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If you love tea as much as me you will love seven seas…

Chai Tea
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Seven Seas Chai

Most winters I fall in love with tea all over again but this winter more than ever, as I walk the journey towards whole foods and eliminating processed goods out of my families diet, this little bag of chai has become my friend.

I am so excited to announce that Seven Seas Tea is one of the partners for our October Inspire 15 Women’s Creative Retreat. It will be a secret till the delegates receive their bag what tea they will get to sample, but in the mean time check out what they are all about.

Here is some of their fabulous story;

‘The Seven Seas journey began many years ago in Africa when my mother gave me a Mazawatee Tea tin. “You remind me of the little girl in the picture” she said referring to my love of tea. This tin was my first treasured possession and I still have it to this very day.

Fast forward 30 years to a teahouse in Singapore with two inspirational friends and the idea for Seven Seas Tea was born: As a tea drinker in a world of coffee and hipster-baristas I was feeling a little neglected. I wanted to spice things up and make having a cup of tea an unforgettable experience.

After returning home to Margaret River, Western Australia I set about sourcing the tastiest teas I could find from around the globe. Each tea has been carefully selected and blended by hand. I package it with love in the fresh country air with the roar of the mighty Indian Ocean close by.

Seven Seas Tea promises to bring you the flavours of the world in your tea cup. Take a journey of discovery to India, Africa, Asia and beyond. Who knows what you will find there?’

Jump onto their website and say hello to our new friend Cathy and her sweet family from South Western Australia and stock up on some local goodness this winter.

I am inspired by people who creatively bring excellence to the small business community in Western Australia.

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Local is the new black

This time last week a young homeless man died in my local area. He was the second in the last month and last winter a thirty five year old woman died as she was camping next to a local lake less than five minutes drive from my house.

I have personally always been moved deeply about poverty most of my life. Despite this I am often moved by the stories of those overseas. I am learning the more I fall in love with my local area through an initiative that we have just started called Secrets in the Bay that the need locally is just as moving, if not more present locally than overseas.

It is a complex problem and many would say there is no need for a person to be homeless in Australia due to the governments programs that are available, but the situations are real and the people’s stories are difficult.

My Mum and Her Twin Sister run two really amazing grassroots programs in our local area, one called the SOUL Soup Patrol and also the House of Hope. SOUL Soup Patrol goes out twice a week serving the local homeless and The House of Hope houses pregnant women off the streets. This week they sent out an opportunity to respond to the situation locally and the response for volunteers has been overwhelming.

One of their facebook posts was viewed over 40,000 times and shared over 500 times. Now what they are needing is for people to donate $77 to buy a swag for the people in our local area to stay warm through the cold of winter.

Here are the details below for people to respond immediately by buying a swag:

Name: Servants of United Love Incorporated
BSB: 036074  Acc: 420774

These donations are tax deductible. Please place the reference “Swags” on your deposit. Please email soulsouppatrol@hotmail.com if you want a receipt for the end of financial year tax deductions emailed to you.

I am realising that there is much need in our world, but often it is easier to ignore what is happening in our own backyard and become enamoured with the glamour of helping someone overseas. I am not saying it is bad, I am just asking that we look who is in our everyday and consider how we can help.

Local seriously is my new black?

Could this be a revolution, I hope so.

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Women in Leadership; we all need an Aunty…

Women in Leadership
Women in Leadership

Let me introduce two of the most formative leaders in my career so far ‘Penny Webb‘ and ‘Kelley Chisholm‘. They have both been my boss, my critic, my friends and after yesterday’s leadership session my Aunties.

In my local church, the way I voluntarily serve is by coordinating a leadership project with Karina Chicote, where we create safe spaces for women under 30 in leadership to grow. We do this through peer mentoring, pastoral care, leadership Q + A’s, resource, books, opportunities, events and conversations, that all intentionally make room for them to lead.

One of the greatest gifts I had as a young leader was women ahead of me that made room. They saw my weakness, they heard my insecurities, they held me accountable to my commitments and they created space.

