It's Official

It's official - Son2 is now officially signed up to do Tai Kwon Do again. Tonight was the hardest class I've watched so far - focusing on personal discipline (and integrity). Students spent time standing at attention (not military attention - but back straight, hands at their hips, eyes straight ahead) for one minute at a time. Then it was 4 different stretches - holding each one for a count of 60. This doesn't sound like much but picture arms up and forward, hands clasped, palms facing outwards - legs in a half squat (a squat would have been easier!), or 1 knee bent, the other stretched out behind or bent over, hands on the floor - clasped. I'm sure my desciptions don't give one any idea how difficult these were - I rarely see Son2 sweating during class. He did tonight - just dripping down his face. He was tired when it was over! However he wants to do this bad enough that my telling him that we won't attend class unless he picks up is good incentive. So...we will see now how it continues. I really would love to see him get his black belt. It will take time and work though.

On a different note I finally got my unit 1 assignments back. Two of the three pictures I sent in generally were good - showing I understood the objectives. The other one I have to redo - it wasn't quite what they wanted to see. I'm not as disappointed over it as I was afraid I might be - the instructor was very clear in his explanations of what I did right and wrong. And I had an "ah-ha" moment on the one that had to demonstrate distance - near and far in the same picture. It's still scary - can I actually get good enough to help to support myself and the boys?

Saturday

Son2 and I have a good part of the day to ourselves today. It's beautiful and sunny outside so we should be able to do some much needed mowing abit later. However Son2 is upset that he's home alone without Son1 and is not eager or willing to help wiht chores. So that could be a challenge as Saturday chores are requred anyway.

On a different note, Thursday night's track meet was cancelled so we all got to go to Grief Group. The meet was not cancelled until one of the drivers for it had actually shown up at the middle school and I was already on my afternoon bus route. It made for interesting radio chatter as drivers adjusted schedules and made new arrangements for their children. I even had to get on and ask someone to get ahold of Son1 to let him know that I knew it was cancelled so he would stop trying to reach me by phone. A good portion of this area was under a tornado watch so even though it was trying to be sunny out there was still weather concerns. And Grief Group was crowded! It seemed that since "everyone's" events were cancelled they all showed up. I just think it really shows how much it's needed and helpful to so many - but I was glad it wasn't my first time there because I likely wouldn't have gone back - too many strange people.

Change in Plans

Ok...this morning felt very much like a case of "Who's on First?" I was scheduled to drive a bus to the Wizards game today. However we got there and there was no need for 7-8 buses - I think they ended up taking 5 out of the ones that were there - not including mine or the handicap bus. It was a mess with the principal appearing more confused than anyone. I really don't mind not going - it would have been fun if my boys had been going but neither one attends that school. However this way I'll have the energy to make dinner and get some stuff done around the house.

Since I got home I've replanted all 7 of the bushes we put in on Saturday - something had come along and dug them up. I suspect it was likely deer or possibly coons. Either way they didn't like them (thankfully) so it was simply a matter of putting them back down into the soil and then watering them tonight. I've also started a load of laundry and intend to go take a nap. The cherry shrubs should produce in 2-3 years and I forget how big they will get - 25 ft. seems way too big as they are supposed to be dwarf cherries. At some point I will need to get mulch and top soil but doubt it will be today.

Ramblings

This is the start of another long day - I'm one of 8 buses driving an elementary school to the Wizards game. This will be the first time I've done that so it will be an experience - and a LONG day.

Last night's track meet went fairly well - it was certainly fun to watch. The other team had a kid who grew up in Kenya - I think his background was from a country close to Kenya. Anyway....he could run!!! Any race he was in we were pretty much guaranteed to come in second at best - he was usually at least half a lap ahead of our best guys. Even starting near the back of the line-up he just took off and moved ahead. And he made it look effortless! Son1 was less than satisfied with how he did overall - his mile time was bit slower than it was last Thursday. However he did get a Personal Record on his 400 meter run. He's not a sprinter and that shows in his gait so to have that be the only PR he had is really good.

Son2 was a challenge - he didn't want to go to the meet, he didn't want to eat where we ate after the meet, he didn't want to to go bed when we got home. ...As a firstborn I can't understand all his frustrations at getting "dragged" to all his brother's activities and not being involved in much of his own. Yet I will admit it's kind of a pain - especially since he doesn't have the option to stay home and have another family member watch him. And it's exhausting.

Got to go - it's getting late and I'm not ready for work.

Opportunity

I wanted to write last night but it got too late. Son1 was offered the opportunity to run in a Mini-Marathon in 2 weeks - the entry fee was already paid. However he isn't going to do it. I have mixed emotions about this - I think it would have been a cool opportunity for him. On the other hand 2 weeks wasn't much advance notice and he's not trained for such an event. Additionally it would have meant that I would have had to come up with the room in the budget for an overnight in Indianapolis, food for the 3 of us and gas...not to mention any other incidentals that I haven't thought about. So....we aren't going. Son1 feels that he wants more time to train for such an event so he's very accepting of not going. Not to mention that he has 2 track meets a week for the next 3 weeks or so and he does want to run a 12K at the end of May.

Off to start a busy busy week - if you think of it, pray for alertness as I drive the bus - I have extra driving to do this week.

Landscaping

Well it looks like my roses survived the hard freezes we had at the beginning of this month. I spent time outside today clearing away winter debris - leaves, branches, left-over dead growth from last year that needed clipping out. Under all that garbage I could see the beginnings of new growth on the roses - some that had frozen but some that had come on since our last freeze and looked healthy. In the same flowerbed there's another plant - I don't know what it was called but it's a silvery foliage plant - that I put in last summer. I clipped off the old dead stuff from the winter, cleared away the leaves and found new growth coming up. I'm really excited - I love plants like that - that are perennials and come back every year. There's still work to be done in that flowerbed and more in others. However it was so neat to see the new growth and realize the roses had survived. (that's actually a big deal because I'm not one to heavily mulch and "winterize" plants - I tend to just let leaves and stuff accumulate to keep them warm which I then clear out the following spring). I'm sure there's a spiritual analogy to make from that but right now I can't express it.

I also put in 6 cherry shrubs that I'm hoping will produce fruit in a couple of years - and a forsythia. I have 3 more forsythia's to plant - just need to decide exactly where to put them. The cherry shrubs (which right now just look like twigs) are near my full-grown cherry tree - I'm hoping they will help to pollinate it so that I will get fruit off that as well. The boys dug the holes for what I planted today. Son1 still wants to get a garden in also but the tiller's not working well enough to till it up yet. We also burned branches that we picked up out of the yard and mowed a good portion of it. There's still another hour's worth of mowing to do I'm sure.

My peach trees are blooming, the plum trees have been - maybe I'll see some fruit off them as well. We'll have to wait and see - the weather might have killed them off. I'm seeing bumble bees around - around the dandelions and the lilacs - the latter have not bloomed this spring so far.