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.

There was yoga and cake for breakfast and then some more quality time with both the blurb and my bullet journal. I did a lot of admin.

Then there were dishes while I almost forgot to listen to my daily piece of classical music. This time it was two because I couldn’t fit it in the day before, Schubert’s „A die Musik“ which I love, and Hindemith’s „Trauermusik“. I keep forgetting Hindemith played viola and it was very sad indeed.

Then I went out for my walk/run listening to BTS for a change. It was still too icy in the woods so I stayed on sidewalks:

Not quite as nice as actually being in nature, but well, if nature becomes hazardous…

On my way back I spotted this tree with all the glass balls:

I took a shower and then there was chickpea curry for lunch:

Then some quick reading and video game playing before it was time to teach. I scheduled the very last of the lessons to make up for being sick in December, taught a couple of students, called a potential new one who had tried twice to leave a message but was a victim of our borked phone and scheduled a first lesson and sent the blurb to the cover designer.

Then more teaching and then I was at that point where just getting up and cleaning the doorhandles seemed way too hard so I just kept sitting in front of my computer reading social media until my husband was done with teaching.

I finally got up, ate dinner plus the last of the cake, started writing this post, toyed with the thought of buying yet another book (I’m reading a sample of „Betrothed to the Emperor“ by Kai Butler whom I had met online a couple of days before and I really like it so far), decided to leave the dishes dirty, made a list for today, picked a few flowers in my video game and went to bed.

It feels like it’s time for a school break again but that can’t be true. I guess all those extra lessons do make a difference.

In a less than ideal move my husband had scheduled a check-up with his doctor that morning where he was supposed to come in with an empty stomach, so he only had breakfast afterwards. On the bright side everything looks fine and he even got another vaccination out of the way.

So I ate cake alone while reading. I did manage morning pages, yoga and meditation but not anything book-related. While I was eating cake I got a call from my husband’s aunt on my cellphone. She wanted to know when would be a good time to call him. I managed to be polite and not say, „Never. Because he hates talking on the phone.“ Instead I told her he’d call her back.

And when he tried doing just that it turned out that – our phone wasn’t working. I re-downloaded the app for the router. I checked the phone. I connected my laptop and checked the settings on the router. I checked the app from the phone company. I tried VoIP over wifi. The internet connection was working but I couldn’t make or receive phone calls. Neither from our landline phone nor through wifi on my cell.

I started a diagnostics routine through the phone company app – nothing. Restarted the router – also nothing. Tried everything again. Researched routers and got very confused because none of the newer models said anything about VoIP. Ordered a new router. Noticed that the light on the phone was blinking that said there were new messages. Saw that my cellphone showed a missed call from the landline.

So. Phone was working again.

I canceled the router that I had ordered. I wasn’t sure about the model anyway.

And then I had to get a move on to make it to the health food store before I had to order lunch. Only when I picked up my cellphone to call the restaurant did I realize that I would have a real problem if I were wrong about the phone. I used the cellphone to use the landline because I have the restaurant’s number in there. I called, it rang – victory. The server picked up, it was very loud on their end, I said hello and they didn’t hear me. Twice. I looked at the cellphone and it turned out I needed to give the phone app permission to use the microphone. Now the server could hear me but it was still so loud on their end that I had to repeat every single word and to spell my name twice. Fun! But hey, food:

I also had fried noodles with chicken:

After lunch there wasn’t much time for a break before teaching started.

I had a long break between students but couldn’t really use it because I thought it would be shorter and the student who canceled only told me they wouldn’t come when their lesson should already have started.

After teaching the boy and I did bodyweight training. When we were finished my husband was also done with teaching for the day and opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate. Then each of us reheated takeout leftovers for dinner and that was basically it.

Today will be another full day but hopefully not quite as chaotic.

I talked with my husband and lost some more time to something I don’t remember and only then did I realize that I hadn’t made a list the night before. Always a mistake.

So I made a list to get me on track, did the breakfast dishes while listening to Steve Reich (I really love me some Steve Reich) and went out for walking/running.

My husband had come back from his run by then and advised my to stay on sidewalks because the woods were super icy and slippery still. So I trudged through streets instead of the woods. Not as nice but much safer:

When I came back my husband was super stressed so I helped a little with making salad before taking my shower. While eating we debated a longstanding issue between us, so that was not quite as restful as we would have liked. The food was good, though:

I played my video game for half an hour and then it was time to teach. There were all the students, one after the other, and quick dinner and then the course I’m taking with a Zoom meeting where we talked about fear and resilience. I’m not quite sure if I’m really as calm and unfazeable as I think or if I’m missing something.

After the Zoom call I started writing this post, then took a look at the kitchen, and that was mostly it. Well, apart from taking the cake out of the freezer because today is my husband’s birthday.

I did my usual yoga and five whole minutes of meditation, and then ate breakfast.

The kitchen was a mess with all the dirty dishes from the day before, so I tackled that at one point while my husband was starting to cook around me. There were pancakes and spinach:

We talked for a long time after lunch, mostly because my husband was using the wood stove and every pancake took ages. And then I read for a bit, ate chocolate and started playing Genshin. I was very determined to stop after an hour.

I did not stop after an hour.

I did eventually close the game and open a text editor, pulled out the blurb for book one, looked at the list of things that happen in that book, opened the manuscript and checked and then I started writing something that hopefully will convey the genre and feeling of the book to a potential reader.

I looked at my course homework twice that day but was not ready to actually do it. So far my answer to the homework question is, „I don’t know and I don’t really care, and I can’t say what I can contribute to the author community because that’s for the community to decide.“ Huh. Maybe that’s my answer to that question. I mean, the second sentence, not the first.

While I was still busy with the blurb the boy showed up for bodyweight training, right on time, so we did that. Only 20 minutes this time which meant I still had enough time to eat something before that day’s video call.

I was completely unprepared, as were most of us, and we had a nice little check-in.

Then I started writing this post, did the dishes to prevent another chaotic morning, watched some C-drama and went to bed.

I spent the whole day thinking about writing blurbs but then never actually sat down to do it. There was yoga and breakfast and dishes and then I tried going outside for walking/running:

It doesn’t look like it on the photo but most of the path was frozen solid and super slippery. I turned around early and basically didn’t run. I did do a loop on my way back, in the streets but still. At least I tried.

Lunch was black beans, cabbage and rice. My husband tried doing something vaguely Brazilian:

I talked with the rest of the family and played and bit and then it was time for my weekly writer Zoom. Which was rather nice, and then ‚Columbo‘. First episode of season 8 with some frozen pizza.

I dawdled some more, decided that going to bed on time was more important than most other things and went to bed with the whole kitchen filled with dirty dishes and pots.

I guess I’ll do those next and then the usual Sunday things.

Since it was Friday and Fridays tend to be chaotic my husband decided to make an omelette for lunch:

I taught a few students and used the two breaks between to finish the proofread for the romance novel. Now I need to decide what to do next.

The boy and I did bodyweight training, we talked a bit, I finally ate dinner and then I played my video game before going to bed a little late.

And now I’ll try to cram everything in that I didn’t manage to do yesterday.

I still got my complete morning routine done and it looks like I’ll be done with proofreading soon. And then, if I manage to sit my butt in chair, I might be able to publish the romance in time for Valentine’s day. Not because I find that day in any way special but it gives me something to hang the project on.

So, in my head, I made a nice little timeline for that book and the three others. I’ll just write four blurbs until Sunday, no problem.

Husband and I talked at length and were quite at odds with each other because I want to try to get a ticket to the BTS concert in Munich. The process of getting in early is a bit involved and I made a mistake when setting up an account that meant I needed a different cell phone number to sign up. So I asked my husband if I could use his which triggered quite a bit of stuff, a whole pile of hurt, and no, he didn’t want me to use his phone number to sign up for something as stupid as a BTS concert. (The boy helped me out later that day without me even asking. I’m still not sure if I’d rather get a ticket or not, so well, I guess we’ll see.)

In the end I went to the nearby supermarket instead of the farther one which was cool. Only, I didn’t get broccoli (not that big of a problem) or my husband’s birthday cake (bigger problem but solvable).

There was a very tasty lunch:

Yummy cabbage!

I spent some time with the whole sign-up for the concert ticket-thing with the boy’s help and then it was time for teaching.

Lovely students, even though I was just a tad tired. Then I ate some coated nuts and chocolate for dinner and sat down for a Zoom call for that class I’m taking. I was not in a receptive mood, unfortunately.

I then started writing this post, opened the video game briefly, read a bit and went to bed.

And now we’re on the home stretch to the weekend.

