The Grinch that stole Mothers day.

Remember - this is your last day to bid on the auction items above. Come on, make my day, do a bid!

Or that is the only way I can describe it! It certainly was not my fault, or my moms - she is very sore at present, or the kids - they were just being kids. Or Hunter's either - I was fully aware that he was going to be away on the day. I was just hoping for a pretty ordinary night and day with ordinary behaviour. Boy, was I wrong!

I should have known when Saturday night started out badly - the plan was to curl up in front of the TV and watch Prince Caspian, which was showing on one of the TV stations. I was really looking forward to this! It was not to be - The Little Miss had trouble falling asleep - in fact, absolutely exhausted in trying to eat my dinner and getting her to bed, I went to lie down with her. She finally fell asleep at about 9:20 - Prince Caspian was long into the story and my dinner had to be re-heated again. After tidying and doing tomorrows milk sippy cups, I went to bath. From which I was called by Little man C, crying. (This after we have had a whole week with uninterrupted sleep for the household.) To which I returned cold and shivering half an hour later.I ook a quick hot shower to wash the soap off. I decided sleep is the best option.

I ended up sleeping on the bottom half of The Little Miss' bed for most of the night, making frequent trips to the twins' bedroom. She cried so loud that she woke both up at a stage. Good times, good times!

At least we all slept late (7:45 am) and then had a quick breakfast and got ready to go to granny to treat her. The Little Miss was just plain miserable the whole time - turns out she had an allergy to a foot cream of mine and had spots over her feet and hands that was itching and burning.( Obviously also the cause of the sleep trouble) To the chemist to get cortisone cream, to Woollies to buy some ready made food to treat gran ('cause for sure I was not cooking for all), to find out their chicken oven broke. Had to change my plans, but still worked out ok. By now the kids were irritated in the shops and we made gran's house just missing meltdown.

Gave gran her presents, after which she presented me with a surprise Hunter had lined up for me - presents he left there on Thursday night and flowers from her. Sweet man! At least The Little Miss was a bit less clingy and crying but The Boys as so busy they almost drove me off the cliff - additionally I found out why the were crying all night - tummy ache). I managed to get lunch organised, but my mom can hardly walk at present, so I have to basically serve 4 apart from myself. By 1:30 I was exhausted and ready to head home. If I only could get all 3 kids in the car, carry everything on my own to the car. At the last minute, Little Man C had another nappy, and no more left in the bag - found one with the side tab that broke off and stuck onto him with duct tape. I packed up crying, hysterically. I guess I just needed to cry - I do not do that often, just about twice a year, but it is like a cleansing, a purging effect - and I was plain exhausted. And to top it all - camera batteries flat! I have no photos of Mothers day this year! Felt much better after. What did it was the card - oh my gosh, yes, I enjoy irony, but not today, not that specific day.

My loot for Mothers day:

A handmade card and heart cookie made by my princess at school:

The offending card:

It reads:" It's Mothers day mom, so so this is what mom must do - relax, do nothing....

if dad can, mom can too. Happy Mothers day.
Very ironic, taking that I did everything for everybody for the day - but to be honest, dad does pull his weight at home, so ironic in that sense as well.

My favorite Sally Williams nougat . Really great stuff.

And this great and seriously funny book - which I can not wait to read.

And proteas from my dear mom - these will last up to 4 weeks. (South Africa's national flower)

On our way home The Boys fell asleep and both had a good 2 and a half hour nap.The Princess, off course, had no inclination towards a nap, none whatsoever. S0 mom had no nap.

Off course, hubby redeemed himself totally when he arrived at home at 4:30 pm looking stunning in his bush clothes, took the kids and the puppies for a walk (I took a quick nap), helped with dinner, bath and bed and made a stunning steak braai dinner for me. With a glass of good Cape Merlot, my day ended so perfect.

Yes, it was rough, but it was great. I am so thankful for my kiddos and my dear hubby and know that by granting each other the time and space to do what we enjoy, we are keeping the person in tact that we fell in love with. And that is the most important part. There will always be another Mothersday to follow.

Makes my Monday

Only 2 days left to bid on Tuesday's auction - please, please bid! (see items above)

No this is not about Mothers day, we are NOT talking about Mothers day, yet...

So what makes my Monday today? (go to Cheryl's - click image, to see some other great Mondays)
This:

We went shopping on Saturday morning at our local mall. Passing a table casually standing in the mall, I noticed that they had a Crocs competition, closing in 15 minutes time. So I quickly scratched for all my till slips in my ever untidy handbag, and wrote my name on the back of the 6 I found and popped them into the huge green Crocs boot.

