A bye-pie

Caleb has had a few loose teeth for several weeks (being 10, they're dropping out fast).  Yesterday morning a molar came out which he presented to me topped with a piece of oats from breakfast and gum mush on the other side.  Ugh!  I sent him off to clean it - he came back with it brushed!  This morning he lost another one during breakfast - I'm pleased to say that it was clean (just still wet).  Which reminds me, the Tooth Momster had better get some coins out!  Andreas and Danielle called in last night for a guitar lesson; they've been touring bits of the SI with Andreas' brother, so we haven't seen them in ages either.  D and I had a great chat in the lounge while the men made some good noises in the diningroom.
Had Grant and Erinmarie around to tea this evening - Erin leaves tomorrow morning early for the voyage west to SA; Petru, Dannica, Jayden and Dinnay left last week already.  Made a chicken pie with a note to Erin on top:

Rosy weekend

Tea with the Gregorys last night - it's been so long since we've really hung out; excellent to touch base again.  Obviously I was so excited about getting there that the camera got left at home.  Ate tea of tortillas on the balcony which overlooks a fairly main road; gorgeous sitting out there with the sunset in our faces - until it got just a little too chilly.   Today was a busy day and really so special - our dear Jeremiah was baptised!  (I don't mean 'our' in the biological sense...he's just become such an integrated part of our fellowship).  He particularly wanted Grant to do the deed - Nick had the whole day off today as Grant preached in the morning and we had a visiting guest in the evening by way of Austin Walker from the UK.  Both services were excellent and although we all love Nick's ministry it's also good to have a small amount of variety occasionally :) 

It was another stunner of a day, so we took a picnic lunch to Caroline Bay where the annual Festival of Roses was underway.  Liz had a craft stall in a huge marquee and was demonstrating a paper topiary creation among other things - I am already now in the process of making one and will post the result when it's done.  Rene was part of the live entertainment (and by far the best act).  Saw several familiar faces in the throngs - the advantage of small-town living!

After the pm church service we popped over to the Gregorys again as Nick needed to drop off the sermon-recording-device; got an invite for fish and chips (who could resist) so had tea with them a second night in a row.

And...I played my violin in church for the first time today.  A little premature perhaps but I was getting to the point of needing to overcome my fear of playing in public and just get on with it.  I wasn't appallingly bad but certainly there were no sweet notes issuing forth - I don't think it was a distraction either way!  Thankfully Grant was on piano and pretty much drowned me out anyway - I had asked him to play loudly :)  Had heaps of much-needed encouragement after the services.

Outdoorsy

Another of those fabulous heat-wave days, with the temperature up to 25 (gasp).  I actually felt hot for the first time in ages.  Nick and the boys put the (huge) tent up again, and with the weather being so mild, we let them sleep in it.  They had a great evening!  It was still light at 8.45 pm so I guess they didn't get to sleep too early, but they came back indoors in high spirits this morning and not too early (I was anticipating 6 am early birds as the day has started by then). 

I, on the other hand, was awake and ready for the day at 6, so got up and started doing stuff.  I had the linen cupboard to sort through as it's become an embarrassing jumble.  Also needed to do the church bulletin and get Aaron to his ukulele concert practice; this time it all flowed along quite smoothly and his teacher is feeling more confident about next Saturday.  There are five ukuleles in Aaron's group, then another three or four younger ones, and then two groups of recorders with about seven more kids in total.  That's a big group to co-ordinate!  Came home, had lunch, played the violin, then had a worship practice at the church.  Nick is out chopping wood today, working on a huge old bluegum which was felled some time ago and which will soon be too dry and hard to cut if they don't get to it soon.  I expect him to arrive home exhausted! 

Kidnapped mobile

The boys...while I was practicing (I think I hear terribly awful strains of Pachelbel in the background), they got hold of my phone and left me a video clip.  Love these guys!

Stage frightless

While some children find themselves too nervous to perform at their first musical recital, Caleb was totally relaxed about his violin concert - perhaps a little too blase about the whole affair, but what a blessing to not suffer from stage fright. He and two girls played two pieces with a piano accompaniment. It was interesting to see the different levels of accomplishment and ability from all the different pupils on brass and strings - Caleb is no virtuoso but also definitely not at the bottom of the pool.

MRBC goes hi-tech

Introducing...Marchwiel Reformed Baptist Church's new blogsite!  Thanks to Andreas for putting this together, and Graham for helping with the recordings, we now have Nick's audio sermons being published each week.  It's still a bit of a work in progress, but it's a grand start which we pray will be used as a ministry tool for many people around the globe. 

Bright sunshiney days

Caleb: "Mom, can I have a bite of the skin of the kiwi fruit?"
Me: "Why would you want to do that?"
Caleb: "It's delicious".
Me: "That's gross, it's all hairy, but okay then".
Caleb: "A peach is hairy too - you just have to move your lips out the way," ... proceeding to eat most of the skin, having emptied out the rest with the spife (or knoon). 
Seriously?  Eeuw! 
This from the same boy who suggested saddles for Grampa's eyebrows.

