Saturday 14 February 2009

Awards Time.






Couldn't resist logging on this morning, between touch-up spots (the painting...)


Saw that Jenny from New Zealand had given me an award! Especially exciting as it's a new one that I haven't seen around before. As it's the weekend I'm going to break the rules a bit & say that if you deserve the award you can claim it. You know if your blog measures up or not! So help yourself if your conscience is clear ;-)


The rule of this award is to say one nice thing about the man in my life – in my case, my husband Shane.


I could say a thousand nice things but, most importantly, he just “gets me” – he understands me & always automatically thinks the best things of me, & is very non-judgemental.



Next is to list the 7 ways I measure success in my life:-



1) By the state of my marriage - our communication levels. How we connect. How we raise our children. What we want out of life. How we compromise. The fact that we tick all those boxes means that we have worked on our relationship all these years & it has been well worth the effort.



2) Jenny listed “a nice house & possessions which we have worked hard for” – this is a hard one for me ‘cos we currently live in an old house that needs a lot of work on it. We do own a beautiful home that I designed & my husband & I ‘built” (ie;- no contractors – we bought all the materials, paid the wages, supervised, etc, ourselves) but we are not currently living there (nor will we ever be) as it’s in Zimbabwe & we left there 3 years ago for obvious reasons. That property is definitely on my list of successes in achievements though, including the garden, as it’s a big one (most gardens there are at least an acre) so I’m going to make this count for TWO ;-)



3) Our kids – the fact that they are well-adjusted beings in all areas of their lives & succeed in all the things they have an aptitude for is a great success to me. I don’t believe in forcing them into square holes if they are round pegs so we let each of them develop in their own natural way & it is wonderful as they are all very different!



4) My scrapbooks – I have 2 dozen of them crammed with 50 pages each. Plus various other creative pursuits. When I feel like I’m getting no-where I look at them & feel a great sense of accomplishment.



5) My faith – having come to terms with all the questions I used to have about the meaning of life – I’m now satisfied & content with the answers I’ve found, although I’m definitely short of the mark at times in carrying out my convictions.



6) Happy being me – as a young person I had a lot of identity crises that came from an insecure background – now I am happy to say that I like myself & only care about the opinions of my immediate family. In other words, if you don’t like me, I really don’t care!



Well, that was fun...now back to the painting!!!



3 comments:

Lynette Jacobs said...

This is a good way to get to know a little more about you...and those are great achievements!

Mette Thomas said...

I know so much more about you now - some really lovely answers.

Excuse my ignorance but i am a bit ignorant LOL.

I am assuming that you cant sell the hosue in Zimbabwe?? so that means you can buy another and start all over again??

I know i know who wants to start again but just wondering about it all as its somthing we just dont understand over here.

Mette x

Jenny in Durbs said...

Really god to see your comments on measuring up I love "seeing" life through other opinions. I think you have done extremely well & I am sure will do more. Was interested in your comment on Jenny's blog about plan B, we never considered NZ before(even though Jen & Adrian(my only BIL on my DH's side) live there we always thought we'd land up in the UK - now we are also tilting towards NZ... going to visit in July so looking forward to seeing how I see it now as we have been over before we miss the family lots & only holidayed there with no futher thought.