Archives for January 2026

I almost got enough sleep the night before and only dawdled a little. So I did skip manuscript time in favor of a slightly earlier breakfast but that was okay. I did yoga and meditated for five minutes and all the other stuff.

Very enjoyable breakfast with my husband and then I tried starting the dishes earlier than usual. Which I did but not by much.

I was very determined to not have to spread the cleaning out over the weekend like I’ve been doing most weeks lately. Last week my husband complained that I was always running around while he was cooking and so I tried cleaning after work and that went as expected.

So. I changed the sheets on my bed, did the routine cleaning (only the middles, only the duster, only washbasins and toilets) and while I did not finish before lunch I did finish before my first student. Husband and I had a plan for lunch as well, very easy and quick meal and he did not use the wood stove, so we got to actually eat at 1 o’clock:

And yes, we should definitely work on plating the food.

After lunch I took a rather short break and then finished the cleaning and started a load of laundry with all the towels I had changed.

Then I taught my students including a new one but excluding one that just didn’t show up. I only waited for ten minutes or so and then decided to play some piano exercises. If the student had rang the bell I would have heard them.

After teaching I hung up the load of laundry and waited for the boy for bodyweight training. So then there was some half-hearted exercise, toast for dinner with some reading and then more vide game playing. The boy wanted to take a shower and I missed the window of opportunity for doing the dishes but, well, progress not perfection.

Today I have to decide whether I want to attend the annual gathering of a community I belong to. I had planned to do so but that was before I knew I’d go on retreat a week later. And in looking at the program I just can’t see myself going through a slightly manic sign-up process just so I can eat at a restaurant that I can just go to whenever I want otherwise. And it seems trains won’t be going at that time either, so going to Munich would be a pain.

Seems I already answered my question, oops.

I still did most of the things I needed to but but, well, my brain felt offline all day. And that is why we don’t stay up until 1 am when we need to get up at 6.30.

I skipped yoga but spent a little time on the romance novella, husband and I were pretty early with breakfast because he had thought he would have to shovel snow because there was quite a bit of it over night but the boy had taken care of most of that earlier.

Because of the weather I went to the nearby supermarket and then there was pasta salad:

Then a short break, then teaching a friend for the first time. This is the friend I’m trading lessons with. We’re doing it over video chat and most of this first lesson was spent figuring things out. We ditched Zoom after just a few minutes and found Google Meets to be much better. Because I could actually hear the sound of her piano which is kind of important in this case.

The second student had canceled so I sat around for a bit and felt sorry for myself, then I taught a student, then another break because someone canceled that I used to eat all the snacks.

My flagging impulse control was really visible yesterday, first I bought all the snack foods at the supermarket and then I ate almost all of them throughout the day.

Another two students and then I went straight into the Zoom call for the class that I’m taking. She actually answered a question I posted and now I know a little more. Which is always good.

I spaced out during the call a lot, super tired didn’t get better as the day went on.

I then started writing this post, only looked sideways at the kitchen and went to bed a little earlier.

Also, I don’t really have time writing this post right now.

So. There were all the usual things yesterday including not opening the manuscript. I felt all cranky and meh but then realized that was mainly due to all the stuff clogging up my mind.

So I wrote a bunch of lists and thought about things and felt much better.

There was a walk/run (way more walk than run even though I should be on the „mostly running“-part of the Couch to 5k-program. The wood paths were extra icy again so I stayed on sidewalks all the way:

My husband made something easier for lunch:

I taught two student, then got the message my package was handed to a resident. The resident turned out to be the doormat in front of the door. Harumph.

But. Look:

The colors of the book are a little meh, and again, each of the three books looks a bit different. But hey, a real book! In my hands!

Then I taught quite a few more students including a potential new one.

I ate dinner and played some Genshin. And the story went on and on and on, until I finished that part of the game around, ahem, midnight. The boy was nice enough to do the dishes again, phew.

Today will be a little brutal. I think I’ll go to the nearby supermarket instead of the other one so I get a bit of a break before lunch. And then I’ll teach all afternoon with almost no break right up to the live Zoom for the course.

Yes, I should have stopped playing earlier and gone to bed on time.

Also, I don’t really have time writing this post right now.

So. There were all the usual things yesterday including not opening the manuscript. I felt all cranky and meh but then realized that was mainly due to all the stuff clogging up my mind.

So I wrote a bunch of lists and thought about things and felt much better.

There was a walk/run (way more walk than run even though I should be on the „mostly running“-part of the Couch to 5k-program. The wood paths were extra icy again so I stayed on sidewalks all the way:

My husband made something easier for lunch:

I taught two student, then got the message my package was handed to a resident. The resident turned out to be the doormat in front of the door. Harumph.

But. Look:

The colors of the book are a little meh, and again, each of the three books looks a bit different. But hey, a real book! In my hands!

Then I taught quite a few more students including a potential new one.

I ate dinner and played some Genshin. And the story went on and on and on, until I finished that part of the game around, ahem, midnight. The boy was nice enough to do the dishes again, phew.

Today will be a little brutal. I think I’ll go to the nearby supermarket instead of the other one so I get a bit of a break before lunch. And then I’ll teach all afternoon with almost no break right up to the live Zoom for the course.

Yes, I should have stopped playing earlier and gone to bed on time.

I mean, I went to bed at midnight and was wide awake at 6.30, then skipped manuscript time and meditation, so one could see the dunnwannas coming from afar.

I felt as if half my brain was offline all day and if gravity were stronger than usual.

There were dishes and then I went to one health food store, to the doctor’s office to renew prescriptions for both my husband and me, to the drug store where I printed out 50 photos for my mother-in-law and bought candles, chocolate, vaseline and fountain pen cartridges, and then I went back home via the other health food store.

I came home a little after one to a husband who was extremely stressed out about cooking and trying to wrestle stuffing into very small calamari. I threw all the frozen food into the freezer, washed my hands and helped cooking. We ended up with potatoes that were cold, calamari that were lacking the olives he had planned to put in the stuffing and tomato sauce that was too thick:

Then there was chocolate and then teaching. Only three students before a 30-minute break. I thought I’d use that break to hang up laundry but my husband had already done that so I sat down and ate store-bought cookies.

After that 30-minute break I had another 30-minute break because that student was swamped with school stuff and asked to be rescheduled and I decided to play Genshin. As usual, if I had known I had a full hour I might have published the paperback of book 2 with some other retailer.

After that I had one more student, walked to the pharmacy to pick up the meds, tried to make myself do bodyweight training but felt as if I was way too heavy and tired for that, ate tortilla chips and more chocolate for dinner, played some more video game, watched half an episode of C-drama, asked the boy to do the dishes, started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed.