Straight from the heart...

 In no uncertain terms, Jake knows the way to my heart.  He knows how to soften me up when he's in trouble and he knows how to make me feel better when I'm sad.  He is so sensitive to me.  He is precious beyond all understanding (those of you with kids of your own will know what I mean) and I would do anything for him.

He loves sleeping in my bed with me and we have it that on Sunday nights, I go to bed with him (at 7pm).  We read stories and then he rolls over and goes to sleep and I carry on reading.  I love my early night with him.  Sometimes, he manages to get it right that he's allowed to sleep in my bed on Wednesday nights too.  He always thinks it's such a big treat, but it's as much of a treat for him as it is for me.  Last night, after story time and while he was supposed to be going to sleep, I walked in to find him making the hearts on my side of the sheets.  He can have anything he wants today, my heart has melted into gooey chocolate.

On a sombre note, today would've been Jacques' 34th birthday.  It's still such a surreal thought that he's not here to celebrate it with us and we are all remembering happy times gone by.  I was chatting to my sister (Jo) earlier and we were having a bit of a giggle, wondering how grey Jacques would've been by now.  How many wrinkles he would've had.  Whether his belly would've grown.  I know how much my body has changed and how many wrinkles I now have! Where would we be; what path would we have followed?  Anyway, like all these tough days, today will pass and I am already looking forward to snuggling into my bed and leaving this day behind me for another year.  Funny how life can be so happy in between and then days like today surprise you and leave you feeling so drained.

Sending lots of love and thoughts to my entire family, I know this is a difficult day for everyone, especially Jacques' folks.  And to Danie who puts up with all my nonsence: thank you all for loving me so unconditionally.

Sue X

All good intentions...

 I have been trying to be a bit better about keeping my camera handy so that I can take more photos and be better about blogging.  I had intentions and posts planned to do through the week gone by, but just haven't gotten there.  Anyway, before the pictures become outdated, I decided to share them here and promise to take more over the weekend, hopefully meaning you'll hear more from me sooner rather than later.

Spring is supposed to be here, but the weather is anything but. Today it is overcast and drizzly, not the ideal start to the weekend.  It's hard to believe that it's just a few weeks till summer's officially here and I just hope it warms up a bit more soon.  That said, the free water is good for the garden and it's nice to know that our dams are getting a little boost before the dry season starts.

One plus of summer time is watermelons.  Jake loves them and he was so excited when I came home with one recently, that he made me cut it open immediately, so that he could have some.  He could seriously have eaten the whole thing if I didn't stop him...

 Beautiful little Bianca continues to grow and learn.  She's such a happy, content little girl, with lots of squishy rolly bits.  Her and Connor are at my mom and dad during the week now, so we are lucky enough to see them almost daily.  This morning she was waving at Jake (possibly a first for her!) and she is trying her hardest to crawl.  She gets her feet under herself and her little bum goes into the air - it's just a matter of time!  She's a dream at nap time, she gets a little niggly, but never cries and she gets wrapped up and put down and that's it.  Total little angel...

 I was lucky enough to get a day off work this week.  Jake had a school outing to Kirstenbosch Gardens and I was picked to help with lifts.  The four kids who drove through with me were my group to take around and find various things with and it was nice to wander around, exploring with them.  Jake absolutely loves the gardens and I must make more of an effort to get him through there more often.  These pictures are from the African Sculpture Garden.  All sculptures are for sale...

 The kids each had to draw pictures of the things we found along the way.  There's Jake, Andisa and Angelina...

 Next stop was Cnl Bird's Bath, which overflows to a little stream with stepping stones.  This is the prettiest part of the garden, in my opinion and the kids loved getting out of the sun (it looked like it was going to pour with rain in the morning, but then cleared and we got a little sun burnt) and having a few moments to play in the water...

 Jake especially loves looking for tadpoles here and was very upset that he wasn't allowed to take any home with him.  The girls were happy to watch and squeal when the boys caught anything...

 My four little monsters.  Oh, these kids taught Jake the 'F-word' in the car on the way through.  Jake knew that there was an 'F-word', but he's never known what it is.  I was horrified, to say the very least, but have explained to Jake that he may NOT speak like that, that it's unacceptable and he seems to have taken the seriousness of it all very seriously.  For now...

 A pretty protea...

 Looking for crabs/tadpoles in the Otter Pond...

 Drawing pictures in the Fragrance Garden.  The kids are encouraged to pick leaves and rub them to release various scents...

 The outing ended off with us all sitting in the sun waiting for various groups to finish.  The kids ran around and ended up at the river (just beyond the bench - there were other moms there, watching), looking for tadpoles again...

 this is Jake's whole class at the end of the outing.  We probably should've taken the class photo at the beginning of the tour, they were all pretty grumpy and tired after the long walk in the hot sun...

 Other than that, we had this pretty little bloom open in our garden this week, so it was worthy of a photo.  I'm busy getting plans drawn up to do some landscaping in my garden, which is in an embarrassing state at the moment...

