Lovely Sunshine and Breaks

God is so good to us.  This week we had a lovely day of sunshine, and my husband came home to have lunch with us.  He encouraged me afterwards to go for a short ten minute walk with the children, to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.  That ten minutes turned into more like an hour!  We walked through the village and grassy fields and enjoyed God's creation together.

We've had our broken washer repaired, and I am so happy to have two working washers again!  Tonight I get a break from making dinner, as my dear husband will make some roast lamb that we purchased from a lady in the village.  She raises her sheep without medicines and antibiotics, so we are so thankful for this.

Sunrise photo by one of our daughters

I've put fresh, clean sheets on the bed, and am doing a bit of work in our bedroom while I have the little ones doing lessons.  I love that homeschooling is so portable that you can take your books pretty much anywhere you want to.  It is quite cold and gray today, but my dear husband has once again built us a nice fire to keep us warm.  We have used so much firewood, that we will need more delivered quite soon.

God bless and keep you all.

This Christmas....

I am writing this post from my bed...because I have come down with the flu.  A couple of days ago, I started feeling a funny feeling in my throat, and started feeling quite tired.  I was hoping it was just due to exhaustion from all the preparing I had been doing for Christmas, and because I had been tending to sick children all weekend and following, and because of other current matters.  But during the night, the feeling in my throat turned to excruciating pain that kept waking me up, along with the feeling of fever and body aches.  I had come down with the flu.

I spent the whole next day in bed, not feeling like myself, but treating myself with remedies that I thankfully learned over the past few years.  My husband braved sitting next to me, much of the time, keeping me company.  I got one little card from Understanding Heart, and a sweet little note from Trusting, that said, "Dear Mommy I Love you, I hope you feel 100% better."--along with a drawing of him and his mommy.  It is so sweet when your little children remember you even when you are shut up in your room away from them all day.

A yak we saw on one of our recent family walks

I am still in bed today, but feeling so much better.  It is such a beautiful, sunny day and quite warm, and I can hear many birds chirping, and the cows mooing outside.  The children have enjoyed some outside playtime with Daddy today.  Quite a change from all the recent rain we've been having, with mostly dull, gray skies.  The children and Daddy have now gone on a walk to the organic farm, and I wish I could have gone with them.  But the Lord has me here.  How I am reminded in these quieter moments the Lord gives me that I must remember to pray, for there is so much to pray about.  And while I may forget, my Saviour never leaves me and is always with me, ready and waiting to hear from me.

While I am feeling a bit better, I am almost tempted to get up and go do some laundry, for I enjoy doing laundry, and it really needs to be done. But in this big, old house, that would require a lot of walking.  Apparently, no one has reminded Golden that she should help out by doing some laundry, though she has been helping in other ways such as getting meals for the family.

I am staying in bed, except for a few little trips up and down in my room.  I've been going through a few drawers of paperwork and cleaning things out, little by little.  It is amazing how much paper piles up these days and takes up so much of our space and time.  I would be happy to be rid of it all.  I am getting rid of whatever I can, but keeping those keepsakes from the children and necessary items.

My husband has gotten me the most beautiful bouquet of flowers.  There are dark pink roses, lilies, and some other strange but beautiful flowers I am not familiar with.  They are brightening up the room and providing the sweetest scent to cheer me.

I hope you all are doing well and have had a merry Christmas.

It Has Been a While

It has been a while since I've posted.  I need to reply to some dear comments that were left.  There have been so many "goings-on" for the past several months.  I want to take more time to record little snippets of home-life, so I do not forget the wonderful things that go on day-by-day.  I've given little nicknames to some of our children in this post.

The other day, Excellent Virtue, Trusting, Understanding Heart, and Full of Grace were having a tea party with the little puppies with the tea set that Daddy bought them a couple of years ago.  It was truly adorable, and Faithful Understanding took some pictures of them.

I have been so very busy wrapping present after present this year for Christmas.  Last year, my husband did most of the Christmas shopping since I wasn't really able to.  But this year, I asked him for a budget for the children so I could buy them things, and he generously obliged.  I spent many hours looking for good deals to buy things for the children (and for him).  I did this online so I would be able to be at home and not spend many hours driving around to different stores which I am not familiar with. The presents have been coming in the mail, and it almost seems like too much, but I guess perhaps nice to bless them with some things they haven't been able to have for some time now.  I was sure to find and buy them some edifying Christian books, as I loathe just buying "play things" that have no value for eternity.  Filled with Grace and Faithful Understanding have not only been looking for Christmas presents for their "secret" family members in our gift exchange, but they have been busily making and buying presents for everyone in our family, with their own money they received over the year.  They do not have a lot of money, but they have chosen to use it to bless others.  What wonderful children!  I am so blessed to see what the Lord is doing in their lives.

