Queen Of My Castle Series - Part 3: Living what I Preach!!

I know what you are thinking!!

After my post, ummm, yes it was ten days ago where I said I would post part 2 of my series and now you see a title for Part 3 and don't remember Part 2, and you are saying "Hey, what gives?"

Well that would be because I haven't worked on part 2 yet!!

And the reason I haven't worked on Part 2 is - I have been busy actually living Part 3.

Part 3 is where I live that life I am accountable for and be the wife, mother and homemaker I claim to be.

Since posting that post days ago our family has continued to live it's life in our ordinary way, which as I see it is anything but ordinary because it is uniquely ours.

It is never the same again, because life moves on whether we want it to or not and it does not wait for us to be ready! 

It is up to us to create memories and live our lives with true love, compassion and produce fruit that is everlasting.

In our ordinariness we have driven 10 hours in one day to take Autumn back to her College studies after being home for over a month, only to discover once home again that some of the children have become infected with some sort of cold/flu virus again this Winter.

This of course requires attention and love from me, of which I am only too happy to provide.
This however means prioritizing all other activities for the day or days as it happens to be and giving the best of my self and time to those I love and care for most.
Again living what I preach to those who matter most.

This involved making some soothing cough syrup and mixing up a version of Thieves Oil for sick little people to add to our increasing supply of Winter Cold/Flue Fighting Arsenal.

As being sick causes little people to need lots of attention and care (they tend to be grumpy, like all of us do) we found that a lot of the 'normal' activities got left out in exchange for................

Sitting in front of a warm fire as we snuggle down against the freezing cold outside and warm our hearts and bodies together........

While I read aloud from this family favourite.

In fact I have not read it aloud to the younger ones really and they have been enjoying it as much as we did the first time when they were little, and so they don't really remember it!

As the children listen they have been occupying their hands as well so we have had a little knitting and crocheting thing happening with some of them

 Or playing with other toys that encourage creative play as we listen together to the book.

Some things don't wait because we have sick ones and these need to be dealt with by those who are able at the time. Part of the lessons we can learn while sick- to give our time (to do someone else's chores) as well as our love, are life lessons that can build character and virtue. A skill that is essential all our lives.
Each day well, someone or two, will  collect all the eggs, there are  not so many in winter but still some and we frankly we need to work out which of our hens is not laying and give them the .........well you know what I mean!

As some people tend to be woken in the night and then have trouble getting back to sleep I made up a little 'sleepy dust' to try to help with this problem. I'm still waiting for those who have been using it to give me a review on whether it works well.

 I am a big believer in sunshine and fresh air in helping get over illness and so as the children have become a little better I have encouraged them to get out of their PJ's and outside to gather some of this 'free medicine'

Naturally this involves  playing around with the wildlife they find, this time snails and then obviously relocate them to their own improved  home.
This time they were given some 'free food' - Goji berries. Obviously these were the health conscious kind of snails! Sadly I don't think they were used to such a rich diet and succumbed from said diet to a shorter life span.

I have been making my own almond milk  on a much more regular basis and have been thinking about our, being society's, diet and the buy it all V's make your own options.
As part of this thinking I have been reflecting on a quote form the series of 'Victorian Farm' we have been watching that seems as relevant today as it was back then. (thinking of maybe reflecting more in a post)

 This is the almond meal left over after extracting the almond milk. I have dried it out in the dehydrator and we use it for making almond flour recipes. I have also kept the moist version in the fridge and used that but as we don't always bake I wanted to dry it out so it kept better.
I was happy with the result of my dehydrating experiment and both versions baked up well too.

 he other thing that has kept us busy at the moment is that two of Rogan's rabbits have had Kits, with another due any day now.
This is his first lot of baby bunnies and we are all learning on the job so to speak.
I must say that they are incredibly cute and he is hoping to sell them on his/our Facebook page very soon now as they are nearly ready to let go.

Our older children are planning a movie day with some other homeschooling friends and so the little girls with a couple of our younger boys thrown in will be having a Spa/Fairy day while they are out. I do have a little pirate theme for the boys that I am sure they will like, but Fairy Food will always be acceptable to boys too.

I have a few things planned but as yet nothing organised so I need to get on with this as we only have two days left before the big event.
Hopefully the little girls will think they are Fairy Princesses after this little afternoon.

After a long week or so of illness and other events in our lives I am hoping this new week will bring a more settled routine to our lives (although I'm not counting on it , smile)

Whether it does or not I will still continue to play my part in our 'family circle' as I said in my Part 1 post
"Living my life with Faith and Love.

Being the Queen of My Castle!

Valuing my vocation of Wife and Mother.

Protecting  and nurturing those I love.

Being who God called me to be and luxuriating in this great gift of life that I have been called to live."

Because that is my life and I am blessed to live it!

Blessings to you and your homes,