A Joyful Keeper

 

What is it about a Spring Day that makes you want to just get up and go, go, go? Even if it is Autumn?

I remember years ago, my mum and I went shopping one day in April. It was the most beautiful day. The sun was shining, and the air was crisp. There was joy in our hearts as we wandered up and down the main street of the town we were in. We walked into a small shop and greeted the lady, and said,

“Isn’t it just a beautiful Spring day?!”

At the time, we both wondered why the lady looked at us so strangely, and hesitatingly agreed with us. We browsed through the shop, and then headed out into the sunshine again. A little while later, it struck me, and I turned to my mother and said,

“Mum! It’s not Spring, it’s Autumn!!!!”

We had forgotten we were in the Southern Hemisphere…. And indeed, April in Australia is Autumn. How we laughed as we remembered the lady’s strange look! She really must have thought we were slightly nuts!

I still look out at this time of the year, on a day like today, and think it is Spring. It doesn’t really matter, because I will enjoy the day regardless of what season it is. And I will chuckle as I think of that day my mother and I went shopping….

It is the perfect day to strip all the beds of their sheets and get them on the line. It was a day like today, a few months ago, that I washed all my quilts, as you can see in the above photo.

I haven’t really got back into the swing of blogging yet! So here is a bit of a catch up post.

I had a lovely day for Mother’s day - with breakfast and presents in bed, and then lunch with Robyn’s family. This is one of the presents I got:

I know I will be using it a lot. I also got a few other bits and pieces, including some yummy chocolate!

This weekend we went to my parents’ place to see my sister and her family one more time before they headed home to outback Australia. My Dad had built my nieces and nephew a cute cubby house from bits of wood and cardboard boxes:

Isn’t it too cute?! Even our older kids loved it. They played in it for hours while us big people had cuppas and chatted. Saying goodbye was sad as we probably won’t see each other for another few years, but we were glad we got to have this extra afternoon together.

Dad sent us home with some more pumpkins, so I really need to get my big pot out and make a big batch of soup!

I did a lot of school planning last week. I mostly worked on Science and History schedules. Daniel is doing Apologia’s General Science and there is a lot to get through. I split up the chapters into days and made a simple checklist for him. It is a pretty full schedule, but so far it is ok. Here is this week’s if you’d like to see it:

Apologia General Science Module 3 Checklist

I found a complete schedule for this textbook (and others in the Apologia series) at Donna Young’s website. She has done a fantastic job in putting these schedules together and other resources too. They are free and great to use if you don’t want to make your own.

I also did a schedule for Daniel and Elizabeth for History. We are on Chapter 14 of The Story of the World, Middle Ages. I typed up the review questions from the student workbook with lines underneath them for answers for Daniel. For Elizabeth I typed up some copywork for her to copy onto notebooking pages. I would post these as well, but I am not sure about copyright laws, so I’d better not.

And that about sums up what’s been happening around here….. I’m slowly getting around to everyone’s blogs again and popping in to say hi! It’s nice to be back in blogland.

I can’t believe it is Wednesday already. This week is just flying by. But I must say, things are starting to fall back into place and into a routine in our home.

Yesterday I spent quite some time in our bedroom, which has been a disaster zone since we moved in. It has been the place where everything gets dumped when the rest of the house needs to look good! I know I shouldn’t do that, but I don’t have a place for everything yet, so that is what happens. After working on it for a few hours, it is looking much, much better. I can now open the door properly (lol!), and walk beside my bed without tripping over stuff. I still have a bit more to do, but I have made a good start.

Over the next few days I want to do some more preserving. I got some Quinces given to me and I want to make jelly. I’ve also got the last of the apples that are starting to go bad in a few spots and are therefore not suitable for eating. I am thinking about either stewing them, or trying to make apple jelly from them. I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew, but I also don’t want them to go to waste.

