Chaletgirl

I have been nominated by both AJ and Helen for a Brilliante Weblog Award. Thank you girls, you are very kind!

Here’s the rules:
Put the logo on your blog.
Add a link to the person who awarded you.
Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
Add links to those blogs on yours.
Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

I know lots of you have already received the award, so I will try not to double up. Here are 7 blogs that I love to read:

Creative Controller (even though she is semi-retired). Donna is my original sewing buddy, and still the best!

dearfii is Fi who I recently swapped with. She is as addicted to swaps as I am, but much, much more talented!

Mushroom Villagers is Irene who makes some of the most beautiful quilts I have seen, and also makes beautiful children!! Plus I love her photos of Oregon. They remind me of my time in the Pacific NW.

Obsessed With Fabric is Beth who is a new blogger and who has thrown herself into the world of swapping, and making some lovely little quilts.

Pigeon Pair is Christie, who not only makes gorgeous things, but takes beautiful photos too.

Tallgrass Prairie Studio is Jacquie who seems to come up with really unique ideas and pulls them off beautifully.

Knitting After Hours is Shelton DHW who I discovered through a swap. I love her creations!

I hope that you enjoy having a look at some new blogs!

We watched the movie Blood Diamond the other night. Whilst I enjoyed the movie, I was horrified by the storyline. The thought of all those young children armed with machine guns, drugged and fighting a war over diamonds? Trained to shoot innocent civilians including women and other children? It made me ill.

Add that to the media beat-up about the general state of the world of late, and the next few days left me with the feeling that whilst my little corner of the world is safe and comfortable, the rest of the world was screwed. And what could I, just one individual, do to change that?

Whilst I haven’t answered that question yet, here is an example of what one individual did.

He got the world dancing, and I cried many tears with the realisation that maybe things weren’t so bad if people were dancing.

Make sure your speakers are turned on, and enjoy.

I have very wise and very clever readers. And I am asking for your opinion on what you would do in this situation. I am happy for you to disagree with what I did do – I’m sure it will come up again and maybe I will be more prepared next time.

I had a friend come to visit today with her two sons, aged 22 months and 4 and a bit (a year older than Henry). We don’t see them very often, maybe once every few months, although it’s been nearly a year, I think, since they have been to our house. We’ve been going to their house whilst her youngest, was, well, young.

Unbeknownst to me, about 10 minutes before they left, whilst my friend was packing up her things and changing the youngest’s nappy, her older boy, a year older than Henry, asked if he could “borrow” a particular toy of Henry’s. Not a favourite, or a particularly expensive or loved toy. Henry apparently agreed, but, of course, he didn’t understand the term “borrow”.

The first I knew about it was when the boy put the toy in his mother’s bag, and Henry came racing in, crying, asking for the toy back. The older boy then told me that Henry had agreed to lend the toy to him and he was taking it home. Henry was quite distressed at this and cried, “no!, no!” and took the toy.

Can I add, for the record, that Henry is extremely generous with sharing his toys when we have visitors? He doesn’t have any problems sharing. I am pretty sure that my readers who know Henry will back me up on this one.

So what would you do? Would you insist that your child lend the toy?

And what did I do? I asked Henry three times, trying to gently coerce him into saying yes, if he would let the boy take this toy home and bring it back next time, and each time he cried, “no!, no!”. And of course, I could have forced him, but here’s my issue; I would never let Henry take home a toy from someone’s house. Ever. No matter how much he loved it. And I feared that this would set a precedent for my own son; that this was appropriate behaviour.

The older boy screamed and screamed and screamed at his mother to go and get the toy and he WAS taking it home. I could hear him scream all the way down the street as they drove away. I admit, I was mortified. And I wonder, did I do the right thing?