Summer is sailing right along! Many bloggers take some time off during the summer, but not all of them do (raises hand. . .)—which means I still have plenty of material to share for this month’s links roundup. There are a number of parent-themed posts in this month’s list; it’s the season of life that I’m in, so it’s obviously a topic that resonates with me these days. Even if you’re not a parent, there’s plenty of good reads here for you, too. Enjoy!
The beauty of unpronounceable names is that we all eventually learn them // by Mariam Veiszadeh
“It’s a sad reality that on the top of the usual anxieties that new parents battle with, some have the added problem of having to worry about their name selections – trying to settle on names that will less likely result in bullying and discrimination in the playground and beyond.”
Old School Parenting Methods I Could Totally Embrace // Loren McEllin
“It really is upsetting to me that life has changed so much for our children, as well as for our lives as parents. I much rather prefer the ‘feed them and send them’ method than the ‘I am a sherpa and I pack the house every time we go anywhere so that I have that one blue car (in the off chance that this is the Thursday you ask for it) while I personally walk you 3 blocks to school to avoid society deeming me an unfit mother.'”
One Question That Could Change Everything // Casey Tygrett
“In this line of thinking, aches and longings were actually part of the problem and needed to be solved rather than hopes and possibilities in need of exploration. . . . What if, in the context of life and faith there was a space – a light and tidy space – to explore the aches and longings within us?”
What’s Your Reading Personality // Anne Bogel
“If we as readers could gain more self-awareness about what and why we read, and how we approach that part of our lives, we could get more out of our reading lives, and I think the rest of our lives as well. That self-awareness is hard to come by, but when we get it, it pays off big.”
Kendra Note: If you take the quiz, let me know your results! I found out that my reading personality is The Student.
How to Avoid Raising Entitled Children // Amber Anderson
“We are the boss of those littles and we have a say in their upbringing. All we can do is be faithful with the responsibility we have been given to raise decent humans and try to remember that not all seasons bear fruit but the act of pruning is how a plant eventually thrives in better days.”
Less really is more: How to parent like a minimalist // No Sidebar
“My desire to give my children more left me feeling less. Less energy. Less joy. Less calm. Then I found Minimalism. Minimalism is more than just getting rid of all your stuff . . . . It’s about filtering out the noise to focus your energy on what’s important.”
Why You Need to Watch the New Anne Series — Yes, I’m Talking To You, Fellow Purists // Sarah Bessey
“We want the childhood version of Anne, not the real book version. But we’re not children anymore. This version of Anne is fully alive in the time and place of her telling. It’s honest. It’s opening our eyes to our willful ignorance about context and time, about struggle and suffering, about the entire backstory for these books we would have missed without a strong history lesson.”
Kendra Note: I’m watching this series right now, and Bessey’s perspective has definitely enhanced my viewing experience. If you plan to watch the series, do yourself a favor and read this first!
On decision fatigue // Tsh Oxenreider
“Without our permission, we’re bombarded with decisions we have to make all day long, mostly unconscious. So when the time comes when we have to make conscious decisions . . . and we’re already tired from all the little decisions we’ve been making, we can start to lose it.”
Have you read anything share-worthy lately? Feel free to leave the link to a recent favorite article or blog post in the Comments!