A Catch-Up Post

I have been SO busy lately that I haven't had many chances to sit down and write a real post.

Yesterday, my blog-reader-turned-friend, Emily, came over to spend the day with me. She lives three hours away (on the western side of Michigan), so she stayed over night last night and headed home early this morning.

Yesterday morning, we went for a run at the State Park.

After lunch, we actually went to the tattoo shop where Eli and I got our ears pierced so that Emily could get her nose pierced! She's been wanting to do it for a while, and she thought it'd be a fun thing to do while she was here. I was very tempted to get another ear piercing, but I restrained myself.

Last night, we tried our hands at macramé! One of the items on my 40 Goals by 40 Years Old list is to learn a new skill, and she thought it would be fun to for us try macramé. Earlier in the day, we went to the craft store to buy some supplies; Emily had a book with patterns in it, and we chose a wall hanging pattern that looked fun.

Immediately, I knew I was going to love macramé--it's basically where you tie different sorts of knots in rope cording. I thought it was going to be fairly easy, but holy cow! I only made it through about four rows before I called it quits (for now, anyway). I think it would be much easier if I had someone show me how to do it, but trying to read the directions and figure it out was really difficult. Emily hadn't done it before either, so it was like the blind leading the blind as we tried to figure it out. So funny, though!

My kids' sports have also kept me super busy--every single day we have practices, meets, games... this is our first year with school sports, and I had no idea the amount of time it would take. (Eli is running track, and Noah is playing baseball.)

It's been fun, though! I love going to the track meets and baseball games. For a while, I was not happy with the baseball program. We paid quite a bit for him to play--after the school sports fee, uniform, helmet, a new bat (his bat didn't fit the regulations for school ball), etc, I hoped that he would absolutely love playing.

But he didn't. He said he doesn't really fit in with the kids on the team, because they all played ball together last year and this is his first year (he's played summer ball since he was 3 years old, but never for the school). The coach stuck him in right field and never even WATCHED him in a different position--Noah has always played infield positions, and he's very good.

Each of their games is a double header, but the coach only had Noah play one of the two games, then benched him for the second. (There are only 13 kids on the team, so it wasn't necessary to bench ANY of the kids for a whole game.)

I didn't want to be "that parent" who complained about my kid's playing time and all that, so I didn't say anything at first. But when I was talking to the coach after one of the games about something unrelated, I casually asked if he'd ever seen Noah play another position. He told me no, and I was shocked--how do you put together a team without seeing what each player can do?

I told him that Noah is very good at catching (his favorite position) and second base, and basically any infield position; so maybe at practice, he could let Noah show him what he could do in other positions. I hoped he would give Noah a try, but I wasn't going to push the issue if he didn't. But after the next practice, Noah came home and told me that he'd played second base at practice, and did really well.

At the following game, the coach put him in as catcher (for both games!) and he did awesome. He made some great plays. In the second game, he hit a single. Then stole second base. Then stole third. While he was on third, a pitch went past the catcher, so Noah took off to steal home. It was a SUPER close play at home plate--Noah dove for the plate, and the catcher dove for the tag. The umpire called him out, but then the catcher dropped the ball right after the tag! So Noah ended up getting a run in with the steal, which was super exciting.

Anyway, I'm glad that I said something to his coach, because now Noah is liking baseball much more. There is nothing wrong with right field, but he needed more action to stay interested. (As a parent, it's much more nerve-wracking watching him play with all the action, but I'm glad that he's liking it now!)

As far as Eli goes, he's really been enjoying track. The track team is huge (probably 45 kids?) and he's certainly not the fastest (or even close to the fastest) on the team; but he likes it, and that's what matters. (He likes cross country better because he can run long and slower; while for track, the kids are insanely fast, running 5-6:00 minute miles.)

Eli's events are the shortest distances--the 70-meter and 100-meter dash. It's kind of funny, actually, because his meets are usually about 2 to 2-1/2 hours long, and Eli only runs for less than 30 seconds total! He even told me that he likes the meets better than practices, because he "doesn't really have to run at the meets". BAHAHA, he's definitely his mother's son ;)

I love watching the other events, though, particularly the 4x100 relay. That's when there is a kid every 100 meters (the track is 400 meters around, so there are four kids per relay team). The first kid runs 100 meters and passes the baton to the second kid who runs 100 meters, and so on. The kids that do this race are typically the fastest runners on the whole team, and it's a super exciting race to watch! I especially love watching the teams' anchors (the last runner of the relay, and usually the fastest) battle out the last 100 meters for the finish line. It's always very close, and so exciting!

Yesterday's Wednesday Weigh-in wasn't great, just as I expected. I gained back the weight I'd lost the previous week.

I haven't been doing well at all with calorie counting since we had people over for Cinco de Mayo--it's been hard getting back on track. I leave for Kansas City in a week, and I want to at least get a week under my belt before I leave, so that it's easier not to go overboard while I'm there.

(I can't remember if I wrote about it yet, but I am going to Kansas City to visit Andrea, my Ragnar teammate from my From Fat to Finish Line team. Caitlin and Bonnie, my Ragnar SoCal teammates, are going, too! Caitlin is my friend from Boston that I write about frequently, and Bonnie is my friend from Virginia. We had a girls weekend at my house in 2016, so now we're going to have one at Andrea's house. I'm super excited, because I've never been to Kansas City before!)

Even though I haven't been doing well with the calorie counting, I've been staying on target with my running. My main goal was to do 30 minutes, 3-5 days a week (ideally, I would do 5; but being realistic, I am happy with 3).

My heart rate is still higher than ideal for "easy running", but I haven't been paying much attention to the numbers at all--which is nice! The only number I look at is the timer--haha, 30 minutes and I'm done. I'm getting back into the habit of running in the mornings, too. I was waiting until afternoon, which meant I had to rush to get done and be ready to go to the kids' games/meets, and it was stressful. I'd like to make my runs a morning habit, just like they used to be!