 More of the buds have opened and it does have a second little stem with a few buds on it too, so very exciting for us...

Even more exciting is that the little blossoms belong to this...

 Many of you will remember the story of Jake wanting a 'Penis' Fly Trap for Christmas when he was 3.  He did get one and it lasted quite a while, but this one was a birthday present from one of Jake's friends.  That means it's survived nearly 7 months in our house.  It's actually on our stoep and seems to be doing really well.  Perhaps that's because it's actually referred to by its correct name these days..

"When you pray for others, God listens to you and blesses

them, and sometimes, when you are safe and happy, 

remember that someone has prayed for you!"

Enjoy your weekend!!

Much love,
Susan XXX

Halloween...

Halloween always comes as a bit of a non-event for us.  We have many family members and friends who celebrate to the extreme, but it wasn't a "holiday" we grew up celebrating and so I normally forget about it until it actually arrives.  Rosanne was the only one out of the 3 of us that ever went trick or treating and I think she was quite big already when she did go.  Obviously, though, there is much chatter about it at school, so Jake is very much aware of it.  And for him the celebration isn't about celebrating the unliving and evil, it's a celebration of getting a whole bunch of free sweets from people he knows.  He did put on a mask (it wasn't very scary) and a cape and I did take him to go knock on a few doors.  He is just so thrilled to have a bag full of treats for himself!

Another plus of there being a Halloween is that my aunt has a Halloween street braai for the kids.  it happened on Friday night and was as good as ever.  She normally does something for Easter/Christmas/Halloween and it's always a lovely evening.  We all bring our own meat, drinks and a salad and pull up braai's and chairs on the pavement.  Some of the kids dress up and they all bring their bikes.  A section of the street gets cordoned off so that the kids can ride in the road safely.  They play hide and seek and run around like mad things till late and just have some good old fashioned fun (see my post below).  Of course, these parties aren't just for the kids...

This is my mom (with the red nose) and her sister, my Auntie Christine...

My auntie chooses a few friends in the area, who she leaves sweets with so that the kids can go "trick or treating" (see, more adults than kids)...

 There's Connor (aka Corky) at the back in blue.  This was the first house they visited and Connor wasn't that keen until he realised that they were giving away free sweets...

 At the next house, he was right in front with Jake.  Oh and my mom and auntie are busy shouting trick or treat there.  Jake wasn't that keen to go to the braai, until I told him that the little witch next to him would be there...

 My mom loves it...

 This cute little witch is 10!  Cougar, I'm watching you.  I'm watching you...

Anyway, it was a good evening out and we all had fun.  We eventually got home and into bed at about 11pm, which meant Jake was an absolute ray of sunshine when he got up at 6:45am on Saturday morning.  As was I...

Sending lots of love,

Sue X

The World Our Kids Live In...

...Isn't the same one that we grew up in.  In fact, it's very different.  And not in a good way. 

Our family home is opposite an open park and when we were young, we were allowed to go play on this open field with our friends.  There were many kids living around the park and we would often meet on the field and play for hours on end.  We'd play hopscotch, hide and seek and ride our bikes.  We'd play soccer and marbles in the street.  And sometimes we'd just have a good laugh at the lone Afrikaans boy who used to offer us his black marble-like sweets from inside his pants (it was before we knew shorts had a pocket on the inside).  We had so much fun until we were called in for supper time. I think our parents only concern was that we would cross the road unsupervised and I can remember standing on the pavement opposite their house with Jo calling "mooooommmmmmyyyyy" until my mother came out and saw us across the road.  Heavens knows what our parents did while we were off adventuring...

Our home is also across the road from a park and Jake seldom goes outside to play unsupervised.  He's getting a little bigger now, so I do need to let him, but in a country where 17  year old girls are kidnapped, raped and murdered (not to mention the babies), there's no such thing as an overprotective parent.  Jake very rarely has friends over to play, most parents work and kids are forced into after school centres.  Many parents aren't comfortable sending their kids off to play at homes where they don't know the parents (I'm one).  And you learn not to take offence when people turn down an invite because they don't know you yet.  Children play inside and its up to the parents to keep them entertained.  They watch more TV than we did and play more TV games.  When we were kids, we only had a couple of hours of programming a day and Tuesdays and Thursdays were Afrikaans programmes, so we skipped those days completely.  It wasn't important to us.

Aside from that, at school, our kids are faced with bullying and bad mannered piers.  Take for example, the boy at school, who hits the girls.  He went as far as to punch one little girl in Jake's class in the nose.  She was devastated.  What boy's parents don't teach him NEVER to raise his hand to a girl?  It's one of the first things Jake learnt.  This same little boy has started bullying Jake a little too.  I'm trying to teach Jake to just walk away, but he wants to pulverise the guy and I'm not sure that I blame him.  At some point he has to stand up for himself.

Jake does enjoy school though and has sweet stories to share every day.  Like this morning, he told us about the boy who took the little girl in their class flowers, because he loves her and that's what boys do when they love a girl.  This is the same little girl who was blowing Jake kisses last week and telling Jake she loves him.  Her affections have changed though, it's amazing what a bunch of flowers can do...


