Reading… I’m loving reading along with the Librivox audio to Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of The Dog) . This is a hilarious Victorian story full of sarcasm and British wit. I’m really enjoying it. I hope to finish it this week so I can attend a Zoom discussion on it.
Noticing…we’ve had a super dry summer, but are having a high humidity wave currently. I love the warmth, but it’s not fun to work in! I’m loving the mixture of yellows and purples on the roadsides. Late summer flowers. ♥️
What are you listening to, reading, watching, and noticing? There is so much wonder! ♥️
Reading… on the top of my stack: Seasons of Your Heart: Prayers & Reflections by Macrina Wiederkehr and Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen. A wonderful, intriguing bit of Miyazaki to fill your joy cup.
Noticing…summer flowers, clouds, barn swallows, warmth, and summer smells! 🌿
Summer by Susan BranchPine-scented air and Life-giving words ♥️🌿Lake Michigan, little boys, sand, heart-shaped rock from almost 16 yo son, and comfy orange pants ♥️
What are you listening to, reading, watching, & noticing? ♥️🥰🌿
Our search must be for the grains of gold, and, as we amass these, we shall live and walk in the continual intimacy of the divine Love, the constant worship of the divine Beauty, in the liberty of those whose the Truth makes free.
Watching… has anyone watched this web series based on Jane Austen’s Emma? I’m very curious!
Noticing… my clothesline and beauty even during a drought!
My BTS love is unexplainable 😂, and someone told me it is my tame midlife crisis. 🤣🤓 I think finding them during covid places them in a special place in my heart. Weirder things happened during covid than me getting into one K-pop band. 😵💫🤷🏻♀️😉💜💜💜💜💜💜💜Coffee with a beloved sister ♥️
What are some wonders you’ve noticed lately? I’d love to hear in comments! I’m so grateful for LIFE more abundant!💜♥️💜🌿🌿🌿
I’ve been holding my stale breath for what seems an age. I release the musty, dusty, time-worn puff in one lingering whiff. The old, bent figure of a woman startles for a moment, but then shuffles deeper into my innards. Something about the way she moves reminds me of yesteryear. The wind shifts outside, my half open door creaks, branches brush my windows, the keys tinkling in her bent hands. “So, you’re still standing, eh, Maggie. Your bones aren’t a wee bit broken,” she mutters…a memory flashes through my hall, down the twisty staircase, a bit of ashes stirring on the forgotten stone hearth. I shift a little, creaking and groaning. That name rings a bell… “Maggie”, memory whistles up the chimney and into the gloaming. These old rafters and cobwebbed corners aren’t what they used to be, but they remember. Time-stamped. She shakes out her rough dress, along with the gloom and pats the shrouded furniture. “Such promise, such love, wee lass, you were filled to the over brimming.” Birdsong bursts forth out of doors and I’m flashing back to a young servant lovingly scrubbing my wooden floor to a golden-hued gleam. “I dub you Margaret,” she had whispered to me, “after my sweet departed mother.” She lifted her small pale face, dark curls pulled back in a very similar kerchief that she wears even now, old wise eyes caressing me down to the last rusty, hand-hewn nail. She had come to us, myself and the family, through tragedy. A motherless waif that brought joy to the widower and his young son. Her cheerful songs, bubbling, snapping eager quickness brought all out of the gloom of our missing mistress. Memories stirred as she pulls off sheets, fingers dusty frames, and creeps quietly about, reverently. But then things turned, I remember now, shivering deep. The youngster and herself were swept away by a rush of water, he never to be found. Master blamed the sweet lass, but it were a freak thing. I sigh again, a bit of dust shaking down from loft. So much loss. She looks up, green eyes still sharp, “ Well, Maggie ‘ole girl. It seems I’ve been forgiven, heavens be praised, “ she mumbles a bit grimly. “In yet another death, there’s yet a bit more life worth living,” that small smile I now well remember sneaking out. She rustles in her gray striped apron pocket, a creased letter pulled out. I shift and squint to get a good look. It’s a letter about a will, Master has passed, leaving me to her! I rustle a bit in contentment. The warmth, delicious smells, and care she gave flashes in again. The will goes on to say that he knew how much his son loved her and how much I meant to both of them. “Well, let’s see if we can love ye a wee back into health, old friend.” She grabs the old wooden bucket and heads out to the stream, I’m for sure certain. Love has come home again.
