Speaker 1: Hi. I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
Speaker 1: and speaker.
Speaker 2: And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer,
Speaker 2: and course creator. We are two working parents who love
Speaker 2: our careers and our families.
Speaker 1: Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
Speaker 1: how real women manage work, family, and time for fun,
Speaker 1: from figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals.
Speaker 1: We want you to get the most out of life.
Speaker 2: Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: This episode is airing in early mid December of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four. Sarah and I are actually here to gather
Speaker 1: in my recording closet, my zoom room as it were
Speaker 1: with my lovely You can't see this, but to book
Speaker 1: wallpaper on the back, always a fun thing to have.
Speaker 1: But we're sitting very close together for good friends. Hopefully
Speaker 1: we are both able to be heard in this one microphone,
Speaker 1: so welcome to my closet, Sarah.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm trying to make sure my voice isn't exactly
Speaker 2: I don't know. We have about twelve inches.
Speaker 1: Yees EQUI distant both to this microphone as we sit
Speaker 1: here in this tiny space. But today we are going
Speaker 1: to be talking about life hacks, so taking a bit
Speaker 1: of a breather between the holiday stuff. We've been talking
Speaker 1: about the Goal episodes, which of course they're coming up
Speaker 1: later this month. We're going to be talking about ways
Speaker 1: we want to you know, that we use to make
Speaker 1: our lives easier, little tricks that have been helpful to us.
Speaker 1: But first, just a quick life update. So mid December, Sarah.
Speaker 2: What's going on? So much is going on. So much
Speaker 2: is going on, and it's all fun stuff, so I
Speaker 2: cannot complain about any of it. But we will have
Speaker 2: just celebrated my husband's fiftieth birthday, which we're doing as
Speaker 2: a big family celebration. Well, this is airing afterwards, so
Speaker 2: I won't spoil anything. But his friend is flying from
Speaker 2: across the country and he doesn't know that yet, so
Speaker 2: it's going to be really really fun. And then right
Speaker 2: after that and after this episode airs, I'll be running
Speaker 2: my second marathon of twenty twenty four, my sixth marathon total.
Speaker 2: We will see how that goes in Jacksonville, Florida.
Speaker 1: Yeah, is that going to be cooler than I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the hope that that's I mean, it will obviously
Speaker 1: be as cool as like Traver's study Michigan, probably.
Speaker 2: But it could be. So Jacksonville is like almost in Georgia. Okay,
Speaker 2: it is really up top there, and as you remember,
Speaker 2: my Traver's City Marathon was at the end of May,
Speaker 2: so it was actually I was probably even more nervous
Speaker 2: about that weather than this weather. But I think both
Speaker 2: of them have the potential to be amazing, and both
Speaker 2: of them have the potential to be kind of a letdown.
Speaker 2: So by the time this airs, feel free to pull
Speaker 2: up the forecast for Jacksonville for December fourteenth, and you
Speaker 2: can either celebrate on my behalf or feel bad for me.
Speaker 2: How do you feel about your training so far? You know,
Speaker 2: it's funny because I thought it was going pretty badly
Speaker 2: until like mid November, and then I've had some really
Speaker 2: really good runs lately because our weather finally became reasonable,
Speaker 2: and so I don't know, I don't see a pr
Speaker 2: but I think I could come fairly close to my time,
Speaker 2: which would give me a very solid Boston qualifier and
Speaker 2: likely like actual matriculent time for twenty twenty six, since
Speaker 2: I am now in the upper age bracket that I
Speaker 2: get more time.
Speaker 1: Ah, yes, the upper forties, so you get like a
Speaker 1: whole extra five minutes or something. It would have been
Speaker 1: ten minutes, but because the standard shifted by five minutes,
Speaker 1: it is only five.
Speaker 2: But that's okay. I already had somewhat of a buffer.
Speaker 2: It just wasn't quite enough, and this time I think
Speaker 2: it will be enough. It'll be enough that use all right, well,
Speaker 2: fingers crossed.
Speaker 1: You can check in on the update for that Sarah's
Speaker 1: blog a couple days after this airs.
Speaker 2: We will all find out together how she did.
Speaker 1: I think it's so cool that she's doing this and
Speaker 1: training seriously for stuff.
Speaker 2: I am not training for any marathons.
Speaker 1: I ran a half marathon in October, and I feel
Speaker 1: maybe I will never do that again.
Speaker 2: But you know, I think ten k's might be my
Speaker 2: max at this point. Now. I think that would be fine.
Speaker 2: But I am singing a lot.
Speaker 1: I will be singing in three different concerts plus a
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve service over the course of the next few weeks,
Speaker 1: which is really exciting with its air, as I will
Speaker 1: have done the first one.
Speaker 2: It's a service of carols.
