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Seven Things that Make Me Smile

June 29, 2020 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

OOH… this challenge is an EASY one. Things that make me smile.

God. His grace to me is unmeasured. Blows me away all the time. His total unmeasured grace, which I mostly receive graciously. There are times I don’t, when I fight and rail and want to go my own way. But his grace calls me back time and time and time again. It is good and it makes my heart smile.
My man! Seriously.. there are times he drives me completely insane (not in a good way) but if I took that out he wouldn’t be the man that I love and cherish would he?

3. My son. He’s become a smart-alecky teenager. He has a huge heart, and a willingness to serve. A growing weed with an innate kindness to him. By no means perfect, but a solidly good kid.

4. Bunnies! Anyone who knows me know how much bunnies make me smile. My most recent litter is pictured below. They have me a bit concerned due to some size issues with new mom problems. But so far so good! But watching babies grow…and then later seeing smiles of delight from new bunny owners.

Tonight I chatted with a gal who is new to breeding bunnies who is well-versed in genetics and a zookeeper to boot! We had a good talk about how to work the modifiers to get what she wants to get out of her buns. It’s good to talk bunnies you know?

Tea, books and weight loss

5. My cold tea diffuser. I use it all the time. Love it. Toss in dry tea leaves, or even tea bags and a couple hours later I have tea! The simplicity of making tea makes me smile. Good taste, lots of variety, and it’s pretty to look at as I drink it! 🙂 I thought I’d written a post about my cold tea diffuser, but apparently I only have one for my hot tea diffuser! (It makes me smile too!)

6. Books! What can I say, books are fun, interesting, and fill my mind with thoughts and images. Most recently I am listening to The Rose and the Thorn. I just picked up The German Heiress which intrigues as a different take on post-WW2 Germany.

7. This last one is a bit harder to share but hey! Sunday I went through my “clothes are too small to wear bin” and guess what!!!! 2/3’s of them fit me again! WOOT WOOT! I came down smiling “Guess what hun! I don’t have to go shopping! Clothes fit again!!!!” It’s been too long since they have fit so it’s good. Smiles, smiles, smiles. 🙂 It makes it so much easier to do everything when you carry less weight you know? The joints don’t hurt as much, it’s easier to bike and walk. Did you know I was able to bike up a hill tonight and NOT HAVE TO WALK UP! How wonderful is that?!?!?!! Makes me smile through and through.

How about you?

So tell me…. what makes YOU smile? Have you written anything? If so, drop a link below. If not… just share in the comments, it’s good to know the heart joys of other people.

Compromise Spelled Out

June 26, 2020 By Annette1 2 Comments

Oh, compromise, what a word that is. What exactly does compromise mean?

As a noun: an agreement or a settlement of a dispute that is reached by each side making concessions.

As a verb: settle a dispute by mutual concession.

Also as a verb: accept standards that are lower than is desirable.

Come join me as I look more deeply at this word prompt provided by the illustrious Miss Kate.

Compromise Spelled Out

Compromise spelled out
is often what we need to do.
Seen between mom and son
When there is work anew.

Organizing a lad,
Who helpful desires to be
But also has his own plans
That’s just between you and me.

“Mom, will I have some free time?
To spend with dad and friends?”
Clarifying question results in
“Oh son, that just depends.”

Pondering my actions,
I seek to clarify
Asking deeper questions
Seeking to verify.

Reaching to out to learn,
Just what a block might be.
Fitting relationships in,
Would it work for him and me?

Oh it works!
Determining times.
During Covid
My son he pines.

Making time for family
and for friends
While work encompasses much
Compromise extends.

I see it shown
as we work it out
How like this world
This compromise is all about

Seeing the anger
The shouting too
Can people learn
To make less ado?

Experience shows that
Compromise works
It’s one of those
interesting life perks.

compromise spelled out text with two feet on yellow road lines

Poetry aside, we can always see how simple examples in the home can be extended to the world at large. Working out what everyone needs is a matter of careful communication and the willingness to follow through.

