Let the Games Begin...

The other day, I realized that it seems like I write the same posts over and over again every year. In part, that's because I put my kids in sports early and life really is sort of a monotonous blur of kids' sporting events...blinding even, like the uniforms of the 2012 Lemon Lemurs...

(Turns out this color is so darned bright that it messes up the exposure on the camera!)

I think about that and wonder if I would do things differently if I had it to do over again. And the answer is an unequivocal 'no'.

I believe in the value of team sports. I believe in knowing how to function as a member of a team, learning how to get along and contribute to the cause, no matter how small your contribution. And I believe in having friends.

One of my very best mom friends is someone I met when our sons played together on Smunch's first soccer team. Our kids didn't have classes together for years after that, even though we've got two in the same grades. We were friends anyway. The boys played soccer and baseball together for years. And now they don't.

Her son still plays soccer and opted to "play down" last year for baseball. My son quit soccer altogether to focus on increasingly competitive baseball.

Still, the boys are friends. And our younger kids are friends. Hers is a boy, so he and Mam will never play sports together, although they are in the same class this year.

Mam is the only girl he'll play with. She's spunky, she's fearless and despite the dresses (and the pink goalie shirt), she's decidedly un-girly.

And my friend H, and I get together regularly, to walk, hike, enjoy coffee, share dinner with the families, revel in some nice wine and fine cheese...

Smunch knows tons of other boys because he's played on so many baseball teams. There's always someone he knows at any baseball event.

The same is true for Mam. And I love that.

Still, as soccer season leads to basketball season, leads to softball/baseball season right into travel ball season...life can get to be a pretty darned monotonous series of taking kids to practices and getting up early every Saturday and sometimes Sunday to go out and sit somewhere, sometimes for hours.

Freezing, roasting, watching closely to make sure I don't blink and miss the whole thing.