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.

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