We had quite a bit of company around Thanksgiving time, and also went visiting at some other people's houses.  I felt quite worn out afterwards, as I usually do, but I think the Lord is growing me in the area of hospitality, which I know I need to do.

I have ordered some math visuals and manipulatives for some of our children.  I had thought we could get by without them and only rely on our textbooks, but it seems we need more than that for some areas.  I always look forward to getting new school materials, so I am excited for the new things to come.

We have watched the beautiful autumn leaves come and go, and now the wet, rainy, windy weather visits us more frequently.  We have had to bring out more blankets and have more fires, but each season is a blessing from God.

We are so very blessed by our dear Lord & Saviour, & I hope you may feel so too.

Tiny Voice of Reason

At lunchtime today, somehow we came upon the topic of how someone melted part of the power cord to one of our slow cookers.  I had noticed it in the morning, however, I needed to cook our meal for dinner in the slow cooker and just put everything in and turned it on as usual, trying to get started on the rest of my day.

One of my girls, upon hearing about the cord, was concerned and reminded me there was danger since the wires were exposed.  She also reminded me of how I could cook our meal in the soup pot instead...(smiles).  I was a bit frustrated, as the person who accidentally melted the cord never told me about it so we could fix it.

But I went to put the evening's dinner, already steaming, into our large soup pot.  Soon, my littlest girl was standing right between me and the counter, squished in the little concave between my legs and the cabinets...

"It's alright, Mommy.  We can just pray," she reminded me, as she hugged my legs.

It was such a simple thing, but it made me stop and think about my feelings of frustration.

"Of course we can always pray, can't we?"  I smiled at my dear little girl who spoke wisdom to me in that moment.

I'm sorry I haven't replied to all of your recent comments.  Things here have been more busy than usual, but I will try to reply soon.

A Birthday in Bed

I recently had a birthday but didn't get to spend it as I'd have liked.  I woke up with an awful headache that worsened whenever I got up or walked around.  So, in bed I stayed, all day.  I tried to sleep off the headache, but it just wouldn't leave.  My dear husband even got off early to spend time with me, but in bed I had to stay.  I spent much of the day praying and acknowledging to the Lord what a blessing it is to be around my family when I can, and reflecting on His goodness to us.

Since I was not feeling well, my husband ordered pizza for us (something I was craving anyways).  The family ate down in the kitchen while I was brought dinner in bed on a pretty tray.  In a little while, Husband came in to ask me if it would be all right for the children to bring up their gifts for me, as they really wanted me to open them.  "If they are not too noisy", I said.

In a few minutes, the door opened, and in came a line of my husband and children, quietly singing happy birthday to me.  My husband was carrying a beautiful chocolate cake that my eldest had made, complete with candles!  I received some very special homemade gifts and cards from my children, and my husband gave me some drawing supplies.  I hope I can use them soon.

Though I had wanted to spend my birthday with my family, the Lord had other plans, and His plans are always good.

The doily one of my daughters made for me

Some of my precious gifts and cards.  Another daughter made the earrings.

It is still green here in winter.  The only difference is that the trees are bare of leaves, but many of them have green vines growing up the trunks.

Top painting by Teresa Jenellen

Today's Plans

  I have been making my plans for each day in the morning.  I used to always keep a regular schedule and made one up for all of the children also that I printed out for everyone, but life has not been "normal" for awhile, so I've had to make due with taking each day as it comes.  But oh, how happy and glad I am that I can plan out a day at home of taking care of our home and family.

On the list for today is exercising, washing the bedding, teaching the children their school lessons, and doing some organising in my bedroom.  Of course, meals must be prepared as well.  During the day, while I am teaching the children, I like to put on some nice classical music in the background, either on the computer, or now on the CD player, as someone just kindly bought us a CD player.

The last several days, I have been looking through school books, as we will soon be ordering more books for a new school year!  We always look forward to this time of year, when new school books come.

There is much to do in a mother's day, but oh, how blessed we are.  We have been listening to the above video of classical music and have been enjoying it.  It is important to have uplifting, good, music for your home.

We went for a family walk the other day, and it was quite wet!

The Beauty of Snow

A couple of weeks ago the Lord brought us snow.  How good He is to bring such lovely things for us to enjoy.  I woke up to the sound of excited little children peering out the windows, exclaiming that "It's snowing!!"

The snow didn't become very deep, but how pretty the sprinkling of white dust looked on all the green plants and grass on the ground.

We spent the day snuggling up by the fire, watching the large, pretty snowflakes fall.  And later on, the children went outside to have a snowball fight with Daddy.

Many people here have been telling us not to expect much snowfall.  But the snow that came reminded me of how the Lord is in control of all things, and how good He is to send good gifts to His children.

