Happy Sunday Beautiful People 🌞

The title of this blog post reminds me my dad. Whenever he did a roundup of something he would say “calling all cards, calling all cards”. He most frequently used it to round my siblings (Jason and André) and I up, to get something done – usually to get us up in the morning to go to school or church when we were little. The phrase comes from one of our favourite cartoons, but Dad killed it. Because he knew we loved the cartoon, he used it to wake us – but then the phrase became synonymous with something not too pleasant (i.e. waking up to go to school or church), but thinking back on it now it actually is kinda cool. Check the cartoon out if you have a chance

My reason for ‘calling all cards’ this morning is I need to do a consolidation – another one of my bullet point blog posts because again I got so caught up with Beautiful life that there’s too much to say 🙃🤪🤩🥳🤓🥰😍

• My nephew is growing beautifully. An apple of my eye. The love I have for him is like the love I have for my own children. I once heard someone say “Your sister’s child is like your own child”…. now I can confirm, my brother’s child is like my own child!
• Successfully completed the academic semester at work – my remote teaching strategy worked. #Relieved. But now the tough bit starts…. I’m teaching two modules this new semester (starts tomorrow). My usual stats module and then another module on Lean Six Sigma that I’m still busy developing. All fun and games. Because it’s new and because we’re still in lockdown, I’m going to be experimenting. I’ve a couple of ‘wild’ ideas …. so I might be called into the principal’s office AGAIN to explain my heretical antics 🙆🏾‍♀️
• I submitted two full papers (only author papers) for a virtual conference happening in November. And I was part of a team who is submitting another full paper for a journal today. Also submitted an abstract for another paper for a virtual conference in December yesterday. I honestly have no idea how that all came together. In fact, the November conference was cancelled when lockdown was first announced, but a few weeks later the organizers decided to have a virtual conference instead. I had set a goal for myself to publish two papers a year so I was super bummed when the conference was cancelled, but I really have started believing that when you don’t resist anything, just fully open-heartedly accept things and work with whatever you have as if you had chosen it, then things work out, which is exactly what happened. And even if they didn’t work out so well, by accepting the whatever fate as if I had chose it, gives me inner peace. I’m finding this is a good way for me to live. Work towards whatever I feel passionate about but Resist nothing. And don’t label anything as good or bad. Just accept it as it is.
• Happy to report my minions are doing fine, Josh preparing for matric exams in lockdown and Micaiah is coming out of her funky mood. The start of lockdown was tough for them especially Micaiah (teenage girl missing her friends) but somehow life just seems more pleasant now. We have a great new habit of always eating dinner at the dinner table and very often we end up sitting for up to two hours after dinner just chatting.
• We had cat drama. Not even our cat. There’s a stray cat who has been hanging around our house since he was a kitten for about 18 months now. I first saw him when he was about 3months I guess and wondered into my room. We started referring to him as Scout. We probably should not have started feeding him but we did. How do you say no to a hungry critter when you have spare food? Anyway he would come and go. But he was an unneutered tomcat and they are problematic because they fight and mark their territory. So three weeks ago he slipped into our house to have dinner while we were at the dining table having dinner. Micaiah suggested we trap him and I remembered we had a large recovery cage so we managed to do that with very little trouble. I called the AACL and they agreed to neuter him – all went well and four days later we let him go again. We’ve seen him twice since then, but whether he becomes our cat or not now is not important. At least Scout has a better chance of survival now
• Then, a note to anyone with a nose piercing, don’t remove your corkscrew nose ring unless you want to take it out uh. I did that and I had to go back to the piercer so that she could put it back in for me. I’m never taking it out again!
• Finally, I’ll end with some happy news. Our President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that our whole country is moving to Lockdown Level 2 on Tuesday 17 August 2020, 145 days since the start of lockdown. Suddenly the air feels even lighter, the birds are singing a slightly happier tune today and the sun seems brighter. Yes there is very good reason to smile in SA today

So those are some my random cards ♥️♣️♦️♠️ – things I wanted to note on my blog for the sake of continuity.

But the most important thing I want to say today is …. Can you feel it?.….🦋🦄🐝🌈🌈🌈🍄🌹🌷💐

Yes, it’s me…. sending you all my love today ❤️