Today marks the start of the 7th week that I have been going to First Choice Fitness. I go twice a week for 2 hours each day to work with a personal trainer. I absolutely love it. Richard Burr is an awesome trainer, great to work with, sets the bar really high and on top of all that he is a big reader. I love it!!! I started taking my two oldest with me last week, one on one day and the other on the second day. D of course had already been there last year for a month. It was her tennis coach who had suggested First Choice to us. She is very mature and grounded and I knew she would have no issues meeting the coach head-on for whatever tasks he has in store for her. She loves going and would go both days if I would take her. I wasn’t sure how things would go with K. He enjoyed fitness in Florida, but I wasn’t sure how he would handle the 11/2 – 2 hours on his own with a trainer. However today, as usual, he really impressed me. He lasted the 11/2 hours and was eager to try things he saw others doing. The great thing about it was the trainer accommodated him and away he went. The thing that most impressed me was this thing called sleds. Richard has me do a lot of exercises where the exercise is designed to tax your whole body (many muscle groups). One of these exercises is pushing and pulling sleds.  The sled is 50 Lbs, and then you can add weights to it. When I first pushed it, I had to do it empty and it was tough. Now, I’m starting to find it easy to do an additional 50 Lbs 5 lengths (50 m) pushing and the 5 pulling. K has heard me talk about these sleds over the last few weeks and when he saw them, he immediately asked to try it. I was sure he wouldn’t be able to push it at all because of course it was hard for me the first time and after all he is only 54 Lbs, but I am a firm believer in letting the kids do, without limiting them by my pre-conceptions. Well, was I ever surprised and thoroughly impressed to see him push it for two lengths (I’m sure he could have done more, but someone else was supposed to be using it and so we left them to it). I was happy that I had chosen to keep my preconceptions to myself, that I had not tried to dissuade him from at least making the attempt at his vision of conquering the sled. He never doubted for a moment that he could do it and it was such a beautiful thing to see him accomplish it. When I reminded him how hard it was for me at the beginning,  there was a noticeable spring in his steps as he left with his trainer to go and challenge himself with other new and exciting things. I was quite thrilled to know him, he put a special smile on my face and a glow in my heart.

My Two Spring Babies

We have been in Florida for two weeks now. The kids have almost completed one week at the IMG Bollettieri academy. It’s been an eye-opening experience. We have a lot of work to do, but it’s great to have access to some of the best coaches around. Next week, we are going to try another academy, and then we may travel to a different part of Florida to experience yet another place. At IMG, the kids start tennis at 1:30 and go until 5:30, where they have a fitness component from 4:30 until 5:30. So far, they have not shown any sign of fatigue. They work with the full-time kids, as this week’s line-up of part timers were mostly older kids. They get to have group work, semi-private, matches and then fitness. The kids prefer more private time with a coach, so that is what they will do next week at another academy. On with the dream.

To illustrate the quote “United we stand, divided we fall” by Aesop, I borrowed from the story by Aesop of The Bundle of Sticks and showed the kids a bundle of spaghetti noodles (hey, I guess I was too lazy to go out and get sticks). I got them to each try and break the bundle while it was tied and each of them could not. I them gave them loose noodles and they were of course able to break them easily. I was using this quote and example to explain to them the importance of being united and looking out for each other. This was a week ago.

Over 10 years ago, I read that in the Native American culture, children are introduced to birth and death before the age of five so that they understand its normalcy and respect the cycle of life. I’ve been searching all day to find out where I might have seen this, but to no avail. If any one knows anything about this, please comment.

I am not sure why, but this is the topic which was in my heart for today’s post. Maybe it will be helpful to someone out there. I pulled my journal entries from the actual event and here they are. I follow them up with a brief discussion.

If like me, you have kids who love to draw, paint, and create art and have accumulated lots of paper with priceless art, here is a suggestion. This is what I am doing with my favorites:

Why are our kids studying the violin?

I was asked this question recently and as I had formulated my response formally, I thought I might as well share it with you as well.

Last Saturday night, when we got home from Brandon (The kids had a Christmas concert there and we got home by 6:30 p.m.), the older two went to a concert with my mom. Chuti’s parents were willing to play with the younger two kids and so Chuti and I headed out for an impromptu date. It was cozy and lovely. That, however, is not what this post is about. Sorry to burst your bubble, I know you really wanted to know about our date .