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Feel it, it is here, the night of the sarcastic gratitude.

 

I am really grateful I write these posts after my children have gone to bed, otherwise I would use words like “satan” and “spawn’ in the same sentence when referring to my darling children after a day like today.

 

I must be living in la-la land. I had this romantic notion of baking cookies with them this afternoon. (who am I kidding, I always live in vague hope that one day I’ll be wearing a floral Biggie Best apron and the kitchen will smell of cinnamon whilst my clean-faced well-behaved children will be seated at the table, each rolling out their cookie dough whilst humming some inane Sound of music song in on-pitch unison)

In reality my kitchen walls/floor/table/chairs/chair covers are covered in dough. Halfway through I gave up on the pretty shapes and rolled little balls I let them smash with a fork. Yes, one fork they had to take turns with. We can’t them stabbing each other now can we? And there-in lies the gratitude. No-one got stabbed with a fork today. See?

 

Hubby made chilli-con-carne tonight (without the chilli) and not one of them ate even one bite of it. The girls sniffed at their mash, but that was the closest it got. So, they all went off to bath and bed without TV or a snack. I suspect they might not been interested in food as I caught them each busy stuffing about 6 of the abovementioned cookies in their faces about a minute before supper when I turned my back for a nanosecond. I am grateful that hubby and I have similar parenting styles and that we stick together and back each other up. For now at least. All bets are off when the children hit puberty.

 

Here are the girls in the bath. The reason I am sharing this picture with you is because I want you to know that those are NOT bubbles. That was a brand new bottle of shampoo.

 

 

Ps: I only had them from 3pm today.

 

Pps: I love them deeply. I really do. Especially now that they are asleep.

 

Pps: Have you voted yet today? No pressure of course…

Every day I ponder my gratitude challenge to myself and wonder if I’ll find one thing to be grateful for, let alone three. And every day I find stuff that blows me away. Here is my list for today:

1. Picture this: Monday afternoon, a 2 year old toddler holding on to the front of a shopping trolley, another pushing the trolley whilst Mom duck-walks behind her, steering. And a 4 year old sitting on the little seat. That was us this afternoon at the shops. We are loud, we discuss everything on the shelves and everything that’s still on the list. There is much negotiation about colours of bottles and types of juice and yogurts.

I absolutely love watching people’s expressions in the shops, ranging from awe to shock to horror at the noise we make. Do I care? Not in the least. I am grateful my children feel free enough to express themselves and enjoy the shopping trip as much as I enjoy being there with them.

 

2. Faith. I am grateful I have faith. And I’m not necessarily talking about the religious kind. I mean the faith to know that whatever was going to hit us this month would be nothing we couldn’t handle. And the faith to know that there would be an answer. Regardless. We had no idea where we were going to find money to cover our bills at the end of the month, but out of the blue some extra money is hopefully coming our way. And our friends are rallying around us in such amazing ways we are speechless.

 

3. Supper. I attempted Chicken Chasseur tonight. Those of you that visit here often know that cooking/baking/frying eggs are not my strong point. For starters I get bored with reading recipes so often make up my own stuff. Let’s just say, it usually doesn’t end well. When I showed hubby the recipe I wanted to make tonight he went Ah! Chicken Chasseur, I’ve made that before. And I thought ‘gulp’. But, I can gratefully say I didn’t fuck it up, it was lovely. Even the kids ate it. I am very grateful for that.

What a lovely, laid-back family Sunday.

 

Here are my 3 things to be grateful for today:

 

1.  Music.  More specifically, U2.  We were on the way to my folks for lunch today and had ‘With or without you’ playing in the car.  The kids went very quiet.  I don’t know whether it was because they love Bono as much as I do (I’m hoping!), the way hubby and I were bopping our heads in unison or my absolutely dreadful singing.  I love music and there is usually a radio or a CD playing in our house.  Admittedly, it’s usually children’s music these days, but still.  There are many, many memories and emotions linked to songs!

 

2.  Afternoon naps.  Nothing, I repeat, nothing is more special than a nap on a Sunday.  Knowing I have an hour of peace and quiet and I promise myself that I’ll read my book, but when my head hits that cool pillow and I snuggle in I’m gone, until hubby comes to wake me up for his turn.  At least today, during my turn to be awake, I could convince Daniel to cuddle on the couch and watch a movie so I could read my book with him nestled firmly under my arm.  Bliss.

