Can't wait!

Less than a month before conference!

No more snow...

... at least on my blog, but there was plenty outside my window when I got up this morning.  Blech!  It was snowing and blowing most of the day.  The snow seems to be disappearing fast, though, and I'm hoping we don't get any more.  I'm also happy to finally have managed to clean the snow flakes off my blog.

Here's what it used to look like:

It was a great look for the winter but winter is over, at least it's supposed to be.  :)

I did a lot of playing around with my blog today.  I just couldn't get a background that I like but I'm finally satisfied.  Having said that, however, I don't know how long I will keep this look.  It's okay for now but I might want something more summery for summer.  We'll see.

I created the blog banner using a photo I took a while ago while little one and I were checking out our favorite summer haunt.  The sun was starting to go down and it looked so nice.  While playing around in my graphics program I discovered the tree graphic and thought it went well with the picture.  I used it in the banner and also in the background.  I decided to make the trees white in the background graphic to contrast the tree in the banner and also because the silver birch tree is my favorite tree.  I created a number of different background graphics before I finally settled on one that satisfied me.

So, what do you think?

Working on a new look!

Tonight I managed to find some time to play around and recall out how it was I gave my blog a new, personalized look a while back.  I know it would be so much easier to just use templates that are available but I like to use my own graphics and really personalize it.  I'm not quite ready to publish the new look yet but I do have a new banner designed and hopefully I'll find the time tomorrow to design the new background.  If all goes well my new look should be ready to publish before next week!  Yeah!!

Kind of ironic though, I'm trying to get rid of the snowflakes on my blog while the weather man has forecast snow for us tonight and tomorrow.  Blech!  I love snow and wish we had more this winter but I do not want snow now!  Guess we'll see what happens

A great local band makes the big time!

A big shout out to some friends!  Anyday is a local band that has made the big time - today they went to Nashville!  My girls and I are big fans of theirs.  We go to every concert we can.  My eldest girl took photographs for them at their first concerts.  It was really nice of them to give her a chance to work on something she enjoyed.  The band members have great talent and great hearts.  Check out their music on their website and if you ever get a chance to see them live, don't miss it.  They are great!

How do you choose what CD to buy?

I recently discovered that my daughter chooses which CDs to buy based on how cool the band members look on the CD cover.  Is that weird or what?

Feeling Frustrated

That is how I am feeling, for so many different reasons.  Many of those reasons are related to this blog.  I'm frustrated because I want to update the look and I can't remember how to do what I want to do and I don't have the time at the present to research it and do it.  I'm frustrated because I don't know what I actually want to write here or what the purpose of it is.  A part of me wants to be able to just share whatever I want whenever I want here but another part of me really hesitates because I don't want to give up my privacy.  Yet I feel like I need a place to share some things to get them off my chest.  I always found it helped to write about my feelings but I really don't think that putting them out there for the whole wide world is a good idea.  Some things are meant to be private, but some times I wonder if it would help to let some of it out.  So many frustrations.

Perhaps I should get back to counting my blessings and using Monday as a time to post them.  I certainly wasn't as frustrated when I was doing that.  Hmmm...I need to get back on track and get rid of these frustrations.  I know that airing them all is not the answer.  The answer is to get back on track with all the things that I've gone of track with lately.  See, even writing it out in all this vagueness helped.  It doesn't matter that it might not interested anyone else.  It helped.  Then again, it just might help someone else that might be feeling the same way.  Who knows?

"This is a work of fiction."

Ever read that in the front of a book?  It usually continues with "Any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental."  There have been a number of times when I've read that and thought, "Yeah, right!  That's a fine way to cover your behind."  And that's really what it is, at least I think.  Trudy Morgan Cole also thinks so.  She says so in the front pages of her book By the Rivers of Brooklyn.

Trudy also reminds as that often "writers mine their own lives for material."  In talking about her book she says "This book, finally, is pure fiction, and its story includes things that really happened in my family and in other people's families and a few things that may never have happened in any family."  I love that honesty, and I think it is true of all fiction books.

BTW, I am enjoying the book and you may find it referred to in a few more blog posts in the future.  I already have another planned out in my head.  :)

Duh!

Stun One!  Forgot to post yesterday!

Living out the Message of Easter

Dear Fallen Leader,

You, of all people, should rejoice in the message of Easter.  It is a message of hope and renewal.  He died to take away your sin and make forgiveness and new life available for you.  It won't be easy.  Even with forgiveness there are still consequences to sin.  Your life will never again be the same.  You have lost things that you can never get back but He can still work through you as you humble yourself and allow Him to do the work.  You cannot do it yourself.  You must lean on Him and learn from Him.  He was wounded and said not a word in His own defense, instead He prayed for others. There are so many others that are hurting because of your fall.  They need your prayers. He took the punishment and allowed the work to be finished, so that God could be glorified in the end.  May you do the same.

