Life | The Mommyness of Me

Linking up with Mel for Monday Mamlogues...errrr yes its Tuesday, but why not.

Every now and then I wonder what my life would be without Jacques, Josh and Lijie???

The bathroom would be mine.
There would be no toys to step on.
I would never need to dust toy shelves.
Books would always be on the shelf.

Uhhh...no.

I love that when I'm in the bathroom, there are doodles all over the mirror, little stick people playing around my shower doors. Or the random questions that get asked when my toothbrush is doing its rounds in my mouth. (The toothbrush gives you time to think about your answer!)

Toys are exciting and never what they are.
And the narration that goes with them....SO CUTE!!!
And if you do step on them, then it just becomes a part of the game.

If I never had to dust toy shelves I would never find birthday cards, little love notes to each other, a picture of myself when I was 12.

Books around the house are a reminder that we are learning together as a family.
It makes my heart skip a beat when my children love Nesbit, Lewis and Macdonald.
And I get all dreamy when Jacques starts reading our last book in the Wheel Of Time Series.

So yes.
A sad and boring life it would be.
No need for God, or wet wipes, or a desire to grow.
The sink would be empty and so would my heart.
I always think, "ahh but I could have joined a convent."
But I only know this spirituality because of my family,
my Boys,
my Mommyness.

Go on and see how Mel's Mommyness is growing.

Love and Light

7 Posts in 7 Days | Day 7 on day 8 | On wedding ceremonies

Hi again for today.
So on Saturday I left in a hurry as we were on our way to a wedding.
Jacques' school friend Stephen's wedding; they had lost contact with each other for a few years and then was reunited via facebook. After a few months chatting with each other, Stephen asked Jacques to be the MC at his wedding. SOOOOO not his thing, but, because this is the year that we feel God wants us to work above and beyond ourselves and in His strength, he decided to say yes.

In true Jacques style, he spent weeks researching, and we both agreed that he would not include any jokes, as this would not reflect his character, for real, I know this to be true. Jacques is a romantic, he is sincere and usually speaks when he has something really meaningful and important to say. And when he says it, your whole mindset is challenged and then you find yourself wanting to know more of his mind. Take a moment with him sometime. He is awesome!

Stephen and his fiancé were let down by their personal minister at the last moment and they had to search the interweb for somebody to perform the ceremony...not sure if that is a good thing. I am only saying this because it is the first time I have sat in a ceremony when the "Pastor" is unknown to the couple. I am not going to tell youwhat he did and should have done, but I doooo need to throw a rant out there, in some nice words.

I am not sure about you.
But the day you get married is special.
You want the sermon/talk to be one that is beautiful and deep and almost sets the theme for the REST of your married life.
You want to know and feel that you are doing something holy,
something of worth,
something that is God like.

When two people decide: you are the one...its something else, its from Someone else.
Especially when you both have been walking with God.
Marriage is a vocation, that we become.
It is your past melted down and turned into a new thing,
that keeps building or growing.
Marriage is a tinkering of the heart and soul.
Your eyes change,
your touch is exposed to a newness and your body experiences things it never knew existed.
Sadness is different,
hurt is on another level,
sharing is a real giving of yourself.

For me, that sermon or talk, needs to embody something of that.

When Jacques and I got married the photographer brought a digital camera that took a FLOPPY!!!
And then that got lost!
We do have photos that are...nice.
(I wish I knew then NOT to take photos at midday)

The Blessing for our wedding | 2003

Blush!

A big laugh as my pastor for 15 years tried to marry off my sister instead of me

Our Ring Blessing

Our Vows

Mr & Mrs forever

"His heart in me keeps him & me one"

Love and Light

7 Posts in 7 Days | Day 6 on Day 8

I know.
I know.
I know.
I really suck and am SO happy that this is not done for a living!

Jackie is doing great.
I am so so so relieved that she is still around, wagging her tail and following us everywhere.
I do know that she will pass on, but in the mean time there's a lot of this is happening:

We went to Builders Warehouse on Friday, jumped out the car, and spotted these shoes on my Lijie.

TWO left feet, so characteristic of his personality. (One his the other his brothers)

I have three pieces by Gen Motley. But this one is my favorite.

Lijie asked me snap this pic of him, "so you can forever remember me fishing"

This is what our room, let alone our house, 

looks like on a regular basis, mind you with two more biological children.

There's nothing more precious than a house FULL of animals.

Thanks for bearing with my not so bloggy blog!

Love and Light

7 Posts in 7 Days | Day 5 on day 6

So I spent a few good hours on the Rijk Museum Website.
You can download any image and use it and be creative with it.
Its awesome.
I love art.

