Every day is a preparation for death. By realizing this, it helps somehow, because we each have to die a little each day. Death is nothing except going back to Him, where He is and where we belong. ♥️
~ Mother Teresa, Do Something Beautiful for God
Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you.
~Jesus ❣️
We should ask ourselves, Have I really experienced the joy of loving? True love is love that causes pain, that hurts, and yet brings joy. This is why we pray asking for courage to love, and love more deeply than ever before.
~ Mother Teresa, Do Something Beautiful for God
Boredom is not a condition to be feared or avoided. Instead, it is a crucial element that fosters creativity, independence, and self-discovery among children. Boredom challenges children to engage with their inner world, to invent, and to explore, thereby laying the groundwork for a lifetime of learning and innovation. We must not shield our children from boredom but instead embrace it as a powerful catalyst for growth. It is essential to resist the cultural pressure to fill every moment of a child’s day with structured activities and digital distractions. Instead, we should provide spaces and opportunities for them to experience the fruitful solitude that boredom can offer.
~Ginny Yurich
I invite you to scroll through these beautifully encouraging pieces! I submitted mine awhile back and it was included (last piece, Amy M. Pine) with these others. They really are testimonials of God’s love and faithfulness! Just what I needed to peruse this morning as we are wrapping up our home school year. ♥️🌿
🩵🤍🩵🤍🩵🤍🩵
1. Manga Classics! Manga is a Japanese cartoon type story telling that you turn the pages left to right. There are a lot variations and genres out there ( including po*n graphic -so beware!), but our family has really enjoyed many English translated stories . Our favorite BY FAR is Manga Classic retellings of our beloved favorites. Above our just a few of the ones we own. They are a bit spendy, but we collect them for birthdays or Christmas.
2. The Anno Math Game books were so fun for my youngest to do with my husband. Definitely for younger kids but such delightful illustrations and unique ways of looking at mathematics.
3. I’m privileged to write and collage for this Christian homemaker women’s letter. It has grown from a few friends who met years ago via Instagram and blogs. A new website has launched for subscribers and it would make a wonderful gift for any mother!
4. Last but not least, I highly recommend these GORGEOUS sticker packs from Peter Pauper Press. You can get them on Amazon. My favorites are definitely the Cottagecore and Enchanted Forest books!
Happy Saturday! ♥️~
Today…
Made coffee.
Talked with 18 yo.
Read a few chapters in Luke.
Tried to pray.
Got more coffee.
Snuggled with 6 yo old.
Wrote out homeschool list.
Plugged in dying phone and kindle.
Made my hubby’s breakfast.
Listened to 17 yo’s narrations.
Talked schedule with hubby.
Looked at dinner pool list to decide what I have in cupboard for dinner. Nothing needs thawing.
Made my yogurt bowl for breakfast. Got kids finishing breakfast (fend for themselves) and starting math and piano practice.
Unpacked a few things from car that we left after arriving home late last night.
Texted with daughter at college. She got my card. ♥️Sent her video she wanted.
Collected cold coffee and yogurt bowl, grocery list, random journals, and pens and took upstairs.
Ran downstairs, washed out and filled water bottle.
Forwarded email someone wanted me to pass on to mom’s group.
Sent recommendations to my daughter’s soon to be MIL.
Ran back upstairs.
Listened to Marco Polo group messages while eating and settling up my journals.
Caught up on some journaling.
Ran downstairs. Printed off book covers for reading journal.
Sat down with four kiddos for our morning time.
Listened to narrations and popped popcorn for snack.
Did reading lessons with little boys. Read them a couple chapters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Buzzed boy’s hair, helped them with showers, and finger nails.
6 yo and I spread the hair clippings to birds outside .
Texted my best friend, my sister!
Listened to 17 yo narrate again.
Helped 21 yo son with his college paper for 10 minutes.
Got out leftovers for lunch, heated up ham veggie soup for my husband and I! Washed spoons.
Cleaned up while kids outside.
Got out big block of cheese, gallon bags to split and freeze. Can’t find serrated knife?
Went back upstairs and journaled a bit more, started grocery list/menu plan.
