August Buddy Reads ๐ŸŒž๐ŸŒป๐ŸŒฟ

Happiest August everyone! ๐Ÿ˜„โ™ฅ๏ธ๐ŸŒฟ I realized Iโ€™m starting a lot of online buddy reads and continuing a few, too! I absolutely LOVE talking about reading ๐Ÿ˜‰ (if you hadnโ€™t noticed before ๐Ÿคช) and so I thought Iโ€™d check in!

1. Dynevor Terrace by Charlotte Mary Yonge – my Victorian reading friends are huge CMY fans and I so enjoyed reading Pillars of the House with them last year. Iโ€™m still not a CMY super fan, but the conversation is lovely.

2. I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger – Iโ€™m so excited to read this fourth book of Engerโ€™s as apart of my Leif Along this year. This a brand new book from my favorite modern author who happens to be a Midwesterner, too! โ™ฅ๏ธ

3. The Peterkin Papers by Lucretia P. Hale – sweet , family-ish tale. Excited to read a lighter story for balancing out Kristin Lavransdatter. ๐Ÿ˜…

Of course, Iโ€™m continuing with The Cross and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

Iโ€™m also dipping into a lot of home education books for refreshment and encouragement. ๐ŸŒฟโ™ฅ๏ธ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ“š๐Ÿ“š๐Ÿ“š๐Ÿ“š How about you? Any books you are really looking forward to this month?

Wednesday Wonders ๐ŸŒฟ๐Ÿ’œ๐ŸŒฟ

Listeningโ€ฆ Iโ€™m rereading (listening) to Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury in anticipation of facilitating discussions in our co op High School Literature class. Iโ€™m excited to see what the kids think of this one! ๐Ÿ˜„โ™ฅ๏ธ๐ŸŒฟ

Readingโ€ฆsome Voxer friends and I are beginning the third book in Kristin Lavransdatter tale, an epic Norwegian fictional story following one womanโ€™s life during medieval times. Fascinating, beautifully written, but a torturous story in some respects. It will definitely be a favorite of the year for all the religious and moral questions it raises, the immersive setting, and gorgeous nature passages. The story itself is heartbreaking. ๐Ÿ’” Iโ€™m so enjoying reading it with a few other ladies and discussing. Iโ€™m also continuing on with my Pilgrim at Tinker Creek reread.

Watchingโ€ฆ Iโ€™m on a bit of a YouTube detox, but I hope to watch some Booktube soon. Iโ€™m especially looking forward to this one! Jenna dives deep into what she reads. FYI: havenโ€™t watched yet so canโ€™t vouch for content! ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‰

Noticingโ€ฆ the way that light glints off things. Little pockets of beauty everywhere.

What are you listening to, reading, watching, or noticing? ๐ŸŒฟโ™ฅ๏ธ๐ŸŒฟ๐Ÿ’œ๐ŸŒฟโ™ฅ๏ธ๐ŸŒฟ

โ€ขinexhaustibleโ€ข

My husbandโ€™s cousins gorgeous garden. ๐Ÿ˜

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, itโ€™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

Wednesday Wonders

Listeningโ€ฆ I really enjoyed Episode S6E85 Morning Time for Moms, Part 4, with Christina Baehr, here. I couldnโ€™t figure out how to directly link. Christina is a cozy fantasy author and homeschooling mom who chatted with Cindy Rollins. Thanks to my friend, Kate, for telling me about it!

Readingโ€ฆ Know & Tell by Karen Glass. I was desperately in need of a refresher on all things Charlotte Mason as I plan our upcoming homeschool year. Iโ€™m entering my 15th year of homeschooling. Iโ€™m so thankful to God for His faithfulness. ๐Ÿ˜ญโ™ฅ๏ธ๐ŸŒฟ

Watchingโ€ฆ This YouTube channel about Charlotte Mason homeschooling.

Noticingโ€ฆ raindrops on hollyhock buds, endless blue skies, and the way the barn swallows swoop around me when Iโ€™m on the mower. Not to mention the smell of freshly cut grass! ๐Ÿฅฐ๐Ÿฅฐ๐Ÿฅฐ

How โ€˜bout you? What are you listening to, reading, watching, and noticing? โ™ฅ๏ธ๐ŸŒฟ๐Ÿ“š๐Ÿ˜

โ€ขgentleโ€ข

Beauty reassures us that goodness is still real in the world, more real than harm or scarcity or evil. Beauty reassures us of abundance, especially that God is absolutely abundant in goodness and in life. Beauty reassures is there is plenty of life to be had. I believe beauty reassures us that the end of this Story is wonderful. The French impressionist Matisse โ€œrepeatedly said that he wanted to make paintings so serenely beautiful that when one came upon them, suddenly all problems would subside.โ€

Beauty is such a gentle grace. Like God, it rarely shouts, rarely intrudes. Rather it woos , soothes, invites; it romances and caresses. We often sigh in the presence of beauty as it begins to minister to us-a good, deep soul-sigh.

John Eldredge, Get Your Life Back, p.33

โ€ขmostโ€ข

Discipline is choosing between what you want now, and what you want most.

Abraham Lincoln, emphasis mine

โ€ขhandfulsโ€ข

Novelist Katherine Anne Porter wrote, โ€œHuman life itself may be almost pure chaos, but the work of the artist-the only thing heโ€™s good for- is to take these handfuls of confusion and disparate things, things that seem to be irreconcilable, and put them together in a frame to give them some kind of shape and meaning.โ€

from Jean Flemingโ€™s Pursue the Intentional Life