 

3.  The absolute cuteness of our children.  Sometimes when I look at them I feel like the wind is knocked from me by the overwhelming love I feel.  I want to hold them and keep them and kiss them.  I want to inhale the smell of them and remember it forever.  I want to imprint their facial expressions and mannerisms and remember how much I love them so that I don’t disown them when they are teenagers one day and hate my guts.  (And I probably hate theirs)

 

May everyone have a fantastic week!

Late-night Saturday after some (ok, a LOT) yummy Yonder Hill Merlot, courtesy of good friends, so I’ll keep it short for today:

1.  Kids that sleep well.  In the last couple of months we have slept more than in the previous 4 years.  Quite a feat with 3 children in the house! (ps, Murphy, please don’t be a bitch and punish me for saying that!)

2.  Coffee.  Not just any coffee.  I’m talking espresso, made just the way I like it.  I stopped smoking 3 years ago, but I’ll probably always have some vice.  Coffee is it and I refuse to apologise for it.

3.  Friends that can give me space to be a little miserable and sorry for myself without making me feel like I need to entertain them.  That’s very special.  Thank you, you know who you are.

May everyone have a wonderful Sunday!

All in all, a crappy day, I had to dig to find things to be grateful for that aren’t snippy or sarcastic.  OK, maybe just a little sarcastic.  But then, I knew that this could get hard. 

1.  Recently I spoke about a long-standing friendship that looked like it was on it’s way out.  This has now officially happened.  Without a major confrontation. Just a simple little FB unfriend.  I didn’t do the unfriending and I picked it up by chance.  I’m really grateful that the peg is in the sand.  Life can now carry on.

2.  Someone I know died of cancer today.  She was also a Mom.  I’m really grateful that I knew her, she was an amazing person.  (I choose not to say anything more about this, as I don’t want to sound trite or soppy)

Maybe I will just add that I was at Stodels with a fellow Mom-of-3 when I heard and called another friend.  Whilst I’m having this really sad conversation I turn around and there is Mignon, pants down, she had pee’d on the jungle gym.  We made a hasty exit, madam naked from the waist down and Isabel very pissed off and being dragged by the arm.  And Daniel begging to look at the fish. 

3.  Daniel has decided that only girls are allowed to bath him.  Daddy can bath him later, when he (Daddy) is a girl.  Dude, trust me, Daddy is not a girl.  Something I am extremely grateful for.

Here are our efforts at dressing the kids for Casual Day today.  Isabel refused to pose, downright inconvenient, let me tell you.  

Hubby was also wearing a Springbok T-shirt and one of the girls pointed at it and said: “Pappa kyk, ‘n donkie!!’  He was very disgusted. The way they are playing these days, not far off..

In front of their school this morning, Mignon is still wearing that necklace 24/7 and we had quite a struggle to get those little skirts off them this evening, but they looked so cute!  Isabel just keeps hitching the skirt almost chest-height, looks very funny!

ps: did you know that you can vote once a day for the SA Blog awards?  Just saying 🙂

Hubby had to leave early this morning, so I got to feed and dress the Brady bunch and cart them off to school.  Which went fine until my darling son decided not to go to school in his PJ’s.

Yes, you read correctly.  He declared early on that he was not getting dressed and he knows that that means that he goes to school in his PJ’s.  (which in real life has only ever happened once, mostly we just threaten) Of course, just as I had loaded bags on the girls, brushed hair, pulled myself together, door open and keys in hand, mister decides to get dressed.  So it was another 10 minutes before we left.

I have to shamefully and woefully admit that I felt like a 4yr old this morning and just wanted to dig my own heels in.  Sometimes it’s really painful and overrated to be the adult.  It certainly wasn’t my best performance today.

Now that I have that off my chest, herewith my 3 things to be grateful for today:

1.  The kids were all asleep and the kitchen clean by 19h55 tonight.  All we had left to do was pack lunches for tomorrow.  Woop woop!  Amazing how much you can get done with an extra 30 minutes!

2.  A really great friend popped in unannounced earlier tonight and it was such a great surprise.  We had a quick catch-up, just enough to tide us over until we get together soon!  Do you ever visit friends on the spur of the moment or do you book way in advance?

