Podcasts about mom

Welcome to the Gospel in a Year on the Catholic Sprouts Podcast. This year we will walk together through all 4 Gospels. The fun officially starts next week. This week we are preparing by discussing what to expect from the Gospel in a Year.   On this episode we discuss the Synoptic Gospels and which of the three was (maybe) written first.   To get the most out of this journey through the Gospels, we suggest you do the following two things to prepare: 1 PRINT THE GOSPEL IN A YEAR NOTEBOOK. It's free and ready for you right here --> : http://catholicsprouts.com/the-gospels-in-a-year-on-the-catholic-sprouts-podcast   2 LOCATE A BIBLE! We will be reading from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE), so that is the best translation to follow along with for young Catholics. However, if you have older Catholics, it's fun to follow along in another great Catholic translation (we recommend either the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (RSV-CE) and the New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (NRSV-CE)).   Thank you for joining us! Come Lord Jesus!  

Welcome to the Gospel in a Year on the Catholic Sprouts Podcast. This year we will walk together through all 4 Gospels. The fun officially starts next week. This week we are preparing by discussing what to expect from the Gospel in a Year.   On this episode we discuss how the Gospels were written. We also strive to understand that the Gospels were written to spread the Faith, not to be a history book.   To get the most out of this journey through the Gospels, we suggest you do the following two things to prepare: 1 PRINT THE GOSPEL IN A YEAR NOTEBOOK. It's free and ready for you right here ---> http://catholicsprouts.com/the-gospels-in-a-year-on-the-catholic-sprouts-podcast   2 LOCATE A BIBLE! We will be reading from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE), so that is the best translation to follow along with for young Catholics. However, if you have older Catholics, it's fun to follow along in another great Catholic translation (we recommend either the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (RSV-CE) and the New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (NRSV-CE)).   Thank you for joining us! Come Lord Jesus!

If you're a mom with ADHD (or parenting kids with ADHD), daily life can feel like constant overcommitment, burnout, and chaos. But what if instead of pushing harder, you learned to strategically parent your brain? In this conversation, I'm joined by Amy Marie Hann—author of Master the Mundane: How to Manage Your Life, Home, and Family as a Mom with ADHD which comes out September 10, 2025. Diagnosed at five with ADHD and raising three neurodivergent kids, Amy brings both lived experience and practical strategies for building rhythms that actually work for the ADHD brain. Together we talk about: The differences between the boredom zone, depletion zone, ADHD burnout, and activation zone—and how to recognize which one you're in Why urgency feels motivating but creates unnecessary chaos in everyday life (and what to do instead) What “executive function capacity” is, and how to “budget” it like a bank account How to use the Daily 3 to keep life moving even on burnout or low-energy days A realistic plan for balancing novelty with capacity so you don't overcommit How to ditch “rage decluttering” and instead create sustainable habits for your home If you've ever felt like your ADHD brain is working against you, this episode will help you see that it's not broken - it just needs the right strategies and support to thrive.   About Amy: Amy Marie Hann is the author of Master the Mundane: How to Manage Your Life, Home, and Family as a Mom with ADHD. Diagnosed with ADHD at age five, she's now a mom of three, a foster and adoptive parent, and a homeschooling mom who has navigated life with ADHD alongside her husband, kids, dad, and sister. Amy believes the ADHD brain is uniquely designed to bring good to the world—and that the greatest gift moms can give their ADHD kids is modeling what it looks like to thrive. Resources Mentioned: Connect with Amy on her website, Instagram, and pre-order her new book (so you can get all the fun free gifts!) Learn more about the Master the Mundane Course + Community Related Episodes: Episode 124: The Rise of ADHD in Women and How to Be More Productive When Focus is a Challenge - with Alicia Cohen Episode 192: Get (and Stay) Organized as a Mom with ADHD - with Jaclyn Paul Episode 199: You're Not Failing! How Moms with ADHD Need to Approach Decluttering Differently - with Stacey Hutson and Stephanie Sprenger from The Mother Plus Podcast *** I help moms declutter their homes, heads, and hearts. Contact - > info@simplebyemmy.com  Podcast -＞ https://www.simplebyemmy.com/podcast Learn -＞ https://www.simplebyemmy.com/resources Connect -＞ Join our free Facebook group Decluttering Tips and Support for Overwhelmed Moms Instagram -＞ @simplebyemmy and @momsovercomingoverwhelm   *** Don't Know Where to Start? *** 5 Steps to Overcome Overwhelm -＞ https://simplebyemmy.com/5steps/ 5 Mindset Shifts for Decluttering -＞ https://simplebyemmy.com/mindset/   Wanna work with me to kick overwhelm to the curb, mama? There are three options for you! Step 1: Join a supportive community of moms plus decluttering challenges to keep you on track at the free Facebook group Decluttering Tips and Support for Overwhelmed Moms Step 2: Sign up for the weekly Decluttering Tips and Resources for Overwhelmed Moms Newsletter and see samples here: https://pages.simplebyemmy.com/profile Step 3: Get more personalized support with in-person or virtual decluttering and organization coaching! https://www.simplebyemmy.com/coaching

Mom's care, and that's why we can sometimes seemingly go overboard in trying to control things to keep our cubs safe.  Today, Michelle shares 3 tips for how to better manage that anxiety and desire to keep control of the reins in a more helpful way. If you would like to work with Michelle one-on-one, she offers a few ways to do that.  To connect further, go to www.mentalhealthforchristianwomen.com, and schedule a free 15 minute consultation call to find your next steps to healing.

Send us a textWhen you train with Green Ops your journey to becoming a better shooter won't be navigated alone.  We are building a community at Green Ops that will help shooter progress to their desired skill level. We have an Alumni group, a discord along with many other things that training with Green Ops gets you even after the class is complete.  Luke and Josh talk about that as well as their new Round Table Challenge where you can win prizes just for competing. Intro/Outro Music:Music: Oblivion by meloddict   / meloddict  License: Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0Free Download / Stream: https://www.audiolibrary.com.co/melod...Music promoted by Audio Library:    • Energetic, Retro, Synthwave No Copyright M...  Please like, subscribe and share to help us grow the podcast.Check out our YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/c/GreenOpsInc Follow us on Instagram:Green Ops Podcast - Green_ops_podcastGreen Ops - greenopsincLuke - Green_Ops_LukeDex - Green_Ops_DexLove you Mom!

