Back to blogging

I have no idea what I’m doing or what I should be writing but AGAIN here goes.

We are now in Canada for those not up to speed; we are settled and happy and trust that we are where God wants us to be. That alone is huge! I left Ontario 6 years ago crying tears of relief (to leave) but returned joyful and grateful that God brought us back to a place that was home and is home, an amazing feeling to have when you haven’t known where home is for 10 years.  So a quick update of what we are all up to.

Kenny is busy getting his own business off the ground and researching new ventures, an exciting time as he seeks Gods will for his work and how he will support our family. Proverbs 16:3 Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established. And that is exactly what we are doing.

Karin is busy being a housewife and mother to our 5 children. Not an easy job, but full of blessings and daily rewards. I am humbled that God would give me charge over these little ones and pray for wisdom to guide them and teach them about HIM. I love to take photos of the family and document our lives that way and hope to include a picture gallery on our blog soon.

Joshua is still our building guy who loves to play with Lego and other construction things, he has shown a great interest in carving and is learning that you have to be diligent to complete a project and that most are not completed in a day.

Mia will be 8 in a few weeks and is blossoming into a beautiful young girl. She is always asking if she can help and is such a blessing in the kitchen where she is learning to cook and bake with Mama. When she is not helping you can usually find her with her nose in a book, she loves to read.

Danny is still our rambunctious boy who brings just a touch of crazy to our family. He is our little maths wiz and enjoys being challenged to find the answer, he shows great potential with mathematics.

Samuel is 2 and chatting away in his little voice, he loves stacking toys and playing with the bigger children. He is a great little trooper and is happy to be with us no matter where we seem to be.

Benjamin is now 10months and crawling and standing up on anything including grabbing on to us as we walk past him, so we often find ourselves dragging a little body along as we try to get away. He loves his food and being pushed around in the laundry basket by the big boys.

Thats us for now, we are not earthly rich, but God has blessed us richly Proverbs 16:9  The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. We are trusting that God will continue to establish our steps and that we will know His will and glorify Him with our lives.


what are we up to?

Looking at our blog I can see why we don’t get that much traffic, it is super boring and as we’ve had nothing to tell, I’ve been relying on my recipes for content ;-)

So what is going on? Well, we had our baby – CHECK, sold our house – CHECK….. well not quite, we are still in the big black hole of selling a house here in the UK. Still have not exchanged contracts which means that all our balls are up in the air and could fall at anytime and that means we could be moving next week or putting house back on the market next week. It is a very tiring time with the same question over and over “when are you moving?” and so tired of giving the same answer “we don’t know”. We do know that God is in control of this move and we are praying daily for his wisdom and patience to get through this time of our lives. We are so looking forward to being in Canada and starting our lives there (again), but there is a sad feeling of leaving hanging over us too. We have done so much growing here in the UK, not just our family size, increased by two gorgeous boys ;-) but our spiritual lives have grown too. We have been working out who we are and what God wants from our lives and these last 3 years have felt Gods Spirit change us significantly in how we live, think and parent our children. This is where it all started but I look forward to seeing how God will work in our lifetimes.

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Chocolate Fudge Icing

This is the kind of Chocolate icing that sets so if you want to decorate do it immediately otherwise sprinkles will not stick.

  • 90g butter
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1/2 cup caster sugar
  • 1 1/2 icing sugar
  • 1/3 cup cocoa
  1. Simmer butter, water and caster sugar together until dissolved
  2. Sift icing sugar and cocoa and mix together, put in fridge until thickened (about 20mins)
  3. Beat again until spreadable

Chocolate Cake with applesauce

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/4 t salt
  • 1 t bi-carb soda
  • 110g butter / 1 stick/ 1/4 pound
  • 4 oz oil / 120 ml
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup cocoa more if you want it really chocolaty
  • 4oz buttermilk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/3 cup applesauce
  • 2 cups sugar
  1. Sift flour, salt and bi-carb into bowl
  2. In a pot heat butter, oil, water and cocoa till melted together
  3. Mix buttermilk, eggs and applesauce then add sugar in bowl
  4. Add sifted ingredients to egg ingredients and beat
  5. Fold in the chocolate mixture and combine

350 deg F for 40mins or until stick comes out dry


Me and him

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At last one for me. Benjamin is now 5 weeks and we are tired but happy. Here’s a picture of me as a baby and I must say there seems to be a strong resemblance, every time I look at him I think of this picture of me and thought I must post it. He is beginning to show signs of smiling and spending more time awake. Yesterday we went to the mall and he was very good, seems happy as long as he’s got a clean nappy and close to his mama ;-) I’m wondering how far the resemblance will go I turned from that into this in just a few months!

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Blog

Its so hard to share your life, well I find it hard. There are only a select few people that I would want to share with and this format leans itself to well the ‘world’ seeing how you live. The hardest thing about blogging is wondering who will read it and if you’re going to offend someone. Those that know me have probably been offended by me in person and putting my thoughts in writing scares me that I might be taken seriously by someone I love and hurt them. But my desire to share with our loved ones keeps me coming back to the blog and hoping that they’ll one day read it and take it for what it is a glimpse into our thoughts and lives. Moving around and being far away makes it hard to have contact with many of our family and friends and this is just one way we can try and keep you all posted on our lives and in the process hope that you will drop us an email or comment and let us know how things are with you too.

