The first chick leaves its mother's nest.....

When I started this blog in 2010, I had my hands full with three very active (socially and physically) teenage sons.  So much has changed in the past four years.  They have grown up to be strong young men - still socially active, not so much physically.

In the back of my mind I always knew that someday they would leave home to start their own adventures, much the same as I did.  But it was easier to keep those thoughts in the back of my mind....  easier to live each day as it came and in the evening when I sit down at the dinner table, to stretch out my hand to Den on my right and Dennis on my left and see them join the circle with Dylan and Divan.  One complete family.

But the time has come for Den to leave home.  He has accepted a position as Social Administrative Manager at a game reserve in Kwa Zulu Natal.  I am extremely proud of him and know that he will do very well.  He will eventually be doing what he loves.  This is his time - the start of a brand new career which holds so much promise.

I remember when I left home.  My Alpha was packed to the brim with all my paraphernalia, a little bit sad because I was leaving my parents, but excited about my future.  I remember wondering what my parents thought and felt - I know now. I know that they felt a bit of fear for what the future holds, sadness at seeing a child leave home, hope that their child's dreams will be fulfilled and joy at knowing that they had done what was expected of them.  They had raised a child successfully!!  This is how it was meant to be.

I'll miss you, my boy.  Everyday.  But I'll see you often and we'll Whatsapp regularly.  I'll catch up with you on Instagram (just show me how to follow you), and I'll see your posts on Facebook.  I'll try to learn how to Skype too.....  You may not be in my home anymore, but you are forever in my heart.

And remember what I always tell you, I'm your safety net.

It's a language thing

My language is English.  Whilst growing up, my parents spoke Afrikaans, but my siblings and I spoke English.  I think it was because we grew up in Rhodesia and the language was 90 % English.  I love English.....  The nuances of the language amaze me.  Now married with children of my own, our home language is Afrikaans.  Now and then the boys will converse with me in English, but not often.  I find that it's only in English that I can really express myself - put it all out there....... and no-one realises this more than my family.

My husband went to the Dentist who diagnosed an abscess in one of his teeth.  She gave him a course of antibiotics (7 days worth).  I felt so sorry for him, and kept inquiring about his well being.....  9 days later, he was still complaining about this tooth.  I found this very odd and asked him if he had taken the antibiotics as prescribed......
"Well, maybe not as prescribed....."
"What do you mean "not as prescribed....."
"Well, maybe I didn't take them everyday."
"Dennis, you have to take antibiotics 3 times a day until the course is finished otherwise they don't work, you know this...."  my agitation growing "How may tablets do you have left?"
"About 3 days worth?"
Before I could help myself I called out "Seuna!!!!!"  which I usually reserve for use on my sons when they step out of line....
"You can't call me that?"  he said indignantly.
"I can if you are acting like one of my children!"
And the matter, according to me, was closed.

Dennis had to collect Divan from a friend later that afternoon and on the way home he told Divan that I was very angry with him.  Divan heard about the tablets and the story ended with the use of Seuna!.
He waited a while, then asked his Dad....
"Did she switch over into English?"
"No," Dennis replied.
"Ag no, then it's not so bad......."

Technology is not all its made out to be.

We are constantly bombarded with news about great technological breakthroughs that will make our ever increasingly hectic lives a bit easier.  I am a firm believer of doing things the old fashioned way, because technology is bound to drop you at one stage or another - and normally when you can't afford it.

We had just moved into our new townhouse and while I was busy hanging up the curtains, Dylan was completing his assignment for university.  He had a lot of work to get through and only the weekend to do it in.  I heard him pottering around in his room, talking to himself and it wasn't long before he came sauntering into my room.

"Mom, guess what?"  From the excitement in his voice, I gathered that he had made some groundbreaking discovery......"My laptop is voice activated!!!!".  Now, to me, voice activating a laptop is completely useless.  Voice activating a door so it will open when your arms are full of wet laundry or the coffee machine when you are blow drying your hair with one hand and applying eye shadow with the other, now that's revolutionary!!
"That's great, Dylan......" wondering what this will mean to mankind......
"Instead of writing or typing my assignment, I can now speak to my laptop, and it will type as I speak.... It will be much faster and before long I will be finished."
In my head I'm saying "yeah, right.....", out of my mouth the words "That's fantastic!" errupt.

And so Dylan returns to his room and I carry on hanging up curtains.... and this is what I hear next:

".... skeletal muscle is made up of fasciles....."
"..... skeletal......"
"......skeeeeleeeetaaaaaallllll....."
"skeletal"
"You stupid machine!  No don't type that.....aaaaaahhhhhhh......."
"Moooooommmmmmmm!"
"muscle......."
"Muuuusssscccclllleeeee....... No, not national!!!!"

"Dylan, maybe you should change the language from American English, to South African English?"
"Aaaaaahhhhhhh!"

And so I say again, do things the old fashioned way and you'll find the job is finalised much sooner......

How on earth did you pass matric?

We will be moving at the end of the month, and I asked Divan to clean out his room - throw out anything he will never use again. Only keep what is absolutely necessary.

When I got home from work last Friday, I was greeted by four black plastic bags full of goodness knows what.  I know my son by now - there are items in those bags that should not be tossed.  He had already asked me where his K53 book was and I had a feeling it was in one of those bags. (He's writing his learners licence on the 24th).

I asked him to go through the bags with me, just to make sure that he didn't need anything in them.  The first bag was full of old shoes and clothes.  Fair enough - we can give those to someone who needs them.

The second was full of paper - old newspapers, old matric exam papers etc.  Cool - toss them.

Then we got to the third bag - school books from last year, text and exercise books.  One by one he paged through them.....  nicely covered exercise books.  "This was my Life Orientation book" - two written pages.  "This is my maths lit book"  - Half of the pages empty.  Then he smiled and said "and this is my Afrikaans book......  empty except for the second page, it says : Assignment 2.1 No one knows whats going on here........."

And you ask me why I was so stressed last year??????

By the way.... the K53 book was in the third bag too.