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,
Speaker 2: writer and course creator. We are two working parents who
Speaker 2: love 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 1: Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura. This
Speaker 1: episode is airing in mid October of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: We are going to be talking some Fall favorites, which
Speaker 1: is an episode topic we have done before. But fall
Speaker 1: is a great time and it's a good time to
Speaker 1: revisit some of our favorite things. We're using, products we enjoy,
Speaker 1: shows or technology, and all the things that are making
Speaker 1: life great right now. It's kind of a all love
Speaker 1: of the week episode. If we have time, we plan
Speaker 1: to get to a section on energy management, though if
Speaker 1: we turn out to be a bit more loquacious than planned,
Speaker 1: I guess that we'll have to wait for another week,
Speaker 1: but at least on the docket to discuss energy as
Speaker 1: well today. So, Sarah, are you feeling the fall vibes
Speaker 1: right now?
Speaker 2: I mean, weather wise no, but life wise yes, because
Speaker 2: I'm just ready to move on from summer, and therefore
Speaker 2: anything that gives me like a hint of the feeling
Speaker 2: of fall, even if it doesn't actually feel like fall,
Speaker 2: is making me happy. It also means we're like on
Speaker 2: the way to winter, which is lovely. And so yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm like extra fall this year. I think I got
Speaker 2: to respond the episode idea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I haven't really pulled out my sweaters yet. I
Speaker 1: will wear the fleece at night. The sweaters seems like
Speaker 1: possibly I didn't clean all my sweaters very well when
Speaker 1: I put them in the drawer last year, so I'm
Speaker 1: sort of discovering that now as I was looking through
Speaker 1: them the other day. So that'll be a bit of
Speaker 1: a project maybe coming up. But yeah, you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's nice to have a little chill in the air
Speaker 1: in the morning.
Speaker 3: We definitely have.
Speaker 1: I mean, well, when this air is mid October, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be peak fall. We're recording it a little bit
Speaker 1: ahead of time, and we've got a lot of golden
Speaker 1: color everywhere, which I always love to look at so
Speaker 1: beautiful time of year around here, and then of course
Speaker 1: it becomes a lot less beautiful and I want to
Speaker 1: head the Florida So it's fair. Sounds fair? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I used to do this thing when I wore winter
Speaker 2: clothing where I would like do a bulk dry cleaner
Speaker 2: drop off, like right around now, and then everything was
Speaker 2: like fresh for the new season. So maybe your drawers
Speaker 2: can just be all dealt with it once.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, No, it's on the list next week.
Speaker 3: Make a note to myself.
Speaker 1: I have all these things, these projects, and then I
Speaker 1: kind of forget them if the time isn't right for
Speaker 1: me to write them down. But maybe I'll try to
Speaker 1: remember that one for later.
Speaker 4: But yeah, so Fall favorites, we're gonna start with the
Speaker 4: personal care and cosmetics category. So, Sarah, what are you
Speaker 4: using right now that is sparking a fire in your life?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and by the way, the items we're talking about,
Speaker 2: just to clarify, they're not all fall related items because
Speaker 2: I'm like, what I'm about to talk to has nothing
Speaker 2: to do with fall. It's just of the moment of
Speaker 2: right now. So on my list, I just want to
Speaker 2: give a shout out and none of these are sponsored
Speaker 2: to Toms of Main toothpaste, because I'm an old person
Speaker 2: who cannot deal with the like spicy, artificially sweet taste
Speaker 2: of like Colgate or crust anymore.
Speaker 3: Like I cannot.
Speaker 2: There goes potential sponsorships, I guess, but I love like
Speaker 2: the Toms of Main spearmint or peppermint, so enjoying that.
Speaker 2: Other bathroom products that I'm going to give a shout
Speaker 2: out to are Li Lavos shower gel in the basil scent,
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, so luxurious.
Speaker 3: It's so nice.
Speaker 2: Every time I smell it makes me happy. And actual
Speaker 2: shaving cream I put on the list. Now, I haven't
Speaker 2: bought shaving cream for many years, but one of my
Speaker 2: kids was like, I want shaving cream and I was like, okay,
Speaker 2: so I bought it. Then I decided it was sitting there,
Speaker 2: I might as well try it, and like, shaving is
Speaker 2: quite nice with actual shaving cream versus just shower gel
Speaker 2: or soap, and I will probably buy it again. Who knew?
Speaker 1: Huh. I'm not sure I even use shower gel or soap.
Speaker 1: It just kind of use the razor. Maybe I'm missing
Speaker 1: out on something and just I it's like seems like
Speaker 1: an extra step.
Speaker 3: Wait really though, Yeah, do you get like okay? Interesting?
Speaker 3: Maybe we have very different skin.
Speaker 2: I feel like I would just be covered in red
Speaker 2: bumps if I pull that, But maybe you have more
Speaker 2: resilient dirm.
Speaker 3: That could be. We find out new things all the time.
Speaker 1: Well, it's so funny because once shower habits are obviously
Speaker 1: very personal in private, like nobody else is involved in them,
Speaker 1: and so you'd never know you're doing something completely wrong,
Speaker 1: like her, Is there a better way? Have I been
Speaker 1: shampoo my hair in the wrong manner for forty plus
Speaker 1: years now? It is entirely possible, and I will probably
Speaker 1: never find out, And you, dear listener, will never find
Speaker 1: out if you're doing it the wrong way either.
Speaker 3: So there we go.
Speaker 1: Well, so I actually need to get some scented shower gel.
Speaker 1: I had lovely grapefruit scented product.
Speaker 3: It wasn't.
Speaker 1: One of the upsides of citrus scented products is I
Speaker 1: feel like they could be pretty cheap, but they are okay,
Speaker 1: Like the sweet needs to be like higher end in
Speaker 1: order not to be terrible, but like citrus sense for
Speaker 1: whatever can be done on a cheaper basis and still
Speaker 1: be okay. So I had this grapefruit scented shower stuff
Speaker 1: like just from CVS and or no, I guess from Amazon.
Speaker 1: As it turned out, and it was great, and then
Speaker 1: I ran out, and then we had this episode that
Speaker 1: we're recording, and I went onto Amazon and lo and behold.
Speaker 1: I had apparently ordered it on October seventeen, twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: so I re upped on that. I apparently did not
Speaker 1: need to subscribe on Save on that because I wasn't
Speaker 1: using very much of it. I do want to give
Speaker 1: a shout out to Thrive, who is a sponsor, but
Speaker 1: I have really been enjoying their mascara. I wear it
Speaker 1: every day, and their lipstick crans and eyebrightener, and then
Speaker 1: I use Ilia foundation and concealer and the Ilia multi
Speaker 1: stick for cheeks, so a mix of those. And I
Speaker 1: will also do a shout out to wearing makeup every
Speaker 1: single day. I just decided that's what I'm going to
Speaker 1: do in life, and that's what I'm doing.
Speaker 2: I feel like I pretty much do that, except then
Speaker 2: I kind of like the rare like not wearing makeup day,
Speaker 2: like it's a break, but it's like an intentional choice,
Speaker 2: not a It was like I was just too lazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 3: All right, clothing, what are you wearing these days?
Speaker 1: Sarah?
Speaker 2: I am super into the wide leg jeans and wide
Speaker 2: leg pants. Still I don't actually have that many pairs,
Speaker 2: but I feel like this is I'm about to expand
Speaker 2: my repertoire as although I just have seen a lot
Speaker 2: of cool barrel leg options in different catalogs and makers
Speaker 2: like I love made while and Ayr and they both
Speaker 2: have these really cute barrel like jeans, so I might
Speaker 2: try that as well. Those are just like they're like
Speaker 2: really kind of loose, but then they like almost have
Speaker 2: like a taper to that anyway, you have to see them.
Speaker 2: But yeah, just like in all the wide leg stuff,
Speaker 2: and the Alice in Trouser for Marine Layer is on
Speaker 2: my short list because they have these really cute and
Speaker 2: they're elastic ways, so they're super super comfortable. And then
Speaker 2: I will say my other style thing is like I
Speaker 2: just wear sneakers to work now because I generally wear
Speaker 2: scrubs and I have these on cloud sneakers that were
Speaker 2: they actually were bought to be I think hiking shoes
Speaker 2: for Annabel when we were in Seattle, but then she
Speaker 2: didn't really like them, so and we have the same
Speaker 2: shoe size, so I took them over and they make
Speaker 2: me like an inch taller and they're so comfortable. So
Speaker 2: who knew sneakers could offer that much benefit.
Speaker 3: It's like all in one.
Speaker 1: You get your heel and your sneaker in one shoe together.
Speaker 1: That's great. Yeah. So I kind of have my uniform
Speaker 1: that I wore all summer, and I guess we'll wear
Speaker 1: into fall until it's so cold that I can't.
Speaker 3: But I wear my Share flats.
Speaker 1: There's sort of a nudish color, but they're Swedes, so
Speaker 1: I can't really wear them if it's raining. But I
Speaker 1: wear those, and I wear my Nick and Zoe cropped
Speaker 1: jeans with a slight frey at the hem. I now
Speaker 1: have four pairs of those in blue and one in cream,
Speaker 1: so I basically can just wear them every day if desired,
Speaker 1: And in the summer I wear a sort of nicer
Speaker 1: tank or sleeveless shirt with them, and then in the
Speaker 1: winter I haven't quite figured out what I'll be wearing
Speaker 1: with them. I guess not into winter but fall. Stay
Speaker 1: tuned on the sweaters.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've seen some slightly cropped pants kind of
Speaker 2: working with boots, so I don't know, you may want
Speaker 2: to look into that. Then you can carry them into winter.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess I could carry them into winter. And
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: They might look a little funny, but we'll find out.
Speaker 1: You might. I can't picture, but yeah. Anyway, all right,
Speaker 1: let's go to food items, Sarah, seasonal or not.
Speaker 2: It is sort of seasonal because actually, okay, so my
Speaker 2: first food item is frozen samosas because they kind of
Speaker 2: like bridge the line between snack and meal pretty well,
Speaker 2: and my kids like them, so they're perfect, Like Annabelle
Speaker 2: has gymnastics from like five fifteen to eight forty five,
Speaker 2: which is really long, and also like during dinner, so
Speaker 2: they're the perfect thing to grab beforehand because it's like
Speaker 2: substantial enough, but you could scale it up or down
Speaker 2: easily because they're like little individual triangles and you can
Speaker 2: put them in the toaster oven. And they're sort of
Speaker 2: a fall item because Trader Joe's during the fall makes
Speaker 2: a pumpkin addition. Those are a little bit spicy, but
Speaker 2: they're delicious, the pumpkin samosas from Trader Joe's. And just
Speaker 2: I want to say, like it's October This is Trader
Speaker 2: Joe's time to shine, in my opinion, because like everything's pumpkin.
Speaker 3: A lot of the pumpkin stuff is good. It's super fun.
Speaker 3: Random stuff is pumpkins. Some of it's bad.
Speaker 1: It's fun to.
Speaker 3: Try it either way. So I love that. And then my.
