State swimming, a new/old friend, and a lesson learned

The Age Group State swimming meet was held this past weekend at the world renowned IU Natatorium. Caleb was able to go as part of the 200 Medley relay team, he swam the butterfly (the 3rd leg) and did a great job maintaining our first place status. The fourth leg had some difficulties and we finished 7th in the heat. Caleb thoroughly enjoyed being down there and watching his teammates swim as well. Here he is (in the cap) looking at the board to check the results of a race.

Colin went with me to the meet, and it is usually very difficult to keep him entertained for such a long event (for those of you not fortunate enough to experience the swimming world, one session of a meet can take 3-4 hours), but this time he was very well behaved. You see, he made a new friend (kind of, he already knew him) and was on his best behavior. His friend happened to be on vacation, which honestly everyone deserves!

Since we were preoccupied most of the weekend, I was unable to tackle my normal domestic goddess duties (ie., laundry), and it has piled up so high (both clean and dirty piles!) that I woke up this morning very much NOT looking forward to the mountainous task that lay before me:

I proceeded to open my e-mail and received my daily e-mail from Scott Noelle:

":: No Problem! ::

Having a "bad parenting day"? Whatever you're stressing about -- your child won't stop whining... you're way behind on the laundry...the baby nursed "all" night long... you yelled at the kids *again*... etc., etc. -- remember there are two components to every problem:

1. The actual condition

2. Your *belief* that it IS a problem. In other words, you don't *have to* perceive the condition to be wrong or bad.

Would a baby see your mountain of dirty laundry as a problem?

No, because wee ones see the world AS IT IS.They haven't been trained (yet) to pass judgment on Reality, so they don't see the problems we see.

Well, if a baby can do it, you can, too! :-)

Today, try letting go of the idea that conditions"should" be different than they are. Simply accept them..."No problem... It is what it is."But don't confuse acceptance with defeat. You can be accepting and still desire change. And change happens*easily* when you're at peace with What Is."

I chose to just see the laundry as what it is, and tried to not get stressed about it...it's so much more important for me to sit on the floor and play with Play-Doh with my boys than it is to stress about the laundry...

Have a great day, I know I will!

Happy Spring!!

Ahhh...the first day of spring, so very exciting! Leave it to Google to use one of my very favorite children's authors to commemorate this day: Eric Carle

There's something about that little "Hungry Caterpillar" that always makes me think of sunshine, dirt, and growing gardens. If you add that little guy to the seed catalogs

Seeds of Change, Gardner's Supply Company and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

that have been coming, I could daydream for hours about my plans for this year's garden.

My dad and I have already placed our order for tomato and pepper seedlings from The Chile Woman and will be quite busy with canning salsas, pepper jellies, etc. later in the summer. I am hopeful that I will have a large enough crop to keep tomatoes in my pantry throughout next winter and spring...I used my last jar of tomatoes from last year at the end of January, so I am hoping that I am more accurate in my calculations this year.

In preparation for all that I will be harvesting this year (hopefully) I have my eye on this waterbath canner kit on Amazon. I do have a pressure canner already that I love, but to have this canner as well would just make the canning a bit easier and less time consuming.

Enjoy the first day of spring, and I hope that all of you are having a wonderful, sunny day like we are!

It's been too long...

Over the past month we have been busy. Caleb and Logan have hit the tail end of their short-course swimming season. Caleb made the Championship Team and swam 6 events in divisionals and is on the State 200 Medley Relay team. The State competition is this weekend and we are gearing up for that. Colin is swimming like a little fish and I will definitely be less nervous when we are at the pool during the summer.

Our homeschooling is going very well. The boys are plugging along in all of their subjects at a good rate. They really enjoy when we do history because it involves me doing a lot of reading out loud to them and then they get to do activities and map work to help reinforce what they have been learning. Believe it or not, one of Logan's favorite subjects is grammar! Even if I don't assign a lesson that day he wants to do one...crazy kid!

One of the joys of homeschooling is the freedom that we have to go on impromptu trips when Tod has to travel. A few weeks ago we packed up our schoolwork and did it in the van on the way to Chicago. Once we arrived, the boys finished their work in the bar while Tod was working on the lights, and then we headed to the Chicago Legoland Discovery Center. It wasn't quite worth the $$ that we spent on tickets, but the boys did enjoy themselves.

The boys with Hagrid, from Harry Potter. Colin with Darth Vadar, and all 3 with a likeness of President Barack Obama.

Yesterday we had an unusually warm St. Patrick's Day and we took the boys down to the parade. Tod had to be down there to photograph the fire department, their bagpipe players, and the engines that were in the parade. He was also able to get me to actually agree to be in a picture, so here are my little leprechauns and myself at the parade...we were right in front of the grandstand, so it was great for the boys to be able to hear everything.