A Ray of Sunshine.

It wouldn't surprise me if I am not the only one who has hit a spot of crisis fatigue.  Some days have been exhausting.  Some days my nerves have felt shot.  There must be many of us feeling the same.  Vicky and I were talking about this.  Vicky is a person who makes the best out of every situation and is always cheerful.  

Years ago I realised that circumstances and cheerfulness are not necessarily related.  We have all known people who have every blessing and resource yet they are always miserable and complaining. Not only that they do nothing to help others.  And we all know people who have it tough in life (or with their health)  yet are always cheerful and helping others.   So go figure...

I have spoken before about my Nan's good friends who taught me this.  One was Mrs. Smith who had Polio when she was young and lived her whole live on crutches.   She was so cheerful and sewed both my babies beautiful clothes and gifts.  She just did what she could to help everyone!  
And there was Mrs. Mann who was in a wheelchair with both legs amputated.   She was another happy and generous person.   She knitted stunning outfits for all the babies and I still have some she gave me to this day.   Both these ladies were rays of sunshine.   
There was also Mrs. Birze. She and her family escaped (in a dramatic and desperate way) from WW2 Europe and came to Australia.  They become Nan's neighbours.  The horrors they had been though...  They knew almost no English so Nan began to teach them and they became life long friends.  She was a person who was another absolute ray of sunshine.

So how do we overcome our worries and be like them?  And how do we nurture ourselves so that we keep up our own strength, spirits and faith?  

Well over to Vicky, this is what she wrote...

How do we feel at peace these days when it seems everyday is filled with something new that is bad news? A pandemic, riots, restrictions, job losses and shortages. Is this all temporary or is this the new norm? I have a feeling it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Annabel's conversation with the older gentleman and his saying there will be another depression struck a chord in so many of us. Could this actually happen? 

Many of us have had feelings that we need to prepare and are either starting or continuing in those efforts so that we can stay ahead and hopefully ride out anything coming, but I have also spoken to some who feel overwhelmed and panicked from the Covid virus and are really riding the edge of being depressed and just too stressed out from it. 

This got me thinking. I remember my great grandmother telling me that even though they had to work hard and had very little that some of her happiest times were coming home after church and just sitting on the porch with tea. 

The Bible says tribulation gives rise to patience and also "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer" 

I think we are all learning patience, but being of good cheer can be a bit harder when it's getting harder on us to navigate through what was our normal routines or something that should be easy like getting groceries or seeing the doctor. 

In times like these we need to embrace simplicity and the joy we can get from it, letting the small things fill our hearts with happiness as we go about our work of preparedness and stocking our pantries, trying to stay ahead and taking care of home and hearth. 

When my granddaughter comes to stay she reminds me to do this. That child finds so many things I take for granted delightful and wonderous! The things I have tucked away are brought out and enjoyed, from her little tea set and a small pitcher that is just her size so she can serve lemonade and small colander of strawberries she picked herself. 

We need to do this for ourselves as well. Do we really need a special occasion to use the things we may have tucked away and love? When the world is so chaotic it's easy to get pulled along with it, but if we strive for a bit more simplicity we can find  patience and good cheer both. Appreciate the small things as we go about our days and we are better able to deal with the big things that come our way. 

That being said here is what I have been up to:

I have been collecting pinecones to use for fire starts and decoration. They are so small this year!

I weeded under one of the pine trees to move some blueberry bushes under there for my granddaughter and found a raspberry bush start growing among the weeds. This makes me happy because I want lots of berries growing here and one day a bumper crop will give more options with food storage. 

We planted a Victory garden this year and I'm usually out there everyday tending to this and that. This week I pruned and tied up most of the tomato plants. It's coming along nicely and with around 200 tomato plants I am sure I'll have enough to can and share as well. 

And I started making little bags of fabric softener beads to use as gifts. I cut some brown paper into squares and glued on flowers I cut from a magazine and zipped them through my sewing machine. I'll fill them with store bought softener beads and glue them shut. I love taking just ordinary things and embellishing them a bit. They will just need to be torn open to use, but to me it's prettier than a plastic bottle and can be added into a basket with some clothes pegs, etc. for a nice little gift. 

XOXO

Vicky

Every day Vicky and I chat online.  Our conversations are always made up of some dumb thing we find hilarious, what we have been doing at home, the garden and the pantry...  and we encourage each other.   It reminds me of the verse in Luke where the woman finds her lost coin and calls her friends to tell them and celebrate!  We need that.  Someone to celebrate our small victories.   Someone to tell!

I try to make this a place like that as we might not have a neighbour or friend interested in our progress and achievements.   They might not see what we do as an achievement at all.
But each thing we do to build up our home, manage our economy and care for our family is an achievement!  

I am a person who needs some alone time and quiet time.  I need to be able to think.  I am better if I write things down.  I need sunshine and plenty of sleep.   The garden, nature and outdoors do me good.  I find crochet or stitching calming.  If I am nervous or worried I will clean and bake... and channel my nerves into action.
A cup of tea and climbing into my comfy bed with clean sheets, a bubble bath and a heat pack on my neck are my go dos when I need to feel better.

