September is a bit of a blur as it flew by so fast. We had some cross country meets for Briley and Baylor. Briley got her best time at the Baldwin meet. Her time was 19:53, and she got fourth place. She was so excited, and we were happy for her. Baylor finished his season, and his best time was 6:04 for the mile. He was in the top ten for most races, and really enjoyed his season. He wants to run again next year instead of playing for the school football team. I recently came across an article about how much we love cross country as parents. It's such a different vibe at meets compared to other sports. Everyone cheers for everyone. The runner who comes in first will be cheered, and the person who comes in last will get cheered. There was a boy finishing last in Briley's meet a couple of weeks ago. His team mates met him towards the end, and began to run with him to the finish line cheering. I love the support they all give each other.
What if we lived life like we were all in a cross country meet?
What if we watched other people and recognized that we're all just trying to get across the finish line?
What if we understood that some people are running as hard as they can but battling illnesses, invisible injuries, and internal struggles? Every step is hard, but they're trying not to quit.
What if we cheered for everyone even if they weren't on our team?
What if we realized just finishing something, no matter how long it took us or how messy it seemed, was enough? In fact, it was a win.
What if we used every race as an opportunity to learn more about ourselves and how we could use each other for support, inspiration, and help to reach our goals?
What if we cheered loud for the winner, but even louder for the one who comes in after because they accomplished something great, too?
In a world that tells us it's about me, me, me, what if we started living to support everyone brave enough to be in the race?
What if we started treating our lives like we were all in the same cross country meet?
What a beautiful world that would be.
Whitney Fleming Writes
Andy's birthday was on Tuesday this year. We decided to skip practices that night, and went to dinner at Jess and Jim's. Life has been so busy that it was nice to take a night to just celebrate Andy. After dinner, we came home to have cake. I bought him a cake at McClain's that was chocolate cake with a peanut butter cream filling. He then opened his presents, and that is exciting when you are 42. I gave him Cutco knives, and the kid's bought him some new googles. Finley made him the cutest card. I love her notes. I hope this year is full of wonderful memories for him, and that he knows how loved he is by us.
The kids had a couple of days off for parent teacher conferences that week. I took Finley and Atticus to Deanna Rose one day. It had been a long time since we had gone, and they had fun doing all the things. We fed the goats and fish, we chatted with the barber, played on the playground, had some ice cream, and checked out all the other animals.
The next day, I took them all to Louisburg for some cider and donuts. This is always a tradition each year that they look forward to. I love that they hang on to some of these traditions. It gets harder and harder each year to be able to get them all together for outings. It seems they are all going different directions all the time.
Finley had a cheer camp at BVN, and was able to cheer at the Varsity football game last weekend. She loves doing this each year with her friends. We stayed until halftime before leaving. The football team is struggling this year, so we didn't stay for the whole game. We knew how it was going to end.
On Saturday, we went to the Church picnic. We took Sully and Emmie with us, and the kids all had a blast playing all the games. They had a dj playing music, and I told Andy it was kind of funny to have Tech 9 blaring while you are at a Church picnic, but that it how it went down. It was quite the party.
This week was Homecoming, and we kicked it off on Wednesday with the parade. Briley stayed for the bonfire afterwards, but they weren't able to shoot off fireworks due to construction going on close by. She went to the game on Friday, and we laughed because she beat us home from Finley's soccer game that night. Another loss for the team, and she didn't want to stay for it.
Saturday was the homecoming dance. I hoped they would actually go to the dance, but they didn't. We spent a lot of money on a cute dress and accessories to go out to dinner at a fancy country club. She went with a boy from Rockhurst who seemed sweet. She got ice cream at Coldstone with her friend after the dinner, and then she came home. These kids are really missing out on all the fun of going to a dance I think. I hope they decided to go at least for their Senior year.
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