I’ve been mainly listening to two audiobooks when on walks or cooking.
I don’t LOVE revenge stories, but this is very creative so far! Chinese American Math genius is rescued from prison to save a failing company. Can she get revenge on the woman who put her in prison?Reading the new book out from Bright Eating founder with my friends.
I’ve also listened to a little Booktube and music. I heard an Oriole singing above us when my little boys, daughter’s finance and I where sitting at the campfire. It was beautiful!
•watching•
Spring burst out around us! It’s glorious! My daughter and her relationship! They were able to visit Mother’s Day weekend and it was so good to visit.
•reading•
We are finishing up a lot of our school books as we need to be done early this year! My two little boys and I are almost finished with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and we laughed so hard at the preachy Ompaloompa songs. 😂 I just finished a raw, realistic historical fiction about a woman’s journey to true faith as she struggles to survive on the Dakota prairies. Spring for Susannah is my second Catherine Richmond and it won’t be my last.
•noticing•
I am noticing how much we are asked to trust and let go of as Christ-followers, women, mothers, sisters, and friends! I find myself drowning if I hold on too tight and try to control out of fear. I’m noticing I need to choose to surrender to the Lord.
How about you? What are you listening to, watching, reading, and noticing?
I’m trying to keep going with my 100 Day Project even though my posts aren’t always perfectly consecutive! Life gets life-y! Thanks for commenting and sharing your thoughts with me on this journey!
I invite you to scroll through these beautifully encouraging pieces! I submitted mine awhile back and it was included (last piece, Amy M. Pine) with these others. They really are testimonials of God’s love and faithfulness! Just what I needed to peruse this morning as we are wrapping up our home school year. ♥️🌿
Looked at dinner pool list to decide what I have in cupboard for dinner. Nothing needs thawing.
Made my yogurt bowl for breakfast. Got kids finishing breakfast (fend for themselves) and starting math and piano practice.
Unpacked a few things from car that we left after arriving home late last night.
Texted with daughter at college. She got my card. ♥️Sent her video she wanted.
Collected cold coffee and yogurt bowl, grocery list, random journals, and pens and took upstairs.
Ran downstairs, washed out and filled water bottle.
Forwarded email someone wanted me to pass on to mom’s group.
Sent recommendations to my daughter’s soon to be MIL.
Ran back upstairs.
Listened to Marco Polo group messages while eating and settling up my journals.
Caught up on some journaling.
Ran downstairs. Printed off book covers for reading journal.
Sat down with four kiddos for our morning time.
Listened to narrations and popped popcorn for snack.
Did reading lessons with little boys. Read them a couple chapters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Buzzed boy’s hair, helped them with showers, and finger nails.
6 yo and I spread the hair clippings to birds outside .
Texted my best friend, my sister!
Listened to 17 yo narrate again.
Helped 21 yo son with his college paper for 10 minutes.
Got out leftovers for lunch, heated up ham veggie soup for my husband and I! Washed spoons.
Cleaned up while kids outside.
Got out big block of cheese, gallon bags to split and freeze. Can’t find serrated knife?
Went back upstairs and journaled a bit more, started grocery list/menu plan.
Tried to go on walk, super windy and cold. Listened to audiobook. Grabbed my son’s laundry that was on clothesline because it looked like rain. Admired the violets!
17 yo left for extended music lessons.
Call three younger in, work on each child’s history, science, and copy work. Work on some reading with my current dyslexic.
Make more popcorn and cheese and cracker snack.
Send them out to play.
Set up nature outing with friends via Voxer.
My 6 yo and I thoroughly enjoyed this together. ♥️
I found missing serrated knife. 🤪 Finished cheese project and I froze some of the cheese.
Sat down and started listening to The Raphael Affair, almost finished.
Watched one Booktube video.
Got kids ready for going with dad and picking up cousins for church. Found socks, shoes, sweatshirts.
Now blogging 😅 and thinking of dinner prep (egg sausage casserole), and which book to read.
Need to finish grocery list/menu plan.
Need to finish unpacking car.
Maybe start packaging up books for an east coast friend or write a pen pal letter?
I could sweep kitchen floor and scrub table too. 🤔
Fun 🤩 favorites reads from April!
