Work at Home Success By Jill Hart
Mom Laughs By Cheryl Moeller
Simplifying Motherhood By Trish Berg
Ask A Twin Mommy By Cheryl Lage
Mothering By Heart By Cheri Fuller
Jelly Mom By Lisa Barker
Family Check-up By Sheila Wray Gregoire
Parent to Parent By Jodie Lynn
Moments for Mom By Elisabeth Corcoran
Making the Most of Marriage By Paula Friedrichsen
Softball Daze
August, 2007
By Trish Berg
For the past three months, my husband, Mike, and I have spent four or five evenings each week sitting in folding chairs on the third base line of a ball field. That’s what you get for having three children involved in summer ball.
We got kind of used to packing the orange soft-sided cooler with water bottles, hard pretzels, and Goldfish crackers. Many nights, we simply threw in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and called that supper.
I have been in a softball daze of sorts. Spending so much time at ball games will do that to you.
Last week when my parents were over for dinner, I was taken back when my mom asked, “Trish, are you going out tonight?” I was curling my hair and slipping into a clean pair of capris.
“Nope,” I said, “Just Sydney’s softball game.”
“You are kind of dressed up for ball,” she noticed.
“Well, it has become my entire social life,” I replied.
I sit at each ball game with the other parents and talk about this or that, some of it related to ball, most of it related to life.
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But it hasn’t been a perfect season. Which one ever is.
Hannah’s team lost a lot of games, which got the girls frustrated. Sydney’s team won almost all of their games, but Sydney hit a batting slump and began to strike out at every at bat. Colin….well, Colin started his season ducking away from each throw, struggling at the plate a bit.
But summer ball is about more than wins and losses, homeruns and double plays.
It’s about teamwork, struggling through the tough games and slumps, never giving up and digging down deep to see what you are really made of.
In the end, I think the kids learned a lot about ball, and even more about life this season.
Hannah’s team ended up winning a few games, and learned how to work together more as a team. Colin started hitting well, and even learned how to field a grounder at shortstop and make the throw to second base.
Sydney – well, in game three of an all day tournament, she finally got a hit. You should have seen the look on her face. The crowd went absolutely wild, as if she hit a bottom of the ninth homerun to win the game. Never mind that the shortstop threw her out at first, and that they lost the game. She overcame everything and put that bat on the ball with a solid hit, and we couldn’t be prouder of her.
Now that it’s all over, I hope we can all take a piece of this season with us. That teamwork, determination and courage stays with us even after the last pitch is thrown.
I just have no idea what I’m going to do now that my social life is gone. I think I might actually miss the ball games…..then again, maybe not.
Trish would love to hear from you at www.trishberg.com, or e-mail trishberg @ trishberg.com.
© Trish Berg, 2006-
Trish Berg is author to The Great American Supper Swap, and Rattled - Surviving Your Baby's First Year without Losing Your Cool! She has been a guest ABC World News Tonight, Midday Connection, and The Harvest Show.
She is an internationally known speaker for ministries such as MOPS, Hearts at Home, and in Australia on Parenting Seminars Online. She has written for Today's Christian Woman, MOMSense, CBN.com and P31 WOMAN.
For more information, check out www.TrishBerg.com