National Poetry Month Resources

April is National Poetry Month. I forgot about it until I read Becky's blog post about it. Thanks for the reminder, Becky, and for pointing me to some resources.

Here are some resources that I found in the order that I found them:

The GottaBook Blog is hosting a special 30 Poets/30 Days feature for April. Every day in April he will be posting a previously unpublished poem by a different poet and he provides a list of the participating poets on his blog. Sounds like something worth checking out. I haven't jumped on the Twitter wagon yet but if you have apparently you can following the 20poets30day on Twitter. The blog features mostly children's literature so I'm thinking these will be poems suitable for children.

On The League of Canadian Poets National Poetry Month Blog 2009 different League member's work will be featured each day during the month of April. I think this is more for adults. Unfortunately this is the only Canadian source that I could find.

Coloring and activities, craft ideas, and lesson plans from Crayola Calendar

The Academy of American Poets has a National Poetry Month page.
They offer a number of resources for poems to read. I signed up for their "poem a day" email. Their Great Poems to Teach page has a list, along with complete text of, 341 poems taught successfully in highschool classes. The Animated Text Flow Poems page has over 50 poems in flash animation.
They also offer a number of resources to help in writing poems. The NaPoWriMo Pledge Drive page challeges you to write and post a poem each day in April, they even have a board where you can post your poems, whether you participate in the pledge drive or not. In the Poet's Workshop there are three poem writing ideas: Poems Based on Works of Art, Give Chance a Chance, Unexpected Odes. The challenges are more fulling explained in the "Post and Workshop" message board posts so be sure to click through to check it out.

While reading The Academy of American Poets
Poem in Your Pocket Day page I thought about the PocketMod site I recently found and how it would work great for this. It gives instruction on how to fold a single sheet of paper into a 6 page mini booklet that will fit in your pocket. They even have a widget that you can use to design your booklet and you could use the custom page under the personal tab to type in a poem or poems you want to use.

I learned about the RePoWriMo (Refrigerator Poetry Writing Month) Blog through the boards on the Academy of American Poets site. The challenge it to write a poem a day using poetry magnets. If you don't have any you could always make your own or you can use the Online Magnetic Poetry site or the Shadow Poetry's Magnetic Word Poetry site.

The English Room's 30 Days of Poetry site is a couple of years old but the suggestions are still great. It offers 30 Days of ooetry writing ideas especially geared to middle and high school students.

On The Rubber Stamping Blog is a challenge to use poems on/in homemade cards, and for those that think poems must rhyme there is a link to Rhyme Zone for rhyming help. This is a really neat, fun tool for finding words that rhyme with your chosen word.

I have decided to make a special National Poetry Month blog for Canadian Home Educating bloggers. It is a place to share poems you or your children have read and also poems you or your children have written.

Inspired by the Academy of American Poets Poetry Read-a-thon idea, I am inviting Homeschooling Canadian bloggers to use the blog to serve as a master log to record and share the lists of poems they read during the month. You can also use the journaling prompt suggestions on the Poetry Read-a-thon to journal about the poems. Use power point or some such program to turn one of your favorite poems into an Animated Text Flow Poem or create and share a Free Verse Project using lines from your favorite poem.

Inspired by the NaPoWriMo Pledge Drive page I am inviting Homeschooling Canadian bloggers to use the blog to share poems that they write during April.

Wow! I didn't realize...

...it's been over a month since I posted here! Life has been crazy. I feel like the whole month of February was just a big blur.

I've been wanting to blog but not really sure what I wanted to say. Still feeling that way, actually. There's so much I want to share but I don't know where to start so I decided to finally just start and see what happens.

A year from the day he was diagnosed with cancer, FIL recieved his promotion to heaven. It was a day of mixed emotions - sadness because our time with him on earth had ended, relief that he was no longer suffering, and happiness that he was now walking the streets of gold.

The past year has been a stressful time for my family in many ways, but it's also been a time of growth. I hope we can hold on to the lessons we learned and continue to grow.

Anyway, I needed to get that off my chest before I could start posting about other things. I'm hoping to get back into posting more regularly but we'll have to wait and see if that actually happens or not.

The Financial Fitness Challenge

Have you heard about The Financial Fitness Challenge? I got an email about it today and was encouraged to pass the information on. It looks really neat. It is "an educational program designed to enrich the financial literacy of Canadian students sponsored by the Canadian Securities Administrators." There's a chance for children between the ages of 15 & 21 to win one of 13 scholarship prizes.

