Dullstroom - I can't believe I had such small kids :)

Not bad for a Sony Cybershot, hey? Can you believe the dummy?!!!! And the small babies?!!!! They were 22 months here.

The Wedding (part 1) and some infertility experiences

First of all, thanks for all the lovely comments :)

I have not even read, let alone had the chance to comment (except for a quick one on Rebecca's post) but I'll catch up (kind-of) this weekend when I'm home and at least leave a comment here and there.

Today has been lovely but D and I have decided that Dullstroom is not very child-friendly. And the water sucks. Other than that we're having a good time :)

The place is full of these red trees (what are they called?) and the kids love them.



Tomorrow we're going through to Sabie to have lunch with a blogger friend travelling down from Mozambique. I can't WAIT! I have a big bag of goodies for her - I went a bit crazy because I know she loves organising too :)

*****************************

I've mentioned before that D and I used to pastor an area in our church many moons ago.

In 2000 and 2001 to be exact.

At the time we had 3 adult groups, 2 youth groups and a children's group in the area.

The two people who got married on Sunday was the children's group leader and a guy who used to attend the one youth group. The youth group met at his parents' home.

They were about 16/ 17 at the time - too cute!

Anyway, they were (and are) both lovely people to have in our area. Faithful (which is HUGE to me!), reliable and 100% committed to God.

We only pastored for 2 years because I hated it. I still don't know if it was the area, the way we did the pastoring in those days or what.

Anyhow, we then moved into my true passion, Passion Driven Ministries. After about a year, I was asked to take over the consultants' ministry and I happily agreed. As you know I like to be in charge of things...

I ran courses to train up consultants (people who helped the church people discover their passion, God-given gifts, etc. so that they'd know where best to serve in the church) and also actively consulted with people myself.

In the 7 years I was involved, I probably assessed (that's what we called it) about 500 people 1:1 personally - I just loved it so much. I still do. If you would ever like me to do this with you, you need only ask. I LOVE IT!

So after finishing school, those two (K & B) went to varsity and eventually came on my training and both became consultants.

I must confess I was quite the taskmaster because I really saw our work as so important - we had two hours to impact someone's life forever... (or that's how I saw the vision God gave me).

If we were slackers, people could end up in the wrong place, hating their ministry. But if we did our thing properly, they would be fulfilled, have joy and serve in their purpose.

During that time, two other couples met and got married. Isn't that cute? All through this ministry.

I got very close to each of my consultants and am happily still in contact with about 80 - 90% of them.

K & B are very, very precious to me - maybe because they were so young when we first met and we pastored them, or maybe through the consultants, who knows?

We've kept in contact all through the years - they both (individually sometimes but often together) have come for supper lots and when he's in the UK, we Skype, esp if he sees me online. She has lived in SA all this time except for her month-long trips over there and his month-long trips back here :)

So, long story short, at their wedding, aside from family, there were lots of church people. We used to pastor some of them actually.

Now here's the thing.

I had the opportunity to share my infertility experience with two different couples.

One of them was the other youth group leader, now married to a girl who used to be in his group :)

They've adopted a little girl because they're infertile and shared their frustrations with me about how racist people are (the little girl is black and they're white) and how a lot of people think adoption is 2nd prize (something which makes me see red!).

The other couple is still firmly in denial which I get because I was once there too. They are young and have been trying for 4 years.........

D said to me afterwards we were meant to be there because of those two instances.

Absolutely! And for the wedding, of course.

(part 2 tomorrow!)

Do you also believe that you can be in a certain place at the right time for a reason?

Any other questions about the ministry thing?

1 false start, 4 hours and 35 minutes

Well!

We eventually set off at 12:25 yesterday but we had to return some DVDs first.

We'd just dropped them off and come back in the general direction of the highway when there was a funny sound from the back seat.

I reached over and said, "what's wrong, baby?" and there was vomit all over the baby girl, her little dog (stuffed animal) and my hand.

We were able to pull over and clean her up a little but since we were about 10 minutes from home, we went back to clean her and pick up a few nice to haves that we'd forgotten.

And, of course, put the vomit-soaked clothes (and dog) in some water.

On the road again, there was much screaming, cries of "sore! sore!" and so on.

A little bit of sleep but not much.

