Today I stayed home from work. I'm fighting a sinus infection and relishing a few quiet hours to myself. It's early release day, so I only get a few hours, but I'll take it! Of course, the first thing I did this morning after the boys got on their bus was log into my work e-mail and draft a Tweet for approval today. You can take the girl out of the office . . .
Anyway, it's been a while since I've posted anything. And it looks like my new normal of not blogging is probably not going to change much. But I'll slip 'em in when I can so I can try to keep tabs on my life. Our winter has been pretty good. We've had lots of cold and snowy weather--much more so this winter than the past few years. Lots of snow days and building snow caves and sledding. I had it in the back of my mind that we would try to hit a local ski resort for a day of ski lessons and snow tubing. But alas, that didn't happen. Maybe next winter. We have had a relatively healthy winter, too. I think I've had two colds (including my present one), and Seth hasn't had any sick days. William had Strep twice, and he got a crazy rash and hives that we're still not sure what caused it. But I'm knocking hard on my desk that we've seen the worst of it. For all of you struggling with sick little ones, I swear--it gets better! It seems like age 5 was our turning point.
William has been busy this winter with Taekwondo and a program called Odyssey of the Mind. He has really gotten into Taekwondo and is eager to learn each skill so he can progress to his next belt. He's not the most flexible or coordinated kid, so he struggles a bit (I'm afraid he gets that from me), but I'm proud of him for pushing himself and sticking with it. (We haven't really given him a choice about sticking with it, though. This is one of those things where we think it's important for his development and confidence, so while he might have wanted to quit several times along the way, we haven't let him.)
Odyssey of the Mind has been a whole new kind of adventure. For those of you who have never heard of it, it's an international competition for kids from kindergarten all the way through high school. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. They then bring their solutions to competition on the local, state, and World level. For William's group, they solve a performance-based problem. Basically, they are given a prompt and they have to put on an 8-minute play that includes all the elements listed. This year's prompt is to create a prehistoric arts festival that includes three pieces of art, music, a song (with lyrics), and a dance, an audience made up of at least 10 characters that reacts to the festival, and a cave painting back drop that replicates a real cave painting. William's team consists of 6 2nd-grade boys, and guess who's coaching? Yep--me. Thankfully, I'm co-coaching with another mom, which has made it infinitely easier and more enjoyable. It has been really HARD to get the boys to focus, however. And it's hard for 7 year olds to think realistically about what they can achieve. They are full of awesomely big ideas, so we have had to do a lot of "guiding" to get them to be practical and to think about time and material constraints. Despite all of the headaches, they have managed to put together a pretty funny skit. The "competition" is this Saturday, although at their level, they don't actually compete against the other teams. They do get a score, however, to help introduce them to the idea of competition. I think it has been a good experience for William. But I doubt we'll do it again next year.
That said, we are gearing up for our very busy spring season. Seth will be playing soccer and William has decided to play baseball again. He'll be doing single-A, which is coach pitch. And I agreed to co-coach again. I love the coach I'm working with this spring. He has twin boys and his wife is fabulous and I think it will be a good season. The only difficulty will be that spring ball has one practice and two games a week. So combine this with Seth's soccer and William's TKD (which is two times a week) and we will be doing some major schedule juggling. I'm hoping that our babysitter can step up and help us get the boys to their practices. This is where the fact that I am not Type-A comes in handy. You just have to go with the flow and know that things change from week to week.
Overall it has been a really good winter. In January we went to New York to visit one of my best friends and her family. We had an awesome weekend. Seth even got to snowboard for the first time. (And did very well, I might add!) The boys spent time with Ed's parents and Ed and I got some much-needed couple time. We rearranged a bunch of furniture in our house, which was exciting. We moved the piano out of the living room into the dining, freeing up the space for a better layout in our living room. We moved the sofa-bed out of Ed's office into the playroom, providing somewhere to sit in the playroom and giving Ed carte-blanche to do what he wants with his office. (The playroom can be closed off, making it an acceptable space for a guest room.) I've been scouring the 'net and various stores for rugs and window treatments. It might be a while before we make more purchases. Ed has been busy tricking out his office, but otherwise, we want to wait 'till the boys are a little bit older before getting new living room furniture.
We also have already figured out most of our summer plans. I have the boys enrolled in summer camps, including a 3-week summer camp in Maryland that includes hiking, rock climbing, swimming, kayaking, archery and air guns--all the classic summer camp activities. The camp sends a bus for the kids in the morning and drives them back in the afternoons. I hope it is awesome for them! Ed and I also planned our 10-year anniversary trip. We're spending a week at a Sandals resort in Jamaica. We decided we wanted to relax and do lots of nothing on our vacation, so the tropics sounded pretty appealing. We enjoyed the all-inclusive amenities on our Mexico vacation, so a Sandals resort it is. We're going at the end of August, while the boys spend the week in Charlotte with my mom and brother and Ed's sister and her family. We can't wait!
I think that's enough of an update for one day. I would have included some pictures, but that would have required more time than I am willing to spend on my computer on a day off. Maybe next time! For now, I have a date with the shower, a cup of hot tea, and a good book!
