Weekend Reading June 22 '14

This has been a hectic weekend - my wee nieces had a class party at their home for their friends on Friday, then we had "girl night" which consisted of a little barbeque, painting a sticky solution on 2 nearby trees in the hopes of attracting interesting moths and bugs in the deep of the night, many trips outside with flashlight in the deep of the night to look at same bugs, and a Dr Who marathon. Saturday, the girls (ages 8 and 10) each cooked their own eggs and helped make breakfast in bed for their parents - and then I headed to my parent's house for some intensive garden work with my youngest brother. Dad has been in hospital (nothing too serious) so I also did a few loads of laundry and some general household tidying so Mom wouldn't be burdened. Today - Sunday - I caught up on my Bible reading, and visited these lovely places before heading out for a long visit with Dad:

Melissa at The Inspired Room always has something lovely to share - my favorite today is her post on 5 Minute Baking Drawer Organisation (Using What You Have). She
inspired me to rethink my kitchen storage - no reason things cannot be both pretty and organised - and I love love LOVE that she repurposes *what she already has* in her home to achieve this!

I discovered this lovely blog, Grandma Lessons: A Grandmother's Blog on Life, written by Grandma Mema.

I enjoyed Rebecca's breathtakingly lovely nature photos and a slice of life in her Morning Chores post on the homestead at Renaissance.

What are you reading this weekend?

No More Dragons, by Jim Burgen - Book Review

I meant to read this in little bites - a few pages of a chapter at a time - because I was busy and wanted to make sure I read well for the book review. But once I started I could not put this book down until the end - and even then I kept turning back to re-read sections. 

Yep, I was up til 3am - on a work night - reading this!  

Children and Nature

Every child needs to see the sun rise and set, see the weather turn from fair to foul, feel the heat and humidity of summer and the biting cold of winter - to learn the local cycles that tell of weather-to-come, of seasons turning, and of time passing in the day. 

(This is post is inspired by my re-reading of Last Child in the Woods.)

Commonplace Book: On Fairy Stories, JRR Tolkien

“Fantasy is a natural human activity. It certainly does not destroy or even insult Reason; and it does not either blunt the appetite for, nor obscure the perception of, scientific verity. On the contrary. The keener and the clearer is the reason, the better fantasy will it make. If men were ever in a state in which they did not want to know or could not perceive truth (facts or evidence), then Fantasy would languish until they were cured. If they ever get into that state (it would not seem at all impossible), Fantasy will perish, and become Morbid Delusion.

For creative Fantasy is founded upon the hard recognition that things are so in the world as it appears under the sun; on a recognition of fact, but not a slavery to it. So upon logic was founded the nonsense that displays itself in the tales and rhymes of Lewis Carroll. If men really could not distinguish between frogs and men, fairy-stories about frog-kings would not have arisen.” 

― J.R.R. Tolkien

The People Factor, by Van Moody - Book Review

 
The People Factor is subtitled, "How building great relationships and enduring bad ones unlocks your God-given purpose" - a hefty premise, and one that Van Moody takes on with ease. This is *not* your typical self-help-with-a-Christian-twist book, but rather an engaging journey. Moody uses personal examples and Biblical examples of good and bad relationships - models that we all share in one way or another. He then examines *why* each example is good or bad - all the underpinnings - so that we learn to recognize when we ourselves fall into these same patterns.