daily journal

So that went well. I hope I can reproduce this.

I did forget to take my thyroid medication first thing but then I just took it a little later and waited thirty minutes before having breakfast – no big deal.

After breakfast I meditated a bit and then I wrote a bit, I talked with my husband and knitted, and then I went running. The run went rather well, I think the cooler weather was agreeing with me:

Then I took a shower, helped to make lunch, and for once we didn’t forget that the boy has an earlier lunch break on Mondays:

There was ample time to read a little and do my singing warmup before my first student and then I taught all afternoon. I had a couple of breaks where I kept writing.

After my last student left I decided to go to the health food store so that today will go more smoothly.

Did that, played the piano, spun for an hour.

Did the dishes and went to bed early with a book. Very good.

Today there will be a very short run and some teaching. I am hoping to write some more. I can see the finish line from here already.

Woke up at 6.30 but since I had gone to bed at 9.30 all was good. Funny enough the new Fitbit is thinking that I am awake for about an hour and a half each night (I seriously doubt it.) so it’s telling me that I only slept 7 1/2 hours. Yeah, I don’t think so.

On the other hand it is also counting steps differently than the Jawbone Up. So where I used to have about 900 steps on Sundays when I don’t really leave the house and mostly sit around it was 3,800 yesterday. Right. I felt much sportier, though.

I spent most of the morning waiting for the boy to get up, as usual. He says we don’t have to wait for him which is right but when you are only seeing your child three times a day for a few minutes you tend to not want to miss the opportunity.

I read quite a bit and spun a lot and helped to make lunch from snap peas from our yard:

And then I wrote a little more and spun a lot more and watched two soccer games with my husband.

Early to bed, all in all a good day. No music which is a little sad but well, today is another day.

New week again. I have already made a weekly list but there isn’t much on it. Writing, spinning and that is basically it.

Yesterday reminded me that when I don’t get enough sleep that always make me feel low and a little desperate and down. Fun!

I did stay up late because I wanted to write some more, and then I wanted to finish reading „Emma Schumacher und der verschwundene Professor“ which I highly recommend. I met the author through her sewing blog first, and have downloaded all the novels and stories I could get hold of but only started reading this after a conversation we had on instagram about marketing, like one does. And well, I don’t ever read anything in German and that was the reason I didn’t dig into it right away, I have to say reading a novel in German felt positively alien to me. And yes, I know that’s ridiculous.

But I enjoyed it so much that I set aside all the other books in progress (I think I started five new books around the 12th) and sat there reading it until the wee hours twice in a row.

I did start the second in the series first thing this morning and then went off to finish something else I had been 30% in before. That’s how I roll.

I did get the sock heel done at last, third time was the charm. Note to self: count diligently, twice, and make sure you have read the pattern properly.

I went for a run and felt like a complete failure through most of it. My legs were fine, again, and my hip isn’t hurting anymore (yeah!) but I had a hard time breathing. Felt almost like I had asthma again, and my heart rate was really high. Turns out the minute that hits 148 I will stop running and walk instead. So my overall pace was something like 9 minutes per kilometer which is really, really slow.

That together with my black mood made me feel like giving up everything.

I then reminded myself that a) this is not about speed, b) it is probably allergies, c) it was warm and humid, and d) not getting enough sleep might also have something to do with it and e) the minute I write again I will feel much better.

I was blinded by the sun, not as cranky as I look.

The very nice thing was that this time when I was on my last 1.5 kilometers my husband showed up from behind me and we ran/walked back home together. He was nice and slowed down for me.

Then we made cannelloni which took quite some time so we had lunch an hour later than we wanted. (Apparently I forgot to take a picture. It didn’t look all that stylish but it was rather good.)

I spent most of the afternoon spinning while watching a series about people building houses, and then I procrastinated about writing and saw „Star Trek“ with the boy. While spinning.

It is a little hard to time these sessions at the moment because the soccer World Cup is on and my husband has been basically watching that all through the day. On and off. He did not watch the first half of the Peru versus Denmark game so that we could watch something which we really appreciated. I wouldn’t mind watching soccer, it’s just that the noise is bothering me.

Then I attempted to write some more, and went to bed on time for a change.

Today I’m hoping for another day with not much to do, I really do like those.

For once I actually did manage to write after breakfast, and immediately the day felt much better.

Did the usual cleaning, helped to make pizza (no picture, sorry), got the podcast ready for publishing, had lunch, published the podcast, left the dishes, taught my students, and in between I started to research what to do about eczema. The poor boy has been having it on his hands for a while now, and I had been showering him with cremes and lotions and the stern order to apply said cremes and lotions often but he went from itchy to bloody to better and back over and over.

