Corona Virus Quarantine Day #51: Saturday Shenanigan’s: May 9, 2020

I’m an emotional girl today so I don’t know if it’s a good idea for me to write and then press publish but here it goes anyways!  This is my stress relief!

Today like most Saturday’s during this strange time I can’t help but focus on how we had time to do things that in “normal” times we wouldn’t have been able to do. Bryan and the kids (thank you Aunt Jenny and Uncle Luke for the rock) did a pathway project at the barn so the kids could run from our gravel to the front door of the barn without going in the mud, we rode bikes, we cooked together and we had a dance party.  Two hours of music playing in my house makes the soul feel whole.  At least my soul.  Some of my favorite memories of being a kids are car rides when we’d jam out to Travelling Wilburys, Linda Ronstadt, the Beatles, CCR and Chicago to name a few.

The start of our rock path!  A little more work to do but it was fun watching the kids try to carry these. They are heavier than they look!

On a normal Saturday in our lives we would have been bouncing from one event to the next and come home in the early evening and started packing bags for church and open gyms the next day.

I do miss so much about normal times, but I don’t regret a single second of this extra special family time we get to spend together.  I guess if I learned anything it’s that both normal times and quarantine times have their beauty and their challenges.

The highlight of my day was working in the barn.  The girls and I had planned to play some volleyball today but Fiona’s tummy was hurting so she stayed up at the house to make Mother’s Day cards for her grandma’s.  So it was going to be just me and Ellen.  Finley offered to come down and help Ellen since we needed a target.  He had fully planned just to target for her but after her first round of exercises she asked him “Finley do you want to play too?  You don’t have to just target for me.”

Finley took her up on it.  This isn’t his first time playing volleyball as he comes to my camps every summer and we play at home periodically but it’s hard to get him to do anything other than play basketball.  It is truly this kids first love.  Regardless, he was excited to play volleyball with me and his sister.  While he was a little rusty, and normally not doing well immediately would have bothered him I saw him maturing before my very eyes. When he shanked a pass, he’d shake his head and smile and Ellen would tell him nice try and say something like “the next one will be better”.  She’d even occasionally beat me to the correction “Finley your platform is too high, that’s why it’s falling so short of the target!” He would always take that correction in stride and just get back out there to try again.  Weeks ago, this would not have gone this well.  Maturing before my eyes.

It was so good for Ellen and so good for Finley. It also opened up the door for important conversations about things like how it’s good to do more than one thing.  I told him how playing volleyball would help him with the other sports he played like basketball and football and baseball.  He was like a sponge today and wanted all the information I could provide him.  That made Ellen more like a sponge too, even though Ellen does this with me like 4 times a week she was asking questions she hasn’t asked before.  The coach in my was in pure HEAVEN!

Coaching your own kids sometimes is hard. They have to listen to you in every aspect of their life, brush your teeth, go to bed, do your homework, eat your vegetables…so on a court for some of them it’s too much.  We have our struggles sometimes and Ellen is just like her mother in that she’s incredibly hard on herself.  Today, however, when she made a mistake, it was like having her brother there, trying something a little more outside his comfort zone, made her that much more confident.  Oh man, it’s more than my heart could take today

Any of you that have played for us or had a kid who played for us know that nothing matters more to us than raising strong, confident young women.  There are simply not enough of them in the world and our world needs more of them.  While, I know I am not actually “raising” the girls that play for us, I do believe that our role is an important one and one that could impact them for the rest of their lives. I also believe that sports have that impact as well.  So today…when I saw my own daughter’s confidence grow because of her brother’s sweet, helpful and patient heart, I couldn’t help but get a little teary eyed.

I had many great moments today, like facetiming my mom who had a big smile on her face and looked better than she has in days, cooking with Finley, dancing with Fletcher and Fiona, walking and talking with Cooper…but that moment with Ellen and Finley will forever be etched in my brain.

Our final activity…working on our serve!  

I am grateful for all of these moments and perhaps on the eve of Mother’s Day…a day just 11 years ago I was pretty sure I’d never celebrate as an actual mother I am a bit more grateful and emotional about these moments than I’d normally be.

I am praying for all the mothers out there. Those that are currently moms living in the trenches that I am in, the crazy trenches, for those that have children that are grown, for those that have children they have lost, for those that have children that are ill, for those mothers that haven’t held their baby in their arms yet but carry them inside their wombs, for those moms that only dream of being a mom and pray that one day that will be a reality for them.  I have been all of these moms except the mom of grown children (I will have to get back to you on this one) and they are all beautiful, hard and scary places to be.

While my journey to be a mom wasn’t what I dreamed of or what I wanted it to be and it was very hard at times, it also got me to where I am now…so I have to keep that in perspective.

To all of the women that fit into one of these categories I am thinking of you, praying for you and holding you close to my heart.  I pray tomorrow is a day of joy and hope for all of you.

To my own mom, who is and will always be my hero in life and truly the best and strongest person I have ever known…I am incredibly grateful for the lessons you have taught me and Jennifer.  I have never met a person that has overcome or survived more yet somehow arose from those ashes as a positive, bright, generous human being that so many people love.  If Gaga’s recent illness and hospitalization has taught me anything it’s that she is beloved by everyone who has ever encountered her. Her students, her friends, her family, even the families of her grandkids friends and certainly her two daughter and seven grandchildren.  Our mom has that special gift that you cannot teach of making everyone she is with feel like the most important person in the world.  I am so grateful to have her as an example of how to be a good mother, teacher and friend.  I am sad that I cannot see my mom on this day that is very emotional for me for many reasons…but I am confident that we will get her back on track and we will celebrate her bad assery whenever she breaks out of that hospital.

A few other highlights:

This sweet girl made me and Gaga a special rainbow surprise, she said she wanted Gaga to see it when she came home!  

Fletcher and Gi Gi snuggling. I happened upon this when I sent to do some laundry.  So sweet.  They were just laying there and he was just telling her repeatedly that he loved her!

Just a few of this kids moves.  He danced like this the entire time the music was on!

The two youngest dancing with their daddy!

Dance party turned into Daddy becoming a horse! Good times!

Happy Mother’s Day to all of my friends and family.  GOD bless!

#dorseyshenanigans

#celebr8awesome