Full Moon, by Leo Timmers

My birthday present this year was a fantastical, spectacular, magical print by my most favourite children’s author/illustrator Leo Timmers. Why a children’s print for my birthday? Well…

It really started about 18 months ago. I started to feel like I wanted to live more simply. I’d just had our 4th child, and reacquired all the ‘stuff’ that comes with an infant. I’d also realised that we would be staying in the modest 3 bedroom/1 living space house we had thought we were growing out of. If we weren’t going to be moving to a bigger house, we had to make space by being more selective and purposeful about how we used the space we already had.

I started to read content by people like the Minimalists and Greg McKeown whose vibe totally struck a chord with me. I felt like they had put into words ideas that were floating around my inside my head, which I had yet to express. Ideas such as: focus on what you really want in life and shed all that doesn’t serve your purpose, seek after your true joy, let go of those things you hold onto for some potential future instance, let go of things from your past that you allowed to define you, say ‘no’ to good things so that you can say ‘yes’ to the best things and recognising those things that add value and those that do not.

I did The Minimalists’ 30-day game, de-owning a total of 465 items. Yet my house did not feel much emptier. I still had too many ‘things’ in my house, and thus in my mind. I also noticed how many things in my house I truly never even missed once I let them go. So I continued, the letting go and the changing. Jordan and I rearranged our bedroom, we also let go of a buffet we’d had since we got married and replaced it with a desk space for our kids. I eliminated unnecessary duplicate items. I questioned each purchase. My kids got used to our perpetual stash of donation items. As soon as something was outgrown it was gone.

I even became more purposeful with my social media usage. I turned off almost all notifications. I unfollowed, unfriended, unsubscribed to all those things that didn’t add value. Instead, I digitally sought after those things that inspired, educated and enlightened me.

I started my blog. I knew that I loved reading to my kids. For several years I had loved seeking after the best, most memorable and influential books to share with them, and I guess because of this I felt I had something to share with the world. So I took the leap and put myself out there by publicly publishing some of our sweetest and most treasured experiences with books. I wanted to contribute to the positive and uplifting content others might be seeking.

I started to change the way I looked at gift giving (and receiving). Jordan and I have never been extravagant when it came to gifts, typically we would be getting ‘new’ things to replace items we already had or a practical thing we thought we ‘needed’. When my birthday rolled around last year I asked my husband for an experience only, so we went to an escape room. At Christmas we didn’t get each other anything, instead, we replaced our bed linen.

Earlier this year I noticed that the incomparable Leo Timmers was making some prints available for purchase and the thought struck me that I would really like to have one. The desire to own something with no obvious practical use hadn’t come to me for what felt like a long time. So with my birthday coming up, I made the suggestion to my loving supportive husband and he generously complied. It was initially difficult to select an image, but when I read the description of ‘Full Moon’ I knew it was the one: “This illustration originally made as a poster for a read aloud campaign.”

My reflection on this whole ‘era’ of my life felt quite profound. After over a year of shedding those things that didn’t bring me joy or add value to my life, I was finally in a position to recognise and seek after something that really, really did.

Now, pride of place in our living room, above a bookshelf of toys and books, hangs a visual reminder to my kids that we are a family that loves to read and share stories together.