A Net in Time

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How can we Not have Easter?

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The HomeSchool Review Crew has started something new which I think should be a lot of fun.  For the month of April they have put together a challenge that we can tackle any way that we want to.  Daily posts to Instagram for a week if we want, or write a blog post, post to facebook memes around a topic, .. literally whatever we want to do.   This week.. EASTER!   Later we have the challenge of Spring cleaning, gardening and Healthy Recipes.    Here goes to doing something for Easter.    I do hope you might join in (whether you are on the crew or not).  I’ll provide a linky below.  

April 2020 HSRC challenge

Not have Easter?

I was browsing facebook this afternoon, as one is prone to do when condemned to house arrest due to a pandemic.  Popping up in my feed where concerns in some cases, scoffing in others, about Easter being cancelled this year.  My immediate thought was … Easter can’t be cancelled, what in the world are they talking about?  How can we not have Easter?

How can we not have Easter

What is Being Said

What This Means

I know it seems silly to spell this out but it means that there will be no

  • Easter Egg Hunts
  • Photography sessions with Easter bunnies
  • Ham, turkey, chicken or rabbit dinners with extended family
  • Brand-new Easter outfits (unless you ordered them on-line and they got shipped on time), but the spring outfit showing off will have to wait for a later date.
  • Good Friday services, Easter Services, Maundy Thursday, or any other services in person.  

We need to simply STAY HOME. 

not have easter mistake

Does this mean we won’t have Easter?

Just because we do things differently doesn’t mean we can’t still have Easter. It just means things will be different.

Family gatherings will be smaller.  Less money spent as smaller meals are made and less driving is done. You may find easier conversations not trying to reconnect with everyone, just being able to focus on the few gathered around.  The world might be a bit happier with less pollution in the air.  The health of the community will be increased if you just focus on distance.  You might have the time to make Braided Easter Bread. 

There will be no crying or disappointed children who couldn’t gather all the eggs that they wanted.  Instead, families can be creative in planning smaller Easter egg hunts with their children.  And since you aren’t having to rush out for an early Easter egg hunt you’ll be more rested for your online church service. 

Since you don’t have to get all new Easter outfits you’ll have more money available for summer day trips, or on unique Easter crafts.  

And since you have less rushing around to do, you’ll have more time to read stories with your youngsters, going over the real story of Easter, or just taking in fun Easter stories. 

Easter is still coming

You can’t stop it from coming, you can’t avoid it when it comes, Easter is on April 12 this year.   It will look different this year than other years, but it will still be here.   We’ll protect the vulnerable among us because we don’t always know who they are. For all you know it could be your sister or nephew, or your own sweet mom.  Skip this year, keep them safe, and find ways to make special memories with your loved ones. 

Join in on the linky won’t you?  Share your Easter posts!

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Zeroing in on March Meals

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It’s that time of month again.. .YES time to be zeroing in on meals, today it’s many of my March meals. 

Come see what all we made won’t you?  🙂

Zeroing in on March Meals

Dutch Meatball Soup

With a hubby not feeling well and a lad with a sore throat I looked to make a favourite.  I haven’t personally made dutch meatball soup before, but it’s a favourite for my fellows so I figured I’d give it try.   The recipe I used I doubled and I gave some to our tenant as well.   Carrots, meatball, celery, a fairly simple soup to make actually.  The fellows added some salt and pepper and called it good. 

Dutch Meatball Soup

SouthWestern black bean taco salad

I used this recipe.  Though I did make a change … I didn’t add avocado (didn’t have any) and I used lemon juice instead of lime juice since well lime juice just seemed an unnecessary expense.  🙂  My surprise was great at how much I enjoyed this… hubby did too, and the lad was like “mom, this is better than I expected!”. 

Doesn’t it look just SO good?

Southwestern black bean taco salad

Rice Salad with Turnip Pork Hash

I made some rice one night to have with some leftover chili I think it was… and I cooked up the whole package even though I didn’t really need it.  Just really had no place to keep an open bag of rice well.  I looked around to figure out what to do with it and came across this salad.   I thought I had kept the rice open on my tablet but alas I did not.

