*A note from the author: This podcast episode (as well as all future episodes) will be transcribed automatically. The author is currently aware of, and getting hives at the thought of, all of the grammatical errors she's finding as she proof reads her transcript. She recognizes that her former English teachers are likely rolling over in their graves, if that is where they currently reside, but also knows that some things just have to give. Please feel free to listen instead and be sure to read non-podcast posts so you can rest assured that she does, in fact, know how to compose written words into proper story telling.*
Links mentioned within the show:
Facebook Community: bit.ly/design101group
Instagram and Facebook: @figandfarm
Work with me: https://www.figandfarmathome.com/design-packages
Speaker 1: (00:00)
Well, we did it. Summer is over. Kids are back in school and this moment is a little bit sad about that. Transitions are always really, really hard for me when I send the kiddos back to school. Um, cause I love them being home. It's sometimes hard, a lot of times hard, but it's just really joyful too. And we play and we play hard during the summertime. So sending them back is a mixed bag because I know they're excited and as he should be, but I'm going to miss them. And this year is a little bit more intense because my kids stayed home for the last year and a half. When we went back to hybrid, I chose to have my kiddos stay home and do their learning from home so that I would not disrupt any more of their learning because things were changing and changing quickly and daily and weekly.
Speaker 1: (00:52)
And I wanted them to have, I didn't want them to be jarred all the time with what was new and next and changing and all that. So, and I recognized that I had that flexibility and I had that luxury of doing it that way and not everyone did or does. And so, but you know, that's, that's why I do what I do quite honestly. So I can have that flexibility so that I can go on field trips and so that I can be here for them. Of course it means lots of hard work on my end. Lots of sometime starting a project and not finishing it until two weeks later. And sometimes it means staying up late and doing stuff after they've gone to bed, it means all kinds of things. It means all kinds of sacrifice, but it's, it's been good anyway, off that soapbox kids are back in school.
Speaker 1: (01:44)
This mama is a little bit sad. There may or may have been tears yesterday and that's okay. They had a great day. All right, before we dive into today's topic, I wanted to read this review to you. This came in the other day and I just, it feels so lit up and so thankful. Um, first of all, that any of you are listening that any of you have stuck around. So thank you. I appreciate it. And when I hear back from you, it just makes me smile. And some of you, I see in person, I just met a new listener, um, yesterday, which was so much fun, but this came in from Bluebird three, says, I love this podcast. What a breath of fresh air, this podcast is encouraging fun, helpful, and practical. I love all the home tips and I love Danny's down to earth approach to family and home life.
Speaker 1: (02:34)
Oh my gosh. That just makes me smile. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review, but taking the time till the sun girls, I know you are all busy. You're all busy. That's who I'm teaching. I'm teaching busy moments and I know your time is valuable. So if you do this while you multitask awesome, when you're my type of girl, if you listen to this while you're washing dishes, walking the dog, going to trader Joe's, waiting in line at the carpool, folding your laundry, whatever. Thank you. It's you who I serve. And I just thank you so much for taking that time and taking the time to tell me about it. It makes me smile. Okay. So today's topic. What we're talking about. We're talking about the recap of how we spent our summer. At the beginning of the summer. I gave you this idea that I use this system called the daily five for my kids.
Speaker 1: (03:33)
Even as yes, they are old. They're 14, 12, and 10, but I used it and I started using it when they were teeny, teeny tiny. And I told you then that I was going to tell you how it went. And so today's episode is about that. And then I have a realization that I have my own daily five. It might look like these buzzwords self-care or self-love and maybe they are, but I've been doing this daily five for 20 years or so it looks different in different seasons, but I tell you about that. And then I also realize, oh, I not only have a daily five, I have a weekly five. And these are just things that light me up and, um, help me be the best version of me that I can be. And they also again, changed during each season. So that's what the episode is about.
Speaker 1: (04:22)
But before I forget, I want to encourage you to do this. So in my Facebook group, I have every once in a while, every once a month or so I send out an invitation to ask me questions. Hey guys, what do you want to know? Give me, ask me the questions. I'll give you the answer. And, and I do, but I think it would be fun to do it on the podcast too. So here's what I want to encourage you to do. And I want you to be specific because you'll hear it. Part of my weekly five, I'm going to give a spoiler alert right now actually is serving others. I love doing that. And this podcast is a way I serve others. Sometimes it's practical, like making you dinner. Um, of course I can't make all of you dinner, but I can serve you.
Speaker 1: (05:08)
And I want you to think about a question you might have in your own home. What question do you have be specific and bonus points. Send me a picture at, to my gmail@figandfarmathomeatgmail.com. Ask me a question, send the picture and I will answer it on the air. And of course, if you have a question that doesn't require a picture, that's okay, but ask away because I love to, I love to serve you guys and do it in a way that is meaningful to you and specific to you. Remember, I'm a former first grade teacher and I believe very, very wholeheartedly that there are no stupid questions. In fact, stupid is not even in my vocabulary. Dumb. There are no dumb questions. Dumb is not in my vocabulary. Ask away. And chances are, if you have a question, guess what? Someone listening, maybe even on Luxembourg might have that same question.
Speaker 1: (06:05)
So ask away be specific. And that would be so much fun to have an episode where I am saying, um, where I'm coming to you with all these answers and speaking to you directly in order to serve you and serve you well, okay, let's get onto today's show. I hope you enjoy. We grew up with the phrase. Home is where the heart is, but our culture has shifted and now the messages home should be Pinterest. Perfect. I'm calling BS on that message home. It's not about the stuff it's about the story and whether you know it or not, your home is a reflection of you and is already saying something. So what is it that you want it to say, Hey, I'm Danny. A former first grade teacher turned home decorator going from a dual income to a single income. So I could stay home with my babies, meant budget, like ramen eating, Goodwill, shopping budget. And I learned a few things along the way, like how to bring big sales to your home without breaking the bank. And I'm sharing it all with you. Tips, tricks, decor, and design advice. So you can learn to tell your story of your style, where you can start living free from the Pinterest perfect trap and start living a life of intention. Welcome to fig and farm at home where redesigned happy living and where it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful.
Speaker 1: (07:24)
All right. I promised I would be back to let you know how the daily five worked for my kids a summer. If you're popping in new here, and you're wondering, what is she talking about? The daily five? Let me just give you a quick recap. So I used to be a teacher, a first grade teacher and daily five is a concept that we use in the classroom around language arts, five activities you do daily in order to encourage the growth of a reader. So you might read, you might write, you might do some word work. You might do some computer skills with words, things like that. And I took that idea and I modified it to be at home with my kiddos during the summer, once they started going to school, they needed a structured activity. And I had found over the years, and especially with my experience with my former students, um, back then, I introduced you to a student named Marshawn who really taught me a valuable lesson and how important structure is for kiddos.
Speaker 1: (08:23)
But that idea certainly rings true for my kids. Not necessarily everyone's, but definitely mine and how I've needed to implement the daily five. When we have unstructured time like winter breaks or spring breaks or summer vacation, when there's so much time at your hands, even if I'm a stay-at-home mom or I might work here and there, the kiddos needed to have a little bit of boundaries in order to use their time productively when they were tiny, their daily five were very structured. In fact, I mentioned how, when my, um, when my kiddos were little like 6, 4, 2, we would transition from school to summer break and we would play school for a week so that they could start transitioning from school to summertime. And I would have PE I would have lunch. I would even with the lunch trays and I would have reading time and all of that, that looks like school.
Speaker 1: (09:24)
And each day we would remove one of those highly structured activities into more free play. Now my kids are a lot older, but they still need some structure. And if I didn't put structure into place, it would look like this. Mom, can I have screen time, mom, I rushed there, my chores and I didn't do a great job, but can I have screen time mom? I was outside for three minutes and I got all the sun I needed. Can I have screen time? It would look like that. And that drives me crazy. And honestly, at the beginning of my summertime, I mean, I was like four days away from summer when I started this podcast, summer was knocking on my door and this was the summer I needed to have. I needed to be able to work. I had worked before in summers past, but it was really willy-nilly.
Speaker 1: (10:13)
It was maybe an hour here, maybe during nap time there, maybe here and there, because I've been working for myself. I've been here eating goods for my shop, or I've been working for clients here and there has been very flexible. And that is the whole point of why I do what I do. But this summer I needed more structure. I don't want to say rigidity because we played a lot. But this daily five system that I put into place was the framework that allowed me to have that space. So what it looked like for them, remember, I have a 14 year old, a 12 year old and a 10 year old at the time of that recording. And, and what it looks like for them were these daily five, they needed to choose. Well, they could do these five things in whatever order they wanted.
