Hello friends!

Yesterday was the last day of school for my kids are we are . . . ahem . . . adjusting.

I typically take the summer off regular blogging and creating to focus on time with the kids. Our summer plans this year include summer school, pool trips, working on a mural for the kids’ elementary school, and preparing for a September artisan festival in town hosted by another local church. The shop will remain open and I’ll be shipping orders, but I’ll likely not be in your inbox as much!

READING

Are My Kids on Track?: The 12 Emotional, Social, and Spiritual Milestones Your Child Needs to Reach*
by Sissy Goff , Melissa Trevathan, and David Thomas

I often find parenting books too burdensome and prescriptive, but this one has been encouraging so far. It has both big picture goals and practical advice for raising socially, emotionally, and spiritually healthy boys and girls.

In the book, they suggest keeping a feelings chart handy to help talk kids through emotions. I found this printable one and this one and this one and and this one and this poster on Etsy.

I also found this FREE printable emotions wheel (with sign up an account) that incorporates the idea of “regulation zones” for kids. I think helping kids learn how to regulate emotions is really important!

I have been reading recently about the role of women in the church:

The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth by Beth Allison Barr*

I bought this one after hearing Barr’s interview on the Holy Post podcast. I am still formulating my own thoughts on her conclusions, but I think it’s worth the read. Barr is a medieval historian and examines the way ideas about womanhood in the church have changed over history.

Along the same vein, I read these articles:

Complementarians Aren’t Inherently Patriarchal: But they can be paternalistic. Here’s how to fix that. by Hannah Anderson in Christianity Today

Paul Teamed with Women to Start Churches. So Will We: Why women of color are essential to today’s church-planting movements. by Thabiti Anyabwile in Christianity Today

COOKING

I don’t normally blog about cooking, but this is definitely an “all good thing!” I signed up for an E-MEALS subscriptions for $5 a month and am loving it. I choose the meals at the beginning of the week and the app builds a shopping list for me that I can then order through Walmart pickup. It’s been such a help as I am very weary of meal planning and cooking. I chose the “quick and healthy family plan” and we’ve enjoyed all the meals so far.

If you’re interested, you can use this link to try it free for two weeks (and it gives me a gift card in return).

LEARNING

I think I told you last time about reading Simply Jesus by N.T. Wright.* This book filled in some of the theology of the Kingdom of God and what the Scriptures mean when they talk about heaven. Is it a location? Is it here? I have been fuzzy on those points. I created this illustration based on Wright’s explanations in the book:

Here’s a basic explanation of the above picture: Wright calls heaven the place of God’s presence, where He rules and reigns, the head office of the Kingdom. When God created earth, heaven and earth were mingled and His reign was here. Because of the Fall, and man’s own desire to rule himself, that union of heaven and earth was broken. Under the Old Covenant, the temple was the place where heaven and earth met, mediated by the sacrifices made there for sin.

In Jesus, the Kingdom of God arrives IN PERSON. He is the place where heaven and earth meet. He becomes the mediating sacrifice between them. We now live under the New Covenent, and believers themselves making up the Church are empowered by the Holy Spirit to be the place where heaven and earth mingle, where the Kingdom is coming. We are bringing heaven here! ONE DAY, heaven and earth will be completely reunited (a new heaven and new earth) and sin and death will be no more!

I find that this big picture is key in understanding what Jesus was about and what He taught, and what our purpose is here right now. Here’s a favorite quote from the book to leave you with:

“When God wants to change the world, he doesn’t send in the tanks. He sends in the meek, the mourners, those who are hungry and thirsty for God’s justice, the peacemakers, and so on. Just as God’s whole style, his chosen way of operation, reflects his generous love, sharing his rule with his human creatures, so the way in which those humans then have to behave if they are to be agents of Jesus’s lordship reflects in its turn the same sense of vulnerable, gentle, but powerful self-giving love.”

I hope you all have a wonderful summer. I’d love to hear what you’re reading and learning!

COPYRIGHT/USAGE: All writing, artwork and photos are copyright Marydean Draws. Please do not repost or resell on another website. I’m happy for you to use my coloring pages and other printables for home, school, and ministry. If you share content, please link back to the original post. Thank you!

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parenting