Art Begets Art – Page 3 – A.M. Pine – Hearth Ridge Reflections

What’s Inspiring You? ♥️🌿📚{Day 4}

April 4, 2026April 4, 2026 amyofhearthridge6 Comments

From the ends of the earth, I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed.

Lead me to the towering rock of safety, for you are my safe refuge, a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me.

Let me live forever in your sanctuary, safe beneath the shelter of your wings!

Psalm 61: 2-4, NLT

What’s been inspiring me? ♥️🌿

•listening to•♥️🌿

BTS’ new ‘Arirang’ album. 💿 A bit different than what I expected but it’s growing on me. I don’t love lots of language or overly sexual themes, but there’s enough deeper lines/ideas that got me thinking. Hope to write a few of my own poems based on some of the lyrics.

I’ve also started the audiobook of Quarter Labyrinth by Victoria McCombs on the recommendation of a friend! It’s included free with Audible currently! I really hope our weather will warm up a bit so I can get outside walking and listening. 📚🎧

•reading•♥️🌿

I always have a healthy stack 😏🤪 of things I’m dipping into! I’ve started my two buddy reads and I’m currently really enjoying slowly rereading my favorite Victorian novel of all time, Wives & Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. It’s almost an annual reread for me. My 14 yo is listening to it for the first time and enjoying it! I’ve also been craving a reread of The Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge. It’s been awhile and it’s a perfect spring read.

If only I had this gorgeous vintage copy! 😍♥️🌿

I’ve also been enjoying the Alex Rider Series by Anthony Horowitz about a 14 yo spy with M16. The fifth? one made me definitely warm up more to Alex who seemed a bit cold/distant at first. They are so adventurous and thrilling. Definitely super violent, but compelling. I also just dove back into Donna Leon’s Commasario Brunetti’s police series. She writes Venice and Brunetti’s family life SO well, that I’ve just fallen in love with Guido as a police detective. The crimes are gritty and disturbing, so if you don’t like police procedural type detective novels, these may not be for you. I feel so immersed in Venice and his friendships and his family that I’ve come to love them! They are a fast, great Kindle read that I get through the library!

•watching•♥️🌿

I really haven’t watched much recently as I took a Booktube break for the Lenten season. I did put on hold at the library the first Season of Dr.Quinn Medicine Woman 🤪🤣 to see if I can get my hubby to watch with me during the chilly, spring nights.

•noticing• ♥️🌿

How cute my little guys hands are! He has bad dry skin in the winter and we’ve been rubbing Aloe Vera into them each night. He’s such a blessing. 🥹♥️🌿

I’ve really been noticing and remembering little tidbits from this lovely collection of quotes!

“God has not called me to be successful, He has called me to be faithful. When we stand before God, results are not important. Faithfulness is what matters.”

•Mother Teresa•

Happy Easter, my friends! 🩵💜🩵

How ‘bout you? What are you listening to, reading, watching, noticing? ♥️🌿📚 I’d love to hear! ~

“…something more vital than friendly concern…” {Day 3}

April 3, 2026 amyofhearthridge2 Comments

“The face of the enigmatic Jew seemed weighted with an almost insupportable burden of anxiety. The eyes, narrowed as if in resigned acceptance of some inevitable catastrophe, stared straight ahead toward Jerusalem. Perhaps the man, intent upon larger responsibilities far removed from this pitiable little coronation farce, wasn’t really hearing the racket at all.

So deeply absorbed had Demetrius become, in his wide-eyed study of the young Jew’s face, that he too was beginning to be unmindful of the general clamor and confusion. He moved along with inching steps, slanting his body against the weight of the pressing crowd, so close now to the preoccupied rider that with one stride he could have touched him.

Now there was a temporary blocking of the way, and the noisy procession came to a complete stop. The man on the white donkey straightened, as if roused from a reverie, drew a deep sigh, and slowly turned his head. Demetrius watched, with parted lips and a pounding heat.

