creative.mother.thinking

Which comes as no surprise because I stayed up past midnight playing my new game. Ahem.

I still got up at 6.30, wrote morning pages, forgot to check my blood pressure and went walking/running. It was already pretty hot at that point:

Then there was breakfast and talking with my husband and a little crochet and more talking (all good), I did the breakfast dishes too late, we decided to not make pizza on the hottest day of the week, and so lunch was early-ish:

I had woken the boy up at 8 as requested but when I came back home just after 9 his shoes were still there so he did not make it to uni again.

And before lunch I went out for flour because we had looked the recipe for pizza dough that my husband wanted to make up and it specified using wheat flour with 12 grams of protein per 100 grams. And the three bags of flower we had in the pantry only had 11 grams.

Well, turns out the nearest supermarket, the cheaper one that only has one kind of wheat flour, that has one kind of flour with 21 grams of protein per 100 grams. Stay tuned for results tomorrow.

I read and I played „Monument Valley 3“ some more and then it was time for teaching. I did play guitar again but tried using my left thumb as rarely as possible. I had two breaks between students and used those to finish setting up the new computer for the basement. I did connect it to everything down there and it turns out – connecting the firewire mixing console to the new computer via two adapters in a row does not work. Harumph.

So I packed it back up but my husband wants to keep it for when the old computer downstairs dies. And then we’ll buy a new mixing console. ::shrugs::

Meanwhile I kept thinking about Konstanze’s comment from yesterday and she is right, there will be lots and lots of hot days in my future, so investing in another fan might be a good idea.

So I did some research and ordered one.

After teaching I answered a few texts and then the boy and I braved the heat to do bodyweight training. Even though we both were still somewhat sore from our last session. And then we had a thunderstorm.

In between my husband was busy making slow-rising pizza dough, we’ll see how that goes.

Then there finally was dinner (stale sourdough bread toasted with brie), then chocolate, then I started writing this post, ordered some fancy shampoo for the boy who is running out again, did Duolingo, watched a bit of C-drama and went to bed.

Today will be pizza day, probably, but I’ll also bring back some frozen one just in case.

Part of that was the heat. One more day and then it’s supposed to be a little cooler.

I went to bed on time and did the complete morning routine which made me late again. There was breakfast, mostly alone, because my husband was already done with eating and wanted to get outside before it got even hotter.

I did the dishes and went out for errands and the health food store.

An hour later I was dripping with sweat but had gotten everything I wanted. Well, apart from the chocolate my husband talked about but, well.

I unpacked the groceries, my husband made lunch and we ate pretty early:

Then there was chocolate.

I taught my first two students, used a 30-minute break to write for 15 minutes, waited for the next student (who is usually very early), found that his mother had left a message on voicemail that I didn’t see. I spent valuable life time watching YouTube shorts. Then waited for the next student who is a bit of a chaos monkey.

After ten minutes of waiting I basically gave up. Now, if I had seen the voicemail earlier and if the other student had excused themselves I could have spent a luxurious 90 minutes on something interesting and/or meaningful.

I taught another student. The chaos monkey showed up during their friend’s lesson. The two of them are learning a piece together but still it would have been nice to have advance notice.

I taught my last student of the day, and at that point my studio was a balmy 30° C (86° F). On the bright side the hand-painted silk fan that my husband gave me about thirty years ago actually does work and helps. I can’t use it while playing the piano, though.

After that I ate dinner, read a bit (Grace Draven’s „The Ippos King“) and then downloaded the game „Monument Valley 3“ on my iPad. Two hours later I hadn’t quite finished the game but almost. Ahem.

I forced myself to stop playing, talked with the boy who needed some stuff, ordered myself a new case for my glasses because every single one I own has a broken hinge and doesn’t stay closed, did Duolingo, started writing this post, made a list for today, brushed my teeth and went to bed.

And today will be equally busy and even hotter. Fewer students, though, so less time in my oven of a studio.

For some reason (probably the heat but also heartburn) I didn’t sleep well. I woke up from the alarm anyway but took a bit of time to get out of bed. Wrote morning pages and then went walking/running. Husband went running as well, he has been skipping running a lot lately, so I was happy he went out.

At 8 the temperature was already pretty warm but not super hot. It was warm enough that I a) maybe should have brought some water with me, and b) definitely should have put some salt into the water I drank before leaving home.