You're listening to Burnt Toast! Today, my guest is Ash Brandin of Screen Time Strategies, also know as The Gamer Educator on Instagram. Ash is also the author of a fantastic new book, Power On: Managing Screen Time to Benefit the Whole Family. Ash joined us last year to talk about how our attitudes towards screen time can be…diet-adjacent. I asked them to come back on the podcast this week because a lot of us are heading into back-to-school mode, which in my experience can mean feelingsss about screen routines. There are A LOT of really powerful reframings in this episode that might blow your mind—and make your parenting just a little bit easier. So give this one a listen and share it with anyone in your life who's also struggling with kids and screen time.Today's episode is free but if you value this conversation, please consider supporting our work with a paid subscription. Burnt Toast is 100% reader- and listener-supported. We literally can't do this without you! PS. You can take 10 percent off Power On, or any book we talk about on the podcast, if you order it from the Burnt Toast Bookshop, along with a copy of Fat Talk! (This also applies if you've previously bought Fat Talk from them. Just use the code FATTALK at checkout.)Episode 208 TranscriptVirginiaFor anyone who missed your last episode, can you just quickly tell us who you are and what you do?AshI'm Ash Brandin. I use they/them pronouns.I am a middle school teacher by day, and then with my online presence, I help families and caregivers better understand and manage all things technology—screen time, screens. My goal is to reframe the way that we look at them as caregivers, to find a balance between freaking out about them and allowing total access. To find a way that works for us. VirginiaWe are here today to talk about your brilliant new book, which is called Power On: Managing Screen Time to Benefit the Whole Family. I can't underscore enough how much everybody needs a copy of this book. I have already turned back to it multiple times since reading it a few months ago. It just really helps ground us in so many aspects of this conversation that we don't usually have.AshI'm so glad to hear that it's helpful! If people are new to who I am, I have sort of three central tenets of the work that I do: * Screen time is a social inequity issue. * Screens can be part of our lives without being the center of our lives. * Screens and screen time should benefit whole families.Especially in the last few years, we have seen a trend toward panic around technology and screens and smartphones and social media. I think that there are many reasons to be concerned around technology and its influence, especially with kids. But what's missing in a lot of those conversations is a sense of empowerment about what families can reasonably do. When we focus solely on the fear, it ends up just putting caregivers in a place of feeling bad.VirginiaYou feel like you're getting it wrong all the time.AshShame isn't empowering. No one is like, “Well, I feel terrible about myself, so now I feel equipped to go make a change,” right?Empowerment is what's missing in so many of those conversations and other books and things that have come out, because it's way harder. It's so much harder to talk about what you can really do and reasonably control in a sustainable way. But I'm an educator, and I really firmly believe that if anyone's in this sort of advice type space, be it online or elsewhere, that they need to be trying to empower and help families instead of just capitalizing on fear.VirginiaWhat I found most powerful is that you really give us permission to say: What need is screen time meeting right now? And this includes caregivers' needs. So not just “what need is this meeting for my child,” but what need is this meeting for me? I am here recording with you right now because iPads are meeting the need of children have a day off school on a day when I need to work. We won't be interrupted unless I have to approve a screen time request, which I might in 20 minutes.I got divorced a couple years ago, and my kids get a lot more screen time now. Because they move back and forth between two homes, and each only has one adult in it. Giving myself permission to recognize that I have needs really got me through a lot of adjusting to this new rhythm of our family.AshAbsolutely. And when we're thinking about what the need is, we also need to know that it's going to change. So often in parenting, it feels like we have to come up with one set of rules and they have to work for everything in perpetuity without adjustment. That just sets us up for a sense of failure if we're like, well, I had this magical plan that someone told me was going to work, and it didn't. So I must be the problem, right? It all comes back to that “well, it's my fault” place.VirginiaWhich is screens as diet culture.AshAll over again. We're back at it. It's just not helpful. If instead, we're thinking about what is my need right now? Sometimes it's “I have to work.” And sometimes it's “my kid is sick and they just need to relax.” Sometimes it's, as you were alluding to earlier, it's we've all just had a day, right? We've been run ragged, and we just need a break, and that need is going to dictate very different things. If my kid is laid up on the couch and throwing up, then what screen time is going to be doing for them is very different than If I'm trying to work and I want them to be reasonably engaged in content and trying to maybe learn something. And that's fine. Being able to center “this is what I need right now,” or “this is what we need right now,” puts us in a place of feeling like we're making it work for us. Instead of feeling like we're always coming up against some rule that we're not going to quite live up to.VirginiaI'd love to talk about the inequity piece a little more too. As I said, going from a two parent household to a one parent household, which is still a highly privileged environment—but even just that small shift made me realize, wait a second. I think all the screen time guidance is just for typical American nuclear families. Ideally, with a stay at home parent.So can you talk about why so much of the standard guidance doesn't apply to most of our families?AshIt's not even just a stay at home parent. It's assuming that there is always at least one caregiver who is fully able to be present. Mom, default parent, is making dinner, and Dad is relaxing after work and is monitoring what the kids are doing, right? And it's one of those times where I'm like, have you met a family?VirginiaPeople are seven different places at once. It's just not that simple.AshIt's not that simple, right? It's like, have you spent five minutes in a typical household in the last 10 years? This is not how it's going, right?So the beginning of the book helps people unlearn and relearn what we may have heard around screens, including what research really does or doesn't say around screens, and this social inequity piece. Because especially since the onset of COVID, screens are filling in systemic gaps for the vast majority of families.I'm a family with two caregivers in the home. We both work, but we're both very present caregivers. So we're definitely kind of a rarity, that we're very privileged. We're both around a lot of the time. And we are still using screens to fill some of those gaps.So whether it's we don't really have a backyard, or people are in a neighborhood where they can't send their kids outside, or they don't have a park or a playground. They don't have other kids in the neighborhood, or it's not a safe climate. Or you live in an apartment and you can't have your neighbors complain for the fifth time that your kids are stomping around and being loud. Whatever it is—a lack of daycare, affordable after school care —those are all gaps. They all have to be filled. And we used to have different ways of filling those gaps, and they've slowly become less accessible or less available. So something has to fill them. What ends up often filling them is screens. And I'm not saying that that's necessarily a good thing. I'd rather live in a world in which everyone is having their needs met accessibly and equitably. But that's a much harder conversation, and is one that we don't have very much say in. We participate in that, and we might vote for certain people, but that's about all we can really do reasonably. So, in the meantime, we have to fill that in with something and so screens are often going to fill that in.Especially if you look at caregivers who have less privilege, who are maybe single caregivers, caregivers of color, people living in poverty—all of those aspects of scarcity impacts their bandwidth. Their capacity as a caregiver is less and spread thinner, and all of that takes away from a caregiver's ability to be present. And there were some really interesting studies that were done around just the way that having less capacity affects you as a caregiver.And when I saw that data, I thought, well, of course. Of course people are turning to screens because they have nothing else to give from. And when we think of it that way, it's hard to see that as some sort of personal failure, right? When we see it instead as, oh, this is out of necessity. It reframes the question as “How do I make screens work for me,” as opposed to, “I'm bad for using screens.”VirginiaRight. How do I use screen time to meet these needs and to hopefully build up my capacity so that I can be more present with my kids? I think people think if you're using a lot of screens, you're really never present. It's that stereotype of the parent on the playground staring at their phone, instead of watching the kid play. When maybe the reason we're at the playground is so my kid can play and I can answer some work emails. That doesn't mean I'm not present at other points of the day.AshOf course. You're seeing one moment. I always find that so frustrating. It just really feels like you you cannot win. If I were sitting there staring at my child's every move in the park, someone would be like, “you're being a helicopter,” right? And if I look at my phone because I'm trying to make the grocery pickup order—because I would rather my child have time at the playground than we spend our only free hour in the grocery store and having to manage a kid in the grocery store and not having fun together, right? Instead I'm placing a pickup order and they're getting to run around on the playground. Now also somehow I'm failing because I'm looking at my phone instead of my kid. But also, we want kids to have independent time, and not need constant input. It really feels like you just can't win sometimes. And being able to take a step back and really focus on what need is this meeting? And if it's ours, and if it is helping me be more present and connected, that's a win. When I make dinner in the evening, my kid is often having screen time, and I will put in an AirPod and listen to a podcast, often Burnt Toast, and that's my decompression. Because I come home straight from work and other things. I'm not getting much time to really decompress.VirginiaYou need that airlock time, where you can decompress and then be ready to be present at dinner.I'm sure I've told you this before, but I reported a piece on screen time for Parents Magazine, probably almost 10 years ago at this point, because I think my older child was three or four. And I interviewed this Harvard researcher, this older white man, and I gave him this the dinner time example. I said, I'm cooking dinner. My kid is watching Peppa Pig so that I can cook dinner, and take a breath. And then we eat dinner together. And he said, “Why don't you involve her in cooking dinner? Why don't you give her a bag of flour to play with while you cook dinner?”AshOf all the things!VirginiaAnd I said to him: Because it's 5pm on a Wednesday and who's coming to clean the flour off the ceiling?AshA bag of flour. Of all the things to go to! VirginiaHe was like, “kids love to make a happy mess in the kitchen!” I was like, well I don't love that. And it was just exactly that. My need didn't matter to him at all. He was like, “h, well, if you just want to pacify your children…” I was like, I do, yes, in that moment.AshWell, and I think that's another part of it is that someone says it to us like that, and we're like, “well, I can't say yes,” right? But in the moment, yeah, there are times where it's like, I need you to be quiet. And as hard as this can be to think, sometimes it's like right now, I need you to be quiet and convenient because of the situation we're in. And that doesn't mean we're constantly expecting that of them, and hopefully that's not something we're doing all the time. But if the need is, oh my God, we're all melting down, and if we don't eat in the next 15 minutes, we're going to have a two hour DEFCON1 emergency on our hands, then, yeah, I'm gonna throw Peppa Pig on so that we can all become better regulated humans in the next 15 minutes and not have a hungry meltdown. And that sounds like a much better alternative to me!VirginiaThan flour all over my kitchen on a Wednesday, right? I mean, I'll never not be mad about it. It's truly the worst parenting advice I've ever received. So thank you for giving us all more space as caregivers to be able to articulate our own needs and articulate what we need to be present. It's what we can do in the face of gaps in the care system that leave us holding so much.That said: I think there are some nitty gritty aspects of this that we all struggle wit, so I want to talk about some of the nuts and bolts pieces. One of my biggest struggles is still the question of how much time is too much time? But you argue that time really isn't the measure we should be using. As you're saying, that need is going to vary day to day, and all the guidance that's been telling us, like, 30 minutes at this age, an hour at this age, all of that is not particularly germane to our lives. So can you explain both why time is less what we should fixate on? And then how do I release myself? How do I divest from the screen time diet culture?AshOh man, I wish I had a magic bullet for that one. We'll see what I can do.When I was writing this and thinking about it and making content about it, I kept thinking about you. Because the original time guidelines that everyone speaks back to—they're from the AAP. And they have not actually been used in about 10 years, but people still bring them up all the time. The “no time under two” and “up to an hour up to age five” and “one to two hours, five to 12.” And if you really dig in, I was following footnote after footnote for a while, trying to really find where did this actually come from? It's not based on some study that found that that's the ideal amount of time. It really came from a desire to find this middle ground of time spent being physically idle. These guidelines are about wanting to avoid childhood obesity.VirginiaOf course.AshIt all comes back, right?VirginiaI should have guessed it.AshAnd so in their original recommendations, the AAP note that partially this is to encourage a balance with physical movement. Which, of course, assumes that if you are not sitting watching TV or using an iPad, that you will be playing volleyball or something.VirginiaYou'll automatically be outside running around.AshExactly, of course, those are the only options.VirginiaIt also assumes that screen time is never physical. But a lot of kids are very physical when they're watching screens.AshExactly. And it, of course, immediately also imposes a morality of one of these things is better—moving your body is always better than a screen, which is not always going to be true, right? All these things have nuance in them. But I thought that was so interesting, and it shouldn't have surprised me, and yet somehow it still did. And of course it is good to find movement that is helpful for you and to give your kids an enjoyment of being outside or moving their bodies, or playing a sport. And putting all of that in opposition to something else they may enjoy, like a screen, really quickly goes to that diet culture piece of “well, how many minutes have you been doing that?” Because now we have to offset it with however many minutes you should be running laps or whatever.So those original recommendations are coming from a place of already trying to mitigate the negatives of sitting and doing something sort of passively leisurely. And in the last 10 years, they've moved away from that, and they now recommend what's called making a family media plan. Which actually I think is way better, because it is much more prioritizing what are you using this for? Can you be doing it together? What can you do? It's much more reasonable, I think. But many people still go back to those original recommendations, because like you said, it's a number. It's simple. Just tell me.VirginiaWe love to grab onto a number and grade ourselves.AshJust tell me how much time so that I can tell myself I'm I'm doing a good job, right? But you know, time is just one piece of information. It can be so specific with what am I using that time to do? If I'm sitting on my computer and doing work for an hour and a half, technically, that is screen time, but it is going to affect me a lot differently than if I'm watching Netflix or scrolling my phone for an hour and a half. I will feel very different after those things. And I think it's really important to be aware of that, and to make our kids aware of that from an early age, so that they are thinking about more than just, oh, it's been X amount of minutes. And therefore this is okay or not okay.Because all brains and all screens are different. And so one kid can watch 20 minutes of Paw Patrol, and they're going to be bouncing off the walls, because, for whatever reason, that's just a show that's really stimulating for them. And somebody else can sit and watch an hour and a half of something, and they'll be completely fine. So if you have a kid that is the first kid, and after 20 minutes, you're like, oh my god, it's not even half an hour. This is supposed to be an okay amount. This is how they're acting. We're right back to that “something's wrong. I'm wrong. They're bad,” as opposed to, “What is this telling me? What's something we could do differently? Could we try a different show? Could we try maybe having some physical movement before or after, see if that makes a difference?” It just puts us more in a place of being curious to figure out again, how do I make this work for me? What is my need? How do I make it work for us?And not to rattle on too long, but there was a big study done in the UK, involving over 120,000 kids. And they were trying to find what they called “the Goldilocks amount of time.”VirginiaYes. This is fascinating.AshSo it's the amount of time where benefit starts to wane. Where we are in that “just right”amount. Before that, might still be okay, but after that we're going to start seeing some negative impacts, particularly when it comes to behavior, for example.What they found in general was that the Goldilocks number tended to be around, I think, an hour and 40 minutes a day. Something around an hour and a half a day. But if you looked at certain types of screens, for computers or TV, it was much higher than that. It was closer to three hours a day before you started seeing some negative impacts. And even for things like smartphones, it was over an hour a day. But what I found so so interesting, is that they looked at both statistical significance, but also what they called “minimally important difference,” which was when you would actually notice these negative changes, subjectively, as a caregiver.So this meant how much would a kid have to be on a screen for their adult at home to actually notice “this is having an impact on you,” regularly. And that amount was over four and a half hours a day on screens.VirginiaBefore caregivers were like, “Okay, this is too much!” And the fact that the statistically significant findings for the minutia of what the researchers looking at is so different from what you as a caregiver are going to actually be thrown by. That was really mind blowing to me.AshRight, And that doesn't mean that statistical significance isn't important, necessarily. But we're talking about real minutiae. And that doesn't always mean that you will notice any difference in your actual life.Of course, some people are going to hear this and go, “But I don't want my kid on a screen for four and a half hours.” Sure. That's completely reasonable. And if your kid is having a hard time after an hour, still reasonable, still important. That's why we can think less about how many minutes has it been exactly, and more, what am I noticing? Because if I'm coming back to the need and you're like, okay, I have a meeting and I need an hour, right? If you know, “I cannot have them use their iPad for an hour, because they tend to become a dysregulated mess in 25 minutes,” that's much more useful information than “Well, it says they're allowed to have an hour of screen time per day so this should be fine because it's an hour.”VirginiaRight.AshIt sets you up for more success.VirginiaAnd if you know your kid can handle that hour fine and can, in fact, handle more fine, it doesn't mean, “well you had an hour of screen time while I was in a meeting so now we can't watch a show together later to relax together.” You don't have to take away and be that granular with the math of the screens. You can be like, yeah, we needed an extra hour for this meeting, and we'll still be able to watch our show later. Because that's what I notice with my kids. If I start to try to take away from some other screen time, then it's like, “Oh, god, wait, but that's the routine I'm used to!” You can't change it, and that's fair.AshYes, absolutely. And I would feel that way too, right? If someone were giving me something extra because it was a convenience to them, but then later was like, “oh, well, I have to take that from somewhere.” But they didn't tell me that. I would be like, Excuse me, that's weird. That's not how that works, right? This was a favor to you, right?VirginiaYeah, exactly. I didn't interrupt your meeting. You're welcome, Mom.Where the time anxiety does tend to kick in, though, is that so often it's hard for kids to transition off screens. So then parents think, “Well, it was too much time,” or, “The screen is bad.” This is another very powerful reframing in your work. So walk us through why just because a kid is having a hard time getting off screens doesn't mean it was too much and it doesn't mean that screens are evil? AshSo an example I use many times that you can tweak to be whatever thing would come up for your kid is bath time. I think especially when kids are in that sort of toddler, three, four age. When my kid was that age, we had a phase where transitioning to and from the bathtub was very hard. Getting into it was hard. But then getting out of it was hard.VirginiaThey don't ever want to get in. And then they never want to leave.AshThey never want to get out, right? And in those moments when my kid was really struggling to get out of the bathtub, imagine how it would sound if I was like, “Well, it it's the bathtub's fault.” Like it's the bath's fault that they are having such a hard time, it's because of the bubbles, and it smells too good, and I've made it too appealing and the water's too warm. Like, I mean, I sound unhinged, right?Virginia“We're going to stop bathing you.”AshExactly. We would not say, “Well, we can't have baths anymore.” Or when we go to the fun playground, and it's really hard to leave the fun playground, we don't blame the playground. When we're in the grocery store and they don't want to leave whichever aisle, we don't blame the grocery store. And we also don't stop taking them to the grocery store. We don't stop going to playgrounds. We don't stop having baths. Instead, we make different decisions, right? We try different things. We start a timer. We have a different transition. We talk about it beforehand. We strategize, we try things.VirginiaGive a “Hey, we're leaving in a few minutes!” so they're not caught off guard.AshExactly. We talk about it. Hey, last time it was really hard to leave here, we kind of let them know ahead of time, or we race them to the car. We find some way to make it more fun, to make the transition easier, right? We get creative, because we know that, hey, they're going to have to leave the grocery store. They're going to have to take baths in a reasonable amount of time as they grow up into their lives. We recognize the skill that's happening underneath it.And I think with screens, we don't always see those underlying skills, because we see it as this sort of superfluous thing, right? It's not needed. It's not necessary. Well, neither is going to a playground, technically.A lot of what we do is not technically required, but the skill underneath is still there. So when they are struggling with ending screen time, is it really the screen, or is it that it's hard to stop doing something fun. It's hard to stop in the middle of something. It's hard to stop if you have been playing for 20 minutes and you've lost every single race and you don't want to stop when you've just felt like you've lost over and over again, right? You want one more shot to one more shot, right?People are going to think, “Well, but screens are so much different than those other things.” Yes, a screen is designed differently than a playground or a bath. But we are going to have kids who are navigating a technological and digital world that we are struggle to even imagine, right? We're seeing glimpses of it, but it's going to be different than what we're experiencing now, and we want our kids to be able to navigate that with success. And that comes back to seeing the skills underneath. So when they're struggling with something like that, taking the screen out of it, and asking yourself, how would I handle this if it were anything else. How would I handle this if it were they're struggling to leave a friend's house? I probably wouldn't blame the friend, and I wouldn't blame their house, and I wouldn't blame their boys.VirginiaWe're never seeing that child again! Ash I would validate and I would tell them, it's hard. And I would still tell them “we're ending,” and we would talk about strategies to make it easier next time. And we would get curious and try something, and we would be showing our kids that, “hey, it's it's okay to have a hard time doing that thing. It's okay to have feelings about it. And we're still gonna do it. We're still going to end that thing.”Most of the time, the things that we are struggling with when it comes to screens actually boil down to one of three things, I call them the ABCs. It's either Access, which could be time, or when they're having it, or how much. Behavior, which you're kind of bringing up here. And Content, what's on the screen, what they're playing, what they what they have access to.And so sometimes we might think that the problem we're seeing in front of us is a behavior problem, right? I told them to put the screen away. They're not putting the screen away. That's a behavior problem. But sometimes it actually could be because it's an access issue, right? It's more time than they can really handle at that given moment. Or it could be content, because it's content that makes it harder to start and stop. So a big part of the book is really figuring out, how do I know what problem I'm even really dealing with here? And then what are some potential things that I can do about it? To try to problem solve, try to make changes and see if this helps, and if it helps, great, keep it. And if not, I can get curious and try something else. And so a lot of it is strategies to try and ways to kind of, you know, backwards engineer what might be going on, to figure out how to make it work for you, how to make it better.VirginiaIt's so helpful to feel like, okay, there's always one more thing I can tweak and adjust. Versus “it's all a failure. We have to throw it out.” That kind of all or nothing thinking that really is never productive. The reason I think it's so helpful that you draw that parallel with the bath or the play date is it reminds us that there are some kids for whom transitions are just always very difficult—like across the board. So you're not just seeing a screen time problem. You're being reminded “My kid is really building skills around transitions. We don't have them yet.” We hope we will have them at some point. But this is actually an opportunity to work on that, as opposed to a problem. We can actually practice some of these transition skills.AshAnd I really like coming back to the skill, because if we're thinking of it as a skill, then we're probably more likely to tell our kids that it's a skill, too. Because if we're just thinking of it as like, well, it's a screen. It's the screen's fault, it's the screen's fault. Then we might not say those literal words to our kids, but we might say, like, it's always so hard to turn off the TV. Why is that, right? We're talking about it as if it's this sort of amorphous, like it's only about the television, or it's only about the iPad, and we're missing the part of making it clear to our kids that, hey, this is a skill that you're working on, and we work on this skill in different ways.VirginiaI did some good repair with my kids after reading your book. Because I was definitely falling into the trap of talking about screen addiction. I thought I was saying to them, “It's not your fault. The screens are programmed to be bad for us in this way” So I thought, I was like at least not blaming them, but being like, we need less screens because they're so dangerous.But then I read your book, and I was like, oh, that's not helpful either. And I did have one of my kids saying, “Am I bad because I want to watch screens all the time?” And I was like, oh, that's too concrete and scary.And again, to draw the parallel with diet culture: It's just like telling kids sugar is bad, and then they think they're bad because they like sugar. So I did do some repair. I was like, “I read this book and now I've learned that that was not right.” They were like, oh, okay. We're healing in my house from that, so thank you.AshOh, you're very welcome, and I'm glad to hear that!I think about those parallels with food all the time, because sometimes it just helps me think, like, wait, would I be wanting to send this message about food or exercise or whatever? And if the answer is no, then how can I tweak it so that I'm sending a message I'd be okay with applying to other things. And I like being able to make those parallels with my kid. In my household right now, we're practicing flexibility. Flexibility is a skill that we're working on in so many parts of our lives. And when I say we, I do mean we. Me, everybody is working on this.VirginiaParents can use more flexibility, for sure.AshAbsolutely. And so like, when those moments are coming up, you know, I'm trying to say, like, hey, like, what skill is this right now? Who's having to be flexible right now? Flexible can be a good thing, right? We might be flexible by saying yes to eating dinner on the couch and watching a TV show. That's flexibility. Flexibility isn't just adjust your plans to be more convenient to me, child, so that I can go do something as an adult. And coming back to those skills so they can see, oh, okay, this isn't actually just about screens. This applies to every part of these of my life, or these different parts of my life, and if I'm working on it here, oh, wow, it feels easier over there. And so they can see that this applies throughout their life, and kind of feel more of that buy in of like, oh, I'm getting better at that. Or that was easier. That was harder. We want them to see that across the board.VirginiaOh, my God, absolutely.Let's talk about screens and neurodivergence a little bit. So one of my kiddos is neurodivergent, and I can both see how screens are wonderful for them at the end of a school day, when they come home and they're really depleted. Screen time is the thing they need to rest and regulate. And they love the world building games, which gives them this whole world to control and explore. And there's so much there that's wonderful.And, they definitely struggle more than their sibling with this transition piece, with getting off it. One kid will naturally put down the iPad at some point and go outside for a bit, and this kid will not. And it creates more anxiety for parents. Because neurodivergent kids may both need screens—in ways that maybe we're not totally comfortable with, but need to get comfortable with—and then struggle with the transition piece. So how do you think about this question differently with neurodivergence? Or or is it really the same thing you're just having to drill in differently?AshI think it is ultimately the same thing, but it certainly is going to feel quite more heightened. And I think especially for certain aspects of neurodivergence, especially, I think it feels really heightened because of some of the ways that they might be discussed, particularly online, when it comes to how they relate to technology. I think about ADHD, we'll see that a lot. Where I'll see many things online about, like, “kids with ADHD should never be on a screen. They should never be on a device, because they are so dopamine-seeking.” And I have to just say that I find that to be such an ableist framing. Because with ADHD, we're talking about a dopamine deficient brain. And I don't think that we would be having that same conversation about someone needing insulin, right? Like, we wouldn't be saying, like, oh yeah, nope, they can't take that insulin. VirginiaThey're just craving that insulin they need to stay alive.AshA kid seeking a thing that they're that they are somehow deficient in—that's not some sort of defiant behavior. VirginiaNo, it's a pretty adaptive strategy.AshAbsolutely, it is. And we want kids to know that nobody's brain is good or bad, right? There's not a good brain or a bad brain. There are all brains are going to have things that are easier or harder. And it's about learning the brain that you're in, and what works or doesn't work for the brain that you're in.And all brains are different, right? Neurotypical brains and neurodivergent brains within those categories are obviously going to be vastly different. What works for one won't work for another, and being able to figure out what works for them, instead of just, “because you have this kind of brain, you shouldn't ever do this thing,” that's going to set them up for more success. And I think it's great that you mentioned both how a screen can be so regulating, particularly for neurodivergent brains, and then the double-edged sword of that is that then you have to stop. VirginiaTransition off back into the world.AshSo if the pain point is a transition, what is it really coming from? Is it coming from the executive function piece of “I don't know how to find a place to stop?” A lot of people, particularly kids ADHD, they often like games that are more open-ended. So they might like something like a Minecraft or an Animal Crossing or the Sims where you can hyperfocus and deep dive into something. But what's difficult about that is that, you know, if I play Mario Kart, the level ends, it's a very obvious ending.VirginiaRight? And you can say, “One more level, and we're done.”AshExactly. We've reached the end of the championship. I'm on the podium. I quit now, right?But there's a never ending series of of tasks with a more open-ended game. And especially if I'm in my hyper focus zone, right? I can just be thinking, like, well, then I can do this and this and this and this and this, right?And I'm adding on to my list, and the last thing I want to do in that moment is get pulled out of it when I'm really feeling like I'm in the zone. So if that's the kind of transition that's difficult. And it's much less about games and more about “how do I stop in the middle of a project?” Because that's essentially what that is.And that would apply if I'm at school and I'm in the middle of an essay and we're finishing it up tomorrow. Or I'm trying to decorate a cake, and we're trying to walk out the door and I have to stop what I'm doing and come back later. So one of the tricks that I have found really helpful is to ask the question of, “How will you know when you're done?” Or how will you know you're at a stopping point? What would a stopping point be today? And getting them to sort of even visualize it, or say it out loud, so that they can think about, “Oh, here's how I basically break down a giant task into smaller pieces,” because that's essentially what that is.VirginiaThat's a great tip. Ash“Okay, you have five minutes. What is the last thing you're going to do today?” Because then it's concrete in terms of, like, I'm not asking the last thing, and it will take you half an hour, right? I'm at, we have five minutes. What's the last thing you're wrapping up? What are you going to do?Then, if it's someone who's very focused in this world, and they're very into that world, then that last thing can also be our transition out of it. As they're turning it off, the very first thing we're saying to them is, “So what was that last thing you were doing?”VirginiaOh, that's nice.AshThen they're telling it to us, and then we can get curious. We can ask questions. We can get a little into their world to help them transition out of that world. That doesn't mean that we have to understand what they're telling us, frankly. It doesn't mean we have to know all the nuance. But we can show that interest. I think this is also really, really important, because then we are showing them it's not us versus the screen. We're not opposing the screen, like it's the enemy or something. And we're showing them, “Hey, I can tell you're interested in this, so I'm interested in it because you are.” Like, I care about you, so I want to know more.VirginiaAnd then they can invite you into their world, which what a lot of neurodivergent kids need. We're asking them to be part of the larger world all the time. And how nice we can meet them where they are a little more.AshAbsolutely. The other thing I would say is that something I think people don't always realize, especially if they don't play games as much, or if they are not neurodivergent and playing games, is they might miss that video games actually are extremely well-accommodated worlds, in terms of accommodating neurodivergence.So thinking about something like ADHD, to go back to that example, it's like, okay, some really common classroom accommodations for ADHD, from the educator perspective, the accommodations I see a lot are frequent check ins, having a checklist, breaking down a large task into smaller chunks, objectives, having a visual organizer.Well, I think about a video game, and it's like, okay, if I want to know what I have available to me, I can press the pause menu and see my inventory at any time. If I want to know what I should be doing, because I have forgotten, I can look at a menu and see, like, what's my objective right now? Or I can bring up the map and it will show me where I supposed to be going. If I start to deviate from what I'm supposed to be doing, the game will often be like, “Hey, don't forget, you're supposed to be going over there!” It'll get me back on task. If I'm trying to make a potion that has eight ingredients, the game will list them all out for me, and it will check them off as I go, so I can visually see how I'm how I'm achieving this task. It does a lot of that accommodation for me. And those accommodations are not as common in the real world, or at least not as easily achieved.And so a lot of neurodivergent kids will succeed easily in these game worlds. And we might think “oh because it's addicting, or the algorithm, or it's just because they love it” But there are often these structural design differences that actually make it more accessible to them.And if we notice, oh, wow, they have no problem knowing what to do when they're playing Zelda, because they just keep checking their objective list all the time or whatever—that's great information.VirginiaAnd helps us think, how can we do that in real life? AshExactly. We can go to them and say, hey, I noticed you, you seem to check your inventory a lot when you're playing that game. How do we make it so that when you look in your closet, you can just as easily see what shirts you own. Whatever the thing may be, so that we're showing them, “hey, bring that into the rest of your world that works for you here.” Let's make it work for you elsewhere, instead of thinking of it as a reason they're obsessed with screens, and now we resent the screens for that. Bring that in so that it can benefit the rest of their lives.VirginiaI'm now like, okay, that just reframes something else very important for me. You have such a helpful way of helping us divest from the guilt and the shame and actually look at this in a positive and empowering way for us and our kids. And I'm just so grateful for it. It really is a game changer for me.AshOh, thank you so much. I'm so glad to hear that it was helpful and empowering for you, and I just hope that it can be that for others as well.ButterAshSo my family and I have been lucky enough to spend quite a lot of time in Japan. And one of the wonderful things about Japan is they have a very huge bike culture. I think people think of the Netherlands as Bike cCentral, but Japan kind of rivals them.And they have a particular kind of bike that you cannot get in the United States. It's called a Mamachari, which is like a portmanteau of mom and chariot. And it's sort of like a cargo bike, but they are constructed a little differently and have some features that I love. And so when I've been in Japan, we are on those bikes. I'm always like, I love this kind of bike. I want this kind of bike for me forever. And my recent Butter has been trying to find something like that that I can have in my day to day life. And I found something recently, and got a lovely step through bike on Facebook Marketplace. VirginiaSo cool! That's exciting to find on marketplace, too.AshOh yes, having a bike that like I actually enjoy riding, I had my old bike from being a teenager, and it just was not functional. I was like, “This is not fun.” And now having one that I enjoy, I'm like, oh yes. I feel like a kid again. It's lovely.VirginiaThat's a great Butter. My Butter is something both my kids and my pets and I are all really enjoying. I'm gonna drop a link in the chat for you. It is called a floof, and it is basically a human-sized dog bed that I found on Etsy. It's like, lined with fake fur.AshMy God. I'm looking at it right now.VirginiaIsn't it hilarious?AshWow. I'm so glad you sent a picture, because that is not what I was picturing?Virginia I can't describe it accurately. It's like a cross between a human-sized dog bed and a shopping bag? Sort of? AshYes, yes, wow. It's like a hot tub.VirginiaIt's like a hot tub, but no water. You just sit in it. I think they call it a cuddle cave. I don't understand how to explain it, but it's the floof. And it's in our family room. And it's not inexpensive, but it does basically replace a chair. So if you think of it as a furniture purchase, it's not so bad. There's always at least a cat or a dog sleeping in it. Frequently a child is in it. My boyfriend likes to be in it. Everyone gravitates towards it. And you can put pillows in it or a blanket.Neurodivergent people, in particular, really love it, because I think it provides a lot of sensory feedback? And it's very enclosed and cozy. It's great for the day we're having today, which is a very laid back, low demand, watch as much screen as you want, kind of day. So I've got one kid bundled into the floof right now with a bunch of blankets in her iPad, and she's so happy. AshOh my gosh. Also, it kind of looks like the person is sitting in a giant pita, which I also love.VirginiaThat's what it is! It's like a giant pita, but soft and cozy. It's like being in a pita pocket. And I'm sure there are less expensive versions, this was like, 300 something dollars, so it is an investment. But they're handmade by some delightful person in the Netherlands.Whenever we have play dates, there are always two or three kids, snuggled up in it together. There's something extremely addictive about it. I don't know. I don't really know how to explain why it's great, but it's great.AshOh, that is lovely.VirginiaAll right, well tell obviously, everyone needs to go to their bookstore and get Power On: Managing Screen Time to Benefit the Whole Family. Where else can we find you, Ash? How can we support your work?AshYou can find me on Instagram at the gamer educator, and I also cross post my Instagram posts to Substack, and I'm on Substack as Screen Time Strategies. It's all the same content, just that way you're getting it in your inbox without, without having to go to Instagram. So if that's something that you are trying to maybe move away from, get it via Substack. And my book Power On: Managing Screen Time to Benefit the Whole Family is available starting August 26 is when it fully releases.VirginiaAmazing. Thank you so much. This was really great.AshThank you so much for having me back.The Burnt Toast Podcast is produced and hosted by Virginia Sole-Smith (follow me on Instagram) and Corinne Fay, who runs @SellTradePlus, and Big Undies.The Burnt Toast logo is by Deanna Lowe.Our theme music is by Farideh.Tommy Harron is our audio engineer.Thanks for listening and for supporting anti-diet, body liberation journalism! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit virginiasolesmith.substack.com/subscribe

