Early Bird Christmas Crafting

Wow , I know it seems early to be thinking about Christmas! But I do know that every year I have grand plans to get it sorted early. I saw this link on Shirley's Blog and decided to join forces with other early birds and get going early this year. We will be hand crafting our gifts!

We will be starting on 1 June and I look forward to getting creative! If you want to join up, go to http://creativestudio10blogspot.com/ Find out what kind of fun I will be getting up to!

Right now, I need to find a book for my notes and in my mind I have a spot to store all those gifts until the season of giving is upon us!

Our weekend

Well, its Sunday night and the weekend is over. It certainly was a busy but fun weekend....

On Friday evening I went out with two of my girlfriends to a trivial pursuit evening while hubby stayed home to enjoy a pizza evening with the kiddies. We had a great time but our little team of 3 girls came stone last! We wished we had our husbands with us! Never the less, we were the smallest team, all others comprising of 6 or more people, some up to 15! We did however not walk away empty handed. I won a lavender plant, a car wash voucher and some vouchers for a nearby dance studio. There were the most amazing prizes on offer and next year we plan to take our husbands and do really well!

On Saturday J went to coach at a children's karate competition. He thoroughly enjoyed himself and his teacher wants to send him on a course to learn how to judge karate competitions. He was also approached by one of the moms to coach her son in order to get him ready for grading.

My dad popped in for breakfast on Saturday morning. I was glad that I had some croissants in the freezer as a friend of mine arrived unexpectedly too. We all had a lovely breakfast together. Unfortunately K could not go and paint with my dad as he had a very sick patient in hospital and could be called out at a moments notice.

My kind husband spent most of the day mowing the lawn, getting compost out of our compost heap, and planting my new lavender and granadilla vine. He trimmed the edges and neatened up the whole garden. I love it when the lawn is freshly mowed.

In the afternoon we had a visit from friends who are out on holiday from the UK. We met in church many years ago and have tried to keep up the contact over the years. The last time we saw them, they had one son. They now have three gorgeous boys! She is also a home school mum and we had a great time catching up and chatting. They are hoping to move back to SA. Z enjoyed making new friends.

Saturday evening, a sweet friend came and cooked dinner for us. What a treat, a delicious chicken curry and homemade roti. How good it felt to eat a meal that I didn't prepare myself.

This morning poor hubby was down with a high fever. J was instructed on how to look after him and monitor his temperature and blood sugar. I had to rush K off to get her hair done for a fashion show....

Aunty T came to the rescue with the hair and make up. It was a last minute request that K model today at the bridal show at Zevenwacht Wine Farm. She was only asked late last night as Robyn was only approached late yesterday. Other designers had pulled out of the show. Robyn had to alter dresses for the models who were modelling the bridal dresses. Thankfully K's beautiful bridesmaid dress fits perfectly and nothing had to be done. She just needed to show up and model it. Of course she loved being able to wear this beautiful dress again. (Photos will follow as soon as we get them!)

I spent the afternoon in the kitchen while hubby dozed on and off and the boys played a game of monopoly. I tried a new recipe that got the thumbs up from the family. It was a butternut and pumpkin soup. I made corn bread to go with the soup and a tasty low gi fruit crumble for desert.

I used a jar of homemade pear fruit mince for the filling and it turned out very well! A delicious spicy flavour. (Thank you my sweet sister for sending me that jar of pear fruit mince pie filling!)

Creative fun

We have been busy with all sorts of creative activities over the last week or two. The Chaeli Campaign inspired us to write some poetry and do some art for their 4th annual Art and Poetry Competition. The theme was "Circle of Hope" and the brief was to depict disability in a positive way and focus on ABILITY and forget the DIS'ing. A wheel, circle or motif theme needed to be included in the art or poetry entry.

Above is Z's creation which shows a person in a wheelchair being pushed on the mountain, by a friend, and exploring. The title is "Even if I cant walk, I can explore"

K did a rather creative page with many wheels and called it "Circles of Life". She wrote all sorts of positive captions on her entry.

We wrote poems too:

CIRCLES OF MY LIFE

LOVE me for who I am

ACCEPT me for what I do

UNDERSTAND my life isn't easy

HELP me through my problems

INCLUDE me in your games

ENCOURAGE me to keep on going

MOTIVATE me to rise higher than expected

DREAM with me

PUSH me to my limits, not off the edge

have FAITH in my abilities

REJOICE with me when times are good

CRY with me when times are bad

RESPECT me as a person

By K

GIVE ME HOPE

Give me hope

So I can see the things you see

Give me hope

So I can do the things you do

Give me hope

So I can rise above the body

that has been given me

Give me hope

I want to be free

Give me hope

I can sing and dance and love the way you do

Give me hope

I want to be free to be me

By me

J had a hard time coming up with an entry as this is "not his thing" as he said. I really had to encourage him to go beyond his comfort zones and "do a hard thing". It was a big thing for him to come up with his poem and at the end of the day he did something which challenged him and stretched him....I am proud of him for not giving up!

