GOOD MORNING MONDAYS LINK UP

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

I’m so sorry for not being around for the past few weeks but we’ve been rather hectic and I’m struggling to find time over the weekend to post.

I just popped back to say that I’m going to take January off and I’ll be back after the 2nd February, after the engagement party.

I’ve been thinking and praying about what to do with Good Morning Mondays as I so enjoy sharing our lives with you all and hearing how you are all going that I don’t want to stop. I may change the day of publishing to be more mid week than the Monday but I’ll let you know.

I hope you are all well and have enjoyed the end of year festivities, I pray that God is leading and guiding you to where He wants you to be.

Have a great January and I’ll see you in a few weeks.

Many, many blessings to you all xxxx

GOOD MORNING MONDAYS LINK UP

Hi there all, welcome back to our Good Morning Mondays Link Up.

I seem to be apologising a bit lately and I’ll do it again now and say that I’m sorry that I haven’t been around for a couple of weeks. We’ve been rather busy on the weekends and our internet/computer issues are worse towards the end of the month.

Excuses I know, valid or not – that’s it. Please know that I appreciate each one of you who stops by to link up and each one of you who converse with me in the messages, it really blesses my heart.

We’ve had a few birthdays in the last couple of weeks, starting with our beautiful new daughter-in-law, I’m sorry I don’t have a picture, which I will rectify shortly. Then it was our son-in-law’s and it was a big 30th for him. Our no 1 daughter put on a camping weekend and bbq lunch and together with her sister-in-law they made him an awesome birthday cake.

We just went for the day but we had a very enjoyable time with extended family and friends, and lovely Christ centred fellowship.

Then it was our no 1 daughter’s birthday, she will 30 next year but for this year we spent the day together just chatting, it was lovely. She is such an inspiration to me and I just love her and our new adult mother/daughter relationship.Then it was my amazing, awesome husband’s birthday the day after. He is my best friend and I so blessed to be his wife and our relationship just gets better and better. To those of you who haven’t been married long, it get’s better, just remember that he is your focus after God and before children. It’s a hard one to understand but our role of help meet is so important and more than just being a good housewife.  My husband and I always joke about us growing old together and say that we already are. We’ve both hit the 50 mark and that’s totally okay because we are doing this life thing together.

In between all the birthdays our no 2 son and I harvested our garlic. We had planted purple and that is sitting waiting to be dehydrated, the white though seems to be a variety that doesn’t form cloves and I cleaned it up, chopped it up and then ran it through the excalibur.
The kitchen smelt pretty interesting and still does if we’ve been out all day but I achieved this amazing jar of dried garlic. I’m going to leave this like this and powder the purple and this will be great in stews, casseroles, hamburgers… the options are endless.

It was all hands of deck this week too when we were moving the sows and piglets from the wool shed to the front pen to make room for the next batch.  These little ones are so cute and will be ready to go in another few weeks.
What we don’t sell will go towards our bacon in autumn next year and they’ll be just right. These are a saddleback/berkshire cross and the colourings and markings are very cool.

And just because I can, here is a pic of our youngest granddaughter at the birthday camping party.She enjoyed her ride on her mum’s back and has the most cutest smile.

Apart from all that above, it’s been the usual stuff during the week. We are winding down school to prepare for Christmas and New Year and also an engagement party in the New Year. Our no 2 son is busy working on some woodwork gifts for friends and I’m starting to see a clear list of things I want to do before then.

It seems we get to November every year and all of a sudden it’s 23 sleeps, but that’s okay, it’s a joy for me to give and I get great pleasure out of working out what goes to who. For us it’s about family, friends and fellowship, and of course Jesus, but every day’s about Him, this one is a bonus.

We’re being encouraged more and more to focus on Him daily and more than once a day, it about praying and being in communion with God moment by moment. We’ve been doing a Bible Study called Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and we’re definitely being challenged.

Okay I won’t do a top three because it’s been a few weeks but I’ll get back to it next week. Thank you for stopping by and linking up.