Lo and behold, I won, twice! Firstly a Crocs bag, and then a pair of Kids caymans! Wow, and The Little Miss really needed some Crocs (I think this was specially lined up for us by God Himself - they are freaking expensive here). So I chose a brown bag - is this not lovely? And she chose a bright purple pair. I am using my bag to carry my lunch and various loose items and off course she is wearing hers today (with socks under). Have to buy some Jibbitz to decorate.


Did I mention that I really love Crocs, no matter what you say? I have 4 pairs in different styles.
Now this really makes my Monday!

Friday photo finish fiesta

The best day to visit Carrie is on a Friday, when there are heaps happening over there.

Sunset driving home from my mom's on Sunday - the end of our Staycation.

Is this really my life?

You know how life sometimes just gobbles you up, chuck you around like a lone sock amongst a hand full of pebbles in a dryer? That is how I felt this morning.

Yesterday was tough, very tough. And no one is sick! But it is all the little things that add up. The Little Miss burst out in tears when I dropped her off at school yesterday - where did that come from? She loves her school! We think it might be the shared attention with 2 more kids over most weekends (miss Emma and Annik).

Then my mom called to let me know that her leg is too sore, I will have to pick up A at school to take her to ballet - only problem being that I have to be 50 kilometers away in Johannesburg when ballet class is and my mom promised to take her. Only one solution - no ballet. My dear friend Mariki stepped in after a casual phone call to my mom and took her to ballet. At the end, The Little Miss loved it - they had great fun. But I stressed, big time!

We've been having the weirdest weather, warm and sunny, raining and hail the next, so I found myself driving to Johannesburg (our neighbouring city ) in a hailstorm for a meeting. Stressful to say the least, but arrived in time and our presentation went well. But the meeting took forever and we only left at 4 o' clock - there was no way that I would make it home in time. To add to it, I still had to stop at the store to buy ingredients to cook for Hunter's weekend. Hunter was stuck at work, no help from that side possible. Now I had to phone our nanny, beg and plead and offer extra money to stay longer, tried all routes I could as there was a truck that overturned on the freeway, and arrived late as predicted, but in time to catch the worse time of the day at home - dinner, bath and bed. On my own.

The Little Miss refused to eat dinner (stating she and Mariki had chips and milkshake - which they had, but at about 2 pm), Little man L managed to free himself from his high chair and I caught him on the dinner table just in time - I nearly had a heart attack. Little man C is refusing lately to be fed - and managed to cover his face, hair and chair with yogurt. So I had to carry him upstairs to clean up for bath time, Little man L then decided he needs to cry really hard and insisted on being carried although he can really safely climb the stairs and The Little Miss insisted on bathing at her own after The Boys ( which we have decide a while ago she is allowed to to promote her privacy as the girl in the house). While I am busy drying and dressing C my little L monkey decided to get up in his chair in the bath and climb out - just caught him in time before he fell when A called out. This boy's angels were really hard at work last night! C refused to get his asthma inhaler - it was a full on wrestle to get him down - not sure how much he got in, and at least they went to bed easily.

By then The Little Miss was tired and irritated and I struggled to get her out of the bath, dressed etc. And then she insisted on eating her dinner which I heated again. At last I got her to bed - at almost 8 o'clock - almost an hour late.

Only then did the poor puppies get fed and I started to cook the spaghetti bollognaise for Hunter's weekend. Yes, I am on my own with the kids for the weekend, and I will have one of my extra kids as well for Saturday. I did ask Ilse not to bring Annik - I can not manage 5 on my own. Hunter will be guiding in the Pilansberg park this weekend and I always make the Friday night's meal for them - we freeze it and they just heat it up. While cooking I managed to catch most of The Mentalist and after that, cleaned up the mess left after dinner. I sagged down at about twenty to ten and had my dinner. And the thought was, is this really my life, and how I wanted to live it? I only saw my kids at their worst, and I stressed so many times about juggling all today. When Hunter arrived at 10 I just had some tea with him and showered and crawled into bed. Luckily The Boys slept through - we seem to have hit a good place on that front.

