A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

poetry

It’s my birthday, again

By 10 Comments

I was going to turn this whole thing into a poem… then my tiredness got the better of me.  Yesterday was a LONG day… much longer than I wanted it to be.  But I just got write it out cause … It’s my birthday again.

It's my birthday again

It’s my birthday again

It comes around
Once a year
A celebration day.

This year I turned
Dare I tell?
Of course, I’ve lived them well!

54 years under my belt
They say you should never ask
Though why not, I do not get.

Excuse a moment,
These tired bones
A cat just bumped my leg

He’s hungry you see
Needs a late night snack
It’s diabetic need.

Duty done
I now return
this poem now to tell.

It's my birthday again

I picked up the car, and headed off to Kitchener.  I wanted to go to the St. Jacob’s Market.  I had plans to sell a bunny, buy some fruit and some luncheon meat.  Heading on my way, about half way there the “check engine light” appeared.  Called the seller, he said “It’s probably nothing but a loose gasket or gas lid”, hubby seconded the same as the car was running fine.   Since I’ve driven many cars with the same thing I wasn’t too concerned and kept on my way.  Got to Kitchener in good time and sent bunny on it’s way to a new home.  Wandered the market, spotted the meat I wanted to get but didn’t buy it as I wanted to check out fruit prices first. 

Oh.. my favourite sliced meat!
Should I buy
Let’s look at fruit!

Peaches, Plums
Blueberries too
OH… Sweet Peppers!

And then the clouds opened up.  Oh my but it poured.   I was wearing my open toed sandles with my orthodics that shouldn’t get wet.   So I said “I guess that’s all I will get.”    And headed off home. 

Trouble Raises it’s head

Hmmm… what’s that smell?
Is it the town?
No! It’s the car!

Stopped by road
Car too hot
Call the seller asking help.

He walked me through
Some things to check.
Temperature, battery, fan

Wait until it’s completely cool.
Then call back when
The car will start.

It's my birthday again

Well, the 20 minutes he suggested came and went.  I waited a bit longer the car wouldn’t start and seemed rather cool.  He called him back.. worried he was.  What was going on?  He had me run more checks, then said “hold on, I’ll drive on out.   Just wait”.   Helpful people came and went offering rides, seeing if I was okay.   This I was grateful for.  What I wanted was a book! (and to just get on with things).

He never arrived, he got my location a bit mixed up and couldn’t find me not one bit.  But we talked further, he gave me more suggestions.   He promised he’ll come Friday afternoon or sometime Saturday with a trailer to pick up the car and will leave us a loaner until it’s repaired. 

 Home I head
Slowly it went
9 hours total

For what should
have been
26 minutes.

Thursday the car
Never made it back.
Friendly JMR took me home.

Friday morning off I went
Walking 3 kms
Brought back Miss Bess.

It's my birthday again

In Conclusion

So now our new ride, in the driveway sits. Hoping Mr. D can get to the root of this.  When hubby reads the codes it brings up the capacitor, or a sensor, or oxygen deprived.  Maybe a loose hose?   I’m thinking it will be a fine-toothed comb needed to track it all down.

My joys of birthday were simple.  

  1. I bought a car charger for the phone so I was able to call for help.
  2. A sister who called to say happy birthday and to commiserate with me.
  3. A mom-in-law who took my many “I”m bored sitting at the side of the road calls”
  4. A hubby who took many texts and we had good conversation when he was able at work. 
  5. Helpful people.  It’s a true delight. 
  6. In time I’ll be able to laugh about all this.. I’m not there yet.  Still feeling vexed and worried about this new ride.
  7. That I couldn’t get my favourite sandwich meat.  It surely would have spoiled by the time I got home, or I would have eaten it all at once and not been able to savor it over several sandwiches.  God was good in sending that rain!
  8.  I’ll never be able to say I’ve had an “uneventful” birthday!  Never again!  🙂

So join us over at Miss Kate’s for Five Minute Friday.  This week the word is Again. 

