Maybe this should be a Friday evening tradition at Buried Treasure, kind of like spring cleaning. Y’all (I came back from Virginia with that word) are going to help me clean up my desktop tonight. I’m going to give you links to the good stories and websites I’ve been collecting with the intention of blogging about them. Your assignment is to digest all this essential and pertinent information over the weekend.

In addition, I have another homework assignment: in light of the discussion about a woman’s biblical role and how we ought to direct our daughters, I’d like to hear ideas from my readers about practical ways we can help our daughters to make a proper transition into womanhood, encouraging their gifts and intellect while still protecting them and recognizing their need for accountability to their father. I’d love to hear from people who may have been shy about commenting here…one idea or several are welcome.

Now for the cleanup:

My friend Laura N. sent me this excellent article about the need to protect our children’s innocence by preparing them to boldly face the inevitable assaults against their purity. I know that some don’t agree with some of the teachings from the Pearls, but I found this particular article to contain a lot of practical ideas and wisdom.

My friend Laura D. showed me this website and this project which she completed for her daughters for Christmas last year. It is a simple embroidery project using hardanger and cross stitch, and I’m looking forward to learning how to do it soon. I found the necessary materials for this at Michael’s.

In light of the discussion we’ve had about Charles Finney, I found this article about the invitation system and revival meetings pertinent. I found the link at Dave Black Online.

My husband sent me this story about how more women are remaining childless due to postponing families for careers. Fertility is higher the younger you are, and infertility is a sad reality for many women who wait to start a family.

I’ve been reading St. Bartholomew’s Eve by G.A. Henty to my children, and I’ve been impressed by the faith and boldness of those persecuted French Huguenots. I am also enamored of the beautiful Huguenot cross (Christmas idea, honey). You may like this explanation of where the word Huguenot comes from, from the American Huguenot Society’s Website:

Many theories have been advanced as to the origin of the word, and eminent scholars have championed nearly all of them. The theory most generally accepted is that the word is derived from the German eidgenossen, meaning “confederates,” the name of the party of freedom in the bi-lingual city of Geneva which thwarted the efforts of the Roman Catholic Duke of Savoy to exterminate all Protestants. Many people have hesitated to accept this theory because of the difficulty in reconciling the phonetics of the two words. However, recent writings of Sir Douglas L. Savory of Belfast, North Ireland, an eminent Huguenot scholar, past president of the Huguenot Society of London and formerly professor of French at Queens University, have supplied the catalyst. Sir Douglas revealed that the popular hero of the eidgenossen was one “Hugues” and that eidgenossen became corrupted to “Hugues-genossen,” which the French easily shortened to “Huguenot.”

This is probably not news to my readers, but it’s for the print-it-out-and-file-it-away stack (do you have one of those, too?) Can you believe that a new study (done by a researcher from my hometown) shows that homeschooled students are better-socialized than their government-schooled peers? They vote, they are involved in their communities and they are mostly conservative.

Speaking of voting, this article is a good argument for not settling for the lesser of two evils in an election. I’m not holding my breath for Arnold to save California.

I end my list of links with an article about books by Gene Edward Veith (thanks to the Highlands Study Center for the link). Christians ought to be literate, reading not only for entertainment, but purposefully, challenging themselves and exercising their brains, learning about God and His world from a variety of literature, using their big picture worldview to keep the wheat and toss the chaff. See if you can figure out with which part of the article I disagree.

Wow! I can see the lovely picture of the Oregon Coast on my desktop again. Thanks for helping me clean up a bit. Maybe I’ll be inspired to do a little decluttering on my house tomorrow.