For the kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.
I Corinthians 4:20, NLT
~ Happy Sunday and the last week of July. 😨😭🤓♥️✨🌿
Sunday ✨♥️🌞 {Day 99}
Category: Year in Books
Saturday Snaps 📸 + a Quote for Reflection {Day 98}
Miss Mason’s definition of an educated child both charms and challenges: “A child who possesses a sound and fairly wide knowledge of a number of subjects, all of which serve to interest him; such a child studies with delight.”
~ from Jack Beckman essay in When Children Love to Learn
Soaking up the sun 🌞 on these cooler days! ONE WEEK UNTIL WEDDING! ♥️😅🙏🏻
First ‘26-‘27 Homeschool Year Purchase {Day 97} ✏️✨♥️
I’m getting very excited as I begin homeschool planning! 😍 The past couple of years, I’ve purchased a School Nest planner/record keeper, but I just never use all the features, even in the Minimalist version. I love the options and beautiful covers, but I just decided to go back to my $10 Walmart Pen & Gear brand! I love the calendar at a glance and the big daily slots. That’s really all I need. These are my ‘brain’ and my record book.
I’m rereading this oldie, but goodie and it’s making me excited and refreshed as I pray about our learning!
I’m also going back through this little gem!
Are you getting excited about autumn 🍂 or are you still in summer mode? What do you do to prepare? Honestly, we are still in summer mode, but I love homeschooling and stationery and books, so it doesn’t take much for me to fall into this rabbit hole around August! 😅I felt a bit sad because I saw the Purple Lead Plant coming up and Sumac turning colors 😨 and it made me think of summer ending. I just love the seasonal shifts! ♥️✨Happy Friday!
Moment {Day 96}
Just took a moment to sit by local lake recently. ✨It was just what I needed. My four younger kiddos were playing on the playground and under the giant trees, so I just gazed at the clouds and lake. Don’t you just love the reflection? Prayed a little and took a deep breath! Read a little more in this library find. Not sure about the ostrich farm and dressmaker premise? 😅, but fun to try. Happy Thursday, friends.
~
Wednesday Wonders {Day 95} 📚🦋
~listening to~ ♥️🌿 I just barely started a new audiobook called Dream of Kings by Sharon Hinck. It’s a perfect listen on my riding lawnmower. I have wedding programs to work on later so I will probably listen to more! I heard about this free choice in the Audible Plus catalog if you have an Audible account from the lovely Booktuber, Emily
~watching~♥️🌿 I really want to try the 1995 ‘Little Princess’ movie! 🎥 I’ve only seen the Shirley Temple version. It just came in from the library so hopefully my kids and I can watch it soon. I’m loosely participating in The Hardest Reading Challenge You’ll Ever Do 3.0😆😂, so I enjoyed watching the announcement for that, too. Albeit she’s very opinionated, just FYI. 🤣😬😅
•reading•♥️🌿~ my mood is still somewhat 😆nonfiction, and I finished up the YRE of Radium Girls (fantastic) and Do Something Beautiful for God (gorgeous!), but I feel a shift to cozy? stories. I did read one of the Great Mouse Detective stories on my deck the other night. Our weather went from boiling and smokey to gorgeous and cool! 😍 I’m most interested in finishing up my reread of Sense & Sensibility and continuing Jane Austen’s Bookshelf. I’m currently very intrigued by Artifact by Gigi Pandian (so far some language) and starting The Pink Motel by Carol Ryrie Brink! The truth is I have SO many good sounding books on my physical and kindle stacks. 🙃😍♥️📚 I’ve been ordering picture books from library because most of ours are packed away. It’s been fun to curl on my bed and read these with my youngest three. I find this gals recommendations are overall GREAT!
~noticing~♥️🌿 the details for my daughter’s wedding are slowly coming together! It’s getting close! 😱😭😍 I’m struggling staying with some of my rhythms and habits that are helpful, so trying to ease back into them for my sanity. However, trying not to guilt trip myself either. I’m finally feeling the school planning shift. Making some lists and poking around on websites. Love looking at book recommendations! Where do you look most for homeschool inspiration? ♥️
Well, that’s all, folks! 😅♥️Bless you! ♥️🌿📚☕️✨🥰
Top Ten Books That Live in My Head Rent Free {Classic Edition} 📚✨~ {Day 94}
- The Holy Bible ~ this is not always an easy book to read and I don’t understand a lot of it, but my spirit connects with it. It’s foundational to my life and faith. My favorite books are Psalms and John.♥️🙏🏻🌿
- The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry ~ this collection of Berry’s poetry speaks to me deeply. It makes me consider time and future generations in a huge way. It makes me think of now. It makes me consider life outside of self. Our lives have meaning for a greater purpose!
- Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery ~ my handle online is Amy of Hearth Ridge directly inspired by this book. There’s something to be said for hoping to be useful and a blessing to someone else in your life. How living a selfless life actually is fulfilling. Beautiful story of a daughter and father’s restored relationship bringing healing to those around them.That home keeping can be art.
- Wives & Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell ~ I can’t begin to tell you how much I love the characters and journeys they go through! The father-daughter, mother-daughter, father-son, and marriage relationship studies in this Victorian novel are fantastic. This is a beautiful story!
- Persuasion by Jane Austen ~ a lovely story of redemption and finally being able to have a voice. How one can live kindly and generously in the wake of S.S. Selfish People. 🚢
- Home Education by Charlotte Mason ~ late 1800’s to early 1900’s British revolutionary educational philosophy. This is so very Christ-centric and focused on the personhood of children and mothers. A beautiful life-giving read.
- Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher ~ a lovely story of how a child can blossom under loving and listening caregivers.
- Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury ~ a father and son meeting evil together face on! Underlying themes of temptation, fear, and growing older! I’m due for a reread!
- Christy by Catherine Marshall ~ beautiful story of a young teacher’s growth and learning in a rural Appalachian school. Gorgeous lessons for her as the very people she came to ‘help’ grow her so much in return. Wonderful female friendships embodied!
- The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder ~ the sheer bravery and strength of the early pioneers is astounding, convicting, and so inspiring! I often reevaluate my complaints after rereading this one. 😨♥️
I could have put Elizabeth Goudge on this list, Gladys Taber, Susan Branch, and many more poets! How about you? Which books do you think of over and over? ♥️✨🌿📚
Public Library Stack 📚{Day 92}
Ummmm…. 🤣😂😆 I didn’t realize that I had so many books checked out from library! Some are for me to preview for our upcoming school year. What should I try first? I’ve started a few. I’m liking the Yellow Rose Bride and very intrigued by Turn Right at Machu Pichu. If it’s good, I may have my 17 yo read it this coming school year. I have an Elizabeth Mann picture book about Machu Pichu, too! 😍
What are you reading today? 📚✨
Captain Blood 🏴☠️ {Day 90}
Short Description: Peter Blood, an Irish physician and soldier in England in the 1680’s, is wrongly convicted of treason and sentenced to indentured slavery in the Caribbean. He escapes and becomes the most feared pirate captain on the Spanish Main, but all the glory of his adventures cannot help him, for the woman he loves cannot love a thief and pirate. Even when he destroys England’s enemies, even at his most triumphant…but wait! What’s that…
~ Goodreads
Wow! I loved this story of Peter Blood, gentleman pirate! 6 stars ⭐️ from me! If you enjoy historical fiction, adventure stories, or Treasure Island, you will love this Robin Hood- like tale of loyal friendship, ingenuity, and high seas stakes. I bet it would be wonderful as an audiobook! I’ll have to see if I can find one! I definitely will be trying others of Sabatini’s books.
Do you have any good recommendations for high seas or pirate stories with a classic feel?
Happy Friday and Happy Reading! 🚢 🌊 ⚓️
Non~fiction Mood {Day 88}
Hi friends ~ I’ve been reading a lot of fluff (and enjoying it!) this year, probably due to our life circumstances 🤪, but a nonfiction switch has been flipped in my mood-reader brain, and so I hope to share about my favorites slowly. I’m still reading fiction, of course 😆, but I finally picked up this one which has been on my radar for long time!
The Radium Girls – I decided to read the Young Readers Edition to preview it for our homeschool. So far, it’s been super engaging and disturbing! 😳 Did you know about this part of history?
Another super disturbing and eye-opening book that my friend recommended is this one!
The Opt-Out Family ~ I can’t stop thinking about this one and I’m currently deeply evaluating 🤔 how I live with and my example to my children in using technology, specifically social media and video games. 🙃😱😩😖 Still not sure on everything, but prayerfully considering it all. I keep using Covid as an excuse for the level of media we use and I recently realized that, duh, we are going on that being like 6 1/2 years ago. 😨☠️
Do Something Beautiful for God ~ I’m a Protestant, but I value and appreciate so many of the great Catholic writers. I’ve been so pleasantly surprised by this book of daily quotes from Mother Teresa. I started it in the middle of the year last year and it has blessed and spoken to me time and time again.
How about you? Any nonfiction hitting you hard? What’s on your stack? ♥️✨
Monday Ponderings {Day 87}🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️☠️☠️☠️⚓️⚓️⚓️
A man must sometimes laugh at himself or go mad,’ said he. ‘Few realize it. That is why there are so many madmen in the world.
