St. Francis Academy

Tournament Season

It's July, and while we have been to several baseball tournaments since March, I can certainly say that we are "neck-deep" into tournament season right now.  Over the fourth of July weekend we held our incredibly awesome Cincy Flames Summer Classic, which was covered by Travelball Select (TBS): July 4th, July 5th, July 6th Bracket Play, July 6th Championship.  DH, Matt, was the tournament director and he did an awesome job of recruiting 46 teams from 10 different states and coordinating the games for two different facilities, all the while dealing with one heck of a rainout on the 4th!  I think we only got to see dear ol' dad about 4 hours total that weekend.  Sadly, our boys dropped into the consolation bracket, despite going 2-1 in pool play.  Their record tied with a team they lost to in the pool, so the tie-breaker went to that team (head-to-head).  They shouldn't feel bad, since several other TBS honorable mention teams as well as the #14 ranked team (Sluggers, our local rivals) were also nudged out of the championship bracket.  Besides, it was a great fund-raiser for the team!

This past weekend, after a roller-coaster week which included firing the head coach (over how he dealt w/the boys losing), we headed up to Greenfield, IN, home of the Indiana Bandits, for the Mid-America Wood Bat Association 11U World Series.  Once again, the weather wasn't favorable.  Our drive up to Greenfield faced heavy rains, and our games wound up being delayed about three hours.  They lost their first game to another Cincy area team, which may have been due to their getting used to using the wooden bats, but went on to win the second game, ending minutes before it started to thunder and let loose even more rain!  The games on Sunday were delayed, as the hosts could only get one of the smaller fields in playable condition.  That didn't stop the Flames from winning and advancing to the championship game.  The boys played the best baseball game I've seen all year, with awesome defense, smart offense and a sense of relaxation and fun that hasn't been seen in some time.  They went on to win the tournament, which was played against yet another local Cincy team, with the game ending sometime after 9pm.  We didn't get home until close to midnight.

The boys have another 1.5 weeks before their next tournament.  In that time, though, the Flames organization will be hosting the 12U CABA World Series, an event which not only draws teams from the US, but also from Puerto Rico, Mexico, and sometimes Japan and other countries.  Our team's parents will be volunteering for this fund-raiser by working the gates and concession stand.  Then we will be off to Chicagoland for our end-of-the-year tournament, the 11U CABA World Series.  If the same Flames team plays at CABA that played this past weekend, they are sure to have a very high place in the championship!  A highlight of the week-long tournament will be pin trading.  If I can locate an article on that phenomenon, I'll link it later.

It Stinks...

...in my kitchen.

Everytime the refrigerator door is opened, out wafts the stench of day-old diced onions.  And since it is still morning, the fridge has been opened numerous times to fetch whatever-it-is-that-was-purchased-at-Sam's-last-night.

Lizzy, my aspiring Next Food Network Star, was assisting me at dinner prep last night as I was explaining to her how one needs to multi-task in the kitchen when preparing a meal.  As I diced the onion, I told her how it is nice to "chop once, use twice" or some such cooking wisdom, then I drained the boiled potatoes that would be doing a similar double duty for supper and the tasty treat I was planning for myself.

You see, I finally stumbled across the secret to fixing potato salad completely and totally not like my mom's!  I never really liked potato salad as a kid because my mom made it with eggs.  Ugh.  (sorry, mom).  All the other parts of the salad were great: crunchy celery, spicy onion, mayo, salt, and pepper.  But I just had to eat around the eggs! 

I'll admit it, I never was a big fan of the egg when I was a kid.  I never ate them scrambled, fried, poached, or hard-boiled.  It has only been a recent development in my palate as an adult, where I've more or less conquered the food-texture issues I dealt with as a young person.  It still rears its ugly head during pregnancies, but I more or less can eat eggs now, though I prefer them in their scrambled state, not really resembling themselves very well.  Yellow and fluffy is my choice!

