We have school holidays here at the moment, but we are working through, because we had quite a bit of time off bookwork while we were renovating. We haven't finished the renovation completely, but we have our kitchen back now, so it feels as though it is almost finished.

We didn't have a kitchen for 6 weeks which was challenging. We had our 12 seater table and chairs in our lounge room with the microwave on top. The two fridges sat either side of our lounge and we all crammed in there for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The light over the table wasn't connected, so we used candles. I don't know how the pioneers managed by candle light, especially while cooking.

Our meals mostly consisted of t.v dinners and tinned soups. Anything that could be reheated in the microwave. Sometimes we attempted to cook with a frypan on a chair and frozen vegies in the microwave, but often this was too dangerous with little children around.

The choice of food wore thin after a few weeks. For one, we  are used to cooking from scratch, so using prepackaged foods was very different for us. We couldn't just eat anything either because of my husband's food allergies. He has an intolerance to wheat, corn, peas, peanuts and a few other things. We have to search the ingredients on all packages to make sure they don't contain any of the above. Usually they do though. Wheat is in everything and if it isn't, corn is instead.

That was our cooking experience. We washed up in the laundry sink and mainly tried to use disposable plates and bowls. Each time we walked through the checkout at the shopping centre we were quizzed about all the parties we must have been having. The children thought it was one big party. The whole experience was an adventure and we mostly managed really well. There were a few teary days where I felt like I just couldn't take it anymore. But my wonderful husband helped me through those times and I did that for him in return when he had those days. Fortunately we didn't have them at the same time.

We really wanted this renovation to go smoothly and for us to be a witness for Christ to all the workmen that came to our home. We have built two houses before and have had a lot of experience with tradesmen. My husband is a carpenter. The tradesmen we used were all lovely people. We were so blessed during our time of building. It was such a contrast to our other building projects. We can only put this down to God answering our prayers. We didn't know what the men would be like before they came.

The other times we have built we didn't commit everything to prayer, but this time we did and it made such a difference to the outcome. Sure, we had some problems, but they weren't major. Even if they were our whole outlook was different this time. We wanted to be a Christlike example to our children and the workmen which checked our responses when we were tempted to give in to frustration.

We prayed for each of the men who came to our home. This gave the children an opportunity to put their faith into practice as they prayed and served thos who came. We always made sure we had cold drinks or a cup of tea and coffee (with cake or biscuits - cookies) for the workers. Most of them were impressed at how different (in a good way) homeschooled children are.

We are thankful for the opportunity to have had this experience. We were thinking of just moving because we didn't think we could renovate while living in the house. The only option then was to move to a bigger place. We are glad we didn't move. We love living here. It is so peaceful and our neighbours on both sides are just lovely. We didn't want to move if we could help it.

I will post some photos of the renovation soon. Even though the children didn't do a lot of bookwork while it was going on they certainly learned a lot, as you will see in the photos. My husband bought each of the boys a nail bag like his and they had their tools. They loved helping Dad and felt really important doing it.

I am going to post a list of books for boys soon that are worth reading.

I hope you all have a wonderful and productive week.

Love

Amanda

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