[Notes from a Creative/Mother of three on the surprise gift of time: Squeezing creative space out of scraps of the day.] As I sit, surrounded by biege walls, shoulder to shoulder with other mothers-to-be, bellies swollen and rings tight on fingers, I hear the sighs. The huffs and puffs. The groans of people wanting to… Read More Waiting Area 2//12Feb2016
“Idiot Mummy!!” “I – D – I – O – T Mummy, argggghhh!!” Middle Child screams at me. She is bent at the knees; arms pushed out behind her like she is about to take off; chin and mouth jutting out like a wolf howling its battle cry at the moon; face contorted like she’s… Read More Idiot Mummy//15Jun2017
[My third child recently turned one (wow!), and I also recently rediscovered this piece I had written very close to her arrival: A musing on what the arrival of this new little life will really mean, in all it’s glory and all it’s struggle…] “I Was Not Sleepwalking Anymore…”//19Feb2016 “The new life of my third child,… Read More “I Was Not Sleepwalking Anymore…”//19Feb2016
Last time I was here I was heavily pregnant with my third child. Swollen, cracked feet, bearing the weight of two people were washed, scrubbed, scraped, soaked, moisturised, polished, buffed, massaged and painted – attention they’d sorely lacked. Having previously laughed in the face of all things “spa” (for I was a strong woman who… Read More Shiny Toenails//27Aug2016
This song is for all mothers who know the feeling of having utterly reached the edge of themselves. Written when I was heavily pregnant with my third child; when I was struggling with the challenging behaviour of a feisty three year old and 18m old. The physical and mental exhaustion left me feeling pretty crushed… Read More The Edge of Myself//20Mar2017
I am lightweight. Not a lightweight mother – I am heavyweight at that. Sometimes it feels like I should be given all the heavyweight titles available for the endurance, stamina, energy and general grit that it takes to push through this motherhood thing – though I think that most mothers deserve that recognition. Heavyweight, champion… Read More I Am Lightweight//29Aug2016
Looking down to belly expanding. Blooming, stretching, creating. Unstoppable forces push, push from inside. What has begun will be finished. I look. Touch. Dwell. Third time a house. Third time we stretch. Can we stretch enough? Or will the elastic reach its limit? A capacity unknown, full of trepidation and “shitting oneself”. Yet full of… Read More The Stretch//04Nov2015
