Weekly Links: some good reading from around the Web

SOME INTERESTING LINKS FOR YOUR SUNDAY AFTERNOON, SET OUT IN MY USUAL CATEGORIES OF FAITH, FAMILY, AND FICTION...

Faith 

-"Bible Basics: A Baby Believer Counting Primer": cool-looking Kickstarter from an fellow alum of THI.

-"One, Holy and Broken: Conflict in Christ's Church":

A church I attended suffered the pangs of conflict, and unfortunately, this was nothing new in my experience. As my wife and I moved around the country for graduate studies and then different teaching positions, four of the six churches we attended suffered deeply from conflict during the handful of years we were there (the other two were riddled by conflict before and after our time there). Based on our limited experience, to attend and participate in the life of a congregation, to be a member of a church is to participate in conflict.

Family

-"It's 'digital heroin': how screens turn kids into psychotic junkies": Important stuff. Particularly this bit:  

Once a kid has crossed the line into true tech addiction, treatment can be very difficult. Indeed, I have found it easier to treat heroin and crystal meth addicts than lost-in-the-matrix video gamers or Facebook-dependent social media addicts.

-And, to add to the category of What-I-Am-Going-To-Do-If-I-Ever-Get-Stupid-Rich: "Data Scientist Creates Fully Optimized Road Trip Map to Every National Park".

Maybe we can do a tenth of it every summer for the next decade ...?

Fiction 

-First thing to mention under the "fiction" category is a fun Twitter even I'm participating in this month: #WIPjoy! Founder Bethany A. Jennings calls it a month of "celebrating our works-in-progress and encouraging one another in our writing" and you can read more about it here. 

I'm having so much fun participating in it this month! And it's early in the month, so if you want in, there's still time. Just head on over to Twitter...

-"Mike Birbiglia's 6 Tips for Making It Small in Hollywood. Or Anywhere": Good stuff for any of my fellow creatives.

Have a lovely weekend!

-Jessica Snell

Weekly Links: Marijuana, Weight Loss, Train Trips, and more!

My weekly (okay, I missed a few weeks) round-up of interesting reading from around the web:



"Big Marijuana's Big Debut": Wow . . . the comparison to Big Tabacco seems apt. Also, this bit is truly terrifying: 

Marijuana users have a six times higher risk of schizophrenia, and are significantly more likely to develop other psychotic illnesses.

"Researchers Find Textbook-Altering Link Between Brain, Immune System":

. . . there’s an enormous array of other neurological diseases, from autism to multiple sclerosis, that must be reconsidered in light of the presence of something science insisted did not exist.

"Why It Was Easier to Be Skinny in the 1980s": Say it ain't so!


"Parents Can Learn How To Prevent Anxiety In Their Children":

Children of anxious parents are more at risk of developing an anxiety disorder. But there's welcome news for those anxious parents: that trajectory toward anxiety isn't set in stone.

"3 Types of Writing Work Days": Oh, so familiar.


"Across the USA by Train for Just $213": I'll pack and be ready to go in ten minutes, 'kay?

"Romance Panacea Part II: The Betty Neels Canon, Gifts That Keep Giving":

Betty Neels’ appeal lies in her consistent inclusion of certain elements: the hero’s secret yearning for the heroine while coming across, to quote Damsel, as “tender and amused and mocking”; descriptions of rich and lovely meals and the heroine’s modest, tasteful wardrobe; the narrative’s stately pace, the hospital workday broken up by meals, coffee breaks, rest, and occasional day off, or holiday; the special outings, a drive, a skating, or site-seeing party; the sheer pleasure of a comfortable not terribly eventful life; and, most fascinating for Miss Bates amidst what she’s listed here, cryptic messages the hero’s gifts subtly offer concerning his feelings toward the heroine . . . All this, combined with polished, gently-toned, gently humorous writing make for a wonderful few hours with each book in the Neels canon.

"Advice on Hosting and/or Accepting Speaking Engagements": Just a good, solid how-to article.




Any interesting articles catch your eye this week? Link to them in the comments!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

PCA General Assembly, 2015

At the Doulos Resources booth. Photo credit: Ed Eubanks

So here where I live, in the Los Angeles basin, you can tell you can tell how nice a neighborhood is by its trees. Trees take both water and real estate, and here in SoCal, both of those things cost. So if you're driving down a tree-lined street - lots of trees and well-kept - then you know you're in a decent neighborhood.

This marker of wealth was no help at all when I traveled to Tennessee a few weeks ago.

TN is beautifully green. The trees are like weeds, but in the best of ways: they were everywhere. It was like you could hardly hold them back from overtaking the roads and buildings. So lush and verdant. I loved it.

