Go-Kart A GoGo

Today is a public holiday and what better way to spend it than on servicing/upgrading the boys' Go-Kart.

First job was to replace the broken front axle, it was a bit of a swine to do given that it involved drilling right through the length of the wood, but the finished job looks and works a treat.

Next up I swapped the old crate seat for a scavenged school style seat which I'd seen on a building site whilst out walking Rosie.

Personally I'm really chuffed with how it's all turned out and the boys gave it their approval declaring it to be "cool".

Antlions

Some of you have been on safari and will have enjoyed looking at the Big 5, they are a truly spectacular group of animals.

What you may not know though, is that there is also a Little 5 of some equally amazing animals.

We have the Antlion or Lion Ant in our garden and as the drought intensifies so does their hunting activity.

The Gathering's New Year's Braai

It was a pleasure and a joy to be able to Gather as a church for a braai (BBQ) knowing that we're together just for the sake of it, free from the nonsense we had to endure last year.

We had so much fun (as you'll see in the pics below) and it was great to get to know each other a bit better. For Paula and I it was great to see Joel and Eli playing with Yanko, I think they finally realised that girls aren't gross.

It was a great way to kick off 2016.

Ghosts Of Christmas Past

Having posted a picture on Facebook of Joel topping off our Christmas tree with the angel we thought it might be fun to revisit the ceremony from years gone by.

Blessings!

I wasn't going to share this testimony but then I felt God speak to me on Sunday about not denying him, so here goes...

Almost two weeks ago we gave away one of our couches to some friends who were experiencing some difficulties. We had two couches and could survive on one so we were very happy to bless our friends. It was amusing when the boys got home from school and noticed the gap where the couch had been. Eli said in a sullen tone: "I suppose you gave it away.", we could see his little brain thinking about how much we could have sold it for.

Non-Return Valve

The non-return valve has been fitted. Hooray!

In fairness, once the municipality had been convinced that our sewage problem was of their making they acted well and reasonably swiftly to install the valve.

Hopefully this will be the end of sanitary products etc. winding up in our garden when the storm drains burst and flood the sewers.

The Best Start Ever...

2014 has been the best start to a year that I can ever remember.

That's not to say it's been perfect or without it's issues and problems, there have been plenty of those. No, it's been the best start ever because when I step back and look at the bigger picture so many amazing and wonderful things have happened that I feel incredibly blessed.

Granadilla Season

Eli has just counted our haul of granadilla's from the last few days and the tally stands at 145.

The dining room smells divine!

Anyone got any granadilla recipes?

Sewer Inspection

After a couple of false starts the man from the municipality finally came to inspect the sewer pipe and concluded that they need to install a non-return valve on the street-side of the property. Sadly due to the extensive damage done by the floods last year the emergency budget is exhausted so he could give me no idea of when they will get around to doing the work.

Still, we've had a man out to inspect it and that alone feels like progress. It only took two years of trying to get this issue sorted, and we've only got this far after getting in touch with our local Councillor who put us in touch with the right person at the municipality.

Blessing Jar

I'm not a journaling kind of person and keeping a diary of any kind is something I'm appallingly bad at, so when I came across the idea of a Blessing Jar late last year I thought it was a great idea and was determined to give it a go.

So here's how it works... each time you receive a blessing from God, no matter how big or small, no matter how important or trivial it may seem, you write it down and pop it into the blessing jar. Then at the end of the year you revisit the jar and the blessings it contains.

It really is that simple!

The joy of this is that there are so many blessings that you've completely forgotten about, and it is truly a joy to look back on the year and remember just how blessed you were.

Christmas Tree

The boys have spent the morning dressing the Christmas tree, which is the only thing Joel has any intention of dressing today! Eli got to top the tree off with the angel and all in all it's looking good.

Our eldest niece is on her way to the airport as she begins her marathon flight with Turkish Airlines out to join us for Christmas and we're all excited to see her again.

Let the festivities begin!

8th Birthday Party

What a fun afternoon we had celebrating Eli's 8th birthday.

It was all very noisy and very messy. Everything an eighth birthday party should be.

Hopefully all the kids have gone home exhausted because we certainly are!

Eli can't wait to celebrate his actual birthday on the 21st now.

Spotted Dikkop

Felt really pleased to spot a pair of Spotted Dikkop on the vacant plot immediately behind our house. It looks like they might be nesting there which is pretty cool.

These are quite common in the South Africa but it's the first time I've seen them so close to home.

I'm guessing a bit of derelict ground like this is perfect for it as it seeks out lizards and other small creatures to eat. Especially as the water table is saturated after the floods, which has driven many small creatures up to the surface.

Been & Gone

We can't quite believe that after months of planning and preparing for our UK trip it's now over and we've been back home for a couple of weeks. Life is now back into its usual cycle of school runs etc. but we'll attempt to put a coherent reflection together.

We really did hit the ground running and by the end of the first week we were exhausted but absolutely thrilled with what we'd achieved.

Scary Thought

Here's a scary thought...one month from today we'll be boarding a plane for our UK trip.

It's not that the UK is scary, though watching Sky News we're often left feeling like strangers in a land that once was home. The scary bit is just how much work we've got to do before we board that plane.

A Quiet Morning With Man Tools

When mum and Joel decided that they were going to go and see The Hobbit at the cinema we asked Eli what he would really like to spend the morning doing.  With no hesitation he answered that he would like to make something!

So dad and Eli spent the morning going to the salvage yard, buying some wood for R5, coming home and getting out the hammers, nails and power tools - heaven for Eli!  He quickly decided that he was going to make a table and chairs for his two Build a Bears formerly known as Ron and Jackie after some lovely friends of ours in the UK and now (apparently) known as Ron and Harry seeing as one of them is ginger - therefore Ron Weasley - and the other must therefore be HP himself!!

In The Spirit Of Benny Hill

Late this afternoon we were playing about in the garage and used Paula's camera to record some unicycling. We put it on 'Miniature Effect' mode and this was the result. all that was needed was some classic music!

So here you have it, in the spirit of Benny Hill, less the sauce!

Moonsquirters

Percy Thrower I am not so where Eli gets his desire for a bit of gardening is a mystery but one that shall be capitalised upon.

A while back he asked if he could grow some tomatoes and somehow he managed to sweet-talk mummy into taking him shopping for seeds etc.

That was a couple of months ago and today Eli has eleven very healthy looking tomato plants which he actually grew from seed.

So this afternoon he was über excited to see that one of his plants has two small green tomatoes on it. Bless him, he had no idea what they were because they were so small and green, apparently "they don't look like the ones in the packets".

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - R

R is for Rosie

Our ever faithful guard dog and friend, she's half Rhodesian Ridgeback, half Border Collie, the latter part making her a very busy dog but she is beautiful!

She was named by Joel though he has no idea why he chose the name or where it came from.

On The Stoep

As summer finally heats up we're able to spend more and more time out on the stoep in the early evening and it makes such a refreshing change from wasting time in front of the telly.

It's a real privilege on the evenings when the southeaster isn't blowing to sip a chilled glass of vino and enjoy dinner alfresco, especially when the Hotties mountains are illuminated so beautifully by the sunset.

It's a great way to relax after a busy day!