Housework ~ Did I Say Housework?

Housework ~ did I say housework? Now, I truly did hear sighs and groans from some of you! Washing your mouth out with chocolate sounds like a wonderful excuse to indulge one’s chocolate addiction without feeling guilty, now doesn’t it?

These last few weeks have been incredibly difficult for us, but not just because of the pain aspect – it is more the frustration of knowing what needs to be done, but not being able to do it. Housework  (there’s that word again!), especially mopping and vacuuming make Thursdays a very long day, with my husband struggling through the vacuuming and my son mopping all of the floors and verandahs – then having to do his school work, as well. He is currently studying toward his year 12 certificate, so school work is not a walk in the park, either.

People from our church have asked whether they could help with the housework, but the sheer distance makes that unfeasible, as it is about 80 kilometres from church to our home! I really wouldn’t expect anybody to travel that sort of distance to do our mopping and vacuuming. However, we have taken them up on their offer to help with meals when my husband goes into hospital, for they will be very full days! In the meantime, we have been struggling along, and knowing that God would work things out.

When I visited the physio, he asked if we would benefit from home help, as I had spoken to him about the difficulties that we were facing on a week to week basis, and he said that he would approach the appropriate authorities in the local health service. We had our interview this morning, and they have said that we definitely qualify for a cleaner to come in to vacuum and mop the floors in the main living areas. With homeschooling, the main living areas include pretty much all of our home, except for my son’s sunroom and the guest bedroom. Praise God, for He truly does work all things out for our good!

While I am here, I would really like to thank everybody who have taken the time out of their busy lives to pray for us ~ your prayers are very much appreciated, and God will truly bless you for honouring Him.

…my friends!

Of Fur Bunnies and Pianos

This morning, when I awoke my son, daughter and husband had already completed most of the housework, so we had breakfast, a very late breakfast I might add, and then the children washed and dried the breakfast dishes.

When they had finished the breakfast dishes, my daughter went off with her dad to collect firewood from one of the local farms, as a HUGE tree has come down in the paddock that they will be sowing very shortly. My son stayed home with me so that he could finish the vacuuming and mop the verandahs. He was still completing the dishes when I noticed fur bunnies along the skirting boards and the carpet near the skirting boards – aargh – this is why my asthma has been so severe, lately,  so I took hold of the vacuum cleaner, thinking that I could actually help with the housework. Silly me!

No such luck – I had nearly finished along the edges of the skirting boards in the loungeroom, and was vacumming one of the corners that didn’t look as if it had been vacuumed for a very long while, when it started. I coughed and coughed, my breathing became more difficult and then the wheezing started. My son was up in his bedroom, and I thought that he was never going to come down, but eventually he did, and I gasped, “Nebuliser,” at him. Of course, where was it? In the car. Where was the car? Not here! Darn it! Usually we are all together as a family, but the wood needed to be cut and the housework finished, and we couldn’t be in two places at once.

He wanted to call an ambulance, but living out here, the calls all go to Adelaide for ambulance, and by the time he had explained where we were, it would have been too late. He jumped on his bicycle and rode the  three kilometres to where my husband and daughter were cutting wood, and found them just arriving there after going to see about buying some oats. He threw the bike into the trailer, and they drove home and set up the nebuliser. I was so hot and unable to breathe, but somehow God sustained me through it all.

There were two lessons learned from this -

• Lesson one is that the nebuliser needs to be with me at all times, which was the reason that we left it in the car in the first place.
• Lesson two is that I need to explain to our children exactly how things need to be done.

Yes, it’s easier to do things ourselves – well, sometimes! It takes time and effort to show our children how we want things done, but how will they learn unless we teach them?

The things of God are learned in the same way -
It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. John 6:45

My son is learning well, and this afternoon he has used the crevice tool to clean along the edges, and even went as  far as to shift the piano, which hasn’t been shifted for a very long time. Now all that we need to be able to do is to shift it back…  It weighs a ton! My husband and son managed to shift it back, and my son commented, “Now I have gorilla arms – they have stretched that far!” Now, I wonder, how often should we shift the piano???

I praise God that He strengthens us through times of trials, and He gives us His Peace – the verse that I remembered today was:~

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,

whose mind is stayed on thee:

because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3

and He did ~ He kept me in perfect peace!

What’s Flowering at Our Place?

The Liriopes in our back yard are providing us with a very much appreciated splash of colour at this time of year, as the trees are beginning to drop their leaves, and not much else is flowering in autumn.

ALTHOUGH

The Lomandras in my daughter’s garden have the most delicate creamy-white flowers that you have ever seen. Look around you – what can you see flowering at your place? God created all things for His enjoyment – go ahead and imagine how you would feel if you were God and able to see all of the flowering plants at one time! That absolutely astounds me, and I guess that’s why He is God, and we are His people. We couldn’t cope with all of the beauty of this world in one viewing.

AND

On the subject of autumn, can you guess where all of the leaves are?

Yes, they’re all in the bottom of the pool – the prunus will be getting a rather severe haircut before it drops ALL of its autumn leaves!

It is Finished

Today has been a day of “Just doing it”, to quote my friend, Ruby. This morning my husband and I took down the rest of the curtains and finished washing them and also completed washing the rest of the windows.

But we weren’t content to stop there – the lounge room door has a small window above the door (photo on right), and during the winter it is so very cold here (down to -8°C) that we have had a piece of blind tacked up to keep the bitterly cold winter out.

When we purchased our curtains (at an op-shop, of course), there were three curtains which works perfectly for us, as we need two for the large window, and we have cut the other curtain to make two more – one above the door, and one to go onto the leadlight door to create a privacy screen at night time. The leadlight door that belongs here is currently in my daughter’s bedroom, but eventually, after painting, it will make its home where the frosted door is now. The advantage of having the leadlight door is that it has a clear glass panel, and we can take advantage of the spectacular view from our loungeroom.

Coal Miner’s Daughter?

Today we have been flat out cleaning out cupboards and washing all of the crockery, cutlery and plastic ware before replacing it all in the sparkling clean cupboards. I washed the dishes while our children dried all of the dishes without murmurings and disputings (Philippians 2: 14-15). These days I also look for complete, quiet and quick obedience from our children, and today they were very keen to obey. My husband also cleaned the sunroom windows near the lounge room.

Following this, my daughter and I cleaned and washed the silver service cutlery set that my mum gave us a couple of months ago. What a messy job that was, even though we used the silver polishing cloth included with the cutlery set! By the end of the time, I looked like a ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’, or maybe that should have been a coal miner.

My son also cleaned out the laundry sink cupboard, and my daughter was happy to replace all of the toiletries in the bathroom vanity unit after we had cleaned this cupboard out. My son and daughter also cleaned out the medicine cupboard, and it was lovely to see them work together in an attitude of harmony and cooperation.