I was talking to my counselor a few weeks ago about how I was worried my depression was returning with a vengeance. “I feel myself cocooning”, I said. “I just want to snuggle up and read and knit and be.” She cocked her head at me and said, “Are you sure that’s depression? Your voice sounds happy when you describe those things. Those things sound like good things.” As usual, she was right. It’s not so much my depression as my introversion recommending a pillow fort and a nap. Between a need for a little more quiet in this crazy world and the birthday promise I made myself, I got rid of {almost} all my social media until January. I say almost because I’m in the midst of planning a kitchen remodel and that’s basically why Pinterest was invented. I also am still logging any books read on goodreads. But instagram, snapchat, twitter, and the Facebook? So blissfully quiet.
Knitting: I’m working on my November socks. I gave up on doing the score board scarf because it’s not a good year and I don’t need to document that. I have a few Christmas gifts planned, but I’m not sure I’ll be getting around to all of them. (I can promise I won’t.) I have a couple new favorite yarns from here and here but I’m trying really, really hard only to buy things that I know will make it into Christmas presents and not my stash. (Boo!)
Reading: Still on the Orchardist. Because I’ve been working on knitting (and embroidering) some Christmas presents, there’s not a lot of reading going on. I got a chapter in the other night. It’s still beautifully written but the story hasn’t been remarkable as of yet.
Watching: Not a whole lot. Part of my whole cocooning thing has been just sitting in quiet and knitting at night and just letting my thoughts wander. Or chatting with Jesse while I work. It’s been kind of nice. I did watch a couple of episodes of This is Us based on everyone’s recommendation. Reminds me of Parenthood. It’s great for when I’m feeling sappy, otherwise it feels…obviously manipulative?
Cooking: So I promised that if my chicken/apple cider/mustard/rice dish turned out well I’d share the recipe and I’m going to have to do that. I feel like I have to make it again though so I have a picture to post with it as well. But in the meantime this is one of the recipes I used as an inspiration and it’s very, very good without any doctoring at all. Especially the rice. I also made the quinoa and black bean salad from here and it was very good. Kids were less enamored, but I had left overs for lunch which I don’t usually do.
In other news: have you heard about hygge? It fits right in with the whole cocooning and simple pleasures thing I was talking about and I can’t wait to tackle this list of ways to hygge my winter. Just reading that list filled me with the undefinable (in English, anyway) feeling I think they describe.
What’s new with you? I want to hear about what you are making, reading, cooking, thinking.
And if you reside in the U.S. and haven’t already, don’t forget to vote.
