Tennis

Dear Mom,

With the school year well underway, we are slowly working our way around meet the teaacher nights and school open houses, becoming familiar with the homework hotline and study websites. In some ways the routines are familiar and in others we are not quite there yet. Part of the hindrance to our establishing any kind of pattern to our evenings is the excitement of High School Tennis.

Practices and meets challenge the dinner hour around here. I am building a repertoire of meals that can be prepared in the afternoon and reheated later in the evening, but we've also been bringing pizza home.

This is the Young Man's second year on the team. Last week he and his doubles partner, by challenging higher ranking teammates, earned their way to the JV second doubles position. Last night's was a particularly exciting match. At one point they were down 4 games but kept their composure and smiles on their faces to battle back and win 6 straight games and the match.

I keep knitting in the car for these events. I turn my nervous energy into something productive. The project is a mindless one that requires nothing more than muscle memory to accomplish. I am using up all those leftover little bits of sock yarn and knitting them into one big colorful blanket. I am calling it Joseph (aka the Amazing Technicolor blanket). Maybe I should call it "Memories" because I think a little bit about all the places it has gone with me, all the car pool lines and piano lesson time we've spent together and all the different socks given as gifts that the sock yarn scraps came from.

The tennis season isn't a long one; we'll be done in October. And the weather this time of year makes it no hardship to sit outside while watching the matches.

Love,

Kim