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.

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

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

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

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

And then I went out for my walk/run:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lunch was ready when I returned:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And then there was bed.

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

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

My husband made lunch:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And then bed.

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

Definitely a good day.

We had an early breakfast and just as I thought I should start the fire in the woodstove he was back again. We did a bit of housework and then I walked to the nearby supermarket. Only to forget one important thing so I guess I’ll get back today or tomorrow.

I actually did get the final version of the book cover and the plan was to start publishing book 3 in the afternoon.

Well.

But first lunch:

That sauce was made from leftovers and there were fresh spaghetti. Also, a bag of gummybears somehow ended up in my bag in the shop. Weird.

I had quite a bit of time in the afternoon. The plan was to play a bit of video game after lunch, then teach one student, work on publishing stuff, teach two more students and then relax.

But I picked up my controller just real quick.

On the bright side I did make some great in-game progress.

After teaching I ate a quick dinner while my husband was doing the dishes and I later joined him. I played more video game, started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed.

And today will be full and busy again and then – Easter break!

I wrote my morning pages, opened the computer and tried finding a document with the keywords I used when publishing book 1 and 2, failed because there doesn’t seem to be such a document anywhere, and decided to skip yoga and meditation because I didn’t feel like it and my husband was already almost done with his breakfast.

I finished knitting the heel of the current sock-in-progress after breakfast, did the dishes, helped my husband order something on the internet, saw that I had an email from my cover designer, okayed the last version and went for my walk/run:

It was very windy. The weather changed quite dramatically, we’re even supposed to get snow again.

When I came back home lunch was already on the table so we ate together and talked some more:

Then I played some Genshin, took a shower and only then realized that I had forgotten about the load of laundry that was ready to be hung up.

I frantically folded the clean laundry still on the rack so that at least one of them was free, hung up two sheets and had to leave it at that because my first student was about to arrive.

I sent the boy a message to please hang up the rest of the laundry but later it turned out that my husband had had a cancelation and used that time to do all kinds of housework. He even cleaned the basement stairs.

After my last lesson I played some piano exercises, refilled the water in my piano’s humidifier and ate dinner. I read a little, played a little, did the dishes, started writing this post, made a list for today, played some more and went to bed.

Today has already started off weird because my husband had a doctor’s appointment at 7.45 which meant getting up earlier for both of us.

My big hope for today is to move book 3 forward to publication, we’ll see how that goes.

In the morning I did my complete morning routine including opening the note I made with everything that happens in book 3 and the blurbs from books 1 and 2.

And then I wrote a draft of the blurb and it went rather quickly.

There was yoga and a pretty late breakfast again. I did the breakfast dishes and kept adding things to my list.

First I went to the doctor’s office to leave another urine sample. I was supposed to do so two weeks ago or so. I swung by the drug store for tongue scrapers and was very proud that I did not buy any mint chocolate.

Then I went to the health food store the second time in two days and braved the meat counter. Could I order lamb roast for the Thursday before Easter? He wasn’t sure. He did show my some very nice lamb fillet but, well, that was extremely pricey and also just a teensy piece, I needed at least five times as much.

He said he might be able to order something but wasn’t sure. And then he said he had some in the back, vacuum-sealed that would keep long enough. Bingo!

I also went on to buy some spices and more chocolate and chamomile tea, all things I had forgotten to bring the day before.

The plan was to change the sheets on my bed before lunch but there wasn’t time. Lunch was an old standby, rice and lentils:

Then I had a bit of a break before my first student that I used to read (started Sarina Bowen’s „My Kind of Guy“ that morning) and play my video game. I was very proud of myself after because I am actually getting better and had a major breakthrough.

Then there was teaching. And at one point a student showed up that I had rescheduled. Only I had given her the wrong time and had double-booked myself. Oh-oh.

But, the student I had double-booked her with was the one who almost never showed up. So I told her what had happened, started teaching her and sent the other student a text asking if she would show up, and if so (she would have been almost ten minutes late at this point) if we could do her lesson a little later.

Well, turns out she did not show. And had never intended to. Crisis averted. But I would have liked to know beforehand.

Since that left me with half an hour of free time between students I then finished writing the blurb, proofread it and sent it off to the cover designer and then I went online and ordered the contact lenses I had wanted to get for weeks.

Another student, then a quick round of piano exercises and it was time to do bodyweight training with the boy.

Then dinner, I started drifting off to social media but caught myself almost in time, started writing this post, did the dishes, wrote my list for today, descaled the electric kettle and changed the BRITA filter, played some more video game and went to bed.

I had really hoped to also have time to watch TV and spin but, well, can’t have everything. I would love to finish spinning the purple Corriedale and make myself a sweater from it but, well, another day.

I tried doing everything a little earlier than usual and was somewhat successful. Because we were out of yogurt and the fruit we need for breakfast after yesterday’s breakfast I really needed to go to the store. Which I did. Twenty minutes of walking.

After putting the groceries away I went back out again, this time for a short walk/run:

My husband was equally busy so lunch was frozen pizza with salad:

And then I had a little time to myself before taking a shower and starting to teach my students.

Teaching went well, teaching a friend over Zoom was the highlight of the day. Even though I had to convince her not to cancel her lesson because she hadn’t had touched her instrument for weeks. Well, then at least you can play in the lesson. She played well and then we talked about the new BTS album and their concert at length, as one does.

So I was a little late eating dinner and also to meet the boy so he could help me with the weekly bosses in Genshin Impact. I played like an idiot but we won anyway, thanks to the boy.

After that I played some more and then somehow fell into a YouTube hole and ended up going to bed too late again.

Today will be a little less full but I realized that I had forgotten to get some stuff from the health food store and also I need to ask about ordering some lamb roast for Easter. This year will be the first that my mother-in-law won’t make the Easter lunch, so I need to get that organized in time.

I can’t wait for Easter break. And yes, I am aware that we just had a week off not too long ago but I was sick that whole week and so it wasn’t as restful as I had hoped.

Because around 9 or so I had told the boy I’d play first and do my evening routine later.

I mean, I did. Mostly. Way later.

It’s often these tiny things, I think they don’t really make a difference and then they turn out to make all the difference in the world.

Anyway, I wrote morning pages but did not open the manuscript, did yoga and meditated for five minutes before having breakfast with my husband. Both my weight and my blood pressure are moving in the direction I want them to, so that’s nice. My guess is also that those two things are connected.

We talked about all kinds of things, and then I was too late to call my mother who had already been waiting. Ouch. After the phone call I quickly did the dishes and then my husband made a big lunch for us:

In typical fashion he had forgotten to make the Brussels sprouts that were the original inspiration for this meal. Good thing they are still in the freezer.

We ate lunch, all three of us together, and then we went out to vote again. There were two run-off elections, one for the main mayor and the other for the county administrator (no idea how to actually say that in English).

Afterwards the boy and I ate the ice cream I had bought on Thursday. My favorite ice cream brand was on sale.

Then it was time for one of the monthly Zoom calls I often watch, so I did that while knitting part of a sock. Then the boy and I did bodyweight training where I tried using heavier weights for one of the exercises but my finger. joints protested so I scaled back again.

I finally ate dinner, started writing this post while the boy was making himself ramen, I wrote a list for today and for the week and brushed my teeth earlier this time.

And now for another week filled to the brim. 

I did run (and mostly walk):

Then I squeezed in the door right when the concert started. I watched that, knitting in hand, and enjoyed it tremendously. I was a bit apprehensive about the new songs at first but they are definitely growing on me.

The concert was just an hour, then I took a much-needed shower and there was lunch:

I read and played and then it was time for the weekly writer Zoom. After that I finished a sock and wove all the ends in, and then it was time for the weekly ‚Columbo‘. Very nice episode, even the music was better than the last few times.

After that I played some more, decided not to start anything that would take long, let myself get sucked into farming materials real quick and ended up going to bed too late. And I almost forgot to do my Chinese app, even.

That was a really nice and exciting day but an earlier bedtime would have been a good idea.

I then tried to be good, wrote morning pages, eventually opened the manuscript for twenty distracted minutes, did five minutes of yoga and meditated quickly before breakfast.

After breakfast I listened to the album properly while knitting the heel of the sock in progress. And that meant no cleaning, no changing the sheets, nothing. I squeezed doing the dishes in and then went out to pick up the Chinese food I had ordered for lunch:

And here’s the main course:

That is actually the boy’s lunch, not mine, my husband had put the noodles with tofu in front of me and it took a while to register that I had ordered chicken and what I was looking at was tofu.

But all was good, the boy got his vegetarian meal and I got the meat.

Then it was almost time for teaching.

I thought the rest of the day would be a little hectic with teaching, then Zoom, then bodyweight training but one of my students canceled and then another one which meant we could train between me teaching and going on Zoom. I even had time to reheat the second half of my lunch for dinner and eat it before the call.

I did sit through the whole call and it was very interesting but unfortunately I was no longer able to listen and to process information. Oops.

After the call (which went half an hour longer than expected) I said goodnight to my husband who didn’t know (or didn’t remember) that I had a call, then played Genshin for a while and just when it was really high time to get ready for bed the boy showed up, wanted to take a shower, and told me all about Genshin lore.

Which was very nice but not at that time of day when I had talked to people all day (or had been talked at).

I started writing this post, then made a careful list for today and went to bed.

Today will be tricky. It’s Saturday but I have a couple of things that I need to be on time for, the BTS concert, weekly writer Zoom and the weekly watching of ‚Columbo‘. And I need to fit the rest of the things around that. Fingers crossed I can do it.

Started the morning routine, did well until the point where I should have opened the manuscript and – went on social media. Meh.

Did yoga, meditated for 5 minutes and had breakfast with my husband. Then dishes and off to the supermarket on my bike.

Of course by then I was – late again.

I came back home at a time where lunch should have been ready but instead the potatoes were just starting to cook. Seems I was not the only one taking ages with everything. We also had a bit of a snafu with veggies and no carrots left in the fridge and so my husband opened the one can of peas and carrots the we keep for emergencies:

That brought back memories, as a kid I thought this was what peas always looked like. Meh.

Then there was chocolate and a bit of video game and then teaching.

After which I ate a whole bag of potato chips for dinner while reading around in three different books, procrastinated the dishes until I finally got going, tried listening to the Schubert string quintet for the third time and got interrupted again. This time by the boy.

I decided to let the string quintet be string quintet. Three attempts at listening all the way through are enough, I’ll continue on with the next piece today.

The boy and I got talking up to the point where I showed him a few BTS and one Stray Kids video, I then started writing this post, made a quick list for today and went to bed eventually.

We’ll see how today goes, the list is long, of course. I okayed the new version of the cover for book 3, so now I „only“ have to write the blurb and I’ll be set.

I gave myself a deadline until Monday.

I did write morning pages and opened the manuscript (still working on writing the timeline of book 1 down) but decided to move yoga around which meant there was no yoga. Duh.

There was breakfast and dishes and I managed to catch up with my reading of „War and Peace“ and almost catch up with the classical music.

Then there was the walk/run:

I might skip to a slightly harder version next time, starting over from the beginning is a little too easy. Sorry for the squint, everything feels too bright these days, probably the cataracts.

When I returned lunch was already on the table:

I took a break, then was somewhat late for taking a shower, looked at my calendar to make sure I hadn’t forgotten an early student and saw that the boy had a dentist appointment 20 minutes later. I didn’t know if he was awake or not but figured if he got dressed and brushed his teeth right away he might still be on time.

He was awake but had forgotten all about it and was a little late in the end.

I was on time, freshly showered, my hair still wet.

I taught a few students and in between looked at the new version of the cover for Eva Mandel book 3. I think this is it. Now I just need to write the blurb. Still.