To me, part of simple living is making the most of what you have. I am trying to live out of the pantry as much as possible this month, using my bulk staples, produce from the garden and whatever I have in my freezer. But simple living is not always easy. Most times it is just downright hard work! Baking and cooking from scratch takes a lot of time. Sometimes I get discouraged and am tempted to take the easy way out and buy the ready made stuff from the shops. These are the days I need to just take things a bit easier. But when I do make the effort, it pays off in so many ways. I revel in the fact that I haven’t been to the supermarket for a week or so. I enjoy watching the pantry empty out a bit! I love to see freshly baked cookies on the bench, and casseroles coming out of the oven. It’s hard work, but rewarding.

And on that note, I’d better keep going. I need to make my jellies, cut down my asparagus, get my washing out, check on my chookies… you get the picture! Time flies when you are having fun!

Early in the morning,

Up as soon as light,

Overseeing breakfast,

Putting all things right;

Dressing little children,

Hearing lessons said,

Washing baby faces,

Toasting father’s bread.

 

After breakfast, reading,

Holding one at prayers;

Putting up the dinners,

Mending little tears:

Good-bye, kissing children,

Sending off to school;

With a prayer and blessing,

Mother’s heart is full.

 

Washing up the dishes,

Sweeping carpets clean,

Doing up the chamber-work,

Sewing on machine.

Baby lies a-crying,

Rubbing little eyes;

Mother leaves her sewing

To sing lullabies.

 

Cutting little garments,

Trimming children’s hats,

Plying thread and needle

With neighbours as she chats.

Hearing little footsteps

Running through the hall,

Telling school is over,

As mother’s name they call.

 

Talking with her children

All about the school,

As they sit beside her,

Each on their little stool;

Telling them the story

Of Jesus and His love,

Of Daniel and the lions,

Of Noah and the dove.

 

With calm and earnest tones,

She speaks of God and heaven,

And tells how Jesus died

That sin might be forgiven.

Seeing about supper,

Lighting up the room,

Making house look cheerful,

Expecting father home.

 

Her worries and her trials

She hides within her breast,

With others shares the sunshine,

To Jesus tells the rest.

As the children go to bed

She hears each little prayer,

Entrusts them to her Saviour,

And, kissing, leaves them there.

 

Resting in the kitchen,

Her daily labour done,

Her Bible placed before her,

She and her God alone;

She takes each care and sorrow,

And bends beneath the throne,

With that trusting, hopeful heart

Which Jesus loves to own.

 

~ From the Children’s Friend 1880

 

Yesterday I was driving down our driveway, on my way to go shopping, when Chewie ran under the car….and I ran over him. There was no warning, nothing I could do. He just miscalculated and ended up under my back wheel. Thankfully it was over quickly and my dh was there as well. He dug a hole and we buried him in the garden.

My emotions in the morning were anger (as dh said, if Chewie hadn’t have died, he would have yelled at him for running under the car..!), and then resignation. Daniel and Elizabeth were in tears and very upset. Matt was upset, but he isn’t as attached to the animals as the others are. In the afternoon it really hit me and I cried for the rest of the day.

It’s a strange thing, really. I love all animals, but dogs are special. They love you unconditionally. They have a look in their eyes when they look at you - of love and adoration. And Chewie was so sweet, even though he was often naughty too. Having a pet die is sad. But I can’t even imagine what it would be like to lose a child or a loved one. Yesterday afternoon I just wanted to hold my children tight and tell them I loved them.

While the tears flowed freely yesterday, joy comes in the morning and today we are still sad, but not crying. I will miss his little cuddles, his long tongue that tried to lick me all the time, and his puppy dog eyes. The memories will remain….

Just a puppy…

His usual pose, with his tongue hanging out:

About to chase the stick….

Goodbye little guy….

I have been clearly told that everyone is sick of reading the first line on my last post, and that “we’re all waiting for you to come back”! This was a response to the puzzled comment from me that I was still getting hits to my blog…. after all, if I am not there, why would anyone else be?!

Well, as it is, I am quite ready to come back. My sister and her husband and four children are still with us here for a few more days. We have had just a wonderful time together! We hadn’t seen them for two years and hadn’t seen little Kira at all before! Yesterday I looked after her two little ones while half the gang went out shopping.

