My week in pictures

I honestly thought I had written a blog post this week -  only to discover tonight that I haven't blogged in 10 days! 

Sorry!

No two days are ever the same, and none of them are boring! I have realised this week, that I am running on fumes and in desperate need of some sleep (and should probably be in bed already!).

Here is at look at some of the pictorial highlights of our week:

 

Monday was Heritage Day - a South African public holiday (more affectionately know as 'braai day' for some reason!) 

 The local train museum had an Open Day, and charged no entrance fee for the day,  so Dieter and I took the children to feast our eyes on old steam trains, vintage cars, buses, fire engines, carriages, etc.

On the back of an 'ancient' fire truck - so much fun!

Our gorgeous crew!

In front of an old carriage - beautiful!

 We then headed down to the local Botanical Gardens to meet up with Marna and her boys, and Annelie and her boys (both homeschooling families) for a final play in the park. This was a day and a half before Marna and her family were leaving George.

Da Dudes having a ball!

While the boys played cricket Aimee climbed a few trees - she's so very adventurous!

 After football practice on Tuesday afternoon, Marna, Anton, Dian and Morne came to have dinner with us. Their home was almost bare and they were ready to hit the road! Its been just 3 weeks since they decided to leave, and the time has gone so quickly, but we were so very spoilt to share this one last evening together with them. Babotie, yellow rice and salad was the meal of the night, yummy!

One last pic of us two families together - special friends!

On Wednesday afternoon we attended an Arbour day celebration at our local mall. A company sponsored and planted some trees and the mall organised an art activity for each school represented. Our children made up 80% of the group that represented the local homeschoolers, and we had loads of fun with our friend Joshua!

Posing with 'Captain Otto' the Mall mascot, the small group who represented George's homeschoolers.

We spent Friday morning making some final preparations for the Pink Tree Market, including making 40 Smiley Face Custard cups! A short visit from some old friends of Oupa and Ouma was a welcome break from the hard work. 

Ethan posing with Myburgh and so excited to have a little friend to explore the garden with!

 

 

 

Our table at the Pink Tree market today

Today we had a stall at the Pink Tree Market. It was great to meet some new potential customers, despite not selling very many of our products. We were encouraged by the positive feedback from a couple of people, including a lady who'd bought a meal for her little one at the market. He ate it and thoroughly enjoyed it and she immediately called and ordered a whole lot more for us to deliver this afternoon. Her words to her sister who also has a little one were, 'You HAVE to try this, you can't go wrong!!'

Tomorrow we'll take the day 'off' ..... and are planning to try out some fishing at a local river. In my mind I have this idea of just 'camping' somewhere for the day, taking it very easy and just having fun. I do hope we catch a few fish too - would love to come home with stock of a different variety, LOL!

Saying 'Goodbye' so soon!

We've made the most amazing friends in the short time we've been in George. We've also made alot of acquaintances! Our friends are all homeschoolers and are people with similar spiritual values. Its been so comforting to spend time with them and know their love and acceptance.

We've only been here 6 months now - in lots of ways it feels much longer than that! And so, its heartbreaking to already be having to say 'goodbye' again! Just 10 days ago Marna and her boys came for a visit and she broke it to me that they had decided to leave George and move on. Marna, Anton and their two little boys have found a very special place in our hearts and they are one of the 2 families we've actually spent time with alone (outside of the weekly football and home school get togethers). She's one of the ladies I've spent the most time with and I'm really sad that they are leaving so soon after we have arrived and gotten to know them.

It stirs up all those emotions of having left a whole other group of friends behind in Cyprus. Especially the friends we saw regularly in the week. We're still missing them lots and the wounds are still raw! Marna mentioned that now she could understand something of what we went through coming to George from Cyprus. They, too, have made a decision to leave rather quickly and in just 2 weeks time they will be moving on.

I had no idea we would be leaving when we met Heather Lewis in Larnaca late last year. She quickly became a friend, someone I could relate to very well and who shares alot of the spiritual values I hold dear. When I realised we were leaving I almost wanted to withdraw rather than spend any more time with her, but time was short and precious and I'm glad we made the most of the times we could share together. One doesn't choose to make special friends just moments before having to leave them!

Soccer Moms together with Marna (far right) at the u12Tournament in June this year - happy memories!

So, my heart is heavy again as I think of Marna and her family moving away. We've been so blessed by their friendship, their faith and their love. We will miss them very much! At the same time I am so very grateful for this chance to have met her and befriend her. I'm a richer, more fulfilled person because of her! Our prayers and best wishes go with them ...... knowing this is a "Till next time!' and not a final 'Goodbye'!

Ready or not - here I come!

Its just after 3pm in the afternoon and I think I've already experienced my most favourite moment of the day! It wasn't anything planned - I was outside picking up some papers in the garden when Aimee came out to spy on me. One thing lead to another and within moments we were playing 'Hide 'n seek'! She counted to 10 and I found a place to hide. She found me! I counted to 10 and she found a place to hid .... and I found her! Then I left her counting to about 20 while I sneaked around the front of the house and stood by the front door in a refreshing patch of shade.

She ventured into the house to find me, not realising that I'd stayed outside, and I was left on the front porch for a while. It was shady and cool, and there was a lovely, light breeze. As I stood there in statue-silence, I was able to hear the many different birds chirping as they flew nearby and had a good look at all the spring-flowers blooming nearby. For those few moments it was very tranquil! I just love spring! I love the promise of new things to come after the harsh, cold winter.

Just today Ethan commented that he's really looking forward to summer! When we asked him why, he answered in an excited giggle that he 'can't wait to swim!'. After 2 cold winters in 1 short year, we're all looking forward to lots of swimming this summer.

We're home alone again for 24 hours while Oupa and Ouma head off to Alghulas where Ouma is going to work tomorrow. Before they left they took Ryan and Jed out for a special breakfast this morning and then took them birthday shopping. Ryan came home with a lovely pair of takkies (running shoes) and Jed returned with some lovely, smart shorts and a sleeping t-shirt. They'd had a great time together.

While they work out this morning I did a load of washing, tidied up Ethan and Aimee's room and their clothes that were still in my room from the weekend and did some tidying in the kitchen. Then we headed into town to have the printers look at the contravision on our car, which is already fading! Dieter popped into the bank to pay for the advertisement we've just put in the Family Survival Guide magazine (our biggest and most strategic marketing decision so far!). We then visited a couple of printers, hoping to get some stickers printed. Unfortunately we still haven't found anyone willing to print small quantities of stickers, but we've did find 4 new printers we need to visit!

In the process we also had a tour of the sticker printing depot of Label Leaders here in George - wow, what an amazing business they've got going there! The tour of the depot was very interesting for Dieter, Ethan, Aimee and I! The little ones came home with rolls of empty stickers which they've now been sticking on various empty spots!!!!! We all had a great time!

The day isn't over! After lunch we watched an episode of Amazing Race together (and thought of Yvonne!). Later this afternoon we're planning on visiting a few shops, the library and ending our day at a homegroup gathering. This is a new homegroup, one we haven't visited before so its new to us! We're looking forward to sharing a meal together and meeting some new friends.

As you can see ..... there never really is a dull moment. Ready or not - here I come!

Living it large!

I remember feeling so very overwhelmed when I began to teach Ethan to read and count! I had a few ideas in my head, but really didn’t know exactly how to start or what to do! I ended up focusing more on the numbers and taking the writing/reading much slower and took it ‘one number at a time’ – literally! He’s a lot more mature 2 years on and is ‘catching’ concepts so quickly, its amazing! About 6 weeks ago we moved from counting to 10 to counting up to 30. It didn’t seem very long after that that he was faced with numbers to 100! And in the last 10 days he’s learned to count in 10’s and 5’s! Tomorrow he starts counting in 2’s! I thought it would be very overwhelming, but the way Singapore Math works with numbers and concepts is amazing and he’s loving it!

