Family – A.M. Pine – Hearth Ridge Reflections

Wednesday Wonders 🌾🌻🧡🍂💛🤎🐌🦗🕷️🕸️

September 16, 2026 amyofhearthridge1 Comment

Listening 🍂 ~ I have many things I want to listen to, especially from the Living Education Retreat. I’m looking forward to finding an uninterrupted moment so I can take notes! Looks like a wealth of knowledge here! I also want to try a recommendation from a friend, The Story Girl Podcast. I’m loving the audiobook of Firebird by Kathy Tyers. It reminds me of Star Wars, I’m liking the characters. We’ve been listening to this as a “call” to our morning time and we all agree it’s so invigorating and beautiful! 🤩

We own the Winter and Autumn collections in this series and really love them!

Watching 🍂 ~ I’m trying to limit Booktube to the weekends. My children recently watched The Sheep Detectives and said it was really good! I hope to try it this weekend?! Honestly, my brain space/power is SO low with all the outside things started!

Reading 🍂 ~ I just finished Murder on Bamboo Lane by Naomi Hirahara and it was a compelling police procedural mystery. A little grittier content wise, but I loved the writing. I liked the characters a lot even if a bit more overtly morally gray than I like. I’m slowly plugging away at The Virginian with my buddy reader and am loving it! Very well written and funny! I’m reading a couple chapters each morning of The Brothers Karamazov, and wow. 🤯 I’m also enjoying the second in a sci-fi series, Arabella and the Battle of Venus. We finished The Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden in my other group. Wow. 😮 It was dark, gritty food for thought. Not a favorite!

Noticing 🍂 ~ September is lovely, still summer-ish, yet shifting to autumn. The younger four kiddos and I went on a wonderful nature walk this week. 🤎💛🧡 It was so fun seeing old ‘friends’ again and noticing new treasure.

What are you listening to, watching, reading, noticing this week? 🥰 ~

Monday Ponderings 🧡🌻…an ancient-memory book… 📖

September 14, 2026 amyofhearthridge2 Comments

The cellar hole that had once held a home had been abandoned for many years. None but a dweller of the forest could have found it, for its road was lost, its stones were overgrown with wild brier and sumac, and the old gray birches that had sprouted around it were now tall and arched by the winds into a roof. But the cellar hole could remember. There, on one side, a brick fireplace had once stood with the bean pot snugly simmering in its oven, the andirons holding four-foot logs, and a mother rocking a cradle and knitting on the wide hearth. The cellar hole remembered spinning wheels and sleigh bells, sizzling doughnuts and molasses cookies, fishing tackle, guns, singing school and Bible readings, hardships and laughter, snow drifts and white lilacs. Now it was nothing but an ancient memory-book of things past. The thicket of black alder, pine and hemlock that led to it kept its pages closed to all except those who love the country.

~Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, Miss Hickory, p.54-55

The Simple Woman’s Daybook ✨🍂

September 9, 2026 amyofhearthridge7 Comments

New puzzle and The Silver Chair audiobook! 😍♥️

FOR TODAY~

Outside my window… ✨sunny and cool! Gorgeous! I wish I could mow/weed-whack but already have a lot going on. It’s been raining a lot and so I’m behind on yard work.

I am thinking…✨of my tween/teen girls class I’m teaching at church tonight! Our Charlotte Mason co op beginning tomorrow! Cleaning projects! Books to be read! 😅

I am thankful for…✨my new refrigerator! Even if it cut into remodeling budget. 🙃♥️👀

From the kitchen…✨I’m making sweet 🌽 corn for lunch and need to get sloppy joes in crockpot as we have church. I attempted a cake for my hubby and I’s anniversary this week. It was WAY more difficult (and too sweet) than I anticipated and was a bit of a flop. The kids ate it all, anyway! 😂♥️👀

I am creating…✨reading journal 📓 spreads and filling in September pages ~

Working on these, too! Back to Hogwarts!

My favorite readathon is COMING. I’m starting now! 🍂✨*Dr.Wortle’s School* is my first pick with my IRL bookclub! 😍

I’m never going to read those all, but fun to dream! 😂

I am going…✨ nowhere until church, working on homeschool lessons, church lessons, cooking etc.

I am wearing…✨heather gray knockoff 😅 Arirang World Tour Tshirt and green cargo pants, sandals and pearl earrings. Probably will change into something different for church!

I am reading…✨many things, but mainly excited about The Brothers Karamazov and starting Victorian things!

