Today’s workout was 40 minutes with dumbbells in the company of Coach Kozak and Claudia over at HASfit.com which is now my go-to place for workout videos.

This is the last day of the tretton37 workout challenge. It’s worked wonders for me. I spent October in a funk and barely exercised at all towards the end of the month. Now I have settled into a stable workout routine that has me doing some kind of exercise every single day. I have more energy and feel better in many ways.

I’m glad we had the challenge, but I’m also glad it is over. The app for reporting the daily workouts was effectively a social media platform and came with all the costs and benefits of such things. Benefits of course include other peoples’ inspirational photos, comments and thumbs-ups. Among the costs: having to put up with other people’s photos fom gyms and padel halls. Apparently some of them still think it is OK to go to the gym or even meet up with colleagues for lunchtime padel sessions – and that this is even something to proudly show off. (For the record: gyms are explicitly mentioned as places to avoid in Stockholm’s local covid-19 restrictions, and Stockholm’s municipal gyms and swimming halls have all been closed. But there is no law that would allow the government to close down private businesses at this time so commercial gyms are still open.) Mind-boggling and really annoying. I’m glad to not have to see any more of that.

I’ll keep the habit but stop the daily posting both here and in the app.

November has been dark and dreary, but I held out. Sometimes I hew to tradition. No Christmas lights or decorations, no gingerbread, no lussebullar before advent. Now, though, advent is here and we can finally put up advent lights everywhere, indoors and outdoors.

These coloured, patterned ones are my favourites.

The cloud of spangles in the background is a string of outdoor lights that we hang on our thuja tree. The first time we did it, Eric could reach nearly all the way to the top and the lights covered most of the tree. Now more than ten years later the tree is twice as tall and the lights are like a little apron on the tree.

I went out for a half-hour walk to check today’s workout box. Adrian, who hadn’t been out all day, came with me. But he is not very fond of walking so he took his bike. My walking turned into running to more or less keep up with him. He rather enjoyed that, especially when I really wasn’t able to catch up with him, so he added some extra detours for us, preferably hilly ones. Before I knew it my half-hour walk had turned into 50 minutes of jogging up and down hills. I don’t normally enjoy running but this was actually fun.

We may not get a proper Christmas celebration this year but we can at least enjoy making lussebullar.

I did 30 minutes of yoga today, for the first time in about 15 years. I used to go to yoga class regularly before Ingrid was born but haven’t done any since then.

Some parts of me are quite flexible still but my back is much stiffer now. I don’t think I can do a proper shoulder stand, and poses that involve lower back twists are hard.

Textile crafts class at school has progressed from weaving friendship bracelets to actual real sewing. Adrian has taken a “sewing machine license” which allows him to use the sewing machines at school without supervision. He loves it, and has already sewn a fleece hat that he is very pleased with.

The hardest part about sewing is finding a suitable project. Adrian wants to make a Pokemon plushie, but most of the photos he finds on the internet have no pattern, and they’re too full of complicated 3d shapes for him to wing it. Like Snom with all its spikes, for example. But Centiskorch, another of his favourite Pokemon, is fundamentally a relatively simple centipede shape that we thought we could figure out.

This is the first time Adrian’s sewing project is actually Adrian’s sewing project, rather than him designing and me executing the design. I provided some construction advice and helped him pin the design to the fabric, but he has been doing all the real work: designing, measuring, drawing, cutting, and sewing.

Today’s video had me trying to touch my toes with a dumbbell.

Had I been on my feet, it wouldn’t even be a challenge. But with my feet pointing towards the ceiling I only succeeded once or twice.

A while ago I moved my workouts from the living room to the bedroom. There are fewer things here that I might knock down or stumble into. Not that I ever did, but it’s even better to not even have to worry about it.

The wool rug feels nice, both when I’m standing up and when I’m down on the floor. Soft but not too soft, and not slippery either. I’ve always liked being barefoot for my workouts – even at Friskis where I was always surrounded entirely by shoe-wearers.

It’s a good thing I don’t drip with sweat like some people. Then I’d need a separate gym area at home.

A crisp, frosty day. I went out in the garden during my lunch break, hoping to find something interestingly frosty, but came back mostly disappointed.

The human eye can see the whole and the details at the same time, and not see distractions. I can see the frosty lawn and the little tips of moss with their spiky coverings of frost, and see their beauty – and not even notice the dead stalks of grass in the moss, for example.

But when I look at the same scene with the camera, I have to choose between the whole and the details. On its own, neither of them is captivating. And when the viewfinder focuses a small part of the lawn, it mercilessly also focuses on the distractions.

Cycled to Sundbyberg yet again to donate yet another pile of outgrown clothes to Myrorna. (That’s a very covid-friendly errand to run: I spend less than a minute inside a warehouse, only a few steps from the door.)

There seems to be no end to outgrown children’s clothes in this house. Ingrid at least might soon be done growing; she’s just a hand’s breadth shorter than me now.

Four socks 100% finished now, after I wove in all the ends. Feels good.

I was going to take photos of the whole finished thing and show off my embroidery but forgot to do it while I had daylight, and these really do deserve daylight. It’s a good thing my colleagues don’t read this blog or otherwise I’d have to keep these under the wraps until after Christmas! (Like I will do with the other pair which I knitted for a family member. He might not even mind, but I still think a Christmas present ought to be at least a little bit of a surprise.)

It feels unfair that the last step of a knitting project would be the least enjoyable one. I don’t enjoy the weaving in of ends. It’s like cooking a meal, seasoning it, tasting it – and then having to end it with peeling potatoes. I even like peeling better than weaving in ends, because you can’t really get the peeling wrong, whereas with the yarn ends I can never get them quite as invisible as I would like.