Hairstyling - or borderline child cruelty...

Week 52 of Tara's Gallery. It doesn't seem two minutes, etc, etc. This week the theme is Hair and I am so looking forward to seeing the bad hairstyles on offer from my fellow bloggers.

In 2008, I was recovering from breast cancer treatment and my hair was growing back slowly. For a pictorial demonstration of the loss and the regrowth, pop to this previous Gallery post. It was good to have it back, don't get me wrong, but I missed my long locks and straightening my pixie crop with mini-straighteners just didn't cut the mustard. What could I do? How could I sate my lust for rampant hairstyling?

It was then that my eyes fell upon 4 year old O. A boy with lucious curly locks, tousled and bouncy. AND RIPE FOR THE STRAIGHTENING!

He was pliant and still as I impressed upon him the need not to move as I brandished the scorching GHDs. He went from this:



to this, in a matter of minutes:



I know he looks sad - but it was a transient sadness. I do have a beaming photo - look!



Yes, it was wrong, but these were desperate times. Now I've got my own wild curly mane (chemo can make your hair come back curly) and my straightening days are long behind me. It takes far to long to even achieve a wavy kink out of the new hair. But O is safe too - I think at the ripe old age of six, he would tell me in no uncertain terms to PUT THE STRAIGHTENERS DOWN, MUMMY!

Silent Sunday

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Liebster Award - spreading some bloggy love

I received this lovely award from Kerry over at Kerry on Living and was moved to blushing by her kind comments. The idea behind the award is to spread a little loving into quiet corners of the blogging world and hopefully introduce readers to new and amazing blogs. I was grinning like a fool when I got my award! Thank you, Kerry, for my award - I am touched and grateful.

My mission, which I have accepted is:

1) Create a post on my blog and add the Liebster blog image.

2) Link back to the person who gave me the award and say if I accept.

3) Choose 3-5 of my favourite blogs, link to these in my post and tell these lucky bloggers that they've been tagged.

So, who to choose? There are so many blogs I visit and enjoy and it has been difficult, but here are my three picks:

The utterly delightful and talented Doodlemum, whose blog is a riot of fantastic drawings, documenting her everyday (and often fantastical) life with her children. I don't think I can convey in words just how much I love this blog! The drawings are tender, funny and honest and I want one on my bedroom wall...



Jane @ How I Like My Coffee is an inspiration to me. She writes funny and intelligent stuff on her blog and takes some great photographs too. She's got a wild leaping cat called Tao who is totally awesome and her writing always says something to me. Jane has leukaemia, but her blog is not a well of hideous cancer misery - it is life-affirming and I love it.

Suzanne over at Sky Blue Sea is a talented artist and makes beautiful things. I love her blog as her art and the way she writes about it has a nostalgic air and love just comes tumbling out of the pages as you read. She is warm and friendly and an all-round good sort. Get over there and check out her wares!

So there are my bloggy-loves. Please go and check them out and please spread a little blog love around yourselves if you'd like to.

The Gallery - Tree elf

It's Week 50 of the Gallery and the theme this week is trees. Tara over at Sticky Fingers loves trees with a passion.

I share this love. Some of my happiest memories are of walks in the woods with M - long, lazy walks just enjoying the silence under the leafy canopy. We take O on these walks now and I'm hoping he too will grow to love trees as much as I do.

Growing up in Halifax, we were lucky to have the most wonderful woods as our playground. There were rocks and gnarled old oaks and we had the freedom to roam free. It was a magical place - away from the strictures of parents and prying eyes. We could let our imaginations run riot - I remember one alarming incident with a burning candle and a large dry pile of leaves. Thank goodness parents didn't know what we were up to. This fills my parental heart with trepidation - what on earth will O get up to when his independence grows?!

I can't wait for the trees to burst out into greenery and blossom this year. Winter has seemed so long this year - it will be a relief to wave goodbye to it.

My photo for the Gallery this week celebrates the joy to be had in the woods - a little bit of tree-hugging if you like, by my very own little tree elf.









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Silent Sunday - NO SMOKING!

The woes of homework

As I sit here, six year old O is doing his homework and I am surreptitiously blogging on my phone. It is 7.30 and most definitely not the time to be doing homework for a tired little boy. The idea was to do the homework at the weekend when we were all a little more relaxed and had time to devote to the devoirs.




However, O seems to have inherited my dreamy, lackadaisical approach to organisation and although the homework sheet was handed out last Tuesday, it only made it home today. I had instructed him to remember it every single day last week and even written in his diary so his teacher could prod him but to no avail. The sheet remained in his drawer.

I was going to leave the homework undone and leave him to face the consequences (doing the homework at playtime). I toyed with writing a note for his teacher asking her to emphasise the importance of bringing his homework home and to reinforce my words.

O's desperate face of horror made me relent and hence, we are sat here doing the homework when he should be in bed. I hope we are finished before midnight.

I am not a big fan of homework for primary school children - it seems to me that they do enough at school and extra work is total overkill. Surely there should be time for relaxing or playing or watching TV when you're six, especially after six hours at school. We've got spelling and maths to tackle as well, but not tonight.

The only saving grace is that he seems to be enjoying writing his story about Magnoman. I just wish it wasn't past bedtime.





Along with O's homework and school diary, we had a letter home from school about a company which offers 'a home based complement' to schoolwork. It made me fizz a little. The school say they don't actively endorse the service, but the leaflet is attached to a letter on school letter-headed paper. It seems a little odd to me. What message is the school sending out? Do they think it's a good idea? Obviously only children with parents who can afford the service will be able to benefit and again, children are giving up their playtime to study. It makes me feel uncomfortable. Perhaps I'm being naive, but I really don't like the implications behind this letter.

Am I alone in feeling this way? How do the rest of you feel?






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Cold in the office - Silent Sunday

Click on the Silent Sunday pic for more quiet moments...