Liza Pretorius

This week started off with me trying to organise my days, through an on-line diary… if you have been following my blog, you will see that my attempt was not very successful. Without making excuses, the past two weeks have been very crazy here on the farm. I would like to share it with you play by play, not because I am looking for sympathy, but rather because I would like to share what I have learnt through all of this.

Birthday in the Dark!
Last week Tuesday we were preparing for the fourth birthday of the baby in the family. It was a rush of aquiring ingredients for cakes and getting birthday presents, while trying to work in between. As parents we were also sipping on a cocktail of mixed emotions:

1 part amazement at the joy we have experienced in the past four years, added to that is 
3 parts of gratitude for the health and talents that our little boy has been blessed with. 
1 touch of heartache and nostalgia joined the mix when we realised how fast he is growing up.

I was caught off guard, still immersing myself in the last bit of silence of the day, on my way to fetch the children from school, when I got a steamy call from my better half.

No, not steamy in a good way, he was fuming!!!! Eskom had thought in all their wisdom that it is about time that our power should be disconnected, if only we were in the wrong it would have been fair, but there was a “mis-communication” which left us in the dark and waterless for two days. (We need electricity to pump water you see.)

Well, in spite of our challenging situation, brother baby had a fabulous birthday, with hand made (crafted at candle light) spiderman sweets. We even had a new addition to our family. I present to you:

Scooby-Doo and his new master:

Normal Murdered!
Late on Thursday our power was restored and all seemed well. But then on Thursday night dispicable human beings, who have no empathy for animals and no respect for life stole five of our prized Charolais cows.

 These animals who stole the cattle, carved them up next to the road, ALIVE!! They never even bothered to slit their throats, they only slashed their hind hamstrings, so that they can not run away, and then they started carving them up.

The irony is that they were disturbed and that they left more than 3/4 of the meat behind. This makes this slaughter so much more senseless!!

We took photos, and for a moment I contemplated including them in this post, but then I deceived they they are just to gruesome to publish. The scene looked like something out of the movie 300.  

It was a senseless acts of arrogance like this that causes so many South Africans to harbour the remains of hate and negativity deep within their hearts. All 5 of these cows were far pregnant, something that the killers did not even consider. But more than that, the attitude with which this was done is that we as the farmers have more than those who took from us and we have what they need and therefore they can take what they please.

I wish I could have just ten minutes of these killers time. I want to explain to them the blood and sweat and tears that our family has put into this farm, to be where we are. It has been a life long dream for my better half, to own a farm like the farm his father grew up on,  we saved and worked and saved and worked and prayed and prayed and prayed for months in order to get the money together to build up our cattle herd, and here a few heartless murders and take what is not theirs. This is a culture that is busy hindering the growth of South Africa in general, how can we expect to grow as a country if we can not respect one another’s belongings?!

 In the confusion of trying to accommodate the SAPD with their investigation, we failed to notice that our water pressure was dropping in the taps. Once we settled down it was just after dark and it was about time to start the family welsh bathing ritual, when there was no water… the water pump that feeds our home, had seized. We were without water until Monday morning 10:00. We were and still are very thankful for family and friends who helped us out with a place to bath during this time.

A Joyous Weekend 
The Saturday’s excitement surrounding baby brother’s fourth birthday party could not be curbed. He had a spiderman cake and tow close friends and his brother. (These small parties are quite an adjustment for me since his brother is more outgoing and flamboyant and we usually had a minimum of 25 friends per party!)

Daddy charmed the resistance off of Granny so that the two boys and the pup could spend the night with them, and we can go and celebrate the birthday of our friend. It was an evening of fun and games, good food and great conversation.

Topsy Turvey Week
Monday and Tuesday were fairly uneventful, except that our tractor got stuck in the mud, while we were trying to pull a cow out that got stuck in the mud around the little river. That was more a reason to giggle at our favourite farmer boy, rather than to see it as a disaster. Apart from this minor hick-up all was well until we got a phone call early on Wednesday morning, informing us that a close family friend was in a serious motor vehicle accident.

Our whole week was turned on its head in a matter of minutes on Tuesday night. The details surrounding the circumstances of the evening are still not clear, but all we do know is that we have a whole lot to be thankful for. 

Our friend was admitted to intensive care on Tuesday Night and for the most of Wednesday, then he was moved to high care and he spent two days there, and then he was moved to a standard ward. We are very grateful that he was released from hospital yesterday morning. And we wish him a speedy recovery.

Relief in flames
The children and I dropped our friend’s phone off with him yesterday, we were playing answering machine, answering machine for him. On our way back, nothing could dampen our spirits, we were listening to music, singing along to the radio, having a little bit of a fun, insane, crazy day.

As we came down the winding dirt road towards our home, we were met by a black ring of destruction drawn around our yard… our worst fear had come true, a section of our farm burnt down while we were away.

