When Following is Freedom

We are a lonely culture that values “being rebellious” over true, deep happiness and fulfillment. Really, it all boils down to pride, yes? But truly, I need people. I always have and always will need people—and there is true freedom in following something proposed in love.

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Seeking to See the Gift

“Everything is gift.” The theme of last year’s Well-Read Mom conference for the Year of the Giver seemed perfect. The idea sounds so beautiful. And yet still, I sometimes wonder, is everything a gift?

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Home: A Reflection on Seeking Amid Family and Motherhood

Listening to my husband read aloud “Two Old Men” to me and our children was one of my sweetest memories of 2022. And this introduction to Tolstoy led me to read Anna Karenina, my favorite book of 2023. This story of two old men, with all its beautiful lessons about pilgrimage, true worship, hospitality, and corporal works of mercy, seemed to me a story about motherhood and being a stay-at-home mom.

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Wonder Makes Us More Human—and More Fun!

Women who live with wonder have a unique ability to impact their surroundings; they are the ones who create an environment in which people can thrive. Children are good at reminding us to see. Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s Little Prince teaches the narrator, “It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eyes.”

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Dracula and the Sacredness of Marriage

I love reading aloud to my husband. We have enjoyed this activity ever since we were dating, but for the past few years we’ve made it an intentional habit. As soon as the booklist was released for this year, I knew that Dracula would be our next readaloud.

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Vampires Aren’t Real, but Evil Is

This month, we read Dracula. That’s not what I was expecting from Well-Read Mom. But as I read the depictions of evil beating against Lucy’s window, I found myself silently urging her friends for greater vigilance in their fight to save her from its clutches; I saw clear parallels in my own life.

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