A day in the life …

Baseball Practice

I love watching my kids have fun.  Tonight was the first time I’ve seen Gabe act like his old self at a practice.  The coach told me that he thought Gabe was probably the most improved player.  What the coach doesn’t realize is that Gabe didn’t “improve”, he just hadn’t found his spot yet.

Well, Gabe’s team had a scrimmage tonight.  I’ve been telling him to take the catcher’s gear with him, but he hasn’t wanted to.  Tonight, I insisted.  I figured it was better to have it and not use it than want it and not have it.  I was right.

Getting involved

I was thinking the other day about how sad I am, inordinately sad, about the end of baseball season. Every week since the first week of May, we have had games or other baseball related obligations a minimum of four days a week. I didn’t even do as much this year as I did last but it was certainly busier this season. We are looking forward to sitting down and doing nothing from approximately 6:00 p.m. until, oh, 6:15 or 6:30, for no other reason than because we can. We are all looking forward to doing stuff at home. Maybe we’ll even get the house ready for company. Still, I feel like the season went too fast and wasn’t very satisfying for anyone. Maybe I’m putting too much stock in the baseball season and need to put more stock in what else God has in mind for me.

OH! Speaking of company !!!

The other morning, I was sitting in the midst of debris from a vacation Bible school project we’ve been working on. All was quiet and peaceful and I was contemplating which place would be a good starting point on my incredibly long list of things to do. I was in my jammies, I hadn’t showered or brushed my teeth and hair or anything a person would normally do when someone is coming over. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. 8-0 The dogs started barking and going crazy. I walked, bowl of Grape Nuts in hand, to the front door and peered out the window. An old friend was standing out there. When I say “old”, I mean that in reference to her age, an age at which she would’ve certainly been raised to call first.

She hadn’t been able to reach me by phone so thought she’d stop by.

*People who do not leave voice mail messages will not have their calls returned!!!*

*People who do not leave voice mail messages should not complain that I’m hard to reach!!!*

I long to be the type of homemaker whose house is almost always guest ready. There’s a minimum level of clean and orderliness that is required for guest readiness and our home is not like that. Lately it is hardly owner ready. (One of the blessings of baseball season ending is that I will have evenings to return this house to a state of order and homeyness. Can you believe “homeyness” is a word?) I am not making excuses for my housekeeping. It is what it is at the moment.

So anyway, my dear old friend whom I care about, sat here and talked to me for a good 15 or 20 minutes. I was so embarrassed. I mean it is beyond just messy.

She finally left and once again I resolved to clean up the house and keep it clean. I resolved to start that tomorrow. Ha!

We used to love to have people over. It has been a long time since we’ve done any entertaining. I’m looking forward to doing it again sometime in life.

Vacation Bible School is this week. We’ve been constructing this week. It has been interesting and I’ll be glad when we’re finished. There’s always something satisfying about finishing a job. I hope the kids like it. I hope it doesn’t detract from the point of the room we’re decorating. I also hope it doesn’t fall down.

I have this tendency to see a project as one big giant worry producing monster rather than a bunch of smaller, more manageable projects. I have made that mistake with the VBS room decorating. It was overwhelming to start with. I would’ve said no if the boys hadn’t been so excited about helping. Thank God for boys who force me to get in there and do something! I don’t feel real thankful right now but I just keep thinking about how much fun they’ve had over the years when other people have gone to much more work than what we’re doing. All the same, I can’t wait to be finished.

Stuff to do:

Transport large multi-part monster to the church and set it up.

Build tent frame

Make signs

Load up, take to church and arrange everything

Oh, and something exciting happened in the life of one of the Little Guy’s buddies. His adoption was finalized this past week. Woo hoo!! His foster mother has kept that low key and told me yesterday that the boys (Little Guy’s friend and the friend’s bio brother) are finally theirs. Yay!!! Congratulations, friends!!! That sort of puts things into perspective.

Well, off I go to load up the Huge Thing to go to the church. Might as well get that done.

I’m really trying, hard as it may seem, to stay off the computer and do productive things. I hope my kids don’t develop the nasty habit of time wasting. Ah, the rewards of time well spent!

The Cringe

I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen a catcher’s face this close up during a game. At any rate, I don’t remember ever seeing this expression on someone with all of that protective gear.

I thought it was necessary to leave the batter in the photo for context. The catcher isn’t cringing for no reason; the batter let go of the bat with one hand. The catcher was nailed by a thrown bat once so I suspect he was bracing for impact.

I got a kick out of the Spartan in the background during this game.  I’ve got about a zillion pictures to go through.  It would be interesting to do a montage of just him.

The big file.

Beautiful!

Nothing much new here

It has been hot the last few days. Really hot. And humid. The humidity seems to add about 45% more to one’s body weight.* I’ve heard people mock the “it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity” thing. They say, “Hot is hot!” or that a dry heat is more dangerous because you dehydrate faster. Be that as it may, a humid hot is oppressive. In Michigan, we tend to get both. We get the dryer heat in the spring and at various times throughout the summer and we get the humidity the rest of the time between about April 1st and October.

Yesterday, Homer had an away game and I am so thankful for air conditioning! It was so hot there. It would’ve been stifling to drive all the way there with no a/c.

Thank You, God, for a/c! May I never take it for granted and always recognize that I am blessed to have it!

I thought I was either going to pass out or throw up while walking all the way back to the field he was playing on. It was the kind of weather where you sweat constantly and it doesn’t dry because there’s little to no breeze, and even if there was a breeze, it would be like a sea breeze with all that sweat-salty air. *gag* On the way home, I nearly got frostbite on my eyebrows from having the a/c blowing in my face the whole time. That cold, dry air felt so good!

