If you read my Good Morning Mondays post this week you would know that my friend and I visited another friend who had just had a baby.
Now when we do this we like to take something for them, maybe a meal or two.
I was a bit short of time and money this week and wondered what to do. I really wanted to take something but I was pretty sure that it wouldn’t really be enough.
I made up some bread dough and made some corn relish (compliments of our daughter) scrolls. I even had to use the last half packet of cream cheese because I didn’t have any other cheese and what is a savory scroll without cheese!!!
They did look good and I packed them into a container to take down.
Now my friend is very gracious and was thankful for everything that we brought them, and I got a very special text message later that evening and I will share some of it with you.
“Hey there beautiful friend, what a lovely treat to have you and (my other friend) and the children visit today. I love you so much and am so grateful to have you as my friend. We have all just enjoyed your scrolls in the car”.
Our friends were heading to family for the weekend and had a 4 hour drive ahead of them before they got there. They have 10 children and would have been busy packing and getting ready and my scrolls were just what they needed for tea to eat on the way.
Sometimes we think that what we have to give is never enough or good enough but this has really made me realise that it isn’t about that. God used what I had given them to make their trip easier and He knew that scrolls were just what they needed.
I am encouraged now to just do it and give and not worry about the circumstances but just let God manage them.
2 Corinthians 9:7 – Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, [so let him give]; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
Ephesians 1:4-5 Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
When I was about 3 weeks old I was adopted by my parents. My birth mother was very young (only 15) and had been placed into a home/hospital for unwed pregnant women. She was unable to care for me and allowed me to be adopted.
My adopted parents were in their 40’s and were unable to have children. They had adopted my brother 2 years earlier and then got a phone call to come and pick me up.
My brother and I were well cared for and loved by our parents. They loved us as if we were their own. I don’t remember the exact age I was when they told me but I guess I would have been under 10 years.
I wouldn’t say that I was chosen by my parents but I was chosen for my parents. Back 47 years ago a child was put with parents of the similar colouring. I was dark like my dad and my brother was fair like my mum. My brother and I don’t look alike but we have a mutual bond that comes from being brought up as brother and sister.
I thank God that I was given to my parents and that they adopted me. Who knows where I could have ended up if God hadn’t had his hand on my life.
My birth mother was not a Christian and if I had stayed with her I would not have been brought up in a Christian home. I most likely would not have met my husband when I was 18 and wouldn’t have the family I have now.
Wow, thank you, thank you Lord for holding my life in your hands and allowing me to be placed where you wanted me to be – what a blessing.
But guess what, He has chosen us all to be his children. It doesn’t matter if you have been adopted or not, He has chosen us. His hands are on our lives and He wants the best for us.
1 Peter 2:9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
Hello everyone, how are you all going, have you had a good week??? Welcome to another Good Morning Mondays link up.
I must admit I have been tired this past week. I don’t seem to be able to catch up on the missed sleep from our weekend away.
I have almost finished canning our corn and I now have nearly 60 jars sitting in my pantry. What a wonderful blessing. Our No 1 daughter has been busy preserving all the apples we picked and I think she is nearly done too, and it is great to have fruit bottled in the pantry.
My quick and easy go to desert for visitors is Apple Crumble. Just open a bottle of preserved apples and get No 2 daughter to mix up the crumble and hey presto you have apple crumble. If I have raspberries I add this to the apple mix to give it a bit of bite.
I finally got the quilt finished that I have been working on for a friend. I managed to find another lady with a quilting machine like mine and I hired it for a few hours. Mine still isn’t working but my husband will have a look shortly. I am so pleased to have this quilt delivered as I was getting a bit stressed about it and I wanted it gone.
I spent the day on Thursday with my good friend and her family as we went to visit another friend of ours who has had a baby. It has been ages since we have seen this other friend and it was wonderful to meet their new little man and see how they are all going.
We came back to my friends house for lunch and our girls had a few hours sewing. Their squares are all now completed and they started sewing them together.
