While I wilt in this heat...

how long do you suppose I can keep trotting out beach pics?!

So last night when I started unpacking my stuff from the holiday, I realised that all my clothes felt just a little bit damp.

Isn't that disgusting?

I chucked everything into the tumble drier to dry it all properly.

How quickly we forget the humidity at the sea!

There were 3 mini-piles of ironing to do and I did another 2 loads of laundry today. It's the PERFECT day to dry washing on the line. PERFECT.

Dear Lord, thank you for the DRY Joburg heat, even if it is 30 degrees and I'm wilting.

I went just a little bit mad this morning - I told the kids to pack their toys away and if I got to 3, I was removing everything I saw.

Well.

K started packing up her stuff and C looked at me defiantly while I tossed!

I won't throw it all out (that would be wasteful) but there are a few things which will leave. And his scissors have been removed for a week because he cut the elastics from his slippers :)

There is now a laundry basket full of toys banished to the cottage and I feel like I can breathe in that sunroom again.

I went a little mad in Mr Price Home too. I went in for pillows (I can't be the only one that is obsessed with sleeping on NICE pillows all the time, right?) as the kids' ones are looking just a little bit sad, especially after the lovely bedding in the Ballito flat.

Well, the pillows cost R200 and I came out with R1000 worth of who-knows-what? Lovely decorative pillows, tea towels, photo albums (Mr P Home now sells photo albums), etc.

I also returned some more of the clothes I bought that day at Pick and Pay - 3 items for R260, so I'm trying to be responsible. And I have a pair of shoes in my car to return to Woolworths.



Question before I share this week's links: do you like seeing these or is it too much?

I love them because it's a glimpse into what I star in my Google Reader (as if you care), I can share a pretty pic and a new font (the one above is called cinnamon cake) and I can share some linky love.

1. 14 photographers, 1 post - you are my wild - I would love someone (volunteers) to put together something like this and we can share one pic for the week of our kids :)
2. Passion, action and money (I read blogs like this for fun)
3. I really liked this one about ambition and anxiety
4. Sex before dinner :) for a certain dot dot dot blogger. It makes sense... but what about cleaning the kitchen :) A little-known fact about me - I was once quoted in a magazine as saying "a clean kitchen is like
5. And this is why I love Susannah Conway
6. A personal fun list for 2013. We could all do this, right?
7. Being happy despite Pinterest pressure

What kind of heat do you prefer? dry heat or humidity?
Which was your favourite link?
Have you started reading any new blogs because of my links?

Ballito - what worked well and what didn't

D and I had a lovely chat about the holidays

What didn't go well

• the kids' not listening was terrible. I reassured D that it doesn't mean our kids are little delinquents, just that they're normal 3,5 year-olds testing boundaries, asserting their independence, etc. Of course that doesn't make it any easier. We missed two nights of eating out due to really bad behaviour but I'm happy to do so and stand my ground.
• There was the kitchen island in this flat instead of a dining room table and those counter stools were uncomfortable to sit on for long periods of time hence not a lot of blogging got done (this may be a good thing too)
• I worked more than I thought I'd have to... but D more than pulled his weight too so all's well.
• Not enough decent pics of me with the kids (there is that one from Sunday). Then again, I'm 5 - 6 kg overweight so I haven't pushed the issue either.

