Our Awesome God!

On Friday morning, while driving home from dropping the girls at school, I saw this incredible thing! I love sunrises and always look at the sky. This morning was no different except that I had such a wonderful surprise! You will understand by just looking at the photos.

David has decided to do a degree in Theology and we are so excited! It is not a normal University degree though. It is done through our church with the church planter pastor and the degree is registered with Potch University (or North West university, if I recall correctly). We have been attending classes for more than a year already but just casually for the knowledge and without doing all the assignments and exams. The knowledge we get from here is mind blowing and enlightening at the same time! Don't think we have ever had so much Biblical stimulation before. This is a bit scary though 'cause the word says: to whom much has been given, much will be required! Please pray for us both as the training involves us both even though I am not doing the degree. Pray that we will be faithful and have our priorities straight in order for this to be done to His glory.

The girls are doing fine and are excited since the school is starting to prepare for their annual concert. It is a massive thing every year and the children get all hyped! They are also enjoying the fact that David and I attend these classes 'cause it is two hours at church every other Sunday and they love to play there! Suzelle is also preparing to go to her new school next year since the schools here are divided into grades 1,2&3 and then another for grades 4-7. They always feel so grown up when they get to move up to the next school ;)

I have been knitting away since my sister introduced me to Fuzzy Mitten (web page by the same name) patterns of the cutest little animals you have ever seen! I now have a hard time doing work instead of knitting! I could justify knitting since it is for Luzaan's birthday but that is not quite right, I think. I will post some photos at a later date because my sister also reads this blog and what her son's look like is a surprise till 3 September, when they will receive it;)

Have to go do some work now, so, till another time:

Tea for one together ;o)

The children had a tea for one together tonight. All this means is that they each have a set with a saucer, cup and teapot that fits on top of the cup. I was given one a couple of years ago and Ouma also had one that she sent for Suzelle since she loves tea so much.

They made themselves tea in their little pots and enjoyed it so much to be able to pour it again and again. This is only because they drink so much milk with it. The teapot actually only holds enough for one cup, hence tea for one.

We have been very blessed in the sense that we have not really been sick this winter. Suzelle had tonsilitis but we gargled it away with salt water!

Life has been very exciting but not in a worldly sense. We are so blessed in our church and love our church family so much. We get challenged and encouraged every Sunday and I love it! It makes me strive towards being a better witness and getting closer to God. Sundays are by far our busiest day but I love it!

We have been going to class with the Theology students at our church for a while now and it is such a blessing and so enriching! It has been a voluntary thing and we could just come to grow in knowledge and it has been very good! It helped us understand things I had never even considered and showed us just how amazing the Lord is in His sovereign plan of redemption! This quarter David decided to do it as a registered student and to work towards getting his degree. The classes are still the same but now he will have to hand in projects in order for him to be evaluated. The pastors involved with this has been very excited and said that this is the best time in one's life to do it. Now for the hard work. Even though I will be doing it as I have been doing all along, there will also be other training involved because they do not just train the husband but the wife as well. We do not know what the future holds and where the Lord might want to use us but we decided that we would be better equipped to be used by Him after we have gone through this. Please pray for us that we would be faithful and use our time wisely. We have the desire to serve and please the Lord but also know that we are weak. We find comfort in the fact that He is strong in our weakness but please pray for us that we would have the wisdom to recognize our weakness and ask Him to be our strength in those circumstances. Also pray that we will do nothing in our own strength! We are so excited!

Not much news as far as amount is concerned, I know, but a magnitude as far as the importance goes ;o) Thank you that we can know that you will be in this with us through prayer!

Something cute!

My sister showed me these cute little knitted animals by becoming a fan on Facebook. I loved them immediately!

This pattern is free on their website and it is so quick to make! My girls loves it since they are only about 8" or 20 cm tall! You get all sorts of animals and clothing patterns on their website. They're called Fuzzy Mitten and I will include the link.

Enjoy! Think my sister and I should get royalties for all the advertising we have been doing :o)

http://fuzzymitten.com/

Family and holidays

We had such nice school holidays and I can not believe that 3 weeks are over! We were blessed with incredible sunny days for 2 weeks and being a winter rainfall area that was amazing!

Suzelle had her church winter camp again and we had the opportunity to go to PMR (Paardeberg Mountain Retreat) even though it was just to drop her. It is always so beautiful there! The Lord is so good in His provision for this project and this year they had and indoors hall so they could still have fun in case of rain. Alas, just like Wimbledon, it did not rain during the camps as it usually does and they did not need it as badly as other years. It was still used though and nobody complained about it not raining!

My parents came for a 2 week visit thanks to my sister who gave them plane tickets! We had a lovely time and as usual the time seemed too short! We went to Kirstenbosch National Botanical gardens, visit family in Strand and just hung around here enjoying each other's company, reading and eating of course! We were spoilt rotten and are so thankful for loving parents and grandparents!

