Mental Cleanse Challenge - Week 2

I warned you that my mental cleanse challenge was a work in progress! (Along with everything else I do) I came to the conclusion that daily posts are unnecessary if I continue to do that I am only doubling up my journal's and it ends up taking more time that I can spend actually doing things, living life and appreciating everything.
I think that the daily appreciation photo's and blurb keep me accountable along with both my art and daily journal I don't need to write it down twice :) I also think that you don't need to hear about me ticking off each step everyday and that a weekly / 10 day progress update is enough to remind me to be mindful and see my progress in working through my mental cleanse and what progress I need to make next in my soul journey (the mental cleanse challenge is just part of my soul journey) which I have realised is best for me not to set specifically each month and just work on them as they come up through daily life
I can accomplish much more this way!!

The AusMumpreneur 6 Week Challenge - Week 1

As soon as I read about the AusMumpreneur 6 week challenge ecourse I knew that's exactly what I needed (A kick in the butt! I have SO many blog posts in drafts, kids activities, development and MORE that I really want to finish and publish) and had to try as hard as I could to be considered! I missed out on the scholarship but I was lucky enough to be shortlisted as one of the finalists.
It must have really been my time for it because I was able to, then enroll in the challenge!! Just shows that if you put the effort in you can get anywhere.. Speaking of which, This first weeks challenge was to create a vision board! I LOVE vision boards they really give me motivation and visual focus to keep me on track. This was a perfect task for me and, as a bonus, really fitted in with my Mental Cleanse Challenge that I set myself..

I took the opportunity to really focus on goals I would like to reach and where I wanted to go in my life for my business and, family and personal. I started by breaking it up into:

Montage Madness / Paintbox Kids & Wilderness Babies  

Family / Personal and making lists in each. 

But I found that most of the things had smaller goals in them too, so it ended up turning into a mind map! (well a MY mind map, scattered and unconnected to the outside viewer)

I also found that ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING was connected! My business is personal, it is me, it is my family, it is friends, it is fun, IT IS LIFE..  

So I focused on the smaller goals that were in there to get to the larger goals. I also wanted it to be able to be added to and changed as my goals changed  One of my big ones was Art, I really want to get back into art and thought that creating this vision board was a perfect way to start! I wanted it to be representational and motivational for me, most people looking at it might not know what it all means but I do and I feel that's the main thing..

Even from the very start the 'Blank' Canvas itself meant something to me (the back of a 18th Birthday gift, art work that I wanted my kids to be exposed to that I could not do). I started by painting the border it is gold
and green to represent having enough money to live comfortably, (conveniently a ladybug landed on there as I was painting as if to say it approved) I added gold glitter paint because everything has to have glitter, you cant walk though our house without later finding glitter everywhere you go for a week! I then moved on to the background.

I wrote on the canvas as I wanted to be able to paint over the words and keep them there in the background. I wrote about what the green and gold represented, I wrote about getting back in touch with art and I signed it Mummy Madness. I then picked out colours that I love and enjoyed the whole process of painting the background, the fun, the mess and the mixing. I left sections showing the white background to show that nothing it ever really finished, it can always be improved. Naite came out and thought it was wonderful, it reminded him of a sun set. Even doing the whole vision board had meaning, I was outside in nature for the whole day it was beautiful I relaxed in the sun and enjoyed my time doing something for myself!
Everything else that was placed onto the vision board is something that can be removed or covered up once I have reached that goal or I'm am ready to moved on from it, A continual work in progress just like me, this blog, my family and life. I have a few motivational reminders to myself that I have written out so far and put on there, but I plan on painting them on. 

The rest of my goals I condensed down into a mini mind map and placed them on their as a reminder. As I collect more things that represent that area I will add them on.

These are my mini mind map Goals!

And for Peace who asked about what the coffee represents, most people that know me know that I love coffee!! I don't think I could survive without it, *Laugh* it is my 'Sanity Juice', time for me to take a break & time with my partner AJ (we both love coffee, it was a big part of us first meeting) and he makes the best coffee!!

I was also just sitting back, in the morning sun, relaxing the next morning proud of what I had achieved with my painting 

I think my biggest one to work on is my focus! I can't wait till next week to see what the challenge is and move forward.. 

♡ Mummy Madness

I Found This Today!

After a hectic morning with tired, school holidays, worn out, kids I came across some information on yoga nidra for sleep
My first thought perfect for my kids who fight sleep and chill out time! And, me being me, I researched it some more and found something I wanted to try too..
So when the soft alarm went off on my phone for chill out time on my phone today I let them know that they could do this with me..
http://doyogawithme.bandcamp.com/album/letting-go-guided-meditations-and-relaxations
I love it Naite rested the whole time and he needed it! Once it finished he had a proper chill out and an added bonus he was in a better mood :D
Leila on the other hand was bouncing off the walls over tired so didn't do much in helping her to chill out..
I am looking forward to incorporating this into my nighttime routine tonight!!

