Saturday, January 5

Yesterday was not the best one of my mommy career. Probably not the worst either, but still a disappointment. I get on to my kids about losing control and giving in to their passions, and yet the example I provide is not of someone full of patience, gentleness, and self control. Lord, help me!
We've all been going stir crazy since the weather has been cold and wet for several days. I'm not going to complain since we desperately need the rain. I just need to be a little more creative in my ideas for things to do with the kidlets, I guess. We resort to killing each other when we've been locked up together for too long.
William and Samuel had their basketball game last night. BriAn is their coach, and since they were short some players, John got recruited to play on the team. It was cute seeing all three boys playing together. Samuel is extremely athletic and strong, and a really, really good basketball player. William is small and not as skilled, but plays with such intensity! He tries so hard! He may never be as good as Samuel, but with practice I think he could be a good ball player in middle school. John has surprised is and suddenly turned into an athlete. He's the best player on his team, always then leading scorer in his games. I guess that's what happens when you're used to playing against against your dad and older brothers, and then go and play against 7 and 8 year olds.

I sometimes wonder if we as a family put too much emphasis on sports and exercise. I never played sports as a kid though I was always very athletic. There were not as many options back when I was homeschooled in the dark ages. And sports were considered , at best, a waste of time, and at the worst, worldly and sensual. My family culture now is one of being active, playing games, developing skills. We are off balance in that we haven't emphasized the arts to the same degree. All of kids seem to have inherited some of my artistic ability (that I inherited from my grandmother), but we've done little to hone and develop those talents other than just provide materials for them to use. Margaret has far surpassed me, by the way. She is an incredible artist! And unlike me at that age, she is. It embarrassed to be called an artist. For some reason I hated when people called me an artist when I was a kid. Not sure what I envisioned when I thought of an artist, but i was sure it wasn't the coolest thing in the world. Funny how kids are.
Anyways, I sometimes wonder if we'll look back and wish we'd put some emphasis on music lessons or acting in place of some of these sports. Brian plays guitar, and we both play piano a bit, enough to teach the kids the basics, but there are just so many hours in the day, and they usually get filled up with other activities.
Maybe Hazel will be the one to get the well-rounded education. She'll probably be the one to take ballet and piano lessons, instead of soccer and boxing like her big sis.

I have a long run to do this morning. I haven't been as consistent with running the last week and feel kind of blah.

We're back to house hunting. We Are going to try to keep this house and rent it out and buy another. As much as we've talked smack about the suburbs, I think that's where we'll end up. We just need a bigger place and good schools, and that's where you find both of those things. It is just really hard to try to raise a family in town. Not sure how soon all of his will happen, but we need to be settled in a house before the fall so that Margaret can start high school. Samuel and William will both be middle schoolers next year, so we've been researching all the schools in the area, looking at houses in zones that have good middle and high schools. We're trying to be very discriminatory this time so that we don't get in a situation like we're in now where we can't avail ourselves of the schools in our neighborhood.

Wednesday, January 9

Two days of school down and we're surviving! They had a great first day. Yesterday was a bit crazy, but I think. we're starting to get the hang of everything. Margaret tried out for and made the soccer team. Her first game is Saturday. They've both made some friends and realized they already know some students from previous schools they've attended or from church. I found myself praying for them off and on both Monday and Tuesday. I know the Lord heard my prayers because their days have been better than expected.

Tuesday is always a hectic day for us. William and John have cub scouts, Margaret has soccer practice, then John had basketball practice, then Samuel has boy scouts. Then homework and showers. Then bed.

We've been getting rain now for an couple of days, glorious rain! It puts a damper on my marathon training, but I'd rather that than us continue in the parched state we've been in so long.

Well, time to get the kiddos off to school.