Hey friends! Let’s have a momfriend coffee date – grab a warm drink and sit with me, Your Nerdy Girlfriend and Life Coach.
Well this, is a coffee date for all friends really – mom or not. Because I want to have some lady chat about things I am trying, loving, watching and enjoying.
Plus I have some special encouragement for you on feeling like you are behind, or you are not where you should be.
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The full episode transcript is at the end of this post.
THE CURRENTLY LIST!
This list has a lot of fun links! Some of these links will be affiliate links through Amazon. As an amazon associate, I make a small commission from your purchase at NO cost to you.
My current planner for this year
I was using the Pipsticks + Workman planner and really liked it (it is cute, fun, and has lots of habit tracking spots). Especially the monthly recap page in each monthly section. This year I am trying out the Happy Planner. It always takes some time to get used to a new planner.
Watching
Back In Time For Dinner is a show we have found on the GEM app, through CBC.
It follows a family as they spend a week living in a past decade, from the 1940s-2000.
Reading
Educated by Tara Westover
Wearing
I am at the age where I splurge on clothes at Costco and am feeling pretty happy with my recent sock purchase. If this isn’t screaming middle aged mid-class woman I don’t know what else will!
Also, I’m loving the simplicity of a long sleeve black tee – it can pair with most anything.
I have made a challenge for myself to not buy any more clothes for the winter (until spring).
Preparing
I’m prepping an advent activity calendar. In the past, I had done this when the kids were toddlers. Here’s a post of toddler advent activity ideas to make your own little advent calendar of fun things to look forward to.
The Jesus Storybook Bible and their advent guide for reading the stories in December
Eating
Roasted Squash with bacon (pin the recipe right here)
The cookbook for all that has some of the best gluten free baking I’ve ever had! Canelle et Vanille by Aran Goyoaga. Our family fave are the Buckwheat Crepes.
Doing
I’ve been doing a lot of sitting – work is a sedentary activity for me. So I am challenging myself to do the the seven minute workout on Alexa (say ‘Alexa, start seven minute workout’). Here is a very similar one on Youtube.
Don’t get stuck in all or nothing thinking when it comes to moving your body each day. Every little bit counts!
This week’s encouragement to you
You are never behind. You are exactly where you need to be, because that is where you are. Stop looking at all you ‘could’ do and turning those ‘coulds’ into ‘shoulds’ it takes away your power.
Here is what is available to you. Opportunities, growth, connection, is available to you right here. Don’t rush it or avoid it. Stay with it.
Full episode transcript
Hey friends I’m Shawna, your nerdy girlfriend and life coach from simpleonpurpose.ca. Welcome to the podcast for the mom who wants to slow down, simplify and show up for her life on purpose.
So I’ve been kind of sitting on this podcast episode idea for a while to share what I call the currently list. And the currently list is that what I’m currently doing and enjoying and eating and making. It’s something that I would share in the simple Saturdays newsletter from time to time. And then I just kind of sat on it, I thought, nobody’s really interested in the random things I’m doing with my life.
And then I had a phone call this morning with one of my best friends who I talked to like every six months, you know, those best friends who have just been part of your life for so long, that you can just pick up every six months and run through an hour of everything. And we talked about everything we talked about our parents, period, underwear, the books, we’re reading what our cats are doing, like our mom life experience. And then we wrapped all that up with a texting conversation about the podcast or watching and the sweatpants we’re currently wearing. And I thought, this is fun, I enjoy talking with my girlfriend like this. And since I am you nerdy girlfriend, I’m going to share it with you here.
Maybe you want to think of this as our coffee break together. So I really like the idea of a currently list. And I like it because it’s kind of a snapshot in time of what’s happening, what I’m into. And I had used a planner this past year called, it’s by pipsticks. And at the end of every month, they have a one pager like dashboard, where you talk about the things you’re loving and learning and listening to all those things. And I really enjoyed filling that out. But even more, I enjoyed looking back months and months behind, and kind of get that snapshot again of what my life was like.
I have a new planner. Now I just got the Happy Planner from winners, it was on a super sale. And I seem to try a new planner every year. But whenever I bring that new planner home and I start to write in it, I always go through this really weird period where I’m like, I miss my old one. Because you spend that whole year perfecting how you use the layouts and the pages and where you write the things that you need to write. So there’s always that weird in between period. That’s where we’re at.
