Two wings lift a person up from earthy concerns: simplicity and purity. Simplicity should be in intention, purity in feelings. Simplicity reaches out after God, purity catches hold and tastes. ~ Thomas A’Kempis

Sunday 1 September 2019

An ordinary day in my life


Romans 14: 6 a
He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he
who eats, does so for the Lord, 
for he gives thanks to God


Hello dear readers,
I thought I would share a typical day. I enjoy reading how other homemakers spend their days, so I wanted to share mine, but before I do I'm super excited that some new ladies have started following me. That brought so much joy to my heart I can hardly even explain it :) It made me more motivated to actually write more (thank you).
Okay here we go:

6.30 am My hubby wakes me up...then I put the laundry on, chat with hubby and then prepare his snacks to take to work (he comes home for lunch). Make myself a cup of coffee and head back to my bedroom to have my quiet time. We don't eat breakfast right now as we're practising intermittent fasting and I eat at 10.am or 12.00. I pretty much do this every morning, except the days I go and help my daughter, then I make the lunches early in the morning too. I am a creature of habit ! :)

Painting by: François de Bruycker

7.30 am Prayer time, Bible reading (1 Peter chapter 1 ff at the moment). Then I write in my journal. I like to journal about everyday things: what I'm cooking, prayer needs, current affairs, family issues, goals, spiritual inspiration from the bible reading etc. I also go back and read through old journals. It's very interesting :) Then I check emails on my laptop.



8.00 or 9.00 am depending on my schedule, I shower and prepare for my day. If I have any soap orders I package them up now. I will normally bake in the morning or put bread in the breadmaker for my husband. It takes him about 4 days to get through a loaf. This morning I made him apricot and white chocolate slice (one of his favourites).








Apricot & White Chocolate Slice

Ingredients
1 x 400g pkt of vanilla wine biscuits - crushed
125g melted butter
1/2 can of condensed milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup coconut
1 cup chopped apricots
1 cup white chocolate chips
extra white choc to scatter on top
1 T organic coconut oil
extra coconut

Method:
1. Melt the butter, stir in the brown sugar and the condensed milk. Whisk until all are
combined.
2. Place the coconut, apricots and crushed biscuits in a bowl.
3. Pour the melted mixture over the dry ingredients. Mix well.
4. Press into a parchment lined square tin.
5. Melt the coconut oil and the white chocolate chips together in a small bowl in the microwave for about 40 seconds.
6. Pour the melted chocolate over the base. Sprinkle with extra coconut. Refrigerate until hard. Cut into 12 or 16 pieces and enjoy.  :)
..............................................................

10.30 am. Make myself a cup of decaf tea. Then I do some cleaning, dust, vacuum etc or clean bathroom. I discovered we have ants in the kitchen grr, so I've set up a little lid with some ant poison to try and nip that in the bud.

11.00 am I made some homemade laundry powder. I know a lot of people do this and I have too on and off over the years. As I already had the ingredients I thought I would just try and use some of them up. I know there's hundreds of recipes out there for homemade laundry powder - liquid ones and dry. I've tried them both. I just found this one quick to make and it makes a large quantity. 
So far it's doing what it's designed for :)


L A U N D R Y  P O W D E R

Ingredients

1.5 Kilogram - Baking Soda (Bicarbonate of Soda)
1 .5 Kilogram - Soda Ash (Sodium Carbonate - washing soda)
1 .5 Cups of Castile Liquid Soap
1.5 cups of Epsom Salts
1.5 cups Sea Salt
Essential Oil: I used  Lemongrass, Tea Tree & Peppermint

M E T H O D:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients well in a large stainless/or enamel basin. I wore a disk mask. 
2. Add however much essential oil you want to use (or none) to the castile soap and mix well. 
3. Pour the liquid soap into the dry ingredients and one again, mix well :)
4. Let it dry a little bit, maybe 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Spoon into whatever you want to store it in. Mines stored in large plastic containers. 
6. Use 2 Tablespoons per load.

11.45 am Prepare lunches. I made myself a tuna/egg salad and a ham/cheese and lettuce sandwich with homemade bread for Bruce. I also had a couple of squares of very dark 80% cacao chocolate with my lunch and a cup of decaf coffee. Bruce had some Banana Cake.



