Our Creation Lapbooks

It feels like ages since I blogged something on our lapbooks.

The little ones, Danika (6years), Andrew (4years) and David (almost 3years) finished these Creation Lapbooks. I got some of the ideas from Lapbooklessons.com.

We first did a mini book on the 7 days of creation, to give them the big picture of creation. Available from Lapbooklessons.com

To enforce what was created on each day, we individually illustrated every day of the 7 days of Creation.
I like to use as many art mediums as possible, so we played with paint, coloring, stickers and tissue paper. When I woke up at night for Daniel or our unborn baby, I let my imagination go, to make it as interesting and creative as possible, for the little ones.

For Day One, separating light from darkness, I let them dress paper dolls with day clothes and pajamas and we stuck it on white paper to illustrate the day and black paper to illustrate the night. We talked about taking off our pajamas when we woke up and dressed for the day. When night comes, we put on our pajamas and it is time to sleep.

For Day Two, gathering the waters, we used cotton wool to illustrate the clouds. For the seas I made finger paint and let them draw patterns with a stick in the paint. Danika practiced the wave pattern on her finger paint. This was David’s attempt.

For Day Three, the trees and its fruit and grass, we rolled small pieces of colored tissue paper balls and stuck them to a template of a tree, with fruit, flowers and grass.

For Day Four, creation of the sun, moon and stars, we stuck stickers to a half circle to illustrate the firmament of the heavens.

For Day Five, water creatures and winged birds, we drew birds and fish with crayons and painted over it with diluted water paint, so the crayon picture stands out from the paint. It is very important to use VERY diluted water paint and only make a single brush stroke over the crayon picture.

To illustrate Day Six, creation of earthly creatures and man, I let them stick animal stickers on a template of a field with trees and I let them colour in a picture from Adam and Ave.

For the Seventh Day, they coloured in a pillow, to illustrate God rest.

These activities enforced God’s creation. They can still recite what was created on what day and I pray that this will lay the foundation for them to always remember God created everything in six days and that they will never buy into the lie of evolution!

Milktart for CJ - We are proud of you!

This past weekend, CJ took part in his first, Graded Three Phase Horse Jumping Event, over two days, at the Stellenbosh District Riding Club. For Graded Events he needed a formal horse riding outfit. When he put on his outfit on Friday night, to make sure everything is right and ready, I realized my son has grown up! I was making Daniel asleep and as I came out of his room, this young man was standing in my bedroom – it was quite a shock – me still attending to little babies, but also having this young man for a son!

The first phase of this event was a Dressage test on Silverball. CJ had never before done dressage, let alone a dressage test, so we took him for some extra lessons with his instructor during the past week. I would never have had the confidence my son had to do this test with only two or three lessons the week before, but that is his spirit. I believe his confidence, is the fruit of being home schooled. CJ knows we believe in him, he has a positive self esteem - not broken down by pears and teachers. He knows God gave him this talent and is part of his calling in life.

Saturday was a beautiful, spring day, with no wind and a clear sky! Nine O’clock he performed the dressage test. He actually did very well for a first attempt, but needs some more practice and training.

The second phase was the show jumping. He competed in the Pre Novice Class at 90 cm jumps. It was so good to see how CJ had grown in his show jumping over the past year. Very early in the jumping, Silverball showed signs of refusing a jump, but CJ handled it perfectly and got Silverball over the jump. Unfortunately he refused another jump and CJ got 4 penalties.

The last phase, the cross country was the next day. Cross country is CJ’s favourite. He loves to give Silverball the reigns and Silverball just goes for it! This course was into the woods and 2 km long – CJ has never done such a long course, or even into the woods. On Saturday afternoon the participants were allowed to walk the course (without their horses) and familiarize themselves with the jumps. There was also a time limit of 470 meters per minute for finishing the 17 jumping efforts. Thus, to qualify for a win, he didn’t only need to finish a clear round (no refusals or kick off poles) but also needed to finish in 4 min 15 seconds. Now CJ loves challenges like this and Silverball was the right horse, since he used to be a race horse.

Sunday morning was a miserable, cold, rainy day and I needed to seek extra peace from the Lord, for my child’s safety, as I heard the raindrops on our roof. The woods would be wet and slippery. The Lord just knows how to comfort me, almost immediately after my prayers, a song came into my mind and stayed there the rest of the morning – Great Are Thy Faithfulness! Throughout the morning, every time I became unsettled with fear, I could hear this song and trust in the Lord again.

Since it was such an unfriendly day for little ones to be outside, we decided I would stay at home with them. A huge disappointed for me, but I would be kept up to date by the cell phone and Josua would go along with Dad to support his brother. The previous day, the little ones had such a fun time, playing on the wide open grass and in a dry river bank and I could relax and followed CJ’s performance.











At 11h00 Sunday morning Christo let me know CJ was “under starter’s orders” for the 2km cross country and I could only pray the next 5min.

How thankful I was, when the phone rang within 5 min later and Christo reported CJ was through and safe. He finished in 4 min 19 seconds. There was a special “cool down” arena for the horses and I could speak to my son while he led Silverball

I could hear the excitement in his voice, the adrenaline pumping through his veins, as he told me what an amazing experienced it was to go through the woods, on Silverball’s back. It was only him, Silverball and the woods! He was going so fast, the wind drove tears out of his eyes. I know this is what will make him a man! A man that one day would be fearless in the face of challenges and won’t hesitate to go sleigh a dragon if necessary! The fact that Christo and I will be old before our time, because of worries is beside the point! After all, we will be more holy, in the process of God teaching us to pray and trust more!

At one stage CJ miraculously stayed on top of his horse, when he came down some steps, to fast! It was only God and in His mercy answering our prayers, that kept my son safe! (Christo only afterwards realized he almost captured the moment his son fell off his horse!)

CJ enjoyed every moment of this event and did very well for his first graded competition! He learned a lot and can go practice more. His horse riding is now taken to a next level.

While CJ, Josua and Christo was away Sunday morning, Heidi-Mari and I decided to bake milk tart. CJ wanted to say thank you to his instructor for putting in so much effort in preparing him for this event and we wanted to let CJ know we are so proud of him!

The previous day Christo bought me a decorating pen and I wanted to put it to the test.

Here are our decorated milk tarts!







The little ones, enjoying their milk tart, chocolate decorating and some organic strawberries, we got hold of at the Organic Market in Stellenbosch!











Our Milk Tart recipe - made of Spelt flour and Rice milk (Wheat and Diary Free!)

Milk tart crust:

30 g butter
30 ml xylitol or 30 ml white/brown sugar
2 eggs
10 ml baking powder
180 ml spelt flour or 135 ml plain flour
pinch of salt.

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).
2. In a medium mixing bowl, cream together butter and xylitol or sugar. (I use my Kenwood)
3. Add eggs one by one and beat until mixture is smooth.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together spelt or flour, baking powder, and salt.
5. Gradually stir flour mixture into egg/butter mixture, until ingredients are thoroughly combined.
6. Spread mixture with a spoon, into bottom and sides of 2 x 23cm or 9-inch tart dishes.

Milk tart filling:

1 250 ml rice milk or milk
30 g butter
200 ml xyitol or white/brown sugar
100 ml spelt flour or 75 ml plain flour
45 ml cornstarch
3 eggs (separate)
10 ml vanilla essence
pinch of salt

1. In a large saucepan, combine 1 200 ml of the milk, butter and xylitol or sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then remove from heat.
2. In a separate bowl (I use my Kenwood), gradually mix together the remaining 50ml milk, flour, cornstarch and yellow yolk until smooth with no lumps.
3. Add a little of the warm milk/butter/sugar mixture to the egg/flour mixture and mix to form a smooth paste, add to the remaining milk mixture and bring to the boil, stirring continuously until mixture thickens.
4. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla essence.
5. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form and lightly fold into filling.
6. Divide the filling evenly between the two tart dishes and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until set and crust is golden in colour. Remove from heat.
7. Sprinkle with cinnamon and serve at room temperature.

Bon appetite!

Halfway Pregnancy Update

CJ (15 years) and I (20 weeks pregnant) - My oldest and youngest

I am over the halfway mark in my pregnancy!

Oh, what a joy this pregnancy is. This pregnancy reminds me of my first and second pregnancies! What a miracle!

To understand the miracle, I have to give you some background on my last two pregnancies. My last two pregnancies were so hard and so stressfull, physically, emotionally and spiritually, that the only verse that kept me going was Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Every day from week five up to week forty felt like a living sacrifice. But keeping in mind it was my reasonable service to the King of the Universe kept going. It was also this same verse that gave me the courage for another pregnancy. I had no illusions that I could expect a better pregnancy than my last two pregnancies. After all, what were the chances of an easy pregnancy at the age of forty?

But looking back now at twenty weeks pregnant and feeling so good, having had almost no nausea in the first 12 weeks, minimal low blood pressure and much less fatigue, I knew God had done a miracle. How did God perform this miracle? He did it spiritually as well as physically!

At the beginning of this year, when I discovered that my body was ready for the next pregnancy, I sought a lot of encouragement from my husband. One night, being very discouraged on the prospect of illness and tiredness during my next pregnancy, Christo calmly told me that He and God had spoken. He had asked God to please release me from the terrible nausea, low blood pressure and fatigue and he believed that God had granted him his request - I would not be ill again! It wasn’t that I didn’t have the faith, but I’d accepted my destiny of being ill during pregnancies and I believed that was my way of giving God glory through my pregnancies, so I didn’t give it much thought.

About a month later, the founder of Seven-Point-Five, Garth Kent, came to Durbanville to give his testimony of surviving and recovering completely from Lupus after 8years. Garth found a way to Cleanse, Nourish and Balance his body to overcome this incurable disease. Christo was the host (Seven-Point-Five is our health shop’s main line of products) and I decided to go along and be of some moral support to my husband. Garth’s testimony was shocking and amazing! In modern medical circles Lupus is incurable. He used 15mg Cycimorph, 9 injections, plus 18 Lentogesics daily! He was experiencing severe headaches, his entire body would go into spasm and a morphine injection would be the only way to get it under control. He became exceptionally light and heat sensitive, often not even able to leave his bedroom. He also experienced thromboses, one even around his eye. Garth's joints were damaged so badly, he was unable to walk or even wash himself. He had to use an electric wheelchair to get around. The conventional treatment of Lupus he received during that stage, triggered lesions on his body and septic arthritis, even necessitating an operation to relieve abscesses of all their contents.

Then one day, while he was waiting to die, he was introduced to the concept of the pH of the body and how it could be regulated with Coral Calcium - Calcium extracted from dead coral reefs. It was explained to him that while the body’s pH is acidic, below 7.5 (the optimum pH at cellular level is 7.5) NO nutrition could be absorbed at cellular level and the body is dying because the cells are dying. Healthy cells produce healthy tissue, produce healthy organs, produce healthy systems and produce a healthy body! Thus you can eat as healthily as possible, eat organic food and take the best supplements, but if your body’s pH is acidic (less than 7.5) your cells are dying of hunger.

Just then, I could sense the Lord speaking to my heart. He asked me if I, myself, would take responsibility for my body’s health. To my shame I must admit, I had never, up till then, taken responsibility for my own health. I was a very healthy child and adolescent, never experienced any allergies or sinus or digestive problems. I could eat whatever I wanted and never had a weight problem. After we’d transformed to natural medicine, fifteen years ago, when CJ was very ill and I had suffered two miscarriages, I just let myself be led by Christo’s good judgment from his knowledge attained by studying and lots and lots of reading and drank whatever he gave me in supplements. But sometimes I would be in rebel against all the supplements he gave me and the gentleman my husband is, would then just leave it to me to decide what I would like to drink. Since I didn’t really care, I would go for days without drinking supplements, get more miserable (especially during the last two pregnancies) and then again I would ask Christo to give me everything he thought is necessary. This was a downward spiral.

Now the Lord was asking me if I would take responsibility for my own health, my body’s pH. I didn’t need to think twice. For sure I would! I decided there and then that I would immediately take care of my body’s pH. During the evening at Garth’s testimony we all tested our pH. Mine was about 6.8. I already had a 2L water bottle and immediately started to put 2 Coral Calcium-sachets in my water and made sure I finished the bottle every day. Every week I tested my pH and slowly it increased to almost 7.5. Three weeks later I discovered that I was pregnant. This was now a serious challenge to me. I would make sure that my pH is as near to 7.5 as possible and would wait to see what the effect on my health is during this pregnancy. For the first time I thought back about Christo and the Lord’s ‘talk’ and that I would not be ill with this pregnancy. I was starting to believe that it was possible to have a different pregnancy, through God’s intervention. What a God ordained moment with God’s intervention - when I got convicted by the Holy Spirit to take care of my own health the previous month at Garth Kent’s testimony evening.

As my pregnancy progressed, I was sometimes in doubt if I WAS actually pregnant. At seven weeks I still hadn’t experienced any pregnancy symptoms. During the first two months I did three pregnancy tests – just to make sure that I was pregnant!! I noticed it was more difficult to obtain a pH of 7.5 and started cutting out any form of sugar (honey too), any form of tea and my regular cappuccino twice a day. That balanced the pH again at near 7.5. This was hard, since I have a very sweet tooth. I had never had any reason to avoid sugar and my evening cappuccino was a very special time between Christo and me, relaxing in each others company and asking about each others day. It just wasn’t the same with only Christo having his espresso, but I knew what was at stake!

Between eight and twelve weeks I was occasionally nauseous and then embraced it, since that reminded me I was really pregnant!! The only ‘symptoms’ I clearly had, was falling asleep with Daniel with almost every feeding. I just couldn’t keep myself awake. I also noticed my milk hadn’t disappeared within 8 weeks of pregnancy, like before. I was still breastfeeding Danika when I fell pregnant with Andrew and my milk disappeared at 8 weeks of pregnancy. The same happened when I got pregnant with David and then Daniel. Now my milk was still flowing to the delight of Daniel and myself! I could only attribute this to the 2-4 liters of water I drank per day.
With the previous pregnancies I was so nauseous, I couldn’t stand a glass of water.

During the last 6-8 weeks, I could enjoy the ‘honeymoon-period’ as I call it, of my pregnancy. I’m not nauseous, have no low blood pressure, any fatigue or discomfort and I haven’t suffered with heartburn. I even sleep very well. The last two weeks I could even drink an occasional cappuccino when Christo had his espresso at night, what a treat! I could also start using some honey in the preparation of food and put St. Dalfour’s jam on my toast with breakfast.

What more could I ask! God granted Christo his request – I have a blessed pregnancy!

Thank you God, You are so good!!

God Watered my New Rose Garden!

This weekend we planted my new roses. I had the fun part of putting it in the ground, but Christo and CJ had the hard time of digging holes, carrying heavy bags of horse manure and mixing it with the clay soil and peanut shells. My Grandma believed that when a woman is pregnant, she has VERY green fingers and anything she touches will grow beautifully, something with the pregnant-growth-hormones. I always find wise, old woman’s believes and remedies interesting. So when I am pregnant I’m always present when something is planted.

It was such a fun day, the little ones playing around and every one having a great time. I’ve prayed for good weather and it looked like a sunny day, until about half an hour after we started. Dark clouds moved in during the morning and we were even afraid that it would start to rain at one stage. But there was no rain, and we could finish the job. As we cleaned up the garden, the sun came out again and shined for the rest of the afternoon. It was only then that we realized, if it wasn’t for the clouds, Christo and CJ would have really suffered in the sun. At about eight O’clock last night it started to rain and hasn’t stopped since. God, Himself send rain for my new roses! I can just imagine what beautiful flowers I can expect with all the good stuff we’ve worked into the ground and the God-sent rain. All that great nutrition that enters the ground right now! Wow!

Christo and CJ start digging the holes.

The clay soil we had to work with.

The holes ready for the roses!







On the left the peanut shells and on the right the mixture of clay soil, peanut shells and horse manure.

CJ helping me to carefully take off the plastic cover from the rose.

Christo pouring the manure-peanut shell-soil mixture into the holes, while CJ and I hold the rose up.

You can see the pleasure on my face! As a young girl I always loved to play in the mud…

And got my hands really dirty! I haven’t changed since childhood!

Daniel and me watering our newly planted roses.

Christo covering the rose bed with horse manure.

A job well done!

My rose garden this morning in the rain.

We not only planted roses. Every one was on some mission:











Josua and I covering a bed in front our dining room window with horse manure.









Christo showing Danika how to weed the grass.









My two little boys playing in an imagination world of their own.












Daniel doing some reading on shrubs in the garden. He absolutely loves books.

Heidi-Mari was the photographer who took all these beautiful photos.

Thank you, Lord, for the rain and thank you, for my family!

Chicken Mayonnaise Pancakes or Cinnamon and Honey Pancakes with Lemon?

Since we had a rainy spring day and could not celebrate spring in the sunshine, we decided to bake pancakes!

CJ volunteered to bake them, a bargain for me, taking into account that we have to mix at least 2 ½ liter of dough for this family of nine! I only needed to supervise the baking process.

CJ reminded me so much of my dad. My dad never used an egg lifter to turn pancakes, he always flipped them. CJ tried once and it landed perfectly in the pan, from there on he also didn’t use an egg lifter…

Heidi-Mari prepared some chicken mayonnaise and made us the most delicious chicken mayonnaise pancakes for lunch.

For desert we had cinnamon honey pancakes with lemon to add extra zest!

Little Daniel having a ball watching the hustle and bustle in the kitchen!

and having more than his share of pancakes!

Our Foolproof Pancake Recipe

325 ml (1 1/3 cup) spelt flour or 250 ml (1 cup) plain flour
1 t baking powder
¼ t salt
1 free range egg
1 ¾ cup water
1 T lemon juice
¼ cup olive oil

Mix dry ingredients in large mixing bowl.
Beat the egg, water, lemon juice and olive oil together.
Mix in the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth.
Put a little olive oil in pancake pan and heat for the first pancake.
You should be able to bake the rest of the pancakes without oiling the pan again.

Enjoy!