Rosie is 8. And she is a dancer. She loves it, and that means Tay is a dance mom, and I am a dance-dad.

One thing at a time.

There are many “right” ways to do it when it comes to kids and extra curriculars. The choices are endless:

• music: guitar, piano, singing?
• Painting and art
• Swimming
• soccer
• tennis
• dance
• Church activities
• cheer

This list could grow by 15 more items, but you get the idea. Of all of the many options, what is the “best” way, for our family, to make sure no one gets burned out? As a reminder if you havent been in this place in a few years, or haven’t been in this parenting space at all, each commitment involves driving to and from practice (sometimes several times a week), weekend commitments, costumes/uniforms, scheduling, etc. Then, when scheduling, this means mom has to check her calendar to see what works, and dad has to check his calendar to see what works (meaning, who doesnt have a work call that day that can be rescheduled). And, the other kid still needs to be picked up from daycare, no matter what the schedule demands.

Years ago, it was Taylor’s idea, to just to one thing at a time. So far, it has worked for its intended purpose: no one is burned out yet. Sometimes through the year things overlap, but we are only committing Rosie to 1 thing at a time throughout the year.

So far she has done soccer, swimming, and dance, as well as the occasional art lesson from her gifted family, but DANCE is what she has grown to love the most.

This past weekend, she had another competition, and her team placed top 10. This is a big deal, because her “team” (is that the right word for it?) is a new one, and has less accolades than many of the other teams that perform at these competitions. Rosie’s cartwheels are getting much better. And so is her confidence. The team knows all of the moves, but they fall short when it comes to the timing of their moves.

Other fun things

There are a few moments when I wonder if I am doing things right; one of those moments was two weeks ago when I got two families with small kids lost in the woods when it was raining outside.

There are lots of other moments that come up through the week, and all I can think is that, “this moment is really nice.” There is so much to be grateful for, and sometimes I can get these items on camera. Rosie is such an awesome big sister, and Mercy eats up any attention she can get.

There was another sweet moment, but I was holding the camera the wrong way, and it did not turn out too well.

These girls make me feel pretty lucky. I wish I could hit the “pause” button- I know life goes in seasons, and not all of them are great. But for right now, these moments are pretty special.

I started running again, and at this time of the year, if you can get past the pollen, this really is the prettiest place there is to get out for a run.

That it for this week. What have you been up to? Leave a comment below.

Luke’s Things

Back around Christmas, I mentioned something small that helped make life better. Here is another problem/solution that has worked great for us, and may help you as well.

For whatever reason, certain items don’t seem to stream too well on our tv. All of the things we use often work fine: Netflix, HBO max, Disney. But some live events, like sports, or in our house, streaming a live dance competition, would have poor quality.

The solution, was this:

A mesh wifi system for the house. The reason was because our house has a chimney in the center, as well as the HVAC system, which created dead spots throughout.

Even though the wifi wasn’t far away, it didnt have a strong connection to hold a stream from something like a live event. The version that we have is an older one that isn’t sold anymore, but here is the link to the updated model.