After teaching I talked with my husband for 5 minutes, then changed and met with the boy for bodyweight training. We were both still very sore from our Monday workout.

Afterwards I finally ate dinner, played Genshin Impact, asked the boy to do the dishes, and then we ended up talking about Genshin for over an hour.

I eventually went to bed, I always do.

I went to bed at a reasonable time and – didn’t sleep all that well. I guess changing my sleep habits will take a while. I had a bad case of the dunnwannas and did not open the manuscript. I also dragged myself through yoga and my 3-minute meditation.

One of the reasons I started the day in a slightly bad mood was the fact that I had an appointment to get measured for new orthotics. Mostly because I didn’t want to leave the house. Especially since it looked very cold, gray and wet outside. I even went back for an umbrella only to pack it back up and stuff it in my backpack because it wasn’t raining all that much.

After my appointment I went to the health food store and was back home way earlier than expected.

I unpacked the groceries, folded all the laundry and then waited for lunch:

I had a short break before teaching but only very few students. My day had started with cancelations and rescheduled lessons so I was out early.

After that I mostly sat around reading and playing, the boy came home from uni and told me about the experiment they had done, I ate trail mix instead of dinner, played some more, did the dishes, started writing this post, made a list, played some more and went to bed.

I did my complete morning routine, including spending some time on getting the timeline straightened out and written down. Which also meant I could make a note of a bike that was at two houses at the same time and some luggage that I had forgotten about when starting to write book 2.

I also did my usual yoga. My back is really acting up and I am basically tense and sore head to toe so gentle movement seems like a good idea.

Husband and I talked at length, then I did the dishes, folded about half a load of laundry and hung up the fourth one in two days. The whole living room is a mess of drying racks.

I then went out for my walk/run. I am starting over again and am still on 30-second running intervals, so it’s all very doable.

Lunch was ready when I came back home. Simple but tasty. And we’ll be getting more eggs today so these needed to be used:

I then took a shower before a 30-minute break and then there was teaching. All the students that I had massively corrected in a cranky mood the week before played much better this week. One didn’t show until her lesson should have been over, time-blindness is a thing and I was very sorry for them but I didn’t have time to move the lesson elsewhere.

I was pretty exhausted after that, tired and hungry so I ate a few almonds before doing bodyweight training with the boy. We started extra easy with 2 sets of 8 to get back into the groove.

I then ate dinner and waited for the boy again to kill some video game bosses together. While waiting I wrote a list for today and started writing this post and then I decided I had enough for one day.

Some more reading and playing, I asked the boy to do the dishes and then was done with the day.

I did buy yet another book, this one about fatigue. We’ll see how I’ll like it but the topic is certainly super interesting.

I promised a picture of the finished socks and here they are:

I started the next pair right away and after five rounds or so I decided to pull everything back and use a different cast-on that looks better and is stretchier.

I talked with my husband and called my mother and did not read my daily chapter in „War and Peace“. I am also behind on listening to my daily piece of classical music but I guess I’ll get back to it soon and will make up for the missed days.

It was cold enough for a fire in the wood stove so our house was cozy and warm. Lunch was a little late but then it often is on Sundays:

My afternoon was all Genshin Impact all the way, I had to put some serious time in to finish the event stuff that ended last night. The boy had already told me off for leaving it all to the last minute but then he still helped me with a few things.

In between I talked briefly to the rest of the family, did the dishes, changed the towels and watched my husband clean washbasins and toilets and wash three loads of laundry and hang them all up.

And yes, I am spending too much time playing that video game. I need to change that. Half the time should be enough, it’s not a race to finish the fastest.

I ate dinner, played some more in between reading and then I started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed.

Today will be somewhat busy, the plan is to go walking/running and do bodyweight training in addition to teaching. I also really need to get back to the cover designer ASAP…

1. I had gone to bed 45 minutes late.
2. I had dawdled in the morning and there was no time to open the manuscript.
3. Even if there had been time I wouldn’t have wanted to write. (This is pretty standard after not writing for a while.)
4. The weather went from sunny and mild to gray and cold.
5. I felt totally paralyzed and had a super hard time with transitions all day.
6. There were dog walkers everywhere when I went out.
7. The yarn I was knitting was dark, sticky and blue.

You get the gist.

I did have a nice walk/run:

I came home a little late and lunch was barely started (another reason for crankiness) so I took a shower and then folded some laundry. And then there finally was food:

I read and played that video game and had to stop right in the middle because it was time for the weekly writers Zoom. Since the US are on daylight savings time already but we still have another week to go the meeting was an hour earlier.

In the kitchen my husband was busy doing the dishes so I helped drying them a little. Made myself dinner and we watched the „Rest in Peace Mrs. Columbo“-episode. That one is a good one.

I then didn’t want to do anything at all (that was basically the theme for the day) but did make myself start writing this post and make a list for today before slacking off again.

Despite the list I’m still not quite sure what today will bring but it will certainly be very, very cold.

Oh and I finished my husband’s socks while watching TV. I’ll take a picture later today.

I went to bed on time. I did not sleep all that well, all my own fault for eating junk late in the evening. But hey, eight hours of sleep.

I even opened the manuscript and did yoga and everything.

Husband and I had a long conversation that was actually nice and then another one (still nice). I started doing the dishes but ran out of time because the big thing for the day was riding my bike to the next town over and get another prescription for orthotics from my orthopedist.

Which I did. The weather was nice, sunny, a bit windy and not too warm and getting there only took about twenty minutes. I had to bike next to a big road most of the way but there is a separate bike path and all was good. I came back home much earlier than my husband had expected.

There was still half an hour before lunchtime and he was pretty stressed out. He had tried doing garden stuff, the dishes, going out to buy alcohol-free beer and lemonade, and starting to cook.

Which was a bit much all at once so he couldn’t finish any of it. I was all set to tackle the dishes but he thought it would be better to cook first. Which was right.

So I dusted and vacuumed the annex after helping with chopping vegetables and setting the table.

Lunch was just a tad late but very tasty:

After that I played my video game for quite some time. One after the other most of my students canceled or rescheduled their lessons so I was free until 4.30. I then dusted and vacuumed the old part of the house before sauntering off to teach.

Nice lessons including a very new student. First time ever that I got contacted by someone’s PA. I thought I was emailing back and forth with a family member, of course, and got the parent’s name wrong, oops. But it all got straightened out eventually.

I then skipped playing the piano, cleaned all the mirrors, ate dinner, started writing this post and making a list for today and did all the dishes. No bodyweight training yet, the boy and I decided to start that again on Sunday. For now 40 minutes of biking has to be enough for one day. Well, that and 10 minutes of yoga.

I was super slow first thing in the morning, so I ran out of time for the manuscript, husband and I had a misunderstanding first thing and there went the rest of my energy for the day.

The original plan was to do all the things but in the end I shunted some stuff to today and tomorrow. I turned the heel on the sock-in-progress and promptly made a mistake – at least not a big one – then the dishes and in between made sure the boy was awake. He had a Zoom meeting for uni at 2 and wanted to get up a little before that, of course.

I decided to go to the nearby supermarket because my husband was meeting a friend for lunch and so I had to provide the traditional frozen pizza:

I found out that I don’t care for pesto on my pizza.

I then talked with the boy, briefly, and with my husband, ate all the gummy bears read and played Genshin and then it was time to teach.

A break, more talking, more teaching and after I started eating dinner at 8 pm which is a bit late.

The boy came downstairs and opted to kill some bosses in game in co-op mode. He thought that would take about half an hour but in the end it was 1 1/2 hours because my poor characters are so frail, so he swapped their equipment around and such.

Then I started writing this post, made a list for today (another super busy day), and went to bed. I’m very determined to make sleep a real priority.

Not quite sure determination is actually the thing that counts but we’ll see.

I actually went to bed on time and slept well, phew. I still was super tired all day but at least I wasn’t making the problem worse.

I did my morning routine without manuscript time, seemed I was totally blocked about the novella-in-progress, so much so that I thought about starting something else or revising the new urban fantasy.

Husband and I had a great conversation over breakfast that we had to cut short because he had to leave for his dentist appointment.

While he was away I tried to make myself write unsuccessfully. I spent some time online and I knitted while reading.

Just as I was about to get up from the kitchen table my husband returned. Everything had gone well, things are looking good.

I did the dishes while listening to Piazolla and then to a podcast about writing.

And then I went out and redid the first day of Couch to 5k for the umpteenth time. I wasn’t quite sure if I’d be up for it but thought I’d just try and if the running parts (45 second intervals) were too much I could always just walk back.

It was glorious:

The sun was shining and it was fun to move and to listen to some BTS and I got to think round and round the novella-in-progress until I felt all motivated and had sorted through all kinds of problems with my writing.

It looks like this might not actually be a novella in the end, though, those two guys have some serious stuff to work through.

Very exciting!

I came back home to lunch already on the table so we ate next:

We ate together, then I played some Genshin and took a shower before teaching all the students. One of my students had canceled so I used that time to get a start on writing down the timelines for the first romance novel because that is relevant for the second one. I can’t write more until I have sorted that out.

Thought looking at the timeline of those heroes’ lives I might have to go back through that story again to make sure people are all their appropriate ages. The whole thing is ‚contemporary‘ without any world events or covid. Sure.

I taught my last student of the day did a few scales on the piano, ate dinner, then started writing this post, made a list for today, did the dishes and sat down to tackle more Genshin. I really have to put some time in next because there are several things I want to do until the end of the week (there is an event that is ending plus another thing that feels urgent but isn’t).

Then a bit of reading and lights out.

Today will be a very, very full day including grocery shopping, making something for lunch, teaching and all the other stuff.

I still set my alarm at the usual time, and everything took ages. I wrote morning pages about sleep and about my mindset around it and interrupted the writing to buy a couple of books, ahem.

A little later in the morning I started reading „Hello Sleep“ by Jade Wu. I had been thinking about getting that book for a while but, well, I a not insomniac. I’m just needlessly sleep-deprived.

In the prologue she writes:

So, when did you lose touch with sleep? When did it stop being an enjoyable thing and become a struggle instead?

Ouch. So, when and why did sleep become something to avoid? I remember going to bed because I was sleepy even as a teenager. I am definitely a morning person, so that’s not it. The first time in my life that I did not just go to bed when I was tired was when I met my husband and we moved together. He is a definite night-owl and that and our afternoon working hours meant that I shifted my sleep to more of a night-owl schedule. But still I would get around nine hours of sleep most nights and when I was tired I’d go to bed and fall asleep.

There is a story I tell a lot when my husband and I were on vacation on Madeira and in the morning I told him that I had been tossing and turning for ages before falling asleep and he said it had taken me about five minutes. Duh.

Then I got pregnant and had a baby and first I had trouble sleeping and then the baby would wake me up all the time, as they do. A couple of years later I actually did have insomnia, I would wake up in the night, unable to fall back asleep and get more and more stressed out about my lack of sleep.

I thought I might have a thyroid disorder, or something else was wrong and did a sleep study. And nothing was wrong.

So after that I decided that if my body wanted to be awake in the night it was its own problem, I’d just stay in bed, nice and cozy, and tell myself quiet stories. My body could take care of sleep or not but a few nights with non-adequate sleep wouldn’t kill me.

And my insomnia went away and I went back to my usual „sleep like a log as soon as my head hits the pillow“-state. Maybe with a break or two to use the toilet but that was it.

Then I decided to get more productive and become a real, full-time writer and read the „Miracle Morning“-books. Some time in 2016 or so I decided to get up at 5 am every day, regardless of when I went to bed and that sleep was for the weak.

