Why you need a rescue dog in your life.

This is our Rufus - doing his puppy face as the Princess calls it on Christmas day. His "I am the cutest dog ever face". But there is way way more to this furboy of ours.

Just more than a month short of a year ago we adopted this boy through Labrador and Golden retriever rescue. We knew that our Bongi had a very short time left with us and we did not want Moya left alone and grieving. After viewing a few dogs we almost immediately upon meeting him knew that he was "the one". He and A bonded immediately and do have a very special thing going between them. He adores his human sister but loves that his human brothers play ball with him. Even more now that the ball gets hit with cricket bats and golf clubs and goes really far and high.

Moya and Rufus on Sardinia bay beach

The point is that we decided to adopt a grown rescue dog and not buy a puppy. Whilst the benefits of buying a puppy is plenty it is incredibly rewarding to give a dog a new human family after it has been given up or forsaken by their previous one. It is almost as if they are even more loving, even more attentive. He is a real character and the sweetest pup ever.

The reasons why we adopted a grown dog was mostly selfish - we did not have the energy to bring up a puppy. The sleepless nights, the potty training. In return we got a dog that is fully potty trained, walks well on a leash (although he does pull hard) and is over the excessive chewing phase. He does not dig up the garden, eat the sprinklers or do many of the other Labrador puppy things that makes them equally challenging and delightful to raise. If the rest of the family is out he will make sure that he is a mere 5 steps away from me all the time. If Hunter works downstairs in the evenings he sometimes slips up the stairs to cuddle with me or he slips onto his human sisters bed and falls asleep - sometimes sleeping her half off her bed! Sometimes he checks up on his human brothers and gives them a little wet nosed kiss. It is almost as if he is checking if this is really his family and making sure he stays with us. He has been such a blessing for our family - maybe more so than what we have been to him.

The downside is that socializing him fully is proving a challenge and training him is harder than with a puppy. But we do see improvements all the time. And lets face it - if we had a puppy we would have spent time training and socializing in any event.

So do consider adopting a dog the next time you need a family pet. Most of the breeds have rescue organizations that you can approach and then there is of course always the usual animal charities. You may just be rewarded with the most awesome dog ever!

Do second kids have it easier or harder?

I guess its a bit of both really. I think it can be tough following on an older sibling especially if they are known for something or the other - like the star athlete's little sister that is just expected to win although it might not be her thing at all. It really has to be tough following a top academic achiever if you are just the average Jo Soap. Luckily I think in our family we may just bypass these issue.

However in some cases having older siblings certainly helps - they pave the road, show the courage and in some cases help their younger brothers and sisters. Although I am of the opinion that Mr C taught himself to read in grade R both he and A maintains that she had something to do with it. Whatever the case, last week he showed us not only his own guts, but that having an older sibling certainly helps.

When we get to gym on a Tuesday night the aquarobics class is still in progress in the small learning pool. Typically the boys will wait for the class to finish and the play in the small pool until their lessons and A do a few practice lengths before she plays a bit before her lesson. Last week Mr C tapped me on the arm (as he does) and said, "Do you think I can swim there?" showing the 25 meter pool. I said that he certainly could if he swam but no playing as people were doing their lengths. He got in and started with breaststroke following his sister and before long he was at the other end with a huge grin on his face and a high five from her. He turned around and did another back behind her to get a huge high 5 and congratulations from me. Boy, was I so delighted with this little man. He did another 6 lengths and then went on to his lesson. Following the example. I know a lot of kids his age swim these lengths regularly but for him it was a self motivated first.

BTW it's the second time in so many weeks that he has surprised his mom - at a bootcamp party he was the only boy of his age that managed the balance beam (a round pole) over the river without any help and while being harassed by the bootcamp instructor. He tried 3 times and succeeded on the 3rd try - quite amazing balancing skills. He thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, the mud, the water , the toughness and skills. It seems my quiet little softly spoken soul has a lot more I still need to discover.

Edited to add: Dr Kevin Lehman wrote an excellent book called "The birth order book". Do give it a read.

Currently...

Listening to: Ed Sheeran - actually the whole family has a favorite on his CD.

Reading: I am only a few chapters in but am loving it.

 Thinking about: How great it was to have a slower holiday like morning this morning. The kids have the day off school as it is cluster athletics and none of them are in the team so they are having a little mid week break.

Looking forward to: Going to a live shown next Friday in a small theater. I actually always forget how mush I love a show and live music.

Anticipating: Load shedding and making plans around that.

Planning: All that mainly the grade 4 has to do this week and weekend. It's a big leap in terms of projects and tests.

Wearing: Dresses! It's hot and there is nothing as cool as a summer dress. I am working my way through all the dresses I have every week and bought a beautiful addition last week on sale at Poetry.

Drinking: Anything with ice in.....

Eating: Summer fruit salad - it's the time of the year when seasonal fruit salad turns into a feast of note with the addition of mangoes.

