Category: Books

August Buddy Reads 🌞🌻🌿

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Happiest August everyone! 😄♥️🌿 I realized I’m starting a lot of online buddy reads and continuing a few, too! I absolutely LOVE talking about reading 😉 (if you hadn’t noticed before 🤪) and so I thought I’d check in!

1. Dynevor Terrace by Charlotte Mary Yonge – my Victorian reading friends are huge CMY fans and I so enjoyed reading Pillars of the House with them last year. I’m still not a CMY super fan, but the conversation is lovely.

2. I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger – I’m so excited to read this fourth book of Enger’s as apart of my Leif Along this year. This a brand new book from my favorite modern author who happens to be a Midwesterner, too! ♥️

3. The Peterkin Papers by Lucretia P. Hale – sweet , family-ish tale. Excited to read a lighter story for balancing out Kristin Lavransdatter. 😅

Of course, I’m continuing with The Cross and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

I’m also dipping into a lot of home education books for refreshment and encouragement. 🌿♥️😁📚📚📚📚 How about you? Any books you are really looking forward to this month?

Wednesday Wonders 🌿💜🌿

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Listening… I’m rereading (listening) to Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury in anticipation of facilitating discussions in our co op High School Literature class. I’m excited to see what the kids think of this one! 😄♥️🌿

Reading…some Voxer friends and I are beginning the third book in Kristin Lavransdatter tale, an epic Norwegian fictional story following one woman’s life during medieval times. Fascinating, beautifully written, but a torturous story in some respects. It will definitely be a favorite of the year for all the religious and moral questions it raises, the immersive setting, and gorgeous nature passages. The story itself is heartbreaking. 💔 I’m so enjoying reading it with a few other ladies and discussing. I’m also continuing on with my Pilgrim at Tinker Creek reread.

Watching… I’m on a bit of a YouTube detox, but I hope to watch some Booktube soon. I’m especially looking forward to this one! Jenna dives deep into what she reads. FYI: haven’t watched yet so can’t vouch for content! 😂😉

Noticing… the way that light glints off things. Little pockets of beauty everywhere.

What are you listening to, reading, watching, or noticing? 🌿♥️🌿💜🌿♥️🌿

Wednesday Wonders

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Listening… I really enjoyed Episode S6E85 Morning Time for Moms, Part 4, with Christina Baehr, here. I couldn’t figure out how to directly link. Christina is a cozy fantasy author and homeschooling mom who chatted with Cindy Rollins. Thanks to my friend, Kate, for telling me about it!

Reading… Know & Tell by Karen Glass. I was desperately in need of a refresher on all things Charlotte Mason as I plan our upcoming homeschool year. I’m entering my 15th year of homeschooling. I’m so thankful to God for His faithfulness. 😭♥️🌿

Watching… This YouTube channel about Charlotte Mason homeschooling.

Noticing… raindrops on hollyhock buds, endless blue skies, and the way the barn swallows swoop around me when I’m on the mower. Not to mention the smell of freshly cut grass! 🥰🥰🥰

How ‘bout you? What are you listening to, reading, watching, and noticing? ♥️🌿📚😍

•most•

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Discipline is choosing between what you want now, and what you want most.

Abraham Lincoln, emphasis mine

DIY Woman’s Well Refill “Degree” 😁♥️

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I was so inspired Chantel’s DIY Literature Degree that I’ve been thinking about how to incorporate something similar. I’ve been feeling the pull (again) to be purposeful about certain areas of my life. I need some home education, spiritual, and life inspiration! I put together a stack of books to pull from, resources, and habits to especially focus on this summer. I’m sure this will extend far beyond 3 months 😉, but I love sharing in case it encourages/inspires someone else and as a bit of accountability for me. Firstly, here are some of the books. I am going to be dipping into these, and/or finishing, or rereading. My Bible and Fire Bible notes are a biggie as well plus various devotionals I dip into!

~ Formation of Character by Mason (life/ home learning)

~ Learning All the Time by Holt (home learning)

~ Get Your Life Back by John Eldredge ✔️

~ Women by Edith Stein ( spiritual/creativity/life)

~ The Cloud of Witness by various (ongoing)

~Slowing Time and Motherprayer by Mahany (spiritual/life)

~ poetry from different poets (spiritual/life)

~Know and Tell by Glass (home learning) ✔️

~ Real Learning Revisited by Foss (life/home learning) ✔️

~Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Dillard (nature/life) ✔️

~Jane & Dorothy by Marean Veevers

Some of these are on my Summer ABC list too, which works well!

Our last co op Picture Study artist! Fascinating!

The next area is my health. I’ve been floundering a bit in the program I was in and have gained a lot of weight back. I prayed about it and talked with a few close people and made some modifications. I’ve started back in and am feeling hopeful. I am prioritizing getting outside/walks, drinking water, trying to sleep, journaling, healthy food, and a biggie is limiting social media. I also have to have margin around our busy summer schedule. The key to these things is just a little bit everyday. I know it sounds like a lot, but I’m keeping it VERY simple to set myself up for success. 🙏🏻❤️‍🔥

Multiplication with Beans

Lastly, I really want to focus on real life relationships. I have a lot of people here at home and around me that I want to pray for and keep in touch with. Soooo, I’m focusing on s-l-o-w media…like penpals, this blog (it takes me a lot of work to post as I’m working from my phone), and an occasional reading wrap up on Booktube (super slow because it’s a lot of work to film and edit)! This means I won’t be around Instagram this summer, and limiting how much Booktube I watch! I have plans to connect with church and local homeschool moms this summer and I’m excited and a good nervous. 😅 I’ve been seeing that I need to break some covid-era dependency on online friends. Not that I’ll forget them entirely, my Victorian Reading friends through Kate Howe’s Patreon are dear to me! 😍 I’m really focusing on reading aloud to my younger kids and dates with my hubby, too.