A.M. Pine
🖼️♥️I’ve been loving the newsletter of Austin Kleon and he recently quoted Amy Krouse Rosenthal and it really struck me! She said, “Pay attention to what you pay attention to” or something along those lines. It really got me inspired, so my online writing group and I, Kim, Christi, and Sam are working on pieces that are inspired by the things we’re “paying attention to”! I’m really excited about this project and hope to continue it here at my blog even after our group completes the initial challenge. What about you? What’s inspiring you? Have you ever specifically created your own creative piece off someone else’s work? 😄♥️🖼️
There is no personage of history whom we have the means of knowing so completely as we may know our Lord; and the object in our gospel reading should be, less to find words of comfort and admonition for ourselves, than to perceive with our minds and receive upon our hearts the impress of Christ. ♥️🌿 To know Him is life, and is the whole of life; and every thought of Him, walking in the cornfields, sitting weary by the well, moving among crowds or in solitary places, raising his eyes upon the multitude, taking by the hand the little maid, – every such living conception we get of Christ is life to us. ♥️🌿Just as, from the apparently casual touches of the painter, the living likeness grows, so, by laying upon the canvas of our hearts every apparently causal and insignificant detail about our Master, we shall by degrees gather a living vision of the Son of Man; ♥️🌿and dearer to us than any beauty on the earth or in the heavens will become the thought –
Hope this finds you well. I’m pulling the old “my brain is so full I’m going to try and empty it by dumping on my blog” trick. 🤪😂♥️ Thanks for listening with your eyes and I’m sure, heart. 😌♥️ Our homeschool year is s-l-o-w-l-y winding down, we still have a field trip and a couple loose threads to tie up. Three GLORIOUS summer months stretch out in front of me full of “GREENING POWER” as Macrina Wiederkehr writes. More on her later!
I’ve been reading a lot, maybe a bit TOO much 🙃🤓📚, excessive amounts of reading escapism and excessive food have been my obsessions when feeling stressed, pressed, and down right exhausted. I’m declaring yet again popcorn abstinence 😅, more water & walk therapy, and staying far, faraway from sugar/ flour. I feel so much better when I do so. As for reading choices, I do feel I’m balancing light & fluffy (Dean Street Press books are my current favorites) with some learning (as a human, woman, Christian, homeschooler, writer, I need to always be learning!) and some hard for just challenging perspective and understanding. I recently finished the heart wrenching Grapes 🍇 of Wrath by John Steinbeck and wow, going to be thinking on that one for awhile. I’m so fascinated by the Great Depression era and the Dust Bowl currently.
The eyes of the whole family shifted back to Ma. She was the power. She had taken control. “The money we’d make wouldn’t do no good,” she said. “All we got is the family unbroken. Like a bunch of cows, when the lobos are ranging, stick all together. I ain’t scared while we’re all here, all that’s alive, but I ain’t gonna see us bust up.
John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath
Bittersweet Nightshade 💜🖤💛💜🖤💛
I find myself returning to favorites when stressed so I’ve been listening to Wives & Daughters with the amazing reader Prunella Scales. It’s included with my Audible account. This is my 3rd time through and there is something just SO comforting about Mrs. Gaskell’s writing. I’ve also watch bits of my current favorite movie 🎥 and I adore it. I believe “Totoro” by Studio Ghibli will calm even a hardened criminal down. 😅
I’ve also been thinking about my summer reading plans. BookTube {niche YouTube category 🤓📚}has really helped me be a bit more purposeful about my choices, but I have to be very careful to balance that with margin for mood reading. I’m currently very interested in Native American/Indigenous stories, especially historical fiction/biographies/poetry. I asked for a poetry anthology for my birthday (June is my birth month!) , so hopefully 🤞🏻 I’ll be digging into that this summer.? I’m also super interested in archaeology , geography/geopolitics from a relational or conversational or “living” side. So in other words, not dry. 🤪😅 Do you have any recommendations? Someone mentioned Eric Cline, so I may try his archaeology book.
