Kiwi Dani

I had the privilege today of accompanying Danielle to her NZ Citizenship ceremony.  All very interesting to observe, and a very solemn occasion.  Afterwards she and I got a photo of ourselves with the mayor - but just our feet, because...well, those shoes!

Terrific Teens

Happy 13th birthday to my baby! I am now the mother of two teenage boys...should I be worried?  We took two friends, John and Paul, to Inflatable World in Christchurch...fun and tiring. Coke floats to cool them down for the drive home.

Social Sunday

On a sunny Sunday afternoon between services - what a blessing to gather with our church family.  Locations vary week to week and the fellowship is oh so sweet!

Vintage with Viv

My second shoot with the marvellous Vivienne Laursen.  This was a collaboration of efforts - I made the dress and Viv made the hairpiece.  The photoshoot idea morphed from several conversations and a few independent ideas and bits of inspiration. 

Save the Day!

Yay for the first day of daylight savings yesterday! We look forward to this day all winter - when suddenly the days seem to go on so much longer and summer is so close. To celebrate we went for ice creams but it was too cold to walk to the bay so we endured the sticky tables and chill-factor air conditioning at BK instead.

Not so green

Did I mention that the boys have been doing Taekwondo?  They've been at it long enough to have earned yellow belts, and tonight they did their green tab grading.  Very interesting to watch!

Keeping sew busy

I'm not sure if this was a bribe, punishment, or party, but Aaron sewed himself a top.  It's always good to be multiskilled :D

And such a cute model...

Post-operative

After several anxious hours, dad and I headed back to the hospital when we'd had the phonecall to say it was done.  The surgeon came out and showed us the photo he had taken of the tumour - I think he was quite surprised himself!  It was roughly the shape and weight of a medium-sized apple - imagine having one of those living INSIDE your heart!!  My poor mom had been dragging this thing around with her.  Over these last two weeks, I've been back and forth to the hospital with my dad twice daily...unfortunately ICU visits are quite limited and mum has been in and out of sleep.  Glad to have been on hand though for foot rubs (hers, not mine), hand holding, hair brushing, and moral support for dad.  Actually we were mutual supports - some days we'd leave the hospital with dad in tears, other days I wasn't keeping it together so well - but never both of us at the same time!

In between visits, I had a grand time visiting with family and a few friends.  It was a blessing, despite my mum's suffering, to be back in my homeland amongst 'my people'.  

I got to see Nick's family too - and met the littlest nephew, Logan, for the first time!

Sadly, by the time I left my mum was still in hospital, but since writing this blog she has been discharged and is making slow progress from the comfort of home.  So thankful to the Lord for this opportunity to visit!

Hearty prayers answered

A week or two ago, my dear mum was diagnosed with having a tumour in her heart.  Surgery was scheduled rapidly, and I was wonderfully and generously sponsored to fly back to South Africa to visit. I asked the travel agent to get me on the earliest flight, as I desperately wanted to see my mom before she went in for the huge open-heart surgery.  We prayed for a miracle!
The surgery was scheduled for 7 am Saturday morning and my plane was supposed to land at 6.55 am. Well, the Lord graciously sped the Boeing along and we came in a few minutes early and since we had asked for my luggage to be prioritised I got out quickly.  Alan, Kate, Zoe, and my dad were at the airport to meet me with the news that surgery had been delayed until 8.  There was no real reason that we could fathom, other than once again, the Lord's working.  We raced to the hospital and found mum waiting on a gurney in the pre-surgery area. Thank you Lord for the beautiful answer to prayer...we had about 15 minutes together. During that time the theatre nurse asked if she could pray for us so we had a marvellous gathering.  Now follows the wait...

Show me your pretty face

Since our church AGM was cancelled, and since we now have a legal live-in babysitter and since Nick is going to India on Saturday, Nick and I took ourselves off on a date!!

Caleb and the Miniatures

There we were, hanging out at the Gregorys (again)...spending bit of time on top of a shipping container...or not...and Caleb got hold of my phone.  Nicely composed photo!

