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2016 The recap
It’s a new year and a new season and I’m still tired. Okay, let’s scratch that. It’s no way to start my first blog post for 2017! How about: Hey friends! Happy new year! Okay, that sounds better. 2016 has been a pretty eventful year in the life of my spreadsheet brain. I thought that we should go over all the highs and lows of the year in a “2016 the recap” kind of style. Sounds like fun right? Here goes: -
Pregnancy: Things people don’t tell you about the first trimester
The thing about finding out that you are pregnant is that you think you’re going to hang around, living your life and having fun, before the preggy signs and symptoms kick in. Not true. Not true at all. There’s a bunch of stuff that people don’t tell you about the first trimester of pregnancy. I mean, before I knew that these symptoms were an actual thing, I thought that I was simply being dramatic. Do you feel that way, pregnant fairy? Well, I’m here to tell you that you are NOT dramatic at all. Call me the preggy myth buster if you must. These first trimester feelings that you’re having are all totally legit! -
Aack! We’re having a baby!
We’re having a baby! That’s right! Hubstopher and I will officially be parenting a collective of 4 children, as of next year June-ish. AAACK! How did that happen?! Well, I’m sure you all know how it ‘happened’. *awkward silence* -
Looking for a house to call home…
To say that we are ‘homeless’ is an outrage because we actually have a roof over our heads, while some have none. But we’ve been in “home limbo” for the few months now – and it sucks!We moved out of our old place a few months ago and due to reasons (out of our new landladys control) we’ve had to postpone moving into our new home. This is why owing your own property is important, kids!
Eventually, after a lot of back and forthing, we took it as a sign from the Lord that the new place was not the one for us. It was such an anti-climax, but it made sense. I mean, why all the delays? Anyways, we had a chat with the landlady (who is very nice btw). She was so understanding about it, apologizing for the delays etc. But I think we both realized that this wasn’t the one for us. It was back to the drawing board for team Williams.
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To Hubstopher, on his birthday
Today the man that I call Hubstopher celebrates a birthday. To him it’s just another day. To me, it’s a reason to celebrate his life and all that he means to us. You see, the thing is this, he often disregards all the wonderful attributes that make him unique and wonderful to me… things like being able to forgive someone who wronged him 5 minutes ago or offering to give someone a ride home, even when he is utterly exhausted or can’t afford it. Stuff like that. Being able to put another persons needs before yours may seem like the trait of a meek personality, but in my opinion it is one of the bravest, boldest characteristics to have.
He has a lot of friends… so many that we almost had 10 groomsmen in our wedding party. People enjoy being around him. He’s the guy who would stop to chat, in the middle of a shopping mall. (When I’m trying to bob and weave past people, because I have things to do!) He loves people! And he’s good at making them feel loved.
He is super, duper creative and an excellent musician. This guy can play more instruments than I have grey hair (so that’s like, a lot) and he is a top notch producer. He is extremely smart and most times would play his brilliance down, because he always feels like there is so much more to still learn and do.
My Hubstopher is the guy who would say “Okay, how can I fix it” if a complication arises. And if someone walks all over him he shrugs his shoulders and defends “ag, it’s okay.” Not because he is to weak to fight back. But rather because he is to smart to fight back. And hey, real talk, I sometimes don’t understand it and try to force him to stand his ground. But to him it’s just a whole lot of work doing something that is not going to give the right results. He always chooses peace, over ‘being right’. That’s wisdom right there.
My Hubstopher is the guy who would give up his last because he is that confident that God will provide his next. He’s the guy who laughs at the dumbest things (seriously, sometimes I’m just over here like “whaaa?”) but he’s also the guy that would shed a tear, quietly, when a friend loses a parent.
And hey, don’t get me wrong… the guy’s not perfect. He has his flaws – we all do. He’s made mistakes. But his finer qualities far outweigh his weaknesses, in my opinion. And in times of struggle, I’ve seen him choose life, over and over again.
My Hubstopher is a wonderful father to our kids. He loves our daughter so fiercely that she’ll probably still believe that she is a beautiful princess, way into her 20s. And it would be true. Our sons adore the living daylights out of him. Sometimes, I’m just over here like… “you guys know I’m one of your parents too, right?” He sees them all as unique and gives them exactly what they need, emotionally.One of my favorite things about him is that he gives so much of himself to my son, even when Kyle has an attitude. Instead of being an angry step father, he’ll look Kyle straight in the eye and say “Kyle, I love you and I only want what’s best for you.” He also has an undeniable bond with his own son. The boys adore him. He is more than okay that Seth has a step dad… another dad… in his life. He sees it as a bonus that there are 2 strong, Godly men in Seth’s life, shaping and influencing him. That says so much about his character.
