Inspirational Wednesday

“Things do not change; we change.” Henry David Thoreau

I recently read the most amazing book called Living with time to think “The goddaughters letters” which was written by a godmother to her goddaughters by writing each of them a letter answering a question to which they asked her years ago. In my opinion I truly believe that it should be read by all parents, grandparents and by anyone that has someone in their lives that means the world to them.

With our boys growing up so quickly, especially the twins being pre-teens I often wonder if we are giving them enough guidance, encouragement and relevant valuable life skills that they would require to really thrive in life.

In the introduction of the book the author Nancy Kline says it beautifully “These letters also witness my belief that it is the job of one generation to encourage the next. Specifically it is our job to encourage them to think for themselves.” Think for themselves, I love that and that is exactly how we have been raising our boys to think for themselves, to have a voice, to move forward.

When I got to reading the third goddaughters question “Today – how can we be happy?” it hit home for me, as Wian asked me a similar question “Mommy how can I just be happy all the time and not let stupid things bother me so much?”

How do you answer that question that it would really mean something? I’m sure I could have said something like, well don’t let it bother you that much or just ignore it but the point is I knew it wasn’t as simple as that. At the end of the day we are all human and what others think of us does matter but we have it within ourselves to take note of their opinions and to what they are thinking and we only have to take away what we want from it. The rest is their opinion and perspective not yours and that was my answer.

We can encourage our children to build an independent thinking culture with regards to relationships and we can teach them how thinking for themselves can underpin success in all dimensions of life, inspiring ways to the way they think and live.

I guess that is where the encouragement part comes in.  The journey continues and the exciting part is that there are so many life changes to experience and adventures left to be lived.

Happy Wednesday!

Our Weekend

#Truth: Life is about moments. Don’t wait for them, create them.

Saturday|

We were up early on Saturday morning as Frans had to go into the office for a while. With Frans leaving early I thought we should just have a quick Wimpy breakfast before he left for work. My mom and I took the boys on their annual shop for winter clothes outing and after three hours of walking around, trying on clothes and a few we-are-so-over-it faces from the boys we left the shopping centre with Wian screaming “shopping success!”.

On Saturday night we went to the Southdown’s Country Club to listen to Riani sing. Let me tell ya, this sister of ours has the most amazing voice, one of her many talents and I just have to say that she was a total rock star!

Sunday|

Early coffee, rusks, cookies and biltong at Frans’ parents house to say goodbye to his uncle and aunt from Port Elizabeth. I just love the selfie we took!

An afternoon filled with Netflix for me and the boys while Frans and Tjaart went to watch the new Avengers movie. Coffee and catching up with my grandparents. Ice cream for the boys on our way home. Lasagne for dinner and I finally got a chance to read through the Longevity magazine that I bought more than a week ago.

It was such an amazing weekend and we have so much to look forward to in the week ahead as the twins are turning 12 on Friday!!

Hope you have a great week!

Day In The Life | Words & Photos May 2015

I joined in on Ali Edwards Day in the Life Project last week Friday for the first time. My capturing of photographs for a day in the life actually had a theme “Today, forget about doing more and just be”.

Frans and I decided to take a duvet day, which I don’t think we have ever really done before but it was such a relaxed day.

Here are some of the pictures I did take:

Wian and Luke hanging around before the rush of getting the kids to school start

The perfect way to start my day

Breakfast

Coffee with a friend

Frans and I catching up while we wait for Wian outside his class

Ice cream with the boys at Milky Lane

Frans and I sharing a waffle – Somehow he managed to eat almost half of my half as well

I so love the doorknobs at Poetry, we got new orange door knobs for the boys’ bedrooms

Frans Jnr and I are now convinced that it is officially fall

Gerhard catching up on some reading

Wian was here…

A beautiful sunset as we walked out of my parents’ yard. We were on our way to dinner and a movie with a few awesome siblings of ours while the kids visit grandpa and grandma

The perfect dinner spot

Cosmo’s for Corli and I

Yes to more moments like these

“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine” John C. Maxwell

 

A Year With Luke Skywalker Labuschagne

A little bit more than a year ago we decided that it was time to get a puppy. The first question of course was which breed. The guys were all set on a boxer but I have always said that I would love to have a spaniel ever since I watched Lady and the Tramp many years ago. I just felt like it was a good time to make it real.

So a compromise was made. The guys were happy for me to choose the breed of the puppy if they got to decide on a name and I had to be happy with whatever name they chose. Sounds fair to me I thought and the search for a new member of our family began.

I started searching for spaniel puppies on the net and found someone who actually breeds with orange roan spaniels. They were all beautiful! The world is definitely so small as the guy that were selling the puppies was actually someone who works at the same company as my mom. He and his family are such lovely people and that is how we found Luke.

Frans has always been a Star Wars fan and after showing the boys re-runs of all the Star Wars movies they became fans as well and that is how Luke got his name. So I guess when we get a friend for Luke in spring her name will be Leia.

Today is Luke’s very first birthday. We got him a new toy – he loves balls, a big bone to chew on and he had a blueberry muffin which we thought had a bit less sugar than a cupcake with frosting.