An Eventful Week

Last week was a very eventful week.  I fell ill for a couple of days, with unexplained pain that kept me in bed all day.  But I was well taken care of by my children and my dear husband.  And I treated my symptoms naturally and soon returned to good health--so thankful to the Lord.

The middle of the week was quite emotional, and then towards the end of the week, three of our chickens became very ill, and we thought they would die.  All they would do is stand around, hunched over with their feathers puffed up.  One of the chickens couldn't even see, apparently, as she was unable to figure out where the water dish was.  They even stopped eating.  Again, I treated them, and two of them were eating the very next day.  The third also soon began eating again, and today, the chickens are mostly completely better, with the third chicken even regaining her sight.  We even got some eggs from our healthy chickens on the Lord's Day.  How grateful we are for the Lord's goodness and mercy to us, even in these seemingly small things.

Also, during the week we had quite a scare when my husband's car suddenly caught on fire.  Thankfully it was parked and he was not in it, and no one was hurt.  I am so very grateful he is okay.  I hug him a little tighter each day and thank the Lord again for His protection.

Autumn Beaches

This week my husband took us to the beach for a treat.  He even booked part of a day off of work to take us there.  Where we used to live, there were no beaches, so our children had never been to see the ocean or experienced the sandy sea shore.

It was lovely--since it was quite cool, there were no nearly naked people on the shore.  We even went with our coats on (but eventually took them off as we got warmer).  There were several people walking up and down the beach, many with dogs.  One friendly pooch, which I can only describe as cute, short, and chubby, ran up to us for a pet.  The owners said she was a French Bulldog.

The children eventually waded in the water, abandoning socks and shoes, rolling up trousers and leggings a bit.  Some collected shells for decorations at home.  My husband and I sat back on the rocks for a while and watched our children playing.

After a time on the beach, we went walking for awhile up on the dunes.  They were really pretty and fun to go on.  My husband had to help us up some very steep areas.  He had lots of fun running down a very steep hill, which several of the children followed him down.  The rest of us took an easier route, as we were hoping not to fall straight down (smiles).

Today there is much to do to catch up.  Laundry, as usual, as well as teaching all of the little ones their lessons.  For dinner, we will have cheesy sausage balls, homemade macaroni and cheese, and green beans.  Have a blessed day in the Lord.

Mother's Apron

Mother needs another apron.  I had a few at our old house, but I got rid of some when we moved because they were getting ragged and old.  I had even won of those aprons in a giveaway several years ago.  That apron was very long, with a lovely cream ruffle at the bottom.  The children called it my "pregnancy apron" because it is the only apron that was big enough to accommodate my growing belly when I was with child.  However, it had gotten a bit of an odor that wouldn't come out in the washing, so I got rid of that one.  I packed another apron in our crate.  It is somewhat pretty with floral and pink, but it's just a bit silly as it says, "Queen of the Kitchen".

My great aunt had sewn me a lovely apron that had a bit of ruffles.  It had a pocket on the front where I would stick little things like notes from the children that they would give me when I was going about housework.  It was golden yellow with a tiny floral print, and accents of red.  When we moved, I accidentally left it behind hanging up on our kitchen, as if waiting for me to put it on in preparation for the next meal.  My great aunt had also sewn aprons for each of the girls.  Thankfully most of those were brought over, but we may have left one or two behind.

An apron is like a housewife's uniform.  I automatically put it on whenever I cook, as it keeps the splatters and stains off of my clothes.  The little children would love to snuggle up and hide under Mother's Apron. Especially when they were shy, it provided a little place for them to peek out from.  I like to have at least two aprons so that when one gets dirty, I can have it in the wash and wear my other apron.

So hopefully sometime soon I will be able to get another apron or two.  I have seen one or two in the superstores here, but they are not very pretty.  If I had a sewing machine, fabric, time, and know-how, I would make one myself (smiles).

Unpacking and Settling in

Last week was a very busy week.  At the beginning of the week, we had a large crate of our belongings from America delivered.  It arrived on a semi-truck (what they call lorries here), and the driver called my husband to let him know that he couldn't find our house.  Our house is down a little road that wasn't obvious to the truck driver.  We went out to find out where he was parked, and I showed him where our house was.  First, the driver tried backing down the small road towards our house.  I stood there with some of the children, covering my eyes, because I was afraid he was going to run into something on the small road in between houses.  Upon realising he couldn't back down all the way to our house, he pulled his huge truck back up the road and decided he would unload the large crate at the top of the hill and pull it down to our property.