Speaker 1: (10:59)
They needed to do these five things in hour increments. So it gave me five hours of time. They needed to do it in a way that was cooperative and respectful of my time and space and their time and space. Those were kind of the boundaries we had in place. What they did within those parameters were kind of up to them. One was something where they're learning. One was something outdoors. One was something independent. So they could have breathing space from their brothers. One was something with their brothers or with their friends. And another one was something creative. Now they could double up on those and they often did. They could sometimes extend their outdoor play and with the brother, brother play. And instead of being one hour, they were two. They really didn't need a whole lot of involvement in redirection from me. But here's some of the things they did within each category for the learning.
Speaker 1: (11:56)
I mentioned at the beginning in June, I said, oh, I bet they're going to read a lot. And that was certainly the case. My kiddos gobble up books. Like they are m&ms, which is a good thing. They just love reading. And there are times when I definitely get this too, where you're done with a book and then you're thinking, oh dear, what am I going to read next? What am I going to read next? I have no idea the library. We're not going to the library yet. And, and then you're kind of stuck rereading and rereading other books. Okay. We, we don't have a lack of books in our home. So they did reread a lot. We did go to the library and if you follow me on Instagram, saw the ginormous piles of books we have. That was definitely something they did for their learning time.
Speaker 1: (12:39)
That was also something they did for their independent time. If they found a good series that they liked, they just kept reading. They also, we, we discovered in national geographic summer camp, which we are big national geographic nerds around here. We love national geographic, the kids subscriptions, and even the adult subscriptions. And they had a summer camp, which was really cool. We tried one, it was a little bit spendy, but less than what you would do for going to summer camp. And our littlest one absolutely loved it. He needed a little bit of help from me, but every once in a while, one of his brothers could help him if he got stuck, but we ended up loving it so much. We did a couple others and that was such a fun learning opportunity. Another thing we did for learning was we have a coding game that it is on, on the computer, but it's a Harry Potter coding game.
Speaker 1: (13:35)
So they got to do that. We have some snap circuits, games, just any games like monopoly or life or whatever. We counted as learning time. So they played games a lot. They also did some independent research like, Hey, I'm curious about skunks. I want to learn about skunks. This is something that is not new to our family. We've been researching animals for a very long time. In fact, a couple years ago, when my littlest one wanted a hermit crab, I said, okay, I'm, I'm cool with that, but you need to do the research. And I want actually a paper on how we take care of it. I want to know their habitat. I want to know what they eat. I want to know what environment they need to be set up in within our home. It took them a year, but it was motivating enough to do it.
Speaker 1: (14:23)
And our crabs, we got crabby and Houdini and he, they lived, they had a very long life. Actually. They lived for a year in our home. It was wonderful. Okay. So that was our learning. And they did some other things too, but that was the bulk of what we did for our learning time. For the independent time. A lot of times they kept reading or they would play Legos. We do have some games that they can play independently. My oldest loves to play games. And so he sometimes hold himself up in his room and played those games. They played GA Jos. They went outside a little bit more. Sometimes it was just sons, sons soaking. And they would go outside and, and read, or just kind of soak up the sun a little bit for the outside time. This was one where we did need to modify.
Speaker 1: (15:08)
So I did need to qualify. Hey guys, I actually don't just want you outside sitting. I want you outside active. So what are you going to do to move your body? Are you going to go for a walk around the neighborhood? Are you going to take the dog for a walk or are you going to ride your bike, your scooter, or are you going to look at our garage? Can you just go out and look at our garage? We have so many things to play with soccer balls, basketballs, lacrosse sticks. We have slip and slides. We have, I mean, you name it our garage. I mean, you drive by and you notice it's one of those wonderful spaces that seems to be overflowing. And there's plenty to do. They finally were able to navigate that and gravitate towards the active activity piece. But that one took a little while because they didn't want to.