We kept pulling over to try and ease the "sore" (K was sitting in a body vest and the seatbelt was the cause of the "sore"), feed, change, etc.

It was crazy.

I honestly thought the travelling would be easier the older they get but noooo.

Now that they can talk they can tell us everything they're not happy about.

And seems like there was plenty!

Eventually we pulled into Dullstroom at exactly 5 pm. 4 hours and 35 minutes later. 2 hours longer than it should have taken us.

Picked up keys and drove back up the road to this place.

While D was unloading the car and trailer, the kids ran loose (probably so glad to be FREE again) and I prepared their and our supper.

We fed and bathed them and they were finally in bed and sleeping just before 8 pm.

Remember our normal bedtime is 6-ish.

D and I were knackered and I could barely finish my supper as the headache from hell had started pounding.

I intended to blog but just about managed to crawl into my pjs and into bed.


Today we had a very lazy start (after they both woke before 5, they slept for a bit) and only had breakfast at 9. We did some walking and sightseeing and eating in Dullstroom and took LOTS of pics of cute things.

The problem with holidays is always, "so many places to eat; so little time" :)

I'm so pleased that I'm getting to the place where I don't have to have everything pretty I see. That's a change for me.

The journey to simplicity is working!

There are loads of cute buildings, and beautiful trees and skies, and I find people doing a double-take to see what it is that is so picture-worthy. And then it is "just a leaf" but to me, so, so gorgeous.

My boy was entranced with all the "red, orange and yellow" leaves and so was I :)

Behind me on the bed, D and K are reading and C is still finishing his afternoon nap.

I don't have iBurst connectivity so I'm typing this and I will use my SIM card to quickly go on and post it.

What are you looking forward to this week?

Holidays

Now that the speaking commitments are over for the month, I can finally focus on our upcoming holiday (vacation). Last night's talk on organising your time went well but I had way too much info (this was a new take on my time talk so I was practising).

Anyway, back to the holidays.

So next week we are going to Dullstroom for 4 days.

Dullstroom and Clarens feel very similar (to me) in that they're both tiny towns but very, very cute :)

We went to Clarens last year and so this year it's time for Dullstroom.

Hopefully next year when the babies are a year older we can go further, maybe to the Drakensberg.

D and I LOVE this area of the country because of its lovely, crisp weather and it's so, so beautiful. We used to drive through Dullstroom to go to Sabie (Sabie is one of my favourite places - beautiful waterfalls, warm during the day at this time of year and lovely and cold at night) often for our anniversary (next week Friday - 16 years!).


We're staying in a two-bedroom, self-catering apartment in town.

I don't think I told you this before but after night 1 at the hotel in PE in December (terrible time getting the babies to sleep), I went to a computer shop and got the guy to transfer their sleep CD onto my netbook (it doesn't have a disc drive) and from then, no problems.

So hopefully sleep will not be a problem.

Here's how I like to spend holidays:

I like to do one activity (planned or not) every day but the rest of the time, I like lots of down time.

One of our most productive and yet restful holidays was Thailand - we had a tour every second day and then on the in between days, we'd laze at the hotel pool or the beach opposite our hotel and wander the streets doing a bit of shopping.

That is perfect for me.

D and I love, love, LOVE tours when we travel. Left to our own devices we'd laze far too much :)

I don't know what this says about me but here is a cool article on the Myers Briggs profiles and how you like to take your holidays.

Just enough so I don't feel like I could be doing this at home but still lots of resting.

However, with active toddlers, especially Connor who loves to RUN everywhere, I don't think I'm going to get much rest while they're awake unless we strap them into their car seats or eating seats in restaurants.

I am going to meet up with a blog friend who will travel about an hour or two.......... can't wait to meet her as I have HUGE respect for the work she's doing with orphanages in Mozambique!

So tell me, have you been to Dullstroom?

If yes, what do you recommend me do and where do we have to eat?



(Last time I asked about eating places and a friend pointed us to a fabulous place in Clarens where we practically camped out!)

Otherwise, what is your ideal TYPE of holiday? Lots of activities, lots of rest, seeing people, no people, tours/ no tours, lots of food/ lots of shopping???

PS Have a look at these pics that Jeanette (my fabulous photographer) took when she was in Dullstroom