Hello my dear blog page.  It’s been too long and I have missed you.

Truth be told, life has felt like a bit of a grind of late.  Or maybe a cycle of weariness would be a better description.  It’s that cycle where you begin your Monday morning work day feeling exhausted after a busy weekend, only to reach Friday feeling absolutely shattered after a hectic week.  And then you fall into a busy weekend again.

But even as I vent some frustration, I am also very thankful.  Clive and I are busy during the week because we both have jobs (Clive has passed the ninety day mark at his new employment so the job is really a thing now!), and our weekends are taken up with working on the house and property that we are blessed to call ours, as well as spending time with our wonderful family and friends.

Our AirBnb has taken off again too.  After a fairly quiet winter season, the last few weeks have brought in several new bookings.  My Sadie scarf has been donned once more, as I’ve cleaned and polished in between guests.  (Funny, that makes it sounds as though I line them all up on a shelf and dust them.  Giggle!)  Clive, meanwhile, has mowed, pruned, ironed and generally kept everything in tip-top shape.  It’s not for the faint-hearted, this AirBnb gig!  But it’s a chosen gig, and a means to an end (hopefully a French one,) and I’m reminding myself that all the hard work will be worth it.  

I am definitely grateful for all these things that keep us so busy.  They are all very good things.  Some days though, I find myself longing to get off the busy bus – just for a bit.  I would really like to sit quietly on a sand dune and gaze out to sea, or to go on long walks in the bush that is almost on my doorstep.  I would love to have time to read a ton about history, to really focus on my French language lessons and most of all, just to sit and write.

But the hours of each day seem to slip away, the days of the week jump from Monday to Sunday in a flash, the weeks tumble so quickly into months and before you know it, it’s almost time to put the Christmas decorations up.  It’s all so jolly exhausting!  Good, but still exhausting

Right, that’s that.  The whinge is done and I have given myself a jolly good shake.

Because now I get to tell you the WOWSA part.

Heir Number One is engaged!  Three weeks ago, he got down on one knee and asked the girl of his dreams to marry him.  And she said “Yes!”.  It was the sweetest of things and I simply cannot begin to explain how happy I am about it.  Happy and still somewhat bewildered, because it feels like a dream come true.  It is a hugely generous answer to years of prayer and, for me anyway, proof that miracles still really do happen!  

These two precious people first met each other as toddlers and then again in high school.  They even shared the same history class for a year.  But although their paths crossed from time to time, for the most part they moved in different circles.  It took the ending of a significant relationship for each of them to bring about a new connection.  And then, my goodness me, how things took off!  It has been wonderful watching their relationship grow and realising just how well-suited they are for each other.   My firstborn is to marry a beautiful, strong and brilliant young woman.  I have never seen him so happy.

So even though the everyday busyness of these last few months has left us feeling pretty exhausted, we are very excited indeed about the new special busyness that comes with all things wedding.  

And as for Heir Number Two; He who is Second in Line to Our Deck Chair?  Well, he has also found himself an amazing young lady.  But that is a story for another time.