Pond Skating

Winter begins in November and by the end of December the ponds and fairly well frozen and ready for skating....except they have to be shoveled. So we all pile into the van with the shovels and ice-skates too!! There is probably about 6 inches of nice fluffy snow to remove. It isn't hard beause the snow is still light and the helpers are plentiful.

This is 'Graves Pond' in Walpole.

Once the shoveling gets underway by Steve and a couple of the girls...the boots start coming off...and the skates start going on. Putting on skates seems to always be a two person activity!

And finally the skates are on, the snow is cleared from in paths on the pond and the skating begins! There's lots of effort in preparing to skate...but the effort pays off and is well worth it. Steve and I continued to shovel the snow until the girls had a large space to skate in. The moon was shinning on the ice when we finally took off the skates to head back home.

Homemakers Bedroom Transformation

Christianna, Lydia, and Deborah have been wanting to do a little work on their bedroom....and face lift! This past fall they picked the colors and painted the walls, ceiling, and trim. Now it was time for the curtains. We purchased the fabric from the Waverly outlet in Adams, MA sometime ago...but now the plans must be set in action. First we did the curtains on the two side windows. We lined them to keep the hot afternoon sun out and to keep the warmeth in this winter. It was begining to get more of a feminine air about the room...but we weren't finish yet. We still had plenty of fabric and windows left. Smile!

These are these girls French doors that go on to the back deck from their room. We will still put pink ginham window curtains on the window part of these doors. We are also making a draft stopper to keep the winter air outside. But the room is looking more and more complete. But still one more area...the Bathroom. This past week, we painted the ceiling(sky light ceiling), the walls, and then made the shower curtain. Every one helped in the transformation. Steve fixed problem walls, hung curtains, and rehung them when we decided they were too low. Christianna and Lydia with the help of Deborah did most of the painting. All the girls cut out panels, sewed cutains, ripped out mistakes, resewed the seams, ironed, and put the curtains up. It was a fun project. We still have some loose ends to complete this projects....we will show you the finished projects as we complete them. So stay tuned for a few more homemaking adventures!

Deborah is sewing and Keziah is picking out buttons for the curtain tie back.

Here's the fabric and the buttons we chose.

Stedfast at Home

Beginnings...
After many months of thinking and planning for this Home Journal Blog...I am finally putting the ideas into action. I hope to share with you, as the keeper of our home, the day by day joys and trials that the Lord is leading me through as I strive to serve Him in all areas of my life. As Paul states in 1 Cor. "be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord", I know that the work I do for Him here will not be in vain. I may not see the results now or even in my entire life...but God will continue to work. He is good and His Will, will be done. I hope you will enjoy the simple things in our lives that I will be sharing and that you will be blessed by them. Be sure to bookmark this site for further updates.