The meditative eyes, drifting about over the excited multitude, seemed to carry a sort of wistful compassion for these helpless victims of an aggression for which they thought he had a remedy. Everyone was shouting, shouting-all but the Corinthian slave, whose throat was so dry he couldn’t have shouted, who had no inclination to shout, who wished they would all be quiet, quiet! It wasn’t the time or place for shouting. Quiet! This man wasn’t the sort of person one shouted at, or shouted for. Quiet! That was what this moment called for-Quiet!

Gradually the brooding eyes moved over the crowd until they came to rest on the strained, bewildered face of Demetrius. Perhaps, he wondered, the man’s gaze halted there because he alone-in all this welter of hysteria-refrained from shouting. His silence singled him out. The eyes calmly appraised Demetrius. They neither widened or smiled; but, in some indefinable manner, they held Demetrius’s a grip so firm it was almost a physical compulsion. The message they communicated was something other than sympathy, something more vital than friendly concern; a sort of stabilizing power that swept away all such negations as slavery, poverty, or any other afflicting circumstance. Demetrius was suffused with the glow of this curious kinship. Blind with sudden tears, he elbows through the throng and reached the roadside.”

The Robe, by Lloyd C. Douglas, p. 73-74

Happy Good Friday, my friends. A horrible, yet beautiful day I remember as a Christ-follower. I recently was privileged to read with three friends a stirring historical fiction centered around Marcellus, a Roman soldier and his slave, Demetrius. We follow Marcellus as he crucifies Jesus and wins his homespun robe in a gambling match. Douglas seeps us in the rich, historical setting of first century Rome and ultimately, we walk away with a profound sense of wonder. We who touch the presence of Jesus are never the same.

I was deeply moved by this novel and it made me rethink how I live day to day. How would my life look if I actively acknowledged His real presence right in and around me? I highly recommend this book! ♥️

A beautiful hymn we are singing in our homeschool co op has been hanging around in my heart as I think of what my Lord’s death and Resurrection mean to me. I used to love Christmas the most, but slowly as I’ve lived more life, the hope, spring-freshness, and LIFE to Easter have become a most meaningful time for me.

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die…”

John 11:25-26a, NLT

“I am waylaid by Beauty.” {Day 2}

April 2, 2026 amyofhearthridge6 Comments

Assault

I had forgotten how the frogs must sound

After a year of silence, else I think

I should not so have ventured forth alone

At dusk upon this unfrequented road.

I am waylaid by Beauty. Who will walk

Between me and the crying of the frogs?

Oh, savage Beauty, suffer me to pass,

That am a timid woman, on her way

From one house to another!

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay~

Millay’s poetry has been recently touching me deeply. Do you have a current favorite poet? Mine is constantly changing. I’m a lover of words and Beauty of poetry often waylays me! The other morning I stopped with great delight over my steaming coffee and knew that I was hearing the spring peepers on our little pond. It brought me so much joy. I received a Barnes & Noble gift card for Christmas last year and I’m sooo glad I picked this giant tome of her work. ♥️♥️♥️

What beauty touched you recently?

It’s ok to be always beginning… {Day 1}

April 1, 2026 amyofhearthridge7 Comments

My daughter and I admiring the rays we just got to pet! 😍♥️

Hello Friends! New fresh month, no mistakes in it yet! I’m hopping on to share that I’m going to attempt to do a bit of a 100 Day Project here! I’m excited to have a little something to challenge myself with and a place to dump all the beautiful ideas I’m gleaning. I have no format for what I will be sharing, it may be little more than a brain dump some days🤪😅, lists, a photo, a quote, and so on. My hope is that it will encourage and inspire you. What am I doing with the little I’ve been given? That is the question I’m asking myself currently. ☺️♥️🌿

Soooo, what prompted this plan? A couple things! My oldest child, my daughter, is engaged to be married later this year! 😳😭😍♥️Nothing like a family wedding to celebrate and work towards in multiple areas. Secondly, my sister kindly gifted me this book and we are going through it together:

I’m already a pretty established journal-er, but wanted to step it up a notch! By journaling HERE, my poor dark, quiet blog friend, 🤣 and using it as a catalyst for little writing creative projects. I see these as offerings of worship. 💜🌿

My goals and poetry writing notebook. Yes, weird combination, but it’s working currently. 😅💜 I found some fun graphics on Pinterest to color in as I go!

