Blossoms,

Let’s catch up yeah… with all the things I’m thinking about.

School vs homeschool… unpacking and sustainable decluttering… social exhaustion (STORY OF MY LIFFFFE!)… blogs vs social media (AGAIN!) and how I’ve sped up my creating!

School vs homeschool

It’s school holidays. Three blessed weeks of no school runs. We are staying at home… and staying at home… and occasionally popping out to a cafe and walk along the river. Then back to more staying at home.

It’s also six months of my kid having returned to school after a couple years of homeschooling. It’s worked out thrillingly well. She adores it, her teachers adore her, and we adore the school. I was so worried beforehand for some reason… but I see all that worry was all in vain. Note to self: worry less, and just see what happens.

I do miss a lot of the freedoms of homeschooling – having so many family adventures, being able to stay home and read all day if it was raining and being so social with other homeschooling families. There were moments of total euphoria with homeschooling, and I am SO GRATEFUL we had the experience.

However, this current schooling setup is better for a few reasons – my kid is thriving, and my mental health isn’t as fragile as it was. In retrospect, the stress of taking on the responsibility, organising and executing my kids’ education along with the lack of quiet, solo downtime was too taxing for my nervous system.

Unpacking + Sustainable Decluttering

My house still has unpacked boxes in every corner. This is our eighth house in nine years, and I’m feeeeeeling it guys. A little too much boxey and unboxey has happened for me to be able to get shit unpacked ASAP. So, I’ll just keep chipping away at it, living life around the boxes.

I’ve also discovered we have (gasp!) way too much shit after having had a larger house in the past. But I am NOT going to chuck it all away… I worry about how much the Konmari effect creates landfill. Instead I’m selling some things and rehoming others. We had some friends over today, and they bought some stuff and also took a stack of other books and homeschooling resources that we don’t need anymore. And it ended up being super lovely – an opportunity to hang out and eat lemon cake. I need more lemon cake!

On Social Exhaustion

Related: I’ve had a bunch of social stuff on this week. And even though I fucking LOVE social time… I adore hanging out with mates, and think it’s essential for my whole being… I also notice the effects it has on my sweet Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)/Aspie self. Because my brain has to work a lot harder at conversation and social cues AND at the same time is taking in quite a lot of information, it gets overloaded and starts churning.

Once I’m alone again, I become really tired (aka social exhaustion) and my brain slows right down. The best cures I’ve found for it are: time. Quiet showers in the dark (it’s less visual stimulation). Weighted blankets, electric blanket or both. And sleep. Sleep is when the brain can sift through the day and decide what to keep for storage and discard the rest. It helps relieve the pressure in my brain so beautifully.

Last night I was pretty zonked out, and Chris gently prodded me:

Hon, why don’t you just go to bed early?

But it’s only 7:30! I protested.

Still, you look like you need it.

And he was right. It felt like grace to ease my way into bed. Of course, when my brain is stimulated like that, it does take a long while for me to fall asleep. The day starts playing over and over in my head – like it is inspecting it for details and patterns and if there’s anything I should know. I wonder if being HSP/ASD is like having a brain that sees everything in HD, so it takes a while longer to process it than normal.

I’ll build in a bit more downtime as well this week to make up for the extra social stimulations.

I’ve been thinking about blogs lately.

I mean – let’s face it – when am I not thinking about blogs vs social media?

And I was thinking about how the format of blogs is usually longer – an opportunity to write expressively, with space around it. And how you could deep dive and binge watch a blog. Like there was a certain thrill to finding a writer that resonated… knowing there was a whole blog to feast on.

And I was thinking about how I don’t seem to consume in the same ways on social media. How there isn’t the space for thoughtful, beautifully written pieces that have the potential to change your brain chemistry or give you goosebumps. It becomes a factory of fast food, instead of a platter of fine dining.

And how I used to be able to curate a RSS reader of all the blogs and authors I loved, knowing I would be notified every single time one of them posted. Reading their blogs was the highlight of my day, and such an inspiration that made me itchy to get creative with my day. And I don’t feel that same way at all with social media. I don’t get to see most of what the people I like are doing, and the rest just feels like… dross.

So I’m getting back into the habit of either subscribing directly to the mailing lists of people I love or using Bloglovin to read their blogs. I still rue the day Google Reader went extinct. But still… onwards we prevail! Crafting our lives as we go!

On the speed of creating

Last Friday night, I couldn’t sleep + had the idea for a new course. It came to me fully formed, with all the content it would cover and its name.

Over the weekend I pottered, and did errands, and unpacked, and hung out with my family, and in quiet moments created the sales page for Money, Manifesting + Multiple Streams of Income.

On Monday I spent a few hours finishing it and putting together the e-commerce/course software component (fucking adore how quickly I can do it with Kajabi! #techboner) Then it was out in the world, and I had 100 enrolments within 24 hours (!!!)

It’s slightly less than a full week later… this time last week I had no idea that an idea was just about to fall on me… and I end the week with having created it, launched it and now enrolled over 500 students (!!!!!!!!!!!)

It’s still another 3 weeks before we begin, so there will likely be a stack more enrolments… but I’m just thrilled!

The thing I’m most delighted by is that I have my speed of creating back. When I had a large team, to pull off this same project would likely have taken at least 1-2 months and cost a shit tonne to pull off. That’s the thing when you have a large team – shit takes way longer and costs way more. AND as the CEO – you often work harder when you have a larger team… because it takes more time to manage. #barf It works for some people, but as I’ve shared before, it didn’t work for my personality type or my lifestyle goals at all.

I love doing all the things! I love running with creative ideas! I love staying in closer contact with my customers! I love my quiet creative life with occasional wild donkey riding!

(I still have a part time VA that does almost all of my emails for me, because otherwise I’d die from social exposure.)

So yeah… I am fucking THRILLED to bits to be wild donkey riding with ideas again. It feels DEEEEELICIOUS.

Righto party peeps…

may your days be divine… and if not divine… may they be furnished with a cup of tea and a caramel wafer.

Big love,

Begins 1 August!