High Adventure Camp

Mid-June, Caleb attended a High Adventure Camp with the Young Men to Buffalo River National Park in Arkansas. I was nervous for him because he can be quite helpless at times and scared of germs/bugs most of the time, but he survived! I didn't hear a peep from him the whole trip because cell service was horrible there. Matt couldn't take off as much work as the other leaders so he drove up after work on Thursday night with another leader that needed to leave late as well. He was there for Friday and Saturday's activities, then they drove back early Sunday morning. Ticks were supposedly extra bad while they were there so everyone made regular checks. Fortunately, we didn't have any incidents.

Canoeing and cliff jumping on the 1st day

Rock Climbing day 2

Hiking day 3

Wrapping Up the Baseball Season

Bryson had a great baseball season. He was very consistent with his batting and only struck out twice the whole season. His throwing improved a lot over the season, initially throwing a big arc to being able to throw harder with less arc. He still needs to work on being aggressive on defense and charging the ball. He works hard though and enjoys playing with his team.

Carter finished up with the highest batting average and on base percentage on his team. He was voted the team defensive MVP and had many great plays at short stop. Matt enjoyed coaching him and loved that he is a heads-up player. Out of 164 11 and 12-year-olds in his league, Carter was selected as one of the top 14 players to be on the Major All-Star team. His team won the District level and now is heading to Regionals, which will be in July in Buna, Texas.

Summer Outings

Matt took the boys fishing one Saturday with Papa

 Last year I promised my boys we would try out the new water park 20 minutes away. Then Covid happened so we tried it this year instead. Ariane joined us.

This water park offered a variety of activities: obstacle course on a lake, petting zoo, a maze, axe throwing, and some archery in addition to the water slides. We had a great time!

Caleb was proud of his bullseye

The temple opened up for phase 3 (appointments only). We went with my extended family on May 22nd to do baptisms and confirmations. What a special experience to be together in the temple again for the first time in over a year!!

On June 12 we had a family fun day in the neighborhood with some fun games, rock climbing, photo booth, snacks, snow cones, train ride, etc. We didn't stay too long because it was extra HOT that day!

Homeschool--That's a Wrap!

Looking back on my year of homeschooling, I feel proud that we made it the entire year.  The kids would agree that there were several aspects that we enjoyed, but there were several challenges. I am very nervous about Carter's transition back to school especially--worried about whether I covered all the topics adequately and if he mastered them to the point where he can build upon the knowledge for next year. He's the one that I can see hitting a roadblock next year when something gets tough and wanting to quit and go back to homeschooling. As much as I dislike some things about the public school system, I also think there are several things they do well and experiences they provide that I can't. The one hope that I'm holding onto is that Covid threw everything/everyone for a loop last year, and if there are some areas where my boys are behind due to homeschooling, I think there will be other kids in the same boat. One area that I didn't spend as much time as I should have for both boys is writing and that will likely be an area they are behind. Something that will help Carter's transition hopefully is the fact that he made percussion. 6th graders aren't allowed to tryout because they want students to start an instrument in 5th grade, but thankfully the percussion teacher made an exception for Carter. I was proactive and reached out to him last summer to negotiate a tryout if Carter took lessons all year long, which he did with Drew. He passed the tryout with flying colors, and we are so thankful to Drew! Bryson is excited to attend school again next year to see friends and also to be there for Austin during his first year. Bryson's biggest struggle is going to be waking up. That kid needs his sleep! He sleeps 11 to 12 hours every night, but getting him to bed before 8pm is quite difficult, especially during baseball season. 

What I loved about homeschooling:

1) My kids and I really enjoyed the flexibility of our schedule. The boys could start later, we took breaks as needed during the day, and Fridays were a break from our normal schooling. Fridays we did our homeschool group for science, art, and music/theater from 9-11am. After lunch, we did 10-15 minutes of writing and then some poetry reading. I was more consistent with the writing/poetry the first semester than the second semester. Things started to open up more in January, and we used Fridays as field trip days sometimes.

Crocodile Encounter we did as a field trip with Ariane and my dad

2) My boys would definitely agree that they loved the shorter school day. We usually had everything done by 1 or 2pm (Tuesdays and Thursdays were longer due to preschool), and I didn't have to use the "after school" hours to help with homework or enforce piano practicing, which made my piano teaching much easier.

