Story Warren Weekend, Vol. 13, Issue 47

Hi everyone,

Just a quick reminder that Monday is your deadline for shipping things from the Story Warren store. The deadline for standard shipping has passed, but we’re able to get you your things with upgraded shipping if you get your orders in before noon Eastern on Monday.

Around the Web

Loren Warnemuende thinks over her relationship with stuff. “Sometimes when I sink into a chair and ponder all of the potential worlds waiting in the books on our shelves, or I relish the beauty of a piece of art, a niggling question flits through my mind: ‘What if something happened and all of this was destroyed?’”

Kristen Pittman recalls her family tradition of lighting every candle on the winter solstice. Her relationship with reading good books lights up the dark days, too. “In a good story, the characters’ growth so often comes through experiencing struggle, danger, fear, and even evil while steadfastly refusing to let those things win. These stories can inspire our own resolve, pushing us forward in our own growth in the face of trial.”

Around the Warren

Tyler Leland recalled his first reading of the storybook Mr. Grumpy’s Outing and reflected on the richness of one image therein. “Reading this book to my boys for the first time, I was not prepared for what I saw when I turned the page. Stretched across the pages was Mr. Gumpy and his undeserving passengers gathered around a table, welcomed without hesitation.”

Junius Johnson considered the tendency all parents have to protect their kids and the better path of shepherding them through pain. “We don’t have the power to free them from pain, but we do have the power to show them that pain is not ultimate, that there are things deeper and more powerful than pain, powerful enough to heal even the pain of heartbreak.”

Something to do with your kids

If you’re looking ahead to Christmas break, you might find help in this list of 99 ideas for activities for kids.

Something to watch

The amount of attention to detail and perseverance here is impressive:

Thanks for reading. We’re on your side.

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Kelly Keller

Kelly Keller is the managing editor of Story Warren. She has her BS in Elementary Education from Messiah University and has taught various ages, but her favorite was worldview and literature with high school students. The “gap” in her resume is actually a window of eighteen years of homeschooling, which she recommends as an effective, though demanding, way of expanding one’s home library.

When she’s not behind her laptop, Kelly enjoys live music, baseball, reading great books, and traveling with her husband, David. Kelly hails from beautiful snowy New England, but after nearly two decades in North Carolina, she feels right at home.

She invites you to subscribe to her newsletter, On the Common, or to follow her on Twitter or Instagram.

Latest posts by Kelly Keller (see all)

• Story Warren Weekend, Vol. 14, Issue 2 - January 17, 2026
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