We went for a drive today, out of the suburbs to the parts that are more country than neighborhood. We needed fresh air and a walk through the neighborhood would have had us dripping in minutes, so we rolled down the windows as the temperatures began to taper off and rolled over the waving hills, past the pines, with a playlist of classic love songs cranked up high. It was a lovely summer night–I highly recommend it.

Around the Web

Love Your Yard: Nature Study Books to Spark “Creation Appreciation”

Betsy at Redeemed Reader has some great nature books to recommend.

I’m a nature study junkie. And my kids have been along for the ride since birth. It’s so much a part of our life that we can be very annoying to hike with. Ahem.
We need to reclaim “nature study” and call it “Creation Appreciation.”
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To Sit with an Onion

Elizabeth Harwell takes a moment with The Supper of the Lamb and helps us all take a moment to breathe.

Yesterday, the heaviness of a world under a global pandemic became an almost unbearable weight on my soul. Social media led me down hallways of suffering, of fear, of self-righteousness. Someone tried to pull me down a YouTube rabbit hole and another pulled me toward a debate in a comment section. I’m embarrassed by the amount of time I spent yesterday being yanked around from one talking head to the next; and also by the amount of time I spent forming rebuttals in my head and arguments I would counter with, should I ever have the courage to voice what I think Christians ought to be saying right now—or, maybe more importantly, not saying.
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Ordinary Homeschooling: Just serve dinner.

Most of my conversations with friends who are parents of school-aged children this past week have revolved around education to some extent. As school districts begin to decide how they’ll manage education in the fall, parents are having to make decisions as well. My sister said to me the other day that she can deal with a lot of the potential options, but there are one or two that she looks at and thinks, “My kids won’t love learning if they go that way.” Whatever your plans for this fall, Megan’s words about her approach to homeschooling may resonate. You want your kids to love learning; here are some ideas.

This is a dangerous post.
If you’re like me, you’ll see the resources that our family has chosen and think “Ooh, THAT’s what I need to improve my life!” I can’t promise you that, any more than an instant pot cookbook will revolutionize your meal planning. But I can show you a few resources that have enriched us over the years. These are some of my favorites, the ones I have NEVER regretted spending money on.
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Food in a Time of Quarantine

Tilly Dillehay looks at how our approach to food has shifted in this season–perhaps for good.

It’s a strange time for food in the United States. As far as the supply chain goes, we have plenty of it, we have been repeatedly assured. Even so, families using WIC and food stamps suffered during weeks of empty shelves due to panic-buying. Grocery stores have experienced increased sales, while restaurants struggle to get by. People online joke about the “Quarantine-15.” And those of us who’ve quarantined have experienced something new: long months of eating our meals at home, with family, in private. Our most basic human habits have changed.
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Around the Warren

Four Ways Stories Help Us See the World in a Whole New Way

J.S. Clingman reminds us of the value of stories.

Stories are important.
Those of us who are naturally imaginative may hold this conviction very strongly, even though it may be difficult to express in mere words. We just know that stories affect us deeply—they make us feel so much more alive. For those of us who are the more pragmatic, realist type, we may hold to a more skeptical view. Some pragmatists may even go so far as to say that stories are of no importance whatsoever, merely being sources of mindless entertainment to pass time better served doing something actually “productive.”
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Summer Escapes to More Temperate Times

Loren Eaton recommends Taryn Souders’ How to (Almost) Ruin Your Summer.

Summer seems sundered a little sooner each and every year. I remember wandering through an Ohio Valley August that burnt brown, the fields around my Lexington, Kentucky, home so blasted and brittle it was as if they’d been baked in an oven, the sky a shining sheet every bit as flat and hot as an industrial griddle. By the time Labor Day rolled around, I was ready to deal with pens and pencils, friends and fire alarms, hard-backed desks and barely remembered lessons. Things are different now.
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Something to Do with Your Kids

Have you ever heard of Anna Atkins? I hadn’t either, but these sunprints are a cool way to get to know more about this early female photographer and botanist.

Something to Watch

Destin at Smarter Every Day has a new video up–a long one introducing us to his journey of getting to know about sea turtles and learning more. Really cool stuff–make time to watch it (about an hour!)