What's Up

How many days into January are we? I fear the year is not off to the most auspicious start.

On New Year's Eve I smashed my little toe into a stool while I was vacuuming to get ready for our festivities. It was the sort of thing where everything goes black for a moment and then you hop around and wish you cursed so you had something satisfying to say and then you were very very afraid to look.

I didn't break it, but I also didn't dare to wear any shoes for a few days.

I waited ten whole days before I injured myself again. This time I grabbed the handle of a stainless steel skillet that had just come out of a 450-degree oven. With my bare hand. Poor Shaun--I made a really horrible noise. Anyhow, it hurt and I cried, but the damage wasn't serious enough to require a doctor visit, so, once again, it could have been a lot worse. Plus I didn't have to do the dishes or cut up anyone's dinner since I couldn't use my right hand.

For the MLK holiday weekend, we planned to take the boys out to Shaun's folks' house. Willem came down with a brand new cold that very morning, but we all figured he'd have more fun being sick there than here, so off he went. And indeed, he did have fun! The boys got lots of snow to play in --the first of the year-- and they were downright overjoyed about it. Nels has been wishing aloud for snow for several months now.

Shaun and I had a crazy movie marathon while the boys were gone. On Sunday we ditched church and went to brunch (lemon ricotta pancakes with passion fruit syrup and Grand Marnier berry compote, anyone?), then came home, built a fire and settled in. We watched The September Issue (thumbs up, if only for its portrait of the fascinating Grace Coddington), The Guard (I wish Brendan Gleeson had won the Golden Globe for his performance), and Babies, which of course made me cry.

When we got the boys back, Willem looked and sounded pretty rough, but probably no worse than he would have if he'd stayed home. I figured some down time was in order, since they'd played out a lot.

I should have suspected something was up when Nels decided to lay down with a blanket while he watched his shows. I'd let the boys watch longer than usual, and as Willem turned off the TV, Nels sat up and started to cry.

"We watched a lot of TV at grandma and grandpa's this morning," he wailed, holding his hands to either side of his head. "We watched a lot of TV already and I SHOULD HAVE TOLD YOU." His face was red and tears streamed down his face. "My head hurts..."

I tried not to laugh. The boy was convinced that he had brought the headache on himself by watching too much TV. I told him he was probably sick and took his temperature. He was sick. Fever, headache, aches and pains.

Willem went to school today still looking like death warmed over, but in good spirits because it was library day. Nels had to stay home and will not be able to go again tomorrow, since he still had a fever tonight.

Hopefully Shaun will be the one holdout who stays healthy for this entire first month of the year. Or if he doesn't, he needs to get it over with before our trip to California at the end of the month.

Incidentally, the dish I was making when I burned myself was the roast chicken with dijon sauce at Smitten Kitchen. You should totally make it. Just maybe keep a potholder handy.