Week in the life: Tuesday

On Monday I took some pictures. On Tuesday I didn't remember to take any pictures at school, even though I had my camera with me. This makes no pics from 5:45 to 17:00.

The Tuesday was not a regular school day. We had four lessons and then student-parent-teacher conferences.

I like the fall conferences because besides helping to set a direction for the rest of the year together the students already have many positive things to share about their learning. The conference also brings out  the student personalities more. Most are as confident as in class, others suddenly become shy and don't want to say a word. Parents and children left the conferences with smiles.
My favorite meeting was with a student who seems to catch everything on a go but now she admitted that some things are challenging for her. I am glad she isn't just cozy and comfortable, that she feels challenged and is willing to work hard.

When I got home and unpacked, I remembered my camera. So here is the rest of the day, or some of it.
Surprisingly I was the first one home. Mimm had a dance training, Kerstin had to go to a theatre in the evening so she had stayed in town, and hubby was still at work.

I have tried to adapt the habit of keeping kitchen counters clean. Occasionally I feel successful but most of the time the spaces fill up quickly. Having flowers to take up space isn't a bad option. Yesterday the counter also held candy and a pineapple that my hubby had received for his birthday, a home-made juice bottled in a wine bottle that is too tall to fit in the cupboard, kitchen towel and apples. The clay head is a permanent countertop habitant. Having a mirror against the wall seems to double the clutter. Yet, I like the mirror. On fine days it mirrors the trees through the kitchen window.

A habit I am trying to quit is eating before making dinner. Yesterday the fridge was rather empty but not empty enough. I made a cheese sandwich. At least it wasn't my turn to cook. My hubby had agreed to take care of the dinner. Grocery shopping was also on his to-do-list.

One way to eat less is to drink more tea. I highly appreciate that I have frozen peppermint leaves. I wonder how many tea pics do I end up by the end of this week.
The kettle is rather old and I would like to get a new one. But since it is functioning fine I won't buy one just because the new one would look better. With an ancient (well, 15 year old) toaster I had a clever trick. I took it to the countryside where it still serves us well. May-be the same destiny waits this kettle.

 With no-one home yet and with my hubby's turn to cook, I felt guilt free opening my laptop. The picture is more about the apple.  I have a bad habit starting to drink tea or eat a snack, then going off doing something else and then discovering the almost cold tea and half-eaten snack. Fortunately this apple didn't have to wait long.

I like when my husband shops and cooks. He is a very good cook and makes delicious apple pies. Yesterday he used the jars of beetroot soup bases my sister and mom had made recently. He just had to chop some potatoes and add a bit meat.
I don't like my kitchen very much. When we bought the apartment we didn't have any more money left to buy a new kitchen so we kept what the old owners had had. I'd like to have something lighter. I am ready for a new kitchen but I have some excuses for not doing much about it: I lack home the design gene, no one in our family is skillful enough to fix up the kitchen by ourselves, it takes time and money to renovate the kitchen, I can't decide whether I need or want a new kitchen.
The good thing about the kitchen is an old sofa that we were supposed to get rid of and was temporarily stored in the kitchen. Everyone loves it, so now it has dropped its plan to leave.
While my hubby cooked, Mimm had arrived home and now we sat on the sofa and she told me about her day, school life and musical practice, about what her friends had said and what some cartoon characters had done.

I decided to take a picture of the soup. It really made my husband's eyebrows go up. He wondered whether I was becoming the person sharing my every bite with the rest of the world. I assured it was just a one time project for my blog and no other social media.

Tuesday is a Slice of Life day. It takes time to write the post and comment on others. I can't imagine not writing. I can't remember what I did before I started blogging. While I sat behind the screen, my hubby and daughter played Mario Cart.

I was the first one ready to go to bed. At 9:00 o'clock I was in my PJ-s. Looking through the lens I thought that my bedside table was rather sad holding only PD books. Even though I have been to the bookstores and libraries I have difficult time choosing something to read currently. So I took "The God Of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy from a book self for a reread.

The last picture of the day I took with my phone.


The two days have left me with some thoughts:

• it feels unnatural to take pics of mundane things, but I approach this task as an experiment
• I am surrounded by people most of the day, yet I don't take pics of them
• the light in my home is too dark and yellow, fine for living but not for taking pics
• my pics have grains and noise but I have no clue what to do about it 
• I don't know enough about my camera and I feel photography illiterate
• I can't find the manual and I am afraid to mess up the camera if I just start playing with it
• it seems to me that I am rather predictable in my routines
• I wonder whether this project is more suitable for someone whose life is not so bound to school and home and who has more creativity in her life
• I will never get better at taking pics unless I take pictures, lots of them