fathering

did you notice this?

In the last posted video of Diesel climbing the tree house ladder, you may have noticed this little 'creature' climbing the tree just above the ladder ...






Just in case you didn't, here is a closer look ...




a sweet gift from our Canadian friends for Braeden during their last visit ...

old dog, new tricks

He can't climb trees, but he'll do the next best thing!!

look what I won today!

Have you ever seen so much chocolate!!

I heard him saying, "Now, you can just watch from there" ...

as he sat down to practice his piano, and I wondered who he was talking to ...

So I took a closer look ...

They look very interested and impressed wouldn't you say?

They sat there very quietly the whole way through the practice session. And I could have sworn I saw them nodding their appreciation at the end!

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Now, on another note (!), I know this is absolutely the wrong way to sit at the piano ....

... but do just love this

Braeden loves photographing ants ....

guess where we found Jamie yesterday evening?

this is what holidays are for ...

oops

After church this morning, Patrick took us down to the beachfront to 'show us something'. It was very windy - not beach weather at all - so we knew it wasn't for a swim!
The boys ran ahead, and I heard some very excited shouts and exclamations

Wonder what they are looking at? .....

Hang on .... what's that in the water?

Could it be? .... It looks a lot like a ......

.... It is ... a grader!

Almost completely submerged in the sand and water!

Apparently the driver was moving some beach sand around near the top end of the beach at low tide, and then needed to get to the other side of the pier. Instead of going back, and around the top end of the pier, he thought he'd take a short cut and go around the front!! Obviously not taking into account that the beach sand is very soft right in front of the pier due to the constant flow of sand and water from underneath the pier!

The grader started sinking immediately, and then the more the driver tried to get the vehicle out of the sand, the deeper he sank into it!
Eventually he had to abandon it, and this is what it looks like now at high tide!

Mmmmm ... I'd love to see the insurance claim on this one!!

Patrick and the boys ran down for a quick photo in between the waves!

A friend gave me these ...

... for no particular reason

Dylan's Birthday Cake

Baked the infamous 'Beer Box Cake' for Dylan's 17th birthday yesterday! (see previous postings for the recipe)


But we were in an enormous rush, because Dylan had a Maths class after school, and then had an appointment with a sculptor friend of ours for the afternoon, for advice on his art project.


Then we all went straight to prayer meeting until 7pm!


I had baked the cake in the afternoon, so, on our return and in between clearing up the dinner dishes, we had a combined effort at the icing!

I simply melted a large slab of milk chocolate which I spread over the top of the cake, and then melted a smaller slab of white chocolate which I poured into a ziploc bag. I cut a tiny hole in the one corner and 'piped' a very rough guitar shape onto the hardened chocolate 'icing'


Patrick helped with a creative edging
All done in 10 minutes flat!

Everyone had a huge square, which was savoured with much licking of lips and fingers, while we had a great family game of Trivial Pursuit.

Dylan is going to have a few friends around for a braai/barbeque - to celebrate his birthday in a less rushed fashion - but this was thorougly enjoyable and no less special for all of us :o)

Happy Birthday to a very special 17 year old! We love you Dylan

And wasn't this a lovely way to have our coffee break this morning?

a study in snoek

Patrick caught two beautiful snoek (Queen Mackeral) off his fishing ski this past weekend. What a privilege to be able to enjoy a healthy meal of fish, fresh from the ocean. We gave half to our neighbours who turned it into a delectable meal for their family that evening.

Whenever Patrick gets back from his morning's fishing, he cleans and guts the fish straight away.

This time I asked if we could turn it into a lesson for the children (and the neighbour's children), because we happen to be in the middle of a marine theme in our studies. I thought it would be fantastic for them to actually see the parts of a fish first-hand.

Warning: Some of the photos are graphic - and may offend very sensitive viewers.

So, I made us each a cappuccino coffee, and got the Sea Fish Guide off the bookshelf, so that we could identify the different organs as Patrick prepared the fish.

He cut off the tail first, and then carefully cut off a lovely thick, boneless fillet from each side of the fish. He wanted to get the flesh into the fridge as quickly as possible so that we could take our time dissecting the rest of the fish.

The neighbour's children were a little worried and uncomfortable at first, but their fascination soon overcame their squeamishness!
I just love the body language - don't you? :o) One of the first things we identified was the Lateral Line. This line runs down the length of the fish, and is an amazing sense organ which helps the fish to detect movement in the water around them. There are receptors in this line, called neuromasts, and they in turn contain hair cells, similar to the cells found in our ears, which pick up vibrations and wave movements.

