Hill's Prescription Diet and our dogs

We were contacted last year to test Hill's Prescription Diet. Based on our dogs' profiles we got the Hill's Prescription Diet k/d + Mobility food for Benji (the oldest) and Hill's Science Plan Mature Adult for our pavement special, Petite Peu. (Petite Peu is already a senior after she passed the age of 7 years already. So quick!)

We had to say goodbye to our little Yorkie Benji last year. It was difficult for me to write about him, and think about him. Even while writing this, I am tearing up! Our pets are not only our pets, they are our companions and our friends! He left a huge gap. He was such a happy chappy all along!

Positive - my word of 2018

Positive 2018 is going to be a good year!

Happy New Year! I am back at work! Jay!

I still love my word of 2017, which is KIND. I was thinking of extending it into this year, but an inbox email sorted my word for 2018. It's going to be POSITIVE! (Thanks, Rhonda Byrne)

Safe travels, Ouma Violet!

Violet Virginia Theunissen 

Our Ouma finally took her leave from this earth. She was 96 years!

Finally, because it could not have been that comfortable to still be here. The eyes and the hearing were not good anymore, and she was confined to her bed and a chair. Her children and grandchildren are scattered, and could not visit her often. Luckily she had her daughter nearby!

She also had the angels looking after her at the old age home in eMalahleni. We saw Cecilia again at the gratitude service on Friday, one of the many angels looking after the frail. Ouma Violet used to call her her mother. Even till the end, says Cecilia!

Wishes for Benji

Benjamin last night

We had to let our Benjamin Yorkie boy go last night! Our furry dog has gone to a better place! That we believe!

My Benji Boy, we are missing you so much! Even your embarrassing accidents, and running out of the door at the speed of light...

But you were not healthy and we could see you were struggling. You must have been 15 going on 120 already. Your legs were buckling under you. The vet says you had no more blood pressure. You were not eating, although you still did not say no to a morsel from our plates. You stopped drinking water. Maybe your bad teeth caught up with you? We don't know, but we could see all was not well anymore. You were sleeping most of the time! You were a bundle of hair with skin and protruding bones and lots of growths.

Life is precious - RIP Stew

In loving memory of Stew Booysen

Life is precious!

A dear cousin died yesterday, and we got the sad news at 10 pm yesterday!

He was 28! So young! So bright! So vibrant!

RIP STEW! Stew Booysen!

We have no words!

It was so sudden, so unexpected!

Only this weekend he was doing the Magaliesberg Canopy Tours and he was raving about how much he enjoyed it (although he has vertigo)! He went in to hospital for pain and a pancreas infection on Monday, and they were still busy doing tests... They found him in hospital where he has died, from a blood clot or heart attack?

I haven't seen him in months, and we missed him at the previous family gathering in December.
(We should make time for family more!)

You are missed!
(All we have left is the memories, and the photos we frantically page through on social media after we heard of the tragedy!)

So sorry for your loss, Jan and Solet! He is a son to be proud of!

Family braai day a while back, just found this photo. #southafrica #igers #portrait #photography #outside #me

A photo posted by Stew Booysen (@stewbooysen) on Feb 1, 2017 at 12:56am PST

Children and their best friends, their pets - dealing with loss

Chase the Ball, By Kyle Logan


This is a Kickstarter project, but a really worthy project!

We have to help our children deal with the loss of their best friends, their pets! I do believe you can't shield your children from the loss, because they need to learn to deal with one of life's heartaches that we can't avoid! Most of the time we don't know how to do it. Little Miss got really upset when her silkworm moth died. I think we will have to keep our dogs alive forever (sic), because I can't imagine...

This project is the creation of a 6-minute movie which addresses the issue of losing a loved one, Chase the dog.

"Chase the Ball is a touching story about best friends; a tennis ball and his dog named Chase. Told from the tennis ball's perspective during the final day of Chase’s life, the tennis ball reminisces about their time together. Through these memories, we witness the formation of a life long bond not even death can break." 

Art by Juhmelly Calrson

To back this Kickstarter project, go here: Chase the Ball

Please share the project on social media if you are not able to contribute financially.
The share buttons are available on the Kickstarter page.

Burial of Squishy, the silkworm moth

Little Miss was highly upset when we got back from our Bushveld break and the silkworm moth (that she had named Squishy when it was still a silkworm) was dead. It unfortunately had no fellow moths, and there are no eggs.
(Shew! Wiping tears of relief because we do not have another batch of silkworms in our future! And we don't have to raid other people's trees in the future! )

Little Miss cried, and we had to tell her that the moth had only a very short lifespan, and that it has ended.
We promised that we would bury it in the garden.

She made a tombstone for Squishy!

Rest in peace, Squishy!

This small ritual reminded me of how important it is to not hide death and dying from children, but to confront it in a respectful manner! We could have hid the shoe box with the dead moth, but it does helps her to learn to deal with loss! She made up her own ritual and decided on her own "tombstone"!

Rituals are very important!

How do you help your children understand death and dying?


Related post

- One more mouth to feed: a silk worm

Leaving behind a terrible social media legacy

Even though you do not want to be on social media, and you do not want to interact, please keep on checking your social media profile.

Somebody die, and immediately we go to the Internet to see the news surrounding the death and also to read about a life.

It is a terrible shock to see that a social media profile has been vandalised!

