Picture of the Week - 1/28/2021

 So many good things happening right now.  The very best is Quinn's 17th birthday - which will be here next Tuesday - 02/02/2021! 

17 years!  Wow wow wow!

I could sit and write (and probably cry) about Quinn's birth story or his health story or about all of the amazing things that child has taught me.  I've done that before and I am sure I will do it again because all of these memories are worth remembering - and worth sharing.

Today, though, I'm not looking back.  I'm looking forward - and what a bright future this sweet boy has.  

Quinn is kind and loving and his heart is ginormous.  He has friends everywhere he goes and is (normally) delightful to chat with.  He puts in great effort in school and wrestling and - well everything.  He generally just does the right thing.  Sound too good to be true?  That's my Quinn!  I am so proud to be his mom!

I love Quinn's spirit and I love his faith.  I really believe God sent Quinn to our lives to teach us while we are blessed to provide him a safe place to grow and thrive.  I am so grateful for everything about the Mighty Quinn and can't wait to see what this next year brings.  I know it will be an exciting ride and I know there will be more memories for me to stash away to ponder and share for years to come.

Happiest of birthdays sweet Quinn!  I love you more than you will ever know.

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In unrelated news - Saturday the West Wrestling team is tackling the Georgia State Duals tournament.  They have a tough slate of foes ahead of them, but they have a chance at making history.  I'm nervous and excited and anxious and proud and and and...

Most of all I am so incredibly grateful that we have been able to get this season in so far and that these boys have had an opportunity to compete.  It wasn't a given this year and we do not take it for granted.  

Picture of the Week - 1/21/2021

 We did some "experience gifts" this year for the boys for Christmas.  Beckett got cooking lessons at Young Chef Academy.  He's asked me almost every day since Christmas when he can start - today is the day!

I can’t wait to hear about his first class!  He was so excited!!  

Spencer and the rest of the West team are competing in the preliminaries for the Wrestling State Dual championship this weekend. They are in a quad and need to come out of Saturday with 2 wins to move onto State. Exciting times!!!

Picture of the Week - 1/14/2021

 Wanna know the definition of sitting on pins and needles?

1) Have a senior who gave up football after 12 years of playing to focus on wrestling

2) Watch that senior set a goal to drop 30 pounds - and crush it - so that he can be stronger and faster than anyone expected

3) Make sure that senior is finishing his high school career in the middle of a global pandemic

4) For fun, have the number of positive Covid cases, hospitalizations, and positivity rates hit all time highs during wrestling season

5) Add in a tumultuous transition of power at both the national and state levels after a hard and emotional political battle

6) Ensure you are involved in all the team details by running the team booster club

7) Give yourself bonus points if you have to make decisions about running region tournaments as the host school while the ground constantly shifts

8) Complicate matters by trying to follow school and athletic policies that continues to change - and aren't written down

9) Add some interest by acknowledging that this year's high school team is probably the best one put together at the school to date

10) Care so much about the wrestlers on the team that it hurts to think about all the ways things could go wrong

11) If you happen to be a Type-A personality with a Blue temperament - call me for a glass of wine!

This weekend is the West Wrestling team's Region Duals championship.  The team will be competing for a 3-peat championship in Georgia Region 6-7A.  For anyone not super familiar with high school regions, classifications, or wrestling...  7A is the classification for the biggest schools in Georgia and I would not be the first person to say that Region 6 is the toughest region for wrestling (top to bottom) in the state.  There are - of course - amazing programs in different classifications.  There are also great programs in 7A in other regions.  But region 6-7A is packed with great coaching and talented wrestlers.

West is currently ranked at the top of Georgia Region 6-7A.

We will prove we should be there this weekend when we go for the JV title on Friday night and the Varsity title on Saturday.  Provided, of course, that Covid and quarantine don't screw everything up.

Pray with me - please - that we can keep this together for 4.5 more weeks.  In the meantime, I'll be sitting over here on my pins and needles and trying not to give myself a stress-induced ulcer thinking about all the what-if scenarios that will face these guys over the next 4.5 weeks.

