I overslept in the morning (lights out after midnight) and was woken by a message on my smartwatch that I had a phone call on my cell. Which was in the kitchen. So I got up, called that person back and found out that the plumber would be coming over between 10 and 11. Woot!

I managed some distracted morning pages, yoga and meditation, my husband showed up and was in a much better mood than the day before despite having slept badly and we ate breakfast.

I switched things around a bit at that point, brushed my teeth and did the dishes before I had even finished drinking my tea but I was done by ten and the plumber rang the doorbell at 10.15.

Very nice guy who diagnosed the dripping faucet in the bathroom (dripping down underneath the washbasin along the wall) as being beyond repair so we needed a new one and the dripping faucet in the kitchen as just needing a new o-ring. I should learn how to change that myself at one point. I should also remember that changing that ring does not require turning off the water. Actually, he didn’t turn the water off at all. Huh.

While that guy was there my husband also noticed a dripping pipe in the basement near the furnace. The plumber took some pictures to document it, showed me an impressive hole on the underside of the pipe (I also need to remember that I can use my phone to look into places I can’t easily reach otherwise) and told me he’d tell his boss and that they would get back to us. If they didn’t we should call them again because they are buried under work right now.

So that went very well.

Meanwhile my sister had asked me to phone her so we could talk about our mother’s impending release from the hospital. She would rather not have to move up to her for a couple of weeks, like all of us, but unfortunately my job and all the doctor’s appointments and my upcoming cataract surgery make it extremely hard for me to do so, and her job – unfortunately for her – doesn’t require her to be in a specific place at a specific time.

We talked for an hour or so, then her phone battery gave out, we picked up our conversation again over mobile and then my husband was super stressed because a) he had been dealing with glass recycling and had gone for a run (in the heat, after a short night of bad sleep), b) he had planned to work on his vegetable beds but had run out of time and c) he was not only trying to make a mixed salad, two kinds of sauce and mozzarella with tomatoes, had thawed another loaf of bread and had plans to pick arugula and parsley from the garden but he was also staring down a brutal teaching day on top of that.

And I was on the phone, talking and laughing. I tend to use dry humor a lot in crisis. Crying and panicking never helps.

Husband felt that I should have cut the phone call short so I could help with making lunch.

I did chop stuff for the salad, grated parmesan, listened to my husband venting and tried tidying the kitchen and setting the table while he was rushing through the kitchen like a tsunami.

He decided to skip the mozzarella, the arugula and the parsley and was very frustrated to be using frozen parsley instead of the fresh one that was just out the door.

We ate lunch. I was sure I had taken a picture but apparently I didn’t so imagine some spaghetti bolognese with a mixed salad.

After lunch I decided to go to the health food store real quick before it was time to teach. I did give in to the temptation of buying four different kinds of chocolate bar and I ate three of them. I gave the last one to the boy, at least.

Then I taught two students, thought I’d start the dishes in my 30-minute break but somehow didn’t really get anything done. My next student just didn’t show without saying anything which is rather unusual, and the one after that told me she couldn’t make it – 5 minutes before her lesson.

At that point I had already devolved into scrolling through social media. And reading which is quite a bit better. But I did go upstairs to my mother-in-law to give her the vacuum cleaner bags I had ordered for her (there was a point where she was convinced her bag was reusable which it definitely wasn’t and we ended up talking for half an hour. She tried to pay me for the bags three times or more (after having given me the money right away), and in the evening the boy came downstairs saying she was asking if she had already paid me.

I gave in at one point and ate dinner, then the boy and I did bodyweight training, Husband and the boy finally ate the mozzarella and tomatoes while I picked up my knitting for the first time that day, and then I spent too much time scrolling because I had ran out of decision energy.

I started this post, spun for a few minutes and went to bed.

Oh, and beside the vacuum cleaner bags there was also a nice big envelope holding the boy’s bachelor’s certificate. I haven’t even looked at it so far but will do so today.

Fingers crossed that today will be a little less packed. And that I’ll find more writing time, my writer friend already had to cancel our Zoom call.

Not that I did that yesterday.

I did all the usual morning things which means I have done yoga every day so far this month. I’m also experimenting with not taking my blood pressure medication because my blood pressure has been in the optimal range for weeks now. Chances are it’s still normal without the pills. We’ll see. I will be extra diligent in looking at the numbers every day.

I had another slow morning but it was refreshingly cool and so running/walking was rather pleasant. The only uncomfortable thing was that my legs felt, really really heavy:

My husband was in a rather bad mood, he had started to pull the weeds in his garden beds the day before and was very frustrated that he kept pulling the carrots out with the weeds. Those weeds are way taller than the things he sowed, so his frustration is understandable. And he has a pretty brutal teaching schedule overall, poor thing.

He still cooked a delicious meal and on time, even:

I had planned to take a shower right away but ran into my husband who wanted to do the same as I was picking up fresh underwear from the drying rack. So I folded the laundry and took a break reading and playing my game. I had to rush to finish my shower in time before my first student.

Then it was non-stop teaching, the last lesson was my writer friend who brought a delightful Bach piece and we had a refreshing conversation about classical music and such afterwards.

I finally ate dinner at 7.30, then met the boy for our weekly video game bosses, played some more and then it was rather late already. But I still hadn’t done the dishes, started this post, done my journal entry or my daily spinning, oops.

I helped the boy strategize a little, he has four exams coming up very close together. I started this post while he made himself fried potatoes. I spun some yarn and I did the dishes. Here’s my spindle:

So it was all quite a bit but it’s always hard to fit everything in when teaching ends that late. Today I’ll be done earlier, so I hope that will translate into more sleep.

I did all the usual morning things (without writing unfortunately), ate breakfast and called my mother at the hospital. She is feeling marginally better but recovery is very slow.

I planned the week before lunch which was a little late but pretty tasty. There might not have been salt in the lentils but with some added salt it was very good:

I spent the afternoon playing Genshin, starting to help the boy install a fly screen but we didn’t get far because there was some cleaning to do beforehand that he did without me.

At 5 I had another video call, this one happens monthly and it was a lot of fun.

Then I waited for the boy to come downstairs for bodyweight training, and I ate dinner before. Maybe not the best decision.

We did our exercise and I got a tiny bit better with my pull-ups and afterwards I looked at the spinning wheel. I had unpacked it again in the afternoon and had lubrucated the treadles and the flyer but it wasn’t working.

In the end I just put some oil on the flyer shaft and it finally started working:

Then I played too much Genshin (but almost finished building one character and started leaving up another one, and then it was too late again.

So, today: reading, writing, running, teaching. Oh, and some spinning, of course.

I’m giving you a very short account of the day because today is also pretty busy and I want to use my time for other things.

I did open the manuscript for twenty minutes which is an improvement over the days before but not really enough. If I write for three hours today I will be super happy but that is highly unlikely.

I almost finished the two gauge swatches and I’ll show them to you another time, I hope, I did the dishes and went on my run/walk half an hour late.

I’m calling it a run/walk now instead of a walk/run because I have flipped the ratio between running and walking intervals. By the time I went out it was past noon and pretty hot so there were a few stretches of way that were feeling to hot and I did walk part of the running intervals sometimes but not much. Oh, and no alt text today as well, sorry but here is my usual running selfie:

Yes, I’m looking a bit exhausted and hot. Also, I was feeling the harder strength training the night before but was sore in a good way. Mostly.

I came back home, helped a little with chopping things for lunch and we ate outside again:

That weird red thing is red beet risotto, made with red beets my husband grew. And we have too many eggs and not much protein.

Then I took a shower, read a bit and played my game. The plan was to either spin or write before my weekly writer Zoom but because the host had given me a heads up that she wanted to stop hosting I was too preoccupied with how that would go.

It went very well, by the way, she said that this would be the last meeting, and that she was sorry because she would miss seeing us all every week but that being host and doing it every Saturday was very draining for her and too much. The reaction was, oh, that is a little sad but understandable.

We still checked in but this time we talked about what we all want to achieve the rest of the year. Because we’re at the half-way mark already.

One of us had the idea of meeting again in three months to check in. Which is a good idea and we actually agreed on a date. I hope this will actually happen. I did put it in my calendar already. Of course I did.

These are the times when I think back to my mother calling me over-organized. I’m still pissed at that. There is no such thing as over-organized, there is only properly organized. There is a point where pending more time and energy on organization gives you diminishing returns and isn’t quite worth it but still.

Then my husband, the boy and I met to watch an episode of ‚Columbo‘ that was really unusual. Not bad but the pacing was a little too slow for my taste.

After that I folded some laundry, did a huge amount of dishes (took 45 minutes, I stopped the time), started writing this post, made a list for today, spun for ten minutes on my spindle because there was definitely no time to get the spinning wheel running but it also was the start of the Tour de Fleece and that was mostly it.

Phew.

And more of that today, hopefully with more writing.

On the bright side I only went to bed an hour late which is better than the days before. And I set my alarm back to 7 so I did get a little more sleep.

I was pretty cranky because I hadn’t written in two days and I was low-key stressed about everything but acutely about that day’s optician appointment.

But first I talked with my husband over breakfast, he decided to leave a little earlier than usual for his run, because he is still behind with the garden and he also wanted to go running.

So I finished my tea, read a little and started a gauge swatch with the purple yarn I spun:

The yarn looks nicer than I thought it would.

After that I went on my usual internet rounds, lamented that I didn’t have time to write, realized that I could either lament for ten minutes or just open the manuscript, even if I just stared at it for the whole time, opened the manuscript, stared at it for a couple of minutes and just as I was back into the story and knew what to write next – my husband showed up to put the vacuum back into the bedroom where I had left it for two weeks or so because I would be doing the apartment any moment now.

At first that was not a problem but then he told me something and after that started a discussion about the air in the bedroom being stale and I could feel the idea I had slipping from my fingers.

I was not in a good mood after that.

I got ready and then decided to do the breakfast dishes before leaving and risking being a few minutes late.

Which was not a problem. I made the way in record time and only arrived three minutes late.

The optician was nice and competent as always. He didn’t quite approve my surgeon’s plan but, well, it is decided already and there’s that. And I am not quite convinced he is right.

He was a little surprised that I went to him four weeks before surgery to discuss the permanent contact lens for my other eye to wear between surgeries. Well, I thought it would need time to order that thing and before that to get an appointment.

Which now means there will be time to experiment with test lenses. Or maybe just one test lens. That will be interesting. They also measured my eyes again and – as I thought – my vision has gotten significantly worse yet again since the last time I was there.

I came back home feeling somewhat better for having walked through the nice sunny day that was not too hot. I answered a text and wrote one to the plumber we had asked to come in, um, ten days ago, and then we ate lunch outside even though it was a little windy:

The original plan had been to make calamari, then for my husband to eat the calamari and me to eat the rest of the pasta salad and in the end it was (very little) pasta salad for all of us and some extras.

I had a bit of time before my first student and used that to play my video game.

My second student canceled in the middle of my first lesson via text. The next student was being taught by my husband that week (we move him back and forth depending on whether my husband has time) and I used that time to finally vacuum the apartment and do the lunch dishes. The vacuum is now back in the basement where it belongs.

The next student showed up and played nicely, and the student after that was one who had rescheduled from earlier in the week.

They did not show up at all.

I sat there waiting for a while, and I read and contemplated playing the piano but I didn’t want to.

Just before my last student of the day was due I opened my email and found that the last student had canceled half an hour before their lesson, so I sat around waiting and ready to teach for almost three hours for two measly lessons. Well, and I cleaned and did the dishes which is no nothing.

I then played the piano a bit and ate dinner.

I met the boy and we did strength training, this time the pull-up bar felt like it was mocking me. I’m just hoping I’ll get stronger eventually.

I read some more (have started the „Sugar and Vice“-trilogy over from the beginning), looked at my bullet journal briefly and then started writing this post.

I opened the manuscript for fifteen minutes and then went back to playing more Genshin before going to bed.

I’m just hoping I’ll make good use of the weekend. I mean, I finally have a plan for the month so everything will go smoothly, of course.

I had a generally scattered day, one where I opened social media first thing in the morning. Not good. There were a lot of very helpful conversations with my husband and then I set out to do the big grocery run on my bike.

Came back home a little late for lunch with all the cheese and all the bread and some other stuff as well. Unpacked while husband was talking at me at speed because he was so stressed from the cooking. I even helped a little at the end and we ate outside:

I had quite a bit of time because I only had very few students but I also was super tired so I did not get much done.

I used a break between students to do the dishes, at least. The fan we had ordered for my mother-in-law arrived and the boy tried it out and brought it upstairs. We had tried to make sure that it would be easy to use and it looked like it was. Only one switched that needs to be turned from off to three different settings. And the fan was nice and strong.

After my last student I sat down to eat a bag of potato chips and read. My husband was done at the exact same time so went in and out of the kitchen for his dinner, then decided he wanted to do something about the dripping faucet and clogged drains right away. I tried waiting until he was finished but the tiredness, exhaustion and hunger crashed over me. Then there was a misunderstanding (of course) which meant we had to have an argument on top of everything.

We did talk some and made up again later but that was a big waste of time.

I had settled in the living room at my writing desk to start this post and had the feeling that my external computer keyboard was behaving strangely. So I finally figured out that the app I had gotten warnings about (Intel-based, no longer useable in the future) was the keyboard’s driver. So I had to see if there was a new version (there was), install it, register, and try to figure the problem out. (I did not figure it out.) It’s not essential but it felt like the keyboard lights were flickering, weird. And I couldn’t remember how to turn them off. But then I remembered that I can just use a search engine, and voilà!

I started writing this post, spent some time looking at July because while I was way too tired last night, I also would not have any time for that today, played some more Genshin Impact and vowed to do better today.

I’m having that feeling of dragging myself towards the weekend. I really despise feeling like that, I think the whole week should be something to look forward to. But I didn’t do well with my energy management this week.

As I said, today I’ll be better.

I had gone to bed past midnight again and set my alarm for 6.30, so not quite enough sleep. I did my morning routine but couldn’t get myself to open the manuscript. I mean, I did open it, and then I promptly forgot about it until two hours later or so.

I did yoga and meditated, and talked with my husband over breakfast and wound the purple yarn I had plied:

Unfortunately I forgot to figure out how many meters of yarn I had, should have done that while it was still in the skein. But it is 44.8 grams. Some of it is either plied or spun in the wrong direction, weird.

And then I was rather reluctant to do anything. What I really wanted to do was a) start playing the new version of Genshin Impact and b) finish reading „Edge of Mercy“ but I did neither.

My husband came back from his run soaking wet but I got lucky and was barely wet:

I came back home and lunch was already on the table:

Afterwards I ate some chocolate but did not read because I couldn’t wait to play. Which I did before taking a quick shower before teaching.

Teaching was actually rather nice, then I ate dinner and played some more. I had a lot of fun but totally forgot time, oops. The boy saved me and did the dishes for me, I started writing this post and made a list for today.

A list that does include finally planning the month for sure.

I had gone to bed past midnight again and set my alarm for 6.30, so not quite enough sleep. I did my morning routine but couldn’t get myself to open the manuscript. I mean, I did open it, and then I promptly forgot about it until two hours later or so.

I did yoga and meditated, and talked with my husband over breakfast and wound the purple yarn I had plied:

Unfortunately I forgot to figure out how many meters of yarn I had, should have done that while it was still in the skein. But it is 44.8 grams. Some of it is either plied or spun in the wrong direction, weird.

And then I was rather reluctant to do anything. What I really wanted to do was a) start playing the new version of Genshin Impact and b) finish reading „Edge of Mercy“ but I did neither.

My husband came back from his run soaking wet but I got lucky and was barely wet:

I came back home and lunch was already on the table:

Afterwards I ate some chocolate but did not read because I couldn’t wait to play. Which I did before taking a quick shower before teaching.

Teaching was actually rather nice, then I ate dinner and played some more. I had a lot of fun but totally forgot time, oops. The boy saved me and did the dishes for me, I started writing this post and made a list for today.

A list that does include finally planning the month for sure.

Which translated into me getting some stuff done right away. I did my morning routine in a timely manner, even opened the manuscript, started my June review, made an appointment with my optician, walked to my regular doctor’s office and asked about the results of that urine sample and got an all clear, hurray!

Apparently, when everything is in order they don’t call you. I keep forgetting that. And what if they forgot to call?

I bought yogurt, went to the health food store, went back to another health food store because I had forgotten to get the boy’s vitamins but they were out again (third time going there in vain) and walked back home.

Unpacked everything and told my husband the good medical news, texted my mother (who then complained about the heat and humidity), ordered the vitamins online and ate lunch:

The boy even joined us after going to uni in the morning.

I had a bit of a break and started teaching.

The first two students came in as usual. The third one was excused by his brother who came in before him. the fourth student was a little later than usual but everything was fine. The next one canceled 3 minutes before her lesson asking for a reschedule and the one after that came in ten minutes early. The next one after that had canceled an hour before and the next one just didn’t show.

I had a hard time using my free time at all, I was constantly waiting and unsure what would happen next, something I am definitely not good with.

At least I used one of those breaks to eat dinner.

Then the boy and I did bodyweight training but interrupted that in order to fill out and print a form for him, and then put it in an envelope so he could send it to uni. I would have preferred to do that after training but he thought this way would be faster (it was not faster).

I fell into a social media rabbit hole at that point that I then left in order to write this post and make a list for today.

Since today is actually expected to be quite a bit cooler and raining all day I’m hoping my brain will work again.

I went to bed too late again and set my alarm for 6.30. Did dawdle a little but not too much but I only had time for ten minutes of writing. While staring at the manuscript I realized I was stuck again. I need to look at the timeline again and I needed to figure out what happens next.

I did yoga and meditated and talked with my husband a bit while knitting. We talked mostly about my feelings about my mother being in the hospital after her fall the day before and how I get especially thrown off by ot knowing what happens next but there’s nothing anyone can do about that.

I was super slow after that. Fortunately, it was a little cooler (which doesn’t mean it was cool, exactly), so the fact that I left for my walk/run a little late didn’t matter as much:

I have progressed to a program where I run a little longer than I walk now, if I can make myself do it. I was thinking a lot about building strength and especially strong bones while doing that (in the midday heat) and found that rather motivating. Running is better for osteoporosis prevention that walking but every bit helps, of course.

I came back home with time for a shower before lunch. Husband decided we’d eat outside and he has moved some cheap plastic chairs to our porch so we don’t have to carry chairs around every time we want to sit there. (We do have chairs that match the table but he uses those in his studio because he finds them comfier than our other chairs.)

We had spaghetti with meatballs because we still had some meatballs left over from a few days before.

I read a little and played my video game a little and then it was time to teach. I had hoped to be able to call my optician and maybe my doctor but the optician is closed on Mondays and the doctor was on lunch break while I would have had time.

There were many students and after that I met my writer friend for a coaching session (she is a certified Clifton Strengths coach). I had wanted to prep for that but all I could manage was to pull up my objectives from the time before that I hadn’t looked at at all in the meantime. I had also hoped to review June and plan July but nope.

It was very helpful, though, because it made me realize how packed July is (it always is but this one seems slightly overpacked) and all the questions I need answered about this month and the next. Very, very helpful.

I had called my mother in the morning and she mentioned that a) she was in a lot of pain and b) she would only stay at the hospital for a couple more days (because they can’t really do anything) and then she would go to another clinic that is specialized in acute geriatric care, hopefully until she could go back home. And in the evening I got a text from my aunt that my mother will probably go to that clinic on Thursday and stay there for four weeks for sure.

Which brought me relief because now I have a rough timeline and I know she will have care, help and cooked meals.

Then it was finally time for dinner after which I met the boy for our weekly Genshin bosses and then I played some more.

Oh, and somewhere in between breakfast and running I also sorted my mother-in-law’s fan order (did I tell you about that?), we had ordered a fan for her the evening before after lots of back-and-forth with the boy clomping up and down the stairs with my iPad to show her pictures and ask her opinion and coming back down with cash. We settled on a fan that then turned out to be out of stock at the big A, so I ordered it elsewhere for a little more plus shipping.

So, in the morning I got an email, they were very sorry but the sudden increased demand had overloaded their online shop system and they had sold more fans than they had, and here was my money back.

Which meant there was still no fan for my mother-in-law.

So I did a bit of cursory research and clicked ‚buy‘ really fast on something pretty cheap. I hope that thing will help but I’m guessing a fan is better than no fan and they are in high demand right now for obvious reasons.

Oh, and by the way the plumber still hasn’t called. Another thing for the mental load column but that’s why we have lists.

Somewhere along the way I also tried to find the green Corriedale that I was sure I had started spinning but then I went through my Ravelry posts and nope, I haven’t start yet. Now I just need to figure out where I put my heavier Bosworth spindle because I had a project on there that I can’t seem to find.

And yeah, all of that took a little longer than I had hoped, phew.

Today there will be the June review, I hope, and the July plan and also errands, a pharmacy order and the health food store. Oh, and calling the optician for an appointment.

As I said, I barely go anything done.

I went to bed at 1 am, bad move like always. Then I overslept even though I had set my alarm for 6.30 which was not all that surprising.

I did my morning pages, yoga and meditation and thought I’d do manuscript time later.

I did not open the manuscript.

There was breakfast with my husband and some talking about my health stuff an all the maybe doctor’s appointments and such. But the most helpful conversation of all was about the Weaver B. sweater.

I don’t seem to have a picture of it after washing and „blocking“ (which for me means just laying it flat to dry). The other day I tried it on and it grew immensely. It is now too long, a little too wide and the armholes are way too big. I had wanted to wear it with skirts and wide-legged pants and that would make me look like a broad column of fabric.

Husband thought it was okay, and fit well but no.

So the options were to wear it as is (or rather not wear it) or rip it back and re-knit. That would mean a very fiddly ripping back project with lots and lots of short lengths of yarn. No fun to work with that.

I could also give it to someone else who likes it the way it is.

Or, and that is the solution I’m leaning towarids (though it’s more an and than an or solution), I could find someone who wants the sweater, order more yarn and – reknit it in the right size.

Ha!

I think that’s what I’ll do. Eventually.

That cleared up my mood immediately lightened up.

I talked some more with my husband and then it was time for the weekly phone call with my mother.

I was a little earlier than usual. When I called her landline she did not pick up. I was equal parts worried and annoyed. There have been days in the past where she forgot to tell meshe wouldn’t be home that day.

I tried again ten minutes later. I left  voicemail. I texted her, nothing.

Finally I tried calling her cell and she answered with, „Susanne, how did you know I’m at the hospital?”

Um, what?

So. Turns out when she went to the bathroom in the night she fell and then she couldn’t get back up from the floor. She tried for two hours, apparently, before using her emergency button that calls a service. They then try to get hold of her through the intercom in her apartment and when she doesn’t answer they send someone over who has a key to her apartment. She specifically looked for a service that had people nearby, like, 5 kilometers away.

She was brought to a hospital in a nearby town (no hospital in town anymore), then examined and looked at .

When I called around noon she was finally in a bed in hospital and looking forward to finally get painkillers soon. Which arrived as we were speaking. She needed those because, wait for it, she broke her pelvis. Again.

