Over the weekend we had the final cross country meet of the season. I found out late Friday night that I was needed to drive a school van (10-seater) to the meet, which meant getting up at 5.30 on Saturday! I've usually been able to sleep a bit later than that, even when we've left with the team at 6.50 because David's taken care of getting breakfast started, but it was all me on Saturday with David still in the US.
Driving the school vans isn't my favourite thing to do either, they are just a bit bigger than I'm comfortable with. Though thankfully the roads between here and the meet are mostly straight and wide and I had one of the coaches with me who reminded me at appropriate times to take a turn wider. Tokyo roads aren't the easiest with larger vehicles. So I avoided any scrapes, but didn't avoid having a long day. Thankfully, though, it was a short meet and we were home by 3pm.
But I'm glad I went. Our middle son got a ribbon for coming 3rd out of the 9th graders who competed and our youngest finally ran a better time than his best last year.
Fun run
Then yesterday we had the annual end-of-season CAJ fun run and as we've done before, David and I helped out with the data input. The CAJ coach who runs cross country (not just for CAJ but for the whole league and even has a part to play in the Asia-Pacific meet in Guam) is not a teacher, he's the computer tech person for the school (I don't know his official title). Cross country is all about times and you can guess how the season is run: lots of technology. Everyone is entered into the database and their places, teams, and times are recorded. Yes, even for the fun run! It's a lot easier for the usual season because the runners all wear chips on their shoes, so it's all set up to be pretty automatic.
But yesterday we had to manually enter a lot of students into the database (not all, some were already in there) and then manually record all their places (all 120+ of them). We didn't get home till after 6pm (beginning soon after school finished at 3.30). It got cold, one of the coaches who's been around for more than 30 years said it was the coldest fun run he remembers.
It was the changeover of sporting seasons and the first wrestling training of the next season began straight after the fun run. Two of our boys were there. And because they started later than usual they went trained later than usual, our middle schooler wasn't home until 7pm. Dinner ended up a mess because the boy who was supposed to cook wasn't home in time and I hadn't been shopping as I'd intended to do. Our usually fairly well-ordered evening was in a shambles. My head was in a bit of a shambles: two sporting seasons in one day!
Struggling with change
I'm really not fond of this part of autumn because we're plunging into winter at a rapid clip. I hate it that it need to wear so many clothes and that our house is so cold. But, as I keep reminding myself, I've made it through many a winter here, by God's grace I'll make it through another!
I'm also struggling with uncertainty. I don't know if our middle son will do wrestling this year. He's not put his hand up yet. He's concerned about his cold and cough. So I'm taking him to the doctor this afternoon. He's got a family history of asthma and a personal history of respiratory issues, so hopefully we can get this sorted.
I'm struggling with change too. This year our eldest is assisting the coach, not wrestling. Last year it was great to anticipate the season and wonder how he'd do, but this year is different. Not bad, just different.
Anxiety and worry
I've just listened to a sermon about anxiety and God's grace. It was convicting to say the least. Yep, I'm sinning every time I am anxious and every time I tell people I'm worried. It's food for thought and for action, that's for sure. I need to grow in trusting God, who's got me and my circumstances in his hands. Trusting him to help me through periods of change and uncertainty, rather than taking things into my own hands. This is what I need to do, to learn how to do more and more.
The change of these last few days is minor compared to the changes coming up for our family in 2018. It's going to be an ongoing battle to trust. Only by God's grace.
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