Jammie Day

 I got up this morning and staggered downstairs, making only a minor attempt to cough up my right lung as I did so – which is a considerable improvement in my health, so I put in a load of laundry and made coffee and surveyed the disaster that we’re calling a home. Joe and Sam were on their own for a week, and it shows. Sure, they do dishes, and cook and clean – Joe had fresh sheets on the bed for me when I arrived home, and I noted the freshly cleaned bathroom with as much glee as I could muster, but when I’m not here,  the house just sort of comes unglued.  That’s the only way I know how to put it. It’s like whatever fragile system that holds this house together needs me to work, and when I’m gone these tenuous bonds disappear and the whole house starts falling apart like something out of a science fiction movie.  For example, last Friday when I left, I owned five laundry baskets.  Today, I appear to have two and there’s no word on where the others might be. Everything in the fridge smells funny and there’s ice cream, but no bread, and it turns out it must be me who sorts the mail, because there’s a mountain of it on the dining room table along with Joe’s 25 year old Royal Canadian Sea Cadet uniform, which I really can’t explain, except to think that as the systems that run the house dissolved they ravelled the continuity of time while they went. 

We could use some groceries, I really should unpack and sort out all my teaching stuff, and I have a huge backlog of email and work to do – the scope of what I should be accomplishing today is amazing, and yet, I can’t do it.  I really can’t.  I don’t seem to even be able to get dressed, and while I managed to toss that single load of laundry in, that was apparently the sum total of all the housework I can bring myself to face.  It doesn’t make sense, because last week when I felt like death I kept on trucking, and here I am today, feeling a ton better and I’m sitting around in my jammies. There’s a discordance between what I should be doing and what I am doing, and I can’t even seem to work up the energy to care. Normally taking a day off like this, I mean really, really taking a day off, not doing hardly anything when things really need doing makes me feel sort of guilty, but not today. I’m tired.  I have the tail end of this wicked cold/flu/black death, and yesterday I fell off my bike (literally) and you know what?

I feel like I have a lot of knitting to do today, and that I might have a nap, and screw the laundry. Screw it.  There’s absolutely nothing in this house that’s so important that it can’t wait a day for a sane, healed, healthy woman who can think in straight lines to do it.  The kitchen floor doesn’t even care if it’s clean, it’s inanimate, and if that email waited three days, it can wait four. 
I’m taking a day, I’m kicking this colds arse, and I think I can finish the wingspan I started Saturday night, and that feels plenty productive to me.

115 thoughts on “Jammie Day

  1. Go for it! Take the day off and just do whatever you feel like. It’s the best part of being your own boss that you can pace yourself. Sure enough, eventually panic will set in and you’ll switch back into work-like-a-dog mode, but for now, enjoy the spring sunshine (I just checked the CBC to see that it actually is sunny in TO) and knit something, anything. You’ll feel better for it.

  2. Absolutely and completely – you need a day off. Even knitting for you is work – so you need a day to knit what YOU want to. Or not. If the floor chared if it was clean, my floor would have divorced me long ago. My husband doesn’t even really care – he just wants a healthy, happy wife. Feel better soon!

  3. Sounds like perfectly good reasoning to me. I skipped house cleaning on Saturday to work on Romi Hill’s Pulelehua and I didn’t have nearly as good an excuse as yours.

  4. I feel the same way. Trying to work is resulting in no work. Sometimes you just need a day where there are no responsibilities.
    Molly : )

  5. Sounds like an excellent decision. Rest up and while you are doing it, enjoy your knitting.

  6. I so feel your pain. I’ve had charge, for a month, of each of our six grandchildren(all 6 years of age and under), at varying times, over the past four weeks. Today is the last day…waiting the daughter and son-in-law to retrieve her as I type this (baby is napping). If said parents don’t show up, CPS (Child Protective Services) will be put on alert.
    I say all this with humor as all three of our children are excellent parents. It’s just that they are each celebrating milestones…30th birthday, 40th birthday, 10th wedding anniversary…this spring. And, last winter, when the requests came in for our assistance, it all seemed so manageable. Wrong. So very wrong.
    When this cherub of an 8 month-old departs, my jammies, which are draped seductively across the bed, will be on this tired body faster than you can say good-bye.

  7. I know how you feel. This morning I was up and at ’em and then at 8:30 a.m. I found myself back in bed and when I woke up two hours laters, I had not moved. Sleep, drink tea and knit.

