A Bee’s-Eye View | Part 5: Love/Hate
Posted on January 31, 2010
Well, we’re in the home stretch. Swim season is almost over, and life will soon return to something resembling normal. The season is long, and takes up a lot of our time. But I still love it, and I’m so glad my kids are involved with such a great team. And as things wind down, I’ve been thinking about my love-hate relationship with swimming…
Love/Hate
I love our team.
I love our coaches.
I hate that our head coach is retiring this year.
I love the assistant coach who will be taking her place.
I love our other assistant, with his passion and enthusiasm.
I love the start of a new season.
I love seeing all of the old familiar faces again, and getting to chat and catch up on their lives.
I hate that it’s approximately 500 degrees in the bleacher area.
I love seeing the returning swimmers, and seeing how much they have grown.
I love seeing the new faces.
I hate trying to learn all of their names.
I love the predictable routine of the swim season.
I hate driving kids to the pool five days a week.
I love watching my boys practice.
I hate it when they don’t put in as much effort as I know they are capable of.
I love it when one of them finally figures out something that they have been struggling with.
I hate the fact that it doesn’t happen often enough.
I love the first meet of the season.
I love watching everyone getting used to competing again.
I love the pride they have in their team.
I love the way they all cheer for each other.
I hate that meets last forever.
I love cheering for my kids.
I love cheering for everyone else’s kids.
I love screaming so loud that I’m almost hoarse.
I love close races.
I hate it when our swimmer gets out-touched at the wall.
I love watching someone make states.
I love the joy on their face, and the pride on their parents’ faces.
I hate knowing that it’s going to be a long damn time before I ever get to experience that with my boys.
If ever.
I love the yellow personal best ribbons.
I love watching the improvement in their times.
I hate trying to figure out what to do with them all.
I love our annual banquet.
I love “Constant Motion” and “Peanut” and all of the other awards.
I love hearing all of the stats.
I love watching the DVD.
I hate that it means that everything is coming to a close.
I love that swim season is almost over.
I hate that swim season is almost over.
I love our team.
Mom 2.0
Posted on January 29, 2010
I saw this video posted on Facebook yesterday, and it really spoke to me. It expresses exactly how I feel as a mother. Especially this:
“…nurturing the good in this world is nothing short of a privilege.”
Yes, yes it is.
So now I will share this with all of you. All of my friends who are mothers, all of my mothers who are friends 
, and everyone who knows that motherhood is the best there is. Especially my friend Jen, who welcomed her first little baby into this world on Wednesday, and will soon get to discover how wonderful it all is.
(It also doesn’t hurt that the photography in this video is gorgeous!)
A Bee’s-Eye View | Part 4: Simple Pleasures
Posted on January 24, 2010
Today I really wanted to get the boys outside to play. We were all sick last weekend, then we had a busy week of school and activities, and yesterday we spent five hours in a car and a few more at a swim meet. Today was a day for them to just relax and be kids. After letting them hang out with the tv and their iPods this morning, I made them go outside after lunch. I had a bunch of work to do, so I was hoping for some uninterrupted peace and quiet. It was a perfect day for them to be out, too. Sunny, and warm enough to be out for a while without getting cold, but still cold enough to bundle up. Even so, I was skeptical that they would stay out very long. They have a tendancy to get bored easily, especially if their neighbor friend isn’t home (which she wasn’t). Usually they go out for ten minutes and then start fighting and asking me to come back in. So when I heard the door open a few minutes after they went out, I prepared myself for a battle. But it was just Grant, asking me if we had any sleds. We don’t. The boys have never really been into sledding. Grant had a semi-traumatic experience on a sled when he was a toddler, and the subject of sledding just really hasn’t come up since then. So there we were, sledless. And then I did what any cool mom would do – I gave him two of my baking sheets.
And they worked! They made perfect sleds for the little “hill” in the neighbor’s back yard (really just a small incline, but you take what you can get I guess). And the boys stayed out there for almost two hours! They had fun and I got my work done – a perfect afternoon. Who needs those expensive, high-tech sleds? Snow, boys, a little hill, and some baking sheets – the simple things in life are the best.
(This first picture is my official picture for the week, but I just had to share some others as well.)
A Bee’s-Eye View | Part 3: My Sweethearts
Posted on January 18, 2010
This week’s picture is a day late, and not at all what I had intended to show. This weekend a nasty stomach bug invaded our house, and the only one spared was Griffin. This picture is a tribute to my boys, who were such little sweeties and helped me get through this miserable weekend. Even when Grant was sick himself, he was asking me what he could do for me. And Griffin was there for all of us, helping in any way he could. (My husband was a big help too, and I would have liked to have had him in this shot, but he’s not much for being photographed.)
We are finally all feeling better, and this week’s theme is my sweethearts…
A Bee’s-Eye View | Part 2: Music
Posted on January 10, 2010
This thing finally has a name! My new photo project’s official title is… (drum roll please)
A Bee’s-Eye View: a thematic photo essay in fifty-two parts
But we’ll just stick with Bee’s-Eye View for short.
One of the theme suggestions that I have received is music. Well, around here the subject of music means just one thing: Griffin.
Griffin loves music. It’s in his heart and in his soul. He plays the piano (and challenges his teacher to keep up with his progress), has a nice guitar that he fools around with and would like to learn to play, and occasionally breaks out the harmonica. He has composed his own music on the piano (I need to get him to write it all down for me). When he’s upset he’ll go to the piano and bang out some mad-sounding music. He’s trying to learn the Raiders of the Lost Ark theme song by ear. He’s a classic rock fan and loves anything with a good beat. He sings in the Children’s Choir in church, and loves to listen to the organ (our organist should watch his back – Griffin wants his job). Basically, if it has anything to do with music, you’ll find Griffin in the middle of it.
Here’s our little one-man band in action…
