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If Polar Bears Disappeared

July 5, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

If Polar Bears Disappeared is a full coloured, picture book that is guaranteed to delight your children as they learn about the world’s biggest bear and what might happen if they disappeared. Join me as I review this great publication from Roaring Brook Press.

Geared for children 4-8 years old, this book will be a great introduction to the topics of global warming, endangered animals, life in the north and the food chain. Lily Williams asks this important question: What would happen if polar bears disappeared? Have you ever thought through what might the end result be of such a horrible loss?

Imagine the beauty and power gone from the earth!

The beautifully illustrated pictures bring to life the wonders of the Artic, a place where polar bears, seals, caribou, lichen, and more live. We are drawn through a world where if too much ice melts in the Artic, even life in the desert will be affected.

So if we learn how to save the polar bears… perhaps we can learn how to save the whole earth?

My thoughts:

Even though I am not an advocate for global warming or old-earth teaching, there is much in If Polar Bears Disappeared that I simple adore. I love how author Lily Williams pulls in all the different aspects of life on earth that could be affected if Polar Bears Disappeared.

I urge you to get this book if you are learning about endangered animals, the food cycle or just trying to teach your students the importance of all the varied life on earth.

If Polar Bears Disappeared
Lily Williams
Roaring Brook Press
40 pages, 4-8 years, softcover, picture book
biology, global warming, life cycle, science
Reviewed for Raincoast Books

Rhubarb Cake 2

June 2, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

It’s that time of year again! The Rhubarb is ready! Yum, yum, rhubarb cake, muffins, sauce, juice…. The pleasures of the season eh? We have a favourite rhubarb cake that I normally use, but this week I thought I would try a different one. My boys had mixed reactions to this new recipe.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup yogurt
2 cups rhubarb, chopped
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup packed brown sugar

Directions

In a large bowl, cream together butter or margarine and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla.
In another bowl, sift together 2 cups flour, soda, and salt. Add sifted ingredients alternately with yogurt to creamed mixture.
Toss rhubarb with 1 tablespoon flour, and stir into batter. Spoon batter into buttered 9 x 13 inch pan, and smooth the surface.
Blend together cinnamon, and brown sugar; sprinkle evenly over batter. Cut the 1/4 cup butter into small pieces and sprinkle over the cinnamon sugar mix.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes.

My thoughts: It’s good, but the other recipe is better
Hubby’s thoughts: Meh. Why did you need to change?
Son: Can I have more? You don’t mind if I have more? The other is better, but I like this one too!

The Things I Love

April 18, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Hey all..guess what’s coming? The spring five day blog hop from the Homeschool Review Crew. I hope you’ll come by next week as we all grab a topic (each our own) and talk about it for five days.

What will I talk about?

Things I love.

Things like
How I love it when homeschooling fits into life.
How I have things set in the kitchen to make things easier.
How my son has a bookbag for all this book work
How we have two checklists for my lad.. one for school, and one to help with daily practices.
and that last.. will be something I dunno know het, but I do hope you’ll stop in and take part!

Our Christain Faith … A Process of Becoming

April 12, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence

without fault and with great joy. Jude 24

This past Sunday we attended a service where the pastor taught this important truth. Growing up is a process. You can’t feed a 5 year old child, 10 years worth of food one day and then the next expect her to be a teenager. Growing up takes time. It’s no different for a believer… growing up into the Lord is a process. AND just like it would be indicative of something being wrong if a child didn’t grow up, so it is indicative of something wrong if a believer doesn’t mature in their faith over time.

It’s a conversation I have with my son frequently who has it in his head he’s supposed to know everything already. “Lad, you don’t have to apologize for not knowing something… all it means is that now you have a teaching moment. I get to help you learn something!”

Everything is a process you know? An orange ripens, a car is made, a rabbit is born and grows up, a job is started and in time is done smoothly, a 12 page paper is written (years in the making), or a house is built. It all takes time. It all is a process of being.