3) I find parenting one kid more difficult. Austin and I had already spent one year alone together where I was trying to keep him entertained with activities or play dates and not too much screen time. (I was also teaching him preschool.) Honestly, I was not looking forward to another year, and homeschool solved that problem. As mentioned in a previous post, I loved the relationship that Bryson and Austin developed as they had more time to bond and play together this last year. Things were not always peachy between them, but mostly they were good buds. On the other hand, Carter and Bryson are like oil and water and do not get along! That provided an added challenge throughout the school year.

4) Completing a year of homeschool was such a confidence booster. I can do this! I don't know what the future will hold and there may be a time where I will need this boost of confidence to do this again.

5) I enjoyed the curriculum I used! The Good and The Beautiful pulled in topics about God or from the Bible on occasion. I loved it! I also learned right along with the boys sometimes as topics were taught in new and different ways than I learned it. I received my bachelor's degree in Elementary Education, so it was fun to teach these grades again.

6) As I mentioned in a previous post, my favorite part of the day was our morning reading time. We read a story from The Friend, a history read-aloud, and then a chapter book read-aloud. It was so fun to start the school day off this way with heads usually ending up on my shoulders as I read.

7) Our homeschool group numbers dwindled throughout the year, and 2nd semester the 3 of us that were left decided to just head up one area. I took over music, Ariel took over art, and Melissa covered Science. I really enjoyed studying some composers and planning music lessons. We did handbells, boom whackers, rhythm cards, orchestra bingo, and some weeks we studied a famous song/composer with some different activities. It was fun to zone in and stretch myself in this area.

Teaching homeschool was definitely a team effort. I had so much help from my sister who aided me as I prepped last summer. She gave me materials and advice and helped me believe in myself. My homeschool group was such a support, and I was grateful to have these other moms to lean on. We worked together to provide a fun experience on Fridays for the kids and had several therapy sessions together as we chatted for a bit after homeschool group. Matt was also a huge help as he picked up areas that I slacked around the house and didn't complain. In my most stressful/busy year of my life, Caleb also helped lighten my load in the fact that he was completely independent this last school year. Perhaps because he is my oldest, I have been more involved in his schooling in the past--some of it hand-holding, but mostly correcting papers and quizzing him before tests. This last year, I didn't have time for that, and he was still able to soar without my help. He utilized his prep period at school to get homework done, stayed on top of all his schoolwork, and aced everything. For his 8th grade year, he didn't have a grade lower than 95 on his final averages for all his classes. He did incredibly well!

Caleb and Sam after their Choir Pop Show at the end of the year

Caleb, Tyler, and Ethan

I wish I would have taken up my mom's offer for help earlier. She offered throughout the year, but I didn't want to take up anymore of her time since she was already helping my sister homeschool her 5 kids twice a week. I didn't feel like I needed her help and thus politely refused. The last few months things started to get rough with attitudes though, and I was feeling overwhelmed, so I finally conceded and accepted her help. She came every other Wednesday, and boy what a difference it made! It was so nice that I could have a break--homeschooling was exhausting on top of preschool, piano teaching, and my other household duties. While my mom worked with the boys, I either ran an errand or did a bike ride to train for my sprint triathlon. The boys responded so much better to another "teacher" and worked efficiently, quickly, and respectfully, which did not happen with me most days. My mom could usually push them harder than I could, so after a few times my boys did start to complain that they didn't like it, but I loved it! It was so kind and generous of her to help. (My dad sometimes came too!)

Overall, I consider the last year a success! It was a rewarding experience, and I loved being very involved in my boys' schooling.

My First Sprint Triathlon

On May 15th, I did something new and scary. Though I love to run, I've never considered a triathlon before due to the swimming. I did swim team growing up, so I know how to swim, but swimming long distances has always scared me off. After 13 years of long distance races, I was ready to challenge myself in a new way. A friend in my ward has done many triathlons and some iron mans and offered to walk me through every step, so I signed up! The distances for this sprint tri were 12 laps in a pool, a 14-mile bike ride, and a 3-mile run. I wished I could adjust the lengths to shorten the swim and bike and lengthen the run as the run felt like a piddly distance compared to what I was used to.

