I do this every time

I knew it was going to happen! I ran out of time - again. This happens to me every time. I think there is something in my brain telling me not to do anything on time. I can chill the whole weekend without a care in the world, and then it will be Sunday evening and I will run around trying to find all my work for school. 

Which brings me to where I am tonight. It was 22:37 when I started blogging. Just yesterday I decided that I should do my blog earlier in the day. I do it every evening in my bed, which means that I am tired and actually not really in the mood to blog. The sad part is that I really wanted to try my hand at blogging, it always sounded so great when I read about some blogger somewhere making a name for her/himself. This is not something I think I will ever achieve, but that's just fine by me. I have to do one blog a day, my mind is made up, so there. The reason behind this crazy idea is something I read about how you should blog everyday to get better at writing, and also so that you get into the discipline of writing.

The other important things I haven't gotten around to is getting everything ready for my kids' school year. I haven't bought one pen, pencil, ruler, lunch box or even one shirt or shoe. This means that tomorrow after finishing school at 13:00, I will pick up my kids from their friends houses, we shall rush to the shops to try and find everything. The bad thing is that there will be so many other parents with their kids doing the same, that you will be lucky to find half of what you actually want.

It all comes around to one thing. I am still doing my blog at this late hour, I just finished my preparation for school tomorrow which was supposed to be in today, I am very tired and just want to go to sleep.

At this late stage I once again promise myself I shall try harder, my blog will be written everyday and I should just try and stay calm tomorrow with all the rushing around. 

I really need a hug right now ;-)

Last outing before school starts

What a wonderful day. Today was one of those days that was just magical from beginning to end. I'm not always very happy with heat and sun, if you see my complexion you'd understand why (red hair, fair skin). We decided to take the kids to Gold Reef City because the school will be starting on Wednesday, I thought I will sit and read my kindle, maybe look at all the people, tweet a little. Not a chance, there was to much fun to be had.

First of all we were there just after ten o' clock. No long queue, just walking through the gates, which in itself was a miracle as I thought everybody would be there. The kids had the chance to go on every ride there was, sometimes twice.

The sun was really hot and we had something to drink almost every half hour. For the first time the kids could go on everything even if a parent couldn't go with them, which meant I could do another favorite hobby of mine - people watching. That is another blog just on its own!

Even if I am not the most adventurous person out there, I was definitely the wettest today. This is really going to be our newest hangout for a while, Sun City would have to wait. This is a half hour away from us not two, and there's a lot of rides and 4d shows, not just a make-believe sea and slides.

This is most certainly the shortest blog in the history. Sorry for this, but my challenge is a blog a day. Hopefully tomorrow would be better ;-)

I'm officially hooked

After lying around indoors all day, it suddenly struck me that I became like my children. You know, those people that live in our houses, eat our food, never clean behind them.

 I don't want to move from my phone! There, I've said it - it's a sad, sad day for me. It took me a while to get to this point. I've always wanted to do things on my phone and iPad. You know, like they do on all those reality shows. They are always on their phones, checking for messages (how can anybody be on their phone that long, what do they type, what do they read?).

Don't forget all the tablets and iPads - you cannot live if you are not connected to something.  I wasn't that bad, I have a phone I use for my Facebook, whatsApp, bbm, messaging - all the normal stuff you do with your phone. I got a new iPad so that I can Skype with my daughter who went to Au pair in New York, that was the only reason I got it. What other reason could there be for a tablet? Oh I forgot, it was also so that my kids could download games to play!

But then I caught a serious bug. It is called blogging and tweeting. I must first explain one thing - I don't know anything about any digital stuff. If I want something done I just call on my children to help. It's quick, easy and I don't even have to pay them. Except that little thing about me being obliged to give them food.

I started blogging just out of curiosity. I wanted to see if I could keep on writing every day for at least a year (we'll see about that). Then I read somewhere that if you blog you should also go on twitter. It doesn't sound too bad, why not? Sign me up! Twitter was officially the most scary place for me to be, all those names, and why do everyone have a "@" in front of their names. I didn't even understand the language, it wasn't a conversation I could follow.

Oh yeah, you should see me now! I love twitter, I cannot put my phone down. I try to read as much as possible, go to everyone's blogs, retweet their messages. That's exactly where the problem is. I am officially the one in the house with the biggest withdrawal symptoms if we have to go somewhere and I can't check my phone the whole time. I mean, the family would think I'm crazy if I didn't want to sit and chat with them. I can't keep running of to the restrooms every five minutes.

That's why I lay around in my house, don't want to go and visit anyone, don't want to make food for anyone. I decided tonight that I will make my men (husband and three sons) something nice to eat. They loved the food and I decided that I really should get a balance. 

I will try my best to leave my phone as much as possible, to not check every five minutes and to live a productive life. Yeah right, that just doesn't sound like me. Sorry guys it's take-out again tomorrow night, mom's going to be busy ;-)

It really was better than expected

At last the weekend is here. I must confess, I really thought this week was going to be horrible. But guess what, it turned out to be really good.  It wasn't nice to know that I had to start working on Tuesday, especially since we have to be at the school at 6:30 every morning - it's just to help the kids get accustomed to their new teachers. Every teacher receives her own kids in her own class, once they are settled we shall all gather in one classroom. Once we get to this point it will just get easier, the teachers come in early once a week and receive all the kids (of course with the help of some assistants).

I must just confess that I really was stressed on Monday evening, just thinking of all the new kiddies in my class. Will the accept me as their teacher? Will they throw a tantrum in front of their parents and I'll have to do something about it? Nothing of the kind happened! It was the easiest starting week I have ever had. The kids were calm, they accepted me immediately and said goodbye to mom and dad like pros.

I know these are still early days, and yes some of them have already tried to push my buttons. But at the start of this weekend I really feel that we're getting somewhere. I am really looking forward to working with and teaching this class. We even had our first birthday of the year today. We had lucky packets and of course - Spider-man cupcakes.

As I said in an earlier post this is going to be my year. I just know that the kids and I are going to get along splendidly. We'll have our battles, their will be screaming, crying and tantrums (maybe the kids will have these too), but overall I shall try my best.

I'm so motivated to really get started this year. We are going to do and make great and interesting things. I'll keep you posted on everything we do, I'll even tell you if I no longer have energy to keep going.

A little confession goes a long way

Is it really such a big deal if you are a mother and you confess that you don't like cooking? It's not that I dislike it, it's just that there is so much I would like to do and so little time left in my day. Okay that was a lie, I actually dislike cooking a lot. But the only reason is because I would spend my whole day reading.

Don't get me wrong I love food! I watch cooking shows all the time, I buy cooking books every time I see one with a nice cover. I even read them, well I only look at the pictures, buy that still counts as reading doesn't it?

The only problem is that I started blogging, and then I thought I would try out this little thing called twitter. That's exactly where the trouble started. Now I am grabbing my phone every five minutes to check all the tweets on twitter (three days ago I would have said messages - see how educational twitter is?)

Don't get me wrong I love my husband and my kids very much. I know it's good for them to get food every day. But really, three times a day plus snacks! Okay so I eat with them, but wouldn't it be easier if we could all just grabbed what we wanted when we wanted? No I guess not, there is this little thing called bonding over mealtimes. I have no problem with the eating and bonding part, it's just the preparation that's so time consuming. That's why I know exactly how many paragraphs to read on my kindle before I turn over a flapjack or make scramble eggs. Tell me that's not inventive?

Another thing, have you noticed how quickly your food that took you a while to prepare seem to disappear in a few minutes? It's like magic - poof and it's gone. Your kitchen look like a war zone and within an hour my 16 year old will check in the freezer if there perhaps is something tasty to nibble on.

Oh well, as long as they leave me to blog once a day and to check my phone as much as I want, I will just keep on doing what I do best. I know that I'm not the best mother, I'm definitely not the best cook - but I do love my family and I know they love me back. So that's it, I don't have to feel guilty. I am who I am, and I sure like that woman in the mirror - it took me a while to get to this point where I can accept myself completely.

I can only try to be the best me everyday ;-)

Why do we do it?

Why did I do it? This is really harder than I thought. When I decided to start blogging it was just going to be a nice little thing to keep me busy. There would be no stress involved, I would write everyday (yeah right), the topics would jump into my head and flow through my fingers. I should have known it wouldn't last.

I had to take it a notch further. Yes of course, I also had to try out twitter. I mean I always have been the most digital person you have ever met (I say in a whisper from behind my bedroom door, in case my kids are listening). Then I started following other people (and they don't even think you are some strange weirdo).

The downer on all this - I have to teach preschoolers in the morning, I have three sons at home who always want something to eat - why? I also have to give my husband dinner, oh yeah, and those kids as well. I have to concentrate on thinking about something intelligent to blog about. I also miss my daughter who is in New York, did I mention I was far away in South Africa?

Did I tell you that I actually enjoy all of this craziness? I check my phone every hour to check on twitter, which means I'll see something interesting and decide that I must also tweet something. Every afternoon I also try to blog at the same time, I read something about the creative juices flowing?

The one thing I haven't gotten around to so far? I said I was going to join the gym. Yes, I know everyone always say that, but I will do it! I bought the gear, so I guess if I have everything there will be no more excuses.

I hope you enjoyed this crazy post. It just goes to prove that if I can write a blog, anyone can write one. Thank you so much for your patience ;-)

Wonderful day

Isn't it strange how you can psych yourself up and tell yourself that you must get ready for the worst day in your life? How you dread going back to school because you know that the children are all going to be in bad moods. You just know that they are going to cry for their parents, and there will be nothing you can do - except perhaps cry with them?

Well what do you know? This turned out to be one of the best first days back at school I ever had.  There was one or two kiddies who were sad for a minute or so, but that was it! We all got along splendidly. Of course I had to tell them the rules a few times, showed them how to sit quietly and wait for their friends to finish before going outside to play.

I know that this was only the first day, I also know that I had only 13 kids instead of the normal 21. You know what? I don't care! I went to school this morning with a positive attitude, this is going to be my year. We shall have fun, we shall sing, we are going to make a mess. And that is just great. This year my kiddies and I are going to shine. I even subscribed to twitter. Feel free to follow me: @teachersrmoms. Hope you had a wonderful day ;-)