Create – A.M. Pine – Hearth Ridge Reflections

Six in Six 🌸📚☕️ {Day 54}

June 6, 2026 amyofhearthridge2 Comments

Beauty in the midst of construction zone! 😅🥰

I’ve enjoyed Jessica’s blog for awhile now and I saw she was joining in a bookish blog hop about our 2026 reading! I used to blog hop a lot and really enjoyed linking up with others over a common topic. 😍 I’m joining her at Words & Peace for this reading meme reflecting about your first six months of reading.

Instructions from Emma at Words & Peace:

In 2021, Jo at The Book Jotter started hosting the meme Six in Six.
She stopped blogging in 2025, so I have decided to host it myself.

What is 6 in 6?

The idea is to look back at the books you have read so far in the six months of this year.
Now, I love plays with numbers, so I’m extending this meme:
you can post any time in July, or as early as 6/6, June 6^th.

What do you post?

Choose 6 books in 6 categories.
You can come up with your own category, or choose among the following examples (copied from Jo’s blog):

Six new authors to me

Six authors I have read before

Six authors I am looking forward to reading more of

Six books I have enjoyed the most

Six books I was disappointed with

Six series of books read or started

Six authors I read last year – but not so far this year

Six books that took me on extraordinary journeys

Six books that took me by the hand and led me into the past

Six books from the past that drew me back there

Six books from authors I know will never let me down

Six books I must mention that don’t fit nicely into any category

Six books I started in the first six months of the year and was still caught up with in July

Six trips to Europe

Six blogging events I enjoyed

Six bookish things I’m looking forward to

Six Espionage or Historical Novels I enjoyed

Six Cool Classics

Six Non-US/Non-British Authors

Six From the Non-Fiction Shelf

Six books that didn’t live up to expectations

Six books that I had one or two problems with but am still glad I tried

Six books that are related to The Great War or Second World War

Six bookshops I have visited

Six books I’ve read in an English translation

Six books which are better than the film

Six books which are worse than the film

Six books that have sport as their major theme

Six favourite places to read

Six books read on kindle and then went and bought an actual copy

Six books I abandoned

Six classics I have read

Six books I have read on my Kindle

Six physical books I have read

Six book covers I love

Six book covers that bear no resemblance to the story contained within

Six books to read to avoid politics

Six books I have read but not reviewed

Six books I have read in lockdown

Six classic mysteries

Six books about Royalty

Six pretty book covers

Six books set in a country other than my own

Six books that feature a Pandemic

Six books that are great when self-isolating

Six books recently added to my wish list

Six mysteries, thrillers or crime novels NOT by Agatha Christie

Six books with titles connected to rivers, seas and storms

Six nature related books

Six books about Librarians and Libraries

Six books I really want to buy in the next six months

Six books that feature a building in the title

My categories I’ve chosen to share about are:

Six favorite genres so far
Six favorite reads so far in 2026
Six favorite Booktube Readathons
Six New-to-Me Authors
Six Mysteries I loved
Six Books I Read from My Shelf

My Six Favorite Genres: (many are a mixture of these below! I’m such an eclectic reader!)

Fairytale/Classic Retellings
Fantasy
Historical Fiction
Mystery
Young Adult
Middle Grade

My Six Favorite Reads so far 2026 (so hard to choose!)

The Secret of Honeycake by Kimberly Newton Fusco (beautiful, heartwarming Middle Grade)
The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas (gorgeous, Biblical Historical Fiction)
The Will of Many by James Islington (wonderful epic Historical Fantasy)
Through Rushing Waters by Catherine Richmond (Heartbreaking Historical Fiction)
Mistress Pat by L.M. Montgomery (beautifully written classic)
Dawn of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw (classic fantasy story of an underdog!)

My Six Favorite Booktube Readathons So Far this Year: (You can still join these! I don’t follow the monthly prompts, I just fill them in as I go!)

Six New-to-Me Authors

Carrie Cotten, Christian Fantasy, The Huntress
Derin R. Hicks, Middle Grade, Shakespeare Mystery Duo-logy
Kate Stradling, Cozy Fantasy, Deathmark
Sheri Cobb South, Regency Romance, The Weaver Takes a Wife
Lloyd C. Douglas, Biblical Historical Fiction, The Robe
Michael Perry, Memoir, Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time

Want to try this one from Douglas soon! About Apostle Peter!

