Life, Love and Dirty Dishes delivers award winning funny tales from the parenting front line delivered with humour and heart. We're all in this together.
Life, Love and Dirty Dishes is mainly about parenting. Living life with small people and the situations we find ourselves in. Love refers to the soppy stuff. Let’s face it, we sometimes moan when we can’t pee in peace, we sometimes wish leaving the house wasn’t a military operation. But would we change things? Never. Because at the end of the day we love the small people that have turned our worlds upside down, to the moon and back. I hope you enjoy these posts of a more heart felt nature.
Becoming a parent is the best thing. But it’s also the most terrifying thing. Nothing will make you love more, or worry more. It’s amazing and it’s infuriating. It comes with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. But that’s what makes it so beautiful. And being so many of us have been […] Read more…
I have never been particularly green fingered. In fact any plant I have ever owned, even ones specifically labelled “low maintenance and hardy”, have not survived under my care. But as I get older I find myself being drawn to plants. I have filled my house with those of the artificial, or if you are […] Read more…
To my darling O, Six! How did that happen?! It makes me as sad as it does happy. I’m sad because my little baby is long gone, and how I would love to go back and cuddle you in your sleeping bag as you nuzzle into my neck. It makes me sad for the time […] Read more…
I would have never considered ditching the scales until I read a book that changed my life. My hatred of my body started at 8 years old. It started with a comment from a friends Dad that made me compare my body to other people’s for the first time. Over the years it was fuelled […] Read more…
I had my last alcoholic drink 226 days ago. That’s over 7 months sober. I’m not sure if I’m expecting a fanfare for that announcement, or for you to all think I’m crazy! I had made the decision to be sober a few months before that, I just hadn’t done the actual follow through bit! […] Read more…
We need a new sofa. Ours is thirteen years old and has seen better days. When you choose a sofa you look at the style, the colour, the comfort. How it is going to fit in your living room. It’s only when you come to get rid of that sofa that you lovingly chose all […] Read more…
The year was 1996. And after what felt like a million lessons and the hardest test in the world, I passed my driving test on the second attempt. My first car was technically my Mum’s. But I used to drive it every where. It was a light blue/green Austin Metro. It had a manual choke, […] Read more…
To the mum who is struggling on the school run with a toddler, I see you trying to get a reluctant kid to school, with a toddler in tow who wants to stop and pick up every leaf they see. I see you struggling with the bags and the lunchboxes and the toddler who wants […] Read more…
As a parent I find myself angered by every proposed change the government put forward regarding my child’s education. From baseline assessments to budget cuts and everything in between. It feels like these policies are being decided by people who haven’t set food in an educational establishment since their own education, and who have completely […] Read more…
We’ve all had them. Days when parenting is really really tough. Days when you find yourself sobbing on the kitchen floor because it’s all too hard. When you are having one of those days it’s easy to feel totally alone. Because the bad days are not something we talk about often. But the truth is […] Read more…
Today is my 40th birthday, and yesterday I went to lunch with some of my lovely friends. Four people that don’t really know each other at all, but all of whom mean the world to me. Friendship is a funny thing. Sometimes you make friendships through unexpected circumstances. Sometimes the friendships you thought would last […] Read more…
The husband and I started going out just before my fifteenth birthday. But although he is the love of my life there have been others. The boys I loved before… First Love I was eleven when I first fell in love. He was blonde, Australian, and went by the name of Jason Donovan. His pictures […] Read more…
When I was 14 years old my bedroom wall was adorned with a huge black and white collage. Posters of River Phoenix, Jon Bon Jovi, Brad Pitt and Keanu Reeves. And of course the obligatory black and white photo of a man holding a baby from Athena. I have so many photos […] Read more…
When I was growing up we had a mirror in our bathroom. It said… Love is giving and forgiving It was from the 1970’s Kim Casali Love is… comic. I would see it every day for years and it always made me smile. I wish my parents had kept it because I would love to […] Read more…
I’ve been here once before. Only this time it feels different. There’s a hint of familiarity. A sense of nostalgia maybe. But when I think back to the first time I stepped over this threshold holding your big brother’s hand, you were just a baby in my arms. And now look at you. The all […] Read more…
Hey there new Mummy, Congratulations on the arrival of your precious bundle. How are you? Sore? In awe of the tiny human you have created? That never goes away. the awe, not the sore. Eight years in and it still takes my breath away that I created that walking, talking, flossing, person. I know that […] Read more…
Way back when I was relatively new to the blogging world I wrote a guest post for my friend Talya at Motherhood: The Real Deal for her series ‘Being a Mother.’ I read it again the other day and realised as my kids have gotten older there are so many more ways to define motherhood. […] Read more…
When you are in the midst of the endless night feeds and sleep deprivation is making you slightly crazy, you think the person that says to you “one day you will miss this” is either slightly unhinged, or about to be slapped. But they are right. One day you will miss the 2am feed in […] Read more…
The title for this blog post is something I typed into google over and over again, in many variations. And I never found anyone who said “No”. But I am saying “No”. Speech delay and autism do not always go hand in hand. By telling our story I hope to be able to help someone […] Read more…
Do you ever have those little moments? The moments where you catch you breath. A few moments between the everyday hustle and bustle and juggle that is life. It can be hard to notice them when your attention is elsewhere. Work, feeding the kids, signing permission slips, doing the laundry, mentally writing seven different to-do […] Read more…