Speaker 1: That I'm doing with a different choir than I've sung
Speaker 1: with before, so that'll be kind of fun, and then
Speaker 1: hopefully doing the B Minor Mass over New Year's Eve. Yeah,
Speaker 1: singing in Christmas Eve, doing a concert of lessons and
Speaker 1: carols with my church. So just a lot of singing,
Speaker 1: a lot of songs. But it's so fun because this
Speaker 1: is the time of the year when you want to
Speaker 1: be singing, and it's all these familiar works, even if
Speaker 1: it's new arrangements of them. So it's been really fun
Speaker 1: to have all that singing. But yeah, it's a lot
Speaker 1: of time. I mean a lot of time because now
Speaker 1: I'm doing Monday rehearsals with this other choir, so I
Speaker 1: have to drive downtown usually leaving here around six fifteen,
Speaker 1: parking in the garage six forty five, getting there for
Speaker 1: seven o'clock rehearsal. We rehearse to seven to nine thirty,
Speaker 1: go get the car, come home, so it's ten o'clock
Speaker 1: or a little later. And then Thursday nights the rehearsals
Speaker 1: are are seven to nine at my church.
Speaker 2: That's a lot closer, so I only have to leave
Speaker 2: at six forty five, but it's you know, it's still yeah,
Speaker 2: and especially as you get close to the event, sometimes
Speaker 2: may get them. We have extra rehearsals, the dress rehearsals,
Speaker 2: and then the days themselves. I mean, the concerts are
Speaker 2: multiple hours, so yeah.
Speaker 1: It's probably not quite marathon level in terms of time,
Speaker 1: but it might be getting close.
Speaker 2: So yeah, but you love it.
Speaker 1: I love it, And when you love things, you want
Speaker 1: to fit them into life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm.
Speaker 1: Still enjoying singing with Jasper in the church choir. We're
Speaker 1: singing together, and yeah, doing a lot of like college
Speaker 1: application stuff with him. So yeah, that's life around here
Speaker 1: right now. But so life hacks. Some of these are
Speaker 1: pretty when you look these up online. Some of them
Speaker 1: are like hilarious, like you know, uses for a safety
Speaker 1: clip you didn't you know, safety pin you didn't even
Speaker 1: know existed, or something like I didn't want to know those.
Speaker 2: No, these life hacks are the kind that, like, I
Speaker 2: don't know. As I was listening min, I'm like, that's
Speaker 2: so obvious. But then I'm like, well maybe not, maybe
Speaker 2: I don't know, can let us know?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and maybe if you've listened to every episode of
Speaker 1: Best of Both Worlds, you may have heard us mention
Speaker 1: some of these before. But you know, we've probably repeated
Speaker 1: ourselves a lot over the last seven years. So if
Speaker 1: you're still with us, thank you, or you appreciate all
Speaker 1: of you, we appreciate you very much.
Speaker 2: All right, Sarah, you can kick it off. Oh okay,
Speaker 2: I'm going to go with the travel one, since I
Speaker 2: traveled here today very early, I might add, so I
Speaker 2: have gotten to a point in life when I liked
Speaker 2: a default to a single airline because it's just easier
Speaker 2: to have one go to place to look for flights.
Speaker 2: I like having status on one airline, and there's no
Speaker 2: way I'd be able to build up status on multiple airlines,
Speaker 2: so it's nice. And then once it's more fun to
Speaker 2: fly on that airline because you have some status and
Speaker 2: like why would you stray? Plus once you have some points,
Speaker 2: then it's like faster to get anyway, so it makes
Speaker 2: things easier. And like, yes, sometimes if it's obviously not
Speaker 2: the right choice, like it doesn't fly NonStop, we'll do
Speaker 2: something else. But yeah, in my old age, I have
Speaker 2: like really enjoyed just being like I fly one airline. Joy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, I think it's it's more of a choice
Speaker 1: for you because you have multiple airports around you that
Speaker 1: you might potentially fly out of.
Speaker 2: Right, this hack does not I mean for some people
Speaker 2: it's like we have one airport and this is only
Speaker 2: the hub for whatever. I have a lot. I have
Speaker 2: three airports in your meeting, so that's a hack too.
Speaker 2: Look at all the smaller airports in your by. I
Speaker 2: didn't figure that out until just a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: I was like, we can fly from West Palm, and
Speaker 2: now I fly from West Palm all time, smaller, quieter.
Speaker 2: How far is it from you? An hour an hour
Speaker 2: and Fort Lauderdale is Fort Lauderdale's thirty minutes and Miami
Speaker 2: is honestly also an hour a traffic but if you're
Speaker 2: doing like a big international flight, you'd probably go from Miami.
Speaker 2: But a lot of the domestic ones, yeah, there's certainly
Speaker 2: a reasonable amount of service from Fort Lauderdale. Well, because
Speaker 2: I'm an in Philadelphia and there's major international airport here
Speaker 2: is an American hub, that kind of means by default,
Speaker 2: like I'm flying on American unless there's a really good
Speaker 2: reason not to, which is that American doesn't fly wherever
Speaker 2: it is direct, in which case, rather than transfer, I
Speaker 2: drive to Newark because Newark is an hour and fifteen
Speaker 2: minutes away.
