I was testing the video capabilities of the Nikon V1 today (I’m reviewing it for Girl Guides), and just have to show you what happens at my house when I try take photos of anything… or actually, whenever I go into the garden.

Just a note if you’re wondering why Kimo and Kitara look a little mangy… they’re shedding their fur at the moment so you can imagine what the floors in my house look like every day.

So, there are a lot of bloggers and IG’ers doing a thankful and grateful meme this month, and posting photos every day with the things that they’re grateful for.  I decided not to partake in it… mostly because of time issues.  But today I attended Wenchy’s 11th Thanksgiving lunch that she hosts every year on the Sunday after Thanksgiving in the US.  For the US readers of my blog, Thanksgiving is not something we ordinarily celebrate in SA.

Anyhoo, she throws a magnificent shindig every year, and invites her friends and family.  This year it was held at their home, and for a change I didn’t take my camera out of my bag… instead I took one photo with my iPhone. Only one… the one in this post.

Everyone gets a turn to speak.  Everyone gets a turn to say what they’re thankful for and grateful for this year.  Even Bradley spoke today… in front of all those people… and there must’ve been more than 50 people there today.  I was so proud of him

So when it was my turn to speak, my brain went to mush.  Partly because of my sinuses that have clogged up my brain waves… but anyhoo, I decided I have quite a bit that I’m grateful for, so I’ll just blog it instead.

1.  I’m grateful for my husband and kids who let me think up crazy ideas and just go with them.  Like jumping off buildings.  Seriously… this is what I said!! LOL!

2.  I’m grateful that I’ve been able to tell the stories of so many people this year.  Seriously… and that’s the only other thing I said today… crazy hey?!

And this is what I should have said… I’m grateful that…

1.  My husband and kids let me dream up crazy things to do… and let me do them.  Lance does smile, and sometimes shake his head, but he never tries to stop me.

2.  I have so huge supporters in my husband and parents for my career issues that I’m having this year.

3.  I can live out my dreams

4.  I’ve been able to tell Kathy’s cancer story

5.  I’ve been able to show the love between so many people this year

6.  The dogs are calmer and not so looney anymore and my garden is starting to recover from their puppy phase

7.  Friends in my computer who send me the most awesome emails just to let me know that they’re thinking about me.  They read between my blog lines so very well.  You know who you are

8.  Friends who let me just sit at parties now and don’t expect me to take my camera out all the time… they understand that I need the timeout

9.  Connor who is growing up and so very cute, and so very maddening.  and who ever so often says… “Mommy wouldn’t that be a nice photo, get your camera out”

10.  Bradley who is still the gentlest soul… but who fights in a very ugly way with Connor at times (hopefully this stops soon)

11.  My mom who picks the kids up every single day from school and does the afternoon mad rush with extramurals etc

12.  Lance telling me when something I’m wearing doesn’t look good.  He’s normally right

and finally… that our little family is healthy.

I left a notebook in my car a few days ago, because I’d had an external meeting.  Bradley got hold of it and my pink pen while I was taking them home.  When we got home, he told me that I needed to open the notebook at work the next day and look for pages that he’s numbered L1 and L2… he’d left me something to read.

And then he reminded me again in the morning, thankfully because he knows how forgetful I am

Aren’t they sweet

The dodo note made me smile.  I love the arrow with the word “feathers” just in case I couldn’t work it out

And as for the other one, I may have had a tear in my eye when I read it.

I discovered that someone I know  is doing the most incredible thing.  OK, maybe it’s not that incredible, but normally people that do this are stay-at-home moms… I think… or I’ve just assumed that they would be, to have the time to do it properly.

She has not only got a very successful professional career, and has 3 children of her own, but she’s fostering a 3 year old child… and for the last year she’s been providing emergency foster care too!! She takes in kids under the age of 1 in the bridging period between homes or until they’re placed in foster care or children’s homes – and it’s between 1 month to 6 month periods.

Isn’t that’s just awesome! I really take my hat off to her.  I would get so attached to the little babies I’m not sure I’d be able to see them go.  But she said that she doesn’t.  She gives them loads of loves and cuddles while she has them, but she knows that she’s providing them the best possible care when they need it most.  To her it’s all about giving… and not about receiving anything, and she said that if she was getting anything in return, then she would feel sad.

They’ve looked after quite a variety of kids too with very different stories… some have been abandoned… the one little 1 year old boy was found outside a shop with a bag containing all his stuff.  And others have been taken away from their families.  The baby she’s looking after now was dropped off at Child Welfare by his/her mom when he/she was 5 days old.

We need more families like that in this world.

Being a working mom is not easy.  Seriously, it’s not.  You have to juggle time, and find ways of leaving work at odd times to just be there for your kids.

That’s what happened this morning to me.

If you have chatted to me offline recently you would know that there’s a few changes pending at work.  And I’ve been waiting for a meeting with someone that was hopefully going to resolve part of the obstacle.  That meeting was set for this morning.

However, Connor’s Playball demo was scheduled for a hour before my big meeting was supposed to start and it takes at least 40 minutes to get from the school to Sandton, and I was determined to be there too.  You may think that this is trivial, but it’s the only extra mural he does, and this demo is the only time I could see what he’s been doing.

So, I tried to do both

Thankfully the Playball started in time, and I watched 20 minutes of his thing… and then had to leave just before the medal ceremony… and then I zooted to Sandton to get to my meeting… which ended up being postponed to tomorrow!!

Connor, of course, was very sad to see me go  He really loved that I was there, and kept looking for me and smiling and then ran up to me a few times to give me a hug

I’m glad I went, but sad that I had to go before the medal ceremony.  I really don’t feel as guilty as I would have done if I’d not gone at all.

And shame, the one little girl, looked around the room after a few minutes, and said “But my mommy’s not here to watch me”… the teacher tried to save the day by saying that all the other mommies will be watching her instead.  I’m sure that didn’t make her feel better though.

Last night, Connor went into the kitchen and said to Lance “Dad, I found the scissors, I’ll just put them away”

Lance thanked him and carried on doing whatever he was doing.

Then it was bathtime.

And we noticed his new hairdo

Connor vehemently denied cutting his hair, but once he realized we thought it was funny and he wasn’t in trouble, he answered our questions

He not only cut his hair, but he hid the evidence completely!! He picked up every single hair from the floor and put them in the dustbin before taking the scissors back to the kitchen.

Oh well at least his hair grows back quickly. Although I do think I’ll have to see if a barber can make it look slightly better

The only thing I’m really worried about him with scissors is his eyes.  So after a quick giggle, I told him that he needs to be careful with scissors because he could poke his eyes out.  ”That’s not a problem, Mommy”, he responded “I’ll just get a glass eye instead”.

I arrived home after Saturday’s photoshoot to be greeted by the kids all dressed up and ready to go to Madelein’s house for a halloween evening. I was seriously impressed with their attempts which were completely their own ideas because I forgot (bad mom) to buy extra dressup things like I’d promised, and because I wasn’t at home they didn’t have any help sourcing their outfits from their cupboards and toy boxes.

Connor went at the Ultimate Darth Vader.  Ultimate because he was carrying guns as well as swords.  And how clever is this outfit?  He wore a batman cape (from an old batman dressup outfit), skateboarding knee and elbow pads, 2 Star Wars swords and 2 water pistols

Bradley dressed up as a Were-warrior.  He wore an old knights outfit (which is actually too small for him, hence the need for me to go find new dressup stuff), and a werewolf mask with 2 swords!

And if you’re reading this from the US and thinking that my kids are deprived because they don’t have proper costumes… bear in mind that Halloween hasn’t really caught on in South Africa

I LOVE that they used their imaginations for this!

There’s a car guard at the local Spar who knows me quite well now, and when I come out the shop with a trolley, he takes it from me and makes a beeline for my car without me having to direct him. Tonight, we struck up a bit of a conversation after I noticed him smiling at Connor and shaking his head.

As Connor got out the car when we first arrived, he did something he doesn’t normally do.  He waited for me to get my bag out the boot, and then just walked across the parking lot to the door.  He didn’t even look!! He knows he’s not allowed to walk across a road without me holding his hand. And there was a car coming out of a parking… thank God the car was going slowly and stopped.  I gave him a mouthful and he thankfully realised then what he did… and was sheepish for all of 30 seconds.  My oath it was close!!

Anyhoo, when we got back to the car, I had to shout speak to him again because he was standing in the middle of an empty bay instead of right next to the car, and he was trying to play fight with Bradley.  That’s when I noticed the car guard smiling at Connor.

