Wacky Week

This is the story of the little rhinovirus that could (with apologies to Watty Piper).

Once upon a time, the little rhinovirus said, "I think I can, I think I can." The baby got sniffly. Mama said, "Nuh-uh, no way." The little rhinovirus said, "I think I can, I think I can." The four-year-old got sniffly and Mama got a tickly throat. Mama said, "Nuh-uh, no way." The little rhinovirus said, "I think I can, I think I can." The Mama got stuffy, the baby and the four-year-old got coughy and sneezy and snorty and snuffly. Mama said, "Nuh-uh, no way." The little rhinovirus said, "I think I can, I think I can." The four-year-old got hoarse so no one could understand what she was saying. I didn't really matter though because the Mama's head and ears were so congested that she couldn't hear what the four-year-old was saying anyway. The baby continued to produce his body weight in snotters. Mama said, "Nuh-uh, no way." The little rhinovirus said, "I think I can, I think I can." The six-year-old went on a field trip, the snuffly four-year-old trailed along, while a stuffy (and somewhat cranky) Mama carried a snorty baby on her hip in the sling. Mama said, "Nuh-uh, no way." The little rhinovirus said, "I think I can, I think I can." The six-year-old woke up the next day coughing and sneezing, the four-year-old were still snot-encrusted, the baby was blowing snot-bubbles of Olympic caliber, and the Mama discovered that she had put out her back carrying the baby around. Mama said, "Dude, I give up. You win, you nasty little bug." The little rhinovirus proceeded to get prissy and strut around announcing, "I knew I could, I knew I could," until Mama smacked the snot out of the little brat.

Other than the stupid cold, we have been having a nice week. On Tuesday, Bug went to the Aldo Leopold Nature Center to learn about Maple Syrup. They got to taste sap and syrup and my little connoisseur was the only one in the group that preferred the fake stuff to real maple syrup. I guess the bright side is that means he has beer tastes on a beer budget, right? He also got to carry a yoke with buckets and drill in a log with a brace and bit, learned how to identify a sugar maple in bud (sharp buds), and saw trees with sap collection buckets. I think we will go, as a family, to the MacKenzie Environmental Education Center on April 4th for their Maple Syrup Festival so the rest of us can check things out!

I got about 20-25 rows into the February Lady Sweater yoke and discovered that I had dropped a stitch about ten rows back so I frogged back, got all the stitches back on the needle, noodled around to get all the stitch back where they belonged, counted and recounted the stitches (and recounted a few more times) and accepted the inevitability of missing one stitch somewhere. I couldn't find it, though my best guess was in the buttonhole. Since I was (a) one stitch short, (b) thought the first buttonhole looked a lot wonkier than the second buttonhole (which vanished when I frogged back to reclaim the dropped stitch), and (c) was not convinced by the order (left leaning vs. right leaning) of my increases for the raglan, I decided to start over. None of these three alone (or probably even in pairs) was enough to convince me, but all three apparently pushed me over the tipping point. So far, I am just past where I was when I took the picture early in the week and am MUCH happier with both the buttonhole and my increases, so it's all good.

We also got our tomato seeds into little peat pellets to start them on Tuesday night. It will be fun watching the little seedlings grow and getting ready to start a real garden! We have also spent an unusual amount of time playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii and watching videos and reading and otherwise laying low to let our bodies fight the virus. We all seem to be on the mend, so we just need to let the darn thing run its course.