Speaker 1: So kind of just a little bit more than your
Speaker 1: Miami deal, and that is a United hub, so then
Speaker 1: I am always on United if I am going there,
Speaker 1: I tend not to be on.
Speaker 2: Any other airline other than that.
Speaker 1: I'm sure, I'm sure the other airlines are great, they're
Speaker 1: just not here, so I don't fly.
Speaker 2: It's actually a good hack though, to drive and fly direct.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, oh, to drive it, yeah, I mean, because
Speaker 1: the odds of something going wrong are just so much
Speaker 1: bigger if you're transferring somewhere and you can get stuck
Speaker 1: in an airport that is not anywhere that you want
Speaker 1: to be, right Like, I mean, if you're flying directory,
Speaker 1: either are at your house, which is fine, you just
Speaker 1: go home, or if you're at your destination, presumably you
Speaker 1: either knew someone there or there was something you were
Speaker 1: doing there, like you have some connection there, so like
Speaker 1: you can go back.
Speaker 2: To that whatever that was.
Speaker 1: Whereas if you're stuck in O'Hare, you're just like at
Speaker 1: the stupid hotel that's near O'Hara that I've been at
Speaker 1: more nights than I care to be.
Speaker 2: Anyway, we digress, all right, next next on me.
Speaker 1: All right, you got bonus life acts there, so this
Speaker 1: is occasionally I get some pushback on this, but just
Speaker 1: wash everything together on cold because most things don't bleed. Now,
Speaker 1: if you have a kid who bought some like cheap item,
Speaker 1: that's fusia and like, you know, you suspect that it's
Speaker 1: going to bleed, like, maybe do that separately. But if
Speaker 1: it's something that's been worn and washed more than once,
Speaker 1: if you wash everything together uncold, it will probably be fine.
Speaker 2: I've never had a problem with it.
Speaker 1: The other hack related to that is if each person
Speaker 1: has an individual load, then there is no sorting. So
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you should always do this because sometimes
Speaker 1: you know, you just need to throw a lot of
Speaker 1: people's different stuff in there, But particularly if your house
Speaker 1: doesn't have a ton of people, it might work to
Speaker 1: instead of doing four mixed loads in the course of
Speaker 1: the week, do four loads of each one person stuff
Speaker 1: and then nobody has to sort anything and.
Speaker 2: You're all happier. Yeah, that's actually I should think about that.
Speaker 2: I hate the sorting, and we absolutely do a mixed
Speaker 2: load almost every single day, So maybe you need to
Speaker 2: think about some kind of a rotation.
Speaker 1: Yes, a rotation, because it's just the same, like to
Speaker 1: do every three days or every four days, like the
Speaker 1: person has the same number of clean clothes.
Speaker 2: It's just you know, it's only that you can't then
Speaker 2: like count on like every single day, having every single
Speaker 2: option available to you. But like probably you can get
Speaker 2: your house lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah all right, Sarah, you do another before we take
Speaker 1: a break. Sure, Okay, when you are running low on
Speaker 1: something you use regularly, replace it with at least two.
Speaker 2: So I think this is an over buyer underbuyer thing
Speaker 2: where like why but I like, we were running low
Speaker 2: on running gels because, as I mentioned, the marathon and
Speaker 2: my husband's also training, so we got a lot of
Speaker 2: gels being consumed and I was like, yeah, we're getting
Speaker 2: it on subscribe and say, but let me just build
Speaker 2: up a giant buffer. I'm gonna buy like two extra boxes,
Speaker 2: because like why buy one when you know you're gonna
Speaker 2: use it anyway. I guess this would also not be
Speaker 2: the best hack if you live in a tiny New
Speaker 2: York apartment, but I definitely don't, so yeah, replace it
Speaker 2: if it's like something you're gonna use, like get that
Speaker 2: build that backstock.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've done this with I mean, realizing things like
Speaker 1: you're going to use a lot of sunscreen in the summer,
Speaker 1: so just buy extras and put them anywhere you might
Speaker 1: use them. Or hand sanitizer, for instance, which we use
Speaker 1: a lot of in the winter. You know, you just
Speaker 1: put it by a lot of them, put them anywhere
Speaker 1: you might use, and the extras will nudge you to
Speaker 1: actually use them. I was just gonna say one related
Speaker 1: to that about over buying though. If you have an
Speaker 1: item that you are seeing that you truly love and
Speaker 1: it is the sort of thing that might wear out,
Speaker 1: like a pair of jeans, a pair of shoes, a
Speaker 1: particular running pant or something like that, and you see
Speaker 1: you really love it, like, go ahead and buy more
Speaker 1: of it, right because at some point they're going to
Speaker 1: stop making it and you are going to be very
Speaker 1: very sad. But that said, here's the real hack part.
Speaker 1: If you can't find it because they've stopped making it,
Speaker 1: go on eBay or Poshmark, because often people are selling
Speaker 1: stuff there they use the NWT as new with tags,
Speaker 1: Like I don't want to buy new like us stuff necessarily,
Speaker 1: but like they're reselling it new with tags, and so
Speaker 1: then you can find stuff that is no longer being manufactured,
Speaker 1: and I would.
Speaker 2: Say if you find it, you should buy two buy two.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, with that thought, we're going to take
Speaker 1: a quick ad break and we will be right back
Speaker 1: with a few more life hacks.
Speaker 2: All right, well, we are back.
Speaker 1: Talking all things life hacks. So here is one related
Speaker 1: to this season, this time of year we are coming
Speaker 1: into the holidays, which is that you can buy nice
Speaker 1: gift tags for your immediate family and then save and
Speaker 1: reuse them year to year. So if you have a
Speaker 1: place in your house where you store Christmas decorations or
Speaker 1: something like that, you can just if you have nice
Speaker 1: gift tags, not you know, like a little sticker that's
Speaker 1: gonna get ripped off with the paper, but you know,
Speaker 1: something more substantial. You are going to be giving gifts
Speaker 1: to the same members of your immediate family every single year.
Speaker 1: So something that says from Mommy and Daddy to Alex
Speaker 1: has a shelf life of decades if it doesn't fall apart.
Speaker 1: So we save a box of these, and then I
Speaker 1: don't have to buy new ones, or I don't at
Speaker 1: least have to buy as many new ones each year,
Speaker 1: and it's just a nice little upgrade. There are also
Speaker 1: other things with gifts you can reuse. I save gift
Speaker 1: bags from kid parties. So if my kids are having
Speaker 1: a birthday party and their friends give them a gift
Speaker 1: in a gift bag, usually people don't write on the
Speaker 1: bag itself, like they don't put the kid's name on
Speaker 1: the bag itself.
Speaker 2: That's either in a card in there or they attach
Speaker 2: a tag to the bag.
Speaker 1: So yeah, just reuse it because it's only been used
Speaker 1: once or unless they've been reusing it too, which is fine.
Speaker 1: Like the more use you can get out of it,
Speaker 1: the better, and then you always have something that you
Speaker 1: can wrap an odd shaped object in for the future.
Speaker 2: I love it. Plus the reuse gift tags, like there
Speaker 2: could be a nostalgia factor too. It's not even just
Speaker 2: that it's like nice to already have it, but like,
Speaker 2: oh the Christmas gift tags, like I've seen those before. Yep, yep,
Speaker 2: all right, Sarah, here's all right, Okay. This is one
Speaker 2: where I'm like, I think probably most people have tried
Speaker 2: this or do this. But then again, I often go
Speaker 2: to Starbucks and I go and I pick up my
Speaker 2: pre ordered mobile thing, and I see people standing there
Speaker 2: annoyed waiting for their drinks. So maybe everyone doesn't know this,
Speaker 2: but and I'm not knocking, like you know, the experience
Speaker 2: of going to Starbucks and ordering and sitting down. Sometimes
Speaker 2: that's what you want. But if you just want to
Speaker 2: procure your Starbucks, ordering ahead on the mobile app is
Speaker 2: like the best thing ever. And I actually think it's
Speaker 2: faster if you go in the store versus drive through.
Speaker 2: So I'm very grateful and happy that we have a
Speaker 2: Starbucks on campus at our hospital. So if I want
Speaker 2: to get it, like in the morning, right before I
Speaker 2: start seeing patients, I know I can order it when
Speaker 2: I'm at the kids' school, knowing that I'm about like
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes from work, and then when I get there,
Speaker 2: I can pick it up and it's all hot and ready.
Speaker 2: It has my name on it. And yeah, you also
Speaker 2: get like deals through the app. So if you frequent
Speaker 2: Starbucks and you haven't done it this way, give it
Speaker 2: a try. You may love it. You can still sit
Speaker 2: there if you want to. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, and you I mean just sort of piggybacking on
Speaker 1: that additional hack you have about using apps in general,
Speaker 1: Why don't you mention that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of times, you know, you can always
Speaker 2: go to American Airlines and book on the website, but
Speaker 2: sometimes these companies have apps that make things even easier.
Speaker 2: Like examples would be Starbucks or the Marriott app. The
Speaker 2: Bonvoy app is like super super easy, and I'm sure
Speaker 2: all other hotel chains, et cetera. So if there's a
Speaker 2: kind of brand or empire that you frequent that has
Speaker 2: an app, try it because a lot of times that
Speaker 2: process can be more streamlined than trying to just go
Speaker 2: online and do it at their native website.
Speaker 1: So Starbucks is a great example of that exactly. So
Speaker 1: here's one for people who get cold. This is a
Speaker 1: handful of hacks for people who get.
