Unexpected Blessings!

Friday was such a special, blessed day!

Early in the morning we discovered I’ve won a card making challenge I entered with the sample card I’ve made for Heidi-Mari’s First Blog Anniversary Card Making Challenge. 

It is the most amazing feeling to open a challenge blog and see your name and/or the picture of your card.  I normally feel like someone who dream when I see Heidi-Mari’s name and have to look twice! She has won quite a few challenges until now (she confesses, she still experience an initial shock every time!), so when I saw my own name, I was pleasantly surprised!  I won 3 digital stamps for Heidi-Mari’s digital stamp collection!  

The rest of my Friday was taken up with normal chores, cleaning the house (how is it possible that a house can get so dirty in a week?), doing laundry, taking care of the many needs of my many children, in between home schooling and driving the older children to their extramural activities in the afternoon.  

I also gave little Michael his first haircut!  

Oh! My baby has grown up so quickly and is becoming a little boy.  It felt like yesterday that my baby was born, but he is already 8 months old.  He is developing a personality of his own, but also amazingly share personality traits of his siblings! 

Since he got his first haircut he is even more adorable (if it is possible).  David (turning 4 end of October) will often tell me “Your baby is very cute”  I’m sure you’ll agree when looking at this precious little face!  

Then when Christo came home after work, Friday afternoon, he handed me a parcel.  Now I’m mad about surprises and since I was not expecting anything, it was even more exciting!  I couldn’t find scissors quick enough to open my parcel!   Inside this unexpected gift was a book, 8 rubber wrist bracelets and a very encouraging thank you letter!  

The book:  Nancy Campbell’s newest book ‘100 Days of Blessing’. 

I couldn’t believe my eyes, for the second time the day! I read about Nancy’s latest book in her  newsletter and decided I just had to have it, but didn’t have the time to order it yet.  What a blessing to receive it as a gift!

While making Daniel asleep that night, I read Day 1 with my LED headlight and already I’ve been blessed!  It was such a powerful message and taking into account the unexpected blessings/rewards I’ve received during the day, it hit home even stronger!  

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

1 Cor 15:58

How easy do we get weary in the very demanding job as a mother!  I almost daily receive e-mails and phone calls from weary mothers! I myself have days that weariness is in every single part of my body! It is no easy job to raise a growing family, with Godly standards, in an ungodly world!  It is a selfless work, serving your family, mostly 24 hours a day, with a joyful spirit, while human strength often cannot keep up the pace! 

Then it is a lowly  job in the eyes of the world - wasting your time and talents!  Often family don’t even understand why you are doing it, giving you moments of heartache and disappointment.  I myself just recently got an unexpected blow from a family member for having so many children, embarrassing them in front of their friends!  

Friends don’t encouraged us in raising our children ourselves, either.  The moment you confess weariness in a moment of weakness, they are quick to tell you they are glad it isn’t their job, they will never manage, they don’t have the patience!  Not very encouraging when you are weary!  

Raising godly children, one need to have a long term vision. Often we don’t feel strong enough for the challenges that lies ahead and fruit or rewards on your hard work is few and far between!

But in 1 Cor 15:58 we read the Lord want us to ‘abound’ in our work for Him!  Where can women find a more valuable work in the eyes of the Lord than caring for the needs of children and train them on His behalf! God also exhort us  not to become weary in doing this work for him - He has a promise with His challenge!  He will be our Rewarder!  

Wow, how encouraged and full of joy and excitement my day ended on Friday, because of my unexpected gifts!  How much more will be our joy and excitement when the Lord returns with our rewards!

To keep going with the work He set before us, we need to renew our minds and think what is important for God!  We need to separate our selves from the thinking of the world and take every thought captive. We need God’s Word in our hearts and minds so we can recall His promises when we get weary!  And to help me with this, I’m so thankful for my rubber wrist bracelets!  

Here is how the Wrist Bracelets where ‘born’ in Nancy’s own words:

When my sister, Kate, was proof-reading my book, 100 Days of Blessing,

I noticed loads of little Post-it Notes sticking to her arm.

"What on earth are you doing, Kate?" I asked.

"There are so many statements in this book that are life-changing. I don't

want to forget them," she replied. "

You should get bracelets with these slogans on them so mothers can look

at them and be reminded of these truths throughout the day," she

continued. 

It sounded like a pretty good idea to me.

It would be too expensive for mothers to purchase fancy embossed

bracelets so I have printed eight different rubber wrist bands with...

Powerful and Positive affirmations for 

wives and mothers!

