There's An App For That!

I forgot just how hard 5th grade homework can be! When I first shared that post, I originally thought it was funny. Today? Eh... Not so much! At the rate I'm going, I'm going to become outdated when it comes to homework help. Oh wait! I already am!

Lena has started the dreaded states. Ugh! Her first state test is next week and it's going to require a whole lot of studying... For both of us. Tonight, she presented me with two maps at homework time.

One that look like this...

And one that looked like this...

And then, I looked like this... In my head...

Of course, I had to play it off like I knew exactly which states were which. Thank goodness the teacher provided a parental answer key or I'd be screwed. It's been a long time since I had to identify the states. And certainly even longer since I had to know them by shape. Is it wrong to feel better that she didn't know them either?

I have exactly a week to get myself united (hehe, sorry couldn't resist) and figure out which squiggly line is which. To help me (and her) in this process I pulled Amazon up immediately. I knew there had to be a way to make this a little more fun for both of us. And guess what, there's an app for that! I don't know how people survived without internet, tablets, computers, and all other fantasical wifi savior-type devices. I'm soooo glad I live in a time where my inadequacies can quickly be masked by my Kindle Fire co-parenting dependency.

There Just Has To Be A Learning Curve!

I was never meant to be a softball mom. Truthfully, I despise sports. I think they're dangerous and they eat up an insane amount of time that could be spent doing other things. For example, Paige (our oldest) suffers from chronic pain in her knees from playing. However, since James has entered my life I have suddenly found myself wrapped up in all things softball. We now plan our weekends around games for his two girls. It's taking an extreme amount of getting used to on my part, because frankly, it's a foreign concept to me. Lena is in Nifty Notes and Mathletes. Singing and academics I understand. Sports though, I don't particularly get the point. But, I love Anne and Paige dearly and have found myself neck deep in dust and metal spiked shoes.

Friday as I was getting ready to leave work the girls' mom sent me a text asking if I had Anne's uniform. I didn't think I had it. I didn't remember seeing her in it last weekend. I've been very good about making sure I collect her uniform first thing, get in the wash, and straight into her bag. Turns out, since she's now playing for a different team for fall. It wasn't the uniform I was used to seeing. Oops! In my defense though, I did finally find it in her bed buried beneath her mountain of blankets where no mom in their right mind would have thought to look. She had it hidden like pirate treasure. I can only guess she thought one of the cats was going to make off with it somehow.

He does look pretty sneaky, doesn't he?

Due to this fact, we ended up going to Anne's game even though it wasn't our weekend. Typically we don't go to the games on the weekends we don't have them because they live an hour away from us. But if she didn't have her uniform, she couldn't play. Evidently travel ball teams have a much stricter code to follow than the summer team she played for.

When we arrived, I thought I had everything. I didn't. She was missing the matching socks. I didn't know there were matching socks. No one bothered to tell me. People forget that when it comes to this sports mom thing that I'm new to the game. Her mom even said she forgot that I didn't know what "uniform" consisted of. As it happens, I really believed the socks belong to Paige. I knew which one's they were once I thought about it. They were the pair I'd found lodged between the couch cushions last Sunday along with Paige's hoodie. (Note: Best not to hide all of your treasure in one easily discovered place.) Since both girls play, it never occurred to me that they belonged to Anne.

Thankfully, they let her get away with only missing her socks and allowed her to play. Her team was down literally the entire game though. They were getting completely stomped without any hope of mercy. I'm proud to say though that in the final inning we ended up with bases loaded, only one out, and one tiny little girl who smashed the ball all the way to the back fence. They managed to pull off 4 runs in one single stroke leaving the other girls in the dust! Now I may still have a lot to learn about what parts belong to who's uniform but I know how to scream and clap with the best of them. Numb bleacher butt and sore unsupported back aside, I was really proud of that game and happy that I got to be there to see it.