Boo boos,

I wanted to do one big long share about where I’m at, what I’m thinking about, what I’m creating… all that good stuff.

Writing these kinds of blog posts always help me clear my head… and is such a beautiful way to connect with you as well!

Settle in with a cup of chai, my treasures!

Covid-19

I figured I’d start with the overarching theme of 2020… that ole global pandemic thang!

My state (Queensland) in Australia has managed to almost completely contain it. We’ve only had just over 1000 cases in total, 6 deaths & 6 active cases. I feel ridiculously grateful to be living in such a safe place – and am thankful that our State Government has been so cautious. We’ve been out of lockdown for a few months now and things are slowly returning to normal.

In Australia, state borders have been locked down for months to contain spread within states, and it seems to be working. One Australian state – Victoria – had a second wave but went straight back into strict lockdown. I know it must have been blinking difficult for peeps living there – but they were successful and managed to contain it again. Again – I feel ridiculously lucky.

Overall, my family and I still err on the side of caution, and don’t do a lot of things that other people might do. We also pulled our kids out of school earlier than the government mandated, and took them back to school later than everybody else – all at our doctor’s recommendation. It can feel hard when you are being cautious and it feels like others aren’t – but we’ll keep on with doing what’s right for us nonetheless.

It looks unlikely that we’ll need to go into another lockdown – numbers are contained with current restrictions. Still, I actually wouldn’t mind going back in. I know it’s a wildly privileged thing to be able to say – but fuckkk meeee did I LOVE not having to leave the house. I loved the extra time with my kids. I loved how quiet it was all around us. I loved the baking and gardening. I loved how it felt like we were living in a different era. I loved not having to think of anyone but us. I loved creating whacky shit like SALT, my erotic novella & my free quarantine planner! I guess that’s the thing about being a hermit… you REALLY don’t mind being forced to stay home!

I think I might be raising homebodies as well. During quarantine, my six year old would ask: “Mum, are we going out today?”
I’d reply: “No honey. We didn’t go out yesterday. We aren’t going out today. We aren’t going out tomorrow either.”
Mermaid Daughter #2: “YAY! I was hoping you’d say that! I just have a lot of things to do at home today! I’ve got art to make and a game to play with Mermaid Daughter #1 and play on my BIKE!”

Return to school

My kids just finished their first full term of school AT SCHOOL for the year.

Term 1: We pulled out six weeks into term or so because the pandemic was beginning, and our doctor recommended we do. Schools were officially closed a few weeks later.

Term 2: Most of the term schools did online learning. We decided not to follow our school’s online learning, and homeschool in the way that we were used to and fit for us. Schools went back onto campus for the last few weeks, but we held back (again on our doctor’s recommendation) to see how the numbers went.

Term 3: We were confident enough to send the kids to school for the term, but pulled them out anytime there were school events that didn’t appear COVID-safe.

Again – it can feel really hard being the overly cautious family. But I’d prefer the regret of that than the regret of being sloppy & contracting Covid.

Long term readers may remember that a few years ago I was horrifically ill for six months with what doctors later realised was most likely swine flu and that I should have been hospitalised. I was on endless antibiotics, and was tested for lung cancer and tuberculosis. I remember my husband standing over me, with a furrowed brow, and saying “I have never seen someone so sick before.” I wrote this piece while I was getting huge vials of blood being taken. I was bedridden with fevers, my limbs hurt, I found it hard to swallow and eat, and would wake in large pools of sweat… so much so that after I recovered we had to replace our mattress because my side was stained yellow from the fever sweats. It felt like it took another 18 months after that for my body to recover.

Having been there and smoked that absolute shit-stick, I do notttttt want a redo. I’ve already spent enough of my life bedridden thanks to swine & hyperemesis gravidarum. I can’t schedule in another six months! Of course – I can’t know if Covid-19 would leave me incapacitated for that amount of time. I also can’t know if I’d survive it either.

So, Covid – no thank you and kind regards. I’ll keep being cautious!

School holidays

We’ve just had 2 weeks school holidays before Term 4 starts. At the school my kids go to, they start Term 4 with a 3 day camp. My eldest mermaid daughter (who is now 10!) is super excited to go – she went last year and had a glorious time. My youngest Mermaid Daughter #2 (6) will skip it this year and have an extra week of holidays with this. She’s not ready to be away from us – plus she’s a sleepwalker. She does however have big plans for herself – make art, read books with Mummy, ride her bike and listen to audiobooks.

Having two weeks break has been glorrrrious. I just love days upon days where we are all hanging out at home, going on mini adventures & living life in our own gentle rhythm.

Fast800

I’m on my 7th day of the Fast800 program.

