The competitive edge...

I often wonder, at what age do schools move from "everyone plays ball" to "we only play those on the team that are good because we want to win."

I sit at the middle school football game and wonder, why does my (step) child not get to play. Is he injured? Did he miss a practice I didn't know about? Or does he just suck at playing the sport? The reason really does not matter but the unasked question of "Why doesn't the coach play my child?" did cross my mind and then the thinking began...

Maybe to be competitive, he had to have begun playing optimist football shortly after birth (would that be the crawl version of flag football?). Perhaps he should have begun playing in kindergarten. While we finally agreed to optimist football the last two years he was eligible, did this mean he didn't learn enough to play on the middle school team? Don't worry, the questions are all rhetorical and don't really require an answer but that is my thought process.

So, after three weeks of practices and being the oldest player on the team, I wonder if he just doesn't have the talent, if he has an injury, or if he just isn't one of the coach's favorites...

*done whining because I don't want to be "that" parent*

Some days, you just have to roll with the punches...

Quite frankly, there are some days you wonder why you wake and other days you wonder why you woke up. Why is it that whenever things head south, everything heads south?

I remind myself that my life does not involve the cottage at the end of the lane with the white picket fence but I get to have the home that has stains on the carpet, weeds in the front yard, sparse grass in the back yard, and a mailbox that is half on and half off the post. Instead of gourmet dinners and cleaning utensils and dishes right after fixing dinner, I leave the pizza box on the counter and dishes in the sink for someone else to clean up.

I often like to think I'm "normal" but have realized there is no benchmark for normalcy. I am what I am and sometimes I can't quite figure that out.

Some days, you just have to roll with the punches. Other days, you wake up and smile because you don't have to put on the banana suit.