One Little Word: Some more ‘extras’

Hi everyone :)

I’ve got some more One Little Word things to share today.  The more I thought about ‘balance’ the more I thought about what I really wanted to invite into my life.  As I read through my intentions the focus of adjusting my time really came into my head.

Something that I often fail to do is to ‘take the time to smell the roses’.  In the past I’ve been on the go all the time… always working and thinking ahead.  I’ve decided that in 2013 I’m going to ‘smell roses’ on a regular basis!

As you know, I’m a very visual person so I made myself another piece of wall art to help me keep focussed on what I want in my life.  Here’s what I came up with:

Those roses are called ‘quicksand’ and I’ve really fallen for them.  I can’t find any in New Zealand but I’ll be keeping an eye out for them because they’re stunning!

I’ve had that piece of art put into another white frame and I love how my lounge wall is developing.  It’s almost ready to share but I’ve got a few more finishing touches to make yet!

Now that the girls are both adults I find we actually don’t spend a lot of time together just ‘being with’ each other.  Mikayla and I tend to watch TV in the evening but we’re not actually communicating and with Krystal living away and busy at university we don’t actually see each other that much… and when we do I usually have to ‘share her’ with everyone else. 

So… I decided to spend some QUALITY one on one time with each of them… not ‘doing’ anything specific… just spending time with them and letting them take the lead about what we did.

Last Friday afternoon Mikayla and I went to Kuirau park which is absolutely beautiful and I took along my camera for a photo shoot.  I got some really lovely photos of her and afterwards we went to the movies to see Les Miserables which we both really enjoyed… and if Mikayla hadn’t invited me to see the movie I wouldn’t have actually gone to it.

 

After the movie we went out for dinner and had a really wonderful time relaxing with each other over our meal.  By the end of the evening I felt like I’d really connected with her and it was a great feeling!

On Monday I’d planned on taking Krystal out for dinner as she was going to be busy all day but in the morning she rang me to say that she’d suddenly gotten the whole day to herself and would I like to come over earlier… fantastic news!

I arrived at lunchtime and we spent the afternoon chilling out at her new house which she moved into just after Christmas.  Then she asked me if I would straighten her hair for her.  It was so nice to ‘pamper’ her a bit and we had quite a few giggles as we did it.  Then we decided to go to the Hamilton gardens for an impromptu photo session.

I’ve been TO the gardens before but I’ve never actually gone THROUGH them so it was a huge eye opener for me that they are so gorgeous and there’s actually heaps to see.  Krystal’s favourites are the Italian and Indian gardens and they actually turned out to be my favourites as well.

Italian garden

Indian garden

By the time we got around the different garden ‘rooms’ it was almost 6pm so we headed off for some dinner together.  We had a fab meal… seafood chowder is one of my favourites!  As we ate our meal we ‘people watched’ and chatted and before we knew it the clock was saying 8.30… time flies when you’re having fun!

As I drove home from Krystal’s my heart was bursting with love for my girls.  It hasn’t been easy raising them on my own but it has most definitely been worth the tears and frustrations to see them grow into the wonderful young women they have become.

Over the next few days I kept looking at the photos of each of them and knew that I needed to document how I was feeling so I created another page for my album and here’s how it turned out:

I’m so pleased that I made the ‘choice’ to participate in the Old Little Word project.  In one of Ali’s comments she said that the more you put in the more you’ll get out of it… and that’s certainly been true for me.

In the last 17 days I feel like my life is becoming more authentically me and I feel more engaged in my life than ever before… it’s a big journey but it’s awesome!

I hope you’re all having a great day and that 2013 is smiling on you too :)