Good bye to another year

Here we are at the end of another year already. Where does the time go and how does it go so quickly?

The Lord has been very good to us this past year. Our little farm is prospering, we are all healthy and strong. We have wonderful family and good friends. Yes there is so much to thank the Lord for this past year.

Now that Christmas and Thanksgiving and canning season are over, I can settle down into a winter routine. It will be less busy and demanding than the other times of the year.

I plan to take down the Christmas decorations in a day or so and then I will super clean my house. I have windows that need washing, kitchen cabinets that need scrubbing, floors that are begging to be thoroughly scrubbed and then waxed to a nice shine. My tea shelf is so dusty and needs attention. The carpet needs shampooing and then a good coat of Scotchguard put on it. Yes there are many things that need attention in my home.

We are also going to be putting up wainscoting in the kitchen and new wallpaper. We have new vinyl tile to put in the laundry room. Some touch up painting on the walls and woodwork. My sewing room needs some organizing and cleaning......

I have plans to implement a schedule to make things easier on myself. Like taking a day to just bake breads, rolls, pizza crusts and such. To bake desserts ahead and put in the freezer. I have jam to make from last summer's berries and fruits. One day a week to do laundry and ironing.

All of these things will be done in the afternoons, as we will be homeschooling in the mornings. I have two very eager pupils who love learning. We will be doing our schooling for the next nine months and then we will take off canning season and the month of December.

Since I did so much sewing for my girls for Christmas this year, I have a renewed desire to make sewing time a part of my weekly routine. I have so much fabric and so many patterns, I can keep right on sewing things for my family and my home.

I would also like to make some time to print out pictures from my computer and put them into scrapbooks. This would make my husband very happy, as he hates digital cameras. : ) I also need to put them on discs.

I have started getting my seed catalogs in the mail. I get so thrilled with looking at them and looking forward to next years garden. Ed has started to put in another garden plot in addition to the one we have now. It will be to plant potatoes, corn and some vining squash.

We will be getting our new laying chicks, dark Cornish meat chickens and some turkeys in a month or so. We are looking forward to our new endeavors in the self sufficient area. The Lord has blessed us so well on our little farm.

One of our ducks has started laying eggs. She goes up the chicken ramp in through the little chicken door and hops up in a nest box and lays an egg. Then she hops back out and grabs a bite to eat from the feeders and then waddles back down the ramp and out into the pasture. We will have Muscovy ducklings in the spring for sure. We just need to get them their own nest boxes built in the duck portion of the barn. For now we are eating the eggs along with the chicken eggs.

My prayer for the New Year is to be ever more like Jesus in all that I do. To teach my girls to grow up into women of God, who love the Lord with all their hearts.