Christmas!

Journal excerpts from the week:

Sunday, December 22nd: I gave Amber a haircut this afternoon. This morning while I was doing Amber's hair before church, I noticed a suspiciously short hacked section near her forehead. "Did you cut your hair?" I asked. Sheepish eyes answered me. "It was annoying me so I cut it off." Thankfully it was only a small section, but Amber did say she wanted shorter hair again, so I chopped and hacked at her insanely thick hair until I got it shorter and even across the bottom. It's totally cute. When I was done, the bathroom floor had more hair on it than I have on my entire head, and my thumb was red and aching from the pressure of the scissors. Amber's hair is that thick. 

Wintering

 Last week was dark and rainy and bleak. The temperature hovered one or two degrees above freezing, making it pure misery to set even one foot outside into the damp cold. I did five consecutive runs on the treadmill--a new personal record. This week we had less rain, which made life a little more pleasant in spite of the short days. We even had a sunny day where the temperature climbed up above 50 degrees! Spring-like weather around here in December is very rare, so we made the most of it.

Nashville Sister Trip

I went on a sister trip to Nashville last weekend! My sisters and I try to get away together every few years, and the stars aligned for a quick getaway on December 5-8. I have the best sisters in the whole world and I love them so much. After dropping Jay off at early morning seminary on Thursday, December 5th, I kept driving straight to the Tri Cities airport. One flight delay, two planes, and 14 hours later, I was in Nashville with my sisters, eating dinner at a barbecue restaurant. With two travel days and two Nashville days, our time was limited, and we definitely made the most of it:

Christmas Tree Quest

This was our ninth consecutive year of going to White Pass to cut down a mountain Christmas tree! We have gone to the same clearing off of the same forest service road for nine years and somehow we've found a good Christmas tree every single time. Jay drove the first 50 minutes to get some rare highway driving practice. We made a brief stop in Naches, WA at the Ace Hardware store to purchase our $5 (cash only!) National Forest Service Christmas tree cutting permit and to switch drivers. Jay would probably have been fine to drive all the way to our spot in the mountains, but I would not have been ok, since I get anxious even when Jeff drives in the mountains during cold winter weather. So Jay graciously stepped aside for Jeff to finish the last half hour of the drive.

Thanksgiving 2024

Thanksgiving 2024 marked one year since we moved into our house! The fact that we did not move all of our belongings from one house to another two days before Thanksgiving this year made this year's Thanksgiving Day much less exhausting than last year. But Thanksgiving is an exhausting holiday in general, so we still got plenty worn out! It's always worth the effort though. Being tired after doing traditions and making fun memories gives me a warm-hearted happy glow that I do my best to pause and appreciate in and around all of the work. 

Laurs!

My best friend came to visit! Twenty years ago in August, freshman Shaina showed up at Southern Virginia University for the cross country team pre season training camp. My randomly assigned roommate was Lauren. I'm not sure when we became best friends, but it didn't take long, and we've been BFFs ever since. Our British coach nicknamed her Laurs and to this day that's what I call her. Laurs came to visit this past week, and we did all kinds of wild things together, like going on walks and playing Jenga and eating tacos for lunch more than twice. We talked and laughed and cried and filled our hearts with quality friend-time that will hopefully last till next year's visit! 

Extra XC

We had another two weeks of cross country practice after the October 31st district meet because Andrew Garcia made it to state (Nov 9th). From there we had a handful of kids run the Nike Northwest Cross Country Regional meet the following weekend on November 16th (yesterday). Annnnd high school boys' swim season begins tomorrow on Monday, November 18th. I don't officially coach winter swim, but Jay is on the team and Jeff is the head coach and we will have the team of 30-ish boys rotating through our barn six days a week for the dryland portion of their practice. Full steam ahead forever, ready or not!

Two Birthdays

On Monday, November 4th, Amber turned 10 and I turned 38. We celebrated Amber's birthday in full a day early on Sunday afternoon and evening, starting with presents before moving on to an extended family gathering that included a big dinner, a pinata, and birthday brownies. Amber soaked it all in and felt very loved and special. Reaching double digits is a big deal! 

October Treasure Chest

This year I have been working on a goal to write down inspiration from my daily scripture study. For someone like me who enjoys writing, it seems like this would be easier to do than it is. Writing about what I read and think engages my brain more and demands more thought. That's why writing is so good, but also why it can be difficult! It often feels so hard to figure out how to write down thoughts and impressions that I have during my scripture study. But I always get more out of it when I write something down. But forcing myself to write spiritual insights every single day risks turning it into a spirit-dampening grind! I've been there! So I compromised: I would try to write a few times a week, hoping (but not forcing myself) to write a short thought every day. 

I wish I took a more cheerful scenic picture during October, but this moody drained canal picture was all I managed.

Culmination

This week was the culmination of months of work, sacrifice, sweat, pep talks, tears, laughter, and miles: Thursday was the district cross country meet, and Saturday was our team awards banquet. The season isn't completely over yet, since our beloved senior Andrew Garcia qualified for the state meet, but the regular season with 40+ kids at practice every day is done. 

Rose's middle school cross country season ended first, with the final meet two weeks ago, but she and a few 8th grade teammates didn't stop there; they rolled right into high school practices and have been running with the high school girls team daily ever since. As coaches, Jeff and I are rubbing our hands together greedily in anticipation of next season, when we will have a competitive girls team for the first time in our coaching career. Muahahaha, it will be so fun! 

Four Day Weekend

Something completely new happened this week: we had a four day weekend in October. The school district calendar is a bit wonky this year and the elementary school parent teacher conferences landed in October instead of November like usual, giving us a four day weekend before the end of cross country season. It was strange to slow down and relax at home with all five of us during the thick of cross country season! We still held cross country practices on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday mornings, but it was a definite change of pace that we aren't accustomed to having at this time of year. I do prefer having these days off after the season ends so we can totally relax and have no places to be, but it was still fun having a breather before the last week of the season. 

Here are a few of my journal excerpts from the week:

Reconfiguring

Saturday Oct 19th was our first weekend in six weeks with zero cross country meet. It felt so rare and luxurious that I totally relaxed and went with the flow. Normally I create and follow a detailed to do list every day, but on Saturday I laid in bed until nearly 8am and did what I felt like doing all day long. It was a very soothing mental break. When every weekday ticks down to leaving for cross country practice at 2:45pm and every week ticks down to a long Saturday at a far-away cross country meet, my to do list creates structure for me to finish necessary tasks within the very limited time I have. It manages a lot of stress and anxiety by removing unknowns and giving me a specific direction each day. I survive by constantly looking ahead at what's next on the list, and trying to get as much done as possible as efficiently as possible so I can have time to rest before the next cross country activity. That's why Saturday felt so freeing: I was completely free and had no mental clock ticking down, no body battery draining before the day's work was done, no skeletally destructive school bus ride at the end of it.