Balance, Care & Authentic Living in March
A wrap up of life, gratitude, inspiration and joy.
Hello Friends!
Here's what you'll find in today’s newsletter:
A Piece of Life in Focus This Week
Kindy & Daycare Success: A big family milestone
Authentic Living This Month
Gratitude Corner - Ex-Tropical Cyclone, RedNote & Brioche Shakes
Making Memories - Birthdays, Shopping, Park & Beach
Reality Check - Sound the Alarm & Too Much Work
Cozy Gaming - Infinity Nikki & Stardew Valley
Inspiring Stuff - Fiction Audiobooks I listened to recently
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
You may or may not have noticed that I skipped January and February for my ‘Authentic Living This Month’ series, for no other reason than life getting in the way. But that’s okay! We had a big life transition that involved my now 4-year-old son starting Kindergarten and my nearly 2-year-old starting daycare.
You may remember our previous failed pre-kindy attempt with my eldest last year. Well, thankfully I am very happy to report that with time, a new centre, and new teachers, my eldest son now loves Kindergarten and has settled in so well. My youngest however is still upset with me at dropoff for daycare, but by the time I collect him, he is a happy little guy.
So big plus on that life update but there’s a downside too. Sickness. I only work 2 days a week and for 3 weeks, I have had to take time off to look after my boys. First, my youngest got sick, then my eldest, and then we all got infected. It’s only March and all my sick leave is used up. Because of that, I’m seriously considering whether my super flexible and cushy work-from-home job is going to be worth sticking out. It’s summer here in Australia right now. I can only imagine how frequent the illnesses will be in winter. It doesn’t help that the boys each go to different centres too.
I don’t know how other working parents do it. It really is a flawed system and I don’t know the fix.
I also wanted to share a quick shoutout to all the new subscribers and followers I received recently thanks to a few notes that went viral recently. In this note, I asked writers about their hobbies and in this one, I shared ideas on what I really wanted to do with my life each day, and you did too! So thanks for joining me here and I hope you get something valuable out of my content!
Authentic Living in March
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.
In the last few months I was grateful for:
A Downgraded Cyclone. We had a Cyclone here a week ago. The first one in over 50 years so it was a big deal. Our city closed down for a few days waiting for it to hit, but it decided to do a few loops off the coast first, catching everyone off-guard. It ended up making landfall 2 days after its predicted impact. Rather than being a category 2 cyclone, it ended up crossing the coast as a tropical low with category 1 strength winds. Even with the downgrade, we still lost power for a day (Some people lost power for multiple days) and lots of flash flooding occurred along with sporadic damage to properties from downed trees and branches. But I am thankful it was not as severe as many had anticipated.
RedNote. I am Australian, therefore I was not a victim of the recent and brief TikTok ban, but it didn’t stop TikTok from pointing me in the direction of RedNote, and I could not help but try it out myself, and I have enjoyed using it. The cultural insights into China and its people are fascinating and eye-opening, and the platform itself is wonderful and very user-friendly. The fact that you can translate posts and comments into English in one click has created an unbelievable bridge between worlds. I’ve even been speaking to a few Chinese friends about life, technology, culture, politics and more. Discussing the pros and cons of our societies and having the ability to clear up some misconceptions about both of our societies has been such a positive thing to see and experience.
Brioche Shake. I’m supposed to be lactose intolerant but I make an exception for this amazing milkshake from McDonald’s that is layered with crumbled-up brioche biscuits. The texture paired with the sweet, creamy milkshake is everything. Need I say more? Yum!
What are you grateful for this month?
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 is my favourite memory from this month:
Happy Birthday: Both of my boys shared a birthday 10 days apart. They are now 2 and 4 and we had a small, shared birthday party for them in a local park. My eldest picked out all the party stuff including decorations, balloons and a soccer ball-shaped piñata. My mum made the chocolate cake and the boys had lots of fun eating, playing in the park with friends, opening presents and most of all blowing out the candles on their shared birthday cake.
Party food on paper plates. A plump pinata pulled high. A flurry of fun and excitement, shaded by enormous fig trees and shared by family and new friends. Pulling open presents. Playing party tunes. Poppa juices and party poppers. Quick blow out the candles before the wind does it for you. And with a cut of the cake, put it on a plate, happy birthday to you. My beautiful boys.
Thursday Night Shopping: Here in Australia, shopping centres are open until 9 pm every Thursday night and most stores usually close at 5 pm on other days. The boys love our Thursday night shopping trips which usually involve a game at the arcade, dinner at the food court and running around the shops. It’s a fun reward my eldest in particular looks forward to after a busy day at Kindy.
