On my schedule Fridays are full of interactivity with my kids but reality is by Friday we are tired and distracted so we stick to the important things: One on One time with each of my children and the idea of being productive.

I got distracted this morning (that is two mornings in a row) by deciding to tidy up my scrapbooking table. I want to scrap tomorrow, so I need some photos, but I needed to see where the last lot of photos I’d printed were at so I had to clean up my table. So we were a little late in starting.

I had a couple of conversations with Josh as well – there is always a fine line between discussing things with him and teaching him how to discuss things – it is an exciting place to be.

I decided to jump straight into our one on one time today without family devotions. I’m doing a study with Daniel called Honourable Boy. Today we talked about the need to be obedient (honouring parents or authority).

After this time he was going to go off for a walk but I wasn’t too sure about where he should / shouldn’t go so I decided to go for a drive to check out the back farm roads to see what was private property and what was public roads. Nomi came with us. I ended up driving to a rocky outcrop that is within cycling distance with the hope of inspiring them to explore. It worked. When we got back from our 15 minute impromptu excursion, Daniel was ready to pack h is backpack and go bike riding. He planned to make a map of his travels.

During this time Jess put in some piano practice.

I then spent one on one time with Nomi. She is studying a Focus on the Family book – Apple Seeds. Each lesson goes through the foundations of our faith. Today we talked about ‘who am I’ but more importantly ‘who does God say I am and what He thinks about it.” She had some personal study/writing to do after this.

I’ve planned for Jess to do Polished Cornerstones but she isn’t there yet (as she is finishing another Bible study first.) So we talked about what we should do with this ½ hour – we tried to do a little Bible study but our internet was so slow we felt we were wasting time so we gave it up. But it did confirm how we want to spend this time. In future weeks I’ll have prepared something to share with her – my heart to hers (though I’ll use my study of Polished Cornerstones to draw from most times).

No time with Josh today. He has had a fairly full on week getting his head around university studies, and time management. He is intending on working through Plants Grown up (which is the male version of Polished Cornerstones) though he hasn’t done anything this week. We have chosen organisation theme for him to start with so in a sense getting his head around time management and a different study schedule is all a part of him applying God’s word in his life. Today we talked about him breaking his day into 3 sections – 2 for Uni and 1 for homeschooling. He will start working on that premise next week.

I spent the next little while in the kitchen making supper for the Ladies Friendship night I was involved in. I made 2 raw pies: Chocolate and Blueberry and then I invented a Banana/Lemon pie. The banana/lemon topping was so yummy Jess talked me into making a bowl of this ‘pudding’ for her and myself for lunch. Then I helped Jess make scones.

During my time in the kitchen Daniel came back from his walk and spent some time resting, Nomi worked on Jessica’s birthday present, and Jess had a few projects to tidy up on the computer.

Once the cooking was done I raced into town with a long list of things to do. As I was slowly progressing through my list I felt my anxiety levels rise – I had taken on too much – so I quickly reassessed, did the important and went home. Why do I do this to myself!

Crazy early evening as we had to leave the house at 6.00 with a car full of food and flowers as well as buckets, towels and nail polish for a ladies pamper night. The kids helped me set up the hall before they went to a youth Bible Study. We had about 15 ladies come (invites sent out to the Christian ladies regardless of which church they go to on Sunday). We were shown how to fold towels into a swan, an elephant and a crab. Something fancy to do when you have a guest. We had a short devotional focus where we considered the message of Martha to our own lives. We never got to the pampering which was more than okay. The night was about catching up with each other and plenty of that happened. It was a successful night.

After I packed everything back into my car – my car had died. Though a friend got it started again it was a little touch and go on my way back home. Died as soon as I got home. Don’t like it when the car is not reliable. But Peter and Daniel fixed it for me (something simple as a terminal loose – so they say!!).