Middle School Track week 1

 Week one is done! My second season as head middle school track coach began on Monday, March 18th. I learned a lot last year and I'm doing my best to apply it to my team this year. In the first week of practice, we had no concussions, no broken bones, and no faceplants. Nobody even needed a bandaid until Friday, and that was a minor scrape. 44 kids signed up for my middle school track team, but only 31 have showed up total, and only 23 came on thr first day of practice. I was underwhelmed by the numbers because last year we had 39 kids who came relatively consistently. But small groups are easier to manage, so I can't complain! 

The weather was actually quite hot for the first two days of practice. It was unusual this early in the season, and also exhausting to deal with 80+ degree temperatures so suddenly. But it cooled down to the mid 50s by the end of the week and everything felt more normal. 

Rose was so happy after the first day of track practice, she talked and talked and told me every little detail about her run and her experience at practice. It made me happy that she loved her first ever official track practice. It could go either way, with Jeff and I coaching our own children, but so far they seem to like having their parents as coaches. 

Other non-track things happened this week: Rose and I wore our matching green dresses to church on St. Patrick's Day. I changed our water filter and felt so responsible and adult-ish. Amber and I went to the library together. I went to the chiropractor, physical therapist, and eye doctor all this week. Mortal bodies are so high maintenance! Rose and Amber spent the night at their cousins' house in Grandview on Friday night. Jay had a track meet on Saturday, and ran his first 3200 meter race of high school in a time of 11:50. He said it was hard to pace that race right. 

We enjoyed some beautiful sunsets early in the week. Then on Friday, heavy rains rolled in and showed us a leak in the roof of our new house! Thankfully the contractor sent out a roofing guy on Saturday right after we discovered the leak, and he fixed it quickly. 

St. Patrick's Day! We've had these dresses for two years, and it was fun to wear them to church on March 17th.

Day one of middle school track season!

Amber always dives right into her stash of library books when we get in the car.

I'm still adjusting to coaching season dinner prep, and one day I forgot to make dinner ahead of time. When we got home from practice I whipped together some simple spaghetti and frozen meatballs. Even that was more than I had energy for after spending 2 hours with thirty 13 year olds.

Rose and Amber jumped on the trampoline in the glorious sunset on Tuesday evening, and it made my heart happy.

I figured out how to change the water filter with minimal splashing this week and felt extra savvy.

Amber dominates our refrigerator front with her artwork and messages. After family scripture one night this week, Amber interpreted "feast upon the word of God" as "we should eat the word of God." She also wrote me a reminder for me to bring her a snack to eat while she waited at track practice. I like the note below that stating that "Amber wrote this."

I had to document on the sly our game of duck duck goose at track practice. Last year a kid broke his arm during duck duck goose. That did not happen this year, and I was both relieved and proud of myself for facing down that unexpectedly risky game again.

A picture of the leak in our roof: the water dripped through a light fixture onto the kitchen counter.

Jay, kneeling in front of the Sunnyside tents at the track meet on Saturday. 

Jay and his two teammates took turns leading their group in the 2 mile race. I loved watching them run! 

Coach selfie. I love hanging out at track meets with Jeff. It takes us back to our origins 19 years ago, when we met on our college track team. We spent so much quality time together at long track meets back in college, it feels so natural and cozy and fun to hang out at track meets now.