Well, for quite a long time now Michael and I thought that we would not always have a car. Two months ago we felt quite strongly that we should get rid of our car, and we nearly did it, but not quite! Then a month ago my brother's family car (the one that had been ours before) decided that it was going to stop working, and it turned out to be way too much to fix. That was the push we needed. We offered our car to David's family and prepared to go car-less. Not a big deal for most of the population of the world I know, or even for other families as large as ours. However, the big red people-carrier (or family bus) that we had been driving had certainly made many things possible for quite some time that would not have been otherwise, and we have enjoyed that travelling freedom. Maybe now is a time to work a bit more to get places, maybe it will reduce our carbon footprint a little, or maybe, actually, it just allows us to work within our budget a bit better.
So as of a week ago we left our four wheels behind (round the corner at David's house to be precise) and we are walking, taking the bus to church and the girls' ballet class, and riding bikes to as many other places as we are able. Now that we have the lights and everything else we need for winter riding, riding the bikes won't cost us anything so they are definately preferable. We had been having a lot of fun going for rides as a family over the summer - mostly around a 2 1/2 mile block from our house and around the nearby woods. Rachel and Hannah are pretty strong riders. Rebekah made the block just fine, as did Sarah although quite wearily toward the end. Peter always had a nice ride and often liked to cuddle me from behind. :o) We felt the need to get bikes sorted for everyone, and a bike seat for Peter on the back of my bike which helped us be able to have that fun exercise over the summer. We now also have a couple of trailers bought 2nd hand for not too much but in great condition, which means we can still ride long distance with the 3 younger children in trailers. Especially good for winter journeys, and handy for shopping trips now too. So instead of our easily recognisable family bus, we are now travelling on anywhere between 12 and 16 wheels (training wheels/stabilisers included) :o).
Things are taking longer, which is to be expected. Life will sometimes go a little slower in what can be achieved in one day - also to be expected. It is taking a little bit more initiative to make some things work. We've used the internet and postal service a bit more for Christmas presents! We also see a lot more of the world around us as we pass it by at a much slower pace though, which has been nice on occasions and hopefully come spring and summer especially will be even more enjoyable. You never know, we may even end up a bit fitter because of it! Of course it was the first day or being car-less that the freezing weather really decided to set in. Typical. Come summer, riding everywhere will be a breeze! :o)
Thursday, 20 December 2007
Thursday, 13 December 2007
An English Thanksgiving!
I have been trying to put this on here for a while, but we have been quite busy for the past few weeks.
This year, on 22nd November (which is now three weeks ago) we celebrated Thanksgiving along with our family (and friends) in America. It might seem strange to do so, not being American and with the reason behind much of why thanksgiving happened in the first place, however we have a lot to be thankful for, and looked forward to the opportunity to have a day dedicated to thankfulness, and especially as it was intended, to praising God for all that he has done for us. A primary reason for us also was that we have a sister and brother (with family) in the States, along with many others that we love, and this was another opportunity to be a bit nearer to them by sharing in some of the things that they would be doing, albeit many many miles away. Our family in America we have to spend time with in different ways to get to know one another and be close to them, as we just don't get to see each other in person.
Well, thank you to all of you that shared your own thanksgiving traditions with us. Thank you Debbie for your especially thoughtful response. We enjoyed reading them and there are some that we didn't manage this year that we might well try out in the future as we are hoping this will also become a tradition for us. It is fun to know the kind of things you would be doing.
