That Utterly Lovely Alphabet Path

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I've been so delighted to receive notes from lots of new families traveling the Alphabet Path this year! Did you see Jessica's photos of A week? Remember, comments are open at Serendipity now, so that you can tell us about your adventures with each and every letter. There is some work for me to do in the middle of the alphabet, updating some booklists, and I hope to get to that before you all get to those letters. Your prayers for my time are truly, truly appreciated. Also, I know that lots of Flower Fairy links are broken. The Flower Fairy site was totally overhauled and all the links changed. The new Flower Fairy site is here. Link updating is tedious and time consuming and...I'll get to it:-) Remember, there is a tutorial for how to to use the Alphabet Path here.

I encourage you to leave comments, ask questions, make suggestions, and have a conversation!

Tidy Little Boxes

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In case you, like me, plan to spend part of this weekend putting your life into pretty little boxes in iCal, here are some not-to-be-missed posts.

iCal de-Mystified

iPlanning

More Calendar Help


And you can import the Liturgical Year Feasts from Universalis if you click here and scroll to the bottom of the page. This works for iCal or Google Calendar.

I resisted doing this tedious  task-commitment this year, because the reality is that it takes time and rarely does my life stay in those pretty little boxes, but I began the process during the week and I have found that it does calm my anxious heart a  bit to see where it fits and to tweak where it doesn't. And my children really like to see their "deal" on the screen or printed for them. So, it's worth it.

I think.

Good Kids in College?

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I had an opportunity recently to talk with Marybeth Hicks about howto be a good parent to college-aged young adults. Hicks is the author of Bringing up Geeks: How to Protect Your Kid's Childhood in a Grow-Up-Too-Fast World . GEEK is Marybeth's acronym for Genuine, Enthusiastic, Empowered, Kids. Her book is crammed full of good advice for raising a child who is in the world but not of the world. She offers a treasure trove of practical wisdom, particularly for parents of 'tweens and teens. It's a book well worth owning and I've read it two years in a row now, just before the school year begins. I wondered though, how do Marybeth Hicks' ten principles of parenting stand up when it's time for a child to leave the nest? She was gracious enough to talk with me a bit about GEEKs in college...

If you have college-aged kids, read the rest here. If you have kids who might some day be college-aged kids, read the rest here. And if you live next door to kids...you get the idea. This is a must read. Marybeth has so much to offer and it's so, so important we listen. 

Also, if you follow the book link, you will find that $5.50 to be the best you've spent this year on books. Really, a great book.