Catching Up

I've been playing catch-up around the house for 2 weeks now, but I think the dust bunnies are winning. There just aren't enough hours in the day for what needs to be done! And I think I need to play catch-up around here, too, as I haven't been posting much substance on the blog!

First off, our big news. After finishing the season in first place (a spot which eluded the team until the last couple of weeks of the season), ds' hockey team won the league championship yesterday! What a fantabulous end to a super hockey year. This year was everything I was hoping for for ds, and more. He's got his confidence back, as well as his love of the game. He really liked his teammates and his coaches. It was a good bunch of parents. He got tons of ice time, since there were only 12 kids on the team - and therefore really got a chance to improve and shine. He scored, he got assists, he made good plays. He came home with the hard hat more than once (for being the hardest worker) and the coaches often told me that he played his "best game so far" that day. So all that's left now is an end of year hockey party next weekend ... on the one hand, it'll be great not to have hockey on the schedule, on the other hand, I'm going to miss it, and I'm going to miss being part of this particular team of kids and parents. It was neat just being a parent this year, and not the manager ... and though no one ever did step up to be manager, almost every parent (including me) took on a task or two and everything got done.

As for my other hockey boys ... well ... it's been tough the last couple of months and it's just agonizing right now watching them in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. I thought for sure they had it going on on Friday, but in the end, yet another penalty is what lost them the game. I am not a fairweather fan, but, I do think that my boys have golf in their near future and like other Sens fans, I have started saying words like "next season", "rebuilding", and "what the heck are we going to do with Emery". It really is heartbreaking. Sigh.

The other night, I went to a fundraiser for Kenya at dd's school. More specifically, it was a fundraiser for Lwak girls' high school in Kenya. Dd is part of a club which started as a pen pal club a couple of years ago but has mobilized into a "let's do something concrete to help these girls" club. While dd has been telling me all about it for years, the fundraiser night really opened my eyes to the conditions in Kenya and to what a handful of teenagers, with support from some dedicated teachers, can do to improve the lives of real people halfway across the globe. No wonder her school has won awards for its global focus. The fundraiser included dinner and both a live and silent auction. Final tally is not in, but by my calculations they must have made at least $6,000. To put this in perspective, it costs $500 a year in tuition for a girl in Kenya to attend this school; and each girl receives a $17 annual allowance.

Still nothing scrappy to share with you. I hope to spend some time at the scrap desk today, but between groceries, housework, visiting my mother in law, and catching up on day job stuff (I won't even get into how behind I am at work!!), not sure that's gonna happen. Happy Sunday everyone!