I slept well and did my complete morning routine, even though I did lose some time right away answering a friend’s text. Looks like BTS will come to Munich in June. I might try to get a ticket but they’ll probably be sold out within minutes and I don’t want to spend too much money.

At least I opened the manuscript for 35 minutes and I’m making progress.

Everything took longer than expected yet again and so I was pretty late for my walk/run. The weather was great, it was pretty warm and the streets and sidewalks were clear.

When I approached the woods I met someone who often walks his dog at the same time that I am out and he told me to be careful because the wood paths were slippery. I thought that wouldn’t be a problem, I had just taken the very same paths two days ago.

Oh was I wrong! There were parts of the path that were slushy snow and those were fine but the rest was basically sheets of ice with some meltwater on top. Nope.

I turned around and just walked a bit through the streets. I also forgot to take a picture. Not the running practice I would have liked but better than nothing.

I took a shower and then there was lunch which was delicious:

After that I played some Genshin Impact while the boy was trying to help which made it a bit hard to focus. But he went upstairs again and my first student canceled so I had some more time to myself.

Then I taught non-stop until 6.30, wrote a few texts to students and started writing this post since I was sitting at the computer anyway. It’s interesting what just one more student per day does to my energy. My guess is that there’s also a part of me that resents the change in routine and that drains some more.

I finally ate dinner, played some more video game, finally did my homework, did the dishes and went to bed.

My sleep app claims I was well rested but I’d say otherwise.

I did the usual morning things anyway, including 40 minutes in the manuscript. Spending twice as much time in the manuscript means faster progress, duh.

I did the dishes, then went out to the tea shop, optician and the health food store. The tea shop to pick up a kilo of my breakfast tea that I had ordered and paid online and the optician to finally get my glasses fitted. I had to wait for a full ten minutes, up to the point where I was sure they had forgotten me. At least my glasses fit better now even though I’m not 100% happy.

I came back home, packed everything away and helped to make salad:

I only had a couple of minutes between lunch and my first student that I mostly spent talking with the boy.

I taught a few students, tried using a short break for doing homework but mostly spent it trying to help my husband with a computer issue.

Then more teaching until I felt like dropping off my chair while teaching, then bodyweight training with the boy. There was a brief interlude where we helped my husband with the dishes.

Then finally dinner, a bit of reading and then I played some Genshin. I tried a few things but realized soon that I was just too tired so gave up. The boy was having none of that, egged me on, then stepped in and took my tablet in hand to fight a few bosses real quick. Then he took a shower and was too late meeting his friends to work on a report.

I had hopes of watching something on TV but there was no time, I made a list for today and started writing this post.

Today should be a little easier, apart from the two extra students I’m teaching. Oh, and I need to do my homework. Not quite sure if it’s due tomorrow but anyway.

I knew I would have a long and busy day. One of the top questions in the morning was if there was enough yogurt for two days or only one. Because if there wasn’t I would have wanted to pick some up ASAP. But there was enough so all is good.

We had breakfast in a cold kitchen because we were expecting the chimney sweep in the early afternoon and weren’t sure if he would look at the chimney for the wood stove or only the furnace. So we didn’t light a fire just in case.

I cut my husband’s hair which was long overdue, he’d had to smooth it down with water for a few days. I did the dishes and then went out for my walk/run:

I had been anxious about the ice warning but it turned out the footing was much better than the week before because there was all this snow and that provided grip. Even the running parts were fun.

Lunch was early for once (no wood stove, ahem) and so we ate just after I returned home:

Then I took a shower and was lucky in that the chimney sweep rang just as I was pulling up my pants. I opened the door with a towel around my hair but fully dressed. I left him downstairs and then half-waited for him to tell me he was finished only to find that when it was time for me to start teaching he was already gone.

I’m assuming he talked to my husband and didn’t just head out without a word.

Then there was teaching and scheduling makeup lessons for when I was sick in December. The Monday students make the bulk of that because that was the only day I canceled completely. My schedule looks pretty full the rest of the week but after that I will be mostly caught up.

And then it was time for dinner and the first session in the course I am taking right now, „The Liberated Writer“. I am still rather skeptical about the whole enneagram thing but I like the teacher and I think it will be a good place to tackle some mindset stuff.

It turned out I knew quite a few of the participants from elseweb and I think the whole thing will be interesting and helpful. How I will fit that into my week is another question, especially with the extra lessons. But that’s just this week. It will be fine.

I started writing this post right after, then made the list for today and that was mostly it for the day because I was very, very tired.

And now I’ll go out for errands and grocery shopping. Then teaching, then homework, I guess.

It meant that I had less time for the manuscript and was late anyway.

After a late breakfast and some talking and crochet I called my mother on the phone and then it was time to make gnocchi from scratch and veal cutlets. Only cooking on the wood stove did not go well and we ended up eating at 2.30 in the afternoon. By then I wasn’t even hungry anymore:

After that I ate some chocolate and then set out to finish the video game tasks I had set myself. And a few more. When I looked up again it was 6 already and I still hadn’t done the dishes or anything.

So I did the dishes, husband saw me and helped, and then the boy and I did bodyweight training. I had dinner and because the boy had suggested I do just a few quick things in-game before the week was over I went and tried those. Oh my, that was a disaster. We even tried it in co-op mode and, well, I spent an hour at least and still failed.

After that I was a little late, of course, and still hadn’t planned the week or anything. I did change the BRITA filter and descale both kettles in the breaks between sets while exercising but that was it.

So I started typing this post real quick, planned the week and made a list for today, watched half an episode of C-drama while crocheting and went to bed.

And now to a week that will be rather full. I will have five Zoom meetings this week. Serves me right for signing up for yet another course.

And then I did my complete morning routine including 50 minutes of manuscript time. I’d say, taking most of the email off my smartwatch is a good move.

My husband and I continued our conversation from the day before about chance and outside forces steering our lives. A lot of what we were talking about hit our respective trigger points, so not an easy talk. But we did end up understanding each other better which is always good.

At the same time I was trying to do the gauge swatch for the Wildshore Blanket CAL. I had to redo it (note to self, don’t try to learn a new stitch pattern while having an argument with your spouse) because I hadn’t read the pattern properly and the scallops ended up square. Second time went better:

And yes, I am aware there is a mistake in the first lavender row. And then I had to redo it again because the swatch ended up being too small and I switched to a bigger hook, did it again, and now the tension matches and I like the fabric better.

And then it turned out that the milk had gone sour, we didn’t have meat for lunch, and were out of both kinds of potatoes, so after doing the dishes I went off to the nearby supermarket.

Back home, unpacked everything, put my contact lenses in and went walking /running:

I was a little late in coming back home but that wasn’t a problem because lunch wasn’t ready either. So I took a shower and then we had lunch:

After lunch I ate all the sweets and read, played Genshin and started the actual blanket. I didn’t get far, though, before it was time for the weekly writers Zoom.

During Zoom I tried setting up the foundation row for the blanket. I counted to 161, then crocheted back and ended up with 159 stitches. But it said the blanket needed to be 161 stitches wide. So I ripped all those treble crochets back, added to chain stitches and started again. Counted (while listening to and talking with people), everything was fine, I had 161 stitches.

I checked the pattern and it said: „at the end of the row you should have 159 stitches“. So my first try had been correct after all. I briefly thought about just decreasing two stitches in the next row but ended up undoing that row yet again, plus to chain stitches and starting over.

By then it was time for our weekly (or not so weekly) episode of ‚Columbo‘, I started writing this post, did my daily list, and went to bed.

The plan for today includes making gnocchi from scratch. My guess is that lunch will be late again…

But. Not having interesting email and newsletters on my Watch really did make a difference. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I still spent some time re-reading old boring emails. And then I still stayed in bed staring at the ceiling. The good thing was that that staring-at-the-ceiling time meant I had a solution for how to tackle my new spinning project afterwards.

I did the usual morning things and this time that included almost twice as much time in the manuscript as usual. I did the whole morning pages, yoga and meditation thing, then had breakfast with my husband after which we talked a bit about the F Mixolydian #11 scale. And the fact that there is no such thing. My husband had encountered another exampled of the jazz musician as a human calculator way of thinking.

Then I was super inspired to start prepping fiber for my sock yarn. I had decided to spin a sample first, and for that I pulled off enough of the fiber that I had all the different colors in there:

And then I divided it lengthwise into three parts and started spinning the first one. It went very well. I’m just not quite sure I’m spinning fine enough but I guess I’ll see.

After that I did the dishes while my husband was out running, and then I slowly started the weekly cleaning. You know, the one that hasn’t really been weekly lately.

Everything went fine but when my husband came back he was resenting the fact that I kept running into his way. (He was also running into my way but I don’t mind as much. And cooking lunch has priority, of course.) We ended up in a not all that fun row but made up before the meal was over. The food was very good, though, if a bit too spicy:

I played some Genshin and finished the quest that I had tried four times a few days ago without success. Turns out I was making one or two crucial mistakes that made the whole thing unnecessarily hard.

And then it was time for teaching. I had a short teaching day with a lot of variety, piano, ukulele, guitar and then piano again.

Since I wasn’t finished with cleaning that’s what I did next, right after hanging up a load of laundry and starting the next one. The boy and I did bodyweight training on top of sore muscles and after that I could finally eat dinner. Phew.

But I wasn’t quite finished. I did the dishes right away because the boy wanted to take a shower, brushed my teeth and hung up a second load of laundry. In between I made my list for today and later I started writing this post.

And then there was some C-drama while knitting and bed. I was rather tired at this point but that’s okay after a day like that.

Now I’d just like today to be equally productive. I guess that’s up to me.

We had to leave the house that early to attend a funeral service. The uncle who was driving my husband, my mother-in-law and me said we might need an hour for that 25-minute drive and we did because it was rush hour and there was construction. And so we arrived just on time.

The service was wonderful but the chapel was freezing.

Afterwards we walked to a nearby pub for white sausages:

We sat with people we had never met before but also managed a few words with the deceased uncle’s wife.

And then the three of us went back home on public transport. My mother-in-law was easily overwhelmed and confused by all the people and unfamiliar streets but she did quite a bit of walking with just her cane and an arm to hold onto.

We took the subway and then the train and got lucky that we didn’t have to wait for too long anywhere. Mind you, my mother-in-law looks frail enough that she was offered seats on every platform and in every car.

Also, how great is it that everything is that accessible. She didn’t have to climb stairs even once, there were elevators and escalators everywhere.

In our hometown she even opted to walk all the way back home from the train station on my husband’s arm while I made a quick detour to the nearby supermarket for a few things the boy hadn’t found the day before.

And look what I found:

At home my husband immediately started a fire in the wood stove because we felt frozen to the bone. We still had an hour before teaching which was nice.

The first thing that afternoon that I had was being coached by a friend. It was the first time we did that and she is very good. Very motivating session and I got homework. You know how I love me some homework.

The I taught a student, used a 60-minute break for manuscript time (I told you she was motivating), taught some more, ate dinner, decided against doing the rest of the dishes (husband had done everything we needed for breakfast), ate dinner, played some Genshin even though I was too tired, started writing this post, decided against watching TV, made a list for today and went to bed.

Today will be the first regular day since the beginning of December or so. I guess I can finally breathe out.

I went to bed way too late, yet again and then spent 45 minutes or so unable to fall asleep. Ack.

Still, my sleep app thought my readiness for the day was „optimal“ and I did feel fine.

Morning routine including yoga but not manuscript time or meditation, talking with husband, dishes, and off I went into the extremely chilly woods:

I came back, took a shower and then got to enjoy fennel and polenta:

In between I finalized the plans for the new spinning project but I did not get around to actually prepping the fiber and starting.

I barely had fifteen minutes between lunch and teaching. Which went well and I started scheduling extra lessons for the missed ones in December because I was sick.

In between I wrote a grocery list so the boy could do the supermarket run. There were some things he didn’t find but at least we’re back to having butter again.

Once he was back and had put the groceries away we turned around and did bodyweight training. We’re both pretty out of shape. So I guess now we need to work at getting back into shape again.

I ate dinner while reading and talked with the rest of the family in between. The boy said he wanted to take a shower but he’d be quick. I ate lots of chocolate while reading and he still hadn’t come back. So I made the executive decision to do the dishes first which turned out to be a very good decision because it took him so long to return that I had done the dishes, dried them, put them away, and was in the middle of brushing my teeth until he reappeared.

I started writing this post, played my video game for a bit, watched C-drama very briefly and went to bed.

At least I laid out my clothes last night and tried them on. I even put out my jewelry.

And yes, today will be super busy as well. It should be the last of these crazy people-heavy days for a while, though.

I had gone to bed almost on time and slept well for eight hours straight. Nice. I did my complete morning routine including opening the manuscript and had breakfast.

And then it felt like I had all the time in the world.

But of course I hadn’t.

I went online and did the dishes and helped my husband grate cheese and chop veggies for salad. We went all fancy Italian and divided the meal into two course. Spaghetti aglio e olio with grated pecorino, a mixed salad and a glass of water:

And as a second course we had steak and stale bread:

We actually ate pretty early.

I read and then I played my video game and failed over and over. The boy and I discussed ways of making my characters stronger but I suspect it also is a skill issue. I’ll try again another day after learning some more.

In the morning I suddenly had a vision of starting a new spinning project. Wouldn’t it be fun to make cabled sock yarn on a spindle? (Probably not in the long run but the idea was very motivating.) So I pulled some fiber out of the stash that a friend had dyed for me specifically.

This is tussah silk, Shetland and Southdown, a blend chosen to be durable enough for socks. I have spun sock yarn in the past, even on a spindle but it has been a while. Also, I have another spindle project and about four or five wheel projects going on, none of them finished, and none that I have worked on recently. Ahem.

On the other hand, a shiny new project sometimes helps reignite the spark.

I’m not quite sure how I want to spin this. My first thought was a cabled yarn because that is fantastic for socks but that might make the colors muddy. So I also pulled out „The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook“ and „Yarnitecture“. I’m pretty sure I also own at least one magazine on spinning for socks and another spinning book where the author experimented with different kinds of sock yarn to determine the best structure.

So I guess I’ll do a little research and think some more before starting to spin.

In all the excitement I almost forgot my plan to dismantle the Christmas tree and pack away all the decorations but I did remember half an hour before dinnertime and set out to pack it all up. It is still sitting in the living room as I type but I’m hopeful all the decorations will make their way into the attic at some point today.

Then I went upstairs to ask my mother-in-law if she had put the trash can out and ask about her camera and a battery that she had set out. I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to do with those but apparently the battery was empty and she didn’t know how to change it. That thing was actually rechargeable but she couldn’t find her charger so I dug one up from the depth of my desk drawers.

I played some more Genshin until it was too late to watch TV, started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed.

And now Christmas break is over and we’re back to normal life. Phew.

I had gone to bed almost on time and slept well for eight hours straight. Nice. I did my complete morning routine including opening the manuscript and had breakfast.

And then it felt like I had all the time in the world.

But of course I hadn’t.

I went online and did the dishes and helped my husband grate cheese and chop veggies for salad. We went all fancy Italian and divided the meal into two course. Spaghetti aglio e olio with grated pecorino, a mixed salad and a glass of water:

And as a second course we had steak and stale bread:

We actually ate pretty early.

I read and then I played my video game and failed over and over. The boy and I discussed ways of making my characters stronger but I suspect it also is a skill issue. I’ll try again another day after learning some more.

In the morning I suddenly had a vision of starting a new spinning project. Wouldn’t it be fun to make cabled sock yarn on a spindle? (Probably not in the long run but the idea was very motivating.) So I pulled some fiber out of the stash that a friend had dyed for me specifically.

This is tussah silk, Shetland and Southdown, a blend chosen to be durable enough for socks. I have spun sock yarn in the past, even on a spindle but it has been a while. Also, I have another spindle project and about four or five wheel projects going on, none of them finished, and none that I have worked on recently. Ahem.

On the other hand, a shiny new project sometimes helps reignite the spark.

I’m not quite sure how I want to spin this. My first thought was a cabled yarn because that is fantastic for socks but that might make the colors muddy. So I also pulled out „The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook“ and „Yarnitecture“. I’m pretty sure I also own at least one magazine on spinning for socks and another spinning book where the author experimented with different kinds of sock yarn to determine the best structure.

So I guess I’ll do a little research and think some more before starting to spin.

In all the excitement I almost forgot my plan to dismantle the Christmas tree and pack away all the decorations but I did remember half an hour before dinnertime and set out to pack it all up. It is still sitting in the living room as I type but I’m hopeful all the decorations will make their way into the attic at some point today.

Then I went upstairs to ask my mother-in-law if she had put the trash can out and ask about her camera and a battery that she had set out. I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to do with those but apparently the battery was empty and she didn’t know how to change it. That thing was actually rechargeable but she couldn’t find her charger so I dug one up from the depth of my desk drawers.

I played some more Genshin until it was too late to watch TV, started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed.

And now Christmas break is over and we’re back to normal life. Phew.

I did the whole morning routine thing, had breakfast with my husband, knitted on the sock-in-progress and set it up for the next step, did the dishes, went out to the supermarket where we get out yogurt only to find that they were out, went to the health food store (where they also sell yogurt even if it’s slightly inferior), back home where I unpacked the groceries and changed into running clothes.

