Weekly Links: Here Comes Advent Edition

My kids and I - and my mother, sister, and nephew - had the pleasure of participating in the video introduction to this year's Advent Project, hosted by Biola University's Center for Christianity, Culture, and the Arts (CCCA). The link will take you over to the video (which features my beautiful children), and you can also click through to the Advent Project itself.

Every day from now through Epiphany, you can find posted there a devotional, scripture, artwork, and piece of music that all go together. It's a wonderful tool for focusing on Jesus during this season of the Incarnation. I encourage you to use it!



More on Advent . . .

-I love reading aloud to my kids, and so I greatly enjoyed this post from Elizabeth Foss, which is full of ideas of what to read to your kids during Advent: "It's The Most Read-Aloud Time of the Year".

-I was honored to see that Tsh Oxenreider of Simple Mom included "Let Us Keep the Feast" in her Advent round-up again this year. I encourage you to go over and take a look at her list of resources for celebrating the season - there's some great stuff over there: "6 Ways to Keep Advent Simple and Special".

-One final Advent link: I love advice columns, and it was so fun to see a book I edited end up in the answer section of one!  Over at The Well, they have a wonderful advice column focused on women in academics, and they recently featured this question:

I am feeling overwhelmed by my academic life and the tasks of the upcoming holiday season. I have a full amount of academic responsibilities and these are only increasing as the semester progresses. On top of that, I’m astounded at the length of my to-do list outside of work, between purchasing gifts, attending holiday events, participating in church activities, and connecting with family members. And I'm hoping to at least make a stab at some Advent preparations and Christmas cheer in my home. How do you pick and choose between all the good things of this season?

Even if you're not in academics, I bet you can relate to the pressure the letter-writer is feeling!  Pop on over to "The Well" to read the thoughtful answers.  (Yes, "answers" in the plural! This advice column brilliantly features more than one advice-giver. I love it!)   (hat tip to the wonderful Anna M. Gissing for the link!)

Turning to other subjects . . .

-Here's a serious but important reminder: "When You Indulge in Pornography, You Participate in Sex Slavery".

-"'Askers' vs. 'Guessers'": This is an old article, but what a useful way to frame this difference!  (I think this isn't just "cross-cultural" in terms of ethnic groups or nationalities; it seems to me to be "cross-cultural" in terms of different family cultures, too - at least, my in-law experience would lead me to believe so!)


That's it for this weekend. I wish you a glorious celebration of Christ the King Sunday tomorrow!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell




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7 Quick Takes: Children's Books for All Saints Day

Joining in with Jen, over at Conversion Diary!

Tomorrow is All Saints Day!  I love sharing stories of the faithful Christians of the past with my kids. Here are some good books we've enjoyed over the years:

1) Caedmon's Song, by Ruth Ashby: a lovely picture book rendition of one of the earliest poems written in English.

2) Women of the Bible, by Margaret McAllister: This lovely book was a present from my mom, and my girls love it!

3) A Song for Joseph, by Mervin A. Marquardt: I grew up on this lovely, sing-song story of the foster-father of our Lord. I still love it.  It's only available used, but it's worth seeking out.

4) John the Baptist, by Ronald Klug: the wonderful thing about this book is it doesn't end right at John's death, but the final page shows his followers going to Jesus. Which is what all the saints do: point us towards the Lord.

5) Hero Tales, by Dave & Neta Jackson: This book is for older children, and introduces them to some more modern Christian heroes, like William Tyndale and Dwight L. Moody.

6) I Sing a Song of the Saints of God, by Lesbia Scott, illustrated by Judith Gwyn Brown: the text of the perfect children's hymn for All Saints Day is beautifully illustrated. Don't just read this one to your kids; sing it.

7) Saint George and the Dragon, by Margaret Hodges: yes, this is a legend. And yes, it's important that your children understand the difference between legends and history. But it's a beautiful, Christian legend, and the illustrations in this book are just gorgeous!


Which books are your favorites? I always love adding to our home library. :)


And while you're here, be sure to enter the giveaway for "Let Us Keep the Feast: Living the Church Year at Home"! This book will help you bring the rhythms of the liturgical season into your every day life.



Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

I've been working towards this for a YEAR

Tonight my six-year-old read me "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie". And she read it happily.

For the first time, I saw it make sense in her eyes. I saw her realize that if she was willing to read, she could experience a story she loved entirely under her own power. Not a phonics-graded reader, but a story familiar and beloved. The familiarity lowered the bar enough that she saw she could get over it, and the belovedness made her willing for the climb.

This is a book she knows well, but doesn't have memorized. So it was real reading, not just recollection. But she knew enough that she was able to use her memory of the story to help her take the right course when she got to words that were hard to sound out.

I think up till now, reading has been drudge work for her - remember this rule, solve this puzzle, shoulder through it. There would be times a sentence here or there would make her laugh, and those were the best times (this is my girl who will learn anything if it can make her laugh - for some reason, btw, math has largely fitted in this category), but this time, she saw the whole story, and persevered through words whose rules she knew, words whose rules she didn't and words of impossible length. The way her eyes lit up when she read "refrigerator" and realized she'd got it right! I want to bottle up that astonishment and delight and hold high for a light on a dark day.

Just glorious. I'm so happy for her. It's so exciting. After a year of work, we have a reader! She gets it!  :D

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell