{Friendship Friday} Is she blowing me off?

Do you remember this post where I spoke about spontaneity?

Number 5 on that list is a particular friend. We've been friends for 12 years, since I started working at my previous company.

We were work friends for a few months until an awards dinner where the husbands also met and liked each other (you know how key that is for couple dates!) and from then we'd have couple socials.

Here's what I wrote in that other post:

I am desperately trying to arrange a lunch with a set of couple friends.
They are the most highly structured people I know and do not like things to mess with plans :) It's actually funny because I'm sure people see me like that but oh, I am a 2 on the scale next to her 10.

We haven't seen them since November and we had a plan on a weekend in April but their house move was shifted so that messed everything up.
We tried for May and June and now she's emailed me for July (when I'm away) so I said eventually, "okay, this is getting ridiculous. Let's change something because otherwise it's never going to happen". I suspect we'll have to move our normal plan to a Friday night (um, no) or a Sunday after church because the Saturdays are just not on.

So now she told me that there is one date in September they're available. One date.

Even after we've looked at Sundays.... because they go biking on Sundays.

I've since gone back to her and said what about Fridays? Even though I really don't mess with the kids' bedtime, I thought, "fine, one Friday night won't kill us".

No answer yet, after 3 days....

My thing is - why can't they be just a little bit flexible? We're the ones with kids!

So I'm wondering if they're gone off us and this inflexibility and rigidity is their way of saying it but also not saying it?

Thing is... this kind of thing will work well with other people but I have a problem letting go.

What do you think?

What would you do?

And because I can't end a post without a proper pic (!), pics of my little friend. This little one is always game to be silly with me - I love it.

"Kendra, let's make our funny faces"

Kendra phoning Connor because she's missing him

"proper" blogging later :)

PS I'm putting myself on a blog reading fast (except for about 10...) for about 5 - 6 days because I'm behind on all things party and trip planning!

This is what they get up to at "pre-school"

Um, you were right - I totally didn't do my to-do list.

instead, I

1. showered and dressed
2. organised my wardrobe (I'm getting really sick of having stuff I don't use so I tossed some more "thin jeans")
3. took photos of 10 bags I want to sell/ give away
4. made lunch
5. felt really sick at the thought of eating the lunch
6. went to sleep for 2.5 hours
7. woke up
8. did puzzles with Connor
9. wrote one guest post (which is going to be repurposed as one on my blog too :))
10. put on some lipstick
11. raced to Bedford to meet a friend
12. had a fabulous supper (butternut soup) and an even more-fabulous catch-up (more on Friday)

I took these pics with my zoom lens from our pause area on the 2nd floor. Yay for spying on kids :)



Connor playing with food



10 points for you if you can see Kendra's head sticking out

their craft of the day - mosaic mirrors - I'm so chuffed with these

apparently they're not into drumming :)

getting bored



getting bored

at least they look cute!

I only have one baby at work with me today.

The other baby is still coughing and was very cross that he was going to be left home with Nanny S.

However when I said, "Connor, at least you don't have to share all the puzzles", he cheered right up :)

How's your day going?

PS I have 48 mails, best I get to it! Only 4 days of work left and 3 days FULL of meetings.......

4th sick day in ....years

Okay, I've just typed out a whole post and it's... gone.

Blogger's stopped doing this for a while and so I got lax and stopped copying before pressing publish.......... back to basics.




Basically, I've had a tummy bug from yesterday morning 5 am.

Kendra vomited about 5 times on Friday from 2am - 2pm and Connor vomited 3 times from 11:30 Sun night to 8:40 on Monday morning.

I'm MUCH better today (a million times!) and can actually think about eating! I'm always amazed at the body's resilience.

However, I'm still weak like I need to sit after I go do something in the kitchen so I'm off work today too. Because Lord knows there's no resting at work.

I had some wonderful snuggle time with the babies yesterday - it was bliss.

I also read two books! 3 for the month so far :)

Kendra told me this morning that I tell her "I love you" too much!

Me How many times am I supposed to tell you I love you?

K only once!

