Planning my Week: Sunday 26.01.2020

Happy Sunday Everyone!

Are you happy that it’s Sunday and you (hopefully) had the day to yourself or are you already feeling blue over the fact that tomorrow is Monday?

I’m the latter. Not because I hate Mondays but because I never feel that I’m quite prepared for the week  ahead or organized enough. I feel like I’m always this half organized mess. Just last week, my husband was very proudly making a list of all the things we had accomplished over the weekend. As for myself, all I could think about was all of the things we didn’t get done. He says that the house will never be clean enough for me and that I tend to see the glass half empty but still… I definitely think I could do a lot better most times.

Anyway, apparently I don’t consider 3 planners to be enough (I shit you not I do have 3. Maybe I’ll blog about why I have 3 planners and what I use them for) so I’ve decided I might as well use my blog as a backup to do list.

 

Monday – 27.01.2020

Obviously I’ll have to work, because I need a roof over my head and to pay bills and eat. On the plus side, I do like my job and my coworkers are awesome.

I have a therapy appointment scheduled for 7 p.m.

We need to stop by the store and get some groceries as well, nothing special but I did have to make pancakes without eggs today. We didn’t go during the weekend because Rui was sick (serious case of man flu) and you all know by this point that I can’t drive and we live in the middle of nowhere.

Also, I’m in charge of buying the presents every time someone has a birthday at work and I’m very late this time so I should get that done ASAP.

 

Tuesday – 28.01.2020

Work again, unless I win the lottery over night.

Uni classes start on Tuesday. Which is very scary. I’m not used to being there. There’s kids there. By kids I mean 18-year-old students and they’re very scary and annoying. I don’t want to look like the geriatric student. Also, I’ll have to tell some professors that I’m a working student and that I won’t be able to attend class, only do the work via some sort of e-learning (reading all the materials, going to the tutoring sessions and handing in the essays), which some of them hate. Back me up, people.

 

Wednesday – 29.01.2020

Work, work, work, work, work, work. UK banking needs me. And one very angry customer needs help with “taking ya mum outta the tub”. That was one the best ever.

I’ll then have my appointment with a nutritionist at 5.30. I’m obviously nervous about this because I’ve actually met one who flat out discriminated me because I was fat. You’re a nutritionist, aren’t you supposed to make fat people feel like you have their back? I wish with all my heart that I was making this up. I left her office in tears. Well, this lady works at my psychiatrist’s office so I have a good feeling about the whole thing. We’ll see.

 

 Thursday – 30.01.2020

I’ll be working as usual. I could marry a rich guy but that would be illegal now.

I don’t think I have anything happening other than work so this would be a nice day to get home super early and like tidy something up like laundry and maybe the kitchen.

Oh, and we should go buy a present for our friend whose birthday is the next day.

 

Friday – 31.01.2020

You’ll be able to find me at work. For which you’d need to know where I work. Which I can’t tell you. All you need to know is that it is a banking related. UK. Angry customers mostly.

After work we have a birthday dinner for one of our dear friends, Sara. We actually got married in the same year, which is great because we got to share and experience so much together.

Saturday and Sunday –  Not planning yet.

Extras: We do cook at some point during the week, either of us. Usually for more than one meal and to take lunch to work. We also do laundry and put it away as we go, not as fast as we should/like to. Rui does usually clean the kitchen, though I’ve been trying it to do it more. The heavier cleaning happens during the weekend, but we do not clean the whole house top to bottom every weekend. I’d love to, but then I wouldn’t do anything else.

It’s 7.13 P.M and I want to start my bedtime routine soon so I will now publish this post, fix something very quick for dinner, make sure my purse is clean and tidy for the week, shower, mentally pick something to wear tomorrow and go to bed at about 9 p.m to read until I fall asleep.

What about you? What does you week look like?

What do you still have to get done tonight before you’re done preparing for your the new week ahead?

Have a lovely week!

Mrs. Martins (Chey)

Photo by Irina Iriser from Pexels

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A Week + In The Life: 02.03.18 – 13.03.18 Journal and Updates

Happy Tuesday, everyone!!

I haven’t been blogging much since last week, have I? I thought I’d share a general update.

Friday: 02.03.18

I got off work at 8, as I do every Friday. I thought we could go and see The Post because I really wanted to watch all of the nominees for Best Picture before the Oscars, and it was the only movie that wasn’t available to illegally download. We checked a few places and decided where to go and to grab dinner first. There weren’t many options so Burger King it was. Just before eating, we realized we had gotten it wrong and that the movie session was at 10 p.m instead of 9.25 p.m and in a different place, ten minutes away. Oh, Well. No rush to eat. So we had our dinner and eventually decided we were too tired and lazy to go anywhere else. No movie. We headed home and went to bed.

Saturday: 03.03.18

I woke up late. I had plans to clean and such but it was raining and I didn’t feel like doing it. Rui had gone for a run and I asked him to bring snacks. I fell asleep again and had a long nap. When I woke up we decided to watch The Shape of Water, which I wasn’t so sure about to begin with, and ended up not liking that much. Rui really wanted to see it and actually liked it, though. We had popcorn, orange juice and strawberries. We watched Lady Bird and it was meh. It’s the perfect coming of age movie and I have nothing bad to say about it but it was just, I don’t know? Plain? Boring? I can see how it is a good, well-made film but the story is nothing special. We went to bed soon after because I was still very sleepy.

