Tag: living with intent Page 1 of 2

On October 29, 2018

You deserve a TIME OUT

Whether you think you don’t, believe me you deserve a TIME OUT. No matter how small that time out is. Remember the saying “you can’t pour from an empty cup”. Well, that’s where I’m finding myself. So two weekends ago, Dude decided we need a time out. Off we went to Cape Town.

Normally, we would stay with family but this time we found a holiday apartment at the beach 🙂 This is where we found Dudie most of the time…

Take a TIME OUT already

With life being so busy and getting even busier at times, everyone can do with a little break. We don’t normally do holiday getaways with the masses during peak season but rather prefer an “off season” frequent break every now and then. Due to budget constraints we can’t do this as often as we would like but we manage to squeeze them in. Also, it’s tricky to coordinate schedules so many times we just wing and make prior arrangements to catch up on school/work once we get back.

We also had birthday celebrations in between. My MIL turned 70 years and I turned 35 years old the day after her birth day. Dude and Dudie made a lavish breakfast with all the bells and whistles. Even non-alcoholic champers so that Dudie could toast with us 😜 Troll used his water cup to join in on the toast.

Cut yourself some slack

You really need to cut yourself some slack. You give the best of you but do you recharge YOU? Yes, I’m talking to myself here BUT I know that most of you can relate. You give and give, and give some more. When do you cut yourself some slack? Personally, this is extremely difficult as I feel that if I loosen the reigns things will fall apart. It’s OK to loosen the reigns a bit. My new motto; if it’s not going to harm anyone it will be OK.

As family, we needed to do “nothing”. We needed to let go of the routine and just wing it. We were busy but we needed the busyness of doing nothing. It was good for our souls.

The nothingness also became a big something as we said our final goodbyes to a family member. So in the midst of taking a time out, it was perfectly planned that we were in close proximity to be with family in a desperate time of need.

Dude has a belief that if you do something with a pure heart and good intentions, it’ll work out the way it’s suppose too.

The time out was perfectly planned. It’s rekindled my flame to Enjoy the small things. The things that often get taken for granted.

Happy Monday!

Spirited Mama

If you are new to my series find the previous posts below:

Week 13 – Be KIND

Week 14 – Be PATIENT

Week 15 – ARM yourself

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52 lessons for 52 weeks: Week 15 – ARM yourself

On October 17, 2018

Do you ARM yourself?

And no, I don’t mean with weapons or ammunition. Are you ready to face the world and whatever life gives you? I’ve come up with this acronym for myself, ARM.

A – Allow

R – Reward

M – Manage

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ready every.single.day BUT I have found that with these three words, allow, reward & manage, I do a whole lot better on the days that I’m NOT ready.

Allow yourself…

Allow yourself some freedom to give yourself a break every now and then. Whether it be a physical break from the norm or just cutting yourself some slack and NOT being so hard on yourself sometimes. No one is as critical of me as I am of myself. I’m sure many of you can relate. I allow myself to be human. I make mistakes but I really try to come back from those. I am a repeat offender in some instances BUT it’s a work in progress. Allow yourself to be YOU. Only you know what you are capable of so don’t push yourself to breaking point!

Reward yourself…

Life itself is challenging AF. Reward yourself with whatever pleases you. Be it a holiday, a new pair of shoes or even just your favourite chocolate 🙂 Recognise your achievements, no matter how small they may seem and REWARD yourself. You did good! You deserve it.

Manage yourself…

Just manage yourself. In all walks of life, we are quick to say person X needs to change xyz and they’ll be sorted. Why are you concerned with person x? Their business is none of your business. Manage yourself and make sure that you stick to YOUR straight and narrow.

Just as you manage your family life/job/etc, take note that you need to manage yourself. You are the captain of your ship, so manage it!

Not everyone has your best interests in mind, in fact some people thrive when others stumble. Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s OK. You will always have those *insert whichever word you deem appropriate her*… but only YOU can LIVE your life. As you navigate your life, you will learn to manage those stumbles.