I’m also interested in Asian history, creativity memoirs (I’ve read ALOT of these, so I’m only interested in ones that will blow my mind 😂) , historical fiction on “side wars” not the World Wars, a bit burned out on those. I’m also on a search for authors similar to Maud Hart Lovelace and L.M. Montgomery. I realize the two Mauds are a tough acts to follow, but I’m looking for sweet family-centric, “life softening” type stories. So far, I’ve enjoyed some D.E. Stevenson, Susan Scarlett, and Molly Clavering. How’s your reading been going? Any books you are excited about this summer?
In other cheerful news 😅, I’ve been thinking about these lyrics and how so much of our world and culture is fake & dead ☠️😂. There’s a part in the MV, where the artists are with sand, water, wind, fire…and it just touches me deeply about the finiteness of this all. It’s floating and blowing away. The artist Suga smiles at the flames and as a Christian woman, I want to smile at the hard things of this world, not in denial or despair, but in a realization that it’s the spiritual that really matters. All else is going to be gone. As a pilgrim just passing through this place, I find joy in knowing that the suffering that so many are going through is finite. Catholic poetic and mystic, Macrina Wiederkehr’s book of poetry and short devotions called, “Seasons of Your Heart: Prayers & Reflections” has been so lovely, hopeful, and inspiring, touching on some of these very themes. A Christmas gift from my friend. I’m hoping to get more of her writings soon.
I’m the slowest soul to try new apps etc 🙃, but I finally got the Libby app and have been so happy checking out audiobooks and kindle things from the library! Yes, you do have to wait longer, but it’s so convenient and inexpensive. I’m trying this above manga series via Kindle and the library. How cool is that? Guess what? The manga pages turn the opposite way in Kindle, too! 🤯🤣My 4 yo son and I planted some moonflowers after I bought him a book for his birthday about them. I really hope they grow and we can watch them bloom in the evenings! 😍😌♥️Speaking of birthdays, our birthday “season” is done here at the end of July and *whispering*, I always sigh in relief. 😂♥️
Do you have ‘heart homes’? I’ve been thinking about the places that have really meant something to me over my life. Of course, there’s big amazing places, like Prince Edward Island and The Lake District, Cumbria 😏, but smaller, intimate places that I’ve visited that spoke soul-speak straight deep down. I have a few and had a chance to travel to them recently. I also often realize that the place God’s given me to curl up in currently is a stunning place. Right at my fingertips, right out my door.
Otherwise, here’s a list that swirling in the gray matter 🧠 , my love and desire to know more of tamaracks/larches and birches, Julie Cameron’s Walking in This World”, my favorite from her, my penpals, Hetty Feather series I want to check more into, loving the first audiobook, wanting to learn more about watercolors, pen & ink illustrations, thinking and loving Moon Jumpers by Janice May Udry and all the magazines to catch up on. Also, how in the world can I resurrect a floundering writing practice? By writing, of course, Amy. 🤯🤪😅🤓 I’ll leave you with more reading and nature photos, thanks for being here. Please chat with me below! What’s on your mind? 😍♥️ Till next time, grace and peace through beautiful Jesus to you!
What is inspiring you or bringing you joy currently? Please join me in comments, in your journal, or on your blog!
