Haircuts, Volcanoes, Track, PT,

The clock is ticking down toward the first day of middle school track season. Tick tock, tick tock. Even when I'm not actively making plans and lists and spreadsheets about track practice, that clock is ticking and the gears are turning in the back of my brain. It wakes me up before dawn frequently, demanding that my brain Figure Out More Details Immediately. The incessant mental ticking also makes me feel extra busy, like a time crunch--get as much done as possible before the time is up! It is maddening. I just want the season to start already so I can stop wondering, prepping, and worrying about it! We have one more week to wait. In the meantime, I try to limit myself to an hour or two of track prep per day and I am doing my best to also take some total mental break time each day where I don't let myself think about anything. K-dramas to the rescue! Some days this week I only managed to watch a few uninterrupted minutes of an episode, but it was still a necessary break. 

Jeff went to his first track meet on Saturday. He was gone alllll day long while 2/3 of our children were sick or recovering from sickness, so let's just say I made up for lost time in the K-drama department on Saturday. Jeff came home in good spirits after a 12 hour Saturday of coaching. Jeff's health is improving, his track team is organized, and he is feeling good. YAY. (also, knock on wood--please don't let this update jinx him!)

I did something new this week: I went to see a physical therapist for the first time ever. When I left my 90 minute evaluation appointment, I was asking myself two questions: why did I wait so long to go to physical therapy, and how have I never gone to physical therapy before? It was exactly the personalized evaluation plus solutions that I have been craving for the past year in regards to my glute injury. While I was there, I had him look at my bad shoulder too. It turns out my glute issue is a piriformis muscle problem along with overall hip tightness, while my shoulder problem is an incredibly tight set of surrounding muscles. I was given mobility exercises to do at home for both of my painful weak spots, and I am already noticing a positive change less than a week later! It is astounding! I am excited to continue progressing through physical therapy over the next few weeks and finally solve these mysterious muscular issues I've been battling with for over a year. 

This week Jay had his first high school EVENT: Future Grizzly Night, where 8th graders could see and learn about activities, clubs, and sports in high school. Jeff was there in his capacity as head cross country, boys swim, and track coach. In addition to running and swimming, Jay said he was also interested in the math club. All three of my children have an affinity for numbers and are good at math. No wonder it nearly killed me to grow and birth them; developing those math brain cells inside my own womb was about as foreign to me as possible to have inside me, and my body rebelled. Hah! 

Jay also had his first haircut of the year this week. His hair was LONG and so so shaggy. I forgot to take pictures...but Jay decided to keep the length on the top but trim up the sides neatly. It was a big challenge for my limited haircutting skills, but I pulled it off alright. I used to be super opinionated and demanding of clean short hair on Jay (and Jeff...), but I have stepped back from that unnecessary battle. Hair is hair. It grows, it gets cut. I do have to offer my barber services to Jay regularly because he's so low maintenance that he really won't say anything he needs until it's desperate. Case in point: I peeked in Jay's room on Friday and noticed that his fitted bed sheet looked oddly rumpled. A second glance told me that the sheet actually had a 3 foot long rip right down the middle! Jay hadn't noticed. 

Rose had her second school orchestra concert on Thursday night. She knew all of her songs very well and even lugged her cello home three times per week to practice. She is such a confident player, I am impressed. Jeff and I went to the concert together (Jeff squeezed in at the last minute after track practice). We got Rose a pastry from Pepe's Bakery after the concert to celebrate. Jay and Amber stayed home together--Jay wasn't feeling well and Amber didn't feel like going, so I let her stay home with her brother. Rose also got a haircut this week. There was no school on Friday (it was an end-of-trimester teacher grading day, so Jeff had to work), so I made Rose an appointment with our favorite hairdresser, Catalina, for Friday afternoon. Catalina did a lovely job on Rose's short bob haircut, but I about choked when she charged $50 for it! That's $15 more than last time we went. I'm all about supporting local businesses, but I'm also all about supporting my monthly budget...

Amber became deeply interested in volcanoes over the past two weeks. Her class did a unit on volcanoes in school that sparked her interest. Molten lava exploding or oozing out of the ground to cool and harden into interesting new rocks? That's right up Amber's alley! When we went to the library on Monday evening, Amber requested lots of books about volcanoes. We checked out all seven of the available books about volcanoes in the kids non-fiction section, and Amber was thrilled. She even brought the volcano books to school to show her class. Amber is such an enthusiastic geologist! I love it. She's not one to sit down and read chapter books for fun, but she does pore over her library books over and over and over, even when we don't have time to get new library books and I renew them and we keep them for six weeks. 

The springtime busy-ness is ramping up! I barely managed to find 14 pictures from our week to share:

Sisters snuggled up with their Kindles to read.

We woke up to a dusting of wet melty snow on two separate mornings this week! Thankfully it was all melted by 10am.

As we were lugging our heavy bag of books out of the library, Amber walked over to the wall and said "we have to take a picture!" We don't always take a picture, and I wasn't really in the mood to take one that night, but Amber wanted the full mom-library-date experience! I love that she is on board with my mother-child-library-date traditions.

This is the best "before" picture I have of Jay's long long hair--his friends and sisters like to mess it up, haha.

Rosie playing in her 6th grade orchestra concert. She's sitting third from the left on the front row.

Jay's main sick day was Friday, so the girls lived it up watching Duck Tales and superhero movies with him all day until their neighbor friend invited them outside to play.

Rose, before and after her haircut.

I didn't notice that she blinked in this picture until the next day.

Physical therapy has made running feel so much looser for me--my shoulder feels happier and my legs are already moving better. Keep that magic coming! Also, I let Jeff pick out a new pair of running shoes for me, and he found these carbon rod Adidas Boston super shoes for 70% off online. Jeff is so good at picking out good shoes. 

Before she succumbed to sickness, Amber lugged the box of wood train tracks out of the closet. Rose spent Saturday building different curvy configurations while Amber mostly watched from the couch. Rose was proud that she managed to use every single piece of train track in a closed loop.

I love it when my kids snuggle up with books.

Poor tragic tired snoozy sick Amby.

Right when you think they aren't listening...during one of the [less-than-six] nights that we had family scripture this week, Amber seemed completely tuned out after she read her four verses. But since she wasn't actively reading another book, I let her draw while we talked about the parable of the sower. Afterwards, Amber showed me her picture of seeds falling on rocks and in thorns, and on good ground.