Things that went really well

• having MIL and SIL in a separate flat so that our styles didn't annoy the others
  SIL bonding with the babies - this was so, so precious for all of us to see
  two dates!
• meeting up with D's granny and having her meet the kids for the first time - SOOOOOO precious!
• read 6 books, 3 non-fiction
• only one headache for me the entire holiday - unheard of in this heat!
• the kids were more independent. I set out clothes and they got dressed by themselves, etc. 
• two costumes per kid - one to wear and one drying - any more and they would have been too picky but it was quite simple "the other one is still wet" - so no tantrums were had over swimwear!
• letting the kids carry their own beach toys. They went with HUMONGOUS bags on days 1 and 2 and quickly learned to scale down (I love it!)
• Connor is sleeping through the night and naps without a nappy! (I bribed with one Jelly Tot, not a packet, for every dry nappy; once he had 5, I stopped with the nappies but he still gets the Jelly Tot)
• keeping up with the photos  (by keeping up I mean I am only two days behind - awesome!)
• D bathing them while I did lunch every day = I could get on with kitchen stuff without two littles under my feet and they were clean and "starving" so lunch was mostly a breeze.
• my work password expired the weekend before we left. At my secret company you have to change your password on the premises - it can't be done on mobile devices - so I took it as a sign and haven't even looked at work.... this could move to the "things that went terribly" column on Monday when I'm back.
• pool in complex overlooking the beach = no sand = perfection!
• LG washing machine! I did a 3rd load yesterday just to use that machine again :) :)
• the photographer didn't get back to me and I'm super glad. I'm 100% sure we would have gotten 3 decent ones which would have disappointed me. when these two calm down a bit, I'll book a Jhb photo shoot
• So many nice walks on the beach. This was my favourite favourite :) It's not as hot in the afternoons, we're all clean and sand-free, un-lotioned, the kids have napped so are mostly pleasant and they get to run a bit and use up their energy.

What I need to do differently next time?

Pack less - books & clothes for me, activities for kids :)

Do you like the beach?
What are your favourite things?

A post about holidaying in Ballito, mostly for Caren :)

I know this is not my normal style but I was playing with photos after I finished the day's required editing :)

does this pic not just scream beach holiday?

So Caren wrote me an email to ask me about Ballito and I thought I'd post it straight on the blog (1) just in case there are others also wondering and (2) to remind me of the detail because I do forget!

I absolutely love Ballito for a number of reasons:

1. all the holiday accommodation is right on the beach so it's extremely child-friendly. You can lotion up in the flat and just walk with your belongings. I'm quite lazy to herd kids, unstrap them into the car
without whining, drive somewhere, get unstrapped, down to the beach, sun lotion, schlep all of that back, into the car, blah blah blah. Not to mention sea sand everywhere!

2. It's small enough to feel like you're not still in Joburg but if you have a craving for any of the big shops, drive up the hill and there are tons of shops for your every need.

3. I love that this seems to be one of the few places in South Africa where you still pay per unit, and not per person. My other little love, Clarens, has accommodation options that charge per person and it is quite easily over R1000 per night for the four of us, three years ago... Why is SA getting so expensive (by our standards)? So here in Ballito if we can add in a granny for a few nights and still pay the same, that works beautifully. All hypothetical, of course :)

4. However, Ballito seems to be getting like Margate was a few years ago, and then Plett. Trendy and popular. This unit is R1050 per night now (semi season). In season it's R1200 per night and in peak season, for the month from 14 Dec to 13 Jan, it goes up to R2100 per unit. That's super crazy! I don't even want to think about what we'll do when we have kids in proper school and have to be subject to school holiday restrictions. Will we never go on holiday? What do people do?

5. Caren was telling me they want to go away over Christmas this year. However, the rental agents (the same ones I use, Jeanette uses and Louisa now uses too) told her they only accept bookings of 14 days or more over Christmas!!!! Let's work that out - R2100 X 14 = a fortune!
Might as well go to Thailand :)

6. Something on my goals list for this year is organising a celebration for my mother's 60th. My sister and I were thinking of 4 nights in Ballito (the nice thing about this extreme heat is it's still warm in the dead of winter) and when I emailed the agents to check availability and prices, she told me they only book a minimum of 7 nights! She suggested I contact them the week before and they are sure they can help me then. You all know I'm a J so this loosey-goosey business will never work for
me. I'm going to see if I can rather find accommodation in Plett.

Suggestions??? My mother hates parties (I know! where did I come from?!) and a fuss being made so this is a nice calm way to celebrate because I'm insisting that the occasion be suitably marked!


Do you plan your holidays, do you have timeshare, or are you a go with the flow person?

PS which is your favourite pic? 1 or 2? (I sound like an optometrist. Which is clearer? the red or the green? LOL)
PPS I'm packing up the laptop now so see you sometime over the weekend when I'm back home :)

Monday (twin) madness

Crikey, today's been crazy. Except for that hour this morning when we all painted on the patio.