I’m told that is very painful. And it is basically the set of bones that enable standing, sitting and walking. It all literally hinges on your pelvic bones.

She was pretty out of it which was understandable and we talked only briefly but I’l call her again soon.

So my next step was to text both my aunt (my mother’s sister who lives in town and has a key to her apartment) and also my sister, og course. They usually phone on Mondays and she didn’t need to go through the same kind of panic I did.

I found it interesting that I started my phone call with, „Hi, it’s me (yes for caller ID), don’t panic. Mom is in the hospital because she fell in the night and broke her pelvis.“ Her first reaction? „Again?”

Yep, that wsa exactly what I thought.

We still don’t know much and she is in good hands, so I’m not too worried but booking a trip to visit her in August might have been a bad idea. Or maybe not, we’ll see. We already talked about who could maybe get away from their home and help her for a while, even the boy said he would get up there if he is needed.

But not right now because she’s at the hospital for now.

And then we ate lunch- I helped a little with chopping and processing herbs. Yes, we are having zucchini season:

After lunch I started playing Genshin Impact and I didn’t really stop until it was time for dinner. The boy helped me with some endgae stuff and even played several levels for me but at that point I didn’t really care anymore. I was also told, emphatically and repeatedly, that the way I play my team rotation is severely lacking.

Well, I’ll try my best.

I ate dinner, talked with the boy about Genshin for an hour or so, then he came back downstairs after talking with his other grandma about getting her a fan because it was still so hot and supposed to be so again soon, so we spent an hour choosing one only to find the shop ran out. I did find it elsewhere, for a little more money but, well, ordered that, played some more, finally did the dishes, brushed my teeth, started writing this post, gave up on any and all lists for today the month and the week, and also about the writing and the June review but I’ll guess that will keep.

I still went to bed too late but whatever. Back to teaching but it should be a little less hot today at least.

Oh, and we skipped bodyweight training because of the heat. The vote was unanimously.

I went to bed only half an hour late but then set my alarm half an hour early as well because the plan was to go on my walk/run earlier than usual so I would only partially melt.

I was pretty good, husband was rather surprised at seeing me ready for yoga at the time he came over to make breakfast. I had even opened the manuscript!

We had a slightly quicker breakfast than usual and I set out without dealing with the dishes beforehand.

It was already very, very warm. It was bearable in the shade in the woods but the sunny bits on asphalt were, um, uncomfortable.

I met an older woman on the path who told me I was daring. Which I found confusing and asked why. Because I dared to run in the heat. Um, I met at least four more people doing the same. I actually went out earlier than usual to avoid the worst of the heat. I don’t get it.

And then there was a part of me that thought I was doing something wrong because of that exchange which is just ridiculous. I knew from the outset that I could go on a 73-minute walk/run in the heat, I drank extra water before leaving the house and I was certain I would be able to at least walk back very slowly in case running was too hard. It’s not like that was my first time doing this.

Meanwhile my husband ran 10k. I just did 7.3 but that was definitely enough for me.

It took ages until my face was no longer beet-red, I really don’t like the heat.

I did the dishes, I took a shower and then there was lunch:

After that I read, and ate chocolate, and went online, and played my video game badly until I was almost late for the weekly writer Zoom. Meeting these people was nice, as always, but I should have logged off a little earlier because then I was too late for the weekly watching of ‚Columbo‘.

That episode was pretty good with William Shatner playing the murderer. (It was actually the second episode of ‚Columbo‘ where Shatner was playing the murderer, I almost forgot.)

And then there wasn’t much time left in the day. I did the dishes while listening to yet another packing video, started writing this post, talked with the boy for a while, made a list for today and went to bed too late.

Today will be another too hot day but then it should cool down a little, phew.

At least I went to bed on time, and I slept well and for long enough. Cue the confetti.

My husband showed up half an hour earlier than usual which threw me off, I wrote my morning pages, and then we had a misunderstanding that resulted in a long, long conversation about it, and that was basically it for the day.

I was also out of sorts because not only was it time to deliver a urine sample to my doctor’s office again, I had also noticed that I had soreness in that area for a while now, and I only put things together the day before. So I walked to the doctor’s office through the blazing sun to pee in a cup. I had hoped the doctor would get back to me the same day, as he usually does, but the office closed at 1, and I did not get a call.

When I came back from that (and buying toothpaste) my husband was right in the middle of making pizza from scratch and a salad from fried zucchini. I chopped stuff, folded a load of laundry, chopped some more and helped with the pizza and then there was lunch:

By then the kitchen was like a sauna. Using the stovetop and the oven was not the best idea on a day that was extra hot.

I took a short break and then started teaching. I had three students, then a break because a student canceled. The plan was to use the break to clean the house but instead I idly thought about writing a newsletter, did some book cover research (aka making fun of other author’s covers, I even found one in a designer’s portfolio that had a typo in the title), marked more video as „watch later“ and then waited for my last student of the day.

And waited.

And waited.

They never showed.

After that I ate some more pizza for dinner and read a bit. I started a new book and have a hard time getting into it because I’m only reading a page here or there. the book is good, that’s not the problem. I also started a list for this year’s Tour de Fleece. That is the hand-spinning event where you spin along the Tour de France. This year we also spin during the Tour de Femmes which is good.

I have way too many spinning projects that are theoretically in progress but now I also have a nice list with what I want to do next, how to decide which projects to focus on and everything. My official goal is to spin for 10-30 minutes every day, my ideal outcome would be to spin all the yarn for a new sweater, either for me or for my husband.

I will knint a sample from the purple yarn I plied the other day, then get the Majacraft wheel in working order again, and ply the rest of that. I will also look at the Louet spinning wheel and decide whether I want to work on that project (probably not). Then I will figure out where I put the sample of the green Corriedale I spun, wash that (no idea if I already plied that, ahem) and knit a sample of that as well.

And then I’ll decide whether I’ll spin the purple or the green. I definitely need to ply the purple singles because I need to free the bobbins they are on.

No idea if I’ll manage to work on any of that before the Tour starts or not but at least I have a plan.

After dinner I met with my writing friend, and even though we both didn’t work as hard as we had planned to do I got a very sizable chunk written, so that was good. I also made a tentative plan for next week, always nice to get that out of the way early.

After that I started writing this post, met the boy for bodyweight training, set the kitchen to order again, played my video game and went to bed.

And now the weekend. It’s supposed to be even hotter here, so I better go for my walk/run a little earlier than usual.

Bad.

And I didn’t even sleep well.

I then decided to skip yoga and meditation, also not my best moment.

But. I walked to the nearby supermarket (very slowly) and got groceries, I hung up a load of laundry, I did dishes twice, oh no, three times, and I finally made red currant jelly. Only 4 1/2 jars, though.

But first there was lunch:

Then I met a student and her mother who wanted to stop lessons. She is still in kindergarten and ukulele is very hard at that age.

Then dishes, then one student, and then I made the jelly and tidied the kitchen afterwards:

I taught another student, my last student canceled and I ate junk for dinner and almost immediately regretted it. I keep thinking that I want something crunchy and salty as a treat and most of the time afterwards I feel as if I ate cardboard. Cardboard that is poking me in the stomach. Meh.

I played some Genshin Impact and then met with my writer friend for writing.

We did not write a lot. I told her about the very exciting scam email I had gotten from someone pretending to be from a noticeable bug publishing house. The editor they claimed to be actually exists but are acquiring math and science books. There was a very detailed and flattering review of my first book and they pretended to want to work with me in the future.

Yeah, no. Because editors of major publishing houses write to indie authors who don’t really sell all the time and offer them some vague business opportunity. Sure.

She in turn told me about a webinar she had just watched about AI critique for one’s manuscript. Nah.

Anyway, I did write for half an hour and it went well but a whole hour would have been better. I was somewhat tired at this point, though.

So I started writing this post, read a little, wrote a list and went to bed.

Oh, and regarding the question whether readers remember book titles or author names or whatever, I’d say it totally depends. There are things like „the latest Stephen King“ or whatever where the author name is most important.

There are also series where the series title is the most important and I have to say I often buy books because I find the title promising, especially if I have no idea who the author is.

Now I do get where the ‚only the author name is important‘-thought is coming from. Eventually you want to get readers who buy everything you write. Like, K J Charles is an auto-buy for me. As is Ilona Andrews.

But I’m pretty sure if you ask my mother about any of the books she read this year she probably won’t remember the title or the author but she could tell you part of the plot because that’s what stuck with her.

She, by the way, is a completely different reader from me. Where I go and buy basically everything some people recommend on the internet, or as I said, some authors are auto-buy for me, so every time I stumble over a new title from them I just click buy, my mother only reads what friends and family recommend. She doesn’t really buy books either, she just borrows them from her friends.

My parents were both voracious readers and they basically only read what they got as presents or borrowed from friends and family. Buying a book was rare. Like, my father might be at an airport and be bored and buy one book, maybe two. He’d ask for the next book in a series he liked for Christmas and for his birthday, so that would be – two books, maybe three.

They (and we) read every book in the house and all that we could lay our fingers on. Discovering the library when I was around 9 was a revelation.

And then, when I moved to Munich for university, and I realized that even if I didn’t have much money I could just walk into a bookstore and buy a book or two, just like that? Mind blown!

And that, right there, growing up as someone who read sometimes 10 or more books a week (I read fast, I had about two hours per day on public transport and I hated watching TV and didn’t really meet friends much, and also books meant for teenagers tend to be very short, I could read one in about two hours.), that is the reason I have a pile of books I really want to read that would be miles high if I would still buy physical books.

Fortunately, I remembered that I can turn right at one point and instead of going round the field I had more trees and bushes which was quite a bit cooler.

Came back home, took a shower and helped with the salad:

That is spaghetti aglio e olio. My husband also did the peperoncini part but I passed.

We also had some very nice steak with bread:

Then a short break, one student, change the sheets on my bed, three more students, dinner, one more student, and then I procrastinated dealing with the red currants my husband had picked in the morning.

Prepping the fruit for making juice took more than two hours.

Then I started writing this post while the red currants were simmering away in the pressure cooker, I made a list for today, and went to bed too late again.

Oh, and my studio was at 30°C/86°F all afternoon. Today I’ll try to not open the window between students but using the door for fresh air, that should be a little cooler.

I actually opened the manuscript before breakfast but I did skip meditation for it. Meh, but also priorities.

Speking of priorities, with everything else I am still spending quite a bit of time each day reading „Rules for Ghosting“ by Shelly Jay Shore. So far I am loving it. (And I had to laugh because I had to look the author’s name up twice, and that made me think about a blog post by Dean Wesley Smith that basically said titles don’t sell books, just author names do. Well, with this one I found the title much more memorable than the author’s name, but okay.)

Husband and I had a long conversation over breakfast and beyond. While talking I finished a sock:

And then I started the next one and decided (for the second time) that I really don’t care for alternate cable cast-on, I think I actually like doing tubular cast-on better. It might be more fiddly but I am also better used to it.

I did the breakfast dishes and then went to two health food stores. Came back home, unpacked the groceries, folded all the laundry and put it all away and chopped a few herbs:

Then I only had time for a short break before it was time to teach. What was nice was that the boy joined us for lunch, he had already returned by the time we started eating. No eating outdoors yesterday, it was just too hot.

There was a lot of teaching, all students showed up and I even had one that only comes in once a month after.

After that the plan was to do bodyweight training, then eat dinner, write and go to bed early.

Well. the boy asked if he could eat dinner before training. I was in favor because I was very hungry at this point. My husband did the dishes (yay!) while I was eating right next to him (not ideal). Then, just as we were about to start our strength training the boy came back downstairs saying that he had a huge problem, his graphics card might be broken.

So figuring out what was wrong took priority. Then we did our warm-up, walked upstairs to start exercising and he looked at his computer again.

Long story short, his computer installed a driver update for his graphics card this afternoon, and after that the card stopped working.

He tried redownlioading, restarting, all kinds of things and then he found something on Reddit saying that was a problem several people had. He managed to install an older version of the driver and – voilà. Phew.

But that made strength training take a little longer than usual.

After that I brushed my teeth, opened the manuscript and wrote a few more words, started writing this post, made a list for today, opened my video game again for a short bit and went to bed.

My hope for today is that there will be a bit more breathing rom. It does look likely, two students have already either canceled or rescheduled, so I don’t have a big, fat block of uninterrupted lessons back to back.

Oh, and go and get yourself „Rules for Ghosting“ and read it, it really excellent.

I was very determined to write all the words all day long, right until past my bedtime.

So I gave up.

I did do yoga and the usual morning things, my husband and I discussed calling the plumber, I found the right phone number and he called. Then I started a list of things we needed repaired and talked about.

I was super late with my walk/run, and though I did do a shorter workout I was home late for lunch. Running in the midday sun was not that much fun:

I still was very happy that I had done it.

Meanwhile my husband had made a 2-course lunch, fried zucchini blossoms:

And pasta with fresh zucchini:

Then I did not have much time because I needed to take a shower before an early student.

The afternoon was supposed to be teaching and teaching and teaching but in the end two students canceled and I used that break to fold laundry and to read.

I finished teaching pretty late, ate dinner while reading, played a bit of Genshin and then met with the boy for weekly bosses.

Since it was so super hot we also carried a mattress downstairs from the third floor and put it in the living room so that the boy could sleep there that night. Since he had to get up around the same time as me today that was a better idea than him cooking under the roof.

I started writing this post, made a list for today and got ready for bed.

I’m still hoping for better luck today. Maybe I will actually get some stuff done but I have to say that almost 30°C/86°F in my studio are making me rather lethargic. The nice new fan doesn’t really cut it a few hours in.

Well, I better get used to it.

Or at least that’s what it feels like.

Since I only went to bed at 1.30 I was pretty low on energy. Also sore everywhere from the bike ride the day before. I’m assuming that three minutes of swimming don’t make much of a difference.

So I was very, very slow all day.

I wrote morning pages, did yoga and meditated, then ate breakfast with my husband and we talked a little longer.

I called my mother and told her all about my exciting two weeks. I did the breakfast dishes, cut my fingernails, and read „Rules for Ghosting“ while waiting for the boy. Since my husband was meeting a friend for lunch the boy and I decided to go to the nearby pizza place.

Very yummy:

And I’d say the fact that everybody else in the restaurant spoke Italian was a good sign. All the Germans were probably at the lakes, or something.

We resisted the temptation to eat dessert or walk a little further for ice cream and then I read some more, played my video game and somehow the whole afternoon was gone.

There was a little break when I heard thunder outside, and since my husband wasn’t home I closed the greenhouse, pulled the tomato pots under cover and got the drying laundry inside.

The boy and I did bodyweight training. I was not at my best with the soreness all over but I did it.

The plan was to clean some, deal with laundry, plan the week, write for at least an hour and all that but in the end I sat there and watched one YouTube video after the other.

Oh, I also resubscribed to YouTube Premium, my subscription had gone up in price by 5 € and it turned out subscribing in my browser made the whole thing much cheaper than subscribing through the app. That often happens when doing subscriptions through the Apple store, meh.

And I booked a hotel room for our trip to my mother in August, talked briefly with my husband when he came back, tried to make myself get up from the kitchen bench so I could write at my desk in the living room while the boy made himself ramen, realized the soy milk had gone off and he had to through everything away and start over, and all through that I was watching more and more videos.

At least I gave up at some point, started writing this post, planned the week ahead, played my video game some more but not for long and went to bed.

Weirdly enough I slept through my alarm and got – eight hours of sleep.

Did all the morning things (apart from writing) and was very determined to do everything very efficiently so that we could leave the house at 11.

We did not leave the house at 11.

I did force myself to open the manuscript after breakfast and then didn’t want to stop writing. I had such a cool idea!

And then my husband and I took our bikes and rode them all the way to Wörthsee. It took us roughly 75 minutes to get there. We were both very happy that the biking itself felt easier than we remembered. Since we haven’t biked much lately that must be a result of generally better cardio fitness, exercise works.

It was very, very hot. But quite a bit of the way went through the woods which was much cooler and nicer.

We decided to eat lunch first:

Husband always takes the pork roast (which was excellent) but I decided to try the Kasspatzn. I stuck to alcohol-free beer, I didn’t want to drink alcohol in the heat while thirsty.

Afterwards we got ourselves some ice cream on our way to the beach where we wanted to go swimming. Note to self: next time we should totally get the ice cream at the kiosk near the other part of the beach because that one is much better.

This is the spot where we sat on the jetty:

It looks more idyllic than it actually was because I tried to get as few people in the picture as possible. You have to imagine many, many people on all sides of this, their towels on the grass so close to one another that there was just enough space to walk between them.

And then it was time for swimming and we walked a few minutes along the lake to spread our towels in the grass as well, change into bathing suits and go into the water.

Speaking of bathing suits, my husband had actually forgotten his. He had done preparations in two stages, I had fetched the bike pannier from the shed and that threw him off. He ended up taking three shirts and no bathing shorts. So he went swimming in his regular shorts and it was warm enough that biking back in wet shorts was not a problem.

I had originally thought that getting back home in time for my weekly writer Zoom would not be a problem.

I mean, I did make it and I also had enough time to take a shower beforehand, but just barely.

Writer Zoom was very nice and we actually talked about writing. I also had a lot to tell about last week where I was away and this week with the lake adventure.

Then I ate dinner, I played too much Genshin, decided to skip my second writing session of the day, and decided with the boy to go out together for lunch today.

In the morning I kept being tired and hot and slow, so while I did force myself to do the usual morning pages, yoga (10 minutes) and meditation (5 minutes), that was it.

Talked with my husband over breakfast, found out that I had forgotten I had promised to make gnocchi from scratch and became even more cranky than before.

I did find my bathing suit and new bathing shoes, though, so that’s good. It might also be a good idea to try the suit on before venturing outside with it but if it is too big I’m screwed because the other one I own is much smaller. I would need to lose at least 10 kilos (22 pounds) to fit into it.

Anyway. I had big plans to vacuum and clean washbasins and toilets but ended up not doing that.

I did finish weaving the ends in on my new sweater and washed it and a skein of yarn I had plied a while ago.

While doing that I found that the washbasin I used was leaking profoundly. Some time in the afternoon I removed the cupboard underneath the sink and put a bucket there. And I have to tell you, I really should clean under that cupboard more often, it was filthy under there and, of course, wet.

On the bright side, this warrants calling a plumber which means we could also ask him to fix the leaking faucet in the kitchen and when I looked at the company’s website I saw that they are doing heating as well and install heat pumps and solar. So the plan is to ask them to fix our faucets and then talk to them about other possibilities.

My husband had started cooking the potatoes right after breakfast, so after washing my sweater and doing the dishes (At least that faucet is only constantly dripping into the sink. Much easier to deal with.) I started making the gnocchi dough and formed the gnocchi.

Husband came back when I was almost done with that.

He had ran to the local small lake, then gone swimming, and ran all the way back. In the midday heat.

He made the sauce and I made the gnocchi and we had a lovely lunch that was actually almost on time:

We talked a little longer, then I sat and played my video game and felt bad about not doing the dishes.

I had intermittent teaching all afternoon, two students, then a break because my husband was teaching my next student, then another student, another break, another student and that was it.

With that student he is good enough on guitar that he really should get lessons from my husband but my husband doesn’t really have any time for additional students. So we are trying something new, when the other student my husband teaches in that time-slot can’t make it, he teaches my student.

I did not use my time well that afternoon, the only thing I did get done was folding the laundry. Meh. Oh, and I refilled two fountain pens.

After my last student I sat around some more, talked with my husband a little, then did bodyweight training with the boy, ate a quick dinner with too much chocolate, and met my writer friend for another writing sprint.

I had to drag myself to the manuscript kicking and screaming but I ended up with some new words, at least.

Husband offered to do the dishes this time,

Then there was reading and playing Genshin and not much else, and then bed.

And today is the day where we bike to Wörthsee, go for a swim and bike back. My friend from New York was a bit flabberghasted that we were planning to bike for a total of 3 hours (I’m actually not quite sure how long it will take) but then we used to do that in the evenings after dinner all the time.

Anyways, I guess you’ll hear all about it tomorrow.

I have to say, though, my new fan is really helping, now that I moved it further away from where I sit while teaching, it makes the room feel cooler.

I went to bed so late, it was terrible. I got hyperfocused on playing my video game and kept doing just one more thing over and over.

I did sleep very well, though, more sleep pressure makes for better sleep. Jmpf.

In the morning I was in a bad mood and very slow again, husband keeps having FOMO and I keep resenting it because I don’t have FOMO at all. Also, if I want to travel somewhere or do something I might just do it on my own whereas my husband is the kind of person who’d rather do it with someone else.

In the end we decided to bike to a lake on Sunday and go swimming. Which means I will have to unearth my (new) bathing suit. I lost a little weight since I bought it but it should still be fine. (I am wearing my jeans a size smaller but I think bathing suits are more forgiving.)

I am dreading the whole thing because it will be hot and full of people and loud but I also am looking forward to teating my new bathing shoes and use that bathing suit for the second or third time since I bought it.

I had many plans for yesterday (of course, and yes, the trip to the lake tomorrow is replacing other plans that I had before) but things did not quite go as I wished.

Husband and I talked longer than expected, which was fine, and then he did the dishes instead of me, I started a load of laundry with all the cleaning cloths that had gotten wet under the sink, and walked to the nearby supermarket.

Came back home, unpacked, the boy came back from uni right when lunch was ready and the three of us ate outside together which is a rare event:

I did forget to finish the sweater I worked on the day before but I’m hoping to remember later today.

After lunch I played a bit, my first student canceled, so I hung the laundry up and contemplated the dishes but I didn’t do them. I did eat the bag of coated peanuts I bought and had meant to be my dinner, and some gummy bears, though. Meh.

I dusted the house, talked with my husband some more, taught three more students, briefly talked with my husband some more and went to my online writing meeting with my friend right away.

There I started this post first, then switched to the manuscript. I’m fighting the current scene, it is one that is in book one but needs to be in book two as well, only from a different viewpoint. And I definitely don’t want to repeat every line of dialogue but also all the important bits need to be there.

I did as best as I could while being exhausted and tired.

After that I did the dishes, then drank a beer and ate some extra cheese, made a list for today, played some more and went to bed.

It felt like I had not gotten enough sleep and what I got was not the best but my smartwatch claims I got a little over eight hours. Okay?

I was slow again and decided to shunt writing after breakfast.

Over breakfast my husband aired a few complaints. Because I was away all weekend I feel like not seeing anyone at all whereas he feels like he needs more social interaction and those are competing needs. While we were talking I started weaving the ends in on a sweater I finished knitting 14 months ago. It still needs a bit of work but not all that much.

I did the usual morning things but talking with my husband a little longer than usual had not left any time for writing. no problem, I had a later than usual start to my teaching day so I’d just write a little after lunch.

I did the dishes and such and then went outside for my walk/run. The plan was to do a 58-minute workout. The same one I did on Monday.

I left the house, I listened to music, I started the app on my phone. Ten minutes in I looked at the screen and it told me I had 68 more minutes to go.

Oops.

My phone decided to not let me repeat the workout, it decided I should do the harder one that I had planned to do on Saturday.