Happily many things that are just beautiful and nourishing for bodies and souls are easy and inexpensive.   There are ways to spread happiness and joy for ourselves and others that make a world of difference.

Vicky used old pyjamas that she cut up to make the prettiest cleaning cloths above.   I feel happy just looking at them!

I brought out a fresh chocolate cake from the oven for afternoon tea.  Same effect ...  a little ray of sunshine in the afternoon.

Sometimes I can pick free flowers and this works every time for me.  Playing with flowers is just beautiful.

Simple foods are a hit.  A bowl of soup and a toasted cheese sandwich is thrilling when you are hungry and tired.   I make a Bread and Butter Pudding from left over bread and jam.  it is so divine yet made of stuff many people throw out.  

Having your table set nicely is cheerful.  Things don't have to be fancy to be lovely.

For children an extra story at bedtime or time together is beautiful.  When I was little my Great Aunt used to brush and braid my hair for me.  I would sit there, at her feet,  for any amount of time as I loved the dreamy feeling of my hair being done.  She would plait it tightly and it would last ages.   

Nan would tuck me into my bed at her house.  Her sheets were crisp and you were tucked in so tightly your liver could barely function but it was somehow so nice and secure.  The sheets smelled of sunshine.  The bed had been warmed by a hot water bottle.

So you see many things that are nurturing cost nothing at all.   We need them for our families and ourselves.

What are some ways you can take care of yourself when under extra stress and worry? 

Do you have ideas or memories of things that are good for children or others in the household that make a difference?    

Something encouraging to me has been the number of times I have heard people say they grew up in hard times, the war, a family who had very little... just they never realised until much later!   They just never knew as life was good and happy!   

So that is what I am thinking on.  There is a lot to think about.  Today is a beautiful day and I have had some time to think and plan.  This helps me.     I am sure Vicky's words will help you tooxxx 

Happy New Year! Its 2019!

Last night we had new years eve dinner with Chloe and Luke.  It was a beautiful mild evening and we ate outside at their big table.  Chloe had made a giant pavlova for desert.  

I was happy to hear them both seriously review their year and also be surprised by it!  Luke listed some of what 2018 had held for him and amazed himself when he considered it all!
Earlier in the evening I had read to Andy the list I had made of significant things for the year.  It was a long list!  He also was immediately surprised and grateful how far we have come and how many things we just have to be thankful for.

As we drove home the sun was setting right in front of us.  It was the hugest and pinkest sun I think I have ever seen!   It was stunning!  All the grasses on the roadside were tinted pink as it cast a pink glow over everything.
As we got home the sun had set and left a beautiful glow over the property.  I wish I had taken my photos sooner but I wanted to take a photo of the sun setting on 2018.

This morning we have a brand new year.   It is a brand new opportunity.  Imagine how many people with hours of days left to live would love to have this year ahead of them.  With one more year gifted to them I wonder what they would do with it?

Imagine how many would love to have one more year with someone they love.  Well, that applies to us all.   But here we are with that opportunity with those we do have that are here with us.  

Today I am thinking about challenges to set myself and changes to make.

Sometimes one small change can make a world of difference.

It is a year since I made one small change.  I stopped eating wheat.   It sounds small but it took adjustment.  With that one change I no longer live with daily pain in my legs (which started when I was maybe 3?) and later became an ache all over at times.   All my pain is gone.  Just like that. 

Another is it many months since I started drinking a couple of litres of water a day.  Lana got me going on that.  This has made an amazing difference to me.  Now if I skip it I feel really thirsty so it is easy to continue.  But at first it was quite hard!  

Other changes I can think of that turned into huge things were buying up whenever I saw something half price that we use a lot.  I pretty much filled a whole pantry this way.

Gardening every day even if for only five minutes.   This habit is very relaxing.  It took me from no garden what so ever to a full veggie garden in just a few months.   

Ok, usually the five minutes turns into half an hour or more.  But the power of a little each day is truly amazing.  It adds up so much! 

The garden is the most basic demonstration of "you reap what you sow"  i.e. you plant tomatoes, surprise surprise you harvest tomatoes! 

Many things that seem insignificant really surprise you when you multiply them by the fifty two weeks of a year.   My $8 coffee and cake per week was turned into a full cellar of food and preparations in 2015.   I stopped spending that money and used it on half price specials so it gave me $16 worth of long life food, batteries, matches, candles and so on to fill my cellar with useful goods. 

What I ended up with after a year was worth so much more than a coffee with a slice of cake.

Before that I learned to make a really good pizza and we gave up ordering Friday night pizza.  In one year that saved a ridiculous TWO AND A HALF THOUSAND DOLLARS.   I am not so stupid now but I was then lol.

You get the idea.  The daily coffee, weekly take out etc all surprise you when you calculate the weekly amount then times it by 52! 