It all started as the workers burnt the remains of one of the cattle that died earlier in the week. It is very clear that the burning carcass was left unattended, and from here the fire spread. We are very thankful for the members of the community who all came to help, without being asked. It is really heart warming to find so many people fighting the fire, in your absence, as if they were protecting their own home and property.

There is a huge amount of damage, all the rubber pipes that were run above the ground were melted, the barn suffered some damage, but the worst of all is that the machine we use to make grass bales was really badly burnt.  There are so many silver linings though:

• If our tractor had not gotten stuck in the mud on Monday, then that too would’ve burnt.
• If we had parked the other bakkie where we always park it, that too would’ve burnt.
• If I had gotten round to washing and hanging up the washing like I planned on to do on Saturday, then there would’ve been a highway fro the flames from the veld to our home, and we would propably have lost all our belongings.

This has probably been the most challenging two weeks of our lives, and it is so very tempting to ask why this is happening, why it is that we have such bad luck, or what we are being punished for. All I know is that I don’t have all the answers, I am not perfect and I have so much to learn about crisis management and patience and compassion.

I also know that I serve a God who is loving and caring and almighty. I also know that He does not punish us here on earth, He Son died for us on the cross and so He has already paid for our sins. BUT I do see a reminder and all we have is only grace from God. We need to be grateful for what we have, even the necessities like water. It can all be gone in an instant… even our life partners or our close friends, we need to treat them every minute of everyday, as if it is their last. We need to start treating each other with the love and respect that we are meant to. We need to stop taking what we have for granted, we need to thank God for what He has entrusted us with, and we need to ask Him to help us not to lose it or waste it.

We need to value the precious moments like these:

This morning started off with my daily devotion. It is such a refressing manner to start the day. In the midst of a hectic schedule it is also comforting to know that God is there with me always, to guide and to protect me. My daily devotional time is my first priority on any given day, once this is complete and I have had time to feed my soul and my spirit, the only does the planning of my day start.

Today is a bit differenct to other days since I have a training session for an exciting ne product, and this will take up most of my working day. I will therefore have to attend to many of the other tasks this evening.

Company Profile for secondary CC
Review and plan response for Tender D107
I need to register my business online with sites such as SA Findit.
Research pay per click advertising as well.
Evaluate and restructure ACE’s marketing strategy.

Yesturday I also found an amazing online marketing and affiliation tool. There is an affiliate marketing program that looks very valueble, since it teaches you how to write relevant content for your site and your blog. If I have some time left today I will be sure to study this program a little further.

I am keen to study this material since I have recognised the value of a blog in terms of promoting yourself as a brand, and promoting your interests. They key to effective self promotio is however that you should become a top blogger. I am very much of the opinion that everyone thinks that they have their perfect way of becomming a top blogger, and that each of us have our own definition of what a top blogger is, but i found the information on Henre Rossow’s blog  has proven to be very valueble to me indeed.

As the year grows to an end, we are all getting busier and busier with trying to wrap up all the tasks they were meant to perform in the year 2008. There are goals and tasks you set for yourself, that have not yet gotten to, and then there are the demands of others, and somehow your work day is just getting more and more hectic.

So very often the joy of Spring Day is soon erased by the horror that most of us find ourselves muddling about in a puddle of unfinished business, while being weighed down by de-motivation and a sense of chaos.

Add to that my bright, and some may say incredibly brave leap to start a business in September, and then you will find yourself having a taste of the time mismanagement black hole that threatens to swallow the rest of my year. Starting up a business at any given point is time consuming, but the commencement of school holidays and a not too distant Christmas is chasing me even harder to get things done.

The irony is that no matter how well I organise my family’s schedule, there is always unfinished business that haunts my dreams and leaves me exhausted when I wake up from my 6 hour “working-nap”. I therefore came to the conclusion that I will need to schedule my tasks on a daily basis, so that I can get the high priority things done ASAP.

My to do list today started off as follows:

Obtain tax clearance certificate
Submit Tender A1
Follow Up on allocation of fax numbers.
Reseach and Implement and Increase in my online presence.
Research Online Marketing Aids
Publish new product addition to ACE Telecoms
Review Tender IC2
Complete Secondary CC’s Company Profile

At the end of every day I can then take stock of what was done, and what not, and then I can plan my next day accordingly. Maybe keeping a dairy in this manner will allow me to get some sleep. I am inviting you to join me, as I will share this experiment with you. The fact that I will be accountable for time wasted to a public audience will probably help me to be a bit more focused.

You see that is the trouble with being the boss of a start-up, you don’t really have anyone that you are accountable to, and I believe that it is this huge factor that contributes to the high failure rate of start-up ventures within the borders of South Africa, and abroad.

Dairy Entry: 22 September 2008

Today my day started with me following up on tasks that remained on my to do list from last week. The first Item on my agenda was to attempt to obtain an original tax clearance certificate for one of my companies. In the end, with the help of my amazing partner, we managed to obtain the first tax clearance certificate and also apply for another, for our other company.

