Woo hoo! 502nd post! They didn't delete me...yet!

SO, my darling readers. I went to a very exciting cross country meet today. It was partly exciting because we overslept, drove behind every kind of farm equipment known to man, and missed the team bus. I felt awful about it because I knew they waited for a few minutes, but what can you do?

Then it was exciting because the NSA kids ran great. My YD shaved at least three minutes off her time, and a new kid on her team ran his FIRST meet (his first 5k!) and made awesome time. (like 22 minutes or something crazy). The traffic was awful coming home, so it took most of the day. BUT I was very proud of my daughter and she didn't complain at all when I quizzed her on her geography all the way home.

It is a gorgeous day out, just beautiful, and I am dead tired and sick of being INSIDE THE CAR! Tomorrow I am helping drive the youth group at church to Duke University for an event, and I don't know how I'm going to stand another day in the car. But I will. And I'm sure the Haitian orphans who are speaking will make it well worth my while. Too bad my own kids can't come because they have a multitude of tests and homework due the beginning of the week (and they need a break from the car, too).

There's a wedding across the street, so the church bells have played several times this afternoon. It seems to fitting on a beautiful day like today that the church bells would play so much. The dogs are lying on their backs in the yard, bellies to the sun, with a true appreciation of Saturday. I think I'll go lie beside them, belly up, and listen to the church bells. I can pretend my house is clean if I'm outside--ha ha.

Our family is busier than ever, but it's all good. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed seeing all those kids run today. Some of them grinning to beat all and some of them crying. Some of them sprint the whole 5K and some of them don't even finish. The coaches call them all by name, encouraging, running beside them sometimes, and celebrating with them at the finish line. It's just such a lovely metaphor for life. You can do it with a smile, train for it, get better, own it, you know? Or you can look around shell-shocked, like, how the hell did I get HERE? At any rate, every kid who was out there today is a winner. That sounds corny, but tackling a 5k on a Saturday morning when many of your peers are still sleeping shows character before you even begin the race. I was inspired.

I did miss my YS's soccer game for the cause, but my husband took him, and I know he enjoyed the heck out of it, too. Kids and sports, in their proper perspective, mind you, play out life lessons in every event. I am reminded of the author of ABSOLUTELY AMERICAN, the book chronicling a group of boys who grow into men at West Point. The author has written about many groups of young people, and he said the kids at West Point were by far the happiest group he's ever studied because they knew exactly what they were made of. They pushed themselves to the limit, and then they knew their own strengths, their own weaknesses, and they learned to completely rely on each other. If you haven't read this book, btw, it's a great read.

Have a wonderful week-end, enjoy this lovely weather, and now I, dear reader, am going to find a nice grassy patch to lie down belly up.