Visiting Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

We loved visiting Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town back in September. The children played for a long time in this little stream which conveniently had a seat near it where we could watch them.

Mercy loved the "teddy bear" peak.

September is a great time to delight in the spring flowers.

View down to Cape Town.

Bill really doesn't need a pram anymore but its useful for carrying bags on the handles!

Since then we've been on several more outings, tamed some of the chaos of moving house, completed many weeks of our curriculum, navigated our new suburb, found places to love in our new garden, shared the news that we are expecting our fourth baby in April, and seen Dave complete his first semester of lecturing. I can hardly believe it is November already. These are productive, busy, exhausting days.

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iSonto #70

This is our last Sunday living here in the town of Stellenbosch in furnished accommodation. We found it too expensive to buy here so we are moving to a home in a nearby town a bit less than 18 km from Dave's work at the University of Stellenbosch. Our moving day is this Tuesday! It is going to be great to have our own yard and space again with our furniture and possessions. The town we are moving to is also lovely. It is called Somerset West and is close to both the beaches and the mountains. 

Here are some pictures we have taken on a few recent weekend outings. 

Here we are in Franschhoek, a sweet town about 37 km from Stellenbosch. We had a delightful afternoon here looking at the river, having a picnic, walking around the museums, and learning more about the Huguenot Christians who fled persecution and founded the town.

We loved the Huguenot memorial which expresses the trinity in the three arches and the sun and cross emblem of the Huguenots on the top.

Another week we went to the beautiful Paarl Mountain Reserve. We happened upon this by accident and it quickly became a favourite. One little boy loved paddling in the stream . . .

It is free and has spectacular views.

The children were very excited to learn that this mountain once had a lava flow coming from it. Dave told them it was now an extinct volcano. Nate responded to this with disbelief because he wanted there to be a chance it was dormant and would erupt! Mercy also responded with disbelief but for the opposite reason. She thought it was dormant and was terrified that it would erupt! Mercy wanted to go home after hearing that it used to be a volcano.

Another fun outing (on a colder and windier day) was to the Giraffe House. We saw lots of fun animals. My favourites were the cats. Mercy loved the flamingos.

This is the serval cat in the background, a truly spectacular animal with both spots and stripes. There were also caracals.

Mercy loved feeding the goats and spent a lot of time doing that.

This trip was for our "family celebration" where we celebrate our wedding anniversary with the children. Here we are opening small gifts on that morning. We celebrated with them on the 15th of August.

Dave and I also went out alone on the 18th, our anniversary, for a lovely dinner.

Moving overseas with a family is in some ways easier than alone because you have some of your best friends moving with you!

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iSonto #68

 Way back in late April we went on a wonderful autumn ramble to the Salmon Ponds! Here are the pictures. We had a rare take away lunch of pies from "The Cheeky Little Place" in New Norfolk which has lovely quality food.

A huge highlight of our visit to the Salmon Ponds was the appearance of a platypus who delighted in swimming up and down by the side of one of the ponds. Incredible! My best ever platypus sighting and we stood and looked at him/her for a long time.

This was the day before negotiations finished on Dave's job offer at the University of Stellenbosch. This was a challenging time for us with lots of decisions to make, so it was a great time to take a few hours off and get some perspective.

 Dave emded up getting an appropriate offer so we are now off to Stellenbosch in South Africa next week, only nine weeks after accepting the offer! Its been a super quick move to organise. This will be my last iSonto from our little house in Southern Tasmania. Our removals occur this week and then we fly out the following week. Interspersed with the following photos are thanksgivings I've jotted down over the past month and more. We have heaps to praise God for as we've already overcome so many hurdles, including visas, air flights, removals date, the sale of our car, and home maintenace.

Pausing longer to look at insects due to my fascinated company!

Lying in sun on our bed

Autumn sunny house bliss

Mercy curled up listening to Curious George on headphones

Perfect way to remember our Kingston home

Weeding sunny garden beds

Raised garden beds

Ability to read

Picking fresh lettuce

Panadol!

Nate compliance with school work today

60 percent of our family have South African citizenship therefore no immigration issues for them!

Dave vacuums for me

Walking the beach at sunrise

A beach driving distance of where we are moving

Relaxing "date" evening with Dave and no interruptions

Mercy and Nate making their own friends

Able to read a long story without sore throat

Old silicon removed from bath tub

Time to do this

Driving amongst autumn colour in sandy bay

Shopping in quiet on my own

Children behaved while I got moving quotes plus helped someone catch our chickens

Happy new home for chickens

Nate adjusting well to gym

Good physio session despite being in lots of pain beforehand

Watching sunrise

Have medical certificates

Money for Canberra flight

iPod to listen to Anne of the island

Gym sooooo much easier than last year!

Mercy playing confidently a whole gym distance away

Moments to calm down

Waves crashing on shore

Positive party for Nate

Managed to shop, prepare cake, wrap pass the parcel, make pin tail on dog game, tidy house 

Dave helped prepare food

Cherished last cousin party before we go

Mercy said children aren't trouble they are a joy they give cuddles and they play, when told robbers didn't want children as they thought they would be trouble!

Greek salad to see me through paper work

Warm restaurant to work in

Slept all night 9/05

Home made muesli

Friends and family  to celebrate with and who carefully select gifts

Nate delighted with remote control car

Broom to clean floor!

