Elena 
My Domestic Church
A busy week, a busy weekend at My Domestic Church.
Last week my oldest son Calvin swam in his first high school swim meet. Long-time readers might remember our struggle with the school board to allow him to be on the team because he attends the districts digital academy instead of their brick and mortar school. (Here’s the link to the swimming saga.) Cal has been swimming 3 mornings a week at 6:00 a.m. and every evening as well as Saturday. They also have him doing weights, cardio and Pilates! He is in the best shape of his life probably right now, very trim at 197 and almost 6 foot 2 inches.
His first meet went very well too. He swam the 100 backstroke at 1 minute 2 seconds. That is only 5 seconds off of the school record for that event of 57 seconds!
But the really big news I guess is how he has blended into the team. They have accepted him and he has friends there. It was so cute to watch these high school guys get on the bus to the meet with their shirts and ties lugging all of their swim gear. And although I am and probably will always be apprehensive about him traveling long distances on the bus, I’m glad he has the opportunity to feel what it is like to be part of this team working for a state championship together.
Sam is also forging ahead with piano. He will be playing Thursday night for the feast of the Immaculate Conception AND he also has a gig playing for the Children’s Choir on Christmas Eve. Now that really will be a big deal because the Children’s mass for Christmas EVE is PACKED! Standing room only. I haven’t mentioned all of this to Sam yet. He thought it was just a thrill to play all the way through his piece and have the choir sing with him. The director thought he did a great job too. No matter how this turns out for him, this is going to be a good experience for him to have under his belt. You only get better by trying something and getting through it and I am very encouraged for Sam.
My other three kids are singing in the choir, as well as my always-at-my-house-kid, Preston. They are loving it. Izzy sings all of the time around the house now! I did notice though that for Izzy and Noah, having the word sheets are a little intimidating since they aren’t strong readers yet, so I hope to go over the words with them this week so they feel a little more confident. I know once they are familiar with them they will do fine.
Speaking of words, Noah mastered the act of contrition last week just in time for his first confession. This is the version I teach:
Oh My God,
I am heartily sorry for having offended thee, because I dread the loss of heaven and the fires of hell, but most of all, because they offend thee my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of they grace, to sin no more, and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.
That’s a lot for a little 7year old to remember especially with the “thee’s” and “arts” but he did great.
There are lots of variations on the act of contrition and most of the ones for little kids are very – well kind of lame actually in my opinion. Since we used the St. Joseph First Communion Catechism with all of its cool old fashioned pictures of heaven, hell, the devil, Mary, the saints, it just seems to me that you need a prayer that brings all of those images to your mind. My kids seem to agree because they have all chosen to learn this prayer when given a choice.
But I was proud of Noah. He marched right up to the first available priest and went right into, “Bless me Father, for I have sinned. This is my first confession.”
The only part he had some problems with, and which I forgot to go over, is what to do with your hands when the priest makes the sign of the cross over you. He started to mimic the priest but I think he knew instinctively that that wasn’t right. So he just made holy hands folded in prayer. He’s a smart kid and that showed me he knows how to think fast when he has to!!
I have more to say but I have to cut it short now because we are going on our family field trip to NASA with our homeschool group. It should be a real good time. In preparation for the trip we watched Apollo 13 as a family last night, so they’re all excited about going and Noah wants to ask why the have to stir the oxygen tanks anyway!
Pictures and a narrative to follow- have a great day!