I remember feeling really overwhelmed when I was introduced to geometry in my early high school years (Gr8). I’ve grown to love geometry and its one of my favourite sections of math! I now look at Ryan and Jed measuring angles and learning the math rules relating to triangles in the 5B Singapore Math book and am amazed at how easily they’re catching onto it! We’re having great fun proving our answers using the various rules! Today we had great fun drawing our own triangles with the help of rulers and protractors. Tomorrow’s lesson introduces parallelograms and I’m awestruck! I know they’ll understand it easily and be able to work out the challenges presented …. And I’m loving Singapore Math all over again!

Ethan asked me to tell him our phone number today, to write down on a poster he designed. I could ‘feel’ Ryan and Jed peering over my shoulder watching in great anticipation, waiting to see if Ethan could actually write down the number I was going to rattle off. And he did! He did write down the whole number perfectly and with well-shaped numbers …. And for a brief moment I felt really proud of what we have achieved till now! All of this might have been considered ‘homework’ because it happened outside of ‘school hours’ …… how I LOVE the spontaneity we enjoy with homeschooling!

Ryan, Jed and I are really enjoying Richard Maybury’s book, ‘Whatever happened to Penny Candy’! I was excited when I saw what we were reading, especially because we’ve just started our own family business and they already understand and are interested in entrepreneurial ventures. But the book covers some difficult concepts like inflation, recession, investments and others! I briefly wondered if this would be a little over their heads, but have been very pleasantly surprised! We don’t want to put it down! If we could we’d read another chapter and another …. And just one more! And I’m so glad I’m reading it with them, because I’m learning soooo much in the process! What a great book!

Today I’ve baked a fresh batch of fruit ‘n nut crunchies, done a few activities with the children and also made a short trip into town. We finalised our contravision for the back window of our car and commissioned the final printing piece for our marketing project. It is a DL-size Gift Voucher that folk can use as a gift for baby showers, baptisms, birthdays, etc and looks really nice.

Things have been quiet on our side business wise – but we did have a rather large order through Farmfreshdirect.co.za yesterday, which was very encouraging.

 In their latest newsletter they introduced us to their customer base:

‘The most awesome combinations we’ve ever seen and a well thought through new local product on offer for households! Forget the boring store mass produced range!’

Spring seems to have been interrupted by a short cold-front and we’re expecting some good rainfall in the next day or so, but the weekend promises to be sunny with temperatures reaching 30degrees C.

We're all well and life is great ..... living it large!

Another week begins

Jed’s got a new count-down running! We got word from our forwarding agent on Friday to say that Jed’s trike was on the ship and that the ship was leaving China. It should take about 4 weeks for the ship to travel from Ningbo port to Cape Town. Jed’s counting the sleeps till the ship lands. Hopefully it won’t take more than a week to clear the trike through customs once it arrives. We’re planning to visit our friends Aki and Jacky (from Cyprus) in Somerset West and spend a night or two with them when we go down with a trailer to collect the trike.

In the meantime we soldier on with our business initiative, trying to get our newly printed flyers and posters out to every possible place moms with babies would visit. Farmfresh still hasn’t managed to load up our products, so that avenue is taking longer than we expected.

Today we started with our new set of books from Sylma and the ‘history’ book we’re doing covers economics – what a timely book! Called ‘Whatever happened to Candy Penny?’, we’re already enjoying what we’ve read. We also started reading ‘The wolves of Willoughby Chase’ and really enjoyed the first chapter! I pulled up my finest British accent as I read it, and I felt like I was at drama school! The language isn’t easy to read, and I found myself stopping to explain quite a few terms as we went along, but it was great reading! Ethan amazed me as he counted to 100 today: we were working through a 100-square which had some numbers missing, and I think, for the first time, he understood the number-concepts as he visually saw them! It was wonderful! Dieter had a great time writing numbers in chalk outside on the cement blocks with Aimee. Actually, Ethan thought it was so much fun - he joined in too! Its been a busy and productive morning.

