Dust and Dreams {Day 20}

Wowsers. 😜😮‍💨 Nothing like packing up parts of your home for a much needed renovation project to see how terrible of a cleaner/organizer I am! 😧🫨😆

We are, Lord-willing, finally getting our walls properly insulated and a new floor! 😍 Among other things, hopefully! BUT that means taking down my shelves that my FIL built 10 (!) years ago. So LOTS of books have to be packed up!

It’s a great opportunity for me to purge and organize. So many memories with all my children and these wonderful books we thrifted, hunted down, and treasured over the years. 🥲😍🥰

Thank God for motherhood and the opportunity to home educate. 😍🥲♥️

Any projects on your horizon? I hope to update about this and my gardening soon! 🤞🏻♥️

Monday Ponderings {Day 19}

Merrily Gareth ask’d

‘Have I not earn’d my cake in baking of it?

Let be my name until I make my name!

My deeds will speak: it is but for a day.’

So with a kindly hand on Gareth’s arm

Smiled the great King, and half-unwillingly

Loving his lusty youthhood yielded to him.

Gareth and Lynette, Idylls of the King, Tennyson

‘Damsel,’ Sir Gareth answer’d gently, ‘say

Whate’er ye will, but whatsoe’er ye say,

I leave not till I finish this fair quest,

Or die therefore.’

Gareth and Lynette

I’m slowly getting into my buddy read of Idyll’s of the King and I was struck remembering this lovely picture book version of this part of the poem. The Kitchen Knight retold by Margaret Hodges is lovely, largely due to the illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman!

Happy Monday, friends! Our weekly quest has begun! Go forth boldly and without fear! 🙏🏻♥️😍

True Heart ♥️ {Day 18}

He took David from tending the ewes and lambs and made him the shepherd of Jacob’s descendants-God’s own people, Israel.

He cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands.

Psalm 78:71-72, NLT, emphasis mine

My prayer for today! That I may care for the people around me with a true heart and lead them with skillful hands. 🥲😞🙏🏻♥️

Poems & Paths 🌿{Day 17}

Inspiration:

“Six feet down in the sand
There’s creatures that made a hole
Do speak, I’m begging you, please
There’s beauty outside control (Outside)”

~RM💜

My friend, Sam’s devotional about the Mundanity of God ♥️

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Prayers of a Fool”

Cathedral carvings hidden
Full-time home hearth lovin’ forbidden
Fool, don’t do that again
Takes long, second gone, down drain, amen.
Wash, rinse, sunrise driven
Plant, weed, kiss that bruised knee
Blood, sweat, things that don’t make sense.
Paint, scribble, lock it in a drawer, forgotten.
Cathedral songs stir, long-dead-dusty, silent
Heart strings strum violent
Prayer painting skies violet.
Fool, don’t do that again.
It don’t make sense.

A.M.P. 🌲♥️

Reading stack today…📚📚📚{Day 16}

If you could chuck your to-do list out the window today, what would you do? 😅😂 I’d find a lovely spot by water, under a tree, or in my cute local coffee shop, grab a latte , and read. I know, surprise, surprise. ☺️😉

Here’s what’s on my stack that I’m currently interested in or really enjoying!

Cheesy, bordering on super silly continuing cozy mystery series that pokes fun of the Regency literature era tropes 😂
I ♥️ my Kindle! Amish in April selection (Booktube Readathon), a couple of fantasy novels, a mystery, writing nonfiction, and continuing 14 yo spy thriller series!
Middle Grade Historical Fiction! Can’t wait to try this! I adore anything with lighthouses!
Oh my word. I’m absolutely adoring this book. Montgomery’s writing and characters make my heart sing. 😍🥹♥️

I love keeping house…it’s really a lovely phrase, isn’t it? Keeping it…holding it fast against the world…against all the forces trying to tear it open.

Mistress Pat ♥️🌿

Wednesday Wonders •Homeschool History/Geography Edition• 🗺️🧭 {Day 15}

Fun, adventurous story set near the Amazon River!
Favorite history/geography/architecture picture book series by Elizabeth Mann!

listening to and reading♥️🌿~ we are really enjoying our read aloud of Journey to the River Sea. We’ve kind of poked our head into South America, this year while studying Early American history, explorers, etc. We have some Ancient reading going on and early European too. It’s seems to be opening up ideas and interesting discussions and narrations. 😍

A few individual things with different children we are enjoying! Oldies, but goodies. Trying to ‘use my shelves’!
Two Favorites here!

•watching and noticing•♥️🌿

One child mentioned within my hearing how The Divine Comedy 🎭 and the podcast The 100 Days of Dante were coming together with other things. My heart cheered inside. 😅♥️ I’ve noticed that Marvel and the Percy Jackson Series have been being connected to Greek/Norse myths we are always enjoying in our Literature. My older kids enjoy some of the Marvel movies and ALL of my kids have appreciated Percy Jackson’s adventure stories.

Tornado 🌪️/ thunderstorm weather in our area! 😱😬

What have you been listening to, reading, watching, and noticing? I’ve been so interested and pleased with our history adventures this year! Thank You, Lord! ♥️😍📚🥰

Journaling Check-In 📖🖋️📝✂️📓📒📚🖇️ {Day 14}

Trying this set up! Very ambitious, but aim high, I guess. 😂
Added album cover inspiration!
Walked 15 miles for my second book over $5! Yay!Took me a long time as I got sick second half of March/early April! Not to mention the weather has been very hit or miss. 😭😁
April reading journal pages filling up!
I messed up my Book Shelfie order, but no worries, it will work. If I get too perfectionist, I would never journal!
Missed one day in my streak! It was pouring! 😂😬

What are you creating/enjoying? 🥰😍♥️🌿

Monday Ponderings {Day 13}

And now, in my old age, don’t set me aside,

Don’t abandon me when my strength is failing.

…Now that I am old and gray,

do not abandon me, O God.

Let me proclaim your power to this new generation,

your mighty miracles to all who come after me.

~Psalm 71: 9 and 18, NLT

New week! King David uttered my exact feelings and prayers in the Psalms! ♥️🌿🙏🏻

Sunday Snippets {Day 12}

“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

~Mark 9:23-24, NLT

Green! 🌱🌿🍃

Rabbit 🐇 trails ~ {Day 11}

Links 🔗

Interesting short essay about Dante’s use of water in The Divine Comedy ~

Listen to this beautiful piece while reading Dante article!

Hidden track song that I’m thinking about ~

My daughter sent me this beautiful version of a favorite ~

We went to a favorite nature haunt and I finally saw the flower of the skunk cabbage!😍♥️

Little spores puffed off of these red bits when I ran my fingers over them! 😃♥️
Worlds with the world

Our friends said this is Hepatica
Woodpecker evidence!

How was your week? We are just itching for it to warm up a bit more, but overall a good week! We had homeschool co op, my tulips/daffodils are peeking up their heads and looking 👀 around suspiciously, a local play that two children are involved with, and one of my children is being baptized! ♥️😍

Walking & Words🚶🏽‍♀️📜 {Day 10}

“Marilla!” Anne sat down on Marilla’s gingham lap, took Marilla’s lined face between her hands, and looked gravely and tenderly into Marilla’s eyes. “I’m not a bit changed-not really. I’m only just pruned down and branched out. The real me-back here-is just the same. It won’t make a bit of difference where I go or how much I change outwardly; at heart I shall always be your little Anne, who will love you and Matthew and dear Green Gables more and better every day of her life.”

~ Anne of Green Gables

😭😭😭 thinking about my Anne getting MARRIED. 😭😭😭 My oldest son is doing a lot and making decisions, too!! Change and them growing up is in my heart. Hard, but beautiful. ♥️🙏🏻

If I can stop one Heart from breaking

I shall not live in vain

If I can ease one Life the Aching

Or cool one Pain

Or help one fainting Robin

Into his Nest again

I shall not live in Vain.

~ Emily Dickinson

We are enjoying Dickinson again in our co op currently! She is one of my most favorite poets and I think this above poem IS my favorite by her. 🥲♥️ The prayer over my life. Here is a beautiful print of it for your home.

When Marilla had eaten her lunch Anne persuaded her to go to bed. Then Anne went herself to the east gable and sat down by her window in the darkness alone with her tears and her heaviness of heart. How sadly things had changed since she sat there the night after coming home! Then she had been full of hope and joy and the future had looked rosy with promise. Anne felt as if she had lived years since then, but before she went to bed there was a smile on her lips and peace in her heart. She looked her duty courageously in the face and found it a friend-as duty ever is when we meet it frankly.”

~Anne of Green Gables, emphasis mine

I’m nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?

Then there’s a pair of us-don’t tell!

They’d banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!

How public, like a frog

To tell your name the livelong day

To an admiring bog!

~Emily Dickinson

A few favorite Emily resources ♥️

Anne went to the little Avonlea graveyard the next evening to put fresh flowers on Matthew’s grave and water the Scotch rosebush. She lingered there until dusk, liking the peace and calm of the little place, with its poplars whose rustle was like a low, friendly speech, and its whispering grasses growing at will among the graves. When she finally left it and walked down the long hill that sloped to the Lake of Shining Waters it was past sunset and all Avonlea lay before her in a dreamlike afterlight-“a haunt of ancient peace.” There was a freshness in the air as if a wind that had blown over honey-sweet fields of clover. Home lights twinkled out here and there among the homestead trees. Beyond lay the sea, misty and purple, with its haunting, unceasing murmur. The west was a glory of soft, mingled hues, and the pond reflected them all in still softer shadings. The beauty of it thrilled Anne’s heart, and she gratefully opened the gates of her soul to it.

~Anne of Green Gables

Niche YouTube ♥️🎥💻📱♥️ {Day 9}

I don’t remember when I first encountered the wonderful world of Booktube, but it was pre-covid and I’ve been happily watching ever since! If you aren’t sure what it is, Booktube is a corner of YouTube that focuses on reading and talking about reading! 😅 I also have found AMAZING reading journalers which is like a sandwich of my two favorite hobbies ever! There are YouTubers for EVERY hobby! Flosstubers, Gardentubers, Cookingtubers! 😍😅♥️ Overall, I’ve found a small group of people in the Booktube world who are sooo friendly, welcoming, and as passionate about books and reading as I am! As with anything, you have to weed out a few thorns and balance the time spent, but this has been an enriching part of my life. Today I thought I’d share a few of my current favs! As you know 😉I read a wide variety of random things, so I’m going to share my Eclectic Booktuber favorites! I have many MORE, I love, but these are my jam currently.

Eclectic Booktubers I currently love:

Book Nerd K-Tree

Hot Cocoa and Books

Magical Emma Rose

Paris Mae Reads

Woldenburn Reads

Reading Journaltubers (our book tastes may not align, but I adore their journaling style!)

cups and thoughts

Manda Made

Michaela’s Cozy Life

ReadJournalLove

Do you have a niche YouTube corner? A hobby that you like learning about on YouTube!? I’d love to hear! Maybe I will do another of these lists later for my general favorite Booktubers!