Speaker 2: Perfect fall Starbucks order, which I've discussed on my blog
Speaker 2: a few times, but I don't think I put it
Speaker 2: the podcast, an oat milk cappuccino and a warmed pumpkin bread.
Speaker 2: I do not like pumpkin spice lattes, but I figured
Speaker 2: out that, like I can get my pumpkin fixed, we
Speaker 2: have pumpkin bread and eat it with a non sweet
Speaker 2: coffee drink and it's just perfect.
Speaker 3: Out of curiosity, why are you doing oat milk?
Speaker 1: I like it? Okay, I was like, I got it
Speaker 1: because there's butter in the pumpkin bread.
Speaker 3: So I'm not.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm not.
Speaker 2: I have no problem with dairy, although I think straight
Speaker 2: milk sometimes does a little bit of a number on me.
Speaker 3: So one time I was like, oh, let me try
Speaker 3: oat milk, and I.
Speaker 2: Just really like the taste of it, like it's a
Speaker 2: little bit like nutty and almost like a little bit
Speaker 2: like has more death or something than the regular. So
Speaker 2: that's my order. Grande oat milk cappuccino, lovely.
Speaker 1: I like it. I'm gonna do a shout out for
Speaker 1: rotisserie chickens, which maybe other folks here grew up with
Speaker 1: getting rotisserie chickens from the grocery store, but this is
Speaker 1: never something we did. But it turns out that they
Speaker 1: have these chickens, these rotisserie chickens in most grocery store
Speaker 1: and I've just been getting one on Monday or whatever
Speaker 1: from the store, and then it becomes the basis of
Speaker 1: my lunches through a lot of the week. I just
Speaker 1: pull off some chicken, heat it up, have it with
Speaker 1: fruit or you know, if we've got leftover rice or
Speaker 1: whatever from the night before, and yeah, it just is
Speaker 1: tasty and simple and pretty cheap as a lunch basis.
Speaker 1: I can get like two or three lunches out of
Speaker 1: it easy. And then sometimes I use the chicken for
Speaker 1: other things, like we're doing a chicken based pasta sauce
Speaker 1: Monday night that can work as well. Also shout out
Speaker 1: to apples, the fall fruit of choice, although October is
Speaker 1: getting a little bit late for picking it. Although a
Speaker 1: lot of farms will still do their apple picking in October.
Speaker 1: I learned many years ago that my favorite kinds of
Speaker 1: apples actually ripen more in early to mid September. So
Speaker 1: in early to mid September we went to our life
Speaker 1: orchard to go picking it. It was a bit of one
Speaker 1: of these family activities that inspired some whining because it
Speaker 1: was not necessarily how it was supposed to go. Like
Speaker 1: I was hot, the apples were ridiculously overpriced, like what
Speaker 1: we paid for.
Speaker 3: Then we wound up with like three pecks of them.
Speaker 1: Anyway, so we've been eating a lot of apples, have
Speaker 1: a lot of apple sauce. But you know, I still
Speaker 1: like apples. Apples are yummy, and apples straight from the
Speaker 1: tree have a certain special something to them. I haven't
Speaker 1: had any apples straight from the tree, but I love
Speaker 1: apples with cinnamon on them. That's such a fall flavors.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Where apple pie. Yeah, apple pies are great. We tend
Speaker 1: to make one of those each weekends, and now we've
Speaker 1: found enough apples to continue doing that for many a time.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, we're going to take a quick ad
Speaker 1: break and then we'll be back with a few more
Speaker 1: of our fall favorites. Well, we are back the first
Speaker 1: part of this episode. We're discussing some of our fall favorites,
Speaker 1: things that we are enjoying right now in our life.
Speaker 1: Not all fall related, though a few have been. There
Speaker 1: was pumpkin bread involved in apples. So, Sarah, household goods,
Speaker 1: you suggested this as a category. I didn't know that
Speaker 1: we were. We had favorite household Goods, but let me
Speaker 1: know what are yours?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Household Goods is what we name one of our budget categories,
Speaker 2: and you need a budget, so maybe that's why I came.
Speaker 3: Up with it, but one of them.
Speaker 2: I don't even feel like I've mastered it yet, but
Speaker 2: I'm like, this is my life goal and I'm trying
Speaker 2: and I'm improving, which is to always stay one ahead
Speaker 2: of the printer cartridges because they always run out, and
Speaker 2: they always run out just when you want to print something.
Speaker 2: And if you whenever you run out, like immediately order
Speaker 2: your next round of them.
Speaker 3: I guess you.
Speaker 2: Only downside is that if your printer breaks and it's
Speaker 2: your last printer cartridge ever and you didn't know that,
Speaker 2: then find you have one extra printer cartridge that you've
Speaker 2: bought that you don't need, but that doesn't happen all
Speaker 2: that often, and so I believe it's staying one the
Speaker 2: printer cartridges. Having extra dish towels has also been surprisingly
Speaker 2: I don't know. We would like always use them all
Speaker 2: up and be like, well now we have to use
Speaker 2: paper towels. And then Josh was like, I ordered dish
Speaker 2: towels and I'm like, oh right, you can.
Speaker 3: You can buy more.
Speaker 2: You're really all fancy, and I think he ordered them
Speaker 2: from like Creating Bar, Pottery Bar. You could have themed
Speaker 2: dish towels for each other, just like minimalists and gray
Speaker 2: but they're nice and they like absorb stuff, and you know,
Speaker 2: we could get even more dish towels. So having enough
Speaker 2: dish towels and then also on the towel train, because
Speaker 2: apparently I'm on it. The Uccino Waffle Twist towels and robe.
Speaker 2: They're not like super fancy, like they're at Macy's or wherever.