I am very proud of me. I just stopped the app, chose a shorter workout more or less randomly and followed that until an arbitrary point and then just turned around until I was back home.

But I had looked forward to that run and walk and had wanted to compare it to the one before but I didn’t get to.

At home husband was in turbo-stress mode but told me to go ahead and take a shower first.

I later learned that he would have preferred for me to help him first and shower later but I didn’t know that.

I showered, then I helped with salad and herbs in a hurry:

Lunch was pretty late. Late enough that when I decided to do the dishes first before taking a break the break that was left was a 5-minute one. Oops.

When I was getting ready to teach my husband showed up, saying that he couldn’t unlock his basement computer because the keyboard wasn’t working. And that the same had happened the day before.

I have no idea why but plugging the keyboard into another socket helped. Maybe the keyboard is broken, I don’t know.

Then I taught all my students and that went well.

Only at one point there was a beep and afterwards I couldn’t get a wifi connection.

Husband again, saying that the power was out for a short time and now he couldn’t load YouTube.

Well, the router was restarting. Phew.

When I was packing my stuff up after work my laptop’s screen was black and the computer wouldn’t react to anything. I tried to restart, I made sure it was plugged in, no dice.

In my head I was already rearranging my week to include a trip to Munich to get my laptop repaired but then I decided to try a different charger.

The computer had only 1% batter left. No idea what happened and that is another thing I need to check out today.

Afterwards I cleaned the mirrors and then wanted to dust the house. Superficially.

I opened the cabinet under the bathroom sink to get a dust rag out and – every single rag in that bucket was dripping wet. Also, a few other things I had stored under the sink had been wet.

The days before I had scolded the boy for washing his hands to sloppily because there had been things getting wet under the sink.

Seems it was not the boy’s handwashing technique. And no, I have no idea what it was, we’ll probably look at it some time today.

Maybe mercury is in retrograde or something.

So I made a list for today, I started writing this post, and then I opened my manuscript and stared at it for ten minutes before playing Genshin for the first time that day.

And then I fell into bed.

Oh, and along the way, yesterday I somehow bought three new novels. Two are part of the series I am currently reading and the last one is „Rules for Ghosting“ that a friend recommended online.

But. Despite going to bed too late yet again (and how I hate that fact) I did do my complete morning routine including a little manuscript time.

I started turning the heel on the sock-in-progress and after doing the dishes I only left fifteen minutes late for an epic grocery run.

First I went to the drugstore for interdental brushes and something for my mother-in-law, swung by a supermarket for yogurt, frozen mushrooms and some fake meat, and then all the way to the tea shop to pick up the two pounds of Darjeeling/Chinese mix that I ordered the day before plus two pounds of my husband’s everyday Darjeeling and some green tea for the boy.

When you buy two pounds at once there is a 10% discount, so that can be worth it for the tea that we drink every day. We did not buy two pounds of green tea, though.

Carrying all of that I went to the health food store and got the usual food plus a big bag of muesli and some other heavy stuff.

It’s a good thing I have a sturdy backpack.

At home husband was surprised I was back so early, so I had to unpack while he was in the most stressful phase of cooking. Again. Sometimes I think that phase of cooking wouldn’t be as stressful if I wasn’t unpacking at that point which is understandable. Having a second person in the kitchen walking back and forth and cluttering the whole table with stuff that needs to be put away is stressful and distracting.

Anyway, we had potatoes, fish, peas and carrots:

Then I only had a little time for reading and gaming before it was time to teach.

I had more breaks bettween students than usual, one didn’t show at all, and two canceled at the last minute, so I was finished an hour earlier than expected.

The boy and I moved our strength training to an earlier time slot but I still spent the time between teaching and training and the time between training and my evening routine mostly on social media.

I did eat dinner early, though, before working out which was good, and I also brushed my teeth pretty early but then my willpower left the building.

So I ended the day with a less completed task list than I had hoped but on the other hand the most important things got done and that is what counts.

Today should bring quite a bit more teaching and a little more exercise. Hopefully a better working executive function as well, we’ll see.

At least I stopped myself with 50 motes pages and decided to read those the next day. Which I did. Before lunch.

I did my morning routine sans manuscript time but at least spent a few minutes on that after breakfast.

It was really nice to be back home, in my own bed, with my husband and good food.

I finished the gusset on the socj-in-progress but neglected to take a picture, I did dishes and went out for my walk/run:

I have now reached a point where I am running almost as much as I’m walking, minus the warm-up and cool-down. It was very hot and I had a hard time but I managed. Seeing all those people my age looking rather old over the weekend was great for my motivation.

This time there was no time to shower before lunch because lunch was ready on time, hurray! We ate outside which was nice:

My husband said that he always makes rice and beans after being away from home (not that he was away) because that’s something you don’t usually get on the road.

After lunch there was more reading and chocolate and playing my video game and then I had to hurry with my shower. I am happy to say that I managed to get clean with fresh clothes with almost ten minutes to spare before my first student.

Then there was teaching, and after that meeting with my coach friend online. Since we basically agreed I should continue doing what I have been doing the week before we were free to recommend each other C.dramas, as one does.

Then I could finally eat dinner, meet the boy for my weekly bosses, open the manuscript for a short while and go to bed.

I’d like to continue getting stuff done, it’s just so satisfying, so wish me luck!

I still did yoga and got dressed and packed my stuff up (that is another bonus of packing light, both the packing and unpacking go rather fast).

I ate a hotel breakfast that was exceptionally blah and then set off to walk through town for an hour or so.

There was a flea market going on, there was also rain and wind and cold, two things that don*t go well together.

I walked by the bus station where I spent many, many hours of my teenage years waiting for the bus:

After school was out there was one at 2.39, one at 4.39, 5.39 and the last one each day went at 6.39 and took ages to get you home because that one went a sort of combined route all the way through all the little villages. And you had to take care to remind the driver that you wanted to that one bus stop further north that they don’t liked because they went there and back and nobody ever got on the bus there. Well, I wouldn’t have either, not at that time, because you wouldn’t be able to get back the same day.

So, if you wanted to go to the movies or something you were on your own and perfectly free to use your bike or walk. Which I sometimes did when I missed the bus.

The town does have nice spots as well, here is my life saver, the library:

Well, that’s where the library used to be, looks like they put it somewhere else since then.

My sister and I spent so much time there and borrowed so many books that the librarians didn’t even ask for our library cards anymore.

Then I went back to the train station and stood in the wind and rain for half an hour waiting for the train. I almost got nostalgic but I have to say I am very, very grateful that these days I have music and all the books in my pocket with my phone.

The train was on time and the woman who I had to ask to free my reserved seat complimented my shoes. I went to Hannover where I was a little worried if there would be enough time to get myself the lunch I wanted.

But, not only was there enough time, I also could get some more licorice and mint chocolate. I even had to wait long enough that I started eating standing on yet another train platform:

That is fried noodles with teriyaki chicken, and yes, I am aware you’re not supposed to stick the chopsticks into your food but I didn’t think the Germans around me would mind.

I got on another train for a few more hours, wrote my morning pages, went online (very slowly), watched an episode of C-drama and read a lot, I am now two thirds through „Father Material“ by Alexis Hall and it is extremely good.

The whole trip went very well, I only got very bored towards the end. Even the whole, take a train from the main station to this other station, then walk around the corner for this bus because there is construction on the train lines and then take the train again-bit. Thought I didn’t take the train at the end, I just walked the twenty minutes.

And then I was home and could talk with my husband and son, the boy and I did bodyweight training, then the boy made grilled cheese sandwiches:

I ate more chocolate, started writing this post, made a list for today, and the usual.

And now back to normal. Or some approximation of it.

And today I will step on a train again and go back home. And then I‘ll tell you about my weekend, I hope.

I still had a little less energy than the rest of the week, I’d say that’s the cumulative effect of a full week of work.

I did most of my morning routine again, all the while thinking about packing and going so far as to get up in the middle of morning pages and adding deodorant to my toiletry bag.

Husband and I talked a little more while I knitted and then I did the rest of my morning things, including writing for 15 minutes. I then did the dishes, sorted the recycling, emptied all the wastepapare baskets in the house and cleaned washbasins and toilets. With that my weekly housecleaning list was officially done for the week. And then I went out side in the rain to walk/run for half an hour:

I only did half an hour because I wanted to do other things as well.

Came back, took a shower, put some more things on the packing pile and had lunch:

That was the first cucumber from our garden this year, by the way. It was delicious.

After that I had a short break that I used to read and play my video game and then it was time to teach.

I had a short break between students were I tried shaving my favorite handspun cardigan but I lost patience and gave up after twenty minutes. I’ll just take it fuzzy as it is.

Then I taught my last student, played the piano for a while, folded a load of wool socks, did bodyweight training with the boy (my thighs were not keen on doing more exercise at this point), ate dinner, talked with the boy while he made himself dinner and scrolled through social media until I realized what I was doing, then went to the living room to spend 15 more minutes on my novel, started writing this post, made a list for today, finally actually packed everything for today, played a little more and quickly planned out next week.

I’d say that’s enough.

Blogging will be spotty tomorrow, I guess because I’ll be out and about all day and I don’t know how much time I’ll have in a place with decent wifi, so we’ll see.

Anyway, I’m hopping on a train next, will report back later.

I was starting to get that very familiar feeling of total exhaustion the night before, complete with feeling cold and a little shaky but then I just went to bed early, allowing myself to skip spinning and my second session of Chinese for the day.

So, I went to bed on time and slept for a little over eight hours. For the third night in a row. Cazy.

In the morning I was rather slow and I did not open the manuscript first thing but I knew I’d be writing in the evening so it was all good.

It was super cold and my husband made fire in the wood stove while I was finishing my morning pages and yoga and then we had a rather leisurely breakfast together. We talked at length, which was nice, then I did the dishes while listening to a beautiful Richard Strauss song, read my chapter of „War & Peace“ and did my two minutes of Chinese.

The weather was a bit weird, super cold and it was raining like crazy one minute and nice and sunny the next.

I got lucky and got only dry bits while biking to the supermarket. I had a very, very long list but went through it in record time. The supermarket wasn’t very full and there were lots of open checkout lanes. My cart was so full that The cashier was almost halfway through my stuff before I had even finished putting everything on. The woman behind me just started putting her groceries on the belt without leaving enough space for me. That was stressing me. I was already in a bit of panic mode because I had visions of all my frozen good falling off at the other end before I could even finish putting everything on. So I pushed the other person’s groceries back to make space for mine and said something. And then again. Still super stressed and then she said, „Are you stupid? Politeness, eh?“ And she used the informal form of address which in and of itself is rather impolite when you’re speaking with another adult.

Anyway, I did not let that bug me. Much.

I also had forgotten to weigh my bananas, so the cashier had to go and do it for me. Which at least gave me time to dump all my stuff back in my cart. Then it took ages for me to fish out all my bills and coins, and after I was finished and had put my wallet away he was still sitting there expectantly. Well, I had given him 50 fewer Euros than I needed. Oops. So I had to get my wallet out yet again and get another bill.

I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have made that mistake if the person behind me hadn’t rattled me, so in the end it was her who had to wait longer because she was impatient.

Then I drove back home on my bike, a full backpack, two full panniers and a pack of toilet paper in the basket in the front. I timed it so that there were only a few stragglers getting out of the high school this time. No navigating through throngs of teenagers this time.

At home my husband was a little late with lunch again and the boy was just getting home. I unpacked and then there was a delicious lunch:

By then it was too late to do the dishes right away, or if I had done them I wouldn’t have had a break. So I talked with the boy for a bit, then played my video game briefly and started teaching.

I had planned to use my one-hour break between students for packing but in the end I ran the vacuum through the annex, folded two loads of laundry and hung up another one. Now I only need to fold a load of wool socks and such and I’ll be done with laundry for now.

I did manage to fetch cables and my bluetooth keyboard and water bottle and such for tomorrow’s trip but did not put everything together just yet. I also decided to move de-pilling the sweater to today because after teaching, a quick dinner, a one-hour writing session with my friend and the dishes I was just not feeling up to it.

I did start writing this post, made a list for today, did my foot exercises, played some more Genshin and went to bed.

And – today will be busy again, no surprise there. And I will have to get my packing together because I need all that stuff tomorrow.

My husband was very patient waiting for me with breakfast. I mean, he did eat before me while reading (best breakfast ever in my opinion but not in his). We did get to talk, I was mostly about the „Big Time“-book and about how much better I fell now that school break is over and I have less time.

The day was very productive again, I cut my husband’s hair and did the breakfast dishes while listening to „Isolde’s Liebestod“ which was actually nicer than I remembered. I found a version with Waltraud Meier and was reminded about the fact that a friend’s friend in uni worked as Ms. Meier’s assistant which meant that sometimes my friend would take over. I found the idea of having an assistant very strange. They had to do things like clean her flat, do phone calls for her, run errands, and all kinds of things. From time to time they also would get a card to the opera, if she had an extra, and so I got to see most of a Wagner opera that I unfortunately don’t remember. Ms. Meier played a role that was only in the first act, and her boyfriend watched her. The two of them both left after that to go on vacation or something, and so my friend got to sit in the boyfriend’s good seat while I got to see the rest of the opera from the gallery, standing in a place where you can’t see part of the stage but can look right into the orchestra.

Anyway, after that I got the vacuum upstairs and ran it through the apartment which was sorely needed before going on my walk/run. I was a little late at this point but that was okay because I had thought my run would be 68 minutes when in fact it was 58.

It was drizzling a bit but not raining very hard. My legs felt very heavy, I think the combination of a harder walk/run on Monday followed by pushing myself a little in strength training the night before was quite a bit. Good thing I won’t be exercising today. Much.

I was a little late for lunch but so was the food so I got my shower in before eating. Husband had to downgrade the meal because we were out of red lentils and he didn’t have time to make the saffron rice he wanted. It was still delicious:

Since my first lesson started a little later than the days before I had time to do the dishes before playing my video game for twenty minutes before dashing off to teach.

Then it was one student after the other until the evening, I had a 20-minute dinner break and then I met my writer friend for a writing session over Zoom.

I wrote many words. Which was extremely surprising, I would have thought I was too tired for that at that point.

Afterwards I started this post, wrote my list for today and brushed my teeth, then played some more video game, read a bit and went to bed.

Today I think I’ll start packing in earnest. Though I added the rest of the clothes that I want to take yesterday. I should maybe charge my ebook reader and the power bank. And I need to figure out where I put the notebook I want to take. And watch the makeup tutorial again, you know how it is.

I can’t praise „Big Time“ by Laura Vanderkam enough, by the way, she has a way of making me feel much better about my time. Looks like there is enough time after all.

So, I went to bed only 15 minutes late and slept for more than eight hours, woohoo!

I woke up and felt – tired and blah. My smartwatch was convinced I needed to rest for the rest of the day. Um, no.

I did my morning routine a little slower than I would have liked but still made the time to work on the manuscript for 15 minutes. I also wrote morning pages, did yoga and meditated.

Just as I was about to get out of bed my „wake the boy up“-timer went off. I didn’t have to, though, because he had woken up on his own. I saw him very briefly as he was getting his water bottle and then I heard him leave the house in a hurry. There are train shenanigans going on this week, again, and so he decided to instead take the bus to the subway.

Well. The bus to the subway was overflowing and he couldn’t squeeze himself in. Since he thought the next one would be equally full he just turned around and went back home.

He got himself breakfast while I was still doing morning routine stuff and I didn’t see him after he told me what happened.

I was very determined to have another good day. And I had, only I also had a morning where everything takes longer than expected. But I did listen to my piece of classical music, and did my internet rounds, and looked at my list, and wrote messages right and left and did some admin stuff.

And then I went out to buy yogurt and go to the health food store.

The weather had been dreary and cold all morning with intermittent rain. I had looked outside before leaving and thought it a good idea to pack an umbrella but there was only a little rain, so I made do with my rain jacket. I wanted to do a trial run for the weekend and see how the jacket would be doing in the rain. I was also wearing the new pair of shoes I want to take with me on my trip to see if I’ll could walk in those for a while.

And then it started pouring down like crazy. I still didn’t want to get the umbrella out and then carry it around the rest of the way and I’m happy to report that the raincoat was sufficient and the shoes were only mildly uncomfortable.

I got everything I wanted apart from radicchio or any kind of salad, and made my way back home in time for lunch.

Lunch was a little late, though, so I had time to unpack groceries and fold two loads of laundry. Well, the parts of the laundry that were still on the drying racks, because the clothes had been hanging there for a while and had been picked off in part.

And then we ate lunch. Not outside this time:

I had a little over half an hour after that, that I used to read a bit and play my video game for twenty minutes.

Then there were many, many students. The student who often doesn’t show didn’t show up again (sick this time, poor thing), I did some more admin while I waited and after 15 minutes of that I decided to play the piano until it was time for the next student. That was fun.

Then more teaching until 6.30. I knew I still had a little time until the boy and I were supposed to do bodyweight training, so I refilled a fountain pen, cleaned the mirrors, touched everything with the feather duster and then I saw that my husband had started the dishes and had to stop right in the middle, so I finished those as well.

The boy was a little late but I didn’t mind. We did our exercise and then I could finally eat dinner.

After dinner I opened the manuscript for another 15 minutes, started writing this post, made a list for today, brushed my teeth, played some more video game and then went to bed with a book, well, ebook reader.

Oh, and at some point in the day I also filled some shampoo in a small travel container and packed my makeup into the toiletry bag.

Why yes, I was pretty tired last night but I felt soo good.

And now we just do it all again. Minus the grocery shopping and strength training plus cardio and writing sprints.

I went to bed only half an hour late but didn’t sleep well, no idea why.

I was very determined to use the day wisely, with all the teaching and my upcoming trip it’s better not to procrastinate. Also, I did not do any housework the week before, some parts of the house are looking a bit dingy already.

So I dawdled a little less than usual and managed 15 minutes of writing time in addition to all the other morning things. Husband and I talked and I started the new pair of socks for real. I finally got to try the alternate cable cast-on and that looks good, is stretchy and fairly easy to do.

Since I wanted to be on time for things I did look at the clock throughout the morning and was rewarded with being only ten minutes later in leaving the house for my walk/run. I realized that my 68-minute walk/run actually takes me 90 minutes when you count changing clothes, getting ready and putting my contacts in.

The weather was marvelous but very warm:

I have progressed to 2 1/2-minute running intervals and I did better than expected. Also, the whole thing was rather exhausting.

I came back home, took my contacts out and took a shower. I was so sweaty and hot that my glasses fogged over, and when I took them off in the shower I still couldn’t see properly. So I thought my vision was blurry because there was sweat in my eyes. I also felt pretty dehydrated which could also be contributing.

I got dried myself and got dressed and put my glasses back on. In the shower the sight in my right eye had been blurry but with the glasses it was my left eye. Weird.

I started having thoughts of retina tears, of course, but there was not much time for contemplation, husband was making salad and very stressed. So I helped chop things, all the while unable to use my left eye.

We ate lunch outside:

After lunch I had only 15 minutes where I read and ate chocolate before my first student. They were coming in 45 minutes earlier than usual.

Not being able to see out of your left eye is very distracting while teaching piano. Thinking you might be going blind and should go see your eye doctor for emergency laser surgery is even more distracting.

After the first student I had a 45-minute break, of course, until the next student. I was still determined to get stuff done but something about the way my sight was only blurry in one eye bugged me. Was there something in my eye? If so, what was it? I tried looking at it properly but for that I have to take my glasses off and then I can’t see anything.

And then I had the right idea: what if the thing that was in my left eye was the contact lens? I mean, I remembered taking lenses out of both eyes and putting them in the case.

Right.

I looked at the contact lens case and found that there was no lens in the right side, only in the left.

What must have happened was this: I took the right lens out but because I was sweating so hard and the lenses are not the newest I fumbled, the lens stuck to my finger and I had a hard time getting it into the case (that’s what I remember). I also remember that taking the second one out was weirdly hard as well, and that one also stuck to my finger and I finally put it back in the case.

Apparently, it was the right lens stuck to my finger and I didn’t see that I hadn’t put it in the case. And when I tried taking out the left one I still had the right one stuck to my finger and thought that was the left one.

And when you walk around with your contact lens and your glasses at the same time that makes your vision rather blurry.

After taking that lens finally out I then changed the sheets on my bed and all the towels, then went looking for the wool shaver in a chest of drawers that I never open. Shaver in hand I looked at the other stuff in there and wondered what was in that big plastic bag:

Well, it seems to be about 400 grams of purple Corriedale. The purple Corriedale that I thought I had all spun up. I had been wondering about how small the quantity of yarn was that I got when I remembered buying 500 grams and the other big bump of fiber is huge but I couldn’t find more of the fiber.

So instead of vacuuming the apartment like I had planned (but I had run out of time for that anyway) I fetched a niddy-noddy and another lazy kate to pull the plied yarn of the bobbin.

The other lazy kate hadn’t been used in years. It was stored in a plastic bag on a shelf in my studio. When I tried taking it out I couldn’t because it was fused to he bag.

The plastic feet of the lazy kate had dissolved completely.

I pried it out and used it anyway but the next step will be to get the remains of the plastic feet off the bottom and put new feet on it.

I then taught the rest of my students, one student canceled so I used that time to refill the humidifier in the piano and play some piano exercises, and the last student of the day was my writer friend from New York, so we did a piano lesson and the talked for half an hour.

I had asked the boy to do the dishes which he did, so all I needed to do there was to put some things away. I ate dinner while reading (I started reading „Big Time“ by Laura Vanderkam yesterday, and I find it very uplifting.) and then opened the manuscript for 15 minutes.

Right in the middle of that my husband showed up after being done with teaching and we talked a bit. He was very tired and exhausted. I then wrote some more, started writing this post, fought some video game bosses with my son’s help, brushed my teeth, wrote a list for today, played some more video game and went to bed.

This whole day just shows how much better I do when I don’t have a day with all the time in the world. On the other hand, having days with nothing to do is also good for recharging but still, full days with a lot to do suit me better.

Nice conversation with my husband while I finished knitting a pair of socks for him, and afterwards I wove in all the ends:

More conversation with my husband, then the weekly phone call with my mother who finally got. new cell phone. And then promptly had trouble with her TV receivers but that got resolved as well.

After the phone call it was time to go out for lunch. The boy had originally said he didn’t want to come but then changed his mind after looking at the menu. Thre are actually two vegetarian main dishes on there.

It was a new-to-us Greek restaurant not far away. We really liked it, it is set back between the indoor pool, the high school and a sports club. Everything was outdoors and very cozy and green. Here’s our appetizers:

And here are the main dishes:

The food was excellent. We particularly liked the red beet salad and decided right away to try and put walnuts and feta cheese on ours the next time. My husband was very happy with the portion size (I had to leave half my meat uneaten, I was so stuffed) and we’re sure we’ll be coming back.

After coming back home I took a little break and then started playing Genshin real quick.

The boy helped me with a pesky mini-game that I just couldn’t get, I tried a few other things, washed a few of the breakfast things and then it was time for my monthly Zoom with a writer friend.