My plan was to do a lot of journaling and writing and meditating in the morning but somehow I always ended up writing some more in the evenings because I didn’t fulfill my quota. In the end I got totally used to just being tired all the time. I don’t even know how much sleep I need anymore. Tiredness or sleepiness is meaningless because if I followed that clue for when to sleep I just wouldn’t leave my bed in the morning.

See, those are the things I’m thinking about. How can I heal my relationship with sleep? When did I become one of those dumb people who think sleep is a waste of time?

When I do get enough sleep everything is easier, I don’t lose as much time, I don’t do as much stuff I later regret, I don’t impulse buy books by the dozen and snacks by the pound. Sleeping more actually gives me more usable time than sleeping less plus doomscrolling for a few hours.

Anyway, I talked with my husband for quite some time, watched half a video about medieval knitting guilds while doing all the dishes from the 24 hours before, then did a brief research excursion on speed knitting (funny, there was a video „speed-knitting continental for beginners“ with a pretty slow knitter“), toyed with the idea of learning lever-knitting (looks intriguing and very fast, maybe worth a try), timed myself while knitting half a round on my current sock (50 seconds for 32 stitches in sticky, very dark yarn and 3-by-1 rib where I kept having to knit back because I made mistakes because I couldn’t see the stitches properly and then I went out for errands and groceries.

My husband went to the dentist and found that his appointment was for today, I made an appointment to get new orthotics and found that instead of the weeks I thought this would take I could have gone in today but I need a prescription first, and then I bought all the veggies and fruits and schlepped them home while listening to BTS.

There was an easy lunch:

And then very little time until teaching and I still needed to take a shower. I taught a couple of students with wet hair, had two students not show up at all, and was done early.

I ate dinner an some trail mix, started writing this post, made a list in my bullet journal, did the dishes, brushed my teeth and changed into pajamas and only then did I sit down to relax.

Still not quite sure if I should go for a stupid little walk today, we’ll see. I am definitely no longer so sick that I need to avoid all exercise.

I spent a sizable portion of the morning setting up the new router and then connecting it to all the devices including the mesh wifi devices that are scattered around the house so that wifi extends to the whole house.

I did not manage to connect the last two devices before lunch:

After lunch I got a bit hyperfixated on finishing the next part in my video game. I did finish that one eventually in the evening and then got a list of things that I should do next from the boy in the evening.

The boy was also the one who finished setting up the two missing devices which took quite some time. (I could tell right away when he woke up because I got a text asking me why he didn’t have internet.)

My husband did three load of laundry throughout the day.

While teaching I also had to interrupt my lesson to do some emergency tech support because while the internet (and phone) were working my husband couldn’t figure out how to connect his computer with his TV for playing music during lessons.

One student canceled and another one moved her lesson slightly back because she had had a doctor’s appointment and was late but because of the cancellation I could fit her in some other time.

During the break I read the confirmation for my hotel reservation for September and proceeded to buy a train ticket as well. It’s really weird these days, I buy a ticket and immediately after it says that there are current updates. Only there aren’t really, there is just a nagging exclamation mark but no update text.

After teaching I played the piano, I ate dinner, I played a lot more and went to bed too late again. Very late. Today will surely be lovely.

I also tried booking a hotel room for our family reunion in September. I’m a little sad that the boy didn’t want to come but, well.

I called my mother on the phone, did dishes and then there was lunch:

I ordered another non-fiction book and yes, I still don’t really read those.

I finished the Wilshores blanket by weaving in all the remaining ends:

Unfortunately I managed to take the picture of the wrong side, oops. The border in a 

I had plans to finish cleaning (which I did) and set up the new blurb but the blurb didn’t happen.

We went to vote in our very regional elections. Looks like 

I played my video game a little too long but managed to tear myself away in time for vacuuming the old part of the house and doing washbasins and toilets.

And then I went to bed to late. Great start into the week

I crocheted quite a bit and ended up finishing the border on the crochet blanket in the evening.

I somehow was so late with chores in the morning that I could not fit the vacuuming in, decided to do it after lunch and ended up not having time left because the things I did in my video game took too long.

Lunch was great, comfort food is the best:

There might also have been a steady stream of licorice all afternoon, ahem.

I went to writer Zoom, folded all the laundry, failed to change the sheets on my bed and watched the wrong episode of ‚Columbo‘ with the rest of the family. It was rather confusing when we thought we’d watch the one with Mrs. Columbo but instead we had a writer murdered by her younger lover. Who was so irresistible to all the women that he could do what he wanted to any of them, including the older sister of his lover who knew perfectly well  what an ass he was and had told her sister to break up with him. That was no plausible at all. Especially since she knew he had shot her sister (though at that point they didn’t know he had actually murdered her) and was definitely after the money she would inherit from her sister.

Also, as we all know, romance authors are sweet and innocent and not business savvy at all. Sure.

Anyway. After I went back to my game and finished that part of the quest the I had to leave hanging for Zoom and TV and then I was too late for everything. I still started writing this post and made a list for today.

That list looks remarkably similar to yesterday’s list plus the phone call to my mother and voting in regional elections. Oh, and setting up a new router. Will I manage to do all of that? Probably not but I’ll try.

I still managed to vacuum the annex and I also taught all the students. Then played Genshin with the boy, fell down a social media rabbit hole and ate too much licorice. We had pancake soup for dinner and an omelette for lunch.

Good thing it’s the weekend and I have weekends off.

Because I was so early I decided I had time for a quick look at Instagram before everything else. Ahem. And then it was very, very late. I wrote morning pages, did yoga and meditated very briefly. No manuscript time at all.

Husband and I had breakfast then he left to start working in the garden. I thought I might maybe have some manuscript time or write feedback for the cover designer or something but, no, my brain decided no to cooperate.

I also thought I would be well enough to brave biking to the bigger supermarket but by the time I had done the dishes I was feeling more fainting couch than mall, so I changed plans and walked to the nearby, smaller supermarket. There are things on the grocery list that have been there for three weeks now. But it can’t be helped.

There was lunch:

I took a break, read and played my video game and took a shower and then it was time to teach. Nice teaching day. My last student forgot about his lesson and texted me after the fact. I only waited for 7 minutes or so, and then decided to play the piano for fun.

I talked with my husband while eating dinner. He had done the dishes and was busy making red beet salad. His student hadn’t shown up as well.

I then went on reading and playing Genshin Impact. I am currently upgrading all the weapons my characters use and everything takes longer than I would like.

In between playing the piano and eating dinner I refilled three fountain pens and managed to let one drop on the hardwood floor. I am now having lovely turquoise sprinkles on the floor, ahem.

I started writing this post a little late, wrote a list for today, and went to bed.

I am reading three books at the moment: „War and Peace“ where everybody is in the war against Napoleon at the moment, „Star Shipped“ (no war and I just started it) and „Discoverability“ by Kristine Kathryn Rusch which is a bit outdated but still helpful.

Today I’ll do a teensy bit of cleaning and teach all the students. Somewhere in there I really should do publishing stuff but I dunnwanna and my brain is still mush.

The appointment went well and was very short, I now have another appointment in May to talk with the surgeon for my cataract surgery.

I did feel a bit better in the morning despite the lack of sleep but taking trains and being in the waiting room with a few unhappy toddlers brought my headache back.

At home lunch was almost ready and my husband had bought potatoes at the farmer’s market. That we didn’t eat that day:

The boy had several laundry-related emergencies, one of them was that his only pair of pants was dirty and he needed  real pants for today. In the course of those I taught him again how to use the washing machine.

There was a lot of teaching, my husband did the dishes while I ate dinner and we were both completely exhausted at that point.

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

And yes, today will be busy again.

I have an eye doctor appointment today and it has been paralyzing me for days. Sigh. And all of this when I’ll only talk to the doctor briefly to figure out how, when and where to get my cataract surgery.

But, even though I’m still coughing and sniffling like crazy, I did do yoga for the first time in weeks. Yeah! I started day 1 of the easiest yoga routine I know and every single pose hurt like crazy. I really hate starting over again and again but since the only alternative is giving up…

My husband started a fire in the wood stove because it was so cold and then we had our traditional fight over breakfast because I was overtired. I mean, we don’t always fight when I am sleep deprived but the chances are much higher than usual.

The start of the fight was that my mushy brain couldn’t figure out that half past seven is not 8.30. It makes more sense in German where you say „half eight“ to 7.30 and my brain made that into 8.30 because there’s an eight in there, but still.

Stuff like that involving numbers happens to me all the time. And in this case I thought it through three times and came to the exact same conclusion(wrong) conclusion all three times until it finally clicked. And every time I told my husband that he was wrong. Which he didn’t take well. Fun times and completely unnecessary.

I forbid him to do the dishes for me because I wanted to sit a little longer drinking tea while crocheting and also I felt bad that I had not done the dishes the night before. So I did that later and he sneaked in and helped me dry them. Which was good but meant I didn’t listen to my daily piece of classical music. For the third time in a row. Shrug.

I then walked to the health food store where I managed to drop a bottle of sugo on the floor. Poor employee who had to clean that up.

Lunch was something simple, my husband is still not really inspired to cook:

Afterwards I ate all the sweets, finished reading „After Hours at Dooryard Books“ which I really, really liked and started reading „Star Shipped“ which came out yesterday right away. Seems I am on a Cat Sebastian kick.

I was not really looking forward to teaching but then the student who often doesn’t show didn’t show, another one had canceled in the morning, a third one canceled right before their lesson and I was left with an unexpected 2-hour break that I couldn’t really use. At least I finally figured out why the numbers in my budgeting app and in my bank account weren’t the same. I had already spent half an hour on this in the morning but it took some more time (and a slightly less mushy brain) to figure out that the bank had somehow not moved the boy’s pocket money to his account. And that was why I had more money than expected and my brain that is apparently really bad with numbers had flipped everything so that I had been looking for a lower number when I should have been looking for too much money in the account.

All those students canceling at least meant I could take care of the dishes in the afternoon, then I taught another student, turned around and played the piano for myself for half an hour, ate dinner, and in between the boy showed up with the very happy news that he had finally passed that exam that had been hanging over his head for literally years.

There are still a few hoops he needs to jump through but the biggest hurdle has been cleared.

I then started writing this post and made my list before playing/reading/watching stuff in the hope that I would get to bed earlier.

There was crochet and talking with my husband and a short walk to the supermarket for tissues because I forgot I still had some at home.

Lunch was easy, white asparagus risotto:

Teaching was nice, my new potential student had rescheduled to Friday.

I played my video game, crocheted, and not much more.

I went to bed way too late.

Meh.

I called my mother after breakfast and crocheted quite a bit, I have now started the border on the Wildshore blanket. This will be very pretty.

We had a very simple lunch:

My husband was very preoccupied with meeting a friend in the afternoon that he planned to break up with, never fun but rather emotionally fraud. It went as well as these things can go.

I had an epiphany in the morning about something that had been bugging me for a while now I just need to remember it.

The boy is feeling worse and worse, not only is he coughing a lot, he also has a raging head cold.

I played a lot of Genshin Impact but also managed to set my bullet journal up for March, review February (so-so with 2 1/2 weeks of being sick, nothing to do about that) and plan out the week.

Next week will be the first week I will try to spread the cleaning out over the course of the week. Wish me luck!

Super interesting was the fact that I remembered I own an asthma spray and, lo and behold, it helped with the whole coughing situation. Who would have thought?

And now we’re off to a brand-new week in a brand-new month. My main task remains to get healthy again. Not quite sure how to do that but I am sure that adequate sleep makes difference.

