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Wrestling with Disappointment and Finding Hope in God’s Faithfulness
This summer wasn’t at all like I expected it to be. I had big plans for this summer. I was going to finish my sci-fi/fantasy/adventure book. (I wrote one chapter.) I was going to participate in “Writing with Jeeves and Wooster” through The Habit. (I attended one lecture and did none of the writing exercises.) I was going to see all the friends I didn’t get to see very often during the school year. (I saw one friend twice.) I was going to spend every moment I could with the kids, soaking up the family time like a sponge in a wading pool. (I ended getting distracted by my iPad…
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Quotes from “Frontier Ways: Sketches of Life in the Old West”
I found the book Frontier Ways: Sketches of Life in the Old West, by Edward Everett Dale, on eBay as Brian and I were searching for living books for homeschool last year. Ever since I read the Little House on the Prarie books and the Kirsten American Girl Doll books as a child, the Old West has fascinated me–homesteaders in particular. What I like best about this particular book are the beautiful language Edward Everett Dale employs and the fact that he lived in a small town, surrounded by homesteaders, Native Americans, and cowhands, at the turn of the last century. He has first-hand experience of what life was like…
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Website Updates, Music, and More
As you may have noticed the last couple weeks, I’ve been working on updating my website! I hope the changes make my website easier to use and any specific content you’re looking for easier to find. It’s always fun to have some new pictures, too. Here’s a quick look at what’s new here at Teacher by Nature. Tags & Categories. I once read that Categories on a website are like the Table of Contents of a book, while Tags are like the index. I try to adhere to this distinction as much as I can, although it can be challenging sometimes. They’re easy to get mixed-up, especially when so many…
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Magical Writers and Inner Creativity
I think writers of books are amazing human beings. This post contains a few of my thoughts about the creative process and some encouragement for my writer friends.
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How Psalm 69 Speaks to Depression
Depression feels like the first verses of Psalm 69 describe: “Save me, O God!For the waters have come up to my neck.I sink deep in the mire,where there is no foothold;I have come into deep water,and the flood sweeps over me.I am weary with my crying out;my throat is parched.My eyes grow dimwith waiting for my God.” These verses give me the feeling that David was sinking deep into the darkness of his own thoughts and his own emotions, and possibly didn’t see a way out. In a literal sense, depression can cause our sight to grow dim; we view the world with less joy and energy, and that translates…