Hymn Study: Rise Up O Men of God

We sang this hymn this morning in a wee little church about an hour from home.   Hubby was guest preaching there.   When I say wee tiny.. I mean like FIVE members!!!  It amazes me that this church is able to keep going eh?    No organist... so I think when we go back in a month that I'll start each hymn off just so we know what we're singing a bit better.  :)   I'm not a great pianist...but I can get us started off.  :)

Rise up o men of God was written by William Pierson Merrill. An American pastor, originally from New Jersey, he served in Chicago and New York.  Merrill became the first president of the "Church Peace Union", a pacifist organization. His 1914 sermon titled "The Making of Peace" was hailed by Andrew Carnegie as "...one of the greatest sermons on peace that he had ever heard."

He was not a prolific hymn writer (he's known for four hymns) and had written a few articles as well.   You can find them listed here.   There's really not a whole lot known about him, but I do like this hymn that he wrote.  Comes with two different tunes, we sing it to St.Thomas, but I really liked this one below, even if they didn't sing the whole song.

Lyrics

1. Rise up, O men of God!
Have done with lesser things.
Give heart and mind and soul and strength
to serve the King of kings.

2. Rise up, O men of God!
The kingdom tarries long.
Bring in the day of brotherhood
and end the night of wrong.

3. Rise up, O men of God!
The church for you doth wait,
her strength unequal to her task;
rise up, and make her great!

4. Lift high the cross of Christ!
Tread where his feet have trod.
As brothers of the Son of Man,
rise up, O men of God!

 

This tune below is the one that I know the hymn too.

 

 

this one also caught my eye (well my ear actually). :)
I hope you like 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/

The Week of the Easter Mouse

Sunday after a nice afternoon with the family I came home to this mound on my patio.  Needless to say, as much as I like ants and think they do much good in the world, I don't want them three feet from my back door building a mound.  So I medicated them and hopefully this bunch will fail to return and WILL NOT invade my house this summer.

Monday:
After a busy weekend, staying at home seemed like the best thing to do today.  The lad and I did some gardening together.  My young digger had a huge amount of fun moving and then replanting my parsley and chervil patch.   Who woulda thought that it would be so much fun digging holes and plopping a plant in it.  The dirt was just a flying!!!

Tuesday:
Off to London town!   The lad did a wee bit of schooling and then headed out with gramma in the afternoon.  He went with us first to fill out his application for a passport as we'll be heading to PA at the end of May.

Wednesday
 A day of schooling at home.  Thought admittedly we got to a really late start.   We were all total slugs, so much so the lad ran out of time to get all his schooling done, so he promised me he would do his math the next day. 

Thursday:
 Off to the Alymer Dairy Museum today.  The lad promised to do his math on the way there but ended up doing right before bed. The Museum was pretty good.   Filled with memorabilia but the staff also put on a good program for the children and youth that attended... making butter, ice cream, learning about cartooning and more.  See look... I made a sponge bob!

Friday:
Today was co-op day so off we went for a morning of learning, me teaching Zentangles, Hubby teaching gym, and the lad learning about natural disasters and Biblical Feasts.
We learned the spider tag is not as fun as one might think.

Reviews:
Quick Tips for Busy Families. 
Fish Girl: a well done graphic novel

Five Day Blog Hop: Things We Enjoy
The Joys of Working at our Own Pace.
Miss Natalie and her support  
Studying what interests you
No One Wakes me Up.
The Joy of Staying Home.

 Everything Else:
Easter is Here.  A poem about Easter. 
S-I-N-G : self defense is great for women too! 
Recipe: Scalloped Potatoes
Discover Great Paintings - A child's book of art.  Learn how to look at art.
The Holy District.  Devotion on Ezekiel 45:1-6
 

Linking Up at The Following Places.

Homeschool Coffee Break

Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers. 

 Homeschool Blog and Tell.

   Family Friday LinkUp.
Encouraging hearts & Home blog hop. 