I made the cover for the cot mattress just a few days ago. It was about time… we’ve had the portacot for over ten years. I have kept it so that when we have company with little ones, we can just get it out for them. I had this bright fabric in my stash. It is thick cotton and should last until my grandchildren arrive one day in the future, God willing! I am always so pleased to be able to go out to my stash and use what I have, rather than going out to buy more. I usually buy my fabric when it is marked down, so I don’t have to pay full price.

While Kira played in the cot in the lounge room (makeshift playpen!), Nick and I made chocolate chip cookies. Nick is nearly three. Is there anything sweeter than having an almost-three-year old sitting on your lap “helping” you make cookies? He was a great help too…. taste testing the chocolate chips.

“I need that one Auntie Joy!”

“Sure Nick…” (Good thing Mummy wasn’t there )

And then, the final taste test…..

I think it passed the test! Auntie Joy showed some restraint and only let him have one cookie before lunch. I mean, spoiling your nieces and nephews is permissible, but I didn’t want to push my luck too far. I might not be allowed to babysit anymore if I gave him only chocolate chip cookies for lunch…

Meanwhile, in the cot/playpen,… Miss Kira was overdue for her bottle. She started off on my lap,

but then the cookies needed checking, so she finished off back in her cot…

and almost fell asleep.

Sweet moments with sweet children….. oh, and sweet cookies…..

I was born European and with that comes many Easter traditions. Easter was always a highlight for us as children as we would dye eggs and Dad would hide them in the garden. I had never heard of the Easter Bunny, that came later I think. Easter to us was focused on the death and resurrection of Jesus…. and hard boiled eggs…! Oh, of course when I was little there were no chocolate eggs either! At least not in Indonesia, where I grew up. We were taught that eggs were a symbol of new life, and of course in the Northern Hemisphere it was also Spring time. I still get mixed up here in Australia when I look outside in the Autumn… and say to myself, “Oh! Isn’t it a lovely Spring day!!!”

I am passing on these Easter traditions to my children. The Easter Bunny is a bit of a joke in our household. The kids know about him (who wouldn’t these days), but they have never been taught to “believe” in him. The might do crafts or coloring pages with a bunny on it, but it doesn’t have any other meaning than the fact that it is a bunny rabbit and Spring time is the time they hop around in the garden.

The school week before Easter, we try to do Easter activities. We do worksheets on Easter, read books about Easter, and do craft things. Here the children are making two little wall hangings from icecream sticks - one with a cross and “He is Risen” and the other with a spring theme:

We decorated the house with eggs. Inside we have an Easter tree, which in Europe is often with branches that are about to blossom. Here since it is Autumn, we just used branches without any leaves:

We have special outdoor plastic eggs which we hang on a bush or tree. This year we decided to hang them on the archway as you come into our house. It looks really cute! (Matthew commented that he hoped the eggs weren’t like mistletoe - he didn’t want to risk walking under so many eggs and getting a kiss from someone! I though we should start a new tradition! LOL!)

And finally, on Easter Sunday we had the traditional Easter hunt. We had Robyn and her dh over, with their eldest son and daughter-in-law and twins. The men hid 60 eggs (30 chocolate and 30 hardboiled and decorated)! The kids had a ball running around the property finding them (I think the men enjoyed hiding them as well!).

Traditions are so important to us as a family. I love the songs that we sang at church that morning - they are hymns that I sang as a child and hold so much meaning. New songs can be nice, but there is something special about the traditional hymns. Another Easter tradition that my parents had when they were young and in the Dutch Reformed Church was this: On Easter morning they would greet each other with: “He is risen!” and the response would be “He has truly risen!” How special to greet your brothers and sisters in Christ in this way, instead of the usual “How are you?” It puts the focus on where it should be - Jesus.

Well, that is a “not so brief” description of our Easter this year. There would be much more to write about and tell you, but this is enough I’m sure! I hope to get some photos up of my veggie garden in the next few days and just update you on that and my preserving. In other news, my sister and her family are coming to visit in about three weeks time and I am preparing the house with great anticipation! I just can’t wait to see them! So time goes on… and it is already Spring Autumn!

