Sweet Children

Yes, that’s right. These are my sweet children. The others. . . well, it depends on the day. Ruth and Dave are charming. Recently Ruth unearthed an old souvenir rabbit fur purse from somewhere, and she was so excited. She had stalked and conquered her prey, and she ran around the house proudly so we’d all see how fierce she is. She’ll also approach you to rub up against your leg, and it’s such a new overture that anyone in our family who receives a leg rub is thrilled and flattered. Dave is still a bit more timid than Ruth, but he appreciates a good brushing and he has a loud motor purr that we love. The other night the whole house had gone quiet–the girls asleep, Cute W away on business–and when I arrived upstairs in my room, both cats were waiting for me on the bed, looking up as if to say, “Where have you been?” Sometimes when we leave in the morning, we’ll look back and the kitties will be watching us at the window, and if we’re not gone long, sometimes they’ll be waiting for us there at the window when we get back.

So the kitties are good.

The girls are busy. M concludes her indoor track season with a meet tomorrow morning, and then I think maybe she gets a week off as a break before she rolls into spring track. But even during that break, club soccer continues. She is extraordinarily disciplined about getting everything done, but it can wear her out. J has started doing track for the first time ever, and she likes it so far. She’s also doing volleyball and more volleyball. We’re actually at this regional tryout thing today that may or may not have been a mistake. We were very casual about signing up–more volleyball? J wants in!–but we are surrounded by some super-intense girls (and parents). Plus they just had a meeting and I’m like, I clearly underestimated the level of commitment they’re looking for. The whole thing has me fretting a bit, although she just broke for water and she looks relatively happy, so I guess that’s okay. Honestly, I’d probably feel better if I just left the gym. Even if I’m trying to focus on this, I keep looking up. It’s just too tempting.

The consequence of the girls’ freakishly busy schedule is that we end up pressed for time, squeezing things into a tight schedule, playing catch-up when things get forgotten in the mix, and finding homework more challenging due to pure exhaustion. Yesterday I skipped a workout class because of a Math Crisis. Today I’d worked like crazy doing KidsOutAndAbout stuff and finally paused for the 10 minutes I had before it was time to take one daughter to the high school when the other daughter called and pleaded for me to ransack her room for the jacket and tights she’d forgotten to pack. And yes, I started to write a post the other night when it became apparent that someone was suffering from a Homework Tsunami. So I haven’t been doing great at portioning out Me Time. Luckily, when I do have a spare moment, I’ve got some comfort animals.