A new focus.

So we made it official today. For the first time, ever, I will have a way to focus on my golf game, and I'm really really excited about it.

I started playing golf when Nate and I started dating. Being a former field hockey player, it came fairly easily to me, and I quickly got a little obsessed with it. When we were living 2 hours apart, our weekends consisted of me driving to DC or him up to the Philly burbs, playing golf always once and usually twice, and hanging out with friends and generally enjoying the life of dual income people with few commitments. I would frequently go to the driving range after work or on my lunch hour, or even sneak in 9 holes after work with some of the guys I worked with. I love the game. Love it. I love to watch it, talk about it, play it, read about it, whatever. Its a pure game, and a mental and physical test, every hole, every round, every single shot matters and is unique in some way. You can play it well into advanced age, and thanks to its unique handicapping system, you can play competitively against players of any level.

Anyway. The only frustrating thing about golf is that its hard to get better if you can't practice it. Lessons are expensive (and can be frustrating), and simply hitting shot after shot off of a mat at a driving range doesn't actually help one get better at most aspects of the game which matter, like chipping or putting or precision shots. Pregnancy and nursing and having newborns made golf harder, but not impossible. I still wonder if I may be the only person to ever have used a breast pump at the turn house at Sawgrass. We took a golf vacation when I was 28 weeks (and hugely) pregnant with Jake. And now, suddenly, we were starting to face a new challenge ~ kids who want to play. Our oldest two are just about at the age where starting lessons is coming into reality, and they don't have anywhere to practice. Simultaneously, with all of the kids off to school for a bit of time, I actually have time to go practice without having to pay a babysitter. We have been researching and really soul searching for a while now, and have decided that this is probably the one thing in the world that Nate and I most love to do together. It is what we based our honeymoon and all of our vacations without kids since being married around. The golf course is where we escape to, where we have great conversation and laughs, where we enjoy encouraging one another and seeing beautiful courses together. All of this is stuff that we want to share with our kids.

The other thing that is important to us is our kids being on a swim team. This is something that they could do at ACAC, but its expensive there. When we started to look at what we spend on golf now, combined with what we will be spending on the kids to do swim team and our water park membership....knowing that we STILL don't have a place to practice.....well, it became clear that we needed to find a place to call home as far as golf was concerned. A place that would offer us and the kids both swim and golf. We found it, and we are really excited about it. I'm already thinking about how instead of getting up for 6 am yoga I could go out to the practice range and chip and putt for an hour and be home before anyone even missed me, and I just changed Jake's long day at preschool from Monday to Wednesday so that I can try to get in 18 every Wednesday! Golf is truly one of my passions in life, and I feel incredibly grateful to be in this place in my life where I am done with pregnancy and nursing and the kids are going to be enjoying school and I can enjoy just a few hours a week to practice this passion. I truly hope that one day our family is heading out as a foursome and that our kids grow to enjoy the game ~ Nothing makes me happier than the thought of walking 18 with Julia someday. I hope that we have made a step in the right direction for our kids sake, we have truly sweated over this decision, and I hope that in the end we made the right one.

Anything in life is a bit of a leap of faith. I hope that my yoga practice makes my golf game better, and vice versa. My teacher training starts in exactly a month, and after 3 weeks of daily yoga practice I am feeling energized and ready to begin. I feel more relaxed and focused than I have felt in a long time, and it feels really, really good.

Here's to new beginnings.