And then I was very determined to do everything in time which meant I even could open the manuscript before breakfast. Only for a few minutes and when I did open it on my computer there was a sync error that needed to be fixed but at least I tried. And did 5 minutes of yoga again.

There were dishes and such and I went for my first walk/run since my eye surgery:

And I’m happy to report that 1-minute running and 4-minute walking intervals were no problem at all.

I returned home and took a shower before eating lunch:

Those beans were picked just minutes before by my husband.

I would have liked to do the dishes right after eating because I made a resolution to do the dishes earlier from now on but I couldn’t because my husband still needed to take a shower.

So dishes had to wait until the evening but I folded some laundry instead.

And then I played a bit of Genshin before I started teaching.

One student canceled but I did not use that time well.

After my last student I ate dinner and played more Genshin. Originally I had wanted to attend a Zoom call but then I found I was too tired to listen to anything properly. I can watch that call later and I hope I will actually do that.

And then I realized that something game-related had only two hours left and got a move on. I did not do a good job and when the boy came downstairs and saw what I was doing he ended up grabbing the controller and doing a full run himself, ahem.

I did some more Genshin while I waited for the boy to finish his shower, then we did the dishes together, I started this post and wrote a list for today.

I will go to the supermarket today and am hoping to plan the month ahead, and I finally want to teach my friend who kept rescheduling.

I went for a walk instead of my planned run/walk because I still have the sniffles and a bit of a cough. I also did not take a shower because I had one the day before and there wasn’t much time.

Husband made tagliatelle bolognese:

Teaching was nice, so there was that with a break in the middle that I used for admin.

In the evening my writer friend rescheduled her piano lesson so I could quiz the boy earlier. And then I immersed myself in Genshin for a while. The started writing this post and did all the dishes.

I went to bed too late again because I was determined to do the dishes before bed.

Yawn.

And more busyness today.

Husband and I talked about his phone call to his aunt after breakfast and I started researching different car rental companies. It’s not as easy as it seems. I also tried to connect my husband’s new phone to my account and succeeded but only in theory because it’s still not connected in the app.

I went grocery shopping and to my MIL’s bank for her bank statement. I also reconciled my accounts, so that was fun.

Husband was rather busy so there was only frozen pizza. Which was rather good:

Yes, I only ate half the pizza.

I did teach some students and was rather nervous for the boy’s exam. He had left the house before lunch so he had a bit of a buffer. The exam was an oral one which made im very nervous.

He did well, got a good grade, and was asked to apply for a place in the institute master’s program.

And yes, I am proud.

Two of my students canceled, one because she was sick and the other one sent me a text that they couldn’t find their capo and if we could reschedule.

Um, no, you can just come in and I will give you a capo to use during that lesson.

Since she has skipped quite a few lessons this year I offered her two time slots to make up for that lesson.

I was rather determined to go to bed at a reasonable time and not let myself be drawn into non-essential stuff.

I went to bed super late yet again and then decided to leave earlier than planned. Which was a very good idea because while the first bus was on time the first train wasn’t. I also had been waiting for almost 20 minutes at the wrong bus stop (I was half an hour early, ahem) before realizing that the bus left at the same stop it arrived at. It makes a loop and doesn’t come back the same way.

I got myself an avocado arugula bagel at the station and that was the best thing I ate all day. There were veggies! And greens! Hurray!

At least the train to Hamburg was not crowded and I had a lot of time before my next train. I bought all the junk food and then proceeded to the platform. Which had lots of construction going on and was so filled with people that you couldn’t really get anywhere.

There was another train to Munich at the platform and everybody kept wondering if that was the train they should take. The answer, of course, was „it depends“ but while that train had the same destination it usually takes quite a bit longer to get there because it’s taking a longer route. Where it can’t go as fast.

And that train sat there. And sat there. And my train couldn’t get into the station because there was no space. In the end it stopped on the other side of the platform and I could finally get on.

At this point we were already 15 minutes late. And the train was so crowded that you were not supposed to get on without a seat reservation. There were people sitting on the floor in the space for luggage next to me.

Forget about the quiet car.

My original plan had been to open the manuscript and write, read a bit, and knit while watching the episode of „Shine on me“ I had on my phone. I did do quite a bit of reading because „Swordheart“ by T. Kingfisher is really great but otherwise I just couldn’t focus.

In the end we arrived in Munich 45 minutes late, and just as my next train was pulling out the station so I had to wait for 20 more minutes.

My husband and the boy were already waiting for me, I got homecooked food and talked with my husband for a bit, started writing this post and went to bed.

May I have a weekend now? That was a bit more exhausting than I had thought it would be.

And I didn’t take a single picture all day, so here is another one from Schwerin on Saturday:

I need to catch another train so I‘ll make this short. Here‘s a picture for you:

This is the fabulous Schwerin castle. We had a tour there, and a boat tour on the lake and another tour through the city, as I said, it was a bit much.

It was great but I‘m looking forward to being back home again tonight.

But first I had to get up super early and catch a train at the time where I usually start opening my morning pages notebook. And I did it.

I even finished my whole big pot of tea before leaving the house which meant I could use a regular water bottle instead of the thermos I use for tea.

The trains went smoothly, and the first two were even pretty empty. The high speed train was super cold, though with the a/c at full blast. I wished I had brought a scarf or shawl, and I did wear my fingerless mitts part of the way.

I had lunch in the dining car where I caught one of the last two empty seats. The burger I had decided on as the least unappealing option from the menu was out, so I had currywurst:

And I was still somewhat hungry afterwards. So I thought I‘d get myself a pastry or something in Hamburg but at that point my train was already a little late.

Apparently there was a big technical difficulty around Hannover which meant my train got diverted. I didn‘t have to change there this time so it didn‘t make much of a difference for me.

All in all we were only 15 minutes late which is not too bad.

But in Hamburg there was no time to look for a bakery or something, I just went straight onto a very, very crowded train.

And tried to figure out how to reach my hotel. Good thing I looked at the map in detail before deciding to walk for half an hour because that walk was right next to a big road with lots of traffic. Instead I took a bus and in order to get a ticket I installed an app over train wifi and connected it to a way to pay and then I bought that ticket online while waiting for the bus.

When I arrived at the hotel the reception area was already full of relatives of mine and there was quite the line for check-in.

I even made a friend in line, there was a young man in front of me who was there for a job interview and he asked about the throng of people.

My room is nice but freezing cold, blasting AC again. I think I might have figured out how to turn it off.

I went downstairs for dinner which was a rather overpriced buffet with no good options. I‘ll try to buy something at the supermarket tomorrow because I won‘t eat that food again.

After dinner we all met in one of the conference rooms, seems there will be 39 of us in attendance. It‘ a little sad that most of the older generation is gone by now, there‘s just two brothers left of all those many cousins now.

But the younger ones are making up for it, there were even quite a few babies and kids around.

We talked a lot, I had a hard time getting food and drink and when I asked about how the payment would go they were very surprised that we wanted to pay individually.

I‘m just hoping that nothing went wrong putting everything on my tab, I guess we‘ll see.

I went back to my room rather early, I was just done for the day and tired of being talked at. So I started this post, opened Genshin Impact on my phone, ate some almonds and chocolate I had brought with me, and went to bed.

Today we‘ll be doing all the things, a boat tour, a city tour and a castle tour and we will sit and talk for hours again, phew.

I sewed like a very determined whirlwind and finished the second t-shirt. So I’ll be traveling in all homemade clothes today. Well, apart from my coat, underwear an pajamas. Here is a picture of one of the tees and the skirt:

Yes, black corduroy is hard to photograph.

We had lunch:

I taught some students and used my breaks for sewing and later for putting the sewing stuff back where it belongs, and in between I started piling things on the spare bed to take with me today.

After my last student I fell into a hole of paralysis, the boy had asked me to quiz him again and part of me thought he’d be downstairs any minute when in fact he was waiting for me to take a shower first.

We sorted that out, I took my shower, he did the dishes, I finished packing apart from the stuff that I still need until I depart and then it was again after my bedtime.

And now I need to run and catch a train to Schwerin.

I spent a lot of time sewing. One result was this:

I’m not sure whether the machine just needs tuning and maintenance or if it’s actually broken but I ended up hauling my old sewing machine down from the attic, the one that has fewer bells and whistles and only four bobbins.

The first thing I did was to overlook that it was still set to zigzag while having a twin needle in there, so, oops, broken twin needle.

But, this is not my first rodeo, I had a second needle in reserve.

Everything took longer than expected then but by around 9 pm I had this:

Yeah, finished tee. I haven’t tried it so far, though.

Then I turned around and started sewing the second one. Fingers crossed I can finish that one without much fuss in time.

My husband made a quick lunch, homemade canned tomato sauce from his own tomatoes and spaghetti:

I also spent a little time in my video game and opened the manuscript very briefly.

And went to bed too late, of course. And sent the boy out to get potato chips for dinner.

Today will be a whirlwind again for sure and that includes packing. And maybe finishing a second t-shirt, ahem.

Husband told me it might be a bit too early to do so, and then I felt immediately better.

I did all the dishes and walked to four shops and took a shower before eating lunch:

And then it was almost time for teaching. Two of my students canceled so I had a bit of a break in between that I used for writing emails and I got to finish half an hour earlier than expected.

And then I sat around, scrolled through social media while eating dinner and played my video game for a bit.

I helped the boy study for his exam for an hour or so, then sat around some more and talked to him for a while.

I managed to dawdle long enough that there was no time for sewing or anything left but the boy did the dishes, so that was good.

I’ll try to get some sewing done this morning instead of going for a walk and then it will be all teaching all afternoon before quizzing the boy again about crystallography.

I had a pretty full day with my nose running non-stop, some sewing (not as much as I would have liked), a dental cleaning in the morning, lots of teaching including a potential new student, some manuscript time and some video game playing.

I don’t have the time or energy for a real post, sorry, but we did have a delicious lunch:

And now I need to run because I left the dishes unwashed last night, have an early start to teaching today and need to go to the health food store.

Maybe I will even sew the sleeves into the t-shirt but probably not.

And I helped the boy with exam prep. Crystallography. It’s all very weird.

I got almost eight hours of sleep but it wasn’t that great of a sleep. I felt sluggish all day and have a runny nose. Fingers crossed I’ll be back in shape for my trip on the weekend.

So my morning pages were late and everything was late, meditation, breakfast and all. Husband and I talked over breakfast and I knitted a bit, I talked to my mother on the phone and then hung up a load of laundry. It was a bit weird, the only thing of mine in there was a hoodie I had bought the day before.

Lunch was late but tasty:

Green beans from our garden, this was the third try of my husband’s to get green beans this year and this one was actually successful.

After lunch I took a break, then played Genshin. It was very frustrating, both things I attempted failed spectacularly.

And then I cut out all the pieces for two new t-shirts. When I ordered the fabric I had thought they would be more different:

the left one is mauve, by the way and the right one burgundy.

After cutting the fabric out I ate dinner and talked with my husband who had repaired the file cabinet under my desk in my studio, phew. He did the dishes while I was planning the week.

Planning the week also included making a packing list for next weekend and looking at the itinerary.

And then I had planned to start sewing but I felt so awful with my runny nose and low energy that I wasn’t sure. I did open the manuscript, though, so that was good.

This week will be slightly insane even without the addition of a cold, so we’ll see how that goes.

I went for a walk in the woods:

I helped a bit with making lunch:

And I sewed for most of the afternoon and the skirt is finished:

I know this picture isn’t helpful at all, I’ll try to get one in daylight with me wearing it.

Today I’ll do more sewing, I still want to make two new t-shirts, so off I go.

I went for a walk in the woods:

I helped a bit with making lunch:

And I sewed for most of the afternoon and the skirt is finished:

I know this picture isn’t helpful at all, I’ll try to get one in daylight with me wearing it.

Today I’ll do more sewing, I still want to make two new t-shirts, so off I go.

I had gone to bed at midnight yet again but slept like a log. Woke up at 7.30 and got moving a little earlier than the other days. There were morning pages and my five minutes of meditation and then I had breakfast with my husband.

I started the gusset increases on the sock I’m knitting and later I found some more leftover yarn that I can maybe use for when the other blue yarn will run out. Now I just need to decide whether to switch right away and use the proper shade of blue for the toe or whether to knit on and only use the new, different shade of blue once the first one runs out. Not sure yet.

After breakfast I did the dishes and such and then I went and started picking out that fabled line of zigzag stitches. It took ages but in broad daylight with extra strong reading glasses I could do it at least.

And then I went on sewing right until lunch was ready:

Yes, there are no veggies on this plate. Yes, that was not quite enough to eat.

What happened?

Apparently my husband forgot to make veggies because making mashed potatoes was overwhelming enough. He really need a break, having all that stress that is hanging over us plus the beginning of the school year, plus harvesting everything, getting the garden ready for fall, plus having a tooth removed was a bit much.

After lunch I had that feeling of, „maybe I should just do the dishes right away even if that leaves you no rest time before teaching“, you know the one and I – actually did it. Felt good.

And I still got to play Genshin for twenty minutes.

I taught a few students and managed to reschedule next Friday’s lessons, I used a 30-minute break between students to vacuum the old part of the house, I taught some more and then I cleaned the washbasins and toilets and changed the towels.

I ate the second half of the bag of potato chips for dinner, read a bit of „War and Peace“ and went on Instagram.

And then I went back to sewing. Until I was at the point where I need to insert the zipper next. I thought I’d better do that in daylight while I’m not so tired that I feel like falling flat on my face all the time.

I played with the new Chinese app I had downloaded in the morning (Hanzifeed) and then opened the manuscript for twenty minutes. After which I started writing this post, made a list for today, played some more Genshin and went to bed.

Weekend time! There will be lots of sewing and we’ll watch that Chinese mystery show, and there are plans to have an Oktoberfest beer in the evening. At home. From bottles. The Oktoberfest only starts next weekend and for me that is usually a sign to avoid Munich at all costs.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to do that if I want to get to Schwerin next weekend but we’ll see.

Husband was not in a good mood and rather overwhelmed from many different things which led to a couple emotionally draining conversations throughout the day. While we were talking in the morning I was also knitting a sock only to find that I did too many rounds and had to tink back again. I’m also pretty sure I will run out of one color of yarn. Fingers crossed I still have something similar in stash.

All day long I was also texting back and forth with a student, so far we haven’t found a time slot that works for them this week. Or next.

I rode my bike to the bigger supermarket, the weather was nice but not too hot, so that was good.

I came back home slightly later than I had hoped but lunch wasn’t ready yet. So I put the groceries away, talked with my husband some more, helped chopping a few things and we had pasta salad for lunch:

And then I had just barely enough time to continue reading „War and Peace“ and eating some chocolate before my first student of the day.

Student played in a way that caused me a headache, then I had a break, then my second student of the day who was a delight, another break and then I waited for a new student.

I used my break for various household things and for admin, more texting because of time slots. It also turned out that I had forgotten to buy sheet music for two students, then I found out that that particular piano book seems to be out of print, found it online anyway but it looks as if I need to find something new. Meh.

On the other hand it said it would be back in stock in October, so who knows, there might be another print run.

While I waited for that new student the phone rang and I decided to pick up because I thought it might be them.

Instead I talked with a potential other new student and agreed on a test lesson next week. Of course I forgot to get their phone number.

And the new student who was supposed to come in had called earlier that day to cancel because they were sick. Poor thing.

Since I was done with teaching earlier than expected and since I had forgotten to pick up carrots and cream cheese and I also had a prescription to be refilled at the pharmacy I then went out to the pharmacy and health food store.

After all of the day’s frustration, interspersed with conversations with my husband where he kept stressing how stressed out he was and how bad everything was, I ate some potato chips and chocolate for an early dinner.

And then I met my writer friend for a co-writing session. I made nice progress and I am still liking the story which is always a bonus. My writer friend has been stuck on the manuscript for weeks now and was just about to go and do something other than writing during out video call but I told her she wasn’t allowed. Me saying „No, you’re not watching C-drama on a co-writing call“ seems to have left an impression and, funny that, she said she felt better afterwards. Duh.

Then I tried picking out the zigzag stitches that were a mistake but failed, then played some more Genshin where I almost cleared a domain (there were only two enemies left) and then managed to run out of said domain so that it reset.

The boy offered to get me to that same point again while I was brushing my teeth later but I decided I had enough. Oh, and I tried at least four different puzzles in the game and failed those as well.

The boy showed up just as I was overdue for starting this post and getting to bed again, so I brushed my teeth, then talked a little with him, started this post, made a list and went to bed.

Phew.

And yes, the ends are woven in.

I went for a walk:

I took a shower and had lunch:

(Shower not pictured and I’m sorry that there is no alt-text, there is also no time.)

I took a break and played Genshin, then started teaching realizing that I had forgotten to hang up the laundry. But after my first student I had a break and used that to fold two loads of laundry and hang up another one, thinking about the mystery that my husband is the only one of us who does not put his socks in the laundry in pairs. Oh, he also managed to wash one of my compression gloves with the darks and the other one with the whites. No idea why.

There was more teaching and a student who forgot her lesson and texting back and forth about a new slot for a lesson. I used the break to fold more laundry.

One more student who needed a broken string replaced and that took most of his lesson because I don’t do that often and am very, very slow.

Then there was dinner. The boy had done the dishes which was very helpful. I played some Genshin despite having decided I wanted to sew first. The boy talked to me about Genshin.

I went to the sewing machine, win!

I then proceeded to do staystitching with a zigzag stitch instead of a straight one. That won’t do. I tried taking it out but that didn’t work at all, and I found that my new eyes don’t do well with artificial light at all (the trifocals lenses give me halos in bright light and my reading glasses and definitely not the right ones so I gave up.

Then played a quick round of Genshin for, um, two hours before writing this and making a list for today.

Then bed, way too late yet again, yawn.

And yes, the ends are woven in.

I went for a walk:

I took a shower and had lunch:

(Shower not pictured and I’m sorry that there is no alt-text, there is also no time.)

I took a break and played Genshin, then started teaching realizing that I had forgotten to hang up the laundry. But after my first student I had a break and used that to fold two loads of laundry and hang up another one, thinking about the mystery that my husband is the only one of us who does not put his socks in the laundry in pairs. Oh, he also managed to wash one of my compression gloves with the darks and the other one with the whites. No idea why.

There was more teaching and a student who forgot her lesson and texting back and forth about a new slot for a lesson. I used the break to fold more laundry.

One more student who needed a broken string replaced and that took most of his lesson because I don’t do that often and am very, very slow.

Then there was dinner. The boy had done the dishes which was very helpful. I played some Genshin despite having decided I wanted to sew first. The boy talked to me about Genshin.

I went to the sewing machine, win!

I then proceeded to do staystitching with a zigzag stitch instead of a straight one. That won’t do. I tried taking it out but that didn’t work at all, and I found that my new eyes don’t do well with artificial light at all (the trifocals lenses give me halos in bright light and my reading glasses and definitely not the right ones so I gave up.

Then played a quick round of Genshin for, um, two hours before writing this and making a list for today.

Then bed, way too late yet again, yawn.

And now I am short on time, so I won’t write much.

I finished some teaching admin and when I wanted to put everything away it turned out that my filing cabinet is broken. We should be able to fix it but it’s just one more random thing on the list.

I went grocery shopping and ran errands and tried doing admin and paid bills and forgot about laundry.

I taught a handful of students who all felt like they had never played piano before. Which is completely normal after summer break.

Lunch was something easy:

I picked up a package, I started a new quest in Genshin and then my brain locked on to it and didn’t let me go again.

Fingers crossed I will get some better stuff done today.

I’m still exhausted and a little stressed, there is just too much to do.

I woke up early after not sleeping all that well and then dawdled and took ages for my morning pages and meditation.

Ate breakfast with my husband and didn’t even get around to knitting a few rounds which is rare.

I did the dishes and some admin and it hit me that I hadn’t prepared anything for the start of teaching. And then I went out for a walk:

I took a shower and we ate lunch:

I took a break and played some Genshin. And then I sat down to update my list of students and to check the list to see who had paid. I didn’t finish but it was a start. In the middle of that my husband fetched me to help him with the setup in the basement again where I had connected an older tablet so he can teach drums. The adapter I ordered somehow hadn’t worked and the tablet wasn’t charging while plugged in. (The way this kind of connection works is that you have to charge through the adapter.) I ordered another adapter but it might also be the port on the tablet, we’ll see.

I taught my first student, had a bit of free time when the next one didn’t show (we always start a day early and the students often forget because school hasn’t really started yet.

Then it was non-stop teaching until coaching with my New York friend and some chatting. I refilled one of my fountain pens and decided I was too tired to do the rest. I did migrate most things into my new bullet journal because the old one was full and I was getting tired of lugging around two fat notebooks.

I finally ate dinner about an hour later than I would have liked, played some more Genshin while the boy did the dishes and my husband went in and out of the kitchen, then opened the manuscript for ten minutes and started writing this post.

And then I got ready for bed and turned out the lights. I am having a scratchy throat. Fingers crossed that won’t get worse.

I wrote morning pages and meditated for five minutes and talked with my husband and called my mother and then my husband’s aunt. Who then thanked me for such a nice conversation when all I was doing was treading water and making sympathetic noises at her complaints. Which apparently passes for a conversation when you’s 87.

She also keep forgetting that we rented car the last time we visited her because where she lives is even less walkable than the town where my mother lives.

I sorted spinning fiber into new boxes and did not bring them upstairs before lunch because I didn’t want to wake the boy up.

I folded two loads of laundry and hung up an epic load of wool things.

There was lunch:

I listened to my audiobook and played Genshin and played some more and then I set up my older tablet in the basement for my husband’s drum lessons. Which took a while because things were not working as expected. And taught me that the keyboard I had planned to use was just a tad too small so that the iPad kept falling over.

I did the dishes and had dinner.

I played some more Genshin, in fact, I started another quest about 90 minutes before bedtime and finished it half an hour after bedtime. And then I started writing this post, did a very sloppy version of planning the week, brushed my teeth and went to bed.

In between I did some video research about some other aspects of the video game, I am truly hooked at this point.

And today there will be teaching all the students again. I don’t really feel prepared, I have to say.

I didn’t sleep all that well and not enough because of all the junk I ate the day before. Also, playing adrenaline-fueled shooter parts of my favorite video game right before bed might have been a bad idea for sleep. And I forgot my night guards as well, woke up at one point with my teeth hurting. ::facepalm::

Consequentially, I decided to skip morning pages and meditation and started the day in a bit of a mood.

But then I talked with my husband over breakfast and knitted a few rounds on the sock-in-progress, and did some dishes before finally getting out of the house. I spent 45 minutes walking outside while listening to BTS and then I felt somewhat better:

I even wrote a (super bad) blog post on my neglected author blog, hurray!

I took a shower and then it was time for lunch:

Yes, when I came back home the kitchen was deserted and something was frying on high without supervision. No, it was not the chicken breast, that happened later. But it all tasted delicious.

I spent most of my afternoon playing Genshin Impact after having spent some time with my audio book. I’m really enjoying it. The plan for Genshin had been to tackle those pesky realms with the new shooter mechanic that I am so, so bad at but instead I ended up exploring places and doing some quests. There might be a bug in the game because I actually finished that one quest but the game says it’s still locked. Harumph.

Since we had finished watching every episode of ‚Columbo‘ the week before we were a little unsure about what to watch next for our family sessions on Saturdays. I suggested ‚Mobius‘, a fast-paced Chinese crime series. I wasn’t sure how the rest of the family would feel about it. The boy and I really liked it but my husband is still a bit on the fence.

There are some rather ridiculous elements, the hero is very heroic and the action scenes are somewhat exaggerated at times. But it did make the 45 minutes feel rather short and I didn’t really lose interest anywhere in that first episode. I think we’ll watch some more, and if the others don’t want to watch it all I will probably do it on my own.

I then started writing this post, made a list for today (pretty long list I have to say) and didn’t do much else. Since it was the end of summer break husband and I celebrated with some nice Oktoberfest beer so that lowered our energy somewhat.

Today I will need to do all the things! So I can get ready for the start of the school year tomorrow.

Which is funny because I actually did stuff but it turns out my usual exercise does help a lot and calms me down. And boosts my mood.

I might also be a little cranky because it’s the end of summer break, no idea.

There was knitting and the breakfast dishes and I helped a little with chopping things for lunch:

That is parmigiana di melanzane, eggplant with parmesan and mozzarella and boiled eggs and tomato sauce. Since we ate all the bread before the boy had a chance to eat something I then went to the nearby supermarket for more baguette. And some sweets.

Ate all the sweets, read, listened to my audiobook (Ilona Andrew’s „One Fell Sweep“) and then tried to fix the problem that my husband couldn’t access his email.

The good news is that he can now get some of it. The bad news is that I managed to bork the Thunderbird installation so spectacularly that I couldn’t even re-install it. He will have to rely on the mail program that came with the computer.

While I was busy doing that my husband did most of the dishes which was rather helpful.

I had eaten half a bag of potato chips for dinner before the email rescue, so I wrote this post, played some more Genshin, watched a bit of C-drama and went to bed.

Oh, and just before helping my husband with his email stuff I got an email myself saying that I had to change the connection for my trip at the end of the month, so I was busy booking alternative trains and getting even more seat reservations. On the very bright side I finally figured out how to use my train bonus points for those reservations so at least they didn’t cost me extra money. I already had a perfectly fine connection book with all the reservations but no, I had to do that all over again. Fingers crossed that means everything will be going smoothly and on time on the weekend when I’m away.

I might go for a walk today, since I’m not allowed to actually exercise. I hope that will lift my mood.

I went grocery shopping and took a shower, that was mostly it.

I had a super busy day planned yesterday but only got around to about two thirds of the list.

I went running and walking:

We ate lunch:

I spent some time playing my video game and then I sewed for only twenty minutes before sitting down with the boy to order fabric for his costume. At some point I also ordered stuff for my husband.

My hand is getting better slowly, at times I even forget about the bee sting.

I gave my writer friend a piano lesson, and when I was finished my husband told me that the boy had gone to the health food store with not enough money because we’re short on cash right now. August is always a low income month. We do have money in the bank it’s just that we’re running out of coins and banknotes and my husband gave the boy the last of his.

So I went out to meet the boy because the money he had taken was not enough.

Turned out the boy had cash of his on his person and if that hadn’t been enough he would just have used his debit card and I could have reimbursed him.

Well.

It was still nice to meet him at the health food store and to walk to the other supermarket for yogurt.

Then we had dinner, I did the dishes while watching YouTube, I looked at the instructions for this morning again and wrote this post.

Today I’ll have to leave the house without breakfast or tea rather early. The plan is to take the train back from surgery this time because the taxi was super expensive the last time and this time the train is actually running normally, so changing to a bus this time. And the walk to the taxi stand is about the same as to the train platform.

My list for today says I need to mostly chill after getting back home so that sounds doable. I already started listening to the Graphic Audio version of „Sweep in Peace“ and added a ridiculous amount of videos to my „Watch later“-list on YouTube. I would also like to watch some C-drama. That writer friend of mine has started watching „Find Yourself“ and so I’m thinking of watching it for a third time. We’ll see.

Since I need to rest my eyes a bit there won’t be a post at least for tomorrow and then we’ll see.

The boy and I went to the big Dutch fabric market in Dachau yesterday right after breakfast. Well, after breakfast for me, he wasn’t up in time to eat something before we needed to get the train.

We took two trains and a bus and came out on a huge parking lot with lots of fabric vendors. We had a list and very specific ideas what we wanted. Red canvas and some other white cotton fabric for the boy’s costume, some t-shirt fabric, something woven, preferably with flowers in bright colors for a summer dress for me and some fat quarters to make a bucket hat.

Most of what we found were lightweight viscose fabrics, knit fabric in pastels and lots and lots of fleece and sweatshirt fabric. There was some nice upholstery fabric but that was more expensive than we wanted to spend. So we looked at everything but did not find what we were looking for for the boy.

As for my own list, with so many options I felt unable to choose anything and so I decided not to buy anything.

We went looking for the bus back which turned out to be harder than expected and went back to Dachau. Since we were there anyway we decided to walk up to the castle because the boy had never been there before.

It was rather nice and the view was spectacular.

That’s Munich on the horizon, complete with the Olympic Tower.

The plan was to have lunch at the castle. We sat outside and asked for menus that showed more than the coffee and cake menus that were lying on the tables.

The menus came and it turned out that the castle restaurant is really, really expensive. Plus, none of the dishes sounded appealing to me as well. So we ordered some iced chocolate:

Then we walked back to town always looking for a place where we could find something proper to eat but mostly failing until we reached the station and got ourselves some falafel in pita bread. Very yummy:

Even if eating it sitting on the train platform was not the most delightful setting.

We went back home, talked to my husband, then did our thing for a while until we met again for bodyweight training and dinner.

After that I had a Zoom meeting with a writer friend that showed I was pretty tired at this point, did the dishes together, I wrote this post and went to bed.

Today will be the last super packed day this week and then it’s all sitting still and giving myself time to heal until next week.

The boy and I went to the big Dutch fabric market in Dachau yesterday right after breakfast. Well, after breakfast for me, he wasn’t up in time to eat something before we needed to get the train.

We took two trains and a bus and came out on a huge parking lot with lots of fabric vendors. We had a list and very specific ideas what we wanted. Red canvas and some other white cotton fabric for the boy’s costume, some t-shirt fabric, something woven, preferably with flowers in bright colors for a summer dress for me and some fat quarters to make a bucket hat.

Most of what we found were lightweight viscose fabrics, knit fabric in pastels and lots and lots of fleece and sweatshirt fabric. There was some nice upholstery fabric but that was more expensive than we wanted to spend. So we looked at everything but did not find what we were looking for for the boy.

As for my own list, with so many options I felt unable to choose anything and so I decided not to buy anything.

We went looking for the bus back which turned out to be harder than expected and went back to Dachau. Since we were there anyway we decided to walk up to the castle because the boy had never been there before.

It was rather nice and the view was spectacular.

That’s Munich on the horizon, complete with the Olympic Tower.

The plan was to have lunch at the castle. We sat outside and asked for menus that showed more than the coffee and cake menus that were lying on the tables.

The menus came and it turned out that the castle restaurant is really, really expensive. Plus, none of the dishes sounded appealing to me as well. So we ordered some iced chocolate:

Then we walked back to town always looking for a place where we could find something proper to eat but mostly failing until we reached the station and got ourselves some falafel in pita bread. Very yummy:

Even if eating it sitting on the train platform was not the most delightful setting.

We went back home, talked to my husband, then did our thing for a while until we met again for bodyweight training and dinner.

After that I had a Zoom meeting with a writer friend that showed I was pretty tired at this point, did the dishes together, I wrote this post and went to bed.

Today will be the last super packed day this week and then it’s all sitting still and giving myself time to heal until next week.

I did the usual morning routine, did the dishes rather slowly, and then went to the pharmacy to get something for the bee sting on my hand. It was still red, hot, itchy and swollen, and the itchiness is driving me up the wall.

The internet tells me that none of this is cause for concern and that things will be back to normal in a week or two. I seem to be mildly allergic. Or maybe I would be more than mildly allergic if I weren’t taking allergy pills anyway.

The pharmacist sold me some antiseptic ointment that needs to be applied with compresses and will stain everything including my skin yellow.

So far I haven’t used it.

When I asked what I should do about the itchiness he said I should continue to take my allergy meds. The ones that feel like they do nothing but then I have no idea how bad I would feel without them.

Icing the hand does actually help a little and it looks like things are a bit better today, so fingers crossed.

I was late for my walk/run at this point so I just went for a short one. There was a part of me that thought I should skip but I didn’t:

I was in a pretty bad mood for most of the morning and only on my run did I realize that I was a) dreading the sewing project, b) dreading today’s excursion to the fabric market and c) already dreading Tuesday’s cataract sugery.

I took a shower and we had lunch:

And then I played Genshin for longer than I wanted before finally puling out the sewing stuff.

Sewing was not as bad as I feared and I managed about half the skirt before it was time for dinner and the last episode of ‚Columbo‘. By now all the panels are sewn together with unfinished seams. I really hope I can finish the project on Monday.

After watching TV the boy and I started measuring him and figuring out how much fabric we need for his costume. That took two full hours and then I looked up a few patterns that I might want to sew for myself.

Then I wrote this post, made a list for today and packed my bag and went to bed too late.

I skipped yoga and meditation, I did all the dishes from the day before, and I picked up a package from the US. That was a Kickstarter reward I had forgotten about.

And then the whole family went to the slightly fancier restaurant at the other end of town in the heat, phew.

The restaurant was full to bursting at their first day after some time off and service was rather slow. I took the lunch menu, started with an alcohol-free aperitif:

Then a first course of sautéed mushrooms in gorgonzola sauce:

A second course, on hour later ahem, of pasta with fish and chickpeas:

And some frozen, I don’t know, raspberry cheese cake?

Very good but my husband was not really in a good mood, it was too hot, the restaurant as a whole was in a bad mood and we spent a long time sitting around waiting for the next course.

Anyway, I’m happy we went and the food was delicious and we did something as a family, so that counts as a plus.

We walked back home, I took a too long break and then I started cutting out the fabric for the skirt. For the record, it took 90 minutes. That seems a bit excessive for cutting out four pieces but it is what it is.

I ate dinner, the boy and I did bodyweight training, then we talked about Genshin and started planning his Halloween costume, I talked with my husband, opened the manuscript, played some more and went to bed too late.

Fingers crossed that today will bring some actual sewing, let’s see how that goes.

Oh, and my hand is still hot, itchy, red and swollen. I’m trying very hard not to scratch it and it’s driving me up the wall.

I skipped yoga and meditation, I did all the dishes from the day before, and I picked up a package from the US. That was a Kickstarter reward I had forgotten about.

And then the whole family went to the slightly fancier restaurant at the other end of town in the heat, phew.

The restaurant was full to bursting at their first day after some time off and service was rather slow. I took the lunch menu, started with an alcohol-free aperitif:

Then a first course of sautéed mushrooms in gorgonzola sauce:

A second course, on hour later ahem, of pasta with fish and chickpeas:

And some frozen, I don’t know, raspberry cheese cake?

Very good but my husband was not really in a good mood, it was too hot, the restaurant as a whole was in a bad mood and we spent a long time sitting around waiting for the next course.

Anyway, I’m happy we went and the food was delicious and we did something as a family, so that counts as a plus.

We walked back home, I took a too long break and then I started cutting out the fabric for the skirt. For the record, it took 90 minutes. That seems a bit excessive for cutting out four pieces but it is what it is.

I ate dinner, the boy and I did bodyweight training, then we talked about Genshin and started planning his Halloween costume, I talked with my husband, opened the manuscript, played some more and went to bed too late.

Fingers crossed that today will bring some actual sewing, let’s see how that goes.

Oh, and my hand is still hot, itchy, red and swollen. I’m trying very hard not to scratch it and it’s driving me up the wall.

I still had a slower morning than I wanted and when I was drying my night guard something cut me and hurt really badly. I couldn’t quite figure out what happened and thought something sharp must have gotten into the towel but by evening that part of my right hand (of course it’s the right one) was red, itchy, swollen and hot so my guess is it was either a wasp or a bee. I didn’t see anything, so no idea.

I will continue to take my anti-histamine and use some anti-itch gel, I guess.

I did my morning routine and finished a sock:

Then I tried it on, found that it was just a few rounds too short and ripped the whole toe back. As usual that sent my husband into a panic but I’d rather spend some more time knitting than having a sock that pinches my toes.

I did the dishes and biked to the supermarket while my husband started cooking. When I returned he was still assembling everything to put it in the oven.

So I put the groceries away, looked everywhere for my Lightning-to-HDMI adapter, had to conclude that I must have thrown it away and ordered another one.

I got a message that my package couldn’t be delivered and that I should pick it up in a day or so. Which was weird because I didn’t really expect anything, we had been home the whole time and the doorbell was turned on.

But. Then I saw that I would have to pay customs on the package and remembered that there was a physical Kickstarter reward I was expecting.

And I looked at the cutting layout for the skirt I wanted to make.

Then there was lunch and it was delicious:

That’s stuffed peppers from our own garden and some alcohol-free wine that is actually not bad.

By then my afternoon was quite a bit shorter than I would have liked but I still took a break and played a little Genshin. It was all rather frustrating but I persevered.

Eventually I pulled out the ironing board and the fabric for my two sewing projects and pressed the fabric. And then I had only half an hour left to cut the fabric out and the kitchen table wasn’t cleared and there were dishes and so I gave up for the moment.

I taught my student, then spent as long waiting for the next one as their lesson would have been.

When I came back to the kitchen my husband was busy making applesauce. I ate dinner with him peeling apples right next to me. He cooked the sauce, also some red beets and some celery which was all very nice but not conducive to cutting out fabric in the same room.

I mean, I could have cut things out on the floor but I don’t really like it. There is a reason I got myself a cutting mat and a roller cutter.

So I started writing this post in the living room, read my book while waiting for my husband to clear the kitchen, played a bit more, wrote a list for today and went to bed.

It looks like we’ll be going out for lunch today, I’m really looking forward to that. We have been wanting to go out for my birthday for 5 1/2 weeks now, so it’s definitely time.

Fingers crossed I’ll make some significant progress on the skirt today.