Sunday: 04.03.18

I woke up late again. We felt like going for coffee and a drive. I had the most delicious cake. We then went for a drive around this area we don’t know so well, just about ten to fifteen minutes from where we live. It’s this beautiful place where countryside meets the beach and it’s just breathtaking, really. We watched Call Me By Your Name and I loved it. Only thing to bother me was the title and the whole “call me by your name” thing. Why? Why would you ask someone to call you by their name? I get it, it was their thing. But why? I doesn’t make much sense to me. I did love the movie. I patiently waited for the Oscars ceremony to start (it begins at 1 a.m for me), while cuddling on the couch with Rosa. I knew I was pulling an all-nighter to watch the Oscars as I do every year. I’m not the most patient person so it is kind of boring to go through all of the breaks. I don’t know how you American friends do it with all the commercial breaks, really. There’s just so many. I went to bed once it was over but didn’t sleep at all because I had to be up at 7.30. As you probably know from my post, I am NOT happy about the winners.

Monday: 05.03.18

I was up at 7.30, no sleep and kind of mad about the Oscars. I’m not going to repeat myself and bore you to death because I’ve written a whole post about it. I’ll just tell you I was not very happy that The Shape of Water won Best Picture. I was expecting it to be between Call Me By Your Name and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri so I about died when the said “and the Oscar goes to… The Sha….” Rui, Rosa and his brother were sleeping but I yelled “What the fuck??!!” in the living room. I was that upset and surprised. It’s pretty funny now. I was too tired to write so I spent my time watching The Good doctor before I had to work. It was a calm day, though. I left work at 8 and slept early, like a baby.

Tuesday: 06.03.18

I honestly don’t remember much about Tuesday. I pretty much only worked and had a very calm day. I was alone because there were few kids and my colleague was needed to help with French in a different room so it was just me and a few 9th graders, studying science, which I love.

Wednesday: 07.03.18

It was just me at work as well. The kids are all studying math so we only had three for Portuguese, which means only one of us was needed. My colleague got the day off and I got those three 9th graders. It was pretty chill. I left work at 7. We had pasta for dinner and watched an episode of This is Us.

Thursday: 08.03.18

My turn to have the day off!! My colleague handled the two kids we had for the day so I didn’t have to go to work. I slept and listened to podcasts for most of the day. Rui came home and wanted to take me out to dinner to celebrate International Women’s Day. I was pretty stupid and picked this greasy food truck where we had hot dogs. They were good, though.

Friday: 09.03.18

I’m at work but don’t have to actually do any work until 3 p.m. I’m about to go and look for some lunch because I didn’t pack any lunch today. I’ve watched an episode of Call The Midwife and I’ve written this post. That’s about it. We’re not doing anything tonight. I’m just cooking some easy pasta and that’s about it.

Saturday: 10.03.18

As usual, I woke up pretty late. I really wanted to clean the house but I don’t like doing it when there’s so many people trapped inside because it’s raining. I decided it wouldn’t happen and simply moved from the bed to the sofa. We watched Veronica, this Spanish horror movie I had read about before. It’s by Netflix and I had read it’s one of the scariest movies ever and that many people can’t even finish it. It’s quite popular right now too, have you watched it? It’s pretty good and scary as a horror movie should be but I didn’t find it that different and didn’t understand why someone would not be able to watch until the end.

Sunday: 11.03.18

I slept late and didn’t do much, to be honest. We felt like watching something and I was more inclined towards a documentary or series but we ended up watching this amazing film Monster (2003) about the infamous American serial killer Aileen Wurnos. Are you familiar with her story? Let me just tell you that the name of the movie is probably ironic, since she was the one surrounded by monsters and abusers her whole life. Yes, she did kill six to eight men but I cannot say how I would treat men later in life had I been sexually abused, assaulted, and prostituted by my grandfather to his friends at the age of eleven. One of her grandfather’s friends actually got her pregnant and she had to give her baby up for adoption. She was 13. Then he kicked her out of the house when she was 14. She had to live in the woods and begin working as a prostitute to support herself. She sold her body her entire life. They say she was raped and badly beaten by a client who was about to kill her, but managed she killed him in self-defense. Then her killing spree began and she ended up in prison, being executed by lethal injection in 2002. There’s no excuse to commit murder. You don’t go around killing people just because you had a difficult childhood. But in her case, I can honestly feel sorry for her. She was never loved, cared for or wanted. She was treated like garbage by men her entire life, since she was so young. There’s only so much your mind can handle before you snap. What do you think about this? Is she a monster or someone who took the most horrific forms of abuse for thirty years and simply had enough? I would love your opinion on this.

Monday: 12.03.18

Pretty uneventful. I woke up early but wasn’t feeling so well so I went back to bed. I woke up very late and met a friend for coffee before I had to go to work at 5. I left work at 7, came home, had dinner and laughed my ass off while watching Impractical Jokers with Rui and Brother. I then went to bed and listened to a few podcast episodes until I fell asleep.

Tuesday: 13.03.18 – Today

I got the day off from work. The kids are studying Chemistry and Physics and so they didn’t need both me and my colleague (we don’t work with Chemistry, Physics and Math). The same is happening on Thursday, the 22nd and she is staying home, while I’m going. I woke up late once again. I think I might need to decrease my sleeping medication, because I’m sleeping way too much and that usually means I need less of it.

