Homeschooling Unit: Elections

Even though it's a homeschooling project, and this blog is where I've kept most of my homeschooling posts, I am now conducting a year-long unit on elections with my girls. Since it's political, I decided to host that discussion over at my Soccer Mom blog. I have my first post up as of last night. The biggest thing is we've got a CHART!

I am probably going to be learning quite a bit throughout the year, and this unit study will have a definite Catholic bent to it. The Catechism will be one of our tools.

Anyway, if you're looking for homeschooling posts, I'll have plenty of them over at the other blog.

I now return you to our regular programming.



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Epiphany Blessing

I once heard Mother Angelica say that if you're Catholic, people ought to be able to tell when they walk into your house. When she said it, we had one single cross (Risen Christ) in the house. These days, you sure can tell we're Catholic, especially if you take a look at our school area! Saints, crucifixes, statues, Rosaries, missals, Bibles, hymnals, pictures of John Paul II and Jesus all over the place.

And now, we have another thing to show our faith: Epiphany blessings above the door lintels. I love being Catholic! There are just so many hands-on things we can do to bolster our faith! I love that the Church gives us things that engage all of our senses!

What you are supposed to do for this blessing is have your priest bless a piece of chalk for you. (I suppose your deacon could also do it.) Remember that your chalk should not be thrown away if it is blessed! Blessed items should be either burned or buried respectfully if they are to be disposed of. Apparently, you should also get some fresh holy water. I forgot to do this, but we did have holy water from our parish that I had stored in a small bottle. You use the chalk and holy water to bless the lintels of your home. With the chalk, the father of the family writes:

20+K+M+B+08

that is

20 (century), cross, K (Kaspar), cross, M (Melchior), cross, B (Balthasar), cross, 08 (year)

(Note: I have also seen a "C" used for "Caspar" for this blessing.)

Soccer Dad had to use our holy water to bless our chalk today because I wound up teaching CCD at the last minute. I had the chalk in my purse, and Father R. never came to my classroom during class. By the time I was finally finished, Father was getting ready for the 11:30 Mass. So I missed him!

Basically, Soccer Dad asked God to please bless the chalk, then he sprinkled a little holy water on it. Hopefully, that was fine because I couldn't find anyone with holy orders around after Sunday school! (I'm sure God didn't mind. It's Him Who does the blessing, anyway, but the priest or deacon is specially suited for this because of his ordination.)

Soccer Dad used the Ephiphany blessing found here to bless the lintels in the house. The chalk shows up best above our front door, but he blessed the lintels of every bedroom and all the doors that lead outside. He also sprinkled holy water in each room of the house.

I really like this tradition! We'll definitely be doing this every year!

The Day's Not Over Yet!

It's not too late to toast Professor Tolkien on this, his 116th birthday! Sign up here, and raise a glass to him. (This year's toast is "The Professor!" More details at that link.)

Holy Name of Jesus

Well, step one has been completed: we made the dough (Big Girl did most of it, though I had to add the second cup of flour because she mis-read the ingredients), shaped the symbols and words, and baked the dough.

Who will help me eat the bread?

Oh, sorry! Got a bit carried away there!

We'll let things cool overnight (though it's probably not necessary) and paint and decorate tomorrow. In the meantime, here are our creations.

Big Girl works on her dough (above) and creates the following:

Below, you see Little Girl starting on her creations, then you'll see pictures of what she made.

Naturally, I can't help but participate in the fun! Two of my better creations are below:

I am actually kind of happy about those. Might save them and make them into Christmas ornaments or something. :)

When we get them finished, I'll put up more pictures.

Feast Day Arts and Crafts

Today is the feast day for the Holy Name of Jesus. (There is great power in that name, you know.)

In honor of that, the girls and I will be making salt dough and then baking the Holy Name of Jesus. When it's dry and cool, we'll decorate His Holy Name! I'm thinking paint, jewels, sparkles, and anything else we can find to make it pretty.

Stay tuned for pictures!

And, for updates on how we are doing with our year-long unit on presidential elections, check over at the Soccer Mom site.

Santa's Gifts

Santa brought these for the girls this year. Little Girl is actually out-pacing Big Girl in getting down how to "Heely" around. (We attribute this to her dance training.)

My girls think I'm silly because when they say something really funny or cute, I try to stop and write it down to share here later. (And to keep for posterity.)

Last night, Big Girl said something hysterical. I didn't write it down because we were eating. I have no recollection of what she said now.

Phooey. You would have loved it.

Sports Rant

Okay, I have a complaint about football analysts that has been building in recent months. We watch a lot of football here in the Soccer Parent household. And I'm not talking about metric football, either. I mean good ol' American football. (Even if foosball is the devil - we don't care.)

And for the most part, I don't mind the color announcers or the guys calling the game, though I admit that the guys who called the UCF game on CSTV were woefully lacking in interesting ways to phrase things. (How many times can one guy say, "He really put his foot into that," when someone punts? Apparently, he can say it every time someone punts without ever coming up with something else. It also applied to most of the field goals and extra points.)

But there is a strange thing I've noticed in the last few months about these guys calling football games. They keep bringing in baseball terms. For example, during the Fiesta Bowl last night, someone threw "a home run pass" down the field. Now, it was a great pass - long and true - and resulted in a touchdown for West Virginia. But notice what it resulted in: a touchdown. There are NO home runs in football. You don't hear Joe Buck saying, "Wow! Derek Jeter just hit a real touchdown into the stands there!" And I have heard the home run pass comment from more than one announcer in more than one game.

It just bugs me. People, don't mix your sports metaphors. Well, don't mix any of your metaphors, but at the very least, stop talking about home runs during the football game!

Just sayin'.

Birthday Cake!

From Big Girl's birthday celebration in Myrtle Beach last October. She turned nine.

Patron Saints for 2008

Our family has patron saints for this year, thanks to Esther!

Soccer Dad has two, which he has decided is because he needs lots of help. ;) I think it's good because he travels so much, and I'm glad for the extra intercessions on his behalf.

Saint Sava

Saint Zita of Lucca

I have the good Saint Joseph, who is actually Soccer Dad's usual patron (because he took Joseph as his Confirmation name).

Saint Joseph

Click on the pictures or names for information on the saints. I'll be posting pictures and links on our sidebar, as well, so we can always remember who's looking out for us.

(The girls also have patrons, but we're keeping those to ourselves for now.)