A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

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Expect

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Expect

Two weeks ago I was in a state of expectation.
A longing,
A hoping for,
A waiting for 
Time away

Holidays awaited
Time with my hubby
Time with my boy,
A time to visit with on-line friends.
I waited and hoped and foresaw good things.

We hiked.
We museumed.
We toured.
We listened. 
We even sang, and biked, and watched in amazement.

Caves, speakers, water, birds, 
Peepers busy peeping…how close can we sneak?
The thrum of a bullfrog 
The patter of rain and
The ACK of wetness on a sleeping bag unplanned.

The sorrow of no visits with on-line friends.
The delight of seeing a heron on the prowl.

Expect.
Expectations seen and exceeded.
Expectations hoped for and missed.

So what do you expect?  

——–

This is a five minute Friday post. the word prompt is brought to us by Miss Kate over at Five Minute Friday.  What is Five Minute Friday?  Well it’s a party of a group of like
minded folks who gather on Friday to do a five minute free write around a
singular word.  AND THEN (and this is the most important part) we take the time to offer up encouragement to
each other on this writing journey.  It’s fun, though it’s not always
easy, but it is always good.   Come join us won’t you?  You are always
welcome.
This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Mom

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Mom
My mom
Loves me
Cares deeply
Born of Dutch Blood
Transferred to Canada
Married
Six kids
Farm
Cats, Dogs, Cattle.
Large Garden.
Lover of Dad
Wife
Caretaker
Mourned his loss
Mourns him still
Loved deeply
Back rubs
Smiles
Deep respect was held.
Parent
Minder of Manners
Minder of what Girls Do
Minder of what Boys Do
Teacher
Guide
Faithful
Lover of God
Sharer of Faith
My Mom
Not Always an Easy Relationship
Gets stuck on things
Some things more important it seems
Than a daughter’s feelings.
BUT always
Cares deeply
And shows always
What love is.
Love is
Patient 
Kind
Goes beyond itself
Not boastful
Protecting
Steadfast
Hopeful
This is my mom
Not perfect
But steadfast in her love.
I am Grateful.
copyright Annette V May 2017
——–

This is a five minute Friday post. the word prompt is brought to us by Miss Kate.  What is Five Minute Friday?  Well it’s a party of a group of like
minded folks who gather on Friday to do a five minute free write around a
singular word.  AND THEN (and this is the most important part) we take the time to offer up encouragement to
each other on this writing journey.  It’s fun, though it’s not always
easy, but it is always good.   Come join us won’t you?  You are always
welcome.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

The Week of American Goldfinches in Colour

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Check it out… my Spring Bed is out in good form this week.  Must like all the rain we’ve been having!  I just love walking up and seeing them all in bloom… just makes my heart smile!

Saturday:
I brought this cutie to London.   DaisyHawk in one of my favourite does, but it was time for her to find a new home.   She’ll be living on a farm in St. Thomas. 

Sunday:
Headed off to Kingsville so hubby could preach in the church of some friends.  Then had a lovely visit in the afternoon with them.  We went for a walk and my son was able to see Cactus growing in the wild in Ontario.

Monday:
We planned to go to London, but the lad developed a sore throat and was acting a touch troubled, so we called gramma who said “I’ll come your way”.  Once she arrived we headed out so we could get our taxes done, have a lunch out with hubby and so I could sell this cutie.

I bought a slingshot…
Tuesday:
 The lad’s sore throat has resolved itself into a cold.  It’s a bleak rainy day.  We did some schooling with emphasis on “school should not cause tears” and chilled out in the afternoon doing laundry and watching movies.

Wednesday:
 The lad was not feeling okay this morning yet, draggy and more apologetic than normal.  So he stayed home to do minimal schooling (just on-line stuff needed for reviews) and his reading.   I headed off to the

We had lunch together and chatted. I cleaned the fridge (being fairly brutal) and by the end we had a half empty fridge!!! 

