Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 2: I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
Speaker 2: and speaker.
Speaker 3: And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer,
Speaker 3: and course creator. We are two working parents who love
Speaker 3: our careers and our families.
Speaker 2: Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
Speaker 2: how real women manage work, family, and time for fun.
Speaker 2: From figuring out childcare to mapping out long.
Speaker 1: Term career goals.
Speaker 2: We want you to get the most out of life.
Speaker 1: Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura.
Speaker 2: This episode is airing at the very beginning of July
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty five, July first.
Speaker 1: In fact, we.
Speaker 2: Are going to be doing our annual mid year goal
Speaker 2: check in. So it turns out that July first is
Speaker 2: not the actual midpoint of the year, Sarah, if there
Speaker 2: are three hundred sixty five days.
Speaker 3: The middle day is apparently July second. Makes sense that
Speaker 3: it's a little bit into that July due to the
Speaker 3: shorter months of February, April, and June.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, so that is what it is.
Speaker 2: But we were still going to do the midyear checking
Speaker 2: and as it turned out, so we record an annual
Speaker 2: goal episode that tends to air at the very end
Speaker 2: of December every year, but we tend to record it
Speaker 2: sort of earlier in December because we're trying to get
Speaker 2: ahead of the holidays, both for our production team and
Speaker 2: because we're often gone and so we can't record too
Speaker 2: close to the event itself. But that means that we
Speaker 2: actually were recording this in early June. We are, in
Speaker 2: fact six months from when we recorded our goal episode,
Speaker 2: even if it's not six months into the year when
Speaker 2: we were recording it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's fair. I mean a lot of times we
Speaker 3: set up our goals a little bit before kind of
Speaker 3: start day, so I feel like this is appropriate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I know, so November and December. I think
Speaker 2: of his resolutions pre season where you can try them
Speaker 2: out and sort of think about what your your goals
Speaker 2: are for the upcoming year. And why do we do this, Sarah,
Speaker 2: Why are we checking in midway through the year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's such a common challenge that people
Speaker 3: will be really good about making goals for the year.
Speaker 3: It's just sort of part of the cultural zeitgeist at
Speaker 3: this point, so they just kind of do it. But
Speaker 3: then if you don't actually look at those goals a
Speaker 3: year is a really long time and you are going
Speaker 3: to lose momentum or even forget what you are aiming for.
Speaker 3: Maybe you have a lot of energy go towards things
Speaker 3: and from July through January through March, but you know
Speaker 3: you want to take advantage of the rest of the
Speaker 3: year as well. So I really recommend people look at
Speaker 3: their annual goals list every single season. I even do
Speaker 3: that like formally with a group and my little planning
Speaker 3: by season group. But Laura does not think we need
Speaker 3: to have five seasonal goals episodes on the show, which
Speaker 3: is fair. So we do a midyear check in, and
Speaker 3: I would say this is the bare minimum in terms
Speaker 3: of formal check in with your annual goals. If you're
Speaker 3: not going to do it every season, at least schedule
Speaker 3: a midpoint review.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, we do three episodes that our goal related every year,
Speaker 2: because we do our goal setting episode, our midyear check in,
Speaker 2: and then we do our year in review where we
Speaker 2: look at how things went with our goals in mind.
Speaker 2: So three out of fifty two episodes is not a
Speaker 2: small percentage of goal related content, but yes, that's probably
Speaker 2: as high as I think we could go to keep people.
Speaker 1: Listening to us.
Speaker 2: So we both listened to our annual Goals episode, you know,
Speaker 2: heard past Laura and past Sarah talking about things we
Speaker 2: talked about, our year, our word of the year. Sarah,
Speaker 2: how is that finite thing going?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So I entered twenty twenty five kind of like obsessed
Speaker 3: with mortality because I had read Jodi Wellmans You Only
Speaker 3: Die Once, and I had read Oliver Berkman's second book,
Speaker 3: and I was just really into that concept. And I
Speaker 3: chose finite for my word of the year, which ended
Speaker 3: up being like, you know, if you're gonna end up
Speaker 3: in the cardiac, I see you a few months later.
Speaker 3: Maybe he was a little too much, but at the
Speaker 3: same time, this word is still very meaningful to me,
Speaker 3: and I still feel it was very appropriate. Maybe a
Speaker 3: little morbid, but like you know, if you're going to
Speaker 3: have an event like that, it really does make you
Speaker 3: look at the preciousness of the time up ahead, maybe
Speaker 3: even more grateful for that time and aware that it's finite.
Speaker 3: So I think it was just a coincidence. I don't
Speaker 3: think it led me to my event in the March
Speaker 3: hours of a Goal episode because I'm just I don't
Speaker 3: think of things that way. But yeah, I guess, I
Speaker 3: guess I'd say it worked out.
Speaker 2: What about you, You're still thinking about it? You're still
Speaker 2: thinking about life in terms of its finitude? Yeah, no,
Speaker 2: I well, I my word was influence, not to be
Speaker 2: like an influencer on Instagram. I will not be floating
Speaker 2: around in little nap dresses with sort of hazy photography
Speaker 2: with my children and matching outfits behind me. But I
Speaker 2: do want to think about ways to use whatever audience
Speaker 2: I have platform. I have to try to change things
Speaker 2: to elevate other people, to expand the scope, as it were.
Speaker 2: So I've been pondering it.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think it's kind of a daily thing. I'm not
Speaker 2: sure if there's any one particular thing I've done that
Speaker 2: would make that obvious. But I do have the word
Speaker 2: in mind.
Speaker 3: I think all of your soapbox rants are in line
Speaker 3: with this goal.
Speaker 2: I say, well, hopefully, I mean influence versus hitting people
Speaker 2: over the head with stuff. I maybe there's more subtlety
Speaker 2: to the influence, but we'll see. We'll see anyways, So,
Speaker 2: still thinking about that. So, Sarah, we started with kind
Speaker 2: of personal goals in the episode, and you certainly had
Speaker 2: some fitness ones.
Speaker 1: How's that going?
Speaker 3: Yes, So I collected some quotes from our notes for
Speaker 3: the show, which I will share. I wanted to strength
Speaker 3: train one hundred times, and then I wanted to qualify
Speaker 3: for the Boston Marathon with a safe number, meaning like
Speaker 3: enough buffer that I could run the race. And then
Speaker 3: I also wanted to, assuming that I had this safe
Speaker 3: buffer done, to do some five K specific training blocks. Well,
Speaker 3: so for listeners who have are just catching up, I
Speaker 3: went into VTech after a half marathon in March, and
Speaker 3: I have since been diagnosed with something called rhythmogenic riteventricular
Speaker 3: cardiomopathy and running is out forever and that's for me,
Speaker 3: and that's okay. I've spent a lot of time getting
Speaker 3: used to that and have come to a place of peace.
Speaker 3: But obviously it means just from a goal standpoint, those
Speaker 3: are off the list, but I mean in a very
Speaker 3: peaceful way because I have no like, I can't self
Speaker 3: flagulate myself over something that I just can't do. So
Speaker 3: if I was going to have them removed, I guess
Speaker 3: in a way, this is like a good way for
Speaker 3: that to happen. Strength training I get an a plus
Speaker 3: because strength training was okay and so I've been doing
Speaker 3: that very regularly, kind of like how I used to
Speaker 3: do it when I didn't run at all, and it's
Speaker 3: been really nice. I've been mostly using the Peloton Strength app.
Speaker 3: I use, like the Hardcore on the Floor calendar that's
Speaker 3: available for free on Facebook or you can actually go
Speaker 3: to their website, and I use that to do two
Speaker 3: lower body workouts and two upper body workouts a week.
Speaker 3: And so I'm definitely going to surpass one hundred. I
Speaker 3: don't know if I already have, but like I stop
Speaker 3: counting because one hundred percent, I will be over that number.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you also wanted to update your wardrobe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so number two was that I wanted to get
Speaker 3: a couple pairs of jeens, some tops that were not
Speaker 3: T shirts, I get a professional speaking outfit, and generally
Speaker 3: invest more in clothing that I did in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I feel like I've actually done pretty well
Speaker 3: with this. I've gotten some new tops, some new genes,
Speaker 3: even some new scrubs. I'm still on the hunt for
Speaker 3: some specific things, and I have not gotten a speaking
Speaker 3: outfit yet a new one, but I really want to,
Speaker 3: so I will work on that. And I feel very
Speaker 3: much on track for this goal. Okay, reading, My reading
Speaker 3: habit goal was I wanted to read for ten minutes
Speaker 3: of nonfiction and ten minutes fiction daily. Mostly I meet
Speaker 3: this goal. I haven't like tracked it. I'm not a streaker.
Speaker 3: I don't love to track stuff like this long term.
Speaker 3: But honestly, most days, I well almost every day, I
Speaker 3: do the nonfiction, and I would say like eighty percent
Speaker 3: of the time I read at least a little bit
Speaker 3: of fiction, sometimes way more than ten minutes. And interestingly,
Speaker 3: I seem to just gravitate towards reading about fifty books
Speaker 3: a year, Like you know, I'll have periods where there
Speaker 3: are more certain months and certain months where there's less,
Speaker 3: but that just seems to be where I am. And
Speaker 3: we're recording this in early June, and I'm writ at
Speaker 3: twenty books, so like exactly on track for my normal pattern.
Speaker 3: So I think that's fascinating and I'm happy with that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you are tracking your media right in general.
Speaker 3: Yes, every day I write in my plant. I just
Speaker 3: have a daily layout that works for me really well.
