26 July 2011

When I think back a year ago today I remember how sick I was feeling, I had contracted measles and no one even picked it up. How my life is so different today. It is amazing what a different year 2011 has been. I am overwhelmed at God's goodness and grace on my life.

When I look at how the pieces of our life are put together. Think of this, 1986 I meet Hlubi who back then I was introduced to her as Theodora, We work together on the Doulos for 2 weeks as the ship is docked in PE harbour. We have our photo taken, share ice cream together and as young carefree girls spend a lot of time laughing. Three years later I walk into a shop at All Nations college in the UK and I see Hlubi and myself on the cover of a little book called 10 Myths about Christianity.

We do not see each other again. 2009 Hlubi googles me and we connect via Facebook. A few visits to Cape Town and PE and we are chatting and sharing our lives as if we never parted ways.

God presents an opportunity for me to assist this amazing woman in her business. I am humbled as she chooses me to help her in this small way. She is Business Woman of the Year in PE two years ago, I am self trained in books and I am able to help,and as we work it does not even feel like work. I am revived enthused and excited about life as I walk along side this strong woman with a VERY big heart.

Our families have an affinity to one another our kids love being with her kids and are so similar in many ways. Who would have know that Hlubi and I would both break new ground in SA both marrying across the colour bar, 21 years ago for me and 18 for Hlubi. Who would have imagined our lives would become so interlinked.

I think God has a way of joining all the pieces together and when we leave things to the Great Architect of life and allow His hand to build into our lives something beautiful and almost delicious if you give me poetic license is created. I call it TOPDECK!

22 July 2011

So life has been pretty ordinary but things are about to get a little more interesting. On Sunday one of the Feul team members is moving in for 6 weeks - so I will aquire another "son" There is going to be a lot of testosterone in the Blignaut household.

Then these little men will have to cope without me for 2 days as I am flying off to PE on Monday but will be back Wednesday. I will make sure I prepare a meal for them for Monday night but Tuesday they will have to fend for themselves!

I am loving life at the moment each day brings new challenges and God continues to show me new things.

God’s presence is robust. He’s not nervous or timid, and He is always present, never failing, never out of time or out of action

This is how I am feeling at the moment.

I love the fact that my God surprises me daily and His whispers are beautiful and gentle

18 July 2011

Its been a long time since my last post. This is due to my lack of internet connection at home.

Its been a joyful July, with the children home my house has been full of laughter and lots of hungry tummies to feed. Today it was back to school for the boys and one week left for Ashleigh before she returns to res.

We have enjoyed the beautiful weather Cape Town has had to offer and have made the most of it enjoying walks along the beach front of Muizenberg or just lazing at home and enjoying the sunshine. Jason enjoyed his first week of holidays serving at a Childrens holiday programme at Cape Aghalus he loved it but exhausted.

I left the restaurant I was working for at the end of June. So now I am completely a free agent to build my Paralegal home business. It is challenging but has definitely been the right move. I was spending 90% of my time working for 10% of an income. Hopefully now with the right focus I can build a solid foundation and give Robinhood Legal my best time.

Andre and I cant believe it is 2 months since we left for our trip. It does feel some days like a very distant but happy memory. Time to start planning our next trip I think!

I am grateful for the health of my family this year and for my own health. I am believing God for His promises for us as a family and look forward with great expectancy to see what my Father and friend has planned for us as we enter the second half of 2011.

23 June 2011

I can hardly keep my eyes open but just need to update my blog. I have had such an awesome day. Arrived in PE at 1pm and was met by Hlubi. We then headed home grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed straight to her laundry SpinQueen which is in Centralhill in PE. We got straight to work. Well I did Hlubs went off to quickly get her hair done. This was a good thing as I needed to load Pastel and get busy sorting out the payroll.

We headed home and changed and got ready to go to a Rotary Function. It was really well put together and we had an awesome meal. I met some new friends and heard the new President for this particular club make his inaugaration speech. An amazing Doctor from the Congo who was involved in the very initial stages of HIV in Congo. It was a good evening

Am looking forward to a day of hard work but great achievement tomorrow and then an evening of fun in the friendly city, my beloved Andre's home town. Those who work hard can play hard!

