Peace

The water is receding. Praise God!

I went out at sunset to sweep the verandah and feed the cats their dinner and lock up the chooks. Peace seemed to be reigning in my garden tonight.

Molly had moved into the downstairs floor of the dollhouse outside!

The sky still looked a little foreboding.... but no rain, huzzah.

The chooks were clucking and grazing before bed.

And my sweet pixie of a girl was sitting watching the sky.

Peace.

Where Is Spring????

It seems Winter has gone, and Summer has arrived. So the question is - where is Spring??! I love Spring and am feeling a bit duped that we seem to have skipped it this year. William is too.

Still, we managed to enjoy a big morning of cooking again this morning. The children wanted to be involved and I had Saraya reading and finding the ingredients, following the directions for me, measuring and mixing and being amazed at the way egg whites can be beaten into soft white mountains!

We made two Lemon Custard Tarts (one for a friend!) which used up 6 of our eggs and 3 of our lemons, yay!, homemade ice-cream which I haven't done in years, and a batch of orange muffins to use up the egg yolks left from the ice-cream. All up it took about an hour and we all enjoyed ourselves!

We then spent a delightful couple of hours at my friend Jane's home - thank you so much Jane. :) What a blessing to have such a sweet homeschooling family right across the road!

After lunch and rest time we headed out into the hot sunshine and we all felt so very summery!

Saraya doing the 'Laura leap' from the end of the Little House episodes!

And Elijah joining in.....
Trampoling fun........

I guess we'll get over the missing Spring thing, and just embrace Summer. I can see us heading up to the beach a fair bit in the next few weeks - perfect weather for some exploring!

I feel like last week and this week so far have been filled with some of the greatest family days I can ever remember. We had lovely relaxing time with Stuart home over the weekend, and the children and I are really finding our feet with our homeschooling........... it's working really well and I feel the children (and I) are learning lots in a relaxed, peaceful way. I see a consistent calmness in Saraya which I've rarely seen these past years. She is a very enthusiastic and already semi-independent learner! I praise God for the opportunity to be at home with my children - I know it is a privilege and I do not take a single day for granted.

It is SO HOT!!!!!!

Oh my goodness, today has been so hot.  Excruciatingly hot!

The forecast was for 35 degrees celsius for Maryborough, but we are guessing it made it around 37 or 38 - or hotter.  Plus, the humidity was up around 80% for much of the day.  It was bad.

So what did we do today?  What was on the agenda?  What wonderful, exciting plans did we have for our day?  It was a simple plan, easily formulated yet difficult to execute.   

The plan:  TO KEEP COOL............

Will wore only a nappy and the children wore a pair of underpants for the day (actually, they're not in much more than that in bed now either- it's still up around 30 degrees at 8:30pm, yuk!).  Stuart and I wore as little as possible!  We drank copious amounts of cold water and cold lime juice cordial.  We ate through a whole big wedge of cool watermelon. We put water on ourselves every time we washed our hands.  Stu put a spray bottle into the fridge and periodically sprayed the children and me with chilly water (yelps could be heard from miles away!).  We ate vanilla icecream with maple syrup for afternoon tea.  We had every fan in the house turned up full swing, but still couldn't feel one bit of breeze.  

By 2pm we were all going slightly mad.  William had had at least 3 baths, and Stuart and I each a couple of showers.  You'd feel cool whilst under the water but boiling hot again the second your skin dried.  Saraya and Elijah had watched a good hour or more of tv, and we were all too hot to think what to do next.  So we went out to our "liveable shed" (just a one room, unsealed but semi-liveable little shed) which happens to be fitted with an old air-conditioner (the lady who used to live here had an adult son who lived out there).  We took water, and a big basket of library books, and hung out reading for awhile out there.  It was good!

Coming inside again was hard.......... to quote Saraya "Oh Mamma, ouch!!!!  I just lay down on the couch in the living room, and it was so hot I had to jump off 'cause it burnt me!!".   Elijah was crying after walking on the grass outside because the grass was burning his feet.  Yep.  It's been THAT bad.

At 4:30pm we drove to Woolworths just to get into some proper air-conditioning.  We dawdled around the shop for an hour, collecting a few bits we needed but mostly just enjoying a reprieve from the heat.  People everywhere were doing the same.  We heard one lady say she was considering hiding in the shops to sleep the night - her friend commented that she'd have plenty to eat and drink!!

Anyway, at least we have water.  And fans.  And I'm almost finished a favourite book of mine, and think I'll go do so now.  We're hoping to get a half-decent night sleep, our last night of 2008.  Hmmm..... with this heat, I don't like our chances!  

Once again to quote Saraya today, "When is it going to be Winter?"!!!

Happy New Year everyone! :)

A sweet day

"Shout with joy to God, all the earth!

Sing the glory of his name;

make his praise glorious!

Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds"!......

All the earth bows down to you;

they sing praise to you,

they sing praise to your name."

Come and see what God has done,

how awesome his works on man's behalf!.......

Come, let us rejoice in him.

Praise our God, O peoples,

let the sound of his praise be heard;

he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping.

............ we went through fire and water,

but you brought us to a place of abundance.

Come and listen..............

let me tell you what he has done for me.

I cried out to him with my mouth;

his praise was on my tongue.

...... God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer.

Praise be to God.........

.......... He has not rejected my prayer

or withheld his love from me!" Psalm 66.

"Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people; for unto you is born, this day, in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:10, 11)

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas........

I know it's only November, but just today it feels like Christmas is right around the bend.  I feel that adrenalin I always get at this time of year, building towards Christmas time.  Yes, I am an avid lover of the Christmasy celebrations, always have been, always will be!  Today when my boys were napping (and I should have been) I lay on my bed thinking through Christmas gift ideas.  Oh, how I love love love Christmas!!!  AND.......

Today it is hot.  Really  hot!  Summer kind of hot.  My kids will be playing with ice this afternoon after school, and this weekend we're bound for the town pool.

The wind has a certain dry summery feel to it.

There is only 4 1/2 weeks left until the holidays.  Hooray!

My kitchen smells like peaches. Mmmm......

And early this morning at the markets the strawberry lady wished me a merry Christmas!  When I looked quizzically at her, she informed me that this will be her last week as the strawberry crop has run out.  "And", she advised me, "There is only 7 weeks until Christmas"!

And today my little Will is SO much better.  So the world just feels wonderful. :)