A LIFE WELL LIVED…

July 26, 2015 darling downs 26 Comments

In writing this post I want you to know that the points below are my goals not my arrived state. I am not perfect in any on these things but I pray that God will help me on my journey.

A life well lived is what I want to be remembered for. Not a life well lived for myself, but a life well lived for God and others.

I want to be remembered as a wife who honoured her husband. A wife who cared for his needs and loved him with all her heart. I want to be remembered as a submissive wife, one who put her husbands needs before her own.

Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things

I want to be remembered as a women who loved her children, but more than that I want to be remembered as a women who trained her children in the ways of the Lord.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

I want to be remembered for my love for others and my care for those in need. I want my children to remember and follow in that care.

Hebrews 13:16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

I want to be remembered for my ability to love my enemies and my willingness to pray for those who don’t like me or don’t like my ways.

Matthew 5:44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

I want to be remembered as a women who walked worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him both in my work and my knowledge.

Colossians 1:10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

I want to be remembered as a women who was anxious for nothing, we knew that God was taking care of her and her family.

Matthew 6:25-34 Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. …

But most of all I want to be remembered as a women after God’s own heart.

1 Peter 3:8-12Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous;not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For “He who would love life And see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

So when I die, please remember me, not for the great meals that I cooked or the blog posts that I wrote, these are all a part of who I was but, please remember me as a woman after God’s own heart, with her eyes on her Heavenly prize.

Philippians 3:14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.

Kitchen Diary

SMOKED SAUSAGE FOCACCIA

July 26, 2015 darling downs 4 Comments

I had some smoked sausage left over and I wanted to make something quick and easy for tea the other night so I thought a focaccia would be nice for a change.

I just used my quick and easy bread recipe, this can be made with either white or wholemeal flour.

Ingredients for bread

4 cups plain flour
1 tablespoon of yeast
1 tablespoon of bread improver
1 tablespoon of sugar (I use raw)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups warm water (possibly 2 and 1/2 cups)

Add all the dry ingredients into the bowl and mix together.

I then added chopped smoked sausage, sliced mushrooms, chopped homemade feta and some vegetable stock (1 tablespoon)

Mix altogether and then add liquid. You need enough water to mix until a dough, so maybe add a little more if necessary.

Knead dough on floured surface until smooth (this may be a little difficult with the sausages and vegetables added, but you get my drift).

Grease a tray (I used a pizza tray) and press dough into the tray.

Allow to rise until over the side of the tin, approx 1 hour.

Bake in a moderate oven (180 degrees C) for approximately 30 minutes.

I then sliced this up like a pizza and we enjoyed it for tea. It was delicious.

ENJOY!!!

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.

Diaries of the Heart

HUMBLE IS BEST

July 26, 2015 darling downs 8 Comments

As I am sitting here this afternoon writing this post I am not feeling very happy with myself. You see this morning in bible study I got upset, now you may be wondering what type of study we are having for it to cause such an issue.

I really don’t want to share what it was technically about but let’s just say it was on questioning the word of God. Not our Pastor or others there just some of our church hierarchy.

Both my husband and I are really passionate about believing and standing on the word of God, and I guess this is why I got upset. I am passionate about women finding their place in Gods order and supporting them. I love giving to people in need and answering God’s prompting on this matter, that gives me such joy.

But none of these things gives me the right to get upset during study. So after church I was able to apologise to our Pastor and other members who were at the study. I was humbled and blessed by their attitude of forgiveness and how they supported me. None was offended, for which I am grateful, but repentance, I felt, was still necessary.

I must remember to keep a foot on my emotions and remember to lead with Gods knowledge and truth.

It is good to be passionate about what you believe in but it should always be presented humbly and respectfully.

James 5:16 Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.

GOOD MORNING MONDAYS LINK PARTY

GOOD MORNING MONDAYS #41

July 26, 2015 darling downs 38 Comments

Another week gone by and another week closer to spring, summer and then Christmas and the end of the year.

Where is is going, into the past and we can’t slow it down no matter how hard we try. So let’s just live our lives one day at a time with our eyes on the Lord.

Welcome back to another Good Morning Mondays. It is definitely winter here and it has been cold this past week. Now we don’t get snow here but the puddles outside were frozen over this week.

Here is No 2 son holding a piece of frozen puddle, he was so excited.

DSC_1815[1] — Ice on the ground at church after a hail storm this morning.

It is amazing where cats will go to keep warm. Ours has found a nice place to shelter from the cold in our esky.

We have had a nice week at home and we have really been working on our music and school. No 2 son is really moving along with his reading and this is just wonderful. I think teaching children to read is one of the hardest things, but when they finally get it, it is wonderful. A whole new world of books is opened up to them.