I’ve been listening to some homeschooling parents over the last few weeks wax lyrical about how little the actually do (academically) and how good it is for their children. Some of my closest friends are catching onto this idea and, while I think its freeing not to be bound to a strict time/content schedule, I do worry about their decisions. I have a very real sense of not wanting to disappoint my children as we home school by doing so little together that they won’t be equipped to make wide-ranging decisions about their own futures. I’d hate for them to regret our years together and see themselves as being deprived in any way! And so I will continue to do all in my power to challenge and introduce them to as much as possible, done as well as possible! In the meantime, this is such an amazing adventure!

Ryan prepared his first tuna-cheese sauce for pasta this afternoon. We’re going to have spaghetti for supper and he was keen to help make the sauce. He did everything from chopping up the onions and opening tuna tins, to putting all the ingredients together and made a lovely thick, cheesy tuna sauce with herbs. He was rather chuffed with the outcome, and I know he’ll really enjoy it! I had better cook both packets of spaghetti when we get back from football, he usually has a few servings of pasta for dinner and tonight I’m sure he’ll have more!

Its only 4pm and its been a great day already! And today’s only Monday – bring on the week!

Swimming upstream!

Who knew, that when we made the choice to homeschool we were making the choice to 'walk on the other side'? It was a simple decision based on the best possible circumstances for educating our children. I feel the same. I think I look the same (ok, I have put on a few kilos!). But honestly, you'd think we automatically became part of a an alien race! Doing things differently to the norms of  society is risky! Its costly too! And this too has been a huge learning curve for me!

We homeschooled for the 5 and a half years we lived in Cyprus. We knew very well that homeschooling was illegal for Cypriots, but there are no hard and fast rules with regard to foreigners. So, because neither Dieter or I are Cypriot, we could homeschool without getting into trouble with the government. The problem in Cyprus is that those in power handle foreigners who homeschool based on the circumstance of the moment. We had no problem, for example, receiving our monthly child allowance even though the rule is that a school certificate must be presented for each schooling child. Our local mukhtar (village leader) signed a form to attest to the fact that our children lived with us, and our allowance was paid out. We generally flew 'below the radar', staying out of trouble and making most of our noise when schools were out!

Home Schooling was made legal in South Africa in 2004. The new ANC government made it legal - I had no idea! So now we live in a country where it is perfectly legal to home-school, which is wonderful! Its been great to see the support groups for homeschooling actively addressing issues of importance. Just recently, a notice was published in our local newspaper by the Western Cape Education Department which was clearly aimed at harassing home schooling families and an attempt to dissuade those who are contemplating home schooling. Now one would think that a law abiding citizen could follow a directive issued by a government department in the newspaper, but it was unnerving to see how unconstitutional and illegal the demands on parents were! I'm so grateful for the folk at the Pestalozzi Trust, the Home-school Association and other homeschooling families who communicate on various forums who have exposed these issues and given us some solid perspective. (I recently wrote a letter to our local editor to share some of these insights with her! )

It doesn't matter how legal home-schooling is or where in the world one is, we (and our friends) often meet with huge resistance. If its not in the minds of the people, its in the minds of the lawmakers! And it keeps us on our toes!

We're enjoying homeschooling here in George! We're so blessed to have a lovely library that has LOTS of ENGLISH books we can use and the children take out LOTS of books every week! (And because we homeschool we're entitled to take out extra books, yeah!) We're so blessed to have made friends with such wonderful people - they've opened their hearts, homes and lives to us and have helped us settle so easily. We're so grateful to the family who are lending their Sonlight books to us so that we can easily continue with the programme we were following (and our exciting studies of the Eastern Hemisphere!). We're also so thankful for our generous friends in Cyprus who have lent us their Singapore Math textbooks! We're set up and ready to go! Thank you Lord for your provision and setting our boundaries in pleasant places!

