I think it's official--Suburban Season is over for me.  I played my last game of the fall season this morning, and, well...the less said the better.  I was on a total winning streak at our new B3 level, which was a considerable jump from our previous C1 Bumped To C2.  For the first three engagements, I was on top of the world--doubling up playing both singles and doubles and winning both.  Then, a combination of Peter Principling and tougher opponents knocked me back into my place.  This morning I lost 8-2 to a very nice woman.  And then Kate and I lost 10-5 in doubles.  I had a migraine last night and this morning, and I took Maxalt and was far-off spacey, had spots in front of my eyes, and didn't have the oomph to get the ball over the net during my first match this morning.  Things were better, but obviously not good enough in the second match.  Next week we are going to the Museum of the Confederacy for a program on daily life for soldiers and on medical procedures, including amputation.  I'm really excited, and the kids will have a great time, too, but it does go to show that my motto is mostly true:  "Every week is special."  You can try not to book too many things, but special opportunities will come up, and sure enough, they do!

I'm doing my darndest to potty train Rutledge now.  I've been on a bit of a low lately--wallowing a little more than is mentally healthy in my "We've been rejected by our families."  I've also been feeling my lack of wage earning and the social status of stay at home mothers--I'm feeling like I've taken a heavy dose of not being a wage earner, not having a very attractive resume, and not contributing to my community.  And a bit of self-pity because my children are numerous and challenging.  We're not at our personal best these days--loud toddler, sullen or bored ten year olds, impatient 7 year old.  And then me.  

My emotions have also been given a churn by the death of our neighbor across the street during the night on Monday.  I woke up at 2:45 a.m. to the sound of a generator on fire engines and ambulances.  Two fire engines (including a hook and ladder arriving more than 45 minutes after the ambulance), two ambulances, and three police cars ended up on the scene before all of the lights and sounds left.  I realized the next morning that perhaps why it affected me so much, since I didn't know the woman at all, not even her name, was that it was the exact day of the 6th anniversary of my Mom's death.  Which would probably explain why I was so unexpectedly broken up by some random song on XM Village about "wanting to see my mother's smile again."  And it's probably behind some of my questioning of whether she'd be ashamed of what I've done with my life or proud of me.  I suspect she would at least act as if she was proud of me, even if deep down she was thinking, "What a miserable waste of space!  Playing tennis and taking kids to the park and driving back and forth to a zillion activities that aren't even her own!"  I miss having that kind of at-least-on-the-surface nonjudgmental support from someone who loves me just the way I am.  

Today was one of those days when I left the house at quarter til nine in the morning and didn't return until 8:15.  It's rough being away for almost 12 hours.  I found myself at our Community Group still in my Cheeto-stained tennis clothes.  It was all good stuff--3 hours of tennis, 1 hour of travel time and lunch, 2.25 hours at the park, 1.5 hours knitting at gymnastics, 1 hour of travel time picking up Ollie and buying some supplies for a history project, a plant, and dinner, and then 30 minutes of travel slush time, a little over an hour at Community Group.  But I'm exhausted.  

We're back on task at Latin class tomorrow.  It's always a little bit stressful because the boys' behavior in there hasn't been the best in the past.  But we waded through the homework from the week they missed and I think they're picking up the concept of person and number.  I hadn't remembered how new those concepts felt to me even as far as 8th grade, when I first started in Latin and realized that I don't think we had ever covered names for the pronouns or nouns that the verbs were agreeing with.  It was eye opening.  So I'm sympathetic with Walter and Ollie's initial confusion.  Alas, this coming week we have both the irregular verb "to be" to learn and the endings for first declension.  I anticipate lots of memorization singing in the next few days.

And we are woefully behind on our online German program at www.livemocha.com.  They really like the visual aspect of it, and I think it's a great way to begin learning a language without feeling a burden of heavy grammar concepts.  That's on the growing list of plans I have for what I'd like for us to keep up with that I'm not quite keeping up with.  Our Lego Science and Technology set came on Monday, and I haven't even had time to look at it.  I think it will take about 45 minutes to do a lesson, but we need to find a 45 minute time block somewhere that isn't spoken for.  And amazingly, that's increasingly difficult to do.  

This reminds me that I need to RSVP for a birthday party Frances has been invited to for Friday.  And I need to get a gift.  And I need to get the twins started on making their cars for the Cub Scout Derby Saturday.