  8. I know how you feel. This morning I was up and at ’em and then at 8:30 a.m. I found myself back in bed and when I woke up two hours later, I had not moved. Sleep, drink tea and knit.

  9. Please go & lie down. The Blog thinks you need the rest & The Blog is rarely wrong.

  10. If anyone deserves a day off, it is you! You will be ready to take on the world again tomorrow. Have a cup of tea and put up your feet!

  11. i’m busier now that i’m retired than i was while working, so i try to manage a pj day at least twice a month. they’re therapeutic.

  12. Didn’t you just (sorta) get back from lugging a cold throughout the upper Midwest of the States? A day of rest and knitting is exactly what you need!
    Enjoy the Day!

  13. Joe was a Royal Canadian Sea Cadet? I want pictures. Can’t resist a man in uniform. (You rest and get better. Then show us pics of your husband–er, knitting.)

  14. Yup, everybody needs a personal day once in a while 🙂 Even workaholic knitting superstars who raise three beautiful daughters, knit for ALL the babies, and rally knitters around the world.
    Take it easy!

  15. Rest. Drink tea with honey. Knit the wingspan. When you’re feeling better, maybe you should think about taking some Emersion-C on a daily basis. Just sayin’.

  16. HEY Slow down —don’t push the river –be good to yourself —ENJOY the illness as a time to think! Be good to yourself. (few will)

  17. I take a day like that as a sign. Not that the world is end, but that it might if I don’t take a rest. Day of rest complete, world looks more tolerable.

  18. I can attest that kitchen floors absolutely thrive with neglect. If this were not so, mine would have been designated as a science experiment gone wrong a long time ago. Backed up laundry? When the hamper is so full that it has overflowed to the floor and impedes the opening of the bathroom door then yes, you have a back-up. (I do. And the saddest part is I have not been on a trip or had a cold.There is no good excuse for this.) Life will go on as it always has. Rest and knit. You have my blessing.

  19. Take it from granny, kiddo, the well runs dry. Think of your rest days–(yes, granny thinks you need more than one) as priming the pump. Curl up in your jammies and bunny slippers and knit–or not

  20. Oooo…I’m working on a Wingspan I’ve started three times. I ran out of yarn the first two time, but I think I’ve got enough of this one. Then it’s on to Color Affection/Infection for me. Housework just can’t matter as much as knitting a Wingspan.

  21. Pajama days are meant for times like this. Be good to yourself and fully recuperate. On another note–the wingspan was the popular pattern of our knit group’s retreat this past April. The projects were beautiful. Just as yours will be.

  22. I’m thinking that someone there needs to wait on you hand and foot and then leave you alone. Also tell your boss (who I’m sure will be checking in with you later) to shut it.
    Tea, knitting, sleep.

  23. Sounds like me. When I HAVE to be somewhere and do some things because I COMMITTED to it, I slog through death itself. But at home occasionally I hit that wall, and just.can.not.go.on. You’ll thank yourself for this break. This, too, shall pass.

  24. Sounds like me. When I HAVE to be somewhere and do some things because I COMMITTED to it, I slog through death itself. But at home occasionally I hit that wall, and just.can.not.go.on. You’ll thank yourself for this break. This, too, shall pass.

  25. I think this is one of the most sensible posts I’ve read on the whole blogosphere in a while. In fact, take two days, or three, if you need them. GET WELL. Have done beating yourself up because your family leaves you a mess.

  26. When I reach the point where you are, I declare that I have come down with a case of the vapors, which means I am doing nothing but sitting, reading, knitting and watching soothing, calming tv as well as taking a nap if I feel like it. It’s amazing how restoring it can be. I hope it works for you!

  27. Go. Sleep. Watch useless television. Don’t worry about knitting.
    Tea and sleep. Go be “lazy” as some might harken to call this, so that you can rise again and be the Super Woman that you are.

  28. “Recovery from Mother’s Day Day”? Works for me!!
    Have a great day off!

  29. Go take a shower and put on some clean jammies – you will be amazed at how good that feels. Enjoy your day off. You deserve it.

  30. Take care of yourself! A little dirt never killed anyone; also Joe and Sam are big people they can take care of themselves and You. Let them.
    Side note: I just finished a wingspan and I added two extra triangles. It just seemed to need that little extra. It will be interesting to see if you think so too.

