Monthly Archives: October 2014

Diaries of the Heart

OUR FAVOURITE HYMN…

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To God Be the Glory

to god be the glory

This hymn would have to be our all time favourite.  It says it all doesn’t it.  God has done great things for us and sacrificed His Son for us, that even the vilest of us who believe still see redemption.

What more could we ask for.  We have a God who loves us so much, despite the way we behave or our attitudes.  He is the only one who sees the real us and he still loves us.

When we had the funeral for our still born daughter this was the first hymn we sang, what more could we sing but this.  It was a precious moment for us.

This hymn was written by Fanny Crosby around about 1872.  Fanny Crosby had a very interesting life and I would recommend to any of you who are interested to have a look here to read about it.  My research pointed out that this hymn was not well received when it was first written, or in modern day terms it didn’t take off.  I really can’t understand this.

I enjoy modern choruses with the best of them but I love the older style hymns the most.  They have such meaning, and every word seems to counts.

Maybe as a homeschooling lesson we could grab our hymnals and look through the good old hymns and teach them to our children. Help them to understand the older style of writing and to appreciate them.

So if we wake every morning and say

“To God be the glory, great things He has Done”

it will be the best start to our days yet!!

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So what are your favourite hymns, is there one that is particularly special to you for some reason??

 

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Homeschooling Diary

HELP! WE HAVE A 6 YEAR OLD BOY..

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Just a preamble to this post:

I love my children and they are really fantastic, but they are very normal children.  This post is about our No 2 son who is 6.  He is actually a really great kid, he is loving and caring and never cuts short the hugs or kisses.  So here goes….

No 2 daughter and son
No 2 daughter and son

HOMESCHOOLING UPDATE:

I must admit I am struggling at the moment with schooling.  Our no 2 son is giving me a run for my money and is really trying my patience (which isn’t my greatest gifting at the best of times).

It is probably because he is such a goer.  He runs everywhere and just wants to get outside to his tadpoles and the likes. He scratches, and sings, and hums and so on before even looking at his books.  He can ask a variety of questions (all in a very short period of time) that don’t relate to any schooling he is looking at.

Some of these questions are:

  • What’s for lunch mum (this is usually asked about 1/2 an hour after breakfast);
  • Mum did hell create sickness (this was this mornings – I had to be careful how I answered this);
  • Are we going to town today;
  • When will Dad be home;

and so on and so on, you can see a pattern here!!!

He can sit over a maths lesson for over an hour (I’m actually being very generous here!!!)

I am sure he is not unusual in homeschooling circles but he is challenging.  I am encouraging him in his reading and trying to explain how the world will open up to him once his reading improves, and he says that he understands this – but the outdoors just call him.

He loves playing the piano and is very good at it too, so practice for that isn’t too big an issue.  He can even sit still during the 1/2 hour of his lesson (much to his teachers amazement).

His older brother was the same but my memory doesn’t go back far enough to remind me how I dealt with it.

Don’t get me wrong, he is fantastic outside and helps his father a great deal.  His sister and him get in the cows for milking, he brings in our wood, he will take rubbish away for me without complaint.  He just can’t settle down and concentrate on his school work.

If anyone can give me any ideas on getting one very active boy to sit still and concentrate – I would be very grateful.

 

Cake recipes

CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY MUFFINS

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These are the quickest, easiest muffins you could make.  Just get a bowl and mixing spoon, no need to drag out the mixer, just get in and stir.

Chocolate Raspberry Muffin
Chocolate Raspberry Muffin

Ingredients

  • 3 cups of self raising flour
  • 2 cups sugar (I use raw)
  • 6 tblsp cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 cups cold water
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 tsp vinegar
  • 10 tblsp olive oil
  • 2 cups raspberries (I use frozen)

Mix dry ingredients, add remaining ingredients and mix.  Bake at 180 degrees for 25 mins or until skewer inserted comes out clean.

PS: You can ice these with chocolate icing if you like but I find they are moist and sweet enough.

PPS:  This recipe makes just on 2 dozen muffins.

ENJOY!!

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Kitchen Diary

HAMBURGER PATTY RECIPE

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Here is my hamburger patty recipe.  It is great cooked on the BBQ with salad or cooked up and made into hamburgers.

I hope you like it!!

  • 1 kg mince
  • 1 egg
  • 1 packet of french onion soup mix
  • 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
  • 1 onion
  • 2 grated carrots

This is the easy bit:

Mix all ingredients together and form into patties.  Refrigerate if you have time to allow patties to set.

PS:  I chop my onion in the food processor so it is quite fine.

ENJOY!!

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Diaries of the Heart

GODS ORDER OF CREATION

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Why do we struggle with Gods order of creation and our place in that.

Man was made first and in His image.  Adam couldn’t find a partner amongst the animals so God created Eve to be his helpmeet, his partner and his soul mate.

God created Adam to be the head of the family, the buck stops here guy, the authority.  Did God do this to upset us women?  Some would say yes, how could He do that, how could He lower us to be under a man? We were all created equal!!

