January 2015: Quick Bites

January 2015.  Daniel is 12.  He is in sixth grade at MMS.  He's taking prealgebra which is the one class that is anything even close to challenging for him.  He is taking band for the first time and playing the baritone which he likes and is apparently pretty good at but which, in the midst of all the other sixth graders including some who are into band and some who are just there cause they have to be, he sometimes finds frustrating.  After a fall of Fall Ball and Football he did not play a winter sport which means he spends all of his time outside of school on the computer...Minecraft still reigns supreme though there also seems to be Clash of Clans and some other things that I vaguely pay attention to but mostly just try to ignore.  He still loves his sleepovers and the boys will stay up late hanging out and playing on their phones (which we finally caved and got him for Christmas) and computers.  We should probably have more restrictions on how much time he spends on "screens" but really, its just on the list of things we should do better and its not very near the top.  He likes middle school, is getting good grades, likes science, hates comm and MN studies (though he admits the MN class is fun-the same class where the teacher told me the kids were a "challenge"-figures).   He went skiing quite a few times this winter and has gotten really good at it-he goes over the jumps and hills and stuff-pretty fun to watch.  He's going to do middle school tennis (a new sport for him), in-house baseball and passing league football this summer/spring-I guess he'll make up for the lazy winter.

Macey is 10 and still at Oak Hills at Ignite.  Its a joy having three kids at three different schools, two of whom can't take the bus: Macey because they don't bus to her school, Josh because Macey's schedule doesn't allow us to utilize the bus that he could otherwise take.  We carpool to Oak Hills with two other families which means Jason takes all the kids to school on Tues-Thurs, dropping them off at 8:40 and then taking Josh to school by 9:15.  As I understand it (though I don't ask for the details-I really would not be very supportive and its better if I don't know) Jason often takes Josh out for breakfast those three days during that in-between time.  They apparently hit every fast food joint between here and the river depending on what they want for breakfast that day.  Like I said, its better if I don't know the details.  Macey loves school this year and we love her teacher-last year we could not really say the same thing, at least about the teacher.  We all hate SEM-R reflections (writing assignments that Macey's class is required to do which are online and require parental "review" and "coaching"....aggghhh, what a pain in the neck) and she did states and capitals this year which was fun but of course, the taking of the online test involved tears and desperation.  I think josh learned a lot of states and capitals from Macey too!  She has a great group of friends (her class is 22 boys and 9 girls, eeckkk!) and her class does lots of cool things.  Her upcoming "Choice" unit includes dissecting frogs, eyeballs, sharks and whatnot-delightful.  Macey played basketball this winter which means we all did basketball-and basketball-and basketball.  Weekends were spent at various gyms in the broader metro cheering this group of awesome kids on.  The 4th grade program was designed to help the girls improve their skills-they split the teams up so that there were evenly matched skills sets on all three teams and they did a fantastic job.  I was a little frustrated early in the season as a parent watching because it seemed too coach and set-play driven, not enough freedom to the girls to just play ball, but as the season progressed I started to see what it was all about.  Macey really improved over the course of the season and she was an invaluable part of the team. Winter was busy for Macey with soccer winter training, dance on Thursdays and bball, bball, bball.  She's thriving.

Josh turned 6 in January and is in kindergarten.  Sweet, stubborn, loving, awesome boy of mine-he wants hugs and kisses when I drop him off at kidzone in the morning, but we have to do it in the hall, not where the other kids can see.  He loves his room and his lava lamp and his stuffed animals but would also love to sleep in my bed every night if I would let him.  He needs less sleep than the other kids-I think he got that from me.  He will lay in his bed and play with his toys for 30-45 minutes before drifting off to sleep at night.  He likes little figures like pokemon and lego men and dragons and really, anything.  He's reading like a champ and doing math in his head-I keep the clock in my car 10 minutes fast and invariably when we are driving around he will say "Is it XXX?", having subtracted the 10 minutes from the time on the clock-and getting it right.  He watches the gas gauge and is always quick to tell me when I need gas.  He has an appreciation for what is going on around him that I find fascinating-for someone who "lives in a cave" (as Jason likes to say about me) I find it hard to get my arms around Josh's very acute consciousness of what is going on around him.  He likes things to be the way they are supposed to be and he always keeps track of where everyone is and what they are doing-he is very sensitive to the world being the way its supposed to be.  He still has that stubborn streak.

My job is going well, in the fall I  took on the tax responsibilities for a whole new enterprise that our company is starting up and that has been both challenging and fun.  Until I started doing that I did not realize how sort of bored I was becoming with the same old same old all the time.  This first quarter of the year has been fun professionally with a lot of exciting things going.  Outside of work, in addition to managing Macey's basketball team (what a chore-and next year I will be SOOOO much better at it-there was so much more I could have done to help the coach that I did not even know about...next time will be better!!!) I am assistant coach to Macey's soccer team.  I started playing in an adult soccer league and its soooo much fun!  I am actually far better now than I was 12 years ago when I played last.  This is an indoor league, I am hoping to find an outdoor team to play on too.  I have not signed up for any runs or tris this summer, I am trying to figure out if I can make that happen or not.  Spring is almost here so maybe I'll be more inspired to get out and get movin'... Favorite show right now is Walking Dead, I've been through the show on Netflix going on twice now...can't really say why I find it so compelling ...I would never have thought this was my kind of show but there you are.  I love Netflix-where has this idea been all my life????? No commercials, no "zing-zing" through commercials-just pure watching enjoyment.  Am working my way through reading all the good the fantasy series' out there-finally got my hands on the Prices of Amber series which was good, though not great, and am still trying to get through the Mazetlan Book One, maybe someday.  Can't seem to make it happen.  Working sporadically on my own book-just one more thing that falls way, way, way down on the list of things that I want to spend time on.

Jason's business is moving along, slower than we want, but getting there.  He refereed football last fall, is still the PTO Treasurer at Lake Marion, Head Election judge for the Lakeville location where he works every time there is an election of any kind and he has found some great friends at Burn to hang out with and watch games with.  He's into cigars right now which isn't something I am a big fan of but he finds them fascinating-something about the flavor or how they are made or something-to be honest, I don't get it but its become a bit of a hobby for him and I just go along.  We are still driving our old cars-between us our cars are almost 25 years old.  Every winter we say, oh, the Nissan just has to get through one more winter...and it does and so we keep on driving it.  My beloved Honda Pilot is just like new-well, ok, probably not, but I have no complaints.  I actually do think it will be Daniel's first car when he starts driving-only 3 1/2 years to go!