I have been thinking a lot about death this week and I suppose this comes from the father at church who passed away. I was unable to make it to the funeral as No 2 son wasn’t well (he does have some chesty cough issues in this weather). My husband went and the church was over full, about 600 people attended. He meant a lot to a lot of people that was for sure, but I suppose my husband and I were saddened by the lack of God mentioned in his obituary.

What do we want to be remembered for, for our ability to play sports the best, or our need/desire to bring our children up in the ways of God. Mmm it has definitely had me thinking.

We were able to face time with some friends in Canada this week and that was wonderful. They came over here over 2 years ago on a pastors exchange and spent 6 months with our congregation. Finally we had someone else at church who home schooled. We got very close and had a wonderful time together. My husband tries to talk with the husband every couple of months and loves discussing theological issues. I haven’t talked to my friend (his wife) for ages so it was nice to touch base again. We have made a decision to face time very shortly just the two of us to catch up on each others lives. For this I am grateful for technology, sometimes I am not.

I am glad for technology so that I can write this post and keep in contact with all of you who link up here each Monday. It brings a smile to my face to know that you care enough to stop by.

So without any further ado, onto our linkup.

Our top five posts this week were…

3 Reasons You Should make Your Bed Everyday by Kelly at The Journey of a Steward

Reclaim Your Life by Deborah at Growing In His Grace
There’s No Place Like Home by Laura at Harvest Lane Cottage

A Spoiled Church – Part 2 by Cheryl at Homespun Devotions Why Your Story Actually Counts by Kaitlyn Bouchillon It Just Takes One

And my favourite was…. thmb55ad360449d09 Helping My Child Through Grief by Aimee at A Work of Grace

Thank you everyone for taking the time to stop by. It is such a blessing and I enjoy reading what I can.

This week we are hopefully going to be attending a new course being run at our church called Christianity 101. This is going to be run every Monday night for 6 weeks and is for those people who want to know more about the Bible. We are hoping to attend to support those running it and we hopefully one of our friends will be attending and again you never know what we will learn.

We are off to Melbourne over the weekend for a family seminar, and character building course for our children. We haven’t been to one of these for quite a few years so it will be wonderful to see who is there and meet up with some old friends and hopefully make some new.

Sunday is music exam day, it is unfortunate it is Sunday but it is usually before or after worship which is good.

I have beanies to knit for the granddaughters and I really need to start on these this week. I use a wool that knits up like a fair isle pattern and they normally are really nice.

Otherwise, it is the usual stuff this week, and I really like the usual stuff, staying home, especially when it is cold.

I look forward to hearing from you all again this week and I pray that your days are blessed.

Love to you all my friends. xxxx

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.”

An InLinkz Link-up

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.

GOOD MORNING MONDAYS LINK PARTY

GOOD MORNING MONDAYS #40

July 19, 2015 darling downs 42 Comments

Welcome to another Good Morning Mondays Link Up. How has your week been??

Thanks to everyone of you who faithfully stop by here each week and link up, and also welcome to any newbies that stop by. I am so enjoying reading the posts and getting to know you all.

I have had a good week although it has been cold and wet. My routine sort of went out the window earlier in the week due to my husband being home for a couple of days. Time spent with dad is far more important than any lessons we can have.

Tuesday dad decided to take us to Warrnambool to Flagstaff Hill which is a maritime museum and it is set up like a maritime village.

Below is a picture of the village from the front door.

No 2 daughter looking through binoculars at the village

When we got there my husband started talking to the lady at the counter about the Historical Society and some family history stuff, so we didn’t actually go into the village but headed around to the Historical Society to find our more information about his family.

It was probably a good idea not going in as it was freezing and wet and we will most likely go again when the weather is more favourable.

After the History Society we headed out to the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory for lunch and a walk around their museum. We enjoyed looking at the old artefacts and I especially like the dairy and sewing ones.

An old industrial sewing machine and a cobblers machine

This is a Eureka butter printer and weigher.

We had a great day and arrived home tired but happy.

I am excited too because we have gotten our milk separator all cleaned up and are hopefully going to be able to separate our milk next week so that I can make butter.

I will only do this once a week as the milk isn’t any good for cheese after the cream has been removed, so the puppies or piglets or chickens will get this milk.

The rest of the week I will make cheddar cheese and some feta. I have made some cheddar this past week and it is tucked away nicely in the cupboard, maturing away. I made a big batch of feta as well and that is great in salads, on pizzas or mince dishes.

Our oldest son spent the week away working with some friends, so the house was rather quiet without him and his puppies were very annoying. They destroyed one of my pot plants (I only have two) and have now been banned from the back veranda.

