ants. perspective.

proverbs 6:6 - go watch the ants, you lazy person.  watch what they do and be wise.

so i'm reading thru proverbs these days and was reminded of this verse this morning while i was watching the ants...the ants...

man, we have a lot of ants!!  for awhile we tried to fight it: ant traps, ant spray, squashing ants, wiping ants, sweeping ants, etc, etc.  but now i think we're more at a place of acceptance and for the most part they go about their work and leave us to ours.  usually our paths cross when they seem to fall from the sky and land on your arm or something.  and the last week, or two weeks ago, we had big trouble with flies!  so i would kill the fly and the ants would come running!  they seem to be so attracted to raw meat...yum! :P

its amazing tho, to sit and watch them for a bit.  they work together as a team sometimes to carry really big things (like 1/2 a fly) or on their own they will carry some chunk of something across a huge expanse!  where are they going, how long will it take them to get there, isn't that heavy, why don't they get discouraged and give up??  these questions go thru my mind...

just one of our many ants :)

this is where the perspective comes in...  am i like that ant?  no, i don't think so.  i feel like i give up so easily.  i feel as tho i only pray for blessings and comfort in life.  i feel as tho when life throws me a long journey or a heavy burden that i give up, that i only see myself, that i don't consider the whole "ant colony."  and the thing is i don't even have to go that journey alone or carry that burden by myself...God is always there!  i don't give him the opportunity to even show me that thru my weakness i am strong, that by putting him and others first i actually reap the most.

God is so good tho!  he gives us so many opportunities to come to him.  he doesn't give up on us.  he wants the best for us, and here's the thing that bothers our human perspective, sometimes that means it won't be easy.  that doesn't mean its bad, that doesn't mean that God is bad, it just means that we don't see the whole picture.  it means that we have to TRUST that God knows what he's doing.  it means we have to release control (another society fighting inclination).  it means we have to let God take the reins...in EVERYTHING!  i think i struggle with the everything bit the most.  i can give certain things to God, the big things really, that's good right?  but what about the little things?  what about conversations with people?  what about my actions towards my family?  what about daily living in a way that brings glory to God and not in a way that i'm "comfortable" with?

wow, guys this is long!  one final thought, i'm praying now for more opportunities to trust God.  (that makes me so scared!)  but i desperately want to be drawn closer to God, to know him so intimately that i couldn't imagine a moment without him.  will you pray it too?  do you want to hunger and thirst for a God that hungers and thirsts for you?

[reposted from Diana's Facebook page / March 24, 2012]

here's what i love: growing things, here's what i hate: growing things

so one of my friends cleverly does her status as, "here's what i love and here's what i hate" all the time.  it's such a fun way of summing up a day or a situation.  often she would do "roses and thorns" with her kids over dinner before she started doing her facebook status updates that way (and maybe they still do...just haven't done dinner with them in a while, sad.).  which if you are unfamiliar with roses and thorns it's the same sort of thing, rose: what did you like about the day, thorns: what didn't you like about the day.  all that to say i often find myself thinking in those terms about something.  so the title of my note comes out of that...

so, i hate gardening.  not sure how many other supporters of that statement are out there but it's never been my favorite.  but let me tell you how much i love plants, flowers, bushes, trees, grass...other green or growing things...love, love, love!  so my cure to this obvious dilemma is to by cut flowers and live in houses where other people are in charge of the gardening. ;)  and yet somehow i find myself living in a rented house and still doing the gardening (our landlady is sneaky!  not sure how she talked us into that!).  for the most part that means we have to "mow" the grass.  i put mow in quotation marks because we don't really mow it.  it is such a small patch of grass that a law mower is not necessary.  steve uses a weed-eater on the whole thing!  and it only takes 15 minutes, maybe.

yes folks this is our "garden". here in sa, garden is used in the same way we americans would say "yard". :)

but the rest of the "garden" (that's what the south africans call a yard) is flower beds with no flowers...sad.  i've just been living with it because why sink a bunch of money into flower beds that you're renting??  and also, did i mention, i hate gardening??  so recently my solution to this problem is 2 fold.  part 1 of the plan is to "steal" plants.  i don't think it's bad, i haven't really decided.  but i walk thru the neighborhood and when there's a plant that seems to be under-appreciated, growing outside the fence, extra-large or something i just grab it.  (is that wrong?  i'm sorry if it is.  i'm still under the impression that's it not.  let me know tho.  i can stop.)  and part 2 of the plan was to entertain aaron.  he seems to really like watering things.  i think my mom got him hooked when we were in the states in june and july.  so i thought, well, i'd be entertaining him anyway might as well be productive at the same time.  so we drag out the hose and the watering-can and we water all our plants.

