Wishes to you from Africa!

Where ever this may find you our Franzenfam wish is that you would have a wonderful Christmas celebrating our Lord and enjoying family and friends!

Merry Christmas!

Wish List for Moms

Dear Santa,

I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor and sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find any more free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:
I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze, but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store. I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like finger print resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music, a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals or an oversized purple dinosaur. And a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, 'Yes, Mommy' to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting 'Don't eat in the living room' and 'Take your hands off your brother,' because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It wouldbe helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is calling and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch cold. Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.

Yours Always,

MOM

P.S. One more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children, healthy, safe and of course, young enough to always believe in Santa.

Victoria is ff-ree!

Despite the fact that Tori felt her being potty trained was the magical moment turning her ff-ree (three), today was her actual birthday.



What do I say about this precious little girl? She's been unique from the get-go. From a surprise beginning (I'll spare you the details) to a unique birth in a foreign country (click here to read about it) her uniqueness has filled these past 3 years with much joy.



Happy Birthday Victoria Amira, you are my precious baby girl and I love you dearly!


Oh and those permanent bags under my eyes are because of you!

An Early Christmas Present

Tori decided to give me a early Christmas present.............



..................NO MORE DIAPERS!!! Yahoo!!!

It is going to be a hard present to top!

Christmas Tour

My favorite guideline in the Sargent's Holiday Tour is NO creativity. Phew because all mine is zapped with entertaining my 3 kiddos and still dealing with sickness! So in compliance with the Sarge's instructions here is my holiday home tour........

Along with silver and red on my tree, I like stars and snowflakes. One of my main stars is featured in this shot...


Stockings are hung .....


The kid's tree. I prefer to think we have a kid tree and a me tree because I am a cool mom that let's her kids decorate their own tree opposed to the thinking that I am anal and want my tree my way......


The table no one is allowed to eat at (again this has nothing to do with my OCD)......


My own little creation....and hey don't knock it, it is hard to get the ornaments in the right place on the already assembled centerpiece (hee).....


One of my favorite decorations. My mother made this pretty little snow village....


Some of our favorite Christmas stories.......


Another portion of the "kid's corner" that is sweet. All decorations they have recently made and we are continuing to add too...the candles, the nativity, Skyler even created her own book version of the Christmas story....

And I will end this little tour (insert yawn here) with my African Christmas tree that I purchased from a street vendor last year. Thought it was kinda cool.....

Next year why don't you all come over for a personal tour...I might even let you help with the tree.

Mikulash

School's out this time of year and it is summer break. Nov. 30 marked the last day of second grade for Skyler and preschool for Blake.

Typically it is a fun time of year to be out of school with all the Christmas activities plus warm, swimming weather HOWEVER we started it with much infirmity. All 4 of my kids (including the 6’2” one) are on antibiotics….and I probably should be….such a bummer.

Between coughs, naps and nose blows we are trying to keep our spirits up. Today helped as in staying with my Czechoslovakian heritage we opened our Christmas stockings. Every year since I can remember, we've hung our stockings on Dec 5 and Mikulash, “Santa” in Czech, came that night. My parents are in their latter season of life and they still fill each others stockings on the 5th….cute eh?!

I did some research on it once to understand the reason of the tradition and found that actually it is quite a European tradition and many countries observe (Santa, Sinter Claus-Holland, Father Christmas-England) on Dec. 5th. My logical thought would be perhaps he, being Santa, needs the extra time to make it all the way around the world so he starts early in the Europe. After all doesn’t everything start in Europe? hee!

Anyway, I thought it a fun holiday tradition so the Franzenfam is sticking with it. It also spreads out some of the Christmas wealth.

When in the states celebrating with Rich’s family, the non-Czech Grandma, fills the kid's stockings on Christmas Eve like most families. Not to mention Mrs. Czech Claus (my mom) sends the grandkids treats and gifts for Mikulash so on those years my kids get 2 (really 3 with all my mom’s additions) stockings. Out of control, I know!

