It’s 5:00 pm, again!

November 21, 2016November 23, 2016Leave a comment

Don’t you absolutely hate 5:00 pm? In our house, I call this the ‘crazy hour’. This is the exact time that my 7 and 5-year-old decide they will die an excruciating death if they don’t get something to eat immediately and to top it off they become these very energetic bouncing balls that cannot sit still for just 5 min so that I can whip up something delicious out of the cupboard.

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Well, if you are anything like me, cooking dinner with a couple of loud, bouncing children is basically impossible. You see, by 5:00pm my energy levels also reached their all-time low, as, like all mothers, I’ve been running around from one corner to the next trying to adhere to everybody’s needs in our household, including feeding the donkey, the horse, the bunnies, the birds and two dogs and cats, as they also look into my eyes for their daily bread.

The worst of all is that I’m not the best cook in the world. So cooking dinner, or basically any kind of nutritional meal is a lot of effort and planning. I literally need at least 2 days in advance to plan, and sometimes even cook dinner. And these little buggers have the habit to sneak up on you…if you open your eyes it’s dinner again, and I haven’t even opened the pantry to see what there is to use for dinner. 9 out of the 10 times the dish that I have in mind and the ingredients in the pantry isn’t the same, so a trip to our local market is also on the to-do list.

After a lot of effort, we will have a nutritional meal on the table and would enjoy it, then the chaos starts all over again…bath time….The act of bathing the kids isn’t so bad, but getting them out of the bath is a mission. My kids LOVE water, doesn’t matter in which form or shape…drinking a glass of water, running through the sprinklers, swimming in a pool or bathing. It literally takes me the same amount of time to get them out of the bath as it took me to bath them.

At last, it is time for me to sit back, relax and have a little bit of me-time. As my children, I also love a nice bath, and this is the only real thing that recharges my batteries. I love that warmth of the water that unfolds me, and I love the clean feeling after you’ve washed your hair. And I come to realise to survive the next day of making dinner, feeding all hungry mouths and just be the best mom that I can be, I need that little bit of me-time, even if it is just 30 min in a warm bath.

Frênds

November 17, 2016November 23, 20161 Comment

What would a woman do without her friends?

I never really had a best friend, I was always a loner and loved it, still do, but now that I’ve turned 40 (yes, it took me 40 years) I get to know the value, joy, love, and laughter there is in having a best friend or three.

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It was really tuff moving to a ‘plattelandse’ small town after growing up and working in the city with its high glass buildings and very important CEO’s. With luxurious shopping malls just around the corner; with all the comforts just a short drive away, but it was such an empty live. There was never time for a quick…or long coffee, and chat with a friend. Your best friends were your colleagues that work with you, and most of the time they didn’t even know where you live or how the inside of your home looks.

It took a while, but now, after we have gotten used to the slow life of the ‘platteland’, we have time to get to know people, the real people, not just the fancy cars, fancy dressed kids and presentations you see at work, but the actual people. You become part of their lives, and things like movie nights, braais that go on till sunrise and long coffee breaks in the afternoon, are what it is all about.

The best part of making and having real friends is the deep conversations. We talk about real problems and also try to solve them. We laugh at one another’s jokes, and silly moments and we appreciate each one’s “funny’s”. We accept the other person exactly how she is because, in the end, we are friends because we are the same. We feel the same about how we raise our children, what kind of food we eat, and how we decorate our homes. Our passions are the same, and we can share our heartache without feeling judged or ashamed.

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Even when we don’t see each other for more than 14 days we still talk as if we spoke yesterday.

That is what friends are for….for fun, laughter, love, and heartache.

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Mother’s Life+

November 17, 2016February 4, 20221 Comment

It is funny how life changes once you become a mother (by the way, I always hated the word mother, until I became one). I always thought I was made out of steel, and have superpowers that allow me to never get tired, that can do absolutely anything my heart desires (I still believe that), and can have both a family life and successful career all at the same time until my two energetic kids were born.

I was hoping I could do all this by only drinking my 5+ cups of coffee a day…but life throws you different curveballs when you expect it the least. When my little sweetheart daughter was almost two years old I start to realise that 5+ cups of coffee a day and the best superpower you can have, don’t make up for the time you are never home to see your kids grow up into the best version of yourself. I was at the top of my career, loving every moment, but I wasn’t a good mom, so I made the tuff decision and gave up my career to stay at home with my children. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, both giving up my career (believe me, I’m not a very good cook, housekeeper or doing non-intellectual stuff all day) and looking after my children 24/7. For all the would-be, future mothers, the cold hard truth is, that it is hard work looking after your children. Especially, if you are like me an HSP (highly sensitive person), have very bad sensory processing issues and need A LOT of quiet-by-myself-time.

More about these ‘serious stuff’ later.

Now, 7 years later, my lovely, highly intelligent boy is in Gr 1, and almost going to Gr 2. My most beautiful little girl is turning 5 and is the absolute happiest child I’ve ever met. I can say with all my heart it is all worth it. They are the two happiest children in the world because their mom is at home with them every single day.

Below are a few pics just to ‘brag’ about these two happy, lovable children of mine.