We need to remember that our faith is a process too. A learning and growing and becoming more like the Saviour we love and follow. Not only that though.. our brothers and sisters in Christ as learning and growing and becoming more like the Saviour too. It’s ALL a process for EVERYONE.

Let that sink in.

I need to let that sink in.

Just like I can tell a child “be careful, you might spill” and then seeing them spill time and again, until they learn what is the right amount to put in a glass if you plan to carry it. They learn it and then spilling doesn’t happen (unless there’s an unforeseen complication….. in our house that would be Miss Lizzie) 🙂

Knowing that the process of becoming more like Christ (sanctification is another word for it) is indeed a process. What does that mean for you?

I know for me it means time in prayer, time in God’s word, time listening to others.

All these things (prayer, God’s word, listening to others) tell me if my perspective is getting skewed, or if I need to slow down, or if I need to change what I am doing. It’s a necessary thing. Being in communion with God is a time taking event. A necessary part of the process in being part of the Lord’s family.

It makes me wonder, why do we rush around so? Why do we hurry each other to catch up or learn more or???? Why? Is there a reason we don’t stop and realize that we are all on the journey, and just like children growing up, we’ll learn important lessons at a different pace from another? Why can’t we be as patient with each other as the Lord himself is with us? Let us have a mindset to encourage and build each other up. Just as we’d say well done to a child learning a skill, or applauding a fellow finding a job, or a teen getting good grades on her report card. Let us applaud when a fellow believer finally gets something they have struggled with for far too long. That would be a goodly thing to don’t you think?

Day is Dying in the West

March 25, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Day is Dying in the West. I remember listening to my dad sing this hymn while I was growing up. He often sang in our church choir and had a good voice.

This hymn was written by Mary A. Lathbury. An American teacher of art and French, she was part of the Chautauqua Movement. She was known as the poet laureate of Chautauqua. She believed that God wanted her to dedicate her abilities of verse to him. She wrote a fair number of hymns.

Lyrics

Day is dying in the west;
Heav’n is touching earth with rest;
Wait and worship while the night
Sets the evening lamps alight
Through all the sky.

Refrain
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts!
Heav’n and earth are full of Thee!
Heav’n and earth are praising Thee,
O Lord most high!

Lord of life, beneath the dome
Of the universe, Thy home,
Gather us who seek Thy face
To the fold of Thy embrace,
For Thou art nigh.

Refrain

While the deepening shadows fall,
Heart of love enfolding all,
Through the glory and the grace
Of the stars that veil Thy face,
Our hearts ascend.

Refrain

When forever from our sight
Pass the stars, the day, the night,
Lord of angels, on our eyes
Let eternal morning rise
And shadows end.

Refrain

Paul’s Confidence

March 7, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Do you remember Paul’s lovely prayer yesterday? Today we get to hear a plea from Paul to Philemon in Philemon 1:8-22.

8 Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, 9 yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus— 10 I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. 11 (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) 12 I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 13 I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. 15 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
17 So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. 18 If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. 20 Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.
21 Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. 22 At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.

Paul opens his heart to Philemon, showing him a young man named Onesimus. Paul mentions that he is an old man, a man not only old, but a prisoner. And he COULD order Philemon to comply with his wishes, but rather to use his love as a medium for the request he makes.

Take Onesimus back. Onesimus is like a son to Paul, being a useful fellow. And Paul wants to keep him by his side as he serves him well. BUT he can’t. He needs Philemon’s permission. He doesn’t just want Philemon saying yes because he wants to be rid of a useless one, but he wants Philemon to see Onesimus as he is now.. a truly useful fellow, a fellow that Paul calls family.

So as he sends Onesimus back, it is like Paul’s heart is travelling to Philemon. That is the love the Paul has for this man, this bondservant of Philemon’s.

In his desire to have Onesimus back with him with the good and knowledge consent from Philemon, Paul raises the question, that just perhaps Onesimus needed to be parted from Philemon for a while. Parted in order to no longer be useless but useful. No longer a bondservant but a loved brother in the Lord.