I did get almost enough sleep with just a bit of coughing in the night. I briefly considered doing yoga but then I bent forward for something and had an instant coughing fit, so no.

I only did a little light housework, took a shower and helped a little with the salad for lunch:

I read and played my video game, and in the morning I even opened the manuscript for a few minutes.

Then it was time for the weekly writer Zoom which was very nice before meeting the rest of the family for watching and episode of ‚Columbo‘. The episode was nice but a little too long. Every single one of us nodded off at one point, sadly enough.

After that I started writing this post and made a list for today, the boy did the dishes, we talked about Genshin Impact and I went to bed. Somehow these Saturdays are always too short.

I am also hard at work to shift my morning routine back because no wood stove means that breakfast happens an hour earlier which means there is less time for morning pages, writing, yoga and meditation. Unless I get up earlier. Well, change is a process.

I did text the boy while we were eating breakfast. He was afraid of oversleeping so we had agreed I would call him on the phone at a certain time but because he had gone to bed rather early the night before I thought he might already be up. Which he was.

He was already up and had gone out to get something to eat. Supplying him with tea bags turned out to be a very good idea because he had an electric kettle. It wasn’t proper tea, just chamomile for his cold but still, something warm in the morning.

He studied some more before checking out and then walked over to campus. I didn’t ask him for permission to post the picture he took out of his window the night before but I’m sure he’ll be okay with it:

The place is really deserted after uni closes, there’s the campus (where no one lives), a few diners and that’s it.

He wrote his exam and was doing okay-ish. He doesn’t really know yet what the requirements for a passing grade are, the system there is really weird.

While the boy was writing his exam I was at home unable to focus in waiting mode. But I did manage to start the whole Friday routine earlier than usual. I did the dishes, did my weekly cleaning, folded the remnants of three loads of laundry and hung up a third. I changed the towels and even pulled most of the gunk out of the bathtub drain. Yuck. And cleaned half the bathtub which is a major win.

Meanwhile my husband said he wanted to go for a walk/run and left the kitchen. Twenty minutes later he was back because he needed to start the beans. Then I thought he left but half an hour later he came back after sweeping the driveway and clearing off moss. Both of us were feeling the warm and sunny weather and got into spring cleaning mode.

Then I thought he had left for good but no, he had went out to get soda and alcohol-free beer and such, And then a bit later he finally went out for his run.

All of this was fine but every single time I crossed over to the annex we ran into each other and got startled. He doesn’t deal well with being shocked, especially not every other minute. He also claims that I’m not walking over at a normal tempo but that I’m going extra fast. And at the precisely wrong moment every time. Not quite on purpose but who knows.

Never mind that I got startled too. You think you’re alone in the house and then you almost run over your spouse, that is a bit of a surprise. But well, I get startled, I realize it’s nothing serious, I calm back down. For my husband calling back down apparently takes the rest of the day.

So, whatever I do and whenever I do it, every time I clean the house it ends in conflict. This isn’t working. We’ve talking a fighting about this for decades now. The only time me cleaning plan worked was back in the day when he had a Friday morning student who was also a friend. They’d meet at 11, there would be a 1-hour lesson and then they’d walk over the Greek restaurant and have lunch and my husband would come back around the time the boy and I ate pizza. At first I would make frozen pizza but after a while I made it from scratch because it tastes better.

So I would make the pizza dough the night before after buying all the ingredients on Tuesday, start the dishes and cleaning right when they started the lesson, go all the way through with cleaning until it was time to start making the pizza and finish cleaning while the pizza was in the oven. We’d sit down to eat around 1 and the house would be clean and a load of laundry started. Sometimes I was a little late and had to finish cleaning in the evening.

Well, that doesn’t work anymore.

So starting next week I’ll go back to another strategy I tried before, cleaning a little bit every day. I have a list and I can divide the individual steps out. Clean mirrors on Mondays, dust on Tuesdays, empty wastepaper baskets and deal with recycling on Wednesdays, change towels on Thursdays, vacuum the annex on Fridays, vacuum the old part of the house on Saturdays and do washbasins and toilets on Sundays.

Never mind that I have never ever managed to spread it out like that. Because it’s only ten minutes here and there I find myself thinking that I can easily push it a day or two, Vacuuming on Fridays and Saturday would work best because that is the most disruptive and those are two days where my husband usually goes for a run. We’ll see how that goes.

By lunchtime we were both rather angry at each other which is always sad and unnecessary. We both apologized but we need to find a different solution. I hope the new cleaning plan will work better.

The boy ate lunch on campus while we were having delicious beans and rice:

I actually added parmesan later.

After lunch I was still livid. I tried playing Genshin but couldn’t really focus and then my husband showed right in the middle of a pretty annoying fight in the game and I just quite the game and called it quits. Husband apologized, I apologized and he couldn’t understand why I was so super angry.

One reason for my anger was also that I wasn’t feeling well, I was dizzy all morning and very weak. I needed to sit down all the time and that is getting rather old. I wasn’t sure if I should stop and at which point but once I started things went well and I was delighted to get everything done in one fell swoop.

Then it was time to teach. Very nice students and not all that many.

Meanwhile the boy had returned home. He had not walked along the river but instead taken two busses. It went well even though everything was very, very full. When he was back home he was so exhausted that he didn’t even told e he was back. I went into the kitchen between students and saw his water bottle and the noticed his shoes in the hallway.

After I finished teaching I hung up the laundry we had started in the morning and then did the dishes, descaled the electric kettle and changed and cleaned the BRITA filter. While the boy was telling me everything about his exam with examples. And he poured over the problems they were given and tried figuring out how much he got right and how many points he’d get for that.

My mother-in-law then sent him downstairs with her phone which wasn’t working.This was the second time without a phone this week. This is getting old. I thought it was our six year old router but that doesn’t see to be the case.

I still spent an hour researching routers and ended up ordering yet another one. This time I am not cancelling the order, I will go through with it and install the annoying thing to see if it works.

I just wanted an updated version of the old model that we are using but that doesn’t exist. I have no idea what to look out for and was just taking a stab in the dark, wish me luck.

Then I finally ate dinner, played some more, started writing this post which took a while because this is 1,300 words long at this point. I am very sorry.

I wrote my list for today, took an ibuprofen and nasal spray, washed my face, brushed my teeth, changed into pajamas and went to bed. If I were really good I would mop the kitchen and bathroom floors today, wash the shower curtain and pull out then radiator attachment for the vacuum and tackle the bathroom radiator. This one and the one in the living room are rather old and they have these rips that collect dust like crazy. Dust on radiators can be a fire hazard even though that doesn’t happen often.

So. Writing, maybe meditation and some more cleaning and laundry today, Writer Zoom and maybe ‚Columbo‘. I’d ay that will be enough. Phew.

That trip was pretty much at the forefront of my mind all day.

But first I woke up in the morning and had just slept all night with no coughing that I remembered. Yeah! Of course, then I started coughing and didn’t stop for most of the day. Annoying.

I wrote morning pages and decided I was too weak for writing or meditation or anything. Our morning routine is changing back to no wood stove in the mornings and that is throwing me off, of course. I mean, everything throws me off famously.

Husband and I talked a little over breakfast then I crocheted and read, did my usual internet rounds and then the boy was up. He might be vertical but he was not exactly coherent. He has reached the massive sniffling stage of the cold.

I did the few dishes there were, brushed my teeth and went out to the nearby supermarket. I bought almost everything we needed plus all the snacks.

Came back home very dizzy and weak, put the groceries away and went into the shower right away. And then there was another easy lunch:

I read quite a bit and had a discussion over text with a friend about weaving.

Then I got coaching where we had to state that I had reached not one of the goals I set myself three weeks ago but we also agreed that there were circumstances beyond my control. I’m still struggling with what and how much to expect of my self and how to deliver and , of course, with the pain that everything goes so much slower than it should.

I helped the boy think through his day and his packing list after teaching my first student where I proceeded to teach her a piece she had already learned the week before. Not because she didn’t get it but just because we did an online lesson the week before and I had forgotten to write things down. Oops.

Then I had a short break where I basically ate snacks and helped the boy rearrange his stuff fin his daypack so that it might actually fit.

I ate junk for dinner after the boy was gone and then taught another student. Then ate more junk, played Genshina and was too late later, duh.

The boy had gone to Munich to eat fast food for dinner, found his hotel room and told me about it.

I played some more, then saw a part of a BtS concert, I started this post and left the list for this moment.

Big, fat mojo for the boy in today’s exam!

But after writing morning pages and talking with my husband I found I was feeling a little better and decided to just do my regular planned day.

I went to the drug store, supermarket for yogurt, the pharmacy for painkillers and the health food store and then was completely wiped out again.

My husband still doesn’t really feel like cooking is also coughing a lot and thinks everything is too salty, so lunch was good but a little uninspired. Which is okay:

I had a bigger break before lunch and really needed it.

Then I taught all the students and ate a quick dinner before helping the boy study for almost two hours and then I helped him think through the logistics of his hotel stay tonight, exam tomorrow and how he will get back home despite the strike.

I also gave him a bit of cash for food, lent him a smaller toiletry bag and my power bank (his is a monster capable of charging his laptop, something he doesn’t really need to schlep around all day) and gave him throat lozenges and tissues.

In between I researched the weaving structure of a bedspread a friend of mine got in India, she sent me photos and I asked in my favorite forum on Ravelry and got pointed towards double weave. Which led to me buying Jennifer Moore’s book on the subject even though I don’t own a 4-shaft loom. I mean, I would love to have one but to be fair I wouldn’t use it a lot for sure. My beloved rigid heddle loom has a project sitting on it barely started in, um, 2015.

Anyway, diving into weaving research did make me happy, so that’s good.

After all of that I was completely out of energy but I still started this post and made list for today before going to bed.

Too late again, of course. Ack.

I’m still coughing and not 100% so the only thing on my list for the morning was taking a shower.

Lunch was simple and pretty good. My husband still finds everything too salty so the food was a little bland and I put some extra salt on:

Lunch was early enough for a nice little break before teaching.

All the lessons were going well, lots of guitar students and I was happy that my voice was much better. Of course I then just talked so much that things were getting a little worse in the evening.

One of my students didn’t show and I used that time to write emails and other messages to students. The cover designer wrote to ask if I was happy with the design. Oops. I answered back that I was sorry and will get back to them next week because I’m sick. Which means I now have a deadline for the cover feedback and blurb.

And then I opened a news site and saw the announcement of a public transportation strike for – Friday. Which means the boy will have major trouble getting to his exam that day.

I briefly thought about asking someone to drive him, about renting a car and driving him myself (in morning rush hour through a city where everybody needs to get to work without using the subway or busses.

Anyway, I booked him a hotel room ten minutes on foot from the university for the night before. The regular trains will keep running, so he should be able to make his way back home after the exam. If push comes to shove he might have to walk for 75 minutes to the nearest train station. Not ideal but doable, even with carrying pajamas and a toothbrush.

And now he is a bit stressed out by having to check in to a hotel on his own and because he is anxious he’ll oversleep. He will take his extra loud vibrating alarm clock, though.

After discussing that and booking the room I finally ate dinner and then waited for the boy who said he’d eat and then be right back so I could help him study.

He was not right back.

I had put off doing anything else but read (I started reading Cat Sebastian’s „After Hours at Dooryard Books“ that morning because all the other books seemed boring which happens) and just when I decided to pull out my video game he finally showed.

We set to work and discussed logistics for Friday, then I started writing this post, made a list for today, played some more and went to bed. Oof.

I didn’t do anything all morning but write morning pages, eat breakfast and fold half a load of laundry. After which I had to retreat to my easy chair and put my feet up because I felt really weak.

My husband went out to the nearby supermarket for yogurt, tissues and toilet paper and then went on to cook lunch:

There was cauliflower soup from leftovers and also leftover goulash with some pasta:

The poor thing keeps cooking every day even though he isn’t really hungry at the moment and everything tastes too salty for him. It’s probably the cold and will go away on its own. The boy only got the soup and had to fend for himself otherwise. But that is why we have a bunch of vegetarian ready meals in the freezer.

After that I played a bit and then just sat around until it was time to teach.

The way I felt I really should have canceled my lessons but I didn’t want to. It’s always such a hassle with all the texting and calling people on the phone and then I would have to reschedule everything at a later point.

I probably should have done it anyway, but well. After teaching I suddenly felt much better.

The boy, by the way, is having the sore throat that is the first symptom of this cold. Fingers crossed he’ll have a mild version and is in fighting shape for his exam on Friday.

I ate dinner while my husband did the dishes and a little later I helped the boy study. After that I made the bad decision to play some more Genshin and went into „just one more“-mode. I then decided that I could also do the rest today or so without a problem, started writing this post at the time where I should have turned the lights out, did my list for today and finally went to bed.

Today the plan is to put my feet up a lot, take a shower and teach, the end.

I woke up feeling much better but decided to skip manuscript time and yoga anyway. Which turned out to be a good decision. I sent a message to my mother that I couldn’t talk on the phone and then used my renewed energy to change the sheets on my bed and switch out the towels after breakfast.

I started a load of laundry and when I then started to fold the laundry already dry on the rack I found that, nope, I needed to sit down right away.

So that’s what I did.

My husband made pea risotto and almost forgot the peas:

After that I decided to do the dishes right away before anything else so that I might go to bed at a reasonable time for once.

I sat around and read and played my video game and then played some more. I helped the boy study but we only did half his notes because I was coughing and sniffling all the way. My voice was a little better but definitely not good.

At one point in the afternoon I was wondering that I was feeling so hot. We had the wood stove going but surely that was not it? Nope, I had a mild fever. Harumph.

So I ate an early dinner, started writing this post, did the list for today and for the week, finally finished reading two days worth of „War and Peace“, watched a bit of a BTS concert before going to bed early with a book.

This will definitely be an interesting week. I really hope I can teach. And that I’ll have my voice back on Thursday and that the boy stays healthy for his exam.

Oh, and sorry for the weird post yesterday and for getting the dates of the posts mixed up. As I said, I’m not feeling all that well.

I woke up feeling much better but decided to skip manuscript time and yoga anyway. Which turned out to be a good decision. I sent a message to my mother that I couldn’t talk on the phone and then used my renewed energy to change the sheets on my bed and switch out the towels after breakfast.

I started a load of laundry and when I then started to fold the laundry already dry on the rack I found that, nope, I needed to sit down right away.

So that’s what I did.

My husband made pea risotto and almost forgot the peas:

After that I decided to do the dishes right away before anything else so that I might go to bed at a reasonable time for once.

I sat around and read and played my video game and then played some more. I helped the boy study but we only did half his notes because I was coughing and sniffling all the way. My voice was a little better but definitely not good.

At one point in the afternoon I was wondering that I was feeling so hot. We had the wood stove going but surely that was not it? Nope, I had a mild fever. Harumph.

So I ate an early dinner, started writing this post, did the list for today and for the week, finally finished reading two days worth of „War and Peace“, watched a bit of a BTS concert before going to bed early with a book.

This will definitely be an interesting week. I really hope I can teach. And that I’ll have my voice back on Thursday and that the boy stays healthy for his exam.

Oh, and sorry for the weird post yesterday and for getting the dates of the posts mixed up. As I said, I’m not feeling all that well.

So I walked to the pharmacy and got throat lozenges, and all the cold medication.

I spent the day mostly doing nothing and ended it with a kitchen full of dirty dishes. Boo!

My new pair of jeans almost fits. So far I can put it on and close the zipper but just barely.

There was lunch but the cauliflower was not cooked enough:

Of, and my new traveler’s notebook came. It is, indeed, more lightweight and very beautiful;

I vegged out all afternoon, zoned out for an hour or two and letting the diesehdaa 

I might be verytiredl

I did open the manuscript which was good, did the dishes and dealt with laundry. My husband made lunch:

I did not go to bed on time. Again.

Well, I get another try today, I guess.

I turned the lights out at 9.30 and slept for a little more than nine hours. When I greeted my husband in the morning I was hoarse in addition to my really sore throat, and my husband I his calm and measured way broke out into a panic, completely sure that I’ll have laryngitis for the next two weeks again.

I mean, yeah, apparently I do have a bit of laryngitis but it’s not that bad so far. I decided to maybe panic later. If that seems like the adequate reaction at that time.

I did cancel my singing student for the day because the hoarser your voice is the more you shouldn’t talk. And you most definitely shouldn’t whisper or sing.

I didn’t do much in the morning but I opened the manuscript for 20 minutes, folded two loads of laundry and took a shower. My husband not only did a load of laundry and hung it up, he also made goulash for lunch:

I read quite a bit throughout the day and finished reading „The Shabti“. I really liked it. And then it was time to teach my first student of the day. By then my last student of the day had canceled and so I decided to attend yet another Zoom call after my one lesson.

Since I was done earlier than expected I also could help the boy study after dinner. We started with all the new material that he hadn’t learned properly yet and that made the whole experience a tad frustrating.

I ate dinner and then played some more video game while waiting for the boy. In between and after his study session we talked about all the things which was rather nice.

My husband had done the dishes so all that was left for me to do was to start writing this post and make a list for today. That list is pretty short because my first priority is still rest so that I’ll get better soon.

I went to bed way late and slept well despite several times where the boy came downstairs to get something to eat and that woke me up. I did manage to fall back asleep quickly, though.

I did my usual morning routine including yoga an opening the manuscript. Phew.

I did decide to skip walking/running but went to the nearby supermarket instead. I felt pretty okay and thought getting the grocery shopping out of the way would be a good idea.

Husband used leftover burgers for lunch:

After lunch I played video games for quite some time, then did the dishes and then it was time for my only student of the day. The student was rather fuzzy as well.

After that I told the boy I was ready for bodyweight training. We started the warm-up and right in the middle of some jumping jacks it became increasingly clear that I really shouldn’t exercise that day, so I stopped.

I ate dinner while the boy was doing pull-ups upstairs and when he came back downstairs I helped him study again. When we finished it was 8.30 and I was feeling very tired and exhausted. So I started writing this post, brushed my teeth and crawled into bed with a book.

I managed to get dressed and wake my poor husband up who is still rather sick.

The piano tuner was lovely and helpful as always but I also learned that he has now turned the business over completely to his son, so I guess who I’ll be working with next. The son is competent and very nice as well but I rather like the father and he has been tuning my piano for more than 20 years now. Best piano tuner I know.

So that threw the day off somewhat. No morning routine, no nothing, and my husband and I were sitting around for quite some time waiting for the wood stove to heat our tea water while hearing pings from the annex.

Once the pinging stopped for a while I went to see if the piano tuner was finished, and yes, he was.

I did the dishes and went to the bakery to get more Faschingskrapfen and to the health food store for some regular food. Husband was cooking despite feeling miserable:

And dessert:

I played my video game and did the dishes and then ate dinner in front of TV. I had wanted to watch something else but couldn’t get that streaming app to work on my TV so I ended up watching the first episode of ‚Heated Rivalry‘. It is as good as everybody says but the book is better. As always.

After that I helped the boy study for a bit, played some more, started writing this post and made a list for today. Fingers crossed I won’t get my husband’s cold, my throat is feeling a bit off already.

I did wake up at the normal time but then wasted an hour or so until I couldn’t make myself open the manuscript. I did yoga and mediated my usual five minutes and then there was breakfast with a very pitiful husband. His cold seems to get worse instead of better right now.

I went shopping for Faschingskrapfen like I always do on carnival and I’m thinking about maybe buying some more today as well, and then I did a very quick walk/run:

Meanwhile my husband was cooking and hanging up laundry, and we ate very late:

I gave in to an urge that had plagued me for weeks now and bought a new notebook cover. I’m still very happy with my Taschenbegleiter but it is pretty heavy and bulky and it needs a new elastic. I’ve been thinking about traveling and that it would be better to take a smaller notebook instead of my bulky and heavy Leuchtturm 1917 one. I don’t really need a cover, I could just take the notebook as is (Moleskine Cahier, it has cardboard outside and is somewhat sturdy) but I’d like to be able to close it and maybe put some cards inside.

Of course, I could just have found some elastic and put it on the outside. But I didn’t. I’m very excited.

After lunch I read a bit and then I played Genshin Impact for some time and then my husband and I had planned to meet to eat our Krapfen.

Well, he overslept. I ate and read. And then we talked while he was eating but he was actually too unwell for conversation.

After he was gone the boy showed up for the second time and then somehow I never got around to do anything else but talk with family and play. Right up until bedtime.

I did help the boy study and he did the dishes while I was writing this post and that was it.

Well, today I’ll be doing better.

Mind you, he still did lots of housework and repaired an amp, you know how it is. (I mean, if it were me I would have stayed on the sofa reading and watching TV and doing nothing else but my husband is one of those people who can’t sit still.

I went to bed half hour late and slept all the way through. Win! I was very determined not to pick up my phone first thing and then spent 45 minutes on social media right away, ahem.

I still did my complete morning routine including half an hour of writing actual new words, so that is nice. Then breakfast with my husband and a few other things before I called my mother on the phone.

After that I did the dishes and started a load of laundry while my husband was making pancakes for lunch:

And then I made myself do some housework before going into the chocolate/reading/video game-portion of the day, highly recommend. I folded two loads of laundry and hung the one up that was done.

I finished reading the daily chapter of „War and Peace“ and am now up to speed again. I’m still behind on the „Year of Wonder“ classical music-thing but I’ll get there.

Then there were two hours of gaming that were pretty frustrating all in all. I tried some puzzles and fighting stuff while the boy was standing behind me trying to help me and it was a real mess. I also tried this one boss six times or so. I know I killed him a couple of times the other day with the same team on the same difficulty but I just couldn’t do it.

Frustrating. But well, I can try again another time.

The boy and I did our bodyweight training rather early this time because I had another Zoom call scheduled. In between pushups and squats I helped him study for his exam. I still don’t get any of the stuff he is studying, and am barely able to figure out if his answers are right or wrong. „But there is a d3 in this formula!“ „That’s not important.“ „How am I supposed to know what’s important?“ „But that’s completely obvious, the math does this…“ and then I still don’t understand anything.

Well, as long as he understands it. I have to keep reminding myself that I did this kind of math the last time forty years ago, that a lot of my science classes were cancelled because there weren’t enough teachers, and that what I’m doing is helpful regardless.

But of course there is a part of me that wants to go and learn math and physics now. Because it would probably be fun and expand my horizons. And I really used to like the kind of math where you use letters instead of numbers. Oh, and I am really getting an education in the Greek alphabet.

The other day the boy said he and a couple of friends were looking at a text with a Greek word right in the middle and then he was very surprised that they (two other physics students) couldn’t read the Greek. Because they work with those letters so much it’s just a matter of sounding the word out but it never occurred to his friends that you could do that.

Anyway, after that I vacuumed the old part of the house and did some other cleaning, then ate dinner while my husband was doing the dishes, and then it was time for more Zoom. I have reached the portion of the blanket where I start measuring it to see how many stripes I want to add.

After the call I started writing this post and finally planned this week.

Of course planning is always very important but even more so for a week off.

If I take some teabags the thermos would be useful on the trip itself as well. I should take a water bottle in addition to it, though.

