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

We’ve had a few big days and it’s nice to be home and writing to you all.

On Friday we helped some friends butcher some pigs, well actually my husband helped with the pigs and I socialised with my friend and her wonderful children. We had a lovely time together and caught up with all God has been teaching and showing us. We are back this coming week to help cut up the pigs and it blesses us so much to be able to use a skill God has given us to help others.

We then spent Saturday night and Sunday with our son-in-law, daughter and family. They enticed us with the promise of vegetables and they didn’t disappoint us. We came home with a huge amount of zucchini and cucumbers and even a couple of chinese cabbages. We have been very blessed and you can guess what my job this coming week is…. that’s right, processing it all.

I’m excited to get into drying grated zucchini again this year, it was great to have that on hand through the winter and I’m even going to dry some grated cucumber so that we can have our own tzatziki this winter.

My husband had a great time with the grandchildren and he even managed to get in some reading time – in between tickling time…
They are such delightful children and it is such a pleasure to be with them all.  We have such great discussions and we all get on so well, it is definitely true that…

Psalm 127:3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

It’s a busy time in our veggie garden as well and because we had been away at a homeschooling conference for a few days the weeds had taken over. So the children and I got out and pulled out most of the weeds around the tomato bushes. The children were a great help and the three of us working together made short work of the weeds. An added bonus was I saw these lovely Black Russians ripening and we have been enjoying the first harvest of tomatoes. Hopefully there will be heaps more in the coming months.
My lovely no 1 daughter had given me a colouring book before Christmas and I finally got to doing some colouring in while the children were doing their school. This scripture Romans 12:12 is such an encouragement to me at the moment.
When we are going through tough times we should be constant in prayer to God. He is in control, He knows what is going on and He cares for us.

So the first half of my week was a quiet one at home, doing school, piano and weeding and then it was a busy but productive, rewarding few days over the weekend.

What have you all been up too?

Okay onto our link up…

Our top three posts this week were…The Man Who Comes After Me, & 6th Update on Kristen by Cheryl at Homespun DevotionsThe Decision That Will Change Everything by Woman AbidingHappy Homemaker Monday by Colletta’s Kitchen Sink

Thank you everyone for stopping by and linking up. I really wanted to get to read your posts this week but our internet has been really dodgy and I just couldn’t connect. It seems better now so hopefully I can enjoy your posts.

I’ve got a quiet week this week until the weekend again. We’ve got heaps of piano practice to do as our first lesson for the year is this Saturday. Lots of school to do this week and some gardening as well.

Mondays is going to be hot, so a good day to practice and then it’s cooling off for the rest of the week so we can get out and get some weeding done.

God has really been speaking to me through His scriptures about patience and hope during trials and persecution, what has He been speaking to you about.

I hope you are all going good and I’m looking forward to hearing from you this week.

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 my friends xxxx

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

Hey  there everyone, welcome back to our Good Morning Mondays Link Up and our new year 2017.

How was your Christmas and New Year?? We spent time with our family and as always it was a great time together. The children are growing up and we bought them a trike and wagon to line up with our daughters desire for less stuff. It has worked out a great gift and they use it often.
Our lovely no 1 daughter made me some really nice new oven mitts as mine were pretty bad and raggy. These ones are inspirational as well and keep my mind focussed on God’s word, and I have used them even though I struggled to not want to get them dirty.
We’ve been to the beach a couple of times and have enjoyed the cool water. We got together with our daughters family and had a great time with the grandies.

Our chickens have been growing and needed a new pen and this is what my husband and no 2 son came up with. They did a great job and the chickens have much more freedom now.I’ve been busy sock knitting and completed a pair for a friend for Christmas and then this pair for my husband. I am keen for him to wear and wear them to see how they last, so far so good.The vegetable garden is going well and the weeds are growing quickly.  There are tomatoes on the bushes but they are a long way off turning red.

The tomatoes in the aquaponics are booming and we picked our first one this past week, we are looking forward to many more.

We’ve just been to our annual home schooling conference so we’ve come back ready to get started again, so this coming Monday is it. We will have plenty of music practice to catch up on and book work to do. There will also be time for weeding and managing the garden as that’s very important too.

What have you been up to these past few weeks, I would love to hear??

Okay, onto our link up…

Thanks to everyone for linking up last time and I’m looking forward to seeing what you all have on offer at the moment.

I’m looking forward to the new year and new things to learn.

May God lead you and guide you as you focus on the New Year, may your plans be His plans for you.

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.”

 

 

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