♡Mummy Madness

Mental Cleanse Challenge - Day 8

Let's see if I did completed all my steps today or technically yesterday as it is just after midnight :P I tend to struggle and focus on original plans when something goes wrong and it was a little sad today, which put me out of whack :( their was a mistake made and we lost Leila's first bike that she ever owned and it was from her Pa! We are hoping it will make its way back to us though!

1. Green smoothie and 3 main meals for the day a very good and proper breakfast, lunch and dinner.. YAY! ☆Check

2. Keeping a Journal for clear thoughts and emotional release
I got a few things jotted down, started my visualisation board and am writing this entry. Once again I'd like to write some more but I'll let that go for now and work on it tomorrow ☆Check

3. Me Time - Art, Gardening or Cooking
OVER 30 minutes of me time :) I got to do more painting in the kids room I am so excited about it! It's going to be a rainforest. I am glad I got some time to myself to do it tonight it is going to look fantastic once finished. I would spend more time on it but I wouldn't get anything else done it is a project that is probably going to take the month to complete so I have to restrain myself and hold off (it's hard but I need sleep too) ☆Check

4. Exercise for physical and mental health..
I didn't succeed in this one today :( I didn't do my morning yoga as I was heading to fit club but when we got there, not enough people showed up and it didn't happen. The kids had a play and I walked up and down following them on their penny boards but after that I didn't do anything else dedicated to fitness

5. Appreciation
I think I will leave this as something I post on instagram and list other things I have appreciated for the day in the comments otherwise I am just doubling up :) so as usual my specific 30 day challenge appreciation photo can be found on instagram plus my usual #100HappyDays photo that was my inspiration to add a standout appreciation photo to my challenge :)

6. Mindful Meditation to help Relaxation & Letting go of stresses and moving on for peaceful sleep (told you I'd switch it lol)
I have made more progress in fine tuning my relaxation routine (I guess it's me lol looks like I couldn't have something that wasn't a continual work in progress in my challenge) for myself before bed it now includes a hot shower, bedtime yoga (found an awesome one on YouTube I'll link it later), photo posting, writing, malt milk & meditation.. feel free to leave me some ideas in the comments :) ☆ Check
Everyday I am feeling more and more relaxed and able to let go of the things I have not done or finished and still want to do each day, before I would have just kept going and stressing about it! I wasn't able to just stop and let go or leave it till later now I can ☆ Check
So proud of myself :D I am loving following through with this challenge I've set myself I know I've already said it but it really is helping me to really appreciate the things I have accomplished for the day and take notice!! The check list is really working for me and I love my to do & want to do lists it is, personally, working for me as a visualisation to see what is really important to me in the day, show me that I am spending my time well and getting to where I want to be even if I am not there right now..

♡ Mummy Madness

Mental Cleanse Challenge - My Weekend

I am aware that I did not post a daily update for the last 3 days however I did complete my steps for the last 3 days and not posting an update IS part of why I have completed my steps and here is why
- MY FAMILY AND ME TIME
Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are my down time, my time to enjoy family and being part of life!
It is very important to me to have that time to not have to focus on anything else except enjoying my life I still made sure I ate meals properly I (I did stuff that up a little on Sunday as I spent the time over lunch and afternoon tea at the supermarket) and I missed a green smoothie :(
Next weeks list sounds interesting though so looking forward to that!

I kept up with my Journal to clear my thoughts, put plans on paper AND even did some of my art journal for emotional release!!

I also got plenty of me time in I worked on the garden, did some more painting design in the kids room and planned out & prepped for my yummy green smoothies to make it a bit easier in the week... oh and made yogurt YUM

I did only exercise for one of the days I took Charlie dog for a walk around the park unless you also count walking around and around the supermarket on Sunday.. that was pretty exhausting :P

I planned on adding a specific 30 day challenge appreciation on instagram plus my usual #100HappyDays photo (that was my inspiration to add a standout appreciation photo to my challenge) however I found at the end of the day during my nighttime routine (I find this the best time to do photos and look back on the day) I had not taken many photos over the weekend.. I had been busy just enjoying the time and just happened to not have taken many.. I thought back on my days though and I had many, many things to appreciate! ♡ I just didn't have photos for them I do however have my journal notes, my art journal and my #100HappyDays photo's

