I'm back: Soccer and Halloween

Silence. I've haven't gone 26 days with a post since I started blogging. Did you miss me?

Sometimes I have adolescent-like fits when I blog. They aren't rational really—I started blogging for me, not because you asked me to. Still, sometimes I resent how much you know about me and my family (unless you are a fellow blogger) and how little you respond to my posts. Like I said, unfair and irrational but reality. Our inner thoughts are never as neat and tidy and selfless as we want them to be and I am bit embarrassed to admit my fit.Add my fit to computer that won't upload every third website and a broken  camera and I wasn't in the mood. Though I have been working on my food blog---check it out if you haven't in a while.

But Halloween came and fall is almost over (so says the weather). There are events to record and my dear friends lent me a camera for the weekend. October was cold. And cloudy. I wonder how long I will need to live in this state before I stop resenting the cloudiness? Darn that lake Huron. It is so close and so amazing, but the only way I remember it exists is from the sea gulls and the fall and winter days of endless gray clouds.

Saturday was the end of a long and tiring soccer season. Tom has classes this semester starting at 8 am and ending at 8 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays. He usually leaves on those days before the girls wake up and comes home just in time to give a goodnight kiss. Then on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, there was soccer. And usually the season ends mid-October. But this year, it just kept going and going (same number of games but hard-to-schedule coaches). Anyway the last two games , both on Saturday mornings were miserable. Last Saturday was rainy and cold: winter coats, hats, mittens, blankets and an umbrella. This Saturday was warmer but following a day of rain, high winds had moved in. I watched 50% of the last game from the car where my cheers were muted by the windows. (The soccer pics were emailed to me my another mom. Hadley is white with the pink hat with the pom pom on it.)

But the joy of the season was watching Hadley. Suddenly, she got it. Not being on the champion team she shot to the top of the roster and looked like a pro out there. She could dribble in and out of defenders, her kick gained strength and her feet gained speed. She was one of the players the other coaches told their players to watch out for. And still, after three seasons of soccer I was surprised by my heart: its desire to win, the loud yells that emerged and the instinct to injure any player that pushed my little girl.

And Kassy? She's not the fastest on the field but her ball handling skills are impressive. And of the two girls—she definitely loves soccer the most. She would get sad if Hadley has a game or practice and she didn't. My quiet little girl is tough out there on that field. And nothing is more charming than her big grin after a goal (and I don't think we had a game where she didn't make at least one).

And Tom? Well, there isn't a better coach out there.

Really, Hadley is just dreaming of competitive gymnastics. She even draws pictures of it. And prays about being able to compete every night. Sigh. Not letting a kid have everything she wants is not bad. But it sure is hard.

Halloween. Hadley was Word Girl, from the PBS show of the same name. Word Girl is from the planet Lexicon and fights villains partially by distracting them with big words which she then defines. Kassy was a bunny, again. Our friends, who live in the country, came and enjoyed the evening with us. I think we passed out over 600 pieces of candy to at least 400 kids. Kids from all over the city come to our neighborhood to trick or treat. But neighbors are resentful. They don't like all the kids (and adults) that come for the candy without costumes and with made-up stories about a sick brother in the car which is why they have two pillowcases. So participation is way down—only 30% of the houses turn on their lights. Still, they come. I get the neighbor's frustration but I guess I think , “Hey if once a year kids from this crime-ridden city come peacefully into our safe neighborhood, who am I to deny them the fun?”

The pictures below are from the IB parade at school. It is a huge deal and you have to make a sign that identifies your character and the IB trait (IB is the abbreviation for the International Baccalaureate curriculum their school uses. There 8 or 10 traits that constantly emphasizw as they learn about the world. Words like creative, communicator, open-minded, principled, thinker, risk taker, knowledgeable, balanced, reflective ). Hadley's sign read, "Word Girl is a caring thinker." Kassy's sign read, "The Runaway Bunny is a communicator." Sometimes the IB profiles make me laugh, like when we are making these signs for what is really an attempt to add some thinking to Halloween or when Kassy yells at her sister, "You aren't being principled." But I love it. They have such a great school.