Catching up

I've just read through my last post which was nearly two months ago. Beth is in heaven: it's quite a thought. She is younger than me. Eskom is about to loadshed us (again), I'm blessed to have just had some coffee, Ninja the cat has just crashed his way through the window, Adam is hard at work next to me in the study. It's a beautiful day out there. 

In here there will be blog posts, networking, website updates, a newsletter, wiring in electrical points to our replaced inverter so we can continue working from home when power is off. I can reach the world from this laptop, isn't that strange?

And in the bigness of it all, it's the small things that mean so much. A text from a friend, a stroke of the cat, a hug, the scent of fresh bread, the call of "mom". My husband's keyboard clicking as we work in parallel. Sunlight in the garden outside.

Pause, breathe in, breathe out. Friday.

Endings are hard, but are they final?

It's been a week of farewells amongst my extended friends. 

Tim's father slipped away at last yesterday, handing the baton to his son. At lunchtime today B's grandmother was picked up by Jesus, cradled in His arms and waltzed into heaven. I can only imagine what she must have felt as she heard the music of the angels after many years of limited hearing here. Precious Beth is waiting her turn too, lying unresponsive to earth with colon and lungs filled with cancer in a quiet room somewhere, with young children dreading having to say goodbye. 

This cycle of life and death and of beginnings and endings is hard to comprehend. In an age of instant gratification and solutions, not being able to just fix "it" seems to be the unravelling of our can-do expectations. 

May we learn to live looking to the light (we'll never be oblivious to the dark), listening for the music and learning that we are not our own solution. Perhaps then we will embrace this moment right now and extend our hearts towards each other. 

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. 

For Tim's dad, B's gran and for Beth - and their families and loved ones - may it be on earth as it is in heaven.

Feb 2022 - the TWOs are here!

 Hello blog. It's been a while. Let's see. Let's try the number thing again. 

- 98 days or 3 months and 6 days since I last wrote
- 5 days in ICU and 1 night in General Ward and major chest surgery (now recovering)

- 1 tummy bug whacking two family members (I was the other one)

- 1 strained shoulder muscle

- 1 Christmas with all the SA grandparents

- 1 hike to Krom Hut again at last 

- 200 bpm (my pulse walking back up the hill)

- 1 child in Grade 9 and the other in Grade 7

- 2 high school tours for prospective Grade 8

- 2 tours missed because the prospective Grade 8 came down with temps

- 1 night on Table Mountain

- 3 new species of Disas encountered (by me)
- 1 mammogram and 1 almost biopsy (whew)

- umpteen suppers made

- more umpteen rusks consumed

- 1 13th birthday party which was a blast

- the hunt for churches continues and we have visited 6 so far

- came up trumps on a youth group so tick, 1 youth group found (hip hooray)

- 3 band practices at seriously early hours in the morning

- 2 tennis practices a week at even earlier hours (yawn)

- 1 hero hubby with a limp (was it cleaning the leaves off the roof or a run?)

- 1 trip to the bush planned

- 1 school camp on the cards for this year (fab!)

Yip, so life is full and busy and I am grateful for each moment. As an aside, I think we have found a church but not sure they have noticed we are attending yet. :)