7th Inning Stretch

Well, fall ball is over and Nitro emerged victorious. [This is slightly old news.] Sunshine is elated and she has a hysterical bobble-head trophy to display.  Their championship was hard fought and we were all so proud.  Looking at the scoreboard you can see their final game was a shut-out!

Last week her tournament team, The Lady Outlaws, had their "breaking up" tournament and lost in the middle rounds.  She won't get to play with this team again as she has aged out of their bracket.  But they played great. 

Lady Outlaws sizing up competition

Fierce Shortstop

That girl loves ball.  She LOVES it.  And what is even more shocking to me is that I love it too.  When Pepper started playing about 5 years ago I learned what every mother knows -- nothing is better than watching your kid play sports.  It doesn't matter if they win or lose; it doesn't matter if they are a big star or a big klutz -- it's thrilling.  [Okay -- well neither of the Bigs are klutzes so I don't really know it that last sentence is true but I suspect it is!]

It's really only the 7th Inning Stretch though, because that girl has gone and got herself onto a Select Team.  We probably won't see any tournament play until January because of our previous family commitments, but practice started for her yesterday.   She came home excited and upbeat.  Her coach is "great," the girls are "great," and the team is "great."   She already knew four of the girls on the team and two of her new friends are African American so she is really excited.

Did I mention she was the undisputed home-run queen on both teams?

Baseline hit

Heading home

She's safe!

Celebrating

Pepper thinks she may return to the fields next fall if her schedule won't work for track at school.  The Captain hopes to have his inaugural season in the spring.   If either Tinker or the Blitz have some crazy notion of playing soccer or taking dance, I have only one thing to say:


Play ball!

Daddy and The Blitz (not watching the game)

Cute but cold baby

Rambo costumes for the Monster Mash

With her buddy Nicole

Future Pinch Hitter

Pepper

Coach

Coach Tammy

Maggie Rose - yes, it was COLD!

 

Photo credits go to Annette Ramirez and Tami Roberts.  Thanks a million, ladies!

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Grandma Huntley

Today my Grandma, Ada Poland Huntley, would have been 105.   She was the wife to Guy Huntley and mother to 9 boys and 1 girl, 4 of them already passed on.  All of them are living or have lived interesting and productive lives.  She loved each and every one of her kids and was widely known as a good cook who could create something delicious from virtually nothing.

I lived over 1000 miles away from her for most of my life, so I did not get to know her well when I was young.  However, when I was 9 or 10 years old, she came to stay with us and left me with one memory so vivid I can still taste it.  She taught me how to bake bread.

I remember she got a little cross with me because I wanted to go play while it was rising.  She set me straight right away.  Instead at her behest, I sat with her at the kitchen table and she taught me how to play solitare.  There is something very wise in teaching a kid to entertain herself.

When that bread came out of the oven, it smelled heavenly.  And although I had been spoiled by my mom all my life with homemade bread, none ever tasted so good as those first loaves I baked by my own hand.  That was some 40 years ago and to this day, I never bake bread without thinking of her.  She did so much more than teach me the art of dough making, kneading and baking.  She invited me to cook, which has been my creative outlet of choice ever since.

Grandma was like so many of the mentors of my life:  She taught me something which was in this case a process, bread making.  But more importantly, she recognized that glimmer -- that spark of true passion -- and she blew on and tended and fanned that spark until it burst into flame.  That is what the best teachers, coaches and mentors do and if you are not blessed to have such a mentor or coach like that in your life right this minute, drop everything until you find one!

 I still, on occasion, bake bread.  Five children and calorie cutbacks have curtailed that a bit.  But every day -- every single day -- I love creating nourishing and delicious food for myself and my family.  It is my favorite part of every day.  Thank you, Grandma.

I just took four kids, three and under, to the grocery store.  Yep -- we have an extra friend here for a few days.  She's going to be three next month so she fits right in with Tink and The Captain.  She is pretty sweet and really cute and just jumped in with both feet.  I tried to get her to call me "Tia" as our last toddler friend did but being a white girl, she's unfamiliar with the term and took up calling me Mee-maw.  Heartwarming.

Tink decided to take advantage of the name-calling to try out "Dreena" and "Mee-maw" herself, but I kept looking around like I didn't know who she was talking to.  Finally she said "Maaaaa maaaa" in her sassy voice and kicked me in the shin.  I ignored the kick since I was egging her on so much.

But back to the grocery store.  Sunshine and Pepper are on a Little-free "vacation" in Houston with their friend, so I loaded everyone up and took them to the store.  I managed to find a cart that would hold them all plus the goods, so we just trucked up and down the aisles.   They were good as gold -- no crying, no reaching, no whining.  They were friendly and polite.  The super-sweet produce man brought them each a little box of raisins and that kept them busy for several aisles.

What was shocking to me was how many dirty looks I got.  This I did not understand.   You know, I didn't give birth to any of these kids.  But so what if I did?  Do we have the right to judge people who have more than a certain number of children?  They were all neatly dressed, hair combed; hopefully it is clear they are cared for.  I made an extra effort since I thought we might garner some attention.  They were actually being really darling.

It's good for me to be subject to occasional irrational judgment from strangers.  It keeps me from worrying too much about whether people like me.  The four little people with me like me a lot so I will leave it at that.

Of course I can't post any pictures of our little friend.  I suppose we are going to need a nick-name for her too, so let's go with Peisinoe (one of the Sirens),  because she lures you in and then the minute you say "no" or cross her, she wails.  And it is loud.  But she has waist length hair, big brown eyes and is so blonde, you can't see her eyebrows, so she can get away with it!