Square peg in a round hole

Do you also do this?

Read a comment somewhere, find it interesting, click, click, click and before you know it, you're trawling the person's archives?

That's how I found this fantastic post about how Joburg stole her work-life balance.

This is exactly how I feel about the consumerism in Joburg.

I feel like a fish out of water sometimes because I don't buy into buying the biggest and best cars (I also am a bit "green"), buying new houses just because, wearing the latest clothes,having the latest accessories, etc, etc.

And it seems everyone else is!

Tamara also wrote this in her post:

In fact, if you're not busy in Joburg, people might think there's something wrong with you. Busyness and stress are worn as badges of honour here.

Again, absolutely true.

I don't like busy and I LOVE work-life balance. When I say things to this effect in meetings or casual conversations, people look at me like I'm crazy.

What? You mean you PURPOSELY design your life and weekends?

Oh yes I do!

I love simplicity and

I wonder sometimes if it's because I'm originally from the coast?

Or maybe I'm just different from the majority of people?

My new website is going to reflect the new me. Actually it's not a new me, it's just bringing that part of me to the fore.

Yes, it will annoy people and they will unsubscribe but at least the right people will know immediately that I am for them and they are for me.

Anyway....

Is there any place in your life (not just literally) where you feel like a square peg in a round hole?

Share :)

(I can't get no) Satisfaction

I recently bought Jennifer Louden's Satisfaction Finder because I have some problems with "enough" in my life :)

I feel like I can't just BE and always need to be doing more, more, MORE, so when this popped into my email box, I thought great! And bought it.

Problem is... whenever I start working through the ebook or reading the satisfaction emails, this darn song keeps going through my head.

:)


P.S. It is FREEZING COLD in Johannesburg and I'm loving it. When I went to work it was 9 degrees and when I came home it was 12,5 degrees. LOVELY!!!

D and I call weather like this "Irish weather" LOL


P.P.S. To my US friends, Happy Memorial Day.

Goosebumps

Last Thursday I had a really weird feeling all morning.

A feeling like someone might try and break into our house and do something to V or the kids.

I phoned home twice, both times to explain to V exactly where the panic buttons were (somehow we'd never covered that part before) in the case of any emergency so that the armed response company would pitch.

Fortunately, Nanny V is very patient with me :)

(By the way, this is standard fare for Johannesburg - everyone is security-conscious and we all pay a company a fee every month - ours is currently R385/ $53)

Anyway, the feeling didn't really go, but eventually one has to relinquish control so I prayed and that was it.

Nothing happened and I totally forgot about it.

Then on Sunday I sent a text to my friend, Natalie, asking about baby D and how was she doing otherwise?

Well, I had the biggest shock EVER when I read the return message.

They were fine BUT people had broken into their house on Thursday morning, taken everything - car, TV, jewellery, etc - and locked the maid in the bathroom.

It was HER that I was supposed to pray for.

Natalie and baby D had just gone for a walk when this whole thing went down and I'm so thankful for that because who knows what might have happened. As I said to her, she's looking particularly gorgeous these days :)

I am convinced that she and baby D are safe because God was looking out for them.

When I shared the story of Thursday with her, she said she had goosebumps.

Yes, it's inconvenient and a whole lot of insurance schlep but they are SAFE!

Praise God!

In a not-so-strange twist, when I bled at 26 weeks, I was freaking out, big time. Suddenly the next day I had Total Peace about the babies. Well, Natalie visited me that day while I was on (my version of) bed rest and told me that her cell group had prayed for me the previous evening that I'd have peace. I was SO touched!

I love stuff like this!

P.S. This is my post for Steadymom's challenge

I can't believe I said that

A friend phoned me at work the other day to ask me about The Notebook.

Turns out there's a lady in her complex* who's also expecting twins (boy/ girl) soon and she wants to make her one.

