Another blessed, filled weekend.

Last Friday was our last day of school. Tammy's family came out to the farm for a last day celebration. Here they are rubbing on sunschreen before going up the koppie.


Tammy's Ouma and Mommy Alta.

Tammy on top of the koppie - I'm so proud of her - my one and only homeschool learner. Read more about her and this outing here.


Hendrik really did us proud by leading everyone around the paddock on Klasie. He always does that so willingly and graciously - ek sal jou hou Hendrik!

What are Thelwyn and Martelize doing on the koppie and why is Martelize looking so disgruntled? This is a story for a post on its own and has something to do with a post a while ago which said "Watch this space." Those white planks took up most of our time on Saturday, but more about that later.... (Does the material of Martelize's dress seem a little outdated? It was Thelwyn's dress lovingly made by me... )

On Sunday Hendrik brought Marietjie to meet us.

We had a great time and we hope she did too.

Stable time was again Martelize and Ouma time. No ponytail today -te woelig Ouma!

Have horse will ride... or love me, love my horse... something like that. Marietjie getting her first riding lesson.

Back at work!

I started homeschooling Tamerin again this week. I thoroughly enjoyed it. She is such a blessing. I blogged about her first two days: it is actually amazing how much work we have accomplished already!

Jan has been suffering from anaemia for months. Iron pills have not helped, but recent tests show that the iron shots he's had in December have actually helped. (He has also been taking cayenne pepper capsules to stop bleeding. Are they the reason the iron is absorbed all of a sudden?) Anyway, we are really grateful that he does not have to go for drips in the hospital as was envisaged last year. However, he has to go for another round of shots. Ouch!

He has had quite a lot of physical activity this week. Hendrik has to move to another room in his commune and all his furniture has to come home. So Jan has been helping him every evening to load a cupboard/ a bed/ a table/ onto the bakkie. On top of this, our washing machine packed up and it had to be hauled out of the laundry, down three stairs and onto the bakkie and after it had been fixed, the processed had to be reversed again!

Today Jan helped with a community project to get rid of the "pom-pom" weed, growing next to the road. It was a massive job and not so funny in this heat! (Guess who did not want to use sunblock and guess who now has a red neck and face!) After returning at about 15:00 he started to water the garden and then he put up a shelve in the laundry. I'll keep him! Thank you Jesus for such a husband!

A tired Jan in front of my shelve. (10 guesses which rugby team we support...!)

I was also quite physically active this week. On Thursday I swam 86 x 20 m (1.7 km or a little more than a mile) in the gym pool. I have trained only once since swimming my 5th Midmar in 2007. (I did not train at all last year due to my mother. At least that was my excuse, I guess I could have made a plan to train and swim the Midmar if I had really wanted to! ) But now, I'd really like to swim it again, because I'm afraid that if I do not do it this year, I may never do it again. On Thursday I just wanted to see if I could still swim a mile and I managed reasonably well. I got a stitch in my side after 400 m, but it passed and the rest was not too bad. However, when I got out, I was too exhausted to shower - it took all my effort just to get dressed!

On Friday Tamerin and I did ten minute sessions on the cycles and on the rowing machines. When we lay on the mats to do abs exercises, I felt the beginning of a muscle spasm and my knees hurt a bit. Now I am afraid: did I hurt myself by swimming a mile without any recent training? Should I train again in the next three weeks or should I just spare myself and hope for the best? How much can anyone train in just three weeks anyway?

I fetched Franco and took him home on Friday. Unfortunately I left my camera in the car, so now there are no photos of Franco this week! I'm sorry I was too lazy to go and fetch it, because he looked so cute in his red jumpsuit. He has 4 teeth now! He says "words" that he did not say a week ago. Then it was only baby sounds, but now he says over and over "ky da" (At least that's what it sounds like to me! (Not pappa/ mamma/ ouma!) He is 8 months and three weeks. Will try to take a video clip next time I see him.

The H's went to a endurance ride this morning - not to ride but to be time keepers. They were pretty tired when they arrived here, but Martelize was full of beans. She tried her level best to crawl: she can pull her knees up under her bum, but her arms do not co-operate yet. Her favourite toy is now a soft ball and she was very interested in the texture of the upholstery. She is 5 1/2 months old.

Martelize and her ball.

Tammy at Inkululeko

On Friday the international monument of the Unknown Child was unveiled at Inkululeko, the nursery school in Salvokop, where I was the principal for its first 7 years. Tammy and I attended the ceremony. The monument is a large stone - a similar stone will be sent to Holland where there is a circle of 36 stones representing monuments for the unknown child in various countries. Around the rock there are exhibition walls and seats where people can sit and reflect on the rights and plights of all children - on their way to Freedom Park on top of the hill in Salvokop.