FIVETRIBE

Last week the school had their annual prize-giving. I was NOT looking forward to it as in previous years it has been a long tedious drawn-out affair.  I was very pleasantly surprised this year – the evening was a superb combination of a slick production with a distinct family feel about it. I was exceptionally proud of both my girls who did extremely well. Lulu  and Mrs Butler Overall Academic Excellence; Conquesta Literacy and Numeracy – Gold. Honey and Mrs Venter Overall Academic Excellence, 2nd in her grade, Best Actress 2011, Special Art Award, Conquesta Numeracy and Literacy: Bronze; Math Olympiad and Humility Award Both girls were very happy with their achievements but I had to have *the talk* with them. You know the one hey? It went a little bit like this: ” I am so proud of you girls but I want you to always know that it is not important to me for you to BE THE BEST at everything but it is very important for you to ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST.” My dil...

Outing to Rocklands Posted by MelB on Dec 7, 2011 in Family , Featured , Journal , Milestones , Parenthood , Protected , School Life | 3 comments Yesterday the school had an outing for the Gr1 and Gr4′s to Rocklands. Luckily I have a kid in each of those grades and Levi was able to join in aswell. I was eternally grateful and VERY happy to assist with lifts as it gave me space to breathe in the great outdoors, shoot the breeze with friends, teachers and all while the kids had a massive jol climbing the mountain and swimming in the enormous pool. The thing I love most about this school is watching the relationships blossom. Essentially these kids form sibling like bonds! With only 12 kids in a class, there is little to no change from year to year. You pretty much travel from Grade 1 to Grade 7 with almost all the same people. This forces you to learn to tolerate and accomodate kids with whom you wouldnt normally associate. I have seen huge emotional growth in R...

Posted by MelB on Dec 1, 2011 in Family , Featured , Journal , Parenthood , Protected , School Life | 3 comments CherryWood Dec 2011 Levi broke up yesterday. 30 Nov. And goes back in exactly 2 months. 30 January. I am doing my best not to make a chart and systematically cross off each of the 60 days – am guessing he may feel like I am counting the days or something. Today we went and bought some craft supplies to top up our stash. With three kids who LOVE to make stuff I need to be very well stocked. We also came home with an unplanned purchase : Plasticine. Focus boytjie! It is very fun to play with plasticine but after a bit it can become rather frustrating – especially when you are 5. And sometimes even if you are, um, older. We definitely felt the need to *take a break* and watch some tv and have a snack. Our masterpieces! Very important for this mama to keep the frustration levels to a minimum if I am to make it through this marathon holiday. The girls on...

School News It has been so long since my last post and I feel the need to just capture some photos and thoughts for posterity. The obligatory school photo – very sweet The girls are both doing exceptionally well at school. They enjoy every aspect of school life; I can already see the peer pull on Rachel as her relationships are cemented with these young classmates she has had for 4 years. I am thankful for each of my kids friends – each one of them kind and loyal. I remind myself now that I need to pray regularly for the relationships that my kids form with friends as they grow up – as an adult I remember very well the importance and influence of friendships. They recently had Grandparents Day at the school – I am so grateful that we live close to at least one set of grandparents – the kids so love having them come in a look at their classes, workbooks etc. The kids put on a little recital and generally just spend time showing their grandparents what school is all ...

I am either suffering writers block or my blog is just boring the inspiration right out of my head. Honestly, its like….bleh. Here are a few headlines going on – sometimes bullets help clear the cobwebs. Levi has 8 days left of school and then is on holiday until the end of January. This scares me. He is not like my girls…he expects me to PLAY with him all.the.time. In these 8 days I have to get so much done that I am not sure I know where to start. My char also leave me in 8 days. She will be gone for 2 months too. I know I sound like a princess but stuff it. Being at home for 2 solid months alone with my kids with no home help in this slab of a house that requires constant cleaning is NOT exciting for me at all. Bah humbug I am hoping Russ takes a week (or more??!!) off to break the holidays a bit. BUT I am really relishing the thought of a break from school routine and extramurals – no rushing, no deadlines. We are finally paving our patios and our pool. Its been 5 ye...

The weekend has gone by in a blur. Thankfully. When Russ is away it can draaaag by painfully. The kids have been a bit out of sorts and I have had to raise my voice a bit more than usual….eventually I banished them to the playroom and told them to find something QUIET and INDIVIDUAL to do…I couldnt take the squabbles any longer. love it when my kids play and get creative. this space in my home is the bomb! Levi collected  the little bike on Friday that he won in the Airmune lucky draw at our local mall….it looks better than it is …. sadly it is severely substandard chinese junk. One rotation on the pedal and the chain comes off…. Anyway – there was great excitement that we *won* and he will get his picture in our local paper. Rach is over the moon with her hair. She has very frizzy, unmanageable hair and for years has yearned for straight smooth lockes.  I found a local hairdresser who has been able to use a protein treatment to smooth her hair for a couple of we...

