It’s been a rough week. Work-wise, anyhow. Grand deadlines paired with all sorts of other scenarios have me really stressed out. I am exhausted each evening. The chest cold continues to make me cough and wheeze and feel less than 100%, so on top of all that stress, I feel cruddy. I am not the most pleasant person to be around right now.

Now, Mr. Ink is really one of those most solid of all solid partners. As he ALWAYS does, he’s doing whatever he can to support me through this. He’s been known to run out and buy chocolate, make favorite meals, employ a margarita to lead to a good ol’ vent session he can listen to, etc. He’s been up every morning early to make me breakfast before I head out the door. And, he is the type of person who may exclaim as I put on my coat something like “You look beautiful!” or “Your outfit looks so stylish!” or “What an amazing color combination!” or “You always look so elegant!”

These are the things that give that extra boost of confidence as I get in my car to head to work.

And then the workday drags on and gets increasingly frustrating and I come home fairly defeated and wishing I could run away for a while. And then we start the entire process again. I’ll go to bed early, try to get more sleep, practice good knitting “self care” and when that doesn’t work, watch a comedy TV show (Letterkenny is a current favorite) or read a book. I’ll have another margarita vent and some good food and parent my teen and try to keep going with so little in the tank that I’m just holding out for a weekend, as well as knowing full well that these things are cyclical and I’ll get through this time and it’ll be better in a week or a month or whatever.

Well, all of this came to a head last evening. I was so exhausted. Miss Butterfly needed me for a million things, and that is fine, part of the job. At some point, I’d decided I just needed a cast-on, so I pulled out some yarn. Specifically, Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight. Circa, maybe, 2010. The color is Rosemary Rocks and I have always loved it so much that I just can’t knit it into anything. But, I’d decided on a sock head hat. I thought it would be great on my super short hair and uncovered ears for winter mornings when I am heading to the dog park or whatever.

I decided to wind that yarn by hand because I’ve been doing so as a rather meditative exercise with all my yarn. It’s nice. I get to spend time with beautiful yarn before I even start knitting.

And the yarn was gorgeous. As I balled it up by hand I could see that it was just going to make SUCH a stunning finished object! The colors were melding together so nicely and I was soooooo excited to use it!

Mr. Ink called for dinner when I got about halfway through. I put the skein and the ball on my ottoman, knowing Rose would be safely under the table during dinner. After dinner, while Mr. Ink was in the kitchen cleaning up (doing my job, basically), I wanted to check in on Miss Butterfly in her room doing homework. To be honest, I’d snapped at her earlier and needed to apologize as well as discuss something she’d brought up as something she really wanted to talk about. So I did that.

After that was done, I came out of her bedroom and wandered into the living room. Mr. Ink was in his den, and that’s when I saw what had happened while no one was looking. Rose had taken that beautiful ball of yarn, still connected to the skein, and played with it. destroyed it. Shredded it. All over the living room.

I was so frustrated! As I picked up the various piles of desperately tangled and shredded yarn I yelled to the household in general that I was “GOING TO BED EARLY AND NO ONE ELSE IS ALLOWED IN THE BEDROOM INCLUDING THE DOGS!” I dumped the mass of destroyed yarn on the kitchen table and flew to the bedroom, shutting the door behind me.

This was about 8:50 pm. My family, bless them, knew when to leave well enough alone, and they left me alone. I took a nice long time with my bedtime routine. I read a book. I could hear music coming from the living room, which I found slightly odd as Mr. Ink would typically spend time watching a show at that time of night. At around 9:30 I decided I’d given myself enough of a time out that I could walk out to the living room, apologize for my grumpiness, and then properly go to bed.

I walked out into the living room to find my husband listening to music and carefully untangling that mass of yarn.

Not gonna lie, this guy makes every single day of my life better.