Alright, let’s talk about the first thing on my list what I’m watching. So here’s the real talk. 10 years ago, we bought a TV and an Apple TV like that little box, you plug into your TV, and it gives you Netflix and YouTube and the TV apps. Now they just come on the TV, but no, we have the little box. We had to upgrade it recently because it kept crashing, this new Apple TV can do so much. I’ve been missing out on so much technology by having that old Apple TV.
One of the new things on it is the CBC app if you’re in Canada Hello. The CBC app has shows that they show on CBC and one of them is called back in time for dinner. And this is where they take a family. And they got their living room and kitchen and dining room. They got it. And every week, they build their whole house to look like an era, the 40s, the 50s, the 60s, and then they have to live in that culture for that decade, for the whole week. And it’s so interesting. I watched the one on the Canadian family actually my whole family it was watching it with us.
The 40s were so fascinating. What was happening in Canada, how there was just no sense of entitlement, like everything was rationed. You are hardworking all the time, you were hungry all the time.
I was also really interested to see the 50s really being this image of perfection that you had the perfect home, you are constantly making it more perfect and looking good doing it.
And then the 60s kind of like this evolution and rebellion for individual freedoms was blossoming. And all right, I watched madman twice. So I’m pretty much an expert on that decade. There wasn’t much new for me there. But it was still so interesting to see it through, like the family life lens.
And as I’m watching them go through these decades, it makes me think like every decade was kind of thinking, Oh, we’ve got it figured out. This is how we do life. And I think that’s really fascinating. Because it makes me excited to see what are we going to be doing in 30 years. A
nd it also makes me think backwards. Like my parent’s experience. Even my older siblings experience is so much different in light of the culture of the time. And as we’re watching these episodes, one night, my oldest son who’s nine, he said, you know what hit me. I am one of the billions of kids who gets to experience 2019 like that, that is right, like no one else is going to get to experience this. Someone has to go on a TV show and have everything made over and they still don’t get to be in those times. Like this is your generation. This is your time. Really interesting.
Anyways, I highly recommend back in time for dinner. That’s the Canadian one. And we also started back in time for the weekend. It’s the UK one. There, it seemed as different though, like the things that they experienced, seemed like a decade behind almost. We’ve only watched one so far, but that’s my impression of it.
The other things I’m watching on Netflix are the Queen’s gambit. I’ve watched two episodes, I think it is so great. So well written so interesting.
And this weekend, me and the kids watched the baby sitters club. Like, I even got distracted reading my personal book and was into it with them into the lives of these kids, these girls, I was in it.
Which brings me to reading. So yes, I’m a minimalist, but when it comes to books, I make room for them. I tried to like share them and pass them on when I feel done. But I have turned to go into the thrift stores, getting the books that I’ve been wanting to read the books I hear about, and then they sit on my shelf. A little silent reminder that I’m not reading enough. It’s kind of taunting me.
I picked up one of those books this weekend educated by Tara Westover. And after the first chapter, I was hooked. It is so interesting. It is the story of her life being raised as the youngest of seven children up in the mountains in Idaho, by parents who had extreme religious views and really not being schooled and not being educated. So this is her story halfway through it. And I just got the digital loan in the library app. Don’t you love when that happens? Like you have the paper book to read when you’re around your kids. And you’re like mom’s actually reading a book right now guys, not her phone. And then you have the phone version to read at night. So you can read it in bed and not disturb anyone. It’s like I’m going to finish this book fast.
Something I’m loving to wear right now. Oh, this isn’t won’t be a surprise socks that I got from Costco and they’re by roots. So the socks I go through socks, often My feet are always cold. chronically called uncomfortably cold. So I’m buying all the socks, all the socks that are warm, and I’m almost protective of them. They are so soft. They are so warm. I just love them if you are a Costco shopper.
Lately, I’ve been getting more and more of my clothes at Costco. I don’t know is this like what happens when you’re 38.
The other thing I bought recently was simple long sleeve black shirt. You know how there’s just some pieces in your life that you enjoy wearing your whole life. That’s one of them. I think just a simple long sleeve black shirt, it looks fine. It looks good things I did this year, this winter, buy myself a new pair of jeans, that simple black t shirt, a sweater and some shoes. Like I will wear out my shoes until they’re falling apart. So I made the investment to upgrade my shoes this year. It’s been a few years.
