family

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This Time Next Year: Where Will You Be?

Do you ever play the game, ‘this time last year…’? What about ‘this time next year…’? How does it feel looking back? What do you hope for the future? Several days ago, my very thoughtful phone made me a video using some of the many photos in my camera roll. It titled it: This Day 2018. On that day, four…
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Writing, Explosions, and Unsuitable Horror Stories

After a 4-month break, my daughter Imogen and I are back. We made a new podcast episode! This week, we’re chatting about: Finishing novels and beta reading My 19-year-old daughter Sophie and ‘graduate’ unschoolers Bushfires and exploding trees How our generous members saved our unschooling community Vlogging The TV shows we’ve been watching The Masterclass classes we’ve been enjoying We’re…
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Locked Out, Locked In, and Lies

This afternoon, I was poking about on an old blog of mine, reading old stories and remembering when my children were much younger. Locked Out, Locked In, and Lies is one of those stories. I wrote it four years ago for an A-Z blogging challenge. Of course, it was my L post! urry! Hurry! Time to go!” I yelled as…
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Giggling at Shocking Things

On the first day of 2020, I lost my sense of humour. Usually, I’m a positive person, but the current bushfire situation pushed me over the edge. “I’m tired of breathing smoky air,” I complained. “I’m fed up of watching fire updates and wondering if the fire is coming our way. I want life to return to normal.” My husband…
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Mother on Duty

At 10:15 am, my youngest daughter Gemma-Rose appears in the living room where I’m keeping track of the bushfire activity near us. (Through the window, I can see the fire trucks and other vehicles arriving and leaving our road.) ”You slept in for a long time,” I say. “You must have been tired.” Gemma-Rose nods. I understand. Living with a…
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When Life Gets a Bit Too Interesting!

Life is certainly interesting at the moment. A little bit too interesting! You might remember how a week or so ago, we prepared our house just in case the out-of-control bushfire that was burning not very far away arrived in our village. Well, the other day, the fire did arrive. Life hasn’t been normal since we received an emergency warning…
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Realising What’s Important

Many years ago, I discovered that a friend of mine never irons her clothes. She doesn’t even own an iron. I thought this was rather strange. Surely clothes need ironing? At the time, I ironed nearly everything. (I didn’t iron underwear!) And then one day, I stopped ironing my clothes. Maybe I got lazy. Or perhaps I was busy. Whatever…
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How Light Can Turn into Deep and Serious

I love Sunday mornings. We usually go to 7.30 am Mass and then when we get home, we have a leisurely breakfast in the family room. While we’re eating toast and Nutella and porridge and syrup, we talk. “What’s the latest royal news, Dad?” someone always asks. Andy grabs his phone and does some googling, and then he entertains us…
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The Best Time and Place for Things to Go Wrong

On Sunday morning, Sophie and I headed into town for Mass. Earlier, I’d said, “Let’s take our cameras with us. After Mass, we can do some street photography, and we could have coffee in that cafe down the far end of town, the one we’ve never visited before.” So that was the plan. A morning out with my teenager daughter.…
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Unschooling Books and Bedtimes

Knock! Knock! My husband Andy looked at me and I looked at him. We both looked at the clock. Who could that be at our front door, at 8 o’clock on a weekday evening? Andy heaved himself out of his armchair and plodded off to find out. “Hello!” Our new friends Tony and Ellie appeared in the doorway of our…
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The Extraordinary Ordinary Things of Life

I’m at Thomas’ wake. I have his memory box on my knee, and I take out a few photos and pass them to a friend. “He was a chubby baby!” she exclaims. I reply, “He wasn’t really. Those photos were taken at the funeral home. He looked different at the hospital.” I think about this. I remember how much I…
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