Cleaning out Clair’s closet

This past weekend we cleaned out Clair’s closet of all that it has collected over the past 6 1/2 years since we moved in. David has started the process of renovating her room to add a bathroom.

As part of the clean out process, we had to decide what to do with the bag of things that she made for her future kids a few years ago. They are lovely arts and crafts made of paper, many of them with a Christian component, like a heart or verse about God. 

She looked through the bag and then began to acknowledge that these would not last for 20 years until she has her kids. So we decided to take a picture of her with all of the things that she made so that we could preserve this memory.

Clair auditions for the school musical lead

Clair decided to not only participate in the spring chorus concert at school, but also to try out for the lead role Roxy!

For the past 2 to 3 weeks, she has been memorizing the role of Roxy, with emphasis and focus on the sections of the script that would be required for the auditions. I’m so proud of how hard she worked to be ready for the auditions. She took feedback about being louder and slowing down. She also thought about the motions and the movements that would best suit the character for the script.

We had a lot of conversation about how trying out means not necessarily getting the role. She was happy to work through the audition process and acknowledge that there’s a good chance she won’t get the role. There were 23 students, according to the teacher, I tried out for this role.

Today at lunch were the tryouts. Claire recap the experience for me. She told me she was so nervous that she could not eat her lunch while she was waiting her term. She was one of the people who went earlier in the group. She made a point to be loud. At one point she got a chance to restart and she slow down. She says the hardest part was at the end when she knew she needed to bump the jukebox with her hip, but she felt embarrassed to do that. But she said she consciously told herself that she should do it because it would give her a better chance of getting the role because it would show the teacher that she would be willing to do it on stage. 

I could not be more proud of Claire for putting herself out there and giving something hard a try. Clair is not somebody who likes to be the center of attention. But she decided she wanted to be this lead role and put the work in and the effort in. She is excited to hear the outcome, and so am I. We don’t know when we were here. I love this girl and her energy and willingness to try things and work hard at different things. 

David turns 50!

It was a normal and busy Tuesday. He didn’t have the easiest day at work. But this evening we celebrated him. 

He is very bad at stopping to smile for me. He still argues the camera steels your soul. 

I made his cake, finally, correctly, after all these years. 

Finally a glass of wine for the first time in a month. 

Clair’s card was in the form of a very thoughtfully written, lots of words and minimal color, long scroll. 

A family game of pool ended the night. David won. 

Another cool school project we could not keep

Clair made a very nice math project she got a great grade on. School has so many neat projects the kids do. I feel guilty I can’t keep them all. So I take pictures!

High school split years

Our high school has almost two separate school years in each academic year thanks to the way they have it set up. A student takes 4 classes for half the year and another 4 classes the second half. The benefit is an extra class each year and more flexibility in later grades. However it also means long classes, less chance to be with friends and that you have to get your schedule and patterns reset in the middle of the school year - including a new lunch routine. 

Ellie started the second half of freshmen year this week. I had not realized how nerve racking it was going to be to be starting over. It was like another first day of school for her with finding the right outfit, wondering who would be at lunch with her, finding her way around the school in a timely fashion, getting to know new teachers, etc. the first day was not great. I wish I could have helped her. I hope that as the years pass she learns to embrace this opportunity for change. Who knows!

Being a kid is hard. Growing up is hard. Parenting is hard. Not being able to fix your kids problems and sad feelings is hard. 

Thanks fully day 2 seemed to go better for her. 

Winter sports

Our kids don’t do as much in the winter. It’s nice not running so much. Ellie is back at Jujitsu twice a week and enjoying it. David always takes her. He enjoys it too. He has not been able to participate with her hurt knee for a few months. He’s hoping to get back to it. 

Clair is doing a light version of winter basketball. Practice is once a week and one game a weekend. I love the light schedule. She feels accomplished and it doesn’t eat into our life like fall sports do. 

She is enjoying basketball and has clearly improved over the season. Her hall handling and shooting are improving. I’m proud of her. 

We did let Clair and max start a soccer clinic on Wednesday nights for 7 weeks leading into spring. For Clair it’s a goalie camp and her coach wanted her to do this. For Max it’s a striker camp. They both seem happy for the opportunity. 

I love watching the kids enjoy sports! Sports are my favorite. 

Helping with 9th grade math

This week I had the pleasure of helping Ellie figure out some confusing geometry that I had no recollection of. But, thanks to Google, I was able to remember or lookup the formulas and topic and help explain it to her. 

At first I though I was frustrated but by the end I felt like a superhero having figured it out and nearly taught it to Ellie. I always loved math. Ellie does not enjoy math sadly. 

I’m thankful she asked for help. Often she does not ask.