Feather your Nest Friday, 9th January 2015.

I really hope you had a good week. I think goals and resolutions come into play as we get into some "ordinary" back to life days after all the holidays and celebrations. Keeping them at the front of your mind and keeping them from drifting away is the thing. I just re write them in some form every week or write some steps I need to take this week and that helps a lot.

Here it was very hot and now we have rain. As we had heat and bush fires the rain is wonderful! The garden is soaked and I can have a break from watering. That is my first saving to mention. It looks like I might not have to water for a week. What a help!

Today I had a lovely day as I visited my aunt. All the following photos are from my aunts garden.

Firstly I am allowed to have plums which are almost ripe. There are not buckets of plums to pick, more like wheel barrows full. Knowing this gives me time to prepare. I am planning to bake a plum cobbler that Helen makes as I can freeze those. Along with jam and eating fresh ones of course.

I came home with Hollyhock seeds which I hope to grow. They are between a cream and a lemon colour. I would love these in the garden.

The other things almost ready are Quinces. I just adore Quinces. Cooking them is just a joy as they turn from rock like to soft and deep ruby pink. They also have a wonderful scent.

The whole garden is inspiring as it is an ordinary size really with a huge amount of fruit trees all covered in fruit.

Plus flowers! I am pretty easily side tracked by flowers. The whole afternoon did me good. And the promise of fruit is lovely. I have jars saved up and pie dishes etc now I will stock up a little on sugar and things I need to make plenty of pies and also freeze stewed fruit as I love stewed fruit in winter.

Now to how I build up our home this week...
I have nothing to brag about with finances. We are waiting on the insurance company in regard to Andy's van. So that is a big thing this next week or so.

Otherwise I used the heat to my advantage while I could. I washed the underlay on the bed. It is a very thick wool underlay. If you did this in winter it would have to be tumble dried or professionally cleaned. By doing it in the heat it is dry and back on the bed by evening. I wash it in the machine with wool mix and I add Eucalyptus oil added to the wash. This kills dust mites plus makes it smell lovely.
It came up beautifully and after the day in the sun it was lovely and fluffy. Back on the bed it smelled of sunshine. The next hot days I will do the doona and pillows. This is a big saver and no chemicals either. Sunshine is a wonderful freshener and cleaner.

Also I have found something that probably most of you already know! I bought a beautiful old tablecloth from an op shop in white and it had yellowed stains. But the fabric was beautiful vintage damask so I risked it. After soaking I washed it and I could see that the yellowish marks remained. I decided to dry it on the line and that I would cut it up and use what I could. After two days on the line in the sun the stains were just gone! So after that my whitest whites tip became to leave things out in the sun for as many hours as possible. It makes them so white! And amazingly removes stains. (For free!)
The reverse is true for colours and black. I hang all the blacks in the shade so they never see the sun at all!

All the water from the washing was used on the garden at a time when it was needed most.

I bought a cooked turkey at a wonderful mark down. It gave us cold meat during the heat without ever turning on the stove and was so good. It was too much to get through fast enough so I froze two portions enough to make two pies or some into a mornay. So that is a couple of meals taken care of later.

I made a big rice salad and added lots of things. That was really good and used up all kinds of bits and pieces.

During the heat I covered all my smaller plants with umbrellas and sheets. It looked terrible but saved everything. In past years even tough things have burned. So now I have a box outside where I keep covering materials and out they come when it hits 40. This is a big saver.

Cleaning and arranging gave me happiness and made things look and feel nice. These things are no cost ways to improve the atmosphere and just feel better ourselves.

Today I am going pram shopping with Lucy! We are off for an afternoon of looking at baby things! Really this amounts to one of those diamond days in our lives. I will treasure it.

My aunt had a bowl of blossoms in her kitchen. Just blossoms in a little water floating in a pretty bowl. They smelled divine! So simple, lovely and stylish. And free from her garden.