This morning I feel tired, irritated and have heaps and heaps of work. I can not imagine having to do one single more thing for anybody today - don't ask me to call someone who is having their birthday, don't ask me to email a document, I just want to be left alone, for just a while. And maybe do my work, or better blog. Tomorrow, I promise, the sun will shine again. For today, give me my i-pod and enough coffee. Tomorrow, Ms positive will be back with a vengeance. Well, maybe even in and hour or so!

If you have read until this, thanks for listening, and make my day - go bid on an item on the auction below. You stand an excellent chance to win.

Tuesday Blog Party

From now until May 12th, I am holding this give-away to help benefit the Tuesday Fiona Whitt Foundation.
Tuesday was the beautiful twin daughter of Jessica Kate who bravely fought and sadly lost her 8 month battle with stage 4 neuroblastoma in January of this year. May moms all over the world was touched by this brave girl and her very brave mom's and family's fight for survival.
Debi and her friends Jess' multiples group have decided to put together an annual blog party to help raise funds to fight pediatric cancer, specifically neuroblastoma, as it is the least funded of ALL cancers yet one of the most fatal :(

The idea is also that this serves as a Mothers day gift for Jess - for whom this year will without a doubt be difficult - all the firsts after a death is so difficult.

I have though long and hard as to how I could be part of this - I so much wanted to do my little bit to help. Firstly our money is worth nothing in terms of dollars, and secondly, if I do win a bid I will have the shipping/postage problem that I have had before - expensive and difficult here as a lot of packages get stolen. Then I hit upon an idea - I need to put up some truly South African items for bidding - something that is small enough to ship in normal postage - beadwork off course! South African women are world famous for the beading skills and I have chosen 3 items that also benefit a charity here, in order to do a "double whammy" for charity. These items were all made by the Topsy foundation if you would like to know more about them. Please note that all these items are small in size, but big in quality and handmade wholesome goodness. Each is also a unique little piece of African art.

All you have to do to enter to win this auction is simply leave me a comment letting me know you are interested in winning the particular item and then, be sure to donate $1 to the Tuesday Fiona Whitt Foundation. I will do 3 separate posts in order to give you the chance to bid on each item separately. I will then let each of the kids do a draw for one of the items and show you the winning number.

Also, head on over to the Tuesday Blog Party to see what other fantastic items are being auctioned off by clicking the image below.

There are lots of great auctions going on and all it costs is one dollar to enter each one.
If you would like to make one donation, instead of many individual donations, please feel free to donate however is easiest for you.
If you end up donating $10, but only find 5 auctions you are interested in, you can use those additional dollars as additional entries :)

Thank you so much for supporting a great cause and remember to have fun!
Good luck!

Auction item no 1 - Zulu love letter

My first item for auction is a beautiful Zulu love letter -this can be worn as a broach or on your handbag as decoration, or as it is a handmade item, can even look lovely in a frame on you wall as your "bit of Africa". Love letters are messages traditionally woven by Zulu maidens to be given to their lovers as symbols of love and affection. These days you even get South African flag love letters!

So if you would like to bid on this item, go ahead, donate your $1 and leave a comment. My little blue eyed boy, Little man C will draw to determine who wins this. Good luck!

Auction items no 2: African angel keyring.

Own a little African beaded angel keyring. This delicate little item can also look great as a handbag embellishment or framed, or as a Christmas tree decoration.

So do you want to own this little angel? Go bid your $1 and leave your comment below. My little angel, Little man L will do a draw to determine who wins. Good luck!

Auction item no 3: Necklace and bracelet.

My third item is a children's necklace and bracelet set, or, if you connect the bracelet to the necklace, it is long enough for mom. And as we are a twin friendly blog, you can win two they come in a pair- one for each of your girls, one for your daughter and her BFF or one for you and your little girl! Take your pick! The one little girl proudly wears a South African flag dress and the other is all girly in peach and silver.

So, make your bid - do not forget to donate your $1 and why not $2 for this double offer? The Little Miss will draw a number to see who gets to proudly wear these two little girls.

So what makes my Monday today? (go to Cheryl's - click image, to see some other great Mondays)

We had a great Staycation - we spent lots of time with the kids, family , friends, and most of all, with each other. The renewed knowledge that you are truly with THE ONE, the one that was meant for you, that makes you happy to no end, and that loves you unconditionally, really makes my Monday. I love you Hunter - now and forever.

Tuesday's blog party.

Along with many others, I will be auctioning off some items to benefit pediatric cancer research. I have some cute African titbits - watch this space!
And if you want to join in and aution off something as well, click the button and join!