There are times...

When I just can not face the news. Where I steer away from newspapers, news 24 on Facebook or anything else. Like now - actually the last month or so.

Truly the last few weeks totally got to me. Hundreds of innocent people shot down incidentally in a crazy war - none even related to the parties involved in the war. Mostly Australians and Dutch on vacation and at least 6 top AIDS researchers. What a loss. The photograph of a colouring book in a kiddies suitcase tugged my heart. And one wonders what this have to say about another missing plane?

Court cases that are somewhere in the process - a boy brutally killed his family, another shot his girlfriend. Families torn with no solution or winners to either side of it.

The same as an old wars continues in the middles East with more and more loss of life. Will it ever end.

And then the worst of it - the rotten bad cherry on the top - children suffering. Parents abusing their children in the worst ways possible, children hijacked or abducted. The suffering of a little boy and his parents after being dragged behind their hijacked car. I think this is the one that just grabs my heart, and that of most South Africans right now.

Times where I merely pray that God have mercy on his people. And heal the land (the world) specifically the hearts of that grieving family - and so many other grieving families all over the world.

Edited to add: Read this heart aching but wonderfully worded statement from the parents of the Maslin kids from the Air Malaysia disaster: here

So how do we explain this crazy world?

Yesterday I collected a very teary Princess from school - it transpires she may play C team netball this year (which truly I am as proud of as if she would have played A team - to us it is about doing your best and participating). It is difficult to help them through the learning curve of competitive sport but it is a great analogy for life in general. I dealt with it with exactly the attitude I described above and hope that it helps. Without doubt there will be more tears today or tomorrow when the teams get announced.

But that was not all. Then she said she heard that an 8 year old boy (her exact age) died in a bomb explosion in America at a marathon. Yes, even at the back end of the world in South Africa we are deeply touched with the Boston bombings.She cried a bit about this too - which possibly was just an extension of the previous tears but then inevitably the questions come. "Who did this?""Why do people do things like this?" "Are they bad people? "And the most difficult one of all "Why does God allow people to do horrible things like this?"  Luckily for me these are easier to answer than the questions she asked in 2011 about the Tsunamis and earthquakes in Japan. It's easier to deal with bad people than trying to explain why God allows natural disasters.

We have always tried to shield our children from the worst horrors in the news of the day but at some age they have to hear it. From grade 1 current news is discussed in the class. They have to learn how to keep an ear on current affairs and know what is happening around them. The difficult part is explaining and helping them deal with this crazy world we are living in. Really I am not sure I am always doing it as well as one should. I do feel that I dealt with the Boston story as well as I could yesterday. I think she worked through it in her mind.

But I do expect a fresh flow of tears about it concurrent with the netball news. But I guess that is how we as woman are wired in any event.

My question to you is how do you deal with the horrors of the world around us or are planning to deal with it? And with competitive sport?

(BTW - I have last week's (week 15) Project Life post up here)

So yesterday was Valentines day

I had 5 kids with great prospects for the day.

Someone dressed in pink and white (the school allows it on Valentines) and got her first Valentines chocolate from a grade 7 - I am not totally confortable with this but I hear he is a sweet boy that takes some of the little ones under his wing as a lot of grade 7's do so I hope it's just that. She in any event is very nonchalant about it all - apparently he calls her Bambi. She thinks his name is Victor but she is not totally sure. She also attended a friend's birthday party the afternoon.

Someone's (MR C's) whole class dressed in red and white and he tells me his teacher is his Valentine ( you have to admit he has good taste). He loved making her a gift (we packaged a slab of chocolate, a heart eraser and a hot pink pencil they covered in washi tape with a handmade card for all the teachers). They all made one little bag with sweeties and exchanged these amongst themselves in class.

3 Someones had a fabulous day at the Pre primary - the kdis donated pet food, blankets and oher necessaries to an animal charity (as they do every Valentines day) who came with their mascot but could not bring actual dogs due to a transport issue. I took puppy M with me to school on Tuesday morning en route to the vet where she had a tumour removed on her one back paw. She loved the attention. The school called on Thursday in panic asking if I can bring her again, and I offered to bring the two dogs. I am always amazed that there are kids who are totally terrified of the dogs and after about 2 minutes they join in the petting.

 The puppies loved all the attention - each class came to interact with them. Mr L was so proud to show off his big sisters.