My to-do list today:

1. Shower and get dressed
2. June photos
3. Thank-you notes from Saturday
4. June month in review
5.  Menu plan for the week, and for when I'm away
6. Grocery list
7. Newsletter
8. 3 blogs for OQ
9. Write to 15 bloggers
10. Write 2 guest posts

HECK! that's a lot. I'll check in tonight :)

What's on your to-do list today?
Are you well?

I don't like Mondays

1. Thank you for all your lovely comments (I loved Johanna's the most :)) on the babies' birthday post.

The babies had a good day and I did in patches, but overall I'd say about a 4/5 out of 10. To be honest, one of the worst weekend days I've had in a long while. The primary reason? Mismatched expectations. The day did not go how I wanted or expected it to and next year I will be even more firm and clear.

We've already had 4 sets of gifts and I had to do some reorganising this morning to accommodate those.

2. I got a bee in my bonnet and so at 5:30 this afternoon when I got home (btw, the worst of winter is over because it's only getting dark close to 6) I moved furniture around the house. I swopped the wicker drawer sets in the bathroom and study which means the study is still mostly a mess.

I'm not done yet - I want the bookshelf our of our bedroom and in the sunroom/ entrance area and the chair from the study in the bedroom.

The problem with me and all this shifting around is I have no spatial giftedness :) I only know if I like something if I see it in its intended position so if it doesn't look right, it's got to be moved again. Imagine how popular I am with D.

3. Today Connor put me in time-out for saying, "oh cr*p". He's right... but to explain, he was on the loo and when I went to check on him, there was toothpaste ALL over his pants.

He woke up coughing terribly so I stayed home from church with him while the other two went.

We then swopped babies (!) and I took Kendra to this party.

Of course we got lost - honestly I just decided this is just my thing. I had the navigation thing on the iPad, I'd google-mapped it and STILL I got lost. When we got to Kyalami I figured we were lost.

Me Baby, we're LOST.

Kendra What does lost mean?

Me It's when I don't know where we are and how to get to where we're meant to be. So if I can't figure it out, we're going to have to go home.

Kendra NOOOO! Mummy, we will find the way. Don't worry.

(my little encourager is very cute, but do you think she was motivated by the sweets? She had one marshmallow, one jelly worm and a 3 X 2 cm block of chocolate cake, a meatball, chicken kebab and a tomato :))

We phoned my friend and apparently I drove right by the place so we retraced steps and found it. Thank God.

And so ends another weekend.

The title of this post is the song running through my head at the moment.

What's the song running through your head?


How was your weekend?

PS Also, seriously, are there no Seinfeld fans who read this blog? I'm slightly aghast!

Today my babies are 3!

just to show you how small they really still are.

Crazy, crazy, crazy.

First of all, I still honestly can't believe I have kids.

A colleague and I were trying at the same time. Yesterday she popped around to my desk and said she's been trying to convince her husband to try IVF all these years.

I told her, "I'm just so grateful that the technology exists. Because if it didn't, I wouldn't have kids".

She's finally convinced him to at least go for an appt at a fertility clinic.

One step at a time.

Anyway, what a crazy year that was when we started being brave and going ahead with treatments.

And then that crazy year since they were born.

This last year has been the fastest year yet. Is this what happens every year?

I can't believe how BIG these babies are. They speak, we argue, reason (mostly me), communicate and have FUN together and apparently, according to Dr S yesterday, they're thriving.

Amazing really for 32-week-old preemies. All praise to God!

They get more fun all the time but I am just the teensiest bit scared of 3. I've heard it's worse than 2....Connor flat-out ignored Dr S and said back to him, "no, you help me" with putting blocks away. On the one hand, I was cringing and on the other hand, I'm thinking "wow, you need to keep that confidence" :)

Let the games begin :)

What's your favourite thing about 3?

PS these pics were the first day of pre-school pics :)

{Friendship Friday}: Have friends of yours ever hit it off really well ... without you?

Remember the other day when we spoke about how uncomfortable we can sometimes get with friends of our friends?

Well, what if the opposite happens?

Your friends hit it off so well that they start being better friends than you are or worse, excluding you.