One-on-One Time: Every second Wednesday my youngest and I get to share quality one one-on-one time together while his big brother is at Kindy. This is the first time he has had some genuine alone time with me since being born. We had a wonderful park day together this week that for once was not dictated by his older brother. He has been used to being scooped up and whisked away on the whim of his big brother’s desires and direction for the day. On this day, he got to call the shops, do what he wanted to do with no interruptions and leave the park when he was ready to go and he had a blast.
Beach Fun: We have a favourite local beach spot with calm water and a shady bridge that is just for us. The boys love playing in the calm waters and enjoying the nearby playground too. Perfect place to visit on a Summer day when the tide is low.
Soaking in the calm water under a shady bridge on a hot day. Just the four of us. Drawing in the sand. Finding shells. Splashing. Smiling. Laughing. The water is so still, shallow and warm while cars zoom overhead on the bridge providing a welcome reprieve from the harsh sun.
What memories have you made this month?
Reality Check: Navigating Life’s Challenges
Writing about or vocalising the tougher and less pleasant moments in life helps us process them and knowing we're not alone in these struggles is helpful too.
Security Alarm During a Cyclone: The only issue we had when the ex-tropical cyclone hit was when the power went out at midnight. Our security alarm which we never used started letting out a high-pitched squeal. We could not turn it off. After about 20 minutes of us running around with torches trying to figure out how to hack the system and why it was making this sound in the first place, it finally petered out on its own and stopped. But only half an hour later another alarm attached to the ceiling in our hallway started making a wee-woo-wee-woo noise that mimicked what an actual cyclone alarm would sound like from one of those natural disaster movies. We had no idea what the alarm was for or why it was making that noise. My husband ended up unscrewing it from the ceiling and snipping the power cord. Luckily both boys stayed asleep through that whole ordeal.
Working Late: My husband has been crazy busy at work and is often working from his home office from sun up to sun down. Then when the boys are in bed, he will often work some more until he eventually forces himself to bed at stupid o'clock. I have raised my concerns with him about overworking and not getting enough sleep but he just brushes it off and says he is okay. The work has to be done. Luckily he is being paid well for it, but the work-life balance right now is not ideal. He will often work late during the week so he gets to spend time with the boys over the weekend. At least we have weekends, but occasionally work seeps through then too despite the extra work he does during the week.
What do you feel like venting about this month? This is your safe space! No judgment here.
Cozy Gaming Hyperfixation
While waiting on beta readers to get through my manuscripts in addition to other life changes and stressors, I’ve taken a short creative writing break and have been enjoying the little downtime I have to play a few cozy games to help me relax, unwind and turn my brain off. The two games I have been playing are Infinity Nikki and Stardew Valley.
Infinity Nikki is a PC game about a girl who saves the world with her magical clothing. It’s the most feminine and cute game I’ve ever played with beautiful outfits, resource gathering, animal grooming, bug collecting, fishing, photography and of course fighting bad guys and looking pretty while doing it. To me, it feels a bit like Sailor Moon if it were a game. This game is free and can be downloaded directly from their website with optional in-game purchases.
Stardew Valley is a farming sim that I play on my Switch. It has been around for a long time so I am very late to the game on this one. There is so much more to this game than just farming. You meet and try to befriend the town’s people to receive rewards, mine and fight monsters in caves, forage, cook, explore, and most of all grow crops and rear animals to grow your farm. I love lying in bed playing this on my switch while listening to an audiobook at the end of a busy day. This game only cost me $15!
What games do you enjoy playing?
Inspiring Stuff
Inspiration helps drive us to do more, be more and perhaps even take our lives in a whole new direction.
Fiction Stories
Here are the audiobooks I’ve listened to recently:
Part of Your World by Abby Jimenz: This contemporary rom-com had me hooked! This is the first story I’ve read from this author and now I understand why she has so much hype. A perfectly rounded story with relatable characters and a genuinely healthy relationship with an exciting, captivating and funny storyline. I’m excited to read more books from Abby.
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore: The first missing person, crime/mystery style story I have read about kids that go missing at a camp across multiple generations in the 70s. Had me invested fully from start to finish.
Lightlark by Alex Aster: An enjoyable fantasy story with a unique world, high stakes and a surprising twist near the end. Was a little hard to follow at times but overall it was an enjoyable listen.
Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore: A simple and enjoyable small-town cozy romance story with all the good stuff you expect from a romance set in a small town. This one was written in 3rd person unlike others in this genre usually written in first person, and I enjoyed it.
What books have inspired you this month?
Here are a few quotes this month about celebrating our creative spirit:
"The creative spirit is not a spark but a wildfire, spreading warmth and light to everything it touches."
"To create is to breathe life into the unseen, to give form to dreams and whisper meaning into the chaos."
"A creative spirit sees the ordinary and dares to ask: What if this could be extraordinary?"
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!