creative.mother.thinking

I mean, you would think with the time change in this direction it should be easier to get enough sleep but apparently not. My theory is that I was so tired by 9 pm that I just couldn’t find my way to bed.

Instead of berating myself I reminded myself that small and easy works best and restarted the habits of tidying the kitchen after lunch (makes doing the dishes easier which lowers the threshold to do them either right away or later) and to brush my teeth first in the evening. Ideally right after dinner but that never happens. Because with brushed teeth going to bed feels much easier.

I do resent that I need all these tricks but then better silly tricks that work than being stuck in the same old habits.

But. That reset only started yesterday not the day before. I went to bed so late, it was ridiculous. Consequently, I did not open the manuscript.

My original plan was to go for a walk/run but then I looked out the window. It was storming with pelting rain and almost freezing. I pride myself on going out in most weather but when it storms I’m always afraid that a branch will fall on my head in the woods.

I wanted to use that opportunity to finally clean the house.

Well that didn’t happen.

I did mend my husband’s favorite sweater, though, and folded two loads of laundry. Then there was lunch:

I remembered to straighten the kitchen afterwards just in time, did the dishes because I thought it didn’t look much and with me being so super-tired and exhausted I’d probably be worse off in the evening. The boy returned from university where he had submitted the form that says he wrote his thesis himself with only the sources he mentions. He tried signing digitally but the website didn’t respond, so he had to spend almost 3 hours on that, including a very late train while he was waiting outside.

I took a shower and then it was time to teach.

My last student canceled and I thought I would do all kinds of things with that free time. Well, see above.

I hung up the load of laundry my husband had started in the morning and then I could finally eat dinner.

When I found myself knee-deep in BTS reaction videos I managed to pull back and brush my teeth. I started this post, decided to move the weekly planning to today and that more sleep was more important than opening the manuscript, made a list for today, did Duolingo and went to bed.

Today is errand day, it’s my mother’s birthday, and I have other plans as well.

So I went to bed way too late for a change so that not even the time change made the night long enough.

I still did the complete morning routine and opened the manuscript for the first time since Tuesday or so. Yeah!

The plan was to call my mother, clean the house, finish my packing course homework and help the boy with another proofread.

Well, cleaning didn’t happen again. I also didn’t plan the week which always leaves me feel a bit unmoored but I can plan today, no problem. (When I put that on my list each week it makes it look like it takes ages but in fact it’s probably less than ten minutes. I look at the calendar, take note of things our of the ordinary and jot down exercise, errands, grocery shopping and cleaning to get a feeling for the week as a whole.)

Husband and I talked about music and the CAGED method for guitar over breakfast. I called my mother and we talked for a while, I did all the dishes from the day before, and then started putting my different kits together for the packing class and took pictures until it was time for lunch:

Mmh, homemade pesto. And this time I didn’t have to chop up everything, my husband did that. And realized that it’s better to chop the basil and the pine nuts separately and not all the basil leaves at once.

After lunch I started putting together pictures and text for the different homework assignments for the packing class and then the boy showed up, ate lunch and after that we sat down at the kitchen table and read through his thesis together, one of us reading out loud and both checking for formatting errors and typos. It took us about two hours, maybe a little longer.

By then it was already time for dinner because my stomach doesn’t know that it’s only 6 pm, it thinks it’s 7 already. So I ate dinner, then finally finished my packing homework, including packing up the whole bag and donning my travel outfit:

That is a 10.5 liter bag and there is still a little room. I was able to actually squeeze the raincoat in with everything else, ha!

I spare you detailed pictures of all the different kits I brought, like downsizing from two notebooks to only one and weighing my fountain pens which told me that the small Lamy pen weighs twice as much as the Kaweco travel pen. I also decided to leave both the iPad and the Kindle at home and make do with only my phone and a foldable keyboard. I even tested blogging and watching C-drama on my phone.

I was able to cut my toiletries in half (maybe even smaller) by using different containers. I also didn’t take the electric toothbrush and some other things like my MagSafe charger.

Here is a picture of everything in pouches and ziplock bags. Oh, and I also pulled stuff out of my humongous wallet and used a rather small pouch as a placeholder for a new, small wallet.

I did use a lot of placeholders. The containers for shampoo, conditioner and soap are empty as is the water bottle. That one is rather heavy but I don’t really want to use plastic, so I might keep that one.

