Beauty – Page 67 – A.M. Pine – Hearth Ridge Reflections

2016 Favorite Reads: Elementary/Preschool

December 16, 2016December 21, 2016 amyofhearthridge1 Comment

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The Complete Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem – We all love this book, really good for any age. My 7 yo and I will “ooo and ahh” over the gorgeous illustrations and gently told stories. Such scope for imagination in this delightful collection.

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My Naughty Little Sister Storybook by Dorothy Edwards – These are told from the perspective of an older sister and the adventures and trouble of her little sister. Delightfully British turns of phrase, darling illustrations by Shirley Hughes, and gentle, humorous reminders of life lessons. Highly recommend.

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Read-Aloud Rhymes For the Very Young Selected by Jack Prelutsky – This is absolutely charming. A collection of poems and sayings with delightful illustrations by Marc Brown. My 4 yo and I just love reading these together and can get lost in the illustrations. Highly recommend.

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Ten Little Babies by Gyo Fujikawa – Charming counting book with the wonderful Fujikawa illustrations. My 2 yo’s favorite board book right now!

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On Market Street by Arnold Lobel – This is an unique alphabet book with hours of interest logged in our home. The delightful pictures depict a person dressed with something corresponding with a letter of the alphabet. One of our best loved books!

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The Quilt Maker’s Gift by Jeff Brumbeau – Another well-loved favorite here. Hours of intricate illustrations to pour over. Magical, sweet story with lovely message.

These are just a few of the many books that I could have included here. I tried share the ones that are currently being loved.

{book covers from Goodreads}

Any favorites in this genre that you’d share? I’d love to hear.

2016 Favorite Reads for Young Adults & Middle School

December 14, 2016December 21, 2016 amyofhearthridge2 Comments

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The Black Stallion Series by Walter Farley – this series has been a huge hit with my 13 yo. It follows the life and adventures of a young boy and a wild black stallion. Highly recommend.

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Rascal by Sterling North – my 11 yo and I have been enjoying this book immensely. Humorous, adventurous, crazy, and nature-orientated. We love the unique relationship between Sterling and his father. Of course, Rascal the Raccoon, is very entertaining himself. Highly recommend.

DragonKeeper Chronicles by Donita K. Paul – these are my 13 yo’s favorite fantasy series this year. Allegorical, mystical, and adventurous. I’ve been reading these with her and they are light, fun reads.

Silent Storm by Marion Marsh Brown – This lovely historical fiction title is a favorite with all ages here. It follows the story of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller. We love that it gives us Annie’s perspective. Highly recommend.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare – a historical novel about a young girl coming to the colonies. She is having a hard time being accepted by her new family and misunderstandings and confusion abound in this Puritan world.

Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher – I just finished reading this to my 9 yo and it was just as good, if not better, than the first time when I read it to my oldest. It follows the life of a young girl who is being raised by her cloying, fearful aunt. Circumstances change and she is sent to live with the dreaded Putney cousins, who love and live a bit differently. This is a delightful tale that I love to read as a mother, because I learn so much about parenting. It can feel like a book more for girls, but it’s not. My 9 yo boy said it was his favorite book this year. Don’t miss this one. Highly recommend.

Honorable Mention:

The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis – Ever wonder where the Wardrobe came from? Or the Lamp Post? Or how Narnia came to be? My 9 yo and I are so enjoying revisiting the first story in The Chronicles of Narnia tales. We love hearing about the creation of Narnia and all the interesting bits that make this series unforgettable.

These are just some of the few that jumped out to me, that my older and middle children have really enjoyed this year. I will be back soon with ones for younger children and myself!

Please share your favorites in these age groups for this year!

{Book covers from Goodreads}

2016 Favorite Family Read Alouds

December 14, 2016December 21, 2016 amyofhearthridge4 Comments

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Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen – beautiful, haunting book about a family working through the father’s PTSD. The family is drawn toward a remote, inherited cabin, the natural, seasonal rhythms, maple sugaring process, and neighbors surrounding them in beauty, love, and light. Highly recommend.

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Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White – this is a delightful story of a boy and a swan without a voice. Hilarious, sweet, and subtle nature lessons woven throughout. We love this title!

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Family Grandstand by Carol Ryrie Brink – we finished this book earlier this year and can’t recommend it enough. Lovely story of a family living near the father’s job at a college, a writer for mother ;), and an interesting neighbor hood of friends and adventures.

