While sorting books, I came across Debra Bell's The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling and starting thinking about vocabulary and vocabulary building as it relates to communication, education, writing and editing. The following section, taken from page 23, fascinates me: Care to hazard a guess as to the sources of each of these vocabulary lists? LIST … [Read more...]
Tuning In and Out
Yesterday at High Calling Blogs, Michelle of Graceful posted a story about how she was caught fake-listening to her son. As the content editor for this article, I worked with Michelle on the piece and enjoyed a sneak preview. Her topic has caused me to monitor my listening skills (or lack thereof) for a few days now.I've also been particularly honest and respectful in … [Read more...]
Food on Fridays: We Are Real (and so is the food)
(smaller button below)Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you want to tell us about the first person who taught you to cook, that’s great. Posts like that are as welcome as menus and recipes. … [Read more...]
End of an Era
We used to live in a town with a gorgeous library that I've used and loved since 1988. When we moved a few miles away to our new house eleven years ago, we discovered with shock and dismay that we're just over the line in another library's district. We loved and used our original library so much, we actually paid an annual fee that allowed us to continue using its … [Read more...]
Food on Fridays: It's Alive!
(smaller button below)Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to record your daughter singing, "I like apples and bananas," that’ll do just fine. … [Read more...]
Simple Ways We've Gone Green
Visit this post at NotSoFastBook.com to enter the Green Mama book giveaway—ends Saturday morning, June 19.Each weekend during soccer season, we tote collapsible chairs to and from our kids' matches. The chairs fold down and slide into bags, and nearly always one of our bags is ripping at the seams.This past season, it was one of the red chairs. The chair itself still … [Read more...]
Food on Fridays: Taste-Testing Chickpea Soup
(smaller button below)Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome—though we love to try new dishes, your post doesn’t have to be a recipe. If you just want to list your three favorite cookbooks, that’ll do just fine. … [Read more...]
Ann's Ambitious Summer Reading List
Oprah's got a summer reading list. So does Swarthmore College.My High Calling Blogs colleague and friend L.L. Barkat has a sort-of summer reading list, too.Knowing I'm a word-girl, L.L. assumed I had one, too.And I guess I did. Informally. In my head.In fact, L.L. suggested we HCB folks all share our summer reading lists, so I started assembling and grouping the titles I … [Read more...]
Let the Laugh Lines Come!
We parents joined the circle of junior high kids to pray together before sending them off on a week-long bicycle trip."Let's have a couple of people pray," the youth pastor said, "and then we'll have Scott close us, because, well, he's the oldest dad here.""Ouch!" one of the adults exclaimed. "Oh, Scott, I'm so sorry!" someone joked.Scott, by the way, is only a little bit … [Read more...]
When "Watch Me, Mama" Gives Way to Individuation
My 14-year-old daughter had a friend over to spend the night last weekend. Due to scheduling conflicts, the girl, a kindred spirit, is rarely available to get together, so it was a treat to have her with us. She came to the soccer game, excitedly cheering for the team.In an extraordinary and unexpected turn of events, my daughter, who usually plays defense, scored a goal! … [Read more...]
Learning to Pray Like a Child
As steam wafted from the bowl of macaroni and cheese, our son would pray.Quite young at the time, maybe four or five, he always requested to pray at mealtime.These prayers lasted a while. Rather than cut him short, I learned to bring lids to the table, cover the food, bow my head, and give him all the time he needed, because who wants to stop an outpouring of … [Read more...]
Ten Random Things I Haven't Mentioned
Sometimes my posts don't reflect my daily life.It's not that I'm hiding anything; it's just that I sometimes don't take time to write about what's happening while it's happening. Instead, I might write about something I've been thinking about or something I've learned. … [Read more...]
Celebrating My Writer-Mom
My mom worked as the editor of our local newspaper, covering news all over the county. If a reporter couldn't make it to an event, Mom would grab her camera, reporter's pad, and pen—and quite often her daughter—to capture the news herself. This meant that whether I wanted to or not, I visited sporting events, live nativity scenes, church bazaars, festivals, fairs, horse … [Read more...]
Imperfect Conditions
"If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done." (Ecclesiastes 11:4, New Living Translation) If I waited for the perfect conditions to develop my writing life, I'd still be waiting. Back in the early 1990s, I did manage to explore writing as my work, as a way of life. I wrote and submitted a few magazine articles and met with … [Read more...]
Festival of Faith & Writing 2010: Friday Highlights
The Festival is over. I've returned home to laundry and lunches. I've also typed e-mails with numerous typos due to the blur of fatigue. Dare I continue the story even though the fun is fading into quotidian reality? I'll try...let's see how it goes.After Eugene Peterson's talk on Friday, my anonymous friend headed off to visit a friend while Leslie Leyland Fields and I … [Read more...]
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