As a leader, are you creating space for next generation leaders to come and learn?

It is something I believe is greatly missing in the cultures of many organisations. Women lead so differently than men and the need for safe spaces without comparison and competition is imperative. To sit and listen to the hearts of two women who have been involved in leadership, mentoring, not for profits, leading change in huge organisations, bring wisdom and grace was so inspiring.

Kelley was speaking about the current trend of mentoring and she explained it this way. “As women in leadership, its like we all need an Aunty sitting in the background, available for tea, telling us where we could grow, encouraging us with little words filled with grace.” Every woman in leadership needs an Aunty; someone who has their back but will tell you when you have a rip in your pants or green spinach in your teeth.

The session yesterday talked about “Wisdom as a leader on all forms of social media” “Being physically and emotionally strong as a leader”, “Being strong but not bossy”, “Finding your list of leadership ethics that you will not waver on no matter the forum”, “leading in all arenas of life” and so much more.

Women in leadership so often face greater competition than men, so to have a space where no question is avoided and encouragement is deeply engrained in the soft words spoken is such a gift.

The leadership project is only a year and a half old. Karina and I hope that young women would find their place and lead with courage and strength. We don’t come thinking we have all the answers, but are so determined to keep putting ourselves in environments that challenge, stretch and grow us.

I feel so grateful for my leadership Aunties. They have helped me more than they will ever know.

Penny, Kelley and I started this not for profit Kinwomen which is all about encouraging women to start conversations that matter.

It’s actually not that hard to create space for young women to grow and learn, sometimes its as simple as opening your lounge room, turning on the kettle, inviting them in and sitting on the couch.

Speak again soon,

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five life hacks I have learnt as a mumma of two.

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We had a major emergency this morning.

The fire trucks were out, the police car sirens rang and my son sat with all his toy emergency vehicles with a cheeky grin.

We started the morning so perfectly, My Maximus leaned over as he was eating breakfast and said ‘Mister Maker…’ (I have become accustomed to answering to any title these days) ‘Mister Maker?’ I said slowly ‘Yes Max’. He replied ‘No, my name is Mini Maker.’

I shrugged my shoulders and played along. He smiled wryly and said ‘Mister Maker, can we make play dough please?’.

I felt like all my childhood mothering dreams had come true, it was our first play dough date together and I wanted it to be grand. Don’t worry we pulled that part off!

We gathered the ingredients and we thermo-played together. After we had made a big batch of blue and red, I left him happily making ice-cream and fire trucks and smooshing everything together again.

I went off to get ready as a friend was arriving soon for tea, when he ran in with a look of terror on his face. ‘Emergency, emergency, Mister Maker there has been an accident.’ I ran back into our kitchen to find red food colouring splashed over furniture, our floor, clothing and anything in near range.

Our morning had turned upside down with one sneaky visit to the pantry and the rest of my day has been scrubbing to try and lift food colouring from our of my mostly white and wood beach shack.

Despite mornings like today, I have realised I am learning a few life hacks to help keep our family bubbling and overwhelmedness at bay.

I have had a few people this last week ask me how I do what I do?

Maybe my instagram or blog has fooled you…I promise it’s not that pretty on this side of the fence.

In the midst of this though, I realised I have developed a few life hacks for anyone out there who wants to get more done and live purposed.

Here are 5 life hacks we have found that have helped us get more done and free ourselves up to live beyond our today.

1) The Between App My husband and I love this app, that is only for us two. It has a calendar, it has event reminders, it has messenger and it has moments we want to share. I was not that keen on having another something, face book, instagram, emails etc can be so overwhelming. This app though keeps everything we need to chat about and what is important between just us. It’s great and It’s free. Finding a system of communication whether you have children or not, whether it is for your flatmates or partner in a business is imperative to creating a platform for communication that works. A regular catch up, a process to communicate, really helps in keeping my days measured.

