11 tips about life, by Bill Gates

I saw this up in the doctor's room today and had to chuckle!

Bill Gates: 11 things they don’t teach in school

Rule 1: Life is not fair…get used to it.

Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $40,000/year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a cell-phone, until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He
doesn’t have tenure.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a word for flipping burgers-they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up it’s not your parents fault, so don’t whine about
your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are
now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and
listening to how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the
parasites of your parents’ generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life
hasn’t. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give
you as many times as you want to get the answer right. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers and
Christmas break off, and very few employers are interested in helping you
find yourself. Do that on you own time.

Rule 10. Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to
leave the coffee shop and go to work.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

Mother's Day

Ouma-Grootjies, my beloved Granny in South Africa.

My mother, Granny K, who now lives 2 streets away now.

The kids and I on a Sunday School picnic just over a year ago.

This Mother's Day more than ever and with trembling, was I struck with the awesome, heaven sent privilege it is to have precious children and to be able to nurture them, love them and be close to them. To have a mother too who is a wonderful Granny to my children is an awesome privilege. (How I wish Doug's mother was close to us too, to be more involved with the children. I will always miss her and my grandmother, Ouma-grootjies, as the oceans part us....these are everyday family gifts that have been stolen from us, by 'Immigration'.)

Each Mother's Day before I think I have taken the privilege of mothering for granted!

Not so this year and I pray never again ....

I was thoughtful of mother's who were ill themselves and who could not show their love to their children as they wanted to. For those who fear they will not be there next Mother's Day to enjoy and bless their children.

My thoughts turned to mother's whose children were in hospital, or separated for reasons beyond any mother's control...how their hearts ache to reach those children, to make their child's pain go away!

I was mindful of mother's who mother children with special needs; these mother's whose hearts ache with love way beyond the 'normal' love for children as they serve those special children without the usual rewards, blessings, comforts and praises.

I have thought too of the mother's who feel as if they have failed as mothers, who wish they had done it all better and differently but who now face, "too late" .

And I have pondered on the feelings faced of those mother's who have faced the death or near death of a child.

"Oh, my God, may we never take for granted the the privilege of parenting! May we enjoy every precious moment we have with our dear children! May we love as we have never loved before, these precious gifts!"

Thank God for these beautiful souls brought into our lives to love and adore with all our hearts through all of their lives.