Living Unabridged

Happy Valentine's Day! I've got a few posts of my own to share with you today:

• Love, Marriage and Parenting Reading List. This is a list of my most highly recommended nonfiction books about marriage, parenting, and relationships. I hope you'll find a title or two to inspire 2015 to be the best year for your relationships. (And if you  have a favorite I missed, I hope you'll let me know in the comments. I'm always looking for good books to read and recommend to others.)
• I wrote a guest post for my friend Dawn called No More Mediocre Marriage: 21+ Ways to Revel in Your Marriage.  This post begins:
  

  The word revel comes from the Latin word “rebellare.” If you’re thinking that looks like our word “rebel,” you’re on the right track. But for now, two relevant meanings of “revel” are 1.) to enjoy oneself in a lively and/or noisy way and 2.) to get great pleasure from How many marriages seem to stand as examples of the opposite of those definitions? The spouses aren’t enjoying themselves and neither is getting “great pleasure” from their relationship. They’re simply existing and enduring. That is not what marriage is designed to be. But how can we stop enduring and start enjoying (reveling) in our marriages?

  To read the rest, I hope you'll click over to Dawn's blog.

Now for the usual linkage!
Learning

• Not Your Typical Homeschooling High School Post by Tressa. Tressa is a blog / Twitter friend of mine and I love her wisdom and advice.
• 5 Ways to Develop Healthy Imagination in Your Kids by David Kern for CiRCE Institute. None of these things is too hard to do, but most parents I know (including myself) need to try to do these things consistently.

Living

• God, Protect My Girls by Tim Challies. We're raising four daughters. These are the things I pray too.
• Rejecting the Industrialized Sex of "50 Shades of Grey"by Joe Carter for TGC.
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Vomitorium by Stella Morabito in the Federalist. This one is hard to read and I warn sensitive readers against it (the subject matter is graphic), but it's important because our culture is already far down the slippery slope.
• I Learned Everything I Need to Know About Marriage from Pride and Prejudice by Karen Swallow Prior. This is an older post (from 2013) but it's good and in honor of Valentine's, I'm sharing it again.
• Church Should Be Uncomfortable from The Search.
• The Facebook Will: Social Network ads Legacy Contact from the Daily Mail. This is part of the brave new world we inhabit. My husband and I know each other's passwords, but apparently there are people who didn't leave their passwords with anyone. This can become awkward when someone dies. Just recently a cousin of my mom's passed away and now Facebook keeps promoting her to me as "someone I may know".  We know several people who have died but their accounts are still active. How do you prefer this situation to be handled?

Loving

• Now That They've Bought the Ticket by Kim Ransleben in TGC. So many posts this week and last week have been in response to the whole '50 Shades' thing. Many of us are obviously opposed to the book(s) and movie for many different reasons. But what should our response be to people who aren't? Great post.
• Seven Romantic Gestures in Movies That Are Actually Illegal by Rob Fee for The Federalist. This one made me laugh.
• What Should Be in the Queen's Handbag? by Jenny Tripp at Royal Central. Another one that made me laugh.
• Meet the Fastest- Selling Playmobil of All Time: Martin Luther. My children are Playmobil fanatics, but they haven't asked for this one. Yet. (Although my oldest did suggest the other day that Playmobil release a church set.)
• Here are the 'Science' Questions Reporters Should Ask Politicians by David Harsanyi for The Federalist. I won't hold my breath.
• The Relative Value of $100 Changes by State by Joseph Perticone. Interesting map. (How thankful am I to live in a state where $100 holds its value? VERY thankful.)
• 16 Famous Landmarks Photographed With Their True Surroundings. Label this one: the importance of perspective.

Also on the blog this week I shared my tips as an Introvert Mom Surrounded By Children. If you have thoughts on that challenge, I'd love to hear them.

What caught your eye this week?