A Stripey Mind Vacation

Trekking XXL color 723

Thank goodness for good yarn, am I right? This sock has been my much needed "mind vacation" in the past week or so, as life has gotten quite a bit more difficult here. Changes brought by the pandemic have made operating a business very difficult, and while not impossible, certainly more time consuming and costly. I'm sure I'll share more later, when my mind is right. But importing, exchange rates, the unpredictability of raw materials and shipments.... well, the constant changes are a lot. And we haven't even been able to be open to the public for seven months, which is a big hit as well. Thank goodness we are safely shipping.

Now we've added back the unpredictability of schooling, as my kids' school currently (as of a week ago) only has 3 of the 13 grades in person. The rest are all remote again until after Thanksgiving break. Which is fine in a way because with COVID rates rising the way they are all over, I want them home and safe (our hospitals are full here and staff overworked). But they have had so few cases at their schools and were really doing a marvelous job at keeping the kids safe. But I know it takes more than just kids to make a school work, and there has to be staff, subs, admins.... so here we are again in the remote learning for a few weeks.

How are you all doing? Are you keeping up? Are you carving out times for joy? Is your life same as always or are you, like me, just trying to figure it out day to day?

Volleyball has long been my stress relief and such a wonderful part of my life, but that's just not something I'm able to do right now, with COVID rates the way they are. So instead cooking new things lately has brought me a lot of good feels. The kids are enjoying having three hot squares again, rather than a rushed breakfast, a packed lunch and a good dinner. They are really getting fed here (as are me and Terry). This morning it was pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes and green smoothies. Lunch will be leftovers of this Chicken Gnocchi soup, and dinner has yet to be determined. It might be take out. And there's also leftover pineapple upside down cake. Cooking and knitting are my go-to's for stress relief, I guess. So if you have receipes that you love to make (I've made that soup twice in the past 10 days- highly recommend) please do send them my way!

I hope you're healthy and well. I hope you have a shoulder to lean on and a good knit next to you. 

Comments

[Joyce Morrow]

Cooking and knitting are my comfort activities, too. I think we may be drawing from the same blog/cookbook as I am gathering together the ingredients for the chicken gnocchi soup to make up this week. It sounds wonderful! I enjoy your blog and all your efforts to maintain connection with your customers. I live alone and by age and health must be very isolated so I rely on folk like you a lot. Thank you!

[Alison]

Trekking stripes are so good!

My favorite new recipe is https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/tuna_patties/ My husband isn't a big tuna fan but still likes them.

[Shaw Mumford]

Mind vacation knitting is my new favorite phrase! Much to my dismay I discovered at the beginning of the year that my chronic digestive issues are due to wheat, so I have not been baking as much as I used to. The iPhone game Stardew Valley has been by alternative. While it has less calories than bread or muffins or cookies, it also discourages movement, so I think it is a net wash.

[Kathy Robbins]

Heart wishes to your family for a safe holiday season.

[Dana]

Things have really been hard for me. I teach French and I’m shared between 5 schools so I have a lot of levels mixed in one class. The hard thing before was trying to juggle everything at once but now I have to make all my lessons available online and it’s been a struggle to keep up with that and grades and everything else thrown our way. I actually left school one day and cried for an hour and told them I wasn’t coming back. I did go back though. My kids say, you better not leave us! It’s gotten some better and once my lessons are made, I won’t have to do much but some tweeking next semester. I have about 30% of my kids who opted to learn from home so I zoom my lesson to them everyday and just do it once with my in person kids. They are super good and wear their masks. Wednesday’s are virtual for everyone and we can wear jeans everyday! I only have one pair so I have to dress up more till I get a couple more pair. My kids keep saying they should pay me more. Lol. We are getting a bonus hazard pay at the end of the month. :) They find my mistakes which is great cause I miss things! I have been working so much that it’s taken my knitting time away. But I still manage to find time. My husband got me a neck light cause I wake up at 5 and want to knit. Lol. He’s not so enthusiastic about it. I’m looking forward to advent knits! I have at least 4 projects that I can think of. I need to finish a baby blanket though. So some fun things that I’ve done.... We’re staying home for thanksgiving and decorating for Christmas! And, we won a Halloween costume contest! One of the neighboring towns has a theatre. They offer their productions at the drive in! We went to see Dracula and the Lefend of sleepy hollow! They have the stage and then they project the live play on the screen and we stayed in our car! We had to send in a picture so we sent in our costumes from last year. We were Dwight and Angela from the office! We won 2 tickets to a Christmas production, also at the drive in. We going to see A Christmas Story thanksgiving weekend. I’m really excited! It was a lot of fun. I was actually bad this weekend and went with a friend to have our nails done and went to a gnome paint party. I don’t usually go anywhere but work, the store and the park to run. It was so wonderful! Thank you for offering so many beautiful yarns. I’ve been going crazy and I can’t say I have done some stress buying. I love the new Malabrigo color! I just got it today. Debating on more for a sweater! My dad might get a hat from it! I haven’t been cooking as much now that I’m married cause he grills some and we get take out. Work has just been so crazy! He has been so awesome and let’s me knit and will clean up! We have more restrictions in VA but it’s not effecting schools. Large gatherings are back to 25 and they can’t sell alcohol after 10. Not a problem since I’m in bed. Lol Keep safe adn healthy! I can’t wait for next weeks sock sets! Like I need more yarn but I want it! Hope you have a wonderful thanksgiving!

[Jessica]

I really miss working as an epidemiologist. I feel useless. I'm an author and work from home while helping my kids get through remote learning. My 8th grader's grades are terrible, and we don't know what her problem is. She lies that she's doing her work and doesn't. She'll claim she turned it in and the teacher didn't update the grades in the portal, which turns out to be fake news. This child has been an A/B student and is currently failing art. Last quarter, she got a C- in algebra yet is gifted in math. Doesn't ask for help, has her own room, a desk and her own Chromebook. My husband and I were gifted ourselves, so we can certainly assist (I mean, I went through graduate level math... I can do algebra!).

So I have an MPH but no job in public health during a pandemic (only hiring contact tracers, and those require customer service experience that I don't have). I am home with my kids but one kid is failing in remote learning.

I've been very distracted, which cuts into knitting time.

I'm seeing my doctor today about a health problem that's gone on for a month... I have Hashimoto's disease, and now I'm developing symptoms of Celiac or IBS, and I need to know what's going on. I know that once a person has one autoimmune disease, they're more likely to get another.

On the plus side, my Christmas shopping is done, and I have everything we need for Thanksgiving dinner.

I'm working on getting an outdoor shelter for a stray cat we feed. My kids love this cat, but with our allergies and asthma, we can't have an indoor pet. So I'm hoping to set up one of those stray cat shelters with a foam cooler within a tub and some straw in it. That's if the no-kill shelter that I'm a lifetime member of won't accept the cat. This cat *adores* kids. My kids, all kids. So I don't want it to freeze to death in our cold Ohio winter.