Oupa turns 70

Birthdays are special milestones! For me, they don’t only mark the reminder of a birth-day, they are an opportunity for us to demonstrate in as many ways possible the love and appreciation we have for one another. Today I have a couple of special people in my life celebrating birthdays and two of them are ‘huge’ milestones. And Oupa is one of those – he turns 70 today!

Oupa - in his element - with his party hat and badge on!

 

Yesterday we spent our day, together with family and friends, celebrating him. The potjie party Ouma had organised for him during these past few months came together so very nicely and it was lovely!

The day started early – I put the 3 breads in the oven at about 6.30am and they were baked before breakfast. Directly after breakfast Oupa and his sons went over to the Lapa to start the potjiekos. Potjies are a stew, cooked slowly for a long time in a 3-legged cast-iron pot over a fire – and the guys did a fantastic job making some very delicious food! Dieter’s ostrich goulash potjie was a big hit and, I think, the best one!

While Ouma finished up at the Lapa and then collected one or two last things in town Zani and I were at home with the younger children cooking the rice and make the last of the dips and berry sauce for pudding. When Ouma and Dieter had showered and were ready to head to the Lapa we all left to go to the party. That’s when the rain started and it came down quite heavily! (Fortunately Ryan’s football game was cancelled due to the weather, so he was very relieved that he wouldn’t miss out at all!)

It was lovely to see family from up country that we haven’t seen since we’ve been back – and also family we have seen but who live too far away to visit with regularly. There were many tributes to Oupa from his sons, from friends, from family ….. a wonderful way to honour him and express our appreciation of him. Many made the effort to wear hats of some kind and the creativity was amazing! Some of us (me included!) didn’t wear hats, but we were in the minority.

It was a wonderfully, relaxing time which we spent eating, laughing, and capturing in pictures. I think one of my favourite highlights was when our boys accompanied the guests with their guitars as we sang ‘Happy Birthday to Oupa!’ – it was a very special moment! Diet had been very nervous about having to say his speech, but came across very relaxed and did incredibly well! All in all, it was a really great day and everything was wonderful!

Ethan on guitar - he strummed a strong G-chord when the right time came

Ryan (in his chosen party hat) loving the moment

Jed getting ready to play

Dieter making his speech

A small handful of family spent the later afternoon and evening with us at home, which was a real treat and a great time of connecting one-on-one. By the time we got into bed last night I was in over-drive and absolutely exhausted! I’m so glad we had today to relax and recover from all the excitement and activity! Another great weekend done and dusted, yeah!

Paul-Gustav, Lezani, Mauritz, Rizane, Ouma, Oupa, Aimee, Dieter, Ethan, me, Jed and Ryan: Oupa's crew

Oupa and 3 of his siblings together with their some of their children and grandchildren

Fun with family

We have had a wonderful weekend celebrating Oupa and enjoying time with family and precious friends. I remember when Ouma started organising the party about 5 months ago, she wanted an indoor venue because the weather here in George is so unpredictable - even at this time of the year! Well, she couldn’t have been more spot on! We’ve had gale force winds, rain storms and winter-chills …. And it supposed to be spring!

It was absolutely amazing to see Mau, Zani, Rizi and Paultjie! The children played so nicely together for just over 3 days and had so much fun together! The never got bored or ran out of things to do together and it was heartwarming to watch them together. Rizi and Paultjie are Afrikaans but fortunately their English is good and they were all able to communicate well and understand each other too! Zani and I had breakfast together at my favourite local coffee shop on Thursday morning and it was good to catch up and get to know each other a bit better. I had no idea how similar we are – we’ve never really had the chance to get to know each other.

After a yummy breakfast of bacon and eggs prepared by many hands on Friday morning, we rushed to the beach before the sun disappeared again! The sun stayed for a while and we enjoyed a lovely sunny morning down at Herolds Bay wading in the tidal pool, collecting shells and spotting tiny fish in the rock pools. We even caught a bit of tan too! It was great! Oupa and Ouma treated us all to an ice-cream before heading home – that was the cherry on top! What a treat!

Oupa in charge of the fried eggs .... and his co-helpers Rizane and Ryan

Zani and I spent Friday afternoon cutting and preparing veggies for Oupa’s potjie-party and I made the dough for the 3 huge breads I was to bake. We didn’t stop until late in the evening and when bed time came I was so grateful, but things were taking shape.  Oupa and Ouma spent the afternoon setting up the lapa and organising the table décor.

It was so very sad to see Mau, Zani, Rizi and Paultjie leave this morning! We are already missing them, and I wish we didn’t live so far away! Hoping it won’t be 7 years before we see them again!!

No more sleeps!!

It has been 7 years since we last saw Dieter’s brother, Mauritz, and his family. It was just after their oldest child, Rizané, had been born. Lots as happened in those 7 years: they’ve moved house numerous times and lived in various areas around Pretoria and have since had a little boy too, Paul-Gustav who is now nearly 6 years old.  We’ve had 2 more children, ourselves, and have travelled the globe some more. They live in Pretoria, where we all grew up, and we haven’t had the opportunity to see each other since we’ve returned to South Africa.

Today all that will change! After counting the sleeps faithfully every day for the last month, there are now NO MORE SLEEPS! Mauritz, Lezani, Rizi and Paultjie have booked in at Oliver Tambo International Airport just outside Johannesburg and are waiting to board their flight to George. Now we patiently count the hours till their arrival!

I can’t verbalise the excitement we are feeling right now! Aimee and I have been counting together and are by far the most excited of the crew ….. but we are all very excited to meet/see our cousins and family!

Oupa, and his twin sister, Aunty Ria, turn 70 this coming weekend. In his honour, numerous family members and close friends are traveling from far and near to celebrate. Oupa and Ouma have organised a Potjiekos luncheon in the lapa of a nearby school and nearly 60 of us will enjoy it together. For the past month or two we have been testing numerous potjie recipes at home, and have come up with 3 winners. Oupa, Dieter and Mauritz have each been assigned a potjie to make – either pork and pineapple, chicken curry or ostrich goulash. Its going to be a delicious affair – and we’re so looking forward to spending time with all the cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents.

(For those who don’t know/have forgotten, ‘potjiekos’ is a stew made in a 3-legged cast iron pot on a fire)

We’ve spent much of the last month planning Oupa’s birthday bash and much needs to be done in the next couple of days …. But until then, we’re going to enjoy EVERY minute of having Mauritz, Lezani, Rizi and Paultjie with us! 

Never a dull moment

No two days are EVER the same in our home! EVER! It’s one of the perks of homeschooling! We never do anything at exactly the same time every day, and the only ‘unchangeables’ are our meal times! Breakfast is served ‘around’ 8am most mornings, Lunch between 12 and 1pm and Dinner at 6-ish! Never promptly on time!

There are some things we try to do most week days, including house chores, math, dutch, reading, playing board games, etc. And on Sundays we try to avoid all of those, but not always with great success (its nice to take a break!).

One morning last week, for one brief moment!!, I wasn’t quite sure what to do next when I realised that the children were all busy doing something and I thought it a good opportunity to catch it on camera. Can’t remember what day it was, or exactly but what time, but these photos were all taken within a 5 minute period. A record for eternity of what the children were all doing:

Ryan and Jed hanging up some washing - with happy hearts!

Aimee concentrating very hard - washing some stones to decorate Ouma's garden

Ethan watering his very own garden - so diligent, very serious .... planted those seeds himself!

A growing boy!

We are blessed with four precious children! All so very unique and beautiful! And I just LOVE being a Mom!

They are growing, and developing constantly! It so easy to miss stages of that growth and development - because we are with each other almost all the time. Just the other day I had to take a second, long look at Jed as I realised the he’s grown taller in the past few weeks! When Aimee starts prancing around the lounge when a music CD goes on I often look at her and wonder where she ‘learns’ the dances she does! Ryan has been flaunting his acting skills around the house a lot more lately and really shows a lot of promise! But its Ethan I want to focus on today!

