For the Moms Stuck Inside 

Alasdair Groves at CCEF gives a good word for families struggling through winter.

• Once Christmas is behind you and you are facing a couple months or more of bad weather, it’s easy to feel down. This is especially true if you’re a mother of young children and you are more confined to your house than usual. Especially if you live in a frigid, snowy place like New England.

I’m sure this didn’t hit home for me just because of the bad winter weather this week… nah. Read more.

Why Do We Have to Go to Church Again?

Matthew Westerholm helps you answer your kids when they ask a near-“are-we-there-yet” level question.

• I know my three boys have given me many opportunities to answer it. As a worship pastor, I am embarrassed to admit that I have found myself facing another service and asking the same question: why again? Did we fail last week, or do it wrong? Was last week’s service not enough?

It’s so easy to forget that kids learn through repetition. His answers are a helpful framework as you seek to develop a good theology of church in your children. Read more.

Why Two out of Three Single Moms Don’t Attend Your Church

Jennifer Maggio does a tremendous service helping believers see the challenges we face as we seek to engage single parent families.

• Sixteen years ago, I was a homeless, severely abused, teen mom pregnant for the fourth time. I eventually found myself living in the projects using food stamps and welfare simply to make ends meet. It certainly wasn’t the life I had dreamed of. Perhaps it was the fact that my mother was killed or that my father was an alcoholic who married six times to mask the devastation of her death.

There are some pretty intense details from her life, so if that’s not healthy reading for you, heads-up. She really opened my eyes to the need for the Church to be on mission when it comes to this issue. Read more.

Kate DiCamillo on the Power of Stories

We’re fans of Kate DiCamillo’s writing around these parts. You may know her from, say, Because of Winn-Dixie or The Tale of Despereaux. In honor of National Reading Month, she provided Amazon with a beautiful retelling of the power of one story in her life.

• When I was nine years old, my mother checked Beverly Cleary’s Ribsy out of the public library, and read the book aloud to my brother and me. We read a few chapters of the story every night. The three of us sat side by side on the flowered sectional couch in the Florida room. The Florida room had orange shag carpet. Its walls were paneled in cypress, and we could see Lake Minnehaha from the large bank of windows that faced south.

Read more.

Jury Convicts Two Men of Selling Oreo Secret 

Yeah, there are trade secrets tied up in those delicious cookies. I didn’t know either. Then I read this story.

• Who knew that the reason the white cream filling in an Oreo is that particular shade is due to a trade secret that’s held so closely, two men could be sent to jail for more than 20 years for stealing it? A U.S. jury just convicted two businessmen of swiping a technique to make a chemical that whitens many products, including Oreo cream, and selling it to China.

If they figure out how to duplicate Heinz Ketchup, call me. Read more.

Around the Warren:

Fear and the Rainbow Connection

Alan Howell is back with a tale of fear and faith.

• My Mozambican friend, Ignacio, tells a story of a trip he once made from the city back to his village. It had been raining, but the skies were beginning to clear. He was eagerly pushing on towards home carrying goods he’d purchased in town on the back of his bike. But then he saw something ahead – something so terrifying, something so dangerous, that he dropped everything and leapt off into the bush, running for his life. What was it that scared him so? Was it a lion? A poisonous snake? No… believe it or not…

Starts with a chuckle, takes a serious turn, and winds up a great reminder of the role fear plays in our lives. Read more.

In an Age Which has Jettisoned All its Traditions…

Paul Boekell presents a beautiful quote from Peter Kreeft:

Ride Off Into the Sunset with “Rosie and the Rustlers”

Loren Eaton brings us a great review of Roy Gerrard’s Rosie and the Rustlers.

• The Wild West possesses an appeal all its own. Rugged mountain ranges and arid plains, mysterious Indians and vicious outlaws—such things offer intrigues and adventures you just can’t find east of the Mississippi. In recent years, though, pop culture has cast up increasingly grim iterations of the western when it bothers with it at all. Gone are the days of Gene Autry and John Wayne with all their concomitant charm. Fortunately, families who want to introduce their little ones to westerns can turn to Roy Gerrard’s picture book Rosie and the Rustlers.

Loren’s recommendations are consistently great. Read it.

The Worried Chipmunk

James Witmer brings us another story from the Big Old Garden, behind the Big Old House, illustrated by Zach Franzen.

• In a sandy burrow by the fish pond in a big old garden, behind a big old house, Jasper the chipmunk was worried. It was autumn, and most of the animals were planning for a long, cold winter.Jasper, like all chipmunks, would spend the winter asleep in a deep burrow-room, except for shuffling down the hallway to his store-room to eat. And what would he eat?

Go, Read it to your kids!

Something to Do with Your Kids:

Take a little inspiration from Andrew Whyte’s Legography project. These pictures are great. Help your kids see their toys in a new light. Read more. Or, if dresses suit your kids more than lego, check out this young lady who makes paper dresses with her mom. Amazing! Read more. Be inspired and take some pictures or make some dresses!

And Something Fun to Watch

This is equal parts science, art, and fun. A short from the folks at NPR.

Thank you for reading. We’re on your side.