This week week we’ve got out final book group for the year and we’re finishing off the last two chapters of our book. If you want an encouraging book about how God uses women in their marriages for His work please grab it – First Wives Club. I read about Wibrandis Rosenblatt and was blown away by her attitude to her role in life.

We’ve also got our family Bible Study and then our individual meet us with friends and then the final children’s study for the year and I think music lessons.

Our no 2 son his piano exam today and he’s totally glad that’s over and he’s right now for another year. He plays so well and he improves every year and we’re both looking forward to his new pieces.

Well I pray that you have all been going well and that you are aware of God’s leading in your lives.

May you be blessed this week as you go about your God given business.

Blessings my friends xxxx

GOOD MORNING MONDAYS LINK UP

Hi there all, welcome back to our Good Morning Mondays Link Up.

Have you all had a good week, is it snowing? is it hot? We’re only a few weeks off summer and we’ve had some frosts and wet weather again and it’s been cold. It’s looking at warming up next week which will be pleasant again.

We’ve had a good, busy and productive week again, and even took a day off to go for a drive. On Monday we headed down to Warrnambool for breakfast and Bunnings and a drive down to the beach. It wasn’t swimming weather and the tide was in so the beach had almost disappeared but it was nice to have a look any way.

I always enjoy driving down this beach road, it is so pleasant looking. The waves were pounding on the beach, you can’t really see that in this picture but it was very rough.

We got some more vegetable seeds at Bunnings and I got them in on Saturday afternoon because it was just too cold and wet on Wednesday and then we were busy the rest of the week.

My husband got some seedlings planted in his garden out the front and put in tomatoes and pumpkins, cucumbers and zucchinis and here below you can see the potatoes that are coming up in the hay.We are doing a few experiments this year and it’ll be interesting to see how they all go. The Magpies are giving my new seedlings a hard time and I hardly get them in the ground in the raised beds and they have pulled them out. It’s slightly (actually is is very much) frustrating but we’ve got netting to put over it all now and I did that this weekend too.

We’ve got new piglets due any day now and the last lot are in the woolshed with their mum and they look great. These lot are so cute and are growing quite nicely.The most exciting thing to happen this week was that our no 2 daughter got a puppy. Buster is his name and he is a Red Heeler, Border Collie cross and he is very cute. Our daughter is so excited and she’s doing a good job looking after him and practicing her dog training skills on him.The rest of the week was the usual stuff, bible studies, meeting our friends to read the bible, music lessons, and family lunch on Sundays.  It is certainly busy the last 3 days of the week.

We also had book group and did some sewing for Days 4 Girls on Thursday morning.

Phew, that’ll do, onto our link up…

Our top 3 this week were…Pearl Onions by Mrs Kringle’s Kitchen Dear Parents: Kindness Begins With You by An Ordinary Mom’s Musings15 Ways to Help a Depressed Husband or Wife by Dr Michelle Bengtson

Thank you everyone for stopping by, I hope you have been blessed by your visit.

This coming week is much the same as the last, which is fine. The first few days home for me and then Bible Study Wednesday night. Thursday we are doing a whole day sewing which will be great to see where we are up to and how much more we need to do.

Friday is our busy day out with both of us having Bible Studies and meeting with friends to study the Bible one to one. Saturday is music lessons and then Sunday church.

All of our studies, talks and book group have been leading us back to God’s word and the importance of our relationship with Jesus and immersing ourselves in scripture. More and more I’m encouraged to memorise scripture and then bring it back to mind when I need to, in the empty times of dishes or washing or mundane tasks.

Are you encouraged this way? What scriptures do you find good ones to memorise??

Well have a great week my friends and see you next week.

May God bless you xxx

WELCOME BACK

to our

GOOD MORNING MONDAYS LINK UP

Hi there all, welcome back to our Good Morning Mondays Link Up.

Well it’s been a quieter week on the home front and I was home most of the week, nearly!!!

I went out Tuesday and met with a friend for Bible study and then that was it until Friday. One of our sewing ladies was away so we didn’t meet this week and then that same lady (my very good friend) was sick so we didn’t get to catch up on Friday.

