Mom of Many Hats

Well it has been a super busy weekend.  My eating plan has gone down the drain and I’ve found myself getting into WAY too much of the leftover Easter candy and dessert.  We have also gone out to eat a few times and I pretty much made the worst ordering choices possible, calorie-wise.  Fortunately, I think all the holiday goodies are gone now and a new week is upon us to get back to business.

Saturday was one of those crazy weekend days when the kids’ activities all piled on top of each other.  I’m not exaggerating when I say that I had to spend at least 30 minutes Friday night with my husband just figuring out how we were going to divide and conquer the day on Saturday.  It was pretty complicated.

The two “biggie” events were my oldest daughter’s musical performances at the high school and baby daughter’s state gymnastics meet.  Throw in my son’s football team photos, his football game (which is about a 3-4 hour event with warm-ups, etc.), a birthday party, concession sales at the play, and a cast party afterward.  We were on the run from 7AM until 12:30 in the morning, when I finally picked my daughter up from the cast party.

So, the play … Sarah was in the “teen ensemble” of the musical “Bye Bye Birdie”.  They have been rehearsing since February.  She was one of only 4 freshman girls that was cast in the musical this year so that was a really great honor for her.  Our high school is known for their fine arts and the vocal talent there is incredible.  She got to meet a ton of great kids, mostly juniors and seniors, and get to know the music director and drama teacher much better.  It was great exposure for her on many levels, and her past experience with the youth theater she has been a part of for several years helped too.  I loved it because it didn’t require anywhere near the parental involvement that was necessary with the youth theater – the high school kids handle so much of the set building, painting, props making, tech crew, etc.  I was simply a chauffer, and that was easy since we live near the high school.  Anyway, she had a very full week of late night rehearsals leading into opening night but she handled it easily, keeping up with the schedule herself and taking care of her homework, meals, etc. without much help from me.  It’s like having a 3rd adult in the house now.  The show was really quite good – I was so impressed with the level of talent for a high school performance.  Sarah did great and it was so fun to see her on stage.  Several of the leads should have a bright future ahead of them as they graduate next month!

The other big event was the Arizona State T&T Championships that my youngest daughter was competing in.  While I was hoping she would do well, the main stressor of the event is that the scores are used to determine qualification for the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympic National Championship, which will be held in Spokane, Washington this summer.  They have just 2 chances to hit the needed scores – at this State meet and again at Regionals in Santa Clara, CA in late May (also a mere 10 days before Nationals – not ideal for making travel arrangements!)  There is always a chance of a fall or mess-up in their routines, so until she actually performs them well in this competition, all of our travel plans are up in the air.  We went through that last year and it was a rough ride.  She knows she needs to do well to qualify, but she doesn’t understand any of the travel logistics and I didn’t need to put that on her.  I decided to keep my mouth shut and not add any extra pressure to the situation.  Anyway, I was a nervous wreck on Saturday just hoping that we could have some closure by the end of the day.  After the difficulties she had in Tucson 2 weeks ago, I was even more on edge going into this meet.  But, I’m happy to report, that she was back to her old self and really did well.  She was up against some really talented kids in her age/level grouping and she ended up with 3rd place (out of 8-13 competitors) / bronze medals in all 3 events – and her scores qualified her for Nationals, also in all events!  It was just so nice to have it all just work out, especially since there are just so many other unsettled things going on in my life.

I never made it to my son’s football game, although my husband did briefly.  It was pretty awful and probably good that I missed it.  They sure are having a rough season!!

I worked the concession stand at the final performance of the musical and got back home around 10pm.  I was so ready to go to bed when I realized I still had to do my mile … Aaaarrrrgh!!!  I got on the treadmill at 11:00pm.  It was a sloooow mile – but I did it…then got in bed and waited for my oldest to call me to come get her from the cast party, ending the longest day ever.

Today I got to sleep in.  It was wonderful.  I knew I wanted to go for a run today and do it at whatever pace and distance felt good.  I got a later start than I wanted but it felt good to get out there again.  I ran a mile straight through, walked about .25 then finished that mile running, then walked and ran the last mile back home.  My running is getting worse and worse and I guess I’ve decided that I’m not going to stress about it.  I’m letting my “head” get in the way and the habit of stopping to walk is really hard to break now.  I never used to give myself that option, now I do probably way too often.  I guess, for now, I’m just glad to be out getting miles done one way or another.  I don’t really plan on running any more races until next fall when it cools down again, so my main goal now is to just keep some level of fitness and try to run several times a week.  That is about all I feel I can commit to right now.  The run I had today was one of those good ones that helps me stay with it.  Unfortunately I didn’t make it to Koko this weekend for my strength training so that is going to leave me with several back-to-back-to-back workouts this week to hit my goal of 12 this month.  So hard to keep up with it all!