How was your week and what did you do to save money and improve your nest? I note we all come from different places in the world and weather is a wildly varying factor! But everything else remains the same. The things that make a house a home, the things we can do to make a difference and the Word of God, this is why I think I can feel like someone I have never met is just like a sister! Because when we meet we are all sisters in Christ and there is a certain instant understanding. Many of us will have experienced finding it hard to connect with other ladies that have the same interests as they can be thin on the ground! This is probably why when I found Laine my heart just leapt to see there was someone who was exactly the person I needed right there for me! The beauty of the internet and blogs etc is that we can widen our net and make the most wonderful friends and location is no issue!

This is how I have found so much encouragement! Thank you! xxx

Do the next thing.

I first heard "do the next thing" from Elizabeth Elliot. Mum and I used to listen to Elizabeth Elliot tapes in the car.  From memory they were encouragement on daily life, life managing with young children and so on. They were lovely.

Ever since whenever I am overwhelmed or in a crisis I think to myself "do the next thing".  And how simple is that? It's right up there with the blog I love "If you do stuff, stuff gets done" somehow these simple phrases are just fabulous to me!

It's like pointing out the obvious. But the obvious can totally elude us in a crisis.

We have not had anything serious go wrong really just a few smaller things.  One constitutes a lesson learned and the sort of thing where you feel so upset but you know it's all fine and probably is going to do you good in the end. The other is Andy's work van died yesterday. I thought it was a break down and maybe a few days off the road (which is a few days of no income plus a repair bill) but it is not going to be fixed. Nope it's curtains.

I guess you would never say there was going to be a good time for this but this was a bad time. We have no way to replace this van just now unless insurance might cover what has gone wrong. So we are waiting to see.

I was in the supermarket and the lady in front of me looked just worn out. I blamed the heat for a minute. The check out girl asked her if she was ok? And the lady said she was but she was having a hard day... her husband was home sick and he has a disability and her young daughter is home with him and she has epileptic seizures and a brain tumour. I could have wept.

Then last night I read Pasti's blog A Working Pantry. http://aworkingpantry.blogspot.com.au/ Her blog is just a wonderful encouragement on building up your pantry. And it had turned out her own life had just become a testimony to WHY we should have a good pantry. My heart felt a bit broken really and our own problems settled into perspective.

Today I woke up thinking what will I do? I know. I'll do the next thing.

So I got stuck into a long list of things. Not one of them was really anything exciting, just jobs that needed doing. But you know how when you have achieved lots and things look and feel better because of it, you feel better. It is a good day. So I thought I would do that.

From Laines Letters I learned that keeping track of all the things you did in a day is a good thing. She would show her husband all the stuff she had been doing. She would show him how she had planted things in the garden etc. So I often track what I have done. Do you know the feeling when someone says "what have you been doing?" and despite the fact you have been flat out you can't think of anything to say?!  Well, this is my cure for that.

I open up my planner and leave it out. Then during the day write in everything I did. Somehow seeing the list grow is satisfying. Tonight I have a huge list! So many things were done today. And some of them were really lovely.

Some of my achievements were...

Unpacking the last of the beautiful dinner set my Mum gave me for Christmas. It is gorgeous. It also has a large serving platter.  I love the detail on it.

It was beautiful putting this away into my cupboard and having a re arrange.

Since I have all white everything looks beautiful together. Playing with china is always lovely.

Now it is all stacked and put away and so is everything that was still around from Christmas.

I did the floors, dusted and had a putting away stray items blitz.
I washed the bed linen and the thick woollen underlay from our bed. I washed it in wool wash and added eucalyptus oil to the wash. It came up beautifully and today was the day to do it as it was 38 degrees (100.4) so it dried in no time. Now it is fresh and fluffy and smells lovely.

I made a large rice salad as we hare eating cold meals while the weather is hot.
Andy installed shelves for me in the cellar.
I wrote a heap of emails and letters, sorted my crochet projects and made the dining room table look nice.

It was hot and I used recycled water to give the whole front yard a big drink. My hydrangeas are the thirstiest plants I have ever had. They wilt very quickly. But they are lovely and worth it.

