The girls' extracurricular activities have all gotten started again, and it's going to take Susan and me a while to get into a routine that works for us and that gets them on time to each weekly obligation. Hillary started piano lessons this fall, and we're fortunate that Mrs. Vold, the same wonderful piano teacher who works with Suzanna and Abigail, was willing to make a spot in her week for Hillary (Mrs. Vold did not take on anyone else new this year--she added Hillary to her roster only because she's assuming that Hillary will show the same promise and dedication that her sisters have demonstrated . . . so she told Susan, at least).
Hillary's lesson is each Tuesday and starts 15 minutes after the end-of-the-school-day bell rings at her elementary school. Not only do I have to be at the school well in advance to find a parking spot (parents and grandparents start jockeying for parking spots outside the school 30 minutes before school ends each day), but all three girls have to bolt from their classrooms to their lockers to the crosswalk and wait for the crossing guard to give them permission to bolt across the street to my vehicle so that we can bolt across town to Mrs. Vold's if we're to be there on time. This week Suzanna's band teacher let her end-of-the-day band sectional drag on after the bell rang, making Suzanna late, making us all late, and raising everyone's tension level as we raced to piano lessons. Just wait until there's snow on the ground, too!
Tuesday nights Abigail and Hillary have gymnastics lessons at the public high school, so Suzanna and I drop them off there and then head to the West River Community Center for a workout of our own. We don't have a lot of time to get dressed and get active before we have to get showered, get dressed again, and leave in time to pick up Abigail and Hillary when their lessons are done. But even a little exercise is better than no exercise, I say. This week Suzanna and I alternated laps of jogging and walking around the track before heading to the basketball courts to play some hoops. We saw a colleague of mine there working out, and she tried to convince Suzanna to join her on the rock climbing wall. Suzanna was all for it, but Daddy wasn't down with that. While Suzanna and I were jogging, we passed my colleague more or less trapped at the top of the wall, all tangled in her ropes, her feet uncertainly tapping away at the wall in search of a nook or cranny to help right herself while she clung to the wall with her fingertips, unable to go either up or down. Fun.
Wednesday nights all three girls have church choir rehearsal. Hillary's choir meets first followed by the choir to which both Abigail and Suzanna belong. All three choirs are directed by the same person, a woman new to the church and our community this fall. She's a new music professor at the university, and she's a welcome addition both at work and at church. Susan usually takes the girls to church choir and then puts in a few hours of work herself at her Sunday school director duties. This week, however, she had a meeting at church following the girls' rehearsal, so the three little beauties got to spend more quality time with Daddy!
Thursdays are really nuts. Abigail's piano lesson ends at the exact time that Hillary's dance class starts . . . and that Suzanna's piano lesson begins. So Hillary gets dropped off early at dance; Suzanna tags along so that she can be dropped off next at piano when Abigail is picked up there. There's a half-hour between the end of Suzanna's lesson and the end of Hillary's dance class . . . which is also when Abigail and Suzanna's dance class begins. In that half-hour, Abigail and Suzanna eat supper. Then it's off with them to dance and back to the house with Hillary, who eats supper at that time with Susan and me. One more trip back to the dance studio to pick up Abigail and Suzanna, and then it's a rush to finish any homework and get the girls into pajamas and bed as close as possible to their regular bedtime. I'm exhausted just typing about it!
It's only going to get worse, we realize, as they get older. In the meantime we're happy to encourage them to be active and artistic . . . and to have confined their activities to just three nights, only one of which keeps us from eating supper all together as a family. Even that could change, however, in light of another event that occurred this past week. But, Faithful Reader, for that you will have to read the next post!
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