Here’s where I’m at in Bros K! 😎🤣👀 I’m loving it!

I am hoping…✨ to get ahead on some outside responsibilities stuff, revive my lagging health goals, and work on helping with the next step in our remodeling. 🫣😅🥵

I am hearing…✨my hubby shuffling papers in his home office. 😅

Around the house…✨messes and mayhem! 😅♥️Two children just came back from taking garbage to our dump. We have dishes etc to catch up on and the refrigerator switch out. We have more school to tackle and a little church prep, still.

One of my favorite things… ✨the golden, blues, browns, and greens of September! 🌾🍂🍃🌻

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week…✨ Homeschool co op! A movie night with my 7 yo! “Relaxation” this weekend. 😅♥️

Here is a picture thought I am sharing for you…

Hope your week is going well! ✨♥️🌻

August Ends, September Begins 💜

September 1, 2026 amyofhearthridge7 Comments

Happy September 1st! We are prayerfully and slowly getting into the groove this week with our autumn homeschooling schedule which kicks into high gear next week. I’m still holding onto late summer though. September has the potential to be a favorite month, EXCEPT if we get extremely humid weather. 🥵 Like yesterday. 😂

My last read for the Keep Me in Suspense Bingo Board. It’s actually turning out to be deeper and more introspective. The mystery is a bit slow and lackluster but the interpersonal relationship dynamics between the older father and his daughter, a 40 yo nun, is fascinating!

Very sweet new-to-me series! Husband and wife in small town! The wife is a wee-bit manipulative, but I loved the first for the most part.

From Instagram! August was a great month! 🥹🥰😍♥️ I’m amyofhearthridge on there, too, if you use IG!

Hubby and I went to Chicago for a quick 1 1/2 day trip! He surprised me with a ticket to see BTS. 💜

Korean pop band! It was an fantastic show!

So proud of myself for making a half eggplant and half noodle lasagna! 😅💜 Next time I need to figure out a better way to prep the eggplant. It was a bit salty.

Hope your week is starting on a high note. I’m still holding onto all the inspiration and beauty from this past weekend. I’m hoping still to make a vision/inspiration board for our new school year! ♥️

•leave it all•

August 26, 2026 amyofhearthridge3 Comments

I replied, “But my work seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose. Yet I leave it all in the LORD’s hand; I will trust God for my reward.”

Isaiah 49:4, NLT

Book Questions ☕️ {Part 4}

August 25, 2026 amyofhearthridge5 Comments

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

{I saw some book questions on an Instagram account called PensandPoison (I like SOME of her stuff, she’s a bit too clickbait-y for me) recently and have been having a lot of fun thinking about my answers. I think she answered them using all fiction, but I’m using everything to answer! I adapted these questions for me. It is a lot of questions and as usual, I can’t have just one answer 🤣, so I’ll be breaking this up into parts! I’d love to hear your answers and I hope you may find a new favorite if you try any of these!}

Lovely collection of nature poems and essays by a wide range of women!

♥️favorite poem~ I have SO many favorites, but Wendell Berry’s collection ‘Peace of Wild Things’ is an absolute favorite. Robert MacFarlane’s The Lost Spells is a family favorite. Currently, Emily Dickinson’s ‘If I Could Stop One Heart’ poem is probably my favorite.

♥️favorite first chapter ~ probably The Hobbit. 🥹😍🥰♥️

♥️favorite closing chapter ~ The Book of Revelations from The Holy Bible. Wowsers!

♥️favorite literary friendships ~ this is unbelievably hard. Betsy, Tacy, and Tib, Anne and Diana, Molly and Mr. Gibson, I could go on for an hour! 😅♥️

♥️favorite literary romance ~ (spoilers 😅) Anne Eliot and Captain Wentworth, Anne and Gilbert, Darcy and Elizabeth, Laura and Almanzo, Molly and Roger, I could go on and on… there are so many! These are the first that come to mind.

♥️most unforgettable scene ~ the Persuasion letter by Captain Wentworth.

♥️best narrator ~ I’m enjoying Ishmael’s POV of the whaling world in Moby Dick currently. Otherwise, I’ve loved Richard Armitage’s audiobook narration of various classics.

♥️book I wished had a sequel ~ a 5th book in The Mirror Visitor Series would be nice to tie up the ending more.