21 June 2011

So today came the end of a journey with the Beth Moore morning group I attended for the last 5 months studing The Patriachs. It was an incredible journey into the book of Genesis looking at the lives of our forefathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. We now take a break for the holidays. Listening to the testimonies of all the ladies it was incredible how personal and different the journey has been for so many of us. I was amazed that although we all studied the same material God in His greatness meets each one of us exactly where we are in our journey and speaks to us in unique and individual ways. I love that about my God.

I am also at a crossroads. Needing to make some decisions about work. . .

Some other developments in our lives is that our youngest son Jesse received a 75% scholarship to attend St Josephs, a private high school in Rondebosch. This is for his entire high school years. We are so proud of him and again see the hand of God reaching out and blessing our family. Ashleigh is home for her varsity vacation and how wonderful it is to have some female presence back in our home. Really she has just been mooching and destressing as she anxiously awaits her results. My other son Jason has been involved with Caberet 2011 and has been at school almost all day everyday from 7am - 11pm. And Saturday he leaves for Cape Agulus for a week to run a holiday club along with a team of young people from Commonground.

We are back in the swing of our lives and just feel really content and loving life, even winter in Cape Town, its been a busy term and I am looking forward to the holidays. It will mean I have shorter days as I dont have to hang at work or find arb stuff to do when I am done at work because for 3 weeks I wont have to do the afternoon run. So I anticipate having lots more time to really market my business... my goal by the end of 2011 to have a solid foundation built for Robinhood Legal

15 May 2011 Roma

We arrived in port at about 7.30 Went off to breakfast.. sniff to today we were disembarking. Good year had organised a mini tour of Rome before we would head back to the airport. We arrived at a port called Civitavechia. We said our goodbyes to friends like Hap and Helen and Lisa and Terry and boarded a luxury coach which would take us to The Colesseum and The Spanish Steps as well as Trevi fountains.

The day was abit overcast, the weather portraying my mood of sadness that this wonderful time was coming to an end. But not before we saw all these amazing sights

Walking around the Colesseum I closed my eyes and imagined what the Gladiators must have sounded like. It is an eerie feeling as you can almost still hear the shouting and chanting of ancient Rome. We headed off to the central plaza and then had two hours to explore. We headed towards the Spanish steps nd then mad our way to the Trevi fountains - i needed to make my wish for my friend Cezanne back home. I had her coin which she asked me to throw in the fountain and make a wish.

And so came the end of our long anticipated holiday to the Mediterranean. We were transferred back to the airport where we had to wait 6 hours before our connecting flight to Zurich. It was very poor planning by the travel agency as we could have spent the entire day touring Rome. It was an exquisite city with history like no other definitely a place we will visit in the future.

We went and spent our last few Euros at the airport I finally had my chance to duty free shop!

And so our blogging comes to an end the memories of this great extravagant blessing etched into my mind forever. Some days I still catch myself smiling thinking of moments Andre and I shared together. And so my journey will continue as I now scrap an album with over 100 phoots I chose to develop out of the 1200 we took. Until our next trip.......

14 May Livorno

Slept late for the very first time only surfaced at about 7. The ship had already docked. Now coming from Portifino to Livorno was a bit shocking. It really is a port town. We had a lekker breakfast and decided to do Pisa.Got a no 1 bus to the station and boarded a train to Pisa. It took about 20minutes to get there and we then decided we would walk to the Leaning tower of Pisa. What a long walk but it was cool to see the shops and architecture.

Finally after about 45minutes of walking their she was in all her glory.

We wandered around enjoying the detailed buildings and admiring this wonder. Bought some momentos and then headed back to the station to head back to Livorno. Decided we would walk back to the port and that our treat at the end would be another Gelato, it was a back breaking hectic walk after enjoying a gelato and aching all over I spent a wonderful afternoon relaxing by the pool and in the hot tubs.

We sailed out of Livorno at 5pm on our last leg of the journey. Tomorrow we would be in Rome and be disembarking. I was so mad at Andre for not coming and standing with me as we sailed out. Anyway went to the Captains farewell and then the Goodyear function and my husband made up with a romantic dinner at Degrees. Went to the lounge and enjoyed our last evening with lots of singing and dancing and loads of fun with the crew performing for us.