I also love my little to do/gratitude daily journal so will be keeping up with that! Another strange combo that works well for me!

My absolute favorite journaling is my reading journal and I have two buddy reads beginning this month! 😍💜

My reading journal spread where I will paste my April read book covers and short review! 💚🌿

New this year has been favorite reads by month! 📚

I will be using the prompts in The Book of Alchemy and also continuing The Body Revelation questions, both with my sister. ☺️♥️Those are most likely private prayers/entries etc that go into my spiritual journal.

How ‘bout you? How do you ‘begin again’? How do you breathe life into creative or life projects? Having some sort of paper/stickers/glue and pens always motivates me! 🤷🏻‍♀️😂♥️ I’ll leave you with a quote that I saw that has me thinking deeply!

“…they fear love because it creates a world they can’t control.”

•George Orwell•

😬😳☠️😍♥️💜 Chew on that, my friends! Bless you all!

Monday Ponderings…♥️

October 13, 2025October 13, 2025 amyofhearthridge6 Comments

Treasures from around the web to encourage you as you start your week!

Sarah speaking straight to my heart…

Anything from Kourtney, writing, homeschooling, all of it beautiful and encouraging…

Mr. Kleon’s quirky collections of fascinating inspiration and art…

Swoony, bookish inspiration and a general kindred spirit…

Wonderful list of Victorian books like my FAVORITE Victorian book by one of my FAVORITE Booktubers ever…

My favorite instrumental music at this time of year to read with…

What’s inspiring you? ♥️😍🍂

Currently 🍂🍂🍂

October 10, 2025 amyofhearthridge4 Comments

…let your compassion come to us quickly, for we have become very weak.

Excerpt from Psalm 79:8, CSB

I love finding random journaling prompts on Pinterest and really enjoy looking back at lists I’ve made!

Currently: 🍂

Reading…

My main focus this month is dipping into my massive stack of Victorian literature (one Victorian inspired in that stack!)for an online event called Victober! Community reading of literature published in the UK during Queen Victoria’s reign {1837-1901}. I set aside many other things to be apart of this lovely reading focus. It’s honestly become a highlight of my year for the last few years! I’m reading poetry from Tennyson, Emily Bronte, Oscar Wilde, and George MacDonald. I’ve dipped into Queen Victoria’s childhood diaries a teeny bit, too. I’m slowly rereading Our Mutual Friend. My favorites have been the drama in Charlotte Mary Yonge’s The Three Brides (Kindle) about three newlywed SIL’s thrown together under their new invalid widowed MIL, Shirley by Charlotte Bronte, and Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy with the audiobook read by Alan Rickman.

I’m supposed to be reading Niall Williams’ This Is Happiness with my IRL friends, but got distracted by the Victorians! 🤣

I’m also dipping into various things for study and to keep up the homeschooling co op classes I’m facilitating, mom’s group, a writing commitment and our own homeschool. The opening chapter of The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis was fascinating and so lovely.

A little book haul from a HUGE, fabulous used bookstore that I had only 30 minutes to peruse. 😉

Watching…

I’m on a bit of a social media purge so missing my Booktube watching, 🤣 but I did watch “Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone” with two of my older kids. It’s the only one of the movies I truly love.

