The early bird catches the worm

“I am sorry to have to tell you that your son has done something awful again today. He put a worm on a girl’s hair. He also then sucked a worm….”

Oh man this just cracked me up!

After reading a tense email telling me in no uncertain terms to talk to my son about his disgusting behaviour, I promptly burst out laughing at the tone my son’s headmistress used in her email to me.

It was so comical! Petty, but comical!

Because as we all know, 10 year old boys are sweet, quiet, clean little darlings who should shudder at the mere thought of picking up a worm and certainly not chase girls around the playground.

Whatever next? Tree climbing? Mud pies? Simply shocking I tell you!

However I decided to at least reprimand him for the worm-in-mouth thing. That was a bit gross…
Although as my Mum pointed out, what do you expect when kids see shows like Survivor and ‘I’m a celebrity, get me out of here!’

It’s was a valid point. Still I wanted to at least be consistant and firmly mention that perhaps worm foolery on school grounds is not the best idea.

And then hubby came home and said
‘What’s this I hear about worms?’ in a big booming voice before they both collapsed in fits of laughter.

I gave up at this point and made supper.

Bring on the sunshine

With all the stress and stupidity that I’ve had to deal with lately I have totally forgotten to mention that the boys and I are jetting over to Cape Town. Oh happy days!

I don’t really know what to expect. It’s been four years, there is some random stadium being built, friends of mine have partners, husbands, kids I’ve never met as well as some with kids who will have grown up a wee bit. Not to mention my sister and my lovely niece and nephew! It’s all very exciting stuff.

My skin will be layered in factor 1 billion to compensate for the total lack of sun over the past 4 years. Especially seeing as everyone over there has just gone through a whopper summer (or so I hear). Major tan envy!

Lil fella has been trying to practice his South African accent. Walks past me the other day….
‘Howzit, Ja” he said
‘Huh? What the heck was THAT’ I asked, confused by the geezer-slash-twang-mixed-with-bad-hollywood-version-South-African accent.
Sounding slightly put out, he replied, ‘Mum, I’m doing South African…. Touch, pause, ENGAGE!’
‘Oh no no no, I don’t want to engage!!!!..’ I yelled as a 10 year old ball of fury came hurtling toward me.

A few minutes later from the lounge floor I looked over at the mini-Saffa.
‘Boy, you are South African. You don’t have to pretend.’
‘But Mum! I sound so ENGLISH! I can’t arrive there sounding English!’

Heaven forbid.

We all have our own ways of preparing for a holiday. Now if you’ll excuse me I have a vat of sun cream to pre-order for pick up on arrival…

Worry wart

Sometimes when things start going wrong, I tend to get my motherly knickers in one massive knot. I’ll almost always end up feeling like I should have done something better, quicker or sooner. It’s that horrible thing called responsibility, and the sickening feeling that you’ve let the most important people in your life down.

The biggest issue with this way of thinking is that it very quickly spirals out of control until you end up beating yourself up not only for your own mistakes (damn, forgot to get milk, didn’t do the washing last night etc) but you start second guessing everything you do and start doubting your own decisions.

This morning, after a good couple of weeks of sleepy badly, waking up worried about something, and generally spending most of every day feeling slightly sick, I woke up and decided that’s enough now.

Call it an epiphany or whatever, but I worry about little things because the big things in life are sorted.

I found my soulmate over 10 years ago.
I have the most wonderful son.
I have parents who love me.
I have a sister who loves me.
I have lovely in-laws I don’t fight with.
I have a brother-in-law who thinks I’m good for his brother.
I have rocking friends around the world.
I have a job.
I have a brilliant holiday coming up.
I have excellent health.

My worry stems from getting screwed up about small blips in my life. I have no business being worried.

And as for being better, faster and more sorted? Yeah, I’ll get there. Maybe.