Chocolate chip cookies (part 2)

Due to a somewhat "over busy" weekend, Ellen only did her

Family / Consumer Sciences lab today.

Wanting to be a little different, she opted for chocolate chip fingers.

Again I was amazed at how quick, efficient and neatly Ellen worked.

The verdict........ absolutely delicious.

Yes, we again had a cookie monster, this time the "stealing" finger belongs to Marina who found her sister's choc chip fingers hard to resist.

I definitely see more free time in my future....... and of course even more baked goodies :)

I so love my 3 daughters :) Feel more blessed than I could ever deserve to be.

Chocolate chip cookies

One of the subjects in Ellen & Marina's curriculum this year is Family / Consumer Sciences.

This is a lot like to old Home Economics (Huishoudkunde) that is no longer available at many of the schools. We had our first lab work this weekend, this was more of a test to me than them :)

A bit of background for those who don't know me to well. I love my kitchen - when I stress I bake / cook, when I'm happy I bake / cook, when I miss my family in South Africa I make their favourites as if that would bring them closer. I love traditional food like melktert, bobotie and hot puddings like malva pudding and roly poly.

Although the girls have helped with pasta dishes in the past, the baking part has been pretty much a "mommy" zone only - they are the experts on icing, especially cupcakes for bake sales :)

So for their lab, the twins had to bake chocolate chip cookies - unassisted, NO interference !!!

Marina was first and I had to hang my head in shame :(

She was neat, organised and followed the recipe and instructions carefully.

When Samuel sneaked into the kitchen, she took time to explain to him that the area close to the oven was a "no go" zone.

Her cookies were so delicious, I was lucky to have the remaining 6 for a photo.

I felt so ashamed for not having giving them an opportunity earlier to be more active in the kitchen :(

Tomorrow is Ellen's turn, so I'll be posting about chocolate chip cookies again.

I took this photo of Samuel, our little cookie monster, between the cookie photos. The 1st photo had 6 cookies and as I wanted to take a 2nd one, Samuel's little hand came into the frame & "stole" a cookie! Unfortunately his hand was faster than my camera setting, so no action shot there :)

Yvonne is enrolled for this course in the second part of the year.

I'm looking forward to actively sharing my entire kitchen with the girls !! :)

Father's Day

George: "Sitting here, I feel like the richest man ever :)

Being surrounded by our children, reminds me

of how blessed I am."

This being Samuel's 1st Father's Day with us, made it extra special.

And although George was worried about being an "older" Dad,

Samuel sure didn't care about age!

Then there is Oupa (my Dad),

always on hand when we need a helping hand;

the best project manager (ever!!!) on any building project;

a loving Oupa.

We also remember the Dads / Oupas whose photos are not on this post.

We remember their unconditional love.

We continue to miss them.

We are deeply grateful to our Heavenly Father for our fathers.

11 Months ago

I can hardly believe that "Charlie" has been "Samuel" for 11 months already.

On the one hand it feels as if all this happened just the other day,

on the other hand it feels as if he had been with us forever.

It is hard to imagine what our lives would have been without him.

He is so funny, he makes us laugh and brightens our days

as he copies even the smallest things we do.

He has discovered his Daddy's shoes.

He realises that if he wears both, he struggles to walk.

Therefor he opts for maximum mobility and 1 shoe at a time.

I love the way he puts away his shoes.

He saw George putting away his shoes one evening and

the next day when I took of his shoes,

he promptly opened Daddy's cupboard and placed his shoes inside Daddy's.

What an awezim wonder to see these little shoes resting in bigger ones :)

He loves the Masimo music men from Ghana.

His favourites are definitely the piano man and the "guitar" player.

He very carefully selects his "man of the moment" each day

and places it on the floor in front of him to share in playing the instrument.

I love the way he carefully handles the music men :)

We love the way he delicately eats a chocolate sweet.

This one was the last of his Easter collection (which was a huge box!)

from his Sunshine Gretch :)

We love the way he just "works his magic" as he meets new family members.
This was the first time he met Francois, my cousin's husband,
and as Francois got comfortable, so did Samuel.

