Category: Writing

Winter Inspiration Possibilities ~ Advent, Reading, & Stretching Myself Creatively {Day 41} ❄️🌲♥️❄️🌲♥️❄️🌲♥️❄️

amyofhearthridge8 Comments
‘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 Little White 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

Victorian Things/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! ❄️🌲♥️❄️🌲♥️

•november• {Day 40}

amyofhearthridge7 Comments

lonely rustle

earthy-smokey wind-singe

flick and flash,

lantern-light over discarded

pumpkin grins

glimpses of red-rich,

berry polka-dots,

full-stop, year stitched

crispy-rattle,

raspy-golden, jeweled

bits that linger, forgotten

in deep sea, blue-black

velvety bracken

birch, bold-brilliant

white-of-hope against greyed-gloom

of shadow-y woodlands, inky

month of all ‘v’s

months, fly straight and true

cawing into my heart

claw the blackness back,

coldness and grim gone

goodness to start anew

close soul-listening

strikes bits of joy

deep-dive within

rustle of faith flames

up once warm again

~ A.M. Pine

Ray, Anne, & Madeleine Nuggets {Day 39}

amyofhearthridge4 Comments
“I wanna be human, ‘Fore I do some art” ~ RM

Be certain of this: When honest love speaks, when true admiration begins, when excitement rises, when hate curls like smoke, you never need doubt that creativity will stay with you for a lifetime.

~Ray Bradbury, p. 46, Zen in the Art of Writing

Perfectionism means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived. Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground-you can still discover new treasures under all those piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip.

~Anne Lamott, p.28, Bird by Bird

What a teacher or librarian or parent can do, in working with children, is to give the flame enough oxygen so that it can burn. As far as I’m concerned, this providing of oxygen is one of the noblest of all vocations.

~Madeleine L’Engle, p.46, A Circle of Quiet

Thinking on these bits today! Happy Wednesday! ♥️

p.s. – I’m officially closing out my two reading projects from this summer! I’m still dipping into some picks, but hoping to make a new few goals for myself during the quiet, winter season. Overall, I am pleased with what I read. I probably will be less 😏 ambitious in my next goal.

Barbara Mahany {Day 38}

amyofhearthridge4 Comments

It’s a cold, ill, rainy wind that blows no good today. Soooo, of course, that makes me think of books. Ha. Who am I kidding. EVERYTHING makes me think of books. 🙃🤓😌😏😂♥️

I wanted to give you a heads up on a GORGEOUS nonfiction writer I’ve found this past year. Her writing is poetry to me. I’ve almost finished up Slowing Time by her as it’s set up seasonally so I am waiting for the winter section. She is of a different faith tradition than myself, but ties her practice to nature and the seasons so beautifully that I find I can pull out things that speak to me as a Christian.

I think she has only four books, so I hope to collect the last of hers which I’m waiting to find called The Book of Nature.

Have you discovered a new-to-you writer/artist/singer this year?

In other fun today, we are going to be watching this and making our own winter lists and I’m going to be ‘torturing’ 😆 my children with 90’s Christian worship music playlists. My teen years in a nutshell, my friends! 🤪😁♥️ What are you up to today?

Happy Tuesday! May your joy be full…

Word Salad {Day 36}

amyofhearthridge7 Comments

Hello, my old friends, I’ve {finally} come to talk with you all again! 😄🖤

These last few weeks have been a mash up of glorious warm, leaf crunching, rattle-and-rolling weather with a side of gorgeous rain. November is definitely here in all her glory. The clouds and sky have been spectacular!

I’ve been hunkered down a bit with family, homeschool, and church responsibilities, so my online fun 😅 has had to be kept to a minimum. I’ve still been reading, and it’s been a lovely respite to our full and busy days. A few of our outside responsibilities are lighter during the last part of November and December so that will be nice to catch my breath.

Half a moon! 😌

I’ve been struggling a bit to get the jumble up here *taps brain* to down here *taps blank page* and all I’ve got is my ‘word salads’ as I call them. I’ve been dumping impressions, ideas, words, what’s going on in the moment, etc etc etc into my ‘dump/empty’ brain journal. It’s kinda all I got currently. I see a few phrases in these riots of ramblings that I might want to use/explore later so it’s a start, right?! Ray Bradbury loved his lists and worked on stories from them YEARS later. I’m counting on this Bradbury Magic to transfer to me. 😂 Of course, Mr. Bradbury wrote a 1,000 + words everyday no matter what. ☺️😍🥰

I’ve been thinking a lot about mirrors after revisiting The Mirror Visitor Series, how Ophelia can only travel through them when she sees her true self in the mirror, no disguises or wishing for something different. It’s been tying into the opening chapters of my reread of A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L’Engle. She’s speaking on creativity/writing here:

If I thought I had to say it better than anybody else, I’d never start. Better or worse is immaterial. The thing is that it has to be said; by me, ontologically. We each have to say it, to say it our own way. Not of our own will, but as it comes out through us. Good or bad, great or little: that isn’t what human creation is about. It is that we have to try; to put it down in pigment, or words, or musical notations, or we die. ~ L’Engle, p. 28, A Circle of Quiet

Commonplace journal. 📓 A beautiful, new-to-me, song!
Sophie 🥰🥰🥰

How ‘bout you? How are you doing? Any creative threads to follow lately? I’ll leave with a few more photos and a wish and prayer that your week is full of true Joy no matter our circumstances. ♥️🖤♥️

Highly recommend!
Beautiful 🤩
“Exit, pursued by a bear.” 😂
A favorite spot for prayer and contemplation. 🖤😌🙏🏻 So many friends and family in heavy circumstances.
We make our own fun here. 😂
I want to read this whole book! A friend is reading bits at our Charlotte Mason co op and it’s gorgeous.

