vintage and a little bit retro

David's mother has been going through her cupboards and here are some of the things she has passed on to me.  And today mum gave me a bag of doilys belonging to various family members such as my great-grandmother.  I feel like it is Christmas!

Perfect for a cup of tea and some fruit toast while flicking through the latest form Toast!!

And David's egg cup, which Audrey has enjoyed using.

sometimes

I wish for the beginning again.

too cute!

This clip is SO cute!  And she reminds me just a little of someone I know :)


Too much candy from Capucha on Vimeo.

Revelations

These days I feel like I am on a roller coaster.  Flying at speed in one direction and then being thrown sideways in another direction.  I have high aspirations of how I am going to go through the day.  Attentive, thoughtful and decisive.  To think before I speak, before I act. 

In the past couple of weeks everything I have been reading and listening to has had a common theme.  To slow down and to be attentive to the important things for now.  This doesn't mean that the pace of my life will necessarily slow down - just by nature of the fact that I live in the 21st century... but in the past 24 hours so much has fallen into place.  (I think God must have become tired of waiting for me to work it out - he had to spell it out to me!)

Yesterday I read this in the morning from Fenelon: 

"You do not see with the eyes of eternity.  God knows everything.  Nothing happens without His consent.  You are upset by small losses, but do not see eternal gains!  Don't dwell on your suffering.  Your oversensitivity makes your trials worse.  Abandon yourself to God."  (The Seeking Heart' by Fenelon pg 26)

Then while I was on the bus to work and reading A Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp quoted C S Lewis:
"You would be very ashamed if you knew what the experiences you call setbacks, upheavals, pointless disturbances, and tedious annoyances really are.  You would realise that your complaints about them are nothing more nor less than blasphemies - though that never occurs to you.  Nothing happens to you except by the will of God, and yet [God's] beloved children curse it because they do not know it for what it is."

I don't think Jesus could have spoken any clearer to me unless he was sitting next to me on the couch looking into my face saying "Listen to what I am saying!"  I am SO grateful for His direction. 

* the photos have nothing to do with this post, just moments I have captured of Audrey this week...

on this day

The kids were so excited to go to the snow.  Each year we leave it too late.  We headed out this morning in spite of the rain, and not too far from home the echos of "how much further" started filling the car.  After a while (and a quick stop at our favourite coffee shop in Cooma) we began to see snow on the side of the road.  the car filled with squeals of excitement.
We drove until we found a decent patch of snow and all clambered out of the car and into coats and gumboots.  I was the spoilt one, with a loan of ski pants, a coat and gloves.  The first 20 minutes had Audrey and Nicholas full of excitement and having a great time.  For the next 20 or so minutes the whines of "I'm cold" and "the snow is like ice" were grumbled and we took jackets off and piled into the car for lunch.  in spite of this, the photos show that we really did have fun and it was worth the trip to the "real" snow!

 

pink beanie care of my last visit to Berrima on a bitterly cold day.  hmmm that was when Nicholas was still a baby so i am due for another trip!

thoughts

At the end of the day, the end of the week I'm waiting for David and Audrey to come home.  Dinner is prepared and so I have some time to stop and ponder the week(s) that has/have been.  Bananas In Pyjamas is on in the background. I love that at six years old Nicholas still enjoys it. 

Yesterday I packed afternoon tea up in the pram and Audrey and I picked Nicholas up from school.  The weather was so gorgeous we ate afternoon tea at the park and the kids played.  We didn't rush to get home.  It was perfect.  I took tea in a thermos and watched them play while I wrote a list to prepare for our Spring/Summer vegetable garden.  I fear we are running out of time as we still need to physically move the garden to a new location.  I was going to take my camera, but at the last minute thought I'd just let them be and enjoy the moment.  I wished I had it in the end. 

Looking at some of the blogs in my favourites list I saw this.  Kylee brought these biscuits to Home Friendship Group.  They were so yummy - if I had any left I'd make French s'mores!

I haven't written lately but have been immersing myself in study - listening to Nancy Leigh de Moss.  I must be hungry because I feel my spirit filling on her studies.  I am reading One Thousand Gifts and Fenelon.  I am eagerly awaiting books that I can't wait to read, to learn from and to apply to my life and to our home and family structure.

