E - Vida

"You just get to the point when you realise that even if you were to drive straight to Boston Logan and board a direct flight, you wouldn't get to Cape Town in time for Christmas." Once I reached that point this week, I exhaled a little.  The look of Christmas time may be changing for us but the meaning remains the same. And as I dust those hard-to-reach-so-just-ignored places, put on the holiday playlist, light some candles and set the table for lunch, I'll have a lump in my throat - no doubt. But I resolve to have a more thoughtful Christmas -  to smile more and yell less,  to put aside for someone needy and be a gracious hostess,  to think about Jesus - the real gift worth giving  and make that the focus of a life worth living  Merry Christmas!  (Christmas Doodles found throughout the house, by Ethan.)

Thinking back over the last 3 months... Five places visited: 1. Stonewall Farm in Keene - by accident - but found goats, muddy nature walks and a park 2. Riverview Farm to check out the corn maze, pumpkins and apple orchard     3. Leede Arena where Jorja attended a basketball clinic run by Dartmouth University                                                        Credit: mpn-arch.com 4. Shaker Museum Fair with horse-drawn carts, candle-making, butter churning and more!   5. Sharon Rest Stop to see the Eco-Machine and first Vietnam Memorial On repeat in our car: Frozen Movie soundtrack Favourite pass time then (Autumn): Playing the  game of Ga-ga   any place we can find the space Quite a nuisance then (Autumn): Neighbours' leaf blowing tactics... Would be nice to have: Haircuts and a few more hours of sunshine Favourite pass time now (Winter): Sledding - even if it results in wipe-outs and frosty bum cheeks Quite a nuisance now

Wet-wipes, water, tissues and chocolate. The base of any good tote bag. Or mom bag. Or even sister storytelling survival kit! We are at the clinic today. There will be injections. And the kids don't know...yet.  I've come as prepared as I can be and I hope it counts.  My family always seems to be the the loudest presence in an entire superstore. SUPERstore - the bigger one. How is that? So can you just imagine how many decibels they may muster up at this visit? I'm not deluding myself...it may get pretty loud! ... We survived! And I'm proud to say that the water, chocolates and tissues did NOT go to waste. Tissues to wipe away tears, chocolate to soothe upset and water to wash it all down at the end.

And just like that, the Summer holiday is over. After we had labelled stationery and packed the bags, gone to the dentist and found matching socks, I needed a loooooong nap - almost as long as my self-inflicted To Do list... The waiting has just a few more hours to last and then we'll be off to our first day of school! I feel nervous. Very nervous. While attending school is not new to these three, joining classes on this side of the world, will be. For starters, I even had to google some of the items on the supply list! In all of the (combined) time that we've spent here, we've never done this . So there are questions and unknowns and a few insecurities. To our relief, there are just two days of school before the weekend...so anything that we've misunderstood, we can hopefully fix before the new week! I feel grateful. Very grateful. I drove past the school a few times in last year. And then I said out loud, "If we make it back here, I'd like our children

Some lessons from our first 3 months (back) in Vermont, in no particular order: It's Summer and there is the occasional thunderstorm. Maybe I forgot what heavy rain looked like, after the drought in Cape Town, but they sure do supersize them raindrops here in the States! In the end, we're left with puddles and mud. Now if you have or know anyone between the ages of 2 - 4 years, you'll know that "when you jump in muddy puddles, you must wear your ....boots!" Adrienne is very good about wearing her boots - any day, to anywhere, in any weather. Poor feet! But she is especially good about burying her hands in wet mud and dry sand. And she can do it for ages without feeling fussed and without having that short attention span, like kids do with almost everything else! I used to have to turn away so that it wouldn't affect me. I've learnt: Let them play in the dirt. We have soap. I'm the one with the lists. I'm the one who will say, "I can

