My Smoothie recipe :)

Just a quick post this morning to share my go-to smoothie recipe. Of course there are hundreds of different recipes and combinations but this one works for me as something I can just throw together every day and not feel intimidated to come up with different combinations. In this smoothie I know I'm getting a good balance of what I need post workout.

Daily Vital Smoothie

Makes 1 serve

1 serve protein powder* (I use a chocolate flavour)
1 cup frozen mixed berries (blueberries, raspberries etc)
1 loose cup baby spinach leaves
1 tsp chia seeds
1 tsp coconut oil
Approx 1 1/2 cups chilled water

Place all ingredients into your blender (I use the K-Mart version of the bullet blender), make sure you tear the spinach a bit as you put it in and blend until smooth. Enjoy :)

*I don't know a lot about protein powders but I will touch on what I know and have tried in a future blog.

A challenge for me...

Yoga is something that makes you feel incredible. It's almost super human sometimes the way that your body can twist, bend and balance, and it allows you to find the strength you didn't even know you had. I've decided to create a yoga challenge just for me, to challenge me and remind me that yoga is something that I need and want to do every single day. So that will be the challenge, to practice yoga every day (not that it's a chore to do so). I plan to do my yoga workout and then add an extra pose at the end which i am hoping will become more challenging as time goes on. I am planning to use Instagram as a record keeper and I also plan to use #ailyogachallenge (an inspired life yoga challenge) just so that I can individualise it and find my own posts in future. If any readers would like to play along please feel free to use the above hash tag or just tag me in your post as I'd love to follow your experience too.
I'm excited to do this, there's nothing more to say but Namaste!

#ailyogachallenge

Linen cupboard clean out:

The first is the before shot :o a bit embarrassing.

The rest are how it looks now and HOPEFULLY how it will stay.
As you can see it isn't a large amount of space that I have to work with but as I am still on my unstuffing and decluttering journey I have managed to remove, reuse, recycle and relocate quite a bit of the 'stuff'. I store my sheet sets inside their matching pillow case to keep things nice and tidy in such a small space. Our face washers and hand towels now live in the plastic tubs. I also have an allocated 'rag bag' at the very top too.
Due to the small size of the cupboard (clearly someone who cared nothing about storage designed this house) our other linens have to live elsewhere. Our towels live in the bathroom on a shelf built by my Poppy and the kitchen linens live in a kitchen drawer. These areas had to be tidied and refolded while i was at it as well.
I know it's not a really exciting area to work on but any space no matter how small or large can provide a feeling of pride and satisfaction when you get it just the way you want it to be :)

Before

After: A rag bag at the top and tubs containing hand towels and wash cloths.

After: Sheets all neatly tucked into their matching pillow case

Towels

Kitchen linens

As i sit here.....

 ...........with a steaming cup of cinnamon orange rooibos blend tea beside me, a stack of dirty dishes in the sink, listening to two happy healthy little boys having their allotted video game time in the other room i can allow myself to feel proud of who i am today and who i plan to be in the future.
 In the present time i have been coming down with a cold over the past week and i have been refusing to acknowledge it, i have pushed through it so far by exercising, eating a healthy balance of good foods and keeping busy. Today it has manifested from the runny nose and sore throat into headaches and that very unwelcome 'run-down' feeling. I have forced my way through it though with a linen cupboard clean out, some baking which i will share here at my other blog and i am at the very beginning of giving a small area of our home a little (and very much needed) face lift, the hallway.
In the future i hope (and plan) to work really hard on my time management skills and also my lack of ability to stay motivated, i have no problem getting motivated as i love life, it excites me but once i start something and it's not 'new' anymore is where i start to fail.
 I was planning on this being a little longer but the computer screen is making me feel a bit off, so i will cut it short, though not before i share my linen cupboard makeover (very exciting business ha ha)
Wherever you are I hope that you are having a wonderful day full of love and warmth x

Hello again.....

I've been on a little bit of a blogging hiatus. I have been trying to find a balance within our home, myself, our family and any other interests, activities and hobbies that i have. The conclusion that i have managed to come to during my 3 month break from blogging is that i am terrible at trying to find a balance. I won't stop trying though, this life is way to short to skimp on anything. I need to be available to my family and myself, i also need to fit the necessities of life in (e.g. scrubbing the toilet and cleaning up an infinite amount of spilled soggy cornflakes and toast crumbs), and i need to find something for me to do, whether its  finding a new career path, sticking with the old or trying to create a future from my craftiness/creativeness. Right now i'm feeling a little overwhelmed and lost. I have however found a new love and passion in becoming active. I haven't been interested in being a very active person since primary school, when you are young you run, play and have no negativity about being involved in sporting activities. As i have aged i had forgotten about being a consciously active person. Sure i'd run if a dog were chasing me or a child with a poopy nappy or boogers on their face was headed my way, other than that the only active times in my day were housework/housekeeping and the occasional wonder in the park or run around the yard. At 30 i am now rediscovering what it is like to enjoy being active on purpose. I'm sure i'll share a little more of that in future blogs. I guess i just wanted to check back in and say "hi". I plan to become a little more active in the blogosphere, ive missed writing the random thoughts that run through my mind and the satisfaction that comes from blogging.