I'm just trying to walk myself home.
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I’m home from church with a sick little girl, so I’m rereading Mary Karr’s collection of poems, Sinners Welcome, in lieu of corporate worship this morning. Not the same, I know, but there is no avoiding sickness in this town right now. Class attendance is down everywhere due to multiple strains of the flu and other …
We are about 10 pages from finishing our current read-aloud at the Chino House. Here’s what I love about being at this point in a book with my kids. When they get home from school tomorrow I could ask them if they would rather finish Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry or watch TV and …
Eleanor Roosevelt wrote the introduction to Daisy Bates’ memoir, The Long Shadow of Little Rock, about the Little Rock Nine, which was first published in 1962. In it, she boldly states, Every American should read this book. I could not agree more. In fact, I think it is …
We have a class at our church called Talk It Out that attempts to provide a place for education and discussion of racial issues over the span of four weekly sessions. For me, the class has really served as a jumping off place for other learning. I believe all good classes do this actually, and …
I have been trying to practice the daily offices with more regularity since last summer. I was shooting for three or four, but I usually only hit one or two. I’m looking at Lent as a new beginning with the hopes that more frequent repetition will help me to assimilate some of these prayers into …
My favorite valentine is a book of course. And because the outpouring of sweets is abundant at school, I give my kiddos books for valentine’s as well. This year Cole is getting Inkheart, Mary Polly a new Ivy and Bean, Ben a new My Weird School and Simon a new Mr. Putter. In case you …
This week I’ve been getting ready for our boxed lunch book club that we do once a month at church. This month’s book is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. For several days I’ve been rereading my favorite parts of this book and am amazed anew at the way Maya Angelou …
I finished this book by Nancy Ortberg yesterday. Another Christmas gift from another sweet friend. I was trying to savor it, because each vignette was worthy of contemplation, but I ended up gulping down the remaining chapters yesterday morning. I have said before that I love to read stories of people finding faith, and this …
Ida B…and her plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World. by Katharine Hannigan Last night we finished this little gem of a book, and though I’ve mentioned it several times, I thought it deserved its very own post. The power of a treasure like Ida B is that reading a couple …
Sometimes I go to church and I am just there. Some Sundays I soak up little bits and pieces, trying to grasp with my hands the fleeting, holy moments as they pass me by. And then some precious Sunday mornings are so full that I feel like if Jesus gave me the Holy Spirit to …
I am rereading Lying Awake by Mark Salzman for our Boxed Lunch Book Club* at church this week, and I forgot how wonderful it is. I am equally baffled this time as in my last reading at the intimacy with which this author portrays a cloistered group of nuns. First of all he is a …
So, when I got home from Canada this summer, I had all these little scraps of paper in my backpack on which I had written the names of books I had seen in various bookstores and wanted to one day read. This is something I do often, write down a book on a ridiculously small …
At church this fall, Whitney and I are hosting what we are calling a Boxed Lunch Book Club. I am super excited about it, but I am a little nervous. Because lots of other people are super excited about it too, so I have sold like 20 books. …
So, Taido’s been reading aloud at night for the last couple weeks instead of me. At first I wasn’t really sure why, but I thought that it might have something to do with the fact that I started a book of King Arthur Stories after the boys began to lose interest in Anne on like book number …
I finished a book this morning that I have been slowly reading since just before I left home. It’s called Finding Our Way Again. Isn’t that a great title? It’s about restoring to our lives some of the ancient traditions of faith that have given both sanity and sacredness to so many who have gone …
this quote near the end of the book may be the greatest encouragement i receive from reading irresistible revolution, since it speaks to where i am right now. we leave in 23 days for our summer adventure and there are a whole lot of details that we are continuing to just leave to God. at …
every once in a while, as i read a book, i am compelled less by the actual story than i am by the sheer beauty of the words that seem to lilt across the page and create images in my mind as crystal clear as the flowers that are blooming today outside my living room …
it is a superb day for a blanket and a good book. since school was canceled because of the rare appearance of snow in arkansas, i spent nearly two hours in the tub this morning finishing the inheritance of loss which i started over christmas. i don’t know why it took me so long to finish, possibly …
One of the many great joys of reading The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket is the cleverly disguised vocabulary lessons throughout the entire series. The oft repeated phrase, a word which here means, followed by a definition of the word just used, introduces a word or phrase that might be unfamiliar to the …
I promise you I did not stage this picture. We have finally reached the end of The Series of Unfortunate Events, a collection of books that we have loved together as a family this season. When I came down the stairs yesterday morning, very sleepy still at 6:30am, I found sweet Mary Polly on the …