My kid’s response to the whole stocking tradition….. “We’d like to go with the 2 stocking deal every year”. Yea, what kid wouldn’t?!

Anything fun or special about your stocking tradition?

A Merry Heart

The first day in December on this side of the globe was a festive one. In fact it is one I look forward to all year long. Today marked our annual Christmas party in one of the squatter camps in which we work. It is a fun celebration for those that would not normally partake of the seasonal festivities we often take for granted. Beautiful children living in areas like this…….

So today was their day. And it sure was fun to spoil them with jumping castles, games, face painting, and crafts………..


Sweets, treats and faces full of food…………

Presents like this………………….

And of course the explanation of the REASON for the Season…………

Children left with arms full of goodies, yogurt mustaches and faces aglow......

The Franzenfam has had its share of infirmity this week but tis true a merry heart doeth good like a medicine. What a great day!

Favorite Toy

Tori was recently asked what her favorite toys to play with were.

Her response, "My Daddy".

Oh soo true....daddy provides hours of fun and entertainment. He can be a horse to ride, a storyteller, the tickle monster, a partner for hide-n-seek, a friend for tea, the swing pusher, and the overall spoiler!

Definitely will make Christmas shopping a whole lot easier....and cheaper!

An Old Pro

If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile you may recall my novice experience with my daughter’s ballet and the annual Badge Test. If you want a funny read stop reading this post and go to last year’s badge test post.


Well it was that time of year again and actually contrary to last year I approached Skyler’s test with ease….I did not even need the spirits this year. I felt like an old pro! I’ve even got the hair bun and hairspray plastering down to a record 30 seconds.

Skyler arrived to her test with time to spare. While waiting for her (mom’s aren’t allowed to watch) this year I stretched out in a chair and read my book. From time to time I glanced up to see other mom’s running around in tiff attempting to make their daughter just perfect. It was quite easy to spot the “first timers”. I chuckled wondering how many pro’s sat in the room last year looking at me thinking, “definitely a rookie”!

Well not anymore, in fact I am thinking of starting a mom’s ballet support group for those unsuspecting rookies. Topics to include, “hair buns and hairspray” with a disclaimer -keep away from an open flame, “relaxation breathing”, “purchasing the correct spirits”, and “poise under stress”—how to suppress the urge to cause bodily harm to the ballet instructor.

All the fuss aside I realized I don’t need to stress so much as Skyler exhibits great discipline and beauty in her ballet dancing. She was awarded her second badge (pin really) of merit. I too was awarded a badge (self imposed)..I call it the “Pro Mama Ballet” badge or PMB for short, not to be confused with PMS, of course. An overindulgence of chocolate was enjoyed in lieu of a pin...or perhaps that did have more to due with PMS.

Black Friday

My definition of Black Friday does not include friezed shoppers waking up at an ungodly hour in a rage (literally in many cases) to obtain great deals on Christmas gifts. Mine is more along the lines of Day 3 of having NO internet!

My belated Thanksgiving wishes to those faithful readers but until the "black out" is over I will be playing a lot with my kids, eating T-day leftovers, reading, spending quality time with my husband, exercising and sleeping. Perhaps it would not be a stretch to say I would be a better person if I did not blog. So if I do not have internet how did I post this? Well I may not be on par with being my best but I still have my creativity!

Hope to be back soon!

Monday Madness

One of my early posts when first blogging was of our futile attempt to obtain a decent Franzen family picture. It was actually therapy to post some of the MANY pictures that would not be used on last year’s Christmas card….take a look.

Well we attempted the madness again recently. Those of you with little ones know why this is such a process.

I did not expect my easy-going, fun Tori to be such a toot when it comes to smiling for pictures. It is as if she knows it irks mom so she purposely won’t smile.

Here is a one of us having fun amidst the madness….see she would not even cooperate in a goofy picture...

I am tempted to use it as our Christmas card photo…what do you think?

My Rugga Boy

In SA the school year ends Nov. 30 so my blog absence was not due to the rhino (as Heidi suspected) rather because of the numerous end of the year school activities. So the next few blogs will consist of much bragging and pictures of my two oldest that most likely will only appeal to the grandparents, so fair warning!

My 5 year old played Rugga this year which I explain as ‘little league’ for Rugby. There is no contact or so I thought at this age, they play barefoot (a bit strange to me) and just 30 minutes a week brings my son extreme joy.

Yesterday Rich and I attended Blake’s end of the year Rugga performance. It was really cute. Things started out tame…simple races and ball skills with a rugby ball but by the end there was full on tackling….in all fairness it was still very tame.

Blake was quite the star…not bad for an American for sure! He hit the tackle bag with so much force that an “ohhh” was heard by the other parental units watching. And he was 1 of 2 left standing in a game requiring the participants to run from one end of the field to the other without being tackled.

At the finale they were each awarded a certificate of participation. I was particularly amused at the American football clip art used on the rugby certificate.

I learned two things: My American son is going to fair well at South African sports and that the coach has not mastered the fine art of google.

All African Today

Today's post was inspired by my new African template.........

Bad days are obviously global. Here is what a bad day in Africa looks like....

Especially Thankful this Thursday!

Going with the theme of the month I will share something I am particularly thankful for! If you receive our ministry reports or read Monday’s post than you learned about my mother’s tests on her heart and our requests for prayer.

A month or so ago my mother had some initial tests done on her heart after experiencing chest pains. The report came back that 3 of the major arteries around her heart were almost completely blocked and the prognosis was most definitely heart surgery.

Tuesday the surgeon did some more exploratory tests to further assess if open heart surgery was the only course of action. The results were staggering (aren’t all miracles!). Only one artery showed any sign of clogging opposed to the three from the original tests and it was only ½ clogged. He felt it can be remedied through medication and heart surgery was most obviously not needed.

So was the original doctor on meds when he administered the original tests or did the many prayers of the saints on behalf of Millie reach the throne room and a loving Father did an internal clean up job? You make your own assumptions; I've made mine!

Thank you to the many praying, you helped move a mountain in my mom’s life (heart) and for that I am particularly thankful!

Wacky Wednesday

Meet my brother's youngest little guy, Mark or as Tori would say, "Mawkie". These two were little buds when we were back in the States. Tori continues to talk about her Mawkie!
not so wacky yet I realize...read on...

We took care of Mawkie one of the days at the beach. He seemed to take on a whole new look....



I guess that is the wacky part. See the things that happen when I am left to care for 4 children (my 3 plus this little cutie)....I definitely go a little wacky!

The real use for a golf cart

It is amazing the uses one can come up for a golf cart other than golf. My parents have a golf cart…does my dad golf you might ask…no! For my parents and their sweet little retirement community the golf cart is the main form of transportation.

Pretty much anything one would need…food, stores, Cold Stone and yes, even Starbucks is accessible via a golf cart. You can imagine this came as quite a delight for my little ones while visiting Grandma and Grandpa.

Golf cart rides were requested from sun up to sun down. Grandma would take them on rides to feed the ducks. Grandpa would take them on rides to the swimming pool to swim. Daddy would take them on rides to get ice cream. Me, I didn’t take them anywhere I had “me” time while everyone else was riding around on the g.c. Selfish I know but at least they were having fun while I was being selfish.

On another note, my mother, Millie, is having outpatient, exploratory surgery on her heart tomorrow. The surgeon is attempting to determine how serious the issues are and if she will need more invasive surgery or not. We are praying for the latter!! Would you please add your prayer of agreement and for smooth sailing tomorrow?! Thank you, it is much appreciated!!

What a day!