I also didn't do my Mindful Meditation on smiling mind I did however leting go of stresses and moving on for peaceful sleep one of my biggest stresses before this challenge (which I only found out about through doing the challenge) was letting go of the things I had not completed in the day that I had wanted to do! I am now able to let go at night and relax, realise I have accomplished a lot (even if it is connecting with my family or taking time for myself) I am continuing to improve my relaxation routine for myself before bed so far it includes a hot shower, writing, malt milk & meditation.. feel free to leave me some ideas in the comments :)

I am feeling a lot more relaxed overall and able to really enjoy life
Following through with this challenge is continuing to make me see and really appreciate the small things in the day and the things I have managed to achieve

♡ Mummy Madness

Mental Cleanse Challenge - Day 3

I have always believed that every moment counts and being involved and present with the kids while they are kids is important as they grow so fast but my #MentalCleanse #30DayChallenge is really making me more aware and appreciative of the fact that it's the little things in life that make a great day and that the kids will cherish.. I am taking a lot more notice of ALL the little things..
And that's why today, over everything else I want to tell you about my day..
Nothing was done as originally planned, and I'm not sure I met all the steps of my challenge today but I did hit a important one to me Appreciation and it made it a fantastic day...
I'm warning you now this is a long post but I really wanted to write all about it for myself to serve as a reminder
Again I woke with a headache, the kids were bickering, we were late taking the girls to school, I didn't get that blog post written up, or vacuum, or finish the dishes, or get a proper dinner organised (we ended up having leftovers) and the house was left in disarray by the time I was done for the day! But it was one of my best days! Why you ask well here goes...
The kids made their own breakfast (yes there were spilt and burnt oats on the stove that's going to take a good scrub to get off),
Leila was given the chance to make her own choices in the clothes she wore just the same as Naite (we tend to let her most days but I guess I take it for granted) as well as today the food she took to school, she was determined to take an egg I was able to help her understand it had to be cooked first then gave her the opportunity to cook it. She also chose to take a vegemite sandwich, yogurt, a banana and cut up chesse (it was great to see that given the opportunity to make her own lunch at 3 and 1/2 she still makes healthy choices, even if it was a fair chunk of cheese lol) she had Naite help her rather then me which made both of them feel important and responsible. Once we were finally ready to leave the house we walked/balance biked/penny boarded to the girls school as that's what they wanted to do (I grabbed mine on the way out the gate too) Naite and I dropped the girls off and they both went off for a fun day. Naite and I then rode/fumbled (that's all part of learning) our penny boards home! At the very start of the trip home Naite lost control of his board and stacked straight into my ankle that will teach me for trying to exercise lol now I'm going to be hard pressed to exercise for my 30 day challenge! But, the end reward was completly worth it as this was one of the things Naite enjoyed about the day (not the hurting me lol but the having me ride a penny board with him) such a simple thing, really being present and joining him in doing something that he enjoys. He was able to feel proud to show me the things that he could do and was able to learn new things from someone else such as gaining control and different ways to improve balance. We got home and spent some more time just playing around on the boards till it started to bucket down with rain.
I had told Naite that I would spend sometime out with him mucking around, but then I had some jobs I really wanted to get done, if he let me do them then after that we could take Charlie and our penny boards to the park. Once it started to pour rain we joked that it was my signal I should get some work done. He really wanted to do some cooking at some stage too, but I didn't feel up for the extra mess and time it would take and was thinking maybe he could help make dinner and be involved in the meal plan I wanted to start creating.
He had some morning tea and went off to play. I started writing out the post I had really wanted to get done and trying to recover photos from my old hard drive. I stopped for a break to re focus and Naite came out for lunch by then, he was very eager to try out an experimental recipe he had for weetbix that he had written up yesterday (I'll post a pic of it later promise) and he had been continually asking to make all different kinds of food so I said ok and let him go!
Once he had finished his ummm.. let's say cooking, and was out of the kitchen, I emptied out the freezer to defrost it and started on my giant pile of dishes I wanted to get through. Naite ate his lunch concoction that he had added soy sauce to because he apparently left it out of the recipe and was insisting on making the fortune cookies he has wanted to make for so long that I can't remember out of his show off book. I thought about it while I was doing the dishes and all I could think was really are the things that I had planned for the day that important to do right now, I should take this opportunity to let Naite do something he has chosen to do with me and has wanted to do for a long time and put everything else aside so he can have something to add to his memories of childhood
It's something he has wanted to do for ages, he has been talking about cooking all different things, it's the school holiday's and it's not really that often we get a whole day to ourselves.
So then and there, dirty dishes in the sink, freezer half done, blog post unfinished, meal plan still unstarted and no dinner organised. I decided I would forget about the things I also wanted to do for the day and instead spend all the time doing what Naite wanted to do. I gave him free range in the kitchen and consciously let go of the fact it that it will make a mess, might not work, contains a bit more sugar then I would normally allow in a recipe and just had fun enjoying the opportunity... It was fantastic not only did he have fun and learn some new things about cooking, he really concentrated on following the recipe, but he was also proud and excited to give Leila and AJ theirs when they got home as gifts and share rather then keep it all to himself!
It extended to letting him create dog biscuits for Charlie with the leftover egg yolk, after playing with it of course and (as I was making AJ and myself our green smoothie later in the day) his own first ever green smoothie, which he loved and now wants to have several times a day lol
It turned into a beautiful rainy day and I had previously planned to let Naite watch a movie while I finished the things I wanted to get done, instead I found 'Back To The Future' and knew he would love it I put it on and told him about how I used to watch this movie and he would love it.. It didn't take much convincing as it came up with Steven Spielberg's name on the screen and he started jumping up and down that he made Jurassic Park we watched most of it together, only stopping to go and pick Amelia up from school, once back we finished watching it while laughing together at Amelia dancing to the music in the movie. Once it had finished the rain had settled down and he was eager to go back out on his penny board so off he went and that's when I just pottered around the house with Amelia till AJ came home! The excitement that Naite had to tell Dad about his day proved even further that it was all worth it.. Amelia showed off how much further she could walk and her guitar skills and Leila was excited to tell us about her day. We had a completly unorganised but chilled afternoon and dinner. Once it was their bedtime routine I sat in the room with them for a while and just chatted about how great the day was and I hope we can all have just as much fun tomorrow.
Later Amelia and Leila were very restless going to bed and wanted extra comfort and attention but my rekindled awarness made me savor the moment and my ability to be able to comfort them.
I saved the things I had to do and the things I wanted to do until later when I wasn't going to miss anything and the kids didn't overly need me. I felt so good I even took some extra time not only to write this but to draw purely because I wanted too!
And even though I am sore, tired and had little sleep I feel at peace, calm and very, very happy. I love my family and noticing those little moments is making me appreciate the little things they do for making every part of my day great and enjoying every moment good and bad!

