The Canadian Homeschooler is doing a blog round up this month on Tech.   Tech in the Classroom. Share anything related to tech: apps, websites, minecraft, netflix, youtube, etc.)  I am sitting here thinking... WHAT DO I WRITE ON!?!?!   Why is this stressing me out so much???    Since I didn't know what to write, I thought I'd just start talking and see where the post takes me.

You see...we like computers in this household.  The lad has a tablet, I have a laptop, we have a couple of desktops (one slow as molasses, the other faster and easier to work with), hubby also has a laptop, tablet (2) and some other gizmo which looks like a cross between a tablet and laptop.   Cell phones are rather constant..

And yet... sometimes it feels like we don't have enough.... like hubby's stuff is his and we don't touch it (work stuff and all that, understand?)... so when the lad is working on the laptop (because the desktop is slower than molasses) then I can't work on it.   The tablets can't do all the laptop does...and the phones are great for email, texting and research, but suck in the writing things down department.....

and since we firmly think that ...

When my son has a quick question about something (since we have a no tablet policy during school hours) he'll come grab my phone... and it's like "ACK!!!  I was using that!!"  (even if I didn't actively have it in my hand at the time..)

Ergo....on days where life is like that I just think... it would be SO much easier if we had one more laptop...and then you look at prices and say well.. perhaps NOT!!!  :)

So what do we do.. we learn to talk more.

"Mom, can I use your phone, I want to look something up".
"Sweetheart, the computers are being a problem, how can we problem solve around the slow as molasses one?"
"Son, do you think you can do your ____________ first while I work on this _________.   It should take me half an hour to finish".

Anyways, you get the point right?  :)

Computers which can so easily erode conversation in a household (the actual words talking) and at least for now in our household...promoting more conversation, helping to teach patience and understanding, sticking to timelines, and more.

They are teaching a boy how to formulate good requests into google, and we're teaching him discernment, as not everything on google is accurate...being accurate matters, finding new ways to say it,  words, words and more words ..it's good eh?

But in the meantime... we continue learning.

What has tech done in your house?

By the by, the link up goes live on Wednesday, you can find it here.

Affiliate links may be used in this post.   They don't affect your bottom line but may prove to be a blessing to me in my household and the running of this blog.  Thanks :)

Today I have for you a different prayer oriented book, non-fiction, written by Susie Larson.  I have not made it all the way through this book yet, that will take some time, but it's a great book, let me tell you why.

First a bit about the author: Susie Larson is a talk show host, according to her Facebook page, her goal is to draw people into a deeper relationship with God so they can live a more powerful life on earth.   Know God more, live out your faith better.  :)

The book is divided into three main sections

• God, your fortress
• God, your father
• Jesus, your king

With each section further divided into four chapters.

Written in an engaging style.  Filled with scripture and quotes from a variety of sources, Ms Larson draws the reader into the heart of God through prayer.

I loved how she made the book good for single or corporate use.  With Personal as well as group reflection questions.  She shares from her heart and life to draw us to think deeply about our lives and the things of God.   What stops us from moving forward into our relationship with God?

Ms. Larson whole focus, it seems throughout the book, is to help people know how to pray, how to know the Lord more, how to move past "our stuff" so we can see the heart of God more clearly.  To that end she's pulled out quote to help us remember important ideas.

Not only did the author close off each chapter with prayer, she also included a variety of prayers in the back of the book, to help us learn to pray for things such as : prodigals, being equipped, your family, for who God makes us and more.   Just aids to get one started in praying more effectively.

This is a book to learn and grow from.

As I said earlier, I have finished the book, I cannot vouch for everything written, but I've read a good portion of it, and worked through much of it and glanced through the rest of it so I could write you a good review. 

My suggestion: if you want to learn to be a more effectual Christian and effective prayer warrior, pick up this book.  Read, learn, grow.  :)  Read this book expecting to be be changed.

Your Powerful Prayers, reaching the hard of God with a bold and humble faith.

Written by Susie Larson.
Published by Bethany House.
Approximately 220 pages.

Provided by Nuts about Books

Now you might be asking, like I did, when I first got up and saw this headline..."Who is Annie Pootoogook and why is it so important that she died?"

Therefore I went searching for why and discovered that she was an Inuit artist, who changed how Inuit art is done or portrayed.

Usually when on see Inuit/Intuk art here in Canada it's a lot like this: Click images to go to the source for each

Images about their gods or the stuff of old they they had in their lives.

