Novelist Katherine Anne Porter wrote, “Human life itself may be almost pure chaos, but the work of the artist-the only thing he’s good for- is to take these handfuls of confusion and disparate things, things that seem to be irreconcilable, and put them together in a frame to give them some kind of shape and meaning.”
from Jean Fleming’s Pursue the Intentional Life
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!
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. 🙏🏻❤️🔥
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.
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! 😍♥️🏡🌿🍄📝📚
The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.
Robert Henri
“cozy chaos
sounds like a poem,”
said a friend.
shards of color,
warmth of light,
kind encouragement,
all combine to comfort
my raging heart.
A.M. Pine 🌲
colorful spines down
the home library’s back
a living being
fire-breathed
forest of words
scaled and long-limbed
hint of dangerous beauty
caresses and rustles
through my pine-needled
red hair.
A.M. Pine 🌲
Love orbs, flat and sweet
Peace-bringers, sighs, smiles, sorries
Flour and sugar white flags.
A.M. Pine 💕
{Happy February! February brings my third annual participation in the World Peace Poets Postcard Fest and I hope to share some poems here, too!}💕💞💜♥️📝💌♥️💜💞💕
There is just something about September🌾🍂🍁 that has gotten under my skin and deep down into my soul. The golden tinge, the lazy, drift-y woodsmoke through the warm sun’s slant, the cool, autumn-touched mornings, and the swirl of leaves 🍂 behind my van as I go a toolin’ down the road. Sigh. I declare September as my ‘new year’, the sitting among fluttering Queen Anne’s Lace with the Chicory and Golden Rod as my only resolution. Oh, glorious September, don’t go with your woody smell of freshly sharpened pencils, favorite cardigans pulled out, and bold Zinnias flaring out of gardens. The cicadas screaming buzz, green speckled grasshoppers, and that deep, dark secretive cricket singing from behind the refrigerator. There is an end of summertime, early autumn 🍂 rustle and crunch to everything, cornstalks, leaves, and a rattle and roll to the landscape. It is SO unbelievably beautiful and I’m thankful for new seasons and new, fresh beginnings.
Never put the key to your Happiness in somebody else’s pocket.
Tom Ziegler
{Previous Whole Person Work Posts}
Spiritual:
I’m really trying to get into focused prayer and devotions. I have a well established devotional time, but it has been very distracted and disjointed. I’m loving the second half of Ezekiel! It’s an intense book, but oh, there’s some richness and encouragement, too.
Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the LORD GOD to these bones: “ Surely I will cause breath to enter into you and you shall live.
Ezekiel 37:4-5, NKJV
Physical:
I’ve really struggled and I know it’s because my good habits were not well established again after letting them fall by the wayside. Homeschooling began and it has been a battle for me in getting enough well, everything. 😕😔 Sleep, water, walks, and healthy, nourishing meals. Pray for me to slowly integrate these back in as our homeschool days are evening out now.
Mental:
Honestly, with school beginning, I’ve felt myself feeling “crazy” and even though homeschooling is going well, it’s just that added “on- ness” that I know contributes. We have extra outside obligations, also, and I know that adds to this feeling. I’m recognizing I need to adjust some of my summer habits and be very choosy about what I’m giving mental space to and also remembering to judge my feelings by Truth. Taking my thoughts captive! My sister sent me this quote to think on:
The wonderful thing about praying is that you leave a world of not be able to do something, and enter God’s realm where everything is possible. He specializes in the impossible. Nothing is too great for His Almighty Power. Nothing is too small for His love.
Corrie ten Boom
Emotional:
I’ve been *trying* to turn off social media (curse you, Booktube- jk, jk! ) and actually use my hands to make bouquets, write penpals, and lately, create altered composition notebooks. Creating with my hands always helps encourage and calm my emotions. We took a little ‘Tookish’ adventure the other day to a cemetery with gorgeous leaves and had a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie 🍪 snack there, yes, I know that’s sort of weird , but we loved reading the history of people’s lives on the headstones 🪦 and enjoying the autumn atmosphere. We then visited a new-to-us public library and it was fun setting aside my Baggins habits of wanting to hide in my house all the time. 😉😏
Servanthood: thinking 🤔 on this quote! 😨♥️🙏
Nothing disciplines the inordinate desires of the flesh like service, and transforms the desires of the flesh like serving in hiddenness. The flesh whines against service but screams against hidden service. It strains and pulls for honor and recognition. It will devise subtle, religiously acceptable means to call attention to the service rendered. If we stoutly refuse to give in to this lust of the flesh, we crucify it. Every time we crucify the flesh, we crucify our pride and arrogance.
Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline, p. 130
Verse focus:
I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. And I will cause showers to come down in their season; they will be showers of blessing. Also the tree of the field will yield its fruit and the earth will yield its increase and they will be secure on their land. ♥️
from Ezekiel 34, NASB
Last, but certainly not least, I’ve been so encouraged and enjoying my reading. I finished Volume 1. of Charlotte Mary Yonge’s delightful family saga, The Pillars of the Home, with my favorite online book people, Victorian literature lovers. Victorian literature is fast becoming a favorite genre! We will continue Volume 2 for Victober! I also SO enjoyed Distilled Genius by Susan Branch, a collection of her illustrations and hand lettered quotes. Branch and I differ in some worldview and lifestyle aspects, but overall, I loooved this collection. I’m currently rereading for the third time, her Martha’s Vineyard: Isle of Dreams, one of my favorite memoirs of all time.
How about you? How are you? 🕸️🍪🕷️📓🪦🍁🍃🍂♥️😄☕️📖📚💌📝🖋️❤️🩹❣️💕💟 Please chat below, I’d love to catch up!
