Oh Happy Day!

The dust is still hanging around plus we've had some big bush fires in the local area. Just above that power pole is the silhouette of the local mountain, we haven't been able to see it for nearly a week. Alas, not a drop of rain!A little hazy at the coast, but you would not believe how gorgeous the water was today~

After the tide had gone out the children spent hours just rambling over the rocks, fishing, collecting everything in sight, getting sun burnt.


This big goanna hung around the picnic site most of the day.
No doubt he is used to getting plenty of scraps.

The nicest part of today was catching up with friends. Lives and families become so hectic that our little group tries to make laid back days like this on school holidays.

We are all ladies in our forties. One is expecting a baby, two of us are already grandmothers. We all home school, attend different churches, and most of us have grown up children as well.

It is a wonderful season of life!

Forgive...what again?

When you think about it, the topic of forgiveness comes up time and time again through the scriptures. That would indicate it is of great importance . It also seems to me that perhaps it is something we are in fact not good at :-) We need a lot of reminding and encouraging when it come to a right attitude to forgiving others.

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Matthew 6: 12

The debt we owe to God is so great, it is unrepayable! Pastor pointed out that this verse is joined to the previous one with and so we pray for our bread to be provided daily and our debts (sins) need the same daily attention!

God, in his grace, has made a provision for the forgiveness of our sins, through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ! Readers, we should never take this for granted. We should never loose the wonder and amazement of being forgiven!

"...as we forgive our debtors." Without first knowing the goodness and forgiveness of God, we can not forgive others. This is a fruit, a good work, of the changed heart. I am thinking that since I struggle with forgiveness as times I do not deserve the sweet forgiveness of God. Praise Him that my righteousness is as filthy rags and the righteousness of Christ is perfect!

Are you struggling with unforgiveness? This differentiation helped me. We are to forgive or have an attitude of forgiveness, regardless of the repentance or otherwise of the other person involved. This frees our hearts and minds from bitterness and revenge. However, forgiveness and reconciliation are two different things. If the offending party is not repentant then there can be no reconciliation.

The ideal of course is for both parties to come together and reconcile, but when this doesn't happen we can have peace of mind knowing that we have forgiven. The world says, get your revenge, don't let anyone walk over you. But since when do we follow the world? See how many bitter and twisted people follow these ideas! It is interesting that support groups for families of murder victims and other serious crimes stress the need to forgive the offender, in the healing of their hurts. Without this it is recognized that there is no "closure".

Here is one of my well quoted verses, from 1 Peter 2, but it says it so well. Take particular note of verse 3:

1 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord [is] gracious.

If we have tasted the goodness and gracious forgiveness of God, we too must forgive. Seventy times seven, but who's counting!!

Have a wonderful week!

Thy Lovingkindness in the Morning!

8: Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.

9: Deliver me, O LORD, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.

10: Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.

11: Quicken me, O LORD, for thy name's sake: for thy righteousness' sake bring my soul out of trouble.

12: And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.

Psalm 143

King James Version

Some beautiful words to contemplate .

Teach me to do thy will....

For I am thy servant....

Spring Break

Officially it is Spring but we've had up to 35C here this week. We really only had a fleeting week or two of Spring-like weather and now we are gearing up for what is usually a very long, hot, humid Summer. Please God, we will get rain. It is desperately dry around here. The dust blew in and out fairly uneventfully here when the big dust storms were around, but has added to the parched feel . Everything seems coated with dust - and is! One of the local parks we love and visited this week with grandchildren, children and friends on two separate occasions. The kids love this one as they have actually left some adventurous equipment for the children to play on.
It is also by the river so quite cool and scenic.


Our proud neighbour won the Best Cottage Garden Award for the ninth out of eleven years in the local competition. He lives on his own and is very generous with his produce!

Here he cuts one of his enormous lettuce for us.





A gorgeous bunch of flowers from my sister-in-law's garden!


Chicken Casserole.

Once I was feeling a bit better I got my crock pot going. This dish does not have an official recipe, but time permitting I'll post what I put in it.


I can't believe there is only one week of the school holidays left.



Have a great weekend!

Chicken Casserole

I am sure you all have very tasty tried and true Chicken Casserole recipes. I have several. They rarely come out exactly the same :-)
This one has
*chicken drumsticks
*onion
*carrots
*tin of tomatoes
*2 tablespoons tomato paste

*gravy mix
* frozen peas and corn added shortly before serving.

We had this with potatoes in their jackets.

Now a confession. I actually made a dish this week which was a flop. {gasp} I don't know why I flunked. It was a simple casserole which I intended to take to friends. The gravy was like tasteless glue! Never mind. It happens I guess. No pics of that one :-(

Addled!

Friends and fellow bloggers.

Please forgive all the spelling errors in the comments I have posted on your blogs!

Honestly, my typing is bad at any time but these last few days I've been down with a nasty vomiting illness. On my blog I can use spell check and I try to proof read my comments but I'm obviously slipping up badly if my feedback emails are any indication.

It is weird. Even easy words are coming out all confused, with letters around the wrong way or from the opposite side of the keyboard. eg k instead of d, i instead of e. Is this dementia setting in? Is it some sort of end of term burn out? Lord willing, it is short term. Please forgive and bear with me.

Family Dinner

Mum's 80th Birthday

18 September, 2009

Family Dinner

I love that Mum's dear, but very time worn hand is in this photo!

Okay, I don't normally post current photos of family so here is a one off!

This is Mum and Dad with their surviving children.

See if you can identify which one is me!

You have seen baby and little girl photos of me, but alas I have changed a GREAT deal!

Sorry it's a bit dark but if you click on the photo it will enlarge.

With so many grandchildren, great children, extended family and friends, it is rare for just our family to get together. Thus we decided on the Family Dinner Friday night/ Picnic in the Park for all Saturday.

This family get together was great! We had lots of laughs and sooo many photographs taken!

Mum loved the album we had made and we spent a lot of time pouring over it and recalling memories that the photos evoked.

Like all families we have had our share of trials and disagreements. That is all part of family life. But I thank God for such a wonderful, close family, who are more to each other than siblings but also great friends.

Here is a piece I posted previously with a short poem I wrote some years ago about my mum.

Amazing!

Here is link to an amazing story!!!

This woman died at 99 years of age having 1400 descendants!

It Takes a Mother

It takes a Mother's love

To make a house a home,

A place to be remembered

No matter where we roam.

It takes a Mother's patience

To bring a child up right,

And her courage and her cheerfulness

To make a dark day bright.

It takes a Mother's thoughtfulness

To mend the heart's deep hurts,

And her skill and her endurance

To mend little socks and shirts.

It takes a Mother's kindness

To forgive us when we err

To sympathise in trouble

And bow her head in prayer.

It takes a Mother's wisdom

To recognise our needs

And to give us reassurance

By her loving words and deeds.

.

This is the poem one of my sisters included on her pages in the album the whole family has contributed to for Mum. I can't give credit to the author as my sister didn't know who had written it but she said it summed up what she wanted to say. I am very thrilled with the way the album has turned out. So much history, so many beautiful photos and messages, all done in differing styles but all with heaps of love.

The picture above is Mum almost 40 years ago with my two younger brothers snuggled in bed. I am sure to have posts after the weekend but just thought I would set this to go on the blog while we are out celebrating. Love you Mum. ♥

DeTERMination

Determination. That's a good word to sum what it takes to persevere, through whatever circumstances are thrown at us.

Another school term has flown by. It is both a wonderful relief and a little scary to come to another block of school holidays. Wonderful relief, because we all get somewhat tired, cranky and frustrated with our days of repetitive work. A little scary because it means only one more term in the 2009 school year and so much still be done. So many thoughts and considerations for the future.

What we've achieved and enjoyed most:

*Both boys showing improvement in their reading. (slow and steady wins the race)

*Both enjoying the practical activities we've done and the new Art sessions we've started with other friends.

*Guitar teacher is very happy with the progress they are making.

*Basket ball remains the big highlight of the week. A new season starts in October.

*Progress in memory work eg catechisms and poems (again slow and steady :0)

*Some character traits we have worked on showing through (plenty of work to go on with here!)

*Mum has taken things a little more light heartedly this term and so not finishing feeling quite so tired, defeated and all out of ideas as the previous few breaks.

I thank God for my boys and his preserving and comforting during this term.