I listened to a few podcasts, as I do every day. I’ve grown to love podcasts an audio books so much in the last few months. I took care of some laundry because there is always some laundry in desperate need to be done, especially when it has been raining for the past few weeks. I cleaned a little bit around the kitchen, decluttered our cleaning supplies cabinet and cleaned the bathroom. I’m sitting here having a snack and writing this post, just before I start dinner and close everything up (I opened all the doors and windows to let the house get some air). After dinner I’m having a shower and watching a few episodes of Divorce.

Random Picture Dump:

What have you been up to?

xx

Weekly + weekend + February update

Good afternoon 😃

Happy hump day!

(I just hate this expression. It sounds like something naughty. It’s like Spanish. It’s a beautiful, sexy language, so when I hear someone speak Spanish I immediately think about adult activities. It’s me, right? I’m troubled. I know.)

Enough of my dirty, crazy mind.

I haven’t posted since Friday and I totally owe you an update on my weekend, my to-do list, this half week and February in general. Here we go. I’ll start by telling you what I was up to last weekend.

Saturday – 24.02

I went to bed pretty late on Friday. We had dinner with friends and it was really nice. We had a lot of fun as usual and spent a long time throwing boy name suggestions at my pregnant friend. They have a name picked out for a girl but no name for a boy so we had fun sharing and hating each other’s ideas. By the way, they have just announced publicly so I can disclose more. One of my besties Patrícia is 13 weeks pregnant. She’s the first one to get pregnant in our group of friends and we’re just so excited. We keep referring to the baby as she but they have no idea if it’s boy or girl, which is really funny. Here’s the little cutie:

We’ve been friends for a very long time and are very, very close so our kids will be calling us auntie. I’m so happy and excited. You know how much I love a pregnant lady and how obsessed I am with babies. Congratulations mama! I love you and I love your baby already. ❤️

Anyway, I’m talking about Saturday, not Friday. But I do have a point. Because of dinner I went to bed late which means I took my pills pretty late and that plus being very tired resulted in me waking up at almost 3 p.m the next day. Oh yeah. We wanted to go out but I wasn’t feeling well (side effects from no longer taking some of my medication, which I don’t mind at all) so we decided we would only go out to buy dinner. We went to Aldi but there was nothing we wanted and it was almost closing so the security guard was giving us dirty looks. Feeling pressured, we decided to try a different store. I was about to pass out because of said side effects and hunger so I just picked my usual carbonara pizza. Rui picked something else. We tried a new drink and a new dessert (a new weekend challenge) and we weren’t impressed by either. Remember, when I say “drink” I mean “non-alcoholic beverage”. I don’t drink AND I take medication. We wanted to watch a movie but I was too sleepy, so we just went to bed.

Sunday: 25.02

We woke up earlier on Sunday and decided we definitely had to go out and get a few things. Rui needed new running gear (my man runs 12 km, 3 times a week, I’m so proud of him!), I needed some new underwear and socks and we definitely needed some groceries. My mom happened to call while we were having a very late breakfast. We bugged her so much to come with us that she eventually accepted her defeat and said she would come, after endlessly complains about “why am I going shopping with you? It’s boring enough to do my own grocery shopping.” I think it might have been the promise of ice cream. We picked her up an hour later and off we went. We do have lots of fun together, the three of us. I was too lazy to wash my hair so I wore a hat.

It was not cold at all and my mother said I looked very silly with mah beanie. She said I had tricked her because I mentioned I was going to take a shower when I hung up the phone earlier. I told her I hadn’t lied at all. I did, in fact, take a shower. I never said anything about washing my hair.

First, we went to this huge sports store where Rui got new running shoes, socks, shorts and a t-shirt. I got a new swimsuit and mom got bored. We stopped by H&M to see if they had the panties I like but they didn’t so I had to buy this jeans:

I mean, they’re pink and 9,99€. I had to have them. Does anyone like colored jeans? Not even this really nice pastel pink? Okay. Well, they do match about 50% of my closet, so.

Mom was way too bored at this point so we finally took her to McDonald’s. We chatted for a while and then we took poor Isabel home. My favorite grocery store is near my moms house and so I convinced Rui we HAD to shop there instead of going to a supermarket close to home. I found a few nice, cheap packs of panties (yes, I do buy my everyday panties in boring packs) and got about 10 pairs for 10€. I got a few pairs of socks too. We got 2 cute mugs but I forgot to take a picture of Rui’s. This is mine:

It says free but I totally had to pay for it. I promised I didn’t tell that stupid joke to the cashier. But only because I forgot. We got many things for a cheap price. That’s why I love this store so much – great variety and awesome prices. I thought I would take a picture of my shopping cart. Not that you can actually see much.

And then I got home and decided to take pictures of my kitchen shelves:

Two of them, anyway. I promise I have more food. Here’s our breakfast/coffee station:

And really bad picture of a lovely sign:

We made a big pot of rice and veggies for dinner, with some fish fingers. Easy and I could eat it every single day. Then, bed.

