| Heartchange 19 - 25 March 2001 Homelife ~ March 2001 Dear Sisters We have been in town a lot this week. I truly miss my home when this happens. We have been packing, sorting and arranging at the workshop we will be leaving. The children have spent time at the library, while I have been to the accountant ~ yet again. We have taken my parents to the department of housing, as they hope to move to the same town as my brother and his family. Sam started with a new guitar teacher this week, while Emma enjoyed the attention of her violin teacher who has recently returned from Europe. We have done express grocery shopping, collected boxes for packing, and have done our regular post office business. I have had two appointments with our bank and bank manager to make financial arrangements for our business move. Towards the end of the week, we have assisted Andre in preparations for the pick up of his machinery. We have also prepared the new workshop for the delivery of same. Our weekend was topped with the annual Sunday School Picnic. Much laughter and games at the end of a full week! A well deserved break! I have been getting up early for some time now. I am tempted to get busy on the day's chores, and have to restrain myself from doing so. My reason? To spend time with the Lord - alone - with no disturbances. Many of you still have young children and to do this is hardly possible. Let me tell you from experience, that the older the children get, the disturbances do not become fewer. Far from it. Excuses run rampant! The children can take care of their physical needs, but there is always a 'good reason' to ask mom this or tell mom that! I truly don't mind, but I also know that if I don't read the Word of God in the morning, in the early hours, then time during the day is out of the question. His Word, His truths are my strength for each day. He talks to me and I listen with eager ears. Without doing this, I am lost, my conscience is pricked, and basically the day does not run as smoothly as it could have done! My children seem to wake later as they get older, and so ~ here I am in my middle years ~ still getting up early, but.. for different reasons. For abundant life! I am responsible for my children, as is my husband. If I don' t receive instruction, how can I instruct them? How can they share this abundant life that I enjoy? I pray the Lord will continue to keep us all close, under His wings. Under His protection. So that we can bask... I have received great joy and encouragement from a few lists on homemaking and Godly living. The ladies that produce them each offer a different newsletter/message. This shows me how unique we all are in the Lord. They share the common bond of love for God and a heart to obey Him, and yet ~ their lives, their circumstances, are all different. They each have a different 'flavour'. They revel in the love, joy and peace He returns to them. Each of them are moderator only lists, as they are all convicted to limiting their time on the computer and to be busy at home, encouraging that in their readers' lives, too. These sister-gems are: Sandy of [email protected] Pamela of [email protected] I have seen sheer excitement on my husband's face this week! His heart's desire has come true; his workshop is now at home. He will be able to use his God-given talent ~ working with his hands, designing, manufacturing on his own 'home territory'. Sisters, nothing is without hard toil. This result of his hard labour has taken many years to accomplish. I have seen my dear husband with a new zest. He is as a young springbok! Despite the worry, the lack of faith, the guilt for the lack of faith, the long hours, the heavy, hard labour, the fuzzy memory, the lack of return answers to questions we have asked him ~ all of it ~ he has been as a child! His joy is mine. His excitement is mine. I have seen my children experience the same emotion. They are so proud of their dad, and yet I have impressed upon them that it is only because of the Lord that all this has come to pass. They have all experienced 'real life'. The ups and downs of family life. The facts of life. Not an unrealistic bubble. Not a hazy, fairy tale life. They know that recreation comes after toil, and as a result of hard work. I have taught them that whatever they do in life, they are totally dependent upon the Lord. They are at His mercy. They cannot depend on themselves or anybody else (as they've witnessed first hand by tradesmen who didn't even show up at crucial times during the course of our big move). They know that their help is further required before we can all 'breath easy'. I have endeavoured to make our final tasks exciting. I have stressed to them that we would have achieved great things by the time our old workshop is clean and empty and ready for the key to be handed back to our landlord after 10 years of rental. Sisters, I have found that just because our children are older, doesn't quench their inclination to perform child-like pranks and jokes. There is always a 'show' or a 'performance' going on somewhere as we busy ourselves with the final packing of smaller items; Sarah pretending she is a 'high wire' circus performer, as Andre lifts her up on the prongs of the forklift. Emma, grabbing one of the huge