Speaker 2: Cold a lot.
Speaker 1: Turn on the seat warmer in your car. Now, again,
Speaker 1: this may be something that like ninety nine percent of
Speaker 1: people knew about, but I didn't know about this in
Speaker 1: my car until about like seven years into owning my car, Like,
Speaker 1: what's this little toggle thing on the side, And it
Speaker 1: turns out that it warms your seat And that is
Speaker 1: just like so nice if I am driving people around
Speaker 1: in the cold and all of a sudden, I am
Speaker 1: feeling nice and toasty. Two other things with that, if
Speaker 1: you are a person who is often cold getting out
Speaker 1: of the shower, use two towels. You put one on
Speaker 1: your hair, one on your body, and that way you
Speaker 1: are not having to unwrap.
Speaker 2: Your body to dry your hair.
Speaker 1: You know it, just like everything can stay warm and
Speaker 1: wrapped up and covered and you are not cold. You
Speaker 1: should also purchase hot hands in bulk for your pockets.
Speaker 1: Just put them by the door. If you are going
Speaker 1: outside for any length of time in the winter, you
Speaker 1: can just stick these little things in your coat pockets.
Speaker 1: Because people who are cold, it doesn't matter like how
Speaker 1: thick of an item you are wearing. Like you could
Speaker 1: have the best coat in the world, you have the
Speaker 1: best boots, best socks, best mints, it's not gonna help
Speaker 1: because you personally are not creating enough warmth. And so
Speaker 1: all those things are premised on the idea that they
Speaker 1: are trapping warmth that then keeps you warm. But if
Speaker 1: you are not producing that warmth that you know is
Speaker 1: enough to make you feel warm, then you need an
Speaker 1: additional source. And this is where like the seat warmer
Speaker 1: in the car or the hot hands in your pocket
Speaker 1: comes in.
Speaker 2: It can makes the experience much more pleasant. I love
Speaker 2: those hot hands on ski trips m hmm.
Speaker 1: Essential, although I don't think you can check them, I
Speaker 1: mean pack them with you, like in your carry on or.
Speaker 2: Something you Yes, you are correct, and it actually like
Speaker 2: depends on the airport. Okay, but you can check them.
Speaker 2: I believe you just can't carry them on or it's
Speaker 2: the opposite. I don't know, look it up. We had
Speaker 2: to make the sub last time, but we did successfully
Speaker 2: bring you right, okay, either in our carry on or
Speaker 2: check following the rules to Montana. I just don't remember
Speaker 2: which it was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I'm any ski store at the lodge will
Speaker 1: sell them too. I mean it's not like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so you can buy them there if you needed to.
Speaker 2: All Right, So what's your next one? All Right, I'm
Speaker 2: going to go with text expansion, which I don't think
Speaker 2: you like.
Speaker 1: So I don't just like it, just it's not as
Speaker 1: big a part of my life as yours.
Speaker 2: So maybe you can explain. So I use this into context.
Speaker 2: Number one. At work, it's huge, So we use EPIC,
Speaker 2: which is the most common electronic health record, and if
Speaker 2: you're on it, you probably do this, But if you're
Speaker 2: on something else, and maybe it's not as obvious. There
Speaker 2: should be some way of creating little shortcuts to type,
Speaker 2: like one word and then it turns into a whole
Speaker 2: giant template. Or multiple paragraphs of texts, and I have
Speaker 2: accumulated so many of these phrases over the course of
Speaker 2: my time being at work that really almost anything I'm
Speaker 2: gonna explain to a patient, I can just type like
Speaker 2: dot shoot thyroid and it has my whole thing, and
Speaker 2: then I can edit it and customize it for whatever
Speaker 2: patient that is. So that has definitely kind of like
Speaker 2: bled into my rest of my life. And I found
Speaker 2: out through Mac You just it's actually through the keyboard menu,
Speaker 2: and it's shockingly easy to do. But I even have
Speaker 2: like some of the some of the courses I do.
Speaker 2: There's certain emails that get sent out, but I want
Speaker 2: to be able to customize them, so I don't want
Speaker 2: it sent automatically. But I I can type like just
Speaker 2: like welcome BLP, and I'll have that'll generate like a
Speaker 2: whole multiple paragraph thing that I can then customize and
Speaker 2: change and whatever. So I have multiple of these, and
Speaker 2: they definitely save me a ton of time. I mean,
Speaker 2: the other thing I could do is like go and
Speaker 2: find it old email and copy and paste, but this
Speaker 2: is so much quicker. I've also to do it for
Speaker 2: like my administrative job, like we'd have a million residency
Speaker 2: applicants anytime they're kind of sort of saying the same
Speaker 2: thing again to people, but it's not totally automated. This
Speaker 2: is like a game changer game two arm.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, all right, well I bet that does save
Speaker 1: a ton of time if you have to type the
Speaker 1: same thing over and over again.
