A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

writing

Accept the Mess

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Remember how I had this list of books I wanted to read and go through?   My mom-in-law added to that list over Christmas (and hubby’s promised one as well) so the list just keeps growing.  It’s good to learn eh?  Anyways, I was pondering what book to pick up for today’s post and Pep Talks came to mind so here I am.  

I was browsing through the table of contents when “accept the mess” caught my eye.   So.. shall we, accept the mess?  

Oh.. this chapter made me laugh.  Oh my, it did.  🙂 I am just grinning as I write these words ACCEPT THE MESS! 

But seriously …. it’s good to clean the house.. it is.  I was raised that way.  Unfortunately my mother NOR my mother-in-law live with me.  They don’t.. and guess what.. THEY DON’T WANT TO.  Bet you can’t guess the reason.  🙂  AND … it’s not because they don’t love me or care about me.. but MY style of living and THEIR style of living is well.. not quite a polar opposites.. but frankly I would rather write or do art or talk with my boy, or play a game or .. almost anything… then to get my house spotless.  There is far too many interesting things in the world that get my attention than the cleanliness of my floors.. or the cobwebs in the corners.   

So reading this post made me grin.

The author’s point is this NO ONE ever from their deathbed said “I wish I had cleaned my house more”.  BUT there are lots of people who wish they had spent their times differently.. written that novel, gone on the cruise, played with their kids more…. or almost anything… but cleaning the house.. not even near that list.

If you want to be a writer, you need to think to yourself.. can I do that “housework” later?  Can I let the mess around me inspire my brain synapses and just write?  Can I just take that five minutes or hour and just spend that time writing and creating and let the mess take care of itself?  Can I do that?  Can YOU do that?

Just so you know.. YOU CAN.  

Have you ever noticed that seriously creative people tend to have a less than tidy home?  Did you know that messiness.. or helter-skelter room arrangements tend to foster creative and novel thoughts?  Tidy rooms tend to foster tidy conventional minds.   You are called therefore to let that messiness flourish when needed. 

Mind.. you need to be concerned about others living with you and their sensitivities (ergo today I cleaned some stuff up in the bookroom) and tonight I sat and wrote.  It’s good yes?   But there are afternoons that I sit and write because well.. writing is something I love to do… and then rush through the dishes in the evening (so glad we have a dishwasher now.. like seriously). 

“Give yourself a break and accept the mess — because you are immersed in a deep act of creation.”  Realize your goals of creation. Decide when to make it important… it’s a good thing to do. 🙂

Learn more about this book through Raincoast.

or if you want to follow along, Amazon Link. 

 

Writing … is it your Identity?

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On Being a Writer asks me this question:
What is my identity?   Do I identify myself as a writer?

I have to admit, I find that a hard question to answer.  


On p 19 I found this line
“If you demonstrate the intent and effort of a writer day after day yet hesitate to refer to yourself as such, take time to reflect on your journey.  You might realize you’ve crossed a threshold, or identified a moment, or experienced an event that affirms you in this role.”

And then on p 20
“If you haven’t felt it or said it, it’s time. Say it: I am a writer.”

GAH…I have such a hard time saying that.
I can easily say I’m a poet.  Writing poetry comes to me as naturally as breathing, so that I can do.  I can say I’m a poet.  

So why I ask, why is it so hard to extend that thought and call myself a writer? 

I’ve had an article I wrote I did published in a small book. I write on my blog almost every single day.  I love to put words to paper and I love to let word prompts spill out of me in the form of poems and thoughts.  It’s FUN!

You know what it comes down to?  
I read what others write and I think…boy… they did a great job on that.  I could never match that.  Never.  See how they put that turn of phrase, see how they made the character come to life, and WOW..they had an awesome introduction to that review product..makes me want to go right out there and get it!    

And I don’t see myself that way you know?
I don’t see anything I do as particularly awesome.   Sometimes I see it as well done, or I conveyed what I hoped to.  But nothing something that might inspire someone else in their writing journey.

Now…if I could inspire someone in their faith journey.. that would very cool indeed!  Wouldn’t that be just the very best thing?  Perhaps if I knew I did that…then just maybe I’d see myself as a writer.  

