It’s that time of the week again so I can say welcome back to our Good Morning Mondays Link Up.

We have had a good week and have enjoyed various activities.

My husbands Fatherhood course is still going and that is each Monday night.  Each week he gets home later but I am sure that the conversation at the end is as good as the whole meeting.  He had a great time away with the other fathers and their children camping last week and it was wonderful for them all to bond together a bit more.

Tuesday night we had our regular Bible Study. We are working through a commentary on Timothy and Titus. We have only just started and with the way we are going it is going to take us ages to get through the book. There are lots of discussion points and it can lead us off track very quickly, but it is all very good.

Once again this week I have been busy bottling tomatoes. The children pick them and then I sort them and put the good ones out for sale and process the not so good ones. I now have over 120 bottles of tomatoes in my pantry which is definitely a record year. I don’t think I have every done more than 70 in the past.

I will just keep going I suppose until they run out. Last week we had a really warm day for this time of the year and there are another couple 25 degree (C) days this week so the tomatoes should keep on ripening.  The children picked some on Saturday afternoon for us to take to church to share there, especially those little yellow ones.

I also dried some more watermelon and some beetroot chips. The watermelon is really nice but I’m not too sure about the beetroot. It isn’t my favourite vegetable so I’m not that keen.

Wednesday we went to Warrnambool for some lunch and then my husband was able to go with his parents to a specialist appointment. It was handy that it fell on the day we were down there. We then had violin lessons and that will be our last for a couple weeks as their teacher and his older sister are going on a mission trip to the Solomon Islands to launch a New Testament translation. I am definitely looking forward to hearing how that goes.

Thursday was back to work and school and music practice. We only have 6 weeks left until the first Eisteddfod and then only 12 weeks until their exams so the pressure is on a bit.

Friday we got ready to head to our son-in-law and daughter’s home for our oldest granddaughters 3rd birthday.  We had a lovely evening and her other grandparents, an aunt and a family friend joined us all. We had a delicious meal and a most yummy yellow birthday cake.

Of course we ate too much and talked too late but it was so worthwhile. Our son-in-law, daughter and myself had a deep discussion session last weekend which was great but this time we dragged my husband into it as well. We didn’t stay up quite as late but it was late enough. We then got up a 6:30 am and headed back to Hamilton for piano lessons. We were all a bit bleary eyed when we arrived.

Now the exciting news is that our no 1 son came home on Saturday afternoon, yay we are so happy to see him.  He hasn’t been home for 3 weeks and he will be gone again next weekend but it is great to catch up face to face.

He is having a good time working with the people he is at the moment and it is comforting for us to know that he is with a Christian family business.

Okay that’s it for this week, onto our link up…

Our top three posts this week were…

Family Time by Alisa at Flourishing TodayQuilting Little Pieces Part 2 by Angie at Sunny Patch Cottage
Do Not Resuscitate by Rosie Jensing – Forgiven Much, Loves Much

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to stop by and link up. What a joy to see you all here each week.

We have a rather normal week this week. Fathers course on Monday night, no violin lessons, so home on Wednesday. Hopefully we will be able to get heaps of school and piano practice done.

Monday is a holiday here in Australia so my husband and our son are both home that day which is nice, but they are both back to work on the Tuesday and they have work to do around here on the Monday.

Next weekend my husband is taking me away for a couple of nights which will be lovely and we have been blessed with an apartment not far from the beach. We will be able to have nice walks and drink coffee together and talk. Our younger two children will be looked after by their brother-in-law and their sister which is such a blessing.

As I am away I won’t do the link up next week but I will keep this week open for 2 weeks.

During our late night discussions we have been talking about the way we deal with different situations and whether we respond in a biblical way or in an emotional, our own idea way. It is so important that we keep our eyes on God’s word so that we know how to respond to different situations in life or so that we know what advice to give if asked. God’s ways are so much better than ours.

I pray that you are all well and that God is working in your hearts and lives.

Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”

Blessings to you all dear friends xxxx

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.

Hey there everyone, welcome back to Good Morning Mondays.

What have you been up to this past week? We had a great weekend away last weekend and it was nice to get away for a couple of days. We don’t really do holidays at the moment but a couple days here and there are just lovely.

My husband has been busy working this week and is getting lots of phone calls from his clients wondering what he is up to and if he has time for their work. This is such a blessing because we can have some months where the phone barely rings at all. Good thing God is in control and not us.

We had a funeral on Wednesday for a lovely old gentleman. He was 93 and the funeral was really a celebration of his life and how he shared the gospel with so many family and friends. We were sitting in the church and our no 2 son leans over to me and says is Mr N going to Heaven. It was wonderful that I could say to him that yes he was and that boys face was just so happy.