  31. You are like the chemical bonds that hold different elements together to make molecules! Like hydrogen and oxygen create water, without you, they are just free elements without bonds. Hope you feel better soon!

  32. Oh my gosh….you’re going to finish Wingspan and Color Affection before I ever finish the Wingspan I started at Camp. I blame three things: 1. my need for sleep, 2. my need for money (which means I have to work), and 3. my own laziness.
    Can’t wait to see that you’re feeling better and to see the finished Wingspan. I bet it’s gorgeous!

  33. “Dull women have immaculate houses.” I live by that statement. Rest, relax, drink tea with brandy and honey, and don’t worry about the rest.
    It will be ready when you are.

  34. Sounds like you have the same kind of nasty cold/flu that’s hit my family. The only people who’ve kicked it were the people who took a day (or several) off. So you are doing something. You are giving your immune system the time and energy to beat it!

  35. Barenjager! One part Barenjager (honey liqueur) with 2 parts herbal tea of choice. Crawl into bed. With knitting. and/or book. And Barenjager w/tea. Unplug phone and computer. Enjoy your healing time!

  36. It can’t be that bad–I mean, you were scrubbing baseboards not so long ago! Rest on your laurels. Or at least rest, and get well!

  37. I know how you feel, I have been battling a sinus infection/cold/bronchitis for a week but I am starting to get better. Hang in there, and I hope you feel better.

  38. Was with you until you suggested that one day would make you both healthy and sane. Calling Joe to suggest restraints and IVs. Knit on.

  39. I wish your blog had a “like” button for days like today when that would say it all.
    LIKE. 🙂

  40. Steph, my working definition of a “good day” is this: When you go to sleep with all the same organs and body parts you woke up with, it’s been a good day. Anything between the waking up and going to sleep is a bonus.
    Give yourself a break!

  41. You’re allowed. Besides, playing hooky isn’t nearly as much fun if you DON’T have work to do.

  42. I so know how you feel! I do not think that I could knit if I felt as bad as you sound! I think tea and my favorite radio station turned down low to lull me back to sleep would be just the ticket! Hope the rest does you good!

  43. Good for you Steph! Get better and rest up. It will wait another day or even two. Joe, please go buy a loaf of bread, and make sure there is enough coffee and tea in the pantry.

  44. And, you left the States, just before Mother’s Day, which seems wrong, somehow. So, take today as a make up for the Mother’s Day you just missed. feel better soon.

  45. SO glad to hear you are resting. You deserve a week off after teaching with your rough cold!!!! I hope you can ease back into it with some light work tomorrow… or something! Still can’t thank you enough for teaching through your illness.

  46. Notice how The Blog is an enabler.
    And if you spent last week valiantly teaching while “dying”, then did bike training for your ride this weekend, you more than deserve a day to sit in your jammies and knit (and maybe eat ice cream?)…

  47. Good for you – you deserve it! BTW – I finished your last book this past week. I can relate to so many of the stories in it that I think we might be related somehow! Thanks again for another great read!
    Get better:)

  48. ” The kitchen floor doesn’t even care if it’s clean, it’s inanimate”.
    I really think I might put that on a t-shirt.

  49. {{{{Hugs}}}}
    Get the rest you need.
    The most important ingredient for getting well is rest.
    Penny

  50. i hear you sister and sometimes you have to just let the world spin.

  51. Please, please show your completed Wingspan and any and ALL mods you made to the pattern. I supposedly completed a Wingspan strictly according to the pattern, and it is a MESS! WAy too short to be anything useful. So either I did something really wrong, or everyone modified their wingspan to make them longer.

  52. You’re exhausted. That’s it. Pure and simple, exhausted. It is time to rest and not think those guilty thoughts of what you should or shouldn’t do.
    The house diodn’t really fall apart. Its just that you are used to seeing it differently. Everything changes. Simply rest and let your body rejuvenate itself. It will know when it is time to start up again. Be wise. Let go of all the self-criticism and just breathe. Smile.

  53. Joe was a sea cadet? Awesome! My 4 kids went through and loved it… Agamemnon, Windsor. It got called eggs-n-ham-enon all the time. Did he get called a push pin/thumb tack because of the hat?

  54. All I can say is “been there, done that and will do it again in the near future” I will say that as we get older…those days show up more and more. All the more reason to keep LOTS of yarn on hand. One must knit to survive these kinds of days.