Why can’t we as women just accept our role as helpmeet, homemaker, and mother joyfully and happily.  Our place is beside our husband to support him in all that he does.

Now the husband needs to love his wife as Christ loves the church. He needs to glean from her information about her children and use her insight in raising them.

I am at home all day with the younger children and I share issues and happenings with my husband so that he knows what is happening in their hearts.  He needs me to share this information so that he can deal with attitudes and emotions when he comes home.

Our No 1 son talks to me about things that he doesn’t always share with his dad.  I will share these issues so that my husband can see into my sons heart as well and lead and guide him.

I am not trodden on or disregarded as a wife and mother but I am regarded as being an important part of this relationship.

I am a noticer, I notice lots of things (sometimes too many).  My husband isn’t and this is ok, because I notice enough for the both of us and can share (talk) enough for us both as well.

Maybe your husband is the noticer?  We have friends and her husband sees things happening around him because that is his gifting.  His wife isn’t so in tune to everything going on around her and he really leads and guides her.  They are partners in their marriage, just as we are partners as well.

This partner relationship in our marriage doesn’t mean that I can dictate how things happen around here and that I get the final say.  It just means that I am my husbands helpmeet, and I am happy to be so.

So I encourage all wives and mothers to submit to their husbands role as the head of the family as God created him to be.  Support him, guide him, and help him be all that he can be in his life.  Don’t hide things from him or gloat over him or glorify yourself over him.

Teach your children to honour him as well.  Teach them to hug and kiss him goodbye, teach them to say “yes Dad”.

Our husbands and their fathers are the key in the lock of our lives.  If we don’t have the key we won’t be able to unlock all the God has for us as a family.

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Down on the Farm Diary

DOWN ON THE FARM UPDATE…

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Just an update on what is happening on the farm.

We had another calf last week this one was from our angus cow.

Our new calf. This was as close as my husband could get.
Our new calf. This was as close as my husband could get.

This cow has a bit of a history.  Over 5 years ago we were renting not far from where we live now and we were blessed to be able to have a couple of milking cows and pigs and vegetables.  Heather (the cow) required joining, so we sent her across the paddocks to our neighbours who were friends of ours to be served by their bull.  This happened, but Heather stayed there a bit longer than necessary and then we couldn’t find her.  We think our neighbour actually sold her with his own cattle.

Our neigbour found a cow he thought was Heather and returned her to us.  We don’t think this is Heather, there is no way we can milk her and she is a little bit wild.  Maybe it is Heather and she enjoyed her freedom running the pastures with the other wild cows and decided this was the better way to be, who knows.  Anyway she gives us a good meaty calf to butcher and eat.

We have finally weaned the piglets to the joy of their mothers and are now busy fattening them up with all the milk we are getting from the two cows we are milking.  We are going to put a sign up this week announcing them officially for sale.

Adiah and the weaned piglets. That's about as close as she is going to get.
Our eldest granddaughter and the weaned piglets. That’s about as close as she is going to get.

My husband is getting ready to cut hay in a couple of weeks.  Our crops and grass paddocks haven’t grown as well as we had hoped, the rain sort of ran out in mid August, so instead of heading (harvesting) our crops he will cut it for hay instead.

We usually keep our pigs in a feedlot pen with hay as the bedding. Now we need to dig it all out and spread it and work it in where we are going to grow vegetables.  That’s a job to for this week.

Our chickens are laying really well and we are getting almost 2 doz eggs a day (that’s why I can make such big quiches).  We need to butcher some roosters very soon and I might can them using a “Chicken a la King” recipe.  This is a great recipe and I enjoy just being able to cook some pasta and open the jar and mix it together for tea.

I am trying to finish off pruning my roses and I hope to have this finished this week.  I am running late again with this, but they will still give us a lovely flower show.

We are about a month off starting our aquaponics system where we grow fish and vegetables.  Our fish are arriving at the end of November, so my husband is just testing the water out now with goldfish and so far so good.  We have been researching ways to feed the fish without having to buy in food and it seems we can feed them vegetables and hearts and livers (the meaty parts of offal).  So when we butcher our next beast in a few weeks I will keep some of the innards and mince and freeze them, and label them really well!!!

Life is very exciting here and there is always stuff to do.  There isn’t always the time or the money to do all we want to but we just keep chipping away at it all.

Blessings to you on your farm / homestead, I hope everything is moving along nicely for you all.

 

Diaries of the Heart

WHEN PEOPLE HURT US…

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Why did they do that?  Why did they say that? How can people be so hurtful?

These are questions that I have asked many times over, usually the answer is I don’t know why.

What do you do when people say things or do things that upset you? How do you handle the situation?

There are a few things we should do and a few things we shouldn’t.

  • We shouldn’t retaliate or hit back;
  • We shouldn’t curse them or be angry.

Sometimes there is just no answer as to why people are the way they are.  Retaliating isn’t the way to go and we are trying to teach our children to not hit back when it happens to them, by showing them how we handle these situations.

