Cremora Tart

I copied Antje's Cremora tart recipe and made it yesterday for tomorrow's book club! I have the privilege of hosting it this month and Shirley has kindly said that I can use her house as our venue! Have had special little Herbazone gift packs made up for each lady and also plan a lucky draw!
Should be fun!

A Bitter Pill To Swallow!

For about a month, I have been feeling really whacked to the point where I was falling asleep at my desk or even while talking to someone, my eyes just could not stay open. Shamefully, I had Sunday Lunch with Chris and Bev a couple of weeks ago and ended up sleeping a full 3 hours in their spare room! On top of the fatigue, I was struggling so with severe mouth ulcers, which as usual, results in a very poor appetite and so down the spiral went! Finally I went to see Mark, a Dr and one of the elders in the church who very kindly treats me. I was certain I had some kind of infection which was causing such severe fatigue. After giving me a good check over, he simply looked at me and told me that I was over exerting myself.
I found this very hard to believe and insisted on having blood tests done, which all came up clear, apart from an iron deficiency!!

Needless to say that apart from a weekly Cell group and my girls Bible study, I have cut out all other Bible studies and cut down on other commitments. I now try and keep my daily afternoon appointment with my bed!
I am already starting to feel better and have to admit that Mark may have been right after all!
God did not bless me with a half day job for nothing! I suppose my mind is so active that I often forget that this earthly body can't keep up! I must admit that it has been a humbling time!!!
As usual my church family have been absolutely wonderful! Shirley made a whole lot of vegetable juice with beetroot, spinach and carrots to try help with the deficiency!

"Helping Hand Award"

A few weeks ago I was invited to breakfast at Maropa Casino by the National Council for Persons with Disabilities, South Africa. The breakfast was held in order to thank all who put extra effort into selling Casual Day Stickers last year.
I really was not all that enthusiastic about going, especially as it was during working hours and, after all, I had attended the same breakfast the previous year! However, APD refused to take "no" for an answer and even phoned my employer to ask permission for me to attend the breakfast!!!
Well, much to my surprise, I received a "Helping Hand" award on behalf of Northern Academy! Between all staff and children we managed to sell 3481 stickers in 2009. That is R34 810.00, which we managed to raise for disabled people in need.

WELL DONE NORTHERN ACADEMY!!

A New Venture

I received a very generous gift of R300 for my birthday from Lynn Smith! I used this money to become a Herbazone agent. For R299 I received a complete kit and the 'go ahead' to start selling! Since I joined, I have not looked back! Just the structure of how it all works and what is required of me as an agent suits me perfectly!!! I have already made my R299 back and I have already sold enough this month in order to qualify for my 30% discount next month!!! Above all the product is almost completely natural and I am enjoying and benefiting from using it myself!

This is really a blessing. Especially as I sent my electric wheelchair in to be serviced (2nd time in 4 years) only to find that the two front wheels, the two small back safety wheels as well as the whole left arm had to be replaced! What had happened was that a whole lot of boxes of books fell on to the chair during our busy season (when storage space is really tight) and damaged it badly. However, even in this God has been so gracious as it seems as if the total costs for fixing it may only be R500. The bonus is that it is being returned to me today!!! I am so grateful!!!

Anica & Tigger

It is so good to be back. Have once again struggled for three weeks without a proper internet connection. However, seeing as I am not anyone's wife, I decided to become a REAL drip! I irritated the poor IT guys so much that eventually my connections were fixed and for their trouble, I am truly grateful. It is scary how we have come to depend so much on the net.

Last week Marius & Astrella brought little Anica for a visit!
She was very intrigued with Tigger. Tigger normally disappears when Anica comes to visit but this time he was very chilled.

So Anica didn't took the opportunity to stalk the big fur ball which was lying next to her...She was very happy to finally touch himand even to get a taste of his tail!

My Biggest Loser

When I returned from my trip to Jhb in December, I was HORRIFIED to see how much weight my angel with fur had put on! He weighed a whopping 8.1kg's!!!
What had happened was, he decided that he preferred the taste of my parent's cats food, who in turn took a liking to his food (which is special diet food for Gaul stones). So of course Tigger scored big time because not only did he have TWO plates of food to gobble up but my parent's cats get fed twice a day and Tigger only once. SO he was having TWO plates of food TWICE a day!!! He really did have feast of a holiday while I was away!
When I returned, I immediately made it my mission to get Tigger's weight down again (not an easy task)! I fed him his portion bit by bit throughout the day to ensure that the hunger pains wouldn't be too overwhelming for him. I picked the other cats food up during the day while the were outside. I basically just ensured that the right cat ate the right food and in just 16 days, Tigger had lost 700 grams, The following picture is just to give you an idea:

I am not sure what he weighs now as we are back in Polokwane and I am not able to weigh him myself, but I am pretty sure it is not more than 7kg's!

Picking up the Batten once again!!!

At long last, I am able to pick up the batten and post snippets again. While at home, I couldn't do much blogging as I didn't want to use up all my parents monthly MB's. After my exciting trip to JHB I enjoyed a couple of quite weeks of just sitting in a comfy chair with my nose in a book.

I started work again last Monday and since, it has been all systems go! Poor Rahab, my helper is on sick leave as she had a pot of boiling oil fall over her legs on New Years Day.
Although I knew that it would be really hard without her, especially during the 'back to school' rush, I purposed to focus on trusting God to provide the fast, reliable and trustworthy help which I needed. Well God was so very gracious and He blessed me with THREE really good helpers.

At the end of last year, while the Marking Centre was operating, (much to my despair) Rahab was taken away from me to work at the centre. However, little did I know that God was using that time for me to train someone else to help me. In His Sovereignty, He knew that Rahab would be on leave and that I would need someone else. God's love for us constantly blows my mind.

By God's grace, we made it through the first week and a half. We did over R400 000.00 worth of sales and I have provided over 80 teachers with stationery. Now just enjoying catching up on my other work!