How Can It Be?

How can it be that the time is here for college visits for our oldest child? This weekend she will be going on her first "official" college visit. And my mind is just wondering how can it already be that time in our lives?

When our kids were younger, people would tell us how fast the time would go and that before we knew it we would be looking at colleges rather than pre-schools. It seems those people really knew what they were talking about. I am glad that I listened to a lot of the "sidewalk/grocery store advice" about raising kids because they were right. The young years go fast. The junior high and high school years have speeded up even more.

I am happy with the fun ages of our kids and the ability for us to enjoy conversation together. Most of our conversations take place around the dinner table. I enjoy cooking for our family. Like most families, we juggle evening commitments to sports and music and meetings and projects. It is pretty difficult to get all of us together to eat at the same time. We try to eat together, as often as possible.  I like trying new recipes and making each person's favorite meal for their birthday. As time goes on, I am curious to see what the kids remember, as they get older about the conversations and food we shared together. A meal brings out prayers and conversations and allows us to share in each other's lives.

"The oldest form of theater is the dinner table. It's got five or six people, new show every night, same players. Good ensemble; the people have worked together a lot." Michael J. Fox  I couldn't agree with you more, Michael!

I would love to hear about your dinner table and your thoughts about family time.

Feeling blessed,
Cathy

A Final Re-Cap of 2013 & My Word for 2014

My Word for 2014: BALANCE
Today I unrolled my yoga mat and did a series of poses. Just kinda went with it and as I was practicing familiar poses to my brain, yet somewhat unfamiliar to my body (as I haven't practiced regularly in 8 or more years), I came to some pretty interesting thoughts. And I decided that I need yoga again. I need BALANCE and that is something pretty difficult to achieve in our world. As soon as we accomplish one goal, we are setting another...pushing farther and harder. But we need time to just be without all the  grasping for more, more, more. And the truth is that if we can find an inner stillness, we can see things so much more clearly. We can see that the path we are on and that we are on that path for a reason. Sometimes it is hard to see why we are on a particular path, but if we are able to see it a bit more clearly, we can have fun and be adventurous and embrace the path and thereby gaining more happiness to spread into the world. Ahhh yoga. And the bonus of feeling better physically is worth it. The mind body balance. So perhaps you have guessed my word for 2014...BALANCE. It only took me one month to find that word!

I have decided that I still really enjoy blogging. I love reading others blogs and I love to share my perspective on things...my writer side, if you will. So I AM BACK to BLOGGING and you will see more posts from me. I am still trying to find my authentic voice in blogging. So this will be another exploration this year. As a mom, so many things are changing at warp speed. Things that I thought were far off in the future are right here, right now. Things like college visits. For my girl who never left my side for 3 years and would just hug my leg and never let go. She would grab my face and kiss my cheek for as long as she could. That girl is ready to explore colleges in different states and areas that are fairly far from home to see what they have to offer her. It kinda hit me hard when I realized that most of her college visits need to be scheduled in the next 3 months...so we have a calendar filled with dates and times of visits...probably around 10 colleges. And I am trying to catch my head up with my heart. And so far, I am doing ok. I am sure the watery eyes I have had this week are from a head cold and {not} the emotions of letting go of that sweet 3 year old hugging my leg.

It has been bitterly cold here in Ohio. The changing temps have left me with a cold this week. The kids had 5 days in a row off due to our winter weather. It all went well when I put things in perspective and let the kids sleep in every day. I realized that this was an opportunity to be together without the added pressure of homework. We didn't do anything that was super fun or  blogworthy. We just hung out and tried to keep warm. I think they needed the extra rest and relaxation time. We celebrated hubby's birthday with some shopping & good food. We ate out. One got a haircut.  We kept an appointment for the son with the broken arm. We all went together. Nothing spectacular, but perhaps that is what we needed to make it through January this year.