Tried to go on walk, super windy and cold. Listened to audiobook. Grabbed my son’s laundry that was on clothesline because it looked like rain. Admired the violets!
17 yo left for extended music lessons.
Call three younger in, work on each child’s history, science, and copy work. Work on some reading with my current dyslexic.
Make more popcorn and cheese and cracker snack.
Send them out to play.
Set up nature outing with friends via Voxer.
I found missing serrated knife. 🤪 Finished cheese project and I froze some of the cheese.
Sat down and started listening to The Raphael Affair, almost finished.
Watched one Booktube video.
Got kids ready for going with dad and picking up cousins for church. Found socks, shoes, sweatshirts.
Now blogging 😅 and thinking of dinner prep (egg sausage casserole), and which book to read.
Need to finish grocery list/menu plan.
Need to finish unpacking car.
Maybe start packaging up books for an east coast friend or write a pen pal letter?
I could sweep kitchen floor and scrub table too. 🤔
I love these sort of post as I don’t often realize all that I’m doing while in the midst of it! Also it’s a record and a memory of a wonderful life! I’m so blessed to be a home keeper and home schooling mama. A favorite quote I heard again this past weekend was about “a long obedience in the same direction”. May that be so of my faith journey and my relationships. 🙏🏻♥️
What did you do today? I bet you’d be surprised if you jotted down the minute details as closely as possible. Happy Wednesday! ♥️
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):
Essays/Articles:
Home/Domestic/Family:
Reading/Homeschool:
Booktube Absolute Favorites:
Happy reading/watching! This would be a perfect place to dive into on your next rainy day! So thankful for creativity and words! 🌲♥️😍
Wowsers. 😜😮💨 Nothing like packing up parts of your home for a much needed renovation project to see how terrible of a cleaner/organizer I am! 😧🫨😆
We are, Lord-willing, finally getting our walls properly insulated and a new floor! 😍 Among other things, hopefully! BUT that means taking down my shelves that my FIL built 10 (!) years ago. So LOTS of books have to be packed up!
It’s a great opportunity for me to purge and organize. So many memories with all my children and these wonderful books we thrifted, hunted down, and treasured over the years. 🥲😍🥰
Thank God for motherhood and the opportunity to home educate. 😍🥲♥️
Any projects on your horizon? I hope to update about this and my gardening soon! 🤞🏻♥️
Merrily Gareth ask’d
‘Have I not earn’d my cake in baking of it?
Let be my name until I make my name!
My deeds will speak: it is but for a day.’
So with a kindly hand on Gareth’s arm
Smiled the great King, and half-unwillingly
Loving his lusty youthhood yielded to him.
Gareth and Lynette, Idylls of the King, Tennyson
‘Damsel,’ Sir Gareth answer’d gently, ‘say
Whate’er ye will, but whatsoe’er ye say,
I leave not till I finish this fair quest,
Or die therefore.’
Gareth and Lynette
I’m slowly getting into my buddy read of Idyll’s of the King and I was struck remembering this lovely picture book version of this part of the poem. The Kitchen Knight retold by Margaret Hodges is lovely, largely due to the illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman!
Happy Monday, friends! Our weekly quest has begun! Go forth boldly and without fear! 🙏🏻♥️😍
Inspiration:
“Six feet down in the sand
There’s creatures that made a hole
Do speak, I’m begging you, please
There’s beauty outside control (Outside)”
~RM💜
My friend, Sam’s devotional about the Mundanity of God ♥️
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Prayers of a Fool”
Cathedral carvings hidden
Full-time home hearth lovin’ forbidden
Fool, don’t do that again
Takes long, second gone, down drain, amen.
Wash, rinse, sunrise driven
Plant, weed, kiss that bruised knee
Blood, sweat, things that don’t make sense.
Paint, scribble, lock it in a drawer, forgotten.
Cathedral songs stir, long-dead-dusty, silent
Heart strings strum violent
Prayer painting skies violet.
Fool, don’t do that again.
It don’t make sense.
A.M.P. 🌲♥️
A.M. Pine - Hearth Ridge Reflections 