The scene is a dreary rainy day in Nottingham. The mood is blue and sad, and the voice of the minstrel, Alan-a-Dale, who happens to be a rooster in this Disney version of Robin Hood, is heard as he sings about the hardships and woes of the people being taxed by Prince John. Everyone seems…
As the wife of a surgeon and the mother of young children, I am well-practiced in answering every mom’s favorite question: When will Daddy be home? I am also well-practiced at getting on with life as we wait, with preparing meals and playing games that Dad may not be home in time to share with…
My Tree Journal There are five specific trees on our land–an oak, a rosebud, a crab apple, a silver maple, and a towering cottonwood–that have been singled out. Each of these trees has been chosen by one of the nature journalers in our family. Our plan is to carefully observe our selected tree month by…
“Repetition is the mother of all learning” some people say. I’m not so sure about that, but I am sure that Repetition is the father of Acquaintance, and Acquaintance all too often sires the illegitimate child Contempt. Even the most novel and noble ideas become ordinary and mundane when reduced to bare facts and repeated…
Note from the author: This article first appeared on desiringGod.org in 2017. For many of us, creating and venturing into stories with our kids springs from a yearning to guide them to His light. I hope this reflection captures that yearning. My beloved ones, For nine months, your world began and ended with the contours…
Several years ago, my sons and I built the birdhouse that now hangs on our deck. We waited for the locals to find and use it, but for one reason or another they didn’t. One season a family was started on the rafters of the deck—some kind of finch, I think—yet the house remained unused….
NOTE: Glenn’s newest book, The Golden Road Of Tumbleweed Thompson, is crowdfunding publication, and you can pre-order your copy until Thu, November 10 202 at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/glennmccarty/the-golden-road-of-tumbleweed-thompson During my senior year of high school — in the interest of full disclosure, that would be winter, 1996 — I came into possession of a cassette tape of…
I wasn’t really expecting it. It even seemed a little presumptuous to say that a day would come when I would be parenting my parents. The call came the morning of the 23 rd of April. I jolted awake as the realization dawned that this was no dream. My mom was describing my dad’s symptoms…
When is the best time to do things? Who is the most important one? What is the right thing to do? A few years ago, my sister gifted me an old, retold story: The Three Questions by John J. Muth. Based on a tale by Leo Tolstoy, rewritten especially for little ones and featuring a…
“He thinks that because he doesn’t like it, it’s just bad.” So said my middle-school daughter asshe lamented her friend’s dismissal of a song he dislikes—but that she does, in fact, like verymuch. And I laughed (then hastily assured her that of course I wasn’t laughing at her), becauseI had just come from a conversation…
A few nights ago, I was on an airplane home from an incredible trip to Colorado Springs. My eyes were glued to the view outside the window as we were literally flying through a sea of clouds, enveloped in light and water, set afire by the sunset at our backs. The entire trip was encounter…
So I finally made my sowing schedule. 150 seeds; some indoor, some outdoor. The dates are staggered, dependent on soil temperature, or rainfall. I have the indoor peat pots on the way, and 8 lbs of organic dirt is nestled next to my backdoor, much to my husband’s befuddlement (why are we paying for dirt,…
