Tiny Hands

Three months is a long time, it is long enough to get acquainted with little nephews and to really get to know them, they were here visiting us for three months and during that time -
Andrea went from disliking me to tolerating me and when he left I am sure he liked his aunt (tia ya ya is what he calls me).

Little Leo went from always screaming for his mom to most days walking up and down the passage calling me or greeting me in the driveway and calling for 'ti ti' and not mom :)

I have two beautiful poems of foot prints and hand prints and the actual prints of my kids and these prints are in a special album so I will always be remimded of their little hands and feet. Having little nephews around I was left with some works of art on the walls, and hand prints on the glass cabinates, tables etc. they didn't leave a print on paper or on a place I can keep forever but the hand prints that are still visible remind me of this ....

My Tiny Hand Prints 

My little hand prints on the walls

on the mirrors and the halls

I'll be grown some day 

And all those tiny hand prints

will surely fade away

so here's a special gift 

just so you can recall

exactly how my hands looked

when I was so very small

What joy and what a pleasure it was to have them here. Here are some pictures of the three months we spent together...guess which pics are my favorite

Thanks for the memories little ones, love you lots and lots like jelly tots, mwah xxxx

My Family

Introducing My Three Boys 

21 January 2012

Remembering the past year

The end of the year is here and it’s time to reflect on the old and the new beginnings that 2012 promises. What did I do this year that was special, different or significant?

I don’t know I don’t remember all of it, but I love to look through the photos saved on our computer. That is a good indication of what we did as a family, our albums are our best diary.

In February we became part of a small group of people that started a new church 

March was Top Gear madness at Kyalami, I sat on a Harley Davidson for the first time
with the engine running & changed gears, I know small things amuse small minds :)

April hubby turns 46, we went to Neil Diamond show the best 'waste' of money ever!

... & Tigs had his wisdom teeth removed :(
and my boys are ordained as deacons

May we bought a piano, I destroyed my toe and turned 40 something!

June I had my big op

July my Moo turns 18 and we start sending application forms to universities. Had a wonderful little holiday in Ballito

September Perfect Moments charity art exhibition raises R43 thousand rand. Hubby goes to Portugal 

Sadly my aunt passed away at the end of this month

October we are graced by the beautiful Jacaranda trees again. It's our wedding anniversary !

Moo has his matric dance and wins the DUX award for academic excellence 2011. School is officially finished. 

November, Josh Groban at Sun City :)
We visit Clarens for a lovely weekend and collect our painting by _ Tina de Beer

December my sister and family arrive from Italy, Andrea is here again...

... I meet Leo for the first time

...and it's Christmas!

So for 2012 lets 

Remember to count our blessings & not our crosses; count our gains & not our losses; count our laughs & not our tears; count our joys & not our fears; count our health & not our wealth & most of all, count on God and not on ourselves!

Remember God created tortoise's to remind us to SLOW down, elephants to remind us to think BIG, ants to remind us about SMALL things, the sky to remind us to look up and PRAY, the ground to remind us to look down and be HUMBLE and most importantly...special people to remind us how BEAUTIFUL life can be!

Happy New Year! Lots of love from me

xxx

Things he liked

It was a normal hot summer Sunday.  
It was hot but there was a bit of a breeze, the washing dried quickly. Lunch was simple and easy to make just could not imagine being in the kitchen in this heat. 
The boys both have an exam tomorrow and spent most of the day studying. I tried to do as little as possible, normal morning routine... laundry, loading dish washer, making beds, tidying up what ever was left lying around from Sabbath. 
Late breakfast for all of us and I spent the day by the pool, a magazine, looking at loads of cut out recipes and a book just in case I wanted to do something more serious than stare at pretty pictures!

But I didn't forget, today he would have been 70 years old. While I was lying on the beach towel listening to the creepy crawly - I like that sound, it's soothing - I thought about the things he liked. 
Liking family and the grandchildren is obvious, I was thinking more about - 

• Lunch bars and the way he use to imitate the old TV ad.
• All chocolates actually, and how Friday evening he'd hide a large slab in the same place so the boys could 'find' it.
• Braais!
• Sports on TV.
• Reading his newspaper.
• Eating lupins and cold boiled prawns.
• Being in the garage and garden, not really doing much but just 'playing' around with his stuff in the garage.
• Driving, he liked to take long trips and he played Julio Iglesias & Demis Roussos from tapes on his radio.
• The beach.

From where I was lying on the floor soaking in the warm sun I looked at our very small portable braai and thought 'today I would have had some of your chicken'.  We have not had another braai like the ones he made, since he passed away no one wants to light up and we have all become vegetarians here at home, and vegetarians do braai, but it just doesn't feel right don't know if it's the chicken that is missing or the braai master.  I think it's more about the braai master than the food.


He also liked acting silly and Christmas is the funny, happy and silly season. We always had loads of fun and laughs...and yes that too has not been the same since he passed away. How can it be when the day he died was 23 December? It is getting a better and I do plan to put the tree up this year and decorate like the old days.




The silly season and the silly men in the family 

 This is one of my favorite old photos, oh that chair was embarrassing on the beach :) 


Sunday is over, it's back to work and I still need to pack lunches, agh my work never stops!
Good night 
xoxo

Tia Fernanda

Tia
...too well loved to be forgotten, you will always missed and will be forever in our hearts, you were gone too soon.  

Gone too soon.

Like a rainbow 

fading in the sky.

Like the sunlight 

on a cloudy day.

Like a sand castle 

on the beach 

Like a sunset leaving us

with the rising of the moon

You were gone too soon

My auntie, I will remember you as the laughing, pretty fun loving person you were.  You loved to dance and party, loved to laugh.  Loved your family.  A good cook (maybe too much garlic) but a good cook for sure.  I loved your laugh and I loved how you always said 'beijoca' instead of 'beijinhos' how you called everyone 'meu amor' and 'quiducha' was a word you used often.  

The boys called you 'nhoca nhoca' and your other name - 'tia rock & roll' was a perfect description of the fun loving person you were.   
I will always remember and treasure the last time we were together and the fun we had on the London underground and in our long walk through the city.  So grateful for having that memory and that beautiful last day with you.  I am sorry those days are gone for ever but I know the memories will live on...

I will smile because you have lived, open my eyes and see what you have left, be full of love for what you shared with us and cherish your memory and let it live on, that's what you would have wanted.


love you and will miss you madly

xoxo

Remembering

A lot of people have passed away and left us too early while some get to live a full and longer life.  Either way we are always saddened when we loose them and always wish they'd stayed a little longer...

We remember them all the time...in the morning when we wake and in the evening.
We remember them when we look up at the stars or stare at a sunset, when we hear a song, or on a special day.  We remember them when we smell or taste something familiar and delicious. 

This week I have remembered a special person, she is my gran.  She's rememberd for always being a friend to the youth and for her faith and her love for God.



Dec 2007 - Anerley



Vó Escorcio passed away at the age of 90 this past weekend.  There are certain things that have reminded me of her.  Someone that I grew up calling vó or vóvó Escorcio, she was my 'adopted' grandmother.  We were in the same church and choir since I was a teen, we sang the same voice!  We both loved 'Turn your eyes upon Jesus' sang by her son of course no one else...it was one of our favorites. 

She had lunch with us many many Sabbaths.  And while remembering her this week I have found some gifts in my house that she gave me and they have made me smile.  Simple things that she made or crocheted.  

I'm going to share one of those 'gifts' with you - a recipe.  She made this often when she came over for lunch.  Vó gave me the recipe twice over the phone and every time I made it, it came out wobbly, always a mess!  I teased her that she gave me the wrong quantities so that I would never get it right.

  

One year for my birthday and another lunch together she made the tart and wrote it out for me.  She calls it the 'impossible tart' because of the difficulty I always had in getting it right.  But the recipe name is 'coconut tart'.  Try it out it's absolutley delicious.



4 eggs, 2 table spoons of margarine, 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of self raising flour,
3/4 cup of coconut, 500ml of milk, 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence.
Whisk everything together and pour in tart dish.
Bake at 170 for + - 45 minutes.  Bom Apetite!





Dec 2008

 Vó, so many people miss her already, she will never be forgotten, I know she is resting in the Lord waiting for him to wake her some day.  R.I.P. dear vó.

"I can lie down and sleep soundly becuase you, LORD, will keep me safe."  Psalm 4:8

Sometimes there isn’t any more…

Sometimes there isn’t any more…it gets all used up!

Some things last forever and if I sit here and think what is that thing that lasts forever, I frown because I was about to say my engagement ring.  Diamonds are forever that’s what all jewelry adverts say!  But then I remember my real diamond engagement ring that I got from hubby is gone.  I lost it years ago and that caused such drama, I was so scared of telling him I knew he had pawned his dad’s signet ring so that he could buy me that beautiful ring.  So for sure diamonds are not forever.

Then I think maybe it’s my car or house that lasts forever but even that could be stolen or burned down and gone in moment.

What about photos? Don’t they say that ‘memories are forever! print your memories here’ ?  Well the old system of printing photos was taken over by digital photography and as we all know the old photos lose their color after some years and start looking a bit washed out. 

What about the digital ones?

I have lost so many, that’s so easy when your computer is corrupt or has a virus.  Or a camera is stolen with the latest Christmas photos on it gone forever not even a chance to download!

Nothing lasts forever not even hard material things, they get replaced by something bigger, better and faster all the time.  There is one thing though, only one thing that I think lasts forever, that thing is love.

I know I loved other people and then stopped loving them and it’s a life cycle and part of growing up, but do you ever stop loving your children?  That is what I’m talking about that kind of love not some old school friend or boyfriend thing.

Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away never to return.  

So while we have it, it's best we love it and care for it and fix it when it's broken and heal it when it's sick.

This is true for marriage and old cars and children with bad report cards and dogs with bad hips and aging parents and grandparents.  

We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it.  

Some things we keep.

There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special and so, we keep them close!
But even those special people get used up sometimes and go away and then there isn’t any more…

And when my father died, on a warm December night in a cold hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any more…

Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away never to return.  So while we have it, it's best we love it and care for it.

He has been on mind a lot lately, still miss my dad and love him


xoxo