Distant Places

By 9 Comments

I sit here ruminating over a word
Distant.
Every week a group of people unconnected
gather.

Some from the United States
Others from Canada,
The United Kingdom,
and from all over the world.

Distant places
yet
in common we have
One word.

Five minutes given
write!
Speed along with careful
Thought.

No editing
No rewriting
Just careful blasts of words
Filling the page.

I love it.
I really do.
Seeing how one word
One time limit
Brings people together
Writers together
From all over the world.

Encouragement
Experiences
Enlightenment
Different perspectives

Now tell me
What do YOU see
In the word
Distant?

distant places

Willing I Wait

By 12 Comments

I was talking with my lad the other day, about how when I was on my way home last weekend I cried most of the way home.  I’ve not been in a good place mentally and spiritually lately.  One of the goals for this overnight trip was to play music I loved and could sing to have a happy time.  I wasn’t expecting the tears, but I’m glad that God stopped me for a while.  Reminding me of WHO he was, and WHOSE I was.   I needed that reminder dearly. 

Anyways, what was my point?  

My son asked why I cried most the way home.  I told him about how God used words of songs and lines to remind of things I needed to remember.  Things like if I call myself a Christian, yet I don’t seek after God, what am I really saying?   I need to seek after God and I need to get my house in order because that is who he has called me to be.

But it will take time.

The question is: how willing am I to wait?

Willing I Wait

Willing I Wait

In a hard spot
I sit
I feel alone. 
Bereft without a friend
Doubt sets in

All alone
No one cares
Dishes wait
Laundry done
Doesn’t anyone see?
I’m all alone,
just trudging through…

Doubt takes root
If no one sees?
Perhaps it’s true
God is make believe
Doesn’t care
Doesn’t want.
And so deeper, depression sets.

Til one day
A chance it comes
Get away girl
Just run run run.
Take along some tunes to sing
The boys are not there
No complaints can bring.

All the way there I just talked and sang
Music rang long and deep
So much fun I had
The weather hot
Oh my a burn!
Since window down
No air-conditioning.

Then hugs and laughter
Good soul friends to chat
We talked family
And work and who knows what.
But laughter rang out
Long and clear.
Such a good night
with souls so dear.

An overnight since
Sleepiness and travel do not combine.
On the way
Misdirected I was
Lovely man, started me off again
Take 94 all the way home,
Straight to the border
Port Huron… Then home!

All the way home
the songs they rolled
Then a line caught my mind
and the tears down they rolled.
I cried as God told me
o’er and o’er
HE is Lord of all

He watches
And is the one who sees
He provides all.
He minds me full well
I shouldn’t FORGET!
HE MINDS ME.

And so I remembered
This God with his Son
Who claimed me his own
One who gave ME!?!?  Full rights
A child of his own.

And so tears of sorrow
A repentant heart
So I determined
A New way, let’s start
Let’s stop playing mind games
Remember now what’s true

A remembering all
the tears slowly ceased
Reminded I am
That is his way is peace
the path won’t be easy
but the heart follows true
Who he is, and whose I am
Willing I wait

Willing I wait

Okay, now you’ve read mine, and hopefully you’ve glimpsed the God who Sees.  I urge you to head over to Miss Kate’s.  Write or tell your own prompting on today’s word Willing.  Then encourage someone, it’s the heart of our community. 

It Rained Warm Bread

By 8 Comments

Know what I did yesterday?  I figured out what my son would be studying next year.  It was wonderful!  The only thing I need yet is Latin and French.  I organized the books onto two shelves so it would be all ready come September. We have LOTS of books for our World War 2 Study.  Anyways, as I was looking through my stack of review items I came across “It Rained Warm Bread”.  It’s another book I can add to our stash!  Moishe Moskowitz’s story of hope, is told by his daughter and put into poetry form by Hope Anita Smith.   Just stop right now… GO and order this book.  Do it.  

