Time for a Little Break and Some News...

Hello everyone, firstly I’d like to tell you some lovely news...in April my father was asked to teach at Knysna High School!! The job started first May so my father has been working away from home and staying in the hostel while us girls have been holding the fort and packing up our house to move again!

It has been very interesting and difficult work coping without the man of the house! Because we live a very different life to most people, without electricity or a conventional geyser, relying on our ‘donkey’ (we make a fire underneath an old gas bottle that has been made into a cylinder holding water. After a little while of putting wood on the fire, we have hot water in our taps for baths and washing dishes!), I never realised how much work there is that Dad does, but I am proud to say we are nearly there!

Another wonderful, wonderful thing happened. The person who was staying on the farm we used to rent just outside of Knysna, moved out, so we were asked if we needed to come back and we said yes...I am so excited because I shall have my little veggie patch and my little pony, Hazelnut again!

My dad comes today to fetch a load of boxes and furniture but will be back on Wednesday to pick us up to take us to Knysna, which leads me to another thing...I have to take a little break: ( It is very sad and I know I’m going to miss blogging but it is just for a small amount of time, while we set up our house and move in)! I shall be back on the web again in about two or three weeks, so don’t go away!

To my Christian blog friends, please would you pray for a safe, rain-free journey and a stress-less move! My mom has been amazing even though she has been feeling so ill and tired with her pregnancy, so please pray that God would give her strength and help her to rest (something all special moms need to learn to do more often!)

Many blessings,

Kelly-Anne

Learning through Living - Fish Hoek Part One

My sisters and I have had a very full life and we have learnt so much over the past few years. We have lived almost all over South Africa and if we haven’t lived in a certain place, we might well have visited it on our travels!

We have seen beautiful countryside, long stretches of ocean, busy towns and hectic cities! We have seen so much and sometimes we forget to take moving around the country as a blessing – we have learnt things most of our friends haven’t!

I decided to take you through our travels, showing places in beautiful South Africa that you might not have visited before. I want to show you crazy things we have done but enjoyed so much! So now sit back and enjoy looking at the heap of photographs I have to show you! I know it might or might not inspire you to step out of your front door and tour the beautiful countryside that you live in! But we learnt and we are learning about life and the world around us through living!

Each week I will show you a different place we’ve lived in.

This week I am writing about Fish Hoek, Cape Town. My dad got a job as an Instructional Designer at a company in Cape Town. He worked long hours, compared to teaching. There were fewer holidays, but in the evenings we looked forward to his homecoming. Before he came home though, we cleaned the house and made sure we were bathed and had supper ready. That way we had more time to spend with him! This is part one of Fish Hoek, in part two I shall tell you about life when my dad got retrenched and how he got a teaching post at a high school.

Gabrielle playing in her sand pit.

Nancy and Beth built many tents out of doll blankets and towels!

Gabrielle insisted upon going to sleep with her new ball!

“I can’t see anything!” Beth trying to see the bird...

Beth on her 4th birthday with the hobby horse my mom made for her which she called Rosy. Rosy is also often also called Chester, her thoroughbred gelding!

I started selling fudge around town.  My dad would walk with me and I would try sell in order to pay for my riding lessons.  After a month or so we got into the local market and I started selling a few other products! 

Me at my first proper riding lesson on Chariot.

On a hike in Betty’s Bay

The view of Betty’s Bay from the top of the mountain.

Nancy and Beth pretending to be monkeys...need they pretend...?

Gabrielle and Beth doing some sort of acrobatics on the grass!

Gabrielle and I playing with my pet rat, Rupert.

My mom and dad with me on my 12th birthday.

Gabrielle eating watermelon.

Beach babe.

Gabrielle and Beth planting seeds.

Nancy planting her seeds.

Learning to jump on Nando.

Gabrielle on her 3^rd birthday.

Gabrielle doing art.

Nancy on her 9^th birthday.

Gabrielle on the tractor at Peregrine Farm stall, Overberg.

Four sisters on the tractor...a little while later and we took another photograph of five sisters on the tractor!

