There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic.
Oswald Chambers
Monday Ponderings {October 24th}
Category: Thankfulness
Monday Ponderings {October 17th}
Unity is strength and happiness; separateness is weakness and misery.
Charlotte Mason, Scale How Meditations
Monday Ponderings {October 3rd}
…He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps…
Book of Psalms
Favorite Reads {3rd Quarter 2022} 📚🍁📚
Hello Friends, here we are again, another chunk of our yearly pie gone and enjoyed. What a glorious summer! Here’s what I really enjoyed reading in July, August, and September. 🍃🍁🍂🌾🦌🌞🐈⬛🌚🌛🍄🪵🌲🔥
July was a quieter reading month as we were so busy traveling, visiting, and enjoying the summer weather! My friend Kim suggested The Summer Book by Tove Jansson and I absolutely loved this gentle book about a grandmother and her granddaughter’s relationship with each other and the island they live on. It explores aging and youth, intimacy with nature, and many deeper themes. I still think about this book. Tove’s gentle pen & ink illustrations are superb. I also loved the coming of age story, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. This story was weirdly lovely and I loved Cassandra’s thoughts as a writer. The quirky cast of characters were so fascinating. All Manner of Things by Susie Finkbeiner was historical fiction, a pleasant surprise from a Booktube recommendation. It follows a Michigan family dealing with Vietnam and race tensions in their small town. This was done gently and so well, I really want to try more from this author. I also dipped into a lot of various things for Jane Austen July, a readathon on Booktube/Bookstagram.
August brought gorgeous weather, scrambling to complete summer projects, plan our homeschool year, and read all the things. I read a lot this month, but there were a few gems that shone. I really loved the main girl protagonist in Jake Burk’s Greetings from Witness Protection. A foster teen who is asked to help a family hide. She is so brave and kind, even though she has to overcome a lot of challenges. So heartwarming! ♥️ I finished my reread of Mansfield Park by Jane Austen and I thoroughly enjoyed diving into the characters. I found the Crawford siblings, Mrs. Norris, and Sir & Lady Bertram to be such interesting character studies in what not to be. I absolutely adored the slightly creepy and introspective story of a little girl trying to dig her family out of grief and finding solace in nature and her books. The Secret of Nightingale Wood by Lucy Strange was so lovely!
September brought a definite shift to the air, and we slowly have been easing into our school books. Bouquet of sharpened pencils ✏️ anyone? I was so excited to see a You’ve Got Mail themed readalong over on Booktube, as that’s one of my absolute favorite autumn movies. I finally read All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot, a lovely memoir of a English veterinarian on the Yorkshire Dales. It was humorous, the characters so fascinating, and I loved Mr. Herriot’s gentle air of never ending patience. I also enjoyed Gerald Durrell’s memoir of his childhood in Corfu. My Family and Other Animals brought gorgeous writing and the wonders of the minutiae of the natural world. Durrell’s family situations were hilariously crazy and it was fascinating and disturbing to get a peek at English family living in a British colony. I was so curious about the play Lover’s Vows by Mrs. Inchbold which was so scandalous in Mansfield Park. I finally found it via kindle and it’s also on Project Gutenberg and I really enjoyed it. A young man comes back from the military to find his mother destitute and reveals a secret! I also read Family Shoes by Noel Streitfeild, my third this year by this author and she is fast becoming a favorite! It follows the Bell family, a poor vicar’s family and their hilarious adventures trying to wade through relatives and help their parents with money.
What did you absolutely love reading the last few months? 🍁📚🍁 I’d love to hear!
Monday Ponderings {September 19th}
We all know that there are few surer tests of character than the way rebuke is sustained. The meek, frank soul accepts reproof with unclouded brow and simple gratitude; the ungentle soul resents.
Charlotte Mason, Scale How Meditations
Monday Ponderings {September 12th}
My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up.
