creative.mother.thinking

I went to bed at 11 which is good but not good enough and slept well until 6. I was feeling a little sluggish right away but still wrote my morning pages, worked on the new novel for half an hour and then my husband showed up. I did yoga, he came back to start the fire and got impatient enough with the whole “boiling water on the wood stove“-thing that he used the electric kettle instead.

We talked, I worked on the pair of fingerless mittens I had started for the boy the night before and found that there is a big error in the pattern, boo. So now I need to take some time, make a few decisions and change the pattern. The cuff does look nice, though:

I talked with members of the family and got ready for the day and then went off to the health food store and to buy yogurt. Came back, my husband was right in the middle of cooking and found that „let’s make some pasta to go with the leftover goulash“ had turned into something a little bigger with a pile of green peppers and a separate sauce for the boy. There was still time and my husband didn’t want help so I wandered off to watch a course about newsletters. I got carried away and only returned ten minutes after lunch was ready. Oops.

I set the table and sent the boy a text that lunch was ready and we all met in the kitchen. My husband was already a bit cranky. We talked, there was a misunderstood joke, husband got crankier and declared he wasn’t hungry. And that he had no idea why he was in a bad mood.

The boy and I ate, we talked a bit, I tried shoving him out the door (which resulted in him getting to uni an hour early, apparently) and just as I was about to get ready for teaching my husband returned and asked me to help with mounting that living room light.

So, the ceiling light in our living room is from the 90s and at one point one of the lights burnt out and it’s the kind of light you can’t buy anymore and one of the glass covers for the lights broke and so we decided to get a new one. Which we did a couple of years ago. Around 2020, I think. Since then that light fixture has sat on a shelf waiting to be mounted. And we never got around to it.

The day before my husband had already tried getting the old light fixture off but hadn’t succeeded. So now, with ten minutes until my first student, he was on a stepladder in the living room with me first rushing off to turn the fuse off and the rushing back to assist. The screws holding the fixture were rather hard to unscrew, he got very frustrated and in the end slammed the screwdriver down on our living room table from the top of the ladder. That table has a glass top. Which was covered with a tablecloth. But. On that table sat the new light fixture and all the glass covers for it.

My husband managed to smash all three covers in one stroke. They were nearly pulverized and there are still small splinters on the sofa next to it.

He eventually got the old fixture down but now we still need to buy a new lamp.

So I guess I’ll go to the hardware store today.

After that I taught a lot of students. Two didn’t show without canceling which is always a bit frustrating. (Not frustrating enough to throw a screwdriver, though.) I used one break to set up an account with a new newsletter provider and during the second one I started to do some proofreading but then talked with my husband instead.

When my last student left I decided I really needed to make some music and played the piano for half an hour, then I talked to my husband again, ate dinner, talked with the boy and my husband, then started writing this post, did Duolingo and got ready for bed.

And now the hardware store and more lamp shenanigans.

I didn’t quite get enough sleep but woke up at 6 from the alarm. The boy had told me in advance that he wouldn’t get up at 6, so at least I knew.

I wrote my morning pages right away and tried a new strategy for getting my writing in for the first time. I took my laptop with me to bed, set a timer and wrote for 30 minutes. Then I did yoga and meditated for 3 minutes.

My husband had shown up somewhere between the writing and the yoga to let me yoga in peace. After he came over and started the wood stove.

There was breakfast and lots of talking again, this time less emotional and deep which was rather nice. We’re starting to make plans for December and for fun things we could do together.

I finished the shawl-in-progress. And decided to add the wavy border to it which means I’m not quite finished yet. I’ll probably be sorry soon but the border looks really great.

I did the breakfast dishes while listening to a piano piece by Ligeti. I have no idea where I might have heard it before but it sounded really familiar.

I put my five finger shoes on and walked up and down the annex corridor for ten minutes. It felt both wonderful and a bit too much. And then I switched to orthotics and regular sneakers again and went for a fast walk:

I only walked as far as the train tracks through the woods because I didn’t want to overdo things.

