Me and My Boys: Catch-up

We enjoyed the slow pace of January--playing games together and enjoying no commitments at night. The pace started picking up in February when baseball started. Baseball adds a lot of busyness, but my boys love it so much!

Matt is coaching Carter’s team and assistant coaching Caleb’s team on occasion when it doesn’t overlap with Carter’s schedule. I have yet to see either of the boys’ games though—lots of rained out games so far this season or they have had late games where I stay home and put the kids to bed since Matt is coaching. Both boys have had one win and one loss so far. Carter has also had one tied game. It’s looking like both boys’ teams will likely come in 2^nd place. We will see how the rest of the season goes. They are both playing shortstop and the outfield on occasion. Carter has pitched once; Caleb hasn’t pitched yet. I hear they are both playing well; Matt’s dad will text me updates throughout the games, which is so nice of him. I love watching them play so I hope to get to a game soon!

Matt is burning the candle from both ends. On top of working all day and coaching baseball 3 nights a week, he is teaching an early morning seminary class. (For the record, I tried to talk him out of coaching baseball.) I keep waiting for him to crack. I think I would have by now! Teaching seminary is so taxing and it takes a toll on the whole family. I’ve stepped up doing more things on my own that we used to share in an effort to support him, the kids see less of their dad, and we are doing less date nights. It’s a rough patch for our family for sure. We’ve all been looking forward to Spring Break in order to catch a breath. All that said, I think teaching seminary has been a wonderful thing for Matt.

Each of the boys is doing well in school and piano. Caleb just had to make some decisions about what electives to take next year in junior high. There are some great options. The tougher decisions were whether to continue choir or not and whether he should play football or not. (In order to be in the Athletics PE class, it's mandatory to play football.) He decided yes on both accounts. He also recently took a 3-hour 8th grade math test to try to test out of 8th grade math. (He is currently in 6th grade taking 7th grade math.) Since I taught 8th grade math, I helped him prepare for the test, but it is quite the feat to teach a whole year of math in just a few weeks. There were 65 questions on the test, and he needs to score an 80 or above to skip that math grade so we will see how he does! We discussed that passing the test and skipping a grade in math isn't necessarily the best option, but that studying hard and possibly passing the test just kept options open to make the best decision.

Carter struggled at the beginning of the year with making friends with the other boys in his class. He just had difficulty connecting with them and felt they were too silly and immature. He begged me to eat lunch with him every day as he felt alone at lunch. (You have to sit with your homeroom class.) I would come two or three times a week and bring different card games to play with him after he finished eating. It was some great bonding time. After a fall teacher conference where I mentioned it off-handedly, one of Carter's teachers said she was okay with Carter sitting with a friend at another table. He did that for the next few months and then finally started connecting with a friend in his class. Now he sits with that friend every day.

I have to walk on eggshells with Bryson every school morning. Little things set him off and he will announce, "Fine! I'm not going to school today!" He is not a morning person and moves very slowly. I have to put positive spins on trying to get him to move at a faster pace. It is definitely improved from the beginning of the year, but he still has his stubborn moments. He always comes home from school happy and in a good mood. His kindergarten teacher does some really fun and creative things. But getting him to school on time some days...

Austin and I do 15-20 minutes of school together every day at his request. He is such an intelligent kid! I love spending time with him and having him be my buddy throughout the day. We go to a free dance fitness class two times per week where he gets to play with his cousin while his mom and Aunt do a workout. I also swap going to the temple every other Tuesday with a friend. Austin struggled at first going to her house because he is a homebody. It has taken some bribery, but he does much better now. I love going to the temple more often than I have in the past. I am also starting up tennis once a week with a friend on Thursday mornings. We have to find creative ways to entertain our boys (sidewalk chalk, bubbles, toys) and we have to stop a lot, but we're giving it a try. My nights are so busy with baseball so we decided to attempt during the day.

Piano is going well for each of the boys. I don't spend as much time with Bryson as I should--it's just exhausting by kid number 3, especially because I teach lessons to 6 piano students each week. Carter and I still have some fighting during his piano practicing. He doesn't love it and wants to quit. The deal is if you want to play baseball, you'll play piano (and thank me later). If I concentrate on complimenting him a ton, then things go better and he doesn't complain. The tricky part is when I have to correct him on something... Caleb has such a passion for piano and is so motivated. He is progressing really well in the Suzuki method and is mostly independent. He just finished learning and memorizing a difficult 7-page Sonata.

I am serving as the children's music leader at church and am loving it! I hope I serve in this calling for a long time. It is a lot of work and some weeks go better than others, but it is a great outlet for me on this year off of preschool. It is neat to study the words and background information about the songs and come up with creative ways to teach them.

Life keeps moving on at a steady pace. I need to do better at recording the ins and outs as an attempt to bottle up these precious moments of parenthood.

Baseball pictures courtesy of Matt's dad:
Caleb's team is the Astros this season and Carter's is the Yankees