My standard answer has become "oh my goodness...we have been sooooo busy".
Now that I think about it, that has been my standard answer for about the last....ummmmmm.... 9 years.
I think that I neeed a new "standard answer", something more creative and interesting.
So, what is keeping us busy this summer??? Actually, it is a lot of things that are keeping us busy...sports, outings, parties, holidays. Since I can't fit that all in one post, I'll just talk about sports tonight.
Swimming...
Every weekday morning, the boys get up and go to swimming practice for an hour. I give them credit. Some mornings it is hard to get going, and although they don't always want to get out of bed, there have been zero complaints about going to swimming practice.
It is Drew's 3rd season swimming. He has knocked 1.5 minutes off of his time from his first season...Seriously! His technique looks so much better and he is getting faster and faster. His favorite stroke is breast stroke and the kick for the breast stroke seems to come surprisingly natural to him. Drew is still probably one of the least competitive kids in the world, but I'm starting to catch little glimpses of something that could be a competitive spirit.
Actually, at the last swim meet, he was scheduled to swim the breast stroke in the medley relay and then later in the meet, he was scheduled to swim breast stroke in an individual event. When he finished the medley relay, he told me that he was really excited to move on to the individual event where he "didn't have anyone else slowing him down"....says the boy that once took 2 minutes to swim 25 yards. ;-)
Drew swimming his little heart out, not sure what stroke, but he is giving it his all.
Jack has also improved quite a bit over the last year. Quite the oppostive of Drew, "Competitive" is Jack's middle name. He jumps out of the pool and asks for his time right away. He remembers his best times to the 1/100th of a second. And, he is probably the only kid at the whole meet that asks constantly if "we're winning". Jack's favorite sport is butterfly. Can you imagine that 49 lb. little guy swimming butterfly? What he lacks in muscle and meat, he makes up for with heart and somehow manages to get those skinny arms and legs to drag his body across the pool.
And, finally Ben. I think Ben is going to turn out to be a pretty good athlete. Ben has not swim since last summer, whereas Jack and Drew did a winter swimming practice program, but that did not hold Ben back. He just jumped back in the water and started swimming. I think that if he was interested in making swimming his sport, he could be very good. But, right now, soccer is Ben's love.
And, then on nights that we don't have swimming, we have baseball.
It really has been a great start to the summer. When I say that we have been busy, I don't mean busy, in a bad way. Really, I love this stuff!! This is 95% *good* busy!!! The only reason that it is not 100% is because being this busy makes it hard to grocery shop, and cook, and clean, and do laundry. And, playing all these sports makes a LOT of really dirty laundry, and also makes those boys want to eat all. of. the. time.... 2 breakfasts (one before swim practice and one after), lunch, snack, dinner, snack from sport, and then they want another snack when we get home at 9pm! My kitchen is always a disaster, as is my laundry room, the basement, and all of my drawers and cabinets.
So, all in all, we are doing very well. We might be a little worn out, but life is good. :)
