Category: Advent

Winter Inspiration Possibilities ~ Advent, Reading, & Stretching Myself Creatively {Day 41} ❄️🌲♥️❄️🌲♥️❄️🌲♥️❄️

amyofhearthridge8 Comments
‘Watch for the Light’ is my choice for Advent readings. All my children and I will be using some of Elizabeth Foss’ Advent reading plan/activities/recipes in ‘Real Learning Revisited’. My two older children will also be dipping into Biola University’s Advent posts.
Foss uses a lot of Tomie dePaola‘s books! Excited to read these.
I’m especially excited about this collection for dipping into a few times a week.

Remember how I said I wouldn’t overload my Winter DIY Woman’s Degree?! 😂🤷🏻‍♀️🤪🙄♥️❄️☃️ Never mind that! Here’s some of my reading ideas. I tried to categorize them here so it is easier for you to go to one that may interest you. I’m going to try crossing off/checking these off as I go. Some of these are planned possibilities and I also have my mood reading genres that I’m interested in currently. Quite a few of these are rereads, which I absolutely love doing. I realize this is excessive nerd overkill 🤓 and very detailed but I find it fun! It’s something to aim at and look forward too with the cold. I hold it super loosely and that’s why I call these ‘possibilities’. I didn’t include my Bible reading, Christian devotionals, or poetry because those three are always on the go.

Dec ‘24 – Jan ‘25 – Feb ‘25 Reading List:

Buddy Reads:

December 2024

Christmas Mummers by Charlotte Mary Yonge, online buddy read ✔️

Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope

(online group buddy read) short story✔️

Last Christmas in Paris by Webb & Gaynor ✔️

(online buddy read with Elizabeth B.)

January 2025

So Big by Edna Ferber ✔️

(online group buddy read)

The Man They Called Thursday by Chesterton

(preread with local friend for our HS Lit Class in our Charlotte Mason co op)

Books I’d Love to Read to my Kids this Winter:

Finish By the Shores of Silver Lake ✔️and begin The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Continue/Finish The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge

Read Story Girl and The Golden Road by LM Montgomery

Start the Narnia Series by CLS

Read The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery

Continuing listening to Penderwicks when we can get audiobooks from library ✔️✔️

Personal Study Challenge:

Start The Illiad (journal through it) Long introduction and 24 parts, I think? One a week over 3 months? Seems doable?

Possible joining of a few BookLoveJenna’s 2025 online book club – I’m interested in Praying with Jane Eyre, The Love Letters, and Letters of a Portuguese Nun in the winter selections. I’m very slow with nonfiction, so this group may help me finish? This is a very big maybe. I did too many buddy reads/challenges this year andI’m not going to put as much pressure on myself.

Till We Have Faces and Miracles by CS Lewis

Read a memoir: Merry Hall by Beverly Nichols and Isle of Dreams by Susan Branch

Fantasy:

I’d love to continue reading ‘The Stormlight Archives’ by Brandon Sanderson- I’m in the middle of Words of Radiance. My older kids are so excited for our preordered 5th book in this cycle. I think technically there’s some short stories/lore to be read inbetween the 5 massive books out. I enjoy his work, but they are a bit more intricate and political than I usually like so these are a loose goal mostly to be reading something with my young adults.

Reread The Fellowship of the Ring by JRRT

Ember Blade by Chris Wooding

Continue Dune Series with Dune Messiah

Reread Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Reread The Night Circus

Continue Byzantium by Stephan Lawhead

Victorian Things/Cozy Reads & Rereads:

Finish Nicholas Nickelby ✔️

Finish Woman in White

Finish Deerbrooke ✔️

Reread Anne Series

Reread Emily Series

Finish Moominvalley in November

The Enchanted Sonata by Dixon ✔️

Skating Shoes by Streitfeild

Start Elizabeth Goudge Reread/Complete 2 Yr Project with Pilgrim’s Inn, Gentian Hill, and Towers in the Mist

Shirley by Charlotte Bronte

Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope

Start Romola by George Eliot

Current Reading Moods:

Classic/cozy mystery/spy

Cozy domestic & holiday

Dips into creativity/writing nonfiction shelf

Cozy fantasy

Deep middle grade/children’s literature, classic or with classic feel

Victorian Lit

This above is a CRAZY unrealistic🤪, but fun “bucket” list for this winter! Haha! 😆 What are some things on your list? I haven’t made many home keeping, home educating, or health goals yet. I’m still thinking on that. I think I have my focus phrase for the coming year, so maybe I’ll share that eventually. I’d like to update here on the blog as a fun way of checking in and narrating/processing what I’m learning or enjoying. We’ll see. Holding it all loosely, remember, Amy?! 🤣

Teeny, gorgeous snowflakes.

