Let's be honest

The last few weeks have been some of the most difficult in my life. It's been hard and stressful and tough to make so many business decision on  my own. To try and take over from someone that had so much more experience in life than me. To believe that I can do this. But things seem to be slowly falling into place and there is hope on the horizon.

We have not bee away the holidays or any of the long weekends - honestly with all that was going on there simply was no scope to do that. But we had fun and some wonderful days in the mix.

Easter weekend was filled with great food , good company and lots of fun.

 We made candles and used up some of our old ordinary white candles and some of those millions of crayons every household has hanging around. It was great fun and came our really pretty

 We went to a very special little girls' 5th birthday celebration and had wonderful My little Pony cake to fill the rest of the weekend.

 I read two great Afrikaans whodunnits (with my birthday cake) - watch out for some book chat next week.

 My mom cooked us oxtail with samp and beans and peaches. She has not been able to cook us a meal in over 3 years with all the operations she had. It was a huge celebration that she was able to do this. She finished the meal off with her fantastic malva poeding.

 As per tradition in our church we took flowers to decorate the empty cross on Easter Sunday. It was a colourful celebration of our risen Saviour.

 Easter Sunday also saw the traditional Easter egg hunt - with oir great family friends. It was a day of fun, swimming and relaxation.

 While the kids devoured chocolate and spaghetti blognaise the adults ate:

 Chocolate too of course! (those ladybirds are the best)

 Lovely Dahl

 Beef curry

Great Cape Classique

And desert too (well we all had)

And we had another little celebration with the 5 year old.

It was such a great weekend!

A busy Easter weekend

Easter is the start of Autumn in our little corner of the world.

Our Easter weekend was filled with my BIL and SIL's visit from Cape Town, their friends, a party with Mr C (more about that later this week) and a big family get together on Sunday. In fact, it felt like Christmas without crackers and some white Easter eggs on the table in stead. 10 adults and 7 kids - a noisy but fun day. There was the traditional Easter egg hunt, lots of playing and laughing. I have to say that I am tired today and I think so are most of the members in our household but it was great to see new bonds formed as especially the 5 cousins got to know each other better.

We made these simple baskets out of party tubs, some cotton wool for tails and free printables on the sides. Quick, easy and cute and the kids loved making these.

 It's the first year that the Easter bunny had some help in our household as the Princess went to hide the eggs. Yes, as with Christmas Father she now knows and loved being able to help (although the finding part was way less fun for her)

Btw these Nesquick bunnies are delicious.

It's sad that we live so far apart and that it is so costly to get together as families more often. But I do feel that we have established bonds between the kids, made new memories to last for a while and we will see to it that we do get together in December again.The kids bonded so well with their cousins, especially M. Mr S is only 16 months so although they played a lot with him, the emotional bonds were formed with M.

 We had a little farewell breakfast at our local Wimpy yesterday, after which they had a short play time at home and then the goodbye part. A left with Hunter to take them to the airport while the boys and I had a little outing. Hunter made the 4 oldest kids one of these:

A slept with her family stone last night as I hear M has. As the longing gets too much, they will look at these and remember our hearts meet in the middle somewhere.

It's Lent

Ash Wednesday has come and gone and I only gave thought to Lent and giving up my usual something this weekend. It is tradition in our church as in many others to do a modified fasting over the 40 days up until Easter Sunday. The idea is to think about Christ and the price he paid on the cross, what he gave up for your sins every time you give up that item.

