Today is Freedom Day in South Africa.

I just love that we have a public holiday celebrating my number 1 value

What does freedom mean to you?

For me, it means the time to pursue the things I’m passionate about I want that for you too.

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Guess what? My US visa was approved last Friday.

I’m officially going to the She Speaks conference in Concord, North Carolina. Yay!

I haven’t booked flights or hotels yet and here’s where I need your help.

You see, I’m not sure how much time to leave for tourism in Charlotte, NC and in NYC.

What are your must-see suggestions of things to do, to eat and to take photos of?

As you read this, I’m on a mini-break with my family. Dion and I celebrate 17 years of marriage on Sunday, and we’ve always gone away for a holiday.

However, we made the rookie mistake of telling the kids we’re going to Sabie and that’s all we’ve been hearing the whole week.

“Mummy, when are we going to Sabie?” “Are you going to the shops in Sabie?” (the answer to that last question is most definitely!)

And last but not least, I am still LOVING the online photography class. I think I’ve always (mostly) looked for the beauty but this is teaching me to stop and take some pics of the beauty even if it’s not convenient.

You should have seen me pull over on a random street the other morning to take some pics of wet autumn leaves

Can you guess what kind of photos we’re practising this week?

I’ll be taking TONS of pics while we’re away and can’t wait to share some of those with you next week.

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Last but not least, a heads-up for those of you who have been thinking of working with me. I noticed that I haven’t increased my fees for about 18 months so my coaching fees will be increasing on 1 June. Book your Success Strategy Session or monthly sessions with me now at current rates.

And, as always, have a wonderful weekend!

I had a lovely lazy Easter weekend - lots of reading, some napping, lots of creating, lots of decluttering and organising, family time and socials.

The only thing I didn’t do enough of was cooking – and that was just fine with me

My little boy, Connor, even announced that we had to go back to the zoo because we took them on Monday.

squeezing the life out of his sister and strangely, she doesn't mind

 Autumn is in full swing in Joburg and I took tons of pictures of the leaves on Monday.

I’ve signed up for an online photography class (similar to my organising classes - where you get an email a day for x number of weeks) and do you know what the first lesson was about? Perfectionism!

Well… not quite but that was my aha. She said to let go of how all your settings need to be technically perfect on your camera and just look for the beauty.

Oooh, that I can do.

look for the beauty

So this week I took a very technically incorrect picture of apple slices just because the shape looked like a heart.

Where can you look for the beauty in your life?

Or where do you need to let go of your perfectionism?

I am not a phone person.

By that I mean I regularly forget my phone at home for the whole day and it doesn’t bother me one bit.

I also mostly have my phone on silent so that I can choose when to receive messages and calls.

Call me weird but that works for me.

Anyway…

On Saturday I was doing the budget and I need my phone for that particular task.

I went to look for it and couldn’t find it anywhere.

I knew I’d had my phone in my last meeting on Friday afternoon but couldn’t remember using it after that.

So off I went to work (on a Saturday!) to look for the phone.

Well, I just walked into the building when I remembered that I’d received a text message after my personal training session on Friday afternoon.

Which means I couldn’t have lost it at work.

And so the whole trip there was a waste of time (and money, if I’m being honest).

But was it really?

I had to give myself a talking-to and told myself to just enjoy the quiet time in the car, driving through the quiet streets of Joburg on an overcast Saturday afternoon.

I love overcast days so this was not hard to do.

I put on a good CD (Air Supply) and enjoyed the drive home.

If you think I’m always Zen like this, you’d be mistaken.

But this is the beauty of blogging.

Beth’s post on not fretting in queues reminded me to be mindful in those moments on Saturday.

I still didn’t have my phone but stressing about it wasn’t going to get it to me fastern and I might as well have enjoyed the drive with my music.

Fortunately this story turned out well – my phone was on the window sill in the children’s bathroom and we found it on Saturday evening when they took a bath.

As we go through this very busy season, I hear lots of people talking about feeling overwhelmed. If that’s you, take a moment to look for something you can enjoy in those not-so-enjoyable moments.

Otherwise, if you’re ready to take action, I’m having a sale in my store. Everything (except one:one coaching) is 30% off if you use code HOLIDAY30 – have fun and remember this is for 48 hours only!

Do you find it hard to stay present in the bad moments? What is your strategy?

Just to close the loop on the Santa’s Shoebox Project…

We went to drop off our 3 boxes (plus 2 from my colleague) on Saturday.

I found the whole thing extremely well organised.

There was a guy at the gate who suggested we quickly park and workers there would collect our boxes but I said, “no!!!! I want the whole experience. The children want to hand over their boxes personally, but thanks for offering”.

Turns out all my preparation didn’t change their personalities as Kendra HOWLED when we tried to get her to hand over her box but Connor happily handed over all the boxes.

Vote for my blog for the SA blog awards – click the button and it will take you to the two categories my blog’s in.

Thank you