Ok, I’ve got a few updates to do here… first of all, the chooks are laying slowly, but surely! We started with one or two a day, and yesterday we got three! Yay! We saved up the first five eggs and then I soft boiled them. We all had one and oooooh, it was soooo yummy! There is nothing better than free range eggs!

My grocery budget…. well, the challenge is still on! I am a little over $150 a week at the moment. Thankfully it is still the beginning of the year and I am still going to try for $100 on average. I’ve been buying extras for preserving, and I have also been buying extra for my pantry so that I have a spare of each thing on hand and therefore don’t have to run to the shops for just one thing. So I am quite pleased with how I am doing so far.

I keep forgetting to update you on Purposeful Planning by Phyllis Sather. I read it while I was away at my inlaws, and I really enjoyed it. It brought back memories of our first years of marriage when we went away for planning weekends. Our first planning weekend was in a tent. Other ones were in nicer places like Bed and Breakfasts… but all were wonderful times of planning, praying and relaxing.

Phyllis does a great job in her book of explaining what a planning weekend is, what kind of things can be included, lots of suggestions, and lots of motivation! I would really recommend it to you if you haven’t read it yet. Just click on the link above and visit her site.

I also keep meaning to mention The Year of the Doll House. You can check out more details at A Mother’s Journal. Last December I felt God was telling me to take the time to play Barbies with Elizabeth. I can remember my own mother coming and playing Barbies (actually, I had the Happy Family and Sunshine Family!) with me. I used to treasure those times so much, and wished she had time everyday to play with me! She would not only play with me, but help me make clothes for them. Hers were always so much nicer than the ones I made! However, with the rush of Christmas I forgot about this little seed that was planted in my mind.

In January I came across A Mother’s Journal and read about the Year of the Doll House. It was another nudge from God to say, “Play with your daughter… just play with her…” Finally at the end of the month, God nudged me again(big nudge!) (a long story and I won’t bore you with it!). So I’ve been doing that. Playing with her. Playing Barbie families - she has a house, and I have a house. Just like the old days when I was young….lol! And I still have my Happy Families dolls, so we play with them too. If you have young girls, I’d encourage you to head over to the above site and join in with us. I’m not playing with Elizabeth everyday, but I am trying to play with her at least a few times a week.

And finally…. a Sabbatical…. I wrote about this way back before Christmas last year, here. I have been feeling God telling me to slow down on the internet for a long time. And to take a break from blogging. I’ve resisted it. I’ve prayed about it. I’ve whined talked about it. And this morning, during my Quiet Time, I knew I needed to make the step.

The first six months of this year are going to pretty hectic. We have overseas visitors coming to stay with us, and family as well. Our house is still far from unpacked and organized. I know I need to take time this first half of the year to get us settled properly.

I love blogging. I love visiting other people’s blogs. But I also know that if it takes too much time away from being a keeper of my home, then I need to discipline myself to slow down. It is not going to be easy, and I’m sure I’ll have days when I’ll go crazy and madly visit everyone’s blogs into the wee hours…. but I want to try to cut way back!

My hope for this Sabbatical from the internet is to get our home in order, to spend time with the children other than just school time, and to get our routines into place. I have preserving to do, sewing for the home, and other things. It is easy for me to think about these things, plan towards them, write lists, but it is better for me to actually do them!

I will leave my site up as it is, and you never know, I may even post occasionally over the next 6 months, but that is not at the top of my priority list. And yes,… I will be dropping in on your blogs every now and then. Just not on a daily or weekly basis.

Thank you all for the kind comments you’ve left on my blog over the past year and a half. Thanks to all who dropped in. This is not goodbye, just adieu!

We had a good start to the school day with all of us watching “The Story of Stuff”. It dealt with a lot of the issues I have been trying to teach the children and myself. Last week I started a Frugal Friday post, but didn’t finish it in time. Looking at this 20 min video confirmed to me what I was trying to put into writing (and hopefully will finish writing and be ready to post this Friday).