Equally powerful are changes that relate to health, diet, housekeeping etc.  Small things really add up!   

So today I am planning my goals and changes I want to make.   We are quite well set up here now.  Fully unpacked and settled in.  The huge amount of work this all took is mainly done.   Now I can turn my efforts to other projects.  Straight away I have things come to mind.... plant more fruit trees,  establish a fantastic woodpile,  build up my gift cupboard, build up our emergency fund,  crochet a rug to match the lounge and so on...

In the next few days I am posting my goals and challenges!  I am really excited and have a gorgeous new planner.  I got as far as setting it up and writing in all the birthdays and celebrations,  names and addresses and so on.   I will work on it more today.

What would you like to achieve this year?   What small changes would really add up?

Do you have a huge project that would seem possible if you could break it down to five minutes a day? 

If we start today 2019 could be the year of getting stuff done.

The year of improving our health.

The year of learning new skills.

The year of savings...

The year of home cooked meals...

The year of bed time stories. 

The year of.... ???

I am off to water the garden and think it over!

xxx

Being grateful for the year that was.

On this last day of the year I am amazed by 2018.  It has been a whirlwind.  In the middle of the year we did not even know we were moving.  And here we are set up in our farmhouse, surrounded by gum trees and birds.   A new garden is planted.  I am harvesting tomatoes, lettuce and zucchinis.  I have new chickens, an apple tree covered in fruit and a walk in pantry!

As with Feather your Nest Fridays it is important to consider the whole year just as it is important to consider the week that has been.  If not it all goes by in a blur!  How can we appreciate what we don't stop to even notice?

Over the next week I am going to write a series of posts and set the scene for 2019.   At last I can get back to blogging as I did before we were moving.  Usually I have set some themes each year.  I am really excited to do this again.

One thing I noticed this year is how much I know now to always listen when you feel prompted.   It took me a long time to learn this. Earlier in life I had many times when I had a strong feeling about something but I would think "oh don't be silly" and try to ignore it.  This always ended badly!  Eventually I learned NOT to do that.  This had caused some pretty major disasters before I learned my lesson.
Now I recognise the strong feeling or prompting is a whisper from God.
Four years ago now I first had a really strong prompting to set my empty cellar to good use and stock it as a pantry.  And so I did.  We started on a journey and I wrote that up in my Pantry and Preparedness series.   This took me on a course of learning so many new skills!  I have loved it!

Perhaps a year ago I felt prompted again.  Suddenly I saw that I could improve our preparedness a lot more and we had the opportunity to move back to the family farm.  It all fell into place incredibly.  
My heart was readied and it took renovating and selling our Adelaide house  (huge amount of work)
moving ourselves,  renovating a messy farmhouse,  starting a new garden from scratch,  and establishing a homestead.  All with a wedding in the middle!

It has been so go go go that it has been hard to find time to really soak it all in.  The last few days I started to write down all we did and all the happened this year.  I just write a dot point and then another...
We have so much to be grateful for.  That prompting turned into a huge adventure.
 I know many other Bluebirds also felt a prompting to get more prepared,  stock up,  move to improve their position.   So many of you are on a similar journey!
Now you do not need to move to build up your home.  Many people have a kind mini homestead in the city.  We can bloom where we are planted!
The important thing is to listen if you feel prompted.  Never ignore a feeling.
If you get an opportunity make the most of it.  Grab it with both hands and recognise it as a blessing.  This might be a bucket of apples came your way!  It might be you found a major bargain.  It could be anything but if something good comes your way then make it into something wonderful.

Literally, if life gives you lemons, you can made so much!   One person with a bucket of lemons will waste them.  Another will make many delicious things plus gifts and even cleaning products!   That bucket of lemons will equal a couple of hundred dollars by the time she has finished with it.  I guess it is like that with pretty much everything.

So if 2019 is like a bucket of lemons what are you going to do with it?
We cannot control everything.  But we can control a lot.  Our daily habits,  weekly shopping, all our homemaking and cooking, the atmosphere in the house... so many things we have a lot of influence over.

We also have the opportunity to change, learn new things, implement plans and start anew.  There is nothing like a review and a new plan.   Like seeing an opportunity with fresh eyes!

So today is just about appreciating how far we came this year.  It was a significant year, maybe one of the biggest of my life.

What are the things that you feel grateful for?
Have you felt a prompting or a realisation that you need to change something, learn something, implement something?

Tomorrow we will focus on the new year.  Today I just wanted to be thankful for the awesome year that is closing.

Have a very Happy New Year! xxx

Never underestimate the Titus 2 Woman.

I have been thinking a lot about the people who have helped or influenced me a lot in my life so far.  It is as if a bigger picture is emerging and I am just starting to understand it!
Apart from my Nannas' and Mum there are women who helped me so much along the way.  Enough to have a lasting influence and an impact on my whole life and my children's children!

Some I have never met.  Some lived near by and helped me when the girls were little.  Some I knew briefly but they had a big impact!

