Christmas blessings

Wishing you and all your loved ones a Christmas filled with joy and love.

I was woken up this morning just after 5 by the most wonderful sound of thunder -followed shortly by the sound of the house alarm going off. The promise of rain in a drought is amazing. We had a good few drops following but not the big storm that the thunder promised. The sun is shining again - promising another scorcher of a day in stead of the coolness the early morning weather hinted at.

It pretty much summarize this holiday for us. What was planned for this holiday did not happen. In stead of spending Christmas at the seaside with grandparents and cousins, we are spending it at home without Hunter. He is where he is needed most and the moment - it was clearly one of our best decisions. Our Oupa is sick - very sick and for now it's first things first - which means that dad is spending it with Oupa and Ouma in Port Elizabeth and we are spending it today with our other Ouma - my mom.

But God is amazing - angels are sent on our path all the time to help us over the sadness and disappointment of this holiday. On Monday afternoon during a storm cables in our area were blown off by falling branches in a huge wind storm. This resulted in a 54 hour electricity failure that nearly broke me. Dealing with moving a deep freeze of frozen meat, upset children, not being able to cook as you would normally do and defrosting fridges and freezers in a heat wave of 39 degrees for both the days the power was out all on my own was a challenge. But we had angels sent to us - a good friend that made space in her freezers to house all our meat before any damage was done and an offer for the boys to play and swim the afternoon with her kids - giving me time to do some shopping needed A's BFF parents that housed her for 2 days and night and offered showers, meals and more and my cousin that decided that a sleepover for us all at her place was a great idea. And it was - it was the break we needed to get away from the masses of work waiting at home and take aways or restaurant meals and to just relax for an evening, have a good solid home cooked meal and the best of all - a sleep in for me the next morning.

Christmas eve last night was truly a blessing. When A's BFF's parents heard of the changes of plans they invited us over to spend the night with their extended family. If was such a social and great occasion that brought much much joy to us all - especially the kids that loved the relaxed madness of 11 children between ages 2 and 18 , a 7 week old puppy , gifts, treats and way too much sugar. I am extremely thankful for this evening of joy and hope.

This morning after church I am cooking a Christmas meal at my moms for just us and one family member. I will make it a joyful and happy occasion.

Wishing you all a wonderful day with plenty of joy and hope.

"Don't just stick it. Bostik it"

We all know that little tagline don't we! Well Bostik has added another one: "Smart adhesives" -  because , let's face it, their adhesives are exactly that - smart. They also have a new little brand hero, Gary the Gecko. Geckos are renowned for their remarkable bonding abilities that allow them to cling to just about every surface, run up polished glass and support their entire body weight on a single toe.  Just look at the beautiful new branding featuring Gary.

We received a lovely blog drop from them a while ago and as a mom of 3 kids I was immediately excited about this! All the glue - do you have any idea how many glue sticks I buy a year for 3 kids? The kids on the other hand was really excited about  one particular product - the new very cool Rainbow twisters. The 6 were immediately shared to two each and proudly taken to school to show all. They were the first cool kids with these. 

 The last few weeks have been totally crazy and I had an idea in my mind to do a little craft with the glitter glue we received which I hid away as my kids love glitter glue and it would have long been used for whatever if I did not hide it. So with the kids informally on holiday since Monday I brought out the glue and we made a little Christmas craft.

What you need:
Bostik glue stick
Bostik glitter glue
2 Heart shaped doillies per child
1 Cardboard sheet per child

Position the doillies two on top of each other to form a Christmas tree. Stick with the glue stick. Make a pot and decorate your tree with the glitter glue. Allow to dry. Use as a card for grandparents or as a decoration on the wall.

How cute is this?
Thanks to Bostik! We really enjoyed doing this.

On Friday I celebrated another trip around the sun

Just a warning - if you are hungry, have something to eat first.

It was such a great birthday, honestly. I really needed the positive mood as this year has be a very hard one and may just continue to be so until the end and into next year.