I have chosen many things in the past.- coffee and all other caffeine (tea, coke etc) - it was pure hell - you actually get withdrawal symptoms, alcohol (way easier than you think), chocolate (rather tough), all sweets (even tougher), salty snacks (way worse than I thought) and soft drinks (easier than you think - water is good stuff). This year I have chosen my "go to":snack - the one thing I snack on when I have that little hole in my tummy (especially late evenings, late afternoons, the 12 am spot in the tummy) - nuts. Yes, I have IBS but small quantities if chewed well enough works well for me - after all it's good healthy food. We ALWAYS have peanuts and raisins int he snack cupboard at home - the kids often get it in little tubs to school. I have almost every day in the last week craved especially peanuts and raisins. Thus a good choice for a fast item. I also adore smooth peanut butter (can be eaten if you have IBS - do not eat the chunky one though) so that is another challenge. (I have some of those Marmite covered cashews in my work drawer - the ultimate temptation but still sealed)

So I would like to know if you are Christian , do you fast over Lent and in which form? If modified like me, what have you chosen (and chosen in the past). Or do you think it is an old fashioned practice?

Easter 2012

We did exactly what I said we would do in my last post.We went to church (and the kids did so well considering there was no family church), we saw family and friends (and socialized way more that we , thought we would), ate a whole lot of very tasty food and all the rest.

It started on Thursday night when Hunter grilled the most divine steak for the two of us.On Friday we went to church, had brunch with my mom , a bit of an afternoon rest and made paper mosaic crosses. Hunter's cousin and his family came over for our Catholic tradition of fish on Good Friday. He made snoek on the fire, with roosterkoeke and home made bread. It was a beautiful day. Just nice and relaxing.

Mr C's cross

On Saturday the Princess was invited to play at a friend and when I dropped her off for her play date we got invited for a braai the evening, which turned into our latest evening out with the kids ever (we left for home at about 1:30). It was great to make some new friends with the parents of her friends. I just loved the evening - relaxing and casual. During the day we treated the boys to ice cream at the Spur - it was great to spend a bit of time just me, Hunter and the boys. And we had a great nap. We should really spend more one on one time with each of the kids.

On Sunday we went to church and as Saturday was so busy and we never got around to make baskets, we quickly made some easy ones with old washing powder tubs and eater paper I printed out in the office during the week.

The bunny was hence delayed in his delivery (we notified him as such on Facebook on the Princess' request - according to her everybody is on Facebook including the Easter bunny) and he only came ofter nap time, but then the hunt was on. He was rather clever in hiding eggs.

The hunt was on! The Princess even found an egg shaped pebble (by chance)

 She divided the eggs and I was totally surprised when they each gave dad and egg out of their baskets and ate only one items before playing through the rest of the afternoon.

At 5 our friend S and the kids came (his wife I is on a tour of Europe with her mom) and Hunter made the most stunning venison burger patties - we had a very relaxing evening together and E slept over.

Monday morning saw belated Easter egg decorating with this cute set I bought at Woolworths for R22 - a total bargain - has colouring tablets, stickers and stencils with edible ink markers. It was huge fun and we all had an egg for breakfast.

 The rest of the day was spent playing and playing and when L decided to take a nap (he has a rather crappy cold) the others left to drop off E and have a swim (their pool is heated and still at a very nice 29 degrees C). So when he woke up the two of us baked Hayley's Brilliant Condensed Milk cookies with our Big Blue handmade cookie stamp! A winner recipe.(Here in my granny's Joko tea tin - an heirloom I love)

It was truly a great weekend. So how was yours? (Unless I have read it all on your blog)

A very Wordful Wednesday joining:

and Parenting by Dummies for Wordful Wednesday

It's the day before Easter, and can not help thinking back.

Last Easter we were here:

I can almost smell the sea, the happiness and the feeling of freedom from the day to day life we lead. Wish I was there right now. The Easter bunny even delivered there:

This year we are staying home - the last two years were spent in the laid back wonder of the Natal South Coast. Although I am happy about our decision to be at home (I really do not envy the traffic down) the reality is that with a child in "real school" our holidays are a bit less flexible and we simply did not have the opportunity this year. Although I am looking forward to the winter holidays when I will see San Lameer again.