Just Between Us

June 24, 2020 By Annette1 2 Comments

Have you ever thought about using a journal to create conversation between you and your boys? It can be hard sometimes to get these young men to talk, but sometimes once you get them going they don’t stop. Isn’t it marvellous when that happens? Now imagine you had a journalling type book to help you? A book that takes happenstance and fun, history and future plans and turns them into a chance to talk… sometimes on paper, but allowing for the spillover in talking. Come, let me walk you through this no-stress, no-worries review book called Just Between Us.

What I am Reviewing

Just Between Us: Mother & Son: A No-Stress, No-Rules Journal has 144 pages of connectedness. There’s no other way of putting it. Meredith and Jules Jacobs have done a fantastic job of pulling together fun ways of making mom and son think together. Sometimes they are just plain silly (like how (to escape a volcano) and other times more serious (Like times when you feel strong). Geared for moms of any age, and boys 10 and up. This journal is completely meant to be shared. I am reviewing this hardcover book on behalf of Raincoast books.

What you get in Just Between Us

Colour fills every page, colour with ample room to write or draw. The colours are mostly based around blue and pink. You’ll find orange highlights throughout as well. Don’t you think it would be fun to fill a brain with your daily thoughts?

Two book marks are made available, one in blue, the other in orange. These make it so handy for mom and son to track where they are in the journal. After all you aren’t the same, why do all the pages at the same time? Keep it all interesting you know?

There is ample room for writing and frequently you will discover “free writing space” so that you can wax eloquent over whatever fills your minds. There is an introduction for both moms and sons. Even pages with lines to fill leave ample white space if you fill inspired to add more details.

just between us: mother and son, sample page

Should you get it?

YES! If you can convince your boy child to join you in journalling! 🙂 Not all boys will, some would fight tooth and nail, but others… others would join you and you’ll have good laughs and conversations. My lad is a bit beyond doing Just Between us: Mother and Son with me, but I asked him about the volcano scenario, anger, and comic hero creation. He was intrigued but that’s about as far as it went. 🙂

As a 10 year old would he have done it? Not all of the book, particularly the parts that ask him to pick a favourite thing. BUT the story telling, the looking back into my history, and the looking forward, and fun scenarios… definitely. So don’t feel like you’d have to do everything, but to make conversation with your son… I think it’s a winner.

You don’t have to feel left out of you don’t have a son. See my affiliate links for other variations.

Other Journals I have Reviewed

The Family Adventure Journal, a hard-cover book to take with you on your adventures not matter how big they be! Take a trip to the park, the zoo, or to visit a friend. It is a pleasure to bring this review to you. With loads of space to record your adventures and pockets in the back for storage, it’s the perfect take-along.

Ellie Claire Art Journals are designed to help you meditate on God’s Word.

Things I love, is a sticker, drawing, colouring book to inspire your imaginative side.

10 Ways to Engage in Summer Nature Study

June 22, 2020 By Annette1 1 Comment

Did you know that summer is upon us? I KNOW! How did that happen so fast, seems I was just getting my garden in and now it’s almost July. Means that soon I’ll have a 15 year old living in my house! Thinking of my boy brings me back to his childhood and all the walks we did in our local bush. I thought it might be fun to recall some of our explorations (if I can find the pictures) and talk about 10 ways to engage in summer nature study.

The Fun of having a pond

What exactly is nature study? It’s viewing the world around you and taking time to make note of it. It’s seeing ants and watching them work, watching a bumblebee bumble in the backyard, or finding clover in your front lawn. Nature study is simply the art of paying attention to the living things that surround you. It can happen indoors or out, at home or in the community and often when you go on vacation. It might even be something that you make!

We have a pond in our backyard that has gone through a couple of changes. The first year we had it, we were inundated with tadpoles. It was so cool listening to the calls of the toads, and one night the lad and I went out late and discovered mating toads. This of course, resulted in lots of tadpoles. For a fun quip from my lad see my original post.

