{Wordless Wednesday} T's party

A few weeks ago we went to a party - one of Connor's classmates.

It was fabulous.

They had C.lamber Cl.ub there with people to boss the kids around and make them move, so all the parents needed to do was eat, drink and relax :)

Divine!

 I should send the mother a present too!

My children are still a bit too attached to us at parties (D actually) so we had a talk to them and said if they don't want to go play, we're going to start declining the invites since the point of a party is to celebrate with the birthday child.

We have one on Saturday so we'll remind them and see if this has sunk in...

this is also divine... for me.

Connor, random child, Kendra

the cake was delicious!

but I didn't allow the kids to eat all the sugar decorations

birthday girl's feet on the right

my two "just look at the camera"

of course these are the shots I love, the sneaky shots! Isn't that ring gorgeous?!

Connor pinching me!

I love the reflection in the mother's sunglasses!

Two questions today -

did you notice a type of photo I never usually take? Which is your favourite?

Just a little help

So remember Mondays are bad, very bad.

D told me I'd tossed and turned in my sleep Sunday night.

And indeed, my subconscious knew.

I had to send him an email asking for something which annoyed him and so we had a bad meeting.

I held it together but then, as you know, afterwards I cried for an hour.

And ran to the loo a couple of times (TMI).

That's when I decided I need some help.

I have an appt with my doctor tomorrow morning but last night after work, in the pouring rain with two kids asking me why I was so late (so my boss will get off my case, babies), we went to buy some Cal.mettes.

Two were taken today.

Today's meeting was okay. I never feel anything but numb even when anything mildly positive is said about my work... but a few positive things were said.

Afterwards ran into a friend. She heard something that, if true, will alleviate some pressure in the short-term for me but make things bad for her - I hope to give you more news within the next week.

Anyway, help. Tomorrow.

I've also been on the phone with a real friend for an hour now. Glorious. We've spoken about work and such and I have some perspective.

How's your week been?

{Create} Washi tape Christmas cards

Laura tagged me on Facebook the other day. When I clicked through I saw these super easy cards. 

Now something you don't know is that my Connor LOVES to gather branches. He's always bringing me branches and in fact, my step outside the front door has a whole stack  he's brought home :)

Very sweet boy when he's not acting like Four.

I needed to cook and the kids were being a bit rambunctious. Suddenly I remembered that thing and within a minute, we were creating.

I did one and then I told them to make their own ones too.

They're so easy we'll definitely be making more.

A craft with 3 supplies is a winner!

I don't believe in complicating life but if you want to distract your children and you have some cardboard and washi tape lying around, let them have at it.

The craft will work with any washi tape - it doesn't have to be "Christmas" colours. I plan to make cute ones in all colours!

Thank goodness I put down those packs of cards at Cli.cks :)

What do you think?

Too rustic for you? Or do you like them?

I think the imperfection is part of the charm.

Letting go

Earlier this week Jeanette asked me a question in an email.

Why don't you want to leave?

And I started replying and then I realised....

OH MY HAT. I don't know why anymore.

I do still love the company but I'm starting to feel like something Dr Phil once said (oh how I miss watching Dr Phil - is he still on the free TV because we have nothing that one would pay for) about women leaving relationships.

"Is it him, or is it the IDEA of him?"

Hmmm.

So I've been pondering this too.

Do I really love the company, or is it the idea of the company?

And I'm really starting to get the sense that I should not be as attached to the place as I am. Objectively I do realise (as some of you have pointed out to me) that no one should be this unhappy

Still, every time I picture myself leaving for the last time, I just start sobbing.

I had a chat with a colleague about parenting and what-not on Thursday and we were saying how we're both bad at letting go with our kids, and that's when it hit me -

Maybe all this stuff that's happening is to help me to let go?

2008 - the end of which was my previous "worst year"

I hope you're having a fabulous weekend. I've been trawling job sites for about 3 hours this evening and there's nothing suitable, so I ate a Cadbury's Fruit and Nut slab, and now I'm going to go read my Cathy Kelly!

What are you up to?

{Friendship Friday} The drop-in visitor

I read two posts on incourage about how some people love to drop-in on their friends, some hate it and some like a bit of warning first.

Where I grew up, there was a fair amount of dropping in happening from family. I can't remember my mother saying one way or the other if she enjoyed it or not. Now I think she enjoys it but that's because it's mostly her sisters who do the dropping in thing.