Oscar Pistorius also shot his girlfriend - to me extremely sad how the media and social media reacted - and that is enough said. For a great perspective one can always trust Mandy Weiner's comments. Read it is you haven't yet.

Important - do not forget about my competition and enter.

National pride

South Africa is on a total high today after winning our third gold medal at the Olympics last night. It might not seem much for my overseas readers, but taking into account we won one silver in Beijing this is just fantastic. Add to that that only one of the wins (Cameron van den Burgh) was predicted and it makes it so much sweeter.

I just love the video of Chad le Clos' dad Bert - pure parenting proudness. But it is the commentators that really have me fascinated with all the mistakes they make in their excitement. Here in SA we generally hear the British commentators but I has a chance to hear the American commentary on the Le Clos race yesterday morning. Gosh, it was funny- as Chad won she said, "Oh and Michale Phelps makes a huge mistake"  And that's it - not someone else won very deservingly because he was the best on the day. To Phelps' credit after his very visible disappointment just after the race in the pool, he snapped back to be the perfect gentleman and looser (well, in my books a silver at the Olympics is anything but a looser). In an interview on the radio yesterday morning Bert le Clos told South Africa that Michael Phelps is the best mannered lad he has ever met and that his mom has raised him so well. Now that is the Olympic spirit.

Even more of a surprise was our coxless 4 rowers - somewhere along the line the commentator gets confused between South Africa (an outright surprise) and Australia (a possible winner) and commentates most of the way in the race accordingly .To his own surprise he realizes as the race completes that it is in fact South Africa that won and not Australia and you can hear the shock in his voice..

Steering on with the national pride idea, I think we have produced a building that deservedly needs it's place in the international Architectural scene.

On Tuesday morning I was privileged to be able to go on an architects only pre view of the new //HAPO exhibition space/museum being completed at Freedom park. It is a building that has sparked a lot of talk in South Africa and will only open to the public later this year. So I will share just a few pictures with you.

A very photogenic building and I would suggest a visit once it opens. From what we could see of some of the exhibits they were busy with it will be exciting and interactive with a children's garden and story tellers to lead you through. If you are in any way a photographer, do go - it is extremely photogenic.

Bonus day

Or that is what I felt about election day. For the first time since I was eligible I did not vote - my ID was just gone. Lost. But it took Hunter only about 20 minutes to vote and then he was off to catch up on work due to a day's leave and a day sick last week. So the kids and I have a great early winter day together and although I kept looking for that ID, we had a relaxing and fun day. I really feel I had the gift of a day with them, without all that the weekend usually brings.
So, we spent some time painting...

Playing and bathing plastic animals and insects.

Just relaxing on the hammock

And blowing bubbles (part of the SID exercises that all 3 the kids enjoy)

 Ouma popped in bringing cupcakes and later on we had a little braai. Almost perfect - if dad could have been with us it would have been 100% perfect.

So what would you have done?

If you were a mom in Japan, tomorrow a week ago? Alone, at home with 3 small kids. Would you grab the two smallest and try to speak to the oldest to get them to safety as soon as the earthquake starts? And after that, assuming you made it out safe and now have to flee in front of a possible tsunami? Truly, I have no idea. From experience I know the Princess freeze in a panic situation and I would literally have to shove her in front of me with a boy under each arm. I keep thinking of a South African survivor of the  Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 saying on to that she grabbed and held onto her youngest and had to make the heart wrenching decision that possibly the oldest could be able to survive on his own. What a horrible decision she was forced to make. This one turned out to be good - they all survived, but it could be so different.I just pray that we never have to face a trauma like this.

Being a mom changes the way you think about everything in life, but mostly about how your no1 priority is keeping your children safe, fed and happy. I often think with fear about war situations and how to deal with that when you have small kids.

At the moment I am dealing with a million questions from the Princess about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. I think she does (luckily) not completely comprehend the devastation - truly, who of us can and certainly she knows nothing of the nuclear threat. But she is asking the eternal questions. How does God allow such bad things to happen? Why did it happen in Japan (and yes, Nieuw-Zeeland she has not forgotten about that) and not here? Is is because we believe in God and the other countries not? Very tough questions. And then to curtail the fears of these disasters happening here.She went as far as to draw me a sketch showing the earth's layers and where the center is and how volcanoes work and asking me why it then does not happen here. ( I am pretty sure I did not know all this at 6) I am trying to answer as best I can, but these are tough issues for a 6 year old brain to digest.

So, any bright ideas? And are your children wondering about these issues?