Six Mysteries I have enjoyed :

Death in a Strange Country (and Quietly In Their Sleep) by Donna Leon (Commisario Brunetti Series)
For Whom the Book Tolls by Laura Gail Black (cozy mystery)
Breach of Trust by DiAnn Mills (Romantic Suspense Mystery Thriller)
Alex Rider: Scorpio (and Snakehead) by Anthony Horowitz (mystery/spy thriller series)
Dead in the Water by Denise Swanson (small town mystery)
Secrets of Shakespeare’s Grave (and sequel Tower of Five Orders) by Deron R. Hicks (Middle Grade)

My library is currently all dismantled for remodeling! 🥲📚♥️

Six Books I actually Read from My Own Shelf (Physical/Kindle Shelf):

Caddie Woodlawn (reread) by Carol Ryrie Brink (Middle Grade Historical Fiction)
Fatal Fudge Swirl by Meri Allen (Cozy Mystery)
This is Happiness by Niall Williams (hauntingly beautiful Historical Fiction)
The Road Past Altamont by Gabrielle Roy (beautiful book in translation about Mother/Daughter relationships)
Followed by Frost by Charlie N. Holmberg (charming reimagining of Disney’s Frozen, YA Fantasy)
Persuasion (reread) by Jane Austen (Regency)

How has your reading year been so far? 📚📖

Monday Ponderings ~ Happy June~ 🌲🌿🌱🍃 {Day 49}

June 1, 2026 amyofhearthridge7 Comments

Starting a bit of a June challenge for myself! June is my birthday month so I want to gift myself health, beauty, relationships, and simple routines. I’m putting this here for additional accountability and encouragement! It’s never too late to start again.

♥️🌲🌿🌱🍃♥️

Deck Delights {Day 46} 🌼🌸🌺

May 29, 2026 amyofhearthridge3 Comments

Idlewild season {the name of my deck garden😅} is officially started! I read my Bible with my coffee out there this morning. 😍 Bliss! Have some seeds planted in those big tubs, too! ❣️ We also have four tomato plants and a fern.

I was hoping to plant a huge patch of sunflowers, zinnias, and cosmos, but it may not happen with wedding planning and remodeling. It’s so lovely to have this bit of cheer to enjoy. Grateful. ☺️

Are you planting or growing anything? 😍🌻

Paper Pile Peek {Day 43} 📜📝📓🔖

May 25, 2026 amyofhearthridge2 Comments

✨•what are you working on?•✨ Eeek, books and journals, pens and stickers, lists and scribbles, total bliss! ✨😁🥰

Just around the corner…{Day 41} 🩷💜🤍🧚

May 22, 2026 amyofhearthridge3 Comments

I had so much fun 🤩 setting up my June reading pages and I’m looking forward to filling the pages with mini reviews and book covers from my reading. It was nice to sit and just rest in a teeny bit of creativity!

How are you!? Have you been creating anything or reading/watching anything great? 💜

Monday Ponderings {Day 39} 🌿

May 18, 2026 amyofhearthridge3 Comments

And so it begins…😅♥️🧙‍♂️👊🏼✨My poor library! 🥲😂

Last week taking down my shelves… we hired our oldest son to do the bulk of the work. Phase 1 – demolition, insulation, electrical, drywall, ceiling, recessed lighting, new sliding door (for future deck) and a few windows. Last of this phase is floor and trim. 😎🫣 Pray for us. 😂

How’s your Monday? ♥️

Monday Ponderings 🦋 {Day 25}

April 27, 2026 amyofhearthridgeLeave a comment

A few simple things to aim for this spring/summer! Prayerfully asking the Lord to help me focus on relationships and rightly ordering my affections. Do you have anything planned or something on your heart? ♥️

Happy Monday! ♥️🌲📚

Favorite Blogs and Booktube Channels to check out! {Day 22} 📽️📚

April 23, 2026April 23, 2026 amyofhearthridge7 Comments

Happy Thursday! I ‘tried’ to group these by main genre topic. ♥️ I’m hoping to add more for reference! A few of these don’t regularly update, but there is a TREASURE TROVE of back posts!

Writing/General Memoir/Nature:

Poetry (among other gems):

Beautiful Messy Life

Dreams from A Pilgrimage

Kourtney Garrison

Leaf and Twig

Tea & Paper

writing in north norfolk

Essays/Articles:

Enthusiastically, Dawn

Dr. Lizzie Rogers

The Marginalian

Home/Domestic/Family:

Reading/Homeschool:

The Book Worm Chronicles

Woldenburn

Booktube Absolute Favorites:

Kate Howe

Chantel Reads All Day

Miriam Elizabeth Reads

Gloria Z Thompson

Cozy Cottage Chapters

Happy reading/watching! This would be a perfect place to dive into on your next rainy day! So thankful for creativity and words! 🌲♥️😍

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!

