Month: July 2025

Marvelous Monday🌻 || Reading and Beauty Chasing ~Life Check-In, Part 1

amyofhearthridge9 Comments
Cosmos

Happy Monday, friends. Thought I would do a late-ish mid-year check in of sorts. It’s always helpful for me to reflect on a few areas in my life periodically. This is a part 1, probably…stay tuned for more. 🍄

Reading…💜

Best book(s), so far:

-Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter (our perspective in life/living a life of gratitude)

– So Big by Edna Ferber (day of small things/ our perspective in life)

– Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell (gorgeous & lush/disturbing & sobering)

– A Heart Adrift by Laura Frantz (sweet & atmospheric/ Persuasion-like)

– Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (convicting character under microscope- reread)

Fanny spoke her feelings. ‘Here’s harmony! said she, ‘Here’s repose! Here’s what may leave all painting and all music behind, and what poetry only can attempt to describe. Here’s what may tranquilllise every care, and lift every heart to rapture! When I look out on such a night as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world; and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene.’

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Best Sequel(s), so far:

– Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (family survival at its finest- Pa Ingalls shines)

–Henrietta’s House by Elizabeth Goudge (not quite finished, but completely charming story featuring characters from A City of Bells)

– Books 4-9 in White House Chef Mysteries (very unique setting and amateur sleuth)

– reread of The Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling (audiobook was fantastic- I love young Harry, Ron, and Hermione)

Anticipated New Release I’m Excited About:

Laura Frantz – A Fierce Devotion (Historical Fiction)

Joanna Ruth Meyer – While Darkness Remains (Fantasy)

Emily Hayse – The Dogs of War (Science Fiction)

New-to-Me Authors I want to Read More From:

Edna Ferber (Modern American classics), Brittany Fichter (Fantasy, Fairy-Tale retellings) and Chris Wooding (Fantasy)

A few reading goals beginning in August will be reading from my shelves/piles/Kindle hoard here. Less public library! I want to focus on finishing my mother schooling choices that I’ve been reading this summer.

How about you? How has your reading been so far…I’ll chat more soon on reading. My favorite hobby!

Beauty Chasing…

-walks down our nearby gravel lane

– collaging & writing for small, independent letter/zine

– keeping up regularly on my journals

– planning a state park visit/picnic, late family cherry 🍒 picking trip, bonfires, and thinking on thoughtful Christmas gift plans

-container gardening

Hello Kindle, my old friend…

What have you loved reading and chasing so far this year? 🩷🌸🪴

🌿…these are a few of my favorite {July} things…🌿

amyofhearthridge11 Comments

The rustle and whisper of cornfields, the drifting, lingering smell of the pine grove on the wind, the gentle British cadence of my Mansfield Park audiobook…ahh, the beauty and warmth of summer.

My soul is soaking and reveling in it, the green, blues, golds, whites, the flip and flutter, swaying and swishing. Each season has its own way of moving, its own dance. The busyness of June and early July is fading away on the hazy horizon of late July and approaching August.

A grad party for a beloved son (my 3rd homeschool graduate! 😭🥰) is all that is pressing in the near future…more ice lattes or sugar free vanilla iced matchas are in the horizon as I prep for autumn homeschool co op classes I’m privileged to facilitate. I was very nervous about all I had to prepare but I’ve made an effort this summer to carve out time and little dates to focus on it…the Lord is loving my heart into calm and realization that it’s not really about a perfect plan, but a humble, open heart.

The endless Kindle reading moments, curled under my daughter’s crocheted creation against the icy blast of the A/C, lots of walking, time for prayer, lists, and deeper reflection. Of course, ones sees the dark side too, sickness in friends and family, relational struggles, broken lights, lawnmowers, and love…the excessive flashing, sickeningly-fast media cesspool. The darkness is astonishing but the light of hope only flickers brighter in the face of my fears.

My deck garden and bamboo chimes are a monastery moment to me… a birthday gift to myself…a meditative morning practice I’m so glad I invested in at end of May. The end of July sees it bearing fruit. Flowers to sit amongst and low-weed maintenance is a boon to a weary, world-worn heart. I know some think very little news is an ostrich-way to live, but aren’t we called to think on good things? We can dig and research when we need to, but why the 24/7 doom poured into my eyes and ears, flowing down into my heart, turning into a leaden stone? A leaden stone that sinks between the deep, dark waves of despair. I’m a human being! I’m created to create and to be celebrating all that God has given to me! I will fight that sinking with admiring my almost-blooming cosmos, listening to tinkling tones on my chimes, making homemade brownies for my kids, and walking, walking the crunchy, gravel backroads to the music of the pine boughs, the words of countless writers and birdsong driving me on one step at a time.

What are you grateful for currently? ♥️🌿