The ones currently 

available are:

I LOVE MOTHERHOOD

WE'RE A SMILING FAMILY

I'M A COVENANT KEEPER

I LOVE MY HUSBAND

I AM ABOVE SELF-PITY

MOTHERHOOD=ADVENTURE

I AM A NATION BUILDER

WORTH MORE THAN RUBIES

Over the past few days I constantly wore them on my wrist and were reminded of my high and mighty calling as a mother and wife! 

While writing this posting  I’m wearing I’m a Nation Builder!  What an incredible goal and to see it every time when I look down, it is such a strong reminder!

When I received the bracelets on Friday, I immediately put on ‘I love my Husband’!  It was amazing what effect it had.  My husband was really tired and stressed out when he came home!  On top of worked very hard the whole week, the new DVD player he bought the day before, didn’t put out sound after CJ connected all the wires.  He had to work through the whole system to find the fault and that wasn’t good.  While he had all these challenges, I saw my ‘I love my Husband’-bracelet while I took of the washing from the line, bathed the little ones and did the dishes.  It was just so much easier to encourage and love my husband while he was tired!

Over the weekend I went with 6 of my 8 children to buy summer clothes!  Christo and the two older boys were at the WP Junior Show Jumping Championships.

Heidi-Mari and I had to take the 5 younger children with us! What a challenge!  So I put on “We’re a smiling family” Wow it was so powerful!  Every time when weariness and frustration wanted me to give up on being a loving, smiling, patience mother, I saw my yellow bracelet and I could smile with my children, again! How powerful is the smile of a Mother!

I’m going to wear my bracelets every day and change them as I’m facing challenges, to help me win the everyday battles that come with being a Godly Wife and mother!  My only hope is in the Lord! 

“Father God, please help me to have an abounding attitude as I mother in home - abounding in joy, fun, laughter, nurturing, sweetness, love and wisdom. 

Amen”*

“If I only do what is required of me, I am a slave.  When I do more than is required, I am a free person.”*

* Taken from 100 Days of Blessing

by

Nancy Campbell

For South African Readers:  I’m going to import these bracelets and Nancy’s 100 Days of Blessings as soon as possible.  I’ll post here when it arrives.

With Love

Linnie

Danika Made a Christmas Card

Danika absolutely adores her sister and imitates her in every possible way.

Since Heidi-Mari started her Blog Anniversary Card Making Challenge, I could see Danika wanted to participate as well.

This whole afternoon I helped her to make a Christmas Card. 

I cut the paper and from there she coloured her image and polished and distressed the paper to her heart’s desire!  She enjoyed every second!

Tonight I supervised while she put the card together.

I think she did a fantastic job!  She will give the card to Heidi-Mari to add to the cards she will hand out the week before Christmas at an Old Age Home in Durbanville, South Africa!

Danika entered this card in the following challenges:

Christmas Card with a Twist at Heidi’s Crafts (she has some nice candy to win in celebration of her First Blog Anniversary!)

The Sketch at Weekly Christmas Card Challenges

“X” for Xmas at Alphabet Challenge Blog

What a blessing to have an older sister who can inspire her to become a Daughter for the King!

With Love

Linnie

Joy to the World!

My dear daughter got me really challenged during the past week.  

But let me first give some background.

On the 10th of December Heidi-Mari’s crafting blog will be one year old!  She gave thought to a special celebration for weeks! So she came up with a Card Challenge which will run over two months.  Anyone around the world can take part in this challenge.  

I know many of my readers and their girls, here in South Africa, but also in other parts of the world are so creative and talented. I would like to explain how you can take part in this challenge, although you may never have taken part in such a challenge ever before.

Heidi-Mari would like to see Christmas Cards, especially for Senior Citizens. 

You don’t need to have a Christmas stamp, you can draw a Christmas picture or cut out a Christmas picture from a previous Christmas card - be creative!  If you would like to try something new and colour a stamp (like the one I’ve used) you are welcome to e-mail me and I can send you a few Christmas stamps to choose from and use it on your card.

You make the Christmas Card (use as many different papers, lace, ribbon, flowers, charms etc. as you like) and then take a picture of the card. If you have a blog, you write about the card (as I am doing now), put it on your blog and upload a link to your blogposting on Heidi-Mari’s blog.  You need to go to Heidi-Mari’s blog to do the uploading, but it is so easy and you don’t need to register for anything.  Only your name, blog posting address and an e-mail address (which are not publicly displayed) is necessary.

Don’t dismay if you don’t have a blog!  You can send the picture of your card by e-mail and Heidi-Mari will upload your card on her blog.