Monday: 26.02

I didn’t sleep well so I woke up late on Monday and didn’t do anything of what I intended to do. I worked from 5-7, got home and deep cleaned/de-cluttered the bathroom, while I made dinner. We had leftover rice with sautéed black beans, onions, peppers, green beans, sweet corn, mushrooms, olives and cherry tomatoes. It was yummy and healthy and no-meat which is always a win in my house.

Tuesday: 27.02

Again, I slept nothing.

I woke up way too late and had to take a taxi to work. It was raining so the kids were literally wet and wild. There were so many of them and they were crazy. It was a madhouse and there was nowhere to sit for 3 hours. I forgot we had this dinner with friends and to tell Rui I was off at 8 and not 7. But we made it to dinner on time. We met with his friends at this nice little restaurant and had a great time and a lovely meal. We got home late and I decided “Fuck no, I’m not going to wake up late again” so I didn’t take my sleeping pills. I didn’t sleep at all, obviously, so I spent all night listening to podcasts.

Wednesday – Today: 28.02

I got up at 7 a.m for coffee and breakfast and got ready to go to the pool for some hydro gymnastics class. While having coffee, I realized my pink and white pajamas kind of matched my pink and white mug:

Such is life. I might have issues. Either that or I own too much pink. So yeah, that’s it. I’m currently writing this post before work. It will be pretty crazy again. So excited.

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About my weekend to-do list:

• Deep clean/organized the bathroom; – Done on Monday!
• Deep clean one of our bedroom walls that is getting moldy (there’s this perfect detergent that cleans any trace of mold or humidity marks without any damage to the surface); – Done on Sunday.
• Deep clean/purge our kitchen;
• Laundry, always; – Some, obviously.
• Make a dental appointment; – I did, but then I had to miss it for work.
• Schedule a vet appointment;
• Force Rui to schedule an eye doctor appointment;
• Meal plan and prep for next week; – I have the plan on my head. It counts for something.
• Charge my power bank;
• Work on my freelance project;
• Clean living room;
• Clean bedroom; – Hoping to do this today. I hate cleaning during the week but it really needs to be cleaned and organized.
• Change bed sheets;
• Get two gym bags ready in advance;
• Get my clothes ready for the week;
• Do a little grocery shopping; – Done.
• Do some gardening;
• Watch a movie or two;
• Try making homemade granola/cereal bars;
• Get my eyebrows done;
• Write a few letters;
• Sell a few things online;
• Get something for my dry ends; – Done on Sunday.

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About February:

• Finish my big freelance work project and get maybe one more. Extra income is always welcome.
• Go to the pool 5 times a week. I’m really enjoying it. – No. I’ve been going twice or 3 times, which is weird for someone who has never actually done any regular exercise. I would really love to go every weekday. I love it, I sleep better, my back doesn’t hurt, my day runs smoothly, I’m in a better mood, etc. So many benefits.
• Keep on leaving my nails alone (not biting them) – Done!!!
• Keep on drinking 1.5 l of water every day. – Yes!!
• Blog every single day. – I don’t think so. But I’ve definitely got my groove on. I had lost in somewhere in August and am now getting back to my normal rhythm. 
• Read 3 books. – No, but I’ve been listening to so many podcasts. That counts for something? No?
• Read as many blog posts as I can every day. – Yes. I’ve been better at this.
• See/talk to family and friends as much as possible. – Yes, yes, yes!!
• Keep my de-cluttering/rearranging/reorganizing process. – Going!
• Remember my year 26 challenges. – Yes!

Well, I must confess I did/am doing better than I thought. Not such a bad month after all.

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Random photo dump:

See you, guys!!

A Week in The Life Kind of Post – Updates

Last time I posted any kind of planner and journal was on Wednesday morning. As usually, I didn’t follow through with everything I had planned, but I think I got quite a few things done.

On Tuesday Evening, I promised I would show you how our dinner experiment would go and if it was tasty. Remember? Trying this Indian store bought sauce for the first time?

It was really good. Not too spicy at all. Really yummy!! Would definitely buy again. We ate it with broccoli and rice. That’s sparkling water with lemon and red currant syrup.

I had to go to work for two hours on Wednesday morning and then I came home to this:

(I mean before being folded)

And this:

Nap hard, play hard.

I then worked for a few hours and got a few other things done, before taking a break and watching an episode of a show before they boys came home.

I can’t really remember what I did on Thursday but I obviously had to work so I did that for sure. I went to hydro gymnastics on Friday morning, worked and then we went out to dinner with my friends. My pregnant friend is already showing and I’m so happy for her. We had a good time.

On Saturday, we had to get up earlier than usual because I had an appointment with my psychiatrist at 1.30. I talked about it here:

I Have Great News

I looked like this:

That evening, we had dinner with one of Rui’s friends. I should say our friend, otherwise he’ll get pissed at me for saying he’s only friends with Rui, although they have known each other since high school. There was a game on and we watched it while having dinner.

On Sunday, we invited that same friend for coffee at our favorite cafe. Rui’s brother, Tiago, came with us this time. Rui’s friend really wanted to buy us a drink so we drove to the beach (10 minutes away) o have something.

It was a beautiful afternoon. We went grocery shopping and I making dinner while looking like Hulk.

It was really yummy!

Oh, I forgot to say, I made some spaghetti with the store bought sauce for the boys lunch and they said it was pretty good. I didn’t eat lunch so I have no idea.

