Keeping busy and making time to breathe...

 

This quote by Laura Ingalls Wilder is one that I come back to regularly, as it encourages my choice to live a quiet life, a life unhurried, closed away from the world outside by a tall fence on all sides. Surrounded by the many trees my husband has planted in our six years here, and the gardens we created to provide beauty, food, herbs, restful places to sit and watch the numerous birdlife our quarter acre attracts each day - this is our sanctuary, our quiet place, where we truly do take time to think our own thoughts, talk to God, and separate ourselves (as much as we can) from the chaos of a world that shouts increasingly louder, demanding more attention than we choose to give.

 

(the garden is flourishing right now)

It sounds as though we live somewhere out in the country I suppose, but in reality we live on a very busy main road, and when we first moved here this challenged our heartfelt desire for peace and quiet. For those of you who were reading the blog back in 2017/18 you may remember that we spent almost a year searching for our first ever home, after renting all our married life. We had a list of things that we felt were important, and we offered this list to God each day, trusting that in His perfect timing, He would lead us to the right home - and He did, just weeks before our rental lease expired. 

(winter blueberries ripe for the picking)

It was a sunny end-of-winter August day, exactly six years ago last weekend, when we first came to see the house. The road had traffic, but not so much that we thought about it on that Sunday morning. Going through our list of requirments we were surprised to see that it had everything, plus a swimming pool - the one thing we did not want. Ha ha! The price was a bit more than we could spend, but we went away and sat by the river to pray and wait on God. About a half hour later we went back and made an offer 20K below the asking price, fairly sure this was what we were meant to do, and completely putting our trust in the Lord...and the offer was accepted. The house had been empty for months and the owners just wanted it off their hands.

(the cosmos are self seeding everywhere)

It wasn't until we moved in that the almost constant stream of traffic drew a line through "peace and quiet" on our list of requirements. Fortunately the excitement of setting up a real home of our own subdued that particular disappointment for a couple of months, but eventually reality took hold and we struggled to sleep with the zoom zoom of cars and trucks passing through the night. 

(lemon balm, chives and pentas mixed with morrocan mint)

The neighbours assured us "you'll get used to it" but we found that hard to believe. Our greatest desire in having a home was to live in peace and quiet, to have sanctuary away from the outside world, a place to refresh, renew, and flourish in our later years. It had been a family joke for decades that whenever our children asked their father what he wanted for his birthday/Fathers day/Christmas, his answer never changed from "peace and quiet, please."

(white yarrow, so pretty, and lovely in teas)

God's plans are regularly not the ones we'd choose for ourself - have you found that? The swimming pool we did not want has become an integral part of our health regime, with both of us swimming year-round, regardless of the weather or temperature. It's a blessing we never forsaw, yet we cannot imagine being without it now. 

(another self-seeder, sweet basil)

But that lack of peace and quiet...mmm...?? Well, as the years passed by I learned a very big lesson. Peace and quiet can be found anywhere, if you just focus on what's important within your home, the people within, and the GOD who is the real peacegiver, the One who will meet you in the storm, in the scorching summer days, in the noisy daytime traffic, in the partying of neighbours, in the (eventual) quieting darkness of the night...in your prayers, and in His Word. That changed everything for us.

(more self-seeding, pretty marigolds)

Seeking peace in a loud world is something many of us need more than ever these days, especially since 2020, as that year triggered more rapid changes across the globe than any year in my lifetime, and the changes continue to increase. Life as we know it now, especially for children, is nothing like the life my husband and I grew up in. I won't go into that too much, but I do lament the loss of those carefree years of old which my grandchildren have never experienced. But what I can rejoice in is their visits to our quarter acre, where they roam and play and wonder and explore and discover in complete freedom for hours on end...and that is something I am sure God planned when He led us here. 

(we have so much sage, lovely in teas and cooking)

So where am I going with all this? Well, we may never get all we ask for, and God may lead us in ways we do not understand at the time, but with our very limited view of tomorrow, next month or next year, we can be confident  that when we lay all aside to trust the Lord and follow His lead, we will one day see with fresh eyes all that He was preparing for us, all the goodness of God displayed for we who love and worship Him. 

The past few days have been very busy with not much time to rest up, but oh what a wonderfully productive few days it has been! I go to bed each night aching, but arise happy to start a new day. 

Last post I think I showed you how I am growing and drying calendula again. Our calendula flowers are harvested every day, and left to dry outside on the back table. Once dry they are stored in a glass jar, ready for using in herbal medicines/balms/tinctures. 