I did my morning routine, wrote some new words in the new story and started getting a grip on the second main character, had a long conversation with my husband that started out with a misunderstanding but went well further on, went for a walk/run, had delicious food for lunch, played a lot of Genshin Impact, did writer Zoom while crocheting and watched Columbo with the boy.

Here’s the food:

We were all out of the big white beans so, well.

The weather was a bit gray and slightly wet outside:

My husband vacuumed the annex and did the washbasins and toilets there which was very nice.

The Columbo episode was a bit boring, the boy even fell asleep. I did help him study for the upcoming test. 

Things I wanted to do but didn’t:

Clean the rest of the house and change towels, do another load of laundry, do the dirty dishes, write the blurb and, in general, do all the things. Which probably won’t happen but hope springs eternal.

Husband and I had a harmonious breakfast, and then I had a phone call with the parent of a student. I was rather cranky because they insisted on talking on the phone but in the end it was rather nice and I got to talk about my teaching philosophy to someone who actually got it.

After that I did the dishes real quick, finished the grocery list and braved biking to the farther supermarket. Things went better than expected, for once I did not run into masses of students from the nearby high school and the shop was not as crowded as I thought it would be. I bought so much stuff that I could barely lift the bags, good thing I used the bike.

Since it was Friday we decided to keep lunch simple with frozen pizza and some salad:

I had a bit of a break and then it was time for teaching. Which was fun, I got to play a lot and even got to figure out how to play a new to me song together with a student. (The song only had four very simple chords, but still. I was very proud when my student strummed a chord and got it right without prompting or anything. He had just known that chord was A minor.)

I hadn’t been sure if I wanted to do bodyweight training because my arm was still a bit hurt from my shot the day before but in the end I decided to do just a quick round of exercises.

I had some wild ideas of starting the weekly cleaning between the last student and training but that didn’t happen. But I did manage to change the sheets while waiting for the boy to show up.

I also started to quiz him on the stuff he needs to know for his upcoming exam in between rounds of pushups and squats.

Then there was dinner and some more playing of Genshin than I had planned (just one more chest and one more Abyss mage, you know how it is) before I started writing this post, made a list for today and left the dishes in the sink.

I am very determined to not have another cranky and unproductive week off but then I always am. I guess I need to actually do something different this time to achieve a different outcome. Huh.

I wrote morning pages, got dressed and brushed my teeth and left the house for my biannual check-up. That took just a few minutes except I was asked to give another urine sample and to make a new appointment for that.

I walked back home by way of the supermarket where I buy my yogurt and then finally sat down to eat breakfast. Then I wrote an email to my doctor’s office about the appointment, they told me I didn’t need one and to just come in that afternoon or the week after.

I didn’t want to wait and I definitely didn’t have time that afternoon so I just walked back and tried my luck. This time I walked back by way of the health food store and got pretzels and chocolate.

I did the dishes and folded some laundry and helped make salad and then we had a rather early lunch:

It had turned out to be a bad idea to move grocery shopping to today because we were lacking some key ingredients for most of the things my husband wanted to cook. But this was very good.

I read a bit while eating chocolate and played Genshin and then it was time to start teaching. I had two video lessons first, then I waited for a student who had texted me that she would be a little late. And then that she would be even later.

She arrived 35 minutes late, all flustered, because she had someone work on her furnace and it had taken way longer than anticipated. We decided to reschedule the lesson to next week.

Meanwhile I had found out that the retreat I will be attending in April is supposed to start with lunch on Thursday and end after lunch on Sunday which means I should cancel the train tickets I already got because those would mean I’d be 2 1/2 hours late on Thursday and 2 hours early on Sunday. Apparently there should have been a confirmation email giving us the time but I never got one. I am registered, though, I got information via mail and am on the email list.

After teaching I quickly ate dinner before it was time for the last Zoom call for the course. I was so tired that I had a hard time focusing.

Then I started writing this post, talked briefly with the rest of the family, made a list for today and went to bed before midnight this time.

Today will be another ‚doing all the things‘-day and then there will be carnival break.

Husband and I did not have any conflict at all which was also good. We talked, I crocheted after breakfast, I did the dishes and then went out to walk (and run very little). The ground was mostly not frozen anymore which was great but it was so muddy that it started being slippery again. My socks were drenched when I came home:

I took a shower and then we ate rice and beans for lunch:

I had a short break before teaching and then lots of breaks in between because two of my students had to cancel because they were sick.

I played Genshin Impact in between students and in the evening. I ate dinner and waited for the boy who had gone to Munich to look at paintings with a friend.

When he came home and I looked up again I was already somewhat late for all my diverse evening things, oops.

Oh, and I was also too late to write a nice post about how this blog is now 20 years old. It was on February 11th 2006 that I decided to post more often to that iteration of the blog. It was still called „diapers and music“ and hosted on blogspot.

Well, it’s been quite some time. It will be interesting to see what will happen next.

I went to bed too late because I talked with the boy and then woke up at 5.30 unable to fall back asleep. Not the best start into the day.

I was feeling pretty okay and opened the manuscript for twenty minutes but then husband and I went right into misunderstanding/crisis mode. At the point where I started crocheting we went back to having a nice and helpful conversation. We also both agreed that conflict is really draining and we would rather not have it.

My weird headache was better but not completely gone.

Just as we were settling in to talk I realized I needed to leave the house in a hurry. The doctor’s office closes over lunch and I didn’t want to get there too late.

I took a train to the next town over, renewed a prescription at my gynecologist, went to the nicer health food store, went back to the train station just as the train was pulling in (and I caught it), stepped off in my hometown again, went to the drug store, the supermarket where we used to get out yogurt because every kind that I’ve bought since then was definitely sub-par, went to the pharmacy and then to the other health food store before heading back home.

My husband was cooking when I came back but lunch wasn’t ready yet which was alright. I put the groceries away and then found myself pretty hungry and unwilling to fold laundry or do anything else until the food was ready. In my defense the whole trip involved a total of 45 minutes of speed walking…

Lunch was good, the objective was to use all the leftover potatoes up and my husband made broccoli to go with them but that turned into slush through inattentive cooking. But there was steak and fried potatoes, so all was good:

I had some chocolate as dessert while reading „Beast Business“. I did finish that book yesterday and really loved it but it would probably not work for someone who hasn’t read the other books in that story.

After that I played a bit and then it was time for teaching. I switched instruments after every lesson, ukulele, recorder, guitar and piano.

Then I ate dinner and played some more before the boy showed up and started dissecting my Genshin account again but I was definitely too tired for that.

He was nice enough to do the dishes while I started writing this post, made a list for today and brushed my teeth and then I read a bit more and turned out the lights.

Today is the day where I get everything done the I don’t need to leave the house for because tomorrow will bring more errands/doctor’s office and such.

I’m already looking forward to the weekend, oof!

Oh, and the day you’re reading this is the 20th anniversary of my first blog post. That is a long time, indeed.

„You see, it feels as if I have a headache but without pain. And also like my field of vision shrinks. And everything is too much, especially people. And everything is too bright and too loud and too much but screens don’t bother me at all. Oh, and I get nauseous but then I always am. And pain meds don’t work. Most of the time but sometimes they do. And I’m pretty sure it gets worse with stress.”

I bet the doctor will love this. And I might get another MRI that shows nothing. If I’m lucky.

Anyway, I did get almost eight hours of sleep again. That would be great if I didn’t suspect I need more than that.

Because I was feeling so off I promptly skipped manuscript time but I did the rest of my morning routine. The SAD light felt way too bright so I turned that off again. Yea was interesting because I was also feeling pretty dizzy. Balancing on one leg while feeling like the ground is shaking is always a fun experience.

Also because I felt off and, like, half my brain was offline again (oops, another symptom, I should make a list) my husband and I started fighting before breakfast. Figures.

We managed to make up pretty fast but for a while I was sitting at the breakfast table all alone. On the upside I could continue reading „Beast Business“. I really like it.

We talked, I crocheted briefly and then decided that I needed some video game time which was fun. And then I went out for my walk/run too late but, hey, the paths were clear enough that I could actually go and see trees, hurray!

This was one of the trickier parts, long stretches of path were completely clear, only mud, no ice at all.

I came back home to lunch:

There was some chocolate, some reading and more video game.

Then I took a shower and found the warm water really made me feel a little better as did the walking and the fresh air.

Teaching went better than I thought it would and then I had almost an hour for dinner. I sat, ate and read and then it was time for course Zoom. Which ended early so I just stayed at the computer a little longer and started writing this post.

Then I spent some more time on my own, did the usual evening things and went to bed. Today might involve a short train ride and some errands and more free time in the evening. Which I’m really looking forward to.

I made spaetzle from scratch but they are only so-so because the temperature on the woodstive is not high enough and the water never boiled again after I put the spartzle in. They were very tasty anyway:

This is the wrong kind of sausage, we should have used wieners but there weren’t any. Lunch wasn’t all that late, even.

I spent the whole afternoon reading and playing video games up to a point where I was very frustrated about my lack of progress.

I started reading „Beast Business“ by Ilona Andres, and as expected it is excellent so far. I did skip my classic piece of the day and my chapter of „War and Peace“.

The boy and I did bodyweight training and I did not help him study because we ran out of time. I went to bed half an hour late yet again.

And now that last week before carnival break.

I went to bed half an hour late and got almost eight hours of sleep again. Full morning routine including yoga and opening the manuscript. If only for twenty minutes.

Breakfast and talking with my husband and crochet and a little reading and then dishes, vacuuming the house and then I went out for my walk/run. There was a brief moment when I thought the paths would be clear but then I looked around the corner. Nope.

So I walked (and ran for very brief 30-second intervals) around the neighborhood and forgot to take pictures.

Came back home pretty late but lunch wasn’t ready yet anyway, so I took a shower, folded some laundry and then we finally ate:

Then I played Genshin Impact and made good progress until it was time for Saturday writer Zoom. Which was nice, then I watched ‚Columbo‘ with the family where we all yawned, then I helped the boy study, played some more and after that I finally started writing this post, made a list for today, did the dishes and went to bed.

Yes, I was too late.

Today there will be all the usual Sunday things. Plus, I’ll either configure a router or write a blurb, no idea how that will work out.

I did my complete morning routine and even opened an actual manuscript. I mean, I only filled out part of a character sheet but that’s better than nothing.

Breakfast with my husband was nice and then I spent some time crocheting and reading. I was almost finished with „The Hallowed Hunt“ and wanted to know what happened next.

I had high hoped of finishing the weekly cleaning before lunch but, well, no. I ordered takeout and went to pick it up after doing the dishes and starting the whole cleaning thing.

Lunch was very tasty:

I played my video game for a bit and read some more and then it was time for teaching.

I taught all afternoon, then waited for the boy to show up for bodyweight training until I decided to eat the second half of my fried noodles for dinner. The boy was half an hour late but that was okay and we did our exercise while my husband did the dishes.

More Genshin Impact where I made great progress while the boy was making himself soup, then I started writing this post, made the list for today, brushed my teeth, watched an episode of C-drama while crocheting and went to bed.

Today is already packed and now I need to decide whether to try the new router out today or not. Stay tuned!

And then I wasted my usual 30 minutes on reading newsletters and such before finally writing my morning pages. No time in the manuscript again but I made an attempt to do something else publishing-related.

There was one of those moments where I got startled by something and stopped moving when putting my laptop bag in the kitchen and that made my husband feel caged in and that drew out a whole bushel of conflict over the course of the morning.

I still did my yoga and meditated for five minutes and when I took my blood pressure I thought it would be really high but it actually wasn’t.

