Soccer Season

Sorry to my loyal reader (i.e. mom) for my lack of posts.  Really no excuses, just busy with the day to day craziness called life.  I had this idealic image of both girls going off to school full day and me blogging daily, having a pristine home, home baked dinners each night and 2 hours of exercise completed daily.   Instead it is a bit more like keep the house just above hazardous waste level, the hope of 2 sit down dinners a week, weak attempts of exercise a few days a week, and a blog that hasn't been updated in almost a month.  The majority of my day seems to be consumed by PTA/school volunteer craziness.  I enjoy it all and feel blessed to have the time, energy and passion to give to the school but I am hoping for a bit better balance in October....
Another thing keeping us super busy right now is soccer.  Both girls are loving it like always.  We have practices for one or the other 3 nights a week and then at least 2 games a week, sometimes 3 if Madison has a weeknight game like this week. 
Madison is playing 4/5 grade soccer and with this new age division comes the FULL SIZE soccer field and goal.  They are huge and it requires a ton of running for the girls.  The good thing about the larger field is that it really forces the girls to stay in their positions and make passes, no more of the "hive" mentality for sure.  Madison has decided goalie is her specialty position which gives me so much stress.  The pressure on a goalie is huge, I don't know how she is so casual about it.  And at last night's game she was so aggressive when an opposing player was charging the goal, Madison didn't back down at all.  The other player ended up getting called for illegal contact for running into Madison.  Not only did Madison go after the ball aggressively, but she STOPPED the gal from scoring.  She produced a shut out in her half as goalie.

Nora is playing with the same team on K/1 soccer. She is in a different league that does things much differently than  Madison had at this age. A bit simpler and smaller. Nora is disappointed that they don't have the goalie position but is still having a great time. The first game she was so focused in staying in her correct position that she didn't get as involved in the game as normal. This past week she figured out how to stay in position yet still be active in the game. She had 2 great assists during the game.

After taking a season off, Coach Tom is back in business taking the lead of Madison's team.  He is really a fabulous coach and takes the position quite seriously.  The girls respond well to him and I think he is enjoying this older age group where they can work on more specific skills.

As for me, I am soccer mom.  Organizing snack schedules, sending out emails and schedules, taking over practice duties when Tom is unavailble and being THAT mom on the sidelines who may yell just a bit too loudly:-0  I can justify it in Madison's games as being the assistant coach, no excuses for Nora's game though.