Weekend happenings

Cross country final a triumph

And they're off. I think my son is in this pack of white
shirts, we just can't see his head to identify him.

I never picked myself as an emotional mum. I do get emotional when talking about the struggles I've had with the guys. But I also find myself leaking when I see them triumphing over difficulties and unexpectedly making good choices. Particularly in recent months with my eldest, but I'm sure moments will arise for the younger too as well.

Our son ran really well on his first race of the season, setting a PB (personal best, as I'm used to calling them, CAJers seem to call them PRs — personal records). He didn't beat that time all season, although he did run very well on two other courses that they did, they didn't count towards this course's PB, it's one of those unique things about cross country. Every course is different and you can't easily compare times across courses.

But on Saturday he smashed his PB by 30 seconds (I should add "about" there to satisfy our detail-focused kids). Then I went and got all teary. The lady next to me, who I'd never seen before, her son smashed his PB by 2 minutes and she and I were getting all emotional over one another. It was a bit out of character for me.

This was his final run of the cross country season (and as a middle schooler) and next season is wrestling, the sport he's been waiting for all year. In January I got all emotional at his last wrestling meet too, when he overcame considerable odds and beat one of his opponents decisively in his last meet (read about my impressions about it here).

It's caught me by surprise, but it is a pleasant surprise. It's nice to not be emotional about my kids only because of their struggles and the pain they cause me, but to celebrate their successes as well.

Trying on clothes 

This is a little less glamorous! Getting boys to try on clothes, even at home, is one of the banes of my life. It is a twice-yearly ritual in our house, to get all the boys' current and "grow into" clothes out for the coming season and check them all.

The trigger for this tortuous tradition? Thrift Shop, CAJ's giant garage sale that happens, most conveniently, every autumn and spring. This tradition helps us identify clothes that are no longer needed as well as the gaps in their wardrobes that we need to hunt for at Thrift Shop.

We managed it yesterday only because both parents faced up to the challenge and forced the boys to do it. There is something to be said for peer pressure within the family. We were all up there "doing it", so all joined in without question, even the most resistant one! And we laughed. The boys did some pretty impressive posing with their "new" clothes.

One of our recent family jokes has been about the amazing things (and amount of things) that the Famous Five fit into their pockets. So there was a fair bit of checking out pockets yesterday. Clothes with lots of large pockets gained most acclaim.

Planning our next camping trip

The view from the campsite we'd headed to in November.

We booked a campsite for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in November. You might remember we froze there at the same time last year. I wrote about it here. Can you believe we're going again? The boys all agreed and we assured them that we'd go better prepared this time. More blankets and thicker clothes, especially. They're fondly remembering out trip last time and looking forward to the challenge. It'd be nice if it were just a tiny bit warmer than -2 degrees Celsius, though!