“Cease endlessly striving for what you want to do and learn to love what must be done.” -Goeth I did not become a nurturer on my first child’s birth day. In fact, it took three children for me to finally feel confident and interested in the job of thoroughly nurturing my family. See, I used…
I hear a distant chainsaw But I am in the woods Is it a beehive in the vines? I hear a far-off car alarm Or is it birdsong? I hear a creaking door Or are those tree frogs? I hear a hundred hurried tires Or is it water rushing? I hear a mower mowing Or…
I know, I know, this is the spot where I am supposed to explain why I renamed this blog “Bind up and Blossom.” But I haven’t made time to write that out yet. I’ll get to it. For now, here’s a little bio. Thanks. I am Heather Paige Hunt. I’m a joy-filled Bible-believing journaler bent…
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Hi, I’m Heather. When I am not reading aloud to my children, wondering around outside, tending farm animals and flowers, doing laundry or helping at our local prayer room, I love to write! You can receive these (irregular) blog posts and journaling guides in your email box by Subscribing Here. Thank you. PinterestFacebookTwitterEmail
You may relate. – In Suzanne U. Clark’s The Roar on the Other Side: A Guide for Student Poets, she instructs students to write two poems, one about a cacophonous (loud) place like a bowling alley and another about a euphonious (calm) place like a forest path. I opted to combine them into one poem about…
God designed the gambit of skills, interests, personalities, bodies, characteristics, learning styles and spiritual gifts then artfully whisked them together to form individuals. He uniquely created your children and hand-picked you to be their momma. Therefore, you can parent confidently, trusting His decision and believing He will equip you to shepherd each one well. You…
When Abby complained, “I’m bored.” Her mother wisely responded, “That’s okay. You don’t have to be entertained all the time.” Few moms give grace to themselves or accountability to their children by letting them endure some boredom. When our kids sigh, “I’m bored,” we are quick to save them by organizing an activity or turning…
I wrote this poem after a springtime stroll with my 6-year-old daughter. It is about a tree, but really it about her. I wrote the poem into the journal I keep for her and I share it here in my Letters to my Children series. The oaks are old and massive. Their spreading roots…
In my recent post, Homeschool Planning: A Guide to Finding Your Rhythm, Building Your Routine and Filling the Slots, I explained how to build a rhythm-rooted routine for your school day then fill that routine with your plans. I shared our current routine and promised to post our former preschool routine as well. As I…
In all the host of educational projects and curricula and programs, I have found no greater teachers than nature itself and a stack of excellent stories. Nature gently teaches foundational ecology, botany, zoology, geology, meteorology, astronomy and physics, even math. Time spent in nature brings strength to the body, wonder to the mind, peace to…
Our family reads the Bible every morning and evening. We keep our study short to make it doable and peg it to everyday events, like breakfast and bedtime, to incorporate it into our routine. During breakfast, we read the Bible, practice a memory verse, pray and sing a hymn or the doxology. We go slowly…
I realized a year into homeschooling that I was planning our days backwards. I had been making long lists of goals and resources that I wanted to implement, then cramming them into a swelling schedule. Thus, by the second Tuesday of every term I was either stressed or failing. Thankfully, I found a better way….
In Homeschool Planning Guide Part I, you studied your daily rhythm. Now it’s time to use those insights to artfully form a routine for your family. Make a second hours chart and lay your rhythm finder alongside it. Brainstorm options and play with your ideas, moving things around in different combinations. I like to use…
In Homeschool Planning Guide Part I, you studied your daily rhythm. In Homeschool Planning Guide Part II, you used those insights to build a rhythm-rooted routine for your family. Now let’s homeschool plan. Okay, now you can take out your goal sheet. It’s time to decide what you are going to do and what you…
Children are a wonder. Their hearts are already inclined to drink deeply of knowledge and beauty and their hands are ready to take on new challenges. So developing their curiosity and creativity is less like building from the ground up and more like nourishing what is already inside them. In 2016, I made a dreamy…
Each day after math lessons, we gather around the table to read a poem, recite our memory work, track the calendar, read aloud, draw and study our Word of the Day. That is, we unpack some big idea in one word each day. I write the day’s Word on the board for the kids to…
Simple living is a hot topic lately, both in print and in the echo chamber of the internet. The idea is not so much a new trend as a return- we are grownup children drawn back to the quiet and still and small. We reach for it, but it often eludes us. We long to…
Reds doodledoo in our gong-like metal barn.Pregnant cows moan from neighboring pastures.Squirrels dart down bare branches.Amid them birds sing a dozen echoing tunes.Above them geese honk, heading north. . Beyond the high wall of naked trees,Blue mist lays upon a dewy knollUnder a purple sky. The slope dead ends into tall amber grasses that crowd…
Nonworking parents, I created a potential daily schedule to help you as you plan your coming days with kids home from school. I don’t know your kids’ styles and interests like you do, but I have planned and practiced many gentle and fruitful days at home with my lower elementary-aged children. So glean what you…
When I first read Little Women, I was 23 and I was Jo. Adventurous, free-spirited, confident, loud, a bit self-absorbed and dramatic. Not pretty Amy’s pettish sort of dramatic, but a bold blundering kind. Then I had children and soon felt like Meg midstory, when she mothered twins. Absent. Meg was occupied, confused, imperfect, tired….
I came across William Blakes poem, “The Chimney Sweeper,” in Suzanne U. Clark’s book, The Roar on the Other Side: A Guide for Student Poets. She teaches, “Blake wanted to protest the cruel treatment suffered by young boys in the eighteenth century who were sometimes sold for labor by their impoverished parents. The speaker of…
Freedom is in believing God’s promises more than our worries. It is in loving His commands more than our desires and trusting His truths, even when it means discounting our own thoughts. Real freedom is not a throwing off of moral restraints or an unwillingness to yield; it is not a gratification of self as…
Last week, I returned to the tranquil cottage where my daughter and I spent our first week out of the NICU. This time, I was taking a personal prayer retreat there; last time, I was quarantining my newborn from her sister’s flu germs. I had not been there in a year. And I had to…
This post is part of my series, Letters to My Children (more here). I wrote this letter to my daughter, though the message applies equally to sons. My Daughter, These years, as I pray for you and mother you, I pray also for your mother. You need a mother who will affirm and uphold you, who…
Love and obedience are inextricably linked. During the last supper, Jesus states the importance of obeying His commands quite clearly. This passage once intimidated me, but now it comforts me. “If you love me, you will keep my commands.” John 14:15 “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he is the one who loves.” John…
After six weeks in the NICU, our baby’s going home day was set for January 3. At 3:00 AM that morning, our 3 year old climbed in our bed with a fever. It was the flu. Despite vaccinations and caution, the flu was in our house on going home day. Our preemie could not stay at the hospital, but…
Through the past four months, most days were marked by a steady and unearned peace. But, as I have recounted in this series, some included bouts of fear and tears. I can say with the Psalmist, When I said, ‘My foot is slipping’ your unfailing love, Lord, held me up. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy….
Our daughter was born eight weeks early as planned and has spent several weeks in the NICU as expected. While I took the respite of the decade in the hospital for four weeks, my husband and both of our moms took on my tasks at home. Families from church brought meals and invited my kids…
The doctors said our daughter could not survive labor. Thankfully they had a plan and I knew God would strengthen me for the five-month-long journey. I sought God more fervently than I had before, but I knew less about faith and strength than I realized. SEPTEMBER. I thought God would empower me through some subconscious underpinning…