Finished the laundry from yesterday, did some blogging and the lad made me supper (eggs/bacon/cheese scramble).  Took pictures of my bunny babes and then decided to cut the lawn.  Not the smartest idea as now I’m really tired and sore.   BUT HEY!!   The lawn is done and now the rain can come again and it won’t be a jungle when it stops again (apparently not until Monday!!!!).

Hubby pointed out that our Regular Pairs of American Goldfinch are back and … are almost back to breeding plumage.  

Thursday:
Today we did things differently than normal.  We made muffins, made the Millenium Falcon, built a hydraulic claw and made a simple drawing for art on Friday.   The lad did do his devotions and his Veritas Press History lesson.

Friday:
Dad had a funeral to preach so we dropped him off  as we headed off to visit a friend and do an art project.   Linoleum Printing.   It was rather fun to do!   Look!   I did a budgie!

Reviews:
Mission to Pluto.  A neat trip with a scientist to Pluto.
ArtAchieve.  A neat art program that we like. 
Millennium Falcon, Star Wars Builders.   A really neat kit for building a replica Millennium Falcon.

Homeschooling:
Art Class, different than one-on-one.  This post part of a crew round up post.
Art Book Series: Spot the Differences.  Guest post about a neat art book
Prickly Pear Cactus.  ABC blogging post, native cactus to Canada.
Books Read in April.   The books we read in April.  A link up post.

Everything Else:
Recipe: Rice-Cheese balls.  An interesting new recipe.  A link up post.
Springtime, a poem.  Just a simple poem about spring.
The Prince’s Portion.  Devotion on Ezekiel 45:7-25
The Greatest Should.  Word prompt on the word Should… what is the greatest should?

Linking Up at The Following Places.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Art Class, Different than One-on-One

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 Over this past year I tried to get my homeschool co-op to come out to my place to do a bi-weekly art lesson with the lad and I but…no one came out.  I guess they thought the half-hour drive was too much to bear.   I wanted to do an art class because doing art as a group is much different than doing art one-on-one.

So when it came time to do our spring co-op again I thought, I’m going to do an art class.

We had FUN!   I did a class on Zentangles and I have to admit.. it was BY FAR the easiest class I have ever done for co-op.

Grab the book: Zentangle: The inspiring and mindful drawing workbook with over 70 practice tiles

Grab a bunch of children.
Set them down with some paper and pencils and watch them go.  Seriously.. we had fun.
My job?   Simple.
Give some basic instruction first day… see.. look at these different zentangles.  This one is called ____, that one is called ______.  Practice a few of them.  We practiced on 2 x 2 squares of paper.

My job?  Offer encouragement, show what you can do different… if you space the lines farther apart or turn the tangle upside down.  “AH!!!”   one boy said.. “I can turn it into wheat!” while a girl said “I can make those vines into ropes if I add some twisty lines”.

I LOVE THAT STUFF!   Seriously.  I do not consider myself artistic.. I hated school and having to all do the exact same thing when doing art.  HATED IT.   But I do have a knack for taking ideas and presenting them to children and then seeing them literally FLY with it.   I LOVE THAT.

For week two I asked them.. what do you want to do?  Do you want to practice more on the 2 x 2 sheets OR would you like to see what you can do with objects?     Objects it was, so I brought in a variety of half sheet images.  Some pokemon, some birds, some puppies etc.   Things I thought the children might be interested in..and let them go to work.   I just pulled up free colouring pages from on-line, resizing them to fit the page.

This proved to be what the children wanted to do.   Fill in images and make their zentangles, or doodles with a purpose, practical.

I quickly discovered one young lady had an affinity for doing bible verses.  Her mom told me how delighted she was that I allowed her to do what she wanted to do and didn’t make her do what the others were.   This picture is partially done.  She did another one that was much bigger and filled with hearts around the John 3:16 verse.  Simple and well done.

Another young lady turned out these amazingly well done drawings.   She hopes to turn them into a book and maybe sell them.   I told her she had the skill to do so.

 Another young lady tried her hand at making her own outline and then filling it in.  Isn’t she doing an great job?  I was so proud of her and pleased with her work.

