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! 😂♥️
Looking out my window… January was extremely cold, grey, yet with brilliant piercing sunshine-y moments. We had beautiful rime ice at the beginning of the month and lots of snow towards the end.
I am thinking… about teaching older children how to cook more! Teaching soup making, bread making, and various treats and sides.
I am thankful… that our extended family was safe from a horrific semi related car crash.
One of my favorite things… hearing my littlest son’s cute voice “meowing”. 🙂
I am wearing… I’ve been swinging between huge extremes of comfy pants & sweatshirts to nice jeans, shirts, & cardigans. Fluffy socks and my old, trusty slippers
I am creating… my children’s story, which I like to call Silverleaf & Wodwo. I’ve been typing all my handwritten mess into my labtop. I’m trying to get it all in one spot to more easily type and edit. I read a fabulous book about community with creativity and I contacted a couple of friends to share our work together. I need deadlines, so very excited how that is going!
I am watching… for a moment to stop at a quilt store to pick out fabrics for my oldest’ quilt that I promised as part of her Christmas gift. We’ve been perusing Jane Brocket’s The Gentle Art of Quilting and are loving the simplicity of designs, but visual punch from bright fabrics. Really looking forward to making this with her!
I am reading… so many things, but I’m trying to finish The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. If you are looking for a clean, adventurous YA read, I recommend The Seventh City by Emily Hayse, an Alaskan setting and perfect for winter reading. I highly recommend Bandersnatch: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Creative Collaboration of the Inklings by Diana Pavlac Glyer, so very inspiring. I also have been enjoying some of Brandon Sanderson’s high fantasy, specifically the Mistborn Series, which was clean for the most part and very creative.
I am hoping… to continue getting my morning writing habits down, revamp homeschool a bit, we need a fresh breeze this time of year!
In the garden… my oldest son and I have been making plans, but nothing solid yet. Last year, it didn’t warm up enough for what we wanted to do until end of May!
I am learning… that I need to tread gently with myself and my family during this dark, cold time.
In the kitchen… been loving roasted zucchini (yes, from grocery store) with basil, garlic salt, sprinkle of parmesan. Also zoodles made with it!
In the homeschool room… it took us a bit to get back to the smoother days after Christmas, but now it’s better. However, I’m changing things up a bit now to blow in a freshness. We are loving reading through The Magician’s Nephew again together.
Shared Quote
“In front the sun climbs slowly, how slowly, But westward, look the land is bright.”
~Sunday, early morn quiet, coffee, moon and stars, sure and steady, prayer, Bible & books ~ is it a boat or bowl? from a curved leaf conversation with Benjamin ~ rereading prayer journal entries, Jesus’ faithfulness~ 5 year journal, loving it ~ swallows and finches roosting in our ash tree in the evening before dusk, chirping and chattering and then going silent for the night ~ early morning chirping again, greeting the dawn ~ house wren pair ~ fog, sunrise, Queen Anne’s Lace ~ online Zoom picture study of Brueghel’s, “The Preaching of St. John the Baptist” and discussion after it~
~cuddling with 1 year old at 1:00 am as he plays with my face and eyelashes, his wide Precious-Moment-like eyes looking at me sweetly ~ explosion of Morning Glories on deck railing, never failing to encourage me, my own private little Anne-Blythe-Idlewild, if you will ~ listening to my sweet 11 yo on library pick up date and snuggling later with her on deck as we watch the stars ~ my husband getting out the telescope and telling me about how he and some children looked at the night sky and sketched some of what the saw ~ impromptu lunch picnic under the Honey Locust of delish chicken, zucchini, and brown rice stir fry ~ decaf cuppa of vanilla hazelnut in the afternoon ~ washing my face with rosemary lavender bar soap, so refreshing ~ looking at old Taproot magazines outdoors for crafting inspiration with my middle and little children ~ Christmas handmade planning beginnings, better start now, or they won’t get done ~ Queen Anne’s lace added to my nature journal ~
~delicious bits of atmospheric Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase (not one I’d 100% recommend, FYI), happily searching for the elusive type of read I love ~ the glow-y hour of the evening, looking silently at the chickens, baby boy and I ~ a friend recommending this podcast on addiction, sparking a lot of ideas and offering hope ~ pursuing some lovely domestic type books, especially my favorite one for creating inspiration ~ atmospheric soundtracks on Youtube ~ dragging out sewing machines with my middle and littles ~
~ working on organizing sewing/crafting items ~ little doll aprons ~ Noah passing written driver’s exam ~ school planning, almost done – surely have way too much on list, but will have to run it for awhile to see what needs tweaking ~ writing a long letter to a pen-pal ~ beautiful countryside passing by as I helped my husband move farm equipment around ~reading in car while waiting for boys to finish lawn mowing job, sipping coffee from ball jar ~ baking gingerbread biscuits (we felt in an autumn-ish mood) with Ella, Phoebe, and Ben for tea time and the freezer, used up a can of black treacle I had in cupboard ~ now I have the beautiful tin to find English Ivy to put in! ~ watching Miss Potter with kids that night and bringing out our collection of Beatrix Potter books to ooh and ahh over, the Hill Top photos in the movie bringing back my trip there in 2016, swoon ~
~ swooning over Lore Pemberton’s art, I was given a piece of her work for Mother’s Day this year and it’s just one of my favorite things EVER ~ concert done by the middles and littles for my husband and I, so wonderfully sweet and screechy at the same time 😉 ~ missing my older boys who are camping and oldest daughter who’s working and hanging with friends, but trying to let go and begin embracing different seasons ~ got a wonderful, awful idea about how to incorporate my love of writing and creating into one, can’t wait to get started ~ gorgeous thunderstorm last night ~
~Exhausting, but GLORIOUS week in the Lord. So, so grateful! ~ How was yours?
A.M. Pine - Hearth Ridge Reflections 