Rice has a simple oil/vinegrette type dressing, cucumber, bell peppers and cilantro in it.  I remember I modified the recipe since I didn’t have wild rice.  Anyways, 2/3’s a cup makes a decent serving and I discovered it went EXTREMELY well with my turnip cranberry pork dish.  Even my non-rice loving hubby said it was good.  My even more non-rice loving son wouldn’t even try it!  Though he did enjoy the pork hash.  🙂  

Oh. how to make the hash?  Grab up a turnip and dice it up put in water for a bit.  Meanwhile with a bit of oil in the pan cook up some onion, add about a pound of diced up pork tenderloin and let it brown.  Let that cook for about five minutes.  Add your turnip, toss in a handful of craisins, and a splash or two of water, put the lid on and let steam five or so minutes (depends on how big your diced turnip/rutabaga pieces are).  Add some VH sweet and sour sauce, let it cook five minutes to meld the flavours and it’s done. Be mindful you turn it down so it doesn’t burn (been there, done that, waste of perfectly good food).  Makes four servings.  This meal is fairly similar to one I made last month. 

rice salad with pork hash

Crab Salad

I really can’t remember what all I threw into this.  I had some imitation crab, found a recipe for a dressing that would go with it, then tossed whatever I had on hand in with it.  My tenant made some suggestions with seasonings as crab is fairly bland and her dad was a decent cook.  Onion, bell pepper, tomato, kiwi I think, and I dunno what all else.  I know I ate about half and then said “this needs some salad greens” so added those and it was decently good.   Could I make it again?  Possibly…but wouldn’t be exact.  Its not a meal I offered to my fellows as they wouldn’t have touched it with a 10-foot pole. 

Crab Salad

What else?

Well my son made a banana chocolate chip loaf which disappeared too quickly for pictures.  I made a good variety of cookies, some buns, and a couple of different pot pies.  A stew (without the bread bowl) and a Chili made it into the mix. 

Oh.. a turkey hashbrown casserole.  Eggs, hashbrowns, diced turkey, bell pepper, seasonings of choice, and a touch of milk.  Cook in the oven for 40 minutes or so.  You get a meal that I love, the lad likes with ketchup and dad passes on.   I borrowed ideas from a couple of different recipes and was happy with how it turned out.  

turkey hashbrown casserole

What have you cooked this month?

So okay, this is the last in the alphabet blogging for this go round. I am not sure if I’ll do another, if I do it will probably be themed on Canada or science or something like that. 

alphabet

Others in this Series

Adjustments Made

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It’s a time of transition, the world is adjusting to a new norm.  I can’t say I think it will last.  People will get tired of not being around others, and tired of not being able to find what they need.  And they will head out and get what they need and say heck to the consequences. People are not meant to be in isolation from each other, even the strongly introverted have people they want and need to connect with. 

I’ve watched the news reels and seen those who deny Covid-19 is dangerous, or even a virus that can be spread, that it is all a hoax.  I’ve seen those infected with Covid go out of their way to infect others.  Deliberate action to harm others. I’ve watched the Spring Break revellers and wondered at their foolishness.

I’ve noted the fear and the anger.  A mom telling a little girl to move away from the sidewalk to the other side of a car, giving even more than the six foot minimum.  The security guard needed at the local grocery store to maintain order. Signs on floors reminding people to keep their distance.  People can adjust if they give themselves time, and we need to encourage them in their adjustment. 

Adjustments Made

Adjustments Made – a poem

Alert! Alert!
Stay at home!
The alert came through the phone.
Startling me it seemed
out of a year of growth.

People fail to understand
The need to exercise care
Home from vacation
Yet going to the store.
Children oft in tow.

I have mixed emotions about this need.
To fill the fridge and cupboards bare
taking along the whole family.
It’s so easy to focus on just the self
To forget our larger community.

But the alert sounds
This is not just about you!
Protect families, see to the weak
How will you help
Preserve the economy?

