7 Lessons from High School Sports

You all know we've been a crazy sports family from the beginning.  Our kids are allowed to play one sport per season (no ice hockey or tackle football) and most of them make sure to take advantage of this.  Some of our kids are not as athletically inclined, and we don't push them into anything, but do encourage them to be active (ahem, Xander with ahem, swimming lessons).  Now that we have entered the world of high school sports, I was thinking about all the great life lessons that are being learned by my eldest son.  We all know the many physical and mental benefits of staying active, but there are some lessons I never considered would come from being a high school athlete, such as:

1)

Hygiene

Our kids take showers or baths every night (sometimes we skip every other day in the winter if they have dry skin or haven't played outside) because they get sweaty and dirty every day.  They either have gym class, play a sport, or just run around enough at recess and after school to need a shower each day.  So hygiene isn't something that needs to be taught in this house.  But, since high school sports have started, there's more of an urgency to shower each day (right upon coming home from practice/games), airing out cleats and shinguards instead of letting them sit in a sports bag, applying deodorant and bringing a change of socks and shoes if not going to be picked up right away, etc.  There's a good healthy dose of keeping oneself presentable and smellsentable, if you will.  

The 5th Grade Birthday and Cell Project

Oh my little buddy, Eamon, you're a whole year older and I love you a whole lot more, which doesn't make sense because I already loved you so much, but I've said that before.

The birthday boy got to pick breakfast (he chose chocolate chip banana muffins to bring to his class) and got some good snacks in his lunch box.  He also had a big science project due the next day, but brought it in on his birthday so we could celebrate that night without worrying about finishing up the project.  Here are his animal (orange) and plant (green) cells:

7QT: A Tree, A Warranty & Pornography

Linking up with Kelly because it's Friday!

1) 

I've mentioned it before, but when I go for a run alone I call on my Guardian Angel to make himself really big and powerful and run alongside me, protecting me from any bad guys.  (I love my GA so much, I hope you all remember you have one with you always!)  Anyway, yesterday after two rainy days and a forecast of rain for the following day, I really wanted to take the chance to run outside.  But it was windy...however, what harm can wind do besides mess up my hair?  I secured my ponytail and headed out.  About two miles in, a tree branch swooped down and almost hit me.  Phew!  I paused for a sec and thanked my GA for helping me avoid that!  At mile 4.5, a branch fell from a tree right.in.front.of.me.  Thanks again, GA!  If I hadn't paused from that first near hit, I probably would have been hit by the second branch.  I was contemplating God's timing and His love for me (seriously running is a form of prayer for me) and being so thankful that I was kept safe but decided to head back lest I test my luck.  As soon as I turned onto the next street, I see a man and woman getting out of their van.  The woman is checking out the hood of her car, and the man is turned around taking a photo of this:

I stopped and asked if they were ok, and they said "Yes, but that tree just fell on our car!"  Luckily they were on the other side of the street and only the tip of the tree hit them, not the trunk.  "You just missed it" the guy called out to me, "lucky you!".  Lucky me indeed, because I was on the sidewalk next to wear the tree was planted, and if I had arrived a minute or two earlier, that tree and I would have collided.  It left me a little jittery and I ran home faster than ever.  So the moral of the story is...don't leave home without your GA or on a windy day.

Guarding Our Kids' Eyes

Some time last year, Phil discovered that one of our boys had completed a search on his iPad for an inappropriate word that he had heard.  He didn't know what the word meant, but knew it was inappropriate from the tone of the conversation, and so wanted to look it up less he feel stupid.  When Phil discovered this by looking at his search history, we both kinda freaked out but had the good sense to remain level-headed when approaching our son.  Truth be told, I let Phil take this task for the team!  Phil talked to him and found out that he hadn't known what people were talking about, was too embarrassed to ask us because he knew it was bad, and as soon as he saw what it was he said he felt gross and turned off the iPad right away.  Phil was super calm and understanding and just explained that we have to be careful what we view online because there are bad things and bad people out there and certain images can get stuck in our head and mess with us.  The boy understood and was embarrassed but thankful to be caught because it had been weighing on him.

Theme Parks and God's Generosity

Not too far from our house, we have a little amusement park that has grown so much since the last time we went, 9 whole years ago!  Edaville Family Theme Park is definitely geared towards little kids, but they are expanding to include a water ride and bumper boats for the older crew.  We seriously had so much fun taking Maggie, Xander, Declan, and Brendan on Sunday.

While you look at these Edaville photos, let me tell you a story about God's generosity...

Dude Perfect was Perfection

Right around this time last year, Andrew and Eamon heard about Dude Perfect and immediately became obsessed.  

They asked for tshirts for their birthday and Dude Perfect toys for Christmas.  They watched every single Dude Perfect video on youtube during their precious screen time.  They read everything they could about them, and were very impressed that they seemed like nice, funny, Christian family guys.  So were we.  The boys started making up trick shots of their own and getting ideas together to make their own videos (like every other boy in love with Dude Perfect, I'm sure!) and Dude Perfect has just been so entrenched in our lives.  They can't wait for new videos to come out like we used to struggle to wait a week between Full House episodes.  Andrew even wrote them a fan letter this summer...only to have it returned because of a bad address :(

7QT: Whole Family, Whole30, Wholey Good Deals

Linking up with Kelly and the Kool Kids because it's Friday morning y'all!

1)

  I got up early to walk the dog and blog and even though I'll crash and burn by 8 pm, I can't take these warm mornings for granted!  I have severe FOMO on great weather days or when I see somebody running.  Even if I've already done my workout...is this normal?

2)

We were able to celebrate with my side of the family on Saturday.  We try to get together for Labor Day Weekend and celebrate the August/September birthdays (there's a lot), then for Halloween to celebrate October/November birthdays (Again, a lot), then Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter (spring birthdays), and July 4 (summer birthdays).  The winter birthdays kind of get lost in the shuffle, but there aren't too many of them.  The birthday kids get ONE present from their godparents and that's it.  Easy peasy doesn't break the bank squeezy.  One of my sisters couldn't make it, but here's the rest of the familia:

Savoring Family Milestones

Today was a big day in the Martin Casa...Declan went to school for the first time!