A Silver for Anya

Anya took part in her second Rhythmic Gymnastic competition last week. She did a beautiful dance with the ribbon and rope. All those hours of practicing at home paid off as she came second in her group and was awarded a silver medal. Well done, my baby! You were terrific!

One kind word can warm three winter months

For three weeks now I have played nurse to three sick children and it is time to play a different role now. I am tired of the running noses, the coughing, the sneezing, the headaches, the sore chests and bodies; and most of all I am tired of saying over and over again: "Where are your socks? Why are walking around on the cold floor without any shoes? Put your jersey back on!" Winter is not my favourite season as I hate being cold - I feel like a walking ice-block most days. I sometimes think animals have the right idea to hibernate as I could quite easily sleep winter away in my nice warm bed.

Ulrich and I finished his project this week-end on his role-model. He chose as his role-model Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. He had to state six reasons why he admired and looked up to Steve Irwin and it was very interesting listening to the qualities my son likes in a person. The words 'fun', 'exciting', 'brave', 'adventerous', 'courageous' and 'happy' came up often. But I was very impressed when Ulrich wrote that he really likes Steve Irwin because he loved his family and never gave up trying to help the animals in the wild. This reminded me that children admire people because of what they do and not because of the material things they have.

Thank goodness there are only three days of school this week - I love public holidays as I get to turn off the alarm and hibernate for just a little bit.

Grandparents are a delightful blend of laughter, caring deeds, wonderful stories and Love

On Friday it was Grandparents day at the school. Ulrich and Anya were very excited because for the first time all their grandparents would be there watching them perform their poems and songs. Anya was too shy to say an individual poem, but not Ulrich - he said his poem courageously in front of all those strange faces - I am very proud of you, my boy, you said your poem slowly and clearly and you remembered all the words! Well done! Here is the poem Ulrich recited for us:

TREES

by Harry Behn

Trees are the kindest things I know,

They do no harm, they simply grow

And spread a shade for sleepy cows,

And gather birds among their boughs.

They give us fruit in leaves above,

And wood to make our houses of,

And leaves to burn on Halloween,

And in the Spring new buds of green.

They are the first when day's begun

To touch the beams of morning sun,

They are the last to hold the light

When evening changes into night,

And when a moon floats on the sky

They hum a drowsy lullaby

Of sleepy children long ago. . .

Trees are the kindest things I know.

Anya sang in the Dinky Choir, which she absolutely loves. Put on music and in no time our little madam will be dancing and singing her heart out. She keeps telling me that she wants to be a rock star when she grows up. Should I be worried?

Ulrich, Erin and Anya with my parents - this is the first photo I have with my dad
and his grandchildren - just love it

Fires all go out eventually

Winter has arrived bringing with it an ice cold wind that makes the house feel like a refrigerator. So I decided to make my first fire of the season to warm the house and our chilled bodies. There is something extremely comforting about a burning fire and just sitting and watching the dancing flames brings peace to both body and mind. Soon everyone felt warm and cosy - too cosy as no one wanted to leave the warmth of the fire-place, which made me realise that as humans we naturally gravitate towards things that warm us - fire, hot chocolate, blankets, our family, hot water bottles, winter sheets, heaters, slippers, thick socks - all these things are necessary as they help us, especially me, remain sane during winter.
I also decided to braai for lunch today, but my enthusiasm was soon replaced by frustration in trying to keep the fire alive. I had to start the fire three times before I finally had a decent fire to braai our wors and steaks on. So we sat outside enjoying our lunch and the light fire of the weak winter sun on our backs when Michael phoned to tell me that his laptop had just been stolen and instantly my fire of hope was extinguished as I realised that it will be a long time before I get to see and speak to my hubby again on Skype - the lifeline of our marriage had now been stolen from us - so now how do we keep our relationship alive when we can't see or speak to each other? So even though the burning fire in the fire place is warming my toes and hands, my heart is cold as my hubby now feels so far away - unreachable.

The last team to check in MAY be eliminated!

I am the Activity Day Leader in our ward and on Friday night we had our own Amazing Race. All the children came dressed in their running shoes as no one wanted to get to the Pit Stop last. We only had 4 teams as alot of the children were sick, but it was fun watching them running around the chapel trying to find all their clues and working together as a team. The children had a blast and asked if I could please do another Amazing Race activity. I love my calling as I love teaching and showing the children that the gospel can be fun.

The invitation I made inviting all to participate in the Amazing Race

Here are some of the clues, including one of the detours and roadblocks they had to complete

For any one that would like to hold their own Amazing Race a great site to check out is www.ChicaAndJo.com as they have all the Amazing Race clue templates that you can use - you just download them and then type in your own clue details. Easy, simple and effective. Just the way I like it!