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/

Five Things We Enjoy: The Joy of Staying Home

 Ah... it's been fun this week eh?   Exploring the things that we like most about homeschooling.

My son admittedly surprised me with today's topic... He phrased it as "I get to stay home.".

My son is BIG into time management.  He watches the clock, figures out how long it will take to do something, and calculates it seems... down to the nano second.  The fact that sometimes he over-estimates his time is neither here or there.

Living next door to our neighbours, a family with two children that attend public school.  The lad sees them leave and come back and wonders when they have time to do what they want to do.   He only sees them out having fun in the summer or on Saturdays.

He's asked me in the past "What do they do on the way to school?   Do they just walk there and back again?"  

He sees how quickly he can go through his math at home, or do his art, or talk through our history and asks me how long it took when I was at school.   I tell him and he just doesn't understand it.  How can learning history take a whole hour?  How can a math class last a whole hour?   

Then he starts to understand when I tell him that he has LOTS of time to do what he likes to do.   He gets it when he's able to do his math in the car on the way to an event, he understands when we combine science with our study on Canada, and do art as a way to understanding the Pacific Coast First Nations people better.   It makes the school day go faster you know?

He can start his school day first thing in the morning, and work at his own speed, pursuing the things he loves to do,and meeting people he likes .

Knowing that most of his days are spent ordered in a way that works for him helps him to relax when we do get out and about.   Being able to recharge his batteries pursuing the things he loves the most, and yet having the freedom to leave home when needed.  It's very good in the eyes of a boy.   

Friends, family, co-op days, field trips, vacation, learning adventures, pokemon go-ing and so many other things drag him out of the house, but... he can mostly stay home where a boy likes to be.

What about your children?   What do they enjoy most about homeschooling?

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/

S-I-N-G

The Five Minute Friday word prompt of the day is the word sing.  

When I mentioned it to my hubby he immediately popped up with  S-I-N-G, the self-defense song... and once he said it... I couldn't get it out of my mind.  So with that I bring you the Self-Defense Song

Solar plexus

Instep 

Nose and

Groin 

So remember... ALL women should be able to defend themselves eh? 

While remembering that our ultimate defense is in the Lord's hands.

S-I-N-G IT OUT!!!

--------

This is a five minute Friday post. the word prompt is brought to us by Miss Kate.  What is Five Minute Friday?  Well it's a party of a group of like minded folks who gather on Friday to do a five minute free write around a singular word.  AND THEN we take the time to offer up encouragement to each other on this writing journey.  It's fun, though it's not always easy, but it is always good.   Come join us won't you?  You are always welcome.
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/

The Holy District

Today we are reading from Ezekiel 45:1-6.    Last time we met I was reminded to think on the sacrifices people make to support the ministries of the church including the pastor's family.

 “When you allot the land as an inheritance, you shall set apart for the Lord a portion of the land as a holy district, 25,000 cubits long and 20,000 cubits broad. It shall be holy throughout its whole extent. ² Of this a square plot of 500 by 500 cubits shall be for the sanctuary, with fifty cubits for an open space around it. ³ And from this measured district you shall measure off a section 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 broad, in which shall be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. ⁴ It shall be the holy portion of the land. It shall be for the priests, who minister in the sanctuary and approach the Lord to minister to him, and it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. ⁵ Another section, 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits broad, shall be for the Levites who minister at the temple, as their possession for cities to live in.
⁶ “Alongside the portion set apart as the holy district you shall assign for the property of the city an area 5,000 cubits broad and 25,000 cubits long. It shall belong to the whole house of Israel.

This passage is all about apportioning off a part of the land for the temple, the most holy, a place for the priests to live, what God calls the Holy District.   A part of the land set aside for him and his use

What catches my eye is in the first verse.  "When you allot the land as an inheritance, you shall set apart for the Lord a portion of the land as a holy district, 25,000 cubits long and 20,000 cubits broad. It shall be holy throughout its whole extent." When I looked to the commentaries to explain they talked about how God was the inheritance of the people and how it was a duty for them to set aside this land for him.  