Fear rises, avoidance a norm
And with it a counter point.
Remember kindness, to think of others
To keep yourself and others safe
Sidewalk signs appear

And so we see
Adjustments made
People slowly learning
To be a community.
Think beyond themselves.

The five minute friday word for the week is Adjust.  I hope you’ll take the time to join in with us.  It’s a fun writing activity.

Review: Timeline Collection: A collection of historial timeline figures

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FTC disclaimer review

Over the past few weeks it was been our privilege to use Timeline Collection: A Collection of Historical Timeline Figures .  Being able to use time line figures has been a great way for my son to focus on specific WW2 figures and events.  Home School in the Woods has put together an extremely useful set of figurines all in a bundle.  Let me tell you how we used them. 

Home School in the Woods Timeline Collections review

What I am Reviewing

Timeline Collection: A Collection of Historical Timeline Figures was created by Home School in the Woods.  Geared for students in grades K through 12.  The Timeline Collection is a bundle containing four sets: Creation to Christ, Resurrection to Revolution, Napoleon to Now, America’s History,

These timelines are

The Time Travelers bundle comes as zip file in which will come an embedded page which will guide you in how to download your product and in which size you want it.     You can purchase this bundle in a variety of formats and with different liscences.  Check this page for more details. 

You will receive a number of illustrations reflecting people and events from the different history periods.  These historical timeline figures are available with or without text, and an easily resized format. 

Home School in the Woods logo

How We Used the Timeline Collection

When I agreed to take on this review I mentioned that we would only be using the illustrations for World War 2 as that is what my son is currently studying for history.  As it turned out we used the illustrations from World War 1 as a bit of look back to last year.   We didn’t really use them beyond “what more do you remember about ________”

World War 1 and 2 are part of America’s history which starts at the Magna Carta and ends, 40 pages later, with the 1999 Mississippi Flood.

Treaty of Versailles image

The figures can be printed either with text or without.  They come in resizable formats so that it is SO easy to use them however you want.  You can create a wall timeline, or create a book of important people, places and events.  Another option is to make a smaller timeline with pages taped together to make a long timeline.  Combining all the options would work well too.

Home School in the Woods works hard to make it as easy for you as possible. Two CDs with all the images, labeled and organized in different ways to make them easy to find. On CD2 you’ll find the list of all the images. 

History timeline table of contents

Each of those HTML files opens a window in your browser that will look something like this: 

Home school in the woods HTML file

It took my son a while to decide if he wanted to do a smaller timeline or do larger images and make a book.  He decided he mostly just wanted to do a folder with the images with text.  This way he could write on the back any additional information he wanted to have.

He had me print off some of the smaller images to add to his timeline for World War 2. 

home school in the woods timeline images

Samples of the Lad’s work

One of the things I love about the Timeline Collection is the sheer versatility of the figures.  From using the larger ones as a wall mount timeline, using them in booklet form, sizing down for a nottebook sized time line or lap book elements, sizing to medium size for notebooking pages or even creating puzzles using the larger images.  Just so many options!

I love that my lad can take the wall sized ones and use them as a way to document important details he wants to remember.  His goal is to add them to his WW2 binder.   He is steadily working his way through each person and event.

Home school in the woods

He has taken the liberty of adding some of the smaller figures to his timeline. It’s quite the extensive timeline and I like how he can go back through and give me details throughout the war. 

Home School in the woods - timeline

Should you get it?

YES!  These timeline images have been an excellent addition to the WW2 study my son is undertaking. We’ve been using the WW2 study from Home School in the Woods Time Travelers series as a spine.  We’ve added additional elements to increase the challenge for a high school student. 

The wall mount size has been met with an enthusiasm I didn’t expect.  So I urge you to add Timeline Collection: A Collection of Historical Timeline Figures to your history studies today. 

home school in the woods

Closing Notes

I want to take a moment to highlight the U.S. Elections Lap Pak.  To learn more, they have highlighted this pak on their blog. 

