Category Archives: Family

Pest Control

February 26, 2014 By in Family, Tasmania Tags: , , 27 Comments

macro photography spiders web

I was sitting outside with DorkySon the other day – eating a super tasty lunch from the TacoTaco van – when I felt something tickly on my neck. I glanced at the window beside me and could see quite clearly from the reflection that it was a BIG spider and if I wasn’t quick it was going to disappear down the back of my shirt.

*shudder*

I walked as calmly as I could across to a nearby group of three women, also sitting eating tacos, and said through quite a tight smile ‘Please could you flick that crawling thing off my back?’

All three of them looked up at me, widened their eyes, and screamed loudly.

Not very reassuring, ladies! Continue reading →

My month without social media

February 17, 2014 By in Blogging, Family Tags: , , , , 34 Comments

A Month without social media

*peers into the gloom*

Do I still have any readers after my month off? I hope so. I’ve missed you!

Giving up Facebook and Twitter for a month was surprisingly easy, but giving up DorkyMum was hard. I’ve filled half a notebook with scribblings that need to be turned into proper posts over the next few weeks, but I thought I would start with a few reflections on the four-week social media detox. Continue reading →

My One Month Social Media Detox

January 15, 2014 By in Blogging, Family Tags: , , , , 28 Comments

social media diet

For all the years that we have known each other, DorkyDad and I have done a January detox. It is usually much needed. Like most people, we fill our cupboards even fuller than usual over the Christmas holidays, with booze, biscuits and other unnecessaries.

Come the New Year, our bodies are practically begging us for a break. So we both give up alcohol for the month, step up our exercise regimes, and cut back as far as we can on carbs and candy.

After a grumpy, jumpy first week, we tend to find that we are sleeping much better, feeling more clear-headed and starting to lose our little festive potbellies. We finish the month feeling refreshed and energetic, ready to face the rest of the year.

We are doing all that again this January, but two weeks in I don’t feel like it is enough. My body is definitely feeling much better. But my brain? Meh. Not so much. It still feels overloaded. I am not in the calm and relaxed place that I should be. I am craving peace, and space, and silence.

Continue reading →

Nearly Five

January 14, 2014 By in Family Tags: , , 21 Comments

peekaboo

DorkySon is absolute magic just now. He is a real joy to be around. I can’t remember ever seeing him so calm and settled, and that is really reflected in how he’s behaving.

A large part of that is testament to the kindness of our family and friends who, even from afar, have worked so hard to let him know that he is loved. Barely a day passes without another postcard, book, or CBeebies DVD being popped into our mailbox.

The wardrobe in DorkySon’s room is plastered with many of those postcards, and also with photos of all the important people in his life – friends, grandparents, cousins and the like. There are so many happy memories recorded there, and DorkySon likes to chat about them often. He talks very openly sometimes about who he is missing, but he also talks with absolute confidence about when he will visit those people, or when they will come and see us. He knows already, because of the regular travelling we have done to the States, that not all your friends can live in one place and sometimes you have to make a big effort to see them. He says that the sadness you feel when you miss people is a good sadness because it means you have people you care about.

Continue reading →