Category: Series

Eat, A Poem

10/28/2016

Eat. I've been pondering this word all day. I have found it a difficult word because it can go in SO many different directions and I can't settle on anything.
So I thought I'd jot down the thoughts I've been having all day while I've been working. I've been cleaning out the rabbitry and having a hard time with it. Dealing with results of our rat explosion earlier this year, and my stomach wouldn't keep lunch down. It probably won't be a pretty poem but we'll see where it takes me.

Sometimes my poems surprise.

Eat

Eat.
Rat poison.
Rats die.
Dislike the death I do.
But
Rabbits live.

Eat
Bird Seed. Hay
Pellets.
Rabbit food, enjoyment.
Healthy rabbits growing
Reproducing
Being helpful to our household.

Eat.
Food, nuts
Cheese, lettuce.
Good meal.
Work hard, not pleasant
Lunch is no longer.

Eat.
Feed a child.
Listen to sounds of enjoyment.
Child happy.
Well fed. Can make this again.

Eat.
Death.
Life.
Contentment.

And so we
Eat.

This post is part of two series.
Kate's Five Minute Friday word prompt as well as the Write31days Challenge.

Hop on over to here and here to find more 31 day writers. :) Oh and Lisa from Canadian Homeschooler is doing a Canada series. See the rest of my series here

Art Series: Geography Through Art

10/26/2016

Please welcome Kym to my blog today. A displaced Canadian, lending a hand on my blog, helping to share one of her favourite art books. :) Pretty cool eh?

I'm so excited to be joining Annette today to tell you about one of our favorite resources that combines art and social studies. I discovered Geography Through Art by Sharon Jeffus and Jamie Aramini a number of years ago at a homeschool curriculum fair and thought it might come in handy at some point. What an understatement! It has turned out to be a great supplement for our social studies over several years , and provided inspiration for a co-op class I was able to co-teach. It could also be used as a full art curriculum or art-based geography curriculum. This book offers over 100 art projects using various media and techniques, and these projects are inspired by animals, landmarks, and traditional folk arts from all over the world.

The book opens with some general geography information and a couple of related projects - making an "aged" map, and a study of using negative space in art.

From then on, the projects are organized by continents and by the country that is the inspiration for each project. Not every country or culture is represented, of course, but the different regions of each continent are pretty well covered. Each chapter opens with a map of the continent, along with a summary of the geographical features and some other general information. The pages following give a little background information on the culture, history, or geography of the featured countries; and instructions for various art projects. The projects include sketching animals and landmarks; and other projects inspired by the folk art of the regions, so there is a variety of sculpture, painting, paper-cutting, print-making, collage, and carving. There are projects that are suitable for a range of ages and skill levels.

A feature called "Cultural Connection" appears throughout the book. These tidbits highlight how different cultures are related to each other in the folk art techniques. For instance, paper-cutting from China, from Poland, and from Mexico is discussed and the question of why paper-cutting is a popular art form across different cultures.

Whether you need an occasional art project to round out your geography or social studies coursework, or a year-long geography and art combination curriculum, I think Geography Through Art is worth a look. I hope you get as many great ideas from it as we have so far!

Kym is in her 19th year of homeschooling, and now has just one student, the oldest three having graduated. She and her husband of 29 years are Canadians transplanted to Maryland. Kym loves coffee, history, and homeschooling, and you can join her for coffee break at her blog, Homeschool Coffee Break.

31 Days: Sign

10/25/2016

Sign.

Now just what is a sign?
Is it a legal warning?
Such as beware the deer cross here?
That there is a limit to speed?
To know what is expected?

Now just what is a sign?
Is is a point of awareness?
A flower blooming?
A bird flying in a v...heading to warmer climes?
To know the changing of the seasons?

Now just what is a sign?
Is is a gesture?
Perhaps of well done?
Or a look of displeasure?
To know a point of a communication?

A sign is a sign
But how it comes varies
Perhaps that itself is
A sign.

31 Days: Global

10/24/2016

Global.

What in the world do I do with THIS word prompt.
Ack...this is a hard one.

So let me muse a bit and see where my ponderings take me.   Oh fun...you get to watch my mind at work.

Global.. world...global warming...scoffing...perspective..class son took...art... mmm.... art. Yeah...art! That's global, kinda...

Hey, I am teaching an art class right now to a group of 9-12 year olds.

I have three groups of children in my class.
The boys and one girl... detail oriented, precise, pondering hard over how to look at the art that we're working on. How they can make their desires fit the parameters of the art challenge.

The girls... oh, she's given us a basic idea. FLY FLY and they grab the idea and quickly set to work. I call them my global girls.

The huh? Do what? Group... This is beyond what we can see.   This group is the hardest to help create and do and see the magic that is art. But we try, we push and something lovely does emerge.

Three different groups. Working on the same project, and they will every single one of them turn out completely differently.   It will be good.

They are like the rest of the world, different, the same, and they all turn out somehow kinda lovely. :)

I will be sharing pics one of these days. :)

31 Days: Off

10/22/2016

Off

Just take off
Escape
Fly Away

Let that be
your hearts call

To just fly free.
To not be tied down
To this world.

But to see beyond
beyond the sky
Beyond the confines
of this world.

See him there?

He's waiting
Arms outstretched
Ready to bring
you home.

To his Father's house
Where he rules at
His Father's Side

So let me fly
Let me BE OFF.
Let me no longer be
bound to the pains and regrets
That this world
Brings down on me.