By the end of the day even the budgie (Chippy) had a clean cage and benefitted from my housekeeping!

Well, conquering lots of things did make me feel better. And that made a happy day. Doing the next thing is a good thing.

I wanted to show you the gorgeous gift I got from Helen It is a t towel (kitchen towel) from Sweet Magnolia Farm. I have always loved that website and their beautiful country style things. Helen left the packaging it came in as it was just beautiful. Too good to unwrap. But look at what was inside! It even has a little bell so at Christmas every time you use it the bell jingles. It is honestly adorable. I can't put it away yet so it is still out. I feel cheery every time I look at it!

I am behind in my blog. I wanted to have my pantry post up but I am going to have to accept that the schedule I had planned has had to change a little bit this week.

It is awfully late but I thought turning the day around and making it productive was a good thing to post about. I can go to sleep feeling happy with the day. We all have times when we just don't know what to do. Just do the next thing. xxx

Feather your Nest Friday 2nd January 2015!

What a big couple of weeks! Busy, wonderful, tiring... lots of things all at once!
And a new year has arrived! We will be getting into savings right away. We need to build up our emergency fund and have quite a few resolutions and aims for the year!

Even though it was Christmas and New Year and so not your average week we still had savings and there were still ways we built up the home.

Last night we had a lovely night building up special time together and we splurged a bit on dinner out to celebrate the new year. It was just wonderful. We had the best time and the food was just amazing. It was worth it, really we celebrated, looked over the year we just had, and talked about our goals for this year. I loved it. Now to make up for it...


These are some of the ways we built up our nest last week...

We came home from the farm with figs! I love figs. They were from my brothers farm. I made jam with almonds. The almonds go in the last ten minutes. This is so good. When I was little my Dad and I loved this jam and we basically fought over the almonds. lol So when I grew up I resolved to put enough almonds in there that it's not a matter of life and death to get one! Andy loves this jam too. It goes well with cheese which might sound funny but its much like quince paste or fig paste in taste. I make all my jam in the microwave the tutorial is here Easy jam making. As I mentioned if you are adding almonds add them in the last 10 minutes which is after you have blended or mushed up the figs.

Figs have so many possibilities. I saved some in the fridge. Some to serve with soft cheese on a cheeseboard and some I roasted with roast chicken. I copied a meal I had once at somewhere fancy! ... it was roast chicken pieces with roast vegies, gravy and roast figs. I had never eaten figs this way and it was delicious. I added the figs in the last half hour of the roasting. It worked! It was beautiful.

Plus my jam has added to my pantry and I have a couple of small gifts.

I have been collecting storage containers for my cellar/pantry project. My beautiful friend Helen sent me these gorgeous jars as a surprise gift. Perfect and so pretty for storing all sorts of things. I just love jars! 

I saved money on my new diary/planner. Last year I had an Erin Condren planner and it was great but it was expensive. I am using an ordinary planner this year and added highlighters, sticky notes and the things I found most lovely about last years planner. I love it and it has saved me heaps of money. Also my pencil case is an unused glasses holder which is just perfect!

I know using a planner overall saves me so much time and money. And stress! I can plan my week to involve less trips out, save petrol and not miss birthdays or appointments etc. Plus it is really motivating for me. At the end of the day I write down things I achieved. It is one thing to have a to do list but we need to consider all we DID achieve and feel good about the work we did. When I see my list I (mostly!) feel satisfied with my day and sleep well on it! 

I want to share with you an idea that is very frugal and stylish. My friend Mimi sent me gifts and the wrapping!!! I didn't want to wreck the wrapping so I took photos! She uses good old fashioned butchers paper that you can buy by the roll. Then she writes artistically across it suitable words in french and uses tulle for ribbons. Tulle makes wonderful ribbons and bows very inexpensively.

So this is from Mimi and its so stylish and what an idea...

Mimi has a blog full of frugal and gorgeous ideas...A Tray of Bliss.