I think the most important thing that we can give our children is love.  We need to protect them and keep them safe.  We want to give a sheltered and loving home, with as many happy childhood memories as we possibly can.  It's why I love to travel and see the world with Jake.  It's why I love doing special things with him.  Hopefully one day he'll look back on our short time together and remember that we had so much fun together!!

On a cheery note, yesterday morning, Jake and I took things a bit slow.  We were awake a little earlier than usual, so climbed back into bed to read stories, each with a cup of warm coffee.  Jake's comment: "sweet coffee is like getting a nice cuddle".  Too true.

Hope you all have a fab weekend.

Lots of love,
Sue X

The week gone by...

 Jake's school had a show of their work this week.  It was great to get in and see Jake with some of the things he has made.  Above is him showing me how the games work in the computer room.  The games are brilliant, educational and yet fun.  They are even learning how to type, holding their fingers on the right keys.  Jake loves it.

Outside each classroom, they have a display of the kids' artwork.  On the right is a flower Jake drew, complete with bugs.  On the left, just above the Century City sign is a drawing of our house.

We've also used this week to get our veggie patch going again.  We're a bit late, so decided to go for seedlings this year, rather than planting seeds from scratch.  The pathways are a little wonky, but hey, they do their job...

 Aubergines...

 Connor's learning to enjoy the garden too.  Jake always says: "come see my garden".  Connor's cottoned on to this and instead of calling it "Jake's garden", he calls it "my garden".  Fingers crossed we can get another budding young gardener going this year...

 We bought these nifty little stands for our beans.  As the beans grow, you can add on extras to make it taller and taller...

 We're trying them out with our tomatoes too...

 Jake with his granadilla bush.  It's growing like a weed and is so full of flowers, fingers crossed for a good harvest...

 And with his Avo tree that's taken off so well...

 lettuces, onions, flowers, corn, marrows, herbs...

 Corn...

 The spinach has been in for a while, we want to make creamed spinach for Christmas...

 Baby Marrows...

 For the first time this year, we found Brussel Sprouts, so quite excited to see how they grow...

 One of the granadilla blossoms...

  A view from the other end of the garden...

 Enjoy the weekend1

Love Sue X

A trip down memory lane...

We finally managed to get a battery for Jake's remote control boat on Saturday!  We had one on loan from a friend of Danie's, but gave it back ages ago, so the boat's been standing on the shelf for months.  Much to Jake's disappointment.  We were fortunate enough to be able to go back to play on the dam at Buitenverwachting.

It seems as though the farm has been very busy since we last visited.  Many old vines have been ripped out and replaced with new ones.  I have everything crossed that the new vines wines are just as good as the old ones.  We were there early in the evening, a lovely time of day to snap a few pictures.

I always feel very mixed about going to the farm.  It's always an emotional trip.  It is a very beautiful, very special place that holds so many memories for me.  They are such happy memories, but are tainted with so much sadness.  I find it very hard to share the farm with Jake, knowing what his life would've been life if we were still there.  One thing's for sure, his passion for nature and the great out doors would've been even greater than it is now.  Here he is getting ready to "set sail"...

Jake discovered that riding his super fast boat in a circle, made a whirlpool on the dam.  Truth be told, the boat is way too fast, too advanced and too expensive for Jake.  It makes watching him learn a tad stressful for some of us...

My most precious boy having fun...

It was all fun and games until the battery ran flat while the boat was in the middle of the dam...

Fortunately, the noise of the boat had attracted a few of the farm kids down to see what was happening... 

And one of them offered (in the hopes of a reward) to get in to the cold water to fetch the boat...

Fortunately, there was an old surf board there and he stripped down to his undies and hopped in.  Their biggest fear was that someone had recently died in the dam, which we didn't know about...

Thanks, Justin!  By the way, he did get a reward and a bag of crisps to share with his friends who were too scared to get in...

Laila came with and the boys were quite nervous of her until they saw her doing her tricks.  Who could be scared of this silly girl?

A view of the dam.  Perfection...

Jake made friends with the boys and got them to play with Laila a bit.  He's normally a bit shy, so it was nice to see him just going up to the group and chat...

Yesterday was a glorious day and we spent most of the day outside.  My parents and sister came for a braai and it was such a relaxing end to a lovely weekend.  Jake did a fair bit of fishing and tried desperately to catch himself a duckling. 

These guys must have been fresh out the oven and this poor duck had a brood of 12!!

Jake's catch of the day included about 35 tadpoles.  He's got very strict rules about catch and release, especially tadpoles, because they might just be baby leopard toads...

And that's pretty much our weekend.  It was nice and lazy for a change.  We did go to the Salt River market at the Old Biscuit Mill on Saturday morning.  It was lovely and we all really enjoyed it.  I forgot my camera at home though, so will have to remember to take some pictures next time.

Enjoy your week,
Sue X