The PE Edition

We started tennis lessons today.  The boys were excited: they got new shoes and shorts.  I decided to take Jean with us, as the tennis court is next to a playground and a half mile running track. While the boys were playing tennis, he was playing on the playground, and while Melva played, I started the couch to 5K program with him.  Today we walked briskly for five minutes, and then jogged for 60 seconds, walked for 90, eight times.

He was more excited about running than this.  I am not sure he knew I was taking a picture.

He loved it.  He was not as tired as I was, I am sure he will soon want to run faster than I can, but running is the one sport that he really can do with us.  Just getting out in the fresh air and sunshine is good for him.   Sometimes he struggles to sleep and I think it might be because he avoids the bright sunlight during the day. He still prefers to go outside when it is dusk, just as he did when he was a baby.

Christian is just so adorable, especially in his white shoes.  He vowed to never ever get them dirty.

They got to play with their best friend.

Just before his mini breakdown.

The boys enjoyed their lesson. Martinus got frustrated because he could not bounce the ball with his racket, but the instructor was firm and just ignored him when he started whimpering.  No one gets his name right, today he was Martin, with the short i sound in the last syllable.  I liked it, maybe we should call him that.  At choir a week ago Miss Cathy called him Marcelo, and he responded without any objection.  We called him that for a little while at home too, just for laughs.  You cannot take your name too seriously if you move to America.

They are growing fast.  Christian lost both of his lower incisors a week ago.  He is picking up books to read by himself, and while they cannot read fluently, we are working through McGuffey's Eclectic Readers at a steady pace, and I am sure they will be strong readers by the time we start first grade.  Having had two children who could not read before the age of seven (Jean only started to read chapter books when he was eight) I am grateful.  As I grow older, I realize more and more that we really have nothing that was not given to us. (1 Corinthians 4:7)  I did not pay more attention to them, I did not try to teach them much when they were younger, I waited for them to show an interest and they simply showed an interest sooner than the other two did. It is a wonderful gift.

The weather is starting to cool down, with highs in the low 90's and lows in the low 70's all of this week. Over the weekend a cold front is suppose to hit Central Texas; the maximum forecast for Sunday is 28 degrees Celsius and the minimum will be 11 degrees Celsius! My heart beat a little faster when I read that.  Summer wasn't too bad, but it is time for a change in the seasons.  Fall is my favorite season.  Apparently in every hemisphere.

This morning on Town Lake

I intended to do a lot of schoolwork with Melva and Jean during spring break, and we did.  Melva does two online Math courses through The Art of Problem Solving, (pre-algebra 2 and competition math), and they did not stop, so we had a good incentive to just keep on going.  I am enjoying the history that we are listening to at the moment.  Jean read a book about "bugs", the first book that really caught his attention and had him running to his room during breaks to continue reading.  I am so grateful for kindle editions - without kindle editions he would simply not have been able to read that book.  If you are going to be visually impaired, this is a good age to be visually impaired in.

I read a similar book about mammals to the twins, that taught me more than I ever learned in biology.  I sometimes wonder what we did in school, how it all became so fragmented, and why I retained so little.  I guess it had a little bit to do with the fact that we were training for tests rather than learning for the joy of learning, but I do not think too much about that.  I homeschool because it is a lifestyle that suits us, with all our special needs and abilities, just so well. I love it.

Today we went to the park with friends. We spent the whole morning on the lake.  The twins made me very happy by repeatedly calling out "this is just like in Make way for Ducklings!".  (Yes dears, except this is Austin not Boston, and you are feeding the coots not the ducks. Bread, not peanuts.) Jean did a great job rowing on his end of the boat, I am glad to see that some of the training last summer carried over.  Melva and her friend spent 90 minutes unsupervised out on the lake, and saw swans, herons, egrets and American Coots.  We only saw the coots, and two different types of turtles that we still have to identify.  I also found an Acacia tree in bloom - apparently there are native acacias in Austin.  What a beautiful sight, the puffy yellow flowers, so completely out of place!

