life

As will be today so I’ll keep this short. (And everyone feels relief, I’m sure.)

I woke up on time after going to bed a little late again, did most of my morning routine and then talked with my husband after breakfast. That went longer than expected which made me a little late for my weekly phone call with my mother. While I was talking to her, mostly about her two sisters, my husband did the dishes and started making lunch.

Meanwhile I figured out what had me stumped about the next step publishing and I started the next round of research.

We ate:

And then the boy and I dug into more of the licorice I bought the day before. We’re still not convinced, thought and talked about it several times over the course of the day and all of that culminating in me ordering some Marabou salt licorice chocolate online. Unfortunately, my very favorite licorice in the world from Katjes is no longer made.

I had great plans to spend the afternoon doing more research and also writing new words on the novel. But first I sat down to play some games, not the silly, seemingly free kind but instead I fired up „Neva“, gave up after ten minutes of trying to scale the next few obstacles, and then I opened „Summerhouse“ which I had just bought the day before. And found that I didn’t have the patience to figure out how it works, so I closed that after ten minutes as well.

And then the other members of the family kept descending on the kitchen. Where I was sitting which was a mistake. The boy had eaten lunch and I had asked him to shovel the sidewalk because it had snowed, my husband kept coming in and out of the kitchen, the boy wanted to talk about politics, my husband started unpacking his new futon and needed help because he also has been having trouble with a trigger finger, so I helped him carry the futon and researched how to tape a trigger finger and waited until he had vacuumed his bed, and made slings out of old bedsheets to make it easier to carry the old futon, and asked the boy to help my husband carry it out because he was just about to come in, and some other things.

And then I took my stuff, went into my studio and closed the door. Which apparently irritated my husband because he had planned to do some things around the annex and was afraid he would disturb me. I did more research about publishing in Germany and the copies one needs to send to the national library and ISBNs (the price structure on those is insane, by the way), spontaneously decided to make the ebook and the paperback two different projects and just focus on ebook for now, messaged with a couple of friends, opened my computer and – was definitely not in the mood for writing. My head felt like I had had to do taxes or accounting, not a creative space for me.

Then it was time to do bodyweight training with the boy, I ate dinner and read, then watched an episode of C-drama and then was just in time for my monthly coaching call on Zoom. An hour before I usually need to get ready for bed is not my preferred time for things like these, but well. I managed to stumble through my bit, sounding more German than usual and fumbling for words but the call was lovely and very encouraging.

And then I somehow found myself hungry again, I made myself a cup of tea, decided opening another bag of potato chips was a good idea, ate half of it and some more licorice, met the boy again around midnight and turned the lights out shortly before 1 am.

So yes, I might be a bit tired today.

licorice.

Although that was not the only thing we bought.

I got up on time in the morning and did my complete morning routine all the way through. Then breakfast and the usual internet rounds before my husband showed up in kitchen all dressed and ready to leave the house while I was still sitting at the kitchen table with unbrushed teeth.

So he had to wait a bit while I got ready and then we took the train to the big city. We got off at Marienplatz and went right into the underground entrance to Ludwig Beck. My husband wanted a pair of jeans, maybe another pair of pants and to look around. He glommed onto the first pair of jeans he saw because he had bought a pair of extremely expensive Joop! Jeans in 2009 that he is still wearing. So he bought another pair. These won’t last as long because they have way more stretch to them but, well. It took three tries to get the right size but I have to say I’m always very jealous of my husband regarding finding pants that fit. I’d like to be able to just grab any pair. I once went to a specialized store for jeans and ended up with two sales women helping me and a pile of more than twenty pairs piled around me, none of them fitting properly. 

He then went on to get a pair of chinos and a cotton sweater and we were left with more than an hour until it was time to meet our friend. We walked through the rest of the department store, I bought some overpriced licorice to try because I had been curious for ages. The sales person was very clever, handing me pieces to try and I ended up buying three jars of licorice to get one for free.

I have to say, it’s not bad as such but it mostly tastes sweet, not like proper licorice. I probably won’t buy it again. But I should really try to remember to go to the Netherlands for a better licorice selection for the next time I visit my mother.

We walked around Munich for a while, always weaving around the police cars and officers in every street and on every corner because of the big security conference nearby.

We were very early to meet our friend at the Augustiner. We talked and had typical Bavarian food. I almost laughed out loud when we started ordering drinks and all three of us went for the alcohol-free beer. That would never have happened in the past.

I had the pork roast (only one dumpling, sniff, and I gave half my meat to my husband), my husband the sabres Lüngerl (lung in sour sauce) and our friend the Leberkas with potato salad. We ate and talked and found that the friend and I hadn’t seen each other for about seven years, and then we decided to walk over to the big music store because our friend wanted to look at ukuleles.

Which we did, carefully avoiding the counter protests against the security conference this time by walking around the back. The shop had a nice selection of ukuleles and I could tell him about my experiences. I also looked at some sheet music but didn’t buy any because I wasn’t that convinced. I mean, I don’t need a book for guitar students that has just some lyrics and chords, I can get that just fine from my husband’s stash of songs he has transcribed or the internet.

When we went down to the train station again to get back home we found that the next trains on our line were more than 25 minutes late. Oops. My trusty app told me to get another train and change to a bus at some point. I don’t usually do this but this time it would take us home almost half an hour earlier so we went that route. Everything went fine and we came home to my husband’s new futon sitting in front of the annex door. It had been supposed to be delivered on Monday but while we were away I got a message that it was in delivery. I risked giving permission to leave it because I knew the boy would not be awake yet.