We had some warm weather this week and I’ve moved the seedlings from the hot house to outside under shade cloth. My seedlings haven’t been entirely successful this year but I have at least proven to myself that I can do it. A few tweeks and next year – look out!!

We are blessed to know some people who run a seedling nursery so we can go direct to them and we got tomatoes, capsicum, cucumber and zucchini seedlings this weekend. My amazing motivated husband has got most of his share of the seedlings planted out in the hay bales and I’ll get mind done (in the raised beds) early next week.

We’ve got a couple of frosts expected later next week so we are a bit wary at the moment, hopefully they come to nothing.

We have had some very exciting news here – our no 1 son got engaged this weekend and we are very happy to welcome his fiance into our family. We are very blessed that God has led him to marry a lovely Christian young lady. Nothing else this week tops this news.

Our top three this week were…Behind the Scenes with the New Gutenberg Editor by Susan B MeadSurrendered Hearts by A New Lens“Do You ‘Cut & Paste’ the Bible?” by Soul Survival

Thank you everyone for stopping by and linking up.

This coming week is looking a good one for planting the vegetable seedlings. I’m meeting with my friend on Tuesday and we are having a sewing morning on Thursday followed by book group.

Friday is busy with bible studies for my husband and I and the children but it’s so great to get together with like minded Christians.

I’m hoping you are all well and I appreciate you stopping by. Have a great week and be blessed. xxx

An InLinkz Link-up

WELCOME BACK

to our

GOOD MORNING MONDAYS LINK UP

Hi there all, welcome back to our Good Morning Mondays Link Up.

I’m back again which shows that I haven’t mucked up the internet again, although I haven’t got it totally working right. I think we may need to update some of our hardware and that’s a bit scary but I guess we’ll work it out.

Althought it is windy and chilly today we have been having some awesome spring days with cool mornings and the most beautiful sunshiny days. It makes you just want to get out and dig in the garden. Our seedlings are coming along and we are just days away from planting them out. We have another couple of frosts due this week so we are just hanging off on the tomatoes at the moment.

My amazing husband has corn coming up already and the potatoes he planted earlier in the hay are sprouting nicely as well. When we have a frost now it’s not too severe so it doesn’t get up on the raised beds or on the bales of hay which is good.

The grass has been growing too, very quickly and my husband has put our youngest son onto the mowing job. He just loves using the rider mower and is keen to keep at it. The yard is looking so much nicer now that it has been mowed too.

The chooks have been laying heaps of eggs and I finally got around to making pickled eggs. They are completed and in the jar in the fridge maturing for another few days and I’m quietly excited to taste them.We’ve had a good week, although they are passing very quickly. We had book group and had read about Anna Zwingli this past week and Katie Luther the fortnight before. Both women have inspired us and amazed us at their resilience and dedication to their marriages and families. They both had generous and caring hearts which have encouraged me to try and be likewise.

We also met for sewing as well and are well over half way to our goal of 100 kits. I’m not sure if we’ll make the goal by the end of the year but we are trying. We enjoy meeting when we can, there is lots of laughter and Godly encouragement.

The children had their Bible Study on Friday afternoon as well and they enjoyed that. Our minister and family are back from their long service leave so this coming week our Bible Study will start again. Music lessons are back on and our youngest son is busy preparing for his exam in a months time.

I also got to meet with my friend this week and we have been working our way through Psalm 119. We’ve only gotten through 2 verses and that has led us to deep conversations on what God’s statutes are, interesting and good.

Okay onto our link up…

Our top three this week were…

Practical Help for Journaling As a Spiritual Discipline by Living Our Days

25 Stunning Sweet Potato Recipes by From Play Dates to Parties

Some Thoughts on “Titus 2 Women” by The Cotton Apron

Thank you everyone for stopping by and linking up, I hope you enjoyed your visit.

This coming week is upon us and we’ve got Bible Studies and school and piano practice and we’ve got work and gardening, so a busy week.

My husband is busy building a hand weeding tool so I’m excited to see that finished this week and I’m sure he will be keen to use it too, so look out weeds.

What’s happening in your part of the world at the moment??? Are you planting or preparing for winter???

