In February I was interviewed by Peter Shaw of Radio Rhema for an hour. He talked with me about my childhood in New Guinea, how I started writing, our move to Whangarei and life in the barn, and of course about my books. I’ve only just got around to putting it on the website, so it is old news, I’m sorry. However… read more

Yesterday Chris mentioned that he heard a farmer speaking about his farm at a farming conference. He told his listeners, ”When things go wrong on the farm, beware of the three ugly sisters. They’ll stop you getting over the problems and getting ahead.”
Their names? Blame, Denial… read more | 1 Comment

Yesterday I heard a message from Ps. Alun Davies of Australia which really inspired me. God commands the Israelites, “When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien , the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your… read more | 2 Comments

Last night we had visitors over for dinner, and I prepared a beef roast and roast vegetables, including some delicious maori potatoes. Milly put a crop in her garden and I must confess that when we harvested them I was inclined to despise the small, knobbly, purple red potatoes. How mistaken I was! They are delicious! And even… read more | 1 Comment

This afternoon I took Ellie, Milly, Sam and Jacob out to the Adventure Forest for some high tree top challenges! I decided I needed to do it as well, and I’m glad I did, even though a couple of the activities stressed the weak muscles in my old broken leg somewhat. Milly is on the left in the photo; I’m waiting at the right… read more | 1 Comment

The children and I have been learning a new memory verse from Proverbs 24. “I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgement; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered in weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins.I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw:  ”A little read more

Last night I went down into the meadow and took a photo of the house. I was trying to capture the sweet sight of smoke coming out of our new flue, and also the freshly mown lawn! Can’t wait to play our first game of croquet! But the smoke disappeared into the evening sky, and you can’t see much of the new lawn that looks so lush after… read more | 2 Comments

It was really cold in Whangarei last night! I came home at 9.30pm with the kids after an afternoon/evening of soccer and youth group. We opened the door and felt the warmth straight away and I knew that Chris had succeeded in getting the flue finished and had LIT THE HOMEWOOD!!!!!
And there was Shasta our cat… read more | 4 Comments

It is seventeen years since I first began the exciting and somewhat scary journey of homeschooling. I have six children, but my two oldest children are both finishing their degrees this year (valuation and music degrees) so I only have four still at home. What a journey it has been!
When I first began home schooling Josiah… read more | 4 Comments

Today we moved over our old cream separator from the barn to the new house and set it up ready to use again. Blossom (the house cow!) has got no calves on her now so Milly is milking each day and we have a LOT of milk. So this afternoon Milly gave Sam his first lesson in separating the cream from the milk. Then she taught him… read more