Playing…

I honestly love my journaling. They bring me SO much joy. 🤩

Trying…

I’m ‘trying’ to find balance?! with all our outside activities, homeschooling, cultivation of relationships, and taking care of myself. It’s not working well 😅🥲, but one has to have something to keep aiming for even if they miss continually. 🙃

Nature walk to examine a “shaggy bark” hickory tree. ♥️

Looking forward to…

Continuing Victober and hopefully watching the BBC miniseries of “Our Mutual Friend” this month?! and next probably. It’s long!

Dreading…

Hmmm, deadlines are necessary evils, but they can be stressful for me. Leadership is stretching for me. Unfinished household projects. The great clothing change-out. The usual. 😅

Obsessing Over…

All things Victorian! I made these recently! It was difficult, but so fun! I’ve loved noticing one of my favorite autumn things…glancing in the rear view mirror and seeing the leaves swirl up, dance, come ‘alive’!

Learning…

So much through facilitating our co op highschoolers through The Divine Comedy and realizing that worry can be pride, I’m saying I know more than God. 😬🫣😅🙏🏻

Drinking…

I’ve been making half pumpkin spice flavored coffee with regular dark blend and it’s so great! I drink it black and it’s just a hint of pumpkin flavor. I don’t loooove flavored coffees, but this is gooood. 🎃

Loving…

My hubby and I took a 4 day trip north in celebration of our 23rd anniversary which was in September. We enjoyed history and nature together!

Hating (or rather Broken Up About)…

All the relational tensions, loved ones going through illnesses, marital pain, financial stress and just the general feeling of the absence of love 💕 permeating the air. 😞🙏🏻♥️Oh, Lord, come!

Starting…

Revamping my prayer time again! Needed something fresh! Journaling and alternating spots I’m reading in the Bible. Old Testament, New Testament, and Psalms. Currently added a Proverbs of the Day! Love finding the one that matches the day of the month! ❤️🙏🏻

Thinking…

About our life’s work?! and about the resurrection of my poetry scribblings and collage art, what I need to sacrifice to make it happen. Thinking about the movie “ Dead Poets Society”, which I watched for the first time a couple months ago. 🥲

Feeling…

Not sure. 🤔 Overwhelmed a bit 😵‍💫😉😬😅, but also inspired by the gorgeous autumn weather and all the lovely knowledge and life ripe for the picking. It’s right here for the taking.☺️♥️

Praying for…

My heart to be knit closer than ever to my Jesus and a listening heart to be wide open for others and for all the beauty here and now in this moment. For all the suffering near to me and far from me. 😞♥️🙏🏻

How about you? What’s currently beating in your heart? Let me know your answers to these! ♥️🍂Happiest October! 🎃 🦇 🕷️ 🕸️ 🍁

Coffee & Ink: ~be small, drive slow~

September 2, 2025 amyofhearthridge9 Comments

tucked myself into the smallest corner of Dunkin’

cast, humble, kneel, prostrate

be a dewdrop

drive slow

savor flipping sweaters at Goodwill

thank the lady for noticing my butterfly tote

be a dust mote

drive slow

eyes close, commend my spirit to God

swirl the ice of my latte, sip

be a bubble

drive slow

smile about ridiculous puns written on paper plate to hubby

touch, smile wide, look up, look down, listen deeply

be a crumb

drive slow

keep scribbling with dull, cheap Amazon pencil

quiet and calm yourself

be a salt grain

drive slow

the dipped not drenched sumac

the crumble-y, yeast-y clouds

be a kernel

drive slow

mind your own business and butterflies

hum along with the hummingbirds

be a bean

drive slow

keep wishing on the still-here-swallows

wave goodbye and good luck to the geese

be a seed

drive slow

no place to go

know your God-go, Spirit-stay

be a pebble

drive slow

A.M.Pine 🌲♥️

•continuing this beautifully written, ‘quiet’ story•

Consider: Second Chances 🌿

April 2, 2025 amyofhearthridge4 Comments

If the old earth could wash herself and begin again so often and so humbly, why could not a man do the same?

