how about a little family business today?

(pattern found on www.cutoutandkeep.net )



Again, I'm apologizing for the delay in coming to join you here in this space called dicoccoville... We've celebrated two birthdays, gone camping and all come down with a horrid stomach flu (that had us envisioning poisoning.. it was that bad). Now we are all breathing deeply again and ready to jump back into this beautiful messy life (although I will admit, I am wearing Billy's polar bear pajama bottoms still today, and probably won't even change when I go pick Mady up from school in a little while).


Harrison and Avery have put their minds to a project as of late... Harrison's DS broke a few months ago and he's been dreaming and scheming of ways to buy one of the new DSi s in October when we go to visit my parents in Michigan. He has birthday money, and a bit of allowance saved up... but needed an extra boost.




Now, wait a minute, we need to back up a few weeks here and you'll remember I was down for a week with two torn ligaments in my ankle - I was stuck on the couch and bored by the first day since I had just gotten over a two week flu. That couch and I were way too familliar. The kids were even more ancy than I... after all they weren't the ones who were immobile. We have a box at our house for just such an occasion. Maybe you have one too... kind of stash of things we brought from the states and then saved back for a rainy day. So on this day of pain, I broke into our "rainy day" box and pulled out a book filled with sewing projects. The kids and I immediately started ripping out the seams of a couple of pair of jeans that had big holes in the knees (poor Harrison, he desperately needs new jeans) and tearing into a pillow from the guest to use as stuffing... and by the end of the day, we had stitched up a couple of fine turtle friends. Harrison and Avery had such a great time they began dreaming about other animals they could create with a little spare time, a ripped up shirt and a needle & thread.
And the sewing frenzy began.




Now we can fast forward to this week... the week of the little market they have been creating for. They have about four different animals to showcase... along with bags of popcorn and kettle corn. It's been a lesson in economics, retail, supply and demand, time management & quality control. I don't know how much they will sell this weekend. But they have had a good time preparing for the market day. And I have enjoyed watching them create. I always enjoy watching them create.

While they are manning their table at the market tomorrow, Dikeledi and I will be here at the house listening to Linford Detweiler and beginning a couple of new oil paintings. Mady has a group school project to work on.

On Sunday we are going to a dinner for some Americans who are here visiting in South Africa - and then Monday we jump back into the "real world" after this week in kind of a zone land... well, the kids and I have been in a zone land... Poor Billy only got to take Wednesday to sleep off his flu and then had to double his appointments on Thursday to catch back up. He did finally get his mountain bike completed and took his first ride on some fantastic trails last weekend... and is completely looking forward to taking it back out again Saturday morning and beginning his day right. In fact, starting next week he is hoping to ride his bike to Emthonjeni every morning- at 5:30 (akkk). I'll kiss him goodbye before we go to bed the night before.