Not for the squeamish

Yes, meet my new shop assistant, Miss Anica Vogel! Such a happy, fun filled 10 month old!

Over this last long weekend, I had the privilege of having Astrella and Anica staying with me for 3 nights. Marius went on a fishing trip to Bloemfontein!

"Pulling all these clothes out of the shelves is exhausting"

Though the weekend was great, it was not without its challenges!
The weather was cold & rainy so poor little Anica was restricted to the confines of my little flat! However, we did go out to bookclub on Saturday and had Sunday lunch with Seth & Shirley after church. The change of scenery really helped!

Unfortunately the amount of wild cats living around the school has increased. These cats are forever ganging up on Tigger and about 2 weeks ago he was in a very big cat fight. Because of his thick fur (not to mention, fatty bulges) I could not see any injury but 5 days after the fight I noticed an area on his stomach which was very sensitive and upon investigation, I found that a huge, painful growth had developed. A friend kindly took us to the vet and Tigger ended up having a massive operation! It turns out that where he had been bitten a hair had gone through and lodged itself, causing an abscess! The vet had cut away much of the dead fat in order to remove the hair, thus giving Tigger his very own Tummy Tuck.
Tigger came home with a huge wound and a cone on his head to keep him from pulling out the stitches! He really was not a happy kitty and soon after his return, he managed to get the cone off his head. Stress levels soared as we tried to put it back on. Thankfully Bev came over and helped Astrella refasten it. The vet was adamant that he wear the cone as he would have bitten the stitches out in no time!
I was so so grateful to have had Astrella with me over those first three days as she helped carry Tiggers sandbox in & out for me and also helped give Tigger his morning antibiotic!

This photo was taken a day after the operation. He has since been to the vet for a checkup and another antibiotic injection. The vet is happy with his progress and his stitches will be coming out next Friday. In the meantime he has become accustomed to the cone for which I am VERY grateful. Not only does it stop him from licking his wound but it restricts his walkabouts to only the courtyard because it is too big and he can't fit through the bars of the gate.

While Tigger is restricted, I am making plans with the SPCA to come and catch the wild cats and remove them from the school!
I would be very relieved if this mission were accomplished!

Christ is the Key

I have been having a very frustrating time with my Bible study girls! I officially have seven precious souls but they are only in Grade 9 and even though I have had them for over a year, they are just not committed. So with them being so inconsistent, I have found it very difficult to go through a book with them systematically.
Lately, for various reasons I have been waking up between 2 & 2:30am and that is it, my zzzzzzzz time is over and instead of sleeping, the grey matter kicks into overdrive! During one of my early morning mental marathons, I started wondering what to do with these girls and how better I could serve them. I remembered how I used object lessons when I gave Bible Study in the Home to intellectually impaired adults! These lessons were short but full of impact. I prepared my first object lesson but last week, only 2 girls pitched up 55 minutes late. I was very discouraged but our Faithful Lord gave me an idea and I suggested to the two girls that we should have a leader who would be responsible for ensuring that the girls remember Bible study, arrive on time or come and inform me when nobody is able to attend! This leader would also be responsible for praying for the other girls with me. They loved idea and I appointed the girl who is the least spiritually strongest out of the two to be the first leader.
Yesterday was the first Bible study with Kabelo as leader and I was amazed! I had FIVE girls and they were only 10min late.
The lesson went very well! I had a locked padlock and asked them to lock my gate (without giving them the key). The same with a can of tuna (without a can opener, they had to open the can for me as I needed it for my dinner). The gist: the padlock is useless without a key as is the reason for living without Christ. This was thickly coated in backup Scripture!
I pray that our Bible study has reached a positive turning point.

A Fairtale Wedding

I am now at home for the March school holidays. I quickly uploaded & saved these wedding photo's before I left so that it would not affect my folks internet bill, now I just have to fill in the captions and publish the post so that you can FINALLY see my brothers wedding pics!

It was an honour for me to be a Bride's maid, even though, as usual, I was nervous! However, Cristo and Lee were very thoughtful and assigned Pieter, one of the Best men to be my personal assistant! I have known Pieter a long time and felt comfortable with him. Although, a real character, he did a wonderful job assisting me.

