Usually May mellows out after Memorial Day weekend, because high school track season ends, but this year's later sports schedule yanked the state track meet all the way to the bitter end of May. It was only one week longer than usual, but May is crammed to the brim with all the concerts, activities, awards, and parties so extending track season to May 31st was intense. It felt like a sprint finish to the end of May.
Monday was Memorial Day, a day off of school and a day for all the yardwork we could manage. Tuesday was a normal school day, but with back to back concerts at night: Rose's middle school band concert, and Jay's high school orchestra concert. On Wednesday (May 28th), Jeff left for the state track meet, held in Tacoma, WA 3.5 hours away. He was there until Saturday (May 31st). During that time, I attended a mother daughter activity at church with Amber, went to the temple, had my last physical therapy appointment, and did a whole lot of monotonous driving to and from the schools. On Friday night, Rose, had her 8th grade party and Jay had his orchestra awards night. Amber and I stayed home together and watched the Mario movie...or I watched it with her for as long as I could stand the videogame-ish-ness of it, which was about 20 minutes longer than I expected to last. On Saturday, I played the piano, ran, did yardwork, got groceries, and took a nap. Jeff got home from the state track meet at 10pm.
That's the summary version of the week. Here are a few more excerpts and anecdotes from my journal:
Monday, May 26th: Memorial Day. Today was satisfyingly productive but also restful. I found a good balance between the two. This morning Kennedy and I went running together at 7am. I did some pre run activation PT, and we lifted for half an hour after our run. When Kennedy left, I finished my PT and lifting for another 40 minutes. From there, I drank a protein shake, put my overalls on top of my running clothes, and started in on yardwork. Jeff was already outside, wrangling sprinklers. He replaced four broken in-ground sprinkler heads and re-aimed several so they watered our grass instead of our driveway.
Meanwhile, I started out by hoe-ing and weeding the driveway. Then I went after the gopher holes again. So many new mounds popped up since I got them all just two days ago! I kept track of my tally: out of the 70 mounds (some big some tiny) that I knocked down, I only found the tunnel to dump poison pellets down 25 of them. Rose joined me for the last bit and did another 30 mounds. Together we knocked down 100 gopher mounds and poisoned 38 tunnels. That's a success rate of just over one third.
After the gopher attack, I mowed around our mailbox out by the road because the grass and weeds were nearly taller than the mailbox. While I was mowing, a thwack sounded, followed by an object flying out from under the mower in a near perfect arc, landing 10 feet away. As it flew through the air, I realized it was A DEAD SQUIRREL BODY! It had clearly been dead for a while because its eyes were gone and it was kind of flat and dry, but it still had the fur and tail, and it looked like it was jumping as it soared up, out, and down. I laughed my head off while I continued to mow. The [dead] flying squirrel!
With my last gasp of energy, I put the mower batteries in the chargers and swept out the shed. All in all, I exercised for 2 hours and did yardwork for 3 hours this morning. It was intense! After a shower and lunch, I took a nap. Then I played piano for and watched a show before making dinner. We had Jeff's parents Dan and Leslie over for a dinner of brats, watermelon, chips, and carrots.
Tuesday, May 27th: This morning before school, Jeff asked me to give him a bad haircut to celebrate the track kids who qualified for state. I cut an arrow into his hair on the top of his head. It felt so wrong, holding the clippers and actively trying not to give him a good haircut.
I woke up so tired this morning, but managed to get moving and actually felt pretty good on my run after I took Amber to school. After my run, I sprayed 4 gallons of Roundup on our driveway, swept the garage, and showered. Then I talked with my dear Mom on the phone for at least 2 hours. I did things like folding laundry and eating lunch while we talked. This evening Rose had her last band concert of middle school. She played her clarinet so boldly and confidently! Right after Rose's concert, we went next door to the high school for Jay's orchestra concert. He played well and looked so cool up there behind his big string bass.
Amber's sprained wrist is feeling a little better every day. She said she didn't even need ibuprofen before bed tonight for the first time in 3 nights. Such a relief!
Wednesday, May 28th: I attended Amber's mother daughter primary activity tonight. We played various guessing games and get to know you games, and my already tired brain is totally fried!
For some reason I did not sleep well last night, and I was feeling it all day today. I managed to do a streamlined version of my hip PT and go on a 30 minute run, but I removed yardwork from my list and replaced it with a nap. I'm not as desperately exhausted tonight as I was last night, so that's got to be a good sign!