Go on, manage your life. And you’ll soon be rewarding yourself for it 🙂

Spirited Mama

If you are new to my series find the previous posts below:

Week 13 – Be KIND

Week 14 – Be PATIENT

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52 lessons for 52 weeks: Week 14 – Be PATIENT

On October 5, 2018

Why YOU need to be patient

Anything and everything in life requires patience. You need to be patient.

Even if you think it didn’t require your patience, if you think back to how or where it all started…perhaps it was an idea that you had but did it happen immediately?

Have you ever rushed to get something done and then realised that if you had just been patient, things would’ve turned out better? There is a reason there is a saying …good things come to those who wait… Granted, not all situations can be waited on. Sometimes you need to go after what you want.

Be patient with yourself

Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience ~ Ralph W. Emerson

This is my ultimate goal. The more patient I am with myself, the more patience I have for other people. Ultimately, you are a beautiful masterpiece in progress. You need to be worked, reworked and reworked to create YOUR masterpiece.

If I think back to just a year ago, I would have handled certain situations differently as to what I would handle them now. Growth much?

This series is causing great introspection ALL.THE.TIME. I’m both elated and freaked out about where this series takes me. It uncovers some raw emotions that I have successfully managed to cover up under a blanket of pretence. This has taken years to build and will most likely take years to lift off too. But I’m learning to be patient with myself.

Having patience is a valuable quality

It’s not just about having patience. It’s about how you deal with the waiting. How’s your attitude when you need to be patient? Patience does not come naturally to everyone. Some are fortunate to learn this skill, others not so much. Having patience is a valuable quality. In this busy world we seem to be rushing and racing to get whatever it is that we need. I’m part of this busy world, so I’m well aware of the “rat race”. We want instant gratification rather than to wait for things to come together.

There is nothing that grates my insides more than having to deal with an impatient person. This is when I stop, breathe and remind myself that THAT person needs MY patience more so now than ever. I don’t always get it right though. Everyone has limits…

With all that said, just know that some things take a little more time to come together. Everything has a way of working out, you just need to be patient.

Are you a patient person?

Happy Friday!

Spirited Mama

If you are new to my series find the previous posts below:

Week 13 – Be KIND

52 lessons for 52 weeks: Week 13 – Be KIND

On October 2, 2018

Are you KIND?

As a child we are taught to be kind. Well, at least I was 🙂 and I’m trying my level best to teach the boys to be kind too. To be kind to people and animals BUT also your environment. Apparently, people who do not take kindly to animals are also the people who do not take kindly to other humans. I can’t say that this is or is not the case as I’ve met people who definitely do not take kindly to animals but have a rather peculiar way with other humans. They are not unkind but they are not the most kind people I have ever met either. On the environment, we know that we are only given one body and one life to live but what about your environment? I’m not going to preach to you about recycling, going green and what you can do to be kind to your environment. I just want to leave the thought with you… Are you kind to your environment?

What does it take for you to be kind?

We all have our “off” days when things just don’t seem to go the way we want them to. In these difficult times, it is then that you need need to TRY HARDER to be kind. Do we not attract energy? So on those off days, do we attract unkind people?

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle…Socrates

This rings to true for me every.single.time. The world does not revolve around me. In fact, everyone has something that they are dealing with. Some choose to display this publicly and others, including myself, choose to deal with it discreetly in a private manner.

Do you need for someone to be kind to you before you return the kindness?

I’d like to think that I’m kind to everyone I meet. And I base my decision of the person after a few interactions. However, some people have a way of creeping into your heart immediately. Just as with me, you might be having an “off” day the first time we meet. My Dude has a never ending rope of forgiveness and second chances. He believes that anyone and everyone deserves as many chances as he can possibly give them whilst he is still alive! Amazing right. He has a heart of gold overflowing with love. And what are the chances that he is an animal lover too 🙂 What a role model my boys have…

We know about the laws of attraction, so why not give what you want to receive? If nothing else, I bet you’ll feel better just by spreading a little kindness to someone in desperate need. In that same way, you are spreading kindness to yourself. Sometimes we need to be a little kinder to ourselves too. In a world where life gets so buy we need to remember to spread some kindness. It need not be anything major and it definitely need not be anything for the world to see. A simple smile might be all it takes to spread some kindness today.

