We’re turning the corner into April and where I live, spring has fully sprung. The flowers are blooming and the pollen is making people miserable, and the days are balancing themselves between chilly mornings and warm afternoons. You might still be in the snowy North or the “end of winter” that goes on forever. Or perhaps you’re in the Southern Hemisphere and you’re wrapping up your summer days and turning your mind toward fall. Or you’re in the tropics and the seasonal imagery doesn’t speak to you. Wherever you are, though, may you know that the turning of the year is the bringing of beautiful days. 

Around the Web

A Cloud of Outrageous Blue by Vesper Stamper

Janie at Redeemed Reader reviews this YA novel.

• A peasant girl in pre-Plague England holds the key to key to healing and “outrageous blue” hope.
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Download an Experiment from Faith and Science with Dr. Fizzlebop

Melissa Taylor at Imagination Soup introduces a science-themed devotional book and shares an experiment.

• Great for homeschool, vacation learning, or anytime, Faith and Science with Dr. Fizzlebop is a science-themed devotional book of experiments that connects science to the Bible.
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When Motherhood Goes Unnoticed

Sarah Hopkins reminds us that while the work of motherhood is often in the background, it is instrumental.

• My three-year-old daughter lives in an Elsa dress a friend of ours found at a rummage sale for $2.00. It is her most prized possession, and she often needs quite a bit of persuasion to change out of it. 
  One day, she was wearing this dress while I was folding laundry in our room. She had stationed herself at my keyboard and was happily playing whatever combination of notes her hands found. I noticed her dress was getting caught on the stool, but I was taken aback when she calmly turned around and said, “Mama, I need to change into comfy clothes before I get frustrated with my dress.”
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John 15: Abide, Wholly Dependent Yet Secure

Melissa Osterloo explores what it means to abide from John 15.

• Relationships are powerfully influential; we begin our lives completely reliant on the love and care given to us by our parents. Secure attachment— trust built over time through consistent encounters of dependent needs being fulfilled— informed us that we were seen, safe, and valuable. Children naturally feel at home in their parents’ arms, no matter what circumstances surround them. They grow and thrive, confident that their longings will not go unnoticed.
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Around the Warren

Paying Attention

Millie Sweeny encourages us on the journey.

• We’ve been taking walks through our woods, my family and I. To my inner Southern child, these Pacific Northwestern woods still seem a place of great magic and mystery. Douglas firs, planted in neat rows intended as Christmas trees many years ago, now overgrown and towering over dark, mushroomy and ferny expanses where the sun only breaks through in places. In the gloomy fringes, chipmunks skitter and songbirds flit just out of sight. 
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Getting Through “The Longest Storm”

Laura Peterson looks at a book full of metaphor.

• “It was a dark and stormy night.” Everyone knows that cliché’d opening sentence, but I’ve always kind of enjoyed it. Cliches generally exist because they’re somewhat effective at what they’re trying to do, and therefore get overused. And a storm really is a great way to start a story! Storms are dynamic and interesting; they can vary in degrees of fierceness, they can evoke strong emotions. And, as in the book I’m writing about today, they can serve as excellent metaphors.
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Something to Do with Your Kids

The folks at Artful Parent have great suggestions for Playdough play with your kids and their small creatures (the inanimate ones!).

Something to Watch

Tiny mic interviews with animals. I mean, what more could you ask for this weekend?

Thanks for reading. We’re on your side. 

–The Story Warren Team

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Carolyn Clare Givens

Carolyn Clare Givens is displaced Northerner exploring the foreign ways of the South. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her two literary cats, Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. She's the author of The King's Messenger and Rosefire and in her free time helps run Bandersnatch Books.

You can find her at carolyncgivens.com or on Facebook or Instagram at @carolyncgivens.

Latest posts by Carolyn Clare Givens (see all)

• The Warren & The World Vol 11, Issue 30 - September 16, 2023
• The Warren & The World Vol 11, Issue 29 - September 2, 2023
• The Warren & The World Vol 11, Issue 28 - August 19, 2023