On trying hard things

This week has been a busy one--I think we had something going on every single night last week.

Monday night, Andrew and Evelyn went to a pre-rehearsal for a local children's theater group and learned some songs and the basics of an audition. Wednesday night, they both auditioned for Honk!, a musical based on the ugly duckling. While I'm not sure they'll get in, I was proud of them for trying something new.

The kids auditioned in groups--Andrew and Evelyn were right behind a trio of much older girls, all of whom clearly had experience with this kind of thing. Even though we'd practiced the songs, Evelyn was still a little uncertain, so she had her music with her. But I think she was either daunted or impressed by the girls who went before her (with the songs memorized), so she went up stage without her music: and froze. She missed her entrance a couple of times, and then she couldn't remember much beyond the first line of the song. The people orchestrating it were so kind to her--and she got up and tried without crying (something that wasn't entirely certain), so I was proud of her.

And Andrew . . . he got up and improvised his own choreography to the song while he sang. He wasn't always on tune, but he knew all his words and he put feeling behind them. So regardless of what happens, they tried something new. As a normally risk-averse person, I know how much guts it takes to risk failure at new things.

Tuesday night, Evelyn had her first tumbling class (she has them twice a week this month, which is already proving a challenge). The only problem? Andrew has scouts at 4, her tumbling class starts at 4:30, Andrew is done at 4:45, and she's done at 5:15. Those chunks of time are simply not enough to get anything done in between all the driving! Luckily, it's just one day a week.

Wednesday night, after the kids' audition, Dan had a big study session on campus--he made all kinds of cookies and scones which was great for his students, not so great for someone (like me) trying to eat less sugar.

Thursday was more tumbling, and Andrew had a play date with a friend. I also had my writer's group--which is always something I look forward to. We've been meeting twice a month for three and a half years now, and it's constantly amazing to me to see how far we've come. In that time, two of us have gotten agents, my friend has a two-book deal, and we're getting closer than ever to the writing dreams we have. Hard work and persistence do eventually pay off.

Friday Evelyn had a playdate with a little boy who lives in Bubby and Poppy's ward (in the last week, she's had notes from three of her classmates with their phone numbers and a plea for Evelyn to call them so they can play together. Clearly, she's just as popular at school as she is at home!).

And yesterday--I'd apologize for just listing the events of the week, which makes for boring reading, but since the real purpose of this blog is to have a record of our family's life during the year, I won't--we drove down to SG. I went to the temple (we'd initially planned for Dan and I to take shifts, but the first shift took longer than planned) and Dan and the kids went to breakfast with Bubby. Then they tackled our car. I came back to the condo to find everyone missing and all our stuff from the trunk sitting next to a wall. It didn't take much to figure out what had happened. They came back with the car vacuumed--and shampooed!--probably the first time the car's been that clean since we bought it. Thanks, Bubby! Then we went to Costco and came home--just in time to get the big kids off to two different birthday parties.

A fun week, but I'm hoping this next week is a little calmer. Then again, I have a phone interview on Tuesday, a department meeting at the same time as scouts and tumbling, and Dan has another study session . . . so, maybe not.