Beautiful Nancy on the swing

Beth on a picnic.

Gabrielle bundled up for the chilly weather!

Beth doing a craft...

And Nancy doing her craft...

...the finished products!  The tourist and the blue elephant!

My Granny’s stall at the Teddy Bear Fair.

Beth with her teddies on their way to the Teddy Bear’s Picnic.

Gabrielle getting stuck into the picnic lunch...who cares about the teddy bears!!

Nancy and I on Elsie’s Peak (Elsie’s Peak was the second blog post I ever wrote!)

Beth and I posing for a photo!!

The beautiful sunset

We had many adventures in Fish Hoek and I shall tell you about the rest in part two! A lot of these pictures I am sure you have already seen because I had started my blog already. I love going through old photos and reading my old posts so under each already used photo I will give a link to the post I did and you can go through the old ones too!!

Thanks for stopping by,

Kelly-Anne

We're Moving To Bethany Farm!

Hello everyone!  We are very excited to say that were are moving to Bethany Farm!

A few of you might have seen this clip and wondered what it's all about, well once we are there I will certainly keep you updated!

For now you can get an idea by watching this YouTube clip!  The DVD is also lovely!























We are moving in three weeks time.  The house we are going to live in is quite big and the scenery on the farm is beautiful!

Have a wonderful week further!

Blessings,
Kelly-Anne

Hello Again!

Hello again!! It feels so good to be on my blog again! We haven't yet got Internet on the farm as we are too far out!! I tried going to the library, but each time I went, they were offline! Fortunately my dad has been working in Cape Town so I came down with him to stay at my best friend, Heidi-Mari. I am staying for five nights - but I am really going to miss the farm!


Now I want to tell you a bit about the farm!

...It is BEAUTIFUL!! Never in our lives have we felt so happy! There is so much freedom and we are NEVER inside (except of course when we are sleeping) We beg to be allowed out, but not until our chores are done!!

Our cute cottage, what do you think?

There are also many down sides but we are choosing to focus only on the good!

Snow on the mountains!

Beautiful sunset!

There are two horses: Gaylord and Snowflake. Snow is pregnant!! Very exciting! I ride our neighbour's horse called Hazelnut. She is three and has only just been broken in but she is so gentle and sweet and
thinks she is a human. She comes to you for cuddles and hugs and is so good with the little ones even though she is still so young! I am teaching her to trot properly and to stop (she doesn't like to stop) and we are starting to canter! I ride bareback all the time because she is not trained to have a saddle! We ride up and down the road! Snow and Gaylord are very nosey. Snow loves my mom and she comes onto the porch! Gaylord we call 'Dopey' from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - he always looks sleepy!

Snowflake

Gaylord......"Hello"!

Trying to eat my breakfast of maize meal...as you can see I was having a bit of trouble....!  I actually got a bit of horsey slobber on my bowl...yuck!

The guinea pigs are doing so well! Cocoa gave birth to Tammy, Peanut and Butter a week or two ago, and Candy, my guinea pig, had her babies just before I left - four, the most she has ever had, or so we thought! This morning my mom sms'd to say that she had two more during the night!! She now has six!! Now there are 13 to look after till it is time to sell them! (Nancy didn't keep Honey.)




















Peanut

Butter

Cocoa with Peanut and Tammy.  They are feeding!!!

There is a forest at the bottom of the farm where we have picnics and collect small pieces of wood for the little coal stove in our living area.

The little ones play all day on their bicycles riding up and down the drive! They play with mud, tadpoles and sand toys!!

Nancy and I are enjoying living on a farm! I planted lettuce, radish, onion and Swiss Chard seed the other day. The Swiss Chard is for my guinea pigs!

The sunrises and sunsets are ten times better than in the city. The frogs croak all night, sending us to sleep, crickets chirp and a little bird hops about, tame as ever on our porch! Life is harder and tougher than in the city but there is a purpose to living - there is freedom and beauty all around us and we are wonderfully happy!





















