Battling the flu (and some handspun)

This past weekend, three out of the four children had intermittent fevers, coughs, and other related yuckiness. We stayed away from the public, and had a rather lovely time together as a family.

I made a big pot of brothy New Year Noodle Soup (via 101cookbooks), because it seemed like the sort of thing sick people (and people who are trying not to get sick) should be eating.




Between the earthiness of the beans in the spicy broth, the sweet buttery flavor of the caramelized onions on top along with a cool scoop of sour cream, it was both fortifying and delicious. I served it with rice noodles and extra Serrano peppers chopped on the side for those of us who need an extra spicy kick (that would be me).

By Monday, everyone was fine except for Elijah, who still had a high fever and seemed even sicker than before. I took him to the Dr., and he tested positive for the Flu. They wrote a note to the school, excusing him for the week.  Yes, the whole entire week.


It's been a little bit hectic for the past few days, because Elijah and Lavella generally do exactly the thing that will make the other stark raving mad, and can't seem to find much common ground for peaceful play. In fact, the better Elijah feels (thanks to prayers, meds, rest and cuddles), the worse the conflict between the two, and without the pragmatic and diplomatic Andrew around all day, things have been interesting around here, to say the least. They did, however, have at least 5 minutes of happiness cutting paper into tiny bits in the living room this morning.




So at least there's that.

Also, do you remember when I first started spinning that bump of hot pink and dark orange cormo a while back? Yeah, me neither. But this weekend, I finished the singles:




And got it plied and skeined and washed:






Strawberry Mango 2-ply, 420 yds fingering/sport weight handspun.





The yarn isn't perfect by any means, but it's not bad for such stop-start progress over the past few months. Mostly, I'm glad to have it off the wheel, because it had been there long enough to feel sort of like a weight on my shoulders of Unfinished-ness, and I really hate it when that happens.

I have no idea what I will do with it. In fact, I have absolutely nothing on the needles right now. I swatched for 2 more projects yesterday, and still, none of the yarn will make gauge with any pattern that I want to make. Problematic. Also, I am not interested in writing my own pattern, or just going for it.  It's almost enough to make me cast on for a garter stitch scarf just to have something to knit.  Almost.