• My Favorite Books this Year

    Hello everyone! It’s Mattie. This week, I just wanted to share a few books that I’ve really enjoyed this year. The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope ⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Newly orphaned Peggy Grahame is caught off-guard when she first arrives at her family’s ancestral estate. The house is full of mysteries and ghosts. Soon Peggy becomes involved with the spirits of her own Colonial ancestors and witnesses the unfolding of a centuries-old romance against a backdrop of spies and intrigue and of battles plotted and foiled.” This book was written in 1958 and has an almost dual timeline between then and Colonial New York. The synopsis sounds strange, but don’t let…

  • Finding My Secret Gardens

    A few days ago, while I was at work, I remembered something. I was tired, bored, ready to go home; I was generally just fed up and grumpy. But as I worked, I remembered something that I hadn’t thought of in years. When I was in my younger teens, I decided almost subconsciously that I would start to see the beauty in everyday life.  I’ve been reading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and it has awakened a wonder for the world around me that I think I had lost. The joy the children see as the spring arrives, and the wonder they have as they watch everything grow…