Old favorites…{Day 35}

Sunrise and Honeysuckle

Do you find yourself returning to old favorites and habits in times of stress and upheaval? Sometimes, for me, this isn’t a good thing, because I have to work very hard to make good choices in a few areas where I’m prone to excess. However, books, music, and nature or domestic detail photography all have their place in a kind of “on-the-spot therapy” for me. I am definitely a rereader especially if a book encapsulates a certain ‘feeling’ I’m after or setting I love.

Poetry that I return to again and again!

Wild, windy days and whipping yellow

I recently pulled off my shelf a favorite reread series that’s so interesting that I got immediately sucked in all over again. I was reminded how much I love rereading, because so much more can be caught and different things highlighted. The Mirror Visitor Series isn’t perfect, but it has so many interesting characters and so many ideas to think on, I just love it. I was again reminded that it’s not always good for me to rush reading or be trying to keep up with all the new stuff. One big downside to Bookstagram and Booktube. Poetry, too, is something I absolutely have favorites of, I’m so rewarded and surprised as I cracked open the pages and take a deep drink all over again.

I don’t own a PB copy of the last book, The Storm of Echoes yet, can’t wait to collect it for the gorgeous cover alone. My favorites are the first two, by far, but they are all so immersive.
Josh Garrels oldie, but goodie

I’m very eclectic in my reading, listening, and watching tastes. I like quirky, kind of off-the-beaten-track things with a side of classic. I’ve noticed a shift lately back to my old Josh Garrels listening, instrumental BTS (my one and ever only K-pop fandom), a craving for films like Sound of Music, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Babette’s Feast. I watched a few episodes of Over the Garden Wall with my kids the other day. It’s a bit toooo creepy for us, but some of it is interesting and has such a gorgeous atmosphere. How about you? What do you gravitate towards when life is feeling weighty?

Two reread favorites 🥹♥️

Tree gazing and listening to…what are they whispering?

Hello light, my old friend.

How ‘bout you? What are some healthy ways you refresh yourself? Do you need something new and different? Or do you return to your comfortable, hole-y sweater of inspiration? It goes without saying, that the Holy Bible is super comforting to me because it shows that there is nothing new under the sun. We are all so flawed. I need deep gulps of Jesus.♥️ I definitely occasionally need a ‘Tookish’ adventure to get me out of a funk, but generally, returning to my old Baggins favorites and home comforts blesses me immensely. What richness we’ve been given! ☺️♥️🕸️🕷️🌿🍂🍁🍄🌾

~I remember the days of old;

I mediate on all you have done;

I reflect on the work of your hands.

I spread out my hands to you;

I am like parched land before you.

Selah

Psalm 143: 5-6 CSB

…find my way back…{Day 34}

Somehow I’ve lost my way with writing (and in general, creativity). Words and the authors (all artists, really) behind the ink have watered my soul in ways I can’t even begin to express. I want to find my way back to putting pen to paper, expressing memories, emotion, ideas, and ultimately, hope.

I’m starting by finding a few things to spur me on, but really just writing down anything each day. You start by doing. You continue by consistency. It can be randomness, but it’s out of my brain and it’s concrete.

Collage is probably the best way of describing the way I want to write and create. A simmering ephemera soup of colors, ideas, and encouragement. Incidentally, I also make collage art. I’ve just started doing it a bit more consistently. I recently realized that I’ve always collaged in some way, through scrapbooking, junk journaling, quilting, collecting words, and a little bit through photography, too.

How ‘bout you? Are there creative areas you want to resurrect in your life? Have you considered how different seasons of life, and circumstances (for me, covid, years of all little kids, distracting social media, health challenges) have made it difficult, but not impossible to come back to these areas.

I’ve been privileged
this year to write and collage for this letter!

Please chat in comments! I love 💕 to hear what you’re thinking and doing!

