I'm Back!

I haven’t posted in what seems like ages!!  I somehow don’t seem to find time alone that much.  I know I’m only half way through our Canada trip; I must get that done...

So what’s been going on in our house during all this silence?  Not too much that’s interesting or different.  The biggest happening was that Keren had surgery on her Achilles Tendons.  Ever since she started to walk (at 9 months!) she tended to walk on her tiptoes.  It was cute when she was really little, but it is a problem that runs in the family.  Malcolm’s brother had surgery when he was young, and his sister still tends to walk on her toes when barefoot.

As Keren grew older it became a problem – she never walked flat for long, and as a result often lost her balance and fell.  She would complain that it ‘hurt’ when she tried to stand flat.  So on 27 May she went into theatre to have the operation done.  It was actually a minor procedure – two small incisions in her tendons without any stitches at all!  The downside was 6 weeks in casts to make sure the tendons stretched the correct way. 

Keren took the whole thing in her stride.  She was unfazed by being in hospital, totally unafraid of going into theatre, and recovered almost immediately from the anaesthesia. 

Malcolm went into theatre with her, and left after she was asleep.

This was right after she woke up

She hardly mentioned any pain, and was playing on the floor with Jordan as soon as she got home!  

The only complaint she had was that the casts were heavy.  She got to choose between white, red, pink, green or purple!  Her first choice was red, but she doesn’t have any red clothes so I suggested pink or purple.  She chose purple which actually matched the outfit she wore to the hospital perfectly!

The casts finally came off and she’s standing totally flat now!!  The surgeon was very pleased with the results, and we only need to see him if we have any problems.

Going...

Going,,,,

GONE!!!

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Eden and Nathan have got about 5 weeks left until their final exams!!  It’s starting to feel a bit pressured.  In case I haven’t explained before, they’re doing Cambridge International Examinations – AS Levels.  In order to obtain the equivalent to a South African school leaving certificate, one would need 4  subjects on AS Level and one on IGCSE level.  Eden and Nathan are doing 6 AS Level subjects:  English, Afrikaans, Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.  They landed up doing it together because although we started their high school years with Cambridge via a distance education college in Johannesburg, we changed to Sonlight 2 years ago.  This was due to the college that was not very well run, and also because we thought we’d be leaving for Canada soon.  I planned to let them do their final years there.  However as nothing was moving at the time, we went back to Cambridge, but this time ‘going it alone’ without a college, and just using private tutors.  We have been so blessed by finding a very good tutor for English and Afrikaans at the school where they’ll write their exams, and another one a few blocks away who does all the other 4 subjects.  We decided to let them just do it together, which of course helped save on textbooks and tutors!  ;-)

At this point Eden is keen to become a doctor, and Nathan wants to study Chemical Engineering.  They’re both extremely hardworking, and I’m sure they’ll do very well.  They wrote English in May/June and both got good results. 

I know Afrikaans won’t help in Canada, but I’m hoping they’ll get some credit for having a second language.  It’s a bit much to take French on that level now!

Talking about Canada -  the one question everyone asks:  What’s happening???

Well, at this point, not much!   J  We have to wait for Eden and Nathan to be finished before we can leave.  However Malcolm might be flying over soon to look for work.  I’ll keep you updated as to how, what, where and when as soon as I know.

In other news, we have a new addiction in our house.  Someone lent us their copies of all three seasons of Lark Rise to Candleford.  I’m hooked!  Got to find out what happens in the next episode!  If you haven’t watched it, and like old-fashioned stories set in England, well, you might want to try and get hold of it.

That’s all for now, Happy Monday to you all!