Then Annie Pootoogook came along.   Things changed.  She did some of this

But she mostly did illustrations/pictures like this, please click images to go to sources, thanks.    Ms. Pootoogook came from a family with artist talent, her uncle, her mom, her gramma all "did art" in their own way.   So it was "in her blood".  :)

See the difference?   Modern life and living. Pictures from her life that she was living.  Life in the street (she was homeless for a good spell).   Places she would go to.  Things that she had and what not.  She used colour, mostly in solid patterns.

For a glimpse into her life, I found this post interesting reading.

Her work here on earth is done, her body was found this morning in a river.   I found the story of her life sad, but her art interesting eh?  :)

I thought this post would be simple to do, it was harder and more difficult to write than I thought.  I did exceed the time limit by a couple of minutes only though.  :)

Do you know this ditty

One two three four five
Once I caught a fish alive
Six, seven eight nine ten
then I let him go again

Why did you let him go
Because he bite my finger so
Which finger did he bite,
This little finger on my right.

My son and I sang the song so many time when he was young.
I don't know if you'd catch this smart-alecky 11 year old singing it now. but when he was young we'd belt it out together just for the fun of it.   BUT this ditty was the first thing I thought of when I pondered the word five, but it didn't sit as something I could write on for five minutes.

I've been pondering this word five all day, after I read Miss Kate's blog about how five is important to her, it made me wonder....how does grief affect people?

I ponder how to write my words as I don't want them misconstrued.
I've have a few people in my life who have gone through moments of intense grief.

My mom.. at the loss of her husband.
My siblings.. at the loss of a father (me as well).
A cousin at the loss of her innocence
A friend at the loss of her mom.
A friend over the loss of a baby before it's time.
Cousins at the loss of child in an unpredictable accident.
A couple friend at the loss due to cancer of a son.

All have handled their grief differently.
But some I find can't let it go.
They cling to that grief so their loss is as fresh today as it was at the time it happened.

I was talking with my sweetheart about this and ... as Christians we need to see beyond grief.  We can't hang on to it.  YES, loss is hard and that should NOT be denied, but at the same time we can't hang on it.  We have a brighter and better future ahead of us AND if our lost young ones knew the Lord.. some day, oh some bright day we will SEE THEM AGAIN.. in all their glory, without the marring of sin on them.

Our dear friends and family and cousins... Let go of the grief...just let it go and turn to God, don't hold on to it.. it only holds you back from seeing the bright future that awaits.

So my five turned out to be different than I intended...but my five was written from the heart, with a love it's hard to describe.  

We have a shelf in our main schooling area called a discover shelf.   Once a week we grab something off it and we discover.  :)

Two weeks ago my son grabbed this item off the shelf:

I have to admit, we made one of these a LONG time ago, but it was defective, but I got this one a really good deal and figured it would be worth a shot trying it again.  :)  The first one my lad was too young to make himself, so dad and I put it together, this one the lad did all on his own, except for the odd "mom, can you help file this down, mom, can you see if I am doing this right?"

The kit comes with two plastic piece sections, along with three bags with different pieces.   Some of the pieces will require careful manipulation to remove and others require some filing to remove burrs.  All pieces fit together just so, but we found it quite forgiving overall.

For the most part the lad found the instructions very clear, but occasionally he'd say "they could make this section better mom".  That was usually the result if he put something in backwards, or not quite in the right places.   In those places, better pictures would have help.  Pictures later in the process showed where he had gone wrong, and the fix was easy to make.  You'll notice the knife and scissors that were helpful in the removing of burrs.

The lad was ecstatic when we reached this stage, it was quite fiddly up until this point.

"Look mom, I have her all together!   Isn't she nice?"

When I asked him if he wanted to mix the salt water together to let her run, he said no.  The plates that make it run degrade over time, and he wants to keep everything nice until he decides he has time to play with her for a really long time.   So for now, we have a spider who sits with him as he does his school work, and nicely doesn't run away on him.  :)   And I have a happy boy.  :)

You know how I've invited you in the past to get a subsciption to SchoolhouseTeachers.com?   Well...here's ANOTHER reason (not that you really need one) to get a subscription, not only do you get over 275 courses to choose from, to work through on your own schedule, but you get access to World Book E-books.  AND get this... THEY HAVE AN ART SECTION!!!!!!   How great is that eh?  :)

They have at least five books there, but there are tons more in different areas, but since we're talking art here, we'll talk art.  :)

I specifically checked out this one.