♥️book that has intimidated me the most ~ anything by George Eliot, Don Quixote, The Divine Comedy, anything Russian 😅, The Odyssey and Iliad. Lonesome Dove!

♥️hardest book I’ve ever finished ~ The Divine Comedy– woohoo! 🎉

I highly recommend this epistolary story between two cousins that has Cinderella and Beauty & the Beast vibes! Very well-written, slow paced. 🥰♥️

How about you? What are your answers to these 10 questions above? What are you currently loving reading? Any good magazines lately? I may get a subscription for Christmas and don’t know what to pick! 😅♥️🥰Happy Reading!

The Simple Woman’s Daybook ☕️🌻

August 19, 2026August 19, 2026 amyofhearthridge7 Comments

FOR TODAY~

Outside my window…it looks sparkly and sunny after a wild, gorgeous thunderstorm later yesterday!

I am thinking… of getting some laundry going so I can hang it on the line! Also about the books I found in a Little Free Library yesterday! I need to take some back to it. Do you ‘owe’ certain LFL’s books? 😂. I do this all the time.

I am thankful for…all the beautiful stories I have access to and for my little Delft mug my daughter bought me for my birthday! She found it at a garage sale.

From the kitchen… I am hoping to throw ham, rosemary, and potato soup into crockpot as we have church tonight!

I am creating… new reading journal pages! Last month, I decided to change the way I was doing my monthly spreads. Instead of printing off every book cover, I’m just making a monthly header page, a read list/readthon/buddy reads page, and then I want to do review pages for my favorites! I’d like to decorate each favorite’s review and then write out more thoughts etc, rather than just the small, teeny area around the book covers. I get a lot of inspiration from these two amazing reading journal artists: Manda Made and Michala’s Cozy Life ~

This little space dessert postcard a penpal sent to me is perfect so I made it into a “tip-in” for Sci-Fi September’s prompts. Zoom in if you want to see the darling illustrations on it!

Here’s how I set up the monthly page now. I’m trying to use all the stickers and washi I have currently before buying too much more!

Going to be printing off the Back to Hogwarts Readathon Game Board and placing it here! I may print of this Autumn Bingo Board too! My reading will go significantly down as school begins.

I am going… to my in-person bookclub this week! We are finally finished with Brideshead Revisited and I think it’s my turn to pick our next read! Now to narrow it down! I might make my friends read a Victorian novel 😈 with me since we are so close Victober! Or I could be nice and choose something lighter as we are all homeschooling moms. 🤔

I am wearing… probably my black pants and a Tshirt for the morning. It all depends if I end up lawn mowing today. The grass is super wet.

I am reading… a MILLION things. 🤭🫣 I always try to read too much right before school begins! 🙃 I really am trying to finish a few mysteries that I’m reading for the Keep Me in Suspense readthon. I’m super interested in finishing Moby Dick. You can’t read it fast, but over all I am loving it. The wordsmithing is top notch. I’m SO excited to be starting The Brothers Karamazov with my daughter. I’ve heard amazing things about it. An online friend (hi, Elizabeth! 👋) recommended A Snicker of Magic and I just started this morning after reading my Bible and ADORED the writing of the first chapter. I’m also loving my reread of The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. The little granddaughter Sophia is sorta mean to my favorite character (the grandmother) 😖🥲 and that’s bothering more this time through. It’s so, soooo beautiful though! 😌🥹🥰

I am hoping… to continue my clothing purging project! I was so proud of myself for going through my socks & underwear. Ha. Now to my two younger boys! 😬🫣 My 12 yo grew significantly this year, so I want to make a list of needs to check for at thrift stores!

I am hearing… kids getting popsicles from dad for breakfast?! 🤭🫣😂🙃

Around the house… piles, piles, piles. 😒

One of my favorite things… my deck garden, Idlewild!

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week… Bookclub, continuing all my class prep for various autumn teaching responsibilities. Our own homeschool, homeschool Charlotte Mason co op, local mom’s homeschool group, and church teen girl’s group! Asking the Lord for peace and wisdom for all these things.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing for you…

How’s your week going? Anything coming up for you? What are you reading or creating? Anything neat you are watching or listening to?

Monday Ponderings 💚📝

August 17, 2026 amyofhearthridge4 Comments

Imagine that you’ve been spending the last few minutes watching a blue jay hide a cache of seeds in a tile roof. Or imagine that yesterday, out on a walk, you passed a dog barking angrily at you. Or think about a special time when you learned to roller-skate, the first time you went to the circus, or a day when a friend moved away.

