Just fed Baby Bear lunch, or tried to, and got some classic "asleep in food" photos! He didn't wake up when I reclined the highchair, or when I washed his face, or when I scrubbed the Zwieback toast off his hands. Poor tired baby! He is trying so hard to get his teeth and it's wearing him out.

Getting ready for the Night Writer's HFPE group meeting tomorrow and I almost have things together. Each meeting we have a quote for inspiration/discussion, a writing exercise to do at the meeting and share, and a writing exercise on a 4x6 card that I send home with them. I started this group just before I found out I was pregnant with Baby Bear. I promptly became so sick I could not get out of bed, much less lead the group. Melynn came the rescue and took over, and under her watchful and experienced eye (she's a professional literary editor) it grew and flourished. We never discussed me "taking back" the group--in my mind it belonged to her as soon as she stepped in. We have a very talented group, with almost a dozen women now and half that many genres.

A couple months ago she told the group she wanted to change the format and was open to suggestions. I called to talk to her about it (I always have an opinion) and in the course of our conversation, she asked if I was interested in taking back over. She needed to step back, she said and so I told her I would do it. Part of me is so excited to be doing this again! I have loved participating and enjoy teaching in general and am thrilled to get to share my support and love of writing with these women that I have so much respect for. On the other hand, it's scary. I want to do right by them and provide a useful, positive outlet for them and I hope I am able to do it.

This will be my third meeting since taking over again. I think it is going well for the most part, except that last week I was 15 minutes late and we ran late, and I couldn't find the book I wanted and so was flustered when I needed to share the exercise because I didn't have the passage which explained it. I hope that they'll be patient with me and not start throwing rotten produce quite yet.

In addition to running this group, I am the group coordinator for my ward. I am still new to this, but the same sort of excitement and nerves come into play. I want to do right by the women in my ward. I want each one of them to have at least one need met through this program, which I do believe is Divinely inspired. I am still getting my feet under me, working out plans for group activities, trying to find people to lead the activities, praying a lot for inspiration. The program is pretty loosely defined in a lot of ways, so it has been a challenge to come up with parameters and purposes, but I think over all it is going well. Currently I am trying to create outlines for all the activities I want to start in 2008, considering a budget (which is currently non-existent--literally), and creating some serious advertising strategies and materials. Speaking of which, I should probably be doing that instead of this :)