Play Ball

My first experience with team sports was playing on my ward Young Women softball team at age twelve. I was hopelessly clumsy.  Whenever I hit the ball, which was certainly never a given, I would run with track star speed for that first base, but since I almost always hit a slow grounder directly toward the first basewoman, my efforts were futile.  If the coach played me at all, she would send me to right field, the place the ball was least likely to go.  Sometimes I considered quitting, but my teammates begged me to come so they wouldn’t forfeit. Community obligation and peer pressure kept me coming; I prevented my team from forfeiting but I made them lose.

My dad, who is quite the baseball player and who had already garnered a few years of coaching experience with my younger brother’s little league teams, tried to catch me up with the other girls, but it was too late. Eventually I became fairly accurate at throwing, but unfortunately, baseball requires other skills, too, like batting and catching, and I just couldn’t figure those out.

I hope that my own daughter will not find team sports to be such a trial for her as they were for me.  Luckily, she does not appear to have inherited my natural clumsiness. But just in case, my game plan is to start her in sports young, when all kids are clumsy, so she won’t be as behind as I was when I started Young Women’s and middle school sports.

That was my line of thinking when I signed her up for co-ed, coach-pitch baseball at the local rec center last year, at age 7.  When my husband learned what I had done, he seemed kind of frantic, muttering things like, “I need to teach her to hit.  She’ll need a nice mitt.”  I wondered if my theory about team sports being lower pressure if you began young was actually correct.

I became more nervous when I arrived at the park on the first day of practice and saw scores of parents leading little boys to the field. When we found her team, a boy shouted, “We have a girl on our team?”  Sure enough, she was the only girl.

“She’s probably the best one,” replied the coach.  I appreciated the coach’s support but I worried.  Would my daughter have to be the best to get respect from her all-male teammates?

After the first practice, we waited for my son’s T-ball game to begin.  Another boy from my daughter’s team was also hanging around and invited her to hit some balls with him.  I was encouraged as I watched the two of them play.

On picture day, a few of the boys told my daughter to get out of the photo because baseball is for boys.  The coach did not put up with this behavior at all; whatever he said to my daughter’s teammates adequately shamed them into profuse apologies and ideal behavior for the rest of the season.  Still, my daughter was devastated by the incident.

This year, I found her a girls-only softball league.  I liked the idea of having her learn to compete with boys at a young age, before the boys got bigger and stronger than her, but I think she would have been more comfortable on a truly co-ed team, not one in which she was the only girl.  So far, so good.  She is enjoying herself and is already well beyond the skill level of twelve-year-old me. (Of course, that is not a very tough milestone to surpass.)

Christmas Decor Emergency

I volunteered to host a Christmas Relief Society progressive dinner at my house this past December.  It was a great motivator to finally take care of some of the final remodeling details we never finished before, like the moose-shaped patch where the electrical was updated:

Or the frames around the windows:

Or that wall that used to have a window, before we  added the master bedroom on to the other side:

So I set to work painting and my hubby built a wall unit to hide the blocked window:

I was feeling okay about our progress, until two days before the dinner, when a member of the Relief Society presidency, in an attempt to lower the intimidation factor and get a few more volunteer hosts, gave a little speech about how you didn't need to have a big, nice house to be a host.  We just wanted to enjoy your Christmas decorations.

Christmas decorations?

I hadn't realized that Christmas decor was the key component to hosting this event.  I have lovely Christmas decorations--my mom gifted them to me a few seasons back--but I hadn't decorated yet because we were doing all that paint and carpentry work.  Now, not only did I have to finish the construction, but I also needed  to deck the halls.  This don't-be-intimidated speech really intimidated me. 

All is well that ends well.  We ended up finishing most construction (minus some detail work on the new wall unit) a few hours before the dinner and my kids helped me complete the fastest decorating spree of all time. My parents came over a half hour before the dinner started and we just finished minutes before guests arrived. Phew.

I walked in my room the other day and saw...

...a foot.

Closer investigation revealed:

Halloween, Christmas, New Year's (Yeah, I'm behind.)

