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Whew! The year is over and for the first time ever, I listed every book read during the year. Little did I know as the year started what an excellent year this would be for staying at home and reading a book. And how lucky I was to be able to do that. Here’s the… Continue reading Books Read in 2020

Call me old-fashioned, but I love a fresh start.  And here are my resolutions for the year: * NOT TO WRITE ANY BOOKS!!!! * To READ more lots and lots of books * To slow down, slowly, surely and steadily * Take more exercise, a LOT more * To stay at the same weight all… Continue reading Happy New Year’s Resolutions

Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days. Benjamin Franklin So wrong, Benjamin!! Guests can be an asset to a busy household and here’s how. My Mum and my Aunty Heather have been home for a week now. They are freezing back in Scotland and England where they live. Their three week visit to… Continue reading Five Ways To Be A Helpful Guest – When Staying With A Large Family

So our quest to makeover our Jervis Bay beach house is starting to come together. See photos of the ‘before’ version here, and see what we bought on a big shopping trip to Ikea here. This week, painters have been in and I’ll pop down to see how it looks soon. But in the meantime,… Continue reading Beach House Makeover Inspiration – Wood Panelling Painted White

My weekly diary to record how I’m doing on my  Do Less and Stay Calm goals for 2015.  A way of keeping myself accountable. I drove for hours and hours and hours over two days this week and had one of those lightning strike mental moments. End of term, some big changes coming in our… Continue reading Calm Strong Kind :

Jeez, don’t ask me!! Actually and seriously, I do have something to say on the subject of not coping, an area I have plenty of experience in. This post is brought to you by all the people who’ve ever said to me and other mums of kids with additional needs kids/twins, triplets and more/ FIFO… Continue reading How To Cope When You’re Just Not Coping

Well, the PLAN had been to write a good, long post about that grande old dame, the Carrington Hotel in Katoomba. I stayed there last Friday night, as a guest of the NSW Branch of the Australian Multiple Birth Club, whose seminar was on the Saturday.  I gave a talk on ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder and… Continue reading AMBA NSW, The Carrington Hotel Katoomba, + Plans Going Awry

Typical Scottish April weather we’ve been having here. Maybe a wee bit nippier than usual. There’s sunshine when it’s raining, then lowering grey skies, then wee blue patches. Always changeable, very breezy. You need to be prepared for all possibilities, and go nowhere without a waterproof, a hat, scarf and gloves. Life’s like that too,… Continue reading Scottish Stories – Sunshine + Rain, Laughter + Tears

So it struck me as we walked along this muddy farm track, that my wee lass has never really spent much time in mud. What fun she’s missed! A lovely cousin of mine has a house that was originally an old farm steading. We visited one day and went for a walk to see the… Continue reading Scottish Stories – A Muddy Walk To See The Lambs

It was all Minnie The Minx’s idea. She’d seen some knitting needles in a shop and was keen to have a go. AND we were heading to Scotland. Minnie is left-handed and so is my big sister. ‘Aunty Mairi can teach you to knit!’ I said. I like that passing-the-buck school of mothering, don’t you?