Browsing Category: Featured

Emigration: From concept to hearing “congratulations”

June 26, 2017 Zoe

I’ve written about our emigration process before. I talked about when we first started thinking about emigrating, how it was officially a goal for this year and even my ambivalence about really making the decision and feeling sad about leaving our wonderful life behind. I’ve bemoaned how long the admin was taking us and made a bit of a list of logistics I needed to put down so that they wouldn’t keep rattling around in my head. But we’ve hit a major milestone – we heard “Congratulations” at the consulate, and so I wanted to take you with me from start to finish.

Getting Dean’s Green Card has not been easy, and we still aren’t totally done. But I’m taking this milestone as an opportunity to reflect back on the process and talk about some of the big things we’ve gone through. If you’re planning to emigrate in general, or get a Green Card in particular, let me tell you that it is not easy, not for the faint of heart, but hopefully totally worth it. I did a Facebook Live about this as well, if you’re keen to watch me talk about this through Facebook or YouTube. Continue Reading

DID YOU LIKE THIS POST?

If you like these words, please check out more of what I say on twitter and Facebook, and pics I take on Instagram and subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me on Pinterest.
Also, please be sure to sign up to my carefully curated, crafted and infrequent newsletter.

1 Comment Marriage, South Africa, USA

#AcerForGaming made me a role model

June 13, 2017 Zoe

Role models are strange things. I’ve written about them in other contexts, like looking at Aloy or Lara Croft as gaming-based role models for Harley as she grows up. But it’s not just impressionable young people who need role models, although of course, they do. Adults continue to need others that they can admire in some ways, and it’s a strange thing to put myself in that category. It makes me a bit self-conscious, and a bit awkward, but I also feel proud enough about it that I have to share.

Way back when, I promised that I wouldn’t apologize for being a working mom. My thought was that it is who I am, and I was going to bring Harley along with me to meetings or whatever needed doing, and carry on living my life as a working woman. While I have done that with great success, it hasn’t always been easy. I was particularly worried about the #AcerForGaming event – I was going to be working all evening, helping to get other ladies playing on consoles and PCs. How could I do that if Harley was difficult or tired or whatever else. I was really torn about it, but decided I had to take her – I couldn’t present myself as a working mom gamer without my kid – and I’m SO glad that I brought her. Continue Reading

2 Comments Gaming, Geek, Parenting, Rambling

Role Model Take your daughter to work Working mom

Disaster, priorities and a whole lot of perspective

June 12, 2017 Zoe

I’ve had a post that I wanted to write for a long time. It was built on the idea that we are exposed to so much more of the world’s devastation than we ever used to be. On my Facebook newsfeed, there will be stories about rapes in schools, murders of people of color by police, animals being literally loaded alive into garbage trucks, child soldiers, the plight of refugees… the list goes on and on. I remember commenting on a video about a particularly heinous action by police in the US, asking if this was a new thing or if it was always happening and the world is finally being made aware of it. A friend responded by saying it always happened, but now everyone has a camera on their phone and can capture it. I was so devastated, until the next horror.

Lately, I’ve wanted to go on a bit of a news fast. Like an ostrich burying its head in the sand (which, by the way, they never do), I figured I’d hide from the news, hide from social media and just try to live in my own bubble of friends and loved ones. But the reality is that even that is wider than it ever was, and makes the news feel that much closer. It’s not just “oh, shame about London” – I have friends on Facebook who had to mark themselves as safe in the event. I have friends I actively worried about after the attacks in Brussels, in the storm in Cape Town, in the fires in the Eastern Cape. And I think that’s what’s making all the news, all the horror, all the disasters so much more profound. Continue Reading

6 Comments Rambling

Disasters Perspective Priorities

I lost a fight with my toddler this week, and I bet you did too

June 6, 2017 Zoe

I love this age with Harley. I’ve already waxed lyrical about how awesome it is now that she’s 18 months old. It’s so fun to be able to play silly games with her now, to laugh or get hugs and kisses (my favorite) and see her personality grow and flourish. I love seeing how independent she is, how strong a sense of self she has. Of course, that also means that sometimes I end up in a fight with my toddler, and I don’t always win. But I really don’t think this is a bad thing.

I actually did my latest Facebook Live about this. You see, Harley has started walking on her own now, and she likes walking everywhere. Except when she doesn’t. For a few days, she was walking from home to the car for school each day, and it was so adorable – even if it did seem to take forever. But all of a sudden, she is absolutely refusing to walk. And as much as I might try to insist on getting her to walk, she will just plant her feet and refuse. So I end up capitulating and just carrying her. And that’s okay. Continue Reading

2 Comments Parenting

Parenting Pick your battles Toddler

18 months old – my new favorite age

June 1, 2017 Zoe

Today, Harley is 18 months old. It’s strange to believe 18 months have already passed, that a year and a half ago was when she made her dramatic entry into this world. 18 month later, and I feel like things are settling into a groove I can enjoy. I know I’ve enjoyed other ages. It’s also increasingly clear that parenting just keeps getting better, and somehow my kid just keeps on getting more adorable. 6 months old was SO much better than newborn, and 18 months seems to be the best so far.

That doesn’t mean things are easy. Oh, by no means are they easy – that would be the totally wrong word to use. But they are more fun, and interesting, and different. Harley has a lot of personality now, and she cracks me up. She also drives me a little bit crazy. Here is the video of my Facebook Live last night that was meant to be about #AcerForGaming, and ended up being about Harley being, well, Harley. Continue Reading

3 Comments Parenting, Rambling

18 months Milestones Where does the time go?