Summer 2013
So let's take a look back at summer in 2013. I am a summer girl and I love the sun and the heat. Summer always goes too fast for me. We had an awesome summer despite all of the rainy weather. Of course we had a lot of TOW...Time on the Water...which as a newer slalom skier, I love. It is a pure adrenaline rush for me and I always feel fantastic after a ski run around the lake.

The kids rarely tube but when they do, it is always interesting to see how they jockey for the best part on the tube:

This is Ana having fun on her wakeboard after a new trick:

And at the end of a great lap around the lake:

My hubby, Rich, tried a new sport this year...I may have influenced him just a little with my enthusiasm:

As either my hubby or I am driving the boat, we hand the camera off to one of the kids and they still haven't figured out how to capture us just at the right time...but we will take whatever pics we can get from them and we have something to work toward next summer.

Marissa is improving so much with her skiing that she will be on the slalom ski soon. I wish I had learned to slalom earlier! Here she is enjoying herself on the lake after overcoming fear issues of other boats and going around the island. So proud of her!

Foster is always having fun on the water and trying new things from surfing to new tricks on the wakeboard. He has always loved the water. I didn't do a good job of photographing him this year as I have (like many) relied on my iPhone way too much. Here are a few shots of him having fun:

Wakeskating...no bindings to hold your feet onto the board:

 Wakeskating...look ma, one foot, one hand:

 He totally rips on the slalom ski...I think this could be his sport but he just gets on the ski a few times a summer and rips through a lap and is done all the while making it look easy:

And a wakeboard photo from early in the summer...he was using his Dad's board (which was too big) and was just having fun:

The kids have permission from this dock owner to use the dock if they knock on the door and let the owner know they are jumping off...it is cute to watch them run up the sidewalk and knock on the door and then run back to the dock to jump off...again and again...while we wait in the boat and take pictures (mostly for Instagram posts)
Sisterly love...

Or some throw in a dock flip:

We love it when my sister and her girls come to visit...it may involve a little arm wrestling:

Or some time on the boat:

Or all of the girls just spending time on the deck and chilling:

The best part of being at the lake is spending time with loved ones.

Our youngest, Marissa, had her 11th birthday which we celebrated in style, here with a rare parent picture:

And with her sister and brother:

She had an awesome birthday with family and friends. Part of her present included a Carly Rae Jepsen concert which was really good. Me with my two girls:

Fall 2013
Summer seems to morph into fall so quickly. We had two in high school sports and one playing travel soccer. I don't know how we made it through the grueling schedule, but we did and I was super grateful to have Ana help with the driving to/from all the sporting events.

This was Ana's third year of tennis. We have an awesome team and our school has made many trips to the state playoffs. Ana played both Junior Varsity and Varsity. She got in a ton of playing time and really progressed with her game this year. I was frequently bopping from tennis, to high school soccer to my other daughter's soccer practices and games. I did not get one single photo of Ana on my real camera. This photo is courtesy of another tennis mom...I love this:

Our girls placed 3rd in the Ohio State Coaches Tennis Tournament...Ana (in purple hat....it was so cold that day in October!) did not play in this match but she was there to support her team. She did play in a match earlier in the season to help advance her team. I am proud of what a team player she is and how she has grown in her tennis skills. She is lucky to have these girls as friends and teammates. I know that when she is older she will be able to draw on a lot of lessons learned through high school tennis. I hope she will continue to play beyond high school for fun, social, and fitness.

High School soccer started for my son on the last day of 8th grade. The team had open field all summer long and my son was at every one that he could possibly make. Our school fielded a 100% freshman team, a junior varsity team and a Varsity team. We are a smaller district and it was awesome to have the opportunity for my son and other freshman to play on the same team. Some of the freshman players were also asked to play up for JV and Varsity, as the coaches requested them. This was a bit of a different season for my son as he has played goalie almost 100% of the time in the past 7 years. This year he was on the field and played forward and midfielder. Most of the teams we played were a mix of older (and much bigger) players and in fact we did not play one team that was purely compromised of freshman like our team. The one time that my son did play goalie, he was kicked in the head (when he had possession of the ball and a penalty should have been called, but it was not), which resulted in a very scary 24 hours of watching him and a dr. visit...and that is how the season ended. I am proud of him for taking on new positions and putting forth an awesome effort and being a team player. This pics is of him entering the game when his name was caled by the announcer. I must say it was nice for all of the parents to hear all of the boys names announced before the game and during the game.

