Yay for Bank Holiday

Friday was a bank holiday for us in SA it was heritage day. I have no clue what it represents or stands for but we grateful for a long weekend. Started the day with a lovely branch thanks to my handsome and hard working husband. We had our friends the Barnett family over for branch at about 9.30am. Wayne prepared everything and it was delicious. It was nice chatting and catching up with our friends we have not been able to spend time with them for a while since they have visiting form Australia. Glad they could make it. After a wonderful branch.

while we were checking out the veg garden

we came back inside the house to this

I left Wayne home napping and took my friend Nats shopping. She is a bit of some what a tomboy well not a bit a tomboy big time so we were going shopping for girly stuff. It was interesting as the whole thing was to get her girl stuff but I had to drag her away from the men's section and lots of grays, browns basically dark colors. We were at the shop from 2pm and left after we were chased out because they had had to close shop and we left with three items that is one hour per item. One thing I learnt is going shopping when you not the one buying the stuff can be very tiring. And I was very proud of myself I left the shop without a new item.

Nats being goofy

Passed by the Eppel home and took the little kids for ice cream and enjoyed catching up with Jenny we sat int he car when I dropped them off for almost an hour till grandpa came out and reminded us in a tough tone "never ever to sit in a car outside and chat because we could be targets of hijackers whether it is during the day or night" and I left for home.And had a wonderful evening with Wayne we had pizza for dinner and watched two and half men till we fell asleep.
On a cute note we can all say awwww

UTI

Dear urinary tract infection please!!!! I'm now worn out and tired of cranberry tablets and citro soda please go haunt someone else who has the patience. my life is too precious for you to mess around with. And to you my dear body I'm have learnt to listen to you and will never take you for granted when you tell me not to eat or drink anything with an orangey flavor or anything to do with the orange fruit. I'm glad you are being lenient and I don't have to go pee every minute of the day but its still uncomfortable. I'm begging you.
Regards
me

Late night Jiji hunting

Busted

There is nothing more annoying than looking for a cat in the middle of a cold chilly and windy night.This girl almost gave me a heart attack last night. After Wayne got home with a grand welcome from fudge and jiji they hadn't seen him all day so they were excited to see him with me as well. We had dinner and went to bed at about 7.30pm. We always go to bed after counting heads in our home. Jiji snack out of the window and we thought she was just going for a potty break 2 hours later she was no where to be seen. with me going outside and shouting her name in the garden hoping she would come home as she usually does. This time to no avail. Trying not to wake up Wayne I went to the bathroom window and called ... no Jiji turned up. I went back to bed and couldn't sleep eventually after tossing and turning Wayne was forced to wake up and he offered to walk around the neighbor hood to check and make sure no one had run over her or she wasn't locked out of the complex gate. I tagged along, Wayne and the security guard with their torches started looking around while calling her it was funny and I was calling more less yelling Jiji. Well a cat came to me, it was our neighbor's who live four houses from us and it just continued following me. After almost half an hour of looking we heard the sound of a bell and saw her jump over the wall into our back yard. We suspect she ventured into our neighbors house and fell asleep. It was such a relief.Had to run away from the neighbors cat.

tree climbing

Fun weekend Brai with Bridget

The weekend was great !!! Cant complain. Our friend Bridget is in the country and we had to met up. Its such a pleasant surprise when we received the text message and phone call to plan the rendezvous. After our morning exercise sessions, yoga and cricket and the chores around the house. I headed out to pick up Bridget and we went shopping. It was fun catching up from where we left and to reminisce about our hey-uni days. I actually enjoyed the girl time.It was great. Wayne remained home and prepared a lovely brai. He did everything from the salads to the main meal all i had to do was bake cake for dessert. We had a lovely evening we watched a re-run of the vmas, laughed our hearts out, Jiji teasing Bridget and her trying to run away from fudge all evening. We are thankful for wonderful friends and good company cant wait to see her tonight.

wayne brai-ing

fudge keeping daddy company

wayne and Bridget

Bridget and I

Laundry catchup weekend

I feel like it's been raining clothes in our home. I think I last ironed clothes two and half weeks ago. I do the laundry but for the past weeks haven't had the chance to be able to iron them. To a certain extent its my fault. I iron everything I do not fold clothes away into the closets or hang them after the tumble dryer. I do hang and fold but do not put them away.. you get me!! Even the dish clothes have to be ironed hence this pile. Up stairs has been my little insanity store where I keep the clothes waiting to be iron. Its up so I don't have to go there during the week to riddle myself with more guilt about not being on top on my game.
Woke up at 6.45am to rush to the chapel for the ward spring clean and got home more determined to finish the mountains of clothes waiting to get straightened out. After breakfast I helped my dear sweetheart to get ready for his cricket. Oh he plays cricket for some club the Royale Punjab cricket club. he was very excited about it. I had to do the needful.
I then took the long walk of shame upstairs to begin the journey. I ironed for hours and hours and in between had a few breaks to stretch a bit and give my feet some rest from the ache from standing. Jiji was my companion during this tough time. Fudge doesn't do the upstairs thing, he is scared of heights. the space in the stairs freak him out.

the joys of ironing and companionship

sat by the fountain during breaks

I got a lot of ironing done. But didn't finish so next weekend here I come. Some might ask why my sweetie doesn't help ... well when he does help somehow I find myself re-ironing so I would rather do it once and avoid double work. serves me right!!!

Date night

Of late our schedules are so busy that by the time it says Friday evening we are usually walking like zombies eagerly waiting to get to bed which equals not going out much. We are encourage by the church to take time off for ourselves as couples. There are two days that one is free from their calling if I may use that phrase it is not a break from ones calling. Mondays and Fridays. Monday is for family home evening and Friday is date night for the parents. We aka the cooks are believers that parents or couples even without children should take time off to spend some down time with their spouse. When we are not swamped by life's obligations we usually go out on a date, on the other hand if we are so tired to go out we have a date night at home. Its not a must to go out as its usually expensive and for families with children it just gives the couple that time to be alone from the kids. We have dinner at the table and chill out by watching series or a movie. Cell phones are usually switched off or put on silent to avoid any interruptions. On Friday I decided to make a chicken roast with baked potatoes and veges. I got the recipes by mixing Jamie Oliver's and Nigella Lawson's recipes. I have tried both recipes individually before and the combination of the two came to number one on our list.
Ingredients:
Whole chicken
parsley
sage
carrots
1 lemon
onions
potatoes
spices
olive oil
black pepper
Chop the veges ie carrots,onions, potatoes to smaller pieces
Mix the chopped veges and stuff the chicken with some veges and leave space for the lemon.
A trick from Jamie was to put the lemon in the microwave for 40 seconds and it actually brings the juice out.
Pierce the lemon at several points with a knife then stuff it in the chicken..Make sure its fully stuff .
And tie the chicken legs together with a string. I didn't have a thick string so i used normal sewing thread but folded over several times till it was thick enough.
Place the chicken on a tray and marinade it/braise with some olive oil.and add some black pepper and spices .And some of the remaining veges around the chicken and also sprinkle some olive oil over it.
Pour some water not a lot I used half a cup on the tray underneath the foil over it. It helps to keep the chicken moist.
And put in the pre heated oven at 170 degrees for an hour and 20 mins and leave to cook .
When the chicken is done it turns a olden brown. I preferred to keep it longer to crisp it.
The potatoes, I cheated , I boiled them first then braised them with olive oil and placed to bake till crisp in the oven.
And enjoy !!
Before sitting down the babies had to have their dinner too in order to join us by the table. They don't beg while we at the table they sit and wait.When we are done they have their share of people food as well.





fudge eating his dinner with yogurt & jiji on the kitchen counter to avoid fights over food

listening to daddy at the table
jiji sitting on the table

Spring equals gardening

On Saturday as previously noted in the post it was time for us to get our hands in the dirt to prepare our garden and vegetable garden. After our Saturday squash session, we headed home and after breakfast began the dirty work. The weather was great which helped a lot. Lots of spring cleaning going on; in the garden.

Before

Our garden was a mess but we didn't want to work on it when we moved in we decided to wait for the right season as per my sweetie's advice. So during the week we went and bought potting soil, seeds and also the grass soil plus dolphin shaped baby basins. Wayne was convince we needed something that was out of the ordinary a,d well we had our little assistant who totally jumped on his ship and I could not argue against two. They do look lovely except that jiji now thinks we had bought her three litter baskets. I mean she has been going outside to potty I don't know what would make her think oh wait its now five months and time to go back to a tray.
There was lots of trimming and cutting not much digging going on as we decided we were not going to plant any grown cover flowers in the garden. We are still trying to kill the ones the previous owners of the place planted what a mission. Wayne then dug the corner where we have been struggling to get some grass to grow and we spread the seeds all over the place and placed the final layer of grass soil.