I wonder who came up with this version of potato salad anyway?  Was it a happy accident?  I mean, when you have a potato and and egg sitting together, is your first thought "Gee, these would taste great boiled, chopped, and mixed together with mayonnaise"?  Not mine:  I think "Omelette and hash browns" thankyouverymuch.

Anyway, I finally came to the conclusion that I preferred my potato salad to taste like the kind from the deli, on the sweet side and, naturally, without eggs.  Yes, I like all the savory ingredients, especially the crunch of the celery and the zing of the onion.  Let's save the eggs for breakfast.

So, as I was saying, the onion!  It turned out that I didn't need as much onion for either recipe, so I was left with about 1/4 of an onion diced.  I bagged it, put it in the fridge, and finished making my double-duty delectables.  I thought I had learned my lesson from last week's foray into potato salad, where I had stored the salad in a metal bowl with an aluminum foil "lid".  I thought I was being smart by choosing a different container this time around: plastic with a tight-fitting lid.  Aha, I am a genius! 

WRONG!

I must have a particularly pungent onion on my hands, because, even with double freezer zipper bags, THE FRIDGE STILL STINKS!!!  As my dear boy, Drew, would say: "What the HECK???"

The Heat Makes You Do Crazy Things...

Ok, so one of my recent posts mentioned something about it being hot.  Then we had a glorious morning that promised a lovely late spring day of blue skies, breezes, and lovely open windows. Ahhh...off I turned the central air and enjoyed the next several hours listening to cicadas buzzing and basketballs bouncing off the rim.  That was last Wednesday.

The afternoon grew a bit humid, and, so, to ensure my comfort when it came to sleeping that night, I clicked the AC back on.  click...hummm...click, click...hummmm...click ad infinitum.  Dear hubby came upstairs and asked if I was trying to turn on the AC.  "Yes, but the air isn't blowing, " I said.  "The outside thing is running, but it's just clicking on and off in here."  Hoo-boy, grrrr-eat!  Something was wrong with the AC.  We called the company that installed the HVAC when our house was built 2 years ago, and they said they wouldn't be able to send someone out until this past Monday!  Uh, no good.  So, I called a local company who was able to send someone over the next day.

So, we spent an uncomfortable, humid night with the windows open and the ceiling fans whirring overhead.  Those things are a godsend!  I definitely don't understand why those snobby decorators on TLC rip them out the first chance they get.  "Oh, those things are soooo ugly!"  I guess theyve never had to go without AC!!!

The next day was promising to be hot and humid, so we were happy when the technician arrived around 9:30 in the morning.  He quickly found out what the problem was (the fan motor was overheating and needed to be replaced), but then spent half the afternoon trying to find the right part.  He wound up having to order the part and have it overnighted.  We would be spending another uncomfortable night like pioneers.

Now here comes the crazy part: we went out to dinner and a movie...with all seven kids!  Now, hubby and I go to the movies about every three years or so, so I had an inkling how much movie tickets would cost.  Of course, I'm such a freakin' tightwad, I was rather hesitant when he proposed we sit through a movie with the kids.  It would be cheaper to sit in the basement for the evening, wouldn't it?  But then the idea of the kids being entertained for nearly two hours and the cool darkness of the movie theater began to appeal to me, so I gave in.  We saw Kung Fu Panda.  I don't know if it was seeing it on the big screen that was the clincher, but the kids were great, barely making a peep during the whole movie.  Would you believe, I actually relaxed???  Yep.  Good call, dad!

The AC was eventually fixed the following day, Friday, after a lengthy, impatient phone call by hubby.  The company was trying to say that the AC wouldn't be fixed until this week, while hubby was saying the technician promised it would be fixed the next day.  An hour later the technician arrived, fixed our AC, and just as it clicked on, it started to rain.  We've been enjoying fairly cool weather since Monday and the AC hasn't been on since then.  Go figure.

I'm on a roll...

Two posts in one day...it must be a slow morning!  H/T to Amy!