It's Always Something

It is Sunday night, the children are finally in bed and I am basking in the peace and quiet that has descended upon my home. Dressed in my winter pajamas and slippers I am marvelling at the fact that I have made it through another week and bracing myself for the start of another hectic one tomorrow.

We had an unwelcomed guest this week - Mr Rat - decided to make his home behind the fridge, but every time I moved the fridge to chase him out he ran under and up the washing machine. So on Friday I decided that he had out stayed his welcome and that it was time to evict him. I first blocked his route to the washing machine, opened the back door and armed the children with brooms to sweep out our visitor. As I moved the fridge he blotted straight for the washing machine, but instead of finding a safe haven his bottom found Ulrich's broom and he landed outside in the courtyard followed by victorious shrieks from the kitchen.

Erin had a potjie tasting competition at school. All the Grade 7's were put into teams - they had to find their own recipe and then bring all the necessary ingredients, potjie pot, cooking utensils and firewood. Thank goodness the rain had stopped so they could start their fire successfully. Erin's team made a chicken and bacon potjie and he said it tasted great. We will find out which team won next week. I did give him an empty container so that he could bring home some for me to taste, but all I got was the dirty potjie pot to clean.

Ulrich was very excited as he finally got selected to play in his first rugby match. I made sure we woke up early on Saturday so that we all could get dressed, have breakfast, pack the car and get to the school on time. He looked so smart in his green and white rugby shirt and couldn't wait to ran out onto the rugby field and play for his school. But alas he never got the chance as the opposing team did not bring their Under 9 team as they said there was no match scheduled for the Under 9's. My little boy was crashed and he fought very hard to not cry in front of all his friends. With a heavy heart he climbed back into the car and we had to wait till after lunch before we saw a smile on his face again. One of the hardest jobs a parent has to do is watch their children face their disappointments in life as your heart brakes for them and you wish you had a magic wand you could wave to make all the unhappy moments in life disappear. But unfortunately it doesn't work like that and all you can do is wipe their tears away, hug them as tight as you can and hope that they will bounce back even stronger.

A mother's arms are more comforting than anyone else's

I love Mother's Day as it reminds me of just how lucky I am to be a mother. I also love the simple, yet sincere gifts my children make for me which tell me that they do appreciate all that I do for them [even though they hardly say it]. I am so blessed to wake up in the morning to three beautiful smiling faces waiting to shower me with home-made cards and to be treated to a shoulder and back massage by my oldest son. What more can a mother ask for! I love my children and know that they have helped mould me into a better person - my life would be incomplete without them.

This is the heart shaped card Ulrich made for me.

  

It opens up into a flower! Isn't that sweet!

A house is made of walls and beams, a home is built with love and dreams.

Jill Robinson said: 'A house is who you are, not who you ought to be.' Which means, like it or not, the personalities of our homes reflect where we have been and what's going on in our lives right now. That is pretty scary especially if you could see what my house looks like right now. I have always dreamed of living in a clean, orderly house that had a rustic, country look and feel to it - that is still a dream because in reality my house is nothing like that. Most of the decor in our house are hand-me-downs and stuff other people don't want anymore so nothing matches and there is no theme that flows through our house. When I go to other people's homes I get embarrassed about the condition of my house and I keep telling myself 'If only I had the money then I could have a home like this', but there is never any money to redecorate and so the 'dream house' gets put on hold, again. So if I can't do anything about how it looks right now, maybe I can focus on how it feels. I asked Erin if he feels happy when he is at home and without hesitation he said 'yes, being at home makes me feel happy and safe.' So what that our lounge suite is three different colours, that none of the chairs around the dinning room table match and that our grocery cupboard is in fact the warddroppe my hubby made for our little girl - what matters is that my children feel happy, secure and loved in this patchwork house and I hope when people enter my home they will feel of its warmth and think that it is interesting and unique just like us. I may not be able to give my family a beautiful, stylish home now, but I can create a loving haven for them.
I am grateful for my home as it is all that I truely need right now.

How is it that one match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box of matches to start a campfire?

Erin went on his first Young Men's camp this week-end:

"We went to Midmar Dam in Howick. Me and my friend Samuel were the only ones there when I arrived. We pitched two tents. One was an eight man and the other a six man.We gathered wood for a fire and waited for the others to arrive. At half past six some more young men arrived. There was Jordan, Lindo and Neh. Brother Paul, Bishop De Wet and Ian Cobain were the adults that had arrived. Andries and Darrell were already there. At quarter to seven Barry arrived after he had taken care of his sick wife. At half past seven Sibelo, Lucas, Bob and Junior arrived with Brother Sia who had been at work. We then got the fire started and began to cook the mince for our Sloppy Joes which was our supper. Ian Cobain left to get the activity ready while the mince was cooking. We ate our Sloppy Joes and got ready for our night activity. Ian put us into two teams. I was with Jordan, Lucas, Neh and Lindo. We got given two torches per team and got given our team colours. Our colour was green. We then had to choose a number between one and four. We chose number two while the other team chose number four. We got our map and clue and then set off. We went up across the tar road, past the bathroom, up a hill and into a little forest. We saw our green ribbon in a tree and a clue attached to it. It said that we needed to gather any material around us that would help to make a fire. We then gathered wood. dry grass and little twigs. There was also newspaper lying around but we didn't take it. We went back down to camp and got our wood ready. We then got given two matches and those didn't work so we waited a five minute penalty. We then got given four matches and those also didn't work. We then got six matches and after wasting four we finally got our fire started. We then chose clue number one and were sent along the dam shore line and into long grass to find a dead tree with our next clue. We found three dead trees but none had our clue but the next dead tree did. It just told us to take our extra long green ribbon to help us in later tasks. We went back to camp and chose clue number three. It told us to make three mimes using pictionary cards. I went first and I chose firewood. Jordan went next and chose vision. Then Lucas went and chose water pistol. All our mimes were successful. We then went on our last clue which was number four. We went along the tar road, next to some fencing, by some power cables and around another smaller dam. We found two long wooden poles, a giant cask full of water and a car tyre. We then had to carry them back to start using our own route. We took our extra long ribbon and tied the water cask to the two poles. Jordan then went to the front and put the two poles on his shoulders and Lindo and Neh took the back of the poles. Lucas rolled the tyre while I tried to make the water cask lighter for them so we could go faster by carrying it a little. We went along the long grass and through the soccer field to get back to camp. We were ambushed by the other team and got such a fright that Lucas put the tyre on his head and ran to the nearest tree and climbed up it! We carried on to camp and being the first team to finish we got biscuits and a big slab of chocolate that we shared. We then braaied marshmallows and went to bed. In the morning we tested our billy cans and buddy burners to make hot chocolate. We then went to visit the fishermen who had camped right by us. They had caught a carp that weighed about one to one and a half kg. The boy was busy studying it for a school project while they fished. We then went and had a soccer match. I was with Junior,Lindo and Neh. We lost our first game and drew our next game. We then went and swam in the dam. Me and Samuel went and tried to catch small fish using cups as we didn't have proper fishing gear. We then ate Borewors rolls and packed ready to go home at lunch time."

It sounds like Erin had a great time but unfortunately he didn't only bring back good memories, but also the flu.

Happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love and they blossom when we love the ones we marry

I love weddings so of cause I was glued to my TV this morning watching the union between Prince William and Kate. I remember pretending to be sick 30 years ago so that I didn't have to go to school just so that I could stay home and watch Prince Charles marry Diana. Now I am lucky enough to watch her son tie the knot, but I think it is sad that she couldn't be there in person and be part of this happy occasion. Many girls dream of growing up and marrying a dashing prince, my husband may not be of royal blood, but he is definitely a prince in my eyes as he is handsome, charming, kind, loyal, considerate, hard-working, generous, sincere, trustworthy and dependable. What more can a girl ask for! I have been truly blessed and I can't wait for my dashing prince to fly back home to me.

I believe in miracles… keeping this place clean is one of them

My house was in a desperate need for a clean so today I put on my Owl City CD and took the broom for a dance around the house. A usually play music when I do housework as it helps to make an unenjoyable task pleasant. There are two reasons why I do not like housework: One, it just never ends as there is always something that needs to be done; and two, no one appreciates how long it takes to clean the house. Someone once told me that I should be gratefull for housework as it means I have a home. So, yes I am gratefull for the dirty dishes that still need to be washed, I am gratefull for the huge pile of clothes to be ironed, I am gratefull for the bath that needs a good scrub and I am gratefull for the dust that never wants to leave my home; but do you know what I would be most gratefull for: Someone to do all the above for me! Any volunteers?

The kitchen is the heart of the home

Just finished baking Muesli Muffins found in the Eating for Sustained Energy 3 cookbook. I've had this book in my cookbook rack for a while now and finally decided it was time to brush off the dust and put it to use. I love the "freshly baked" smell in my kitchen that seems to drift throughout the house creating that warm country home feeling.
Today was quite a nice Easter, which is a surprise as most celebrations have not been enjoyable since Michael's been away - things are just not the same without him. I have calculated that he has been in Sudan for exacting 252 days and I cannot believe that we have survived that long apart from each other. One of the mom's at school told me that I do not have a proper marriage [people can be so insensitive sometimes] and in some ways she is right, but when it comes down to what makes a proper marriage Michael and I do have the two main ingredients - love and commitment - and thankfully time has not robbed us of these two things. So to that insensitive mom - yes, I may not have the traditional marriage, but yet it is still flop proof.