The Mindful Homeschool

First of all, did you know that not all of the Olympic competition takes place in Beijing?  Some of the competitions are as far away as Hong Kong.  Hong Kong is about as far away from Beijing as New York City is from Miami!  But that doesn’t make these Olympics any less spectacular.

We watched the Opening Ceremonies on Friday night.  It was beautiful, breathtaking and just plain gorgeous.  I loved seeing the big scroll on the floor and watching the dancers, the drummers, and the Chinese characters throughout the ceremony.  The costumes were gorgeous, the symbolism was poignant, and the show was flawlessly performed by no fewer than 15,000 people.  I am so glad that we were able to watch it, all of us together as a family.  The children really seemed to appreciate the artistry and beauty of it all, too.

The games are taking me by surprise this time.  I hadn’t intended to watch Michael Phelps but I did see him win his first, second and third gold and I am now a big fan.  I saw a story about how his mother raised him and his two children by herself and it really moved me.  His mother said that when he was a kid she realized he needed an outlet for all of his energy and decided to place him in a swimming program.  That was the beginning for him.  Being a mother of three active children, I can relate to this story.

The kids are fired up about these Olympics.  They have been running outside around the house doing their “track and field”.  They have been doing “routines” off the swing set.  And they are adamant that they don’t miss an evening of watching these Olympic Games.  H-man has been cheering for Michael Phelps even when we are watching the women’s swimming competions!

Tonight after one of H-man’s races around the house, he was sad that he wasn’t fast enough to beat his siblings.   I told him that he was still growing and that as he got bigger he would get stronger and faster.  So what does he do?  He tells me that he wants to eat a lot of veggies and nuts to grow bigger!  So I got out the walnuts and started feeding him!  He is such an athletic child; it will be interesting to see what sports he takes up when he gets older.

C is interested in gymnastics and we plan to look into signing her up for lessons close to home.  I am excited that she wants to do this.  William has not asked to do any specific sports and I will continue to look for something that would be a good fit for him.  He is asking for rollerblades these days.  He has been wearing mine and he is very good.  He was really good at ice skating last winter so I guess it makes sense that he would learn how to blade quickly.

I am still taking my yoga classes and loving it.  And I still do believe that yoga is the answer to everything!  LOL!  Hubby is running and biking these days and looking good.  He is slowly losing weight and feeling really good about that.  It is good to have such a healthy, active family.