I got not quite enough sleep and had another slow morning. I did the morning routine and a lot of thinking about the book I’m reading, „Procrastination Proof“. It is certainly very motivating, we’ll see if it actually makes a difference but, well, it’s never really the book that makes the difference, isn’t it, it’s always me.

It was clear the day would be pretty packed from the start. My husband and the boy wanted to visit my mother-in-law after lunch and had only a very specific time window to do it. And the boy had to get up early for it.

So husband and I talked over breakfast and I even stopped knitting right before finishing the sock so I could get on with my day.

Instead of listening to a YouTube video while doing the dishes I listened to „Clean Sweep“ as an audio book instead because I borrowed that through Audible and have to give it back tomorrow. I got the Graphic Audio version and I really like it. I have a hard time with audio books, normally, because my attention wavers and then I miss big chunks of the text but this is an audio play and I have already read it before. The only thing that is bugging me is the Texan accent of the main character but it really shouldn’t because that character is from Texas.

If I listen to it some more today while doing dishes and such I should get through it, yeah!

I did the dishes and my usual internet rounds and somewhere in between my mother-in-law called me. She had already left a message on the landline voicemail but she also chose to call me on my cell.

Well. Since the others were visiting her anyway she also wanted a) some plum cake, b) some chocolate, and c) a prescription from her doctor.

Sure.

So my husband not only went to the farmer’s market for potatoes, he also went to the bakery for cake and took some of her chocolate. But we couldn’t get her prescription renewed and none of us really believed that she wasn’t getting her blood pressure meds. You aren’t even allowed to bring your own meds, everything goes through the care home. For good reasons.

So I wrote an email to someone from the care home who I hope is the right person to address this and we’ll see.

then I finally went out for a walk/run. A little late because my nose was bleeding:

I had forgotten my hat. And this is how I look when the sun is bright. All the pictures taken of me as a kid in the summer look basically like this, with my eyes barely open because the light is too bright.

I came back home just in time for lunch and the three of us ate together:

That is cucumber from our garden and yes, it it cooked. Yummy.

And then the other two got ready to leave the house while I was reading and taking a break.

I did the lunch dishes and washed the two freezer drawers we had emptied the day before, then got distracted looking for the skirt pattern with some computer admin stuff and then I pulled the rest of the spinning stuff out of a shelf in my studio which means there are now two empty shelves. Hurray!

That was the point at which I really wanted to take the much overdue shower but my husband wasn’t back home yet and he was expecting a student. There was not quite enough time for me to take that shower and be presentable in time to open the door to his student (and often students come in early) so I puttered around some more.

Husband and the boy came back home just in time for husband’s lesson and I went off to finally take my shower when my husband came back and said my student was already there waiting on the steps. She had had another appointment before and was passing our house. She was at that point where it was too late to go back home and come back so she decided to wait for twenty minutes.

So I got dressed again and gave her a lesson. And I played the piano for ten minutes just for fun.

Then my husband asked ,e about the piles of spinning fiber in the annex hallway so I brought most of it upstairs into the attic cupboard. I need a box for the rest so will have to find something.

After that I finally ate dinner, talked some more with my husband while we were folding laundry and wrote this post.

In between I made the second attempt of finding the paper pattern for the skirt I want to make and finally succeeded. It was at the bottom of the „sewing in progress“-box. Which shows you how little I sew, there was a t-shirt pattern on top, then the dress pattern I made twice (no idea how long ago that was), the leggings pattern and finally the skirt.

I did eventually get in the shower and I also opened the manuscript but not for very long. And played some more Genshin because I needed to farm materials that you can only farm on specific days.

And today will be another super full day. Fingers crossed for some actual sewing!

I did my complete morning routine, had breakfast with my husband who was talking about feeling lonely and was not happy that I had planned to spend most of the day away.

I knitted a bit and did the dishes and left the house somewhat later than I wanted.

So I took the train to Munich, got off at Karlsplatz and walked for half an hour to a rather nice café where I had an excellent cheeseburger for lunch:

I read all the way on the train and while eating and was halfway through „Procrastination Proof“ before getting back home.

And then I walked some more to get to the exhibition I wanted to see. About hair and power and all kinds of things.

The exhibition was very good but a bit disconnected they had tried showing many, many facets and that felt a bit too much. And since the rooms were structured along themes, not historical periods or something you had a 17th century painting next to a music video. Not bad but also a bit disjointed.

Another thing that I hadn’t realized was that apparently Tuesday is the day the entrance fee is half off. So there were many, many people there with me, most of them women my age or a little older, most of them in groups of two.

But I did look at everything before going back home. I got lucky, when I arrived at the station there was a late train in my direction just coming in, so that went well.

Everything went smoothly, I dropped by the health food stores on my way back home (I had put the grocery list in my bag when I left the house) and when I returned home my husband was out in the back mowing the lawn. He had been too busy to feel lonely after all and everything was fine.

I sat down for a break, talked briefly with my husband, played a bit of Genshin, helped my husband look through his mother’s part of the freezer and throw away most of the contents, did bodyweight training with the boy where I declared that I had not felt sore at all after the last session only to start feeling the soreness when I did the same exercises again, oops.

Then I ate dinner, talked with the rest of the family again and proceeded to spend hours in Genshin farming materials. I had to pry myself lose at one point because it was past my bedtime already and there was no chance of getting all the materials I needed in a reasonable time.

I then finally wrote my blog post, opened the manuscript for five minutes just so I could say I had worked on it, made a long, long list for today and went to bed.

And then I was super slow, dragging my feet with the morning routine, and just as I was about to finish my morning pages my phone rang and the student of mine who just stopped showing up with no notice was on the line.

Well, the reason they didn’t show up was because they were in the hospital and very sick. But they’re feeling better and were asking about picking up lessons again and will come in on Wednesday. Which makes me very happy because I really like that student.

Because we had talked on the phone for so long I skipped yoga and meditation. Again.

Had breakfast with my husband, knitted a bit, took a few bags of yarn and spinning fiber out of my studio to put them in the attic cupboard and then realized that I would wake the boy up if I brought them upstairs at that point. I measured myself for my sewing projects, did the dishes and figured out that I can probably make this skirt a size smaller than the one I made two years ago. Nice.

And then I went out for a walk/run:

I took the route with more shade but it was still pretty warm. It was also the first longer run since the beginning of August and it felt glorious.

I came back, took a shower and we had lunch:

And then I read and ate all the licorice. I need to stop buying licorice because that stuff isn’t good for you when you have hypertension. 

I then played Genshin for two hours, I did my weekly bosses, and farmed for weapon materials and all that jazz, and then I briefly sat down to review August and set myself goals for September. Well, August didn’t go as planned at all, the only goal I reached was to have successful cataract surgery. But that’s okay, I didn’t know what would happen.

We’ll see how September goes, it looks pretty full already as well with the start of the school year, the second eye surgery and a trip to the family reunion at the end of the month.

But first I will go to Munich today and look at pretty pictures! I’m really looking forward to that.

I did my complete morning routine at least (shh, don’t mention the manuscript) and doing yoga again felt very good.

My husband was in a much better mood because he felt that his mother’s apartment was now in a state that we could let it sit for a while, and when he woke up early he went through all the little pieces of paper of hers that he had taen downstairs to sort through.

Since the boy wants to make a Halloween costume this year I was also busy figuring out what kind of fabric to use and where to get it. Looks like we’ll be going to the fabric market on Sunday. We’ll be doing an excursion! Fun!

And that, of course, also means I will have to make a list of possible future sewing projects so I can get some fabric for myself as well.

I called my mother on the phone and I did the dishes and changed the sheets on my bed and the towels. I looked at the sock-in-progress and the stripes are making me happy:

My mother is very convinced that I won’t be able to do all the things I want to do this week, and was also very sure I wouldn’t be able to do everything I wanted to do yesterday. Well.

I have to admit that I wanted to measure both me and the boy and decided to move that to today. I also thought I would be able to look through my mother-in-law’s paperwork and get a picture of what needs to get done next. I now do know what needs to be done next but that thing is to find all the papers and invoices and file them because her files right now are missing almost everything since the end of 2023. I have seen some envelopes and letters in piles so I guess the next step is to look through all of those and file them.

But.

Other than that I did it all. Ha!

But first we ate lunch:

We had two kinds of alcohol-free wine and one of them was good enough that I ordered six more bottles. My husband had gotten those as a present from a student.

After lunch I ate some licorice and played some Genshin and then I found it very hard to get moving again. Oh, by the way, I also started reading John Acuff’s „Procrastination Proof“ book yesterday. I like his style anyway but I haven’t gotten far into it, so we’ll see.

I did the dishes and cleaned the house and was still wiping down toilets as the boy came downstairs for bodyweight training. Which we then did together. We did the very frustrating 10×3-thing and my muscles were screaming after 2 or 3 of those intervals for every single exercise.

I ate dinner, talked briefly with my husband, and only then did I go hunt for my mother-in-law’s files.

After that I opened the manuscript for twenty minutes, started writing this post, made a list for today and for the week excursions!), did a software update on my laptop and – played some more Genshin.

And then it was definitely time for bed.

So, the plan for the week is to sew a skirt, maybe also a t-shirt, go to Munich to see an exhibition, go to the fabric market, teach two or three students, file all my mother-in-law’s papers, and also – wait for it – declutter, clean and tidy my studio.

Oh, and remember how my husband thought he was done with his mother’s apartment? In the afternoon he found yet another cupboard in the kitchen full of food. There was the bread cutting machine and underneath there were cake mixes and such. None of them were good anymore.

I’ve been longing for unstructured days alone but, well, there are people in the house besides me. I have also been longing to get back to my normal routines but since the boy only went emergency grocery shopping without looking at the list I had to either go to the supermarket before breakfast or eat bread for the fifth day in a row.

So the health food store and skipping yoga it was.

Husband and I started talking over breakfast and had a misunderstanding that triggered all my fears about being penniless, homeless and starving (no, I have never had to go hungry, no idea where that comes from) and then my reaction triggered his sense of doom. Fun times.

I let the rest of my tea go cold and stormed upstairs to declutter my mother-in-law’s bathroom right away. Which took me ninety minutes in total. I have never seen that many jars of wrinkle cream in my life. As with food supplies she has the tendency to stockpile things without having any idea how much of it she actually needs. There were five cans of hairspray, all of them open, and four identical jars of face cream, all of them untouched. Also enough cotton balls for a small army.

All of which made me rather late for everything else. While my husband complained that the decluttering meant he had to clean the bathroom instead of playing around with his new bass. I mean, he could have left the cleaning for another day…

I did the dishes and I went for a very short walk/run:

There was fish for lunch:

I played a bit of Genshin, then went outside again to shop for groceries some more. Three shops, including the one I had been to in the morning but now we should be set until next week.

I hung up a load of laundry and folded another one, helped my husband pour the extra water off the hibiscus where the boy had been a bit overenthusiastic with the watering, talked with husbad on and off and then helped him move a door from the garage to his mother’s apartment. His parents had taken the living room door off the hinges decades ago to give the apartment a more open feel and husband and I both think that was a bad idea because that means you’re basically trying to heat the stairwell in winter. There is another door there but we both think it might be a good idea to be able to close the door to the living room.

Then I finally ate dinner and read some more in „Swordcrossed“. I’m really enjoying it so far.

Then I procrastinated taking a shower for an hour or two, finally made it, started writing this post, made a list for today, played some more Genshin and went to bed.

In between I also put everything in my budget app, and moved the date for my mammography from the day I’ll be traveling to Schwerin to a week later.

Things continue being a bit much, let’s see how today goes.

And then we began the process of packing and getting ourselves back home.

The first train was only a few minutes late, everything was fine. And then when I looked at the information for the second train I was very confused to read that half the train would be missing and that it was expected to be super crowded. And, of course, the car our reserved seats were on – would not make the trip.

Ack!

So I booked yet another set of seats, this time on a train an hour later.

We had quite some time to eat lunch in Hannover:

And to acquire snacks for dinner.

And only hours later did I see that I had an email about the train we should have taken where they informed us that they had booked us different seats on the same train. I didn’t know that could happen. And it never showed in the train app, the one that I get all my info from.

So we came back home an hour later than expected but we arrived on time even though the train had left twenty minutes late from Hannover. It was then rerouted to make it faster. I had never have that happen before as well.

We were reunited with the boy, sat around a bit, talking and I turned the heel on the sock.

I finished the last novel in the Freya Marske trilogy on the train, „Unbound“, and loved it so much that I decided I also needed to read „Swordcrossed“ and then found out the ebook was only 1.17 €, ha!

So far I like it.

Today there will be all the Saturday things plus grocery shopping because the boy didn’t look at the list and now we don’t have any yogurt at all. And I want some for my muesli in the morning.

And my mother wasn‘t doing much better, at one point the two of us were so unfocused and confused that we drove my husband slightly nuts. ::shrug::

I did get another night of 8 1/2 hours of sleep. The weather was rather hot and humid all day but there was nothing to be done.

We started the day with another walk to the grocery store to get buns and return some bottles. Also we bought some chocolate, for my husband this time.

There was breakfast. We had taken care to be a little earlier because my mother expected someone to help her take a shower. Well, that person came much earlier than usual, so she had to abandon her coffee mid-meal.

Afterwards we went grocery shopping, this time for my mother. She wanted to go to the store where she usually shops and that one is a bit farther away. Everything took longer than expected, as always.

Back at my mother‘s apartment my husband and I cooked lunch. No conflict, no nothing. Turns out when you have a kitchen with ample counter space where the sink and the stove are not right next to each other cooking together becomes much easier.

There was lunch:

Lamb, chickpeas, veggies and rice. Very nice. And some ice cream for dessert.

Then we all took a break and husband and I went back to our apartment. We returned to my mother about 90 minutes later and set out to go to a small lake nearby.

By then it was really hot and my mother was starting to wilt a little. But we still went, had some coffee at a cafe near the lake sitting outside and I drank my first ever chocochino. Yes, that was hot chocolate and coffee together, very tasty. It reminded me of the days at uni when we used to draw one hot chocolate and one coffee into a big mug at the cafeteria. I don‘t usually do coffee but was intrigued, and I liked it.

Then my husband and I walked all around the small lake, and husband went in for a swim.

We met up with my mother again who had walked around a bit outside the cafe and went back to her place.

Then we ate dinner, got back to the apartment, talked quite a bit, I started writing this post and mentally prepared myself for packing and the way back and went to bed.

And today we‘ll be on trains all day again. And if things go well we‘ll be back home tonight.

I did get enough sleep but it didn‘t really help with the energy.

We got up pretty late and I skipped yoga again. And then we went to my mother‘s where we were met by four people in front of the door, one of which was my mother, drawing us into a conversation about which plant in the flower beds was the weed and which was the flower that needed to remain. My husband was asked about his opinion as well, and confirmed that yes, that was goutweed, a weed that you need to pull out as deeply as you possibly can, and yes, those nice little blue flowers should remain.

At my mother‘s place we met her cleaning woman who was almost done with cleaning and was sitting down for a chat. So we learned everything about her big family. I actually like her and really did want to know but maybe not at the length and volume before I‘ve had breakfast.

We had breakfast, we wandered back to our apartment and spent some quiet time, then went back to go out for lunch.

The Chinese restaurant we went to was very nice, as always, and I ate way too much from the excellent buffet. We went with my mother and aunt and it was actually fun. I did not manage to take pictures of all my food, so here is my first course:

We went back to my mother‘s place via the recycling place to get rid of some electronic devices my mother didn‘t need anymore, and we went grocery shopping for today‘s lunch.

More quiet time in the afternoon, then a walk through the cemetery, where I failed to find any family graves, and then we passed my parents‘ former house. My husband hadn‘t visited for years and wanted to greet our old haunts.

Then dinner with my mother, some quiet time scrolling and gaming, then I started this post and went to bed not long after.

We did sleep reasonably well, picked up some raisin buns and bread on our way and had breakfast with my mother.

The original plan was to go out for Chinese food for lunch but the place is closed on Tuesdays. So we moved things around and decided to hop on a train to Muenster for book research. I‘m writing a series of romance novels that are set there. It is also a rather nice city to walk around in, so that‘s what we did. At length.

We ate schnitzel for lunch:

We walked around some more, ate some ice cream, got tired of walking around but still walked some more, looked at the castle, and at a lake with some sailing boats, realized that the train we wanted to take was canceled and thought we‘d just take the next train to the town where we needed to change trains anyway.

So we walked around some more and looked at nice old buildings, then walked back to my mother‘s place where we met my very chatty aunt, had dinner and then went back to our own apartment for the evening.

We‘re done with trains for now, at least. Though I have to say I got a ton of reading in with all that sitting on trains for two days.

The train ride was uneventful and most of our trains were right on time, even. I found the train rides pretty boring and read half a novel.

We brought our own lunch, my husband insisted:

We arrived only five minutes late and walked to the apartment we have rented for the week. And I finally figured out why it seems as if no one ever expects us at the place we are staying at, they are looking for people arriving by car, not on foot.

We went over to my mother‘s, my husband hadn‘t seen her apartment yet and we had a nice dinner of bread and cheese.

Then we went to the nearby supermarket for chocolate, licorice and alcohol-free beer:

Very nice.

We watched a bit of soccer, I played my video game for a bit while my husband was playing his guitar and that was it for the day.

We were both super tired in the end.

I then had a super slow morning which led to me skipping yoga again.

There was breakfast and the realization that I had knitted 15 rounds more on the leg of the sock-in-progress than I had wanted. Because it turned out I had miscounted rounds on the first sock. And then it turned out my husband actually likes shorter cuffs on his socks. Good to know.

I talked to my mother on the phone but only briefly because we’ll meet in person today, and then I helped a little with making lunch. Which was late. I should maybe stop calling it that because by now we might be hitting a new regular lunchtime:

The thing that is not on this photo are the bell peppers stuffed with feta cheese. They weren’t ready in time, and words were exchanged about the fact that we always have to eat the baked potatoes cold because my husband always starts cooking with making those. And he only put the peppers in the oven after the potatoes were done.

The boy really liked them, apparently.

All throughout the day I was putting more stuff on the pile of things I wanted to take with me. The last tasks were to refill shampoo and conditioner and put all my medication in my bag, and charge all the things. A task that went on all the way until this morning.

My husband decided that he didn’t want to eat in the dining car on the way because the boy had had a train without one last week. But that was a completely different kind of train, and also we’ll be having ample time to get food somewhere when changing trains. But no. So he did some more cooking.

I packed everything up, it all fits in my small 16 liter backpack, even my purse and the knitting project. I did not manage to start said project so I guess I’ll do that today on the train.

Talking with my husband made me feel weird for not taking more things. I should pack the ukulele! And another change of clothes! And some running gear! And bigger toiletries!