~♥️~

Victober Eve ~ 2024 Pile of Possibilities Bookish Chat {Day 30} 🖤🐦‍⬛🪶🍂🕷️🍁🐈‍⬛🕸️🧡

The Marble Faun is American, but the right time period. It was a recommendation from Jennifer Brooks, a favorite Booktuber that unexpectedly passed away this year. 😞 I’m reading a Christina Rossetti poem each day and buddy reading on Voxer Sylvia’s Lovers by Elizabeth Gaskell. I found a Librivox audio version which has different readers for each chapter (not my favorite), but there is difficult colloquial language that the readers are better at than me. Deerbrook is being put on hold so I can buddy read it with an online friend later this year. I have so many Trollope books to choose from, but I’d love to pick up Barchester Towers sooner than later.
This is the group read and I have it on my kindle…I didn’t love-love Lady Audley’s Secret, but I liked it enough to give another Braddon a try.
Nicholas Nickleby by Mr. Dickens I started in September and I’m listening while following along. It’s hilarious in the midst of Dickensian misery. 😂 I’m really enjoying it!
Creepy tales from Mrs. Gaskell that I’ve wanted to try! I have these in my Kindle.
Chantry House by Charlotte Mary Yonge I started in September and I’m really enjoying it. I read Dynevor Terrace by Yonge this summer and didn’t love some of the characters portrayal, BUT overall, liked it.

A Victorian play is one of the prompts for Victober and I found an audio version of ‘Mrs. Warren’s Profession’ and his famous ‘Pygmalion’. I’m going to give them a try!
I just recently heard of The Cloister and the Hearth by Charles Reade. I’ve never heard of this Victorian author.
The Coral Island sounds like a fun adventure story.
My son’s Sherlock mug! ☕️ ♥️

Just a ‘few’ of the Victorian items I’m trying or considering reading…it’s part of Victober fun to way overestimate how much one can get to during October! 😂😂😂 I’m planning on continuing during November and December, too! The “BER” months are perfect for classics. 😁🖤🐦‍⬛ I have piles of lighter, easier reads for inbetween the dense reads. Here are a few more Victorian things I’m considering…

  1. ‘Pygmalion’ by George Bernard Shaw
  2. Woman in White by Wilkie Collins audiobook
  3. Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope
  4. My Lady Ludlow by Elizabeth Gaskell
  5. A Dark Night’s Work by Elizabeth Gaskell
  6. Children of the New Forest by Frederick Merryat
  7. Treasure Island by RLS (reread, possibly listen with my children?)
  8. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne (my children and I are listening to this currently)
  9. Victorian Fairy Tales edited by Michael Newton ( I read a few of these last year! I may read ‘The King of the Golden River” and “The Golden Key” with my children.
  10. One of the prompts is a Sherlock Holmes story, but I’m just planning on watching a Jeremy Brett episode with my 17 yo son. Brett is a fantastic Sherlock!

What sounds good here? What should I prioritize? This is SO fun! 🤩😂 Let me know what you are reading that feels fallish! 🧡🖤🧡

{book cover images/interior illustrations are from Google}

A Mom’s Commonplace {Day 28}

Is there anything more cozy then journaling and journals? 😄♥️ It’s no secret that I’m a journal fanatic! We are trying something different this year in our home learning of combining our multiple journals into one. I’ve had the opportunity to journal alongside my children and it has been such an enriching experience. I don’t often share my children’s work, as that’s their own, but don’t mind sharing what I’ve been recording myself. 😆 So much richness! 😍I’m learning every day right along with my children. I have music lyrics, quotes, drawings, etc in here already! I treasure it. Do you journal?

What you learning or diving deep into? Isn’t life grand? 😄♥️🙌🌿🍄🌻

Monday Ponderings {Day 23}

Save me, God,

for the water has risen to my neck.

I have sunk in deep mud, and there is no footing;

I have come into deep water,

and a flood sweeps over me.

But as for me, LORD,

my prayer to you is for a time of favor.