All of these events are part of life-yours and mine-and when they happen there is always something inside of me that wants to turn what I see or hear into a poem. The picture stays in my mind long after the blue jay has flown away or the dog stops barking. I begin to search for the words that will form themselves to make a picture I can share with others, the words that will re-create themselves experience for someone else.

~Myra Cohn Livingston, Poem-Making Ways to Begin Writing Poetry

I’m furiously working on our homeschool coop lessons and am LOVING this book I found for our older students. It makes me want to prioritize my poetry writing again! ♥️How’s your homeschool prep coming along? Are you all looking forward to autumn? 🍂

Happiest Monday! ☕️🌻♥️

Book Questions 📖 {Part 3}

August 15, 2026August 15, 2026 amyofhearthridge3 Comments

Annoying side character and a bit of a slow start, but I enjoyed this cozy mystery! 🔎🕵️‍♀️🫆

Part 1 HERE

Part 2 HERE

•favorite living authors ~

Leif Enger and Gary D. Schmidt? I also love Wendell Berry’s poetry.

•books I return to again and again ~

Jane Austen, especially Persusion, Pride & Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park.

L.M. Montgomery’s novels are SO reread-able!

C.S. Lewis! J.R.R. Tolkien! Maud Hart Lovelace! Gladys Taber! Laura Ingalls Wilder!

•the book I’d save if I could only keep one ~

Pilgrim’s Inn by Elizabeth Goudge ? This is a horrible question. 🤣😂😅

•the books I’d recommend to someone who wants to fall in love with literature ~

The Hobbit by J.R.R.T., Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, and The Boxcar Children #1 by Gertrude Chandler Warner.

•books I’ve reread the most ~

The Holy Bible, Jane Austen?, and L.M. Montgomery.

•favorite novella ~

Lady Susan by Jane Austen (not sure if novella?)

•favorite short stories ~

Ray Bradbury has amazing short stories!!!

•saddest ending ~ THOMAS HARDY novels!! 😭😭😭

•happiest ending ~

Dickens, especially, A Christmas Carol!

•favorite play ~

A Merchant of Venice? by William Shakespeare

New to me mystery series! I loved the first one!

How about you? What are your answers? 😄🌻📚☕️📖

Book Questions 📚☕️✨♥️ {Part 2}

August 14, 2026 amyofhearthridge5 Comments

Part 1 HERE, if interested!

•books I wish everyone would read ~

Wives & Daughters, Sylvia’s Lovers, North & South, or Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell. Really ANY of her full length novels. Her shorter things are a little hit or miss (looking at you A Dark Night’s Work 😒😅) but her novels are so good! 😊

• books I wish I had read sooner ~ Do Something Beautiful for God by Mother Teresa, Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (just finished this!), A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles and Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini.

•books that changed the way I think ~ (The Holy Bible is a given here) Home Education Series by Charlotte Mason, The Dean’s Watch by Elizabeth Goudge, Emily of Deep Valley by Maud Hart Lovelace, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter. I could go on for hours.

• most beautiful prose I’ve ever read ~ currently for me, Thomas Hardy’s writing, wow! Sad stories, gorgeous writing! I read A Return of the Native last year and was blown away. This is Happiness by Niall Williams and The Road Past Altamont by Gabrielle Roy this year had BEAUTIFUL writing.

• favorite opening sentence ~ this has to go to Jane Austen’s opening for Pride & Prejudice. If you know, you know. 😅 Sarcastically funny and draws you right into the story.

• favorite endings ~ I was wracking my brain for this. I think Elizabeth Goudge’s endings are pretty great. The Lord of the Rings! I liked the sad, open-ended ending of The Mirror Visitor Series by Christelle Dabos. Although, I wouldn’t mind a 5th book, if you are reading, dear author. 😂😉🥰

• favorite literary characters~ I could probably list 100 favorites here, so I’ll just say the firsts that came to my mind! Vis from The Will of Many by James Islington, Anne Eliot from Persuason by Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, Gandalf, Mrs. Weasley, etc, etc, etc, etc!!!!!

•literary characters I relate to the most ~ Patricia from Pat of Silverbush by L.M. Montgomery (I struggle with change, too, Pat!😫) Emily from Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery, Emily from Emily of Deep Valley by Maud Hart Lovelace. So many more!

• favorite literary villian ~ I love to bash Mrs. Norris and the Crawfords from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen and Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride & Prejudice by Austen.