This family and another family came to our house on Sunday morning for church and lunch. We had a wonderful afternoon getting to know this other family and the children had a great time playing together. Meeting like minded Christian people is always a pleasure.
I don’t have any family pictures this week but I thought I would share one of Margo. Margo is our turkey and the only one we have left, unfortunately we lost the other two, but she seems quite happy and content.
Here she is looking at herself in our back glass door. I have really become attached to her and we are going to try and get her a mate soon.
If you didn’t get a chance to read these posts and you can, pop over and have a read and leave an encouraging comment.
Thank you to all of you who linked up, once again they were wonderful posts to read and I got some great tips for cleaning and cooking.
Well I have another busy week coming up and I am starting to feel a little overwhelmed so I am trying to write some lists so that I can keep track of what I need to do.
I still have sewing to do for the market on Saturday and I really need to catch up on some washing and ironing.
My husband has another dentist appointment on Wednesday morning so hopefully they will be able to sort out some of the pain issues.
The weather is heating up again this week, so maybe we can pick some more red tomatoes.
May you all be blessed as Easter approaches. May we all be encouraged to look at why we “do” Easter and what it means to us as Christians. xxx
Good morning everyone and welcome back to another weekly link up.
It has been a busy week and I think the next few leading up to Easter are going to be even busier.
We spent the weekend in Halls Gap at a beautiful campsite. It was a wonderful time of bible study, fellowship and food. Our No 1 daughter, husband and family came for a visit on Saturday evening and it was lovely to see them. Go to Our Weekend Away to see all the photos.
The past week had been busy with school and music practice. We went with my husband to Warrnambool to the dentist and they finally removed the tooth. It was still causing him pain and the gland in his neck was up again so he went and got some more antibiotics. It still pained him over the weekend, so I am not sure of our next move.
The rest of the week was pretty normal and I have been trying to get some things made for a market our daughters and I are attending on Easter Saturday.
I have been making these ponchos out of polar fleece and plain fleece. I have made a couple to get the pattern right and now I know what I am doing I am going to be busy cutting and sewing. No 2 daughter is going to cut out the flowers (from felt) and we sew them on with a patterned wooden button.
We have a busy week coming up with music lessons (on two different days) and another sewing day on Thursday. My friend and I will be visiting a friend who had a baby last week before we start sewing.
Hopefully we will make it to Lenten Service on Wednesday night and we are also having some friends over for Sunday lunch. There seems to be heaps happening this week and I am looking forward to a couple of days at home after our weekend away.
Okay once again, enough about me and onto our link up.
These are all great posts and if you didn’t get a chance to have a look at them pop over and see what you think and leave an encouraging comment.
Thank you to all of you for linking up especially when our lives are so busy. I am encouraged and blessed by each one of you.
We are really being challenged as a family on spreading the Gospel and about being missionaries in our community.
I want to encourage all of us to take the time with people and care and love those who have less than us and maybe by taking the time with them we can share God’s word and His love.
Have a have a great week and may you all be blessed xxxx
The past weekend we traveled to Halls Gap in the Grampians National Park. Halls Gap is about an hour drive north and it is just a lovely place to visit.
We went to attend the Victorian Lutheran Men’s Fellowship Camp at Tandara Lutheran Camp.
A picture of the camp buildings with the hall straight ahead and dorm rooms on the left.
This is a camp we go to each year and it is a wonderful time of fellowship, bible study, food and fun. Each year we catch up with couples that we only see at this camp.
The couples who attend this camp our mainly mature aged and we are the youngest, and our children are the only ones that go and it is such a blessing both for us and others to be able to spend this time together. It is good for our children to learn to communicate and spend time with the older generation too.
The view of the BBQ area and hall and more dorm rooms on the right.
We had a great study leader and he was engaging and really spoke to us on a level we could understand. He even had time to include our two youngest children in the studies and it was great to see them become involved and listen and pay attention.
