Gratitude Sunday

Today I am so thankful for my little people. They drive me crazy sometimes (last night being one of those times), but as much as they pretend to hate each other, they don’t. Last night Tyler was about to knock out an obnoxious, (unflattering description) girl at the ASU Volleyball game. All the kids wanted to see Sparky, and she kept pushing up to the front and getting in his face yelling. She almost knocked Daija & another of the younger girls from our team down in the process, and Tyler was poking tapping her arm, “Little girl. EXCUSE ME. Little girl.” Once he could finally get up to Sparky, he got his ticket autographed with Halle’s number.

And I must also give thanks that Daija came home yesterday (YAY) and her hair was looking great (WOO HOO)!

Parent Sportsmanship – an oxymoron?

 via Parents Behaving Badly? The Relationship between the Sportsmanship Behaviors of Adults and Athletes in Youth Basketball Games

Results suggest that positive spectator and coach behaviors were significant predictors of positive player behaviors. Similarly, negative spectator behaviors were predictive of negative player behaviors, while negative coach behaviors were not.

So if you didn’t already know, I am a volleyball mom. My 10yo daughter plays for Team AZ, a Starlings affiliated club at our local Salvation Army community center. It’s a wonderful program run by some dedicated & passionate individuals… many of them volunteers. Because so many wonderful people dedicate their time to this center and it’s programs, our club fees are only $250 a year, while most clubs charge anywhere from $500 to $2500.

I am incredibly thankful to have a program like this available for our girls… I am proud of the community of volunteers who coach the teams, administrate the program, the girls who put their hearts into the game and the families that support them. Almost all the time, that is.

Today our girls placed sixth in the tournament, winning one of their three games in two sets and losing the other two games in two sets. We had some spectacular highs… a number of aces, better teamwork than we’ve seen during the vast majority of practices, and the highlight of the tournament… my Halle got her first “spike” during a game.

OK, maybe that wasn’t the highlight of the tournament for EVERYBODY, but it sure was for me!

We had a moment that I was BEYOND proud of…

Menu Plan Monday: You too can be SUPERWOMAN

Make it Fast, Cook it Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking

So is anybody tired of me blogging about my crock pot yet?

Sorry peeps… but you probably better learn to love it, and that I’m going to plug Stephanie O’Dea, her blog www.crockpost365.com and her book (on the right) every chance I get!

My daughter plays volleyball, and I am the team mom. My responsibilities are largely to coordinate the feeding of a team of twelve pre-teen girls throughout an eight-hour tournament. Now, anybody who has tried to feed ONE child a healthy meal on the go knows what challenge that is… imagine feeding twelve that come from different religious and cultural backgrounds and have a variety of palates.

I’m really proud of the fact that I actually seem pretty good at this… and not just in my own mind! I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from coaches (mine and the jealous ones at the next table) and parents, but most importantly, from the girls themselves. By the end of the season last year, I would practically get mobbed at the curb when I pulled up… I didn’t have to carry much in! Saturday morning when I was getting set up to serve the girls a mini breakfast before their first game, one of my daughter’s teammates looked at me and said in an awed voice,

OHHHH… you’re THE mom…

A girl who was on Halle’s team last year asked her who she thought it was, if not a parent. The first girl said, THE mom with the food.

The day I was serving it up at the first volleyball tournament of the season, a good friend of mine signed her son up for little league & told me she might be needing some of my super powers. So partly for her, and partly related to a rant on parents and youth sports, I’m sharing how I feed a team of 12 girls.

TEAM AZ Volleyball Tryout Results!

I am SO VERY PROUD of my girl! Halle had her third and final round of volleyball tryouts Wednesday night. The 12 & under teams don’t have “cuts” but the girls are placed on teams based on their skill level & performance during tryouts. Halle was placed on team two, which is the second level of the four 12yo teams.  She’s really excited to be playing with her best friend Savione who is playing for the first time this year, and her friends Kamryn, Sia, & Tammia.

Also, a special shout out to her 2008-2009 teammates who made 12’s team one… Brandy, Julisa, and Keann, and Jemina & Mikayla who made the cut for a spot on a 14 & under team,  a super special shout out to Shekinah, who is young enough to try out for 12’s but went tried out for the 14 & unders and snagged one of the 24 positions on the 14yo & under team! This is a real accomplishment, because there are only 2 teams on 12 and 48 girls tried out. 

“the only color”

A new mommy friend mentioned looking for a sport for her daughter, and I started telling her about Halle’s wonderful experience with the Starlings/TEAM AZ, and reminiscing over last season and how much she grew in the experience. While I was reminiscing, I remembered how nervous Halle was at tryouts, and her fear when she thought she was going to be placed on a team where she would be “the only color” and emailed a friend about it…

That Magic Mom-ment…

That magic moment…
when your lips are close to MIIIIIIIINE…
will last forEVERRRRR…

No no no… not THAT magic moment… I’m talking about how (OF COURSE) you tell your kids all the time that you love them, and praise their accomplishments. But especially as you approach the turbulent tween & teen years, you wonder if you tell them enough, and whether it just goes in one ear, stopping only long enough to roll the eyes, and right back out the other. Every once in a while you get the opportunity to tell them something about themselves that isn’t about them as your child, but about the phenomenal individual they are growing into… and you know, with every fiber of your being, that they are going to carry that moment with them for the rest of their lives, and it will be a talisman between them and all the bullshit they are going to have to wade through in middle & high school.