Oopsie!

I'm not sure how it happened, but I forgot to post here yesterday!

It has certainly been a very quiet week in our town and surprisingly, the caravan parks have not filled for the Australia Day long weekend. The Happy Abode will be open every day over this weekend so let's see if we can manifest a successful and profitable few days.

In my attempts to declutter the house, I have been tossing at least one thing every day. Even if it means opening a drawer and removing something that I haven't used for a long time - if I can't remember the last time I used it, then I don't need it.

I have a pile of clothes and bags that I'm going to send to a friend who runs a business called 'Rethread the Earth' and she makes crossbody and satchel bags from recycled materials, fabrics, bags and belts.

I already own three of her bags and I've been stalking her lately to purchase another. Her prices have increased quite a lot since my last purchase but her bags sell like hotcakes at the markets and I love her hippy/nature loving style.

So if I don't have time to do a big declutter, just tossing one thing at least keeps the momentum going.

Oh, I just remembered why I forgot to blog!

My sister, Squirt, and I video chatted for two hours! It was almost 11pm when we ended our call and I had to work this morning so I headed straight to bed.

We don't catch up very often but when we do, it's usually a long call.

I did a bit of study yesterday and did the usual Club routine.

Today (Saturday) was fun at the shop. Even though it was quiet as far as sales go, The Motivator and I had some good talks and some good laughs and made some good life decisions. I enjoyed the day very much.

I did some more study this afternoon. Some in the lounge room. Some by the pool. I tested the water and it was very warm so I chose not to go in. Adoring Husband, on the other hand, loves it when it's warm, so he went for a swim after dinner.

We had salmon steaks with sweet potato salad and coleslaw - both prepared with my home made aioli. Dessert was a mango for me and a large plate of sliced watermelon for AH.

I've just watched the Women's final in the Australian Open Tennis and my favourite, Naomi Osaka from Japan won. She won the US Open last year in September, but got a raw deal when Serena Williams stole the show with her controversial tantrum on court and the media totally focused on that instead of Osaka's success.

I think I'm going to annoy AH and go to bed now to do some study beside him while he attempts to fall asleep, although I'm pretty certain he'll be snoring before I even get in there!

I hope you all enjoy your long weekend.

Nite all.  

Listening Carefully

I had a number of options this morning.

• Get out of bed and begin decluttering one of the rooms.
• Get out of bed and go swimming.
• Stay in bed and edit the remaining wedding photos.
• Stay in bed and begin the new live round of Money Mindset course.
• Stay in bed and listen to my new book "The Universe Has Your Back".
• Stay in bed and begin creating my online course.

I made a choice based on the fact that the painter was here painting the ceiling in our family room/kitchen - finally - after the ceiling repairs that happened before Christmas.

I didn't want to get changed out of my pyjamas unless it was into my swimmers and I didn't want to come face to face with the painter and have to be introduced.

I had already chosen the room that I wanted to declutter but Adoring Husband wanted us to declutter a different room.

My brain wasn't quite open enough or alive enough to handle doing the course or creating a course.

My laptop has a problem with an internal chip which causes distracting lines to fill my screen and that makes editing difficult.

So ...

I chose to listen to the book.

While listening to the book, I was able to get in and enjoy the pool and I moved part of our outdoor lounge under the shade of the umbrella and lay there with my earphones in and the volume up as I attempted to drown out the sound of lawn mowers and leaf blowers in the neighbour's yards.

There was a nice breeze blowing so the temperature wasn't hard to handle.

I did stop to cook lunch after the painter left and the house now has the smell of fresh paint permeating throughout.

I stopped for 30 minutes when Princess Anne arrived for her afternoon rehab swim. We discussed starting up aqua-aerobics on a weekly basis in the pool and she provided a printout of the exercises she used to do in a previous life.

Watch this space.

Anyway, I finally finished the book at about 5pm and I loved the entire book until the last ten minutes. It's not that the last ten minutes were bad, I'm just not sure that I agree with her sentiments. Otherwise, every chapter had me hungry for more and I loved her ideas, her practices, the exercises and activities that she offered and all the thought processes along the way.

Definitely worth my time.

It's only 8.30pm and I'm tired from all that fresh air and sunshine. I swam quite a few laps today, including some butterfly which takes some effort! Pretty sure I won't be doing that again lol. I did my usual exercises and some underwater laps strengthening and increasing my lung capacity.

Then I bragged to AH that I love my life ... so much!

I'm watching Nadal thrash the pants off the young Greek Tsitsipas in the semi final of the Australian Open. It's been short and sweet. Nadal is playing like a true champion - better than I've ever seen him play - so confident and strong and mistake free.