1. (209) Valerie's letter, 2. Double Chocolate Cheesecake, 3. Rays of Light, 4. Columnes al sol, 5. Adam Dunn bunts, 6. Misty wheel, 7. Rain over Rossbeigh, 8. Death By Chocolate, 9. The Voice of Water, 10. daffodil, 11. a chronicle of obsessions, 12. Ooooh! my new bag &shoes

Here are the rules if you want to play too:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker).


The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name

Enjoy!

P.S. Photo #3 is a place I've been to, close to where I grew up, and photo #7 is close to the town where my grandfather grew up!

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Oh, have we been experiencing some HEAT this weekend...hoowee!  The hot weather has inspired me to change the blog's theme yet again...a nice red with the butterfly says "summer" to me. 

I was looking at the calendar on the blog and noticed I only had two entries for the whole month of May...how sad is that???  Oh well, baseball, softball, t-ball, and six children in various stages of a stomach virus will make a person focus on life instead of blogging (which is a good thing, right?).  I finally succumbed to the virus last week while dad and the boys were at a tournament in Georgia...not fun, especially since daughter #2 had a softball game to play in.  And poor ol' dad fell ill yesterday, missing the second day of tournament play in Dayton (we won!).  There is one child left who hasn't been sick, so I'm hoping he either misses out (highly unlikely), or he gets through it quickly like his younger brother did.  Then we can move on with the business of summer.

Speaking of summer, we have had a recent "arrival" of cicadas.  We had a large population come in 2004--Brood X--which was one of the periodical broods that comes out every 17 years.  This year's brood is Brood XIV.  Of course, there are cicadas every summer that are not of the periodic variety.  The main way to tell between the "Dog Day" and periodical cicadas is to look at the eyes (I know, you don't want to get that close!): the periodical have red eyes.  I need to make sure I collect some of the shed exoskeltons from the nymphs and scoop out that cicada floating in our outdoor tadpole aquarium so I have some specimens to examine under the microscope when we do more formal study of insects in the fall.

I also realize that I haven't shared a photo of Aidan in a long while.  Julia is the one who takes pictures these days, so I'm hoping to find a cute one that's fairly recent.   Anyway, he's getting so big and loves spending time in his exersaucer.  He babbles a lot, saying things like "mum-mum-mum" and "bub-bub-bub."  He'll be 5 months old on Wednesday...how time flies!  Oh, and talk about time flying...I can hardly believe that his oldest brother, John, will be 12 tomorrow!  It seems like just yesterday he was this pudgy little critter with dark fuzzy hair on his shoulders and the tips of his ears...my little monkey-man!

School's out...

OK, so maybe not quite yet for the local district, but WE ARE DONE.

I decided to not plow foward through summer w/the medieval history plans after testing several weeks of Year 2 Unit 1 from Tapestry of Grace.  Medieval/Renaissace history is just too controversial to totally trust to a Protestant curriculum provider, and the expense is just not worth it when considering how much "tweaking" would've needed to be done to the original plans (this is especially true for TOG's Y2U2, ugh). 

So, I'm back to looking at a more secular approach and supplementing w/the various levels of Catholic texts we have.  My decision was made easy with the recent addition of downloadable e-Books for History Odyssey from Pandia Press!  With the downloaded files I will be able to combine Levels 1 and 2 in the sequence I like.  I will also be able to utilize the spines we already have!

So, anyway, back to my initial train of thought...we're done with school.  I called it quits last week after starting an impromptu lesson on Ancient China, backtracking a bit from our brief foray into Medieval times.  We learned a bit about the Great Wall of China and the Terra Cotta Army, but after that we were done.  I was initally going to try to tie up loose ends during the last two weeks of the district's year, but at the last minute I decided not to force it since there are just way too many baseball tournaments and a travel schedule to deal with.  The kids were relieved...and so was I.

And being the planner that I am, I've welcomed my newfound "free time" with open arms, giving myself permission to start focusing on (and budgeting for...new concept, ha-ha) next year!  As the older kids get closer to the high school years, I'm finding it to be important to consider new things, like being at a certain level in math, for one.  Word has it that enrolling with a correspondence school like Kolbe or Seton makes the NCAA Eligibility Clearinghouse process easier for the homeschooled student-athlete.  So, while our potential D-I-bound student-athlete is only in 6th grade, it's not too late to make sure he gets on the right track BEFORE he hits high school!!!  Ah, yes, my new hat is now "guidance counselor."

