Just a few of the running shoes around our house these days!
It isn’t hard to figure out what season we are in. It isn’t summer or fall…it’s XC season (at least at the Hetzel house it is)! As the coach of the Grace Academy cross country team, I am running with the athletes about four days a week…and my kids are running too (#8 and #7 – C.C. and John-run with our group and even # 9 hops out of the baby jogger often). #4 (Peter), #5 (Annie), and #6 (Grace) also run for my team as high school and middle school runners. That’s a lot of shoes lying around…especially when you consider the additional spikes, too.
Death by laundry…
Many people think of football when they think of fall and the start of the school year…not me. Cross country practices, meets, and invitationals fill our fall days. Tempo runs, stride outs, Indian runs, Kenyan outbacks, track workouts, ladders…this is our language. Unfortunately for me, it means a lot more laundry too. What are your fall days filled with?
Sometimes we just can’t fit it all in! When I woke up to my seven year-old asking about breakfast at 6:30 a.m., I glanced at my phone. Three text messages. Both of our highschool boys had stayed the night at friends. One message was from my 15 year-old asking if we could get him to to his morning practice. Another message was from our 17 year-old who was just checking in with us to tell us he was on his way to his morning swim practice (seems like we should have coordinated that better). The other message was from our 21 year-old son at the US Naval Academy. He was supposed to do a PST(I think that stands for physical standard test which I think consists of maximum push-ups, maximum pull-ups, maximum sit-ups, a 500 yard swim in camouflage, and a mile and a half run). His message had come in at 3:45 a.m., because he had been sick all night and was wondering if it could be food poisoning. He later sent a message saying he was sure it was the full blown stomach flu.
So much for best laid plans! When the alarm sounded off in my ear this morning, there was no way I was getting out of bed. Even a second blaring of the alarm 10 minutes later was not going to arouse me. When I set the alarm last night, it was 10 pm. That was right before Thomas, my 16 year old, asked for help with the second paragraph of the paper he was struggling to write. About two hours later I emerged from the bonus room (he was still furiously writing), only to remember the email I needed to send before I went to sleep. At about 12:45, I finally fell into bed. 