These are some of my favorites.

Off to a wedding now.

Love & Light

7 Posts in 7 Days | Day 4 on Day 5

So it's been a real emotional day around this house.
On Tuesday our Jackie, a 12 year old Jack Russell, was really struggling, she has been on medication for her liver for the past 3-4 weeks. 
So we rushed her over to the vet that afternoon and he suggested we do a sonar the next day.

On Wednesday morning, I remembered St Francis of Assisi, Patron Saint of Animals amongst a few more things. 

St Francis of Assisi

So I did a google search and found this beautiful prayer:

Heavenly Father, our human ties with our friends of other species is wonderful and special gift from You. We now ask You to grant our special animal companions your Fatherly care and healing power to take away any suffering they have. Give us, their human friends, new understanding of our responsibilities to these creatures of Yours. They have trust in us as we have in You; our souls and theirs are on this earth together to give one another friendship, affection, and caring. Take our heartfelt prayers and fill Your ill or suffering animals with healing Light and strength to overcome whatever weakness of body they have.

(Here mention the names of the animals needing prayer).

Your goodness is turned upon every living thing and Your grace flows to all Your creatures. From our souls to theirs goodness flows, touching each of us with the reflection of Your love. Grant to our special animal companions long and healthy lives. Give them good relationships with us, and if You see fit to take them from us, help us to understand that they are not gone from us, but only drawing closer to You. Grant our prayer through the intercession of good St. Francis of Assisi, who honored You through all Your creatures. Give him the power to watch over our animal friends until they are safely with You in eternity, where we someday hope to join them in giving You honor forever. Amen.

(You can make this a Novena for a sick pet, by praying this prayer for 9 consecutive days)

I said this prayer with Jacques AND when the boys woke up.

The sonar showed that she had cancer in the liver to such a degree that most of her liver was unrecognisable, and that the part that was functioning had a huge abscess. The vet also found that she had cancer in her spleen. He said that the best thing for us to do, is to help her and euthanase her that afternoon. So I brought her back home just to say goodbye.

On our Way

When we got to the vet that afternoon, he was busy with emergencies, so we decided to go first thing Thursday morning.

We woke up, we said the Novena with the boys, in hope and faith.

There was a change in Jackie.

She started eating, drinking following us around, as usual, so we decided not to take her. 

Between God and St Francis I am not too sure whats going on. I just don't want to take something away from her that only God is in charge off. 

I do believe in helping animals along, but is there a Catholic doctrine or dogma around this??? 

All I can say is; I keep thanking God and St Francis that the vet was busy Wednesday afternoon. 

All we can do now is give her an awesome time!

Some of the things we did yesterday:

Loved our animals | Jackie is one off six of our doggies

Finished off a gift | No picture of the final product...goofball!

Went to Jiu Jitsu

Had a good laugh

Had a Birthday dinner with my Daddy | He is 64 going on 25!

Love and Light

Nicky

p.s. really loving my iPhone from my Brother!

7 Posts in 7 Days | Day 3 | Not how we met but how we Plan Naturally

I know I said its the "how we met" segment today.
But reading up and ALL about Natural Family Planning, got me in the mood, to write this post.
Linking up with Katie from NFP and me, Natural Family Planning week 2013.

I mentioned before that Natural Family Planning was THEE root of me joining the Catholic Church.
Jacques and I had Eljiah, our last born, for now, and very easily made the decision to put in an IUD.
As time went on, 5 years to be exact, I started wanting another put in, a talk by Fr Eric Bergman changed my mind. And here we are today.

August 2012, was the begining of Natural Family Planning using the Symptothermal method.
This is a three point check system:

• Body temperature, taken orally, just for those who are asking, "WHERE?????" (Yep, I asked the same question).
• Cervical position
• and Cervical Elixir (sounds way more prettier than mucous)

We take all that information and chart it, on Selene, an app for iOS users.

My husband just came into the room right now and said, "let's NFP baby!!!"
Yes he said that.
The reason being is that he does our charting.
So he knows the when and when!

For a year now it's been amazing for our marriage, our relationship has always been AWESOME (I am showing off, but its the truth), we often argue on Theological standing for a bit then usually the one or the other is convinced by the truth in the Catholic Church and the Bible.

We have come to understand love making in a deeper and spiritual sense.
We have been married for ten and a half years now, been together for twelve and God has just brought us closer and closer. The Eucharist, practicing Natural Family Planning, praying The Divine Office.

The talk that I linked to yesterday, Marriage and The Eucharist, go on listen to it and enjoy.

