Weekly Wrap-Up: One With a Birthday

It seems the week flew by in a flurry of activity. 

Over last weekend I had the joy of going to watch my sweet nephew in concert. It was the cutest thing to watch these little people singing their hearts out with all the accompanying actions.

That's my cutie pie touching the floor and the little girl next to him spent the entire time covering her ears! Poor little thing! I am really not sure how the teachers managed to keep them all so calm and still for so long! 

This week kids got on with their work and kept on track most of the time. 

Zak has been enjoying a story about Joan of Arc and learning about Medieval times. We have decided to prepare a low key Medieval dinner next week some time. A number of years ago we had a wonderful Medieval feast with dear friends. The kids were much younger, we all dressed up, had a castle backdrop and a wonderful evening of fun. I don't think any of us will ever forget that evening! This time around we will keep it simple.

Zak had a long awaited haircut this week and is looking so good!

It was hubby's birthday midweek and our best-man and his wife treated us to a relaxed lunch out.

 We also enjoyed a lovely dinner together as a family and spent some time playing bananagram, a word game, after dinner.

Talking about word games, we have discovered online "words with friends" and scrabble. All week various members of the family have been challenging one another to games. It's great fun as one can play when you have a moment and a game does not need to be played in one sitting, a word or two played here and there. 

Zak and I have also been enjoying CNN Student News which is delivered to my in box daily. It's a great way to keep up with current affairs.

The week ended with art lessons and youth where Keren was running the night. It is wonderful to see her growing in her ministry to the youth. 

Weekly Wrap-Up: The Festive One

On Monday my eldest was working from home. It was great having him home and the two us enjoyed lunch out together, a rare treat, and wonderful to have alone time with him. It was his birthday treat from his Gran and lovely of him to share it with me. 

Monday evening was loads of fun!
We had a great big get together with family and friends at a braai to celebrate my niece's 19th birthday. Most of these kiddos have known one another since birth. Its wonderful to see them all growing up.

It was the first time we have been together in years on her birthday!

Keren wrote some term tests this week and been working long hours creating her candyland outfit the joint birthday party she and my niece are having on Saturday. 

There was little school for Zak this week as his cousin was still visiting from the farm .

 But we enjoyed planting our spring seeds, perfect timing as he is studying botany at the moment.

On Tuesday a friend, Zak and his cousin went go karting, an early birthday gift for his cousin.



The boys had a blast racing around the track !

Wednesday was Heritage day here in S.A. otherwise known as National Braai Day and hubby had the day off. Keren worked despite the fact it was a public holiday and she got her hair redone with one of her vouchers from the hair show.

I love the rich colour!

 Zak left on an adventure with his second cousins....
a four day trip to the Breede River, lucky boy!

They stayed in this beautiful house.

Had fun in the Jacuzzi!

And the great outdoors....

He had an absolute blast and came home happy and tired on Saturday.

Thursday my sister popped in for an impromptu visit and brought us the most delicious lunch to share. It has been wonderful having her here and spending time with her.

Friday she and my niece popped in again and took Keren off to get fabric for her party outfit. 

It was a whirlwind kind of a week, culminating with the girls joint party on Saturday night. The guests all dressed up in something beginning with the first letter of the name.



The pirate, Zorro and Katy Perry!

 There must have been 70 or more happy and loud teens and it was loads of fun!
 Eating, dancing, laughing and celebrating! 

Weekly Wrap-Up: Two in One and Loads of Fun

Its been two weeks since my last weekly wrap. A busy two weeks but also a good two weeks. Last week hubby and I went on a 3 day trip, just the two of us, so I didn't link up. We had a fabulous time, but more on that in another post.

The kids have been working through their school assignments and as it's nearing the end of term, they are getting a little tired. Some days I let them sleep in a bit. We are thankful for the beauty of a flexible schedule that allows them to work any time of day or night.

