My Last Baby & Authentic Living This Week
A poem about my last baby with gratitude, memories, struggles and inspiration mixed in.
Hello Friends!
Here's what you'll find in today’s newsletter:
A Piece of Life in Focus This Week
Last Baby: a short poem for my 2nd and last baby.
Authentic Living This Week
Gratitude Corner - Cool weather, family and childhood toys
Making Memories - Under 8’s day & relative visits
Reality Check - Nailpolish play & a dud art easel
Inspiring Finds - Amazing Author stories and wonderful Substacks to read
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
A short poem I wrote lying in bed with my 2nd and last baby in my arms.
Last Baby
I pull you in closer,
though I desperately need more sleep.
Your tiny fingers trace my skin,
it’s my sustenance and warmth you seek.
The night is ours and ours alone,
as you snuggle close to my chest.
I should savour these moments,
they won’t last forever,
but boy do I need more rest.
Sleep is a distant memory,
but knowing I have you near,
is all I could ever ask for,
my last baby,
I love you, my dear.
Authentic Living This Week
This Substack series is devoted to everything that I feel 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:
The cooler autumn temperatures provide us with much-needed relief from months of wretched heat that locked us indoors when the sun was at full strength. My boys play outside for longer stretches of the day and we can all enjoy our time together outdoors.
Spending time with extended family. My boys love seeing and playing with their cousins who are around the same age. Seeing them play together and watching their friendship grow is a wonderful thing to witness.
My parents keeping many of my childhood toys that my kids can now play with when they come to visit. Nostalgic feelings from my childhood come flooding back as I show them the toys and the games I played with them.
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.
Attending the under-8s day at our local state school. Despite there being an ambulance, police car and a firetruck at the event, my 3yo much preferred playing drums with upturned buckets, popping giant bubbles, navigating an obstacle course and doing science experiments with coloured vinegar and bicarb soda.
Spent the entire day Sunday with my parents, sister, niece, nephew and my Auntie who is visiting from the United States. The highlight was witnessing the pure joy on my boys' faces as they played and created cherished memories with their beloved cousins. It’s always an energetic and boisterous scene at Nanna and Pop’s house, with laughter echoing through the halls of their home. My aunt, experiencing this lively gathering for the first time, aptly described the experience as akin to a visit to Disneyland, with the children running, squealing, and snacking without restraint, and revelling in the magic of family togetherness.
What memories have you made this week?
Reality Check: Navigating Life’s Challenges
I find venting about struggles I face in life just as therapeutic as embracing joy. 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 are some little life struggles I’d like to vent about this week:
A surprise nail-polish play session resulted in my 3 year old and one-year-old turning into colourful and highly wash-resistant canvases. An evening trip to the chemist to purchase nail polish remover fixed the failed art project but the rubber play mat remains permanently tarnished.
We bought a kids art easel off Facebook marketplace. I asked if it was possible to attach standard printer paper to it. We have so much because of my husband’s work. The lady said yes. My hubby picked it up. We set it up on the patio. My son was excited and keen as a bean to use it. We tried to attach printing paper and failed. It’s made to hold a canvas, not paper. After a half-arsed attempt to attach it haphazardly to the thing, my son lost interest and it has been sitting unused on the patio ever since.
What do you feel like venting about this week? This is your safe space! No judgment here.
Inspiring People: Sally Briton & Bethany Atazadeh
Being inspired by something or someone lights us up like nothing else. It can help drive us to do more, be more and perhaps even take our lives in a whole new direction. Inspiration marks us and puts us on a path deeper into self-discovery.
I've felt very inspired by the stories of two amazing authors this week which has fanned the flame of my desire to get back into my fiction writing. Both Sally Briton (historical romance author) and Bethany Atazadeh (YA fantasy author) started their writing journeys from a place of joy. They focused on writing what they wanted to write, and embracing the process while balancing their busy lives around work and raising kids. Success and sales soon came naturally, stemming purely from their deep desire and love of writing stories.
I discovered Sally Britons’ story in this podcast from the Story Craft Cafe Podcast and found Bethany Atazadeh through her YouTube channel.
Inspiring Finds: Great Substack Reads
I keep pouring pockets of time into reading from my list of substack subscriptions. Here are a few that caught my eye this week and hopefully they spark inspiration for you also:
from Lover of Storiesfrom Let the Words Fall OutI can’t just be good, I have to be perfect. But the problem with that is perfection doesn’t exist. It’s a journey with no real destination.
So I never achieve the masterpiece I started out envisioning, I’m a bad writer flashes into my head and I’m terribly harsh on myself because of that. Then I force myself to get up and try again. The cycle continues. I’m a mouse on a wheel. I don’t know how to make it stop.
But maybe now that I know this I can start finding ways to free myself.
I’ll never forget the day that I embraced the word writer as something that I could actually be. I had updated my bio to say “aspiring writer” after an essay of mine had been published in The Mighty 1. A dear writerly friend saw my bio and had read my essay and immediately messaged me saying “you ARE a writer, own that shit!”
To Be Seen as a Writer or Artist by
from The Creative Shift by Dan Blank.Today I want explore the complicated process of having our creative work — and ourselves — seen. Too often, our writing or art is lost amidst the responsibilities of life. We struggle to find the time to create, and when we do, we face a mix of confusing signals. This has always been best summed up in my favorite episode of the TV show, The Office.
The Pivotal Moment When I Decided to Quit my 9-5 by
from The Unforuling Rose.“I will never let another human tell me how to, or when I can mother my children,” I muttered under my breath as I turned the keys in the ignition and slightly squealed my tires out the parking lot. And that was the moment I knew I was done with the rat race.
What has inspired you this week?
Well, that’s the week’s wrap-up! I’d like to leave you with a few finishing touches:
Write from a place of joy
Hug the ones you love and tell them that you love them
If you find a fork in the road, pick it up
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!
Beautiful poem! Love it
I love your last baby poem, Tania. My last baby will be turning 37 this year, and those treasured moments stay with you forever. 😊