My little baby boy is growing up! He’s getting taller by the day and comfortably fits his little 6-year old frame into 9-10year old clothing. He loves dressing smartly just as much as he loves dressing up! His favourite gear is still his fireman outfits and he really looks the part again in the bright red overalls Oupa and Ouma gave him for his birthday and the jacket and hat Gramps gave him when we visited Dubai earlier this year.

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He manages to enlist his little sister Aimee in most of his fire-fighting activities, and she too dreams of being a ‘fireman’ one day!

Ready for surgery ......

Ethan has the most amazing imagination and can often be found in the workshop or around the yard making contraptions of his own design. He loves to play with Playmobil and spends ages designing and making ‘things’ out of Lego. One of his favourite times in our day is spent lying on the lounge floor with his older brothers, quietly making something from Lego (with the Lego sprawled all over the lounge floor) while I read aloud to them. (He LOVES listening to the books I read to Ryan and Jed, he always has!)

A photo Ethan took last week of his recent Lego creations

He was a really cute baby, and has grown up into a very good-looking little guy. His thick, wavy hair never really needs to be brushed (unlike his older brothers’ hair!), his little teeth are perfect and those blue-green eyes of his are beautiful!

Just lately, he has undergone some serious changes! Not only has he outgrown his football boots and underpants, but he is outgrowing his teeth! In the past month or so he has lost two bottom teeth and, within a week, lost his two front teeth!

Look Mom - no teeth!

A dentist once referred to this phase as ‘the ugly duckling phase’ and I’m beginning to wonder if it isn’t part of God’s way of helping us to let go a little and allow little ones to grow up as that ‘cuteness’ seems to disappear from the outside and true character continues to develop on the inside. Just like a haircut makes little ones look older, so does losing teeth, and Ethan definitely looks older without those front teeth. Especially because he has a really big, beautiful smile – and he uses it often! Ethan really has a ‘sailor-smile’ now with those 4 teeth gone at the same time.

Cheeeeeese!

Our little Dude is growing up so quickly and we’re enjoying the adventure and journey!

Weekend ... and chilling :)

Its weekend – and I enjoy the break from our weekly routine. Yesterday I spent most of the day doing odds and ends around the house. I took a short break just before lunch to take the boys to the library and came home with a bag full of new, exciting stories to read – we’re so blessed to have a nice, big library full of English books(and books in other South African languages) for both young and old. Each child is able to borrow 3 books and magazine and us adults are able to borrow 4 books and a magazine each. (Hmm, I must remember that – I love magazines, but they’re so expensive!, must take some out!)

I spent the rest of the morning doing mostly domestic things. I did a load of washing, which mostly consisted of Ethan and Aimee’s bedding and Ryan helped me hang it up on the line. We only hung it up after lunch, but it was so warm yesterday that it was dry within an hour. I tidied up the kitchen after breakfast and then spent some time making some meals for the day. For lunch I prepared a veggie stir-fry using many of the fresh veggies we got from the farmer earlier this week ….. celery, spinach, leeks, carrots, onions, cabbage and chili-garlic rice with some soya sauce. It was yummy! For supper I made a leek and potato soup that we ate last night with a dollop of Greek yoghurt, some freshly made croutons and fresh parsley. I also made a coleslaw to eat with our lunch today.

Ryan swept the passage, kitchen and dining room, Jed and Aimee peeled potatoes and Ethan spent a lot of time tidying the bits and pieces he leaves lying around throughout the day! I also cut Dieter’s hair after he’d finished tidying up and reorganising our room to make space.

After lunch Jed and I made a new batch of pavement chalk while Dieter had a short nap, and then I put some Chelsea buns in the oven. It was a really productive morning! At around 3:30pm Dieter and I headed out to the nearby forest station with Ethan, Aimee and their bicycles. We met up with another family and the children had great fun cycling around together. It was a lovely, relaxing time and the children were all really tired by the time we came home. Ryan and Jed had gone to our friends down the road and spent a few hours swimming, playing cluedo and watching Johnny English reborn. Our emotional tanks were all nicely filled!

