Being attached to the future

A little while back our friend John taught me a life lesson. We were in Yzerfontein and I was taking some photos with his camera. I decided to delete some of them and pushed the delete button and without thinking about it too much followed the same procedure as my camera…..except that starts to delete all the photos on the camera (and there were lots, including new born photos of his little girl).

I pressed cancel as soon as I realised what was happening, and I am not really sure if it did delete any photos, but I felt terrible and told John what had happened. His immediate reaction? “Oh, life’s like that,” and moved on with little concern.

I on the other hand tend to get a bit worked up (at least internally) about those kind of things, so last night I had to take a page out of the lesson book.

We assembled our Ultimaker 3D printer last night and I set up (and tested) a camera for taking a time lapse video. I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to do with the video, and then through chatting while building cam up with an even cleared idea – I could visualise exactly how the video was going to go and what the message of it would be. I was feeling very excited.

Everything was working well before the time and about half way through the evening I checked on the output to find that I had 4000 photographs of a box on the desk – somehow it had gotten stuck on the first photo, so half the video was gone. I was bleak. So I had to remind myself of John’s lesson: “life’s like that,” we can’t be too attached to some particular outcome. Eventually that attachment becomes a hinderance for moving forward.

So now we have half a time lapse video of the machine build 🙂

One side note: attachment and commitment mean totally different things. Being committed to an outcome plays a critical role in pushing through the challenges that need to be overcome to achieve a meaningful goal.

The mummy

1687943531

Just as she got into the bath Grace needed to use the facilities, so to stay warm I wrapped her up.

Back to School

Today I went to observe at the Montessori school we are probably going to send Grace to.  Duncan and Grace dropped me off before they headed off to swimming.  Before I got out the car Grace said that I must go with to her swimming lesson, but it turns out that she only wanted me to come with so that her baby brother could go watch her swim 🙂

I was really impressed with the 2 teachers, assistant and watching a class of 30 children working quietly, and independently.  I am definitely feeling more comfortable with sending Grace to school and this was helped by seeing the warmth, patience and grace shown by the teachers to the children and how they met each one on their level.

Copy cat

Jack & Grace have developed a very sweet friendship and one of the things that is very cute is how they copy each other, both in what they do as well as what they say.

Donné, Grace, Kim and Jack went for a picnic at Green Point Park today while they were riding their bikes Grace fell and was lying on the ground saying, “Ow-ee,” so Jack “falls” next to her and lies there saying, “Ow-ee, ow-ee.” Then Grace starts calling, “Save me, save me!” which Jack starts to echo. Apparently Jack recently said, “Ow-ee….Gracie say ow-ee.”

Grace copies Jack lots too, especially with physical things – if he climbs up somewhere, or rides his bike a certain way, then Grace follows suite. They certainly seem to give each other confidence when they are together and venture out a bit further, a little bit more independently than they do alone.

They are really sweet kids and it is lovely to see them enjoying their relationship.

Sandwich Hug

Sandwich_hug

Thanks for breakfast

We always thank God for our food at supper, but usually Grace doesn’t want to pray with us – probably because she wants to eat rather than pray at that moment – but we always include her.

This morning she sits on the bed with her breakfast, takes pause, and says, “Thanks for breakfast, amen!”

Finger nails

First you paint mommy’s

Img_7672_s

Then you paint your own

Img_7691_s

Make sure to blow…

Img_7685_s

…and blow some more

Img_7702_s

Then you do your toenails

Img_7705_s

and all with glitter filled sparkly nail polish.

Pizza nights

For a long while now, Friday has been pizza nights in the Drennan household. We make our own pizza’s and Grace enjoys the process – squishing and squashing the dough while kneading, rolling out the pizza and putting on the sauce and toppings. And she always enjoys the bacon that goes on them…..surprise, surprise.

She was never really into eating the pizza and would reject it once done, but recently (as in the last two or three weeks) she has suddenly started to love pizza. She eats it with much gusto and dedication which is a pleasant change from the teeth pulling exercise commonly known as supper that we go through every night. She gets excited about it during the week, “On Friday, eat pizza, watch Glee,” (because Glee music video’s are a part of the pizza ritual).

Tonight she ate her own small pizza, followed by three pieces of our pizza (which is nearly as much as Donné ate) – she certainly surprised us all. Later while we were getting ready for her bath she says to me, “Need to make a poopy. Got sore tummy, ate too much pizza.”

It’s lots of fun to push mom on the swing



Bath time chats

I really enjoy having little chats with Grace. It is always lovely to hear what is going on inside of her head (and her thoughts usually bounce around like a ping-pong ball). For the last few days she has been very chatty during her bath time, so I get to hear and engage in long stories about the day.

A couple of days ago she was telling me all about their trip to Stodels. She told me about the noise (because of drilling) and how she couldn't go there because it was too noisy, and then the noise stopped, and she fed the animals, then the noise started again, and she fed the bunnies and the goats, and she was there with Jack, and she took Jack's juice which was not yummy and then gave it back to him and took her juice, and there was the train but it only runs on Monday's and Tuesday's (well actually it runs on weekends), and so the story goes. I just keep asking questions because I don't actually know the details of the day and she quite happily prattles away, often in a round about.

Tonight she was telling me that she was supposed to go and buy Coco a new collar but they didn't and she was quite upset about that. And then she was digging in the water for keys (which comes from a Dora episode), and just generally being a sweet girl.

I enjoy the process of her learning to express herself, and it is fun to be a part of that process.

Consistent, loving, disciplined

Grace is having another moment with her swimming lessons. She has been resisting going, saying "No go swimming, no go swimming," and so on, but only with regards to her lessons. Swimming with me is a-okay, let's do that everyday, as far as she is concerned.

Other than the "No go swimming," there is also the crying and unhappiness when we get to swimming and when we start. Normally Grace will settle in and engage once she is in the water, but today she couldn't quite settle. We've been through this all before, so it is a familiar situation.

There is definitely that sense of, "Ugh, do we really have to go through this all again?" Grace knows the situation, she knows and is comfortable with the instructor, and knows that the routine is fixed – we follow the same process each week, which was part of getting over this last time. But things have gotten progressively worse over the past few weeks.

At this point I really believe that it is something that we just need to ride out, a phase that we need to gently work our way through, without losing our way.

A friend summed it up amazingly well. We have to be consistent, loving and disciplined. Consistent not just in our actions, but in our thinking, infusing everything with love, and being disciplined to work through the process, regardless of how difficult it may be.