the junk drawer at the end of season

It's dumping snow and we have 8 newly hatched baby chicks in a box in Beach's room.  I begged BC not to hatch them so early and during meet season but he didn't listen.

The house is a full-fledged construction site.

I spent most of yesterday in bed or on the sofa.  I would like to say I was trying to rest but honestly I was trying to get up and get going.  Trying to continue to power through this stupid cold.  But it keeps dragging me back down.  I can feel it every time I stand up- it triples the pull of gravity.  I'm short of breath and my head pounds. 

All around the valley nasty viruses are taking people out.  Last week it swept most of our team off their feet.  The line of girls using the phone to call home sick was a constant. Beach and Sophie included.  I took them home Tuesday night, feed them toast and tea, and let them sleep snuggled on the sofa together.

Deep within our own gym family one of our favorite Trophy Dads was hospitalized.  As our girls competed in Park City the moms all anxiously waited updates from the family.  We were all relieved to hear when he was finally released on Sunday to go home.

My dreams last night were all about scrambling to make flights and finding hotels... we leave for Ohio on Thursday.  Like Florida last year this is the meet that I have been watching ominously creep over the horizon.  But despite the amount of energy I have thrown at trying to ignore it I find myself staring at it calmly. 

When Beach began traveling for gymnastics we were not prepared for the expense or the commitment and time that went into it.  Just a few years later, for the most part we have all that figured out.  Beach likes, even loves the travel part.  BC has come to accept it as long as I present it to him carefully and in small doses.

That just leaves me.  I get stressed, homesick, & regular sick. I get lonely and I get overwhelmed being surrounded... but I think I got this.  I can see us standing in the middle of our gym family. Herding excited girls clutching & guzzling Starbucks cups of hot chocolate as they enter the security line.  Bags and selfies, nerves and smiles.

And now we have 9 baby chicks. 

Maybe when we get home the house will be finished- and life can get back to normal.