Are you KIND?

Spirited Mama

If you are new to my series find the previous posts below:

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52 lessons for 52 weeks: Week 12 – Enjoy the small things…F*ck balance

On September 4, 2018

Enjoy your life vs Balance your life

This lesson is constantly in my subconscious. Its become a part of me as THIS is ultimately what I want to achieve. BUT, it’s also one of the most difficult tasks to do, in the throes of life when trying to juggle all the balls. There is that little voice in my head reminding me to find that “BALANCE”. But how? How do you find that balance without dropping any balls?

As if I don’t have enough on my plate as is with life, husband/kids/work/me…

A while ago, my Dude pointed out that I should MAKE time for myself. My question is HOW/WHERE/WHEN?

Even though I only work half day, I still do a full days work within half the time. I don’t have the luxury of free time as my kids take up the other half of my time. In between extra murals/homework/projects/speeches/etc life still goes on.

I feel as though I’m playing catch up ALL the time. I took a few days off in August BUT I was sick the entire time. Not a common cold but full on flu and bronchitis. I didn’t get much done and was merely making a bad situation even worse. I decided to refrain from social media and tried to focus on my family. Although, we had tantrums and moods, all in all the time out from the mundane weekly routine did us some good.

I try to enjoy the small things but it’s damn hard to enjoy the small things when you were literally up all night with a sick baby. A baby who refused to sleep until 4am! only to wake up at 5am and vomit EVERYWHERE.

Training my mind to let shit go

Remember the lesson for week 6 – Let it go

It’s a work in progress… every single day. Learning to just be in the moment. This is one of my biggest struggles. Since being more conscious about it, I’ve started to find joy in the small things. With Troll being sick and being up all night, we caught up on some series. Before you judge, Troll was half asleep/half awake and NOT staring at the screen.

I am my worst enemy. I know that I am damn hard on myself. I take pride in my work BUT I realised I have dropped some balls there.

So society has dictated that we need to find that “BALANCE” in life. If you have THAT balance please feel free to send me your step by step manual. Otherwise feel free to f*ck off and let me enjoy my small things. This works for me. It’s what makes me feel happy rather than chasing some balance that no one person seems to know where to find anyway! Spirited Mama

It’s the small things that matter the most

I have big dreams but I’m more of a person who thrives on gratification and satisfaction of achieving and seeing my plans come to life. To that I am trying to make those big dreams and goals smaller and more achievable by having smaller sizable tasks that once completed I can tick off my list! This is what gives me a sense of achievement. If I have to wait years just to tick a box, it kills me inside.

Right now, I find that I’m super proud of myself for getting the kids ready for school ON TIME! That’s a major thing for me and usually sets the tone for the mornings. The ultimate bonus is when the kids are happy to oblige to the morning routine. I high five myself even if one child is happy and the other is having a shit fit. Having my kids eat their food is a big deal in my world. They are generally good eaters BUT we do have days where anything served is exactly what they DO NOT want. I’m not going to cook you a special meal, this is what’s on offer so deal with it. Believe me, kids will eat if they are hungry.

Dude and I have catch up sessions in the evening when the kids are in bed. You might be wondering why this is a big deal to me…Well this is also the time where I can quickly clean up/fold laundry/get ready for tomorrow. So this is also the time that Dude helps with whatever task is on hand! It’s also OUR quiet time to sit back and enjoy a coffee together.

F*ck Balance

I’m doing the BEST I can in the moment!

What are the small things that you enjoy?

Do you have the elusive BALANCE in your life?

Enjoy YOUR small things!

Spirited Mama

If you are new to my series find the previous posts below:

Easy dinner recipes with Daily Dish and how we survived the week that was

https://www.dailydish.co.za/promo/SPIRITEDFCB

On August 28, 2018

In Food, Reviews

The week that we survived

This delivery of four family dinners which was delivered at my office was what saved us from eating really badly this past week. The week that was but we survived! Yes, survived. Dude was unexpectedly called for shift duty for the entire week. Dudie had a project, oral and autobiography that needed to be completed. This is besides the normal daily homework. And I felt like I was drowning at work. Now add a sick baby, aka Troll, to this and somewhere something was bound to be neglected.