2) Email is my task list  Many people would disagree with me on this one, but it has been the way I have worked when running events of 20,000 or the daily life of my family. Having a task list that is current is imperative to keep up with what is important. I email myself tasks and I am vigilant in deleting everything that is not important, the first time the email hits my face. As I sit down to work, I delete emails first and unsubscribe from everything that is not important. Then I work through what is urgent and what is not. When people face book message me, or leave voice mails or ask me to do something for them, I always reply with ‘Can you please email me.’ Therefore, organisations that spam or over email me, really frustrate me and are immediately deleted.

3) House work everyday No matter what day it is, even when it’s a rest day, I do house work everyday. I do one load of washing a day, I get up have a coffee and then make all the beds and sweep the floor, put on the washing every morning. Eat my breakfast and then hang out the washing. Just as dusk is falling, I take the washing off the line and fold. Everyday. I never let it pile up and it helps create House work routine. I also cull regularly, most months you will find me taking at least one bag of clothes/ shoes/ bits and bobs to the op shop. I loosely have the rule, every time something is added to our house, something is given away. The less clutter, the quicker the cleaning and the less time it takes. I am ruthless with clothes and my kids toys. The less in my house, the more I am able to do in my business and opportunities that come my way.

4) I cook bulk At the moment I have four kilos of chicken roasting. When I cook, I do in bulk, so that we have left overs, we have meals in the freezer and we have plenty. I also cook chicken or meat that can be used over a few days in different kinds of meals. I do the same when anything is on special. If I see something really cheap when doing my shop (online is the easiest way to do this), I buy bulk. Whether its washing up liquid or toilet paper, washing powder, deodorant. I often have bulk of all of these products stored away. When I shop, I shop big. So everything is packed into my house in one go and I’m not at the shops everyday.

5) I am careful what I say yes and no too Lately I have been much more aware of how much time is wasted. It doesn’t mean I say no to everything, I am just really intentional when I do say yes. I say yes to mentoring and building my business, I say yes to times of purpose, but I don’t say yes to everything. I have days where we do nothing but hang around the house and potter and other days where we are on business. I am careful not to commit myself to more than one big thing a day. I don’t line up meetings and people back to back, I am careful. This is a balance of allocating time to write, allocating time to hustle and allocating time to rest. I don’t need to find time to do things, I am completely in charge of what I say yes and no too. Often in this area I hear people talking like they are a slave to their diaries. You are not. If there is too many family activities, cut one. If there is too much happening in your week change it. I say yes to fun. I say yes to hanging out with people I want to. I make it happen.

These are just a few short ideas on how I stay fully focused at home but also live a life of contribution outside as well.

Have a happy Thursday friends,

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Diary of a coke zero addict

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One week, one day and a few hours since having my last drop of Coke Zero…

The funny thing is even when I have dieted before I have thought that Pepsi Max, Diet Coke and Coke Zero were my friends.

You know a quick fake sugar fix.

A refreshing zing of caffeine.

I got to the point where I was a diet soft drink addict, who desperately needed a fix at 3pm each day.

This last week of eating whole foods has been shadowed with the pain of withdrawing from something that has been a big part of my daily life.

Your crutch may not be soft drinks but we all have something that undoes us in the midst of meltdown.

On this side of ‘one week aspartame free’ I am realising it is so much more about discipline than anything more.

When I tell my body no, even though everything in me wants to say yes, it makes me so aware that yes I can do hard things.

Even though all week I have longed for a flat white, I have chosen long black.

When I went to a premiere of a movie and everyone was eating icey ice and popcorn, I chose a small bag of nuts.

It’s not actually about what we do, its about what we personally need to discipline in our lives and see change come slowly.

I have been thinking this week, as energy has come flooding back into my days and my jeans have been getting looser.

You, Amanda, can do hard things.’

There are seasons when I just haven’t been able to get serious about this area of my life but I am choosing to make hard decisions in my everyday to see the benefits across every part of my life.

I have had many weak days this week, but every day I chose to fill my body with healthy, nutritious foods, the less I crave the manufactured and processed foods that I used to fuel myself with.

10 days in,

I am honestly so inspired to actually achieve the goals I set at the beginning of this year.

How about you?

What hard things do you need to face?

Determined,

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