Welcome back to another Good Morning Mondays Link Up. Wow where is the month going, we are nearly mid January and it never ceases to amaze me how quickly time is passing.
I’m sitting here thinking about what I did this week and I really can’t remember. My brain isn’t good on the short term memory so it’s good I keep a diary :-).
It was quite hot here earlier in the week and there have been some big fires one about an hour north of us and some bad ones in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia. We have had thunderstorms and this brings lightning strikes which start fires and there were quite a few of them earlier in the week.
Then came the rain and the cooler weather mid week. We live in a very blessed area where we get cool changes regularly and it isn’t often that we get weeks and weeks of hot weather. We live about 50 mins from the coast and we get a lovely sea breeze in the late afternoon and early evening. I really enjoy living here because of that. Our No 1 daughter and family live a couple hours north west of us and they have much warmer weather than us.
The only problem with where we live is that we rely on the weather for our vegetables and it has been a couple of years since we have had a good tomato crop but we are blessed in so many other ways.
This week has seen our No 1 son go away fighting fires only to come home the next day due to wet weather. Thank you Lord for the rain and his safe return.
We picked our apricots this week and I stewed them with a little sugar. I preserved 6 bottles to store in the pantry for the coming months and I have some left in the fridge to enjoy this week.
This first preserving of the season is very exciting and I look forward to more to come. We don’t have many fruit trees yet, that is a farm goal this year to plant at least 20 trees if we can.
In Australia we have our longer school holidays until February but I like to start earlier, so this week we will get going on music practice again and a little school.
I want to finish clearing up my creative space (a room we have that has our sewing machines, quilting machine, our No 1 sons gym and lots of other stuff). This is a great space but it can really get away from me and I am nearly finished, then I have some quilting to do some mending of work jeans and some general sewing for the children.
They are growing so quickly that my No 2 son has often got a bare midriff which is definitely not a good look.
Ok enough about me now onto the Link up…
Our three top posts this week were:
Happinness is Homemade Link Party from Rahab to Riches
Tiny Toadstool Cottage: No Superfluous Spending from Jayne at Tiny Toadstool Cottage
Blessed to be a Homemaker from So Much at Home
and my personal favourite:
How to Enjoy an Early, Joyful & Productive Morning from Morning Motivated Mom
This is my favourite because it really spoke to me about getting up and getting going. So I am going to endeavour to do this, hopefully starting this week.
Congratulations to these lovely ladies and, to all of you who took the time to link up I say thank you. I enjoy reading each and every post, and I am learning so much.
My encouragement to you this week is to try and encourage others, whether your children, husband or friends. Maybe you could send a card or note to someone in your life who you know is having troubles or maybe give them a ring.
Proverbs 12:25 Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.
Ok let’s get the link up started, please link up any posts that relate to God and christian living – especially encouraging or challenging posts, also recipes, crafts, gardening or homesteading as you call it in America and just plain old country living here in Australia.
Thank you for the link up and wonderful blogs to check out! I’m a new blogger and am so happy to be here! 🙂
-Alli
Thanks Alli, I am relatively new to blogging to and I am enjoying it so much, thanks for stopping by and I look forward to getting to know you. Blessings
I’m excited to get started with this party. This week I’m sharing a recipe for a no-cook drizzle chocolate (perfect for molten-type single-serve cakes and such) as well as a recipe for making flavored mayonnaise, and also some helpful tips on how to make New Year’s GOALS and actually be able to keep them. 😉 Love the hop, thanks for hosting!
~Taylor-Made Homestead~
Texas
Thanks for linking up I am really looking forward to reading your posts, they are always great. Blessings.
Ug. Every other year we try to plant more trees in our orchard, but it never fails that the deer and/or moose eat the middles of the young ones each winter (Err…). We are determined to plant more this year. We have 11 apple tress that we preserve in a variety of ways and they last til the next year. But what if we could do that with other fruits? Or nuts? Mmmm…can’t wait til May…
We lost all 30 tomato plants and 30 cucumber plants in one 15 minute hail storm this year. I feel your pain…
Your apricots sound wonderful. Do you ever dry any? I know you’d be happy to share if I just popped on over, eh?
Stay busy Friend.
Blessings,
Thanks Deborah, I can’t imagine what it would be like to have moose roaming around, fantastic but annoying all the same. We don’t have deer here because we aren’t close to the bush but we do get the occasional hare or rabbit eating our vegies, most likely its our own pigs that get in (not good). I used to dry a lot more years ago but find I use the bottled ones more, and I would definitely share with you. We pick most of our apples from trees along the road, there are about 10 trees in 20 kms from here and they aren’t much to eat but once they are stewed or bottled they taste great. Our cucumbers aren’t doing well and our tomatoes and zucchinis are quite slow too, Oh the joys of gardening. Love that you stopped by. Blessings
Thanks for featuring my post from last week! I enjoy your blog so much!
God bless.
Chris
So Much At Home
That’s fine Chris, thanks for the encouragement. Blessings
Thank you for hosting! Happy Monday to you 🙂
Thanks Jes, have a great week. Blessings
Thank you for the feature. I’m so happy you enjoyed my post!!
My pleasure Emily, you really convicted me to get more organised and motivated. Thanks and blessings
Your apricots sound tasty. You will have to share what you do one day. Thank you so much for hosting. Have a wonderful week. 🙂
Will do Naomi, it is so easy and the results are delicious. My husband wants to plant heaps of apricot trees now. Blessings
It was fun to read about your week especially your apricots, which we love. May you have a wonderful week!
Thanks so much Joanne, blessings to you this week.
Thank you for hosting this delightful party! -Marci @ Stone Cottage Adventures
Thanks Marci and you are welcome. Blessings
Visiting from Holley’s this morning! Thanks for sharing a slice of life from a place very far away from NY. It’s so good to meet you!
;-}
Hi Linda, thanks for the comment and thanks for stopping by, I look forward to getting to know you better. Blessings
Thanks so much for giving us a place to share and encourage as well as the reminder to be an encourager. Blessings to you and yours.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment Heather, blessings