Firstly I make a calendula infusion of the dried flowers in extra virgin olive oil, leaving it sit in the dark for a month or more. Then I strain it and bottle the calendula infused oil, or use some to make balms and salves. 

Last Sunday afternoon (after a visit to the farmers market that morning) my kitchen looked more like an apothecary's back room, but I did tidy along the way so that ingredients didn't get mixed up. 

The final result was worth the month long wait for the infusion to be ready, as I ended up with pure calendula oil, calendula & lavender balm, and calendula & lavender salve - all of which I share with my daughters Blossom and Kezzie. 

Of all the many books I have on making herbal treatments, this is my current favourite, The Garden Apothecary. The pure oil is beautiful as skin care and also put away for making more balms and salves. The balm is lovely for dry patches on the skin and on my hands after gardening, and the salve is especially made for Cully May who comes up in the most painful sores when bitten by mosquitoes. It really makes a difference for her, praise God. 

I've run out of the shea butter component, but have ordered more, so when my next infusion is ready at the end of September I can make more salve and balms, plus some lip balms too. 

Sunday morning we had been to the farmer's market and arrived home with a bounty of fresh produce - far more, and much cheaper than the supermarket. Weighed down with overflowing bags of produce, hubby and I both were surprised when our bill was just $23! 

I spent all day Monday in the kitchen, storing, preserving, roasting, pickling...and baking some sweet treats for us and Blossom's family of course! 

Here's just a few things I made for the week ahead (the rest was preserved in other ways, or vacuumed sealed in the refrigerator to use fresh) - pesto made from the green radish tops, pickled radishes, pickled red onions, garlic mayonnaise, fresh tomato salsa, roasted garlic & chive labne (made after hanging Greek yoghurt for 36 hours), and herbal tea to serve over ice. 

Blossom and Cully May LOVE the labne and enjoyed a batch with crackers yesterday. I now need to make more!

On Monday I also made 2 litres of almond milk, trays of roasted capsicums and tomatoes, a tray of peanut butter stuffed medjool dates, and some sweeties were baked - ginger & coconut slice, and a chocolate slice. 

On Tuesday I spent the morning in the garden as I had potted plants that needed to be moved into shaded areas, seedlings planted out, fertilising and a bit of pruning, and planting out the coriander roots from the two huge bunches of coriander (cilantro) we got at the farmers market. I had removed all the coriander leaves and stems for use in salads, curries, and salsa, plus a lot was frozen (for use in future curries), leaving around 4 inches above the root base for planting out. In just 24 hours they were already sprouting new leaves, so we will probably be able to harvest right up to November hopefully. Coriander doesn't like our heat or humidity and when I grow it, it just withers by mid spring, and this winter (when it normally flourishes) it just didn't grow well at all. 

After gardening, I went back to the kitchen and roasted pumpkin for salads, mashed pumpkin for pumpkin bread and muffins later this week, made a huge batch of meatballs and sauce (using some of my roasted tomatoes, garlic and capsicums from the previous day), made a bowl of French chicken salad to have on rolls, sliced up the pineapple and some watermelon, and made a chocolate avocado pudding. 

So you can see that I had three busy days back to back...and then yesterday (Wednesday) I did our regular grocery shop, and popped over to visit Blossom and the children who were excitedly waiting for Ross to return from a work trip away in Brisbane. 

When I arrived back home, and after watering the garden, I decided it was time to stop, to allow the satisfaction of a productive few days to settle in my thoughts, and take some time to breathe...a good reminder from one of my Gentle Domesticity designs. 

A cuppa, some ginger slice, and time with my sketch pad brought the afternoon to an end. I prepared another pattern for my free Promises Project (here), and shall spend the next few afternoons stitching it.

A long blog post, I know, but I hope it encouraged you in some small way to trust the Lord with His plans for your life, be they large or small, and to find delights within the sanctuary of your own home. 

This verse says it all really...

Oh, and I have been working on more UFO projects for this month, another three blocks in the Anni Downs quilt pattern, and more of that cross-stitch a began a few months back. Have you been working on some August finishes too??

There's a number of questions which readers have emailed me or left in comments the past couple of months, so I shall endeavour to do a blog post to answer what I can in the near future. But for right now, I'm taking time to breathe, to rest from my labours, and possibly to give the blog a bit of a holiday very soon. 

God bless, and many prayers, 

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