A City of Bells, Elizabeth Goudge

What are motherhood, art, our very life but second chances, beginning again, over and over? ‘Second-chance’ is a term that the book industry labels romances that have the same couple making another attempt at a relationship. This is a very narrow definition. We take second-go-arounds at multiple things DAILY. Our faith walk, being kind, loving on those tough to love, and asking forgiveness over and over again. There are so many wonderful stories and art that when you dig deep, focus on a chance to begin again. I want to focus my attention on a few of these with an expectant heart for what truth the Lord wants to show me. I’m not sure how this will play out as I have so much swirling in my heart. A couple of stories that really jump out to me are Marilla, Matthew, and Anne’s from Anne of Green Gables, Valency from The Blue Castle, Jocelyn from A City of Bells, and Mary from The Scent of Water. All these people have been given a chance to start again or at least begin to truly live. I actually made a huge list of stories from books and films that mean a do-over and fresh mercies to me. I was so surprised by how many of my favorites fall into that category!

2nd ~

my hundredth and one
second chance,
leaves curl into bud
faithfully once again

A.M.Pine 🌲♥️

Piece of Peace

March 1, 2025 amyofhearthridge1 Comment

piece of peace

mosaic of emotions

scrapbook of scars

ephemera of ills

journal of joys

quilt of quitting

scroll of secrets

Remnant Bearer.

A.M.Pine 🌲

{thus ends my 4th annual participation in the Peace Poem project ~ I ended up writing a few poems I liked and just sending the same poems to multiple people on my list. I did send out a total 28 postcards poems for February! I really do love this project, even if I do it with my own twist and timeline}

What I’ve Been Up To… {Day 61} •journals and books•♥️❄️☕️

January 25, 2025 amyofhearthridge11 Comments

Hello, Friends! ☕️♥️

I’ve really been leaning into my phrase ‘expectant attention’ during this beginning space of the year. How are you doing? I’ve been soooo enjoying trying new reads, mainly from the library, on my Kindle especially, and pulling a few things off my shelves. I have finished a few Winter ❄️ list items, but I’m not stressing it. The reality of the online book world is that it’s easy to rush or feel F.O.M.O. and it’s so refreshing to buck all trends, lists, etc UNLESS these things are bringing me joy. The truth is *whispers* that most of this isn’t that important in the grand scheme of life. I can let it go at any time and pick it up again.

My new spiritual journal. It was a bit pricey, (Take a Note Brand) BUT I’m excited to change up the way I process my prayer/Bible/spiritual journey. This journal is much more structured than what I’ve used in the past! I LOVE the horizontal, two-page, one week lay out.

I got my journal a bit later in January, so my opening pages are a bit empty, but it was so fun to put in a few things the Lord has been showing me through all the inspiration I’ve been seeing and trying to deeply pay attention to!

I also began my 2025 Daily Pocket Moleskine! Sigh. It brings me so much joy. ♥️❄️☕️🥰 Not pictured is my reading journal which I adore scribbling and glueing in! Books stacks everywhere are getting a bit of a pruning today, but I’m so grateful for my stuffed home library and my public library. I’ve been freely quitting books that aren’t for me, EXCEPT my poetry selections and spiritual devotions. I definitely put more effort into those. Here are a few snaps of bookish loveliness. 🥰♥️

These are formulaic and predictable. 😆 But I love the domestic coziness. The female characters are sweet and helpless. The love interests are a bit insufferable 😬😂, but I enjoy them occasionally. They are squeaky ‘clean’, too. Do you have any reads like this?