What kind of day begins with pancakes made with fresh blueberries and real maple syrup, a hot cup of Starbucks coffee accompanied by a bouquet of spring flowers served while still in bed?

What kind of day is strewn throughout with sweet cards made by children, happy emails, and familiar voices calling on the phone?

What kind of day lends a special dinner out with hot guy and ends with a card game with good friends and homemade smoothies?

AND on what kind of day does one get awesome gifts of a Starbucks french press to-go mug and a massage footbath…..



…….A birthday!!! Tuesday I woke up to a wonderful day full of surprises and treats in celebration of my 37th b-day! “Happy birthday to me…happy birthday to me….happy birthday to meeeee”….sing with me now…come on I can hear you—louder! Okay I know it is over but one can still wish eh?!

To my wonderful husband and precious children as well as all the family and friends who gave a shout out to me on this day….thank you! I loved it…too bad everyday wasn't like Tuesday (minus the turning older part).

Wordless Wednesday

The Sky is Falling

Friday happened to be a rather cold and wet day in Joburg. Cold probably doesn’t sound strange to you as it is fall for most of you and temps are dropping. Here we are headed into summer and temps have been in the 80’s so when we woke up to 50 degree weather it felt a bit winter like.

Friday afternoon the kids and I were cuddled up on the living room floor playing a game of Cadoo, I was just sharing that rainy days can be fun days and this was kind of nice. The only thing in my opinion that would make it better would be a heater. All our heaters were packed away; I mean why would one need them in the summer time?! So I gave a diplomatic suggestion to my husband who was working from home that one would be nice. He has learned after 13 years of being married to me that my diplomatic suggestion of, “we should get a heater out” actually means “he should get a heater out”. So he went to the flat to retrieve one. *Our flat is a self-contained one bedroom that is not attached to the house.

Not more than 30 seconds passed when Rich returned in a panic. “Michelle, I am gonna need some help here.” Marci our staff member was in the office and heard the tone in Rich’s voice and jumped up to investigate with me. As we walked into the flat a large portion of the roof was caved in and water was pouring and I mean pouring in. We frantically ran around trying to get the electrical appliances out while Rich was trying to figure out how to stop the gush. A thought occurred to me during the mayhem that although it was raining outside it wasn’t raining that hard and all the sudden the gush retreated to a trickle. It wasn’t the rain that caused the break after all, one of the hot water pipes burst.

So we spent the next hour attempting to sweep/mop up the water… I couldn’t help but laugh especially as my daughter artfully exclaimed, “but I thought God said He would never flood the earth again.” My husband did not find much humor in the circumstances, we have had so many things that have gone wrong with this house lately..he is finished (as they would say here). I felt the saying “when in rains it pours” was quite apropos. Just makes me believe that something good is just over the bend! And this is the one time when it is nice to be renting.

Anyway that is my Monday morning version of “the Sky is falling!” And as an added bonus here is a picture of Marci merrily sweeping away the unwanted H2O.

Family Friday

In light of our recent jaunt to the states to see fam, I thought I would introduce them all to you. (and it worked nicely with the double consonant title)

A quick note to some of my family members as I can already hear you saying, "I can't believe she posted that picture, I look terrible". I wanted to use pictures from the actual trip not Olan Mills....you don't look terrible and even if you did none of my readers know you (most don't even know me) so you have nothing to worry about. (I am sure that pacified them.....hee)


My 3 kids and my bro's 4 kids. The littlest one pictured is Ella, our friend's daughter. David, Missie and Ella are not blood related however they are definitely family! The kids had a ball together!

Me and my big bro, Andy. He is a great guy, great brother and great vacation planner.

My mom (aka "Mil") and my crazy bunch.

My dad (aka Vern) and Skyler

And Rich's mom, Jackie and his sister Jen, joined us at the beach. So glad we got to see them!




Tori looks like a blond Jenny when Jen was young. She definitely will have her looks to fall back on eh?

Great Family....Good Times.....Glorious Memories!