Ouch!

No pain, no gain. Right? Well, there has been a huge amount of gain around my house the last couple of days, and I'm not talking about weight.

It all began a couple of days ago with Sarah's grades. Sarah is a really smart kid, but we have recently (recently? HA!) discovered that she is lazy as the day is long. Unless, of course, it's something that she wants to do, like ballet or email. I, being an on-the-ball parent, at least that particular day, decided to check her grades online. What do I see? A "C"! She got a "C" in coat hanger sculpture! How does one get a "C" in coat hanger sculpture? Just kidding. But she did get a "C" in English. And she did get in trouble for it. She was told that she had to bring that grade up, with extra credit or the like, by Thursday or she would have to drop out of Swan Lake. There was a lot of to-do around the house that day about Sarah's grades. What I didn't count on was the boys hearing all of it, and actually taking it to heart.

Benjamin said the family prayer that night, which is always interesting, but this was a particularly unusual prayer. He prayed that Sarah might be able to get her grades up, and that he and Josh "won't be a bad as Sarah". David and I really tried to smother our laughter, and nearly succeeded. Sadly, Sarah didn't take it in the way it was intended, the boys don't want bad grades, but rather as Benjamin saying, in a prayer no less, Sarah is stupid. The next half hour was kind of rough around here. Hurt feelings had to be assuaged, statements had to be explained, rules had to be enforced.

I've been training for my very long bike ride in June. Not ever having done anything like this before, I wasn't sure how to go about it, but I came up with a plan that seemed like it would work. I ride my stationary bike four days a week. Three days I would ride for only 30 minutes, but I would gradually increase the tension. The fourth day I would turn the tension back down, but would gradually increase the length of time I rode. Good plan, right?

Monday was the first day I actually raised the tension. Augh! I raised it too far! And I realized this about 6 minutes into my ride. I pushed through until the 15 minute mark and then I turned it back down a bit. I was okay. I thought, "This is going to work."

Wednesday was my second day on increased tension. I didn't increase the tension nearly as much as I had on Monday. About 2 minutes into my ride I realized my mistake. I had forgotten to take into account that I have been going to dance rehearsals at night. I'll ride in the morning, but my body has not had a break, because I'm in rehearsal mode! AUGH!!! I hollered out for David, "I need some encouragement!" and being the great husband he is, he didn't ask why, he just immediately started yelling back at me things like, "You're doing great! You're going to make it! Hang in there!"

About 15 minutes into my ride I realized that I had to do something to get my emotional energy up, so I turned on my ipod and started singing with it. Footloose was great, Shot Through the Heart was okay, We are the Champions was wretchedly funny. But I made it.



I made bread yesterday. This is not an unusual or difficult experience for me, except I ran out of flour. How does one go about making bread when there isn't enough flour? Well, I scraped together every bit of any kind of grain I had in my pantry: soy flour, corn meal, oatmeal. I threw some in straight, I put some through the blender first. I kneaded as best I could, and then I let is raise. This is the ugliest bread I've ever made...but it tastes good! The pain didn't come until I touched my knuckle on the oven door when I was pulling the bread out. It was hard to play piano after that.



Rehearsal last night caused me physical pain in places I forgot I owned. And the running? We have 8 counts to completely circle the stage. And then we have 4 counts to completely circle the stage. And then we have 4 counts to get up the stairs. And then we have 8 counts to get down the stairs. And then we have to do a kick line. And all the while we are supposed to be singing 5 million part harmony and making it sound good. And did I mention the back bend?

Being that I am me, none of this really bothered me. (yeah, right!) What really bothered me was that I totally messed up one of the rhythms. Just one. And I'll get the chance to fix it tomorrow. But my pride is wounded. I'm sure it's good for me, after all, I do need some humbling (no comments about that, please!), and it's not as if I was the only person who messed up anywhere last night. Did I mention the back bend? I just hate messing up music.



What have I hurt in the last couple days? My knee, my thighs, my calves, my back, my head, my finger, my heart, my pride...my daughter. No pain, no gain. Right? Well, the huge gains around my house this week definitely came at a cost. Still, I have to believe when we come through it, we'll all be better off. (Sarah's grade is already coming up!)