Hello, Reader.

How is your week shaping up? Ours has been jam-packed but joyous! Two trips to Dallas to see/pick up kids flying home from the other side of the planet. Baby showers, potluck dinners, church services, and pizza parties. Volleyball games, tournaments, and practices. Plus two different homeschool co-ops this fall.

And we're only a week into September! One needs good fuel to sustain such a pace, which is probably why September is also known as "Better Breakfast Month."

Although homeschoolers can potentially raid the pantry at any hour of the day (as mine often do), kids in the classroom (whether public, private, or co-op) need some good food in their tummies to keep them from growling in the middle of their lessons.That's why making better breakfasts is the theme of this week's link list. So let's dig in!

Free resources for you this week:

• ​Quick & Easy Breakfasts - a few of our family's favorite recipes for the 1st meal of the day
• ​Don't Waste the Crust - in case you were considering trimming it off your toast
• ​Bread of Life Coloring Page - because man shouldn't live by bread alone
• ​Better Breakfast Word Find - because the brain needs food as much as the belly
• ​Daily Dozen - it's been nearly a decade since I first published this free chart, which I still follow!

What I'm reading this week:

My husband and I listened to Tish Harrison Warren’s What Grows in Weary Lands together on Audible after hearing the headmaster of a local Christian school recommend it as a book that has recently and significantly impacted his spiritual life. To be honest, I didn’t expect to like it much myself. I’m leery of the overemphasis Christian formation writers often put on feelings, works, and introspection. And this book had its fair share of all those things, along with requisite quotes from the Desert Fathers and Mothers. But it was also beautifully written and contained several good analogies. While I don’t relate to many of the emotional struggles the author describes, I appreciate her perspective and can see how this book might benefit believers who've grown weary or discouraged.

What we're eating this week:

I tried my hand at making Ratatouille for the first time yesterday as my contribution to our family's monthly potluck. It was scrumptious -- a perfect complement to all the cool French Cuisine-inspired homemade dishes our kids made, including:

What I'm listening to this week:

My son sent me a link to The Singing Bible yesterday which I found to be both brilliant and amazing. You can pick the passage, the voice (male or female), the language (English or Spanish), as well as the style (they have 15 to choose from).

Listen to verses sung as a calming lullaby, a country & western hit, or even a sea shanty. Hear them performed by a children's choir, a barbershop quartets, or an opera singer. It's super cool, so I hope you'll check it out!

This week's reader request:

It’s been a while since I’ve added any new prayers to my collection of free printable prayer guides, but a reader recently contacted me through Instagram to ask if I would write A Prayer for Israel. Here is what I came up with, along with scriptural support for each request:

On the podcast this week:

I missed recording a new episode for my own podcast again this week, so here's another episode of M is for Mama that I did with my sweet friend, Abbie Halberstadt, a little over a year ago.

M is for Mama: Episode 113 ​A TITUS 2 TALK W/ MY FRIEND & MENTOR​ In this episode of her podcast, I join my friend Abbie to chat about all things motherhood and mentorship and to discuss why raising children is well worth the effort! Listen Now

Progress on last week's goals:

I finished most of the items on last week's to-do list: I ✅ prepared supplies for the next two weeks of co-op, ✅ cleaned out my Evernote files, ✅ drove to Dallas to see our son's family and ✅ again to fetch our daughter home fro the airport, ✅ opened our home for cheese pizza/ trivia/ karaoke night (but ❌ didn't have to play host, since my ninth-born took care of everything), ✅ sent my kids and grandkids a ​new Bible memory passage​, ✅ touched up car paint, ✅ began backing up my computer files (still in progress with 11 more hours to go 😳), and ✅ hosted our Flanders Family French Feast.

However, I ❌ didn't record any new podcast episodes this week, and our family ❌ missed attending the homeschool kick-off at the waterpark this year, because Rebekah flew home a day early, and -- after missing her for seven weeks -- we all wanted to go to the airport to welcome her back!

Personal goals for this week:

• stack/relabel last of blue boxes in my garage
• stitch stuffed letters for new grandbaby's name
• attend another volleyball tournament
• begin stitching a new quilt for my husband
• review a new Artza box​
• pack for an upcoming trip
• record podcast episodes for next two weeks
• pass off books and supplies to daughter who'll sub for me at co-op while I'm gone
• celebrate two kids' birthdays
• make new "Give Thanks" banner

Most of this stuff will need to be done before I leave town this weekend, which means I'll only have four days instead of seven to mark it off the list before next week's newsletter. So... the race is on!

If you enjoy this newsletter and would like to support my work, there are five ways for you to do that:

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Thanks so much for all your help! I'll be back next week with more links, reviews, and resources. If you have any special requests, hit reply and let me know. 😊