Hola panda bears,

It’s that time again – scrapbook time, of course!

That time where I share with you all my photos & stories of the past couple of weeks.

First up… me and my Starry girl had a girl’s date together.

I was so sure for so long that I would only have one kid… and sometimes I peek the sliding door of the life where I only had one. It would have been a lot quieter… and we would have been out of the wild mess of toddler days by now. I do miss that deep, close connection I had with Starry when she was my one and only moon and sun.

And of course we would never wish back our wild impish fae Bethany… she brings a whole lot of love and joy and noise to our days. But still… these one-on-one dates… they fill up my well (and Starry’s too). I feel like I’m a better mama… more present… more able to listen… when I’m not racing after our runaway imp who has thrown all her fucks to the wind.

Anywaysies… we went to the 52 Story Treehouse play/concert together. Starry loves the Story Treehouse series. And they are pretty fun to read them to her… so double win!

Afterwards we hung out in the city with my ye olden day cubicle boss/bosom buddy Lile & her fam.

We even went to go for a carousel ride together!

I’m sure everyone who has been in Canberra for any length of time has their own stories about the carousel.

Mine are the days in my early 20’s when me & a bunch of random and rad folk from work would trollop across the city for free meditation classes at the Sri Chinmoy centre, then go eat roasted chestnuts from the little cart on Garema Place before rounding out our lunch hour with riding the carousel, yahoo-ing like we were cowboys. Ding dang hilarious times.

I hope my daughters remember to keep being wild at heart. This was the first step. My sweet Stargirl – she of the super sensitive variety – wanted to get off ASAP once she realised the horses actually move. A little bit of gentle coaching & back rubs & deep breathing & basically every parenting tool I had in me – helped keep her there…

And even enjoying it and wanting another turn by the end.

I’ll take that as a win!!!! Booooyahhhh!!!

I accidentally fell into a bookstore. These things happen, guyz.

Finished reading Rob Bell’s book on love & marriage today. Although Rob is Christian-focussed & I’m not, we defo have a lot of the same ideas. I love how deep he goes into the energy of marriage, and celebrates the sacred of it. Recommended read! #leoniestopbooks2016

Mama is fucking freezing in her studio so mama bought herself a fake fire heater and now mama’s fingers can unfreeze enough for her to do some writing. #happyending

Could not be more delighted to announce this!

Sonya my BFF and Chief Operations Manager rode her trusty steed, the Vespa, over to Room To Read Australia’s office to present them with a cheque…. from us… to them… for $10,000… enough to build a new school library in Vietnam!!!!!!!!!!

Reading John Wood’s “Creating Room To Read” was a huge turning point in my life a couple of years ago. It is one of the greatest books I’ve ever read and hugely inspirational. I am honoured to help this man’s vision in educating the world’s children.

Thank you to my incredible Academy members + workbook customers – you all make this work possible. And thank you to my wonderful team who work so hard because they truly believe in what we are doing.

Together, we can do big things, my loves. Please give some gold today to heal the planet… in whatever direction you are called. As the Dalai Llama said: “It is the Western Woman who will change the world.” And we will do it through philanthropy.

I’m solving my ailments with raw ice cream in the backyard.

(Recipe: I blended two frozen bananas, a handful of dates, a splodge of honey and a decent sprinkle of cacao powder. Yes, I’m highly scientific with my measurements.)

Lately I’ve been burnt out & sick & overstimulated & overpeopled & needing to return to my own energy and rhythm again. I’ve been having many home days and they are the greatest cure known to Leoniekind.

I also bought craft carts from Officeworks and have been reorganising my art and journaling stashes.

I’ve also developed a flaming red hot passion for planners & washi tape & stickers. I get it now, I get it.

My two year old is doing this new trick lately. One that consists of waking up and partying for a couple of hours at 3am.

I got four hours of sleep last night. Toothpick my eyes please baes. I’m sure this is some kind of important brain development stage for her…

A “wonder week” as the experts say… Or as I call it a “bullshit week”.

Apologies for the bloody terrible image quality… I really need to get my phone camera fixed! I promise I’m not trying to be intentionally opaque! Ha!

Soooooooo I’ve been trying out different planners, and I finally get the sticker obsession!!! I don’t use it to plan appointments and daily to-do’s – I’ve got way too many to fit in here.

I use Google calendar so my husband & team can see everything I’m up to, and a Google spreadsheet to keep track of my priorities.

Anywaysies, I’ve been using this planner in three ways – a gratitude journal, a one sentence diary & also to look over my coming weeks appointments to see if I’ve packed my schedule too heavy.

My sensitive introvert self needs lots of quiet time to thrive!

Me & Lile remortgaged our houses so we could go to Hoyt’s cinema (holy FUCK are they expensive!) and watch a trashy chick flick.

Then we went to the chocolate churros place to talk shit.

Most excellent date.

Spent 2.5 hours with my accountants doing quarterly financial planning for my company…

It was a goal I set myself two workbooks ago… It took some time to find the right accountant…

But I have fantastic ones now who are just right for our level of business growth right now.

Next week me & hunky love go in for personal financial planning as well.

It feels so damn great to keep learning new things and getting more financially literate and getting more and more money-empowered. It’s important work to do.

My girls… One pea and one corn… Both from the same pod. So different in so many ways… And they can fight like billy-o… And they are also each other’s favourite person in the world. The leprechaun baby & the faery.

Utterly immersed in the important work of brushing her toy Guinea pig’s mouth with her actual toothbrush. That’s going to be one fluff-filled toothbrush.

(Also – that painting is one of me and Starry’s from when she was Beth’s age. We threw paint at a canvas in the garden and stomped all over it. Happy memories!)

At the doctors making sure I don’t have some hellish contagious disease because I have puss-y pimply rash over my belly. #blessed #sexyselfiequeen#nosuchthingasTMI #Inearlywrotepussy

Never in my life have I been so excited to hear that I have the beginning stages of school sores… Not shingles!!!!! Hoooooooooray!!!! Living the DREAM, guyzzzzzzz!!!!

HA!

Well… that went all over the place. That was a real rollercoaster… from carousels to medical grossness. MWAHAHAHA!

That’s it for now – see ya for our next date for chai and cake and catch-ups!

GINORMOUS love,

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