Dear Jorja, You are now 10 years old.  Double digits   , as the Grannies would emphasise when I was younger. Just days old So, what does this mean? Well, it means you've been given the gift of life for 10 years already! Some have gone by in a blur and others have stuck in your mind for longer.  Don't take any one of those days for granted. It means that you are growing up - learning more and knowing more. And hopefully using that knowledge to make wise decisions. Now, when asked to choose between knowledge or wisdom, always choose wisdom!   It means that you have reason to celebrate; who you are, where you've been and what you've done. You often choose the path less travelled and don't seem to feel alone on the journey. You are braver than you know . It means that you don't have to change who you are, to be loved . Jorja Sarah, 10 years old We love watching you paint and craft, bake and dance, snuggle up with a book and ride your bike

Back on the blog Back in the States Back to School Back so sore from sleeping on different beds around Cape Town and carrying heavy kids and bags around airports... We are, indeed, happy to be back! Not much can be done about the untold stories of the last 5 months... I mean, yes, I'm disappointed that we didn't capture them here. But many of you were apart of our lives quite closely during this time. You saw most if it - the good, the great, the birth days, camp life and braais. See how I only highlighted the good stuff? Like a real social media con artist. Then there was also the loss, the inconvenience, the distraction, the goodbyes. What a rollercoaster. Now that we're further apart again, I hope to post regularly about what's happening in our lives. And it will be real - don't you worry. I'm watching a lady hurry over the grass to her mailbox. Looks like she's expecting something lekker! Chat soon x

I love that in a complete co-incidence, my children received their first South African library cards on World Read Aloud Day!  We've been trying all week to get it sorted - proof of this, copy of that, get the opening hours right and and and ...Eeeee-ven-tually it all came together and just in time on this day too. Reading with the children is a necessary and valuable sacrifice: totally worth it even though it's not always a perfect fit in a dog-tired day. Our kids have been fortunate - introduced to books from a young age in the form of gifts and while following the Ambleside Curriculum. Education properly understood is not merely the assimilation of data and technique; it is the mind feeding on ideas given expression in God’s creation, great art, beautiful music, and “living books.” Real learning occurs when students engage with novelists, poets, philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, artists, musicians, historians and explorers; when they wonder, and as

It is almost a distant memory...but some parts are particularly vivid! Like, I can still hear Baby shouting as we hauled the Christmas tree out the back door and packed the decorations away. "It must stay up! It must stay up!" she wailed. But, what we lost in the festive look of the lounge, we gained in the form of a packing conveyor belt. Once our dinner guests had left on the Sunday night, we were all stations go on the final pack. Goodbye Tree!  On Monday morning we hit the road to New York. Our 5 plus SIL, her son and Ma. Excitement levels, barakat levels and petrol levels were well high. We only started to panic a little when our GPS decided to take us on a route that would  avoid all highways  and we travelled through what we called "Little Italy" because of the narrow, cobblestone, windy roads. Fortunately, we rectified this setting before dark but by then our best laid plans of seeing the City by daylight had past. Instead we saw an (almost) pitch b

Once the last of the trifle leftovers were cleaned away, we took a few days to lay low and..  Read(ing): Santa Paws by Nicholas Edwards. It is a Christmas time book but the kids are engrossed - ah, the luxury/value/sacrifice of reading at bedtime! Watched: Mamma Mia 2 with all the family -  singalong songs and all. Not as great as the first one, in my opinion, I mean... Meryl Streep. But watching DH cringe with musical theatre misery and yet he still volunteered it (and didn't complain) for the sake of our movie night memories, made us all very glad.   Following: Kiara Mun-Gavin's miraculous story. A car and bike accident on Christmas Eve, devastating injuries and this young girl's fight. You can read it here  https://m.facebook.com/jacimungavin1/ Visited: Bradford on Sunday and enjoyed seeing a lot more snow up North. Tasty lunch followed by homemade dessert pies, family board games all set in a toasty log cabin filled my cup to overflowing...plus, the drive home was just