Daybook midweek when it's cold and I'm just coping

Outside my window the sky is bright vivid blue and the wind is bitingly cold. Today is the first day of the year the heating has gone on for an hour in the morning. The overgrown hedge is full of harvest spiders, and the washing line dripping with some little skeins of brightly coloured sock yarn I just dyed in the kitchen.

I am thinking fuzzy not-enough-sleep thoughts about plans for the next couple of days. Morgan and Jenna both have bags packed for sleep overs with friends. I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night to think much beyond that, though.

I am thankful for warm dressing gowns and slippers.

In the kitchen... I've prepared potatoes and boiled eggs, and sliced vegetables for tea. Jenna is going to make fish pie, but I thought I'd get the trickier bits of prep out of the way for her early in the day. I have grilled courgettes and cauliflower cheese in the oven for lunch, because I'm still freezing cold and cheese sauce seems like a pretty good antidote! 

There are FIVE pumpkins on the dining table. We bought four little ones, then my mum brought a gigantic one over, and now I'm thinking we're going to be eating pumpkin-everything next week (especially since she wants to take them to a little local patch, owned by a young lad Jenna's age, to pick their own for carving).

I am wearing a long red pyjama tunic and brown yoga pants. I have no intention whatsoever of getting dressed today. This morning is the first time since Monday I've felt well.

I am creating bits and pieces, no big project right now (apart from a lace hat design I'm a bit frustrated with and am therefore ignoring for the time being). Hand dyed mini skeins for more gift sets and craft kits for the shop. Some yarn just dry ready to knit a hat and a toddler crown.

I am going to the Knitting and Stitching Show in London on Saturday, on the train, just me and Ashleigh. I'm excited, VERY excited, and also a little anxious about being so very far away from baby. She'll be absolutely fine with her Daddy, I'm sure, and yet I can't help quaking a little at the thought of not being able to get back to her if she needs me.

I am wondering whether the music for Mario Kart was specifically designed to be annoying... I just had to ask Jenna to mute it for me so that Rowan's *very long* attempts at playing the game didn't melt my brain!

I am reading City of Lost Souls (book four in The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare). I read the entire first book before realising I had already read it. It's OK, though, and the series has nicely sucked me in and provided useful escapism while I have been in survival mode.

I am hoping that the mini skeins dry quickly, as I'm impatient to photograph them! :)

More importantly I'm hoping that I can shake this feeling of general exhaustion. Lack of sleep the last two nights, with migraine-y I'd-better-not-be-coming-down-with-something-worse-ness, and a huge confidence blow from an unpleasant woman in town on Monday... I'm hoping that some weekending will bring my shine back.

I am looking forward to, well, Saturday obviously. But also looking forwards to Friday and delivery a customer's yarn in person. And very much looking forwards to some Christmas making (and some presents arriving from other small producers, having given myself a break on the make-everything-myself thing and decided to use some of my earnings to support other businesses).

I am learning the difference between Feather and Fan, and Old Shale lace patterns. I thought I had it figured out, and then somehow managed to use the wrong one in a test swatch. I am also learning to NEVER put laundry in the washing machine, or turn the tumble dryer on, without checking that Talia has not put something helpful (like a Wii remote) in the drum...

Around the house there is still a ridiculous, never-ending, amount of laundry. I know. It deserves a mention every time, because otherwise these Daybook posts really can look very perfect-mama. ;)

Some of my favourite things: peppermint tea, novelty cookie cutters, richly golden merino silk yarn, four year old giggles, random questions like, "can crabs recognise each other?", and packets of fun brightly coloured stickers.

A peek into my day...