Monday, July 28, 2008

Taking a break

I've decided I'm going to take a break from blogging for a bit. I'm exceptionally busy at work as well as homelife is getting a bit overwhelming.
So if you will excuse me.... I'll see you on the flipside...ttfn.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Booking Through Thursday

Beginnings July 24, 2008
Filed under: Wordpress — --Deb @ 1:55 am

Suggested by: Nithin
Here’s another idea about memorable first lines from books.
What are your favourite first sentences from books? Is there a book that you liked specially because of its first sentence? Or a book, perhaps that you didn’t like but still remember simply because of the first line?

Oh oh- It MUST be 1984 by George Orwell-
The clock striked 13

I was so struck by this that I put the book down and thought about it for a whole day. lol

I was totally intrigued.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Learn-A-Word Wednesday

Learn-A-Word Wednesday: mephitic \muh-FIT-ik\

adjective:
1. Offensive to the smell; as, mephitic odors.2. Poisonous; noxious.
Mephitic is the adjective form of mephitis, “a foul-smelling or noxious exhalation from the earth; a stench from any source,” from the Latin.



Ha- I was just thinking this mornibg- that I dont dare make boiled eggs in our house anymore. It turns into a fart competition between dad and son.
First Pierre starts, then Andrew goes. And they both pack up laughhing. I swear....boys.LOL

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Copycat

Because I'm a copycat and I love books- I' "lifted" this from Jenty's blog. LOL

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read
2) Italicize those you started but did not finish.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Highlight the ones you still want to read but just have not had a chance yet!
5) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve read 6 or less and force books upon them.

1. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
2. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
3. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
4. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
5. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
6. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
7. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
8. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
9. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
10. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
11. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
12. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
13. His Dark Materials (trilogy) - Philip Pullman
14. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
15. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
18. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
19. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
20. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
21. Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
22. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
23. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
24. Animal Farm - George Orwell
25. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
26. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
27. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
28. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
29. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
30. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
31. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
32. Complete Works of Shakespeare
33. Ulysses - James Joyce
34. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
35. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
36. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
37. The Bible
38. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
39. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
40. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
41. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
42. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
45. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
46. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
47. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
48. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
49. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
50. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
51. Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott
52. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
53. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
54. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
55. Middlemarch - George Eliot
56. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
57. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
58. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
59. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
60. Emma - Jane Austen
61. Persuasion - Jane Austen
62. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
63. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
64. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
65. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
66. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
67. Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
68. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
69. Atonement - Ian McEwan
70. Dune - Frank Herbert
71. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
72. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
73. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
74. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
75. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
76. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
77. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
78. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
79. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
80. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
81. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
82. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
83. Dracula - Bram Stoker
84. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
85. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
86. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
87. Germinal - Emile Zola
88. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
89. Possession - A.S. Byatt
90. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
91. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
92. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
93. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
94. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
95. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
96. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
97. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
98. Watership Down – Richard Adams
99. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
100. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

Monday, July 21, 2008

Menu Plan Monday

I'm really enjoying the house husband, I must admit- he does all the cooking, as long as I think out the meals. Whoohoo With Pleasure!
Monday- Lasagne
Tuesday- Estefado
Wednesday- Soup and bread
Thursday- Roast chcken and veggies

Sunday, July 20, 2008

A new era

has dawned in our house. The BARBIE era.
My mom gave Carmen a barbie doll and she loves it!! In fact she goes nowhere without the doll.
I remember fondly my Sindy Doll- we had Sindy's because Barbies weren't available- and to me that is of course still the prettier doll.lol
But I cant wait to shar the barbie doll craze with Carmen-my sister and I made endless outfits for our Sindy's. I can see a lot of fun coming our way. :)

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Fathersday


Carmen's creche had a fathersday this week for the dads. Carmen and dad loved it. Here is a pic of madam very happy with daddie around

Friday, July 18, 2008

Four Foods on Friday

Four Foods On Friday 38
Here are this week’s four questions. If you’ve got a working sniffer you can play.
#1. Fruits and veggies. Do you prefer them peeled or not?
Not peeled- I like the skin
#2. What’s your favorite fresh fruit or vegetable smell? Guavas
#3. What’s the worst food smell you’ve ever smelled?
urgh-something that has gone off- for sure
#4. Share the recipe for the dish that you love to smell cooking in your oven.
Garlic mushrooms- njam!!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Booking Through Thursday

Vacation Spots July 17, 2008
Filed under: Wordpress — --Deb @ 6:38 am

Another question inspired by the Bunch of Grapes on Martha’s Vineyard having burned down on the Fourth of July.
Do you buy books while on vacation/holiday?
Do you have favorite bookstores that you only get to visit while away on a trip?
What/Where are they?

