Olympics

Aahh, the Olympics!  There is something inspiring about watching the best in the world give it their all on the slopes or in the rink.  Our family has been caught up these last two weeks in the drama, the triumphs, the defeats, and the amazing stories behind each athlete.  My younger daughters are spinning around the kitchen, dreaming of figure skating.  But what about all the stories that aren't told?
     I remember clearly the summer of 1992.  It was an Olympic year as well. I was just graduated from high school and newly married and, like now, found myself fascinated with the Olympics.  As I sat in the living room of our little four-plex, I watched the runners in Barcelona vie for the gold.  And I was inspired!  So I decide to go for a run, and then another.  I enjoyed running, but to be honest, I also dreamed of glory.  Pretty soon I was running good enough to catch the attention of the college cross country coach, who offered me a place on the team.  For four years I trained and raced; cross country, indoor track and outdoor track.  My times improved and I even earned a scholarship.  But as I pushed my body to its limits I began to realize I would probably never go to the Olympics. In fact, I wasn't even good enough to go to the Olmpic trials.  I couldn't even make it to the NCAA Division II National meet.
     Lately I've noticed my knee acts up.  It has a "catch" in it, and hurts sometimes when I try to do too much.  My mind started figuring the other day how many miles I might have run in college.  Let's see:  50 miles a week is probably a fair estimate times 50 weeks a year (it was probably 52, but just to be on the safe side) times four years equals....10,000 miles!!  Wow! No wonder my knee hurts.  I suppose our bodies are like cars.  The only go so many miles before they wear out.  Certainly we only have so many days to live here on this earth.  Our time is short.  Our health is limited.  I can't help but think of all those people who, like me, pour hours and years of their life into a sport.  The ones that don't end up on the podium.  What do they have to show for their efforts?   Is it all worth it?  I know for each person the answer to that is different.  I just don't want to waste the time and health I have been given.  But how do I make sure that what I put my energy and hours into is really worth it?  I think this is definitely a question worth asking.  When I get to the end of this life, I don't want to look back with any regrets.
Psalm 90:12  Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

(Mis)Adventure at the Capital

Mom called this morning.  She was curious how our trip to the capital went yesterday.  Well, I guess you could say it was an adventure. 

Originally Mom had planned to go with us.  Rachelle and Bethany had the opportunity to be pages for our representative.  Both Jason and I served as pages when we were in high school, and the girls were exciting about serving with some friends who were also going that day.  Mom was going to drive up early in the morning and ride with us; I though we would take the whole crew, and we were all excited about maybe getting to tour the newly-opened dome. 

The first hint of trouble was the weather forecast: snow.  Although the snowfall was to be less than the week before, I still wasn't crazy about driving in any snow, and Mom was even more reluctant.  She decided not to come up. Because of that and the bitter cold, the younger girls stayed home as well.  But Bethany, Rachelle, Samuel and I headed on up.  We parked and walked toward the building.  As we neared the closest entranced we noticed the steps were stilled covered with snow.  Okay, maybe on around.  Nope.  The next entrance looked the same.  By this time we were freezing and I was beginning to worry about Samuel.  So we quickened our steps and headed around to look for yet another entrance.  About then the sidewalk ended.  What next?!  A tromp through the snow, down some not-cleared steps, and we finally found the right entrance: the north-side, basement entrance.  Who would have guessed?

The rest of the day followed a similar pattern.  A bottle of water that had to be payed for by a stranger, a crying baby, a missed lunch plan, a car that wouldn't start, and to top it off, a red light accidentally run!  But looking on the bright side, the girls had fun paging, they got to go to the top of the dome, we had fun hanging out with friends and we got the singing tour guide, and no tickets or accidents.  Thank You, Lord, for watching over us!!  And now, I seriously need a nap!

Paging

The singing tour guide



adorable girls



selfie

sister

view from the top of the dome

the inside of the dome
 

Welcome

Welcome to the Cathcart Family blog. As I write this I am reminded why I have never started a blog in the past, although I have thought of it many times: T*I*M*E. Right now the baby is crying, the 2nd grader and kindergartner are pretended to travel the Antarctica (when they really ought to be doing school), my Sophomore needs help with Chemistry, it's almost time to cook lunch, and what am I doing? Trying to figure out how to post something on our newly-created blog and also how to make it look better (that was supposed to be someone else's department, but she is just as busy as I am). So, this is definitely a work in progress, and a learning experience. But, for now, welcome to a window on our world: six girls and one baby boy, homeschooling, owning a small business, and trying to follow Jesus with all our heart!     Angela

2-6-14

 

It snowed on Tuesday, about 6inchs. Since then it has been very cold out (4 degrees). So most of my time has been spent indside doing school and posting pictures on instagram.