Speaker 3: And I've gotten into the habit of writing now. In
Speaker 3: the music I listened to the podcast episodes, the TV
Speaker 3: shows the movies, the books, and it's actually become very
Speaker 3: like second nature, I think, probably the way Laura treks time.
Speaker 3: And I love it because it does make me more
Speaker 3: conscious of my consumption, and I don't know, it works
Speaker 3: really well for me, so check.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I did want to do one run per
Speaker 3: week with music only. Obviously I'm not running, but I
Speaker 3: do probably a commute per week with music only, so
Speaker 3: I'll call that halfway win.
Speaker 2: Halfway win, all right, Well, and the running is what
Speaker 2: it is, so that's a yeah. No, it's funny you
Speaker 2: were saying that, I mean, because it would be different
Speaker 2: if you were like, you set time goals and then
Speaker 2: you were just like not able to achieve them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't feel like doing it, yes, yeah, or.
Speaker 2: You're just slowing for reasons that you couldn't figure out,
Speaker 2: and that would be frustrating.
Speaker 1: But it's not that.
Speaker 2: It's that it's completely off the table. So that's a
Speaker 2: sometimes that clearly is easier. It's easier, it's easier in
Speaker 2: some way. And also the interesting point about things becoming
Speaker 2: second nature so you don't even set them as goals.
Speaker 2: I mean, so time tracking. I celebrated ten years of
Speaker 2: time tracking this April. But I haven't set that as
Speaker 2: a goal even in years, even though I continue to
Speaker 2: do it.
Speaker 1: It's just that it's something that happens.
Speaker 2: So We're going to take a quick ad break and
Speaker 2: then I'll be back with some of my personal goals
Speaker 2: for the year. Well, we are back with our annual
Speaker 2: as it were, midyear goal check in. Sarah has been
Speaker 2: sharing how she did on her personal goals. I had
Speaker 2: sort of I think slightly fewer, but one of them,
Speaker 2: I did decide to listen to all the works of Beethoven,
Speaker 2: working through a calendar that's called Complete Beethoven Online. Somebody
Speaker 2: did this a few years ago in twenty twenty for
Speaker 2: the two.
Speaker 1: Hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his birth.
Speaker 2: They chose the selection to listen to every day, and
Speaker 2: in fact chose linked to the particular performance that you
Speaker 2: are supposed to listen to as an example of this
Speaker 2: particular work of Beethoven. So I've been faithfully moving through that.
Speaker 2: I am halfway through the year. As we are halfway
Speaker 2: through the year now, I've really been enjoying it. I
Speaker 2: didn't think I was going to like it as much
Speaker 2: as Bach and I probably don't. But on the other hand,
Speaker 2: Beethoven's got a lot of really good work too, and
Speaker 2: it's been fun to listen to it because I'm also
Speaker 2: getting the commentary. I think I'm learning a little bit
Speaker 2: more about him and his life and gosh, even like
Speaker 2: his business model, like how was he making money? Like
Speaker 2: how did a nineteenth century composer support himself? And there
Speaker 2: are various ways you would do that. I mean, you
Speaker 2: would write music for balls and then you would sell
Speaker 2: the sheet music later, and this is how you would
Speaker 2: make your living as an influencer. So far in that
Speaker 2: time period is.
Speaker 1: A whole lot.
Speaker 3: Like is it in chronological order?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is an in chronological order, more or less
Speaker 2: because some stuff we don't know right, like he didn't
Speaker 2: date exactly when he or he was working on things simultaneously.
Speaker 2: But it's more or less. I also decided to read
Speaker 2: Anna Karnina. I did decide to go for that, and
Speaker 2: I am currently six hundred pages into the nine hundred
Speaker 2: page book.
Speaker 1: I read a chapter a day.
Speaker 2: It is only about two hundred and seventy chapters, so
Speaker 2: I think I will end this summer at some point.
Speaker 2: At the end of the summer, I decided to eat
Speaker 2: produce for breakfast, and I have stuck with that every
Speaker 2: day except for two days. I know exactly which two
Speaker 2: days I did not do this, and both were when
Speaker 2: I was traveling, so I was less in control of breakfast.
Speaker 2: So I haven't entirely figured out how to solve that problem,
Speaker 2: but I'm sure I will figure it out eventually.
Speaker 3: Get Apple sauce pouch with I don't know if that counts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. That sounds kind of gross, Yeah
Speaker 1: it does.
Speaker 2: Sorry, but it's been pretty easy to stick with at home,
Speaker 2: and I think it's been good because it's just way
Speaker 2: to get a little bit more.
Speaker 1: Fiber in the morning and to have another serving of.
Speaker 2: Fruit and vegetables to keep me full a little bit
Speaker 2: longer versus just eating my eggs.
Speaker 1: And then strength training.