And I’m giving myself the goal for the rest of the winter, which lasts until March here of not buying any more clothes for the year. That’s a goal for myself. I’ve done this in the past, I’ve done a whole year of no clothes shopping. So I always appreciate giving myself that extra challenge shopping from my closet wearing what I have because I have more than enough clothes. And all I wear these days is sweat. So I need to challenge myself and not letting myself buy more sweats.
I feel like it’s gonna be a really good standard I set for myself as a reminder that I don’t want to be wearing sweats every day, I came across a video that my son took of me on the weekend. And I’m just wearing like sweats and zip up hoodie. And I looked I looked how I felt when I came out of the hospital after having my first baby after having a C section. Like I just looked like frumpy. And I was like yeah, I’ve kind of been wearing that exact outfit since March. and wondering why I just don’t feel like myself because I’m not really dressing how I want to dress. And before COVID especially before all the kids were in school and I was getting out with them once a day to like a kid activity. I would put on clothes, like clothes that I enjoy wearing clothes I bought on purpose and clothes make me feel good. And then I would get home and change into sweat. So there was still that part of my day where I was wearing actual pants and a bra. So I’m gonna give myself a little bit more of a challenge this month to get dressed a lot more often. That’s just my personal challenge.
All right, one thing I’m preparing for Christmas, obviously. And I shared in the last episode when I was talking about Christmas how we pretty much finished I’ve pretty much finished because I’m doing the Christmas shopping. And with our kids we do the something they want something they need something to wear something to read. So I’ve got some stocking stuff left to buy but I’m gonna keep those stockings super simple. We were inspired by the back end time TV show they had a bonus episode at the end called back in time for Christmas. And after we watched it my kids were like, how are they so excited about an orange like an orange was special? There were no Nerf guns and I was like yeah guys, that’s what was special about So I want to just focus on the simple things in their stockings.
And the other thing I’m going to plan and prepare for is daily Advent activities. And I did this when they were toddlers years ago, I had a set of envelopes like 25 envelopes, and each day was a simple activity for them to do. And story from the storybook Bible that we could read. So it would move us along through the story. So I did that years ago, I haven’t done that since.
There is a blog post on it for toddler advent activities, I’m going to link that in the show notes as well. And hey, if you don’t know how to find the show notes, the simplest way is to go to simple on purpose.ca. And click Listen, all of the shows are there, all of the show notes are there in those shows.
So I was inspired to pick this up again, because my best friend Sophie shared with us that she’s doing this with her kids, and she sent us her list of all the activities they’re going to do all month. So I’m just gonna cherry pick from that list and add a few and have my own in boom, done.
I feel like I need this right now. Where I live in BC, British Columbia, we are in current lockdown state again, like we can still go to some places. But really, we need to stay within our own home. We can’t go into other people’s bubbles, that kind of thing. So our kid my kids, they’re missing their friends. I want to give them something to look forward to every day. And Advent perfect time to combine the two. So I’m really excited about that.
Something I’m eating these days, if you followed anything that I’m sharing on Instagram over the past few months, you might know that I had been struggling with heartburn for a really long time, and finally learned that my heartburn was caused by an ulcer, which was caused by me taking too much Advil from headaches. For years and years and years I was getting headaches. When I cut out gluten, the headaches went away. So I could stop taking Advil, but there was still a lot of damage to my stomach. So I’ve been off of grains. And I’ve also been on different treatment for that ulcer that I’ve also weaned off.
So here I am trying to really pay attention to the foods and meeting really trying to prevent like that reflux and that heartburn again. So I spent a lot of my days paying attention to what I’m eating, looking at recipes, trying to think of ideas to make food exciting. One thing that we loved the whole family ate this was roasted squash with bacon. You cube the squash, we keep the butternut squash put on a pan with some oil and salt. And then we cut up some bacon and we just roasted it at all and everything got caramelized and soft. It was so delicious.
The other go to recipe that we’ve adopted as a family are buckwheat crepes from the cookbook, Cannelle et Vanille Aran Goyoaga. And I’ll link that in the show notes so I don’t have to try and pronounce it again. And lots of soup. It’s soup weather, isn’t it, and then my kids are sick of soup. Last night, we had lentil and bacon soup. But I love soup. I love to have something warm at the end of the night. And I especially love it when it’s leftovers, and you get a warm lunch, it makes you feel so good.
