Betsy
While Angus hit us heavy over the course of a weekend Betsy was a less powerful but lingering storm. I am actually downgrading her to a tropical storm - not because she didn't cause damage but because she didn't have the punch of a major storm.
The last few weeks have been so unbelievably busy I don't even know where to start. Work was really slammed for me and there was a shocking staff change that knocked me off kilter a little, the boys had finals, E had two back to back out of town baseball tournaments, Matt was in DC and London, and in between all of that I'm going down to Olympia once a week to mow and water and trying to wrap up things with the house.
I think the message of Betsy, is that no matter how hard I try to organize, prepare, teach and support - some things are just simply out of my hands.
I need one simple window replaced at the house is Olympia and you'd think I was asking for the Lord himself to part the Puget Sound. One window. We may get it taken care of before escrow closes but that is still up in the air and the source of some stress. I went down to water the other day and the city had turned off my water. Actually just turned it off, despite the fact that I called closed the renter's account and made sure the water was put in my name. They made a mistake the lady said. Uh ya, I'd say so. Meanwhile I had to pee and the entire purpose of coming to Olympia was to water the grass. Fast forward a few hours, I peed and the grass got watered - those are mutually exclusive points. I did not pee in the grass in case you were wondering.
Eli failed his Spanish final and earned himself a C in Spanish. IN SPANISH. That is one of the classes that he is taking that I can actually help him, but he refuses my help and has a C. I feel like I tried my best to ensure the boys were studying, they were going to bed early, limiting their time with friends and video games in order to have plenty of time to study, and yet mijo tienen un "C" en la classe de espanol. Que lastima! I find myself stressing about his post-high school career. In my gut I know he is smart enough and determined enough to be successful in whatever area he choses to pursue, but also in my gut I know he is immature and more interested in the now than planning for the future. And so, I have lost some sleep over this one.
The best thing about this travel baseball team is that we have had the opportunity to visit some random Washington towns that I would have never gone to if it were not required. They turned out to be beautiful little sunny towns on the east side of the mountains and in spite of the storms, there is nothing you can do about that while you are sitting in the sun watching hours of baseball. Just that time of doing nothing actually proved to be a great benefit.
As with many of the trying times in our lives lately the final hurrah of the storm is not a little straw that breaks the camel's back but a big giant gut punch. One of the boys is seriously testing our sanity. I used to think that teaching the boys right from wrong, to respect others, to speak truth and instilling in them values that Matt and I hold dear would just kind of make them "good" kids. Newsflash, that isn't necessarily the case. So we find ourselves frustrated with some choices he has made and trying to figure out what to do moving forward.
As challenging as some of these issues with grades and other stuff has been over the past month two thoughts keep coming to my mind: they are going to be ok and they are still growing up. I don't know if that is denial speaking or faith that they are great boys and just have to work through some stuff.
The last few weeks have been so unbelievably busy I don't even know where to start. Work was really slammed for me and there was a shocking staff change that knocked me off kilter a little, the boys had finals, E had two back to back out of town baseball tournaments, Matt was in DC and London, and in between all of that I'm going down to Olympia once a week to mow and water and trying to wrap up things with the house.
I think the message of Betsy, is that no matter how hard I try to organize, prepare, teach and support - some things are just simply out of my hands.
I need one simple window replaced at the house is Olympia and you'd think I was asking for the Lord himself to part the Puget Sound. One window. We may get it taken care of before escrow closes but that is still up in the air and the source of some stress. I went down to water the other day and the city had turned off my water. Actually just turned it off, despite the fact that I called closed the renter's account and made sure the water was put in my name. They made a mistake the lady said. Uh ya, I'd say so. Meanwhile I had to pee and the entire purpose of coming to Olympia was to water the grass. Fast forward a few hours, I peed and the grass got watered - those are mutually exclusive points. I did not pee in the grass in case you were wondering.
Eli failed his Spanish final and earned himself a C in Spanish. IN SPANISH. That is one of the classes that he is taking that I can actually help him, but he refuses my help and has a C. I feel like I tried my best to ensure the boys were studying, they were going to bed early, limiting their time with friends and video games in order to have plenty of time to study, and yet mijo tienen un "C" en la classe de espanol. Que lastima! I find myself stressing about his post-high school career. In my gut I know he is smart enough and determined enough to be successful in whatever area he choses to pursue, but also in my gut I know he is immature and more interested in the now than planning for the future. And so, I have lost some sleep over this one.
The best thing about this travel baseball team is that we have had the opportunity to visit some random Washington towns that I would have never gone to if it were not required. They turned out to be beautiful little sunny towns on the east side of the mountains and in spite of the storms, there is nothing you can do about that while you are sitting in the sun watching hours of baseball. Just that time of doing nothing actually proved to be a great benefit.
As with many of the trying times in our lives lately the final hurrah of the storm is not a little straw that breaks the camel's back but a big giant gut punch. One of the boys is seriously testing our sanity. I used to think that teaching the boys right from wrong, to respect others, to speak truth and instilling in them values that Matt and I hold dear would just kind of make them "good" kids. Newsflash, that isn't necessarily the case. So we find ourselves frustrated with some choices he has made and trying to figure out what to do moving forward.
As challenging as some of these issues with grades and other stuff has been over the past month two thoughts keep coming to my mind: they are going to be ok and they are still growing up. I don't know if that is denial speaking or faith that they are great boys and just have to work through some stuff.
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