  • We should forgive them;
  • We should bless them;
  • We should pray for them.

Our family has a saying: build a bridge and get over it, but can we really get over it without forgiveness.  Another thing we can do is to ask God to bless those who hurt us.

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My husband heard the saying the other day – “being able to forgive mightn’t be able to help yesterday but will bless you tomorrow”.

We can never go back but we can always move forward with God and his help.  Forgiving others will enable us to go on and actually release us to prayer for them.

Luke 6:28-29 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you, To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold you tunic either.

Luke 6:37 Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.

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Do you find yourself walking around the house having conversations in your head with people who have upset you?  I find myself doing this quite often – saying to those who have hurt me what I really wanted to say to their face.  Then the Holy Spirit convicts me and I stop myself and ask for forgiveness and ask God to bless them and their family. This act really helps me stop thinking about it and helps me turn my feelings of frustration and anger to love, prayer and forgiveness.

So when people hurt you in either word or deed, ask God to help you turn the other cheek and forgive them and then ask God to bless them.

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Diaries of the Heart

GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES

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The rainbow is the greatest sign that we have that God will keep His promises.

I love it when we see rainbows and we can explain to the children that this is Gods sign to us that He will never leave us nor forsake us.

He showed a rainbow to Noah and promised him that He would never send a flood again to destroy all people, and God is the only one I know who never breaks a promise.

Genesis 9:11 -13  “I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth:.  And God said,  “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all future generations:  I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth”.

God is a God of His word.   What He says He means and it will come to pass.

Are we people of our word, do we keep our promises???  

I know that I need to be careful when the children ask for something or to do something that I don’t promise them something I can’t deliver.  I want them to know that when I say something I mean it, and it will come to pass.

When you tell someone you are going to do something do you do it???

It is so easy to say “I will pray for you”, but do we.  Maybe to help us we could have a prayer list so that we can remember all the people we need to pray for.  Our lives are so busy that it is difficult to remember all the things we say we are going to do.  So do we not say them or do we make ways that help us to remember?

I suppose it is both.  I try to be careful with what I promise and offer to do and I am a great list maker and have numerous alarms on my phone to help me remember things.

We should make sure that what we say and promise are possible in our lives and we don’t just flippantly say anything just to be noticed or be important.

Our word represents who we are and who we follow and I want to follow God and endeavour to keep my promises just like He does.

 

 

Diaries of the Heart

MOTHERS TRAIN YOUR SONS…

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Mothers should we be training our sons to do household duties?

I really believe we should be training them in all aspects of life, not just outside bloke jobs.

There will be times when they need to be able to feed themselves, wash their clothes and look after themselves.  Maybe this will be in the mission field or when their wives have babies.

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I believe in Gods order of creation.  Man was created first and women was created to be his helpmeet.  There is nothing anyone could say to make me see any different.

In Ephesians 5 it  says for the Husband to love their wives as Christ loved the church.

I want to prepare my sons to love their wives and to treasure them as their helpmeet.  I want them to realise the work involved in running a home and I also want them to be able to help their wives when the need arises.

Our No 1 son can cook a basic meal and he makes the best omelettes. I had a hernia operation last year and he really looked after us well. He managed all the washing, cleaning and cooking, with the younger ones help.

Our No 2 son who is 6 is just beginning his training and at the moment he empties the dish washer and sets the table, he also brings in the firewood and helps his sister collect eggs.  His duties will develop as he increases in age and I pray that I will have the patience to teach him all he needs to know.

Start training your sons (all your children really, whether girls or boys) as young as you can.  We are preparing our children to be husbands and wives, and to be diligent in all that they do.  This training will require diligence and consistency from us as parents as well and it will be hard work, but it will be fruitful work.

I want to encourage all mothers (and myself as well) to train their sons in the fine art of housekeeping.  It will only benefit them and their family in the future.

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

What jobs are you training you sons to do??  Let us know how you go about this training, I need all the help I can get!!!

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Diaries of the Heart, Tips and Hints

TIPS ON WASHING..

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Washing seems to be a never ending job.  I finally get the basket empty and the next time I look it is full again.  I wash every day and my youngest daughter helps me with the hanging up and bringing in.

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Here are a few ideas that help us get it done a bit easier.

  1. Try and not let the washing get away on you… (easier said than done, I know);
  2. Get the younger ones in to help. We purchased a camping clothes line and our daughter hangs up all the little clothes on this;
  3. Fold your washing as you take it off the line (weather permitting);
  4. Individual drawers –
    • I have a couple sets of drawers in our laundry that I put folded washing into and then the individuals come and get their drawers and put their washing away.  Little ones may require help with this until they get the hang of it.  Mine don’t have wheels but you get the idea.

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I don’t use an outside line, I hang our washing under the verandah out the front of the house and it doesn’t fade in the summer and doesn’t get wet when it rains.  This can allow me to leave it there a little bit if I get caught up doing other things.

I hope these tips help you in your washing journey.