80 members of the Homeschool Review Crew are looking at the following products. Please do check out our reviews. 

Home School in the Woods Collections - Lap-pak, Timeline Figures, History Studies & Activity-Pak {Home School in the Woods Reviews}

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Why? Why So Many Tabs Open?

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Did you know it’s a proven fact that women tend to have more tabs open in their browser then men do?   I see this in my family as well.  My hubby and son only have one or two tabs open at a time.  Me… at least 10.  Today it’s gotta by about 30.  So why is this?  Why are so many tabs open in my browser?   What causes this?

why so many tabs open in browser

The Why

There are a variety of reasons why we have so many tabs open.  In fact I’ve talked about tabs open in my browser before. 

For me it’s a “I’ll get to a later syndrome”.   Because there is something I want to keep or I want to look more into, so I leave the window open so I can go back to it when I have time.   Problem is… I rarely make time to do so and I end up having way to many tabs open. 

For others it’s a “I’m doing a bunch of things and want to have all the things I’m working on right at my finger tips”. 

And sometimes it’s just a matter of you are reading an interesting article with links to sources.  You click on them with the intention of following through.  One thing tends to lead to another in this situations.  

Browser meme
https://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMy03MzhkYjc5ZWUzZTY1NmQy/

Solutions for too many tabs

Bookmarks! 

Do you know that I am learning the value of bookmarking?  Just save it to a tab on my bookmarks bar.  I have things like school work, generic pages, my websites (and stuff that supports them), rabbits, recipes I want to try, info on diabetic cats and so forth.   It keeps things organized.  

Within each of those tabs I have other categories such as under school work I have “The lad’s current course work”, “curriculum for next year”, “interesting ideas”, “for me”, and so forth.   I would take a picture of one of them but can’t figure out how to do so.  🙂

When I remember, I use all those bookmarks wisely and it keeps my tabs open count much lower. 

Fingertips: Use trello or similar

Another tool I have learned to use is trello.  With trello you can organize your information so it’s all at your fingertips.  Working on a project and found an interesting webpage?  Save it!  Then you can come back to it and have everything right there when you need it.

Just X them out

Sometimes you need to make a choice.  Close that tab.  Let it stop being a distraction. Ask yourself: Can I find this information later?  Do I need this right now?  Is this really worth slowing down my browser?  Where can I bookmark it to?  Just call it done and a day!

why so many tabs open (text) computer screen background

What Tabs Am I Closing?

On-line Learning Resources

Avon Maitland School Board.  Help for K-12 while schools are closed for Covid-19.

PHET resources.  Just some interesting math.

Education Companies Temporary Free Subscriptions. Some companies are choosing to be kind during this Covid-19 scare. 

Ontario’s Learning Hub for highschool students. 

Homeschooling Links

I’ve been sussing out materials for learning about Anne Frank for my son’s next unit study.  List on TPT, Anne Frank lapbook,  Free unit studies, Stewart’s Unit Guide, and Penguin House Teacher Guide.

Of course I have SchoolhouseTeachers.com open as I continue to work through Inkscape. 

Architecture Unit Study that I thought the lad might be interested in. 

Animals of Fresh Water Marshes which I was intrigued by. 

I use Trello for different things, but I saw Airtable and I’m considering giving it closer look. 

My lad has been struggling a bit with his grammar book so I thought I would look into other options.  Not settled on getting something different yet, but just wanting to know what might work.  Easy Grammar, Daily Grammar, Grammar and Language Book, 

Look up things in Canada’s History.  Historica Canada. 

If you haven’t discovered Archive.org yet, I’m sad for you.  Lots of archived materials here. Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

A novel Study on Japanese internment.  Good unit for the lad. 

Homeschool Manager listed some vendors who are doing conference pricing with all the conferences that are not being hosted. 

Notgrass Catalogue.  Was looking at history and economics. Still thinking.  I’ve heard many good things about Notgrass. 

Dr. D Math Courses.  My son likes Dr. D. 