I told you that at heart I'm a connector of people so I don't mind most times if my friends connect and have fun.

In fact, last year at my birthday party, my one good friend connected so well with two other friends that TWO subsequent "meetings" were set up. She did work for the one and had a coffee chat with the other.

It was a bit weird when my one friend said, "oh, X is coming over on Wednesday" and obviously I didn't twig because I just said, "oh really?" and then my friend said, "YOUR X" and I went "OHHHHH". But immediately I said, "this is a bit awkward but GOOD FOR YOU".

I meant awkward in a Seinfeld-kind of way. Any Seinfeld fans out there?

There's an episode where they talk about their two worlds colliding, like work world and personal world.

(I just googled to see if I could find the episode and there are TONS of links to this phenomenon. LOVE it :))

Have a look at it here.

I loved that episode because it's so true - it even freaks me out a bit if D comes to have lunch with me at work, and kisses me!!!!

Back to the topic.

We're going to my friend's son's party this weekend. My friend has this other friend who I really like BUT I just feel weird taking it further because it's her friend. Is that weird? See, normally if I met someone and we got along so well, I'd at least exchange emails and start up an email/ text friendship.


We've met once before at her house and this lady and I really hit it off partially because I recognise some of myself in her, as in, if I let myself go totally to the dark side I could be a total control freak. Next to this lady I'm a 2 on the scale :) But she and I both know she's over the edge and she has a sense of humour about it so makes fun of herself too. While being controlling LOL

Have you ever hit it off with a friend's friend?


And how did you make plans to become friends with that person without your friend? Or did it happen more naturally.

Tell all. Curious minds want to know.

PS it was like Christmas here earlier. Wrapping paper all over the bed. Presents not only for my two but another two kids, and a friend.

PPS my sister's a genius. She ordered the kids' presents from Reggies and got it delivered here. Not only does she have no postage schlep but I get to wrap them! I think I'll repay her in the same way and also order big bulky gifts for her kids :) I actually really don't mind and do think she's a genius. This may just be my go-to thing :)

So we're using star charts

So I'm still in love with 123 magic but really, I have some stubborn kids and sometimes they just push me right to the edge.

When I saw these cute star charts on Erin's blog, I had to try them.

(BTW, she had me at laminator)

It seemed like a good idea to change tactics from the stick to the carrot, but also still doing 123 magic. Adding something extra to the parenting arsenal :)

I promised the kids we'd make them star charts one weekend and so we did.They were very excited even though they didn't have a clue what I was on about.

They are only 3 (well, what's two days?) so I thought 4 items to focus on for a week at a time was plenty.

They helped me decide which stickers to use and which colour flowers, etc. so it was a group effort.

And of course Connor's favourite thing in the world is the laminator. He wants to laminate everything under the sun. I do store up all my laminating and then I ask him if he wants to help me laminate. Well, his smile is so big you'd swear he was let loose in a toy shop.

He proudly switches on the laminator and tells me when it goes green. And then he holds the cord back so the page slides through easily and we're done.

D and I decided what each child's chart should say based on the behaviours we don't find desirable :)

Louisa connected a dot or two for me once when we chatted and I said Connor is the only one who throws tantrums. She said, "does Kendra sulk? It seems like the quieter ones sulk" and YES, it's true. Kendra sulks which is just as annoying.

This is Kendra sulking. I said, "Kendra, are you sulking?" She said, "no, I just don't feel like talking". D and I packed out laughing! "Baby, that's what sulking is!"

here's where she's really trying to stop sulking!

So they both have two the same and two different.

"Going to sleep nicely" which means no jumping around the room, scratching in the tidy cupboards or drawers (this sends me RIGHT over the edge!) or jumping in each other's bed. And certainly no coming out to us! This is for naps and for real sleep at night.

"Listening to Mummy/ Daddy" is another catch-all. I told Julia the other day I'm VERY fussy about kids listening and obeying. Yes, I may seem like a commandant but I believe that it's good spiritually too. When God speaks to them, they also need to listen and obey immediately. Moving on. So we like them to listen quickly because I really don't like to hear myself say the same thing 3 times.

our worse day was Thursday

Connor then has "no tantrums or fighting" because he has a temper and will sometimes lash out in frustration and of course the lovely tantrums.