Meanwhile the wood stove had gone out and my husband had stoked it again which meant lunch was late. Fortunately, Monday is the day where we both start teaching later so it was not a big deal. I used that time to take a shower. Lunch was inspired by leftover ground beef:

The boy came downstairs when we were both still sitting there talking. As my husband remarked, ever since changing the way he cooks lunch we haven’t had a single fight at lunchtime. That is certainly worth not eating three different things every meal.

I had plans for my break between lunch and teaching but ended up talking with the boy. I asked him to do the dishes which was really helpful. And then I went teaching. I had an unexpected break between students because of a cancellation that I used to tell some of my Wednesday students the there will still be lessons despite it being a school holiday.

After the last student left I had another brief conversation with my husband, ate some cheese toast for dinner, started writing this post, did Duolingo and my foot exercises, gave up on picking up stitches for the shawl border, watched an episode of C-drama and went to bed.

Today we will try to get the old living room lamp off the ceiling and mount the new one. The one that has been sitting in a box for years now.

Went to bed way too late, lounged in bed in the morning and skipped my morning routine.

I still had a long list of things I wanted to do throughout the day and was a bit afraid I would do none of them because I didn’t really have any energy.

I did manage to plan the week and do my weekly check-in before lunch, so that was good and of course I talked to my mother on the phone.

This time I did not forget to take a picture of my lunch:

I had high hopes of doing all the things in the afternoon but first I lounged about eating more store-bought cookies and I talked with the boy and played endless rounds of solitaire. Instead of spending hours on the manuscript I ended up doing just 15 minutes and those resulted in negative words because I wasn’t happy with what I wrote before.

Then it was time for bodyweight training with the boy. Because we were late (the boy’s alarm had set itself to snooze in his pocket) we collided with my husband making and eating dinner. It’s still a little weird to be watched while doing very easy exercise badly. Still, we need to start somewhere.

I ate dinner and then it was time to prepare for my coaching session. It was really nice and also very helpful. After that I watched an episode of C-drama while knitting and drinking yet another beer, I went to bed at a somewhat reasonable time right after and slept well.

And today it is back to teaching.

That was the big highlight of the day, I went to bed super early, slept well and had more energy, funny enough.

Still, I decided not to plan too much stuff for the day. It still was more than I got done in the end, I guess I just have to resign myself to the fact that I’m always overplanning.

I did spend the morning knitting, mostly, and also took a shower, cut my toenails and my hair. My husband helped me with the parts I couldn’t reach. Having hair that’s almost cut straight and not all straggly ends is a relief. One thing I found extremely funny was that my husband asked about the loose strands around my face. „So, are you going to cut those off too? Because they look disheveled.“ This is what he meant:

I mean, that’s where my hair is the curliest and I had to explain that I’m not cutting off hair that is just starting to grow in. I did cut off maybe 10 centimeters (4 „) in total.

I also had planned to dye my eyebrows and lashes but realized I actually shouldn’t use isopropyl alcohol around my eyes and will need to buy eye makeup remover first.

Lunch was burgers, potatoes, peas and carrots, and again I was completely certain I had taken a picture but can’t find it anywhere. I should take better care in the future.

The boy showed up after my husband and I had finished lunch, he ate and we talked and then we did the dishes together. I had a Zoom meeting with a bunch of writers at 5 and my original plan had been to write in my studio for at least 90 minutes before that but I ended up talking with the boy for so long that I had to rush to get to the meeting in time.

The meeting was extremely enjoyable. It ran a bit over time and so I then rushed back to the kitchen for dinner with my family:

The champagne was a bit sweet for my taste and I don’t think I’ll buy it again in the future. I basically bought the priciest one in the grocery store that was not real champagne and I did remember the brand being good from decades ago but I guess my taste in wine has changed a bit since then.

We watched an episode of ‚Columbo‘ (accidentally skipping the next one but well, they’re episodic so no harm done). We all liked it even if the plot was a bit convoluted. My husband nodded off at one point and then had a hard time following which is understandable.

After that the boy and I talked again for an hour or so, I decided I wanted to watch an episode of C-drama even though it was too late and got myself a bottle of beer. Turned the lights out past midnight and am again very tired.

Dumb move. So I guess I’ll try to do better today.