Daily Dish ensured that we were had healthy dinners

How resourceful – they minimise waste and send you only what is required for your meal. Every spice/sauce is accurately measured according to the recipe.

Our aim is to provide our customers with ingredients that are highest quality, fresh, seasonal, local, and sustainably produced. We get our food directly from the Fairview farm and other local fresh produce and free range farms to ensure that we deliver only the very best produce… Daily Dish

Fresh produce straight from the farm. I tried as best as I could to get Dudie to help prepare the vegetables but my attempts fell on deaf ears. Granted, I could’ve tried harder but I decided to let him be and just allow the control freak in me to do it the way I wanted to. Here is what we ate this past week:

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I did manage to post on my instagram feed on despite all the madness during the week

Troll is still on the mend. However, Dudie has now also caught whatever is currently doing the rounds in our house. Both kids are SICK!

Daily dish is convenient and saves YOU time

You don’t have to set foot in a store to buy ingredients. They do the shopping for you 🙂 Convenient much? Talk about time management.

Each dinner comes with a beautifully printed recipe card, outlining the method and preparation time required. I find it difficult to follow a recipe as the rebel in me doesn’t want to play by those rules. I cook with emotion so you can be sure that you will taste my emotion in my food. Even on the days that my emotions were drained out of me, dinner still tasted good 🙂 Let’s just say that the recipes are fool proof!

What you get when you order a box from Daily Dish

Your 4 dinners will be delivered to you at home or work – you decide. The ingredients are kept in a refrigerated box to ensure that it stays fresh. You just need to refrigerate it at home, within 12 hours of delivery. Each ingredient is labelled for the meal it is intended to be used for and it boasts a best before date.

Familiar BUT healthy and innovative meals

Looking for healthy dinner recipes? Menus change weekly to ensure that you don’t eat the same boring mundane meal at dinner time every.single.week. The meals are innovative in using ingredients that you normally might not use in your daily cooking routine. Daily dish offers a variety of dinner boxes to suit YOUR dietary requirements. You can choose a box for 2-4 people or a solo box for 1 person. Dinner boxes range from a family box/classic box/ banting box/vegan box/goodie box or a pork free box.

As a family, or rather I made the decision on behalf of them, to make healthy food choices so these easy to cook dinners rings true to my strategy.

As a side note – they also have a WINE box option, if you’re interested 🙂

My Dude, aka the husband, was skeptical about these dinners as he feels our or rather his portion size compared to someone else’s portion size might not correspond. The proof was in the pudding when even Dude agreed that the portion sizes were very generous indeed.

So here’s something for YOU from Daily Dish & Spirited Mama!

For every NEW subscriber to Daily Dish, you will get R250 off your first box AND a Fairview Farmstead cheese box, valued at R350. Just click on the link below. It takes you directly to the order page and will automatically apply my code at checkout. This offer is valid until 30 October 2018.

It’s pay week. Go on treat yourself and your family to Daily Dish’s convenient healthy dinner boxes.

Happy cooking!

Spirited Mama

**Disclaimer – We were sent the Daily Dish products to review. However, all views and opinions expressed are my own**

52 lessons for 52 weeks: Week 11 – Find GOOD friends

On July 6, 2018

Finding friends

In all walks of life, we meet many many different people. Aren’t we lucky to be able to live in such diversity? From the time that you are born, you are forming bonds with people. Those bonds will help you shape your views on the ways to form bonds with your friends some day. For some people making friends come naturally. For others it’s not natural. In saying this, I am also cognizant of the fact that some friendships require way more work than others.

You will find friends in the most amazing places/realms of your life. Some online and some in real life. We live in a very different world to what our parents did and these days we see how many online friends become REAL life friends! *Not everything online is bad, you just need to be aware and know the difference…*

Also, the most amazing friendships are formed when you least expect it. I have some very close friends whom I rarely talk to BUT when you see us hanging out together, you would never guess that it may have been years since we were last together.