The woods were surprisingly busy at that time, lots of people walking their dogs, lots of people who were commuting by bike and also a handful of people running. The next time I should also take a cap instead of those sunglasses, they keep fogging up because I’m sweating so much and it wasn’t that bright outside:

We came back home almost at the same time but my husband decided to go and buy bottled water and such so I had breakfast on my own and then finished a sock while he ate. (Sock not pictured, sorry.)

I did the breakfast dishes, folded all the laundry, took a shower, and then tried opening the manuscript but instead spent that time waiting for the mail person. Who then delivered the new computer we bought because the one my husband uses when teaching drums in the basement is getting progressively useless because it’s too old to play YouTube videos in a browser.

We ate lunch:

This is special pasta, penne lisce my husband brought from Italy, supposed to be extra smooth, and the zucchini are from our garden. Eating veggies picked just minutes earlier is really something else.

I took a break, talked to the boy who had graced us with his presence for lunch (he had set his alarm wrong and therefore had not gone to uni), took a short break, did the lunch dishes and started teaching.

My studio at this point was almost as hot as the outside. I need to do something to keep the sun out. I started teaching with a potential new student, sister to one of my existing students. Then some more students, then another potential new student, a delightful mother of two. My last student and I both were pretty much wilting at the end.

In between I made a backup of the basement computer, unpacked the new one, set it up from the backup, installed some software, connected it to the cloud, and realized that I need a USB hub for all the stuff that we need to connect to it. At this point I was completely ded, so the rest of the setup will have to wait, no idea when I’ll have time for it.

On the other hand I get really triggered by computer problems, so I’ll probably spend every free second on it today as well.

After that I ate dinner and some chocolate, went on social media for an hour (oops), did Duolingo, started this post, did my foot exercises and knitted a little in front of TV.

The weather forecast for today warned against dehydration and heatstroke if you exert yourself, so I guess I’ll do my errands very, very slowly.

After writing this title I, of course, had to look up the song by the Small Faces. (Quick side note, when the boy was in kindergarten and they were starting to have these friendship books to write in (written by the mums, of course) he said his favorite band was the Small Faces and no one even knew the band. That is what happens when you listen to music with your father who has a big interest in British music from the 60s.)

Since I went to bed past midnight my morning was not the most energetic. I started by turning back over and sleeping a bit longer and then read a bit. No morning routine at all.

Again, I’m having high hopes for the upcoming week.

There was delicious breakfast and a nice conversation with my husband about the barbecue and the people there and then I took a much needed shower, wrote my blog post, did Duolingo and talked with my mother on the phone. I had quite a bit to talk about with my thumb (still getting better) and the swimming in the lake and all.

I helped a little getting the mange touts ready and chopping ginger and garlic and then folded some laundry before lunch:

After that I was very careful not to fall into a Sunday afternoon slump but, well, I was very tired. The plan was to help the boy tidy and clean his room but he said he would like to start on his own, just having me as backup. I could have cleaned the rest of the house in the time but instead I planned the week, then the month, and then spent quite a bit of time reading. Oh, and trying to clear downloaded ebook samples from my phone without the app crashing. So far it seems best to do it only a few at a time, maybe 9 or so.

I have now committed to a series of very sensible goals for July that will make me feel amazing. This time I will track all my habits, go to bed on time every night, exercise regularly and eat well. Also, write a lot and work towards publishing book 2 at the end of August. I mean, what could go wrong?

The boy finally managed to clear all the trash out of his room at a point in the day where I was so hungry thatI ate dinner without exercising first, then we did our bodyweight training session, I read a bit, then started writing this post, did my foot exercises and Duolingo and watched some C-drama. I’m at a point where I am watching partial episodes of three different series in an evening, no idea what that means.

And now we ride the wave of Monday fresh start energy!

No, I did not get enough sleep. Again. Is this extremely dumb? Oh yes, it is.

On the bright side, my thumb continues to get better. Phew.

Yesterday was spent mostly getting ready for the barbecue we had been invited to. Husband picked tons of stuff from the garden and we changed plans on what to cook and eat when several times. I had decided to skip running and call walking to and from train stations exercise.

When planning all the salads we also realized that we were lacking a key ingredient (we also lacked another one but didn’t find out until it was too late, oops) so I first walked to the health food store.

Then there was the washing, sorting and chopping. When you use stuff from your own garden it is often twice the work, at least. For example you have to wash each leaf of salad individually to get rid of all the bugs and dirt. We had to chase ants out of the zucchini blossoms as well.

In the end we could have done with more bulgur and black olives so this was our lunch:

I made up for the difference in chocolate.

Then we got busy making tabouleh and green salad and packed sun screen, bug spray, water, two bottles of alcohol-free beer and our swimming stuff.