First of all, I said, "don't bother doing a nice one - you go through them so fast and with everybody writing in the same book, it's a mess anyway" (do you have ANY idea how far I've come with my natural perfectionistic tendencies around that notebook?!) and then I got to asking her more about her friend.

She's 23................

Well, do you know what I said, "shame! poor thing"

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and then I caught myself and added, "it's VERY young to be coping with twins". LOL

I told Nanny Viola the story when I got home and she was HORRIFIED :) (she loves these babies and doesn't think a single bad thing about them - when I say "so-and-so's being very naughty", she'll say, "oh, he's just hungry" or "she's just frustrated" - too cute!)

today, around 1:30 (yes, we were late!)

We went to our friends for lunch today - thank goodness because we were CRAVING warm food (and I was also dying for a mug of tea)...more on that later

So we met the pregnant girl who was just delightful.

She told me she's planning to work until 35 weeks (currently 31 weeks) and when she saw my face, asked when I stopped work. I told her that I'd planned to stop at 32 weeks and the babies came early when my waters broke.

She did tell me her gynae also said to stop working at 32 weeks...but the age old thing, she's trying to have as much maternity leave with the babies as possible.

I tried hard not to scare her but instead to keep it honest and real. She said that she really appreciated it because she doesn't know anyone with twins and everyone is being so laidback about it. Everyone being parents of singletons. I think it's the twin romance thing.

I gave her my business card and told me to email me ANYTIME because sometimes you just need to talk to a fellow twin mom :)

It's always interesting to see people's reactions to my babies because C is so much bigger than K. But you know what she said? How lovely that he's such a nice big brother to his sister. Sweet!

coming home

Two other things
Complexes

The number 1 problem in Johannesburg is violent crime. Unfortunate but true. So that's why D harped on about electric fencing at the new house. Security companies make a fortune here selling all sorts of things - armed response, electric fencing, motion detectors, panic buttons, etc, etc. - all to help us feel safer.

As a result, some people (I'm not one of them as I have access to lots of crime stats from my work and the truth is that people are subjected to crime all over Jhb, sometimes more so in the higher income areas) feel that living in a townhouse complex * is the best thing to do as security is generally tighter (there are a lot more security guards, people can only gain access using their remote control, etc, etc).

Power failures

Oh my word! Yesterday (Good Friday) our power was out from 12 midnight to 9:30 am - I didn't think it was too bad since I generally prepare bottles until 10 am the following day for precisely this reason and I gave the babies fruit and yoghurt for breakfast.

But today? 8:15 it all shuts off and I couldn't even get through on the phone to City Power to find out when it would be restored. I had to ration the poor babies and fed them everything in the house I could find (Purity teething biscuits, apples, bread with cottage cheese, fruit and yoghurt), all to avoid foods that needed heating. Fortunately I'd also made the 2pm bottles.

I could only have muesli and yoghurt for breakfast, no hot cup of tea, so I could not WAIT to get to our friends' place for some hot food and to make my dessert. The food didn't disappoint and I had TWO cups of tea, just in case :)

So tonight I really hope we won't have a power outage again. I am DONE with "camping" but just in case, I've prepared bottles for the whole day tomorrow, until midnight! And the minute I press publish post, I'll be boiling the kettle and filling my thermos flask :)


Top Mommy Blogger?

Extreme Joburg weather

Just to show you that we 'enjoy" extreme weather here in Joburg.

This was November 16 after they'd been for their 14-week (?) vaccinations. I can't keep track. Brain is mush.

look at her little bum in the air - too cute

And this is November 17.

It suddenly got bitterly cold. I wore jerseys I'd been wearing while pregnant which are still not packed away. I can't believe my tummy was that big!

Saffy is used to 15 degree weather in the summer in NZ but here in SA we're sooo not used to it.

Kendra

and then these were taken two weeks earlier, also on a cold Joburg day.

Connor - his hands were BLUE from the cold

P.S. No, I didn't knit those. Just the thought of knitting makes me twitch. A lady who used to volunteer with my MIL did them for the baby - she doesn't even know us.