On Monday, we signed all of the last papers to close on our house! It was definitely backwards because we moved into the house 3 months ago, but since we were purchasing the house from my parents, that's just how the timeline worked out. We feel so humbled by and grateful for this house, especially for the large portion of its value that was a gift from my parents. Our mortgage is exactly what we can afford, but it does not cover the entire value of the house. Hence the immense gratitude at the gift!
On Tuesday morning during my run, I rolled my ankle when I pivoted to avoid two barking dogs. It hurt for a few hobbling steps and then felt fine, so I started running again. A few hours later that afternoon, my ankle was throbbing painfully! Noooo! I was so sad. I found our ankle compression sleeve and took some ibuprofen. Then I forced myself into complete rest for two whole days. I literally sat on the couch with my feet up and watched Netflix for hours both days, ignoring most housework and other duties and feeling like a lazy slug for it. Ugh, it was the worst. Wednesday was when the cold wind blew away and the sun started warming up the world in a happy soft glow. I wanted to be outside running in it! But I resisted. I knew my ankle injury was mild, so if I just rested it enough it would heal faster.
On Wednesday afternoon I watched longingly out our many windows as the high school track distance squad began their run along the canal. This year on Wednesdays, the distance squad meets at our barn to run in the countryside and do plyometrics in the barn afterwards. I went out to the barn to watch the plyometric workout, which involved variations of box jumps. Those kids are such a fun group. I enjoyed talking with them and watching their growing camaraderie. It has been such a lovely three weeks since high school track practice began, being a volunteer assistant coach with flexible hours and low responsibility. I give kids hair ties and bandaids. I chat with them, answer questions, and show them core workout routines. I time the workouts and attend the Saturday meets, leaving when I'm ready--no school bus ride necessary.
This week I found myself feeling apprehensive of the change that's coming when middle school track practice starts on Monday (March 18th). I am organized and know what to do as head middle school track coach, but it's a change from my blissful easy fun days-in-the-sun (and wind) of peripheral involvement with the high school team. I will be In Charge and On Duty for the entire middle school practice every day, and that is a different kind of burden. I know I can do it, but sitting on this cliff-edge of change is uncomfortable. And my body has been breaking down on me, with my ankle and shoulder issues!
On Friday I did a tentative 20 minute jog on smooth pavement, and my ankle didn't ache afterwards. I made plans to stick to running on smooth surfaces for another week or three, and dove back into physical activity.
But all of that sitting around seemed to have clenched my bad shoulder into the worst painful tight bind of all time. After my workout at the physical therapy clinic on Friday, I stayed extra time to receive all kinds of treatment to my shoulder: stretching, manipulation, cupping, rotating, and pummeling, culminating in a zigzag tape job across my upper back and wrapping around my torso. I felt so loose and beaten up when I was driving home afterwards that I nearly cried from the relief and ordeal of it all. None of this is a permanent fix, so I will have to keep working on my weak shoulder to keep it functional. Sigh.
Saturday (March 16th) was Jay's first official high school track meet (last week's meet was a jamboree). Jay ran the 1600 in the bright 75 degree high-noon sunshine and shattered his previous personal record by 16 seconds, finishing with a time of 5:26! As usual, he said he should have/could have gone faster, and as usual, I reminded him that a 16 second PR is a big deal and he should savor the feeling of success. Jay snagged one of the two spots each school was allotted for the freshman/sophomore 1600 meter race, so he got to go to the varsity track meet. I was glad because Saturday meets are much easier for me to attend than weeknight meets. It was so much fun watching Jay race! I stayed for all of the distance kids' races and worked myself up into a river of sweat, running back and forth across the infield under the blazing sun to cheer them on twice each lap. They ran so well for such an early-season meet, and I felt so proud of them!
