A good long weekend at home consist of....

Sweet, good and thoughtful kids that buys you an early Mothersday gift and stay sweet for a whole weekend. Kids that let their parents have extended Sunday afternoon naps and help to tidy up the house.

Some beauty and sweet fragrances - and a good visit to my mom.

 Saturday night out and Chinese and sushi with my 3 men (A had a sleepover with a friend)

A good book or two to read - and actually finishing one and almost another. 

A good hike up our favorite trail with the puppies and some good friends - followed by a lovely braai after.

Little gifts of love from one of the kids, nature finds and laughs

 Chocolate muffins for breakfast at 9 - all in our pj's on a Sunday morning.

 Great food - Hunters chicken curry, a leisurely afternoon with wine and an autumn swim with friends (their pool is heated) .

Perfection - absolutely!

So how did you enjoy your long weekend?

This that and Blogvember

I am so very angry this morning. I was deliberately distracted in Spar yesterday afternoon, the flap of my handbag lifted and my phone stolen. Within minutes it was de activated and find my iPhone could not trace it from my iPad. Now the mess to get this sorted - and it's a company phone so the paperwork etc is doubled. And I am going to a funeral this afternoon. This might just take away the one Saturday morning I booked out for myself this year. Bummer....

So today we are going to say goodbye to our great friend's mom - the type of friends that are family . Family you chose to have. But we lost her about 3 years ago already. She was an exceptional lady - she could translate 7 languages and speak them all. Back in her best days she was extremely knowledgeable in a almost anything - history, current news, philosophy, music, art and architecture. She was a fantastic person to converse with. As students and even later as we entered the job market we spent many many evenings at their home, talking about anything and everything around a glass of Belgium beer or good wine, eating wittlof and fritte, waffles and even rabbit. Around 15 years ago she started to slip, slowly into the mist of what is early onset Alzheimers. Around 2 years ago even her long term memory slipped away and she was lost into her own mind of muddled thoughts. The last 6 months she has been house bound. I guess in a sense it is a relief to all - but this does not lessen the loss and sadness for a life that was a great one, although way too soon lost to us. I feel sad for them, we will hold the good memories.

Onto Blogvember - today is about the series you watch.  I am really a bad TV watcher - and more often than not will sit and read. But I do enjoy Masterchef in all it's forms and at the momebt MasterchefSA is followed by Baaimaster on etv so that makes a nice Thursday night's viewing. I used to watch all the CSI series and the Mentalist but now it's sort of hit and run - when I happen to sit down and they are on I may watch, or not.

On the Bookclub, friendship and good books and food.

Yesterday was a tough day. In fact, the last few months, no make that this year has been super tough. I can not go into the details of what this all entails but I am sure we will one day look back at this year and say, "Wow, we made it" like we do after the first year with 3 kids under 3.

My table was all about words

Last night was bookclub - and as one of the other girls remarked when we left - even if you felt extremely tired , or the day was super tough and you are actually a bit sick and thought about staying home, going to bookclub was the best idea ever. I am not sure what exactly is the winning formula - if it's the company of a wonderful group of woman who all became good friends or the fact that we all love books and discuss them. Just the night out - for a lot of us it is the only me time we have every month.  Or if it is the random non -book chats that happens before and during dinner (books and book discussions follow after)? Is it the great food we all take pride in producing once a year? For instance last night's menu was beef roll with apricots, beetroot risotto, oven baked veggies and a pea and bacon salad with home made strawberry and kiwi semifreddo for desert.

My menu was inspired by Deon Meyer characters

I think it is a combination of it all - and the glass or so of good wine adds to it. And although none of our problems and stresses were solved, at least for the night we laughed and laughed and you got that "everything will be alright in the end, if it's not alright its not the end yet" feeling. Maybe just for an hour or two.

So I want to know what lifts your spirits? What social get together makes it all better?
(Photos from my hosting of the book club last month. Quote from "The best exotic Marigold hotel)

This weekend...

 While Hunter was in the bush and we had heaps and heaps of rain and sudden cold on Saturday we:

Met friends at the local Spur as the horse riding was totally rained out. The kids had a blast and we had more than 2 hours of happy entertained kids and Spur's R20 breakfast.

 We visited my mom to pick up A's flower girl dress for Friday's wedding and had some tea. The boys were totally silly and over energized.

Crafted - Miss K was visiting and the girls painted rings - the boys painted wooden aeroplanes (still to be assembled.

I also did a nice bit of decluttering which made me totally happy - a 9/10 one.

 After Miss K left the Princess used a take away container, pipe cleaners, a feather and glitter to make a dog and a garden and pool for her doggy. I love the creativity. Totally imagined by her. She then tied it with a ribbon and opens it to play with.

Sunday dawned still rainy so we had "pannekoek": for breakfast - the SA version of crepes - with sugar and cinnamon.

After church and  a quick trip to the shops we had a lovely day at home as the rain stopped and the sun peaked out at times. We played hopscotch and drew on the paving with chalk

  Played with our puppies

Saw the chrysanthemums bloom and the first ripe lemons on the lemon tree. We then baked cupcakes with lemon frosting - Hunter's favorite to welcome him home.

We also had a visit from the bride to be and her mom, unfortunately to collect a plant A went to get at the church's "we care" inititative for the groom- who in a freak accident broke his arm on Saturday night and was being operated on Sunday afternoon. Luckily we had some cupcakes to console the bride. Yes, the wedding will go on - arm and all. (and no it was not a bachelors party or anything like that). They also brought little Dareus along to play with our puppies who were so good with him.

It was a good weekend, even though the weather was rather unpleasant - it was however great to welcome Hunter home Sunday night with a roast chicken meal who shared this beautiful image of the mist over the valley in Pilansberg on Sunday morning. (BTW they saw a leopard - such a  great sight)

 So how was your weekend?

It was such a great weekend

We spent the past long weekend at Sondela, just about an hour's drive from Pretoria where we celebrated my wonderful hubby's 40th birthday with my BIL and SIL from Cape Town and our dear friends S&;I. I received the wonderful gift of the weekend in a lodge I designed for clients a while ago and chose to use it for our celebration. We all had such a great time and got to do some of the things we love most. But most importantly, we spend it with our families. Quality time with my hubby and kids. But as always, the story is best told in pictures (hope you have some tea or coffee - expect a picture overload)

The lodge - when we arrived there all 3 the ladies vowed to bath in those lovely huge baths - we each only did once - the outside showers (concealed but with a view) was just way too tempting.

We visited the farm yard where the kids saw cows being milked and fed goats, sheep and many more. A and some of the other girls tried their hands at milking the cow.

I love this one - all the kids apart from the 16 month old S watchiong the milk process. Note the hats - yes, we live under the African sun.

A milking the cow.

The moms and kids went on a game drive where we saw lots of animals and had great fun on a trailer and tractor drive. Mr L was in heaven! (the men mad a wonderful potjie and watched some rugby)

 

We swam a lot! It was hot and the combination of a cold and hot pool led to many happy hours in the water.

We fed the half tame Nyala that comes to the lodges and the kids could not believe they got so close to wild animals. We did keep a very close eye on the encounters.



There was sand art done, faces painted, manicures and pedicures undertaken and spray on tattoos painted.

And simply time spent together with friends and family in happy companionship.

Apart from the big fortieth celebration, the one thing that stood out was the huge amount of bicycling that happened  The gravel roads lend themselves to great cycling and the area around the house provides lots of safe spots for the little ones to ride too. I had a great ride on Thursday while Hunter had several over the weekend. 



 The big event however was that these two girls (8 and 9 years old) did an 11 km ride with their dads on the gravel roads and paths. It is the very first time that our Princess did a ride more than around a few blocks and on a big bike! We were super proud of her. The two just grabbed their bikes regularly and off they went within the area we set out for them.

 I have to leave you with one of the stunning bushveld sunsets. Just breathtaking.

It's a friendship thing

I have never talked much about friendship here. The honest truth is that Hunter is my BFF and this friendship just grows and grows and still grows. My other two BFF both moved really far away - one to Calgary Canada 8 years ago and the other to Canberra Australia 3 years ago. I miss them both, and I am a lazy email friend. Time differences means that Skype is not such a great option either and neither of them are on iPad or iPhone Face time or enthusiastic Facebookers.In fact, the one is not even on Facebook. And although we keep email contact I miss the day to day things, I miss just having an impromptu coffee date. A quick phone chat - which I did with both of them regularly.

