An assortment of updates

Although the calendar says January, it sure has not seemed like winter in Ohio. Here's what we've been up to lately:

• I'm 1/3 done with Aleksandr's afghan that I will give him for Christmas. It's now too large to cart around with me (it is a 1 piece afghan)
• After searching high and low for a pattern I really liked, I found one for Natalya. It will be squares of varying sizes pieced together. I have pinks and purples with lemon yellow as an accent color.
• I made a hat, scarf and afghan square for charity
• I continue to find at least 10 items of clutter to give away, donate or trash (dried up Sharpies anyone) each day
• Natalya and I continue to do kindergarten work to keep her in practice
• We're researching elementary schools for the upcoming school lottery
• The kids are taking swimming, gymnastics, sports and art, and I'm taking ceramics
• Mike nearly got stranded in Chicago during a nasty storm, on his way home from Los Angeles
• A tooth of mine that had a root canal 10 years ago apparently has decay under the crown, so I'm debating what to do. I have issues with my bite and that tooth gets a lot of wear. I don't really want to be going through this every 10 years.
• I've had to make a lot of calls to try to find new doctors, since our medical insurance is changing effective next week. Not fun. I like my current doctors and trust them with my care. Getting into an endocrinologist and ob/gyn practice is not easy, let alone finding a physician that you like.