Due to pandemic restrictions, each of the nine teams at the meet was limited to 12 boys and 12 girls. That was not a problem for our tiny 6-person girls' team! And we only had to leave a few boys home. It was fun to be at a familiar course doing the multi-school cross country meet thing again on a Saturday morning. Covid really has simplified so much. We weren't allowed to bring big water jugs or any of our other communal team supplies beyond the team shade tent, so our gear loading was easy-peasy. The runners even had to pack their own lunches since we couldn't stop for food on the way home. Some of the usual routines I missed (team huddles, full starting lines); other parts I did not (lugging ten gallons of water, eating McDonald's afterwards).
The meet went well. They started the race in four flights or groups, so after one flight started, the next flight walked up to the line and started 20-ish seconds later, and so on. The hosting school had an electronic timing system that kept track of the delayed start times, thankfully, because thinking about it gave me a brain ache. It was an interesting pandemic meet! I loved watching our two experienced girls (and all of the boys) run their race smart and strong. I also loved watching our four brand-new runners experience their first hilly cross country course. It was fun figuring out what kind of action points and tips to give them as they prepared for the race, and then seeing them conquer the full 3 mile distance. It was also a relief when my coach-advice actually paid off noticeably in the race! (Start slower than last time and you'll do better during the last mile; you run with her as long as you can and you'll surprise yourself; never walk on a downhill--it's a waste!)
Six weeks ago, most of these beginners couldn't even run a quarter of a mile without stopping! Sniff. Being a coach is pretty great. I used my GPS watch to track how much I ran while coaching and cheering during the two races at the meet, and I covered a full three miles--the same distance as the course! The GPS map was a hilarious zigzagging tangled mess from my sprint-stand-cheer routine. Jeff and I were the crazy coaches running back and forth across the park to see as much of the race as possible! We got our workout in while working as coaches--the closest we'll ever get to being professional athletes is running while being paid to coach, haha.
These three are never far from my mind, even when I'm caught up in coaching. The in-season balancing act between our three kids and our twenty-eight kids is always interesting!
After the race! (Masks for everything but the actual running).
Flight two of the boys race, starting the race.
Bus ride! Thank goodness it wasn't colder because covid guidelines require every other window to be cracked open for ventilation. I wore gloves.
Sunday was another full day. Our ward had its first full-length two hours of church in nearly a year! Of course we still wore masks and sat apart and all of that, but the full Sunday meetings are back! I was so hungry by the end, and I wasn't even fasting, haha. Rose got up and bore a short sweet testimony during sacrament meeting. After church she told me that it was one of her goals to bear her testimony more often. "It's one of my personal goals that I didn't tell everyone about," she explained. It always astounds me and warms my heart right up when my kids make private decisions to improve themselves, chose the right, and grow their faith all on their own. As a mom, I spend an inordinate amount of time actively trying to improve my kids from the outside (don't forget to___, do this, do that, gather for this, clean up that, etc.). It is a joy to know that they are trying to improve themselves too.
Rose also gave a talk in primary. She was asked to give this talk last Sunday, and right away I helped her choose a topic from this week's Come Follow Me lesson. Then I stepped back and gave her space (even though I wanted her to write the talk instantly so it didn't hang over us all week, haha). She did write it herself. At 6:25 on Friday morning as I was slowly waking up from the deep delicious warm well of sleep, Rose came into my room and said "Mommy, I just started writing my primary talk! I had a dream that I was up front in primary with a blank paper, so I got up and started writing my talk." Then she told me what she had so far and asked for advice. I groggily gave her a few tips and she scampered off to write more. Soon she was back, and I sat up to help her find a scripture to include. Her talk was all finished before 7am. She did a great job!
Amber also had a part to play in primary at church on Sunday. She was asked to recite the first Article of Faith. I forgot to help her memorize it until Wednesday, and I didn't know if she would actually listen enough to learn it. Amber is not a performer. She has never been one to "repeat after me" or anything like that. So I didn't know if she would "take" to memory work. We worked on the first Article of Faith for a few minutes each day from Wednesday onward, and by Sunday morning, she had it memorized! I was so surprised that her stubborn nature didn't sneak in a sabotage the situation. Saying it for her family was vastly different than saying it in a microphone in front of forty or so kids, though, so we weren't out of the woods yet.
Primary was held in the gym area of our church building, to allow the kids to sit far enough apart. When I arrived on the scene, Amber and Rose were already sitting up front and I couldn't get up there without being a major distraction, so I decided to just sit in the back and see what happened when it was Amber's turn with the microphone. She carefully recited her lines easily, without any hesitation or fear; "We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in his son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost." She omitted a few conjunctions, but that's normal for her. Her muffled mask voice was so cute!
After church, Jay told me about how during church he felt the spirit while he was thinking about heaven during sacrament meeting. He said "I realized that there were some gaps in my knowledge about heaven, and I felt the spirit tell me 'you were there,' and my testimony grew." Jay's deep thinking doesn't always translate to sentences I fully comprehend, but what's important is that he felt the spirit and recognized it for what it was! This line-upon-line gospel learning process is fun to be a part of as a parent!
Sunday afternoon, Jeff began setting up a new set of bunk beds for the girls. Their bedroom is so small, and having two loft beds in that small space under the low ceilings was choking my equilibrium. We had just added the second loft bed less than a year ago! Normally I'm not this wishy-washy with furniture, but small spaces are tricky and require specific equipment in order to use the space wisely, and in this case it took some trial and error. We thought that the loft beds would make the room feel bigger because they'd free up more useable floor space underneath the beds, but our ceilings are barely seven feet high so the loft beds just ended up feeling cramped and crowded. Then a few weeks ago the missionaries asked if anyone had any spare furniture for a family they were teaching, and I seized the day: I offered our two mismatched loft beds and ordered normal bunk beds for the girls. On Sunday, Jeff took apart one loft bed and put together the bottom bunk bed before running out of steam. The girls room already feels better, and Amber feels special to be the one with the newest bed for once.
On Sunday I also got my courage up and gave Rose and Amber haircuts. Rose's last haircut was in May of 2019, almost two years ago. Amber's most recent haircut was in September of 2019. It was time. I would prefer to take them to a Super Cuts or something simple and cheap like that, but we don't have a salon like that in town. In 2019 when I tried cutting their hair, it was crooked and my confidence plummeted. So I've been putting it off. As I was brushing Amber's tangled hair after her shower on Sunday morning, though, I suddenly had the urge to give her a trim. So I found some basic tips on Google and snipped away. It worked! I did Rose's hair next, and had another success! It wasn't fancy, but it also wasn't crooked. So there. Another point for pandemic bingo: home haircut. I haven't cut my own hair yet, but...the pandemic isn't over yet!
Rose, writing her talk on my nightstand.
Post-talk euphoria!
Before and after. Our bathroom lighting isn't the greatest, but you get the idea.
Next step: learn how to smile on command. Hehe
Before and after for Rose.
Left side trimmed, right side waiting to be trimmed.
Rose's hair was long long long.
Freedom!
Bunk bed part I. Amber loves having a real bed at a normal height. She rarely ever slept in her loft bed, choosing to sleep on the floor instead. Something about being scared spiders were up by the ceiling. We opened the bedroom window because the new beds smelled like wet varnish. I was worried that Jeff would be loopy after spending so much time breathing the smell, but he withstood it.
1 comment:
Wow, the girls hair was loooooong! Nice job on the cuts!
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