Church Talk: God With Us

I spoke in church today! I had one week to prepare my talk, so at least the anguish was somewhat limited this time around. The process of writing a talk is intense. I have to struggle through and write something right away to soothe my nerves, but my first draft is never anything like the final draft, so I feel like a failure and hate what I wrote until I manage to redo it the next day. It would be nice to skip that stressful first draft step, but I can't write the final draft without first writing the lame first draft beforehand. Hence the anguish. Thankfully I had my talk finished in plenty of time to fret over minute details like word choice for five days before T-Day. It had been almost 2 years since my last talk, but getting up front never gets easier. The good news is: I survived! 

Beautiful flowers from the funeral I helped at two weeks ago.

Raspberry Central

Hello from raspberry central! We are buried in tender fresh sweet juicy raspberries, and we are not sad about it. Highlights from our week include: raspberries, Father's Day, raspberries, hanging a tree swing, raspberries, running, raspberries, a date, and raspberries, a youth temple trip, and raspberries.

Our 7''x11'' pan was full of raspberries after one quick picking session.

Summer is here!

Early morning runs, long sunny days, bright blue skies, oppressive heat waves, nefariously persistent weeds, lingering glow-y sunsets, sweet abundant fruit, and no school: summer is here! 

An early morning view of our homestead from across the canal, taken during my Friday morning run.

The days that got away

Track season may be officially over as of Monday, but this week was still go, go, go! We just didn't have 2+ hours of track practice in the mix everyday. It felt like every day got away from me and I was just along for the ride, going from one task, location, or event to the next. Thank goodness for my journal, which refuses to allow days to completely get away. Each day this week could have been its own blog post, but instead I matched journal entries with pictures from each day of the week. 

A zoomed-out view from the kitchen of the track awards banquet in our backyard.

The May Sprint Finish

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.

Finales

Even though there are somehow still 3 weeks of school left, this was a week of finales. Jay and Rose each had their last track meets of their respective track seasons. I finished my third season as middle school head track coach. Rose had her last orchestra concert of middle school. Jay turned 16 and got his driver's license. Jeff and I learned firsthand how expensive it really is to insure a teenage boy driver. My brain is foggy and sluggish from end-of-track-season fatigue, but I'll do my best to expound a little on these finales!

The War of Attrition

Track season is a war of attrition. Little by little over the long weeks of late night meets and daily practices, the fatigue builds. Add in a sprinkling of extra-intense weeks with more responsibilities and that wear and tear speeds up. This season we seem to have had a few more of those extra-intense weeks than usual. Either that or the busy weeks we had were just closer together?  We are one week away from the high school district meet and two days away from the last middle school meet, and let me tell you, we are feeling it. All of it: the fatigue and readiness for track season to be over, but also the fun and satisfaction of the whole season of coaching coming together. It's a potent mix of emotions and energies. 

Pleasant Mountain

On Saturday, May 10th, we stayed in Buena Vista as long as possible before driving the 3.5 hours back to Washington DC. I went on a glorious morning run and then we had a decadent large breakfast at our Bed and Breakfast. After that, we went back to the mountains for one more hike, this time down nostalgic Wiggins Spring Road to the Pleasant Mountain loop trail.

SVU Day 2: Graduation and Bluff Mountain

Friday, May 9th was Laurs' graduation day! It was so special to be there for her as her only friend and family member in attendance. I love my dear friend. 

Devil's Marbleyard

The first thing Laurs and I did together on our first morning in Buena Vista, Virginia was our all-time favorite hike: Devil's Marbleyard. We used to hike this natural granite boulder field at least once per semester. Freeform bouldering and sweeping vistas: sign us up! We loved this hike back in our younger college days, and we were realistic enough to wonder how it would hit our almost-forty-year-old bodies! Thankfully we managed it just fine without any injuries beyond a few scrapes.

Those gentle green Appalachians have a hold on my SOUL.

VA, BV, SVU, BFF

I have told this story before, but here's a brief backdrop: I met my friend Laurs as randomly assigned roommates as freshmen at SVU in the fall semester of 2004. We both ran cross country and track for SVU, and we quickly became good friends. After Jeff and I got married in 2006, Laurs had a different, non-Shaina roommate for a semester before she left SVU to serve a mission. Laurs did not end up returning to SVU due to marriage and moving and life. Fast forward 18 years: Laurs recently finished her degree!! 

Blue McNuggets, Sardines, Fried Asparagus, etc.

If "you are what you eat," this week was even more interesting than usual...

I. Blue McNuggets

On Monday, April 28th, Rose had her second middle school track meet of the season, a 70 minute bus ride way out in Naches, at the edge of the Cascade Mountains. Which meant as the head coach, I had my second middle school track meet of the season too. Several miniature headaches popped up here and there as we neared departure, with a kid wanting a last-minute grade check so he could be eligible to compete (athletes have to be passing all classes to compete). The procedure is supposed to go like this: grade checks are done every two weeks. Kids who are passing can compete; kids who aren't can't compete until they get their grade up. But it's bad form to do it all last minute and the athletic director does impose a deadline for grades. That's what the grade check is for! Anyways, all of the kids on my team but one were eligible to compete. This kid really wanted to come to the meet, so he went into desperation mode.