Speaker 2: Not typing the same thing over and over again sounds
Speaker 2: like it, And I agree with you that, like I
Speaker 2: don't need like TMO to be like tomorrow. Like that's
Speaker 2: not going to help. It's more like, oh, I can
Speaker 2: type one word and I have like six paragraphs. Yes, yes,
Speaker 2: that's a real, real benefit for sure. Cool.
Speaker 1: So here's one that's also a holiday related again because
Speaker 1: this episode is airing in December, but if you are
Speaker 1: in a Christmas mood at some point other than December,
Speaker 1: which I had a child who was excited about it
Speaker 1: even in July, one thing you can do is get
Speaker 1: old December editions of magazines from the library, right because
Speaker 1: your library has subscriptions and probably dating back many years
Speaker 1: to a number of consumer magazines. And so if you
Speaker 1: are thinking to your I would love a December Better
Speaker 1: Homes and Garden right now, you can go to your
Speaker 1: library and get it. You can actually do a lot
Speaker 1: of magazines and such on the Libby app too, So
Speaker 1: if you find yourself hankering for Christmas content in August,
Speaker 1: you can just look it up, get some holiday magazines,
Speaker 1: and right.
Speaker 2: There you are in the mood. I wonder if I
Speaker 2: could look up like nineteen nineties editions of sase. Oh,
Speaker 2: I'm sure you can. Oh yeah, it would be really fun. Well,
Speaker 2: I no, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I don't know that all of those would be digitized
Speaker 1: on a library collection. I mean you might have to
Speaker 1: go to a different library somebody would, like in the
Speaker 1: state of Florida. I'm sure there's somebody who has digitized
Speaker 1: someone is archive sass.
Speaker 2: Yes, but you might need to be a little bit
Speaker 2: more strategic about finding something like that. Yeah, yeah, love
Speaker 2: it all right. Here's a like very like I don't
Speaker 2: know basic, but I didn't figure it out for a while,
Speaker 2: so I'm thrown in there, which is that if I
Speaker 2: have a kid that has a sports that are going
Speaker 2: a little bit late when we're pleating dinner for everyone,
Speaker 2: just plate that kids dinner too and have it already
Speaker 2: set as a plate to be heated, versus having to
Speaker 2: like go back in and get it out and get
Speaker 2: the serving spoon again, and blah blah blah. It's way
Speaker 2: way faster. I guess. Like the only caveat is if
Speaker 2: the kid comes home and is like I don't want that,
Speaker 2: which does sometimes happen, then okay, but then you can
Speaker 2: always put it back and then you still would have
Speaker 2: had to have gotten out the thing. So I feel
Speaker 2: like most of the time you win. But what if
Speaker 2: things are different temperatures on the plate, then I would
Speaker 2: just do the heated part and then I would take
Speaker 2: the salad or whatever, like the whole part is gotcha,
Speaker 2: all right?
Speaker 1: Yeah, pre prepping plates is good in general. I always
Speaker 1: do that for at least the two younger boys, like
Speaker 1: everyone else, can kind of make their own plates, and
Speaker 1: I trust they won't completely avoid like all fruits and vegetables.
Speaker 1: But Henry needs stuff set out for him and Alex
Speaker 1: has his own personal taste, which you know, I at
Speaker 1: least try to deal with. But what that means is
Speaker 1: I'm individually plating their stuff.
Speaker 2: So yeah, big fan of that. All right. Here's something.
Speaker 1: If you need to remember anything in your life, you
Speaker 1: should set an alarm like on your phone, Like if
Speaker 1: something you're like, I'm gonna need to pick somebody up
Speaker 1: at this time, And of course the alarm.
Speaker 2: Isn't specific, like it's just gonna ding.
Speaker 1: But what's gonna happen is you're gonna remember, like, oh,
Speaker 1: I need to do something, and then you will go
Speaker 1: back and figure out what it is you need to do,
Speaker 1: or hopefully you have good notes somewhere, but it will
Speaker 1: jolt you out of what you are doing. You can
Speaker 1: also write things on your hand. I did this in
Speaker 1: school a lot, like if I, you know, was a
Speaker 1: when I was younger, like writing something I absolutely had
Speaker 1: to remember on my hand. But I mean, you do
Speaker 1: look at your hand, right, And so I have done
Speaker 1: this with a kid in sort.
Speaker 2: Of like a low key.
Speaker 1: Manner, like if they need to remember to go home
Speaker 1: in the car line instead of the bus, just encouraging
Speaker 1: them to write a CE on their hand like nobody
Speaker 1: else knows what it is. So people aren't looking and
Speaker 1: pointing like why are you writing all over your hand?
Speaker 1: It's just, you know, a little thing, but it nudges
Speaker 1: them to remember, all right, I have like.
Speaker 2: A deep one. And then we'll take a break to
Speaker 2: embrace repetition when it works and this is a fine balance.
