Remember September

September is such a busy intense month that it is hard to find energy to write about it. When I open my journal at the end of each day, I am too tired to want to write about what made me tired! But even saying "I'm tired" is pretty much redundant for anyone involved in the school district, from those who send their kids to school and school activities to those who are school teachers and/or coaches. Or anyone living life in general. I'm trying to banish the scarcity mindset when it comes to sleep and rest and accept that I have enough of both for the day at hand, but it's hard when I generally do feel that I would benefit from two or more extra hours of sleep and/or rest each day. 

During school hours, my days are divinely quiet and mostly Shaina-centered (as I have planned them to be), but outside of that glorious six hours per day, it is full steam ahead with all of the busy intensity that this season has to offer. I am so thankful that I have those hours during school to recoup both our house and myself in preparation for the next onslaught of cross country practices, dinnertime, and kid-taxiing. After long Saturdays at cross country meets, it takes me till practically Thursday before I feel caught up on rest and life again. Then another Saturday with another meet comes back at me with a vengeance and the cycle begins again! As busy September gets, however, it's still worth remembering. Here's my attempt, from the trenches.

Journal excerpts from this week, lightly edited for coherency:

Monday, September 13th: Wow, I am in a journaling slump. I just don't feel like writing! But I'm determined to write anyways. I was in my pajamas until the girls caught the school bus this morning at 8am--it felt so cliché, but I was too busy getting them to get themselves ready for school, to get myself ready too. During dinner, Jeff, Jay, and Rose were mostly debating the merits of various dungeons and dragons characters, powers, and weapons. Amber was hangry because she didn't like the school lunch and she was upset that we were having chicken and taters for dinner. I made her eat broccoli ("it tastes like poison!") and I then let her have two sandwiches: a PB Nutella, and a cheese sandwich. That girl. Tonight we had family game night: Jeff won our game of Sleeping Queens. 

Tuesday, September 14th: On the school bus halfway to our cross country meet in Yakima today, we got a phone call from our athletic director informing us that the meet was cancelled due to smoky air. So our bus turned around and we had our own impromptu team time trial at South Hill Park in Sunnyside, on the course that Jeff and I created in October of last year (when xc season was delayed). It was tiring putting cones down on the whole course  as well as being out there in the 81 degree bright sunlight. Whew! Probably harder than just showing up and running at the cancelled meet. But it's not like I expect coaching to be easy! I'm just tired. 

Jay had xc team pictures today. Amber hurt her finger while unloading the dishwasher tonight and she cried big fat tragic tears all over Jeff and me, disproportionate to the injury. I think all day first grade wears her out physically and emotionally, sweet girl. And Rose... I encouraged her to switch her favorite dress to a tunic because it only goes halfway down to her knees, and it drew attention to her undies even with shorts on underneath. I didn't want to body shame or victim blame or use any of the negative modesty dialogues that objectify girls and women, so I explained that while wearing what makes you feel happy is important, it was also a good idea not to draw attention to her underwear, and she willingly (and hopefully without any emotional scarring) put on some leggings with her newly classified tunic dress. Raising daughters requires such delicacy.

Wednesday, September 15th: It was hot this morning, then got windy and chilly this afternoon! Backwards. Laundry and running and eating and cooking: that basically sums up the non-family part of my day, with a 20 minute yoga sesh in there and a few piano songs played on the side.

The spinach in our dinner over-wilted and turned kind of dead and slimy looking when I left it in the sauce that I prepped 2.5 hours early, before cross country practice.

Rose made cookies after school today.

Amber gets very socially overwhelmed by school and is happiest quietly playing with Legos or watching cartoons after school right now, so she can decompress and recover from her day. Jay's hurt foot is healing, but he still hasn't been able to run since the cross country meet on Saturday.

It was hot this morning, then got windy and chilly this afternoon! Backwards. 

Thursday, September 16th: I had such a good strong workout this morning after the kids went to school! My legs are tired, but my Garmin VO2 max is up to 56 and I am feeling strong, like I finally am getting confident enough to really believe that I will be able to break 20 minutes in the 5k this year! My day was lovely and peaceful and quiet. In addition to my run, I bustled around our house, hefting and folding laundry, vacuuming, and being domestically useful.

In order to generate meaningful conversation during dinner tonight (leftovers), I had the kids each share one hard/not great thing about their days and one good thing. Jay and Rose both said the school bathrooms were the bad parts of their day. The middle school is dealing with a lot of theft right now (apparently it's trendy to steal soap dispensers and other school property), so the middle school has cracked down on bathroom security and availability. And an elementary student threw used TP into the bathroom trash can instead of flushing it, which made Rose's school bathroom stinky. Amber said she had a hard time keeping up with one of her teachers who writes so fast.