CIRCLE OF HOPE

Can you climb a mountain?

I have.....

Right, you say, but I am in a wheelchair.

Certainly, you re correct but I

Let nothing stand in my way.

Everything is possible.

Of course it was a long ,hard,

Fight to the top, but

Hope is all we need to

Overcome obstacles and

Push through to the end.

Everything is possible.

By J

K has been making cards to sell as she she wants to earn some extra pocket money.

I purchased a few from her to add to a little birthday gift for a friend and to use for friends birthday cards. I love that she wants to do something to earn herself some extra money and doesn't just expect us to give her money that she wants for those little extras.

While I read, the children love to keep their hands busy and she has spent time working on this cute little "To Do Box" for her bedroom. It comes in kit form and one can be as creative as you like when putting it all together.

The finished product is now on her wall and she can write in her "appointments' or upcoming outings on the blackboard section.

I too like to keep my hands busy when watching a movie or our regular TV shows that we watch. I had a jersey that I knitted for myself many years ago that I don't wear anymore. Nobody else wanted it either so I have unpicked it and put the wool to better use.

I found a pattern for a little quick and easy jersey on www.knit-a-square.com . Once I have knitted a few I will send them off to warm and comfort a little South African Aids orphan.

Nature News

We look forward to our next nature club meeting at the end of the coming week. A dear friend who is organising it sent us this link: http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/. This morning I have

Spent some time looking through this amazing site which I know I will return to time and time again! It has all sorts of downloads for the different seasons and some incredible ideas for nature hunts and all sorts of other fun ideas. Do pop in there and take a look for yourself.

Olives

Today a friend called and asked if I would like some fresh Black Mission Olives. I jumped at the opportunity to try my hand at curing my own olives. Olives are one of my favourite things to eat! They are from Paarl and are organic. They look so plump and delicious!

This evening I began the process of curing 2 kg of olives by putting them into brine. I figure they will be lovely gifts at Christmas time and I cant wait to bottle them with herbs, chili or garlic!

Cattail Nature Study

So here it is a few busy days later....the outdoor hour nature study on Cattails. We set off on foot to the wetland area just behind my friends home. We were loaded with snacks, art supplies and blankets to sit on. The weather was just perfect for an Autumn afternoon in the sun.

A Butcher Bird perches above a splendid display of Autumn colour.

This is a place we have visited regularly over the years with my friend and her children but today it took on a new beauty as we had come with a purpose: nature study of the Cattails which grow in abundance along the waters edge here.

We settled on the lush green grass and I read to the children from the Handbook of Nature Study. We spent time examining the leaves and flower of the Cattails. Sadly they are brown and not in bloom at the moment but we enjoyed looking at the leaves in detail and the children produced some lovely art work for their Nature Journals.

We have promised to return at the end of the year to see the flowers in bloom.

Little Maggie needed a nap while we did our journaling.

Z had great fun exploring the banks of the stream that was rushing by close to where we sat. I cautioned him not to go to near to the edge as it was rather a drop down to the cold water. Suddenly there were screams of "Help, Help" and the poor boy was nowhere in site! He was hanging onto fist fulls of grass on the river bank and was drenched up to his waist! The girls rushed to pull him out and I had to do the final pulling out as K collapsed in fits of laughter and had lost her strength!

Thankfully my friends house was not too far off and we could get him under a warm shower quickly!

A wonderful day...

Today was just one of those really satisfying home school days where it felt SO good to be home and loving learning with my brood.

The day started early with the arrival of the piano teacher. Miss P is one of the most amazing elderly ladies I have ever met. She has a heart of gold and all though she never married or had children, she has such an incredible way with them. Her life's work has been (and still is) with children in hospitals, children's homes, Sunday school and schools. She currently takes care of her "sweetie pie", as she calls him, who is her deceased sisters grandchild of 6. She has taken care of him since he was 3 months old.

Miss P is like a breath of fresh air and is full of laughter and joy. I think she will be really good for the children as she is firm, but kind and loving in her manner.

She lives a stones throw away from us and is happy to come here to teach the younger two piano. They thoroughly enjoyed their lessons today and have been practising on and off throughout the rest of the day.

In our Zoology we are discovering sharks together and the children have been putting a lot of effort into their note booking pages.

After a full mornings work, we had a delicious lunch ..... pancakes made by J..... filled with left over dinner from last night.

I had planned to take the children to the gym for a swim this afternoon but the sun was out and I felt like being outdoors.....

I called my dear friend and she was up to an afternoon nature study too! I will post separately on our afternoon under the big blue sky.

This evening we caught up on some reading and hubby helped J with some Accounting. I was also grateful for his help in marking some of J's work. J did very well in his most recent Physical Science test, scoring 94%.

Dinner was hake and peppers (from the garden) done in my homemade pesto.

A full and satisfying day!