Speaker 2: Laura has talked about how if you repeat things too
Speaker 2: often and lead the monotonous life, it can go too
Speaker 2: fast and then you like blink and you miss it.
Speaker 2: And I get that, and at the same time, there
Speaker 2: are certain things where like if you know something works,
Speaker 2: to just like stick with it and make your life easier.
Speaker 2: So I have a few examples of this where I
Speaker 2: don't feel it causes the issue, Laura says, but instead
Speaker 2: brings me joy because it's like, these are things I'm
Speaker 2: repeating because I love them. Number One signature dish. Just
Speaker 2: have something you always make for me, It's key lime pie.
Speaker 2: If I'm asked to bring something, if I have time
Speaker 2: to make it, I'm making a key line pie. Or
Speaker 2: like wearing scrubs to work and making that executive decision
Speaker 2: that I just wear fig scrubs and a Figs jacket
Speaker 2: to work and have a color rotation and I don't
Speaker 2: have to think. And then this is maybe a controversial one,
Speaker 2: but I'm really and We've talked about this, but I'm
Speaker 2: super into like repeating vacation destinations. If I find a
Speaker 2: place I absolutely love like, I'll keep going there. That's good.
Speaker 1: All right, We're going to take a quick ad break
Speaker 1: and then Sarah will end us off with just one
Speaker 1: or two quick more and then we'll go into our question.
Speaker 2: All right. Well we are back.
Speaker 1: Sarah and I are in the same closet together in
Speaker 1: my office recording here.
Speaker 2: So we've been talking life hacks.
Speaker 1: Sarah, why don't you just do your last two.
Speaker 2: To end with that and then we'll go into our
Speaker 2: question section. All right. My second to last was to
Speaker 2: set the next date. This applies to basically everything doctor's appointments,
Speaker 2: book club, check ins with your teacher, a date with
Speaker 2: a friend, but really anything that you do that you
Speaker 2: want to do again, you might as well at least
Speaker 2: set a tentative next date. If it needs to move,
Speaker 2: it needs to move, that's fine, But if it's something
Speaker 2: you intend to repeat, it's just so much easier to
Speaker 2: already have it on the calendar and then you can
Speaker 2: always modify if needed. So highly recommend that. And then finally,
Speaker 2: this is a hack that I haven't done. I think
Speaker 2: one of our Patreon members mentioned this and I was like, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 2: consider putting socks by the door. If this tends to
Speaker 2: be the rate limiting step in getting out the door
Speaker 2: in the morning. This is absolutely our rate limiting step
Speaker 2: for sometimes all three children and they have to wear
Speaker 2: socks to school. They're not allowed to just wear crocs
Speaker 2: or sandals, even though climate wise they could. Often my
Speaker 2: kids end up wearing their socks in their hand and
Speaker 2: they're going in bare feet on a gravel drive. But like,
Speaker 2: it is such a problem, and I could put the
Speaker 2: socks by the door and I will. Yes, all right,
Speaker 2: I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1: Just one more quick one for me, which is that
Speaker 1: if you don't want your beverage to order the water
Speaker 1: down in a restaurant, you can always ask for light ice,
Speaker 1: and in your own home you can make ice cubes
Speaker 1: out of other things in order to keep a beverage
Speaker 1: from being watered down. So some people do you know
Speaker 1: ice coffee, though, will freeze coffee in an ice tray
Speaker 1: because then you can use that. I've seen people use
Speaker 1: grapes like frozen grapes in wine or something like that.
Speaker 1: But of course you can also buy plastic ice cubes
Speaker 1: that will not melt if you don't want water and
Speaker 1: whatever it.
Speaker 2: Is, frozen grapes and wine.
Speaker 1: I love that, yeah, all right, So moving on to
Speaker 1: our question, Sarah, do you have that?
Speaker 2: Yes, it is. How do you find planning activities to
Speaker 2: be different or teens? I've noticed there isn't as much
Speaker 2: urgency because they aren't toddlers bouncing off the walls, and
Speaker 2: a lot of things plan themselves because it's a sports schedule,
Speaker 2: et cetera, and we all have to follow it. However,
Speaker 2: for that downtime between sports seasons or activity seasons, what
Speaker 2: can you plan as a family? What might you suggest? Yeah,
Speaker 2: tough question.
Speaker 1: Well, on some level, I think teens don't necessarily always
Speaker 1: want you planning things for them because they will have
Speaker 1: things they want to do with their friends, and friend
Speaker 1: plans tend to happen last minute. So you know, if
Speaker 1: you've planned a family afternoon at whatever, attract the odds
Speaker 1: that one of your teens is like, but Jodie's having
Speaker 1: a get together over there, and I want to go
Speaker 1: to it, Like and you know, are you going to
Speaker 1: have a knockdown, drag out fight that you want them
Speaker 1: to go to the aquarium with you? Like they're not
Speaker 1: going to go to the aquarium with you? Like this
Speaker 1: is just you know, that ship is sailed by the
Speaker 1: time they are mostly adult people. I think concentrating on
Speaker 1: a few sort of bigger, high quality things you can
Speaker 1: do as a family, and that ideally are things that
Speaker 1: they truly want to do as well. So it might
Speaker 1: be going to a concert, it might be going to
Speaker 1: a sports event.