Husband and I discussed my unfortunate habit of stopping in my tracks when my attention is drawn elsewhere and his also rather unfortunate habit of feeling like he is under threat when someone stands between him and the door at length while I was eating breakfast.

And then we had a pretty nice longer conversation about all kinds of things including new year’s resolutions and practice plans.

After that I was a bit stressed out because it was becoming a little late for all the other stuff I needed to do, including picking up some polenta at the grocery store for that day’s lunch. So I changed my plans around, went to the nearby grocery store first, rushed back, threw everything that needed to be cooled in the fridge and freezer and rushed out again to buy some of that tea that I didn’t get on Tuesday. The tea shop owner had messaged me that the tea was back in stock.

The weather was pretty nice and I enjoyed being out walking and listening to music. Lunch was very good as well:

Also, this portion turned out to be too much, I did not eat all of it.f

I only had a very short break between that and being coached online by a friend. Coaching was excellent, very helpful. Now I just need to implement her suggestions. Harumph. But at least she helped me sort through priorities and tasks and we came up with a plan.

The next student was online as well, and then I had a comfy 90-minute break that I used to approve the digital proof of the paperback, finish writing the brief for the cover designer, do the homework for the course I’m taking, and eat a very early dinner.

And then I had another unplanned break because my student had to cancel and that break I used to play Genshin. Then I taught one student and afterwards went right away to the course Zoom. I really have a hard time focusing on these calls, doing them right after teaching is not easy.

I then started writing this post, made a list and lounged about for some time before going to bed.

I am really feeling the end of the week and am looking forward to a relaxed weekend.

I went to bed so late, ack, but woke up at the usual time and my sleep app thought I was fine. And I did feel fine. For the amount of sleep I had.

I did my morning routine, looked at the digital proof for the paperback, was confused and did yoga.

Breakfast was had rather late even though we had resorted to using the electric kettle instead of the wood stove for heating the water.

Then I went out for my walk/run. And turned around early because I got tired of crawling through the underbrush to avoid the frozen paths.

And no, I did not take a picture of the woods, just imagine wood paths with ice of different texture all over.

We had a pretty early lunch which was good because my husband started teaching extra early:

I taught a student, had a break, taught quite a few more students until past 7 and then did bodyweight training with the boy. By then basically all my muscles were sore in new and interesting ways.

I finally ate dinner around 9, played my video game a bit more, started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed while the boy was doing the dishes in the kitchen.

And guess what? Today will be packed as well. But I will only do a little light yoga, nothing strenuous.

And then I thought I could do most of my morning routine before I had to leave the house for my fasting blood draw but turned out I only managed very distracted morning pages and brushing my teeth and such.

When I walked to the doctor’s office it was chillier than I had thought. Everything went well and the doctor’s assistant actually managed to draw blood without a hitch, I barely have a mark right now which is very unusual.

Then I walked all the way back home and finally had a cup of tea and some muesli.

I crocheted a bit and finished last week’s part of the CAL, talked with my husband and did the breakfast dishes before going out again.

First to the tea shop that turned out to be out of exactly the tea I wanted. I bought a small quantity of another darjeeling and went off to the health food store then back home for lunch:

I had a short break where I mostly continued reading „The Hallowed Hunt“ (good book but not as good as „The Curse of Chalion“) and, of course, played my video game and then I started teaching.

I had a slightly weird on and off schedule, half an hour of teaching followed by half an hour of break which meant I never really settled in with anything.

I ate dinner (potato chips and chocolate), started writing this post, did the dishes, played some more and went to bed.

Today is looking rather full already, I might have reached the stage of „limping towards the weekend“ a bit early this week.

Went to bed too late and woke up at 6 with a start unable to fall back asleep. I used the time to go on social media, read email, buy a book and upload the paperback to another retailer.

I went for a walk/run in the sun and snow with quite a bit of frozen ground. I restart the Couch to 10 K-challenge which meant being out for just 40 minutes with 30-second running intervals. I couldn’t run all of them because of the patches of ice:

I took a shower and there was comfort food for lunch:

I spent my 30-minute break playing Genshin Impact, then started teaching early because a student rescheduled. There were quite a few students, some of which did that thing where they sit there staring blankly into space pretending to look at the sheet music trying to get me to lose patience and tell them the next note.

They also have this tendency to just guess the next note which doesn’t really work after the first ten songs or so, and also, just for general information, if you stab at a key, and I tell you it’s not the right one, playing the same key right again for your second try doesn’t make it magically right. Just saying.

At the end of the day I was feeling a headache coming up and informed a few students that my patience is definitely better than theirs (it’s not but I’m good at pretending I’m patient) and that trying to outwait me won’t work. Also, that if I ask a question and you don’t know the answer saying, „I don’t know,“ is perfectly fine. You’re a student, if you don’t know stuff I’ll teach it to you. If you don’t want to learn there is basically nothing I can do. If you pretend to know but don’t know, well, then you’re screwed and you won’t learn anything.

After that I went to eat a quick dinner right away, then went to the course Zoom (very nice, at least) and then straight to a very late session of bodyweight training.

After that I wrote my list for today and started this post wile the boy optimized my Genshin characters.

The day also brought a phone call from my doctor’s office that I should come in today for a fasting blood draw because of my check-up next week, so that’s where I’ll go next.

I did okay with my morning routine but again didn’t manage to open the manuscript. I think there are to many book-related things in my head and that makes starting the next book a little harder.

But there was yoga and meditation and morning pages and a nice breakfast with my husband.

Then I tried calling my mother and failed. Which was odd. I tried it through the app on my cellphone that should let me make calls on the landline, no dice. So I called my mother on my cell. Which meant paying extra for that call, meh.

Afterwards I started troubleshooting. Restarted everything through the phone provider’s app – didn’t work. Tried again – got thrown out of the app. Restarted the router – bingo!

So then I tried to research a new router real quick. Which turned out not to be real quick. In the end I just made a non-educated guess. Fingers crossed that router does what we need. I guess we’ll see next week.

By then I was late with the dishes and after I had finished them I found out that my husband has decided to wait with cooking until I’m done with the dishes regardless of how late it is. Ugh.

Lunch was really tasty, at least:

Then I ate all the chocolate.

The plan was to spend just a little time in the afternoon playing Genshin Impact and then do all the planning for the month and the week and some publishing tasks.

I ended up playing all afternoon, right up to dinnertime, and then went at it again. I also forgot all about bodyweight training. The boy and I both weren’t in the mood anyway (as if that were in any way relevant) so we skipped it.

At least I got my planning out the way around 9.30, then did the dishes with the boy’s help and started writing this post.

I’m really hoping this week will go a little better and I won’t let myself get pulled in all these extra special video game events and catching fish for weapons and leveling up all the characters at once.

At least I went to bed at a reasonable time. I’m hoping that will make for a better start into the week.

I am a little pressed for time again but I did all the usual routine things, including walking/running in the woods. The paths were either frozen but had enough grip or slushy so I walked more than I ran:

Husband had opted for an easy meal because he had done his 10K-loop for the first time in ages:

I played Genshin and talked with the rest of the family, went to writer Zoom and then we watched a pretty good episode of ‚Columbo‘ while eating white sausages, pretzels and drinking a beer that I thought was alcohol-free but wasn’t. It was the same brand I often get alcohol-free and when I saw they had a dark one as well the thought that it wasn’t alcohol-free even crossed my mind.

Well, I guess it’s not a big deal but we won’t be buying that often for sure.

After Columbo I didn’t quite get everything done in time so went to bed a little late.

Today will be pretty busy as well but I am having high hopes for doing publishing stuff.

Very enjoyable breakfast with my husband and then I tried starting the dishes earlier than usual. Which I did but not by much.

I was very determined to not have to spread the cleaning out over the weekend like I’ve been doing most weeks lately. Last week my husband complained that I was always running around while he was cooking and so I tried cleaning after work and that went as expected.

So. I changed the sheets on my bed, did the routine cleaning (only the middles, only the duster, only washbasins and toilets) and while I did not finish before lunch I did finish before my first student. Husband and I had a plan for lunch as well, very easy and quick meal and he did not use the wood stove, so we got to actually eat at 1 o’clock:

And yes, we should definitely work on plating the food.

After lunch I took a rather short break and then finished the cleaning and started a load of laundry with all the towels I had changed.

Then I taught my students including a new one but excluding one that just didn’t show up. I only waited for ten minutes or so and then decided to play some piano exercises. If the student had rang the bell I would have heard them.

After teaching I hung up the load of laundry and waited for the boy for bodyweight training. So then there was some half-hearted exercise, toast for dinner with some reading and then more vide game playing. The boy wanted to take a shower and I missed the window of opportunity for doing the dishes but, well, progress not perfection.

Today I have to decide whether I want to attend the annual gathering of a community I belong to. I had planned to do so but that was before I knew I’d go on retreat a week later. And in looking at the program I just can’t see myself going through a slightly manic sign-up process just so I can eat at a restaurant that I can just go to whenever I want otherwise. And it seems trains won’t be going at that time either, so going to Munich would be a pain.

Seems I already answered my question, oops.

I skipped yoga but spent a little time on the romance novella, husband and I were pretty early with breakfast because he had thought he would have to shovel snow because there was quite a bit of it over night but the boy had taken care of most of that earlier.

Because of the weather I went to the nearby supermarket and then there was pasta salad:

Then a short break, then teaching a friend for the first time. This is the friend I’m trading lessons with. We’re doing it over video chat and most of this first lesson was spent figuring things out. We ditched Zoom after just a few minutes and found Google Meets to be much better. Because I could actually hear the sound of her piano which is kind of important in this case.

The second student had canceled so I sat around for a bit and felt sorry for myself, then I taught a student, then another break because someone canceled that I used to eat all the snacks.

My flagging impulse control was really visible yesterday, first I bought all the snack foods at the supermarket and then I ate almost all of them throughout the day.

Another two students and then I went straight into the Zoom call for the class that I’m taking. She actually answered a question I posted and now I know a little more. Which is always good.

I spaced out during the call a lot, super tired didn’t get better as the day went on.

I then started writing this post, only looked sideways at the kitchen and went to bed a little earlier.

So. There were all the usual things yesterday including not opening the manuscript. I felt all cranky and meh but then realized that was mainly due to all the stuff clogging up my mind.

So I wrote a bunch of lists and thought about things and felt much better.

There was a walk/run (way more walk than run even though I should be on the „mostly running“-part of the Couch to 5k-program. The wood paths were extra icy again so I stayed on sidewalks all the way:

My husband made something easier for lunch:

I taught two student, then got the message my package was handed to a resident. The resident turned out to be the doormat in front of the door. Harumph.

But. Look:

The colors of the book are a little meh, and again, each of the three books looks a bit different. But hey, a real book! In my hands!

Then I taught quite a few more students including a potential new one.

I ate dinner and played some Genshin. And the story went on and on and on, until I finished that part of the game around, ahem, midnight. The boy was nice enough to do the dishes again, phew.

Today will be a little brutal. I think I’ll go to the nearby supermarket instead of the other one so I get a bit of a break before lunch. And then I’ll teach all afternoon with almost no break right up to the live Zoom for the course.

Yes, I should have stopped playing earlier and gone to bed on time.

So. There were all the usual things yesterday including not opening the manuscript. I felt all cranky and meh but then realized that was mainly due to all the stuff clogging up my mind.

So I wrote a bunch of lists and thought about things and felt much better.

There was a walk/run (way more walk than run even though I should be on the „mostly running“-part of the Couch to 5k-program. The wood paths were extra icy again so I stayed on sidewalks all the way:

My husband made something easier for lunch:

I taught two student, then got the message my package was handed to a resident. The resident turned out to be the doormat in front of the door. Harumph.

