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.

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!