Little spores puffed off of these red bits when I ran my fingers over them! 😃♥️Worlds with the world Our friends said this is Hepatica Woodpecker evidence!
How was your week? We are just itching for it to warm up a bit more, but overall a good week! We had homeschool co op, my tulips/daffodils are peeking up their heads and looking 👀 around suspiciously, a local play that two children are involved with, and one of my children is being baptized! ♥️😍
Good morning! ☀️ Resurrecting my Wednesday Wonders series…I recently answered these questions here, but they are always changing, so indulge me again?! 😄♥️🌷
•listening to•♥️🌲~ I’m finally getting to the sequel in L.M. Montgomery’s Silver Bush duology, using this audiobook recording of it that is fantastic! I’m LOVING Mistress Pat even more than the first. Patricia is growing up and feeling the growing pains of possibly having to leave Silver Bush and everything changing! I identify with change being hard! 🥲I also want to listen more to this Josh Garrels release!
Music practice always going on around here! So thankful we have the ability for lessons!
•reading•♥️🌲~ My mood shifted yesterday 😅 and I started rooting around for things to read. 😂📚 I think I’m leaning towards cozy classics, charming characters, and delicious nature descriptions. Of course, I first picked up, my gal, Maud Montgomery! Hence, Mistress Pat! A memory I have is rereading the whole Anne Series when I was pregnant with my first. Her name is Ann-E 🥹♥️😅 and she getting married later this year! Maybe I’ll reread the series this year in honor!? 😭😍
Moody stack!
•watching•♥️🌲~ I’m slowly rereading all the greats with my younger set. The Wind in the Willows is one of the current ones. It’s such a great book for spring! I was craving the claymation? film version and so enjoyed watching it. The peaceful atmosphere (except Toad 🐸😂) was just as I remembered it.
•noticing•♥️🌲~ Our Black Willow trees sustained a lot of damage in a recent ice storm, but I salvaged a few branches with buds for the table. The robins have been so cheery even though it’s been rainy and cold. I’m waiting not so patiently for warmth and usually by the end of April, the Barn Swallows are back! 😍♥️
Sunset 🌅 Slow strolls and shadows Coming to the end of this in our homeschool co op!Beautiful 🤩 chaos – so thankful for life and color!
What about you? ♥️🌲 What are you listening to, reading, watching, and noticing TODAY?! ☀️🌷💜🌿🍃
“The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace. “
~ Mother Teresa
Thinking and praying on this as a week of homeschooling, wedding planning, cooking, and extras stretches before me. 🪴🌷🌿🍃🌲What’s on your heart? 💜
It’s a strange feeling to be glad for their wings, but sad that my older children’s faces aren’t peering at me as I read aloud. Bittersweet. Three down, four to savor! 🥲
Our year has begun well, kind of on “a wing and a prayer sort of way”, but with a gentle hopefulness.🌾
I think one of our favorite moments so far have been continuing a reread through the Little House Series (we are waiting on the audiobook for These Happy Golden Years), puzzles, and traveling to the site of Little House in the Big Woods for a Laura Ingalls Wilder Festival. A bit touristy, but lovely all the same. Now we’ve been getting into the tv series from the public library and it’s bringing back my childhood nostalgia of rushing home from my little private school for an episode with snack. 🥹♥️
My 4 remaining students…
We’ve also enjoyed jumping into our Charlotte Mason co op with both feet and just soaking in all the riches the other mothers have prepared for us! Shakespeare (King Henry V), folk song/hymn, Composer (John Williams!), Picture Study (Camille Pissarro!), Clay Modeling, Swedish Drill, Microbiology, and my favorite, Nature Study (we are using a lovely book called Sundial on the Seasons by Hal Borland). I’m helping with Highschool Literature (The Divine Comedy! – stretching me, let me tell you!), Poetry (Alfred Lord Tennyson), and the younger students Geography co leading with another mom.
What richness! What a gift!
