blogtober

So while I had a pretty tired day yesterday I also managed to stay on track mostly. Yeah!

I even managed to spend the time that we were waiting for the firewood to arrive well, I did the dishes and then sat down to practice Chinese. Right in the middle of my speech practice the doorbell rang but I didn’t mind.

My husband and I started stacking the wood right away. We decided to leave the boy out of it because he would probably still feel awful after his shots. And we were right. He complained about his arms hurting a lot but did not have a fever or anything.

All the places where we usually store firewood were already filled with the remains of the maple but we got creative. There is now a second row of logs next to the garden shed (which is not a shed but instead the back of the garage), the empty rain barrels in the garage are filled with wood to the brim and in the basement right next to the freezer there is more wood.

I think it took us about 90 minutes to stack everything? Not sure. Then I ordered Chinese takeout, this time I did remember to both mention the reusable bowls when ordering and return the ones we still had at home when picking our food up. The note in the kitchen drawer that holds the phone number of the Chinese restaurant and our usual order now also has „remember reusable bowls“ in big letters at the bottom.

Oh yes, we have a stack of notes in that drawer saying things like „please hang up laundry“ or „remember your insurance card“ and „water“ for when the boy goes to uni so he doesn’t forget his water bottle. Now we only need to work on putting the notes back in drawer after having done the task.

So, lunch was spring rolls first:

And fried noodles with chicken next:

After that I only had a very short break in which I ran off to take a quick shower. Ah!

Taught my students including the two new ones and it was a delight. The last student canceled, a lot of people are sick at the moment. Oh, and the covid numbers in the waste water are rising. Huh.

I then wanted to do all the things but was too tired. The windows guy canceled so I had a free evening. While I was sitting there, eating dinner, playing silly games and scrolling through social media the rest of the family drifted in and out of the kitchen again. I did the dishes way later than I wanted, did Duolingo, watched an episode of „Storm Eye“ and got ready for bed on time. Woot.

„Storm Eye“ is in that weird place where there is always a lull. It has 40 episodes, I’m on number 23 and it feels as if they are floundering, not quite knowing where the story should go next. One of the more interesting villains was killed off, they introduced another way more sinister villain (very good-looking guy) and now we’re basically waiting for things to happen. Which might take some time.

This morning went exceptionally well, there is definitely something to be said for getting enough sleep. The day will be full but manageable. I hope.

My mother-in-law is expected back home, I will do the supermarket run, want to wash a load of laundry mostly because we managed to do two loads without including any of the boy’s pajamas, and yes, I definitely need to mend the pajama pants of his on the mending pile.

So I think this will be a good day, at least I am feeling optimistic.

Yesterday was not as productive as I would have liked. I skipped the GP office stuff because I realized I can do that next week as well and that means if I have a reaction to the flu shot I will actually have the time to rest.

I spent yesterday evening sitting around in the kitchen and every time I thought, „Okay, let me just …“ start the dishes, do Chinese, grab my crochet project and go to the living room to watch something some family member or other would come into the kitchen and want to talk. And then my starting impulse would be gone. The only thing I did get done were the dishes because the boy showed up saying, „I’m eating dinner now and I’d like to take a shower after.“ So I did the dishes right away, then forgot to tell him I was done so he waited for 45 minutes. Oops. And when I had the dishes and pots all washed sitting there waiting to be dried my husband showed up saying, „That is a lot of dishes!“ Yeah, no kidding! That’s what happens if someone makes spaghetti with tomato sauce (from home-canned tomatoes from our garden), saltimbocca alla romana and then go and do some more cooking in the evening.

So I went to bed at midnight. Great!

Woke up at 6.30, read for a bit but still managed my full morning routine before my husband had breakfast. Yeah!

Right now I’m waiting for the firewood delivery to come, then we’ll stack as much wood as we can as fast as we can. My husband has been busy shifting stuff around so that there will actually be a place to stack the firewood because right now all the firewood storage is full of maple that need to dry for another year or two.

So the plan for today is: stack firewood until we run out of time, then leave the rest until tomorrow or so. Not that anyone will have time tomorrow, apart from the boy who got both covid and flu shot yesterday and is a bit handicapped at the moment. Then eat lunch as early as possible and take a much needed shower.