Today we spent a couple of hours at the local mall but came home almost empty handed! We had gone to buy Aimee a pair of sandals and Jed wanted to buy Bananagrams, but we didn’t find either! We did find a nice big jar of Mrs Ball’s Chutney on special and I managed to find 2 pairs of leggings for Aimee (to wear under her dresses like she loves to do!)

Oupa and Ouma did a delicious snoek braai for us for lunch. Ouma and I made some salads which complimented the fish really well …. It was yummy! Ryan and Ethan both have blocked noses and sore throats and we’re just taking the rest of the day really slowly and relaxing in front of the television for a little while.

The week starts again tomorrow, and with it comes a whole new lot of action, learning and fun. Am planning another early night!

We're well :)

Blogging is becoming harder and harder for me to do. I have very few quiet moments alone every day and there is never a shortage of things that need to be done. When I look again 2 weeks have passed and I haven’t put anything on my blog.  We've also had some internet issues over the past 2 weeks, often meaning we either can't get connected or we don't have a connection at all ..... but it looks like we're back on line again!

I can tell you that we are all strong, healthy and well. Most of our days are chokka-block full of activity, most of it totally unplanned. Meal times are the only definites in our day. Some days I don’t get much chance to sit except to eat and read to the children. By the time the little ones go to bed around 7pm, I am ready to sleep myself!

We’re enjoying being here in South Africa despite the extra long winter we’re experiencing. October had more grey, rainy days than sunny ones and we’re desperately looking forward to the onset of Spring. We’re very blessed with the friendships we’ve made within the homeschooling community - and the support we’re experiencing!

The children are all growing well, and love the full days. They’re making the very most of the trampoline and garden and are the life of the neighbourhood! Its very quiet here otherwise! Now that Jed is mobile, the boys are often out riding with other children nearby or to the local Spar on errands. (Aimee isn’t riding with trainer wheels anymore but isn’t ready to ride on her own yet, and I can’t wait until she is!)

Business is on the slow side and we’re really trusting for breakthrough. The babyfood is moving, but slowly still and we need to get ourselves a sales outlet soon so we can sell more. Watch this space – we have a couple of options in the pipline!

We’re learning a lot – mostly about ourselves – and growing too.

Some street fun

Fun times with friends on wheels

Ryan, Jed and Ethan have been spending time on the street ..... with their friends Adine and Zian. Some of the other children in the street have joined in too and we've got proof:

Oh, happy days!

Jed's loving being mobile and now that he can cycle the neighbourhood wants to join in :)

Jed in his element!

Special times with special friends

Jed gets a new set of wheels

Jed’s tricycle is a 8-month long dream that has finally become a reality, thanks to Grampa. And it wasn’t just Jed that was excited! He and Dieter put most of the frame together on the day we arrived back from fetching it in Cape Town. Ethan and Ryan were at football practice, but got involved too the following morning.

Here are some photos of the work in progress:

The cardbox, neatly packed in a thin wooden box

All the parts neatly packaged in the box

Let the games begin! Diet and Jed did a brilliant job putting the trike together! (With Aimee overseeing!)

And a few photos of Jed, in his element and mobile.

Riding in Ouma's garden with Aimee running behind

The Dudes posing together .... happy times!

Road Trip to Cape Town

Months ago we began searching for a new tricycle for Jed. He gave his tricycle to a special friend when we left Cyprus and we have been looking to replace it. Unfortunately, tricycles don’t feature at all in South Africa – a real pity for special needs children especially! We did manage to find out about a man who modifies mountain bikes and turns them into tricycles, but they are not as stable as a Jed is used to.

Grampa has been searching with us. His search has been in Asia and we eventually settled on a bike from China. The whole import process was a HUGE learning curve for me, but it all went quite smoothly! After a month at sea, the shipping vessel docked in Cape Town about 2 weeks ago and we travelled about 450km with a small trailor on our car to fetch it and bring it home.

We also arranged to spend the weekend with some special friends from Cyprus. The Shokkos family lived quite close to us in Nicosia when we first arrived in Cyprus. They moved back to South Africa about 15 months ago and live in Somerset West, a short 30-minute drive from Cape Town.