We talked for an hour and had a lot of fun. We had the kind of conversation where you think you’re going to talk about something specific beforehand and then you end up somewhere completely different.

After that the boy and I did bodyweight training, I ate dinner, my husband showed me some more of his old paintings and drawings that are rather impressive. He had a phase as a teenager where he wrote and painted in addition to his music and he is currently going through boxes of his old stuff.

I talked with him and then with the boy and played a little more, started writing this post, helped the boy write another email, spent a little time on the manuscript and then planned out the week.

And now for the first real teaching day this month.

On the other hand I have done yoga and meditation every single day this month so far, so that’s good.

My husband went for his long 10k run, so left early and assigned me the task of turning the beans off at a certain point. I was done with dishes and such fifteen minutes before that time and instead of just getting ready to leave the house for running right away and then maybe waiting for five minutes I went online and reinstalled the Instagram app on my tablet. Great move.

Somehow after that I was late for my own walk/run.

The weather was gorgeous and I did pretty well. It’s very funny, I run along on my endless 2-minute running intervals, feel like I’m close to keeling over, then look at my smartwatch and see that my heart rate is 134. Ahem. I’m not that unfit, I should be able to train at 145 to 155 for a while before it’s too much. So my perceived effort is very different from the actual one:

I came back home half an hour late but I had left a note, and I could even shower before lunch.

We had pasta e fagioli, a family favorite:

After lunch I read a bit, ate some chocolate (a little more than my (almost) no sugar challenge allows) and then I started playing Genshin Impact. The plan was to play for an hour or so, then do the dishes and open the manuscript.

Well. The quest I was playing was rather nice and also very, very long and I kept thinking „just a little more“ until I had to rush off to my weekly writer Zoom call. That call was lovely even if I never quite got to check in but I already knew that I was not super happy with the amount I got done.

After Zoom I met the rest of the family for our weekly session of ‚Columbo‘. The episode was great, it was the one that Peter Falk wrote himself thta features a wonderful Faye Dunaway. It was very good, though I have to say, the fact that there is never any blood anywhere (after shooting someone in the chest in front of a white door on a beige carpet, ahem) is starting to get to me but then that’s just what they used to do on TV. The other main character was played by Claudia Christian and I was very proud that I recognized her as the actress who played Commander Ivanova in ‚Babylon Five‘.

After watching TV I ate some more chocolate (again, twice the amount I had planned to eat) and went on to play just a little more until I finished the quest right after my bedtime.

I started writing this post, took care of the leftover food and tidied the dirty dishes so that we could make breakfast this morning, brushed my teeth and went to bed.

Today I really should get some housework done but we also want to go out for lunch, so we’ll see what actually fits.

And then it will be back to teaching and regular life.

First I dawdled until I didn’t have time for writing before breakfast anymore, then I did the usual morning routine, talked with my husband, and started turning the heel on my sock.

I read a bit, then we talked some more, and then he went out to meet a friend for lunch.

I read even more and then set out to buy frozen pizza and ice cream. Because as we were eating out with family on Wednesday, when everybody else ordered huge desserts and I didn’t really have time, I had promised myself to buy ice cream the next time I went to the supermarket.

I made the pizza for lunch:

I liked the book very much and finished it in two days. And that was only partially due to it being rather short. I then bought the next in the series, and an unrelated T. Kingfisher book that I saw on a friend’s blog.

After finishing lunch I went into waiting mode quite a bit. I waited for the boy to come downstairs for lunch and for my husband to come back, and all of that took some time. Time that I spent first reading and then playing.

At six I met my writer friend for a co-writing session. This time I let myself get very distracted and ended up reading forum posts and ordering postcards but in the end I still made great progress on my manuscript. Though I have the feeling something really should be happening by now.

Next on the list was bodyweight training with the boy. I forgot to wear compression gloves during the (pseudo)-pushup part of the training, we’ll see how that feel later today.

The boy and I then shared a pint of ice cream as dinner. I got lucky, the one time I went and bought ice cream my favorite brand was on sale, hurray!

Then it was time to do all the dishes and brush my teeth, I started this post, made a list for today, played some more and went to bed.

And now for a pretty busy weekend.

And then I had another morning where time ceased to exist, so no manuscript time and I was very late for breakfast. I did force myself to do yoga, though, and meditated for five minutes.

Breakfast was nice but then I found I had made a mistake in the sock-in-progress, I had one gusset stitch too many, so I had to count all the stitches several times, then tried to find out where I went wrong and had to decide whether that meant pulling the past 34 rounds out.

In the end I decided to fudge it. It might mean the second sock has two more rounds than the first one but I doubt that is actually noticeable. I just decreased a stitch in a place that will probably not stick out.

But all of that took some time.

Husband and I talked at length about my dumb problem with school breaks and how unhappy and cranky I get when I have free time which is rather embarrassing. Also, about how that affects him. Fun!

Then I did the dishes and went on a very short walk/run (because I was even more late at that point):

The weather was gorgeous at that point which I found confusing because I had expected rain but I was not. complaining. The rain can storm came later, in the evening.

Husband and I ate lunch which was delicious:

All the Greek food brought to you by way of leftover burgers.

After lunch I took a shower right away and then did the lunch dishes. The boy showed up after I had just finished those and produced – more dirty dishes. I decided I didn’t mind, doing dishes – like any kind of housework – is just an ongoing process. The kitchen still looks better with just a few plates in the sink than with two dirty pots, a frying pan and all the plates and cutlery we used for lunch.

After that I took a break, started playing my video game and then just went on and on. In between I talked with my husband again and he decided to run to the town lake and take a dip for a bit of spontaneous summer feeling. He is meeting a friend of his tomorrow for lunch and was also afraid he wouldn’t have the time to go running beforehand.

At six I met my writer friend for a co-writing session and I finally got the timeline-thing sorted. I also did a bit of research for book 3 about art colleges in Berlin and Münster, as one does.

Then I stayed at the computer a bit longer to start writing this post, then finally ate dinner, made a list for today, played just a little bit and went to bed somewhat earlier.

And now I need to figure out what to make for lunch today.

Because we were going to a memorial service for my sister-in-law’s mother.

So we all had taken showers the night before (one reason for the late bedtime because only one person can have hot water at the same time in this house), and after breakfast my husband and I dressed in our funeral clothes. Unfortunately, I do not own a black raincoat and my winer coat was definitely too warm, so I went in a dress with a cotton cardigan on top, light pantyhose (because I didn’t have a black one) and black Mary Janes.

I also did my makeup for the first time in a year or so. No picture, sorry.

One of my husband’s nephews and his wife came to pick my mother-in-law and us up. The boy needed to be at uni so he did not join us.

Everything went well, the service was very moving (for everyone but me, as usual).

Since my husband didn’t have any students that day and since I still had 3 1/2 hours before my one student of the day was due we decided to join the family for lunch. We don’t see each other often and thought it would be nice. Which it was.

The restaurant was very Bavarian up to the point where they wrote the menu in transcribed Bavarian which was a bit surreal. I got pork roast with creamed mushrooms and rosemary potatoes:

It was very good.

When we were all finished with eating and no one was ordering dessert I thought we’d be home soon. Husband and I sat around waiting while the small talk went over us in waves.

At the point where the first guests were leaving because they still needed to drive all the way to Nuremberg some of the other guests started talking about dessert.

I had to tell our designated driver that I needed to be home by 4. Foolish me had thought three hours would certainly be ample time to eat, talk and finish the 15-minute drive back home.

Well. We did make it. Just barely. I texted my student that I would probably be on time, not to worry, just open the garden gate and wait inside, and when I rushed to the annex door she was pushing her bike in.

I had to teach in my black dress and cardigan and – most annoyingly – in the pair of glasses that are for looking in the distance. The glasses do have a small part for reading but deciphering sheet music with them was no joke.

So all went well but being very dependent on other people at times is one of the drawbacks of not having a car.

After my lesson my husband and I finally did all the dishes from the day before and breakfast together, we talked briefly with the boy, and then I sat down to dinner, played Genshin and procrastinated taking my makeup off.

I was very foggy after coming home and could not make myself write, so I might do some extra writing today. I also did not go for my usual Wednesday run, maybe I’ll find time to do it today. My husband actually went for a run after we did the dishes to clear his head.

Today is a public holiday, so no grocery shopping, which means there might be time for it.

After the usual morning routine and a short conversation with my husband over breakfast I again lost about an hour and I can’t even say to what.

Did the dishes and then realized that I needed to hurry if I wanted to get to the cobbler before they close for lunch.

I did make it, then went to a nearby supermarket, and after that to the health food store. Unpacked the groceries and folded a few clothes before eating lunch:

That was delicious. What was extra nice was that my husband specifically asked me to bring zucchini for lunch but I had already bought some the day before, ha!

I tried to make myself do the dishes but failed, read a little (I finally started the „No Baggage“-book by Clara Bensen and so far I really like it. Since I finished „A Taste of Poison“ by M.Kato in the morning I also started reading the newest Alexis Hall „Father Material“.)

I did play some Genshin and then it was time for my one student of the week. I changed into real pants and got all ready and then I waited.

Well.

Turns out that lesson is supposed to be today, not yesterday, oops.

I played some more Genshin, ate dinner, met a friend for a writing sprint over Zoom that I spent sorting out that timeline for book 1, then met the boy for bodyweight training, took a shower, squeezed those dishes in real quick, and went to bed.

Today will be notably different but I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.

First, I went to bed on time (which is pretty much unheard of) and then went on to sleep through my alarm. After almost nine hours of sleep I felt like half my brain was offline for most of the day.

I did my complete morning routine including restarting the 30-day morning yoga playlist and opening the manuscript for 15 minutes.

In case you’re thinking that all of this sounds super productive and focused I have to tell you that I also lost almost an hour to faffing around on the internet before breakfast and also another thirty minutes to opening Instagram right after breakfast. In my defense I was a bit tense after a conversation with my husband about my tendency to a) jump to conclusions and b) be tense and stressed because of my conclusions which then radiates out to him.

He basically started with „since we don’t have pork cutlets“ as an intro to discussing the two other options we had, and I took that as a hint that my grocery shopping was sub-par, and that I should rush to the grocery store that same morning to get all the stuff we didn’t have in the house.

That discussion took us beyond our new cutoff time for breakfast conversations. That cutoff time is a crucial ingredient in reducing lunchtime stress.

We’re good, we both said we’re sorry and meant it.

So then I did the breakfast dishes while listening to classical music and read „War and Peace“ while brushing my teeth, and went out for my walk/run almost an hour later than I had wanted.

It had been gray and wet in the morning but when I was out it looked like this:

All dry and sunny:

I came back home just in time for lunch:

I took a break, read quite a bit, and then went out to do some grocery shopping. Thre stores later I had yogurt (had bought the wrong kind and do not want to eat that one for breakfast), potato chips and chocolate bars (emotional necessity) and also zucchini, pork cutlets, ground beef and sugo.

I played my video game and then finally took a shower just in time for my bi-weekly coaching session. My friend also told me about the two BTS concerts she had visited last week. Very exciting. But not going was probably the right decision for me, the many, many screaming people would probably drive me crazy.

Then I ate potato chips and a chocolate bar for dinner, talked with my husband, read, and then met the boy for our weekly boss-fighting together.

I started writing this post, opened the manuscript for fifteen more minutes (coach’s homework), made a list for today and finally did the dishes before going to bed a little late.

I spent quite some time yesterday thinking about what I want to wear to my high-school reunion. Both my husband and my mother think I should wear the red dress instead of skirt and t-shirt and they’re probably right. A part of me thinks looking good is not as important as having pockets but I can survive with just a purse, probably.

More pondering soon.

The day went well anyway, with all the usual things including talking to my mother on the phone, knitting, helping with lunch a little, folding laundry, starting laundry and hanging up fresh laundry, and in the afternoon my husband and I pulled together and cleaned the house so that it is livable again.

We had a grocery shopping fail, none of the things he wanted to cook were in the house but we ate excellent rice and lentils:

I spent most of the afternoon playin my video game, then did some cleaning and then did bodyweight training with the boy. Dinner while reading, then I started writing this post, and then I finally turned to the thing that was the most important on my list: reviewing May and making plans for June.

Things I wanted to do in May:

1. Turn the lights out at 10.30 or earlier: I managed that exactly 4 times, ahem.
2. Continue regular exercise: done. 
3. Continue writing the current novel: done. I had the faint hope of finishing it this month, that did not work out.
4. Write an author newsletter: done.
5. Make an Amazon Author Central Page: nope
6. (Almost) no sugar challenge: okay. I ate more sugar than I wanted on two days but that was mostly it.
7. Ply purple Corriedale: not done. I still need to do spinning wheel maintenance. But I did start plying.
8. Make music for fun 3 times a week: got a total of 6 times, so no. But 6 times is better than none.
9. Read 5 books: yes! I even finished 6.
10. Continue Chinese, “War & Peace” and „Year of Wonder“: done (I did not listen to one piece of music but will do that today, so all is well.
11. Genshin Impact: I reached all my video game goals
12. Spend time with family: yes. Husband and I went to Vesakh and on a hike and biked to the beer garden. I did not spend extra time with the boy but that’s okay.

So, all in all I’d say the month went better than I thought it had. Bedtime procrastination continues to be a big problem. I did buy a course and short book about it, we’ll see if that results in better evening habits.

Anything marketing related continues to be a struggle, as does spinning and making music outside of teaching. Still, I am happy with the month as a whole.

And now I get to think about what I want June to be like.

My husband and I talked very briefly and I finished a sock:

I did go for my walk(run and got back in time to take a shower before a late lunch. It was so hot and humid, I felt like just lying down on the ground and falling asleep.

But I didn’t:

The running parts are continuing to feel somewhat better, so that’s nice. I still haven’t figured out how to take proper selfies.

Lunch was good but not all that exciting. We found out that we had run out of sugo when my husband wanted to get another bottle from the basement and there was none. So the boy got tomato puree in his sauce.

I played a bit of Genshin and then did the dishes just in time for writer Zoom.

That was really lovely this week, so I did have the feeling of time well spent. I also started the next sock.

Afterwards I folded laundry for a few minutes because I was the first one there for watching ‚Columbo‘. Excellent episode.

And after that I played some more and then went on YouTube and watched video after video about vocal coach reactions to BTS. Seems I’m music-starved. Also, geeking out about vocals is fun.

Unfortunately, that meant I went to bed too late.

Yawn.

Last day of the month today. I am playing with the thought of doing a plan for the whole quarter again. Hm. Not sure. I really would like to do some decluttering and then books for me aren’t really projects that only take a month. I’ll think about that later today.

But first the whole going to bed too late routine. I did set my alarm earlier and that meant I did have time for the manuscript before breakfast. I’m still reading what I read before and already found something that I need to mention again in the new chapter.

I did skip yoga for a change, I broke my streak after doing yoga every morning since the beginning of the month.

Husband and I had breakfast and I knitted a bit and then did the dishes before we left the house.

The weather was still hot and sunny but for the most part we biked through the woods so that was good. As usual my husband wanted us to ride next to each other so that we could talk on the way, something I really don’t like to do when biking. Riding my bike for me is not as mindless as walking, and I need to pay attention to the ground, is it sand, gravel, are there branches on the way, do we need to go back to single file because someone comes from the front, or worse, from behind?

My husband (like the boy) spent many years riding his bike to school with some of his schoolmates and riding his bike for fun with his friends in the afternoon. I did not.

Anyway, everything went fine and we did talk even when it was stressing me a bit at times. We got our usual beer garden fare, for me this time with alcohol-free beer:

Yes, I took the usual cheese spread, for the record, this version was much better than the one I had on Wednesday.

And then we rode out bikes back.

I read a bit and ate some chocolate, then played my video game for a while. I taught one student, then did bodyweight training with the boy, had dinner while reading, played some more, started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed.

The first week of Pentecost break is almost over but I’d say we’re making good use of it.

I did do my usual yoga, five minutes of meditation and such in between I talked with the boy who had to leave early for uni. Husband and I talked quite a bit over breakfast and then I got a text from the boy that his train was canceled. He pressed on, took the next train but then had to change trains and the next train did not come. The train after that was on the station display as „arriving in 7 minutes“ for 15 minutes or so, and by then he would have been an hour late for a 90-minute lecture. And that was if everything went smooth after which it probably wouldn’t have.

So he turned around and came back home.

At that moment I told my husband that I was pretty sure my one afternoon student wouldn’t be able to come because she uses the trains as well and I was pretty sure the train chaos would not be sorted until the late afternoon.

Since I hadn’t been able to get my favorite chocolate in the first two tries I decided to walk to the other health food store and try my luck there.

Not only did they not have that chocolate, they also were out of the vitamins I buy for the boy. So, of course, I had to buy four chocolate bars as a consolation. I shared with the boy but still, more sugar than I had wanted to eat.

After that I walked to the nearby supermarket and things went pretty well. Came back home and helped briefly with making salad after putting the groceries away.

We ate lunch as a family which was nice. The boy looked up if Leibniz-Kekse get their name from the mathematician, and yes, they do. We did not eat cookies, we ate rice and beans:

After lunch I first read a bit (while eating two chocolate bars), then I played Genshin for a while and then did the dishes. I got ready for my student fifteen minutes before her lesson, and got a text from them that they couldn’t make it because of the train chaos ten minutes later.

I did updates on my websites and wrote a blog post on my poor, neglected author blog. Five minutes after hitting publish I got my first comment

It was spam.

I ate dinner and played some more Genshin Impact. I reached a few milestones, including getting the sword I wanted for my new character. Turns out I already did half the necessary subquests before, so it didn’t take all that long.

In between everything I also spent quite some time talking with the boy and he helped me with video game stuff. I am completely unable to put teams together for endgame content. Which isn’t easy with my limited roster, but well.

I started writing this post, made a list for today, and opened the manuscript again very briefly. I am currently rereading everything because I’m a little stuck. Rereading should be easier than writing new stuff but somehow I still procrastinate.

And today will go on another little excursion. Fun.

At least I hope so.

My husband also went swimming in the lake, I didn’t.

It was super hot. I think I’m somewhat fitter than the last time we did this, also probably fitter than most times. The hike from the train station to the monastery (and beer garden) is my annual test of how fit I am. And despite the awful heat I was doing pretty good.

We ate the usual, shared a big mug of strong beer and each had a small one without alcohol:

We also ate our usual dessert:

Well, we ate most of it but not all.

Went down the hill again and to the lake where I sat around while my husband went swimming.

And then the only other thing I did was shower and play Genshin (not at the same time), time got away from me and today I need to catch up.

My husband also went swimming in the lake, I didn’t.

It was super hot. I think I’m somewhat fitter than the last time we did this, also probably fitter than most times. The hike from the train station to the monastery (and beer garden) is my annual test of how fit I am. And despite the awful heat I was doing pretty good.

We ate the usual, shared a big mug of strong beer and each had a small one without alcohol:

We also ate our usual dessert:

Well, we ate most of it but not all.

Went down the hill again and to the lake where I sat around while my husband went swimming.

And then the only other thing I did was shower and play Genshin (not at the same time), time got away from me and today I need to catch up.

I did not, unsurprisingly.

What I did do was talk with my husband and knit and read and run errands. Since the weather is super hot and since I might want to wear my new red Mary Janes to the reunion I walked all the way to the cobbler to have them widened a bit. They should be ready by Friday.

I also ordered some more stuff for my husband and, also, after I read this month’s queer romance newsletter (highly recommend) I bought a handful of books.

I have to confess that I unsubscribed from that newsletter in the afternoon. As much as I love it it only leads to me buying books that I then don’t read.

The errands and grocery shopping went okay but it was way too hot. And then I got into an argument with my husband who said he can’t imagine being inside all the time seeing the same things all day instead of spending the nice weather outside.

Something in me snapped, I have been spending my whole life fending off people who told me I should come outside with them because the weather was so nice. Yes, I know about the weather, thank you. All the interesting things are right here inside. If I wanted to look at grass and trees I would go and do so. In fact, I do leave the house about six times a week, I do look at trees and clouds and fields and grass, I just find that roughly 45 minutes per day are perfectly adequate.

I really find the sun glaring, you can see it in every single photo of me that was taken outside, I am completely unable to keep my eyes open. I am super allergic to all kinds of pollen and mild up to the point where I itch all over as soon as I do any yardwork. And that is with the antihistamine. The outside is also much louder (there are two construction sites near our house at the moment and you can hear the cars, the highway and the people talking while walking by our house.

And yesterday (and today as well) it was so hot that I was drenched in sweat after walking to the supermarket and back.

Today, by the way, we are planning to do a little excursion to the Andechs monastery.

Lunch yesterday was rather early, which is always appreciated:

I started playing Genshin Impact pretty much right after lunch, the plan was to plan for an hour or so and then tackle my to-do list.

I played for two hours, then started a load of laundry after changing all the towels, I did the dishes, I talked with the boy who had gotten an email that he has now officially finished his Bachelor’s. He still needs to wait for the official certificate but hey, he does have a degree now.

(My mother-in-law actually gave him a card for the occasion. Did you know there are „congrats you finished your Bachelor’s“-cards? I didn’t.)

After doing all that housework I was super hungry so I ate dinner a little early, then the boy and I did bodyweight training, we talked for an hour, I played some more Genshin, then remembered the load of laundry that I hung up while watching YouTube and then I fell down a YouTube rabbit hole.

I did write this post but gave up on writing for the day because I was just too tired at that point.

I really need to find a way to make myself write without a body double. I mean, I know I can do it, it’s just very hard. I should try the  organized writing sprints in the Heart Breathings group again.

Not today, though. Today will be hiking, beer and bad food.

I was outside in the heat:

We ate Greek food that my husband made:

I really hope that I’ll also do other things today and so I better get myself going.

Oh, and I ordered fabric for another T-shirt or two because I decided I need to make a new one.

And off I go…

After waking up too early I then went straight to social media and such, not the best decision ever. And, no surprise there, I also did not open the manuscript. Weird.

The morning was very nice with my husband, then I talked with my mother on the phone and had to deal with her disappointment that I’ll be coming her way for the high-school reunion but won’t visit her. She lives a little over an hour away from where I need to go. Since I rely on public transportation that would mean leaving the reunion early to take the last train to her. Or traveling there and back the next day and adding 2 1/2 hours of travel time to a full day of sitting on trains.

She was also pretty upset because her cell phone broke, it was sent off for repair and now she hasn’t heard anything for three weeks. She relies heavily on texting her various friends and has no backup of her contacts.

I tried helping her over the phone, told her what to ask for when she gets her replacement phone (at least it was still under warranty) and I’m hoping she’ll be able to sort it out herself.

The whole morning I was super cranky, pretty typical for a school break. Which is absurd.

We had asparagus risotto for lunch:

The leftover asparagus we had is in there. The boy and I both had hoped for soup but, well. It was super hot, so not soup weather, probably.

I talked with my husband some more about why I am always getting so weird about school breaks but we are not sure yet. It definitely has something to do with wanting to use the time both for relaxation and for getting stuff done. Which can’t be done at the same time.

I spent the afternoon reading a little and then I threw myself into playing my video game for a couple of hours. The boy and I did a little bodyweight training, then ate dinner, and then I went right back to playing. I did reach several game milestones, so that was nice.

