There is No Baby Here & Authentic Living This Week

A fortnight of fun, feelings, fiction and frustrations

Hello Friends!

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

A Piece of Life in Focus This Week

• There is no baby here: Putting some feelings into words about my 3 yo son.

Authentic Living This Week

• Gratitude Corner - Makeup naps and Kmart

• Making Memories - Teddy Bear’s Picnic

• Reality Check - Behaviour, food and ear buds

• Fiction Writing Progress & Learnings - Competition update and progress

• Inspiring Reads - Substacks and fiction

---

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

There is no baby here - A piece of poetic, prose full of feelings written about my 3-year-old son.

Where is the buba she calls for?
There is no baby here. They don't see him, but I do.
A baby transformed into a boy in the blink of an eye,
before my mind could catch up to find the right word to fit.
The word ‘boy’ doesn't feel right on my lips yet.
’Buba’ fits the baby I'm holding in my mind,
but the word no longer belongs to the boy in front of me now,
who is becoming part of the world more and more,
and less a part of me. Buba is the word I cling to,
as I desperately grasp any lingering wisp of infancy left.
A boy he is now, and a baby he will never be again.
But buba I will call you, just a little longer.

---

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:

• Makeup Naps. My 18-month-old has been sick this week, which meant a string of late nights with a restless toddler. I finally took my chance to have a makeup nap at midday on Sunday while my eldest son slept and hubby had some rare one-on-one time with our youngest. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was down and out for 2 hours. So thankful for that makeup nap, and I feel much fresher for it.

• Kmart. Kmart in Australia is like Target in the USA. Everyone shops there, it has all the best stuff and at great prices. I never walk out of a Kmart empty-handed. This week I bought a set of summer PJs for the boys for $6 each along with a pack of bath bombs and bath foam to make bathtime fun. We also stocked up on fun outdoor activities for the kids as we approach warmer weather like water balloons, bubble wands, toy rocket launchers and slime.

  
  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 is my favourite memory from this week:

Teddy Bear Picnic: A Teddy Bear Picnic event was held on a Thursday morning at a local park. It was a huge, free event run by our city council with free rides, markets, food stalls and stage shows. The event was created for parents and grandparents like me with little ones under school age who are in desperate need of entertainment for our little scallywags throughout the week. It was as busy as any weekend event, which goes to show how many other stay-at-home carers are out there needing something to do with the kids out of the house and beyond the usual day-to-day monotony. Our Council hosts an event like this a few times a year, and I’m so grateful for it. My mum came along to help me with the boys and I’m glad she did with the crowd. We had to chase each boy in opposite directions as they darted between sensory play stations, animal farms, rides, a reptile show, interactive music stalls and so much more. It was a great day.

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 are a few struggles I encountered over the last two weeks:

• Behaviour and Food - My three-year-old son has some challenging behaviours and outbursts that we’ve been trying to navigate. We decided to cut out sugary foods with artificial colouring from his diet. So he still has some food with sugar like biscuits, chocolate and ice cream but no foods with artificial colours like lollies, jelly and some juices. So far it does seem to have made a difference, but we read that it takes about two weeks for it to be out of his system, so we shall see if the change will have any long-term impact.

• Expensive earbuds ruined - My husband bought me fancy $200 earphones a few years ago because the typical wireless Apple ones don’t sit well in my ears and hurt if I wear them too long. Well, my 18-month-old came across them and ripped them to pieces. I patched up the little on-off toggle in the middle of the wire that keeps the two earpieces together with some sticky tape and got it working again. But then this week, I left them in my pants pocket and they had a bath in the washing machine. Now they are ruined. I’m using a cheap $25 set from Kmart right now that does the job but is not the same.

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 have an update on the Ritchell Prize for Emerging Writers competition. Unfortunately, my story didn’t make it through to the first round of the competition. Which is totally fine, especially since they had over 1000 entries. I am grateful that this competition exists as it was a primary catalyst to push me back into my fiction writing again. It also gave me a good structure and process to start with and work through which I am continuing with now to complete my story.

I’ve been reworking my ending extensively. It is so close but I haven’t quite nailed it yet. Until I do I have been editing other chapters as well. My epilogue is half-written too, and excited to close that off perfectly too.

I have been interacting on Threads more lately with other writers. I find that to be an excellent community too, particularly for fiction writers. It is an easy platform to share thoughts on writing, ask questions and get valuable answers back from other aspiring and accomplished authors.

Inspiring Reads

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

Substacks

Here are a few Substacks that enjoyed reading this week:

It Takes a Village to Birth a Book by

Amanda Cooke

from Appetitle for Living.

This book has been tended and nourished by so many beings seen and unseen. It is covered in the fingerprints of generations of my people long gone, the ancestral spirits of the lands on which it was written, all the poets I’ve ever read and the teachers that have generously shared their wisdom. Most can never be known let alone named.

The Thrill of Gatekeeping by

Joyful Sarcasm

Anonymity allows us to present our raw selves without fear of judgment. But there’s a deeper layer: our online personas often escape the roles and expectations that family and friends impose on us. We’re not just hiding behind screens—we’re shedding the labels of “the responsible one” or “the always-put-together one” that have followed us through life.

The Surprising Effect of Being Your Authentic Self by

Marie Vandoorne

from The Bored Millenial

share your story as is. As genuine and honest as possible. Don’t polish it up or make it more dramatic than needed. You don’t have to provide 5 steps to do this or that. You don’t even need to offer a solution. Just share what you are struggling with, and you will be surprised by how many people resonate with that. Share your wins as well. It’s important to celebrate.

What Does a Romance Reader Want, Anyway? by

Brooke

Would my readers be writing a review saying “virtually no spice! Disappointing!”. Would they make booktoks holding up my book with a single spicy pepper emoji with one hand and gesturing a big thumbs down with the other? 

Fiction Stories

My sister finally convinced me to read A Court of Thrones and Roses by Sarah J Maas. I finished the first audiobook in a week and now I’m halfway through the second book. I get the hype. The story is captivating, the pace is fast and there are plenty of twists and turns. The quality of the writing itself could have been better and there were a few questionable plot points but overall the storyline packs a punch, and that’s what matters most. So far book two is even better.

I also listened to the audiobook Happy Place by Emily Henry. It’s so well written and incredibly witty with realistic characters and dialogue. No wonder Emily Henry is such a big name in romance and rom-coms. This story was funny and heartwarming and although the storyline was a bit predictable, I still consider it a top-notch read.

What has inspired you this week?

---

This time I’ve decided to source some real quotes from other people to top off this post, rather than what pops up into my head. Have a good week!

• Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive - Elbert Hubbard

• Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there - Josh Billings

• It’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring - Maralyn Monroe

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!