Sugar and spice and all things nice

Don't you just love having a daughter? I must admit my whole pregnancy I was praying hard for a girl, I know that you are not supposed to care but I wanted a wee girl so badly!

There are times when I get frustrated and upset with her (doesn't every mother) but for the most part she makes me so incredibly happy and proud of her. She makes me laugh like no one else and is the best person to go shopping with! Yesterday I tried on a pair of shoes and she said to me 'Mummy you look stunning!' I just couldn't imagine my husband getting that excited over a pair of shoes ;).

She is such a beautiful,spirited girl, she never,ever shows a temper towards me, is always willing to help and has such empathy for others. I praise God for the day that he gave me such a precious gift in Aviva (which is the hebrew word for spring) Charity (which is a quality she certainly seems to be developing!). Children truly are such a blessing from the lord.

Highs and lows

Last night as my husband had to work I decided to Watch 'Pride and Prejudice', It is such a beautiful movie and so, so romantic without any of the impropriety so common in popular 'romantic' movies. I love period dramas and often spend hours afterwards dreaming about the dresses the women wore, I think if they knew what many of us wear now they would weep- imagine our plain cotton t-shirts and jeans in comparison with their beautiful embroidered dresses of beautiful fabrics.

It got me thinking how I have hardly done any History with Aviva at all! Of course she knows a fair bit of the Bibles history but nothing really else. I was looking at the Charlotte Mason Website and it suggests for Aviva's age I should be focusing on, in the coming year the 1400 - 1600 (Renaissance to Reformation) Sometimes I feel so inadequate when I read what I 'should' be doing. I find it hard enough to get Aviva to write a page in her book, on the up side her reading age is far, far above what it should be, but if I try to get her to sit down and do some 'book work' it seems to take forever.

I know in my heart that this is the best decision I ever made and that we could not live any other way. When I think of the days she was in school and would come home distraught and barely able to read a sentence I see how far she has come. Her social skills have sky rocketed, her confidence has blossomed and her faith in her own abilities is a joy to watch.

Maybe it's time I spent less time comparing what other children and mothers are doing and focus on how far Aviva really has come. After all the Renaissance isn't going anywhere! I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to home school my children. I know if we were living in Turkey I would never have got the chance.

Sowing seeds

I am writing this post for my sister who wanted to know how to grow vegetables from seed, she got very frustrated when she put some seeds into the ground and they just wouldn't grow!

I guess first things first is that a lot of seeds wont grow at all if you put them in the ground, they need to be carefully protected indoors and then transplanted outside.


I start by getting a large empty egg carton and filling it with seed raising mix (you can save these up or ask for them at any cafe etc, they are very happy to get rid of them) I like to use egg cartons because you can just plant them right into the soil for seedlings that don't like their roots disturbed and they break right in the earth, plus they are free!

(An egg carton of seeds ready to go into the airing cupboard)

I then gently press my seeds into the centre of each hole, water them, wrap them in a plastic bag (which acts like a mini green house) and then I leave them in the hot water cupboard until then begin to get their first true leaves) when they are big enough I then transfer them to a tray outside which is filled with compost and leave them outside for a while to harden off and then transplant them into the garden.

( A marigold seedling ready to go into the garden)

If the seedlings are big enough to go straight into the garden then you can just skip the middle stage. Some seeds can be sown straight into the garden, such as carrots as they don't like to have their roots disturbed, but the majority need to be raised up first. If you use the egg carton it doesn't matter anyway as it will break right down in the soil without any of the roots being disturbed.

This is just my simple way of doing it, others may have better ideas or different ways they follow but this works great for me!

(Sorry about the poor picture quality, there is a long story behind that one!)

As I have been writing up this post Aviva has been reading to me ' The patchwork quilt by Valerie Flournoy' which is such a beautiful book. I recommend it for any Mother who wants to get her daughter more interested in sewing, or just to enjoy a lovely story!

Have a Wonderful weekend! It's date night for us so I need to get going and get things organised!

Lessons I have learnt

As I have said before I am reasonably new to gardening, only having taken it up about 10 months ago and only really getting serious about learning more about it in August. You don't need to have much to make a start, just a patch of earth,some seeds, a bag each of compost and manure and a shovel and fork (which I brought for $2 each at a thrift shop) Other things you may accumulate later but for starters that is all you truly need.

Yesterday I spent at least an hour and a half pulling out weeds,I thought about posting before and after photos but am too embarrassed about the state I let the garden get into the first place! When my husband got home he dug over the patch where all the silver beet had been and now it is all ready to put my 20 tomato plants in!