Saturday morning we had music lessons and now have only two weeks to go until exams. We have to keep on with the practice for the next two weeks, and I am sure that their hard work will pay off.

I had a friend pop out from town on Saturday afternoon which was lovely. I haven’t seen this friend for months so we had a lovely chat and catch up. She is also keen on being self sufficient and farming stuff and I call her the chook whisperer. She is amazing how she can get eggs to hatch in the incubator, far better than I can. I am that bad that my husband has now taken over the incubating, so hopefully we will get more chickens now.

Today, Sunday was a busy day but lovely. We had bible study and church this morning and then we went to friends for an afternoon bible study. We used to get together a few years ago, but life got busy with babies and children and plain old life, so it was nice to be able to sit around the word of God together.

Okay, onto our linkup….

This week we had our top 5 posts

Adopt a Simple Amish Life by Tracy at Our Simple Homestead Freedom Friday – On Forgiving Yourself by Patti at Old Things New

5 new ways to think about money by Stephanie at Stephanie Orefice Duty and Rest in the Home by Mrs White at The Legacy of Home How Two Years of Blogging has Changed My Life by Sarah at Redemption Diary

Thank you to everyone who linked up, I really appreciate all of you. I didn’t quite get every post read but what I did get to I really enjoyed.

This week coming we have our Revelation Bible Study on Tuesday night and we are looking forward to that because we haven’t gotten together for quite a few weeks now.

We have a funeral on Thursday afternoon and music lessons on Saturday morning. The rest of the week will be spent at home doing school, music practice and I might even do some gardening depending on the weather, and I have some knitting projects that I want to start and finish.

I look forward to hearing from you all again this week and I pray that your days are blessed.

Love to you all my friends. xxxx

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.”

An InLinkz Link-up

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.

Kitchen Diary

ITALIAN PINWHEELS

July 19, 2015 darling downs 24 Comments

With all the meat in the freezer I was looking for something different to make for dinner. This is something we have made before and it is always a winner.

I used the flavoured pork mince that I had left over from making sausages (we ran out of skins) and puff pastry.

These are so easy. Just defrost the pastry sheets, spread the mince over the top, leaving a gap at the top and bottom of the pastry.

Just remember that I used mince that already had flavour added so you can add any thing you like. My daughter made them and added grated carrot, so garlic, curry, herbs anything that your family likes.

Also you can use any type of mince too like, beef, chicken, turkey, once again whatever your family enjoys.

I even put some BBQ sauce over the mince on some.

Roll them up and then slice with a sharp knife into 1 inch pieces.

Place on a paper lined baking tray and bake for about 30 mins or until golden and brown.

We had ours with vegetables but any side dish would be fine. They are even nice cold the next day for lunch.

The only problem I had with these was that I didn’t make enough.

Enjoy!!!

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.

Diaries of the Heart

HE WILL LISTEN TO YOU…

July 19, 2015 darling downs 32 Comments

This song has been going around in my head all this past week. Maybe it reflects my thoughts on where we need to turn to with what has been happening in the world and in our communities.

A member of our congregation passed away this week, he was a 46 year old father of 4. He had a non cancerous brain tumor that turned him from a vital healthy man into one that could barely talk and walk. They tried every treatment they could but his healing on this earth wasn’t meant to be, his healing will come in Heaven.

His illness has really touched our family, we are thankful that God has taken him from his pain and suffering but we think of his wife and children and I ask you to pray for them if you can.

The things happening around the world and locally should make us focus on God and the fact that He is there for us, we need not fear or worry or doubt,

“He Will Listen To You”

When the weight of this world crashes down on you
God will listen to you
When the sky turns black and your thoughts turn blue
He will listen to you

He will listen to you
Always listen to you
He understands how His children feel
He will listen to you

When the river of tears cannot be contained
He will listen to you
Like a drowning man in the pouring rain
God will listen to you

He will listen to you
Always listen to you
He understands how His children feel
He will listen to you

When the light explodes in a world gone wrong
He will listen to you
When your heart beats strong with a grateful song
God will listen to you

He will listen to you
Always listen to you
He understands how His children feel
He will listen to you

(Nickel Creek Lyrics)

Let us cry out to God for our nation, our family and people in need.

Don’t hold back because He will listen to you.

Blessings dear friends.

Psalm 34:15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry.

Psalm 18:6 In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.

