Thank You February.

It is dark this morning as I type this.

It is on the cold side too and although there is only a slow pitter patter now there was a heavy downpour through the night.

I also know that when the weather is so I will not be able to connect in any means or form ~ and that is alright. I am at utter peace with this. Strange how in days gone past this would have been so very frustrating and this frustration would have led to obscene curse words and an irritation beyond words could describe. Strange how things were then. It is very liberating to say the very least.

This month has been such an exciting time. Not only have we learnt a whole lot from our new Homeschooling lifestyle but we have also learnt what it means to start living a more frugal simple lifestyle. We are now a one income family with Rob trying hard to keep us afloat while I knit you all up one hat at a time to contribute to it all. It has also been a difficult month emotionally. Tristan leaves next week for China and I have spent the month watching him finalise his visa, sell off all his furniture from his bachelor/student year down the coast and now we finalise all the last bits with the bank. It is exciting and worrisome and the anxiety... well, I am sure you can imagine. But, I am pleased for him - this new life he will build for himself away from the tribe. It is going to be mighty interesting to see how the month to come will be for our home without the eldest child here.



FEBRUARY ROUND UP

Knitting ; I finished off Danika's Pullover, 2 Beanies for Tristan in Variegated colours, 1 purple (barney purple) with heart motifs for Danika and 1 gorgeous green with diamond shapes (crystals to be exact) for Garren. Joshua wants one in white with bright pink. I don't have white at the moment and know he is just being sassy. So, I have suggested he think about what he wants first and then let me know. I have also added a plain purple toddler beanie to the Shop. After a number of DM on Instagram as to whether I would be willing to sell my hats I decided to give it a bash. I will knit one up every so often and add it to my online store. I will still be taking on commissions - so email me. The prices will be on the shop to give you an idea of what they will be sold.

Reading ; there hasn't been much reading happening. Besides that of lesson planning and the occasional swipe of the finger as I go through my RSS news feed or Instagram feed. I had hoped that we would have found our way to the library. But, not yet. I cannot venture there on my own with the children. I have to wait on Rob to get us there. It isn't in the safest area of town. So, we will just keep reading what we have on the shelf. Which is Charlie & The Chocolate Factory for Garren and a line or two for me from Jane's Delicious Gardening by Jane Griffiths. I am looking for the Anne of Green Gables series to reread. I love them as a teenager. And I would love to get Dicey's Song for Garren to try out too, it was another one of my favourites when I was his age.

Gardening ; I posted a garden update HERE a week or so ago. Since then we harvested a couple of Shu-shus for Friday night homemade take-out night. It was a great success. The hedge is bursting with fruit - what we don't use up soon will be heading home with guests from Tristan's farewell supper on Saturday. Otherwise, in garden news, I am heading off to harvest more Thyme for the dehydrator later this morning.




Watching ; from the beginning of the year we disconnected our DSTV and invested in Openview (which wants expensive at all). It offers the basics - a couple of movie channels, a learning channel, a kiddies channel, our usual SABC 1 2 3 and of course the ETV channel. It also offers a good couple of radio stations, especially the one we love. LMradio, a Mozambican station that plays good oldies. Even the jingles are set to dates before our time. Rob and I are smitten with it. But, in saying all this we don't really get to watch much. LMradio blares beautifully through the day and then gets switched over to BBC news from around six in the evening. If there is a good movie on over the weekend we will turn over to it. Otherwise we don't screen time too much. What I did do this month though, is order a few good old dvds from Takealot. The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, The Secret Garden, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Mary Poppins and Charlotte's Web to be exact. They are still in transit. I have plans to choose one of them each week and let the small (and big ones) get to know a little of my childhood. I cant wait, it is no secret. I do hope they arrive soon so we can get started. Do you have a favourite golden oldie to suggest for us to get?





Cooking ; this month I added a new Zulu / South African traditional dish to our Saturday night supper. I started off with good old faithful Putu-pap, which I had never known how to make but sure knew how to devour in bowl fulls every time Rob's Mama made it. So that was a huge accomplishment for me. I then proceeded to add Samp & Beans which started off a little dry but by this weekend gone I was able to accomplish a little more gravy to stick around after standing for a bit. Cabbage was on special last week! Can you believe that buying a Cabbage is ridiculously expensive around these parts. I got it for R6.99 and was pleased as punch to add it to our meal this weekend. Curried Cabbage with a little soya bean. Did you see it on Instagram? It was a good food weekend to say the very least. I ended it off on Sunday with homemade custard slice and I think that earned a whole galaxy of twinkly star points with all the boys (especially Rob) and even with our little Danika. Speaking of which, She has taken it upon herself to only eat if fed by herself with a grown up metal teaspoon otherwise don't even worry about it. What new meals have you got planned for the week? Jennifer over at Thistlebear posted a delicious looking Slow cooker shredded chicken + easy enchiladas recipe which, of course, I am dying to try out. I have been slow cooking my chicken for weeks now - as there is almost zero wastage. The meat just falls from the bones and is delicious in my Chicken & mushroom pie and chicken a la king nights. Cooking up a whole chicken works out so much cheaper than buying pieces. That's how we roll these days.


Homeschooling ; we have completed our third week of homeschooling. Well, first month. We did informal assessments at the end of week three and it seems we are on track. We are still placing our footing as to how we want lessons to go. The layout and times that are set up as a guideline are not really working for us. We are finding that just as we get started on subject and it all gets super interesting we have to move on to the next one. We started lessons a little different this week. The mornings start with Math and English and then go through one subject a day for the rest of the week. With reading out loud in both English & Afrikaans in the afternoons while Danika naps or I prepare supper. I will let you know how our new lesson plans fare as we go along. Do you home school? How do you work out your lesson plans?



Hoping : for this new month for Tristan to be happy and find peace in this new country and city that he will be flying to. I also hope that we can slow down a little more. I am still training myself to stop and breathe and remember that this new lifestyle was indeed for us to do just that. SLOW down and enjoy the small things. I also hope that this silly little stye in my eye decides to heal up soon, I have never had one before and I would not wish it on my enemy. I also hope that this new month - the month that brings in the tweaking of Autumn and Mabon, my most favourite season - brings you all happiness and just enough of everything your heart desires.

cheers to February, hello there March.

Love always, Angela XOX