Why was I in Tennessee?
Doulos Resources, the parent ministry of Kalos Press, the literary imprint I work for, had a booth at the PCA General Assembly, and I got to go and help out. It was an amazing week: I got to meet people I've been working with for years (in some cases), but had not yet met in real life: fellow editors, board members, and even authors! And they were all so welcoming. It was wonderful. I got to see a part of the country I'd never been in as an adult. I even got to have shrimp and grits for the first time!  (They were delicious, btw. And it didn't hurt that they were covered in cheese, bacon, and green onions.)  I got to learn more about my job and about the people I work with. It was a great trip.

Chattanooga, TN

The first day, I had no idea what I was doing. I tried to be useful. I tried not to be obnoxiously Anglican and Californian around all these kind and courteous Southern Presbyterians. I tried to act like I was very good at promoting books. (I’m not; I’m good at editing them.)

The Assembly shut the convention hall down every night in order for everyone to gather for worship, which I thought that was very cool. And my goodness, can Presbyterians preach! Great sermons. It was so good to be with fellow Christians, worshiping the Lord together.

The second day we hosted a signing of “Rooted”. That was a blast!  And it helped me feel more comfortable about the book-promoting part of my job, because I could imitate (a little) what those two authors did. I was really more comfortable in the booth for the rest of the week, after watching them. Felt like I got the rhythm of it.

Our next big event was a signing of Margie Haack's books. Margie's latest book was the first one I got to help edit when I signed on as the General Editor of Kalos, and so meeting her in person was a real treat. I enjoyed talking with her about books and church and a million other things.

Another treat was meeting some of the board members of Doulos Resources. I was privileged to sit in on their annual meeting. During that meeting - and, honestly, during the whole assembly - I was encouraged by how sincerely the people I was with seek to serve the Lord and to be used as He would have them be used. It's really an honor and a pleasure to get to work with people like this.  And listening in on them helped me to soak up the ethos of the ministry, which I think will help me going forward as I work on book projects for Kalos.

(I also got to learn a bit about the non-book projects Doulos does, stuff like "Flock", an app for pastors, and also free resources, like their Child Protection Plan for churches.)

I have to mention two other people I got to meet: Emily Hubbard and Grant Beachy. Both Emily and Grant are contributors to the upcoming book "Not Alone", and so I've had extensive email conversations with each of them. It was lovely to finally meet them in person.

But then there was the best part of the trip: going home. I've been researching the Old West for a writing project, and it was so strange to look out of the airplane window and watch the country that used to be crossed so slowly passing underneath us so quickly. 

When we reached Los Angeles, the city was completely invisible under the marine layer. The fog lapped the mountains and looked for all the world like a misty ocean bounded only by the San Bernardinos. So many people hidden. So much we cannot see.

But then I disembarked, found the right exit, and finally saw the one person I wanted to: Adam, waiting for me at the end of it, tall and smiling. So good. So very good.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

thoughts on traveling

photo credit: Betsy Barber

I tend to be a bit of a homebody; I like traveling while I'm doing it, but the idea of planning a trip rarely sounds attractive.

I think some of this is probably because I grew up traveling a lot. I was born in the States, but my earliest memories - my two or three toddler memories - are of Mexico, where my family lived while my parents trained to become missionaries. Then we moved to the sub-arctic of Canada, that snowy, scrubby landscape where all my young childhood memories live. And I have lots and lots and lots of memories of all the road trips between Canada and the States. Practically the whole western half of the States. A lot. With long stays in Oregon here and there.

So, that might be part of why I like staying home. I already have traveled. A lot.

I still like seeing new places, though, and I'm always ready to go to the mountains - any mountains. So I do still travel. And I want my kids - who aren't growing up as MK's - to know the world outside of their home city.

Still, travel doesn't feel like travel is a virtue, exactly, and I know some people see it that way.

And I can see why. Travel is horizon-broadening, pretty literally. I know that living in a different country - even one you think is as familiar as Canada or Mexico - can really change your view of the world. In a good way. Most MK's I know (as well as military brats and other former ex-pats), are both grounded and easy-going in a really particular kind of way. It's like we've lost enough and experienced enough that we know both what we really do care about, and what doesn't actually matter at all.

But travel has its limits. There's a virtue to staying in one place, too. Sometimes, when I hear people extolling the virtues of travel, and how experiencing all those cultures has made them better people, I think, Yes, but all of your experiences in these countries, with all these new cultures, are yours due to the virtue of people who stay in one place.

People who stay in one place. That's a group that makes up most of humanity, I think. Anywhere you travel, you're going to experience the culture of the people who actually live there. Who make their homes there. Whose grandparents have been buried there and whose children probably will be, too.


There's a virtue to travel. But what people would you meet when you travel if there wasn't anyone who stayed in one place?

