It's Time to Rumbleeee! Wrestling 2010

So wrestling season has started (last month actually) in the Upriver area and this will be the second year that Joshua has participated in this most strenuous of sports. I began the year with high hopes of being able to go to most of the matches, as last year I was only able to attend one tournament and some of the practices. Don't get me wrong, I totally had a great time visiting my daughter in Australia (the first time I had EVER been out of the country), but I was looking forward to being able to cheer on Joshua for this years tournament season.

Having missed the first match of the season, we had already decided to go to the St Maries match the next week. I had determined there was no way anyone was getting me out of bed at 3:00 o'clock in the morning to drive 3 hours to get to Bonners Ferry by 7:30 am for weigh-ins. With St Maries only 20 or so miles away,  I didn't have to get out of my cozy warm bed until like 6:00 which suited me just fine. So I loaded up the kids and off we went. It was only Alyssa, Joshua, and I with Alyssa having signed up to help in the kitchen.

Any way, we got there in one piece, Alyssa rambled on into the kitchen, and I proceeded to try and get Joshua all signed in to wrestle. Last year my husband had done all this because I was gone to visit my daughter, so I wasnt entirely sure what to do. I had no idea what class he was in, so with Joshua in tow, I went from table to table several times trying to find out where he was supposed to sign in at. After a trip around the mats we finally tracked down the table for his class. Now I don't really know alot about wrestling so this is all pretty new to me. We did manage to get it all taken care of and off to the weight room we went.

In the weight room, my composure started to crumble, not that I was all that composed to begin with, just what little I had went out the door in a hurry. For the previous week I had Joshua on a "diet" of sorts to make sure he would come in below 65 pounds. For some reason I had it in my mind that he would be in the same class he was in last year. Needless to say this did not happen. We stripped him down and put him on the scales and he came to 64.2 pounds, I was like good job, he is under 65 yippee! Unfortunatly, this year, he was put in the Schoolboy class and the lowest weight class on the paper was 70 pounds, at least that was my impression. Knowing nothing about wrestling, and only looking at the paper, I assumed he would be wrestling kids from 70 to 75 pounds, thats like 4 pounds up to 10 pounds more than he was, I was not happy. I was like are you sure he is in this class, there isnt anyone under 70 pounds for him to wrestle? Then I made the huge mistake of saying outloud, to the weigh-in coach, with my son standing there, "he is gonna get clobbered". This is not a very good confidence buidling comment for young men, and was only the first mistake I made for the day. I immediatly marched over to where our coach was and proceeded to complain outloud to him about the unfairness of the situation, that was mistake number 2. Our coach just happens to be the pastor at my church and now knows that I do not handle sports well.
Yes, for years now I have harbored the terrible secret that all though I am not a sports fanatic, I do tend to get a little, intense, for lack of a better word. Well the secret is now out,  I am a maniac when it comes to my kids and sports. Maybe this is why I have a tendancy to "Just Say No" when the kids ask me if they can play some sport all thier friends are participating in. It has been easier this way. I remember a couple times during baseball season with Caleb, when Im sure they would have asked me to leave if I hadnt calmed down a little. I do not do sports well, this is why my husband wont let me watch football, which is the only sport I really like. I spent the rest of the day in a bit of a tizzy, Im glad our coach was working the mats and the kitchen so he couldnt see my attitude most of the day. It didnt stop there though, not only did I get upset about things with my kid, I got upset about things for our other team kids also. I have a tendancy to be somewhat protective of the kids who are on the team, I did that during baseball also. You would think after my baseball years I would know better then get involved in sports again.
Well, we sat there most of the day, as Joshuas class is almost the last class to wrestle, so I had the whole day to sit and stew and be perturbed. I am truly surprised Brian didnt tell me to go home at some point, I would have if I were him. Finally they call Joshuas weight class, I have no idea how I understood what they were saying as the person speaking in the microphone seemed to have it half way in his mouth everytime he spoke. Reminded me a bit of Charlie browns teacher. They had thier little meeting and out they came, and I missed it all. I missed his first match because I couldnt find him in the crowd (see picture above). When I did find him it was all over and he had lost, then I thought he had wrestled without a coach and was upset again. I stomped my way around the mats and found Brian of course, once again proving that I do not handle sports well.  My attitude had deteriated to the point where I think I actually wanted to smack someone. This is not a good place for me to be. Not that I would actually do that or anything, but the feelings were there for all to see.

Anyway, everyone knew I was upset now, not that I was trying to do that or anything. I was not gracious or kind or sweet or any of the things God would have me be, so I determined right then I would be better next time. Joshua was immediatly affected by my poor sportmanship and I was not feeling to good about myself either at that point. We waited for his next round of wrestling, I followed him to the room, then watched for him to come out so that I would know where he was, then followed him to the mats. I made sure he had a coach, and proceeded to explain to him that he needed to kill the other guy. Not literally, mind you, just no Mr. Nice guy, this isnt practice, this is not play time. I dont know what came over me, John was very patient with me and I moved out of the way, which is very hard for a maniac sports mom to do. Joshua didnt win that match but at least he didnt get pinned that time. I was very proud of him.

