Monthly Archives: February 2008

Rough Week Over

It’s been a rough week in my house to say the least.

I, who very rarely get sick, developed pneumonia.  Our teenager got the flu and  my husband  had a very bad cold.  For a few days  There was an unusual  amount of sleeping going on, day and night. My favorite words seemed to be "When did you last have a drink?" and "What is your temperature?"

Thankfully the worst seems to be over. My husband returned to work today. A call to my employer informed me that I am not due back until tomorrow. I am able to knit and do a few household chores without wanting to lie back down. My favorite teenager decided to play a computer game today. We are on the mend. Praise be to God!

Knitting needles were pulled out today with the result that a couple of dishcloths on the needles got completed. I made a pile of recently knitted ones, only to discover there are a lot more waiting to be photographed than imagined. That project will have to wait until another day.

For now, the sun is shining, it is 34 degrees F. outside with a bit of a North wind. February is more than half over and there is the promise of Spring in the air.

Have a great weekend and may God Bless!!

Grounded

Since I am normally a fairly healthy person with lots of energy, it takes a lot to get me down. I have caught what seems to be the local Flu bug. :(  Oh Yuck!! I have the classic symptoms of coughing, sneezing, body aches, elevated body temperature, weakness and being tired ( wiped out ). My truly wonderful and loving husband said "You sound terrible" A call to my friendly physician yesterday resulted in her calling a prescription for antibiotics to my pharmacy. In the fifteen or more years I have been seeing her, this is the first time she has ever called in medication for me without having actually seen me. She is a stickler about such things. Bless her wonderful heart and extremely high sense of ethics!

Not only that, but she has grounded me from yesterday through the weekend. My first response was that she was over reacting a bit. I should have known better. She was wise in doing so. I still feel lousy.  She was right in making that decision. This Lady who sees herself as " just an average physician"  has extraordinarily high standards of ethics, practice and care.

Of course, I am doing all of the right nursing measures: forcing
fluids; extra vitamin C; plenty of antioxidants; extra sleep; extra
rest; Tylenol and taking the antibiotic as ordered. I do feel badly for
my employer, since that means one less nurse on a tight schedule. But
with a high temperature and the symptoms I am experiencing, it is a
violation of conscience and good health practices for me to go to work.
I would much rather be working than home with this stuff any day.

Under the circumstances , what is a person to do? I pondered this question for a  very short time yesterday and came to what seems to be a logical conclusion. I should knit, of course! It keeps my mind and hands busy; does not take much energy; and makes me feel good about myself. In addition,  I like doing it. Yesterday, in a burst of energy, I wove in loose ends on some dish/wash cloths, and completed two more that were almost done. At this point today, there is not the energy or motivation to take pictures of them, but hopefully that will come in a couple of days.

Thank goodness for the ability to knit, knitting needles and a large stash of yarn, threads and patterns. Once again all of those things are holding me in good stead.  Today, I have  done some work, which is really play, on the Building Blocks cloth  by Sue Schaefer. It can be seen just a little bit down the page. She undoubtedly one of my favorite designers and this pattern is no exception. It is working up quickly and easily without using too much concentration, which meets my need today.

 

Another thing for which I am very grateful on days like today is the Internet and email. I can talk with with  family and knitting friends; download free patterns and work ( it is really play ) on my blogs.  These are fun things to do that don’t require much energy and I can stop whenever I choose.

Project Spectrum

This is the first day of Project Spectrum Three. The theme this year is elements: Fire, Earth, Air, Water. Each of these has colors associated with it. The colors for February and March are:orange, red and pink.

I took some time today to go through my yarn stash to find some cotton yarns in these colors. I have decided to make some wash/dishcloths using these colors. The patterns I use will have a Spring based theme. That provided a good reason to search my pattern stash with the result that finding suitable patterns was easy enough.  The hard part was choosing what patterns to use. :)

Home Safely

Days like yesterday will never cease to amaze me. I went to work early today at my employer’s request. Out of habit and an internal need to be prepare, I packed some extra clothing; my medication ;an extra skein of cotton yarn and the current wash cloth being made with a ‘no brainer’ pattern. Since the weatherman was predicting a major winter storm coming our way, I wanted to be prepared to spend the night at work if necessary.

The snow had begun to fall by the time I left the house. That was all right.  It continued to snow off and on for my entire shift. We received updates on road and weather conditions from employees as they arrived. It was going to be fun night to drive home. Oh Yuck!! It goes with the territory, but I don’t have to like it. In typical fashion, the nurses, of which I am one, were the last ones to leave. We got our cars cleaned off and headed out for home.  A trip which normally takes about half an hour to make, took closer to an hour. I got off the highway as soon as possible and chose an alternate way home. It is easier that way in snowy or icy weather. The trip home was slow but steady  going. My vehicle and I made it safely home after what seemed like forever. That was such a good feeling. Nothing equals the feeling of arriving safely home after a perilous journey.

Outdoors looks beautiful now that I am safe and warm inside of my own home surrounded my family. Hopefully I will be up early enough to capture some pictures of the snow in the morning before it gets warm outside.