Can you imagine the shock this would be for Philemon? To find out that his bondservant (the useless one) was with Paul and was BEING USEFUL!!!! Not only that, he was considered to be like a son to Paul. Plus this… a believer. This useless Onesimus… a believer and useful and coming back to him, A changed man.

Then Paul caps it off by saying If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.

Somehow I don’t think Philemon would charge Paul anything do you? I think once he got past the shock of a changed Onesimus he would have been delighted. Granted it’s ONLY CONJECTURE on my part, I’m just thinking of how I think it would have gone given Paul’s confidence in Philemon’s love for the people in his care.

Now I have to admit.. I am not sure what to make of these verses “I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.” Is Paul saying this would be a gift to him for Philemon to take Onesims back? I know from verses 21 and 22 that Paul wants to come and see him. I know that he is fairly confident that Philemon will take Onesimus and be generous in the doing so, so I’m thinking that Paul is just trying to sweeten the pot a bit. Knowing Philemon’s heart is geared toward loving fellow believers and loving him so show this love by taking Onesimus back.

What do you my readers think? I am so far off?? Is my thought process reasonable?

But imagine it eh? Imagine someone having that confidence in you that you would do something for them. Imagine what Philemon’s witness would have been? To be known as one who dearly loves his fellow believers.

Do you have that type of love? I know that I struggle with it. I really do. I’ve been hurt one to many time by people professing to care for me (within the church) that I tend to be cautious and careful, giving trust slowly now (I used to give it too fast I think). And cautious love isn’t the type of deep love that it appears to me that Philemon had for the church. It’s something to aspire to isn’t it?

Because Christ had that kind of love, a HUGE love for the people of God. His love was so strong he DIED for me. Oh, that I might more easily love AND SHOW IT! See that’s key right? If Philemon didn’t show his love for God’s people who would even know? So I need to love and I need to show it…both things… More clearly.

So then… shall we practice loving God’s People? Letting that practice make our love real! Let’s eh?

Seven Ways to Grow your Blog

February 26, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

As one of my goals is to grow my blog I’ve been doing some research on it lately. I thought I would share seven ways to grow your blog. Increasing the readership of your blog is rather important eh? After all, why write if no one reads it right? Now, one thing I have learned is that growth of a blog isn’t always present in comments received. So you mustn’t let comments be your sole indicator of the success or failure of your blog.

What active steps can you take grow your blog? Read on!

Publish content your audience wants to read. Sounds simple enough eh? What do people want to read in the market you are targeting? Are you focusing on preschoolers?.. then it makes no sense to right about highschool students. If your focus is on homeschooling, tossing in articles about tentmaking in Africa doesn’t exactly fit your paradigm does it? Or perhaps you’ve been happily blogging away only to discover that a series you are doing is garnering lots of attention… that might be just what YOUR audience is craving. Feed them more. Feed the audience that you have.
Engage your readers. Ask them questions. Respond to their comments. Make them feel like they are important, because you know what? They ARE important.
Build an email list… YES I KNOW.. I have to do this yet. Still figuring all the little stuff out. I should hire someone to do all the behind the scenes stuff for me cause GAH.. I hate doing that stuff. 🙂 BUT if you want to increase your outreach… you gotta do that stuff you know?
Pretty up your blog posts. Use images, pictures, graphics, colour, headers, and more. Make your posts visually appealing. Mind that you pay attention to copyright.
Reach out to other bloggers. Offer to write a post for them. Do this with bloggers who are in the same niche as you are in. Write what you know and write it well. Share it on their blog, then cross promote.
Use Stories. Oh people like a good story right? Give them a story as you write your posts, give them a reason to keep reading on and coming back.
Share your posts on social media. This may mean learning new skills with developing graphics, or learning what hashtags are and good ones to use, or even opening up accounts. Use social media.

What ideas do you find work for increasing the readership of your blog? Share them in the comments below.

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