He is risen!

We are having such a blessed weekend as we commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our King and Saviour!

After tucking the children into bed on Thursday evening, Mike and I settled on the couch and watched The Passion of the Christ again. It has been a few years since I've first watched this stirring depiction of Jesus' last hours before his crucifiction, and even though I was again deeply touched by the portrayal of the events leading up to His death, this is not a film I can watch frequently, or even annually. I am not sorry for having watched it again, though. It has helped me to purge from my heart the wordly misconceptions about this time of year that so easily entwines around one's heart in order to defile and distract: like the temptation to ignore what I know about the pagan origins of easter bunnies and easter eggs and letting my children join in the 'fun' of easter egg hunts etc. It encouraged me to return to the Word as I tell my children about the price Jesus paid for our salavation.

An after-lunch cuddle with ouma earlier today

On Good Friday at church we were treated to a beautiful musical play called One Voice - a fictional account of the struggle in the hearts of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea as they followed the days of  Jesus' teaching and death, and, ultimately, His ressurection. Afterwards we shared in the Communion and by the end of the service the whole congregation sang, unaccompanied and with tangible emotion, Amazing Grace.  Sweetpea LOVES music and dancing, so she was rivited throughout, but the highlight of the whole thing for her was seeing John the Baptist baptising Jesus! (John is her absolute favourite person in the Bible!)

And then the sun rose on this beautiful morning - Resurrection Sunday, for me the most significant and joyful day on the Christian calendar!! Because it was the event of my beautiful Saviour's resurrection  that changed everything!!

We don't do Christmas in a big way - definitely no christmas trees and silver balls and chuby little angels - but Resurrection Sunday is a day of joyous celebration in our household! I got up early this morning and found Sweetpea all curled up on the couch in the living room. I have no I idea why or for how long she had been up - she usually crawls into bed wit us when she wakes up early - but I was happy to have my little girl with me in the early hours of this special day.

We put on our aprons and she pulled up her stepping stool to help me prepare the dough for making breakfast scones.

I used I sharp knife to cut the dough into shapes resembling a lamb (Jesus was the ultimate sacrificial lamb), cross (an empty cross - death could not hold Him!) and circle (because Jesus conquered death, we now can have eternal life if He lives in us!) We popped the scones in the oven and set a lovely table, before waking up Dad and little ArrowBoy.

At breakfast, Dad read the resurrection story from the book of John, and we sang Alive, Alive, Alive forevermore!(Sweetpea really putting in all her effort at every Hallelujah!) while I fed ArrowBoy his mashed banana inbetween.

(I just CANNOT get this picture to upload correctly! Hope you get the idea!)

They then got to open a little gift each (Sweetpea and Arrow got a DVD with children's worship songs. We don't own a TV, but invested in an extra-large computer screen  on which good DVD's may be watched as an occassional treat. Dad and I got a triple play DVD set of Fireproof, Facing the Giants and Flywheel.)

After breakfast we put on the T-shirts we made last night.The children's read: "I DON'T NEED EASTER EGGS, I HAVE JESUS!" And after all that I was very surprised that we actually made it to chruch on time!

Our T-shirts says HE IS RISEN!

The children's T-shirts: I don't need easter eggs - I have Jesus!

In about half an hour we'll be off to my parents' for lunch, and then I will be very happy indeed if my two little lambs will both take a nice long, afternoon nap when we get back. Both. At the same time. For at least one hour, please!

I end on a sweetly commical note: We like to share Communion as a family at least once a week, but the frequency of it over the past few days (at church on Friday morning, and again at supper on Saturday,) obviously got to Sweetpea a bit. Last night we were having a delicious bowl of smoked chicken soup which my darling husband had prepared for us. Sweetpea was dipping a piece of bread in hers, took a bite and then handed the remainder to her dad, saying: "The body of Jesus, broken for you!"

Autumn gardening!

I love autumn! There is just something restfull about the unwinding of the days, something deliciously lazy in the way the leaves are starting to turn their colour and will soon be drifting groundwards. And although temperatures soared to over 30 degrees today, the early morning was mild and lovely, so the children and I cleared out the last remains of the summer's plants in my potted garden on the patio.

Every little body helped!

I am by no means a vey prolific or skilled gardener, and yet there is something about seeing things grow that strongly appeals to my motherhood. The planting and nurturing and guiding and then the joy of those first little green shoots! Isn't it just like my joy at watching my infant son discovering last week that he can pull himself up against things, and now there's no stopping him! And since yesterday he's attempting to wave with wild windmill swipes when we say "ta-ta!" My precious young seedling is growing stronger every day, and with every new morning my heart expands just a little more to make room for the love!

In pensive mood...

Have pink ballerina skirt, will do garden work in it!

So today we cleared away the last of the tomato plants that yielded quite a nice harvest this year. And I pulled out the dried stalks - all that remained of the blatantly bold zinnias. And we swept the patio and  watered the lemon tree and every now and then I stuck my finger into baby's mouth to take out grass or dirt or twigs. At one point I turned around to see the little fellow flat on his belly on the paving, lapping up a trickle of water running down from the pots! Good thing we're not germ freaks around here, hey!

It's thirsty work, this!

I LOVE doing these things with my children - they halve the effort and double the joy!

A Weekend in McGregor

After the kidney stone drama of last week (see previous post!), Mike and I were so greatful that we didn't have to cancel our plans for taking a break from city life for a weekend, and on Thursday morning we packed the children, our luggage and some padkos into the car, and left for the lovely little villiage of McGregor, about two hours away in the Breede Valley.

The road between Worcester and Montague/Bonnievale never ceases to overwhelm me with its beauty. I love the fruitful valleys bursting with lush crops of tomatoes and butternut, the vineyards and orchards, the quaint farm stalls and breathtaking mountains. But this time the ride held an extra thrill as we turned right out of Robertson's main street towards McGregor and followed a winding road  we've never traveled before. A mere 20 km later we entered the 'villiage where time stood still' (according to one of the tourist brochures). And that is no lie: for the next four days I forgot all about schedules and to do lists and just savoured the peace and unhurried flow of life in the small country town.

We stayed at a renovated cottage, aptly called 'Next Door', as the owner lives, well, right next door (!) in another beautifully preserved white and green cottage. It had a wide verandah with a rietjiesdak where we enjoyed all our meals and the splendid view, and the children loved playing on the soft green grass behind the house, with Sweetpea exploring the fig  and granate apple trees and fearlessly climbing the ladder propped up against the back wall. The cottage had two roomy bedrooms (we slept on a beautiful brass double bed) with two bathrooms and a spacious open-plan kitchen/lounge. Balmy breezes were welcomed in as we left the doors open all day - no traffic noise or sirens or burglar bars or thumping music from an inconsidertae neighbours house. Just...aaahhh...peace...!

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Mike was just the epitome of relaxation and divided his time between dozing and reading, while I took loooong, meandering walks with the baby in the stroller and my sweet little girl traipsing through the irrigation channels that line all the streets and are still being used for watering lush English gardens and vegetable plots. We breathed deeply and litstened to the wind and the birds and the gentle rythms of small-town life. Friendly townsfolk greeted us with smiles and  the man at the tourism office gave Sweetpea a postcard with a child's drawing of a church on it.

On Friday evening we dined at Green Gables. When I called earlier to enquire about whether they had credit card facilities (they didn't, as was the case with most of the restaurants) the owner's wife kindly told me: "No, Love, but don't worry. Come have a lovely meal and then you can pay tomorrow when you've had a chance to draw money." We had the most delectable lamb shanks and vegetables, and desert was heart-shaped malva puddings adrift in a pool of sweet custard.The highlight was the view, though!

On Saturday morning we walked up to where a few of the villagers put on a small morning market. Who'd have thought that such delicious bounty could be collected from just four or five tables set up under the oak trees on the sidewalk?!

The highlight for the children was Eseltjiesrus Donkey Sanctuary, and on Sweetpea's insistance we visited it every day during our stay. It is home to 18 rehabilitated donkeys (Look out for a post on my Joyful Mama Blog!) and a delightful little restaurant where we allowed our little girl to taste a milkshake for the very first time!

I usually dread coming home after such restful breakaways, but once again the beauty of the Breede Valley eased the return journey to such an extent that I'm still basking in the afterglow of our quiet, refreshing weekend. And McGregor has definitely not seen the last of this family....