Two romcoms that are an absolute home run (featuring Mom)

When life gives you lemons, then invite Jacob Tingle to join you to make lemonade. The World's most optimistic QPR fan joins all the way from San Antonio to help Andy and Dun make sense of a busy and utterly depressing week in QPRland, in Birthday Boy Ant's absence.Trigger warning: It's quite long, and I'm not sure we were as optimistic as we set out to be.Firstly and most importantly Get well Soon Andy Sinton. QPR NYC send our best wishes for a full and speedy recovery- Coventry 7 (Seven) QPR 1- Spotty coverage and is it 6 yet? Oh, is it 7 yet? Oh, Is it 8 yet? A trip to Niagara Falls Maid Dun Mist most of the game, but saw enough. More than enough.- Andy and Jacob kept themselves occupied too.- Let's not go into game in too much detail- The Game Model of consistency - Stop p*ssing about at the back and get it launched- It'll all come out in the Walsh. Time for Joe to go (on loan?). Just how much damage are we doing to our young keeper- Where's the Leadership? Our Leadership expert weighs in. Who needs to stand up and be counted? - The 47th Minutemen. What's being said at half time?- Pressure on Julien - Our hopes in the four games have gone by in a Blur. How much grace will Stephan get before he steps out the door? - Knives out for Nourry? Is it possible for someone to go a terrible job and a great job at the same time? We make the case- Build for mid and long term future success by all means but please don't short the short term and leave us short.- Witness the (lack of) Fitness. Early injuries make Manuvas in the transfer market entirely necessary- We're an Eze Lover - Eze Moves to Arsenal, Eze Money for the R's- The Arrival of Koki is a Saito sore eyes- Hey Hayden! Isaac join on a permanent for free- N'Davies left back in the pecking order of signings- Fortunate Zan - Celar's off to Dusseldorf leaves on loan with a view to a permanent - Optimism: Open training day a success for the kids, Kone off the mark.- High Intensity Press Coverage from all the outlets- Screens up for the shooting of a Dark Horse- More G than X. 5.78 of them in fact. Game by game its a nonsense, but over the season? Still nonsense.- Papier Mache Paddy Kenny's having a party, bring Mbengue and Paul Nardi- Depreciation Appreciation - Are QPR players dropping in value as soon they drive onto the lot?- All that (money) and a bag of chips - Adams acknowledges- The hunt was on for Zohran Mamdani (and a bag of chips)- Jacob's sandwich course is taxing- 'Cutlets' cut lets Tommy De Vito ship up to Boston and out of Mom's basement.- We remember some actual lads including the wonderful Paul Parker- No Kit Korner, as all the Charlton kits are Trash- How can you possibly predict a win after that performance. Try us. Just try us...but you just know Kelman's getting his first goal on Saturday- Across the acrostics with Jacob's Stanzas LIVE! - There's still lovely stuff in the world - Start of semesters, Fairytale Football at Grimsby & Morecambe and HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANT, and thank you Jacob.- Andy mentioned the unmentionable. Did he jinx a run at the beautiful Ronnie? Will Edwards head Northwards to West London?Listen, rate, review, comment, star us up, send messages, send help...

