Saturday Examen {Day 5}

The smell coming out of our public library was intoxicating! 😍β™₯️

I really enjoy this app and that they make Saturday a time of spiritual reflection over the past week. β™₯οΈπŸ™πŸ» I highly recommend listening (you can listen on their website, too!)

I jotted down their questions this week and found it so refreshing and challenging to honestly pray through them. It’s sobering to deeply examine oneself in the light of our Lord!

Does the LORD take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD?

Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.

from 1 Samuel 15:22-23 CSB

How was your week? 🌲β™₯️🌲

what has inspired me recently 🌿🌻🌞 {Day 4}

Planning for autumn, deck flowers, and black coffee in my Betsy, Tacy, & Tib mug…
Pulling out my owl vase , a few black-eyed beauties from my weedy flower bed…
Good bye, summer mugs…have a good rest in the cupboard…love all the green 🌿🌱πŸͺ΄πŸŒ²πŸŒ³
Welcome, Autumn mugs…you feel new & fresh πŸπŸ‚πŸ„πŸ„β€πŸŸ«
Butterflies and moths everywhereβ€¦πŸ¦‹πŸ¦‹πŸ¦‹
Mysterious and swoony πŸ’—paths…where does it lead?
Restored steam tractors and my hubby’s sheer delight in this 150 Case…spark show was lovely! I really loved the quiet tinkling noise this tractor makes. It’s so peaceful compared to the truck pulls! πŸ˜… Interesting and inspiring story about the restoration/reproduction of this road locomotive.
Peaches and new library reads… πŸ’•
Sky & clouds…such gifts 🩡🀍🩡🀍🩡
This photo. What a brave dad! πŸ˜‚πŸ˜πŸ₯Ήβ™₯️

How about you? What has been inspiring you? β™₯οΈπŸ¦‹

Wednesday Wonders {Day 3}

Listening… I’ve been loving these playlists! So peaceful and calming.

Reading…This essay from Joy Marie Clarkson and this essay from Carol Hudson! Both have excellent food for thought.

Watching… I love the peaceful atmosphere of Cath’s vlogs. If you love cozy stationary, journaling, or slow reading reflections, her channel is for you. We don’t perfectly line up in reading tastes, but I enjoy her videos so much.

Noticing…the grasshoppers fleeing the edge of the road as I crunch past on my walk. The golden edge to the weeds and fields.

What are you listening to, reading, watching, or noticing? πŸ₯°β™₯️

Monday Ponderings {Day 1}

The times are so unfriendly. Play me something, would you, Rainy?

Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse

{starting my 180 Days Project! More about it as the days come and go! How are you all? Blessings over your week. Don’t forget to β€˜play a little music’ against these unfriendly times! 😌β™₯️}

August Buddy Reads πŸŒžπŸŒ»πŸŒΏ

Happiest August everyone! πŸ˜„β™₯️🌿 I realized I’m starting a lot of online buddy reads and continuing a few, too! I absolutely LOVE talking about reading πŸ˜‰ (if you hadn’t noticed before πŸ€ͺ) and so I thought I’d check in!

1. Dynevor Terrace by Charlotte Mary Yonge – my Victorian reading friends are huge CMY fans and I so enjoyed reading Pillars of the House with them last year. I’m still not a CMY super fan, but the conversation is lovely.

2. I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger – I’m so excited to read this fourth book of Enger’s as apart of my Leif Along this year. This a brand new book from my favorite modern author who happens to be a Midwesterner, too! β™₯️

3. The Peterkin Papers by Lucretia P. Hale – sweet , family-ish tale. Excited to read a lighter story for balancing out Kristin Lavransdatter. πŸ˜…

Of course, I’m continuing with The Cross and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

I’m also dipping into a lot of home education books for refreshment and encouragement. 🌿β™₯οΈπŸ˜πŸ“šπŸ“šπŸ“šπŸ“š How about you? Any books you are really looking forward to this month?

Wednesday Wonders

Listening… I really enjoyed Episode S6E85 Morning Time for Moms, Part 4, with Christina Baehr, here. I couldn’t figure out how to directly link. Christina is a cozy fantasy author and homeschooling mom who chatted with Cindy Rollins. Thanks to my friend, Kate, for telling me about it!

Reading… Know & Tell by Karen Glass. I was desperately in need of a refresher on all things Charlotte Mason as I plan our upcoming homeschool year. I’m entering my 15th year of homeschooling. I’m so thankful to God for His faithfulness. 😭β™₯️🌿

Watching… This YouTube channel about Charlotte Mason homeschooling.

Noticing… raindrops on hollyhock buds, endless blue skies, and the way the barn swallows swoop around me when I’m on the mower. Not to mention the smell of freshly cut grass! πŸ₯°πŸ₯°πŸ₯°

How β€˜bout you? What are you listening to, reading, watching, and noticing? β™₯οΈπŸŒΏπŸ“šπŸ˜

β€’gentleβ€’

Beauty reassures us that goodness is still real in the world, more real than harm or scarcity or evil. Beauty reassures us of abundance, especially that God is absolutely abundant in goodness and in life. Beauty reassures is there is plenty of life to be had. I believe beauty reassures us that the end of this Story is wonderful. The French impressionist Matisse β€œrepeatedly said that he wanted to make paintings so serenely beautiful that when one came upon them, suddenly all problems would subside.”

Beauty is such a gentle grace. Like God, it rarely shouts, rarely intrudes. Rather it woos , soothes, invites; it romances and caresses. We often sigh in the presence of beauty as it begins to minister to us-a good, deep soul-sigh.

John Eldredge, Get Your Life Back, p.33

β€’mostβ€’

Discipline is choosing between what you want now, and what you want most.

Abraham Lincoln, emphasis mine

β€’pennyβ€’

β€œThere are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But-and this is the point-who gets excited by a mere penny?”

β€œIt is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won’t stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is simple. What you see is what you get.”

~Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, p. 17, emphasis mine

What pennies are lying around just waiting for us to pick up? β˜€οΈπŸ’•πŸ₯°β˜•οΈπŸŒΏπŸ„