Possums!

I’m immersed in my closing ceremony reflections for my 2019 goals workbooks, so I thought I’d share a yearly review with you.

The good, the hard, the big decisions + the results.

From depression to moving to homeschooling to signing a publishing deal and closing down a business.

I’m going to share with you a life + business review.

My goals this year were pretty simple: find the place to move to and be near the beach. When I look at my 2018 workbooks, the word beach is written frequently. Spend my birthday at the beach, have family adventures on the beach, go for walks on the beach.

We’ve done plenty of moving over the last 8 years. We were in Canberra for nearly 3 years and most of that time was spent wondering where the fuck we should go. I adored being around my oldest, dearest friends again, but living in the suburbs of an alpine city just wasn’t cutting it for us lifestyle wise. It was the hardest moving decision we’d ever made for so many reasons.

I had a painful fall into depression, but emerged out the other side with so much clarity. Living all over the country has been a grand adventure and has taught me what I really need to thrive: warm weather and the ocean. And so we leapt!

It’s a real relief to get to the end of the year and to have finally gathered the momentum and clarity to have moved. We live two minutes from the beach, and feel like we’re part of nature again, and are so glad we don’t have to struggle through 8 months of winter again.

High fives, past Leonie. I know it was hard yakka, but you got there. I honour your patience and persistence and faith!

I wrote all about our journey to moving in some epically long blog posts.

 

Next up… Let’s do a LIFE OVERVIEW!

Because life is the most important thing before all else.

My daughters and love are where my world begins and ends.

My kids!

I don’t share my husband and children online as much as I used to. It used to feel really comfortable and groovy for us, but now it doesn’t, so I don’t. They are still the thing I revolve around however.

My girls are 4 and 8 now, long limbed and sweet-natured. I found pregnancy and parenting babies (and toddlers) way, way, WAY harder than I do this age. I’d take 6 of these kids over one baby! (I won’t be having any more kids however… I’m spayed! I think history has proven that my body is prettttty fucking craaaaap

We’ve been homeschooling since April 2017. It has been SO awesome to be living in a place with a thriving, active homeschool community. We’ve made so many friends and been apart of some amazing co-ops. Some beautiful, beautiful times have been had. Even if we don’t always homeschool in the future, I will always be SO grateful for these magic memories we have together.

If you want to read more about why + how we homeschool, I gave away a free e-book about it here.

Love!

Celebrated 17 years of love with my Scorpio twin.

Thoughts on 17 years of love:

  • I feel like I’m only just starting to understand love a little. I hope by the time we celebrate 30 years of love together, I’ll understand it even more.
  • The truth of marriage is that sometimes he shits me to tears. And that sometimes I am drawn to tears by the grace, wisdom, care and empathy he has given me.
  • How does he continue to just get hotter as we go? It thrills me how much I like his constellation of cells.

I didn’t write these posts this year, but here’s my main sharings about love:

Favourite places visited in 2019:

Our road trip across the country. Ginger Factory. Big Pineapple. Sea Life. Noosa Spit. Hastings St. Noosa Botanic Garden. The Wonder Dome (a magical homeschool co-op in the forest). The beach. All the beaches. The beach beach beach. This is a pretty magical place.

My favourite meme of the year:

Eerily, this even LOOKS like my soccer mum van. HOW DID THEY KNOW IT’S A TRAVELLING TRASH CAN?

I became a gamer

Evidence:

Well, a very specific kind of gamer.

I got obsessed with Star Stables which is basically a quest game on horseback.

My kids originally started playing it, but then I fell in love so hard that I joined too.

If it was on anything but horses I would not be interested. But HORSES? SIGN ME DA FUQ UP STAT.

I read 500 books

I bought myself this phone case at the start of the year to remind myself to get off the fucking phone already.

I nailed my goal SO HARD. Ha!

You can read my favourite of those 500 books here.

I chopped my hair off (again!)

If you’ve been around for a while, you’ll know my hair meanders around all over the place, from Full Mermaid to Super Pixie and back again.

From Peak Mermaid to Peak Pixie.

I went full power chop a few weeks back. I needed some extra personal power, courage and lightness in my life, and this gives me just that. Plus, Pixie is perfect for tropical life.

Self Care

One of my goals is to nourish myself with self care.

This year, I gave myself LOTS of solo mama retreats in bed.

Almost every weekend, I would take an afternoon to head to bed to BE. I read, art journal, do e-courses, listen to audiobooks, write. Anything I want to do… I do! It’s very intentional filling of my own cup.

I don’t care what my kids do during that time… they can watch a movie or play Star Stables or whatever.

As long as I get my solo mama retreat time… my weeks are sweet.

Loss

I turned 36 this year, and the losses… they keep racking up.

And I know they will just keep on coming.

This year, we grieved the loss of my incredible nan (the last of my three wise elders), my brother’s dad and a dear old family friend.