Psalm 34:17 The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs

Diaries of the Heart

STAY FOCUSED

July 19, 2015 darling downs 38 Comments

With the world going crazy around us we must remember to

STAY FOCUSED

When you feel like you are standing on a square of ice in the middle of the ocean, where there is nothing to hang onto

STAY FOCUSED

When Governments turn away from God and His word, we must remember to

STAY FOCUSED

When even our own churches won’t stand on the word of God we must remember to

STAY FOCUSED

When our family don’t support our decisions regarding God’s plans for our lives we must remember to

STAY FOCUSED

When even our friends turn their backs on us, we must remember to

STAY FOCUSED

But what do we focus on, we need to keep our focus on God, on His word, on His plans for us.

Man will let us down and fall away from God, but God and His word will never fall away, we must stand on it, hold onto it’s truths and never let go.

Isaiah 40:8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Colossians 3:2 – Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

You will find me linked up at some of these great blogs.

Diaries of the Heart

FINDING MY JOY

July 12, 2015 darling downs 42 Comments

Sometimes, I don’t know why, but I loose my joy. I don’t know where it goes, maybe it goes where all those socks go when you wash them, and I have been looking for them for years.

Sometimes this joy of mine, leaves quick and takes a long time to find again.

But then is joy something I need to find or is it something that I have all the time and I just don’t know how to apply it.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

There it is the fruits of the spirit and there it is – JOY. Joy is a fruit of the spirit. A fruit of the Holy Spirit. So if I have the Holy Spirit living in me then Joy should be there as well.

Joy has already been given to me along with all the other fruits. So the problem isn’t that I loose it, it really can’t leave me because it comes with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit never leaves me.

So I guess the problem is me, plain ole me and my issue with the applying of this joy given to me by the Holy Spirit.

I haven’t lost my joy, I haven’t got to find it, there is no where to search.

It dwells within me and I just need to turn on the joy button and let it shine.

How do I turn on that joy button you may ask??? For me, I need to spend more time in God’s word.

I have been slack lately and I need to start getting up early again and reading my bible before the children rise. I am still reading my bible but I am playing catch up all the time. For me I need routine and that is my plan.

It may be different for you, but just remember we never lose the fruits of the spirit, they dwell within.

Diaries of the Heart

WHEN YOUR CHILDREN ARE GROWN

July 12, 2015 darling downs 37 Comments

If you have been around this blog you will know that we have two older children and two younger children.

It has been a wonderful blessing to have the little two who are now 10 and 7 years old. We also have a married daughter who is 25 and a son who is 20.

It is wonderful to see how these children have grown from infants to adults. Our relationships have changed as well.

With our older daughter and her husband we are good friends and have a great time together. We discuss all types of things and we just love getting together with them and laughing and having fun.

Our oldest son now 20, is a wonderful young man. He is caring and loving and very giving. He can be infuriating at times, but he can also be a lot of fun. Our relationship has changed as well and we are all good friends but we are still his parents and his guidance counsellors while he stills lives at home.

Now our son is and moving forward to leading his own life, he has plans to marry and start a family of his own one day and I feel it is only just around the corner (he doesn’t have anyone to marry yet, just plans and ideas).

What will it be like when he goes. If I think too much on that one I must admit tears come.

Now please don’t get me wrong, we would never hold any of our children back.

When our daughter got married we struggled, not with her marriage but after she left, we missed her.

My husband was told by an acquaintance that if it was so hard for us when our children left then we had put too much effort, too much heart into the relationship, or we had too much skin in it.

In thinking about that it makes me wonder how you couldn’t have that type of relationship with your children. To love them and care for them for 20 odd years, to develop your relationship without them becoming entangled into our emotions, how would you do that?

How can you raise your children, have a family with out them weaving themselves into your hearts. It is the tapestry of family life, where you all live together, work together, learn together.

I would rather be devastated when our children leave home than to not have a relationship with them at all. To not feel the love.

Understand this as well, my husband feels the loss just as much as me, we both struggle with this.

So as we watch our oldest son grow and prepare to step out on his own one day we prepare our hearts, somehow, to handle not having him at home all the time.

We pray for his future wife (whoever that may be) and we pray that God will guide him along life’s journey.

We do know one thing though and it is because of the relationship we have with him, the ties that bind us together as family, that he will always be our son and we will always be there for him, no matter what, and that goes for all our children.

Psalm 127:3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

Darling Downs Diaries

Monthly Archives: July 2015

A LIFE WELL LIVED…

SMOKED SAUSAGE FOCACCIA

HUMBLE IS BEST

GOOD MORNING MONDAYS #41

GOOD MORNING MONDAYS #40

ITALIAN PINWHEELS

HE WILL LISTEN TO YOU…

STAY FOCUSED

FINDING MY JOY

WHEN YOUR CHILDREN ARE GROWN

what's happening on Darling Downs