Life and lemonade

I love these guys - I was smitten - love at first sight when I saw them at "Old Navy" clothing store for kids on Thesen Island, in Knysna. Clowns may be creepy for some, but for me, they represent fun, mischief, and the wonderful quality of not taking life and oneself so seriously!

OOOOOkayyy - so our family went on an 11 day campervan trip, had the time of our lives, and according to my blog, history will show when we one day look back and read this, that we evidently and somewhat mysteriously, disappeared on day 5!! LOL! We all know this is not entirely impossible when you live in South Africa (giggle), so to my friends who have been "NOT SO SUBTLE" with their hints about a blog update, I am alive!! If the truth be told, my absence has been in part due to the fact that task completion is not one of my strong points (blush), but rather focusing on what's important and priorities, is (shew)!

So I know I've skipped the rest of the holiday, but life goes on, and it's so hard not to get caught up in the whirlwind of it all. This past week has been FRENETIC to say the least from a work perspective, but I am forever grateful for the fact that I can always steal a few moments to stop and smell the roses...even if just for a short while. September's around the corner, and since the last quarter of the year always seems like a blur to me, I found myself reflecting on where we're at, well into the 2nd half of the year - a year which I went into with much trepidation. Despite all the trials an tribulations 2009 has presented us all with, for me it is still turning into a wonderful year, which has had it's moments, particularly over the last few weeks, but those knocks are the things that help us grow, and build resistance and character. To balance that out though, our family was blessed with a MIRACLE, and for that I am so eternally grateful.

Being a country girl at heart (even though I do so love to dress up in BLING!), smelling the roses is as simple as appreciating and enjoying the fact that at the moment our home and garden are filled with the smell of jasmine, along with homemade lemonade (to die for!!), as it simmers on the stove - for some it may be a box of chocolates. We've all just come back from the vegetable garden, munching on sugar snap peas, and as Jane says, there's something truly wonderful about growing something from scratch, and then picking it and popping it straight into your mouth - fresh. We're blessed to have the comforts and convenience of city life (like PAV down the road! and 4 wheel drive instead of horse and cart!! EISH), whilst along side of that, able to savour and embrace some of the good old fashioned things that I value, and that we seldom find anywhere else, other than in the country. And as I'm thinking this, I hear Dom's friend from across the road, call his name. From our kitchen window I can see him anxiously waiting in anticipation in his driveway for Dom to join him....just like we used to in the good old days. Right here, right now, I feel so lucky to have the best of both worlds...