How about you? Do you plan things out a bit? Or fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants? I really love making seasonal lists! Chat with me in comments, please! I’d love to hear your thoughts! ❄️🌲♥️❄️🌲♥️

November 2023 Whole-Person Work Check~In ♥️🌾✨

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Thinking on this quote: 💭

..is my surrender to the crushing narrowness of earthly existence the beginning of my liberation from it, precisely because this surrender is my “Amen” to your human life, my way of saying yes to your human coming, which happens in a manner so contrary to my expectations?

Karl Rahner, Watch for the Light, p. 74

Spiritual

I’ve begun a reread of The Life of Prayer by Edith Schaeffer and have really been enjoying a refreshing and convicting look at prayer. I’m loving how she lays out that prayer is first worship, then for repentance, and FINALLY for requests. A reminder that I sorely needed, (looking at you, whiny prayer journal)! 😂📓😌 I decided to choose a reread for my Advent devotions from my shelf, Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas, and it has been so thought-provoking. I’ve streamlined my prayer journal a bit, also, to help refresh my reflection time. I’m also slowly buddy reading The Christian Year by John Keble with two friends this year.

Physical

Honestly, I’ve made some huge health goals, but have really been struggling. I tend to hide and binge 🥲 eat through my exhaustion or big emotions. 😩🖤 Food addiction is a real thing, friends. This trying to process in unhealthy ways. I’m laying out here what I mentioned to my support group, too, I’d love to fit back into these lovely Carhartt overalls that I had got for myself in 2021. But more than size, I want to learn to be vulnerable with people when I need help, deepen my prayer practice, and use my love of creativity and journaling to process my thoughts and feelings. I acknowledge here, too, that sometimes I actually need to get OUT of my head/books/social media 😖 and feelings and change my thoughts upward to Jesus and outward to others. 🖤

Mental

I’m finding that taking short walks with music or an audiobook has been clearing the mental cobwebs. I’ve also really enjoyed instrumental music/soundtracks. I’m seeing that I’m handling the early sunset and waning light of this year much better than last year, by pressing into the unique beauty of THIS season. I’ve REALLY been blessed by poetry this year and hope to do a post about that soon.

Emotional

I’ve been noticing lately that overwhelming feelings threaten to drown me if I don’t purposefully choose to take life in small moments. Our whole, ‘wild and precious life’ is made up of these minute moments. I’ve forgotten the way of small bits of joy and gratitude a bit, 🥲 and it is always so wonderful to hear that still, Small Voice gently guiding us back into The Way. I found that free with my Audible account, the audiobook of Hinds Feet on High Places, is available and while I know that the allegory is very ‘on the nose’ in this book, it is one of my favorite books of all time. I identify with Much-Afraid SO much, but I mostly love this book for the picture of Jesus, my Lovely Shepherd.

Beautiful Jackie Morris postcard from a friend.

Servanthood

My son and I were talking the other day and we realized that this really isn’t an easy area. Some individuals may be a bit more servant-like naturally, but I know that I need to practice it and make it a habit. I’ve been working hard to reach out consciously to one person a day. This could be a text or popping a card in the post, focused listening to those right in front of me, or bigger things as the Holy Spirit leads. Of course, I also end up being SO blessed 🥲 in return by this.

But as for me, I will watch ♥️expectantly for the LORD. I will wait ♥️ for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. ♥️ Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall I will rise; ♥️ Though I dwell in darkness, the LORD is a light for me. ♥️

from Micah 7, I recommend listening to this song after savoring these verses.

Thank you for being here. You are a blessing and are loved. How ‘bout you? How are YOU truly doing? Glad to be doing this life with you. 🥰🌾🍄✨🌙❄️🥗☕️🌲🍂🍁🖤📝📚📖📓💌📬🗝️🧺

Monday Ponderings {December 4th}

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Let the Word, I pray, be to me, not as a word spoken only to pass away, but conceived and clothed in flesh, not in air, that he may remain with us.