I have challenged my self to memorise Psalm 119 so I will be working on that. Psalm 119:11 has led me to memorise more. It says: I have hid Your word in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

That really inspired me to have God’s word right there so when I’m having those thoughts or conversations in my head that aren’t very nice I can stop and quote scripture, that’s my theory and I’m challenged to do it. As wives and mothers there are times when those mundane tasks leave us with too much thinking time, and this is a great way to channel that time into God and not the world.

May you all be blessed this week as you seek God’s will for your days. xxx

WELCOME BACK

to our

GOOD MORNING MONDAYS LINK UP

Hi there all, welcome back to our Good Morning Mondays Link Up.

I owe you all a big apology for not getting back to this link up when I said I would. I somehow blocked myself off the internet and being the tech savvy person I am (not) I’ve only just worked it out. It’s not totally fixed but it’s on it’s way.

It’s also been a busy few weeks getting our spring butchery completed and we are only just finishing off smoking the bacon.

We had a great time over the few days that it took, though we were tired. The gang worked really hard and in the end we have very full freezers of beautiful, non chemical meat.

It’s been busy since then, with my husband working hard to get the ground prepared for vegetables. He and our no 2 son have been planting potatoes, peas and pumpkins. This coming week they’ll get in the corn and some more pumpkins.

We’ve had more piglets this week and they are about to be moved into the woolshed where they can be contained for a bit until they get bigger.

I’ve been busy in the hot house raising seedlings which I am finding so exciting. My amazing husband set up the trays for me so that the seedlings can be watered more easily, and it’s so great. I have pricked out nearly 300 tomato seedlings and they are busy growing so that we can get them in the ground in early November. The weather has been quite warm for this time of the year but we are also getting some rain and some cooler days, so really good actually.

We can still get frosts up until November so we won’t be planting our tomatoes before then (lost heaps years ago). I’m hoping to start hardening off the other seedlings this week and then I’ll be raising more.

It’s also almost that time of the year to harvest our honey and my honey has been sorting out the bees and catching a new swarm (one of ours died out). They say it’s been a bad year for bees but hopefully things are looking up now.

Well there’s been heaps of other stuff happening and all our outside activities are back on after school holidays. We’ve had our first book group with our second one next week. We all enjoyed reading about Katie Luther and her life and her dedication to God’s word and her husband and family, quite inspirational.

I won’t do a top three this week, I’ll start that next week.

This coming week we have our book group on Thursday afternoon and the Days 4 Girls ladies sewing group will be meeting in the morning. We are almost half way to our 100 kit goal and are finding the going a lot quicker now that we’ve had practice.

The children have their Bible Study on Friday afternoon and before that I will meet with my friend to look at Psalm 119. Saturday is piano lessons and the usual work around here, Sunday church and we start the week off again.

We’ll be tidying up the raised beds to start planting hopefully in a week’s time and the onion patch is mainly grass so I would like to get on top of that too. We will be doing school and music practice and the other usual chores we have.

Well my friends I’m sorry again for not coming back sooner and I’ve been thinking of you often and I’m hoping you are well.

I’ve got a couple of posts in my head at the moment and I’m hoping to get them out this week.

May God bless you all xxx

Hi everyone,

I’m sorry but due  to terrible internet issues I’m not going to be able to do a link up this week, and next week we’re  busy with our bi-annual butchery session. I’ll just have to say, I’ll see you in a couple weeks and I’ll hopefully be able to get the internet sorted by then.

I’m praying that God will bless you all and that he’s with you and that you’re feeling his presence with you daily.

God bless you my friends xxx

WELCOME BACK

to our

GOOD MORNING MONDAYS LINK UP

Hi there all, welcome back to our Good Morning Mondays Link Up.

We’ve had a good week and I hope you have too, it’s been busy and a bit tiring but I wonder if that is the change in the seasons.

It’s also been a wind down, finish up week for most of our outside activities with school holidays starting this weekend. That means no group Bible Studies for us and the children’s one is off as well, no piano lessons but that doesn’t mean that we will take holidays from school and practice.

