A Joyful Keeper

Today we went to meet dh’s parents in a town about a two hour drive from where we live. They had some things we needed to pick up, so we arranged a time and met them for lunch. It was a lovely drive, one that we have made a few times since we got back for various reasons. The first time we drove the route, we had just had some rain and the farmers were sowing their crops. That was about three months ago. This time, we could see what they sowed!

At first all we saw was green fields and then this bright yellow in the distance, almost like an artist took his brush and just swept across the background with yellow paint….

Up a bit closer we could see that the yellow was really millions of flowers:

It is canola, which is grown for its seeds to make oil and margarine. Now I understood why it is described as “golden”. During our two hour drive we passed field after field, full of these yellow flowers. Here is the canola plant up even closer:

And I just love this photo. It looks like the sheep are on an island surrounded by a sea of yellow!

I wished I could pick some to put in the kids’ nature journals, but I didn’t think it was the right thing to do. After taking all the photos on the way home, I saw some yellow flowers on the side of the road and said to my dh, “Is that canola too?!” We stopped and sure enough, it was. The seeds must have blown across the fence and onto the roadside. I was so pleased. I felt like I could pick these without touching the farmer’s crop. As I pulled the stems of the flowers, the whole plant came out because they were in such shallow ground. I put them in a bag and took them home.

Tomorrow the children and I will plant some of them in pots and see what they do. We’ll also press some flowers and leaves to put in their nature journals. I’ll also get the kids to sketch them and write a bit about canola.

I am just amazed at God’s creation. He is the Artist that painted the pictures above.

Hosted by Biblical Womanhood

As I was making my own homemaking notebook, I came across some great sites that I’d like to share with you. There are lots of clever ladies out there who are sharing their ideas and some of their notebooking pages.

Tiany has a great series of posts on her own household notebook. Just look on the left sidebar under “My Daily Binder Helps”. She also sells a complete “Orderly Moms Notebook” which judging from all her posts, is absolutely fantastic! But, if you don’t have the money to buy it, she still gives you lots of hints, tips, and resources to make your own. What a blessing that is! Thanks Tiany!

Then there is THIS binder from CafeMom. There are LOTS of photos and examples of what is it her binder. If you wander around her site, you will also see her holiday binder and her son’s chores binder. Heaps of interesting reading here!

Now for sites that offer free pages for your household notebooks. Check these out:

Holiday Grand Plan

Organized Christmas

Donna Young

Chart Jungle

All Free Printables

There are just a few. Some of the sites have ads that I don’t necessarily agree with, but I ignore them.

With regards to homeschooling, I found some neat nature journal pages here:

Teaching Mom

And I also love the quality of the pages made by Notebooking Nook.

Last but not least, check out some of the things I have made for my family. They are FREE, so help yourselves!

A Joyful Keeper Freebies

Thanks for dropping by today and I hope that you have found something useful here! If you do use any of the printables from the above links, be sure to drop the authors a thank you - I know they will be encouraged!

What is it that draws me to simple living so much? I’ve been pondering this question for a while now. I know God has been speaking to me about it, and I am taking small steps towards it. But why? Why are so many more people, not just me, wanting to go back to a simple life?

Our life has become so complicated. With freedom and technology has come a huge complicated lifestyle. I enjoy reading other blogs where people have chosen a more simple lifestyle. They have gone against what the modern world is saying, and have almost stepped back in time.

This past week I have been looking around me at the large house we are renting. It is just FULL to the brim of stuff. I look around me and wonder what I am going to do with it all. I know that I have to be ruthless. I do not want our new house to be full and cluttered. I want it to be simple. I want to be able to have it tidy and clean in a short time - not spend hours every week shifting things around. It is only a small three bedroom, one bathroom house, and I don’t want it stuffed full of STUFF!

Over the years my dh traveled a lot, and sometimes we were blessed to be able to go with him on short trips. During these trips, we would stay at furnished apartments. I was always amazed at how quickly I got the “housework” done at these places because there was no clutter and extra things lying around. The kitchen had the basics, and they were enough. Then I would come back to our own home and think - Oh my! Do I need 4 frying pans? Do I need 10 pairs of scissors? (er, yes, they were always going missing, so I’d just buy another one….!) How many wooden spoons do I really need?

Think about all our time saving appliances, like the dishwasher. After I got a dishwasher I found that I didn’t have enough dishes, because after all, we should only run the dishwasher when it is full. Instead of washing the lunch dishes and using them again for dinner, they would sit in the dishwasher… waiting…. The same with mugs. We don’t very often use more than 6 mugs at one time - but I need more than that, because as soon as they are used once, they go in the dishwasher and sit there until it is full. The dishwasher saves us time…. but I find most of the ones I have had, I had to practically wash the dishes before I put them in, or else they wouldn’t get clean.

This post isn’t very coherent, I’m afraid. I am just writing down my thoughts as they are madly going around and around in my head! The thing is, I long for a simple life. A life that is uncluttered by things - be they tangible or intangible. When I have so many things that I feel pressured to do, I can’t spend that time with my children during the day as I would like to. I find myself telling them more and more often that I will come in a minute to play with them, or that I’ll listen to what they are trying to tell me in a minute. I want to change. I need to change.

See this front porch? We’re trying to buy it. And the house that goes with it. And the 14 acres that go with that!

Yes, we’ve found our little farm, after a lot of searching. I haven’t been blogging about our search, but I have been praying about it. We looked at a few other houses, never thinking we could afford acreage. But our family’s hearts’ desire was to have a little homestead. (I know I’ve mentioned this before in some of my posts, like THIS one.) I thought we’d have to wait a few more years till we found something. Most things we looked at were just way out of our price range. Until we found this place.

We never wrote a list of what we “wanted”. But it was there in our heads, and we had discussed it with others. This farm has it all! Without asking Him for the specifics, God has given it to us! Here is what our list would have been, if we had made it:

An old house on acreage

A veggie garden

Fruit trees

Chook yard

Lots of sheds

This place is all and more than what we dreamed of! It will be a little tight in the house, but with 14 acres around it we should be able to manage!

Here is the view from the kitchen window. There is no dishwasher, so I’ll be enjoying this view a lot!

We put in an offer and it was accepted, so we are now at the money stage - sorting out the bank, etc. If all goes well, we should be able to move in the middle of November. I can have chooks…. and sheep…. and cows….. and cats… and dogs….. ah, thank You Lord! Alhamdulillah!

….. is done!!!

Hmmmmm,… having a look at it now, I wonder if the pocket should have been lower or not there at all. I’ll have to see how it looks on her. I get so moody about my creations sometimes…! I am going to go and sit in my comfy chair, put my legs up and knit! I’ll worry about pockets in aprons tomorrow!

I came across this blog entry by MrsCatherine. As I have mentioned before (and you can see more about my opinion on aprons on my homemaking page), I love to meet other people who love aprons as much as I do! Check it out - it is really good!
When we arrived back in Australia, my dear friend Robyn had a pressie for me from when she went to Europe to visit her middle son. She found this piece of fabric in France, and thought of me! Isn’t that sweet? She knows I like blue!

She bought it for me with an apron in mind. Before our shipment of “stuff” arrived from the Middle East, I used it as a table runner. It looked lovely! Then I finally bit the bullet and cut out an apron:

I’m afraid to say, that’s as far as it got until today, when I finished it! I get a bit distracted with things always, sometimes, often……

Here it is all done:

It’s just a simple pattern. I’m not one for frills, but I do like pretty fabric. This is pretty, but functional. Now I need to make one for Elizabeth….!

Do you ever get to the end of the day and wonder where it went? Wonder what you did? Wonder if you really achieved anything?! That’s today for me…..! I went to the doctor’s this morning for a routine checkup, you know, the things we women have to do every now and then. She wants me to go off for some blood tests later this week to check my blood sugar, thyroid, etc, so that will take up another morning. The kids brought books and read them patiently in the waiting room while I was seeing the doctor, so I was really pleased with them. We went home and I had lunch, a snooze, a couple of cuppa’s with Robyn, sewed a few stockings together and then helped Elizabeth fix dinner. That was my day! It went way too quickly! Hopefully tomorrow will not whiz by as fast

We won’t be starting a full schedule of school this week. The past two weeks were so hectic with family that I haven’t had time to plan for the new term. The kids did a lot of educational stuff in during their “holidays”, so I think an extra week off will be ok. We don’t take the full amount of time over summer holidays anyway.

So, my plan for the week is to prepare for term 4…. and try to get a little bit of sewing in for my sanity!