It has been an interesting journey and I feel I have some very simple lessons to share

1.) I had read many,many times about how you can grow potatoes in big plastic tubs, cardboard boxes wrapped in plastic, or even heavy duty plastic bags. This is a mistake, you end up with rotten potatoes and foul smelling soil as it cannot drain. Go for perforated containers if unable to grow them in the soil.

2.)Planting flowers in your vegetable patch is a very good idea, it draws bees to the plants which need to be cross pollinated. This year I planted marigolds (naughty Marietta) and they are gorgeous and draw lots of bees straight to my courgettes right where I want them.

3.)Do a little each day! It is so much easier to grab a few handfuls of weeds each day than just leaving it and being forced to spend hours slaving over the garden in the hot sun. Much, much easier!

4.)Have a patch set aside for your child/children. Let them select and grow what they want, choose vegetables which do not take a long time to grow. If started early hopefully the passion for growing will last them a lifetime.

5.) Cut those laterals off your tomatoes! They will fruit so much more.

6.) Don't grow things you will not eat! Sounds very obvious, except for the fact that I was left with around 10 bunches of silver beet at once and although I possibly could of steamed and frozen them, I came to the realization I didn't want to.

It is another beautiful day here today, I was looking forward to taking Aviva to various social homeschooling activities but she has come down with a fever and just wants to sleep. This though is a good chance to catch up all the housework and baking that needs to be done.

Christmas time (mistletoe and wine?)

I love Christmas as much as the next person! I love the carols, the decorations, the brightly wrapped presents under pine trees and I guess the part I love most of all is the way that it brings out the good in most people. It is a time when people truly want to help each other out for the most part, especially those less fortunate than them.

What I don't love is the way most people in our society spend this time accumulating debt very fast, preparing drunken and gluttonous affairs and generally making themselves so stressed out and tired they can't wait for it all to be over. Most children in this country would have no idea of Jesus, ask them what Christmas means to them and they will reply with Santa and presents. On this most precious day of celebrating our saviours birth it breaks my heart to think how many people instead choose to spend it becoming inebriated.

In the past I have made the mistake of trying to get the best and brightest for my daughter and other friends and family. Now I realize more than ever that it is not the expense that matters at all. Yesterday I brought some beautiful Russian Sunflower seeds and some cheery yellow Eco pots. And on Christmas day I plan to give the women in my family these beautiful flowers in a pot (this would equal about $5 each) it would be cheaper by buying plain plastic pots if you wanted to get the price lower. At our local thrift shop I found all the materials to make two beautiful single size quilts ($10 materials, for both) And for my daughter I will be sewing and embroidering two ballerina pillows to go on her bed. For the men in our family I will be making homemade fudge and chocolates and assembling them in a box that Aviva and I will make. As for friends or anyone else I will be giving them homemade preserves. And for my husband I will be having a go at making him a box full of loukoum ( Turkish delight) if that turns out it will be a real surprise!

For our Christmas dinner I am definitely keeping it simple-Pesto potatoes (made from the basil and new potatoes in our garden) Roast chicken (which we accumulate from a friend free in exchange for my husband killing them!) and several seasonal vegetable dishes straight from the garden. For dessert chocolate dipped strawberries with homemade ice cream (and perhaps a birthday cake for Jesus :)

Our Christmas, food and presents included will cost us around 70-80 dollars. I am not saying that we should all ban all nice food and presents on this day because after all it is a celebration! But I know that it breaks Gods heart to see this wonderful day turn into something that people are paying off for the rest of the year.We Plan instead to make Jesus the focus of the day (after all it is his birthday) and put our emphasis on the beautiful church service in the morning and how grateful we are to know and have had Jesus in our lives for one more year.

A little girl follows me

I found this sweet little poem which was just so true to my heart, I am going to put it on my fridge as a reminder that my little girl really does hear and see everything I do. From how courteous I am to strangers to how I handle myself when angry or upset.

” A careful woman I ought to be:
A little girl follows me;
I do not dare to go a stray
For fear she’ll go the self-same way.
I cannot once escape her eyes;
What’re she sees me do, she tries
Like me, she says, she ’s going to be,
The little girl who follows me.
She thinks that I am good and fine,
Believes in every word of mine;
The base in me she must not see,
The little girl who follows me.
I must remember as I go,
Through summer’s sun and winter’s snow,
I am building for the years to be,
For a little girl follows me. “

Author: unknown

Being thankful

Last week was not really one of my better ones, I spent a part of it in horrible pain at home and the rest of it in Hospital where I had even more pain and a bad reaction to one of the pain killers they gave me. Today I am trying very slowly to catch up on the housework, since it has really gone by the wayside and catching up on Aviva's schooling since that as well has taken a backseat.

