What’s Saving My Life Right Now

• 3 in 30 Takeaways for Moms Episode on How to Get Your Kids to do Quiet Time
• The Popcast with Knox and Jamie
• More Than a Body by Lindsay Kite & Lexie Kite
• Everyday Style Courses:
  • Dress Your Body Shape Quiz
  • Wardrobe Personality Quiz
  • Style Circle Annual Membership

What is Saving My Life Right Now

Hi, I’m Andi Smiley, the Friendly Podcast Guide. And I’m going to tell you what is saving my life right now. I first heard this phrase from Kendra Adachi, the host of The Lazy Genius podcast and she said she got this idea from author Barbara Brown Taylor. Barbara Brown Taylor asks and answers this question in her memoir, Leaving Church.

I really like the idea of focusing on the things that are making my life better, it helps me to see those things easier in my every day life. And as a stay at home mom of 3 littles 5 years old and younger in the winter where it’s too cold for my kids to easily go outside, I need all the help I can get. I hope that you can find a nugget of info that can help you with your life, but more than anything I hope that listening to my list of 10 things can inspire you to make your own list of things that are saving your life right now.

Okay now on to my list:

1. Getting in Bed at 9 & Waking Up at 6

I am not a night person, around 9 pm is when my ability to think clearly and do things efficiently shuts down almost completely, so something that would normally take me 5 minutes to do, like write an email or record a quick voice over will take at least 15 minutes, but as a mom of littles I seem to have this default mindset of: once the kids are in bed I want to do whatever I want to do, for however long I want todo it, because I didn’t get to do it during the day. So inevitably I stay up late. Then the next morning I kick myself because I realize that I could’ve gotten so much more done with a full night sleep and a fully awake brain by waking up early.

So, I’m trying to slowly train my brain that getting into bed at 9 and waking up at 6 is not only good for my mind, body and spirit it’s also really good for my business. Side note…my kids that are able to leave their room without my assistance (AKA the 5 and 3 year old) have an okay to wake clock, so even if they wake up before 7 they are supposed to hang out in their room until 7 and the 18 month old is pretty good about hanging out in her crib until 7, so I know that unless there is some sort of kid emergency, you know… like someone sneezes and needs a tissue or something like that… isn’t parenthood so exciting? So, as long as no kid emergency happens, then I know that I have a full hour to work with a fully functioning brain from 6 to 7.

2. Doing Brain Dumps like Kendra Adachi, The Lazy Genius Talks About on Her Podcast

I think this is going to be a theme of the things that are saving my life, but my brain is busy and it can easily send me into an anxiety spiral if I let it, so to avoid that, I do brain dumps at least once a week.

For my brain dumps I set a timer usually for 10 minutes and I just write down everything in my brain from the things I need to do for the podcast to what we are having for dinner and everything in between, when the timer goes off I stop writing, because I’ve learned that if I let myself brain dump continuously that in and of itself can cause an anxiety spiral. After I’ve written everything down I do a trick I learned from Kendra Adachi the host of The Lazy Genius podcast, I label each thing as either now, later or never mind.

The things I label as now are things that have immediate need: making dinner, paying a bill, stuff like that. The things I label as later are things that are important, but not something that has to happen immediately: writing a podcast episode, switching out the kids clothes from winter to spring, etc. The things I label as never mind are things that I thought were important when they were swirling around in my head, but now that they are down on paper I realize that they aren’t that big of a deal and I can stop stressing about them, usually these things are like: being worried if the neighbor is mad at me because I forgot to bring the trash cans in or not being sure if I like how I organized my shoes. Then I put the now stuff on my to do list, or text Scott about them so we can tackle them together and make sure to put the later stuff on my calendar for when they need to happen.

3. 5 Minute Tidy

As a mom of littles I am working to help myself internalize that motherhood is about relationships, not keeping a clean house. So that when the house is a mess I don’t feel like a bad mom, but on the other hand my body and brain are more at peace when my house is at least somewhat clean and tidy. This is where the 5 minute tidy came from.

At some point during each day I will either turn on a 5 minute timer or a couple of songs that add up to about 5 minutes. Then I clean until the timer goes off, it’s a great way for me to feel a little bit of control over the tidiness of my house, but I don’t spend a long time cleaning, when my kids will probably mess it all up again in the following half an hour.

4. My Business Mom Daily Planner

I love using a physical planner, it really helps me to write out what my week looks like and be able to look at the things I have to do for the week both on my phone’s calendar and in my planner
There are a couple of things that I really like about this planner specifically:

• It has 3 priorities that I fill out for each day
• It has a business area and a mom area, the business area has a spot for me to put my business goals for the week along with other important things I want to get done and the mom area has a spot for my family’s meal plan.
• It also has a spot for me to write out what my week will look like and add what I plan on doing during each quiet time

There is also a spot at the end of each week for me to record how my week went, including my wins, what I need to improve and what I’m grateful for, which has helped me live in the moment a bit more, because that is definitely a struggle for me 

Michelle Gifford is the woman behind the Business Mom Planner and she also runs a business coaching group called Money Makers. I am part of that group and I have learned so much and my business has grown in so many ways since I joined Money Makers in October. If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, then I would highly recommend Money Makers. Here’s my affiliate link where you can learn more about it and sign up!

