10 Things I'm Busy With Right Now

I'm always busy with something, sometimes with more than one thing at a time. Here's a sneak peak at 10 things I'm busy with right now.

1. Maskew Miller Longman Literature Awards

I've started writing my Afrikaans entry titled Tommie Hart en die Kromknol van Mis Moeras for children. Loving the creative process but my word, my grammar in my moedertaal is a bit rusty. Main prize is R8000. You too can enter, just click here - it's free.

2. SA Writer's College Short Story Award

The theme this year is difficult: "a person's world is only as big as their heart". I'm not feeling inspired at all but have written it down and glare at it every now and again waiting for that creative spark to ignite #methodwriter. Want to win R10,000? Then enter here - no entry fee.

3. Shaw Academy

While waiting for UNISA's second semester registration period to arrive, I've enrolled for a Diploma in Blogging & Content Marketing through Shaw College in the meantime. Class starts 3 April. You can start a 30 day free trial here.

4. Yoga App

I've downloaded a Yoga app called Down Dog and will officially started this morning. Will let you know how I feel about it later.

5. Drinking Less Coffee

This is the hardest thing I'm doing right now, even harder than writing than writing about people's worlds being as big as their hearts. Blegh. (Disclaimer: the reprecautions of drinking less coffee is too unpredictable so I will not recommend it or add any links).

6. Updating My Resume
I'm using a site called Canva to create a modern looking resume.

7. Potty Training

We've got the Pooh potty, pretty panties and Pampers pants. Pow! The one thing we don't have is a cooperative almost two-year-old. Good times.

8. Decluttering my home
I read an article recently that linked clutter to depression. It must be so because I feel better already. Here's some tips on decluttering.

9. Getting up an hour earlier in the morning
To write in my journal and reflect. The use of any technology for the first hour of the day is streng verboten.

10. Holding on to the roof while the wind blows 200km per hour
The Cape Cycle Tour was cancelled yesterday because of extreme weather conditions. They don't call it the Cape of Storms for nothing.

The Wild Woman

Dear Reader, The Wild Woman has been on my mind for some time now. My husband and I had a discussion this past weekend about the premise of the book Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. I'd been fervently devouring its pages when I recently realised this book shares a similar theme with a manuscript I've working on for the past couple of years. When I tried to explain to him the need for women, the need for me, to be wild and free, he asked, 'But what is it that women want to be freed from? What does it mean to be wild?' I've married a good man. Unlike those who came before him, he's never tried to tame the wild feminine out of me. Not only does this unique man embrace every aspect of my wildness, he encourages it. I've never met a person who "gets" me like he does. Men like him are few and far between and I can say this with a fair amount of certainty, because experience. I know what every male representative of ...

Short Story Monday - The Day The Applebaum's Met

The Day The Applebaum's Met Being part of a family which consists of an inventor for a father, an artist for a mother, and five siblings which differ from each other on every imaginable level might sound delightful. I can assure you, being in the company of this particular group of Applebaums is everything but a delight. We try our very best to avoid gatherings. We keep it simple: a one-on-one meeting is a lot less volatile. There’s not much potential to get into a heated argument with just one of us. And if the pawpaw hits the fan the possibility to outrun only one was far greater. The odds would be favourable in such an instance. And we have all run away from each other at some point or another. I must admit, when I see other families getting on like a house on fire I am envious. And when I say like a house on fire I mean it in a good way, not in the Applebaum way, like the day we attended our grandmother’s funeral. It was Francis who had started it. Even though she is the ...

Confessions: I Often Disappear

The hours of my days and the days of my life belong to a tiny individual with a big presence. Some days are tougher than others. There is no me, only her. I disappear. On other days I receive rejection letters from literary agents as well. During those tough ones it feels like even the memory of me too will fade and no one will remember that I'd ever lived. On those days I have to actively seek out the happy. So here goes. My happy is in the sound of notes resonating from the strings of my husband's guitar. It's in the sweet scent of fresh blooms and in the taste of a slice of cake for breakfast. It's in the blue of the ozone, the fragile guardian of our planet. It's in the golden glare of the setting sun over the mountain. It's in a cool breeze carrying the smell of the sea through my open window. It's the latest New Girl episode. It's Bad Lipreading . The adoration for me in my husband's eyes. My daughter's giggle and the way h...

The Cheeky Poet

Search This Blog