This move was good - we are where we are meant to be - praise be to God for opening this door!!!

Blessings to all,
Kelly-Anne

The Pros of Moving

I love moving!

I love packing up - seeing the amount of things lying around gradually disappear and then seeing the mountains of full cardboard boxes slowly rise up, till you cannot see over it!

I love decluttering too - sorting through bits and pieces and throwing out what we don't need is fun!  I love to see how many bags I can fill for either throw away, giveaway or sell. 

I also love the day before the move....everyone is excited, nervous and happy, all at the same time!  That evening the big people are popping the last few things in boxes and sealing them....that night is fun, sleeping in an empty room.  You sleep with the bare minimum, so there is less to put in the car the next day!  We can hardly get to sleep with anticipation!!

Then....the BIG DAY!  It is a very stressful morning, but eventually all is done...we say goodbye to our house and our lives there, and carry on.  The car trip is scary, fun and exciting!  Our stops are frequent because of us little women in the car who forever need to visit the 'Ladies' 'to powder our noses', as Daddy calls it!

That night we arrive at our new destination and there is great excitement!  We run around the house, looking at all the new things and choose our bedrooms!  We find it hard to believe that this is our new home!

The night is scary and full of sounds and strange noises.  Fortunately we have sisters to snuggle with.  We again sleep with very little as most of it is still in the car or we just cannot find it!

The next day is fun and full of surprises!  We unpack as much as we can in between meals, so that blood sugars don't go sliding downhill!!  Setting up the beds and making them in the new rooms is so exciting!  Unwrapping crockery and putting them in the right places is just wonderful....hmmmm...we are starting afresh!

So, yes, that is what I love about moving and starting a new life...but I said what I 'love'....there are things I don't like as well!

I am trying to be positive with this move, but it is very hard!  We moved here to Fish Hoek two years ago, and I was two years younger and we had one less little one!  I was only eleven, so my responsibilities and duties were far less!


Now I am thirteen, and we have a new little one in the house who is only one!  That little tot is able to make a big difference between having a peaceful, well organized move, or a chaotic and stressful one!  Fortunately, we have Nancy, our miracle Baby-Sitter!  She is EXCELLENT! Rebekah loves her, and will stay with her for ages!

Me sorting out all the pictures and things my mom has collected throughout each of our lives....this took a while!!  It was also very funny to see how we used to colour in when we were little - and what!!!  There are some pictures that I drew that I will never show anyone...they are just too embarrassing!

Okay, I know our faces look very sad, but my dad took this before we were prepared!!  This is how our dining room looked a day or two ago.  Since then, we have packed things away and now only our table, chairs and a chest of drawers remains!!

We have only one sleep left here in this house, and, aaargh!!!  We still have lots of things to do! 

Today Nancy and I got lists of the things to do.  It took a while!!  There is a lot of cleaning still to be done in the house!!  Dad sorted out the outside yesterday and today.


Whenever I start to complain about things we have to do in order to move, my mom always says to me "We are getting closer to our dream...keep going...think about the life we are going to live..stay strong...don't give up...we are nearly there..."  And my mom is right!  I just have to keep going, it is not long until we reach our dream! 


So, yes, there are cons to moving too, but if I choose to focus only on the pros, I will be fine!  The Bible says to give praise in all circumstances, so I am trying!

Our 'Praise Party' was to praise God for opening the door to allow us to move to live our dream.  I didn't write this then, as it was still very much a secret!

Speaking of our praise party, I haven't forgotten to share the recipes...as you can understand, we have been very busy with packing and typing out recipes takes ages, so I will do them, when I have more time!  So hold on, they are coming! 


So do please keep our family in your prayers and thoughts.  We are moving on Monday morning to our new smallholding.  Please pray for strength (for us bigger ones) and that peace, love, joy and love will remain in our house, and for lots of protection!

Blessings to all,
Kelly-Anne

P.S.  I am fast approaching 200 posts!  This post is my 196th.   My 200th post will be a celebratory  post, and I am doing a little something special, so keep following my blog to find out and take part!!!