That week wasn't my best of weeks, nor that day my best of days (in terms of how I was feeling), but we kept things simple and had a lovely time. We had looked at the history of thanksgiving over the previous few days and the children enjoyed learning something about the colonialists/pilgrims and what was effectively the first thanksgiving. That was really a harvest festival to us, and our meal reflected that partly. We did in the end go with partly 'traditional' food for our celebration meal. We enjoyed a free-range chicken (not turkey!), and mashed potato, gravy, cranberry sauce (we made our own in the end so that it would fit in with our no-sugar diet!), green beans, carrots, a big mixture of roasted vegetables - parsnips (mmm!), peppers, mushrooms, leek, sweet potatoes, garlic, etc., and then a baked butternut squash with some soya mince and cheese. Oh, and we also had sweetcorn (corn-on-the-cob) which Peter was especially thankful for! We didn't eat the squash in the end - we had that over the next couple of days instead along with some of the left-over veg. We had chosen some fruit we really like for dessert, but really didn't want it in the end as we were so full, so kept that for another day too! In future we might go for apple pie for a dessert, and I have a recipe for pumpkin pie (no sugar again) that we'll try out at some point, but maybe when we grow our own again in the next couple of years!
Rachel and Hannah really enjoyed helping out with preparing our meal and decorating the table in the morning while the little ones played and Peter had his nap. Then before our meal we had a few pieces of corn on our plates and thought about how the pilgrims for a long time really didn't have much food (like many others in the world now). We each took turns putting a piece of our corn into a glass as we shared things that we were each thankful for, until the corn was all gone, and we then had a special prayer of thanks. Then we filled the table with food that we really were thankful for (partly as it's food we don't normally get to eat!) We had coloured leaves decorating our table as a reminder of all things natural that we are also very thankful for.
We went for a walk in some woods near our home during what was left of the afternoon, and enjoyed exploring a part we hadn't visited before, which came out into a lovely grassy clearing in the middle. We gathered some fresh holly while we were there - that was the first of our Christmas decorations to go up that evening when we got back home. That was our only decoration for a while, tied up with some Christmassy ribbon, as despite our intentions to follow the tradition of decorating for Christmas right after thanksgiving, we had a lot happening here at the same time and didn't get organised enough - maybe next year?! I did manage to paint over some of our walls the day before though while Michael and the children went to visit their Nanny, so the house was looking pretty smart!
We finished off our day with tea/dinner and a pyjama party - we watched a video while enjoying some popcorn - all of us in our pyjamas. :o) That's one of our family traditions that the children sometimes choose for birthdays, and that we tend to do on Boxing day (day after Christmas day) and now sometimes at least for Thanksgiving too!
We hope all of you that are American enjoyed your own celebrations. It was nice to be thinking about you all in a different way while celebrating along with you. Somewhat belatedly, Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
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This year, on 22nd November (which is now three weeks ago) we celebrated Thanksgiving along with our family (and friends) in America. It might seem strange to do so, not being American and with the reason behind much of why thanksgiving happened in the first place, however we have a lot to be thankful for, and looked forward to the opportunity to have a day dedicated to thankfulness, and especially as it was intended, to praising God for all that he has done for us. A primary reason for us also was that we have a sister and brother (with family) in the States, along with many others that we love, and this was another opportunity to be a bit nearer to them by sharing in some of the things that they would be doing, albeit many many miles away. Our family in America we have to spend time with in different ways to get to know one another and be close to them, as we just don't get to see each other in person.
Well, thank you to all of you that shared your own thanksgiving traditions with us. Thank you Debbie for your especially thoughtful response. We enjoyed reading them and there are some that we didn't manage this year that we might well try out in the future as we are hoping this will also become a tradition for us. It is fun to know the kind of things you would be doing.
