New Year, Same Hope

 

Hello everyone,

I'm back..sorry for my long absence. It was grief, pure, tough and simple and just needing a little space while I went through it and processed some things...but my heart has mended and I feel more peaceful again. I wanted this post to be a little update on what's been happening around our little homestead and in my heart...sort of reflections of 2021 and goals for 2022. The title is New Year, same hope. My hope is always in the Lord !!! :) 

Hebrews 10:23 'Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful' Amen

Plus a ton of pictures, please feel free to scroll through or whizz through it all if it's all a load of waffle to you. We've also had wonderful grandies days with little ones visiting :)

 

 

2021 October: We extended our vegetable garden - exponentially !!! and I'm thrilled with the results. We have a total of  16 - 17 total vegetable beds now and I probably still need a large spare one to have room for successive plantings of things like lettuce, spinach, cauliflower, cabbage etc. We have plans to make a proper screened in area for raspberries and boysenberries and a couple of small cloche style boxes fitted with old windows, to act as little hot houses for Spring & late Autumn/Winter use. 

We planted some more fruit trees too: 1 x Cherry, 2 x Nashi Pears, 1 x Prune Plum, 1 Dwarf Pear tree and a Feijoa Hedge. I'll make a little video/tour and upload to You tube and then put here for the next post.

 

I also wanted the garden space to be filled with pretty flowers, so we planted Sunflowers, Cosmos, Nasturtium, Marigolds, Poppies and 'O' how pretty they look !! How majestic soaring up towards the sun. Every time I go out there, whether its just to walk and talk with the Lord, or to go out purposefully to harvest something, I come back feeling in my heart happy, thankful and with an overarching sense of blessed peace. 

We've been eating fresh salads from the garden daily plus harvesting cabbage, cauliflower, beetroot, spring onions, red onions, zucchini, lettuce, spinach, kale, silverbeet, a few carrots and herbs - which is fantastic for our budget. I've been making sauerkraut, grating, freezing and dehydrating zucchini, and making Relish from zucchini. I bottled some Beetroot, plus froze and vacuum sealed a whole lot of celery. The tomatoes are yet to ripen, so no doubt then I will be up to my eyeballs in produce :) We have Apricots and Plums ripening..so plenty of bottling coming up soon too.

So that pretty much covers what we did and have been busy with in the garden. It amazes me over and over again the vast quantities of food that can be produced from a simple suburban property !!! With hard work and a couple working as a team, all this is possible.

2021  R E F L E C T I O N S

1. Always put the Lord first. Even if its tough at times, we must prefer God over the affections of people. This is easier said than done and I fail in this area at times, because like most of us we don't want to hurt people, especially when we have to take a stand as a Christian. Being a Christian isn't always easy. If we desire to walk in holiness with the Lord, we need to make sacrifices, tough choices and be prepared to walk the narrow way with Him alone. This is relevant to so many situations and struggles from the past year...and I see more on the horizon, more challenges and hard choices. We need to be ever so close to the Lord, keeping short accounts and seeking to hear the Holy Spirits quiet voice. So often we don't need to give an answer, and silence is best. Keeping our opinions to our self is best. Sometimes when asked for my opinion about an issue, (and aren't their so many 'controversial issues' out there today), my response is often: "I don't have an opinion. As a Christian my life is lived in submission to God and to His Word. My will, my thoughts, my desires must come into alignment and into submission to what the Word says." (even when it may be hard).

2. Sometimes people will just not like us, often just because we are a Christian. There is nothing I can do to make it any different. I can pray for them, ask God for strength to not get down about there opinion and attitude and still purpose in my heart to love them and be kind. Otherwise I am no different.

3. Achieving goals brings joy: In my heart for a long time I had wanted to focus more on the garden, eating from it, preserve more food from it, have successive plantings of lettuce/cabbage etc, sow my own seeds, save seeds, plant a bigger medicinal garden to create a home herbal apothecary. I am well on my way towards this goal :) 

4.Stay out of debt. Its a good feeling when you pay off the credit card !!! I know - happy dance... even though we still have a mortgage. Be vary careful about incurring anymore debt, whether that be getting a new car etc. Can we go without or wait longer? Living a frugal life makes me feel like I'm not wasting what the Lord blesses us with. Drawing up goals for the year holds me accountable. Planning/praying about it all is wise and invites God into all choices.

5. Busyness can often unravel goal no.4 (its true). If my life is out of control and too busy I don't stick to budgets or meal plans. I impulse shop, Vegetables go to waste in the fridge, I eat more takeaways, I wind up gaining a few pounds and I also end up with unfinished projects all over the house. It makes me feel defeated. Balance in life for me is KEY!!!!! I took my Heart & Hand products out of a local shop that stocked them as it was a big contributor to the 'busyness' and constant need to have to make more stock. If I was 20 years younger I might have enjoyed all that, but at my stage of life I need more simplicity and peace. I now only sell my products online and feel more in control :)

that's about it for reflections.

2022  G O A L S (for me)

1. Complete and add to the home apothecary. Plant more medicinal herbs that we will actually use. Make salves from the infused herbs and a herbal cough mixture so it will be ready for Winter.

2. Plan a small vacation. We never do this :)

3. SEW MY WINTER NIGHT GOWNS. I started this project last Autumn and still haven't finished..sigh

4. Finish painting the house (Hubby mostly).

5. Have more extended family dinners :)

6. Save more, continue with goals.

7. Strive to walk in the spirit each day, seek the Lord at all times and draw closer to His presence.

8. Try not to get completely overwhelmed and discouraged with the state of the world/covid & the division it's causing within families, churches and Christians. I must admit at times it's a daily struggle for me.

~  ~ ~

Bye for now everyone. Thank you for those who said they had missed me, it warmed my heart and encouraged me xox love you ~ Linda

Final Pic: Me joyfully holding this book. Mrs White if you read this, it gave me a little thrill to know that I own a book you published and recommended. It is so charming. Thank you. My husband purchased it for me for Christmas :)

Psalm 105: 4

'Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His presence continually'