Speaker 2: That they are very excited about, a.
Speaker 1: Weekend trip somewhere, and just putting a couple of those
Speaker 1: in a year can help you feel like you still
Speaker 1: have family activities, even if it's not like every Saturday,
Speaker 1: you guys are going to the pumpkin patch together or
Speaker 1: anything along those lines anymore, and then really just being
Speaker 1: attuned to what they enjoy doing as quick activities. Two
Speaker 1: of my kids wind up going to Old Navy shopping
Speaker 1: that they tend to like their clothes, and they're relatively cheap,
Speaker 1: so I don't mind it as a destination to go
Speaker 1: pick up random things. And obviously Starbucks is eternal. You're
Speaker 1: going to Starbucks multiple times per week, I believe at
Speaker 1: this point.
Speaker 2: And I don't how teens, but I have an almost teen,
Speaker 2: and I feel like the tween years are sort of similar.
Speaker 2: But I feel like, don't even discount stuff like going
Speaker 2: out to dinner, like, yes, they may be hanging with
Speaker 2: their friend or working on a school project or something.
Speaker 2: But if they're coming home and then the family's going
Speaker 2: out somewhere, then that still counts as time, even though
Speaker 2: it wasn't you know, the same kind of outing you
Speaker 2: might have had when they were toddler's bouncing off the walls,
Speaker 2: and that's okay. This might be a time that they're
Speaker 2: doing some social stuff, you get to do some of
Speaker 2: your own stuff, and you're still getting it together at
Speaker 2: the end. I think family vacations to me are super
Speaker 2: important to me for this reason because it's like maybe
Speaker 2: the last vestiges of some protected time, and if you're
Speaker 2: going somewhere that they love, then they're excited to do that.
Speaker 2: And then you had also mentioned the idea of sometimes
Speaker 2: bringing a friend in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know, if you're taking you're thinking, like
Speaker 1: take a kid to a movie, like it's not that
Speaker 1: hard to get an extra ticket, and then have the
Speaker 1: kids invite somebody. You know, that's an option for them
Speaker 1: to do, and they'll probably be a lot more excited
Speaker 1: about it if they're bringing a friend. I would also say,
Speaker 1: like as kids get older, sometimes they're gone with dinner stuff,
Speaker 1: if they have late activities or whatever.
Speaker 2: But if they are home.
Speaker 1: They become much more pleasant dinner companions when they're not
Speaker 1: throwing food on the floor anymore or you know, running
Speaker 1: up after one minute because they've decided they're done with
Speaker 1: dinner at this point. So I found that, you know,
Speaker 1: we're actually sitting around the table a little bit more,
Speaker 1: my teenagers and I and like a weekday or something
Speaker 1: and just.
Speaker 2: Chatting and it's kind of nice.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I again, it's not like going apple picking
Speaker 1: necessarily or the adventurers who would have planned when they
Speaker 1: were little, but it's still quality time and just being
Speaker 1: open and available to that and noticing when it.
Speaker 2: Happens can go a long way. It still counts, It
Speaker 2: still counts. It all still counts.
Speaker 1: So I guess love of the week, I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know, do our life hacks kind of count as that.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'll use the Starbucks mobile apps Starbucks
Speaker 2: mobile app as your love of the week. Well, I
Speaker 2: love that too.
Speaker 1: I definitely enjoy having that whenever it is, But I
Speaker 1: like recording in person as well. It's so nice to
Speaker 1: be able to do this occasionally. So my love of
Speaker 1: the week is the fact that Sarah's extended family lives
Speaker 1: pretty close to.
Speaker 2: Me, because yeah, it's very convenient. It's very convenient.
Speaker 1: We may both be running the Thanksgiving five k at
Speaker 1: the local y. Right, you're running that or you're not
Speaker 1: going to run it.
Speaker 2: I'm running that unless it's pouring rain. That's true, that's
Speaker 2: part right. I may not dine out what happened? Did
Speaker 2: we run it? Did we not? What was Sarah's time?
Speaker 2: How many minutes behind her was Laura? Let's not ask
Speaker 2: that question? All right?
Speaker 1: Well, this has been best of both worlds. We've been
Speaker 1: talking life hacks this week. We will be back next
Speaker 1: week with more on making work in life fit together.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
Speaker 2: shoebox dot com or at the Underscore shoe Box on Instagram,
Speaker 2: and you.
Speaker 1: Can find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 2: This has the best of both worlds podcasts.
Speaker 1: Please join us next time for more on making work
Speaker 1: and life work together.