That’s the thing: we can have all the goals under the sun, but it doesn’t save us from loss or being human. I can only hope to honour their lives with grace and gratitude. And to stay soft, open.

Best Day Of The Year

This year’s best day was the most magical experience. It fulfilled one of my oldest goals and dreams… to go for a long horse ride with my daughter. My eldest took horse riding lessons for quite a while, and then one sweet, serendipitous summer day we went on a long sunset trail ride through the alpine mountains.

I was SO proud of her for managing through such difficult mountainous terrain, and she did it with such joy and grace. It made my heart so happy to be out bush, on a horse’s back, sharing the miracle with one of my kids. And then we ate dinner on the floor of an old shed, and drove home long after it was dark, sore and smelling and smiling.

Other favourite days: my kids did an equine connection + yoga workshop at Ingelara Retreat. So blooming special! And there’s been quite a few days here, out in nature, with my kids and love, that have just filled my heart, over and over.

Now… BUSINESS OVERVIEW!

Lots changed for me this year as I continue to shift my businesses so they fit me and my life beautifully again. That’s the thing with businesses… as you grow and they grow, you need to prune so they are custom fit for you!

I closed down one business and shifted production models in another. In 2019, I’ll probably add another business into the mix as well.

Publishing Deal!

After manyyyyy motherfucking years of hunting + searching + wishing + wanting, I signed a publishing deal with BenBella. BenBella will now be publishing the My Shining Year goals workbooks from now on (including this years!) It’s been a joy to work with them and I’m so excited to take them out into the world on an even bigger scale. And YES! BenBella WILL publish my diary/planner if this year’s workbooks sell out. So if you haven’t yet, order them now!

You can read the full details about why I went from self publishing to a publishing deal here.

Since signing the publishing deal in June, it’s been a kind of mad rush.

First up me and Chris edited 2019 workbooks to get them off to print ASAP so we could do a quick release this year. Then a major revision of 2020 workbooks so my publishers can promo to local bookstores for next year’s release. After ten years of producing these books together, we are a bit of a well oiled machine. He does all the Indesign laying out and date updates, I rewrite + create illustrations, and we hodge podge it all together. He freaks out that we won’t get it done, and I gently remind him we will. I freak out that we won’t get it done, and he gently reminds me we will. We try to take it in turns to have our freakouts!

AND then on to promoting the 2019 workbooks now as well to help them get into as many hands as possible.

I was completely STUNNED when they hit #1 and #3 on Amazon AU for ALL FREAKING BOOKS.

And #1 in its category on the US Amazon site. HOLY MOLEY!

You can find all the places to order right here.

I also re-opened the Facebook group for workbookers after taking a looooooong social media hiatus.

Academy!

In September, I announced I was closing my Academy after 8 glorious years.

It wasn’t easy to decide to close down something which generates a lot of $$$ and has been such a joy for me for so many years.

It was more of an instinct, something I knew needed to happen to clear the space for what is next.

I’m glad I’ve done it, and I’m excited for what will come next. I’m not sure what that is yet, but I know I’ve made the right choice.

You can read more about that decision here.

How much did I work in 2018?

I’ve always had a (very) streamlined work week so I can focus my time on my kids. Since I homeschooled this year, it means I’ve had even less hours to squeeze in work.

I probably averaged about 8 hours a week. There’s been a few weeks during workbook production that I did a little bit more than that.

If you’re interested in reading how I manage businesses on part time hours (and always have), here’s a post. And another. And another. (I talk about this a lot! Ha!)

How much did I earn in 2018?

I haven’t done my exact figures yet, but much more than the Prime Minister of Australia, anyhow.

It was more than enough for our needs, and donate just under $30,000 to causes we believe in.

Other Business Shenanigans

Most Viral Post

My most viral post was, unfortunately, my rant about the shittiest business conference ever. I say unfortunately because I much prefer being a creative than a critic, but it seems like that post struck a chord with peeps who are over shitty pitchfests.

The Post I Want Everyone To Read

This sharing about racism.

All The Things I Gave Away

In September I gave away a stack of my courses, meditations + ebooks.

Here’s the full list:

What’s my plans for 2019?

Good question! I’ll let you know when they come to me! Ha!

I feel like I’ve created some space for the new vision to emerge.

And I will have some more time in the coming year for creating which is my favourite place to be.

I’m excited to continue crafting simple, strong, abundant businesses that fit me + my life!

Most of all: be a present, loving mama and wife. Be my own best friend. Tend to myself with self care. Soak in the great beauty of this world.

Get your goals on!

If you haven’t already, make sure you order your 2019 goals workbooks now.

January is officially going to be Plan A Shining Year month, with lots of webinars + Zoom gatherings for us to plan, create and dream a glorious, abundant, soul-centred life and/or biz in 2019!

With glad relief,