My first swim of my training, I panicked as I adjusted to not being able to breathe at will, and I couldn't even make it a full lap across the pool without having to stand up and catch my breath. I learned to relax, but I still had to take a breather after each lap. I did not stick to a specific training schedule and kind of made up my own. I made sure to do 2 bikes and 2 swims a week and stuck to my normal 4 runs per week. I started the biking at 5 miles with my regular every day bike and added mileage throughout the weeks. I dreaded every single swim workout for at least the first month, dragging my feet every time. I could see small steps of improvement, but it was still hard, and I felt the impossibility of being able to swim 12 laps in a row without stopping. My expectations kept lowering--originally, I thought I would swim alternating each lap between freestyle and breaststroke. Then I thought it would be 1 lap of freestyle and 2 laps of breaststroke with a breather after 6 laps. Then I came to the realization that I might need to take a breather every 4 laps. It shouldn't have come as a surprise, but it still did, that as I stayed consistent and pushed myself, it did get easier! I had my focus on freestyle because it is a faster stroke, but breaststroke was always my stroke in swim team, the stroke I was the best at and competitive. I realized about a month before the race that I could swim 12 laps in a row doing breaststroke and not feel winded! So while I knew I would be a fish out of water swimming breaststroke, I decided to shift gears and have that be my plan. I still did freestyle in my swim workouts, but I started my workout with a 300-meter breaststroke and timed myself. My friend told me her time for her 300-meter swim doing freestyle was 6 minutes. I was consistently swimming a 6:30/6:40 breaststroke, which reassured me that my breaststroke plan was the right one for me. Breaststroke feels natural and easy for me, and I'm pretty fast at it, plus it didn't wipe me out. I really enjoyed the last month of training because of the peace of mind knowing I could swim 12 laps in a row without stopping and still be semi-competitive.

Biking is the biggest portion of the race. I probably should have put more focus on it in terms of speed drills etc. I just focused on the distance. I learned quickly when I attempted to do a bike ride with my friend and another woman my age doing the sprint tri that my every day bike was not doing me any favors. They both have very nice road bikes that was fitted to their height, and they have shoes that clip in. They are serious! They told me that the swimming and running is on your own merit, but the biking result is heavily influenced by how nice of a bike you have. Matt reached out to his friend from baseball who owns Bike Land to see if it was possible to rent a bike for the race. In true Matt fashion, the owner decided to give him a bike for free, if I liked it, because it had been a floor model. The Saturday before the race, I did a short 3-mile ride to try out the bike. (I'd already done a 12-mile bike ride earlier that morning.) Wednesday before the race, I did a 14-mile bike ride for the first time on my new bike. A few miles into the ride, I took a turn too sharply and had the wrong pedal down. The pedal clipped the ground, and I went flying. I scraped up my right shoulder and right leg, but my right hand took the brunt of the fall. It was scraped up and bleeding [and I would later learn that I bruised the bone deeply. It took months to heal the bruised bone.] I figured it could have been worse, so I got up, brushed myself off and finished my ride. It definitely shook me up as I was still adjusting to the new bike, and I was very careful from then on out to have the correct pedal up during turns. It was so liberating to feel like I was flying on my new bike! My average speed per mile increased and the difference of this bike took 10 minutes off my total bike time! Throughout the bike training, the hardest part was actually having a sore butt. Even with a cushioned bike seat, my butt muscles were not used to sitting so long on a bike seat. It's not as bad now, but it's still an uncomfortable part of riding a bike!!

My friend, Star, helped me through several logistics--what to wear, other helpful tips (vaseline to prevent chafing from being wet after the swim), and patiently answering my numerous questions. She let me borrow her favorite tri racing outfit since she couldn't fit into it after having a baby fairly recently.

Come race day, I was probably equal parts nervous and excited. I felt ready, and I love the adrenaline that comes with races. As part of my training, I had done some brick workouts, meaning running right after biking, but I had never done all 3 back-to-back. Race day was the time to see what I was make of! The race was 45 minutes away and started at 7am. We got there just after 6am so we had plenty of time to set up our stuff at the transition area. That meant it was an early morning, waking up at 4:45am.

Swimming was first in the race. We all stood in a really long line based on the time we submitted when we signed up for the race, and we were given a number accordingly. The time I submitted was 9 minutes since I had no idea. I ended up standing in line with Star and just explained my time to those around me. It was nice to chat until we actually got in the water. The swimming took place in a high school natatorium. Every 15 seconds, they let another swimmer in the water, and it was set up as a snake swim--up and down the same lane then cross under the rope to the next lane. I got increasingly more paranoid when I saw that every single person was swimming freestyle. I literally was going to be the only one swimming breaststroke. That made me feel self-conscious. When I finally got in the water, I was so nervous about the person behind me catching me that I rushed my strokes and did less gliding. After 3 laps, I let the person behind me pass me. But then 3 laps later, she told me to go in front of her again. My time on my swim ended up being 6:42 due to some of those factors. Star did hers in just over 6 minutes.

