Everydaystranger

About a month ago I had a training event in London I had to attend. It was one of those company mandatory ones, and I had gotten out of it previously and now was being told that unless I attended, bubble gum would be stuck in my hair while I slept and my nails [...]

I think when you have kids you get a lot of advice. And when you have twins, it’s really twice that, and not just because you have two, but because people think you have your hands full (must. resist. stabby. feelings.) I was stopped by a woman in Waterloo once when I was [...]

I think we’ve all done it, or maybe it’s just me. I’ve done it endlessly. I have it down to a specific science. In the game of “what if”, I’ve pinned the tail on the donkey and bobbed the apple from the barrel.
I know what I would do if I won the [...]

Everything hurts. The skin is falling off my fingertips. I have a 4 inch bruise on one foot. Every finger, arm, and leg has cuts and scrapes. I -
Hang on a minute.
I’m getting ahead of myself here.
On Saturday I went to my local branch of the bank. I never go [...]

It’s August Bank Holiday weekend, which means we have Monday off.
It’s the last day off until Christmas Day. Since it’s a bank holiday it’s also guaranteed to rain, so work will be done inside the house.
It’s also the weekend that, two years ago, I miscarried.
Two years ago.
Life never stops keeping me in suspense, whether [...]

I was checking a website last night when the history loaded Facebook for me, which Angus joined to swap photos of the horrific 1980’s fashions with his equally fashion-challenged friends. I did some searching and found loads of people that I used to know. It was a real blast from the past, and [...]

Sometimes you want to reach out and ask the universe for help. You wonder if you shout, if anyone will hear you, if anyone will come. But your problems aren’t the universe’s problem and your shouts get lost in the fog that surrounds the worlds and worlds of other problems and questions.
You wonder [...]

So the babies are officially 46 weeks old today, or 10.5 months old.
They’re really good fun, too. They do so much, and everything is an exploration with them.
They had their first (and, courtesy of a crappy summer, only) paddling pool extravaganza, and it went down a storm. Both babies loved it.

Angus, who has [...]

Fall is here. No really. Leaves are changing, the winter duvets are being aired out, and we finally got the plumber to come round and finish off the heating system because the house was pretty damn cold. While I love Autumn, it’s my favorite season, I could’ve done with more summer. [...]

You’re probably sick of these posts, but I can’t help but feel a huge weight is off my shoulders as each room rounds the corner towards completion. So far, the family bathroom is done (needs a mirror hung and a bit of masticking still, but that’s minor compared to the huge effort needed previously), [...]

When I was 5 years my old extended family took a photo together. It consisted of my parents, my mother parent’s, my mother’s mother’s parents, and various great-aunts, second cousins, and so on. I was fortunate enough to know my great-grandparents – my great-grandma was rocking cool, in fact. I even knew [...]

I’m supposed to be tough. I’m supposed to be cool and cold as ice and lackadaisical. I’m supposed to shrug off the world and slide under the bar and keep going, even when something catches its nail on the corner of my heart.
But the truth is, I’m not.
There’s something about going through fertility [...]

The nursery, as you may remember, was something that came straight from an LSD trip.

Their nursery has since been taken over by the family bathroom and what will be the en-suite. The babies have been moved into their permanent nursery, which was once the guest room. The new guest room is our former [...]

The family photo session is done, and I’ll update on that shortly. For now I have about 2.6 seconds of computer time before I get kicked off the computer for one reason or another, as the kids are here again.
My stepmom was here overnight on Friday, and all of us watched the Olympics, ate [...]

I’ve done something really stupid.
Really, really stupid.
For Angus’ mother’s Christmas present last year I suggested that all three of her boys and their families pay for a studio photography session and one photo of all of Angus’ Mums’ children, their spouses, and grandchildren. She loved the photo idea. She’s never had a family [...]

Ladies and Gentlemen -
The builders have left the building.
Thank you very much.
-H.

Just after Nick and Nora were born I read Alice Hoffman’s novel Fortune’s Daughter. The book, in typical Alice Hoffman style, was haunting and mystical. It’s about a woman about to give birth and a woman mourning the loss of the infant she was forced to adopt out. Only it has a [...]

The Cowboy pulled us aside this morning.
“Did you want that last bit of work done?” he asked, pointing to the front of the house. Yes, we wanted it done. The truth is, though, that our Building Fund had run dry. He knows this. We’ve told him that we’ve busted the limit [...]

Ten months old today.
Sometimes I wonder where all the time has gone, but then I see them roll around, shriek with laughter, splash in the bathtub, stuff toast in their mouth, smack a formula tin with a wooden spoon, and reach for each other and I know where the time has gone. And while [...]

The land this house was built on was bought in 1912 for a princely sum of