It was the last week of track season! Middle school track is over! I can hardly believe it. The week started off shaky with only a discouraging 50% of the team attending Monday's practice, but the truants came back after Monday and we made it to the end of the week and the season with most of the team intact. We had our fifth and final meet of the season on Thursday, May 18th. It was also Jay's last middle school meet!
Under a merciless 85 degree sun, Jay ran the 1600 in 5:54, finishing less than a second behind his friend and training buddy Jordan. It was a good end to his season. It was a total sweat fest the entire afternoon, from the time I left my house at 2pm to the time we got home at 8pm. I checked Amber out from school early at 2pm and brought her and Rose along in the bus to the meet, since Jeff was at the 2-day high school district track meet. Usually on middle school meet days, Jeff takes care of Amber after school, but he was at a track meet too, and since my track meet was closer and shorter than his, I took Amber. Next year I refuse to have any middle school meets on the same days as high school meets. Anyways, Amber is experienced at entertaining herself at meets of various kinds, so she was content. There was a lot of dust and dirt near the track, and she made good use of it. Billowing clouds of dust practically followed her around wherever she went. My assistant coaches got a kick out of Amber's affinity for dirt. That girl is like Pigpen from Charlie Brown, haha.
Before our team bus left the meet to drive back to Sunnyside, I took roll as always, and discovered that two kids on our team did not have their parent sign them out with a coach. Officially they could be anywhere! Times like this are when being head coach pinches and chafes. I had to call the kids' parents. One parent didn't answer, so I left a message. The other parent answered but I quickly discovered that I had to switch to Spanish on the fly to ask if she had her son. Thankfully she did, and the other kids' mom called back before we got back to Sunnyside so the crisis was short-lived. But it was still stressful. I don't even want to think about what would've happened if those two kids hadn't gone home with their parents. Shudder.
On our way home from the middle school on Thursday night, I took Jay, Rose, and Amber to McDonald's for a late dinner to celebrate the end of track season. Friday after school was our end of season middle school track team pizza party, where a mere 38 kids consumed 20 pizzas in the blink of an eye.
May 18th (the last middle school track meet) has been a distant bookend circled on my calendar for so long, and now it is past. It's both easy and hard to believe that the season is over. I am proud of myself for rising to the big scary challenge of being a head track coach. If I think about it one way, it seems like I could've done so much more as a coach, but when I think back to specific days and kids, I know that I did everything I could to train my team up. I am pleased with how our season went. I learned a lot and hopefully I will be able to use those lessons to make next year even better! For now, I am relishing NOT having somewhere to be from 2-5pm every week day.
I'd say I feel free, but I still have to go back to the middle school to collect a dozen uniforms that weren't turned in last week. Also, the minute my track coaching obligations ended, my church service obligations ramped up. Being in the Relief Society presidency is no joke, and I managed-slash-muddled along during my busy track season. It seems like everything needs to be done right now and it is a lot--in my church calling, at our new house, etc.
We STILL have not been able to start watering the grass at our new house, due to broken PVC valves on the irrigation system that are too hard for me to change and our sprinkler company said they couldn't squeeze us in before July. So the yardwork volume continues but with less satisfaction/aesthetic results. The yard is getting crispy due to a heat wave that crushed us with temperatures in the high 90s most days this week.
This week was the high school track state qualifier district meet. (6 kids are going to state!) On Tuesday we hosted a massive high school track team awards potluck banquet. It was thunderstorming and pouring rain for most of the evening, which is super rare in our area. I think I hear thunder maybe once a year here, but there were long rolls of thunder and regular flashes of lightning for several hours on Tuesday! And the rain gushed! It was so unusual, but I was thankful for the rain since we haven't gotten our irrigation system up and running yet, and for the barn, which sheltered the huge crowd of people from the storm. We had 60+ people in our big barn--high school track team members and their families. The place was packed and the basketball cannons were blasting for most of the 90 minute gathering. The team brought mountains of food and we had three long folding tables practically groaning under the weight of all the different enchiladas, dips, casseroles, pizzas, drinks, and desserts. It was a massive gathering.
Partway through the evening, Jeff looked over at me and said, "We are actually hosting a huge party right now. US." I nodded in disbelief. It was so surreal for us to be the hosts of such a gathering. We coach teams all the time, but hosting them at our own home outside of school (where we can actually have a blessing on the food and everything) was just so new. The kids and their parents all loved the barn, and Jeff and I learned a few key details for hosting large events in our own space. The biggest one was: don't forget the big black trash bags. White kitchen trash bags do not go far with five dozen-plus people all eating off of paper plates!
After a few weeks of deliberation (prolonged by how little time Jeff and I have to talk to each other during track season), we finally decided on a dollar amount to pay our kids for mowing the new yard. We divided the yard into 3 chunks that were similar in effort and time required to mow, and said that each section is worth $15. Jay has a purchase ambition or two, so he got Rose's permission to allow him to mow all three sections on Saturday. It took him 3 hours! I still wanted Rose and Amber to do some yardwork even if they weren't mowing, so I assigned them 30 minutes of rock moving, for $5. When it comes to paying my kids, my brain is stuck in my own childhood where $6 per hour was HIGH PAY, so I feel like gagging a little that we forked over so much for a family chore... but we're calling it an allowance... I still don't know if we're doing this the best way, but this is what we're trying right now! New territory! Our kids keep growing up and stretching my parenting comfort zone.
Saturday after my 5 mile run and physical therapy exercises, I went over to the house to do some yardwork. I watered the blueberries and raspberries and decided to weed around the raspberries. I am really bad at stopping partway through any task, and the row of raspberries is very long. It took me almost 2 hours to weed down one side of it because the weeds had grown so thick (since that's the only place we have been able to water). I channeled Mary Lennox and cleared the choking weeds and vines from around the berry stalks so they could breathe. I gathered three heaping jam-packed wheelbarrows full of weeds. I was drenched in sweat. I used to detest yardwork in all of its varieties, but ever since we started taking care of our new yard, I have found a surprising amount of satisfaction in working by the sweat of my brow to care for our bit of earth. I don't exactly look forward to it, but I don't experience that deep malaise-ish dread that I used to when it's time to work outside.
Saturday afternoon was Rose and Amber's piano recital. It was held in our church building, and both girls played so well! As always, I fervently wished I didn't have to sit through an hour of other kids' plinking to hear my own daughters perform, but such is the joy of recitals. And there were several kids who did much more than plink. Also, three of the kids from my middle school track team were also in the recital, so that was fun. Rose is progressing with her piano playing. A few weeks ago, she started learning her first hymn and primary song, which always feels like a nice gauge for piano level. She plans to continue with piano lessons next school year too. Amber came so far with her piano this year! It was like labor and delivery all over again helping teach her how to read music. She still struggles with some notes, but she improved massively and I am proud of her (and relieved for myself, haha).
1 comment:
I know just how you feel about the satisfaction of taking care of your bit of earth, but it’s still amazing that you cleared that long row of weed-choked berries!
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