I also realized how much I try to be efficient most of the time, even when I’m relaxing and having fun, and how much I feel like I have to hold myself back to not run off in all directions at once. So I decided to make my project for the next two weeks to allow myself all the research time I want, even if it’s not connected to any current project.

That made me feel much better, almost giddy with excitement.

And then I bought myself two new books: „The Techniques of Painting“ by Brigid Marlin, recommended by KJ Charles in „How to Fake it in Society“, a book about the paints and techniques of the Dutch renaissance masters, and „Worn“ by Sofi Thanhauser about the history of clothes and the people who make them. I will probably learn more from the book about painting than from the one about clothes but I still started reading that one first.

Some time in between I also changed the sheets on my bed, so that was good. And I wrote for ten minutes at the time where I should have turned the lights out.

Today will be another weird in between day, Pentecost Monday.

I started the heel increases on the sock in progress and did some dishes, and then I went out for my walk/run. It was pretty hot already at that point:

It feels like I might be getting marginally fitter, even.

Back home I cut up all the veggies and salad ingredients before taking a shower. We ate lunch out on the porch:

The boy and I did the dishes right away, I read a bit and then sat down to play my video game. I finished „How to Fake it in Society“ by K.J. Charles which I greatly enjoyed. After that it was time for my weekly writer Zoom. It was nice to see them all again. After that we went out on the porch again for salmon on toast and alcohol-free champagne. The boy also had salmon-free salmon.

We watched the episode of ‚Columbo‘ where his nephew gets married, then the boy did the dinner dishes while I started writing this post.

I am really looking forward to planning the week out today, I don’t want to squander my week off.

But I did have a rather low energy day.

I spent the morning booking a hotel and train tickets for the upcoming high-school reunion that I only heard about two days ago. One of my former schoolmates actually tracked me down by searching for my name, music and Munich, I think.

So I did not change the sheets or clean anything. I did fold two loads of laundry, at least.

It was nice, warm and sunny and we ate outside:

I only had a few students scheduled in the afternoon. The first one texted a few minutes after the beginning of their lesson that they had forgotten (again). The second and third student both showed up as usual. The fourth one was another no-show with no explanation whatsoever and the last one canceled via email.

I tried using those breaks for something and I did work on the novel timeline, sort of, for a while but all in all I just sat around waiting. I also started doing a lesson in the new Chinese workbook that I bought last week, and I bought a course and ebook about bedtime procrastination after watching a video about why bedtime procrastination makes sense. Apparently I am the time of bedtime procrastinator who has the hardest time stopping it because it’s automatic. Oops.

And then I realized I had one of those days where trying to force myself to do something is no use so I ate dinner and read a little before doing bodyweight training with the boy. During which we talked about Genshin Impact (duh) and then he helped me with artifacts and I tried the new event (mostly unsuccessfully) and played and played until it was almost time to turn out the lights, and then I started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed.

Phew.

I would revel in the feeling of having two weeks off but to be honest my days won’t look all that much different I guess.

Still. Sleep would have been a healthier idea.

Anyway, I did the complete morning routine including fifteen minutes of writing. And after breakfast I started doing a little research for the story as well.

I talked with my husband at length and then I went off to the supermarket on my bike. The sun was shining, the streets were pretty empty and all was good. Until I locked my bike at the store about to grab my bike panniers and realized that those panniers were actually still back home.

I think this has been the second time this happened ever. I did briefly think about going back home for them but I was too late already. So I did all the shopping, did not get frozen pizza (because those pizzas are huge and I had no idea how to get them home), paid for a big, sturdy paper bag, put all the heavy stuff in my big backpack and used the backup shopping bag that I carry in my backpack.

I managed to get everything home even though changing gears and getting off and on the bike with the huge bag hanging from the handle was a bit challenging.

I unpacked the groceries, helped quickly with the sauce, and then we had the asparagus my husband had bought at the farmer’s market the day before:

Then I talked with the boy, had a short break and went to work.

I had very few students that day, one just didn’t show up, I guess they won’t be coming anymore, but that’s not bad. I would have liked to know, though.

I did not use my breaks productively. I did play the piano, though, so that was good.

In the evening I had half a bag of potato chips before meeting with my writer friend over Zoom to write. By then I was already pretty done with the day, so writing was a bit of an uphill struggle but I still managed some new words.

Then I started this post, wrote my list for today, finally started the new video game quest and went to bed.

I opened the manuscript and then played some more Genshin Impact. I am very determined to finish the remaining quest as soon as possible. I also pulled on the new character banner first thing in the morning, as one does, and am very happy with the result.

I did the dishes, listened to a piano piece by Clara Schumann, and got ready to leave the house:

It had rained like crazy before but when I went out for my walk and run it was dry.

Back at home my husband was busy making lunch and I had time enough to take a shower before it was ready. We had capellini with a pesto he had made from wild oregano that grows in our garden. Most of the salad ingredients came fresh from the market, very yummy:

I only had a little time until my first student because I was starting lessons earlier than usual, and then taught all the way until late. I had a break between students that I used for research and to refill the water in my piano’s humidifier.

Then I finally got to eat dinner, started writing this post, wrote a list for today, brushed my teeth and made some more progress on the video game quest.

Today will bring a little less teaching so I’m hoping to get some other stuff done as well.

So. I did the complete morning routine including two sessions of writing (only for 30 minutes total but better than nothing), ran all the errands and went to the health food store, folded a load of laundry, and then there was lunch:

I ate a chocolate bar against my own rules, so no (almost) no sugar yesterday. The chocolate didn’t even taste as good as I had expected, seems after eating dark chocolate only for a while a milk chocolate bar feel too sweet. I didn’t know there was such a thing.

I read and played a little and then it was time to teach. I had very many students planned but the whole thing got a little easier when one of them asked if they could reschedule.

After teaching I ate dinner, then did bodyweight training with the boy and after that tackled my current Genshin Impact quest in earnest. For hours.

I am happy to say that I finished it, now there is only one more left before I’m completely up to date.

Oh, and I also had two wins, I got rid of the used toner that I had been wanting to send to recycling for months, and I finally found the PDF course about taking headshots that I had bought before. One of these days I will have a new author photo, yes.

Today there will be too much teaching again, not quite as much other stuff, I hope.

I almost got eight houts of sleep again, even though I went to bed too late. I opened the manuscript after morning pages if only for fifteen minutes. I had hight hopes of having some more time after breakfast but, well.

There was yoga and five minutes of meditation and then breakfast with my husband who had already finished eating. I still go to knit a few rounds. I went online briefly, then my husband was back asking me to order some stuff online, so I did that and it took me thirty minutes. And that was it for writing.

I did the breakfast dishes, sorted recycling and took all the paper for recycling outside to the bin because that will be picked up today.

I went out in the sun for my walk/run:

I have reached the point where I can actually run for 90 seconds without feeling I’ll drop dead, and I did it several time in the 45 minutes that I was out.

I came back home to a stressed husband, took a shower and ate lunch:

Because mowing the lawn had taken almost twice as long as usual he had not had the time to make a sauce or pick the arugula. Still, food, and the omelette was rather good.

Then I did the dishes, hung the load of laundry up that my husband had started in the morning. I had to start the spin cycle a second time because the laundry was still wet after the first time. Overloaded machine, ahem.

I had a whole ten minutes then before my first student of the day and I spent that eating chocolate and drinking tea while the boy talked with me. I asked him to go to the supermarket later to get bananas and parmesan. Which he did.

I taught very many students but also had a bit of a break because someone canceled. During that break I wrapped the toner recycling return package (you can send the empty cartridges back for recycling for free) and I played the piano for a bit.

Then more students until it was a little later than usual. I ate dinner and then met with the boy so he could help me with those tough bosses I can’t do on my own. Afterwards I spent quite a bit of time playing more Genshin with mixed results.

By the time I finished (and talked some more with the boy who was doing more dishes) it was already time to turn the lights out but I still started writing this post and made a list for today.

Unfortunately it looks like I won’t really have time for much today as well but hey, I am getting stuff done, so that’s good.

I also opened the manuscript before breakfast if only for ten minutes, did yoga (just like every single day this month) and talked with my mother on the phone.

Lunch was only medium exciting, both the boy and I were looking around for veggies. Well, this was it:

I did the dishes right after lunch and listened to my daily piece of classical music (and yesterday’s daily piece as well but it all evens out) and then I sat down to plan the week ahead.

And then I played my video game, actually stopped at some point, vacuumed the old part of the house after my husband had done the annex, he cleaned the toilets, I started a load of laundry and then I mopped the kitchen and bathroom floor.

It’s been a while. A very long while.

I then ate dinner, met the boy for bodyweight training where I opted to make quite a few of the exercises easier because I was not feeling up to it, and then came the moment when I had planned to open the manuscript for a second time.

When I found myself on Instagram I realized that I was not feeling up to it, and so I changed plans, started writing this post, made a list and hoped for a better day today.

Not that yesterday was in any way bad at all. I just had too many plans for just one day, it happens.

I still had a slow morning and didn’t write before breakfast. But I did start a new pair of socks:

Originally I had planned to learn a new stretchy cast-on but I found I was too distracted talking with my husband to focus on it, so I did a tubular cast-on. Which means that I finally have that cast-on down pat.

After breakfast I actually opened the laptop and worked on my manuscript for ten minutes. That’s my new goal, ten minutes in the manuscript every day. We’ll see how that goes.

And then we got ready to bike to Munich.

When we left it started to rain. The weather varied wildly, sometimes it was sunny and almost warm, sometimes it rained but it was very cold all throughout. We were going all in wearing long johns under our pants, wool sweaters, rain jackets and mittens. We also found some insulating seat cushions in the bike shed and took thermoses with hot tea.

We dig get lost on the way but eventually got there anyway. When we arrived in the park we decided to eat lunch first, before the first dragon dance in the amphitheater was finished. Which was a good idea. While looking for a free table we ran into some old friends of my husband’s and ended up eating with them.

I forgot to take a picture of my food, sorry, I had spring rolls and Pad Thai. It was very good.

And then we watched the dances and listened to the (pretty boring) moderator and the festival blessing in Tibetan. Here is a picture of some Thai dancers at the end of their performance:

And this is one of the Nepalese dancers:

You can’t see it in the picture but this woman was amazing. She also slipped and fell at some point, the rain had made the wooden stage very slippery.

We left shortly after we ran out of tea. It was all very nice but a little cold still.

And then we biked back home, much slower this time, one of the reasons was that the wind was against us.

I ate an early dinner, then played Genshin Impact, talked briefly with my husband and the boy, did my usual evening things and went to bed too late.

I might have to cull today’s list. Maybe.

But that made me slow again in the morning. I’m starting to waffle about morning phone use as well. That is a very hard habit to break and I’m not quite sure it will be worth it.

Of course I’ll only know after I try it out for a while.

Anyway, no writing before breakfast again. I did yoga (15 day streak!), morning pages, dishes, and spent some time looking into project management stuff again. I keep finding Notion templates that look promising and when I open them they are full of stuff I don’t need and I can’t seem to figure out how to modify them. Looks like I might have acquired yet another huge project, sigh.

I did finish a sock, though, and now I have a new pair:

My husband did all the things including running and making lunch:

I only had very little time before my first student and I read a little and played some Genshin. I managed to level a character up, yeah! I had been working towwards that for weeks at that point.

Then there was teaching. It all went pretty well, I even managed to do my lesson prep in the ten minutes before my first student, phew.

I had one student cancel but by that point I was so exhausted that I just read a little. Until my husband fetched me because something had gone wrong with the computer setup in the basement yet again.

Looks like the adapter was lost, so his keyboard wasn’t working and when he tried to fix it (he thought the ethernet cable had gotten pulled out by mistake but that cable is only still there because all the cables are nicely bound together for eternity), anyway, when he tried to fix it he turned the monitor off without realizing it.

So I wiggled on all the cables, turned the monitor back on, went upstairs and ordered a cable with a USB-C plug.

I had one more student and talked briefly to my husband who was super exhausted and out of sorts as well, on top of the whole computer thing that painfully reminded him of the past few weeks he also had to go out in the pouring rain to get his tomato plants under cover.

Then I got ready for bodyweight training, the boy even showed up right on time because he knew that I had another appointment after, we trained and talked, I hopped into the shower, got dressed again and met my friend over Zoom for a writing session.

We wrote for almost an hour but after forty minutes I was pretty done with the day. I still started this post, made a list for today, and then that was it for the week.

Fingers crossed that we can celebrate Vesakh today without getting drenches and frozen. I will report back, of course.

Still practicing.

All in all I was very happy about a day off. But as often happens with days off I never quite get going. It feels like every time I want to start something someone comes along and wants something.I didn’t even manage to listen to the daily piece of classical music.

Lunch was easy, we were half-celebrating Father’s Day and since my husband still had leftovers from his lunch the day before the boy and I got frozen pizza so that he wouldn’t have to cook:

These pizzas are way bigger than our plates. Definitely enough for two meals.

I did not do the dishes after (there weren’t many either), spent some time playing Genshin Impact where I made some substantial progress and then completely failed at some other stuff, and then it was time to spend my scheduled time on figuring out my writing business project management.

But first my husband wanted my help with some tech stuff. He had a recurring glitch between the computer, TV and amp that he is using in his studio. Well, I had no idea what was happening there either but I tried niggling all the cables and restarting the TV and so far that seems to have done the trick. Fingers crossed.

Then I talked to him about my resistance towards the whole project management research task, made a decision about what method to use, tried it out, got super frustrated again, tried some more stuff, the boy showed up, and left the door to the hallway open for forever which made me all cold and then he went back and forth several times with the door open.

Now, that was supposed to have been my thinking time. Ha!

So I took all my stuff to the living room where I was interrupted twice, then realized that I actually better continue using what is half-working for now after clearing up my discomfort with setting any dates, be it release dates, writing dates or anything similar which means I need to continue with a „it will be done when it will be done“-schedule.

I mean, once I have better numbers I might start ordering covers before the book is completely done but also, I need to know the number of pages for the paperback cover, so maybe not.

I then met my friend for writing over Zoom and that gave me a satisfying number of words, at least.

I started writing this post, made a list for today, read some more, and played some more and went to bed.

I went to bed too late, actually 45 minutes late. And then I slept a little longer and there went my writing time for the day. I guess it really is time to cut back on phone use in the mornings. It comes down to the question whether I find it more important to stay entertained and informed first thing in the morning or to do the thing that I claim is super important to me.

I did the complete rest of the morning routine which is also pretty telling because I rarely cut out my morning pages. And this month so far I have done yoga every single morning. Go me.

Husband did start a fire in the wood stove again and this time he also used said fire to boil tea water. We only talked very briefly because he needed to leave for his eye doctor appointment (everything was fine) and I needed to leave as well to get my prescription renewed.

Since Wednesday is usually a walking/running day my original plan was to bike to the doctor’s office which would have taken about half an hour. But I was weirdly reluctant to leave. Only when it was getting later and later did I finally realize that it was super windy and biking through that wind would definitely not be fun.

So I changed plans and took the train.

Got to the doctor’s office in time, got my prescription renewed without much fanfare, walked back to the train station, waited for the train and went back via the pharmacy. The next time I’ll have to do the will be in August.

The whole trip took a little more than an hour. The trains only go every twenty minutes so sometimes it goes faster but often it takes even longer. (And teenage me scoffs at someone saying „only every twenty minutes“. We used to sometimes wait for more than an hour for the next bus. I am very happy to live where I do.

I walked home, said hello to my husband who had just returned as well and was planning to do a very short run before lunch and then I ordered takeout. Did half the breakfast dishes, walked out again to pick up our food, told everyone it was ready and finally sat down:

Also, ate this:

We all ate together which was nice. Then I had about fifteen minutes of break before I had to get in the shower and get ready for teaching.

The new ukulele student was very tired and shy but did better than expected. I had a break between students that I used to practice the piano and refill one of my fountain pens, then more teaching.

My plan had been to eat the rest of my takeout for a quick dinner and then open my laptop and write before playing my video game and going to bed on time.

It took me almost twenty minutes to get myself from the annex to the kitchen. I talked with my husband a bit, I tidied a bit, and then I finally ate. And fell into an Instagram hole because I didn’t want to do the dishes or anything else.

I pulled myself out of that hole after eight, finally dealt with the dishes, brushed my teeth and set my computer up at my writing desk.

The boy came downstairs and asked me to make him a pot of tea while he took a shower because he was pressed for time, so I did that and started writing this post in between.

I was tired and exhausted and didn’t really want to do anything, and I had a list of things that I wanted to do in the game but I prevailed and opened the manuscript anyway. Not for the whole hour I had hoped for but such is life.

I’m not quite sure if me not having time to write is a self-fulfilling prophecy or stark reality. Something in between, probably.

Anyway, we are now entering public holiday territory, a completely free day, which traditionally means I get all the things done. Sure.

It was so cold that we decided to start the wood stove first thing in the morning. Which meant I could do my complete morning routine including some manuscript time.

And then I did some admin, started researching project management stuff (bad time for it), tried to renew a prescription via email and some other stuff.

I did the breakfast dishes, and then went out grocery shopping. Since tomorrow is a public holiday I decided to try and squeeze all the shopping in yesterday.

I went to the supermarket where I get yogurt (that is currently under renovation, and has barely any shelves left but there was yogurt), a different supermarket on the way for the stuff I usually buy elsewhere, and then the health food store.

I distinctly remember my husband saying, „I’ll just put both kinds of laundry detergent on the list anyway, it’s not that far to walk home from the health food store.

Which is correct. Only, I was not only lugging the detergent home, I also had six pounds of yogurt, two bottles of tomato pulp, two huge bottles of hand-soap refill, two different kinds of bread and a huge bag of muesli. That was a heavy load. But I made it. This is why we do strength training, by the way.

My husband was already eating when I unpacked the groceries but it was fine. I was ravenous when I finally sat down to lunch:

When I was almost finished with eating my husband brought a load of laundry and told me he had already put the third drying rack in the living room. So instead of taking a much-needed break I then folded two loads of laundry and hung up the third. (Which means we only have one drying rack in the living room right now, much better.

I then got an email back from the doctor’s office that they couldn’t renew my prescription via email but that I would have to come in and have them scan my insurance card. So guess what I’ll be doing today…

I had less than ten minutes to sit down, read and relax before teaching.

I have to say the rest of the day was less hectic that anticipated, I had a total of three students cancel. Unfortunately, I was so exhausted at that point that I didn’t really do much besides reading and playing my video game.

I ate dinner before bodyweight training with the boy, then he did the dishes while I played some more. He ordered me to do some rather stressful endgame stuff and ended up playing instead of me on the last level. I think I know what I did wrong but also I still need to strengthen my characters.

We talked, I played some more, I made a list for today that includes switching my walk/run for a bike ride to the doctor’s office, started writing this post, did my foot and knee exercises and went to bed.

Today I’ll teach the second new student of the week and then I’ll have a pretty long teaching day. But tomorrow I’m having a day off from teaching, so that will be nice. (Never mind that I’m planning to do publishing admin then, piece of cake.)

Still, I slept like a log and started my day at the usual time. The ‚no phone before breakfast‘-rule is not going well, I found myself knee-deep in newsletters before I realized what I was doing.

So, I wrote morning pages and I also opened the manuscript but only for a measly five minutes.

There was some yoga and meditation and breakfast. I even got a round or two of knitting in before it was time to go outside for my walk/run:

It was rather windy and turned so stormy later that there was a warning in my weather app. Everything was okay while I was out, though.

Oh, and on the way I passed the construction site behind our house where they were delivering two garages and setting them on the property. Impressive. I was happy I could squeeze through on the sidewalk because the street was all closed.

I only went outside for half an hour, then came back and jumped into the shower right away because I needed to catch a train.

I had an appointment with the eye surgeon.

Lights were shining in my eyes, they were measured and looked at from lots of angles and then I saw the surgeon himself. Two people talked to me about different kinds of lenses I could choose from and which would be best for my situation. Teaching piano is a bit of a special situation and means you need sharp sight at different distances. Also, I am already used to multi-focal contact lenses.

I went back home with a detour to pick up all the chocolate and some trail mix. (Almost) no sugar challenge be damned. I was 45 minutes late for lunch but that was okay because I had a somewhat later teaching start.

I only took a small piece because I wanted to leave room for dessert.

I read a bit and talked with the boy briefly before getting into teacher mode.

Taught all afternoon, then met with my friend, the coach. I now have a neat new list of deliverables for the next time. You know how I like homework.

Afterwards I was basically toast. I ate all the trail mix and a chocolate bar, collated some data about my writing time the last month (it has gone up significantly in the past two weeks but not quite high enough), started writing this post, made a list for today and opened Genshin. The boy and I fought some bosses and that was basically it, I was just too exhausted at that point.

And yes, today will be very busy as well. But not as exhausting, I hope.

Unfortunately I started the day phone first which meant no writing. In the end I squeezed that in just under the wire which is better than not at all.

There were the usual morning pages, yoga, a little meditation and breakfast with my husband who is still spending about an hour every night (or sometimes in the morning) sorting through some of his old things. Diaries, journals, and assorted stuff from his teenage years. He is astounded at how much he was actually writing at that time.

I don’t think I have ever gone through my old things, maybe I should. But then, I just pulled out a bullet journal from 2017, started looking through it and now it has been sitting there untouched for at least a week, maybe two.

Anyway, we talked, I knitted, and then it was time to celebrate Mother’s Day. My husband went upstairs to give his mother the flower for her balcony that he got on Friday, and I called my mother like I do every Sunday. I stopped giving her presents for Mother’s Day a long time ago. Not that I don’t appreciate her but the whole thing with Mother’s Day in Germany being mostly the result of a bunch of slower shops trying to sell more is a but off-putting.

Since I was super tense and anxious about the upcoming week and today’s appointment with the eye surgeon I then planned the week out. It’s always interesting to see how soothing a mere list can be.

On the other hand I was really happy to get a flower from my own son:

He even remembers how much I like roses and the color orange.

I folded laundry, hung the new load up that my husband had started right after breakfast, vacuumed the annex and changed the sheets on my bed while my husband was making lunch. I did help a little with the salad. And then the three of us ate outside together. It was nice and sunny but very windy:

After lunch I actually did the dishes right away, cleaned the washbasins and toilets and started the second load of laundry for the day.

I read a bit while eating some chocolate, and then it was time to fill out the form for the eye appointment today. I did my best, and then it was finally time to play Genshin Impact.

Or so I thought. The boy came downstairs for something he needed because he wanted to do a sample paint on a Warhammer figure. Um. We decided to do our bodyweight training right away.

Which we did. We were lucky, it was the day of the program that only takes 20 minutes.

Then there was dinner, finally video game playing where I tried getting all the materials one can only get on a weekend, then I played the quest I had started that afternoon all the way to the end and ended up starting the next one after that without really meaning to.

So I left that one which might mean I need to start over the next time but I didn’t care, I still had stuff to do. First I needed to hang up laundry again, and then I started writing this post before finally opened the manuscript but not for all that long (I am using my dedicated writing desk with my fancy clicky keyboard more often and that makes me happy).