🌷I’m grateful today for…🌷
||for newly minted 14 yo daughter 🥰||her delight in completing her Redwall Series collection ||reliving memories and enjoying photos of almost 2 months of participating in a local production of The Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe, what a wonderful experience and lots of new friends ||people who devote themselves to care for others in dangerous or difficult places|| those who are adoptive or foster families || new to me music, Sarah Sparks || for Jane Brocket, Sarah Clarkson, Tresta Payne, andTerri Conlin’s email newsletters, full of beauty, encouragement, and delight || for my church ladies Bible study on Philippians||
||sunlight on forsythia and Charlotte Mason, glimpses of spring hope || springy play lists || for little boys who ask for Christmas trees 🎄 during spring snow storms || friends who send me videos and photos of our local Aurora Borealis sightings || prayer 🙏 || daffodildowndillys and the promise of tulips 💐 || clothesline flapping noise|| cat snuggles, whiskers and darling purring with contented closed eyes || lovely return visits to favorite reads, in this case The Alpine Path by LM Montgomery || warm, brown sweatshirt and oversized cozy black sweater || warm, cozy glow of lamps||
|| birds daintily eating dog food on deck|| wrestling with a short piece on Gerald Manley Hopkins for friend’s magazine ♥️🌿✒️📝||time away with hubby learning about serving our world with love, with a bit of space for quiet contemplation|| delicious, quiet breakfast with our pastor and his wife|| enjoying the nooks and crannies of our hotel|| long car conversations with my husband ||birthday surprises arriving and special food ingredients waiting on countertop ||little boy excitedly helping me wrap gifts for sister|| trying how to figure out how to send a surprise to Canadian penpals 💜😏🤓💌📬📦 💸🤑😂|| lovely books stacked everywhere here to dip in and out of||
||our friendly local public library || a felted bit of sunrise, gift from a daughter, shining into my soul||magazines +coffee + Trader Joe’s + my sisters = ♥️♥️♥️||contemplating books that impacted as a woman/mother/caretaker in an ongoing series|| sunshine 🌞 in Wisconsin, never take it for granted ||plan to take daughter & friend to craft store and fancy ice cream 🍦 soon, she’s so excited ||
I believe this is “La Discessa dello Spirito Santo” mentioned on pg 155, School Education by Charlotte Mason ~ so gorgeous! {Google image} If it’s not the right one, oh well, I still love it! 😂♥️
Hello, friends and fellow beauty chasers! ♥️☺️🌿 I’m finally getting a chance to list my favorite reads from the first quarter of this year! Hopefully, you find a delicious new read among these!
Dragonfly Poolby Eva Ibbotson- 5 stars 🌟 This is a children’s WWII historical fiction with a classic feel to it! We follow Tally as her widowed father sends her out of the city to an alternative, unschooling-type boarding school. This felt so cozy and it reminded me of our Charlotte Mason homeschool. Matthias was such an interesting character and there was an assignation plot with a Nazi angle.
The Thirteenth Childby Patricia C. Wrede- 4.5 stars 🌟this was a slow, introspective clean YA fantasy! It is an alternative history of the westward expansion in America’s frontier. Magical beasts threaten the pioneers and magicians help set protective barriers. Eff is the 13th child of a family of 14 children and seeing the world through her eyes was interesting! I love stories with big families! The 2nd in this series is a bit slow, love the 3rd.
Live No Lies by John Mark Comer – 5 stars 🌟 This reads like a classic nonfiction on the Christian faith. This was super challenging and a high calling while being “relevant”, in which Comer shared his thoughts on today’s cultural and spiritual landscape. He really dove into the resistance of the world, the flesh, and the devil with Scriptures and practicing spiritual disciplines. It will be interesting to see if the specific topics he addressed will make this book feel dated, but I really was challenged!
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien – 5 stars 🌟 (reread) What can I say?! My reread of this was only made more wonderful by discussing this via Zoom with some Booktuber friends. 😄♥️
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arim – 5 stars 🌟(reread) This was sooo what I needed to read at the time I picked it up! Beauty and nature as a healing agent, the intricacies of marriage, being fully human, religion vs. relationships, and so much more! This follows the lives of four women who spend April together in an Italian villa. I also rewatched the film and it was just as good as I remembered!
Sinking City by Christine Cohen – 4 stars 🌟 wonderful, clean YA fantasy set in a dreamy Italian setting. Creepy sea creatures have a mysterious pack with the Italian nobles. We follow the daughter of one of these nobles who has to take matters into her own hands and teems with a powerful, unstable magician!