The boy came downstairs just as we were coming home and made himself something to eat.

I had only half an hour or so before it was time for my weekly writers meeting on Zoom. It was very nice and I crocheted and listened, and then I had to leave early again. The meeting had been at that point already where the moderator asked if anyone had any more questions and then someone started a whole new topic, and so I had to leave right in the middle of that because I wanted to watch ‚Columbo‘ with the rest of the family.

The episode had some funny moments but I’m not all that convinced about the actual murder part. It will be interesting to see how the writers handle that in the next episodes.

Dinner was half a bag of potato chips, some ice cream and some of the new licorice. I need to get back to finding Saturday evening snacks that my husband will enjoy as well, the last few choices were less than ideal.

After that I watched an episode of C-drama, spun and crocheted, skipped my foot exercises, talked with my husband and the boy briefly, succumbed to my craving for more licorice but managed to not go back for more after that and went to bed a little late.

So today is the day I will get all the rest I need for the whole week, plan the week and still get stuff done. Sure.

And I’m loving it but I’m also seeing pattern of a packed day followed by a slow one. I’ll watch this further. Also, no, we do not celebrate Valentine’s day in our household.

I went to bed half an hour too late because I talked with the boy and he took a shower at my bedtime. I did sleep well, though and was not feeling super exhausted or tired so I guess it was okay.

I did my complete morning routine and even managed to write some somewhat satisfying new words even though I had felt thoroughly stuck just the night before. Oh, and my blood pressure is still normal, hurray!

My husband and I ate breakfast together and talked and this time the conversation was rather nice and interesting. We also tried to get started with the rest of the day a little earlier but failed because the wood stove took eons to heat the water for the third pot of tea. (We brew three pots of tea every morning. My husband’s black tea, my black tea and my pot of chamomile.)

In between my husband did the breakfast dishes and then I tried my new test contacts and went walking/running:

I’m really liking the lenses even though they mean I see everything a little blurry. The left one is bifocal, the right one is not and the bifocal one is in the eye that has cataracts, so let’s say, they’re not ideal for reading but they’re good enough to run in the woods and read things on my phone both. Not at the same time, obviously.

I came back home to a pretty stressed husband. I had been gone for half an hour but he turned back around after only running for a few minutes because he was so pressed for time. I had offered cooking lunch but he thought making tagliatelle with two different sauces would be beyond me. Ahem.

Anyway, we did eat on time, lunch was very tasty and the boy even came downstairs in time:

After that I took a break and talked with the boy for too long, then had to hurry to do the dishes, take a shower and start cleaning before my first student of the day. Between my two students I managed to vacuum the old part of the house, after the second student I was too late to finish cleaning but the boy and I did bodyweight training.

We also tried troubleshooting the mesh router situation throughout the house which meant I was really late for the Zoom-thing I wanted to attend and ended up watching the call from the kitchen table while eating. Later I moved myself to my studio for the rest of the call, then started writing this post, finally met my husband again, who had taught non-stop all afternoon, did Duolingo and such, watched some C-drama while spinning and crocheting and went to bed.

And it looks like there won’t be time for any Saturday slump today, so let’s go!

Probably because I skipped yoga. Sure.

I did go to bed on time, slept well and long enough. Gold star. Then I opened Instagram first thing, not so good. I wrote morning pages, decided that I was stuck on the manuscript and wrote about all the open loops in the story that will need to be closed at one point to make it satisfying.

Husband was looking low on energy and somehow I decided it would be a good idea to skip yoga so I could eat breakfast earlier and together with him. So that’s what we did. And then we talked. And talked some more and somehow managed to make each other feel very meh.

And then it was way later than expected and we had to rush to do everything else. My husband offered to do the breakfast dishes (and the sizable stack of plates from the boy’s lair plus the dirty frying pan that always seems to happen over night) while I mailed two more mail-in votes and picked up my test contact lenses.

I came back home where my husband was busy starting pancake soup and doing dishes. Since pancake soup with leftover pancakes doesn’t take long he offered to accompany me to the supermarket. Nice.

I pulled the pancakes out of the fridge while he was drying dishes only to find that there were only three pancakes left. Not enough to feed three people. The boy had liked the leftover pancakes so much that he had eaten them for both lunch and dinner.

So there was another change of plans, husband started cooking something different and I biked to the supermarket. This time I took both bike panniers and all the used BRITA filters. My backpack was almost full.

Grocery shopping went well even though biking through the cold rain was not the most enjoyable thing in the world but it’s also never quite as awful as imagined from indoors. The supermarket was pretty empty and I was lucky enough to avoid the times when school turns out masses of students for their lunch breaks.

At home lunch was almost ready, I put the groceries away and then ate fennel in tomato sauce over polenta:

My husband plated the food and I gave up after eating three quarters of this huge portion. I mean, I needed room for chocolate afterwards, of course.

Then I took a break and missed my silly iPad games for the first time. I went on social media instead and read a bit. I taught my first student and while I had planned to make good use of the break after I actually just clicked around online. I then taught another student, saw the last of three cancelations for the day and was done with work.

I bought another book, read my emails, ate dinner, texted with a friend, talked with my husband again, told the boy that his new calculator had arrived, my husband realized that the toilet seat in the old bathroom was getting loose and we spent half an hour fixing it, I did Duolingo, watched some C-drama and went to bed with a book.

Today should be triple exercise day again plus cleaning which will certainly be interesting.

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.