Tag Archives: growing

Oribi Mom

Oribi Mom: Dirty Footmarks on White Passage Walls

The author said it feels like time is flying by.

PHOTO BY PIXABAY

April 8, 2025

When we renovated our little cottage to join up the next one, it seemed to fit just what we needed. It’s cosy, but it gives us bedrooms that are big enough and an extra bathroom. We went back and forth a bit on how to maximize the space and landed on a long length of cupboards down a long passage. That’s just how the existing foundations all fit together, but it worked out well, I think.

A few years on, the eldest boy has grown daring. He’s now able to shimmy up the passage wall and touch the ceiling. He uses his arms and legs pressed hard on both sides, like some sort of parkour move. Of course, the middle one tries to do everything in the same way. He’s got it right now but stays in the bottom half and isn’t yet moving up. It’s still quite impressive.

The youngest – the two-year-old boy – has had a few near misses as the boys fall, and he runs underneath them, narrowly escaping being as flat as a pancake (or headless). Sometimes, it’s not an escape, and there are tears. He does it again, though, which I’ve given up trying to understand.

The youngest can’t even touch both walls with his short little arms, so it’ll be a while until he can climb up like his brothers. I say that, but there are only two years between the youngest and the middle child, so I expect to see him up there in 2027 or so. Saying it that way makes it sound further than ‘just two short years’! It feels like time is flying when I look at them wrestling, showering by themselves, and tramping off to school every morning. Where did my little babies go?

Maybe when they’re at school, I’ll try the passage wall out myself. I’m not that old, am I? If I fall and break my ankle, that would be quite a lot of explaining to do if the doctor asks what happened, so maybe not. There’s a time for everything under the sun – and my time for climbing walls might be over. It’s okay. Watching my sons get it right brings the same thrill.

Published here.

Oribi Mom

Oribi Mom: Ever-Changing Gardens for Those Who Walk in Them

“It’s time to prune in order to grow.”

Lavender in bloom.

 

September 5, 2023

The thorn tip that attacked my wrist is finally out, and the scratched-up wrists and arms are almost healed already. This garden is thorny, and I’ve left it quite a long time to itself with small babies growing in me, and then being on my hip these last few years.

But this time of year is the final opportunity to get things chopped and pruned and weeded while everything is dry and dying. It’s easier to pull things out. It’s also easier to see into the dense bush and tree in case there are one of the many venomous snakes hiding. We have so many here.

Blood, Sweat, and Some Tears in Our Thorny Garden

So, bleeding arms, blisters, and cut up shins are just par for the course when trying to handle lantana and the many other thorny things I’m trying to get under control.

There’s even an extremely poisonous vine that pops up, with three pronged leaves. Apparently, there are a few species around. The ones with purple flowers are okay. The orange-flowered ones have poisonous fruit and leaves, so even pulling them out is a bit treacherous.

There’s always a bit of sadness, too, at seeing the gaping holes in the garden where the weeds were or where we chop it back. But come summer, that fills in rather quickly. I’m almost through the blackjacks here now. But the moon-shaped burrs are still going crazy. They’re much harder to pull out than blackjacks, too. We’ll get there.

Looking Back, It’s Worth It

If I look back at the garden we arrived to six years ago, or rather the dense, weed-filled bush that surrounded the house, a little bit of pride pops up at how far it’s come. It’s still bushy and rough, but it’s beautiful to me. It’s growing and changing. It’s thinning out here and there and showing some results for all my hours of work.

Like our family that is growing up faster than the weeds, it’s worth the struggles and the blood. And in twenty years or so, we might look back in wonder at all the progress. I hope so.

Published here.

Oribi Mom

Oribi Mom: There Is a Time For Everything Under the Sun

“Now, those ears and noses and toes and curls are growing, and my sons are eating me out of house and home.”

PHOTO BY SANDY MILLAR/UNSPLASH

November 2, 2021

Never had four baby bunnies inadvertently born into a dark corner of your lounge on a Friday morning? Then, you probably haven’t witnessed how quickly little pink bodies transform into the sweetest fluffy rabbits. I think it’s the tiny ears that really get me. Almost as cute as the little noses on my sons when they were new to this world.

Now, those ears and noses and toes and curls are growing. And my sons are eating me out of house and home.

Boys and Bunnies Grow Fast

Boys and bunnies are incessantly exploring every new and wonderful thing they come across in life and here I stand, wondering how it all happened so quickly.

As life marches on, I am struck by how often I feel a sense of urgency. I get into a tailspin, trying to do everything at top speed in the ‘free’ moments of each day so that my home, garden, and family are taken care of between work and obligations. What’s the hurry?

Older, wiser people voice the idea of enjoying this time and appreciating the small moments, so why does it always feel like such a rush? Do I really need to fit in the dishes before bathtime so that my toddler’s milk bottle is clean and ready for the long night of frequent wake-ups?

Will I feel better if I have a cup of coffee on the porch instead of hanging washing, stacking dishes, cleaning up toys, preparing pyjamas, turning down bed covers, and finding fresh towels? I don’t know.

There’s a Time for Everything Even If There Isn’t Time for Everything

There are only a certain number of hours in the day, and I’m a thirty-something working-from-home mother of two. Sometimes, being “organised” is very satisfying as my time runs out.

It’s that Ecclesiastes 3 echo again, a time for everything, a season for every activity under the sun. Maybe, this is my season right now.

A rushed, happy, full-of-love season that’s meant for growth. I’m growing plants, pets, and children. I’m growing in my knowledge of snakes, birds, vegetable gardens, and trees. The country is growing used to pandemic lockdowns (it’s been eighteen months!).

There is a season for everything. But that also means that change could be around the corner. For now, I will watch my boys grow and zoom around cleaning, tidying, cooking, washing, feeding, and witnessing this special time in life. And maybe I’ll try to slow down a little to give these new bunnies an extra cuddle while their ears are so adorable.

I hope your season brings you as much joy; be patient if it doesn’t, nothing lasts forever.

Published here.