Five Ways to Cheer Up Your Injured Athlete

With R stuck on crutches and in a brace with her knee injury, we've been looking for ways to keep her spirits up. Dealing with an injury is tough for anyone, but going on 7 weeks with no end in sight, I've been scrambling for ideas to keep her going. Right now she's doing fewer hours at the gym and focusing on upper body conditioning (and abs), which isn't always a lot of fun. Especially when your teammates are working on new skills. Don't get me wrong, she's working hard - taking it like a champ, but I've still been trying to help her focus on fun.

1. We signed her up for an art class with a friend! You know, the kind where you go and drink wine and they help you look like you know what you're doing? Like that. Except without the wine, obviously. R love art, and while her team was rocking it out at the Chicago Style meet, she and a friend from school created some lovely canvas paintings at Creative Spirits in Ames.

2. Presents never hurt. Now I'm not huge on spending tons of money on things my kids don't need, but I found a pair of shorts at Justice on clearance that she'd been wanting for a while, and picked them up. This also might have been an "I'm sorry I didn't really believe you" present.

3. Family time! We've been doing lots of family activities! For example, this weekend we had brunch with my mom and sisters, watched J practice with his football team, and went out to dinner with my in-laws. What better medicine can there be than surrounding her with people who love her?

4. Books! Since she's sort of stuck - having inside recess, not being able to go out and play in the snow, etc. While A has been engrossed in Diary of a Wimpy Kid, R has really taken a liking to the Dork Diaries (which I had never heard of before J picked one up at the Scholastic book fair at school). Yay for libraries! She's also spending a lot of time on her devices, so while I'm cool with some Netflix, YouTube Kids, and Minecraft, I'm glad she's found some new reading material, as well.

5. Plan something epic. For us right now it happens to be a 10th birthday party that's only a few weeks away, but we've also talked about an "I'm all better" outing with friends. She was really hoping for an American Ninja Warrior party, but since even if she's 100% healed (which isn't looking likely) she'll barely be off crutches by the time her party comes around, we opted for an aerial class (think silks, hoops, etc) - something that wouldn't be putting impact on her knee. Maybe we'll sign her up for ninja warriors with friends after she's healed.

What would you add to the list?