Here's a picture from Spencer's senior night a few weeks ago.  Stay tuned for updates and results...

Picture of the Week - 1/7/2021

 Happy 2021

Today I am focused on a few things that I thought I'd share - in no particular order.  

1) Blinders

There is continued unrest happening all around the country.  (For future me reading this many years from now, there are protests and distrust a growing push for more division in areas that I never would have expected.)  And I am pretty focused on securing my blinders and keeping my head down.  This doesn't mean I support it.  It doesn't mean I condone it.  It means I'm choosing my happiness above a need to "be in the know" and certainly above any kind of thought that I need other people to feel the way I do.  My sons' coach posted last night about how much he loves his "bubble" - of family, community, school, team.  I am with him on this.  We have it pretty damn good in our bubble and (at least for now) that's where my focus is.  The rest...  outside my blinders.

2) Pause

My word for the year is Pause.  It took me a while to get to this word.  In the last couple of years I've chosen Joy and Gratitude and - honestly - I feel that the focus I gave these words changed who I am.  Maybe I was gonna change anyway.  Maybe not.  Either way, I'm hoping the choice of this word will have a similar impact.  I want to get better at responding - not reacting.  I especially need this reminder with my boys - and at work if I'm being honest.  I want to remember to stop, to think, and to pray instead of feeling the need to immediately react.

3) My relationships

There are people who regularly pour into me and I want to get better at pouring back into these people first.  I am going to try hard this year to accept the gifts of friendship and love without questioning motivation - and to worry less about the dull relationship spots because life is too short to focus too much on people who don't love me back.  I am particularly focused on my relationships with my boys - especially that one who will be leaving us in 6 short months - and with God.  (It is not lost on me that my relationship with my spouse comes easy 95% of the time and I consider it one of the biggest blessings in my life.)

4) Mindset control 

Not like any kind of sci-fi thing, but more like the "this isn't a good thing for me to dwell on/worry about, so stop".  I've been on this mission for a while now because it is true that you have to train your brain to see positivity.  It's actually been studied many times that you can be happier just by practicing gratitude.  That's powerful.  So I will continue to be mindful of how I'm feeling and what I can do to be intentionally happier.  (This makes it sound like somehow I'm unhappy or something - which is far from true.  It's more that I don't think this is a "task" that can be called "complete" and will probably be on my list of focus areas for the rest of my life because I choose Happy.)

5) Birds

A strange one, to be sure, but something that I am having a lot of fun with - and also happens to support several of the items above.  We have a bird feeder in our backyard.  We started filling it regularly back when the pandemic hit - so we've been through 3 full seasons now.  My parents gifted me a bird bath for my birthday and that has made our backyard an even bigger target destination.  If you have ever been here, you may remember that our backyard backs up to a wetlands area.  So we have lots of nature back there - big trees and stuff to create habitat for birds of all kinds.  We have hawks, a super cool woodpecker with a bright red head, a paid of bonded morning doves, a couple of giant blue jays, and bunch of brown birds I can't identify without a Georgia bird book.  My favorite though is a big, extended family of cardinals.  We started with a few and they apparently had a REALLY productive year.  We now have about 10 males and an equal - at least - number of females.  They hang out in a big flock all together and it's so cool.  I love these birds.  I can see them from where I work and they are a huge source of conference-call distraction.  I can't tell you the number of times that I look out there and see a flurry of activity and can't help but smile.  It's really cool!  I actually just bought another, bigger feeder.  We are going to be the hot spot for birds in Forsyth County!

This picture doesn't do my birds justice at all...  but I thought it would be a nice reminder of what I spent a year looking at while working from the house.  (No talk of going back to office, so who knows... if/when that will happen.)

I'd love to hear what you are focused on this year - and if you are ever here, ask to see my birds.  :)

This weekend Spencer and Quinn are wrestling in a Duals tournament and then next week we are diving into the Region tournament.  Hard to believe the season only has 5 weeks left.  Last weekend we won another tournament, but they went "no spectators" so we didn't get to see.  I think we should be able to go watch from here on out.