Christina and I get 45 minutes between her dance classes to eat dinner together. It’s nice to have this alone time with her, even if we do end up spending some of it glued to our screens.
Tag: christina
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November 11
There was some kind of soccer tournament going on near the hotel. There were at least 75 kids running around the lobby and the pool after dinner while their 125 parents drank beer and wine and largely ignored them. The noise! The chaos! It wasn’t the peaceful escape I imagined, but we did get this moment to ourselves before the soccer exploded.
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October 29
I wrote and delivered this morning’s service at church and it turned out absolutely beautiful. I got a lot of really touching compliments on it. It was something I really needed to do and something that gave me a lot of comfort at a time when I really haven’t had much. I’m so glad that what has helped me this month also touched others. And also Christina bought a pumpkin that is as big as she is.
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October 15
Today has to have been the most beautiful day of 2023 so far. I’m so glad I managed to wrench the kids out of the house for an hour. I told them I was going and I was taking all the phones and iPads with me. Given that choice, they came with me. I don’t think they regretted it. To top it off, we got to eat dinner outside on the patio, which was so nice. And it reminds me that my garden desperately needs to be weeded. Sorry, garden.
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October 13
Christina was insanely amazed that these two magnets held together THROUGH HER FINGER. Ka-pow.
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October 8
I’ve hiked the trails at Losco Park about a thousand times, but today somehow I got turned around and ended up hiking the loop twice, turning a 1.5-mile hike into a 4+ mile hike. It wouldn’t have been that big a deal, except Christina and the dogs were with me and the dogs were exhausted and Christina didn’t really even want to come in the first place. They were all troopers, though. Christina didn’t even complain a little bit. At least the weather was nice. Gorgeous, in fact. One of the first fall days of the year.
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September 16
Somehow I missed uploading this one. Oops. Took the kids to St. Augustine and poked around the shops on St. George St. It was more fun than staying home, anyway.
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September 2
Trying to make more of an effort to do fun things. The pool was nearly empty and it was definitely cooler today than it was last week, but we had fun anyway. There was only minimal fighting over goggles.
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August 27
I have this exact same picture of Christina from when she was 2. Some things never change.
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August 19
We had planned on going to the pool this morning, but Robin’s body had other plans, so she asked to go roller skating instead. We were told she couldn’t skate along the wall and that slower skaters had to go in the middle of the floor. She was terrified and stood at the edge of the rink for almost 20 minutes in tears before she finally gathered the courage to give it a try. And she fucking did it. And the thing that melted my heart most of all is that her sister sat and waited with her without a single judging word until Robin was ready and then she held her hand while Robin made her way around the inner circle. They actually do love each other. I’m so proud of both of them.
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August 17
I took Robin to the doctor today and Robin told him she’d keep going to cheer, at least for now. My heart hurts for her. And I am just completely burned out. I am drowning in work and trying to keep the house afloat while Billy is at work and at football practice and at the gym. And I’m trying to keep up with church obligations and bills and returning texts and phone calls. I knit for an hour at night and read for 45 minutes in the morning and that’s all I get after pouring my heart into everything else. I have to cut back somewhere. I just don’t know where. Everything feels important. And I don’t know who can do it instead. But something’s going to break somewhere. I’ve got to decide what’s most important and put the rest to the side.
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August 14
Today was the first day of school. It seemed to go pretty well. No one came home miserable, at least. Robin had a panic attack at cheer. She is feeling enormous pressure to do well on her team, which is both in her head and not in her head. I’m trying to help her build up more self confidence so that she can feel the pressure as a form of encouragement rather than criticism. I don’t want her to give up what she loves because she doesn’t feel she’s good enough. Of course she’s good enough. Now to get her to believe it.
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August 13
Christina is both excited and nervous for the first day of school. Probably more nervous than excited. Worried about where she’ll go when she gets to her classroom, whether she’ll have any friends in her class, whether she’ll ever see Kiley again… I tried my best to ease her mind, but you know how anxiety is. At least we have table-top curling to take our minds off things. She was a little exuberant with her stones. This one went flying across the room.