But there is one thing they all have in common.  They were all Titus 2 women.  They were all older than me and they all, in one way or another,  were busy at home and teaching the younger women.
I am noticing a lot that even with Christians there are unpopular Bible verses.  Anything about women seems to be socially unpopular.  Yet there you go, the women who have had the most powerful impact on my life were Titus 2 women.

The cooking in this post belongs to Maria who is always cooking for her Grandchildren.

I think these are Miracle Muffins with pineapple, pumpkin seeds and coconut.

I have written before about some of the women that filled this role here.   I have been so lucky with the right people at the right time in my life.  Just now I am blown away actually at how blessed I am and the quality of the Titus 2 ladies that were there for me.  None of these women were particularly highly educated, particularly glamorous, or anything that the world would call outstandingly "successful".   They were Mum's who were ahead of me in years as a Mother and strong Christian women.  They stood out above all others to me.

If you read my link above there was Dorrie who was my neighbour when Chloe was a baby.  She was the next best thing to having my own Mum living over the road.   I am starting to wonder if she was an angel.

Choc fudge Cookies.

And there was Phyll who was a Mum and Grandmother. She cooked, gardened and worked so hard. She opened her home once a week for the young women to come for Bible Study.  All the kids were welcome!   In between times if you needed help or advice she gave it.   Everything she spoke was sound.  She told you the truth. She was sensible and practical! She spoke with wisdom!

Online I had Laine.  She was another who told it as it is.  Some women wanted to argue with Laine but she stuck to what the Bible says.  If you do not know Laine reading her letters is one of the best investments of your time you will ever find!
You can find her letters here starting with the article I am currently reading  Her Income.

I really like women who are willing to tell you the truth.  I am noticing a lot that the words of the Bible are very offensive to many people these days.  I heard this... that the truth is very offensive to people who hate the truth!  Well I guess so!  But it takes a good friend to tell you the truth as anyone will lead you along a merry path!  

Snickerdoodle Cookies.

Patsy is one of my friends that just reminds me of Mrs Starkey!  Read her article Get a Job.
I am sure that these two women are sisters separated at birth!  Yes they give it to you straight!  They tell you the truth.

Thanks to the fellowship of this blog I meet a lot of women who are either younger with children or older with Grandchildren.  The younger Mums  need encouragement that they are doing a good job and have a very important mission.
The world is telling them they are wasting their time and talents raising their children.   As older women we need to be letting them know that we know how hard it is!  That they are doing a wonderful work and that the time they are in now flies past!   Ages I wrote about my time when I was a single Mum and looking after the girls.... That is here... Your Time.   You are laying important foundations.  What you are doing will influence several generations (at least!)

Veggie Quiche.

The other group here are the older women,  ladies with grown family and maybe Grandchildren.  If you are in this group please read Laine's Letters on being a Grandmother.   Calling all Older Women would be a good place to begin.  But there is so much more!  Probably as an "older woman" you do not realise how important you are and what a huge difference you can make!

Both my Nans worked so hard for their families. were kind and generous to everyone.  They helped others, shared food and cooking.  Nan L taught the new neighbours English as they knew none when they arrived traumatised in WW2.  They became life long friends and like family.  She was talented at baking, knitting, spinning and dying her own wool.
Nan B always said "an ounce of help is better than a pound of sympathy" and was one to send a meal. She was a talented florist.  Her work appeared in many shows and books.
Someone said to me once  it is a shame they didn't "work" and perhaps the world missed out because they were homemakers.  Pfft! They cast so much work and influence down the line their legacies are immeasurable.

We just have to live in the season we are in!  Happily when we move out of one season we move into another!  Each season is beautiful!  Just different!

Beer Bread.

I am just starting to realise how much the Titus 2 women that were there for me helped us.  Because they helped me they helped the girls too.  I am gradually realising more and more how much my Grandmothers made a difference to my life. I always knew it was enormously but even that doesn't cover it.   As I get older I am realising some of what they did.

Last winter Maria made her Grand Children Monogrammed crochet blankets.

This year it is personalised scarves for winter. 💗

Kids are smart. When you make them something they see it as love!

Even Harper at three says "Nan Nan Bel MADE it for ME" I can hear Maria's Grand Children saying how their Nana made their scarves for them!

I was talking with Laine this week.  She now is a Grand Mother and a Mum to Lucy who they adopted and homeschool.   She helps homeschool the Grand kids as well.  And she helps her parents. I saw her go from a young busy Mum to a Titus 2 woman and here I am with grown children and Grand Children too!
I asked her how does she manage so many roles?  After all the first thing is to take care of our own households, husbands and children, then Grandchildren then help the other younger women...
Well lets just say life is busy! Sometimes we have to pray about how to manage our time and what our priorities are or we would never manage it all!  

Softest hankies made by Mimi.

Mimi manages being a Nan and a Mum. 

Her  daughter at Uni is bring home new uni friends to Mimi's cooking. 