On Friday we went to the hairdresser for a quick cleanup before school begins tomorrow :-(

Suzelle just got a trim but we cut Luzaan's hair in an old fashion bob again. This really suits her and she got so many compliments because of it!

David is off to Durban and Johannesburg again tomorrow and so we are back to normal with an enormous BANG! At least when he went away during the holidays my parents were here to keep me company. I'm not complaining though! We trust the Lord and believe that he is using this to prepare us for something. What that might be we have no idea!!

Well, off to bed to be ready for the next school term!

Dress up parties!

Luzaan being very loving and popular gets invited to many parties and we had told her that we would have to start saying no to some of them.

This time, though, she was invited by her best friend at school and she was the only one from school that was invited! Needless to say, we couldn't say no.  It was a theme party and everyone had to dress like princes, princesses, dragons, etc, everything to do with the good old fairy tales!

She decided to wear this 30 year old flower girl dress my grandmother gave Suzelle when she was 5 or 6.  Being so cold though, she had to wear her long johns and vest underneath and the white jersey my mother knitted her!  I think she looked quite the royal!

Since it is difficult to enjoy yourself at a party wearing a dress like that I packed her some other clothes, so she would be able to enjoy the jumping castle and other games.  When we fetched her she was beaming!

Long time no write!

I have not updated the blog for a while now and it was partly because not much happened, partly because I have problems uploading blogger because of the systems I use and partly because I am now on Face Book which is much easier and quicker.  So, for daily news about us and the things we do, that is the place to find me.

A friend of mine had her birthday not long ago and invited us for tea.  Because I believe that the birthday person should not be the one who does all the work, I made her a chocolate cake.  I thought it cam out quite well, but the reactions were wonderful!  It was so popular that I had to bake another a week later and have an order for another for someone else's birthday which would be her present.  It is not as rich as it looks and yummy!

Luzaan had tonsilitis again and because everyone gets so sick so early this year I decided to take her to the doctor quicker than I normally would.  We caught it in a very early stage, but still she had to drink antibiotics for 7 days! She had to stay at home 2 days and for the first time she was able to read to herself while in bed.  On the second day she told me that it is actually nice to be sick because we spoil her. (Obviously not very sick ;) The flu has been quite bad this year and eveeryone who got it was in bed for at least  a couple of days.  That is why I am not taking any chances! David and I both had flu jabs this year, so we will have to wait and see how it goes!

In the last little while, since the house have been finished, not much has happened.  Suzelle had her Gr3 entrepreneurial day.  Together with her friend Mieke they sold Glow (Sticks http://www.glowhead.co.za/) and did very well.  They were restricted to selling 70 packets of whatever and sold out.  They made R140 profit.  They did not win any prizes but enjoyed the day very much!  

David surprised me with some mini daffodils last Saturday.  It was so sweet!  He had to work in the morning and came back at about 15h30.  Later that evening he asked me wether I had checked my email lately and I said no.  I knew then that he had sent me something so I went to check.  He sent me a thank you note for looking after the kids and all the things I did for them and helping at their school and the things I do for other people to make a difference in their lives and that he appreciates it and me.  Then he said that sometime something will appear in the kitchen for me.  I went straight there and there it was!  It was beautiful and sweet and special because he does not do that kind of thing very often!

Luzaan lost another tooth yesterday, physically pushed out by the new one again.  This time at least the tooth mouse did not forget again!  I wanted a picture of the gap in her teeth, but she gave me such a silly grin (as children always do when they have to pose for photos;) that David had to tickle her for a proper laugh!  I like the photo because that is really the way she is and I think the silly hat suits her and her personality.  The fact that it keeps the ears covered and warm is a bonus of course!

Paardeberg Mountain Retreat

We went to this wonderful campsite for and overnight prior to our church's family seminar and it was sooooo nice!

The weather was cold and rainy, but the company was warming and the views spectacular!  The Lord is so good!

The children enjoyed it and got wet of course! They saw baboons and the baboons saw the monkeys that were staring at them!  

For more photos and information visit my facebook page (Annalize Breytenbach) because the whole album is there.

Gardening days make fun days!

The girls enjoy it so much when David works in the garden.  There is always something they can play with or in.  Today it was the leaves of the giant strelizia he took out of the garden.  They used it to make a house of the trampoline!  Afterwards they sat in it and ate their oranges.

Mother's day came early for me this year.  They went to the hardware store today and came back with 2 of my favourite proteas; it is called blushing bride and the buds will open soon.  I will take photos then.  We will be planting them in 1/2 wine barrels and put them on either side of the front door.  Can't wait to see what that will look like!

