The poor little munchkins are sick at the moment with what seems to be a gastric flu – both running high fevers, Grace just lying on the couch all day (which is very unusual), Eli sleeping terribly (but somehow managing to be chipper during the day). They both appear to be in quite a bit of discomfort. Grace seems to be getting better. Eli is still running around happy and smiling, but he’s not quite himself. Hopefully they’ll both be better in the morning.

Grace was asking for some flour and water, so Donné helped her out. She and Eli mixed away and then she wanted some salt and bicarb. Those were a no, but Donné gave them some food colouring to mix in. The two of them mixed it in and then thought the the mix looked like some yummy icing and decided to taste it….not quite what they were expecting. Grace wasn’t convinced from the first taste of hers, so she tried Eli’s too. Nope, definitely not icing.

The boys in our neighbourhood really seem to love Eli. If he is out in the street they tend to gather around him, push him around on his motorbike, and just generally play with him.

Out playing with the boys

Eli is turning out to be a great help at the office

Zooting around on the scooter

Eli is enjoying riding around on the scooter, and for some reason always loves to get a backpack and ride around with that on his back.

He also (to Donné’s horror) has a little bit of an obsession with motorbikes – if he sees one he points and makes a sound, whether it is in the parking lot, on the road, or in a book.

4 weeks in and Eli is potty trained! What has made it relatively easy is that Eli is always willing to try to push, and somehow manages to produce something every time he sits on the potty. For more than a week now his night time nappy has been empty, and now we’re taking him out in underpants without any accidents. Occasionally he has a dribble in his underpants which he stops and let’s us know that he needs to go, but overall we’re pretty much there.

Morning cuddles

Enjoying a crunchie after a nap

Our bond has been approved by at least one bank, which means we have a new home in Somerset West 🙂 We’re still waiting for feedback from the other banks, but that is now just about getting a better interest rate. The sale of our home is entirely finalised now, and it is just a matter of signing documents and going through the transfer process.

Things have worked out amazingly well, and we have been very blessed through this process. A big thank you to God for the blessing of a wonderful new home, and a quick and painless sale of our current home, as well as a big thank you to my parents for the help they’ve given us.

Grace prayed just about every night, for a number of weeks for a house that had a pool. She would draw a house, a sun and a pool as her prayer. Her prayers have been answered, because we have a pool, as well as a house which gets lots of light coming into it.

Shorty after our offer was accepted Grace made a picture of our new house

Yummy, home made cream cheese

It turns out that making cream cheese is super, super easy. Mix, wait, strain…poof! you’ve got cream cheese. I followed the cream cheese recipe on Wonderland Kitchen, and it really came out perfectly.

I used buttermilk as the starter, and the only minor change I made was to use 1/4 of a Mad Millie rennet tablet which I got from yuppiechef.

It is a bit cooler at the moment, so to keep it at the right temperature (about 22-25°C) I put it into a cooler box with a filled hot water bottle (not touching) which worked perfectly.

The next step is to find a cost effective supply of bulk cream, then cream cheese can be a part of every meal….nom, nom, nom.