Why No Blogging? Perhaps it's the Homeroom Mom Gig?

Yes, I copied this idea from Pinterest.  Its supposed to be a reindeer, but
kind of looks like a muppet?

I have not blogged anything here, or at my photography site since completing it in October.  That is a long time for all the randomness that floats around in my head.  I'm surprised I didn't burst in some kind of rage.. Or maybe I did.

For everyone, this time of year is really busy. Work is busy, the holidays are busy, trying to advocate for diabetes is busy, being a mom is busy, taking your kid to school is busy, keeping your diabetic cat from attacking your pumpkin cheesecake is busy.. and then some.

One other thing that has kept me busy was the gracious "nomination" to be my son's homeroom mom this year.  Nomination may not be the right word, but about one month into school I received a phone call one day. "So you've volunteered to be the homeroom mom."  Me - "No, I did not volunteer".

For those not familiar with the Home Room Mom, or Class Mom concept, it is basically someone that helps the teacher out with activities and recruits parent volunteers and such.  I have no idea how this tradition got started, and I am baffled it exists here because all teachers have full time assistants.  I appreciate everything they do, and it is not like they are not busy.  I just wonder when the need for a third person to do all this extra fancy stuff became necessary.

Something tells me the internet could have helped it along. Forums and such for moms to share their super mom abilities could feed this phenomenon. And now we have Pinterest with all those amazing ideas that people add to their boards but have no time for.

The woman on the phone was the pack leader of the homeroom moms and went into this long detailed explanation of what the job required and how rewarding it is.  Yes, rewarding it is.  I was one of three last year and this worked out great. However, I was not planning to single handedly take on this task with a full time job and everything else on my plate.  I am very involved in my son's life and activities, and I am not sure I am the right profile to do this for a whole class.

Every year a form goes out asking for volunteers.  I politely completed it telling the teacher I could not fulfill this position, but I am happy to help when I can.  What resulted was basically a call for volunteers to step forward and everyone took one step back but me.

Somehow my message was misconstrued.  In the same way people thought Milli Vanilli could sing their own songs back in the 1980s, someone thought I was crafty and available.

While I enjoy doing things for my son and being involved in his life while he still thinks it is cool, I would be lying if I said I did not wonder why more moms who do not work do not volunteer for this position.

When I made a list of supplies needed for a request for a snowman pancake party and distributed it, the amount of volunteers for plastic cutlery was astounding.  These other moms are very nice, and really I get that we are all busy.  However, 80% of the moms volunteered for plastic cutlery.  I don't mind, but then this left me with the trouble of trying to lobby for the other "cool" items on the list that were not chosen.  Do I just assign the fruit salad? Ask? Beg?

The other moms are incredibly "impressed with the amount of bags" I bring to a class function.  And shocked when they learn I work too, and I did not buy the pancakes.  One mom even feared me because she forgot the strawberries for the snowman's nose!  While I paused internally, its nothing that can't be resolved with an extra blueberry and a smile, or raspberries that the teacher felt compelled to bring because she happened to have them!

Thanks to the internet and Pinterest I delivered AND found a craft.  I could never dream up these crazy things on my own, but copy one? You bet!  I was not the kid that cheated in school, but in adulthood, cheating on a craft for school.  No ethical dilemma there.

So happy busy holidays to you all.  We are having a few friends over tonight.  Seems I told a friend the gathering was last night.  I must now make sure that was not the case for everyone and someone shows up tonight to eat all this food!

Amazing I remembered the pancakes!

One of the masterpiece pancake snowman