I walk/dance the line

Well now here's something entirely different and not at all what I would have expected to find myself doing if you'd have asked me five years ago, what I saw myself doing five years from now.  But why not!  Having tried swing and ballet, surely line dancing would be the next logical step.  And so much more fun when a bunch of giggling friends also think it would be a novel form of exercise!

Easter weekend in Doncaster (Street, that is)

After the successful Nelson camping in December, we were keen to get away again sometime before December. The Easter weekend was an ideal time but we needed to be local enough for Nick to still preach on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It wasn't too difficult talking the Gregorys into hosting a paddock-camping-party - and this was well before they had spent a few weeks with their tent pitched in any case while a family of 14 occupied their house! Said family moved to their God-given new farm-house-with-job on Wednesday and Thursday; we pitched our tent on Thursday evening and then pitched in with a cleaning team to spruce up the Gregory's house. With many willing hands it didn't take long to get it sparkling.
Nick and I were up early on Good Friday to go home so Nick could do his sermon prep; we had a blessed time at church remembering Jesus' death for us as He became our sin-bearer.

Friday and Saturday were spent much like this - eating hot cross buns, playing games in the paddock, having serious and non-serious conversations with friends, old and new.

We also ate superbly well!  Liz easily pulls out kitchen skills in providing food for crowds.

Sunday saw a few more guests arrive for the day, in time for church and then staying on for our monthly fellowship lunch.  Again, a blessed Easter Sunday message on the Resurrection and its importance.  Great to see the Hardys, Allnutts, meet the Givens, hang out with the Stantons, apart from our usual delightful company of the Gregorys, Lauren, Rosey and many others!

Monday morning, our final day of camping - it was an early brekkie of cereal, then a trip to the grocery store to buy supplies for Eggs Benedict.  Lauren ran a demo on Hollandaise Sauce - yum!

Sew sew

For a lark, and on a friend's recommendation, I entered the Timaru Sewing Centre's Make'n'Model competition. The making part was easy, with the dress and jacket being ready by the end of the summer holidays. The modelling part, as all those involved realized on the day, was a little more nerve-wracking as we had to become ramp models and display our finished garments on a catwalk. It was a great evening of fashion though and well organized by the Sewing Centre - hats off to them for all the hard work leading up to the event!

Nick kindly photographed me as part of the entry requirements.  I hadn't been too sure that the dress had been a success (you know how it is if you sew - it didn't turn out as I'd pictured in my head) but seeing the photos gave me a bit more confidence that it looked just fine.

The jacket was the easy part - I had this piece of grey wool in my stash which I bought from an op-shop for about $5.  I love how wool throws itself together!

I was genuinely surprised to win second place in the "Open -> Daywear" category, ie open age group, and an outfit suitable for any daytime activities.  Even more so to win the special award of "Best Workmanship".  Thanks to the Timaru Sewing Centre for some really great prizes!

Landing safely on Canaan's shores

Graham and Liz have (bravely) (graciously) offered their home as a landing point for a large family leaving a West Coast community.  We didn't have a lot of time to prepare for this family of 14, so many hands were called in and the work was made somewhat fun.  Tents went up in the paddock for the Gregorys, freeing up the entire house.  Beds everywhere, toothbrushes galore - what an adventure awaits!

What to do with your kids' milk teeth when they are no longer attached to gums

Spoiler alert for those who believe in the tooth fairy...

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Once upon a time I used to keep and label the boys' teeth, after exchanging them for money in their slipper at night. However, one day the boys stumbled onto the apparently-not-so-secret location of their milky-whites and realized the tooth fairy was all a hoax. That story aside, I still had their teeth neatly labelled with the intention of one day reassembling them for fun. That day came! Waitangi Day proved to be a chilly indoors sort of day, the kind where children are inclined to easily bore if left to themselves.  Out came the packet of teeth (we discovered that I hadn't been as diligent as I thought and they only had about six teeth each, but it was enough) and out came the polymer clay.  I presented a few ideas to the boys and their creativity took its cue and got busy. 

Aaron made these two adorable monsters (I helped a bit, but the ideas were his entirely);

Caleb produced this cute thingie...

...and this less cute snake using an inverted tooth - those are the roots sticking out!!