When I first read this passage though and saw the word inheritance I thought about how special it was.   They had all this land given to them, it was their inheritance.   Something they receive as... well I think of what an inheritance is... a gifting to you from someone who died.  Or you can think of your future inheritance...which again is something you get when someone dies.

This land they are given is their inheritance.

And part of that, God is saying, needs to be set aside for him and his use of it.  A holy section...which will be a good call (I should imagine) for people to remember where all their land comes from.  It is an inheritance promised by God.   He demands part of it be set aside for him.  For his temple, his priests, his city that is for ALL the people.

I dunno... I just think it's rather important you know.  To remember that our inheritance is from te Lord and he calls us to remember that in designating part of it for his use.  Kinda like what we do when we tithe.

We're saying here Lord, this is for you.  This part reminds us of all that you have given and done for us, this part is for use by you and the church, this part is holy.

Makes me think to myself... do I see my tithe as a holy portion fit for the Lord to use?   I often think of it only as a duty and not as the reminder that it is.

How about you?

 You can read more in my Ezekiel Studies here and here.

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/

Five Things We Enjoy: No One Makes Me Get Out of Bed Before I Want To (respect)

 Welcome, welcome to day four of  things we enjoy.   The Homeschool Review Crew is having fun this week sharing knowledge, joys, sorrows and encouragement.

Day one: The Joys of Working at our Own Pace.
Day two: Miss Natalie and her support  
Day Three: Studying what interests you

Today my boy wants me to tell you about how much he enjoys that NO ONE makes him get out of bed before he wants to.  :)

Mind you.... we normally don't have to as he's up and busy often before I'm even functional.  :)

Allow me to tell you where this stems from:  When I was young my parents would wake me up simply by staring at me.  I have a huge startle reflex and they used that to good advantage.  I would wake up startled and frightened...not that they were INTENDING to scare me...but shaking me awake would be a good way to get inadvertently whacked.  So staring from a distance worked really well.   I am unfortunately still like this...  really... don't wake me....just don't do it.

Anyways, since I have bad memories of being woken up, I don't wake people up unless I HAVE to.   When the lad was younger occasionally I'd need to get him up, but not often and never without having a good reason. Now that he's older I just say "I need you up at ____ time, and yes, if you aren't up, I'll give you a call or send the cat in to greet you." Admittedly...there is the odd time when the lad stays in bed late on purpose just so I will send the cat in to get him up.  :)  (You can always tell because you'll hear moans from his room, "Oh, I'm so tired, I wonder if mom will send Milo in".  :)

My son LOVES this.  He loves being able to have a lazy morning if he wants to (it rarely happens but...when it does...we are usually ALL being lazy).  If he's tired he's up around 830, but normally 730 and he's off schooling, doing chores, catching a quick game of Clash Royale or more likely watching science videos.

In fact, I am positive that my son learned this fact from some science video. For when the lad and I talked about why this was important enough to put into his five favourite things, he said:  "It is better for people to wake up on their own, to ease into wakefulness, than to be startled awake.  Some people have problems with their heart and breathing if they are woken up.  It shortens your life to be woken up all the time."   

He then added "thanks for not shortening my life mom."
  Being the mom that I am, with a logical child, I use this respect of his need to rest as a training tool.  When he does get up early (and like me once he's up, he up chatting, I can say: "SHUSH be quiet.  When you talk first thing in the morning, you wake everyone up, so SHUSH, I don't wake you up, so you don't wake me up."  It makes sense to this logically minded lad.  It's a way to teach mutual respect.

Respect for each other.
I listen to you, you listen to me. 
You ask for help instead of getting angry, I ask for help instead of getting angry.
You tell me your goals for the day, I tell you my goals for the day and together we work to see those goals met.   
Respecting each others needs and wants, it's one of those important things in our home.   Mutual respect...It helps us to give way when it has to be done eh?

