Confessions of a slightly frazzled, often overwhelmed and increasingly busy - REAL, LIVE WOMAN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This post, I write in salutation to my friend, Cath and all of the other women I know who are like this on a daily basis.

Cath and I sat down in the staff room today (slowly surrounded by other interested women). Cath said to me "I have been cleaning top-to-bottom, a total overhaul of my home!"

I told her I had done the very same thing on the weekend (thus no blogging) and I was horrified by the amount of dust, fluff and filth that I had found!

Cath replied with, "Really, you too?"

Cath then proceeded to put her pointer and thumb in the air, in somewhat of a pincer grip, demonstrating the centimetres of dust that she discovered behind her bedside table.

I sat there and nodded, feeling terribly guilty about the last time that I actually checked behind my beside table - perhaps when the new furniture was put in 2 years ago? ?

Cath's house is immaculate. It is called 'Seaside' and is literally, seaside. It is open, modern, refined, clean and magazine-worthy. It is a dream home.

However, Cath said, "but Tracey, do you know, what caused me to start on a mad, cleaning rampage?"

I replied, "No, what?"

Cath said - "Your blog! You posted that photograph of your fireplace and the adjacent bookshelves and I thought, I need to get myself organised and I need furniture and shelves and order..."

I said - "Cath, I may have posted a photograph of my fireplace, complete with adjacent book shelf, with books ordered tallest to shortest - but on that particular day, I should have photographed and posted the dishes in the sink, piled so high, that I could hardly see out the window !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And another confessional thing, bloggers-

I NEVER make ours or Lily's bed, except on my days off.

This prompted Lily to say recently, "Mum, I love it when you do that thing with my bed!"

"Oh - you mean make it?"

"Yeah - that!"

Cath and my hard working, amazingly intelligent, talented, capable, multi-tasking and gorgeous, female friends - I HOPE THAT MAKES YOU ALL FEEL A WHOLE LOT BETTER.

Post Script: Cath & friends - you will notice that there is no photo this evening, on account that I just got home after a meeting and I simply have not had time to scratch myself today.

Cheers, love you all x o x Let's go easy on ourselves and each other x o x Tracey