COLLECTIVE
My kids love water, any excuse to be in it whether it’s the beach, pool, sprinkler, local creek, muddy puddle even the shower and the bath.
But sometimes when they are overtired or maybe even under tired but I am overtired….we like to mix it up.
Enter the disco bath.
Fill the bath.
Add glowsticks
Crank the tunes and enjoy!
I’ve wanted to clean out my pantry for months.
And I decided I would tackle it when the kids returned to school.
With an impending longer school holidays I decided the kids could help me.
The perfectionism in me was nervous. But again I chose to let go of the perfect, and allow some helpers.
The result was magic.
The kids not only learnt about what actually lives in our pantry, but together we learnt:
Teamwork.
What food lives where, which means instead of demanding food they can now source their own throughout the day, especially if I am working
That excess food, means wastage
That food we won’t eat can be donated to families that need it - I donated my non perishables to Heart and Soul Group
How placing certain items together meant I could meal plan and create shopping lists easier
That we actually don’t need 4 x boxes of Weetbix
Mindfulness can be present in any pantry
I also decided to invest in some new storage jars, and I am excited to source something new and workable for our space.
Print this out!
I don’t know about you, but Im a bit tired of yelling ‘get off your butt!’ The oval across the road only has so much to offer day in day out…
This is a fab idea - I might even join in and do it with them! Thanks Cassandra and team at Power to Move!
Sometimes I describe parenting my twins as the Thunderdome… two kids enter, one kid leaves. Especially when I used to set up those little playpen cages in the toddler years. Twins are brutal and I can’t remember a time mine weren’t best frenemies - ultrasounds watching your blobs kick each other is quite the memory.
It’s hard to run things here in Bartertown, so when things get hectic with screams of, “Its my turn!” I channel my inner Aunty Entity, my inner Tina Turner. As my inner monologue repeats, “break the deal, face the wheel” I pull out a surprisingly crap craft that small people respect and understand.
The Taking Turner.
You need:
A paper plate, paper, textas, scissors, bandaids, a split pin or something like that.
Check the video for how to build you own in 10 minutes or less and regain control of your own post-apocalyptic household action. In all seriousness, taking turns can be tricky for our small family members and visual prompts help. For parents, the sense of humour goes a long way in a mad mad world.
Good luck!
Simone
aka Aunty Entity. Shout out to all the 80’s kids who got my pop references. Now I’m off to find myself a chain mail dress.
Theres nothing more beautiful than a little one in a flower crown. And the beauty of them, is that they can be made over a whole afternoon - we really stretched it out! First, we went for a long walk with a bucket and scissors and collected lots of overhanging flowers, then came home and made the crowns. Then it was photoshoot time! So much fun. Enjoy! If you have trouble finding flowers, there are some beautiful autumn leaves out at the moment…thank you Hayley and Lenni!
Hello Friends, Today’s musings are all about lowering your expectations. I’ve sadly realised I’m not going to suddenly lose 10kg and probably not be fluent in Mandarin by the time Covid Lockdown finishes so I’m looking for the joy in small things like washing the dog and achievable goals...today I wormed the now clean dog (and the kids; I’m not entirely sure who started this!), and applied for job keeper....everyday is a school day (unless you’re actually a school kid, but that’s a different story). Take care everyone, keep loving, keep brushing your teeth; and don’t let anyone tell you that cake isn’t a major food group. Much love, Boo x
This was the floor for most of the day. Which I actually LOVE!! It means they are not on screens, and they are being tactile and creative.
This is what they made…
14 Likes, 0 Comments - Luku Kuku (@lukukukuku) on Instagram: "#youcangetthroughthis"
I have spent too much time online this iso. Distracting myself but also researching for teaching my students online, setting up learning experiences for my own kids and keeping in touch with family and friends. It can be a little overwhelming at times so I thought I’d share with you the one account that has really been a joy bomb among the warnings and statistics. Introducing Luku Kuku.
“Luku Kukuku is South Australia’s favourite multidisciplinary multimedia guru, well known for his specialties of Art, Design, Animation, Digital Media, Interactivity and Sound Responsive Multimedia.”