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Monday – I started this post, and wrote this:

I am in a good mood and feeling positive despite not sleeping a wink and having had a bad day tomorrow. My mom had to take my grandmother to the hospital yesterday. They called an ambulance and were there from 7 p.m to about 1 a.m. I wanted to go there but my mother said there was no need because only person would be able to get in and we would just be waiting outside for hours, having to get up early for work today. So we stayed home and I went to bed but I kept waking up and texting my sister and mother. My mom finally texted me saying she was home at about 2.30 in the morning and I fell asleep, but woke up several times after that.

So, about my grandmother. You know she suffers from dementia. Most of her brain cells are dead and it’s simply getting worse. She was also somewhat dehydrated. She is really thin because she has no appetite and doesn’t really feel like eating. That’s why my mother took her to the hospital. Unfortunately, there’s no getting better for her and we all need to make peace with that which is really sad. Heartbreaking. If she were to see herself now, God. But she doesn’t,  which is a good thing, I guess. She can’t tell how bad she is. But we do witness everything and it hurts.

My grandfather passed away when I was 19, a week after my birthday. He was old and sick but I wasn’t expecting it. No one had ever really died. Not my people. But then he did. It was pretty traumatic, let me tell you. My family pretty much fell apart and was never the same after that. I guess he was the glue and we had never realized it.

I met my father’s mother but she was very old. She used to visit me when I was little and I think she was in her seventies. Then she passed away. I don’t remember that much about her, other than she would visit me. I never met her husband, my grandfather. He died before I was born. Everyone tells me he was extremely violent towards his wife and children, so may he rest in hell, I hope it’s warm and cozy there.

I’m closing the sad subject here.

Thank you for reading.

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I was able to wake up earlier on Monday and go to the 9.15 a.m hydro fitness class. It was a lot of fun and harder than usual, which I like and my lower back didn’t.

Well, let me tell you, I’m 90% sure the teacher was high as a kite. Oh yeah. He was looking at the horizon rather than looking at us, he would smile and laugh alone and close his eyes for way too long. He was also enjoying the routine way too much. It was so funny. I’m going again next Monday to confirm if he’s a stoner or if he just looks like one.

I had plenty of veggies for lunch:

I worked, worked, worked, got home and went to sleep.

On Tuesday, I wanted to go back to the pool but was still sore so I just went to work and decided to go back on Wednesday, which I did. The class was pretty intense but with a different teacher. Because it was Wednesday, I had to wear pink:

Joking. It was a coincidence.

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So, today is Thursday and I’m still sore from yesterday which feels pretty good. I stayed home and tried to sleep in because I haven’t been sleeping at all. I couldn’t get more than 30 minutes to 1 hour of uninterrupted sleep. Don’t know why.

I’m about to get to work, I’ll work from 5 to 8 and then head home.

Tomorrow I plan on going to a hydro gymnastics class and then a swim class as I’m trying to improve some techniques. I have to dedicate some hours to freelance work and then work from 5 to 8 again. We’ll have dinner with friends after work.

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As promised,

Here are some pictures of my planner:

Would you be interested in a post on how I organize it? I would love to do one.

To finish, I’ll leave you with some Springy pictures. Thank you for reading.

Daily Planner and Journal – 05.02.2018: Trying to bring it back (about 8 hours late) + weekend

Good afternoon guys,

How are you facing Monday?

It’s a hard one right?

• Hangover from drinking while watching Super Bowl?
• Depressed because of THAT This is Us episode?
• Shocked/ecstatic because Kylie Jenner has given birth?
• All of the above?

Right.

May your coffee be strong and your chocolate be plenty.

I’m actually fine. I don’t care for the Super Bowl, I haven’t watched THAT episode yet (Lord help me) and I’ve been googling “Kylie Jenner pregnant” every day since September, waiting for news so I’m pretty satisfied. I’m not joking about the google part.

I really want to go back to my early morning planning and before bed journaling and update on how my day went and how I tackled my to-do list. I know you guys enjoy it and I feel more organized when I do so.

I would like the planning to be published at about 8 a.m and the update to go up at about 8 p.m. it would be nice to have somewhat of a schedule. I hope I can pull it off.

About the weekend: I did nothing. I was expecting it so I am fine with it. I needed a break. For real.

I have this huge freelance writing project to finish until the end of the week so I’m working on that.

I’m so much better than last week, thankfully.

See you soon, guys.

❤️

This time last year: The looking back series (30/01/2017)

WEEKEND RECAP AND PLANS FOR THE WEEK

First of all, and before I share my plans for this week I should give you some sort of weekend recap. Bloggers do that, I guess.

So, what happened this weekend?

Nothing much and nothing too interesting. I washed and folded a ton of laundry, which we had to take to the wash station to dry since we don’t own a dryer and it was a rainy weekend. My boyfriend washed a ton of dishes from last week and cleaned the kitchen. We cleaned some more and took care of a few things around the house and thought about changing the position of our bed but decided it wouldn’t work, so we kept it the same way. Saturday night we ate pizza for dinner and watched American Horror Story.I think we only have an episode left from the third season… now that it was finally growing on me. We also watched a movie “keeping up with the Joneses“, which was okay. I’m not a big fan of comedies. I slept a lot and after that I took naps. We did some grocery shopping and on Sunday night I cooked for the week. Boring, right?