He also has "nappies and dressing nicely" because he fights us when he has to get a nappy on at sleep time or get dressed. And you all know I'm not my best in the mornings anyway and the last thing I want is to start off my day in a worse state.

Thursday was even worse for Kendra

As I said above, Kendra sulks and she has another charming little habit, whining. Do you know how the whining gets to me?! Tonight I said, "Kendra, do you know my ears can't hear whining?" :)

And she tends to get distracted with other bright, shiny objects on her way to do what I told her, but mainly she purposefully ignores us, so that's why "obeying immediately" is on her list.

So we've been doing these for 1 week 5 days and already I've seen a huge improvement.

Connor

The pics are from week 1. You can see they both got 18 feet (I don't have stars) for the week. This week we've only done 5 days and they're already on 18 (one child) and 16 (the other child).

I do have to say things a few times still but I just say, "are you LISTENING? Do you want to get your star tonight?" and it mostly works.

I LOVE how Erin explained in her post that she allows some leeway because there is no such thing as perfection. Love it!

So I'll also allow one in each category to go unnoticed.

At night before we do reading and prayers, we do star charts. Yes, we still call them star charts~!

And if they get 3 or 4, we all clap and go "yayyy, Connor/ Kendra" to make a big deal.

Rewards?

Well, my rule is 20. They must get 20 out of 28 every week and then they can decide what they want. It's always going to a restaurant with these two (their father's children!).

And good thing they've pulled up their socks this week because I've been telling them the whole week if they're good they can go to a restaurant with us on Saturday.

So that's our star charts.

(BTW, I laminated the chart itself and then I laminated a million little feet, cut them into rectangles and I stick them on with some Prestik)

What do you think?
Have you tried star charts to reinforce positive behaviour?

PS I think I'm going to add "no rudeness" from next week because I've heard some screaming at one another :)

Our lovely Sabie holiday - day 3

My colleague said the coolest thing to me the other day - "the best thing about work is all the holidays" LOL

We are exactly the same. Work is there to accrue leave and pay for holidays :)

I've never been someone who has to be forced to take their leave. Ha!

Are you a workaholic?

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

So last time we left off Kendra was sick.

That night she coughed and coughed, and woke us up at least once that I remember, D says it was more.

We were a little worried seeing as we were in the sticks without all the comforts of our lovely doctors, pharmacies and hospitals within 2 km of our house... so we made an appt as soon as we could and off we went.

Do you know almost no places accepted bank cards????

I told the lady I've drawn more money in two days in Sabie than I have in an entire month in Jhb. No joke.

Anyway, so I left D with the kids while driving to an ATM.

He prescribed much of the same type of stuff for Kendra that we were already giving her but an antibiotic too.

So we went back to eat and let Kendra sleep.

Connor ran around for a bit but then fell asleep too. D read and fell asleep too.

I read and painted my nails, and took pics.

All bliss. It still felt like a holiday because we didn't have to be anywhere - we could just press pause and let the little one recover.

Eventually Kendra woke and we painted her nails too.

she insisted on black nails...

she was feeling much better so I let her explore while keeping an eye on her (the place was so amazing - I didn't have to move a muscle but could see her)

this is my favourite one from that week of Superhero photo

all of these were to practise my low f-stop pics

I had full intentions of posting the next day's pics too but I'm knackered.

Forgive me?

I need to go sleep - I have an early meeting tomorrow.

BTW, I had the most horrendous "parking" day at a shopping centre. I had to go do some "research" on one of our partners otherwise I would have left. Drove in at 13:06 and only found parking at about 13:25. I was THIS close to just leaving. I drove round and around up and down all the levels like a mad woman - not impressed.

Do you have parking patience? (I don't)

PS the babies made bread today (and had it for lunch) and wooden spoons with beaded handles (they're getting crafty like their mother. Ha!)
PPS 3 days til they turn 3. I'm going a bit crazy because I can't BELIEVE they're 3. Where has the time gone? I've survived 3 years of twin craziness!