After 4 years in Austin I still got lost on my way to Zilker Park, but I blame it on the GPS.   I really knew where we should have gone, but listened to the silly machine instead of just driving there.  I have never driven to Zilker Park without losing my way.  If you know anything about Austin, you will know that that is really inexcusable, the park is like the heart of the city.  There is a hike and bike trail next to the lake, where cyclist might yell "there are way to many children out here!" in your direction now and again, but apart from that it is one of those places where I am happy.  I went there when we just came to Austin and we were still running on adrenalin.  I went there with my mother and my sister. I have gone there with dear friends.  Just a happy place, full of hipsters that I kinda like. (very handy hipster translator here)

And the weather? This is the time to visit Austin. Just perfect.

(Pictures taken with my iPhone, Hipstamatic app, Jane lens and Ina's 1935 film)

Trying to blend in

Sometimes I do not write because I feel as if I have no pictures to go along with the words, and pictures reveal less than words, so they are easier to share.  Real people, who really know me, read this, and it is all they hear from me, and they know me, so my writing voice has to sound like my speaking voice.

Sometimes I do not write because I am too busy.

Sometimes I do not write because I am in a difficult patch, and a bit moody, and it seems wrong to sit down and write cheerily about crafts and such while I really feel as if parenting is far too difficult and all those people with clean, neat houses have their priorities all wrong.  They, too, should spend hours aimlessly browsing or taking pictures with their iPhones.

But tonight I have a few pictures to show, at least:

(The tablecloth was a gift from my mother, with printed South African flowers)

(Jacques' sweater was a gift from his mother, hand knit.)

(Wow, they are big!) A week or two ago we did not have bread in the house, and I have not replenished my pantry completely since we came back, so I had no bread flour.  Martinus was distraught - do we not have ingredients either?!  So I fell back on good old white flour, eggs, milk and butter.  And baking powder, of course. I used a scones recipe, but instead of making individual scones (by the time I started to panic it was 1 pm), I just made a big round scone and cut it into eights.  I know this is how many Americans do it, I have never seen it in this shape growing up.  We pulled out the good old Lyle's Golden Syrup and Marmite, and added butter and cheese.  Lunch!

Back in South Africa, walking though the aisles of the Spar, I felt so happy.  Everything I loved was just there, so easy, no hard thinking about what to do with it once I brought it home.  My sister bought me the syrup, in Namibia.  I found the Marmite at a World Market.  Today I found a site that sells many South African products, and decided to buy some Ouma Rusks, Mrs Balls Chutney, Iwisa Maize Flour (for breakfast pap, and it is not the same as grits, I promise you) and Handy Andy.  As if there isn't enough cleaning liquids in the US.  But I was on all fours under the kitchen table, yesterday, wiping up sticky brownie crumbs, and wishing that I had Handy Andy - just because I know how to use it.  I also bought some sweet chili sauce, Wellington's.  Because it really is not available here, and I eat it on everything.

In other news, we are buying a house!  The same one we saw in October and thought we could not get because we would not be in a position to close before April 2013.  We have signed the final contract, and the date of closing is specified as April 30.  We went back to look at it again, measured the rooms, and we still love it, I think I love it even more.  It may be our "forever house".  It looks big in this picture, but it is not that big - 2200 square feet (205 square meters).  Four bedrooms, two living areas and a breakfast nook next to the kitchen.

This is the view from the back of the house, that fence is part of an enclosed area behind the house.  (The Alpaca pasture?)  How funny, I never noticed the wires and poles when we were there, you get so used to them here in Texas.  It is a good sign, it means that you do not have to bury everything to prevent it from being stolen.

(As I write, it started to rain, and I hear some thunder.  What a rare treat to listen to thunder and rain in the darkness, when everyone has gone to bed but me and my poor husband who has a deadline coming up next week...)