Speaker 1: (15:58)
They just wanted to go check that box of, well, mom, I was outside. Well, it doesn't cut it if you're not moving. So a lot of times they played what we call GAC and GAC is our made up term for basically a soccer game called goalie and keeper. So one person's a keeper, um, or the, oh no goalie and kicker. One person is the goalie. And the other is a kicker. I dunno, basically shots on goal. I don't really know what it is. Um, we played four square. We played all kinds of stuff. Of course, when I'm saying we, it wasn't me because remember I'm meeting this time in order to do some work. So they, they did a pretty good job with that. Um, I don't think necessarily they stayed out for an hour next year. We're gonna make sure we do. What else did we have?
Speaker 1: (16:45)
We had time with your brothers and or their friends. Um, this is one of those that they doubled up on. They did spend some time with their friends. They would go to the park, they would go to the backyard to play games. Sometimes they would ride their bike around the neighborhood. And other times it was just with brothers and they, a lot of times played games during this time they played a board game together or a card game together. And that was awesome. Sometimes they took it outside. So they got some double uptime. The other thing they did was something creative and this one kind of overlapped. But if you know my boys and you know, like Lego playing time, if that was independent or with brothers, they can play that for hours on end. So they played Legos. Sometimes they were drawing. Sometimes they were doing a Lego creation online.
Speaker 1: (17:34)
You can kind of manipulate the blocks online or, um, in a, uh, computer program. They did a lot of stuff actually, and they didn't need a whole lot of redirecting from me. They were engaged, they were active. They were learning next. We're going to modify it a little bit more. Will we do it when I have a 15 year old? Yes, yes we will. Because again, I don't want to have that mom. Can I have screen time? Mom, can I have screen time now before you think, gosh, mean mom. Okay. They got plenty of screen time. They did not lack in that. And now that school is back in session. They don't get it during the week. That is our boundary and Fridays to Sundays, it's open up again, but they don't get it during the week because I want them to focus on, um, schoolwork and then they have soccer and then family time.
Speaker 1: (18:27)
So that is kind of our parameter and it works for us. Okay. So why am I doing the recap? Because I knew that I wasn't sure exactly how it was going to work in a summer that I needed to get work done. This summer was unlike any other summer I've had with the boys at home. I have worked all those other summers, but it's been here and there it's been working on a paint project for a client or curating things for the shop. And I've piecemealed all of those things over the course of the summer and inserted a lot of play and a lot of transporting children to different things this summer, I needed just a little bit more framework for me to have that space. And I wasn't sure how it was going to work. I just wasn't. And I put it to the test.
Speaker 1: (19:15)
And what I realized was that this worked brilliantly. I did still feel like my work time was a lot of stopping. A lot of starting, a lot of picking up a project here and there. And, and part of that is just the nature of what I do because I have four components of my business. I have clients I work with, which sometimes means I'm going to their home. Sometimes it means shopping for them. Sometimes it means designing something online. I have a shop that I curate goods for, and sometimes I repurpose those goods. So, and I also have to make my shop look pretty. And that means I have to go into the shop and I have to recreate space sometimes doing a window, um, for the whole display, whatever that is. So there's two things. And then I have of course the podcast and then the Facebook group.
Speaker 1: (20:11)
So there's lots of teaching, lots of serving, lots of giving out, um, information, all of that takes time. And so going from one thing to the next, jumping from one activity of like painting furniture, to creating a podcast, sometimes that can feel a little incongruous. It can feel a little random is not the right word, but you know, it's one activity and then you have to switch your brain and do something different for me. I love that because sometimes it means I don't really know what my day's going to look like, but this summer I had to know what my days were going to look like. I had to know. So I, I Batten down my hatches a little bit and I knew Mondays, Mondays were my podcast days. Tuesdays were my going to the shop days. Wednesdays were my behind the scenes days and client stays that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: (21:01)
And I needed my kids to be able to help me with that. And they did such a great job. I'm so proud of them. And we needed very little modification of this daily five in the process. Really, the only thing that we needed was the, the expectation that outdoor play was not just outdoor sitting. That was it. We also inserted this idea that if I had to go and do an errand, if I had to go and do, um, work, meet with a client or something that reduced the amount of time that they had to be so rigid on their end. And I don't even want to say it was rigid. I still think that what they chose to do while I was gone was something that they normally would have done because screen time was not an option. They still chose within those confines.