As we get back into the school year, and settling into our homestead, there are lots of issues to deal with. First of all we have to get used to actually doing school at home, instead of on the road, on an airplane, in between moves, at other people’s houses, etc, etc, etc. Secondly, we have to deal with doing school at the kitchen table, in a small house, without enough space to have all our school stuff out. Both are a challenge. The first one will happen eventually… slowly. The second one needs a lot of work!

I have decided to pack away a lot of the school books that sit on the shelf “in case we need them” during the year. It hurts to do this, because I love to just get up in the middle of something we are studying and say - “Hey, let’s look up some more about that in this book!” I have a LOT of old National Geographics that I got from the op shop or from friends, for example. But I don’t have the space to put them out. I am going to pack them away…. but then a voice says to me… Why are you doing that?! Once they are packed away, will I really ever look at them again?! Probably not. I guess I am thinking that one day we might build a school room in the shed, and then I’ll have lots of space to put them all up on bookshelves… and in the meantime they can just sit in the huge shed we have. The main thing is that I need to get as much as possible out of the house so that it is easy to maintain, clean, do school, etc.

I am really not that bad at getting rid of stuff. I do it all the time. We never have garage sales or sell stuff. We give it away. The Lord has blessed us by receiving free things, and we bless others in the same way. It’s just that we have moved into a house that is half the size of our old one, and I need to make tough choices.

Back to the video “The Story of Stuff” . It generated a great discussion with the kids. They talked about toys and stuff they had that had been cheap and broke the first day they had it. They talked about things that they have had for a long time, and that they thought was worth the money they spent and worth keeping. One of these things was Lego. We still have the Lego I played with over 30 years ago. They agreed that a big thing was to stop spending, even though this is very hard to do. Daniel initially gave the example of the Playstation as a good buy…. then when I made him think about it a bit more, he sheepishly agreed that we were on Playstaition number two, and the controls had this wrong with them and that wrong with them…. I think he started to get the picture.

We talked about growing things ourselves to avoid packaging. We looked at how many things were “needed” to sell meat in the shop - the styrophome tray, the plastic/paper thingo to absorb blood & liquid, the glad wrap, the labels, the ink on the labels and the glue on the labels. Compare this to one plastic bag when we kill our own meat. I could hear the gears turning around in the kids’ brains!

It’s not easy for any of us to change our lifestyle - whether it is us as adults or the children who have to do what their parents are doing. We have moved to the country deliberately. The price paid is the highest for my dh, who has to commute every day, for almost a total of 5 hours. We want to teach the children why we are doing this - why we grow veggies, why we want to grow meat, why we want to reduce our waste… This little video was a real eye opener for all of us. For me, it confirmed that we are on the right track. For the children it explained a lot of things they had no idea about.

Steps to simple living, sustainable living, homesteading…. all of these things are part of a journey we are on. It will take time to learn, but I am glad we have made the first steps.

I’m a bit behind with answering comments and checking blogs and leaving comments… I’ve been trying hard to not spend time on the computer, but I don’t like missing out on all of the above! LOL! I think I have answered all comments now, so if you left one recently, just check back …. if I haven’t responded to your comment, feel free to yell at me.. (nicely please!!!)!

Ever since I started blogging, I’ve been in two minds about it. I really enjoy it. I love visiting other people’s blogs and commenting. I love getting new ideas from people all around the world. I love that I am making friends online. The flip side is that blogging takes time. It takes time away from the family. It takes time away from being a keeper of the home and a teacher in our homeschool. If I am not careful, I can spend hours on the computer, and get totally behind with my life! I think you probably know what I mean.

I don’t think there are any easy answers and that this is something we need to learn to deal with as the world is changing. Setting time limits and schedules are one way to do this, and I will be setting some rules for myself in the next week, without “banning” the computer altogether!

I will be posting again later in the day because I have something REALLY EXCITING to share!!! Well, at least I think so…!!!! So, come back, come back….!!!! The reason I’m not posting about it now is because I need to take photos and SHOW you what it is! So,…. better get on with life, shut down the computer, get my camera.. and I’ll see you back here later on!