A very blessed Thanksgiving, dear readers.  I hope you have a wonderful day in special thanks to our Lord for His goodness.  We will be celebrating Thanksgiving across the pond, just like we used to.

Husband even took us to a farm to get a lovely organic, free range turkey.  We all got to meet the turkeys, who were quite noisy.  The girls had pretty, inquisitive eyes, but the males, everyone thought were quite ugly.  I thought they still looked grand with their big feathers all puffed out.  Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera, so we will just have to remember the flock of black turkeys in our mind's eye.  But they looked much like this:  (this is a male)

Husband has also ordered a lovely turkey straight from a farm, for we will be celebrating Thanksgiving here, as we would in America.  We have invited a few people to join our family, so we may have an even fuller house again.  There is much to do to prepare, though I have already planned most of the dishes we will serve.  I've been able to order a big roasting pan for the turkey and a pie pan for pumpkin pie.  A thoughtful neighbor even stopped by with a homegrown pumpkin for us a few days ago, which we will use for homemade pumpkin puree.  I love homemade baked goods with pumpkin in them--pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies...

Last week was quite a sunny week.  We hardly had any rain.  The wet ground finally had a chance to dry out a bit, and there was less mud to go around.  But the past few days have brought more rain and wet to us again.  I suppose that is why it is so green here (smiles).   Over the weekend, the cold weather came in suddenly, making us quite aware that winter is on its way.

Sometimes, in the late afternoon and early evening, the sun looks so amazing.  We have seen it in the sky as a huge ball of fire--but the sun is so bright and fire-y that it looks almost red.  I took some photos, but they don't do it justice.



Over the weekend I made my first blackberry and apple crumble at my husband's request.  He took one bite and started with his Mmm-Mmmmmm!'s, and exclaimed that is was so very good.  And yesterday was a very busy day, and dinner was late, but thankfully delicious.  I made a new recipe of a "potato" soup, but it really doesn't have any potatoes in it.  Instead it is made with cauliflower and radishes, and everyone loved it.

I am thankful to the Lord to have a big old farmhouse to be sheltered in from the elements.  We don't get too cold, but sometimes I have to send one child to find another child amongst the many rooms.  Our neighbours have told us that our house must be around four hundred years old.  This makes our house quite interesting, and I wish I could find out more about the history of it.  There are many doors in our home that have been closed off and are no longer usable.  There are many old locks with old keys to go along with them.



There is the sound of little pitter-patter feet.   Little Ones are waiting for their school lessons, so I must attend to my motherly duties.

Have a blessed day in the Lord.

Last week was a very busy week.  At the beginning of the week, we had a large crate of our belongings from America delivered.  It arrived on a semi-truck (what they call lorries here), and the driver called my husband to let him know that he couldn't find our house.  Our house is down a little road that wasn't obvious to the truck driver.  We went out to find out where he was parked, and I showed him where our house was.  First, the driver tried backing down the small road towards our house.  I stood there with some of the children, covering my eyes, because I was afraid he was going to run into something on the small road in between houses.  Upon realising he couldn't back down all the way to our house, he pulled his huge truck back up the road and decided he would unload the large crate at the top of the hill and pull it down to our property.

All of the children were out now and watched as he began to lift the large crate and pallet onto the pallet jack.  It all looked so unsteady that I turned away, not wanting to watch.  All of this was happening on top of a hill, and the crate was slanting downwards...all of a sudden there was a large "crash", and I looked back to find that our huge crate had fallen over, off of the lorry, with the majority of the boxes that were inside now fallen into the road.  We all gasped, and I was thankful that none of the children were nearby when the boxes came tumbling down.  When we had prepared our crate back in America, we had secured it with straps, but apparently somewhere along its journey, the straps had been taken off and were never replaced, which caused the instability.  I approached the driver and asked if he would like us to just start carrying boxes down to our house.  He did, but they were quite heavy, so some of the children worked together to carry boxes down the road.  Thankfully, shortly after this, my dear husband came home on his lunch break to help us with our predicament, and he helped us get all of our 26 boxes into the house.

The next couple of days were spent unpacking and putting things away in the house.  Thankfully, my husband had gotten enough bookshelves to contain the many books we brought with us.  We also now have our clothes for the cold weather, as we had been getting cold here without them!



A storm hit here over the weekend, which made it very cloudy, rainy, and windy here.  This made for a great time of snuggling in on Saturday to play games, have Bible study, and watch Little House on the Prairie together as a family.  We have also had some beautiful sunsets.  We also went apple picking last week, as our neighbours have several apple trees and invite us to come and pick their apples.  We have already made applesauce and apple cider, and we have plans to make apple butter, apple tarts, apple crisp, and perhaps some apple pie.  My husband and the children have peeled and cut up much of the apples and put them in the freezer for later.  I also need to make some berry preserves with the blackberries we have picked--they grow wild here all over.  Cherished of God is making homemade candied fruit for the fruit cake she is making for Christmas.  We've never made a fruit cake before, but she wants to try it since we are now in our new home, and it's a tradition here.

Our school books arrived in our crate, so I have to get busy planning everyone's school assignments, and I have to get back to teaching, along with of course getting ready for our many guests coming soon (smiles).

Thank you for your inquiries into my health--I am thankfully feeling much better today--just a little bit tired still, and I have a slight headache.  I will be easing back into homemaking tasks today as much as I am able.

In a couple of weeks' time, we will have a full house (well, fuller than just our normal family, *smiles*) of some people from church, and some of my husband's family.  They will come for the afternoon, and then for supper, and my husband's family will spend the night.  My husband made all these plans on his own (smiles).  I am not used to having much company around the house, or entertaining lots of people, as I grew up in a household that hardly had any guests.  For the past several years, I was also not in a position to be able to cook meals for other people besides our family.  I am also a very shy person, and I thrive on quiet and routine.  Being around lots of people wipes me out.

But nevertheless, the guests are coming, and my husband wants me to practice hospitality, which of course I know is important.  So I will prepare myself mentally as much as I can, and strive to plan meals that will feed a large crowd and pray for the Lord to help me.  Maybe I am a bit silly, but this is just not something I am used to--especially with just having immigrated to a different country and having never met these people before (smiles).


The girls and I love to pick fresh flowers to decorate our home.  I'm glad there are still flowers out this time of year!