Speaker 1: (21:49)
I realized something. I did want to give you that recap, but I realized something that, you know, the boys have a daily five during the summertime, but I have a daily five and I've had a daily five for a very long time. Some of you, when I start saying what these are, some of you might think, oh, I've heard that term. That's like self-care or self-love, or, you know, those buzzword terms. And you can certainly insert that, but these are my daily five. And I wonder if you have some too, but I thought, since we're talking about that, I wanted to share what my daily five are, the five things I need to do daily in order to make me feel my most full self, to make me feel like I can be the best mom version of myself, be the best wife version of myself.
Speaker 1: (22:39)
And so I'm going to share those with you today. So what are my daily five? But before I tell you those, I do want to tell you what these buzzwords mean in case you have heard them and are like, I don't really know what that woo word means, like self care or self love. So I was just curious, because apparently I've been doing this for, I don't know, 20 years and I didn't even know it. So self-care is the conscious act one takes to promote their own physical, mental and emotional health. Yeah, actually one of the things I'm going to tell you, I started doing, I realized I needed when I was at home with a brand new baby, I was going bonkers and I needed to do this thing in order to keep my sanity. And it's super simple, but it helped, it helped me.
Speaker 1: (23:29)
Okay. Self-love what does that mean? The definition is a state of appreciation for oneself that grows from actions that support our physical, psychological, and spiritual growth, having a higher regard for your wellbeing and happiness, taking care of your needs and not sacrificing your to please others. And some of the things that I was kind of looking at do cross over, of course. Um, but basically what, what are the things that make you the best you that you can be? And I'm going to share my daily five, and then I'm going to share my weekly five, actually six, because I did think about that too. Um, what are those things that helped me function the way I want to function? So here are my daily five and this was the one that made me bonkers. And I realized very quickly when I, um, had that brand new baby.
Speaker 1: (24:22)
And I was like, I just don't feel good. I felt agitated and weird. You know what? It was, it was a drinking water. Isn't that the weirdest thing? I mean, if you are in the health realm, if you are just any human who's high functioning, you're going to know that yes, drinking water is a good thing, right? But for me, I could feel it in my body. I could feel that that lack of so drinking water is, is one of my daily five. I make sure that I have plenty of it. And I've actually struggled with that over the years, because there are times when water doesn't taste good. I might want something different. And so I tried drinking. It was straws. I tried drinking it with smaller bottles and kind of giving a competition. Oh, if I have 10 of those, I tried changing the bottle.
Speaker 1: (25:13)
Maybe it was a wide mouth versus little mouth, whatever, for me, I found this, I like a wide mouth water bottle. I like cold water, but not ice water. And I like to drop a few drops of lemon, essential oil into my water. And that if it gets even warmed up to room temperature, it feels like they might think I'm disgusting. It feels like I'm drinking, um, like a bubbly water without it being bubbly, it just tastes so good. So that's my secret. That is my one of my five. And the other one is to move daily, to exercise or to move daily. And sometimes that changes based on how my body is acting like a 40 plus year old or, um, it's behaving, or if it's not. And sometimes moving in, especially the last couple of weeks, cause I was injured meant like doing back exercises.
Speaker 1: (26:12)
So my back wouldn't hurt, but sometimes it means walking the ducks. Sometimes it means doing power yoga. Sometimes it means going swimming in the lake. Sometimes it means kayaking or paddle boarding or doing a hard workout. Sometimes it just means walking, but something where my body is moving. And that's another one that I realized early on when I was a new mom was I needed to be active and I just in my, my body, I just don't feel good if I am not active. Um, and plus I have restless leg. And so at night, if I am not active during the day that restless leg is a lot worse. Okay. The third thing I do and not in this order, um, in fact I do this first thing, otherwise I won't do it, but I spend some time reading the Bible and I spend some time praying and kind of focusing on prayer prayers for my family and, um, things that are going on in the world.
Speaker 1: (27:09)
But for me, I don't necessarily just open the Bible and, and read random. I follow a plan. And sometimes it's a plan based on, um, what collectively we are as a church are doing. Or sometimes it's just a plan that looks interesting. But if I, if I have a plan that I'm following in my Bible app, it is a lot easier for me to feel motivated and then praying that God revealed some important words to me during that time. The other thing I do is I make sure I have time to connect with others. And of course, most of that means connecting with my own family, my own kids and my husband right now, what that looks like is I'm driving them to and from school. And so the car is an amazing place to have those connections. I love that I've been driving them for a very long time and not always, sometimes they write the best, but that car time, I mean, that's like a captive audience right there, but you know, sometimes it's reading to them.
