So far I am pretty disappointed with 2024…. It’s not the year I hoped for after our chaotic and incredibly crazy 2023. Don’t get me wrong, outside of the fire, we had some amazing moments in 2023, but it was a difficult year for so many reasons, and I have to admit that I was looking forward to the idea of a brand new year as we reached the end of 2023. 2024 had a lovely ring to it. There is something nice in knowing that the incoming ‘new’ year had no marks on it yet, no spoilers, no mistakes, nothing to fear. This thought reminded me of Anne of Green Gables, one of the most optimistic charac ..read more

January is a great time of the year to start thinking about 2024, and what I/we would like to achieve this coming year? What relationships do I/we want to strengthen? What habits do we want to let go of? What skills would I like to learn? What areas of our lives would we like to improve, and what things would we like to stop doing in our lives? What I love about this time of year is anything and everything feels and seems possible. January is the month of new beginnings. It’s a good time to look forward and plan for all the amazing possibilities that a new year can bring. The world is our oyst ..read more

If I were to choose a song that represents the year 2023 for me, I would have to probably start with songs like ‘I’m still standing’ by Elton John, or maybe ‘Ain’t no mountain high enough’ by Diana Ross. The song I probably turned on to listen to the most this year is Phil Wickham’s acoustic version of ‘Battle Belongs’. This year I felt that this song brought a sense of calm to the chaos that was happening around me. When I closed my eyes and let the music wash over me, it was evident that despite what was going on in my world, I felt relatively calm. 2023 has been a massive year in so many wa ..read more

Every year I like to do a list of goals for myself, and I will admit that I did do them for this year, but unfortunately for whatever reason, I didn’t press the word ‘publish’ when I finished the post. Instead, I must have saved the draft and hoped I would come back to the post for a final look before I published the post. Well, this is the post. I have edited the post in some ways, but I have left the actual ’23 for 2023′ items alone. I really wish I had of posted this one back in January, but it didn’t happen, but we just have to accept and move forward. I wanted to make sure I listed things ..read more

I am one of those crazy mums who love school holidays with the kids. I am never in a rush to send kids back to school, so I will admit that I am not that thrilled the school holidays are now officially over. Now the kids are all older, it’s not as easy as it used to be to organise activities with the kids over the holidays – jobs, assessments due after the holidays, external exams looming, and friends to catch up with, means that mum needs to book appointment times now with the kids over the holidays. For the majority of the September break, we had beautiful blue skies and sunny days. We were ..read more

A number of years ago, I heard that Jim Caviezal agreed to play the part of a man named Tim Ballard in a film called ‘The Sound of Freedom’. I had heard about what Tim Ballard was doing, and was excited to see a movie with substance, instead of the trash coming out of Hollywood over the years. At the time Fox owned the movie rights, and then they were bought out by Disney, who refused to allow the movie go into cinema’s. Finally, 2023 came along and the rights to the movie were relinquished and Angel Productions brought the movie to the cinema for people to finally see. You have to ask yoursel ..read more

Last year (2022), I didn’t write any ‘Taking Stock’ blog posts, but the year before I made sure I wrote one each month. In fact, Taking Stock 2021 was what kept Mischieviousmum.com progressing. I consider ‘Taking Stock’ posts a snapshot in time of my world. Something to look back on. Pip Lincolne, blogger, author, and crafter extraordinaire first introduced me to the idea of the ‘Taking Stock’ posts a number of years ago. I am quite fond of Pip’s blog. She’s over at ‘Meetmeatmikes.com‘. I enjoy her blog and find her whimsical way of relating to her audience both fun and relational. Recently, a ..read more

Our home is our sanctuary, a sacred place. ‘Home’ is not just where we rest our heads at night, it’s where we live, relax, work, and where we enjoy family and friends. Home doesn’t have to be the perfect house, but it is where we feel settled, safe and peaceful. So when something happens to our home, it can really shake us and make us feel unsettled, no longer safe or at peace. That is until the shock wears off and you realise you just have to get on with it. Recently, we had our world shaken. We are all fine, thankfully… Just over a month ago we had an electrical fire in our daughters bedroom ..read more

If you watched the Grammy’s last week, you will know that we are living in incredibly dark times. I don’t normally write about this type of thing, but it is time for people to wake the heck up! Look around you. Is it normal in our society to allow an entertainer like Sam Smith and his trans friend Kim Petros dress like Satanic priests at a public event such as the Grammies. They performed their song ‘Unholy’, and while entertaining the crowd, dancers performed what I would call a mock human sacrifice. It was disgusting on so many levels. Shocking! I know. Right!!!??? The thing that gets me, is ..read more

One of my pet peeves in life is how quickly ‘Normal Life‘ happens after a wonderful holiday away. Sadly, a seven night holiday away goes very quickly, and while I am very appreciative of our time away when we get to go away, I want to bring the joy of holidays home with us into our everyday world. When I break down what it is exactly I love about going away on holidays, it is the time we have with each other, very limited chores, and the time to do whatever we want – go for a swim, read a book, watch a movie, spend hours at the beach bopping around in the water or reading a book, and going to ..read more