The boys participated in school athletics yesterday (I arrived after work, after they had both finished competing in all their events).  Caleb was disappointed to finish just out of placeable range (ie third when first and second went to finals, or second when only first went through) in most of his events.  Aaron just had fun doing it.  I had a marvellously quiet morning in the school office, being the solitary person there for most of the morning!  Bliss. We hired Cars 2 to watch together in the evening over pizzas, coke and garlic bread, with mousse chocolate for pudding.  Friday Family Fun :)

Today Aaron had an hour-and-a-half concert practice for his ukulele concert coming up in two weeks.  His group does pretty well although they seem to constantly want to race ahead of the beat.  Yours truly has been roped into beating a bongo drum to help them keep time!  Caleb's violin concert is this coming Wednesday but as his class is only performing two songs, the practices are a lot shorter and less complicated. 

 

We've had a run of beautifully sunny days lately, although they're not particularly warm.  There's still snow on the mountains and the southerly breezes are chilly.  Nonetheless, we went out after tea to PaknSave to buy Magnum ice-creams (hokey pokey and vanilla) which we took to the docks to eat (that sounded like a very St Helena-ry thing to do just there!); Nick and stayed in the warm car and the boys braved the outdoors.  The days are so wonderfully long already and still getting longer - sunrise is now at 5.56 am and sunset is at 8.46 pm.  The boys are not too keen on going to bed while the sun is still shining, but dark blue curtains sure do help.

Fiddle-dee-dee

Ooops, 11 days since my last post!  Life has been pretty busy but in a mundane, non-bloggable way.  I've been engrossed in converting my craft room into a permanent guest room, anticipating the arrival not only of my cousin and her beloved in December and my dear parents in January, but just general hospitality options - it's so much more fun to host people when you have a ready-made bed available!  We were blessed with the gift of a queen bed before we even started praying about it - along with a single bunk bed / couch / desk combination which has found a home in Nick's study/studio.  Time for some clearing out and sorting and organizing in my craft room - at the time of writing it looks a frightful mess as I've started wading through bits of hoarded paper and collected scraps, but it got to a point of usability before the heavy sorting began.  I've gone with a white/beige/apple/red combination and really had fun choosing the linen (yay for Briscoes and their endless sales, along with the Warehouse where everyone gets...).

Along with the room business I've been violin trading - I've switched now from 3/4 to 4/4 and found a cheapie on TradeMe which needed some work.  Actually I found two cheapies, as Grant has decided to take it up as well - back to TradeMe for a variety of accessories:  bow, fine turners, bridge, strings, shoulder rest...I've never known an instrument to be such a financial black hole with so many extra bits being necessary for a good sound!  Spent a lot of time polishing the wood, polishing and brasso-ing the beautiful antique (ie really old and somewhat shabby) black cases and so on, but in the end we have two good instruments for two beginners.

  

Deere John

Nick's birthday present arrived via courier this morning - some good work boots which are meant to last for years and years.  They're pretty solid!

Scrabbling

The boys have discovered Scrabble.  They pulled it out of the games cupboard and wanted to know how to play it.  Mrs Competitive Me played and helped them, explaining the rules and giving them tips and the dictionary, but still managed to keep my score well above theirs :)  On Sunday after church and the monthly fellowship lunch Jayden came home with us and after mucking around outside, the three of them sat down to a game.  So here it is - a boy game.  Let's hope the words are more sophisticated when they play with their grandparents (mom and dad - fair warning - these boys will give you a run for your money!)

Mice away, the cats will play

Wednesday - Friday:  With the boys being away on school camp, Nick and I found ourselves leading very different lives!  Work at school was bliss with the 'left-overs' going out on field trips on Wednesday and Friday, so the school was quiet and there were almost no interruptions - got heaps of work done including filing :)  And do you know, there will ALWAYS be parents who just don't read their notices properly and do the very things they are asked not to do.  Would you believe that one parent actually tucked lollies away in her children's suitcases, completely disregarding the big bold paragraph stating "no lollies or electronic devices may be brought to camp"?  Imagine my utter mortification when I had a text from the principal on Thursday morning - "Fancy smuggling a banned sugary substance in2 camp via ur kids' bags Mrs Clevely".  Only then did I read the rest of the notice properly (I'd folded it in half and only had the 'what to bring' section visible) - my secret plan for being a cool mom and surprising her kids with treats severely backfired :)

So Wednesday night Nick and I had KFC for tea; on Thursday we were treated to an amazing meal at Benny's Again, thanks to friends who gave us a voucher for our birthdays.  Fried battered Camembert cubes with a warm plum sauce for starters; freshly batted Sole and chips and salad for me and a huge platter of cholesterol for Nick via steak, bacon, eggs, sausage and chips.  It was a great evening out.

 Friday we were very happy to see the boys again at 5 pm when the bus came rolling in - I think there were very many tired and happy children and many parents relieved to have their lambs safely folded away in the home paddocks. The boys had a marvellous time on camp with many interesting tales to tell including milking sheep - well done and thanks to Mr Phillips for the majority of the organization, and the staff and teachers who accompanied the kids. 

My lollipops

Time for a visit to barber-mom for Caleb - his long blonde hair is lovely when it's clean and brushed, but not so hot the next day!  I took a lot off and by the looks of it, all the sunbleached blonde as well - he's not a Schalk Burger lookalike anymore :)