Another part of my planning has been developing a multi-level life science curriculum for K-8 for us to use next year.  Again, I have relied on a downloaded e-Book, Microscope Adventure, as a springboard for studies.  I figured it was about time we added a microscope to our homeschool tools and I will be weaving the different units from Miscroscope Adventure into the 11-unit study.  I'm trying to make use of the materials we have on hand with the addition of only a couple of new items (microscope and slides), following the different age-level suggestions in The Well-Trained Mind.  Focus will be on studying animals for 20 weeks, the human body for 8 weeks, and plants for 8 weeks.  There will be heavy emphasis on getting out in the field for observation, plus labwork with the microscope and a couple of dissections.  Home Science Tools has some really reasonably priced kits, so check them out! 

I'm still trying to work out how to sequence through science for high school in order to meet college requirements while still keeping my sanity and ensure the younger kids aren't neglected in this area.  Hopefully I'll be able to weave the current multi-level plan together with the syllabus available from Mother of Divine Grace.  I'm really trying to avoid much of the young earth creationist viewpoint that's prevalent in Christian publishers that cater to homeschoolers, like Apologia, while maintaining respect for our religious tradition by avoiding a completely secular, atheistic approach.  We'll see how I do.

Catholic Resources for Story of the World II

I spoke up at the 4Real "Across Time and Place" forum that I have a document aligning readings from Catholic texts that accompany the chapters in Story of the World (SOTW) II.  I have picked out pages from both The Old World and America (which I use for my younger middle school/grammar stage student) and The Story of the Church (which I use for my older middle school/dialectic stage student).  I currently just have pages for SOTW II, and hope to have something similar for SOTW III once I actually purchase the book.  I'm guessing I will need to switch to Our Pioneers and Patriots for grammar and Christ and the Americas for that time period, perhaps.  The little red flags by the chapter titles indicate a possible problematic chapter in regard to how the Catholic Church is portrayed.  I suggest you pre-read these chapters prior to reading them aloud or having your children read to themselves

Download sotw_ii.doc

Beowulf

I thought I'd post an update on our history study by giving a rave review for a DVD I recently watched.  Beowulf is a performance of the epic in Old English by Benjamin Bagby with modern English subtitles.  It is a mesmerizing one-man show, done in a unique style that's not quite talking, not quite singing, with the accompaniment of an Anglo-Saxon harp.  As I stated to my oldest daughter (who amazingly watched for a significant amount of time), "This is kind of weird, but really interesting!"  It's weird in that it is a performance in a language that no longer fully exists, but interesting...mesmerizing, really...in that Bagby's performance draws you in so that you are living in the poem.  If you are intrigued, I highly recommend getting the DVD from Netflix.

I wish I could give similar glowing reports of the R-rated (language, violence) movie Beowulf & Grendel, with Gerard Butler as the hero, Beowulf.  The acting was par, tolerable.  The saddest thing about this movie, though, is the epic tale is pathetically emasculated and only vaguely stays true to the original poem.  Yes, I expect filmmakers to take some liberties when adapting literature to film, but this one takes the cake! 

First is the concocted story that gives the character Grendel motivation to go on a killing spree against the Danes: King Hrothgar killed his father.  Forget about the age-old battle between good and evil, that Grendel's bloodline is from Cain, who slew his own brother.  No...his motivation is blood vengeance, not a sinful nature.  The result is that Grendel is depicted as a somewhat vulnerable, sympathetic character, rather than an evil force to be conquered.  Thus, Beowulf's motivation for helping the Danes is somewhat unclear in the movie, and he comes off almost conflicted about doing what is noble and right.  And when the scene comes where Beowulf "fights" with Grendel, the tearing off of the giant's arm is not from Grendel struggling under the strength of Beowulf, but from his own doing: he got "caught" somehow in a rope and hacks off his own arm with a sword.  In the end, Beowulf comes off not so much as a hero as he does some guy who picked a fight he had no business fighting in the first place.  Boo!!!