I have been reading through some of my old blog posts and realised I simply do not take enough photographs of our everyday lives anymore. I can easily identify what it is I LOVE in my old posts – I love getting such a clear picture of how I spent my time year by year. I love seeing how the playroom looked back then and how it has evolved as my kids have grown up. I love seeing certain items of clothing my kids used to wear. There is so much in the everyday that we simply dont see unless we begin to look for it. I need to get back to basics with blogging. It is not about only telling highlights, funny or sad stories. It is not simply for amusement or a place to vent. It is first and foremost an everyday record of our daily lives. With this in mind, I kept my wildfire in my back pocket today and simply took random photos. I know these will tell their own story in years to come. She wanted to *scrapbook* the cover of her new drawing book. Setting ...

Levi had his tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy yesterday. We were at the hospital by 7.15am and decided to fast along with him in sympathy. (he ate supper the night before)  The ward was pretty darn full and they went in age – from youngest to eldest which meant he went into surgery at 1040am…. The calm exterior didnt fool me...i know that look and those busy little fingers. My brave boy, keeping it together. We had a 3.5hour wait in that ward. Not ONCE did he complain – not about hunger, thirst, boredom – NOTHING. He is amazing; I remember he was exactly the same for his gland op in January. We did a fair amount of people watching, listened to some music, played some games but mainly we just hung out. It was such a blessing to have Russell with me – just his calming presence was so reassuring. Russ went into theatre with him to be with him until he was under. I couldnt face doing that again after the last traumatic experience. I must add that EVERY woman there had ...

I dont usually talk religion/spirituality on my blog. Mainly because I prefer to keep a low profile but also because when I do, people tend to hear everything that I am *not* saying. So it gets messy and I get irritated. But today I am going to share with you – in someone elses – extremely articulate words exactly how I feel. I was so stoked to be given this quote by a friend who knows me exceptionally well, who shares a similar spiritual journey. She knew well how deeply this would resonate. “I have found, that in order to break out of the stagnant and redundant traditional religious paradigms we have inherited and to overcome the many blind spots in our belief system, requires the courage to say “I don’t know how to hold these ‘truths’ intension,” and the humility to resist the Evangelical lust for certainty , the willingness to embrace the mystery and being willing to accept and live with some paradoxes.”    Andre Oosthuizen So there you have it. I dont have al...

What a crazy month it has been in terms of hair.  First off, you should know I am not precious about my hair. It grows like weeds so I mess with it without much concern. This was early September, I was hating my hair so decided to cut a fringe, texturise and layer the sides. I began hating the short fringe and looong hair. Thought it made my face look even longer. Decided I wanted to cut it around shoulder level. Took this picture to my hairdresser. My hairdresser, bless her, talked me out of it. In fact, refused to cut it so short and instead did this. Short, choppy layers on top  and long bits. Not really suitable for Mam Long Narrow Face! I went back the next day to ask her to cut more off the length because it felt unbalanced to me. She cut maybe an inch and sent me packing! I went straight from her salon to another one down the road that many of my mates use. I booked a 2pm appointment and cut my hair AGAIN that very same day.  I am very happy with the result. ...

Things I have achieved this week: Booked to see an ENT for Hooli’s tonsilectomy, hope to do it when we home from UK Cancelled swimming from end of October. We have a pool and summer is here, yay! Chucked out mountains of my and my kids clothes – all winter stuff that wont be worn next year. Taken the dog to the vet – innoculations etc before she is kennelled for our trip. Set a new personal best time for a 5km run. Started reading 2 new books. Life of Pi and Surprised by Hope. Cut my hair. No less than 3 times in the last 5 days. Seriously. Coloured my hair. Only once though. Taught Lulu how to make me a perfect cup of tea. Taken my kids on a picnic. Played Rounders in the garden. Gone for family walks in the evenings with dog. Braai-ed and gardened. Mentally making lists for the UK trip next week. Pondered and cried and laughed and reflected And its only Wednesday people! Just think what I could to by Friday?

This past weekend we celebrated Heritage Day in South Africa. It was a spectacular weekend and we spent most of it outdoors, that is, except for when we were supporting our Bokke. The kids have really become engrossed in the spirit of the World Cup! We lit the fire, threw on some meat and played ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey’ much to the delight of the kids. I dont actually *play* with my kids like this very often. Sure, I am around but I tend to let them entertain themselves or each other. It is a rare treat for them to have me actually join in their games! (I also played rounders yesterday – that was awesome fun!) I would like to be more animated and begin to try enter their world a bit more. Tough for some of us adults to just remember how to have childlike fun hey? We also really needed our pool solar blanket to get a good scrubbing so set the kids to *work*. At first there was much grumbling as to why they had to clean it…until they realised the entertaiment opportuni...