Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The Great Milk Experiment



You might have picked up while reading here, that we drink raw organic milk - milk the way God intended it to be. Not pasteurised. Much much MUCH healthier than the dead white stuff most people drink, that more and more are developing an intolerance to...

So on that note, I am always interested in different things that can be done with such a wonderful God-given resource and this blog entry about The Milk Cure peaked my interest... you're best to read it there as I could never explain it so well unless I completely stole her blog post! And then if you're still interested/intrigued/fascinated, read on to the links she has in the post. And if you don't read on, don't make judgement of what you've chosen not to know about!

Our fortnight's milk arrives tomorrow, so I'll start my 7-10 days of milk on Friday. To start with, I just want to get through one day. One day with no other food will be painful in itself because of habits and because of ME being the one to prepare food for all others in the house!

Okay, that just settled it... I had been debating with myself... tomorrow night's dinner is Fish n Chips for sure! No chance after that for at least 7 days!


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Monday, May 28, 2012

Of Mother's Day

A great church service in the morning, easy lunch at home, blessed with lots of cards and crafts from the enthusiastic children. I can't even remember what was had for dinner... it would have been easy and might even have been fish & chips (we have the best EVER fish & chip shop, nearby)


My all time favourite for afternoon tea - lemon meringue cheesecake... I LOVE anything with a really strong lemon taste. We went out with one of my friends and her 2 children, for quite an enjoyable afternoon tea. The ice cream on the plate was an accident... I'm pretty sure it was meant to go on my friend's sticky date pudding which arrived with none, even though it had been requested. They then did make sure she got some too, but it was rather odd having ice cream with cheesecake... to me anyway!

And that, was my Mother's Day. Lovely.



Sunday, May 27, 2012

Speed of life!

Could life get any faster??? a possibly dangerous question - I suspect the answer is 'yes' but I sooo don't want to know about it... so let's pretend I never pondered the possibility, okay?

Where have I been? right here, full speed ahead. So much I could have been blogging about but was busy doing it instead with pretty much no breaks in between... let me try and fill you in!

The oldest news first (and MOST exciting)... is that God has blessed us with another baby, so now I am a mama of 5 precious children to raise in the ways of God. WOW! We're due in September with only about 16 weeks to go... I think. I am shocking at keeping track! Is it a surprise? Not really - we have figured out how these things work ;) Was it planned? Not really... no calendars, thermometers and charting. Just God, how He made us and our faith in Him and in His perfection. We kept it to ourselves and a few close friends a while - to enjoy it fully before thoughtless people could make rude comments. Yes, some people do that. They value 'things' more than children and fail to understand our trust in God's leading. I guess it's hard to understand what one doesn't have and experience, oneself... very sad...

Next news... Pete is working again... in a temporary position. Monday this week marks the start of his 3rd week. If they like him enough in an unknown period, they'll make him permanent, if he likes it too of course!
14 weeks of unemployment wasn't necessarily 'fun' but it sure was full of amazing blessings. Our church community is AMAZING. Beyond amazing actually. I just love being part of a church community that comes together to support each other in the way ours does. So blessed. So encouraged.
Though Pete's now being paid, we're living the next couple of months (assuming he keeps working through that time) as though he's not. Keeping the budget mostly nice and tight and building up the emergency fund again.... 'just in case'.

With Pete back at work, I'm busier. He's not here to help juggle life. At the same time I can get more done because he's NOT here. A weird combination, that. Not sure how it works, but it's just the way it it. I guess there's so much more to think about but with him gone, there is more head space available in a day. On days I want the car, I drop him off at a bus stop a couple of KM's away and pick him up from the same area at the other end of the day. If he's getting the bus, he's gone from about 6.55 till about 6pm. If he has the car it's about 7.20 till 5-5.10pm. Not too bad. Still family dinners. He's still here for all the evening activities we seem to have happening.

Homeschooling... is MUCH easier to do with Pete gone. Don't know why, just that it is!

Melinda - who has been wearing glasses for about 3 years now - I think - and patching for most of that time... is now patch free for at least the next 3 months. Glasses still but patch free. She's pretty pleased about that. So am I... nice to not have to be reminding her! Her appointment with her optometrist was this last week and because Pete was working again it was me that took her, and the rest of the kids. I did miss having Pete here and available to do the trip.

The clock is ticking and to bed I must head. I will attempt to come back and update tomorrow on Mother's Day, a family birthday, our home ed co-op plans and 'The Great Milk Experiment'. No promises about tomorrow though, okay? If not tomorrow - it will be soon (That IS a promise!)

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Our Prayer Sticks

This has been the best thing we have done to encourage our family to take time to pray together and also the best way we've found to remember many other people to pray for. It's an idea that has already been 'borrowed' a few times so feel free to borrow the idea and make it your own! I got it from this blog and she got it from somewhere on Pinterest and I didn't bother tracking it back from there!


The tin is just a washed baked bean tin, lined inside and out with pretty scrapbooking paper. I finally found tongue depressors for the sticks (instead of icypole sticks that are all too easy to find) via Ebay - there's 50 in our tin but I got a box of 100 so we may add more.

Each stick has written on it someone or something to pray for. Missionaries, friends, family, neighbours both known and unknown. Church elders and deacons, our pastors. A baby for a few someones, red tape to be sped up for another, and so on.

After dinner or after lunch and sometimes both and possibly breakfast soon too, each person takes a stick and we go around the table taking it in turns to pray. Just one or two sentences of prayer for the person/people/family/area of concern on the stick. Timothy (4yo) copies a prayer after me and then says the whole prayer by himself. Everyone else picks their own words.

Once a stick has been used it gets bundled up with the other used ones and tied up with a rubber band till all sticks are 'used' and then we loosen them all and start again. This makes sure we pray for all the people etc and no one gets left out before we repeat.

We're praying
Together
As a family
Daily - or more!
The kids love it and ask for it.
Blessings all around

Give it a go - and remember to keep it simple!



Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Happy Birthday!

2 Special birthdays in our house today - Timothy is now 4 and Charlotte has turned 1!


I've made these cupcakes for Timothy to share at playgroup - more photo's to come later but Pete has taken the camera to playgroup so I can't get the other pics yet :o)

We had pancakes for breakfast - as requested by the birthday boy. A normal lunch of salad sandwiches will be had before afternoon naps and then Timothy's daily request and Charlotte's much enjoyed Fish & Chips for dinner - must say I am looking forward to that myself LOL

We have a special gathering planned for Saturday, to celebrate (surviving) Charlotte's first year and because of the shared birthday, it's also for Timothy... we probably wouldn't have done a party for him this year, otherwise!

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