallen. Both of them slightly hurt their hands but nothing serious.

I decided to cut my running short because I had other things to do as well:

I managed to step into several puddles, one for each foot, all the way in. My shoes are definitely not waterproof.

The one thing I hadn’t expected (though I should have) was this:

I was merrily running along (turns out I’m perfectly okay with 90-second running intervals these days), turned a corner, and was startled out of my thoughts. That whole bridge was iced over. So I held onto the railing for dear life (which gave me sopping wet gloves) and walked very slowly. And the same on the way back.

I came home, took a shower and then there was lunch:

I had a nice break with reading a chocolate and my video game and then I taught all the way through to dinnertime. My last student of the day rescheduled his lesson yet again, this time we’re going back to Thursdays. We’ll see how that goes.

I thought I could use those 45 minutes for something else but I was so brain-dead by then that I just read while eating dinner and then played some more Genshin.

I sat there playing a procrastinating the dishes for a while, getting more and more cranky because I still hadn’t written my cover brief. I knew I wouldn’t but I also didn’t want to do anything else instead. You know the drill.

I talked with the boy, I did Chinese, I started writing this post. I finally tackled the dishes after all, and I looked up train schedules for today.

This will be a full week, I can tell already.