Finally Married!!!
Lee wanted a fairy wedding and instead of confettie, everyone blew bubbles, was quite pretty!
The main table!

I am very happy about my new sister, she really is a loving, caring person!

It was lovely to be able to dance with my uncle again, even though he has terrible back pain! He always was one to get me onto the dance floor!!!

The Bride changed into casual clothes and had a ball!
My cousin did a lovely collage with some of the photo's which she took!!!

I pray the Lord will bless this union and that Cristo & Lee will find true happiness & joy as they discover union with the True Saviour and His Love, Grace and daily Sustaning Power!

Home Makeover!

Since deciding to stay in Polokwane, as an incentive, I made myself a few promises! One of them was to try and make my flat a little more homely. The school, thankfully agreed to buy the paint and other materials and we went mad with Sonja, my supervisor behind all the excellent ideas. Very kind friends of mine from church (Anet & Bazil) organized the painting and one of their friends, Gert very kindly did the painting and a lot of fixing up while I was away for my brother's wedding! But before I left, Sonja and myself had some of the handymen from the school remount the counter which used to be an island and place it under the window, thus giving me so much more space! I hope this photo gives an idea of the changes. We even fixed up the cupboards and had new handles and hinges mounted.
I really needed a new desk, my old one was nearly 20 years old, falling apart and really didn't suit my new look! Sonja "happened" to see the perfect desk for me. It was on special and selling at a very good price! Sonja enjoyed kindly putting the desk together for me!
I am really happy with this desk!
Sorry for the poor quality photo's, yours truly took them!After two weeks of firstly clearing the flat out for the painters and then, this week putting everything back, though tired, I am very thankful for all the help and very happy with the end result!

Great success, amazing Grace!

I know that I have slipped up big time with my blog but this past month has been crazy!!! Hopefully I will be able to update you on everything and you will have a good idea of what I have been up to!
At the beginning of March we tackled our year end stocktake, I must admit that this is not my most favourite stock take of the year as everything is in a shambles after the back to school rush!
It really is nice to have Rahab back even though her leg was still very painful! However, now she is doing much better. She still wears a dressing but the burn is healing very nicely!

The uniform stocktake went extremely well and out of R1.5 million worth of stock on hand, I only had a 0.05% discrepancy.

My stationery stocktake also went extremely well.

Rahab and Philistus are such amazing helpers during the hectic times!
I truly am so thankful to our Lord, without His Hand over us, this would never be possible!

Cremora Tart

I copied Antje's Cremora tart recipe and made it yesterday for tomorrow's book club! I have the privilege of hosting it this month and Shirley has kindly said that I can use her house as our venue! Have had special little Herbazone gift packs made up for each lady and also plan a lucky draw!
Should be fun!

A Bitter Pill To Swallow!

For about a month, I have been feeling really whacked to the point where I was falling asleep at my desk or even while talking to someone, my eyes just could not stay open. Shamefully, I had Sunday Lunch with Chris and Bev a couple of weeks ago and ended up sleeping a full 3 hours in their spare room! On top of the fatigue, I was struggling so with severe mouth ulcers, which as usual, results in a very poor appetite and so down the spiral went! Finally I went to see Mark, a Dr and one of the elders in the church who very kindly treats me. I was certain I had some kind of infection which was causing such severe fatigue. After giving me a good check over, he simply looked at me and told me that I was over exerting myself.
I found this very hard to believe and insisted on having blood tests done, which all came up clear, apart from an iron deficiency!!

Needless to say that apart from a weekly Cell group and my girls Bible study, I have cut out all other Bible studies and cut down on other commitments. I now try and keep my daily afternoon appointment with my bed!
I am already starting to feel better and have to admit that Mark may have been right after all!
God did not bless me with a half day job for nothing! I suppose my mind is so active that I often forget that this earthly body can't keep up! I must admit that it has been a humbling time!!!
As usual my church family have been absolutely wonderful! Shirley made a whole lot of vegetable juice with beetroot, spinach and carrots to try help with the deficiency!