Experts laud the science of gratitude – I have no reason not to believe them. And I know from experience that an attitude of gratitude is probably the best disposition for human flourishing. I also know how it feels when a reminder to be grateful for the blessings I know I have feels like another…
Category: family life
10 strategies for achieving a work-life balance that actually work
First up, I think it’s funny anyone would ask me about managing family and work life Last week after I asked what you would all like me to write about here, two readers asked for ideas on how I manage the whole work-life balance thing. My first thought was that I kind of don’t. The…
Work and play during the school holidays
On Monday, the first official day of the spring school holidays, I put the kids to work washing and cleaning out both of our cars. I’ve been playing Chinese checkers with whoever will play with me after dinner time. Our 11-year-old is crazy good at the game. Or maybe I’m just really bad at it. Last night…
Parents of little kids, remember grown-up conversations?
They’re really nice, aren’t they? Around this time last month my husband and I rocked up to a school function that didn’t exist because we had got the date wrong. Since we’d already bribed our eldest to babysit we opted to stay out for a while. I was almost as excited as a teenager on…
Love in the family wins when it comes to bringing people to God
A recent survey has confirmed that one’s parents and other family members have the greatest influence on a person’s religious attitudes and beliefs throughout his or her life. And many people are attracted to examine their ideas about religion and faith by people, not celebrities or public figures, who they observe to be authentic examples…
What I’ve been up to during March/start of April
I haven’t updated this blog much apart from posting my Catholic Weekly columns but I kind of miss the more casual documenting of the family doings and my own musings here. So this is the first of a monthly update post – then I, at least, can look back and remember what I did from…
Last days before Christmas
Five days out from Christmas and I’m still trying to think of myself as in my usual part-time work mode, because we have birthdays and things in late December and we’re going on a family camp in early January. I won’t get any work done until after that. But with the children now all on…
Halloween. Do you love it or hate it?
Halloween has really irked me in recent years. For one thing, there’s a beautiful Catholic tradition behind the celebration of October 31 that has got almost completely submerged by the Halloween phenomenon. But mainly, there’s the fact that culturally it’s largely an American celebration and so, being an Australian, to me it feels even more…
These busy school holidays
We’re halfway through week one of the September school holidays and it feels like a lot’s been packed in already. I guess that’s bound to be the case when you have five kids. My husband and I have been tag-teaming work and parenting duties more than usual this week. I worked yesterday while he stayed…
Housework as exercise and what three weeks of tracking time showed me
I finished three weeks of writing down what I did during my days, and how much time I slept. It was an interesting exercise in finding out exactly where my hours go and why I often feel I’m not accomplishing much on some days but am still really tired by 9pm! I already blogged some details…
A second week in hours
I’m currently tracking my time to see how I’m spending my 168 hours each week and what I can do to use them a bit better. A few of my Facebook friends are doing this at the same time. You might also like to try it for yourself and see what insights you get from…
A plan to enjoy winter and not just put up with it
The combination of the temperatures plunging over the weekend and the first official day of winter saw my mood take a dive as well. Winter has not been my friend, especially in recent years given one child’s eczema flare-ups and the extra care needed to prevent and deal with those. The related need for limited…