And now I just want to show you what I have been doing with my iPhone, and Hipstamatic, my favorite app so far:

And these ones are spooky, but I like them:

 I like things that appear to be old.  I treasure the hand-me-downs from friends; I love to know that it had once been their mom's or an uncles', even the second hand homeschooling books with names written into them in the front gives me a sense of belonging.  Blending and mixing as much of the old with as much of the new as I can.

What I did on my 37th birthday

One of the little ones was sick - at first I though he just wanted to snuggle on the couch and read a book, but then his eyelids grew heavy and his cheeks and lips became just too rosy...A very restless night involving a lot of laundry followed.

So this morning I gave the bigger ones instructions, and tried to sit with him as much as possible.  We watched Wall E.  (I love the part where they splash the robot next to the pool!) The other one slowed down, now and again, to offer him moral support. Luckily he is not sick... I know, not yet. But although they do everything together, they do not always fall ill at the same time.

I went to the dentist.  That wasn't very pleasant.

I talked to my sister for an hour. Her cat is having kittens!

And: I got a new iPhone from my dear husband. I do not keep up with them, but he says mine is better than his, I can see that he really wants one like mine. Happy day, I can now browse ravelry patterns all day long! I can also find myself once I get lost, which happens more often than you would think.

We had dinner as a family.  I guess that is about that. Just the way I like it.

I have been disorganized and have not blogged as much as I hoped to.  Today I want to join yarn along with Ginny, although I have not been knitting very inspiring things.  I have been experimenting with my yarn, I am so happy to be back with my stash.  I knit the beginning of a Pi shawl, and frogged it because I did not have enough yarn.  But I loved the feeling of knitting a Pi shawl.  And with the same yarn, I crocheted half a baby jacket.  Turns out you cannot finish much with 50g of Debbie Bliss cashmerino, but I know now that the yarn would work should I ever have enough on hand.  I am actually knitting Das Tuchle with baby alpaca yarn, and it feels lovely, but it isn't  pretty. I might add a crochet border to make up for the monotony.  (I love the instructions:  Now you repeat this row as long as you want or if you have only not much yarn left.) I may make more shawls like this one, I have some beautiful Koigu and Madelinetosh Sock Yarn in my stash... I may also just frog it and start something new - honestly, if I carry on like this I may never spend money on yarn again. Hopefully not, the alpaca feels wonderful and I discovered that I like wearing shawls.

The book I am reading, on the other hand, is very inspiring.  Jesus of Nasareth by Joseph Ratzinger, or, Pope Benedict XVI.  It is dense and rich, I am both reading it and listening to it, and most passages I listen to more than once. Even though I worship in a protestant denomination, reading this convinces me that the schism isn't that deep.  This book is beautifully written, and I will be studying it throughout Lent.

And now I will go to bed before the boy starts to wake up again.  Hopefully the worst is behind us.
Happy yarn along, y'all!

so bittersweet

  

For one last time:

build a castle and a moat;

stroll away, be brave and strange;

warm yourself in the sand;

dance with your shadow and your twin;

hunt for treasure;

watch your cousin pick up jellyfish;

run away in disgust;

share the towel, and the last heat of the sun;

stand and stare, take it all in.

Now let's go, it's time.

The new normal

A small sample of our day to day existence...

Why oh why can't all books be a vailable on Kindle? This is "A Child's History of the World".  I remind myself that I feared that he would never read, and that I was told that he would have to learn Braille.  He is doing so well, and most of the time we use e-books, but sometimes my heart aches when he cannot just take a book and curl up on his bed.

This Sunday Pastor Cassidy preached about Bartimaeus, the blind man who called out "Son of David, have mercy on me!"  It was a beautiful sermon. I suppose on some emotional level I will always struggle with that passage, and Jean will calmly tell me: "But I am not blind.  Blind people cannot see."  Which is true, I suppose, 20/200 is a lot better than nothing.

