creative.mother.thinking

I woke up really, really early, like 4.15 or so. I spent half an hour in denial but couldn’t sleep. I need to calm down again because this is not sustainable. I mean, calm down in my head. The things I actually do don’t feel like they drain my energy, it’s mostly the things I don’t get done.

I did write first thing again, and second thing, and then I got up and made breakfast. My husband got his muesli as he wanted, thawed blueberries and all. We had a nice leisurely conversation. And then I started procrastinating. I was tired and felt a little down from doing so many thing the days before and my to-do list weighed on me. I did get a grip soon afterwards but I lost the time I would have needed to take a shower.

I did the weekly cleaning and made pizza from scratch and even started doing the first batch of dishes while the pizza was in the oven. I must have touched the weird control panel on the oven while doing that so it was set to quick heat. Which led to the pizza being, um, extra-crispy:

It tasted great, by the way.

I was also thrown off because the day before I had realized that my cell phone’s battery is failing. I don’t really want to spend money on a new cell phone right now but I also don’t want to go without. I found a place online that only charges 30 Euros for battery replacement but that would mean going without it for at least five days. The boy will be traveling next week and I don’t want to risk being without a phone while he is away.

I did look at new phones. Nice cell phones are expensive is all I can say.

But then I remembered that there is a place that does these repairs in Munich, not far from me. Well, about forty minutes by bike. Or twenty minutes by train but the bike ride is not only cheaper it is also a very nice ride through fields and woods and exercise is always a good thing.

So after giving the whole thing a lot of thought in the course of the afternoon I decided that I’ll change my run for a bike ride today and see if the guy in Munich can put a new battery in my phone right away. Maybe I’ll call beforehand. I’ll see.

So. I did all the dishes right after lunch, put on makeup, practiced singing and piano, announced the new podcast episode everywhere, and then I taught one student after the other for 3 1/2 hours.

Then the boy and I watched some Star Trek. He apparently had a great need to talk which resulted in us stopping Netflix all the time in order to look up things online and talk about them. Not the most immersive of experiences.

Then my husband was finally done with teaching and I got ready for bed, wrote in my journal, made a list for today and went to bed just in time.

Today there will be a bike ride to Munich, and some music, and hopefully a lot of writing and my husband and I have scheduled a meeting (I bet he already forgot but it’s in my journal) because we need more photos and copy for the teaching website and material for a flyer. He says he already wrote things down so that is good. It is funny, I am the one who wants to be a writer but he is much better at copywriting than me. I never agree with the way he phrases things but when he gives me his stuff I then can go and make it pretty. When I have to write anything even remotely ad-related I freeze. Most of the time I can’t even write my own bio for things.

If I found time to sew a bit as well as do all the other things that would be the cherry on top but I seriously doubt it. Today is a day where my usual Saturday slump would be deadly. Well, not literally, of course.

But I’d really like a Saturday without slump for a change. And a Sunday as well.

And to think that this was supposed to be the leisurely weekend before the ultra-busy one next week…

In other words a very good day.

I got all fed up by my own whining and also motivated by reading Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s book about time management (if you like any advice about freelancing I heartily recommend also the whole Freelancer’s Guide that she wrote; the time management book is a part of it) and all this not getting things moving fast enough is making me tense, so I woke up rather early and for once I actually started writing almost right away. Well, first I had to write the blog post. And then I did two 25-minute segments.

As usual the first one only yielded a rather meager word count but for once I decided that I was okay with that. That a few words are better than no words. And I knew that the rest of the day would be packed.

There was breakfast. I actually managed to mess up my husband’s breakfast for the second time in a row. He alternates between muesli and bread/pastries. When he eats muesli I put some frozen blueberries in his bowl when I get up so that they are thawed before he eats them. On bread or pastry days I make sure that there is something for him to eat. The bread situation here can be precarious with a teenager addicted to carbs eating sandwiches for dinner without thinking about the next day.

So. Yesterday was muesli day. But also a holiday. Which threw me off. So I set my husband’s muesli bowl on the table but there were no blueberries in there. He ended up with lukewarm tea from the day before and bread for breakfast. Today I had a nice bowl sitting there for him again, this time with the blueberries all warm and thawed. When he showed up and reminded me that it was not muesli-day I said I was sorry and that I would just eat the blueberries the following morning.

But then it turned out that there wasn’t any bread. The night before I had assessed the bread situation and decided that there was enough for the boy’s breakfast and his school snack. So he ate it all. And my husband had to eat muesli after all with coffee. He doesn’t really like coffee and muesli, he usually drinks tea with that.

So I seem to have been slightly confused.

I did ask what he wanted for breakfast for today, by the way, and got an indignant, „Muesli, of course, because it’s Friday“ back. I set the bowl on the table last night. Wish me luck.

After the whole breakfast situation we had a very interesting conversation about life and music and recordings and art and discipline, as one does.

Then I rushed off for a quick grocery run, and then to the optician. I have now ordered some more test contact lenses and have informed the optician that I might order a pair of new reading glasses as well. The whole setup is getting more and more complicated. Funny, but he is always really nice to me. (Two pairs of really expensive progressives because I am so nearsighted, contact lenses, the sunglass-clip and probably another pair of reading glasses (not as expensive)).

Then I went back home and for once did almost nothing to help with lunch. It was chili day again:

Then I decided not to waste half the afternoon and got the podcast ready for publication. I also practiced singing and piano for ten minutes each and then it was time to teach.

Teaching went on until seven, then I said hello to the rest of the family again, applauded the boy for writing two excellent tests (an A in math which is laudable, and a B- in Latin which is incredible and unheard of; seems he got lucky).