I don't think anyone will beat him and he's gotta be the favourite to win - although I am a big fan of Djokovic and I suspect he will be his opponent in the final.

Anyway, enough of this frivolity.

Nite all.  

Whacky Doo Wednesday

It was a whacky doo Wednesday with both The Motivator and I in attendance.

It began beautifully enough with a fabulous meditation class - another full house - and there was plenty of love in the room when it was all over.

The Motivator took The Gypsy's first appointment for the morning. The Gypsy was booked out for the day so I didn't get to chat with her - however - The Motivator and I had plenty to talk about and we didn't shut up for most of the day.

It was another quiet one for sales, though it was the best day of the week so far. It was nice to spend a quiet day at our desks just chatting.

At 2.54pm I stood up to begin closing the shop, when a customer walked through the door. She walked around for twenty minutes and eventually spent $4. That was a little bit annoying because I wanted to get home to prepare for a visitor.

I stopped on my trike to buy mangos from the man who lives across the road from The Motivator's house. He has fresh mangos in a wheelbarrow and boxes at the front of his house with an honesty tin to pay. They are the best mangos that I've tasted for a long time and I could eat them til the cows come home. So I bought seven! I had bought 5 two days ago and only have two of them left.

I have two days off work now and probably won't be going past his house, so I had to stock up - they will be my sustenance for every meal and in between!

Princess Anne had attended meditation and for the second week in a row, was suffering with back problems, so I suggested that she come spend some time in the pool to take the pressure off. I think she said it was a slipped disc.

Anyway, she arrived at 4pm and we spent thirty minutes in the water talking all things health and diet related. She and I have very similar views and Princess Anne is just lovely so it was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

After she left, I stayed in the water for another 45 minutes swimming some laps and doing some exercises. The water was lovely and I had music playing in the background. I would have stayed in longer, but I had plans for dinner so I removed myself and made the kitchen my destination.

I roasted pumpkin and cauliflower to put with baby spinach and semi sun-dried tomato drizzled with balsamic vinegar and sprinkled roasted pine nuts. That was served with lamb rack.

Fruit whip ice cream and toffeed nuts for dessert.

All totally delicious and satisfying.

I was all settled in to watch the Djokovic vs Nishikori quarter final tonight in the tennis, but Nishikori sustained an injury in the first set and was unable to finish the second set before retiring hurt. That was disappointing.

The Aussie, Sam Stosur is playing in the doubles right now, so I might head to bed and watch it in the bedroom. I slept well last night, but I'm feeling weary right now.

Nite all.

Tantalising Tuesday

I set my alarm for two different times this morning.

Because I watched tennis until almost 1am and by the time I'd done the pre-bed routine and settled down to sleep, it was almost 2am.

I had my usual alarm at 5.55am and another for 7.10am.

Usually I would hit snooze three or four times, but I knew that I might need a second stint of sound sleep, hence the second alarm.

I enjoyed that extra hour of sleep.

I still got to the shop before 8.45 and had plenty of time to grab my coffee and open the shop before the girls arrived for morning tea.

They were a rowdy bunch this morning! Lots of laughter and snorts coming from TWO of the girls instead of the usual one! Plenty of medical discussions and dog talk while sharing photos. It was a good two hours of silliness and some of them enjoyed a little retail therapy before they headed home.

The morning was quite steady with sales but very quiet in the afternoon.

I restocked the snap button trays.

I emptied the bins ready to take the big bins out to the footpath for collection.

I stapled our cards to some paper bags.

I cleared almost 7000 emails (yes seven THOUSAND).

I posted on our social media pages.

I made a sign for our window to give our customers warning about our closure at the end of February.

I watched a training video on the secret functions of my camera.

I watched part of a video from DDT re the next live round of the Money Mindset Bootcamp. I still haven't completed an entire round of this course yet - there are live rounds of it every six months. I have good intentions for the upcoming round. Let's see if I can manage it this time.

It was almost 4pm when I pulled everything inside and locked the doors.

After doing some grocery shopping for Adoring Husband, I pedalled home feeling pretty worn out.

Thankfully, I had prepared a huge beef casserole on Monday night (enough for 4 meals), so all I had to do was add some greens when I heated it up and AH had a nice piping hot bowl of meat and vegetables in time for me to sit down and watch Ash Barty lose her quarter final tennis match.

Nadal is now thrashing his opponent so it could be a sign for me to have an early night.