Speaker 2: I don't think they have it a met target, but
Speaker 2: like any other sort of mid level department store, they
Speaker 2: just look so nice like they have a they look
Speaker 2: more luxurious than they actually cost, and they drive really quickly,
Speaker 2: so if you live in a mildew prone climate as
Speaker 2: we do, then they will benefit you in that manner.
Speaker 1: Awesome. Well, I'm not sure if this is a household good.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I would put the which BUDG
Speaker 1: category I would put this in. But I'm really into
Speaker 1: fall flowers these days. So fall flowers has been a
Speaker 1: new discovery for me. I always thought of flowers as
Speaker 1: being a spring thing, and there are obviously a great
Speaker 1: many flowers that bloom in the spring, but there are
Speaker 1: also a reasonable number of flowers that, as their evolutionary strategy,
Speaker 1: have decided to bloom in the fall, and many reasons
Speaker 1: one might do that as a flower. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: maybe different pickings. The pollinators aren't there for the spring flowers.
Speaker 1: You've got more opportunity to shine in the fall or
Speaker 1: something like that. But they're really cool looking, especially against
Speaker 1: the changing trees and vines and stuff like that, because
Speaker 1: it's just the colors of fall are so distinct versus
Speaker 1: like the colors of spring. So in spring you get
Speaker 1: a lot of these pinks and stuff like that, but
Speaker 1: the fall, you know the bright blue asters, for instance,
Speaker 1: and you know lots of zenias and mums and all that.
Speaker 3: Then you see that again.
Speaker 1: It's the red and orange and yellow of the trees,
Speaker 1: and it's just a sort of otherworldly sort of look.
Speaker 1: And I in fact probably like it better than the
Speaker 1: spring because the spring flowers you only get the mist
Speaker 1: of green behind them. In terms of the trees, right,
Speaker 1: like the generally the flowering trees and stuff come out
Speaker 1: before the leaves. That's their their strategy, so you only
Speaker 1: have the flowers with a tiny mist of green, whereas
Speaker 1: in the fall you've got all the colors of the
Speaker 1: trees and the bright colors of the flowers. So we've
Speaker 1: been decorating with lots of fall flowers around here, and
Speaker 1: makes me happy every time I see them.
Speaker 3: I love it. I think it's definitely a household good.
Speaker 2: I mean it's like a descoor item, and it's an
Speaker 2: experience and I like the seasonality to it. So that's
Speaker 2: super cool, excellent all right. Items for tweens and older children.
Speaker 2: All right, Cameron requested Pasca paint and I was like,
Speaker 2: these are annoyingly expensive, and also they have acrylic paint
Speaker 2: in them, which means you get them on stuff they're
Speaker 2: not coming off. But I order them anyway, and they
Speaker 2: have made him so happy, and like the other kids
Speaker 2: are using them and they're they're really fun to use.
Speaker 2: So basically, I mean, it's like a marker, but what
Speaker 2: comes out is basically paint, but there's the tip is
Speaker 2: nice and fine, so you can have a lot of control.
Speaker 2: So he's been making a lot of like comic book
Speaker 2: looking stuff and because it's like paint, it's like very
Speaker 2: very opaque, not like a regular marker.
Speaker 3: So yeah, super into it.
Speaker 2: Oh and you can draw on them like on black
Speaker 2: paper too and it would show up as paint, so
Speaker 2: super cool. And then crunch Labs, which was a Best
Speaker 2: Slide Planned sponsor, but we were using them. That was
Speaker 2: one of the ones where like they asked and I
Speaker 2: was like yes because I'm already a customer, a very
Speaker 2: happy customer, and we use them before and use them since.
Speaker 2: But that's Mark Rober's like activity box where you basically
Speaker 2: get to like do little mini engineering projects and building
Speaker 2: and they're just super popular at our house and generally
Speaker 2: I wish they took even longer, like I feel they
Speaker 2: take about like an hour, but it's like a fun
Speaker 2: hour to hear the progress on that and then see
Speaker 2: it when it's complete because they'll make stuff like we
Speaker 2: had one that was a ping pong type ball that
Speaker 2: was floating in the air, was thrilling everyone.
Speaker 1: Exactly. Yeah, we get the crunch slabs box too. That
Speaker 1: Alex is the one who likes doing those, and I
Speaker 1: guess I was realized this is so gender stereotypical. Then
Speaker 1: Ruthie and I split the Allure beauty box. That that's something.
Speaker 1: Although split wasn't quite how it happened last month, she
Speaker 1: wanted most of the stuff, so that's good. I mean,
Speaker 1: I can buy my own cosmetics, so I'm happy that
Speaker 1: she's fighting stuff she likes in there. I'm going to
Speaker 1: go shout out to baking projects as an activity. So
Speaker 1: here about the apple pie. That is certainly something that
Speaker 1: kids can probably put together pretty easily, because you know,
Speaker 1: just buy a frozen pie crust and cut up apples,
Speaker 1: mix them with cinnamon and sugar and you're pretty much good.
Speaker 1: Put that in the oven. But especially when older kids
Speaker 1: are doing baking projects, you usually get a good result.
Speaker 1: You don't necessarily have to be doing.
Speaker 3: It with them.
Speaker 1: So it's like, uh, the baking fairy stopped by this
Speaker 1: is awesome. So I'm a huge fan of that.
Speaker 2: Yep, also very fall because there's so many faulty things
Speaker 2: you can bake.
Speaker 1: How about for younger kids, yes, yes, younger kids.
Speaker 2: Well, this year is the first year that every year
Speaker 2: there's like a classroom what's up chat for every class
Speaker 2: At least it has been like that around here, but
Speaker 2: this year they made a separate one for like social
Speaker 2: stuff only so that the teachers don't see that one.