Libby has a lot of homework, and her teachers seem really strict about it. Mom is calling Libby for dinner, but she doesn't get an answer. She goes up to Libby's room and finds Libby on the floor among a pile of papers and books. When it is time for Libby to get her homework into her bag and head to breakfast, there is something missing. Will she be able to find it? ✔️ Perfect for ages 4+ Sleep Tight!, Sheryl & Clark ❤️

Using “mom” and “hate group” in the same sentence may sound unusual to you – but that is exactly what the Massachusetts State Police have done. Massachusetts police training materials classified Mom’s for Liberty as a “hate group” and placed them in their training manual right next to Antifa, a group who is known for actually inciting violence. Host Casey Harper is joined by Tina Descovich, co-founder of Mom’s for Liberty as she reacts to the label and discusses what Moms for Liberty is actually up to. Resources The Hate Charade: Tyler O'Neil and Chris Gacek on the SPLC (Ep.194)

Welcome to the Gospel in a Year on the Catholic Sprouts Podcast. This year we will walk together through all 4 Gospels. The fun officially starts next week. This week we are preparing by discussing what to expect from the Gospel in a Year.   On this episode we discuss the authors of the Bible, how these 4 books are the 4 pillars that support our Faith, and the role of the apostles.   To get the most out of this journey through the Gospels, we suggest you do the following two things to prepare: 1 PRINT THE GOSPEL IN A YEAR NOTEBOOK. It's free and ready for you right here --->  http://catholicsprouts.com/the-gospels-in-a-year-on-the-catholic-sprouts-podcast   2 LOCATE A BIBLE! We will be reading from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE), so that is the best translation to follow along with for young Catholics. However, if you have older Catholics, it's fun to follow along in another great Catholic translation (we recommend either the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (RSV-CE) and the New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (NRSV-CE)).   Thank you for joining us! Come Lord Jesus!

  SUBSCRIPTION INTERFACE THINGIE!   You can now find our subscription page at GeorgeHrab.com at this link. Many thanks to the majestic Evo Terra for his assistance.   THE SHOW NOTES   The makings of a good joke Intro Cracker Barrel Interesting Fauna      - Antarctic Seal A Little Automobile History Religious Moron of the Week      - Adam LaCroix Ask George      - Dancing? from Lee T. Tell Me Something Good      - Kenyan Eradication of Sleeping Sickness Kansas? Yes Kansas! Show close .........................   Get George's Music Here  https://georgehrab.hearnow.com https://georgehrab.bandcamp.com ................................... SUBSCRIBE! You can sign up at GeorgeHrab.com and become a Geologist or a Geographer. As always, thank you so much for your support! You make the ship go. ................................... Sign up for the mailing list: Write to Geo! Check out Geo's wiki page, thanks to Tim Farley. Have a comment on the show, a Religious Moron tip, or a question for Ask George? Drop George a line and write to Geo's Mom, too!

In the conversation with Sandi Hester, you'll discover how to tackle a new medium, what to do if you want to paint plein air but can't seem to find the right spots, and why it's so so so important to create protected spaces in your art practice just for the creating part, plus a whole lot more. Extended Cut Bonus [Podcast Art Club]In the Extended Cut Bonus, we talk about focal points and why you may or may not need one and Hester explains how she thinks through what she sees and how she translates that to actual layers of paint. Join the Podcast Art Club here.Videos Mentioned in the Show:Hester's Favorite SuppliesTrip with Hester's Mom and Husband Painting Husband at Pool Learn more about Sandi Hester here:WEBSITE / INSTAGRAM / YOUTUBE / SUBSTACK / WORKSHOPS---Each week, discover 3 ideas you can put to work in your next painting. Sign up for free here: www.learntopaintpodcast.com/newsletterSupport the show

Our Sponsor, FLESHLIGHT, can help you reach new heights with your self-pleasure. Fleshlight is the #1 selling male sex toy in the world. Looking for your next pocket pal? Save 10% on your next Fleshlight with Promo Code: 10PRIVATE at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fleshlight.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. For the 223rd episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes podcaster, musician, and writer Ashley Hamer for a candid discussion on motherhood. This is the first episode in an ongoing series as Courtney contemplates having a kid. For many years, Ashley Hamer was steadfast in her childfree vision for her future, but now she's a soon-to-be mother of two. In this episode, Ashley opens up about her change of heart and shares her personal experiences with pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and early parenthood. We dive into the physical and emotional shifts she experienced along the way, the importance of preparation and research, and the influence becoming a parent has had on her creative endeavors. Tune in for an insightful conversation that explores the highs and lows of one woman's life-changing transformation to "Mom." For more from today's guest, Ashley Hamer: Follow Ashley on Twitter/X ⁠@smashleyhamer⁠ Follow Ashley on Instagram ⁠@smashleyhamer⁠ Check out Ashley's podcast, ⁠Taboo Science Psst, Courtney has an 0nIyFan$, which is a horny way to support the show: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/cocopeepshow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Private Parts Unknown is a proud member of the Pleasure Podcast network. This episode is brought to you by: Our Sponsor, FLESHLIGHT, can help you reach new heights with your self-pleasure. Fleshlight is the #1 selling male sex toy in the world. Looking for your next pocket pal? Save 10% on your next Fleshlight with Promo Code: 10PRIVATE at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fleshlight.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. STDCheck.com is the leader in reliable and affordable lab-based STD testing. Just go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ppupod.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, click STDCheck, and use code Private to get $10 off your next STI test. Explore yourself and say yes to self-pleasure with Lovehoney. Save 15% off your next favorite toy from Lovehoney when you go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lovehoney.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and enter code AFF-PRIVATE at checkout. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/PrivatePartsUnknownAds⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you love this episode, please leave us a 5-star rating and sexy review! Psst... sign up for the Private Parts Unknown newsletter for bonus content related to our episodes! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠privatepartsunknown.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Let's be friends on social media! Follow the show on Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@privatepartsunknown⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and Twitter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@privatepartsun⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Connect with host Courtney Kocak ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@courtneykocak⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ on Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our attachment styles form between ages 7 and 12, when our kid-brains saw the world in black and white: Dad's not here? He must not love me. Mom didn't like my crying? Better hide my feelings. Over time, those moments solidify into stories like I'm not enough or Something's wrong with me, and we carry them into adult relationships, jobs, and opportunities. Suddenly, feedback feels like rejection, a delayed text means someone's leaving, and every interaction is filtered through old fear. The shift happens when you identify and clean up those outdated beliefs—so you can show up in love, work, and life from a grounded, confident place instead of a childhood script.Discover your attachment style to break free from old relationship patterns. Take the free quiz here: https://quiz.tryinteract.com/#/6329f75e6dd9410016a64043Follow Lit AF Relationships on Instagram: @itsmesarahcohan.comVisit the Lit AF Relationships Website: https://www.sarahcohan.com/If you're interested in one-on-one or couples coaching I'd love to help you heal old patterns to create healthy relationships where you feel like you're on the same team. Get started by applying for a free 60-minute healthy relationships call here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSddL3tie849uvgD1m31l4MAH3AzH0FlWgnsG0gPEBEzeDyPyg/viewform

Using “mom” and “hate group” in the same sentence may sound unusual to you – but that is exactly what the Massachusetts State Police have done. Massachusetts police training materials classified Mom's for Liberty as a “hate group” and placed them in their training manual right next to Antifa, a group who is known for actually inciting violence. Host Casey Harper is joined by Tina Descovich, co-founder of Mom's for Liberty as she reacts to the label and discusses what Moms for Liberty is actually up to.ResourcesThe Hate Charade: Tyler O'Neil and Chris Gacek on the SPLC (Ep.194)

On this week's episode of The 1 Girl Revolution Podcast, we welcome Lindsay Gill — founder of The Napkin Network. Lindsay is a powerhouse mom, advocate, and nonprofit leader who saw a need in her community and stepped up in a big way. When Lindsay realized that countless mothers in the D.C. area were struggling to access the most basic baby essentials — diapers, wipes, formula, and more — she decided to do something about it. And so, The Napkin Network was born. The Napkin Network is a movement of moms helping moms — connecting women with resources, mobilizing communities, and ensuring that no mother or child goes without the essentials they need. What started as a simple idea has quickly grown into a powerful force for good, supporting thousands of families and inspiring others to step up and take action in their own neighborhoods. In this episode, you'll hear: ✨ Lindsay's life journey to founding The Napkin Network; ✨ The struggles mothers face in accessing diapers, wipes, and formula — and why this crisis matters for every community; ✨ How The Napkin Network mobilizes moms, families, and communities to meet these needs; ✨ Inspiring stories of hope, resilience, and community from women she's worked with; ✨ How you can get involved — whether you're in D.C. or anywhere in the country; ✨ And so much more!

This conversation with Dennis Morolda on Building Men hit differently. We went deep into what it means to become a man when life forces you to grow up fast. How losing my dad at 16 changed everything. And why the moment my uncle caught me running from the house became one of the most defining moments of my life. When Dad got leukemia everything changed. The day after he passed Mom came home. Went straight to my brother and sister. I knew. Bolted out the door. I felt completely alone. The one person who really understood me was gone. Didn't even know my Uncle Arden was there. He caught me in a bear hug as I was running. Said Rick you're the man of the house now. I asked why. He said I don't know. Those two words changed my life. I don't know. Not some made up answer. Not because I told you so. Just the honest truth that sometimes there are no answers. That validation in the moment of my confusion. Plus knowing I wasn't alone. He saw me. He understood me. He'd be there. Connect:Connect with Rick: https://linktr.ee/mrrickjordanConnect with Dennis: https://www.buildingmen.io/ Subscribe & Review to ALL IN with Rick Jordan on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RickJordanALLINAbout Dennis: Dennis is a father of three, mentor of countless young men and the founder and CEO of Building Men, a motivational destination for real talk about purpose, mindset, relationships, connections and the foundational building blocks to success. A former teacher, coach, principal and member of the Enlifted Team, Dennis now works with individuals, schools and organizations all over the country providing professional development, assembly programming, motivational speaking and life coaching. Dennis specializes in working with young men navigating the difficult terrains of adolescence. Dennis has counseled, mentored and coached thousands of teenage boys to build confidence, create healthy lifestyle habits, overcome self-limiting beliefs and understand the pillars of masculinity. Work with Dennis focuses on: mindset, confidence, educational strategies, relationships, motivation, self-discipline and resiliency.

Summer is almost officially over! Anna and Raven talk about their Labor Day plans and Triple AAA has a list for the best times to travel! Anna found out Taylor Swift is engaged but it wasn't the only news that was all over Anna's phone! There was a lot going on at once! Anna and Raven talk about how Travis Kelce's father is the one who is explaining all of details of the proposal! But there was one person that no one expected to wish them “a lot of luck.” Kylie Kelce said that there is one sport that she doesn't want her children to participate in because of the chlorine! But what's the hardest sport or activity to have your kids a part of? Anna is back with more school lunches! She is trying to make her 6-year-olds lunch heathier by using ChatGPT to help design the menus! Travis Kelce's father Ed told the news all about the engagement! The info he provided helped Swifties figure out when they really got engaged! Find out who overshares in Anna and Raven's families! With all the Taylor Swift buzz, many businesses and classes are canceling work! One company called it “Yay Day” and sent everyone home for the day! Anna's daughter thinks that buying Taylor Swift merch will help her pay for the wedding! Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez are engaged at the same time! But should friends get permission for their wedding details if they're engaged at the same time? There was one piece of advice that Ed Kelce and Scott Swift both gave to Travis before he proposed! Anna is glad Travis didn't follow that advice! Heir and Larry's daughter is getting married next month, and he doesn't want to wear a tux. He's never worn a tux in his life, he happily lives the “sweatpants life” especially since he's a chef. He told his daughter that he planned to wear a pink sweat suit to walk her down the aisle, and she laughed and said that would be fine. Mom is not fine with it and thinks he's making a mockery of their only daughter's wedding. It's a formal affair and despite what she says, it'll look disrespectful to the groom's side if he doesn't wear a tux like everyone else.  Anthony has a chance to win $4800! All he has to do is answer more pop culture questions than Raven in Can't Beat Raven!

Two kennel owners are facing charges after almost 2 dozen dogs are found dead at their facility. An Oklahoma monster is charged with impregnating his 11yo stepdaughter in their filthy, feces-filled home. Mom & bio dad are also under arrested. Plus, cops deliver a K-O on couple behind a kiddie fight club! Jennifer Gould reports. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ready to add a little spooky fun to your travels this fall?

Have you ever caught yourself thinking, “My teen is so entitled,” and then immediately felt terrible for even thinking it? You're not alone. This episode is part of my series on the thoughts moms parenting teens and adult kids are ashamed they think—and today, we're talking about what's really going on underneath this particular thought. I share a story from a client that might sound a little too familiar—when a small request turns into a big blow-up, and you're left feeling dismissed, disrespected, and totally unappreciated. We'll unpack why these moments feel so painful, and how our emotional response is often tied to what we're making their behavior mean. I also introduce a mindset trap I call emotional outsourcing—the habit of tying our peace of mind to how our teen behaves. You'll learn how this shows up, why it creates so much urgency, and how to step out of it so you can respond with calm, grounded leadership—even when your teen doesn't. And I'll leave you with one powerful question to help you reset the next time this thought shows up.

The new Rumps & Bumps jersey just dropped! Check out afterpartyinc.com. Its a brand new episode of the After Party and on this one we bring on Baby Mama Bree! As she comes on spills some much need tea. She tells about her first time on the mean streets of Cinci, she gives us some tips and tricks on rizzing her up plus we catch up with the roll taco queen Tori. Follow us on social media @AaronScenesAfterParty

These are short and sweet reflections on everyday joys, Islamic insights, and real talk about being a Muslim mom. It's a quick pause in your busy day giving you a chance to reset, reflect, and celebrate the moments that make motherhood meaningful. To support this podcast, join our Muslim Moms Productions patron for exclusive content you'll only find there.Join my Patreon!Check out my Instagram!Visit www.MuslimMomsProductions.comEmail us at mmp@muslimmomsproductions.comDon't forget to rate, review, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts!

