Keeping Company: Pilgrim's Inn

Lucilla knew always, and Nadine knew in her more domesticated moments, that it was homemaking that mattered. Every home was a brick in the great wall of decent living that men erected over and over again as a bulwark against the perpetual flooding in of evil.  But women made the bricks, and the durableness of each civilization depended on their quality, and it was no good weakening oneself for the brick-making by thinking too much about the flood.   ~ Pilgrim's Inn, Elizabeth Goudge, p. 48 

This is the first book I've read by Goudge, but it certainly won't be the last.  What a beautiful writing, and such memorable characters!  And her descriptions of the Pilgrim's Inn and Damerosehay...  I so hope there are places like that in the world.

I'm trying to shore up my commonplacing habit this summer, and I've decided to take a cue from how I have my kids do some of their work.  If I plan to spend about 30 minutes with a "stiffer" book I'm reading, I break it up into about 20 minutes of reading and the remainder for writing in my commonplace.  I either write quotes from what I've just read, so I copy something from an easier book I am reading in the evenings.  I appreciate not having to find another chunk of time for just writing, and it makes the commonplacing much more likely to happen.

Currently Reading (by category)

Lighter Non-Fiction

• A Book of Bees by Sue Hubbell (because I am fascinated by bees and would love to have a couple hives someday)

Continuing Education

• The Liberal Arts Tradition by Clark and Jain (for the Scholé Sisters Summer book discussion - not that I've managed to find time to participate)
• A Touch of the Infinite by Megan Hoyt (because I've always wanted to know more about music study)
• Parents and Children by Charlotte Mason (for a CM discussion group)
• For the Children's Sake (for a 20 Principles Study group)

Fiction

• Pilgrim's Inn by Elizabeth Goudge

Faith

• Catena Aurea - The Gospel of St. John (I started this in January thinking it would be the year's focus...  but as I'm only about halfway through Ch. 5, I think I'll be working on it a lot longer than that!  But I love it, and I am so glad I'm continuing to read and ponder it)
• Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (ok, so I haven't actually started this yet, but I will - soon! -  maybe even today!)

This post is linked to Celeste's Keeping Company link-up in July at Joyous Lessons.