parenting

When I was 8 years old I went on a trip to Cape Town for surgery on my cleft lip, we stayed at my great aunts home.  In one room she had many African Violet plants, with no flowers.  During my stay I talked to those plants every day.  When I left my aunt phoned my mother to tell her …

I’m a very reluctant resident of Boksburg, I don’t like the town and a disturbing percentage of the general populous have a penchant for vulgarities like fins on their cars, plastic flowers and Cruella de Ville hairstyles.  Still in the same breath I must say that I have encountered some beautiful souls in this dirty old town and among those …

For years I wanted to take the children to Sci Bono but didn’t get around to it.  This school holiday I found out that they were running a Space adventures holiday program.  It looked like something that Fjord and Acacia would enjoy (and they did). The first session was a craft activity where the children made Kaleidoscopes using mirrors and …

Being invited to the premiere of My Little Pony The movie will live on in Acacia’s (age 7) memory for a very long time.  She started the day drawing ponies and couldn’t wait to head off to the cinema at Monte Casino. https://www.instagram.com/p/BZsr-YrHJaP/?taken-by=sulaskimmingstones The last movie that we saw on the big screen was Smurfs, so long ago that Acacia …

Unless you have a child with dangerous allergies, you just can’t understand the almost paralysing fear when they have a reaction to an allergen.  Fjord is allergic to eggs, some antibiotics, bees, pollens, dogs, yeast, peanuts and more but worst of all and most dangerous is his tree nut allergy, and the worst reaction he ever had was to hazelnuts.  …

If you are reading this after doing a search along the lines of “drone stuck in tree”  “how to get a drone down from a tree”  this is what worked for us.  I felt just a teeny bit smug, because when my engineer husband was stumped to find a solution I solved the problem. Last week was Fjord’s 10th birthday …

  Each year Acacia’s birthday is a time of celebration, edged with the depression of dark memories during her birth week.  Instead of cuddling and bonding with my newborn we were separated by the ICU crib while I gazed at her tiny body invaded by tubes and wires.  I sat helpless while she fought for her life against the ravages …

Leaving Maddy Magoos kids hair salon in Bedford Square, Acacia (6) exclaimed “This is the BEST DAY EVER!!”, it may have slipped her mind that 5 days prior she was at Disney on Ice.  Or maybe not.  Swishing her straightened hair she walked tall with a spring in her step. We were welcomed to Maddy Magoo by Pamela with a …

A Saturday birthday provides good cause to extend celebrations.  At 49 the inclination is to feel bleak about a falling down face and the shuffle toward the wrong end of mortality.  However my birthday was a celebration of life and love. On Friday night Cliff took us for supper at Afrique Boutique hotel, after this dining experience all other Boksburg …

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTvqlUeAeae/?taken-by=sulaskimmingstones How strange that I closed the last page of The Deathly Hallows, the final Harry Potter book to see posts on Facebook and Twitter celebrating 20 years of Harry Potter.  Just over 20 years ago my older children wanted to enter the world of Harry Potter.  I was not sure if I should endorse this as many Christian friends …