Using “mom” and “hate group” in the same sentence may sound unusual to you – but that is exactly what the Massachusetts State Police have done. Massachusetts police training materials classified Mom’s for Liberty as a “hate group” and placed them in their training manual right next to Antifa, a group who is known for actually inciting violence. Host Casey Harper is joined by Tina Descovich, co-founder of Mom’s for Liberty as she reacts to the label and discusses what Moms for Liberty is actually up to. Resources The Hate Charade: Tyler O'Neil and Chris Gacek on the SPLC (Ep.194)

In honor of the 100th episode of the show I decided to go back to the beginning and interview my Mom and Dad! My Dad, Allan Glad, joins me on this episode to tell the story of his life. From Fatherhood, to his time in the military, it's all in there folks.  This episode brought to you by Car Concierge, Willow Wood Insurance Agency, Petrichor Sound and Pulse Barre & Fitness. 

In honor of the 100th episode of the show I decided to go back to the beginning and interview my Mom and Dad! My Mom, Mary Glad, joins me on this episode to tell the story of her life. From Motherhood, to going back to college in her 40's, it's all in there folks.  This episode brought to you by Car Concierge, Willow Wood Insurance Agency, Petrichor Sound and Pulse Barre & Fitness. 

What do you think of this episode? Do you have any topics you'd like me to cover?How we parents manage technology in our homes, and what we put in the hands of our kids, has turned into one of the most hotly debated topics amongst parents and experts. In this episode, I talk to Dr. Lucy Foulkes, Oxford academic psychologist and author, about social media's role in adolescent mental health, challenging the narrative popularized by Jonathan Haidt and exploring why phones and social platforms aren't the universal villains they're often made out to be. Dr Foulkes has a fascinating take on mental health and whether our well-intentioned conversations around the subject, especially in schools and on social media, might have gone too far; creating confusion or even anxiety for parents and young people. If you want a nuanced, evidence-based discussion that will help you support your teen with more confidence and less fear you've found it.Dr. Lucy Foulkes:  BooksWhat Mental Illness Really Is (…and what it isn't) Coming Of Age: How Adolescence Shapes Us,Website: https://www.lucyfoulkes.com/Book recommended: The End of Trauma by George BonannoIt's important not to pathologize normal adolescent struggles. Not all teenagers have mental health problems. Most are resilient and functioning well. All distress should be taken seriously, not just clinical disorders.Increased mental health awareness only helps if there is proper back-up and support for those who really need it.Mental health terms are often misunderstood. Words like “OCD” are often used casually, diluting their meaning and making it harder for those with real disorders to be understood and supported.The narrative that phones and social media are causing a mental health crisis is oversimplified and often exaggerated (as in Jonathan Haidt's work). Parental engagement and open conversations matter. The best approach is to guide teens in managing technology, set consistent family rules, and model healthy behavior, rather than banning devices or demonizing their use.Both online and offline experiOtoZen — a new driving safety appAre you worried about your teenager getting distracted behind the wheel? The OtoZen app helps in real time — not just after something's gone wrong. It has voice alerts, drive scores, and even safe driving challenges you can set together, it's the kind of tech that actually helps your teen build better habits. OtoZen — a new driving safety app OtoZen helps build better habits in real time with voice alerts, drive scores, and safey challenges.Support the showThis episode is sponsored by OtoZen: The brilliant new driving safety app https://www.otozen.com Please hit the follow button if you like the podcast, and share it with anyone who might benefit. You can review us on Apple podcasts by going to the show page, scrolling down to the bottom where you can click on a star then you can leave your message. I don't have medical training so please seek the advice of a specialist if you're not coping. My email is teenagersuntangled@gmail.com And my website has a blog, searchable episodes, and ways to contact me:www.teenagersuntangled.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/teenagersuntangled/Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/teenagersuntangled/You can reach Susie at www.amindful-life.co.uk

Remember borrowing your mom's car and driving around with your friends? Us too. It was the greatest. Dax and Best Friend Aaron Weakley missed it so much that they borrowed Kristen's (America's Mom) car and started filming a show in it. Each week they invite a guest to join them as they serpentine through Los Angeles, delivering food for a popular app (that you likely use). The guests include actors, spouses, lawyers, producers, directors, and old friends. With 39 years of best-friendship under their belts, Dax and Aaron have a rare knack for shame-free candor. The food is hot, the car is hotter, and the stories are hottest. Come for a ride in Mom's Car!Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube or listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/armchair-expert-with-dax-shepard/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On our first ever episode of Mom's Car we welcome Mom herself, award-winning actress and beloved spouse Kristen Bell. Kristen, Dax, and Best Friend Aaron Weakley talk through sim sizes of the Chevrolet Bolt and why Kristen loves hers so much she wanted multiple backups, BFAW describes the experience of receiving Dax's big heart for the first time, the gang get their first delivery while processing assumptions about those who order food to their home, field a write-in question from a concerned impending empty nester, and debate one of Jonathan Haidt's moral dumbfoundings.#sponsored by @Allstate. Go to https://bit.ly/momscar to check Allstate first and see how much you could save on car insurance.Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube or listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/armchair-expert-with-dax-shepard/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Gurliepops! It's the FINALE of season 7, and officially the last time you'll hear from Shannon before she's a MOM! In this episode, Shannon debuts her newly rearranged studio and dives into all unshared aspects of her pregnancy journey. She talks about what she's done to prepare for baby Daisy's arrival, the black eye from her chalazion (or Charizard), and her experience having it removed. The episode is also filled with insights on pregnancy challenges, her experiences with maternity fashion, and how she's maintained peace during the chaos of pregnancy. Shannon reveals her due date and talks about her ideal-sized family. Don't miss this final episode, stream the Pray For Me Special, coming SOON, and we'll see you in 6 weeks! TIMESTAMPS:00:00 Welcome and Studio Update00:52 Pregnancy Talk with Courtney01:40 The Black Eye03:40 Childhood Nostalgia: Pokemon and More08:29 The Eyelid Surgery Experience10:53 Finding an Eye Specialist14:35 The Surgery Procedure29:57 Pregnancy Q&A36:24 Due Date and Birth Predictions44:00 The Last Few Weeks54:55 The Hiccups01:00:56 Future Family Plans01:05:00 Emotional Moments and Final ThoughtsLINKS:Follow Shannon: https://instagram.com/probablyshannon/Follow Producer Courtney: https://instagram.com/whatsacourtney/Follow Probably A Podcast: https://instagram.com/probablyapodcast/Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/probablyshannonfordProduced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the Gospel in a Year on the Catholic Sprouts Podcast. This year we will walk together through all 4 Gospels. The fun officially starts next week. This week we are preparing by discussing what to expect from the Gospel in a Year.   On this episode we discuss why the Gospels hold such an important place in our Faith and in the Liturgy of the Mass.   We suggest you do two things to prepare. :one: PRINT THE GOSPEL IN A YEAR NOTEBOOK. It's free and ready for you right here :arrow_right:: http://catholicsprouts.com/the-gospels-in-a-year-on-the-catholic-sprouts-podcast   :two: LOCATE A BIBLE! We will be reading from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE), so that is the best translation to follow along with for young Catholics. However, if you have older Catholics, it's fun to follow along in another great Catholic translation (we recommend either the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (RSV-CE) and the New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (NRSV-CE)).   Thank you for joining us! Come Lord Jesus!

Send us a textReady to trade that frantic back-to-school feeling for something more sustainable? This episode is your permission slip to breathe and create intentional rhythms instead of rigid routines that crumble at the first sign of life's inevitable curveballs.We dive deep into what's really keeping you stuck (spoiler: it's often that voice in your head saying you're not doing enough). That story you're telling yourself that you're behind, disorganized, or that everything will fall apart if you take a break? That's fear talking, not truth. You're not failing - you're in transition, and transitions require grace and strategy, not shame.Practical strategies abound in this conversation - from setting focused work blocks as non-negotiables to creating a family control center where everyone can see what's happening. We explore the power of regular family meetings and why giving your children your full attention now builds the foundation for open communication during the teenage years. The rhythms you establish today create the life you'll look back on tomorrow.Self-care isn't just a buzzword - it's a business strategy. Whether it's morning workouts, walks with friends, or quiet reading time, identifying what fuels you and actually scheduling it into your calendar is essential. Different seasons of motherhood require different approaches, but the principle remains: you cannot pour from an empty cup.Join us for the free Mom and Mind Virtual Summit where we'll continue this conversation with expert mompreneurs who understand exactly what you're going through. Because you deserve support as you build a life and business you love without losing your sanity in the process. Ready to make this season a fresh start rather than a frantic mess? Let's do this together. Join the Mom in Mind Virtual Summit for FREE Follow Camille on Instagram: @CamilleWalker.co More episodes at CallMeCEOPodcast.com

Have you ever told your kids to go to their room and think about what they've done? Is that a good tactic? Join AMBrewster to learn how to help your kids think biblically about what they've done.Truth.Love.Parent. is a podcast of Truth.Love.Family., an Evermind Ministry.Action Steps Purchase “Quit: how to stop family strife for good.” https://amzn.to/40haxLz Support our 501(c)(3) by becoming a TLP Friend! https://www.truthloveparent.com/donate.html Download the Evermind App. https://evermind.passion.io/checkout/102683 Use the promo code EVERMIND at MyPillow.com. https://www.mypillow.com/evermind  Discover the following episodes by clicking the titles or navigating to the episode in your app: The Biggest Parenting Challenges You Will Ever Face Series https://www.truthloveparent.com/biggest-parenting-challenges-you-will-ever-face.html  The Merest Christianity Series https://www.truthloveparent.com/the-merest-christianity-series.html  Parent's 5 Jobs Series https://www.truthloveparent.com/a-parents-5-jobs-series.html  Biblical Parenting Essentials https://www.truthloveparent.com/biblical-parenting-essentials.html  Consequences Series https://www.truthloveparent.com/consequence-series.html  Click here for Today's episode notes, resources, and transcript: https://www.truthloveparent.com/taking-back-the-family-blog/tlp-594-escapism-versus-reflectionDownload the Evermind App! https://evermind.passion.io/checkout/102683Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TruthLoveParent/Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truth.love.parent/Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TruthLoveParentFollow AMBrewster on Facebook: https://fb.me/TheAMBrewsterFollow AMBrewster on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebrewsterhome/Follow AMBrewster on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AMBrewsterPin us on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/TruthLoveParent/Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTHV-6sMt4p2KVSeLD-DbcwClick here for more of our social media accounts: https://www.truthloveparent.com/presskit.htmlNeed some help? Write to us at Counselor@TruthLoveParent.com.

Rachel Kapp, M.Ed., BCET, and Stephanie Pitts, M.Ed., BCET, discuss their favorite word: studenting. They explain the concept, why it's important to understand and how to use it as an effective tool to understand how time is best spent for learners.  Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/learnsmarterpodcast   How to connect with us: Join our e-mail list Rachel's Kapp Educational Therapy Group website Steph's My Ed Therapist website  @learnsmarterpodcast, @kappedtherapy, @myedtherapist   Other episodes mentioned:  Ep 109: Learning About Learning with Dr. Rishi Sriram Ep 115: Learning About Learning with Dr Rishi Part 2 (Author Series) Ep 130: The 5 M's of Talent with Dr. Rishi Sriram (Author Series) Ep 48: Success Stories with Kathryn Schnabel AKA Milkshake Girl's Mom

In a world that constantly pushes us to hustle harder and do more, this week's conversation is a breath of fresh air. I sat down with the wise and grace-filled Kari Kampakis, and she reminded us of something so important: sometimes the most faithful thing we can do is make peace with accomplishing less in a day.As parents, it's easy to feel like we need to keep up with everything: our careers, commitments, expectations, and a perfectly run household. But what if slowing down is actually the bravest and most obedient thing we can do? Kari gives us permission to step back, breathe, and create space for the things that really matter.Here are four takeaways from our conversation:How doing less can actually strengthen your parenting and your peaceWhy margin in your schedule creates more room for spiritual growthWays to listen to God's leading in the pace of your family lifeThe freedom that comes when you stop chasing “shoulds” and start embracing “enough”Kari Kampakis is a mom of four daughters, a bestselling author, speaker, and host of The Girl Mom Podcast. Her books, including Love Her Well and More Than a Mom, have encouraged countless women to parent with purpose, grace, and deep faith. Kari's message is always full of wisdom and grounded in truth and this conversation is no different.I hope this episode helps you take a deep breath and remember: you don't have to do it all to be a faithful parent.(00:00) Introduction to Parenting Dynamics(03:08) Navigating the Challenges of Modern Parenting(05:58) Building Lifelong Relationships with Our Children(08:47) The Importance of Connection in Parenting(12:07) Embracing Imperfection in Parenting(16:24) Embracing Vulnerability in Parenting(17:16) Navigating Big Emotions(18:40) Understanding Adolescent Emotional Development(20:32) Staying Grounded as a Parent(24:01) Connecting Before Correcting(27:32) Self-Care for Moms(30:00) Modeling Healthy Behaviors for Future GenerationsConnect with KariKariKampakis.comInstagramGirl Mom podcastResources MentionedKari's booksRaising Kind Daughters episode on The Christian Parenting PodcastChristian Parenting resourcesA Great Cloud of Witnesses prayer journalThe Christian Parenting Podcast is a part of the Christian Parenting Podcast Network. For more information visit www.ChristianParenting.orgOur Sponsors:* Check out IXL and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.ixl.com* Check out Mr. Pen and use my code CPPODCAST10 for a great deal: https://mrpen.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

“Mom—I broke something! I'm so sorry!”Benjamin had slipped on the wet bathroom floor and managed to take down the shower curtain and curtain rod in one fell swoop.His mom's concern wasn't the state of the shower curtain, but whether the broken something was an arm or leg. Thankfully, her son wasn't hurt, and fixing the curtain was a lot easier than mending a broken bone. A reassuring hug from Mom was all the boy needed to mend his hurt pride.None of us are perfect, whether we're 8 years old or 80. Slips and trips happen in life, and beyond accidental mishaps, we also slip up and sin, making choices that disappoint the Lord and send us on a detour from the path He has planned for us. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”God loves us dearly, and while our sin makes Him sad, He is ready and willing to forgive us; we only need to ask Him to. God's love for us is so deep He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins because He knew we'd need forgiveness. That's amazing grace!Let's pray.Lord, you love us even through our imperfections. God, thank you for the incredible gift of your forgiveness. In Jesus' name, amen. Change your shirt, and you can change the world! Save 15% Off your entire purchase of faith-based apparel + gifts at Kerusso.com with code KDD15.