Dave cooked beautiful curry dinner 

New perfectly working lock on front door

Warm car to drive in

Early morning cuddles in front of heat pump. 

Mercy recounting our faith stories: You cried out to God for a husband and children and he gave them, I will pray for children when I am a lady

Mild day for party

Hot bath

Children played happily outside for hours!

Sunshine on washing

Nate learning addition from iPod game

Made lunch peacefully

Did washing peacefully

Played balloon ball with both m and e

Seeing war memorial from taxi at least!

Packed my own delicious lunch

Cloakrooms for back pack

Being on parliament roof and seeing Canberra layout

Privilege of exploring old and new Parliament House 

Looking at books, shops and exhibits in my own time!

Wandering to my own pace!

Found Perfect picture books for children as we move

Stack of certified documents and finance documents for visa applications equals incredible privilege

Able to share nibbles for after church

Dave made hommus

Children played well with others after church

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iSonto #62

Mercy opening her presents on her birthday morning last Friday.

Mercy's pancake birthday stack.

Fun building with Daddy.

Mercy's birthday party. Esther gave her a music box and Nate is dancing in the background.

Mercy's birthday cake.

The next day we enjoyed decorating our little Christmas tree.

More happy happenings:

Mercy and bill laughing and chasing each other
Making sock puppets
Mercy and Nate sitting side by side at swimming class, smiling
Mercy singing "Make me Wise"
Nate making a collage for Mercy's birthday
Nate wanting to use stick on letters and numbers
Cloths to clean up spilled milk :)
Music to fill our home
Mercy saying "thank you Mum" for her birthday presents

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iSonto #49

This week we are thankful for the fun morning we spent creating little pictures for our doll house, "framing" them with paper and laminating them.

It was one of those rare times where an activity with my children actually happened in the pleasant way I imagined it!

Elnathan was always eager to watch Daddy go in the morning.

 Mercy was happy to dress up Bill as, apparently, a "stripy elephant".

Bill was moving further! It was so cute when he crawled out the door.

One memory verse we practiced was "Be kind to one another" Ephesians 4:32.

From garden to tummies . . . the first broad beans in a risotto.

A book we enjoyed together was "Things People Do", part of our Sonlight P 4/5 Curriculum. You know that you're onto a good thing when the children keep bringing the book to the dinner table to show Daddy what they learned!

Encouragement, ideas and inspiration came from the Girltalk blog. A post about the kind of young women the church needs was perfect tonight as I've been thinking over the need to embrace rather than resent the massive learning curve that is raising little children. There are so many great posts on this blog I've been perusing the archives in the few spare moments over the past two weeks.

One funny moment was seeing the children with their massive pieces of cake at a friend's party! Three layers for three years of life. Each child started pleading for a different bit of the bird decoration . . . please may I eat the tail, the feet, the beak, etc. It was the most perfect afternoon garden party.

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Elnathan is Four!

Our firstborn turned four in May. You can tell we are busy because I am only posting about the event in July! Elnathan Michael Drew at four is . . .

• Full of stories about cars and his "imagination house" and "imagination children". 
• Drawing cars and houses at every opportunity
• Loving his "preschool stories" from Sonlight
• Eager to try out crafts and puzzles
• Becoming helpful in the kitchen!
• Able to pray with us each day, and great at singing his Songs for Saplings ABC Bible verses
• Showing Mercy all kinds of pretend play options which she quickly adopts
• Bursting with health and energy
• A great sleeper who often stays in bed until 7 or 8am
• Much better in church
• Making impressive block constructions
• Learning to serve and to love inviting people home
• Warming our hearts with statements like "You look lovely today" and "I love the quilt you made".
• An adoring older brother who loves to give Bill things "Look Mum, he is happy I gave him a book", grins from ear to ear in response to Bill's smile, and dances in circles for him. Here is a picture of "our baby" who smiles like this in response to almost any attention! All we have to do is talk to him and this is what greets us.

The last two and a half years since Mercy was born have been incredibly busy, and the learning curve has been steep. The past year was particularly challenging. Yet there is an abundance of joy. I exchange computer time for snuggles on the couch, my craft projects for eager tiny hands learning to coordinate paper and scissors, and a quiet house for cries of "Mummy". As we try to tell Elnathan often, you are a gift from God and He is good! 

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Mercy's Second Birthday

Here is our little birthday girl! We had a joyful party with family members including photos amongst the flowers, a butterfly cake, present opening, prayers for birthday girl, and writing in the birthday book.

It has been a lovely opportunity to reflect on what God has done for us in the past two years of Mercy's life and to keep trusting Him as we leave her baby days behind. Amongst other things, this year we are thankful that Mercy has . . .

• Developed great language skills, talking in whole sentences, praying, telling stories and pretending with toys.
• Loved to sing, and surprised us with her ability to pick up songs quickly, including "Jesus Loves Me" and "Twinkle Twinkle". 
• Delighted in having a brother to chase and wrestle and join in play.
• Got all but six of her teeth meaning that surely the end of all the teething pain is in sight?!
• Been very affectionate and generous with her hugs and kisses.
• Learned polite phrases and to greet people.
• Learned her colours and enjoyed practicing counting.

We have much to look forward to in Mercy's life as we remember that God's mercy is from generation to generation.

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