The Warren & the World Vol 5, Issue 18

The Warren & the World is Story Warren’s weekly newsletter, providing a round-up of our favorite things from around the web as well as a review of what was on our site over the past week. We’re glad you’re here!

Around the Web

How to be a Tech-Wise Family & manage kids, technology & family

Andy Crouch recently released his new book, The Tech-Wise Family, and had a guest post at Ann Voskamp’s blog highlighting the topic.

All the best things we want for our families—our children and ourselves—involve creating, rather than consuming.
And the best way to have a creative life, rather than a consumer life, is to make it part of the furniture.
Fill the center of your life together—the literal center, the heart of your home, the place where you spend the most time together—with the things that reward creativity, relationship, and engagement.
Push technology and cheap thrills to the edges; move deeper and more lasting things to the core.
This was once natural, indeed unavoidable.

With An E

In this collection of short pieces, eight writers explore the lasting qualities of our favorite redhead. They look at scenes and characterizations from the books and from the 1980s miniseries and explore why it’s so hard to make a new version of the story to follow in their steps.

Small, smart, redheaded, scrappy, and imaginative, Anne Shirley has been winning hearts and minds ever since Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery introduced her to the world in 1908. The character was so immediately popular that Montgomery penned seven sequels to Anne of Green Gables over three decades. Anne has kept the tourism industry in her home of Prince Edward Island booming, particularly among Japanese fans. Anne is big in Japan thanks, in some part, to a 1979 anime version of Anne of Green Gables. In fact, Anne has inspired a number of films, TV shows, and stage productions.
But outside of Japan, one adaptation in particular—the 1985 Canadian Anne of Green Gables mini-series, starring Megan Follows and directed by Kevin Sullivan—struck a nerve.

Art for the Heart

Kris Camealy writes at Grace Table about how her daughter uses her gift of drawing and creating to grace those around her.

I can’t keep up with the piles and stacks of her art that find their way to my night stand when I’m in the shower, or the ones she sets on the kitchen counter top in the middle of the mad-rush to get dinner on the table. She’s always creating something, and always quick to give her art away.

‘Start early’ and 15 other ways I made bedtime my family’s favorite part of our day.

Tina Plantamura give some insights on turning bedtime from a battle to a joy.

As many parents know, preparing the kids for bed can be the best part of a parent’s day — or the most challenging.
As a mom who had three sons in four and a half years, I had to have a nighttime routine when the boys were little. At first, the tedious process of helping three young boys get ready for bed stressed me out. Who didn’t brush their teeth yet? Who can’t find his teddy bear? Who needs a cup of water at the exact moment when I finally sit down after they’re all tucked in?

Around the Warren

A Little Human

Helena Sorensen explores the mind-boggling idea that Jesus was once a little human.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”
–Luke 2:52
I remember the first time I really heard that verse, the first time the word “increased” leaped off the page and slapped me in the face. At that time I believe I pictured Jesus as something more than human, something altogether complete from the very beginning, something, in short, so outside the framework of real humanity as to be almost unrecognizable. He was golden, that was it.
From the moment his eyes first fluttered open and his lips parted (not to cry, mind you, but to softly coo as he lay on the scratchy straw in the manger), he was fully aware of his mission. He wore his destiny like an impenetrable armor, and nothing got under his skin. s fully aware of his mission. He wore his destiny like an impenetrable armor, and nothing got under his skin.

Mike Mulligan and Beyond: the Work of Virginia Lee Burton

Kelly Keller introduces us to the Wendell Berry-esque work of Virginia Lee Burton.

Remember the scene in Pixar’s 2009 film Up where we see the sweet little house dwarfed by towering skyscrapers? That shot has always reminded me of a book I’ve loved sharing with my children: Virginia Lee Burton’s The Little House. In Up, the house is pulled up by an enormous colorful bouquet of balloons; in The Little House, the house is picked up on wheels and driven away by a family who loves it.
Burton’s work has been a favorite of mine since childhood. I remember loving her most well-known book Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel when I was young.

Something to Do with Your Kids

At the Artful Parent they’ve got instructions on creating melted crayon art using a warming tray. Here’s a chance to use up all those leftover ends of crayons that are too small to color with.

And Something to Watch

Ever wonder why, despite the fact that we can do futuristic things like get on the internet from 30,000 feet and talk on video phones, we don’t seem to be any closer to Star Trek’s transporters? CGP Grey digs into the trouble with transporters.