Where to Start First...

Here I thought life would settle down after volleyball.  It's been 5 days and I can't seem to catch my breath!

So where to start first...

Well, I will apologize since this will be short.  We have some really great things coming up but they require a lot of my time and I am really stealing time from them to do this.  But cool thing #1...

Willa got her Library Card!  This is a very exciting time for our Kelly Girls.  She's been asking but I made her wait until I felt she had really worked 'hard' at printing her name.  Poor thing though, as soon as we got home from the library she accidentally ripped a page clear out of a book she had borrowed.  The poor thing cried for 10 minutes!  But hopefully that will not be the memory that stays imprinted in her brain about the day she got her library card.

Cool thing #2...My new tree was planted this week.  A London Plane Tree, which has a cool camouflage look to its' bark.  Well, maybe it isn't SO cool, but it is to me.  Especially b/c it was 'free.'  well, I'm sure our town taxes paid for it but the Town of Greece DPW came and planted it for us after taking down the old Norway Maple that looked more like a modern piece of art than a tree.

And Cool thing #3...we had lovely weather last week.  Course, as I write this it's raining and has been for days(good for my tree though).  And Adalyn got a chance to play in the leaves.  That girls gets cuter every day I swear.

Now, onto prepping our basement to be filled with 22 people on Sunday then 36 people next Saturday.  Not an easy task, especially if you knew what it looked like right now.  Yikes, I think our junk cavorted when we weren't looking and has multiplied by 10!

Cracking Under the Pressure of Thankfulness

Sigh.

 It was an unrealistic goal.  I should have known better than to try and force myself to do it.  Like a child being forced to eat something unpleasant, I dug my heels in and spontaneously found myself 'not in a blogging mood.'  And why not?  All I had set before me was the  challenge of being thankful everyday.  The problem was that by 'making' myself do it, it made me not want to do it.  It made it a chore.  Chores inherently, do not make filled with thankfulness.

Ahh, the human condition.

I still have lots to be thankful for but maybe I won't hold myself to posting about it every day.  Too much pressure.

Saturday our volleyball season ended when we played the #1 ranked Eden in the State quarter-finals.  Ranked #1 in the State, regardless of class.

Sigh.

We've played them before at this same quarter-final match.  5 times in fact.  All with the same outcome.   They weren't perfect, they were just better than us that day.  Our girls played well, maybe at about 85% of their abilities.  We really could have used another 10%.  But they felt good about their accomplishments this season.

We sat for quite some time as a team after it was over.  Tears, of course, but when no one had anything else to say, we all continued to sit.  Not wanting to leave.  Once we left that huddle, it was done.  Goodbyes inevitably follow and one by one they trickle out of the gym, home to be cheered by loving friends and family.  But as we sat, postponing the goodbyes, the feeling of...having been part of something bigger than even the sum of its' parts was tangible.

So now I go to work and come home.  And it feels strange that there's nothing else to my day besides boring old laundry and diapers and dishes.  I know from experience this feeling lasts for a couple weeks and then my time gets filled up with other things.  If it doesn't, bad things happen(like 33 vending machines).  This year I've decided to coach for a travel volleyball team.  So very soon I expect, I will be feeling sufficiently busy.  And I suppose now I have no real excuse for not getting my house chores done.

Sigh.

Day 9

Volleyball again!!!  I am thankful for another W that puts us into the State Championship.  There are only 8 teams still playing in Class B in the whole state, and we are one of them!

Day 8

Today I'm thankful for...timing.  And for knowing that even though I had just finished telling Adalyn NOT to do this very thing, she went ahead and did it anyhow.  And instead of preventing it, which I could have done, I picked up the camera instead and waited.  For just the right moment to...click.  With Denver and Willa I for sure would have prevented it, at least I'm pretty sure.

 Something about that 3rd one.  She keeps us hopping.  She has a slew of broken things in her wake.  Among them;  the keyboard to our new computer(taken in and exchanged for a new keyboard.  Thank God it was under warranty!), the TV remote(that of course belongs to the cable company not actually the one that came with the tv), the same computer's mouse(awaiting its' turn to be taken in and exchanged while still under warranty).  I must say I find it hard not to bust out laughing when I catch her in the act of naughtiness and ask her what she is doing.  She looks at the mess in front of her and gasps as if to say, "Oh my gosh, how did that get here?"

Day 7

Today, I am thankful for a few things.  Small things.  Like a chance to visit with girlfriends at church.  And watching football with my soul mate, even if it was interrupted often by some enthusiastic pretend games involving the kitchen play-set, newly rotated into the living room.  And what a relief to have Wayne home for good. Like a deep sigh after a nap, I can feel the whole house relax into normalness again.