Happy Monday, my friends. A new week, with no mistakes in it yet. ♥️

“And straightway the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”

Mark 9:24

…find my way back…{Day 34}

amyofhearthridge22 Comments

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!

~♥️~

DIY Woman’s Well Refill “Degree” 😁♥️

amyofhearthridge11 Comments

I was so inspired Chantel’s DIY Literature Degree that I’ve been thinking about how to incorporate something similar. I’ve been feeling the pull (again) to be purposeful about certain areas of my life. I need some home education, spiritual, and life inspiration! I put together a stack of books to pull from, resources, and habits to especially focus on this summer. I’m sure this will extend far beyond 3 months 😉, but I love sharing in case it encourages/inspires someone else and as a bit of accountability for me. Firstly, here are some of the books. I am going to be dipping into these, and/or finishing, or rereading. My Bible and Fire Bible notes are a biggie as well plus various devotionals I dip into!

~ Formation of Character by Mason (life/ home learning)

~ Learning All the Time by Holt (home learning)

~ Get Your Life Back by John Eldredge ✔️

~ Women by Edith Stein ( spiritual/creativity/life)

~ The Cloud of Witness by various (ongoing)

~Slowing Time and Motherprayer by Mahany (spiritual/life)

~ poetry from different poets (spiritual/life)

~Know and Tell by Glass (home learning) ✔️

~ Real Learning Revisited by Foss (life/home learning) ✔️

~Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Dillard (nature/life) ✔️

~Jane & Dorothy by Marean Veevers

Some of these are on my Summer ABC list too, which works well!

Our last co op Picture Study artist! Fascinating!

The next area is my health. I’ve been floundering a bit in the program I was in and have gained a lot of weight back. I prayed about it and talked with a few close people and made some modifications. I’ve started back in and am feeling hopeful. I am prioritizing getting outside/walks, drinking water, trying to sleep, journaling, healthy food, and a biggie is limiting social media. I also have to have margin around our busy summer schedule. The key to these things is just a little bit everyday. I know it sounds like a lot, but I’m keeping it VERY simple to set myself up for success. 🙏🏻❤️‍🔥

Multiplication with Beans

Lastly, I really want to focus on real life relationships. I have a lot of people here at home and around me that I want to pray for and keep in touch with. Soooo, I’m focusing on s-l-o-w media…like penpals, this blog (it takes me a lot of work to post as I’m working from my phone), and an occasional reading wrap up on Booktube (super slow because it’s a lot of work to film and edit)! This means I won’t be around Instagram this summer, and limiting how much Booktube I watch! I have plans to connect with church and local homeschool moms this summer and I’m excited and a good nervous. 😅 I’ve been seeing that I need to break some covid-era dependency on online friends. Not that I’ll forget them entirely, my Victorian Reading friends through Kate Howe’s Patreon are dear to me! 😍 I’m really focusing on reading aloud to my younger kids and dates with my hubby, too.

Recent library picture books that we loved! 🥰

How ‘bout you? How is your summer shaping up? If you could create a DIY degree for yourself, what would it be? I’d love to hear! Chat below! 😍♥️🏡🌿🍄📝📚

•birth•

amyofhearthridge1 Comment

The artist is a servant who is willing to be a birthgiver. In a very real sense, the artist (male or female) should be like Mary who, when the angel told her that she was to bear the Messiah, was obedient to the command. Obedience is an unpopular word nowadays, but the artist must be obedient to the work, whether it be a symphony, a painting, or a story for a small child. I believe that each work of art, whether it is a work of great genius, or something very small, comes to the artist and says, “Here I am. Enflesh me. Give birth to me.”

Madeleine L’Engle

•away•

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•fly away•

a swallow tattoo

on this heart

of mine

seasonal swoops

of satisfaction

freedom in a

fork-tailed

friend, black-blue

russet-chested

glad you are

back, right on time

my heart sorely

needed an ink-infusion

of set-me-freedom ~

A.M. Pine 🌲

“ever-widening circles” – Rilke

amyofhearthridge2 Comments

Inspired by 지민

higher than the sky strangers

worlds apart, working on our art

ripples move outward, crisscrossing

your artistry, smiles, emotion,

dedication challenges me

maybe my covid-fueled

“mild-midlife crisis”

fandom can trickle

down into new fuel

for motherhood

for wifedom

and for my purple-tinged,

idea-driven

lifedom.

~A.M Pine 💜🌲💜