It was really, really cold and I had a little trouble breathing but not enough to have to walk all the time:

I came back home around lunchtime but lunch was a little late and so I could take a shower right away. There was comfort food:

I read a bit and ate chocolate and then I played some low-stress Genshin. For longer than I had planned, of course, but I did manage to vacuum the old part of the house and cleaned some washbasins and toilets.

I set my bullet journal up for January and not only did I botch the calendar (I started January on a Monday, ahem, and then was very confused when the 4th was not a Sunday.) and had to start over and then my fountain pen somehow leaked ink everywhere. I have the ugliest habit tracker ever, my wooden ruler has a purple ink stain and my hands are not only purple but also got covered in pink ink a little later when I refilled some other fountain pens.

The boy and I did some very easy bodyweight training and I was still sore from Friday. All three of us ate dinner together which is pretty rare and ended up looking up the different kinds of soda and lye for baking and for making soap and the history of the lye pretzel.

After dinner I finished setting up my journal and made a plan for this week and then I started writing this post while the boy was doing the dishes.

A little more video game, a little more reading and off to bed.

I took a picture of my finished sock:

We went upstairs to wish my mother-in-law a happy birthday before breakfast even. She really liked the rosebush. We couldn’t give her our card that said we’ll restore her rose bed as our present at this point because that card was with the boy in his bedroom where he was still sleeping. She got that later.

I called my mother. I did some admin. My husband and I had an early lunch of leftover paella and fish:

Since I don’t use the microwave all that often I underestimated the time it would take to heat the food and so we ate it lukewarm. Rice salad.

I played some Genshin. I told the boy that he would have to make his own lunch, there were some leftover potatoes to fry. He watched me play and gave me a few tips. Also went full facepalm on some of my more embarrassing moves.

Later he talked me through the boss fight I had been botching all week, and now I’m through with that and have to fight another annoying boss. My husband said there’s a reason he doesn’t want the stress of playing games.

I had plans of finally setting my bullet journal up for January and all but when my brother-in-law came over to change the faulty light switch in the boy’s bathroom we finally figured out that my mother-in-law had give us all the wrong time for dinner. It was not at 7 but instead at 6. Oops.

I did the dishes in record time and jumped into different clothes and then we went off. On foot.

It turns out Google Maps was right and it did take us exactly 39 minutes to get there. It also turned out that walking over the fields (I mean, there is a gravel road but no streetlamps) went better than I feared because the combination of a full super moon and snow on the ground meant it was actually pretty light. Also very pretty.

The reason dinner was earlier was that two of our nieces and nephews brought their children. And that included the baby that was born exactly a week ago. Very cute.

The food was good as was the beer:

It was nice to see everyone and talk with people I hadn’t seen for a while. The walk back was very cold but nice, even though my husband kept pushing forward at a pace that was just a bit too fast for me. The way ack took 5 minutes less, by the way.

I changed into pajamas right away, started writing this post and went to bed.

And today will be another busy day off again.

I took a picture of my finished sock:

We went upstairs to wish my mother-in-law a happy birthday before breakfast even. She really liked the rosebush. We couldn’t give her our card that said we’ll restore her rose bed as our present at this point because that card was with the boy in his bedroom where he was still sleeping. She got that later.

I called my mother. I did some admin. My husband and I had an early lunch of leftover paella and fish:

Since I don’t use the microwave all that often I underestimated the time it would take to heat the food and so we ate it lukewarm. Rice salad.

I played some Genshin. I told the boy that he would have to make his own lunch, there were some leftover potatoes to fry. He watched me play and gave me a few tips. Also went full facepalm on some of my more embarrassing moves.

Later he talked me through the boss fight I had been botching all week, and now I’m through with that and have to fight another annoying boss. My husband said there’s a reason he doesn’t want the stress of playing games.

I had plans of finally setting my bullet journal up for January and all but when my brother-in-law came over to change the faulty light switch in the boy’s bathroom we finally figured out that my mother-in-law had give us all the wrong time for dinner. It was not at 7 but instead at 6. Oops.

I did the dishes in record time and jumped into different clothes and then we went off. On foot.

It turns out Google Maps was right and it did take us exactly 39 minutes to get there. It also turned out that walking over the fields (I mean, there is a gravel road but no streetlamps) went better than I feared because the combination of a full super moon and snow on the ground meant it was actually pretty light. Also very pretty.

The reason dinner was earlier was that two of our nieces and nephews brought their children. And that included the baby that was born exactly a week ago. Very cute.

The food was good as was the beer:

It was nice to see everyone and talk with people I hadn’t seen for a while. The walk back was very cold but nice, even though my husband kept pushing forward at a pace that was just a bit too fast for me. The way ack took 5 minutes less, by the way.

I changed into pajamas right away, started writing this post and went to bed.

And today will be another busy day off again.

This is something I heard in this video about sleep. And he is perfectly right. And your sleep window is the time when you are tired but still have enough impulse control to go to bed. Duh.

Anyway, that was the window I missed Friday night. I was cranky because while I had planned to clean and kill that video boss I did the game first and then go stuck with that, trying over and over and failing. In the evening I had achieved nothing (well, apart from the garden center and hardware store bit) and there were still all the dishes.

So. Lights out at 1.30 do not make for a good next day. My brain was very mushy, I didn’t realize that there was snow that needed shoveling, my husband was the first one who saw it and then went out to shovel which triggered his feeling that he is the only one actually taking care of the house and property.

It didn’t help that I wasn’t really capable of coherent thought and speech and that I was feeling completely desperate, like I would never get anything accomplished ever. I’d say that was mostly the sleep deficit talking.

I wrote morning pages, wrote my blog post, did yoga, helped to make breakfast and are alone because my husband was mad at me. On the upside I got to read some more of „Snake-Eater“. I’m still loving it.

My mood got another damper when my sister asked me if there was anything wrong with this blog because she couldn’t access it. Well, apparently, because neither could I, and the backend was only partially accessible as well. I decided not to let myself get triggered and it looks like it’s back. Phew.

I did a few dishes, my husband came back from running and realized that we didn’t have the kind of pasta he wanted for lunch. So I went out and bought some. Also tortilla chips, and all the veggies. And another cucumber.

Then I went for my first walk/run in weeks, I started over with the first day of couch to 5K. It was nice but I was definitely feeling my arms and legs from training the night before. The weather was gorgeous:

And I also took a selfie:

I went back home, husband was still cranky but much less so. Lunch was already done when I walked in the door which was greatly appreciated:

This is what my husband made with the leftover salmon from the day before.

After that I read and ate licorice and played my video game. And then I actually stopped playing, took a shower and after that folded some laundry and started dusting.

My husband used the afternoon to vacuum and mop the annex. I am very happy that he did but I ended up doing the first few minutes of my Zoom call with both camera and mic off because he was still busy mopping the floor in my studio.

Since both my husband and the boy weren’t interested in watching TV together I got to stay at the Zoom meeting all the way to the end which turned out to be after more than two hours.

When I was done blabbering away it turned out my husband had taken care of the dishes. Probably so that I didn’t have an excuse for going to bed too late yet again.

I then ate tortilla chips and some ice cream for dinner and had a beer. There was more reading. I wrote this post. I did not learn Chinese in the evening but I did finish a sock. I’ll show you a picture when I have better light.

Today will be super busy for sure, so stay tuned.

It was snowing and very cold but we went to the garden center by bike anyway. And found one lone rosebush with two small red blossom. Also, we bought almost everything on my husband’s garden center list. And brought the rose home in the bike trailer without crushing it.

Then we went to the hardware store where we spent a long time searching for things. Not only is that store overwhelming all the time, they also re-arranged everything again. As did the garden center, by the way.

We came back home. I had been pretty anxious beforehand because of the weather but it was actually way easier than I thought and it was not as cold or as slippery as I thought it would be.

We had an easy lunch:

And then I spent the whole afternoon glued to my iPad playing Genshin impact and failing. Harumph.

In the evening the boy and I did some light bodyweight training and I changed the sheets on my bed before all three of us ate smoked salmon on toast (well, seitan on toast in case of the boy and it wasn’t very good). Then my husband offered to do the dishes, I declined (like an idiot), played some more Genshin (and failed everything again despite the boy’s advice, and then went off to social media until way past my bedtime.

As I said, dumb.

I started writing this post, finally did the dishes and went to bed.

Now I just need to do the cleaning today, also some exercise, Zoom and spending time with family.

It was a day where everything took ages and my mind was a slow as a vey slow snail.

