A Typical Day in the Life of a Zamboni Mama

My typical day begins at 4:30. I get up to take my youngest daughter to the rink for freestyle practice. I'm home by 6:30 waking up my oldest son (who is zonked because he had hockey practice the night before, then had to finish the homework he didn't have time to do after school). I get my Mom out of bed (she’s wheelchair-bound). My son and I head out the door by 7:15. My husband takes over at that point and gets the girls to school. I'm at work at UNL by 8.

After work all of us meet up again at the rink for hockey practice. One night a week my youngest daughter skates the freestyle session that follows hockey practices. On Wednesdays, we drive to Omaha for more figure skating. At 8 PM or so I head for home, feed everyone, tuck my Mom into bed, then pass out.

But this description doesn't quite get at how much I love watching my kids learn the skills and pleasures of their sports, and also the drive, discipline, and determination that attend serious athleticism. This doesn't quite cover how much I love my teaching and writing work at the University, nor does it get at the connections I sense between my work as a teacher/researcher of writing and the work of coaching skaters. Living this way just must be a crazy little thing called love: there's no other excuse for it.