Field Things

Field Day at my children’s elementary school is quite an extravaganza. This school is 2 or 3 times the size of my old elementary and the entire school has Field Day together. Field Day is also another one of the now absurdly long list of things that strike an emotional response in me (along with dolphin shows, Primary songs, and World War II history films). I swear, it’s the stupidest thing in the world to stand at the sidelines of your child’s race preparing to cheer him/her on and trying to pretend that the tears welling up in your eyes have something to do with the day’s pollen count (which would have been more convincing if I had ever actually suffered from a pollen allergy). Grrr.

Emma, Kay and Ian all did very well. For what must be the first time in her entire life, Emma took a piece of advice from me without fuss and used it to her advantage! I must celebrate! For someone as feminine and enraptured with gymnastics/dance as she is, she’s not very graceful, darn it all. So I encouraged her to pump her arms as she ran instead of letting them flap behind her as she usually does. She did and ran much faster than usual. After the race, she came up to make sure I had shared my “secret” to running with her siblings, too. Lovely bit of unselfishness there. Now I just need to get her to point her toes in gymnastics and we’ll be all set. I was so pleased with Emma’s attitude toward the events. She had a great time and gave it her best.

Kay is super speedy. I noticed her speed a couple summers ago at camp, watching her sprint across a field to be the first for horseback riding each day. She has excellent form and remarkable power in those leg muscles. She came in first in the dashes and not too shabbily in the hurdles. I’d LOVE to see that girl learn to hurdle. In the tug of war, Kay was all muscles, too, until a blister on her hand popped during a particularly well matched bout. She and another red-head were locked in an epic struggle when the blister tore open and Kay stumbled. It was the only match she lost and after crying a bit because her hand hurt, she pulled herself together and went back for one more round which she also won. That was the second time this week that I’ve watched Kay pull herself together and stick to a situation on which she would ordinarily have given up. That to me was more exciting than the wins.

Ian. I shaved off all of Ian’s shaggy hair this morning, thinking it would help him stay cool. However, since the day was cool and overcast anyway, all the haircut really did was ensure that I had an extra difficult time spotting him within the horde of other blond-haired, buzz-cut boys. All wearing dark shorts too. Thankfully, Ian had a red stripe down the side of his shorts and once I learned to seek out the stripe I had more luck locating him for his events. Ian just had a ball. It didn’t matter what place he came in or what he was doing, he was his usual enthusiastic and cheerful self. He was just happy to be out running around doing fun things. I love that enthusiasm.

Tara’s on a field trip to an amusement park today with her school choir. She’s been SO excited to go, but last night, became a little anxious and pleaded with me to buy a ticket and meet her at the park. As we talked, she expressed that she was apprehensive about being at such a place without the family. Truth be known, I was apprehensive too. This is the first time I’ve allowed any of my children to be responsible for themselves in such a crowded public place. But, Tara’s old enough and trustworthy enough to handle this kind of situation; and John and I both felt she deserved to have the fun that we’d had as youth on these kinds of trips. I also knew quite clearly (oddly enough) that my nervousness was NOT a prompting for safety. She would be safe. I just wanted her to have the means to get to safety (money and a mobile) about her person. Once we’d talked through what she would do in her worst case scenarios, and offered her a father’s blessing in the morning, we both calmed right down. (Hopefully she didn’t know I was nervous in the first place.)

John gave her a blessing this morning; I gave her my mobile phone and spending money. What she gave us came out of the conversation the night before. It was a neat little expression of confidence in our parenting skills. I was oddly delighted that her anxiety last night was the result of feeling safe when we go out together as a family; that she welcomes the protection from the world that John and I provide. It was also wonderful to be able to reassure her with both mother’s influence and the power of the priesthood.

And these are the fruits of the day.