Because this camp is in the National Park there is always native animals around and this is really a lovely thing. It is great to come out at dusk and see heaps of kangaroos on the oval and to see their joeys hanging out of their pouches eating grass as well.
It was hard to get a good photograph because it was getting dark and I couldn’t get one of the joeys but above is just some of them on the oval. These ones aren’t really that big either.
Below is a picture of a Kookaburra just sitting near the car park. There were about 4 of them that were about all weekend and they have a lovely laugh.
Then on Sunday we came out after our last study and there were emus on the oval – about 10 of them.
This camp also has a swinging rope set up and our children were blessed to be able to have a go. Below our No 2 son had to get his hard hat on and his harness.
Here he is swinging in the air, he really enjoyed doing this and was very safe all the time.
Our No 1 daughter and family were able to come on Saturday night for tea and they were able to catch up with my husbands father who attended the camp. Here he is with his youngest great granddaughter and it looks like they are having a lovely moment together.
We returned home late Sunday afternoon very tired but very happy after having a wonderful weekend.
John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
If you have read some of my other posts you will see that we are in the middle of harvesting and preserving our vegetables before winter sets in.
We have heaps of corn at the moment and we are busy picking it, blanching it and then canning it. It has been over 5 years since we have had a decent crop of corn. Last year we only got 15 bottles in the pantry, this year I am hoping for 50.
Now we are frugal people out of necessity, we have a beautiful farm but we don’t have a huge cash flow and some months it can be more than interesting to make ends meet. It is such a blessing to be able to go to the pantry and grab a couple of jars and add them to our own meat to make a quick, easy and nourishing meal.
Now we are frugal but we don’t want to be tight, there is a difference I believe.
I was thinking that if we gave away too much corn then I wouldn’t have enough to put away for the year. What am I thinking you wonder!!!??? We are blessed with so much, how can I not want to give some of these blessings to others.
You are right if you think this is an issue, because it is. I had to stop and examine my heart. You see we have been blessed abundantly, and although it isn’t often that these blessings involve cash they involve so many other things.
We have a lovely home and farm, just the perfect size for us and our desire to be self sufficient. We have a lovely family, just right for us and each other and we already have 2 beautiful granddaughters and another grandchild on the way. We have a wonderful relationship with our family (as I have said before), why would I be worried about corn.
Matthew 6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
You see maybe my desire to fill my pantry has overtaken my desire to help others and in a sense I have become tight up against frugal.
I believe that even though we are frugal we do not need to be tight with what the Lord gives us. He has given us so much and we need to be careful to not hoard too much but to use it to bless others less fortunate or just to bless others because He loves us.
Now I am not saying that we shouldn’t put enough away for the family because it is important to do the best we can, what I am talking about is more of a heart issue.
Let our hearts be on what God has for us and to rely on Him for all things.
2 Corinthians 9:8-11 And God [is] able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all [things], may abound to every good work.
They have arrived all 23 of them. Yes our two sows had 23 piglets between them. Wow what a blessing.
My husband had noticed that both sows had gone missing yesterday (Tuesday) morning and so when he got home in the afternoon the young children and himself went on a pig hunt.
They found them at the far end of our property under some trees and both of them had farrowed.
Amazing the timing that they both had piglets within hours of each other. Any way they couldn’t stay out in the paddock as there isn’t much feed there and we wanted to look after the sows now that there were heaps of hungry little ones to feed.
Proverbs 27:23 Know well the condition of your flocks, And pay attention to your herds.
So they lured the sows with a bucket of grain and walked them back to near our house in our old vegetable garden.
Here they are getting stuck into the grain, they licked the trough clean. You can see how dry it is, and how little feed there is in the paddocks. We had rain overnight, thank you Lord, so hopefully we will see this continue and some new growth start.
Then my husband went up with the children in his Rodeo and caught all the piglets and put them in the back and brought them home.Here they all are snuggled together in the back of the ute. They are so cute at this stage (but believe me it wears off once they start getting adventurous).
