Running at the Gorge

Our seventh of seven consecutive Saturday cross country meets was held in the middle of nowhere central Washington at the Columbia River Gorge Amphitheater on October 16th. It was about an 80 minute drive from Sunnyside on bus-bouncing minor state highways. This was the Moses Lake Invitational, and it was the last race of the middle school cross country season--Jay's last race in his first official cross country season! The high school team still has two more weeks in its season, but this was it for the middle schoolers!

Notes from a tired mom

It's been a tired week. I had several restless nights of minimal sleep, which led me to feeling tired, which led me to feeling cranky and trapped by the expectations placed on me-- by myself, by my family, and by others. This morning I felt down and worn thin and just kind of sad. So I called my mom and while we were talking, I realized that I am allowed to be tired. I am allowed to be tired, even if my life isn't as hectic or hard in the same ways as it has been in the past. I am allowed to be tired now, regardless of how my circumstances compare to others.

Clips

It was another busy week. I barely took any pictures and only wrote in my journal out of sheer willpower. Here are some journal clips from the past week, with corresponding daily pictures:

September Books

It's book report time! September was a 14 book month, somehow.  

Some eloquent trees from Sunnyside's Central Park in September.

Autumn Gold Album

"The air smelled so clean that breathing deep felt like medicine." --Kathryn Nicolai, Nothing Much Happens.

My running shadow, cast upon a mowed mint field, with golden corn tassels in the background and grapes to the far right.

The Myth of the Lazy Mom

Setup: While Jay was saying the dinner prayer a few nights ago, he said "we're thankful for this food, even though it's just leftovers." 

Then Thursday morning over breakfast (while I was attempting to read my scriptures but getting interrupted every other verse), Rose looked across the table at me and said "Mom, I wish I could stay home all day and do nothing, like you." 

It's so fun being devalued by the humans whom I descended nigh unto death to grow, bear, and raise.

Official Cross Country Takeover

Over the past month, we have been walking the line between life and CROSS COUNTRY. This weekend we slipped and fell headfirst into a full-on cross country takeover. Our high school cross country team did not have a meet on Saturday. It was a much-needed breather at the halfway point in our season. The middle school team did have a meet, however, and our entire family rode the bus to this meet for several excellent reasons: 

1. Our son is on the middle school team.
2. Jeff and I are both cross country coaches.
3. The middle school team only has one coach (no assistant)
4. We are trying to build the running program in our school district from the foundation (aka middle school), which involves cooperation between high school and middle school teams to foster connections and trust (and get those middle schoolers to sign up for high school cross country).

Remember September

September is such a busy intense month that it is hard to find energy to write about it. When I open my journal at the end of each day, I am too tired to want to write about what made me tired! But even saying "I'm tired" is pretty much redundant for anyone involved in the school district, from those who send their kids to school and school activities to those who are school teachers and/or coaches. Or anyone living life in general. I'm trying to banish the scarcity mindset when it comes to sleep and rest and accept that I have enough of both for the day at hand, but it's hard when I generally do feel that I would benefit from two or more extra hours of sleep and/or rest each day. 

During school hours, my days are divinely quiet and mostly Shaina-centered (as I have planned them to be), but outside of that glorious six hours per day, it is full steam ahead with all of the busy intensity that this season has to offer. I am so thankful that I have those hours during school to recoup both our house and myself in preparation for the next onslaught of cross country practices, dinnertime, and kid-taxiing. After long Saturdays at cross country meets, it takes me till practically Thursday before I feel caught up on rest and life again. Then another Saturday with another meet comes back at me with a vengeance and the cycle begins again! As busy September gets, however, it's still worth remembering. Here's my attempt, from the trenches.

August Books

August: summer ended and school started. I read 14 books during that month of shifting routines. When I was writing this post, I realized that I didn't have too much to say about the fluffy fun fiction that I read, but I had a whole lot more to say about the two quality nonfiction books I read. Fiction rests my mind so I have the brainpower to take on the thought provoking nonfiction! Stress, rest, repeat: the time-honored method for building strength--works on both the mind and the body. 

Run, Rest, Repeat

Last weekend's intense overnight camping trip with the cross country team shoved me into tired recovery mode this week, but Random Responsible Things kept needing to be done. Even though my kids were in school all day every day, I didn't have a day to fully catch my breath until Friday! I had numbers to crunch and papers to sign after our team camping trip. I had uniform shorts orders to wrangle. I had dinners to cook and a family to keep on track. Rose and Amber started piano lessons this week. I traveled 18,000 steps on foot at least three days this week. I went and helped out at two back-to-back practices on Wednesday for the middle school and high school cross country teams, which involved lots of walking, kid-herding, timing, encouraging, and cone-placement/pickup. None of these activities was overly tiring alone, but combined together in the timeline of this week, they made me a nice a formidable schedule. Peripheral illustration of my general fatigue and busy-ness: On Monday (Labor Day), while our family was watching a show together, one of the kids spilled a bowl of popcorn onto the carpet. I did not get around to vacuuming up the scattered white bits until Thursday. 

Ultimook 2021

Ultimook 2021 was a blast! It was good to be back after the 2020 hiatus. When we arrived at Hydrangea Ranch around 5pm on Friday night, still riding the beach and ice cream high, everyone helped unload the bus in the camping field. Then we said goodbye and thank you to our bus driver as she drove off to her hotel (where she would get a good night of sleep in preparation for our long drive home the next day). Time to set up those tents! Watching and listening to the teenagers wrestle with their tents was as amusing as ever. Everyone figured out what to do eventually! Jeff and I were surprised that we had such a hard time setting up our own two tents--it had been two years since our last camping trip, and we kept making ridiculous rookie mistakes with our tent setup, right along with the rest of the team. A stiff breeze blew through the valley as we worked, so we had to hustle with the stakes. Since Covid rules required separate tents for each household, everyone got to set up a tent. By the time we had all untangled our tent poles and staked down the corners, we had a cluster of seventeen tents! Two for our family, and 15 for the team (2 of our 16 runners are sisters and they shared a tent). 

The finish line at dusk, with a fire pit aflame to the left.

Beach Run and Ice Cream!

We kicked off the start of our high school cross country season with our traditional camping trip near Tillamook, Oregon for a team adventure. The two other seasons that we have done this trip (2018 & 2019), the team has wanted to go to the Tillamook Creamery for ice cream, but we have never managed to make it happen. All summer, I wanted to go to the beach, but after our long road trip, we never managed to make it happen. So I used my craving for the beach to craft a masterful plan to get our team (and my family) to both the creamery and the beach. The plan was: beach run, Tillamook Creamery treat, and then camp at Hydrangea Ranch, where we would run our races the next day.