Speaker 2: I am still working out with my I said, like Sarah,
Speaker 2: do one hundred a year or sort of at least
Speaker 2: do it regularly. I am still training with my virtual
Speaker 2: trainer once a week, and then I always do at
Speaker 2: least one additional session or two on my own, shorter
Speaker 2: than the time I do with him.
Speaker 1: But I do this exercise.
Speaker 3: Ye, by the way, because I feel like three years
Speaker 3: ago or so before you hired your trainer, you were like,
Speaker 3: I don't do strength at all. Then you moved to, Okay,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna do a little bit on my own. Then
Speaker 3: you did the weekly trainer, but you weren't really doing
Speaker 3: the second session. And now you're doing the trainer and
Speaker 3: you're doing the second session. So I mean, like, I
Speaker 3: think you should appreciate your progress, like slowly.
Speaker 1: Slowly building up, which is good.
Speaker 2: And who knows, Like what's I think the back pain
Speaker 2: episodes I was I was having have been reduced a lot,
Speaker 2: and maybe the strength training, It may be other things.
Speaker 2: I don't entirely know because it wasn't a clear cut
Speaker 2: coordination with any of this. And I was strength training
Speaker 2: pretty regularly before I had my back episode two, So
Speaker 2: who knows. But I'm happy that at least that has
Speaker 2: gotten better. And then the last thing, I wasn't sure
Speaker 2: if I put my sonnets in the personal or professional category.
Speaker 2: I don't know that anyone's paying me for my sonnets,
Speaker 2: but I have continued to write a weekly sonnet.
Speaker 1: At a rate of two lines a day.
Speaker 2: This is, I mean, my third year of that, so
Speaker 2: I guess emutually it will become like time tracking.
Speaker 3: Maybe you could like auction off your sonnets.
Speaker 2: I don't know that anyone's going to pay for them,
Speaker 2: but okay, commission I don't know, commission sonnets on topics.
Speaker 2: Maybe I don't know, all right, Sarah, Professional goals, what
Speaker 2: do you have?
Speaker 3: All right? Goal number one was finish and launch book.
Speaker 3: I wrote, this is my big twenty twenty five goal,
Speaker 3: though I anticipate will be a flurry of work first
Speaker 3: two months alone and then a lot of work towards
Speaker 3: the end. Yes it was, and yes I did. I
Speaker 3: did finish. I mean there's still, like, you know, they
Speaker 3: sent me like, oh, here's all the graphics and can
Speaker 3: you look at that? And you know there's always gonna
Speaker 3: be stuff, probably even once it comes out, there's still
Speaker 3: gonna be stuff. But that's okay. The actual, like writing
Speaker 3: part was enormous and daunting, and I got it done.
Speaker 3: So I give myself a big check for that part.
Speaker 3: The launch obviously has not happened yet. It comes out
Speaker 3: in December. You can pre order the covers out and
Speaker 3: I love it. So if you check out various places
Speaker 3: you buy books, you can see what it looks like.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I would say I'm kind of I wouldn't
Speaker 3: even just say on track like this is happening whether
Speaker 3: I want to or not at this point. So yay,
Speaker 3: check number two. I said, I put myself out there
Speaker 3: more podcast pitches, speaking, et cetera. Okay, I did do
Speaker 3: some speaking, although I had been set in twenty twenty
Speaker 3: four for twenty twenty five and it went well. It
Speaker 3: was actually really fun, Like I did my first talk
Speaker 3: to a group of residents, like hired by an outside institution,
Speaker 3: so that was a lot of fun. But I don't
Speaker 3: think I really have done any self promotion like reaching
Speaker 3: out to other podcasters or things like that. That said,
Speaker 3: I'm going to be forced to do not forced, but
Speaker 3: highly encouraged and motivated to do that as part of
Speaker 3: book promotions. I'm kind of giving myself a break for
Speaker 3: now since I know there's going to be just a
Speaker 3: flurry of that. Plus I kind of want to time
Speaker 3: this ride. I don't want to beg people to have
Speaker 3: me on and then be like, also, you have to
Speaker 3: have be on again when it's time to promote my books.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna just assume we're going to be good
Speaker 3: on that for the year. But I haven't made a
Speaker 3: ton of progress Number three was I wanted to improve
Speaker 3: my shutdown ritual, and I would say, this is not
Speaker 3: like perfect, but I'm I'm getting better at like looking
Speaker 3: at my planner on this is all my non clinical day.
Speaker 3: So my clinical day is my shutdown ritual is easy.
Speaker 3: I empty epic and I drive home. But on my
Speaker 3: nonclinical days, I get to a place of acceptance and
Speaker 3: I kind of migrate forward what didn't happen, if there's anything.
Speaker 3: And I'm lately just very motivated not to get behind
Speaker 3: because I kind of have a better view of how
Speaker 3: tight things are and if I get behind, it's going
Speaker 3: to be really tough. So that's been less of an issue.