Our Nature Study mom recommended this book! Camille and Sophie 🐈Puzzles and audiobooks! Swoon. So much beauty all around us! 🤎
My personal goals and projects were going SO well in June & July, but I fell off the habit wagon 😅 in August after SO many family things. I’m struggling to keep up on health, writing, pen pals, crafting goals & stuff. Anyone else? I have some outside obligations that I’m prioritizing (maybe TOO many?) and I’m struggling with very little mojo to keep up my personal things. I end up reading 📖 😅ALOT and watching people talk about reading. 🙃I ❤️🔥 Booktube! Any help on how to tackle getting back into these life giving things WHILE homeschooling? 🤪🫣😵💫😍
We’ve been doing a lot of nature hikes and they are SO wonderful! We will switch more to library visits when the cold hits. I really want to try more cold weather jaunts this year because I have no little babies anymore. 😆♥️Interesting economics book I previewed!
What did you love about your toe-dipping into the ‘25-‘26 home educational year? We have sooo many lovely books and things on the docket and I’m struck by the immense blessings at me and my children’s fingertips. Who knows what will be in all the pages, behind the door to the natural world, and in the relationships we will form? ❤️🔥🌿I wait prayerfully and with great anticipation. ♥️🌿
My four boys randomly in age order, right to left 😍
Dear Friends ~
I’m sure you feel like me, scrambling to soak the last few rays of sunshine and squeeze out all the remaining summer juiciness. Autumn activities are fast approaching {just 18 days till our homeschool co op begins…eeek!} so I thought I’d attempt to finish my thoughts I started weeks ago 😆 and in Part 1 of this post. I love the chatty bits of social media, the longer form things, that slow me to a snail’s pace so I can reflect and practice gratitude. This has got me seriously considering my online haunts and which are serving and encouraging me or stressing me?! Still considering that.
We squeezed in a last few summer-y things and hosted my 3rd homeschool graduates party in the last few weeks. Whew. I’m thankful for a few weeks of quiet {ish} home time to spruce things up and finalize my homeschool plans. Just off the top of my head, here are a few things I’m focusing on, looking forward to, and challenging myself in for these next few weeks…
‘25-‘26 Willow Tree Academy Vision Board
Home Education Inspiration ~ Jen over at heavenstobetty had a wonderful, inspiring post about her DIY Mother Summer Conference. I was particularly inspired by her vision board. I collaged one for myself while listening to my audiobook of Physik by Angie Sage. I’m focusing on seasonal rhythms, simplicity, home, books, and 1 Thess. 4:11. I’m praying and meditating on the direction, images, hopes for this coming school year. Asking the Lord for a humble heart stayed on Him. ♥️
One of the many reading stacks…and a beautiful, encouraging card from a church friend…
Habit Cultivation ~ I’m working on really cementing some habits that I worked on this summer, little things that add up with my home, health, and my heart…
Walking after my prayer time, cleaning up after each meal as much as I can, and taking extended breaks from media…
Sophie isn’t super excited by her origami hat . 😅
Faithfulness to the Small ~ The Lord is faithful to take our pitiful offerings and steps of obedience, blessing us with growth, direction, and His loving Presence. 🌿 There’s a lot swirling in my heart and mind, but I’m still prayerfully trying to trust that the Lord is untangling all my knots. I’m hoping to finish cleaning a few things, finish my lessons for our co op, and drink in all the beauty right around me each day. I hoping to resurrect my fledgling poetry writing. So thankful for all the summer bounty, the hard, the beautiful, tangible and intangible, alike.
Prettiest books I was gifted this year! 🌸
What a bountiful, beautiful summer ~ Till next time, bless you, friends!