Here's some quotes from the email:

The Financial Fitness Challenge offers Canadian students the tools necessary to improve their financial education through the use of interactive activities, financial tips, and an online quiz. If students complete the quiz successfully they are entered into a draw to win one of 13 scholarship prizes worth $750, which can be used towards at-home curriculums. The contest runs February 2, 2009 to February 28, 2009.
This year, the Financial Fitness Challenge focuses on building partnerships with not only Canadian students, but with teachers, schools, parents and homeschooling networks like yours so that all Canadian students have a strong support system for understanding and enhancing their financial literacy. As a result, the Financial Fitness Challenge Website offers a multitude of resources to help parents and teachers engage their students with the program both at home and at school.

Be sure to take the time to check it out.

Family Literacy Day World Record Attempt

Heard about this from Alex. Family Literacy Day, established in Canada in 1999, is celebrated January 27 every year. To celebrate the 10th year anniversary, this year Canada is going for a world record - Most Children Reading with an Adult, Multiple Locations. The world record breaking attempt will take place January 23-24. To participate in the record breaking you can join a registered event or you can set up your own event. The deadline for registering an event is January 22. Be sure to check out all the requirements here. I'd love to hear from you about how you plan to take part.

Check out my new adventure!

I've challenged myself, and family and friends, to transform from Couch Potatoes to Road Runners in 2009.

It's been a long time!

I was having computer troubles and avoiding the computer as much as possible so as not to give into the urge to pitch it through the window. Thanks to my mom and sister, I now have a brand new laptop, so computer troubles are gone and I'm ready to get back on track. Now I have to get used to the new keyboard and the new operating system. :) Fun! Fun!! Fun!!!

3 years old!

That's how old Little One is today and here she is trying out her birthday gift - her very own digital camera!



And here she is trying out her camera in the field. She insisted we had to go on a hike so she could take some pictures.



I'm sure you will be seeing some of her pictures in future posts. :)

A beginner driver

Yesterday I took my girl into town to write the test for her learners permit and she passed! I even let her drive herself to work last night, with me in with her, of course. She did a good job, though she was quite nervous. She even got to drive home from work! Her big brother picked her up in his truck and let her drive home! I still can't quite believe that. It really made her day. I still haven't managed to get a picture of her holding her permit. She was busy tarring shingles for her dad most of the day today. :) She's one amazing girl and I love her to bits!

Sweet Sixteen

That's how old my oldest daughter turned today. She said she didn't want anything special for her birthday but I had to make it special somehow. She's such a treasure I just couldn't let the day pass without doing something special for her. She had to work this afternoon so I got busy while she was working. I got some little balls of her favorite chocolates, wrapped them in squares of tissue paper tied with ribbon and stuck them on a clubhouse toothpick so that it looked like a little flower. I made 16 of these and got one of her best guy buddies to help me round up 16 guys to deliver them, one at a time, into her at her place of work. It was so much fun, and she loved it! She didn't have a clue that I was behind it all until she got home. I meant to get a picture of her with them but I forgot - hopefully tomorrow.

The picture above is one she took of herself with the candy bouquet her aunt made for her for her birthday.

An unexpected guest at our door

One day this week Little One and I were in the living room when we heard a faint knock knock at the door. We looked at each other, and Little One said, "Somebody's at the door". I had been wondering if I had actually heard a knock or not, but decided I must have so I went to answer the door. We have a window in our door and you can clearly see who's at the door before you get to the door. I was kind of surprised to not see anyone, and then I thought maybe somebody was playing tricks on us and hiding by the side of the door, so I went closer to see. That's when I saw the woodpecker sitting on the railing of our bridge! It flew away before I got a chance to let Little One get a glimpse at it but she thought it was pretty funny that a woodpecker was knocking at our door. She likes to tell everyone about it.

Though I didn't get a picture of the woodpecker that was at our door that day, DD did get a picture of a woodpecker on one of our walks a week or so ago. This woodpecker didn't seem to notice us and stayed there knocking at the trees close by when we walked by. I wonder was he the same one that came knocking at our door?

The beauty of frost

The ground was covered with frost this morning, but it was a beautiful day. The girls and I decided to go for a walk and we were amazed by the beauty of the frost. Here are some pictures that DD took:








Little One wanted to take a picture too, so here's the one that she took:

I smoked the house out!