Now, after you’ve taken a picture of your card, you write a message of blessing inside the card and snail mail the card to Heidi-Mari!  Heidi-Mari with the help of her siblings, plans to take all the cards entered in her challenge, to an Old Age Home a week before Christmas and they will bless the senior citizens with Christmas Cards!   I think this will mean a lot to the sometimes lonely seniors

On the 10th of December, Heidi-Mari’s dad - Christo, her Brother - CJ and me will have the privilege to choose the three top cards and then a winner!  The winner will receive some beautiful candy, which anyone would love to have, even if they don’t make cards, but just scrapbook or like to be creative.

The Candy includes:

25 various hat pins (5 crystal; 10 daisy pearl; 5 stars; 5 pearl drops)

1 packet of pins

1 packet Prima Ribbons

2 packets dotted ribbons

1 packet mixed charms

1 x Me & my Big ideas embellishments

1 x En Marc Ribbon sliders

1 x Ribbon sliders

1 packet 8mm flat backed Pearls

1 packet 4mm flat backed Pearls

1 box multi colored dew drops

3 packets paper flowers (pink, red, blue)

1 Whiff of Joy stamp with foam mounting

Heidi-Mari will send this prize to any place in the world - so don’t hesitate to take part!

Now back to my card!

In previous cards I made, Heidi-Mari coloured the stamps, for me.  But she invited me to be a “Guest Designer” on her blog!  Wow, what a privilege!  So she couldn’t colour my stamp, I had to do it myself.  Heidi-Mari got a beautiful set of Christmas stamps from Whiff of Joy, a month ago.I  merge three different images and used them as one stamp!  Typically me, I need to do it different.

It is Whiff of Joy stamps with images of Mary, baby Jesus and a donkey. They are so beautiful and fit perfectly with my idea of Christmas - All about Jesus!

Then I started to colour them.  Oh my!  I coloured three images before I realized I just had to start the real one, or I would still be busy colouring a ‘test stamp’ and never get to the real stamp!

For the layout of the card, I got some inspiration from Friday Sketchers.

The one pattern paper has Bethlehem stars printed on it and I alternated the rectangle blocks with stripped patterns.

Then I added some ribbon and lace and did some finishing touches with flowers and pearls.  The sentiment, is “Joy to the World” - one of the reasons Jesus came, was to bring us joy!   Not the joy the world is looking for, but inner joy, even in times of trouble and disappointment.

May you all experience the Joy of Jesus - the Jesus who is not a baby anymore; who is not walking the earth anymore; who is not hanging on the cross anymore; but the Jesus that is the Risen King of the Universe, busy preparing a place in heaven for each one who calls upon him to be their King and Saviour! 

You can hop over to Heidi-Mari’s blog and get some inspiration from her card and the other creative cards made specially for her, by some very special Card-Making-Friends from around the world!

And TAKE PART IN HER CHALLENGE!

I also want to enter this card in the following challenges:  

Jesus is the Reason for the Season at Winter Wonderland Challenge;

Inspiration from Song Title at Allsorts Challenge and of cause the name of my song is "Joy to the World!"

and

"X" for Xmas at Alphabet Challenge Blog.

Thank you Heidi-Mari for inviting me to make a sample card.

With Love

Linnie

A New Season For My Vegetable Garden

My first seedlings for this season were planted two weeks ago!

The previous weekend, CJ went through all my beds and gave it a finishing touch, pulling out a few weeds (Daniel helped too).   

During August we added in horse manure, left over ground coffee beans, river sand, peanut shells, some bone-meal and the ash from our fireplace.

Two of my 7 beds’ ground looked beautiful, with thousands of earthworms.  The other 5 beds’ compost still need a little more maturing, but for now they will have to do.

Daniel was very intrigued by all the worms.

Every now and then he came to show me a new one!

Isn’t he soooo sweet!  I just love that little face!

And another one...!

I planted my pumpkin plants around plastic nursery pots.  I got the idea from Jane’s Delicious Garden. 

This way I will try to correct the mistakes I made with my butternuts and squash during the previous season. 

Pumpkins are very ‘hungry’ plants and need lots of fertilizer. As the pumpkin plants grow, their roots spread down around the bottom of the pot.  When you fill the pot with water, it slowly drains out of the holes at the bottom of the pot, directly and gently watering the roots. 

I can feed the plants with my Bokashi liquid fertilizer through the pots, delivering the food directly to the roots without any wastage.  

My butternuts and squash also got mildew in the previous season.  Watering directly into the pots avoids wetting the leaves and lessens the chance of disease. 