Day 5 & 6

 Section V NYS Class B Champions!
The first time ever for Aquinas, and the 4th year in a row for Mike(Varsity Coach) and me.

It didn't quite go as planned.  It wasn't our best game to be sure.  We dropped the 3rd(playing best 3 of 5) and had to play a 4th, but in the end, we get the trophy so yeah for us:)

All of our kids worked hard this season so they deserve every accolade they get.  And I try not to single kids out since this is such a team sport.  Even if you took our top 8 kids, what would they be without the other 8 that challenge them daily at practice?  

 But...there are always exceptions.  These three are what I have called my favorite trifecta.  And this really has little to do with this year or this win.  It has more to do with 5 years ago when I had them with me as 8th graders.  It was one of my most enjoyable years due in large part to them and their friendships with each other, their work ethic(even as 8th graders!), their leadership, and their general good humor(a character trait highly underrated!).   There's a coach in each of them, should they ever pursue that.

The thing is, when they were in 8th grade, when I put on our coaching glasses(the ones that allows you to see the development of a player in the future), I knew, or hoped, it would be like this.

So today and yesterday I am thankful for our Sectional Title, for the great trifecta, and the coming together of two schools, to make one beautiful season.

Day 4

Today I am, of course, thankful for my darling Denver.  Born 8 yrs. ago today.  It was a Monday.  We had just finished up volleyball and I had just stopped working, thinking a few days of relaxation sounded good.  She had other plans and at 3:21 pm Denver Rene Kelly was born.   We watched Monday Night Football that evening.  Strange the things you remember.

She is a dear girl, rather type A, must get that from her father:)  She is kind and thoughtful, intelligent and creative.  And I am oh so thankful to be her Mom.

Day 3

Tonight, hands down, I am thankful that it is my last night as a 'single parent.'  Wayne comes home tomorrow for good and not a moment too soon.  This traveling husband routine got old rather fast but for a big chunk of it, I was so heavily involved with my own volleyball team that my mind was occupied.  Now that my team has ended(although Varsity continues to rock on), I find that I have 'spare mental time.'  And upon reflection I have come to a few conclusions...

I miss him.  For all the obvious reasons like help with the kids, and taking the trash out on Tuesdays(something that seems to vex me still, even when he put reminders on my calendar).

I miss him when I'm all jacked up on adrenaline from a game, but have no one to help me decompress and ramble on the way I do sometimes on the way to lala-land.

I miss him on Wednesdays, when no matter what I do, there seems to be a gazillion melt downs and everyone is so unhappy that he is not here.

I miss him at work, where we usually can communicate many times during the day or just glance up to catch each others' eyes.

I miss him when my feet are cold in bed.  Why do they take so long to warm  up?

We have missed him so terribly while trying to pretend that we were fine.  And I am so, so thankful that tomorrow, on Denver's 8th birthday, we won't have to miss him anymore.

Day 2

Tonight I am thankful for our win in the semi-finals round of our Section of NYS.  Finals will be on Friday, where I hope to be thankful then as well.  It's been an interesting year at the varsity level.  Since we were combining 2 different programs we had a lot of bodies.  Of course, not all Nazareth kids came to Aquinas, but a solid group of them did.  Altogether we have 13 Seniors.  13. Seniors.  Needless to say I won't be keeping much of my starters on JV next year.  I was nervous at the prospect of so many adolescent girls.  Together.  16 in all.  Mind you, we can only play 6 at a time.  But they have worked hard and are a solid cohesive team, with few squabbles.  So tonight, I am thankful for them and their success.  For the ones I've coached since Jr. High, how satisfying it is to see them now, for the ones I missed out on and only get to enjoy this one year, it's been a heck of a year.

30 Days of Thankfulness-Day One

Boy I sure hope I can keep this up.  We are a pretty thankful family in general but still 30 days of a post every day is pushing my limits, so be forgiving if I miss one or two days.

Thankfulness does not seem to be something our culture cultivates, too unglamorous, too non-materialistic.  Thankfulness does not come from a store which will automatically make it uninteresting to most of us as a whole.  

Even as I write this I have found several items that I wish I could counter with '30 Things I am NOT Thankful for.'  (Including the %^&*%^&* animals who reside in my house and leave hair, hairballs, and other disgusting goodies around for me to find.  Who also at this very moment are making loud noises after I finally, finally have all 3 asleep.

 Who also, not naming names here, just chewed up a doll that I will pray, pray, pray will not be discovered in the trash tomorrow).  Instead, see me focusing on our vast blessings.

Seriously, they are many.  It's hard to know where to start.  I could easily have 30 just this night.  But I will start with my top 3...

What would be cool is if I can get 29 more photos to go with them!