• Put away all the laundry that I folded and iron a few things;

• Find a new psychiatrist and therapist for a second opinion and to try a different approach. I think that I should be feeling better by now and I am not, despite taking so much medication. I take anti psychotics to help with my nightmares but I have them anyway. Bad ones. I take sleeping pills but I don’t sleep that well. I sleep many hours but I never feel rested. I take something that it is supposed to help me with my energy levels and well, did I tell you about the sleepy and exhausted part? I also take mood stabilizers and antidepressants but I think that those actually help, so no problem there. My therapist… I love her but we just… talk. My psychiatrist suggested that I should try some kind of therapy that goes a little deeper and makes a bigger impact, otherwise I’m just paying to talk about my problems, something I could do with a friend. I will do some research and schedule an appointment with someone else for a second (or third) opinion.

• Sign up for a gym membership or at least decided what kind of option I want to go for. I’ve been wanting to do that for a while but lately I almost feel the need to move and to do something… sporty? I don’t know how to explain it. It is as weird as my Brussels sprouts craving from last week. Am I getting “healthy” with age? Ewww. One of this days you will find me doing a whole-30 and crossfit. Just kidding. that would never happen, right? Right??? Anyway, I want to do something and I definitely need it because 1. depression makes you gain weight; 2. depression medication makes you gain weight; 3. I sit all day; 4. I have back issues; 5. my knees hurt most days so I guess I also have knee issues; 6. It helps with depression and anxiety, they say; I love swimming and I love yoga and Pilates and anything that is kind of slow and does not require running, so that’s probably what I should sign up for. And find time for. Before my boyfriend kills me. You guys, he’s the sweetest, most amazing man in the world and keeps telling me that my health is the most important thing right now and that I should focus on trying to get better, no matter how much we have to spend or sacrifice. Love you, babe.

• Find time to take my dog to get her vaccine. Which is a huge drama. Our vet described her as a “difficult patient” because last time she broke two muzzles, bit me and my boyfriend, ripped his jeans and 4 people were needed to complete the task of giving her the shot. I’m getting nervous just thinking about it. She also needs a bath, ideally before going to the doctor. I like a clean, good smelling pup.

• Meet up with one of my besties Rita for coffee. She used to have a job that allowed her to meet me during the day when I had a break or when some student cancelled the class and I had a little time to kill. Now she has a new job (that she loves, congratulations honey!) and is only available maybe after seven, which is difficult for me because I’m rarely done before nine. But I love her and miss her so I need to do some magic and find the time!

• Answer the emails from people asking about English lessons. I don’t know if I can take anyone else so I need to check my schedule and maybe do some adjustments to see if I can fit in more people. Again, boyfriend will murder me.

• Bake a cake that actually grows!

• Cut the sugar!

• Drink more water. During the Summer I am great with my water intake (1,5 to 2 l each day) but in Winter, I forget to drink water and only drink it when I’m really thirsty or when my throat hurts from speaking for many hours while working;

• Eat a ton of fruit and veggies. This will be easy because I grocery shopped and cooked with that in mind;

• Start a book; (reading one, not writing one. I can barely handle the blog)

• Watch some of the Oscar nominees. Please! I need this.

Daily planner and journal: 18.09.17 (Much needed updates)

Hello my people!!

I miss you all like crazy.

I have been pretty busy now that I’m back to work and on full busy bee mode. It makes me happy but it also means I have to sacrifice some things. Remember when I told you I would stop posting several times a day as soon as I went back to work. Oh yeah, real life going on. I miss posting daily, talking to you guys every day and being up-to-date on your posts. I really want to get organized in order to be able to do that again. There must be some way.

I absolutely love my new job. My colleagues are so nice and welcoming and funny. There’s often cake and we have so much fun talking shit about the kids. Kidding. We have fun talking and spending our breaks together.

The kids like me and say I’m cool which makes me pretty happy lol They say the funniest things and I always have a laugh or two while I’m with them. They can be difficult and I do yell and threaten and take away phones and other devices they use to make whatever noise they fancy. They think I’m cool anyway so we’re good.

The girls tell me things I don’t want to know lol probably because I’m young and they feel like they can talk to me. I try to keep things appropriate but I’m not the type of teacher that keeps the kids at arms length. If they talk to me, it means that they are talking to someone. If they ask me questions, I don’t tell them to shut up, I do my best to answer them. I don’t want them to lose their curiosity and to be afraid of asking questions. That’s my method. That’s how I work. I’m obviously an authority in the classroom, but I’m also someone who tries to be there for them, respect them for who they are and encourage a healthy relationship.

I’m also working a lot for my online clients. I have plenty to do and I’m trying to keep up with deadlines and to get everything done as soon as possible, so I can move on to other tasks.

Things at home are pretty normal. The house was a mess but we were able to tidy it up and clean a bit yesterday. I did some gardening as well, moving some of my plants to biggest pots, cutting dry leaves and branches and generally cleaning and tending to them.

I’m watching the final season of The Tudors by myself and American Horror Story and Outlander with Rui.

I watched Annabelle yesterday and didn’t think it was that bad. I was honestly expecting worse, by what my friends had told me.

