My Husband is a Martian – Part 1

In honor of our recent 17th anniversary, I’m doing a series on personality types, learning styles and culture and how this has been a challenge for us in our communication. I hope by sharing from our experiences and from what we've learned (and are still learning) that your relationships will grow and flourish. The truth is I’m married to a Martian. At times, I was convinced that God must have a made a mistake when He put the two of us together. For one, I’m a verbal communicator, processing while I speak. There would be times when...

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Wordless Wednesday - 6

Before the Church Inside the Church Leaving the Church Sorry for the quality of these photos. I scanned them in from my wedding album and this is how they turned out. I think it would have worked better if I could have removed the photos from the album, but they are stuck in... kind of like married life! Hahaha...

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Married for 17 Years!

Yesterday was our anniversary and as the title states, we’ve been married for 17 years! We had a great day with my in-laws coming over and bringing along with them good food, gifts and a happy time. Later in the afternoon, our kids’ fantastic godparents visited along with their two adorable children and stayed until after dinner. It was truly a day of eating and making merry. In honor of our anniversary, I will be writing a post about our marriage. I’ll touch briefly on personality types, learning styles, and warm and cold climate cultures,...

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Learning Good Behavior from a 4-Year-Old

When writing posts about parenting, I usually try to put my best foot forward. Sometimes I allow my readers glimpses of my weaknesses, but mostly the topics give me the opportunity to share from years of experience. This is one of those posts where I let my readers know that I’m far from perfect, because today’s two lessons on good behavior I have learned from a 4-year-old. My daughter, Amanda, is that 4-year-old. The first lesson I learned is on sharing. I have a sweet tooth. In the first years of married life, if I bought a soft-serve...

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Wordless Wednesday - 5

The previous post was about my bedroom make-over. Since the pictures weren't that great, I took some more to share with you today. The painting was made by Amanda at preschool in 2010. Her hand print she made this year, 2012. I hope you like my collage. I did it for free using PicMonkey. You can learn how to make a collage on my photography blog 1camera1mom. While you're there, have a look around for more photo editing tips...

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My Bedroom Make-Over on a Tight Budget

Today I want to share with you my bedroom make-over. It’s not really a make-over, but that sounds better than the alternative title that I had in mind: Adding a Few Touches. With our tight budget, we had to make a little go a long way. It was my husband who got the ball rolling while we were at the grocery store where there were different vases and decorative pieces that caught his eye. When we first moved into this house, our cupboards had a space for a TV. We are a one TV kind of family and since our TV is in the family room, we...

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Reading Time

When my first three children were younger, I used to read to them in the evenings. It wasn’t always a regular occurrence, but over time I managed to finish entire books including the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. With Amanda, our reading time is usually at naptime. Not only is reading to her a valuable part of her development, but it’s also good quality time for just the two of us. “I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve.” ― Charles-Louis De Secondat Montesquieu “If you want your children to be intelligent,...

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Wordless Wednesday - 4

Amanda taking Benny for a walk. Recommended post: Why We Don't Have a Cat (funny)...

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A Big Day for Our Daughter

Sunday was a big day for our daughter, Jessica. She had the opportunity to perform with her dance group at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town at the Jazz Dance Festival called Azishe, which is Zulu for “let it burn.” It was not only a big day, but also a long one. She had to be at the bus before 8 am and they only got back after 10 pm. I personally felt sorry for the bus driver, but they did buy him a ticket to watch the performance. Jessica doing an over-split Jessica is the youngest dancer in her group. She used to be a rhythmic...

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Amanda and Me Time

Most of the afternoon and evening, Amanda and I had the house to ourselves. Since it was just the two of us eating dinner, I asked her what she wanted. She chose chicken noodle soup, but I only had cream of chicken soup, so she went with that. It’s wintertime in the southern hemisphere, so soup was perfect for a cold rainy night. The two of us built puzzles, watched Disney Junior, played with wooden blocks called Planx and then made cinnamon sugar popcorn. The popcorn was delicious and I had four small helpings. Amanda kept track of...

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Wordless Wednesday - 3

How I Spent My 4th of July Standing in a line outside the South African Revenue Service Reading in the sound room at the Blind Institute, South Africa It was just a normal day here in South Africa. I only remembered it was my 4th of July once I read the time and date inside the SARS building. Robbie (my hubby) braved the cold wind and slight drizzle with me while we waited outside in the cold for an hour. We got there 20 minutes before 8 am to get a good spot in the line and they only began letting people through the door at...

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Baking and Counting

Amanda loves helping me in the kitchen, especially when I’m baking, because there are things that she can safely do. The other day we made pancakes together. (I know, technically it’s not baking, since we use a frying pan.) Her job was to add in the ingredients once I’d measured them and then to help me mix it all together. The recipe that I used is from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. My mom brought the cook book with her from the States some years back and I’ve used it more than any of my other cook books. I usually...

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Text Messaging

My eldest daughter is 14 years old. At the moment she is going out with a well-brought up boy who is 2 years older. They hardly ever see each other, which suits us as parents just fine. They go to different high schools and he plans to become a professional golfer, so he’s always jet-setting inside South Africa from one golf tournament to the next. Also, his parents don’t allow him to socialize much, because they want him to focus on his grades when he’s not playing golf. About a week ago, he sent her a text message at night. He asked...

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