Weekly Wrap-Up

Wow, this week seems to have flown by. A busy and productive week.

 The first couple of days this week, I hobbled about like a little old lady as we had been on a hike on Sunday. My thighs were killing me but I actually enjoy that kind of pain.It tells me my body has worked! 

The kids thought it rather funny that I couldn't move without groaning!

Josh wrote 2 papers this week, English and accountancy. Just two to go and then he will be done!

 He also had a good meeting with a prospective employer this week and has a lot to think about and plan regarding his future course of studies.

After school we had a little running around to town as Zak had two castings on consecutive days. One for BMW and one for Mercedes. Sometimes these can be a real drag as there are loads of kids. Luckily this time around it was fairly quick in and out. Now we wait to see if he is cast.

We attended our weekly Afrikaans lesson at the library and I am amazed at the sudden jump in confidence in the kids conversational skills.

We received a coin exchange from Canada this week. It included a map and some postcards.

 I have never really paid much attention to a map of Canada before and it was interesting to browse. 

We have continued learning about India and the culture and have been reading "Bold Believers in India".

Our Egyptian studies have us reading a wonderful living book, "Peeps At Many Lands, Ancient Egypt" . 

We have read of pharaohs, the life of an Egyptian soldier and the lives of Egyptian children and their tales of long ago. While I read aloud, the kids keep their hands busy. Keren usually does some art or crochet work and Zak has taken to drawing too. We have also watched some online clips on the lives of Cleopatra and Alexander the Great. Today I managed to download a bunch of free kindle books on Egypt. We look forward to dipping into those and seeing if they are worthwhile reading. 

Zak has started working through an art book that was given to the kids by my dad.

It is a fantastic book and he enjoys doing the exercises. He plans to draw every day. I am so pleased as when he was little, he refused to draw anything and always wanted me to draw for him. I think he felt he couldn't do it as he was comparing his ability to that of his sister who was three years older!

Here is the blind contour drawing and the unfinished crow he was copying from a photograph.

The end result was really good! 

It was also wonderful to hear Keren encouraging him in his new found interest in art. 

Keren and I found a free short online cooking course on the art of baking with Yuppiechef. We started the first lesson and plan to go through the course and bake some of the yummy and delicious recipes.

Another thing we discovered this week was a nearby paper craft shop....

oh my word, we had to restrain ourselves! 

The colorful paper and bits and bobs for card making and scrap booking were just beautiful and so well priced !

 Keren bought supplies for her craft workshop that she ran yesterday. 

She taught four younger girls Christmas card tutorials, a fun flower card and how to make a cute gift box. The two of us have had some fun being creative and making cards for this weekends mini market too.

This morning I enjoyed some time doing mosaic while a dear, sweet friend visited.

 The kids watched the movies we took out at the library, "Journey Through the Valley of Kings" and "Trompie en die Boksombende". When I was a kid we used to watch Trompie! Great for them to improve their Afrikaans.

Tonight sees a house full of teens as both the boys invited friends for a games and pizza evening.

 Great end to a busy week.