Reflections Blog

2/12/2026  "Said hello and goodbye to baby Ross this morning. Joshua and I spent a good while holding him - a sweet and necessary time for us. I'm so glad that I was able to have him, hold him, kiss him, study his little hands, fingers, toes, nails, face, tiny as he is. The boys were able to come and Christopher wanted to hold him. He was wrapped in a little blanket with name stitched on it by his auntie. "   The grief has barely begun, yet we've already heard from so many people who have walked this path before us. God is connecting our story to others' in a truly beautiful way. I can't tell what the future might look like for us, but right now I feel such a strong sense of peace and hope. I hope that I can encourage others who have been through this dark and heartrending path, or who may possibly be facing it in the future. There is no consolation to the fact that it is a club that no one wants to join; it feels like the biggest nightmare. And there's no...

 " Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the   Lord :  And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."  Malachi 4:4-5  I just finished this book, Cry, The Beloved Country, by Alan Paton and it was such a beautiful story that I am compelled to attempt to do justice to it here. The 320 page volume only captured my heart about halfway in, but once it did, I was completely invested in this deeply Christian novel. The story follows an Anglican priest and his native country of Africa, as he seeks for his beloved and only son, Absalom, through the corrupt city of Johannesburg. Stephen Kumalo is a caring father, if somewhat aloof, and when he finally discovers his son: it is with anger ...

 It is helpful for me to write down my thoughts after I have finished reading a book for when I do so I  tend to remember the book better. These book reviews are an aid to my memory and if they encourage my friends to read, I won't be upset. I am happy to loan my Goudge copies out! The Bird in The Tree, Elizabeth Goudge  What is truth?   The Eliot series connects goodness, truth, and beauty together so masterfully that you could read the books and not even realize that these themes run so prominently throughout the books. In Goudge's captivating first book, Lucilla, the matriarch of the family, must confess her secret story of love and loss to save David and Nadine from an infatuation that threatens to be detrimental to the peace of her family. Can something really be true, if it is not good? And how will the truth work in the lives of Lucilla's loved ones? I really Enjoyed David and Lucilla's relationship in this book, and I thought that his search for truth wa...

There is a helpful metaphor in the Charlotte Mason philosophy which she invokes often, the "feast of ideas," that the mind feeds on ideas as the body on food. If we want our children's bodies to be healthy, we offer them a wide variety of foods, if we want their minds and spirits to be nurtured? We must offer them a wide variety of ideas! For this reason, outdoor play and Nature study have a crucial part to play in a Charlotte Mason education. Nature brings us into constant contact with God's creation and a vast multitude of living ideas. Charlotte was an advocate for Art. She was an advocate for foreign language! But she was also an advocate for a wide selection of Living Books . You can search for a definition of Living Book on YouTube and come up with some good content if this is your first acquaintance with the term. I like to ask myself, "is this a story that has appealed to the human imagination for generations?" this criteria becomes problematic when ...

 My favorite fairytale picture book in our house is an adaptation of The Light Princess by George MacDonald. I am always looking to collect good fairytale picture books, especially from the Brothers Grimm collection (if the adaptation is bad, I am happy to have the boys hold the picture book while I read from the original), so to have a favorite is saying something - I am typically not one to commit to favorites, but this story is simply too good not to fall for (and not to share with you!). The Light Princess is a spin off of the well known "Sleeping Beauty" story; taking a drastic turn at the beginning of the tale when instead of the princess being cursed with death, she is cursed with losing her gravity. The light princess grows up untethered from the earth and with no sense of gravity about the situation she is in; always laughing and making light of life, the King and Queen try everything to make her see the serious side of things: to no avail. Can anything transport t...

The Emporia Public Library has great inter-library loan connections: if you live near Emporia and enjoy reading, you have a great resource available to you! Below are some of the titles that we read this year and most of them are available through the Emporia Library, one way or another, and the process to request a book that is not on site is very simple, I promise!! First, you'll need to make an account at https://emporia.biblionix.com/catalog/ with your library card number, then head to "Account" and "Reserves/Requests" where there are prompts for you to follow in order to request an item that you're looking for!  We have read and enjoyed all the titles included below, which are just our very favorites. I am currently itching to get to town so that we can pick up The Children's Christmas Carol that is waiting for us; nothing like the anticipation of the start of a new title!!  Enjoy, Sam Margaret Wise Brown The Big Red Barn Margaret Wise Brown The Lit...