Nine on a Monday

I'm running a 5 love languages of children workshop at #thehousewiththeview in Jhb on Sat 19 Nov, and I'd love you to join me if you're local. Space is limited so let me know to book your spot. 💙💗 There's a post up on www.organisingqueen.com about one of the ways I show love to my kids 💗💙 #5lovelanguages

A photo posted by Marcia Francois (@organisingqueen) on Oct 10, 2016 at 11:27pm PDT

1. Remember the stolen laptop? They only started investigating today....5 weeks later. I must admit, I was very irritated and told the guy there really is no point because that laptop is looooong gone. Anyone who's read/ watched crime stories knows the first 48 hours are crucial :)

2. Three lessons left before exams.... my right ankle is starting to give a little bit of trouble. It probably doesn't know what's happened with all the action over the last while....

3. If you're local, I'm holding a 5 Love Languages of Children workshop on Sat 19th Nov at 11:30. Bring a friend/ partner and you each save 10%. R200 per person or R360 per couple. It will be held at my house - hope to see you there.

4. If you're not local or you prefer a private 1:1 Skype/ Facetime/ Whatsapp session, send me an email and I'll hook you up.

5. Tonight Kendra told me while I was practising my dance, "Mummy, you look ready to me". Bless! I love her heart and she knows my love language!

6. I'm doing something quite radical to my kitchen. This decided Friday night and put into action today. Tomorrow it will all be done - I hope it looks how I imagine it in my mind...

7. It's remarkable what some good rain will do. The jacarandas are out, the views are amazing from my house and seeing all that purple just makes me super happy.

8. Oh, did you read about my social media fast? That was (honestly!) one of my favourite weeks this year and if you've never done this intentionally, I thoroughly recommend it. Cassey, I've answered your comment on that post in the comments ;)

9. Dare I talk about money? Money seems to be pouring out. I'm making a list because at least when I look at my list I feel a little more satisfied that things are getting done. But let's face it - most things are super boring things like plumbing and electrical.

Now I want to hear from you.

What are you loving right now? What do you hate/ strongly dislike right now? What do you need?

A few things

Gosh, it's easy when you stop blogging regularly to just stop, isn't it?

I still don't feel bad about it so I'm going with it. But unsurprisingly, I have lots going on in my head, just no inclination to sit down night after night to bang it out on my keyboard.

And the other thing is some of my time's been taken up by phone friend dates, which is the best kind of thing to take you away from blogging.

But, let's do this quickly since it's Goals Night and I've just finished a book, given the kids some hot chocolate, and there's 33 minutes before I need to think properly about supper.



1. I'm working hard, very hard. Partly because that's what I do, and I don't like stuff waiting on me, but also because this house thing is Annoying me with a capital A.

They expect to phone you during peak work hours and get snippy when you tell them you're actually working! Fancy that. I said to two people this last week to please phone after two o'clock because I'm actually at work and my employer is not paying me to sit on the phone with them.

I am tired of speaking to insurance people and getting quotes, but I remind myself that these things are ultimately being done to save us money over the long-term.

So unfortunately, I have to spend some working time on the phone which means I have to crank it out when I'm working, harder and faster, because I still refuse to do very much after-hours work.




2. The house (s)

I'd hoped to hear whether the person who put in an offer on our house had her bond approved, but nothing yet.

We'll have to see next week. Until this house is officially sold, I'm doing my best to not get excited yet.....

As far as the house we've bought, everything is going reasonably well, except for all these people wanting to sell us buildings insurance, life assurance and such. GRRRR.

Every time we buy a property I get cleverer, and so this time I questioned everything, re-quoted on everything and maybe that's also because the sums are bigger, but it does feel as if we're going in with eyes wide, wide open.

On the bright side, the lawyers have left me alone since I paid them a rather astounding amount of money.



3. The kids seem to be in the swing of 2nd term school. However, we will have to have a talk about extra-murals because, for instance, Connor's signed up for soccer. I fetched them this week and I find out that he was "too tired" so didn't do it. However, he was not too tired to run around the field with his friends. Kendra is doing netball but I'm not sure that she's actually doing much there either....

Any of you have kids who do their homework verrrrry slowly? We are only in Grade 1 and already the extreme slowness is driving me batty.

And of course yesterday D and I celebrated 21 years of marriage. The first 14 years were a breeze but since kids, it's hard work, hey? I think we deserve medals :)

10 years ago, in our "youth" - Kuala Lumpur

What's news on your side? How's work, family, your own stuff?


Next up:

1. I really want to talk about ageing, both physically and attitudes in the workplace.
2. I also want to talk about how one pays off a bond in 5 years since I get this question ALL the time, more so now that I say, "oh, our house is paid off", but I'm thinking that's best suited to the OQ blog

A few things on a Monday

1. Well, friends, I said I wouldn't complain about the heat this summer (and it's not even summer yet, or spring for that matter), and I haven't yet.

But it's come close. I mean, 30 degrees on Saturday is glorious on the one hand until the heat headache hits.

Still, please remind me if I start to whinge about the weather because it's still TONS better than that cold winter we had.

2. We had our Fertility Babies supper on Thursday evening.

I had a splitting headache by the time I had to leave so I couldn't even move fast. I had the bright idea to meet Natalie there 30 mins earlier and I couldn't even let her know that I was running late. And then I was even later driving round and round that darn parking lot (both levels) looking for parking. I was 26 minutes late - can you believe it?!

But.... as usual, once I was with my friends, it was SO lovely. Food, company, etc.

3. Okay, so I think I may have a problem.

I had no idea that I come across as so bossy with photos! It was mentioned in Charlotte (*ahem* I'm not saying who...) and I just thought "oh, different cultures" but my friends on Thursday said I was "persistent" which is a very sweet way of saying I wanted the pics I wanted and was not going to be dissuaded!

Are you bossy with photos? Even just a little bit to make me feel better????

BTW, I can't promise I'll change. I get it in my head how I want the shot to look and then I want it as close to that as possible. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

4. The light! The gorgeous summer (almost-spring) light!

Look at my KIDS (not babies anymore) :)

my little girl - Kendra says to me all the time "Mummy, say, where's my little girl?"

And my little mouse. He tells me he's a little mouse and goes "squeak, squeak".

and last but by no means least...

Connor's taking a pic of me taking a pic of him :)

5. I'm working in a construction zone (literally). They are breaking down offices/ walls/ desks all around me. There's a layer of dust everywhere and I would not even be here to work if I didn't have so much to do.

This is setting me back so much because of course the action items are growing as is my email.

I'm also not-so-slightly distracted because I got my emotional intelligence report emailed to me this morning. Nothing bad, per se, but the person in there isn't me. It sounds like a much more wimpy version of me which is a Clear Signal things need to change around here.



Kendra wearing the headband from Jess

I've made my menu plan for all of this week and most of next week. Getting to the stage where I don't want to shop but use up all the food in this house. There is NOTHING I love more than an empty fridge/ freezer and cupboard, ready for a proper shop :) 

How has your weekend/ Monday been?


Anything exciting happening this week?

PS is anyone else watching The Amazing Race?