So, you know that saying that things happen in 3′s… well all 3 (I think) has happened in the last week.  The question is… is it 3 things a week or a year… ‘cos if it’s not for the year then 2012 is going to be one EXPENSIVE year!!

The 3 things that have happened…

1. Lance somehow dislodged the bottle rack in the fridge and it broke in half.  Thankfully, I’ve managed to find a Samsung Service centre close by, and it’s only costing R120 to replace.  I had visions of buying a new fridge when this happened!!

2. On Monday I dropped my beloved iPhone… and smashed the glass.  It was well and truly buggered up.  After initially thinking I would upgrade to a 4S, I quickly changed my tune after discovering how much that would cost, and thanks to #Twoogle, I found 2 places that repair iPhones. I went on Tuesday morning to get it fixed on the way to work… R1550 later though!! And the place I used, Part Store in Honeydew, was R800 cheaper than the 1st place I tried, G Mobile near Northgate!!

3.  Then this morning, Beauty informs me that the vacuum cleaner started smoking yesterday.  Then she told me that she’d tried to clean the bedroom carpet with soap and water, and dropped the bucket and then decided to use the vacuum cleaner to dry the spill. It’s not a Wet/Dry.  She told me that she was “encouraged” when she noticed bubbles in the filter chamber.  She’s blimmen lucky she didn’t get electrocuted considering it was smoking from the cable!! Anyhoo, because of the huskies I needed another very very powerful vacuum cleaner… so R2000 we’re sorted again (I stopped at Makro at lunchtime today)

This has been one expensive week… not counting the school fees and new uniforms I’ve bought in the last week!!

There goes my idea of buying a couch sometime soon!

I’m going to open a bottle of wine tonight I think

The kids’ toys have been bugging me for ages, so I got a bee into my bonnet this afternoon and I’ve just finished cleaning them up and doing a major chuck out.

I was amazed at how much they let me throw out… and in a way it made me sad.

What I did was have 3 piles… one with broken toys to throw in the dustbin… one for toys to donate… and the other the toys to keep.

I then asked the kids to go through the donation pile and move the ones that they still played with to the “keep” pile.  And they went through the “keep” pile and donate the toys that they didn’t play with anymore.  I didn’t get much wrong, although I started being more ruthless when Connor shouted that something needed to go to the donate pile… when it was “too baby-ish… yuk”.

It made me feel really sad to get rid of the last of the Fisher Price toys (the ones for age 2+), and all the brightly coloured cars with chunky tyres.  The only toys Connor wanted to keep were the guns and swords and Bakugans and the Hot Wheels and the meaner looking toys.

My baby is gone

But it’s crazy keeping the toys.  In the end I threw out 2 rubbish bags of broken toys, and then I went to the carwash and gave the ladies a rubbish bag of old toys… and I’m going to give Beauty (my domestic helper) the last bag of old toys for her grandson.

…. and now we’re going to watch a movie.

• My mom‘s carrot cake is the shizz… especially when you get a take-home piece to eat after a long day of photoshoots!
• I noticed a new patch of gray hair this week
• I’m SO looking forward to my boudoir shoot next month.  Quite anxious about being on the other side of the camera, but it will only make me a better photographer
• I would love to get a new house and not have to worry about changing our current place, and I would love to live on a quiet road where the kids can go cycling on the road.
• I have something big I have to do next week, just need to get the courage to do it. Or maybe the following week.
• A big shopping spree would be really appreciated right about now.

I’ve been mulling over this topic for a while, but haven’t managed to get around to blogging about it.

When you get a form that asks how many dependants you have, you’re generally expected to fill in the number of children you have… not right?

Well, I don’t think that’s entirely accurate.

Just think about it, it’s not just your kids that are reliant on your income for survival, is it? Well, it’s definitely not in our case.

To start, our income has to pay for our living expenses including housing and food for ourselves and our children.  So that’s 4 people.  And that’s all we normally think about when we calculate things.  But there’s a load missing from this equation.

We have a full-time domestic working in our house, and she’s the breadwinner in her family (well apart from her one son that now shares the rent with her) and she has 5 dependants… one useless husband who hasn’t worked in 7 years, 2 sons (one of which is now working and the other one is still at school) and one grandson.  In addition, I know that some months she sometimes has to give money to her grandson’s mother who often ends up in shelters because of her circumstances.  So that’s another 6 that we provide for.

Then there’s our gardener who only works for us on Saturdays, so the money we pay him isn’t his sole income, and I know he lives on his own, yet I also know that he sends money home to support family there.

Then there’s Lance’s mom who we also support.

So, our household income actually has to provide for 12 people on a good month.

That’s a lot! But I also know that that’s not unusual, and it’s also not something that we normally think about.

Have you ever worked it out for your household?  How many people do you support directly without monthly donations etc?  I’m assuming that this is a South African phenomenon, primarily because the average home in the ‘burbs has some kind of full-time or part-time home helper or domestic worker or gardeners in our employ.  But it would be interesting to hear from non-Saffers in the comments

… that I cannot do 4 weddings in a month again… I’m just too far behind with editing now

… that we have another mouse in the house (so the pest people are coming tomorrow)

… that the kids are now addicted to XBox Lego Star Wars III and I have to really pry them away from their game.

… that 44 Stanley is awesome… but Bean There Coffee place is closed on Sundays and Public Holidays so I can’t use it for the photo workshop I have planned, and all the other places there are too noisy.

… that the Ski Deck in Randburg is not a great place for Connor in winter (sorry Fiona), ‘cos he’s sick again after getting so wet on the slope.

… that I really really love doing tween and teen photoshoots

… that my bucket list needed updating in anticipation of my birthday… so I can start ticking them off every month

… that my birthday is coming up very soon, and I need to organise something considering it’s a Sunday (and I haven’t booked any photoshoots for that entire weekend)

… that I’m stumped with the photo workshop venue… not sure if the workshop will happen now.  I don’t have time to wander around looking for venues

Somewhere along the line my priorities when it comes to spending money changed.

I used to spend a lot of money on the house.  Buying new things, and making sure the house always looked good.

Nowadays that’s not the case.  I don’t bat an eyelid blowing a few grand on a new piece of glass, or a dress or a pair of shoes, or kids clothes…  but my oh my… let me go into a home shop (which I do regularly) and I’m so loathe to spend money.

Even R500 on something that I know will make a major difference to the way my house looks is questioned in my mind.  It’s crazy man!!

I need to stop this.

I think my plan from now on, is to buy one thing for the house every month.  That way I should be ok with the amount I’m spending.  And I’ll get my house back into the shape I want it.

It has to happen.  I just have to do it.  I cannot handle the way my house is looking at the moment.  We haven’t really bought anything new since we moved into this house 4 years ago, and I think it’s looking shabby now. We need new curtains, new couches, new rugs, new TV, redo the dining room chair cushions etc etc.

And that makes me feel very stressed to be here.  I don’t like it any more.

I need my sanctuary back.

1. I confirmed that if I drink red wine in the evening, which is my favourite past time, I am guaranteed to fall asleep at my PC while editing photos. It’s a really sad state of affairs considering how much I love my wine
2. Even though he wanted the puppies so badly, Bradley was a little uneasy with them the first few days. The dogs woke Bradley up at 4:30am on Saturday, and I found him cornered next to the front door, with Kimo bouncing in front of him… trying to get at his slippers. LOL! It was quite funny.
3. Doing a family shoot with 14 people is not easy… especially when you can’t place the one person… I could not for the life of me understand where she fitted in… and she wasn’t listed in my brief.
4. Our house needs a serious revamp… that photoshoot yesterday was at my dream kind of house… and I’m now itching to change my home!

I did a photoshoot at Colleen’s studio’s this morning for Babytees… and I really enjoyed the studio work.
I didn’t actually think I would…

Now I want one…

The fact that we need to build something to make it work in our house… and the fact that we really don’t have the money… is neither here nor there!

Got this Barney song in my head at the moment

“Clean up, Clean up

Everybody, everywhere

Clean up, clean up

Everybody do your share”

I got a bee in my bonnet this afternoon after coming home from a kids party, and decided to clean up the toys in the house.  Once we’d got all the toy boxes outside and emptied them on the grass, I regretted that decision. And yes, we have a few -  3 boxes in Bradley’s room, one in Connor’s, one in the lounge and 1 in the study.

It took forever!

But, it’s finally done, and I have one full box of toys to donate to a childrens home, and 2 rubbish bags of broken toys that need to be trashed.  And the toy boxes have been re-organised and now there’s space for Xmas   (and Lance has got strict instructions to explain the organisation to Beauty because I’ll have a frothy if they’re messed up again!)

And I have 2 excited kids who are playing with long lost and re-connected toys

The donated toys are being done with a bit of a heavy heart though.  I’ve given away all the baby clothes and big baby things, the baby toys were the last to go. It’s silly keeping them though, they’re just gathering dust in the house.

Next weekend, between photoshoots, I’m going to tackle the kids cupboards.