Baseball and Embroidery

I am about to enter my busiest time of the year. Spring is like no other season for me. As many of you know, I have 5 boys. I have 4 of them living home with me now and they all play baseball on some level. One plays in college, one in high school, and two play for travel teams. That amounts to a whole lotta baseball. 

A small yarn and bead mandala

I recently finished putting my schedule in the calendar for the upcoming season and realized that I am going to have on average, 15 games a week. OMG! Of course I won't be able to go to all those games because there are some days that all 4 of the boys are playing in 4 different towns so my husband and I will be doing a lot of dividing and conquering to spread the love as much as possible.

In the past I've been overwhelmed, angry, and spent a lot of time feeling victimized by my situation. Of course I know I could just say, "no more baseball kiddies!" but that's never going to happen so I have learned to embrace it as best I can and try to find balance.

Playing around with a face

The first few years I cried a lot. That doesn't happen anymore. I now listen to audio books at the games, spend time preparing menus and dinners ahead so I am not in panic mode, and make sure I have everything I need in my car no matter what the weather. Yes, I have a sleeping bag ready to go all the way into August. Hee hee.

12 x12 garden mandala
 

This year I've decided to take it a step further. I have taken up a new hobby that I can bring along with me. With so much time spent outside the house, this can be a time when my creativity really suffers. So why not bring the creative fun with me?

A gift for a dear friend

I decided embroidery would be a totally new and fun thing to try and one that can easily be carried from field to field and as long as the weather cooperates I can be stitching in between innings. I am so excited about this. My 15 year old is not at all thrilled. He said, "Mom, please don't bring this to my games! It's so embarrasing! It's what old ladies do!" Hahahahaha! I love it!

Small leaf in progress

Of course I haven't been able to wait for the games to start so I've been having all kinds of fun playing around. I made sure I brought it with me to my son's orthodontist appointment to work on in the waiting room. I want to make sure he eases into the idea. Maybe those baseball games won't be so traumatic.

Have you recently taken up a new hobby? I'd love to hear about it. Maybe you can give me some new ideas. I still have a week or two til baseball starts. ;o)