Now I have wanted to make a doctor’s appointment for him but he doesn’t want to go to his old doctor because he isn’t a child anymore and he is not quite old enough to go to a new practice where he has never been before on his own. My husband and I have been using a friend as our GP who doesn’t see patients anymore, he just does colposcopies and such. It is a bit of a dilemma. So I found out that there is a creme we haven’t tried yet and I’m hoping that that will help. Also that he will actually apply it. It’s a bit tricky because he hates the feeling of creme on his skin and as soon as he is feeling slightly better he will stop using it and then the whole thing will start over.

So I ordered a pair of cotton gloves for him so he will be able to put creme on his hands without leaving it everywhere, and went to the pharmacy for the new creme right after my last student left.

Then the boy and I watched some Netflix while eating the rest of the pizza and then I spun a bit.

I still had all the dishes to wash afterwards, including two baking sheets.

And then I wrote some more.

Today there will be running and writing and spinning and that will be about it.

Oh, and that issue with my Fitbit got resolved, apparently, last night someone posted in the forum that he could access his apps and clock faces again and, voilà, so could I. So I now have a spiffy new to-do-list on my watch.

Well, since I decided to not only stay up for the webinar until 10.30 but then also to start reading a new book and have another beer I was not feeling all that rested in the morning. Even though I had set my alarm for 6.30 instead of 6. (Spoiler: I woke up at six anyway, ugh.)

That meant I was a little late with making breakfast but then the boy was very late for breakfast so it didn’t make much of a difference. When asked why he is getting up too late every morning he said that he was getting up and dressed at 7.15. Which is the time he should be downstairs to start eating breakfast.

He said he’d rather in his room a little longer instead of getting ready for school but I tried explaining that this was not about getting ready for school earlier but instead all about eating breakfast in peace and have a bit of respite before having to go out.

Because – as you all probably know – getting up late because you’re dreading the day just makes you dread it more and stresses you. If you get up and dressed early you have this wonderful time in the morning where you can enjoy your breakfast and tea (or coffee) and maybe read a little and talk with your family. When you get up later you still need to get ready but you will feel awful all the way through while deciding if you have still enough time to wolf down breakfast or if you have to leave without it.

No idea if he got it. We’ll see.

Because I had stayed up late I was having a slow, slow day which meant no writing after breakfast (I can self-sabotage with the best of them.) I did get out the door for my run on time:

It was a little wet from all the pouring rain yesterday.

This is me wearing a cap so that my glasses stay mostly dry.

This was one of the spots where I had to wade through the puddles in order to get to the other side. My running shoes are not waterproof so I came home with my feet soaking wet. I didn’t really mind, though, funny enough that kind of weather is less annoying when you are out and about in it.

I helped making lunch which was just quick and plain and very German:

And yes, we ate inside.

After lunch I had a one-hour slump before pulling myself together to do the dishes. I still had time to write but almost fell asleep when I tried.

My first student didn’t show (she often doesn’t come when it’s raining and she never calls to cancel which is irritating) and the second canceled. Then I had a big break that I used to start writing this post and avoid more writing.

Then two more students and no dinner. I was very firm with myself and managed not to binge-eat later, even.

I had planned to get ready for bed very early because I know myself and when I’m that tired I only have two options: 1) hang around and get nothing done while feeling awful until it is really, really late and start the same thing over the following day, or 2) get completely ready for bed around the time you’d start a toddler’s evening routine. (Brushing my teeth is also an excellent strategy against late-night binge-eating and deciding that I really want a beer after all.)

Then I wanted to sit in bed in my pajamas, read or write a little and if I fell asleep in the middle of something I am already in bed, no harm done.

Well, I’ll just leave a note to myself not to sit in the kitchen in the evening and spin where it smells like food everywhere…

So today I want to record the podcast and teach my students. And get back into my routine yet again.

For the second time in a row I managed to actually write from 8 to 8.30. Only thing that I’m not happy with is that that resulted in very few words. There was a lot o reading what I wrote before and thinking to be done.

I had hoped to write more later in the day but that didn’t go as planned.

I went to the tea shop and to the nearer grocery store. I helped to make another wonderful lunch, Greek salad again, this time with lamb burgers:

I did make a little music as well, and taught my students.

Then the day went a little off plan, the repaired balcony is still spewing water over the sides. We weren’t able to figure out why, though, and now we’re stumped.

And then I waited and waited and waited for the boy to come down for piano practice and dinner, and for my 9 o’clock webinar to start.

Went to bed too late.

This will be a low-energy-day, I bet.

There will be running and teaching and music and writing. And a whole lot of rain.