Non-homeschool tabs

Blog Helps

Miscellaneous

Curiousity Stream I often wonder about getting, and it keeps showing up in the facebook feed.  I just am leery about commitment, and wondering if it’s really worth it. 

Life Bible Booklets.  Discovered these, thought they might be helpful to some folks. 

Posts Where I am Mentioned.

abcblogging

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In Christ There is No East or West

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I’m sitting here, watching Star Trek Enterprise with my sweetheart, as I try to recall the last time I sung In Christ there is no East or West.  It’s been quite a while.   I hope you take the time to get to know it, it’s a lovely hymn. I was so pleased to be reminded of it in the Lift Up Your Hearts hymnal. 

in Christ there is no east or west

The Lyrics

In Christ there is no East or West,
In Him no South or North;
But one great fellowship of love
Throughout the whole wide earth.

In Him shall true hearts everywhere
Their high communion find;
His service is the golden cord,
Close binding humankind.

Join hands, then, members of the faith,
Whatever your race may be!
Who serves my Father as His child
Is surely kin to me.

In Christ now meet both East and West,
In Him meet North and South;
All Christly souls are one in Him
Throughout the whole wide earth.

I grew up with this tune

Author of In Christ there is no east or west

William A. Dun­ker­ley is the author of this hymn according to the Cyber Hymnal, other hymnals attribute authorship to John Oxenbaum.  Oxenbaum is one of Dunkerley’s pseudonyms.  So regardless of who it is attributed to, it’s the same person.  🙂

William A. Dun­ker­ley lived 1852-1941, an Englishman. 

This is a new tune to me

Pondering Truth in a Hymn

Do you see it?  I know.. right now with people sequestering themselves away into homes and aways from fellowship with each other it might be hard to see.  BUT without Covid-19 interference, do you see that the church is one great fellowship of love?  We are all part of one body of believers, worshipping the same God.  Whether we are believers in China, Ghana, Europe, Australia or Canada.  One large body of believers. 

We are all gathered around Christ, he is our head, our connecting point.  So regardless of creed, nationality, or colour.  Let us remember that central truth.  We are all believers together. Let’s work together, proclaiming that Jesus is Lord!  Brothers and sisters, one and all, joined in faith. 

The Jane Austen Society

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raincoast FTC

As well-known as Jane Austen is, do you know that I have never read any of her books?  When I started reading The Jane Austen Society I feared that my lack of knowledge of her works would prove a deficit. I am happy to tell you that this was not the case.  🙂  It has been my pleasure to review this wonderful tome. 

The Jane Austen Society Review

What I am Reviewing

The Jane Austen Society was written by Natalie Jenner. Published by St. Martin’s Press, this historical novel recounts the story of The Jane Austen Society.  At 320 pages it comes in a variety of formats, I received an ARC copy as a trade paperback.  I am reviewing The Jane Austen Society on behalf of Raincoast Books.  An women’s fiction book covering English society in the mid-1900’s.  World War II has just finished and lives were being rebuilt. 

Just after the Second World War, in the small English village of Chawton, an unusual but like-minded group of people band together to attempt something remarkable.             One hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of England’s finest novelists. Now it’s home to a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate. With the last bit of Austen’s legacy threatened, a group of disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen’s home and her legacy.   This is their story.

The Details of The Jane Austen Society

Part historical novel and part romance, this delightful read takes you deep into the lives of the characters.   I grew to love Evie Stone, and to delight in Mimi Harrison.  Yardley Sinclair raised my hackles more than once, and the doctor.  Oh my, I wanted to give him a good shake once in a while and tell him to just get on with things!  Isn’t that what a good story does though?  Evoke the senses and the emotions, drawing you into lives and time periods?  

The Jane Austen Society
The Jane Austen Society, chapter headings

Should you Read it?

YES!   Go out, get this book, and take your time.  Savour each of the characters, enjoy the look back in history.  The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner draws you into an captivating read.  A charming debute novel by a Canadian author.   If you read Miss Austen, you will also enjoy Ms. Jenner’s first published novel.