Recent library picture books that we loved! 🥰

How ‘bout you? How is your summer shaping up? If you could create a DIY degree for yourself, what would it be? I’d love to hear! Chat below! 😍♥️🏡🌿🍄📝📚

Yes, please.

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Aesop Fables

I’ve been thinking, praying, and starting to research/plan for our next formal home-learning year. It’s so fun to pull off treasures from the past…ahem, books my older kids loved and share them with my youngers. We had so much fun listening to this old Jim Weiss retelling of a few of the fables plus there’s a few other stories for another day. ♥️

Yes, please.

Summer 2024 Shelf TBR ABC Project

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Hi 👋 friends! One of my little projects this summer will be to read/reread from my shelves! I also have a learning project that I will post about later, but for now, these are ones I’d love to pick up sooner than later! I’ll come back and cross off as I finish and hopefully I can chat a bit about the ones that really spoke to me. Even if it takes me the rest of the year that’s ok, too. Do you have projects like this for yourself? 😍♥️📚

A – Apple Bough by Noel Streatfield ✔️

B – Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

C – I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger ✔️

D – Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl (with my kids)

E – The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding

F – The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien (reread)

G – A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

H – Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry (reread)

I – Martha’s Vineyard : Isle of Dreams by Susan Branch (reread)

J – Jane & Dorothy by Marian Veevers and/or Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery (reread, with my kids) ✔️or Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (reread)✔️

K – Kristin Lavransdatter 1:The Wreath, ✔️2:The Wife, ✔️3: The Cross by Sigurd Undset (online buddy read group) ✔️

L – Sylvia’s Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell ✔️

M – Barbara Mahany titles and/or Memories of Childhood Marcel Pagnols

N – Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens and North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell ✔️ (reread)

O – Orion & the Starborn by K. B. Hoyle (with my kids)

P – Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard ( reread, buddy read with my friend Kim! 😁♥️🌿)✔️

Q –

R- Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey (buddy read with Deea, Penny, and Sandy ✔️

S – Sense of Wonder by Rachel Carson ✔️

T – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

U – Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington ✔️

V – Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge (reread, with my kids)

W – Essays on Woman by Edith Stein

X – Ox Cart Man by Barbara Cooney ✔️

Y –

Z – Oz books by L. Frank Baum (some rereads, with my kids) and/or Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury.

What are excited to be learning, reading, doing this summer? 😄♥️📚

today I have so far…

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Olav H. Hauge

Today so far I’ve: read my Bible/journaled while sipping black coffee from my lovely 🥰 pastel thrifted woodland creature mug, read some things I’m studying (more about my DIY Women’s Well Refresh later, hopefully), sent a reminder email for our local mom’s homeschool group, listened to Studio Ghibli soundtracks, took a short walk among the cool morning sunshine while listening to Magyk by Angie Sage audiobook (I’m loving it). I took a shower and dug out a comfy sweatshirt because it’s chilly today, I made myself a breakfast of plain yogurt, banana, cashew butter, cinnamon, and oats! I supervised children doing their maths and found sweatshirts for little kids planting the garden with their 15yo sister. I talked about dyeing things with dye made from dandelions and tried to figure out what to cook for meals today since the stove is getting a little TLC. I sent three older ‘kids’ off to various jobs, one having to borrow my van, because a car battery needed jumping. I talked about drawing books, schedules, and What is Poetry? by Michael Rosen with various family members. My 15 yo and I talked about how we can secretly make my hubby’s favorite mint bars for his upcoming birthday. I helped same child find wrapping paper for her gift. I’ve been praying and finalizing the book discussion, Scriptures, and end of year stuff to share with my mom friends tonight at the last meeting, I ended up dumping potatoes in the Instapot for a baked potato bar lunch. I’ve been listening with (thankfully) an amused heart to a recorder being played upstairs. I’ve been putting books on hold to read aloud and for planning our new home learning year. I’ve been digging into this blog for all her WONDERFUL inspiration and resources. I’ve been listening to this and something is stewing in my heart to share in my next article for Sisters of the Wooden Spoon. I’ve been reevaluating my health and my media usage, setting up accountability for both…

And it’s noon, now. 😁♥️ Time to return to this wonderful life I’ve been gifted, lunch, and the Winnie-the-Pooh audiobook, Pictures of Hollis Woods, On the Banks of Plum Creek, and narrations. I think I’ll cook some sausage on my pancake griddle 🤣 and put taco soup in the crockpot for dinner.

I share this because I’m just SO grateful for life and I love reading about other women’s days. 😄♥️ Bless your Tuesday. I’d love if you’d share below your day! 😍🌿

•bursting•

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The world is bursting with wonder, and yet it’s the rare productivity guru who seems to have considered the possibility that the ultimate point of all our frenetic doing might be to experience more of that wonder.

Oliver Burkeman

The Professor never really seemed to care whether we figured out the right answer to a problem. He preferred our wild, desperate guesses to silence, and he was even more delighted when those guesses led to new problems that took us beyond the original one. He had a special feeling for what he called the “correct miscalculation,” for he believed that mistakes were often as revealing as the right answers.

Yoko Ogawa

These two very different books have converged in my heart recently. I’m not finished with Four Thousand Weeks, but the sense I’m getting from both books is THIS moment you are in is what you have. Be grateful. Relish it. Wallow in it. Enjoy. I absolutely adored the audiobook of The Housekeeper and The Professor. How would you live if you had 80 minutes of memory before it starts over? What really matters in a person’s life? What is happiness? Do we need more, more, more of anything? Just bursting with gratitude for THIS moment.

What’s on your heart today? I’d love to hear! ♥️🌿🌸🪺🪴🌷