My BFF from Sub A, or rather Grade one as most know it now, comes to visit us regularly now that she is working in GP. And just like we”clicked” so many years ago, she “clicked” right back into my and my family’s hearts! This one’s a keeper, for sure.

Be a FRIEND

You can’t expect to have friends if you are not willing to be a friend. Friendships are relationships. And like any relationship, it’s suppose to be a mutual give and take alliance. ALL relationships require work from both parties. So be sure to do your bit as a friend. Just as you need your friend, your friend needs you too!

I think one of the easiest ways to learn about being a friend comes from siblings. Siblings become some of the closest friends. A bond, an attachment, and alliance is created that stretches beyond your blood line BUT into a “brotherhood/sisterhood” called friendship. *I know that not all siblings have this closeness…case in point, my only brother and I are 9 years apart and we struggle with this closeness…

But I do think that we learn and mimic others. Until we are wiser and know how to distinguish between right and wrong… As a parent, you are teaching your child(ren) about relationships/friendships. Are you happy with with you are teaching them? Are you and your siblings friends?

Not all friends are family…find YOUR tribe! They are out there, looking for you too.

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Spirited Mama quotes

Sift through your friends

Some friends are for life while others come and go. This is the tricky part where you need to evaluate your situation and decide who is in your life and who is out. Some friendships are short term while others are long term. Think of it this way, your friendship is an investment. And just like an investment, that friendship can reach maturity and will be ceded…

Some friends are there to help you through specific parts of your life. When you have reached the end of “that” part, you may not require that specific friend(s). It’s OK to move on and let go. You may very well have been in their lives for a reason and they may no longer need you either. *In no way am I condoning that you use and abuse your friends. Understand that friendship is a mutual give an take relationship*

Don’t despair as I’m sure you WILL meet new friends to walk with you on your journey. But this is a necessary step to ensure that you are living YOUR best life. You need to TRUST your gut. Only you will know who belongs in your life and who has reached their expiration date. It’s a tough call to make but you need to do as it is in your best interest.

Keep the GOOD friends

The good friends are the ones you want to keep for life! People who stick with you through thick and thin. People who “get” you and understand you. People who share your quirks/laugh/cry with you. People who want you to succeed in life. People who share your joy and happiness. People who want the best for you…

Spirited Mama Quotes

….

Do you have GOOD friends?

Spirited Mama

If you are new to my series find the previous posts below:

52 lessons for 52 weeks: Week 10 – BELIEVE in Yourself

On June 28, 2018

Believe

What even is belief? Do you believe? I do… If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I wouldn’t have achieved what I achieved without belief. I wouldn’t be who I am today without believing in myself. Belief, for me, is to have faith and confidence in knowing that what you are attempting to do is possible. Belief is what YOU deem as true to you.

Invaluable to your success is believing in yourself

We get taught from a young age to just believe…

For me believing is right up there with having or keeping the faith! We believe what we cannot see. We believe because we have hope. Because we have faith. And because we were taught to believe in great things.

You should be your biggest fan. You should be cheering yourself on and in turn see how your fans are cheering you on too. Don’t get me wrong, you will have those fans who are waiting for you to fail or waiting for your demise. BUT keep going because you are destined to do great things. In all walks of life you meet different people. Those who cheer you on and those who cannot stand the sight of you and your success. Go back to your childlike demeanor and BELIEVE! You can if you really want to.

As parents we are tested daily with homework/tasks/projects/chores/just life in general whereby we constantly have to encourage Dudie to believe that he is good enough. To believe that HE can succeed. It gets easier each time he succeeds and I find that some days he doesn’t need the constant encouragement. I would like to think that he is encouraging himself to at least try something. At this stage, Troll seems to young to comprehend what we are saying BUT I see him cheering himself on every time he reaches a milestone. We must be doing something right…

Spirited Mama quotes

Do you believe in yourself?