That week wasn't my best of weeks, nor that day my best of days (in terms of how I was feeling), but we kept things simple and had a lovely time. We had looked at the history of thanksgiving over the previous few days and the children enjoyed learning something about the colonialists/pilgrims and what was effectively the first thanksgiving. That was really a harvest festival to us, and our meal reflected that partly. We did in the end go with partly 'traditional' food for our celebration meal. We enjoyed a free-range chicken (not turkey!), and mashed potato, gravy, cranberry sauce (we made our own in the end so that it would fit in with our no-sugar diet!), green beans, carrots, a big mixture of roasted vegetables - parsnips (mmm!), peppers, mushrooms, leek, sweet potatoes, garlic, etc., and then a baked butternut squash with some soya mince and cheese. Oh, and we also had sweetcorn (corn-on-the-cob) which Peter was especially thankful for! We didn't eat the squash in the end - we had that over the next couple of days instead along with some of the left-over veg. We had chosen some fruit we really like for dessert, but really didn't want it in the end as we were so full, so kept that for another day too! In future we might go for apple pie for a dessert, and I have a recipe for pumpkin pie (no sugar again) that we'll try out at some point, but maybe when we grow our own again in the next couple of years!
Rachel and Hannah really enjoyed helping out with preparing our meal and decorating the table in the morning while the little ones played and Peter had his nap. Then before our meal we had a few pieces of corn on our plates and thought about how the pilgrims for a long time really didn't have much food (like many others in the world now). We each took turns putting a piece of our corn into a glass as we shared things that we were each thankful for, until the corn was all gone, and we then had a special prayer of thanks. Then we filled the table with food that we really were thankful for (partly as it's food we don't normally get to eat!) We had coloured leaves decorating our table as a reminder of all things natural that we are also very thankful for.
We went for a walk in some woods near our home during what was left of the afternoon, and enjoyed exploring a part we hadn't visited before, which came out into a lovely grassy clearing in the middle. We gathered some fresh holly while we were there - that was the first of our Christmas decorations to go up that evening when we got back home. That was our only decoration for a while, tied up with some Christmassy ribbon, as despite our intentions to follow the tradition of decorating for Christmas right after thanksgiving, we had a lot happening here at the same time and didn't get organised enough - maybe next year?! I did manage to paint over some of our walls the day before though while Michael and the children went to visit their Nanny, so the house was looking pretty smart!
We finished off our day with tea/dinner and a pyjama party - we watched a video while enjoying some popcorn - all of us in our pyjamas. :o) That's one of our family traditions that the children sometimes choose for birthdays, and that we tend to do on Boxing day (day after Christmas day) and now sometimes at least for Thanksgiving too!
We hope all of you that are American enjoyed your own celebrations. It was nice to be thinking about you all in a different way while celebrating along with you. Somewhat belatedly, Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
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Sunday, 25 November 2007
A little bit of culture!
Last night our ward (our local church congregation) had a "Royal Variety Performance" with various singing, dancing and just different acts from different ward members. The third performance was The Kruger Girls! They all have a ballet class each week with a lady from church who used to be a dance teacher, and never have done a show even though it nearly happened a couple of months ago. So last night, we had Rachel and Hannah dancing to the waltz in Coppelia, and then Sarah and Rebekah dancing to/being Little Bo Peep. We were surprised that Sarah and Rebekah (5 and 3) wanted to do that in front of so many people, and at bedtime too - not the best time of day for them! They didn't falter either, even though they had a problem with feedback at the beginning of where they should be singing, Sarah picked it up just fine. I did see Rebekah trying to hide behind her sister just a little bit though, whereas normally she sings out bold and strong. Apparently Rachel's favourite part was curtseying at the end, maybe because of the huge applause they got?!
It was really fun for us seeing them enjoy it so much, and feeling so confident. Also hearing all of the aaahs when Sarah and Rebekah came on stage. They had fun, and so did we. We hope you enjoy watching them too. Oh, Michael says sorry for being a bit abrupt with the zoom to start with, but hopefully you'll see just fine. So without further ado, here are THE KRUGER GIRLS......
Yaaaayyy!!!!
It was really fun for us seeing them enjoy it so much, and feeling so confident. Also hearing all of the aaahs when Sarah and Rebekah came on stage. They had fun, and so did we. We hope you enjoy watching them too. Oh, Michael says sorry for being a bit abrupt with the zoom to start with, but hopefully you'll see just fine. So without further ado, here are THE KRUGER GIRLS......
