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Inspired living

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I stood at the fridge today, one that is pretty full thinking,’maybe we should just get take away tonight.’

A regular thought that runs through my pregnant mind of late. Hot ovens on a 44 degree summer day, no one’s got time for that.

The problem is I am trying to eat well this year and am determined to see this pregnancy through well.

I have realised that sometimes I can be inspired in my writing and my creativity, but very uninspired at the same time in my wife/ mum/ house duties.

It is so much easier to sit down and write a blog post, than to take the same time to plan well for my families food and well being.

I want my inspiration in 2014 (#inspire14) to encompass every part of my world: every part of my families life.

It doesn’t mean I will always feel like it, because its sacrificial. It takes effort, it takes time and sometimes even the fact that I got dressed and brushed my teeth is a major achievement in this Mumma’s world.

I decided today that I would add to my 2014 thoughts, to cook through one of my cook books, to keep my meals fresh for team V. The book I have decided to cook through for 2014 is called ‘Falling Cloudberries’ by Tessa Kiros, it has recipes from all over the world. Recipes that are fresh and healthy and diverse.

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I really do believe an inspired life should equal an inspired wife. Our creativity and inspiration needs to be holistic. We can’t compartmentalise the things we love doing and ignore the other things that should be priorities in our lives.

We are whole humans, not part creatives.

Are you giving too much time to some things and not enough to others?

Don’t let guilt take over, just find something that inspires you in that realm as well.

Follow our journey and #inspire14 as well, if you want some accountability for the things you are endeavouring to change this new year. I have been doing a visual journal every day, I am not a great artist, but it is helping me think differently and find inspiration in new ways.inspired life 4

Inspired living is what I am aiming for.

Capturing life in its fullest.

Amanda

 

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expecting

Heart-Beat

I’ve heard people say ‘You don’t possibly think your heart can grow any larger or beat any stronger or ache any harder until you’ve seen the second heartbeat of a child of yours.’

A heart beat that declares the potential and opportunity of new life. The heart beat that promises smiles, challenge and delight. A heart beat that shows the beauty of new life.

A heart beat that declares the faithfulness of God.

We’re 12 weeks baby!

Team V is going to have another player due 27 July 2014.

For those that don’t know my story, I thought that I wouldn’t be able to be a mum for a really long time. Here is a little video I did on Mothers day this year with some of my story.

 

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the smell of summer

summer rideDay two: #inspire14

(Each day of 2014 I have committed to drawing in my visual diary and posting it online in my social pages and here.)

This morning I woke knowing my husband was home from work and so any excuse I could come up with to negate my morning walk would be void.

I just don’t know why it takes me so long to get out of the door.

Exercise, what is it?

We all have a demon habit that refuses to submit to our yearly resolutions will. Prayer, chocolate, coffee, smoking, drinking too much, eating carbs…You know the vice as soon as you read these sentences, it screams out pridefully ‘That’s me!, that’s me!’.

Anyway, back to my morning walk. We live 20 metres from the beach and you’d think I’d skip out of our front door every morning and frolic in the ocean with the penguins and dolphins, but honestly it is a major effort to get my body moving.

This year, after doing my new year reflection pages rather than setting New Years resolutions I decided I would set a daily routine rather than set goals.

See my goals have been quite similar for the last few years and I just don’t get around to making them a part of my everyday life.

Goals to:

Exercise more

Eat Healthier

Pray more

Read more

 

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So I made myself up a routine daily that helps me achieve these goals.

7am- wake up (not with my phone and check online forums)

7.30am- play worship music in the house, not tv etc

8am- go for a walk/ exercise

9am- online time

12pm- lunch

1pm- Phone goes offline and no carbs after lunchtime

6pm- dinner

9pm- prayer and reading to go to sleep (online blackout)

I have realised, that radical bans from the foods and the habits, don’t work for me, but a routine with balance around it everyday, not just on special days, changes my personal culture and allows the resolutions that I have to become a reality.

As I walked the beach this morning, I smelt the smells of summer. I saw families, getting ready to ride the ferry, I smelt fish cooking, I saw colours and life, the wind exposed my fears and my heart refilled again ready for a new day of resolve.

Are you struggling already with the New Year commitments you have made?

Maybe you need to change your daily routine to make change not negotiable for this new year.

All my summer love

Amanda

 

 

 

 

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Shame

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I have just finished a book that honestly has been one of the best I have read in a very long time. The book is called Daring Greatly by Brene Brown. The book is all about vulnerability and its ability to transform our relationships, leadership, parenting and more.

The theme of the book that really affected me deeply was all the chapters on shame. I realised as I read this book, that so much of my life and my decisions in my past have been shadowed by shame. A shame that has pervaded most areas of my life. Its not that I have lots of secrets in my cupboard, I have disclosed all of them to my closest friends, it is the way I process and deal with transitions and change in my life with shame.

You know that internal voice that tells us we should have known better, we shouldn’t have trusted that person. That place in our hearts that mocks saying if only I had tried harder, if only I had not rocked the boat, if only.

Many of us live our lives in shame and there is a devastating cycle that comes out of those shadows in our leadership, our parenting and in our relationships. Without even realising we speak and lead with shame.

As I was reading the book a story from my teenage years flooded my memory and I realised how this season in my life had shaped and shamed me. I remembered being a part of a dancing troupe that I absolutely adored. We would dance together 2 or 3 times a week and as a fourteen year old, the acceptance of my fellow dancers and my teacher was paramount. We would compete in competitions and every trophy and medal we won, didn’t fill the deep need in me to be liked. You see just as teenage girls can be, there was a click in our troupe that decided to bully me. They would constantly tell me that I smelled and any time that we practiced our dances, they would snigger and laugh and try to move away from me because they believed I smelled bad. I remember pretending to be asleep on a bus as we drove to a competition and I could hear them gossiping and telling each other how they didn’t want to dance next to me on stage because I was smelly.

Oh the shame.

Oh the heartbreak.

I have never told that story to anyone. I haven’t even whispered its darkness because I have always feared that it may be true.

In relationships hoping that I would be attractive enough, that someone would love me, in friendships controlling the circumstances so my shame wasn’t exposed.

“We judge people in areas where we’re vulnerable to shame, especially picking folks who are doing worse than we’re doing. If I feel good about my parenting, I have no interest in judging other people’s choices. If I feel good about my body, I don’t go around making fun of other people’s weight or appearance. We’re hard on each other because we’re using each other as a launching pad out of our own perceived deficiency.” Brene Brown

Shame is like a cancer of our souls.

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Week after week, day after day I encounter people who have been parented with shame, who have lived in relationships with shame, have done everything they can to cover up areas of vulnerability that they pray no one would find out the weakness in their lives. We literally have a generation of soul sick people who are doing everything they can to live up to the expectations of their families and whenever they fall short shame layers their heart with another piece of rotten wood.

What do you feel shameful about?

What parts of your life are full of shame?

Do you lead, parent or love from a shameful place? (hoping if I make them feel ashamed of themselves they will treat me better!)

I want to encourage you to read this book, but one of the ways that Brene Brown teaches to get rid of our shame cultures, is to expose those places of shame in a safe way, with people that will love and accept you and start to process them.

One of the greatest reasons that shame is so destructive is that it implores us to keep secrets and to keep those places that we are ashamed of hidden.

The more that we hide those thoughts and emotions of shame, the more they control how we act, how we love and how we move forward into our worlds.

Take time to reveal those shameful places.

In quiet and safe ways.

Find a friend, find a counsellor, find a pastor, find someone and let’s wage war on shame this holiday season.

Till we meet again.

Amanda

 

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