Here are a few of the things that have gone extinct (or are endangered) in our family since baseball season started:
Family Dinner
I used to love having the family around the table for dinner. Dinner time is also the time we say our evening family prayer. Now meals are usually consumed behind home plate, in the car, or in shifts. And family prayer...
Family Home Evening
It looks like we have a baseball game every Monday night until the season is over. (Like 2 months from now?) Either I'm going to have to do FHE on Sunday for the time being, or FHE will be sitting in camp chairs behind home plate.
Bed Time
Bed time was such a nice routine. Things were calm, baths were had, I got a chance to clean up from the day, I read books, butterflies flitted and a beautiful rainbow came down right on the roof of our house. Now? When we get home from the game (3 days a week) it's already about 30 minutes past bedtime. I'm usually frustrated, the boys are molasses-slow and, I'm sorry to say, at least one of us goes to bed crying.
Scouts
The 2 days of the week we don't have games, Ethan usually has a practice. This just happens to overlap with Scouts. Right now we are trading between scouts and baseball practice. One Tuesday he'll go to scouts and the next he'll go to baseball practice.
Cooking
If I start cooking around 3pm, I can have a picnic dinner put together by the time we have to leave for the game. If it's a practice night, then I usually have enough time to make dinner and have Ethan eat before he heads off for 90 minutes. I don't normally start dinner at 3pm. This has caused me to break one of our New Year's financial goals of not buying restaurant food. But Taco Bell is glad to see me again.
11 comments:
This sounds like my house and we don't even have baseball to blame for it. I guess we have other things that make life a bit difficult at night. But, i know how it feels to have someone go to bed each night crying...or at least so frustrated.
This is a tiny glimpse into life with older kids. They get so many activities that the pace of life picks up and you feel like you are literally running from one event or activity to another and squeezing in important things like eating into the cracks. Each stage has its benefits but gone are the days of flitting butterflies and rainbows and a chance to pick up from the day! Can you imagine three in baseball? : )
Oh Beatty! I hope we never have 3 in baseball. Of course 3 in baseball for you might be something to work towards...how many do you have doing sports now?
We have soccer on Wednesdays and Thursdays, same story as you. About 5:00 I try to get them to eat "dinner" which is usually a sandwich of some kind. (We could only be so lucky to have a TAco Bell close!) We get out the door with me angry and at least one of them not done with their dinner. Then we go sit and wait for Kevin to show up from work and decide what we will eat when we get home at 7:15; it kind of sucks!
I've got it: Send Ethan to the game with someone else on the team and have them set up a cardboard cutout of you and/or Robert with a recording that says "Way to go ETHAN! That's my boy!"
Make dinner and read a book while he's gone, call a babysitter to come and put the kids to bed and then do FHE while they're asleep! No whining, no complaining and they'll get the FHE message subliminally! I might even sign my boys up for baseball! :-)
Kinda crazy! We're getting all geared up for our season to start here. We just got done with the draft (I can't believe they do a draft!) so I better go get a "cup" and start stocking up on frozen burritos and hot dogs! Good times.
By the way, I think FHE on Sundays is a wonderful idea. That's when we have always done it, even growing up. That way it always fits in our schedule and it always gets done, and we don't have to compete with all our other activities. There are occasions when we miss it because of a family dinner, but then I try to do something Monday, but I really like having it on Sunday because it seems easier to feel the Spirit and we can discuss things we learned in church while they're fresh in our minds.
Those are exactly all the things I hate about my kids playing baseball, too. I list "not playing baseball this season" at the top of my list of things I give thanks for every time I pray. It's sandwiched between "hot water heaters" and "Reenie Fisher".
Although I love I-Shuan's suggestions--she's got me rethinking this whole thing!
Just saw a lawn sign reminding me that it's time to sign up for soccer....
We have two in taekwondo and Katie in track. Oh, and two boys play ultimate frisbee with a stake group once a week, but they at least get a ride home and we never have to watch. We have done three or four in sports a couple of times and it just about does me in! So now we say only one sport per child per year. We have never done baseball because, after soccer and basketball and flag football (fall and winter sports), by spring we want our Saturdays back!!
I love this post and the comments are as good as your post was! I-Shuan's are especially helpful, don't you think? :)
You just described my house to a tee! Oh, and we have to have dinner before we leave for a game, which on the calendar reads like this (hamburger, chicken patty or hot dogs), and then when we get home we have another dinner, which is not planned, which means raid the pantry or run through a drive through or just stand there and whine that you're too hungry.
I am loving the idea of holding FHE while the children sleep. That does solve all the challenges of having successful FHEs.
Thanks for taking the time to document how baseball season works so clearly. I knew all of this (live it year after year) and just couldn't quite spell it out like this. Love you Afton! =)
I really enjoyed reading the recent piece on family dinners and how strongly you feel about them I do too. I recently started a web site (www.breakbread.com) that is dedicated to encouraging people to get back to the table and connect with others over food. Check out the site and perhaps it will resonate with you enough to join the movement!
Thanks again.
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