five minute friday: hold

Yes, oh so comforting! 

I love that He holds the stars in place and He holds me and mine in place. 

Sometimes when things are tough, it's easy to forget though.

I am thankful that we do not need to fear tomorrow or what it may bring as He already knows and He holds our days in His hands. 

I am thankful He holds our hearts and He protects our coming and our goings. 

Thankful that He knows what He is doing even when we don't.

Thanks for the link up Kate

Monday's Multitudes

Thankful for His blessings....

my girl baking tasty treats

puppy kisses and cuddles

freebies from Home Tester Club

early morning walk in the forest with a friend and my girl

wool gifted by a friend

getting through work we were behind on

red velvet cupcakes baked by my daughter's friend, shared with us

icy watermelon slush on a warm day

watching my youngest conquer a fear of heights and have loads of fun

my sweet girl blessing me with a voucher to get my hair done

gifts growing: tomato plants that came up on their own

a few hours paid work for me

sweet sounds of thanks giving in church this morning

hubby surprising me with a delicious home cooked dinner

gifts given : His grace, mercy and love

winning again! ...a voucher to get my hair done

long overdue conversations with my mum

winning vouchers for me and my girl to go for massages

my gorgeous cute nephew telling me he loves me to the sun

washi tape and a cute fabric heart, another prize!

fun evening out with girlfriends

a delicious Mediterranean cook book, another lovely prize

thankful for my Dad today, his birthday

3 days away with hubby

the earth laughing in colorful flowers

pristine beaches

spotted: buck, zebra, ostriches, birds of all kinds, wildebeest, fields of lambs and calves

safe travels

bumping into a colleague from 20 years ago

fireside laughter with new and old friends

good rest

friends and family looking out for my three

lunch with my younger two and my niece

beach walk

   another prize, vouchers from the mall

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Slow Living Monthly 9 : August 2014

Lovely to reflect on the month of August, a month of varied and contrasting weather.

 A month where we settled back into the routine of school term. 

NOURISH: 

The weather in August was still cool enough for the likes of comfort foods like fragrant curries and leek and potato or chicken noodle soup. We enjoyed hubby's homemade pizza again too. My brother gifted us with eggs from his hens and we enjoyed them scrambled, fried or in omelettes. Always a quick and easy cost effective meal!

There was plenty of baking  and sugar cookery as my daughter tried to get through most of her practical classes for consumer studies.

She made the best ever Swiss roll...

 short crust pastry filled with confectioners custard and topped with granadilla, 

fudge, coconut ice, marshmallows, a vanilla sponge cake....

milk tart, iced vanilla biscuits and coconut biscuits!

 Her efforts were much appreciated by all our younger son's friends as we served them at his birthday party. There is nothing tastier than delicious home baked cakes, biscuits and confectionery!

PREPARE:

There was no preparation this month, unusual for me, but we did stock up on canned tuna as it was a good price and I can really stretch a can a long way! 

I froze some lemons too as I found out one can freeze them on someone's post for last month...

thank you!

REDUCE:

Nothing new, just our usual recycling.

GREEN: 

Nothing new.

GROW: 

Oh gosh another month with not much happening in the garden!

 Hubby got some beautiful compost from our heap for the veg beds and I have done a little weeding here and there. We have enjoyed herbs ( I have a Basil that has even lasted through the winter!), lemons, granadillas, strawberries and a few peas and gooseberries. 

CREATE :

A friend gifted me this pink wool and I made a baby blanket...

 four baby beanies, a prem jersey, a newborn jersey and two pairs of booties.

The wool is all the same colour but photos were taken in different light.

 I am  so relieved to move onto other colours after a month of this dusky pink!

DISCOVER:

 Not much of my own reading as we are back to school! 

We have been reading about Ancient Greece and Rome.

ENHANCE: 

 We have enjoyed babysitting my nephew regularly and a couple of sleep overs for him too. 

My knitting has all been done for donation to the Fish and Chips Project.

ENJOY:

We celebrated our youngest's 14th birthday, Christmas in August with friends, beach and forest walks, log fires when the storms came and the first braai was enjoyed when the sun came out. 

Thanks for the link up Linda!

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?

Monday's Multitudes

It is good to give thanks...

a good night sleep for a change

conversations with my far away farm sister

my sweet friend who messages me every day to say hi and ask how I am

winning again! 2 tickets to Cape Homemakers Expo

my cheery niece popping in

an afternoon with my cute nephew

nebuliser helping to relieve my boy's tight chest

connecting with ladies in my connect group

fire crackling and warming us as it storms outside

our daughter's excellent mid year results

a friend who is always happy to include my boy on fun outings

being the "special person" visitor at my nephew's school

knowing that my friend's daughter is safe and peacefully in the arms of Jesus

hope

"thank you" gift from my neighbor

my sister in law cooking and bringing a delicious meal we shared together

having my brother, his wife and little guy here for the evening

sunny spring weather

wonderful afternoon at my cousin, great company, delicious food on the braai, good laughs and happy kids 

Sunday breakfast with hubby

bumping into a friend from long ago

down time, just me alone at home

gardening, always good for the soul

sun-kissed strawberries freshly picked from the garden

lemons from my mom in law's tree

good and exciting news from my farm sister

this month's verse on my calendar " The Lord will sustain you" Ps 55: 22

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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.

.

Thanks Living

Today I choose to share my thankfulness despite circumstances. 

A friend's daughter passed away yesterday. Too young and too soon.

 Finding joy and gifts to be thankful for, no matter how big or small,  has become a way of life... 

a life line in a sometimes sad and scary world. 

glorious sunny weather
morning walk before hitting the school books

generosity of my brother

faithful friends and family's prayers
my girl's delicious baking, enjoyed by us all
impromptu coffee and catch up with friends two nights running
heart shaped biscuit baked and decorated just for me
my sweet little nephew fast asleep on my bed
his sunny disposition and cute chatter in the morning
a caring letter of appreciation from my sweet girl
fresh eggs from my brother's hens
grace on difficult days
pancakes made by my sweetpea
weekend rest
wonderful evening of fun with friends new and old, celebrating Christmas in August
lovely gift, just the one my heart desired : fridge poetry
gift of sacrifice from my mum, much appreciated and needed
summer weather on a winter's day

solitary beach walk, warm water lapping at my feet, sun on my back
first braai of the coming season, gorgeous friends and good food
our youngest's birthday, wonderful day celebrating with family
pizzas by hubby for the celebration
wonderful news of our oldest's acceptance to university
friends and family who share our joy in this wonderful news
my gorgeous nephew spending the day with me, cute and constant chatter
evening of laughter and fun with my sweet friend
a refund I didn't expect
another prize won, a case of wine from a nearby wine farm
thankful for good medical care and medicine for my oldest
my sweet girl, preparing treats for her brother's party all week
Saturday sleep in, just what was needed
teens enjoying Zak's party...loud, hungry, happy
wonderful message on Psalm 23
beautiful sunshine and walk in the forest
conversations with my far away Mum
coffee with a friend
enjoying prize I won...soothing and calming massages for hubby and me at a tranquil spa

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