This week...

...saw the departure of our second round of house guests in as many weeks. (Had a lovely visit with John & Nancy despite the freezing temperatures...sad to see them leave yesterday.)

...the boys started back to Options. (And were delighted to see their friends again, though they were missing their grandparents.)

...feels eerie. (Because yesterday all three boys decided, after considered deliberation, NOT to register for spring soccer. (The registration started early this morning, btw.) Yup, after seven straight seasons of soccer, it appears we're very probably at an end...)

• Last spring was Noah's last season of rec soccer before many of his friends switched over to competitive teams or changed sports to football or hockey. He'd thought about trying again with a whole new team this spring but has now changed his mind. (At U10, kids have to choose between going to competitive teams or staying with the considerably fewer rec teams (from 22 boys U9 rec teams to 6 boys U10 rec teams). In our efforts to be fair to all three boys, we'd informed them from the start that we'd only do rec soccer...not wanting to commit to the travel and expense involved in the competitive soccer program.)
• Asher would have just this one season before being in the same situation as Noah. Ash was so busy last fall with both soccer and karate, though, that he's opted to focus just on karate (after, of course, he gets the go ahead again from the doctor...cast comes off on Friday!).
• And Micah, hilarious Micah, declared that his only real interest in soccer was in getting to go to at least one end of season party. He reasoned that if at least one brother played, he'd get to go to that party. Upon hearing his brothers' decisions, truly, Micah's face fell. Fortunately, I figured it out right away and have now promised him that we'll have our very own end-of-not-soccer-season party, complete with cupcakes. ;)
• In any case, I'm mostly happy with the boys' decisions. I've loved soccer and think that the boys have definitely benefited from the experience, especially the teamwork aspects. And I must admit that I'm a little sad that they won't get that this spring. But. As a family, we're very much looking forward to free weekends this spring and have resolved to use at least every other one of them to do something special together as a family. 

...will see Micah heading back to karate after taking December off in consideration of Asher's broken arm and the holidays. (Asher will have to wait for the doctor's verdict before he can go back.)

...will hopefully provide the time to get on top of a few projects I'm hoping to tackle in this new year. (May even update my blog header here, lol.)

...will continue to be an "off" week from homeschooling. (Because I'm proudly being realistic and recognized that I'll need this week to get things back in order after the holidays and house guests.)

So. Happy sigh. Feeling pretty darn good about 2011 so far. How about you?