We love the way he thinks he can be naughty when he thinks he's alone.
I was busy in the kitchen and heard the television go on.
Knowing that Samuel was the only one in the TV room just off the kitchen,
I peeked in with the camera ready.
Must say this was more than I bargained for.......
needless to say, the table was moved yet again -
it was moved there in the first place to keep him from unpacking the DVDs !


We love the way he loves us - what an awezim privilege to be his forever family.

Twins DIY project

When we re-started home schooling, the girls wanted to unpack more of their books.

It took us a while to find a suitable bookshelf for Yvonne's room, she loves anything antique / old. Unfortunately she still wasn't able to unpack all her books. This girl LOVES her reading :)

The twins decided that they wanted something different, more "funky", with more shelf space in their room. After some discussion, a decision was made on materials needed and I set off trying to find 4 shelves and about 20 bricks..........yes, I know not your normal requirements and an odd request to any Mica (hardware store) clerk.

In the end we were blessed with all our materials and it only cost us our paint :)

The 4 shelves came from the girls' ICDL teacher - I asked her husband if he knew where I could buy shelves, he said "I've got 4 in a storeroom and will be glad to be rid of them."

Last week whilst the girls were attending their ICDL class, Samuel & I went searching for 20 bricks - quite a task as all the suppliers I approached wanted me to buy hundreds. However on one of the back roads on my way to a quarry, a lady stopped me and asked if I was OK since I was crawling along in a vehicle with a South African number plate. After establishing that I was looking for the sales office, she introduced herself as one of the owners, said she had some surplus red bricks after having completed a small building project and promptly had the workers load 20 bricks free of charge :)

Ellen & Marina painted the shelves & bricks and I think overall their project had been a huge success. George is not really a DIY enthusiast so he was very impressed with his girls :)

My Dad however is a very hands on person, he does beautiful woodwork, and these photos are mainly for him. Oupa, we wish you were closer :)

Yes, despite the books being shelved there still isn't enough room for all the puzzle building and beads around the table - which by the way is an 8 seater dining room table :)

Awezim - Festival of Life

June started on a high with the Festival of Life Conference, presented by Joyce Meyer Ministries. This consisted of 2 morning sessions and 3 evening sessions.

As this is Harare, Zimbabwe with broad streets and very few traffic problems (major problems mainly due to traffic lights not working), the girls and I left home at about 7:15am on Friday 4 June to attend the morning conference, starting at 8am.

I thought this would give us more than enough time to get to the venue, collect our conference material and leisurely page through our material prior to the start of worship by Darlene Zschech.

BUT ...............

I did not take into account how God would move over this beautiful country to bring thousands of people from all over to attend the conference.

We sat in bumper to bumper traffic - yes, traffic was similar to Ghana traffic on a Farmer's Day weekend!! :) - for just over 2 hours!!

There is so much I can say about the weekend, sharing it with the girls had been so special :)

The worship was amazing, hearing thousands raise their voices in worship ......... difficult to describe.

The messages from not only Joyce Meyer but also the other Pastors on the team were powerful.

Each delegate was blessed with 3 Joyce Meyer books.

People came from all over, united in their faith - standing in the gap during trying times. Friday night approx 100,000; Saturday night saw about 200,000 coming together and Sunday night more than 210,000. Plus the events were televised!!!

Please visit the Joyce Meyer Ministries site: http://www.joycemeyer.org/OurMinistries/HandofHope/News/zimbabwe/.htm

Heavenly Father, Thank you

- for people who have a passion and a heart for others in need, not only providing for spiritual needs but also meeting basic food & medical needs;

- for all the role players who worked together in bringing this outreach to Zimbabwe;

- for the renewed Fire burning across Zimbabwe as people testify to the change You brought in their lives;

- for hope, joy, life through Your Son.

Amen

Surprise @ the end of May

George had a 2 day conference at the end of May and decided to spoil the rest of us with a short holiday in South Africa.

Samuel, always ready to travel

We flew down to surprise my parents for their 50th wedding anniversary and my Mom's birthday 2 days later. As we did not warn my parents of the upcoming visit, it took my Mom quite a while to realise that the little boy shaking the gate wanted in......

Ouma, Samuel & me at Victoria Falls Hotel, last year August

Oupa & Samuel building puzzles, last year August

Oupa and Ouma we love you lots and already miss you.