Gretchen Louise 3 Minute Read I like to talk about books. If it didn’t already come up naturally with everyone I know, it would be the perfect thing to ask when conversation lagged: “What books have you been reading lately?” (Or, as is more likely for me and other young moms and students, “What book are you trying to make…
Gretchen Louise 2 Minute Read Whenever a program comes on the radio with money saving tips, we listen up — mostly out of curiosity. And at the end of the program, my husband and I compare notes, the result almost always being the same: we’re already following every money saving tip they listed…
Caroline Rose Sanders 4 Minute Read My mother was in her chair in the living room, laptop on her lap and stacks of books at her feet when she looked up at me with an expression of desperation.
“I’m too Protestant for this!” she cried.
This year, for the first time, my family is celebrating Advent..
Elisabeth Allen 5 Minute Read It’s scary because I’m not perfect. I still have so much life to live and so many lessons to learn! But (what if?) God is putting stories on my heart and whispering, “Please write – or draw – this for Me.” And so I try…try to write stories and draw pictures that capture a tiny bit of that “irresistible” vision of womanhood.
Gretchen Louise 3 Minute Read Two potty accidents, a spilled bowl of oatmeal, no morning naps, and I’m finally stepping into the shower at 11 a.m. I take a deep breath and tell myself, “This is the new one.”
It’s just one of the memorable anecdotal reminders for moms in Rachel Jankovic’s new book Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches… She’s a young mom of young kids. She doesn’t pretend to have it all figured out. She doesn’t tell you how to parent. Instead, she challenges other moms as she challenges herself: adjust your attitude, change your perspective.
Jessica Telian 2 Minute Read “‘You have a traitor there, Aslan,’ said the Witch. Of course everyone present knew that she meant Edmund. But Edmund had got past thinking of himself after all that he’d been through and after the talk he’d had that morning. He just went on looking at Aslan. It didn’t seem to matter what the Witch said.”
~C.S. Lewis; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
I’m guessing that many of the readers here have read The Chronicles of Narnia and therefore know the context of this quote. The White Witch comes to demand Edmund’s life from Aslan. As stated, Edmund is a traitor and as such, by rights, his blood belongs to the Witch. The night before the Witch’s audience with Aslan, Edmund had been rescued from almost being murdered by the Witch, and that morning had a conversation with Aslan that “no one ever heard…[but] Edmund never forgot”.
Elisabeth Adams 4 Minute Read Once upon a time, I was required to design a short seminar. Not surprisingly, I chose the topic of writing. So I read (and read), taking some forty pages of notes that translated into an entire mini-course, handouts and all.
I never actually taught that seminar.
But as I reread my notes today, I discovered that God had surprised me. The principles I write by, the ones I repeat to students, clients, and long-suffering friends: yes, those wise words? Many of them come from the novelists and wordsmiths whose books I read and seemingly forgot.
Jessica Telian 2 Minute Read It always amazes me how books can connect people. I know that whenever I meet someone new, a question that is sure to show at least part of our “kindred spirit-ness” is “So, do you like to read?”. If the answer is in the affirmative, and the person starts waxing eloquent about their beloved authors and books, I know we’ll definitely have something to talk about for awhile.
Chantel 2 Minute Read Our little living room may not have much going for it in terms of real furniture, but it does have three matching bookshelves. The books they hold make up the lack, creating the kind of cozy decoration that, to me, helps to make a house into something more. The pretty ones are as good as any picture hanging on the wall.
The thing with books and bookshelves is that many little (and big) hands can quickly vanquish any sort of order in record time, no matter how you arrange them! It is a good thing that dusting the bookshelves and putting them back into place is a job that is more fun than work…
Jeannie Pederson 4 Minute Read If you’re a book lover, like me, you have a favorite author (or several). And at some point, you will have read all the works by said author. What happens then? Do you sigh sadly, make a cup of tea, and begin writing yourself? Perhaps you check out a new author from a reading list, or ask a friend for a recommendation. You could even read a book about the author (I have two such books on my reading list, biographies of beloved authors Elizabeth Goudge and Bess Streeter Aldrich) or make a pilgrimage to places they lived, wrote, or wrote about.
Or, you can read a sequel by another author.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a great deal of variation in the quality of such “sequels.”
Gretchen Louise 4 Minute Read I read a lot of books about relationships in my late teens and early twenties. Enough to know that they aren’t all helpful and encouraging. And they most definitely are not all must-reads. When I got married, there were the few books I didn’t pack — the ones I kept handy for reference as I…
Jeannie Pederson 2 Minute Read I can’t remember where I first saw the book Letters of a Woman Homesteader. The wonderful cover caught my eye right away and the title was intriguing, but the clincher was the fact that I could read it right away on my iPod — for free!
I was not disappointed. Not only is the premise interesting — a young widow with a small daughter who decides to go out West and claim her own homestead — the writing is excellent…
The End.
The End.