I dozed off on the couch earlier, so I’m writing quickly as I brush my teeth for bed.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Feeling the cold rise off your scarf as you unwind it and yet not having a chilly neck. And the ear warmer made years back tucked under a hat to double the effectiveness.

2. Sarah leaves a box of Samoas for me with Rudi.

3. My uncle’s memorial service meant a whirlwind trip to Connecticut. I got to hang out with my parents and my grandmother for a bit and to catch up with uncles, aunts, and cousins I hadn’t seen in a long time.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

The last time I made a to-do list for the weekend, it all went to hell, but let’s have faith that won’t happen this time.

Here’s what’s on tap:

1. Take car for inspection
2. Print out new car insurance card.
3. Go to a yoga class or get a massage or a pedicure. Or, y’know, two or even all three.
4. Do a load of laundry.
5. Have a dinner date with Rudi at the rehab facility.
6. Renew or return a book to the Arlington library.
7. Remove items from the yellow shelves that are not books.
8. Fill out the home dimension request sheet from the hospital.
9. Make a list of what’s going into my swap box next week.
10. Find clothes to wear to a funeral on Monday.
11. Read a book.
12. Repair rocking chair.
13. Wind yarn for next project.
14. Get computer hooked up to tv functioning or find Wii remote or figure out why the radio in the bedroom has stopped producing music (but not alarm noises).
15. Bring the cooler in from the hallway and put things from the kitchen into it.

I’ll be honest, folks: I’m struggling. But that does not mean I’m incapable of noticing beautiful things around me. Here are three from the past week:

1. Monday was lovely — sunny and in the upper 40s/low 50s. I noticed a couple sitting in the garden when I stopped by the rehab hospital in the afternoon, so after Rudi’s therapy, I found out how to access it with his wheelchair and we purchased warm beverages to drink outside.

2. I send a text message, knowing the recipient wouldn’t receive it until the next morning. I awoke to encouraging words and promise of a later phone call.

3. A loaf of ciabatta bread purchased at the farmers market makes three panini sandwiches, including a cheese one I eat with tomato soup the night of the snowstorm.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

Earlier in the fall, Jo at Celtic Memory posted about these beautiful, sparkly yarns she’d dyed up, and, well, I fell in love with them.

I bought her two skeins of Moonsilver, a lovely tonal purple.

My 40th birthday was four weeks from today, and it seems like a new shawl might be in order. I know I can go through my queue and the Ravelry database to see what’s out there, but I thought I’d toss it out to the crowd:

If you had 800m of this fingering weight yarn, what would you make out of it?

I’ll be honest: This week has kind of sucked. But there have been good moments here and there and I don’t want to lose track of them amidst the negatives. These are three of the beautiful things from the past week:

1. I have heard from nearly everyone I know. Emails and texts, calls and voicemails have poured in from all over the place. My folks have let me vent in my least flattering way. Rudi’s parents have been equally supportive, checking in on him daily. Closer to home, Rudi has been inundated with sweets and reading material and a dear sleepy sheep (courtesy of wee Caroline) who provides much-needed white noise during the night and had so many visitors his first day after surgery that we had to ask people to give us a couple days before returning. John and Nicole have demanded I eat a meal with them this weekend to guarantee I’m not living on cereal (I haven’t been, but it was a valid concern). Sarah, Julia, and Michael helped me get the Christmas lights off the tree and the tree out the door, which would have been nightmarish on my own. And my coworker Sarah brought in a bag of Rudi’s favorite recovery candy and two bags of M&M’s for me today. I sometimes harass Rudi about his gregarious nature and his overly broad definition of “friend,” but I (gladly) may have to eat my own words in this case.

2. Seeing Rudi in the recovery room. Surgery had taken longer than expected (not longer than the doctor had expected, but he maybe hadn’t explained that part to me as clearly as I needed to hear it), so when I finally got to see him, looking relatively good all things considered, it was like every birthday and Christmas rolled into one.

3. The night after the surgery, I was exhausted. Just bone tired. And I knew it. So I brushed my teeth instead of making a cup of tea and went to bed instead of sitting down on the couch. I was asleep just after 11, which is saying something.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

About those plans I wrote about yesterday? Feel free to chuck the whole post in the bin.

Rudi had a skiing accident and his injuries require surgery.

He’ll be fine in a few months and his head was in a good place last night (perhaps not surprising with all the pain meds he was on). And all things considered, the severity of his injuries could have been so much worse. In fact, he keeps surprising people who think he should be much more broken than he is.