In the mean time...

...2 very important birthdays have come and gone, at such a speed they have left their cards flapping in their breeze.

Jordan turned 1 on January 15. I can't believe a year has passed already, and how he has changed in that time amazes me. He is a proper little boy now. No longer a baby. He understands simple instructions. I ask him: where are your blocks? and he beckons me to follow him to fetch them from his room. When I say bath time, he heads for the bath room. If he is hungry he drags his high chair towards the fridge. When he hear me pick up the car keys he says 'bye bye' and goes to the door. He is only 1. Only just. But he knows and understands far more than I give him credit for. He is adorable. At least I think so, I his Mum, I'm allowed to see all the special bits only. If I want to.

Sean turned 41 on January 24. Sean was already pretty good at simple instructions. We are working on the more complicated ones now: where are your keys? When he is hungry he.... OK, stop making fun of him, 41 is not THAT old! Moving swiftly on... His birthday present? A steel business. His own. Officially BMO Steel Fabrication is trading from Monday, February 2nd. I, for one, am very excited. Sean is aprehensive, as anyone would be on the verge of something that means so much to them. I am proud of him. I know this is his big success story.


Happy birthday to my boys, here's wishing you have many, many more and you spend them all with Shannon and me!

A little perspective, if I may...

We are in the process of making yet more life furthering decisions. Sean is starting up in business partnership in his continual drive for improvements in our lives, I have successfully negotiated 2 years of a degree and am well set to meet the requirements to continue my professional development once I finish this year. Our children are growing up fast and the years are ticking by. As they do so our marriage grows stronger, our family bond has become the foundation on which we make our decisions and our children continue to light the way to our future. And so we must strive to live and make our lives what we want them to be. That’s why we do what we do. It has never been clearer.

Sean and I are intelligent, individual people, with hopes, fears, dreams and realities, just like everybody else. Due to the paths in life we have taken, we are where we are now: a full time mother, wife and student, and a husband, father and earner. We are different to many other people. Our lives have ensured that. We have been places and experienced things that other people only read about in books. We may not have years of career behind us, but we have years of life experiences. Life is too short to only spend it planning for the future. We have lived. Now we are realigning our needs and wants, ticking the right boxes, ready for the next stage. It is yet another experience. We are living.

Sean has found, after many years of searching, an industry in which he feels comfortable, and one where he sees the potential to fulfil his drive for financial security. He has been given a huge leg up, for which he is extremely grateful. But he is ambitious and wishes to constantly improve the lifestyle that he provides for his family. He can’t do that by standing still and waiting for handouts. He can do that by investing in himself and his natural talent for all things practical. Why wait? Why put off something that can potentially change our current situation for the better? Even if it is only a little bit better, better is always good. Isn’t that a valuable way to live a life? I believe in Sean; he has an uncanny understanding of things that appear murky and confusing to others (including myself, often), but he usually proves himself right in the end. Belief is a powerful tool that we can use to improve our lot, lacking faith in one’s self removes that power, so we strive to maintain it. Sean will go far self-employed in the right industry. That is our goal.

Another way that Sean and I are attempting to improve our situation is by furthering my education and allowing me the time to do that as quickly and as well as possible. We are happy to live life as we do in order to make this a possibility. If this means that we must go without a few things, then so be it. Once I am qualified I will be able to increase our financial stability and future prospects, alongside Sean, far more than I would if we concerned ourselves with our current situation and I went to work full time now. Once again, why wait? My earning potential is currently very low and the expense of full time care for our children and the extra petrol money would make it a waste of time. Before Shannon is even in senior primary, and Jordan starts school, I will be a bona fide psychologist. That is our goal.

Something else that is of huge importance to us is the way we raise our children. We are in the enviable position that enables me to stay at home with Shannon and Jordan. I am here whenever they are here. I believe that gives them an invaluable start to life, knowing that I am always a constant in their lives. I realise and appreciate how lucky we are that we can offer this to our children. Once again if sacrifices have to be made to allow this, then that's what we will do. This is another reason I do not go to work. We are lucky that our lives have worked out in this way. Had I developed my career earlier I would be compelled to work in order not to fall behind. By the time I am ready to lauch myself back into the working world Shannon and Jordan will both be at school/creche and they will need me less. Timing is everything.

Long term security rather than instant gratification are our objectives; if we do not do what we are doing we will not achieve them. They are our decisions. We have made them carefully and thoughtfully in the best interests of our family. Life has taught us many lessons which we have learned and implemented in a way that has broadened our horizons and opened our minds. We have grown as people and have come to the point we are at now through much discussion, understanding and experience. We are capable. Our continued belief in what we are doing will help us to fulfil our reality. That is something that I know! Having learnt life's lessons thus far has paved the way for 2009 to be the year we step up a level, and every year after that will be yet another step up. Each new life stage offers a chance to change and improve on what has come before. Now is our spring board into the future. Until the next one, onwards and upwards.

And another thing...

Ok, just so you know, the start to the year has been a little frustrating. I am a creature who requires routine, activites and time limits in order to function. At all. This obsession (no, that is not too strong a word for it!) is happily satisfied most of the time and, being the psychologically mature adult that I am, I am able to cope admirably with the odd diversion into chaos. However. Chaos seems to be the main thread so far this year, with the occasional return to routine (perhaps the only thing keeping me out of the clutches of men in white coats)

Did I mention that Jordan is, shall we say active and intrigued by the world. He displays these traits by attempting to handle, take apart and/or distroy anything he can get his grubby little paws on. He is VERY cute and his life saving attribute is his perfect timing with returning to the adorable little cherub I know he is, JUST in the nick of time. Thank heavens for Dorcas or I would be in BIG trouble!!!