It rained Warm Bread

It Rained Warm Bread: Moishe Moskowitz’s Story of Hope.
Story by: Gloria Moskowitz-Sweet
Poems by: Hope Anita Smith
Illustrations by: Lea Lyon
Christy Ottoviano Books
Middle School, history, WW2, Holocaust, Poetry,
Ages 8-14
Seven chapters, 146 pages
Received ARC softcover, Sold as Hardcover.
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

Moishe Moskowitz was thirteen when the Nazis invaded Poland and his family learned the language of fear. The wolves loomed at every corner, yet Moishe still held on to the blessings of his mother’s blueberry pierogis, of celebrating the Sabbath as a family, of a loyal friend. But each day the darkness weighed more heavily on Moishe as his family was broken, uprooted, and scattered across labor and concentration camps. Just as his last hopes began to dim, a simple act of kindness redeemed his faith that goodness could survive the trials of war: That was the day it rained warm bread.

It rained Warm Bread

The Details

I love poetry.  Poetry that tells a story can be a huge delight.  This book was no exception… Hope Anita Smith paints shapes with her words.  Shapes of sadness, sorry, fear.  Knowing well the shapes of wolves looming in the dark.  Shapes the speak to hiding, to loss of hope.  So much sorrow. 

Her words bring to life the hardships that the Jewish people in Poland had to bear during World War 2.  This story is told  through the eyes of one little Jewish boy.

Each poem is short, just long enough to bring to bear the message brought.  The poems follows the one before, bringing the reader into the life of Moishe.  

It rained Warm Bread

Themes can be found.  The love for his family, the concern of good neighbours, not knowing who to trust, learning early how to protect yourself, the sense of community within the Jewish citizens. We also follow the despair and sometimes the hatred of being despised by most you meet, and yes, the hatred a boy ends up feeling at being bullied by everyone and the country they live in.   It’s all very tangible in the words woven. 

It Rained Warm Bread

Hope occasionally raises it’s head.  A brother with an escape plan, a convict saying “he’s my helper”, memories of his father’s voice “where there is hope, there is life”, and the kindness of women with bread.  Hope brings courage, and through courage a boy survives.   Through that hope, my love for humanity can be restored.   Poignant words fill these pages. 

It rained Warm Bread

Should you get this book?

Yes.  Even if you aren’t doing a year long study on World War 2 get this book.  Learn, grow, see.  Feel the despair and be introduced to hope.  You so need to read this book, my heart has been made so quiet. 

I am looking forward to my son reading this book when we talk about the German treatment of the Jews.   Making a guide for reading through it is something I need to do I think.  It Rained Warm Bread will not just bring the horror to life, but also the immense sorrow, the loss that the Jewish people experienced. 

disclosure

The God Who Sees

By 8 Comments

So I just finished reading a book called Heart Changer.  It’s a fictionalized account of the slave girl to Naaman.  He had leprosy and had to wash in the river Jordan.  You can find his story in 2 Kings 5. 

A quote that caught my attention runs as follows:

Even though I do not believe in your God, Miriam, I can sense that He is watching you.  That his hand is upon you.  And he has plans for you.  I never thought I could say that about a god, but your God is not one made of wood or stone.  He is one who hears and cares deeply.  He is one who sees.

I got to thinking about that.  God who sees.  What does that really mean?

The God Who Sees

Question asked:
What does it mean
That God is a God who sees?

Does it mean that when a sparrow falls
He actually cares?
Or is he a distant God just noting
The event without concern?

Does it mean when I weep in despair
while washing the dishes, that it matters to him?
Or does he again, just note it
and go on about his affairs?

Questions sometimes hit
When you think about a God who sees.
What does it really mean?
Does one who sees care?

The thought implies that he does.
What’s the point of seeing if it’s just
another point to make a note of?
Seeing implies that he really sees.

That he sees the depths of confusion and hurt.
That he notes the hunger of the sparrow
The pain on a brow
All the signals that something isn’t right.

So what happens then?
What happens when a God sees?
Does he act?
Does he do anything to show he sees?

I don’t always know it
Sometimes I do
Like when we read about how God
Gives us something tangible to show the intangible.