I want to wrap up with two things doing and creating. So I feel like I’m not doing much because I’m doing a lot sitting down and that feels like restless to me. I’ll look at my Fitbit. And it’s like, are you still alive? Are you still moving? What happens in my day is I’m working every weekday, I walk the kids to the bus in the morning, and then I come home, eat breakfast, do a few things. And then I sit and I work and I work and I work until I go pick them up from the bus. And then it’s like into the grind of dinner and lunches and after school snacks, all those things.
But one thing that I started to do is a seven minute workout. And it’s on Alexa, but I think you can just go on YouTube, find a seven minute workout. And it runs you through that because it’s like I have seven minutes. And the more you do it, the more you’re like I know I can do this. And I know I’m going to feel better after.
And here’s the thing, when it comes to moving your body, we have a lot of all or nothing thinking like, I’ve got to go for an hour run or I’ve got to do a half hour workout class or I’ve got it, it’s got to look this certain way. But if you just roll out your yoga mat in the middle of your living room, take off your socks because you’re already wearing sweatpants. And you know, put your hair up in a ponytail, you can do seven minute workout, maybe you’re gonna sweat, maybe you won’t, you can always figure that out after don’t worry about that part. Because I used to hate the idea of being sweaty.
But that all or nothing thinking of this is how it has to look like if I stay there. It’s gonna keep me sedentary day after day, week after week, month after month. And I know that’s where I’m heading if I don’t do this and that’s not what I want. Because my body can start to feel it. I slow down. My back hurts I feel pain I feel tired. So I want to make an effort to keep my body moving through the day and the little things matter the little things matter guys so do not deny yourself the little things.
Creating. And I think that creating things is something that we think, Oh, it’s only for creative people. And by creative people, we mean artistic. But everybody is creative. Everybody has a way that they can take something and create order, or beauty or, or just change it in a way that has helpful or more engaging, everybody has a way to create something, maybe you create spreadsheets, maybe you create a beautiful garden. Maybe you create energy and motivation for people, everybody is creative.
One of the things that I had spent my heart creating this past year was the life on purpose Academy, that group coaching program that I’ve been running since last March, that is going to be coming to a close, I will be closing it down. This is the final month and running it, it is a sad time for me to be going through that. But I know ultimately, I’m moving into something different. I’m moving into something that’s going to serve more people more often. If you’re in the symbol Saturday’s email, keep an eye open for news on that. And I’ll be sharing it here on the podcast too.
I want to wrap this up with some motivation, something that’s been motivating me. And in the life on purpose Academy, I share weekly emails called Monday motivation with something I’ve been thinking about something that applies to what we’re learning that month. And this past week, I shared this notion that you are never behind. Wherever you feel behind in your job in your life in your home in your parenting, I want to remind you that you are exactly where you should be because it is exactly where you are.
So think about the areas of your life, that you could be doing more, that you could be moving in a different direction. There are lots of things you could be doing. But listen to the word could what is in there, a choice, a decision control, there are lots of things we could do.
But so often we turn that could into a should, and then where does our power go? It’s gone. Because now we’re hustling and helpless at the same time. The more that we tell ourselves we are behind or not where we should be, the less present we can be. And the less acceptance we have of our lives. And right here right where we are. There are lessons and experiences and connections and opportunities available. But when we’re rushing off to the next thing we should be taking, we rush out of right now we rush out of what is available.
So as you’re going through this week, I want to encourage you that where you are, you get to choose that you get to show up for that. So don’t tell yourself you’re behind. Because that doesn’t make you feel good. And it also pulls you away from the present. You’re exactly where you need to be, you are not behind, you’re exactly where you’re meant to be because that is where you are. And that doesn’t mean you don’t need to get excited about where you want to go. You don’t need to be moving towards something. But it has to mean that you are still showing up where you are without resisting it, avoiding it or trying to run from it.
All right, friends, I hope you liked the currently list the coffee date with me. If you would like to see this again, I’d love to hear from you. I’d love to hear actually what you would like to hear about when I share these kinds of things. And if it was helpful for you. As always, it is so helpful for me when you leave me a rating and review in the podcast player. As you’ve heard on many other podcasts, they are important to podcasters they help our show get validity and show up in the podcast ratings and the podcast search engine. So that is always helpful for me. Take a minute as we close out to just scroll down and say write a review, leave a rating whatever podcast player you’re in. I would greatly appreciate it and I appreciate you have a great week.