By this time my husband had shown up to help with moving the mats after the tournament and I was able to get a little balance, not much, but a little. He can be a stablizing force for me when no one else can. He kept me calm for the most part the rest of the time I was there. I only had maybe 2 more episodes after that, both of which my husband pointed out to me, where not good for Joshuas moral or confidence. He walked into his last match already feeling defeated because of my attitude. I tried to change it but the damage was already done. I determined that I would not do the same thing at the next match in Kellogg, and for the most part I was ok. I did have a minor melt down when we went in to weigh him and they made us get out of line to clip his nails, which I thought were fine. That took another 20 minutes to get done, so I walked out with a bit of an attitude, again. I don't know why I cant just be mellow about this stuff. My husband calmed me down mostly and I dont think I had any other melt downs that day, I was rather intense though and worried about everyone elses kids getting to the mats ect. but for the most part I handled the Kellogg match much better than the St Maries match which is a very good thing.
Our next match is in Sandpoint, one of those get up at 3am to get there by 7am  matches so we will have to see how well I handle that. Hopefully I will just sleep through the whole thing and not have to worry about being a bad sport or getting upset. My husband handles these things way better than me, and Joshua will benefit from his calming influence. My prayer will be that I will be more supportive and less uptight and that I would be able to encourage my son to do the best he can and have fun. I think I should probably pray before I leave the house next time, and not wait till I have a fit. I hope my son will forgive me one day and be able to walk away from this experience with alot better attitude then I have had so far.

Family Camp 2010 Day 1

For the past several years a few intrepid explorers have set out for a long weekend of fun and frolic that we fondly refer to as Family Camp. Getting to Family Camp usually begins with several days of organizing, grocery shopping, and finding everything from the previous year. This year was no different although there were a couple added bonuses along the way.

After 2 years of hit and miss on the packing end of this,  I finally came up with some sort of "plan", and I use that term very loosely, as I am probably the most un-organized, un-prepared person I know. Since camp begins on Thursday, my plan consisted of getting the clothes washed on Tuesday, getting everything out of the attic, into the living room and sorted on Wednesday, and packing it all in the car and getting out of the driveway without forgetting to many things on Thursday. That was my plan and I was sticking to it
Along comes added bonus #1.  I received all these beautiful peaches and pears on Sunday, 4 days before we were scheduled to depart, which of course, needed something to be done with them, namely canned. Fortunately for me, the pears were not ready to can yet, so I relegated them to a dark, quiet corner in my laundry closet to complete the process of ripening. Soo guess what I did all day Monday? You got it! I was canning peaches! I had them all in the jars, sitting in the big pot and wouldn't you know the water wouldn't start boiling, I'm like why isn't it boiling? So I called my handy dandy BFF and she said, "Debra, put the lid on the pot and it will start boiling", I was like "DUH", and within a couple minutes it was boiling and the timer ready to be set. I should've known this but my mind was on the large amount of clothing I needed to wash and the camping gear that still needed to be collected from the dark recesses of the attic.

Canned Peaches

Moving along now, by the time Thursday rolled around I was exhausted, physically, mentally and emotionally. This is okay though, it means I actually did the things I was planning on doing. Much to my husband dismay though, I found it almost impossible to maintain a good attitude while looking at the pile of things that needed to go in the back area of my vehicle, whilst trying to remember if there was anything I might have forgotten to find. My husband reminded me that we had a boat to load things into also, which was a darn good thing because I know it wasn't all gonna fit into the back of the suburban! We proceeded to load the suburban to the roof and the boat to the gills. Everything had a place and everything was in its place, we managed to squeeze 4 kids in the back and off we went. First stop, Grandmas house. I truly don't remember why we stopped there, but I do know we managed to be able to unload about 50lbs of firewood we didnt need, and obtain an extra cooler that came in handy.

Grandmas House

While we were there, some of the other explorers stopped to see what we were doing and offered to drive down with us. That would have been nice but we still had several stops to make and did not want to hold up the parade.

intrepid explorers

We had a fairly calm drive down to the camping area and the kids were so tired they all fell asleep in the back of the vehicle until we reached Deary.

