You’ll never believe this. We saved Two Oceans Aquarium last night. And it didn’t even know it needed saving. We held down the floors with mighty muscles, uncovered evidence of the Joker in the eel tank, secured a yellow submarine, and climbed unspeakable heights to summit Superhero Tower. It wasn’t easy, but somebody had to do it.

And then we ate crackers and muffins and took bubble baths. Top night! 🎩

Southpoint Church was full of Christmas cheer and laughing ladies today. Fifty women from all ages and stages sipped hot chocolate, snacked, decorated cookies, and participated in an oh-so-sassy Christmas re-gift game. We “stole” gifts from an almost-90 year old gem and celebrated another’s Christmas bun in the oven! 🤰(not me!!!!)

We went to Benjamin and Wyatt's first soccer practice yesterday. (Read the soccer camp story for important context!) I snapped a picture of Benjamin, frozen with fear, and sent it to Chris at work. I asked Chris to pray for Benjamin because he was completely overwhelmed at the sight of other kids on the field. I knew Benjamin was in a hard spot because his whole heart wants to be a soccer player, and he's been counting down the days to come to soccer practice. His body and mind simply said no. They could not integrate.

And that’s a wrap on our “At the Movies” series at @southpointct ! Shrek week’s “happily ever after” theme was just as sweet as it sounds. Benjamin and his best friend told me all about heaven over snacks, and Auntie Rachel glowed while she told me she worked with the Holy Spirit as she sewed Trudi’s Princess Fiona dress. We had lots of fun shaking things up for the series, but we kept our eyes on Jesus the whole time. He is everywhere, so why not practice finding Him in the silly and social things too?

… 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…

Which Toy Story character did Chris dress up as?

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.

Everything was AWESOME on Sunday at Southpoint Church. It’s school holidays in South Africa, and lots of folks go out of town. Instead of lowering expectations and planning for low attendance, Chris decided to go big - larger than life! We kicked off a four week series, “At the Movies”. Chris will walk us through the major movie elements using clips from popular movies and apply it to spiritual principles. We started off with heroes using The Lego Movie. We all dressed up like our favorite Lego heroes. One of our master builder church elders (an architect by profession) made a larger than life Lego costume with moving arms.

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.

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.

You might think you know what church looks like on a Sunday morning… but you’ve never experienced SouthPoint Church “At the Movies”. Action-packed, family friendly, fun and dress-ups of epic proportions for the next 4 weeks. Church + your favorite movies! Invite your friends! Dress up like a character from the Lego movie this week! See you at 8:30 and 10am!

Lifa is halfway through 11th grade and thinking about what comes next. Benjamin and Wyatt are ever-changing whirlwinds of personality and preferences - full of tackling, tickling, and tantrumming. We are going deeper and wider all at once at church and working through a missionary kind of sting we’re encountering for the first time after 14 years. Oh, AND, I’m learning how to cohabitate in my own body with an ever-present and absolutely crazy companion called perimenopause.