Christmas 2013 and the welcoming of 2014

Christmas was magical this year, I stayed up till half 2 on Christmas morning with Mike making sure that each last touch for the following morning was perfect from the Braided Nutella bread for breakfast to the tree decorations being picture perfect including the final touch of chocolate on the tree which always has to wait till the last night else it would be gone weeks before the big day with the tree tipped up to find them.

All the children had a great day on Christmas day lots of excitement, our 2 yr old AJ missed the big meal due to tiredness so ate his turkey and sprouts at 8pm or something like that after his older brothers had retired for the night. It was extra special sharing the day with J&L and my Mum and Dad and introducing them to some throughly english parts of the holidays like Yorkshire puddings on the Roast Dinner, and Terry's Chocolate Oranges which i searched high and low to find last min as I had forgotten to buy them ahead of time. The boys made Giant Gingerbread Men nearly the size of an A4 sheet of paper and we had a feast on Boxing day with a table of biscuts, cakes and a cheeseboard we are still finishing off.

New Years went off with a bang though Mum was asleep as were all the boys but Mike and I shared a bottle of Asti with my Dad and J&L enjoyed the night we watched Grace Card ( fantastic film ) to pass the time after dinner then played a few rounds of Bannnagrams ( which was Dad's Christmas present ) which is a great game and I know I will be buying another one when Dad takes his back to AU with him.

Today ( New Years day ) I didn't get up till this afternoon though I had to wake up a couple of times to feed Christopher and we had homemade pizzas for a late lunch this afternoon. so we are still working out what we are planning to do for dinner and then figure out what we want to do tomorrow as there was talk of a day trip out to see things.

My Parents brought us a second car which they are using while here and our First car is getting a new set of tires on Friday as a Christmas present from us to us to keep the car on the road as we are looking towards a cold probably icy January.

Thats all from me for now since AJ is up from his nap and cranky as anything so needs my attention.
Ciao

Odendaal baby #4

CJ joined our family on the 26th of September 00:01am or actually just before but they recorded the time as this so he's not stuck in the gap between 23:59:59 on 25/09/2013 and 00:01:00 26/09/2013
hope that makes sense

CJ is a extremely happy and placid baby hes a big boy with 9lb 15 1/2 oz as recorded birthweight which is 4.520 kg,
We had a great home water birth and all went smoothly, we did end up in hospital on the night of the 28th due to an ABOHDN which caused Jaundice just the same as we had with NJ though his was picked up sooner. CJ only needed a 2 night hospital stay though with the light therapy and we were home Monday afternoon.
CJ learnt to smile by 3 weeks old and has been smiling just about all the time hes awake since. hes a chatty boy with lots of noises to make and fits in well with the family.
Big brothers NJ, EJ and AJ adore him and always want to help out and take care of him though AJ wanting to help by making sure his baby brother has his pacifier whilst actually sleeping isnt always the most helpful option but he does try and often is trying to drop hints that himself or CJ might need a nappy change or food /drink and bringing me the right things.

My parents are here for the holidays with my brother and youngest sister J and L in tow though currently as I write this they are in Ireland taking a explore around the area that my family originates from. They will be back on Saturday for Christmas and New Year then off to Paris to see the sights before coming back for a final few days before they fly out back to Australia.

Re-starting schooling

Well after the summer we have restarted school for NJ, EJ has gone off to nursery and AJ is always keeping busy getting his little fingers into things he shouldn't be getting into lol.

Mostly at the moment we are working on handwriting through Basic English books and his Reading through Phonics and math work getting reading the time sorted  and all those other subjects like Money that come under the Math umbrella in the early years since he knows what he needs to know for now in the base of Addition and Subtraction.

Home-Education

Ok , For most of this school year we have taken things at a rather relaxed pace there hasn't been daily work done at least not daily academic work for the boys. I try to get some time reading to them each day and encourage them to write/draw/count in some form, mostly It has been practical hands on work helping Mummy around the house and learning numbers and letters and their sounds as we do the housework or prepare meals.

I believe Education is a lifelong experience and encompasses all parts of our lives not just the book based work done in schools and a young person with a well rounded education can function in the society they are in being literate and articulate, able to think for themselves finding out information when they need it and is always hungry to learn new things. endless hours in a classroom from my own experience and in my opinion doesn't achieve these ends.

I have been putting together some worksheets for the boys to do as they are progressing with their literacy skills at their own level and it will be a handy benchmark for me to see where they are at so I can provide them with the opportunity to discover new skills that are appropriate to where they are at in their learning journeys.

Now to get back on with guiding my children through this world encouraging learning experiences for them.

New Baby

We have a new son joined the family on 9th December, Named Alister Robert James Odendaal, weighed 9lb 7oz at birth and born into Daddys hands as there were not any medical personal present at the birth since the MW never showed up and the ambulance didnt make it in time

Waiting for the answer

Well we are waiting and trusting at the moment, God must have something big planned and not be wanting to spoil the surprise as we have 9 days till moving day and still no home to move to.....

swings and roundabouts

Its just typical how in life you have something really good happen just for it to be follwed by something not so great, take this weekend for example on Wedesday last week Nate broke Michaels glasses and on Wed evening after Mike struggling with broken ones all day then we decided to believe for healing in Mikes eyes and not get new ones, Mike was off work till Tuesday so this wasnt a problem and we went away on the Church weekend away and it seemed like his eyes were actually improving which was awesome but they didnt get completely better so when we got home on Monday afternoon he went to the Optiction and sorted out some glasses thanks to the NHS we got them free which is awesome caus we really didnt have the money to buy him new ones, Anyway they werent able to get them ready same day so we prayed and he went to work yesterday without glasses and found it hard , got a headache etc... and Nate woke up running a low fever yesterday so was very clingly and needing alot of my attention all day, Nates fever did go away by evening though Thanks be to God so we didnt make a doctors trip for him, This morning Mike called the optiction on his way to work and they had his glasses ready so we walked to the car and picked him up as work had told him he could be late so he could get his glasses which was a blessing, So Mike is off to work now with his glasses and after a horrible day for all of us yesterday then the only issue we are battling against today is my sore throat,
Elliott is still unsettled and spent most of the night in our bed last night which was annoying but im happy to accept thats what he needs for now and because he knows we are in the same room he wont settle back to sleep so i really cant wait till we have some space where we can put his bed where he cant see us in bed and that wil hopefully over a couple of nights stop him waking in the night.

The Church weekend was fantastic and refreshing spiritually and that was great and we went to the Kingsgate evening service which was great too although i missed alot of the talk since i was out the back with Nathaniel who was overtired and cranky