Second Trimester Honor Roll

This morning I did take off from working out. I modified my training program this week so I could have off this morning. I haven’t been such a “stickler” this time with my training program as I have in the three previous training sessions. I do stick with the allotted mileage per week but I am adjusting the number of days I run. Since I had my long run on the past two Sundays I have needed an additional day off during the week. I have taken this on those two preceding Mondays and as I added mileage to the days in between I allowed myself to take off this morning. I do get more from less and my “old bones” seem to work better with more time off during the week. I do believe that in my last training session I trained too hard and that led to my complete fade at the end of the Arizona Rock n’ Roll marathon. I am hoping for a better result at the end of next month and as always I don’t know what will happen but I am very grateful for the opportunity.

There was another reason I took off from working out this morning and that was to be with my family as everyone got ready for their day. My wife started her new job last week and went from working only two days a week to working all five days a week. This is certainly a blessing and we are so grateful especially knowing that there are so many people out of work. It may have taken longer than either one of us would have expected but it does seem like this new position was well worth the wait. I can tell by my wife’s demeanor that she is enjoying her new job. Yes, having the job does add to my wife’s increasing workload especially with all the children’s activities but her schedule is very conducive to still be involved with these activities. My wife is able to get the children to school in the morning and be home with them in the afternoon. We certainly couldn’t have asked for a better schedule.

Besides being home this morning there was a special event at my children’s school. The second trimester had concluded and earlier this week we were notified that our daughter had once again made the first honor roll or as it is named made the “Gold Honor Roll”. This meant our daughter earned straight A’s and this has been her “M.O.” during her scholastic career. She does work very hard to earn these grades and she is very excited to earn the award. I have been blessed with two wonderful children and I don’t believe I put pressure on either one of my children to earn good grades rather I hope they do their best. My daughter is certainly doing her best and the “jury is still out” on her younger brother. He is in the second grade and there aren’t any letter grades given and subsequently there isn’t any honor rolls.

My son is very smart but he gets sidetracked easily and prefers the “easy way out”. This does sound very familiar to my scholastic career. I never really tried that hard but seemed to get by and that “program” seemed to work well in the short run. I don’t want to put undue pressure on my son but I can see where this is all heading. His work is inconsistent and does prefer to seek assistance rather than to do the homework by himself. I haven’t been the best “tutor” because there are some days where I do more harm than good by supplying him the answers. He could be getting used to this and for some reason I give in to him more than I ever gave in to my daughter. I do hate teaching him the “hard way” but at some point I do hope he learns.

In any event my wife and I were headed over to the school for the honor ceremony. This was specifically for the fifth grade and there were many honor roll recipients. My daughter received her certificate with her bright beautiful smile and I got some very good pictures to chronicle the event. It is truly amazing after all that I have put my family through that her is my daughter the same wonderful intelligent person she has always been and yes, my son is still the same sweet happy little boy he has always been. I am so fortunate to be able to experience these moments and I do finally realize that these are the moments that life is all about. It isn’t about the fancy house, car, clothes and all those insignificant material possessions. It is all about family and my family is incredible.