Hey there everyone, welcome back to another Good Morning Mondays.

Phew what a week we have had, a very tiring but very enriching week.

We left on Sunday for Melbourne and we managed to catch up with my brother and his son at the Queen Victoria Market for lunch.  We haven’t seen my brother for over 12 months so it was wonderful to see them. From there we headed out to our homeschooling conference where we stayed until Wednesday evening.

We had a great time and it is always wonderful to spend time with like minded Christian homeschoolers. We were challenged by the teaching, we caught up with old friends and made some lovely new ones as well.

We were challenged to think about why we homeschool and what should be our aim. Our one aim of homeschooling is to teach our children about God. What a simple statement. We get so caught up in everything else when the one and only thing we need to teach them about is God. If we fail in this, we have failed our children.

One thing that really impacted me as well as the above statement was that our children aren’t really ours. They were given to us by God and they are His. This has given me a whole new perspective on how I deal with our children, very challenging.

We didn’t get much sleep during our time away but the tiredness was well worth it for all the talking and laughing we did. But this has meant we haven’t really achieved a heap since we got home and we have just spent time catching up with washing etc.

We did heaps of walking from conference rooms to dining rooms to bedrooms during our time away and I really felt my leg got stronger while we were there.

Our son-in-law and daughter did a great job of looking after our farm for us. Everything looked great when we got home. Our vegetable garden is going amazingly and my husband and I really enjoy going out after tea each night and just looking at it.

Our zucchinis are producing well and no 2 daughter went out today and picked six of them which was great and she has made her first zucchini quiche. She is really coming along well in the kitchen.

The quiche was for a luncheon at church today and I’m sure it was enjoyed by all who tasted it.

Okay onto our link up…

Our top three posts this week were…
10 Things You Should Never Throw Away by Tracy at Our Simple HomesteadStories from the news: Growing number of de facto relationships by Jo at Stop…have a chatLink Up Party by Chris at So Much at Home

Thanks again to you all for taking the time to stop by and link up. I am so grateful to you all and appreciate your lovely, encouraging comments each week.

This week coming we are starting school and we have a new Bible program that I am very excited about starting.

Our bible study starts this week on Tuesday night. This year we are studying 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus. We are looking forward to this and are keen to get back into it.

My husband has a lot of work at the moment which is such a blessing and he feels God’s hand on us with this provision.

What has God been showing you this week??? I am eager to hear how He is working in your lives.

Another thing that really meant a lot to us this past week was that everything is God’s, everyday, every minute, every gifting. This is so important to remember as we face each new day.

Have a wonderful week and may you feel His hand on 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

Hi everyone, welcome back to our Good Morning Mondays Link Up. What a blessing you all are to me and I so appreciate it that you stop by each week and link up or just leave me such encouraging comments, these comments bless me so much.

It has been warm here again this week and it amazes me how much the vegetables are growing each day.  It was warm enough here to head to the beach after my husband got home from work this past week. We headed down to Pt Fairy and the children went for a swim.

The picture below shows my husband paddling while he watches the children.I was going to walk down but I only took one crutch so I watched them from the car. It was lovely and cool and after they had a swim we had fish and chips for tea. It’s great to only live 45 mins to the beach, it is quick and easy to go after work when it is still warm.

My birthday is next month and my wonderful family have bought me an Excalibur Dehydrator. I am so excited, they are amazing and I have had one on my list for a few years now.

I started with some zucchinis and some peas and it works great. I grated the zucchini first and it didn’t take long at all. The trouble is it goes down to nothing but I re-hydrated some and it actually works. I think this will be great in soups and stews and even the odd zucchini chocolate cake.

Apart from this our week has been relatively quiet.  Our No 1 son has been away shearing so it has just been the four of us at home. We sold some sheep on Wednesday night and my husband has been busy working.

Our Son-in-law, daughter and grandchildren came down on Saturday night as they are farm sitting for us next week as we have a homeschooling conference in Melbourne. It was nice to spend some time with them before we left.

Okay onto our link up…

Our top three posts were… How to Homestead Where You Already Live by Mindie at The (mis) Adventures of a Born Again Farm Girl

Is This Soup Worth $150? by Mountain Top SpiceStories from the News: Rent a Mum! from Stop…have a chat

Thank you everyone for stopping by and linking up, what a wonderful mixture of posts we have and there is definitely something for everyone.