I’m reading more, which makes me very happy. I’ve finished After You and I’m now reading The Substitute by Denise Grover Swank, who I honestly don’t know at all. The book was free on Amazon kindle, I like the cover and so I got it. I ended up liking the story line and I’m enjoying reading it. I’m also reading The 3rd book in the Outlander Series – Voyager by Diana Gabaldon.

heart is actually not very happy this days, because I’m not in good terms with someone I love very much. She’s a part of me and I miss her every single day but she has made a decision I can’t possibly live with, so I’m staying away from her and letting her live her life. I can’t stop myself from feeling sad, though. I guess everything will be fine? I don’t know at this point.

I need to go get ready to walk 2 km, catch the bus and go to work. I’ll see you guys later.

Thank you for reading

 

Weekend Recap

Hey there,

How is the weekend going?

I’m going to do a little recap, so you guys can see what I was able to accomplish from my Weekend to-do list:

• Shopping, we have 0 food. I’ve been doing the laundry with dish soap. Not kidding. – We shopped, we planned, we cooked and we are about to eat dinner. Would you like to see my shopping list and my meal plan for two weeks? Is that something you would like to read?

• Do our meal plan (and shopping) for two weeks. Decide what to cook and buy accordingly. – done

• Take care of all the laundry that’s left, it’s going to rain next week. – done, just have some laundry still drying

• Be nice and maybe iron some shirts for Mr. R? He’s so cute and I love him so much and he looks so handsome on a shirt. BTW, baby you need a haircut and your best friend’s birthday is tomorrow.– didn’t do it. Sorry baby!

• Read!!! – haven’t read anything other than blogs. Maybe when I go to bed tonight

• Do one or two workouts. Do I do the cool yoga one or try another one like Zumba? – nope, but I cleaned a lot. I sweat. If I sweat it counts as a workout, right? ha!

• Change my bed sheets and dust the room. Vacuum the floor and mop it. Clean the freaking windows. – Didn’t get to the whole room, didn’t have time

• Relieve my sofa of all dog hair. Do you know the wet glove trick? You get a rubber glove, like the ones you use to clean or do dishes and you get it wet. You rub your sofa with it (you obviously put it in your hand) and all the dog hair comes out. It really works. I have witnesses. Catarina? – My honey did this. Thank you, baby

• Vacuum and dust the living room. – Mr. R did this too

• Clean the kitchen and do the dishes that have been sitting there since Monday. – Yes, I really got into the kitchen, washed a ton of dishes and even changed a few things around. It looks good now.

• Get my schedule and to-do lists ready for next week. – Working on it, almost done.

• Pick my outfits for the whole week and get them ready. – I know what I’ll wear

• Do some pampering like face mask, hair mask, etc. – Later, when I shower before bed

• Watch some movie. – Didn’t happen. But watched a couple of episodes of Breaking Bad. I’m loving it.

• Put away all the laundry that I was able to dry in the last few days! – Done, folded and put away so much laundry

What I did that was not on the schedule:

• I cleaned my bathroom;

• I organized my little home office corner;

Now, about next week. What’s happening this week:

• I have my psychiatrist’s appointment on Thursday;

• I will go to 6 hours of classes on Tuesday. I will have to miss class on Thursday because of my doctor’s appointment;

• I will teach between 25 and 30 hours of class;

• I will try to keep working on waking up at 6 and doing my perfect morning routine, which includes working out in the morning;

• I will blog every day, as usual;

• I will finish folding and putting away all the laundry that is drying;

• Mr. R will cut his hair and look so, so cute!

• I will stalk three teachers because they don’t answer my emails;

• I will schedule my gynecologist’s appointment. I’ve already sent an email but they haven’t answered with a date;

• I will cute my dry ends (myself);

• I need to take a bunch of photocopies;

• I have a lot of school catching up to do. I would like to study for at least 2  hours every day;

• I will dive into German and Italian, they are the most important right now and I’m really behind;

• I will try to meet my sister for coffee;

• I will buy a present for Mr. R’s cousin, who just had a baby; Maybe we will visit, if she is having visitors;

• I will try to keep the house clean and the dishes controlled;

• I will deep clean my office;

• I will take lunch and snacks to work every day;

• I will finish my friend’s book and start Harry Potter;

• I will keep watching the second season of Breaking Bad;

Who want’s to share their plans for the week? Let’s all make this the most productive week ever!! Let’s do it together and motivate each other. Do I have any takers?

 

Such random thoughts

• Mr. R is outside cutting one of our (small) trees. I’m supposed to be helping him but instead I’m here blogging. He’s a lumberjack, I’m a lumberjackass.

• Two people said I’m inspiring today. I think I’m a mess most of the time but two people think I’m inspiring? How can that be? I feel like I could be inspiring, if I got my crap together, which I don’t. But today, two bloggers said they felt inspired by me in some way. They are life as easy as… and Katrina. Go there and check for yourselves.

• I really need to quit my cereal. And a bunch of other things but mainly my cereal. I go through a box each two days. I’m gonna die so young.

• Yesterday I closed a deal with the mom of two new students that will bring a really good monthly amount of money. It was a great feeling having meetings again and doing business and teaching and I felt like myself for the very first time in weeks or months.

• I cannot, for the life of me, finish my friend’s book. I used to be such a fast reader and now, I drag and take decades and I really want to finish her book because she worked so hard on it and it’s her baby and I need to read her story.

• We watched The Walking Dead and This is Us last night and the second is getting more and more amazing with each episode. The other one is… well… dead to me. It should have ended a long time ago, in my opinion. Sometimes you don’t even get zombies. I signed up for zombies I want zombies and not that cute guy with the baseball bat killing people all the time.

