Hello 2014 | a brief 3 month recap.

Um yes, hello goodbye December, Hello new year, and goodbye January, and here we are in the middle of February. Seriously?

Well, here's a nutshell overview of my last couple of months:

Middle of November we had no holiday plans other than being home for December. This was mainly due to the fact that my husband is in the on-site phase of an engineering project in another province (4hrs drive away). Has been since September 2013, still is.

Then God, who seems to love surprises as much as I do, good ones to be specific, came and blessed me with three unplanned get-aways. This came about as the decision was made for work on site to continue throughout December, and certain weeks at school became optional for the kids.

First up was a week in Dullstroom. This lovely tourist spot in the Mpumalanga countryside was within a daily drive from site (1hr). We were able to get a huge house covered by my husband's accommodation allowance. We loved it there, and we loved being a family in one location, even if we only spent the evenings together.

 Next we were off to KZN for 2 weeks in Durban. The kids and I got to fly (at night, yeah city lights!) to visit my family. Mostly rain and more rain, with a few glorious beach encounters. This was sadly also the time that we as a nation had to say goodbye to Madiba.

Loved driving home together from the airport, after two weeks apart, and hearing for the first time my husband's (now our) current favourite song playing on the radio: Bonfire Heart.

Thereafter a week or so at home (good), keeping Christmas really simple.

And then we got to spend two blissful weeks in Limpopo at a lodge near site. Also fully covered by the accommodation allowance. I was a bit apprehensive about it being in the bush, and when I heard that the kitchen will be outside the house. But we ended up loving our cabin on the river, and especially loving the breezy kitchen in nature. Such a restful time (for me & the kids who had so much freedom exploring on their bikes. Theunis continued to work mostly 12 hrs a day, 7 days a week.)

On New year's day site was closed, and we took a drive to Sabie to hike the waterfalls. Breathtakingly beautiful and the greatest day.

 And then it was back to Jo'burg and real life. Liam started school. Reuben turned 9. And discovered competitive swimming.

I'm nearly done with documenting December in Project Life. Just need to do a major blog catch-up.

I've ordered the Coral kit for 2014, expected soon. Received it, and I am head over heels for this kit! Can only see beautiful pages being made with it. I still have to work on selecting the New Year's pics (a little overwhelming), but otherwise I've been up to date with organising my weekly files for printing once the kit arrives.

I've bought the Jade kit for doing a backdated 2009 album, and love it (too). Well on the way organising that album. (But I still need to finish my backdated 2008 album.)

My recent favourite movie was: "The secret life of Walter Mitty". I caught it at the end of it's running time here and didn't see any trailer before watching it. And then I sat with this huge smile throughout most of the movie. An absolute visual feast. Every single frame - even the unemployment office is beautifully photographed/filmed.

A major spring clean/chuck-out is well underway around here. I'm not the organized type, but loving organised cupboards right now.

And I'm blogging from my laptop for the first time, which is why I'm blogging at all. My computer was just getting way too slow and frustrating. So I'm optimistic about getting back into blogging. Just not quite winning with the link-ups from here.

Indeed, this was a wonderful season for us. And this is about ten posts in one, so I'll stop right here.