Embracing my (not so) inner control freak

I decided yesterday when I heard the tax season was officially open to submit my return very early this year so I can possibly get some money to spend in the US.

(btw, 15 days before I leave. No, I'm still not prepared)

I tried tonight but the site is impossible to view properly on a little 10-inch netbook so I will find a gap tomorrow and do it at work.

Since I was feeling all responsible and thus virtuous, I decided to play with my 22se.ven account. It is a website that shows a visual representation of your finances and is beyond awesome. I've already changed my spending habits remarkably and have already saved thousands.

(South Africans, anyone on there besides me? I thoroughly recommend it)

I'm the type of person who really doesn't like a lot of detail BUT once I get the tiniest bit obsessed, then my inner control freak comes out to play.

That's what happened tonight.

I intended to only tidy up my July payments - after all the month is a mere 3 days old - and I got hooked and went into each and every category checking transactions.

Very satisfying to now know everything is "perfect".

It's like I have this all or nothing thing going on with my money. Either I micromanage it or I totally don't look at it for a month. Ugh!

Of course this evening also highlighted some other things - we are still spending way too much money on groceries and eating out, and other than my hair every 3 months (although sometime in the next 15 days I need to go get a trim) and the occasional splurge on clothes, I don't spend very much money on me other than putting money in savings (my catch-all :)).

Vastly different from say, October last year, when I was grouponing and etsying madly.

I'm not holding my breath though because starting on Saturday, in less than a month, all 4 of us celebrate our birthdays.

D may be with me in NYC on his bday (the 27th, Heather :)) and of course, mine is on 6th Aug the week after I'm back.

And yes, I still plan to have a party. You don't turn 38 every year LOL

So who out there is a control freak too?


Do you have a spreadsheet or how do you (mis) manage your money? 

What are your weak points with spending?

I had a scary thought this evening

this is what June felt like. Our PA sent out a reminder for something we have to do monthly and I said, "no way. is it that time again?"

I've been pseudo-fooling myself but I finally faced facts this morning - I'm getting fat.

Well, fatter... and so I need to get my A into G.

So I booked a session with the new personal trainer for Thursday and tonight I went to a dance class at the gym.

I hardly have the cold as an excuse as it was a lovely warm day (for winter) here today.

And of course, I always love it once I'm there.

As I was walking back to the car, I thought, "oh my WORD, it's the 2nd. Which means in 16 days time I'll be leaving for the USA!"

That's two weeks, people.

And I'm SOOOOO not prepared.

My list isn't even done yet.

But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Moon over _____ Street :)

How did I do for June?

Spiritual

1. Read my Bible at least 5 out of every 7 days.
   
2. Ask God for something small every day. This is great - I thoroughly recommend it.

Family 

1. Have three dates with D only managed 1
2. Go see two pre-schools. Does it count that our kids attended pre-school for one week? I think so :)
3. Send out invites and plan the babies' third birthday party.
4. Get child 2 potty trained?
5. Book my mother's flights
   

Work

1. Either finish this big looming thing that's giving me headaches and stressing me out, or make a plan (i don't know what but something's got to give) We have a plan. Not a great plan, but a plan nonetheless.
   
2. Get remainder of copy approved. 
3. Be brave enough to have a really honest conversation at my performance appraisal. Oh yes, I got the gift of clarity all right :)
   

Business

1. Keep promoting book
2. 3 blogs per week
3. 1 newsletter every week
4. Decide on next book for Kindle (I have TONS TONS TONS of stuff written over the last 9 years and I want to put something together for cheap, like $3.99)

A big YES!

Friends

1. Lunch here with J & P
2. Lunch with either K&B or L&C or both
3. Early supper with Louisa
4. Lunch with my new work friend

None of these done but I had three dates with other friends - J, P and C.

