A Wilted Flower & Authentic Living This Week

A life well lived with memories, gratitude, challenges, reading, writing & inspiration

Hello Friends!

Here's what you'll find in today’s newsletter:

A Piece of Life in Focus This Week

• A Wilted Flower: A small excerpt from my rom-com WIP

Authentic Living This Week

• Gratitude Corner - Playgrounds, prams and hot chips

• Making Memories - Butcherbird, playground fun and a kayak

• Reality Check - Family peacekeeper duties

• Fiction Writing Progress & Learnings - Self-publishing & my children’s book

• Inspiring Reads - Fiction Books and Substack Posts

---

Welcome to My Substack! My Name is Tania.

I invite you to join me on a journey of embracing authentic living. Through honest stories, personal insights, and reflections on authenticity, I seek to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Subscribe for free & tap the ❤️ if you enjoy this post!

---

Life in Focus This Week

Since I have been so focused on writing my first fiction novel, I’ve decided to share a snippet from my story as part of my life in focus feature this week. Hope you like it!

She was no longer the wide-eyed, straight-laced girl she once was, protected from the world like a sapling that needed water and sunlight to grow.

She never truly understood until now that with growth comes risk and balance. Too much water. She drowns. Too much sun. She burns. Too much soil. She is smothered.

She wilted at the thought of her failed relationship. Her petals singed by the hurt of knowing she wasn't enough for him. But most of all, her flower dimmed the most knowing how much he had dampened her sense of self.

Coming of Age Rom-Com WIP - Y2K LOVE

---

Authentic Living This Week

This Substack series is devoted to everything that adds authenticity and realness to my life and I hope it helps you focus on the authentic joy you can create and experience in your day-to-day lives too.

Gratitude Corner: Finding Appreciation in the Everyday

Taking time to find things to be grateful for in everyday moments is a great way to stay grounded and remind yourself of the things that really matter.

This week I’m grateful for:

• Fenced-in playgrounds. If it weren’t for fenced-in playgrounds, my boys probably wouldn’t get out of the house as much as they do now. If my boys run off in separate directions, at least I know one will not get lost while I chase the other. They are contained, I can see both of them at all times and that’s enough to ease a good chunk of my anxiety when parenting solo out in public with two toddlers.

• Prams. I already mourn the day my youngest will grow out of the pram, and I know that day will come soon. In saying that, my eldest would still be in one if he could fit. It’s so nice to contain at least one of my children during solo parenting outings. Oh, and that storage basket under the pram is essential for all the stuff that comes with heading out of the house with toddlers. It’s always used. So many wins.

• Hot chips. Or fries as you call them in the US. My son practically lives off them. And if we’re being honest, I do too. It is probably one of the primary carbs he consumes in a typical week. I don’t blame him, I love them too. Especially the kind we can pick up at a drive-through with zero cooking or prep involved.

What are you grateful for this week?

Making Memories: Cherished Moments & Milestones

Making memories and recording them has always been incredibly important to me. Our memories tend to fail us, so keeping a record of precious moments enhances our memory-keeping abilities.

Here are my favourite memories from this week:

• A butcher bird (lovingly called butchy boy) visits our yard occasionally. My son calls for him 'butch, butch, butchy, butch, butchy bird'. When he flies in and perches on top of the wooden fence with his black and white feathers and pointed beak, he waits patiently for me or my 3-year-old to throw a tiny chunk of food for him to swoop for and catch mid-air. My 3-year-old squeals with delight with every swoop while my one-year-old watches in awe. This impromptu bird show has become a fun little mid-afternoon tradition whenever 'butchy boy' delights us with a visit.

• I took the boys to a new playground by the water. It had everything going for it as far as toddler-friendly playgrounds go. Fully fenced in and small enough for me to keep my eye on both of them, yet big enough to keep them entertained. It's brand spanking new and the ground was a mix of sand and rubber rather than horrible bark that always gets stuck in their shoes. Just outside the playground gates were some water fountains the boys could run through and a shallow inlet filled with pebbles, each pebble the perfect size for little hands to peg across the surface of the water. It was a perfect morning except for the part where my one-year-old ran full pelt into the water and nearly drowned himself. And none of us were in swimming-appropriate attire either. Luckily I always bring a change of clothes wherever we go.

• My husband took our 3-year-old on a paddle down the river in a kayak. During their leisurely paddle, I took my one-year-old for a walk in the pram and we played in the nearby playground. My 3-year-old posed for me in the kayak while I took a photo, wearing his neon yellow life vest and holding the heavy oar as high as his little arms could hold them. By the time they got back, he was beaming and keen as a bean to do it all over again soon.

