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Wine Coolers and Teddy Bears

About 8 years ago I bought a wine fridge. I wanted to as I thought they were so "cool". Face it, we all have these moments when we do inexplicable things and make purchases that we don't really need.  For about a year I actually had a very good collection going and it was always stocked to the brim and  very handy when hosting a dinner party, I could just whip out a nice chilled bottle of Merlot etc.

Then the children came, and having wine around became a hazard. You see,  I didn't want to get dirty looks and whispers that my one year old has swopped one bottle for a different kind! No, seriously, it became a hazard having bottles of wine in close range of little teeny tots that are super keen on exploring everything.
And so, one by one, the collection came to an end, and strangely enough was replaced by another kind. It has been used as a shop when playing "shop-shop". It has been used as an imaginary dungeon for naughty teddy bears and a storage house for the kids toy collection or sadly to just collect dust.

About two months ago I was given a list of some pretty decent wine that was being sold at prices less than half and I began to formulate images in my head of maybe, just maybe my little black storage bin could be used for its original purpose. Tentively I ordered a few cases, dusted off and moved the fridge, which was now living in the kids lounge, as the kids had become so fond of it, into the dining area. When my wine was delivered, I did a little clap of hands, a hop, bounce and a skip and bright eyed I lovingly stocked the fridge, and switched it on.


The funny thing is that some friends came over and marveled at my "new purchase", and raised their eyebrows when I said, as only woman can do..."this old thing..I have had it for years!". 

Sideline Mom

J chose netball for her winter terms school sport. She really loves it and her position is Goal Shooter. She has a good eye for the ball and is a pretty decent shot. We decided to get her, her own ball and a practice hoop and every day she and I have been having fun "shooting hoops".

I have seen her a few times at practice days at school and noted how she fools around quiet a bit, sits down, swings around the pole and I chalked this up to the fact that being a GS, you don't get to play the game that much, unless your team is giving you the ball and thus she was a bit bored.

Yesterday she has her second netball match against another local school in the valley. Her first match was quiet funny as both teams were pretty useless and I assumed  that is how 7 yr olds are. Happily she scored and her team one.
However, yesterday was different. Her opposing team, FH's coach had this no nonsense and very serious look about her. So the game starts. FH gets the ball straight away and starts dominating the game. My little J has been taken up with the fairies and is not only in another world, but another universe as well. She starts swinging around the pole, goofing around and almost about to do a hand stand. 

My eyes widen! Never in a million years did I think I would be one of those side line mom's who become unhappy campers. I call out, J , focus, focus focus. My emotions start to rise and  I actually move to the fence to try tell her to watch the game and concentrate. By now, FH has scored 3-0 against us, and our little team looks like they have been hit by a hurricane. These FH little girls are following a strict strategy and they are sticking to it very well.  One look from their coach puts them right back on track when their eye is off the ball. I call out again to J to focus but I am having no affect whats so ever. I am getting so frustrated that I need to return to my seat and need to sit on my hands and shut up. Our little team did not fare well at all and we get whitewashed 7-0. 
The second U7 game starts and SV is looking better, but by half time its 1-0. J is called  to the team and starts the "pole dancing" thing. I think to myself , my darling, what are you up too, as I watch the ball whizzing past her. Luckily she starts to focus, gets the ball and scores and after a few minutes the game ends. Yay, its 1-1.


Today J comes home with a "player of the team" award. Well done J.
I, on the other hand have gone to the library and taken out a book called " The Netball Handbook", and will be studying it from top to toe as well as watching Netball game rules on you tube.You never know, maybe her team needs an assistant coach!

Defcon 3 child meltdown

 Yes, we are going through one of those parenting times again, except that its so severe that I think we have now escalated into defcon 3.

Here is just a little glimpse into a good part of yesterday.  J decided that every item of her clothing needed to be removed from her cupboards onto her floor. Why, I do not know! I do know that she refused to pick up her clothes and pack them away. Instead of me losing my cool for the umpteenth time that day, I calmly took all her clothes and chucked them into the bath so I could at least walk into her room without falling over and breaking my ankle. She arrived home today to discover, lo and behold there were was something strange going on in her cupboards. In each draw there was a single item of clothes. 1 pair pants, 1 jersey, 1 top, 1 pair of shoes, you get the idea. And so, for the next week or so, that is how it is going to be. I packed all her clothes away into bags and she will not be seeing them until then. Each day the clothes used will be replaced with another single item. Sorry for you if you don't like what mamma has chosen. To bad, so sad!

And yes, the next time you slam the door, you will return to find that there is no bedroom door either! 

Beating the system

This post has nothing to do with random dreams, as the previous post, but merely to do with little ones going off to dream land.
For a long time, the getting up for school routine with J and A has been traumatic, with lots of shouting, drama, pulling out of hair and getting grey hair. To cut it short its been plain bloody awful! How kissing sweet kids good night as they drift off to marshmallow land and awake as kids of Zombies the next morning is beyond me! I truly cannot understand it! That Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde routine doesn't sit well with me at 06.30.
We have a standard rule in our house. NO TV in the morning before school. NO NO NO, don't even think about it, as the answer is going to be a firm NO!! My kids sleep like logs, but last week I woke up to a very faint noise of the kids tv being "on" in their lounge. Yes, I have a kids tv room, it was the condition that came when we sold our last home. I wanted my own space with my husband. Say that again slowly, I wanted some time out with my man and have an adult tv room to chill out and actually have 5 minutes alone, like it was BC..before Children. Our little darlings must just bugger off to their own kids room!

 Anyway, I am getting side tracked. So I sneak downstairs and lo and behold, at 6 in the morning, my two monkey's were curled up in their little blankie nests watching Garfield on the Boomerang channel.
I decided there and then to forego the prior rules and make new rules. Instead of a blanket No, we have...
a. If you wake up earlier than mom you can watch tv...but
b. You have to have your school clothes on and your school shoes.
c.You must know exactly what you are having for breakfast when mom asks you,and tell her in 5 seconds,  other wise she will choose and you will "have to eat it".Shock and Horror! I purposely choose horrid things  like my favorite but kids worst, anchovy toast....
d. at 06.45 TV is off and that is it. If you have arrived at 06.41 sorry for you if you get to watch 4 minutes only!  Its all about choice now...( evil laugh ha ha ha ha)

So, this is where it becomes classic, and as a parent you can so appreciate what happens next. I go and check on them as I am about to head to sleep myself. I tuck them in and see, wait hang on, J is sleeping in her school uniform and A, has the clothes he had laid out for tomorrow on too. Thumbs up for you two. You have beaten mom's system and earned yourself extra TV time. And that in a childs life is all that matters when your 4 and 6!

Classic one!




Last

Very Odd and Random dreams

I woke up this morning after having the most random dream ever. It made no sense whatsoever, and if someone wants to interpret it, then by all means, I am listening.

I was on a balcony at a tea garden with my husband and some friends when we learnt that their was a concert happening in the building next door. The music was loud and clear enough to listen to.
The singer that was performing was Roger Whittaker, and the song was " Streets of London". The song was crystal clear, and sounded exactly how I know the song to be. I woke up singing the song, to which my husband thought I was completely strange!

The rest of the dream was boring but still weird. My gran called me to tell me that my dad had been kidnapped. However, there was a beer tent next to the tea garden and I found him there having a good time.

Very odd and Random!

My cat got a "Klap"

I came home today to find big droplets of blood and blood spray over my patio. The first thing that came to my mind, was CSI. I kid you not!! I even stood there looking at the spray pattern of blood with a Sherlock Holmes look on my face. Then reality returned.  I checked the dogs, nope they were fine and so  we then went in search for the cat. We found her in a sorry state. Her eye was glassy and swollen and had been gashed open and her face had taken a beating. She had got a "klap" most likely in a cat fight and being so small came off worse for wear!
Poor thing! I immediately forgave her, well, 90% forgave her for taking a pee and a poo on the carpet this morning, which I now have to get steam cleaned tomorrow!
Pippa is an outdoorsy skittish cat, and generally doesn't like to be held for more than 5 seconds. She was "pap", totally out of it. I put her on her cat mat to which she promptly but atypically curled up and fell asleep.

