How incredible is this? Ben Folds was given a key and told to make a new song in 10 minutes. I love the humour in the approach as he sang, “These new spaces are all designed to be…flexible.” And as the song progresses in its growth all the musicians watching and just absorbing the idea. Isn’t this synchronicity?
I hope you are having a great day and find yourself creating something to enjoy today.
The Child and I are both really digging this song at the moment. I was even more into this song after seeing all these wonderful women featured in the video. I like the original (do you?) but THIS VERSION IS SOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD. Definitely on repeat.
I think it even makes a good accompaniment to some of my Pilates videos. (Do you?)
I’m having a lovely morning and thought I would share! Baby is napping and I discovered this loungey bossa nova jazz music channel on Youtube. It is so upbeat but also relaxing at the same time. It’s so good to have a soundtrack for going around home getting things done. I’ve made a batch of porridge for our lunch and a great big pot of barley water for us to sip on throughout the day. And the dishes are done, hurray. A small thing but I love it when the kitchen sink is empty and gleaming. I remember the last time I made a batch of barley water and felt this productive, only, I forgot to scoop out the pearl barley afterwards and they soaked up all the water so there was about 10 ml of water and I swear, a KILO of barley hahaha. I felt so sheepish after offering barley water to B so loudly. Well fool me once and all that. Today I am prepared and now I can kick back and enjoy my hour or so of jazz.
Here comes a Moon Day.
I love reading what this app tells me I am. Focussed! Alright! Yes! I’m ready! But also practical! I like that. Ambitious. Yes. Yup. I’m with you.
(I love that anyone anywhere in the world would likely read this description and think, yes this is soooooo me.)
Speaking of ambitious, are you a big list writer? I have huge lists of things I want to get done and buy and posts I would like to write. I have an embarrassingly long list of partially done drafts I need want to get through to finally post them. But as can happen wife gets in the way. That’s right, I get in my own way – I’m working on my follow through. One of my biggest stumbling blocks is those darn danging lists! They get longer and longer until I just feel totally overwhelmed. On other days I get in the “that’s it! today is the day I tackle everything I wanted done” mood and tadaaah 9.3/10 times* that is the very same day that nothing goes according to plan. Time to just breathe and go with the flow. Easier said than done when you’ve been looking forward to crossing things off a list.
As if I needed any more lists, I made a new list called My Contingency List. When it turns out nothing is going to plan I pull this out.
My Contingency List
That is the list. I can add anything else to it but the only things I MUST MUST MUSTTTTTTT do is these two. Once I do the first two items I find I’m not so attached to anything else I previously thought had to be done. Life feels a whole lot easier and happier after that.
Even just thinking about a yoga posture can have a calming effect.
Something interesting often happens too – what I thought was stopping me from getting to whatever else I wanted to do suddenly dissolves. I end up getting more things done. For example, The Child (TC) usually has a nap around midday and I think of that time as my run around in a frenzy trying to tidy things away, shower, shave my legs, prepare lunch, prep dinner, read, relax and a million other things to be squeezed in if possible. All this requires the nap be LONGISH. But on a day like today I was out running errands and the nap was 30 minutes. Our window of time had closed for the day. Not the end of the world, I can do some things just not all the things and not to the extent I would if I were on my own. I think a lot of mums understand.
I was talking to my mum about this whole trying to let go of expectations business and THE LIST. What am I even doing? Living in the shadow of these things I need to get done or else I can’t be happy?! Again I totally think a lot of mums and just everyone in general understands this idea.
Out came the contingency list. I did some yoga for spine health with TC doing downward facing dogs that turned into roly-polys (I know, WHAT A SHOWOFF). I like this yoga set because I can do it seated haha. How quickly I go from a productive mood to lazy mood! If you have never done this set of exercises be warned, you can get a little sore afterwards!
After that I did a short meditation to clear subconscious blocks. To do this, I pick a happy song, set my intention to clear any obstacles and infuse everything with positivity, and then I sit, smiling and clapping my hands to the song. The hand clapping is partly to keep TC engaged but also it feels hard not to be cheerful when you are clapping away. I also played this track I really like for humming Om to.