He is gentle and passive but also extremely passionate about the things that are important to him. I probably don’t say this enough but I am so thankful for him. My man allows me to shine my light, without getting jealous or insecure about it. In fact, he’s the one who pushes me to shine brighter!
Happy Birthday to my Christopher – he’s the best of the best, he’s the greatest! 🙂 #mushymoment *andscene*
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World Hunger Month: Adding hope at Oosterland Youth Centre
October 1st will mark the start of World Hunger Month. Yes, a whole month to focus on hunger. In my opinion 1 month is not enough, yo! Did you know that over 11 million South Africans do not have access to proper nutrition and go to bed hungry every night? The saddest thing is that 3.1 million of these are kids. I was shocked to learn that hunger kills more people every year than AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis combined. Woah, that’s a scary way of looking at it. I mean, AIDS, not so easy to fix. Hunger, we can fix. Why are we not fixing it? -
My spreadsheet brain VS Life
The thing about having a spreadsheet brain is that I want my life to be like that too. You know, ruled and equated by formula; Easily sorted in numerical or alphabetical order; Colour coded at the click of a button. So you can imagine the amount of smoke signals exiting my ears these past few weeks as I said goodbye to a career that I had known for almost 10 years, for something completely different!WARNING! WARNING! UNIDENTIFIED DATA FOUND IN THE SYSTEM! ABORT MISSION!
Okay, that might be a tad bit dramatic. But it pretty much summed up my thought process as I bid farewell to the comfortable. Suddenly, nothing made sense anymore. My formulas were not adding up and the sort function had malfunctioned. Nothing was the same! Aaack! Change! Everything’s chaaaanging! Damn you, Stefano DiMera!
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I quit my job
I quit my job. Or a more gentler phrase would go: “I resigned”.
After 10 and a half years of service, I made the
biggigantic decision to leave a desk that had become my comfort zone. Today is actually my last day at my old office. And boy does it feel weird. I guess the correct term is “bittersweet”. I thought I would feel more pumped up, but I’m pretty sad! It’s that feeling of: AACK, things are about to change! -
“Being married sucks!” I told him
The other night, while in heated debate (let’s call it a heated debate, okay?) with my Hubstopher about something so mundane I can’t even remember what the topic was anymore, I said to him “I don’t know WHY people want to get married! Being married sucks!”
Yes, I said those words. Mainly to shock him into saying that he was wrong this whole time and that he can’t believe he has such a wonderful, beautiful wife. Instead, he fumed off and we didn’t speak to each other for the longest time.
Until it was bed time. Ah yes, then everything changed.
Why? Well, dear readers, because it’s Winter. And if ever there is a time that married folk enjoy the fact that they are married, it’s during those chilly Winter evenings. (Husbands and wives, hollar!) So that night, we got into bed (I promise, I’m keeping this post PG13) still angry, staying as far away from each other as possible, silently daring the other to as much as put a small toe on the wrong side of the bed! This lasted for all of 10 minutes until I felt Hubstopher slowly make his way over to my side. He snuggled up behind me and breathed a content sigh of “ahhhh, now I can sleep”.And that’s when I roundhouse kicked him, in the face, back to his side of the bed.
Bhaaaa who am I kidding, I let him snuggle. Nah, I snuggled right on back!As I lay there savoring the moment and falling asleep to the rhythm of his silent snores, I thought to myself: THIS is why people get married. Not for the companionship or the body heat. Though, those are definite pluses. No, you get married because you love this other person so much, that even if they made you super angry an hour ago, none of it would matter at the end of the day. Your marriage becomes your safe place and no matter how much your husband annoys the living daylights out of you (how does that work? I mean, what is living daylights anyways?) nothing is more important than having a right relationship with him and nothing beats having him snuggle up behind you at night.
So yes, marriage has it’s sucky times. Especially after you’ve had a baby, and everything changes, including your level of patience! (You can read more about that in an article I wrote for Lady Qs). Yep, marriage has it’s difficult moments where compromising feels like the worst idea in the world and having your way is the ONLY right way. It can get challenging when this other person does things differently to how you would. But it is there, in the mess of trying to make two completely different people live as one – in unity because they CHOOSE to be – where you will find the absolute sweet spot of a good marriage.
Needless to say, we woke up the next morning, and the heated debate had become a distant memory… unimportant… exactly what it was in the first place.
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Curly update: How to shine your light (with a needle in your arm)
Big smiles at Kingdom Kids sunday school (Photo: Tyio Pretorius Word of Faith SA) It’s Friday and I could not be more happy that this week is coming to an end. Our Curls had to go for blood tests again this week and as you know, blood draw days are MEH! But this girl has the “shine your light” super power, I’m convinced!