I brushed my teeth and washed my face in between, packed my purse for today with the train ticket, wallet and the forms I needed to fill out, made a schedule for this morning that includes a walk/run and a shower before leaving for Munich, turned the TV on so I could watch YouTube on the big screen and plied some yarn.

Phew.

I’m pretty sure I can’t do that much every day but when I can it is definitely fun. Also a bit stressful at times. I might have to do about the same amount of things today. Not tomorrow, though, and Thursday is a public holiday and will be completey free.

Well, as free as a regular Sunday, I suppose…

Husband still needs rest but decided he wanted to run the big 10K round and was rather exhausted while cooking.

But before I was just about to open my laptop and write some new fiction words when the boy came downstairs saying that he did find those Warhammer figures he wanted but not on the site that has them cheaper and what to do. He had been wanting to get those exact figures back in winter and I said we’d give him the money as a birthday/Christmas present but then they were out of stock before he could get his hands on some.

Anyway, now they were available again for preorder. I opened the cheaper site, and voilà, there they were. So we ordered them from my laptop plus a few other supplies.

Then I descaled the electric kettle, changed the BRITA filter and refilled the water in my piano’s humidifier.

I went outside for my walk/run quite a bit too late. The weather was very sunny and warm:

I was all proud that I was running through all the running intervals until I returned back home and saw that I had clicked on the wrong day of my training schedule. Instead of 57 minutes of 1’30 of running and 3’30 of walking I had done 41 minutes of 1’ of running and 4’ of walking. Oops.

When I came back home almost ten minutes early that threw my husband off completely and he burnt the onions. Lunch was still very good:

After lunch I did the dishes right away (yay!) and then sat down to play Genshin Impact for more than an hour. Talked with my husband a bit and then it was time for writer Zoom and knitting.

The knitting was making good progress and as for writer Zoom, it was the first time all of us were there in weeks.

I put some frozen pretzels in the oven and then watched ‚Columbo‘ with my husband and the boy.

Then read some, started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed.

So all the laundry and housework I had planned to do yesterday will have to happen today, as will all the writing. Oh, and it’s Mother’s Day, I keep forgetting.

Aynway, that is the kind of headspace I am currently in, so definitely in need of a day off or two.

Of course I picked up my phone first thing, despite all my good intentions, but I also managed all the morning routine. Still working on the phone-scrolling vs. novel-writing ratio. I’d like to tilt it more towards something creative of my own.

My husband still looked stressed so I stressed him more by talking about what had been stressing him out the day before. (Not recommended.) But my big thing for the day was that I wanted to set the new computer up in the basement and connect it to everything, and also I wanted to exercise, teach all the students and do some cleaning.

I did talk with my husband for quite some time, did the breakfast dishes, then set the computer up. And it works. Phew!

Next up I realized two things: 1) the boy had put the vacuum upstairs because he was expecting a friend to come over and was frantically cleaning and tidying his room, and 2) because his friend would be visiting, our usual Friday evening bodyweight date would have to be moved or canceled.

So I did my exercise before lunch instead. And then I was rather exhausted. Physically exhausted for once which doesn’t happen all that often. I still folded two loads of laundry but that was it.

We ate lunch outside, all three of us together (first time in ages):

My husband’s idea was that we would all eat Caprese salad first with bread and then some plain spaghetti aglio e olio after. Yes, I am aware that it’s not proper to put parmesan on this dish but I don’t care, I like it with cheese. Now, both my husband and the boy were completely sure that I had eaten Caprese with them in the past which seemed weird to me because I really don’t like raw tomatoes. It’s a sensory thing, the seeds are inedible. Once they’re cooked it’s much better. Also the taste of the raw ones is just so – green, brr.

I had about forty minutes between lunch and my first student but for once I did not play a game or read a book, I did the dishes because I knew the boy’s guest would arrive soon and they had planned to use the kitchen table for drawing. The boy was very grateful and then proceeded to schlep another huge pile of dirty plates downstairs.

All day while doing the dishes I had tried to listen to a Brahms violin sonata. I started the day before and was interrupted 90 seconds in. I was also interrupted after lunch three times while listening to a simple 10-minute piece of music. It is rather nice but somehow I missed a bit of the whole musical arc, funny that.

On the other hand that really illustrates how it is possible to find time for things. I didn’t have a ten-minute block of time that worked for me and listening to that piece of music in two days (to be fair that also comes with trying to listen to something in a high-traffic area of the house at a time of day where people are constantly moving around) but I practiced slow breathing and listened to it anyway. Even if the experience was not quite what I had envisioned.

Then there was all the teaching, one student after the other.It felt like a rather long day but that is often the case on Fridays.

Then I finally ate dinner, in the living room this time because the kitchen was still occupied, read a little, started writing this post, and then finally opened Genshin Impact.

Speaking of which, I also spent a not inconsiderable amount of time with a software update on my phone, then I found it had deleted loads of apps, including Genshin, and when I tried reinstalling there wasn’t enough space left. I tried moving stuff around but then had to go without the game on my phone. I’m not playing it on there a lot anyway, but sometimes I like opening it to look stuff up or to do something easy and quick.

First world problems for sure.

And today I will have a day off, hurray!

Of course the reason I went to bed past midnight was that I had an extra long teaching day. Or maybe it was the fact that I was too tired to get ready for bed. Or that I started compiling data about my writing in the evening. Or that I still played Genshin after that. Or that I then decided to research C-dramas I want to watch in the future (never mind all the C-dramas I started watching at some point that I still want to finish, eventually. Or that I didn’t brush my teeth early enough.

We’ll never know. Every day it’s a new reason for the exact same thing.

On the bright side I did my complete morning routine including twenty minutes of manuscript time, morning pages and yoga before breakfast. Our conversation over breakfast was a bit strained because my husband is so stressed out. One of the main reasons is the computer setup both in the basement for drum lessons and in his studio for everything else.

So I had a change of plans and started looking at the new computer we bought for downstairs. I had set it up at one point about a year ago or so, but it needed a software update and I wanted to test some things.

It will definitely work but I will give my husband one of my computer mice. The one we use right now has a USB-A dongle and I don’t feel like getting an adapter for that.

So I spent all morning listening to my husband complaining, waiting for the different computers to load, update and back up with sprinkles of dishes and making the grocery list.

The supermarket run was quite the production. There was a spot of rain but not all that much, I managed to hit the exact time that the school on my way lets students out (twice), and had to walk around the whole store three times or so because they are rearranging things yet again.

I didn’t feel all that bad about not finding polenta when the store employee I asked didn’t know as well, told me she was looking for something similar and just pointed vaguely in the direction of rice or baking ingredients. Sure.

When I arrrived home both my mother-in-law and my son entered the garden gate at the same time. My husband hastily left the kitchen and declared he’d eat alone in the annex because he needed some quiet, and so I could just unload the groceries while the boy was talking to me about group theory (something with algebra, don’t ask me) and then I read  while eating, interspersed with short exchanges with my son.

I was very happy that lunch was already ready on the table:

Afterwards I only had a little time for reading and playing my video game (time that I mostly spent looking for certain flowers in vain, very frustrating) before I needed to hang the laundry up that I had started in the morning and get ready for teaching.

The laundry was very wet and heavy, I seem to have overloaded the machine and so it didn’t spin properly. Well, it will get dry eventually. Most of the time when that happens I’ll move the laundry around and start the spin cycle again but I didn’t have time for that.

I saw another potential new student and it looks like I have two new students now, starting next week. I got the dreaded, „couldn’t we start the lesson a little later?“ again, and no, sorry, the rest of that day is solidly booked until my dinnertime.

Speaking of which, my third and fifth student didn’t show up. With the first of those I’m not sure if I remembered something wrong or if she forgot, no idea. I had her in the calendar but then I made a repeating calendar event. The second one texted me, super sorry, she had to work late.

I was able to reschedule her for today which pleases me no end. I like working with her. Which reminds me that I need a new song for her to sing.

So I used my first surprise break to write my author newsletter. I had done a first draft the day befire and put it together  which took almost an hour. Only after did I realized I could make blocks of text, images or links and save them so that I could pull them for each newsletter. That would make writing them much faster.

I debated making music or writing new words during my second surprise break but in the end I just took a break. And ate the bag of chips and the chocolate I bought at the supermarket. Yes, I know what I wrote about the day before but getting one salty snack and one extra sweet treat per month is part of my challenge. I decided to make it my Mother’s Day treat. Well, advance Mother’s Day treat, wahtever.

The day still wasn’t over at that point, so I started writing this post before meeting with my writer friend for an hour of writing. After which I played some more Genshin Impact and went to bed with a book.

My husband has already vacuumed the old part of the house, so there is less to do today. I’m plannign more laundry, some vacuuming, setting the new computer up, and teaching all the students. Oh, and bodyweight training because it’s Friday.

Time for the weekend.

I went to bed on time, yeah! Well, five minutes late because I spent five minutes doing foot and knee exercises, I’d say that’s alright.

I did the complete morning routine including twenty minutes of writing and was even pretty early. Husband and I had breakfast, then a bit more talking while knitting (about people and Buddhism, among other things) and then I made my online rounds before cutting my husband’s hair. Then the dishes and then I wasn’t quite sure if I should write some more, or not. So that meant I scrolled through Instagram, of course.

It was time to walk/run at that point. The promised rain hadn’t shown up but the skies were looking darker and cloudier. I decided to risk getting wet and went running in just a t-shirt and shorts:

When I came back home my husband’s bike with the trailer was standing in front of the garage which was weird. He had carted empty bottles to recycling but was nowhere to be seen. I ended up putting his bike away after talking to him, he had been in such a rush that he decided to just park it outside.

There was also a card in the mailbox about a package that had been delivered to one of our neighbors because none of us was at home. It’s a pretty rare occurrence, and I know and like the neighbor, so I went over and retrieved the package.

I hung the load of laundry up that my husband had started in the morning, took a shower and then it was time for lunch:

It doesn’t look much but it was very good.

I played some Genshin and then it was time for work. Lots of nice students, a short break in between where I didn’t really do anything but read, and then I was very happy to finally eat dinner. The boy had just returned from uni and told me about his day, and then I fell into a spreadsheet rabbit hole.

I’m reading this book about writing that is all about spreadsheets and wordcount and production schedules and that made me look into the data I have for my own writing. I already knew how much I can write in an hour but I did not know that I only spent an average of 9 minutes per day on writing this year. That is not enough, I’d say because at that pace writing takes ages.

At that pace it would take me 600 days to write a book. On the other hand, that data is from the beginning of this year when I was also busy getting two books ready for publishing and putting them out, so I’d say the numbers are skewed.

Anyway, time to get a bit more serious about writing again.

After pulling myself out of confusing data I started writing this post, did the dishes, wrote a list, brushed my teeth and played some more video game. I want to level a character and for that I need to gather materials.

Today there will be grocery shopping, some writing, not quite as many students but I’ll see another potential new one, and in the evening I’ll meet a friend online for another writing session.

I was, again, very determined to make good use of my morning and, again, didn’t really. I dawdled, I read newsletters, I wrote morning pages, I opened my computer and – read more stuff online.

Sorry for all the whining, I’m getting pretty cranky and angry at myself.

There was yoga and my 5-minutes meditation and then breakfast with my husband. We talked a bit longer because he had gotten a letter about his retirement and we had to look stuff up and will have to make a decision about when he should start drawing his pension. He will have to keep working at least for a while because the pension is not really enough to live on.

That did take a little longer than usual but that was okay. I did the dishes and then set out to another epic errand run. Dropping the clothes return off, tea shop, the supermarket for yogurt and the health food store. Planning the route was a bit puzzling because there was no way to avoid looping back. I decided on tea first, then yogurt, then health food store because that one is closest to our house and would give me the most stuff to carry.

I set out in rather warm and sunny weather that had me sweating in just a t-shirt. My husband has been very concerned about the rain that was forecast but so far there was only very little the night before. Tomorrow will likely be much wetter.

Just before entering the supermarket I realized I had forgotten my list at home. That happens way too often. Maybe I should get into the habit of taking a picture of it at one point in the day but, of course, the best habit would be to take the list with me.

I texted the boy and asked him to send me a picture of the list. There was a faint chance he’d be awake and see it in time.

I bought yogurt and cheese, then walked back towards the health food store. When I hadn’t gotten a reply to my message at the point where I had to decide whether to go back home or brave the store without a list, trying to remember everything on it, I decided to walk back home and risk the extra ten minutes of walking.

I offloaded tea and yogurt and went back outside.

I was very tempted to blow the „(almost) no sugar“-challenge. I mean, just one measly chocolate bar? A few salted nuts?

But then I remembered that this was only the second week of the challenge and how much better I’m feeling without it.

When I came back this time, lunch was ready and my husband had even set the table out on the porch. We’re setting a new record of eating outside this year already:

That meal came about because we still had a bottle of dark beer in the house and didn’t want to throw it away. Also, both of us shared the rest of the bottle but there wasn’t much left.

I only had a short break that I spent reading and talking with the boy while attempting to play my video game. Badly.

Then I taught all the students, including a potential new one (very nice) but excluding the one that skips lessons rather often. This time I only waited for six minutes and then started playing the piano. I figured I’d hear the doorbell if she rang.

After teaching I cleaned all the mirrors and got ready for bodyweight training. Then I waited for the boy while reading, we troubleshot his new sneakers (they have weird laces and lacing), and then we finally started training.

I was very hungry by the time I ate dinner. Afterwards I started writing this post while the boy was making himself fried potatoes and veggie nuggets for dinner, I wrote my list, washed my face and did the exercises for my feet and knees (the list of exercises I need to do every day is getting longer and longer), opened the manuscript for a short time, played some more Genshin Impact and went to bed.

I really need to get back to writing earlier in the day because when I do I feel so much better.

I finished a sock:

And then started the next one right away.

I did the dishes and got ready to venture outside for my walk/run:

I came back home and took a shower right away. The idea was to leave time for writing between lunch and teaching but instead it just stressed my husband who would have needed help making salad.

We ate outside again which was nice but very loud. The construction next door has reached the landscaping stage which means there are big diggers and such makings noise next door constantly. After lunch I took a short break, talked with the boy, and before I knew it it was time for teaching.

I taught most of my usual students but one had canceled so I used that time to call a potential new student. For ukulele which is always nice.

My last student was my friend whom I gave a piano lesson over Zoom and then we talked for a while.

Then it was time for a quick dinner before I met the boy for our weekly meeting to fight the bosses that are too hard for me on my own. As per usual I made all the dumb mistakes and managed to let both of my characters die at one point. The good news is that you can still get the rewards regardless.

We tackled the mountain of dishes and pots from lunch together, then the boy finally tried all the new clothes and shoes that we had ordered, and then I was late for bed again.

I’m hoping for a bit more free time today. Teaching starts half an hour earlier but I’ll be done about 90 minutes earlier as well, so that looks pretty good.

I went to bed at midnight, both because there were still things I wanted to do and because I was dreading the day because of that conflict with my husband.

I woke up at 6.30 before my alarm but was pretty slow at first. When I was right in the middle of my morning pages my husband showed up and – surprise – was all in a good mood, conflict basically over. Phew. We’re good again which is much better.

I skipped writing again but did yoga and meditated and then we had breakfast. There was brief talk of having breakfast outside but since my husband already started eating while I was doing yoga we decided to stay inside.

There was nice conversation, I called my mother and we talked, and then I helped my husband making salad for lunch. Right after the day where we had set a new rule that I am not allowed in the kitchen before lunch is ready. Well.

This time we did eat outside:

This is the view from our back porch into the yard:

After we went back inside my husband started doing the dishes right away and I helped. I’m finding that it’s easier to do the dishes after having eaten outside because I am not sitting on the kitchen bench, moving back inside involves a natural transition and that can lead to just starting the dishes easier.

Of course it’s much easier still when someone else starts them.

I read quite a bit, then played Genshin Impact until a timer reminded me that I had planned to write in the afternoon. I had a bad case of the dunnwannas paired with „I have a thing at 5 so I can’t do anything else before“, and read some more.

An article about bullet journal led me to thinking about how many of those I already have and I pulled the first one out that I could find on the shelves. It is from 2017 and while there are quite a few things I’m still doing the same way I also changed lots of things. Back then I did not review nearly as much, it’s mostly just lists of what I want to do.

There are also a lot of notes about books I’m reading. Nine years ago I made my way through a ton of writing books. 

And then it was time for my 5 o’clock Zoom. I was meeting with an online friend who had helped me think through stuff a few months ago and I felt like I should return the favor. We had a fun conversation where I barely knit which is rare.

I then browsed the internet until five minutes before the boy and I had scheduled bodyweight training. I went outside to see what my husband was up to and found him on a bench at the back of the garden taking a break. I sat next to him which I never do and we got to observe a hedgehog shuffling through as if we weren’t there.

Then I was somewhat late for bodyweight training and we suffered through the dreaded 10 sets of 3. It’s all one-minute intervals which means you never quite get going for real and you keep interrupting yourself all the time. Weird.

It was time for dinner afterwards, then I brushed my teeth, wrote the list for today and then started this post interrupted by both my husband and the boy but only briefly.

I played a little more, then finally started plying the purple Corriedale and went to bed.

Most of my energy yesterday was spent on talking with my husband about the kind of things that keep bugging you about your partner and will never get better, no matter how hard the two of you try. Fun times.

Other than that I did my walk/run (even if I chose an easier version with short running intervals because my legs still hurt):

The weather was gorgeous and the woods and fields were filled with lots and lots of bike riders. The ones that come from behind on their e-bikes at high speed are particularly bothersome, especially when you’re wearing headphones and listening to music. I dropped a return package off on my way (before the exercise, not after) and was back home with enough time to take a shower before lunch:

My husband used the leftover asparagus to make risotto.

We talked some more and I used my anger to do the dishes right away. Then I continued reading „All of Us Murderers“, ate some chocolate and played Genshin Impact.

The plan was to use the hour before my weekly writer Zoom to actually write. Before that I wanted to talk briefly with my husband because I don’t like to be angry.

Well, that conversation made me even angrier and took more time than anticipated so there was no writing.

Writer Zoom was just me and the writer who hosts the meeting, everybody else just didn’t show up. I told her that I was out of sorts because I had a fight with my husband but then we continued having a very nice and helpful conversation about writing and what we did that week, knitting and playing the fiddle.

While talking I managed to botch my sock in progress, I tried fixing my mistake but made it worse instead (the mistake was several rounds down, I did a 2/1 cable instead of a 2/2 and I soon lost patience with the whole process and just ripped back the offending rounds completely.

After that the knitting went really well and I am loving the magic chart I set up in KnitCompanion, you can set up charts in that app in a way that means you can see the row you’r working on really well and it moves your marker forward by a row with a single tap. It’s brilliant.

After that Zoom call I ate dinner, opened the manuscript for 45 minutes and got many new words that look pretty good right now, talked with my husband again repeatedly and with the boy a little who was getting ready to leave for that party, I played more Genshin and achieved a new milestone but only at the price of playing right up to my bedtime, I started this post, made a list in my bullet journal, brushed my teeth and such and went to bed late.

My list for today is pretty long. There will also be more uncomfortable conversations for sure. Ack.

But apart from that I have been having a great week.

Oh, and I finally listened to Richard Strauss „Metamorphosen“, the one piece I didn’t manage on the April list. At least I am all done with last month and can look at the May pieces now. Debussy, Tavener whom I don’t really know, and a Mozart piano trio. I’m looking forward to doing the dishes to that today.

After breakfast my husband and I kept talking and I finished the heel turn on the sock-in-progress. Then I found the heel was off by two stitches because I had misunderstood the instructions before the heel turn. I briefly considered fudging it but then thought, pulling just the heel turn back wouldn’t take much time.

And I was right.

I turned the heel again, a little grumpy that I needed to start that part over, finished it, then looked at it properly and – it was offset way worse this time. No idea what I did wrong there. I mean, I started the turn in the entirely wrong place, that much was clear, I only have no idea why.

So I pulled it back yet again and started over (fortunately only the heel turn which is only a few stitches and rows), this time very slowly with lots of focus. Until I went back to reading while knitting. This time it was the newest Penric & Desdemona story, Darksight Dare by Lois McMaster Bujold, great book, I finished it last night.

I am happy to say that I finally have a working sock heel, one that actually will line up with the chart for the foot. Which I’m planning to start today:

Sorry for the bad picture, when I wrote about the day in my journal last night I realized I would need a picture of the sock. I took it right then because I knew this morning would be a bit rushed again.

I had plans of doing some cleaning in the morning but instead I reviewed the past month and made plans and goals for this one. I’m pretty happy with last month, even though I only finished reading one book instead of five, played music for fun (as opposed to during work) only seven times instead of thirteen times.

But I did keep up with my exercise schedule, apart from when I was traveling, I did open the manuscript, and moved quite a few things forward.

Lunch was delicious, pasta with zucchini:

We were even sitting outside when eating. It was nice and warm but rather windy and after half an hour outside I started sniffling and my eyes were itchy. It’s clearly hay fever weather.

My husband started doing the dishes right away and I helped him, so I did not sit in the kitchen looking at a big pile of dirty dishes all afternoon. I took a short break, read and ate chocolate, and then went on to tackle video game tasks.

That kept me busy until it was time to meet a friend for an online writing session. We did this for the first time ever. Normally we meet over video call to chat or coach or teach piano but this time we had agreed not to talk longer than five minutes or so, and then to actually do the work.

Well, we wrote for almost an hour and I got a record number of words written. it was great because I had been thinking about these scenes for a while already.

I couldn’t do it for longer because I was scheduled to do bodyweight training with the boy. Which we did, and I confirmed (again) that the new version of squats I had been doing the past two weeks or so were what makes my knees hurt. So I scaled it back to something easier.

Then I could finally eat some dinner and confirm that the new kind of bread I bought tastes indeed awful. The rest of the family agrees so I won’t buy that one again. More chocolate as an antidote, and some more reading and then I looked at some online ukulele lessons about inversions and movable chords. The lessons were a little too long to start that time of day but I did play through her easy version of „Autumn Leaves“ and then pulled out a few songs that I used to play every day when the boy was much younger.

I used my travel ukulele that had been sitting in my bedroom in it’s bag for so long that the battery in the tuner had stopped working. Playing ukulele again made me very happy.

After that I did my best to improve the boy’s rather asymmetrical (not in a good way) haircut, started writing this post, finally did my Chinese app thing, wrote a list for today, played some more video game, read some more and went to bed.

Yep, good day even if not everything fit that I would have liked. But the things that did fit made the day better.

So. Only 5 1/2 hours of sleep, no manuscript time but most of the rest. I went to the nearby supermarket and hung up a load of laundry.

I helped my husband with lunch and we had several disagreements, especially about the consistency of the sauce:

I only had three students because the first one canceled and ended up doing something Genshin-related wth a time limit. I mean, that is mostly what I’m doind in the game right now. Quick, this mini-game will be gone in a few days!

I mean, the boy helped me a lot.