Speaker 3: And then finally come up with a fun and different
Speaker 3: summer project, Lauren, I have something maybe I think creative
Speaker 3: that we might do. And I also kind of added
Speaker 3: to my summer docket revamping some of my workbooks because
Speaker 3: I'm just doing them all at once, in part because
Speaker 3: my designer wants to do the bulk of her work
Speaker 3: over the summer, so I feel like, yeah, in a way,
Speaker 3: it's nice to just have my summer energies directed towards
Speaker 3: like other specific things versus the book which just took
Speaker 3: so much mental energy for the last year prior.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2: Well, similarly my professional goals, I wanted to finish my
Speaker 2: book so big time is in fact into my editor
Speaker 2: at my deadline was moved to May first, but I
Speaker 2: did in fact meet May first. So I've turned in
Speaker 2: the manuscript and I will still need to edit it,
Speaker 2: but you know, it's turned in, so yay. I wanted
Speaker 2: to grow vander Hack's my substack newsletter. I don't know
Speaker 2: that I am quite on pace to hit the eight
Speaker 2: hundred to one thousand paid subscribers number by the end
Speaker 2: of the year, but it has grown since January, so
Speaker 2: that is good, and I guess we still have time
Speaker 2: to get to there. So anyone wants to go check
Speaker 2: it out. Vander Hacks do substack dot com. You have
Speaker 2: to go viral for something and then some people I
Speaker 2: don't know what it is, Yeah, who knows.
Speaker 1: It does keep growing. I'm very grateful for that.
Speaker 2: It's been a fun project to launch and to see
Speaker 2: how you can turn blogging into something of a newsletter business.
Speaker 2: I also want to do a summer project. I thought
Speaker 2: we might write a novel. We will see with that
Speaker 2: that happens. Unsure on the plot, but I have started
Speaker 2: noodling around on my next book, the Golden Hours book,
Speaker 2: just thinking about what will be in there, since I
Speaker 2: didn't do a formal proposal for that one.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we're working on it. So yeah, Sarah relationships, Yeah,
Speaker 1: what was in that one?
Speaker 3: So, and I lumped this with like family, friends, et cetera.
Speaker 3: So the first one was a repeat from last year,
Speaker 3: seek out opportunities for one on one time.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So one thing that has really helped with this goal
Speaker 3: is the fact that I now have a thirteen year
Speaker 3: old and the opportunities to like take one kid with
Speaker 3: me and leave other kids at home. I mean there's
Speaker 3: certain kids that cannot be left at home alone, of course,
Speaker 3: but like they've actually increased substantially, and so I feel
Speaker 3: like I'm doing a better job like kind of embracing
Speaker 3: that and even things like, oh, my kid is a
Speaker 3: doctor's appointment, but can we also like go to Starbucks
Speaker 3: after and like chat for a little bit or I
Speaker 3: did do a one on one day with Genevieve, and
Speaker 3: I'm planning on fitting in days with the other two
Speaker 3: over the course of the year. The one with Jenevie
Speaker 3: was super memorable too, because we went to the beach.
Speaker 3: It was a beautiful day, and then we went to
Speaker 3: this place that she loves, and yeah, those days are
Speaker 3: are worthwhile. So I look forward to fitting more of
Speaker 3: that in. And I've also had some really great one
Speaker 3: on one time with Josh, Like we took a couple
Speaker 3: of trips, more trips than we planned because I ended up.
Speaker 3: He came with me to Hopkins, and he came with
Speaker 3: me on a speaking gig because at that point it
Speaker 3: was after my hospital stuff. And yeah, just excited to
Speaker 3: do more of that. Plus we can go out for
Speaker 3: dinner once in a while without a babysitter, which is
Speaker 3: great and okay, so that's that. Number two was to
Speaker 3: throw a casual neighborhood hang. Did not happen. I still
Speaker 3: want to do it. It won't be in January and February
Speaker 3: like I planned, but it can still happen.
Speaker 1: Oh well, yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Number three was to visit friends, including a college
Speaker 3: friend meetup overdue since I missed twenty twenty four, and
Speaker 3: I wrote possible other friend trip in the works. Would
Speaker 3: love it, So both are scheduled. My friends are coming
Speaker 3: to me. After a lot of discussion, they decided, you
Speaker 3: know what, let's just go to Florida in August. It's
Speaker 3: really great weather and I'm just kidding it's not, but
Speaker 3: it doesn't matter. We're going to go to a hotel
Speaker 3: and go to the spa and eat great food. And
Speaker 3: they're coming. So everyone's booked their flights. It's happening. And
Speaker 3: then I have another trip booked with a friend and
Speaker 3: that one's really really exciting too. So just having those
Speaker 3: on the calendar, I think that's eighty percent of the battle,
Speaker 3: and if we don't have any total disasters, I will
Speaker 3: be able to meet that goal. Plus I saw Laura
Speaker 3: in March and I'm going to see her in July.
