Susanne

I went to bed almost on time but didn’t sleep as deeply as usual. I even remembered a couple of dreams which never happens. In one I dreamt that I was breaking ceramics with my hands, I guess I woke up from finger pain. My hands were fine again throughout the day, so I have no idea.

I did most of my morning routine again and used my morning pages to think about dopamine levels and the pull of my silly iPad games and how my exhaustion might also be due to spending so much time on those. I looked it up and the week before it was 18 1/2 hours for those games which is definitely not an amount of time I want to spend on something like that. So I deleted all the ones that pull me in daily. This will surely be interesting.

Husband and I talked at length and after that we were already running late. I only did part of the breakfast dishes and then went off or the second day of my 5K-program. Even though I was sore all over still. But despite the pain I really loved being out in the woods doing my little 45-second run intervals.

I came back to a stressed husband with just enough time to take a shower before eating fish, potatoes, peas and carrots:

And some chocolate afterwards, of course. Then, instead of sitting around I did the lunch dishes just in time for teaching.

I taught my first three students and then used both breaks in between teaching to fold the rest of the laundry hanging in the living room and hanging a new load up that I had started before my shower.

After teaching the boy and I did strength training again. As I said, sore all over. I’ll probably feel even worse later.

Then I finally ate dinner, read a bit, went online for a while, started writing this post, made myself a cup of tea, did my foot exercises and Duolingo, watched some C-drama while spinning and knitting, made a list for today and went to bed.

Oh, and I ordered a new calculator for the boy and looked at the menu of the restaurant we’re planning to visit on Saturday. It’s a very Bavarian place. Under the category of „vegetarian dishes and salads“ there is latkes with salmon and something else. Sure. I’ll probably take the pork roast at least they should know how to make that.

Today is supermarket day and not a lot of teaching. Time to exhale.

And I ended up having a very slow day that didn’t leave much time for anything so I’m writing the complete post this morning.

I’m still failing to actually turn the lights out on time but I am not giving up.

I did do most of my morning routine including yoga while feeling sore top to bottom. Movement is good against soreness, I kept telling myself. I also finally mailed my vote and went to the health food store. And resisted the pull to buy all the sweets and snacks. I did buy some almonds and snacked on those throughout the day but I think that was okay.

My husband also had me order a new small frying pan because the one we have is constantly dirty (all the men in this house fry food all the time) and some replacement seals for two mocha pots.

There was lunch:

My husband is a again in a phase where he avoids dairy (but eats all the cheese, yeah, though in his defense a lot of the cheese he eats is sheep’s milk) so he made his pancakes with soy milk. He was not convinced.

There was not enough time to do the dishes before my first student but there was time for waking the boy up and some silly iPad games. (I think I’m spending way too much time on these games and they don’t really make me feel good so maybe I need to change some things about that.)

My last student canceled so I had a bit more time than I thought I would have but I did not make use of that time. Instead I just sat around for ages until the boy showed up to eat dinner. He also wanted to take a shower, so I finally got off my butt and did the dishes, then watched an episode of C-drama (I’m right in the middle of the drama and have reached the point where I can’t keep all the characters straight), wrote my list for the next day and went to bed.

Today there will be all the exercise again.

I can’t believe it’s been, um, 18 years that I’ve been blogging? The mind boggles. I know, most people don’t use blogs anymore, or if they do they have them on Substacks but it’s nice to have this corner of the internet just to myself. Thanks for reading here, and let’s see how long I can keep this up.

It was fun but I’m sore all over today.

I was a bit earlier in the morning and did the whole morning routine including 15 minutes of yoga. Woke the boy up at 8 because he had to get to an exam on time, spent only very little time crocheting and talking with anyone.

I did the breakfast dishes while listening to Beethoven’s piano concerto No. 1 and enjoyed it very much. Made a note to show parts of the first movement to students who are unwilling to practice scales.

And then I put my orthotics into the pair of sneakers that is already full of mud and did the first day of Couch to 5K. It was glorious, being out in the woods, even though those 45-second running intervals had me huffing and puffing and my heart rate going up way higher than it has been in ages.

I was reminded of all the reasons why I like wearing contacts when running outside, my glasses were fogging up and slipping around all the time.

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

We had spaghetti aglio e olio (my husband also added some chili) and a mixed salad.

I only had a little break before starting to teach because I had rescheduled a student. I taught all afternoon, one student wanted to have his lesson online because he was feeling under the weather.

Meanwhile the boy had texted me after his exam, saying his calculator was dying and he definitely needed a new one which did not bode well. Apparently, he did manage to write the exam all the way through but there were certain calculations he couldn’t do anymore. We’ll see how that will turn out.

