7 Quick Takes

-1-
My girls are picking out names for their children, Can’t say as I blame them, I had Pi’s name (her real one) picked out looong before I met my husband. She is name after my grandmother, well actually the nickname my great grandfather gave her. Her given name was Mary, but her father had a pet name that she was called till the day she died by family members. I can remember being somewhere around 6th grade and thinking I will name my first daughter that, and so I did. Now my daughter’s are making lists of names they want. So far we have a

• Etienne for a girl even though it means Stephen in French Pi has decided to name a girl this. Stephen is believe it or not a family name that has gone three generations on my side and the name my husband was given as a Benedictine Oblate. (the girls are fighting over this name.)
• Solange – this name sound exotic but it simply means “sun angel”
• Antigone – seriously, she likes the name but did not know the story behind it.
• Lourdes –  after Our Lady of Lourdes
• Adara -
• Ruby
• Ryan – for a girl
• Etienniana – the feminine form of Etienne
• Logan

Did you pick out names for your children when you were younger? Did you keep those names when you eventually had children. 

-2-
A picture turned up of me this week on Facebook. Yup they are out there, you never know when someone else will dig up a picture of you. I can’t remember the year and I don’t recognize the picture. But I do know that the purplish jean “suit” that I was wearing was one of my favorite school outfits. But what blew me away was the gold tights. Seriously the ‘70’s had some serious styles going on.

-3-
Peanut is our self declared athlete. Now don’t get me wrong all of my kids have done sports but this child chomps at the bit to compete. We have to put limits on her participation. We have limited all of our kids to one activity outside school and one team per season at school. Now our Peanut has been watching the commercials for the upcoming Olympics. She is trying to figure out what sport(s) she can do that would get her to the Olympics. For now she has settled on Track and Field. We will be sure to let you know if she makes it.
She is making great strides in Track too.  The first picture is from a road race we did last August. The second pic is from track and field with a coach at school. She was so determined to run track that she ran 7th grade track as a 6th grader going to practice with the coach after school. Can I say thank you to her coach enough?


-4-
Peanut is our self proclaimed athlete, she thrives on the competition, and would be involved in 3 or 4 sports if (a) we let her (b) we had the time (c) we had the money. We actually have to tell this child NO we won’t let you do dance, gymnastics, track, cheerleading and soccer all at the same time.  I know we are horrible parents. How is she supposed to get to the Olympics? or get a college scholarship if we don’t push her in sports? I have news for you. Less than 2% of all High School athletes end up getting sports scholarships at NCAA school. Additionally kids who over train in sports and especially those that specialize in a sport early on end up with injuries. Worse yet the injuries are happening to children at younger and younger ages. It is not uncommon to see kids as young as 10 and 11 with sports injuries needing surgery.
Our solution has been to have our children involved in no more than one physical activity per season per child. We prefer sports that have a break too, after we need family time and kids need time to play. Limiting activities has helped us as a family, to spend less, have more free time and be able to enjoy spontaneous things. It is hard to enjoy an evening outside as a family if you have practices/lessons every night of the week.
-5-

School is out for Summer!  Yup there it is. We will be taking a couple of weeks to regroup and enjoy doing next to nothing before our busy part of summer begins. I am praying that it will be a relax full time for all of us. I am so proud of my kiddos. They all brought up their grades from last semester, but what is most surprising in my little boy who I had such great concerns for as a toddler pulled a 99 in math this semester and got an award for the highest math grade. His teacher even started giving him 3rd grade math after Christmas.  I did not think it was possible to bring up a 98!  The girls did wonderful too, winning awards in various subjects too. I am proud of all my kids.
-6-
My daughters will be entering High School (Pi) and Junior High (Peanut). I gave them talk about when they are allowed to date.

As you can see by the photos above this is of great concern to their father. He would be happy to send them to a convent or at least an all girl Catholic School. To their credit my girls  not interested in dating. Pi who is 14 won’t date till she finds a boy who is mature enough. Peanut (11) still thinks boys have cooties. (mom is quite happy). Funny enough when I asked my youngest daughter at what age she could date, the 8 year old boy said 14. I reminded him that the older sister was already 14. So he upped the dating age to 16 then 18. I love that he is looking out for his sisters, even though he is younger.
-7-
Speaking of the son 8 years old he is a romantic really he is. I can’t believe it. I am not sure how he came by it. I mean my husband is very sweet but he is a very practical man. My son on the other hand is a Knight in Shining Amour ready to protect the virtue of his sisters.


for more 7 quick takes head on over to Conversion Diary.