my number one tip

My biggest, hugest, most enormous tip would have to be.......

to tackle your goal in 'baby steps'.

Whether it's the:

washing up

pile of laundry waiting to be put away

mess in your cupboard

weight you want to lose

healthy changes to your diet

healthy changes to your lifestyle

painting

decluttering

business you want to begin.

Just begin. 

Make one baby step towards that goal you want to reach. 

You might set your timer for 10 mins. and work on one step for this time. You might start on one shelf. You might make one small change to your diet or lifestyle.

All it takes is one baby step, followed by another and another and another. 

Work at your own pace, not the pace of the lady over the road.

I know. I've done it. It works.

Reward yourself for accomplishing these small, baby steps. Have a soak in the tub, read some of your book, go for a walk outside, have a rest, you deserve it. 

Decluttering a whole cupboard might seem overwhelming. You might feel like you haven't got time. Just do one shelf. Tomorrow, do another shelf and the next day another. In a few days your whole cupboard will be tidy. 

Remember:


"It is possible

to move a mountain

by carrying away small stones. "

Chinese Proverb

My small stones this weekend will be studying and decluttering. 

Do you have any small stones that you'll be working on?

Wishing you health and happiness. 

xxoo Julie

22 things that make me happy

I have just finished cleaning our toilet and when I had finished I realised how happy it made me feel. I lit our oil burner and placed it on the toilet floor. The lovely smell of essential oils  (clary sage today) drifted through our home. 

I began thinking about happiness and the fact that it doesn't cost much money to make me happy.

I then began thinking about what else makes me happy. Here are 22 things that do:

A freshly cleaned room or bench space.

Lighting a candle or oil burner and thinking about what I am grateful for.

A hug.

Reading a good book.

A hot cup of dandelion tea first thing in the morning.

A smoothie with cacao and a little bit of honey.

Yoga.

Changing things around in our home.

Sunshine.

Rain.

Comments from you.

A glass of filtered water.

Walking on the beach.

Watching a movie.

Flowers.

A healthy, home cooked meal.

Connecting with like minded people. (that's you!)

Time with my family.

A cup of tea with a friend.

Planting seeds and watching them grow.

Relaxing in the bath.

Swimming in the ocean.

These are 20  things that make me happy.

What makes you happy? Could you write a few in the comments section, please?

I'm hoping your day is a happy one.

I bought this Bush Flower Essences bottle from our local Health Food shop and used the spray in the toilet. When it was empty we filled it with eucalyptus oil. It's a low cost toilet spray that doesn't harm the environment. 

xxoo Julie

creating space

I've decided to call this month my 'creating space' month. 

Last week I noticed my life was starting to get a bit too busy for me. I lay awake in the early hours of Friday morning thinking. Thinking about the busyness in my life. This is a bit of a habit of mine that can sometimes creep up on me if I'm not careful.

If I'm not paying enough attention, I start to push more and more into my days. I try to jam as much as I can in, there is so much I want to do.

On Friday morning, while everyone else was still asleep, I thought through this and I came up with a plan.

The plan is to complete the most essential tasks  in my day. The washing, washing up, bed making, cleaning, meal preparation, my study.

The tasks that are not essential.....I'm just going to let them go. Or maybe I'll do them later, but only if I feel like it. I'm not going to bust myself.

The plan is to also add in some fun things to do, the things that make me happy. Spending time with family and friends, exercise, rest, playing games with the boys, going to the beach.

If I'm not careful, my life can become all work and no play. By being mindful, I can catch this early, and I can change things, so that my life is what I want it to be. 

The other area I'm creating more space in, is our home. 

When our home is clean, tidy and clutter free, I feel more free, more calm and relaxed. This is how I want our home to be. I'm working on it, in baby steps, step by step.

How about you?

Do you have a word or a goal for the month?

xxoo Julie

I am ready for change

To some of you this is going to be really obvious, and to you I apologize, but I want to share this with you in case there are people out there like me. I am putting it out there in case it helps just one person, because if it helps just one person then it is worth it.