• favorite author ~ my top favorite (I have many) is Lucy Maud Montgomery! Thank you, Maud for your wonderful stories! ♥️

How about you? Have you read any of these? Agree or disagree {kindly} disagree? What are your answers here? Let’s talk books! 📚 😅♥️📚✨

Book Questions 📚 {Part 1}

August 13, 2026 amyofhearthridge12 Comments

Thrifted these recently for our homeschool! ✨😍♥️

I saw some book questions on an Instagram account called PensandPoison (I like SOME of her stuff, she’s a bit too clickbait-y for me) recently and have been having a lot of fun thinking about my answers. I think she answered them using all fiction, but I’m using everything to answer! I adapted these questions for me. It is a lot of questions and as usual, I can’t have just one answer 🤣, so I’ll be breaking this up into parts! I’d love to hear your answers and I hope you may find a new favorite if you try any of these!

Book Questions 📚✨♥️

•favorite book ~ I think besides The Holy Bible, currently my favorite books are A City of Bells by Elizabeth Goudge, The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery, Wives & Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell, and Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Thinking about this question made me want to reread all of these! 😂

•2nd favorite set of books ~ Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery and The Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge.

•3rd favorite set of books, currently ~ Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery and Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery. Pat of Silverbush and Mistress Pat by LM Montgomery.

•favorite book that’s not Montgomery or Goudge 😁~ Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

•least favorite books ~ usually contemporary rom coms that I keep trying 🙃😫, most recent I really disliked/low-key hated,🤣 Love in Tandem by Becca Kinzer and Date with Danger by Jenessa Fayeth. These didn’t work for me.

•second least favorite set of books ~ I really disliked both Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier. So creepy and bleak. Not for me!

•book(s) that made me cry the most ~ I don’t cry a ton while reading, but I remember being disturbed and shaking to the point of tears by The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder and The Labors of Hercules Beale by Gary D. Schmidt had me choked up.

•books that made me laugh the most ~ I can’t remember! 😂 Maybe I don’t read funny books? I think Jerome K. Jerome‘s Three Men in a Boat may have made me laugh and Lady Susan by Jane Austen?

•most underrated novel ~ there are SO many, but Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro comes to mind. That book stunned me and really made me think.

•most overrated novel ~ don’t come for me! 🤣 I actually like this novel for its disturbing look at twisted desires, obsession, and family dynamics, but I think Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is a bit overrated. It’s pretty depressing. 😫

How about you? What are your answers to these? Have you read any of my choices? Agree or (kindly) disagree? 😁♥️📚 I’d love to hear! Happy Reading! 📖

Monday Ponderings ♥️🌿

August 10, 2026 amyofhearthridge6 Comments

Sauté zucchini with browned and drained sausage! Add s&p and red pepper flakes to taste! So good! 😋

Good Monday morning to you all! Getting a late start! I’m on a little accidental reading/planning retreat and I’m not complaining. 😅♥️🌿 I was thinking about all the unread books I own! 😫😱🤣 A small project I’d like to start which works well with my 50×50 list is to start reading my owned books. I get a lot from the public library or Little Free Libraries, but would like to prioritize books I own. I also reread favorites quite a bit. I was shocked that in my bedroom alone, I had over 100 books I haven’t read! 😂🙃 I had even more that I have read and want to reread. 😱So in full disclosure, I made myself write out the unread ones in my room. Eeep!

Let’s not even talk about my Kindle. 😂 Those don’t bother me as much, but I’d like to be conscious about not just getting ebooks because they are cheap or free.

This project is for fun and also a little challenge to myself as I’ve been thinking a-lot about how I can use my time and energy enjoying what I already have or creating meals or art instead of chasing something ‘out there’. Does this mean I will quit book buying/borrowing? No! I so enjoy browsing and discovering treasures. I’ve already seen myself naturally start to slow book buying over the years because of our home library being so rich. What a blessing to be able to draw from our shelves life giving words. I want to be able to choose myself how my time is used and be led by the Holy Spirit instead of social media or ‘experts’. This applies to many areas of my life, but this is one small area I can slowly make concrete changes. I can give myself ‘things to look forward to’ in nature experiences with my kids, photography, shopping our own home shelves, being creative with meals, rearranging and freshening what we have! Putting those puzzles together, using up those craft supplies, the list goes on and on! It’s actually kind of exciting.

♥️ Any thoughts?