WELCOME BACK
to our
GOOD MORNING MONDAYS LINK UP
Hi there all! and welcome back to our weekly link up. How have you all been?
I usually start this post off with the weather and it’s unusual habits for each time of the year, but the weather has been usually unusual so I won’t go there :-).
As I say each week we are going through Hebrews on a Sunday morning and it has been eye opening. Each week we learn more and more about God and His ways for us and His plans and are thankful for the Word that He has given us to follow.
Our children have been attending Bible class and the discussions we are having are amazing. We are reading to them from the book Trial and Triumph about early church history and we are all learning so much.
Apart from all that we have had a quieter week due to the fact that my husband has had the flu and the children have had colds. Our routine has been all out of whack but I’m looking forward to next week when we get it all back again.
My husband and our younger two children have been working on getting the orchard sorted and have planted the apple root stocks. There are pear and stone fruit root stocks to go but they are well on their way. My husband has been busy getting it all documented and it’ll be a plan that we build on.
He has them sorted into fruiting periods – early, mid and late. We are all excited about this orchard, it’s finally all coming together. The weather dried up enough later in the week for the men to put posts out for berry trellising and fences and again that is something that has needed to happen.
We had our last pottery session for the school term and we were able to bring home some of our finished items. Our daughter is really getting the hang of making bowls but they are still drying and awaiting the kiln. Our early pots look basic but it’s nice to bring them home and use them.
I was excited to finally get onto my butter dish and it turned out really well. Below is a picture of the lid and I made the handle to look like a curl of butter (hopefully). I am making this out of terracotta clay which is stronger and holds it’s shape really well.
The base is looking good too and I’m hoping that it all holds together until we get back next term. If it all works out I might make another couple (because we have enough bowls coming) and I might try a vase or two in the terracotta as well.
We had a young people’s BBQ and Bonfire night on Friday night after Bible Class and the children really enjoyed that. It was a lovely warm day and a bonfire is always exciting, especially with marshmellows.
Saturday was our last piano lesson for the term and that went well and Saturday afternoon the grass was dry enough for my husband to get some lawn mowed. We had a couple from church for tea on Saturday night and we always enjoy the fellowship of like minded people.
These friends need your prayer if you can. The husband has lung cancer and starts radiation and chemotherapy on Monday in Melbourne. It will be a full on six weeks of treatment for them and we ask that you pray that they will feel God’s peace and comfort at all times, we also ask that God be glorified through all of this. Also pray for us as a family to know how to help and when to stand back.
Another prayer request is for the Same Sex Marriage Plebiscite that is happening at the moment in Australia. The voting papers are out and we are praying that Christians will rise up and vote no on the papers. This isn’t the time to be silent, and we ask that you pray and stand with us during this time. The battle is fierce here in Australia at the moment.
Okay, onto our link up…
Our top three this week were…
Cost of Setting up a Homestead by Our Simple Homestead
Put the Decision Behind You by Lisa Notes…
Money Saving Adventures For Last Week by Blessed in Bowie
Thank you everyone for stopping by and linking up and if it was your first time here, welcome to Darling Downs Diaries.
So as I said this week I’m hoping to get our routine back, school and music practice. Although it’s technically school holidays we won’t be stopping but pushing on. We’ll do other stuff as well, like make a volcano for Geography (all outside).
We have small cauliflowers forming in the raised beds and the cabbages are starting to come together. The broccoli is heading in the aquaponic system so it’s all go. We are now starting to think about our spring garden and what we are going to grow but we need to be careful because we can have frosts here until November. We may put some seedlings until plastic to protect them until then.
My husband will be back at work this week and hopefully the weather will be conducive to working outdoors otherwise it can be difficult.
We have a curry night this week at church and we are looking forward to that. We are all taking a curry and we have a lovely Indian couple who will make some authentic Indian meals. My curry will probably be a typical Australian one and hopefully it will be tasty.
All right my dear friends that’s all for this week, thank you all for your support and may God bless you all.
Keep on keeping on my friends…
Have a great 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.
The raised garden beds are going well and we managed to spend some time weeding and mulching them again this past week. The onions are soldering on and so is the garlic. Everything is a bit slow growing due to the weather but it won’t take too many more weeks for the weather to turn around.
Okay onto our link up…
Pottery lessons are still going and we have 2 more left until school holidays. Our no 2 daughter is really starting to get the hang of it and managed to get some nice bowls made this week.
Here she is above at the wheel with her finished bowl. The skill is in not fiddling with it too much and then having it fall out of shape. You just have to get to a point and say “that’s it, I’m not touching it again”. Then there is skill in getting it off the wheel without warping it. It’s definitely keeping us on our toes.
Unfortunately a couple of my items cracked this week so I had to make another vase. We’ll see how this next one goes.
We got the strawberry bed finished which is great and the strawberries are starting to take off and are flowering. The broccoli and cauliflower and cabbage are all looking really healthy but are really slow coming to head. I guess they will probably all come in at once but I’m looking forward to doing some more dehydrating.
Our no 2 son and I even got some beds cleaned out in the aquaponics hot house. We planted rockmelon and watermelon seeds as well and it’ll be interesting to see how they come up.
We had our usual pottery lessons this week and although I didn’t go too well on the wheel our no 2 daughter went great and managed to turn up 2 really nice bowls.
I worked on some hand crafting and made a plate and this vase. It’s upside down for the week until it dries then I will smooth up the edges and tidy it up a bit before it gets fired for the first time. I’m thinking I’ll make a few of these, because if they work they’ll make nice gifts. 
Next week I’m going to make a butter dish with a lid so that’ll take a bit of thinking out. We only have 3 more lessons this term so I’m keen to get a few items made. We will need to go back next term for a little bit to finish off some stuff but I’m not sure if we’ll do the whole term or not.
