Matching Tracksuits

the girl

Conestee Sunday

Sunday 17 September 2023

“Let’s go for a walk at Conestee this afternoon,” K suggested after lunch. She and the Boy had gone to church while I stayed home and did school work and the Girl headed off to work, so we hadn’t spent any time together as a family. Yet as is often the case these days, “time with the family” really only means K and I with the Boy.

The Girl, almost 17 now, has her own life: she hangs out with friends, meets them at football games, goes to dances with them, drives them here and there. She has volleyball and work along with her heavy load of AP classes (all four classes she’s taking this semester), which means when she’s home, she’s usually doing homework. Or sleeping.

My Evening…

Monday 11 September 2023

Taking the Girl and her friend to a concert in Atlanta. Why? Good question. Mainly because I said I would…

Start of the 2023 Season

Monday 21 August 2023

Tonight was the start of the 2023 volleyball season. As defending state champions, the girls have a lot of expectations on them: from the coach, from other teams, from parents, from fellow Mauldin High students, and from themselves. Each component of that list has different levels of expectations for the girls, but the most significant component is the girls themselves.

I guess it’s a little inevitable that the girls put pressure on themselves. All athletes do that to some degree or another. There are likely some students putting pressure on them inadvertently with calls to bring another state trophy back to Mauldin. Some parents might be doing the same. And the other schools in the area? They’re probably rooting for them to have a less-than-perfect season.

What are K and I doing? Making sure L knows we love her, we love watching her play, and we want her, above all, to enjoy what she’s doing. I don’t know if that will help with the stress she’s probably putting on herself, but we can hope.

School Year’s Eve

Monday 7 August 2023

Tomorrow, I begin my twenty-fifth year teaching, my sixteenth with Greenville County Schools. Am I ready? I’ve reviewed and signed all my IEPs and 504 plans. I’ve worked with other eighth-grade teachers to create this week’s lesson plans (and of course, the administration tweaked the lesson plan template, as they do every single year). I’ve spoken to teachers and administrators about which students I need to focus on early in order to form a good relationship so that when things sour, I have that good relationship to appeal to. I’ve spoken to my co-teacher in my inclusion class about what we’ll be doing and had a fruitful discussion about how we will work together. I’ve watched (almost) all my safety training videos (the same ones, year after year after year after year after year…). I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do, and I still don’t feel ready for tomorrow.

Part of that is because of what I’ve heard about this year’s group of kids. “They’re the toughest bunch we’ve ever had” was the common assessment of most seventh-grade teachers. I’m not looking forward to a year like that. Yet they always mature some over the summer, so I’m hopeful that will mitigate things a bit.

The Boy, though, feels even less prepared than I do. “I just want to go back to elementary school” has been his mantra. New starts always make him nervous, but K pointed out to him all the new things he’s thrived in this summer: a new scouting troop; summer camp with a different scouting troop; band camp with a group of strangers. Still, he’s reticent. I can understand that.

The Girl is just ready to go. She’s got so many AP classes this year that it’s troubling (seven out of her eight classes are AP: four the first semester, three the second semester), but she’s stubborn and resilient. She’ll make it.

K is not looking forward to the morning rush, but she and I will slip back into it.

Only the animals are calm about it…

Orlando 2023 Day 4

Thursday 29 June 2023

An awful day for the girls: they lost their first match on the single-elimination final day. They were so out of sorts I put the camera up early in the first set and never got it back out.

Back home, a bit of relaxation with my favorite lady on the back deck.

Orlando 2023 Day 3

Wednesday 28 June 2023

The girls did better today: won two, lost one. The one they lost they should have won: it was not a team that dominated them, but they lost in the third set.

Finally, we have some pictures from the Boy: K went for the parents’ night at scout camp today. He showed her around where they sleep, their bathhouse, and myriad other things — all the details that make camp camp.

“E is having a good time,” she texted, which assuaged my biggest worry–that he would be reluctant to engage with others and not really make any good friends.

The opposite seems to be happening.

Orlando 2023 Day 2

Tuesday 27 June 2023

It was a tough day: the girls went 0-3, and what’s worse, they were all straight-set defeats. I know it had to be frustrating: of the three teams they played, only one should have been truly hard to defeat. The other two teams, our girls essentially beat themselves. They would get a lead, then give it right back. Once they gave the lead back, the teams would just trade points until the end, something that, if it had happened when our girls had the lead, would have resulted in wins.

All that to say, only one team blew them out of the water; the other teams just barely beat them in each set — nearly as close as possible. Of those four sets, they lost three of them 22-25 and the fourth one 23-25. In each of those four sets, they had the lead at some point. In one set they had a five-point lead; in another set, they had an eight-point lead. That had to be frustrating for them.

After a few hours’ break and a nap for L, we met up with most of the other team families for a team dinner.

Orlando 2023 Day 1

Monday 26 June 2023

The girls split their games today. They played one team from Charlotte who has beaten them three times this season. Our girls took the first set, and we up 6-1 in the second set, but the other team really kicked into gear and took the second set. We won’t talk about the third set…

Discovery of the day: scooters for rent, which is how we traveled back to the hotel from the tournament. (We’re only about a mile away from the convention center, so I dropped the Girl off this morning and then drove back to the hotel and walked.) Second discovery of the day: the scooters weren’t as cheap as we’d calculated…

As for the Boy, I got a picture from his troop leader:

Since he’s in his Class A uniform, I’m assuming this was actually from yesterday.

“He doesn’t look thrilled,” K texted.

“None of them do,” I replied.

Hopefully, he’s doing well.

Two Departures

Sunday 25 June 2023

The Boy left for Scout camp today:

I’ve been a little curious and worried about how he might take it: he’s not actually going with his own troop because his uncle is coming from Poland with his family that week. “There’s no way you’re going to camp while Wojek D is here!” K exclaimed, so the Boy is going with a different troop. He knows a few people in that troop, but it’s not his troop. He chose the troop he did because he wants to be with his friends, the friends who are going to Scout camp a couple of weeks from now.

The Girl and I, on the other hand, headed off to Orlando today for Nationals. How will her team do? I don’t know. Is that so important? Yes, and no.

What is important? Our TV greeted us when we first entered the room…

Play Date

Friday 23 June 2023

L insists that the boys are too old now to have play dates.

“They just hangout!” she explains with exasperation.

“What about you? Do you have play dates?”

[L rolls her eyes…]

Another Day in the Basement and a Scout

Tuesday 20 June 2023

Today I put the first coats of paint on the basement walls — at least half of the wall space. Perhaps a little more than that.

Will it work? Well, it worked today.

More importantly, the Boy made his first BSA rank: scout.

And the Girl? She drove to Asheville to spend the day with her best friend. Yet another sign that she’s growing up — not quite as fast as she thinks she is, but still…

May Saturday

Saturday 20 May 2023

State meet — the Girl won third in high jump, tying with three other girls.

Afterward, we had the Boy’s eleventh birthday party — it was much like the tenth, without the sleepover in the tents.