Yes, yes, I know I have been rather absent on here of late. Believe it or not, I have still been working out my internet issues. I went from one company to another and then after discovering my apartment does not have a phone jack, back to my original provider. The travails required two visits from technicians and hours on the phone. The bright side is however that at the end I was offered a much better deal. I guess I was pushed to a blessing.

It hasn't been all bureaucracy battling. We did go out to Thunderbird Stadium on the weekend to catch the Mitchell Bowl. The match was between the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds and Nova Scotia's X-Men from St. Francis Xavier University.The T-Birds easily defeated the team that forgot to name itself. The game was somewhat anti-climatic after the last two, leave it to the last minutes and then seconds win. On the very first drive, this time, the T-Birds got on the board and then led throughout. By the end of the game, pity was on offer to the opposing team and their fans who had come a very long way to see their sons play. The final score was 47-17 for the Thunderbirds. The blue and gold head off next to Queens University, in Ontario, for the Big Game, the Vanier Cup. Will have to catch in online.

As always we have kept busy with homeschooling, focusing on our language studies and Math, but also Social studies and the study of European History. See down below our summary of a Crash Course History video and post reformation politics and war.

Today we were also dog-sitting an ailing friend's dog and running interference with the pooch and the cat. Seven is warming up to the idea of a new friend slowly. On the whole things are mellow ... just some warning hisses. The puppy understands who is the boss.

From our studies ...

John Green in Crash Course European History, Reformation and Consequences, describes the turmoil in England after the death of King Henry the 8th. The immediate succession did not prove a problem. A male heir had been produced between Henry and his 3rd wife, Jane Seymour. At the time of his birth, Catherine of Aragon, Henry's first wife, had died, and so Edward the Sixth faced no legitimacy issues. He was also Henry's first born son. England practiced primogeniture inheritance, and so Edward was seen as the rightful heir to the throne Of England by most. Alas Edward was a sickly boy and died at the age of fifteen.

England now faced a crisis of succession. He had two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, from his marriages to Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn respectively. The Catholics believed, perhaps more rightly so, given Mary was the eldest child, that Mary should take to the throne. The Catholics saw Elizabeth as illegitimate. The Protestants saw Mary a result of an annulled marriage, no marriage at all, and that it was Mary who had been born out of wedlock. Then there were those who placed Lady Jane Grey on the throne, who claimed both of Henry's daughters were illegitimate. Lady Jane was executed when Mary eventually took the crown.

With Mary's ascension to the throne, the Catholic faith once again held sway in the land, and things were rough for Protestants. Mary was Catholic and wed the Catholic son of Charles the 5th, Philip the Second of Spain. This might have seen the permanent return of Catholic power in England, but the marriage of Philip and Mary, second cousins, did not produce viable children. Elizabeth the First would gain the realm after her sister's death and return the land once again to Protestantism.

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