This is Marissa playing soccer..she is in the white jersey with the long blonde ponytail. She played on two travel teams in the fall. Our travel is different than some other areas. We are pretty far from the other teams that we compete against and usually have to travel 45 minutes up to 1.5 hours each way. I have some thoughts on that but will save them for another day. Marissa is a developing player and has amazed me with some of her soccer skills. If she continues to develop skills at her current rate, I think she will be a tough competitor. I will say that sometimes I am disappointed at the poor sportsmanship and overly aggressive play by some teams at this level (she plays on the U12 team, but is a true U11 player due to her bday so she can play on both teams) I am thankful that she is on a team that emphasizes skill rather than brute force. I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut when I see the blatant pushing, shoving, and tripping. I am working on being less vocal in 2014.

You may have noticed that I updated a few pics along the sidebar. We skipped family pictures this year and instead I hired a talented photographer to take pictures of the kids. It was very low key and I am glad that I went that route. Here is one my favorite photos by Aemee Ellis

Ana went to two homecomings this year. This was the first one...we opted for a long dress as this school had a lot of rules about the dress and I thought it would be really hard to find a dress that met the length requirements with her long legs. I ordered it online and then she had to scurry to get it approved by the school and thankfully it passed! Rich and I were headed to an Ohio State game.

Foster celebrated his 15th birthday with an unofficial concussion and cherry pie. And an annual pic with his Mom & Dad:

One thing I have found out the hard way is that when there are special events like birthdays or homecomings, you have to make an effort to get a picture with your child or in this case children. These pictures are the most important to me, but I haven't always gotten them due to distraction. This is Ana's junior year of homecoming (only one more year!) and Foster's freshman year.

My brother and his wife were here for the Homecoming festivities, and also to celebrate a birthday. This is Marissa helping Uncle Dan with his birthday cake. Who do you think is more excited about the birthday?

Hubby and I dress in black tie twice a year for a club that we belong to. I had a hard time finding something this year, but it was comfortable. And we had a good time out on the town: cocktails, dinner, and dancing!

Thanksgiving 2013
We changed things up a bit for Thanksgiving this year. Since our youngest is now over her fear of elevators, we thought it was a great opportunity to head to Chicago. We had a blast and thanks to the CityPass we were able to see everything on our list and more. This is one of my favorite memories while on our way to the Field Museum. We had awesome weather, pizza every night, incredible shopping, sightseeing, cab rides, views of Lake Michigan, and lots of good memories!

Another of my fave Chicago pics was of the kids just before we left. This was taken outside at Pizano's Pizza....yummy...love the red checked table cloths!

Christmas 2013
I missed taking our picture on Christmas Eve, so instead I created a collage of what we were doing that week. Ana is now a ski instructor, the kids with their new Christmas ski gear, hubby and I on the lift and Marissa taking a ski break in the lodge:

And that is the end of the picture Re-Cap 2013. I hope to be more of a frequent blogger so that these mega posts are few and far between. Also if you want to follow me on Instagram, you can find me at cathymskier

My words for 2013: Small Changes
I loved my words for 2013... I was able to make a lot of small changes that added up to a whole lot of big changes. Organized areas of my home including drawers and closets. What an awesome feeling to make small changes, and to feel progress!!! I blogged about my choice of words here and then went on to make to outline my goals here. I stayed active with tennis, skiing, water skiing, training with a personal trainer, and barre classes.

I will blog soon about BALANCE. Until then.
hugs,
Cathy