I hope you had a wonderful New Year. How did you build up your home and save money this week? And what new ideas can you use this year? Last year I saved in some major ways by trying new ideas. This makes me wonder what can I do differently this year to save and do better? It is really amazing when you find something that you know can work in your own household! Well I am hoping I learn lots of new things this year that will help us out.

Have a wonderful weekend.xxx

The garden of your life.

Today is the last day of the year. 2014 is coming to an end. This is a time of thinking about the year we have had. Goodness, when I write down all the important things that happened this year it is a long list! When I write down all we achieved that is a long list too! And my list of the ways we were blessed is a huge list and I'm sure there are many things I take for granted too and should be grateful for! Writing things down really makes you think about them and truthfully if I didn't do this I would have forgotten many amazing things that happened this year!

Tomorrow is a fresh new year. A planner with nothing written in it!  Just now it looks perfect and full of possibilities!

Planning is important. So important! The proverbs 31 woman didn't lay on the lounge all day she was one busy woman. She was a planner. She considered a field and bought it. She didn't wake up one morning owning a field. She considered it, planned it.  She has considered what to make and sell, what foods to bring from far away places, what needs doing so her family is ok in the depths of winter. Once winter arrives she is not afraid because she planned ahead and is all ready for it! It wasn't all a happy accident, she planned it!
To do all she managed the Proverbs woman was a big planner. You did not mess with this woman. If you suggested to her she spend her hours on line gambling I'm pretty sure she would not have listened to you! 

We reap what we sow! If you plant turnips, turnips are going to be what comes up. Which is excellent if you love turnips!
What do you want growing in your garden? If you want a garden full of hollyhocks and roses they are what you need to plant. And what do we need to weed? What weeds have come up in your garden that you know you don't want taking hold?  This is a funny one. A weed will creep in and you don't even notice it. But they are sneaky! Suddenly they have a strangle hold on on everything! Well, your garden out the back and the garden of your life are much the same thing.

Years ago a weed in my garden was soft drinks. In considering changes this year I remembered this. It was many years ago. And it wasn't very much maybe I bought two bottles of soft drink a week. But I decided to stop that. I can't even guess how much money that has saved me over ten years or so or how many chemicals from my body (and my families) and how many calories! Oh my goodness those numbers would be huge! 

If you are going to plant seeds plant the seeds of the virtues. Plant more faith, hope and charity. Plant seeds of things that are going to build up your faith, build up your family and home.

Every new years I give myself a pep talk. I look around for others to give me a pep talk! We need that. It is like if we were elite sports people but we didn't have a coach. We would probably slip into laying on the lounge and get ourselves the sack! Nope, we need to keep on track, set goals and plan.
If you are on a ship and about to set sail you need to chart a course! Or you could set off and see what happens I guess. But there sure are places I'd rather end up than others!
Similarly you can chart a course and then not bother to navigate daily and end up no where near where you were meant to be! We have to keep a close eye on the progress... 

So get out your pen and paper and start listing what you want more of and what you want less of and come up with a plan! If you have things that are just too daunting try the Flylady method of setting a timer and getting stuck into it for 15 minutes a day. Put on music and go for it. You will be amazed that even after a week you are winning!

I still cannot think of any better way to keep yourself on track than reading Lanie's Letters. The key she had was that our goals and our efforts should be focused on what we should be doing and finding great happiness in it. We need to know what our mission is. We need to know how important it is. We need to know there is no one else that can do this like we can. At least partly thanks to Laine when the girls were small I knew exactly what my mission was. There are a lot of people who want to distract you from your mission! They want your time, your money and they don't care about the welfare of your family. This is what advertising is! No! You have to be the guardian of your home and family. And yourself. If you don't know what your mission is how can you stay on track?