This weekend we celebrate, with all the immediate family tonight and extended family and friends tomorrow, my mother's 80th birthday.

I thank God for that very special woman today.

Thoughts on Steiner

Thanks Jeanne for pointing out that the Steiner system is contrary in philosophy to our Christian World View. I have only had a quick look at a site and realize that now, so I trust my previous post will be taken as a family interest piece and not a promotion of the Steiner schools.

It seems that although they claim to be Christian that they have embraced the festivals of other religions and cultures. They seem to also embrace a very humanist approach to discipline and self esteem. I'm sure I will find many issues if I dig but just wanted to clarify, as I actually had no knowledge of Steiner other than what this nephew had told us. Many of the practical teaching ideas seem very good however.

I have never espoused the system of one educator or another and have not read or researched many big names extensively. Rather my own philosophy has been to teach my children line upon line, to teach them as they sit, stand and walk in the way and to teach them all I can of my Lord and Saviour. Therefore we have used an eclectic approach and tried to balance that with practical skills and general knowledge. Even recently when we enrolled with Groves, I have tried to make our days as delight directed as possible!

Steiner seems to be very child centred . Well, yes, school is child centred, but as christian educators we believe that all of life is to be Christ centred. It has been my observation that many home schoolers also appear to promote and elevate the child. We too can and do allow our humanist environment to creep in unawares. Just a thought to ponder as I seek to live a life more glorifying to God.

Vive la France!

Typical Aussie boy in France!



I've never travelled outside of Australia. Okay, to be honest I have only travelled out of Queensland twice and on both occasions it was to Glen Innes in NSW. (Just over the Qld border for those outside of Australia!)

And you know, that's okay. I've never had a great hankering to travel far from home. However, I do love to follow the adventures of my family and friends, some of whom have done a fair amount of globe trotting.

At present I have a niece volunteering and travelling in South America.

These gorgeous pictures however were emailed to me yesterday from my nephew who has just moved to France for a couple of years with his wife and four young children.

What may be of interest to the home schoolers is the school which they have enrolled their children in over there. It was this method of education which attracted them to try France. All four children are attending, and up until now speak no French. What an adventure!



Here what they wrote about the school thus far.



"EDUCATION (warning skip next 4 paragraphs if you want news only)
So the French State system is much the same as Queensland's from what I can gather and like at home is floundering. In fact the French government estimates it costs them €7,000 per year to educate a child and the far right wing (Lepenn) is proposing giving this to the parents - giving them the choice to choose schools. Whatever school they choose they will have to pay. A novel idea anyway.
The Steiner system is of course very different. Both Steiner & Montessori worked on the concept that there is no physical matter without spirituality and vice versa. They both concentrate on encouraging all modes of creativity rather than inhibiting natural talents & curiosities......... Their methods focus on core development - believing that unless a person is fully balanced and has gained a full understanding and appreciation of all their senses, structured learning is not grasped easily - and/or is more easily forgotten. This is something that kids in the country have as an advantage over children confined to an urban or indoor lifestyle anyway.
Stenier methods use a lot of modeling (e.g. the kids go down to the creek to make shapes from mud so their body knows what curves and straight lines are. They then progress onto modeling letters and numbers in clay. This happens in grade 1. In grade 2 (7 years of age) they start actually writing letters and words. It then takes no time at all for sentences etc. as the children have such an in depth knowledge of letters, language and sounds,
building (last year the grade 1 class built a wooden train with small logs),
rhythms .....(Each class tends a small garden near their classroom; there is a corner of the room which is the season table - each week the teacher and children add things from the current season and discuss it once a week - the younger grades also do specific activities on specific days e.g. Tuesday is making bread day for the Kindy kids, Wednesday is music day... the older classes have blocks of 3 weeks. SO for 3 weeks they will do e.g. maths - and each activity, music, art, modeling & language focuses on this (e.g. they will learn counting in other languages, in knitting they will concentrate on counting stitches, will model numbers and make counters out of clay - this is where the concept of understanding being at the core of their body comes in - it is a deep understanding rather than a poorly grasped concept)
painting & drawing (children are only allowed to use primary colours to discover for themselves how other colours are formed)
and music (Each Monday assembly the whole school sings together for 20 minutes; C......'s teacher stands outside the classroom each morning playing the violin until all the kids are there to start the lessons; J............ is learning the recorder, knitting, German, french & English - mostly through songs and poems). Numeracy & Reading are at a very high level at the end of the 7th grade and well above the average. Of course in grades 2 & 3 they appear to be behind the rest of the nation and grade 4 is when they have their highest drop-out (there is 1 child in the equivalent grade 4 class). This kids are well & truly ready to fly by then and do really well back in the normal school system. The other thing with the Steiner system is that is is the same the world over so if children transfer to a school even in another country they will be learning the same things and have covered the same material as where they came from.
There are no school uniforms and everything is provided - the kids have to bring gumboots, raincoat, a 3.4 length smock for painting & modeling, 4 crayons and slippers to wear in the classroom. "


This adventurous little family have fallen on their feet and found a chateau to live in very close to the school. They are a great crew and we are looking forward to updates.



Hi to Organizing Mommy who has just been to France as well!

Legalism

Tim Reinke at Miscellanies has this excelllent piece on Legalism. Go to.

Thy Will be Done

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:10

In Hebrews 13: 20, 21 we are told, " Now the God of peace,............. Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen"

This reminds me of when we were beginning the studies in Matthew 5, the Beatitudes, how Pastor pointed out that they are more than good attitudes. They are not something we can do to be godly, but rather by the grace of God working in his new creatures we are enabled ... to mourn, hunger and thirst after righteousness etc.

Likewise, contrary to our natural inclination, God works in his children that which is pleasing to him, and every good work we do. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus.

When we think of the angels in heaven, hastening to do the will of God, we realise how often we are slow to do that which God requires of us. We are slow also to acknowledge his sovereign hand in all of our daily life. We sometimes say,Thy will be done, but wrestle with the outcome. What a place of glorious peace and harmony heaven will be, when we will no longer question the will of our God and maker.

Thomas Watson on doing God's Will:

"If we would do God's will aright, let us labour for self denial. Unless we deny our own will, we shall never do God's will. His will and ours are like the wind and the tide when they are contrary. He wills one thing, we will another. He calls us to be crucified to the world, by nature we love the world. He calls us to forgive our enemies, by nature we bear malice in our hearts. His will and ours are contrary, and till we can cross our own will, we shall never fulfil His."

Tyre inspection!

My busy grandsons♥ ♥

Doing some pram maintenance.
One has a machinery operator daddy and the other a diesel fitter.
Chips off the old blocks!!

"The simplest toy, one that even the youngest child can operate, is a grandparent."
~Sam Levenson~

Our Week

The highlight of our week has been the first birthday of our older grandson/nephew! He is almost ready to take off walking and is a sweet natured, busy little man. He has only two teeth and they have only come through in the last couple of weeks. I'm told that the later their teeth come through, the stronger the teeth? We had a lovely afternoon at the local Botanic Gardens with his little cousin, who will be one in five weeks, and other family.

I can hardly believe how quickly the first year of my grandchildren's lives has flown. It has been a wonderful and very special time for me. I love being a mum and absolutely relish being "Mumma". Despite situations which are not the ideal (to my way of thinking :-) I am thankful to the Lord for this blessed season of life...Grandmotherhood!

While we have to keep up our Phonics drills, Maths, Science, SOSE etc you may notice that we are trying to include as many practical activities as possible into our week.
This has always been a priority for me but even more so at present.

Our regular cooking session with JJ yielded this lovely Chocolate Slice! This has been a favourite in our house for years. If I get time I will post the recipe as well. Very simple.

The boys and a couple of others got some hands on skills with one of the dads as well this week and we will be trying to make this a regular event too, utilizing the various skills the men have to offer. Here they helped rotate the tyres on our friends' vehicle and the dad was really great at getting each of the boys on a tyre and doing the work themselves. They also got instruction in changing a washer on a leaky tap, which ended up as a whole change of taps!

Sigh...another week gone. Can it really be the Septmeber school holidays next week?

