Home Run!

Since it has been a week since I last posted (that is due to children!  in the house!  every second!  and neighborhood friends!  and messes everywhere I turn! and massive hunger all the time!), and all my recent posts have been me boo-hooing over all the changes we're experiencing over here, I'll deviate this time. Slightly.

To baseball.

Yes, dear reader, to the sport that is taking over the world.  Wait, what?  It's not taking over your world?  Hhhmm.  Well, we are eating, breathing and oozing baseball at our house.  We're practicing (at the fields, in the yard, in the local parks), we're going to games, we're washing uniforms (and of course by we, I mean me, but you knew that, didn't you?) we're packing snacks (see the previous explanation of who we refers to), we're cheering, we're making new friends. . .

And we're enjoying it.

The schedule is still a bit rigorous, I admit, and rainouts (like we've been given tonight) are a welcome respite to the 5/6-day-a-week program we are getting used to.  But still.  It's fun.  Last Saturday, one boy got to pitch for an inning.  And I was so very proud.  His form was a thing of beauty to my mamma's eye, and he did quite well for his first effort.  And another son had a couple of solid hits and made two runs during one game and I was so very proud.  And the third boy, who is still learning it all, made a triple the other day and got the game ball!  And I was so very proud.

And more than once, you'll not be surprised to hear, their performance on the ball field has caused me to tear up.  I cannot seem to help myself.  Thank goodness it is sunglasses season and hopefully no one notices.  I told my mother-in-law during one such emotional moment, "When my children do reasonably well at something, I feel I might explode with happiness!  What if one of them becomes a star athlete or singer or mathematician?  I might lose all ability to control myself."

Sitting on the bleachers for hours on end is turning out to be a thing of beauty.  Cheering for my dudes is bringing me immense happiness.  Hearing their coaches tell me they appreciate my boys' attitudes, or natural talent or humor makes my heart swell.

When I first started receiving texts and emails and phone calls about the boys' practices, I wondered what on earth we had signed up for.  But the boys are growing and challenging themselves and learning to give something all they've got.  And I'm enjoying watching them do all of the above.