 And now we have added bonus #2, the Tube. With the absence of a compressor to blow up said tube, we needed to stop somewhere and get that done before continuing on the journey, as there would be no place for that to be done once we got there. The Tube was a last minute surprise so that even the little kids could have a great time on the lake. We already had skis and boy if you want to have a good laugh just ride on a boat with people who are learning to ski, but we did not have skis for little kids so the Tube was a great investment. This is were added bonus #3 comes in. We had a boat! Thank goodness for that boat, for there would have been numerous things that would have been left behind if not for the glorious boat and the extra space it provided for our large amount of camping paraphernalia. So we aired up the Tube, and headed on our way to, what I will refer to as "The Hill Of Doom". This is the road you have to go down to get to the Dworshak Reservoir, which is where we would be camping this year. This is a long, winding, downhill, have to have your brake on most of the time type of road. I took pictures all the way down, otherwise I probably would have been hanging onto the arm rest with my eyes closed, and praying that nothing was coming up from the bottom. The armrest probably still has fingernail marks in it from me hanging on. Here are a couple pictures of the "Hill Of Doom".

The top of the Hill Of Doom

Single Lane corner

The Final Corner

The "Hill Of Doom" is approximately 2 miles of corners all down hill, unless of course your leaving then its all uphill, but thats another story. If you notice in the pictures there are dings and dents in the guardrail ALL the way down the road. I actually breathed a sign of relief when we reached the bottom. I have more pictures, but these will at least give you an idea of my harrowing encounter going down a large hill fully loaded with boat in tow. I almost kissed the ground at the bottom, I was grateful we finally made it.

Dworshak State Campground

Having finally made it to our destination, we started unloading the suburban and boat of our assorted camping items and proceeded to load them into the cabin for Dale and I, and the various assigned tents for the kids. Yes you heard me, Cabin! Given the option of cabin camping or tent camping I will always always choose the cabin. It has a heater and electric and beds and a couch and a table and a floor, its AWESOME! One thing I tell everyone I know, I wont camp in a tent until I absolutely have to, which wont be for a while, hopefully the Lord will come back before then!
We had a wonderful camp dinner with great friends and a lot of fun sitting around chatting. I was so tired the first 3 days I was there, all I wanted to do was sit in my green fold up chair next to the fire and chill-ax (I got that word from my teenage son). Everything went according to plan, everything got done and everyone got to bed at a fairly reasonable hour. And that was pretty much the end of day one. This post turned out to be way longer than I had anticipated so will write about the other days in another post.
Hope I didn't forget anything :)

Calgon..Take me away! (trademarked of course )

Have you ever just had one of those weeks, where that line was so appropriate? In my case the mantra was "Jesus,Take me home!" Usually I start out with such good intentions, like with our homeschooling, or laundry, or "insert your project here". No matter what I try to accomplish, there is some point where I want God to just take me home and get it over with. Everywhere I turn, it seems that everyone else is having this great time and I just don't get it. For me it has been truly hard to maintain a positive attitude in the face of adversity.
Take our homeschooling experience so far. It has only been 3 days and I have already been tempted to throw in the towel, so to speak. They fuss, they fight, they argue, where is the peaceful, calm, homeschooling experience I keep hearing about? I can tell you it is definitely not at my house. Where are the kids who want to cooperate and have a great time with each other while doing school work? What about the peaceful walks in the woods looking at birds and squirrels and talking about Gods creation? Not here. As a matter of fact the last time I took my kids out to the woods for this nature walk thingy, I almost left them there. No worries though, they would have eventually found their way home as we only got a couple hundred yards away before they were pitching fits.
Every family is different, for instance, my kids have learned that I will cave at the slightest hint of noncooperation, because I want to have a whole day where there isn't any yelling or bickering. Another thing they have learned is the harder time they give me, the shorter school time will be. I have trained them well. They know exactly what buttons to push and how to push them to get their ultimate goal, which is to go do what they want. Just for the record, I have great kids, even with all the fussing, they are better than most.
Fortunately for them and me, I have a Savior who loves me. Left to my own devices, with no relationship with the Lord, I would have given up long ago. I can not let them win this battle of the wills, as in the end they will actually end up losing. I don't know what that looks like right now, but I'm working on it.
Yesterday I was watching a Voddie Baucham DVD from a homeschooling conference I went to a couple years ago and he was talking about parents being a blessing to their children, and I asked myself, am I being a blessing to my kids? Honestly, I would have to give myself an F in that category. I just don't know how to do that on my own, but I know that Jesus can help me with that. I want to be a blessing to my husband also, and that seems even harder than being one for my kids.
So now that my rant is done, I am reminded of a verse that seems to fit my circumstances at this moment, which is
Hebrews 12:1
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also ^(A)lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us ^(B)run with ^(C)endurance the race that is set before us.

To me this means, there are people watching, set a Godly example, put aside your worldly struggles and sin that can trip you and keep going until you reach the goal, that being telling people the Gospel and going home to be with Jesus. What a great encouragement for those of us who seem to have more problems then others.
Funny how that works. I can always find a scripture verse to fit my struggle or to give me encouragement. I don't know how anyone can make it in this world without Gods Word. After the week, or maybe month,  I have had,  it seems impossible to even conceive of living without it.