Speaker 2: You can use it for birthday party invites, playd eight invites, whatever,
Speaker 2: and that's been great because parents will just be like,
Speaker 2: I'm headed here if anybody wants to come, and it's
Speaker 2: just nice to have like an automatic forum for that
Speaker 2: kind of thing. I will also add that trips to
Speaker 2: the bookstore, just as an activity, can be great for
Speaker 2: any age kid, including younger kids that just want to
Speaker 2: look at picture books. You just want to get out
Speaker 2: of the house and you are encouraging them to read,
Speaker 2: so pick one book out.
Speaker 3: Great, it could be a fun activity.
Speaker 2: And then finally, this one isn't as fun, but if
Speaker 2: you have younger kids that are needing to learn like
Speaker 2: the basic edition facts and stuff, we like the program
Speaker 2: reflex Math. We've now had all three of our kids
Speaker 2: use it in some fashion and it seems to work.
Speaker 2: Is it the most fun thing ever for them?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: But it's not like torture either, so all to win.
Speaker 1: So mine's going to be slightly fall themed in the
Speaker 1: sense that Lemony Snicket books, but not the series of
Speaker 1: unfortunate events that's a that's kind of for older kids.
Speaker 1: But he has written a lot of picture books as well,
Speaker 1: and they all have slightly of a spooky theme to them.
Speaker 1: I find they've got this kind of fall vibe to them,
Speaker 1: even if they aren't necessarily foolish. We've for years owned
Speaker 1: a copy of the Dark, which is about how Laslow
Speaker 1: is afraid of the dark, and then the Dark comes
Speaker 1: to visit Laslow in Laslow's room, and the whole thing
Speaker 1: is sort of spooky sounding, like you are not you know,
Speaker 1: you may be afraid of the dark, but the dark
Speaker 1: is not afraid of you. And it goes on from there.
Speaker 1: There's also he wrote one sets we've been reading with
Speaker 1: Henry called The Stick and the Bad Mood, and it's
Speaker 1: how a stick gets used in multiple ways and a
Speaker 1: bad mood gets passed around from various different characters. If
Speaker 1: you read it, don't send me hate mail. There's slightly.
Speaker 1: There's a little inappropriate part in it, but Henry doesn't
Speaker 1: understand that that is, so we will just decide that
Speaker 1: Lemony Snicket put that in for whatever reason. But there's
Speaker 1: other ones, like there's about the Ghostfish. There's one about
Speaker 1: a swarm of bees that we've been reading, you know,
Speaker 1: so those are all kind of fun. I'm always on
Speaker 1: the look out for picture books that can be read
Speaker 1: more than once, like that the kid isn't bored with them,
Speaker 1: or they're not too preachy, and he's definitely not preachy
Speaker 1: all so that's a win. And I will also do
Speaker 1: a shout out for the picture book Fletcher and the
Speaker 1: Falling Leaves. Now, Fletcher is a whole series of books
Speaker 1: that are seasonally appropriate, like there's Fletcher in the Snowflake
Speaker 1: Christmas or something, There's Fletcher and the Springtime Blossoms. But
Speaker 1: we have found that Fletcher and the Falling Leaves is
Speaker 1: the best one, and that is very fall themed, so
Speaker 1: you might want to check that out.
Speaker 3: Awesome, I'm gonna have to request that one. We love
Speaker 3: the dark.
Speaker 2: I don't think I've read the other Lemony Snickets, but
Speaker 2: it's funny you said read more than once, because I
Speaker 2: don't know, Like we seem to have a lot of books,
Speaker 2: and I know all of them, like so clearly we
Speaker 2: read pretty much all of them more than ones, whether
Speaker 2: or not they deserve that or not. It's just seems
Speaker 2: to happen, probably because I feel like my kids have
Speaker 2: always been like not satisfied with just one book at bedtime.
Speaker 2: And there's a lot of nights in a year, so
Speaker 2: that's easily like a thousand books a year. And I
Speaker 2: don't we have a lot of books, but not a
Speaker 2: thousand books, so lots of repeats in except when we
Speaker 2: go to the library, which should have also been on
Speaker 2: this list because the library is awesome.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, we've been getting piles of books from
Speaker 1: the library lately. To add it in, we'll do one
Speaker 1: more before the break. Sarah, what's a work related thing
Speaker 1: that you are loving?
Speaker 2: Hi? Yes, well, it's sort of a not work related thing,
Speaker 2: which is that I have a PTO spreadsheet that works
Speaker 2: really well now automatically, like it calculates the number of
Speaker 2: days I accrue and then if I use a day,
Speaker 2: I will put it in there. I got that from
Speaker 2: my friend K of Grateful k fame, and I think
Speaker 2: I talked about an unvestlaid plans already, so this may
Speaker 2: not be news to some of you, but it was
Speaker 2: easy to set up, and it just like it's a
Speaker 2: great way to see your time off as like a
Speaker 2: bank type of a thing, and you can make adjustments
Speaker 2: and see how like taking a shorter winter break would
Speaker 2: give you more days in the spring or whatever. So
Speaker 2: you'd have to configure that for however, your workplace gives
Speaker 2: you paid time off if you do have a specific
Speaker 2: number of days off, but kind of into it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, Vanderkamming has a generous PTO policy, although it's
Speaker 1: not really PTO. If I don't work, I'm not earning
Speaker 1: money necessarily, so it's unpaid too unpaid PTO, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: But I will say with that, the freedom to try
Speaker 1: new things is a big upside an employee perk over
Speaker 1: here at vandercam Inc. Because, Yeah, I've just started a
Speaker 1: couple new things. I launched an interview series at my
Speaker 1: other podcast before Breakfast. I've had Sarah on as a guest,
Speaker 1: and that was really fun to be able to just
Speaker 1: try something new in a podcast. I've been doing the
Speaker 1: same way for five and a half years. I also
Speaker 1: just started adding one video post a week over at Vanderhacks,
Speaker 1: which is my substack newsletter. I was just playing around
Speaker 1: on there and I was like, wait, there's this video
Speaker 1: post function and it records right like in the thing,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, well let's try it out and
Speaker 1: see what this does. So I'm going to start doing
Speaker 1: one of those a week. So yeah, freedom to try
Speaker 1: new stuff. Big upside of self employment. Paid vacation time
Speaker 1: not so much. All right, We're going to take one
Speaker 1: more quick ad break and we will be back.