♡ Mummy Madness

Mental Cleanse Challenge - Day 2

Let's see if I did completed all my steps today especially with such a full day of activity
By the way LOVING the green smoothie challenge they taste awesome not sure if they have had much affect yet I mean it is only my third.

1. Green smoothie and 3 main meals for the day (granted not overly healthy apart from the smoothie but still 3 main meals better then normal. I will work on that tomorrow further) ☆Check

2. Keeping a Journal for clear thoughts and emotional release
I got a few things jotted down and am writing this entry, I would like to jot down more but I have done my 15 concentrated minutes ☆Check

3. Me Time - Art, Gardening or Cooking
OVER 30 minutes of me time :) cooking granola YUM I had been looking forward to making this recipe for quite sometime! I did make some slight alterations ☆Check

4. Exercise for physical and mental health..
RUNNING AROUND WITH NATURE PLAY!
I did want to find some yoga for me or take Charlie dog for a walk but I will let it go and move on for the day and do it tomorrow as we were ALL absolutely exhausted after such a great day! I feel I can say ☆Check to that :)

5. Appreciation & Mindful Meditation to help Relaxation (hmm I think I might need to separate these)
Things I Appreciated Today
I found a wonderful letter from Naite that I really appreciated after the last few days of.. Let's call it cheekiness :)
Listening to the kids playing happily together running outside and playing silly kid games without knowing I could hear them, Getting dirty and having fun together! And other little moments in the day, smiles, cheeky grins, hot showers...
My specific 30 day challenge appreciation photo can be found on instagram plus my usual #100HappyDays photo that was my inspiration to add a standout appreciation photo to my challenge :)
Mindful Meditation
This is part of my relaxation routine before bed so really I should add it to number 6. I did part one of Smiling mind yesterday and plan on doing part 2 tonight at the start of step 6 :)

6. Letting go of stresses and moving on for peaceful sleep
I was able to let go last night and relax I am in the process of fine tuning a relaxation routine for myself before bed so far it includes a hot shower, writing, malt milk & meditation.. feel free to leave me some ideas in the comments :)
I am already feeling relaxed and able to let go of the things I have not done or finished today! So proud especially seeing as up until writing this I did not think I had completed all steps with such a full day.. but it turns out I had :D
Following through with this challenge so far is helping me to really appreciate the things I have accomplished for the day and take notice!! I think the check list is really helping.. I can't wait to see how I feel at the end of the 30 days if I feel this content now! (Even with a headache!)

♡ Mummy Madness