Longing for Home

Do you ever find yourself longing for home?  Your Heavenly Home?  Sometimes I do....I hope that is okay.

Sometimes life is so trying and taxing, full of discouragements.  Things do not turn out the way we had hoped for or imagined.

But what keeps me going is knowing I have work to do.  I have children to take care of, and a home to make for them--as beautiful and Heaven-like as possible, by God's grace.

I don't always have money in the budget to get things for our home, and I cannot drive right now to go to the shops.  It has been a long time since we have been to thrift stores or car boot sales--I have found a couple of lovely paintings at car boot sales.  But this week I have managed to have just enough money to order a picture frame to frame a couple of our wedding photos.  I also finally found a natural candle company here that does not charge an extravagant amount of money for scented soy candles.  So I have ordered a couple of fall-themed candles to lift our spirits just a little bit.

I have been so busy with other things lately, that the home has just been on maintenance-mode, with the children doing most of the housework.  There is more I would like to get done around the house, so my family has a beautiful and clutter-free home to live in and enjoy. 

A trip to a reservoir.  Imagine how lovely Heaven will be, where the light comes from the Lord Jesus Christ.

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.

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..."

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.

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.

Down to the River

Yesterday we went for a walk just outside of our village.  It was a very nice, sunny day.  Through the mud we trekked, until we came out to the green, green hills.  Everywhere we looked were green hills.  There were flocks of sheep, and a herd of bulls that was making quite a bit of noise.  We travelled along the steep hillsides, carefully stepping along the ridges.

There were beautiful trees with turning leaves, and leaves fallen to the ground.  We heard many different kinds of birds.  It is pheasant season also, and often when we are driving about, we see pheasants running across the road, making their very unique and somewhat startling noise.  Along our walk, we came upon two sheep and a lamb, wandering around by themselves.  The threesome had not had their tails docked for some reason.  Did you know that lambs are born with long tails, but farmers cut them short?  I'm sorry that I took no pictures yesterday of our mini excursion.

We walked all the way down to a river nearby us.  It was running fast.  All around the river were pretty trees with yellow-turning leaves, and moss growing all over the trunks and branches.  It was peaceful to hear the running water, and I wish we could have stayed longer, but I had to get home to prepare dinner.

Today I will try to catch up on the laundry from over the weekend (along with many other things). The dryer takes so long to dry one load--over three hours.  But at least we have one (smiles).  Our guests have come and gone, and I am behind after the weekend and Monday.  For dinner we will have lovely meatloaf with some fried mushrooms, and perhaps some homemade bread.  I am very tired today, not having slept well, but the day must go on (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!

Coming Autumn

Autumn has arrived here, by the calendar and by the weather.  Where we used to live, it was often still quite hot at this time of year.  But here, the weather has crisped up, and the leaves are starting to turn colors.  It is wonderful to enjoy the fall weather.  There is a lot of rain here though.  I am very thankful for our wood burners and that my husband gets fires going on very chilly mornings before he goes to work.

Some of the neighboring houses have lovely ivy growing on them.  This ivy was a bright red a few days ago, but now most of the leaves have fallen off.

I just adore the stone buildings that have so much character.

A cloudy, rainy, but beautiful day here