Harassed Mom

Cat: What would be your perfect holiday. Dream big! Do not old back for one second.

I would love to watch the Masai Mara migration in Kenya. So my ideal holiday would be spending two weeks at a game lodge in Kenya watching the migration from a hot air balloon and then spending two weeks in Mozambique doing pretty much nothing 

Mom again @ 40: Why do you blog? It’s cheaper than therapy and is almost like an addiction. I originally started a photo a day blog – which I suck at! Then it developed into a place for me to vent about my divorce and being single and from there it really has turned into a bit of a daily therapy session with my readers as the shrink offering advise, help and support.

Tanya: What annoys u most about dave? (U may not say ‘nothing’ !!) This really was a tough one but the biggest thing right now is that he pushes me very hard to do things I should have probably done years ago but have been too lazy/scared to do. We are busy working on something now and he is relentless which I suppose one day I will appreciate :-p but now its annoying!

Sally: what is the one thing you wish you could have for your new house, something outrageous and grand that would make you smile just looking at it? I had to think about this especially since our house is so full of stuff that I cant actually picture anything. Maybe a new kitchen? I love my kitchen as it is but its old and could do with a make over.
If you could eat anything right now what would it be? Lots and lots of sushi – LOTS!
When are you guys coming to visit us in Cape Town? HA! I would love to say December! I had such an amazing time with Davids family there last year over Christmas and would love to spend it with them again this year but not sure that it will be possible this year. But hopefully sometime next year we can make a plan to come down!

Julia: Would you get married again? Yes! How about more kids? Yes!
What do you hope to do with your Comm Science degree? I am honestly not 100% sure. I jump from this to that depending on what subject I am doing at the time. My hope is that it opens more creative doors for me.
Exactly what do you see yourself doing and where would you love to work? I would love to work for an NGO doing practical work in the field, helping people, raising money.
You mentioned about a Divorce Course that you sent your kids on some time ago. How did that go? It went ok. The kids had fun every Sunday they went.
Was it worth sending them? I am not sure. I had already been separated 3 years when I sent them so it was almost a delayed reaction. Maybe I would have seen more value had they gone earlier on.
Would you recommend divorced parents sending their kids to something similar? Yes. If nothing else, these courses let them know that they are not alone!
What do you think about plastic surgery and tattoos? I don’t like either. The only plastic surgery I would consider is reconstructive on the ugly scars I have on my hip. Tattoos aren’t my thing either – I change my my so often that chances are as soon as they start with something I will change my mind!
Would you move to Cape Town permanently? Maybe. Davids family is there and my family will soon all be there so there is a pull but I love Gauteng. I love the bush more than I do the sea so up here I am closer to the parks but I am not closed to the idea.

Blackhuff: It seems that you have a very busy life with attending events, lunches, working, a mother to children, a partner to a man. How do you do it all? With a bottle of wine  And lots of help! Seriously though, I don’t stress myself about getting it all right all the time. I do what I can and some days the kids get the short end, some days David does.
How do you handle the stress revolving such a busy lifestyle and where do you get the time to do it all? More wine :-p There is always time, you just need to work it all out. But I also am now seeing huge value in what Angels and Neels do by taking a weekend off a month where they stay at home. Sometimes it does all just get too much.

Alida: What is it that really grates you and gets you irritated/angry/annoyed? Lots and lots annoys me :-p I get angry when people aren’t treated right (a morning at the maintence court gets me very angry), I get annoyed with stupid phone calls! I HATE it when you are standing in line to ask for help and the cashiers/clerks start a fat chat amongst themselves ignoring all the people in the line!

Barb: What are you reading at the moment? Spud – The Madness Continues
What is your favourite book and why? Up until I read Spud it was “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” – it is a beautiful written book! But now I have to say that Spud may just top that! And The Charming Man by Marian Keyes really hit home hard for me so that is also one of my favourites.
Do you prefer books or movies? Tough one! I love action movies but don’t enjoy reading action stories. I can’t watch love/real life type stories but I love reading them – Marian Keyes type books. So it depends. I have yet to see a movie of a book I have read that has been better than the book!

• Having lunch with blogging friends during the week is very cool! I met Cat from The Juggling Act this week. She is super awesome.
• Spending a few hours at the maintenance court is exhausting!
• Starflower oil capsules make a HUGE difference to PMS! Thanks Barb!
• Kiara suddenly grew (about 25 cm) and all her winter pjs now look like summer tops! It literally happened over night!
• It takes 15 minutes to get to the kids school no matter what time we leave.
• The fine on our DVDs is more than they actually cost to hire!
• Emailing my friends during the day makes the days bearable.
• For all the Pretoria East people – Waterkloof Primary recycles everything – paper, plastic, glass and tins. They open the field every Wednesday morning between 7 – 8. So if you live in the area drop your recycling off there!
• I am super lucky to have the man I do. There actually are no words to express what I feel for him.
• Dinner at moms house is pretty cool.
• You can buy a curry tree herb and it smells just like a pot of curry. It is stunning. My kitchen now smells like curry.
• I need new underwear.
• A cup of coffee makes it all so much better!

Having a slight case of bloggers block at the moment. I think its because I am so exhausted at the moment No real idea why but I wake up exhausted.

So I am handing the blog over to you guys today!

You ask me whatever you want and I will answer!

It’s bound to happen that the Brett Kebble murder trial is going to creep into a blog post or two so I am getting mine in early!

What bugs me the MOST about this case is not the fact that he was murdered or that they are calling it an assisted suicide or the fact that we have assasins in this country or that their are gangsters.

Those things bug me but the fact that Michael Schultz – the man who killed Brett Kebble. The man who was PAID money to kill him walks into court holding hands with his wife/girlfriend.

I love David and I could forgive him many things – intentionally killing someone for financial gain – nope not going to happen! EVER! Nothing justifies what they did. I honestly do not know how she can actually justify standing next to him.

I look at the pictures of the two of them with utter confusion and disgust really.

If you read the link I posted above by his own admission Schultz went back THREE times to try and kill Kebble. He had THREE chances to walk away and not do it but he went back and he shot and killed a man. It doesn’t matter that he was a bad man who did questionable things. He was another human being and despite many people thinking otherwise – we do not get to decide who lives and dies.

It bothers me that this women condones this behaviour by standing by him. I know I am judging her but honestly I can not possible think of how she justifies this in her mind.

A child is abducted.

She comes from a neglected home. Her mom is a drug addict and a drunk.

You find the child with a new family, they abducted her as they had lost their daughter and felt they could supply the little girl with a happy, stable, secure home.

You have a choice

• You turn the couple in for abducting the child, the child will then be placed back with her mother.

• You walk away, leaving the child with the new family. What do you choose?

Jezze is another free-lance illustrator from Cape Town.

She has always had a fascination with patterns on textiles, cloth and ceramics.

“I remember as a child drifting off to sleep while picking out faces in the floral patterns of my bedroom curtains.”

All her fabrics are sourced in Cape Town from cotton mills or local flea markets and she tries to avoid ordering large amounts of one thing, this also ensures her ranges are limited and unique.

My favourite items are these notebook covers

And this stunning bag.

Jezze has a blog of her products and can be found on etsy

I was tagged last week by Tanya to post whats next to my bed!

So here it is. We got given these bedside tables by my parents when we moved. I don’t love them but for now they are fine! They actually were from a bedroom set my parents bought when they moved into their first house about 29 years ago – they only recently got rid of the matching dressing table!

Anyhoo – whats on it?

• The book I am reading – Between Two Eternities
• My daily vitamins – collagen and starflower oil
• A hook thing for Kiaras room (which I have since hung up)
• My glasses case (and I am sure my glasses are somewhere there)
• The best cream in the world – Clicks no name hand cream
• A mozzie killer thing
• The lamp
• At the bottom is an empty tupperware container (which I have since moved)
• A note pad
• A black permanent marker
• The booklet from my phone (no idea how it got there or why)
• And the thing at the back is one of those plastic things you bind paper with.

Today has been AWESOME!

• I have downed half a bottle of rescue tablets.
• My kids were supposed to be fetched from my office at 12h00.
• They were collected at 13h40.
• I had no food for them here.
• I borrowed change and they had big corn bites for lunch.
• Cameron got bored.
• He then crossed over to the deepest darkest pits of hell.
• Christel understood.
• After chasing him around our car park for 20 minutes I gave up.
• He sat on the stairs of our office building looking like a street urchin.
• I sat at my desk and had a small cry.
• Kiara made a pirate hat and a treasure map.
• For some reason I felt guilty.
• Christel made me laugh.
• I had 2 packets of chips.

This my readers, is how you spend a Friday, the last day of the week!

• Good after cares are a god send to working parents.
• Having a domestic helper is awesome but it can also be an added responsibility with added issues.
• I am loving blogging again. I have blog posts falling out of my ears at the moment. • I want a baby more than I realised but I know the time is not right now. What will be will be.
• Maintenance court is no longer as scary as it used to be. I almost feel comfortable going there now.
• My mother and I are able to have long conversations on the phone where we laugh and talk about things. It’s pretty awesome.
• Managing a household, two kids, a boyfriend, a domestic and a bird is a lot of work and I am taking a little bit of strain trying to figure it all out.
• I love studying law. I have completed both my assignments for my law subject this semester and hope there is another law subject I can take next year.
• Trying to do your month end grocery shop at 16h00 on a week day with 2 kids is really not so smart!
• It is quite possible to survive without DSTV.
• It is not possible, however, to survive without internet! Cameron has actually complained more about our lack of connection to the world wide web than the loss of DSTV.
• Our plastic recycling bucket fulls up faster than any of the others – even the paper.

Last night’s dinner was disastrous!

I had a picture in my head of how it would work but it just didn’t turn out like that *sigh*

It wasn’t inedible but noone was asking for seconds.

I did discover that if you accidently forget about fishfingers in the oven – the don’t burn – they disintegrate!

While I am devastated about the whole thing I realise that even the most domesticated of domestic goddess have a bad day.

I do, however, have a few questions for you all.

• How many loads of washing do you do a day/week? I am doing minimum one a day. Some days there are two. All I seem to do is put washing in, take it out, fold it, pack it away.
• HOW do you cook rice? We had a rice cooker at my moms place and it is the best thing that was ever invented but we haven’t gotten one yet. So week one I managed to cook the most perfect rice but this week I have consistently made porridge :-/
• You know those black/white polystyrene tray things that meat comes in or you get fresh fruit and veg sometimes packed in them or cupcakes? Can you recycle them? I was throwing them away but we have alot – especially with the stuff form the market and so now I am washing them and keeping them – for what I am not sure but I can’t bring myself to throw them away anymore.

Tonights meal has already been cooked (we have soccer until 17h30), the washing has been hung up, the house is relatively neat – the domestic goddess is coming back stronger than before :-p