Togetherness & Authentic Living This Week
Forever grateful, full of memories, reality bites, words are written and Substack articles are read.
Hello Friends!
Here's what you'll find in today’s newsletter:
A Piece of Life in Focus This Week
Togetherness: A piece of prose written on a whim
Authentic Living This Week
Gratitude Corner - YouFoodz & Poffertjes
Making Memories - Family Fun Day, New Words & Park Adventures
Reality Check - Where Is That Thing?
Fiction Writing Progress & Learnings - A New Song & a New Ending
Inspiring Reads - Substack & a Sprinkle of 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
Here is a personal piece I wrote on a whim called Togetherness. You may interpret it as you wish, id be interested to read your thoughts on it:
Words unsaid linger in the air like a steaming kettle. Paths crossing, words muttered, talking in circles around the emptiness between us. Once we’re alone, we find each other again, mentally, emotionally and physically, until we are drawn apart once more, locked in a dance of monotony and all-consuming demands that eat up our days. They need us, we need them, but we also need each other. Together we survive. Together we thrive. Whatever separates us will never keep us apart, like magnets drawn together by forces beyond our comprehension. Despite the distance. Despite the dread. Despite the darkness. Togetherness allows streams of sunlight to break through, opening us up to the sun and the warmth that bathes, heals and completes us. Imperfectly perfect together.
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:
YouFoodz. We’ve thrown in the towel when it comes to dinner the last few weeks, which has resulted in us investing in pre-made meals delivered to our door. It’s a slight level up from frozen meals because they are fresh and are stored in the fridge. It’s an elite form of fast food in a way. Having prepared meals ready to go on days when my husband needs to work back late and the boys have been a bit of a handful, especially if sick at the same time too, is worthwhile.
Poffertjes. Please don’t ask me to pronounce that word. I say it differently every time, and each iteration is likely to be wrong. Poffertjes, also known as miniature pancakes, are a staple treat at any market or outdoor event here in Australia. Dusted with icing sugar, drizzled with butterscotch sauce and topped off with a generous wedge of butter, these delicious delights are to die for, and perfect when paired with a freshly made fruity iced tea or lemonade.
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:
Family Fun Day: The kindergarten my 3-year-old will be starting next year held a family fun day with lots of kid-friendly activities. My boys had a blast. My three-year-old made a b-line for the makeover station where he had his nails painted red and hair spray-painted green. He also did multiple rounds on the inflatable obstacle course. My 18-month-old was full of beans too. Both boys darted in opposite directions and hubby and I took turns looking after each one as they explored the attractions.
New Words: This week my 3-year-old took it upon himself to teach our 18-month-old how to talk, and it was a resounding success. Over breakfast, he asked ‘say car’. The word ‘car’ came out of my 18-month-old’s mouth, as clear as day. ‘Say juice’. My 18-month-old mimicked again as he said ‘juice’. And so on and so on. He babbled out a variety of new words by simply copying his brother and he continues to do so every mealtime.
Playground Adventures: Since winter is already making way for warmer weather, we’ve been exploring plenty of playgrounds before temperatures get too high to enjoy them in the middle of the day. My 18-month-old is becoming more of a handful in these outings, running off into the distance away from sight without hesitation. Thankfully my 3-year-old likes to keep his eyes on him too and promptly lets me know if I need to chase after him when he wanders too far.
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 short summary of a struggle my hubby and I encountered on the weekend:
Where are the keys? He yells out from across the room. Why don’t you put them in the bowl where they belong?
Where are our 3-year-old’s shoes? He asks in a huff. You had them last, why aren’t they where they are supposed to be?
Where is our toddler’s toothbrush? He storms around the house looking on countertops and through draws. Why can’t I ever find anything in this place?
The keys were in the bowl. Exactly where they should have been. The shoes were in the shoe drawer. Exactly where they always were. The toothbrush however is a mystery we are yet to solve. I think our 18-month-old is the culprit for hiding that one and I doubt it will ever be found if our previously lost and never-found keys are anything to go by.
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 couldn’t write a simple rom-com, could I? It had to be a novel trying to be a jukebox musical set in the year 2000 with Australian songs of the era and Y2K nostalgia woven through the plot. I had to be extra with this story, and while it has been a lot of fun to create, writing a multiple-point-of-view story with a very particular set of songs as a key focus has its challenges. Despite that, progress is being made.
In the last two weeks, I included a whole new scene to my story which required a whole new song to match. The day after writing it, I got in the car to take the kids to the park, turned on the radio, and like a bloody miracle, the perfect song played through the radio. It was meant to be and I could hardly believe my luck.
I am also in the process of completely rewriting my ending. It had to be done and I am really happy with the new outcome. The changes align well with all of my character arcs and everything is falling into place perfectly. This process is bulking out my story too which is exactly what I want. My goal is to lurch the story out of novella territory and into full-fledged novel land.
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:
I’m holding every object in my house to see if it brings me joy by
fromTo be clear, the house is fairly tidy. It’s just too full. And I can feel it. I can feel it like I can feel the blood in my veins. Which is to say: never, until I do.
Writer’s Writer versus Readers Writer by
fromAn old, rusty chain runs across the halls of world literature, attaching itself to glass walls that you might not notice were there until you bumped into them and hurt yourself— walls that quietly and systematically keep us apart.
In a world where society pushes everyone to consume more regardless of need, there is a lot to be said for the ability to resist the tactics of advertisers. Another great reminder that not all human beings think alike.
Who we choose to take in, engage with, befriend, is kinda like browsing through a playlist and hitting play. Like tracing our fingers along book spines at a library and picking one off the shelf. We can’t choose them all. But we can choose some of them. Any of them, really.
Fiction Stories
I’ve spread myself a bit thin the last few weeks when it comes to fiction. I did finish a historical rom-com audiobook called Grace by Beverley Watts which was a quick and enjoyable story to be absorbed in while cleaning. I’m halfway through the audiobook version of Assistant to the Villain by Hanna Nicole Maehrer and Happy Place by Emily Henry. I also have two ARC e-books I’m trying to find time to devour too.
What has inspired you this week?
Here are a few quotes to round out your week and start a new one with a splash:
An apple a day keeps the doctor away
An opinion is like an arse hole, everyone’s got one
Spice up your life
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!
Love this! The not being able to find stuff when it's exactly where it's meant to be is a constant struggle. We call it refrigerator blindness in our house - you can open the fridge for the ketchup and not see it, someone else can walk over and grab it out of what seems like thin air. 🤣💚
Togetherness makes me think of contradictions (which are special and necessary and a big part of my life and outlook). It reminds me of the yin/yang dynamic—not as opposing forces, but as intertwined extremes that carry a bit of each other within. When in balance, the yin and yang align and flow, despite their contradictory sense.
Everything built upon beautiful challenges and ugly ease. So much of what appears to be at odds is part of the same thing. It's the stuff of both over-conformity and conspiracy-leaning. Too much push toward one extreme alone leads to imbalance and deficiency.
I like how you capture navigating through this. Thanks for sharing.