Hello! As you might know by now, after eight years in the Digital, PR and Social Media industry: I opened up my own little agency called The Birdhouse. We handle a few niche clients, help out at other agencies and our core focus is on training. We want everyyyyyone to be good at social media and to really leverage online marketing. I’ve finally finalized the rates for our super popular Social Media Workshop / Crash Course which comes with notes, templates and ongoing support. This workshop is ideal for small business owners that want to take their social media in-house or just better their current knowledge and skill set! So friends if you know of anyone in Cape Town that might be keen – here are the details! Totally just whored my blog out for advertising. Sorry blog. Not really.

We spend quite a lot of time in Betty’s Bay. My mom lives out there and its just so beautiful. They’ve just moved to another little house while they look for something closer to town, and we’re really been enjoying our time there. We don’t have a lot of space at home for the boys to play in, so they really love running around in Gaga’s garden, climbing rocks, looking out for baboons, spiders, snakes and scorpions. All of which we’ve encountered – except a snake so far. I am NOT a bug person. If you want to torture me: take me camping. I will put a mattress on stilts with a mosquito net and four cans of poison next to me. I still won’t sleep. This is mostly due to the severe trauma that my brothers put me through as a child which I’ll cover with more detail in my article “All the times my parents tried to kill us”. It involved my brothers trapping me in a small enclosure with a baboon spider. For hours. Many other encounters have forever ruined my relationship with small creatures, but we’ll get there later.

When you sit on the porch at this house, you can hear the rumbling ocean so loudly that Ben keeps asking what that noise is! I love this little country beach cottage filled with proteas, mountans, antiques and fresh air. When its season, we take a few crayfish out of the water and have a little fish braai. Then we go to the beach and sometimes fish (nobody has ever caught anything) while the boys play in the rock pools with their nets. Then we have a little meaty braai, watch some sport or play music while the boys play in the garden. Sometimes after dinner we play 30 seconds which I still suck at.  Must remember to take different board games along.

On Saturday morning my mom had a really bad fall at home and broke her arm. She was in so much pain this weekend, but we did our best to cheer her up and help around the house so that she could rest and get lots of sleep. The boys were so sweet and concerned about Gaga’s sore arm and wanted every gory detail about the break and just how bad it is. They were quite disappointed that her arm isn’t completely broken off, but still pretended to be sympathetic. Such good boys.

Noah you’re at the age where you’re keeping your first long-term memories. I wonder if you’ll remember this house and the hours that you spent watering that garden, running in the sprinkler and looking for shongololos. I really hope that you do! I get terrified when you disappear between the rocks, but I’m trying to let you be a nature kid like I was. I really am trying to let go a bit and let you run off like we all used to, but things are different now – even here. Maybe I’ll relax when you’re a bit older? Maybe not. Have fun anyway!

Hello! I write for Ackermans every month and they commission me to write about random things that their audience might enjoy. That’s where I really write about parenting… Not so much here. This article is pretty cool though – so you might want to check that vibe out. All of these ratings are very much in my and my kids’ opinion. You can find the article here: Top 5 Child Friendly Restaurants in Cape Town

I write about four articles for Ackermans every month, so keep an eye out if you’re in to parenting things, trends and topics. Their blog is written only by contracted bloggers and writers, so it’s a really nice mix of content on all things fashion, food, consumer, entertainment and advice.