Teaching will start early and end early and while I thought I would have a break in between students I won’t because I forgot about the two new students who are starting regular lessons today. At least their sheet music should be in the letterbox right now.

I am very determined to not waste another evening so I’m hoping to open the manuscript, do the dishes in a timely manner, do Chinese early, watch some C-drama and go to bed on time. Wish me luck!

Since I’m really pressed for time today I’ll just repost here what I wrote over on Ravelry this morning. Sorry, no pretty pictures and no report of yesterday. I was all tired all day yesterday, didn’t really get anything done and barely managed to go to bed at 11.

Yesterday I ended up being cold all day up to the point that I was regretting wearing a sweatshirt instead of a wool cardigan. That was probably due to the lack of sleep more than the weather, though.

So yesterday was basically a wash, I was way too tired and didn’t get anything done apart from teaching, dishes and laundry. And Chinese. So, you know, nothing.

Today will be super busy. I want to do revision and blog, then take the train to the next town over to renew a prescription and make a doctor’s appointment, go to two health food stores and the pharmacy and be back in time for an early lunch before doing all the teaching. My original plan was to also renew another prescription and make an appointment with my GP but I have decided against it because it would be too much and I can do that on Thursday before the supermarket run. Also, I don’t really need to go and ask if the flu vaccine for under-60yos is in, I can just see if the boy gets the flu shot along with the covid booster today.

And tomorrow won’t be any better, this week is crazy again. As husband was complaining about the fact last night I started wondering if that is what life is right now? OTOH my life has basically always felt like this, so I don’t know. Husband is in deep overwhelm which is understandable because he has to get the garden ready for winter on top of all the other things.

I guess I need to have a talk with the boy. But right now he is mostly exhausted from his exams. The new semester starts on Monday, btw.

I am eagerly waiting for my yarn from the UK but who knows when that will come. Having a stack of unfinished blanket squares does not feel quite as satisfying as having the first row almost done would do but it is what it is.

The rest of the leftover yarn and the ball winder are still in my studio which led to me demonstrating the ball winder and talking about yarn management with a couple of students. Always interesting to see which students ask about these type of things and which don’t. There was none who already knew what the ball winder was AFAIK.

I hope you all have a joyful Tuesday ahead where you make the progress you want, see you.

Yes, I am aware that it’s Monday. Yawn!

Yesterday didn’t quite go as expected but we did all walk to the voting place together and the boy voted in person for the first time ever. It was more crowded than we expected but then we usually tend to go there somewhat earlier.

We decided not to tackle the printer repair after all because the boy needed to print stuff out for his exam and we didn’t want to risk breaking the only one in the house on a Sunday.

Lunch was delicious:

Afterwards the boy was really talkative. We are all concerned because of the ugly Palestine stuff. And the elections.

I sat and read and played games for too long, did the dishes and finally went to the studio around 5. Before that I finally got the boy to sit down with me to fill out all the forms so he can get the student Deutschland ticket. We knew that he would have to make a new account, download a new app and fill out a form to prove that he is indeed a student and we did all those things but, surprise!, the approval will take several days. Who would have thought?

Well, me. I would have thought. And I pestered him about the ticket application for weeks. And now all my pestering resulted in him almost going to uni without a ticket, and also in me having to buy a different ticket for that not to happen. I ended up buying an electronic ticket on my phone for him and sending him a screen shot. We’ll see how that holds up. I think it should be fine, his name is on the ticket and he does have the QR-code that they need to scan but still.

Anyways, I spent about two hours sorting and winding and weighing and cataloguing acrylic and there was still a lot left. All the purples and browns are still to be done. I packed the balls I was finished with away, left the ball winder out and have now two somewhat tidy piles of yarn that I still need to go to on top of my desk. On Friday a student asked me if I had received a big yarn delivery. Um, no. That is actually all leftovers. The yarn delivery will arrive soon. I hope. Who knows how long the Royal Mail will take…

After that I had dinner, talked with the rest of the family, who were in and out of the kitchen every other minute, telling me about politics, finally planned out the week (another slightly crazy one), did all the Chinese, watched an episode of „Storm Eye“ which I’m still liking, especially since it’s a spy series with a slower pacing, knitted for a bit and then just – sat there.