I'm kind of glad I've had the chance to do both.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

New Year's Resolution #6: Take Care of the House (and get out of the house!)

This one's totally boring, but it's foundational to a pleasant day-to-day life.

New Year’s Resolution #6: Take Care of the House:

1) Keep doing the budget, as we have been. Meet savings goals. We’ve been using the budget printables from Dave Ramsey’s website.

2) Keep up on to-do list. I have a housework to-do list that works well for me (I should blog about it sometime!), so I just want to keep up on it.

3) Continue my very slow (but successful!) decluttering project. This is another thing I want to blog about. But basically, I’m slowly decluttering our house, one room at a time, and it’s really making it easier to keep things picked up and neat. I want to keep going on this one.

4) Keep menu planning. It works!

What about you?

Talk about your domestic goals in the comments, or link to your post about your goals. I’ll add any links to the body of this post, so they’re easier for others to see and visit.

Bonus Resolution #7: Miscellaneous:

I resolve to be miscellaneous!

No, not really. This is just my catch-all for the extra stuff. 

And really, I only have one this year. I suppose this could fit under “loving my husband” or “loving my kids” or “loving myself”, because really, it’s a family goal.

So here it is:

1) I think that, once a month, I want to make sure our family goes OUT somewhere. Somewhere other than our regular haunts. There are so many cool places around Southern California that I want to take my kids to, but it’s not going to happen unless I plan it. I want to make a list with Adam, and just see if we can check off 10-12 of the this year. Here are a few, off the top of my head:

- The La Brea tar pits

-the Getty

-the Santa Barbara mission

-strawberry picking in San Juan Capistrano

-Balboa Park

-Julian

-Apple Valley (apple-picking! Hot springs!)

-Amboy Crater (Mojave)

-the tide pools down in southern OC

-the waterfall hike in Malibu (I totally don't know the name of this; I've just heard about it from friends)

-Joshua Tree

-Mitchell Caverns (Mojave)

-Morro Bay (and San Luis Rey! And Montana de Oro!)

-and oh-so-many nifty trails in the mountains around Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, etc.

We do a good job making sure the kids get out of the city – Camping Is Our Hobby – but there are all these extra little day trips that I want to try. 

Frankly, I have no idea how this resolution will go, but I want to at least give it a good effort. It just sounds fun.

Love of the Local - or how I finally admitted to being an Angeleno

"AngelenA"? Probably more correct, but nobody says that here in the City of the Angels.

Actually, it isn't the city of the angels, it's the city of Mary. Originally it was named after "La Reina de los Angeles." (My friend Jim recently wrote a beautiful and creepy meditation on that name.)

And I've lived here for over twenty years now. That's weird to admit, because I still think of myself as a missionary kid - as the girl who grew up in the sub-Arctic and got only got to visit her home country in the summer.

But even though smelling snow in the air is still enough to bring back a flood of memories, scents that spell home now are jasmine flowers and eucalyptus leaves, arid heat and ocean breeze.

Writing home
The last book I wrote was set here in California, and I loved writing about my adopted home state. The higher my word count got, the more I realized that I love where I live.

It's not an adoring sort of love. I admit that the Los Angeles basin doesn't have the heartbreaking beauty of the New Zealand alps (though you should see the high Sierra) or the comforting green peace of the Oregon coast (though you should walk Carbon Canyon's ridges just after a thunderstorm's cleaned the air).

But it's a love born out of familiarity. In terms of Lewis' "Four Loves", my love for my home is storge, the sort of love you can't help having for someone you've known for years, whether you like him or not.

I know what blooms when. I know we have summer for half the year and squeeze fall, winter, spring down into six short months - and some years only four or five. I know that the sky is boring and smoggy most of the time but that if you catch us on the right day we have a snow-capped mountain view that rivals Denver's. I know that the miles of concrete and asphalt are endless, but not as endless as sea, and you can sit on the beaches here and never tire of the view of grey-green waves pounding the sand.

I love Los Angeles.  It's true that I love it because I know it, but there are worse ways than that to love.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Chicago!

So, I forgot to blog about it at the time (because I came back and dived right into end-of-school madness), but . . . I got to go to Chicago!

And why I got to go is even cooler: my family threw a surprise birthday party for my grandmother! (Who reads this blog faithfully - Hi, Grandma!)

She turned 90 this year, so my aunt and my mom decided to make a Very Big Deal of it, and my awesome husband took charge of the kids for a few days, and so I got to be a part of it.

