Blogging From A To Z Challenge - F

Family is one of my biggest passions!

There is nothing I wouldn't do for my family, I'd walk a million miles to help them out and protect them.

One of my frustrations with family is the perception that you cannot be a family until you have children. The church is particularly bad for this. We struggled with childlessness for 11½ years and so often in that time we were made to feel like we weren't a family simply because we didn't have children.

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - E

One of my passions is eating out which thankfully is shared by my amazing wife. We especially enjoy eating at a decent restaurant and our favourite local is Taste run by good friends Anton and ED, if you're in the area you must go!

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - D

As you may have noticed I'm using the Blogging From A To Z Challenge to blog about the things that I am passionate about.

One of my biggest passions is discipleship in the local church. In a secular sense we're talking about mentoring which basically means getting alongside folk and helping them to make positive choices in their lives and walking the walk with them through those choices. In the local church context it means doing just this but also helping them to know Jesus better by helping them grow in their faith and getting to know and understand the bible. 

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - C

C has to be for Crystal Palace!

My beloved football team.

One of the things I love when the England football team play is that for a while every English football fan gets to understand something of what it's like to be a Palace fan. The England team is full of potential and is not short on talent, they are capable of winning every game they play and yet they so often fail leaving the fans disappointed yet again.

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - B

B is for Bikes.

My bikes are important to me as I'm passionate about cycling and I'm really proud to have passed on a love of cycling to my boys.

I have to admit to not being sure how this happened but between the three of us we have six bikes, a trail-a-bike, a few frames and a mountain of spare parts lying around the place. I guess we ought to think about sorting it out and getting rid of a few bits but if truth be told we won't and the collection will just increase.

Blogging From A to Z Challenge, April 2012

To start at the beginning is always a good thing and so here we are on April the first blogging the letter 'A'.

A is for A to Z Challenge.

For a bit more info on what this is about check out the website or go to the Facebook page.

I've decided to blog about the things that are dear to me so most of my friends will know what the letter C will be about, the rest of you will have to wait until the 3rd.

Down On The Farm

We've just been really blessed with 3 days away on Farmer Koos's farm in Montagu with Grandad and Lesley.

It was great to have some time out away from the usual stresses and strains of daily life and just chill in the middle of nowhere free from the shackles of modern technology.

The best bit of all though is seeing the boys roaming freely and safely on the farm, often accompanied by a pack of dogs and getting up to all kinds of mischief. It really is pure pleasure to watch them chill!

Off To Camp

The next growing up phase in Joel's life started today as he very reluctantly went off on his school camp!  Every year the Years 4, 5 and 6 go to camp for 2 nights and it is apparently often supposed to be the 'making of them'! Joel has not been keen at all and we have had quite a few tears and do I really have to go type comments right up to this morning! So, we both survived the drop off this morning and Mum especially was pleased to see this photo taken of Joel with his mates just before climbing on the bus - even a hint of a smile - so hopefully all will be well!

For My Next Trick...

Having done the Cape Epic in 2009 and achieved a few other goals on my bikes I feel it's time for another challenge.

So here it is, my Nimbus 36" unicycle. The plan is to get fit enough to ride it in the Cape Argus next year 2013 to raise money for Miles 4 Smiles, a charity supported by my boys' school.

I've got a mountain to climb in terms of getting uni' fit, I need to fully master getting on it, especially in front of a crowd and I need to develop my core and thigh muscles to take the strain.

So far the furthest I've ridden on my 36er is a few laps around the school car park which is a million miles from riding the thing up Chapman's Peak or Suikerbossie.

Regardless of how tough it is I'm going to have a lot of fun along the way!

Happy 9th Birthday!

Our amazing miracle celebrated his 9th birthday today and what made the day even cooler than normal was the fact that Grandad had come out with Lesley to help celebrate. What a happy memory that he'll never forget!

We've had a lot of fun which sadly was interrupted by school, though Joel did enjoy seeing his friends and being the centre of attention for a bit.

The day was made even better by getting the things he had asked for, including an mp3 player and even more Starwars Lego and a celebratory meal at Taste restaurant.

All in all a perfect day to be 9.

Birthday Party

Joel had his birthday party a week early to accommodate a top secret event happening this Friday, stay tuned!

What a joy it was as he invited his four best friends from school to join him for a meal at a local restaurant followed by a movie at home and a sleep-over.

After dinner Transformers was the movie of choice with lashings of popcorn (we're still finding it down the back of the sofa - nice!). It was quite amusing watching it with five experts on the subject of Transformers.