Day 20 – My biggest accomplishment

Well, firstly the corny answer, again, would be my children. Each one individually. Being able to carry them to term, especially the first two when no one thought they'd make it. Raising them to be the wonderful little human beings they are today. And advocating for my daughter when she needed me to.

So, if I'm not corny, what would my biggest accomplishment be?

I think I'd say my 2 degrees, and getting them cum laude. I didn't do well in my first term in univarcity. I was lonely, scared, lost-in-the-city. The world was suddenly such a very, very different place, and not one I liked very much. But, then I started to get the hang of it. I made friends, I started to "belong" to a similar like-minded group, I got to know the work-pace, the lecturers and life in a hostel. I started to find the work very interesting and loved learning. Still hated exams, LOL. So in the end, I was able to drag my marks up and finished my degree with marks I could be proud of. I wasn't ready to stop learning yet, so I got some bursaries, a temporary job and paid my own way through my honors degree, also finishing it with a good final mark. I still think of my uni days with fondness and longing. I met my husband there, which turned out to be the best thing ever from my 4 years there. :-)

Day 19 – Five blogs I read

Well, this is a bit of an embarressing thing to admit, being a blog-writer myself, but I don't frequent other blogs all that regularly. I do have a looooooong list of blogs, and I do go to most of them every so often, but I don't visit x number of blogs x number of times a week. What I usually do, is when I have a "cause", like recently with the pulmonary hypertension, I would google until I feel like I know all there is to know. This includes personal stories, which invariably leads me to blogs. Then I'll read that blog almost from front to back. Most of the time, I'd go back at some point, but I won't be a regular visitor. So it leaves me with a very very long list of blogs that I can name here. But since I don't frequently read them, it would make it difficult which ones to choose.

When I was in the midst of getting Boeboe diagnosed with the tethered cord, I found comfort in a number of blogs about spina bifida and tethered cord. There were 4 especially that stuck with me, which I check up on fairly regularly. So I decided to only list those 4. They are:

http://samtheconqueror.blogspot.com/ 
http://joumaseblerrieblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.aworthyjourney.com/
http://www.masonsbjournal.blogspot.com/

I don't know if it was good writing skills, adorable children that stole my heart, or something else that struck a cord with me. Unfortunately, the 2nd one's writer has decided to slow down updating her blog (sniff sniff). Still worth a look at, especially if you're in South Africa (the first 2 are both South African ladies).

Day 17: My guilty pleasure

I'm going to admit that though I kinda knew what "guilty pleasure" meant, I had to google it to make sure I understood the term correctly. So, accordingly to wiki, this is the definition:

A guilty pleasure is something one enjoys and considers pleasurable despite feeling guilt for enjoying it. The "guilt" involved is sometimes simply fear of others discovering one's lowbrow or otherwise embarrassing tastes, such as campy styles of entertainment. Fashion, video games, music, films, and junk food can be examples of guilty pleasures.

I don't have a shopping addiction I hide from my husband. I don't look at porn or sleezy websites. I don't hide chocolates beneath my pillow or something. So I do apologise for being such a goody 2-shoes today, but there's not really any guilty pleasures I can admit to. I have lots of things I enjoy, obviously, but none of them make me hide it, or feel guilty about it. I'm really a very open book. And I don't feel guilty about my (lack of) style, fashion, likes/dislikes, etc. At this age, I'm quite happy with who I am, and don't feel I owe anyone anything, that would make me feel guilty, iykwim? So I guess the closest thing I have to a guilty pleasure, is that I spent too much time online. Sometimes, it would be good for me, for the house, for my husband and for my children, if I would spend a little less time on my laptop. ;-)

Day 16: Ten things that makes me awesome

Ouch! This was a difficult challenge for yesterday. I started doing it, but just couldn't post. Look, I love doing the challenge. But it would completely go against the grain of who I am, to post something with that title. I just couldn't do it. I don't believe I'm awesome. I don't like the word "awesome" in respects of describing a person, least of all me. So ya, I'll backdate this post to keep to the date-integrity, but I can't list 10 things. Maybe if I was in a lighthearted mood, I would've been able to, but my heart is a bit heavy for that.

Day 15: Something I miss

My mom. I miss her every day of my life. I've written a post about her previously (on here), so I won't go into all of that again.

I guess there's other things I can list as well, but the challenge is "someTHING", not "some things" I miss. So yeah, there's nothing I miss more than my mother. Maybe that'll leave me time to write a post today about Boeboe and Monkeyman's issues, since I got quite a few enquiries about how it's going now.

Day 14: Last book I've read

I love reading. I really, really love reading. When I was a child, I read a book a day. It sounds impossible, I know, but I didn't read English books until I was 16. I only read Afrikaans (my home tongue). The books I read, always had 152 pages in those days. Always. They changed the font size and nr of lines per page to fit it in. So yeah, I went to the library at least once a week. It was 3 blocks away from home. And the best hour of my week. There was something magical about the library.  

I have a number of books that I read every year. The Harry Potter series, the Earth children series, and almost all of Anne McCaffrey's fantasy books. The last book I read though, was 50 Shades. Urgh, I struggled with it. I don't know why. Everyone went on and on about it, but I think when you've come to love the books like these above, 50 Shades just doesn't cut it. It felt flat. I came halfway through the 2nd before giving up again. Maybe one day, I'll finish it, I don't know. Doesn't really feel worth the time when I can just read Clan of the Cavebear again. Or the Pern series.

I've also started Midnight sun again from Stephanie Meyer. I really liked the twilight series. I'll finish that, and then I want to read a book my sister recommended. The Glass Castle. I have no idea what it's about.

So why don't I read as many books these days? Because I read on the internet. I read people's stories, blogs, Google books, medical reviews and research articles. I read everything I can "lay my hands on" so to speak, about the subject I'm interested in. During the past 3 months, it was Pulmonary Hypertension. So the last book I probably read, was a book on that (I don't keep track of the names, but it was something about lung diseases).

I can never NOT read. There's a few things I can't live without. Reading is one of them.

Day 13: Daily Routine

About 4 months ago, I made a post about my daily routine. On here: http://roadtosanmichele.blogspot.com/2013/04/life-as-sahm-with-four-children.html

I doubt if you'd want to read all of THAT again, LOL. So, maybe just a quick recap for today's challenge?

Wake up around 8am. Give Peanut her milk, take a bath, change Peanut's nappy and dress her, give Monkeyman breakfast and eat a bowl of corn flakes myself.
Take Monkeyman to school, sit in for a while, watching him and the other kids.

Go home around 10am and give Peanut cereal, feed her milk and put her to bed. Clean house up a bit, make coffee and browse the internet for a while. Or maybe watch a bit of tv. Play with Peanut when she wakes, feed her, change her and give her lunch.

Around 12:45, I fetch Monkeyman from school, then fetch Mr N and Boeboe from school (if they don't have something on after school). Give all of them lunch, drink coffee and give Peanut something to eat. Fetch any kid(s) still not home yet due to afterschool activities.

Around 3pm, feed Peanut milk and put her to bed.
Help with homework or projects. Start dinner.
Eat dinner, feed Peanut dinner, bath her, dress her.
Spend time with the kids, put them in bed around 8pm, feed Peanut milk, put her in bed.
Make coffee for me and husband. Watch tv and surf the net.
Feed Peanut milk when she wakes.
Go to bed around midnight.
Wakes multiple times for Peanut, and give her milk.

Day 12: If I win the lottery...

… I'd buy an island, build houses for family and friends that wants to come and visit (or live there), get a few tutors for the kids, and live in peace far far away from the ratrace. I'd have an orchard with all my favourite fruit trees. And maybe a few animals.

Realistically though, the lotto here won't be big enough to cover all of that, LOL. So if I really would win SA's lotto, I'd probably put alot away for our old age. I'd pay off our house. I'd give a portion to all of my and hubby's families. Probably also give some to the church or a charity or some place where we know it'll make a real, tangible difference. I'd take a few thousand to go on holiday, and I'd buy our children something really valuable that they'll never otherwise have. Like a mini iPad, a laptop or such. I'd buy everyone that really means/meant something to me and my family, a gift. Something really awesome, that would warm their hearts as they did or still do ours. And I'd buy my husband a Mazda 5, since I'm driving around with his dream car.

Day 11: 15 of my favourite things

This post is a day late. But I'm backdating it so that it still matches the date. I've had such a busy day yesterday, I really tried to complete the challenge, but only came halfway before I had to give up to sleep. Our visitors left today, so life would go back to semi normal I think. I hope!

About today's challenge: I really wanna be corny again, and say nr 1-5 is my husband, Mr N, Boeboe, Monkeyman and Peanut.

So let's see, 10 more favourite things.

6.   Coffee. Cuppacino specifically.
7.   Snacks. Love to eat.
8.   My laptop.
9.   Mini iPad.
10. Warm, comfortable clothes in winter, and a warm, soft bed.
11.  Some things from my mom that has sentimental value to me.
12.  Some of my most valued books, as well as the kindle, though Mr N mostly has it these days.
13.  Some of the thoughtful gifts I received over the years that means alot to me. One being a handmade necklace from my sister.
14.  Angelcare breathing monitor
15.  Pressure cooker

Day 10: My best physical feature

Oh my word, today's challenge is difficult! It's bad enough to talk about myself every day, my likes and dislikes, etc. But about my looks?! So difficult. So I'm just going to keep this short. I think I like the fact that I can eat whatever I want to, and not pick up weight. Not because I think it's so awesome to be underweight (quite the opposite), but because I've come to learn how difficult it is for those who feel they need to loose weight for whatever reason. I appreciate the fact that I do not have that struggle, and can enjoy treats.