Luku Kuku had been creating small notes to help his small person get through the heebie jeebies by creating little critters on post it notes and sticking it to her snack container, and it helped.
So then he applied his process to some other people who are getting some heebie jeebies too.
You can get through this.
You can find Luku Kuku’s full series on instagram by following @lukukukuku
or learn more about him here >> https://www.luku.com.au/
You’re welcome,
Mone
x
Hey Parents,
I needed to get out and move + breath today. I imagine you do too. And, that you have NO time to do so.
So, join me with this loose, flexible, and short practice.
Steady your breath, steady your mind.
Warmly,
Kaitlin xx
All or nothing….
Well if there is one thing that COVID-19 has taught me; it is to let go of some serious programming.
I am “all or nothing”. No in between. Not even a tiny bit. How does that even work with kids? Well it means I either do things to the extreme and perfect, or just not at all. I have fear of starting anything, and I pressure myself to finish everything.
But along came COVID-19. And all or nothing just didn’t seem to work.
I tried. I failed. We were all miserable. So, I tried something different.
And never in a million years, or maybe 40 years, did I Fiona, think I was capable of it.
In between, halfway, sometimes, mostly, maybe, tiny bits, here and there became my new vocabulary.
I let go of “all or nothing” …and tried to just allow myself to be somewhere in the middle.
And then some magic happened.
Here are some examples, and maybe they can inspire some letting go of either a huge need to be all and perfect, or nothing at all, and feeling like a failure.
Exercise – if its not 5 days a week… why bother? If its not a marathon… don’t even, consider it.
If its not 100kg deadlifts… I’m not part of it…
COVID 19 – gyms are closed. Now what?
And then I realised that 7 days a week of nothing, wasn’t working either.
And I recognized I was going to need something for myself, my mental health, fresh air, and escapism.
After series of excuses and complaining I had no time, and how could I leave the kids, blah blah
I committed to somewhere in between. What? Yes I did.
5kms a day.
That’s it. 5kms at a minimum… on my bike or walking. Without kids as a preference, with kids if needed.
And guess what? The lack of pressure on myself means I have committed to this now 14 days straight.
Another example is my bread maker. How could I open it and make bread. No, it had to be special, gluten free, organic, non GMO , this, that, the other. A perfect bread.
But no, it didn’t need to be.
Regular bread mix got me started. I succeeded. It was amazing. The kids loved it. Was it perfect? No.
But it wasn’t nothing. And it was somewhere in between and that’s all that matters.
And now the confidence has meant it gets used. Its happening. And we are bread making.
There are so many more examples of the magic that can happen when we let go of needing perfection and just being happy with maybe it all sitting in the messy middle.
I read books again. They may not be the hard ones I want to read. But they are in the middle. And I am reading every day.
I do puzzles. Again, it sits there. And a piece here and there is placed into its spot. No pressure.
No all or nothing. Just in between.
The house isn’t a display home. Its messy. But everyday instead of doing it all or doing nothing, I choose a couple of tasks to do.
One load of washing. One box of packing. One room to tidy.
Just something.
If I don’t finish a task. Its OK. I don’t stay up to midnight with worry, staring at it and loathing that if it’s not all done, then I’m done.
COVID-19 may make some people shine, some shudder, some shrink.
But it taught me to share, hopefully inspire, and to be happy with the somewhere in the middle.
Wearing something warm and bright, has inspired me even more to ride in the darker colder weather.
Our fantastically imperfect bread.
A $59 table from Target is the perfect puzzle table. It means I can leave it for days and not worry about the mess.
Easy reading. A great series to get back into reading again.
To all the mums out there feeling inadequate, overwhelmed and run off your feet. You are enough as you are. The kids will get through. The washing will be there tomorrow. Take a moment for you, and just be.
This was filmed what seems like a lifetime ago! But still relevant today. What do you want more of? Let us know in the comments below. We are here for you.
This gorgeous creature is Stella. She is 11, and a budding botanist! Lettuce anyone?
Surface Tension can be a fun thing to query it seems!
