Category: 366 days of novice motherhood

Home

Last night we had a brilliant, spontaneous gathering it was sublime.

Today I woke to absolute chaos in my house.

I really struggle to renovate because the chaos really does my head in.

We have a small apartment, it was packed to the rafters when Charl my husband shifted in, then Max arrived and I just couldn’t believe how someone so small could need so much stuff.

Chaos is not always bad, it represents a well lived in house that is more than a house it’s a home.

There has to come a moment though when the chaos becomes organization.

Lucky for me, two big brave men cleaned our house this morning as this mummy went back to bed on near exhaustion.

The house became ordered quickly though because we have been
Savage in throwing things away.

Giving precious things to people and continually cutting back.

Spring is an amazing time to embrace the chaos and throw out clutter and bring about some change to your everyday.

Good luck.

Get a friend to help you be ruthless!

Chaos precedes great change.

A

Heart

Sometimes all our hearts need is a great night with friends.

Food, wine, candles, tunes, people gathered.

I don’t like doing life alone and gathered friends, Simple times, Make life wonderful.

Hospitality is often a stretch, an effort, but the opportunity to just hang and find strength in another is heartening.

If your heart is feeling a little low.

Arrange a simple dinner party with your closest friends.

Feel low and wonder why people don’t invite you over?

You create the space and invite them.

Feeling isolated?

When was the last time you arranged a date with someone?

Hospitality is not easy but it is very rewarding.

Make the effort, you’ll forget the chaos and the dishes but your heart won’t forget the memory.

A

Home

I woke this morning to a banging headache, a sleepless restless child and a chaotic household.

We have a best friend visiting with us from Kuala Lumpur and having a very small apartment for our little family of three, a thunderstorm and a party of four makes for beautiful chaos.

The thought of creating beauty around my home in this context was a little overwhelming until my husband brought me a coffee in bed, three little squares of chocolate and I grabbed a book lent to me from a dear friend.

Inspiration arose.

The chaos faded and excitement, design and creativity won.

Sometimes we think we need the perfect setting, the perfect moment and the perfect atmosphere for inspiration to arise.

Not true.

We just need to stop.

I find reading or flicking through something inspirational has the capacity to shine light.

Boldly
Brightly
Beautifully

Try this book!

It is so inspiring

Called ‘Design Sponge at home’

Here for less than thirty dollars and I promise your home desires will be ignited and satisfied.

design sponge

Sometimes it just takes leaving the dishes undone, making a cup of coffee and diving into something fresh to allow the malay to fade away.

Need inspiration on a budget, go to your local library and hire out a heap of interior design book.

Need some colour and life go to your local op shop and buy yourself five old school magazines for fifty cents.

Need some home inspiration by this book from book depository today, you won’t be disappointed.

Dive into some fresh ideas for home.

You will feel so inspired by little things.

Thanks Bonnie for the lend.

Love

A

Heart

Over the last few years journalling has gone from one of my favourite pastimes to my most loathed.

I don’t know what happened, cynicism, tiredness, fatigue.

Actually I think a combination of all three.

I found myself in a place where the thought of pulling a journal out to write was painful.

I read my bible, drew and scribbled in its pages, I wrote my blog occasionally ( before 2012), I wrote little notes and left them all over the place but journalling became a little passé.

One of my September spring clean jobs is to clean out my journal box. I have a huge antique postal box from the 1900s and it is overflowing with journals.

The advent of the iPhone age, a time where I became quite discouraged in general though signaled the end of my prolific journalling.

Today I have realised it’s power in the realm of our hearts.

It is so important to have a safe place where we can express ourselves.

A listener that is completely partisan. The pages of a journal are Switzerland, and you find safety there.

The importance of finding a safe place to express for our heart is that we were not designed to carry all we do in our hearts, I believe we were deigned to let go and trust in a greater being.

That’s where journalling is so important. The blank pages make our hearts refresh and reflect. The blank pages as they fill provide a place of perspective and expression.

When we hold our thoughts and concerns to ourselves, they deeply burden our hearts and cause decay.

In the past I have found when I let go and I write down my experience, lessons, a short prayer, a big whine. When I express my thoughts through written word, my heart is cleansed and I am ready for a new day.

Journalling is not really in vogue at the moment, but I have realised that I desperately need it’s expression.

In some ways this blog is that, but I need more.

And I hazard to guess so do you.

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