It’s rewiring my brain & body in glorious ways. I’m noticing my tastebuds are changing – I crave leafy greens and the small amount of fruit I have had tastes very sweet. It’s definitely not as hard as I was expecting it would be. I have three meals a day which are way more nutritious than I usually would have – and I thought I was eating well before.

In the first 4 days I lost 4kg (!!!) I don’t think I even lost that much when I jumped on that dumbass “maple syrup, cayenne pepper and lemon juice” master cleanse 15 years ago. All THAT made me do was make me shit my pants.

Fast800 is a wooooooooorld away from that kind of dumbassery. My fridge is bursting at the seams with vegetables and a little bit of protein. I’m feeling pretty groovy, really. Chris asked me today how long I’d do it for. I don’t have an answer for that – for as long as it feels right.

Gardening news!

Quarantine changed me: I’m now developing a green thumb.

I bought a Vegeopod mid-quarantine after a water rat devastated my quarantine veggie garden. I had prolapsed my lumbar disc by the time it got delivered however, so it had to wait for a few months to be set up.

I just got the okay to start lifting stuff again, and immediately planted it out with spinach, kale, peas, cucumbers and broccoli. Just need to plant some tomatoes, pumpkin and silverbeet and that will cover most of our veggie needs.

My kids were very excited today – they discovered a tomato plant and pumpkin vine growing in our orchard. They’d sprouted spontaneously from where I’d buried some kitchen scraps.

The water rats had previously dug down to eat all those kitchen scraps as well, so I also bought myself a compost tumbler. I’m neaaaaarly at the point of having matured my first compost batch and I am EXCITED. I love the ritual of going out to feed my compost multiple times a day – it gives me a moment to look at the sky and marvel at all the microcosms at play decomposing my scraps!

TV I’ve watched lately:

Ted Lasso was a joy to watch. I totally ship Roy + Keeley. I also had a minor sexual realisation: I ABSOLUTELY have a type. My love is an intense Scorpio. The only blokes on TV I find attractive? The same kind of intense brooders: Mr Darcy (from the original TV series with Colin Firth. Fuck the movie!). Nick from New Girl. Even freakin’ Doc Martin! Brooding intensity? HELLLLOOOOOOOO LEONIE LADY BONER.

Also: Long Way Up. We were rabid fans of Long Way Round and Long Way Down when they were aired 15 years ago or so. And I’m THRILLED the adventure is happening again! If you’re not familiar with the series: it follows Ewan Macgregor & his BFF Charley Boorman riding motorcycles on epic 3 month long quests around the world. This time they are adding the extra intensity of attempting to ride through South America on electric motorbikes. If you haven’t tried this doco series before… highly recommend. It’s exquisite and one of our very favourite things.

Kidliwinks

My kids are 10 and 6 now. How is that possible? But they are, and it is a blessing to behold.

I know I shared a lot about my kids in their early years. As they’ve gotten older and grown into their individual selves, I’ve naturally pulled back from sharing their stories (or many pictures of them) publicly. I want to give them space to be able to tell their own story how and if they wish.

Mermaid Daughter #1 is 10, and has a dry, hilarious sense of humour like her Papa Bear. She’s started beating me at chess. She loves Minecraft and audiobooks.

Mermaid Daughter #2 is 6, and is full of bounce & excitement. She tells me 53 billion times a day: “Mama! I love you!” She loves her trampoline, talking about animals and playing with her big sister.

Both kids currently love art class and hate sports. This makes me laugh heartily – can school preferences be genetic?

Either way – they are fucking rad. I’m lucky to be their mama.

On the work front…

I decided to close down my Get Shit Done Club – it was an absolute joy to do, and I LOVED connecting with so many sweet souls every week to get work done. And I have to remember my own personal kryptonite – having too much stuff consistently scheduled on my calendar kills my creativity. And I am always, always going to choose my creativity over all else. Being able to run with whatever random idea comes my idea is one of my biggest joys, and one of the drivers of my business. So sometimes you need to make choices to stop things you love in order to focus on the things you love the most.

I also just started a new live round of 40 Days To Finish Your Book course. Creating & running courses is totally my jam and flow… and I can’t wait what books are created by the emerging authors!

I’m also just reappearing out into the world after spending 2 months in the creative cave working on the 2021 goal workbooks + some new companion products for them. They will be out in the world in the next few days which I am BLINKING EXCITED BY!

They were going to be formally launched today… but this morning I woke up looking like THIS:

I’ve had an allergic reaction and had to head to emergency. Doctors still don’t know what caused it… only time will tell! The swelling has come down enough that I can now (just) see out of BOTH my eyes. It feels wildly luxurious to have TWO mostly functioning eyes. TWO!

I keep joking that I’m just allergic to 2020. FUNNY NOT FUNNY.

Life is big and hard and full of adventures. Going to keep on turning up and making my miracles happen anyway.

Big love,