Tag Archives: family

Summer Picture Book Recommendations

Summer Picture Book Recommendations

I have vivid memories of spending long summer mornings at the library picking out piles of books to read. My very first trip to the library was the summer after my kindergarten graduation. The elderly librarian handed me a vintage hardback of Betsy’s Busy Summer by Carolyn Haywood–a little treasure in a sweet series of… Continue Reading

Grand Adventure on the Isle of Lewis with Kids

Grand Adventure on the Isle of Lewis with Kids

This entry is part 12 of 13 in the series Sabbatical and Scholé You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

If you’re headed to Scotland–and especially if you’re headed to the famed Isle of Skye–please, please leave time in your itinerary, hop on the ferry, and head to the Isle of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides. We had the opportunity to spend an idyllic month on Lewis, and I want to share some… Continue Reading

How to Help Kids Love Travel: Finding Balance

How to Help Kids Love Travel: Finding Balance

This entry is part 1 of 13 in the series Sabbatical and Scholé You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

In the year before we left, I read two books that really influenced how we took our sabbatical with four kids, and I am eternally grateful. The first book I read was David McCullough’s Mornings on Horseback (a thick biography of Theodore Roosevelt). I know that a biography of a president seems like an odd… Continue Reading

Favorite Family Nature Walks in the UK (with a Baby and Toddler)

Favorite Family Nature Walks in the UK (with a Baby and Toddler)

This entry is part 11 of 13 in the series Sabbatical and Scholé You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

We did lots of historical things and many typical touristy things during our months in the UK, but some of our very favorite adventures were the nature walks we took as a family. Anytime I looked for a nature walk, I wanted it to be doable with a toddler and a baby. I had to… Continue Reading

I’m Back with the Best of the UK (with Kids)

I’m Back with the Best of the UK (with Kids)

This entry is part 10 of 13 in the series Sabbatical and Scholé You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

  I went MIA. I fully admit it. Blogging through our months in the UK was my original plan, but stretches without internet and the pace we kept during our stay made that plan prohibitive. Plus, I kept a journal every single day all those months, which basically used up any writing energy I had… Continue Reading

Amazing Family Road Trip in the UK: English Peak District and Scottish West Highlands

Amazing Family Road Trip in the UK: English Peak District and Scottish West Highlands

This entry is part 8 of 13 in the series Sabbatical and Scholé You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

We’ve been in the Outer Hebrides for two weeks now, and I’m going to write a separate post on the Isle of Lewis (where we’re staying this month), but today I wanted to highlight our road trip up here, because it was amazing. When you’re planning a road trip in another country, it’s hard to… Continue Reading

London with Kids and Jet Lag Recovery

London with Kids and Jet Lag Recovery

This entry is part 7 of 13 in the series Sabbatical and Scholé You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Today marks three weeks in the UK! We spent the first five days in London, and we loved it. The weather was perfect, the crowds were nonexistent, and we made lots of friends. Here’s what we did and what we learned about traversing London with four children (including a baby and a two year old).… Continue Reading

Bible Narratives Devotional, Week 8: God Saves His People

Bible Narratives Devotional, Week 8: God Saves His People

This entry is part 8 of 52 in the series Bible Narratives Devotional You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Week 8: God Saves His People Weekly memory verse: Exodus 15:1 – “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.” Weekly hymn: Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah (free download) Weekly catechism: In how many persons does this one God exist?… Continue Reading

A plea for singing hymns in family worship

A plea for singing hymns in family worship

It’s no secret that people sing much less than they used to. Generally, as a culture, we listen to a lot of music, but make very little. We leave music making to professionals. And this is to our loss as a society. In Wiser than Despair, Quentin Faulkner asks us to “Consider … the disappearance of community singing (whether… Continue Reading

Treasures of the Trial

Treasures of the Trial

Jon Pratt God brings trials of various kinds into all our lives, and we are not to be surprised by this (1 Pet 4:12). But I admit that recent events in my family’s life have been quite unexpected and extraordinary. In His grace, the Lord has taught me many lessons through this experience, and I would like… Continue Reading

Bible Narratives Reading Plan for Individual/Family

Bible Narratives Reading Plan for Individual/Family

Download a free 5 day Bible Narratives Reading Plan for 2018 here. This week our family is finishing successfully reading through the whole Bible. Each of us has independently read through the Bible using the same Bible reading plan. We used this 5 day chronological reading plan. We liked it because it was only five… Continue Reading

Order your Christmas Family Devotional Now!

Order your Christmas Family Devotional Now!

A few years ago we published a new daily devotional for the Christmas season by Pastor Taigen Joos that has been very well-received. This devotional is perfect for both families and individuals to use as they prepare to worship Christ during the Christmas season. Each daily reading is a rich, yet brief meditation on an event or characteristic… Continue Reading

Review: Just Like Jesus Bible Storybook

Review: Just Like Jesus Bible Storybook

Today I’m reviewing the Just Like Jesus Bible Storybook by Stephen Elkins, published by Wonder Kids, a division of Tyndale. This retails for $14.99 (currently $10.95 on Amazon). A few notes about the format: Comes in a padded hardback with 173 colorfully illustrated paper pages Scripture verses taken from the NLT (and a few from… Continue Reading

New Facebook Group for Sharing Family Resources

New Facebook Group for Sharing Family Resources

We’ve started a brand new Facebook community, Religious Affections Family Resources, for Christian families to share and discuss the best in books, music, and educational resources for cultivating beauty and imagination in our children! In this group, we plan to share carefully selected resources from around the web (and print media), link to resource sales… Continue Reading

When Belief in Christ Breaks the Home Apart

When Belief in Christ Breaks the Home Apart

In Mark 6:4, Jesus is rejected by His listeners in Nazareth and quotes the well-known proverb: “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” Notice how He specifies three groups and narrows the group each time―hometown, relatives, and household. Jesus knew what it was… Continue Reading

It’s time to order your Christmas daily devotional – “Rejoicing in Christ, the Newborn King: 25 Meditations for Family Worship During the Christmas Season”

It’s time to order your Christmas daily devotional – “Rejoicing in Christ, the Newborn King: 25 Meditations for Family Worship During the Christmas Season”

Last year we published a new daily devotional for the Christmas season by Pastor Taigen Joos that was very well-received. This devotional is perfect for both families and individuals to use as they prepare to worship Christ during the Christmas season. Each daily reading is a rich, yet brief meditation on an event or characteristic of… Continue Reading

Biblical worship is trans-generational

Biblical worship is trans-generational

Recently, an article was written by Thomas Rainer here  regarding a worship style that is attractive to Millennials. Just to be clear on the name “Millennials,” it is a generational term ascribed to a particular group of people born during a certain time period. Here is a list of the six living generations today: “The Greatest Generation”… Continue Reading