Book of Psalms
Joy Journal: September 9th
🍂🍃Dear Friends,
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…
🌿this quote🌿
“…Love watches, and sleeping slumbers not; weary, is not tired; straitened, is not constrained; frightened, is not disturbed; but, like a living flame and a burning torch, it bursts forth upwards and safely over-passes all.” ~Thomas A Kempis
||Psalms 143|| delicious words swirling around me|| first homeschool co-op of the new school year, seeing friends and “meeting” new ones in the musicians, artists, and writers we will be enjoying together||my baby sister’s 30th birthday ||daughter’s excitement over hairdo change and getting ears pierced||celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary||
||golden-tinged September🍂🍂🍂||son’s excitement about helping friend work in Colorado||beginning Christmas planning|| The Secret of Nightingale Wood by Lucy Strange – enchanting!||P.G. Wodehouse audio books, hilariously ridiculous || “Honey in the Rock” by Brooke Ligertwood|| “Find Me in the River” by Delirious||an Oswald Chamber quote texted to me from my sister||
||Jesse Ahmann’s instrumental cello on YouTube ||foggy pauses||cool, crisp early morning air, with a hint of autumn||laundry snapping on the line||hubby finding a praying mantis on lawn||hard but good conversations||duvet put back on bed, cool and soft||Amish woodsmoke on the wind||bits of red-tipped sumac peeking around bends in the road||Bull thistle fluff blowing in the air, sunset blazing through it||
||Middle-Earth mornings ||harvest moon shining on my face as I awake from sleep||new tea, cardamom cinnamon coming in the post||letter writing to friends in Canada||homeschool mom chat||autumn stationary perusing||journaling saving my sanity||listing gratitudes helping rightly order my heart||purr of Ghibli, our adore orange tabby kitten||piles of books to try and soak in||
How about you? Anything just really bringing you joy currently? Watching anything good? Reading? Creating? I’d love to hear. Happy End of Summer, friends. May you get the chance to soak in the remaining warmth and light of the year! 🍃🍂🍃 Peace & love, Amy 🍎🍏🌾🍂📚🍂🌿🍃📬🖤💌☕️🫖🌾🍎🍃🍏🍂♥️🖤🌿✍️📬💌🖤
Monday Ponderings {August 29th}
I ask Thee for a thoughtful love,
Through constant watching wise,
To meet the glad with joyful smiles,
And wipe the weeping eyes;
And a heart at leisure from itself
To soothe and sympathize.
Wherever in the world I am,
In whatsoe’er estate,
I have a fellowship with hearts
To keep and cultivate,
And a work of lowly love to do,
For the LORD on Whom I, wait.
A.L. Waring, The Cloud of Witness, p. 356
Joy Journal: August 5th
☕️Dear Friends,
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…
This 🌿quote🌿…
It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity – a friend on IG reminded me of this quote and it was exactly what I needed.
||pressing pizza dough down into three pans, flour-y hands|| talking with 3yo about his Schliech puma and jaguar toys||our new rescue kitten, Ghibli or Gibs||laying in the breeze and looking up through the Honey Locust to a patch of blue above||Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, an unique, adult murder mystery within a murder mystery ||Black-Eyed Susan’s opening their eyes||
||my daughter’s chamomile flowers|| a wildflower bouquet from my oldest son|| new paneling slowly going into the bathroom || delish iced coffee made by friend, talking about homeschooling, life, and books with my bookstudy women||Christmas gift planning, thrifting and homemade ideas|| catching 3 yo on floor with pile of books, slowly turning the pages|| looking up and around and seeing 3 children reading near me ♥️📚||
||stacks of picture books to put away|| Malcolm Guite reads C.S. Lewis’ poetry at The Kilns ||zucchini, cucumber , and lovely green peppers from Amish stand||glorious sunrises breaking the dark’s hold || star-drenched skies|| paper bits, quotes, snippets, collage journal resurrected || jalapeño tango paint color still growing strong from Menards|| the summer smell, new mown hay, a friend said it “smelled green” and I looove that 🌿🌳🪴💚||
||a friend texting me a quote from the book she is reading || white paint to wash away a few years of country living ||Miriam Elizabeth’s Jane Austen July vlogs on Booktube || using a laundromat for the first time in a long time, reading The Princess Bride while waiting for clothing to dry|| old Carl Larsson calendar art cut out and reused||Austin Kleon’s email newsletters, so many weird fascinating things to get creative juices flowing ||single sunflower 🌻 that grew under bird feeder || Berber van Gorp’s peaceful ASMR art journaling YouTube channel ||
What’s on your gratitude list? Are you still soaking up summer or gearing up for autumn? I’m praying and planning a bit, but I’m still loving summer. I’m sooo enjoying reading 📖 outdoors and hanging out our 🧺 laundry. 🌿🌞♥️🌻🌿 Have a wonderful weekend, friends!
