creative.mother.thinking

Then I wrote my list of things I wanted to do on that „free“ day and realized actual free looks a little different.

I started by going to bed too late yet again, slept well, did most of my morning routine, no manuscript time again.

I really, really didn’t feel like doing yoga or meditation but I did it anyway to set a precedent for the new month.

Then breakfast with my husband, we’re still basking in the glow of a successful outing. I only knitted a bit and decided to work on a new pair of socks for me first and leave the hat I started a few days ago for travel knitting. That hat has reached the stage of stockinette in the round and round and round (for 52 centimeter/12 inches) so it will be perfect for train rides and such. The socks will require a bit more attention than that.

I dawdled and spent some time reading and making my usual online rounds. I am really loving the new Ilona Andrews book.

And then I went out for my walk/run:

I came back, peeled three eggs, minced some herbs and could eat lunch right away:

I took a break, read some more and then played Genshin Impact for a while. I did not take a shower yet because my husband needed one as well and he also had a student at 4. So he got to shower first.

When I looked up from my game it was already past 5 and since the boy and I had planned to do bodyweight training at 6 I decided to shower after that.

I then reviewed the month of March. I had four goals in March: 1. Publish „Masked in Silver“ which I did, 2. Write the new romance which I did a little, 3. Get back to exercise which I also did, and 4. Sleep 8 hours per night – LOL.

The goals I set myself for April are way more numerous. I decided to go more granular again. I included a reading goal, some knitting and spinning goals and (for the first time) some vide game goals. Since I’m spending my time on that and am actually aiming to reach certain goals they should really be on the list.

Because otherwise the list looks very empty when in fact it is full of things that haven’t been written down.

After showing that list to a friend I realized that learning Chinese was not on it. Oops. It is certainly not a top priority but I would like to make a little time for it anyway.

After training (and reading about Macao on Wikipedia during breaks) I ate dinner, read some more, finally took that shower and offloaded the dishes to the boy.

And then I tackled the much-dreaded email newsletter for the few people who signed up to be informed when the new book would come out. I had that on my list for many, many weeks.

The there was a little more video game time, a little bit of spinning and bed.

Pretty productive for a day that was supposed to be all free I’d say.

But also I might need a second day off to recharge.

First of all I went to bed way late, past midnight. There were several things I needed to prep for the day and then there was the kerfluffle with the blog.

I still set my alarm earlier than usual and did the morning routine. Sans writing but with morning pages and yoga. I had an early breakfast and then went to the dentist for a dental cleaning and such. I met a new dentist, very nice and seems very thorough.

After an hour or so of that I went to the other side of the street to the health food store and bought mostly veggies and fruit. Also some chocolate.

Then back home, unpacking the groceries, briefly helping my husband to do the dishes and a short break before we walked out the door to catch a train to Munich.

My husband had misheard the time the train would be leaving as 12.21 so he was a little stressed and pushed me to hurry which then led to me standing in the street patting my pockets looking for my phone (that held the train ticket, among other things) and then returning. Not before assuring my husband that the train was leaving at 12.31 instead.

My phone was not where I expected it to be. It turned out to be in my jeans pocket, underneath my heavy coat (there had been snow before). But everything turned out alright.

We took the train, then walked to the Alte Pinakothek and on the way we visited a very small dim sum place that was tucked away in a side street. The place was very bare-bones but the staff was extremely friendly and attentive and the food was marvelous:

I forgot to take the photo until after we had obliterated all the spring rolls and dumplings. I was a bit sad that there were no special Chinese dumplings to be had but the food was delicious, super fresh and they make all their own sauces.

We managed to actually eat all the food but my husband had to help me.

Then we went on to the museum and the place was hopping. My guess is that we weren’t the only ones who wanted to get a visit in before the train line through Munich shuts down for almost two weeks, and also it was the last day of the semester, so some students wanted to make use of their last day of student discount. At least that’s what the person who sold us the tickets said.

The exhibition was breathtaking, we stood in front of paintings like van Gogh’s actual sunflowers and all those paintings everyone knows. There was Monet’s waterlilies and especially my husband was very moved by the real thing. He is the one with all those fat art books on the shelves, by the way,

Afterwards we strolled rather quickly through the whole Breughel and Dürer part because we had reached our limit to taking things in for the day.

Then we walked back to the city center and the train station, took a train home and then I did the thing I often do, on the way home we picked up my new orthotics, yogurt in one supermarket and potato chips in another before finally getting home.

And that was mostly it for the day. I read, I ate potato chips for dinner, I played, I started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed a little earlier this time.

And today is a new day, a new month, and a new quarter.

When I was waking up the weather looked foul. Dark, drizzly and stormy. In the evening there were big flakes of snow, even.

I did my complete morning routine and used my manuscript time to figure out universal links for books 2 and 3. Which took longer than expeceted.

