Welcome back everyone to our first Good Morning Mondays for 2016.

I hope you all had a blessed and joyous Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

We had a lovely, although very hot Christmas with our son-in-law and daughter and their children. We went to their Christmas Eve Service and then nibbled our way through the rest of the evening. It was just lovely to be together and share this wonderful time with them.

Below is a picture of our granddaughters unveiling their gift from us on Christmas morning. We bought them a table and chairs and they really enjoyed sitting at it. They sat there and opened their presents and had breakfast and lunch sitting there as well. It was definitely a worthwhile gift for them.We all had a lovely time opening our presents but first our son-in-law read from the Bible to remind us of the real reason that we were gathered together.  My husband’s parents joined us for lunch and then we all had a little snooze in the lounge and then had tea. It was wonderful and relaxing.

We stayed there for 2 nights and then came home again to make sure everything was going all right without us. We have had a few power outs the last few weeks and this means that we need to run our generator to keep the pumps and air going in the aquaponics system.  Everything was okay when we got home and we got back to normal, you know washing, cleaning etc.

On New Years Eve we went to church and then spent a couple of hours with our good friends Mr and Mrs H. We hadn’t been able to catch up before Christmas so it was lovely to sit down and chat with them and of course nibble our way to 12 midnight. We actually didn’t last that long, all of us being tired because it had been so hot that week.

Mr H is still dealing with his cancer and is now on some experimental treatment, so I ask that if you can, please pray for him, that this new treatment goes well and for his family as they help him through this time.

We then had a wedding to attend on the first Saturday in 2016. Our son-in-law’s brother got married to a lovely girl. It was a beautiful day with a very Christ centered ceremony and very little glitz.  It was a great reminder that two become one with Christ as their head.

Our no 1 son was best man and he looked great and did a good job and didn’t lose the rings and did a lovely speech. It just brings such joy to our hearts to see how he has grown into a wonderful young man.

This past week, once again things returned to normal. I haven’t started school yet and we haven’t done piano practice for a while so that’s what we will be focusing on this coming week.  I don’t think I will start school just yet, I might leave it another week and see how we go. Traditionally school starts at the end of January, this being our summer break, but I always try and start a bit earlier than that.

The vegetable patch is going great. I have even been able to get out an do some weeding which is wonderful. We have just picked our first zucchinis and our crop of peas is ready for it’s first harvest.

The tomato plants are flowering and growing well but there is no fruit on them yet.  The plants are growing in amongst the wires on the trellis so there isn’t too much work tying them up at the moment.

We took a run to Warrnambool the other day as my husband had a gift voucher to spend. We had a nice lunch and the children had a walk on the beach.  I don’t know if you have all heard of the movie “Oddball” but that was filmed in Warrnambool and the island below is where it was based around.

A friend gave us a sow that was due to have piglets and she had them about a week ago. She had eleven little pink pigs, even though she was black. The father was a large white and they look so cute, but we are used to having black piglets so they look quite different. They are pink with a couple having some black spots.
Well that’s about all our news for the moment. I am looking forward to hearing how you have all been.

I haven’t done the top three this week so we will just get onto the link up.

Hoping you are all well and that God is working in your 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 my dear friends. xxxx