I then had the last bit of information that I needed in order to submit the tender due this week, by post. We are holding thumbs, since this tender will create a steady revenue stream for the next three years.

I requested fax numbers last week for some of my clients, and somehow my service provider misplaced my application. I managed to phone the service provider and to start a tracking process for these missing applications.

I am currently also working on a cost effective, online marketing campaign. My first port of call was to increase my own presence online, and in that manner, advertise my products. I also looked at different online marketing and affiliation programmes and I think I have found one that will work. I will give it a try and then I will be sure to report back on it.

Somewhere during the day I also published an article that gave back ground information around a new product range that we have added to our product and service offerings. We have recently added wireless networking to our list of products, and we are very excited to see what the outcome of this promising partnership will be.

I then reviewed the content of the next tender that needs to be handed in early in October. It is important to review all tenders carefully so that one can decide whether it will be viable for you to get involved with such a project.

The expansion of my online presence has taken longer than what I anticipated and so i have not managed to write the business profile as I set out to do. But here are the services I have added to my portfolio:

MyBlog Log                                                        
Delicious                                                             
Flickr
Twitter                                                                
Digg                                                                      
Linkedin
Friendster                                                          
Blogger                                                                
Bebo
Facebook                                                           
FriendFeed                                                        
Ma.gnolia
Dopplr                                                                 
Intense Debate                                                               
Disqus

I am still busy working on all my profiles, but I am definitely making some progress. Tomorrow morning I will share my to-do list with you again and then we can take stock in the evening again. I hope that my honest journey through this marsh of starting-up a business will be able to benefit you in your travels through the business world!!

 
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In the last few weeks we have looked at the road to becoming a Happy Career (working) mom. I know that on this path of self and family discovery and time management and acceptance, that I have seen a significant change in my family and our daily routines. We ave gone from being rushed from point A to point be and back to point A, to being a close knot family unit, that has time for one another.

THe first Step we took was to discover what it is that really makes us happy, and we learnt to look at our families in a different light, this alone reduced the stress and animosity in our home by 80%. I stopped tryingto change my kids, instead I began to guide them. I stoppedtrying to change my husband and I stopped being such a drag because I am not complaining about the little things anymore.

I feel heard!!! Yes, now I think before I speak and since I now speak a little less, my family tends to listen to what I have got to say, since these days it is usually of some significance. This habit of mine has spilt over into the rest of the family. For the first time my nine year old has the ability to sit quietly, without it being the normal tell tale sign of unhappiness. He is peaceful and content and now so is his brother.

Our schedule has gone from a burden to a pleasure, we cook supper together as a family, we have time for extra family activities, I have time to excercise and work in my garden. As a whole we are all more moderately tempered and less irritable, we have kind word for one another and we have committed to being a blessing in each others lives, instead of the nag that no one listens to anyway.

The most imortant is that now that I am taking time to spend on myself and my emotional and spiritual well being, I have more time and patience and love to share with my family. The Lord blesses me with the ability to listen now, something that was v one of my best attributes. This has created the opportunity for me to relate better and prepare and be vigilant regarding my son’s not so gradual metamorphosis into a teenager. We are communicating and we are hopefully sowing the seed that will grow inside him, andthat will be his compass when we are not around to check up on him.

I hope that I have been able to inspire you a little, remind you of a few things you actually knew and maybe mention a few things you never thought of. The journey to happiness and fulfilment i one that never ends, this is just a pitstop, until the next leg begins…

Now that you have managed to get your schdule under control, it is time for the next step: REST! You will probably be able to identify times during which you are less busy, now that you are deligating tasks and multi tasking where you can.

It is important that youspend these “saved minutes” on yourself. Very often as the primary care givers, we neglect our quiet time with the Lord. From here I believe a vicious circle starts since you are not replensishaing your soul, you are not in contact with your Heavenly Father and so Here can not pour the living water over you barren soul, and He is not able to feed the hunger for peace and love that rages within each one of us.

If you need more patience – ask and He will grant you patience. If you need strength and energy – ask and He will grant it to you. If you need compassion – ask and He will gant it to you. But if you are not having an intimate relationship with your God then He can not provide you with the grace that you need.

You need to learn to be quiet by yourself, and as a “monster” of two, Iknow how much you need that time alone, but also how guilty you feel. Yet the truth of the matter is that you fill up your vehicle when it runs our of fuel, and so you need to feul your sould and your heart, so that you can be a mother and not a mini monster.

You need to learn to communicate with God as you would with your earthly Father. Start a prayer journal, write down your prayers, in that way you can keep record of your thoughts and of the events in your life that influences your soiritual life. You are welcome to view my prayer journal on http://www.libby-bid.blogspot.com/

My final though for you today comes from:

John 6:35