Carnivory and Children

Last updated on: January 10, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

Recently I’ve discovered Amber Dusick’s funny blog called Parenting. Illustrated in Crappy Pictures. I love the way she succinctly captures such essential aspects of contemporary North American parenting in primitive, funny drawings. Her Thanksgiving post illustrates (quite literally) the fact that children are often more accepting of certain facts of life than we are. Like eating animals. I’ve known people who really didn’t want their kids to know that meat comes from animals. Well, since we’re being honest here, at... Read more

In Case You Missed It.

Last updated on: January 8, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

So, I’m not feeling so great. My eyes are burning, my throat is sore and tight, but hey! At least my children are fine. Because there’s nothing sadder than sick kids. Except sick kids with broken bones. Make that sick kids with broken bones in foreign countries. Which reminds me of one of my favorite posts…here it is, an oldy but a goody. If you missed it this time, don’t miss it now: (Mis) Adventures in France. One of the... Read more

Some Good Eating Reading

Last updated on: January 7, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

Ah, the weekend! Instead of posting my own writing on Saturdays, I’m going to feature a post or two from other blogs. This week I loved my friend Ellen’s post–“5 Reasons I’m Ignoring Your Healthy Eating Advice,” and not only because she has some kind words about this blog. In this post, Ellen gets right at the heart of what I think of when I consider what’s most important about food; why I think it’s so important to eat with... Read more

Amazing! Contemporary Book on Christian Marriage Says Something New!

Last updated on: January 6, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

Okay, so I’m over-sensationalizing that a bit. Do you blame me? Sensationalizing garners page views and sells books. But in all seriousness, I was mightily impressed by this book, Are You Waiting for ‘the One’?: Cultivating Realistic, Positive Expectations for Christian Marriage. {full disclosure: my forthcoming book shares a publisher with this one–InterVarsity Press (IVP.) } Margaret Kim Peterson and her husband, Dwight N. Peterson both teach in the theological studies department at Eastern College in St. David’s, PA, a... Read more

Two New Books on Marriage

Last updated on: January 5, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

So yesterday I told you about the 1965 book on marriage by Father Capon that I think is just lovely, and promised that the rest of the week we’d be talking about some other marriage books. Today I want to talk about two new books–the unbearably hyped Real Marriage by Mark & Grace Driscoll and the somewhat less arrogantly titled The Meaning of Marriage. So first, Real Marriage. The title makes me cringe, as does any title that seems to... Read more

Sometimes Old Books are the Best Books (and some thoughts on writing)

Last updated on: January 4, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

You know I can’t resist Robert Farrar Capon. His writing is so quirky (and so, by all reports, is/was he–can anyone confirm whether he’s still alive or not!?) that it defies comparison with any other; Andy Crouch noted in an email that Father Capon’s writing voice sounds like him and no one else. (Very true. And yet. While I often year “develop a unique voice” as writing advice, I’m not quite sure that this is something that can be aimed... Read more

Five Food Films Worth Your Time

Last updated on: January 3, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

5. Supersize Me Sure, it’s a little gimmicky, but Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 film–documenting his 30 days of eating McDonald’s food exclusively–highlighted some of the most serious problems of our fast-food culture and it did so in an entertaining, visceral way. His point–which I think he made well–was that McDonald’s (and other fast food companies)–are open to many of the same liabilities as the tobacco industry. Just six weeks after the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, McDonald’s announced the... Read more

A Year Of…

Last updated on: January 2, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

…okay, so are you sick of the “year of…” meme yet? (I asked back in November, but I’m asking again, okay?) You know, all those blogs and books and people who do a year of strange experiments on themselves like a year living ‘Biblically’ or a year of local eating or a year with no plastic or no purchasing or whatever. I’m not! I kind of like these year-long experiments. It’s fun to see what antics people think up for... Read more

Technorati Business…

Last updated on: January 1, 2012 at 8:50 am By Rachel Marie Stone

Sorry, folks, technical post…stay tuned for posts about egg factories and GI Joes coming up next week! C77ZZVJT65E5 Read more

Happy New Year! (or, why I don’t make resolutions)

Last updated on: January 1, 2012 at 1:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

Forty to forty-five percent of Americans make New Year’s resolutions. I’m not one of them. Anymore.* As you might guess, many (if not most) of the commonest resolutions have to do with bodies, weight, food, eating–things that we talk a lot about around here. I used to make many such resolutions–about exercising, about restricting calories, about general self-improvement. Thumb through the Sunday paper around New Year’s Day, and you’ll see that many of the coupons and advertisements are aimed at... Read more