I am sure that it is not the person that he wanted to portray, but now it is there for-ever and ever and EVER!

That is not the person we want to remember, and that is sure not the legacy he wanted to leave behind!


Please do a name search regularly! 

RIP? NOT!

Wednesday Words - some random Little Hoots #littlehoots

I have been doing Wordless Wednesdays for years!

Today is a good day as ever to break that tradition...

I want to share these Little Hoots for future giggles:

Pointing to a lady in the change rooms at the gym

Favourite saying of Little Missy when she is "sharing"
(very reluctantly)

Little Missy is fascinated with the concept of graveyards...

No words

RIP Liam Buys

I have no words.
I know for sure that no words can make it better! Or find some sense in it.
A small baby, a life, a little person...
He was dead when born!
He had two moms waiting for him. Two moms who wanted to adopt him. Two moms waiting, and expecting, and planning!
Two moms who had to go to his funeral yesterday, without having seen him...
Two moms who are mourning the loss of him!

I can only put your name here, Liam Buys!
You will not be forgotten!

Posted with Blogsy

Blog directory of healing through storytelling

Kristin Brumm over at Wanderlust is busy compiling a directory of blogs that addresses issues of struggle and trauma.
It is a directory of blogs by people healing through sharing their stories through blogging.

I have written before about her haunting of words as she deals with her own struggle through writing, after a divorce and domestic violence led to the discovery of child pornography in her home, and the subsequent fleeing of her family home to keep her children safe.

Healing through storytelling - Blog Directory

The issues that are being addressed:
- Addiction
- Grief and loss
- General Medical
- Mental Health
- Trauma and abuse

The compilation of these was inspired by the following post:
The healing power of storytelling.

I still sometimes get out my soapbox to raise issues with regards domestic violence, emotional abuse and unfathers, but it is so much part of previous life, that I feel as if it happened to somebody else...

Time and change do make a difference!

I wish I had something like this to consult when I had to go through tough times, but it is nice to know that these are available.

It is always good to know that you are not alone!
Somebody else has dealt with the same issues already!

If you know of  any blogs that can add to this directory, please notify Kristin so that she can add it to the list!

Thanks Kristin!

When a daughter of 19 gets ripped away...

I have heard the saddest news ever...
That news that every parent dreads to hear, and never ever wants to hear.

A young girl of 19 who was on her way from university got killed in a car accident on Tuesday. It is the daughter of the niece of a friend.

The news twisted my stomach in knots, because she is the same age as my daughter.
She is also a first-year at the same university my daughter goes to!
And she died on the death-trap of a road going to Potchefstroom.

That road was one of the main reasons I first told my daughter that she could not even consider going to that university...

I worry each time she gets a lift coming home, or going back. The one and half hour drive keeps me checking my BBM until she is safe!

Somebody said yesterday that I should keep watch over my children. As if we can keep our children safe from harm in everything they do...


Dear Daughter, I hope you stay safe in everything you do! Even if you sometimes decide to stay out late, or get up to some mischief! (I love that you are enjoying your life!)
But please come home to us!


Peace to Vanessa and her family!
RIP Melissa!

About fathers and unfathers

A father died very unexpectedly last Saturday.


He left behind three children from a previous marriage that now has to go on in life without his presence…

(Stuff like this really happens!)

No matter what the circumstances at the time, it will leave a mark…

It made me think about another father who has written himself out of his daughter’s life. Would she feel guilty when her father dies unexpectedly?

The questions that needs to be asked:

• Would it made a positive impact in her life when she reconnects with him again?
• Would she be less scared of him this time around?
• Would she be able to not tippy-toe around him when she is with him?
• Would she be able to do her own teenage and student things when she is with him, or will he still demand 24/7 attention?
• Did he change his behaviour?
• Did he go for anger management counseling?\
• Does he work?
• Does he contribute financially towards his new family?
• Does he contribute financially to help her with her studies?
• Did the emotional manipulation come to an end?
• Would the daily conversation be about a future of possibilities – for her and more in general?
• Would I feel that she is going into a safe environment?

I cannot answer “yes” on any of these questions!

(The unfather does not understand that it is in the power of his hands to change! No, it is always somebody else who is to blame!)

The question: Would she feel guilty when her father dies unexpectedly?

No, and No again!

(Picture: Microsoft clip art)

The Toddler and the Big issue of Death

How do you teach your toddler the concept of Death? Some people tend to shy away from the harshness of it, and even do not take their children to memorials and funerals.


We are very lucky that we did not have to expose the Toddler to the concept of death at all up until now!

But somewhere she has heard about it. I suspect the day care playmates had something to do with it! The same little boys who taught her how to “peu-peu” (shooting sound) with a “gun” (any stick)…

She now regularly tells us that when she sees somebody has been hurt on television, or there is talk of someone getting injured:

“He has died!” (“Hy het doodgegaan” ) – With very serious, but also inquisitive eyes.

And then we have to tell her, “No, he is not dead! He only got hurt!”

I believe that we should not shy away from the word, and that we should also learn our children about it. But in a positive, natural and reassuring manner! I want her to have respect for life, and value all that is living. Even insects! But I don’t want her to be afraid of it, and fear for the safety of her loved ones!

I am waiting for the next dead insect that we see lying around. I hope that will aid me in trying to explain!

How do you tell your little ones about death?