I sometimes think the worst thing a young person can feel is when you can find no answer to the question of what you are supposed to do with this life you’ve been given. At moments you’re aware of it balanced on your tongue, but not what comes next. Something like that. I can now say that another version of that happens in old age, when it occurs to you that since you’ve lived this long you must have learned something, so you open your eyes before dawn and think: What is it that I’ve learned, what is it I want to say?
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. ♥️🌿
Do you ever feel stuck? I was recently struck by how stuck I am, this overwhelming sense of not living in the joy and resurrection power of the Lord Jesus. I was actually listening to an audiobook, about the fictional and unflappable Mrs. Pollifax. In the first of this novel series, the widowed, aging Mrs. Pollifax, questions her worth and what she is doing with her life. Her solution is to go and do something she has always been interested in. Join the CIA! 😂 I was struck to the quick about my wallowing, woe-is-me attitudes. Where is the resurrection power being lived out in me? Why am I hiding? Why am I cowering? Worrying? Trying to control my circumstances?
His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
2 Peter 1:3, CSB
These verses in 2 Peter and Wendell Berry’s poem Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, challenges me to live fully and wholly. To live like there is something beyond myself and my woes. 🪴🪴🪴
So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love somebody who does not deserve it.
-Wendell Berry 🌿
I don’t want to be worry-driven, short-fused, and impatient. I want to ‘dwell in possibility’, living simply, patiently with others, myself, and the Lord. I want to rest in my daily ‘round and find my delight again in listening, learning, deeply loving. No need for fretting, guilty-thought trains, or shoulda-woulda-coulda junk. Pay attention. Walk and work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Live with an ‘expectant attention’ (mishmash from Charlotte Mason, Amy Carmichael, and Scripture) and practice living resurrection.
~first time making hot cross buns in honor of Good Friday~
A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
John 10:10 CSB 🌷
Ask questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
~Wendell Berry ☕️
Laughter is immeasurable.Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
~Wendell Berry 🪺
Take the first step, Oh my soul…♥️🌿
I’m determined in my heart 💜 to choose again (and again and again) Jesus’ joy and resurrection power. Just making conscious choices that I know help me pay attention and relax into the Lord. Prioritizing my quiet time. Going outside. Holding online things very lightly, getting dressed in comfortable clothing I love, doing a little summer mom learning project with a IRL friend, taking good care of myself and my family, finishing little projects I love, and doing small, short trips. Not giving into overconsumption in any area of my life – frantic reading, buying random stuff, food, media, but a soaking in the Life-Giving Abundance of Jesus!
You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures.
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 was struck and inspired by these adorable, amazingly crafted children’s shoes on a flea market date with my hubby. There were teeny nails on the soles. 🥹🥰 The craftsmanship was astounding and frankly a bit convicting. Reminds me of the care that the artisans in the Old Testament put into creating the Temple and everything in it!
Hello, Dear Heart 💜 ♥️🖤💗 ~
How are you? The days of advent are winding up to the happiest birthday we could ever wish to celebrate and remember. Come, sweet Jesus, come. I’ve some catching up to do here and prayerfully, I will do that this long weekend. I’ve been thinking about feasting.
•💘what are you feasting on?💘 what is feeding you?•
~•How are you doing mentally, spiritually, emotionally, physically, and creatively?•~
I know this is a lot to consider, but more than ever, I feel a pull to receive all that the Lord has for me as a whole person. Our world is so fragmented and fractured. It demands of us a lot of ‘black & white’ type living, choices, ‘left or right’ thinking and that is just not human reality. We are a living, breathing human collages, sewn together with so many experiences, pieces, and ephemeral bits. We are intricate masterpieces! I’m asking for clarity from the Lord as I move into this next year about who I am as a daughter of God.
Winter abounds in wonder. Wonder is the dawn, after a snowfall, when the world is quelled by a quiet like no other quiet. When icy mosaics are etched on the panes of the window. When the red bird of winter -hope perched on a bough-shatters the washed-out tableau. Wonder is the soul burrowing into the darkness, kindling the flame deep within.
Barbara Mahany
The Stillness of Winter, p. 8
I’m SO excited about this book as winter tends to be a hard, dry season for me in many ways.