Honorable mention is the Ralph Moody Series, which we’ve been slowly working through!

What are your favorite family read-aloud titles this year?

{book covers from Goodreads}

Anne of Green Gables: Chapter 3

December 13, 2016May 1, 2017 amyofhearthridge4 Comments

Continuing our reading…

Poor Marilla. She is probably still nervously reeling from Rachel’s Job-friend-like 😉 advice, and now she has to deal with a GIRL.

Anne’s outbursts are funny, but man, she really is such a cheerful child for having had very little love in her life. Her imagination and the beautiful ideas that she has read in books have helped keep the hope alive, a little bit at least, I think.

I love this part…

“Oh, this is the most tragical thing that ever happened to me!”

Something like a reluctant smile, rather rusty from long disuse, mellowed Marilla’s grim expression.

pg 24

What’s your name?

The child hesitated for a moment.

“Will you please call me Cordelia?” she said eagerly.

“Call you Cordelia! Is that your name?”

“No-o-o, it’s not exactly my name, but I would love to be called Cordelia. It’s such a perfectly elegant name.”

“I don’t know what on earth you mean. If Cordelia isn’t your name, what is it?”

pg 24

This whole part is just so funny and sweet. Marilla’s bewilderment, Anne’s anguish…so many little things. I find myself in the “depths of despair” quite often myself, in fact, my husband sometimes will ask me if I’m wallowing in them. He knows me so well. Ha. 🙂

I love the description of the room from Anne’s point of view…I laughed out loud specifically at this…

“…with a fat, red velvet pincushion hard enough to turn the point of the most adventurous pin. ”

pg 27

I love how Montgomery is showing us Anne’s frame of mind through her perception of the room. Such beautiful writing!

I love Matthew’s heart here…

“I suppose – we could hardly be expected to keep her.”

“I should say not. What good would she be to us?”

“We might be some good to her,” said Matthew suddenly and unexpectedly. ❤

pg 28-29

And upstairs, in the east gable, a lonely, heart-hungry, friendless child cried herself to sleep. pg 29

Aww. Sweet, yet sad chapter.

Love

December 10, 2016December 10, 2016 amyofhearthridge2 Comments

Have you ever thought that people give love the way they understand it? It might be a hot meal prepared for us, hugs given, kind words, gifts, or working hard to provide for us. The way love is given and received is a complicated thing. We all are shaped by our personalities, upbringing, and experiences, from a baby, fast forwarding to who we are now.

As a follower of Jesus Christ, my love should grow and move beyond just my understanding. It begins to become something that defies all explanation and boxes that I can put it in. It transcends how I was raised or my personalities and experiences. It begins to be unexplainable.

Why? Jesus Christ. He is my Ultimate Example. He humbled Himself to become a lowly person. He came from the Throne Room and chose not only to be human, but the lowest form. He gives love in a way that I will never understand and it defies all finite logic. You can’t figure this sort of Love out with your mind. I have to take it by faith.

I was lying on my bed, comfy beneath my quilts, when these thoughts started rumbling around in my head. Maybe something between a desperate prayer for help in all my relationships, and the half dreamlike state I find myself in before the first hot cup of coffee.

What if I could see clearly the why behind how people love? What if I could read their minds? What if I could receive their love perfectly and give love perfectly to each person I meet? It could radically change the way relationships and the world works. However, I can’t do this perfectly in a fallen world. I have to by faith choose to love like Jesus. It isn’t easy, but far too often I use the difficulty of something as an excuse to not even try.

I am super challenged to gaze at the Amazing Love Jesus lavishes on me. I’m challenged to take this love by faith and not try to figure it out. Just to bask under it, believe it, and live through it. Loving that child when they are super difficult because Jesus loves difficult me. Not trying to guess and judge suspiciously the motives of people around me, but to love and care for them with no strings attached. Loving with no fear, because relationships are going to hurt, expose, use, and frustrate me. I’m challenged because Jesus loved without fear. He was ridiculed, abandoned, and killed, yet He didn’t let that hold back His love. Loving and accepting myself as a creation of God, not by some arbitrary standard the culture measures with or experiences that have influenced my view of myself.

I want to love as Jesus loves, a defying Love. This is a “radical” love that rejects all hurt, hate, and frustrations. Love that views people and relationships as the main reason for living, working, and dying. Jesus loves people! Nothing can ever be more important to Him then the saving love and redemption of all people. A relationship between Him and us. I waste far too much time focusing on trivial things and forget His unconditional love. And then I start thinking too much and distrusting too often. I try to figure out all the catch phrases in the Christian culture…tough love, love the sinner not the sin, discipleship, theology, and on and on. Maybe there is an element of truth in them, but the truth comes back to Jesus. Just love. For me, I must move away from rationalizing, figuring things out, judging, or categorizing and begin to love in the raw.

I’m unfinished, and unlovable and yet Jesus loves me with a PERFECT, unending love. He moves, working in me to strengthen me in right choices against my sinful nature and hatred and craziness, but His first ingredient is love. Jesus loves all the bare, insecure parts of me because He is Love. I don’t have to understand any part of this, I just have to believe it. May I love even a fraction like this!

Anne of Green Gables: Chapter 2

December 8, 2016May 1, 2017 amyofhearthridge8 Comments

Continuing our reading…

Now we come to dear Matthew and Anne. The very illustration on the front of my beat-up paperback is such a sweet part of this chapter. I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, however.

Montgomery shares some of her lovely nature-aware writing here…

“It was a pretty road, running along between snug farmsteads, with now and again a bit of balsamy fir wood to drive through or a hollow where wild plums hung out their filmy bloom. The air was sweet with the breath of many apple orchards and the meadows sloped away in the distance to horizon mists of pearl and purple; while

The little birds sang as if it were

The one day of summer in all the year.” pg 9

I adore “farmstead” and “balsamy”.

I find Matthew’s shyness around women to be endearing and slightly humorous. Perhaps having Marilla for a sister and how long has Rachel Lynde been his neighbor I wonder, may not have helped his shyness? He dare not have any opinion or maybe never could get a word in edgewise. Remember even a disorderly stream straightens at the sight of Mrs. Rachel!

And now we are introduced to our Dear Friend of the Ages…

“A child of about eleven, garbed in a very short, very tight, very ugly dress of yellowish gray wincey. She wore a faded brown sailor hat and beneath the hat, extending down her back, were two braids of very thick, decidedly red hair. Her face was small, white and thin, also much freckled; her mouth was large and so were her eyes, that looked green in some lights and moods and gray in others.” pg 11

I love this…

“…our discerning extraordinary observer might have concluded that no commonplace soul inhabited the body of this stray woman-child of whom shy Matthew Cuthbert was so ludicrously afraid.” pg 11

I hope I can be a discerning observer with people, especially children. Even just a good observer, not even extraordinary. 😉 Caring about each person as unique and special.

Oh, Anne, you and your cheery tree!

“It’s so easy to be wicked without knowing it, isn’t it? They were good, you know – the asylum people. But there is so little scope for the imagination in an asylum – only just in the other orphans.” pg 12

I love how Anne immediately sees a friend in Matthew and really starts sharing pretty deep thoughts and feelings. She is so open. She tries to see good in people…I love this,

“A merchant in Hopeton last winter donated three hundred yards of wincey to the asylum. Some people said it was because he couldn’t sell it, but I’d rather believe that it was out of the kindness of his heart, wouldn’t you?” pg 14

I love how she calls the Island the “bloomiest place”. Sigh.

And after Matthew telling he doesn’t know what makes the roads red,

“Well, that is one of the things to find out sometime. Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive – it’s such an interesting world. It wouldn’t be half so interesting if we knew all about everything, would it? There’d be no scope for imagination then, would there?” pg 15

That above quote reminds me of the British educator Charlotte Mason’s quote, “Not what we have learned, but what we are waiting to know is the delectable part of knowledge.” School Education, pg 273

Scope for the imagination. ❤

“…people laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas you have to use big words to express them, haven’t you?” pg 15

“Yes, it’s red,” she said resignedly. “Now you see why I can’t be perfectly 🙂 happy. Nobody could who had red hair. I don’t mind the other things so much – the freckles and the green eyes and my skinniness. I can imagine them away. I can imagine that I have a beautiful rose leaf complexion and lovely starry violet eyes. But I cannot imagine that red hair away. I do my best. I think to myself, ‘Now my hair is a glorious raven black, black as the raven’s wing.’ But all the time I know it is just plain red, and it breaks my heart. It will be my life long sorrow.” 🙂 pg 16

Oh my! There are so many good lines and parts in this chapter! How she asks Matthew if he would rather be “divinely beautiful” or “dazzinglingly clever”. pg 17

How she is struck deeply by the beauty of the Avenue and insists on renaming it “the White Way of Delight”. pg 18

Barry’s Pond + Anne = The Lake of Shining Waters.