But no, I can wash stuff if I need to, I can also wear the leggings and t-shirt I’m taking as pajamas in a pinch and things will be fine. I am taking more stuff than I did in April, not only did I add the tablet computer back in (which adds another kilo of weight) I am also taking all this contact lens stuff and two kinds of eye drops. Well, needs must.

In the evening I gave my writer friend a piano lesson over video call, then met the boy for bodyweight training, ate dinner, hung around reading for a while, then finally took a shower, started writing this post, made a list for today, spent a little time revising, and went to bed.

And now we’re off to Northern Germany while the boy is taking proper care of the house.

It was the usual thing, I had been pushing a list of things that need to be done from day to day, and today is the hard deadline. Because we’ll be traveling tomorrow.

So. I did go to bed an hour late but slept for a little over eight hours again. Score! Of course that made me late in the morning. I still did my complete morning routine, not manuscript time, though.

There was breakfast with one of those conversations that husband and I both would have loved to have skipped, we’re both a bit stressed at the moment.

I did the breakfast dishes, sorted recycling, folded a load of laundry and hung up part of another one and then, just as I wanted to go out for my walk/run there was a thunderstorm.

I’m not dumb enough to run through the woods in that on purpose. But my husband had just come back from his run and said that the storm was passing us to the south. If I waited for ten minutes I would be good.

Well, I did get rained on a bit but he was right, no thunder and lightning, phew:

When I came back we were already late with lunch but there was still time to take a shower before eating:

This was the rest of the lamb from the other day (the boy got tomato sauce only) and pasta from my mother-in-law’s pantry. We still had leftover capellini from another day, so there is a lot of leftover pasta in the fridge right now.

My husband had spent most of the morning and all of the afternoon going through his mother’s kitchen. Several weeks in he is still finding more perishables. And we haven’t even gotten started on the freezer but that will keep a bit longer.

I did help him a little with decisions, and I also advised him to just put all the bits of paper into a box to look at later. It is important to get all the spoiled food out of the house but if we look at the papers this week or not doesn’t make much of a difference.

After lunch I sat down to play some Genshin again and came away extremely frustrated having failed spectacularly fighting the same boss as the day before. In the end I gave up and handed the boy the controller. Who determined that the problem was a) I was using the wrong weapon, b) said weapon wasn’t leveled up enough, and c) the controls on the controller make playing that kind of fight extra hard.

Anyway, he did manage to slay the boss for me, phew.

I did more dishes, carried all of my mother-in-law’s paperwork back into her living room and put it in neat piles, preparing to sort it later.

But.

I also was determined to do at least a cursory cleaning of the house. I had vacuumed the old part before (thought it was already looking dirty again) and my husband had said he’d do the annex. But he was so tied up in all the decluttering that I just took the vacuum and ran it through the middles. And I cleaned the washbasins and toilets, phew.

Meanwhile my husband did a second round through the garden to show the boy what and how to water.

And then we all met for dinner and the penultimate episode of ‚Columbo‘. I had high hopes for this one about a composer and conductor for the movies but it did have some lengths.

After that my husband took over the kitchen to make baba ganush from the eggplant he grilled the day before while I sat in the living room at my dedicated writing desk and started writing this post. I also did a teensy bit of revision, made a list for today and played more Genshin.

I did not refill my travel toiletries and have reached the stage of packing where it feels like it will never come together. I have a big untidy pile of things on the spare bed and need to compare that to my list. I also need to move stuff around from my purse. I’m not quite sure if I should take the purse or a lighter and smaller sling. I will definitely not lug everything around that is my everyday carry.

So, today is packing day. And started the travel knitting day. But we already decided against making wine jelly and apple sauce. There is just no time.

I did get enough sleep, and that did me good but also made me sluggish again.

I wrote half-hearted morning pages and skipped yoga and meditation. I ate breakfast with my husband and knitted a few rounds on the current sock, cut my husband’s hair, and then went online before doing the breakfast dishes around noon.

And only then did I brush my teeth.

Husband had planned to fire up the grill for lunch but only after doing some more decluttering perishables in his mother’s kitchen and going for a run.

So lunch was rather late. I did help a bit with sorting, washing and chopping ingredients.

We actually did eat outside even though it was raining pretty heavily at this point. Good thing we have two outside seating areas with roofs over them, one house the grill and the other one our table:

It was cozier than it sounds.

After that I read for a bit, ate some chocolate, and then played a quest in Genshin Impact until it was too late to vacuum before my one student of the day.

Teaching was nice and then the boy and I were supposed to meet for bodyweight training. He asked if it was okay to move it back 15 minutes which gave me the perfect opportunity to vacuum the apartment.

Then I ate dinner, asked the boy to do the dishes and played some more Genshin. I tried that one boss three frustrating times and failed and decided to call it a day.

I started writing this post, made a list for today and went to bed at a reasonable time.

I also finished reading „A Restless Truth“ by Freya Marske and really liked it. And started the next book in the series right away. And I charged my power bank and my ebook reader to prep for our trip.

Oh, and I started revising book 1 in the new Urban Fantasy series. Very exciting!

I came back at lunchtime and my husband was still right in the middle of cooking. We both chopped basil and grated parmesan like crazy but lunch was still late. I was very sure I had taken a picture of our capellini with pesto Genovese but apparently I had not.

There was mint chocolate, a little reading, some video game playing, and then a lot of emotional conversation, not my favorite.

I got ready to teach my one student of the day only to see that she had canceled.

My husband went through his mother’s pantry some more, there are so many things there and most of them aren’t good to eat anymore.

I decided that I needed some emotional support potato chips for dinner, so I walked to another supermarket for that and licorice, and ate that for dinner. I continue to be very proud that I only ate half the bag of chips.

I played some more Genshin and got some help and shooter game lessons from the boy, started writing this post a little later than I wanted and went to bed.

In between other things I continued to make a pile of stuff that I need to pack for next week. I think I have pretty much everything now, I only need to refill my tiny shampoo and conditioner tubes. And add the second notebook, of course, and the fountain pen.

I’m hoping today will be more grounded and productive.

Since I slept in I skipped yoga and meditation, husband and I had a leisurely breakfast, and then I just couldn’t get myself going.

I did eventually get outside for a walk/run:

The weather was gorgeous and too hot again:

It was rather hot but I am pretty happy with my fitness. I am slowly vamping up again, though that will mean doing easy training until next week, then a week off, more easy training for a week and then – a break for the second cataract surgery.

Well, it is what it is.

Husband had been out running (and swimming) as well and so lunch was rather late. He cooked it in the tajine again, and it was delicious:

I read for a bit and knitted a little, and then talked with the boy while he ate his lunch before following my husband’s suggestion to go out for ice cream. Which meant a nice short walk, then sitting outside on a bench while eating and talking about the boy’s time with my mother and a leisurely stroll back.

After that the boy and I talked about Genshin and he cleared some endgame levels for me and answered all my many questions.

Meanwhile my husband had started cleaning his mother’s fridge. Which turned out to be a bigger task than he thought. And then we realized that there was a whole big drawer of baking ingredients underneath the fridge. So I looked through that as well and threw most of it away because it was no longer good.

I mean, I sympathize with owning five bags of grated almonds and four packets of grated chocolate more than I used to because I tend to buy ingredients for Christmas cookies every year and then I don’t actually bake them. But we usually go through what we have before buying more.

And most importantly: only one bag or packet is every opened at a time, and when something expires we throw it away.

There was a newspaper clipping in that drawer about which ingredients can be used even after their best by-date expires.

And then it was time to tick the rest of my list off: wind a skein of sock yarn into a ball, deal with the three pieces of paperwork for my mother-in-law that are urgent and fold all the laundry.

I had already finalized my packing list for next week in the morning and had spent some time throughout the day putting stuff I want to take with me on a dedicated pile.

I then played some more Genshin and went to bed.

Huh, it felt like a day where I didn’t get anything done but in hindsight that’s just not true, isn’t it?

I did have to get up almost an hour earlier than usual because we wanted to visit my mother-in-law before her (rather early) lunch at the care home.

I did my morning routine (we’re not talking about writing at the moment, there is just too much else) anyway, we packed everything we needed (husband was showing up saying, „I just realized we can’t take the basket I used for all the stuff we want to bring her“ just as I was stuffing it all in my backpack) and left.

There are construction shenanigans on the local train lines again but that didn’t really affect us. The transportation app told us to take two busses because it was the fastest route so I fiddled with the settings until it gave me the option to just take two trains, even if that meant four whole minutes more travel time. Also a 20-minute walk on the end but we could have taken another bus there as well.

We visited her, we talked, I got her to sign some stuff so I can send it off soon and then we went on a hunt for her debit card.

I distinctly remember puting her debit card into a wallet-thing of hers together with her health insurance card. Later we realized that we need that card to do banking stuff for her but all she might need is cash. If that.

So we went through her whole room four times. We asked the staff (everybody so far has been super friendly and helpful), no one knew anything.

Anyway, we walked away from there afraid that we had made a decision that meant she lost her card. Or maybe someone stole it.

We decided against. calling in at her bank, and while I went to the health food store my husband went home to see if maybe, against all odds because I remember putting the card in her luggage and I don’t remember taking it out again, the card might be home after.

Well.

The card was at home.

Phew.

All throughout that panic the boy was texting me about his train ride back home. As expected a plan that meant five trains all would have to be more or less on time was not working.

While we were still on trains ourselves he found that he would have to change trains and asked for help with paying for yet another seat reservation.

That time he did specify that he wanted to have at least 20 minutes to change trains.

And he needed them. He also opted to wait for another train two hours later because it was supposed not to be so crowded and eat lunch at a random train station somewhere.

That was a good choice because there unexpectedly was no dining car on his train. When he wanted to sit down in his reserved seat there was a woman sitting there telling him that seat reservations were void on that train. Which wasn’t true.

Fun!

Anyway, at one point one of the new trains was a little over half an hour late but he still managed to catch the next one.

My huband cooked and we ate lunch rather late:

After that we had a short break before tackling my mother-in-law’s fridge. Phew again. That woman had more food in her fridge than we do.

We did manage to get most of the trash into the bins and some special trash bags that we had to buy that mean they will actually get picked up.

Then my husband taught a student and I had a bit of a break, we ate dinner, then the boy came back home, finally, but he didn’t really want to talk to anyone, my husband started the dishes in an attempt to help me get to bed on time, I started writing this post, ma a list for today and went to bed.

Thunk!

especially since the running happened in a thunderstorm in the woods. The center of the storm was not where I was, fortunately.

There was an easy lunch:

omelette, rice, leftovers and zucchini.

Lots of Genshin, talking with my friend instead of a piano lesson, and a not quite as late bedtime.

And now I’m off to visit my mother-in-law.

I went to bed at a somewhat reasonable time and slept well for eight hours, phew. I did my morning routine but shortened the yoga to 5 minutes.

Breakfast with my husband and lots of talking, mostly about the visit from his friends on Friday. I finished a sock:

The pattern is a mix of the Vanilla Princess pattern by Anneh Fletcher and the GumGum sock. I’m using three different leftover yarns and the GumGum-technique helps to wrangle the yarns for those one-row stripes.

It is a super fiddly project, though. Especially with wonky eyes. But I’m very curious how the sock will wear, all those purl stitches at the heel and on the bottom of the foot should make it smoother to wear.

I went online a bit and called my mother on the phone, more talking.

Then I did the dishes while listening to a YouTube video, my husband started cooking and I took care of recycling.

Lunch was nice and easy but there wasn’t enough salt for my taste:

After lunch I read a bit and then I played a lot of Genshin. And failed. A lot.

I then had dinner with my husband, made a plan for the week, started writing this post, did some quick research regarding some paperwork, played a little more and went to bed.

And now for a brand new week!

Though, I did change the sheets on my bed, changed the towels, did some important paperwork for my mother-in-law and have a better understanding of all the different utilities, insurances and such she pays for. Not too bad.

There was also a lot of talking and I did not exercise or anything, it was way too hot.

There was lunch:

The mangetout are from our garden and that is duck breast.

I spent the afternoon playing again and had a pretty frustrated experience in part. I also made some major progress.

And I finally started the toe on the sock that I’m knitting.

The plan was to watch some C-drama in the evening but I procrastinated so long that there wasn’t any time left.

Fingers crossed I’ll feel more like a proper human being today.

The plan was to do some cleaning and change the sheets but first I needed to get groceries. Today is a public holiday here, so everything is closed. And I couldn’t go on Thursday because of the doctor’s appointment.

My replacement pen came. The Lamy duo that lives with my Bullet Journal broke. The ballpoint cartridge was empty and when I took it apart to see which new one I needed something got stuck and the whole mechanism didn’t work anymore. Maybe seven years of daily use is enough.

I do love that pen, though, and so I ordered a new one.

I walked to the supermarket in the heat and bought very few things. We really feel that the boy isn’t home at the moment, we need fewer groceries, of course.

My husband went running and made lunch:

You can’t really see them but there are cherry tomatoes from our yard in there.

The plan was to play my game, change the sheets, take a shower and maybe start cleaning a bit. And all of that before my husband’s friends came over in the afternoon.

Well, I did play. And I managed a shower.

My husband’s friends came in the afternoon and while I did say hello I didn’t talk to them much until we were headed out for dinner. We went to the nice Greek restaurant that we discovered some weeks ago. We never used to go there because they don’t open for lunch on weekdays. Well, turns out when you go in the evening you really should make a reservation beforehand.

But they were super nice and found us a table. The food was fabulous:

My husband and I shared dessert:

We went back home, the three of them made a bit of music and I played some more Genshin. I actually finished the new quest some time around 11.

There was some more talking with our guests and then I went to bed.

I’m pretty sure that today will be completely unproductive, I haven’t slept well or long enough, it’s super hot again and so I’m moving very slowly.

I had another eye doctor appointment but this time it was late enough that I didn’t have to rush breakfast. The eye looks good, the new lens is exactly where it needs to be and I’m cleared for exercise if I don’t overdo it.

My husband had taken the train in the other direction and had gone to a lake for a swim and lunch.

I made myself frozen pizza. After six minutes I checked and found the pizza a little pale. So I set a timer for two minutes and started reading.

At one point I realized that those two minutes were very long.

Because I had set the timer for two hours instead:

It still tasted fine but, wow.

I played a little, my husband came back, I did the dishes and we set off to the recycling place.

It was way too hot so I was dragging my. feet and I had a student coming and was afraid I’d be late getting back. Husband and I were both low on energy and didn’t really want to haul stuff around by bike so that did not go all that great.

But, we did get some stuff out of the house and purchased two extra trash bags to be filled with some of the useless junk that is still cluttering the house.

I taught my student which was very nice, that was my first time touching a piano and singing anything since the last day of school.

Then I ate a third of a bag of chips for dinner and had some licorice, started writing this post, texted everyone who had texted me back, made a (long) list for today, played some more Genshin and started a list of things I want to do next in-game and went to bed.

It’s funny, I just saw a video from Ryder Carrol about an ultra-simple way of doing the Bullet Journal and it is lovely but I’m still filling mine with all the lists and all the to-dos. Though I keep thinking about whether to include my routine tasks every day or not. But I find it much easier to check them off each day than to go to my habit tracker.

So I guess I’ll just continue doing what I’m doing.

Today will be another over the top busy day but the weekend should be a little better. Fingers crossed.

On the plus side there was no summer break paralysis at all so far…

Since there was a major Genshin update I was already in the game first thing. I also pulled for the new character, Odette, and got her and a couple of others, very nice.

Husband had an early dentist’s appointment that I had forgotten about so that didn’t really mesh well.

I did the usual morning things, then went out to run get my husband a new phone plan. I ended up having to walk all the way to the other end of town because the first shop was all out but then found what I needed and walked all the way back in the midday heat.

I had also planned to figure out some admin stuff concerning my mother-in-law but ran out of steam.

Husband made us delicious lunch:

And then I finally sat down to play Genshin for real.

I wasn’t sure if I had a student or not, our communication wasn’t clear the last time, so I took a shower and waited a bit but they didn’t show.

I did some tech stuff and got the phone running, then talked to husband, hung half a load of laundry, played a little more and ate dinner. I also troubleshooted my earbuds that aren’t charging properly. At one point I was convinced I’d need to go to the store and have them looked at today but it seems they’re working again. Maybe the troubleshooting helped.

And then it was time for the solar eclipse.

Well.

We had the proper glasses and some alcohol-free champagne at the ready but then I found there was no place in the house or garden where we could actually see the sun.

We thought the annex roof might be a good idea, so we scrambled up there. I felt very heroic because I don’t do heights well but husband helped me and held the ladder.

And…

That was still not hight enough. There is an apartment complex across the street that made seeing the actual sun impossible.

Husband took the chance to clear leaves of the roof, we clambered down again and the switched between watching the live stream from Munich on YouTube and going outside to watch the light change.

We should have prepared better but we didn’t and it was okay.

I started writing this post and played some more before going to bed.

And today I’ll be mostly on the move. I will even brave riding my bike very slowly. My vision in both eyes should be good enough and I’ll ask the eye doctor beforehand because I’m having an appointment in the morning.

I had gone to bed at 10 and did not sleep well and woke up early.

Talked with husband, went to one town over because my attempt at renewing my allergy meds prescription had failed. Or so I thought.

Renewed prescription, went back, ran all the errands, talked with husband some more and had lunch:

I played a little Genshin Impact and made all the mistakes, then finally filled out the care grade application and some other paperwork, did some research in between, talked a lot with my husband, texted quite a few people, talked with my writer friend over video call, ate dinner with my husband, sent that application off by email – finally – started writing this post, tried doing some more stuff and failed and went to bed.

I did go to Munich and met with a friend which was nice, we only ever see each other once a year or so.

All in all a Monday that had definite Friday vibes, weird. I still didn’t manage to reach someone at my mother-in-law’s care home, sadly enough, so I’ll try again today.

There was lunch:

And plum tarte at a café in Munich:

And I’m very much hoping to catch a breath today.

I still haven’t done any yoga or anything, even though I did bookmark some that I could do right now.

My husband and I had planned to do something together today and tomorrow. Turned out he thought we’d bike through the heat. I’m a bit sorry but I had to disappoint him. I am not biking anywhere at the moment, I’m doing fine with my eyes but walking down stairs is already taking a lot of focus I don’t think I should get on a bike and navigate the world at that speed. And definitely not in the heat we’re having at the moment.

He didn’t take it well.

I talked to my mother on the phone at length which made me late for doing the dishes that I had pushed to the morning and when I came back to the kitchen my husband had already done them.

He is working like a madman right now, he is going through his mother’s stuff and the garage is already full. We will need to get more trash bags, the ones that the city will actually pick up, soon.

There was pasta with zucchini for lunch. The garden might be dry and neglected but there are still zucchini:

This time I did the dishes right after lunch, then played a bit of Genshin and became super frustrated with a thing where you have to fly through hoops. I tried six time or so before I stopped for the day. The boy has given me pointers, though, so I’m thinking it should go better the next time.

