It's that looking-ahead-while-looking-back time of year, and since I'm still in pyjamas and eating the last of the Butlers chocolates, I'm staying firmly in looking-back mode. And I'm taking the lead from Sadhbh of Where Wishes Come From again this year and joining her annual linky to round up my favourite 17 blog-related things from 2017: 1. My favourite post The post I most ...
Author: Andrea Mara | Office Mum
The Midwinter Break
Outside, the garden is shrouded in fog, but the kids haven’t noticed, because they’re on the couch watching Gumball. They’re eating melted butter toast. I’m drinking coffee. They’re in pyjamas, and for the first morning since sometime back in August, they can stay in them. No swimming, no hockey, no football, no school. Nowhere to ...
A Christmas Gift-List for Freelancers
Christmas Card Dilemma
The magic is here
"What was your favourite bit about Christmas when you were a kid?" they ask me every day. "First tell me yours." I always reply. And they roam through the rituals, turning them over one by one - the hot chocolate when they write their Santa letters, putting the star on the tree, staying over in Grandad's house on ...
Trip down memory lane in the IFSC
"Well if you could just stop asking stupid questions!" said the loud man on the DART, making me jump. He wasn't talking to me, he was talking to a woman sitting opposite him. My eyebrows went up. Who talks to anyone like that? "Here's another one," he said then, "Why did the dog cross the road?" Ah. ...
The life-changing magic of taking a break
The Case Against Homework – Why I Wish We Could Ban It
"S. Q." *sniffle* "U. I." *sniffle* "R. R. E. L." *full-blown tears* That was my five-year-old one evening recently, doing his spellings for his upcoming test. It was 5.30pm and I really should have stopped at that point, but I figured if he could just get the spellings done, we'd leave the tricky-word revision for another day. I was chatting ...
Office Mum Stories – Rhonda Doyle
Rhonda Doyle has been working with eBay since they first set up in Dublin in 2004, taking on a number of different roles as the company expanded. She lives in Sandymount, Dublin with her son Jack and husband Jeff. Here, she talks about the benefits of flexible working, the challenge to find me-time, and why ...