I’m still praying over these areas and trying to focus my heart and mind on gazing fully on Jesus. I want to be wholly His and feasting on His Truth. I love 💕 discovering new ideas and inspiration, so I thought it would be fun to link some things that have recently encouraged me and are feeding me. I don’t necessarily love/agree with everything from all of these creators, but still can pull enough from them to challenge and spur myself on. I will give a brief overview of where I think my own journey is in each of these areas:
Mentally ~
Honestly, I’m still learning about resting in the Lord. Poetry, the Psalms, the Gospels, and instrumental music soundtracks have really helped. Covid era junk, hard relationships, and politics have messed with my anxiety a bit. The winter cold and darkness are difficult for me, but I’ve felt a real inner breakthrough this year. It’s slow and sure. Thanks be to God. Saying ‘no’ to certain things {regular news and too much social media, for example} and ‘yes’, to gentle things that are still a bit outside of my comfort zone, have help me think a bit deeper, yet led me away from the sleepless, racing brain. It’s finding the right things to challenge me, yet not contribute to worry or fear.
I’ve felt a bit dry, so praying about some ways to refresh and refocus in the new year. I recently read through The Gospels quickly and was so filled and blessed. One of my winter goals is to read Psalms from the paraphrase, The Message by Eugene Peterson. I find different translations or word studies really help. I hope to look at place names closer in the Bible in 2025, as I love names and the process of naming. Do you have any ideas or things that have helped you with your spiritual life? I really would love to get back to prayer walks and going to nature spots intentionally for focusing on the Lord, but need to get some new snow pants soon. I’m so cold! 😅 {you can call me wimp, it’s ok 😂}
Sophie, our cat, is SUCH a lovely beastie…so thankful for her 🥹😅♥️
Emotionally ~
This is tied into all of the above and other categories, but honestly, less Instagram, YouTube, Patreon, and newsfeeds has really made a difference for me. I miss some of the lovely people and STUFF I was involved with online {Voxer groups, Booktube, Zoom meetups, Marco Polo etc}, BUT I know that at this time, they got out of control after covid. I felt fractured between all that I have here in my ‘real’ life and the wonderful, but mistimed relationships online. So much online is fed by FOMO, “the fear of missing out”, and everything is hyped months in advance. That’s not bad, necessarily, like Walmart putting up Christmas stuff around Halloween. 😳🤪😏😒 I’m finding however, for my season of life and personality, prolonged exposure to this racing FOMO ruins me.
Things Helping Emotionally ~
Getting into nature! My local friend and I took our kids on some nature rambles this autumn and it was WONDERFUL. We talked books , ideas, and life, while enjoying the outdoors. We have plans for an outing in January.
Journaling to process. I’m finding a small amount goes a long way. Even making lists has really been helpful. Gratitude lists, prayer lists, hardship lists, things I’ve noticed lists, the list 😏 is endless!
Taking long breaks from online things if I catch myself getting stressed or overwhelmed by them. Life is too short for stress from random social media.
Analog recording of life and reading. I still love and enjoy online friendships and especially the friends I’ve made in the reading community, but pulling out of things like Goodreads/Storygraph/ some Booktube has really helped settle my emotions. These things aren’t bad and I’ve enjoyed them in other seasons, but for me, currently, I needed to cut and limit them.
Reading light and fluffy things in-between more challenging reads. I try not to have too heavy a ‘diet’ of marshmallow reading, but at times of extra stress, light reading is helpful.
Physically ~
This is a hard area for me to talk about honestly. I’ve always struggled with my self image, weight, and moderation. Even in highschool when I was an athlete and very ‘healthy’ on the outside. Ever since I’ve been having babies and been more sedentary, I’ve struggled with my weight. I’ve been on multiple diets, eating plans, exercise regimens, etc, etc, etc. During 2020, I lost a significant amount of weight in a highly structured program {Bright Line Eating} and was in a loving support group with some other strong, Christian women. We are all Charlotte Mason home educators and even met on annual retreats. These women are amazing, loving people! In late 2022/early ‘23, I found myself struggling with this and stopping the program. I really haven’t found a balance since then. One interesting thing, though, has been that my sleep has always been touchy and now that I’m not low-carb currently, it’s been significantly better. Go figure. Extreme low carb, I’ve been reading about, can mess with sleep. Good sleep is something that heavily contributes to ALL these areas!! All this to say is that, I’ve really been focusing on my internal battles through prayer 🙏🏻. I feel like that’s something I’ve never fully dealt with, no matter how well I do with the externals. I still am floundering and am not where I’d like to be health-wise. I’m trusting that some of the anxiety, 😟, self-loathing, and bad cycles are being worked though in a better way. Will you pray for me? Also that I know when enough is enough? Just finding where I need to be with my faith and in my body, for me. Not falling for the cultural definitions of worth, health, or value, but looking at myself through God’s lens. I also feel humbled over and over again. This is a pride area. Unfortunately, one gets a lot of attention and validation when one looks well and “with it” on the outside, even if I’m a tomb full of dead man’s bones on the inside. I want to be wholly Jesus’, inside and out. I want to walk in obedience to His guidance for me.