3.  My husband’s unfailing sense of humor.  He has an amazing ability to diffuse potentially difficult situations, especially with the kids, by making light of them.  I tend to take things very personally whereas he just shrugs and moves on.  I am so grateful for that and am sure that our children will learn this from him!

Hope everyone has a fabulous Friday!

First off, Hopeful Mom had her baby yesterday!!  He weighed in at 3.8 kg’s and they are both doing well!

In this post I said that September was going to be my month of gratitude and that I would be posting 3 things every day to be grateful for.

Today’s stuff to be grateful for are absolute no-brainer stuff, but things we might overlook on a daily basis.

Here goes!

1.  My Mom.  She came over today and helped me sort out all the washing that was piled up, ready to be ironed and sorted.  She took 2 hours out of her day to sort out my stuff.  In effect she added 2 hours onto my day I really needed. And we had a way overdue catch-up.  How cool is that?

2.  Bookclub.  Girls, wine, more wine, semi-burnt lasagne and, of course, books.  I’m not a girly kind of girl, but getting together with really cool girls and being able to have a conversation and a laugh is precious.  Thanks!

3.  Finding out I am a finalist in the SA Blog awards.  I must be honest, after all the scoffing at it I am feeling very blessed and lucky.  Thanks to everyone that nominated me, now go vote! You can just click on the new badge..

Today was also the first day I collected the kids about 2 hours earlier from school, seeing as how my employment status is now something like a Facebook relationship status:  It’s complicated.

I felt quite smug for about the first 15 minutes until I tried getting some stuff done and they demanded juice, paint, snacks and music.  This is going to be a bigger adjustment than I thought, but we’ll figure it out.  If you do find me curled up in the foetal position on a street corner rocking and chanting ‘don’t shout, don’t shout, don’t shout’, just nudge me with you foot and point me in the direction of my house.  And then make sure there’s a glass of Merlot waiting.  Thanks. 

The kids’ school had an outing to the beach today to pick up trash.  Which, in principle, is a fantastic idea, except for the little matter of a gale force wind and 15ºC temperature.

My kids behaved really well until I decided to chat to one of he parents and another Mom pulled my sleeve and pointed out that Daniel, his friend and the ‘sussies’ in hot pursuit, had run back along the beach and were almost back to the cars.  This Mommy uttered many, many nasty little words whilst running across the beach, trying to catch up to them.

Here is the mountain, just for incase you doubted my take on the weather. 

Here are the girls, very busy picking up trash:

Here is Daniel and his bestest, bestest friend in the whole wide world.  (Yes, his pants are the wrong way around.  He wanted the zip at the back.  Don’t even ask.)

I’m still finding sand in places there really shouldn’t be sand.  Ever.

I decided to try a late afternoon Pilates class today.  I think the teacher was in a bad mood by then because it was hectic.  I’m going to be very sore tomorrow!

And this is the sight that greeted me when I got home:

3 little DJ’s, apparently they were dancing and singing whilst hubby was cooking.  I can only imagine!

It’s amazing how you could worry about something for ages and then all of a sudden you come across a really, really simple solution.  We read to Daniel every night and I just haven’t gotten my head around how we were going to read to the girls and it’s really important to us that they are exposed to reading from an early age.  Tonight, instead of watching TV before bedtime whilst their brother was in the bath I thought HA! why don’t we read on the couch!

And they were in heaven, we snuggled up on the couch with a couple of books and we read and they LOVED it.  I’m going to try this rather, much better than TV!

I know I posted a picture of the sun this morning, but this was on my way to collect the kids.  Twice in one day, can you believe how beautiful this is??  That bank of clouds at the bottom made it extra special.

The sun this morning when I was dropping off the kids, how beautiful is this?

I have been generally a bit mif lately for various reasons and I am quite sick of it.  So, I have decided that September will be gratitude month.  I used to keep a gratitude journal in which I used to write down 5 things per day to be grateful for.  The aim is to get beyond the obvious stuff like health etc and change your focus.  You end up actively seeking things to be grateful for, so gratitude becomes a mind-set.

I commit to sharing 3 things per day to be grateful for for the month of September, so watch this space!