Everydaystranger

Take a nursery.

Fuck up the window.

Brick up the window.

Have maniac builders rip out the ceiling, cupboards, and punch a hole through the wall where a window will be installed in what will be the en-suite, once the wall goes up dividing the room into two parts.

Plasterers come by and plaster the en-suite (1/3 of the [...]

My therapist said talking to oneself is a good thing, actually. It’s a way of working things out, keeping calm, taking in one’s own view, earthy crunchy granola tree hugging crystal crying blah, stuff like that.
This was good news for me, actually, as I’ve long been someone to talk to myself. I only [...]

Right – say you’re walking down the aisle in a shop. As you do. And you see a mom with multiples. Do you feel like talking to the babies? Do you feel like talking to the mom? You do? OK. A little help with some ground rules, if [...]

Saturday morning I was in a brilliant mood.
The sun was shining bright. It was hot. So hot, in fact, that we got to open all of the bi-fold doors we had installed to let the house flood with warmth. The babies were installed on the living room carpet, happily banging away on [...]

I am hot.
The heat has broken here like a hot glaze. I want air to circulate but nothing is moving. Stumbling from Kafka dreams I move off the bed slowly and silently, slipping on the tank top and shorts I’d discarded beside the bed. I lift my hair off [...]

Having children makes you think and prepare for things that you never thought you’d need to prepare for. I’m not specifically referring to things like drawing up a will, baby-proofing the house, or kissing your line-free face goodbye, although of course those things happen too (and should Angus and I both peg it the [...]

“I’m furious with you,” I say fiercely.
“Why?” Angus asks, confused.
“Because!” I sputter. “You’re no longer in love with me! You want to divide the property, you tell me it’s over, and so Nick and Nora and I are off to the States to regroup, to figure out what to do next. All [...]

I have approximately 7.9 seconds of computer time, what before Jeff steals the PC, I have to do some kind of baby-rolling-over-heroics, housework is done, and I hit yet another load of laundry (I’ve done 9 loads so far, at least 2 more to go. Let’s hear it for holidays!)
The holiday on the canal [...]

We’re off for a week now. We decided to do something relaxing and low-key, so Angus and I booked up a narrowboat for a week. You hire a boat, tootle along locks and canals (we haven’t chosen the route yet. Naturally we leave today, so of course we have no idea where [...]

I’ve long been one of those crunchy granola types – in high school I started that school’s first environmental club. At the time, it wasn’t a cool thing to do, but then I’ve never really walked the cool walk. I dumped the CFC hairspray long ago, but then again during my entire time [...]

Thank you from the bottom of my dusty heart for your comments and emails, all of which I’ve sent to Vicki. I love you for saying something kind and supportive. I don’t know how to heal her hurts, I only know I want to hold her hand while she lives on, so I [...]

Back in April I told you about my friend Vicki. Her twin boys were born early and born ill after a very scary, dangerous delivery, a delivery that kept Vicki in hospital for a while.
Her boys had a hard start – a long stay in NICU for both of them, and they weren’t well.
Vicki [...]

I’ve been signing up to do book reviews lately, and so this blog will have regular reviews – not just of parenting or infertility books, but of all kinds of books. This isn’t because I get paid to do the reviews (I wish!) but because I’ve found being part of virtual book clubs and [...]

Things haven’t been great here. Not only did I throw a wobbly on Thursday, but we’ve been having fierce arguments that leave you with the feeling that you would much rather be trapped in an elevator with Charo and an accordian playing Oompa Loompa than be in the same room with that donut you [...]

I had a post about the babies being 9 months old today, complete with photos and all, but that’ll have to wait as I go into a complete and total meltdown, complete with sobbing and shouting and hysterics. What finally pushed me over the edge wasn’t the chicken pox or the plasterers or my [...]

The cavalry arrived last night to help, which is good because between builders (Helen and Angus? Yeah. We need the bathrooms tiles this weekend, the bedrooms painted so we can lay the floor down, and the sockets fitted. Good luck!), plasterers (who thoughtfully broke the mirror on my Edwardian vanity, but are paying to [...]

You know in the movies when the heroine is confronted by something truly horrifying? Like those slasher flicks where she throws open the closet door – because she was curious about the heavy breathing coming from her cashmere, presumably – and you have that heart-stopping second of pure adrenaline fear as you wait for [...]