Our first foray into tackle football. Spring football. A little less intense, short season, short field. Good intro. Great exercise. Full Saturdays. With 3 games to go, we finally get a “W” on a cloudy (briefly rainy) Saturday.
Last weekend, my girls and I took a road trip to see my sister, brother-in-law and nephews; while we were there, my sis, my girlfriend and I were going to see my friend’s daughter in “To Kill a Mockingbird”. It was a whirlwind weekend, rainy, cold and eight hours of car time, but we had a great time.Back to the road trip portion…..the girls come ready, they pack their own bag o’ goodies. Snacks. Games. Books. They are veterans of this drive and they know what it takes to stay busy and pass the time. In the end, they barely touched their bag (aside from the snacks) and we listened to their music so we could hear Taylor Swift (Mama’s iPhone needs to be updated with T’s music), they made up car games, sang songs, played on the iPhone, watched the world go by and took pictures. Love. Them.
They packed their own snacks. And dad vaccuumed the crumbs when we got home. oops. 
It’s a long boring drive
Hoping the truck gets close enough to do “the sign”…you know ‘honk your horn, mister!’ he didn’t.
Searching for horses….
Finally. No offense to country music. After 8 hours though….Mama needed a change-up in tunes!
10 and 2, baby! It was comin’ down!
Should have checked the weather before we left….
Love. Free. Apps.
More clouds.
Rewarded by a group performance in the garage by Ty and his crew…PRICELESS! (he’s the one commanding the lead from the cooler/stage)
We have a funny kid in our family. He’s the clown. Always. He brings the funnies potty humor or just plain funny, he’s always honing his act. This year he entered the dreaded Middle school years and….he is flourishing. Opting to join band and learn the French horn he has excelled. First chair. (okay, out of 3…but c’mon, I gotta brag) Superior at solo and ensemble. (that’s fo’ realz!) The funny thing is neither Hubby nor I are musical. Not one bit. In fact, when I sing, the kids beg me to stop. Except at church. Somehow they know they can’t here. However, THIS kid, is so self-motivated and self-disciplined it’s amazing to watch. “Mom, I’m going to learn the French horn. And next year, I am going into Advanced band. (beginning this year, he’s decided to skip Intermediate) Perhaps pick up the trumpet and join Jazz Band.” I have no doubt he will. When he puts his mind to it, he does it. And then, he decided he’d like to give tackle football a try after years of flag. When a spring league opened up, he joined. And for the first time, he’s not top dog. Now he is the youngest in the 12-15 league and that makes a big difference in size and experience. I’ll give it to him though. He gets beat and bruised and exhausted and he utterly loves it. He’s improving. And now his brain is contemplating if he could play football and be in the band. Hmmmm. Time will tell. For now, it’s pretty fun to watch. This past weekend, we combined them both. Solo and ensemble on Friday night. Double-header football game Saturday. 
Wrapping up the week and cruising into the weekend. Join me and others from around the world @ Conversion Diary and see what everyone’s been up to! Personally, I am OFF of work today. Though I am still up at o’dark hundred to get the kids to school. I’m just looking at it as a jump-start on the day, and a busy day it will be, which always reminds me that “Stay-at-Home-Moms” don’t really stay at home….sometimes I need that reminder, having been away from SAHM for awhile now.
It’s been a crazy, busy week at work this week (another reason to be grateful that my original plans for this weekend fell through and left me with a “Mental Health Day” today, because I really need it.) Kids in school. Hubby at work. Getting the chores done without my sidekicks–which always sounds great but I end up missing them! Either way, it’s just nice to have a day.
I finished the Hunger Games this week. I may be in the minority here, but here goes: I did find it a page turner which made for a quick read, but I have to say the theme of the “Games” was disturbing. Children picked to kill other children with only one winner. Sad. The fact that I was flipping the pages so quick made me “one” with the Capitol people who grossed me out. I just have to decide if I want to go on and read the other two books. Perhaps Katniss will be instrumental in making changes. Reminds me of the “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. Though quite the mystery and adrenaline producing, the theme overall was too disturbing and I just couldn’t go on the finish the trilogy.
In preparation for watching my friend’s daughter play Scout in “To Kill a Mockingbird” next weekend, I am re-reading the book. It’s been years. And it’s a pleasure. It’s making my time on the treadmill and elliptical fly by, that’s for sure!
The advent of Lent. We have the usual sacrifices going on here: No X-box, No ice cream, No candy, No Facebook. I am counting on the kids to remember who gave up what…however so far, so good. It usually takes me a few days, but the Facebook shakes are diminishing and I seem to be functioning……
It’s a busy football weekend (double-header tomorrow) and a solo and ensemble performance this evening–all one kid. The others will get to coast. So funny how things all happen at one time, feast or famine. Fortunately, we have Sunday to REST!!
With the visit of our friends last weekend and the death of a co-worker’s father in law this week, I’ve been thinking a lot this week on how important it is to spend time, QUALITY time with our loved ones. To minimize our shortcomings, to maximize our memories. We only get one go around, life’s just too short to sweat the small stuff. I’m just praying I can more quickly discern the small stuff and move on.
Our youngest child has the awful honor of being the “First” ER visit for the family. Considering she’s 8 and the youngest of 4, I feel we’ve done a tremendous job so far. Or have been really lucky. Either way. Last week, while our friends were here, the kids were entertaining themselves with a baseball game in the front yard, while we prepared for S’mores in the backyard. The only problem was when you utilize a metal bat, an exercise ball and a 70 pound child, sometimes the recoil can be brutal on one’s eyebrow. The silver lining was that it came at the END of a great day with great friends and for a Saturday night, and in-and-out of the ER in under 2 hours was quite impressive. Dermabond is the BOMB and she’s healing nicely.
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To properly welcome back “my Precious” to the blog world, I thought I’d post some pictures from our time away…even though I was still click, click, clicking way with my camera and my phone.
Caught a glimpse the leftovers from a very busy spider one morning on the way out…
We’ve had some amazing weather…
Then we had a super cold morning…here I am walking and completely regretting leaving my hat and gloves at home!
A birthday breakfast for our girl hitting the double digits!
Saw a Mama duck and her babies on a walk around the lake with my girls…
We had wonderful friends come for a visit… (yes, it’s blurry, but really the fact that my clown son was able to get a decent picture in the midst of his hijinks and making us giggle is pretty impressive!)
To be continued on tomorrow’s Quick Takes @ Conversion Diary….
making the trek 