Speaker 3: Well, we are back.
Speaker 1: We've been doing our fall favorites of various different categories.
Speaker 1: We're going to go to throw one more in before
Speaker 1: we switch the subject. I guess my ad break was
Speaker 1: slightly mistimed as it turned out. So, Sarah Media, what
Speaker 1: are you liking right now? Super late to this party.
Speaker 2: But if you're looking for a show that is not
Speaker 2: using too much brain power and has a lot of
Speaker 2: eye candy, then you might want to check out Emily
Speaker 2: in Paris. They just released the second half of the
Speaker 2: fourth season, and each season only has ten episodes, so
Speaker 2: it's not like a million episodes. But I've been going
Speaker 2: through some stressful stuff. Hopefully by the time this episode
Speaker 2: airs it's going to all be great. But this has
Speaker 2: been such a wonderful balm for me, and it's just
Speaker 2: so bingeable and on a cozy weekend when your kids
Speaker 2: are playing video games, propping up in bed and enjoying
Speaker 2: a few episodes of this has been so much fun.
Speaker 3: So highly recommend awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I haven't been watching much TV lately, so don't
Speaker 1: really have anything to contribute there, but that's fine. I'm
Speaker 1: sure there's a lot of great shows out there. People
Speaker 1: can let me know what they are and maybe I'll
Speaker 1: watch them at some point. Our next part, we wanted
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about energy management, which was
Speaker 1: inspired by a great question that we got over at
Speaker 1: our Patreon community. If you are listening to this and
Speaker 1: are wondering you haven't heard us talk about it, you
Speaker 1: probably have ad nausea. But we have an excellent Patreon
Speaker 1: community where if you are interested in discussing more about
Speaker 1: issues of work and life and parenting and career advice
Speaker 1: and how to combine all these things, we have a
Speaker 1: very very helpful forum where people share all kinds of things.
Speaker 1: We often have long discussion threads. I mean We've gotten
Speaker 1: like eighty comments on posts talking about things, so please
Speaker 1: consider joining us there. But anyway, we had a question
Speaker 1: posted to us there from a community member who said,
Speaker 1: I see both of you, and she's talking to Sarah
Speaker 1: and me here. Are pretty physically active, have multiple kids,
Speaker 1: demanding job, podcasts and other responsibilities, and I never see
Speaker 1: you complain about a lack of energy. The other day
Speaker 1: I did strength training and my body was sore. My
Speaker 1: energy was low for the next couple of days. My
Speaker 1: husband is traveling and I am exhausted doing solo parenting
Speaker 1: with one toddler who goes to daycare eight to nine
Speaker 1: hours a day. What hacks do you have in your life,
Speaker 1: starting from sleep or caffeine or supplements or protein or
Speaker 1: mental health or anything else that helps you to have
Speaker 1: the energy to have a full life. So, Sarah, I mean,
Speaker 1: clearly we're both one hundred percent bubbly all the time, right.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, No, I was just thinking about how like, what
Speaker 3: of a miss misinterpretation of the situation here.
Speaker 2: Anyone who follows me on Strava knows there are days
Speaker 2: that I'm like, well, that felt like garbage, So not.
Speaker 3: Feeling amazing all the time.
Speaker 2: I do think at this phase in my life, I
Speaker 2: have a good amount of energy. I'm not sure that
Speaker 2: was totally true during the toddler phase, and I definitely
Speaker 2: don't think it was true when I was like pumping
Speaker 2: and had a toddler, because I just want to say, like,
Speaker 2: you are in a phase of life that can.
Speaker 3: Feel super super hard.
Speaker 2: Like it's that physical parenting, that following your kid around,
Speaker 2: parenting that like, oh my god, if I don't you know,
Speaker 2: watch you every second, you are going to hurt yourself
Speaker 2: or eat something poisonous or like god knows what, Like
Speaker 2: that is so so hard and so for you to
Speaker 2: be tired. I just want to validate that just might
Speaker 2: be normal and expected and there is a reason. I mean, listen,
Speaker 2: more power to you if you run marathons when you
Speaker 2: have little kids. But like, there's a reason I'm doing
Speaker 2: it now, and I didn't do it when my kids
Speaker 2: were like one and three. And I mean, I could
Speaker 2: have made that choice, but I really, honestly at the
Speaker 2: time didn't have the energy for it. So I think
Speaker 2: that you are also looking at us in like a
Speaker 2: slightly different phase than you are in right now, so
Speaker 2: the comparison might be hard. I also want to say,
Speaker 2: like from an exercise standpoint, there is a degree of
Speaker 2: getting used to things. So I'm going to fast forward,
Speaker 2: like two years ago is when I started running like
Speaker 2: a lot more seriously, and I remember I would do
Speaker 2: like an eight mile run and be like, oh, I
Speaker 2: am wiped, I'm done, like.