That’s all, folks. 😅♥️ I’ve been just plugging along at all our homeschool responsibilities and trying to keep ahead of dishes and keep enough food on the table for these giant kids (read: mainly the 19 & 17 yo boys 🤣)!! I have some writing due soon and poems for my February poem postcard challenge. It’s freakishly cold 🥶 here and yet, I’m doing ok. God is faithful to send us little flashes of beauty and wonder in the midst of the mundanity. ♥️🥰

How are you? Reading or creating anything? Anything specific bringing you joy? 🥰 Bless each and every one of you. Happy Saturday! ♥️☕️📬💌📚✒️📝♥️❄️✨

Monday Ponderings…{Day 60} •broken pieces•

January 6, 2025January 6, 2025 amyofhearthridge3 Comments

…broken pieces glued back together again…

Happy First Monday in January, friends! 🌲❄️ A bit of a ‘what’s-on-my-heart-currently-collage”…

…There is a Tenant here.

Come home, roamer of earth, to this room and find

a timeless Heart under your own heart beating,

a Bird of beauty singing under your mind.

~excerpt from ‘The Kingdom of God’ by Jessica Powers~

I’ve been thinking a lot about the character Kel in the Protector of the Small series by Tamora Pierce. I really like how fiercely tenacious, loyal, and single-minded she is! It made me think of this clip of my favorite K-pop star. It is insane how hard he throws himself into this dance. How am I living out my life and my faith? Am I fierce, tenacious, loyal, insanely hard-working towards all the Lord Jesus is whispering to me? I realize that these art forms are fictional and unrealistic, but they inspire me deeply! And that makes them real to me. How ‘bout you? What’s jumping out to you?

A beautiful, rich song from Josh Garrel’s album Home for you as you start a new week and for those of you back-to-{home}-school moms out there! This is why we sow and invest!

Words I loved in 1 Chronicles ~ sing, proclaim, declare, thank, testify, boast, remember, ascribe, save, gather, rescue, humble, strong, courageous, willingly, undivided, keep, carry out ~

I’m slowly starting to work on poems for my annual joining of the Peace Poem Project. (There’s still time to sign up! worldpeacepoets@gmail.com ~ you mail out a poem on a postcard throughout February) I’ve started So Big Edna Ferber with 3 buddy reading friends! It’s beautiful so far! I’m also 3/4ths my way through The Goblin Emperor. It’s a very interesting fantasy so far, so slow and full of cozy details. I’m going to be limiting social media, in the hopes for beautiful boredom and a quiet mind to settle down over me, mantle-like.

When you pay attention to boredom it gets unbelievably interesting. – Jon Kabat-Zinn

Feeding my body as well as my heart & soul…☀️

I’ll leave you with this quote of gorgeousness and a poem…

I have been finding new comfort in the two words, which are used by each of the four evangelists in telling the end of the story of the feeding of the Five Thousand. They speak of “broken pieces”, and the same words are used by two in telling of the later miracle. There was nothing over but broken pieces, and yet of those fragments our Lord said, Gather them up that nothing be lost. Even so, our dear Lord cares for the broken pieces of our lives, the fragments of all we meant to do, the little that we have to gather up and offer, and He will use even these fragments. He will not let even the least of our little broken things be lost.

Amy Carmichael, p. 177, Edges of His Ways, emphasis mine

•thrashed•

a trapped animal

thrashing

wildly

hurts

itself

than

the

trap

but

there’s

some

scratches

and

dents

that

‘ole

metal

heart

teeth

dulled

but

who

wins

the

hard

unmoveable

the

wounded

flesh?

❄️🌲A.M. Pine🌲 ❄️

Advent Diaries and Christmas Joy~::🎄❄️♥️Pages 22-24♥️❄️🎄::~ VOWS through MUSIC~ {Day 58}

December 25, 2024 amyofhearthridge7 Comments

•joy•

he’s here now

in lowly splendor

just like Isaiah vowed

a teeny mender

letter of law

now joins spirit

star saw it all

gazing down, lit

on a face full

of love music

blood paused to lull

till time to spill it

•🎄♥️❄️A. M. Pine 🎄♥️❄️•

Merriest Christmas!