Have your kids also been a bit crazy?

By crazy, I mean not listening, blatantly ignoring you, etc.

So much so D and I gave each other one look and said, "no way are we taking these two out for supper" so I cooked.

We're going to try to go out for lunch tomorrow and reverse the meals so sandwiches for supper, so that the kids are slightly more well behaved.....let's see if that works.

Connor told D, "I AM listening. I'm just not doing"

D "That's the point. You need to listen AND obey".

OY!

On the bright side, I did awesome work today. Knocked out goal number 2 and 25% of goal 3 for my business.

I'm also having huge fun looking through all the pics - I will post my spreadsheet at the end of the holiday because I've officially gone over to complete nerdiness...

And.... 3 months til I see Heather again :) It's my goal to lose 5 kg before I see her. I can do it, right?

Meanwhile, enjoy the pics!These were all taken yesterday - some after we came from church (yes, we go even on holidays) and some at our evening walk.

I love rusted anything.

"Baby Blue" - brand Define (R19,99 at Clicks)

don't you think she looks cute with her new sunglasses? she has such a small face that we're very limited with what's on offer

The font is Amelie :)

Which is your favourite pic?

The moments between Instagram updates

I'm the type of person who is much more interested in the moments between the facebook and instagram updates.

The moments when real life happens.

We all know that everybody has sucky moments but no-one posts those updates, do they?

Just in case you thought our holiday was only gorgeous beach views and cute kids, nope. We also have the normal boring things going on like laundry, plenty of time-outs and bribing kids to eat all their food by giving 1 Jelly Tot (yes, I'm breaking loose).

Guess what I did first thing after breakfast on Tuesday? I made star charts. I'd had both kids in 3 time-outs by about 9:30 and we'd had enough.

The behaviour is much better, by the way.

So here is our real life, half way through our holiday.

Yesterday was a lovely rainy day but cr@appy coastal rain (soft and wishy-washy), not gorgeous, dramatic, thunder-and-lightning rain like we get in Joburg.

The kids asked me why I like the loud rain and I said, "it's got passion!" (blank stares :))

Anyway, I'd planned to do the laundry anyway so I did.

5 grey t-shirts in one batch of laundry; there are at least 2 at home and here's another in the pic below

here is the 6th grey t-shirt

By the way, why has no-one told me of the wonder that is an LG washing machine. My word, even I could figure it out and I pressed just 1 button to start it. Quiet as a mouse and the clothes emerged practically dry.

I'm (almost) wishing for my Defy to bite the dust (actually that day could be soon - we've had ours for about 8 - 9 years already) so I can get myself one of these beauties.

I'm already planning my next load :) :)

It's the small things in life, people!

We've settled into a (mostly) nice routine.

Breakfast at "our Ballito flat" as the kids call it, down to the beach for 1.5 hours max, back at 12, shower/ bath, have lunch, put the kids down for naps and then it's MY time :)

isn't this mirror lovely? SIL and I loved it; MIL hated it and yet.... it would fit perfectly in her house :)

D reads for a bit and then dozes off. I've been reading with him until I finished the unputdownable book (Cuckoo - Julia Crouch - 9 out of 10) and now I need to catch up with photos so I'm reading Chasing Superwoman. Tomorrow I will start something on my Kindle.



However, yesterday I told D to go browse bookshops (he's an introvert and in-laws plus noisy kids 24/7 = frazzled D) while the kids napped.

not sure if I bought these for them or for me but they're a delight :)

Kendra was very upset when she woke and he wasn't here so today she told him, "and you're not allowed to go to the shops again without me". LOL



One kid inevitably wakes before the other (Kendra) and then we colour, write our name, paint our nails, paint, and so on. The other kid joins in when they wake.


We then go for a long walk along the promenade to take pics (me) and tire the kids out. When we get back, D baths them while I make supper. I have been VERRRRY good - we only ate out twice so far in the 6 days.

The kids have reached their first 25 stars though so we're due a treat again tomorrow. There's a Thai place in town which we want to go to. Other than that I have no idea.


