It is a very track-centric time for us--not anything new for mid-April, but definitely busy busy busy! The first week back from spring break always hits a bit harder than I'd like, but we made it through with minimal fallout. It was just a super busy week! How about some journal excerpts to sum it up:
Monday, April 10th: Time is marching along. How are we already a third of the way through April? Spring break is over, and it's the homestretch of both the track season and the school year. We still have 5 weeks of track left, but still. It was a bit of a shock to the system, getting back into the routine today. Track practice felt jumbled because I wrote down everyone's uniform sizes while taking roll, and then I talked to close to half of the team individually again, about which events they want to do. All of those 1-on-1 conversations left too many kids at loose ends. It had to be done, but I still didn't like it. Anyways... my next track project is to rearrange the training groups. Also, prep a pre-meet day practice routine. And then upload and enter kids into their events for our first meet, which is a week from today! Also, organize and hand out uniforms.
It's a lot and I'm feeling a bit crunched for time. I spent close to 2 hours prepping for this week's practices today, because I didn't do it over spring break. I also spent some time today vacuuming, laundering, and putting our house partway back together after the spring break chaos. I feel this constant tug in two directions-- my home job and my coaching job. Carrying both is a big mental burden!
This morning after Amber caught the school bus, I did all of my physical therapy and then went on a 5 mile run. Afterwards, I drank a protein recovery mix before showering. It helped with my hunger for the rest of the day! I never got that pit of despair and hunger in my stomach today. It was so nice! I might be sold on protein drink right after a workout.
I love vacuum lines on my carpet. Such Zen. I made meatballs and gravy and had it hot and ready in the instant pot, with rice on delay timer in the rice cooker waiting for us to eat right when we got home from practice at 5pm. 20 minutes later, I took the girls to piano lessons. The Monday night runaround is intense. Wow, I am tired. Last night my brain was rapid firing about track plans and didn't allow me to fall asleep till close to midnight.
Tuesday, April 11th: Whew, it's 8:55pm and I just tore myself away from a solid hour-plus of making major track coaching plans on Google Sheets and Google Docs. I did not do any prep or planning for track over spring break, and I have been feeling super behind and disjointed this week. I woke up at 4:30am this morning with my brain chugging away at the track practice organization puzzle. Thankfully I have solved the biggest pieces to the organizational puzzle that was bugging me. Head coaching is no small feat.
Today was JAM PACKED. After the kids went to school this morning, I squeezed in 15 minutes of Duolingo and 20 minutes of drawing before leaving for my physical therapy appointment. That was a little over an hour of work. From there I went to Safeway to do the week's grocery shopping (finally). After unloading groceries at home, I ate lunch (while reading a chapter of my current nonfiction book) and then gave myself half an hour to play the piano before diving into track planning.
It felt so GOOD to play the piano! I only played one or two songs yesterday, and I didn't get to play them until everyone was already home in the evening, so it wasn't the same true freedom that I get when I play piano at home alone. I am very glad that I managed to pause in my busy-ness today and take the time to relax with some soul-filling piano playing. Not that I'm amazing at playing the piano, but I have some songs that I'm working on right now which are fun and interesting and I'm starting to get the hang of them in certain parts. It is satisfying.
I spent the last 90 minutes or so of my at home time working on track coach plans. At 2pm it was off to practice in the 20mph winds (sunny, 50 degrees, and windy windy). Then the long wait for kids to be picked up after practice. The kids and I got home at 5pm. Whew. I went straight in to my computer and started entering the info I collected at track practice (which kids want what events). When Jeff got home 45 minutes later, we had leftovers for dinner together as a family. Then family scripture.
The contractor emailed us potential floor plan ideas for the kitchen and laundry and powder rooms of the house, so after dinner, Jeff and I went across the street for half an hour to visualize the plans in the space. Right when we got home, I used the bathroom and then dashed to art club zoom meeting 15 minutes late. Right after art club, I dove back into my spreadsheet and docs to continue my track coach planning sesh. Which leads me up to right now. I need to go VEG and wind down right now! I hope getting all of these ideas OUT of my brain will allow me to sleep past 5am (hopefully all the way to 6am) tomorrow morning!