My Menu Plan for the week is:

Monday

Chicken soup & salad sandwhiches

Tuesday

Tuna Casserole, rice & salad

Wednesday

Corned Silverside, potatoes & veggies

Thursday

Pasta Casserole with leftover Silverside

Friday

Quick and Easy - eggs, pizza, or something like that!

I’ve started putting up some of my forms as pdf’s on this site! I have been wanting to do this for so long now. Go and check it out over HERE - they are all FREE!!!! You can also use the Freebies link on the side bar.

Feel free to pass the link on to others. I want to bless as many people as I can with these forms. There aren’t many up yet, but I am hoping to keep adding to them bit by bit. So, spread the word and drop back in now and then.

On another note, my blog is fixed. Frugal Friday has gone back to where it should be. I don’t know what went wrong, but I fiddled with the post that came after it, and it went back to normal…. who knows… just glad it is back to normal!

Well, it’s dinner time, and look what’s just come out of the oven:

Yummy Cheese and Herb Pull Apart!!! If anyone is interested, I’ll post a recipe and tutorial sometime…..

As I mentioned weeeeeeeeeeeeeks ago, I am working on my household book! No, I don’t think I am being too much of a perfectionist, I’ve just been busy with too many other things and it is taking longer than I wanted!!!! Still, it is slowly taking form and I’ve been quite pleased with my progress, other than a few niggling thoughts in the background.

I couldn’t really put a name to these niggling thoughts, until I read these few posts from Morning Ramble:

Running a Household

and

Nana didn’t have a list

For so many years I have spent a lot of time making lists and doing up spreadsheets on the computer. In between, I bumbled along, sometimes doing well and just doing things as they needed doing, or at other times drowning in the amount of things to be done around me. There were times when everything just seemed to flow, and other times when every week seemed like a battle. This is life!

As I was reading Patty’s blog entries I thought to myself - “Yes, this is where I want to be in my own life!” It is a far cry from where I am now, but it is what I want to work towards. When I look at the differences in my life and Patty’s, one thing that strikes me is the simplicity in which she lives. She writes, “Our life was and still is simple.” Even when she had children around her feet, she just did the next thing that needed doing. A simple solution to a complex situation.

Of course in practice it doesn’t seem so simple to me! That is because as I look around me I still have sooooo much STUFF! I have been trying to follow Flylady’s program on and off for many years. I have decluttered. I have decluttered some more. I have decluttered even more…. and still I have too much STUFF!!!! I spend hours every year moving it around. I spend hours every week organizing it. I spend hours getting rid of it!! LOL!

We’re renting a big house, because we have so much stuff. It is costing us money. It requires maintenance… the house and the stuff. In one house we were renting last year we had 4 bathrooms! Ugh! The cleaning!!!! I don’t want to spend my whole day cleaning….!

My life can also be cluttered with other things that take up time - the internet, friends, shopping, activities, etc. At the moment we aren’t involved in any outside activities as we have just been taking time to get used to being back in Australia again, but come next term… we will be starting with some things like swimming and kids clubs.

Back to my household book. I have read many books that tell us that as corporate women who run an organization need planners, etc, so we homemakers do because we are running our own little organization. While I agree with the essence of this statement, I feel that we can become obsessed with it. At times when I had my Flylady routines going well around the house, I didn’t get as much time in with homeschooling. When I had a great week with homeschooling, my routines went out the window. Something just wasn’t working. Flylady works for some, but not for all. I think every homemaking system has its merits, but there isn’t one that just fits me, unless I make it myself. I think we all have to do this for ourselves. Take what works and use it.

So, back to my household book and whether I need it or not. I think for this season in my life I do. I would hope that one day I will be able to be more like Patty and just do things as I see them come up. I already do this with some things, to a certain extent. My routines are in my head, just natural. Other things I need to write down so that I don’t forget them.

Over the next few days I will share my household book with you. I will have some pages for you to download and use if you have your own household book. I will also continue to declutter my house and simplify my life…..!

Hosted by Biblical Womanhood

I was so pleased the other day! I visited one of my favorite Opshop’s (Thrift Shops). It was in the town where we used to live and where an opshop still sells things cheaply.

I got:

• 5 circular knitting needles
• 5 pairs of regular knitting needles
• 4 baggies of lace
• 1 pair of jeans
• 1 knitted sweater

And all of this for just $5! Now that is a bargain!