Living Unabridged

After weeks of below freezing temperatures, our weather is warming up to the 50s today. The sun is shining and the day seems full of potential. But, just in case your Saturday is not as sunny, here are some links to curl up with at some point:
Learning

• The Techies Who Are Hacking Education By Homeschooling Their Kids by Jason Tanz for Wired Magazine. Not a pro-homeschooling piece, per se, but interesting.
• Preventing Homeschool Burnout: Get Some Sleep by Brandy Vencel at Afterthoughts. Brandy has a great new series going now and, as a person who requires a lot of sleep, I particularly appreciated her first post.
• How Decision Fatigue is Wearing Down Your Homeschool (and 4 Things You Can Do About It) by Sarah Mackenzie for Simple Homeschool. Assignment sheets for my oldest students revolutionized our homeschool (when I remember to fill them out...).
• 5 Tips for Avoiding the Comparison Trap by Laura Thomas for Simple Homeschool. We can add this to the list of what causes burnout: too much comparing to other homeschool families we know.

Living

• New Trend? Let Your Kids Play Alone, Get Arrested by Dave Banks for Geek Dad. My husband submitted this link. Parents, we are the ones who have to stop this nonsense. (My first suggestion for ending the "helicopter parenting" epidemic that started all of this: have more kids. It's impossible to helicopter over 5 children, and anyway, at least one or two of them are looking out for each other without your help. Ask me how I know.)
• Related: Why Nationwide Did Us No Favors on Super Bowl Sunday by Cindy Rollins. Cindy's posts are always thought-provoking.
• Know Why I Clean Up My House? Because I Want To by Kristen at The Frugal Girl. Fantastic, honest post.
• Out of the Box Kids & Dealing with Critics, Nay Sayers, & Emotionally Challenged Friends by Sally Clarkson. Sally is an inspiring writer and this post is no exception.
• The Choreography of Mothering Teens by Sarah at Clover Lane. Wisdom from a mother further down the parenting path than I am.
• Parenting for Eternity, Not Just 5 P.M. an interview with Jen Wilkin.
• Creating a Simple Life Doesn't Happen Overnight by Crystal Ellefsen for The Art of Simple.
• The "Plus One" Approach to Church by Kevin DeYoung. Practical advice.
• Fatigue is Not a Sin by Jessica Smartt at The Better Mom. A gracious reminder that I needed to read this morning.

Loving

• To Everyone Who Thinks 50 Shades is All Sorts of Awesome: Please, Stop and THINK by Jonathon Van Maren.
• Related: 7 Lessons from 50 Shades of Grey by Tim Challies.
• New Research Discovers That Depression is an Allergic Reaction to Inflammation from Feelguide. Intriguing theory.
• People Nowadays Believe Children Should Be Neither Seen Nor Heard by Jessica Cole for The Federalist.
• When Reading Through the Bible Just Wouldn't Do by Gaye Clark. My real takeaway from this one: our church needs to put more thought into our bulletins. We might be neglecting a powerful tool.
• How To Discuss Oscar Nominees at Cocktail Parties (Without Having to See Them) by Rebecca Cusey. I don't attend many cocktail parties (or any) but this post still made me laugh. (Confession Time: I've seen Grand Budapest Hotel -didn't love it - and I do want to see Selma and The Imitation Game, but the post still made me laugh.)

Here at Living Unabridged I shared What to Read in February suggestions, an inspiring (and convicting) Bonhoeffer quote: Salt of the Earth, and a review of Lara Casey's new book Make it Happen. Coming up next week: how I maintain my sanity as an introvert surrounded by children, a huge marriage and family book list, and a guest post about reveling in your marriage.

That's all for this week. What caught your eye?

If you're looking for Valentine's Day printables or Presidents Day notebooking pages, you might enjoy these (aff link):