After this I just felt really good about going where the day took me.
The day took me on a walk to brunch.
And later it turned out TC wanted an afternoon nap so I even got to chop loads of veggies to stir fry when TC woke up. We make our dinner together as part of our evening routine. It is just as well because one evening I was so flat out trying to do everything that after washing the rice I was about to walk off without pushing the lever to start the rice cooker. If TC hadn’t been gesturing at the rice cooker we would have been riceless. Riceless! *shudder*
I tried out my Joseph Joseph noodle maker thingy again and again it was a just the most disappointing thing ever. Totally does not work for me. It’s just a really expensive container now.
I’ve been really into eating as many colour vegetables as possible. I keep calling my veggie stir fries “chakra stir fries”. Technically they are.
I’m pretty happy with how the day turned out.
* Not a real statistic but golly it feels that way
** Also: I did not get paid for my opinion on the Full Moon App or Joseph Joseph. I bought that noodle maker thingy with my own money and I downloaded the free version of the Full Moon App for my own use.
Mercury Retrograde has been tough, more so for some than others. This was taken just a few days ago. You know, January.
Gosh! Majorly glad that Mercury has returned to direct. Did you notice how strange things got? For us, it was drivers on the road being erratic. We saw a lot of car accidents happen. Talk about holiday madness! Another thing that happened quite a bit was people complaining about miscommunications. So we just kept things simple and didn’t make any big plans. I’m thinking the local coffee shop here thought they’d just come back after the craziness. In October.
It’s not procrastination when you’re trying to mitigate for a Mercury Retrograde cycle. Speaking of, I came across this song today. It’s so soothing, I love it! It will be on repeat whilst I go DO stuff. What’s the opposite of procrastinate? Activate? Right, I’m off to go activate, starting by visiting the cafe to see if they’re open yet. What are your plans for today?
(Image from Tumblr)
It’s starting to rain over here (which I love) but at the same time I can’t help wondering:
Who would like to go sit on the beach at sunset eating gooey pizza out of the box and talk about the universe and our souls and magic and maybe not talk at all because
everything is so
perfect
?
I always think that good food IS made with love but also a relaxed spirit. I’m all about the right energy. For me that means listening to some chillout songs – I even have a playlist filled with songs I love to cook to. One of these days I’ll add a playlist of songs to eat to, ha!
I just heard this song for the first time this afternoon and it’s an instant favourite. It’s just so groovy and chill and casual. The title could not be more perfect! I’m listening to this now right now as I make dinner, which is some turmeric soup (I’m trying to crawl out of the flu) and some amazing thyme flavoured green lentils that I have mixed with spinach, chickpeas and bright yellow capsicum. I’m going to enjoy all of that on a bed of fluffy white rice. I snuck in a few taste tests and so delicious! It’s gotta be the music. Recipe will be up soon but for now enjoy this song! x
How GOOD is it?! Right?! On repeat.
This is the most incredible remix and the singer has such a beautiful clear voice. I adore listening to the notes in this song not even hearing the lyrics. Take the advice of the singer and close your eyes.
This is my last Sunday in Indonesia for the year, tomorrow I pack up to head back to Sydney. Tomorrow, not today, ha. Not packing one minute sooner!
The rain is pouring down right now, listening to that; and to this truly awesome song I just discovered:
Bird Brainz by Otis McDonald
SO GOOD. ON REPEAT.
Something about it gets me thinking about this beautiful sunset I witnessed with B on the beach in Bali. All those colours!
This life is beautiful. Have a wonderful weekend. xx
I heard this song last night and I am loving it! It’s gotten me into such a great power mood to throw a load of clothes in the washing machine (I am ALWAYS doing laundry. It just seems to be some kind of destiny thing I have going on.) AND head down to the gym whilst the machine runs through its little cycle. And then I’ll do a tidy up and get some work done.
Phew!
THAT is a good song when it makes you REALLY WANT TO do stuff so I thought I would share. This baby is going on my playlist for when I need a boost. It’s going to be on repeat today.
Hope you enjoy! x
Our Zenaissance 