Ebb and flow

In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful.

pomegranates from Wellington

 20 January 2015.

Life is navigating the ebb and flow of things, that's exactly how I feel today. IHYA Teacher training course is still open for registration, IPSA/iLABS starts Orientation for students and Alhamdulillah I am still on the lookout for properties in Schaapkraal and in the Southern Suburbs so we can move. Of course all of this is stressful but also great fun to look at properties even if one cannot afford many of them. The rentals in Cape Town is really over the top and its hard to come by something decent but girl, are their wonderful farms and smallholdings for sale in the western cape. I really would not mind somewhere in Riebeeck Kasteel or the like, its just a bit too far right now. So please keep us in mind if you know of anything.

Generally I am a very optimistic person, I always try to view things from a positive perspective, try to find the life lessons in it, to persevere with patience, to celebrate small mercies and victories and so on and so forth. But when things get really tough, my body sends me signals to get off the world, take better care of myself, eat better, enjoy what is right here and right now. So like many women ( and a few men) once in three years I get really bad case of UTI. When I can feel it starting, I up my doses of green veggies and fruits with high vitamin C but not lots of acid, I cut back on my sugars, drink good fluids such as water and herbal teas etc.

ridge cucumbers

I walked around the garden to see what she has on offer for UTI's and I found ginger and garlic and ridge cucumbers and peppermint and parsley. I know for a fact green juices are the best thing as well as turnips. Somehow my body does not cope too well with antibiotics - my colon goes into a spin, my immune system crashes and so on. But I also need to know when to go for help and to start off with probiotics first.

And then some more bad news, the Awful Cat also attacked the Wolverine, who is limping, wants to take him to the PDSA tomorrow inshaAllah to check it nothing's broken. The Leo is completely healed and the wires come off next week. He so sweet, when Wolverine came inside after his altercation he licked him and nuzzled him and they fell asleep.



swiss chard seed

Anyway, with all that's going on, I sommer did not feel like blogging, not that I don't have anything to say but you know just not lus, ook maar mens. Then I stumbled on a wonderful article: Writing your way to happiness by Tara Parker-Pope and immediately started this post. I peeled and ran the fork down the sides of the cucumber and rinsed with salt, then cut some slices of the cucumbers and started chomping, I made some of that wonderful fruit tea and added ginger and honey.  I went outside to take some pics of the garden. The red chard seeds had dried so I occupied myself with collecting them. Here is some more pics of the beautiful jalapenos, tiny guavas and stunning bug.

 

Jalapenos

new tiny guavas

 

buglife

 

So inshaAllah with Allah SWT's grace the bladder will heal, our kitties will get better and learn to defend themselves. oh Oh and some more good news -iLABS Learning Across Borders has been officially registered as an NPO, yay, Shukran Allah!

Plant food and write your way to happiness and keep your bladders healthy .
Yasmine.

ps. Please let me know if you know of a 3 bedroomed house with garden or some good properties so we can continue our Mili and iStep programmes.