The line can be seen running from just behind the gill openings towards the tail, at the top end of the fishes body.

Here is a closer look

Next, we looked at the gills. What an efficient breathing system! Water is taken in through the mouth of the fish and passes through the intricate filters which extract the oxygen from the water, before it passes freely out of the gill openings.

We all felt the beautiful, soft filters of the gills and proclaimed our amazement at their design!
Nestled in just behind the gills is the heart.
Hard to believe this tiny little organ is responsible for such a big task.

Here is another shot of the heart on the right, with Patrick's thumb under it, and a great view of the gills again.

We then established where the brain would be situated, and Patrick cut straight through to get a cross-section.

Perfect! You can clearly see the two halves of the brain, with the spinal cord coming from it.

The boys all exclaimed that it looked just like a guitar!

Interesting to note that the brains of all bony fish are divided up into three parts: the forebrain, the midbrain and the hindbrain. The forebrain is responsible for the fish's ability to smell, so fish with a good sense of smell, like the eel, have an enlarged forebrain. The midbrain is responsible for sight, learning and motor responses. The hind brain is responsible for co-ordinating movement, muscle tone and balance - so fast swimming fish (like the Snoek) have an enlarged hindbrain - which is why it looks like a guitar!!

We did look at the internal organs like the liver, kidneys and stomach as well - but I'll leave those for another time. Usually it is fascinating to cut open the stomach and discover what the fish has been eating (Patrick uses this as clues for what bait he should use!), but this time the stomach was empty, which is why this fish came on the bite so quickly - he must have been hungry!!

Lastly, we dissected the eye, but I'll spare you those rather gory shots. :o)

I did, however want to show you the lens ...

Isn't God's creation amazing!

does God speak to children?

Since we started home schooling, we have always started our home school day with a time of prayer, worship and bible reading.

This has always been such a special time for all of us, and no two days have been the same in the more than four years that we've been doing it.

I have found that God proves his lavish creativity over and over again within our prayer times, because it becomes a time of the unexpected, the fresh, the profound, the wonderfully surprising.

Last week, I felt we needed to introduce a new element to our prayer times, by asking the boys to spend time praying on their own before we prayed together, and then bring whatever they felt God had said to them to our 'together' prayer time. I was a little nervous, because I didn't want to put pressure on them which they perhaps weren't ready or mature enough to cope with. But they were both very excited, and eagerly went and found their special spots where they could pray in solitude.

Braeden brought these two stones when we got back together, and said he had felt God say to him that he wanted us to be like the stone on the left, rather than the stone on the right. He asked me to feel each stone in turn.

He said that he felt God had said to him that we should ask Him to make us smooth so that when we are with other people, they want to be with us, just like he wanted to hold that smooth stone because it felt so nice in his hands.

So we spoke about the ways that we can become 'smooth' and then we spoke about what makes us 'rough'.

Then we prayed that God would mould our characters so that we become more like Him, and that we learn more and more how to truly love one another.

God's kindness touches my heart so deeply.

loving Wednesdays

Two and a half hours of right-brained activity
with no pressure other than to decide if my pot should curve outwards or in.
(I chose out as you can see!)
Once again, Braeden made a whole lot of clay figurines and bowls and other oddments, while I plodded on methodically with the next stage of my pot/tureen/planter

We have the kindest, most patient (not to mention enormously talented) teacher :o)

from here, we went straight on to his piano lesson before heading home for lunch.

Wednesday's are turning out to be my favourite day of the week so far!

boot camp!!

A couple of months ago, my two youngest boys were invited to a birthday party with a difference!

It is called Boot Camp - situated about 30km out of town in a rustic setting.

It is quite pricy to have a party at this venue, and I had such a laugh as I watched these little boys being yelled at and bossed around like army recruits (albeit the 'sergeant major' was a gorgeous blonde!), and loving every minute!!

Who would have thought?



If they didn't refer to her with a 'yes, sarge' or 'no, sarge' they were immediately told to 'give 10' (press-ups)

They had orders barked at them from the time they got there until the cake was cut - and I've never seen more obedient, focussed boys!

Afterwards I asked some of them how they 'enjoyed' it, and every one said it was by far the best birthday party they'd been to!!

Do you think I'm depriving them of something? :o)

Then they had to have the mud treatment - and, of course, my boy went the whole 9 yards!!

See?
the younger one was a little more circumspect

He hadn't lost any of his teeth yet .... but look at him now, just a couple of months later!!

more gaps than teeth I'd say!!

But back to boot camp - and one last shot to prove that we didn't just sit on the sidelines the whole day!!