Rest and reflection – August 2024

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His childhood had been happy; his mother was a real homemaker and his home was a jolly place, full of warmth and cosiness, lacking in fuss.

Love in a Mist, Susan Scarlett

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Hello Friends,

I trust this finds you well and that August has been kind to you; that you have been able to carve out time in the midst of the demands of life to drink tea, read a book and watch the clouds sail by. Maybe you have been adventuring, seeing new places, being inspired by new people and breathing in some beautiful scenery.

After all our adventures earlier in the summer, I had reserved August to be a “home” month. I need time to reflect, to read, to write in my journal and to walk by myself. As any of you who are mothers know, all these can be a rare treat, which seems counterproductive as by filling our own souls and nurturing our own minds we will be far better mothers.

There were many joys this month, not least having all four of our children home under one roof for a week. Lanky Dude (sure I should give our adult sons new blog names!) had a week’s holiday and came home for most of it before heading off camping with friends. Rhythm Dude has been working hard to earn money for his final year at uni, but had some days off. My birthday was during this week and we all convened in our town’s small cafe, a cosy building dating back to the fifteenth century, filled with wooden beams, deep windows and many a nook and cranny. Dancing Toes has worked there over the holidays, so she took our order for tea and cake and shared my enormous slice of sponge! We reminisced of the many times we had gathered in this cafe, the books we had read, the events we had celebrated. Good memories and a thankful heart.

It’s also been an eventful month and not quite the restful one I’d hoped for. The trailer incident has added to Sparkly Eyes’ general anxiety. We were then burgled last week, which has only exacerbated this. In between I went down with shingles and am still feeling the effects of fatigue. HWH is chronically exhausted and has more than the usual amount work challenges and uncertainties. So, much taking of deep breaths, reading of escapist novels and eating of chocolate has been done.

One exciting piece of news before I pen off; I was offered another publishing contract with Ritchie, the wonderful publishers of Another Way to Learn?. I received the email while we were camping down at the Lizard last month. We had already planned to go out for ice cream that evening; our Father God arranges even the small things! I’ll let you know more about it in due course.

In the meantime,

Take care friends, thank you as always for reading this; it’s such an encouragement,

Love Molly x

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Nature notes and homestead jottings

August is a month of picking, eating and preserving fruit; apples, plums, damsons and pears. I try to learn at least one new homesteading skill a year, and last year I tried bottling (canning in America) for the first time. I used recipes from my well thumbed charity shop copy of John Seymour’s classic Complete Self Sufficiency, and from a Second World War recipe book. I combined the two and tried to adapt the principles to my modern cooker. I tried bottling various fruit and veg last year, and discovered soft fruits, plums and blackberries work best, though rhubarb is also edible. I won’t be repeating marrow!

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Homeschool journal

We’ve had a complete break from all structured learning although Sparkly Eyes has kept doing her computer dyslexia programme, Nessy. She has helped me with some of jam and chutney making, and spent alot of time doing very little….thinking and resting and playing,

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Musings for our time

I periodically ponder on how we still our souls and live in a posture of peace, joy and hope as we increasingly see troubles ahead. I’ve been listening to a series of talks about the fruits of the spirit, and the one on peace I found particularly spoke into this; take a listen here.

On a practical level, I try to limit my news consumption to a short amount in the evening while I’m cooking supper. We don’t have a TV licence which maybe helps with this. I’ve become increasingly distrustful of mainstream media, but listen to the Radio 4 headlines a few times a week. However, the free press can be biased too and it is certainly no less alarming. I try to listen to one story/interview and then pray about what I’ve heard, before clicking onto another one. I listen to the weekly news video from the Christian Institute and often read the news items on the Prophecy Today weekly email; all these are good prompts for prayer.

I also think listening to and singing worship songs and hymns, studying God’s Word, spending time in His creation, and filling our own lives and homes with as much truth, beauty and goodness as we can gather is an act of resistance against encroaching darkness. I’ve read a couple of books by Susan Scarlet recently (Noel Streatfield) and was interested to note that she wrote most of her light, romantic fiction during the dark years of the Second World War. There is a wholesomeness and hopefulness to them which for me has just the right balance of escapism and stable reassurance.

What about you? How do you metaphorically light a candle in the darkness? It’s good to learn from each other.

Have a good month. x