Yes, I am trying to build new IRL friendships - I have one mom at the school whom I have met for lunch a few times and will again - she is wonderful - best friend potential right there. Only problem being I am a bit like someone dating - they are planning to move to Australia next year. I do not want to go through losing another good friend.Our friends that we as a family spend a lot of time with does not really "count" here - they are on the brother and sister level - family , well better than family. Pure gold. But I do count I as a great girlfriend - BFF too, but we seem to always visit with the families.  I do have other not so "heart" friends around that I sometimes meet mainly for lunch, but it's not on that great friendship level. That one that you share so much with. They take time, commitment and a whole lot of understanding to build, mostly over years. I have my cousin /friend A who is possibly the closest to this is have at the moment. And the book club girls and other friends I love to spend time with but we still have to walk that mile together, eat that bag of salt together. It may come.

In the meantime, I have a great pack of friends I made here in the virtual word of my computer and iPad. What I love about bloggers is that we also talk about the things that you do not often get the time and chance with IRL. We support each other through comments, emails, Facebook chats. Some develop into IRL friends with time. We talk about our dreams and our visions - and our word for the year. As part of my word for the year "Embrace" I decided to as a friendship gesture ( Embracing friendships) doodle a few blogging friend's words for the year. I have posted quite a few (some delayed thanks to the post office strike) and some are still in process of being made. If you really want one let me know and I may just send you one. I just made notes of words as I saw them and as you know the first part of my year has been rather hectic, so I may have missed a lot. These doodles are giving me so much joy - I love making them and even more love sending them on and the joy they bring on the other side of th epostal system.I include a little Typo note book for each to write about what their word brings to them this year.  (BTW I only took a photo of each and did not scan them and sent the original to the recipients so they are uniquely your little doodle - a one and only original)So let me share the ones that I know have been received.

Marcia's

Julia's

Lynette's

Shayne's

Tania's

Pamela's

If you were wondering, yes, there is a process and some words "come to me" easier than others. I find very short words or phrases more difficult than single words. Yes, some symbols do have meanings to me but only one is in every single doodle (can you spot which one?) And tell me why I have it? The rest is mostly a process of drawings what the word/person/sketch "feels" like. As to the colours, I try to reflect a bit of what I see in you in those or I may just ask you to pick colours.

Joining Marcia today

The long weekend long ago

Almost a month has came and went since we had our lovely long weekend break in the bush. Imagine this - the beauty and quietness of the bushveld, a great camp with cycling space a plenty, 7 friends and 10 kids (3 extra the last night when Hunter joined us from his weekend in the bush plus two other friends). What was great wa that we just relaxed and that parentling duties were spread over for the bigger kids(including all 3 mine). You fed all the kids around you, we mass managed them dishing out juice to all that want and needed. It worked like a charm. But let's rather tell the rest of the story in pictures.

Unexpected little vignettes

A ninth birthday fruit feast party

With a water balloon fight after

Bushveld sunsets

Big old trees waiting for Spring leaves and the first rains, which fell on the Friday night we arrived.

Some Krone Borealis

And even more bushveld sunsets.

Campfires at night

 But it will be best remembered as the weekend when the boys really got into their bikes. Between the nicely even paved walkways and the big gravel road they really got enough of a chance to find the joy in biking. I think Mr L possibly spent 60% of the wekend on his.


The two big girls even opened their own "biking school" for the weekend and showed the younger ones the ropes. We took the Princess' small bike as she is was not really comfortable on the new big one and they had heaps of fun

 It was really just the best weekend and we all enjoyed it so much.

The lovely camp.

Friday stuff

So I am back at work today, for the morning only to try and catch up on some work left undone over the last two days. Thank goodness for wonderful staff and co workers and the trusty ipad, keeping me in touch with the most urgent of emails.

But let me give you a rundown of what's happening:

• Today is the birthday of my BFF in Oz - I miss you so much my dear H. What about coffee and cake at Isabella's at 1? Amazing how you always knew that a friend is precious but that you only realize how deep that feeling runs when they are too far to share that coffee and cake with you.