Until then maybe I’ll just be content to call myself a poet..who also puts together reviews, devotionals and other bloggy posts.  🙂

If you’d like to know more about this book On Being a writer, you’ll be pleased to know that Amazon.ca   or Amazon.com sells it.

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 . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Just One Thing

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I keep thinking back to the writer’s conference and what I could take away from it.  Do you know why?   I don’t want to waste the learning.  If I don’t think about it and write about it, and keep the notes ready…then in three months it won’t have mattered that I went…and wouldn’t that have been a waste of hard-earned dollars!?!?!  Not my thing at all!

I keep coming back to a line I kept hearing.  Set a goal, just a singular goal.  Just change ONE thing.  Don’t do more than that.  Just one thing, one style, one character, one setting, one social media.  Learn to do that one thing and do that one thing well.  Then do one more thing.

goal setting one plans

So instead of looking at five things you want to do and (or in my case a million and a half things)….and feeling totally overwhelmed and stumped.   You break that down into ONE thing.  And yes, try to keep it to the ONE thing.  And yes.. I know .. it’s really hard to do that.  Perhaps we can practice together?  🙂

For instance, let’s say you want to increase your social media presence.  Should you tackle them all at once?  (just so you know, if you are thinking that way.. DON’T, just DON’T).  Take one, learn it, read about it, study it, try different things, until you have a good handle on it, and then .. tackle the next one.  OR don’t. Perhaps all your audience is in the social media presence you are currently using.   

Your next goal might be something else… like…if you are a novelist, really learning how to research a time period, or building a believable character, or learning to use action words without going overboard.  Learn that one thing, and then use that learning to go on to the next thing. 

So you aren’t looking at FIVE things (or a million and a half things) you are looking at ONE thing.  Just one.  Anyone can do ONE thing can’t they? 

What one thing do you think YOU can do?

Me… I’m going to move my blog so I can get my CSS something or other.  Just one thing to get, I found a lovely gal to help me out, got a goal of November 1st to get the finances done, and then a goal of mid-November to get the blog set up nicely.  Then Christmas will happen (and the busy-ness of the season) which will bring us to next year’s goal… to get a poem published in a magazine.  Should be doable you think?  Just one poem.. and who knows what the next step might be?   God knows, literally, cause I don’t.  

All I have to do is to make the ONE goal.  Going where I think God is leading me.  
Just one goal.

Tell me…what’s yours?

Original picture by Bill

 

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 . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Art Book: StickerBomb Journal Galaxy

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Know what I was doing the other day?   Cleaning off book shelves.  Oh my!  It was amazing the books I pulled off and said “I don’t need to keep this book”.  So out it went.   A good 10 of them were space exploration books, my son is done exploring space so they headed off to the book sale.

When I brought in the mail, this little gem was in the packet from Raincoast.  I looked and thought hmm.. odd little sticker book and then I REALLY looked at it and noticed..it’s not a sticker book, it has sticker for personalization, but it’s really a journal.   How cool would this have been for my boy to use while we were studying space!!

He could have jotted down notes, drawn pictures, pasted in images and what not.  It would have been all contained in one neat looking space oriented journal.

The page quality is wonderful.  Thick without being cumbersome, and 128 pages!!!   So much room seriously!    Even if you didn’t want to use it as part of a study, it’s a great journal just for jotting down notes and what not. 

Four pages of stickers are included to personalize the cover.  That’s over 100 stickers to use to make this journal your own.   I didn’t test to see if the stickers can be removed and reapplied, so if getting it you’d need to test that out on your own. 

My thoughts:
It’s a really nice journal, geared toward children, that would be just lovely for jotting down thoughts, or using as a notebooking spot when doing a space unit study.  🙂

StickerBomb Journal: Galaxy 
Designed by SRK
Published by Laurence King
Pages: 128
Age: any
Approximately 6 x 8 inches.

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

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 .

Language Arts: Our Style

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Welcome to the Virtual Curriculum Fair 2017 week two.  This week we talk all about language arts, how one plays around with words.   Our host is the lovely Susan.  You can learn more about the VFCF2017 right here.

I have to admit, it took a while to figure out a system to study Language Arts in our home.
Knowing that my boy (like his mother) tells stories as easily as breathing I thought, why not use that.

So I grabbed this freebie book from the library discard pile and off we set.

First he needs to draw a picture of the story he wants to write.  He spent days at this, getting all the details right and NO, I’m not allowed to show you.  🙂

 Then you develop your main character.  This was harder than the lad anticipated.  He thought he could just do yellow, pointed ears character.   Then I asked : so how tall is he?   Does he eat meat or vegetables?   What makes him laugh?   Does he ever cry?   Does he have friends or is he a loner?

Once he had the character nailed down a bit better he moved on to writing his story.  Bit by bit he adds to it.  And bit by bit he learns.  Every day a 1/2 hour of work is required.

Each time he gets a chapter done, we sit down and we edit it together.  We make the changes right in his story, discussing spelling errors, word usage, sentence structure and all that fun stuff.

And you know what?   He’s learning.  It’s not a battle.  It’s a sitting down and talking and learning together.  Sometimes I’ll read a sentence and not know what it wrong with it, so I’ll ask other folks and they’ll show me what’s wrong and then the lad and I both learn something new.

It’s good to do this.  🙂

I have to admit, I getting curious about what treasure his character is going to discover…

Anyways, this book has a variety of stories one can write out, from adventures to mysteries.
Draw it out, write it out chapter by chapter and just work your way through it.   We’ll be working our way through it for a good time to come yet.  🙂

I admit that we are taking our time with it, and we did get side-tracked when I was ill so are rather behind, but a new week is dawning and a lad will learn and grow, and I’ll be there with him.

This post is part of the Virtual Curriculum Fair.   I do hope that you’ll join us in reading through what some of us have put together.   Here’s the list of the gang.  🙂

Please visit my fellow homeschool bloggers who are writing about Playing with Words this week:

All posts will be live by Monday, January 9th at noon EST.

Delight Directed High School English by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds

Act Your Part Well- 2017 VCF by Lisa @ Golden Grasses

The Search For Language by Michele@Family, Faith and Fridays

Our Top Picks for Language Arts by Amanda H @ Hopkins Homeschool

Multiple Approaches to Language Arts in 2017 by Laura @ Day by Day in Our World

How We Cover the Language Arts in Our Homeschool by Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory

Use Your Words by Laura @ Four Little Penguins

The Art of Perfecting Macarons by Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life

Loving Languages Every Day by Jen K @ A Peace of Mind

Speech Therapy & Elementary Latin by Yvie @ Gypsy Road

The Readin’ and Writin’ Part of Homeschool by Shecki @ Greatly Blessed

Children Who Love Books by Lizzy @ Peaches At Home

Customizing High School Language Credits by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool

A Poetry Feast by Sarah @ Delivering Grace

Teaching Language Arts without Curriculum by Brittney @ Mom’s Heart

I know your pain and it is worth it! by Kim @ Good Sweet Love

Language Arts: Our Style by Annette @ A Net in Time

Words! Words! Words! by Lisa M @McClanahan 7

10 Wonderful Word Games (+1) by Lori @ At Home: where life happens

What About Reading Comprehension? by Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset

Teaching Grammar and Writing Through Discussion by Chelli @ The Planted Trees

Kindergarten Resources

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Thanks to Carla at Reflections of the Times I have a few new resources options for when Justin is ready to start some “official” schooling time.

Handwriting for Kids all types of helps here for teaching handwriting, basic math etc. Sheets to print off. Can even do some of your own stuff. 🙂

She listed off three books available through Christian Books.com
Noah Webster’s Reading Handbook
Hearts and hands
The World God Made

Good books from the sounds of it. Things I can keep my eyes open for.

Reading Resources

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Five books on-line (these are samples) geared for different age levels. All you have to do is provide your email address in order to read them. Seems at this point, a good resource for reading helps. Site is called Raz-kids.

Reading a-z.com has all types of samples to look at. Check it out here. I have to admit, I don’t quite get the alphabetized level thing yet, but in time it will come to me. 🙂

I have to admit, I haven’t thoroughly checked this out yet. It is supposed to be a help for writing.