Zak has moved onto botany in science. History is still all about the Romans and our current read aloud is 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea. We have been listening to it on audio and he keeps his hands busy building or looming while I knit. 

Basketball  has been on hold due to bad weather and the unavailability of the hall as the school kids are writing exams.

Keren has made good progress with her terms work and we are hoping she may even finish term tests early so she can have an extra week holiday. She sure deserves it as she has not really had a proper holiday all year.

There is always art...

 Zak is enjoying his art classes and producing some lovely work.

The title of Keren's latest practical was "Is there still life?" 

She asked herself how her current choices would determine if there would still be life for her? Choices she makes now will decide the course of her life. 

Many hours were spent working on this and graded with an A.

My dear sister arrived from the farm this week.

 Her visit coincided with her daughter's exhibition at the Cape Town School of Photography. 

We all thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition and my niece had a large amount of her outstanding work on display.

The above work was her project on the body. 

This is one of her studio portraits of our eldest, Josh.

It is one of my all time favorite photos of him.

Her documentary was done on home education and she photographed home educating families and wrote an informative write up on homeschooling. Me and my younger two are seen in the last photograph.

And last but certainly not least, her work on exploration of the self. 

An outstanding series of photographs. 

It is wonderful to see a home educated child excelling in her field of study. 

Keren had an interview and got a job at Molly & Mason! 

They sell delicious homemade bakes, cakes and crafts.

She is thankful to be able to earn some pocket money in a fun environment.

The younger two, my niece and I enjoyed Ocean Basket's birthday special at lunch. 

A rare treat on a Monday afternoon!

We made our way down to the seaside for treats and a beautiful stroll along the cat walk.

The girls and I enjoyed a visit to China Town as they were shopping for youth group supplies.

The church held a sand castle building competition...

The teenage ninga turtle was the winner!

We had visitors of the extremely cute kind!

And yes... a day off school playing munchkin because we can, and this cousin lives oh so far away!

Weekly Wrap-Up: The Colorful One

As I mentioned last week, Keren was picked as a hair model for Allilon's hair show.

 She spent all of Sunday there and came home looking like this...

She was one of the first models to be chosen by the team of hairdressers....

 I think it was because she willing to be daring and allow them to do WHAT EVER they wanted with her hair...

On Monday she had to be at the Baxter at 6 AM. 

They had dress rehearsals and they cut her hair on stage.

She was there all day and came home looking like this...

She had a fantastic, fun filled day modelling and meeting new people!

She loves her new colorful haircut and has been enjoying the different ways she can style it. 

She was paid cash, given product vouchers and hair styling vouchers too!

She kindly blessed me with a hair voucher and I went and had my hair done yesterday. 

We babysat on Tuesday...

It was a little difficult for Zak to stay focused on school work and I think he fell in love with this furry little baby! 

Looming has made it's way into our home this week and Zak has spent many hours learning to make colorful new designs.

 Good for fine motor development I am sure!

On Wednesday we had a refreshing morning walk with a friend before school. 

Lovely to walk, talk and enjoy the fresh pine scented morning air.

Keren has been working on her life orientation project this week. She had to research an issue and partake in  community service. She chose the issue of litter, and the pollution it causes within our suburb. We often walk our dog in this particular area and she had noticed the litter on this beautiful piece of open land.

Love the spring flowers popping up everywhere!

She organized her connect group to help clean up the nearby conservation area last Saturday and so killed two birds with one stone as they had service week too.

The kids, armed with plastic bags, spent a number of hours picking up litter. It was great to hear that passer by encouraged them by hooting and giving a thumbs up.

On Friday Zak enjoyed a home school outing to Acrobranch. 

He was somewhat nervous at the start as it is an aerial tree experience, involving obstacles, moving walkways, Tarzan swings and zip lines !

Courage, coordination, a little craziness and adrenaline needed!

These two had a laughing fit way up there on a cargo net!

 Thank goodness for their harnesses!

