Living Unabridged

Weekend Web Wandering (formerly known as Weekend Reading) is the weekly feature where I share posts and articles that I've enjoyed or found thought-provoking.

Learning

• Report: Requiring Kindergarteners to Read - as Common Core Does - May Harm Some by Valerie Strauss in The Washington Post. I just talked this week about how one of my daughters is just now, at almost 8 years old, becoming a comfortable reader. I can't imagine what would have happened to her in an environment like this.
• It's Okay Not to Know Your - Stans by Rachel Lu at The Federalist. Love this balanced view (and also the reminder to buy our kids atlases and globes).
• After the Love Has Gone by Gina Holmes for Novel Rocket. Encouraging words for writers.

Living

• On Being an Ordinary Christian by Tim Challies. I loved the whole thing but particularly this paragraph:
  

  I've got a feeling that the people who do the most for God are those who are most content to be ordinary. Some of them remain unknown and unnoticed through their entire lives. Others are elevated and admired. But I suspect that the ones we love the most are the ones who can be satisfied with either a profile or invisibility, with either much or little—whatever God gives. There is beauty in that. I want that.

• The Downside of the Soul Mate / Fairy Tale View of Relationships from Wintery Knight.
• Which Promises are for Me? by Jen Wilkin. Many of share Bible "promises" with each other completely out of context or indiscriminately. Wilkin offers a needed corrective.
• When Jesus Says, "Don't Follow Me" by Jeff Strong in CT. Sometimes going back where we came from is our assignment.
• You're Not Too Busy for the Bible by Jen Pollock Michel in CT. This is a question of priorities, not time.
• Wanted: Parents Willing to Get Too Attached by Brittany Lind in TGC. Great quote from this post: "Opening your heart to love any child is risky and requires a loss of self."
• 3 Questions to Help Downsize Your Book Collection by Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie. I don't know any homeschool mom who doesn't struggle with this one. Books are the hardest thing for me to clean out.

Loving

• Not All Vocational Pursuits are Equal, an excerpt from Amy Sherman's book Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good.
• Ten Books that Have Shaped Me as a Christian by Kevin DeYoung. I love book lists and there are several titles on this list I really need to read.
• On Our Daughter's Ninth Birthday, No Thoughts of Who She Might Have Been by Amy Julia Becker. Becker's writing and posts about her oldest daughter are always thoughtful and inspiring.
• And now for something completely frivolous: Cadbury changed the recipe for Creme Eggs and Brits say it's "Ruining Easter." I really don't understand why companies mess with perfection. New coke, anyone?

That's it for my finds this week. If you have a links round-up on your blog, I'd love for you to share the link in the comments section so I can see what caught your eye this week.