For a number of years I have been living in a home that has been cluttered. I have been leaving the beds unmade, I have been going to bed and leaving washing up in the sink, at times the washing piles up and there are piles of clean washing waiting to be put away. Each morning I have been getting up, looking around me and feeling a touch of sadness. Until now I couldn't quite put the finger on why I was feeling this sadness, because my life is so good in so many ways.

Over the past week or so I have been putting some effort into decluttering, tidying up, changing things around a bit and cleaning. It feels good. In the mornings I have been getting up and looking at these new tidy areas and it is making me happy. Instead of getting up and feeling that bit of sadness I am noticing feelings of happiness.

Over the last couple of days I feel like something has changed. I have had one of those light bulb moments. I have finally worked out the relationship between my getting up in the morning and feeling 'yuck' and the clutter and unfinished jobs around me, compared to my getting up in the morning and feeling happy and some new clean, tidy, uncluttered areas. It now seems obvious, but it didn't before.

I have known for a long time that when I eat healthily I feel good. I have known that when I exercise I feel better. I have known that I feel better when the relationships I have in my life are healthy ones. For some reason though I did not link the state of the house to how I felt in the morning and through the day. Maybe it was there in the back of my mind somewhere, but I didn't want to hear it. Maybe I was rebelling against the people that told me that 'a tidy house means a tidy mind.' Maybe I was rebelling against my parents who always have a very neat and tidy home and yard. I don't know, but I am happy that I have now worked this out for myself. I am a bit like that, I don't like people to tell me how to do things. I need to work it out myself, in my own time.

So, what am I doing about it? I am changing things in 'baby steps'. Each day I am setting a timer and spending 10 minutes decluttering an area. I am then making an effort to ensure that area stays tidy.  I am making the beds in the morning, or getting the person that slept in the bed to make it or to help me make it.  I am making an effort each night to have all the washing up done. I haven't quite mastered this yet, but I'm working on it. Step by step I'm making my way through the house, room by room, shelf by shelf, baby steps.  It didn't get this way overnight and I'm not going to get it how I want it overnight, but each 'baby step' is making me so happy.

I am ready for change. I am ready to live in a tidy, clean, uncluttered home. I deserve it. I am worth it. I am ready to do the work.

xxoo Julie

decluttering, cleaning, rearranging

After a beautiful morning having breakfast on the beach and watching my boys surf it was time for a bit of decluttering, cleaning and rearranging. 

While doing this my mum and dad arrived with a beautiful bunch of Warratah flowers. They bought them at the markets. Thanks mum and dad. Feel free to do this anytime. I love them. xxoo

Josh, Brad and I surprised Nige with this new surf board during the week. He had been eyeing it off for a while and it was on sale. We had given him some money to buy one for his birthday in February and he hadn't done it. He was very, very happy. It sits in the main part of our home, of course. 

So does Josh's board. Brad keeps his in his bedroom.

Some surfing mags.

Some sailing mags.

A bit of prettiness and rusticness for me.

Some books on display to help keep me on track.

Our beach basket. This gets filled with beach towels, flippers, snorkel and goggles ready for the warm weather.

Country Style mags. I love them.

This is how it all fits together....the front section of our home.

 After all that cleaning up and redecorating  it was time for a little bit of relaxation. Some afternoons, when it isn't too hot, I spread this blanket out near the front door and do some yoga, some study or some journal writing, or all three if I'm lucky. This spot gets the afternoon sun and it's very cosy on a not too hot day.

This is my new journal. Sorry about the sideways photo. It had a blank area at the top so that you can could create your own cover. I glued a picture on there from my Country Style Diary and put contact on it. I can picture myself on this veranda. It is the veranda of my dream house. A timber cottage with a timber veranda and timber floorboards.

Hope you are having a happy weekend. 

Much love,

xxoo Julie

Tiny Tidy Challenge

The Tiny Tidy Challenge is beginning soon. It is free, but only this time. You can find out all the info over here at the Heartfire At Home blog. I'm joining in. I need all the help I can get when it comes to tidying our home. It is only open to 50 people, so if you wish to join in be quick. 

Weekend

We had a fairly quiet weekend which was nice. I spent Sat. morning doing some housework followed by this yummy lunch. Homemade flatbread with salad greens grown by us, grated carrot, quinoa and lentils drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice.