But. Look:

The colors of the book are a little meh, and again, each of the three books looks a bit different. But hey, a real book! In my hands!

Then I taught quite a few more students including a potential new one.

I ate dinner and played some Genshin. And the story went on and on and on, until I finished that part of the game around, ahem, midnight. The boy was nice enough to do the dishes again, phew.

Today will be a little brutal. I think I’ll go to the nearby supermarket instead of the other one so I get a bit of a break before lunch. And then I’ll teach all afternoon with almost no break right up to the live Zoom for the course.

Yes, I should have stopped playing earlier and gone to bed on time.

I felt as if half my brain was offline all day and if gravity were stronger than usual.

There were dishes and then I went to one health food store, to the doctor’s office to renew prescriptions for both my husband and me, to the drug store where I printed out 50 photos for my mother-in-law and bought candles, chocolate, vaseline and fountain pen cartridges, and then I went back home via the other health food store.

I came home a little after one to a husband who was extremely stressed out about cooking and trying to wrestle stuffing into very small calamari. I threw all the frozen food into the freezer, washed my hands and helped cooking. We ended up with potatoes that were cold, calamari that were lacking the olives he had planned to put in the stuffing and tomato sauce that was too thick:

Then there was chocolate and then teaching. Only three students before a 30-minute break. I thought I’d use that break to hang up laundry but my husband had already done that so I sat down and ate store-bought cookies.

After that 30-minute break I had another 30-minute break because that student was swamped with school stuff and asked to be rescheduled and I decided to play Genshin. As usual, if I had known I had a full hour I might have published the paperback of book 2 with some other retailer.

After that I had one more student, walked to the pharmacy to pick up the meds, tried to make myself do bodyweight training but felt as if I was way too heavy and tired for that, ate tortilla chips and more chocolate for dinner, played some more video game, watched half an episode of C-drama, asked the boy to do the dishes, started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed.

I need to stop this because eventually it would be a good idea to have some more time in the mornings. No manuscript time in the morning again but I did some thinking about the main characters for the next romance and sorted the next publishing steps in my head.

The paperback of „Masked in Stone“ went live and I ordered three copies for myself, yeah! In a couplet of days I’ll have actual physical books.

The morning was pretty busy, husband and I were talking quite a bit, I was still going on about the course ad infinitum, I did the dishes and then went for a walk instead of my walk/run. There had been quite a bit of snow overnight and it was already melting again and I just didn’t want to deal with that.

Also, I felt very, very exhausted all day, up to the point where I felt like just lying down and not moving again, ever, so I decided to save my energy for later.

I forgot to take a picture, the only ones I took were of posters for candidates in the upcoming regional elections, sorry. (There is one candidate that only has a weird slogan and their name on it, no party or other affiliation, and there is one candidate doing a “non-alcohol wine trip“, whatever that is, that I wanted to show to my husband.)

When I came back home at lunchtime my husband was nowhere to be seen and while I thought lunch were bubbling along it actually – wasn’t.

Husband had come home at the same time as me and was stressed out because we both had an early start to teaching that day.

So he threw the capellini into the boiling water and then went to take a shower while I was making salad and keeping watch. Good thing he had not done the stuffed calamari he had originally planned but just plain capellini with pesto and red beet salad. (Apparently I forgot to take a picture of that as well.)

I squeezed a quick shower in between lunch and teaching and then had one student after the other for a few hours.

Ate a quick dinner and then it was time for another course Zoom. This one was actually pretty nice and I got an answer to a question that had me baffled for a while. Because the teacher keeps saying „this might hurt“ and I keep waiting for the pain. Well, turns out when you’ve been doing a certain kind of work on yourself for a while now, personal development might not hurt quite as much.

Which gives me a lot of relief because I kept thinking I was doing something wrong. Of course I did.

I talked briefly to my husband, started writing this post, refilled a fountain pen, tidied the kitchen, played my video game for a short while and fell into bed.

I did the usual morning things but couldn’t make myself open the manuscript or look at anything publishing related. I managed to be late anyway.

There was a rather unsatisfying breakfast, I managed to buy Greek yogurt with only 0.2 % fat and it tasted accordingly. Bleah! And while I was eating that my husband started a conversation about politics, something I really dislike at all times but even more so when eating a not-tasty muesli while someone is walking to and fro, talking at me while I try to ground myself.

That led to a bit more of a discussion but we did manage to turn it around eventually and I wove some ends in on the crochet blanket. Pro tip: if you want to talk with me about something upsetting wait until I have my knitting or crochet in my hands, that will work much better.

I called my mother on the phone, like every Sunday and that was nice, and then I did the breakfast dishes, made salad and helped warm the lasagna up:

Lunch was at a reasonable time for a change, due to the fact that there was no actual cooking involved.

I watched a video about ergonomics for authors. No, I will not get a standing desk )she says, typing this at the kitchen table).

And then I played Genshin Impact for most of the afternoon. At one point my husband showed up and I realized that I had forgotten I wanted to do some more cleaning, so I got up, cleaned the washbasins and toilets and – major win here – the bathtub which meant I had to deal with the dozen or so bottles of shampoo, conditioner, anti-frizz, bodywash and cleanser. Because the boy and I are both using the bathtub to shower and each of us has a whole line of products on the rim of the bathtub which lead to that part of the bathroom never being cleaned. Icky.

But right now it isn’t which is wonderful.

Then I played some more until it was time for bodyweight training. The boy had complained about getting a cold and my husband had come in at that point to make pancake soup so we made the quick decision to skip exercise for once and ate soup together. Since I was all cold and freezing all day that was rather nice.

Then I fell into a social media rabbit hole because the dirty dishes didn’t look appealing, and then, just as I was about to finally tackle those I decided to first wash my face and brush my teeth, and second to publish the paperback of Masked in Stone. Of course. Perfectly sensible decision to do that kind of thing while already half-delirious.

Fingers crossed I didn’t miss anything.

Since I had seen that video about ergonomics I even fetched my external keyboard, laptop stand and mouse to the kitchen table but it*s not ideal, the table is a little too high for that. I probably should use a cushion to sit on, or something.

Then it was finally time for the dishes after starting to write this post, then I planned the week and made a list for today and then I finally went to bed.

Meanwhile my husband was taking care of the snow outside. That’s usually the boy’s task these days, since my mother-in-law can’t do it anymore but someone who is in the process of getting sick shouldn’t shovel snow in the freezing cold. I am very grateful to my husband for doing that and also for doing two loads of laundry and hanging them up while I was busy playing games.

I*m already feeling overwhelmed by this week and it hasn’t really started yet. This will be fun for sure!

There was yoga and no manuscript time because I was already a little late.

We ate breakfast and had a nice conversation, then I did dishes, and vacuumed everything before going out for my walk/run. I had resigned myself to stay on sidewalks again but my husband said while there was ice on the paths it had melted enough that one could squeeze by in the underbrush.

This was the worst part of the way:

It looks as if there is enough space on the side to walk properly, and there is, only you get a face full of twigs and thorny vines grabbing at your pants and jacket. I did slip a bit twice but did not fall, yeah!

Obligatory selfie:

As you can see, the path is much clearer at that point.

I came back home, took a quick shower and helped making lasagna and salad:

Lunch was rather late, so after that I played a bit, the boy told me I needed to do a particular thing in-game and he would help me and then it was time for my weekly writer Zoom. Which was rather nice.

When that was over I met with the rest of the family to watch ‚Columbo‘, a really good episode and we finished the rest of the champagne that we opened on Tuesday. It was not all that sparkly anymore and there was less than a glass for each of us which was fine.

After that I tackled the dishes, started writing this post, made a list for today, wasted a bit of time and went to bed.

There was yoga and no manuscript time because I was already a little late.

We ate breakfast and had a nice conversation, then I did dishes, and vacuumed everything before going out for my walk/run. I had resigned myself to stay on sidewalks again but my husband said while there was ice on the paths it had melted enough that one could squeeze by in the underbrush.

This was the worst part of the way:

It looks as if there is enough space on the side to walk properly, and there is, only you get a face full of twigs and thorny vines grabbing at your pants and jacket. I did slip a bit twice but did not fall, yeah!

Obligatory selfie:

As you can see, the path is much clearer at that point.

I came back home, took a quick shower and helped making lasagna and salad:

Lunch was rather late, so after that I played a bit, the boy told me I needed to do a particular thing in-game and he would help me and then it was time for my weekly writer Zoom. Which was rather nice.

When that was over I met with the rest of the family to watch ‚Columbo‘, a really good episode and we finished the rest of the champagne that we opened on Tuesday. It was not all that sparkly anymore and there was less than a glass for each of us which was fine.

After that I tackled the dishes, started writing this post, made a list for today, wasted a bit of time and went to bed.

I did my morning routine and instead of manuscript time I tried figuring out why my book listing on Amazon wasn’t showing the cover image. It seemed the best thing to do for the time being was nothing.

And it did show up properly later in the day. Here’s the link to the Amazon US store, I’ll upload the paperback some time this weekend.

The plan was to spend the morning cleaning but as usual it was already past 11 when I started doing the breakfast dishes. And then my husband didn’t want me to run through the house with cleaning supplies getting under his feet while he cooked so I did some journaling about the course I’m taking. I also ordered stuff from the online pharmacy, something I had been forgetting about for two days in a row.

Eventually there was lunch:

And then I played Genshin Impact, taught a couple of students including one that will start next week, found that I didn’t have enough time left to clean, then waited for the boy for 45 minutes because we wanted to do bodyweight training together.

It wasn’t his fault, he had accompanied my mother-in-law to the bank to deposit a whole piggybank full of change, when they arrived there she realized she had forgotten her wallet, so he went back home to find it, then back to the bank.

He did not find the wallet so both of them walked back home and then he went off again to finally deposit all that cash. It had only taken three tries. Oh, and my mother-in-law did find her wallet, everything is fine.

Bodyweight training was a little frustrating and we both didn’t really want to do it. But we persevered. Then there was dinner, more video game (I need to go fishing for a certain weapon and found the learning curve pretty steep.

I read a little, then started writing this post, finally did the lunch dishes (too late) and wrote the list for today and that was it.

I had gone to bed too late again but did almost get enough sleep. But sleeping a little longer and then starting my day slower also means that everything my husband and I do in the mornings will push up to the immutable deadline of teaching the first student of the day.

I did not do anything writing-related in the morning but I did the rest of the morning routine. Talked with my husband, did all the dishes (too late) and went out to the nearby supermarket. Came back to am extremely stressed husband who was still in the middle of cooking at a time where he should have eaten already.

Lunch was good but didn’t quite come out as he wanted:

Husband went off right after that but I leaned back, started reading for a bit, ate some gummy bears and then started playing my video game because Thursday is the one day where I start teaching late.

I taught one student, then had an hour to get things moving on book 2. Turns out since I had already decided on all the important bits I could actually get it done in that time. I formatted the ebook and the print book, looked up all the keywords and categories I wanted to use, edited the blurb, uploaded everything, found three typos that were introduced by spellcheck, corrected said typos, uploaded the book again and, voilà, the ebook was ready. Hurray!

It might take a bit to be live in the stores but still.

I taught two more students, thought briefly about maybe going to the BTS concert in London because a friend of mine said she might have an extra ticket, decided against it, was happy that my last student canceled, had a bit of a break between teaching and Zoom and then I could finally exhale.

I started writing this post, made a list for today (with my new fountain pen that arrived that day which is very cute, I love it) and didn’t do much else. The boy had done the dishes so, phew.

And now for Friday! Cleaning, teaching and exercise.