THE SCENE: Beautiful – 68 degrees
WARM-O-RAMA:
Follow the leader, highlighted by a bunch of grown men skipping under the lights. Toe taps, leg pulls, side shuffles, skips, cross overs, bernie sanders, run, run (double time). Approx 5 mins.
THA-THANG: Bear v. Crab
1st Half and 2nd Half:
Two teams (approx 12 persons each team), attempting to get 5 small balls into a small hockey net all the while remaining in either a bear craw and crab craw (alternating 3 minute increments before switching positions), the HIM with the ball only able to advance 5 steps before passing. Balls in the center to start game play, with crab v. bear crawl race to retrieve them.
Each ball had two exercises written on it – one a harder exercise (merkins, burpees, squat jumps) and one an ab exercise (flutters, LBC, leg raises).
The team that scored did the ab exercise written on the ball that went in the net; the team that got scored on did the harder exercise written on the same ball.
Initially, I was concerned there would not be enough scoring with the small net. After the 5th set of 15 burpees – in the first quarter – that was no longer my concern.
Halftime:
Round 1 (with pee rock): Squat Pulses x20; Kettle Bell Swings x10; Lunge&Twist x5 (each leg); Run; Single Leg Calf Raises x10
Round 2 (with pee rock): Biceps x20; Rows x20; Triceps x20; Overhead Rock Run
Rinse and Repeat
MARY:
None. No time for a victory lap, even though my team clearly won.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
23 stronger, sweatier men.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
I have an uncanny ability to think that I can solve all my own problems and those of my family. I will reason or motivate (carrot or stick) through the issue, or at least I will try to. I was reminded again recently — for the hundredth (x100) time — that this thinking/behavior is quite a vice, and some circumstances (and by “some,” I really mean “all”) are best left to God.
After a week of my 5-yr old daughter’s inexplicable fear/panic/stubbornness to swim across the pool for swim team practice and in the swim meet (one of which she scratched from last minute), I was at my wits end. I knew she could do it; I’ve seen her swim the pool length innumerable times. She simply refused and melted down day in day out at the prospect of doing what she could do. It was so obviously mental, but at 5 years old, she could not work through it or verbalize the issue.
Then it dawned on me: I don’t know her thoughts and fears, but God does. So we prayed, together, that God would intervene. We prayed over Joshua 1:9 (“Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”). And, you guessed it, she had changed, she swam, and in the process she conquered a huge obstacle in her life.
So, I am reminded again, to petition God, even for the seemingly small things in life, because He is there and here, and because the small often turn out to be big.