I recently had a session with this wonderful, intuitive woman. She is wise and kind and has an etheric quality to her which can calm me down in an instant…Here are some wise words from her, for all of us who may be feeling a sense of disconnection and need or a yearning which feels out of our reach. You can learn more about her work here www.jenniferwillemsen.com
Do you ever notice that how you do one thing, is how you do most things?
When I look back at my love life, as well as my financial life (two areas of life who are very much intertwined), I notice a recurring pattern: oftentimes I was in a chasing vibration.
I was chasing a boy. I was chasing money.
First of all, the chasing vibration was "giving" me the direct opposite of what I desired (read: lack of love, lack of money).
This is because if you need to chase something, it means that you are focused on the absence of it. It's like you are saying to the Universe "I need this", which will make it less likely that you will actually attract it into your life experience.
But second and most importantly: it damaged my self-worth.
Funny... As an analogy, my True Self is showing me an image of Cinderella. In the movie, she's cleaning the floors, doing all kinds of below-her-worth chores for her unloving family...
...until she decides to wear her beautiful dress, step into her worth and take a chance!
Throughout her brave journey, she meets amazing people who believe in her and show her the way, and when she arrives at the ball, she is surrounded by eyes who truly value her.
She has always been meant for more, but she could only access this once she started to act in alignment with her worth.
You see, the way you "speak" to yourself is so important, and I'm not even talking about the conversations between you and your monkey mind here! I'm talking about what you do and how you behave, and the signals you send off to yourself with that behaviour.
Someone who knows her worth doesn't chase anyone or anything. Instead, she has fun executing on inspired action. She is magnetic. She simply attracts. ✨
Much love,
Jennifer
It absolutely does not matter if you can touch your toes.
It matters if you can handle the challenges, the pain, that life throws at you.
How can you handle pain (without it turning into suffering)?
Well, through the cultivation of something called psychological flexibility.
Yoga, a practice we often think more of in terms of physical flexibility, is a brilliant tool to help you develop this mental skill.
The best person to learn this all from? Dr. Emily K. Sandoz. An Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) expert, and regular yoga practice.
Emily started her practice with limited financial resources, 3 children, and 10 minutes a day that she found on a yoga mat at the foot of her bed.
Put your ear buds in, start doin’ the things (in my house this means dishes, tidying toes, and maybe… painting my nails). Perhaps by the end of this Wisdom for Wellbeing podcast episode you will find yourself rollin’ out your yoga mat. Or, simply doing a little mindful movement to check in with you.
Enjoy!
~Kaitlin Harkess
You don’t have to sit alone in a forest.
When Faith was about 9 months old - very actively crawling all over the place, and all over me - I met a wonderful woman who taught me how to meditate with a baby. I thought it would impossible, being constantly interrupted, but she showed me how and Ive never forgotten the flow of how that felt. Set in a safe space, eyes gently lowered not closed, we simply notice the thoughts like clouds passing across our minds, continuously coming back to the centring thought, or to focusing on the breath, when those clouds would take us away with them. Faith would crawl into my lap or require my quick attention and I would calmly address it and come back to the same breath. It was magical! It reminded me of being in India and seeing yogis meditate in busy train stations. Now they were seriously focused.
These days I meditate alone, and Faith, 9, knows not to interrupt me, but this morning…something very different happened.
Hi I’m Shawna and I’m a spiritual mentor. One of the tools I use to help people reconnect to themselves is the breath. By learning to work with the breath we learn to work with life because your breath is your link to life!
Think about it: what happens when you’re trying not to cry? You hold the breath. When you are frightened? A sharp inhalation. So, learning to breathe fully totally influences your state of being.
In my last post I gave you a really simple way of bringing the breath deep down into the lungs.
This time you'll learn how to get familiar with the three sections of the lungs (lower, middle, upper) and how to link them together on the in-breath.
Remember, the breath is your link to life, moment by moment. You can come to this breath throughout the day to help you come back to the present, to feel more clear-minded and to feed your body what it needs--oxygen! It's amazing how something so simple can have such a profound effect.
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