Once the mothers heard them squeal it was all on to get them out of the ute and into their new paddock. Then the mothers had to sort out who was who’s. Really!!! they all look alike!!!
After my husband made them a new shelter and gave them heaps of grass hay to settle into, we let them be.
No 2 son (7 years old) was given the responsibility to look after them and make sure the trough was filled with water. He was so excited that this was his job and he was going to be the pig man about the place. He was up at 5.30 am this morning to check on them, but I persuaded him to wait until it was daylight and to go back to bed for another hour or so.
These arrivals has really put the pressure on to butcher the ones we still have so that will be our job over the next month or so when the weather cools down a bit more.
This is our second post in the Preserving the Harvest Series and this one is on sweet corn.
In Australia it is not recommended to put corn through our water bath system (Fowlers Vacola). It would be suggested that corn be frozen, but our freezers are filled with meat and I don’t have room to store vegetables as well.
I am so blessed by the canning system and that an import company arranged to get canners in from America to make it easier for us Australians.
I would suggest to anyone with heaps of produce that canning is the way to go. I use our Fowlers bottles in my canner as well as recycled screw top bottles.
If I am preserving meat I use our big bottles but when it is corn or peas I only need smaller amounts for stews so I need a smaller bottle.
We are in the middle of picking our Sweet Corn and I have started canning it, and we are eating heaps just boiled (my husbands favourite way of having it).
First of all we shuck the corn (I think that is the technical name) and we give all the shuckings (is this right???) to the pigs.
Then we bring it inside and blanch the corn for a few minutes. I had such a hard time getting my water to boil that I just put all the corn into the pot and brought it to the boil.
After it has been blanched I let it cool and then I cut the kernals from the cob into a container. Over the past years I have tried various tools for this but now I just use a sharp knife and this works well.
Here it is in the container once it has been cut off the cob. It is good to get rid as much of the silk (hair) as you can before boiling.
Then I get my jars ready and filled with hot water so they warm up.
Here they are ready to go. I use recycled jam and honey jars as well as any bottled sauce jars that I can scrounge off friends. I have heaps now which is good.
Now I tip out the hot water and add the corn and then fill the bottle with boiling water leaving the recommended head space. The green handle is used to get out any air bubbles. I then put on the lid and place in the canner.
Here are the 17 jars in the canner, you can see the recycled lids. I have doubled layered these and you just need to be careful not to knock them over as you move the canner.
I then follow my canner instructions in the booklet provided, it took about 60 minutes to process these bottles. The larger the bottle the longer the processing.
Once the canner is finished and the pressure has gone (never open before the pressure is released) I take out the bottles and put on the bench to cool off. The lids will pop in and show that they are sealed, mine were quite noisy this year.
I am weird I think because I really enjoy canning and I love seeing all my jars in my pantry, but I have a hard time using them in case I run out.
Last year I did soups and stews and carrots and pumpkin and I have some of these left, so maybe I will just have to start using them, so I can fill the bottles again.
Welcome, welcome, welcome to another Good Morning Mondays. Where are the weeks going, it is almost mid March and April is fast approaching.
How was your week and how are you going and did you achieve all that you wanted??
We had a short week this week because Monday was a public holiday and our children only came home on Monday morning after spending the weekend with our No 1 daughter and husband. They had a great time with them.
Our corn is going great and we have been eating it now for a couple of weeks and we so enjoy fresh boiled corn with butter, yum. We have picked most of the bigger ones now and I am in the process of canning the smaller cobs. I have two containers in the fridge blanched and ready to go into the jars.
My poor husband has had a terrible toothache this week so on Tuesday I finally got him into a dentist. So we headed down there and they tried to pull it but the infection in it was stopping the pain medication from working. So they put him on antibiotics and sent him home to come back this week to have another go. Let’s just say it wasn’t a good experience.
The children were wonderful waiting for him so we took them to the park for a play and a look at the ocean. It was too cold to go swimming and the tide was in as well.