344. Back to School Reset: Simple Schoolwork & Paper Systems for a Clutter-Free Back-to-School Season. | Routines, Schedules, Time Management, Time Blocking, Home Organization, Planning, Plan, Planner, Mom, Moms, Kids, Family, Family Council, Family Meetings, After School Routine, Routines for Kids, Organization, Clutter, Declutter, Paper Organization.Back to School Reset Series - Episode 5 of 7: Clear Your Countertops, Clear Your Mind: Simple Schoolwork & Paper Systems for a Clutter-Free Back-to-School Season. Check out the Back to School Summit here!www.highfivemotherhood.com/coursesCheck out our HFM Productivity Planners here!www.highfivemotherhood.com/shop

Michelle chats with Astrologer, Feng Shui consultant, Tarot reader and Pisces Ascendant Kate Swick, a second generation Astrologer whose Mother AND Father both were practicing Astrologers and readers- on being a child of an astrologer, the upcoming Pisces lunar eclipse and eclipse season, her current practice and podcast with her Mom, and much more! You can find Kate at www.kateswick.com

In this engaging conversation, Mikey & Justin are joined by the band violet. They explore the vibrant music scene of Upstate New York, sharing personal stories of their journeys from Long Island to Syracuse. They reminisce about local venues, the impact of influential bands like As Tall As Lions, and the excitement surrounding violets.' upcoming EP release. The discussion delves into the dynamics of forming a band in their 30s, the creative process behind their music, and the importance of all-ages venues. With a mix of nostalgia and forward-looking optimism, they reflect on their experiences and future plans in the music industry.Intro Music Courtesy of Overthinker: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5iQ2tyRloyNp6Yjd5sv73CPower chords and crashing boards. Mikey, Tom, and Justin talk music, hockey, and anything else that gets in their way. Tom and Mikey are lifelong friends that grew up on Long Island during the glory days of alternative music where our local bands were As Tall As Lions, Brand New, Taking Back Sunday, Bayside, The Sleeping, Envy on the Coast, you get the point. We spent many nights together at The Downtown, catching any pop-punk, indie, hardcore, or emo band that came through. This was not a phase, Mom! Fast forward 20 years and we are still just as passionate about the scene as we were during our girl jeans and youth XL band tees days. Tom and Mikey are diehard New York Islanders fans, but Justin (Bolts fan) likes to remind us that we are #notanislespodcast. As we got older we realized we can like more than one thing and running beside our love for music has always been our love for hockey. We have realized we are not alone in this thinking, actually there are many of us that love these two things! This podcast explores just how connected they are!NEW EPISODE EVERY TUESDAY! SUBSCRIBE SO YOU NEVER MISS A GREAT INTERVIEW!FOLLOW:INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/bardownbrea...TWITTER: https://twitter.com/bardownbreakdwnFACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/BarDownBreak...WEBSITE: https://bardownbreakdown.comMERCH: https://isles-meetups.creator-spring.comPLAYLISTS: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7Fo...#poppunk #punk #emo #hardcore #hockey #nhl #podcast #elderemo #bardownbreakdown #bardownbreakfest

Have you ever snapped at your kids over something small… and then instantly felt guilty? Or craved silence so badly you could scream if you hear one more “Mom, Mama, Mommy?" That, mama, is overstimulation. And it's one of the most common — yet least talked about — struggles for moms. The truth is, your brain and body are processing constant noise, touch, and demands every single day. Add in the invisible mental load of keeping a household running, and it's no wonder you feel on edge. In this episode, we're talking about the real reason moms are especially prone to sensory overload, how to recognize the signs in your body and behavior, why pushing through only makes things worse, and small, doable resets you can use daily to stay calm and reset. Contact - > info@rachelking.org Podcast - > Mama's Tired Connect -＞ Join my free Facebook community Simple Systems for Tired Mamas Instagram -＞@rachelmeigsking Resources - > 5 Time Saving Tips for Meal Prep, Simple Time Management for Moms, Journal Page: Releasing the Mental Load, Downloadable Routine Tracker: Morning Reset for Tired Moms, 5 Time Saving Tips for Meal Prep   Next Steps: Step 1: Join a supportive community of moms looking for simple systems to reclaim time for a peaceful home at the free Facebook group Simple Systems for Tired Mamas Step 2: Sign up for the weekly Mama's Tired Newsletter  Step 3: Ready for more personalized support? Book a call with Rachel