Husband and I talked about melodic minor over breakfast while I knitted a bit. Then I did the breakfast dishes while he started a load of laundry and then it was time to brave the weather:

I should get myself a new hat, this one is starting to disintegrate. Since I bought it back when my husband was still working at the department store it might be 25 years old, oops.

Oh, and in between the dishes and leaving the house I tried buying some sheet music of „Ambre“ by Nils Frahm, and it took me twenty minutes to convince that website that I did not want a subscription but just wanted to pay for this one piece of music, thanks.

Lunch was ready when I returned:

The plan was to play my video game until 4 and then work on the newsletter. Well. I played a little longer than 4, then took a shower, cut my toenails, talked with my son, did some research for today’s trip to Munich and was done with all of that just in time for being coached at 6. I did open the newsletter website, I think, but that was about it.

Only to have to tell my coach that the last two weeks went a little different than planned. On the bright side I did publish book 3 so all was good.

After the coaching call I sent the first three chapters of my romance novel off to a writing contest, then tried doing the newsletter again until the boy reminded me that he was waiting for me for our weekly video game bosses. He helped me very patiently, and only when it was 9 pm, and I made one stupid mistake after the other, did I realize I had forgotten to eat dinner.

So I ate something, made a list for today, started writing this post, found that my blog had locked me out, tried to fix the issue but failed, finally did the dishes, prepared everything for today and went to bed too late.

And today will be slightly insane but I’ll tell you all about that tomorrow. At least the blog let’s me in again.

There was the time change so I definitely didn’t get enough sleep. When I woke up it was snowing like crazy. I did most of my morning routine but not the manuscript time, ahem.

There was yoga and breakfast and the weekly phone call to my mother, there were dishes and reading the daily chapter of „War and Peace“ (that is a veritable soap opera, by the way), and then there was lunch:

I spent the whole afternoon playing Genshin Impact, something I had actually planned for. Then I dawdled, the boy and I did bodyweight training for a whole twenty minutes, he offered to do the dishes, and I watched a bit more of the BTS documentary.

I had promised to take a sock photo in better light but there was only a very short time where the light was actually bright and I missed it, so here is a bad photo in bad light:

And then there was bed.

I am a bit torn between spending today the same way and actually getting something productive done, we’ll see what will come out on top.

Again, not much time but I did most of the things I set out to do, including opening the manuscript. I’m still doing timeline stuff.

There was yoga and dishes and then I went out for my walk/run:

My husband made lunch:

I had met that mother of a student who also writes while out in the woods and we had exchanged pen names. So far I really like her book.

I went on Zoom, met with a bunch of writers and finished a sock. Then I started a hat. I’ll take pictures later today when there will be more light.

My husband, the boy and I then met for a glass of alcohol-free champagne and some salmon on toast:

We then watched a episode of ‚Columbo‘ that was pretty good, I played some more video game. did the dishes too late, started writing this post and went to bed too late.

Which was a great move the evening before the start of daylight savings time but there you are.

I went to bed only reasonably late, slept well and only dawdled a little bit. I wrote morning pages, then opened my laptop and started uploading book 3 so I could publish it.

Well, there were dumb typos in the manuscript, all introduced while proofreading. Good thing those got caught before anyone bought the book.

I did yoga and meditated a little and then ate breakfast with my husband. He was off pretty fast because he wanted to go for a run the first time in ages.

So I turned to my laptop again, corrected the typos and started the whole uploading process again. Managed to use the wrong cover at first, didn’t remember how to do any of this, so the usual.

But only an hour or so later I had uploaded all the files for the ebook and paperback on Amazon. The ebook is already live (“Masked in Silver” by Susanne Winter, book 3 in the Eva Mandel Urban Fantasy Series), the paperback will take a little longer.

Then I did the dishes, vacuumed the old part of the house, and decided to use the sunny (and cold) weather to get the vegetarian salmon I forgot the day before. My husband had another list of things he wanted from the health food store and, of course, I needed some more chocolate.

The health food store did not have veggie ersatz salmon. Neither did the other health food store but they had the vitamins the boy had asked me to get, neither had the supermarket near the train station, so I went to the exact same supermarket I had visited the day before and – finally got what I was looking for. Phew.

Husband had made an easy and quick lunch, omelette with cheese and fried zucchini:

I took a short break and then called the dentist’s office because they had sent me the invoice for the boy’s dental cleaning. I need his name to be on the invoice so I can get some of the money back from insurance. Only when I stood there on the phone, looking casually at the invoice I saw „cleaning for the boy“ written on there for the first time. Oops. I explained my mistake and said I was sorry.

And then there was the teaching of the students. I managed to reschedule all the lessons during my trip in April, yeah!

I talked briefly with my husband (and told him that the ebook was already live), did bodyweight training with the boy, ate dinner, started writing this post, did the dishes, made a list for today, played more video game and watched the documentary on the new BTS album.

And then bed.

In between all of these things I also figured out the best day and time to go to the museum next week, tidied stuff away and helped to fold the clean laundry.

Definitely a good day.