Reverb!

I was reading my Aunty's blog post today and saw a link to #reverb12 ... This started yesterday but I am jumping in with a catch up post containing my answers for both day 1 and day 2.


How are you starting this last month of 2012?
Take a moment, close your eyes, take a deep breath and ask yourself the question: how do you feel...
... in your body? in your mind? in your day job? in your creative life? in your heart?


I feel so great right now! With the exception of my back perhaps, I'm feeling physically well and this is something I really want to focus on more than I have in the past. I don't want to obsess over it but I want to make the effort to take care of my body - I'm going to need it for the rest of my life after all! And beside that, I know that how you feel physically rubs off on other aspects of life too.
Which is probably why I've been doing better with the mind stuff! I wrote recently about changing my mindset and how it has made such a difference in my day-to-day living. I have always tried, but more recently increased my efforts to live with gratitude and to find joy despite imperfection... and it's just a better place to be!
I have also become more goal orientated lately in relation to increasing my music (creative) skills. I sat a Grade 6 piano exam in October and have now started working on the 7th Grade syllabus and will do the exam for that in either May or October next year, as well as a Theory exam during the year too. My aim is to have a diploma by 2020, but my piano teacher seems to think I am not ambitious enough and could do it a lot sooner if I wanted to. :P I however am not going to be putting TOO much pressure on myself and want to go in to each exam confident and just knowing that I'm going to nail it... and if it doesn't take that long, that's just an added bonus.
All in all, I'd say December has got off to a good start, as should 2013. It's actually been pretty hard going a lot of the time over the past 2 years, but I feel like I'm coming out of survivor mode and have really worked out what is important to me as a wife and mother and understand what I need to thrive and that it is ok to care about that too. :)


What was your most significant expenditure in 2012?It doesn't have to be necessarily the biggest expenditure, just the one with the most impact.
What difference has it made to your life?


I actually couldn't think of what to answer without asking Jonathan... The most significant expenditure would definitely be that we moved house in January... and it was TOTALLY worth it. Seriously I remember moving in here and just being like, "My favourite thing about this house is... the aircon! No, the kitchen! No, the backyard! No, the space!" LOL Come to think of it one of the best things is not having to deal with salt damp and a landlord/agent who wasn't doing a thing about it, (but of course renovated after we moved out). I'm not one to believe that a better house will make you happier or anything, but the lifestyle living in a house vs. a unit and getting rid of the stress we had with that particular agent has been a big relief!