So here is everything I would have taken on my imaginary trip to Prague all laid out on my bed, everything in pouches and packing cubes and such:

The small red packing cube hold my toiletries, the orange one all my clothes (two t-shirts, leggings, change of underwear and socks), the pink pouch hold a tin with my prescriptions meds for a week, there is one ziplock of cables, a plug and a power bank, and another with bandaids, pain meds and tummy meds and there is an almost empty package of tissues. Oh, and the box with my estrogen spray, that one was a little awkward to pack.

Anyway, doing the course and the homework made me really happy. The other students were rather nice and seeing their pictures was really inspiring. Oh, I forgot my knitting on this picture but I did put it in the bag and I also added a small foldable grocery bag that usually lives in my purse.I own two, one lives in my purse and the other one in the backpack I use for grocery shopping.

Thigns I’d like to get eventually: a different powerbank that is a bit more powerful and can also charge my earbuds and smartwatch, several pouches including a new toiletry bag and especially a smaller wallet.

Oh, and one interesting idea I had was that instead of bringing a backup pair of glasses (I did include my reading glasses because reading with my regular glasses is really tiring for my eyes, I packed sealed new contact lenses. I can’t really wear them for long but if my glasses broke I could put them in and then go out and buy contact lens solution and a new case so I can clean them. Way more lightweight and small than another glasses case.

In all the years I’ve worn glasses I only had a pair break once while visiting my parents and I had to use the very first pair I got that were way too weak. Peering at the reservation signs on the train and not being able to read any signs at all (while standing all the way to Munich because I was too cheap for a reservation) left a lasting impression. My reading glasses only work up to 1.4 meters, so definitely not good enough to drive a car or read a street sign. (Something I find hard to do with my best, most up to date regular glasses as well. I’m basically in waiting mode for cataract surgery at this point.)

Anyways, the whole bag packed up was 2.8 kilos which is marvelous. Even with all the containers filled up it would only be less than 3.5 kilos. The Kindle would add about 350 grams if I took it.

If this were an actual trip I would probably want to add the Kindle (but maybe not, I mean I could try how it felt for a week and 350 grams are nothing to be sneezed at) and I would probably use my 16 liter backpack which is much comfier to wear. I might also add a small lightweight purse if I wanted to go out for dinner or a concert and I could stuff both my cardigan and my raincoat in as well.

And there would still be space for souvenirs. Or snacks. Or a fork.

Thinking about just taking the phone made me rather anxious. What if it broke? What if it were stolen? But then I realized that I could always go out and buy a new one and could probably buy a cheap prepaid SIM card and download most of my data and apps from the Cloud again.

So, a major inconvenience but not a disaster. Even if I had all my tickets and information on my phone.

Sorry for being so wordy about packing, this is actually a special interest of mine.

After finishing my homework I decided to skip the dishes again and the bullet journal, I played a bit of Genshin impact (also playable on my phone, by the way), started writing this post and was super late for bed yet again. Yawn.

So. Today I need to do all the things including teaching quite a bit. I also want to walk/run, take a shower and put all the packing stuff back where it belongs. And plan the week. And today.

And good news, my mother said her birthday present already arrived. That was fast, I sent it off Friday and she had it on Saturday already. Fun!

My main goals for the day were to help my son with his thesis and finish the packing course homework.

Well, I did the first one, at least.

I had another slow start into the day where I didn’t have time to open the manuscript first thing. This is becoming a bad habit which is not good.

There were the usual morning things and a very nice conversation with my husband and then I went for a walk/run for the first time since Monday. I chose to take it slow and go only for 45 minutes and that was rather nice. Despite the weather being chilly:

I came home in time to take a leisurely shower and folded some laundry.

My husband made Indian food. Mmh, chickpeas:

I actually had worked on the new crochet blanket while talking with my husband in the morning and then, just as I was about to take a nice break, the boy came downstairs, ate lunch and then we started working on his bachelor’s thesis. He had sent his final version to his advisor, had gotten it back with annotations and now we looked over it together. I asked dumb questions, corrected his grammar and spelling and helped him find places where he could add some more text. Some sections did look like they were written late at night under pressure by someone who just wanted to be finished, plus his advisor said he might want to make the whole thing longer.

It’s funny how often it helps to talk something through with another person, and also, someone asking dumb questions can be really helpful. If done the right way, because just asking stupid questions might not lead to anything but asking things like the reason why he included this thing but not the other that he mentioned before. And asking him to actually lead the reader through the process and write down why it’s done that way instead of writing „this is what I did, step 1 through 4, and then I got this data, see table 11“ is not very reader-friendly.

He also looked at some papers and other theses to see how they had solved the same kind of problems.

