What a weekend. I don’t even know where to begin. I am still smiling and beaming with so much pride for my hard-working children. If you follow me, you all know that Max is away at college working hard. Today is not about my amazing son, today is about my magnificent daughters.
I am going to start with Ella. Ella is 16 years old and was just in her high school’s play The Phantom Tollbooth. Ella had the opportunity to be the student director. She also had a bunch of parts in the play. The award that Ella received from the director says it all: “How many parts can I give someone before it becomes a one woman show and please break a leg not an arm.”
Ella took a spill on stage during rehearsal and hurt her wrist. That is the meaning of the end of the award, but she is ok. She is a trooper, and she wouldn’t have let anything hold her down. They rehearsed daily for hours. She loved being the student director and she loved all of her parts in the play. My favorite was Ella as the crazy doctor. She is such a talented comedic actress.
As a mom, when you see your children working hard on something daily, you can’t wait to see the result. Ella doesn’t have weekly games to attend but she does have plays to show us what she’s been up to.
My dad put it so well when he said, “There were so many moving parts. I don’t know how they did that.” It was so impressive. They did it very cool as theater in the round with the audience sitting on the stage. I’ve never gotten to sit on stage as an audience member before.
While Ella was lighting up the stage, Lillie’s team was rocking the cheer competition. Their routine just keeps getting better. I love the changes the coach made to their routine. She keeps making it harder and more complicated. The best part of that is the kids step it up and rise to the occasion.
Their team won the whole competition. Grand champions of the whole day. I can’t wait after their last competition to post the routine for you all to see. You can come find it this weekend on my personal Facebook page!
I know I have gone on and on a little too much about my girls, but I am so proud of them. I am most proud of their work ethic. Their work ethic is what will take them far in life along with a lot of things that we are learning along the way from these activities.
My girls remind me that consistent hard work pays off. They showed me hours of intense practice and rehearsals that led to amazing results. Put in the effort and work and be consistent and you will be successful. They inspire me to want to work hard. I also do think that Seth and I work hard and model this for our children.
Teamwork is the dreamwork. We aren’t meant to do life alone. From the play to the cheer team to parenting – we aren’t supposed to do any of it alone. Working together gets amazing outcomes.
My producer interviewed me today for my 500th episode. I was telling her that the results of my 500 episodes are not just due to the consistent work that I have put into it. Part of the success is the team that is behind me. My producer, graphic designer, editor, office administrator, guests, etc. are all contributing to the podcast’s success.
Ella and her cast along with Lillie and her team are learning how to work effectively together to make magic happen. I am amazed by these kids.
There were some challenges along the way. It was a very busy weekend, and everything didn’t go so smoothly. While my girls were super successful. I had some bumps along the way. When Lillie couldn’t find her cheer sneakers, I got angry. I didn’t remain calm and collected which is always my goal. I ask her to keep her sneakers in her cheer bag. I have asked her multiple times and yet she still looks for them frequently. I could have stayed calm. Mistakes happen and I should have given Lillie grace, and I need to not beat myself up for getting annoyed. How many times can we say something to our child? I remember learning that it takes 300 repetitions for something to stick. I obviously have a couple hundred times to go. Be persistent and consistent and eventually they will get the message.
I also got annoyed with how long the competition took. I got annoyed by how long Wing Stop took to complete our order and. It felt as though I was working to beat the clock all day. I need to take more deep breaths and learn to go with the flow of the day. There were hiccups and it’s not always going to go smoothly. We just need to learn to ride the waves. I find sometimes I do better than other times. This was a busy never-ending day. I was up at 6 with Lillie for her competition. I was texting Ella at 11:00 to see who was picking her up. It was a long, exhausting, successful day. I can’t expect the whole day to go smoothly. There are going to be some bumps and we can overcome them.
I loved seeing my girls’ overcome challenges through this process. Ella hurt her wrist and persevered through it. I am sure the cast had a lot more challenges that I don’t know about. Lillie’s team has overcome endless challenges. From girls quitting to their coach being in the hospital to people not being able to come to practice. They overcame each and every challenge they faced, and I am so proud of all of those girls and their coaches.
Ella and Lillie have learned such leadership skills from the play and the cheer team. Ella got to be the student director. What an amazing experience for her. I am sure she helped that play run like clockwork and I am positive she has been an amazing example for the whole cast.
Lillie had the opportunity this year to be captain of both cheer teams. She loves to be helpful. She is a natural nurturer and wants to make sure everyone is okay and doing what they need to be doing. She is an excellent example to her team of how to work hard and persevere.
I told Ella tonight that it’s all about practice. Whether you want to learn a cheer routine, a scene, the piano, or a new skill, it’s all about practice. Consistent practice will get you good results in any field.
I love it when my kids are busy doing things they love. We want our children to be busy. We want them to learn from being on a team. We want them in prosocial activities. I am very sad that the play is over. I am sad that the cheer season is coming to an end. This Fall has been super busy for us. There were days that I thought it was too much. My children always rise to the occasion and have a wonderful outcome. I am a proud mom who has gotten so much joy from watching my girls do what they love.
I hope your children are involved in activities that they love doing. If they aren’t, encourage them to join something!
Laughing, Learning, Loving,
Rebecca Greene, LCSW-R
Check out my 
:
Whinypaluza Notes:
Whinypaluza Mom Group:
If you are looking for a supportive community, come join the free Whinypaluza Mom Facebook group. I created this as I wanted us to have a place where we can talk about tips, strengths and challenges we are having. It is another step I took to help everyone to know that you are not alone. Our June challenge was a lot of fun! Come jump in and join us and bring a friend with you! I love to give away prizes. This group is private so please find me on Facebook at Whinypaluza or Rebecca Greene and message me to ask for an invite. I’m also on Instagram @becgreene5 and @whinypaluza_mom. I am also on Tik tok @whinypaluzamom.
The Whinypaluza Schedule:
Whinypaluza Wednesdays: My weekly blog comes out every Wednesday. I am always open to your topic requests. A new Vlog (video blog) also comes out every Wednesday night on Facebook at 9:00 PM Eastern time to discuss the blog. If you would rather listen to a podcast than watch a Vlog, you can wait for the following Wednesday, and the Vlog is released on my Podcast.
Family Fridays: Every Friday morning a new Podcast is released. Most of my episodes on Fridays are me discussing parenting and marriage with experts on the topic. If you would rather watch the Podcast instead of listen, you can watch it on You Tube. If you would like to be on my Podcast or know someone who would like to please message me on Facebook or Instagram or at whinypaluzamom@gmail.com
I would greatly appreciate it if you would subscribe, rate my podcast and leave me a five-star review. This leads to it being shown to more people that we can help. I appreciate it when you share my blogs, vlogs and podcasts with a friend so that we can build our community and help people one mama at a time. Every time you like and/or comment on a post it helps and is so appreciated!
