November 2025

Possibly the last post of the year.....and a quick explainer about the "Golden Months"

Hi friends. I am sure you are feeling that pull towards the end of the year done-ness like I am. I need school to be finished, work to be finished & to be in holiday mode. But alas, one child has 7 days of school left, the other school child has 2 days of camp & then 18 days of school left & I am unsure when I am finishing up work this year. Sigh. This time of year is equal parts joy & a drag.

I’m afraid there isn’t much to report for November; it was just an ordinary month spent doing ordinary things. But here is a quick recap-

Blake broke his arm for the third year running at the end of October. We have had a few hospital visits, but thankfully it was not a bad break & is healing well.

Isaac, my Melbourne-dwelling 22-year-old son, launched his brand this month, which was super exciting. He has been talking & planning this since he was 16/17, so it was a very proud moment to see it all come to fruition.

Sadie went to camp this week. She is not a sleep-over kid, so I was nervous she wouldn’t go, but tonight is night 3 of 4, so maybe she’ll make it till Friday?

Sadie & I went to see Wicked For Good last Friday night & loved it!

I did a big wardrobe clean out & listed a bunch of things in my Depop shop. By the end of the first week, I’d sold about half, so I used that money to buy……

A kindle. Did I need a Kindle? No, because I have a Kobo & shelves of unread books, but I WANTED a Kindle so I could join Kindle Unlimited for 99cents a month for 3 months & read a heap over Summer. This is the one I got- https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/kindle-11th-gen-6-16gb-matcha-green2024 ( and Isaac got me a little discount, too).

I have been watching Shrinking on Apple TV ( I got a month free when I bought something) & it’s great. Today I rewatched the last episode of season 4 of Stranger Things in anticipation of season 5 starting this week. Are you a fan? Tim & I have become strangely addicted to Tipping Point on channel 9 & are thoroughly enjoying the new Big Brother. It feels nice to have a show to watch together.

A few weeks back, I declared I would only be making “something & salad” for dinner & have stuck to it. Is it a bit boring? Kind of, but nobody cares. So long as Sadie gets snitzel & gozleme each week & Tim gets a steak, I think everyone is happy. Also, don’t be fooled into thinking my kids eat salad because they don’t. They eat fruit & some kind of bread with whatever else I cook. Again, wrongly or rightly, I do not care. Twenty-five years of feeding selective eaters (aka fussy little fuckers) has worn me down. Fed is still best.

Speaking of Tim, we celebrated 25 years of marriage yesterday. Marriage is really bloody hard sometimes, & the fact we have made it this far is something I feel proud of. I made this reel to commemorate & I really love it.

@reannonhope

Reannon on Instagram: "25 years of being married to the guy I f…

OK. The lovely Julie asked what the “Golden Months” list are that I’ve mentioned & I did inend to write a whole post about them but it seems writing is not my thing right now (friends, I am VERY easily distracted by my phoine & scrolling my little head off instead of doing much else with my free time rught now & it dies not please me!). Anyway…. the golden months are what I am calling the summer months. Here in Perth, Summer usually rolls in around October & stays until March, but this year, October & November have been extremely mild, thank god, but I have still been treating them as “golden months”.

We all know I love a list, a plan, something to look forward to, so here is what I made

These are the kind of things I spend my time on when I am not mindlessly scrolling. It might seem silly to some, but I don’t know, I really enjoy making them & I feel good when I am thinking about this sort of stuff.

So far, I’ve made nearly everything on my menu at least once, I’ve read a few books from my list & only watched one movie. My collage is there to remind me what I want these golden months to look & feel like. It’s my vibe! Fun right?

I totally recommend doing something like this for yourself. Even if nothing comes of it, it’s nice to spend time thinking about how you want your life to be, what you want your days to be filled with. Plus, mucking around with textas, glue, paper & stickers is fun! It makes me feel like a teenager again.

This is more than likely the last time I’ll be here for a while. December is hectic & from Boxing Day, I’ll be travelling to see my sister, then when I get back, I’ll only have a day or two before I’m due back at work. Plus, I don’t know what it is about this time of year, but I always feel like I’ve reached my limit of social media consumption & feel the desperate need to disconnect. I am trying a new thing of treating my phone like a landline. When I get home, I plug it into the wall on the kitchen bench to try & stop myself picking the damn thing up every 5 seconds. If this doesn’t reduce my mindless scrolling, I’m buying a Brick!

Thanks so much for hanging around the Back Fence this year. It’s so nice to have your company & support. I know I’m not the kind of blogger who adds much value to the blogging world. I don’t share how-tos or write informative posts, but I like to think that by sharing my very ordinary, simple life, it somehow helps someone feel less alone or make sense of something. I know that’s what it does for me.

Until next time, friends, take care.

Talk soon xx