• boathouse on end of wooden pier
    2024,  home

    A Glance Back on 2023

    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…

  • close up photo of monopoly board game
    2023,  family fun,  Sunshine Coast

    It’s Christmas Holidays and there’s no money for Fun….What to do??

    The Christmas holidays are here. I love this time of the year. In fact, I consider it the best time of the year. It’s Summer, the days are longer, the kids are on holidays, and Christmas is just around the corner. It’s a great time of the year. The tree is up and the lights are bringing joy to our lounge room. I’m one of those mums who love school holidays with her kids and want the holidays to linger for as long as possible. This term has been enormous for us with an unexpected graduation dinner for our Beps, and then the year 12 formal and all the trimmings…

  • photography of people graduating
    Family

    Graduation!

    We actually had two Graduations happening in our household this month. I’ll firstly tell you about Beth’s. Bethy was feeling a little blue about the process of her finishing her apprenticeship this time last year. While we as a family celebrated her success of finishing, Bethy felt as though it was a little bit of a let down that there was no real celebration for her or any of the others who were finishing at the same time as she was finishing, but then we got this email in late October to say that on the 1st November, we (anyone who wanted to pay for a ticket) could go and…

  • a woman writing numbers on sand with her hand
    2023

    Oops! My 2023 Goals were Drafted

    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…

  • beach clouds coast dawn
    Family

    Goodbye, September Holidays!

    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…

  • 2023,  movies,  Parenting

    The Sound of Freedom

    A number of years ago, I heard Actor 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…

  • child and woman standing near water
    2023,  Family,  Family,  homelife

    And Suddenly It’s August

    Hello August, The last few months have been quite the whirlwind! I feel as though the weeks and months have just simultaneously merged into one another. Somehow June slid straight into August…I know we had a number of events and things to do in July, but I’d only be able to tell you what they were if I went to the calendar. Turns out, time stands still for no one. Only a few days ago,10th August, the school marked 100 days left of grade 12 for Nell and her friends. Obviously a few days have gone by so as of today (15th August), we are left with 95 days till…

  • aerial photo of a seashore
    2023,  Taking Stock

    Taking Stock 2023

    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, as I browsed www.meetmeatmikes.com, I quickly noticed…