“Isn’t it splendid there are so many things to like in this world?” pg 20

She catches her first glimpse of Green Gables, Matthew growing a bit uneasy about the coming storm.

” Listen to the trees talking in their sleep ,” she whispered, as he lifted her to the ground. “What nice dreams they must have!” pg 22

What lovely trip home to Green Gables! What did you enjoy about this chapter?

Harold E. Kohn

December 7, 2016December 7, 2016 amyofhearthridgeLeave a comment

Winter Thoughts

Long ago geographers and anthropologists proved that civilization advances most rapidly in the temperate zones where there is a mixture of weather conditions – summer balminess followed by autumn chill and wintry blasts of wind and snow. The year-round warmth of the tropics makes for spiritual torpor, mental laziness, and physical dullness. It takes all kinds of weather to stimulate men to be at their best.

While we pray for lives full of sunshine and pleasantness, God could do us no greater harm than to answer these prayers, for it takes all kinds of weather to grow a soul. Radiant days are necessary, when bright blessing shine down upon us from above and we absorb providential goodness as a sunny hillside soaks up light. Rainy days are needed when the spirit is refreshed and cleansed as when leaves, grasses, and crops of countless forests and fields drink deeply of heaven’s plenty. But wintry cold and snowy blasts from the North are also required in the temperate life -days when our lives are revealingly tested just as hard winds, heavy snows, and slashing sleet prove the strengths and weaknesses of a Northern woods, bowing snow-laden evergreen limbs in humility and breaking rotten branches off all the trees. So life’s hard weather demonstrates in us what deserves to last and what ought to fade and die. Only winter clearly shows which trees are evergreen!

All weathers make a soul. It was after blindness descended upon John Milton that he wrote his sublimest poetry. Beethoven’s loveliest sonatas were composed after he was stricken with deafness. What would Lincoln be without his lifelong seizures of melancholy? What would Christ be with be without His cross?

An American tourist in Italy watched a lumberjack at work. As the logs floated down the swift mountain stream the lumberman would thrust his hook into a particular log and draw it aside.

“Those logs all look alike, ” said the tourist. “Why do you pick out just a few?”

“They are not all alike,” the lumberman replied. “Some were grown low on the mountainside where they were protected all their lives from harsh winds. Their grains are coarse. They are good only for lumber, so I let them pass on down the stream to the lumber mills. But a few logs grew on the mountain top. From the the time they were tiny seedlings they felt the lashings of high winds and the weight of heavy snows, and they grow strong and tough and fine-grained. We do not use these for ordinary lumber. No, sir! These few are especially selected for choice work.”

So God uses wind buffeted souls for His choicest work.

Thoughts Afield

Harold E. Kohn

pg 132-133

Thinking this morning more on this and this lovely piece here also!

Anne of Green Gables : Chapter 1

December 6, 2016May 1, 2017 amyofhearthridge3 Comments

I’ve always loved L.M. Montgomery’s beautiful nature descriptions and rich, deep characters. I forgot how humorous these books are for some reason. I don’t think humor comes through quite as strongly in some of Montgomery’s other titles. Maybe I just haven’t read enough of them or paid close enough attention! I was so glad to see how many of you sounded interested in this project , I think we all are truly kindred spirits.

Chapter 1 opens with our dear Mrs. Rachel Lynde…I chuckled at this…

“…for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde’s door without due regard for decency and decorum..” pg 1

I was so charmed how Lucy Maude introduces us to Mrs. Lynde by way of small, side comments alluding to her being into everyone’s business while keeping quite on top of her own.

I think words such as “betokened” need to have a resurgence in our English language. Really. They are GORGEOUS.

Upon seeing Matthew Cuthbert driving by in a SUIT and COLLAR no less , Mrs. Rachel, “…ponder as she might, could make nothing of it and her afternoon’s enjoyment was spoiled.” pg 3 🙂

I absolutely love the Naming of places and things through Montgomery’s writings. Swoon. And swoon again. Lynde’s Hollow. Green Gables. Bright River.