Speaker 3: The rest of the day like wow, I have a headache.
Speaker 2: And now I do that length run like almost every day,
Speaker 2: like that is like an average, Like I did it
Speaker 2: today and I feel completely fine because my body has
Speaker 2: completely adjusted to that. On the corollary, I have sucked
Speaker 2: at strength training recently, and when I did lift waste
Speaker 2: last week, I was super sore and dragging for a
Speaker 2: couple days after. So there may be something too. Okay,
Speaker 2: you just started a new workout. It won't always feel
Speaker 2: as hard as it feels right now. Of course, you
Speaker 2: could always keep escalating it, but you.
Speaker 3: Also don't have to.
Speaker 2: You could get to the point where you could do
Speaker 2: your thirty minute strength workout, pick a level of weights
Speaker 2: that keeps you at a maintenance level of strength, and
Speaker 2: just like stick with that, like you don't always have
Speaker 2: to be leveling up. And then my last as a
Speaker 2: physician part is like make sure you do get checked
Speaker 2: for medical causes of fatigue, because there are many. They
Speaker 2: might find nothing and that's okay, but it's worth looking for. Like,
Speaker 2: do you have anemia that can make you tired and
Speaker 2: is not that uncommon after pregnancy and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: Get your thyroid checked. Check for vitamin B twelve can
Speaker 2: cause indirectly anemia and can cause fatigue. Not super common,
Speaker 2: but you could be be twelve deficient, but just making
Speaker 2: sure to check those basics. I feel like anemia is
Speaker 2: like the unsung like it's just so common and it's
Speaker 2: pretty fixable. I mean, iron efficiency can be fixable, So
Speaker 2: just looking for that kind of stuff could be a
Speaker 2: good idea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of women who recently had children or
Speaker 1: breastfeeding others may have medical issues that are increasing fatigue,
Speaker 1: aside from the fact that you are taking care of
Speaker 1: a toddler, which is not known for boosting anyone's energy levels.
Speaker 1: So yeah, just to I mean total recognition that parenting
Speaker 1: a toddler is exhausting and doing it on your own
Speaker 1: as you were during the week when this letter came
Speaker 1: in is doubly exhausting. So just shout out recognize what
Speaker 1: you are going through. I am certainly not constantly bubbly
Speaker 1: at all. I think Sarah and I if we come
Speaker 1: across that way, it's because we're on high energy mode
Speaker 1: when we are recording, because this is going out into
Speaker 1: the universe. But if you saw us on an average moment,
Speaker 1: that might not necessarily be the case. But to whatever degree,
Speaker 1: I've seen people manage their energy, I mean a few things.
Speaker 1: Figuring out how much sleep you need and doing what
Speaker 1: you can to prioritize that is so important. And I
Speaker 1: understand it is very, very hard with a toddler because
Speaker 1: they might be waking up overnight, or they might be
Speaker 1: waking up at unpredictable times in the morning, or you
Speaker 1: might be having bedtime battles at night. So usually what
Speaker 1: this winds up looking like is going to bed earlier
Speaker 1: then you might have chosen to do otherwise. And it's
Speaker 1: hard because again that it's your me time, right if
Speaker 1: you're solo parenting a toddler, your me time is after
Speaker 1: your toddler goes to bed, So you might not want
Speaker 1: to go to bed because you want to get more
Speaker 1: of your mea time. But I believe you can have
Speaker 1: your mee time and your sleep, So make sure you
Speaker 1: are going to bed at the number of hours at
Speaker 1: least of sleep you need before the average time when
Speaker 1: your toddler is getting up in the morning, so that
Speaker 1: you have an adequate amount of sleep. Make sure you
Speaker 1: are getting space for the me time. My guest here
Speaker 1: is that because you've been solo parenting and you're working,
Speaker 1: you have the mindset like, well, oh, my kids in
Speaker 1: daycare all day, I can't take time away from my
Speaker 1: toddler because I'm working all day. But if your husband
Speaker 1: is traveling a lot, like the default here is that
Speaker 1: you guys would be doing fifty to fifty in the evening.
Speaker 1: And if he is not there and you have help,
Speaker 1: the help is outsourcing him. It is not outsourcing you.
Speaker 1: You're there, right, So get a setter one night a week.
Speaker 1: Do something that is fun for you. Sounds like strength.
Speaker 1: May not be that, but you know it could be
Speaker 1: something else. Sake, you go meet up with a couple
Speaker 1: of friends who either also have a sitter or kids
Speaker 1: who don't have kids, I mean friends who don't have kids.
Speaker 1: It could be that you go to a bookstore and
Speaker 1: hang out. It could be that you go to a concert,
Speaker 1: you go to a museum, with evening hours, you join
Speaker 1: a choir. I don't know what you do, but like,
Speaker 1: do something that is for you on that night, and
Speaker 1: I think that you'll find that that will give you
Speaker 1: more energy for the rest of life when you have
Speaker 1: that space for your own stuff, because we draw energy
Speaker 1: from meaningful things.
Speaker 3: I like that one the best.
Speaker 2: Find stuff that's fun for you, and remember that this
Speaker 2: is a season that you will eventually come out of
Speaker 2: and they'll be things you miss and then they'll be
Speaker 2: things that you're happy about. Like maybe you have a
Speaker 2: little bit more energy. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So we thought we'd throw in one more bonus question,
Speaker 1: because why not. So this one came in from somebody
Speaker 1: who had been reading my books and had read the
Speaker 1: story which I've told great many times. If you ever
Speaker 1: watched my Ted talk, it's kind of one of the
Speaker 1: centerpieces of it of a lady whose basement flooded, And
Speaker 1: of course the gist of the story is that she
Speaker 1: wound up spending seven hours dealing with this flooded basement
Speaker 1: over the course of her week.
