Don't bring your work home...

I'm going to make a confession - I don't have a wedding album. I've been married for almost six years and still I have no leather-bound book full of images from my "most special day". It wasn't until last year I even had a photograph of my wedding day on display.

Okay, so it's not that big a deal. I'm sure many married couples don't have an album and if they do, they probably haven't looked at it for years. It's just that I am married to a wedding photographer! That's what he does for a living. We even get albums at wholesale prices. He puts together beautiful albums for other blissful couples, but still we are without one. It's become a bit of a running joke at our house. That, and the fact we hardly have any holiday snaps - my husband doesn't even bring his camera. "I'm on holidays," he says. "The last thing I want to do is take photos."

I suppose it's not too dissimilar to a person living in a renovation nightmare only to confess they are a builder or a chef who doesn't cook at home. However, it's not as bad as some other professions. I would find it hard to go to a hairdresser with bad regrowth or a dentist with dirty teeth.

It did get me thinking about the whole issue and the other day I discussed it with a couple of friends. I was saying how embarrassed I was for not taking enough notice of our finances, particularly since I'm a business reporter by trade. I can't tell you how many stories I've written urging women to take an active involvement in their household's finances. I remember many I time I've sat at my desk as a young, single, childless and mortgage-free person and chastised other women for not taking control of their financial security. And now a decade later married with three children, a mortgage and a vested interest in a small business, I realise I am completely disengaged from our daily finances. And wonder how I got myself in that position.

One of the women laughed when I told her my "shame" and also confessed a secret. "I'm a solicitor and we don't have up-to-date wills," she said shaking her head. "And my husband's an accountant and I pay all the bills." It seems many of us are doing a good job of keeping our work separate from our home life.

Three under four...

Three children under four - what were we thinking??? Actually I know what we were thinking "how cool would it be to have a house full of kids. If we are lucky enough we'll have them close together in age because there's no use dragging it out. It'll be crazy anyway. It'll be crazy and loud and full of madness". Yep. Madness. And yep, crazy and definitely loud. Ticked all the boxes. However, I think we missed a few.

How about sleep deprived. Up every few hours feeding a new baby is tiring enough, but add in a two-year-old who has taken to running into our room in the middle of the night and poking us in the eyes before settling down to sleep between us. Then there's our nearly four-year-old who thinks 6am is a great time to wake up and tells everyone loudly each morning before demanding "get up I'm hungry". I am sure somewhere in there we get some sleep.

Then there's dirty. And I don't mean that in a Christina Aguilera kind of way. I mean actual dirt - vomit, poo, wee, snot and mushy food to name a few examples. The washing machine is always on. My hands are ageing rapidly from constantly being submerged in water, I always have a mysterious smear of "something" on my clothes and each member of my little family changes outfits so often it sometimes feels like backstage at Australian Fashion Week (except we eat more).

Let's not forget highly strung. Now that could be for a number of reasons - way too much coffee, not enough sleep and too much cleaning, but mostly it's the constant barrage of crying, demands, tantrums and whinging. Some days I think if there was a Whinging for Australia Day, our house would be recognised for being most dedicated to the cause.

So, after being pregnant for two years out of the past four years I have emerged as a crazy, highly strung, mad, dirty and sleep deprived woman. Not much has changed really. Oh, except for living in a house even more full of love with three absolutely gorgeous children who make me and my husband laugh till we cry. We've always got a hand to hold, a person to cuddle, someone to sing and dance with, an honest opinion and unconditional trust. We get to watch and help three little people navigate the world. It might be madness at our house, but I wouldn't change a moment of it.