By now you've surely heard of The Mother Letter Project?In case you haven't, here's the skinny:Inspired by the Advent Conspiracy, husband and wife agree to create presents for each other instead of buying gifts, and donate the difference to help others. The husband, God bless his creative, thoughtful soul, decides to collect a series of “open letters” from mothers, to … [Read more...]
This Ann, not That Ann
Someone recently mistook me for Ann Voskamp, of Holy Experience.For a few minutes, this person thought I was that Ann -- the Ann -- who makes us sigh, ponder, weep.For a short time, I was thought to be the Ann who writes heart-melting, soul-achy prose. The one whose blog is an oasis, a repose.This person thought I was the one who regularly pours out her heart, … [Read more...]
Just Fifteen Minutes a Day: Ready…Set…Read!
Jennifer at Scraps and Snippets posted about Lifelong Learning at her blog, citing a 2006 article by Harvey Mackay packed with statistics to make an autodidact sprint to her bookcase and grab anything within reach: Only 14 percent of adults with a grade-school education read literature in 2002. 51 percent of the American population never reads a book more than 400 … [Read more...]
Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture
Some time ago I read Mary DeMuth's book Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture: Practical Help for Shaping Your Children's Hearts, Minds, and Souls.I "met" Mary online while clicking around from blog to blog as a relative newcomer to the blogosphere. I landed on hers and found myself charmed by her personal chronicle of life in southern France. She and her husband … [Read more...]
Monday's Meme-ish Musings
Having been tagged for a meme a while back by L.L. Barkat, I thought I'd tackle it today.Although I don't always jump at memes, I thought this might produce an interesting post. Maybe. She invented this particular meme, and that seems more "real" than the ones that get passed and passed around until they aren't really "fresh" anymore.So here are L.L. Barkat's rules for 5 … [Read more...]
From Chaos to Controversy to Gratitude to the Fonz
All of your responses to the original post about chaos and the follow-up post about being humbled have been helpful and insightful. Thank you for pondering and exploring this with me.One time I was explaining blogs and blogging (and my blog itself) to my sister-in-law. At the time, I had been following a couple of bloggers who seemed to generate tons of traffic and … [Read more...]
Thankful Thursday
Prairie Prologue reminded me that it's Thankful Thursday. She linked to the carnival hub at Sting My Heart.So I pause, in my thinking and learning and reading and writing and cleaning and planning, to give thanks: Laughter from upstairs. Two children putting dresses on stuffed animals. Neighborhood swimming pool. Having one's own pool sounds like a lot of fun, but sharing … [Read more...]
Corrie Ten Boom Online Treasures
Check it out! I can write a short post!I thought I'd prove it to you...in contrast to yesterday's incredibly long post about touring the ten Boom museum. Online I found some Ten Boom treasures to share with you: A youthful Pat Robertson interviews Corrie in 1974 (interspersed with a few short clips from "The Hiding Place" movie). It's so neat to see and hear … [Read more...]
Is Google Making Us Stoopid?
The cover article for the current issue of Atlantic magazine (July/August) is entitled “Is Google Making Us Stoopid?” Hm. Is it?Author Nicholas Carr writes:“As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems … [Read more...]
Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places
When I was relatively new to blogging, every once in a while I'd be scanning comments on somebody's post and spot one by L.L. Barkat. I'd read the well-formed response and think, "Wow. That person's smart!" I wasn't sure, at first, if this person was male or female. No photo confirmed gender, and the initials L.L. didn't help me know for certain. At some point I finally … [Read more...]
The End of Fun as We Know It?
Until Robin pointed it out, I didn't realize that there was a traveling carnival bopping around the blogosphere called "Fun Monday." It's shared by several bloggers, so there isn't one central location (though Robin decided to set up a clearinghouse of all the previous Fun Mondays here).Today's Fun Monday invited participants to post photos or descriptions of their … [Read more...]
6 Questions to Ask Yourself
I like to explore why I make certain choices or feel strongly about various issues. So I find that a few questions like these get me thinking and writing and praying. Sometimes I use variations on these questions with my friends, generating some interesting discussion. I'd love to sit and have tea with you so we could explore these six questions. They're not only great … [Read more...]
7 Ways to Enjoy Everyday Fun with Chores
Daily life can be such a drag, so blah. The chores can be tedious. The drive to work, dull. Some days can be reduced to scrub, swipe, fold, wash, rinse, repeat; others, to conquering an overwhelming to-do list or in-box. One way to approach the daily grind is simply to take a deep breath and dig in, applying self-discipline, determination, willpower, and grit. … [Read more...]
Five Days of How-To Posts: A blog experiment offering helpful information in bullet-point form
What makes a post popular?On my blog, which is an unfocused mish-mash of ideas that flit through my mind at any given moment, the all-time top posts are as follows: Castile Soap for a Simpler Life (and blemish-free face) Thick and Chewy, Fast and Easy Pizza Dough Overnight Crockpot Steel-Cut OatmealWhat am I doing posting about the perils of my attempts to multi-task?Why … [Read more...]