The aquaponics system just seems to be buzzing at the moment and my husband is constantly cutting back the tomatoes so that they don’t touch the plastic.You can see just the side of them in the photo above.  The weather is really cooling off now and my husband has been planning on closing the end in shortly. The new Rainbow Trout we got a month ago are growing very quickly and I hope you can sort of see this from the photo below.  They are a very active fish too.We still have tomatoes to process and I have another batch on the stove at the moment. We are selling quite a few out the front and what we don’t sell I bring in and preserve.  We cut our first pumpkin this week and it was a lovely, tasty addition to our evening meal.

We won’t pick all of them yet as the vines haven’t died off fully but they are definitely on their way.

My husband has taken our younger children camping this weekend as part of his Fatherhood course. The children were so excited and couldn’t wait.  It was a lot of work packing everything they needed to take and as they took my husbands work vehicle he had to empty out a lot of tools.

They left Saturday morning after their piano lessons and got home late afternoon on Sunday, dirty and tired but very, very happy.

I spent the time on Saturday knitting and blogging and drying apples and cooking tomatoes. Our son-in-law, daughter and children came for tea on Saturday night and then spent the night with me and we talked into the wee hours of Sunday morning. It was so nice that they were able to do this otherwise I would have gotten quite lonely.

Below is a picture of our three grandchildren and as our daughter says they are the future leaders of our society.Our oldest son has been away for 2 weeks now and we still miss him. I’m not sure whether that feeling will ever pass but I’m sure it will soften somewhat. He rang me on Saturday afternoon and we chatted for quite a while which was really great. Just another week now and he will be home for a week. (no early nights that week).

Okay that’s enough about my week, onto our link up…

Our top three posts this week were…Lord, I Give You My All by Ifeoma at Purposeful and Meaningful
Beware of Bible Journaling by Lydia at Journey of the WordHow Minimalism Has Made Christmas More Peaceful In Our Home by Cheryl at Homespun Devotions

Thank you to you all for taking the time to link up, once again it is so hard to put into words how grateful I am to you all.

This coming week is back to normal somewhat. We still have about 6 pieces of bacon to smoke and I need to finish doing that and then slicing it and freezing it.  The 2 legs are still sitting in salt in the coolroom in town and will be there for another week before we bring them home and then hang them up.

My husband is busy at work and he also has his Fatherhood course on Monday night and we also have Bible Study on Tuesday night.

We will probably have violin lessons on Wednesday afternoon so that will be good and we will be doing school as usual. I am finding it hard to get back into school routine but the children are keen to get back to their Bible program so that is a great sign.

I have a cardigan to finish for our oldest granddaughter this week as it is her birthday on Friday and I want to give it to her on Friday night. I have almost finished the second front and just have the sleeves and collar to go.  I am really going to have to focus on that this week.

Well happy planting to my friends in the Northern Hemisphere and happy getting ready to winter down to my friends in the Southern Hemisphere.

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.

Hi everyone, welcome to Darling Downs Diaries and our weekly Good Morning Mondays Link Up.

Where are the days going I find it hard to fathom that 3 months of the year have already gone and we are already in Autumn.  The weather here has definitely changed with our warmest days being somewhat cooler than what we experienced in the summer.

The nights are cool bordering on cold and I think I may find our big quilt (a gift from my sister-in-law) for our bed.  Daylight savings finished last Sunday morning so the nights are getting darker earlier and we are adjusting to that now. It is hard during summer to eat our tea before 7:30 pm but now we are back to 6:30 which is so much better for us all.

Now that the nights are getting darker earlier we have time for some family music nights. That involves, accordians, a flute, a ukulele, a harmonica and lots of noise and fun.

This past week has been good and we finished cutting up and bagging the last 5 pigs on Monday. Mr and Mrs H came out to help us and they took some pork home for their freezer. We had pork chops for lunch and they were just beautiful, but I am now trying to get some beef into us to give us a break from the pork.

We smoked all the hocks on Tuesday and they are bagged and in the freezer. They smell delicious and are a great addition to soups and stews.

I have still been busy bottling tomatoes and we are still able to put fresh ones out the front on our stall. The corn has finally finished, although my husband has been watering it again to see if we can get any more out of the second cobs. I spent some time this past week making some tomato sauce which I put into jars, it tastes quite nice.

We had Mrs S’s funeral on Friday and my husband was able to help out by reading the eulogy, he did a really great job.

After the funeral we headed up into the mountains to Halls Gap which is in the Grampians. We spent the weekend there at a camp site and we had a wonderful time as usual. No 2 daughter got to help in the kitchen this year, which is great and she really enjoyed that and the other ladies are lovely.

The atmosphere is great at the camp and we had an excellent Bible Study Leader this year. There are kangaroos and emus around and the bird life is interesting.