We will keep motoring along doing our usual here and there with school, outside chores and activities. Our no 2 son and I are still busy sowing seeds into jiffy pots in the hothouse and we are so excited to watch them come up and look so healthy. The weather is quite mild at the moment but that doesn’t mean we can plant out yet because we can get some sneaky frosts right up until November. My husband and I have been talking about planting out into the raised beds earlier and using a sort of make shift hot house to protect the seedlings, but that won’t happen for another couple of weeks.

We’ve got our bi-annual butchery session in a couple of weeks, so after that we’ll start to think about planting out.

We had some new additions this past week or so and we now have 5 little piggies in the woolshed with their mum. They are a bit of a mix really, with berkshire and saddleback coming through,Our no 1 daughter and I have made a bit of plan to trade products, she makes the yoghurt and feta and I make the butter. I think we are getting our first batch of yoghurt shortly so I’m looking forward to seeing how it tastes. I’ve been busy making butter this week to catch up and I tried some sour cream as well.
We’ve had a few plumbing issues this week and my amazing husband has used the opportunity to teach our no 2 son how to go about fixing the problems. You are never to young to learn and daily I am surprised with what he knows and can do around the farm now.
They’ve got it all fixed so no more leaks.

We had a sewing morning this week and also our final book group for the term. We finally finished Fervent and next term we are starting on a new book titled First Wives Club. I am very excited to get started with it and we’ve got some new members as well which is great.

Thanks everyone for linking up each week, I can’t do the top three this week due to dodgy internet, so I apologise.

This coming week is a bit slower which will be nice, we can work on school and piano and gardening with out the pressure of going out much.

Our no 2 daughter is going to spend some time with her brother in law and older sister and their family and she is looking forward to that, so it is only our youngest home and my husband and I for a couple of days.

I’m meeting with a friend on Tuesday and then we are sewing on Friday and apart from that I’m home. I’ve got a pair of socks I’m trying to finish for a friend for her birthday this week and then I’m hoping to knit some beanies for the Christmas boxes which have to be done by the end of October.

Okay my friends, I hope you are all well. Have an absolutely fantastic week, maybe you could send a friend a text to encourage them, ask God to lead you in that way and you’ll be astounded with how your text will come at the right moment for someone.

Bless you all xxx

WELCOME BACK

to our

GOOD MORNING MONDAYS LINK UP

Hi there all, welcome back to our Good Morning Mondays Link Up.

What has been happening for you this past week?? We have had a lovely week of sunny weather, we even let our wood stove go out it was that nice.

We’ve just started it again tonight because the weather has turned quite wintry and wild, with wind, hail and rain. I think the changes keep us on our toes and appreciate each different day.

We’ve had a busy but good week. The first couple days were at home and then on Wednesday we had our church’s women’s mission group meeting. This was our AGM and then we packed boxes for Operation Christmas Child. That was so much fun to do and we all enjoyed it, our children came along and my son was so excited to pack boxes for boys his age. The group had been collecting all year and each monthly meeting we would bring something for a different category.

It has been a great way to do it and we are now more aware of what we really need and how it might look for us next year. I think we packed over 12 boxes and now our young people (10 – 16) are going to pack a couple boxes as well which will be good for them.

We planted seeds a couple of weeks ago and were concerned they weren’t going to come up but low and behold they have started to appear. We’ve got zucchinis and cucumbers showing their leaves and hopefully some more will follow shortly. Our no 2 son waters them twice a day as they dry out in the hot house and he was so excited when they started to come up. We’ve still got some spaghetti squash and pumpkin seeds to sow and hopefully we will get to that on Monday as we’re running out of time.

On Thursday the Days for Girls ladies met and spent most of the day sewing our hygiene products.  Below is one of the shields I have been sewing together. We each have different jobs, a couple of us sew the shields, another lady is in charge of the bags and then another one is in charge of the liners that go into these shields. We are all working well to complete 100 kits before Christmas but it’ll take us most of the year to achieve that goal.  Next year we will do another 100 kits but will spread it out and maybe also sew some clothes and make beanies for the Christmas Child boxes.

