Is anyone else out there a Fixer Upper fan? Of course there must be millions. The show is doing so well.

For Mothers Day I just bought myself her most recent book:

Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave

I find their productivity astonishing. I don’t get how they do it and remain apparently nice people. I haven’t even started my house renovations and I’m so dreading it. I guess some people just enjoy that kind of thing. Plus I have a day job, whereas if it was your only job maybe it would be more fun than stressful? Nah. Still don’t get it.

I’ve started reading the book and I really enjoy it. I do like a coffee table book. Since I’ve had cancer and done chemo I have a lot less tolerance for fiction. I know that characters have to go through an arc, go on a journey, learn something. I know that without drama it is just dull. But I kind of need dull at the moment. Dull is good. (In fact I think that is why I like some of those epic, modern American writers like Meg Wolitzer and Jonathan Franzen. Nothing much happens.)

And you know, in the book she talks a lot at the start about home is a place of safety, where you can be your real self. That’s kind of what I need at the moment too.

In my dreams Joanna Gaines would come and fix up my fixer upper house in Australia. But it looks like – as with everything else in my life – I’m going to have to do it myself.