What are you reading 📖, exploring, or creating this weekend? Happy September, friends! 😘🥰🌻♥️☕️📖📚🍃🐌🍁🤎📝📓💌📬🍎✨🌾🍄🌲
I’m mostly sipping coffee ☕️ {maybe Tazo’s Lemon 🍋 Loaf tea, later} and loving The Grasmere Journals by Dorothy Wordsworth 🥰.
{Introduction here to this series}
For a habit is a delight in itself; poor human nature is conscious of the ease that it is to repeat the doing of anything without effort; and, therefore , the formation of a habit, the gradually lessening sense of effort in a given act, is pleasurable.
Charlotte Mason, Home Education, p. 121
My focus areas:
Spiritual: been really trying to keep up with my YouVersion apps Bible readings with friends. However, I decided I needed a slower soak also, so I began the New Testament this week and wow, it’s been so lovely. Just Jesus’ words. Journaling and meditating on it all. I’m reading a few devotionals and Mary Oliver’s nature poetry has been turning my heart 💜 to my Creator. I’ve been prioritizing spending my quiet time outdoors, too, because it adds so much.
Physical: I was able to get out for a long walk one day and listen to an audiobook. It was wonderful! Hopefully, going again today. I tend to be pretty sedentary, so walks are something I want to make time for. I adjusted my food a lot this week and checked in with my sister each night. I felt very ‘hangry’ at times and journaled etc to help. I’m admittedly seeing a few things that are creeping in that I can’t be moderate in. I will be just taking those out of my diet. I know this seems extreme, but for me, it works. I’m trying something I’m calling BLE Lite (Bright Line Eating), in which I follow the plan closely with a few planned exceptions. I’m definitely easing back in as this program is pretty intense and structured. However, I do think I work better with clear boundaries.
Mental: I’m trying to chose good books to read and journal/narrate/collage about them. Slowing down to create or discuss calms and soothes my anxiety. I participated in a Zoom book discussion on Anthony Trollope’s The Belton Estate. I can get too introverted and find myself “hiding” and I want to challenge myself and grow, not stagnate. I’m rereading a challenging book about home as a ministry and it’s so good. I’ve been taking naps with my 4 yo occasionally and this makes a huge difference physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Emotional: I took off the week from YouTube and it’s been so nice. I’m on a year break from Instagram. I enjoy aspects of social media, but I have to balance these delicately otherwise, I personally find myself anxious, discontent, and not present. Naps, nature, walks, etc all contribute to a more balanced emo 🖤 state for me! 😄 I also did a few creative things this week that filled my cup like collaging, filming book reviews, sending a penpal letter, and writing. I took myself on a coffee date and also picked up a favorite magazine. I want to be careful not to always associate buying things for comfort, because I actually find more genuine peace in the things that cost 💲 NOTHING. However, occasionally, it’s fun to get a special gift. 💝
Servanthood: I won’t be giving a ton of actual real life details here as this is a personal area between me and Jesus, but, I do want to share action steps I want to try. I want to include one or more children in whatever I’m doing around the house, ie – take a child grocery shopping or take walks with kids sometimes, etc. I want to plan some activities to do WITH kids that aren’t work related. The reality of life here with a big family is we are often working together. That’s good, but I also want to do purposeful fun activities occasionally.
Verse Focus for coming week:
…His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.
from 2 Peter 1:3
So, overall, a good week, and I’m hopeful! Planning on checking in next week. Thanks for being here. ❣️❣️❣️ Let me know how you are? Lots of love, Amy 🖤🌲🖤
These three above selections were shared by my friend and this is what I think has been brewing for awhile in my heart, but started coming out as I simmered a bit over them. A collage of bits of letters, ephemera, and poetry for you! ♥️🌿
♥️Becoming ♥️
quilted by hand
mosaic shards
indigo dipped
puzzled over
collage pieced
~becoming~
sewn shut
stitched down
torn open
ironed flat
glued tight
~becoming~
rolled thin
poured out
mixed raw
washed clean
knit warm
~becoming~
idea inked
pencil erased
journal birthed
word soaked
being spoke
~becoming~
all together.
a bit of dust.
a bit of Divine.
swirl of a finger,
womenkind.
🌲🖤A.M. Pine🖤🌲
From the southeast came a steady summer wind that whispered sleepily around the house and on across the island. She could hear the weather report on the radio inside the house. A corner of sunshine edged across the windowsill.
Tove Jansson, The Summerbook, p.27
~Tove~
weird and wacky, yes
brightly thoughtful, I am seen
sun, moomins, and me
~ 🌲A. M. Pine🌲
What about you? Who’s art do you feel “seen” by? Tove’s combination of beautiful writing, bright painting, and whimsical illustration is a feast for me. ♥️💕🌿
There is wonder all around us…
Listening…my friend recently sang this song and sent me the music video. I’ve had it on loop. Thinking about my lasting influence. What truly will matter when I’m gone?
Reading… ‘Charlotte Mason and the Spirituality of Motherhood’ . Wow, lots of food for thought here.
Watching… lovely journaling inspiration here.
Noticing… little bits here there of life. Forget-Me-Nots ♥️♥️♥️ Little Free Libraries ♥️♥️♥️ Bare Feet on Warm Rocks ♥️♥️♥️ Little Bridges ♥️♥️♥️ Boys Sleeping in Sun-Soaked Hammocks ♥️♥️♥️ Tasha Tudor, Moomims, & New Thrifted Cookie Cutters ♥️♥️♥️
What are you listening to, reading, watching, & noticing? ♥️🥰🌿
A.M. Pine - Hearth Ridge Reflections 