Halloween

I let my kids use the camera to photograph their jack-o-lanterns.  It came back to me with orange goo on it, possibly from the pumpkins, but possibly from this abstract still life they made from laundry and peaches.  They may have potential as artists,  but I will not lend them my camera again.  (I ended up giving them cheap cameras for Christmas.  So my camera is safe, but my laundry and food may not be.)

Christmas

I love the Christmas Sing-Along.  It's a great way to expose the kids to a live orchestra without forcing them to be quiet!

Someone did the 12 days of Christmas for us.  The gingerbread kit and play dough were among the gifts. So fun!  I wish I knew who to thank.

Wrapping paper was a big hit to my littlest one.

We tried to do a family nativity, and the kids spent most of the time fighting over who should be the angel, but the next day, they cooperatively staged their own without parental guidance.

My aunt and uncle host a delicious annual Christmas Day breakfast.  My oldest daughter has been asking me about if we could go there every few weeks since last year's breakfast, and I keep explaining to her that Aunt and Uncle's house is not a breakfast cafe and you can't just show up there anytime ordering food, but I am glad she enjoys it so much.

The kids got a camera for Christmas that takes silly photos and videos like these.

New Years

I'm glad I walk my talk

I have been working with my local state senator, Senator Osmond, on SB 112, a bill that would soften the very unfortunate work week law of 2011.  I sent a letter to the Salt Lake Tribune about it, which says:

Since it went into effect in September of 2011, the state’s five-day workweek law has added approximately 14,250 metric tons of carbon emissions into the air.

The law ended the state government’s four-day workweek, a common-sense measure to protect air quality that saved taxpayers $203,000 a year.

Now, we are all breathing in the results of this legislative action. Senate Bill 112 would not bring back the four-day workweek, but it mitigates the current law by allowing state agencies some flexibility to offer services by Internet or phone.

If you like breathing clean air more than you like waiting in line to fill out paperwork in person, support SB112.

Today I took a glance at the comments and one in particular stood out to me.  It was posted by someone who obviously knows me but I can't tell by the screen moniker or tiny profile photo who it is:

As I know who the letter writer is is can tell you that her home is Green. She uses Public Transportation, and even owns Natural Gas Vehicles (yes plural, and she still uses public transit). I know, bash away, tell her how she has forgotten this or that, but don't look into yourself for what you can do to help the issue. I am guilty, I drive a big truck, and don't drive all that far to work, I really do live close enough to walk.

That made me feel good about all that time my husband and I have spent updating our house to be eco-friendly, xeroscaping, shopping for environmentally-friendly cars, and taking mass transit when other means may have been faster.  I am surprised that someone else has noticed.  Thank you, friend.

My Daughter's Winning, R-Rated Reflections Film

My 7-year-old daughter was extremely enthused about Reflections this year.  She submitted to the film, visual art, 3D art and photography contests.  A sheepish PTA volunteer called me and told me that her film had won, but would it be okay if they didn't show it because of the nudity?  Or was that just too silly because it's just an infant and of course there's nothing wrong with it but they were afraid sixth grade boys might make fun of it but they would show it if we really wanted them to but would we mind if they didn't?  So it wasn't publicly shown, until now.  But she did win, after all, so I think her self-esteem is fine.

Is my son the future Chord Overstreet doppelgänger?

When I watch Glee, I am frequently distracted by how much Sam (Chord Overstreet) reminds me of my 2-year-old son. I feel like I am watching a future home video. Of course, I might be nuts, so I asked my family if they had noticed the resemblance. Most of them said, "Chord Who?" but my sister knew who I was talking about and assured me that I was indeed nuts. No resemblance whatsoever. Then her husband looked at my kid and said, "I don't even watch Glee, but I know who you're talking about! He looks just like him!" So we have a tied match. I am going to poll to break the tie.

Will my toddler son look like Chord Overstreet in 20 years?

 my kid

Chord

 my kid

Chord

Here's the youngest Chord photo that came up in my image search