• It is also the birthday of my friend Mieks that tragically passed away at the age of 39 now 4 years ago. Her facebook profile still exist and it bring a huge lump in my throat to see how many of us still congratulate her every year.

• The party planning for the boys is going full steam ahead and most of the shopping has been done. Now I need to pack bags, make cakes and do the theme stuff.. I was caught a bit off sides by Mr C - I presumed they would both like the nice rocket cake (similar to the invite) I planned but alas, no! He informed me that he wants a solar system cake and proceeded to draw the solar system for me as an example. After a lot of weighing of options and talk we settled on a planet cake, and he choose his favorite planet, Uranus for his cake (who has a favorite planet, I mean really?). Anyway, it has to have exactly the right amount of rings and moons so I will have to make sure my research is 100% for my very particular Bear. Mr L of course loves the idea of a rocket cake. So it seems we have the perfect party theme to make both boys very happy. I have also managed to find sherbet for the party - the one thing they both asked for. (Last year it was those party blowers - they drive me mad so I am very happy it is only sherbet).

• We have a plan in conjunction with the school for next year for our Lion. I am very happy with the way our school has treated the whole situation after initially being irritated with their insistence on evaluating him. I have to sort one or two details out next week and then I will tell you all. Suffice to say that I am more sure than ever that even before we knew we chose the right school for him by choosing the same one for our Princess. The Lord has wonderful ways of providing before you even knew you needed to be provided for.

• Cameron van den Burgh visited the Princess' school last week (with a few other schools in Pretoria). He talked to them about winning, persevering, living your dreams and about doing your best, although it might not be the best there is. The Princess was delighted with her silver certificate for art in the arts festival (awarded the same day) although a friend won gold - do you think we have a break through? Maybe the lesson from and Olympian made sense? He greeted every kid personally - I am totally impressed with this young man who on Tuesday returned to the school to open the school's revamped pool.

• As to weekend goals, well, I have one only - enjoy the peace and quiet of a weekend away with friends in the bush. I hope you enjoy your long weekend ( for the overseas girls - we have a public holiday on Monday celebrating the diverse heritage of South Africa - a perfect weekend to celebrate our natural heritage in the bush)

Enjoy your weekend!

A freezingly cold weekend.

In all honesty, although a lot happened this weekend, I will mainly remember it for the cold. And I did tell you I wanted to bake, and yes, baking I did.

But, let's recap, mainly in photos:

Friday night was spent munching home made pizzas and watching a DVD with the family. (I buy dough at Spar and make pizzas)

Saturday:
I baked chocolate muffins for breakfast

  The kids ended up getting huge cabin fever and I was fearing an episode of sibling murder. I have once again realized that we are certainly neither geared nor used to extremely cold weather. So when we dropped off the Princess at a party at 11 (stylishly dressed below in warm winter garb), I took an emergency detour to the Spur with my boys (the plan was our little market but it was way too cold)

Returning from the Spur in time to prepare for our friends (Hunter had a me-time morning) this was the temperature:

Blurry shot, I know, and not cold for a lot of my overseas friends, but freezing for us for a mid day temperature.We stopped at our local Spar for some braai goodies and got plenty of smiles - looking at my boys at the checkout I realized why! They can be so bloody cute all dresses in Springbok grear

We then had our family friends S&I and the girls over for the first Springbok rugby match of the season and a braai. The boys insisted on some SA national pride sporting their Boks shirts and a painted flag each. And the Boks won! Take it England!

Bake no 2 for the weekend happened for desert that night - my mom's apple pie. A fairly well known recipe but my mom always make it.

On Sunday morning it was possibly even colder - the wind chill factor must have brought the temperature way down and only Hunter and the Princess went to church. The boys and I stayed in, the kids all had a short nap and Hunter made a divine Blouwildebees potjie which our friends came to enjoy at 4pm on Sunday - they left before 7 so it was fine for a "school night". The kids were in bed right on time .

This time I baked my 3rd treat for the weekend - traditional Malva poeding - also my mom's recipe. Possibly the quintessential South African desert.

I loved baking so much this weekend - it was really great, not only eating it, but seeing others enjoying it.

Anybody need the recipes? And did you bake or cooked something great this weekend? How was your weather?

Edited to add (and proove Marcia's point): Temperature this morning: (see the little snowflake next to the temperature?)