04

the house has no heating, and so the kitchen is really the centre of the house.

Our new suite has bench seating, and is a seventies leftover, but it's intact and looks good where it is. Each bench has a lift up seat for storage, which is wonderful! I bought it at a half-price sale of furniture at one of our many Opportunity Shops in Warrnambool, and carted it home in rain yesterday.

Mowgli's nose is out of joint, however, as the seats are far too high for him to jump up, and his favourite easy chairs have been relegated to the relative gulag of the adjoining study. I put a pillow underneath the one single chair of the suite, but he steadfastly ignores this and much prefers to be in the way on the woven rag mat in front of the stove. I will have to teach him to use the pillow as there is far too much danger of spilling boiling water on him, or tripping over him and spilling on a human. He gets out of the way when he can see me moving purposefully towards the stove, but he does tend to hang around underfoot (does that even make sense?), so some more training is obviously required.

Nathan, Brian's youngest son, is now living with us, hence the five mouths to feed. He's a lovely lad, 23 years old, and drives a number of different vehicles for a local contractor. Far quieter than his older brother, Aaron, although both share their Father's cheeky grin. We are also praying that they will come to the Lord. As you know, God has no grandchildren.

Thankfully, they each have a caravan, which means they have their own space, although the external laundry has a few power leads running off it, so we have to be a bit careful.

All of the animals seem to be booming, and I collected some more freebies this week in the form of ten guinea pigs. We'll raise them, breed them and sell the offspring, on the basis that there are always more children wanting a safe, quiet and cute pet. Cheap, too.

I am now getting up closer to 5:30AM, on the basis that I can have my prayer and devotions, clean out the stove pipe and get the water nice and hot for Nathan, who starts early, works all day and needs his coffee! I'm working on cleaning through the whole house, in that I want to get a job, and if the house is once-and-for-all tidied up, I won't have to do much but normal house-keeping. Unfortunately, I am a Messie, and claiming artistic temperament does not do my conscience any good whatsoever!

There are a few jobs going, but working around Alice's schedule is a bit interesting, and I am loathe to leave her with some kind "Aunty", on the basis that it is a bit unfair on both and I always worry that something may happen, especially in these days of surface clean and underneath scum.

If I manage to get a full-time job, Brian will move to part-time and he will be free to work the farm better, which would please him immensely. He's gone back to work after five weeks holiday, and this morning was the first time in ages that I was feeding the animals. I miss him already, and not just because of that. My husband has a great sense of humour, and is a treasure to be around.

At Come and Do, the craft group at the Baptist Church, our table is in the throes of creating our own single-bed patchwork quilts. It's an eye-opener for me, as this "Snowball Quilt" is something I have never attempted before. I still haven't completed the patchwork cushion I started at the beginning of this year (May already?!), but it's mostly done, and if we ever have a UFO (Unfinished Objects) Day, I'll be in like Flynn, getting my done!

Sharon, our tutor, is one of the loveliest ladies you can imagine, and has such a gift for craft and a gift for teaching that the two combined makes me in absolute awe of her. She is generous-natured with it, giving freely of her time and skills at Come and Do, as do all the tutors, and oft-times doing work at home for individuals, as well as sharing much of her own collections of remnants, glues, etc.

I found out today that Heather, our Highland heifer, loves grapes! She would open her mouth for small bunches and wait patiently for more when I dug into the box of older fruit Materia's had thoughtfully given me yesterday. Muppet can't see what all the fuss is about, but I might try him again tomorrow, when I go to feed them again, and his mouth is open. I think he is in for a pleasant surprise.

It's been raining a lot here, which we need, and I console myself as I look out at the washing line with the thought that at least it's getting a good rinse!

I'll end with a quote today from a wonderful Australian motivator, Lisa McInnes-Smith from her perpetual calendar Keep Couples Cooking!

"A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes."

Attemption

Every day I promise -

this day I will be organised

I have learned -

don't set up too much to do

don't sweat the small stuff

congratulate myself on any victory

remember that if it is there today,

it will still be there tomorrow.

But the little that I do is not enough

The small stuff nags

The victories are costly

And what is there tomorrow

should have been sorted out

yesterday, when I needed it today.

Ah, me! I smile at my own foolishness

and knuckle down to the mess once more.

Dominus tecum

Leonie