Jeff left for the state track meet today at noon. He said the city sent a fire truck to their state send-off at the high school. He was a bit disappointed that I decided not to join him at the state meet this year, but it feels like a lot to leave home for even one night, so I'm not. It was 90 degrees today, but our back porch thermometer in the afternoon sun read 102. It feels like summer but there are still 2 weeks of school left!
Thursday, May 29th: So tired. It's only 9pm but I'm drooping! This morning I cleaned bathrooms and took Amber to school. Then I lifted with friends and played piano. Right after that, I ate a quick lunch and drove 45 minutes to the temple for an endowment session.
I prayed so hard to stay awake during the temple session! I almost didn't go because I was feeling so tired, but I decided to go with reinforcements. I was prepared with a napkin full of fruit snacks in my pocket. I did not chew them; I sucked each one till it dissolved in my mouth during the temple session. It was effective at keeping me awake. I was able to make one fruit snack last 10 minutes! I only needed four fruit snacks during the entire session too. I am so grateful for that miracle of being able to stay awake in that quiet peaceful place. The temple session was beautiful and I'm so glad I went even though I was exhausted. I happened to stumble across Lynn Bos from our ward and her Come Follow Me study group on their monthly temple trip, so I knew half of the women in the session. It was sweet. I love seeing people unexpectedly in the temple. It just feels extra sweet and special.
After my temple session, I put my running clothes on under my dress in the dressing room, and drove to Daniel Hernandez's house for my last PT session. He really did patch me up and bring me back stronger in just four weeks. It was a fascinating experience. Thankfully today's PT session wasn't too painful, since I'm not as stiff, tight, and injured as I was before. When I did a few stride-outs at the end, Daniel said this was the best he's ever seen me look while running. Better form equals more strength which equals less injury. I hope I can keep it rolling!
While I was in the tri cities, Jay picked Amber up from school for me. As team captain, he also headed up cross country conditioning with a 3 mile run and major plyometric session in the barn. Go Jay! Poor Rose tried to take care of the gopher mounds so she could mow, but she got bogged down after 70 mounds and lost motivation to mow after that. I'm pretty sure Amber all Amber had for dinner tonight was strawberries and a donut. Hmmm youngest child...
Saturday, May 31st: Jeff is finally on his way home from the state track meet. He should hopefully get home a little before 10pm tonight. Poor guy said he got a stomach bug and puked all night last night. It made me selfishly so glad that I stayed home! Jeff survived today on Pepto and rice, resting in the school van in the parking field for most of the day, only emerging to watch the two Sunnyside athletes compete.
This morning I prioritized first my scripture study, then my piano playing. I got about 50 minutes of piano playing in before 8am. I find that when I wait to play piano till after I do yardwork, I am too tired to enjoy playing! At 8am I ran 4 miles with Kennedy and showed her three lifts in the barn. Amber biked for 30 minutes in the barn while watching a show. I bumped up the resistance on the bike so she actually got some exercise. She said "MO-O-OM!" in such a teenage way in response. At 9:15am I ran 3 miles with Rose, wherein I taught Rose my technique for stowing my shirt when I peel it off mid-run (fold it and tuck it into the back straps of my sportsbra like a cape). We were so hot we had to remove layers mid run. I knocked down all the gopher mounds with Rose and Amber so Jay could mow. Then I showered and picked up a Walmart grocery order, unloaded it, and squeezed everything into our two fridges.
After all that, I had second lunch (first lunch was small due to my overheated tired post run/post yardwork stomach) and finally collapsed into bed for a glorious 40 minute nap. After my nap, I watched a k drama till dinnertime.
The kids relaxed all afternoon today too. It's funny, we did lots of exercise and work this morning, but when Amber said our family prayer tonight, she was thankful that we could have a relaxing day today. It's a good thing we got our productivity done before lunch because a weird late hot windstorm picked up this afternoon, howling hot air around our house.
Sunday, June 1st: Today was Jeff's 43rd birthday! He was still feeling weak and sick from the stomach bug he got on Friday night, so we kept it simple and postponed his birthday dinner for later in the week. This morning before church, he opened his birthday gifts: a new Garmin watch that he picked out and ordered for himself (and I wrapped), a pair of running shorts with donuts on them, and a coordinating running singlet (my contributions). It was sad that he didn't feel well enough to fully enjoy his birthday presents, because I know he was excited about his new watch! Jeff crawled back into bed while the rest of us went to church.
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