My 5 yo and I have been so enjoying the illustrations of Michael Hague. He is an intriguing artist as his drawings are so charming yet have an element of mystery and creepy deliciousness to them. We are slowly collecting books illustrated by him. Does your family have a favorite illustrator? We have SO many, but I’m diving deep into a few this year with my younger two children. It’s such a delight! ♥️Happy October, Friends!
Elizabeth Gaskell is (so far) hands down my favorite 🤩 Victorian author! I know I have her book Ruth somewhere, too. Have you read her books? Who is your favorite Victorian writer? There’s A LOT to explore.😄♥️
Is there anything more cozy then journaling and journals? 😄♥️ It’s no secret that I’m a journal fanatic! We are trying something different this year in our home learning of combining our multiple journals into one. I’ve had the opportunity to journal alongside my children and it has been such an enriching experience. I don’t often share my children’s work, as that’s their own, but don’t mind sharing what I’ve been recording myself. 😆 So much richness! 😍I’m learning every day right along with my children. I have music lyrics, quotes, drawings, etc in here already! I treasure it. Do you journal?
What you learning or diving deep into? Isn’t life grand? 😄♥️🙌🌿🍄🌻
Listening…Great Pumpkin and Harry Potter Ambient Music. I’m also enjoying Nicholas Nickleby audiobook while I follow along in the book.
Reading…I’ve begun a lot of my Victorian TBR, Dickens, Gaskell, and Yonge. but I’ve been enjoying light, cozy stories inbetween. Kiki’s Delivery Service, Thimble Summer, and The Language of Spells.
Watching…I’m back to watching YouTube/or going on Instagram only on Saturdays. It really helps my focus and sanity during the week. A new favorite YouTuber that I can’t wait to watch more of is CleoPatrick.
Noticing…the main thing I’ve noticed lately is that our Barn Swallows are gone. 🥲♥️ We’ve been seeing a few butterflies still and our temperatures are fluctuating a lot. My son saw a “V” of geese on Sunday. We’ve been trying to get outdoors more because we know the cold, snowy is coming.
How about you? What have you been reading, listening to, watching, or noticing? 🍁♥️
I’m hoping this week to hunker down into a bit of coziness. Nothing like the end of September, early October, easing into gratitude November, to foster a sense of richness and comfort. These are truly some of my favorite months. My family and I had a wonderful time with our annual apple 🍎 orchard visit, as well as our first bonfire 🔥 🪵🍄🟫🍂🍁. Sigh. 😌 So much to be grateful for! So curl up with a hot cup of tea 🫖 or coffee ☕️ and come chat with me.
We were looking 👀 for the Great Pumpkin 🎃 together! 🌞🍂🍁🐿️😁♥️Pumpkins are SO delightful, comfy, and cheerful to me! 🎃🎃🎃Chili with cheese 🧀 ♥️🦔🐾🪶Let Victober reading commence! Victorian literature + October = Victober. Lots of info about this event on Booktube or Instagram. I just informally follow prompts etc. 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤
“I am a child of the Earth and heavens. I find myself at once skipping like a schoolgirl full of wonder, and hushed in awe, something like the monks whose vespers follow the unfolding of the holy hours, and the turning of the globe, away from, then toward the sun.
I am humbled by this call to take in the autumnal majesty. To sit beneath the wind-blown boughs, to listen to the acorns plonking on the roof above my head.”
~ Barbara Mahany, from Slowing Time, p.152
I hope you’ll join me in your homes, journals, or own online places enjoying the season’s gifts! 🖤🍂🐿️🍄🟫🍁🖤
“Contemplation is life itself, fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is a spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life.”
I saw 👀 that Abigail Carroll has new poetry book out (Cup My Days Like Water) I can’t wait to read it. Saving up my book 💴 for it!
I’ve been absolutely loving pink and purple pens lately! I have LePen and Tombow and have been making monochromatic and a mixture of the two colors spreads in my prayer journal/ planner-memory journal. I love these colors SO much, what colors represent your life currently? 🩷💜🩷💜
Speaking of color, I’m wondering if I ‘need’ an autumn cardigan in Kristin’s dress color? 🧡😂👀 I love looking at my imaginary closet on Pinterest. 🤩🤩🤩
I can’t tell you how much my Daily Pocket Moleskine had meant to me this year! Just a teeny place to record my to dos for the day, do a little creativity, and store lots of memories! I’m really stretching the binding, but I’m soooo happy with its bursting self! I don’t love Monday start calendars, so that’s the only downside. I’m planning on getting the red one for 2025!
This cartoon has been keeping me sane lately! 🥰♥️😭💔🌿 We are just passing through, friends, and it’s a painful and glorious journey, but precious Jesus is with us every step of the way. ~
“Words are one way we leave tracks in our world, Sol. Maybe one day you will write a book, like Olaus, or Molly Thorn. And people will read it, like I’ve been reading to you. And they will know that you were here, and a little about what you were like.”
Sol’s face remained far away. Her cheeks were white and hollow, but her eyes shone a bit, I was fairly sure.
A.M. Pine - Hearth Ridge Reflections 