And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times...

For those of you who don't know already, I am extremely busy. I recently had to buy one of those whiteboard calendars in order to keep track of it all. I found myself getting busier and trying to remember it all. We forgot Jarod's Basketball practice two weeks in a row and that's when I knew it was time. I just filled it in for the month of February and this is it as of today.



We each have a color, so I don't have to write names. It got too much to have to write "Cass b-ball 7-8pm". We thought about initials, but decided on colors as the simplest way.

So why am I so busy? As you've read before, Cassadie is on Swim Team and also plays AAU basketball. Now, Jarod is also playing AAU basketball, and takes a Karate class. I teach at a local University (Heritage Univeristy) twice a week. So, with all that, we have at least two things to do every night of the week. The kids have basketball games and Cassadie's swim meets are on Saturdays. So on a given saturday, I may be in White Swan (a 40 minute drive to the west) for a game in the morning and then in Benton City (a 40 minute drive to the east) for a game in the afternoon. There have been 2 or 3 times where Alex has to take one and I take the other and we head in opposite directions because their games are at the same time.

Cassadie's next swim meet happens to fall on a weekend when her team doesn't have a b-ball game, so we were lucky. She hates to let her basketball team down, but we would have to choose swimming if it came to it.



You can kinda see her new team suit in this pic. Their colors are green and purple, the suit is green and purple argile. Cassadie really likes it, and most of the younger kids do as well. Most of the older kids think they're ugly.

So, I ask myself everyday, how much is too much? When do I tell my children, "no, you can't do that because you have too much going on already"? We have limited them to these two activities each, and I will continue to chaufer them all over the valley as long as they are enjoying it. When Cassadie complains about having no time for anything, or missing out on something, I wonder if we have hit the "too much". She and I have discussed this very issue on several occasions. She knows that she loves swimming and basketball, and as soon as that is not the case, she knows that she can stop.

Jarod has been playing basketball since last year, they just started up again about 3 weeks ago. It just so happens that he started karate classes at the same time. He loves karate. He has class twice a week, and always comes home with a goofy grin on his face and stories to tell. One day he told me that he has the best balance except for the girl in his class. I told him to be proud of that because girls naturally have lower centers of gravity. The next day it was that he could kick the hardest. I just love to listen to his stories, it makes me happy that he is having so much fun. We watched Karate Kid yesterday. He was completely focused for the entire movie, and he loved it, as I knew he would. You should have seen him trying to do the famous crane move (I'm sure we all tried that move).