Spring is blooming in South Africa! It’s the perfect time of the year to put all fives senses to work in God’s glorious creation. You can’t help but encounter the Creator in the midst of it. I relished in watching and cheering the littlest Ladds on as they did exactly what they were meant to do - found the perfect walking sticks, dug in the dirt, studied footprints and tracks, threw rocks that were way too big, climbed, jumped, balanced, and rolled.

Benjamin crashed my post-workout stretch session this morning... and things progressed from there. A 10-minute kids workout on the iPad unlocked joy, bouncing, bonding and healing movement. Our Jammer has been in a hard-ish season for a while - which is quite a euphemism, really. We’re all giving it our best, and we all sometimes flip out and see our worst. In his hard-ish times, Benjamin struggles with proprioception, interoception... all kinds of -ceptions. The way we spell it out in our house is “having trouble taking control of your body.” The details are not for the Internet, but it’s not easy to watch, parent or live with if we’re being honest.

Welcome to one afternoon at the Ladd house. This might be too much of a generalization, but I’m willing to wager that mothers of boys are one of the most grateful species on the planet when the sun is shining and the people can play outside. In just one hour this afternoon, we found out Wyatt has an impressive ability to hang, lost a soccer ball on the roof, and a red ball got kicked in the neighbor’s yard. The cars went down the slide multiple times, and it became official news that out the Batman suit does, in fact, make you win every soccer game.

Earlier this week, I asked Wyatt if he wanted to run to the soccer field like his “baba” (Benjamin). He kept his pudgy little hand gripped firmly on mine and told me, “No, Mama. Baba’s five. I’m two. Hold my hand.” And that was the most sensible thing I’ve heard all week.

Time is our most precious commodity. It’s the only thing we don’t get back or earn on a success ladder. It’s in the very human concept of time that God creates space for the rhythm of relationships.

Siblings. Absolutely the wildest of all the relationship combinations out there. Body slams and mouth kisses are interchangeable in a moment. Loving and loathing oscillate in milliseconds. Friend and foe AT THE SAME TIME. They are also almost always the longest relationship of your life. That’s probably why you need so much grit, humor, and an occasional Hot Wheel thrown at your head. It’s love built to last long after the bruises fade away. I pray for my kids’ relationships with each other often. Their love for each other is a gift we can leave them as a legacy.

I am speaking to a group of moms this weekend about parenting in this high-tech, digital age. I'll cover the basics of brain development to empower moms to decide how to support their children in each stage of life. Humans are born soft and underdeveloped. Meanwhile, hoofed mammals are walking and baby baboons are clinging to their mother's hair as she swings through trees within hours of birth. Human brains are 25% developed at birth, with just the lower portion of the nervous system "online". The frontal cortex is the is the last part of the brain to fully develop in our 20's and is responsible for judgment, impulse control, decision-making, and insight.

Please pray for this event this weekend!

Southpoint Church is hosting workshops for moms called "Essential Conversations". We're talking Biblical perspective on big topics and taking home practical tools to engage with your kids at every stage of development.

… Cape Town is experiencing some very wild winter weather at the moment. It is nothing close to a hurricane but has impacted thousands of people in our city. The desire in me to help, hold, and hear rises with the floodwaters. Nature has a way of leveling humanity’s playing field and reminding us that we need each other. I’m not in a season where I can give or do much tangibly, but I’m trying to attune my children to the bigger picture like my mom did with me…

We had an extraordinary experience this week at soccer camp. It was Benjamin's most unsheltered, "mainstream" kind of experience with boys of all different ages. It was an awkward, yet completely natural, hokey-pokey kind of experience. We were all the way in, all the way out, and then we did a lot of playing right beside them.

The kids were feeling artistic on this oh-so-rainy Cape Town day, so I took a chance and took them for a walk through a “grown up art museum”. My aim was simply a change of scenery and perhaps an opportunity expose Benjamin to the idea that anything can be art.

Some of my favorite Benjamin quotes were…

Today was 80% temper tantrums, 10% time outs (including the big people putting ourselves in time out!), 5% prep for dress up day at Southpoint Church and 5% a nature shakeout at Kirstenbosch. I worry for Lifa on days like these. I think about his friends who hang out with kids their own age and whose families don't have to accommodate to nap times or special needs.

Chris called from church to check on me today. It's week 2 or 3 or 89 of school holidays. He knew I'd be feeding extra teens, wrestling Wyatt's burgeoning will, and dancing a regulation dance with Benjamin. I responded to Chris' sweet call with a shaky, "I'm not doing anything well. Benjamin needs more than I have, and nobody's getting anything." …

Lifa just finished three days of job shadowing for a school project. He learned LOADS about running a business, hospitality, the ins and outs of roasting coffee, making perfect cups of coffee, and serving people with our friends at Frisky Goat. I might be biased, but I’d say Lifa made some of my all-time best americanos this week!

Wyatt was feeling under the weather today, so I decided to take the little guys with a bucket of blocks and sit under the weather. God’s glory sprawled out all around us, and we all started to feel better. The morning started as an overwhelming whirlwind, but God’s rhythmical, breathtaking glory washed over all 3 of us. I finished the long day still basking in His loving care for us.

Want to see how many things we can do in a day during school holiday? I present to you: Monday. Today’s video features Benjamin’s current favorite song- playing on repeat until Wyatt has his fill and starts shouting “MUSIC OFF!” 😂 I’m getting a bajillion steps a day, drinking all the caffeine, eating gummy vitamins while I give them to my kids, and making the most of a fleeting season of life. Behind the scenes, Benjamin’s song is extra relevant. We’re excavating for joy when we need to, and going out to seek it till we find it…

I will never ever ever ever skip an opportunity to spend time with all three of my boys together in God's wide open spaces. His glorious creation has a way of reminding us that we are made to be a part of something bigger, something better than what we're aware of in our regular day to days. The ocean keeps roaring. The tides keep coming, never the same but never changing at the same time. The sounds, smells, and breathtaking glory call us back to who we are. We are His. I'm so deeply thankful He's let me love these three so up close and personally for all of the days He's given me.

We celebrated Father’s Day on Saturday morning with an epic trip to one of our favorite places in Cape Town - the Friends of the South African Air Force Museum! (See our post from last week about it!) Chris has never been able to come with us, and it’s right up his alley. Passionate volunteers giving their time, tankers, fighter jets, legendary stories and equipment, plus the BEST burgers and wors rolls of all time.

Yesterday, I was part of a "hike" with a pair of five-year old best friends. They had a map, binoculars, super hero figurines, and the electrifying energy of friendship in the wild. Their hearts were set for adventure. They would seek it until they found it. In fact, everything was an adventure because they were looking for one. The same paths they've walked since they could walk played out like a symphony in their spirits - the songs of the Cape frogs, the moss-covered climbing rocks, the slippery bridge and twisty trees, and the cold waterfall foaming into the perfect rock-throwing target.

Benjamin is all about soldiers. He’s got his own “soldier table” at home where he lines up miniature soldier figures over and over again. (Usually in rugby formations, telling me I have to cheer for Lifa’s team!) The Friends of the South African Air Force Museum is right down the road from our house. It is operated by a group of passionate volunteers every Saturday morning. Naturally, we call it “The Soldier Museum”.

Yesterday the boys and I went to the V&A Waterfront to check out @logoshope_southafrica It’s the world’s largest floating book fair! Even more importantly,it’s a huge vessel with a huge mission. We were awed by this mighty missional tool to take literature, education and the Word of God all over the world. It was extra special to watch a young man take time to walk Lifa through an interactive experience of The Prodigal Son and show him new ways to spread the Gospel.