Speaker 3: And yeah, so all good, bonus time, All good. What
Speaker 3: about you?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: So I have one goal was to go to three
Speaker 2: professional sports games with people. So that was like a
Speaker 2: relationship goal there, and I've already hit this because I
Speaker 2: went to three. I went to a Sixers game, and
Speaker 2: I went to two Eagles games. The Eagles game was
Speaker 2: not intended. I sort of started saying, Okay, we'll go
Speaker 2: to the Sixers and then the Phillies and then.
Speaker 1: The Eagles in the fall.
Speaker 2: But because the Eagles kept playing as alert football watchers
Speaker 2: may have seen, they kept playing through January, so we
Speaker 2: wound up going to two of the playoff games and
Speaker 2: that that was really cool to see that the Sixers
Speaker 2: game was much less cool, But we won't.
Speaker 1: We won't. Let's just not talk about that.
Speaker 2: And then Sarah and I will both be at a
Speaker 2: Phillies game in July, so I am excited about that.
Speaker 2: I had said I wanted to host a holiday party
Speaker 2: if we're talking about the November December holidays, and that
Speaker 2: has obviously not happened yet, but it could still happen.
Speaker 2: I'm actually hosting a choir party shortly after we're recording this,
Speaker 2: but it's not really a holiday party, so it's a party.
Speaker 2: And then I wanted to become a musical family. It
Speaker 2: has been fun to watch Alex learn the trombone. He
Speaker 2: is definitely getting better at it. I need to sort
Speaker 2: of sit over him while he practices. But he had
Speaker 2: his band concert the other night, and I see that
Speaker 2: he enjoyed performing. He will have his first recital coming
Speaker 2: up very soon, and so I'm hoping that he gets
Speaker 2: kind of bitten by the bug of being a musician
Speaker 2: and the good news about being a trombone player. Is
Speaker 2: that there aren't a lot of trombone players, and so
Speaker 2: if you stick with it, you will have more opportunities
Speaker 2: than if you are doing the violin or something like that.
Speaker 2: And my timing is to sign Henry up for piano
Speaker 2: lessons in the fall and to have him sing in
Speaker 2: the church choir in the fall, the kids choir. So
Speaker 2: those things have not had an opportunity to start yet
Speaker 2: without timing, but I do plan to do them.
Speaker 3: I love it. Yeah, music is so great. I wish
Speaker 3: we had more of it than we have, but honestly,
Speaker 3: I think there could still be more because Cameron's like
Speaker 3: starting guitar and he does like it so and Genevieve
Speaker 3: does piano. All right, we're gonna take it.
Speaker 2: Take one more quick ad break, yeah, one more quick
Speaker 2: ad break, and then we'll.
Speaker 1: Be back with our last goals. Well, we are back.
Speaker 2: This is our annual mid year goal check in. So
Speaker 2: we had one final category of household Sarah, how did
Speaker 2: your household goals go so far?
Speaker 3: I wrote that I have high hopes still of decluttering
Speaker 3: and organizing like everything we own, the like was in there.
Speaker 3: That is my main household goal and I have started recently,
Speaker 3: Like I literally organized a lot of my closet yesterday.
Speaker 3: So maybe spurned by making this list, but that's part
Speaker 3: of the point of making these lists. Guys. That's okay
Speaker 3: that I am getting on my goal because I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: I did have that goal. Okay. I have some opportunistic
Speaker 3: time coming up because all three kids are going to
Speaker 3: sleep away camp and they're only going Monday through Friday,
Speaker 3: so it's limited opportunistic time. But I think I could
Speaker 3: actually get a solid amount of organizing done. I don't
Speaker 3: think I'm going to quote organize everything we own, but
Speaker 3: I think I will be able to continue to make
Speaker 3: progress in some key areas. And maybe I'm okay, as
Speaker 3: long as this goal gets partially met, I can be
Speaker 3: like Laura's weight training, like this year, do my key
Speaker 3: areas next year, maybe go a layer deeper, et cetera.
Speaker 3: So I'm not going to be all or nothing about
Speaker 3: this because I think there's still time to make progress.
Speaker 3: I also think our nanny is ready to help if
Speaker 3: I give her specific areas pertaining to kids stuff. And yeah,
Speaker 3: the year is young, let's do it.
Speaker 2: The year is young, it could still happen well, and
Speaker 2: you don't mind putting stuff on a goal list again
Speaker 2: and again, right, I mean, especially sometimes it's the nudge
Speaker 2: that makes it happen totally. I mean I talked about
Speaker 2: I had flossing on my list for so many years,
Speaker 2: and then in like twenty eighteen, I was like, I
Speaker 2: floss now, or before that, maybe even I don't even know.