I forced him to make an actual written list of everything he wanted to do after that so that he didn’t forget. Because there were quite a few things, some of which might involve reading a few more papers.

I was very impressed by him using LaTeX, it actually looks like doing to me, at least it looks a lot like html. And I have to say that the days of hand-coding blog posts are gone. But then the boy is the kind of person who’d rather write a python script to do a thing than do it by hand.

That took about 3 1/2 hours which meant my afternoon was gone. I really wanted to do my homework but no, my husband showed up again with his newly restored guitar. The hollow-body electric one that looks like the epiphany that John Lennon stripped of pain. Well, almost, I got a whole lecture on how the pick-ups are different and the new and improved tailpiece. He had been thinking of switching that out for a better one and when the old one fell off by accident the other day he seized the opportunity. And then he saw that the one he wanted might take up to four weeks to get here and was all sad that he wouldn’t be able to play that guitar for a whole month.

Well, it arrived yesterday and he spent half the afternoon mounting it. Also sorting screws in the basement, and ongoing project, this time triggered by having to find the right ones for the task.

That meant there was no time left for anything else. At least I finished watching the course videos at last. And then we ate dinner in front of TV while watching „Searching for Sugar Man“ that came recommended by one of my husband’s students. Nothing against Rodriguez but the film was weird and very, very slow and full of clichés about musicians. Like, of course he just stepped on a plane, went to a different continent and just played his old songs without a hitch.

I can tell you, the other day I forgot the lyrics to „Corcovado“ a song I could sing in my sleep in the 90s. These days I need a lead sheet, otherwise I go „Quiet stars and quiet night, lalala, quiet chords from my guitar, lala, silence that surrounds us,“ and so forth.

The big story was that he never quite made it in the US even though his voice and lyrics were comparable to Bob Dylan. Everybody was very confused by that. But I think, as a Mexican American people just found it weird that he was doing fold rock and it might just have been a bit of racism.

The film makes it out as if he was completely poor and unsuccessful, went back to working in construction even after hitting it big in South Africa and touring there in the 90s.

Well, Wikipedia also tells us tat he did an Australia and New Zealand tour in the late 70s.

Good music, very nice guy, but a bit of a sensationalist take on the story. Especially since we heard a lot of guys who were telling their hero story.

After that I realized I had an hour more than usual because of the time change, finally looked at Geshin which I couldn’t before, played for quite some time (I feel I have played these daily commission missions before, weird) started this post and still had to do the dishes at 11.40.

But I didn’t and went to bed.

I keep having to put things back in their usual place that I collected in one place for the packing homework but I need them in between and when my meds are elsewhere I don’t find them.

I put the packing sack I will use for clothes and the one for toiletries in the bag I picked and, well, things will get a bit tight in there. Especially when I want to pack my eReader, two pairs of glasses and a water bottle. I might leave the bottle out. I won’t be happy about that because I hate using the plastic ones but needs must. (I mean, not really, if I were traveling for real I would probably take my usual backpack instead because I wouldn’t be happy lugging a messenger bag around for a week but, well, it’s the principle. I want to reduce my packing so I’m challenging myself.

So, I started this post late, decided I wanted to put a few links in to posts about packing in a handbag on Her Packing List, fell down an internet rabbit hole and was very, very late.

So, I guess today I’ll do the dishes, call my mother, spend time with my husband again, do another read-through of his thesis, call my mother, finally finish the course homework including all the photos and go to bed on time. Oh, and deal with recycling, clean the house and go to bed on time.

Yeah, I’m laughing on the floor as well.

I went to bed almost on time and slept very well, and am now pretty much back to normal. I‘m not quite sure if I want to go walking/running today, or just walk, we‘ll see.

Yesterday I managed to wrap and mail my mother‘s birthday present, drop off a return package and walk to the nearby supermarket. I had vague plans to start cleaning as well but ended up so pre-occupied with my packing course homework, plus I had an additional student, so I decided to do it in small pieces over the weekend. I hope that will work.

When I came back from the supermarket my husband was right in the middle of cooking, so I put the groceries away and started chopping salad ingredients. Lunch was rather good:

I had a short break between lunch and teaching that I mostly used for reading and stumbling around in Genshin Impact, then I taught all my students and used a break to watch some more course videos.

Then I dressed in the travel outfit for my imaginary trip to Prague:

It was a very cold day so I chose a shawl and fingerless gloves. I really need to find a place to take pictures that is not quite as backlit…

After that I ate dinner, finished reading „Penric‘s Shaman“, unearthed some travel stuff (because the homework includes actually packing for the pretend trip to see how it all fits together) including an old bluetooth keyboard that I can use with my phone. Because I am contemplating leaving the ereader and tablet at home the next time, and to only take my phone and said keyboard.