Husband made his version of paella for lunch:

The boy actually came downstairs before lunch was ready but not by much. We ate together while my husband was busy watching ski jumping and then we set out to make cookie dough for the Christmas cookies that we didn’t manage to make earlier. To out defense baking while sick with covid is probably not a good idea and since then there was always something.

We spent the afternoon baking and the boy did the dishes three or four times in total. Here are the two kinds of cookies  we made, Zimtsterne:

And Vanillekipferl:

We actually finished just in time for a late lunch. Our original plan had been to eat some more smoked salmon on toast for dinner but my husband and I agreed that we couldn’t face more fish, or even champagne that day, so we didn’t.

I started making a list of leftovers, the fridge is still very, very full.

I played a bit of Genshin (and the boy helped me at one point so I could get to bed earlier, brushed my teeth and went to bed with „Snake-Eater“ by T. Kingfisher, a book that I spontaneously started reading that morning and really like so far. I also want to go through „World of Wonder“ again this year, and re-started the „War and Peace“-challenge. Last year I gave up at one point, mostly because I didn’t like the version I was reading and because I got confused with what I was supposed to read every day.

So. Busy day ahead today, there was talk about getting back to bodyweight training and biking to the garden center…

We had a nice lunch:

We failed to make Christmas cookies because the boy woke up too late and we didn’t really want to bake while his friend came over to our house. It’s nice to see him still being friends with someone he met in 5th grade and it was very pleasant to have him over for an evening.

I knitted and played Genshin, of course, and read.

We did not eat our usual cheese fondue because all of us were already feeling the overdose of rich food the last week or so. So we did white sausages and pretzels for dinner:

That beer is yet another kind of Christmas beer. Very tasty.

The boy’s friend only came over after dinner and we settled down watching the newest ‚Knives Out‘ while my husband was making music in the annex. When he came in the door he announced it was a war zone out there, so much fireworks and right in the middle of the street.

We ate all the salty snacks. There was lemonade and alcohol-free beer.

We stopped the movie at a quarter to midnight and went upstairs to my mother-in-law’s for champagne and watching the fireworks from her living room window.

There were lots and lots of fireworks and they had started pretty early in the day, and went on forever. All in all it seems to have been less than the years before, though, because when the boy’s friend left around 2.30 the air outside was actually clear.

We read a post that most Germans are in favor of banning most fireworks. At the same time my husband saw on V how people were standing in line the second they could buy fireworks at midnight two days before and how one guy plunked down 400 euros for it. For one night, boom, all that money gone.

Anyway. I am still in the process of reviewing the year and I imagine today will be a thoroughly unproductive day, as it should.

Morning routine went well but I skipped meditation again. The day before I made post-its with checkboxes for my proofreading and that is really motivating.

Speaking of motivation, I also kept thinking about those goals I had set at one point, most of which I still haven’t reached two years later. On the other hand, even if I gave up on writing those goals down I still would want to reach them so I guess the striving continues.

I did a massive round of grocery shopping and erranding. After leaving the house a little late because the boy had dumped a big pile of dirty dishes in my lap the night before.

So. Dishes, then the smaller health food store for vitamins and vegetarian weisswurst, the pharmacy to get my husband’s medication and then the big health food store.

Back home where husband and I managed to start fighting about nothing, I guess we’re both exhausted and would like our routine back, thank you very much.

Since lunch wasn’t ready yet I turned around right away and walked to the nearby supermarket.

Then there was lunch:

The reason for this feast was the leftover chicken.

Then there was chocolate and reading and some Genshin playing before I went back out again. The pharmacy didn’t have one of the medications (the doctor’s office had made a prescription for 30 pills instead of the usual 100, argh, and those needed to be ordered first) so I had to come back in the afternoon. Which also meant I could look for smoked salmon in a different store. Apparently that is obligatory for New Year’s two stores were out.

I now have smoked salmon, and some sliced bread that I hope tastes okay but unfortunately I was unable to get a vegetarian salmon alternative.

I came back and played some more and ate a pastry. Just when I wanted to do the dishes my husband showed up to say that he wanted to take a shower. So I played some more. The second time I was just about to start the dishes the boy showed up and wanted to take a shower.

So I started this post instead, ate something while watching C-drama for the first time in weeks and that was mostly it for the day.

And today will be New Year’s Eve. The plan is to eat weisswurst, watch the new „Knives Out“ and drink champagne. And not stay up for too long.

I did my morning routine (sans meditation because I was late), dishes, went online, then outside for a walk:

We had spaghetti bolognese with salad for lunch because there was still leftover fried ground beef.

The boy asked if his friend could come and celebrate New Year’s Eve with us because otherwise he would be alone at home and we said yes. We planned the food for that day. No cheese fondue this year because husband is still feeling off from what we ate last week.

I played a lot of Genshin. I did dishes and talked with everyone and ate dinner and then played Genshin some more.

I looked at my goals for 2024 because I hadn’t set any for this year and had found the only one I had reached was to publish „Masked in Ice“.

I have made progress on all of them, getting the house in order, losing weight, writing and publishing and learning Chinese but only tiny progress. My hope is that tiny progress will add up eventually.

I opened the manuscript and did yoga despite not feeling like it at all.

I called my mother and did some dishes and listened to my husband complaining about people. Just as I was brushing my teeth I saw my brother-in-law enter the house. He was early to help my mother-in-law cook.

Of course, no one had any idea when her guests would arrive. They were rather early, starting at 11.30. Apparently they were prepping lunch for 1 o’clock.

The boy and I went upstairs after our own very late lunch:

It was nice seeing nieces and nephews. Most of them had left their spouses at home, only one had brought her two kids, and oldest nephew was in the hospital with his wife and newborn daughter. (Everything is fine, the baby was born right that day.) Also, we’ll see all of them again a week from now when it’s my mother-in-law’s birthday.

The boy and I trotted back downstairs. I read and played games and waited for my husband’s friends. I said hello just as they were about to start playing in the basement. The keyboarder asked me for a USB-hub which I gave him, no problem. I just have to remember to get it back tonight.

I played Genshin Impact, this time with a plan and started leveling another character up.

I did dishes and was interrupted in drying them by my husband who said they were going out to eat. I went with them. Because my husband had asked me to, and also because there is this Italian restaurant in the neighborhood that I’e been wanting to go to for ages.

They have excellent pizza:

When we came back home the boy had finished drying the dishes, I played some more and spent time online, started writing this post and went to bed.

I guess, the rest of the list has been shunted to today.

We were still waiting for my husband’s friends to tell us if they were coming and when but no dice. Well, my husband texted them around lunchtime and in the evening I finally got to know they’ll come today.

I started the heel increases on the sock in progress, did the dishes and went to buy toilet paper, candles and snacks.

We ate leftovers for lunch:

I had planned to go for a walk in the woods but then didn’t because of the dunnwannas.

I read, I knitted, I talked with the rest of the family, the boy helped me with a boss in Genshin and then there was writer Zoom. It was really nice but I ran into one of those German/American cultural differences again.

My husband decided to do more recordings in the basement instead of watching TV with us, so we decided to watch ‚Goldfinger‘. It was my first time but I had read the book back in the late 70s. We both really liked the film even though some things are really dated. We both liked that the film wasn’t taking itself too seriously, and well, Sean Connery.

Then more Genshin, I started this post, did the dishes and went to bed too late again.

The plan for today is to review the year, call my mother and talk with my husband’s friends.

Husband and I spent a lot of time talking, mostly about friendships and people. Also, we’re waiting for his friends to tell us when they want to come in for making music. Husband insists on waiting for them to make the first move for once. Not knowing is driving me up the wall. I mean, him as well, but not as much as me, I think.

For once we were actually on time with chores and cooking and so our nice Christmas meal was ready on time:

Very yummy, potato dumplings (with store-bought dough), red cabbage and duck breast. And a piece of Silesian poppy see cake for dessert.

Just after we had finished eating, the boy finally showed up for the first time that day. Then my husband again, to talk some more. He is in the process of recording some stuff and needs to wander the house getting in the right mindset.

I did get quite a bit of knitting done. I also spent a lot of time reading because I really wanted to finish „The Curse of Chalion“. Excellent book. I liked it so much that I bought the next in series right away, and then I got second thoughts. I’m not sure I’m in the right mood for that book, we’ll see.

I did all the dishes:

This is after washing them but before drying and putting it away. Husband came into the kitchen asking me if I wanted help twice while I was dealing with this. I just wanted to listen to my YouTube video in peace while getting the kitchen back in order. Of course, shortly after there were people pulling out leftovers and frying stuff again. No idea why the rest of the family can’t eat bread for dinner like normal people.

Mind you, we have a fridge stuffed with leftovers to the brim, I guess we’ll eat some of those today.