Wednesday, April 12th: BUSY! I was in my running clothes all morning and never managed to go on a run. I called Costco online services to learn more about our lawn mower delivery that was scheduled for right during track practice today. While I was on hold, I folded the last basket of laundry (finally! I've been folding a basket a day all week!)
After I did some businesslike stuff, it was after 11am so I ate a granola bar to tide me over until after my workout. Then I finally buckled down and did my physical therapy. By the time I finished that, it was after 12pm. A text came in from the delivery company saying that my lawn mower delivery time was at 2:36pm. I was not going to be home! I needed to figure out what to do about the lawn mower. I was on the verge of going to ask our next door neighbor to accept the delivery for me, when my phone rang. It was the delivery truck guy saying he would be at my house in 15 minutes! Whew! I was so grateful that they were coming early, but I had to delay my run yet again. Still in my running shorts, I decided to make dinner while I waited for them to show up. The ground turkey was all cooked and half seasoned in the instant pot, and I had just added water and lentils when the truck drove up. Quickly, I put the lid on the instant pot and left the half-seasoned half-cooked meal while I jogged across the street and opened the barn. The delivery guy parked the mower in the barn and left.
THEN I ran back across the street and finished adding the seasonings to my lentil turkey taco meat. By that point, it was after 1pm and I still hadn't run or eaten lunch. So I accepted defeat, changed out of my running shorts (into coaching clothes: only slightly different), and ate lunch. Right after lunch I threw together one more paper to bring to track practice and then headed out to track practice.
It was uniform distribution day and I was exhausted and frazzled afterwards. Whew! The last kid got picked up from practice at 4:55pm. We had 50 minutes at home to eat dinner and rest a little before all 3 kids loaded back into the van and we drove to the church. Jay and Rose had to be at the church early tonight for their activity. Amber's primary activity got canceled while we were en route to the church, so I called Jeff and asked him to meet us at the church and take Amber home so she didn't have to wait during my Relief Society presidency meeting. Jeff sat in the car and listened to me tell him all about my day for five minutes before he took Amber home and I went to the presidency meeting. Jay, Rose, and I got home a little after 8pm.
That was my day. So busy! So long! Not a single second of K-drama-watch-time for the second day in a row!
Thursday, April 13th: So. Tired. I woke up at 2:45am this morning and was awake for over an hour before I dozed off. I am starting to feel more on top of the track coaching workload again, so that's something.
I had such a good run today! And track practice was different. We did a mini intra squat meet with 3 running events and 2 field events. The kids seemed to enjoy it, even though crowd control with the team was pretty hard with everyone sprawled out so far across the infield. At the end, the kids begged to do a 4x100 meter relay, so we had 4 teams line up. It was fun to see their enthusiasm. I am proud that all of my coachly seed-planting about how fun relays are has paid off.
I had to hand out at least 5 bandaids within the first ten minutes of practice today. One kid even stabbed another kid with a pencil in the chest! He wasn't joking either; he was mad! Arg. I was peeved and separated them like preschoolers in time out.
We had family scripture after dinner tonight and it felt like a feat. I could barely do 75% of my PT exercises today, my shoulder is so sore from my appointment 2 days ago. I managed to carve out 30 minutes to play the piano today, and later another 30 minutes to watch part of a K drama episode. It was good to make time for myself during the daytime.
Friday, April 14th: Team picture day for track today. We didn't do any running or practicing afterwards because all of the other sports pictures were happening on our infield, and also because the kids were a bit crazy and unfocused. And we have our first meet on Monday. Wow I am so tired. I went out to a long lunch with friends to celebrate one friend's birthday, and I ended up going straight to track practice afterwards. Such. A. Long. Day. I am falling asleep in my chair right now. I have to help out at the HS track meet tomorrow all day long, for 8 hours. Zzzzz
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