Weekend:

On Saturday evening Peter and I spoke at a marriage evening – we spoke on the issue of selfishness in our relationship.  The evening was the kick start to a Marriage Challenge where we will send out a challenge to go on a date every two months.  Over the course of the year they will have gone a variety of different dates.   Within the package there is also an article on a particular issue pertaining to strengthening marriage – participants will read the article individually before their date and then discuss it when they go out.  A third part of the challenge is to take a photo – as creative as you want – to represent your time together.

It was a real blessing to have our children involved as well.  The girls cooked the desserts:  Jess made a chocolate mousse, 2 sticky date puddings, and a chocolate mud cake.  Nomi made a custard teacake.  Then the kids babysat for a few different families as well.  It is exciting to enter in this stage of our life where our children are actively involved with us.

Sunday evening we were pretty exhausted so we looked for a movie to watch instead of our usual ‘thinking movie’.  We chose Blindside which no-one had yet seen.  I was struck by the scene where the Sandra Bullock character was moved by the information that this young man had never had a bed of his own.  I raised this scene with my kids a few days later to make them realise that there are kids in our town that have the exact same issues.  It opened into some thought provoking conversation.  Not sure what we can do but being aware is a good step.

Bits and pieces that happened:

• girls had piano lessons and we learnt we can do theory exams online – good news!
• Joshua had several opportunities for driving practice / lessons
• Optometrist and Podiatrist appointments (don’t appointments take up a lot of time!)
• Tuesday is work day – Jessica helped me in the office, Nomi ironed and Daniel mowed the lawn (unfortunately for him, the ride on is broken so he had to use the push mower!)
• Nomi is on photocopy duty – it seems to be the right time for her to learn to use the photocopier so whenever a photocopy job needs to be done – she is called.
• Girls cooked morning tea for Mainly Music, Jess cooked a carrot cake, Nomi cooked banana muffins injected with caramel (yum!)
• Mum’s group met on Tuesday night, we watched 4 the Family’s Identity DVD.  Highly recommended.
• Joshua spoke to his grandfather on the phone about the Compass Course he went on in January
• Kids worked in the sandalwood for 1 hour Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday (Josh helped on Friday too).  This changed our study routine time so we only added Character and Living Math (Mathstart:  Skip Counting and Factors) to our schedules.  Next week we’ll start our Geography unit as well.
• Though Joshua isn’t enrolled in any university course this term he is maintaining a study routine by catching up on Math, Latin and his reading list which Peter and I have given him.  At the moment he is reading “Don’t Waste your Life” by Piper and a book on biblical principles for men and women in business.
• Jessica is using Learning through History to help her get an overview of World War 2.
• I spent Wednesday in the office catching up with some office work for Peter, the kids had independent study time.  I would have liked to talk about our Character lesson over dinner – but that didn’t happen.
• Nomi is enjoying her reading hour after lunch – when the days have been nice she has taken herself off to “Top Towers” (our cubby house in the tree tops).
• We started “Keepers of the Home” group again – this term we are focusing on Digital Scrapbooking (using Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus).  The girls were all familiar with the programme so we looked at a few techniques that they had not considered.  I’ve encouraged my girls to go through the manual to find all the ‘badges’ they think they deserve – I will then consider buying the badges for them.   I haven’t been very good at ordering these badges so we’ll do them all at once!!  Maybe I’ll do better with Daniel and a Contenders of the Faith programme.
• The kids have Youth Group on Friday night.  Josh has been asked to join the leadership team there which he’ll accept if he can keep all things balanced.  Jess isn’t sure she’ll go every night as she misses being home with the family – especially Daniel.  Nomi loves youth group.

Things that didn’t happen!

• We only had one lesson with Character and we didn’t get to our family devotions.  This was because our early morning routines were interrupted with farm work and medical appointments.
• Healthy lunches didn’t happen and we ate more icecream in the evening than I would like.
• We still haven’t started our geography unit – that will start next week.
• I had a short list of areas in the house that needed extra attention – there is always next week!

One quote that has struck me as we study dependability is: