Giving thanks

The year is almost over. 

I am thankful for His provision, protection and daily blessings.....

1899) an evening out with my dear friend and later our boys joining us

1900) a morning spent with my precious, adorable two and a half year old nephew

1901) a gift preparing: preparing for a wonderful trip with my daughter...going to see my sis and my mum

1902) gift happy: happy evening spent with hubby, just the two of us enjoying our favorite pizza place

1903) so grateful for my daughters excellent marks for her year end art practicals

1904) gift in community: thanksgiving picnic with our neighborhood family, relaxing and fun

1905) gift in community: thankful that our neighborhood family always look out for one another

1906) safe travels for my daughter and me

1907) thankful for a wonderful holiday with my sister and my Mum

1908) thankful to have spent my birthday with my Mum

1909) thankful for safe travels home again

1910) thankful to have spent Christmas eve and Christmas day with precious family

1911) blessed by the year end church service

1912) thankful to spend time with dear friends over the holidays

1913) thankful for our hope in Him

1914) thankful for my youngest's safe return from a five day camping trip

Slow Living Month 11 and 12

Time to wrap up 2013...

November and December have been wonderful months with loads of activity.

 We wrapped up the school year at the end of November and my eldest finished his final exams early in November and begun working as a junior software support technician. He is loving his job and we miss having him around the house.  

My daughter and I had a fantastic holiday visiting my sister and my mum in Kwa Zulu Natal. My daughter is still away, now visiting with her cousins on the farm in the Free State. 

NOURISH:

 Summer is here and braais and simple salads are best in the heat. 

I bought some wonderful curry mixes while on holiday and we have enjoyed a delicious chicken curry with apricots. I look forward to trying out the others too! 

While on holiday, it was a real treat not to take care of daily meals and I was blessed to enjoy my mum and sisters cooking. We were also treated to a fair amount of eating out. 

PREPARE: 

In holiday mode, there was not much achieved here, except a batch of tasty tomato and chili jam laced with loads of ginger and garlic....

made with my own abundant tomato harvest!

REDUCE: 

My daughter raided my cupboards and decided what needed to go. We gave away most of the clothes she thought I should no longer wear. She also went through her cupboards and passed things on. We have been blessed with so many clothes by a dear friend and it was a pleasure to pass some of ours on.

GREEN: 

Nothing new here.

GROW: 

I planted green and yellow peppers, leeks, beans and gem squash. 

Kale, cabbages, tomatoes, chilies and granadillas are all doing well. I have harvested strawberries, gooseberries, onions and leeks.

Its been fun to pull up carrots when they are needed in a meal. 

My lemon tree has a few lemons on it and so far I have picked the first two.

CREATE:

 I have had great fun creating all sorts. 

Most of the items made were used as gifts for Christmas.

 The above was sent to Germany as part of an International Handmade Gift Exchange.

 I made my first ever Christmas wreath using a fynbos wreath, ribbons and cones. I loved the way it turned out. 

I finally finished off a pair of thick warm bed-socks for a friend. I felt rather guilty that they took so long as she will have to wait a number  of months to wear them. I knitted up a number of snoods and beanies as gifts too. 

My daughter made these magnetic decoupaged fridge notepads as gifts.

DISCOVER: 

I caught up on magazine reading while on holiday, just little snippets enjoyed at a time. 

ENHANCE: 

We took part in an International Children's book exchange and received two parcels, one from China and one from USA. We sent sent out gently used books with a South African flavor to our exchange partners.

My youngest son and I took part in an alien vegetation hack in a local fynbos area.

ENJOY:

We certainly embraced enjoying this season with precious family and friends!

We enjoyed our Church family fun day, numerous Christmas parties, Christmas Carols and more. 

My daughter and I enjoyed the beauty of country life in the Underberg area with my sister and her husband. 

We all traveled south to enjoy time with my Mum down on the coast. We dipped our toes in the warm Indian Ocean, caught up with one another , rested well and ate far too well! 

We were treated to a fantastic day at the Wild Coast Sun where we spent the day at the Wild Waves water park. Adrenaline  pumped as we had enormous fun riding the thrilling rides! 

I celebrated my birthday in style with my Mum at the balmy south coast and the following day I flew home to my guys. 

It was a fantastic holiday! 

Christmas eve was celebrated with extended family at my Dad and on Christmas day we enjoyed celebrating with hubby's parents. 

A wonderful time of year ...

Thank You Christine for hosting Slow Living in 2013.

Good Gifts

A busy time of year with many blessings...

1884) sweet friends delivering a delicious cake for us to enjoy

1885) gifts spring : red poppies, lemons on my tree and sweet strawberries

1886) grateful for my father in law helping out with lifts when needed for my eldest

1887) thankful for a delicious meal cooked by my eldest and hubby, a night off for me

1888) my dad popping by unexpectedly and bearing gifts

1889) thankful for brilliant results for my girl's art exam

1890) a morning off, enjoying a movie with my youngest boy

1891) fresh, crisp carrots harvested from the garden and enjoyed

1892) gift in Him: a sweet elderly lady praying with hubby and me in church this morning

1893) blessed to hear the Word and take part in breaking of bread

1894) a relaxed family braai enjoyed together

1895) dipping my feet into the neighbor's pool to cool down, so refreshing in this heat

1896) catching up with my little sis, always good

1897) abundant tomato harvest from a plant that sprung up out of nowhere

1898) an evening of fun enjoyed with my oldest two

 

Weekly Wrap-Up

Another week has gone by so fast....

Josh has been working and we still miss his presence in the home daily. He enjoyed the company's year end function on Friday despite the fact he has only been there a short while. They went to Cool Runnings and had a great time.

I haven't had to lift him every day this week, but on one occasion that I did, Zak came along for the ride and we popped in to China Town which is very near to Josh's work too. Zak enjoyed spending some of his money that I pay him for helping me pack orders. He got himself a watch and a cool hat. 

We finished off our reading of "Bold Believers in India" and Keren and Zak prepared a delicious Indian meal for us one evening.

We ate an Indian rice dish prepared with onions, cinnamon, coriander, raisins and almonds. Very tasty and certainly something to enjoy again. The spicy chicken was marinaded in yogurt with chili, coriander, ginger and garlic. Everyone enjoyed the meal.

Another evening Josh and hubby cooked dinner for the family. They made us tasty burgers and chips and a chocolate mousse for dessert. Its great to have a night off here and there and good for the boys to get used to preparing meals too. 

Keren has been very occupied with art exam practicals.

The above is an experimental landscape drawing. She had to draw lines on a page and then cut up the page and create a landscape using the piece of line drawing. 

The above line drawing was inspired by her exam practical work and was done mostly without her looking at the page. 

In this work, she experimented using natural elements (colored sand) to create a landscape. 

This quality drawing was also part of her practical exam and she could choose any landscape to copy.

We were thrilled when she received her theory marks from last week's exam, 92% and top of her class!

We also received her grade 10 year end exams this week and she wrote Life Orientation and a Maths paper. She plans to try and get as many done as possible over the next week. 

Zak has also produced copious amounts of drawings this week when he in not sitting with his nose in a book! The above was a copy of a figurine he bought himself. 

He went to basketball practice and was chosen to play in the team for Wednesday's game. 

I love this pic of him reaching for the ball! 

Finally they had a win and the team felt really good about it. 

Zak also enjoyed the monthly home school outing to the ice rink with friends and due to the fact that he has finished most of his work for the year, we skipped school on Friday morning and went to enjoy a movie together. 

Of course there was a treat for finishing up maths and Afrikaans, an ice cream of Zak's choice from the ice cream man that walks our street ringing his bell at least three times a week!

We also sent off our November book to the USA for the International Book Exchange. We know ours is on its way to us too! We look forward to the surprise.

On Friday night the older two enjoyed a concert at Kirstenbosch and Zak enjoyed youth group.