I’m excited to start a new little ‘something something’ here. Just as we celebrate National Poetry Month, Letter Writing Month, (thanks for telling me, Kim!), Easter, and soak in the earth coming alive. A month to celebrate newness, resurrection, and the wheel of seasons turning again. I have a few things I’m simmering, so I hope you are as encouraged and inspired as I am about a freshness blowing through the windows…
How ‘bout you? Anything brewing in your heart? 🌿🌷✨
I’ve really been leaning into my phrase ‘expectant attention’ during this beginning space of the year. How are you doing? I’ve been soooo enjoying trying new reads, mainly from the library, on my Kindle especially, and pulling a few things off my shelves. I have finished a few Winter ❄️ list items, but I’m not stressing it. The reality of the online book world is that it’s easy to rush or feel F.O.M.O. and it’s so refreshing to buck all trends, lists, etc UNLESS these things are bringing me joy. The truth is *whispers* that most of this isn’t that important in the grand scheme of life. I can let it go at any time and pick it up again.
My new spiritual journal. It was a bit pricey, (Take a Note Brand) BUT I’m excited to change up the way I process my prayer/Bible/spiritual journey. This journal is much more structured than what I’ve used in the past! I LOVE the horizontal, two-page, one week lay out.
I got my journal a bit later in January, so my opening pages are a bit empty, but it was so fun to put in a few things the Lord has been showing me through all the inspiration I’ve been seeing and trying to deeply pay attention to!
I also began my 2025 Daily Pocket Moleskine! Sigh. It brings me so much joy. ♥️❄️☕️🥰 Not pictured is my reading journal which I adore scribbling and glueing in! Books stacks everywhere are getting a bit of a pruning today, but I’m so grateful for my stuffed home library and my public library. I’ve been freely quitting books that aren’t for me, EXCEPT my poetry selections and spiritual devotions. I definitely put more effort into those. Here are a few snaps of bookish loveliness. 🥰♥️
Trying these out…These are formulaic and predictable. 😆 But I love the domestic coziness. The female characters are sweet and helpless. The love interests are a bit insufferable 😬😂, but I enjoy them occasionally. They are squeaky ‘clean’, too. Do you have any reads like this? More try-a-chapter stacks…
That’s all, folks. 😅♥️ I’ve been just plugging along at all our homeschool responsibilities and trying to keep ahead of dishes and keep enough food on the table for these giant kids (read: mainly the 19 & 17 yo boys 🤣)!! I have some writing due soon and poems for my February poem postcard challenge. It’s freakishly cold 🥶 here and yet, I’m doing ok. God is faithful to send us little flashes of beauty and wonder in the midst of the mundanity. ♥️🥰
Light reflected✨
How are you? Reading or creating anything? Anything specific bringing you joy? 🥰 Bless each and every one of you. Happy Saturday! ♥️☕️📬💌📚✒️📝♥️❄️✨
Happy First Monday in January, friends! 🌲❄️ A bit of a ‘what’s-on-my-heart-currently-collage”…
…There is a Tenant here.
Come home, roamer of earth, to this room and find
a timeless Heart under your own heart beating,
a Bird of beauty singing under your mind.
~excerpt from ‘The Kingdom of God’ by Jessica Powers~
I’ve been thinking a lot about the character Kel in the Protector of the Small series by Tamora Pierce. I really like how fiercely tenacious, loyal, and single-minded she is! It made me think of this clip of my favorite K-pop star. It is insane how hard he throws himself into this dance. How am I living out my life and my faith? Am I fierce, tenacious, loyal, insanely hard-working towards all the Lord Jesus is whispering to me? I realize that these art forms are fictional and unrealistic, but they inspire me deeply! And that makes them real to me. How ‘bout you? What’s jumping out to you?
A beautiful, rich song from Josh Garrel’s album Home for you as you start a new week and for those of you back-to-{home}-school moms out there! This is why we sow and invest!
Words I loved in 1 Chronicles ~ sing, proclaim, declare, thank, testify, boast, remember, ascribe, save, gather, rescue, humble, strong, courageous, willingly, undivided, keep, carry out ~
I’m slowly starting to work on poems for my annual joining of the Peace Poem Project. (There’s still time to sign up! worldpeacepoets@gmail.com ~ you mail out a poem on a postcard throughout February) I’ve started So Big Edna Ferber with 3 buddy reading friends! It’s beautiful so far! I’m also 3/4ths my way through The Goblin Emperor. It’s a very interesting fantasy so far, so slow and full of cozy details. I’m going to be limiting social media, in the hopes for beautiful boredom and a quiet mind to settle down over me, mantle-like.
