How I've been playing: Spring 2026

I realized it’s been a long time since I’ve gave some personal updates here. We are a little over a month out from the release of Created to Play, and I’m really excited. I’ve already had one interview, and I have several more lined up in the coming weeks. It’s been really fun getting to talk to someone who has read my book and learn how it resonated with them, so you can imagine I can’t wait until release!

That being said, if you are excited about the idea of Created to Play and are interested in joining a small launch team I’m putting together, would you fill out this form? Basically it’d just be a small group of people who plan to purchase the book and can write a review (reviews are pretty important, and I’d love to try to get to 50 reviews on Amazon!). I’d love to host a video call with my launch team at some point, either prior to release or after- so we can discuss hobbies and play!

That being said- here is my update:

Confessions by Augustine: I’m still working my way through this one- I’m on book nine now, and I can’t tell you how much I love it. I’m sure I’ll write at least one more article on Augustine.

Short Stories: In exciting news, I’ve accepted a job next year teaching Freshman Literature and Composition at my kids’ homeschool co-op. I am over the moon excited, and in preparation of planning my curriculum I have been paying a lot more attention to short stories and poetry. Notable favorites so far were Hawthorne’s dark and poignant “Young Goodman Brown” and Stephen Crane’s, “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky.” I also haven’t been able to stop thinking about “Cathedral” since listening to a reading of it by James Naughton. I’m unsure if these will make the list in my curriculum, but they have enriched me nonetheless.

Poetry: For Lent I worked through another beautiful collection by Malcolm Guite, Word in the Wilderness. A favorite that brought me to tears was, “The Passionate Man’s Pilgrimage” by Sir Walter Raleigh. My friend Laura also just introduced me to Ada Limon, and this beautiful poem called “The Raincoat.”

If you are a Language teacher and have must-read short stories or poems, feel free to give me your ideas!

The Divided Soul by Heidi White: I started this, but have not yet continued very far, but I can’t wait!

From January to March I had a three-month subscription to The Great Courses Plus, and I really enjoyed it. I watched courses on the heroes in Literature, The Odyssey, and Shakespeare. I was sad to see my trial subscription end, BUT I found that Kanopy- an app many libraries allow access to through your library card has many of The Great Courses on it as well! It doesn’t have everything, so I was disappointed I didn’t get to go through The Divine Comedy course, but still it’s exciting.

I watched an interesting PBS documentary on Flannery O’Connor through the Kanopy app as well. :)

We are still having a lot of fun with RC airplanes as a family. My boys were able to find the exact airplane they were looking for at two different swap meets for much cheaper and they bought them.

Finn our dog turned five years old!

We spent the weekend at our favorite campsite in Indiana.

We’ve built a couple raised garden beds in hopes that this soil will actually work better for our poor plants this year.

And as usual, silliness with my dog helping me to write at the table :)

That’s all for now! I’ve got one more article I need to finish up for release day, but unfortunately our family succumbed to a virus and we’re all feeling a little bit down this week. The sunshine does help though :)

Thanks for reading, supporting, sharing, and interacting. It means so much.

I hope whether you are at work or at play, that you direct your hearts to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ!

-Brianna