Holiday Journal part1! It's a Jolly holiday with...

...GUESS WHO

What a beautiful morning we have awoken to today.

You know what's funny...blogging friends becoming real life friends, I think it truly is a funny thing!

For me I know it's a God thing, it's no mistake when you meet certain people, I totally believe that the Lord brings people into your life and you into theirs for all sorts of wonderful and incredible reasons.

Jeanne and I met by one email...that is it, an email where Jeanne took time out of her busy schedule to offer her advice and help to me, at the time I was really seeking the Lord for clear direction with my homeschooling.

Our time here has been most relaxing, refreshing, invigorating and fun!

It's wonderful to have our children connect with each other and to learn and grow!

Hope you have a beautiful day!

Love Sarah xxx

You are always on my mind...

...Seriously, you are always on my mind!

The blogging world is such an incredible network and I am so grateful to God for revealing it to me and I want you to know that I appreciate you and have missed you over the last week, and looking forward to going back over your posts!

This week has been very eventful with David back home and with his parents staying here. It really has been most wonderful to have company again and to sit down and have adult conversation.

Dave's folks are 100% gluten free, so I have been having so much fun cooking their meals and experimenting with my own cooking ideas, and to all of our surprise the cakes I made turned out beautiful!

Firstly I made gluten free blueberry muffins (my own recipe) and last night I made gluten free mud cake!

They were truly blessed to enjoy some treats!

In a few days we are heading away on a camping trip for about 10 days, but my laptop will be coming with us, mainly to check for B&B enquiries, but also I will be able to keep up with every one's posts, or really have more time to read and enjoy your posts!

So right now I am off to start packing all our gear! xxx

Hey all!

Hope your weekend was a wonderful one and if it was terribly hot where you are, hope you kept cool.

Over the weekend my hubby and I have been spring cleaning our apartment and oh it just feels so wonderful to de clutter and give everything a really good scrub.

My parents in-law arrive today sometime after lunch and are here with us for 5 nights, so I may not get back to blogging for a few days.

Well better be off I am now going to clean the car and start school for the morning!

Love to you all! xxx

Books, books and a 'LETTER' from a book..hmmm!

A few nights ago my son and I were sitting on our couch very quietly while my daughter was drifting off to sleep.

I was browsing the web for advent crafts when Joshua out of the blue says to me "can I please choose some books for myself to read?"!
This was truly a Charlotte Mason inspired moment!

This is what I have been patiently waiting for, my son to develop a 'love' for books and reading. I have not forced him to read on his own but over this year I have found great pleasure in watching him pick up a book and to his great surprise he found that he could read the whole book fluently.

It was so much fun being with him as he chose 8 books for his summer reads and is so excited about receiving them in the mail.

Today I received an email from http://betterworldbooks.com to let us know that our books have been posted.

Except the email was quite unusual, not one that you would expect to get from an online bookshop, but I must say I found their creative writing most refreshing and invigorating to read.

Here is the letter ~
Hello Sarah,

(Your book(s) asked to write you a personal note - it seemed unusual, but who are we to say no?)

It's me... it's me! I can't believe it is actually me! You could have picked any of over 2 million books but you picked me! I've got to get packed! How is the weather where you live? Will I need a dust jacket? I can't believe I'm leaving Mishawaka, Indiana already - the friendly people, the Hummer plant, the Linebacker Lounge - so many memories. I don't have much time to say goodbye to everyone, but it's time to see the world!

I can't wait to meet you! You sound like such a well read person. Although, I have to say, it sure has taken you a while! I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but how would you like to spend five months sandwiched between Jane Eyre (drama queen) and Fundamentals of Thermodynamics (pyromaniac)? At least Jane was an upgrade from that stupid book on brewing beer. How many times did the ol' brewmaster have one too many and topple off our shelf at 2am?

I know the trip to meet you will be long and fraught with peril, but after the close calls I've had, I'm ready for anything (besides, some of my best friends are suspense novels). Just five months ago, I thought I was a goner. My owner was moving and couldn't take me with her. I was sure I was landfill bait until I ended up in a Better World Books book drive bin. Thanks to your socially conscious book shopping, I've found a new home. Even better, your book buying dollars are helping kids read from Brazil to Botswana.

But hey, enough about me, I've been asked to brief you on a few things:

Eagerly awaiting our meeting,

Stone Fox
Twister on Tuesday (Magic Tree House, No. 23)
How to Eat Fried Worms
Mouse Soup
Grasshopper on the Road (I Can Read Book 2)
Squanto, Friend Of The Pilgrims (Scholastic Biography)
The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread
A Christmas Carol (Dover Thrift Editions)
The Cat in the Hat

Chrsitmas in November!

It felt like Christmas day yesterday as my hubby started pulling out all these gifts that he had been buying and having a whole heap of fun.

He brought a really cool volcano experiment for the children which we did today!

Amongst a lot of very exciting gifts, he brought my most favourite fragrance of all 'Orange Blossom'...ooh, it is so divine!

Anyway, sorry if you are sick of me going on and on about my hubby, it's just so awesome to be back together!

Guess what, Guess what, Guess what...

...Today is the day that the Lord has made, and I will rejoice and be glad in it!

Well yes that is true but I wasn't going to write that, it just came out!

Today my delovely beloved returns home and I have been singing

him this very romantic song!

Wow, I am so excited, yet nervous at the same time, he has that effect on me, which is a good thing eh!

Our time apart has been most useful in the Lord's hand.

He certainly has done great and mighty things in our hearts!

My children have been busy this morning preparing streamers and decorations for his coming home celebration.

Tonight's menu

Main ~ Homemade vegetable lasagna

served with homemade garlic Turkish bread

Dessert ~ Chocolate pudding (Dave's favourite)

Supper ~ Me of course :-)

Have a very wonderful, fantastic, incredible and awesome day my very lovely blogging pals!

The Poppy - Lest we forget

Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps who in May 1915 when after watching the death of a close friend in Belgium wrote the following poem: