Karoo Prinia nesting in our garden

I really have begun a wonderful love affair with birds. My heart has opened up so much to these feathered friends and my eyes and ears are always attuned to the their little tweets and twitters. My love has been wonderfully passed down to the kids and my hubby, who always has loved birds, is much more interested too!

A while ago I saw a Karoo Prinia on our fence, and today I am sure I found their nest. I was peering so closely into the bush, near my neighbours kitchen window, and when I looked up, there was my neighbour staring straight at me. I blushed as I am sure she thought I was looking into their home being a "nosy parker", so I pretended to be carefully and most purposefully examining the entire hedge!

Funny things kids say

A bit of Christian humour to brighten up your day!

This morning Adam ( 4) came into the kitchen brandishing his sword. He looked at me sternly and says, " Mommy, I have just given the dogs a warning!". Puzzled, I ask him "why my boy?", he said that "this is a house of prayer and not a den of dogs!". Well, I fell about laughing. In fact its two hours later and its still so funny to me, that I had to share it with you all.

What really brightened up my morning, was not that it was such a funny thing he said, it was that he remembered the bible story we had shared last week and that he took the verses and quoted them. In fact I think a den of dogs is very appropriate, as thieves are dogs ( and even some dogs are thieves!). I sometimes think that I am not making an impact on there spiritual lives, and often wonder how to make Christ more "real". Today I realised that I don't have to "work" at it, we are doing just fine!

Cape Canaries in Capri

I love nature and since moving into this house I have begun a love of birds.
Today I saw a Cape Canary in the garden. Lovely to see one in the wild and not in a little cage.

A fool and a fight

Proverb 20 vs 3 is one that every married woman needs to learn and  take to heart.

It is to a man's (persons) honour (or benefit) to avoid strife (conflict/ fight), but a fool is quick to quarrel.
 NIV

It is a fact: Men come from Mars and Woman come from Venus. Last night I forgot that Martians really, and I mean REALLY do not understand woman at all, and that trying to talk to them over a situation of the heart from a Venusian point of view can often land up in a quarrel, which is not the best thing to have  before bed time.
You see, I often forget to take my pretty Venusian glasses off and put on Martian glasses so I can see things  through a Martians point of view. I also forgot that Martians don't like to talk when they are about to go to sleep.

After the quarrel, which meant that I could not sleep,I realised that it is better to sit on my feelings (which I later realised were  feelings of insecurity) and talk them over with God, then to try just blurt out what is on your mind  to a Martian.
This brings me to the proverb I read this morning. Woman are very quick to talk about what is on their mind. There is nothing wrong with that, but when its matters of the heart or marriage, it is best to think over things very carefully, weigh up everything and then, when the timings right, not as you are about to hop into bed, decide if you need to have have a chat about it.

Last night when I realised my fear was based on insecurity and it was an unnatural fear over the particular issue, I  understood why we are to capture all thoughts and take them to God. ( 2 Cor 10.4-5). When we have negative or worrying thoughts, we need to take them to God, pray over them, and get guidance from the scriptures. We also need to speak life over the situation. Feelings are just feelings, its what we do with them. We must never let them get control over us. We need to line up our thinking with God and His word.
Joyce Meyer calls it, the " battlefield of the mind", and she is 100% correct. And its a constant battle. We need to renew our minds daily, meditate on what is good,  whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,  whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or admirable think about such things.(Phil. 4:8)

Its time for me to log off now, but I just want to ask you what is going on in your mind? Is it filled with peace, or anxiety and fear? Let me know!

Adams excema is under control

Every day I have to check Adams skin, put on his moisturiser and cortisone cream if needed. So far the cortisone cream application seems to be only used maybe once a week after his swimming lessons. It seems that the swim schools chlorine levels are pretty high and it causes him to get hives and itch like crazy.
The sugar free diet is working amazingly well and so is the juicing regime. The kids love fresh apple and carrot juice and we try make it around four times a week. Adam is so good at saying no to sweets and cakes etc. Bless him, he is such a good child. His sister Jordan is amazing too. She has also been subjected to a sugar free diet, and always comes and tells me if they had sweets at school. She says no to them, and then at home we give her sugar and preservative sweets. We do give the teachers them as well!

