Catch up

The girls are roller skating up and down the drive way. The house is not picked up. I read today, for fun, for information and for faith. That's a lot of reading in one day. And for the first time in weeks. I have nothing beyond showering on my to-do list. I have decompressed enough to finally sit down and catch you up.

The month of May and early June was brutal in its constant swells of activities. Soccer. Gymnastics. Swimming. End of the year carnivals. Poetry recitals. Soccer tournaments. A camping trip. A conference for Tom. Vacation Bible School. Stress tears regularly ended my week and really we can only blame ourselves--for cramming too much into the short summer weeks before change worlds.

I remember when the girls were toddling around the house I would wonder who those families were that hurried around like ants. We weren't busy. We had to look for things to do. The days were slow and exhausting too. Suddenly we are looking for things to cut, making decisions about what the girls can't do. Analyzing our budget to see which activities are affordable.

And then this June I was introduced to the knock-down world of girls' competitive soccer. Hadley tried out for Majors, the first level of competitive soccer. She made it with a top rating (never mind that she was shoo-in since her dad was coaching). And then came the draft and with it an endless analysis of which players to pick for our team. If you follow professional sports drafts, you might imagine the process. But here parents are involved. Parents determined to get their daughter on a good team, opinionated about how to coach, and willing to compromise integrity to get what they want. Yikes. If they don't coach they don't really get a say. By the time it was all over, after a long soccer season where Tom endured much gossip as the coach of yet another winning team (people like to conjure reasons other than talented coaching for why someone keeps winning) and a crazy draft, I hoped to not hear the word soccer for months. But alas, it's a World Cup summer. I better get used to it. Go USA!

Now summer is here. The girls are tall and lean. They've started learning to play the guitar. They're smart and quick and fun to joke with. Hadley is officially considered a tween (!) and watching her emotions swing like a pendulum make me wary of the next... oh 10 years.

I bribed Hadley last week. She was growing her hair long. It looked stringy and ...yuck! It was getting thinner and breaking with alarming frequency. Yet, she still wanted her hair long. I promised her I'd take her to a real salon, where they actually wash your hair, if she would cut it short. She took the bait. So did Kassy. We are all pleased with the results.

Below are end of year pictures with the girls' teachers. They both had excellent years in schools with teachers who we all loved. Kassy's picture with her teacher is blurry, so I tried to make it look vintage!

I've been writing a bit more (for money!)--mostly for the local lifestyle magazine.  And a lot less on here (perhaps you noticed?). My diabetes numbers are fine (not excellent, not bad) but my body is showing no signs of further complications usually experienced by diabetics.

We leave on the 1st for Chicago and on the 3rd for Honduras. I don't know how often I will be able to blog from there. We will be with the same family and kids but in a different place with different Internet access. I'll try to post some information before I leave so you can know more about what we are doing.