More

Luzaan had her first (and probably last, since she is in the F team) game in netball on Wednesday afternoon.  She played well  when she was not in her own world or staring at the other girls!  It was so funny to see the grade ones!  They concentrate so much on not standing still that they let the ball go right past them!  They also do not really understand the game that well.  I enjoyed watching it!

Suzelle had an English oral exam this week and the theme was my exotic holiday home.  While talking about it on Monday she decided that she wants to make it a sweet island.  We made an island cake and that was her visual aid.  From the cake she decided what she wants to say about it and it was quite cute!  She said her house was made of wafer biscuits and chocolate wafer sticks for a roof.  The house does not have a kitchen because everything on the island is edible!  There is no bedroom or bed because on her island no children have to sleep.  There is no bathroom because children do not like to bath.  The garden has coconut trees, a lollipop flower bed, mint grass and even the weeds are flower sweets.  She does not have earth worms but jelly worms instead.  The animals in the sea are all playful and friendly, even the shark.  She goes swimming and snorkeling with them and lounge in jelly tubes and afterwards she can eat them.  She so looked forward to this oral!  She usually hates them! 

Today we had 6 little girls here.  They were very good though and played together without incidents all afternoon.  Two of them only left at 17h30.  They enjoyed the netball pole we were given the other day, played on the trampoline bouncing each other,  ran across the lawn trying to not get wet by the sprinkler, played board games and played with small animal toys upstairs. They seemed to really enjoy themselves!

Busy, busy, busy

So much has happened since I last updated and I did not get a chance to uplaod anything at the moment.  I have a facebook profile and it is much quicker to do it there.  This will probably have to happen in parts since I can only uplaod 5 photos at a time.

Firstly,  our house is YELLOW!  It looks so much better, fresher and cleaner!  The outside braai area has been painted with brown because the wind blows the soot out of it and makes the front black anyway.  I thought it looked good with the wood stacked underneath it.  

Secondly, David has been very busy in the garden and cleaned and planted one of the beds in the front garden.  It has amazed us how hard the soil is and how long the preparation takes because of having to sieve the soil to get the stones out and to work the compost in!  It looks so good though!

Thirdly, I was invited to a charity tea on Wednesday morning.  We were told to dress according to the country our table's country.  Well, being a French table, I decided to go as an artist.  I had a white long sleeve T-shirt with a red short sleeve T-shirt over it with blue jeans for the flag colours. Then I put on my painting overall coat full of paint with paintbrushes, a pallet knife and blue, white and red paint in the pockets. Lastly I had a scarf around my neck and a paintbrush on my ear.  BUT I WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT ACTUALLY DRESSED ACCORDINGLY!!!!!!  Apparently some of the hostesses did not tell their guests to dress like that and then the others let their guests know to not do it and I was the only one that did not know!  Well, I did not let it bother me and just carried on.  I usually stick out like a sore thumb at things like this because I am not a dressy person.  What would you call this?????

Monkeys amongst the banana trees

Yesterday was a lovely day again and David spent it working in the garden.

The girls joined him later and helped him replant the banana trees from our front garden, moving them to the back.  After this they must have played there for at least 2 hours.  David called me and commented that they do not need a jungle gym to keep them busy!  Needless to say the bath was quite a mess last night!

The mountains were especially clear yesterday and I tried to take some photos of that along with the clouds but my camera does not do justice!

Paint Progress Report

The back of the house is also yellow now and everything looks so clean!  Even the pillars on the stoep looks better from inside when we look outside from our kitchen!

The ugly pink and black-green wall is also yellow and the difference is almost unbelievable!  

The more I look at it the more I like it!  Yellow is such a more natural colour!  It does not clash with the colours in nature surrounding us!  It actually seems to enhance the greens and browns!

Aaaah! Cyber fix!

The lightning struck our modem yesterday afternoon and as a result I felt lost for 36 hours! I could not get the news or stay in contact and it was awful! It only made me realise how addicted I am to the internet!

Here are a few updates:
The house is still not finished and it turns out that it is going to need a 3rd layer of paint. Looking very good so far though!

The girls had a little tea party this afternoon on the front lawn. It is amazing what little things make them extremely happy! All I did was give them a whole pot of tea (4 cups), some 100's and 1000's, coloured sugar and caramel choc chips. It kept them busy for more than an hour because they were drinking the tea out of 10 ml porcelain cups!

Look, look, look!

Our house is slowly turning yellow! It is looking so much cleaner already and it's only the first coat! I LOVE IT!

Here are some photos of it!

Days gone by!

I found these photos of my girls while looking for some to put on my facebook profile this morning.

They were taken in September 2004.  We were visiting my aunt and uncle in Phalaborwa.  We had put the two to bed and about an hour later we heard loud noises coming from the room.  

We found them playing with the blanket like this.  Luzaan turned 2 that weekend and Suzelle would have been 4 that December. 

I loved seeing this again and thought I would share it with you!