I am far more outgoing than my mother so I really don't mind unless I had something specific planned. I do like about 5 minutes' notice as you're driving to my house so I can put on some lipstick first (lipstick is the thing I must have on the imaginary desert island).

I also have the type of personality that doesn't mind saying, "how lovely but I must tell you, we need to go do grocery shopping/ I'm busy cleaning but please come sit in the kitchen/ I was just about to jump in the shower - give me 20 minutes"

And I think that's the key.

If you read the comments on those two posts I linked to above, you'll see a lot of people who feel resentful but don't want to set a boundary.

Back to me.

I never, ever drop in on people. I have done impromptu dates (Caren springs to mind where I sent her a text/ email a few hours before to say we were going to be in the area and would she be up to meeting up for a quick lunch - she was!) but not the drop-in.

It's partly a function of distance (everyone is so darn far away that it's quite impractical not to phone and check first) and overscheduling (I've spoken before about how people in Jhb seem to be "booked up" for months in advance).

I have one (ONE!) friend who has said to me to just "drop in when you're in the area". I'm the type who is never "just in the area" :) Another friend (3am) wouldn't mind but they also live about 20 - 25 mins away so there's no dropping in happening anytime soon.

We dropped in ONCE on my MIL (interestingly, it was after the 2nd HCG test after we were pregnant with the twins). We went for the bloods, went to do another errand closer to her home and then phoned her to check if she was in first, and then popped over for tea. Very civilised.

Are you the type who loves people dropping in, or do you hate it?

Do you drop in on your friends or family?

Then, some random photos.

these pillows are the best baby gift we received - we've used it for 4+ years now. I should haul out some of my terrible early day photos to show you in a "looking back" post

i love coriander. Especially this one.

taken last month sometime

Horwoods Farm Photoshoot - my photos

To the mothers of 4-year-olds out there... go read your 4-year-old, wild and wonderful. In fact, now that I enjoyed that one so much, I'm going to get the other books every year.

Some of the reviews talk a lot about it feeling dated. I didn't even sense that at all (that may be a function of how old-fashioned I am - I call it having "traditional" values :)). I just really liked knowing what was normal for a 4-year-old.

Now when the kids are acting crazy (the definition of crazy differs about 3 times a day), I just tell D, "oh that's normal behaviour for Four". Needless to say, he's finding me particularly annoying at the moment.

Anyhow, get the book and read it! There's also a great section about toys and books for this age.

So that day we went for our photoshoot, I took pics of the kids too. I'm always amazed afterwards when there are actually some nice photos because it feels like I'm saying the same thing "LOOK AT ME!!! NO FUNNY FACES" a million times.

genuine scared face!

cute tummy peeking out and a plaster on the knee = authentic four!

again, genuine fear! See D's t-shirt :)

Do you have a favourite?

PS Mrs FF is so organised; her baby had a photoshoot at less than two weeks old (I know this is kind-of normal for a lot of you - I'm in awe since I didn't get my A into G til 4.5 months).

Wordless Wednesday - jacarandas in the rain

For those who are bored by the jacarandas, sorry!

Clearly I made a really good effort this year :)

These were taken one night after gym. It had rained so the light was GORGEOUS!

this is a favourite photo!

on the top of the car

I feel like a mashed banana

 

I've been missing in action for a few days.

Things are really, really, really bad around here.

I don't want to say too much because I start crying and I'm tired of crying. I cried for 2 hours today.

There was this exercise we did once in a group session as an icebreaker.

If you had to imagine yourself as a fruit, what would you be?

One lady said, "I feel like a mashed banana - all bruised and battered and with some of the fruit poking out of the skin".

Powerful image.

That's what I feel like today.

PS at the time, i said I felt like a Granny Smith apple - firm, tart and yet sweet. Hmmm.

Some more jacarandas and holidays!

Daisy, these photos of the jacarandas are just for you :)

I know you've all seen this recently but I love it, okay?

view onto the M1 and look - jacarandas!

the sky was really that blue

another cool photo I like - there are 40 handles (?) on each side of this table - ginormous!

So let's talk about holidays and leave. I said to a colleague the other day "only 6 weeks til you go on leave" and she said "that's still too long". We're only going away in January so it's two months for me!

Are you taking leave in Dec/ Jan? Going away? Staycationing?