I'm looking forward to meditation in the morning and there should be a good crowd. It seems there are many people looking to improve their relationship with themselves this year and we've already had some amazing feedback. It gives me the warm and fuzzies!

I hope you enjoy Hump Day!

Nite all.

  

Fabulous Start

I had such a nice day!

It was very quiet as far as sales go, but The Gypsy was in and she had two appointments booked, so we got to chat between those appointments.

It's like she is feeding my soul and I feel so full and so nourished and so enlightened after our talks.

I'm not baring my soul or discussing problems and issues. We are discussing all of our strengths and how we can build on them and use them, with love, to bring clarity and peace and contentment to our lives. How to not buy into our own or others' weaknesses and be affected in a negative way.

I have learned so much from her since she came to The Happy Abode.

In the last two years, I have focussed on certain things to improve myself and I have felt a huge swing on the positive side of my life ledger.

It all started with the Journey work in 2017. Those retreats melted away so many blocks in my psyche and cleared issues that I'd unknowingly held on to for years. My heart and mind were suddenly open and I felt like I was finally in charge of my own life.

I do journeys on myself whenever I feel like something is holding me back or when I know an old memory is affecting the way I approach situations. I forgive the people who hurt me or restricted me in the past and I remove the old thoughts and replace them with new improved positive thoughts.

This was followed by learning how to manifest. I had my doubts, but remembering how my vision boards since 2003 had brought to my life Barry, a home by the ocean, improved health, repaired teeth, fun road trips, financial freedom, education, a new camera and so much more, what did I have to lose?

I spent months manifesting The Happy Abode. When The Motivator and I wanted the space once known as JATOE (Just a Touch of Everything) but weren't prepared to succumb to the owner's unreasonable conditions, I manifested like a crazy person. That shop was for sale at the end of March 2017.

I dedicated a journal to The Happy Abode - I don't think we had chosen that name yet - I wrote stories about how we would find the perfect space to create our dream business. I wrote stories about the beautiful things we would have available, the workshops and courses that we would provide, the way it would become the hub of the community and a destination place for visitors.

I also had a big art book and I drew up signs of affirmation that our vision would become a reality and that the universe would provide for us. That it would absolutely, without a doubt happen soon, declaring that it was our destiny and the perfect space would fall into our laps.

I wrote little notes and posted them all over my home office, so that it didn't matter where I looked, I was reminded that our space was coming.

The Motivator and I talked all the time about it happening and agreed that when the time was right, it would all fall into place.

It took four months.

We all know what happened from there.

My next successful manifestation was the pool. In reality, that kinda took ten years, but only one year from when I got SERIOUS about it and believed that it was possible.

So I've learned that with a consistently positive mindset, life takes you on on a whole different track  and dreams can come true.

I plan to continue manifesting The Motivator's and my big goals and ideas for The Happy Abode and hopefully watch it grow into something bigger and better with every passing year.

Finally, meditation.

If you'd told me, even 2 years ago, that meditation would play such an important role in my life, I'd have shaken my head and laughed. I had no idea how powerful or how life changing it could be and I can't imagine my life without it now.

While it's an ongoing process and I am always learning something new, Meditation has brought a lot of clarity to my relationship with myself. I work on and practice everything that I learn in the classes and I keep my own cup full so that I have plenty of love to share with the important people in my life.

I've mentioned before that I meditate at least once every day and that helps me stay focussed on my strengths. As I said before ... life changing.

So the Journeys, Manifestation and Meditation have added incredible value to my life, to my peace of mind and to my happiness. I'm excited for what 2019 will bring!

I'm off to meditate!

Nite all.

Feeling Rested

It has been a lovely restful Sunday.

I stayed in bed, pool hair from the day before, reading and studying and chatting with BGWLBH via text until about 11am. I took the photo laying down ... because you know, relax some of those morning wrinkles (ok so they're there noon and night too ... not just morning!) and I used a filter and it took 16 attempts to get a reasonably straight smile.

My plan was to make lunch our main meal for the day - that roast that I'd planned last night? Well, I had cooked the chicken last night, ready for today, so all I had to do was cook up a tray of vegetables and make the gravy from all the delicious juices.

In between big jobs, Adoring Husband stopped for an hour to eat his lunch. He had a busy day ... certainly not a day of rest for him.

At 2pm, after I watched Ash Barty win her tennis match, I heard the pool calling me so the next two and a half hours were spent there.

I love our pool.

At 5pm I threw together a nosh up dinner for AH and we sat down to begin watching Grace and Frankie. I'm about to watch episode 7 before I head to bed.

It's very tiring having such a restful day!

Have a great Monday!

Nite all.