On Saturday we had our grandsons 3rd birthday party and boy was he excited. He is such a little treasure and blesses us with his enthusiasm for life. Here below is him pictured with his mum and the rag quilt I made him for his birthday. I had bought that fabric before he was born, so it was nice to finally use it up and he really liked it.
He got some great presents and here is his younger sister wearing his glow in the dark glasses. All our grandchildren are great and we enjoy each one of them.So it’s been a pretty busy week but a good one and we also had our Wednesday night bible study as well. That has been really challenging as we discuss the walls we’ve hit and how we’ve come through them with God.

Okay my friends onto our link up…

Our top three this week were…Writers Talking With Sarah Bird by Electric Evelyn“Let Your Women Keep Silent?…Me?! by Soul Survival7 Ways To Tap Into The Resourceful Spirit Of Our Ancestors by Biblical Minimalism

Thank you all for stopping by and linking up.

This week coming is not quite so busy which will be nice. We’ve still got Bible study and this week we only sew in the morning on Thursday and then we’ve got book group in the afternoon.

We will finish Fervent this week and then after the school holidays we will be starting a new book and this time we will be reading The First Wives Club. This isn’t a book connected to the movie but it’s about twenty-first century lessons from the lives of sixteenth century women. I think we are all keen to start this one and we’ve even been blessed with a few new members which is always exciting and changes the dynamics of the group.

The children’s bible study is on hold as our pastor is on leave this week so we won’t meet together until after the holidays, so Friday I’m home, so I’ll be able to gets lots of school and piano practice done.

Okay my friends, I hope you are all well and enjoying the new season that God has you in. May He be challenging you to grow closer to Him each day.

Blessings xxx

WELCOME BACK

to our

GOOD MORNING MONDAYS LINK UP

Hi there all, welcome back to our Good Morning Mondays Link Up.

I apologise for not being around last weekend, I’ve been battling a bad cold, chesty thing and it really knocked me about. What with that and a busy weekend, I just didn’t get there.

I’m feeling much better now with just a residual cough now and again, mainly at night which is a pain when you are trying to sleep.

How have you all been??? Spring has offically sprung here and the weather has been really nice, cold mornings and sunny days. It’s great for drying the washing and the ground.

Our no 2 son and I planted some seeds last week, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, rockmelon, watermelon and basil. We’ve got them growing in the hot house and we’re still waiting for them to come up. We can get frosts here right up until the first week of November so we usually don’t plant out until then. Last year I planted the seeds out then so of course they were slow, this year we are sewing them into jiffy pots to plant out in November. Hopefully this will get us ahead instead of behind.

Our no 1 daughter and myself and children got to visit with our good friend this week and actually see where she lives. It was great and nice to put a place to a person and family now, so now I know what she is talking about. We need to visit again because we didn’t even get to the garden side of the visit.

The children all had a good time playing together and enjoyed the sand pit.

We had our fellowship lunch after church last week and we have a bit of a jokey competition between a couple of us with our cakes. I  made a raspberry yoghurt cake which was quite nice and different to what I usually do.
Our weekly bible study is going well and this past week we talked about the walls that we hit in life and how we get through them and hopefully they bring us closer to God and give us the ability to help others going through the same things.

Our Days 4 Girls sewing days are still happening and going well and we are working our way to 100 kits before Christmas. Our little group are becoming quite close and it’s nice to get together most weeks and chat and sew and most importantly encourage each others walk with the Lord.

Okay onto the linkup… The Fight For Joy by Dr Michelle Bengtson Keep Your Home Cool In The Summer Heat – Edwardian Decor Ideas by Sew HistoricallyYou Are Never A Bother Or Too Far Gone by Homespun Devotions

Thank you everyone for stopping by and linking up, I hope you enjoyed your visit.

This week is a busy one and we only have 2 weeks until school holidays, boy the year is flying past.

The coming week will be filled with the usual activities and I’m looking forward to our sewing day and meeting up with the ladies.

What have you all been doing with yourselves, some of you may be preparing for winter and preserving the harvest or like us you are welcoming warmer weather after a wet and cold winter. Whatever you have been doing I pray that God is with you always.

Psalm 9:1 I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.

Blessings xxx