Speaker 1: (28:09)
Sometimes it's playing games with them. Sometimes it's going outside and playing four square, whatever it is, it's just connecting and really pouring into these people that make me mom and make me wife. So that's super important. And then of course friends, right. I try really hard when someone pops into my mind to text them, just to say whatever, you're on, you're on my mind. I'm texting you here. I'm thinking about this, um, that kind of thing. And sometimes it happens in Instagram or on Facebook, just that connection piece. And then the last thing something I do every night, the last thing I do before I close my eyes is, is I read. And it is one of those things that has become such a habit that if I don't read during the day or if like I can't fall asleep, if I don't, if I don't read, sometimes it means it takes a very long time for me to finish a book because I'm only reading then.
Speaker 1: (29:06)
And sometimes I'm so tired. I can only make it two pages. Those are my daily five. So I'm spending time in scripture and prayer, connecting with others, reading, drinking, water, and moving daily. What are your five? I bet some of them might be similar. Some of them might look completely different and some of you might think, I dunno, I get up and I have breakfast and go to work. And I do the thing and that's okay too. But as I was thinking about my daily five, I was like, oh, these things come into mind for what I do on a weekly basis. And as I was thinking about that, I actually thought of six and some of course are ones that I want to improve a little bit on, but here they are. One of the things I like to do on a weekly basis is to do something creative.
Speaker 1: (29:58)
Sometimes that creative thing looks like rearranging the books on my bookshelf or sprucing it up for fall. Sometimes it looks like painting a piece of art for the shop or doing a piece of furniture for a client. Sometimes it means gardening, something creative that my mind is like, it's just feeding that part of my brain. Another thing that I, I like to do weekly is, is to be outdoors. And oftentimes that doubles up with taking walks or going paddle boarding or going kayaking. But we like to go hiking as a family. We like to go camping as a family. I love to go swimming when it's summertime outside. If there is an outdoor pool, that is my happy place. And if it needs to be a lake, that's fine too. Another thing I like to do weekly is pour into my home in some capacity.
Speaker 1: (30:50)
And sometime that looks like cleaning a little bit. Sometimes it looks like doing a fun project. Sometimes that front project is planting a pot for the outdoors. Sometimes it is painting a room. Of course I don't do that weekly, but I do do it often enough that it can fall into that weekly idea. Sometimes it is just making sure that my home is tidy and ready for the week ahead. Especially now that school is in session that needs to happen on the weekdays so that, or the weekends, so that by the time the week comes around, we are kind of reset. We've got a new, a blank canvas for the week. Another thing I like to do weekly is serve others. And right now what that looks like is it's heavily on the podcast or heavily in my Facebook community, where I teach. I teach you mamas something about taking care of your home systems in place and decorating tips and tricks, all of those things. So that's an act of service for me actually is really pouring into others in a way that I hope lightens their load, or I hope enriches their life, or I hope it just blesses them in some way. And sometimes that looks like making meals for others. Sometimes it looks like helping them in a practical way. Like, like for example, once a month I go and I help my dad. My dad lives two and a half hours away. And what do I do for my dad? I cut his hair.
Speaker 1: (32:19)
It's the cutest little thing. But I go and I cut his hair. He lives two and a half hours away, but I go and I do that because it's serving him and it's helping him. And, and then I do maybe a house chore too while I'm there. And that is not only a time for me to spend with him, but it's a time for me to bless him in, in a way that I hope brings him joy and makes his life easier. The other thing I like to do weekly is to have a Sabbath. Now I do want to talk about this for a second. And if you are, if you're wondering what that means, generally speaking, it's a day of rest, right? It's a day where you take a day off from work. You don't do any, you don't do any work, you don't do any labor.