I taught my last student a bit longer because reasons and then proceeded to have a disagreement with my husband because he wanted to do the dishes while I was teaching and then his student arrived ten minutes early and I dropped the thermos for chamomile tea (only into the sink but that was quite a bump), then I finally ate dinner

More Genshin, starting this post and making a list for today. Which includes making more lists because we’re in a new month. And no teaching but an appointment to meet a friend for writing instead.

Well, that was not really helpful. And I bumped up again my abysmal mental math skills. I’m sure that character would not have taken that long for those problems.

Breakfast with my husband was very cozy when the doorbell rang all of a sudden. It was a friend of my husband who wanted to ask him for a favor. After talking with his friend he went out early to buy asparagus at the farmer’s market. Which allowed me to spend time with the manuscript.

I walked to the pharmacy to pick up the two meds they didn’t have in stock the day before, then turned around and went walking/running. Well, there wasn’t much running involved, I felt hot and low on energy and my knees hurt but I was still glad to be outside:

Came back home to lunch:

Then I could take a nice break before teaching. Had another break between students where I mostly wrote emails and listened to voicemail, and then the next student texted me that she couldn’t make it because she and her daughter were at the doctor’s office waiting and it would take a while.

I asked her to come in an hour later than usual and that worked. But it also made me late for dinner.

I ate, I started playing my video game against my better judgment and, yep, went to bed too late again.

Today will be another busy day but the next three should be a bit less packed.

I am very happy that I managed that.

And then I went full tilt into my morning routine including a rather productive 20-minute writing session.

Husband and I talked over breakfast and since I was pretty early we could eat together, even. At the end of our conversation and while I was knitting my husband even started doing the dishes. Which then meant I never got around to listening to my daily piece of classical music but that was okay.

And then I squeezed the health food store and the pharmacy in so that my husband and I could go out for lunch together. Because we wanted to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

Everything went well and the weather was nice while we walked to the restaurant. We had hoped we could sit outside but their garden was closed and we had to sit inside in the dark.

I let myself get tempted by the kritharaki and had to learn again not to order things like that at a restaurant. I guess we should make our own kritharaki at home soon. Preferably baked with cheese but the version I had yesterday came with prawns instaed:

We also had eggplant creme as an appetizer but I forgot to take a picture.

Afterwards we walked back home in the sun, and then I had thirty minutes or so off before it was time to teach. I had four very nice students and rather enjoyable lessons with one student really leaning into learning something rather hard and unpleasant. She didn’t get there all the way but she got much better in the course of the lesson.

Afterwards I wrote an email to a potential new student and played piano for a bit before going back to playing my video game.

The boy and I did bodyweight training and I found out that the variation of squats that I’m doing is probably the reason my right knee and ankle feel off. Oops. I thought it might be the running but probably not. So I guess I’ll scale back a bit.

Afterwards we waited for my husband to finish teaching, ate dinner and then opened a bottle of champagne. Between the three of us we also finished it. It was nice to taste champagne again but I’m also very happy to not drink today. While we were sitting there drinking champagne I pulled out the sock yarn sample I’m spinning and I finished the first third of the sample. Yes!

I then started writing this post, was interrupted by the boy, we got talking about Genshin and he helped me develop a strategy for what to do next, and that took up the rest of my evening.

I went back to this post, wrote a list for today and went to bed just slightly too late.

Today will be back to normal, something I always appreciate. I’m all fired up for spinning right now since I finished the first third of the sock yarn sample and all the spinning for the cardigan.

Husband was in productivity mode and I had a lot of things that I wanted to get done as well, so we didn’t talk as long as usual. I did the dishes, folded a load of laundry, finally cleaned washbasins and toilets and even cleared the sieve in the faucet.

And then I went on a one-hour walk/run. It was very hot. I had 2-minute running intervals and was sure I would drop dead any time soon but every time I felt like that I looked at my smartwatch and saw that my heartrate was only between 135 and 140 so I mostly kept going. Her ie me all sweaty and exhausted at the halfway point:

I think the raccoon eyes are the lack of sleep, mostly.

I returned back home with enough time to take a shower before lunch:

I took a break with chocolate and my video game and then the boy joined me at one point to get his own lunch. He asked if I had time to do the weekly bosses together (that’s where he helps me with the harder ones and you can only do it once a week). The answer was yes, but it went a little longer than expected and afterwards I was very full of adrenaline.

And then I went and taught piano.

I used a break between students to refill the water in my piano and play a little for myself, then taught some more and then met with the friend who is coaching me.

I would have liked to be better prepared but, well. Coaching was helpful as always.

Since I am very determined to make better use of my time in the evenings I then started writing this post, finally ate dinner (was very hungry at that point), did the dishes, played some more video game and went to bed.

And today my husband and I are going out for lunch, just the two of us, because it’s our wedding anniversary.

I did all the usual morning things not including the manuscript, then breakfast with my husband and then another one of those draining emotional conversations. It ended well, though.

I called my mother on the phone and we told each other about the past two weeks. Meanwhile my husband was busy making lunch and when he looked out the window he saw his brother’s grown-up children arriving, one after the other.

That was puzzling because we didn’t know anything about it. I took the chance to ask one of them when I saw him in front of the garden gate, and he said they were there to play cards. In our garden. Now, this is also my mother-in-law’s garden but we would have liked a bit of warning.

After lunch it turned out that the boy had known about it. My mother-in-law had told him and had also assumed that we already knew because one of our nephews is taking guitar lessons with him. But, he hadn’t had a lesson in ten days.

Husband had planned to spend the day puttering around the garden, taking care of the compost and relaxing in the hammock but there were five people sitting right there having a small party.

We ate lunch with an accompaniment of grumbling but it did taste nice:

I finished reading the last Sarina Bowen book afterwards and then was slightly stuck on what to read next. I then started playing Genshin Impact.

Around four when I thought about eating a piece of milkbread my husband showed up. His brother and nephews had offered to help us with that plaster board so it was time to put on real shoes and get busy.

Even with the four of us it was not easy. The couldn’t believe how heavy this thing was. But we managed and now our balcony is whole again, after years and years.

That made us so happy!

My brother-in-law even produced a cordless screwdriver from his car that is stronger than mine, and that helped.

I then ate my snack, played some more video game and finished a quest, then started another one, and then it was time to do bodyweight training with the boy. We were a little earlier than usual because we also planned to cut his hair.

Which we did. Just like the last time I did this, years back, I set out to cut it a length that would still work with a ponytail and just like then he ended up with – short hair. That is not symmetrical at all. On the bright side, it looks okay after he washed it but I did not pack the scissors away, I will do some corrections later today.

I also decided to send him to a hairdresser the next time because I find it way too stressful.

After that it was half a bag or tortilla chips for dinner, more Genshin, then I started writing this post, planned the week and today rather quickly and went to bed somewhat earlier for once.

Husband and I talked a little longer and so the rest of the day was off but not by much. I finished a pair of socks:

I am very proud that I then opened the manuscript and added new words to it. I am writing scenes that I didn’t know I needed, very exciting.

I did the dishes while listening to classical music. I am really far behind on my „A Year of Wonder“-project and I have no idea when I will manage to listen to all 25 minutes of Richard Strauss’ „Metamorphosen“. For now I skipped it and made a note to come back to it.

There was the walk/run:

It was warm enough for short sleeves and shorts for the first time this year. I also managed to do the full 60-minute session of my Couch to 10K-program. My thighs were somewhat complaining at the end.

Lunch was ready when I came back:

I then read a bit, played my video game for a while and got rather frustrated because nothing was working out like I wanted it, then I finally took a shower, the boy came downstairs to get my help in choosing loads of new clothes (his old ones are falling apart) and then I was late for my weekly writer Zoom.

Zoom was very nice even though I had to sit through it without knitting because I didn’t have the time to wind the yarn into a ball, and then the whole family met to try and repair the balcony.

Well. So there is this huge sheet of plaster board that used to be underneath the balcony but then a drain pipe broke and there was water coming out the porch ceiling right next to the lamp that was there. Not good. So my husband and I took the plaster board off.

I remember it almost killing me to hold and move that thing because it is very, very heavy.

Now, yesterday the plan was to move the board back to the porch/balcony, have my husband and the boy up on ladders pressing it against the beams and then I would put the screws in and screw it in place.

Well.

The good thing is, no one got injured and everything is still in one piece.

The bad thing is that we would need another person to help us with this job. There was no way the two of them could hold it over their heads while balancing on ladders for long enough to let me fix enough screws that it wouldn’t come down again.

We thought about constructing something to hold it up, we also thought about asking a friend to help but what we will probably do is to ask the gardener we know to fix it for us and then we’ll just pay him.

After that we had mini pizzas while watching a rather good episode of ‚Columbo‘ and then I had to rush to get the rest of my evening routine done.

And no, I did not turn the lights out on time. Again.

Today there will be the usual Sunday things, some cleaning that I didn’t manage yesterday, and I will probably cut the boy’s hair. Wish me luck.

Husband and I talked a little longer and so the rest of the day was off but not by much. I finished a pair of socks:

I am very proud that I then opened the manuscript and added new words to it. I am writing scenes that I didn’t know I needed, very exciting.

I did the dishes while listening to classical music. I am really far behind on my „A Year of Wonder“-project and I have no idea when I will manage to listen to all 25 minutes of Richard Strauss’ „Metamorphosen“. For now I skipped it and made a note to come back to it.

There was the walk/run:

It was warm enough for short sleeves and shorts for the first time this year. I also managed to do the full 60-minute session of my Couch to 10K-program. My thighs were somewhat complaining at the end.

Lunch was ready when I came back:

I then read a bit, played my video game for a while and got rather frustrated because nothing was working out like I wanted it, then I finally took a shower, the boy came downstairs to get my help in choosing loads of new clothes (his old ones are falling apart) and then I was late for my weekly writer Zoom.

Zoom was very nice even though I had to sit through it without knitting because I didn’t have the time to wind the yarn into a ball, and then the whole family met to try and repair the balcony.

Well. So there is this huge sheet of plaster board that used to be underneath the balcony but then a drain pipe broke and there was water coming out the porch ceiling right next to the lamp that was there. Not good. So my husband and I took the plaster board off.

I remember it almost killing me to hold and move that thing because it is very, very heavy.

Now, yesterday the plan was to move the board back to the porch/balcony, have my husband and the boy up on ladders pressing it against the beams and then I would put the screws in and screw it in place.

Well.

The good thing is, no one got injured and everything is still in one piece.

The bad thing is that we would need another person to help us with this job. There was no way the two of them could hold it over their heads while balancing on ladders for long enough to let me fix enough screws that it wouldn’t come down again.

We thought about constructing something to hold it up, we also thought about asking a friend to help but what we will probably do is to ask the gardener we know to fix it for us and then we’ll just pay him.

After that we had mini pizzas while watching a rather good episode of ‚Columbo‘ and then I had to rush to get the rest of my evening routine done.

And no, I did not turn the lights out on time. Again.

Today there will be the usual Sunday things, some cleaning that I didn’t manage yesterday, and I will probably cut the boy’s hair. Wish me luck.

I knew I wanted to get quite a bit done and opted for morning pages and yoga but no writing.

Husband and I enjoyed breakfast together, I knitted while we talked, and then I did my usual online rounds and did the first half of the breakfast dishes. Breakfast dishes have two stages, the first one is cleaning all the tea things and the second one is everything else.

And then my husband and I met to figure out a stopgap solution for the broken audio mixer in the basement where he teaches drums. He had gotten the smaller audio mixer out, the one I used to use for recording my podcast, had connected it to the computer and the speakers and it did – nothing.

So he had to use a rather inadequate bluetooth speaker the day before, not ideal at all.

So we tried it all again and the first thing we found was that the socket the mixer and speakers were plugged into was turned off.

Unfortunately, that was not it. But then I put the speaker cable into a different output, pressed a few buttons, opened the system settings on the computer and switched the computer’s output to the new mixer and – voilà!.

Phew.

After that I had exactly one hour left before lunch. I set out to change the sheets on my bed, clean the mirrors, dust everything (very superficially), start a load of whites, and even managed to vacuum the whole house (only the middles). In between I ordered takeout and then picked it up in the nicest, sunny weather.

Lunch was very good as usual:

And I managed to eat only about half of my main dish:

I had the rest for dinner. (What’s in the bowl is half, well, the bigger half.)

I asked the boy to hang up the laundry because it would be done while I was teaching but after I taught all the students I found it still in the machine. I had even used a five minute break where a student was late to pick out a new piece for my last student and print it out, but no, I couldn’t rest, I had to hang up laundry.

Then I changed into exercise clothes and did bodyweight training with the boy. I might be getting marginally stronger, even, but it’s a bit frustrating that it all goes so slow.

I do have to remind myself that I was under the weather for weeks not that long ago and so now I need to rebuild. And I need to do it in a way that I don’t hurt myself and especially not my hands.

While I was eating a handful of licorice after lunch I also decided that it is time for a(n almost) no sugar challenge again. The rules are the same as the last time, I can have up to four pieces of dark chocolate per day, I can have cookies, ice cream and cake when I make it myself or on special occasions like birthdays, and that’s it.

I’m pretty sure I’ll feel much better following those rules, we’ll see how that goes.

After training I finally ate dinner, talked briefly with my husband, started writing this post, made a list for today, finally did the day’s dishes, played some more Genshin Impact (the boy had given me a long list of things I needed to do ASAP, funny enough) and went to bed a little earlier for once.

Oh, and I am all caught up with „War and Peace“. I had gotten behind but managed to read enough yesterday that I’m also done for today.

And now for the weekend. I wouldn’t mind it being a productive one as well.

I went to bed too late, slept well, did my morning routine but did not open the manuscript.

Husband and I had one of those emotionally draining conversations but hey, I finished a hat while we were doing that:

I did some of the dishes, went to the supermarket, came back and had lunch:

The boy had returned from uni in time while my husband was all peopled out so the boy and I had lunch together and I got to listen to some of the stuff he learned in his crystallography lecture

My first student had canceled so I had quite a bit of time. I played Genshin Impact, I also read a little, and then it was time to teach my first student.

We had a fun time talking about waltzes and other music in three-four-time and then I had a generou break that I used to do the dishes and start folding the laundry.

Just when I was almost done my husband showed up because the mixer he uses in the basement when teaching drums didn’t work. We eventually decided that he should dig the small one that we own, the one I used to use for recording my podcast out from the annex attic and connect that to his basement computer but something wasn’t working so I gave him my small bluetooth speaker as a stopgap. That one is not loud enough for sure.

So that is something we need to figure out next. Best until lunchtime because then he’ll need it again.

Meanwhile my next student was already waiting.

I taught her and then a friend over Zoom, we talked for a while, and then I had guacamole and tortilla chips for dinner, finished reading a book, switched to another one, played some more video game, started writing this post and went to bed.

Today will be stupid busy. We need to fix the mixer/loudspeaker situation, I want to finally clean some of the house, get takeout for lunch and then teach all the students. Oh, and do strength training.

Oh my.

I did not manage to open the manuscript, though, because my husband showed up in a mood and that threw me off.

We are continuing our new morning routine up to the point that my husband has asked me to buy a new clock for the kitchen because from where he sits at the table he can’t see any of the clocks we have, and with the new routine he really needs to know what time it is.

When I was doing yoga in the living room and my husband had left the room briefly there was a big thump all of a sudden and one of the logs fell out the wood stove to the floor. Thankfully there is a glass plate on the hardwood floor there and I managed to wrestle the huge log back. As far as I know nothing got singed but the room stank of smoke for a while after.

We talked about all the things including my coaching the night before, pentatonic scales for guitar and some other stuff.

I did dishes and went out for my run. Then I went back when I realized I had forgotten to put my sports bra on and started over. The sun was shining but it was pretty cold. Hence the fire:

When I came back I thought I had time to take a shower before eating but nope. The bra thing had cost too much time. Lunch was very good:

I had quite some tim after lunch but didn’t use it as well as I wanted. I did some stuff in the video game and took a shower but didn’t manage the dishes.

I taught my usual Wednesday students including replacing a guitar string for a student, something I don’t do often, usually my husband restrings everything. It’s magic, I have a broken string and the next time I look it’s whole again.

After that it was time for bodyweight training with the boy. This should be the last triple exercise day for a while, I hope. I was so tired and exhausted while out running that I didn’t run all that much, maybe a total of five minutes. Strength training went a little better but I was still sore from Monday.

After training I ate dinner and talked with the boy, then read for a bit and then did the many dishes. Halfway through that the boy showed up again, we started talking and – whoosh! – an hour went by. I brushed my teeth, drank a cup of tea, talked some more and then finally started writing this post, wrote my list and went to bed an hour too late.

Sigh.

Better today.

We had breakfast and my husband and I talked some more about my „am I doing enough or not“-problem. To which the right answer is of course „it depends“.

We are continuing with the new schedule for the mornings which means we have to push ourselves a little to get stuff done on time but it also means that we eat lunch around 1 as intended, hurray!

But first I ran errands. I renewed a prescription, bought toilet paper, interdental brushes, yogurt and chocolate, then went to the health food store for one or two things. And more different chocolate.

I came home pretty early and my husband was right in the middle of the extra stress phase of cooking which is the worst time to be putting away groceries. Oh, and I was so out of it when leaving before because I was thinking so hard about that problem that I left without my list and wearing the wrong glasses. I realized when I was about 5 minutes away from home, briefly considered going back but then thought I can do without.

Well, I should have gone back because my husband had found two things we also needed from the health food store but didn’t catch me before I left.

Anyway, so I unpacked everything, then turned around and went back to the health food store.

The cashier recognized me and asked, for the second time today?

Yep.

There was lunch:

I wanted to do the dishes right away, you know so I would go to bed on time, but when I was looking for a container to put the rest of the pasta in I found another round of bugs in that box. We had had bugs in that cupboard just recently and had gone through everything and thrown stuff away and my husband had cleaned everything very thoroughly.

Well, turned out there was some flour left that was the source of the infestation. There weren’t many, though, so I cleaned the part that was dirty after throwing away the flour but had to skip doing the dishes because I still had to hang up the load of laundry my husband had started in the morning.

Then there was teaching which was fun but I’m still very exhausted and brain-dead.

I had a brief break between teaching and going to coaching over Zoom, so I ate some dinner rather quickly before attending.

The group coaching session was rather helpful. (Her main advice after offering a few suggestions that I had to counter with „I’m doing that already“ was – to go to bed earlier. Duh.)

I then started to write this post, tidied the kitchen, made a list for today and played my video game for the first time that day.

Today should be a little less busy which is good because I could use a bit of breathing room.

Not that I felt normal in any way, I was extremely tired, very exhausted and my brain still needs some time off. We learned a lot last week.

I did set my alarm as usual and was very determined not to pick up my phone before breakfast. And I didn’t. I just started researching stuff right away on my laptop.

I did my morning pages and five minutes of yoga and five of meditation, and then had breakfast with my husband. We talked quite a bit, mostly about the retreat but also about some stuff of his, and then he suddenly said he had thought about those frequent conflicts around lunchtime and that he wants us to stop talking in the morning at 10 and the dishes done by 11.30, so that everything else we want to do fits in, including cooking with minimal stress.

He thought I’d be unhappy about those restrictions but I was so happy and relieved. It’s exactly what I’ve been thinking and I usually do better with structure than with free-flowing whatever.

So we stopped talking at 10 and I got my laptop out and started working on the manuscript for twenty minutes. Brushed my teeth, did the breakfast dishes and then decided to walk to the health-food store because we were out of oats and fruit.

And then I came back, turned around and went for a short walk/run:

When I came home lunch was already on the table, hurray! And we did not fight in any way:

The price for a peaceful lunchtime was that my husband (and me to a certain extent) had to just go from one thing wo the other without stopping. But I’d say it was worth it.

I took a short break and then a shower and then I taught my usual Monday students.

Afterwards I played the piano for a couple of minutes, helped the boy with the wording of an email and then the two of us did bodyweight training. Wow, am I out of shape! I only missed two workouts but I did spend most of my trip sitting somewhere without moving. My knees already started hurting again.

We both ate dinner, I started writing this post, we did our weekly boss fight together, and then it was time for the dishes and bed.

And today I’ll walk to the health food store again, I guess.

I did feel a little less tired in the morning, though, so that was interesting.

I started packing all my stuff up while getting ready for breakfast and even squeezed my morning pages in.

By the way, I was very, very happy about my minimalist packing and I ended up using everything but the „just in case“-stuff like bandaids, pain meds, pocket knife and nail file. Those are all things that are super annoying if you need them and don’t have them. And it’s not like the small town we were in was full of shops where you can get everything.

I checked out right after breakfast, paid for all the snacks I had binged on from the mini bar and the one beer I had, and confessed to have destroyed a plastic stand for a small piece of paper because I used it to prop a window open and forgot about it when I closed said window.

I didn’t even have to pay for it, hurray!

We then all met in the conference room with everybody’s rolling suitcases plus backpacks piles against one wall. And my small backpack under my seat. Ha!

We had our last hours of workshop and you could see everyone visibly drooping. It was still all very nice, and I’m happy to have met all these writers.

Then we had our last meal together:

There was some rucola with fried tofu and some cherry tomatoes, and then rice with turkey ragout:

And then some yogurt cake with mango and strawberry sorbet:

After that we talked a bit among ourselves and then I sat there with two more hours or so before my train was leaving. My original plan was to visit the craft fair but I had already looked at everything the day before.

So I took an earlier train to Karlsruhe, the weather was really nice, and when I saw that the zoo is right next to the main train station I briefly considered going there for 90 minutes until I saw that tickets cost 15 €. I looked for a nice bench and read some more „This Kingdom will not kill me“. I started really glomming on to it some time the day before and actually finished it later on the train just before reaching Munich.

I bought myself some snacks for dinner and a bottle of coke and waited for the train.

My trains were all on time, the high speed one to Munich was even two minutes early so I arrived home earlier than expected.

While still traveling I had gotten messages from both my husband and the boy offering me soup for when I’d come home. The boy had made himself ramen for dinner and had something left and my husband had bought chicken thighs and was offering to make chicken soup which was very sweet but I declined because I was not hungry.

I arrived back home and was greeted by the rest of the family and I was very happy and relieved.

Verdict on the new way of packing:

I am loving it but had still taken more than I would have liked but that was mostly because I needed lots of print outs, and some sets of cards and I took more yarn than I usually would. I knew the hat would need 117 grams or so, the first ball that I used was only a partial one so I took two full ones. When I travel I usually take a sock project and that means 100 grams of yarn. I also took a tiny tape measure because I needed to know the length of the hat.

The backpack looks very good but the back and straps are not all that comfy to wear for longer stretches of time. On the other hand I was walking around with it all day without any problem.

Whereas the rest of the group was all dealing with rolling suitcases plus backpacks bigger than mine.

Granted, I was the only one who wore all her clothes two days in a row and the skirt and leggings all for days but then one of the other writers was surprised when I told her I live in sweatpants at home because she found me rather elegant.

It’s all in the skirt.

I am also very pleased that my go-to travel outfit these days includes so many pieces that I made myself, handknit socks, of course, and leggings, a t-shirt, a skirt and a cardigan that I made myself.

Today there will be the planning of the week, the walk/run, a shower and lots of teaching.