I liked what I saw.

Good information, a variety of activities and information. 
It would be good pair this book, or at least look at it, when studying different cultures.  Would be a great add-on you know, or even just a stand alone unit.

I liked the variety of the activities, stitching, painting, and so much more.

I strongly urge you to check out SchoolhouseTeachers.com.   These really cool art books to check out, over 275 courses and tons of world book ebooks to add to your resource list.  Good stuff seriously!

I like knowing where my stuff is you know?   I tend to live by the maximum.. organized chaos is good.   So not everything may be put away nice and neatly, but generally speaking you know where things are.  :)  I thought I would introduce you to some of my organized chaos.

The problem with introducing others to one's way of doing things is that
1. you don't know where to start
2. you open yourself up to criticize
3. you dare to hope you might help another out.

It's hard to know right?   None the less, here I am diving in...holding my breath.  :)

See this chaos?
If say, my lad is looking for a strainer to find small bugs in the sand, all i have to say to him is looking in the science area!

And bam, he knows exactly where to go.   I learned quickly that having a generic science area, when you have a bug focused lad is a vital part of our living together.   We have a bin collection outside of the house, but for things that have a purpose greater than that of sifting for bugs, it comes in the house to be used for a variety of things.   We have our archaeology tools, science kits, chalkboards for writing down hypothesis, test tubes and so much more.   We have our white shelf that we use between the computer table and our writing table for when we need a just the right thickness shelf for levers and pullies and what not.

As you can see the top row is organized with very sciency type things, test tubes, strainers, beakers, those trays you put agar in to go,empty slides for our microscope and what not.

The second row contains the stethoscope, magnet puzzle, various science sheets I've picked  up or printed off for a curious boy to explore with.

You'll notice the bottom to shelves are a bit of everything.  This stuff will get loaned out (magnets especially, but also our shells).   We have chalk with a chalk board ... great for quicky experiments.  pop-lid containers, and a bit of this and that.  :)   it works for us.  The salt is useful for doing salt water experiments, growing crystals and what not.

This year I am being more deliberate about doing what I call tinker days.  Days when we work through kits, do STEM activities, expand our horizons with hands on learning.  It's a deliberate add-on to our science area and everything (except the books) that you see on these shelves should be gone by year end.   Though some things might stay like the snap kit, though my lad is starting to want to do REAL electronics but I need to find the stuff for doing that with him.

Anyways, that's one glimpse into an area in our homeschooling lives.. I wonder what I'll look at next with you.  :)

My most recent book to review is a Christian fiction book called The Pray-ers / Book 1 Troubles, published by CTM Publishing Atlanta and written by Mark S. Mirza.  This is a book that uses a fiction format to teach the importance of prayer. 

Published by CTM Publishing Atlanta, and written by Mark S. Mirza.  Mr. Mirza's heart is to teach people how extremely important prayer is, and to encourage people to pray more effectively.

To do so he looks into the lives of three Christians, who have learned to be effectual men of prayer.   These men span the centuries and have struggles in their lives like all believers do, the question is... will these struggles defeat them and drive them away from God, OR will these struggles deeper their faith and conversation with God.  

The whole point of The Troubles, is to help people understand the important of prayer, that many things affect our prayers and we should not be ignorant of them.  Author Mark S. Mirza has put together a fictional tale where he shows the action of Satan's minions in the lives of the saints.  What they can and CANNOT do, according to the will of the Lord God.    He does his best to not give more credit than is due to Satan's minions (demons) than he has to be not capitalizing their names.    Until you get used to the style it makes for some difficult reading, but once you are used to the names used, it just flows along.

The Christian lives followed are:

• Biblical Epaphras and his fictional nephew,
• Post-Civil War Georgia, the real itinerant preacher Alexander Rich
  
• Modern-day Georgia, Dr. Dale, a fictional descendant of Alexander Rich.
  

I have to admit, that I love fiction, I've read more than one book about the struggle between Satan and God, many of them fictionally based and they all bring one thing to bear, okay, a couple of things to bear...
1. Imagine the most self-centred person you know and multiply that by a million, add fear to that mixture and a loathing of God and you have a demon.   They gloat, they preen, and they revel in themselves.   When it comes to believers they are sneaky and backhanded, and happy to let us fool ourselves.
2. God helps his people through the power of faith in him and conversation with him.   Nothing more is needed.  Well faith in him based on the word of God.  :) 

This fictionalized account brings this all to bear for me in this book.

