Living Unabridged

We've had a great school week this week. Today a couple of my children have homework because we're working on learning to be responsible for their own assignments. But once those are done, they're looking forward to the long weekend.

I have lots of links saved so let's get to 'em:

Learning

• 7 Hobbies Science Says Will Make You Smarter by Christina Baldassarre for Entrepreneur. Substitute prayer for meditation, take out that whole "Regular Exercise" thing, and I've got this one locked up. {wink}
• Our Kids Don't Belong in School by Bridget Samburg for Boston Magazine. Articles like this one are fun to read.
• A Template for Reviewing Everything from Books to French Restaurants by Joshua Gibbs at CiRCE Institute. I review a lot of books and some homeschool products and this challenged me to improve my reviews (although most things I review are probably not going to get this thorough of a treatment).
• Early Academic Training Does Preschoolers No Favors from Lenore Skenazy at Free Range Parenting. I love how she points out the connection between two common fears parents have.
• 5 More Tips for Families Considering Homeschooling by Cheryl Magness at The Federalist. Practical advice. (But if you do choose to attend a convention BEFORE you start homeschooling, prepare to be overwhelmed. They can overwhelm even seasoned homeschoolers.) Magness also wrote another post about homeschooling: Yes, The Homeschooled Kids are Alright.

Living

• The Secret to Planning Menus by Leila at Like Mother, Like Daughter. I love when "Auntie Leila" gives advice. This is fantastic.
• Submission Doesn't Mean Putting Up With Abuse by Sheila Wray Gregoire at To Love, Honor, and Vacuum. This is an older post but I think it deserves a second look.
• Why You Need to Shed the Working Mom Guilt by Jimmie Lanley. Helpful advice for homeschool moms working from home.
• What to Do When a Friend is Depressed by Erin McNeely. I think this post is great but it has the wrong title. It's more like "What to Do When a Friend Miscarries Her Baby." Related: there's a new book called Inheritance of Tears by Jessalyn Hutto  (reviewed by Jasmine Holmes for TGC) that looks like a great resource for this situation.
• Revel in Wonder. My friend Dawn continues her Revel series. I loved this post. It reminds me of the Chesterton quote about perishing for lack of wonder, not lack of wonders. (You can also see my contribution to her series here: Revel in Your Marriage.)
• Going Beyond "I Love You" to Build Up a Soul by Rachel Stafford at Simple Homeschool. Words to remember (and use).
• "My Pastor is on the Ashley Madison List" by Ed Stetzer at CT. Just to clarify: my pastor and church staff are not on that list. But what if you know a pastor that is? What next?
• Why Do So Many Walk Away from the Christian Faith? by Mez McConnell. I'm pretty sure any Christian who has remained faithful has asked this question at one point or another.
• My Wife's Plea to Christian Men. Tim Challies turned his blog over to his wife for this powerful, poignant post.

Loving

• Have you seen Google's new logo? What do you think? (I think it looks kind of childish, but I guess it probably did before too.)
• Above All Evil: God's Purposes Through the Wild, Weird Arc of History by Dorcas Cheng-Tozun. The story of Shanghai in WW2 is a fascinating one.
• The Need for Venture Science by Charles Eisenstein at the Huff Post. You know something is rotten in the scientific world if the Huffington Post is having to take note of it.
• Don't Let the Media Control Your Experience of Election 2016 by Trevin Wax. And let me point out: this applies whether you get your news from "liberal" or "conservative" sources.
• Disney Icon Dean Jones Dies at 84. I love this interview he did with CT in 2009.
• Queen Elizabeth II is about to break Queen Victoria's record as longest serving monarch. Here are some related posts: A New Portrait in Honour of Her Record Reign, A New Commemorative Coin (Usually money is boring but this is so beautiful!) and here's a quick look at the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.
• 'War Room' Is Just as Cheesy as All Kendrick Brothers Films by Christopher Hutton at The Federalist. Maybe the Kendrick brothers can take this as constructive criticism.

Here at Living Unabridged: a review of Owen Strachan's new book "The Colson Way".

What caught your eye this week?