As I said, we have a homeschooling conference this week and we are all looking forward to it. We have met some great people and it is always good to see them again. Some of these families come from interstate so we only see them occasionally.

We get home on Wednesday night and I need to spend the rest of the week getting ready to start school and do some more music practice. I want to get into school the following week and I am starting to get excited about some new stuff we are going to be doing.

Something we have been discussing as a family is how we handle tough situations and do we learn through them or do they destroy us. This has definitely given us lots to think on and we want our children to look to God as their strength and rely on Him and realise that He is in control and that He is taking care of them.

Once again I come to one of my favourite scriptures and that is:

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.

What an amazing scripture and so comforting to know that when we place Him in the centre of our lives He will direct and guide us.

What have you all been up to?? I am looking forward to hearing from you all.

Hope you all have a great week.

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

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

Hi all, another week gone and another Good Morning Mondays. Welcome back and I hope your past week has been good.

Where is the time going??? January is almost over and our warm weather here is continuing. Our vegetable garden is going well and we have nearly finished picking our peas. Below is a picture of the gang getting into it, we start at about 7 am so it is over before it gets too hot.

I have already podded, blanched and frozen the picked ones and we ended up with 14 litres of peas in the freezer. Really that’s 3 1/2 – 4 litre ice cream containers.

We have also starting picking zucchinis and we planted three different types this year. These are my husbands favourite, cooked on the BBQ.

The aquaponics is going well and we have just got some new fish, 100 Silver Perch fingerlings. The whole system seems to be going well although we had to get rid of our cabbages due to caterpillars eating them.  The whole thing with the system is that you can’t pull everything out at once, you need to plant and harvest gradually.

Our tomatoes in there are just booming and they even have fruit on them.It has been hot and cold this week, we reached 42 degrees on Wednesday and then only had 20 on Thursday, which was a wonderful change.

On the hot day we had a trip to the specialist in Geelong about my leg. More x-rays which proved that my bones are healing nicely and I don’t have to see the surgeon again. It’s just me and the physio, working to get my leg stronger each day. God is so good and I am looking forward to using only one elbow crutch and then hopefully shortly, none.

We celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary on Thursday and we feel so blessed to be more in love now than ever before. We went out for tea on Friday night and we went to a country pub about 30 mins drive away. It was just lovely and they were very welcoming and the meal was delicious.

The rest of the week was just normal stuff, and my husband has been working hard on a couple of jobs that he needs to get finished for his clients.

Sunday lunch we had a family from church over and had a nice time getting to know them. We had a BBQ and our no 2 daughter is getting a real expert at making potato salad and what we call a garden salad. She is really so helpful and is doing a wonderful job around the house.

We find the best way to get to know people is to have them over for a meal. It really opens the door to good conversation and fellowship.

Okay that was my week, so onto our link up…

Our top three this week were…

2016: In With Hope Out With Despair by Aimee at A Work Of GraceHomestead Hack – Cheaper Bird Seed by Tammy at Taylor Made HomesteadA Thrifty Week at Harvest Lane Cottage #49 by Laura at Harvest Lane Cottage

Thank you everyone for taking the time to stop by and for your link ups.  I appreciate everyone of you very much.

I started this link up with very few rules, maybe that’s because I don’t like being told what to do (will have to analyse that one at a later date), and I know that everyone is very busy with their lives but if you can please stop over at some of the link ups and leave an encouraging comment for a fellow blogger, that would be lovely. I know comments just make my day and I am sure they make yours too.

This isn’t a rule, just if you have time.

This week is looking at being a nice, quiet home one. I don’t have to go out at all this week and I am hoping to get some skirts made for our No 2 daughter.  Our No 1 son went through his clothes and was throwing out some nice shirts so I thought that I would rework them into skirts. Not sure yet how, maybe some patch work, they are mainly blue checks and stripes.

Of course this week we have music practice and I have decided not to start school for another couple of weeks.  We have a homeschooling conference next week and we are away for 4 nights so I will leave it until after then.

Our son-in-law and daughter and family are coming down next weekend and they are going to house sit for us while we are at the conference. It is so comforting to know that they are to be here keeping an eye on things and of course it will be great to see them all.

Well that’s it for me and I hope that you are all well and feeling God’s blessings surrounding you.

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

An InLinkz Link-up

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

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