Jay's good moment was getting an award for good grades, although he said it was also kind of a bad/stressful moment too because because they called him out of class and did not tell him he was getting an award for 15 minutes. He thought something bad was going to happen when he saw his teachers all sitting in a row waiting for him! Then they gave him an award. Haha. Rose said her good thing was music class because she always loves music class (she has a great music teacher), and she got chosen to do the rhythm for the first time all year. She got a paper "Big Hand" award for being a good helper in music class. Amber got a prize from the prize box "because I got ten stickers!" She explained that in order to earn stickers, she has to be good and listen to the teacher and help out. She jumped up from the dinner table, rooted around in her backpack, and proudly showed us a small plastic gem. 

Friday, September 17th: Cross country team pictures. I had to wear my itchy scratchy awkward awful bright red polyester coach's polo shirt for nearly an hour. I only have to wear it once a year for less than an hour, on team picture day, but I dread that shapeless burlap mesh polo shirt that fits like a potato sack, itches like it's made of horsehair, and clashes horrifically with my ponytail. Oh, and the photographer was as surly and waspish and sarcastic as ever. I could go on, but it seems unprofessional.

Saturday, September 18th: We went to the Wenatchee Invitational today (2 hours 10 minutes away): 5am wake-up, 6:30am school bus departure, 6:20pm arrival back at the high school, home again at 6:40pm. Family results:

• Rose ran in the 1.6 mile 6th grade race as a 5th grader and finished with a time of 14:14. (First race of the day!)
• Jay ran in the 7th grade 1.6 mile race and finished in 12:15 after a week of no running while he rested his injured heel.
• Jeff and I ran the community 5k race at the end of the meet (2pm), after a long day on our feet running all over the park coaching during five races. Jeff won the race in an impressive 17:48.
• I was the second woman to finish the community race, with a respectable time of 22:14. 

It was exceedingly difficult to run a cross country race after being on my feet all day, running around doing the coach thing. I think a faster time is very much in my reach right now, if I ever have fresh legs. I did a very draining hard workout just two days ago on Thursday, and ran a total of 39 miles this week. One final factor from my race today: I was all alone! I had a great first mile (6:58) and passed lots of people, then spent the rest of the race all by myself. It is really hard to push it to race pace all alone. I am happy I managed even a low 22 minute 5k on the legs I had today. Our entire high school team stood on the side of the course cheering wildly and loudly for their crazy coaches while we raced. It was the BEST and I love our team.

It was a very fun meet. Our high schoolers ran so well! We had a dozen PRs on the team! It felt good to be a coach when our hardworking runners still pulled off personal records on tired legs. Inspirational! 

While we were all cross country-ing at the meet, Amber happily ran off to the playground that was about 150 meters from our team tent. She played there all day long, making friends and having a blast. I never saw her up close for the entire 6.5 hours we were at the park-- she was always in the distance, climbing, swinging, running, and playing her heart out. Rose joined her after the 6th grade race, although Rose came back to check in and hang out at the team tent every now and then. I was relieved when Rose assured me that at one point Amber came back and ate a PBJ before running off again.

[end journal entries.]

I did better on my journal this week than I thought! But I only have a few pictures, and over half of them are from the cross country meet:

Amber is a piano student! She has had two piano lessons and already loves practicing using the Tonora app that her teacher subscribes to. It has a timer for each song that she has to practice, and the app gives points and coins and other awards to students when they practice. I have had to hover and help keep Amber on track with what fingers go where, but so far she is a dutiful darling little piano student.

Teeth brushing time = crazy time.

Our area is so photogenic at this time of year, I kept pulling my phone out to take pictures during my runs this week.

Matching masks with morals! One of my favorite stores (Athleta) had these formerly expensive masks on clearance for 90% off (99 cents apiece), so Rose and I tried them out. The fabric was so silky smooth and the masks were so comfortable that I got back online and ordered us a pile of them. I don't generally feel the need to advertise kindness so blatantly, but facial COMFORT. I call them our moralizing masks.

Rose with a sprint finish!

Jay, with a quarter mile to go.

After his race, I asked Jay if I could take a picture. This was his pose of choice, haha. He said he couldn't muster the energy to smile.

My sweet fun friendly high school girls team. They make me smile. We had two girls out with injuries so we were down to just five runners at the meet--bare minimum for a team score. Sadly, another girl had to drop out of the race due to leg pain so Jeff and I are recalculating our training plans to coddle our girls' team back into running condition so we can field a full team at the end of October and keep our district's state meet allotment. When we circled up to do our team cheer, I reminded the girls that on the Sunnyside girls' cross country team, we choose quality over quantity. 

Our varsity boys, doing the team cheer before the race. They call it the team chant because it's more manly maybe?