Just things

We just ended another season of Fall soccer. Thank goodness! It is always a fun but hairy time. School starting and soccer practices and games, it gets a little overwhelming at times. S. had fun, and that is the main thing.

Sitting on the sidelines this morning, a team-mate's older, high school brother made a snide remark about S. and I nearly took him and dumped his officious, high school butt out of his folding chair. I didn't of course, but if he'd made one more remark, I would have done something. I don't know why us moms are like this, but we are. C. said to just "consider the source, and keep calm." Ha! he doesn't "get" the whole mom mentality. However, if he'd been sitting closer to the kid, I'm pretty sure he would have done something equally regrettable.

The whole family has now been, or is in the process of, being sick. It started with S., traveled to C., and, just when I thought it would pass me by, came back and settled on me. Being the last one sick, and the mom, to boot, I'm getting little sympathy. The show must go on, right? Laundry, dinner, lunches, cleaning, still must be done. I notice there aren't many volunteers to step in to fill the breach.

We had S.'s first school conference as a Jr. High schooler. Man, that went by fast. She is doing well. The two teachers we met with were kind, encouraging, and seem to be great educators. I was expecting the usual laissez faire attitude of (most of) my own Jr. High and High School teachers, but how nice to be pleasantly surprised, for a change. It makes me less uncomfortable to send my child to people who actually take their job seriously. We wanted to meet with her math teacher, but she was in conference with another student, so we couldn't. I wanted to thank her for making S. feel confident about math for the first time in her school career. This particular teacher is actually a High School math teacher, so this has been wonderful to have her expertise in helping Jr. High School kids. Now if can just boost Miss S.'s confidence a little. I don't know where the self confidence goes for girls right about this age, but it certainly "leaves the building", so to speak. Her science teacher was really encouraging and wants S. to join the Robotics team. She tried last year but felt out of her depth with the older kids, and, you know smart kids, who seem to have no filters and make disparaging remarks, seemingly without thinking. Her teacher said, "I really want you to join the team, I know you felt uncomfortable last year, and you think that this is something for "High-Cap" kids, but we need you because you're not only smart, but you have an incredible creativity and think outside the box." Wow! If I'd have had just one teacher say that about me, I would have been their biggest fan for life.

Well, off to do laundry - sniffling and hacking all the way!