What memories have you made this week?

Reality Check: Navigating Life’s Challenges

Writing about or vocalising the tougher moments in life helps us process them and knowing we're not alone in these struggles is helpful too.

Here is a struggle I’d like to highlight this week:

I voluntarily inserted myself into an unpleasant exchange between my parents and younger sister.

My parents visited my sister's house on the weekend. After their visit, my sister messaged me to say how upset she was with their harsh criticism about how messy her house was. She spent a long time cleaning before they got there, but she has young kids and multiple pets, and my parents still found cause to criticise. Every time they visit, they have something critical to say. I confronted my parents about it on her behalf. My dad deflected and made it all about him as I expected.

Eventually, with a few harsh truths from my perspective, they relented, realised that perhaps they were a bit too harsh with their criticism and apologised. My sister thanked me for intervening and I’m glad I did it to clear the air between them.

The peacekeeper role is one I seem to fall into with my family often. If something happens that I don’t agree with, I’ll make it known. I wonder what that says about me?

What do you feel like venting about this week? This is your safe space! No judgment here.

Fiction Writing Progress and Learnings

I’m currently focused on improving my fiction writing skills and working towards publishing my first novel. Follow me on my journey.

I'm progressing well with editing my rom-com story. I'm thinking of getting a cover sorted and perhaps locking in the domain name for my author website soon. This may be a surprise to some but I am keen to indie-publish and not interested in querying publishers, unless, of course, I win the unpublished writers competition hosted by Hatchette Australia that I entered this story into, which I know is highly unlikely.

Since I work in marketing, putting some of my skills and knowledge into practice for something that is mine is exciting, and I love how I have 100% control over the result of my story, who edits it, when it will be published, how it will be published and what the cover looks like.

I hope that knowing how to self-publish on KDP already will be a big plus too. When my 1-year-old was a newborn, I wrote, designed and uploaded a children's book (mostly from my phone while breastfeeding) with the help of AI and Canva. I didn't make any money from it. I just made it for fun. I picked a topic I wanted to cover with my kids that I couldn't find the right fit for in the library. It's still up on Amazon if you want to look at it here.

It cost me nothing to make this (except paying for a few physical copies to be delivered for me to own and give to family members). It simply gave me something enjoyable and productive to do for myself rather than doom scrolling social media. I’m so glad I did it because it makes me feel a little bit more prepared for publishing my first fiction novel.

Inspiring Reads

Inspiration helps drive us to do more, be more and perhaps even take our lives in a whole new direction.

Fiction Stories

Over the last few weeks, I read Mr Wrong Number by Lynn Painter, and I listened to Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yaros and Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover. I loved all of these stories for different reasons.

Lynn always creates relatable and likeable characters in genuinely funny rom-com scenarios. This story was no different and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Maybe Someday was the first Colleen Hoover book I read, and I get the hype. The internal dialogue she writes for her characters and the emotion intertwined into the storyline is second to none.

As for Fourth Wing, I heard it referred to as ‘top gun with dragons’, and they weren’t wrong. But it’s not all dragons and fantasy. You can't go past the strong romantic sub-plot woven into it too. It was action-packed, the author kept upping the stakes masterfully and it made me gasp and cry which will always be an automatic winning story in my books.

Substacks

Here are a few Substacks that caught my eye this week:

The Delusion That We’re Going to Live Forever by Emilie from The Shy Reveal.

You create your own meaning. If you find something beautiful, valuable, or funny, if it gives you peace and encouragement, then that’s your meaning.

How to Succeed on Substack by Annie Ridout.

There is a community for everyone. The subject of your writing will help you to find yours.

The Lonely Parent Edit by Lynn Bedran from Breadonbutter’s Newsletter.

Loneliness is an inevitable part of parenting (and any life situation for that matter). Whether you're the default parent, a single parent, new in town, a stay-at-home parent, or the main breadwinner—loneliness can creep in, even when you're surrounded by people.

What has inspired you this week?

---

Enjoy these hand-picked quotes to send you off for another wonderful week:

• The only thing holding you back is you

• Keep it simple, stupid

• Focus on quality, not quantity

• Feel then write

Please let me know what you think of my posts by leaving a comment below or reaching out to me in the app. If you enjoy reading this newsletter consider hitting subscribe. Have a wonderful day!