I was recently asked to write another blog as an update. I got to thinking about what I would write, and I realized that our lives are completely in our gym right now. Shawn and the girls and I are all in taekwondo, and Shawn and I also take kettlebells at our tkd gym. Our schedule looks like this:
Monday- Olivia and Genevieve have tkd class at 5pm. I try to contain Shael while he copies the children from the sidelines (he punches and kicks his diaper bag or targets while yelling. He'll sideslide whenever the kids do.) I have Russian kettlebells at 6. Shawn watches Shael while the girls do homework or read or play games, or maybe he takes them to Subway as a treat. Then I take the kids home while Shawn does the adult tkd class, and then his kettlebell class.
Tuesday- Olivia and Shawn have Sparring team practice at 6pm. Then Shawn takes the kids home to a crockpot dinner while I do the adult black belt class.
Wednesday- Repeat Monday.
Thursday- I go for a run, since I'm preparing for my first 10k on New Year's Day. I attend adult tkd class in the evening, and get spoiled since it is a small class. Sometimes, it's just me! Master Theresa can give me lots of good coaching when I'm all alone.
Friday- I lift heavy weights at home, and maybe run, depending on how difficult my workouts earlier in the week were.
Saturday & Sunday- I try to run and lift weights on one of these days, and rest on the other. Sometimes I rest both days.
Every once in a while, Olivia will come running with me. Yesterday she ran two miles with me before I dropped her off at home! I was impressed. She wants to start running 5k's with me, and eventually wants to do a 10k, too. As long as she wants to do it, I'm fine with it. Shawn and Brad and I all feel the same way about tkd, too. Every once in a while, Genevieve doesn't want to do so much tkd. Since she is doing two days a week, we'll have her do one night a week for a while. If she seems tired to us, she doesn't get a choice, and she gets cut back so that she doesn't get sick. We have even told her that if she wants to quit, she can, but that means no competing. At the last tournament, Gen didn't want to spar, but when she watched Olivia in the ring, she said, "I should have signed up for sparring. I bet I could win." You can't win if you don't enter, and you can't enter if you don't train! I personally hate sparring, and refuse to compete in it, but sparring has the hearts of everyone else in my family. I must say that I have been very impressed with Olivia's dedication to tkd. She is the one that I would have guessed would quit when it became an inconvenience. However, when she was invited to join the sparring team, she jumped at the chance. The sparring team is an honor, and she recognized that. We told her that it was a big financial commitment and if she joined, she could not quit until tournament season is over. Not only does she look forward to practice three times a week, but she squeezes in her homework, started the trumpet in September (required practice is 100 minutes a week!), and is constantly volunteering to watch Shael. And of course, the running that I previously mentioned! When the opportunity to play community ed. basketball came up, she said, "I would like to, but I think that would be pushing myself too hard. That would be a very busy schedule." I agreed, and couldn't help but smile at how grown-up she has become. Both my girls have such a capacity for memorization, and I marvel at the feats they have accomplished with their tiny bodies. They both brought home report cards yesterday, and they were fantastic. I am in awe of them. Shael has begun to potty train. I know, he just turned 16 months old, but with teaching him sign language, elimination communication came naturally. Now he uses the toilet 75% of the time, and is so insanely proud of himself. It's adorable to watch him smile and clap his little hands on the toilet. However, he asks to go at least every twenty minutes, so it gets exhausting, too! He is so energetic and has such a big personality for his size. He is very popular at our gym, and is always ready to bow to the flags and to give everyone high fives after they get done with practice. He has a large fan club, and always has a line of kids in front of him. When they put on their chest protectors, he loves to punch them in the chest. The kids will dissolve into giggles and someone else will jump in line. It's quite the entertainment! At first, when he started to mimic punching and kicking, he didn't understand that he had to have an appropriate target. Anything was game, and my face was usually the closest thing to take aim at. Now that we've reinforced (a million times) that he needs to hit a "target", he (usually) only punches and kicks the things he's allowed to. One of the teens in our gym just recently took first place in the NATION in sparring, and it is heartwarming to watch him "fight" with Shael. Of course, he always lets Shael win. We'll have to get that on tape. I got to thinking, and realized that Shael has been in that gym since before he was born. He was there when he was four days old, and has been a regular ever since.
So, you see, the gym is our whole lives right now. I never thought it would be. A year ago, I signed the girls up for tkd so they wouldn't get beat up anymore, and I secretly hoped I could get back into it, too. I never knew how far we would come, but it has transformed my life by transforming my body. After losing 87 lbs., I can look back and see how drastically different everything is. I love that we're doing all of this as a family, and it has brought us all closer together. Here's to more adventures!