Luke is an amazing dog. He is a people dog. He loves to be where we are, he wants to hang out with the boys whether they are watching TV or playing Lego. He fits right in and I am so happy that he is part of our family.

He loves being indoors and outdoors.

He is always busy but he also loves to take naps.

He loves water whether it’s hot or cold.

He has a big bark…

He loves back rubs and tummy rubs and grabs your hand with his mouth or paws if he feels you haven’t rubbed him long enough. I guess he’s kinda like a person sometimes.

Super thankful for this little guy in our lives.

We love you Luke!

A Few Things Right Now | Wian

This boy of ours is truly such a cutie!

He loves riding his bike, playing with lego, cars, planes and he loves to play Minecraft.

He loves a game of chess and jumps up and down with happiness whenever he wins.  He even does a little victory dance I tell ya!

#Truth – He loves broccoli.  We had dinner with friends and he said “Mom I am so not eating all of this soup, I am leaving space for broccoli”  Yip that’s our boy.

He loves pizza, ice tea and fruit.

His favourite movies at the moment are all about Beethoven (The dog not the pianist) and I so love that!  Beethoven used to be one of my favourites too when I was a little girl.

He loves maths, which he probably got from his dad. 🙂

He loves to tell stories of his day, what his thinking and he so loves to tell jokes.  He told us one tonight actually but he laughed so hard just before the punch line that it took a few minutes…

“Why did the oyster not want to share his pearl? Because he was shellfish”

He loves his brothers very much and they love him.  It really makes my heart happy.  We saw it again today, that moment after school when they just can’t wait to catch up with one another.  Wian jumped out of the car and gave Frans a hug!  I love that and I know that they will be friends forever.

He’s favourite drink at the moment is a coke or fanta float.

He’s smart and funny and has the biggest heart.

We love you Wian, very-very much!

Around Here

Here are a few things happening around here over the last few days:

Frans and Gerhard have been asking for new cool (as they called it) bedroom decor. This is the first time that they have actually said they want to change something in their bedroom, which I thought was pretty amazing as they are normally not fond of change.

So yesterday afternoon Frans and I took the boys to Mr Price Home to choose a few items that they liked. Let me be honest, I absolutely loved shopping with them. Listening to them joking around, really considering certain items and the best part hearing them say “hey mom what do you think about this?” In that moment I realised our kids are growing up and this isn’t the sad longing for the baby year’s sort of feeling. My main thought right now is this: Our kids are amazing. They are good kids. Of course they have their own stuff, like every other human on the planet but I love the people they are becoming.

The kid’s rooms are in need of a cleanup and clean out. The legos are out of control in Wian’s room, which is more of a group project to sort out in our home. I have been thinking that we should organise the lego by colour into bins, that way it just seems more organised.   The more “little kid” items need to be moved out of his room and shared with someone who will give them love. Not sure how he will take that as we still have a basket on the top shelf in his cupboard filled with soft toys which he made his dad and I promise to never ever give away. So we’ll see, that basket might just be there for another year or two or maybe even more which is totally ok.

Wian has been showing interest in cricket lately. Frans was telling me yesterday morning that I should have seen our little guy when they were playing cricket on our camping trip, he is really good. So excited for him to take part in a sport activity that he enjoys, somehow golf just wasn’t what he thought it would be.

The twins are planning their birthday parties. Yes… parties as they now prefer one get together with friends and the other with family. They have also been writing birthday lists for us. Happy to report that their birthday lists have become a bit more “realistic” over the last couple of years as a few years ago all they really wanted was a sheep and a horse for the back yard, a gold bar or two and a pirate ship.

I have been playing catch up with Project Life. I haven’t quite got the rhythm of just updating my album on a weekly basis but I am so pleased with the way it is turning out. Looking forward to printing the last two weeks pictures this week, loads of memories to capture which makes me really happy.

We had dinner with my parents last night; I love how our kids get excited to see my parents. It was so great catching up with them. I have had zero desire to cook anything. Hoping to be back in the cooking mode soon. It’s not that I haven’t been cooking; I just haven’t really been enjoying it that much. Last night during dinner we decided to do the 5km park run on Saturday, the kids are so excited!

Looking forward to the weekend.

Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday!

Winter Manifesto | 2015

It’s the perfect day, which initially started off cold but I love that the sun is out. I think I have been trying to avoid the change of season purely because winter has always been my least favourite season, because of the cold.

But, this year I have decided to embrace winter and I have a plan, a list… a winter manifesto:

• Create moments of coziness.
• Watch movies, on the couch, at the theatre.
• Spend one hour outside every day.
• Do what the kids want to do and look them in the eye at their level and play.
• Do date nights.
• Keep busy…which includes making soup.
• Do gardening, plant flowers, and vegetables and get that lemon tree that I have been thinking about getting for such a long time.
• Take walks.
• Run.
• Family and friends lunches, family and friends dinners and game nights.
• Try 3 new drinks (hot or cold).
• Try / make more roasts.
• Bake.
• Make pancakes for breakfast at least once a week.
• Explore.
• De-clutter.
• Maybe build a puzzle or two.

Happy Monday!