1.00 pm I drove Bruce back to work, so I could use the car. He works in the next town over from where we live (population about 8,000 people). Our small town has around 2,500 people. I call it Smallville. We downsized to one car a few years ago and it works fine for us this way. 
While I was in town I went to the small fabric store as they had a sale on. I've found it hard in the past few years to find clothing that I like, so I'm teaching myself to sew, or should I say resurrecting my sewing skills.  I sewed various things for my children when they were small and I've made a couple of quilts etc. Anyway I bought a top last year I really liked the style of and decided to try and make a pattern. I've got an old tea trolley, so I store my sewing machine on that and my sewing box and material, so I have it all close by to actually use all the material I have. Anyway at the sale I got some material for a new nightie on sale for only $6 a metre !!. I was very pleased. Next I went and looked around a couple of thrift stores (we call them op shops). At one of them I found quite a few patterns for only .50 cents each..!! I was overjoyed.
Next I went to the supermarket as I needed to get Bananas, Milk, and a few other things.



2.30pm Back home again, I was pooped and needed a rest. So I put away the groceries and the other bits and pieces and sat down with a cup of tea and a THM (Trim Healthy Mama) chocolate blueberry muffin. I like to split it in half, spread a little peanut butter and some sliced banana - it's delicious ! 


I sat and read for a while. I'm re-reading books from my vast collection of Amish novels. Currently its book two from the Rose Trilogy - 'The Judgement'. I love Beverly Lewis Amish Books :)


3.00pm - I decided to wash my stash of fabric I intend to use to make two night gowns, several aprons and a couple of skirts and tops. This was a big job, but I got it done and will iron it when it's dry, so it's all ready to be used for my projects. It's my daughters birthday coming up soon and she;s requested I make her some Beeswax wraps :) I did a post on that a while back - a sort of tutorial. https://fhawk.blogspot.com/2019/03/making-beeswax-wraps.html
I have lots of pretty lightweight floral fabrics which will be perfect for wraps. The thinner the fabric the better when it comes to these. Poplin is a great option. 

3.30 pm- I printed off some labels for soap and wooden soap dishes (that's something that I can work away at quietly in the evenings.) I hurt my back two weeks ago now and it is taking a long time to heal. It's been two and a half years since I hurt it last (my chiropractor told me it was this long) and I had forgotten how awful it is to be in pain and have to do everything so slowly. 

4.00 pm - I start planning for the evening meal. I actually plan it out in the morning or even the day before, eg. if something is going in the crockpot or needs defrosting. Tonight we are just having chicken burgers. 
Note: this particular image is not mine, I just got it off the net, but this is pretty much what it looked like, except I had a grain free THM Swiss bread. Sometimes I'll have a homemade sourdough english muffin for my bun. 


5.30 - 6pm This is around about when we eat. If I'm still preparing dinner when hubby arrives home he will read to me from a book we choose together. We've read our way through many many christian biographies, missionary tales etc from our church library or that friends have lent us. After dinner, we wash the dishes together, watch the 700 club, via the computer hooked up to a TV screen as we don't actually have TV. We stopped having TV about 6 years ago and don't miss it. I started calling it the uninvited guest that was bringing it's worldly viewpoints into our home via adverts etc, so we all decided we didn't want it or cable anymore. It was liberating to unplug from it all. 

7pm - 9pm - My husband Bruce and I both normally spend time checking emails or I might be wrapping soap, printing labels etc for my soap business until around 9m and then we prepare for bed.



Before we go to sleep Bruce prays and then reads a chapter from the bible. We've been doing this every night for a few years and it's just wonderful. I would encourage everyone to start and close their day with prayer and the word of God. It's so great to know that as the day begins we first seek the Lord's covering for our day, and at the close I like to keep short accounts with God...thinking over the day, what I may have said, thought or done that perhaps I could have done better, been kinder, or more thoughtful towards my husband or others. I ask for His help and guidance, and also repent of anything I feel I need to. We both love to read as well, so we read for a bit too.


Well thats my day, thanks so much for coming along and sharing it. 
Blessings to anyone who stops by here.
Please leave me a comment, if you feel too, it always makes me smile :)
Linda :)

'So teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart of wisdom'
Psalm 90:12




5 comments:

  1. What a perfect day! A little different to mine. Being a full time Carer for my husband means that I have little time for myself, but there are moments, like this morning, when I sat in the garden for 20 minutes and was just....still.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your comment Elizabeth. I know when my husband has been unwell it is a full time commitment. How wonderful you're able to care for him :) I'm sure your garden must be a solace. I long to get into mine when my back is fully healed. Blessings to you. I pray you get a little 'more' time for yourself this week ~ Blessings to you - Linda

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  2. How I enjoyed sharing your day with you!
    Your day sounds lovely, and I really liked the sense of peace I felt as I read.
    Have a cozy evening!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for stopping by Billie Jo and for your kind words :) How encouraging to know that my simple words conveyed a sense of peace to you, what a blessing !! ~ Linda

    ReplyDelete

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