In between the boy woke up, was very underwhelmed by what was offered for lunch, and when I told him that I could understand but that having delicious home-cooked meals just sitting there on the table for you is a bit of a privilege, he said that he would cook more often but that we didn’t have the ingredients. So I told him he was free to put things on the grocery list any time. And what he would want to cook in any way.

Turned out one of the things on his imaginary list was pasta with tomato sauce, so I told him to go and make himself some, we have everything in the house that’s needed for that.

And then I talked him into making himself lunch. And we got talking about herbs and spices and that he can’t expect everyone to have a whole cupboard stuffed with spices. In our house a lot of them aren’t even labeled, you have little glass jars of herbs that my husband grew in the garden, picked and dried and then you’re expected to know what’s in there by smell.

The boy told about visiting his friend last week and that they went out to buy him at least a few spices to cook with. That friend seems to be the kind of person who thinks adding things detracts from the genuine taste of the thing. Which feels weird when you grew up up in a house where sometimes the food is more green herbs than anything else. (That would be the boy, not me. My mother used to own a very small range of spices but has become a little more adventurous in recent years. That’s what watching cooking shows can do to you.)

My husband and I set out to catch train and were hit with a wave of heat. I felt very smug for adding freezer packs to our bags. The train ride went well, on the way we overheard a gentleman behind us talking with his son (I assume) and my husband said, I don’t know what that language is. It sounds like Indian but different, and the gentleman called over, „It’s Punjabi.“ A little embarrassing but also informative.

We walked from the train station down to the Wörthsee in oppressing heat and – were the first to arrive.

All in all things were very nice, as always with barbecues the fire was started way too late, and as always my husband and I seemed to be the only ones who were hungry but we just started on the salad early.

And then I wore my new bathing suit outside for the first time ever and went swimming in the lake for the first time in years. It was very nice. And cold. And – unlike my husband – I had even remembered to bring bathing shoes because it’s all gravel there, all the way into the water. Which reminds me that I have wanted to get nicer ones for a decade or more.

Meeting people is something we don’t often do outside of work so it always takes a bit of adjustment. There were only eight of us, most of them my husband’s age and also most of them went to school together. I sometimes find it baffling to hear how other people think about life and what kind of explanations they give for things. Like, „My marriage failed because I have Venus in Taurus, my wife and daughter are both Taurus but my Venus is all in 90°-angles to the rest of my horoscope.“ Sure. That explains everything.

We left pretty early because we still needed to trek up the hill and catch a train but there was still time for a short detour down to the lake:

At home we unpacked, very happy that we hadn’t need our mosquito deterrent, talked briefly, then I sat down, did not drink another real beer (the choices at the barbecue were warm, tepid water, warm beer or warm red wine, so I had a beer once our own reserves were empty), watched some Duolingo and turned the lights out past midnight.

I’ll be taking things slow today, methinks.

I went to bed too late yet again but this time I just slept, no waking up from thumb pain. So the new way of taping seems to be a good idea.

I did most of my morning routine but did not open the manuscript again. The idea that I might somehow write 7,000 words this week seems pretty funny in retrospect.

Husband and I talked a lot again, with mixed results. It was supposed to be less hot that day but when I left the house at noon to walk to the farther supermarket I got really sweaty.

At least I got everything I wanted plus extra chocolate.

50 minutes later I was back home. My husband had done the dishes and decided to make a simple lunch this time:

Instead of starting my weekly cleaning after that I took a shower and then it was time to teach. I had a one-hour break between students but did not manage to make myself clean anything. I did the Friday mystery puzzle and then ate a very early dinner.

Two more students and then I met the boy for bodyweight training. Our program said to do a 3-rep pyramid of 3 where you start with 3 reps of your current move, let’s say squats, then the next round is more difficult and the last one even more so. There is a progression of exercises that you can follow.

It was super interesting. I still can’t do anything even vaguely related to a pull-up and my injured thumb means I didn’t want to force anything. I just tried very hard to pull myself up by sheer willpower without using my left thumb and failed.

But I did do something almost looking like pushups and there are one or two exercises I will definitely upgrade for the next round. Very interesting and fun.

Then I started writing this post, did Duolingo, watched some TV and went to bed.

Today includes a change of plans, yesterday a friend of my husband’s called and invited us to a barbecue. Since we never go anywhere and this friend has a nice garden right next to the Wörthsee that’s where we’ll spend the evening. I think I’m skipping running today in favor of walking to and from trains, maybe a bit of swimming in the lake.