Do you know what the Bible says about how important your job is? The world likes to tell you that you are wasting your time rearing children, wasting your time in your home. Have a read up and you will see that taking care of little ones and all the things of a household is work that will affect GENERATIONS. Don't be swindled out of this. Gather and keep encouraging words in your heart.
We might have children that have grown up (like me) and the Bible tells us what we can be doing with any spare time we might have. Our lives are so full! I hear all the time about empty nest syndrome etc. If we open our Bibles we discover we have important work to do and how vital that work is. We also need to be thinking how we can look after ourselves and our health to keep on doing our work for as long as we can. To be well enough to enjoy it! Now not everyone enjoys good health in which case we do what we can! If you would like more inspiration on things to do when you don't know what to do have a look at what Kelley did this year. Well, one of the things Kelley did! The Pillowcase Project. In the current post she takes you inside the childrens' hospital and it is a very worthwhile read.

We all have twenty four hours in a day and seven days in a week. It is amazing what you can do and it is also finite. There are times that we have to make tough choices as we have to choose what to say yes to and what to say no to. Girls, we have to be tough on this. If we are weak and say yes to everything our family is going to suffer, we are going to be a mess. Our goals and dreams will be forgotten and replaced with someone else's. 

My lovely friend Mimi says we are the guardians of our homes and budgets. Laine said a similar thing... she was not going to let anyone de rail her from her mission. You are the CEO of your company and if you watch soap operas all day things are not going to go well!
If you were the boss and you were hiring someone to take care of your family would you hire you? Or would you sack yourself?! If you knew how important your job was you would be making the most of every minute.

So here are some of my goals for 2015!

Seeds...

To build up my pantry (cellar) and establish at least three months food supplies plus emergency supplies such as fist aid, candles etc.

To build up our emergency fund.

To make sure I have an hour and a half of busy physical exercise. This can be swimming, walking, gardening, housework...  I love it if our exercise can also make our homes sparkle and our gardens grow!

To turn my craft room into a craft cupboard and make the room into a little nursery as I am going to be a Grandma. 

To study up on being a Titus 2 woman and use Lanie's Letters as a year long bible study.

To make all of the birthday and Christmas presents for 2015 and get started now.

To join Samaritans Purse childrens' gift boxes.

Some of the weeds...

To use my time well. I got rid of a fair few wasteful things in  2014 and gained time. More of doing that!

Stop buying anything unhealthy and tempting and bringing it into the house.

To minimise the things that discourage me and drag me down. That is most often seeing negative articles or hearing people talk this way. We are to think on nice things and we are responsible for that. Replace anything that drags your spirit down with good stuff!

Whatever it is develop a plan. One of my key strategies is to know I will say yes to things that I should be saying no to! I used to be terrible with this. So whenever I am asked to attend something, donate to something or whatever I have practised and I say that I have to consult my diary and if I am available I will get back to the person. This is a life saver. My Mum was a big yes sayer! She just couldn't say no. She developed a system where she would blame the doctor. So she might say "I would love to but the doctor says I need to keep the children home" or some such thing! lol. But, you know, our hearts want to say yes, we feel guilty and we end up all over the place. And we mustn't! So I defer to my diary or else blame my husband! If it is someone about money I might say "I would have to discuss this with my husband" and I won't budge. And after all that would be true if it was significant. But that's one plan that works for me. 

Another is not to rely on willpower. My willpower is awesome during the day. Then it goes dormant at night apparently. So if I have biscuits in the house (for instance) they won't bother me during the day. But late at night they will cry "eat me" from the cupboard. So rather than rely on my dodgy willpower I just don't buy biscuits and I make them only for special occasions and gifts (and give them away promptly). You can beat yourself at your own game by not bringing the tempting thing into the house. Really that is easier. Don't set yourself up for failure. Set yourself up for success!

Even the biggest goal is made reasonably do-able by breaking it down into small daily tasks. Then you will achieve it! So break it down and work out what you need to do daily or weekly and write that in your planner. If you sit quietly once a week and look at your gaols, why you want them, why they are important, and keep that focus, you will get there.