All of the children were out now and watched as he began to lift the large crate and pallet onto the pallet jack.  It all looked so unsteady that I turned away, not wanting to watch.  All of this was happening on top of a hill, and the crate was slanting downwards...all of a sudden there was a large "crash", and I looked back to find that our huge crate had fallen over, off of the lorry, with the majority of the boxes that were inside now fallen into the road.  We all gasped, and I was thankful that none of the children were nearby when the boxes came tumbling down.  When we had prepared our crate back in America, we had secured it with straps, but apparently somewhere along its journey, the straps had been taken off and were never replaced, which caused the instability.  I approached the driver and asked if he would like us to just start carrying boxes down to our house.  He did, but they were quite heavy, so some of the children worked together to carry boxes down the road.  Thankfully, shortly after this, my dear husband came home on his lunch break to help us with our predicament, and he helped us get all of our 26 boxes into the house.

The next couple of days were spent unpacking and putting things away in the house.  Thankfully, my husband had gotten enough bookshelves to contain the many books we brought with us.  We also now have our clothes for the cold weather, as we had been getting cold here without them!

A storm hit here over the weekend, which made it very cloudy, rainy, and windy here.  This made for a great time of snuggling in on Saturday to play games, have Bible study, and watch Little House on the Prairie together as a family.  We have also had some beautiful sunsets.  We also went apple picking last week, as our neighbours have several apple trees and invite us to come and pick their apples.  We have already made applesauce and apple cider, and we have plans to make apple butter, apple tarts, apple crisp, and perhaps some apple pie.  My husband and the children have peeled and cut up much of the apples and put them in the freezer for later.  I also need to make some berry preserves with the blackberries we have picked--they grow wild here all over.  Cherished of God is making homemade candied fruit for the fruit cake she is making for Christmas.  We've never made a fruit cake before, but she wants to try it since we are now in our new home, and it's a tradition here.

Our school books arrived in our crate, so I have to get busy planning everyone's school assignments, and I have to get back to teaching, along with of course getting ready for our many guests coming soon (smiles).

Company's Coming

Thank you for your inquiries into my health--I am thankfully feeling much better today--just a little bit tired still, and I have a slight headache.  I will be easing back into homemaking tasks today as much as I am able.

In a couple of weeks' time, we will have a full house (well, fuller than just our normal family, *smiles*) of some people from church, and some of my husband's family.  They will come for the afternoon, and then for supper, and my husband's family will spend the night.  My husband made all these plans on his own (smiles).  I am not used to having much company around the house, or entertaining lots of people, as I grew up in a household that hardly had any guests.  For the past several years, I was also not in a position to be able to cook meals for other people besides our family.  I am also a very shy person, and I thrive on quiet and routine.  Being around lots of people wipes me out.

But nevertheless, the guests are coming, and my husband wants me to practice hospitality, which of course I know is important.  So I will prepare myself mentally as much as I can, and strive to plan meals that will feed a large crowd and pray for the Lord to help me.  Maybe I am a bit silly, but this is just not something I am used to--especially with just having immigrated to a different country and having never met these people before (smiles).

The girls and I love to pick fresh flowers to decorate our home.  I'm glad there are still flowers out this time of year!

Spoiled Housewife

I am feeling a bit spoiled today. I am sitting in bed, listening to the beautiful chirping of birds outside my bedroom window.  I can see white sheep spread across the distant hills and the ocean beyond.  I hear cows mooing also, and the bleating of sheep.  Every once in a while I hear dogs barking.  The furry kitty has come to spend time with me on the bed.

I am recovering from what must be food poisoning.  Yesterday I fell ill and spent the whole day in bed (when I was not in the "toilet").  My eldest brought me water, kefir, crackers, broth, and finally some breakfast when I thought I could stomach it.  I was exhausted the whole day.  Today I am feeling much better.  Yesterday my dear husband got off of work a bit early to come home to check on me and also make dinner.  Not every wife has a husband such as this.  I am extremely blessed.  Today he insisted on getting off work early to be home with me and our children.  He has also offered to make dinner again.  He will make his lovely chicken mushroom tagetelli (not sure of the spelling on that one).  Yesterday he spoiled us with lamb chops.

The girls also got the laundry almost caught up yesterday.  We had been surviving with a tiny little washer that my husband used when he lived alone.  This was not sufficient for our somewhat large family.  So he bought us a new washer and a dryer also, as the drying cupboard did not get our loads of laundry dry for days, and we ran out of space for hanging things *smiles*

I am so very happy to be feeling on the mend today, and can't wait until I feel much better so I can be up and about going about my homemaking duties.

Linked to: Classical Homemaking link up

A New Start

Just like we have recently started our lives anew, I am starting some writings anew here to collect memories and thoughts.

Today is a glorious new day. Thank you, Lord, for giving it to us.  As I write, our eldest and some of the other children are in the next room practicing Christmas carols for when we will carol to our village at Christmas time.  Cherished of God has made different parts for everyone to learn to sing in harmony.

I must get busy with my day, having not even eaten breakfast.  There is much to do, as we have been away for most of the past two days.  Laundry is high on the list, with our tiny little washer.