So that was our week. I didn’t do the top three this week as we were away so I apologise for that.

Next week is back to school for us and back to music practice. We have lessons this coming week so we are going to have to put our noses to the grindstone.

There will be more tomatoes to process and I will be starting on the apples now. Our no 1 daughter is going to do our bottles this year again and I am going to dry some. They are so lovely, the only problem with them is they don’t last long enough because we all enjoy them.

My husband is taking our children away camping this weekend. This is in conjunction with the other fathers from the Fatherhood course that he is doing. I get to stay home and our son-in-law, daughter and family are coming to keep an eye on me. That will be nice and somewhat comforting as I haven’t stayed home alone since we have been here.  So I definitely won’t get lonely on Saturday night.

To my friends in the northern hemisphere is it planting time yet, or is it still too cold??? I would love to hear how you get ready for your spring plantings.

We have been so grateful to God this year for our abundant harvest and I pray that we never forget who gave it to us and also that we remember to bless others with it.

I pray that you are all well my friends and that God is working in your hearts and lives.

Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”

Blessings to you all dear friends xxxx

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.

Hello all and welcome to our weekly Good Morning Mondays Link Up.

How has your week been and what have you been busy at???

We have had a busy, tiring and emotional week.

The first half of the week was all right and my husband and children managed to butcher a young bull and hang it in the cool room. We have been busy preserving tomatoes and corn and drying apples in slices. These apples are so delicious and I am going to try and get heaps of them done for snacks.

Wednesday night our son-in-law, daughter and children arrived, all ready to get into our butchering session.

My father-in-law came out to help us Thursday and Friday and we also had another friend come on Friday and he will also be helping us on Monday.  We did have lots of laughs together and we all managed to work together well most of the time.

On Thursday we butchered 10 pigs, and minced the meat. On Friday we butchered 5 pigs and they are hanging in the cool room to be cut up tomorrow.

These will be made into bacon, proscuitto, chops and roasts. We are excited with these ones as they are lovely and big and my husband has been feeding them grain soaked in our own milk for months and they have a lovely layer of fat which is so necessary for flavour and tenderness.

We made over 1000 pork sausages on Friday which we flavoured with different herbs such as garlic, chives, mixed herbs, and italian spices.

Thank you to all of you who were praying for our neighbour Mrs S. She passed away early on Friday morning. We were able to help out by looking after her grandchildren again on Thursday and Friday and they were such a help and blessing to us.

They are really great children and are so willing to do whatever we ask of them. On Thursday they all picked our tomatoes again and I now have another few buckets to process. On Friday they baked biscuits and then in the afternoon helped me make the sausages. They did a really great job and the oldest daughter helped me to twist them which saved me a couple of hours of work.

We finally finished up the meat on Saturday with the divvying up and labelling of the bags. Our son-in-law did a great job of stacking our share in our freezer and I am so pleased that I will be able to get to it a bit better than I normally can.

Even though we were busy we still had down time to socialise and play with our lovely grandchildren.

Granddad enjoys playing with the little ones and tickling and hugging them.

Our week was emotional because our No 1 son left on Saturday morning to go working in NSW.  He is away for 3 weeks and then home again for a week, then he is gone again for another month and back for his 21st party and then he is off again for another 5 months.

As I said last week it is a bittersweet thing for us. We raised him to be a man and now that he is and going off, we are finding it hard. We love our children and are so blessed with the relationships that we have with them and our son-in-law. We all have a great time together.

So after all that has been happening this past week, I had a rest on Sunday afternoon to catch up and get ready for the coming week.

Okay, onto our link up…

Our top three posts this week were…

“Intimate Issues: 21 Questions Christian Women Ask About Sex” + LINKUP by Donna at Soul Survival Free Ancient Greece Lapbook by Tina at Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Talk To Me by Sharon at Sharon Sharing God

Thank you to everyone of you who took the time to link up. Thank you also to those of you who encouraged someone else by leaving a comment. Please know that your comments mean a lot to me as I am sure they do to others.

This coming week is somewhat quieter after Monday. Monday we are finishing off the pigs hanging in the cool room. Then it is back to work for my husband for the rest of the week.

Friday we have Mrs S’s funeral and then we are heading away for a couple of days to a Men’s Fellowship Camp. We go to this camp each year and enjoy the Bible studies and fellowship with the other people there.

It know it is a men’s camp but the wives can go as well and seeing as we are the youngest couple there we bring our children too. It is good for them to learn to talk to all different age groups and not just be peer socialised.

Our stall out the front is going well and our corn is just about finished. We have sold tomatoes and apples out there as well and once the pumpkins are finished we will probably sell some of those also.

Well my friends I pray that you are all well and that God is working in your hearts and lives.

Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”

Blessings to you all dear friends xxxx

 

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.