In the swing of things >>>

Wow! It’s September already! I must admit, it feels like we’ve been in South Africa for much longer than 6 months. A lot has happened in this very short period of time. I was thinking yesterday that by the time it is warm enough to put on a swimming costume and expose my lily-white skin to the sun again, it would be about 14-15 months since the last time we experienced summer in Cyprus. These 2 long winters we’ve had in the past 8 months have been cold and wet and snowy! Fortunately we have had some warm sunny days here and there in between the cold, which have kept us sane, with clean, dry clothes and outdoors!

All 3 of our boys are now playing football 3 or 4 times a week and loving the exercise and social interaction that creates. They have 2 fantastic coaches, British men who deal with the children in an amazing way. The whole focus is fun and inclusive, so very different to the competitive European football vibe!  The children mostly practice in one big group, a big mix of ages and sizes. Ryan is going to be playing goalie again this season. He only joined in May, which was near the end of the season and his team already had a good goalie. He played mid-field most of the time but he definitely loves playing goalie much more! And he’s a great little goalie! Ethan loves going to football. He isn’t over serious about it all, and the coaches are great at including him and encouraging him. He especially loves it when he gets to be referee as well! Jed just recently started playing too and the coaches so easily made him feel at home. He doesn’t appreciate the long distance warm-up runs, but he really enjoys the football skill practices and games. I’ve always loved it that Jed loves being active and isn’t scared to try most things! I’m not sure if he’ll get all serious about football and make it part of his week in the same way his brothers do, I do get the sense that he has other avenues to explore.

Aimee has made a couple of nice friends among our home schooling friends and in our homegroup. They are mostly girls older than her who love playing with her. She can often be seen walking around holding a hand and is included in every activity, even if she’s just ‘there’ and not actively participating, regardless of her age. Her vocab has increased hugely and she’s very expressive! She also ‘sings’ a lot when she talks, but we’re working on that! She has no problem making her thoughts and desires understood and I love listening to her. She loves the trampoline we’ve recently bought and spends a lot of time on there every day, dancing and jumping around. She also enjoys it when her brothers are on there with her – the giggles and shrieks of delight are wonderful to hear.

Dieter and I are forging ahead with our ‘academic’ activities with the children. The lull we’ve had in the business after the show has given us time to get back into the swing of things. We’ve been doing some exciting stuff: Aimee has started with numbers and today Ryan supervised while she cut out 4 houses from a newspaper and stuck them onto an A4 sheet with a big number 4 on it. We’ll add that to the number line that’s forming on her bedroom cupboard. She’s always listening to and participating when I do things with Ethan and is super-eager! Ethan has started counting in 10’s and also numbers up to 100 this week. Today he and Aimee played some snakes and ladders while I read to Ryan and Jed – and he had to fill in the numbers on the game that were missing. They had great fun! Ethan is also starting to read short words and we’re making great progress with our Jolly Phonics programme. Ryan and Jed are completing their exploration of the Eastern Hemisphere. They’ve just finished their unit on Mongolia and today we finished reading ‘House of 60 Fathers’ together. What a book! The story is about a little Chinese boy who is separated from his family and his journey to find them again during the Japanese invasion. I cried so much as I read the last 5 pages, it was such a moving story – and I’m sooo glad he found his family! We’re waiting for a convenient time, that suits our friends, to swop the books for whatever comes next. Ryan and Jed have been working on interpreting line-graphs and are starting angles later this week. I continue to marvel at how Singapore Math so simply introduces really difficult concepts!