I tried to light the wood stove this afternoon, but failed miserably! I just cannot manage to get it lit without splits and we were out of splits. It drives me crazy when that happens! Anyway, I didn't get it lit but it sure created a lot of smoke. DH made it even worse when he tried to light it! I ended up taking the girls for a ride just to get them out of the smoke filled house. Dh finally had the fire going and the smoke cleared out when we got home. I'm kind of glad he had the same problem. He seems kind of peed at me for having difficulty, but he couldn't say much when he had the same trouble. He also made more splits for me. :)

Failing miserably

It seems that I have lost all desire to write anything right now. The good thing is that I have done more house cleaning, playing with little one, and scrapping than I have for a long while, but the sad thing is I was really hoping to get to write more. I have been more faithful in writing on my scrapping blog than I have this one, but that's because I've also been scrapping so I have things to share on that blog.

Opps! Gotta run! DD just came and told me that NCIS is coming on. It's our show to watch together. Chow!

Home Again!

Yippeeee!!!! Not so happy to come home to a sink full of dishes and a couch full of clothes and garbage! Some young man is going to get a tongue banging when I see him tomorrow. He's staying at a friend's place tonight.

It's so hot!

I can't wait to get back to my nice cold house. :) Every time we visit the inlaws I suffer with the heat in their house. They have a wood stove and they often make it so hot that they have to open the windows to cool down, and then they stuff the stove again to heat it up again! I can't take the heat at all! I spend most of my time in the bedroom with the window wide open.

We have a wood stove at home and DH tends to do the same routine as his parents with overheating the place, but I think I'm finally getting through to him that you don't have to do that. He's not been home much lately and I've had to control the woodstove and I've managed to do it just fine without having those times when the heat is unbearable.

The temperature outside here is not at all hot. Actually, it's quite cold. Little one was looking for mittens this morning when she was outside with her dad while he was doing some yard work for his mother. I went out for a while too, just to get out of the heat of the house. It hit me in the face when I came back in though.

Regular visitors to my house know to dress warm or bring a sweater because I prefer to have the heat on the cool side. My philosophy is that you can always add another layer until you get to a temperture that youare comfortable with if you're cold but you can only remove so many layers when you're hot. :)

Not doing so well...

...with the blogging challenge. :( I missed posting again yesterday. I tell you, I am really having trouble adjusting to the time change. It's thrown me right out of whack. I didn't even realize that I hadn't posted yesterday. Oh well, I've failed to meet my goal of posting every day in November, but I'm still going to try to post everyday. I need to work on a routine of some sort.

Anyway, nothing exciting to share today. We had a 6 hour drive today. We are visiting DH's home. FIL is still in the hospital so that means that most of the time I'm at home trying to keep letting one from tearing MIL's house apart while everyone else is visiting at the hospital. I'm trying real hard to keep a right attitude but it is hard. I usually stay in our home rather than make the trip to visit with DH simply because it is easier on Little One and I to be in our own familiar territory, but we came to visit this time because it's been a while since we have and it will probablly be a while before we do again. The weather will soon interfere with the visits as winter driving is not fun, especially in the area of the island were DH is from. It was nice to see Little One giving her grandfather hugs and kisses today, and I know he enjoyed it. I wish he was at home so we could spend more time with him but we can only keep her in the hospital for so long.

Anyway, I have to go try to get her to settle down again.

Ack!!! I missed posting yesterday!

Yesterday was a crazy day at my house. It started with a bang and kept on throughout the day.

I didn't manage to get anything done in the morning before little one got up. Once she was under foot I accomplished little without her right by my side.

We had library books that needed to be returned to the library. The library is in a community an hour away. Our community library is just about a two minute walking distance away from us but we don't like going to it because it is a part of the highschool. It's just not as comfortable walking in there during school hours so we go to the library in the community I grew up in. We usually make a fun day of it, though lately we haven't been able to do that so much because of the tightness of finances. Anyway, that cut into my time yesterday to do anything else.

I also had a scrapbooking layout that I had to get done yesterday to get posted today. I didn't get to work on that because Little One was underfoot so I was up til 1 in the morning finishing that.

The really sad thing is that I didn't get to do any writing yesterday at all! I just can't concentrate on writing when little one is stuck to me like she was yesterday.

I'm wondering if I'm going to get any done today. I haven't yet, because once again little one is stuck to me. I was hoping to get some time tonight but DH is out and I feel sleep calling. This is also my TV night. So You Think You Can Dance Canada and NCIS come on tonight. I'm so tired I'm not sure I'll last through them so I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens. I'm sure going to have a lot of making up to do when I finally get to sit and write.

Does anyone else find that all you want to do is sleep since the times went back? It's really affected DD#1 and I.