Speaker 2: There was one year when it clicked, and then it's
Speaker 2: clicked ever since. Strength training, book writing, estate planning. These
Speaker 2: are all like giant things that went on multiple yearly
Speaker 2: lists before coming to fruition. So I'm not the kind
Speaker 2: of person who thinks it's not okay to put something
Speaker 2: on there that might not happen because you might get closer.
Speaker 3: And closer, or you might make zero progress at all.
Speaker 3: But then the star's kind of like come into line
Speaker 3: and you realize the time is right and you can
Speaker 3: move on something. So yeah, yeah, what about your household? Well,
Speaker 3: you didn't have a household goal, but you did do
Speaker 3: something fun for your household.
Speaker 2: Well, I bought miniature household stuff. I wanted to add
Speaker 2: to my miniature's collection. Although I need to think about
Speaker 2: it because I might the two shelves in my office
Speaker 2: that I can sort of see eye level from my
Speaker 2: desk are now actually completely full. They're starting to get
Speaker 2: cluttered with miniature furniture. So I like dollhouse furniture, and
Speaker 2: I've been creating miniature scenes in my office and so
Speaker 2: I wanted to add to that over the course of
Speaker 2: the year, and I have. I ordered some farmhouse like
Speaker 2: bathroom miniatures from this place in Australia, and they finally
Speaker 2: showed up like I ordered them, like when this episode
Speaker 2: we were recording our Annual Goals episode low back in
Speaker 2: November December of twenty twenty four. I don't know what happened,
Speaker 2: but they finally showed up like now, like May of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. But they're there, are cute, and I
Speaker 2: will probably buy some accessories for the bathroom to make
Speaker 2: it look a little bit more inhabited, and then who knows,
Speaker 2: maybe I'll add to the scene. But I did sign
Speaker 2: up for there are these webinars like the Thorn Miniature
Speaker 2: rooms in the Art Institute of Chicago. There's going to
Speaker 2: be a webinar online about them shortly after this we're
Speaker 2: recording this episode, So I signed up for that, Like
Speaker 2: why not I can learn about it.
Speaker 3: And we'll beating at six am, just so Laura can
Speaker 3: make her I'm just kidding, We're not.
Speaker 2: No, no, it's an evening hour that will be a
Speaker 2: golden hour thing one day.
Speaker 3: I think it's great. It's like a new deep dive.
Speaker 3: It's like a like it's a fun hobby, like why not?
Speaker 1: Why not?
Speaker 2: I the fun part of getting older is you can
Speaker 2: sometimes make space for these completely random interests of yours.
Speaker 2: All right, So that's how we've done so far on
Speaker 2: our goals. We'll obviously be talking more about this in December.
Speaker 2: See if we've achieved the ones we haven't or made
Speaker 2: more progress on the ones we are working on.
Speaker 1: So this question.
Speaker 2: Is about summer, So the listener writes in I see
Speaker 2: all this talk about summer reading. When do people have
Speaker 2: time to read, especially over the summer when the kids
Speaker 2: are home. I want to curate this habit, but I struggle. So, Sarah,
Speaker 2: what's your advice for this person?
Speaker 3: My first piece of advice is to make sure you
Speaker 3: are choosing books that you really want to read and
Speaker 3: aren't assigning yourself things that are like homework. Because if
Speaker 3: you're excited about picking up a book, or if you're
Speaker 3: in the middle of one. That's that's great. You will
Speaker 3: just kind of like sneak it in just the way
Speaker 3: that you probably I mean, I'm not judging you, but
Speaker 3: maybe you currently sneak in peak at social media or
Speaker 3: things like that. Instead you'll be like, I want to
Speaker 3: know what's going to happen in this juicy novel or
Speaker 3: memoir or whatever it is. So I think that's my
Speaker 3: number one. Number two is anytime anyone's struggling to do anything,
Speaker 3: I'm like, why don't you consider the early morning? I mean,
Speaker 3: that doesn't work in all cases. Maybe you're in a
Speaker 3: season where you have a baby wit you up all
Speaker 3: night and you're like, early morning no, isn't just hard no.
Speaker 3: But if it is available to you, then reading can
Speaker 3: be done in the morning. You can read a novel
Speaker 3: in the morning no one is stopping you. Or you
Speaker 3: could do an audiobooks. If you're trying to fit an exercise,
Speaker 3: you could exercise while you have that book going and
Speaker 3: do that juicy summer reading that way. And then finally,
Speaker 3: I would say, if you're like an obliger and you
Speaker 3: which is a Gretchen Rubin personality tendency, that means you
Speaker 3: respond better to outer expectations. You might want to think
Speaker 3: about joining a book club. If there is not one
Speaker 3: socially available to you in your area, you could always
Speaker 3: find a virtual book club. There's a ton of like
Speaker 3: book podcasts and book talk and a lot of those
Speaker 3: kind of creators and book influencers have their own book
Speaker 3: clubs that you can pay a nominal amount to join.
