The Simple Woman Daybook - July 28

Hi everyone, come on in and see what's in my daybook!

If you want to join in, just got visit Peggy over at The Simple Woman, read the guidelines here and then add your name to Mr Linky. There are so many other participants sharing their day, I'm sure you'll enjoy looking through them :)

FOR TODAY

Outside my Window...the base landscaping people are mowing and watering the yards, jets flying overhead

I am thinking...that it's official, my little baby is starting kindergarten in two weeks and it's breaking my heart

I am thankful for...the rain we've been getting, being in Arizona it's so hot and any water is welcomed

From the kitchen...Having some cinnamon coffee right now, crepes for breakfast and dinner is Impossibly Easy Taco Pie

I am creating...summer dresses for Jasmine and prim stitchery projects for the house

I am going... to take the kids to the park

I am wearing...khaki shorts, blue and white floral top, blue slippers

I am reading...Fame by Karen Kingsbury

I am hoping...I have enough floss to finish my stitchery

I am hearing... the kids playing the Wii, the jets flying overhead making everything shake in the house, the pugs playing together

Around the house...two baskets of laundry ready to put away, dishwasher to unload, floors to mop today

One of my favorite things...baking bread and eating a slice slathered on with butter while the bread is still hot

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week... Library program on thursday, grocery shopping on friday

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...horse stables back at our last base at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. I miss that place :)

A Happy Birthday Wish and other chit chat!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALYSSA!

Today is my beautiful little niece's birthday. Alyssa is the baby of the family and she's just this bundle of joy.

Being able to see her and spend time with her in South Africa was one of the best moments of my trip back home. Like all my other nieces and nephews, she's just so precious to me and I love her more than words could ever say.

I'm saddened by the fact that I can't be there with her today, but I am in spirit and thought.

So baby girl, have a wonderful birthday, lots of hugs and kisses from Tia Sandra, Uncle Curtis and your cousins Jasmine and Nicholas.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I love the sky and I love sky photos and especially at sunrise, there is just something magical about it. We've had the threat of thunderstorms for the past week and every once in a while it will thunder and there will be lightning and then a little rain but it stops just as quick as it started, but what I'm loving about it is the ever changing colors above us.

So what's going on here on my side of the world? Well not much, we're gearing up for the start of school and I'm happy but sad too. It's official, we received Nicholas' letter in the mail yesterda y showing his room # and his teacher's name. My little boy is starting kindergarten and I can't help but want to cry, what is wrong with me?

I remember feeling the same way with Jasmine but at the time I had Nicholas, he was just 1 years old and I was busy with him, this time it's different, I don't have another baby in the house. It's a scary thought because suddenly I'll have 8 hours a day of just me time....and what do I do with that? LOL

I'm not used to not being busy with children, to always have something to do, to constantly pick up toys after them or break up the bickering. I think this is going to be a very interesting start to a new chapter in my life, and just like everything else we do, it's scary but it's exciting.



Friday night I sat up until 1 am, after everyone had gone to sleep, and I watched my Netflix movies. Want to know what it was that kept me up? Robin Hood Season 1. I have to say I'm really enjoying the series, it's just the kind of show I enjoy and even Nicholas got into it, he was amazed at Robin Hood and his bow and arrow LOL

If you want to watch the first episode of the series and see if it's something you would enjoy, click here.

I also finished the book "A Table for Five" by Susan Wiggs. Loved it. It was my first book by this author and I had heard so much about her, so many readers who loved her work so I figured I would pick up the book and see what all the buzz was about. I'm so glad I did, I literally read it in one day.

So as you can see, this weekend I've been able to relax, read, watch movies and I'm also working on the menus for the next two weeks.

Dinner tonight is Old Fashioned Fried Chicken, Mashed potatoes and Biscuits. Yum! Btw, if you haven't noticed yet, I've added a few recipes to my sidebar, just click on the photo to take you to the food blog.

And with that I'm out, I have a basket of laundry to wash, dry and iron and beds to be stripped.

Have a great sunday, God Bless,

Reconnecting - Part 11

It's early morning and we're awakened by the beautiful sunrise and the sound of birds outside, after a quick breakfast we got in the cars and set out towards Crocodile Bridge.

We decided to take the longer way which means driving through the dirt roads instead of the main ones, but it's also where you get to be even closer to the wild and tend to see a lot more animals, so it took us about 2 hours but it was worth it.

Giraffe crossing the road right in front of our car

Springbok crossing the road....that's the thing with these dirt side roads, not many cars drive through there so the animals roam freely

A little bit of South African history, the Boer War

I remember back in South Africa, one of the books we had to read for school was Jock of the Bushveld by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick. Jock of the Bushveld is a true story about the author's travels with his dog Jock, during the 1880's. You can read more about it here, it's very interesting and even my kids love the story.


At one point in the road there is a little dirt path just big enough to fit your car, you can drive down close to the river and a lot of cars park here and stay for a while to see the animals come for a drink

Going back and seeing all these photos just make me miss the Kruger Park even more, I can not wait to return next year.

Zebras in the middle of the road, they were so funny, they weren't moving, just standing there and kept looking at our car like we were in THEIR way LOL

They finally moved off to the side, but they took their time....I just thought it was the cutest thing

Welcome to Crocodile Bridge!

The kids enjoying an ice cream

Now THESE are awesome, this is the campgrounds and these are the safari tents, tell me those don't make you feel like camping there?

A closer view

We didn't stay at Crocodile Bridge Restcamp for long, just used the bathroom, got some drinks and set off towards Lower Sabie Restcamp for lunch.


I love this place, on the left side you have a store and restaurant and all around it you have tables and chairs overlooking the river.