• I’m currently writing this while on the toilet. I’m a lady, I know.

• Lately I keep forgetting to answer people’s text messages. I open them and forget them. This is a bad habit that I should break as soon as possible. See them, answer them, done.

• I’m really happy with all the love I’ve been getting from my readers and fellow bloggers. I never thought the internet could be so kind. I’ve only met the nicest people who spoil me with compliments, read what I write and say they love my blog. I have so many readers and Awards and I’m always thinking “do I deserve this? Am I nice enough? Kind enough? Do I follow their blogs with the attention they deserve? Did I miss some post. I want to be there for them”

• I really mean what I say. I am here for all my readers and all other bloggers. You can talk to me, call my attention to one of your posts if  I accidentally let them pass me by, ask for help, really talk to me (I mean it, my email is always available, so is the instant message thingy on my Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. You can always reach out to me, for anything. If you need help, if you need to vent, if you need someone to talk to, I’m your girl.)

• Did you read my beautiful poetry that I wrote today? You’re missing out.

• My phone is finally fixed after more than 3 months, a complaint to the insurance company and a complaint to the people who get mad at the insurance company. Now I can finally throw it at the wall so I can buy a new one because this one was a mistake.

• Now, in honor of my dear blogger friend and reader  life as easy as… I will do a weekend to-do list!!!

 

Weekend to-do list:

1. Shopping, we have 0 food. I’ve been doing the laundry with dish soap. Not kidding.
2. Do our meal plan (and shopping) for two weeks. Decide what to cook and buy accordingly.
3. Take care of all the laundry that’s left, it’s going to rain next week.
4. Be nice and maybe iron some shirts for Mr. R? He’s so cute and I love him so much and he looks so handsome on a shirt. BTW, baby you need a haircut and your best friend’s birthday is tomorrow.
5. Read!!!
6. Do one or two workouts. Do I do the cool yoga one or try another one like Zumba?
7. Change my bedsheets and dust the room. Vacuum the floor and mop it. Clean the freaking windows.
8. Relieve my sofa of all dog hair. Do you know the wet glove trick? You get a rubber glove, like the ones you use to clean or do dishes and you get it wet. You rub your sofa with it (you obviously put it in your hand) and all the dog hair comes out. It really works. I have witnesses. Catarina?
9. Vacuum and dust the living room.
10. Clean the kitchen and do the dishes that have been sitting there since Monday.
11. Get my schedule and to-do lists ready for next week.
12. Pick my outfits for the whole week and get them ready.
13. Do some pampering like face mask, hair mask, etc.
14. Watch some movie.
15. Put away all the laundry that I was able to dry in the last few days!
16. I guess that’s it…

Who’s with me?? Let’s get our shot together, together!! And have a productive weekend, inspired by  life as easy as…!

Love you, guys. Now I’m gonna go and cut me some tree.

The big nap

Today wasn’t as productive as yesterday, but I take what I can get. It was about 3 p.m when I started to feel extremely tired, so I decided to lie down and rest. I’m not sure if I slept but I was in bed until about 5.30 p.m. I got up feeling better and I made my bed.

I was still able to accomplish a few things:

• Wash two loads of laundry;
• Fold and put away two loads of laundry;
• Read a few blog posts;
• Answer some comments;
• Catch up on some YouTube videos;
• Finish watching that episode of Call the Midwife;
• Talk to my mother on the phone;
• Talk to my best friend Ricardo, by text message;
• Talk to a friend (who worked with me at H&M) by text message;
• Answer a few emails and texts from students;
• Schedule some work for this week;
• Pick three outfits to wear on the next 3 days of the week;

Tomorrow I’m going back to work and my day should look like this:

10 a.m – 1.30 hours of class with one of my students;

11.30 a.m – Italian homework (2 hours);

1.30 p.m  –  Lunch (1 hour);

2.30 p.m – German revisions (3 hours);

5.30 p.m – 1.30 hours of class with one of my students;

7.00 p.m – done with work;

8.00 p.m – Get home, have dinner while watching the new episode of This is Us;

9.00 p.m – Read a little;

10.00 p. m – Go to sleep; I’m trying to implement a new morning and night routine, where I go to bed early and wake up at six. Let’s see if I can do that. Because of my medication I tend to sleep more hours.

My ideal morning routine would be:

6.00 a.m – Wake up and make coffee;

6.10 a.m – Drink my coffee, ten minutes of meditation (if I’m able to learn how to do it);

6.20 a.m – Do one workout video (some yoga or Pilates or something I like);

6.50 a.m – Shower; brush teeth; put on moisturizer; Put on robe and wait for moisturizer to dry while I have my hair up in a towel;

7.20 a.m – Make breakfast;

7.30 a.m – Read blogs and catch up on blog stuff and internet stuff; Go over my to-do list for the day;

8.15 a.m – Get dressed; fix my hair; Put on my makeup;

9. 00 a.m – Leave for work;

10.00 a.m – Start work;

I wish I could start my day like this. This would be the ideal morning routine for me. The problem is, I’m not a morning person at all. Second problem, I take sleeping pills and wake up super groggy and  tired; I would like to try it anyway. Maybe I will start on Monday, just after the weekend.