Miscellaneous Updates

Hi Oma, plenty going on here, thought I'd give you a quick update!

The kids got their report cards last Friday, and as great as the last term was, this time was even better.  They both took the feedback to heart and improved in the (minor) areas where they were weak - straight A's for Norah/High Honors and top score for Roddie as well (he has a different type of evaluation metric).  We are so proud of them!  Norah especially who has actual work to do - she keeps herself really organized, plans ahead etc.  I can only hope Roddie is absorbing some of her good habits,,,,

Because he is keeping us BUSY!  I think we told you, he's playing on a travel baseball team, that he had to try out for.  Turns out they play in a pretty elite league (for 11 year olds!) and have Double headers both weekend days all season.  Of course, the season starts before hockey ends, so we're a little nuts at the moment.  That said, his hockey team has recently started to really click, and they head to their league semi finals (and hopefully?!) finals this weekend, so we can deal with only one schedule.  What has become clear in all of this is that while he does like baseball, a lot, hockey is his first love :)  I also started a running program with Roddie, called Couch to 5K, where we gradually build up to being able to run 3 miles/5K.  We do a little bit 3x per week, building each week.  Pretty sure he will be much faster than me by the time we're done.  But in the meantime, I'm really enjoying this time with him.

Norah tried out for the volleyball team at her school - and made it.  It will be interesting to see how this goes!  In the fall, she will need to choose between Cross Country and Volleyball, at least as far as school sports go, as they happen at the same time.  Either way will be great!  She is also starting a job working at the snack shack at the baseball fields.  (my years of volunteering with the league may have helped her land that one!)

Summer is shaping up to be busy, for Norah at least. She's starting with a 2 week backpacking trip in Maine!  2 weeks in the woods with strangers!  The participants are all girls her age, so I think it will be fun to find people with this shared interest.  Then in August, we'll spend 2 weeks in Canada - Norah will go to a residential french immersion program for a week, while Roddie and I stay with my sister and he attends hockey camp, then we'll pick Matt up at the airport and head to the usual beach location with all the MacNeils for a week.  Will be trickey as I just learned I also need to organize a weeklong meeting in Europe in August, but let's see how that all goes!  Not sure what else we'll do with Roddie, quite a number of his friends are around, and since I'm working from home I don't need to send him to camp - plus who knows how busy baseball will have us!

If you're looking for me, I'm probably driving someone, somewhere!  I'm thankful for a job that allows me some flexibility at this busy time.  Hope to see you soon Oma!

S

The Good Stuff

Sometimes it seems like we're just running all the time - taking the kids from one thing to the next, never getting the chance to take a breath... recently I've been a bit stressed about the commitment Roddie made to his travel baseball team, and really discouraged with both the parents and kids in my religious ed class. 

The baseball team had a travel tournament to Maryland this weekend, but Roddie also had his last two regular season hockey games of the year.  He only misses for hockey, and sometimes we do hard things schedule wise to make it work, but I just didn't anticipate how torn I'd feel in these few overlap weeks.  After breaking the news to him (he was disappointed, but moved on) I tried to let it go, but it was really bugging me... up until the very last minutes, really.  I was second guessing in my mind (not to Roddie).  As the weekend panned out, Roddie had probably the most fun he's had all year at the last couple of hockey games (as you know, there is a lot of fun in this kid's life!) and the team clicked and came together more than they had all season.  He's been talking non stop about their standings and opponents and how much he loves hockey, with only a brief comment about this weekend's 3 of 4 baseball games he will play (will miss one due to the hockey playoff game).  I'm so glad we went with our gut, and that Matt was patient but unwavering - it was clearly the right priority for Roddie.  It might be that this means he doesn't make the team next year - either for skills or committment reasons, and that will be OK - we need to make priority calls all the time and I do not regret this one.

Religious Ed is hard with 8th graders, which is one reason I did not sign up to teach!  But when Norah's teacher was on her own, and no other parent raised their hand even just to join her in the room, you could say I felt "called'!  We are supposed to be teaching them about the parts of the mass, but since most of them don't actually attend mass, it's a bit like teaching a kid to read who has never seen a book.  That is frustrating enough, but the parents rarely reply to requests for assistance or information - however minor, and the ones that don't do the "drive by drop off" would prefer to sit in the lobby than join the class when requested or engage in any way.  Then, I had several emails from parents accusing (yes, accusing!)  me of changing the schedule, when their kids allegedly couldn't find the class when we met in the church.  So again, this was weighing heavily on me all week, and I procrastinated about preparing my lesson almost as long as possible.  As it happens, the confirmation students at our church (just 1-2 years older than our class) had organized a prayer vigil for Ukraine during the second half of our class time.  We decided to bring the class to it, first as a shortcut to planning a full lesson, but then later I thought it might be pretty powerful for them to see others like them, joined in prayer.  It was a beautiful candlelight service, and our class had a front row seat :)  I don't know how much they got from it, but I do know they all sat up with their eyes open and saw what was happening.  I am hopeful that perhaps a small seed was planted, and at least they got a taste of what it's like to gather together in prayer.  I also managed to let go of the resentment I was feeling towards the parents after last week, and had a very pleasant exchange with one of the parents who waits in the lobby.