And she is making cakes and gorgeous things for little Grand daughters as well!

I am noticing on social media literally thousands of chances a day to be a helpful older woman.  I see young Mums asking "how do I menu plan?"  and "what can I cook for dinner I have $50 left for the fortnight?" and a million such questions.  There is a need everywhere for teachers,  mentors, encouragers and friends.   You really never know what a difference you will make.  A world of difference would be my guess. 

I hope your week is going well! xxx

Joy in the simple things.

After my post on Friday I headed off to see my Aunt.  She had messaged me and said she has ripe plums and to come and pick them!  So off I went!

It was a gorgeous afternoon!  The plum tree is huge and it was covered in beautiful huge lilac plums.  The prettiest colour!  And there were so many!  I was armed with baskets,  my Aunt was armed with buckets and we chatted and worked away picking fruit.  It was a pretty warm day too but mostly we were in the shade of this beautiful tree.   We filled container after container.   Then we took a break.  I felt we had been doing a pretty good job but when I stood back and admired our work you couldn't even tell we had picked any!  We literally made no impression at all!  The tree was still absolutely covered!

We decided a cup of tea would be a good idea and took a break.  There were stories of some of my Dad's adventures and plum recipes.   My Aunt always makes a pot of tea and gives me a big cup and saucer covered in roses.

I wear pearls a lot but as I was talking with my Aunt I decided I need to wear them all the time.  She was wearing the most gorgeous large baroque pearls and they were so lustrous they lit her face in a kind of halo of light.  They were so stunning.  So note to self to wear my pearls.  And here she was having an afternoon of fruit picking wearing her pearls.
I told her how stunning they looked and she told me she always wears them to bed.  That way if an ambulance comes they will see her wearing her pearls and treat her well.
Maybe I better start wearing my pearls to bed!

With a very hot day forecast my Aunt was organised to stay indoors the next day.  She had drinks in the fridge and a plan if the power goes out.  I also noted she has a cooler in the lounge room and a cooler in her bedroom.  Just the lounge room was on and she would swap when she goes to bed if it was hot.  With power prices now it is much easier to heat or cool one room you are using than a whole house.  Most of our homes are open plan now as when they were designed electricity was affordable.  Now the rooms you can close up are probably much more sensible!
Other aspects of her preparedness are her rainwater tank,  plenty of supplies and her hammer near the front door in case she needs to smack someone in the head.

Then it was back to more plum picking.  Now I am thinking of what to make.  Plum jam,  crumble (crisp), cobblers, my use it up fruit cake with yoghurt...  Then I am considering exactly how much freezer space does Mums freezer have now?
My Aunt knew that most of the fruit trees I had to pick from near me are now all knocked down.  She said as she rides her bike she sees new houses going up and they plant a lawn and have a couple of trees or shrubs planted out the front.  She said what a waste. They could have fruit trees!  "People think just because there is plentiful food now that there always be"  but one day they will be sorry...

So it was wonderful and joyous and I loaded all these baskets into the car.   My Aunt said how it runs in the family to love fruit trees and especially lemons and also to hate golf.   Generations have loved fruit picking, lemons and hated golf.  And here I am the exact same!
All this was great fun to me.  My Aunt increasingly reminds me of my Nanna which is really nice.
Nanna was so happy with simple things like some flowers or some eggs and some lemons!  I can't think of anyone happier than she was.  She was just so enthusiastic and so friendly.

My Dad mentioned this last time we went mushrooming.  I said how Nan would have had a great time.  And Dad said oh yes she would love it!  And how he remembers picking up wood for the fire and Nan would be so excited to be picking up wood!  She would say "oh look at this beautiful bit" and he laughed, he said she could get excited over a nice tree stump. haha!

So all this joy over simple things.   Yesterday I started making jam and I cut up enough plums to make a crumble.  I was so happy doing this.  I couldn't have had a better day!   The colour of the plums is beautiful, a deep ruby.

I have days of working through my baskets of plums.   Nanna would have loved it!
Nanna had a way about her. She could get anyone to do anything.  One time the Doctor came to her house as a house call.  While he was there she asked him if he would go up the ladder and clean the kitchen light as she could't manage it and he was tall. And he did.

I am thinking it is a bit wonderful to find simple things so much fun!  By bedtime I am thinking this was a beautiful day.  Being industrious like this just makes my heart happy!

What are the simple things that you really enjoy?   I can think of so many.  Picking up bags of pinecones for the fire,  going to the beach, picking flowers for the house, collecting eggs...
I said recently that I would rather be making jam than on a jet.  Truthfully I would rather be home than most places!  I love a good outing but honestly I am heading off tomorrow down south to see Hilde,  go op shopping with her and to the discount grocery store and fruit and veggie shop.  I am looking forward to this so much you would think I'm going to the French Riviera.    😊

Have a great week!  xxx

The world within your walls.

Last year I found myself feeling heartbroken. The world around me seemed to have gone mad.