I am still floored at the amount of hidden sugar in our food. Cant remember if I mentioned that they put sugar in peanut butter. I also found out that they put margarine in most of them as well. That's just plain stupid and gross. We now only use black cat peanut butter with the YELLOW lid. The others have sugar. Once you start using it for a while you can actually taste the sugar in the other's, ( which we now use for the birds...they love peanut butter).

Getting Fit and Healthy naturally

After my shocking report from the biokeneticist last week, I decided to take some serious action about getting back into shape and getting fit for my heart, so to speak.


In the last two years, I have been constantly sick with sinus problems, even ending up having sino-nasal surgery, After that,I was 100% convinced that from here onwards, i was a free woman. "Oh no, not so fast my dear" said the dreaded germs, " you are mine, mine mine..har har har."
And so I have been theirs. Every 6-8 weeks i have been man down with hectic sinus infections, causing laryngitis.
The down side is that my gym training has taken such a knock back and I got a kick up the bum when I read the report.

So, from here on, how do i go forward with being ill so much and wanting to get fit and fabulous for summer.

Here is the plan: 1, I will be reading as many healthy food books to be inspired to follow a nutrition regime, I have loads of these books,Patrick Holford books at home and love them, so I have no problem implementing that.

2. The exercise thing that must incorporate my buddy sinusitis when he is often around. The answer to that is ball work. I dusted out the gym ball from the garage and my gym ball workout. Last night I actually did the stretching exercises advised, as a starter and did back stretches, upper arms, and upper body and then lunge and glute muscles. I went to be feeling very refreshed and slept like a baby!
so, that's my answer to when I am feeling terrible, I can still do some basic ball moves to strengthen and tone and feel good, feeling horrid.


I will be reading these books, writing about them and sharing if they work.
 

Karen's machine rye bread machine winner

I have adjusted "Uncle Wynn's bread machine rye" from allrecipes.com to suit our family.
I have used only a pinch of caraway seeds as the kids find the original 3tsp very very heavy.

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons yeast.
2 cups brown bread flour.
2 cups rye flour.
2 tablespoons wheat gluten
1 teaspoon salt.
3 tablespoons sweet molasses or honey.
2 Tablespoons oil.
1 1/2 cups water.
1-3 tsp caraway seeds depending on your taste.

Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer.
I used the rye setting and its 3.5hrs.
Otherwise I would suggest the wholewheat setting and light crust.

:::{Betty Bake ... Real Food made with Natural Ingredients}:::

:::{Betty Bake ... Real Food made with Natural Ingredients}::::

'via Blog this'

Getting the car back seat fixed

From 7.30 this morning I started calling McCarthy's auto trimmers every 15 minutes hoping that they would open soon. At 8.30 they opened and I told the chap in the workshop that I am a desperate woman and need my car seen to ASAP. I am very grateful that the chap, who I now know as Andre', when he says I can bring the car in right away.
45 minutes later and my filthy car is being looked at. I am so embarrassed at the state of it. I am sure every mom with little kids knows what I am talking about. Andre' says its not a small job, and they have to remove the whole back seat to sort it out. But, he promises me, it can be done today. I am very grateful to hear this. I quickly remove the bits and bobs out the car and head of to the visitors lounge for a nice cuppa coffee to wait for Tamsyn to come collect me.

My sister is busy packing and wants to know what the weather is like here. Crappy I tell her. Shame, she had hopes of walking on the beach etc. Maybe the horrible weather will clear and all will be well for her visit tomorrow.

New template design

I changed the template of my blog. I think it suits very well.

I would love to hear your comments.