Using something that we know well
Like taste, texture, sight, smell
An action of giving
and then receiving.

To remind us of the bigger picture
HIS SON DIED.

So when I pause to really think
what it means to have a
God that sees.
It does matter.

It mattered before the moment
that those tears fell
When a heart wept
When a bird stopped singing.

God saw it then
He sees it now
And he’s already done it.

The question now is
Do I make the choice to see him?
To know the one
Who saw me first?

The God Who Sees

Well, a poem

By 3 Comments

Oh, I am running so late for doing my five minute Friday post. It’s late on Saturday night!   Can you believe it? I do have a good excuse, you see last night I was busy until quite late at night.  I was at the TEACH curriculum sale in Brantford.   I had so much fun.  

Well, a poem

I was delighted to be at a table next to Sarah Wall. She blogs over at Raising Royalty. She’s such a sweet lady and is force to be reckoned with.  She makes me feel capable and like I can do important things too!  🙂   She happily and easily helped me manage a large table of books.  Such a good natured, nice lady.   Anyways!  Enough.. I had so much fun.  I love talking books and selling books and just dealing with books, so going to curriculum sales is just a huge amount of fun for me. 

As I’m writing these words I’m thinking to myself, what does the word well mean to me?  What resonates within me at the word?

Well, a poem

Well
A hole deep in the ground
Water at the bottom?
Or maybe something else.
Youngsters be careful
Not to fall but
If your donkey falls in on Sunday
You help him get out.

Well
A thought or emotion
How do things go?
If things are well
It is good,
A move to the positive.
I wonder though
Would you admit if
you weren’t?

Well
A job finished
Completion
A good job
The thoroughness needed
For something to be done

Well
Are you well?
Is your health okay
Any concerns
Is a doctor needed?
Run that mile
Walk that block
Keep your heart
Going tick tock

Well
Exclamation
A shock you see
Something unexpected
Between you and me
I didn’t know
How can that be?
It’s a surprise!

Well can be
So many things
What is well with you?

Names Matter

By 2 Comments

So I’ve been watching this intriguing show lately.  It’s called The Imposters.   The basic premise is a young lady who marries people under an assumed name and then leaves them after taking all their money.   She’s known as Eva, Alice, CeCe and Saffron.. and who knows how many other names before then.  To the person affected the names used mattered.

I found myself feeling sorry for the people that she’s conned.  Imaging myself falling in love and then having that love betray me. Not a good thing at all. 

Over the course of the series, I am starting to feel sorry for this young lady of many names. Caught in a game that cons people out of their hard-earned money.  Pretending to love them in order to do so. BUT NOW… she’s in love and having to treat that love just like any other mark.  She wants to get out of the game but finds that she can’t.  Her very life will be at risk… and I feel sorry for her. 

I shouldn’t.  It doesn’t make a lot of sense.  A con-man is a con-man (or con-woman). And yet…there I am, rooting for her to find a way.  To find a way to get past this constant change in name and decide to settle on her own name and an honest way of living. 

As I ponder this incongruity I think about how God has tons of names, when the lad was younger we studied the different names of God.  We made a double sided plaque for the wall with all the names we found. 

The thing is… God’s names mean something.  

Names Matter
Jehovah-Jireh : My Provider
El Shaddai : Lord God Almighty  
Jehovah-Nissi :mThe Lord my Banner
El-Elyon : The Most High God 
Jehovah-Raah : The Lord my Shephrd
El-Olam : The Everlasting God

The list could go on and on
Showing us who Christ is,
in the names he bears.
Showing us who God is, 
in the names he bears
Showing us who the Holy Spirit is,
In the names he bears.

Names matter.
The name of God matters.
Elohim, 
Redeemer,
Saviour,
Spirit of Wisdom.

No Con
Just names that describe.
Names show
Names matter
Names help us glorify God.

Come join us won’t you?   Miss Kate‘s weekly word prompt is fun and helps you meet new people. This week the word prompt was name.