Chocolate Slice

1. Combine well dry ingredients:
1 cup Self Raising flour
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup desiccated Coconut
1 cup rolled Oats
1 tablespoon Cocoa

2. Add 125g melted butter and 1 beaten egg.

3. Mix until all dry ingredients are moist.

4. Press evenly into a greased or lined slice tray.

5. Cook in moderate oven until firm. (Approx 20 mins)

6. When cool, ice with chocolate icing and decorate if desired with Sprinkles or Coconut.

I sometimes make this slice without cocoa and ice it with a lemon or yogurt icing. Yum! We call that "Anzac Slice" but it is like a muesli bar.

I've also made it successfully with nuts and that is yummy, too.

A Trip to Holland

I have been working on a draft about "Expectations" that we have of our children, some of the battles I've had with teaching children with learning problems, reactions of others especially other home schoolers etc. I'm not sure why it has taken me so long, but I know each time I work on it I feel my attitude needs a check so I leave it. Perhaps it will never actually make it to the publishing stage. It is not nasty, but I guess I know that I have been hurt by some of the comments of others and some of that hurt probably comes out in my words.

There are many families dealing with much greater disabilities than what we are struggling with. I follow a couple of blogs of mothers homeschooling kids with APD, ADHD, Autism etc. I happened, providentially, upon a site in which the mother of five had a very difficult daughter, about 5 years old, as yet undiagnosed but sounding like she was somewhere on the autism spectrum. She had posted a link to this lovely piece and it summed up I think how most of us feel when our hopes and dreams become something else. For most, myself included, not a nightmare, but a very trying and difficult road. She has linked to this thoughful piece which I empathized with and since I can't link straight to it I have linked via her at "The Daily Poop". Go to her post "Holland" and click on the essay.

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/redirect.php?r=2fd433e50e4b8481a8c56ca47987fa0d&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblessedfam.blogspot.com%2F

I thank God for his grace to perservere and the love and support of friends and family He has given me. I am also truly thankful for healthy, happy children and the opportunity to nurture and teach them. If you were heading for Italy and somehow detoured via Holland then take heart. This too, can be a blessed journey!

Hard at Work!!!

Home education is such a difficult and demanding job -

but someone has to tackle the hard work! The beautiful scenery from our outdoor art studio.

Mums and a few lambs.




The three families doing "Lamb's Book of Art" together enjoyed a lovely morning
at the coast last week. We did the weeks Art lesson, some casual nature study
and some serious beach sports!
The children really thrive on days such as this and while they are fun
they also give them some experience working in a group.
A great stress reliever for the mums too I might add.
These two particular mothers have been very supportive and helpful to me
with my boys struggles. (One of them is teaching an Aspergers child)

Fathers' Day

Our two sons gave Dad a natty set of three torches for Fathers' Day. This was a much appreciated gift as he can never find a torch when he needs one around here! The funny thing was that by the end of the weekend the boys had unearthed 4 other torches, two with batteries and working! I think it is the same strange thing which applies to socks. You have a great pile of odd socks and finally give up on the mates turning up. You buy some new ones and Voila! a few pairs come together. Oh ...the mysteries of life!

ooOoo

This weekend we took time to thank and show appreciation to our Dads. Earthly fathers are precious and much loved human beings and we give thanks to God for them. The truth is though, that earthly fathers are human, which means they have failings and weaknesses like all of us. They have good days and bad, they forget and they get crabby!

BUT GOD...

"God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth."

Westminster Confession of Faith Shorter Catechism 4

God our Father, never changes. He never forgets or breaks a promise. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. His Word is true and His name shall endure forever!!!!

Psalm 103

13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;

Life Lessons on the Court

Heidi at keeping house recently posted about ideas for helping others to deal with pain.

This post has absolutely nothing to do with keeping house or dealing with pain. {{shrug}}

But... we were commenting on the soothing, calming effect our attitude can impart to the one suffering. My thoughts drifted to the soothing and calming influence we, as mothers, can exert on our children, and conversely, the way our stress and anxiety rubs off on them as well. (Okay, I admit, I waft off sometimes ♥) We who have children have all experienced it. We are fretting and anxious and before you know it the whole peace and rhythm of the home is destroyed and chaos reigns!

My example though is from a recent sporting event. My sons have been playing basketball now for a good many years. One of the reasons we've stuck to this sport is that it is very family oriented here, with lots of families with multiple children playing. There is great parental support and the tone is, on the whole, friendly, respectful and sportsman-like.

