Tiah Beautement's Blog, page 166

Because you meet a child where she is at

Today was the second "first day of school." Yesterday my son went to Grade R. Apparently he never stopped talking. I could tell. He was still talking at dinner time. He has never said so much about a day at school before. His sister missed him very much. When I mentioned we would pick up her brother after lunch, she started cramming the food into her mouth. And today was her turn. It is a beautiful school. Small. But so are the students. It is the physically most beautiful school I've ever ha...

Yarn-Harlot Weaves Ends

Given the rather muted response to my pleas of help in regards to my looming insanity, I did something rash: I contacted an author. Not just any author, but a New York Times Best-Selling author. Which, given that level of fame, means she probably has better things to do than deal with my brainless beginner attempts at playing with a loom. But because she is such a nice lady, the Yarn-Harlot (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) emailed me some advice. *Swoon* Okay - this isn't the first time this has happ...

Drinking problems

Yesterday my daughter had a cavity filled. We went to the hospital. She got put under. We will not debate how over-the-top this is. It is over-the-top. Had it been my son, I would have tried to explore alternatives to this "standard" method of children's dental around here. But given my daughter's aversions to strangers, I could not come up with a positive alternative suggestion, so I kept my yap shut and did it their way. There were some logistics involved: 5AM - Mummy get up 6 AM - Mummy an...

Plagarism mis-defined

There has been a disturbing trend in the past few (many) years to cry "wolf" over plagiarism. Plagiarism - directly copying a work (or partial work) while claiming it to be one's own. Suddenly parody and numerous other nods from one artist to another are thrown into the same dirty pot of plagiarism - muddying the water and choking the literary world. This latest stunt leaves me wanting to bang my head on my desk: Psychological Plagiarism: article here, discussion re: article here If a writer ...

Weaving Question! - Weaving in ends

I finished my second scarf on the loom. It looks exactly like the first, but longer. Bad Self Portrait while at desk: Bad photo of scarf draped over piano. So here is my question - how do you weave in the ends of weaving? It is a loose weave - which means that if you simply "follow the path" the double thread shows. And the two colours makes it even harder to "hide" it up the side and....ARGH! I am not a perfectionist when I do anything "crafty." Since my main motivation of doing such activit...

YES!!!!!!!

I DID IT! I surfed all by myself. Myself. Nobody else in the water. Husband on the beach with the kids, and all the other people were waaaaaaaaaaaay down at the "popular people" end. I caught 4 waves. Two of them were perfectly respectable rides. Favourite moment: Riding the best wave in while watching my son play on the shoreline with his bucket and spade. As I slid in beside him he looked up at me and in the most nonchalant manner said, "Oh, hello Mummy." As if your mother surfing past you ...

Resolved nothing

The New Year came and went and my resolutions were...well...nothing. Of course I have "career ambitions," but that is hardly the same thing. But when the New Year rolled around I took stock my life and thought, "Think I'm doing pretty good." As my children have aged into this temporarily bliss period, life is expanding. For example: My parents, noting the my knitting has almost screeched to a halt due to this carpal tunnel shin-dig, brought over a solution disguised as a Birthday / Christmas ...

Yes, I am an ex-pat

I have been thinking a lot about the article on South African ex-pats. I thought a lot about how the article is correct on the fact that nobody has ever accused me of abandoning my country. Nobody has ever told me I am less of an American for not living my day-to-day life on American soil. But there have always been a lot of questions and assumptions about my husband's role in all of this. Most commonly that it comes as a surprise that he left because of me and we did not meet in Britain. The...

Hairy decisions

This blog is filling up with unseen draft posts. All these potential posts that begin and never come to being. Too much holiday and Christmas. But I'm loving it, even if my waist line is not. But reality returns tomorrow. 5pm my family's plane takes off and then less than a week before both my children begin school. Yes. Both. I decided not to go on the writer's course. Which means I'm out the money and jerked a lot of people around. Not good. Still have to notify the professor and the school...

Fruity reading

Oh, hello. I suppose it has been a few days since we last chatted. Then again, I am sure you've been rather busy. This time of year is famous for that - and also eating and drinking far too much. Oh - you did that, too. Well, there you go, then. Our family likes to add an extra twist to the chaos by throwing a birthday party on New Year's Day. To announce the day I nodded my head at A. A. Milnes, posting on Facebook, "Now we are five." Given I'd posted so many dull updates stating fascinating...