State of the Family

State of the Union Family, especially for my siblings who just moved away to college...



The biggest news is that Potter prepares to enter eighth grade on Monday.  We took a walk around the school a couple days ago to make sure he knew where all the classrooms were and I made him show me that he could do the locker combo.

Three tries and he got it.

He is locker-neighbor to the drama room, which is pretty cool. He also ran into the drama teacher in the hall and she greeted him with a big smile and hug. She reminded him that musical tryouts are soon. Here we go again!

The other main happening is that Bugs is in football this fall.  After wrestling with the idea and talking to him and discussing it as a couple we decided to go for it.  It is the hardest thing he has ever experienced, and watching him struggle/suffer/endure is the toughest thing I've had to watch my children go through. 

It is very vigorous and physically demanding.  The coaches are intense and expect nothing less than their best, which I am thankful for.  But man, it's HARD.  Especially for a lineman. 

He is the one in the green jersey at center.

There are tears almost every day. He begs me to let him quit. He gets to the field grumpy every day. He is proud of himself by the end of the 2.5 hours. Then by the next day he forgets how euphoric it is to complete a good hard practice and we go through the cycle again. 

I love this picture.  My favorite part is his cute little left hand, up and ready to spring.

The whole experience really wears on a parent, ya know? And yet, we see how he is getting stronger. He is getting leaner. He is doing really quite well for his first time. He is asked to push himself to his absolute limit.  Even when he can't keep up completely he tries and that's all I can ask.  I know once games begin in two weeks that he will understand how training translates to skill.  Or at least I hope so.

Rosebud has a bit of a fever today.  I knew something was up when I came downstairs and my shadow didn't follow me.  I found her in my room.  It turns out she had gotten her blanket and put herself down for a nap in my bed at 11:00 am. 

Princess had the same fever on Sunday which caused her an asthma flare up again.  She needed steroids along with the rescue inhaler to get through it.

  I can tell most of the kids are back in school because I can clean the living room and it stays clean.  For a while, anyway.

Strider's school is opening up a third location and he will be teaching there.  School starts in 10 days, though, and it's not ready yet.  So in between trainings and meetings he is helping with the new school. 

I am slowly getting a handle on everyone's schedule.  Bugs has practice daily at 5:30 which means we have to eat at 5pm on the dot.  He is having a hard time getting his homework done since he doesn't get home till after 8pm.  So I am trying to teach him balance and time management.  Jedi also gets really distracted and his homework takes about three times as long to do as it should.  And Princess loves school so much that she looks for extra homework papers to do.  Go figure.

As for me, I am still reading a lot, about a book a week.  I finished one last night and I'm in that strange limbo period when you're mourning the end of one and haven't gotten into another.  I have been a crazy laundry fool this week and I'm as caught up as possible for having 7 people around.  I am addicted to word games on my ipod.  I am trying to get really creative with zucchini recipes.  And I am itching to make good on my goal of getting back into college classes.  No money to do that yet, though; hopefully sooner than later.  I feel the pull stronger than ever.