Speaker 3: But if we'd sort of decided.
Speaker 1: At the beginning of the week, like, oh, can you
Speaker 1: find seven hours for anything else? Basically in her life.
Speaker 1: I don't know, training for a marathon like Sarah's doing.
Speaker 1: I think most of us would have had a hard
Speaker 1: time to find seven hours. But when she had to
Speaker 1: find seven hours because there's water all over her basement,
Speaker 1: she found seven hours. But anyway, this listener writes in
Speaker 1: and said that story made me wonder what are the
Speaker 1: most common big derailers of mom's time, Like the things
Speaker 1: that are going to suddenly consume seven hours of your week?
Speaker 1: Do you have any tips to better prepare for that
Speaker 1: kind of thing? So, Sarah, what's your thought? Oh, this
Speaker 1: is interesting time disappearing.
Speaker 2: I feel like I read this question differently, but that okay,
Speaker 2: now it makes a lot more sense to me. I mean,
Speaker 2: for me, the most common is a kid being sick,
Speaker 2: which has become somewhat less derailing as a ca are
Speaker 2: a bit older, because being sick does that mean I
Speaker 2: have to completely be one on one with them? But
Speaker 2: a kid being sick is the biggest one, and I
Speaker 2: feel like having a plan for that, whether it's discussing
Speaker 2: with your partner, like you know how you're going to
Speaker 2: take turns if that is needed, versus in your childcare
Speaker 2: provider whether they're comfortable helping out with that when they
Speaker 2: can't that kind of a thing, So that that's probably
Speaker 2: the number one. But then also that interruption of yourself
Speaker 2: that tends to happen or you get sucked into some
Speaker 2: drama online and then all of a sudden, that's where
Speaker 2: your brain is for the rest of the day. So
Speaker 2: I think we have to be careful not to derail
Speaker 2: ourselves with that kind of distraction as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I life does happen. I mean the
Speaker 1: morning that we're recording this, I was dealing with buses
Speaker 1: coming late and all that that necessitated that change the
Speaker 1: morning routine. And then work starts later then we meant
Speaker 1: it to start, and all those things like that. But
Speaker 1: I think one thing that we can have the power
Speaker 1: to stop a little bit more easily is running around
Speaker 1: doing one task after another, like so filling any time
Speaker 1: that isn't already spoken for. Like obviously, if you have
Speaker 1: a reservation to go on a balloon ride at four o'clock,
Speaker 1: you're gonna go on your balloon ride at four o'clock.
Speaker 1: But let's say you are just around the house on
Speaker 1: a Saturday at four o'clock, what are you doing? I
Speaker 1: think if you observe. What many moms are doing is
Speaker 1: they are running around sort of inefficiently doing one task
Speaker 1: after another. Like you see a sock on the floor,
Speaker 1: so you pick it up and go put it upstairs.
Speaker 1: But as you're putting it away, you see that there's
Speaker 1: a cup upstairs that needs to go down to the dishwasher,
Speaker 1: and you bring it down, but then there's a pot
Speaker 1: in the sink, and you're like.
Speaker 3: Why is there a pot in the sink? I guess
Speaker 3: I'll just wash it.
Speaker 1: And as you push away, you realize you are out
Speaker 1: of paper towels, and like, okay, well let's go see
Speaker 1: let's go find the paper towels, and then you're there.
Speaker 1: You like, you know, all sorts of time can disappear
Speaker 1: into this, and you're not even really efficiently doing housework.
Speaker 3: It's not like you said, okay.
Speaker 1: I need to clean the house for two hours. Like
Speaker 1: you're just running around doing like one thing after another.
Speaker 1: So I think to decide just to not do that,
Speaker 1: Like you can choose a time where you're gonna run
Speaker 1: around and reset the house if you want, like say, okay,
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes after dinner tonight, we're all going to go
Speaker 1: around and reset the house or whatever it is, but
Speaker 1: just decide, like to actively say, this is a time
Speaker 1: I'm relaxing, Like if it is possible in your life,
Speaker 1: like you're not chasing a eighteen month old child around,
Speaker 1: but if you are four o'clock on a Saturday afternoon
Speaker 1: and you're home and there's nothing you have to be doing,
Speaker 1: just to say, Okay, I'm going to relax for now.
Speaker 1: Now is my time that I'm reading a magazine, or
Speaker 1: now is the time that I am going to sit
Speaker 1: on my camera, or now is the time that I'm
Speaker 1: going to do some project. But make sure that you
Speaker 1: are doing something intentionally instead of just filling times with
Speaker 1: random tasks that maybe could be done but probably didn't
Speaker 1: actually have to be done right that minute.
Speaker 2: That's why I put stuff like watch Emily in Paris
Speaker 2: in my planner on a Sunday. It's like, I sign myself,
Speaker 2: I have to do this now. But ye, reactive versus
Speaker 2: proactive housekeeping. I was kind of hearing in there, which
Speaker 2: is interesting, but uh, yeah, block off that time, just
Speaker 2: take it, knock off the time and take it well.
Speaker 2: So this has been kind of an all love of
Speaker 2: the week episode, right, So yeah, I guess we don't
Speaker 2: need more Loves of the week.
Speaker 1: We don't need more loves of the week and this
Speaker 1: you've had plenty. But we will be back next week
Speaker 1: with more on making work and life fit together.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
Speaker 2: shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram,
Speaker 2: and you.
Speaker 1: Can find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This
Speaker 1: has been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join
Speaker 1: us next time for more on making work and life
Speaker 1: work together.