January Update

January was a good month.

I went back to work after a month long winter break. My class is good, but the work load my fellow teacher and I gave ourselves is a little overwhelming - for both us and the students. The Book Thief is a pretty hefty book to be teaching to students who have probably never read a book that long in their native language, let alone their second. Overall, it's only about 15 pages of reading each school night, but there is little room for getting behind which makes it stressful. It's an interesting book, though, so that helps.

The Seahawks did their thing in the playoffs...winning, winning miraculously, and then losing in such a heartbreaking way (technically in February, but whatever). Such an emotional roller coaster!

My maternal aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer in December, so she has been staying with  my mom during her biopsies and tests, is currently staying with her sister-in-law recovering from her surgery, and will be staying with my mom again for radiation. We are very happy that the results from her surgery came back saying that the cancer had not spread to her lymph nodes. A full recovery is expected. However, what this means for me is that I might have some very difficult decisions to make in the coming years. My material grandma was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 47, and died at age 56. My aunt is currently 47. My mom is 48, and while everything for her is all clear at the moment, genetic testing looms. My aunt has already had her genetic testing done, and we are waiting for her results. Should she come back positive for the breast cancer gene, my mom will get tested. If my mom's results come back positive, than I will be tested. All three of us understand what a positive result might mean for our "lady parts", so prayers for negative results would be appreciated.

On the last day of the month, we had some family pictures done by my friend, Cassandra. You can check some of them out at Cassandra Hamilton Photography.

As for my goals, I have been progressing well:

Stop fighting the texture of my hair: I wear my hair curly about 50% of the time. I have been trying out a couple of new products. Curly haired friends, check back later for a review of one of those products.

Take more trips: Nothing in January, but we do have a special trip planned this month for Elijah's birthday.

Design 12 crochet patterns to sell: 1 down (see Gemstones and Pearls Infinity Scarf), 11 to go. I've already got #2 on the hook!

Eat out less: For the last three weeks, we did not eat out on the weekends at all, and we did not go out for lunch during the week (except on Fridays). The weekends were definitely the most difficult part, but we survived. We don't have a real plan for this month yet, but I think we're going to continue with not eating out during the week (except on Fridays).

Actively seek out joy: There is not way to really quantify this, but I have been working at writing down one thing every day that made me laugh or smile. I keep the log in my phone and called it "January Joy". It reminds me to really think about the things that made me happy and appreciate them. This month is "February Fun".