The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.

 -- Chinese proverb

Photography: kiwi_gal

{The Highest Calling}

Miss Jen over at Blessed Femina recently shared a truly thought-provoking quotation by G K Chesterton on her blog which really inspired me...  Although I work full time in a busy work environment I'm reminded that the most divine and highest calling is not the amount of hours you work in a week, or how perfectly you've run the office for the day but it's in doing the day-to-day tasks in life... Although I don't have the privilege of mothering little chicks yet... I consider this to be a future occupation for me...

May the other young ladies out there who are diligently doing the tasks that lie nearest gain encouragement from this little passage...

“To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labours and holidays; to be Whiteley within a certain area, providing toys, boots, sheets, cakes and books; to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.

Photography: John&Fish

{Beauty}

I love this quotation...

“ Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.”

{Household Lore}

A friend of mine, Bonnie recently lent me a book which she recently purchased.  It's a classic Australian book on household tips and recipes from the early settlers, back in the 1800's.  I love great sayings and quotations and this book has some real classics. Let me share a few with you...

{Listeners never hear an good of themselves}

{Have a place for everything and everything in it's place} 

(I think this one would have been my Dad's fravourite!)

{Make hay while the sun shines}

{Where there's a will there's a way}

{Patience is the key to success}

{Always leave the table able to eat a little more}

{Honesty is the best policy}

{Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise}

{Out of debt, out of danger}

{A boy's best friend is his mother}

{Never put off what can be done today}

{If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well}

{Love your wife if you wish her to love you}

{Avoid intemperance, as you would the fiercest tiger}

Well, I must say a few of those quotations bought back a few memories!  I remember my Dad and Mum quoting a few of them to my brother and I when we where children.