creative.mother.thinking

If a little long.

I woke up from the alarm and promptly fell back asleep, bad habit, I need to go to bed earlier for sure. I did open my manuscript but spent my thirty minutes writing about writing and re-reading things. I also opened the first version of that story that I wrote years ago because a part of me thinks that one is much better than what I’m writing now.

I still really like that beginning and find it compelling and there is a voice that I probably can’t do anymore but when I then looked at the beginning of the current version I actually like that one better. Very motivating.

I did skip yoga yet again, I’m quickly making that a habit. A bad one, I should definitely change that.

After breakfast my husband and I only had a short time before leaving for Munich. We wanted to go to a Christmas market and walk around our old neighborhood. We both lived there for a while but not at the same time.

When we arrived in Munich at Isartor our first concern was to find a bathroom. In the end we went to the Müllersches Volksbad to the section where one can take a bath or shower only and I used the men’s bathroom. There was no one around and my husband stood watch.

I wanted to get a better feel for that part of Munich (Haidhausen) and figure out where I could put the mansion where one of my protagonists lives. Unfortunately, there are no mansions in that part of town but I decided to put it there anyway. Maybe here:

Or here:

Or here:

We walked all the way to the Friedesnengel:

And sorry for not putting alt-text in today I’m pressed for time again.

On our way to the Christmas market we passed the Hofbräukeller and decided we’d rather eat there than standing outside freezing. The food was delicious. My husband had venison sauerbraten:

And I had Kässpätzle and alcohol-free beer on tap:

And then we finally walked to the Christmas market at the Weißenburger Platz. It’s bigger than I remember, I looked at all the earrings because I want a new pair but couldn’t decide at all, my husband bought a new mortar and pestle from olive wood and sugar-roasted almonds and Lebkuchen.

Then we went back because I was nervous, I had a student at 3. We came home with twenty minutes to spare, I wanted to take a break but the boy was just up and wanted to talk so I only had ten minutes.

I had a break between students in the afternoon that I used to write emails to the web hosting provider and to my GP because I need to get my thyroid hormones checked. The doctor’s office called me right away, right there in a piano lesson but I took the call anyway to get it over with.

I thought until 8pm which is definitely too long, my husband did all the dishes because he had only one student all day. I finally ate dinner at 8.30, then slumped around for a bit, finally figured out how to bind the potholder off (by looking into the pattern, duh) went to bed thinking I’ll just read a little bit and turned the lights out a bit too late because the thing I’m currently reading is the new Gail Carriger novel and I really didn’t want to put it down.

Today there will be less teaching which is good and then the weekend.

I woke up at six after only 5 1/2 hours of sleep, wrote my morning pages and spent half an hour in the manuscript where I added a few words very slowly and then I decided to skip yoga and meditation because I was feeling down and awful. And yes, I know that is backwards, movement and meditation can actually help in that situation.

There was breakfast and while my husband and I talked quite a bit again there were many nice and interesting conversations. I finally fixed the zipper in one of his rain jackets:

I used this tutorial and found it very helpful.

There were dishes and while I did start listening to the daily piece of classical music and really loved it (Tchaikovsky violin concerto in D major) I had to break it off in the middle because there was no space to listen to something that’s 18 minutes.

My husband cooked lunch while I first did some spindle spinning and then took a shower:

After that the boy came eventually downstairs, we talked some and then it was time to teach.

After five hours and nine students it was time to do bodyweight training with the boy, then eat dinner, slump on the kitchen bench until I had energy again to start writing this post, make myself a cup of tea, watch half an episode of C-drama while knitting and go to bed.

And today we’ll go to Munich before teaching. Exciting!

I had a pretty good start into the day with my complete morning routine. Writing is very slow but there is progress so that’s good. I think I need more thinking time and time to mull things over in the back of my mind for the story but the back of my mind is in a bit of a panic right now with all the emotional stuff my husband and I keep talking about.

And that filled most of yesterday. I also went to the pharmacy, the tea shop and the health food store with a bonus round because I left the grocery list at home. When my husband found it he called me which was great but I did decline his offer of reading it out to me. The next time I should ask him to take a picture with his cell phone and send that to me via text. We should probably practice that first, though.

In the meantime he had started making pizza and salad but was seriously impacted by the complete lack of olive oil. So I rushed back and helped. (I’m not all that clear on why not having olive oil on hand meant he didn’t chop the salad ingredients but I guess he just got stuck in the process. You know how it is.)

So lunch was pretty late:

After that there were more conversations, first with my husband, then with the boy and a too short break until my first student.

I was finished with teaching early but didn’t really manage to get anything done after. I ate two dinners for emotional support. So, yes, I am actually eating less sweets and such but I’m more than making up for it in almonds, dark chocolate (no, that doesn’t count as a sweet, shh) and cheese.

When I was finished the boy came back home all full and wanting to talk, and we did that, looked up the measurements of the coat we ordered for him, debated which Warhammer skin he should buy and how he had managed to go on a train in the wrong direction when going to uni, then there was the still ongoing conversation with my husband that meant spending another hour or so and then I just sat there for a while, unable to get going on the next thing I needed to do until the boy showed up again and helped me with the dishes.

Oh, and the light over the kitchen counter keeps popping out of its socket again, this time on the other end.

I couldn’t really bring myself to watch TV after that but didn’t want to go to bed right away as well, I think my husband showed up again to remind me about bedtime (insert more conversation and such) and then I made a list for today, pulled out the spindle and spun for ten minutes and watched the start of a C-drama episode.

I went to bed too late.

The potholder is making progress:

Wish me luck for an insane teaching day after only 5 1/2 hours of sleep. Will report back tomorrow.

Woke up at 6, promptly fell back asleep. Wrote morning pages and some new words in the novel but there was no time for yoga or meditation.

Most of the morning was spent clearing up misunderstandings with my husband and then creating new ones. Meh.

The new and completely different lamp I ordered for the living room (in addition to the other one that we ended up keeping) arrived, I put it together and so the whole light for the living room saga has come to an end for now.

Lunch was super easy, baked beans, rice and fried eggs:

Then I did the dishes, took a brief break (after more talking with my husband) then a quick shower, started a load of laundry and met my first student of the day.

After teaching I ate dinner, hung up the laundry and then went to yet another Zoom thing. I only knitted for half of it because I was too tired. I started writing this post and did Duolingo, had a cup of tea while reading and went to bed.

This feels like a somewhat exhausting week already…

I woke up at 6 after going to bed a little too late and decided to skip my morning routine. Instead I lounged in bed and read.

I think I spent most of the day talking with my husband. Also, calling my mother on the phone. The call was very nice but she felt the need to tell me that my hairdo makes me look old. Thanks.

I did finish knitting the shawl but now I have lots and lots of ends to weave in.

Husband got stressed out by cooking again but didn’t want my help. In the end I chopped stuff for the salad and did some clean up. We had an argument all the way through lunch (always everybody’s favorite). Apparently it is fact that making two kinds of tomato sauce, spaghetti and a mixed salad using some ingredients from the backyard and the wood stove not only takes 2 hours, it is also completely impossible to do it without burning the onions and both the spaghetti and sauce already cold by the time the salad is done. And no, you can’t start with making the salad because that would take way longer.

Anyway, the plan is that I will attempt to make the same meal by myself using the wood stove next Sunday. This will be interesting. I will not dig the last of the celery out of the frozen ground, though, because we used that today:

Oh, and we’re also out of olive oil.

After that I sat with the boy while he ate lunch and talked, then talked with my husband again and then he offered to do the dishes, change the BRITA filter and descale the electric kettle. While I went to my studio, did some important admin and then planned the current month and the week ahead.

Then the boy and I were scheduled to do bodyweight training. While I waited for him my husband talked to me some more, I folded some laundry, tried doing Duolingo for 5 minutes but was interrupted three times and then we finally exercised.

I helped my husband order an electric kettle for the annex, my son order two sets of pajamas from two different shops, ate dinner, spent some time online, then started writing this post.

I made myself a cup of tea, did my foot exercises, wrote in my bullet journal, took my spindle out and spun for ten minutes while watching C-drama, knitted a bit and went to bed.

I’m really hoping today will be less exhausting.

I woke up from the alarm and managed the complete morning routine. Phew. I did spend half an hour on the manuscript but that was mostly research again. Still, there was a little progress. Not that research isn’t progress.

And I always feel better when I do yoga and meditate. For three minutes. More would be better but then there are a lot of things I could do more of in my life.

There was breakfast and I talked with my husband and wrote a list and then I called my mother. But there was no answer. So I tried again. And again half an hour later. At that point I actually started to worry. She knows I always call her on Sundays at 11 (or a bit later) surely she would have said something if she wasn’t home?

Um, actually no. After the third time I called her cell and she answered with, „I’m sitting in the car with my cousin, we’re just on our way back from visiting your aunt.“ Great. I mean, it is surely very nice of them to drive all the way to visit my aunt. Who just had surgery for a broken vertebra and a slipped disc and is now recovering.

It would have been nice if she told me. I mean, I’m not the one of us who is prone to falling down and breaking bones who is living alone.

Anyway, that also meant I could start earlier on making lunch. It was still very late. We had trouble keeping the water for the spaetzle boiling on the wood stove. I was the main cook for once but my husband helped a lot:

I took a break after that, then played some more silly games on my iPad, finished knitting a pair of fingerless mittens for my husband that had been languishing since forever, vacuumed the old part of the house and cleaned the washbasin and toilet in my bathroom, talked very briefly with the boy and my husband, unclogged said washbasin, cleaned it again, did bodyweight training with the boy, started reading the Phryne Fisher short story book I had ordered from the US in paperback (husband was very confused seeing me with an actual dead tree book), ate dinner, helped my husband do the dishes, sat around for too long, started writing this post, did my foot exercises, made a list for today, made myself a cup of tea, spun for ten minutes while watching C-drama and went to bed.

And now into the fray again!