I managed to get hold of an after hours vet and Jordan, who had dressed up in an interesting combination of a white Dr's coat  over a beautiful fairy princess dress, long pink ball gown gloves and a pink hello kitty wedding veil on her head, and I put her in a basket and rushed her to the vet. I had now been told that Jordan was no longer Jordan anymore and she would only respond to Dr Princess Fairy Diamond. Alrighty then!

We arrive at the vet, 30 minute early, of course, and waited and prayed over our traumatised cat.   Much to my happiness, Dr Princess Fairy Diamond and I  learnt that the eye would survive. Her nose was damaged and this is were the blood came from and the sneezing would have caused the spray. I, being a CSI potato couch fan already knew that, of course!

After a shot of antibiotics, cortisone and eye ointment and a drip we took pap Pippa home.

I have to return with her tomorrow so I will let you know how she and my bank balance are doing. I am expecting a hefy bill. Oh dear!

I got up early this morning and went to Pilates at the gym. I didn't fare to well. My muscles were cold and stiff and only an hour later, right at the end of the class did I begin to warm up. Needless to say, the "work out" didn't work out.

So, it was "home James!", and off to make some soup instead. I got the trusty hot box out. Being so chilly out side I decided to wrap the entire thing in Adam's Spiderman blanket, giving it an entire new look.

Losing the plot and receiving answers

Have you ever felt that sometimes your just pathetic, as you have hopelessly lost the plot! I felt like that recently as there is a negative issue I have been struggling with and instead of  trying to step "out of the situation" I continued down the road of narrow minded thinking and gave in to it which lead to a major blow up, and then to an incredible self anger.

So I decided to have a long chat to God, feeling very cross, angry and sorry for myself, admitting that it would have been the best thing to have this chat a good few days before hand. But, I didn't and that was that. Now, a lot of people ( friends, family) do not understand my faith and believe that its just a religion or a "crutch for weak people". But, the truth is, that  until you come to that place of complete surrender, you will keep believing that. The whole personal relationship with God/Jesus thing just sounds "way out" and a family member told me, you better not tell people that God actually talks back to you as they will think you are a freak!

But, be as it may, the story must continue. So, I then journal what's in my heart and write what my soul has to say. The next day I am still not in the best of spirits, but I go to church. I belong to a great church!
The message, although corporate for everyone could have been written JUST for me! I do not believe in co-incidence at all, but had I not gone that day, I would not have received my very direct reply. And, a very direct reply it was.

God is not mushy at all, He is very loving but he doesn't sugar coat what he has to say. When I got was a very loving but very stern reply. Short and sweet! His reply was " we are not filthy rags, we are dressed in righteousness and we need to live our life as salt of the earth. Walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desire of the flesh, for the freedom Christ has set us free, stand firm therefore and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery".( Eph 4 1-16 and Gal 5.1).
You probably think, what are you talking about? But its about how to live one's life. We are not meant to "give in" to emotions and let our emotions rule us. We need to be good role models. Role models for our kids, our family, who we work with and those around us. In this day and age we just need to look around and see what  this world has become. Its horrid. As Christians, if we don't live our life differently then really, what is the point! And that means me. Even during really stressful times,I  need to watch what I say and hold my tongue sometimes.  Ghandi once said, " I do not have a problem with your Jesus, but I do not like your Christians, who say one thing and then do another". ( I may have the exact wording incorrect).

I came out of church feeling very free. Free to start again, free to move on and free to love and free to be the person I have become and not the person I felt I was!

God is a very personal. He talks, loves, cares, and fills you with hope, love, and the strength to continue with your head held high.

Give Him a try!

Have a super week!

Hosanna

For a long time this song was my no1, and had become more than just worship to me it was a deep felt prayer.

Heal my heart and make it clean

Open up my eyes to the things unseen

Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks your

Everything I am for your kingdom's cause

As I walk from earth into eternity