My mom and dad flew out first, and then, a day later, my brother and I joined them, and we all stayed at my aunt and uncle's house (they were such good hosts!) and then, the next day, we drove out and surprised my wonderful, amazing grandma:

Here we all are, posing after the surprise was sprung (I don't think Grandma was quite over her shock yet . . .):

Later that day, we went to her church, where so many people (100 maybe?) also showed up to honor her. My Grandma's such a woman of faith and prayer, and it was so cool to be there and listen to people talk about what she meant to them. It was so good to see her again, and to see her being celebrated.

Annnnnd, I got to hang out with my cousins! I've never lived in the same area as my extended family, and so it was so much fun to get to spend a few days getting reacquainted with my cousins and rediscovering how much I like them.

While we were there, my cousin Natalie indulged my brother and I in our desire to play tourists and took us on a tour of downtown Chicago. It's such a pretty city - the architecture's amazing. Here are Nat and I on the L:

Here are my brother and I on one of the bridges over the river:

And here are the three of us enjoying real Chicago pizza (oh-my-goodness-it-is-SO-YUMMY):

Other highlights included hiking with my dad through much greener woods than we have here in SoCal, watching my mom and her sister interact, getting to go to my uncle and aunt's church (my uncle's a great preacher!), discussing books with Nat, listening to my cousin Nic plan her wedding (and meeting her fiancé), talking with my youngest cousin (who's only a few months older than my daughter!), enjoying lots of good meals with everyone there, and hanging out with my brother (airports are much more fun when you've got good company).

And I'm sure even now I'm missing parts. It was such a good trip. I kept wishing that Adam and the kids could have come with me, but I'm so grateful for their generosity in letting me go. 

Links! writing, reading, and Haiti

I found Patricia Wrede's account of the financial side of a writer's life interesting. An excerpt:
Essentially, it’s like a long, long pipeline, with the writer standing at one end pouring manuscripts in. No matter how fast you pour, it takes quite a while for the money to start coming out the other end. This can be intensely frustrating, especially at the start of one’s career. One works for years for a payoff that never seems to arrive, or that looks inadequate when it does finally start trickling out.
Here is John Wesley's advice on how to read a spiritual book, with commentary by Fred Sanders.

One for the "Man Bites Dog" file: Homeowners Foreclose on Bank. Great story!
Momco3, doctor, writer and homeschooler, is headed back to Haiti to help out. Please keep her in your prayers. You can read about her previous trip here, here, and here.
Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

San Juan Capistrano! by train and by foot - a celebration of 7 years

This weekend, my parents took our kids (bless them! bless them!) and Adam and I got to take off for 26 hours of joyful celebration of seven years of marriage.

In other words: happy anniversary to us!

First, my sister (bless her!) dropped us off at a train station, and we waited for our train, enjoying the view from the pedestrian walkway over the tracks. 

Then we boarded the Pacific Surfliner, headed for San Juan Capistrano! We had a pleasant chat with a businessman who also had four kids, and enjoyed the view out the window. 

We got to San Juan Capistrano, slung our packs on our backs, and set out for our hotel in Capistrano Beach, about 4 miles away.  Before we left the city proper, we stopped at a grocery store and bought food, adding greatly to the weight in our packs!

We hiked along, enjoying the cool coastal weather and realizing just how much fun we were having. Seriously, it felt like we were kids who'd just gotten out of school and got to head straight to the swimming hole. We passed a car dealership and waited for some folks to pull out, and Adam said, "They just bought a new car . . . and they're still not having as much fun as us!" :)

Eventually we got to PCH, and then it was a straight shot to our hotel, which was lovely by the way. If you're looking for a place to stay, we were really happy with them. The whole hotel is built to welcome in the sea air, the patio is decorated in moss, stones and statues, the rooms are tastefully decorated and the continental breakfast had a waffle iron and batter - mmm!

We rested for a bit, and then, just when our feet had started to forget the hike down, we took a walk down to the beach. It was really pretty. It was a sandy beach, but down at the tide line there were big pebbles that made that lovely rushing sound as the waves went in and out.

We went in in our swimsuits, but quickly came out and got covered up again because it was cold. Then we putzed around for awhile, looking at stones and holding hands and generally goofing off.

When we got back to the hotel, we went to the spa on the roof (perfect!) and watched the sun set from inside the hot tub (it was lovely).

The next day we put our packs back on and hiked back to San Juan Capistrano.

We had a late brunch, putzed around the giant antiques mall, and then slipped into a pub in order to watch the end of the England vs. USA World Cup match. (It was actually the third match we'd caught some of on this trip - if you get a chance, watch a couple games. It's great stuff.) (I should also note that - bless them! - Adam's folks helped bankroll some of the treats on this trip.)

Then it was back to the train station, where we played a few rounds of golf (the playing cards kind) while we waited, and then it was back on the train.

This was just a perfect day. So lovely, so much fun, and all with the best of men, my husband. Lovely. I want much, much, much more than seven more years with you, Adam!