As my son’s love affair with insects continued, we learned to build an insect trapping kit. This lovely device is called a Pooter. We used it for a long time and it was actually quite easy to make. You can make different sized one depending on the size of the insects you want to catch.

How Nature Study Happens

Nature Study mostly looked like taking advantage of where we were. If we went camping up north we took our time examining the wildlife around the numerous small ponds. If we went for a walk in the bush we’d examine the mosses, fungi, ferns, birds, spiders and insects that we came across. Our weekly trips to the local park let us watch the baby Canada geese mature. Regardless of where you live, nature study is possible.

It might look different to you. Where you live you might have pigeons and ospreys surrounding you, or you might have lizards and roadrunner in your backyard. For all I know, you might have manatees swimming in the local waterways. Take advantage of the world around you and take your time to learn about what you see. You never know what might inspire you… You might design your own toad area!

Bend down and touch the moss and fungi. Imagine if you will, the wonder in your child’s eyes when he discovers that some fungi puff up and release their spores if they are lightly brushed. Take your phone and grab a picture so you can remember and look up more information when you get home.

10 Ways To Engage in Summer Nature Study

Go into your backyard/park/local green space. Put a hula hoop around yourself and now take the time to examine everything inside that hoola hoop, count the spiders, types of plants, ants and other insects, see if you can find any arthropods, tiny invertebrates, feathers etc.
Weekly take walks in a bush, park, any green space, go to the beach, and just look… wildlife is everywhere. At the beach check the dunes for insects and spiders, watch the water birds, scour the shore for interesting rocks or shells. In the park, you’ll find birds, tracks of nocturnal critters, small rodents and maybe some reptiles too!
Make an art project from collected items. For inspiration, you might find Crafty Ideas from Nature handy.
Drawings while out in nature. One of the most enjoyable art pieces we’ve ever done has been going out into nature and drawing what we see. Moss on a log, a tiny spider in a web, a pine cone hanging from a tree, just sitting there and drawing while listening to the birds around us. Hugely successful and generated so much conversation.
Scavenger hunts. Looking for words about nature such as Wild Words, or objects to find, or specific plants. Have fun with it, it is great for all ages!

Five More ways

Follow Inspiration from nature books, cards, or any study you are doing. Such as if studying owls, going on an owl prowl held by your local park/nature authority.
Go out at night, to an area you are familiar with, and just sit quietly. Do you see anything different than you would during the day?
Set up a bird feeder and note the birds that come through. Are there any that are just passing by and are thankful for a quick meal, or do you have any permanent residents?
Get a pocket microscope so you can do close up examinations right on the spot, allowing you to release small critters right where you find them, or lets you examine a leaf or flower without damaging the plant. So quick and easy!
Keep a nature journal. Just a way to document what you see and watch changes occur throughout the seasons. Write in it, draw in it, and attach a bag to keep items in.

Cannonball

June 20, 2020 By Annette1 2 Comments

Ah, the joy of looking forward to summer, swimming, camping, and spending time with family and friends. It’s a time to boost skills, explore new places, and learn more about yourself. Cannonball takes the goal of one young person and helps us look forward to all that summer has to offer. This is my review on behalf of Raincoast books.

What I am Reviewing

Take a multi-generational family, add summer heat and a swimming pool. Then over the course of 40 pages, children aged 4-8 will be amused as one child learns to soar. Full colour images by Josh Morgan bring the words of Sacha Cotter to life. Sourcebooks Jabberwocky is the publisher of this delightful picture book entitled Cannonball.

The Details for Cannonball

Every page is filled with detailed, full colour images. Pages like this are so great when reading with young children. They can use them to help tell the story, and there’s always so much to see and talk about. From the blues of the water, to the significance of war paint, and to the birds flying in the sky. What can you see in this page’s pictures? Let’s talk! I love that kind of thing with youngsters.

The story in and of itself is quite simple, but in simplicity there is the beauty of family love. The joy of a gramma’s confidence. And the pleasure of discovering something new within. It’s good you know?

Should you Get it?

