Here is my eighth post of links to what I’ve found intriguing, compelling or convicting lately.  Perhaps you’ll find something of interest in what I’ve been reading online and in print!

I absolutely love these photographs taken by Elena Shumilova, a Russian mom, of her children and their animals.  Her kids are cute, and her work with the ambient light in several different settings is really stunning!

This looks fun!  All you need is a good heavy snow for this colorful construction project.

The Daughter and I both love Jane Austen.  She prefers Pride and Prejudice, and Emma.  I’m partial to Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion.  I am also very partial to maps!  So! I was delighted to find the Jane Austin Society of North America and their wonderful maps for each book!  Each of Austen’s novels takes place in a different area of England, and these maps include both actual cities and the imaginary estates.  I think we could certainly plan a Geography of Britain course around Jane Austen now!

As a Christian mother who read some pretty dark stuff for a time, I am very careful about what The Daughter reads, and try to urge caution on #1 Son.  I found a great deal to consider in this article by author N.D. Wilson,  The Dark-Tinted, Truth-Filled Reading List We Owe Our Children.   I had never really pondered, artistically, the dark places and people and events that God has written into His narrative, and the purposes they serve.

Think on this:
God’s artistic choices should govern our own.
More than any other type of artist,
Christian artists should be truth-lovers
and truth-tellers.
More than any other consumer,
Christian readers— and parents of young readers—
should be truth-seekers.

Two excellent posts on the physical act of writing:

The first, What Learning Cursive Does for Your Brain, is pretty interesting.  If you weren’t sure whether it was worth the agony to teach your child penmanship and cursive over their strenuous objections;  or to take the easier option and just teach them to type, well now you know! (Wish I had known this for the #1 Son.  Sigh)

The second, On Calligraphy and Repentance, makes a beautiful drawn connection between the hard work involved in learning calligraphy and the hard work involved in naming your sins, and striving to follow the Perfect Pattern.

Every day you draw an ‘a’ with your life, and you must inspect it and hold it up to the Truest of all Forms–Christ himself.

One of the hardest things in learning calligraphy is disciplining yourself to remember to keep turning your eyes back to your ideal ‘a,’ to the form you are imitating and trying to duplicate. I have watched both myself and my students dive headlong into pages and pages of practice ‘a’s’ without once checking to see how our letter matched up to the original–and so the same mistakes are repeated over and over without detection. It is so much easier to get lost in just drawing your perception of ‘a’ instead of working to conform your letter to an external standard.  And of course this requires another difficult task–being brutally honest with yourself.

It’s Cookie Time again.  Sigh.  Read here about why you should say, “No thank you!” (nicely) to your neighbor’s daughter, and tell her mother why.  I realize that there are plenty of mothers out there that are still in denial.   That’s okay:

“GSUSA will try to assure you that all the proceeds from cookie sales stay local to benefit girls in their community. But the rest of the story is that GSUSA makes millions of dollars each year through licensing fees paid by the baker.   The girls themselves keep on average approximately 15% of the purchase price from working their little tails off peddling cookies, while the local councils – which expose our daughters to pro-abortion organizations, resources, role models,  and events –  receive the largest piece of the profit from cookie sales. The reality is most councils could not survive financially without the help of those cute girls participating in cookies sales, the councils’ main source of income.”

On the health front, remember when “Science” told our parents that sugar and milk powder were suitable substitutes for  the benefits of breast milk?  Um.  No.  Breast milk, it appears, can cure cancer. 

Breast milk has been found to have cancer-fighting properties in the past. In 2010, researchers at Lund University and the University of Gothenburg found that breast milk could be used to treat bladder cancer patients… Experiments showed the substance in breast milk, known as Hamlet (Human Alpha-lactalbumin Made LEthal to Tumour cells) could be used to kill 40 different types of cancer.

One of my favorite blogs The Ink Slinger, never fails to provide me with great reading material.  His links posts, dubbed Flotsam and Jetsam included a link to The Rabbit Room, a sort of artists’ haven,  and this inspiring article, Tales of a New Creation by Pete Peterson.  I could not pick out a quote, because there were too many good possibilities.  I urge you to click over and read it yourself, especially, if you are an artist or writer.

The post title I’ve chosen for these sorts of posts is obscure on purpose.  Meaning “now I know in part,” the phrase is found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians towards the end of chapter 13.  It refers to the fact that our knowledge of God and His mysteries unfolds only in part during our human existence.  We must wait for full disclosure.  This should instill a great deal of humility in our thinking…

Thank you for stopping by to visit Garner Goings On! You bless me!