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.

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.

Beautiful Baby Chicks

 
Last month, one of our laying hens went broody.  Our daughters that take care of the chickens noticed her new behavior and had read up on it.  I asked my husband, and he said we could get some fertilized eggs for her!  So I went on an online search and ordered two eggs (it had to be more than one because chicks love to grow up together).

There was a delay in getting our order of eggs, however, so we were not sure if our chicken would stay broody long enough, or even if our eggs would hatch.  We waited a long 3 weeks, and surprisingly, our hen stayed broody and faithfully sat on her eggs.

I was so shocked that May evening when one of the children came to tell me that one of the chicks had hatched!  The second chick was hatched when we checked on them in the morning.  Two beautiful chicks!

They are doing well and have grown so much.  We think they are both hens, but one is not the breed we ordered, but that's okay.  We are excited to see what they'll look like when they're full grown.

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 Land Which the LORD Thy God Careth For

I was reading in my quiet time today and was comforted by these verses.  He was speaking them to the Israelites many years ago, but the description fits so well of where He has brought us.

"but the land, whither ye go to posess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh the water of the rain of heaven:  a land which the LORD thy God careth for:  the eyes of the LORD they God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
~Deuteronomy 11: 11-12

There is so much beauty here...I can only imagine what Heaven will be like. But how blessed I am to be able to bring up our children in such a beautiful place, "a land of hills and valleys...and drinketh water of the rain of heaven..."

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.

Happy Thanksgiving 2017

A very blessed Thanksgiving, dear readers.  I hope you have a wonderful day in special thanks to our Lord for His goodness.  We will be celebrating Thanksgiving across the pond, just like we used to.

Husband even took us to a farm to get a lovely organic, free range turkey.  We all got to meet the turkeys, who were quite noisy.  The girls had pretty, inquisitive eyes, but the males, everyone thought were quite ugly.  I thought they still looked grand with their big feathers all puffed out.  Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera, so we will just have to remember the flock of black turkeys in our mind's eye.  But they looked much like this:  (this is a male)

Now we must get on to food preparation.  Have a blessed day!

Green and Chickens

We have been in full swing with school lessons, feeling the chill of the new autumn air.  The week before last, the chill just swept in, shocking us a bit with the sudden cold weather.  To my pleasant surprise, the outdoors remains mostly green.  The grass is still as green as ever, not the drab, dead brown of our previous desert home.  The leaves began turning awhile ago: beautiful shades of gold and red, but many of the trees are bare now, except for the bright green moss that grows on many trees.  I am enjoying our new home.

A few weeks ago, Husband took us on a trip to get chickens.  He built a remarkable chicken coop out of old scraps of wood, furniture, and other materials.  He even made it so that our chickens can free range all over our whole garden, eating lots of bugs and vegetation.  With every opportunity he gets, he looks for ways to improve on their diet and their environment.  Because of their age and the cold weather, the hens are not yet laying, but hopefully they will be soon.  Each of our children has named a chicken.  The little hens often follow us around the garden and like it better when we are outside with them.

Husband has also ordered a lovely turkey straight from a farm, for we will be celebrating Thanksgiving here, as we would in America.  We have invited a few people to join our family, so we may have an even fuller house again.  There is much to do to prepare, though I have already planned most of the dishes we will serve.  I've been able to order a big roasting pan for the turkey and a pie pan for pumpkin pie.  A thoughtful neighbor even stopped by with a homegrown pumpkin for us a few days ago, which we will use for homemade pumpkin puree.  I love homemade baked goods with pumpkin in them--pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies...

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.

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).

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