Spring Break

Well, we're on Spring Break in the Birchfield household this week, but it sure hasn't felt like much of a *break*!! Kelsey played in a one-day tournament in Morristown Saturday (which turned into a one-game tournament due to pretty heavy rain arriving just as Game 2 started). J. has been playing high school ball all week. Well, not playing really. This is a tough year for J., dealing with the politics of high school athletics.

Last year, J. played about half-time as a freshman and did pretty well for himself in his first year of high school ball. He got along well with his coach and was even receiving praise from the varsity coaches every now and again. This year, there's a new coach (the basketball coach) and, boy, is the environment different. If you're not a basketball player, you're pretty much screwed this year. There are about 20 kids on the JV this year and about 10 of them are playing regularly. J. has played 4 innings in the first five games. Could be worse, I guess. He's got friends who didn't even sniff playing time until Game 5.

But it is frustrating as a parent to see how down J. has become about it all, even talking about hanging it up after this year. I hope he doesn't, but I can't blame him if he decides to do just that. He's been to every workout since the fall, every practice, sold everything the booster club has thrown at him to sell to raise money, and he just doesn't understand why all that doesn't matter. It's hard to explain to a 15-year-old the politics that go into high school athletics, the kid whose parents donated the most money, the kid whose dad is the teacher, the kid whose mom is *extra* helpful, the coach who favors his basketball players, etc. It's hard to explain why 110% doesn't always bring reward, especially when giving 110% has been drilled into his brain since he started playing sports.

I pray for J. a lot these days, not so much for his playing time -- although I do sneak that in every now and again. But I more oftentimes pray for him to find the grace to deal with this situation. At first I thought his quitting at the end of the year was not necessarily a bad thing, but now I think it will show more character to stick it out. I told him at dinner tonight he has to decide if it is playing time that is more important or just his love of playing and being on the team. Playing time is important for him, for every kid on the team, I know. But I wonder if he wouldn't feel worse if he had no team at all. He so loves baseball.

I also think by staying he may just make a statement about his determination and his ability to deal with adversity. I don't know what the right decision is here. J. has never had to deal with failure and it's causing him great stress and pretty dark moods because he feels he has no recourse, no way to right the ship. But because this is not failure to perform on his part, but failure to be given any opportunity to perform on the part of his coach, I cautioned him away from hanging up his cleats next year because the coaches will be different. It will be interesting to see what decision he makes.

In other news, the girls have talked their dad and me into getting a tropical freshwater aquarium. We now have two fancy male guppies, a dalmation molly and some kind of orange Mickey Mouse platy (the real name escapes me). We thought we were getting a tank full of male fishies, but we believe now our molly is a female and probably the platy, too. Because almost all female mollies and platies come pregnant from the fish store, they are going back tomorrow. The girls are not thrilled about it, but we do NOT want hundreds of babies roaming around our little 20-gallon tank, not to mention we also do NOT want to watch the mommies munching on said babies after they're birthed. So to avoid any kind of scene like that, we are trading in these two for males bright and early in the morning. These are just starter fish, so they may all bite the dust in the next week or so anyway, but I want to take no chances. I will post some pictures of our swimmers in the coming week.

Finally, this Sunday is Easter. So early this year. My daffodils are not blooming yet, but they're wanting to. They're budding, but I feel certain the predicted snowfall on Monday will take care of that. Never fails. Everything JUST starts blooming and then BAM!, the old freezer turns on again. I was so thrilled with our week of 60+ weather that I packed up all of Sydney's warm clothes while I was cleaning out her room (another story for another day) and stored them securely under her bed this week, just daring Mother Nature to send any more cold weather our way. I'm over it. If it's cold, then it should snow. If it can't snow, well, then forget it and let's get on with it already. Just my opinion...

I hope everyone reading this has a happy Easter, full of hugs and lots of chocolate! We're having the usual family get-together at the house, complete with egg hunt and Honey-Baked ham. Good times, people. Good times...

Oh, and just in case you're living in a monastery or a cave somewhere, the Big Orange is competing in the NCAA basketball tourney this weekend. After today's exhibition, I am not holding my breath on an overly-extended season, but ya' never know. 20 (TWENTY) years ago I was a freshman at the ol' UT and I can promise you basketball season was nothing to cheer about, but I still loved going to the games, sitting (standing) in the student section in the arena, hoping I would catch an orange and white shaker before game time. I still love watching them, just now from the comfort of my living room!

Happy Easter Everybody!

~Peace