Here Jacques is building a model ship, and Martinus is completely absorbed.

 The late afternoon sunlight in this kitchen is so beautiful.  The owners of this kitchen have told us that they are planning on moving back into their home in May 2013, so we will have to start looking for a new place to live.  Three months (yikes) till we leave to visit home for 8 weeks, and when we come back it will be February.  It is almost impossible to think that I am going to do all that - pack, leave for 2 months, come back, pack, look for a house, buy a house, pack and move.  On top of everything that happens anyway, every day. But we have survived worse. Much worse.  (Despite all that packing, I am sure that we will not be done by the time the movers arrive.)

For everyone that wondered what the twins do while we homeschool.  They clean, of course.

 This is Jean drawing a car for a change, he usually only draws dinosaurs.  He wanted to add color, so I sorted the pencils into colors and wrote the names of the colors on the paper.  I studied four years to become an Occupational Therapist, and not for nothing!

Apart from clever adaptations in and around the house, my children also have very good three point pincer grips on their pens and markers. 

Melva took a break from knitting and baked an amazing cheesecake this weekend, from one of the Cook's Illustrated cookbooks.  The only thing marginally "healthy" about it was that the eight eggs were all organic...

(Before moving to Texas, I had this vague notion that I should be able to make something that Americans would like, and I baked a cheesecake from Jamie Oliver's cookbooks on several occations to ensure that I could whip it up as soon as we have our first guests over.  Then I could not find any digestive biscuits for the crust when we arrived here.  It turns out that they like brownies much better, I have not seen them eat cheesecake except when we serve it.)

That is it, more or less.  Just a little glimps. Very different, and yet the same.

This weekend we went driving

If you live where the wildflowers grow, you need a flower press.  I made one on Friday, and have hardware to make another one soon - it is very easy.  This weekend we took our flower press and drove out to Llano, west of Austin.  The Texas Hill Country is beautiful right now, it looks as if someone spilled yellow paint over it.  Temperatures are still in the low 90's, and it seems that everyone is outside and making the most of it.

We stopped to take some pictures, and get some flowers for the press.  And then the car would not start up again.  The battery was dead - we left the car idling, but for some reason the battery died anyway.  That meant that we were sitting next to road for about 90 minutes before someone pulled over to help.  Cody got out of his old truck (bakkie), and jump started the car in 2 seconds.

I sometimes wonder if having roadside assistance does not make us worse .  I am sure everyone assumed we had road side assistance, and we had, but they were taking their sweet time to come and assist us.  Cody made a big impression on us - from now on, we will pull over if at all possible, and I hope these little guys will do the same one day when they have their own trucks. (How do you foster a kind heart?  My dad always, always gave beggars money.  Even when we did not have anything to give, really.)

When we thanked him, Cody just said (in his beautiful Texan accent):  "Well (wee-ell), when I saw the little children and the hood up, I thought there must be something wrong.  If I were stranded next to the road with my wife and children, I sure hope someone would do the same for us".   I hope so too, although - Cody looked like the kind of guy that, provided he had a rubber band and a hairpin, could fix any car trouble by himself.

Despite the incident, it was a lovely trip.  We had lunch at Cooper's Barbeque (yes, you really eat off sheets of paper!).  The meat was excellent, and we are slowly getting the hang of eating at these places.  I even managed to make me a sandwich, with pickled Jalapenos.  (See that huge tub - it is full of pickled Jalapenos)

While we were driving we listened to the "Old Yeller" audiobook.  Fred Gipson, the author, lived in Mason, a small town 35 miles from Llano.  It is an experience to listen to the story while driving through the part of the word that the story was more or less set in - seeing the lovely Live Oaks and the Mesquite trees that he describes.  In Mason, in front of their library, they have a statue of "Old Yeller".

 He is the kind of dog that makes me want to get a dog against my better judgment.

The boys would surely love that.