When we know that the mutual respect is there, the communication comes easier, you know?   What is one way you use to teach respect for each other?

It starts, in our house, with respecting a child's need to wake up when he wants to.  (and I end up not shortening his life). :)

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/

Five things: Study what I want to

Hello!  Welcome to the Homeschool Review Crew's Spring Blog Hop.  We're getting together to provide encouragement, support, ideas, and information.

Day one: The Joys of Working at our Own Pace.
Day two: Miss Natalie and her support  

Today we are talking about the Joys of Studying what you want.  I have to tell you how much the lad love this. 

He has choices.

1. If a curriculum isn't working... we change it.    That doesn't mean that whining pointlessly about a program gets him out of doing the work, but seriously.. if a program or a way of doing things isn't working... It's a reason to talk about it and see what we can do to change it up.  If that means using another program or changing HOW the program is used, why not eh?  Doing schoolwork shouldn't be the cause of stress in the household.

2. If he wants to study something... we do it (this past year his love has been astronomy).

3. If we want to use a subject as a basis of study, we can do that.
  For instance we are using Canada this year.  We aren't working through our Canada History book quickly as we keep getting sidetracked by videos, and art, and research projects.  :)   We delight in doing mapping to for actual Canadian journeys, learning about totems from our own First Nations people, and so much more.  It's good to learn about our own people eh?

4. If he wants to choose what he wants to do for a research project..he can do that.
    He's gotten hooked on Cacti at the moment, and Carnivorous plants (like the venous fly trap).  So he's doing all sorts of research on them.  He's also working hard on a pictorial tutorial of doing minecraft papercraft. 

5.  Time to discover new joys...
Today my lad and I were doing some gardening today.  After supper my lad came and asked "Mom, do you have more gardening that will need to be done?   If you do, can I help please?   I like doing that today."   So I'm thinking later in the week, rather then doing the rest of the gardening myself, that I'll have my boy lend a hand and we'll talk plants and why we grow them.  :)

  It's good you know, to be able to make things work, to watch a boy all excited about the things that he is learning, and giving him the freedom to pursue those passions.   His passion for his cacti and his other research projects pushes him to complete his schoolwork all the faster. 

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/

Art Book Series: Discover Great Paintings - A Child's Book of Art

 Do you want your children to understand the great artists?  Or even just to know how to look at some of the great paintings done?   Discover Great Paintings will teach you how to unpack these great pieces of artwork so you can discuss them well.

The first chapter in this book teaches a person how to look at art work.
Questions to ask, details to look at and facts about the artist.
The next 13 chapters unpack 13 different pieces of art work, helping the reader to understand them and learn the questions to ask about any artwork you can find. 

Learn to understand the colours, textures, emotions, shapes presented.

As you can see different elements are pulled out of the painting and discussed.

The facts about each painting are drawn out .. such as the castle belongs to a king, skulls show the dragon has been a danger, the princess wants to be saved, and the dragon is a symbol for evil (whereas the cross on the shield is a symbol for good). 

Learn the facts behind the scenes

Remember details about the artist:

 Learn how to look at art work, see everything you can in the paintings you see.  Be aware of all the great questions you can ask of an artist of the work that they do.  Or that you can ask of yourself if the artist is no longer living.  There is more in a piece of art then you might think eh!  :)

Discover Great Paintings: A child's book of art
Author: Lucy Micklethwait
Publisher: Firefly Books
32 pages.
Type: Hardcover
Art Book






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/

Recipe: Scalloped Potatoes

My second time ever making scalloped potatoes.   I made some long past when we were first married, but our eating habits changed and I just haven't made them again. 

