I have been reading The Sweet Taste of Providence for well over a year. Last winter it was beside my fireside chair. A few times a week I would pick it up, read a story, and then ponder it, knitting thoughtfully. During the busy gardening season it sat on my bookshelf, and recently I took […]
church history
Review: A Little Book for New Historians by Robert Tracy McKenzie
Homeschoolers study history; it’s one of the things we do rather well. In fact, there are many homeschool programs that organize the year, or even the full 12 years, according to historical themes. Our family, too, has learned an enormous amount of history over the years and continues to do so. Yet I have always […]
The Christian Greats Challenge
My friend Carol is hosting an online reading club this year: “Christian Greats Challenge: Past and Present.” Carol is an Australian homeschooling mom who writes the most delightful and thoughtful book reviews. She planned this challenge’s categories partly to counter what C. S. Lewis calls ‘chronological snobbery’, defined as ‘the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual […]
Review: Made for the Journey by Elisabeth Elliot
As a young woman, Elisabeth Elliot worked hard to prepare for her first missionary experience, learning and reducing to writing the Colorado’s language in the jungles of Ecuador. Because she was doing what God called her to do, she fully expected God’s blessing on her work. After all, that’s the way the world works, right? […]
Medieval Europe: Power and Splendor
Those two words, ‘medieval Europe’, conjure up images of splendor and power, knights and castles, monasteries and missionaries, plague and privation. Recently, however, when we visited the Medieval Europe Exhibition at the Canadian Museum of History, I came away with a completely different feeling. Among the armour, jewellery, tapestry, and everyday utensils, many artifacts pointed […]