The sweet spot
Three hours of undiluted housework. It doesn’t matter how many hugs I give my children, how many times they’ve been in bed within half an hour of their bedtimes, that…
Author: sophiebeal
Pumpkin latte, crisp air and efficiency.
I’ve said this before, but it’s so much easier to blog when you’re having a good day. It’s sunny, the air is clean, and I achieved almost unprecedented efficiency with…
A relationship under pressure: reading and me.
Confession: I spent most of my teenage years in my bedroom reading, but in the last decade, I’ve finished more biographies and books on writing than novels. (Before that, as…
Summer
Well, hello again! Remember me? Yes, I know it’s been a while. I knew summer was coming, as it did last year and the years before that, so why didn’t…
Thirty-one extra people in the Lake District and a villain I now like
Last week was special. I have seven younger siblings and as there are thirty-three husbands/wives/partners and children, it’s rare even those in the UK are all in the same place…
End-of-term parenting decisions and Zadie Smith-related despair.
I don’t have any deadlines at the moment. I am grateful (in a slightly anxious way), as life has become about deciding which of the children would forgive me most easily for…
Poached eggs, cultural ‘Supermarket Sweep’ and my failure to multi-task.
I should stop mulling over post ideas and just communicate. I really should. We went to London this weekend for my birthday. It was possibly my best yet (at least…
Novel mode
I’m in novel mode again, a pleasurable, guilt-ridden state. I’m not quite sure who flicked the switch from hard-working freelancer to dreamer. Slowly, very slowly, I’m understanding how I work…
sophie beal 