It was a busy week, and our family time was limited to dinnertime when it happened at all, but Monday and Wednesday we didn't even have dinner all together at all because of the girls' piano lessons and all three kids' youth church activities. And then Jeff was at a JV track meet on Thursday night, so it was just me and the kids having dinner at home together. When I was looking through the very limited number of pictures that I took this week, I realized that most of the pictures I took of my family were at the dinner table, because that's when we were actually at home together! For 3 nights this week, at least. Haha. A few vignettes from the week:
Amber came upstairs crying after bedtime because there was a spider on her bedroom floor. "Rose won't kill it for me!" she cried. I talked her into going back downstairs to check if it was gone. She didn't come back up, so it must've been gone.
Rose and I had some quality mother-daughter bonding time sitting on the couch together for nearly an hour one evening, talking and snuggling. Rose is a lovely calm companion with opinions and razor sharp intellect, all wrapped in a sweet loving cuddly tall daughter. I love her.
Jay was so tired from his long week of hard running plus seminary and ultimate frisbee on Wednesday night at church youth activities. But he still came up around 8:30pm every night to say goodnight and ask me how my day went. Sweet son.
It was so beautiful outside on Thursday evening that I sat on the back porch in a rocking chair and basked in the slow melting sunset after dinner. Jeff was coaching at a JV track meet and didn't get him till close to 8pm. He called me on the drive back from Yakima and we talked for 44 minutes, which was super nice because he was so tired that when he did get home, he went to bed early. Phone calls have become a staple of the busy track season, because often that's the only time Jeff and I have both time and energy to talk.
Jeff and I did manage to have a summer planning session on Monday in his classroom. Monday was a grading day for teachers--no school for kids--so Jeff invited me to his classroom (he finished grading in like 15 minutes) and we sketched out our summer plans on his white board. It will be a fun summer--less exotic or far-traveling than past summers, but full of fun family time nonetheless.
Middle school track season begins tomorrow! Pray for me, that it will be different from last year--that there won't be any concussions, broken bones, or blood spilled during the first week of practice.
Waiting in the title company to sign our house papers!
Papers signed! We were debt free for four months between Jeff's student loans being forgiven and signing our mortgage papers, haha.
I love our house so much. It is so perfect. I especially love the windows, and when the sun came out this week, it lit our house up in such a cheerful glow! The daylight savings time change was awful, but the change made me notice the sun more, and I appreciated both the sunrise streaming through our front windows and the long glowy sunsets out of our back windows.
Basking to avoid wallowing over my lame ankle.
I could see the team running for their entire first half mile, since our house's windows are so panoramic.
Icing the ankle: the price of mortality sure can be incredibly boring and unromantic sometimes.
Snuggling with my Rose-girl.
Amber came home with a Perfect Attendance wristband. Apparently she had perfect attendance during the second trimester. Good job on her for somehow avoiding sickness during the winter!
The theme for my art club was "dinner" last week, so I took pictures of my kids eating dinner (turkey burgers) one night with plans to sketch them in my sketchbook. But I didn't feel like drawing people, so I ended up drawing something different.
More dinner pictures: Jay enjoying the sausage and white beans that I made. I love when sunlight streams onto my kids. They just look so angelic in the sunshine.
Amber, unloading the dishwasher: another favorite scene.
Amber has been re-listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks and following along in the illustrated editions when she can. The kitchen counter doesn't look like a very comfortable place to read, but Amber thought it was cozy.
A mellow spring sunset over Mt. Adams, taken from our back porch.
Working our way through some more chapters of the Book of Mormon after dinner: Isaiah is finally behind us once more. Whew!
The cool ice machine at the PT clinic--the machine pumped ice water into the boot. It was a very uniform all-around cold. Very efficient. No frozen peas here!
The carnage on the table after my shoulder treatments.
The carnage on my back after my shoulder treatments. The bruising caused by cupping is so mottled and gnarly.
I bought a baby lilac on Friday, and it fit in my arms just like a baby.
Jay, running his fastest mile ever! I was too involved and excited to take any more pictures.
Amber was dragged along to the track meet. Rose stayed home and attended a friend's birthday party. Amber is buddies with one of the freshmen on our team. They played and played, wrestling and getting coated in grassy pulp on the sunny infield.
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