We had another sewing day with my friend and her daughter and because they were shearing this week and our No 2 son was there shearing for them he took the younger two with him for the day.
They left home at 6:45 am and they had a wonderful time with their friends. I was there by lunch time and had a beautiful lunch and then spent the afternoon with my friend and her mother-in-law. They have such a wonderful relationship and it blesses me to see how well they get on.
We cleaned the house on Friday (as usual) and it was nice to sit and relax in front of a movie and knit on Friday night knowing that the house was clean for another week, although there is always things that need doing during the week.
My husband had been offered some wood for us to burn in our wood stove so he decided that they would do the cutting and loading on Saturday. Our son-in-law and our daughter and girls came down for the day as well and helped chain saw the wood and took home a load as well.
Here is our load, what a blessing!!
So we had a great time together and our daughters and myself picked a few more bags of apples for our No 1 daughter to take home and bottle for us all. She has offered to do mine as well, she is such a blessing.
All the apples my daughter has taken home to bottle. We had a late lunch of sourdough pizzas and salad so when they left a 6 pm we only had a light tea of sandwiches.
Our daughter with their youngest daughter.
There is more wood to be gotten over the next weeks to see us through the winter but at least we have some to get us started and keep us going for a while.
We have a beautiful wood stove in our kitchen and that keeps us warm all winter. It is the only heating we have and it is great because you can cook with it as well. My husband got on the roof this afternoon and put the cleaning brush down the flue so it is all ready to go now, all nice and cleaned up.
One of my goals for this winter is to do more cooking on it and in it and try and master it a bit better. My daughters’ mother-in-law only has a wood stove for cooking and she is a marvel at using it.
That’s our week done so onto our link up.
Our top three posts this week were…
Spring Checklist by the Farmers Wife at Grace Garden And Homestead
Once again congratulations ladies and pop over and have a look if you didn’t get a chance to read these ones.
You are all so marvelous, taking the time to come here and link up. I have said it before but I will say it again, thank you all of you, you really bless me abundantly. I am learning so much and it is wonderful to build relationships by learning about each others lives.
I have been so blessed this week by seeing the relationship our No 2 daughter has with her friend (that we go sewing with) and to see how this older girl is teaching (even though she doesn’t mean to) our daughter to be a lovely keeper at home.
It is encouraging me to keep on training her as well as I can so that she may one day encourage others.
My husband has another dentist appointment this week so hopefully his toothache will be sorted. We are going away to a Men’s Fellowship Camp next weekend from Friday night and we are all looking forward to a relaxing time and a wonderful bible study.
So I will need to be really organised this week so I can get everything done before Friday.
What have you got happening in your life this week??
Blessings dear friends and have a wonderful God led week as you raise your children, care and love your grandchildren or just blessing others in any way you can. xxxx
This is a post to all the mothers out there training their young girls. I want you to know that I appreciate every one of you.
Your job is so important and integral to your daughters future. In your training you are teaching her to be a wife and mother and a keeper of the home.
Titus 2:3-5 Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.
This is a noble task and one not to be laughed at and if you train her correctly and with diligence both of you will be rewarded in your relationship.
Proverbs 22: 6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Not only will your training benefit her future husband and family but it will benefit younger girls around her.
My good friend has an eleven year old daughter who is just a beautiful young lady. Her mother (my friend) has been training her to help around the home and she is a wonderful example of her mothers training.
Our No 2 daughter who is a couple of years younger spent the day with this young lady and I am amazed and blessed by the way our daughter has been since spending time with her.
Her attitude had rubbed off onto our daughter in such a wonderful way. What an example she has been, she helps her mother without complaint and showed such a willingness that just blessed me. This young lady wouldn’t even know that she is helping or guiding our daughter but she is.
I know that sometimes it doesn’t seem that we are getting anywhere in our training and we just might seem to be treading water, but be encouraged that there is a difference being made in the lives of our girls and those they come in contact with.
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