Yaaaayyy!!!!
Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Welcome friends!
Hi everyone! Welcome to our family's blog. I know I've sent some of you a link to another one in the past, but decided it made sense to have one just about our immediate family, so this is the place to come to find out what we're all up to, or even what we look like right now!
Well, it's been a while in the planning as you can tell by how many posts are now on here, and all before anyone but us has even seen it! It was meant to be sent out quite some time ago but, well, we've been busy with life really! So please take a look through the past posts (by clicking on the different months in the side bar might be the easiest - that will then take you to that month of posts), and see how our children have grown and what we've all been up to. We hope that we can keep you all up to date on our goings on more easily this way - you just have to remember to check it every so often. You can post comments easily too, and it would be lovely to "hear" your voices and know that you're around, so please do sometimes. :o)
Well, it's been a while in the planning as you can tell by how many posts are now on here, and all before anyone but us has even seen it! It was meant to be sent out quite some time ago but, well, we've been busy with life really! So please take a look through the past posts (by clicking on the different months in the side bar might be the easiest - that will then take you to that month of posts), and see how our children have grown and what we've all been up to. We hope that we can keep you all up to date on our goings on more easily this way - you just have to remember to check it every so often. You can post comments easily too, and it would be lovely to "hear" your voices and know that you're around, so please do sometimes. :o)
Wednesday, 7 November 2007
Brum brrrrrum!
We went to the transport museum in Coventry a couple of weeks ago while Edan and others had their half term break. I thought Peter would be fascinated by the cars and buses. He didn't see them all, but took it all in his stride really. He was really tired though as he wouldn't go to sleep! The thing he loved more than anything though was all of the toy cars. He really wanted them! Actually, when I just showed Peter this picture, he gasped in wonder as he did when he first saw them - a sort of "WOW!"
Peter liked the bikes. He kept standing by this penny-farthing trying to get onto it. Doesn't he look diddy on it?
We finished off in a play space including some soft blocks that were shaped so that you could make your own car from them. Hannah was chief designer when it came to this. She suddenly gets so animated in these situations and her creative energy runs wild! :o)
We had just about everybody in all together. Peter mostly just got knocked down a lot by people walking around by big blocks, or jumping and landing on him, but he held up fairly well!
I was exhausted by this time, but had a go too after sitting down for a while. So this is my racing car, made for Rebekah, with Rachel as the expert driver.
Wednesday, 31 October 2007
Happy Autumn!
Hello everyone, and HAPPY AUTUMN!
This is everyone out on a walk in the woods with Daddy a couple of weeks ago. As you can see, Peter is now one of the gang!
We also really enjoyed the beginnings of Autumn at the London Temple last month. We have several pictures of the children in the grounds there as usual Peter loved walking about and exporing the leaves with us. We all found some lovely ones we really liked.
Although you can't tell that this last photo is an Autumn photo at all, it is the last one taken that day before we drove home, and we liked it. We hope you do too. Have a happy Autumn everyone! xxx
This is everyone out on a walk in the woods with Daddy a couple of weeks ago. As you can see, Peter is now one of the gang!
We also really enjoyed the beginnings of Autumn at the London Temple last month. We have several pictures of the children in the grounds there as usual Peter loved walking about and exporing the leaves with us. We all found some lovely ones we really liked.
Although you can't tell that this last photo is an Autumn photo at all, it is the last one taken that day before we drove home, and we liked it. We hope you do too. Have a happy Autumn everyone! xxx
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
Splash!
We got to see Grandad (Michael's Dad) recently - met him for a picnic during his lunch break. There was a park nearby, and a stream beside it. We had our picture taken with Grandad before he left, and I could just see Hannah desperate to go in the moment he was gone. It didn't take her long, shoes and all, and what could everyone else do but follow?! I had the camera ready as ever and was glad that I did. :o)
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