What limitations have you set for yourself? How do you challenge your limitations? Do you believe in yourself? In my daily life I have to overcome so many limitations that I have set for myself, some subconsciously. I challenge myself to do better and be better than what I was yesterday. I believe that I can do anything that I set my mind to. But I also try and have a realistic approach as to not burn myself out whilst attempting my to challenge these limitations. I am not setting goals that are outrageous. I try to be more patient, to shout less, to be slow to anger and some days I’m good at it. Other days not so much. Life in itself is a challenge.

But with each and every challenge that you encounter you have a choice as to how you will react. I tend to react before I think things through. These days, my greatest challenge is to “think things through BEFORE I react“. It’s hard as my kids are constantly watching me and my behaviour. Those little sponge brains are soaking up what they think is right. And that scares the crap out of me. Am I a good enough role model? Lessons aside, I believe I can be a good role model. I believe in myself and my abilities to do my best with any given situation.

If you don’t believe in yourself , who will?… Spirited Mama

Spirited Mama

If you are new to my series find the previous posts below:

52 lessons for 52 weeks: Week 9 – TRUST

On May 11, 2018

If you are new to my series you can find the previous posts at the end of this post.

Week 9 – Trust

How easily do we trust strangers? Why do you, sometimes – for me at least, ignore that little voice in your head?

This lesson made me think about how easily we trust a pilot to fly us safely to our destination and back home. Someone we have NEVER met and perhaps even seen BUT we board that airplane without so much as batting an eyelid. You fasten your seat belt and off you go into the blue skies.

I know that you need to put your TRUST in someone at many different phases of your life. I would like to think that I always put my trust in God but I digress as I know that this is not always the case. Sometimes, I want to control what cannot be controlled. I want to fly my plane but I’m not a pilot so how could I?

As a parent, I saw first hand how trusting my babies were of me. Each one in his own right. Just trusting me as their mama. They didn’t “know” me but they trusted me. They had no idea what I looked like but when they “saw and met” me in person, they trusted me. The innocence of child is often overlooked yet the innocence of a child is a wonder that many of us adults could learn from. Children have an uncanny way of trusting themselves and their own judgement. Much to a parent’s horror sometimes; you know when you trying to feed the kid broccoli but they just won’t eat it but you insist that it is good for them. Well, this brings me to my lesson – Trust.

Trust yourself

Trust yourself and YOUR own judgement. Nobody knows you better than YOU do. In today’s world, I get that you cannot just go out there and trust each and every single person you meet. Unfortunately, there are many shady characters out there just waiting for trusting people they can prey on. That being said, we have become somewhat paranoid, if you want to label it as something, about each and every single person whom we meet. I’m not saying that you should go out there and just trust everyone who crosses your path. In no way should we just accept and hold hands and sing kumba yaa…

What I am saying is trust YOURSELF. That little voice in your head is seldom wrong. That little voice in your head is also a pretty good judge of character. If someone makes you uneasy, best you move right along. Sometimes it takes some time to be “comfortable” with someone. I have found that this could be that you/they are experiencing some difficult times and the timing of your meet might be “off”. It’s not that they are necessarily bad but it just might not “feel” right at the time. Some people you meet, you connect with easily and often trust immediately. Others not so much. Trust is earned.

Find friends and family you can trust

Even in your own family not everyone has your best interest at heart. Find the friends and family that you can trust. Enough said…I might start a family feud here so best I stop now 🙂

Trust God

Always trust in God. God has your best interests in mind. Everything God does is for our betterment. Even though it might not seem like it at the time, God has bigger and better plans for us. I admit that I don’t always trust in God. Looking back back at those situations, they were terrifying and I totally felt like I had lost control. Because I was never in control to begin with. Somethings are just greater than you and me.

Spirited Mama quotes

*As this series progresses I am finding some lessons more challenging than others. Each lesson is challenging in its own right but some lessons are kicking my @sS…

Trust is your credibility!!!

Do trust people instantly?

Do you take time to warm up to the idea of trusting people?

Spirited Mama

Catch up on the series here: