Swim Meet!

I must humbly admit that this whole "let's be year around swimmers" was my crazy idea. It didn't seem crazy at the time, but something about driving 45 minutes one way at least 2x/ week and staying 2 1/2 hours for 3 kids to swim is insane!! What normal mom would put her family through that?! The past 2 weeks I have been dying to quit this sport for several reasons.

#1 my kids aren't loving it. If I'm going WAY out of my way you better love it! Most days I have to hype them up just to get them to practice. Ugh!

#2 Our family life is suffering. Robbie gets home long before we do on swim nights, then we eat a fast dinner, finish up homework, pack lunches and backpacks for the next day and then fall miserably into bed. Doesn't make for the best"family time"

#3 I haven't seen HUGE improvements in my kids' swimming ability like I had hoped. They loved swimming in the summer league and all wanted to get better by swimming with this great time for the winter. Progress has been slower that expected and with the head coach leaving to spend some family time with a newly adopted daughter, instruction has not been consistent.

#4 MV had to move up on her birthday to start swimming with the 9 & 10 year olds which has lengthened our practice time from one hour to 2.5 hours. This change has me on the edge!

Yesterday we had a swim meet an hour and half away. We had to be there at 7:30 for warm-ups so this family of 7 was up and in the car right at 6:00 am! I had a bit of a bad attitude about the meet. Mainly because I was tired of all the travel to and from practice and then traveling to a meet didn't sound like fun. But also because MV had to start swimming 50 yards with turns for this meet. I didn't think she was anywhere near ready for this change and didn't want her to get discouraged in the water.

Well, both of my girls blew me away yesterday!! They swam exceptionally well for their ability and really surprised me with their times! MV's freestyle is her slowest stroke, but yesterday it was by far her fastest even swimming 50's! And, she was tired on the way back, but still beat her best 25 yard time by 3 seconds! Here she is (in the blue suit and green cap) with her first ever 50 yard swim! I was proud!

And CH shocked us all by taking 7 seconds off her freestyle! She usually looks like a wild woman on this stroke, but yesterday she looked so much better and her time proved it! Oh, I was so proud and happy for her! (She has on a black suit and pink cap)

So, should we keep swimming? I know we are taking next week off to let them have some down time. And we are going to keep swimming through December since we have paid for it and "Masonites don't quit!" Not even when Mama wants too! But, I doubt we will be jumping back into this fun sport for the spring season, at least not at the same facility and not at the beginning of the season. We may jump on a team for a month or two to get us ready for the summer league, but even that is sounding less appealing than it did before! Stay tuned!