What we woke up this morning

GoodBye Old Friend

Can't make any sense of these empty bottles in the fridge

Love & Light

Nicky

7 Posts in 7 Days | Hello Day 2

I just have to say...
this has been so exciting.
Waiting to get a chance to post the WHOLE day, albeit this late, but it's here now.

Yesterday was a sweet little four year olds birthday.
Jemma, my brother's youngest, so we got to hang out with her and eat pizza.

My Brother, Joe | My Sister in Law, Nirvana and my Niece Jemma

Today, my sister in law, Michelle came over to explore the sewing machine and get familiar with it.
It was such a wonderful visit and while we did that we spoke about God, about marriage, unschooling, homeschooling. All that, while the kids ventured around with two way radios, baseball bats and bounced on the trampoline.

I spoke to her about a talk that Jacques and I recently listened too, Marriage and the Eucharist by Christopher West. We passed it on to her, so I pray that she and her husband enjoy it too.

My Sister in Law, Michelle | Trying to figure our the tension/stitch size for blanket material

Oh and say "Hello" to Caleb!!!

My Niece Bethany and brand new Nephew Caleb | My Sisters Kids

Oh I really want to make this  bag!

So....

I thought I would join that "How we met" link up hosted by Grace over at Camp Patton.

Maybe tomorrow.

Don't forget to check out Jen and see how she is coping with her challenge.

Love & Light

Nicky

What I wore on Sunday | not sure where this is going...but hey

Shoes: Brown Converse Winter High Tops (4 years old...just had to put that out there)
Duck Egg Blue Skirt: Made by me with Jersey knit
Peach Top: Old Khaki
Yellow Jersey: Meltz

So this is a link up to the girls at Fine Linen & Purple that I quietly watched from my laptop, now desktop, and was again intrigued.
I'm not that stylish and have no time to pluck my eyebrows and during winter I live in either my Ugg boots or the ones in the capture. See, I believe in comfort and practicality; like if there is lost child or wandering dog in the street, I don't have to kick off my heels!

So while I was making creme brulee, on Saturday night for our lunch with Jacques' family for Sunday, my sister texted me and said that her water broke!!!!
YAY awesome!!!
Because she's in Oz and I'm here in South Africa I couldn't speed over there and help with the kids or make her tea, so I decided to make a skirt.
Because I get fidgety like that.

I used this video :

Tglashen, has awesome tutorials and they are super quick and easy, she also has really awesome bible verses and Christian music that she puts onto her tutorials.

So off we went to the evening mass on Sunday, with Jacques brother and fiancé, Daphné in tow.
They are non Catholic but are so eager to come to church.

I really enjoyed the Mary and Martha gospel reading and so want to find a balance between the two.

Love & Light
Nicky

7 Posts in 7 Days | I must be crazy

I stumbled on Jennifer Fulwilers' Conversion Diary Blog, during my Protestant to Catholic conversion period, which you can read about here, here, here, here, and here. From her blog I met many other Catholic Blogging women and became so intrigued that I stopped blogging and just started reading...yeah that kind of thing really does happen; I have blogging ADHD.

The same kind of thing happened when I met Mel, (who I hope to be linking up with later).

So I'm taking up this challenge; if Jen can do it with six kids under the age of ten AND write a book, and Kelly who has five, homeschools AND drives a mother of a SUV, along with 140 plus other bloggers who's lives are way busier than moi then there must be a way for me.

So here goes.

Not sure about you, but I am way more sociable on the internet.
Like at marriage groups, picnics, sewing groups and masses, one would think that I'm incredibly rude or nicely recluse (I hope)...yep, no pictures on this blog of me in a group setting, well thats your proof.

But I do love people!
I love hearing their opinions
what they believe in
how they make stuff
why they're vegetarian

Let's just NOT talk about me, only you.

My heart just melted and I think forever will

Not big on selfies but this one is ok

But definitely big on these guys

Making the best of a scavenged Twister, yep we are dumspter divers

sometimes...I love glitter on my floor

What I made and wore on Sunday...?

Love & Light

p.s. if you're Catholic and wondering how I made it with ONLY 2 kids on Natural Family Planning,
you can read about it here.

Life | Back home

Ahhh no place like home.
It was awesome sleeping in a rooftop tent and all,
but its all good to have your toilet under the same roof that you sleep in.
Heck having a toilet under ANY roof is awesome!

Cannot wait to tell you all about the African Adventure, hopefully that will happen soon, I just have 3 000 photos to sort through (because you cannot tell a story without pictures).

Lassie

Zoe

Rosebuddle

Pretty Workspace

Love & Light