mentoring digital wordsmiths
At the beginning of 2020, I set my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal for 75 books. I didn’t want to set the bar too high and get discouraged. But I spent much of January with a nasty cold, and made great progress toward my reading goal the first month of the year. The month of April brought a flu bug, and…
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Two girls run around the driveway, flicking at the air with willow twigs. They look a bit old to play with imaginary horses, but that doesn’t change their enthusiasm. One girl reins her steed into a faster canter, calling to the other, “Race to the corral!” The other girl hollers back, “Just try!” I happen to know those two girls very well–they are myself and my…
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Everyone wanted their own chance to say hello this year, so we’re each sharing a few paragraphs (some with more help than others).
I don’t know who said it first, but my daddy always quoted J. Vernon McGee as saying, “We should always be ready to preach, pray, or die.” But growing up going to church, I found that there was more to being a pastor than preaching a sermon: A pastor must not only teach God’s Word, but shepherd God’s people. And…
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When a friend pulled her kids out of public school to homeschool them last November, the first thing I did was gather a stack of books about homeschooling to loan her. But what I really wish I’d added to the pile is a few picture books about homeschooling for her kids. That was pre-pandemic. Now school looks different for a…
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I grew up less than a mile from our local public library. It was back in the day when there were rows and rows of little drawers holding the card catalog, each card representing a book on the library’s shelves. To check out a book, you signed your name on the card you pulled from the pocket in the back…
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Oh how I’d hoped to give you a hug this side of Heaven.
But you touched my life from afar. Just like you did the lives of so many others.
Last fall, I was asked to share with a local mom’s group about some of my specific goals for my children. I was glad of the opportunity, because it forced me to actually think through and write down some specific ideals. It also brought me face to face with the reality of our humanness–theirs and mine. What are my hopes…
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Have you ever looked at how much you spent on Kindle books in a month? I score a lot of free Kindle titles, but I love to pre-order new books to support my favorite authors. And other times, there’s a book I really want to read but my library doesn’t have. Enter the book budget saver, Kindle Unlimited. No, not…
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Whether you’re schooling at home during this extended change in routine, or missing the extracurricular activities during your normal homeschool week, you might be looking for some screen-free ways to entertain your children. Audio adventures are a budget-friendly, germ-free way to entertain the whole family. Nothing fills the extra hours in our home better than audio adventures. My children listen…
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I may have spent the better part of my childhood pretending I was Queen Lucy, but the Chronicles of Narnia and George MacDonald’s Scottish tales were as close as I got to Medieval fiction. Until our pastor’s wife offered me a copy of her book, Sirocco Wind from the East. And as I delved into its pages, losing myself in…
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“Any letters?” One of my children asks the oh-so-hopeful question almost every single day when they see me walking back from the mailbox, flipping through the mail. And oh the delight–the raptures–when an epistle has arrived from one of their pen pals! My children come by it naturally. I’ve been writing letters to my pen pals since I was a…
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