Hey, hey, hey!!! everyone, welcome back to Darling Downs Diaries and our weekly Good Morning Mondays Link Up.

How has your week been??? Is it cold and wet or hot and dry where you are???

It has been wet but at the moment it is a bit warmer and drier but there is rain predicted for later in the week.  Actually the prediction is for cold and wet weather and right on the day of our son’s 21st birthday party.

We will be getting a fire going and putting up shelter around the place to keep everyone nice and warm and the wood stove inside will be roaring as well.

I really like our wood stove it is just great. It is our only heating and I also really like that we can stay warm without it costing us an arm and a leg. Power is very expensive these days!!!

We put this stove in when we first moved here about 6 years ago. There was a freestanding wood heater here and we sold that which helped us get this lovely cast stove.  We made scones in it the first night we lit it this year and they were delicious with jam and cream.

We had a good week this past week and we have finished moving the rooms around. I still have a bit of sorting to do in my sewing room and our no 1 son has some stuff to go through but we are really pleased with the results.

It is so nice to have a whole room to store my stuff and not have it going from one end of the room to the other.  I haven’t finished getting the quilting frame together as the sewing machine on it needs to be looked at but I am looking forward to getting back into quilting as well.

My husband and the children picked our pumpkins today and they are now stored in a trolley on the front veranda.

I will need to keep an eye on them each week and make sure I sort through them and keep any rotting ones and use them first. I even thought that I might grate and dehydrate some when they start to turn, but we will see.  I have put some of the smaller ones aside to sell out the front and will get them out there this coming week.

Our front yard is looking very green at the moment and my husband is mowing the lawn as I type this. We need to get it into better shape for next weekend. We are so blessed to have lovely grass for the children to play on and this stays green all summer, with a bit of watering.
I finished the vest I was knitted for our No 2 son and it keeps him lovely and warm. He seems to be growing up so quickly and I don’t think this will fit him next year so I have told him to make sure he wears it heaps.I have moved onto knitting some beanies and the first one is for this son to match his vest and then one for our grandson. I really like knitting for the grandchildren, it makes me feel like a real grandma.

Okay enough about me, onto our link up…

Our top 3 posts this week were…Monday of Many Blessings Link Up from Our Home of Many BlessingsBusy is not a badge of honour by Jo at Stop Have a ChatOn My Bookshelf (May 2016) by Debbie at Simple Joys of Home

Thank you for taking the time to stop by and link up, you are all such a blessing.

Our No 1 son is coming home on Monday night (yay) and we are all looking forward to that.

We will be spending the week getting ready for his party and we will put a pig on the spit on Friday and some lamb in the smoker and then just reheat it on Saturday night. This saves having to clean up all the mess when everyone is here.

It is our 2nd granddaughters birthday this week so I am going to try and make her a dress and even maybe a hat to match, but we will see.

Our son-in-law, daughter and their family will be here maybe Thursday night but definitely Friday so that will be great and we also have another 10 odd people coming to stay Friday night as well. There will be a couple of caravans and some swags lying about and it should be great fun.

I am going to make some mini cheesecakes and some pavlova nests as well as some other sweet delights for desert and my daughter is going to make some delicious sausage rolls to have for afternoon tea to keep us warm.

Hopefully there will be left overs and I won’t have to cook much the next week.

It is only 2 weeks until the Eisteddfod so the children will be doing plenty of practice for that. They are looking forward to it and it is the musical highlight for them each year. Then after that it is only 6 weeks until their exams so we will be focusing on their technical work then.

All right I think that is about it for the week and next week. I would love to hear how you are all going and what you have been up to if you have time and I think of you all often and I pray that you are all well and that God is working in your hearts and 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 dear friends xxxx