Shambolic Living

Keeping The Home Fires Burning

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I've been left with just one job to do today. I've got to keep the fire going. You see Mr Shambles was determined that our house would have a wood fire. Memories of his childhood and all that.  So he went and built a massive fireplace. Then tiled it with a jigsaw of slate. He had to get Hippie Child to work out where each bit should go, his … [Read more...]

Weekend Notes – 9/6/2013

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I'm working on the assumption that it's still the weekend here in Australia (it's a long weekend so we're not working today), therefore Weekend Notes is not late, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. We've had a surprise visit from one of oldest friends this weekend. It meant lots of laughing, reminiscing and eating. No really, lots of … [Read more...]

Busy Doing My Head In

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When the girls were little there were many occasions when I locked myself in the loo simply to get a break. In amongst the crazy demands of toddler taming and working from home it was my chance to breathe slowly and think clearly about the many tasks I needed to complete to impossible deadlines. The memories came back tonight as I worked my way … [Read more...]

Weekend Notes – 2/6/2013

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  What's Been Happening? Oohh it's cold, windy and raining today.  We've also had a couple of foggy mornings this week. Winter has made it's arrival known. It's hot chocolate weather. Earlier this week we had a visit from a Koala in the tree near our back deck. He gave me once chance to get a shot of his face, then proceeded … [Read more...]

Is Parenting Teens Hard?

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Once when I was a mother of a newborn and a toddler a mother of teenagers said to me "you know I think they need you around more when they are teenagers than when they are babies". As I wiped pooey bums, worried about delayed speech development, monitored TV consumption and agonised over the nutritional value of a diet consisting solely of peanut … [Read more...]

Weekend Notes 26/5/13

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The sun is shining today after a couple of days of wild weather. We've started lighting the fire at night, winter is arriving. It's been a pretty uneventful week. Just the day-to-day ordinary stuff that goes in homes all over the world. I'm 13,000 words into my manuscript and dreaming about running away from home and locking myself up in a hotel … [Read more...]

How Old Do You Want To Grow?

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"Ilona's New Hat" Photo by Ari Seth Cohen of Advanced Style.*Given that this blog is my midlife crisis I'm obviously hoping to make it to 90 odd mark. Shambolic Living was born as I hit my 44th birthday and realised I'd neglected a few of my life goals in amongst all the baby, bills and mortgage stuff. So as I madly try to tick off the "to do" list … [Read more...]

Grey stairs.
Father with two daughters.