Armed with enough ‘padkos’ (an Afrikaans word, which directly translated means ‘road food’!) to feed us for a whole day, we were very excited about our little adventure to the Cape! 5 hours after leaving George we collected the bike from the importer and I was very surprised when it was an easy and pleasant experience. All in all, our importing experience was a very positive one! We took a trailer with us and weren’t sure whether the bike would fit in or not and so we were pleasantly surprised when the neat little wooden box fitted in very easily and only took up about a half of the trailer!

We couldn’t stop staring at Table Mountain! It really is a beautiful sight, and a confirmation that our dream trip to Cape Town had indeed become a reality. I found the masses of cars on the road and busy traffic very daunting, we really are spoiled living in George where it is much quieter! It was also really good for the children to see other parts of South Africa – we are living in a very beautiful country! The Shokkos family live in Somerset West and the view from the slopes of the Helderberg mountains from there is absolutely breathtaking. False Bay is a beautiful place and the combination of mountains and sea really is amazing.

We experienced heavy rain storms and wild winds during the weekend we spent in Somerset West! It was frigid but that didn’t stop the children from having a fun swim in the pool! Brrrrr! It was lovely spending time with the Shokkos gang and the children had a lovely time together playing. It was very relaxing and we enjoyed the break from our usual routine and opportunity to do very little and enjoy good company. Jacky did show us some great catering wholesale shops and also took me to a packaging company one afternoon, but a lot of our time was spent at home cooking and enjoying great meals together, watching movies and catching up.

On Saturday it stopped raining for a few hours and we used the opportunity to take a drive down the coast from Muizenburg to Simon’s Town. It is still one of my favourite stretches of coast around the Cape. We thought of the Lange’s a lot and looked out for the YWAM base but never did find it …. Missing them lots! There were road works around the little harbour and there was a stop-go system in place to allow cars from both directions to take turns to use the one lane on the narrow road around that area. It did slow things down quite a lot, and we took a while to get down to Fish Hoek but fortunately traffic was in our favour in the direction we were traveling both ways. There were lots of fascinating things to see along the way and we made a few stops to get out and walk and explore. At lunchtime we stopped in Fish Hoek and bought some hake, snoek and slap-chips. (Slap-chips are vinegar-drenched potato chips that are usually also well salted – the flop about and aren’t crispy, and are delicious!) We found a nice spot on the beachfront and sat on some wooden benches in front of a kiddies outdoor play area. We had to fight the wind as it blew sand on our chips and the seagulls that tried to take the fish outoi of our hands as we ate (I won!), but we worked out the logistics and thoroughly enjoyed our fish and chips (thanks to Grampa!!!)

Windswept and chilly .... posing infront of the colourful wooden houses on Muizenberg beach

Our precious crew

With very full tummies we then drove along the coastal road that spans False Bay to visit some friends in Gordon’s Bay. Jessica is an ex-pupil of mine and she lived with us during our last year in Butterworth. We haven’t seen her since her 21^st a year later, and that was nearly 14 years ago! She got married a few years ago to a really nice man and they have a little son who is 2 years old. It was wonderful to see Jess again after all this time and meet her very special family in their home. They spoiled us very much and we enjoyed a lovely afternoon tea together in between much chatting and laughter! It was lovely to catch up again!

Matthew, Andre and Jess together with us6Nomads at their home in Gordon's Bay

We stayed an extra day and went to church with the Shokkos family on the Sunday morning. It was the first time we’d ever been to a Hillsongs Church and an interesting experience. It was lovely to have an extra day to spend with them, and we had a relaxing time together. I found myself remembering Cyprus and other friends there as we spent time with Jacky and Aki and at times reminisced about Cyprus-memories. It wasn’t easy, but it was very good connecting with friends with whom we have a bit of common history and friendship.

Jacky and I

Our 5-hour trip home on the Monday went really well and we only stopped once to put in some petrol and empty our bladders. I’d made some more ‘padkos’ that we enjoyed eating in the car and got home by mid-afternoon, in time for Ethan and Ryan to go to soccer practice.

We hadn’t planned to start assembling Jed’s trike till the next morning, but assembly began pretty soon and by nightfall it was almost finished! More about that in another post!