Love 💕, Amy
Monday Ponderings {July 25th}
Love is what carries you, for it is always there, even in the dark, or most in the dark, but shining out at times like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery.
Wendell Berry, Hannah Coulter
Monday Ponderings {July 18th}
He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? ~ Micah 6:8 ♥️
Joy Journal: July 12th {Living Education Retreat and More}
♥️Dear Friends,
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…
-and-
||making ice coffees at home|| Gerald Manley Hopkins wordsmithing || Karen Andreola’s books and back blog posts. || paper & river birch trees || sunlit diamonds on river and lake || buying just one book treasure from my favorite used bookstore || a favorite book, Fog Magic, found in a Little Free Library || washing my hair in the lake || making my very first 🍵 matcha latte, so good || Regina Spektor’s “The Call” || sunlight glinting off web as spider lowers herself to the floor ||
|| extended family picnic in the shady, sun-flickering light of my childhood backyard || a lovely friend, Kathy, passing on a free Sense & Sensibility outdoor theatre ticket to me, it was a wonderful performance || the gift of a pedicure from and with my sister || reading The Mysteries of Uldolpho with a Booktuber friend || finishing I Capture the Castle and the feeling of wanting to start it right back over again immediately || Still thinking on Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book and it’s quiet and gentle exploration of youth, aging, and how the natural world ties us all together in understanding. I loved this book. || early cabin mornings, drenched in pine scent, quiet prayer with my coffee || time with cousins, sister in laws, and camp friends for my children and I|| daughter taking me for iced coffee ||
How well I remember that run through the stillness, the smell of wet stone and wet weeds as we crossed the bridge, the moment of excitement before we stepped in at the little door! Once through, we were in the cool dimness of the gatehouse passage. That was where I first felt the castle – it is the place where one is most conscious of the great weight of stone above and around one. I was too young to know much of history and the past, for me the castle was one in a fairy tale; and the queer heavy coldness was so spell-like that clutched Rose hard.
Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle
|| Nancy’s opening talk on Joy at the Living Education retreat || White Pelicans at sunrise || watching a Kingfisher land on tree, then dive into lake for a catch || the joyful swooping, diving of fork-tailed Barn Swallows, over lake and over me when I’m lawn mowing, one my my most favorite summer joys of all! Their iridescent coloring is stunning || Art’s talk on joy and sorrow, the interweaving of Biblical truth, Charlotte Mason, the thoughts of Catherine of Siena, and Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Wild Swans” together in a beautiful way || talking about hospitality with Brittany and a few other ladies || mozzarella, balsamic, and tomatoes sprinkled with basil || early morning meditations near lake and worship in teeny chapel || chapel windows, stained glass and unique way of opening ||
|| my son’s excitement as he shared what he had learned in Don’s Critical Thinking session || camping through a rain storm in our tent with my son, using my umbrella inside, memories || gifts from friends, healthy banana pumpkin walnut muffins, special flavored Scandinavian falk salt, new coffee mug, salsa, and a lovely photo of us, framed || listening to A Wrinkle in Time with my son as we drove to the retreat in Minnesota || Amber’s lovely thoughts on poetry, learning new-to-me poets to explore, Effie May Newsome and Gwendolyn Brooks || all the wonderful conversations I had over good food or near the lake, so encouraging || meeting three Instagram friends, IRL! So exciting! || forget-me-nots || driving through Mankato, MN home of Maud Hart Lovelace, inspiration for Deep Valley || new book titles to search and look forward to || lovely tote bag with bookmark, card, and journal gifted to attendees ||
What is bringing you joy? What are you thankful for? Lots of love, Amy 💕💕💕
A.M. Pine - Hearth Ridge Reflections 