Speaker 1: (33:02)
And it's kind of a reflection of when God created the earth. And he said on the seventh day, we rest, that's kind of where that idea comes from. And, you know, work for me is creative and work for me does light me up. But I think it's important to take some time off so that you're not doing that. But Sabbath to me has taken a new meaning just recently in the last like three or four months. Because in my mind it felt very rigid. It felt very lobbyist rule-based. And I don't like that. I don't respond well to that. But when I started looking at it through this lens, the lens of does this activity delight me, does this activity, will this activity, whatever I'm choosing to do, delight someone else. When I look at it through the lens of delight, I, it felt like, you know, that meme or that little emoji of like the head exploding, that's what it felt like to me is, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: (34:02)
If I view these ideas as ways that I can delight activities that can delight in or ways that this activity might delight someone else, including Jesus. Oh my gosh. Awesome. Let's do that. That has been a game changer for me because you know, when I think about, when I thought about the Sabbath before and thinking, oh, I'm just sitting on the couch, following that rule and I'm not doing anything. And that felt so rigid. I don't think that's what that meant. And I'm so glad. I mean, I'm 40 something and I'm so glad I'm finally having that realization because delighting in things means, um, something different to everyone, right? I delight in gardening. I get joy from that. I delight in watching my boys play soccer. I get joy from that. And they get joy from having their mom there on the sideline. I delight in having a family meal and inviting friends over.
Speaker 1: (35:03)
I delight in, in serving others that way I delight in taking a nap in a hammock on a warm day. I delight in reading a book on the back porch, but I also delight in walking my dog and going for a five mile walk or hike. Those things delight me. They fill me up, they bring me joy. And honestly, they're gifts given to me, you know, the movement of body and the, the, um, feeling of heart and mind, those things delight me. So anyway, off my soapbox, but, um, the other thing, what am I on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, the last thing, oh, this is the one that I need to put a goal on. This is date night. I put that on there because honestly we're not great at weekly date nights. We were, when the kids were little and we were confined to home and we would put them to bed and Greg and I loved to cook.
Speaker 1: (36:00)
So we would make an elaborate meal while little ones were sleeping. Um, sometimes date night looks a little different now. And sometimes date night actually looks like date day. And sometimes date day looks like walking to Starbucks to get a drink or going for a run together. Couple of weeks ago, date day looked like going paddleboarding. Sometimes it looks like going out to dinner. Um, one that we we've done recently that I want to tell you about is this date box that we got, I am not by the way being paid by this company. I just think it's really great. And honestly, if we had brand new babies or, you know, when you're stuck at home or okay, pandemic and you're stuck at home, this date box was really fun. Actually. It's called happily H a P P I L Y. And they give you a thematic date box.
Speaker 1: (36:56)
You can kind of pick your subscription, but you know, subscription boxes are kind of all the rage lately, but we've had like salsa dancing we've had, which is hilarious, by the way, I'm not a dancer. I can not shake my hips in any way. That makes sense. We have had, oh gosh, what else have we had? Oh, um, making crepes. We've had like coffee and crepe night. We've had, oh, we made candles one time with like concrete holders. Um, we have a couple more coming to that, that I know are going to be a little bit different, but each one is different. Each one comes with supplies that you need that you need to make it. And then some things you might need to get in order to have your date, but nothing big. Like you need an egg or you need a, oh, we made ice cream.
Speaker 1: (37:46)
That was really fun. Um, and we made margaritas too. Yeah. Lots of fun. Lots of fun in those. So if you have a chance or if you need an idea for date night, happily, go check it out. Okay. That's it for me, I have been rambling on and on. Um, all because I wanted to give you the update of what my daily, the daily five looked like for my children this summer guys, a double thumbs up triple thumbs up. Um, I will be revisiting it again when we approach summer next year. And, um, and then it just spiraled into, oh my gosh. I think I have a daily five. Oh, I think I have a weekly five. What are yours? Do you have five things that you kind of need to do daily in order to make you be the best version of you that you can? What about five things weekly? I to know I'm inspired. All right, girls until next time. I hope you are all well, I hope you're doing great. And getting back into the swing of things with school, we just started yesterday and I miss my babies already. All right, until next time, I'll see you soon.
Speaker 1: (38:54)
Hey, real quick, before you go, if you learned something new or found value in today's podcast, would you head over to iTunes, to fig and farm at home and leave a review and subscribe to the show? That would be awesome. And if you'd like to connect with my community of mamas who are burning to be intentional storytellers within their own homes, join us at bit dot L Y forward slash design 1 0 1 group. There's always more room at the table. See you soon.
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