I am praying for you, and for your family and all those affected by your fall.

With love,
A fellow sinner




Dear Disappointed and Hurting Comrade,
 
How hard it is to watch your leader fall!  How easy it is to question everything and lose your focus.  You have discovered that one of your leaders is human and prone to err. Don't let that knock you off the course. Look to the cross. God is still God and truth is still truth. The message of the cross is still one of forgiveness and new life and victory over sin, even for your fallen leader.  Will you follow God's example of forgiveness or will you join the masses that will kick him while he's down? Now is your chance to live out the message of mercy and grace.  No, that doesn't mean that you sweep it all under the rug, but it does mean that you leave it all at the cross.  Let God handle it.  Pray for your fallen leader.  He will need it.  Pray for his family.  They will need it.  None of us are perfect.  We all make mistakes and we all need forgiveness.  Thank God that He offers that forgiveness to us all.  May we all do our part to forgive and support one another.

With love,
A fellow disappointed and hurting comrade

Post inspired by the April 8th theme, Happy Easter, for Letters That I'll Never Send.

Minor Hockey Madness

My boys were always involved in Minor Hockey.  They loved it.  I loved parts of it, but I also hated parts of it.  My boys are now 20 and 21 so I haven't been involved for a few years, and I can't say that I miss it at all.

The tales I heard tonight reminded me of the minor hockey madness that I hated.  DH just got back from officiating an end of season minor hockey tournament in a community a few hours away and he was telling me about the wonderful time he had.  It's such a pleasure to have parents and kids and coaches swearing and uttering threats at you.  Not!  Not a pleasure, that is, but that is exactly what he had to put up with, and that is exactly what I don't miss about minor hockey.

I don't understand why there is so much minor hockey madness.  What does it accomplish?  Absolutely nothing. Well, that's not really true.  It does accomplish something.  It teaches kids to disrespect authority and to let loose with whatever emotions they might be feeling at the moment without any thought for how it might affect someone else.  It doesn't have to be that way.  If the coaches and parents would set the example of good behaviour and insist that the kids act the same, there wouldn't be such minor hockey madness.

One of our boys was into hockey big time and it did crazy things to him, but he didn't get away with it.  There were many, many times, when he was quite young, that I made him sit out games and practices for his behaviour and attitude.  I would not allow him to return until he apologized to the team.  I had coaches and parents tell me I was crazy because it was a part of hockey.  My son wasn't impressed with me at the time but recently we chatted about how it helped him develop character.  He still loves his hockey, and he still has to fight to keep control, but he knows how important it is to do so.  He's learned to be aware of when he is starting to slip into the hockey madness and he's learned how to walk away, and still hold his head high.

It's not easy to stand against the crowd and stand for what's right but if more of us did it those that do what is wrong would eventually find it harder to do what is wrong and we might finally get rid of the Minor Hockey madness.  Wouldn't it be nice to be able to enjoy watching your children play hockey and have everybody leave the game feeling proud of the way that every body acted?

Broke Posting Streak

I am bummed.  I have been on a posting streak since the New Year started.  I hadn't missed a day, until this past Sunday.  I had computer trouble and couldn't post.  Missed the next day for the same reason.  I'm bummed.  But I'm trying to get over it.

I'm not sure what I'm most bummed about, breaking my posting streak or all the computer troubles I've had to deal with lately.  But I'm really trying to get over both.

New Bibles!

I finally got a new Bible!  I'd given up taken my old one to church for a while now because pages, and whole sections, were falling out of it so I was always afraid I was going to lose some.  Today I got a new Bible so tomorrow I can finally take a Bible to church again!  I'm so excited.  I like to be able to look up the scriptures that are mentioned and of course I always have my trusty pencil and paper on hand to jot down notes.  I had the pencil and paper even when I didn't have the Bible but it's just not the same.  Sometimes the wrong references are given and I prefer to look up the verse and make sure the reference is right before jotting it down.

Along with my new Bible to take to church, I also got a Chronological Study Bible.  I spotted this Bible last week when I was checking around for a new Bible to take to church and I really, really wanted it.  I was torn because I wanted a new Bible to take to church, but I also wanted this Bible.  Thankfully DH agreed to purchasing both today!

I have followed chronological Bible reading plans a few times in the past, including last year, and I found that it helped me to understand some things better.  What I really like about the Chronological Study Bible is the study notes and features that are included throughout.  I'm thinking this will help even more.

I started reading the introductory pages right away and I've learned so much already!  It's really interesting to read about how they decided on the order they've used in the book.  They make no bones about the fact that there are many different opinions about the correct order and they do not claim that the order they have chosen is the correct order.  I like that.

I'm looking forward to using both my new Bibles.