This is actually the camp we're staying in next year

Hippopotamus in the water, the kids were just besides themselves, they couldn't believe they were watching real live hippos right beneath them

Do you see that big crocodile in the water?

Jasmine, Curt, Dylan, Lilian and Taryn-Lee eating lunch

Nicholas, me looking drunk LOL, dad, my stepmom Nela, Tiffany and Grandma Odete

By the time we were done with lunch we realized that it was 3pm and we were about 2 hours from our camp which would mean we would get there JUST before the gate closes. Problem is that you never know what could be up ahead and chances are you will get stopped by some animal....which happened of course.

Nicholas and Taryn-Lee spent the whole drive hugging each other :)

First it was this guy, he just sat there staring at my brother and sister in law and the kids in the car LOL

Then it was these guys, you have to understand that when a huge herd of elephants is crossing the road the best approach is to be quiet and stay as far back as you can. If there are little ones in the herd, the big females can get pretty ticked off and that's exactly what happened here.

They had just taken a few of the elephants across when the safari truck startled them, they stopped and crossed the road again to the other side....but then you see that blue car to the left, the woman driving it decided to just cut in instead of waiting behind the park ranger....she pulled up right in front of the elephants and just sat there....one of the big ones turned on her and if she hadn't taken off quick, I don't know what would have happened.


While all this was going on across the road, we had the big herd, and when I say big I mean 30 or so elephants divided on both sides of the road and they were moving parallel to our cars. We kept reversing trying to stay away from them, but we were pretty much in the middle of the herd. Scary I tell you!

Just before we got to the camp, we spotted these rhinos

We also got distracted with this....just below in the pic you will notice something big and brown on the ground. That Great Kudu had just been killed by a leopard, but unfortunately there were SO many cars around there that the leopard got scared and took off.


It was a wonderful day, we got to visit two great rest camps and we got to see and encounter some of the best animals in the park.

But that brought our Kruger Park week to an end, we left there early the next morning, happy to have spent some relaxing days but also sad to go. I can NOT wait until next year, I'm already counting the minutes to return home.

If you ever get a chance to visit South Africa, PLEASE PLEASE do yourself and your children a favor and go to the Kruger National Park, I promise it's an experience that will stay with you for the rest of your life. For about $968 you can get 7 nights at a family bungalow for 4 people. That is NOT bad at all!

I know this post is super long but I couldn't end it without showing you these next photos, they are not easy to see, in fact, they are disturbing and the kids were visibly upset when they first saw these in person at the park, but they also now understand the horrible truths of poaching.

WARNING!!!!! *if you can't handle animals hurt, you may want to skip the last few pics*

Crockpot Beer and Salsa Ribs!

I threw a couple of ingredients in the crockpot and what came out was just too good not to share with you all. If you want to try these wonderful ribs for yourself, click the link below.

CROCKPOT BEER AND SALSA RIBS

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I've also started adding printable recipe cards for all my recipes on the food blog, it will take me a while to get them all up for you, but I'm slowly getting through it.

They'll be available on every recipe post, so keep an eye out for those, there's a few done already for the most recent recipes. Enjoy!

Reconnecting - Part 10

Are you up for more of our trip to the Kruger National Park? We left off the other night after having some smores didn't we?

Well it's early morning the next day and we're off to visit some of the other campgrounds in the park. One of the things I love about the Kruger is that you don't need to go far to see animals, as a matter of fact, chances are that the minute you leave the gate of your camp you will see something.

Just around the corner from the gate we happened upon these baboons, they were moving all over the road and being very protective and at first we didn't know why....

This was the reason why.....see the little one holding on to the back of the mommy? It was a newborn, he was still wet

Not long after we came upon these beautiful elephants...I love elephants but they are one of those animals that you need to respect, especially in an open environment like the Kruger Park, there have been many case where people find out the hard way just how deadly these animals can be

Love this one, I actually have it as my desktop background right now

Can you see those elephants in the distance? They were taking a bath, you can see they are completely wet

This giraffe was thirsty, it was so funny watching her drink water, I actually filmed a little video and will upload it for you

The first camp we arrived at was Skukuza. I have such fond memories of being here when I was a child, it was one of our favorite campgrounds.
The rondavels (houses) we used to stay in, I had to take a photo to show you all
The main store on the camp, it's huge and it has food and souvenirs and all sorts of stuff

Nicholas and Taryn-Lee enjoying the ride while we waited for everyone to get out of the store so we could go eat

There is a restaurant and it's surrounded by these thatched areas with tables and chairs, that's where we had lunch

It was great, only problem is that the roof was covered in bats. Yeah you heard right....BATS! Live ones too, they didn't bother me because I know they're nocturnal LOL But the kids couldn't stop staring at them, I guess they were scared that they would swoop down at some point

Grandma Odete, Tiffany, Taryn-Lee
Jasmine, Tiffany, Taryn-Lee, Curt and my Dad

My Nicholas....watch how all the open cans have napkins folded over them...there were so many bees around there and the kids were terrified

You can also eat at one of these tables which is overlooking the little river

On the way back to our camp, it's very common to have to constantly stop so that a group of animals can get across, and they take their sweet time too LOL
A Zebra just off the road

I love these guys, these are the Great Kudu, I just love the markings on the body and in their ears
One of the hardest animals to spot are the Rhinoceros, but we were lucky enough to see this one close to our campgrounds
Now THAT is a huge herd of elephants

And that concluded that day, we arrived back at Berg-en-Dal camp at about 5:30pm which is cutting it close to the time the gates close. You do NOT want to be stuck out there at night!

Tomorrow I'll take you to Crocodile Bridge and Lower Sabie Camps....you're going to love them. In the meantime, how about you look at this photo and imagine how amazing it must be to stay there for a week or two.