I can hardly believe it, but this year marks ten years since I’ve been trying to write regularly in some way, shape or form. The post below is from my first year of blogging, 2006. My life is so different now. I couldn’t possibly get through all our household laundry in a day now. People…
A few months ago my husband David and I sat with our friend Thomas after Sunday lunch at our house. Thomas is our worship leader and takes his role very seriously. He spoke about Paul’s exhortation in Ephesians to speak to one another in “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” At our church, which is a…
A few weeks ago I had the chance to see a screening of the biographical documentary Many Beautiful Things, about the life of Lilias Trotter. Lilias (from England, 1853-1928) was a talented artist early in her life, showing promise from a young age. She was mentored by John Ruskin, who at the time was one…
I love January. I know it’s cold and dark and most people are miserable, but I’m not. I like the excuse to stay in, huddle under a blanket, and make soup. This is probably the month when I like homeschooling the most, because while the rest of the world is outside waiting for buses and…
Author’s note: I shared these thoughts in part during the closing session of Hutchmoot, which is the weekend conference of the Rabbit Room community. If you don’t know what Hutchmoot is, you can check out the website here. For many of the Story Warren crew, it is a blessed time to be inspired and energized…
Usually Fridays at Story Warren are reserved for “shorts” — fun little stories and poems to share with the young ones in your life. In the spirit of masquerades, today’s Friday post is a Wednesday post (a recommended resource) wearing a disguise. If you’re a guest this year at our annual October 31st bonfire, you…
In a writing class last fall, my teacher asked the class to recall a smell from our past. We then followed the memory wherever it took us. I was amazed at how vividly things came back to us. We were made with such a powerful sense of smell, inevitably tied to thought and memory. What…
One of my favorite quotes about spring is from Margaret Atwood: “In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” Is anyone planting a garden this time of year? It takes patience to wait for those first green shoots to emerge from the soil. Imagine if you could overhear the…
Our oldest son finished the Harry Potter series last year. When he finished each book, we’d have a movie night for just the two of us. It was a fun process for both of us, and now his next-youngest brother is following suit. All the boys — we have four — have been taking turns…
—– —– —– Do you have daffodils at your house? We have boatloads of them. They popped up through the soil pretty early in January, but the buds have remained shut up tight until this week, when we were dazzled by sunny yellow faces everywhere. I hope those of you in frostier places…
Today we are delighted to welcome Kelly Keller to the SW team as a regular contributor. Kelly has written some lovely posts for us before and now she’ll be on the hook for more. I’m excited to have her joining the team, partly because she’ll be a wealth of resources for our Friday offerings. Here’s her first for SW…
I’m grateful to share a guest post with you from a new friend we met in Nashville (though she’s from Charlotte), Kelly Keller. Kelly just had to marry a guy with that last name. She couldn’t find Mr. Grace, or Mr. Green, no, it had to be Keller. I loved this post and asked “KellKell”…