After I got out of the pool, I rushed to the transition area, dried my feet as best I could, put on my socks and shoes, then took off for the bike ride. Even though I had a nicer bike than I trained on, I probably got passed by about 20 people who likely had better bikes and/or were better trained that I was. (One young woman who passed me was quite overweight, so that made me feel great!) I didn't realize that I had the wind behind me on the way out and wished I would have pushed myself a little harder because on the way back I was riding into the wind, which slowed me down. The bike ride was on the shoulder of a four-lane road for most of it, but there was one stretch that was on a two-lane road where the cars had a speed limit of 60. That was nerve-racking! The biggest concern for bikers is tires popping. There was twice during the bike ride that riders crossed over some railroad tracks, so that was a bit worrisome. The last few miles of the biking were the hardest: riding into the wind, tired legs, and my sore butt. I averaged 15.5mph.

Running after biking is not fun. Your legs feel like jello! I took off at a comfortable pace trying to work out the soreness in my legs. My legs felt heavy and my pace felt slower than I liked, but when I looked down at my watch, I was actually going at a sub 8-minute pace! So I just worked to keep that up for the duration of the race. Even thought it was only 3 miles, the run felt long, and I was grateful it wasn't longer! Crossing the finish line felt amazing, and Star and her friend, Karen, were there to cheer me on. My final time was 1:27:41. I averaged 7:57 miles on the run.

I knew the distance of the race from home would discourage Matt and the boys from coming, but I was still hopeful they would be there at the finish line. It was fine that they didn't end up coming--Matt did a lot of yard work instead, but it helps give a nice push at the end knowing your family is waiting for you at the finish line.

Overall, it was a rewarding experience. More may be in my future! Since the race, I've continued to keep up my twice a week swims and bike rides. I've cut back on the bike distance though.

Caleb's Junior High Tennis Experience

Caleb missed out on 7th grade tennis due to Covid, so he was very much looking forward to 8th grade. Tennis and soccer seasons overlap, but I encouraged him to tryout for both just to see. Caleb is a better-than-average soccer player, but he took a season off of playing in order to concentrate on tennis. He feels he would have done better during the tryout had he played spring soccer, and thus he didn't make the team. He was placed as line 1 on the boys' tennis team though, and that helped to boost his spirit. We were underwhelmed with the overall tennis season unfortunately. Most schools he played against didn't have as many players as our school, so the coach worked it out equally that you played one match one week, then two matches the next week. The "match" was a game to 4, which was about 20 minutes on the court. Lame. He was hoping to play more and also have some tougher competition. Most games were won easily, but he did have one match where he lost against a 7th grader who was quite advanced. It is good to experience some humility.

One of Caleb's good friends who is tall for his age compared to Caleb's short for his age.

The Junior High team

 

Homeschool Bake Sale

For our end-of-year final project for homeschool, we hosted a bake sale to go along with the book, The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies. There was a lot of math, selling tips (they sold lemonade in the book), and a sibling rivalry turned friendship that were stand-outs in the book--all things that were great teaching points. As parents we guided the discussions leading up to the sale, but the decisions were made by the kids. One discussion we had was possibly having a cause to raise money for and if that would generate more customers. Based on a personal experience with a kindergartner in our homeschool group, we decided to raise money for the American Cleft Palate Craniofacial Association. It gave greater meaning to the project. Each family team was responsible for one poster and 2-3 baked items to make. In hind sight, I wish I would have avoided chocolate! Peanut butter Rice Krispies and Mint Oreo Truffles were two of our family items, and I didn't think through that it would be warm and thus melt the chocolate. :( The kids were responsible for doing the math to see how much change was owed back. The sale got a little lengthy for the kids, but we had a steady stream of people. I was humbled by all the people that stopped by, including my parents. The kids raised over $300!

A close friend did the sweetest thing ever that I want to record. Not only did she purchase a pan of cinnamon rolls, but she wrote a note to the kids involved. The note essentially said that she was proud of the kids for raising money for a good cause. Doing service can be a hard thing but results in blessings. As an example of that, she enclosed a $5 bill for each homeschool student. The thoughtfulness of that made me cry...especially because she's a penny-pincher like I am!