creative.mother.thinking

And still not celebrating. But planning on getting even more Faschingskrapfen. Though I have to say that the two I ate yesterday were a bit much. At least I only ate a little dinner because of that.

My run went well even if I started late:

Lunch was marvelous:

Teching went well, and then I spontaneously decided to print out the paranormal cozy mystery I just finished writing. Well, the rough draft that is, and now I have a lovely binder full of story that I need to revise:

And that was mostly it for the day. When you print something like that you need to check the printer and take out the pages and refill paper, and all that jazz. Then it was time for dinner which consistet of cheese in front of TV. In between I looked into every single old notebook I own because I’m sure I wrote down how to connect the DVD player to the TV somewhere but I didn’t find it.

I even stumbled over a notebook that I had bought 1999 in Brazil, and one that had all kinds of citations for my ill-fated PhD in it. My life has sure changed a lot. I also found one of those fat notebooks that I keep next to my computer instead of using tons of small notes, and I think I might have to add an index to these as well because it’s completely impossible to find anything in those.

I really love the bullet journal.

But it also showed me that my system of writing things down hasn’t changed that much. I have kept a general notebook for decades now, I think I started that when I started going to university because I was always losing pieces of paper, and I found that having one notebook to hold it all was much better. And since I had a somewhat nomadic lifestyle then I didn’t want to carry around several notebooks all the time, and so I have notebooks with to do-lists, and sewing projects, and study assignments and and song ideas all next to each other, each neatly labeled with the date.

And my handwriting has changed a lot I find. Not that I’m all that thrilled with how it is looking at the moment, improving my handwriting is also on the list of things that would be great to do.

Not today, though.

Today there will be the grocery shopping (all the grocery shopping), and writing, and strength training, and watching the book cover workshop some more, and singing and such, and maybe the hooking up the DVD player to the TV which means I will first have to get all the dust off all the electronics first.

I’d also love to not procrastinate about writing until bedtime, and to not leave the dishes dirty over night. Bonus points for that.

Not that we celebrate.

Today will be a pretty normal Monday with only two students.

Yesterday I didn’t do anything all day but surf the web, read, spin, and knit. And watch Star Trek.

I also talked to my mother on the phone, and she asked me to come visit even though I had already told her I didn’t want to this year.

And now I have spent a whole day agonizing over it, and I guess I’ll be seeing them over Easter. She also said I could stay at theor place which I definitely don’t want because theor house is extremely small, and that would mean either shring a bed with my mother or staying in my father’s cramped and overflowing office.

I do need quite a bit of time alone every day, even here at home, so nope. I’ll look for a bed and breakfast. Even though I won’t need the breakfast.

When we were talking about this, and how I don’t really want to see them, especially because my father has gotten a pain to be around (I’m suspecting beginning dementia) my husband said, „You should think about how you would feel if they died soon and you hadn’t seen them this year.”

Not that I think I’d regret it but that got me thinking. Traveling there, even with the eight hours of train rides and the days of sitting around being bored and exasperated, and the week I will need afterwards to feel like myself again, might not be that much of a sacrifice.

I’m sad for them that none of their children really wants to spend time with them. And I really hope that my own relationship to my son will not deterioate like that. That he’ll continue to enjoy spending time with us. I’ll do my best in any way.

So. Today there will be running, and music, and teaching two students, and spinning, and writing, and all kinds of things. Cleaning and changing the sheets might be a good idea as well.

Not quite sure if I should send the boy out to get the traditional Faschingskrapfen. Might be nice. We only ever eat them on carnival. Maybe I should make some myself but they need to be deep fried and I never quite know what to do with all the oil afterwards.

Nah, maybe next year.

It’s funny with us, we don’t clebrate carnival at all (I guess you really need to be catholic for that.) for us it’s all about the food.

Twelve years go on this day did I start blogging for real. The blog was called „Diapers and Music“ at first which was pretty funny because at that point my son was almost out of diapers already.