Last week both of my boys played in the semi-finals for this season. My older son's team played a nail biting game to be beaten by one point, one point not goal! This as you can imagine was very disappointing for 11 to 13 year old boys :-( But on the whole they took it well. They are tough and shook hands like young men. My younger son commented on the way home, "Why does J... cry like that whenever you loose?" J... is the MVP (most valuable player, most goals scored). Older son replied with a dead pan expression "You'd cry too if your mother was screaming like that on the sideline."

It was true. His mother had hurled abuse at the opposition, argued with the referees, blasphemed constantly and made excuses for the fouls that he was pulled up on. She had paced up and down the side line and generally agitated everyone! The poor boy was under extreme pressure.

And perhaps the worst thing for a 13 year old boy, his mother kept calling him "darling" and other pet names at the top of her voice!!! A no-no with this age boys (well, apparently in front of their friends.) They reckon home schooling mothers are smother mothers! Give the young man some dignity.

I get pretty excited at sporting events I confess, but .....

Sometimes it takes a performance such as this for our kids to realize how fortunate they really are! and how much they appreciate a half -way sensible mum!

My Conclusions

A Summary of my own thoughts and the great input of my blogging friends.

I was not torturing myself, but rather trying to balance up the previous weeks thoughts regarding doing all things to the glory of God, with this ongoing struggle to use my time on the computer both sparingly and well. I agree that this is very much a personal issue. Every one has differing demands on their time and needs to weigh up their own priorities.

Thanks for all the thoughtful comments and the honesty regarding your struggles. Not that I want my friends to be struggling but it helps me to put in perspective where I'm at. One of the things I love about the ladies who comment here is the diversity. From my much esteemed retired friends (Nancy and Carol) through middle aged grannies like myself and young home schooling mums with busy households! And young wives with all of this ahead. (No singles that I know of) What a great reflection of real life families and church circles!

These points are for myself and I am not trying to force them on others. I decided to post them as I think I will be more inclined to stick to them if I've put them in print!

1. Don't let my private, family or church family worship times suffer. Especially do not skimp on reading the Word, miss meetings or (for me) blog on the Lord's Day.

2. Don't allow blogs, forum friends and following threads come before real life family and friends.

3. Keep the time limited (this is very individual) and only when other duties have been attended to. (Aside from Bible reading, husband, schooling and house work are priorities :-)

4. Do .....use the holiday breaks wisely! Yes, I'm allowing myself some surfing and drafting times but don't forget how the holidays are for catching up with friends I rarely see and chores that require a whole day job eg. cleaning out cupboards and washing walls :-(

5. Do.....keep up new found blog friendships. This might seem an odd thing to note here but I have been thinking how important and special some of my blog friends have become. It is one thing to read an interesting post and follow the life of some one way out there. It is much more personal when you begin dialogue with them. I find especially once people are added to my prayer list that there is a special interest and concern for them and I really appreciate the reciprocated friendship of others.

6. Do.....stick to the rule of letting a draft sit for a period of time, especially if there are possible controversies, heresies or hurtful words.

7. Do.....get to bed early! I am an early to bed person. Blogging and internet has not been so addictive to affect this!

Family Homesteads

My new header is the family home my mother grew up in on the Darlings Downs, in Southern Queensland. This photograph was taken in the late 1940s around the time my mother went to Teacher's College. Her parents struggled hard, with my grandfather doing a lot of work away as a shearer when the family were young. When they retired in the early 1950s they had done all right. "Riding on the sheeps back" as that saying goes from those years when the wool industry was booming in Australia.

Just for your information! My previous header was the childhood home of my paternal grandmother and she was the young lady on the front steps.

A Peaceful Day is One!

A very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you, Jeanne at

A PEACEFUL DAY

Thank you Jeanne for all the great posts and articles which you have shared with us over the last year. As one who has never travelled I can experience some of the world's great destinations vicariously through your wonderful travel adventures.

I love all the home schooling information and especially Aussie books and poems which are a great love of mine also. I especially appreciate the blog world friendship of a fellow traveller on this pilgrimage to the Celestial City.

God bless you and your family, Jeanne and may "A Peaceful Day" continue long to the edification many.

Visit Jeanne at A Peaceful Day to be in the running for her book prizes, to mark this momentous occasion.