I have been missing in action for quite a while, because I have been feeling just ‘meh’ for a few weeks now!
We’ve still been on the run and getting things done, but I’ve just felt run down and exhausted. You know that “permanently exhausted pigeon” meme? Yeah, that’s how I’ve been feeling! Physically, mentally and emotionally!
Instead of beating myself up about it though, I have let myself get through the past few weeks and have just gone through the motions with lots of grace for myself. Because you’ve got to give yourself grace when times get tough. The world might still be going, not letting you stop, hide away and rest like you’d like, but you can run the household in a more relaxed, and “kinder to yourself” way.
On a physical level, living a minimal lifestyle and having set routines has meant that even though I’ve been taking it easy, I did not get overwhelmed with a backlog of housework. On a mental level, practicing gratitude has helped me put things into perspective and appreciate the privilege of being alive, having our smart, beautiful children, a healthy family and a happy home.
The kids have been on and off for the past few weeks as well. In between running around for the end of year dancing concert and other extra curricular activities, they have lazed around, played computer games and watched more Netflix than they should have. And that’s ok, too!
We all just needed to recharge and recoup. Now we’re back!
On the 1st of December I sat down for my first Miracle Morning in a couple of very inconsistent months, and I did some planning! It’s officially Christmas season – exciting!
Waking up for miracle mornings over the past couple of days has been amazing – it has made me feel like I can handle anything and achieve everything this week!
Baby steps though, lets handle the to-do list first! And have some fun with my babies, because priorities!
Read about my Miracle Mornings here!
Christmas Tree
In an attempt to cheer us all up I decided to dress our tree early! Very early, in fact, because it was mid-November when we started working on decorating it.
No fake Christmas tree in this house this year, or any other year in the future for that matter! I’ve brought in and we put some beautiful lights and ornaments on our potted olive tree! It is looking spectacular!
Originally we decorated it with Lindt Chocolate Balls instead of baubles, which looked amazing and felt quite practical… until they all started melting and dripping! Because… we live in the desert! Ooopsies!
They have now been replaced with glass baubles and it’s been noted that chocolates are best left for decorating Christmas trees in countries that enjoy a white Christmas, not a beach one!
Garden
Did you know we live on a block just over 300m2? Yet we used to grow and harvest enough veggies to sometimes even share around!
This year we’re not quite back at that level yet, as we’re restarting our veggie patch from scratch after our caravan trip, but we’re slowly getting there! This is our recent harvest of onions!! It’s the first time we’ve grown them and it was much easier than I expected!
We also harvested our first ever apricot… and the only one on the tree this year! This was the first year our apricot tree fruited. It started off with about a dozen little fruits growing, but we had a hail storm a couple of weeks ago which knocked all but two apricots off the tree. In the end, only one lasted on the tree until harvest time! True to our family tradition, we split it into 5 pieces, so that we could each get a taste!
Other fresh produce/herbs which we have been lucky to harvest over the past few weeks are beetroots, celery, leeks, potatoes, rosemary and mulberries. None of them in massive quantities, but enough of each to enjoy together around the dinner table and make some jam out of!