My next distruption comes in the form of forms. If you read my last post you will know I am trying to get my applications for various things in order. This means that I have to go off and do things that do not fit into my routine and always take more time than I expect and are just plain frustrating. At least I have my finger prints now... so on to the next step!

Oh and my wonderful university seems to lack personel. I think the dispatch department exists, as I have recieved most of my study material, but I am loath to put any faith in the existence of any other useful or necessary people or departments. Mostly because I have been trying to contact them for nearly a month with a registration issue I have, and have got through to ONE PERSON! And as it turned out she couldn't hlep me anyway... just picked up the phone at someone else's desk!!! Great institution. Really.

My planned daily routine for 2009 went something like this:

Monday to Friday
7:45am drop Shannon at school and fetch Dorcas

8am start personal admin

8.30am start work on one of my 3 jobs (degree, diploma or writing)

10am coffee break

12pm lunch break

12.30 continue working

2.30 drop Dorcas off and fetch Shannon

4.30pm children's bath time

5.30pm children's supper time

6.30pm Children's bed time, breath and then relax.

I am managing everything except the bit between 8am and 2.30pm. AAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH

Sometime in all that time I like to fit in a run or some rebounding just to allow me to continue to to keep the chocolate makers in business!!

The other thing I have to do is update this blog with the following posts:

Jordan's first birthday (that was a week ago already)

And a look into my total lack of will power in relation to choclate, and in fact any other snacky food I can get my hands on. May have something to do with the lack of routine,but as I say that is a whole other post!!!

Ah well, I will keep on keeping on in the hope that things will soon fall into place and I can make that routine work for me!!! Wish me luck!

Forms, forms and more forms! Part 1!

2009 is a year of sorting things. In this wonderful part of the world that means a fair amount of red tape and time delays.

1. Sean investigated the possiblity of arming himself in the interests of protecting us from some of the more dangerous inhabitants of our province, only to discover that doing so legally would take almost a year. Obtaining something illegally would take a matter of days but it is not something we are interested in so unarmed we remain!

2. I am trying to change one of the modules I have registered for this year (due to a lack of prior planning I am registered for a module I have not done prerequisites for) Seems there is no one working at UNISA any more and I will just have to get on and do it and hope they give me my degree at the end of it! (OK I am not that gung ho, I will persevere until it is sorted but c'mon, is there a need!!!)

3. We spent the morning at Home Affairs on Friday only to discover that my application for permanent residence will take a year to 15 months to go through... is that NORMAL??? Oh and they told us I can convert my temporary residence permit to a business owner one and work for myself. Now they tell me. 4 years later! Thanks guys!!!

4. The form that I was given to fill in in the interests of changing my permit says I have to have R2 5 ooo ooo in the bank in order to do so. I think it may be the wrong form! I hope!

5. I have to get police clearance from the SAPS to say that I am a nice upstanding citizen but I must take the forms etc away from them and I must send all the stuff off myself as they will probably get it wrong!!!!! Great!

Ah well, here goes nothing!

This year...

...I resolve to earn millions and live happily ever after! Really! This year!

Seems my posts are a little thin on the ground at the moment. Here are my excuses: Shannon is on holiday, Jordan requires six pairs of eyes watching him at all times to prevent total destruction of either himself or his surroundings. I only have 1 pair last time I checked so everything is not safe.

So, Christmas and New Year happened. I think. At least that may be what the blur was that flashed past at the end of 2008. I have a good feeling about them so must have been enjoyed by all. As I said, a bit of a blur. Someone said to me that the way the earth has erroded over the years means it is smaller and therefore spins faster on it's axis and so time has sped up. Not sure how that works with hours, minutes and seconds, but after this recent festive season I feel I may begin to believe it!

Anyway, here we are in 2009 and big things are afoot. Jordan walks. He gave it a proper shot on New Years day and had it mastered by the second day! He also climbs. Which is where the 6 pairs of eyes come in. My little angel boy has been known to remove plants, roots and all, from their pots, relieve glasses of their very useful, and in fact necessary, arms, and do back flips off the couch. The latter ended with him landing deftly on his head where he now sports a carpet imprinted bruise to be proud of. The fact that people will think I beat my children over the head with carpet covered blunt objects was perhaps not considered prior to the event! And my glasses are currently convalescing out of reach with glue in all the right places - hopefully! I remain optimistic... for now! Slowly transferring the pot plants to the garden is my only defence in that area.

Shannon seems to be getting longer and skinnier as the weeks pass, I am holding out for her to fill out a bit before her next growth spurt in the interests of not snapping in the middle. Other than that she is very interested in everything that is going on to the point that her incessant questioning of 'who was that, Mom' or 'who were you speaking to?' or 'what did she say, mom?' or 'where are we going?' 'who is coming here?' 'why did you do that?' may be the last straw with my insanity! aaaaaggghhhhhhhh! School starts next week, they can share some of the inquisition!!! Shannon is a fabulous big sister and has assumed the role of pair of eyes number 3 in the hope of salvaging some of her own things from destruction.

That's all I have time for, The Destructor is awake and I must return to sentry duty. Happy 2009! This is a good year!