My young fellows weren’t really keen on me taking pictures of them working.   In fact one refused, so I went with it.  🙂  We did careful behind the scenes pictures.  I’m not supposed to let it be too big, but pleased I was with their work.   For their final project white shirt did a zentangle with french symbols to be filled out, and striped shirt did a series of intricate lines inside a pokemon figure.

This young lady learned to fit the zentangle drawings to the outline she was using.   By the time she had this one finished, it would have been a joy to colour in and see all those sweeping lines.   Not just done in pencil, but in fine tipped marker as well.

The bulk of the class was just me doing around and saying well done, have you thought about using this idea?   Oh.. I like how you added some blockiness to that, or see how the lines sweep here?.. what kind of doodle do you think will fit well there?    Encouragement along with different images to fill.. it was just an easy, laid back class filled with laughter and beauty.  

 Didn’t they do an excellent job?  I was so immensely pleased with all of them.  It was amazing to see their different styles?   A couple of the children made “cheat sheets” for themselves, choosing zentangles they particularly liked and putting them on a sheet.

This post is part of the Homeschool Crew Art Round up.  It will probably open up on Friday morning.

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Books read in April

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This month has seemed very busy, so I’m trying to recall what all we read this month.   Not as much as some months.  🙂

Oh.. before I begin I have to tell you this funny story.

I told my mom-in-law how much we enjoyed the book Irish Chain… and suggested she read it.  She’s about 78 years old and she liked this book so much she stayed up all night.  Oh my…she looked so tired and frail but wow.. she was full of her enjoyment of it.  🙂   Gave her and the lad much to talk about. 

It took her four days to recover from her reading adventure.  🙂

So what else did we read this month?
We’re continuing our natural world adventures with Natural world.   We’re in the midst of learning about a variety of birds. It was rather interesting today, we had recently learned about swallows, and today we saw some swallows in real life.  My lad was fascinated!

The lad is continuing to read through Shepherd, Potter, Spy and Star-Namer.  Tells me he likes it.   His bed-time reading is all about the Warrior Cat series by Erin Hunter.

At breakfast we are reading the Golden Goblet.
So far this book has us very intrigued.  Has the lad asking lots of questions about why the boy’s brother has to be so mean.  

I’m glad my lad doesn’t really understand such cruelty.. he hasn’t experienced it.  I’m also pleased that it bothers him as much as it does me.

We are also reading a book about animals in urban life (very interesting), a book about Canada (a bit young but the lad asks questions so good), and a book about muskoxen (more fascinating than you might think).  OH… And we are also reading a second book in the Rip and Red series (review coming soon).   I don’t have pics as the books are upstairs in my sleeping sons room.


I have just started a new book: A Train in Winter. I picked it up at the hospital’s rummage sale.  I was hoping it would be written as a novel, but it wasn’t.   Still interesting, but won’t be as fun a read.  Well..I phrased that poorly.. as reading about women in the French resistance who were shipped to a death camp from the Nazi’s wouldn’t ever be a “FUN” read, but more clinical I guess this will be.

So far it’s been a good explanation as to why the French started to resist so much against German occupation.

Oh Remember Fledgling from last month?   I have the boys hooked, so we’re listening to it on MP3’s in the car!   They like it so much we’re into book two!  AND they are mad that I want to listen ahead to book three so my listening fun has been curtailed a bit.  🙁

Avian is not a book for young listeners though as there is a fairly NASTY fellow in the book who likes hurting people.   But Javed holds true to who he is learning he really is, even if others warn him not to be.   A compelling story that the lad says “NO drive around the block, drive longer!!  PLEASE!!!!”

I also read a Valdemar compendium.. thoroughly enjoyed it.  🙂
Tempest.  It’s fun to read fan fiction.. to see what people come up with that’s in the light of the whole series.

Some of the stories are really well done, others just leave you wondering “what were they thinking!!!” cause it seems so off.

This one was quite well done.

And that’s all I have in my brain for now.   NOTE!  A linky is up at the end of the post so… join in!