Anybody know of any nice places that would welcome kids? Not too expensive . We've been to John Dory's already.

Tell me about the moments between your Facebook and Instagram updates.

So, the holiday in a very brief nutshell

D and the kids went to the in-laws' flat for a bit and are having coffee so I'm quickly blogging :)

1. On the whole things are working out much better with them here than I anticipated. They are respecting our boundaries and only coming round if we ask them to, like on the way to the beach every morning.
2. D and I have had one date night (Facebook friends may have seen my update on Wed) and we're hoping to make a run to the Milk Cafe this afternoon on their last day here.
3. As I told you, there has been absolutely NO cooking over there so I felt a little guilty and invited them to supper last night. Seriously, you can't survive on rolls and cheese!
4. One thing that is driving me up the wall is this "daily floor service" which means a maid comes in and mops. Now that does zip for me. Things that make a difference in my life are dishes and beds. You?
5. I've made my mini book and am up to date with it so far, the journalling that is.
6. I'm up to date with downloading pics but they are sadly still disorganised. I haven't even been through the weekend's ones......Tonight!
7. The weather is gorgeous - grey and overcast in the mornings which is great beach weather because it's still HOT but I don't bake as much as full on sunny weather. Then it gets blue and beautiful and then cloudy again in the afternoons. However, I have no sunset pics yet. I have told D that the first SIGN I see of a sunset I am out of here with my camera and off to take pics.
8. The photo situation so far....837. As you can see, I have deleted some in camera.
9. And then, very sadly, my favourite flip flop sandals broke on Wed while walking on rocks. I'm desperate for another pair so please keep your eyes peeled. I remember telling you before (but I don't expect you to remember the minute details of my life) that I bought these about 10 years ago at a shop in Canal Walk (CT). They were R99 at the time and there were pink and yellow ones. I'm so desperate for them I've written to zoom!!!
10. After supper last night, we had a very nice talk about friendship (D, me and the in laws). That deserves its own post so I'll write that up too.

 

So how has your week been?


PS I'm trying to read a bit here and there but I am at that part in my book where I feel absolutely no guilt about neglecting necessary functions just to find out what happens next :)

Just a quick one

Well, we left 1 hour 20 minutes later than we planned... par for the course... made three (very long) stops and arrived in Ballito just before 4 pm.

Thankfully, the kids were very sweet, full of giggles and cuteness and not a meltdown between them.

At supper tonight (I cooked a creamy pasta with chicken, garlic rolls and salad) Connor asked us when we were going home.

Horrified, we looked at him and asked why.

"because I like it better at home"

Why, baby?

And then he proceeds to name everything that's at home - really random things. Poor thing! On the bright side, he loves our house. I must say, I love it too :) I need to make a list of things I want to do at home (most of them involve decluttering). I love that I can say more things left this December than came in.

He does like it here though.

Kendra LOVES it here because Granny's here. She said when I unlocked and we walked inside, "OOOH, it's beautiful" - too funny!

Another funny from K - we usually snuggle in the mornings before getting up. Because we were travelling this morning there were no snuggles so she says to me all serious, "tomorrow I'll come snuggle with you again, okay?" Totally okay with me!

I love the place (it is gorgeous!) and the view. I have not loved the non-listening kids this evening. Maybe they used all their good listening ears in the car? 

I didn't write about it on the blog but MIL and SIL rented their own place in the building. Turns out it's about 4 doors from us.

!

They gave us lots of space this evening though. So far so good.

They'll be here for 5 nights.

Anyway, off to bed now. Those two will still be up at the crack of dawn even after finally falling asleep at 9:30 so I've got to be on my game :)

How was your Monday?
Do you like the predictability of home or are you always up for travel?

(I like both - I love travelling but I really like coming home. I don't love the laundry though; then again, that's nothing to do with travel!)

PS pics all taken with iphone (first 4 from a moving vehicle at a rapid speed) and non-edited
PPS I'm going to do a mini book again this year. I brought all the supplies and will assemble it tomorrow night and then carry on with photo editing.
PPPS I tried recipe 4 for the month - another dud - so I brought one with me to try out on the kids this week :)