Thankful: For my wonderful husband that is just always there for us. Also how he is stepping up to help A handle grade 4. This weekend it's the two of them and a chicken coop.

Wishing and praying: That L will continue to do well at school. Honestly I need all the prayers we can get.

Not looking forward to: Coming home from late extra murals (will be 3 nights from next week) to load shedding. I honestly do not mind the late home or the activities because we chose them all and the kids enjoy them - it's the inconvenience of more time and effort due to the load shedding that gets to me.

Dreaming about: A little camping weekend/holiday on a farm. Just a little break.

I would love to read your "Currently"

What if?

Found on Instagram

Competition in our 0/10 girls age group for the swim squad is hectic. With 1 girl already competing in the 0/11 national championships last year (at 0/9), and several other girls representing some of the best clubs around the chance of getting into the squad is very little. In fact, some of the girls bluntly state that they do not even want to compete. Our A had the same attitude - in fact, she did not even want to try because as she states, the places are all taken. And she believes she is not much of a swimmer - she is slow. What's the use? She did however swim in a small foundation base gala at the end of the year - but it was just the kids and not places/teams involved. It was sort of a mass thing - they all had fun. Not the real deal thing.

We as parents always hold the stance that if given the chance, would should just try - and try your best. For us, your best is good enough - it's great! So this year with their Inter house gala in January we urged her to try. Her swim coach asked her to do just one race for him - with the idea just to get the feel of competing. Gosh, she was all fired up but come race day, she was in tears. She just did not want to. I talked, I reminded, she reminded me that she actually can not despite me knowing she can. She then made a deal with me - she would do the one race her coach asked for. She chose breast stroke.

Very nervous she dived in a had a great race and came 4th in her heat - what we did not realize was that her time was good for her age. In fact, apparently they have 12 girls in her age group with good enough times to do well in school galas. After the race I tried to encourage her to do backstroke to but alas, to no end. She stated that she did what we expected and enjoyed it but that's it. We were regardless extremely proud of the fact that she tried and gave her best.

On Monday I came home to a very excited girl with a call up letter to swim gala for the school on Friday. It was a friendly and she was given the chance to compete. On Friday in front of my eyes she turned from "I can not do this" to " I can and want to do this". Gosh did she enjoy representing the school. She got a 5th in her race and swam beautifully and their mixed medley team won their race, despite a goggle failure for her. The best of all is she enjoyed it so much! She literally bubbled over with enthusiasm. It was huge fun. And she wants to do it again.

I am thankful the school has the foresight to give all of them the chance. She is a little sad because she realizes that it was possible her turn this season (there are only 6 galas) but we intend on using it as inspiration to work on her swimming. What a wonderful experience for me. Oh to see her fly!

The last two weeks....

Has been very very busy. Life is running at full pace and we are only in the middle of February. But to give you an idea of what's happening in our lives:

We have been a bit more social that we usually are. We have spent the last two Saturdays with two different sets of friends just celebrating being friends and enjoying each others company. I have also met 2 friends for lunch and a catch up.

We seem to be good into the school routine and grade 4 and the tests seem to be going well. I am also so happy about the way our school goes about projects - research, photos, prep etc can be done at home but they actually put together the project at school in the class to different steps and time frames. There is no way a parent can actually "do a project". Way more meaningful in my mind. On that note I am very grateful I have a stash of craft stuff that we can just dig into. For A's history project my Cinnamon Project Life cards will find a new use.

The boys both started with cricket this year and after their first matches last night the excitement is huge. Mr C actually dropped chess in order to play cricket - our rule is to do a full season or year - you can change after if you want to.

A has added Science club to her busy schedule. It's on Friday afternoons so the influence is minimal.

She will however not be doing it tomorrow as she was unexpectedly asked to swim for the school in a friendly gala. This actually deserves a whole post about just trying, motivation and lots of other lessons but I will do a full post some time.

For the rest, our au pair resigned as her schedule is busier than she expected (she qualified for a swimming event that she did not think she would achieve) - with lots of tears from her side. I just went ahead, registered on the website, paid my money and interviewed 8 girls in 2 days and could have easily chosen 4 of the 8. In a week and a half's time we will have the new one on board when the old ones notice period is over. She looks like a real go getter so I am hoping for the best.

Tonight we will be making little Valentines for the teachers and one each for the kids to give away. A had a class draw and she was hugely relieved to draw the exact boy she really wanted to give something to. Funny girl - she says now she can give it to him without him knowing that she likes him. Mr C has a very good friend that happens to be a girl - so she is getting something and Mr L just popped out a name of a girl in his class (I started with the girls' names and about 3 in he said "And there's Mia - it must be Mia".) 

The loadshedding and the heat is getting to everyone I think - but especially Mr L who remarked yesterday morning: "Eskom does not believe in Jesus - they work for the devil". That's about the worst insult you can get in our house .I do suspect he just verbalised how a lot of us feel about the issue.

So what's happening in your world?