Putting it Together

They look like they're a little bummed though - or maybe that's their game faces?

In keeping with my recent articles about goal-setting and winning, I'm going to draw them together today.

Did I mention that the Angel volleyball season is over. Can I just say:

YEA!

Thanks, had to get that out of my system! Sixty-nine matches, seven tournaments, two months and over 8000 pictures. Yep, I'm good for another year.

But I want to share just a little about my precious redhead's team. Most of these girls played together last year. 

The team as a whole never
stopped pushing. Even when facing varsity teams and being crushed by opponents far above them, they never quit. 

"Okay, this point's ours. On your toes. Touch the floor. Ready." The calls, along with cheers, clapping hands and encouragement never stopped through play. 

HSAA Angel JV vs. THESA Riders on 10/20/2011

But don't get the idea that these gals were pushovers. Ha! Strengthened by playing higher and older teams throughout the season, few JV teams could stand against them. They whipped a win in the first of two JV tournaments and won second in the next one, losing when an unexpected injury took out a key player only five points away from the tie-breaking win. 

And last weekend, they participated in the State Homeschool Championship tournament for Varsity teams all across Texas. This particular tournament is sponsored by our program, so when there are slots open, our JV gets to fill them and such was the case this year. 

They lost three games at the onset. The first team to beat them took the gold level third place out of the 24 teams. The second loss was to the team that won first place in the silver level. The third loss was to the second place team from the gold division who lost only to our own varsity. 

The rest of the teams we played were in for a rude awakening to get beaten by a Jr. Varsity team. Just sayin'.

It made for such a great weekend, and such a great season. I just had to share it!

But even in this, there is a lesson for me. Never quit. Never complain. When I'm attempting something beyond myself, I'm getting stronger. Boy, I needed this lesson this week. "You're never gonna make it. You'll never be good enough," started flitting through my brain yesterday and I don't normally give in to negatives. Then I read Keli Gwyn's blog - just what I needed! And along came some of my critique partners with pompoms and words of encouragement. They along with my supportive family set me back on my feet and kept me moving ahead. 

And as to that, my ROW80 (A Round of Words in 80 days.) goals are staying steady. I've been able to continue keeping up with my blogging even without counting those words in my goals, but still maintaining my anticipated wordcount. I'm almost half way through my WIP (work in progress) at this point and going strong. So I'm going to do a little adjustment. Instead of setting a WIP only goal of 1500 words each day, I'm setting an anything goal of 2000 words per day. I think I'll be more satisfied with my time management and my efforts to put out my completed WIP to agents sooner than later. Total count on my WIP today is 31,221 words since 10/3. I hope to keep up the standard.

What's a lesson you've learned recently from an unexpected source?