~Rafael Sabatini, Captain Blood
I am loving this swashbuckling story! Have you read it? There’s an Errol Flynn film out there, too! 😆😂 Happiest Monday! ♥️🌿✨🥰
Read My Shelf: 50 x 50 Booklist 📚📚📚 {Day 85}
Hello 👋 Friends ~ a few of you expressed interest in my 50 books off of my owned shelf that I’m trying to read by the time I’m 50! A few stipulations. Two of these are on my Kindle owned shelf, as they hard to find physically. I also reserved the right to use any form to read these as long as I own a physical copy. For example, I own Moby Dick, but if I want to check out the audiobook version from the library, that is fine. I also gave myself two switch outs. If for some reason, I really can’t read a book, I’m allowed to switch it out from my shelves. I started this project in mid-2025?, so I have till June 2030 😅😳 to complete it. The huge nonfiction are the ones I’m mostly concerned about! 😂 I tried to balance a few lighter things, while still challenging myself. I kept most? if not all of these books out of the great book pack-away for our remodeling. ♥️📚🥰
50×50 List ~
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
- The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
- Dante: Poet, Political Thinker, The Man by Barbara Reynolds
- Biography of A Cathedral by Robert Gordon Anderson
Mistress Patby L.M. Montgomery☑️- Any of my Victor Hugo
A Dark Night’s Workby Elizabeth Gaskell(Kindle) ☑️- Tempest Tost by Robertson Davies
- Letters from Cuba by Ruth Behar
- The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
- Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories by Jenny Uglow
Rob Royby Sir Walter Scott☑️- Dr. Wortle’s School by Anthony Trollope
- Vicar of Bullhampton by Anthony Trollope
- The Shadow Casket by Chris Wooding
- Any of my unread Ray Bradbury
The Virginianby Owen Wister☑️- A Pale View of the Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer
- Thoreau and the Language of Trees by Richard Higgins
- Any of my Elie Wiesel
- Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
The Robeby Lloyd C. Douglas☑️- Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
- Revelation by C.J. Sansom
Jane Austen Bookshelfby Rebecca Romney☑️- Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
A Gentleman in Moscowby Amor Towles☑️- Van Loon’s Lives by Hendrik Willem van Loon
- A History of the American People by Paul Johnson
- A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond
- Kit’s Wilderness by David Almond
- Idylls of the King by Alfred Lord Tennyson
- A Chaplet of Pearls by Charlotte Mary Yonge (Kindle)
- Any of my Edgar Allan Poe
- Any of my Nathanial Hawthorne
- Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
- The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
- You are A Tree by Joy Marie Clarkson
- The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults by Cheryl B. Klein
- Any of my unread C.S.Lewis nonfiction
- One of my folklore collections
- The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton
- Poemcrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge
The Divine Comedyby Dante☑️- Any of my unread Russian authors
- A Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield
- Any of my unread L.M. Montgomery short story collections
- Make Believe by Elizabeth Goudge
- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
What do you think of my list ? Have you read any of these authors or these specific titles? Do you have a list of books you want to read in the near future? Chat books with me below! 👇 🥰📚♥️
Wednesday Wonders {Day 82} 💦🌊💧
~listening to~ ♥️🌿
I happen to notice that I was listening to ‘Swim’ by BTS while reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Serendipity! 😅💦💧🌊 I picked up this narrative poem for Jane Austen July because I believe Coleridge was a contemporary of Austen’s. I think 🤔 it sounds familiar, I may have read it before! The albatross! 😳😂
~watching~ ♥️🌿I did end up watching the 2020 ‘Emma’ film with my daughter and meh. 🫤 It was ok. I liked parts of it. It struck me as sort of goofy. 😂 A n*ked backside right in the beginning was weirdo, too. Oh, well. I liked the actors that played Mr. Knightly and Miss Bates. I’m allowing myself one Booktube video a day in July and it makes me be very choosy. I really enjoyed Chantel’s yesterday.
~reading~♥️🌿 I have massive piles physically and on my kindle, 😂📚 but I’m mostly finishing up The Opt-Out Family and working on Moby Dick. I also just barely dipped into Jane Austen’s Bookshelf of which I enjoyed the first few pages immensely. I haven’t borrowed anything new from public library (July challenge), just reading from my stacks and Kindle!
~noticing~ ♥️🌿
My hollyhocks are wonderful! 😁 I may have mentioned before that they are biannual and these self-seeded, so I forgot about them! 🥰😻😍What happiness!
What are you listening to, watching, reading, and noticing? ♥️🌿📚 Chat below, friends! ~