Enough rambling from me. I've done my post for today and I'm off to try to stay awake and see what I can accomplish.

I need more time in my days!!

I'm going crazy trying to fit in everything that I want to do!

I did manage to fit in some writing this morning before the girls got up. I'm now up to 3633 words in my novel, but that's still short of where I should be by the end of the day. I really need to find some time to write a bit more tonight to stay on target, but I don't know if that's going to happen.

I have a scrapbooking layout that is due to be posted in a forum Wednesday night, and I haven't even started it yet. I only finally got an idea of what I want to do for it this afternoon, and it's just a rough idea that still needs lots of thought. I was really hoping to get to work on that tonight, but I don't see that happening either.

I'm bushed! I feel like I need to go to bed. I've had a good day.

Did some great work with DD#1. Especially enjoyed teaching her some math topics that we hadn't touched on before. I think she got them. Also had some fun with her playing the guitar hero game DS#1 bought this weekend. He said it's an early Christmas present for the family.

I also had fun with little one. She's discovered how to use scissors and had a ball cutting up paper today. I spent most of the day picking up the scraps. She did have some very creative moments. She made a fish and a bird and a witches hat. She's so cute! I need to try to get pictures of these creations of hers.

I also managed to do my wii fit today! DD#1 and I bought the wii fit as an early family Christmas present a few weeks back. I've set a goal for myself to try to do some wii fit every day during the month of November. It is so much fun and I feel great when I do it.

Anyway, I think I'm going to call it a night and hopefully get up early again tomorrow and accomplish something before the girls get up again.

Outward vs inward

I was struck by a portion of the scripture that I read during my Bible reading time today. A section of 2 Chronicles 30:18-19 says "May the good Lord provide atonement for everyone who prepares his heart to seek the Lord God of his father, though he is not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary."

This is a part of Hezekiah's prayer during a passover ceremony he conducted as part of the restoration of temple worship during his reign as king. There had been very strict rules about how people were to prepare themselves to take part in the passover but these rules had been neglected. It may be because they had forgotten the rules or because they just didn't take the time to follow them, the scripture is not clear on that. Whatever it was, King Hezekiah prays that God would look past the outward and look at the hearts of the people.

I believe this is something that God is much more willing to do than we are. I think it is us, not God, that gets hung up on the outward. May we, like Hezekiah, learn to look past the outward, because if the heart is right, the outward will eventually follow, but it doesn't do one bit of good to have everything in place on the outward and not have the heart in it.

NaBloWriMo

Okay, so I think I'm crazy, but.....inspired by Penelope, I, too, am going to attempt to blog every day for the month of November. I didn't actually sign up to be a member of NaBloPoMo, so I am unofficially doing this, but I think it's a great challenge.

I am going to be so busy this month trying to meet the NaNoWriMo challenge that I won't have much time to put much thought into my blog posts but I am going to try to post something everyday. It may simply amount to an update as to how I am doing in the NaNoWriMo challenge, or something as mundane as that so don't expect anything wonderful.

Anyone else want to join us in this challenge? I'd love to hear from you if you do.

BTW, I did start the NaNoWriMo challenge today. This morning I managed to pound out 1588 words towards my goal of 50,000 words. I've set myself a goal of doing approximately 1500 words a day, broken up into three slots of time and aiming for 500 words per time slot. I figure there will be some days when I go over and some days when I go under but that should get me close to the goal.

I was shocked when I sat down this morning and wrote over 1500 words without stopping! Funny thing is I really hadn't decided what I was going to write until I started. I had a rough idea in mind with one main character and one supporting character but that's it. I didn't even have the characters well thought out at all, but it seems to be falling into place.

I'm hoping to get some more time to write later today. I think I need to take advantage of this momentum because I don't think it's going to last. Would be great if it did, but reality is that I won't always have the time I would like to write, so I must take advantage of the time when it comes.

This is not a story that I have any illusions of ever having published or anything, it is something simply for me. I have always loved to write and always wanted to write a book and maybe some day I will, but this one is just for me. The main character is based very loosely on my maternal grandmother and the story is based roughly on her life. The supporting character is based loosely on my maternal grandfather. I also love to work on family history and would love to some day put together a family history that could be passed on to our relatives. Maybe this will give me more of a drive to do that too.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed my writing time this morning and rather than feeling drained and not wanting to write anything else, as I thought might happened, I feel inspired to write more and want to try to keep my blogs updated during this time. I sure hope this continues!