Homer’s team did well. They were in about a 6 or 8 game losing streak but they seem to have snapped out of it toward the middle/end of the season. Homer’s a pretty good hitter. His hitting average is enough higher than his striking out average that people expect him to hit when he’s up to bat. That’s a great improvement on his performance a couple of years ago and pretty much every year prior to that, where he would hardly swing at all. Last year, his batting average was the second highest on the team. I don’t know what it is this year but at least he’s doing his best. I can’t ask for more from him than that. Now to get that same kind of effort in math.

Homer’s team won 19 or 20 - 7. It was a combination of bad pitching from the other team and consistently good hitting and fielding on ours. The other team did okay in the field about half the time.

It’s amazing to see how these kids are coming around now that the season is almost over. Two of the kids on the team have never played before and yet are strong enough in certain of areas that you wouldn’t know it.

Over all, the team is a good group of boys. They harass each other over the least little thing sometimes but I think it helps them to develop a spine so I don’t worry too much about it. Last night, though, one of the aforementioned kids whose first season this is made a rather silly blunder that cost us a run or two. For someone who has never played before, he has done fine. After this blunder, the pitcher shouted to the outfield, “What are you, RETARDED, [Name]?!” I don’t know either of those boys real well but I know the “retarded” one well enough that I felt like I had been slapped in the face. I yelled to the pitcher, “NO MORE OF THAT!!!” I couldn’t believe his Dad didn’t give him what for. He said something after I yelled, but nothing nearly as severe as I thought he deserved.

My little friend in the outfield made a great play on third in the last inning and whipped the ball to first almost in time to get the batter out. It was like one of those plays that seems to be in a stumble from beginning to end but ends well; the ball is hit goofily and yet the fielder snags it and makes a quick, smooth throw to another fielder. The first basemen almost had it but he tried to catch it on the bounce. If he had stretched toward the throw, he would’ve had it. It bounced at his feet and it was too close for him to be able to get control of it, though he did keep it - and the batter! - from going past him. The batter was safe. Oh well. He doesn’t play first ever so he did fine all things considered.

I’ve enjoyed watching the boys play this season. I always enjoy watching them. It’s nice to see them out having fun. It’s amazing to see the difference in skill level from one age group to another. If two are playing on the same night and I find myself running back and forth between games, I have to be careful not to yell praise and encouragement for the older boys that is only suitable for the little guy. I have to be careful about the tone of voice, anyway. “Way to throw the ball, buddy! Good job!” could be said appropriately for any age level without embarrassment or annoyance, depending on what just happened. If Homer just, say, threw from first to home as the runner on third is heading home and the catcher catches it, “Way to throw the ball, buddy” would be appropriate. If Homer throws from first to the pitcher, “Way to throw the ball, buddy” is not appropriate. That is to say that it is not appropriate unless the pitcher is running from third, trips, does a cartwheel and the man on first throws it right to the glove mid cartwheel.

In the Little Guy’s division, it is pretty miraculous when a fielder throws the ball to another fielder and not over the fielder’s head or way off to the right or left. “Way to throw the ball, buddy” would be appropriate in the event of a good throw OR in the event of a throw that, in an older, more skilled level, would’ve resulted in an out had the throw been straight. Knowing where the ball needs to go and making an attempt to get it there, no matter how wild the throw, is praiseworthy. The best thrower is no good if he doesn’t know what to do with the ball once he has it. There’s always a chance that the receiving fielder could make an amazing catch and get the runner out. There’s no chance of that if the ball isn’t thrown.

Speaking of catchers, Homer’s team has a great catcher. That kid has no fear of pain! He got a batter out once when he slid full force into the backstop to catch a foul. He’s also the best one to catch for a not so great pitcher. That kid moves like a cat after a bird! Not a whole lot gets past him.

Other than baseball, we’ve been working on getting Homer caught up on some school work. Math is his favorite subject but he often struggles with it. He has really been working hard to get up to a certain point by the end of summer. I told him the other day that he won’t always have hours and hours of math to do every day, but he needs to get caught up before he can have a normal amount of work. I also told him that if he gets a certain percentage in math consistently, I’ll do the dishes for him. Hey, I’m willing to sacrifice for my kids!

This summer, we are evaluating and implementing what needs to happen to make sure Homer is on track for college as far as it depends on us. This year has been a nightmare but I think we can catch him up this summer. If not then somewhere within the first semester he should be okay. Thankfully there’s Dub. He makes us feel like we’re capable of homeschooling. Self-motivated individuals are cool like that. Dub is going into 7th grade and has been plugging away all along so we aren’t dealing with the same catch-up issue. The Little Guy will be doing a different math program but everything else will pretty much stay the same.

We’re trying Saxon this year. I saw that Rock Solid has it much cheaper than the Saxon Homeschool folks. I’m not a big fan of Saxon, come to think of it, I’m not a big fan of math either!!! but Mr. N thinks its just great so there you go. Our kids seem to have his math brain so it’ll probably be fine.

I started participating in a ladies’ Bible study recently. We’re going through Seeking Him by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. I love it! There is a good amount of Bible reading, and there is also a good amount of constructive questioning. Constructive questioning is like constructive criticism except that it is done by someone who doesn’t know you and the person is asking serious, direct questions about a certain area of you rlife. In this instance, Nancy Leigh asks about our relationship with God as it relates to what the Bible says it needs to be, how we need to be .

The first memory verse in that study is Hosea 10:12b “…break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.” That first chapter has to do with God’s involvement in revival, how hit is God who revives us, not we ourselves. It’s God who draws us to Himself. It’s very freeing and humbling at the same time to know that God is in control and that, though He will not force us, He wants to be close to us.  That’s pretty awesome!

Well, math and haircuts await.
*Or at least it feels that way!