  55. I’m still at work and what I should be doing is work. But, I’m taking a break and reading your blog and you know what…you’ve got the right idea. Sadly if I wish to remain employed, I will need to finish a few more things tonight, but then I’m going home to the sofa and some knitting. Thanks for the inspiration / attitude adjustment.

  56. What a coincidence- I started Wingspan on Saturday night too! I’m using Poems sock yarn in Aurora Borealis. Can’t wait to see yours. Hope you feel better. At least it’s a mindless pattern to plug along with.

  57. I read this post to my husband, and he wants to let you know that he knows how you feel. Our house is like yours except it comes unglued if my hubs is the one gone, not me.

  58. It’s okay to give it a rest.
    I have no such excuse, and a towhee (robin type bird) just hopped up on the window ledge and looked down at the birdseed I’d spilled on the rug: hey, lady, how come you aren’t inviting me in to eat?

  59. Rest is good. Especially rest that comes at the end of sickness when you feel like you can actually knit again.
    I’m excited that you chose Wingspan (assuming it’s for the fantastic yarn you were hunting for a pattern for a while ago?) – I’m looking forward to seeing it!

  60. It is now after 6pm Toronto time. Start adding a little brandy or whisky to that hot tea with honey and lemon. Encourage Millie to purr for you, and get Joe to rub your shoulders (or feet, your preference). Get a good night’s sleep, and I bet you’ll feel much better tomorrow.

  61. oh yes. please rest. A cold, responsiblities, travel and having to be ‘ON’ is a drain. (fun parts, but a drain…) Hope your day was filled with naps. I just discovered Wingspan, fascinating thing.

  62. Why is everyone avoiding any discussion of the rapture of 3 laundry baskets? Or is it a molecular level reassignment of laundry baskets into a Sea Cadet uniform? An Alien abduction perchance? Where is the laundry that inhabited these baskets? What was the nature of this laundry?
    You must be tired to not ponder these questions.

  63. “An immacculate house is a sign of a misspent life.” — Anonymous
    “Dust is Nature’s way of protecting your cherished possessions from ultraviolet radiation.” — Nicewitch
    “Never do ANY housework – after the first three years, the dirt doesn’t get any worse.” — Quentin Crisp

  64. @just me- I can’t speak for anyone else, but the number of laundry baskets in my house is so fluid that it never really crossed my mind as an item of discussion. It’s irritating when they disappear, but they always come back- sometimes they bring friends, which is somehow more troubling to me.

  65. Whatever needs to be done today will still be there tomorrow—when you don’t feel well it isn’t important to do anything but get better!!!

  66. oh my goodness, that sounds like my house.
    This week — we have child who returned from college stuff in the living room and hall. I think he believes that it will miraculously be put away. (read miracle = mother who can’t stand it anymore.)
    sigh sigh sigh

  67. I’m having one of those days too. Your RCSCC hubby will appreciate this: I was CV this weekend for an FTX at RMNACSTC as a test run before submitting paperwork for RCACS CI. Novelty of MREs wore off after first bite. I did indeed take my knitting with me! Today more exhausted than I can recall, but hope to get final paperwork in later this week. 🙂

  68. You do the housework and six months later you just have to do it all again…
    Rest and knit, knit and rest. And write to us if you feel like it.

  69. In Ireland Jammie means lucky….was a bit confused by the post until I sorted out that you meant staying in your PJs all day….for the record we call that a Duvet Day…feel better 🙂

  70. you are absolutely right. nothing is as important as your health and sanity at this moment. Go rest. Go knit.

  71. You totally need to do nothing but rest for two days, not one, silly billy!

  72. YOu’ve fought off the flu/black death for a week and you wonder why you’re tired? I know it is very hard for Mothers to admit people can do without them but really the world can cope while you collapse. REST and enjoy your convalescence.
    When you are better I second the request for Joe in Sea Cadet uniform. 🙂

  73. I caught an awful cold/cough at the end of March and I still have a tickle in my throat. I drank a lot of hot lemon with honey and the only knitting that I could manage was a garter stitch scarf. Take it easy and rest!!

