Take 5

Ever since I can remember the fall has been a time of great stress, perhaps because my parents were both teachers it was always tense when the school year got back underway and inadvertently, even when homeschooling there would be an odd emotional upheaval as autumn got underway. This year my stress has been more internal in the form of anxiety and I'm not really sure way. I was doing well until this week when I took a bit of an emotional downturn with a wave a depression rearing its ugly head. I slept, let myself cry, leaned on my husband for support, then did my best to keep busy and count my blessings. Nothing is ever going to be perfect, right? I started my grantwriting class and have found it to be extremely informative and inspiring, after the first 'introduce yourself' assignment the instructor responded with a fantastic email containing a ton of resources pertinent to the areas I would like to seek grants for. Awsome. I've also been doing more cardio and weight workouts using my Karen Voight DVDs as opposed the Namaste Yoga program I usually do and actually found the scales to show me 6 pounds lighter because of it. Groovy.The other day as I was getting ready to go pick up the boys after school I looked out the back doorwall and noticed about 25 turkeys on the lawn. I know they're around but I've never seen them so close up to the house, grabbed my camera, quietly snuck out and got a couple snaps.

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Ethan and Ben's soccer team played the Lime & Black team twice last week and it was a fantastic match both games. The disparage in sizes at this level (all are 10 or 11) never ceases to amaze me, some boys are taller than the coaches while other look like they're barely out of 2nd grade! That doesn't hold them back though, they all played great even not having any time on the side since we only have 9 players on our team.

This was an exciting occurance, having a referee, and not only one but two "in-training" as well. They had there work cut out for them too, because both games were pretty fast-paced with great goalies, excellent defense, and forwards out to score!

Orange & Royal won the first game on Thursday, getting the first few goals so when we were matched up again on Saturday I was expecting they'd be poised for payback. Lime & Black got things started off with a goal within minutes but Orange/Royal held on and finished the game with a tie even without one of our strongest players who went and got himself sick. Benjamin was bringing it and had a couple goal kicks but they didn't get by the goalie.

Last Friday was homecoming for North Branch, the rain stopped for a few hours, just long enough for the parade to commence and then picked back up again as the kids were loading up on the busses. Fox rode with the Cross Country team.
The theme this year was A Royal Affair.

Yesterday was the Marlette Cross Country Meet and it was exciting to have another friend run bringing us up to four elementary representatives. They all ran great even though we only got together to "practice" a couple times. Out of about 100 runners everyone on the Ruth Fox Dream Team finished in the top 30%, Bruno being the leader, through the shoot at #14 in his first race! Afterward as we were heading to the car one of our mom's tracked me down and said her daughter would like to race too. She then recruited a friend who has two younger siblings that would like to race as well. So at next week's run in Brown City we'll have 8 students going for it. How cool is that!

In addition to becoming the 'unofficial' coach of the elementary CC team I've been getting things in place to begin after school choirs in the lower and upper elementary schools from November to March. Figured I'd sandwich it in between fall and spring sports, this time only working toward one program. Thankfully I do have things to look forward to so I'm never down for long.