So I said “He’s not listening. Did you see what he did earlier?”

He replied with words similar to this “Yes.  What you are doing cannot be paid for.  Being a mom is the most important thing to him, and he won’t be able to pay you.  But they will remember forever.”

That shut me up. And I wondered what the story was behind what he said.  I wonder where his mom is?

It was hectic this weekend… and I’m determined to learn something from everything that happened, so lets see if I can get a lesson spin on the chaos that ensued.

1. To say you’re going to get a rape survivor kit together is easy, to do it is another thing (I donated one at the Slutwalk that took place this weekend). I found myself thinking about every single item that I bought for the bag… and the bag itself.  Would the person like the bag? Would they even want to keep it after the reason they got it?  Is yellow a good colour for a facecloth, maybe it’s too pale considering what you’re trying to clean from your body?  I settled on a nice moisturising soap, after thinking that I’d want to scrub my body raw and I wanted to get something that would help her skin.  I bought lip-ice even though it wasn’t on the list, that’s what I’d like after crying a lot.  The gift that I added was a scarf, a really soft one that she could wrap around her body for more comfort. It was quite an exercise and made me really think.

2. Threatening to not give Connor pocket money is now not working.  He was in top form this weekend, and even ran riot in the shops with a Woolies basket which he walked around Woolies with, using it like a crutch… he had his one foot inside it and clomped around the entire shop shouting his head off… and when I got it away from him he just lay on the ground in the middle of the aisle and refused to move.  And that was the start of the weekend.

3.  I’m not superwoman after all.  After literally running most of the slutwalk trying to take photos, I actually collapsed in a heap after getting home.  We were supposed to go to Wenchy’s house… and I cancelled and had a nap instead. Lance told me I looked like hell… he’s nice hey?!

4.  The dogs make me feel so very guilty for not taking them for walks often enough. Some days Kimo just looks at me and whines it breaks my heart.  I just don’t have the time to take them to Walkhaven and they’re too strong for me on the road if they haven’t been walked for a while.  Lance took them for a run this evening though, so hopefully I’ll cope with them this week

5. I’m feeling cut off from friends right now.  Every invitation we get, Lance is either working or I am, and we don’t get to see anyone… and the kids are now having such boring weekends.  This is not going to get better in the bear future either, considering the number of weddings I have booked.

6. I need to sleep some more, but I have so much editing to get through

The first thing Bradley asked me when he saw me this evening, was whether I noticed anything about him.  It didn’t take me long to see the new gap in his mouth.. he’s been waiting for that tooth to come out.  And in fact, so have we, because he’s been pushing it completely backwards for the last few days… and that gives me the heebee-jeebees

The problem is, his tooth is missing… he thinks he swallowed it at lunchtime.

But the school secretary did the sweetest thing when he had to go to the office because his mouth was bleeding.  She typed up a note for the tooth mouse, explaining the situation.  If you can’t read the blurry photo (because Bradley was moving a LOT and the iPhone camera isn’t that fast) it says:

“Dear Tooth Mouse,

I am sorry but I swallowed my tooth so you can’t have it for your castle. I promise you can have my next tooth that falls out. Please could you consider still giving me money for my tooth.

Thanks

Bradley”

And therein lies the reason for many questions tonight, from both boys.  She wrote the letter to the tooth mouse, and we’ve always talked about the tooth fairy.

Now I’ve been hoping that his belief in the tooth fairy would keep going for some time… and thankfully this hiccup hasn’t stopped the magic at all. At bathtime the conversation was about the castle that the fairies are building, and eventually Bradley said that he didn’t believe that… he knows that the teeth are used for stars. And then at bedtime, there was another conversation about the tooth mouse, and Bradley told us about his friend who got a note from the tooth mouse once with mouse prints on the paper!! And he wondered whether he’d get proof like that this time.

But then in his next breath, he said wasn’t sure what would happen this time when the fairy arrived and the note was addressed to the mouse instead.  I told him that the fairy would just smile, and still leave the money.

This tooth fairy had better freaking remember to deposit a few Rand under his pillow tonight, or else there’ll be trouble!  I just wish the tooth fairy had some glitter in the house so she could sprinkle some fairy dust onto the note.