The only name used is that of Nan, which makes her stand out as a person of significance. What does that tell you about her relationship with this grandchild of hers?

So go on, get this book. Enjoy a simple read and revel in the joy of good family connections. 🙂

Worth

June 19, 2020 By Annette1 8 Comments

I saw the word prompt from Miss Kate last night, and as I did the bunny chores this morning I considered it. Worth, such a loaded word for many. This makes it an excellent word prompt don’t you think?

How do you measure worth?
Coin?
Social status?
Power?
Connectiveness?
People following you?
Positions held?
Social media?
Attention from those that be?

Worth can be measured
in countless ways.
As many stars are in the sky
Can worth be measured.

And yet
Worth is meaningless.

It is so easily discounted
Unless it matters to
The one you speak with.

Yet God tells us this
are we not worth more
than the sparrows?
than the flowers of the field?

So why do we concern
ourselves
with our worth?

What does it matter?
If in the eyes of some you are
baggage?

Does your wife love you?
Does she wear her
Pride for you full well?

Does your husband
Mind you full well?
Caring for your opinion
and how others see his beloved?

Do your children rejoice
(yes I know)
That you are their mom?
Glad that they are yours
and no others?

Do you go about your
business
with honour and integrity.
Giving to God what is his due?

Then consider this
You are worth more
than sparrows or flowers
And God cares for them too.

Imagine how much more worth
You hold
to HIM.

And concern yourself not
with
Worth.

Matthew 6:28

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,

Luke 12:7

Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

When things go wrong

June 19, 2020 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

What to do when things go wrong … because things WILL go wrong. You will buy the wrong curriculum, your children will make errors in judgement, a subject will prove too difficult to master (at least in the format used), and/or you will make your own mistakes. Sometimes life intervenes with sickness in the household, or COVID will threaten the doors, or….

You get the picture… sometimes the unforeseen threatens all our plans, and the question before us is this: What will you do when things go wrong?

Something has gone wrong

We don’t always see it at first, but eventually it will become evident that something is not right. This wrongness may be in your student’s world or in your own. Infrequently events outside the home will set events into motion that grind education to a halt.

We’ve seen this recently with COVID affecting the world. Even though, as homeschoolers, our lives haven’t necessarily been affected much, the affects on others trickles down into the home. The lack of activities and outside interests stifled plays a role in our outlook on life. This can and will play a disruption in the educational lives of our children.

Our students might make errors in judgement with how they manage their time and need to face the consequences.

We might order the wrong materials, or thing that something “will do” because we want it to, but it doesn’t work well for this particular student.

Or you could find yourself out of a job and that disrupts the balance in your household upsetting how everything runs.

LIFE HAPPENS. It does’ We cannot plan for everything or have everything worked out perfectly.

What to do?

What do we do when things go wrong?

Talk. Seriously, just sit down and talk. Offer grace to your student if they’ve made an error in judgement and then move forward. If you have made an error… admit it, move forward.
Figure out what to do. Don’t wallow in the error, use it as a change to learn something new and then move forward with a plan that you have worked out together.
Stop school if you have to. Sometimes it’s necessary even if it’s only for a week, or even if it’s for longer. As homeschoolers we have the option to school as we need to, not as we HAVE to, so use our freedom wisely.
Remember education happens, even if we aren’t using books. Life skills, learning to cope with stress, the importance of helping family, hands-on learning, and more. Just change how learning happens.
Change your perspective. Often that’s all we need to do. See the problem as an opportunity for conversation and change.

Blogger List

Summer is almost here and let’s just celebrate now with the homeschool year wrapping up.

I’ve gotten together with 7 other bloggers to bring you this wonderful giveaway so that you can enjoy planning for your next homeschool year.

We are giving away 3 $100 giftcards from the place of your choice. You can choose from:

Amazon
Rainbow Resource
Hobby Lobby
Christian Books

Entry -Form

The winner will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond to claim their prize or else another winner will be chosen. By entering this giveaway you will be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers. Read the terms and conditions for more details.

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