I don’t have anything currently that’s 💯 percent inspiring me currently right now in this area. I feel a bit fragile and burnt out. I have read a little by Geneen Roth lately and I’m thinking about it. Thanks for sticking with 🤪that long rant
The kids decorate the tree now. My work is finished. 😂♥️🎄
Creatively ~
Last but not least, I’m sooooo excited and inspired to find that in some ways, I’m settling into what I love to create and what inspires me in my life. I’m a Gatherer of Fragments. The Recycler of Remnants! I absolutely love things made of pieces. Stained glass, mosaics, collages, poems, ephemera, journals, photographs, and quilts. What do you love? What absolutely inspires you?
The overly simplistic magazine Bella Grace! I just love its sweetness. I got a subscription for Christmas. 🥰
The old Disney version of 101 Dalmatians. Roger’s commitment to his music and Cruella is my favorite villain. She shows me what selfishness looks like. She makes me laugh at how odious self-centeredness can become!
The Ben Stiller version of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Soooooo inspiring on SO many levels.
Favorites of mine! ♥️ my children don’t like the film. 😂
There is so much to see-things that tell of His love and grace; things that show His Presence;the treasures of His Book. There is no limit to what we shall see except the limit of our own power to see. “Open Thou mine eyes” is a prayer for us all.
And then listen. There is much to hear. What did God say to me this morning in what I read in His Book, in what I heard from others who love Him, in what I heard deep in my heart, through something He caused me to recall? Whatever it was, let me take time to “comprehend” it, hold it fast, and live in the light of it to-day.
Amy Carmichael
Edges of His Ways, p. 174
💗🥰How about you? How are you doing in these areas? Do you take time to evaluate things? How are you feeding yourself ? ♥️
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.
How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers!
Instead, his delight is in the LORD’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.
He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Psalm 1:1-3, CSB
The person who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence indeed is the LORD, is blessed. He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.
Jeremiah 17:7-8, CSB
Not a River
Not like a rolling river,
not like a floating river,
down on my head it comes.
It doesn’t drench me,
it doesn’t quench me,
as long as I am stay warm.
You’re wondering what it is
oh yes, you’re wondering what it is,
It is just the frozen flakes of Joy,
that is what is!
by Ella, my 15 yo daughter 🥰🥹♥️ (used with permission)
Coffee, fairy lights, books, and sunshine ✨
The sweep of this dividing staircase was most beautiful and gracious, and it gave one a feeling of welcome like strong arms held out, the arms of that glowing personality who had welcomed them in. And Ben noticed, though George did not, that the whole structure of the staircase, with the arms held out beneath the upright panel, was like a cross.
Thrift book haul from last week. See anything interesting? I already have Family Under the Bridge but replacing our PB copy with this hard back. 😌♥️
But Sally did not want to be set free for anything, for it was living itself that she enjoyed. She liked lighting a real fire of logs and fir cones, and toasting bread on an old-fashioned toaster. And she liked the lovely curve of an old staircase and the fun of running up and down it. And she vastly preferred writing a letter and walking with it to the post than using the telephone and hearing with horror her voice committing itself to to things she would never have dreamed of doing if she’d had the time to think. “It’s my stupid brain,” she said to herself. “I like the leisurely things, and taking my time about them. That’s partly why I like children so much, I think. They’re never in a hurry to get on to something else.”
Elizabeth Goudge
The Pilgrim’s Inn , p. 12
♥️How is your week? What things in your life need stirring creatively or spiritually? I’m going to be thinking on these things awhile…
‘Watch for the Light’ is my choice for Advent readings. All my children and I will be using some of Elizabeth Foss’ Advent reading plan/activities/recipes in ‘Real Learning Revisited’. My two older children will also be dipping into Biola University’s Advent posts.Foss uses a lot of Tomie dePaola‘s books! Excited to read these.I’m especially excited about this collection for dipping into a few times a week.