Lastly, but certainly the biggest mistake was sowing seeds we saved from the organic butternuts and squash we received from Ethical Co-op resulting in NO harvest from the butternuts and squash we planted. You can imagine the frustration of working for months, nurturing these little plants, to result in NO harvest!

After investigating, I realized they were F1-hybrids. 

What is the problem with F1 hybrids?  The advantages of hybrids are various.   They are usually more vigorous and productive than the non-F1 parent.  They are more resistant to disease, they establish themselves quickly and evenly! Wow, what more can you ask for?

There is one BIG catch with F1 hybrids:  you can’t save seeds from them! 

F1 hybrids are a once-of deal only!  If you sow seeds saved from an F1 hybrid, they will NOT yield a harvest!  If you want to grow a particular F1 hybrid again, you have no choice but to BUY F1 seeds from the seed producer.  This way the seed producers will over time manipulate the seed market and farmers and gardeners will increasingly become more and more dependent of them, having to PAY for seeds.  

What is wrong with that?

It wasn’t God’s intention in the beginning.  We read in Gen. 1:11 “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

God intend man to plant seeds and harvest food as well as seed to plant again. But as always MONEY is the motivation.  Obviously GM seed producers will decline it and motivate it with producing enough food for the “over-populated” world!  

Seed producers (like Monsanto) even sue farmers who sow open-pollinated seeds, since they interfere with their ‘patented laboratory produced seeds”.

I only buy and plant Heirloom seeds.  Why Heirloom seeds?  

The following is taken from Sean Freeman's blog, Livingseeds:

 “Heirloom plants can be simply defined as any plant that has been handed down from generation to generation..., that is firstly open pollinated, secondly has a history of private exchange and thirdly has not been subject to a plant breeders rights, claim to be worthy of heirloom status. Heirlooms are our genetic guarantee of future food supply. 

No matter what nature cares to throw at us, if you have a handful of heirloom seeds you can be assured that firstly you can plant the seed, secondly you are able to save the seed for the following year and thirdly, if environmental conditions change the plant will have the internal genetic diversity available to adapt via natural selection. Something that cannot be said for any hybrid or GM seed.”

Read more at Livingseeds by Sean Freeman. 

Little Michael in the Ergo, while I'm busy sowing and planting

This brings me to another point: ‘Organic’ seldom means a heirloom seed, it only means no pesticides were used during the growing process. I planted the seed of an organic butternut. When I first bought organic vegetables, I thought ‘organic’ also meant no genetic modification of the seeds.  Out of my ‘experiment’ (and research) it is clear, this ‘organic’ butternut was genetically modified. 

Genetic modification of seeds is even more hazardous than the pesticides sprayed during the growing of vegetables, according to Dr. Marcola, (Read more about the effect of Genetic Modified Seeds on the fertility of our next generation).

The implication of this is that I can never again take the chance of saving seeds from any vegetable I haven’t grown myself.  The vegetable we buy in the supermarket will most probably be genetically modified and sadly enough the organic vegetables too.  

For my butternuts, I sow Waltham Butternut seeds but I also discovered BeingPlants.  I ordered a  variety of seeds from them (you can even select your currency).  Their service was excellent and 5 days after I placed my order, I received my seeds.  I also received seeds from Living Seeds. 

A week ago I sowed the different varieties of corn, tomatoes, lettuce, pumpkin, watermelon and melon, which I received from BeingPlants and Living Seeds. 

I thought the night temperatures had increased enough that I didn’t need the hot boxes for germination.  Most of the time, there is germination within 3 days after sowing.  With the seed trays outside the hot box, there wasn’t one seed that germinated, so on the fourth night we moved it into the hot box en within three days the seeds started to germinate!

In the meantime the beautiful strong pea-plants I planted 3 weeks ago

were eaten by snails overnight!  

 

I had a few peas from the second batch of seeds I sowed and planted them in the open spaces were the snails had their feast.  

The snails also had a feast on my pumpkin plants.  

We immediately threw  dried egg shells, but will have to keep an eye on the little plants the next day or two.  I may need some chemical free snail pellets.

We also replanted our Rainbow Corn plants.  

Andrew didn’t feel to well the day we replanted the corn plants.

These seeds are the seeds we saved from our first harvest of rainbow corn during the previous season.  This is a first for me.  To save my own heirloom seeds, sow them and have them germinate.  Every single one of the seeds germinated. It just felt so good!!

We now also have 5 extra hanging baskets with strawberries.  These 5 new plants were propagated from our existing plants.

We now have 11 strawberry baskets and I’m feeding them liquid fertilizer to ensure a huge harvest of strawberries for my many small children!

With love

Linnie