My plans to sort the yarn or play the piano somehow never came to fruition but I did manage to kill a boss in Genshin for the first time on my own that had thwarted me several times before, so yeah.

And then the boy wanted to take a shower right before it was time for me to brush my teeth, something that often leads to me going to bed too late. And for some reason I spontaneously pulled out my ukulele (I mean, I have one for this exact reason stashed in the old part of the house) and played a few songs. Nice.
I could see the boy was immediately transported back to his childhood when I would play these exact ukulele songs while he was falling asleep in the next room.

And today will probably be more waiting plus going to the supermarket for toilet paper which is sort of important.

To be honest, I never quite know if walking to the grocery store counts as cardio or not but, well, I left the house with the intention of exercise.

I had gone to bed pretty early and slept for nine hours. Phew.

As a result I was super out of it most of the day, feeling tired and exhausted and fairly dizzy. I don’t know how other people do this but every time I get enough sleep after a few days of sleep deficit I’m totally ready to stay in bed for another week or two.

I started the day with picking up my phone and then – unsurprisingly – somehow ran out of time for the manuscript. Boo.

Here is proof that I left the house:

I even tried my new contact lenses and they are working well.

I took a shower and my husband made pasta with tomato sauce because we couldn’t stand cabbage two days in a row:

As you can see we continued our theme of wine with meals, my husband had gotten this really excellent wine as a gift and opened the bottle for lunch.

I had loads of plans for the afternoon but mostly spent it talking to the boy, playing Genshin and doing research and such for a writing retreat I want to attend in April. This is really, really exciting. I really like the person leading the retreat and since she is American she does not come to Germany very often. So I decided to sign up.

The sign up was a Google form which seemed a tad unprofessional, and since I didn’t hear anything I thought something had gone wrong. But no! I got an actual letter in the mail with all the details. So yesterday afternoon I paid half the fee, researched trains and booked a ticket and seat, and then I researched the place where the retreat takes place.

It’s in a really fancy hotel. I might have to take more than one outfit plus a change of t-shirt and underwear for this one.

I had big plans of watching a course I have on „Die Hard“ and sorting my yarn but that never happened. I ate dinner, drank the leftover champagne from the day before, watched a video about J-Hope practicing for his tour, started writing this post and eventually went to bed.

And today will be another chill day, I’m sure.

Well, not really.

I did most of my morning routine anyway, including yoga working around the Christmas tree. I did not really open the manuscript, though I did touch the blurb very briefly.

I started a new pair of socks for my husband:

We had smoked salmon on toast with champagne for lunch and I completely forgot to take a picture.

I then played an hour of Genshin Impact and finished the domain I had struggled with the night before.

And then the boy and I put the lights on the Christmas tree. He went his merry way after that because he was still very body drawing Christmas cards.

Husband and I tackled the cooking. The sauerkraut had been simmering on the wood stove since lunchtime and then it was time to boil potatoes and fry the brats.

I have ever seen potatoes that were that weird ever before in my life. I specifically bought a kind that should have been good for mashed potatoes. Husband peeled them and put them on the stove and after just a little more than the usual cooking time about half of the were actual mush and the rest was merely a little overcooked. Which meant we couldn’t really get all the water out. And then I started making mashed potatoes. And couldn’t use most of the milk because the potatoes were so mushy and almost liquid. I threw a ton of butter in there but they never really gained that delicious fluffiness that I would have liked.

Yummy. Well, apart from the potatoes.

At one point I had the brilliant idea of using the candle and candle holder I had gotten from a student on the table. I brought the candle over from the annex. Husband carried the candle all the way to the annex to find a lighter.

He lit the candle and just before he was entering the apartment the flame died.

Shortly after we heard a big crash and tinkle.

The candlestick was no more.

We met up to exchange presents, just small tokens. My mother-in-law really loved our tree:

The boy took this picture. His sense of composition is much better than mine, I wouldn’t hav thought to include the snow outside. And then he gave me my present:

He drew this winter scene from Genshin Impact specifically for me. I was very moved.

The my husband and I talked a bit more while doing the dishes and then I was about to drop. Start writing this post and went to bed.

And now for Christmas Day!

I did my complete morning routine and I love it. Started thinking about the blurb during morning pages, then opened book 2 to refresh my memory about what happened. Apparently a lot.

I made a spontaneous decision to go on a retreat in April filled out the registration. The fact that the form was a Google doc seemed a bit dodgy but we’ll see.

I finished my husband’s hat:

I wound two skeins of yarn one of them for a pair of socks for my husband. I might also unearth the fingerless mittens I started for the boy where the pattern was just unknittable. Which means I need to take the designers charts and use them to design my own. Meh. Not why I pay money for patterns. It’s unfortunate when a knitting designer can’t count.

I also decided that I can live without my favorite crispbread if it means I only have to walk to the nearby supermarket instead of biking to the farther one when everybody is out to pick up groceries.

My husband made beans for lunch, very yummy:

There were sweets, there was reading and video games, the student I had expected to teach canceled and the boy and I hauled all the Christmas stuff downstairs from the attic.

I got stuck on Genshin Impact again doing just one more thing, and then I was late again with the dishes and my evening routine. Harumph.

And today will be Christmas which means dinner with my mother-in-law. Unless the boy is still testing positive so we’ll see how that goes.

I went to bed at an almost reasonable time, set my alarm, got up earlier and did ten minutes of easy yoga for the first time in weeks. And opened the manuscript. It is slow going but at least there is progress again.

I finished knitting the mittens for my aunt and then forgot to wrap them up and mail the package all day.

My list for the day was not the best, I forgot the package and had planned to walk to the health food store and go for a walk in the woods and that would have been a bit too much.

So the health food store it was, and then another one because there were a couple of things I couldn’t get and back home for lunch:

Husband and I spent a big chunk of the morning talking as well.

In the afternoon I had big plans, I even set a timer for playing my video game and then ended up playing the whole afternoon. I should swap things around and leave the video game for last because otherwise I don’t get much done.

I’m still happy that I didn’t feel paralyzed. I also managed to vacuum the old part of the house. My husband did the toilets and the annex so we’re calling it good for now.

I read and played and talked briefly with the boy and in between ate a bag of potato chips for dinner. It’s interesting, I bought a different brand this time and that one seems to bother my stomach way less than the others. Good to know. Still something I shouldn’t eat too often.

I then started writing this post, made a list for today, did not do the dishes but instead wrapped and mailed the Christmas presents, phew.

Today I want to get all the things done, wish me luck.

I wrote morning pages and meditated and did not do yoga because that would have meant getting up earlier. My brain was mostly mush all day and I was slow with everything and late all through the day.

I called my mother on the phone and tried talking about all the different things that happened all week. I also prepared her for the fact that her Christmas present probably won’t be on time because my aunt’s mittens are not finished yet.

My husband had plans to make pizza from scratch and not only that, he also decided to try making pizza in the wood stove. Sorry, I did not take a picture of that one, let’s just mention that we were very, very happy that we had made most of the pizza in the regular oven:

Using the pizza stone had made the wood stove pizza bubble up nicely but also the top had not quite gotten hot enough. In contrast the bottom had definitely gotten hot enough, or rather way too hot, we had to scratch some coal off the stone later and we all declared that experiment a failure.

After that I sat around and read for a bit and then I played Genshin, ate dinner, did the dishes in a hurry (and had to let the plates air-dry because I ran out of time) because it was time for my monthly coaching session. This time I mostly brought epiphanies I had had that morning and the reason why I didn’t really get anything done this month.

Everything will get done eventually, I guess, and life happens.

After that I started writing this post, finally planned the week, made a list for today and went to bed somewhat earlier, phew.

First day of Christmas break started pretty well. After breakfast I finished the first mitten:

I even weighed it and the yarn that’s left should be enough. I started the second mitten and that made me too late for everything that came after.

There was lunch:

I helped to make salad.

I read, I ate sweets, I played Genshin, I folded laundry and then it was time for the weekly writer Zoom. Which was very nice. And because it was so nice I then stayed a little late and was too late for watching ‚Columbo‘ with the rest f the family.

The story was great but the science behind it somewhat flawed.

There was dinner during the watching, then I fell into an internet rabbit hole and stayed up past 1 o’clock.

Oops.

I guess today will be interesting.

I had gone to bed at an almost reasonable time and then woke up an hour early with no chance of falling back asleep. My sleep tracking app said my readiness for the day was „rest“.

I thought that was a bit exaggerated but, well. Husband and I had a really unnecessary argument over breakfast, so no fun there.

The boy hadn’t been sure if he needed to go to uni and had set himself an early alarm. Turned out no, that lab thing will be on Monday.

My original plan had been to clean but it was pretty clear I did not have th energy for it and should conserve what little I had for an afternoon of teaching.

My husband made rice and dal for lunch:

I only had a short break afterwards before I needed to start work. Teaching went well but both the students and I were a little wrung out.

In between I got a voicemail that my glasses were ready. There was just enough time after my last student to walk over and pick them up. So I got ready, put an empty glasses case in my purse, found my gloves, earbuds and phone and just as I was about to leave the house my husband showed up to say that he thought I had been right in the morning. Which was nice.

Only, when I arrived at the optician’s I found that I had left my purse at home. No money, no case for my glasses and no house key, oops.

The optician was nice enough to give me my new glasses and contact lenses with just an invoice, so that was good. I got my new glasses adjusted. Left the shop, crossed the street and realized the glasses were pinching my ears. So I turned around again. Had my glasses adjusted again. And again. Thought them good enough and went back home.

My husband was very surprised when someone rang the doorbell at that time and then told me all about how a) exhausted he was and b) the rest of the family had jumped him while he was doing the dishes as a nice surprise for me. My mother-in-law apparently had decided that her package to her sister-in-law had to go out tomorrow morning and that we should be including a gift and/or card. Something we have never done before.

Husband was confused and on the defensive. The poor boy had to be the messenger and also was miffed because his grandmother expected him to draw a Christmas card right there and then. Ahem. That’s not how this works.

All of that while I found that the glasses were still not sitting right, I need to go back another day. Harumph.

I was super exhausted at that point and regretted leaving the house.

I finally sat down for dinner, fending off my husband’s offer to help. No I did not want that bread, and thanks for putting the butter on the table but I don’t want any.

I sat down with my crisp bread and brie, just about to cut the cheese when my mother-in-law knocked on the door. Could I help her put together her meat grinder?

I totally lost it and exploded in her face. I was so hungry and exhausted and hadn’t had a second of quiet and solitude since after lunch. And why was she making cookies at 7 pm anyway? (She was making German Spritz Cookies. You use a meat grinder with an attachment that gives the cookies their shape.)

She got angry as well (and rightfully so) and said, well, I could also eat dinner first and then come upstairs in ten or fifteen minutes. But I wanted to have a leisurely dinner in peace and be done for the day.

So I apologized and went upstairs to put the meat grinder together. (My first time ever.)

Then I went downstairs to eat and read. I also talked with the boy briefly. I ate some chocolate. I opened my iPad to play some Genshin when the smoke alarm upstairs was going all bonkers. So I rushed upstairs again where, apparently, something had gone wrong with the cookies.

My poor mother-in-law (and poor cookies). They were burnt all black and crisp and not only was one smoke alarm going off, there were three. We opened all the windows and the door to the stairwell and the smoke alarm there went off as well. 

Until I put the cookie sheet outside and we also opened the outside door downstairs. Every single cookie was burned beyond recognition. Apparently, she is not in the habit of setting a timer for something like baking very thin and small cookies but she thought since she was standing right next to the oven, washing up, she wouldn’t miss the right time to pull the cookies out.

Ouch.

The poor thing is very stressed. She is becoming more and more forgetful anyway but Christmas preparations are not doing her any favors.

The boy had come downstairs as well, wearing his mask, and I later learned that my husband had heard the alarm as well but then also had heard me galloping up the stairs so he knew he wasn’t needed.

My husband and I talked some more after that, opening all the windows and some doors in our apartment as well because we could smell the smoke there as well.

And then we went into the basement to check the fire extinguisher because we might need it one of these days.

Well. The date it was last checked was some time in the last century so I guess that one might not be that reliable anymore. Also, I really have no idea how to use it which would be helpful in an emergency. And I think that maybe we should get a new one?

Anyway. I then finally played some Genshin, started writing this post, gave my Chinese app a brief sideways glance and declared it enough for the day.

But hey, this is the start of two weeks of Christmas break. Woot.

I’m a bit short on time again but yesterday I:

• Talked with my mother-in-law about the bratwurst order for Christmas and sorted out some discrepancies
• Asked my husband to help me get a Christmas tree (which he definitely didn’t like but did anyway)
• Wrote all the messages to all the people
• Walked to the nearby supermarket only to find that they were out of Christmas trees
• Ordered all the special bratwurst
• Walked back home again
• Hitched the bike trailer to my bike and went off to the garden center
• Had a debate with my husband beforehand because he thought the trailer would be too small for a tree

Lo and behold:

• Biked to the big supermarket and crossed my fingers that no one would steal the bike trailer or the Christmas tree while I was inside
• Loaded both panniers, my backpack and the front basket to the brim and biked back home
• Spent 15 minutes unpacking everything
• Had a delicious lunch:

(Sorry, I forgot to take a picture first so this is what my plate looked like after a bite or two.)

• Took a shower and finished hanging up the laundry that my husband started
• Taught all afternoon
• Ate dinner and too many gummy bears and almonds and licorice
• Played Genshin while waiting for the boy to finish his shower
• Talked with the boy while doing the dishes
• Started writing this post, made a list for today, did a bit of Chinese and almost went to bed at a reasonable time

One more teaching day before Christmas break.

My own test was so faintly positive again that I had another moment of thinking it was negative. My husband continues to test negative throughout. Yes, we are waiting for the, um, third show to drop.

I did get enough sleep but the only way that happens at the moment is by sleeping longer in the mornings and that won’t do once I’m back to writing and yoga in the morning. We’ll see how that goes.

We did start the day with cake, of course, but I forgot to take a picture. Somehow we did not quite eat breakfast at the same time but we were in the kitchen together so I guess that counts.

The plan was to take a shower and work on publishing stuff but that didn’t quite happen.

There was takeout for lunch:

When I went to pick up our food (masked, of course) the restaurant owner went out to the terrace just as I was paying. Very strange. And then she came back with a box that contained a plastic lunchbox, soup container, spoon and fork.

It was a gift because we always ask for reusable containers.

I think most people don’t think of it but there was a law a while back that all takeout had to have the option for reusable containers and ever since we have been asking for those. Which also means we had to pay a deposit for each container and have to think about washing those and then taking them back the next time.

Anyways. We have a new lunchbox now.

My original plan had been to take a shower before picking up the food but then I decided against it because I didn’t want to go outside with wet hair. And then there was not quite enough time to take that shower between lunch and my first student but no problem, right? Because I had another break after the first student.

First student had her first online lesson because her mother didn’t want to take a risk. Mostly because they want to travel to South Africa over Christmas break. Alright with me.

Somehow time got away from me after that (again) and then, while I was sitting in the kitchen enjoying some more cake, my husband showed up to say that my next student was 15 minutes early. I was still wearing sweats at this point, oops.

So that student was taught and the other two as well. One of those was the first student all week to also wear a mask. I highly approve.

And after that I ate dinner, played lots of Genshin which was very frustrating because I upped my world level and now my characters are too weak again for everything and that was that.

I did my usual evening routine (but managed to not stay up until midnight, yeah!) and incorporated all the changes to today’s plan into my daily list.

Speaking of lists, I started reading Sarah Hart-Unger’s new book „Best Laid Plans“, I can already tell that I’ll enjoy that one.

But. I did do my current abbreviated morning routine, did the breakfast dishes and then went out for all the errands and some grocery shopping. I wasn’t sure I was up to it but felt pretty good all the way from dropping off a package to the drug store to two supermarkets to the health food store but on the way back home with my backpack full I found that I really needed an hour of sitting down and resting afterwards.

My daily covid test was so faintly positive that I had about two minutes of thinking it was negative instead. Progress.

Before leaving the house I had started yet another pair of fingerless mittens, these are the ones my mother volunteered me for:

My husband made bulgur with eggplant and feta for lunch, something we haven’t had in a while and it was very good:

After finishing the complete „Penric and Desdemona“-series I was at a loss what to read next (What do you mean, I could finish one of the half-read books I already own? Tsk.) and so I first started reading some fluffy romance and then I veered off and bought „The Curse of Chalion“. So far I really like it, I kept sneaking glances at my phone all day to continue reading.

My last student of the day canceled and then a friend reminded me about another Zoom meeting, this time about planning, so I ate dinner in front of my computer, took quite a few notes and made nice progress on the mitten.

I was very set on doing the dishes first this time but then the boy showed up and wanted to take a shower.

Still, I am a big girl so I managed to actually do all the evening routine things in a timely manner for once and went to bed.

But then the day went better than expected, I had more energy than I thought and even did some publishing stuff.

I finished the mittens for my mother-in-law:

I wanted to start the next pair (my mother decided I would knit some for her sister) but only managed to grab all the supplies. I hope the partial ball of yarn I have will be enough. For those of you who actually pay attention to knitwear: yes, this is the exact same pattern and color as the ones I made for my mother but these are a size smaller.

