Sport Season

On Saturday, Micah competed in the first local competition of the rock climbing sport season. 

(In the fall, they did bouldering. Now they're competing in sport season...which means ropes. For this local comp, participants were allowed to do either top rope or lead (though some were only available as lead). By the end of the season, for regionals, though, Micah's age group must climb lead I think.)

So, the first local comp was down in Boulder at a terrific facility. Nathan, Micah and I drove down and got settled...climbers warmed up and then met with the head judge for a quick word...

(About half of the competitors climbed in the morning wave. This was the afternoon wave.)

...and then they had three hours to climb. Twenty four routes were set up for climbers to attempt. Each was assigned a number/point value...harder routes had higher numbers. At the end of the set time, a climber's top three completed routes were added up to create his/her score. 

Micah only attempted one lead climb (top left photo), since he wasn't feeling confident with that quite yet (as he's only been lead climbing for a week, lol). Lines took awhile so there was a fair amount of down time, but Micah had a good time with his teammates (not too many since it's the first of the season and since all the girls ended up assigned to the morning wave) and did some decent climbing. He's glad to have the experience to build on going into the rest of the season and is looking forward to the local comp at his home gym in a couple weeks. For our part, Nathan and I just truly enjoy watching all the kids and are so impressed by the skills and tenacity. 

Still here...just behind on sharing...

Realizing that I'm a bit behind on just sharing what's been going on around here. Let's see...mostly, we've just been up to our normal stuff--

• school for boys,
• climbing and karate for Micah (the new ropes season started for climbing and his first local competition will be this weekend),
• parkour and karate for Asher,
• college for Noah,
• work for Nathan,
• starting some weight lifting/training at home for Micah and Nathan,
• boot camp and climbing (and shoveling ridiculous snow) for me, and
• date nights for Nathan and me.

Beyond all that, here are a few other highlights...

1. At the end of January, Nathan and I attended Fort Collins' State of the City program. Rather than going to the in-person presentation again (which had been our plan), we opted at the last minute to go to one of the official viewing parties...and thoroughly enjoyed our time at Prost Brewing...

(Yeah, I had fun playing with the photo...and we may need to pick up some Prost pint glasses (and little letter "b" stickers), lol.) As for the State of the City...so happy to live here. 

2. Also at the end of January, Asher and Micah performed with the Karate West demo team during one of the monthly promotions. Given the time of year (and how dark it was outside), they busted out the glo-chuks. 

(It's tough to get decent pictures but this one turned out pretty well.) The next day, the demo team also performed at the winter Black Belt promotion. (Karate West has Black Belt testing twice each year...more on that in a minute.)

3. We're officially a four ballot family. Whoa. We recently learned that since Asher will turn 18 before the November election, he's allowed to vote in the primary. He officially registered to vote, then, and voila...

Wow, right? 

4. As if Asher voting wasn't enough to remind us of the passage of time, we're fully busy with college visits. We visited the University of Wyoming last fall and hit the Discover CSU day earlier this week...

And Asher and I have four more campus visits scheduled for over spring break...looking forward to the road trip!

5. And yesterday Micah got the official invite to test for 2nd Degree Black Belt at Karate West! Like Asher did last year, Micah will prep and train starting probably next month and will then have progress checks in May and June and a full week of testing in July before the promotion at the end of July. Yay!

Work

Okay. I've been overthinking and trying to figure out how to convey my thoughts about my word for the year and also my thoughts on working. I thought they went together, and it's been muddling up my decision about my word for the year. But. I'm finally realizing that they don't have to go together. Whew. 

Given that, I wanted to just take a minute to record my thoughts on the whole "what are you going to do when you go back to work now that you're not homeschooling anymore?" conversation.

Here's the thing(s). 1) Being a mom and running a household definitely *is* a job and deserves to be valued as such. 2) I don't really want to go "back to work." :)

Do I have extra time in my days? Yes. Are my boys mostly self-sufficient? Yup. Do I have the skills to get a decent job? Pretty sure I do. (My degrees and resume are rusty, but I've done a variety of things over the years while also homeschooling.) 

But. I'm rather fond of how my life is right now. It's pretty fabulous. (And, yes, I know that I am truly blessed that this is even a choice. Seriously appreciate Nathan and his work!) I so highly value the flexibility I currently have in my schedule...that I'm able to be here for my boys whenever they need me...that I can take the time to do college visits or go to climbing competitions or just listen when someone decides to talk. For years now, I've been prioritizing this time above other things...being an active part in my boys' lives. Now that they're older doesn't mean that they need me any less or that I want to be there for them any less. Sure, it looks a bit different...but parenting teens is just as involved as parenting toddlers. 

So. Since I do have the luxury of a choice, I'm choosing not to look for full time work. I'm just not ready to shift my focus away from my boys quite yet and know that going back to work full time would require that (or that I would require that of myself). Micah only has three years of school after this one, and Asher will be a senior this fall. I need a bit more time to transition my focus from boys to work.  

So...not full time work. But. Obviously, extra income sure would be lovely. I'm still paying off law/graduate school student loans after all. ;P To that end, I'm looking into part-time, work-from-home type situations. I have a lead on a couple ideas and will keep you posted. In the meantime, just wanted to share this.