I'm back with another installment of my mini-series Don't Hang Up, where I pick up the phone and call people in my real life (begging them not to hang up!) while I ask them deeply personal questions.This time, I called my mom (who was not thrilled about being on the podcast — sorry, Mom!!) to talk about how she raised three kids who somehow grew up without sibling rivalry or competition and are now true best friends as adults.We talked about what it was like raising twins, how she handled our sibling bickering, the little mantras she repeated that shaped us, and why celebrating our differences was key. She even shared some funny childhood memories (like me making “commercials” in the bathroom mirror) that I'm still cringing about. But I guess the commercials were worth it and led me somewhere fun!It's a conversation about parenting, sibling bonds, and the small, everyday choices that can shape a family for life. Whether you're a parent yourself, a sibling reflecting on your own childhood, or just love a heartfelt family story, you're gonna love this one.Watch this episode in video form on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjmevEcbh5h5FEX0pazPEtN86t7eb2OgX To apply to be a guest on the show, visit luciefink.com/apply and send us your story. I also want to extend a special thank you to East Love for the show's theme song, Rolling Stone. Follow the show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealstuffpod Find Lucie here: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luciebfink/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@luciebfink YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/luciebfinkWebsite: https://luciefink.com/ Executive Producer: Cloud10Produced by Dear Media.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Our guest this time, Elizabeth Gagnon is all about Tea. However, as you will discover, her Tea is not mostly the drink although at the end of our episode we do learn she does like some teas. For Miss Liz, as she is most commonly known, Tea stands for Teaching Educational Awareness.   Miss Liz's life growing up was hard. She was sexually abused among other things. It took her awhile to deal with all the trauma she faced. However, as she and I discuss, she made choices to not let all the abuse and beatings hold her back.   She tried to graduate from high school and was one course away from that goal when she had to quit school. She also worked to get her GED and again was only a few units away when life got in the way.   Liz's story is not to her a tragedy. Again, she made choices that helped her move on. In 2010 she began her own business to deal with mental health advocacy using her Tea approach. Liz will tell us all about Tea and the many iterations and changes the Tea model has taken over the years.   I am as impressed as I can be to talk with miss Liz and see her spirit shine. I hope you will feel the same after you hear this episode.   Miss Liz has written several books over the past several years and there are more on the way. Pictures of her book covers are in the show notes for this episode. I hope you enjoy hearing from this award-winning lady and that you will gain insights that will help you be more unstoppable.     About the Guest:   Elizabeth Jean Olivia Gagnon, widely known as Miss Liz, is an international keynote speaker, best-selling author, and the visionary behind Miss Liz's Tea Parties and Teatimes. A fierce advocate for mental health, abuse awareness, and peacebuilding, she's recognized globally for her storytelling platforms that empower individuals to share their truths “one cup at a time.” From podcast host to humanitarian, Miss Liz uses her voice and lived experience to ignite real change across communities and cultures.   A survivor of extreme trauma, Miss Liz has transformed her pain into purpose by creating safe spaces for open, healing conversations. Her work has earned her prestigious honors, including an Honorary Doctorate for Human Rights, the Hope and Resilience Award, and the World Superhero Award from LOANI. She's been featured on over 200 platforms globally and continues to lead through her podcast, social impact work, and live storytelling events.   Miss Liz is also a multi-time international best-selling co-author in the Sacred Hearts Rising and Unstoppable Gems book series. She's the creator of the TeaBag Story Award and the founder of her own T-E-A product line—Teaching Educational Awareness through fashion, wellness, and personal development tools. With every word, event, and product, Miss Liz reminds us that healing is possible, and that we all hold the power to be a seed of change.   Ways to connect with Elizabeth:   Social media links my two websites www.misslizsteatime.com www.misslizstee.com All my social media links can be found on those sites. Or my linktree.  https://linktr.ee/Misslizsteatime     About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Well, hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset. Today, we get to talk to Miss Liz Gagnon, and I'm really interested to hear why she likes to be called Miss Liz instead of Elizabeth, or any of those kinds of things. But Liz also has some very interesting connections to tea, and I'm not going to give away what that's all about, but I'll tell you right now, it's not what you think. So we'll, we'll get to that, though, and I hope that we get to have lots of fun. Over the next hour, I've told Liz that our podcast rule, the only major rule on this podcast is you can't come on unless you're going to have fun. So I expect that we're going to have a lot of fun today. And Liz, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We are glad you're here.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 02:09 Well, thank you so much, Michael for having me. It's an honor to be here. I can't wait to dip into the tea and get everybody curious on what we're going to be spilling. So,   Michael Hingson ** 02:19 so how did you get started with the the name Miss Liz, as opposed to Elizabeth or Lizzie or any of that kind of stuff.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 02:28 Well, I have all those names too, Michael, I'll bet you   Michael Hingson ** 02:31 do. But still, Miss Liz is what you choose.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 02:35 Actually, Miss Liz was given to me at the age of four the same time my cup of tea was given to me at the age of four by my Oma. I that she just had a hard time saying Elizabeth. She was from Germany, so she would just call me Miss Liz. Miss Liz. And then I knew, Oh boy, I better move, right.   Michael Hingson ** 02:52 Yeah. If she ever really got to the point where she could say Elizabeth, very well, then you really better move.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 02:59 Well, she used to call me Elvira too, and I didn't like that name Elvira. Yeah, I don't know how she got Elizabeth from a viral but she used to call me a vira. I think maybe it was because her name was Avira, so I think it was close to her name, right? So, well,   Michael Hingson ** 03:17 tell us a little bit about the early Miss Liz, growing up and all that stuff, and little bit about where you came from and all that.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 03:25 Well, I come from a little town called Hearst, Ontario in Canada. It's about maybe 6000 population. I'm going to guess. I was born and raised there until the age of I think it was 31 when I finally moved away for the last time, and I've been in the East End, down by Ottawa and Cornwall and all that stuff since 2005 but My early childhood was a hard one, but it was also a strong one. I A lot of people will say, how do you consider that strong? I've been through a lot of abuse and neglect and a lot of psychological stuff growing up and but I had my tea, I had that little Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole that I could go down once in a while, just to keep me moving and keep me strong, right? So, yeah, my story was, was a hard one, but I don't look at it as a struggle. I look at it as as stepping stones of overcoming Stuff and Being that voice that I am today,   Michael Hingson ** 04:29 struggle, if you if you're willing to talk about a struggle, how   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 04:35 I was sexually abused by my uncle at the age of four, and then other family members later on, in couple years later down the road, but my uncle was the main abuser, and I became impregnant by my uncle and lost a daughter to stillborn. So there was a lot of shame to the family. Was not allowed to speak at this child for many, many years, I finally came out with her story. After my father passed, because I felt safe, because my family would put me into psychiatric wards when I would talk about my little girls,   Michael Hingson ** 05:06 wow, yeah, I, I don't know I, I just have very little sympathy for people who do that to girls, needless to say, and now, now my cat, on the other hand, says she's abused all the time, but that's a different story,   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 05:25 right? But I strongly believe, Michael, that we all go through challenges and struggles in life to have our story, to be that voice where we are today, like like yourself, right? Had you not gone through what you went through, you would not have the story that you have   Michael Hingson ** 05:42 well, and I think that it also comes down to what you decide to do with the story. You could just hide it, hide behind it, or other things like that. And the problem is, of course, that then you don't talk about it. Now, after September 11, I didn't go through any real counseling or anything like that. But what I did do was I and my wife and I discussed it. We allowed me to take calls from reporters, and literally, we had hundreds of calls from reporters over a six month period. And what was really fascinating for me, especially with the TV people who came. I learned a whole lot about how TV people set up to do an interview. We had a Japanese company with two or three people who came, and that was it up through an Italian company that had 15 people who invaded our house, most of whom didn't really seem to do anything, and we never figured out why were they. They were there. But it's fascinating to see how   06:46 extras, Michael,   Michael Hingson ** 06:49 extra, the extras, yeah, but we but it was very fascinating. But the point was that the reporters asked everything from the most inane, dumb question to very intelligent, wise, interesting questions, and it made me talk about September 11. So I don't think that anything could have been done in any other way that would have added as much value as having all those reporters come and talk to me. And then people started calling and saying, We want you to come and talk to us and talk to us about what we should learn from September 11 lessons we should learn talk about leadership and trust in your life and other things like that. And my wife and I decided that, in reality, selling life and philosophy was a whole lot more fun and rewarding than managing a computer hardware sales team and selling computer hardware. So I switched. But it was a choice.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 07:48 Yeah, it is a choice, right? Michael, do you, do you stay in the self pity, or do you rise from it, right? And a lot of people were like, Miss Liz, how can you be so good hearted and open to people that have hurt you so bad? And I always said, since I was a little girl, Michael, I would not give anybody what others gave me. Yeah, you know that that little inner girl in me always said, like, you know what it feels like. Would you like somebody else to feel this way? And the answer is no.   Michael Hingson ** 08:16 And with people like your uncle, did you forgive them ever? Or have you,   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 08:21 I forgive them for myself. Yeah, I that's how you do. You know, I'm not forgiving you and coming for your Sunday dinner and having roast beef and pretending that it was all fun and games. When I was younger, I had no choice to forgive him and to be around him, because that's how my parents were. You know, don't bring shame to the family and as a minor. Well, you you know you obey your parents and that, and I hate that word, obey I hear. You know, I grew up in a time where you respect your elders, right? Whether they were good or bad, you respected them. It was Yes, sir, yes, ma'am. You know whether they hurt you or not, you just respected these people. Do I? Do I have respect for them today, absolutely not. I pray for them, and I hope that they find peace within themselves. But I'm not going to sit in and apologize to somebody who actually doesn't give to to tune darns of my my apology, right? So my words?   Michael Hingson ** 09:23 Well, the the bottom line is that respect is something that has to be earned, and if they're not trying to earn it, then you know, why should you respect? On the other hand, forgiveness is something that you can do and and you do it and you move on, yeah, and   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 09:40 a lot of people don't understand the real forgiveness, right? They always tell me, Miss Liz, you haven't forgiven anybody. And I said, Yes, I have, or I wouldn't be where I am today, guys, yeah, if I wouldn't have forgiven those people for myself, not for them.   Michael Hingson ** 09:55 Now, see, that's the difference between people and my cat. My cat has no self pity. She's just a demanding kitty, and I wouldn't have her any of that. Oh, she's she's really wonderful. She likes to get petted while she eats. And she'll yell at me until I come and pet her, and then she eats while I'm petting her. She loves it. She's a cutie. She's 15 and going on two. She's great.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 10:17 Oh, those are the cute ones, right? When they stay young at heart, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 10:21 oh, she, she does. So my wife passed in 2022, and now stitch, that's the cat's name, sleeps up next to me. And so that works out well, and she was named stitch when we got her, not quite sure where the name originally came from, but we rescued her. We were not going to keep her. We were going to find her a home because we were living in an apartment. But then I learned that the cat's name was stitch, and I knew that that cat weren't going to go nowhere, because my wife had been a quilter since 1994 you think a quilter is ever going to give up a cat named stitch? So stitch has been with us now for over 10 years. That's great. Oh, wow. And there's a lot of love there,   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 11:03 yeah. And, you know, these little connections, right? The Universe sends us, you know, the names and all of that. They send us pets as well as guidance. You know, my little guy is Tinkerbell, and everybody thinks that she's still a kitten. She she's going to be 12 in September, so, but she's still a little tiny thing. She kept the name. She just wants to be a little Tinkerbell. So   Michael Hingson ** 11:24 that's cool. What a cute name for a kitty. Anyway, yeah, well, so you, you grew up? Did you go to to college or university?   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 11:34 No, I got out of school. I was half a credit away from high school graduation. I became pregnant for the second time, and then I got married at 18. While it was more or less I was I had no choice to get married or or I would have, my father would have took my daughter from me, my oldest, who is alive, and I I had already lost one, and I wasn't losing a second one. So I got married. I did go back to adult school in 2000 I got I was one exam away from getting my GED, and that night, I got a beating of a lifetime from my ex husband, because he didn't want me to get ahead of him, right? So, and then I went back again to try and get my GED three other times, and I was always four points away from getting what I needed to get it. So I was just like, You know what? The universe doesn't want me to have this piece of paper, I guess. Yeah, and I'm not giving up, right? I'm just it's not the right timing and maybe in the future, and it's always the y and s string that gets me the four point question guys on the math exam that gets me every time, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 12:49 oh, well. Well, I always thought that my wife, in so many ways, was was ahead of me, and it didn't ever bother me, and it never will bother me a bit, just things that she would say, creative things, just clever things. She clearly was ahead of me, and I think she felt the same way about me in various ways, but that's what made for a great marriage. And we we worked off each other very well, and then that's kind of the way it really ought to be. Oh boy, ego, ego gets to be a real challenge sometimes, though, doesn't   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 13:24 it? Oh yes, it does. So   Michael Hingson ** 13:27 what did you do when you didn't go off and end up going to school?   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 13:32 I became a mom, and then I did the mom role, right? I grew up in a kind of like a redneck, hillbilly kind of family where the accent kind of kicks in once in a while. You know, it was barefoot and pregnant, you take care of the kids, cook and clean and be the wife and just obey. Once again, that word obey. You know, I grew up with that word a lot, and that's why you don't like that word. I'm surprised I'm even using it tonight. But, yeah, so it was just take care of the family and just live. And eventually, in 2005 a lot of things happened with my children and myself, and we just left and started a new life. In 2006 I felt ill. I was at work, and my left arm went numb, and I thought I was having a heart attack or or that they were checking me since I was little, for MS as well, because I have a lot of problems with my legs. I fall a lot, so we're still looking into that, because I'm in the age range now where it can be diagnosed, you know, so we're so in 2006 I became ill, and I lost feelings from my hips down where I couldn't walk anymore. So I had to make some tough choices, and I reached out to my family, which I kind of. Figured I'd get that answer from them. They told me to get a backbone and take care of my own life and stop because I moved away from everybody. So I turned to the foster care system to help me with my children, and that was a hard choice. Michael, it took me two and a half months. My children sat down with me and said, Mommy, can we please stay where we are? We we have friends. You know, we're not moving all the time anymore. I saw it took a while, and I signed my kids over legal guardianship, but I made a deal with the services that I would stay in the children's lives. I would continue their visits twice a month, and be at all their graduations, be at their dance recital, anything I was there. I wanted my children to know that I was not giving up on them. I just was not able to take care of them in my   Michael Hingson ** 15:50 home. Did they accept that?   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 15:53 Oh, they did, yeah, and it was a bumpy road. The first five years. Was a lot of adjusting, and we were really close. I got to pick the foster homes, which is not usually the way it works. So and my children went through a lot of abuse as well. My ex husband was very abusive, so I knew that my daughter needed to be around horses. She loved to be around horses, so I found her home that had horses. And my other two children, I found a home where they had music, and music was really important to me, because music is what saved me as well during my journey, right? I turned to music to to get through the hard times. So yeah, the first five years was it was adjustments, and really good, and we got along. And after that the services changed, new workers came in, and then it became a nightmare. There was less visits happening. There was an excuse for a visit. There was oh, well, maybe we can reschedule this, or if we do them at five in the morning, can you show up? And of course, I was showing up at five and going to bed as soon as the visit was done, because I was by myself, so it was a journey, but and I I am grateful for that journey, because today me and my older kids, who are adults, were really close, and we're building that bond again, and they understand the journey that Mom had to take in order for them to have a home.   Michael Hingson ** 17:24 They understand it and accept it, which is really obviously the important thing,   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 17:30 yeah. But it's been, it's been rocky. Michael, like, you know, we've had our ups and downs. We've had like you You gave up on us. Like, you know, we've had those moments. But my children now becoming adults and becoming parents themselves. They see that. They see what mom had to do, right?   Michael Hingson ** 17:47 So are you able to walk now and move around?   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 17:51 Oh, yeah, I was. It took about six months for me to learn how to walk again. I still have a limb from time to time. A lot of people call it my penguin little limp, because I limped like a little penguin from time to time, because my what happened is I went through so much trauma in my life constantly that I they diagnosed me with conversion disorder, which is not really well known to to a lot of people. And what it does is it shuts the body down, so I have no control over when my body says it's going to take a break. It just says I'm going on holidays, and you just gotta deal with it. So there's days where I can't walk, right? There's days where I can't talk. It sounds like I'm drunk. My sight is blurred, plus I'm already losing my sight because of genetic jerusa and stuff like that as well. So, but I mean, it took everything in me to push myself. And what pushed me was I had this nurse that was really rough with me, and she would give me these sponge baths, and she would slam me into the chair. And I told her, I said, next week, you will not be slamming me in that chair. And the next week I got up and I took three steps, and then the next couple hours, it was four, five steps, six steps. And I was like, I got this. I know I can do this, but it took six months, Michael,   Michael Hingson ** 19:15 but still, ultimately, the bottom line is, no rugby or American football for you. Huh? Nope. Okay.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 19:24 No, not you know, not yet. Anyway, well, maybe you never know, right? I'm still young. I'm only 51 you never know what I'm going to be doing next year. I always tell everybody, Miss Liz is always on an adventure.   Michael Hingson ** 19:36 So yeah, but I'm I'm not, I'm not an advocate of going off for rugby or football, but that's all right, do whatever works.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 19:42 Well, I'd like to watch football   19:45 that's different. I'd like to   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 19:47 check those boys out once in a while. Well, yeah, but yeah, no, I You just never know where I'm gonna go, right? Only the good universe knows where it's putting me next   Michael Hingson ** 19:58 year. So, so what kind. Of work. Did you did you do and, and what are you doing now? How to kind of one lead to the other?   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 20:08 Actually, I started my business in 2015 of Miss Liz tea times. It was a fundraising Tea Party, but it started in my home. All I did was have a bunch of ladies over and celebrate strong women. And one lady really liked the layout that I did, and she's like, Can we do this in the community? I was like, I don't know. Let's try it. You know, if we don't try, we don't know. And then I went to the community for, I think, three years, we raised over $5,000 for different services that helped me along the way as well, and places that needed money for serving the community. And then we went virtual. When covid hit. The podcast came along, and I did that for five years, and I burnt myself out doing that. I'm an all or nothing kind of girl, so you either get nothing at all, or you get it all at once. So and and now I'm I've been writing and working on stuff and working on an E commerce business with a new way of serving tea, keeping people on their toes and wondering what's coming next. Uh, children's book is coming out soon. Uh, poultry book. So I've just been busy writing and doing a lot of different things.   Michael Hingson ** 21:14 What did you do before 2015 for worker income? Or did you   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 21:18 I worked in gas stations, chambermaid kind of stuff like that, something that wasn't too educated, because my ex husband didn't like that stuff, right? Don't try and be a leader. Don't try and be in the big business world. I'm sure he's his head is spinning now, seeing all the stuff that I'm doing, but that's on him, not me. So, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 21:41 yeah, absolutely, alright, let's get to it. Tell me about tea.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 21:49 Well, tea, tea started at four, and it was my OMA that gave me a cup of tea. And everybody thinks it's the beverage. It's not the beverage. We did have a cup of tea. So there is a beverage, there is a beverage involved. But she gave me words, and when I was little, I didn't understand these words. She said, reflect, recharge and release. And she came from the war in Germany, and she said the first thing I had was a cup of tea when I came to Canada, and she just knew that I was going to have a hard life. She knew that the family was kind of, you know, they had their sicknesses and addictions and stuff like that, so she just knew. And I was a quiet kid. I was always in the corner humming and rocking myself and doing stuff by myself. I didn't want to be around people. I was really loner. And she gave me these words, and these words resonated with me for years, and then I just kept hearing them, and I kept hearing Tea, tea. I know sometimes I'd be sitting in a room Michael by myself, and I'd be like, Okay, I don't want a cup of tea right now. Like, I don't know what this tea is like, but it was like the universe telling me that I needed to get tea out there. And I knew it wasn't a beverage. I knew it was. OMA gave me words. So we gotta bring words to the table. We gotta bring the stories to the table. She was giving me a story. She was telling me to stay strong, to recharge, to reflect, release all of the stuff that all of these things take right, to overcome stuff. You know, we have to reflect on the journey that we were put on, and recharge ourselves when we overdo ourselves and release, releasing and letting go of things that we know will never, ever get an answer to. So,   Michael Hingson ** 23:32 so you, what did you do with all of that? I mean that those are some pretty deep thoughts. Needless to say.