When he didn’t answer my question about bodyweight training after my last student I thought he would just sleep all evening but just as I was eating dinner he did show up after all. So I ate very quickly and then we did our usual training. Well, we tried, but we both were so exhausted and tired that we had to scale the exercises back. On the other hand I tried doing negative pull-ups again and almost managed to jump high enough to do them this time, So that’s progress.

After we finished I hurried to watch a Zoom presentation thing. It was very interesting and fun but I nodded off repeatedly throughout.

After that I made myself a cup of tea, did my foot exercises, Duolingo and made a list for today, then drank that tea while sitting in bed, brushed my teeth and turned the lights out a little late again.

Today should be a bit quieter, I hope.

I overslept a little and with that managed to make up for going to bed too late. Then I did almost my complete morning routine including writing some new words of fiction.

My husband and I talked over breakfast, I wrote my blog post and did the usual stuff before calling my mother on the phone Where I spent most of the time telling her all about my doctor’s appointments since we last spoke, then we talked about exercise and politics.

I was early enough after that to not only do the breakfast dishes but also to help with lunch. I chopped some vegetable and nuts and peeled two eggs. We had rice noddles, tofu, sprouts and cashews:

Lunch was a little late and so I only had time for a short break. The boy came downstairs during that time and talking with him made me a bit late doing the dishes. Because we were expecting a friend of my husband and for once we planned on sitting in the kitchen. The boy helped me dry dishes and we finished almost in time. We talked about his upcoming exam and the upcoming election.

My husband and I spent about 90 minutes with that friend, mostly talking about finances and index funds but also about about more politics. Anyway, we now have a list of next steps to do.

I did not get around to watching course videos but I did manage to plan the week ahead. Which looked rather nice and empty until I remembered a couple of Zoom calls and webinars. I might have to skip a few because this is getting out of hand.

I ate dinner, decided to skip the live Q&A for the course I’m taking because I don’t really have any questions about the material, started writing this post, made a list for today, made myself a cup of tea, did my foot exercises and plunked down in front of TV with my crochet.

So, all in all a good day, only I was so very tired all the way through. So I guess more sleep is in order.

Though, what even is normal?

I did all of the morning routine with the exception of meditation and taking my blood pressure. Progress! I spent most of the day playing silly iPad games but still managed to go for a walk:

Lunch was rather late but very good:

And then I cast my vote for the upcoming election:

I still have to mail it, though. I’m not all that happy about our options but I knew exactly what party I wanted to vote for. I’m still hoping for a government that will stand against the new rise of racism, isolationism and fascism. Fingers crossed.

The boy is agonizing over who to vote for, he feels even more disappointed than my husband and I and keeps waffling between two parties.

I had plans to spend part of the afternoon watching course videos but ended up just listening to them while doing dishes and hanging up laundry. At five it was time for my weekly author Zoom and that was really ice as usual. Afterwards my husband and I watched an episode of ‚Columbo‘, this week without the boy because he is very busy studying at the moment. There were a couple plot holes in there but the idea was rather clever.

Then I had plans to start writing this post and watch some C-drama but ended up doing neither. More silly games and a lot of reading (I’m on book 2 of the „Tea Princess Chronicles“ and am enjoying it very much.), and then I went to bed too late again.

And now off to tackle the Sunday things.

I went to bed at a reasonable time but didn’t sleep all that well. In the morning I made myself write morning pages and after that I ran out of energy. After sitting around for a while trying to get myself moving I just gave up and made myself breakfast. My husband was very confused because he was, of course, thinking I’d do my whole manuscript time, yoga and meditation routine. Oops.

The rest of the morning went accordingly, no cleaning, no nothing but a lot of silly iPad games. My husband went running and then met with a friend for lunch, so the boy and I ate frozen pizza. From our new pizza plates. My husband had decided he couldn’t stand the plate with the botched musical notes and instruments anymore, so we invested in new plates. Behold:

In the afternoon there were more silly games, my first student canceled because they were sick but after my actual first student of the day I did find the energy to at least clean a little bit. Very slowly and very sloppily. I also changed the sheets on my bed.

I then taught my last student of the week, met the boy for bodyweight training where we both were very, very weak and slow, but we did it anyway. Then I sat around for an hour before I could make myself eat dinner, then another 45 minutes or so before I finally parked myself in front of TV. The plan was to only watch half an episode of C-drama but somehow it ended up being more than one episode and some YouTube. Ahem.

So I went to bed too late and am hoping to do better today.