Sharing your goals with someone can be so helpful. My friend Helen and I are building up our pantries together. We have decided we are both going to do this in 2015. This will be on the blog most weeks. Doing this we have great fun and end up talking about it and what we did. That is so helpful in keeping on track! Many things become really good fun when you have someone to travel the journey with. We can all share our goals and encourage each other. That is one of the things that "building each other up" is about. (1 Thes 5.11) I will be out doing something and will think "Oh, I can't wait to tell Helen about this!" :)

I will show you my planner in the next week as I set it up. 

Think about everything you have to be grateful for and about your dreams and goals for 2015. Be a planner and take steps every day to plant the seeds that you want to see grow in your garden. Sooner or later you will see them bloom! 

(This angel was my Christmas present from Andy! She is now in the garden and I can see her from the kitchen. He picked her out for me himself it was all a complete surprise! I was just amazed as I had always wanted an angel like this!)

Have a very Happy New Year! xxx

Our farm Christmas.

How was your Christmas? We were away as we always have Christmas at the farm and the whole family gathers there. My Dad is a farmer and my parents home is still the centre of the family and "home".

We arrived there on Christmas Eve. Most of the family arrived Christmas morning and there was a massive number of us with extended family who also brought family!

Mum has everything ready with the dining room set up a couple of days before. There were two huge tables ready to fit everyone. And her tree is in the corner of the lounge room with presents underneath. By the time we all added ours the floor was covered!

When everyone arrives presents are exchanged. There is a huge flurry of activity and excitement! It doesn't matter if you are young or old! This has been the same for the girls for every year of their lives. Not much has changed. My Dad often spend the day assembling toys, finding batteries and all of those things but now the youngest child is my brothers daughter and she is nearly a teenager.

This is my Dad with Lucy. This is special as he has been waiting for Lucy to have a baby for so long, he was like "WHAT'S taking so long?"  They were married in March and expecting in May but still what could possibly be taking so long!? So I guess Dad is keen to be a Great Grand Father. Years ago Dad had a major heart attack and wasn't meant to survive. But here he is and he still works full time and goes faster than most 30 year olds! I can't keep up with him anyhow! For the girls growing up my Dad was like their Dad too. He was really the number one man in their lives. I am so thankful of his good example. He would walk through fire for them and they really adore him. His speech at Lucy's wedding was really a highlight of my year. You know, when something is so precious you just count your blessings and am thankful as it would be too much to hope for and yet it happened...

Mum cooks a traditional roast lunch. Turkey, ham, ducks, stuffing, roast vegies, cranberry sauce and the whole works. And two Christmas puddings. Here she is dishing up a pudding...

The puddings are made a month or more in advance and Mum also makes some for gifts. Her puddings are famous! Another one comes out on New Years Day to start the year well!

Dinner is all the cold left overs (and about three days after which is glorious!) Oh and we brought home turkey and ham with us for a couple of meals too.

In the evening we went for a drive. Last Christmas I posted a heap of pictures of us all feeding my brothers deer.

This year at sunset we drove, fed the deer and looked at some Wedge Tailed Eagle nests. We saw two eagles up close but they were too quick for me to get photos of.  This is Kato feeding a deer. My brother keeps giant bags of carrots on hand just for the deer. They are crazy on carrots!

Andy and Chloe feeding the deer...

This is me standing next to a nest that has fallen down. It got so heavy the whole branch broke. That mass of sticks on my right is a nest on its side. Its really almost as big as me. After this the birds made a new one up a bit higher.

As I'm walking away you can see the new nest they built up the top of the tree... by now the light is getting bad as the sun is almost gone.

As the sun set I took a few photos. These giant nests still stood out in the trees! It was really beautiful.

By the time we got back to the farm house and all ready for bed we were all tired! It was a long day! But a good one and I am counting every blessing. 

And now we are home and back to it! My new diary/planner is out and these few days are lovely to think about the wonderful year we had and start to think about the new year. I will post again as usual for Feather your Nest Friday and next week we will start on the 2015 stock the pantry (in my case cellar) and emergency preparedness challenge. I really want to go from the beginnings of this to a well stocked cellar by the end of the year. It will be a big job!