Health and fitness

1. Go to gym with Connor 4 times
   
2. Work out at gym during the week 8 times and stop making excuses that it's cold. Noooo
   
3. Lose 2 kg (stretch goal 3 kg) and go to Weigh-Less the remaining 4 times HA!
   
4. Get 7 - 7.5 hours of sleep daily despite the next photo course starting
   

Personal

1. Book accommodation in Charlotte and New York
2. Loosely finalise meet-ups with blog friends ( I now have one more person confirmed :)
3. Do my budget Gosh, yes, and it gave me a big scare!
4. Read 5 books, two of them non-fiction.  This month's NF books are One Person Multiple Careers and an organising book. I have about 8 unread... Fiction I want to read are my Dorothy Koomson and 2 print books (I need to up the ante to get rid of all these things on my bookshelf)
   
5. Do 4 random acts of kindness I've been sneaking into the toilets at church on the weekends putting up lovely encouraging post-it notes on the backs of the doors :) Next time I'll try take a pic!

Creating

1. Try 3 new main course dishes
2. Bake cinnamon rolls
3. Finish party packs (sadly, I'm already half way done :) yet the invites aren't even out yet!)
4. Organise May photos
5. Do 10 blogs on babies blog
6. Have FUN with Elevate the Ordinary.
7. Do canvas craft for Father's Day
8. Blog England leg of 2008 UK trip Not yet :)

80% :)

how's this cool pic? All moody and mysterious tonight. It's the same tree in my garden - you're going to get so sick of seeing this tree :)

Six months down, six to go.

What have I learnt these six months?

1. It takes a lot longer to write and get a book published than I ever thought. I may be scarred for life :)
2. I don't feel any different even though I've done this big, amazing life list thing.
3. For the rest of the year, if I just get clarity from God as to the direction He wants my business and speaking "career" to go, I'll call 2012 a success.
4. Creating memories with my family is awesome... and doesn't cost a single cent sometimes.
5. When I set the intention for something and create the space for it in my life, amazing things happen (photography). That camera was the best R6000 I've ever spent. I LOVE that I can get good pics of what I see with my naked eye about 60% of the time :) Before this was maybe 5%.
6. I love creating and it's so easy for me to carve out weekly time for myself. Someone told me she likes how I get things done that are important to me. Um, yes :)
7. If you ask God to show Himself to you, big or small, He'll do it. A lady (the one who says I'm loud :)) at work said, "God's not interested in those small things" and I said, "J, but He is!!!!" I 100% believe that!
8. I can have fearless and brave conversations. The more I talk the clearer I get.
9. Friendship takes work, intention, willingness and planning but it doesn't have to feel like work.
10. Losing weight is hard when you enjoy food like I do.

What have you learnt these last 6 months?

In July I'm only putting 12 things on my list:

1. Don't get too sad about the babies growing up. Celebrate their growth and have an awesome party.
2. Decide what to do about my party.
3. Try not to freak out too much when I'm away from my kids for 11 days.
4. Have an awesome speaking conference - engage fully, participate, show courage and have fun. Don't be scared of the Southern ladies! There was a teleconference to prepare that I couldn't participate in due to time differences. I started listening to the recording and realised, "OMW, these are ALL American ladies" (will I be the only foreigner?)
5. Have awesome blog meet-ups with my dear friends in the computer. Don't think too much but just DIVE in. I have plans to meet 4 people in Charlotte and 2 in NYC. Yay!
6. Read Galations, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians (I decided these vague goals are not for me). I also decided how can I expect to hear from Him if I'm not reading His word????
7. Read 5 books.
8. Go see all the short-listed pre-schools. We were trying to do two a month. Since that's not working, I'm going to have to take another half day and just go do it. If I'm up to date with the packing as I expect to be, this may happen the morning of my flight.
9. June photos (I can't get behind because I expect to take THOUSANDS while I'm away)
10. June mini-book and some other little projects
11. Go to gym 7 - 8 times.
12. Update my budget & set realistic spending plan (mine has clearly been unrealistic). Check 22se.ven twice this month.

(D has his visa appointment on Thursday. If it gets approved he'll come on the NYC leg of the trip)
(He also got a huge salary increase. We have no idea what to make of this. We both know the average... and he's fighting with the boss. I said it's clear The Big Boss is looking out for him :))

Have you set goals/ intentions for July? Link up your posts in the comments. 

If you're not into setting goals, tell me... what are three things you're most proud of doing in June?

