Great News!

It's not sewing, but family news.

DD#1 qualified for a special Track tournament. This is her first year throwing Jav (only about 5 or 6 weeks) but she qualified to attend. Her personal goal is to break the school Jav record, and she's a sophomore so she has the time to do it.

DD#2 had the best day of her softball life today. She played in a multi-school tournament and they won the championship. Played four games and won every one. She pitched the first and fourth game and had 3 home runs. Actually four but one didn't count--went out of bounds. DH just bought her a new bat because she's working so hard and who knew bats could be SO expensive!

Suffice it to say, I got no sewing done. Nada. Nothing. Surprisingly I don't feel cranky about it. Must be that parental pride. I'm savoring it. For every good day, comes a bad day. So right now we're just enjoying the good.

What keeps us busy?

Or the real question is what keeps us away from sewing. Other than the housework or a full-time job.

I was over at Jemima Beans blog and was in great admiration of her daughter. I love sports pictures and her daughter is a softball player. Good girls do indeed hit and steal! Being a uncoordinated sports loser, I always wanted my daughters to be tough little cookies. Being one of the "loser" types of girls in gym class was not to my liking and I wanted my girls to play hard and not be like me. If they had some type of dance or aerobics and weightlifting in gym class, I would have excelled, just not organized sports (neither of my parents were into group sports at all).

So our parental mandate is that all our kids must play a spring and fall sport. We don't care what it is. Over the years, DD#1 has played tennis and soccer. She's more of a natural athlete. She's now playing Varsity Tennis and Track. Today I'm going to her meet to watch her do Jav, maybe run the 800 if I don't have to leave to get the boys off the bus. DD#2 plays Field Hockey and Softball. Right now it's softball season and she's on two travel teams and the school team. Both the boys play spring LL baseball.

This keeps us very busy. My nights are activity filled with no time for sewing. I work on ribbonwork sometimes at the boys' games--depends what position they're playing. The girls are older and really play competitively so I have to watch. And I like to watch. But this means sewing time is drastically cut.

It's so worth it though. To watch the physical growth, mental concentration, self confidence explode through hardwork, motivation, and dedication makes it worthwhile to the nth degree. And to be able to do so and maintain excellent grades, well, I didn't do either. Not only was I a sports loser, but an academic loser until I turned myself around as a high school junior.

There are things that I hate to lose sewing time to, like housework and food shopping. Sports is worth it though. It just does so much for the kids. Some people may say kids are successful because their parents push them or are trying to relive their past. Yeah, I've seen that. We push to a point. They're my kids with my genetics--they *need* to be pushed LOL. Not shoved, mind you, just pushed. Actually more like a nudge. If we didn't, they sit home and play with their thumbs and become losers like their mom. Well, I consider myself a reformed loser :) !

Maybe later I'll post some sports pictures. Just like any parent, I'm mighty proud of them. And if it weren't sports and they were in Marching Band or some other activity and working hard at it, it would be just as good.

So march on over to .Jemima Bean's blog to check out a good girl that hits! And a home run to boot :)

Now I'm off to the drudgery of food shopping...