Dieter and I are also working hard on getting our little business off the ground. Just this weekend we partnered with an e-store that sources and delivers fresh produce on the Garden Route. Within minutes of adding a few of our products to their site we had our first order! That was exciting! We’re hoping they’ll be able to add all our products soon and help us to sell our stock. We have also decided to put an advertisement in a family magazine that is given out in our region. Its free and paid for by advertising – and its brilliant! They’ve given us over 20% discount on our ad, so that was wonderful! The other thing we’ve done is book a stall at the upcoming Pink Tree Market. This market was started by 2 local ladies to help give local people an avenue to sell home-made creations of many kinds. Dieter is also very keen for us to sell some play-dough and some fresh custard desserts, so we bought the ingredients for the playdough today and will make a few colourful batches tomorrow. We’ve had a delivery or two to do every day we’ve delivered in the past 2 weeks and we know its going to get busier and busier.

That’s us in a nutshell for now … keep watching this space!

PS: Made a batch of our ‘Mediterranean Fish Pot’ yesterday, a tomato and onion based hake, dill and rice dish for toddlers. I am realllly missing my Kombares in Cyprus!!

A little peep into our life in George

Having a tea party on Oupa and Ouma's stoep!

Exploring the rocks with Oupa near Vleesbay

Overlooking the sea on a very windy day as we explore with Oupa

Hmmmm - a lekker braai!

Loving being outdoors and having fun!

Aimee and one of her new friends, Aleeyah, playing in the garden

The cool dude in his element!

Our first International Visitor - our Boet Mike!

Chilling out together with a book - love it!

Aimee was the first one to get a bike and she loves riding in the driveway!

Another visitor from faaaar away, Aunty Elsa and her dogs Dolla and Lady

Aimee and Ouma making a sheep together - so much fun!

Look at those naughty faces! The thrill of climbing over the wall to fetch a ball, so much fun!

Watering the garden with Ouma - a whole new concept!

Ryan and Ethan at their first ever tournament - happy players!

Soccer Moms! I'm so blessed with precious friends - a pic to treasure the moment together!

Kiddie Gourmet is born - one of our first samples.

Together at the Big Tree for a picnic with homeschooling friends

Some of our new and precious friends!

Ryan loving the workshop

Ethan hard at work

Aimee joins in too!

Jed concentrating hard and loving being in the workshop!

Happy Times - Always!

Ryan's grown so much and is a delightful young guy!

At Aunty Joke's birthday bash - a special memory with Oupa and Ouma

Aimee loved opening the gifts just as much as Aunty Joke!

The cool dudes!

Helped by her brothers, UncleCoen and Oupa, Aunty Ria really enjoyed her special day!

The sisters - Aunty Ria, Aunty Joke and Ouma .... precious memories!

Fun times with Jordan at Oubaai

A dream come true! Meeting up with my school friend Jeana after many, many years.

With Michelle in Port Alfred again after 7 years

Precious Aimee - creative and imaginative, each day is a delightful surprise!

Happy Chap, Ethan - living life to the full!

The Dudes - we're so blessed by our guys!

Our delightful brood!

Say 'Bunny Chow!' ... what an exciting experience for all of us. Love that our kids are so adventurous!

Mama Anthea in her element...... how she loved on us!

Lunch at the Butterworth Dam - Gourmet Bunny chows made with tons of love - we're spoiled!

Big Sis, Hlehle! Dynamite comes in beautiful packages!

Enjoying new friends at Christmas Rock

Having soooo much fun - and loving it!

Jed and Hle with little Lee .... precious times!

Nizibone in his element!

Aimee and Niz - special memories!

This pic says it all - two happy brothers who love, laugh and play together! Happy 11th Birthday guys!

Shjoe, we were speechless! What an awesome welcome home this was for us!!!

The little ones always play fun imaginative games together - don't they make great doctors?

Our fireman, all dressed and itching to put out a fire!

Focused!

Aimee in one of her colourful designs enjoying the new trampoline

.... and now time for a fresh salad!

Concentrating a tad, but having great fun - our gorgeous girl!

Celebrating Sylma's birthday with my precious homeschooling friends. What an amazing group of woman!

Ethan's birthday cake

A happy birthday boy celebrating with special friends

Ryan and Zian - buddies!

Enjoying some yummy snacks in the garden

Precious friends

Aren't they beautiful?????