Did the dishes that I had left sitting after lunch, made pizza dough, decided to stick it in the fridge instead of letting it sit on the counter, began this post, and decided that I was too tired to write some more. I’m still hoping to finish the current novel until the beginning of November. That would mean writing 3,000 words per day, though. That might be a little tricky.

Went to bed early which is perfectly okay if you woke up at 5.15 and started writing at 5.30.

Today there will be the weekly cleaning, I will make pizza, write some more, teach a lot of students, take some pictures for the music teaching website and publish the podcast.

And then I will start the weekend by watching some Star Trek and crocheting.

Sounds like a plan.

Woke up a little too early, finished reading „Night and Silence“.

Had a slightly late breakfast after which the boy showed up again and then my husband. It was a day off after all. We all talked for half an hour, I did the usual housework and then went running:

I’m really liking the new contact lenses for running. Much nicer than using the glasses which always slip and fog and are heavy. The only drawback is that it’s hard to rad anything on my phone but I usually make the text bigger before leaving home.

I like the glasses better for everything else but with the two pairs of glasses, the possibility of sunglasses on top of them and the contacts plus another pair of glasses for reading with the contacts I will be totally set.

On my run I had an idea about learning Latin for the boy because he had complained that the way they learn in school is not how you actually learn a language. He’d like to be taught how to speak Latin as well as read it. So I looked on youtube for „Latin as a living language“ and „Latin as a spoken language“ and found all kinds fo resources. I love living in the future.

Then we made lunch:

Very yummy.

And then I spent most of the afternoon getting ready for the podcast, recording it and starting to write show notes. My one student showed up on time and after that the boy and I watched another episode of Star Trek. Then I wrote for half an hour and went to bed.

Today there will be grocery shopping and the optician’s appointment where we’ll look at the contact lenses and will talk about possible new reading glasses for me, I will finish getting the podcast ready for publication, write and teach. I would love to fit some sewing in there but I doubt it.

My throat hurts a little, I think I’m having the beginning of a cold but I hope it will just pass with minimum fuss. At least my back and hip are much better just because of Sunday’s 27 minutes of yoga.

I almost managed to write first thing in the morning! Unfortunately, almost doesn’t really mean anything. I might get closer, though. I didn’t really want to resist the siren song of „Night and Silence“. I’m three quarters through the book so that will be done soon. Part of me wants to do nothing but sit and read until it’s finished.

I did get up on time, made breakfast, helped the boy get ready for school (these days that means making tea for us both and reminding him that it’s time to get ready) and then I wrote for 25 minutes.

Since I had been to the health food store the day before I had time to try the optician (not time for me right away, got an appointment for Thursday), go to the bakery, buy thread for the Kew dress (funny enough I’m about to run out of orange thread) and buttons for two finished cardigans.

I came back in time to help making lunch, and today the boy was home early as well:

Did the dishes, hung up laundry, made a little music, started preparing the podcast, taught a few students, did some more stuff on the computer, taught another student, made sure that the boy left for the orthodontist in time and came home in one piece, started writing this post, watched an episode of Star Trek with the boy, read some more and went to bed on time.

Today is a public holiday in Germany, so no school. One of my students said she’d show – we’ll see how that goes. I’m planning to go for a run and record the podcast. My husband is planning an elaborate lunch, something involving marinated bresaola, polenta with sage butter and fried eggplant.

I have registered for yet another webinar tonight but I’m not sure about it, it will be starting around my bedtime and I might have taken that one before as well. I’ll decide about that in the moment, I guess.

That, by the way, is what a day off looks like when you’re me.

Woke up super-early again, lounged in bed. Got up almost on time and made breakfast. I started reading „Night and Silence“ by Seanan McGuire yesterday and found it hard to put down.

After breakfast I meditated and wrote (phew).

A comment on yesterday’s post made me realize that there might be a misunderstanding about my writing at the moment. After whining and a lot of teeth-gnashing and such over the past months I seem to have turned a corner (knock on wood) twelve days ago when I decided to do the „100 days of writing“-challenge on instagram. I like to get the writing out of the way early in the day if possible but when something happens – or I’m just totally not in the mood – I just write later. Ideally I have three or four windows of opportunity. The first one is right after waking up but I only wrote that early once and it gave me half the words that 25 minutes usually give me so I’m not sure forcing myself at that time of day is worth it. The second one is right between my breakfast and that of my husband. That one is ideal, so at the moment I make sure that I don’t dawdle it away. Sometimes there is a third one between whatever I’m doing after breakfast and the time when we need to start making lunch but that’s rare, and then there is another window of opportunity in the evening before I go to sleep. Interestingly, I often manage to write pretty fast and easily at that time despite not being a night person at all.

With the added incentive of the challenge I managed to write more than 6,000 words last week even with skipping a day. I do have the secret hope to finish the current novel until the beginning of November but that is just crazy talk at this point. It would be very, very cool, though.

After talking with my husband I decided to try my new soft contact lenses because it was raining, and running in the rain with glasses is not my idea of fun. And they worked. It was great:

And then I went to the health food store because we had run out of chicken breast and there was still time, and there was lunch:

Tasted better than it looks.

Then I had some time before the first student and used it for writing emails and sewing. The Kew dress is now actually dress-shaped. Next step is to clip some seam allowances and press them and understitch things (which I’ll need to look up again but that will take just a minute) and then I have to make 15 buttonholes and sew 15 buttons on, and stitch the hem and then I’ll have a dress.

I tried it on today and it is a little snug round the bust. It might work with a non-padded bra. I’m pretty sure that I will love wearing it next summer.

Then I put on makeup and taught my students, wrote some more words and read a lot more and went to bed early.

Today I want to run some errands, and write and make good use of my one-hour break in the middle of the afternoon.