On tidying up


family & parenting, hope, patient

I am messy. I always have been. I don’t know that I ever really learned how to tidy up in a way that made sense to me, learned how to declutter, downsize, re-order, prioritise. I have a big inbox. I have a floor-drobe and now I have kids, a house heaving with stuff. We’ve tidied […]

17th February 2019

SMTWTFS


hope, patient, shame

Every Sunday morning I have a chore. It is just a small job, five minutes, maybe ten tops, but crucial. I have to refill my pill box for the week, and note down if there are any I need to re-repeat. It doesn’t take long, though it is fiddly. It is also a useful thing […]

7th January 2018

The Power


feminism

One of Barack Obama’s books of 2017 was Naomi Alderman’s The Power. Mine were Adam Kay’s This Is Going To Hurt tied with Mary Beard’s Women And Power. But all three had a profound effect on me. I’m interested in Obama’s view, not because I agree with him on everything but because I will always […]

3rd January 2018

A handbag?!? A new challenge! A gauntlet.


feminism, words

Sometimes things are a sign. They remind us of who we are and what we should be and what we should do. And sometimes, if we are sensible, we listen to them. As women the discussion of our bodies have been drawn so sharply into mainstream over recent years, that it feels almost dangerous. There […]

3rd May 2017

The best bit…


family & parenting

Now I’ve been parenting for 9 years, I know there are only three rules or pieces of advice that are worth anything. Two of them I have written about before: Buy a coat with a hood. Not for them, for you. You will never, ever, ever be able to handle an umbrella and a buggy, […]

7th November 2016

WYSIWYG


family & parenting

This post is a bit late, I’ve missed the rush of blogs and features on SATS and school reports and the start of the holidays. It has been in the air though – exam and test results and that dreaded social impetus which is the humble brag.

27th July 2014