so far i feel our results are slow coming.  so i rather hate "growing things."  i seem to get little or no development.  i think i've killed a few things, and other things don't seem to be multiplying like i thought they might.  at the same time weeds seem to crop up everywhere!  why is it weeds are the only things that seem to be able to grow without any effort.  so i hate those "growing things" too.  because instead of revealing in the fact that i have lovely things that have just popped up into my garden all on their own and they need no help from me to survive; i have to use extra effort and try to get rid of them!  what kind of cruel twisted fate is this?

duhn da da duhn...super lawn mower man!!

so all those gardeners out there...i'm sorry.  this is not the note for you.  but for everyone else that has ever struggled to accomplish a "garden" and failed or got frustrated in the process, fist-bumps for you!  we're bros for life. ;)

[reposted from Diana's Facebook page / Oct 11, 2011]

spring in september??

it's funny all the differences just living in the southern hemisphere.  people always talk about the toilets flushing backwards...why don't they talk about spring in september?  i mean really who cares which direction the toilet flushes?  how does that affect my life??  i'm waking up these morning feeling the cool air, seeing the beautiful sunshine some days and rain others and thinking in my brain it's fall!  but guess what it's not!  the weather is on it's way to 90 degree (that's 30 celsius for all my south africa readers :)) days!!  flowers are blooming, there's no sight of leaves changing color and yet people are playing football games (in the u.s.) and i have the sudden urge to make chilli.

it's great this being the start of our second year here because there are some things that i know from last year.  not everything will be new this year.  last year at this time we lived in a different house so i find myself reminiscing about some of the things we did/learned when we lived there.  we moved into our house in harfield village last year on december 15.  it was hot!  steve's family was going to arrive soon and be here for christmas then after that it only got hotter.  i have to say it was a difficult time for me.  all my normal scheduled activities were off for christmas/summer break and i was in a new house in a new neighborhood with a 7 month old.  no air conditioning, not even a ceiling fan, our pool was green and it was HOT!  did i mention that it was hot?  so in someways i'm looking forward to a retake on that...finding a new way to survive the summer and hopefully enjoy it more.

but for now, i'm enjoying spring.  i love that the days are lengthening and that we are getting more and more sunny days.  spring and fall (here they only say autumn, they kind of laugh when i say fall :)) are definitely my 2 favorite seasons.  it's funny that i find that they are the hardest to adjust to being during different months.  but they are beautiful!  and so many amazing flowers in the spring!

[reposted from Diana's Facebook page / Sept 23, 2011]

just another day...another dirty shirt.

so i'm sitting here looking out my back door, watching the clean laundry swing in the breeze and dry in the sunny rays.  table mountain is in the background, our grass is too long, and our pool is too dirty but none the less a gorgeous day for clean laundry.  here's the thing, as a mom, maybe it's more oppressive than it would be without kids, but laundry happens everyday...come on guys!  everyday!!  steve gets up and goes to work and does little of this, a little of that, with the intention of completing something each day but a least moving on to a new part of the task.  i get up and stay at "work" and do the same thing every day...laundry!  and dishes, and watch our kid, but mostly laundry.  :)

you know i didn't really start this note to complain about laundry because most days i don't even really mind doing it.  it did take me a long time to get into the swing of things washing the dishes everyday, especially after being used to having a dishwasher but now even that is fine.  i think i started this post tho b/c outside looked so beautiful and sometimes my accomplishments each day aren't that grand.  the other thing is it seems so weird that i sit at my computer typing away emails to people that are so far from that line of clothes, even that mountain in the distance.  how can i communicate to all of you what's going on in our life effectively and personally and constantly without getting bogged down, losing touch with our life here, or spending too much time at it?

communication is like laundry it can become overwhelming or if dealt with in a manageable way it can actually be enjoyable.  i actually love emailing friends and family.  it's hard to do tho because i'm not much of a writer or a sharer or even a very good communicator.  it takes a lot of hard work to come up with great, witty things that i think people might care about.  not all of you are like that...i know!  such clever friends i have. xoxo

anyway, i'm not sure i started this post to end this way either but it did so this is what i'm going to do...if you have any questions or things your interested in about cape town, post them here.  i'll try to answer them and hopefully it will paint a better picture of our life and the place where we live.

cheers! diana

[reposted from Diana's Facebook page / August 10, 2011]