Image of replica Anglo-Saxon helmet courtesy of the British Museum.

Coffee Klatsch

Maryan* brought Mystic Monk Coffee to my attention last week, after posting she had seen their ad in Faith & Family magazine.  I am miserably behind in my recreational reading...the mag is still sitting in my inbox (hard copy snail mail, that is).  Anyway, I decided to treat myself to their inexpensive sample offer.

Like Marianne, I chose their hazelnut sample.  When I was young and single, I loved drinking hazelnut coffee, which I graciously ground and shared with my father.  My coffee choice nowadays is rather utilitarian: taste isn't as high a priority as caffeine is!

I am a big lover of hazelnut-flavored foods, as is evidenced for my penchant for Nutella, Ferrero Rocher Chocolates, and Hazelnut Coffeemate, so hazelnut coffee shouldn't seem like a big splurge.  But, ohhh, does it feel like a big splurge!

Anyway, having risen earlier this morning to drive my mother to the airport, I didn't have a chance to brew my newly arrived Mystic Monk sample until just an hour ago.  Now the house smells heavenly (at least to me). Since we are finished with schooling for the day, I'm relaxing with my hazelnut coffee and listening to acoustic guitar while the baby catches some Zzzzz's.  Talk about bliss!

Like Marianne, I fixed my batch a bit on the strong side, but it is wonderful.  There is no bitter aftertaste to this coffee, which is a big plus to this "light and sweet" gal!  The only downside I see to this right now is that I would love to drink this throughout the day, which would mean switching to decaf.  After I hit 3 cups, I get a little jittery, and if I have caffeine after about 4 in the afternoon, I find it hard to get to sleep at night.  Plus we have the little man to consider...not sure how much caffeine gets into his system from my coffee habit, but I don't want to test the waters. :-)  Fortunately, Mystic Monk's Hazelnut also comes in decaf!

So, Mystic Monk gets two thumbs up from this mom.

* my apologies to Maryan for the initial misspelling of her name.  My cousin's wife is Marianne, and we've been talking about her while my mom was visiting (well, not just about her...the whole family), hence the mistake.  Mea culpa, MARYAN!

Sunday Was a Good Day

Our oldest daughter, along with 159 other young people from our parish, was confirmed this past Sunday by Archbishop Pilarczyk.  Bad mom that I am...I don't have a single photo from the day!  We wound up in the overflow seating in the parish center/gym...which was kind of weird for Mass, but cool to watch everything else since the parish had it on closed circuit TV.  We were able to get several glimpses of our daughter throughout the Mass with a nice close-up for the actual blessing with the oil of chrism.  And, ohhh, did she smell just heavenly afterwards!  That's my all-time favorite scent.  Mmmmm....

Our oldest son was playing in a tournament championship game at the time.  At the end of Mass, my husband received a text message that the team had won!  It was a sweet victory, as it was against their biggest rivals...a team who has beaten them several times in a row (twice already this season, and a few last season).  Although we all would've loved having been there to see it, our family motto is: God, Family, Baseball.  :-)

With baseball season well underway for us, this lovely spring weather, and my mother being in town for a couple of weeks, I've switched to an even more relaxed schedule for schooling.  The weekends are quite busy for us, leaving little down time at home.  As a result, our Mondays start out very slowly, with very little academic work...it's usually maps, the Math-U-See video lesson, then whatever history-related video is on the list for the week.  This week it is Arabian Nights, which is close to 3 hours long.  Needless to say, we'll be stretching it out over a few days...just like Scheherezade!  Fridays are also relaxed for us, with hands-on projects and science topics (either a video or a field trip) being the usual fare.  We're deep into fossils again, but picking up more on the prehistory of the state of Ohio.  I have some new resources listed in the left sidebar under Science if you're interested.