So feeling much lighter today a few things happened this afternoon that really made my day! 

• I've started a "couch to 5K" running program with Roddie.  We just finished our second run together, but he didn't complain about going and we had a great chat - he said "I like running a lot better with someone"  me too, buddy, me too!  I'd better enjoy it now, as I expect he'll be quite a bit faster than me by the time we're done in 7 weeks!  I'm also feeling thankful for a job that lets me go for a run at 3:00 with my boy.
• About 30 min later, I went out to the kitchen - Roddie was baking cookies, for a friend's birthday.  Norah was cleaning up the kitchen.  They were chatting amongst themselves and the place smelled like cookies.  What's not to like
• Back in my office, Norah came in to tell me about how she managed to solve some cafeteria drama, by negotiating a table swap to a larger table with another group of girls so that her gang could fit a few more people.
• I got a text from a group of hockey moms who all live in my neighborhood, making sure everyone was covered with rides.  Matt usually takes Roddie, since he coaches, but it's sure nice to know there is a backup!

Of course, life is not all roses all the time, and Matt and Roddie are gone to practice and I need to wrap up and take Norah shopping, again, and a certain set of visitors didn't work out like we had hoped, but I just feel so markedly lighter than yesterday, I wanted to write it down!  This one is for the blog.

First baseball game of the year!

Baseball at 7:30a, hockey at 2!

Black and Gold Game

Roddie's whole hockey organization played an inter squad game of sorts last night. It was before the local Div1 college hockey team took the ice, so it was in a 'fancy' rink.

Roddie was in goal for the 'older' kids and one of the on ice coaches caught some cool photos. Matt commented that Roddie seemed pretty at home in the net, so we'll see what the future brings. It was fun to see his teammates trying (and sometimes succeeding!) to score on him.

His team won, the Riverhawks did not, but a good time was had by all

A boy and his robot

Our big hearted boy

#30's mom sent me this yesterday… such a sweet boy we have! Make sure you see the progression in the photos.

#30 is new to our team this year, and even though all these boys are born on the same year, Roddie continues to tower over many of them.

According to Roddie he wanted to make sure this kid could see the game they were watching while they waited their turn.

#30 told his mom that Roddie is his favorite teammate.

Proud of our gentle giant :)

A few notables

Well, looks like you were right to be hesitant to cross the border, sounds like it's anything but clear what the next few months will hold with this new variant... the rules seemingly continue to change daily.  While I did respect your decision and feelings on the matter, I must admit I thought you were being overly cautious... I stand corrected :)  It just stinks.  I'd love for you to be able to see Roddie playing hockey - the boys have all grown so much, or Norah and her friends giving volleyball a shot... I saw some hockey grandparents we've seen around for years the other morning and it gave me a little pang.... anyway, on the up side, everyone is safe and healthy and there are plenty of good things going on, I hope for you as well as us!

First one, we are all now fully vaccinated! Roddie got #2 on Saturday and Matt and I got #3!  Such a relief!  The boys had no issues, I got sick again, still lingering into yesterday... feels like a 3 day hangover that won't go away... better than the alternative.

Second one, Norah is pursuing some more volleyball.  Different outfit, another club team running some clinics, but it's closer and they have more of a focus (allegedly) on getting to some game play... it's both weekend days in December and January, which is not like her to do lightly, and she requested it.  Same bunch of girls, plus a couple more (including her BFF Erin), so it should be interesting to see how her school team goes in the spring.  Either way, I think she will have fun.

Third one, she just signed up for this amazing trip: https://www.shesummitsco.com/our-adventures/katahdin-voyagers  - we could not be more excited for her (and maybe a little jealous!)  It's something I left with her a while ago, and she decided she wants to do it and is super excited to go... I feel confident she will love it, and I am pretty sure I'll be OK while she is gone for 2 weeks on her own!  She's too old for camp, and not quite old enough to really work so this is perfect. 

She was also telling me about these videos she watches about things to do each year to get ready for college (clubs, teams etc.) and she is cooking up her plan for next year (*sniff*)  She's also kicking butt at school, staying very organized and on top of her work.  Best of all, it's all coming from her... She loves to tell me about it, but I'm just along for the ride, she's driving... time is definitely accelerating as you promised. 

Both kids had astounding teacher conferences, great on the academic side, but I was also really proud of the reports on how great they are to have in class, inclusive of all classmates, working with others, thoughtful, respectful etc.  Of course, I expect these things, but it's nice to hear that they actually do it, to the extent it's worth their teachers mentioning :)

Don't worry, it's not all roses, there are occasional snotty attitudes, random crap everywhere, too much screen time and dishes/laundry not done but a) that's no fun to talk about and b) they are works in progress and like the first topic above - so much good stuff to be thankful & proud about.

XOXOX

S