Mark S. Mirza frequently footnotes scripture so we can see where he gets his assertions from.  He has his own method of citing scripture, often pulling up just one section of a verse to highlight his point.   Mr. Mirza is the founder of Common Thread Ministries, which offers coaching and help to individuals and churches in prayer. He leads the men's prayer ministry at First Baptist Church in Atlanta, as well as being a speaker and teacher in the area of prayer.

Think about that for a moment... to learn to live life you like you breathing prayer.  That's the point of this book.   Live life as a Christian = breathing out prayer.

  Prayer is vital!   We see it in the lives of the believers throughout the book.  We have front row seats that how, without prayer we lose battles, battles that should not be lost.

My Thoughts:
I honestly have mixed feelings about this book, I really do.   I see prayer as relationship between God and his individual people (as well as with his people corporate).   I think it's really really important to for people to know what nullifies the prayers of God's people.   Praying without really believing that God will answer your prayer?  Well what's the point in asking God then?   Prayer while you are ACTIVELY living a lifestyle contrary to the word of God?   Well.. again.. you are openly defying God himself, and you expect him to answer you?   I do not see prayer as a list of "these are the rules".  And my hesitation with this book, is that some struggling believers might simply see a list of rules, a list of do's and don'ts, that they won't see the living relationship that each of these believers had with God.   The real relationship that made their prayers real and honest and answerable by God.

IF you are a weak believer and you are interested in reading this book, may I ask you to do this: Read it with a strong believer.  Read it with someone you can bounce ideas off of and talk and learn and grow.   If you are a strong believer, see that YOUR PRAYERS MATTER.  They do!   They nullify the work of the devil, they showcase the power of God and that my dear readers is what it's all about.  We serve a Lord God who has won the battle already!   Let's win the small battles by focusing on bringing God glory through our faithful prayers.

Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePrayersNovel/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThePray_ers @ThePrayersNovel
Website: The Pray-ers.

Hashtags: #hsreviews #prayersnovel #christianfiction

Pricing information can be found here, you can purchase the paperback for $23.95, or the epub for $4.99.

Lyrics

Christ, whose glory fills the skies,
Christ, the true, the only Light,
Sun of Righteousness, arise,
Triumph o’er the shades of night;
Dayspring from on high, be near;
Day-star, in my heart appear.

Dark and cheerless is the morn
Unaccompanied by Thee;
Joyless is the day’s return
Till Thy mercy’s beams I see;
Till they inward light impart,
Glad my eyes, and warm my heart.

Visit then this soul of mine,
Pierce the gloom of sin and grief;
Fill me, Radiancy divine,
Scatter all my unbelief;
More and more Thyself display,
Shining to the perfect day.

Well... that was an interesting voyage through all kinds of different tunes for this lovely hymn, I've always known this tune to Lux Prima and wow..the others just sounded quite different to me.  :)   What tune do you sing this hymn too?

These are the four tunes used:

• Day-Star, Sam­u­el S. Wes­ley, 1872
• Fred til Bod, Lud­vig M. Lin­de­man, 1871
• Lux Pri­ma (Gou­nod), Charles F. Gou­nod, 1872
• Ministres de l’Éternel, Ge­ne­van Psal­ter, 1562

Written by Charles Wesley.   This hymn was originally called "A Morning Hymn".

Did you know that The 18th-century Englishman Charles Wesley (1707-1788) wrote, according to eminent 20th-century hymnologist Erik Routley, “more than 8,989 poems with over 6,000 of them qualifying as ‘hymns.’” That’s 3.4 poems per week, Routley added, “assuming him to have died in the act of writing.”  (source)  Not only did he write a lot of poems, he also wrote them to be theologically sound.

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup butter

1.5 cup multi-grain flour
1 package instant yeast
2 tablespoon white sugar
1.5 teaspoon salt

1 egg

3 cups flour  (this last amount flexible)

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, heat milk, water and butter until very warm (120F)
2. in a large bowl, mix 1.5 cup multi-grain flour, yeast, sugar and salt.  mix in the milk mixture.   Add the egg.  Mix well.   Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.    When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.
3. Divide dough into 12 equal pieces, flattening the top slightly.   Place on a greased baking sheet (or use a silicone sheet).   Cover and let rise about 30 minutes.
   
4. Bake at 400f/200C for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.
   

If you shape them in long rolls you can turn them into hotdog buns.