I love these sort of post as I don’t often realize all that I’m doing while in the midst of it! Also it’s a record and a memory of a wonderful life! I’m so blessed to be a home keeper and home schooling mama. A favorite quote I heard again this past weekend was about “a long obedience in the same direction”. May that be so of my faith journey and my relationships. 🙏🏻♥️
What did you do today? I bet you’d be surprised if you jotted down the minute details as closely as possible. Happy Wednesday! ♥️
A few simple things to aim for this spring/summer! Prayerfully asking the Lord to help me focus on relationships and rightly ordering my affections. Do you have anything planned or something on your heart? ♥️ Journaling brings me so much joy! 🥹♥️🥰
Happy Thursday! I ‘tried’ to group these by main genre topic. ♥️ I’m hoping to add more for reference! A few of these don’t regularly update, but there is a TREASURE TROVE of back posts!
The sound of water trickling (we call the above stream the Withywindle), birds, wind, and I’m getting more audiobook time from walking and driving an hour away for a monthly book club. I have Mistress Pat by L. M. Montgomery and The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears going. The Pears book is an art mystery thriller, it’s a bit info-dumpy, but I love the art fraud case and Rome setting. Two police are helping an art historian unravel the mystery. It’s a series so if I end up liking this one enough, I can go on!
•watching• ♥️🌲 ~ I’m so enjoying checking my daffodils and the tree buds etc for any growth and changes. I did really enjoy this LOVELY journaling YouTube video recently. I was inspired to create my May reading pages. They look 👀 nothing like 😆 some of these gals I watch, but I had fun all the same. I used some kitty washi I had and a Pusheen stamp set we had laying around. I also found some more fun cute reading bingo boards on Pinterest. I find it so satisfying to fill them in here and there.
•reading• ♥️🌲~
I mentioned the two audiobooks I’m enjoying 👆, but currently, I have SO many books on the stack. I think I’m most enjoying spy/thriller/mystery archaeology type adventure stories 😆😂 with a healthy dose of classic, comfort reads. Very strange combo, I know, but I’m definitely eclectic! Below are a few ones I’m throughly enjoying.
Waiting on this next installment of Alex Rider teen spy for MI6! 😅First one was intriguing!New series I found that I’m trying!The first was very violent, BUT I really liked Elias, one of the the main characters and so I’m continuing this series!
•noticing• ♥️🌲~ We have a lot of Bloodroot blooming along the field and road edges. The Robins, Killdeers, and Red-winged Blackbirds have been vocal! I’ve had two Eastern Bluebird sightings which of course fills me with happiness. 😆💙🧡🤍 We saw the male American Goldfinches donning their yellow jackets! 💛🥰 We are testing our observations on the Barn Swallows. They usually are back around my daughter’s birthday and it’s this weekend (17!) so it will be fascinating if we see them! I’ll let you know! I loved seeing my youngest get to ride a horse this past week for the first time. He wasn’t sure but then really enjoyed it. 🐴
Bloodroot Holding on for dear life 😂😅
What have you been listening to, reading, watching, noticing? I’d really love to hear! ♥️🌲🥰
I’m slowly getting into my buddy read of Idyll’s of the King and I was struck remembering this lovely picture book version of this part of the poem. The Kitchen Knight retold by Margaret Hodges is lovely, largely due to the illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman!
Happy Monday, friends! Our weekly quest has begun! Go forth boldly and without fear! 🙏🏻♥️😍
“Six feet down in the sand There’s creatures that made a hole Do speak, I’m begging you, please There’s beauty outside control (Outside)”
~RM💜
My friend, Sam’s devotional about the Mundanity of God ♥️
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“Prayers of a Fool”
Cathedral carvings hidden Full-time home hearth lovin’ forbidden Fool, don’t do that again Takes long, second gone, down drain, amen. Wash, rinse, sunrise driven Plant, weed, kiss that bruised knee Blood, sweat, things that don’t make sense. Paint, scribble, lock it in a drawer, forgotten. Cathedral songs stir, long-dead-dusty, silent Heart strings strum violent Prayer painting skies violet. Fool, don’t do that again. It don’t make sense.
A.M. Pine - Hearth Ridge Reflections 