Family

Abby has an interesting series going on over at her blog, Five Senses Friday. I thought it would be such an interesting experiment in creativity, so I decided to join.

This week’s five senses comes from our walk last night – where it was almost springlike! Sunshine-y and slightly warmer than it has been.

It is easy to get worried with all the “economic crisis” news you hear every day -but our walk really brightened my week.  Everything just seemed so … hopeful.  New houses are going up in my neighborhood.  Kids are out playing.  Green grass is starting to poke up through the mud.  Life is going on as normal, despite the meltdown being discussed on the news.

Sounds:

Kids laughing and screaming, playing soccer in the park.

Eli giggling as he was chased around the playground by his newest BFF (who he met 15 seconds after arriving at the park).

Eli shouting “Mom- watch this!” as he climbed on the playset and then jumped off – approximately 86.3 times in the 15 minutes we played.

Sights:

Green grass peeking out from beneath the dead stuff and the mud!

A green barn across from the park …

Smells:

Fresh lumber in the new construction in the neighborhood.

Our neighbor grilling steaks on the barbeque as we headed home.

Touch:

The chilly wind hitting our cheeks and making us shiver when we walked in the shade of the neighborhood houses.

The warm sunshine warming us when we were playing in the park.

Tastes:

Dinner waiting for us when we got home!

(Barn is Day 25 of 365 Project)

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My stepson, Dayton, had his first basketball game yesterday. He is 8 years old, a second-grader. Dayton is FULL of energy and personality. He is the life of the party, endlessly chatty, and a little athlete. He has been DYING to play basketball since, well … as long as I have known him he has been DYING to play basketball. He played T-ball a couple of years ago, and had an okay time, but there wasn’t enough action for him. He needed the competition, the RUNNING and JUMPING and SCORING that happens in basketball. He finally had his first game (at the ungodly early hour of 8 a.m. on a SATURDAY, I might add … ) and it was so fun to watch. He spent the entire game with either a giant grin on his face or an intense look of concentration as he made shots or ran the ball.

I really think that basketball is going to be great for him. He has so much energy that school is not the least bit interesting for him. Anything that requires him to sit and be quiet is like TORTURE. He wants to run and play and talk! As he grows up, grades will be a requirement for playing sports and I think his love for sports will teach him the discipline to do the schoolwork in order to get to the basketball court. (We are always trying to find ways to get him to actually enjoy schoolwork for it’s own sake, but that is another topic for another day … )

Another thing that will be good for him is learning teamwork. He loves to be the star of the show … and basketball is a team sport. Besides the fact that the coaches teach them how to work together and build plays, the kids’ teams require that they pass the ball twice before making a shot. I love that rule! In fact, Dayton got caught a couple of times running the ball all the way to the basket immediately after gaining possession … and his points didn’t count. Frustrating, but it ensures they learn that they have to work as a team to achieve their goals.

I can’t wait to see how this favorite sport helps shape his personality as he gets older.

I took pictures at his game, of course. They are certainly not fine art (ISO was set way up to 1600 which produces crazy noise in my images) but I made this montage for Dayton (and the grandparents). This is also my Day 13 of 365 Project.

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