In your abundant, faithful love, God,

answer me with your sure salvation.

~Psalm 69:1-2, 13 CSB

“Ease your whiskers, rest your paws,

Pies and puddings fill the stores.

Sweetly dream the night away,

Till sunshine brings another day.”

~ Jill Barklem

♥️📚🌿☕️✨🍂🍁🍄🌝🦉🕷️🕸️🎃

Saturday Examen + Homeschool Snapshots ~ first week {Day 20}

Cat fluff + sunshine = happiness 😄♥️🐈✨

“No one ever cared for me like Jesus
His faithful hand has held me all this way
And when I’m old and grey
And all my days
Are numbered on the earth
Let it be known in You alone
My joy was found”

~Stephanie Gretzinger

Song that has been carrying me through this week. 🥹♥️✨

We had a great start to our homeschool year this week. I changed our multiple journals that we’ve used in the past to one (plus a group one) for each of us and that is going very well! We so far are enjoying our books…the clear favorites of the week are our continuing a summer read of Jane of Lantern Hill by LM Montgomery, By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Around the World in 80 Days audiobook by Jules Verne. I attached some things to meal/tea time and it’s working well. I so enjoy reading public library picks with my youngers in spare moments. I’ve worked out a rhythm for working through individual work my youngest to oldest and it’s working wonderfully. We still have some wrinkles to iron out as my 12th grader 😭♥️ is working two days a week this year and we haven’t hit the co ops we are in yet. They start next week! Overall, I’m pleased with the forward motion. How was your week? Bless you as you put your hand to YOUR plow! ♥️✨🌻📚🥰☕️💌🖤

•faithful• {Day 16}

But I will sing of your strength

and will joyfully proclaim

your faithful love in the morning.

For you have been a stronghold for me,

a refuge in my day of trouble.

To you, my strength, I sing praises,

because God is my stronghold ~

my faithful God.

Psalm 59:16-17 CSB

~

What’s bringing me a bit of joy currently…{Day 10}

I saw 👀 that Abigail Carroll has new poetry book out (Cup My Days Like Water) I can’t wait to read it. Saving up my book 💴 for it!

I’ve been absolutely loving pink and purple pens lately! I have LePen and Tombow and have been making monochromatic and a mixture of the two colors spreads in my prayer journal/ planner-memory journal. I love these colors SO much, what colors represent your life currently? 🩷💜🩷💜

Speaking of color, I’m wondering if I ‘need’ an autumn cardigan in Kristin’s dress color? 🧡😂👀 I love looking at my imaginary closet on Pinterest. 🤩🤩🤩

I can’t tell you how much my Daily Pocket Moleskine had meant to me this year! Just a teeny place to record my to dos for the day, do a little creativity, and store lots of memories! I’m really stretching the binding, but I’m soooo happy with its bursting self! I don’t love Monday start calendars, so that’s the only downside. I’m planning on getting the red one for 2025!

This cartoon has been keeping me sane lately! 🥰♥️😭💔🌿 We are just passing through, friends, and it’s a painful and glorious journey, but precious Jesus is with us every step of the way. ~

•sweetness• {Day 2}

Lord, you do not withhold your compassion from me. Your constant love and truth will always guard me.

~Ps. 40:11

The Lord will send his faithful love by day; his song will be with me in the night – a prayer to the God of my life.

~Ps. 42:8

What secrets fly out of the earth

when I push the shovel-edge,

when I heave the dirt open?

And if there are no secrets

what is that smell that sweetness rising?

~ Mary Oliver

•inexhaustible•

My husband’s cousins gorgeous garden. 😍

What do I make of all this texture? What does it mean about the kind of world in which I have been set down? The texture of the world, it’s filigree and scrollwork, means that there is the possibility for beauty here, a beauty inexhaustible in its complexity, which opens to my knock, which answers in me a call I do not remember calling, and which trains me to the wild and extravagant nature of the spirit I seek.

Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, p. 140-141