Remember how I said I wouldn’t overload my Winter DIY Woman’s Degree?! 😂🤷🏻♀️🤪🙄♥️❄️☃️ Never mind that! Here’s some of my reading ideas. I tried to categorize them here so it is easier for you to go to one that may interest you. I’m going to try crossing off/checking these off as I go. Some of these are planned possibilities and I also have my mood reading genres that I’m interested in currently. Quite a few of these are rereads, which I absolutely love doing. I realize this is excessive nerd overkill 🤓 and very detailed but I find it fun! It’s something to aim at and look forward too with the cold. I hold it super loosely and that’s why I call these ‘possibilities’. I didn’t include my Bible reading, Christian devotionals, or poetry because those three are always on the go.
Dec ‘24 – Jan ‘25 – Feb ‘25 Reading List:
Buddy Reads:
December 2024
Christmas Mummers by Charlotte Mary Yonge, online buddy read ✔️
Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope
(online group buddy read) short story✔️
Last Christmas in Paris by Webb & Gaynor ✔️
(online buddy read with Elizabeth B.)
January 2025
So Big by Edna Ferber ✔️
(online group buddy read)
The Man They Called Thursday by Chesterton
(preread with local friend for our HS Lit Class in our Charlotte Mason co op)
Books I’d Love to Read to my Kids this Winter:
Finish By the Shores of Silver Lake ✔️and begin The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Continue/Finish The LittleWhite Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
Read Story Girl and The Golden Road by LM Montgomery
Start the Narnia Series by CLS
Read The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery
Continuing listening to Penderwicks when we can get audiobooks from library ✔️✔️
Personal Study Challenge:
Start The Illiad (journal through it) Long introduction and 24 parts, I think? One a week over 3 months? Seems doable?
Possible joining of a few BookLoveJenna’s 2025 online book club – I’m interested in Praying with Jane Eyre, The Love Letters, and Letters of a Portuguese Nun in the winter selections. I’m very slow with nonfiction, so this group may help me finish? This is a very big maybe. I did too many buddy reads/challenges this year andI’m not going to put as much pressure on myself.
Till We Have Faces and Miracles by CS Lewis
Read a memoir: Merry Hall by Beverly Nichols and Isle of Dreams by Susan Branch
Fantasy:
I’d love to continue reading ‘The Stormlight Archives’ by Brandon Sanderson- I’m in the middle of Words of Radiance. My older kids are so excited for our preordered 5th book in this cycle. I think technically there’s some short stories/lore to be read inbetween the 5 massive books out. I enjoy his work, but they are a bit more intricate and political than I usually like so these are a loose goal mostly to be reading something with my young adults.
Reread The Fellowship of the Ring by JRRT
Ember Blade by Chris Wooding
Continue Dune Series with Dune Messiah
Reread Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Reread The Night Circus
Continue Byzantium by Stephan Lawhead
VictorianThings/Cozy Reads & Rereads:
Finish Nicholas Nickelby ✔️
Finish Woman in White
Finish Deerbrooke ✔️
Reread Anne Series
Reread Emily Series
Finish Moominvalley in November
The Enchanted Sonata by Dixon ✔️
Skating Shoes by Streitfeild
Start Elizabeth Goudge Reread/Complete 2 Yr Project with Pilgrim’s Inn, Gentian Hill, and Towers in the Mist
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope
Start Romola by George Eliot
Current Reading Moods:
Classic/cozy mystery/spy
Cozy domestic & holiday
Dips into creativity/writing nonfiction shelf
Cozy fantasy
Deep middle grade/children’s literature, classic or with classic feel
Victorian Lit
This above is a CRAZY unrealistic🤪, but fun “bucket” list for this winter! Haha! 😆 What are some things on your list? I haven’t made many home keeping, home educating, or health goals yet. I’m still thinking on that. I think I have my focus phrase for the coming year, so maybe I’ll share that eventually. I’d like to update here on the blog as a fun way of checking in and narrating/processing what I’m learning or enjoying. We’ll see. Holding it all loosely, remember, Amy?! 🤣
Teeny, gorgeous snowflakes.
How about you? Do you plan things out a bit? Or fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants? I really love making seasonal lists! Chat with me in comments, please! I’d love to hear your thoughts! ❄️🌲♥️❄️🌲♥️
A.M. Pine - Hearth Ridge Reflections 