At one point in the day I felt so tired that I might have fallen asleep sitting up.

I will have to make sure that I don‘t fall asleep on the train later today.

The retreat is going very well, and I might have the beginning of an answer to one of the big things I have been thinking about. Sorry for being so ominous but it‘s mostly to do with how much to do is actually enough and how much energy to spend and if I could do better or not.

Lunch at the hotel was very good again, tomato soup, bratwurst, Saumagen, sauerkraut and potatoes and a rather nice warm chocolate cake with lemon sorbet for dessert. Of course I only took a picture of the main course:

Then more workshop stuff and we also visited the craft fair that was held on the castle grounds. Did I mention the hotel is a castle?

For dinner I had planned to get a bag of potato chips and eat those in my room but someone said they had made a reservation at a nearby restaurant and so I went there and got dumplings in mushroom cream sauce:

And then we went back to the hotel, I started writing this post, read a bit and went to sleep.

Today will be breakfast, packing, checking out of the hotel, more workshop, the last lunch with all the other writers, maybe some more time at that fair and then I‘ll make my way back home changing trains a lot.

I‘ll arrive around the time that I usually should get ready for bed so that will be fun, and then it will be back to normal.

But I wrote morning pages and lounged in bed for a bit before going over for breakfast.

The last writer for the workshop had finally arrived, her flight had been canceled because of the Lufthansa strike and so she had to miss the first day.

We did our thing at the workshop and I did that thing where I don‘t stop talking and interrupt everybody but I‘m trying to do better.

Here is a picture of the first course of my lunch:

Sorry that I did not take pictures of the roastbeef I had or the almond tarte. It’s all a bit much.

After lunch (the food here is excellent, really) I went back to my room for a bit of quiet time and not only was it smelling iffy, there also was a puddle underneath the toilet.

Oops.

But that is the nice thing about being in a hotel, it was not my problem to solve.

They sent someone to have a look, and while he came immediately, he also left all the doors wide open which meant all my stuff was basically on display.

The nice woman at the reception desk had already said that they might have to give me a new room, so I just packed everything up real quick.

And yes, I did get a new room which was nice because that puddle was creeping closer and closer to the door and it did not smell good.

My new room is bigger with more light, so that‘s nice.

The workshop continued all afternoon, this time we did some stuff outside in small groups because the weather was so nice.

Afterwards another write and I went to an Arabic restaurant around the corner, had very good food, and talked a lot.

This time I remembered the picture:

We came back early because we both needed quiet time and so I spent the rest of my evening alone.

I guess tomorrow will be pretty much the same as today. Minus the toilet thing, I hope.

Everything went very well, though. I got up, made myself a breakfast that I packed into my backpack including a thermos of tea, I caught the first train of the day and while that one was two minutes late that didn‘t bother me because I had half an hour to change trains in Munich.

The next train was fifteen minutes late which bothered me more because I wanted to catch an earlier train on the next leg.

In the end I had four minutes to get from platform 3 to platform 10 and thanks to traveling with just a small backpack and also thanks to regular jogging I actually made it.

That train was late as well but again I did get my connection and from the last station it was only five minutes to the hotel where I am staying.

My room was ready already, despite the website saying it wouldn‘t be before 3 in the afternoon, so I even got to put my feet up for a bit before lunch.

I met the other writers at lunch for the first time, they are all very nice and a rather mixed bunch. One came all the way from Australia, even.

The coach is very good, it is all delightful.

But. I might run out of yarn. I finished the first ball today, and am at a length of about 21 cm already. The whole thing is supposed to be 52 cm, so I‘m not sure that will last me until Sunday night.

I guess we‘ll see, I brought two more balls but I won‘t need all of them, so I‘ll slow down with the knitting a bit.

In the evening we tried going out for dinner but the few places in walking distance were all closed so we ended up getting sandwiches and chips at the supermarket and then ate them outside sitting on a bench.

I completely forgot to take any pictures, so there‘s that.

And now for more retreat. And more knitting, of course.

I did yoga, meditated and took my blood pressure and then ate breakfast with my husband. We talked and I knit and then my husband went to the farmer’s market for potatoes.

Meanwhile I gathered all those pesky small things you need while traveling. Charging cables, a nail file, my tiny pocket knife, a thermos mug, a container for today muesli, bandaids, headache meds and my prescription medication.

I also packed it all together and it does fit in the smaller daypack but there is not as much room left as I’d like.

And then I went on a short walk/run:

When I came back my husband was in a mood. He had burnt the burgers because he went downstairs to get the load of laundry upstairs. They were still edible, though:

I then took a break and played Genshin, and then jumped into the shower real quick.

Taught a regular number of students, and then immediately turned around to get a coaching session from my friend. On her birthday! Which was fun but by the time we were done I was very, very hungry, and very, very exhausted.

My husband had wondered why I was still on Zoom after teaching because he had forgotten I had told him the session had been moved to today. (American friend had wanted to do her taxes on Monday.)

So then I talked with him, finally got to eat dinner, talked with my husband some more and steeled myself to do the dishes and such but husband said to leave the dishes, he’d do them today.

This is what my packed bag looks like, by the way, the only things that are still missing are my glasses case, my earbuds and my phone:

This is based on the list I made during the packing class last fall but I added quite a few things to it: 2 pairs of glasses, a small purse, sunglasses, my eReader, a container for my breakfast, a bigger powerbank that can charge all my devices, two extra balls of yarn (that I probably won’t need but of course I need to be prepared), an extra fountain pen, a stack of paper that I am supposed to bring with me, two card decks (also for the retreat) and a foldable travel nail file.

See for yourself:

The stack in the back is my travel clothes, the bright orange packing cube next to it holds my clothes, oh, and I packed some almonds so I don’t starve.

After all of that I then talked with the boy, he helped me massively with Genshin so that I could go to bed a little earlier, I wrote this post and scheduled it for today and then went off to bed.

Today I need to get out of the house before 7 so I can catch a train. Wish me luck for the train ride and all the connections. There is construction on at least two routes so things might be interesting.

Anyway, I will eat lunch somewhere else than home, how exciting!

I did yoga and bodyweight training but I did not open the manuscript.

I turned the heel on the sock-in-progress.

I went to four shops and now the fridge is full again, we have lots of tea and the glasses that kept pinching my ear and not fitting properly are now actually wearable.

Lunch was past salad:

The boy went to uni completely in vain because one of his lectures was only online and the other one was canceled. And he even got up super early and all. During a subway and bus strike.

But everything went well and all is good.

I started packing in earnest and now all that is left is all those really small things like the pocket knife, tissues, pain meds and such. And I need to make a list of all the last-minute stuff. prescription meds, all three pairs of glasses (oh, and sunglasses), all the cables and chargers, that kind of stuff.

And that is what I will do today.

See you!

So then the boy showed up (at 6.45) and needed to talk about which classes to take this semester. You know, the one that starts today.

Needless to say, I was late again and I did not write before breakfast. But then, a family member needed to talk…

I did open the manuscript after breakfast, so at least that was good. I also read two chapters of „War and Peace“, many episodes of that webcomic, did the dishes, watched part of an online thing for a class I’m taking and dug out my packing cubes.

I then sorted through all the electronic crap that we had up in the attic cupboard. Most of it was for recycling but not all.

And then I went walking/running:

I only did half an hour because I was pressed for time but I did push myself a little harder.

Then we ate lunch:

After that I jumped in the shower and then played Genshin Impact for twenty minutes before it was time to start teaching.

I taught many, many students, ate dinner, and then met with the boy for playing co-op and managed to kill all my characters twice in a row. Why yes, that might also be the sleep deficit.

The boy did the dishes again, I started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed.

Today will be all the grocery shopping, teaching, bodyweight training and packing.

Not quite sure why that is. The not getting enough sleep is certainly part of it, as is the energy drain of the house being a pigsty and all those unfinished projects, but still.

I did my morning routine including opening the manuscript and reading through a few scenes to get back in. Like every day I really didn’t want to do yoga and then felt better because I did it.

We had breakfast and were talking about phases of life and transitions, I called my mother on the phone and her big piece of advice for this week was that a) you can also use beans from a can instead of soaking the dry ones and cooking them for hours, and b) when I leave for my trip on Thursday I should definitely get up 15 minutes earlier instead of stressing myself, right.

Never mind that I am a big girl and have known both of these things for many, many years.

I then helped my husband a little with chopping things and grating cheese for lunch:

There was more talking and then some reading and chocolate. I did not read my chapter of „War and Peace“ that day or listened to the daily piece of classical music or did my daily 2 minutes on the Chinese app because I found this really awesome webcomic „Assassin Roommate“. I spent most of the day slowly making my way through the first season of that.

I am very proud that I did not leave the dishes until late but actually did them around 5 and then proceeded to plan the upcoming week.

The boy and I did a short session of bodyweight training, I ate dinner (more comic-reading), and then I went on another one of those Zoom calls. This one is a monthly one and I am never quite sure if it’s helpful or not. I do like most of the people, so there’s that.

After that was finished (and after completing most of the heel increases of the sock-in-progress) I started writing this post, made the list for today and did not look at my phone again.

And now I’ll be off to an extra long day to start the week properly.

When I pulled my new controller out of the bag where I keep my portable office to charge it and the right joystick was pulled off I suddenly realized why my old controller broke so soon. Seems I should not put it inside that bag without a case. I did order a case, I hope it fits and will help to keep it in shape.

Husband and I talked, my sock grew a little, I did the dishes, cut my husband’s hair and then went off to my walk/run:

The weather was gorgeous and there were hordes of bikers out.

When I came back it turned out we were out of sweet mustard. That was essential for lunch so I went back out again to the nearest supermarket.

Back home for the second time I took a shower and then quickly cut my hair. After lunch my husband took the shears and snipped a few more strands a little shorter. It is hard to get your hair even in the back when it is a little longer.

Lunch was very Bavarian and very tasty:

While eating we talked about running because my husband had run 10K for the first time in ages. He had thought he was getting too old but turns out he was just not in shape. That made me look up my heart rate readings for my own walk/run (4 minutes of walking for every 1 minute of running) and I found that my heart rate never went above 140. Mostly it was between 110 and 120 which tells me I might want to push maybe a tad harder the next time.

I spent some time reading and eating chocolate and then I played my video game for a while until it was time for the weekly writer Zoom.

The meeting was rather nice. After that I had a free evening, we decided to skip the weekly ‚Columbo‘ because my husband wanted to watch something else and I was happy about a free evening. That I spent playing more video game.

The boy was nice enough to offer to do the dishes while I was starting to write this post, then I wrote a list for today, read a bit more and went to bed.

And now the last day off before teaching starts again.

Breakfast with my husband, some knitting, I did the breakfast dishes, folded some socks and filled my traveler’s notebook with all the papers I ned to bring next week. And then it was almost time to leave for lunch. Unfortunately I hadn’t heard from the boy yet. In the end I went upstairs to wake him up five minutes before we needed to leave.

We did not leave on time but I used those ten minutes waiting for him sorting through some old electronics and cables that used to live in the attic cupboard.

We walked to the other end of town in the rain and then found that we didn’t have a reservation. My husband had sent an email the day before but hadn’t gotten an answer.

We were lucky, though, and got a table. The one between the bar and the stairs to the toilets but still.

I got the 4-course tasting menu and it didn’t disappoint. First a vey sweet and brightly colored alcohol-free aperitiv:

Then some thinly sliced veal with greens that I did not recognize:

And then some crespelle with spinach, the same that my husband had as his first course and the boy as his main course:

And then some excellent lamb fillet:

And as dessert some strawberry tiramisu:

Now, those who know me know that I really dislike strawberries. But I hadn’t realized there was a dessert at all and I felt bad at letting it go to waste so I tried it and I really liked it as well. There weren’t many of those nasty strawberry seeds in there, it was really nice.

And then we walked back, this time the rain had stopped. We made a short detour to a supermarket because I had forgotten to get trash bags and came home with two sizes of trash bags, yogurt, chocolate, canned veggies and tissues.

After that I played for a bit, then finished knitting a sock while on a Zoom call, then refilled three fountain pens, did bodyweight training with the boy, saw that the new controller was finally there. („Your package was received by a neighbor Vaur der Haustur at door“ which means it was placed outside our front door without anyone ringing the bell first.)

We finished our exercise, I unpacked the controller and had a few problems at first but then got it going and I really like it. I’m not quite sure if I want the blinking lights or not but I can change that as the mood strikes.

Then I ate dinner, started writing this post, played around with my new toy and went to bed.

I am really happy that we actually managed all the things we wanted to do. Hurray!

On the bright side I did not spend my break paralyzed at all, woot!

Yesterday I did not get enough sleep, then did the morning routine. No writing but instead I looked at the digital proof for Eva Mandel 3 for the paperback version that will be available outside of Amazon.

Husband and I talked about our past selves, mementos and all the crap that is in our cupboard in the attic. Which reminds me that I need to go through all the old computer stuff that I just put in there over time.

There were dishes to wash and groceries to buy and then there was lunch:

I spent some time playing Genshin Impact and finished the overarching quest. Very moving, great story, chef’s kiss.

And then it was time to teach. I had a lot of fun with the two students I had, the third one was stuck on a train and couldn’t make it.

I ate dinner, then played some more, watched some YouTube, talked with the boy quite a bit (about Genshin), started writing this post, did the list for today and went to bed.

My controller is acting up so badly that it’s no fun anymore, good thing I ordered a new one that should arrive today. I spent all of ten minutes researching, fingers crossed this one will work like it should.

Today we’re doing the second fun thing we planned for this break, we’re going out for lunch. I’m really looking forward to it.

But first I managed to sleep for almost eight hours, yeah! I wrote morning pages, did my ten minutes of yoga and meditated for five minutes. I did intentionally skip manuscript time because we wanted to leave the house early and I thought I could do cover research in the afternoon.

Oh, and I downloaded the new patch for Genshin Impact and pulled for the character I wanted. I spent quite a few wishes but ended up with basically all the characters I wanted, yeah!

I did not do cover research in the afternoon.

But first breakfast, talking with my husband while knitting a bit and doing the breakfast dishes.

And then I walked over to where the cargo bikes are parked and had to figure out how to unlock one and how to get it home. I have to confess I pushed it home because I was a bit apprehensive about riding it on the sidewalk.

Meanwhile my husband was busy loading the bike trailer. I have to say, the garage looks much better now with all the old boxes gone. This time we took all the old electronics, computers, pieces of metal, batteries, loads of plastic and some other packaging and the remnants of the CD stand plus the drying rack.

The cargo bikes „trunk“ turned out to be much smaller than expected because there were seats for two children in there. We did manage to fit the enormous drying rack in but it was leaning to one side and a bit unstable.

I had adjusted the seat to what I thought was the right height for me, and started pedaling. Right on the street with quite a few cars. Not rush hours, though, phew.

I had to stop three times to adjust the seat, turns out I like my seat lower to the ground than usual with a bike like that. Meanwhile I was trying to figure out the bike. Pedaling was hard which was unexpected, I pushed some buttons but they didn’t seem to do anything, and I found a thingy to control the gears. I think.

So we went to the other end of town, together. As usual my husband was biking very, very slowly, up to the point where I thought I might keel over. Going faster is much easier. Apart from when you have to go uphill. I had to push the bike again because that was impossibly hard. Again, I think I turned the motor off by mistake.

Going uphill meant that an LED bulb fell out of the bike trailer and shatter in the street so we had to pick up bits of glass.

We managed to sort almost everything into the right containers and the guys working at the recycling place were very nice and helpful.

There were also many trash bags full of recycling from the boy tidying up his room. Unfortunately that was only the batch from the last time. I got informed that he has started another collection of trash bags full of recycling.

I guess we should figure out if the boy can ride my husband’s bike (because his bike doesn’t have the hitch for the trailer).

Anyway, I rented the bike for two hours (was just 5.50€, the rent is subsidized by our town) and we took just barely more than an hour.. I can definitely see myself doing that again. Next time I’d want to figure out how to use the e-bike part as well.

And then I went on my walk/run while my long-suffering husband was all set to go back again with a huge box of packing materials. But. It was just ten minutes to noon aka closing time. The people working there would not be quite as nice if he showed up right in time for their lunch break, so he moved that to the afternoon.

I went walking/running. I chose an easy version because I had already done quite a bit of exercise and was still a bit sore from bodyweight training the day before.

And then there was a shower and lunch:

After that it was time to spend some quality time continuing with the video game. I was very close to finished that overarching quest and have decided I want to do that first before exploring all the new content.

Then I taught a lone student, then I played the piano for fun, ate dinner and played some more.

I started writing this post just ten minutes before my bedtime, then the boy came downstairs and we started talking.

Yawn.

Today will be pretty busy as well, there will be a supermarket run and an afternoon of teaching.

Which then meant in turn that I was very late in helping my husband take care of the recycling.

So in the end he took three loads of cardboard to the nearby smaller recycling place and I just cut boxes apart and dismantled a huge CD stand. We looked at the rest of the things in the garage and made a few decisions for today and then I went out to one supermarket and two health food stores.

And then there was lunch:

I played a lot of Genshin Impact, I refilled two fountain pens and the humidifier in my piano, did bodyweight training with the boy (where I made two of the exercises harder which I’m still feeling today) and ate dinner.

I then started writing this post, did the dishes while listening to a course video, made a list for today and played some more video game.

Today should be recycling again and also teaching one student.

And continuing book cover research, sigh.

I went to bed a little late, slept well and managed the complete morning routine, including opening the manuscript of romance #1 and sorting out the timeline. Which I finished.

Then yoga, meditation, taking my blood pressure and finally breakfast. And knitting while talking with my husband.

I did my internet rounds, then the dishes and went for my walk/run:

I was dressed way too warm for the weather, shorts and a t-shirt might have been enough. It’s funny, I am always cold but not when I’m out for exercise.

I came back home to lunch on the table, my husband cleaned all the small bits of meat from the lamb bones and put them into kritharaki with tomato sauce.

And then I started playing my video game. I wanted to gain an exploration reward and that took me many hours that day.

I also researched renting a cargo e-bike and made an account with the company that has a couple of bikes right next to our house because we want to deal with recycling and get some bigger stuff to the dump. Always fun without a car.

After a while I remembered that I am supposed to be a responsible adult, vacuumed the old part of the house including those places where dust gathers in the very old radiators we have in the bathroom and living room. There are open spaces in between and I actually got a special attachment for our vacuum to get in there.

Then I cleaned the washbasins and toilets and the edge of the tub. And I filled shampoo and conditioner into small lip balm tubes and cut a piece off the soap I use, all for my trip. I’m almost set for toiteltries now.

And then I taught a piano lesson over Zoom, ate dinner, continued working towards my exploration reward and then did my weekly bosses with the boy.

After that I played some more until I finally got my reward.

I started writing this post while the boy did the dishes, wrote my list, brushed my teeth and went to bed.

And today I might ride an e-bike for the first time ever to cart cardboard around. Among other things.

But. The Osterzopf was very, very good, and I had some for breakfast today right again, yum:

We put the lamb roast in the slow cooker a little too late, so we had to wait for lunch until after 2 o’clock but it was delicious and so soft you didn’t need a knife:

We also opened a bottle of wine, the first time in quite some time. It was also very, very good but we all stopped after the one glass.

My mother-in-law even had organized ice cream for dessert and afterwards the boy and I tackled the dishes under her protests.

I then played a bit, the boy and I did bodyweight training, I ate dinner (and half of the rest of the ice cream), planned the week, started writing this post, and went to bed not too long after.

I also signed up for another online class. It might be a bit ambitious to take an online class and an in-person one from the same teacher in the same month, but there you are.

Not pictures but still very important and satisfying was that I turned the heel on the sock-in-progress.

I slept a cozy 8 1/2 hours (after going to bed half an hour late again) by oversleeping, so no manuscript time in the morning.

I had breakfast, knitted a bit, did the dishes, made the Osterzopf  dough, and went on a short walk/run:

And one of these days I’ll get a pictures where my eyes are all the way open, you just wait and see.

Then I immediately turned around to go to the supermarket for toast, ham, salad, pine nuts, fake salmon and licorice.

When I cam back home my husband was busy making pizza and had put the egg yolk I had saved for my bread in his pizza dough. I might have lost it a tad, I was so proud of taking care of everything, then I worked like crazy, went running, went to the supermarket, got almost run over by a speeding white van at a zebra crossing and then my egg was gone.

Well, we had 10 more eggs…

I helped with the pizza and the salad and we had a delicious lunch that was only an hour late:

After lunch I immediately tackled the dishes and the baking sheets, then braided the dough, washed everything up while the oven was preheating and only took my break once the Easter bread was in the oven.

I did read a bit while eating licorice, played a very quick round of Genshin and went off to my weekly writer Zoom.

Where there was only one other writer besides me. My guess is the Easter weekend didn’t work out for most of us.

After that I met my husband who was hanging up laundry after having browned the lamb roast for tomorrow and researching how to make it in the slow cooker. Husband was very disappointed that I had used up all the creme I had bought. That is because I bought exactly as much creme as I needed for baking.

Turns out he would have wanted to make sauce with creme. I had no idea. I guess we’ll improvise.

Then we ate some salmon on toast with some pretty good alcohol-free rosé champagne, watched a rather good episode of ‚Columbo‘, then the boy and I tackled the dishes, I started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed a little late yet again.

And guess what? Today will be very busy again.

I felt tired and as if I just wanted to crawl back into bed.

I was also very late and decided to skip yoga, meditation, and manuscript time.

So, basically a lost day already, and that before breakfast.

Husband and I had breakfast, I tried making myself do yoga after but instead I felt completely paralyzed. I still did the dishes and then uploaded book 3 to a second distributor. So people can at least get the paperback from all the shops.

Then there was still a bit of time before lunch, so I vacuumed the annex.

Lunch was delicious:

I took a break, I read and I played my video game for a couple of hours. Then I actually stopped and wrote a post on my author blog. Seems now that I’ve actually finished putting out the first three books I have brain space again for things like telling the world about them.

I took a picture of all the paperbacks:

Then the boy and I did bodyweight training, I ate dinner, I played some more, I started writing this post, made a list for today, the boy offered to do the dishes and so I got to watch TV and spin for a bit.

And today there will be more exercise and some baking.

Did the complete morning routine, spent time with my husband, went grocery shopping by bike along with everybody else, their kids and grandparents. The are moving things around in the supermarket again, there were things I just couldn’t find. I know the theory is that people then see more stuff that they buy but I often just tend to go home without even the things on my list.

Lunch was pretty late but rather good. It has been a while since we last ate Leberkas:

Then a break and then I taught three students. I had wanted to use the break between students in a productive way but all I managed was to play a new piece of music on the piano, „Ambre“ by Nils Frahm. I’m loving it.

After I talked with my husband while he finished doing the dishes and then I finally got to eat dinner. After which I started playing my video game. And then I was so focused on reaching a certain achievement that I completely forgot the time until the boy showed up around 11 pm. Oops.

I still started this post and the list for today because I thought that would make me sleep better but it didn’t help me sleep longer, of course.

I think today will be another day completely off, I need some rest.