I've been making some changes to my smoothie recipe over these past few weeks. To the usual kale, almond milk, frozen blueberries and banana I've added some tofu, cinnamon and some superfoods:

- 1 heaped tab. cacao powder
- 1 tab. raw honey
- 1 tab. goji berries
- 1 teas. maca powder

When adding new foods to my smoothie I added one new thing at a time, starting with small amounts and adding to them gradually. I have found that this works best for me. In the past I have added larger amounts of new ingredients and at times haven't liked them. Whereas this way you can gradually try new ingredients without the smoothie being ruined.

On Sat. afternoon we visited some friends who were staying in a holiday park near us.  This was the view they had outside their cabin.

 Brad and Josh had a lovely time playing on the jumping pillow.

Today I have been doing some housework, putting some of the new soap out (it's not quite ready to use yet though), and getting some pots ready to plant some Cyclamens in. 

As you can see, we haven't done anything terribly exciting, but it was nice just being together and pottering around. 

What did you get up to over the weekend? 

xxoo Julie

Our Freshly Painted Study Area

The before photo. No, we have not moved into a new home. It has just taken us a very long time to get this area painted. There was always something higher on the priority list......kids to hug, gardening, study....you get the idea. Anyway our children are getting older and they want to help paint, so painting it is. 

I had to put this photo in....an uncluttered bench, love it.

The goal is to only have these things on this bench.

The room minus the skirting board.

The skirting board is on and a little computer area begins. Later on I will move this sewing machine over to the left and the boys will make a table to go in the right hand corner. On the table will be the lap top and a printer.

This room use to contain a lot of clutter. I am going through it slowly and doing a lot of throwing out. Lots of paperwork that we no longer need. It is making me feel so good.

A Spring Clean

 .......or should I say a winter clean. I have decided that the time of the year that I prefer to do a spring clean is in winter. In spring I am too busy outside in the garden and I don't feel like doing a spring clean too. In winter however, I'm inside more. I still garden in winter because the weather is cooler and I can start preparing garden beds for spring. But in winter I'm inside more. I have more time to notice those areas that haven't been cleaned in a while. I have more time to notice the clutter.

So, it's been declared.......Winter is my official time to do a spring clean and to remove clutter from our home.

Do you do a spring clean? When do you do it?

I hope you have a lovely week.

Love Julie xxoo

Saturday

Walking out into the lounge room this morning it was lovely seeing the beginning of our tidy bookshelves. I had more to work on but I had made a huge start yesterday.

I made my breakfast of porridge with filtered water, almond milk and raisins.

While this was cooking I prepared tomorrow's porridge, rolled oats, raisins and filtered water, and placed this in the fridge to soak overnight.

My breakfast ready to eat with a bit of local, raw honey on top and more almond milk. I often put walnuts on top too.

 It was so lovely sitting beside our wood fire, gazing out at this beautiful view and listening to the rain on our roof.

I took some of  our indoor plants outside to soak up the lovely rain. This is a new plant and I'm going to train it to go around the heart.

Three boxes of books were put into the back of the 4WD and taken to our local library. The ladies there were very happy to see me.

When I arrived home it was time for a pot of earl grey tea. I also enjoy dandelion tea. The pot of tea and the oil burner are simple little things, but they really add enjoyment to my day.

I am a little hesitant to show you this next photo, because it is very embarrassing, but here it is...... our very cluttered and disorganised bookshelf, also the unpainted wall.

BUT, I am very proud to show you our new, organised bookshelf.......ta da. I have moved it against another wall so we can paint the previous wall next weekend. After moving it, however, I think I prefer it on the new wall. I'll show you more photos later when it's all finished.

So, there you have it. This is what I got up to today. I'd love to hear how you spent your Saturday.

I'll leave you with a quote by KC from the 'Little Homestead in the Desert' blog. She did a guest post on Kim's blog 'Mothering with Mindfulness' a couple of days ago that I really enjoyed:

".......stuff is just stuff. And stuff takes up precious space and creates clutter. With clutter comes chaos and with chaos comes stress."

 I have put this quote up on my wall to remind me why I'm taking the time to declutter. Thank you KC for these inspirational words and thank you Kim for inviting KC to do a guest post on your blog.