I planned the week and realized I was hung up on the whole ‚if we had a cancelation would you be interested in having your second eye done next week“-thing. So I made a plan and wrote at the top that I would just cancel everything in case that happens. Which would be awesome.

Then I tackled my mother-in-law’s voicemail and phone. I listened to all her voicemail, I called one of her friends to give her the new phone number and I changed the recording to tell people why they couldn’t reach her under this number anymore. Phew.

I started catching up on my year-long projects, I am reading „War and Peace“ with priority and I decided to just skip three weeks or so from the book that gives you a piece of classical music every day. I have gone through this list before and so I’m not catching up on that one.

My husband installed his father’s old loudspeakers in my room because they are better than mine, very nice.

And then I met my writer friend on Zoom for a chat.

Today I’m going to Munich (in the heat) to meet at friend that I’m only seeing once a year. It looks as if normal train service has resumed which would be super awesome and make my life much easier.

Oh, and there will be more phone calls and paperwork in the morning as well, great.

We ate breakfast, I did the breakfast dishes and took a shower. There was more paperwork and decisions to make about some of my mother-in-law’s stuff and such.

We ate a very quick lunch, potato salad from the day before and some bratwurst:

Yes, the brats spent a little too long in the frying pan.

My brother-in-law showed up, he and husband loaded one of my mother-in-law’s dressers into his van and we went to see her at the care home. The home is rather nice. She is still very confused but actually looking better than before. She is getting four meals per day, and all the people who live on her floor eat together. I think that does her good.

We went on a walk around the block to a nearby park, even though it was very hot. She still does well when walking but has a hard time getting up and sitting down again.

We talked to two people working there about the paperwork and got the number of someone who I can ask on Monday, we sorted some stuff, my brother-in-law set up his mother’s TV so there is a chance of her finding the channels she wants to see.

We also hope that she’ll figure out her phone, she needs to dial a 0 first, then the area code and the actual number. Because the care home is in a different area but I’m not sure she understands that.

She also has a nice tower fan in her room but she didn’t realize what it was and how to turn it on and off. Same with the electric blinds.

We came back home, I walked to the mailbox to send a letter for my mother-in-law that I had forgotten for days (which reminds me that I need to check her voicemail as well), I took a break, I played Genshin, I ate dinner, I talked with my husband a few times, started writing this post, did the dishes and went to bed.

In between I texted wth the boy and my sister. It’s all very new for him. My sister went back home and was pretty happy to be back in her own home with her feet up and some nice pizza in the evening.

I am very exhausted.

The boy had to get ready early to catch a train to visit my mother. Because of construction just getting to Munich took him twice as long as usual. But we are very experienced train travelers so we booked with ample buffer.

Or so we thought.

Here at home we talked, I helped the boy squeeze everything he needs for 3 weeks into our biggest backpack, waved him goodbye, had breakfast, answered another phone call from my brother-in-law that turned my day from a rest and decompress day into another paperwork, admin and people-day, went grocery shopping (only the light stuff because I’m not allowed to lift heavy at the moment) and had lunch:

Meanwhile the boy decided that a walk, a train, a bus, and another train would be the best route to the main train station. He was right but the last train was so full that he had to take the next one. Not a problem at this point, he still had about 40 minutes of buffer at this point.

Lunch:

The excellent leberkas was a recommendation from the cashier at the health food store who saw me with the last limp package of the prepacked sort, that was looking rather pale and sad and pointed me towards the in-house butcher. I don’t usually go there because you have to speak to a human being to buy there but I did it and it was totally worth it.

And I had a flash thinking about my teenage self. She would never have thought that a situation where I was totally fuzzy and spaced out and had trouble finding the right change and making a decision about meat products could be rather nice and personable with everyone feeling a little better afterwards.

Meanwhile the boy had reached the main train station with almost an hour to spare, hurray!

But – plot twist – the train he was supposed to take skipped Munich altogether. He had to find another one. And the next one, two hours later was completely booked out.

Since he was early he was able to take another train going another route. He was rather scared his ticket wouldn’t be valid but it was. We tried to book him seat reservations for the new route but no luck. And he’d have to change trains more often and would arrive a little later.

Okay.

He got on a train to Mannheim and got a free seat, yeah! That train got later and later and later as well. He changed trains again, to a later one than expected. And had to stand on the train. For hours. He did stand in the dining car (there is a ‚bistro‘ part) and got himself something to eat and a beer. Even though he doesn’t like beer.

Missed the next train. And the next, I think, but at some point I lost track.

Anyway. He arrived 90 minutes later than expected. With all the buffer and missed trains the trip took him 10 hours. A trip that should have taken roughly 8.

On the bright side he got there safe and sound, just a little late.

While I was texting back and forth with the boy I was also busy filling out more paperwork for my mother-in-law. My husband has been decluttering and tidying her stuff upstairs non-stop since the day before. Mostly the kitchen but also some other things. And this will take a while.

A lot of the paperwork I’m filling out right now sadly doesn’t have a „I don’t know“ or a „what is this thing even?“-option. Adobe Acrobat does weird stuff to everything I try to print out. Turns out the PDF-viewer inside my browser does better than that.

At one point it became really clear that I need way more rest than that. Especially with all the reading and writing I’ve been doing. So at around 5.30 I plunked myself down in front of TV, ate a ton of junk food and watched first YouTube and then some C-drama. I didn’t even knit.

And then I procrastinated the dishes. Of course.

Started writing this post, did the dishes anyway and went to bed.

And today will bring: a visit to the care home, and more paperwork. Meh.

And my new yarn arrived and turned out to be DK instead of 4-ply sock yarn. Oops, not what I wanted but I’ll find a use for it nonetheless.

The boy came home from his exam, construction on the train lines had sent him all over the place. He did okay, ate lunch and crashed so that I had to wake him up so he could pack for his trip today.

My eyes are doing fine but would appreciate more rest and I am very, very tired. Despite getting adequate sleep several nights in a row.

I took the bandage off yesterday morning rather early, made myself breakfast and braved trains and busses. I needed sunglasses all the way but was fine otherwise. This was me in the afternoon after surgery on Tuesday:

Today is the day we’re moving my mother-in-law to a care home, also the boy has an exam and needs to pack for tomorrow’s trip to my mother. He goes from caring for one grandmother straight to caring for the other one. He is packing for a maximum of three weeks but all of us (including my mother) hope that he won’t be needed that long.

I still have a rest my eye, so way less screens than usual. I started listening to the dramatized version of „Clean Sweep“ and am liking it, though the (I assume) Texas accent of a lot of the characters needed a bit of getting used to.

I did my morning routine and wandered off my morning pages constantly, I did some yoga and meditated for five minutes and then had breakfast with my husband who was all excited because his new bass guitar was supposed to arrive. We also were both a bit stressed because of all the things that need doing and today’s cataract surgery. Mine, that is.

We moved our running and his errands around so that one of us would always be home, and he let me go first with my run because it was another super hot day and I don’t do well in the heat. We both only went for 30 minutes each, it was that kind of day:

Yes, it was very hot. I walked for most of my last running interval because my legs felt way heavier than usual.

I came back home, took a shower and went off to the supermarket and the health food store. Having my hair wet actually helped even though it did not look very sophisticated.

On my way back my phone rang. I thought my husband was trying to reach me so I could add some things to the grocery list but no, my brother-in-law called to say that he had a place in a care home for my mother-in-law! And she could move in basically right away.

Woot!

It will be very pricy. No idea what we’ll do in the long run but right now this would be such a relief. Brother-in-law said he can probably help her move in on Thursday, that he is swamped at work at the moment but hopes to have a bit of time then.

Earlier that morning my husband had called the part of health insurance that is responsible for care grades and got all the forms.

helped chop a few things for lunch:

I took a break, I read a bit, I played a little and then my husband showed up with some requests for copies, I was completely fuzzy, had forgotten that my mother-in-law’s health insurance card was still lingering in my purse from when I went to the doctor for her and almost sent him on a wild goose chase, emotions got high and hilarity ensued.

Just before my brother-in-law had sent me another list of paperwork that needs to be provided and found and figured out.I had to look up one thing twice before figuring out that it doesn’t apply to her anyway.

I was also a bit out of it because of the impending cataract surgery, and thoughts about how the trip there and back would go (there is construction on the train line, of course, so we’ll have to go walk-train-bus-walk, instead of just zipping through on the train. The trip usually costs less than thirty minutes and is supposed to take at least an hour today.

We decided to take a taxi for the way back. So I downloaded a taxi app. It’s very easy to use. Then I realized that I would probably not be able to order a taxi on my phone right after surgery. And trying to teach my husband how to do it is basically pointless so he will have to find a different way to get a taxi.

I also wanted to make sure that I don’t forget anything important and I’m trying to soothe my anxiety by overpacking a bit. Should I take a water bottle? Sunglasses? A case for my regular glasses in case I can’t wear them? Should I pack my contact lens? A sweater?

Anyway. I knew I would basically be fine with my insurance card, ticket, some money and the paperwork for the surgery. But well.

Originally we had plans to declutter my mother-in-law’s fridge yesterday but that never happened. I also thought I’d give my friend an online piano lesson but she canceled. Which was not the worst thing, I really needed the time for other things.

The boy and I did bodyweight training. We talked about the ramifications of the care home placement. And his upcoming trip. And his exam. And my surgery.

I washed every single dirty dish in the house and there were many, at lunchtime we had reached the point where there was no clean plate for the boy’s meal left.

I finished plying the sock yarn sample, I started writing this post, made a list for today and packed my bag and went to bed a little earlier than usual.

Just as I need to post this earlier than usual, I need to leave the house at 8.15.

So I’ll post again as soon as I can, don’t worry, this is some planned time off. I probably won’t be able to see properly for a few days. I’ll only get one eye done, the other one is due in September. See you soon, I hope.

Guess who didn’t do yoga yesterday?

Husband and I started the day with one of those delightful misunderstandings in conversation that takes a long time to sort out, blah. We also realized that our plan to have lunch at a beergarden today won’t work because at least one of us needs to be home to receive a package. My husband’s new bass guitar is supposed to be delivered today, probably just around lunchtime.

I had an extra long phone call yesterday, first with my mother and then with my sister. It was nice but what I didn’t know at that time was that my husband was waiting for me to help him think through the recipe he wanted to make.

He had gotten a tajine from a friend who is moving away complete with a cookbook. This is what it looks like:

Since it was the first time we were using it we were both a bit apprehensive but it was easy and not hard and worked really well. The food was exceptionally delicious, even more so because the zucchini and eggplant were just picked minutes before:

This portion was not quite enough but I made up for it with half a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and a bar of chocolate.

I wanted to do the dishes right away after lunch but my husband had put drain cleaner in the kitchen sink’s drain and so I had to do something else. I read a little of the second book in the current series, „A Restless Truth“. And played my video game. And forgot to plan the week ahead.

I did manage to finally vacuum the old part of the house later than I wanted and cleaned the toilet and washbasin there as well, so I’m declaring the cleaning for the week done.

Then I ate dinner just in time to meet for my monthly Zoom chat with a writer friend. The conversation meandered from topic to topic and was interesting as always. We talked a lot about teaching, now that I think about it. Their spouse is a teacher and so am I.

Afterwards I talked briefly to the rest of the family, started writing this post, saw that it was rather late already and went to bed as quickly as I could which was not very quickly.

I should really retrain myself to an earlier bedtime, I feel so much better if I do.

Oh, and just so you know, I will probably not update this blog for a bit starting on Tuesday because of my cataract surgery, so don’t be alarmed if you don’t hear from me for a while.

I did not get enough sleep, again, and did the usual morning pages, yoga and meditation. Breakfast with my husband who was starting to stress a bit because the new bass guitar he had ordered might be coming right when both of us would be out.

In the end it didn’t, actually checking the tracking information helped.

We were both rather slow all morning, I did the dishes, husband started a load of laundry and then we both went out to run. He did his usual 10 k on a Saturday and I decided it was too hot and I was not feeling it and opted for just 30 minutes total:

I came back home, took a shower, sliced a few zucchini and chopped some basil and parsley. Lunch was pretty late and we ate on the porch because there had been intermittent rain in the morning and so it was a little cooler:

Afterwards I decided to not sit down first but instead do the dishes right away. Win!

Then there was reading and playing Genshin Impact (I’m leveling two characters right now and ran out of resources quickly). I did set myself a timer so I wouldn’t play all afternoon and had planned to do some cleaning, right when my husband started making noises about vacuuming the annex.

So I folded two loads of laundry, touched most surfaces with a feather duster and cleaned the mirrors. I waited for my husband to finish vacuuming so I could do the same in the other part of the house but he kept getting distracted so that didn’t happen.

I set up my bullet journal for August, I decided to do my usual habit tracker, monthly overview, tasks and reading tally. If I end up not filling anything in because my eyesight is too bad or something I’ll deal.

I am a bit sad that my daily reading of „War and Peace“ and listening to a piece of classical music following the „Year of Wonder“-book has fallen by the wayside. A part of me hopes to catch up again, another thinks I’ll just skip half a month of music-listening. That won’t work for the novel, though.

Right now my time is shorter than usual and that means I have to choose between „War and Peace“ and reading „A Marvellous Light“. The second book is clearly winning. It is really good.

I ate dinner while waiting for the rest of the family to show up to watch TV, hung another load of laundry up and we watched an interesting episode of ‚Columbo‘ together. I almost finished turning the heel as well, only one more round left.

Then the boy and I warmed up for bodyweight training, swung by my mother-in-law’s apartment, found her sitting around in the dark peering at newspapers, and the boy helped her make some soup before we continued.

We finished around ten, I started writing this post, spent ten minutes in the manuscript and ten minutes with my spinning wheel and went to bed with a book.

I went to bed a little earlier but also had to get up earlier. Because I had a gynecologist appointment.

I wrote morning pages but did not have time for yoga or meditation. I did eat breakfast but had to put most of my morning tea in a thermos for later. I have not reached the point yet where I take that thermos on the train with me and sip on it all the way.

I went for my annual check-up but I also had a few other things to discuss.

I went back on the train and realized that I had neglected to stamp my ticket on the way there. Oops.

Since I was already in the vicinity I went and bought vaseline, mint chocolate, a TV guide and yogurt. (I wrote „TB guide“ first, not what I wanted to talk about.) And then I went to the pharmacy for my meds.

I dropped everything off and went right back outside in the baking oven-like heat. I picked up some stuff from my mother-in-law’s doctor and went to another pharmacy because that’s the one my mother-in-law prefers.

I sent an email to my brother-in-law with the paperwork needed for that second care home application.

Husband was busy cooking but lunch was almost readay. Even though he had gone running and swimming after breakfast.

Lunch was god. My mother-in-law liked it very much, for once.

And then I finallly could eat:

I only had a short break and then tere was teaching. I had a few breaks between students but I did not manage to actually use that free time.

Anyway. A long discussion of all things „Snezhaya,

the new life stream, and the fact that my husband bought himself a new bass guiatar,

Yesterday I did most of my morning routine, the dishes, walked to my mother-in-law’s doctor’s office where it turned out he hadn’t filled out the form I gave him on Tuesday. I’ll pick that up tomorrow, I hope, and the renewed prescription.

then I biked to the bigger supermarket and got all the groceries, came back and lunch was almost ready:

My husband made peas and carrots in addition to the black beans because his mother doesn’t like them.

I only had a very short break and then I tackled my mother-in-law’s taxes again. I used every break I had and finished them half an hour after my last student of the day.

The boy was going out anyway at that point and offered to mail it. Woot!

We did a very short round of bodyweight training because it was so hot, I finally ate dinner, and some pastry and the rest of the big box of chocolate, read for a while and bought the other two books in the Freya Marske series, took a shower, wrote this post, did the dishes with the boy, played some Genshin and went to bed too late.

Oh, and all through the day I set my new phone up. It’s actually even a little smaller than my old one, I’m not sure I like that. On the other hand, my old phone barely fit in my jeans pocket. The setup was pretty painless which is always a relief.

Today will be busy, busy, busy again, and then we’re on summer break.

Since I didn’t get enough sleep and also didn’t sleep well (I blame the chocolate overdose the night before) I was not the most focused or fast person in the morning. No writing again, meh.

I kept being pulled off-task all day and at one point I spontaneously decided to pull the trigger on getting a new cellphone, something I had been thinking about for months. I did a quick round of research (again) and ordered a refurbished phone. I decided to get an older model because I don’t really wanted to spend more than a thousand euros on a phone. I definitely did want this phone to have more storage than my current one because that’s one of my biggest frustrations. Every time I want to install a system update I have to delete and reinstall apps.

Of course, I only realized that this means I will have to find a new running app after the fact but that’s not reason enough to keep using the old one. I will give my current one to my husband so he has something slightly bigger with a better screen.

I’m using my birthday money and some of the „device replacement“-fund. I did talk with my husband beforehand which is pretty rare because I tend to make buying decisions on impulse and he told me to go and do it.

I did the dishes and I went running/walking for half an hour in the heat:

Yes, I do look tired. No wonder.

When I came back home my husband was right in the middle of being way too late for cooking while the boy was stressing out about getting lunch before he needed to leave for an exam. He also had to go to a lecture hall he had never been in before, one that is right in the main building in Munich. To make matters slightly worse he had to find a bus station at the main train station. The one that is undergoing major construction right now. Every time I approach the station from any angle I am very confused because there is just a pile of rubble and some stuff underground. Or at least that’s what it feels like, there is still a working train station above ground.

So we chopped and cooked and minced at speed and managed to get food on the table just in time that we could all eat:

We did not eat outside, my patience was wearing thin at this point and it was very hot outside. This is eggplant from our yard, the nicest my husband has ever grown and parts of it could have used a little more cooking but most of it was delicious.

There was barely any time between lunch and my first student but at least I had taken a shower while the food was in the oven.

I taught one student. Then I waited for the next one. I had scheduled a lesson with a potential new student last week. They had to cancel and so I offered them two other time slots. They never got back to me but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

After ten minutes I went back to the kitchen, ate some chocolate and read. I started „A Marvellous Light“ by Freya Marske and so far I am liking it. I haven’t been able to immerse myself fully and it feels like it has barely started but that might be because it’s a series and the romance part of the story is supposed to be very slow burn.

I had quite some time after that but just sat around reading and playing and forgetting that I had started a load of laundry.

I taught another student. Then waited for the next one after that. Another reschedule so I didn’t know if I’d teach the mother, the kid or both that day. I texted the mother at one point and it turned out she had completely forgotten because of a health emergency.

I answered a text from another student’s mother about her lesson (another rescheduled one) and the one on Friday. I taught said student and then I knew I had the rest of the day officially off.

I finally remembered the laundry, found that it hadn’t tumbled properly and set the machine to remedy that. Afterwards I unplugged the machine for a minute or so, maybe that will restart it and it will work again.

I hung the laundry up while watching a video, then the boy showed up and told me all about his exam and how they had buried important information at the bottom of an email. I started doing the dishes. Since the boy was still talking at me I asked him to dry them, so he did.

Meanwhile my husband went upstairs to his mother and then went on a little walk with her.

And then I started on my mother-in-law’s taxes. Around 10 pm after an unsuccessful attempt to print four forms out I decided to stop for the day. I did try another method of getting the forms to the printer and that one at least worked.

Today I will need to tally all the receipts, fill out some more forms, print it all out and get it in the mail. I also need to go to the doctor’s office and get another report and renew a prescription. All of that while doing the grocery shopping and staying home to receive my new phone.

Simple.

I went to bed past midnight again, not good, but I did sleep a little longer at least. Actually, the first ‚happy birthday‘ I got was from my smartwatch at midnight. It’s silly but also rather nice.

I wrote morning pages and then decided to skip yoga in favaor of eating breakfast with my husband. The plan was to do the yoga after but that never happened. But we had cake for breakfast:

To be honest there also was cake for breakfast today because we had so much left over. And there was enough time that I pulled my knitting out and did a few rounds on the sock-in-progress. Finally.

While I was in the bathroom after breakfast my brother-in-law called me on my cell to tell me that he had sent some forms for another care home to my husband’s email. My first thought had been, „Weird, he never calls me on my birthday“. And yeah, he actually doesn’t.

I briefly talked with the boy, did the breakfast dishes and went running/walking in the (intermittent) rain:

Husband had decided to go on a longer run that day and then became extremely stressed because he was late and exhausted. Lunch was nothing special, we were having way too many eggs because we tend to get the same number every week from a farmer who delivers them to our door but we didn’t really eat any eggs. So there was omelet with some extra rice.

Looks like I didn’t take a picture. Which is understandable because on top of everything else the thing had also been frying a little too long because my husband left the kitchen while I was at the table grating cheese. He didn’t understand that I didn’t smell that something was burning but I was rather absorbed in trying to grate cheese, chop tomatoes and basil at the same time and also I think maybe it takes a while for the smell to travel from the stove to where I sit in a corner.

As dessert I ate some more cake and then played Genshin for a bit before using some time before my first student for prepping the taxes some more. Turns out tallying all the receipts takes less than an hour. I had another break between students because someone canceled (or maybe rescheduled, we’ll see, they still need to get back to me) and I used that time as well.

I stopped teaching relatively early and then sat down to do the taxes proper. Like, putting all the numbers in all the forms. And then I sent them off.

And I have to say that this was the least painful tax filing ever. Doing it bit by bit over more than a week turned out to work great.

I then decided that I did not want a sandwich for dinner, preheated the oven and went upstairs to say hello to my mother-in-law. Both she and my mother had initially forgotten it was my birthday. But at some point the birthday wishes came in and that was very nice. One of my aunts even wrote an actual card and sent it in the mail. I should make sure to send her one for her birthday the next time as well.

So there was a birthday pizza:

And then my husband was finished with teaching and we opened a bottle of champagne. The boy also came downstairs but left again right away, he is in a study panic, fingers crossed for him today and tomorrow.

My husband offered to do the dishes. When we were setting the table for lunch we were all rather surprised that there were only two clean forks left in the drawer. That sent the boy upstairs to see what dirty dishes he still had and that was quite the stack. Husband washed them all.

He also gave me a pot of echinaceae in the morning. He had bought it ten days before and they were not quite looking as bright and orange as he had imagined. Still, I love getting flowers, and getting live ones is even better. He’ll put them somewhere near the porch so that I can see them without having to venture out in the garden.

So I started writing this post while he was in the kitchen, then played some more Genshin way too late and made a nice list for today.

A list that does not involve figuring out where to find paper forms for my mother-in-law’s taxes because I found those online already. Phew.

I went to bed past midnight again, not good, but I did sleep a little longer at least. Actually, the first ‚happy birthday‘ I got was from my smartwatch at midnight. It’s silly but also rather nice.

I wrote morning pages and then decided to skip yoga in favaor of eating breakfast with my husband. The plan was to do the yoga after but that never happened. But we had cake for breakfast:

To be honest there also was cake for breakfast today because we had so much left over. And there was enough time that I pulled my knitting out and did a few rounds on the sock-in-progress. Finally.

While I was in the bathroom after breakfast my brother-in-law called me on my cell to tell me that he had sent some forms for another care home to my husband’s email. My first thought had been, „Weird, he never calls me on my birthday“. And yeah, he actually doesn’t.

I briefly talked with the boy, did the breakfast dishes and went running/walking in the (intermittent) rain:

Husband had decided to go on a longer run that day and then became extremely stressed because he was late and exhausted. Lunch was nothing special, we were having way too many eggs because we tend to get the same number every week from a farmer who delivers them to our door but we didn’t really eat any eggs. So there was omelet with some extra rice.

Looks like I didn’t take a picture. Which is understandable because on top of everything else the thing had also been frying a little too long because my husband left the kitchen while I was at the table grating cheese. He didn’t understand that I didn’t smell that something was burning but I was rather absorbed in trying to grate cheese, chop tomatoes and basil at the same time and also I think maybe it takes a while for the smell to travel from the stove to where I sit in a corner.

As dessert I ate some more cake and then played Genshin for a bit before using some time before my first student for prepping the taxes some more. Turns out tallying all the receipts takes less than an hour. I had another break between students because someone canceled (or maybe rescheduled, we’ll see, they still need to get back to me) and I used that time as well.

I stopped teaching relatively early and then sat down to do the taxes proper. Like, putting all the numbers in all the forms. And then I sent them off.

And I have to say that this was the least painful tax filing ever. Doing it bit by bit over more than a week turned out to work great.

I then decided that I did not want a sandwich for dinner, preheated the oven and went upstairs to say hello to my mother-in-law. Both she and my mother had initially forgotten it was my birthday. But at some point the birthday wishes came in and that was very nice. One of my aunts even wrote an actual card and sent it in the mail. I should make sure to send her one for her birthday the next time as well.

So there was a birthday pizza:

And then my husband was finished with teaching and we opened a bottle of champagne. The boy also came downstairs but left again right away, he is in a study panic, fingers crossed for him today and tomorrow.

My husband offered to do the dishes. When we were setting the table for lunch we were all rather surprised that there were only two clean forks left in the drawer. That sent the boy upstairs to see what dirty dishes he still had and that was quite the stack. Husband washed them all.

He also gave me a pot of echinaceae in the morning. He had bought it ten days before and they were not quite looking as bright and orange as he had imagined. Still, I love getting flowers, and getting live ones is even better. He’ll put them somewhere near the porch so that I can see them without having to venture out in the garden.

So I started writing this post while he was in the kitchen, then played some more Genshin way too late and made a nice list for today.

A list that does not involve figuring out where to find paper forms for my mother-in-law’s taxes because I found those online already. Phew.

We ate the rest of the cake for breakfast, all three of us, the boy had to get up early for an exam about renewable energies.

Since the whole care home application (the second one) was bugging me I spent some time on that, found out that I don’t seem to have made a copy of the medical assessment and went over to my mother-in-law’s doctor to ask for another one. That will cost us another 25 €, naturally.

I texted back and forth with friends, my sister and my brother-in-law, did the dishes and then looked through my mother-in-law’s tax stuff and the paperwork for the care grade assessment. I also washed the new pillbox I got for her, it is one of those colorful things that has separate containers for every day divided into morning and evening, so we can put her pills in there. The hope is that it will help her remember better what she is supposed to take, and that we can see of she actually did it. It would also mean we could potentially take the rest of her meds away, so less chance of overdosing.

Then I walked to the pharmacy and to the health food store. When I came back husband was super stressed again (who am I kidding, we are all super stressed right now but it waxes and wanes) and lunch was almost ready.

The boy came back from uni at the same time and my husband decided he’d rather eat alone outside because he needed some quiet and he is the only one who enjoys eating outside.

So the boy and I ate together and talked non-stop. We brought my mother-in-law some of the food, stressing that this was nice and fresh cherry tomatoes and cucumber from our backyard:

After that I only had a few minutes for chocolate, reading and playing Genshin before a pretty long day of teaching.

After I finished teaching I met my writer friend to be coached. I thought meeting up this time would be useless because I hadn’t even looked at what we had talked about before but it turned out to be very nice and sort of cathartic. I keep thinking I’m doing rather badly when in fact it is pretty much alright.

After that I finally ate some dinner including more chocolate, I got a huge box of chocolate from a student. then I went outside to say hello to my mother-in-law who had taken a walk with my husband and was sitting in the garden while he was watering the plants.

I talked briefly with my husband who was toast at this point and figured out that he spends about two hours each day with his mother right now. We both agreed that we are lucky it isn’t more but that is a sizable portion of the day. My guess is that the boy will be the one going on walks with her again either today or tomorrow, though.

I did the dishes while watching a video, then watched some more while winding a plying ball for the sock yarn sample, talked at length with the boy, started this post, ate some more chocolate and made a list for today and procrastinated my way too bed.

Today will be another slightly too long teaching day and I should really fit in my mother-in-law’s taxes as well. And laundry. And exercise.

Oh, and I saw some revised guidelines for after cataract surgery and it seems to be less restrictive than I thought which would be good.

I did most of my morning routine but didn’t write at all. Thinking forward to this week I have to say that chances for creative writing will be very slim.

Husband and I had breakfast, and talked about what things to do next about his mother and what else is on the horizon.

Then it was time to call my own mother who is making very, very slow progress. She is dealing with her own stuff and is much more savvy than my mother-in-law, which also meant talking to her about the whole mother-in-law admin was extremely helpful. She could tell me how to go about the whole care grade thing, yeah! And she suggested a weekly pill box so that everyone can see at a glance which pills she is supposed to take when. And if she has already taken them because she is very forgetful.

Husband and I decided to go out to lunch for Greek food. The boy didn’t want to spent that much time but ended up spending way more because his grandma did not want to eat the ready meal he had planned to make but wanted oat soup (she still feels she is sick) and that meant him staying for an hour, helping her cook and doing her dishes. Also rescuing a few of our dishes from her cupboards. We bring her food, she rinses the plates and then she puts them away because she doesn’t remember they’re ours.

Meanwhile my husband and I ate excellent food:

This is just so good! And the main course was a revelation, I don’t think I’ve ever had better gyros and souvlaki:

We walked back home, wrote a list about everything that happened with his mother the last few weeks, and looked up the last time she had a crisis before. My bullet journal and electronic (and searchable) calendar came in very handy. Because I had notes.

Then I spent some time playing Genshin again, a little too much time to be honest, did the dishes and then finally started the taxes. I had already done quite a bit of prep before but I needed to print out invoices (I really should do that right away every time, duh), sort them (ditto) and start putting the numbers into the forms.

I interrupted the taxes by eating dinner, then went on for some more time. I had hoped to finish the same day but around 10 it because clear that wouldn’t happen.

I made a plan for the week and for today, started writing this post, freed the cake from its packaging (my husband had brought it upstairs from the freezer), spun for a few minutes and went to bed.

I did get eight hours of sleep, hurray! We did write a letter and finish all the paperwork for the care home and I biked there and dropped it off. I also managed to take a wrong turn despite having been there just a few days ago. I am very grateful for having a map on my phone.

It was pretty hot but I still went out for a short run/walk, less than 30 minutes:

Yes, I do look a bit tired and exhausted and I still don’t like the heat.

Husband was just starting to cook as I came back, so I took a shower. Then I went to my mother-in-law and while I was sitting with her my husband’s brother showed up. He wanted to say hello, drop off more paperwork, and told us what he had done about a care home on his end.

Husband and I ate lunch outside, and my brother-in-law joined us at one point so we could talk some more.

And then I felt like I could finally rest. So that’s what I did. All afternoon and when my husband came into the kitchen at 5.30 I hadn’t even put the leftover meat in the fridge. Oops. Husband was not amused, tackled all the dishes and told me to go do something else. so I folded some laundry.

And then I played some more Genshin, ate crackers for dinner, played some more, went upstairs to my mother-in-law who was sitting on a chair looking outside her balcony door in the dark, made her take her meds and gave her some food and water.

The boy showed up and we decided to finally buy a train ticket for him to see my mother, I started writing this post, was interrupted by everybody several times and I got to bed too late again.

The plan for today involves both going out for lunch and doing taxes so I’d say it’s a mixed bag.

So I managed to go to bed at a reasonable time and sleep for eight hours. We’re not talking about the fact that I woke up often.

In the morning I tried speeding myself up a little and I did but not enough. So I only wrote two morning pages, then skipped yoga and meditation and breakfast. I did take a shower, though, for the doctor’s appointment. And I talked briefly with my husband.

There is a lot of making plans and assigning tasks to each other these days.

I walked to my doctor’s office, had a nice chat with him, got an ECG and had blood drawn and he wrote me a letter for the eye surgeon. He said that I probably don’t need all that hullaballoo for cataract surgery but that some doctors insist on it. He also took blood for my thyroid levels, so I can check that off my list.

Oh, and he measured my blood oxygen – which was great – and because of that I mentioned that my smartwatch keeps telling me that my blood oxygen is a little low when I sleep. So I’ll get that checked out at a later point but it’s not urgent.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if one of the reasons I am all tired all the time would be sleep apnea?

I walked back home, made myself breakfast, talked briefly with my husband who was in a tizzy because of all the things that need to be done and the sheer vastness of stuff that landed on our plates because of our mothers’ recent issues.

Eating breakfast while reading was very helpful.

I then walked to my mother-in-law’s doctor’s office to pick up the forms he filled in for us. Turns out that cost 25 €. I had not taken my wallet but that’s what paying with my smartwatch is for.

Then I set out for the grocery store on my bike. I was earlier than usual and that meant things were way less crowded. Who would have thought. I also usually go on Thursdays not Friday. I only realized that I had forgotten to put more cash in my wallet when I was about to pay but, hey, debit card.

I had almost forgotten the bike panniers again but did remember just in time.

I unpacked the groceries in a kitchen where my husband was dealing with a boatload of basil. He had an actual tub of it sitting right in the middle of the floor. At one point we were both busy with the picking and chopping. And I am very proud of myself for smelling that the pine nuts were toasted enough, and I pulled them off the heat about a minute before my husband came dashing back from the annex. I also grated a lot of parmesan. We made enough to fill some extra jars with pesto, always nice.

We ate outside again:

Afterwards I only had a little bit of time left and I spent most of it hanging up a load of laundry, and only a few minutes reading.

I taught my first student, had a break where I played Genshin, then two more students, and two cancellations. Which meant I had time to write all the messages and do the dishes while participating in a Zoom call. I even went on the call (after the dishes) and vented about the current chaos in public.

I really like that coach and she was helpful, as always, but there was one thing she said that stuck with me because I couldn’t relate, she said that it was normal to feel like having so much come at me at once was not fair.

And I’m like, fair? This isn’t about fairness. This is just what happens. This is life. And it is a normal part of life. You have aging parents or small kids or something like that there will be crises hitting you. And while it is all pretty overwhelming it is still not war or famine or anything. It is just a bit much and at one point it will become less. Or maybe more, who knows. Fairness in these situations is such a weird concept to me, as if there is a person who I could complain to.

Even if there were a god who did that to me on purpose, I’m still pretty sure what we’re dealing with is harder for our mothers by far. Finding yourself old and feeble and unable to care for yourself, relying on others. And then you don’t know if you’ll ever get back to be able to lead your life without help. And I guess at one point you’re also not quite sure if you’re up to trying to get up and moving again. And they don’t know if working for that will do them any good.

So, I’m not thinking about fairness at all. I’m thinking about my mother-in-law who was displaced from her home not once but twice, who had to take care first of her husband’s parents, then of her own husband, and then for her own aging parents, all while working a job and doing all the cooking, cleaning and gardening around the house.

Talking about fair.

Anyway, I then met the boy for bodyweight training, we ended up talking about the current situation with each other and my husband for too long so that I did not have time to eat dinner before meeting with my writer friend.

By that point I was so low on energy that I could only spend twenty minutes on writing but I did start this post, so that was good.

Then I finally are something, spun a bit, played Genshin and read a bit, and went to bed.

I had gone to bed too late again but not quite as late as the nights before. I overslept and did my morning routine very slowly.

Over breakfast we talked about what the day would bring and I decided to reschedule the grocery shopping for today. The big thing on the calendar was meeting with my mother-in-law’s doctor at 12.30.

We talked, we did the dishes and got ready, I looked through the care home paperwork and found a form that her doctor should fill out and around noon, when we were still drying dishes we heard a heavy thump from upstairs.

We both dashed up the stairs thinking that did not sound good.

My mother-in-law had fallen flat on her back for no apparent reason. Oh, and when my husband had went upstairs while I was doing yoga before breakfast she had told him that she had taken two of the emergency pills. Which she shouldn’t have done because those are only for when her blood pressure is sky-high and she feels bad. And we have never given her two of those before.

So, what happened seems to be that the pills made her blood pressure go down too much and that caused her to fall.

We got her up from the floor and onto her sofa and I went over to her doctor because we had an appointment twenty minutes later anyway.

I got to talk to him but he did not want to come to our house because he said, if she had been injured from the fall she’d need an x-ray, not him.

He also told me that she shouldn’t take those emergency meds anymore, that there is a new study out saying that people over 80 do much better without blood pressure medication because without it there are not more deaths but there are way fewer falls. Duh.

I got us some Chines takeout for lunch:

The boy had left the house early to write an exam. He seems to be pretty happy with how he did. Fingers crossed.

We gave my mother-in-law the soup she had wanted from the Chines place for lunch. She keeps saying that she doesn’t want to eat anything. She was in very low spirits all day.

The boy went and checked on her several times throughout the day. He was with her when her doctor called and told her to reduce her medication. We’re hoping that will make her feel better. It will be hard, though, because she thinks all her problems are due to her blood pressure being too high. Turns out those numbers are perfectly fine for someone her age. And we can see that she becomes livelier and more coherent when it is a little higher.

I taught two students. During a break I went to the office of her doctor again to ask him to fill out the form for the care home, then I taught two more students.

I made myself dinner and ate it before remembering that I still had half my lunch. I had planned to eat that instead. Well, it will keep in the fridge until tonight.

I then met with my writer friend for a writing sprint. After forty minutes I ran out of juice, but hey, forty minutes! And I started this post right after.

Today will be super busy as well, I have to go to my doctor to get my bloodwork done for eye-surgery, so I’ll only eat breakfast later today. And then it will be non-stop go, go, go until tonight. Phew.

I also managed to do my regular morning routine (Writing? In this economy?), then talked to my husband briefly. We decided to not divide the errands but do them together because neither of us was happy about doing them so we opted for moral support from each other.

Turns out, that weird piece of paper from my mother-in-law that was supposed to give me a mandate to do her banking stuff might actually have worked. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find it again. Prolonged contact with her means that the kitchen bench, always a point where my paperwork, books and other stuff accumulates, looks like an extension of her kitchen table, strewn with pieces of paper with handwritten notes clipped to it. I never know what to do with the paperclips, I should probably give them back because I detest them. They make weird indentations in the paper and then you have them everywhere and have to corral them.

We did go to the bank anyway, got the information that we should just bring a letter giving us the mandate, then their legal department would check it, call her on the phone (we told them that she is unable to get to the bank herself) and things would be done and ready.

Then we biked to the care home that she would like to go to. She probably won’t be able to afford it, and her dream of moving in next week or so is, um, not realistic.

We asked and got told it might take up to two years to get a place. On the bright side the receptionist is someone I’ve known for years because our kids went to pre-kindergarten and kindergarten together (she said I recommended that specific kindergarten to her, and I still like it and am hearing good things from a student of mine who works there), her kids had piano lessons with me and she took a few guitar lessons, so she said if we can get the paperwork to her until Saturday she’ll try to put in a good word for us. She also remembers my mother-in-law who used to pick up our son from kindergarten, and she remembers her social work and that she knows people at the home, is a nice person, and has ties to the home. All points in her favor.

Then she took a picture with me to send to her daughter who still plays piano for fun, always a joy to hear because that is exactly what I want my teaching to achieve. Not professional musicians who win competitions but just regular people enjoying music who have the skill and knowledge to continue playing on their own. That made me happy.

We went back via a doctor’s office to renew a prescription for my husband and the pharmacy. I had plans to buy chocolate bars and trail mix but didn’t in the end because I wanted to get back home.

At one point I added things to the list for my MIL’s doctor today. That is a long list.

Husband had planned to make homemade pesto but because we didn’t have all that much time we ended up with pasta and eggplant. Yummy! Which was unexpected because I used to dislike eggplant because it is so mushy and I didn’t like the taste but these days my husband uses the ones fresh from the vine and roasts them and that makes all the difference. I was also pretty hungry:

While he was cooking I went on a short 30-minute run/walk. My knee is feeling much better, I am suspecting that skipping squats the day before might have helped. I self-diagnosed runner’s knee. We’ll see. I should do exercises but I am pretty short on time.

I used the sneakers that used to be my good ones. I am waiting for a new pair. And yes, I looked stressed and tense in this picture, that is just my regular state right now. There will be different times again for sure. And maybe I will grow and be able to just sit in the middle of chaos all serene at one point.

That is a skill I really would like to have. I’ve been working towards it for a long time now. I am definitely not chill or serene or calm or relaxed by nature. But who knows, maybe I can free my inner Buddha at some point that would be awesome.

There was a shower and then lunch:

I did the dishes right away, had ten minutes for Genshin (I am busy leveling my new character up, I drew Columbina the day before which makes me super happy, I coveted her ever since she came out but had to be sensible. I hate that.

I did play her for the first time last night and it was just a dream. Much better than the free character I used in that team slot before.

I taught all the students but I was very fuzzy and distracted. At one point the boy texted me about my mother-in-law’s blood pressure and meds right in a student’s lesson and I had to interrupt the lesson to answer. I don’t like that but, well, family health has priority.

I popped upstairs at one point, I paid a bill that was overdue, I found the paperwork for my cataract surgery and looked at it again so I know what to talk about with my doctor tomorrow, I ordered more contact lenses for in between surgeries and decided to go with a mono-focal lens. I hope I won’t regret that. I might have to get myself a magnifying glass or something for reading, we’ll see. My phone has a Zoom mode that I find rather annoying in normal life but that might be helpful eventually.

I taught more students. My new toner cartridge has just been dispatched from the UK so I am very happy that I didn’t need to make any copies.

After my last student I went upstairs again, talked with my mother-in-law and then I had eight whole minutes to eat dinner before meeting for a writing sprint. I still ate at the beginning of my writing session but I was only reading, so that was okay.

I spent 45 minutes and ended up researching Turkish coffee and how to make it for a while. The whole thing is fascinating but unfortunately I don#t do coffee at all, my stomach does vehemently protest against it.

After researching I, of course, decided that my characters don’t really care and just throw some water and coffee grounds in to a regular pot, they care more about quantity than about texture and foam, and they only do it when the moka pot is in use and they need additional coffee quickly.

After that I played some more, I went upstairs to watch my mother-in-law take her blood pressure and went back downstairs to play some more.

And then we got the dreaded beep-beep-beep of the smoke alarm upstairs. Don’t turn on the heat under your jam and walk away. Especially not when you’re easily distracted, forgetful and take ages to do anything. (Might be a family trait, my husband does that as well, turns the heat on under something, gets impatient with the lack of progress, leaves the room real quick and is susprised when the food turns out too dark or burnt.

I then started writing this post until an hour past my (hypothetical bedtime), wrote a list for today (extremely necessary because this day needs to be planned meticulously and leaves a very low margin for error for execution, and then I decided to skip the spinning for once.

Today will be the supermarket run, visiting my mother-in-law’s doctor with a boatload of questions, looking at the paperwork for the nursing home before, then quite a bit of teaching including meeting a maybe new student and then quickly switch to fiction writing. And ordering takeout in between.

Tired. Very tired at this point.

also I procrastinated the dishes and the spinning. Maybe I should give up on the Tour de Fleece but I don’t want to. Here is my spindle right now, this is the third part of the fiber for the sock yarn sample:

I wrote morning pages, spent my writing time researching first-hand experience report of cataract surgery from a writer and a cartoonist. People whose lives are a bit more like mine.

I started doing yoga and eight minutes in my phone went off, my mother-in-law was calling.

She was feeling terrible, her blood pressure was super high and she wanted help. So I spent an hour with her, got her to take her emergency meds, got her to take her blood pressure a couple of times, made her drink something and eat breakfast and when she seemed a little better I finally ate breakfast.

No knitting, no meditation, no taking my own blood pressure. I did the dishes, went upstairs again and went out for errands and groceries.

First I went to my optician to talk about me test lens for in between cataract sugeries. Turns out my optician is on vacation until after my surgery. So I guess I’ll make do with that one test lens. Which is fine but it is mono-focal and I would lime to have something to read with. Should I order some other lenses online? Should I make do with this one because the new lens in the other eye will give me built-in reading glasses?

Not quite sure.

I walked to the supermarket for yogurt, cheese and bananas and to the health food store for just about everything and came back home. Went upstairs right again, then folded three loads of laundry while my husband made lunch. I was very hungry and the food was very good:

Yes, there are zucchini in there, right now there are zucchini in everything, you know how it is when they are ripe. I finished folding the laundry and tried rearranging the dirty dishes a bit so it would be easier to wash them later and then I had about ten minutes to play Genshin and have some chocolate and tea.

I taught two students.

I had a 30-minute break that I used to call two potential new students and arrange test lessons. I went upstairs again and asked my mother-in-law to take her blood pressure. The boy had talked to her before but she is now convinced that I am the only person who knows how to take her meds and when. She might also find me somewhat calming which is funny because I am not calm at all.

I try to make little jokes and be lighthearted and positive throughout, the boy and my husband are a little grumpier, maybe.

I taught another student. The student who often doesn’t show asked if we could reschedule her lesson. Because she had paracticed a lot that afternoon, and didn’t really want to go to my house to play guitar again.

My first impulse was to say that that was totally her problem, not mine, but since I was toast I agreed anyway. But I did make it clear that her time management is not my circus. I have enough stuff to juggle on my own.

Meanwhile I was texting with both my sister and mother. They are settling in but there might be a little friction. Sister is not used to be interrupted any other minutes, and my mother keeps seeing stuff that needs to be taken care of. And she can’t just get up and do it herself.

Oh, and another thing, when I came home from my errands I figured out why there are always so many pebbles in my showed when I go running. I wore the muddy and beat down sneakers for errands and such because I was too lazy to put the orthotics in the nice sneakers:

They are just over a year old. I threw the in the trash and ordered new ones. In the meantime my nice ones will be downgraded to the „running through mud“-pair.

So I had another break but I spent that answering email. I night have talked with the boy a little and watched my mother-in-law take her blood pressure but I can’t swear to it.

In the next to last lesson I wanted to print a new piece out that the student had brought. But the printer wouldn’t budge because it had run out of toner. So I spent ten minutes in a futile attempt to change the toner. Until I sent the student home without new sheet music.

Then I taught another student. I was not in the best shape for that. I’ve known him for very long and he is a patient man who works with small children.

I tried again with the printer because I wanted to print something for him as well, he helped but we couldn’t get the thing to click together. Careful comparison of the old toner thing and the new one showed that the new one has a part that is crooked. No way to bend it without breaking it.

So I ordered more toner.

The boy was looking for me again because my mother-in-law wanted me to hold her hand throught the next blood pressure measurent, we chose the right meds for her to take and I went to finally eat dinner.

My husband and the boy persuaded her to eat dinner. And later I went upstairs for her taking her blood-pressure again. And take her emergency meds. And try to cheer her up a little.

The other two also convinced her to watch some TV, she had been sitting on her couch unmoving doing nothing for most of the day.

While the boy and I were upstairs my husband had done all the dishes. Phew. Oh, and in the morning he had a friend come over to drive many, many things to the recycling place.

I played Genshin for a bit again, talked with both my husband and the boy, and pulled a character that I have been wanting for months with surprisingly little pulls. Yeah.

More talking, then I started this post, wrote a list for today while sipping some tea and went to bed too laet again.

Did I tell you that my husband and I went to my mother-in-law’s doctor in the morning to make an appointment to confer about her condition and our next steps? Anyway, we did that too.

I also started the process of maybe getting refund for the defective toner, fingers crossed.

At 11.30 pm I was still texting back and forth with the boy about matters blood pressure.

Not my own, though I’m pretty sure that one has been lower than it is right now.

Oh, and the boy and I skipped bodyweight training with all the hullabaloo. Plus he has an exam tomorrow and needs to study like crazy.

also I procrastinated the dishes and the spinning. Maybe I should give up on the Tour de Fleece but I don’t want to. Here is my spindle right now, this is the third part of the fiber for the sock yarn sample:

I wrote morning pages, spent my writing time researching first-hand experience report of cataract surgery from a writer and a cartoonist. People whose lives are a bit more like mine.

I started doing yoga and eight minutes in my phone went off, my mother-in-law was calling.

She was feeling terrible, her blood pressure was super high and she wanted help. So I spent an hour with her, got her to take her emergency meds, got her to take her blood pressure a couple of times, made her drink something and eat breakfast and when she seemed a little better I finally ate breakfast.

No knitting, no meditation, no taking my own blood pressure. I did the dishes, went upstairs again and went out for errands and groceries.

First I went to my optician to talk about me test lens for in between cataract sugeries. Turns out my optician is on vacation until after my surgery. So I guess I’ll make do with that one test lens. Which is fine but it is mono-focal and I would lime to have something to read with. Should I order some other lenses online? Should I make do with this one because the new lens in the other eye will give me built-in reading glasses?

Not quite sure.

I walked to the supermarket for yogurt, cheese and bananas and to the health food store for just about everything and came back home. Went upstairs right again, then folded three loads of laundry while my husband made lunch. I was very hungry and the food was very good:

Yes, there are zucchini in there, right now there are zucchini in everything, you know how it is when they are ripe. I finished folding the laundry and tried rearranging the dirty dishes a bit so it would be easier to wash them later and then I had about ten minutes to play Genshin and have some chocolate and tea.

I taught two students.

I had a 30-minute break that I used to call two potential new students and arrange test lessons. I went upstairs again and asked my mother-in-law to take her blood pressure. The boy had talked to her before but she is now convinced that I am the only person who knows how to take her meds and when. She might also find me somewhat calming which is funny because I am not calm at all.

I try to make little jokes and be lighthearted and positive throughout, the boy and my husband are a little grumpier, maybe.

I taught another student. The student who often doesn’t show asked if we could reschedule her lesson. Because she had paracticed a lot that afternoon, and didn’t really want to go to my house to play guitar again.

My first impulse was to say that that was totally her problem, not mine, but since I was toast I agreed anyway. But I did make it clear that her time management is not my circus. I have enough stuff to juggle on my own.

Meanwhile I was texting with both my sister and mother. They are settling in but there might be a little friction. Sister is not used to be interrupted any other minutes, and my mother keeps seeing stuff that needs to be taken care of. And she can’t just get up and do it herself.

Oh, and another thing, when I came home from my errands I figured out why there are always so many pebbles in my showed when I go running. I wore the muddy and beat down sneakers for errands and such because I was too lazy to put the orthotics in the nice sneakers:

They are just over a year old. I threw the in the trash and ordered new ones. In the meantime my nice ones will be downgraded to the „running through mud“-pair.

So I had another break but I spent that answering email. I night have talked with the boy a little and watched my mother-in-law take her blood pressure but I can’t swear to it.

In the next to last lesson I wanted to print a new piece out that the student had brought. But the printer wouldn’t budge because it had run out of toner. So I spent ten minutes in a futile attempt to change the toner. Until I sent the student home without new sheet music.

Then I taught another student. I was not in the best shape for that. I’ve known him for very long and he is a patient man who works with small children.

I tried again with the printer because I wanted to print something for him as well, he helped but we couldn’t get the thing to click together. Careful comparison of the old toner thing and the new one showed that the new one has a part that is crooked. No way to bend it without breaking it.

So I ordered more toner.

The boy was looking for me again because my mother-in-law wanted me to hold her hand throught the next blood pressure measurent, we chose the right meds for her to take and I went to finally eat dinner.

My husband and the boy persuaded her to eat dinner. And later I went upstairs for her taking her blood-pressure again. And take her emergency meds. And try to cheer her up a little.

The other two also convinced her to watch some TV, she had been sitting on her couch unmoving doing nothing for most of the day.

While the boy and I were upstairs my husband had done all the dishes. Phew. Oh, and in the morning he had a friend come over to drive many, many things to the recycling place.

I played Genshin for a bit again, talked with both my husband and the boy, and pulled a character that I have been wanting for months with surprisingly little pulls. Yeah.

More talking, then I started this post, wrote a list for today while sipping some tea and went to bed too laet again.

Did I tell you that my husband and I went to my mother-in-law’s doctor in the morning to make an appointment to confer about her condition and our next steps? Anyway, we did that too.

I also started the process of maybe getting refund for the defective toner, fingers crossed.

At 11.30 pm I was still texting back and forth with the boy about matters blood pressure.

Not my own, though I’m pretty sure that one has been lower than it is right now.

Oh, and the boy and I skipped bodyweight training with all the hullabaloo. Plus he has an exam tomorrow and needs to study like crazy.

I did my morning pages, yoga and meditation but no writing. Took ages to get ready in the morning and then left for my run/walk half an hour later than I wanted. There was still enough time, though.

I did find the crossing in the woods where I got lost the week before:

This is how it looks on my way out, and this is how it looks on the way back:

From this side it seems much less clear that the straight path is the smaller one forward. If I just keep to the right side I think I need to turn evry time, and I think that there’s no way I came along that small path that’s more like cart tracks.

Well.

This time I ran on, thinking that I had gone rather far for half of the 57-minute workout I had planned. My smartwatch kept showing me that I was on interval 4 of 8. For more than five minutes, so there had to be something wrong. I finally looked on my phone that said „interval 6 of 8“. Oops. I was not happy:

I turned around immediately, gave up any pretense of running, walked back the whole way and ended up adding 20 minutes of unplanned exercise to my day.

I then went right back out and mailed two letters for my mother-in-law, and then it was too late to take a shower before lunch.

We ate outside again:

My husband showered first, I played a little and then had a whole 15 minutes to get showered and ready for teaching.

I taught non-stop from 2.30 until 7, then ate a quick dinner, met the boy for our weekly round of video game bosses, we talked, I played some more, started writing this post at the time I should have turned the lights out and then did the dishes.

My mother has safely returned home again and my sister is with her, so that is good. They both need to get settled, of course.

Today will be packed yet again, I think I’ll be running a ton of errands for both me and my mother-in-law, then teach quite a bit before doing bodyweight training. My head is a running list of doctor’s appointments, paperwork and phone calls.

Good thing I have a list. Or two.

As I was brushing my teeth after breakfast my cellphone rang. My mother-in-law.

She wanted to go to the hospital because she wasn’t feeling well. Since she had just been to the hospital not too long ago, had been thoroughly checked out and they didn’t find anything I was skeptical.

She said she was dizzy, her blood pressure was way too high, she wanted to call emergency services.

Husband and I talked to her, asked her if her doctor had given her anything in case her blood pressure sky-rocketed. Yes, he had. So we got her to take one of those pills.

Well, that turned out to be a mistake. She took the pill, we waited a while, I asked her to take her blood pressure again, so she shuffled over to her dining table, sat down, took her blood pressure which was 53/38 and then she just sat there, eyes closed, not reacting. Which is not surprising with a blood pressure like that.

So I called emergency services after all.

Husband helped me carry her over to the couch because I was afraid she would slump all the way off the chair but she hadn’t fainted. She was just very weak.

Emergency services came after a few minutes and were very nice. Apparently her blood pressure had not been too high before at all, and so taking that pill hadn’t done her any good. She kept repeating that she wanted to go to the hospital but it was pretty clear that she’d be alright again after the effects of the pill would wear off and while the doctor was talking to her her blood pressure climbed back up to normal levels.

Mother-in-law spent the rest of the day flopping around on the couch with us checking on her every hour or so. We took her some of our lasagna for lunch and in the afternoon my husband made her a cup of coffee which the doctor had recommended to bring her blood pressure back up.

By afternoon she was busy complaining that she wanted to move to a nursery home, that she didn’t have long to live and started sorting through her finances and giving me tasks to do this week.

Good thing we had cooked for two days the day before:

Doesn’t look all the photogenic but still tasted fabulous.

I spent the rest of the day alternating between playing Genshin Impact quests, talking with family members about care homes, finances and dementia diagnoses, I also phoned my mother at one point before lunch. She is lowly mending and will be released home today. My sister traveled up there to help and I am infinitely grateful for that.

The boy and I did bodyweight training in the evening and I can now do one more (very) assisted pull-up than before, yeah. He and I also finally installed the fly-screen on his window, he has been getting bitten by mosquitoes a lot lately.

And then my husband and I watched the World Cup final. It was a rather boring game. I knitted a bit, and I spun a little on my spindle, and I dozed off at times. The boy had done the dishes and came in to check on the game from time to time asking, „Has there been a goal yet?“ No.

Of course, when the goal fell all three of us had briefly left the room, which is rather funny. We watched all the way to the end and were happy that Spain won. And as much as I watched the game for BTS I am still thinking that there shouldn’t have been a half-time show. It was weird, and seemed artificial and it gives me the creeps that the sound you hear doesn’t match the surroundings you see. I get why they don’t do these songs live, of course, but still.

Anyway, went to bed after midnight again, and now for a new week.

I did almost get enough sleep the night before, did my morning routine sans writing and then went out for my run/walk:

I tested my new contact lens and it is working well.

Husband was in uber-stress because lasagna and so I helped a little:

He feels that the result isn’t worth the hassle and that making both kinds of tomato sauce the night before didn’t make a difference but I beg to differ.

The plan was to play Genshin Impact all afternoon and that’s what I did, we eatched an episode of Clumbo while eating spring rolls and then I played some more until midnight.

No writing, no spinning.

Shrug.

Well.

Husband and I had a short conversation over breakfast because he was raring to go do things. I knitted a bit, did the dishes, changed my mind about what to do with the rest of the morning twice and then got my bike out to ride to the next town over. I wanted to renew the prescription for both my orthotics and my painkillers.

The bike ride was okay if a little windy and sunny, and at the doctor’s office they told me I was to early to get new orthotics. My insurance only pays for them every six months, and I got the last pair in March. Oops.

My calendar reminder was set to the old date but I decided not to renew in December of all months, especially not when having covid. And in February or so I had bronchitis.

Anyway, at least I will have more of the strong pain meds. That I am taking right now because my fingers are acting up again.

I came back home covered in sweat and decided to take a shower before lunch. Husband made rice and dal:

I knew I had a light teaching day ahead of me and that I really wanted to get some housework done as well. So I made myself do the dishes right after lunch, before sitting down to eat some chocolate.

The I taught my first student. The second one rescheduled, the third one is switching between my husband and me when my husband has an open slot, so I had an hour of free time between students. And I used that to vacuum most of the house and clean the washbasins and toilets. Oh, and I changed the sheets on my bed and the towels. Ha!

I taught the next student, got an email canceling my last student of the day and played the piano for a bit. There were only two other major things I wanted to do that day, figure out how much money I made from my first book in 2025 (for taxes) and open the manuscript. Getting the numbers for the book had been not as easy as I thought (there is a tax overview Amazon gives you but it was confusing) but I consulted my budgeting app and that worked fine.

In case you’re interested, I made solid coffee money with my writing in 2025. Mind you, that is just gross income, not profit.

I ate an early dinner, then tried to make myself write with no success and then met the boy for bodyweight training. I have reached the stage again where it feels like I’m getting worse instead of better but I’m pretty sure that’s not true. Also, adding 45 minutes of bike riding to the day does make a difference.

I started writing this post while my husband was cooking ragu bolognese for today’s lasagne, managed to get myself writing at least a little, made a list for today, spun a bit and played my video game before going to bed.

Speaking of spinning, I forgot to add the picture I took of the spindle project to yesterday’s post, so you’re getting it now:

I am sampling for sock yarn. And yes, I want to spin the whole yarn on a spindle. It might take a while but I don’t care. Right now this project gets way more attention than the one on the wheel because I don’t have to get up from the kitchen bench for it.

For today I am unsure if I should do a huge push for the taxes, should just veg out and decompress, or spend all day writing. Experience tells us that this kind of choice leads to me sitting around staring blankly into space and/or doomscrolling, so maybe I should rethink this plan.

Even if I only wrote for 7 minutes. But I did most everything else I had set out to do, including grocery shopping and helping my mother-in-law a little, and even cleaning a bit.

We ate outside even though it was too hot for it. My husband had made the mistake of turning the heat on high under the frying pan and then leaving the room to answer a text. The first batch of eggplant was burnt so badly that we didn’t eat it but the rest was fine:

I picked up a test contact lens and then never even took it out of my purse.

I went to bed too late.

I went to bed only half an hour late, and did the usual morning things. I really didn’t want to do yoga, had to drag me through every minutes and then, of course, I felt better for it.

I even opened the manuscript for five minutes after breakfast.

I went on my run/walk a little later than I wanted but because it had been raining most of the morning it was nice and cool. Also super humid which made breathing pretty hard:

I did feel the kind of exhausted that makes you feel like lying down on the floor weeping for most of the day. So I did skip a few running intervals. And debated cutting my workout short but in the end I was happy I had did it anyway.

I helped chop a few herbs and grate the wrong cheese before taking a shower, and we had lunch on the porch:

Yes, it’s all zucchini all the time here right now, that’s what you get when you plant your own.

I took a bit of a break after lunch, the boy showed up to eat, and then tested if he could do a specific challenging domain with my characters. The answer was yes, by the way. Next up I need to up my game so I can do it myself as well.

It was time to teach after that. I had a few cancelations, reschedules, and all that stuff. In the end I had two breaks between students and I’m proud to say that I used both of them very productively to start the first task on my „how to do the taxes“-checklist. Though, that’s not quite true because the first point on that list is: „remember that the tyxes take approximately 5 hours“.

I used to cram them in at the last minute and so that information can be crucial. I do need to remember to also list my meager earnings from my books for the first time this year as well.

The day before when talking to my writer friend I suddenly realized that part of the reason why I’m so cranky and paralyzed right now is that I’m dreading doing the taxes. So I better tackle them soon.

I also finally opened the manuscript for a little longer in the evening, sepite the fact that my writer friend had to cancel our writing sprint because she had a plumbing emergency in her apartment. Fingers crossed that her plumbing gets fixed ASAP.

I spun for a bit, made a list for today, played some Genshin and went to bed. Oh, and the optician called but didn’t leave a message which always bugs me. When I called back they told me they couldn’t leave messages on everybody’s answering machines because that would take too much time?

More time than talking to the people the reach on the phone? More time than trying to reach someone several times? I really don’t get it. But hey, my new test contacts are apparently ready.

I also was slow all day. I did not open then manuscript but I did my usual yoga and such. It only took ages. Talked with my husband briefly, knitted a few rounds on the new pair of socks and finally figured out that I had not botched the sock again, it was looking exactly as it is supposed to.

My legs and feet hurt, and actually, everything hurt. Might have been the alcohol I drank two days in a row. Not that I got drunk, I had an ouzo and a beer on Sunday and another beer on Monday, but it does make a difference. My finger arthritis is also acting back up so I just took some pain meds. That’s what they’re for.

It started raining heavily in the morning and at one point I decided to move my errands and such to another day. But then it cleared up a little and I was dreading clogging the next few days with errands and I also saw that we’d run out of quite a few things very soon so I did get groceries as planned.

Came back home on time for lunch, and got some stuff for my mother-in-law as well. She is still not feeling super well and so we’re helping a little.

Because of the rain we ate lunch inside:

I then read a little, ate some chocolate and spent a nice 20 minutes finding kinds of woods I don’t have yet in Genshin Impact.

Then it was time for the first student of the day. The second one canceled. That pattern went all the way through the day until I ended up teaching only four students instead of the expected seven. I had a hard time using my breaks properly but I did eat dinner before meeting with my friend for coaching.

Then I started writing this post, did bodyweight training with the boy, we did our weekly boss fights and some other game stuff, I did the dishes, spun for ten minutes and went to bed.

Today is running/walking again, we’ll see if I can do the next training session in my app or if I have to scale back and do less. I’ll adjust as needed.

Yesterday went very well, even though I took a wrong turn on my morning run/walk that added an additional 30 minutes of walking to it. That was a lot.

Fortunately, I had left the house early because it was supposed to be so hot and still had enough time before teaching.

We finally had the spaghetti with shrimp and cherry tomatoes for lunch that my husband had been wanting to make for two weeks or so:

More than half my students canceled which gave me a bit of breathing room before I went to Munich to meet someone from the US who I met through a Ravelry forum.

.
We had a very enjoyable evening and ended up walking around for another hour so. Today I might take the bike for my grocery run.

I was back home at a reasonable time but then didn’t go to bed.

Today will be pretty full again, there will be some errands and the health food store, lots of teaching, I’m meeting with my writer friend/coach, do bodyweight training with the boy and then we’ll tackle our weekly video game bosses.

So I better run now!

And guess who didn*t really get anything done all day?

On the other hand it was a good day anyway.

There was the usual morning routine (Writing? What writing?) and breakfast and a rather slow morning and then my husband and I went out for lunch to the Greek restaurant we tried a few weeks ago. And they did not disappoint. We had really great appetizers (that I didn’t photograph) and this time I ordered oven-baked veggies with feta:

Very good, and I also had a glass of ouzo and a beer.

The boy did not join us, instead he made himself ramen after we had returned home because he wasn’t awake yet when we left.

I spent the afternoon playing Genshin and then tried to make myself do either some cleaning, or some writing, or some planning the week.

I gave up trying 15 minutes before bodyweight training and just ate dinner.

The boy and I exercised, I am actually getting a little better at pull-up like things and I have the sore muscles to prove it. In between the boy tried to make me remember all the things he had taught me about artifacts in Genshin. Well, I really have a hard time remembering. And thinking space in my mind is pretty hard to come by as well. I’ll try to not let the things I learned yesterday slide ride out my brain again this time but I promise nothing.

After that I went on a Zoom call that is monthly but I hadn’t seen it live in weeks. I took my new sock project to work on, botched the first two rounds and need to sort that out later today.

I started writing this post, planned the week, gave up on writing and went to bed.

Oh, and bonus picture of the socks I finished yesterday morning, before starting a new pair, as one does:

Today will be packed and hot, so super fun for sure.

I went to bed only half an hour late and slept for 8 1/2 hours. So no time for writing in the morning. I had firm plans to go running/walking early and I did but not quite early enough.

It was a little too hot, I was dizzy, not being able to see anything properly was bothering me and my legs felt super heavy. On top of that the running app that I use decided to not do what I wanted. After trudging along for 20 minutes or so I decided to cut my workout short and walked back home:

I came home, folded some laundry and chopped some parsley, also brought my mother-in-law some leftovers from the day before and then we ate rice salad from leftover chicken:

My husband wanted to shower first so I sat and read for a bit before playing Genshin Impact. And then I kept doing just one more thing until it was too late to clean or do the dishes before our weekly watching of ‚Columbo‘. I did take a shower, though.

Family TV-watching went well, then my husband decided to tackle the dishes and I sat down and started this post.

I decided to just spend a few minutes spinning, read some more and went to bed.

Oh, and I finished knitting the current sock right at the beginning of our TV episode and then had to sit there, idle for the rest. Ugh. And I’m all out of sock yarn but I had an idea and will try to make a pair of socks from leftover sock yarn. I want to try to combine two different sock patterns and I think this should work beautifully. At least I hope so.

The plan is also to go out for lunch today and I’m really looking forward to that.

I went to bed at 1.30 and that was definitely not enough sleep. I woke up from my alarm and saw messages that my mother-in-law had tried reaching me on the phone three times between 6 and 6.45 am. I was not awake at that time. I tried calling her back but it took two tries to actually reach her. She sounded calm and her usual self and said she’d be home either the same day or today.

I did most of my morning routine but did not open the manuscript and was pretty distracted overall.

When I was finished with yoga and meditation my husband was already finished with his breakfast and ready to go outside. He wanted to work in the garden, go for a run, and make fried chicken for lunch. So not a lot of time.

I finally ate breakfast, then somehow found myself taking a closer look at my misbehaving spinning wheel and testing all sorts of theories about what was going wrong.

Oh, and here’s a picture of the first bobbin that I plied the other day:

I ordered two new drive bands (I have a spinning wheel that has a lower and an upper drive band) and pulled the second spinning wheel out. I’ll just use that one instead until I can get the other one working again.

And then I sat down and spun for a bit. Which made me super late with dishes, the ones that I had not done the night before, and that were clogging the kitchen at that point. But the spinning went well:

The kitchen that my husband needed to put the chicken in the oven on time.

That was not a good move.

We dealt with the whole thing with just a little conflict (I am actually proud of how we handled that situation), husband helped to dry dishes and later I helped forming the dumplings. We buy the dimpling dough readymade but you have to make it into balls yourself.

We ate only half an hour late:

And then we talked a little, so I did not have time for my video game before my first student. I did read a bit, though.

Then there was teaching, one student after the other all afternoon. At one point a student’s mother showed up in my studio saying that my mother was outside, having come just from the hospital and had a problem with two taxi drivers who both wanted to be paid and she didn’t have enough money on her.

So, my mother-in-law was back. The hospital had called a taxi for her, she had also called one herself and had gotten into the one she could have sent home without consequences, or something. So I fetched some cash and paid the driver, carried her bag upstairs, texted the boy that she was back and started the next lesson a little late.

After teaching I played the piano for a few minutes and then got ready for bodyweight training with the boy.

He was a little late which was a bit of a problem because I had scheduled another writing sprint with my friend and had hoped there would be enough time between exercise and writing to eat dinner. But no, I set up my writing desk between sets and turned everything on just in time.

I thought I was stuck and started faffing around with formatting and wanted to write scene cards or something but then I had an idea and started writing new words. Quite a few, actually.

After that I started this post, finally ate dinner, made a list for today, offloaded the dirty dishes to the boy, played Genshin for a bit and went to bed.

This will be the first Saturday without my regular writers meeting in more than a year. Which is both weird and nice. I can use some free time.

Ate breakfast, knitted and talked with my husband, did the dishes and walked to the nearby supermarket. I went to that particular shop because I wanted to get a special cleaner and then they were out.

An older woman chided me for dropping my veggie wieners into my basket from up high. „You shouldn’t treat the food like that,“ she said and then she added a little giggle to show that she wasn’t serious.

Well, apparently I didn’t have a good day because I went all, „This is my food and I can do with it what I want“ at her. Which wasn’t very nice but then I really have it with people telling me what to do. I didn’t break anything, it wasn’t really loud or anything, I don’t know. The anger of a lifetime of being scolded by old people surfaced just like that. And I mean, I am an older woman myself. And I was just in the middle of looking at all the shelves in the dairy section to figure out where they keep the dumpling dough (in a completely different corner next to the butcher, by the way) and stressed and all.

When I returned home my husband was laughing in the kitchen. Huh.

„The faucet is dripping again,“ he said, „and it is worse than before.”

The faucet that had been repaired just two days before was spewing water everywhere. Not quite the result we had hoped for.

I unpacked the groceries, I chopped a mountain of basil and most of the salad ingredients and we ate outside, all three of us, talking about cow breeds, as one does, because I had seen some unfamiliar white bulls the day before on my run. It was a really enjoyable meal on all counts. Homemade pesto and a good salad:

Next up I tried reaching my mother and mother-in-law on the phone without success, and sent a text to the plumber because of the faucet that wasn’t working again.

I read, I played my video game and ate some chocolate. I taught my first student of the day and got a text that the plumber would squeeze us in in the afternoon.

I had had big plans but couldn’t really get started on anything.

I taught my second student of the day and a couple of minutes before the end of that lesson the plumber (not the one we saw the other day but the senior plumber who is of retirement age) showed up. I led him to the faucet and went back to my student.

He fixed the faucet (the younger plumber had only changed one o-ring, not two, and had not changed the sieve-thing on the end (sorry, I can’t remember how that is called right now).

Right now the faucet is working again, hurray!

I ate dinner, talked with the boy, mostly about his upcoming trip to my mother, about what stuff to take, how long he’d probably stay there, and how to make sure he can still study for the one exam still left in September. He will stay here until most of his exams are done, then go up North and come back before the last one.

And then it was time to meet my friend for a writing sprint. I was super scattered and actually wandered off to other parts of the internet in between but managed a few new words, at least.

I then did the dishes, spun for a bit, and went to bed.

Since we could not get hold of my husband’s mother yesterday that will be the first task for today, and then I might ride my bike to the hospital. If I stay home I will help with making fried chicken.

Meh.

I did go to bed only an hour late, slept well and woke up a little late, so was pretty okay on sleep.

I set the table and took my thyroid meds and was just sitting there writing morning pages when the boy showed up.

He just wanted to tell me that my mother-in-law had been feeling unwell that morning and was calling paramedics in to get her to the hospital.

Apparently she had tried calling my cellphone, had had the wrong number, left a message on our voicemail (that I somehow got hours later) and finally called the boy on his phone. He was surprisingly calm and coherent for someone who had had only 4 1/4 hours of sleep at that point.

So this time he got to get her bag ready and open the door and then stand around awkwardly while someone examined her and such. It seems that her blood pressure was suddenly extremely high after a week of being rather low, her heart was beating fast, she was dizzy and afraid, so she called.

They did take her, I gave them my cellphone number and the boy tried to get back to sleep for two more hours. I later learned that he didn’t succeed, poor thing.

I decided to get dressed right away, no yoga, no meditation, and then got to tell my husband the news over breakfast. None of us panicked, this was not our first rodeo but I have to say I am still feeling a little out of whack.

I did the dishes and went on my run/walk:

It was blessedly cool if rather humid and yes, I did get rained on. My legs felt heavier and heavier along the way but my cardio fitness is fine.

I came back home to lunch already on the table:

I couldn’t do the dishes then because my husband wanted to take a shower, and then I took a shower and then I ran out of time. Before I tried teaching both my mother and my mother-in-law on the phone with no success but my mother sent me a text. My mother-in-law had her phone turned off.

I taught many, many students. In my penultimate lesson the boy texted me six times because he had trouble finding the thing I had asked him to pick up on his way home from uni. In the end it turned out that he had been looking for something that looked like the container we have at home not knowing that we just refill that thing from a package that looks completely different.

And then my mother-in-law called and I had to let my poor student sit there while talking to her. They had been doing all the tests, she would be staying overnight but she didn’t know anything. Things sounded pretty low-key.
So I started the next lesson somewhat late, was completely mushy and managed to push the wrong button on my amp and my foggy brain meant it took me ages to figure out how to finally get sound out of the speakers.

Fortunately, he had a little more time and so we extended the lesson for ten minutes.

After that I sat there just scrolling, unable to get the next thing started for half an hour.

I ate dinner, started writing this post, made a list for today, did the dishes, briefly opened the manuscript (I had planned for an hour, very funny) and plied for a few minutes.

In theory today should be less chaotic. I’m planning a short grocery trip and have a very light teaching day but who knows.

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

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

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

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

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

So that went very well.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not that I did that yesterday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Phew.

And more of that today, hopefully with more writing.

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

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

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

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

The yarn looks nicer than I thought it would.

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

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

I was not in a good mood after that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They did not show up at all.

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

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

I then played the piano a bit and ate dinner.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As I said, today I’ll be better.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I had a bit of a break and started teaching.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As I said, I barely go anything done.

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

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

I did not open the manuscript.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ha!

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

That cleared up my mood immediately lightened up.

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

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

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

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

Um, what?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yep, that wsa exactly what I thought.

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

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

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

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

Well, I’ll try my best.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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