But I didn’t know that. And it felt like the diapers would go on forever.

And now the parenting and the music are a little less important in my world. But the blog is still here.

And I’ve been blogging daily for almost half a year now.

Amazing.

I am perfectly aware that you guys are reading this. And that makes me happy. Even if I’m not all that good about replying to comments and such. I’m trying my best, though.

I will be celebrating with mostly doing nothing today. After last week I need a sloth day.

But this has been quite the journey. And I know that some of you have been reading here the whole time. Which totally blows me away.

Thanks.

Not that this will be in any way different because of the fact that there will be no school and much less teaching next week.

The big and exciting thing for my husband today will be the arrival of the Vox vintage amp and a bass box from 1964. The big thing for me will be getting all my morning things done before going to the spinning meeting.

So my plan is to get up in a minute, have breakfast, go running soon afterwards, then take a shower so that I have enough time to let my hair dry without using the hairdryer, then do the dishes, eat lunch early at around 11.45, and then leave for the spinning meeting.

My husband would have liked me to be home and help with logistics for having three people over while not knowing if they will want to eat lunch here or not.

Both of us would rather know a time when they will arrive instead of sitting here waiting but that can’t be helped.

Yesterday went very well even though I didn’t clean anything at all. But errands and grocery shopping took a lot of time, late Friday morning is prime grocery shopping time around here.

Eating Chinese was great, even though the boy was acting a little weird. He was overtired and exhausted, I’m hoping he’ll be having a bit more energy today.

Teaching went well too but by mid-afternoon I was ready for a break.

The boy was too tired to watch something last night so I watched an episode of „Dollhouse“ while knitting a sock. As one does.

I’m really looking forward to a slower week next week and can’t wait to sit down tomorrow to make my list…

Typical.

But not quite as much as I feared I’d need.

Yesterday was super-busy but now the new podcast episode is done and ready to go live this afternoon. I decided that It’s no use to stick to a Saturday afternoon launch when I’ve already got it finished and ready to go.

With all the work on the podcast there was no writing yesterday at all. Which is a bit cruel because I want to know what happens next. Well, I do know what happens next but not what will happen after that. Not before I write it.

Of course I could just spin the story a little further but I’d rather put it down on paper. I’m afraid if I think too much about it it will turn into a long daydream instead of something other people can read.

So yesterday was mostly podcast, with an hour of chopping kale thrown in. My husband pulled most of the kale from the snow yesterday morning which meant that I got to chop, chop, chop, right after my run. Which was gorgeous. I even took a picture for you:

I’m trying to get better about taking and posting pictures here.

Then after endless chopping and cooking and preparing kale for the freezer we had our wonderful lunch (and in case you’re wondering that beer there is alcohol-free for once; every day for lunch my husband and I share one – and yes, those are double-knit Star Trek potholders, and yes, I started eating before taking a picture, I was that hungry):

Then it was all podcast and teaching until bedtime. And then I was so exhausted that I didn’t write. Went to bed a little late, slept a little better than the days before.

Today would have been completely insane if I hadn’t just found out that the concert we were supposed to attend tonight will actually be on the 23nd instead of today. Which is a big relief because that means I will have a little time in the evening instead of rushing around all day until falling into bed.

So today I want to clean everything, run more errands (we had a grocery list fail and are about to run out of toilet paper, and we are having three people for lunch tomorrow with no time to cook for that so I will have to get provisions, and I need to go to the drug store), practice in the morning (yeah, I know that’s very unlikely), and then we’ll go out for Chinese because the boy comes home early for the last day of school before carnival break. We will celebrate his very excellent grades in English and his abysmal grades in Latin. He is planning to install and emergency Latin-study program again over the next few weeks. Wish him luck.

Then I will teach, teach, teach without a break until it’s time for dinner, and then it will be the official start of a free week. Phew.

I can’t tell you how happy I am that the concert isn’t tonight. I keep looking at the list of concerts on the fridge to see if I’m imagining it.