During

trimming the bush

the grass seeds

the grass compost
After

We then went on to sort out the basin vege gardens we collected some soil from the garden for one but the ground was so hard and decided to abort that plan and instead used potting soil for all the basins and added some to the plants. We then set them up by the wall and watered them to balance the hp to get ready to plant the following day.

compost and potting soil for the veges

Wayne then went, prepared and got ready and was off to his cricket practice as decided to stay around to finish with cleaning and planting some flowers in pots to put around the fountain. The pavement and bathing fudge. It got too dark for me to take the pics after we have cleared the garden and cleaned the paving.
I then had to bath our baby Fudge who was not thrilled after he had gotten wet from playing with the sprinkler. Wayne got back from cricket to watch the rugby and I was not done.While at cricket he had an accident, his fingers were hit by the ball so he was in so much pain. We thought he had broken his fingers but after a trip to the ER and three hours of waiting and an x-ray, it turns out they were torn ligaments. So he is being careful with his hand and hoping it heals by Friday so he can play his match on Saturday. I guess boys will be boys.
had Fudge on lock down -the table as he wanted to run into the house before we were done because daddy was home

you can see wayne's strapped fingers and a clean fudge lying next to daddy

And I was done at 8pm. Then set u the fire and we had a brai. It was a wonderful way to end the day. so proud of ourselves especially Wayne for all the hard work he put into our garden.

A tribute to a wonderful mother Alice Oker ♥♥

It's been 13 years today since you got your wings and went to live with our Heavenly father and yet it feels like yesterday, much as I know you are in a better place, I long for your presence to make mine better.
I miss the way you called my name when you were happy with me and even when you were cross with me.
I miss the way you would twirl in your pink dress with your hair braided and held in a pony tail. I miss seeing you in a distance walking in your white work shoes coming back from work.
I miss the lovely surprises you always had in your handbag when you got home from work.
I miss the the day when you came home from work with a kitten in your purse as a surprise for me. I thought that was one of the best days of my life.
I miss the spanks I received for being naught.
I miss seeing the pride in your face after I passed my exams or excelled in a tennis tournament. I miss seeing you wearing your brown pants as you cook dinner. I miss the scent of your body. I miss our trips to the garden to dig for our daily bread harvest or planting or weeding. I miss going to church with you holding my hand all the way. I miss hearing your sweet voice singing hymns in the kitchen or corridor. I miss your wonderful dinners and cakes you baked. I miss you so much. I even miss the times when you injected me.
Most of all I Miss telling you I love you. You were the best I ever knew.
I even miss seeing your feet. Its not been easy for me and it doesn't get any easier in fact its a lot scary as today approaches because the pain feels raw. I wish there was some kind of therapy or cure that would take away the pain but I do gain my strength from the wonderful memories you left me with. I'm forever grateful to you for I wouldn't be the kind of person I am. If I could be half the person you were my life would be worthwhile. You are aways missed mom and the gap you left can never be filled. I'm grateful that families can be together for ever and I cant wait to be with you again. I cant wait to get sealed to you. I'm grateful for your constant presence around me. Every night before I go to sleep I pray that you will meet me in my dreams. This is my prayer. From a daughter who misses you and longs for you dearly.
If one flower in a garden represented each time you put a smile on my face I still wouldn't be able to see the end of that garden. I love you ma.♥

Happy Spring Day !!

Yay you are finally here! Oh how I have missed your influence all around, its nice to see your radiant display of a variety of colors and sweet scents from our back yard garden. Please compromise with winter so he doesn't have to come ever again. Good bye electric shocks from car, taps,clothes.
Nice having you back Spring. Yours dearly Irene

Took this from our garden pic at work this afternoon

Happy spring day every one !!! Hope it brings you new positive vibes for the rest of the year.
We starting ours with a plant a seed tonight at mutual with the young women.
And come Saturday, the Cook household are going to do their share of planting. Cant wait to dig in and get all dirty with my lovely man and fudge and jiji

This as well