Ingredients

• 3 pounds potatoes, thinly sliced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 9 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
• 6 tablespoons butter, diced
• 1 quart whole milk, or as needed (I used about 3.5 cups)

Five Things We Enjoy: Miss Natalie

 Welcome to day of the Homeschool School Review Crew Five Day blog hop!  It's so nice to have you come for a visit.

On Day One we talked about The Joy of Working at Your Own Pace.

Today I want to talk to you about one of our favourite people.

Miss Natalie.

Oh... we like Miss Natalie.  I'll actually going running out the doors sometimes in my stocking feet to say hi to her. :)  (She ALWAYS scolds me for doing so).   She usually has a ready smile and a willingness to pass the time of day (until she needs to get going again).

You know what she does for us?

1. She talks happily with my lad.  Listening carefully to him.  She is kind to my boy.. he likes her and willingly talks to her whenever they meet.  She's a grandma and I often read posts on facebook with her spending time with them, and sometimes they tag along and play with bunnies when we're away.  

2.  She brings us books!   Lots and lots of books!!!   Many that my lad likes as well, so Natalie is a favourite around here.   Here's one she brought recently the lad and Dad will be working through together this coming year.

3. She cares for our critters whenever we are away.   Caring for the lad's snake, fish, plants, mice and cats.   Taking care of my bunnies.  Watering our gardens.   Without her we couldn't do our vacation time, do extended field trips or many other things.

4. Peace of mind.  Oh my.. Natalie is an easy lady to talk to, she shows her care in her easy smile and her honesty.   Her care for our mail packages, our critters, and us, causes us treasure her dearly.    

5. Of course you need to understand something, over the past years of Natalie being part of our five day a week life, of her lending a hand here and there, she is not just our mail lady or our vacation/field trip allower, she has become a part of our lives.  She's a dear sweet lady and I am grateful to know her.

We owe this lady a debt of gratitude.

<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.anetintime.ca/2017/01/introducing-blogging-alphabet.html " rel="nofollow" title="A Net In Time Schooling"><img src="http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz198/amandahopkins83/Blogging%20Through%20the%20Alphabet%201_zps3c1fmifq.png" alt="A Net In Time Schooling" style="border: none; height: auto; width: 200px;" /></a></div>

An InLinkz Link-up

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/

Review: Fish Girl

A graphic novel by David Wiesner and Danno Jo Napoli, where a young mermaid learns there is more to life than where she is living, finding friendship, learning her true history, seeing the depth of love in others.  This is a real coming to age story that should delight and amuse: Fish Girl. 

About the Authors: 
David Wiesner is internationally renowned for his visual storytelling and has won the Caldecott Medal three times-for Tuesday, The Three Pigs, and Flotsam -the second person in history to do so. He is also the recipient of three Caldecott Honors, for Free Fall, Sector 7, and Mr. Wuffles . He lives near Philadelphia with his family.
Donna Jo Napoli is a distinguished academic in the field of linguistics and teaches at Swarthmore College. She is also the author of more than eighty books for young readers. 

Book Synopsis: 
Fish Girl lives in an aquarium where she is the main attraction.  The owner claims to be Neptune and says he controls her, the last of her kind.  Life isn't all bad but Fish Girl is seeing there is more to the world. She's learned to be fearful of humans until she meets a girl who is nice to her.  Life changes, and this book is the story of that change. 

My Thoughts: 
Great story.   Seriously.  I liked it.   Seeing Fish Girl blossoming.  It was so nice.  

The graphics are nicely done.  Not all dark and graphic novelish...but clean, clear images, with nice colour.   Some of the images were full page which made a nice contrast to all the boxes.

The writing wasn't hard to read, but nicely sized lettering that you didn't need to squint to read well. :)

Fish Girl
Authors: David Wiesner and Danno Jo Napoli
Illustrator: David Wiesner
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Pages: 192
Ages 10-12 years
Style: Graphic Novel, softcover
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books.



Where to find:
 Amazon.ca: Fish Girl

Amazon.com: Fish Girl

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/