Dragon & Thief by Timothy Zahn – 5 stars 🌟 This is the 1st in the Dragonback series, a children’s sci-fi fantasy story! This surrounds a symbiotic relationship between dragon-like alien and a orphaned boy! The dragon becomes a tattoo on the boy’s back. They work together to try and find out who betrayed the dragon’s kinsfolk and to clear the boy’s name.
Disenchanted: The Trials of Cinderella by Megan Morrison – 4.5 stars🌟 The plight of the working class weighs on Ella’s shoulders and Prince Dash is lost without the curse that has plagued their family for generations. Fairy-Godfather Serge is struggling to return to his roots of caring for people in a meaningful way. These three characters as well as many others, converge into a WONDERFUL adventure story with a surprising deeper message. One caveat, I wouldn’t give this to younger children, due to some content.
Above Suspicion by Helen MacInnes – 4.5 stars 🌟 This 1940’s thriller/ mystery follows a married couple who find themselves falling into an espionage plot right before Britain entered WWII! This was a psychological, slower, introspective story and I loved the married couple’s relationship. Slight humor and the last third of the novel picks up the pace.
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park – 5 stars 🌟 Tree-Ear and Crane- Man are lovely characters in this story set in 12th century Korea. Tree-Ear admires and befriends a celadon potter. Beautiful lessons about found family, hard work, and love.
The Doll’s House by Rumer Godden – 5 stars 🌟 This follows two girls and their doll family, with interwoven reality and “unreality”. So poignant , deep, thoughtful, and full of longing. About family, love, and what does it mean to be alive. This is very sad and maybe a bit scary for a sensitive child. The Tasha Tudor illustrations make it shine. I read this with a friend via Voxer.
Gods, Graves, and Scholars by C.W. Mercam – 4 stars 🌟 I believe I got this recommendation from Carol years ago and I’m so happy I finally tackled it! This was a fascinating nonfiction look at archeological discoveries up to about the 1950’s and the people that broke the codes, made the discoveries, or dug up the ruins. Egyptian, Greek, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Central America/Mexico finds were all touched on. I think what I loved most about this is how much this tied into my Bible reading especially in the beginning Old Testament books, because this made the Bible come alive.
Evelina by Francis Burney – 4 stars 🌟 This long novel is said to be Jane Austen’s favorite! This was set in the 1700’s and is full of subtle, snarky British humor and a lot of class dynamics. I can definitely see Burnley’s influence on Austen’s writing. I found the excessive formality hilarious and there was a large cast of quirky characters. This has very little plot, but it was interesting to follow the young woman, Evelina, as she navigates growing older and finding her way in society. I listened an audiobook of this and really enjoyed the reader.
How about you? What have you read this year that you REALLY enjoyed? I’d love to chat below! ♥️🌿
•monochromatic children playing in school yard, black & bright splashes against the drab gray of early spring• puddles fizz-pluming under my tires•theater life, two children’s makeup-encrusted smiles, as they see me gazing up at them, role reversal•spring yard clean up, imprints left in the soaked grass• bags of purge waiting to be someone else’s treasure•ruddy grinning cheeks, watery eyes, runny noses, muddy springy play, cold wind grasping at straws•
•bookish mugs for bits & bobs, gifts from friends • soft-colored sticky tags, enough to share• splashes of color against red-brown brick• discussing Grapes of Wrath, sipping oat milk latte, and conversation with a sweet friend• foam heart on latte, day of small things• little boy with bandana, ninja, he says• blocks on book shelf in alternating pattern• epic soundtrack as I slip through gray countryside, just a hint of green under her skirts•an unexpected flash of stain glass•
•little bodies being compass roses, pointing arms north•almost 14 yo birthday gift buying, disconcertingly not little girl things anymore • shafts & shadows of longer sunlight •shockingly orange chairs• midwestern goodbyes •surprise book won, Katherine Wentworth by D.E. Stevenson • reviewing, revamping, & renewing rhythms• charming nooks & crannies•