5. Our Three Month Pass to a Local Rec Center

Let me start off by saying I don’t like to run, I have short legs and it’s not easy for me, but Scott likes to run, it’s his favorite way to exercise. One of our family values is moving our bodies to help us feel healthy and strong and one of the ways that we fulfill this value is by going on family runs. For me it’s more like a jog/walk.

But running outside with littles in the Utah winter is next to impossible and we just haven’t been doing it, so we bought a pass to a local rec center so that we can run on their track. I love being back into a routine of running, we go on Tuesday mornings and Saturday mornings and I love being able to count on it every week.

The rec center has other stuff that the kids love like an indoor swimming pool and a kids yoga class these have helped us to get out of the house especially on the coldest days.

Kid Podcast Guide

Before I tell you about the other 5 things that are saving my life we are going to take a quick break to talk about my guide to kid podcasts. One of my favorite parenting tools is kid podcasts. I use them when I’m running errands with the kiddos to keep them from complaining the whole time. Or when I need a mom break, I’ll just grab an easy activity like coloring pages or a sensory bin, turn on a kid podcast and the kids will be entertained for at least half an hour. I know that kid podcasts would help you in your life too, which is why I made a guide to kid podcasts.

There are eight different categories ranging from science to mindfulness to audio drama with at least three podcasts in each category; there are 27 different podcasts in total on the guide. I’ve listened to each of the podcasts on this guide, so I can attest to them being kid-friendly. And I put my email at the bottom of the guide so that if you try a couple with your kids and none of them are a good fit, you can email me and I will personally help you find a kid podcast that works for your littles and you.

Okay back to my list:

6. Me Time 

I have a lot of things I want to learn and improve in my life, but a couple of months ago I realized that I was getting burned out using every quiet time during the week to do work or take an online course, so Wednesday quiet time is now me time.

It’s still hard for me to do sometimes, because there is always a project that I need to work on or something to clean, but the rejuvenation I feel after I do me time is worth it. I usually watch a show and paint my nails. I use Olive and June nail polish, because it lasts for a week with no chipping and I love the colors, if you use the link in the show notes you get 20 percent off a mani or pedi system!

7. Quiet Time

So I realize I’ve been talking about quiet time on this list, but I haven’t explained what that is. I first heard of quiet time on the 3 in 30 Takeaways for Moms podcast. It’s pretty much for when your kids stop taking a nap, they still have some quiet time either in their room or a play room where they play by themselves.

Quiet time is how I make it through the day without going crazy, it gives me a couple of hours to reset and do whatever I want in the middle of the day. If you want to try implementing quiet time in your house, check out the 3 in 30 episode all about quiet time.

8. The Song Good as Hell by Lizzo

I love being a mom, but there are days when it is so hard. On those days after I put the kids to bed (it’s almost always on a night when I have to put the kids to bed by myself, because Scott is working late) I turn on the song Good as hell by Lizzo and dance around my kitchen while I clean up. It’s wonderful and freeing and a sort of treat, because I try to avoid listening to songs with a bunch of cursing when my kids are around. After I’m done listening to it a couple of times I have a smile on my face and I can move on with my night.

9. Listening to The Popcast with Knox and Jamie While Folding Laundry

Y’all I don’t like to fold laundry. The way that I usually get myself to fold the laundry is by saving the newest episode of The Popcast with Knox and Jamie for folding.

Every time I listen to The Popcast I laugh so hard and I always learn something, from a book I should read to the fact that Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson were only fake dating. Knox and Jamie are delightful to listen to, their accents are awesome and I love their unique takes on pop culture.

It’s actually one of my goals to have them on my show, so I’m putting it into the universe that they’ll be on my show at some point.

10. Everyday Style Courses

I’ve never been very confident in the way that I look and dress, I think it’s mostly because I’ve never sat down and decided on what I wanted my style to be…and because for a long time I hadn’t accepted my body as awesome just the way it is.

I’ve been doing a lot of work on my body image for the past couple of years and I’ve come a long way, one book that really helped me if you’re looking for a place to start is called More Than a Body by Lindsay Kite and Lexie Kite. The theme of the book is your body is an instrument, not an ornament, which is a mantra I tell myself on hard body days.

Now that I’m more comfortable in my body I’ve started working on figuring out my style and the Everyday Style School Courses have helped me not only figure out my style, but also find clothes that flatter my body type and organize my closet in a way that makes it easy to get dressed in the morning.

Now as I shop I am able to look at a piece of clothing and have a pretty good idea if it’s a good fit for me or not.

If you want to start your journey to figuring out your style or how to dress your body shape there are a couple of Everyday Style quizzes that you can use, first is the Body Shape Quiz, which helps you figure out what body shape you are and get 10 Essential Wardrobe Pieces for your shape. The second one is the Wardrobe Personality Quiz, which helps you figure out your signature style and 10 essentials for your unique style. Or if you’re ready to deep dive into dressing to help you feel the most like you, I’ll have a link for the Style Circle Annual Membership in the show notes, the Style Circle is where members have access to all 3 style masterclasses, the Current Capsule guide (which helps you to decide what to wear for the current season), and past 3 capsule guides, as well as the ability to join the Facebook community for additional challenges, and extra support.