Done!

Two quick notes for this Tuesday...

1. Asher finished his black belt testing last Thursday and we got the official word last night that he's PROMOTING TO BLACK BELT! Here he is after class showing off the white stripe on his high brown belt...which indicates that he passed his testing. (There's a whole system for keeping track of things but the important thing is simply the look on his face.)

Folks, I'm also going to take a moment to tell you that my boy definitely earned that stripe. His testing on Thursday was for grab defenses, one-steps and sparring. During the sparring portion, he had to do six 2 minute rounds (with no breaks)...with one of the instructors (a fourth degree black belt!), a friend of roughly the same size and rank, a black belt in high school, that same black belt plus a second degree black belt at the same time, the second degree black belt alone, and then the instructor again. Oy.

For all that I may have been holding my breath, I'm so proud of the progress Asher's made. I can clearly remember when he first started sparring years ago...when he took every touch personally and could so quickly become dispirited. He's come a long ways to being able to handle this sort of pressure and still be able to joke around with his instructor afterward and ask him how to defend against a certain kick that he'd been throwing. 

Whew. So. Now we'll celebrate the promotion this Saturday with an exhibition of skills and such. The demo team will also be performing. We've got grandparents and friends coming to celebrate with us. Life is good. :)

(Incidentally, I didn't take any pictures during the testing. Okay, maybe two. I was too nervous. ;p Fortunately, the same instructor who sparred him took pictures and video throughout that will be available to us after Saturday. Hooray!)

2. Less importantly, our window installation went swimmingly and is all done! The crew was excellent and finished in less than two days with minimal disruption, and so far we're quite happy with the new windows. It took us another few days to get all the furniture and window treatments back in place, lol. And we'll likely now end up replacing some of the window treatments. But. It *was* a good opportunity for cleaning areas that haven't been cleaned in awhile when we shuffled stuff. :)

If you're thinking about getting new windows anytime soon and are interested, let me know and I'll get you their information!

Almost...

And, perhaps most significant right now, Asher has only one more day of official testing for his black belt!!

Over the past week, he turned in all his required paperwork (official checking of things and report card and an essay). Last night, he had the first of two nights of testing. (He's been "testing" since September...with specific checks for technique and such and weekly training sessions, but these two nights of testing are the determining factors for getting his black belt.)

Yesterday were the forms and combinations tests...ten (I think) different forms that he's learned over the last 5.5 years (each with roughly 20-30 steps) and 24 different combinations along with a weapons form that he learned just for this (he had to learn a new one because he already knew the traditional ones too well from demo team). Each form was performed at least two times (not always in order and sometimes while the other person was doing a different form) and each combination was performed 10 times (five on each side). 

Folks, I'm so stinkin' proud of my boy. Obviously I'm biased, but I've sat through enough hundreds of hours of karate to know that he did great. :) His technique is so crisp and his memory is amazing. I know that sometimes Asher feels that his brothers' recall is better than his when we're doing schoolwork, but I hope he can see that his physical recall is astounding. He's got all of those things I just listed stored in his head to be performed at will...plus all the grab defenses and one steps that he'll test tomorrow...plus all the demo team performance routines (some of which he knows multiple positions for) and all the weapons forms he's learned through black belt club. Whew.

On top of that, he's really been working on his conditioning and on learning from and moving on from mistakes. I felt like both truly showed last night. The kid is in darn good shape. The 1.5 hours of intense testing didn't phase him (after 1.75 hours of gymnastics earlier in the day) and he was bouncing around again early this morning. And the times he missed a step or whatever, he did a fabulous (for him) job of brushing it off and moving on. Even a couple of years ago, this would have been a struggle...being okay with not performing perfectly was/is a challenge for him. (This is part of why he chose to stop going to archery tournaments. Refocusing after a bad shot wasn't working.) Especially through the black belt training since September, though, he's really worked on seeing mistakes as opportunities to improve rather than the end of the world. So, regardless of anything else, I'm thankful for that. 

And now I must go take him to get a haircut (because his bangs were annoyingly in his eyes last night, lol). Tomorrow will be more intense testing, as he'll do all the grab defenses and one-steps (with an opponent) and will have to spar multiple people of varying sizes. 

And, then, after these months of training and preparation, we'll know for sure whether he'll be promoting to black belt on January 30. I may be holding my breath until then. ;) 

**ETA: Okay, I forgot to post this before I headed out. We're back now. Asher looks so handsome with his haircut...

(Took almost a dozen pictures and he's making a different face in each of them, lol.)

And, now I'm off to get Noah to calculus... 

And so it begins

So. The next couple-ish weeks are going to be busy. Like really. I've got window installation going on as I type...and, given that it's about freezing, there's still snow on the ground, and the winds are picking up, I'll try to make this quick.

1. Yes, I realize that this isn't the ideal time for having new windows installed throughout one's home. It was a great deal and this is when they could do it...and past Januarys have been weirdly lovely so there was some hope of that. Oh well. :) I'll let you know how it goes.

(I'm trying to be positive and think about how nice it will be to have all new windows...which we've needed since we moved in more than 11 years ago...and how this is a good opportunity to dust and clean window treatments and all the stuff we had to move away from every window.)

2. Last Sunday, my bookends had another JOAD tournament...this one in south, south Denver (okay, technically, SE Parker but it's all Denver to me, lol). Both boys set new personal bests and Micah even came away with second place. He's pretty happy:

3. Last Friday, Noah and I attended a new student orientation at Front Range Community College. Technically, he already has 18 college credits to his name, but all of those courses have been taken on the Colorado Early Colleges campus near our house (with only other high schoolers). Today will be his first class taken actually at Front Range (because he's now taken all of the math and science classes offered on the CEC campus), and he'll almost definitely be the youngest person in his calculus class. Fortunately, he looks older than he is and should be fine. Since he's only just turned 15, though, we'll still have to drive him to and from...and have him put in some of his driver's training during those drives. We're also going to look into the bus schedule, but a first glance tells me that won't work, as his classes at CEC don't get done soon enough for how long the bus ride will take. (He has three classes at CEC in the morning then comes home for a quick lunch then we'll take him to FRCC.)

4. Anyhow. I also, per his advisor's request/advice, registered the boy for the April ACT test. This one will mostly be for practice, as he's still only a sophomore. Still. I feel old. ;)

5. Regarding age, though, I'm actually pretty grateful for mine when it comes to boot camp. I've been doing better lately and am pretty happy about that. I remember, though, that some of the awesome people there have 10 or more years on me and are still kicking butt. I'm hoping I can do as well...they seriously inspire me. :)

6. On the subject of boot camp, this morning was...um...full. I won't bore you with all the details, but it included 400 squats (with kettlebells for different exercises), 175 burpees of miscellaneous varieties, 50 pull-ups, 50 double unders and 50 chin-ups. Oy.

7. This was all after my phone messed me all up early this morning. For reasons unknown, my phone alarm (which is the only clock I use in my bedroom) went off as usual at 5:20 am. I got up and got ready, though I was dragging. I woke Nathan...who promptly informed me that it was only 2ish and to go back to bed. Ugh! After some double checking, we determined that my phone (which was correct when we went to sleep just before midnight) had mysteriously decided to jump forward in time to Saturday, January 23. Specifically, it jumped three days, three hours and three minutes, I think. What the heck?! I've never had that happen before. Have you? 

Anyhow, Nathan manually reset my phone and we went back to sleep. I then got up at the correct 5:20 and went to boot camp. Nathan declined. ;) 

8. In any case. In the "coming up" department, then, we'll need to do some clean up after the windows this weekend. My mom will be here next Tuesday. Nathan's parents will join us next Friday. We'll all go watch Asher get his black belt next Saturday (hopefully...more on that in another post). My mom will then go visit my brother in Longmont. Nathan's parents will be here for the week. During all that, boys will still have karate and archery and gymnastics and such. Noah will still have school. Younger two will still have Options on Monday. Asher has an orthodontist appointment in there somewhere. And my bookends will have another JOAD tournament February 6 and 7. (Micah will shoot Saturday, and Noah will shoot Sunday.) 

9. After all that, I fully intend to crash on the couch and eat junk food and watch the SuperBowl on Feb 7. Don't even think about messing with me during that, lol.

I'll figure out what comes next after all that. ;)

New word

We're still in the first half of January, so it's okay that I haven't announced my word of the year yet, right? :)

Before I get into my new word, I want to take a moment to reflect on my word from last year. Last year's word was "lighten." To be honest, I wasn't thrilled with it to start with...it didn't feel as solid as past words. But. It totally worked. :) I lightened our home with some great purging...I lightened our homeschooling with some reevaluation of purpose...I hope I lightened the load for friends and family by helping out and setting that example for my boys...and I lightened myself, by more than 25 pounds! (insert small happy dance here, lol)

So. Starting from there, my word for 2016 is COUNT...as in make it count. (Yes, it's been pointed out to me that I could simply choose a phrase instead of a single word but I just can't seem to make myself do it, lol.) I want to make 2016 count. I'm realizing, you see, that my guys are growing up on me. We only have two more summers before Noah graduates, for crying out loud! (at which point, we'll also have a sixteen and a thirteen year old...oy!) So, here's to not just going through the motions for the sake of checking something off my list...here's to prioritizing and doing and choosing things that matter...here's to making it count.

Five on Friday

Still here. Working on getting back into the swing of things during a month we already know is not going to cooperate with routine. ;p In the meantime, here are five random things:

1. Found this tee yesterday and had to get it for Micah...

2. The boys and I played a geography game this morning/afternoon...four times. It was pretty good, actually. I appreciated the education going on and it was just complicated enough but not too frustrating. Plus, I LOVE when I find games at garage sales that are still brand new. :) (Got this for like a dollar not long ago, and everything was still wrapped in plastic inside the box...it's going for $50ish on Amazon.)

(For those who want to know, it's called National Geographic Global Pursuit and was made in the 1980's...so still has the Soviet Union and West/East Germany and such...which is a teaching point all on its own.)

3. Noah's new schedule is causing some shifting of our routine. Between that and the new time for karate classes that just went into effect (which we very much like but which is throwing us off because we've been going at the same time for years and this is off by just 15 minutes, lol)...and trying to increase the number of times each week that Noah and Micah practice archery and that Asher's swimming before the black belt promotion, we're feeling a bit discombobulated. I had to make charts again. ;)

4. Turns out, the new couch we ordered isn't going to work. After some further research, it was getting pretty poor reviews and we didn't feel like risking it. Nathan just got off the phone with the place and they were very good about refunding our purchase and everything...no worries at all. Turns out it maybe was a good thing they weren't able to deliver it this month, lol. So. We're looking for a new couch again. Any recommendations on places to shop?

5. I'm not crazy about shoveling snow. Just saying. ;) Our neighbor came outside and fired up his snowblower as I was finishing up and helped me with a wee bit of the driveway. Nathan asked if I had snowblower envy. I reminded him that we have three boys and really shouldn't have to be shoveling in the first place. To be fair, though, Noah had class (which is why I was shoveling in the first place so I could get out of the garage to take him) and Asher did shovel the sidewalk portion. Nathan had a work call and Micah doesn't have any snow boots that fit him (he uses mine when I'm not using them...yes, that's just how we're going to handle this entire winter...I'll get him different boots next year, lol). Still. Bleh.

And that's some of what's going on here. :)