I did the breakfast dishes and took a shower and ate lunch:

This pasta e fagioli was delicious even though I am not a big fan of the added chili marinade.

I taught my students while wearing a mask and had flashbacks to the pandemic. I had almost forgotten about the way the mask pinches my ears, especially in connection with the glasses.

I hook the glasses through the mask’s rubber bands so they don’t fall off which makes things a little worse. But I’d rather have painful ears than my glasses crashing to the floor. I also almost forgot how the mask makes my progressive lenses sit just a tad higher which makes everything nice and blurry. But then I’m all blurry all the way at the moment because I need new glasses.

I ate dinner and read, and then played some Genshin Impact for too long before finally starting this post and doing the dishes. I really hope to get to bed earlier tonight but then I always do.

Yeah.

I was pretty good, I took dishwashing duties back from the boy and vacuumed the old part of the house and folded some laundry. And talked with my mother on the phone, of course.

My husband made pasta:

I played some Genshin and attended yet another Zoom call that resulted in an almost finished fingerless mitten.

And then I played some more Genshin to the exclusion of everything else. I did make a quick plan for the week but that was all.

Today starts the last teaching week of the year. Huh.

I did meditate and write morning pages and took my blood pressure the first time in over a week.

I changed the sheets on my bed and knitted and descaled the electric kettle and changed the BRITA filter and took a shower.

In between each of these things I sat down and took a rest. I also started a load of laundry and cleaned the washbasin and toilet in on bathroom.

My husband made fish for lunch:

Then I played quite a bit of Genshin Impact again before it was time for the weekly writer Zoom. Which was very nice again and made me a little late for watching an episode of ‚Columbo‘ with the rest of the family.

The ‚Columbo‘ episode was rather good but very long, so after that the boy did the dishes while I played Genshin some more. I am very busy leveling characters up.

After that I started writing this post, made a (short) list for today and went to bed.

And then for another rest day.

So that one’s a wrap. (See what I did there?) I still need to wash and block it but that’s okay.

There was rice, beans and chicken for lunch, ver tasty:

I wasn’t sure I’d be up to teaching for two hours straight, switching video conference apps right and left but it went okay. Even though we had to spend a third of one student’s lesson troubleshooting Zoom settings. The default settings don’t let the guitar through, not at all, so we had to fiddle around. Interestingly, for the other student using Zoom that was not a problem at all. We found the audio settings and set them to ‚for musicians‘ and everything was fine.

After that I ate dinner while reading, lake briefly with the rest of the family and played some more Genshin Impact. Where I promptly ran into the end of a quest where it was all „let me just real quick do this“ and „let me just real quick do that“ and then you come up to a series of long cut scenes that would be fun if you didn’t have a feeling of urgency. There was even some Chinese opera singing.

Then I started writing this post, watched some C-drama while knitting (I had to switch projects, of course) and went to bed.

And today will be a real da off, nothing to do at all.

When I did my daily covid test I was hopeful for almost five minutes:

I did the breakfast dishes myself and finished crocheting the blanket. No picture because the weather was so gray and dark. Also, I still have most of the ends to weave in.

My husband went for a short run, and then lunch was pretty late:

Then I played a little Genshin Impact again, taught m first student of the day online, played some more, wrote loads of messages to today’s students because most of them had never had online lessons with me, taught my second student of the day, ate dinner, waited for the boy to do dishes, asked him about Genshin which made him fight three bosses for me to see „how my team plays“ and then it was finally time to start writing this post, make a list for today and go to bed.

Today will be my biggest teaching day of the week with four students and then there will be the weekend.

No idea if any cleaning will happen. It would be a good idea because I didn’t clean the week before as well but I would have to ask the boy, so we’ll see.

When I did my daily covid test I was hopeful for almost five minutes:

I did the breakfast dishes myself and finished crocheting the blanket. No picture because the weather was so gray and dark. Also, I still have most of the ends to weave in.

My husband went for a short run, and then lunch was pretty late:

Then I played a little Genshin Impact again, taught m first student of the day online, played some more, wrote loads of messages to today’s students because most of them had never had online lessons with me, taught my second student of the day, ate dinner, waited for the boy to do dishes, asked him about Genshin which made him fight three bosses for me to see „how my team plays“ and then it was finally time to start writing this post, make a list for today and go to bed.

Today will be my biggest teaching day of the week with four students and then there will be the weekend.

No idea if any cleaning will happen. It would be a good idea because I didn’t clean the week before as well but I would have to ask the boy, so we’ll see.

I took a shower and started the last round on the crochet blanket. I read quite a bit and finished a book just to start the next one. I folded half a load of laundry.

I’m still testing positive which baffled my husband. Not me because I had done my research.

There was lunch:

I made a grocery list and explained to the boy where he could find things as well as I could and he went to the supermarket while I was teaching my two students of the day.

I also played video games and otherwise didn’t do anything.

Okay, that’s not true, I did a bit of Chinese for, like, 5 minutes and watched some C-drama while crocheting.

And today there should be ore of the same.

Oh, and sorry for yesterday, I wrote a post and then forgot to, you know, actually post it. It is up now, at least.

I continue being sick but I also continue to improve very slowly. I felt good enough that I did the breakfast dishes, sorted some recycling, and then started a load of laundry, and then my body firmly reminded me to take some time to sit down and do nothing.

I sat down, but I wrote all the texts and emails, canceled about half my lessons and set it up so the others can be online. I also told the cover designer that I liked the design und to please move the „O“ in „stone“ closer to the „T“, thanks. Kerning is a thing, and one where it shows that automation only can bring you to a certain point.

My husband made pancakes for lunch:

Of my seven students for the day three canceled because they were sick, one told me to forget about the lesson because I was sick and the last three got their online lessons.

Sitting there in front of my tablet at the piano was very, very familiar. And I remembered that teaching online is hard on my voice because I have to be really clear when speaking. And my voice is still not back to normal.

I was grateful for the ample breaks between students.

The boy did the rest of the dishes and put the trash and compost bins at the curb, my husband hung the load of laundry up, and I could rest.

There was dinner and reading and crochet and Chinese and such,  including some C-drama, and then to bed.

Oh, and this is what I saw when I entered my studio (I hadn’t set foot there since Friday):

So beautiful!

The only other thing I did was to try and organize that I can teach online today. I tested using FaceTime with someone who does not have an Apple device with the boy, and made a new Zoom account for teaching.

My husband made a delicious lunch:

The boy went to the supermarket for yogurt and to the health food store for some more groceries and did all the dishes.

I took a shower and did a little Chinese, watched some YouTube and didn’t get around to watching actual TV. Oh, and the covid and flu tests I ordered arrived which is good, we need to continue testing ourselves. (I was still positive today, unsurprisingly, and the rest of the family was negative which is very good.)

Oh, and I asked the boy about his opinion about the new version of the book cover and he apparently likes it as much I as do, so I guess that will be it.

As soon as I have my brain back I’ll go and write a blurb.

I spent the day lounging about, reading, crocheting, playing video games and watching TV. I’m starting to get a little bored but I’ll manage.

There was lunch:

I am almost finished with the crochet blanket. And then I’ll have to weave most of the ends in, as usual.

I finished watching ‚K-Pop Demon Hunters‘ and I get why people like it but for some reason it didn’t do much for me.

I messaged all of today’s students to cancel lessons, so that was a bit of work but I’m glad I did.

And now for some more doing nothing.

This is my first time ever. Not something I had been looking forward to.

In addition to the headache, everything ache and sore throat I also got a developing cough.

So I did nothing all day besides sitting around. Husband and son are both negative, at least that is something.

Since I’ve been definitely contagious at least since Thursday we decided it doesn’t make much sense to isolate myself but we’ll keep on testing before meeting other people, including my mother-in-law.

There was lunch:

I did go to bed somewhat earlier than the days before and that was it.

I still did morning pages and manuscript time and yoga but that was mostly it.

Not doing anything all day also involved all the dishes, folding all the laundry and teaching three students. And playing video games.

We had asparagus risotto for lunch:

I spent most of the day sitting around feeling miserable and shivering. Should have fetched myself a blanket but that only occurred to me at the end of the day.

Speaking of blankets, I rooted through my stash to see if I had enough yarn for the Wildshore blanket CAL and I hadn’t:

So I made the snap decision to order the yarn pack. In actual merino wool. From the UK, which means I will have to pay another 19% on top of the price because of Brexit.

The boy went out the second day in a row to meet a friend at the local Christmas market.

I watched a bit of C-drama while working on the current blanket-in-progress and went to bed.

Today will be more doing nothing, I guess. Fingers crossed I won’t get laryngitis again.