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 🌲♥️

Advent Diaries ~::🎄❄️♥️Pages 16-21♥️❄️🎄::~ CANDLELIGHT through SCRIPTURE ~ {Day 57}

December 21, 2024December 21, 2024 amyofhearthridge3 Comments

Happy First Day of Winter! ❄️ *Dear Rebecca, Winter Is Here* is a favorite read this time of year.

Dear Friends, hello again! I thought I’d catch up on my prompts by using them for more introspection and planning. Most of these areas, besides the marriage-focused ones, I will be including my children as we learn together. You are invited to join me in spirit or in your own planning…read on, if interested. ♥️❄️🎄

In the New Year ~2025~ I’d like too…

Light Candlelight in my marriage relationship and invest in my friendships deeply:

• planning dates, trips, times of prayer together with my husband, I’d love to jot down memories from these times and print off photos etc as a memorial of gratitude for God’s faithfulness.

•I’d like to reprioritize pen pal notes of encouragement, coffee dates with family and other friends, texting people who come to mind in prayer, local, and church women’s groups I’m in. We need one another more than ever.

The color of Green reminds me of hope, health, and creativity! It’s my favorite color 🍏🌿🌲🌱🍃🪴

•I’m planning on a few set creative challenges, especially using Bella Grace and Conscious Creativity for ideas.

•Figuring out a healthy way of living tailored to my needs and season of life and then being faithful to it.

•visiting my creative “heart homes”, if I can, occasionally or at least once next year. A special coffee shop, cabin, specific nature spots, and yes, Barnes & Noble. 😂 I love dreaming and planning at these places and it gives me something to look forward to! Yes, my major heart homes are the Lake District, Cumbria, England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 and P.E.I., Canada, 🇨🇦 but no plans soon for returning there. 😉🥰😍😂

My Reading life is a life-giving to me. I’m intentionally keeping it simple this year with two challenges and open-ended possibilities.

•my first challenge is to start reading all Kate Howe’s current Victorian Literature Favorites as a project for myself. I actually haven’t finished or read many of these and thought it would be fun to challenge myself with some deeper reading.

• I absolutely love Chantel’s open-ended word categories this year, so hoping to plug in what I read there. I may not do them in the months assigned, but will look at them throughout the year.

• I was so inspired by this video talking about ideas for this gal’s reading journal. I don’t pre set up most of my journal pages except in the opening, preferring to work on them as the year progresses. I’m hoping to tweak some of her ideas to work for my journal.

•I want to tie on my Apron of home keeping and hospitality in a new, fresh way this year. Sometimes this means making a meal for a new mom or dropping off a bouquet of sunflowers you grew. It can mean more than hosting in your home. I have an older house with one small bathroom. How can I use it to bless my hubby, children, and those around me? This isn’t an easy area for me, so I want to grow. I’d like to put some effort in helping my husband fix a few things and focus on a small, container flower garden on my older deck, as a way of extending our home this summer. I’d like to host bonfires in fine weather, as we have a lot of outdoor space. Praying for the Lord’s leading. I’m setting up my little to-do planner/memory book in anticipation! I feel like I’m being asked to focus on ‘Taking Heed/Paying Attention” as my phrase for the year. I found a quote by Charlotte Mason, my educational philosophy heroine, that uses the phrase “expectant attention” and it hit me like a lightening bolt. I want to pay attention to the Lord’s still small voice in expectancy for all the glorious Truth and Love He has for me.

Amy Carmichael quote for my phrase of the year! “Expectant Attention”

Little paper doors that open with goals and ideas! 🥹😍

•I’d love to take to the Forest and field more. Nature walks and returning over and over again to numerous nearby favorites has blessed us immensely over the years on rotation. We truly strengthen our relationships with each other and walk away with little bits of beauty that keep on giving. These usually just cost me a bit of planning, a lunch thrown in a bag, and a little gas for an unmeasurable amount of Joy.

•Lastly, I want to really revamp and dive into my Scriptures this year. The Holy Bible is my life map and I honestly, adore it. I don’t understand it and it’s hard to read at times, but by faith, it will not return void in my life. I’d like to try a bit more focused journaling around it and I was so inspired by Doris’ journal here. She’s not using it for prayer and Scripture items, but I feel I could adapt some of it.