I hope your Christmas was wonderful. Our families and lives are all so unique but this was my day! We were happy it was not a hot day, it was really mild and even rained a little bit. That was lovely. 

The year is almost over! What a good year it has been! xxx

Laine's Letters. Christmas Blessings.

The weekend saw my daughter and her husband move into their new house! Saturday we all chipped in and helped and it was a great day. What a nice thing to be in their new home for Christmas! I am very grateful for this. Now they have a nursery to set up and Lucy can build up her new nest!

I feel almost organised and a few things only left to do before Christmas Day. At this time of the year I start thinking a little bit about the end of the year nearing. One thing is thinking of getting a new planner/diary. Last week I found one! This is exciting to me! I am going to post about how much a planner helps me get things done. But not only that but appreciate life! A planner helps you achieve your goals, make changes, stay on track and it saves you money! That can come next week though we are not there yet!

Before I ever start a new diary I do a lot of thinking about the year that has just been. Boy it was a really big year! Of all the things that were wonderful I wanted to show you something my friend Helen made for me. This was a highlight of my year. You know of course in the world it has not been a great year. There were times I felt so upset. But we need to stop and appreciate what we have to be grateful for and make new plans and dreams.

If you have followed along you might know I read a blog called Laine's Letters for most of the time my children were young. Laine was so wonderful. She was like a friend writing you a letter. So much encouragement and so many practical tips. I just loved them. But as well it was like a Bible study to read those letters. A Bible Study brought to life in the most lovely way.
I really was profoundly influenced by Laine.

Long after Laine no longer blogged you could still read her letters on line and I would pop back there every now and then until one day they were gone! The reason I had been looking for them again was to read from a new perspective. She used to talk of the role of the older women, and of grandchildren and that is where I am up to now!

My friend Helen, it turned out, had also read and adored Laines Letters. When we knew this about each other it was like finding your sister! Then next I found this out about my friend Kaye as well! We had all sat quietly reading Laines letters, here in different parts of Australia and she built up all of our lives and homes and no doubt influenced how we brought up our children and ran our households. Well, at last I had friends who knew what I was talking about!

Once these letters disappeared I was so sorry I never copied them all to keep. What a loss! I posted on face book did anyone know where I could find these letters or what had happened to them? And someone replied to me to try The Wayback Machine which is a web archive. And there they were! Thanks to Kaye and Helen copies were made! And next thing the letters couldn't be accessed there either.

I have blogged about Laine several times and this story. Laine is listed as a label (index) here on my blog for anyone also a follower.

Next thing I had an email from a lady who said she was Laines friend and that Laine had lost her letters and could we provide a copy? You know I thought sure! I couln't believe this could be true! But sure enough an email arrived in my inbox from Laine. I rang Helen and said could she please pray about this because I really found it too hard to believe that Laine would write to me! I forwarded this letter to Helen. She rings me saying "its Laine its Laine!"  You should have heard us that day! Now I feel silly!
Laine had really lost her letters as her website had been hacked and that is why is had disappeared. Laine had stopped writing because of health reasons.

Helen went ahead and printed all of Laines Letters into books for us all to have. First came "In my Home" Letters. These are about as thick as a magazine. Helen made them look so lovely.

Next came "Laines Letters". These are so thick! They are like phone books! This is a vast volume of work! There is Volume one and volume two.

This was the most beautiful gift.

And then Helen made a set and sent them all to Laine in the US and returned all her works to her! 

To me this was amazing. After us all loving Laine so much we ended up with the letters and were able to give them all back to her. Laine even loved the covers Helen had chosen and the colours.

We could not have imagined this. I am still amazed. Amazed that I would ever hear from Laine or that we could ever do something for her. It is just a miracle.

And now I am in a new stage of life with Lucy having a baby and wanting to read what Laine says.  Laines daughter is also having a baby. I was reading her letters when Lucy was little and her daughter was little and now they are both married and having babies. Amazing.