How about you?  Do you own a Bible?  Do you like to take a Bible to church with you?  Have you ever read the Bible through?  Have you ever read the Bible through chronologically? What is your favorite Bible Reading Plan?  What is your favorite Bible Study tool?

Good Friday

Every year I have good intentions of doing a better job of acknowledging Easter and all that it embodies, but that's as far as it gets.  Oh how I wish I was more like Ann.  She has been posting about Easter for a while and sharing great ideas.  The one that stuck with me the most was the Easter Garden which she posted about in Family Activities to Celebrate Jesus This Easter.  Maybe I'll do better at fulfilling my intentions some year.

April is National Poetry Month

Want some help to celebrate?

A Year of Reading is attempting to post a day about teaching or learning.  If Poem #1- Teaching is any indication, it is going to be well worth checking the blog each day this month.  Go check it out.  It ends with a good question - "Who is guiding you?"

At the GottaBook blog there will be a new children's poem/poet combination posted every day.  His post today - Alice Schertle - Triolets that Trouble my Sleep - has me wanting to find some Alice Schertle books in my library and also wanting to try my hand at a triolet.

Have you found any good resources?

Dreaming of gardens and trouble proof computers

Inspired by spring, the question for I Want...Wednesday #75 is "What do you want to grow?"

I would love to have a beautiful flower garden and a productive vegetable garden.  I am not a gardener, but I am a gardener wanna be - very much so.  You would never know it if you were to visit my yard.  Most of my gardening takes place in my  head.  I would love to have a flower garden that bloomed with color in every season and a vegetable garden that provided us with our favorite fresh vegetables in the fall.  Problem is I have a very, very small yard and I very, very "ungreen" thumb.  I keep saying that some day I'm going to fulfill my dream, and maybe I will if there is gardening in heaven.  :)

They also asked "What else do you want this week?"

Well, after the day I had today I want a trouble proof computer, one that would never, ever gave me any trouble.  I was thrilled last year when my mom and sister surprised me with a laptop, but it has caused me much grief in the little over a year that I have owned it.  For some reason I have to totally reformat it every month or so.  I am no computer expert so I have no idea what causes it to do what it does but at least I have discovered how to reformat and it clears up all my problems, at least for a while.  This is fresh on my mind because I had to reformat again today.

post inspired by the March31st - 

Busy, Busy, Busy

That's what I've been lately, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it!  I've been busy contacting businesses and suppliers about supporting our provincial homeschool conference by sending us information pamphlets and/or catalogs and sample materials for door prizes.  I've sent out over 40 requests!  I've also had some great responses so far.  It's so exciting!  You can check out who has agreed to support us on The CHENL Channel.  I cannot believe how generous some of these people are being!  We are going to have a great display and some great door prizes.  It's so exciting!  I will be updating the list as we get more support.

Our Local Homeschool Heritage Fair

There were a number of interesting presentations in our local homeschool Heritage Fair today.  A primary age student explained a display she had put together about a relative of her's who was a well known midwife.  She spoke clearly and with confidence and was quite interesting.  Another primary age student told us about the birth provinces of his parents and shared memories his father shared with him about growing up in another province.  One junior high student explained his display about the Tsunami of 1929.  Another junior high student clearly explained the proper naming of distant relatives as he pointed out names and pictures from his family tree, which he has traced back many generations.  A couple of senior high students shared their grandfathers' stamp and coin collections and explained how and when stamps and coins first came into use in Newfoundland.

This is the first time we held a heritage fair and it was a learning experience for all of us.  I am fairly certain that we will do it again.  It was a great experience for the children to put together and to do the presentations.  They did a great job.  There were presentations other than the ones I named above but I felt these best embodied what a heritage fair is all about.

I learned about the Heritage Fair program from a fellow homeschooler's blog a year or more ago.  It sounded very interesting so I decided to check it out.  This was the first year that our local homeschool group expressed an interest in participating.  When I went searching for the information again I was disappointed to discover that the Heritage Fair program was going through changes and I had trouble finding information on local fairs and the national fair.  I finally found out that there was not going to be a local heritage fair in our area this year and I'm still not sure if there is going to be a national fair or not, but we decided to go ahead a hold a heritage on our own anyway and I'm really glad we did.

Straight Out of the Camera

A couple of shots I took during a recent walk with my girls.

Inspired by

Great day!

Mother/Daughter time with eldest daughter

Science Lesson Plans from Robert Bateman

I'm discovering all kinds of great things on the "Get to Know" program website.  On the teacher resources page there are a number of lesson plans which include video introductions and PDF files, all available for free!  As the site says, the lessons are geared for grade 4-6 but are easily adaptable for older or younger students.  They can be used as a springboard for all kinds of fun learning.  Be sure to check them out.