Home Tester Club South Africa

I recently discovered Home Tester Club South Africa and it has been loads of fun!

Since I joined I have received a new washing liquid , a men's deo for hubby, a dry shampoo (that my daughter and I have loved using ) and enjoyed a morning of fun, having a delicious breakfast with the Home Tester Club and the wonderful people that work there.

Recently I received a box of 6 jars of Jacobs coffee to share with my friends.

What a treat!

Once you join, you get the chance to register for monthly free grocery products to test, review and rate. It is a great opportunity to try products that you may not have tried otherwise. The reviews are usually very short questionnaires so it is not time consuming .

They run regular competitions too...

SO

if you would like to join and get some surprise packages in the post for free...

PLEASE

say I (W.Meijer) referred you!

Fun with friends and family

At the beginning of October we had a wonderful surprise visit from our friends who live in Pretoria. It was great for us to all catch up with one another as we have not seen each other for some time.

The kids had a blast!

We spent much time reminiscing, laughing and eating loads of good food together!

The dads decided to give Z a haircut together.

We had a good laugh as the two barbers did their thing!

Our friends were delighted to meet baby M too as they have known my brother since he was a (naughty) teen.

Baby M was introduced to strawberries that day and simply could not get enough of them! He cooled off in the pool with his mum and dad and then cousin K just had to have a cuddle with him!

He is still coming to us two mornings a week and we are enjoying watching him grow and change. He is always happy and full of smiles.

I love watching my three interact with their baby cousin.

He is sitting well now and moves around a lot when he plays on the floor.

He loves having stories read to him and sits quietly on my lap as I read aloud to the kids.

We have new neighbours too !

These three boys just have non stop fun! They have a flag system going so that they know when each other are available to play. If the flag is flying, it is play time!

Weekends are spent between the three houses: sleep overs, swimming, jumping on the trampoline, skating, j boarding and creating memories of a happy childhood.

Time flies!

The years have flown by since we had cute toddlers in our home!

This precious, sweet, chubby little toddler is now taller than me!

About 7 weeks ago we celebrated her 14th birthday. She is growing into a fine young lady of whom we are very proud. We are so blessed to be her mom and dad.

Her day was special!

She wanted to go to the beach with some special friends.

What fun we had together!

The moms all caught up with one another and the kids ran wild and free on the beach....

Dunes were climbed....

Happy memories were made...

Ice creams were eaten...

Flavours too numerous to mention!

She had a party with all her friends on the weekend and cupcakes were baked.

The piggys in honour of her farm cousin whom she misses so much !

The teens all came dressed up!

Fun, food, music and laughter!

Miss K's art and crafts

At art K has learned new techniques with watercolours. They experimented with wet paint on dry paint, wet on wet, dry brushing, layering, painting over wax and salt crystals,and using gladwrap and papertowel for different effects.

She so enjoyed that lesson!

They went on to practice their techniques and she painted this beautiful blue and white vase with bright flowers.

Even though the painting is smudged, I think the vase came out beautifully!

At home she painted a vase of colourful poppies as a gift for her aunt.

The colours are gorgeous.

The art teacher introduced the children to plein air painting. This is K's painting of the view from the field next to her art teachers home in a national park.

Next the children were introduced to botanicals. These are my personal favourites and one can see that she has an excellent teacher!

The little turtle was carefully observed and painted in detail.

They did a study of goldfish...

The goldfish are my absolute favourite painting!

(Sadly this photo does no justice to the painting.)

Next they moved onto working with acrylics.

They painted a still life with a twist. First one half of the painting was done and then the paper was turned upside down to paint the other half.

A fun colourful exercise!

At one of the monthly craft afternoons the girls learned how to mosaic. K made this colourful heart mosaic with pieces of mirror in the middle as a gift for her precious far away cousin.

At another craft afternoon the girls were taught how to make these cute doll key rings.

Colourful, fun and cute!

Co-Op gets out and about

As I mentioned in the last post about our Co-op, we had a wonderful visit to The South African Museum during Heritage Week. Entry was free and that spurred us on to make the trip. It had been the longest time since we had visited there and the kids were filled with excitement and wonder!

To celebrate Heritage Week, there were various additional exhibitions and the kids enjoyed taking part in weaving a Heritage Day flag. A very kind lady patiently helped them and explained how to weave on the large loom. Each child wrote a message on a strip of fabric which was then woven into the flag.

