Kia ora e te iwi😊
Just a tiny introduction of myself before I start this new vibe of my monthly blog.
Ko Shivonne (shevy) Erana Tufuga ahau,
Nō Tūranga-nui-ā-kiwa ahau and I have been living here for the past 4 years with my husband Fred and our three beautiful tamariki, who keep us on our toes all the time, Mathius, Milayna and Makarni.
We own our own papakāinga and live next door to my parents Tuara and Babe, and I have two brothers Caleb and Bubba (real name Conrad) who are both serve in the navy and live in Tāmaki Makaurau.
My hubby and I are both ex-navy and left because we started a family and bought our first home here in Tūranga, so everything kind of fell into place at the right time for us.
I am 32 years old and created (from scratch), and help manage our small pakihi alongside my mum. I am fortunate enough to not have to go to a full time job because most of my time consists of being a full time māmā (whilst we still have our 1 and a half year old at home) and this allows hubby to focus on being at mahi everyday as he is a full time contracted engineer so I run the routine of our whare, getting the kids ready, school drop offs and picks up, keeping our whare in order, as well as being very into my fitness and hauora journey, plus doing bits and pieces for our pakihi with mum (social media account, designs etc).
I also only just recently completed a photography course this year which was something we thought would be of benefit towards our pakihi so this year has been very busy yet very very challenging as well (mentally, emotionally, physically and even spiritually).
I have also been getting back into learning my reo with a couple of my first cousins, taking classes every week. This in itself is another journey for me, it was about reconnecting with my beautiful culture and connecting more spiritually as well. This also helped in my decision to receive my moko kauae this year.
So 2022 has been very challenging but every piece of experience has been worth it because its helped me grow as a person, and I actually surprise myself at times with what I do achieve because I am so highly critical of myself.
But hei aha - that will be a kōrero for another time throughout this blog series and that is basically a quick intro into who I am.
What I do hope to achieve throughout this blog is to give you a better in depth understanding of my journey and just sharing how I cope with navigating life while being a pakihi owner, so that I can show more of what we can do as individuals, if you just have faith and keep believing in yourself without trying to get validation from anyone else.
I also hope to inspire anyone that takes the time to read this because I wont be sharing just the so called glamorous side of life, but will be expressing the real struggles too.
Anyway e te iwi kia pai tō rā, just wanted to say that as we head towards a new year filled with goals and experiences.
Sending positive vibes,
Shevy x