In reading Fenelon the other day, this struck me:

"Learn to be lenient with the less important matters, but maintain your firmness over that which is essential.  Remember that true firmness is gentle, humble and calm."  This is certainly what my approach to parenting has been of late.  I am trying to be measured and calm!

I have a list of things I want to make and need to do (like frame and hang all the prints lying under our bed collecting dust!)  (inspiration from Molly Irwin)

Lately I have even managed some hand quilting. 
















I am keen to finish this one as my lists are growing of things to make!  Nothing like eagerness to start the next project to inspire me to complete the last one.  :)

Life is busy but I am getting better at taking time out for the small things....

so much to fill my mind...

 Nicholas has been learning his "Magic Words" for school.  This morning he was reciting the Golden Words and we were reading the Red Words together.  I had glued the words to card and cut them out so I could randomly ask him what a word was.  When I came inside I noticed that before he left for the church holiday program he had rearranged all of the words in perfect order to which they appeared on the original sheet!

At 10:30 Audrey came o me and put her chin in her hand as she lent across the table and asked in a mournful voice "how long will Nicholas be?"  She misses him when he is away.  I later found her using the time to play in his room.... 

before she got back to dancing.

As for me, I seriously need to get some order into my life!  David sweetly added to my French General Fabric collection the other week. 

It is building up considerably now, so I long for a night where I can sit with my sewing books and patterns piled high and start to prioritise possible uses for it.  The problem with beautiful fabric is that I only want to use it for something special and am reluctant to cut into it.  Nicholas has a sleepover tomorrow night at his nan and pa's, so that might have to be the night. 

WIPs (Works In Progress) sitting around however (which sounds much nicer than UFOs Unfinished Objects)  are the kids heat pack covers, which only need to be sewn together, my French Revival Quilt, which needs to be hand quilted and my Tail Feathers Quilt, which I am afraid I might be a while off resuming.  Looks like some long evenings of BBC period dramas to encourage me to sit in one spot and finish them!

We had afternoon tea with David's cousin on Monday - she has a beautiful house on a gorgeous farm with rolling hills.  Her daughter is a girl after my own heart and is passionate about reading.  She had a friend visiting who was quite animated and funny to listen to.  They were excitedly talking about books they are currently reading and promising book swaps.  Which gave me the bright idea to finally use my Heather Bailey Book Bag pattern!  :)  I had coveted this pattern since reading this Mary Englebreit article a couple of years ago.  I hope to make a couple and send to them.

Don't get me started on books.  I finally finished Alexander McCall Smith's 'The Sunday Philosophy Club'.  I have a soft spot for its main character, Isabel Dalhousie.  Forty years old, with an inheritance and no real need to work she edits a philosophy journal part time.  She lives alone in a large aging house in south Edinburgh, with a housekeeper!  She always has a hot, freshly brewed cup of coffee ready to go in the mroning, enjoys crosswords and can't help but involve herself in matters around her, so is kind of a detective novel in some ways.  I happen to know, because I read the fifth book in the series before the first, that she marries a man much younger than herself.  ;)

Now I am reading Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks, and am enjoying it and constantly remind myself when I finish it that I need to finish her earlier book, People of the Book.  Also beside my bed unfinished and which I desperately need to read is a parenting book by the founder of the education program implemented in Nicholas' school and Anne Voskamp's book 'A Thousand Gifts'.

I am also eagerly awaiting the release of Amanda Blake Soule's new book, The Rhythm of Family.

Hers was one of the first blogs I began reading some four years ago and remains one of my favourites.  I have her previous books and gleaned so much from them about enjoying simple things with your family.  It continues to inspire me as I seemingly continue to fall down in the area of taking the time to do such things.

  

Anyway, the reason I need to get myself organised in regards to use of time, school, craft and reading?  David is about to enter a semester of full time university (although he will continue to work two days and every other Saturday) so we will need to run the house like a ship (is that the saying) and the thought of that scares me to death as I do not want it to be in the manner of a Sargent-major, but to remember to take time for the kids, let them be who they are and take time to enjoy being with them... in spite of the dust under the bed! 

Oh to be home full time and be able to do it all!  Looks like meal planners, lists and Sunday baking is on its way!

One thing I have been listening to and have been blessed by is a series from Nancy Leigh DeMoss' Revive Our Hearts ministry. 

It is on having a quiet heart.  Who would have thought so much could be learnt from one small Psalm?  Psalm 131.  Listen to the series here.