Speaker 3: So maybe that would be a motivator, kind of give
Speaker 3: you some deadlines and ideas around you're reading.
Speaker 2: What do you think, Laura, Yeah, I think the reading
Speaker 2: books you want to read is huge, and you should
Speaker 2: knowledge this about yourself, Like there's no reason you should
Speaker 2: not pretend to be into books that you aren't like.
Speaker 2: And if you're not into whatever the hot summer reads are,
Speaker 2: then don't read it.
Speaker 1: Like that's I tend not to be.
Speaker 2: Actually that those are not books on my summer list,
Speaker 2: And that's fine. You want to read books that you
Speaker 2: are excited that you're like looking like, oh, I can't
Speaker 2: wait till that comes out, or I love that author.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to read that one, because then you
Speaker 2: will make more space for it than if you are
Speaker 2: just trying to make yourself read stuff you're not as
Speaker 2: into that said, I think you can look at your
Speaker 2: time and see where structurally you can fit it. As
Speaker 2: Sarah mentioned the early mornings, but for a lot of
Speaker 2: people that's time before bed, and it doesn't have to
Speaker 2: be a ton of time. But if you can swing
Speaker 2: fifteen twenty minutes before bed, I think a lot of
Speaker 2: people can do that. If you look at what you
Speaker 2: are doing in this time, you might be just sort
Speaker 2: of puttering around the house doing random stuff that doesn't
Speaker 2: truly need to be done. Then sometimes people are doing
Speaker 2: screen time, which can be fun, but maybe you don't
Speaker 2: need to do that every night, or you could cut
Speaker 2: it off a little bit earlier and use some time
Speaker 2: for reading. And I'm a broken record on this, but
Speaker 2: e readers on your phone.
Speaker 1: Put ebooks on your.
Speaker 2: Phone because you always have your book, you always have
Speaker 2: the phone with you, and then you can read in
Speaker 2: little pockets of time that you would have been scrolling
Speaker 2: around reading headlines. And it's just as easy. You just
Speaker 2: have to get in the habit of doing it. So
Speaker 2: Sarah Love of the Week, I so.
Speaker 3: The opposite of reading a screen a TV show. I
Speaker 3: was in a mood because one of my kids broke
Speaker 3: their finger and it was like a ordeal, and I
Speaker 3: was like, I need candy. I need digital candy. I
Speaker 3: just need to lose myself in something that's incredibly easy
Speaker 3: to watch right now. And I found Sirens on Netflix,
Speaker 3: and five minutes in I'm like, this is exactly what
Speaker 3: I need. So it's a TV show, it's like five
Speaker 3: episodes total. Each episode is about an hour, and it's
Speaker 3: kind of a White Lotus knockoff. I mean, it wasn't
Speaker 3: the world's most original show, but man, it sucked you
Speaker 3: in nicely and it just was exactly what I needed
Speaker 3: at that moment. So I don't know, like juicy TV
Speaker 3: can be such a balm sometimes, and I recommend Sirens
Speaker 3: if you're in that place. Also, Emily in Paris, that
Speaker 3: was my last summer when I had a lot of
Speaker 3: drama with something. There were a lot of episodes and
Speaker 3: I had a lot of drama, so it was perfect.
Speaker 3: But this was a short thing, so that was exactly
Speaker 3: what I needed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So mine is like knowing yourself here. I have
Speaker 2: been reading consuming of great many books on early Earth history.
Speaker 2: I just find this endlessly fascinating. Along time my miniature rooms,
Speaker 2: like I have these multiple obsessions. One is like dollhouse furniture.
Speaker 2: The other is like early Earth history, and I've just
Speaker 2: been reading through about the science and the chemistry of
Speaker 2: the early Earth and all this stuff. We learn new
Speaker 2: things all the time, even though these things happened billions
Speaker 2: or millions of years ago, and so there is something
Speaker 2: new to learn about it, often a lot new to
Speaker 2: learn as things come up. So I've been reading a
Speaker 2: lot of books on that topic, and I continue to
Speaker 2: work my way through the literature, and that's what I've
Speaker 2: been reading at night.
Speaker 1: So that's what I like.
Speaker 3: I think the theme is to boldly and unapologetically choose
Speaker 3: the things you like.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely and whatever.
Speaker 2: The mix of random things that you like can bring
Speaker 2: joy into your life, and you know they'll be more
Speaker 2: likely to stick with it. Well, this has been best
Speaker 2: of both worlds. We've been doing our annual mid year
Speaker 2: goal check in a lot of things going well, some pivots,
Speaker 2: but that's life. We will be back next week with
Speaker 2: more on making work and life fit together.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
Speaker 3: shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram,
Speaker 3: and you can.
Speaker 2: Find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has
Speaker 2: been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join us
Speaker 2: next time for more on making work and life work together.