When you pay attention to boredom it gets unbelievably interesting. – Jon Kabat-Zinn
Feeding my body as well as my heart & soul…☀️
I’ll leave you with this quote of gorgeousness and a poem…
I have been finding new comfort in the two words, which are used by each of the four evangelists in telling the end of the story of the feeding of the Five Thousand. They speak of “broken pieces”, and the same words are used by two in telling of the later miracle. There was nothing over but broken pieces, and yet of those fragments our Lord said, Gather them up that nothing be lost. Even so, our dear Lord cares for the broken pieces of our lives, the fragments of all we meant to do, the little that we have to gather up and offer, and He will use even these fragments. He will not let even the least of our little broken things be lost.
Amy Carmichael, p. 177, Edges of His Ways, emphasis mine
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! 🥹😍Charlotte Mason quote Scripture Truth
•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.
How ‘bout you? Do you have a focus or goals for 2025? I’d love to hear! 🥰😍
I’ve been thinking randomly about Wonka Vision (from Gene Wilder ‘Charlie and Chocolate Factory’ film) …yes, my brain doesn’t turn off well. 😂 I’m desperate to paint my life with Jesus Vision… seeing all the glorious gifts and beauty around me as Love. And caring enough to share that love, let spill it over and out!
What matters in the deeper experience of contemplation is not the doing and accomplishing. What matters is relationship, the being with. We create holy ground and give birth to Christ in our time not by doing but by believing and by loving the mysterious Infinite One who stirs within. This requires trust that something of great and saving importance is growing and kicking its heels in you.
~Loretta Ross-Gotta
Watch for the Light, p.97
.50 cent notebooks to collage the covers for my SIL’s for Christmas gifts! Did I mention I have 11? SIL’s?! Ha. Better get collaging!
What if, instead of doing something, we were to be something special? Be a womb. Be a dwelling for God. Be surprised.
~Ross-Gotta
Watch for the Light, p. 101
One of my slow Christmas reads for myself this year. We all enjoy this story and the illustrations are just lovely!
We are starting during our Christmas term to use some of the activities in Map Art by Berry & McNeilly as we all are map lovers here. It’s so fun to mix art techniques with imagination. I’m looking forward to the collage maps, especially.
My 12 yo Phoebe’s map ♥️🥰 (used by permission)
They trooped out into the garden and saw the wood all lit up by the westering light as though a thousand candles had been lit upon the trees that stretched their shade deep beyond deep in the dark wood. The water was all aglint too, and the colors of the flowers burned pure and still. The sky was a deep blue-green overhead, and three wild swans were flying upriver to their home. There was no sound in all the world but the beat of the birds’ wings and the soft lapping of the water against the old stone walls. They stood for a moment at the gate at the top of the steps and the peace held them silent.
My 10 yo and I created a ‘tablescape’ in celebration of two of our very favorite authors here at Hearth Ridge! C.S. Lewis and L.M. Montgomery’s birthdays are this weekend and I’m planning on a bit of a treat and some tea to celebrate. 🙌
I finally braved the cold for a walk and was richly rewarded by the gorgeous blue sky!
Our whole family is so enjoying listening to the Penderwicks series and it’s such a delight to hear the giggles and conversations happening! Mr. Penderwick and his Latin and Batty with her dog, Hound are my favorite characters!
I’m in a Voxer writing mom’s group and honestly, we haven’t done much lately on the group. We are all busy, homeschooling moms after all! Occasionally, though, we post articles or ideas and just wonderful tidbits and it’s so encouraging to get the creative juices flowing. We were talking about different writers processes and I remembered this book on my shelf.
We are wrapping up a few things before our Christmas school begins! I recently found this book and we are all enjoying it.
How about you? What things are inspiring you? There’s so much to be grateful 🥹 for today!
A.M. Pine - Hearth Ridge Reflections 