It was in the days that I was home that I was so grateful that I had taken the time to train Aviva with basic housework skills. The house was nowhere near looking spotless but the clothes were folded, the bathroom clean and dishes put away thanks to my darling daughter. At night my husband washed the dishes and did the vacuuming and I was sent off to rest. It was at that point where it becoming glaringly obvious that it is a very good idea to have at least a weeks worth of dinners, baked bread and general baking in the freezer (if you have the room of course). When you are sick it is not the time to be eating takeaways or any type of instant food. I will be planning further ways to economize so that we can buy a chest freezer (second hand of course!). Hopefully in the next six months or so purchasing one will be an option. I see this as invaluable for storing much of the gardens surplus and having frozen dinners ready for whenever the need arises.

Some things we are planning for home school this week are just general catching up plus some extra on our native bird project. I would also like to make some Thanksgiving cards, even though we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in New-Zealand I think it is important it to tell people that we are thankful for them and our influence in our lives. It has been somewhat of a difficult year for us with a drastically reduced income however God has been so good to us! No matter how hard the circumstances he has been continually provided for us. On weeks we thought we would be unable to pay either the rent or buy food he has supplied both! I think it is so important to be thankful for every thing God has provided for us. Without our faith and assurance in God to get by the worst of times I honestly don't know where we would be!

Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;make known his deeds among the peoples!Sing to him, sing praises to him;tell of all his wondrous works!
Psalm 105 1-2

In the garden

I was working in the garden yesterday when I reminded myself that just one short year ago, I knew not one thing about gardening (apart from the fact that it ruined your nails). Because we are a vegetarian family we tend to go through fruit and vegetables fairly quickly, I even like to add half a bunch of spinach to my banana smoothies in the morning. And with the rising cost of vegetables and the introduction of more and more chemical spays I just knew there had to be a better (and more inexpensive way) to keep our vegetable intake up for a fraction of the cost.

I am again amazed that for a little work how much you can gain. At the supermarket spinach averages about $2.50 per bunch yet for the same price I brought a packet of 15o seeds. Even allowing for a ten percent non germination rate that is still a saving of about three hundred dollars per year for us. That is in one vegetable alone! I love the fact that I can (mostly) go and pick our dinner from our back garden and that I can dehydrate, freeze, can, puree and bottle most of the surplus for the winter months.

I still have a long way to go to be self sufficient, My in laws have a garden that would take your breath away! Full of nut and fruit trees, berries, olives and every vegetable you can think of, they even grow their own grain. I think the only things they do buy are coffee, sugar, toilet paper and the odd extra such as bleach or baking powder. It is my dream to be able to live like this, Anne (the Turkish word for mother) happily makes all her own olive oil, cheese and even soap. I could never explain how hard working this amazing woman is, I can only pray that one day I will be able to be a fraction as energetic and warm as she is.

In the midst of our economic recession it makes perfect sense to try and cut our grocery bills as much as we can and one of the easiest ways is to grow our own! In early march I planted out just four vegetables broccoli, silver beet, cabbages and broad beans. Now I couldn't jam more into my garden if I tried (and try I have). If you are interested in starting your own vegetable patch then I highly recommend this website as a very good place to start.

http://www.nzgardener.co.nz/page.asp?id=33

What to do when you don't feel like homeschooling

I had a slight accident on Wednesday night which ultimately led to me being concussed and taken to hospital by a wailing ambulance. I am the sort of person who doesn't accept being sick well until I am sternly told by my loving husband to go and rest.

And so today I am still quite sore and cannot deal with having limitless patience whilst describing what a verb is for the umpteenth time, but still feel too guilty to just put on a DVD even if it is educational. This is not the first time I have felt too sick to have a homeschooling day-I remember a few months ago when I got a bad chest infection and Aviva and I spent lovely days in bed talking about God, marriage, hope and her future. I would not trade those days for anything as her spiritual growth is far more important to me than anything else.

Other ideas I have come to love are spreading out some cheap shower curtains across the dining table or floor and setting up craft stations, it is amazing what she can produce given limitless time and abundant resources. Today I will set up things for a paper mache project, put out crosswords, coloring books and possibly some cross stitch projects Aviva is currently working on.

This afternoon I expect we will do some baking, have some devotional and worship time and then curl up on the couch and read our chapter books. Aviva is currently reading 'The Secret Garden' by Frances Hodgson Burnett and I am re reading 'Created to be his help meet' by Debi Pearl which for me is such a source of inspiration. If I could pick one book that would have changed my life forever (apart from the bible :) ) then this would be it!

