Single Mom Get-Together

Sorry for the late notice, but we are having a get together at Urban Grind on Saturday, December 30 at 10am. All are welcome. Urban Grind is on NE 22nd and Oregon, a few blocks North of Sandy. Hope to see you there!

Single mother nightmare

For the first time, I have had to take time off from work due to Tory's health. It was weird being home and not being sick. It almost felt like cheating. But we spent the majority of the day trying to track down some topical antibiotic for her raging goopy eye infection. I was so stressed out. We finally were able to obtain the golden ointment at 2:30pm, and everyone knows, the child has to be on antibiotics for at least 24 hours before they can return to day care and not infect the other kids, so I have no idea what is going to happen. Luckily, I have a very flexible day care lady (see post, she has openings!) and also a flexible manager at work who is willing to let me bring Tory in for awhile tomorrow so I don't have to take another day off. We will have to be locked in my office, of course, and I don't see how I will be able to get anything done, but I will give it the old college try! I am hoping to be able to bring her to day care by nap time. Then, I also had to bring the cat to the vet tonight, and the momma guilt thing set in, in 2 ways: first, I didn't want to have to bring Tory back out after she had spend over 2 hours (not an exaggeration) at pharmacies today trying to get her meds, and second, I needed to get baby cat's (17 yrs old) thyroid checked out or I wouldn't be able to renew her meds. Luckily, I had an understanding friend who came over and babysat for a couple hours so I could go out with kitty ($215 later....). I am exhausted, so excuse me if I go and fall into bed at 8:30!!

I'm getting the final word unless....

Since no one except one nice not single lady and of course Shari responded to my request for name suggestions or votes on names already suggested, I am going to make an executive decision. As of 8:19pm Pacific time, we are now and forever more to be known as Portland Parka: Parents Raising Kids Alone. I think that says it all. If you don't like it, let me know and we will look into changing it yet again. It is non-offensive, it's all inclusive to both those of us who did it deliberately and those who chose to do it deliberately after the fact. It points out that even though there may be a biological father that is known, he is not, nor has he been, in the picture as a full time parent. I know there are some exceptions to this, so please, no angry comments! So I will go ahead and change the name on the blog and I will change it with Urban Mamas. Of course, the word "parent" might attract single fathers, but if it does, maybe they need support as well!

January Get-Together?

No matter what we call ourselves, we are definitely here to support each other and commiserate on being single choice moms. Another good way to do that is to get together for a social gathering. I am sure all of you our there in blog land have been inundated by holiday parties and are looking forward to the post-holiday let down in January! I thought maybe that would be a good time to get together. The world will appear less crazy, and we would all welcome the quiet of post holiday coffee shops! I am thinking of Urban Grind, one of my favorite venues for play and chocolate-coffee shakes! Not a lot of munchies for the kids, though, but they do have a good grill cheese sandwich and cartons of milk. What weekend would you all like to aim for? What would be better, Saturday or Sunday, and what time of day does your child nap, so we can try to work around that? Mine naps through the noon hour. Kind of messes up our day, but what can you do!

Urban Grind is located in NE Portland, on 20th and Oregon. If you know where the spinning milk container is when you are going toward the Lloyd Center from Sandy Blvd, you are almost right there!

This picture is Tory in her party dress at her cousin's Bar Mitzvah last week.

Group Name

I recently received an email from a friend that I invited to the group. She reminded me that I was wanting to change the name of our group from Portland Single Moms Unite Together to something with a more conservative acronym! The reason we have the name in the first place is this: I was trying to organize some SM get togethers, and I wanted a catchy name to post on Urban Mamas to advertise. I asked for suggestions from the other people who were interested in getting together, but at the time, the only suggestion was the current name. A lot of the group members liked it. I, and a couple others, liked it but were concerned about the SMUT acronym. I asked for other suggestions, and let the group know that if we didn't get any other suggestions, I would go ahead with the Single Mothers Unite Together. So I went ahead and posted an ad on Urban Mamas. After our meeting, I decided to start the blog, and in the interest of consistancy, I decided to keep the name so folks who saw the ad on Urban Mamas but didn't attend the get together, would know we were the same group. My intention was to eventually change the name to something more benign! I did have a suggestion from another SM to use MOOO-Mothers on our Own, which I like, but it doesn't really catch the full gist of the group. Maybe SMOOO-Single Mothers on our Own. I like SMART-Single Moms are Really Terrific, or SMART-KID: Single Moms Raising Terrific Kids (I can't think of what to do with the ID part yet...). I would like some other ideas from you folks out there. Even if you are just lurking, if you have an idea to help us out, that would be great. I think it needs to be something catchy. The Portland Lesbian Parenting group is PLOP: Portland Lesbians on Parenting. I think it is really catchy and memorable, so that is the type of thing I am looking for. Also let me know what you think about the MOOO or SMOOO idea, which would be cute for the kids.

And of course, no post would be complete without a picture of Tory! This is her, in her first 2 weeks. She turned 17 months today, and is spending her day on the East Coast visiting Grandma and Grandpa and fighting a nasty virus that took us to the ER last night. Hopefully, she will be ok to fly all day tomorrow!:)