In case you haven’t heard: it is COLD in the Midwest this week. It is so cold that, here in Chicago, several businesses have chosen to close rather than make their employees go outside. Both my partner’s workplace and mine decided to do this yesterday and today. The actual temperature has been in the teens BELOW ZERO Fahrenheit, with the wind chill dipping as low as -50. That’s cold enough that exposed skin can wind up frost bitten in just five minutes.

All that to say, we’ve been hibernating the past couple of days. I’ve mostly been knitting and not getting much else done.

I knit about half a mitten on Wednesday.

I’m grateful for the extra days off, the working heat in our apartment, and the technology we have at our fingertips that allows us to check in on our people without going outside.