  74. I too am sick. Like lay on the couch, the stairs are too much, so sorry I sleep in the basement and the kitchen is upstairs sick. Nothing that time won’t heal, but boy do I feel lazy.
    My plan- I started a beautiful stranded shawl. Of course directions were too much for me to understand in my mucus induced haze so I have had to start over once so far. We’ll have to see if I can manage from here, I think I have the pattern established so it should correctable if I have a little screw up! Also, lots of hot water. I prefer lime in mine, but Jack isn’t so bad either.
    Pattern: Thistle by The Needle Lady http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/thistle-3

  75. I am on this same misery ship with you. Honestly I can’t believe how you have kept going through flu…kept working…and then flew home while sick. I can hardly move…every bone in my body is screaming profanities, with chills and fever. You have earned the right to stay in your jammies forever as far as I am concerned. Stephanie you rock.

  76. Amen! Go for it! You’ll be better for you and everyone else after you give yourself a chance to rest. I wish I could join you, but it’s a school day and that means I have to work.

  77. I love that Joe put on clean sheets. That was always a request of mine when I was absent on occassion, just crawling into your own bed with clean sheets.
    I think I am in your email pile and I am not really counting on a response, sick or otherwise. Seriously, on your food chain, I’d be a slug.
    I’ll wave to the universe that you shake this thing and soon.

  78. I don’t know how you feel about Knit Picks, but if you haven’t found the yarn you want yet, they have a nice DK weight cotton-linen blend called CotLin in a good range of colors that I have used and like very much. Best, randmknitter

  79. We all need a personal day!
    Do you have an opinion on yarn bowls? They are pretty but are they functional?

  80. Tomorrow todo list shouldn’t be longer than: one load of laundry, grocery store run, knit and or spin, rest, and rest. Not letting yourself get 100% well before you go full steam ahead is the easiest way to get sick again.
    I shouldn’t have gone to the wingspan link – another pattern in my todo list. 😉

  81. Everyone *needs* a day like that from time to time. NO guilt. Just do what you want, rest when you want, and feel better.

  82. The flu/plague came through here last night, with two falling victim, and me on Nurse Duty. I admit, it warmed my heart to know that my “grown up” 19 year old just wanted to know if I was home from the store yet because he just felt better knowing I was in the house.
    Keeping the house together is a strange power we have. If only that power could be harnessed and focused on other objectives, like finding my cell phone each time I lose it!
    Praying for your quick recovery.

  83. Enjoy your loafday! The house won’t fall down while you’re contending with your crud. (Well, maybe lean a little considering its age.) 😉

  84. I have noticed that every time you travel, you get sick. It must get a little tedious after awhile – the pleasures of travel and meeting people, and the rebound of needing to rest and recover. I know it’s your job, but there’s gotta be a better way.

  85. I completely concur with you. Sometimes you just need a day. Not just when you are sick/recovering, but sometimes because you are out of spoons (cope) and the only way to get some back is to decompress. Good luck on the Wingspan!

  86. Get better soon. I totally understand about the house needing ‘a woman’s touch’. Whenever I return home from a holiday I need a full day to clean and then order the part, or the new appliance, that always mysteriously breaks when I’m away. I don’t understand that.

  87. I have a lousy cold, too, and I have been soldiering on for days. I shall take a leaf out of your book and recline, swanlike (more or less), on the sofa for the rest of the day.
    I feel like thanking you for giving me permission, which is silly, but true.

  88. My experience is that sometimes the ONLY thing that will finally kill a cold is if you get a really good, restful nap. And it has to be made a higher priority than all the other things of priority. Not optional.

  89. rest, drink tea, snuggle on the chesterfield and knit. Perhaps a bit of novel reading. More tea. Harder drinks as necessary.
    I spent a week in the hospital starting Fat Tuesday. When I got home, no one had even brought any mail in from the box since the day I left. They did manage to load the dishwasher the day I came home but did not put in any soap or turn it on….

  90. I have a question that I know knitters can answer ~ Did anyone who had Nancy Bush’s original Folk Socks book buy the updated book and think it was worth it? I have been trying to be more selective in my knitting/spinning/weaving book buying lately due to space. If it is almost the same as the first book, I probably won’t want to buy it.

  91. It’s because you are “The Mom”. Certain tasks, once adopted by, defaulted to, or performed by The Mom, cannot be assigned or delegated to anyone else. I believe this is a well-documented fact, and, I am quite certain, was contained in the endless The Mom’s Rule Book that is standard issue with the first child. It is easy to remember how it goes, really: (1) what your mom said and did; (2) what her mom said and did; (3) other duties as assigned or not performed by others.

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