My family woke me up with lots of hugs and kisses and the most beautiful cross necklace I have ever seen. As it's sort of holidays already it was a slower than usual morning. I just had to drop A off a school (the twins stayed home) - A only went to school as she had a birthday party directly after school where the clever parents rented a small bus to take the whole party off to Bounce. I then met up with two friends that I have really grown very fond of this year. When an old school friend of mine told me years ago that my friends will later be the moms of my kids' friends I honestly did not believe her. But it turns our that cool kids have cool moms and that you will find friends among the moms that you may very well have been friends with in any case. The 3 of us are planning to have a coffee club on Friday mornings next year - after dropping the kids and before work. I am really looking forward to this friendship initiative. We had a lovely breakfast (and I got some really lovely gifts too) and the work day started.

 At work I was spoiled with some very pretty gifts too. I really try to never work the full day on my birthday - in all honesty I feel I can get that for being a business owner. So I spent the afternoon with my two boys - while they played Lego and watched a DVD I mostly slept - peacefully on the couch. Great way to spend your birthday. As it was a Friday night and the au pair is already on holiday we had a family dinner out in stead of our usual spoil dinner for just the two of us. We had a lovely meal at Cappuccinos at Brooklyn Square and drifted to Exclusive books - something we all enjoy. We had small rain showers 3 times on my birthday  - I see it as a blessing. The Christmas tree in Brooklyn Square looked particularly beautiful reflecting in the rain.

We headed to Wakaberry for desert just because no calories count on your birthday !

It was such a lovely evening our with my little family - I felt truly and honestly blessed beyond words.

On Saturday morning I met a few friends at Isabellas at the Greenlyn centre. It was sort of a last minute idea and I invited them as they called or messaged on Friday. It was basically - join me if you can, no problem if you can't-and it really worked out well. It has such a nice atmosphere with the Hazel foodmarket next to it and the general market spread through the centre. Isabellas go to so much trouble if you book a table and the brought huge pitchers with cold water with mint and lemon. Perfect for a hot day.

We had wonderful decadent cake galore and a great chat while the smaller kids played in the kiddies area and the bigger girls strolled the market close to the shop. It was great to see some old friends and some new ones and my heart was light and happy when we left.

My very tasty but way too big piece of rainbow velvet cake.

It was honestly a lovely birthday - one I will remember for the many happy moments.

So much to be thankful for

I have been quiet - because we have been busy. Busy with prize givings and end of year business. And we have been blessed. Extremely blessed. I am filled with a total joy deep in my heart. Every one of our 3 precious children exceeded our expectations of them. Every time it was a surprise.

It started with our Bear, Mr C who on the morning of his prize giving at school won one of only five academic trophies in his grade - the one for spelling. I had no idea - no idea whatsoever that he even had a chance of winning any trophy. In a group of 150 children that is no mean feat.  I could not contain my joy!

The next morning our Lion, Mr L surprised us by receiving a general academic mention and one for Maths. To think that a year ago we were trying to get him into a special needs school and that with the help of a wonderful teacher and a lot of hard work he managed to end the year like this totally blows my mind. I was walking on air for the rest of the day. He also got a very special award on Saturday night at the stables award ceremony. He was the runner up for the inspiration award (won by an old man that at the age of 72 is learning to ride for the first time) for his guts, determination and huge improvement that has served as such an inspiration for the management and staff there.

This morning it was our Princess' turn for the prize giving ceremony at school. Grade 4 is a big year - there are tests, exams, projects and a whole different way of work. We prepared her not to expect to be in the top ten awards as they are an extremely strong academic group - in fact in sports and culture too. She surprised us and herself by achieving top ten in Natural science and technology, Social sciences and English. This already had me totally overwhelmed with joy. Then she was called for the top ten overall academic achievers. My heart almost burst.

So yes, this is a mommy bragging post - I am allowed to it's my space here. But I need to journal my feelings here and now - I need to acknowledge their achievements and hard work. I am so very proud - but over all, I am so humbly filled with total gratitude.