As Mrs. Lynde reaches Green Gables all in a dither, I love this about Marilla, “Here sat Marilla Cuthbert, when she sat at all, always slightly distrustful of sunshine, which seemed to her too dancing and irresponsible a thing for a world which was meant to be taken seriously; and here she sat now, knitting, and the table behind her was laid for supper.” pg 4

This made me think a bit of how opposite really Marilla is of Anne. We know, of course, what happens in this story, but one has to ponder if Marilla really needed Anne in a sense MORE than Anne needed her.

Mrs. Lynde’s shock and surprise is so funny and what’s the most funny thing about it is that she is so appalled the Marilla dare make a decision like this without informing or asking HER first. After Mrs. Lynde blasts Marilla with scary stories on orphans…this cracked me up…”This Job’s comforting seemed neither to offend nor alarm Marilla. She knitted steadily on.” pg 7

One has to overlook a few old-fashioned, NOT “politically correct” references in this chapter and focus really on the two characters that we are being introduced to…Rachel and Marilla. Opposite really, but they say opposites attract…and I was just thinking about how in some ways the friendship of these older ladies is just as kindred as the later one of Anne and Diana.

What jumped out to you?

Reading through Anne…

December 5, 2016May 1, 2017 amyofhearthridge9 Comments

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{Google}

Does anyone want to join me in a little project of delight? I want to read through the entire 8 book Anne of Green Gables Series by L.M. Montgomery again. These are some of the most cherished books of my life, and I thought it would be fun to read and write through them…I’m putting no time limit on this, so it could take me a year or ten 🙂 , but I know it will be a joy. Join me on your own blog space OR just comment in the comment section about sections that stood out to you, quotes, life lessons, and just Anne love. I enjoy reading challenges, but I don’t like pressure added to my life. This is a lovely journey to me with NO pressure. You are welcome to join. I will list these under Anne Shirley in my Ramblings category cloud, so if you miss one, just check there and read along! 🙂 Avonlea, here I come! 🙂

Monday Ponderings {December 5th}

December 5, 2016December 5, 2016 amyofhearthridge2 Comments

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Mother had that peculiar God-given gift of imagination so keen that the printed word became to her a vivid, living reality. It was as though, while her body stayed at home and cared for the children, her spirit had climbed far mountain peaks and sailed into strange harbors…Yes, the warp of Mother’s life had been restricted to keeping the home for Henry and the children. But the woof of the texture had been fashioned from the wind clouds and star drifts of the heavens.

Mother Mason by Bess Streeter Aldrich

pg 84-85

Diamonds come forth…

December 4, 2016 amyofhearthridge6 Comments

Did you know that diamonds are birthed after 725,000 pounds of pressure? I’ve been thinking of all the squeezing, pressure, struggles, and frustrations that can make up moments of my life. The reality is that most of my “trouble” in this life is just exactly that…REAL life. It isn’t extraordinary or special, it is the daily plodding through life that we all do this side of Heaven. I also acknowledge that the troubles here in America can’t compare to the struggle for daily living in many places.

Yet, the relationships, remodeling, the home educating, the dishes, the meals, the laundry for my family are pressing daily. The beautiful, yet busy holiday pressures of celebrations, traditions, and gatherings hover over me. The colder weather, the different ages of my children and their needs, my marriage relationship, friends, and don’t forget all the other fringe people in our lives that need love, care, and concern.

The pressure is intense. Yet, just maybe, if I can choose patience, choose joy, choose to look at it differently…these moments are some of our best remembered memories. “Oh, Mom! Remember that time you spun the van around in the driveway? Dad was awesome and dug you out!” “Remember that time we used candles and had an oatmeal picnic in your room when the electricity was out?” “Remember that time we made homemade gifts to stretch the budget?” “Remember the countless hours we snuggled up in the winter, reading together, instead of going out?” “Remember how you lugged wood seven months pregnant? (I do indeed remember that.)” “Remember dad saving the day?” “Remember that man who helped us?” I could go on and on. The truth is that a mixture of pressures, patience, and hope in Jesus can do more for us then living a comfortable, stress-free life. We can come forth as diamonds.

In these hard moments, it is almost impossible to see the sparkle and gleam of what God is working into our hearts, character, and very being. Believe me, I’ve felt like screaming if one more thing broke at home, or we might not have what I want immediately, but *gasp* have.to.wait. God-forbid, you have to wait for something you want, Amy.

Time and time again, the truth comes forth with patience and perseverance. The whole beauty of life doesn’t lie in the few lovely seemingly perfect moments. It lies in what it took to get there. The working hard, loving hard, falling down, getting up, and pressing on patiently.