Books read for reviews:

Curious Constructions.  Engineering marvels from around the world.
Fish Girl.  A well done graphic novel.
Quick tips for busy families.  Parenting hacks
Your Next 24 Hours.   A book to teach us how to be kind.
John Deere, that’s Who.   I liked this meaty picture book.
Once Upon a Time Storybook.   I had mixed feelings about this bible story book
God’s Easter Miracles.  Picture book for Easter for children.

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This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

I saw the word more

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 I saw the word More

I saw the word More 
and I just said NO.

No, I don’t want more.
I have enough.

I don’t need more to 
fill my plate.  To give me
less time for me and mine.

No .. late night blogging
No.. looking for work
No.. Can you do this?
No.. mowing the lawn 
No.. pulling the weeds.

I’m done, I don’t want more.

So NO I don’t want MORE.
I DON’T

I yelled this loud inside my head.
I DON’T WANT MORE.

But then my reason took hold.
Reason that said..

I do want more.
I want more walks with a talkative young man.
I want more weekends away with my beloved.
I want more depth to my relationship with God.
I want more flowers to bloom in the spring.
I want more people to not have to use the foodbank.
I want more churches filled with people deeply in love with the Lord.

So my NO, became a more quiet.. Yes.

Yes I do want more.
I want more of the right things.
And less. oh… I want less of the things.
That weigh me down.

I want more sermons preached from my hubby.
I want more grins of delight.
I want more conversations that fill me with hope.

So oh yes… I do indeed WANT MORE!
This want becomes a yell within.

I WANT MORE!!!
Indeed.
Gracious Heavenly Father GIVE ME MORE!

Copyright, Annette V, April 28, 2017

——–

This is a five minute Friday post. the word prompt is brought to us by Miss Kate.  What is Five Minute Friday?  Well it’s a party of a group of like
minded folks who gather on Friday to do a five minute free write around a
singular word.  AND THEN we take the time to offer up encouragement to
each other on this writing journey.  It’s fun, though it’s not always
easy, but it is always good.   Come join us won’t you?  You are always
welcome.
This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Team sports…. or individual… which works?

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 I don’t know if you are like me and not really into “doing phys ed”, so while I understand the importance of getting busy physically it’s not high on my list of priorities.  How is it for you?

I admittedly bought into the hype that children HAVE to take part in team sports because it’s good for them. Don’t get me wrong.. team sports are good for most kids, they really are! I felt like I was doing poorly by my lad if I didn’t get him into a team sport.

Therefore I put some effort into getting my lad interested in doing some type of team sport.

We tried homeschool soccer.   And admittedly there were points of success, but also had points of extreme dismay in my lad.

We stuck it out for a couple of years and the final year for soccer had my lad more interested in the toads and frogs in the local pond more than the soccer… so we called it quits.  🙂

Swimming worked a touch bit better, but not a whole lot.   Having ear troubles didn’t help the matter at all.   The end result was that my lad does know how to keep himself afloat in the water and that’s a good thing.  Perhaps with time he’ll become a more proficient swimmer… but first to fix his ears!

Then we discovered that we had a local karate club so I sweet talked my cautious lad into doing a couple of trial classes…. and HE WAS HOOKED!    He likes karate so much that he’s now has his orange belt and is looking forward to testing for his advanced orange belt.

Another love the lad has is archery!   He and his dad go out whenever they can.  A local fellow has a club with erratic lessons…but a willingness to let the boys go out and shoot arrows.

I have learned something important through all of this… my lad has a distinct fondness for individual based sports.  Where he can think his way through it, learning the steps in karate, perfecting his form in archery.  These things appeal to him.   Will he sometime down the road like team sports?   I don’t know, I’ll leave the door open for it though….but right now…  I have a boy having fun doing sports that he likes, and I call that…Phys Ed.  🙂

For other posts on the general theme of health and physical education, check out Canadian Homeschool bloggers eh?   Post goes live on the 26th.

Also linking up here eh?

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/