And let me remember
this important knowing.
That when I am finally off
I will be home.

Today... today I want to be home.

Park, 10 minutes of change

10/21/2016

When I think of the word park, may things come into my mind.

Parking the car.
How my hubby likes to park himself.   As in, he's not a fellow who likes to move He likes to settle into a place and stay there.
Going to the park.

But what it really brought to my mind once I let my thoughts settle is this.

The first year we had an international student stay with us I brought him over to visit with a friends family and we went to the park to let the children play, and my friend grabbed my student off to one side and started talking with him, she understood his native tongue more than I.

As we were talking on the way home and our student had been grabbed up by one of the children, she started talking about how he was a hurt soul. How she was unable to get him to talk about what happened to him, but how she knew how much he needed God.

I remember feeling stunned that she had learned so much about him in 10 minutes.   And resolved to talk with the young man more, despite the language barrier we had.

We had a good time together.   I don't know if we ever managed to touch his heart for the Lord, but that 10 minutes in the park changed everything.

This is part of Kate's word prompt. Check it out eh?
Free writing for 5 minutes, sharing and encouraging in a good group of folks.

Art Series: The Noisy PaintBox

10/19/2016

Welcome to the Blog won't you? My dear friend and colleague Lori.

Does sound have color? Does color have sound? Evidently the answer is a resounding YES! At least it was to Vasily (Vasya) Kandinsky.

The Noisy Paint Box: The Color and Sounds Sounds of Kandinsky's Abstract Art by Barb Rosenstock is a short biography about Kandinsky. It begins with his life in Russia as a child, learning all he should to be properly educated. And life went on without much excitement. Until his aunt gave him a little paint box. Explaining and showing Vasya how to correctly mix paints, educating him on how to appreciate art, something happened. Vasya began to hear things - a whisper, a hiss. No one else heard them, though. The more he mixed colors, the more he painted, the more he heard and the more he saw. But everyone thought he was being silly.

When painting what he heard, Vasya was happy. Others around him thought he should paint properly, with houses and flowers. Or for him to do his schoolwork, his math. So Vasya tried to be who they wanted. Until one day . . . That day he saw the sounds of a symphony - crashing, stomping, caroling, thundering . . . And he knew he had

The struggle to show the sounds was one Kandinsky lived with. But he learned to be true to who he was and what he saw. He learned to ask people "how does it make you feel?" And then they would be closer to understanding.

Lori celebrates life as a child of God, the wife of a wonderful husband, and mother to three giggly girls. In the fourth year of our homeschooling journey, I blog about life, activity, and fun. I also enjoy sharing product reviews to round things out. All in all, our family enjoys sharing with you through At Home: where life happens. Find At Home: where life happens on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

31 Days: Neighbour

10/18/2016

Recently I wrote aboutwhat it means to be part of the Homeschool Review Crew.
As I was considering what today's word challenge meant to me (neighbour) I thought about some of the relationships I have with people on the crew.

There's Kym, who is a displaced Canadian living south of the border. Her children are older, and she's a huge voice of experience. She blogs over at Homeschool Coffeebreak.

There's Lori who blogs over at At Home: Where life happens. She often blogs about her three giggly girls. She dwells far far away from me, but we often chat on facebook and she's just a sweet lady I'd love to meet.

I feel like I've known Wren for ages and ages, though we don't often talk. We've guest posted for each other, and encouraged one another over the years. A sweet lady with a good heart. You can find her at FinchWren, a blog she shares with her sister.

And Carol who blogs over atHome Sweet Life, is so often one of the first people on the prayer board, responding to prayer requests. She has a heart big for the Lord and is a great person of encouragement.

There are many other people I could comment on and encourage you to go visit...but I don't have the time to mention them all here... so You'll just have to go visiting and then hopefully do some blog hopping. :)

To learn what it takes to become part of this great team GO HERE. If you want to join the team, the application can be found here. Tell them I sent you eh?

31 Days: Study

10/17/2016

A red chair
Or perhaps the more
colour savvy
might call it burgundy.

It's my comfortable chair.
With a comfortable blanket.

A place
where I can rest my
feet.
Talk online with friends.
Work.
Study.
Do devotions.

MY chair.

BUT
My Chair is often
commandeered by
an 11 year old boy.

Who is learning,
Growing,
Studying.
Working.

And so the cycle continues.
Study.

Hop on over to here and here to find more 31 day writers. :) Oh and Lisa from Canadian Homeschooler is doing a Canada series. See the rest of my series here.

31 Days: Move

10/15/2016

Move.

I have moved many many times in my life. :)

Granted, I never moved as a child. WOOT WOOT! That would have been hard as a child, with the type of person I was back then.

BUT as adult I learned to embrace moving.

New things to experience, new people to meet, new packing and unpacking to do, finding things I thought I had lost, discovering things I REALLY truly didn't need, the joy of having a yard sale.

Therefore, generally when I see the word move, I think positive thoughts.

Lately the word move has been filled with some trepidation.
Our church is closing. This means my pastor hubby needs a new job.
Moving is a good thing as it means a new start.
But it also means...ACK!!!! Where are we moving to? When will it happen!!! So much to do and it feels like so little time!!!
I feel angst.

I don't need angst.
I need to remember that God ever has everything in his control.
I can toss things out. :)
I can plan for what I will move and then sell. :)
I can know that I can take it one day at a time and it will all, somehow, work out.