Funny enough I mostly buy magazines on holiday- to try and do that elusive crossword, or read that interesting article-nothing too long- as my attention span is not very long on holiday.lol
Pre-kids Pierre and I liked to scratch around in bookshops whenever we came accross one- but with two kids in tow it is a bit difficult

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Crazy

I have been so crazy busy this week- I wont even try to catch up- suffice to say- I missed my blog. LOL
I kept on thinking about things I should write- but just didn't get a minute.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Four Foods on Friday

Four Foods On Friday 37 questions
Here are this week’s four questions. We’re having my youngest son’s ninth birthday party today so I’m going with four questions about parties.
#1. Cake. Buttercream, whipped cream or ice cream?
Buttercream -njam
#2. When entertaining do you use real, paper, plastic or styrofoam dishes?
Kids-paper, Grownups- real
#3. When hosting a party do you cook, have it catered or go to a restaurant?
Cook- mostly braai though (bbq)
#4. Share a recipe that you frequently serve when having a party.
Green salad- haha

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Booking Through Thursday

Doomsday July 10, 2008
Filed under: Wordpress — --Deb @ 1:56 am

One of my favorite bookstores burned down last weekend, and while I only got to visit there while I was on vacation, it made me stop and think.
What would you do if, all of a sudden, your favorite source of books was unavailable?
Whether it’s a local book shop, your town library, or an internet shop … what would you do if, suddenly, they were out of business? Devastatingly, and with no warning? Where would you go for books instead? What would you do? If it was a local business you would try to help out the owners? Would you just calmly start buying from some other store? Visit the library in the next town instead? Would it be devastating? Or just a blip in your reading habit?



Since I source my books from various places-bookstores,more than one internet shop and friends it would be just a blip on my reading habit. I would just move on to the next book provider.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Learn-A-Word Wednesday

Learn-A-Word Wednesday: mazy \MAY-zee\

adjective:
Resembling a maze in form or complexity; winding; intricate; confusing; perplexing.
By now some 20 characters are caught in the turns and baffles of Mr. Dunne’s mazy plot.– George Stade, “A Fisherman of Guilt”, New York Times, March 28, 1982
Mazy is the adjective form of maze, which comes from Middle English mase, from masen, “to confuse, to daze,” from Old English amasian, “to confound.” It is related to amaze, which originally meant “to bewilder.”


Amazing I wonder where this word originally originated from. LOL
Mind you that's how I feel when I wake up in the mornig and there is no electricity.
BEWILDERED - because I cant have any coffee- lol. And the kids are moaning because they want cereal.
Thank goodness for gas camping stoves!! And Pierre always being well prepared for these eventualities.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

American Blogs

I dont follow specific American blogs, but it does seem to me that the blogs I do stumble upon from time to time writes about an American society vastly different from the one presented to us through mass media .ie films,magazines,newspapers etc.
The one thing I have noticed is that Americans seems quite religous. I wonder why this doesn't get reflected in films you see about American life?
I have a friend who lives in the States and she reckons it is as a result of 9/11 that most Americans have returned to some sort of organised religion.
The other thing I have noticed is how hugely family orientated Americans are . Now you do see this coming through from time to time but mostly it doesn't get represented as a core value.
Interesting hey? I wonder what other cultures have noticed about South Africans.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Menu Plan Monday

I dont know if we will have much of a menu plan this week as we woke up with no electricity, but here goes
Monday: Roast chicken and salads from Woolworths- as we have no electricity
Tuesday: Lasagne
Wednesday: Soup
Thursday: Chicken Stew

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Carmen

Carmen had such a ball today with Connor. She kept on calling him "her" baby.
Eventually, as all girls do- she shared her dolls with him. Connor pulled his nose up at this. Carmen looked all perplexed until I said to her- that's boys for you.
She just shook her head and said BOYS. LOL- it was too cute.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Saturday

Andrew has been complaining on and of from toothpain. Friday night it got very sore and he refuses to take stopain because it stills "burns" him because of his feverblister.
So I had to find a dentist very quickly on Saturday. Which meant we had to miss a Birthday party (sorry Laura!)
It turns out he has a cavity which the doc filled with temporary filling as his fever blister prevented the dentist from fiddling too much around in his mouth. We have to go back in two weeks time once the feverblister has gone, to put in a permanent filling.
Poor pumpkin cried a bit,but afterwards said the doc didn't hurt him. Brave child.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Friday

Four Foods On Friday 36 questions
Here are this week’s four questions. Once again I’m going with four questions , but this week the questions are all about you.
#1. Name your biggest cooking influence.
Pierre and secondly his brother- whose a chef- and taught me PATIENCE with cooking.lol
#2. What is your ultimate comfort food?
Chocolate
#3. Name one must have tool that you think every kitchen should have.
A GOOD knife
#4. Share a time saving tip.
Dont let the kids help with the cooking- lol

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Booking Through Thursday

Holidays July 3, 2008
Filed under: Wordpress — --Deb @ 1:36 am

It’s a holiday weekend here in the U.S., so let’s keep today’s question simple–What are you reading? Anything special? Any particularly juicy summer reading?

I'm reading a book called "The 7 Powers of Questions" by Dorothy Leeds.

It is a book that shows you how powerfull questions can be and how they can change a bad situation to good.


Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Sleeping in the same room

I've been thining about letting the kids sleep in the same room for quite a while now. Whenever we go on holiday the kids share a room with no problem. When one wakes up the other just sleeps on. So I thought I would try it at home. Ha ha. When the one wakes up so does the other- and both start crying to match each other.
Now I dont know if I should just persist or keep them in their own rooms- it would be real handy to have the other room as study space.
*Sigh* - What to do,what to do
In the meantime I've found this real cool looking bunk bed- it's a bit pricey though.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Religous instructions

We are not the most religous of people, but Andrew told us this week that if you dont listen to GOD he will send you to the police.
Sounds about right to me.
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