A full and fun week!

Five Minute Friday: Fly

Fly....excitement and fear rolled into one! 

I don't enjoy flying much at all as it seems most unnatural to be hurtling through the air .....but the excitement is building as in just over a week my daughter and I will be doing just that. We are going to see my sister and my mum. Its been almost 2 years since I saw my mum and I cannot wait. I am so glad my daughter is accompanying me on the flights though. Its always nice to have a hand to squeeze when that plane takes off and touches down. 

The excitement of seeing missed loved ones is building. Looking forward to relaxing at my sisters beautiful home in countryside and then my mum down on the south coast. A wonderful year end break. Time to relax and not have a care in the world except enjoying those that I love and miss so much. 

"Unscripted, unedited, real" Lisa- Jo Baker

Write for five minutes on the given topic, link up at Lisa- Jo's blog and encourage the person who linked up before you. Have fun!

Counting my blessings

I continue to count the blessings showered upon us.....

1854)Gifts overjoyed :  filled with joy at the thought of our first home school graduate, grateful for the years with him at home

1855) overjoyed at his getting employment just two days out of school

1856) gifts eaten: dinner cooked by our daughter, tasty and delicious

1857) hubby sharing his birthday chocolates with me

1858)gift worn: gently used hand me downs from a sweet friend

1859)gift good: wonderful and precious evening shared with my Godfather, laughter, great conversation and blessed with take out dinner 

1860) a kind friend sharing packs of potato spice with us

1861) hubby winning the wonderful prize of a picnic for two and entry to the botanical gardens

1862) pure delight on his face when my youngest won a body board

1563) seeing generosity shown by my sweet girl to her brothers 

1864) time and chatter with my eldest as we travel to his place of work

1865) conversations with my younger sister when I needed a "shoulder to cry on" 

1866) gift from the window: glimpses of the majestic mountains

1867)gift sipped: early morning cups of coffee delivered to my bedside table by hubby

1868)gifts harvested: tomatoes, carrots, leeks and peas freshly picked from the garden

1869)gifts found in Bible reading: blessed time of reading, chatting and praying with my youngest daily

1870) gift of remembrance: remembering prayers prayed and delighting in answer given

1871) precious times with my teens lounging on our bed, chatter and laughter

1872) time spent with girlfriends, so good for the soul

1873) coffee shared with my neighbor

1874) an invitation to look forward to

1875) a fun parcel arriving from China

1876) my girl's art exam that went well
1877) gifts of laughter: those special moments that just set us off...shared with my kids
1878) gift golden: my wedding rings reminding me of what hubby and I have
1879) gift silent: a day of silently resting and sleeping when I wanted to, just what I needed
1880) a gift made: dinner made with helping hands of my younger two
1881) a gift shared: hubby sharing orange chocolate truffles with us
1882) sweet scented sweet-peas from my garden, the fragrance filling my lounge
1883) beautiful praise CD gifted by a stranger

Five Minute Friday: Tree

An apt word for Friday: Tree

Zak and I spent the morning hacking alien trees in the Tokai Plantation. The commercial pines have been harvested in order to make way for our beautiful Cape fynbos. Seeds lie dormant beneath the soil and will produce fynbos after the fires which will be set in about April next year.

The alien vegetation needs to rooted out before the fires, I wondered if our seemingly feeble efforts would make any difference in such a vast area. I was told they would. In a few months these aliens could double in size, so rooting them out now does make a difference.

 Loppers and poppers were used. Hard work in the scorching sun. My finger, which is still not right after the break, took major strain. I could only pull the tiny trees out. Aliens are not welcome among the fynbos.

I had always thought the loss of pine forests of 120 years old to be a sad loss, but now that I know the area will rejuvenate with precious fynbos, it seems right.

 These aliens have no place here in our Cape floral kingdom.

"Unscripted, unedited, real" Lisa- Jo Baker

Write for five minutes on the given topic, link up at Lisa- Jo's blog and encourage the person who linked up before you. Have fun!