During my life so far Christian persecution was something that happened overseas and we were very lucky to be free here.  But all of that has gradually changed.
I felt like I would like to stop the world and get off if this is how it is going to be.
I also feel like get me out of the city and on to a farm away from some of this!

My heart and peace were really disturbed.  I just never have seen such a fast decline of many things all at once!

I decided to read my Bible and do some study every day.  And from day one I started to feel better.
From that day I saw this has always been the way.  We are not meant to conform or fit into the world. We are meant to have the Word of God as the light for our feet and keep to that.   What the world thinks doesn't matter.

I read and re read Laines Letters.  Years ago she shared a story of how her son was the only young man in the Christian Youth Group who would take a stand against pornography!  And later how he was given a terrible time at his place of work because he was a Christian.  It was awful.  You expect it in the world but you don't expect it at Church!
The other day when I saw a Church near us with a sign out the front openly promoting sin that I finally thought... this is it.  All is lost.

Now I have had time to think about this.  No, it is not new.  It is just more up close and personal that it has ever been in my life.  So that is confronting.  But so far at least we are still free inside our own
homes and no one can take away from you what you believe  in your heart.   Peace in the home and peace in our hearts give us rest.

Even if you don't relate to this you will probably relate to feeling the news is depressing and that you see things in society you find downright scary.  Or that when things are running smoothly at home you feel so much better, happier, calmer.   From any perspective the atmposhere in your home matters a lot.

From all of this I know that keeping our homes a place where we feel safe, peaceful, nurtured and relaxed is so important!  Our home is our sanctuary!  So this year we are going to have a series on keeping your home feeling beautiful, comfy, calm and welcoming.  We need that.  Our families need it too.  

I started by reading my Bible.  I immediately was reminded "do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed"  and plenty on the subject that tells us if we follow along and agree with the world we are on the wrong path!

It is also plenty on coming away and having nothing to do with terrible things.  Instead we are advised "whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Philippains 4:8-9)

So this is my mission or one of them!   If I keep to thinking of good things, reading encouraging and beautiful books,  leaning new skills and working on something lovely then I feel happy.

I started my daily Bible and study.
I began re reading Laines Letters.

Immediately I felt better.
I read where Laine said "I don't listen to the worlds words much anymore"  and how she found so much peace just trusting the word of God to be true forever.

If you need peace and encouragement just read your Bible every single day!
If you haven't read Laine's Letters they can be found here.  They are the best encouragement and guidance I have ever found!  They also serve as a very easy way to do a Bible study.

I also have found Jenny of Elefantz (see my favourite blogs on the side) is a place of peace an beauty. There is a Facebook group called Gentle Domesticity that is just lovely and fits the bill for the above verse about whatever is beautiful, whatever is lovely. It is so peaceful!  This gives me a daily lift.

Some of the ways we can create a peaceful haven in our homes include:
Deciding what to say yes to and deciding what to say no too!  Being too busy is guaranteed to ruin peace in the home.
Your organisation and decor.  If you feel a mess and overwhelmed you are getting no relaxation at all!
Keeping beautiful things to look at everyday.  This might be flowers,  family photos, beautiful words to think on,  things you love as part of your decor, childrens drawings...

The way your house smells!  haha this sounds bad!  But I like things to smell clean and good!
The way your house sounds.  Happy music while you work.  I mostly hate background noise and never have the TV on in the day.  Give me birds chirping any day!
Interruptions. If I let it I would have to answer the phone during dinner every night to someone trying to sell me something. Just no way!
A routine.  I like a routine of chaos.

The garden and plants.  They are part of my surroundings and give a lot of peace and calm.

We need to work out how to get time for reading good things,  learn new things and create beauty?  I know I am much happier if I have time to work on something creative.   This really increases my contentment!  And something else... I find I am thinking lovely thoughts as I work away.

How can each person have a space of their own that makes them feel nurtured and happy?
How can we carve out for ourselves a quiet space or a craft/sewing/writing space in a full and busy household?
If we love feminine things how can we have these for ourselves in a house full of boys!?
Do you feel you should decorate in a certain way because it is fashionable but your don't even really like it?  Did you inherit or somehow get stuck with decor that bugs you?
Are there small changes you could make that would make a big difference to how you feel at home?
We are going to consider all these things!

I have known for a long time just what I like and some of what I need.  I like light, white, calm.

Quiet, flowers, pantries, baking, the house to smell good.  Clutter or a big mess unsettle me.
I struggle to get the "being home and doing things out of the house" balance right.  If I am out too much everything suffers.   The wheels fall off! haha!

My home is far from perfect.  I get in a mess.  My spare room is terrible at the moment!  The dining room table is my sewing centre right now.
I am really lucky to have a nice house.  But I have made each home nice, ordered, clean and pretty.   I have painted four houses top to bottom.  I have wallpapered, stencilled,  gilded, decoupaged, you name it!   The truth is most of my furniture is really old.  My lounge was Mum and Dad's fifty years ago. My dining table was Nan's.  A lot of my stuff came from the side of the road!   I have a beautiful dressing table found in an old farmhouse.  I paint everything white so completely random things kind of go together!   I have collected many mirrors free and I use them to hide bad bits and reflect the good stuff!   I do all this knowing that my surroundings affect me so much.

We wake up to, walk into, breathe and absorb it all.  So does our family.  And it just seems that as women we have a lot of power to set the scene,  create a home,  set an atmosphere.   The world within our walls is mostly up to us.

What is it that makes you feel nested at home?  How can you make things feel more like "you" as well as a haven for each member of the family?   Maybe I better take some photos of Andy's havens.  I will do that as he has a large music room, an office and a "man shed" haha!  But these are his personal spaces and he is not drowned out by feminine stuff.

For both of us we need a retreat from the world and we are going to have to have less media or a shoe will go through the televisions screen sometime soon!

How do you quieten things down and feel restored when the world is too much?

The next post in this series will be about choosing what to say yes to and what to say no to!  We have to say no sometimes and be good at it.  I used to find it awfully hard to say no!

And so ends week one and me posting everyday!  I hope we got off to a good start for the year.  We have set the scene for several challenges and set up our plans.  Tomorrow I will have a slow day,  plan the new week and keep myself on track!   A little planning on the weekend makes a world of difference!  xxx

Setting the scene part 4. The Vicky Challenge.

To get the year going we have thought about our dreams and goals and set up our diaries and planners or whatever system works for us.

Then we had lots of inspiration from Vicky, seeing what she achieved last year and just what is possible.   You can do big things in a year! 

Yesterday we started thinking about what we want to make, use up, learn as far as crafts and present making for the year go.  And I got started and made my first thing which is a ballerina pillowcase for Harper.   Today I have lots of cutting out to do.

Now we are facing the finances and savings!  I know many of you are having big financial challenges.  Some are paying things off.  Several I know are working to build good emergency funds. 

In 2016 I started The Vicky Challenge which is what I called it because I just copied what Vicky did!  

She told me she always recorded her savings from her own work and efforts at home as a personal challenge to herself and also an answer to anyone who said the familiar "Oh, you don't work then?" 

When you looked at her savings it was tough to figure out if she would earn more if she worked outside the home or not.  Probably not.  

A few years ago we gave up take aways and I learned to make a good pizza!  Don't have a fit but this saved $2600 in the first year!   Now I keep ahead with meals in the freezer so I am never caught out.

Years ago I used calculators on a website called Crown Financial Ministries.  It helped you work out how much you were making per hour at your job.   I sat and did this with my friend who had two babies and she was considering going back to work.   You went through a process of starting with your wage then subtracting tax, childcare and all work related expenses such as uniform, fuel etc. etc.

Then you considered more extended work related expenses like having less time so buying more ready made and convenience things,  the work rated social things that always seem to come with any job, the things you end up outsourcing due to having less time.

With this final figure you divided it by the hours worked.

Hers worked out to be about $1 an hour profit after all that was taken out.

She was amazed.

Yet many people never even do the maths! 

At the time I said to her how she could SAVE hundreds a week with her work at home and we started coming up with lots of ways to save instead.   

This exercise taught me that saving is like income that is not taxed! 

One of my easiest meals for the freezer are pies.  I found anything I make in the slow cooker i.e. a chicken, lamb or beef casserole makes the most delicious one filling.  And pies freeze beautifully! 

The way Vicky did things really amazed me and I wanted to try it! I love a challenge and I like the motivation.  So from Jan 1 2016 I wrote down all my savings week by week.  I kept a list on the fridge and at the end of the week I would add it all up.   I counted  things like the savings I made from making things from scratch, supermarket savings,  making meals for the freezer instead of buying takeaway, mending,  packing lunches etc.

I didn't count the normal things I do like cleaning the house.  But if you had a house cleaner and took it over yourself in order to save then I would count that.  

So it is up to you what you count and how you approach it.

The first few weeks I was amazed by my savings!  At the end of the year my total was well over $30,000.  I took on big things!   I was quoted $25,000 to get my house painted and I did it myself for $3000.  So I "paid" myself $22,000!   

In 2015 I started on soap making.  I included Miracle cleaner, Wool wash, laundry detergent, bubble bath, hard soap... 

This supplies us and also adds to my gift cupboard. 

If you want to read more about this challenge read Welcome to the Vicky Challenge.  There is a link in this post too back to when Vicky first explained it to me.   I have found this such a motivating exercise I will be doing it again this year.  Last week I added up all my savings for 2017 and I beat the year before by several thousand dollars!   I could see each individual way I saved for the whole year.  Andy could see each one and the totals. He was amazed.  You really have a great sense of achievement.  Starting again now I am determined to beat last year! 

