XC and TT!

Goodness, it’s been a week.

I mean, it’s never a dull day around here—ever—but things have definitely ramped up in an Everest kind of way over the past ten-ish days.

It’s really a trifecta that’s made life quite a bit extra since my last post:

First: Coda.

Coda, Coda, Coda.

Our dear puppy is in such a tough stage of her recovery. She’s feeling more capable, but not yet allowed to do much of anything. I’ll share a whole separate post about this challenge, soon. But trust me when I say that the time and care is intense.

Second: school commitments.

This week alone has involved: a 2.5 hour middle school Meet the Teacher night, two early release days for elementary, along with corresponding parent/teacher conferences, a school-wide teacher appreciation gift that’s involved a bit of crafting, and…Book Fair set up (happening tomorrow).

So, even if all other things remained equal, adding half a dozen above-and-beyond school commitments has certainly added to the schedule.

And, lastly: extra-curriculars!! 

Activities and sports kicked in last week, post Labor Day, and schedules are pretty packed.

Is it wrong that I’m kind of grateful that Chicklet had to delay the launch of her swimming due to a sprained ankle (a whole other thing I didn’t have time to post) because it’s allowed us a short reprieve before one more thing layers on??

For now, the two, new-to-us activities for Chica and Little Man are the subject of this post:

XC and TT!!!

Also known as…

Cross Country (for Chica) and Table Tennis (for Little Man)!

Okay. Cross Country.

Seventh grade comes with a lot of extras, and the most impactful is the sporting commitments. Chica chose an athletic path that required her to participate in at least two official school sports, and the first she selected is Cross Country.

It’s totally up her alley, as it’s not a team sport that involves a lot of aggression, and on a normal day, she doesn’t mind running too much, and even—dare I say?—sometimes enjoys the challenge of it.

That said…holy mother, it’s five days a week (insert allllllllll the crying emojis).

Three days a week, practice is after school.

One day a week, it’s before school (at 6:45 a.m.!)

And Saturdays, in October, there will be meets.

On the plus side, the teacher who runs the program is amazing, and the first week, she took some really fun pics (and the kids signed photo waivers).

This first one is my favorite, from last Thursday at dawn. :) Beautiful.

There’s my girl…



The most exciting thing about XC is the changing scenery. The kids routinely run two-plus miles and will eventually work up to a 5K. And there are sooooooo many trails in our area that they head off campus most days and explore some really fun terrain.



That said, this warning sign from one of the trails they utilize is quite hysterical. Only in South Texas.

Let’s just hope we can stay away from feral hogs, bahahaha.

All signs point to this being a really amazing challenge for Chica, and, thank heavens, it only runs (tehe, XC pun time) through early November. I feel like we’ll blink and the season will be wrapping up.



Another silver lining: when my girl has logged nearly five miles of steps and/or running nearly every school day, between XC and her athletics class period, she can be the BIGGEST COUCH POTATO ON EARTH on a Saturday, and I fully support it. :)



And, she gets extra-special desserts. ;)



Okay, next up…Table Tennis!

Because of life, I probably haven’t posted enough about Little Man’s growing love of table tennis. We purchased a table for the play room this past Christmas, and that’s when things kicked into high gear.

The sound of ping-pong balls whacking against the walls, flying off the upstairs balcony to ricochet all over the hardwood downstairs (and drive Coda nuts), or just the mindless bouncing of Little Man tossing one incessantly is pretty much the overstimulating soundtrack of my life.

My boy will play ANY time he can get somebody to compete. And when he can’t, he uses my upstairs wall as a back board to just drill and drill and drill.

Honestly, it’s the cutest, most maddening thing.

I can still hold my own in a match with him, but with the hubby’s constant coaching, Little Man is fast getting way better than me.

And he’s about to get wayyyyyy better, because he adorably asked for me to find him some lessons, and I actually located a Table Tennis club in the area with a youth program, tehe.

He’s now been for two of the Thursday night sessions, and he’s pretty freaking in love with it.

There are a handful of kids near enough his age (maybe 5-7 kids, depending on the week). They do drills, cardio, practice serves and volley, and play matches against one another. For a full, two hours! 

He even managed to con the hubby into buying him a legit racket (there are all sorts of important technicalities to rackets that I know nothing about), to further improve his game.

I love how excited he is for Thursdays to roll around (it’s also his soccer day, right after school; he goes to bed exhausted). Enabling my kiddos to pursue the things that bring them joy is pretty much the point of it all. :)

One added bit of fun: since the hubby has been the one to take Little Man to these lessons, since I know next to nothing about the sport, it’s led to a lot of fun father/son bonding. Tonight, they even went to dinner just the two of them before the lesson and it’s so presh. And it leaves us girls—Chica, Chicklet, Coda and I—to have some female time. :)



Chicklet’s ankle is still sore from her sprain, but she should be solid to launch her swim lessons again next week, after a brief hiatus. But she’s already been full-steam ahead with her participation in Tech Team (they run the morning announcements) every day before school, and is so happy to be involved.

Beyond alllllll of the things I’ve already mentioned, Chica still has her violin commitments due to her 7th grade Honors Orchestra participation. Private lessons plus 180 required minutes of practices hours a week, and goodness, there’s a lot of things to tackle.

Like I said, it’s NEVER a dull day—especially with the current care Coda requires—but we have a lovely, low-key Saturday to look forward to, and I’m here for it.

More catch-up posts soon, peeps (I hope!).

Happy Almost Friday!

Over and out.