I have a million reasons for homeschooling but when I am sick this just reminds me of one of the most important ones, having that close, unbreakable bond with my daughter. I am so sure that if I had a 'career' then by the time I got home at six o clock I would be just to tired to have long conversations about God and life, I would be racing against the clock to get her fed and bathed and in bed. How many questions about God and hopes and fears would go unanswered? Only to be answered a few years later by other teenagers who very possibly will know nothing of God.

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Proverbs 22:6

How did women fall so far?

I was very saddened yesterday to hear of a parade this week in my city that features women riding on motorbikes topless down a very busy street. The organiser's of it held one recently in Auckland which had a huge turn out, thousands of men turned up to see these women shamed and defiled.

1 CORINTHIANS 6:18-20: " Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit [who is] in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."

I had a discussion with my friend this morning about the parade and she made the point that it is so often assumed women in biblical times had it pretty bad, they were not encouraged or even allowed to speak in public,they were practically 'chained' to their home and family and lived lives little better than slaves. What people-historians and alike forget to mention is that these women held respect. Their sons held them in reverence, their daughters only had one role model. These women had class, they did not show off skin in degrading outfits, they did not objectify themselves to a group of lascivious men and they did not defile themselves and their fellow sisters all for a bit of fun.

EPHESIANS 5:5: "For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God."

If only the men that go to this parade imagine for one moment that it was not a total stranger, that it is their sister, daughter, mother ,wife. How quickly things would change ,they would run to cover that women's shame with a blanket. No longer would their stares and comments become 'meaningless'.

MATTHEW 5:27-28: "You have heard that it was said to those of old, `You shall not commit adultery.' "But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

My heart breaks at the acceptability of it all, that somehow it has become semi normal for women to take what God has deemed to be between husband and wife and share it with everyone. and if it saddens me could you imagine how it makes God feel to see his precious daughters nothing more than cheap thrills for lonely and desperate men, to turn young boys towards that which is dirty and defiled,this image will forever be imprinted on his mind and heart. He will carry into his marriage thinking that it is normal and acceptable behaviour. How did women fall so far?

MATTHEW 6:22-23: "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. "But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

I have seen in countries such as the Middle East, parts of Europe and Asia the men treat their own women with respect and dignity, they treasure and respect them. But on the alternate side of the coin some of them see a Caucasian woman and they think it is fine to grab or talk lewdly to her. Of course this behaviour is disgusting but can you really blame these men? Think of the movies, media and behaviour exhibited from Western countries. These men think that is is normal! Because all they have ever seen of our world is sexual display and uninhibited behaviour.

PROVERBS 5:18-21: "… rejoice with the wife of your youth…. Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; And always be enraptured with her love. For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman, And be embraced in the arms of a seductress? For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, And He ponders all his paths

I continue to pray for our country, city and this parade.

EPHESIANS 5:11-12: "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret."

Making chutney

I spent a lovely afternoon yesterday baking and making chutney, my darling husband made several loaves of bread which had the neighbours children over here in a second. I usually don't do much housework on a Sunday just the bare minimum but as I find cooking and baking so much fun and not tiresome I tend to do some on a Sunday.

It was such a beautiful afternoon yesterday. we enjoyed having some friends over to pray with us. And they impressed again that they feel that the Lord will make our house a place of great fellowship and prayer-I pray that their impressions come to pass here. May we hear many voices together in worship here. I also spent some time in our garden marvelling at the blessings of the Lord- our beans,cabbages and lettuces are rapidly growing!

I found a lovely recipe for chutney in a book called 'Taste of life' by Julie Stafford. Her recipes are so healthy and cut out alot of unnecessary sugar.

date and apple chutney

4 apples peeled,cored and grated

500g dates,chopped

2 onions finely chopped

1 cup raisins,sultanas or apricots

1 teaspoon chilli powder

2 cups orange juice

6 whole cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1 1/2 cups wine or cider vinegar

Place ingredients in a large saucepan and bring slowly to the boil over a low heat, simmer for one hour or until a thick,soft consistency.Spoon into sterilised jars and seal when cold.The flavour will improve if left for at least a week before using.

I used white vinegar instead of wine vinegar and replaced the allspice with extra ginger and cinnamon.

The Bible in fifty words

Recently we had a visiting speaker at your church, he read us 'the bible in fifty words'.I loved it so just thought I would share it here.

The Bible in 50 Words

God made

Adam bit

Noah arked

Abraham split

Joseph ruled

Jacob fooled

bush talked

Moses balked

Pharaoh plagued

people walked

sea divided

tablets guided

promise landed

Saul freaked

David peeked

prophets warned

Jesus born

God walked

love talked

anger crucified

hope died

Love rose

Spirit flamed

Word spread

God remained.