The boys managed to get through 2 of the courses twice each in the two hours allocated. I am sure that is more than enough time as it is physically challenging. 

Certainly a lot of fun but not for the faint hearted!

A lovely week, how was yours?

Weekly Wrap-Up : The "Brutiful" One

"Brutiful"....a word I first came across on Momastery by blogger Glennon Melton. 

"Brutiful" is brutal and beautiful at the same time. Brutal as in horrific, painful, tragic or scary and beautiful as in beauty, love, growth, compassion, healing, life bringing and goodness. Life is like that when there is beauty in the brutal. I believe it to be "brutiful" and felt it this week with the sudden and unexpected death of my friend's 18 year old daughter. 

Just brutal that one so young should die. So many dreams and plans ahead. Such grief and loss for those left behind : parents, brother, extended family and friends. Loved and missed by all. So many unanswered questions....

but beautiful....

 the service and laying to rest of this precious young life. 

A magnificent stone church with beautiful high ceilings and stained glass windows. Beautiful pink and white flowers everywhere, beautiful tributes by loved ones. Beautiful hymns; "It is well with my soul" and happy chorus tunes; "Jesus loves me this I know".  The strength and serenity in her mother that only He can give at a time like this. A true testimony of God's love and peace....truly "brutiful".

Rest in peace sweet child that brought His love and light to all.

Besides this terrible sadness for my friend, we had a lovely week.

My niece came to photograph us for a photography assignment that she is doing on education, and as she herself was home educated, she has been photographing home educating families.

You will often find us on that couch with a good book!

Keren was interviewed by a university student who is writing a magazine article on art students and Zak and Keren auditioned as hair models for Allilon, a hairdressing academy from the UK. Today, Sunday, we had to get them back to Carlton Hair to see if they were accepted. Keren was picked and is very exited at the prospect of a weird and wacky new hairstyle. Today they are coloring her hair and tomorrow she will be at the hair show all day. It's going to be fun to see what they do with her hair. Zak was thanked for going to the casting and came home with a goody bag of great hair products.

Zak had some fun with friends this week and went to the monthly home school ice skating meet up but the rink was overcrowded so the kids got to play games at the arcade instead. He really enjoyed that as it is not something we would normally do.
 He also enjoyed the monthly nature club outing.

They did an impromptu hike up to Elephant's Eye Cave. I am so grateful to my friend for taking him along on these outings when I can't. And yes, despite the outings, he still got his school work done this week.

We received Keren's mid year exam results and she has done exceptionally well in all her subjects. Yes, even Afrikaans and math! This year has been a massive change for her in terms of curriculum and it is wonderful to see the results of her dedication and hard work. 

She got some new art supplies this week. Something that makes her very happy! She has been drawing and painting with watercolors all week in preparation for her final artwork.

This piece is an experimental exercise mirroring the mark making style of Van Gogh. 

We had a visit to the doctor again this week as Josh was not getting any better, in fact worse and he was sent home from work on Monday. His chest was not doing well and it is the first time in years his asthma has played up. Thankfully we still have a nebuliser which is helping as well as new medication. It has been nice to have him around despite the fact he has not been well. 

I had the wonderful privilege of being invited to my nephew's school on Friday. Each child invited a "special person" to come and visit them at school and see what they do at school.

 I really did feel special that I was asked to be his "special person" !

It was wonderful to observe him playing happily. I love the way the children are taught and expected to do so much for themselves. I watched as he mopped the floor after spilling water, set the table with a place-mat, and helped himself to snacks on a glass plate. He also had to wash his plate and dry and pack it away for the next little person to use. 

Everything is miniature, just perfect for little people.

 If I had to do it over and send my kiddos to school, that is the type of environment I would have wanted for them. 

The week ended with youth and Keren was MC and Zak invited two new friends along.

 We enjoyed a wonderfully relaxed evening with my brother and his family.

 A truly "brutiful " week.

.