A Month of Change

When my kids were younger and involved in youth recreation sports, I loved November! It was the one month when we weren't rushing to practices or games. There was time to get ready for the holidays and it was just laid back.

Fast forward to now, second son is still playing football, his team made it to the finals. Unfortunately for him, he missed all of last week due to a vicious stomach bug that he got on Monday night after eating a full dinner. After making it back to school for two days, he came home Friday during practice and looked green, we missed the family pizza party and he slept from 6 pm to 8:30 the next morning. He had to sit out the game, all good though, it was an easy win and he will be ready to practice and play next week.

Since brothers do share sometimes, he was kind enough to share the bug with his younger brother and I got the call at work on Thursday to come get him at school. He was down for the count for two days. My husband and I have escaped the bug, and I like to think it was the copious use of lysol disinfectant spray on everything with multiple hand washing. Youngest had planned on racing today in a 5k and was smart enough to know that he had to take the weekend off.

My youngest (Bub) is still running after school to stay in shape for Nordic Skiing. And that's where the transition starts, here we are getting ready for winter. The leaves are getting raked, there's a fire in our woodstove, winter tires need to be put on the minivan and everyday there's another catalogue in the mailbox. Today we went to a ski sale where Bub got an early Christmas gift of a snowboard and a ski pass. We live about 25 minutes from a small mountain that kids like to hang out at and ski or snowboard. At 14, I'd rather he was outside doing something active than inside with the computer. It was nice that the young sales guys talked up real lessons and wearing a helmet, since I did not know what I was talking about.

To put a twist on it, my husband has accepted a new job with his old company. The pluses will be a much shorter commute without tolls, better benefits and he gets back his vacation. The minuses will be traveling to Arkansas frequently with us moving there after my youngest graduates high school. What do you think? Me and Arkansas, can you see it? The big plus for me, a longer golf season and I am still working on other pluses....