A few things on my mind...

I really would love to hear your opinions here.

this lady is the same one with the crazy high heels I posted a few weeks back. She's 54 - isn't she in great shape? she moved just as I took the first one, someone said "stand with your legs nicely" and I showed her and said, "nooooo, that pic is boring :)" so she did the angle again for me. Yes, I'm a bossy boots with photos!

1. I had an item on my goals list from last month to post 10 times on the babies' blog.

I managed 5 complete posts (don't be impressed - it's pics mainly and here and there a caption or line of text) and did the pics only (without moving them to the middle or spacing nicely) for the rest.

I thought I'd log into that account to quickly sort that out.

Gosh, I need to never get behind again.


(by the way, the 5 posts is not what I'm talking about when I say behind. I had pics from 2011 randomly dotted here and there)


(it was good to see the babies looking like REAL babies)


(ps sorry if you subscribe to that blog as there will be a feedburner update tomorrow with 20-odd posts. once I started I couldn't stop)

a pic of me by Connor. I love my red striped top.

2. Week one of pre-school is behind us and you were all right - after the first day, I really wasn't worried (much) at all.

Things I like - they keep telling me how well my kids eat and "do they really drink water like this all the time"? (yes, they do. I am STILL waiting for the "picky toddler eating stage" - in fact, that's another post because it's like 3 really hungry adults live here)

They actually bring home decent things, not rubbish. We have tie-dyed t-shirts and mosaic mirrors. And chocolates which I haven't yet allowed them to eat.

Things I don't like - the drive home mid-day. Oh, man, it does my head in. On Thursday, Connor was all "I want you to staaaaaayyyyy, Mummy" while wailing and what should have been a one-hour round trip took 1.5 hours with all the peeing, cajoling, herding, and then the unloading, peeing, kissing good-bye, crying, more kissing and hugging.

Also, I got a headache on Thursday from the driving around in the sun. Yes, I'm not meant to be out and about in the heat.

So Friday I worked from home in the afternoon... only because the boss is off sick. I have taken this and next Friday as half days so only 4 more days to do the drive home midday.

love the framing in this pic

3. D and I discussed all the party stuff last night. I told him the food I was thinking of and he came up with more creative names than "rolls with fillings" to fit our theme.

I'm really tempted to buy a lot of food but I have to keep reminding myself that kids actually don't eat a lot of anything. My kids do, but not most kids :)

I told the babies that their birthday is coming up and asked them what they want. Kendra said, "popcorn" and Connor said, "sweets and shokit (chocolate)" :) They are so easy to please.

this self-portrait was taken ages ago amidst lots of strange colleague stares. the theme was colour. I LOVE my nails :)

4. A lady contacted me about my book late last week. She picked up some formatting errors which weren't apparent when we tested it. Anyway, I have never in my life received feedback in such a nice way. I actually wrote her a lovely long email to thank her for telling me those things in such a kind way. Really, she has a way with words. I then went to scrounge around on her blog and she'd reviewed another of my products and wrote me SUCH a stunning review. I was tickled pink. That was the business highligh of my week.


Have you ever had really lovely (negative) feedback like this?

my standard start to the day in winter - an orange eaten over the sink

This week I am doing nothing except the basics because I want to research and decide on my city tours in NYC and Charlotte so I can put the poor Mandys and Deanna at ease with my plans :) Well, that and party planning.

(I need to start getting sorted because I had a nightmare where I arrived at OR Tambo and I couldn't find my passport or any flight info, and then another nightmare this week where I ran into a colleague while waiting to board and realised I didn't have my camera!!! This dreaming is always a sign that I'm not dealing with things in my life )

My goals for the week

1. newsletter and blogs
2. set july goals
3. blog review post
4. email 15 bloggers I've targeted to do a giveaway for me
5. charlotte city tour - decide
6. nyc city tour & other must dos - decide

What's on your list for the week?
Which is your favourite pic?

PS I'm sporting dark blue fingernails - went to have a manicure/ facial/ head massage yesterday.
PPS all pics taken with my Sony Cybershot - it still lives in my handbag