January...

January has never been my favorite month. It is long, it is cold, there is no Christmas to look forward to, and spring seems so far away that there is no end in sight. It's just slush and snow and cold and gray.

I was determined to get through January with a better attitude this year. I even set up little "prizes" for myself, like making big, fun plans for February AND April. I thought if I had things to look forward to the month would fly by.

Not so.

I spent the first half of the month stressed about Dennis' party. I am not a good liar, espeically to my husband. I am also not a good planner because I obsess, always sure that something is going to go wrong or that I'll forget something crutial.

Then the party was done, it was a success, and immediately our whole family (excluding Dennis) got sick. Snot was flying, kids were up coughing all night, and Claire and I ended up with ear AND sinus infections. I thought Kaiya had escaped the sickies, but she ended up getting a 24-hour flu bug and having a horrible couple of days unable to keep anything down. It was pathetic.

By the weekend I thought things were looking up, and we could finally get back to "normal" life. Sunday morning I woke up with a bad headache, but figured I'd get over it, and knew I needed to play piano for Primary anyway and had to be there.

I sat through half of our first meeting, bolted out of there, and...without being too descriptive the 24 hour flu had begun for me as well! After that first little episode I felt much better and thought maybe I'd just eaten something that hadn't agreed with me. Then I was playing piano in primary a little later, and all of a sudden I was shaking and hot and thinking that I would be mortified if I lost it in front of a bunch of little kids. SO, I did my deep breathing, made it through the last 15 minutes, and ran! I saw Dennis on my way out and told him to go find someone to play piano the rest of the time, because I was going HOME. The rest of the day and night the fun continued, and by Monday morning I felt like I could sleep for a week.

Today I think we are finally all okay. *knock on wood* There's only a week left in January, and it can't end soon enough. I know it's silly, but I blame January for ALL of this. February is bound to be better, right?

The only good thing to say about January is it has been a great jump-start to losing those last few pounds before spring. Thanks, January.