Which is why I wrote this post using just my phone and that slightly weird keyboard. Which is also why there is no alt-text.

I then finally did the dishes, posted my travel outfit, did Duolingo, made a list for today, talked with the boy about his advisor’s feedback and canceled today’s Zoom so I can help him more. (He need to write a bit more, he is doing very short laconic sentences, like „here is the definition, here is the data, bye). We’ll spend some time make it flow better. I hope.

And today will hopefully mark the new back to normal. Well, almost.

Though the tiredness and slowness might also have been from the antihistamine. I think by now I’m over the worst of the vaccine reaction, at least.

Yesterday morningI still felt like crawling back into bed. Nevertheless I wrote morning pages and did yoga. I ran out of time for the rest of the morning routine. Husband and I were still a bit at odds. The time crunch was partially due to the boy who needed a bit of hand-holding and took a one-hour nap at one point and needed to be woken up again after.

Because he spent two days non-stop writing his bachelor thesis. He ended up sending a finished draft to his advisor at the end of the day but it was a huge last-minute effort. Well, more than last minute, technically, because he should have sent it the day before.

I took a picture of the mittens for my mother:

I did a humongous pile of dishes and took a shower and then it was almost time to leave the house.

We met with my mother-in-law, my husband’s aunt and two friends of hers at the Greek restaurant that isn’t far from the cemetery. We had excellent Greek food. Huge plates of appetizers that I forgot to take a picture of, souvlaki for me and fish for the rest:

When we were finished with eating the weather had turned worse, it was raining and very windy when we walked to the cemetery. There we put a flower arrangement on my husband’s uncle’s grave and then it was time to return home so we could teach.

I had a bit of a weird afternoon because of cancellations I ended up teaching only three students with long breaks in between. There was a bit more hand-holding the boy, I played some Genshin, and also worked a bit more on the packing class. I am actually learning something which is exciting and unexpected. A few things fell into place over the course of the day but I still didn’t have time to actually pull the things out that I would take on my imaginary trip and actually pack them. Because that’s what you’re supposed to do for the class which is an excellent idea.

It just feels a bit weird to pack everything together and not go but then I’m making packing lists for imaginary trips all the time. It looks like I might be able to half the size of my toiletry kit without sacrificing anything which would be great. I might even be able to squeeze the knitting and the ereader in the bag, still.

Anyway, I probably won’t have the time to actually pack until the weekend but that’s okay.

After teaching I talked with the boy while eating dinner, played some more Genshin (I might be slightly obsessed at the moment), started writing this post, almost forgot about Duolingo, spun and watched some C-drama and went to bed.

Today I want to go grocery shopping, send a package off or two, clean the house and teach. This might be a little too ambitious but we’ll see.

Didn’t feel all that good most of the day but then the only thing I really had to was teaching. And dishes.

And that’s what I did. Along with a few conversations with the rest of the family here and there.

I sorted my knitting basket, I needed to empty it out so the newest blanket project will fit. I watched more course videos for the packing course and found myself contemplating travel outfits. Not that I usually do anything as complicated as an outfit, I’m more a jeans, graphic tea ad a hoodie person these days.

The instructor told us to choose a travel outfit and then add three tops and two bottoms to it? I’m still reluctant to pack that many clothes. I usually do travel outfit plus a change of underwear, fresh socks and a second t-shirt. But then it occurred to me that the pajama I also always pack is a bottom and a top. Ahem.

I also don’t own any clothes that are specidically for traveling. I’m fine with that, I mean, I’m not traveling that often.

There was lunch:

There was chocolate and a Genshin update so that there wasn’t any time left to play it.

The ball of yarn for my mother’s mittens arrived, I finished them and immediately washed them. And forgot to take a picture.

And at the end of the day I was in a rather bad mood with a headache and decided I needed some salt and sugar for it. Some coated peanuts, a Snickers bar and a bag of licorice later I actually did feel better.

Then I played some Genshin, my son even watched me at some point and deemed my fighting skills adequate. Using the controller is sometimes clunky but not using it makes things worse, I feel.

And then there was the point where I had about an hour before bedtime and wanted to do the dishes, take a shower, and spin while watching C-drama. Right. Great plan.

And today we will probably go out for lunch with my husband’s aunt. Unless the weather is too bad for her and her friends to drive here.