In 2015 I did a challenge that I found on Money Saving Mom.  This was amazing and such an eye opener.  You had to find 52 ways to save $100.  Each one could be anyway it added up to $100 i.e. it could be a one off saving such as rising up your insurance company and getting a lower rate. Or right down to 100 ways to save $1.  I remember giving up a weekly coffee and cake I had for $8.  When I worked out that saved $416 a year I was able to cross off  FOUR of my $100 segments!  

You can find this challenge here:  52 Ways to Save at least $100.  I really loved it and I learned a lot.  And it really saved me $5000 plus!   If you want to establish an emergency fund, get some savings, pay something off... this is fantastic.  Many of my savings ended up being different to Money Saving Moms but I also got heaps of amazing ideas from her.  The biggest thing was calculating the ANNUAL cost of things rather than the weekly cost.   Things that seem small and harmless suddenly seemed enormous. 

Some of my $100 savings areas were things I stopped doing rather than things I started.  i.e.  organising my fridge better and checking through it twice a week to make sure nothing is wasted.  So much food is thrown away and it is just money down the drain.  A simple habit of adding what needs to be used up into your menu plan can be a huge money saver.  

Each of these things really helped me to see my work at home as a real income and to see the potential.  Last year I found new savings.   This is the amazing thing... just when you think you are doing great you find new ways to save.   My sour dough was one thing.   Yoghurt making was another.  This saved me at least five dollars a week on yoghurt but then also gave me further savings as it replaced ever needing to buy sour cream, I make my own raita, tatziki and it adds nutrition to cakes and muffins as well.   One thing leads to another!

Then I learned to make my own enchilada sauce (also thanks to Vicky) and ridiculously, this one thing saved about $12 each time I make a big batch of enchiladas!   Since I have an enchilada cook up about once a month that is $144 a year on this one small thing.

Butter chicken spice mixes, Enchilada mix, cream of Chicken soup, french onion soup mix. 

I use all these so much!   

Each one is a significant savings and none have any artificial anything as an added bonus compared to bought mixes.

Amazed by this I learned to make my own butter chicken mixtures and just about everything else that I ever used to buy in a packet! 

Menu planning and shopping at many more places was a major saver.  I was shocked at the price differences by going further afield.  It took me time but it was very well paid time!   Another way I think menu planning saved me was just a change of awareness of what I have in the house.  Knowing I am over twenty meals ahead and seeing that list I know I do NOT have to buy anything so I can wait for the deals.   Then I buy up.  

Another way this has helped me save is with the challenge to have a list of meals I have on hand I am always trying to add a meal to the list.... this seems to have made me much better at getting another meal out of things.  I am forever setting aside something because really the meal I am making has enough and I will save an ingredient for something else.  These ingredients often soon add up to an extra meal.  Mimi taught me a lot about that!  Once a week or so I get an extra meal just having a left overs night.  This could be making something creative with what is in the fridge or even having different things for dinner.  You know when you have a bit of left over this and a bit of leftover that?  I will say to Andy "would you like left over curry or left over chicken?"  He will say the curry... and I will eat the chicken!  Who cares if we are not both having the same thing!  I just got an extra meal and extended my list!  😊

This year I want to add selling things to My Vicky Challenge.  I know many of you already sell things and several that want to start.  Adding alternative income streams is a really good idea.   I have a few things in mind and I need to make it a habit and get good at it!   I used to sell cooking to a cafe and embroidery to a baby store.   I made and sold baby blankets,  embroidered sheets and pillowcases, ladies nighties, pram sets and toys. 

I created my own little characters and made scenes of such things as mice getting married,  pushing baby mice in prams and so on! haha!

When the girls were little I sewed into the night!  

I also have a stash of things I have accumulated knowing I COULD sell them but never got around to it.   So selling things is being added to my challenge. 

The Vicky Challenge is financial.  And finances are a big part of life!  But it does't take into account the other benefits of your work at home.  To me the biggest part of being home is about creating the home, atmosphere, a safe haven from the world!   Over the weekend I hope to work on a post about this.   

I will be back tomorrow with Feather your Nest Friday and sum up the week!  I hope your first week of  2018 is off to a good start!  

What are your savings goals this year?  

Have you thought about new ways to save and new ways to bring in more money?

What do you think would work for you as motivation?  I like to do challenges as these motivate me. But we have to do something that works for us.  Some people like spreadsheets, or apps or a wall chart.... work out what would work best for you.  Another reason I like a challenge is reporting how I am going here makes me think I better DO SOMETHING or I will have nothing to report!  If this works for you then join in and report here every week in our Friday round up. 

Some of you achieved fantastic things last year!  I loved hearing this! There were some big ones like loans paid off and deposits saved!  

I notice many things we can do seem very small.  But seeds are small too so think in terms of you are sowing seeds and sooner or later you will be reaping a harvest.   Lots of really small things add up.  I am always amazed by how much! 

It is going to take me a while to catch up with comments and replies for this week but I will get there.   I really wanted to get things going and set plans into action.   It is helping me heaps!   It is exciting to see the opportunity of a new year. xxx