Sunday
Dear Elsie,
Today I saw you looking so cute in pink! Off to church you went and afterwards you went to the Padstal to see Oupa and visited the dog which you have altogether outgrown.
This is you with the dog today…12th March 2023.
And this is you on 13th March 2020 – exactly 3 years ago 
You have grown! You still love pink shoes!
Granpa has this interesting habit – he rubs his hands together when he is happy, motivated, excited or feeling he is making progress. Today I was on my rocking chair and I heard him rubbing his hands together. I thought maybe he was watching sport on TV and something good happened, so I asked him what he was watching. He said he was working on the design for the portico outside the front door. This meant he was liking what he was seeing!
I may have written about this before, but when I first married Mike, it used to irritate me him rubbing his hands together. There we were newly wed and this irritating habit start annoying me. Rubbing hands together sound. I couldn’t bring myself to ask him to stop. I soon realised he only did it when he was seeing progress or his favourite golfer had made a birdy or SA was winning the cricket – that kind of thing. I began to enjoy hearing him rubbing his hands together. All was okay with Mike. One of the other times he will do it and I will know exactly what is going on – he will say, ‘let me go check the bread’ and a few moments later, I will hear him rubbing his hands together and I will know the bread is rising and looks amazing. I don’t even need to ask.
Mike loves creating. He loves problem solving. He loves finding solutions and making things work. This entire house is testimony to a set of gifts God has given him. He has the ability to visualise something out of nothing. We all stand around and scratch our chins while he says, ‘it’s going to look like this. This will the the front and over there there will be a door and here a porch.’ I nod and look interested but cannot for the life of me see what he sees. He’s doing it again right now as he designs our front entrance and we went outside and he told me how the back plot is going to work. ‘There’s going to be a wall about head height over here and steps there and probably a gate. Julian wants a feature wall, so this will be a good place for a water feature and this will go up there etc.’ In my mind, I shake my head, shrug my shoulders and just believe it. Mike has proven himself. And what he does is always good.
Today, David is tired but ok. Now he knows he doesn’t have heart failure he is psyched up for taking it easy and in for long Covid. He is managing his energy levels and planning rest before teaching a guitar lesson this evening.
We woke this morning, had coffee and then heard the helicopter. The quiet road below with not a car in sight and the buzzing eye in the sky reminded us it’s Argus Cycle Tour day.
The first helicopter was super low as it tracked the front peloton… 
The second came by higher… 
Now it’s all over and the roads are open. A quiet day at home.
Meanwhile, up in Johannesburg, the family are enjoying everything that goes with having a new baby!
Precious one!
Psalm 70:4
May all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; may those who long for Your saving help always say, “The Lord is great!”
The best is yet to come – we are only passing through.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Gran xx 🙂