Joshua and Rachel have recently joined the swim team at our local YMCA. This has brought numerous things into our busy lives, one of which is a slew of new quotations:
No man drowns if he perseveres in praying to God, and can swim. ~Russian Proverb
It’s a good idea to begin at the bottom in everything except in learning to swim. ~Author Unknown
If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do all the rest have to drown too? ~Steven Wright
Sometimes God calms the storm. At other times, he calms the sailor. And sometimes he makes us swim. ~Author Unknown
And of course, our favorite:
When the earth floods from global warming, the swimmers will rule the world. ~Author Unknown
On Saturday Joshua swam in his first meet. Such excitement and nervous energy! We calculated Joshua was on the pool deck for 4 hours and swam for 20 minutes.
Should I be concerned? This seems like an awful lot of time on the bench. 
We were very proud of Joshua’s commitment to the team and dedication in swimming.
Excellent Job, Joshua!!
Because of our incredibly snowy Christmas, the children’s Christmas pageant was postponed until a more timely (i.e. more rain and less snow) Sunday. There is nothing quite like a children’s church program – smiling, giggling kids, parents waving and photographing like mad, lines forgotten, duets so softly sung as to be almost inaudible, crying preschoolers who suddenly don’t want to leave the stage (is that stage unfright?).
David was one of the rowdy wise men this year with some actual lines and a piece of a song. Sarah sang a portion of a duet, Daniel was the stage hand, and Rachel received special thanks for helping during the weekly practices.
David was proud to be a wise man in this year’s show.
Our family was well represented.
A fitting time, wouldn’t you say, for my camera to die? No batteries, wouldn’t even turn on.
Not a problem. That was my small camera, not crucial. Okay, so it has the video viewer in it and was going to record (live) some of the performance. Still, I wasn’t worried. I had my Nikon with me, and was prepared with not just the one lens but the zoom as well.
We encouraged Sarah to think of her song as a gift she could give to Jesus.
Ah, not quite as prepared as I would have liked.
The battery ran out in the middle of the show. This was after some friends came up and begged me to take pictures of their daughters as they were sitting in the back of the church.
Of course. Typical.
The show must go on, and go it did. I worked hard at savoring each precious detail in my ‘living photograph’ and cheered loudly. I try to make up my lack of organizational skills with general good spirits. It usually works.
Kathy
P.S. Since I haven’t been blogging very often these days, I have to tack in a little picture, or two, of Daniel’s first piano lessons. Life doesn’t slow down even if the blogging lags.
Ah, swimming. Just like many other individual group sports (track and field, speech and debate…) there’s a lot of waiting around. [smile]
~Luke
Only 4 hours. Wow what a treat. I figured as a coach one weekend this fall I was on deck for 28 hours. That was a long weekend. We have five swimmers in 4 different age groups. What a fantastic new step for you.
I saw another quote you may appreciate—If today was that last day of my life I’d want to spend it at a swim meet becuase they last FOREVER!!!
Hope you find that swim parents are a good group of people.
Another time in my life I wish we didn’t live on opposite coasts. What fun to have our kids on a swim team together. What a privilege it would have been to get to know some of your kids if I were their coach.
Yea! Joshua! Did you have fun? Zachary is always jazzed up after a swim meet and ready for more time in the water.
Swimming is one of those skills that you don’t need to have other around to practice and improve on.
Good job at the swim meet, wish we could have been there to cheer you on.
Way to go Joshua. I loved the swimming quotes, Kathy. LOL
What darling photos you DID get of the Christmas play…Have fun with the new piano lessons, Daniel.