The messages woven into the banner would then be removed at the end of each day and displayed in the trees for all to read and remember to protect our heritage. (grr, can't get rid of these silly lines under the writing!)

We enjoyed the exhibitions show casing the people of Southern Africa.

It amazed us as to how real these statues seemed... as if they might suddenly jump up and get on with their daily lives!

The children were fascinated by the rock art of long ago, depicting the lives of those who were hunter and gatherers in our beautiful land.

The whale well never ceases to cause me to stop and think of the wonders of creation! The 20.5 metre whale skeleton with it's huge gaping jaw is incredible!

We took a relaxing tea break out in the Company's Gardens.This beautiful old garden was first established in 1652 by the Dutch settlers to the Cape. It has been enjoyed by many locals and tourists since it was proclaimed for public use in 1848.

We enjoyed watching the Egyptian geese with their "teens". They were really tame and the kids had fun feeding them scraps.

This cute squirrel also kept returning for his fair share of treats offered by the delighted children.

As we were right there and had time on our hands, we strolled over to the South African National Art Gallery. There was an exhibition of Tretchkoff's work which was truly fascinating and interesting!

A fun outing enjoyed by moms and kids alike!

The Versatile Blogger Award

What a surprise to be nominated for an award!

Thank you Shirley!

Here are the rules for this award:

Thank the person who nominated you and link back to them.

Tell readers 7 things about yourself.

Pass this award to 15 newly discovered bloggers and let them know!

Here goes...7 things about me!

1) I love being home, learning with my kids and would not choose differently if I could choose all over again! I never wanted to be a high powered career woman ever! I love discovering new things alongside them daily.

2) I tend to hibernate and shy away from the world when I am battling with issues. So if you don't hear from me for a while, you know I am dealing with stuff!

3) I love the great outdoors (be it beach , mountain, grassland, forest or jungle) even though I don't get out there enough (thanks Mum and Dad for making that part of my life when I was growing up!)

4) I think you all know this one...

I am a cry baby of note!

I cry in movies, when reading aloud to my kids and when reading to myself....

I cry when really happy and when really sad or even just a little sad....

Don't ask me to make a speech about something special...

I CANNOT get through it without blubbering!

5) I love the way I feel after a good workout, that feeling of sore muscles the next day tells me it was all worth it! It helps with my stress levels too and my kids have been known to say, "Mom I think you need to go to tae bo!"

6) The feeling of missing my sisters and Mum who all live so far away will never go away.

I treasure the snatched moments in time that we share.

7) I am a procrastinator of note!

I usually get everything (well most things) done but often at the last minute!

My 15 (OK I bow out of choosing 15 , it is taking me a long time to get 15 and I know some of them have already been nominated) versatile bloggers are:

Elastic Mom

My Herbal Journey

Pinxit

Heidi's Craft

Jenni C's

Mel's Mouthful on Mothering

Hayes Happenings

Blah Blah blog!

Cabin In The Woods

Trixi's HomeEd Academy

Following His Footsteps

Please visit these blogs.

Each of them are enjoyed by me and I hope you will enjoy them too!

It's been a long while!

A long time has passed since I last wrote anything here. Life has been happening with all it's twists and turns, ups and downs but I figured if I don't get back to it now and try to catch you up on it all, I never will!

It has been a difficult year as hubby was retrenched almost a year ago but by His grace, we continue on. Everywhere I hear of others in the same boat or in worse situations, and I am aware that we are not alone. We continue to put one foot in front of the other daily, and trust that all things will work together for good. It has been a trying time but also a time of great blessing and faith building.

Perhaps it has been easier to just keep quiet than to write when the pressures have seemed too great but tonight I have resolved to get back at it and share some of what has been happening in our lives. Daily I remind myself that there is always, always, always something to be thankful for!

The photos in this post are from a spring walk shared with friends not too long ago...

flowers

tree climbing

feather finding

fresh air

friendship

fun

I marvel at the beauty of creation and fresh air and wide open spaces always do me good!

We always find something out there that we have learned about recently, like this male pine full of pollen, just waiting to be dispersed by the wind!

Two girls just did not want to come down out of the tree and begged to bring their school work there the following day so they could learn in the tree!

Possibly next week we will head out for a morning under or perhaps up the tree!