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.
I dreaded the big four-oh. I’d never really worried about age before, but I was uncomfortable with turning 40. My twenties were all about partying and promotions. My thirties were about having babies. But having ticked all the boxes of career, marriage, mortgage and kids, I didn’t really know what was expected of me in […] Read more…
My approach to skincare used to be quite hap hazard. It basically consisted of cleanse and moisturise in the morning and that was it. Occasionally I would commit to making more of an effort in my night time skin care routine, but it never really lasted beyond a week. A few months ago a friend […] Read more…
I was about ten when I read in a Judy Blume book, Superfudge, that Father Christmas wasn’t real. I had some suspicions. Mainly caused by grown ups asking me “Do you still believe in Father Christmas?” leading me to question was there something not to believe in. Grown ups ask dumb questions. I never asked […] Read more…
I love the poem If by Rudyard Kipling. I think the first two lines sum up life right now… If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you This is my version of If written for the Covid times… If If you can keep your head […] Read more…
I’ve always quite enjoyed doing jigsaw puzzles with the kids, and the husband and I often joked that we would do puzzles when we were retired. Then 2020 arrived and took away our social lives and left our mental health in tatters. With little else to do we decided not to wait until retirement, I […] Read more…
The whole world and his dog has advice for you when you become a parent. When you should be feeding them, how much you should be holding them, dummy or no dummy. It’s relentless. But what about the practical advice for new parents that is actually going to be useful? Here are 9 things to […] Read more…
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. There are days when you feel more weighed down than a weighted blanket. But that’s […] 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…