Story Warren Weekend, Vol. 14, Issue 32

Good morning,

Welp, here comes September. Are you ready? I grew up in New England, so September always summons memories of field trips to apple orchards and crisp mornings. I may have to wait a minute for that here in North Carolina.

Around the Web

Leisure Doesn’t Make Us Happy. Here are some interesting findings about people’s happiness as related to work and leisure. “For their own happiness, as well as for the good of their neighbors, human beings need to work. As was said above, this is not just a matter of our ‘day job,’ what we do to earn a living, but also other kinds of ‘effortful activity’–projects around the house, volunteering at church, cooking, making something, etc.”

Go Softer. At the Bandersnatch Books Substack, author Mark Collins suggests that “going softer” when life gets hard is great advice. “When the practice schedule seems to drown out family time, I must choose the soft things like reading the Bible and journaling at the end of the day. When schoolwork takes away from reading for fun and creative endeavors, I must remember to fight for the softer times by reading books with my family and reading books by myself.”

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

Around the Warren

Zach Franzen pushed back at my despair over the “Nobody’s Reading Anymore” article and maintained that the fear of the disappearance of literacy may be overblown. “Literacy will never disappear from a Church that faithfully reads, preaches, and teaches the story of a God who loved the world and redeemed it. Faithfulness has consequences, and they will accrue to those who read God’s word. The Atlantic’s article reminds us of literacy’s benefits. Those of us leading our children through this civilizational rite of passage will find them comforting.”

Reid Echelmeier discusses two ways that negative examples in books work on us: mirrors and shadows. “To be sure, stories can be written in such a way that presents negative behaviors in a positive light. In such cases, wise parents will talk with their kids about the issue or choose to pass over the story in favor of others that more clearly illustrate the good, true, and beautiful. And yet, let’s not be too quick to dismiss that a ‘negative example’ equals a negative effect on your child.”

Something to do with your kids

Here are some great “this-or-that” questions to serve up to your family!
A few to get you started:

Group project or solo project?
Library or gym?
Field trip or science fair?
Pencil and paper or whiteboard markers?
Backpack or tote bag?
Top bunk or bottom bunk on a trip?

Something to watch

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 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 Instagram.

Latest posts by Kelly Keller (see all)

• Story Warren Weekend, Vol. 14, Issue 33 - September 5, 2026
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• Make Someone (You) Happy - August 31, 2026