First week of Febrary

The shortest month is a fourth of the way gone. This week I spent about 8 hours of my time either at or driving to dental and orthodontic appointments. I had regular appointments on two of the days and then return appointments on another day. The good news is that Sara is completely done with actual braces and has her retainer. So far, she is doing pretty well wearing it when she needs to. I need to do better at reminding her. She is pretty happy to be done after 4 years. Of course, she looks beautiful.

I completely forgot to schedule any parent-teacher conferences, so I'm feeling like the champion lame mother for that. There were some reasonably good reasons why I forgot, but I still feel lame. So what to do with my feelings of lameness? Congratulate myself for at least being a champion at lameness (no mediocrity there), then forgive myself and move on. We'll all survive and my kids are doing fine overall. I'm in touch with teachers by email, and that will just have to do. I will try to avoid comparing myself to other, better, mothers and try to have a sense of humor about it all. I'm pretty sure my kids don't mind a bit that I didn't make it in to talk to their teachers.

This was the first week of my knitting project with the women of my congregation at church, and it was a most pleasant part of the week. 7 friends and their kids came to my house on Tuesday and either knitted or crocheted scarves for Cancer patients. I got bags of toys from the library and the youngsters did really well while the moms worked. I do love little ones. I love being an Auntie, a surrogate auntie and I think I'll love being a grandma. Someday...far away... Anyway, on Wednesday night I was at the church during youth and children's activities and got a few other stitchers started. I am very happy with the response. We should get plenty of scarves.

This week, the goals are to get Sara signed up for dance, get her an eye doctor appointment, get her signed up for dance camp, get Johnathan a consult with an oral surgeon to get his wisdom teeth removed, get a package out to Jeff, get to sleep by 10 pm, get seminary report cards out, and get myself running again. I've been under the weather with some odd symptoms lately and haven't run in two weeks. I've put on 8 pounds in spite of making some major dietary changes. Sheesh. Oh yeah, I also have to figure out who the heck to vote for.

Good things coming this week are: My pal's daughter's wedding and more chances to get together with friends for the scarf project. Okay...time for bed. I'm determined to be good.