lights that once hung above, putting it to her mouth - just like a loud speaker "Extra extra, read all about it ~ Debco moving, Debco moving". Sam ~ tirelessly clowning around, putting on accents, telling stories of the items passing through his hands... Merry hearts. I am truly blessed. Although Emma answers our phone and deals with queries and takes messages, I have been asking her to make a lot of business calls. I've been tempted to just get on with them myself, but instead, have taken the time to explain the purpose of the necessary calls. This has twofold results; Emma learns how businesses function and this frees up so much time for me to do other important tasks. At first, I could see that she was unsure of passing on the correct instruction or message, but after a few calls, she soon fell into this with ease and confidence. Sarah has also made calls on our family's behalf. I am amazed at how much they have picked up from me ~ the way I deal with calls and queries. Yikes! They're watching! May the Lord continue to endow me with His grace... We have been away from home a lot and have, on occasion, had no choice but to buy take away food. This has frustrated me no end. Not only is this practice expensive (and leaves me with guilt for bad stewardship of the Lord's blessings), but we have food at home. Furthermore, the nutritional content of a lot of fast foods leaves much to be desired. I had purposed to put this to an end. And the Lord sent me the facilities to do it! Praise His name! My mom and dad presented me with another crock-pot (slow cooker). They pick them up for me, from the opportunity shops, for the purpose of our bulk cooking days. I cooked a variety of dry beans in one pot, and put some shin bones in another. Then I combined the beans, with the meat off the bones, added garlic, tomato paste, carrots, potatoes and strips of bacon. I divided the mixture into three crock pots. The result? A supply of delicious mix n' match soup. Filling and nutritious. Ready and waiting for the day when we will 'grab and go'! Something else I wanted to mention to you that I learned from reading Don Aslett's home maintenance/ home cleaning books, is to do the biggest job first. We have been putting this into practice. Getting the dreaded, larger, harder tasks over with first. This encourages and motivates us to get to the smaller ones. The minor tasks then become a breeze and we seem to amazingly gain time. I'm sure that tackling and completing the larger tasks frees up our minds, deletes the 'notes' to do them 'later'. Gives us a zest to move on to something else. Another challenge. We have been blessed with and are in awe of the amount of help from a variety of friends from church. Unexpected folk turning up on different days at different times to help us. Sisters, I am convinced that 'love' is 'help'. Not lip service. Physical, necessary, practical help. Help in whatever area each of us require it. And so ~ we have been blessed ~ with love!! I have been making notes, jotting down ideas as to what I can do at home in preparation for the folk that may call in 'out of the blue'. I am on the look-out for another coffee pot, as I feel this will be an asset to all if and when Andre decides to bring customers indoors for morning or afternoon tea and coffee. Already, we have a pretty tray with teapot, tea cups and saucers, milk jug and sugar bowl set ready on the table in the loungeroom. I am also on the look-out for a nice outdoor table setting with an umbrella, for times when sitting out in the sun is preferable. We have several terracotta pots to be placed strategically outside, around the table at the front of the house. (The front courtyard in our home was once a petrol service station. We have planted Banksia roses around the cement square, as well as lattice for the roses to rest upon. Mature Cyprus trees add to this private nook) I hope to bring these ideas to you as I do them each week. It is far better to tell you more about them as we do them, then I can vouch whether they work or not, and hopefully either give you ideas too, or save you time and energy! As you all know, our children do chores. They started with chore charts, but we disposed of those after a while, due to the fact that they knew what they had to do and if any extra chore was required of them, I would verbally ask it. During this time of extra work load, and due to the fact that I have been busy with quotations, invoices and business letters, the children have become somewhat ~ l ~ lax ~ regarding their chores. I have re-done their charts, as our lives have and will change even more ~ because my husband will be at home. He will share all meals and coffee breaks with us! The daily chores have been divided amongst the girls and myself, and each of us will cook one meal a day. Sam will be with his dad, learning skills and doing projects before and after school ~ apart from his free time. He will be apprenticed to his dad at the tender age of 10. Next week, I hope to post our new schedule. Well, sisters ~ it's time for bed. I have started reading the sequel to 'First We Have Coffee' by Margaret Jensen. It 's called 'Papa's Place' and already it is extremely hard to put down! Here's hoping you have a blessed week! With love, Helen |