However, we will be spending the weekend making Easter baskets, painting eggs and seeing family and friends. And going to church. Because no matter what Easter is about for you and your family, we celebrate the day that Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for us, and more important, that He rose on the 3rd day to give us eternal life.

May your Easter be a blessed one.

About customer service etc.

So you are about to get one of those bullet point ramblings when I have just too much to say for one well composed, subject related post.

• I have managed to complete our 2009 photobook in time before we leave for the Qphoto special. We will wait to see how they perform, but with us being away for quite a while there should be no issue. I think I have managed to design a bit better but realized how great those photos a day that I had for the 2010 book enlarge your choice. I should start taking pics every day again.
• I have had excellent service from Brooklyn Optica. They make Little man L's new glasses every year and comes recommended by his eye specialist. His last pair of Fisher Price glasses are still in great condition after a year's use. His new glasses lost the hinge and broke at the back after 2 days. I could not believe it. I went to them asap and they had a look at the glasses and agreed with me that it was a factory problem and would replace it with no cost. This was Tuesday morning. An hour later they confirmed that the supplier had an identical frame in stock and it is being sent over to them asap and that the glasses should be ready by Friday. They offered to see if they can adjust his old frame to be more comfortable but we decided that it was fine for a few days. Early Friday morning they phoned to confirm that it was ready to collect. In my book, excellent service. I would really recommend them. (And they handle the whole medical aid claim etc for you - bonus!)

• We had a terrible night last night - both boys awake and L taking 2 hours to go back to sleep. I just do not know any more. Maybe it was just an "odd" night?
• I have a spasm in my left shoulder that today has me in tears. I will get it looked after before the end of the day - I can not go away like this.
• We got little baby Lindt Easter bunnies at the office today. Yummy!
• I am not sure if I am at all going to blog or read blogs while away - I will see how I feel. Am really planning to take it easy and hoping for some rest and sleep.
• So to all of my friends in the computer, may you have a blessed Easter break

Easter in South Africa

Today is the first of April, always a reminder that Easter is here. So I thought I'll tell you a little bit about Easter here. Off course, Easter always rings in Autumn for me - although Autumn in our part of the world is a very fleeting idea - we do not really have it around here. Yes, we have the nice leaves, we also have Cosmos flowers growing everywhere - I promise some of my own photos of that next week, and the kids have a short holiday (called Easter holidays - not Spring brake off course ;)). But Autumn really typically has the feeling of Summer - our temperatures are still in the high 20's (Celsius) late 70's to early 80's in Fahrenheit. The late evenings and early mornings are just a bit cooler.

Typically South Africans take a break or a little holiday around this time - the school holidays are about 2 weeks and we have heaps of public holidays - Easter weekend off course (Friday and Monday), then also election day (the 22nd), Freedom day( the 27th) and off course labour day (May 1st) - so al lot of opportunities to take a few days leave and have a longer holiday. Most people visit the seaside, the mountains or the game reserves as the climate is in general very pleasant all round. Due to Hunter's studies and generally not too healthy kids we will be staying at home, but I have put in leave for the 3 days between the 27t and the 1st - giving me a nice 9 days at home!

Off course the shops are lock stock and barrel filled with Easter eggs. Some of our favorites include marshmallow eggs and hen's eggs - which are candy coated chocolate eggs in various sizes and colours. We always do an Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday after church. We also hang a cross on our front door ( as we do with a Christmas wreath) to remind ourselves of the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross. Off course a lot of people are doing the traditional Lent fast or altered like I am.


It is off course also a time of family getting together and having fun. So, we are counting the sleeps until Granny Annie comes from Port Elizabeth ( 3 sleeps) and my BIL ans SIL from Dubai (9 sleeps) for a visit. Looking forward to some great family fun. So, tell me a bit about Easter in your part of the world.

Ps - I have some pictures to enhance this post but somehow, have a problem loading up images. Ugh! Frustrating! Will try again later.Edited to add pictures - fihured out the problem all by myself -clever girl me!