The plan had been to go to bed around 10 at the latest because I needed to get up so early but in the end I turned the lights out at – 12.30. Oh, and had another beer and ate all the nuts and all the cheese…

I had hoped to do all the things in the morning after waking the boy up at 5.30 but I just didn’t. So today might end up a little hectic, very tired and very long.

Well, getting inadequate sleep made me rather slow and unfocused yesterday. Who would have thought?

I did not manage any exercise, no yoga, no morning pages and no meditation. Also no shower, ugh. Oh and no novel revision.

But I did finish cleaning the house, did the usual dishes, a load of laundry, talked with my mother for 45 minutes on the phone and started sorting, weighing and rewinding the acrylic yarn. I do have a lot of leftovers:

I managed to get through about a third so far. I now have a bag with all the blue and blue-green yarn together and a list with the colors I have and how much. I guess it will take about two more hours this afternoon to finish that project.

Yesterday’s lunch looks like leftovers but actually my husband did cook potatoes just so we could have fried potatoes with egg:

Since I was so super tired all day and since that had let to my husband and I bickering all morning we decided to postpone the printer repairs. That kind of thing is stressful enough without one of us being completely fuzzy-brained.

I decided to drink another beer in the evening while watching C-drama, not my best decision ever, I’m thinking that should be it for alcohol so far. Well, until next Saturday when we’ll go out for lunch.

Today is another packed day, I will take a shower shortly, wake the boy up, I need to do revision, go and vote, finish the yarn-sorting and, of course, there is the printer repair. Also laundry and Chinese. And planning the week. So I better get started now.

Meanwhile we’re crossing our fingers that our votes will make a difference.

As I said, I woke up too early. The upside was that I actually managed the whole morning routine. And then I tackled the day head-on.

I spent half an hour blogging, half an hour revising the novel, did the dishes and such, walked to the health food store because of a mint tea and parmesan emergency, came back, changed the sheets on my bed and started cleaning the house and moving all the recycling from the basement to the bins outside. In our house recycling is a multi-step process that starts with throwing everything in a box in the kitchen that I take downstairs and sort most days and then ideally move the paper and plastic outside to the bins that get emptied once a month or so. Glass, aluminum and all the other stuff then magically vanished at times because either my husband or my mother-in-law take them to where they need to go.

Meanwhile my husband was cooking and we had another delicious lunch. This time he was even a bit early and the boy came downstairs to eat with us!

The boy was real talkative after that while I just wanted a bit of peace. He is gearing up for his exam on Monday so it’s understandable. It is pretty fun to see him try to explain quantum mechanics and atom orbits or whatnot to me but my capacity for these things is rather limited. (Most of my report cards from school say about STEM „not taught because of teacher shortage“.)

Then I toddled off to teach my first student online, then I had a short break where I set up my laptop and the big screen for Zoom, taught another student for an hour and then hopped onto a Zoom call with Becca Syme about dealing with expectations that turned out to be false.

I had moved almost all the acrylic yarn into my studio at one point in the day and did some preliminary sorting but didn’t get as far as I wanted to. I also did my weekly online puzzle on Jigsaw Explorer. Taught my last student of the day and when I came over to the kitchen I found that my husband had done the dishes again. Very nice!

Since I’m me that also threw me a bit off because I don’t really deal well with having to change my plans even if it’s for a positive reason but I’m a big girl and can do it in a pinch.

I ate dinner and too much chocolate, tried learning Chinese radicals while the boy was talking at me (bad combination), watched another episode of C-drama, stopping every other minute to look up instructions for the crochet squares, thought it would be a good idea to have a beer, watched some more C-drama, then went down a YouTube rabbit hole, starting and stopping videos, fetched myself a second beer, found that I was still not tired (which is funny because I had felt tired and exhausted all day) and finished the day reading in bed with the second beer. The boy was rather surprised to find me still up at 12.30.

So, guess who hasn’t done her morning routing today and is somewhat slow-moving?

I did take a picture of the blanket squares I made so far, though. I don’t have all the colors so none of them are finished yet:

This will be interesting because my to-do list for today is about a mile long. Exercise (ideally cardio, strength and stretching), finishing the cleaning, taking a shower, laundry, novel revision (ideally an hour or so) and in the afternoon the husband and I will attempt to repair the laser printer by soldering a new super capacitor in.

I mean, what could go wrong with plans like these?