In Pictures

Lately...

 I try to make it to the pool to swim laps at least a couple of times a week, usually after I drop Abby off at school. I love the morning when there's nobody around and I don't have to worry about looking like a drowning flounder trying to figure out new coaching drills. (I'm really, really good at looking dumb. Just sayin'.) I think it's just about the most amazing thing in the world that it can be 16 degrees outside, covered in snow, and yet inside it's almost too warm to comfortably swim laps. Amazing.

Maggie came with me to work on Sunday night to play with the triplets. Lucy latched on to her instantly and thought she was the most amazing person ever. :) Lucy's most favorite thing in the world is to be "upside down" - seriously, if I could figure out some way to suspend her like that I think she'd stay there all day! - and I couldn't resist this shot of she and Maggie playing. Just look at that happy face. :)

The sun is just peeking over the horizon when I get to work these days, and for some reason all of a sudden the mornings are extremely zen. The kids are quiet and calm, everyone wakes gradually, and I'm happier when it doesn't feel like I've arrived at work in the middle of the night. On Monday I managed to get Addie's pigtails put in straight the first time. :)

As I dreaded, on Monday we got snow. This is my road about an hour after the snow started - I crawled along our mile-long unpaved road with prayers and trepidation, and managed to get in before the rest of the 8" got dumped on us. I hate snow. (When we drove out very very carefully the next day, Maggie sweetly said, "We should invite our boss to dinner. Tonight." ;))

Since I couldn't get out the next day until the late afternoon, I spent the day studying breaststroke and butterfly and watching ASCA videos. And about mid-afternoon, I broke down and had a good cry because sometimes it feels like I am never going to understand this no matter how hard I try. Seriously, I don't know what it is about butterfly stroke that makes me feel so small, stupid, and incompetent. The closest analogy I can come up with is that it reminds me of when I was in college and trying to get through the required math classes, and I spent hours and hours every single night working on homework, and no matter how hard I worked, I only ever barely passed the courses. (I'd have had a 4.0 GPA if it weren't for the math requirement, which they dropped the year after I graduated. Of course.)  Studying butterfly makes me feel the exact same way.

I'm feeling much more hopeful today, by the way. I spent some time last night in class with a student, working our way through the progression and trying drills that made no sense on paper (and only limited sense on video) but somehow seemed understandable when I was in the water with her. And today I spent some time in between laps trying drills myself to get a feel for how everything worked together. For the first time, I think I might have a chance of conquering this someday. :)