…let the Word be to me, not as a word written and silent, but incarnate and living.”

excepts from Bernard of Clairvaux, Watch for the Light, p. 43

Joy Journal {December 28th}

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•wee flicker of little candle ‘Christmas at the Burrow’• the warmth and deepness of freshly ground and French-pressed black coffee in Christmas mug•the glimmer of light off the gingerbread men salt & pepper shaker•little, snowy glass cottage trinket•reading Beauty Chasers with Annie, chapter by chapter, discussion•Sophie racing around the house, her orange-y tail twitch, her sweet whiskers, her ‘cat-ti-tude’•the glow of the old-fashioned Christmas tree lights • Ella’s Christmas spirit and excitement• a juicy, sweet pineapple• Gideon’s love of baths•Schielch animal dioramas everywhere• a friend talking books with me• zoom reading nights with online kindred spirits •Peanuts postage stamps from dad•rubbing coconut oil into little chapped hand•dipping deliciously into aggressively happy by Joy Marie Clarkson•finding swirls, sparkles, and wind sighs in the coldest time of the year•

The work of humanity is to see one another safely home. ♥️

Penelope Wilcock

Merriest and Happiness Christmas! ♥️❄️♥️❄️♥️

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Peace isn’t a place – it’s a Person. Peace isn’t a place to arrive at, but a Person to abide in. “I myself am your peace,” says Jesus. ♥️

Ann Voskamp, The Broken Way

Advent Ramblings & Rumination ♥️🎄♥️

amyofhearthridge6 Comments

I confess that I’ve had to internally fight to keep my heart calm ♥️ and in the moment this Advent season. This past year has been a good struggle for me. This coming to the end of my strength, coming to the end of self, I find of course, Jesus calmly standing beside me, loving me. ♥️♥️♥️ I picked the words “anticipation & expectation” for 2022 and wow 😯 that didn’t play out how I thought it would. 😎😂 But slowly reflecting in this Advent season, I’m seeing what a gift this year has been. I didn’t realize that what I was anticipating and expecting was something very different than what needed working, kneading in, and cutting away from my heart. 🥹♥️ God is SO faithful.

How are you? How are you holding up? What are some things you’ve been thinking on, learning from 2022? ♥️ I still not perfectly clear on what I’m to pull away from my struggles this year, but some things have bubbled to the surface and I’m slowly working on acknowledging them, trying to reorder affections that are wonky, and really focus on what is important in my life. I’m praying about my words for 2023 and what things I need to focus on through good habits, focused attention, and quiet listening. Listening to the still, small voice of Jesus and deep, attentive listening to the people in my life. And listening to the whisper of words on the wind, wrangling them into inky encouragement on paper.

My personality and lifestyle needs a healthy balance of habits & structure with a good dose of freedom and openness. It makes for an uniquely delicate dance, keeping a rhythm flowing, yet being open to being human, room for life, creativity, and laughter. Do you struggle finding the right pace for the journey of life, too? Praying for clarity and for faithfulness as we cross over into the new year.

May you have a blessed last few Advent moments and a wonderful Christmastime! 🎄 May God give you fresh vision as you look to the new year! Happiest Christmas! ♥️♥️♥️ Love, Amy

Monday Ponderings {December 5th}

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…Our bartered, busy lives burn dim,

too tired to care, too numb to feel.

Come, shine upon our shadowed world:

Your radiance bathes with power to heal.

excerpt from “O Radiant Christ” by Ruth Duck, from Biola Advent Project

Monday Ponderings {December 20th}

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It’s tough to be on the receiving end of love, God’s or anybody else’s. It requires that we see our lives not as our possessions, but as gifts. “Nothing is more repugnant to capable, reasonable people than grace,” wrote John Wesley a long time ago. ~ William Willimon, Watch for the Light, p. 148

4th Sunday in Advent 🎄♥️🎄

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The Four Seasons of Mary Azarian, by Lilias Macbean Hart, illustrated by Mary Azarian

Continuing my Advent musings with Azarian and The Cloud of Witness…

In every gladness, LORD, Thou art

The deeper Joy behind.

~George MacDonald

p. 29, The Cloud of Witness

(emphasis mine)

{Take Joy home. Considering the words from J. Ingelow in the above photograph and Mr. MacDonald’s line, also. Just perfection for contemplation while gazing at Azarian’s lovely woodcut. Christmas blessings to you all!}

Monday Ponderings {December 13th}

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THE night

Wanes into morning, and the dawning light

Broadens, and all shadows fade and shift!

I follow, follow, – sure to meet the sun,

And confident that what the future yields

Will be the Right,-unless myself be wrong.

Longfellow, The Cloud of Witness, p. 22