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Leigh’s here

having fun day with Walter family

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Kerr Family Christmas Letter 2009

The year 2009 was another eventful year for the Kerr family. I hope you enjoy this whirlwind tour of the action.

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January is Mia’s month and our little princess turned 6! She is really becoming a wonderful young lady, looking after her brothers and learning from her mom about what it means to be a woman. As we anticipate her 7th Birthday soon, we look forward to what this year will bring for her and what the Lord will do in her life in the coming year.
In January we also learned about the Rosetta stone as part of our homeschooling and even got to visit the British Museum where it is held for a closer look at the real thing.

imageFebruary was filled with some surprising snow with Kenny and the kids having lots of fun making giant snow balls and snow men. 

 

 

image March was lambing season on the Buggs’ farm with Karin and the kids getting to learn all about how lambs are born and witnessing much lambing. Mia naturally fell in love with one of the lambs and the kids all got plenty of turns to hold and feed the newborns. Of course the giant hay stacks were also a popular attraction.

 

 

April saw the arrival of a new cousin David Wade. Kenny also began a six month sabbatical from work and we kicked it off with a camping trip featuring a few visits to Legoland.

image May was the month in which Danny learned to ride a two-wheeler bike and Samuel started enjoying eating solid foods. Ouma also popped in for a visit and we learned that baby number five was on the way!

image June is birthday month for the big boys. Danny turned five and Joshua turned eight. In June Kenny finally got the right supports in place to knock out the chimney and fireplace without the roof falling on our heads and he and Joshua got to work and completed in record time.  June was a busy month for Kenny with lots of work repairing walls and ceilings and new cupboards being built as well as new flooring.

July is when Karin knew for sure that she was pregnant as morning (all day) sickness set in and she became quite bed ridden.

image August brought some really hot weather and we even ventured to one of England’s popular beaches giving Samuel his first time on the beach which he loved!

 

 

 

image September saw another visit from Ouma and the kids were thrilled to have Oupa join her for this trip. We also welcomed cousin Harriet Ilsley to the family and Mormor visited for a day on her way to Sweden. Kenny also went back to work.

 

image October arrived so quickly with Samuel turning one on the same day Oupa turned sixty one! We had a lovely day of celebration with big lion cake for Oupa and little lion for Samuel. It has been wonderful having a baby in the family. He brings us all such joy and we are so thankful for his little life.

image November finally arrived and after a two week delay we left for Natal, South Africa with lots of swimming, playing cricket, bugs and beaches! We also took a road trip to Johannesburg and the Kruger National Park. In Joburg we stayed with Elton, Debbie and their kids and visited a lion park with them where we could get really up close to these magnificent animals. In Mpumalanga we stayed with Trevor and Marilyn on their farm outside of Hazyview. We h
ad a lovely time with them and Mormor joined us for a day trip to the Kruger National Park. It was lovely to catch up with old friends and make new ones too, THANK YOU all for your love and hospitality.

December has come and gone and we celebrated a very hot and humid Christmas with all the Purdon Children together for the first time in 5 years, who knows when that will be possible again.

 2010 As we’re sure you have all noticed the new year is well on its way but as we were so busy in SA I (Karin) just didn’t get to sending out this letter and Christmas cards. So we hope you all enjoy a ‘better late than never’ Christmas 2009 greeting and Happy 2010 wishes to all our friends and family around the world. We love you and thank God for you.

PS please take note of our new address in Canada as from June 2010.

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7 weeks to go

Well, we leave for our 3 month South Africa trip in less than 7 weeks and I thought I’d give those that don’t know a quick update on what we are up to in the next 6 months or so. At the moment we are looking forward to visits from Ouma and Oupa for special birthdays, Samuel turning 1 and Oupa 61 on the same day! On November 2nd we’re off to SA for a lovely time we hope in the sun and sand and to celebrate with Johno and Faye as they get married in Cape Town in January. Then back to the UK where we will await the birth of our 5th child due at the end of February, (which for me means March! as I’m always late). As soon as we can after baby is born, we plan on moving back to Ontario, Canada so in amongst all this we hope to sell our house. We are praying for Gods wisdom and ask for His blessing on our plans. We would appreciate your prayers in this and thank you for your love and support.


Bobotie

  • 500g mince
  • 2 onions chopped
  • 1 slice of bread (I usually use more)
  • 1/2 cup beef stock
  • 1 T garlic
  • 1 T fresh grated ginger
  • 1 T apricot jam/Chutney or both
  • 1 apple grated
  • 1 T curry powder (I use Madras)
  • 1 t mixed herbs
  • 1 t turmeric
  • 1 T lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup chopped apricots and raisins

brown mince and onions, mix all other ingredients together and add to meat mixture. Lastly add apricots and raisins, salt and pepper.

Pour topping mix over top and cook in 180 deg C oven for 40mins.

  • 1 Cup sour cream
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 eggs
  • bay leaves (pushed into the top of the topping)

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