This is one of the really special things that happened this yeat that blessed me so much.

And I am using these books all through next year as my Bible study. I need to be doing a good bible study and these are just right. So they are my project for 2015.

As I open and begin to read the words bring memories flooding back of little children at my feet and the warmth of Laines words that encouraged me.

Laine is starting a new blog next year. And if you would like to read her letters they are available again on The Wayback Machine here. 

Many good things happened this year. As I look back over the year it's hard not to have a tear in my eye over the beautiful wedding, my Fathers speech that day, the glorious photos that captured it,

a baby on the way, a blog that grew from nothing, a new kitchen in our home that my husband built me!

Have a beautiful Christmas. Build lovely memories and warm moments. Appreciate our blessings and help someone that needs it.

I will be back when we return from the farm and hopefully with lots of photos and left over food! 

Then it is my very favourite time... the last minutes of the year before a brand new year!

Thank you all so much for your kind comments and friendship and encouragement. xxx

Feather your Nest Friday. 19 December 2014.

It's almost Christmas! There is so much to do!
I will have to miss next weeks post and will resume the following Friday for Feather your Nest Friday.

This week we enjoyed quiet nights lit up so prettily. Sometimes you hear people say Christmas is for children. I agree children make it special, sweet and exciting but Christmas is for young and old. There are no children here (anymore) and the lovely lights and tree are just glorious none the less. It is not a child's celebration it is the celebration of the birth of Jesus.  A time of hope and joy and we really need that! I hope the beauty of it leaves a tear in your eye no matter what your age!

This week I made coconut ice. I make this every year without fail! It is so pretty and makes lovely gifts. The recipe is here.
Each year I present it or wrap it a bit differently. This year I made it all palest pink, no white. I thought why not? It is a lovely soft pink milkshake colour. I serve it as sweets a couple of nights as well.

I filled up the car at $1.18 c per litre!

In the bathroom I made a shelf for looking after cuttings. With heat coming I decided I have so many cuttings that I will look after them better and made a propagation shelf. It has fantastic light and is the perfect spot. Once things have a root system I will use peat pots to get them to the next stage and plant them into the garden in autumn/winter.

I bought a small fan for the bedroom. On warm nights it;s the lack of breeze that gets to me. With a little breeze I feel fine. And often those nights are very still. We don't want the air conditioner on all night. Well, this little fan is wonderful. I sit it in the windowsill and it creates a gentle fresh breeze. On warm nights it has been great! So that relates to money saving and comfort as well.

One night I used up left overs, mainly from the freezer. Turkish bread, tomato paste, soft cheese, bacon... I added pineapple and grated cheese  and baked it like a giant pizza sub. It was yum and there were lots of leftovers. (which Andy took to work) I love dinners like that! Plus I'm making room in my freezer for after Christmas bargains (hopefully).

I have parsley, coriander and oregano going to seed. I pick big bunches of this and hang it upside down for our birds to eat. It is free food, good for them and they have a good fun time attacking it. They think it's Christmas!

I did some more Christmas wrapping. By spreading this out I do a better job as it isn't rushed. It all looks lovely. Making gifts look wonderful really doesn't have to cost more but it makes each one seem special. To me it shows love and care. Gifts don't have to cost very much.  Most of mine I have made them and the cards as well. So this would be my biggest saving over Christmas.

Today I need to face the grocery shops. Tomorrow we are helping Lucy and Kato move house! I am making rolls and a basket of goodies to feed all the helpers for the day. It will be so nice for them to be in a new home for Christmas. Lucy is in full nesting mode and just wants to get on with it!

What did you do to build up your home and save money this week? I hope it was a good week. I know there is so much to do. Plus it was a hard week for Australia and we weren't by any means the only ones under attack. It got into my dreams last night. But we can't be different we have to go on and hold our values close to our hearts and not let go. Maybe this makes building up our homes and making our homes safe, tranquil retreats from the world, is more important than ever. I think so.xxx