Baseball

There is one main reason that I signed my kids up for baseball instead of football, or soccer. The reason is Koen's shyness. I knew that if he was in one of the aforementioned he would just end up standing on the sidelines. I figured baseball was perfect because he would have his turn to play. I knew he'd be good, he just has to be forced to be good. So last year he did awesome. He really picked it up. This year he will move up to the minor leagues. They had try-outs tonight. Koen had been really nervous about it for awhile now. I wasn't really sure how they do them but I was sure he'd be okay. We are all sitting waiting for it to begin and all the families are sitting on the bleachers while the coaches are lined up against the wall. They then call Koen's name to come try-out. I had no idea they would do one at a time in front of everybody. Even worse, he was first. We hadn't played baseball since last season so he is totally unpracticed.
First they rolled him some grounders. He got all of them and threw them all back just fine. Then they started with the pop-ups. He almost got all of them, but he ended up not getting any of them. Luckily he quickly retrieved the ball and threw them in. The last pop-up he was so frazzled that he ended up throwing it way out. Then they threw another grounder. He ended on a good note. He was so embarrassed. I told him he did great. We stayed to watch three more people try-out before we snuck out. They did just as well or worse then him. That made him feel a little better. As we were pulling out of the school Koen called Tony and told him all about it. Tony gave some words of encouragement saying that he also cracks under pressure and that it didn't really matter how he did tonight because we all know that he's going to be awesome once he starts practicing again. That also made him feel better.
Okay so I learned from the experience that Koen can handle pressure fairly well. I mean it could have been disastrous. I learned that I can watch my kids do scary things without balling like a baby or passing out. I was praying for him though. I also learned that Koen might not be as shy as I thought he was. So it was a good experience all around.

Lists?

In my family the girls like to make lists. I don't really write my lists out but I do make lists in my head. Sometimes I'll go through a phase where I won't write appointments down. I don't know why I do that, but everyday I kind of go through my head of any appointments that might be coming up. I usually don't have any problems as far as missing appointments but I'm sure I'm adding extra stress for absolutely no reason.
One problem I do have is with my daily tasks. I have a mental list of what needs to be done and throughout the day I keep running it in my mind. This often makes me feel overwhelmed and unable to concentrate on the task at hand. Here is an example of my list today. I need to clean the three downstairs rooms. I need to go to the store to get cool whip, heavy whipping cream, flour, sugar, wrapping paper and a box. I need to make plum cake for a dinner tonight. I need to make coconut shrimp for a friend. I want to dye my hair. I need to cut up some tomatoes for that dinner tonight. I want to take the boys swimming this afternoon. I have to go to the R.S. dinner tonight. I wanted to help the boys make some cardboard box cars tonight because they need them tomorrow and I have a lot to do tomorrow, so I don't know if there will be time. I need to take the clothes out of the dryer and switch the clothes in the washer over and maybe start another load.
While I'm constantly thinking of these things, I'm also thinking about things that I want to do that I know I can't do today but they keep running through my mind anyway. The main two are painting the living room and cleaning out the fridge. Of course I need to come on here to get out some stress. But even now, I'm thinking of all the things I need to do. I'm fairly confident it will all get done and I know what things I can cut if needed.
Maybe I should make a list on paper. I don't know if that will help. I think I might still run the things through my mind but then I'll add writing the list and checking things off the list into it. I suppose the solution is to give it a try. If I feel like it helps then I'll keep doing it. If I feel like it adds stress, then I'll stop.
As far as today. I'm done with two rooms downstairs. I already have one car made for Dougan and I'm already started with laundry. We'll see how it goes. Dougan just informed me that I need more milk. Okay, I'll add it to the list.

Amish Dinner

I'm planning another Amish dinner right now. I thought I was getting a late start because I usually like to get invites out 6 weeks in advance. I ended up getting a night scheduled with Aunt Lorene for April 24th. That gives me plenty of time. I already set up an event on Facebook and invited a ton of people from Elkhart. I am so surprised. Some have already responded that they'll go and a lot have said maybe. Plus they have been spreading the word and inviting other people to go. It's so exciting to me. This will be the biggest group that I have going. Now I wish that I didn't plan it for so far away. That's okay, because I hand out invitations to people in my ward and they take forever to RSVP.
I do an Amish dinner every 6 months. That is just the right amount of time I've found. It's usually about the time people start asking for another one. So I've been having one every April and one every October. I really enjoy hosting them. It's fun to see Aunt Lorene and Uncle Leo. It's fun to make the invitations. It's fun to eat the food and chat with friends. It's fun to see people practically having to be rolled out because they ate so much. It's nice to share a culture with others.
Now I just have to wait for about a month to see who all is coming. I can't wait to call Aunt Lorene back with a huge number. It was great talking with her when I called about a date. She said it was syrup time again. She said she had been out there all week cooking it. She called me at about 10:30 that night after just finishing for the day and she said she couldn't wait to get back out there the next day bright and early. I could hear the giddiness in her voice. It was refreshing to me to picture her out there stirring the syrup and Uncle Leo stoking the fire. We watched them do it last year. The boys thought it was pretty neat and the smell was absolutely amazing. She remembered that we saw them doing it last year. I was surprised she remembered because we just sort of stopped by to set up a date for a dinner. She sent us home with a jar. I'm not counting on that this year. But I will say that if she did give us another jar, I wouldn't mind.
So that's one thing I've been up to lately. I'll write another post after the dinner to say how it went.

Just a little stressed

I have some things that I have wanted to blog about but I could not bring myself to sit down and write anything. I'm not even really sure why. The last few weeks have all sort of felt like a blur. I've done a lot of stuff. I made a few things for singing time in primary. I made a blanket for Taygan and one for myself and I have another one ready to be sewn. I also made a lot of leggings. I got Easter baskets and outfits for the kids. I found some great stuff at Goodwill, even a nice pair of pioneer shoes in my size. I've organized my kitchen. I've been keeping up on everyone else's blogs. I've been focusing more on homework for the boys. I've begun mousercising with the boys after school. I've been trying new recipes. I've been losing weight. I've been thinking about getting a haircut. I have been organizing a group for Time Out For Women. I've been planning a vacation for this summer. I've been helping Koen plan his baptism. I've been implementing a new reward system. I've been potty-training Brandis. I've been cooking and baking for potlucks. I've had sick kids. I think I had a bit of a meltdown a two Saturdays ago. I have basically been so busy that I don't even have time to think about anything. So instead of writing blogs about each of these things as they happened which I couldn't seem to do, I'll just clump them all together into one post. Okay, that actually helped. After I wrote all that down I had a moment of clarity. I've actually had a couple of things on my mind. Not huge worries but worries just the same. I think I've been trying to fill my time up with other things so I wouldn't have to face some things. That makes sense. See these blogging things are great. Alright, I'm done now.