A Joyful Keeper

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!

……I was born on a small island off the coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG). The island was big enough for a small plane to land and take off again. It had a shop, school and hospital. My dad worked there for the Australian government (PNG was at that time a territory of Australia.) He built the house we lived in, on stilts in typical local style. I was born two days before my brother’s third birthday….. and I was the youngest until my sister arrived nine years later!

My parents were very involved in the community and local church. I lived there until I was two years old. Dad also built a boat, and we would regularly go up the rivers to villages showing gospel films and holding meetings. I can’t remember much from these first years of my life, but there are photos and films that help bring it alive for me. Here is one of my favorite photos:

This lady was a close friend of my parents. I look like I’m pretty comfortable, don’t I?!

The rivers were narrow and windy, and my teddy bear fell into the crocodile infested waters once…. thankfully dad managed to fish him out and I still have him today!

It was thanks to my birth on this small island that I am Australian. 39 years ago… boy, time flies!

We started school again this week, and I must say I’ve been struggling most with getting back into it, not the children. I have tried to stay away from the computer (as you can tell!), and tried not to get distracted by other things, but…. it has been hard. Being a homemaker and a homeschool mum is really two full time jobs, as many of you know! Even though it can be hard, it is also ever so rewarding. I wouldn’t swap my life for the world, even though sometimes it all seems just too much for me…..

My plan for this week was just to concentrate on getting basic routines in place - getting up on time, having two sessions of school (one playing educational games & one doing table work), having meals ready and keeping up with the housework. We’ve done pretty well with most of these. Getting up on time is a challenge for me since I haven’t been sleeping well lately. Hopefully that will improve!

I’ve also managed to get a few more boxes unpacked and …. drum roll please…. started preserving!!! I got two bags full of plums from Robyn and I am busy turning them into cordial. I will take photos and share the recipe when I am done. It is just the start of the preserving season for me. I am hoping to make lots of tomato sauce, relishes, jams and who knows what else! I just love to see bottles of preserves in rows in my cupboard.

So that is a quick update of what I’ve been up to this week….. I’ve had a few down days, but things are looking up again. I know that when I have my down days I need to just take it easy and not expect as much from myself as I usually do. I am learning… slowly…!

No Monday Meanderings yesterday or Menu plans because the children and I are off to visit the inlaws this week. The kids are so excited to see their grandparents, and I am looking forward to having no cleaning, cooking or any of that stuff to do!!! Robyn is coming with us as well, so that will be lots of fun.

I was going to bring some sewing with me, but didn’t quite get organized. I will however take my household book with me and work on that, and Purposeful Planning! I didn’t even get a chance to start it last week. I printed it out and that is as far as I got. It will be better to take it with me to my inlaws farm - there will be lots of peace and quiet there….

Have a wonderful week everyone! I will be back sometime on Friday, hopefully in time to write a Frugal Friday post and update you on my grocery challenge.