Monday, February 8, 2010

Volcanoes, Crushing Dreams: All in a Monday


As promised, we erupted our volcano today, and I remembered to photograph the event. Of course, since it was over so quickly, it was a little anti-climactic, but the kids all oohed and ahhed over it for a few minutes anyway.



Overall, even without taking the volcano into account, it was a productive day for a Monday. And I didn't start crushing any dreams until this evening.

Crushed Dream #1:
A couple weeks ago, we left church on a Wednesday night with Alex full of all kinds of enthusiasm. There is a dance/singing group full of girls her age that practices Wednesday nights and performs at various times on Sunday mornings. This past Sunday, however, we ventured out to a new church where some dear friends from our old church have been attending. We all loved it. In fact, Alex was the first to ask, "Can we come back here next week?"

I worried all day about bringing up the subject of Wednesday night because if we are not going to attend our new old church any longer (to clarify, our Old Church is the one we attended for 7 years before its closing; our New Old Church is the one we've attended since Christmas; our New Church is the one we went to yesterday. Got it?), it is silly for her to practice with this dance group and then not perform. (Besides that, I was just hoping and praying the girl carries a little more groove and rhythm than her mom and dad.) So I broached the subject tonight. I could tell she was disappointed.

However, there are other possibilities for fun on the horizon. Like a possibility of joining American Heritage Girls and Scouts (for the boys). I know. I'm crazy. I don't need to sign up for anything else. But that's just me. Like I said, it's a possibility. OK, so we'll probably be there by next week even though they meet on Monday nights which are crazy for me because of my crazy Tuesday, but sometimes I just have to take one for the team, right?

Crushed Dream #2
I knew it was coming...the question: When do we start soccer? And the truth came out: We never signed you up for soccer. Honestly, it comes down to this (and maybe this is selfish, I don't know): With 3 kids in soccer, that presents the possibility of 3 different nights of practice and 3 different hours of games on Saturday. That, in my humble (and possibly selfish) opinion is a recipe for Chaos and Stress. How do large families juggle sports and other extracurricular activities?

So I feel like a heel, yet a heel who has some preservation of sanity. On the bright side, we're getting closer to warmer weather which means volleyball. We've committed to spending a little extra time at the courts teaching the children to play. As I've mentioned before, we always said we wanted 4 kids so we'd have a volleyball team!

13 comments:

Bernie said...

That volcano is awesome. Your kids are SO cute. I love that first picture.

Warmly,

Bernie

Sarah at SmallWorld said...

Totally understand the soccer dropping. We do American Heritage Girls and Cub Scouts, but they meet at the same time/location. Fabulous!

Unknown said...

We are trying to get an American Heritage Girls troop in our area. Good stuff.

dclouser said...

Your volcano was great! I admire your courage for saying no to over-crowding your schedule. Many moms think they don't have a choice and that they have to live with Stress and Chaos. Hope the New Church works out well for you!

CrossView said...

Love the volcano!

I hate to disappoint mine. I know it's a part of life but I still hate it.

But I am glad to hear that you liked the New Church. Was that the right title??!! ;o)

Unknown said...

not selfish at all IMHO. Kids have way too much on their plate as it is. Between swim team practice and scouts for the boy and choir rehearsals, music lessons for the girl, my week is already full without adding another sport into the mix. And she really wants to play basketball but there is absolutely no time for her to attend practices or games. It's also all about choices the kids make and singing is my DD's #1 priority.

Amy said...

I agree with the above. You're NOT being selfish. We had a year or two where the kids were each in different activities at the same time and it was CRAZY! And I was stressed out all the time. And it wasn't worth it. Now the kids take turns. One season Caleb gets to do something (if he wants). The next season is Abbi's turn. Then Jacob. All Jacob wants to do is Lego club (at Discover Mills) and that's only 1 Saturday morning a month. I can handle that! They all agreed that it's much better this way. We're home more. We like eating dinner together as a family again! And I'm not a crazy, stressed out momma!

Unknown said...

I'm leading the AHG Explorer troop at your New Old Church. It is a great organization. I hopw you guys enjoy it as much as we do. Will you be joinging a troop at your New Church?
We might be on the church hunt again. Our church is in the process of buying land. Depending on where it is, we may find ourselves homeless. I pray that doesn't happen! I really love our church family and I really hate church shopping.
Awesome volcano!!

Unknown said...

hmmmm....PACK 593 right...RIGHT....RIGHT.
http://593scouts.org/

mainly HS kids, christian leaders.

tsinclair said...

I would love to be able to do everything with/for my kids. But, we all have our limits. We have been lucky in that they have wanted to do the same activity which means - one type of practice at home and at organization, one area to go games and practices...however, we pretty much limit it to one activity at a time. Once we tried boyscouts and sports - just too much.
btw - where is the New Church?

ballast photography said...

Love the volcano--one of the best of its kind that I have seen!

Your decisions about the activities sound like ones I would have made, so, of course, I am going to say they were wise and insightful :)

Amy @ Cheeky Cocoa Beans said...

What an awesome volcano! Your family did a great job in making and erupting it! :)

And I completely understand about not doing soccer. Our two boys are in Upward basketball right now, and two practices at different times, different locations, and different nights--on top of two games at different locations and typically overlapping times on Saturdays--are enough for me! I was relieved when my oldest said he didn't want to play Spring (Base-) Ball. Only one to juggle practice times for this time around...

Congrats on finding your New Church! :) Hope it turns out to be your church home!!

Joel & Elin Bubna said...

Katy, it was fun to catch up a bit with your life today :) It seems like too long since we saw you guys! Some day your children will bless you for cutting out stress and chaos!!