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 23:38 Yeah, so I, I started with the tea time at home, and then when I went to the podcast, I would ask people, What is your tea? And then people were like, Miss Liz, I don't even like tea, like I'm a coffee drinker, or I like a good beer, or I'm just like, Okay, well, you don't even have to like the beverage. Like, it's not about the beverage. It's about our past, our present and our future. That's what the tea is, right? We all have that story. We all have the past, the present and the future, and how we how we look at it, and how we defined our stories, and how we tell our stories. So that's where the T is.   Michael Hingson ** 24:10 But you came up with words for the acronym eventually, yes, yes. When did you do that? And what were the words   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 24:20 I came up with the words I believe in 20, 2016 2017 and for me, it was teaching. I wanted to be a little kindergarten teacher when I was a little girl. So T was teaching right and teaching myself that the past was not going to define my future story. He was educational. I again. I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to educate people. I wanted to educate myself. Even though I didn't have those degrees and I didn't go to school and universities, I could still educate myself. I could still reach out. I could still research. I could still find answers myself. And a was awareness, just bringing awareness that our lives are different and. Can change them, right? Nobody can define how our stories end, except for ourselves. Yeah, and the A, A was awareness, and the awareness that, you know, that we can bring any form of awareness, good, bad or ugly, you know, and I bring a little bit of all of it through my stories, and through, through the the overcoming that I've had, right is, it's an ugly story. There were bad things that happened, but there are good results in the end, yeah, because had I not gone through what I went through, Michael, I would not be here having this conversation with you tonight,   Michael Hingson ** 25:37 or it'd be a totally different conversation, if at all you're right, absolutely. So you you deal a lot with being a mental health advocate, and that's very understandable, because of all of the things that that you went through. But what kind of really made you decide to do that?   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 25:58 Mental health advocate was deep in my blood since 2010 when I went to the pharmacy and gave them all my medication and said, I no longer want any of this because they had me so numbed with antidepressants and painkillers and stuff that I didn't even know I had children. People were telling me, your kids are coming for a visit. And I was like, why are you telling me I have kids? Like I'm a kid myself, like I was going backwards. And I didn't know that I was married, that I had children, but my kids names were and I was just like, like, When is mom and dad coming to get me? Like, I was like, I was so messed up, Michael. And I was just like, I'm not doing this anymore. Um, August 29 of 2009 I brought my medication, and I said, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm taking ownership of my life. I'm being the advocate of my life. I do not need these pills. Yes, it will be hard, yes, I've got trauma, but there's another way of doing this.   Michael Hingson ** 26:55 Well, you're clearly a survivor, and you've made choices that demonstrate that by any standards, and obviously a mental health advocate, what do you think are some of the major misconceptions that people have about mental health today that they also just don't seem to want to get rid of?   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 27:15 Well, a lot of people have this conception that if you take a pill, it's going to go away. You're healed, you know, and then they get hooked on pills, or they get hooked on this is easy fix, right? Like I said this afternoon in another interview, I did this certain this afternoon. Michael, you know, we get these diagnosis, but doctors don't really sit with us and explain the diagnosis to us, they don't really understand. They don't really explain the side effects of the pills that they're giving us, and then themselves, may not even know the full aspect of those diagnosis. They just put you on a checklist, right? You check A, B, C and D, okay. Well, you have bipolar. You got DCE and you got D ID, like, you know, it's charts, so we're not really taking the time to understand people. And mental health has a long way to go, a lot of a long way to break the stigma as well, because mental illness, most of it, cannot be seen. It cannot be understood, because it's inside the body, right?   Michael Hingson ** 28:23 Yeah. And a lot of people don't want to look and analyze that and try to help truly deal with it.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 28:32 Yeah. A lot of people will judge what they don't understand or what they're scared of understanding,   Michael Hingson ** 28:39 which is why it's fascinating, and we've had a number of people on unstoppable mindset who believe in Eastern medicine and alternative medicine, as opposed to just doing pills. And it's fascinating to talk to people, because they bring such insights into the conversation about the human body, and many of them have themselves, used these alternatives to cure or better themselves, so it makes perfect sense, but yeah, we still don't tend to want to deal with it. Yeah?   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 29:17 Well, anything that's uncomfortable, right? We don't want to really face it, right? We want to run from it, or we want to say, Oh, it's fine. I'll get to it next week, and then next week comes to next month, and next month comes to next year, and you're still dealing with the the same trauma and the same pain, right? Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 29:35 Well, so tell me about tea time with Miss Liz, because you've developed that. You've brought it into existence, and that obviously also helps deal with the mental health stigma. Tell me about that?   29:50 Well, I just   Michael Hingson ** 29:51 one question, but, well,   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 29:53 I just really wanted to meet people, and I wanted to hear their stories, you know, because it gets lonely once in a while. And you're always telling your story, right? So I wanted to get other stories, but I didn't want to just deal with mental health. I wanted to deal with grief and abuse and things, everything that I've lived with, right? And it all goes back to trauma, like all three of them, abuse, grief, mental health, it deals with trauma in some form. And then I got, I got hooked to a bunch of people that found Miss Liz on on the airwaves, and then connected with you, Michael, you were a guest on Tea Time. Yeah, my last season, and, you know, and I got to go down a bunch of rabbit holes with a bunch of cool people. And tea time was just a place for everybody, just to come and share, share what they were doing and why they were doing it, right? So a lot a lot of the questions that I asked was your younger self way? What? How do you see your younger self to your older self, and why are you doing what you're doing today? And a lot of people are writing books because writing saved them through hard times in life as well. And a lot of mental health back in the 60s, 70s and 80s, were not spoken of. You know, it was really hush hush. Oh, that person's just a rebel, or that person's just a little crazy once in a while, or has too much to drink from time to time. So mental health wasn't really spoken about in those those decades, right? So,   Michael Hingson ** 31:27 yeah, and you know, but I hear what you're saying about writing, and you know, I I've written now three books, and I've learned a lot as I write each book, and I think there's a lot of value in it, but also it's more than writing, although writing is is a way to to really do it from the most personal standpoint possible. But as as you've pointed out, talking about it is also extremely important, and talking about whatever, whether it's a bad thing or a good thing, but talking about it as well as writing about it is is valuable, because if we take the time to do all of that, we'll learn a lot more than we think we will well.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 32:13 And there's so many different genres of writing, right? There's horror, there's fiction, there's non fiction, there's children's books, you know, but those are all storytellers too, in a different way.   Michael Hingson ** 32:24 Well, they are and and again, it's the the point is, though, that when you take the time to write, you really have to think about it, probably even more than, sometimes, than people, when they just talk about things. And as you're writing, like I said, you learn a lot no matter what genre of writing you're doing, you're putting yourself into it, and that, in of itself, helps educate and teach you   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 32:53 absolutely, you know, and I learned so much from a lot of the authors that were on Tea Time, You know, little tricks and little ways of making skits and scenes and characters and names for their characters. And I'd be like, well, where'd you get that name? And they'd be like, I don't know what, just a childhood name that was stuck with me for a long time. I really liked meeting authors that wrote their memoirs or stories, because I'm a person that likes truth. I'm a truth seeker. You know, if it doesn't, it doesn't match up. I'm just like, let me ask you more questions. Let me take you down this rabbit hole a little more. So,   Michael Hingson ** 33:35 yeah, well, a lot of people tend to not want to talk about their journey or talk about themselves, and they feel unseen and unheard. How would you advise them? What would you advise them to do?   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 33:51 I felt that way for many years. Michael, growing up in the in the situation that I grew up in, right? You did, and I wrote my first book. I was a co author in the Sacred Hearts rising series by compiled by Brenda Hammond in Alberta. And her book, hear me, kept reaching out to me. I kept hearing I didn't even know what the book was. It was just the title was hear me. And I kept saying, I want people to hear me. I want I want to be heard like, I want people to know this, like I'm tired of living in silence, you know, just to keep everybody hush hush, because everybody's comfortable. So I reached out to Brenda, and that's how my writing journey started. Was with Brenda, and I wrote my first chapter in there, and and it just continued to the ripple effect into other books and other anthologies and other people. And I find that the universe is guiding me, like bringing me to the people that I need to see. You know, like meeting you. Michael, like, had I not started a podcast and met Mickey Mickelson, I would have never met you. Michael, so Mm hmm.   Michael Hingson ** 34:54 And he continues to to be a driving force in helping a lot of authors. Absolutely.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 35:00 Absolutely, yeah. I'm not even sure how Mickey found me. We had a video call, and the next thing I knew, we were working together for three years, and I got to meet incredible authors through Mickey. Creative edge, and it's, it was one of the driving force of Tea Time with Miss Liz.   Michael Hingson ** 35:19 I can't remember exactly how I first heard of Mickey, either, but we we chatted, and we've been working together ever since.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 35:29 Yeah, Mickey is pretty awesome. I still keep my eyes on Mickey, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 35:36 and for those who don't know, Mickey is kind of a publicist. He works with authors and helps find podcasts and other opportunities for authors to talk about what they do and to interact with the world.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 35:50 Yeah. And then I got Yeah. And then I got to meet other people that found me on the airwave, through my press releases and through me speaking at different events. I had other people reach out with their authors and their members and all of that. And I got to meet some really incredible people, like I've had doctors on Tea Time. I've had Hollywood directors on Tea Time. I've had best selling authors like yourself Michael, like, you know, I got to meet some really incredible people. And then I got to meet other people as well that were doing movements and orphanages and stuff like that. We reached over 72 countries, you know, just people reaching out and saying, Hey, Miss Liz, can we have tea? And absolutely, let's sit down. Let's see what? Where you gotta go with your tea?   Michael Hingson ** 36:35 So you're in another season of tea time right now. No,   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 36:39 I'm not. A lot of people are asking me to come back. I don't know if I will come back. I am working on, like I said, the E commerce drop shipping company for Miss Liz. I'm working on children's book. I'm working on poultry. I'm doing a lot of interviews now for my own books, daytime books and stuff like that. But I am reconsidering coming back maybe for a couple surprise podcast interviews. So   Michael Hingson ** 37:07 well, tell us about the E commerce site, the store.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 37:11 Well, that was supposed to be launched on my birthday. I like to give myself birthday gifts because I'm by myself a lot. So two years ago, I gave myself the tea books for my birthday. And this year I was supposed to give the E commerce drop shipping, where we opened a second branch of Miss Liz's tea, where we changed the letter A to E, so T, E, E instead of T, E, A. But if you look at my OMA, who comes from Germany, T in Germany, is tee, so we're still keeping almost T, we're just bringing it in a different way. And   Michael Hingson ** 37:45 what does it stand for? Do you have definition   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 37:50 of it for the for this T? We have transcend embrace and envision. So transcend beyond the story that we all tell. Embrace Your embrace the journey that you're on and envision your dreams and visions that you can move forward.   Michael Hingson ** 38:07 So how's the E commerce site coming?   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 38:11 It's coming along. We got a couple of hiccups. I just want to make sure that everything is good to go. We have over 100 different products, and again, we do not have the tea beverage on the site. So you guys can see that Miss Liz is staying true to herself, that it is not about a beverage, but we do have an inner journey happening. So you'll have to check that out. So we have some some candles and some journals, some fashion that Miss Liz has created. So there's a lot of cool things that you'll see, and then we have some collaboration. So if any of the businesses out there would like to collaborate with missus, because I'm big on collaboration, we can maybe come up with a brand or or a journal or something that we can work two brands together to create a bigger inner journey for people   Michael Hingson ** 39:02 to enjoy. Is the site up.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 39:05 It was up, and we had to take it down because there were some glitches in it, and I wanted to make sure that it so we're hoping that it's going to be going for June 1. I don't like to set dates, because then I get disappointed, right? If something comes up. So it was supposed to be May 17, guys, and I know that a lot of people were looking forward to it. My children were looking forward to it because of the fashion. And there's something for everyone on on the new website, for children, for parent, for mothers, for fathers, for family. So I wanted to make sure that everybody was included.   Michael Hingson ** 39:41 Tell me about some of the fashion things.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 39:44 So we have inner journeys. So I had an eating disorder from the age of 12 Michael, so I had a body image all the time. So I wanted to make sure that we felt beautiful about ourselves. So we have some summer dresses. In there, we have some swimwear. Swimwear was another thing that I didn't really like to wear growing up. I like to be covered a lot. So we and then we have undergarments for people to feel beautiful within themselves. And then we have hoodies and T shirts. But we have messages, little tea messages from Miss Liz.   Michael Hingson ** 40:23 Now, are most of these fashion things mainly for women, or are there some men ones on there as well?   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 40:28 No, we have men. Men have stories too. So there, there's, I thought. So, yeah, we have men in there. We and we have, I'm really big on having men share their stories, because I have a son. I've said this on many platforms. I would want my son to have the same services that his mother has. So of course, there's a men where in there, there are children's wear in there as well, and there's some puzzles and some diamond art and all of that. So there's a little bit of everything in there.   Michael Hingson ** 41:00 So how do you use all of the different mechanisms that you have to promote awareness? I think I know the answer to this, but I'd like you to tell how you're promoting awareness, mental health and otherwise awareness.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 41:15 I think the way that I'm promoting myself and my brand, Michael is just show up and be yourself, believe in yourself and stay true to yourself, be your real tea, you know. And the way that I'm branding and marketing it is, I'm breathing different. So when you hear tea, you think the beverage right away. Well, then when you hear Miss Liz, you know, Miss Liz is not bringing a beverage. So right over the way you're getting different, right? And I like to keep people on your toes, because they think that they might know what's coming, but they don't know same as, like the fashion, where you might think you know what's coming, but then you'll be like, Whoa. This is not what I was thinking.   Michael Hingson ** 41:54 And you and you put as you said, sayings and other things on there, which help promote awareness as   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 41:59 well. Absolutely, yeah, and it's simple phrases that I use all the time. You tell me, I can't, and I'll show you I can. You know, it lives in you. These are some of the brand messages that I have on my on my merchandise. Also, men have stories too simple phrases. You know that we just gotta make awareness. It's so simple sometimes that we overthink it and we overdo it, that we just gotta keep it simple.   Michael Hingson ** 42:28 Mm, hmm. Which? Which make perfect sense? Yeah. So you, you talk a lot about mental health. Have we made improvements in society regarding mental health, and how do we do more to represent marginalized voices? Oh,   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 42:50 we got lots of work to do. Michael, we're not even close, you know, we're just on the touch of the iceberg for mental health. We have all these organizations that are competing with each other instead of collaborating. I think we would really make a huge difference if we started working together instead of against each other. Or my service is better than your service. Let's start just collaborating together and working together as one. You know that all this division in the mental health world is what's causing the distractions and the delays in services and and getting help? You know, I think we just need to start working together. And collaboration is not weakness. It's not taking somebody else's product away. It's working together. It's teamwork. And I think we need more teamwork out there.   Michael Hingson ** 43:41 We also need to somehow do more to educate the governments to provide some of the funding that they should be providing to help this process.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 43:51 Absolutely, and I think the statuses need to really be looked at. They're not even close.   Michael Hingson ** 43:59 Yeah, I I agree there, there's a long way to go to to deal with it,   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 44:04 absolutely. You know, just throwing numbers out there to have numbers, but not actually getting the real factual information out there can cause a lot more damage.   Michael Hingson ** 44:17 So if you could shift one mindset regarding mental health, what would it   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 44:24 be? Oh, good question. Michael, hmm, that we're not alone, okay, because a lot of people with mental illness think they're alone, but we're actually not alone. There's, there's a lot of people out there that are feeling the same thing as us,   Michael Hingson ** 44:47 and that's a mindset that people have, that we need to to deal with. We need to change. We need to teach people that the reality. Is there a lot of people, whether they've experienced the same things as as any individual has or not, isn't the issue. But there are a lot of people who do want to be more welcoming, and there are a lot of people who could learn to be more welcoming than they are   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 45:18 absolutely Well, I think it starts with a conversation, right? Having these conversations, a lot of people don't want to talk about mental health because they don't want to know the truth. They just want to know what society says, right, what the system say, what the services say, but they're not actually advocating for themselves. I think if we all started advocating for our mental health, we would make the impact and the change as well,   Michael Hingson ** 45:45 yeah, but we need to really, somehow develop a collective voice and Absolutely, and that's part of the problem. I know that with the world of disabilities in general, the difficulty is that, although it is probably well, it is one of the largest minorities, maybe the second largest in the world, depending on whether you want to consider women the minority. Although there are more women than men, or men the minority, the reality is that the difficulty is that there are so many different kinds of disabilities that we face and some that we don't even recognize. But the problem is that everyone totally interacts within their own disability to the point where they don't find ways to work together nearly as as much as they can. And it doesn't mean that each disability isn't unique, because they are, and that needs to be addressed, but there's a lot more power if people learn to work together   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 46:46 exactly. I'm with you, with that, Michael, because there's so many disabilities that you don't see right, that you don't hear about, somebody will talk about a new diagnosis that nobody knows about or is unaware of, like when I, when I talk about conversion disorder, a lot of people don't know about it, and I'm just like, check it out. You know, I'm a lady that actually has crazy papers, so if I go a little crazy on people, I can get away with it. I got the paper for it, right? So, but the thing is, the doctors, they they need more education as well. They need to be educated as well, not just the society, not just the public, but also the doctors that are working in those   Michael Hingson ** 47:29 fields. There's so many examples of that. You know, website access for people with disabilities is a major issue, and we don't teach in most schools, in most places where we where we have courses to instruct people on how to code, we don't really make making websites inclusive and accessible a major part of the courses of study, and so the result is that we don't tend to provide a mechanism where people shift their mindset and realize how important it is to make sure that their websites are fully inclusive to all. It's the same kind of concept. Yeah.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 48:12 Well, I think we all could learn a little bit more, right when we when we all get to this point where we we've learned everything. I think that's where society gets ignorant towards disability, right? You know, living with disability myself, Michael, I've had a lot of people say, Well, you look fine. There's nothing wrong with you. Why? Why? Why you like this? You know, why? And my answer is, why are you that way? Why are you judging something you're not seeing? You know, it's just like in grief, you don't see grief. It lives within us. You don't see abuse. The person is usually living within a home that is told what happens in the home. Stays in a home, you know, or they they try to mask it and hide the real truth, right? Yeah, and that, and that's a form of trauma as well, because we're being told to hush. So then when we start speaking, well, then we start doubting ourselves, right? The self doubt kicks in, oh, maybe I shouldn't say that, or I shouldn't do that, or I shouldn't, you know, be there. So you start to self doubt everything. I did that for many years. I self doubt why I was in a room with a bunch of people, or why I was speaking at that event, or why I wrote in that book, or and then I was just like, You know what? I am enough, and we all are enough, and we all can be seen in a different light. My   Michael Hingson ** 49:41 favorite example illustrating some of what you're talking about is that I had a phone conversation with someone once, and arranged for them to come to our apartment. I was on campus at the time, living in an on campus apartment, and the guy came out that afternoon, and I answered the door and he said, I'm looking for Michael Hinks. And I said, I'm Michael. Hanks, and his comment was, you didn't sound blind on the telephone. Now, I've never understood what it means to sound blind, but whatever. Wow. Yeah, it's, it's amazing, you know. And I was polite enough not to say, Well, you didn't sound stupid on the phone either. But yeah,   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 50:22 right, that that would, that would be something I would say. Now, back in the day, I was a little mouse, now I'm a lion, and I'm just like, oh, yeah, right. Like, tap for Taft man, like,   Michael Hingson ** 50:33 Well, yeah, but there, there are ways to deal with things like that. But it, it still worked out. But it was just an amazing thing that he said, yeah,   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 50:43 it surprises me what some people say. Sometimes I'm just like, Really, wow.   Michael Hingson ** 50:50 So you've done well, a lot of international speaking. Where have you traveled to speak?   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 50:55 I spoke in Detroit in 2020, 20 or 2021, I can't remember the year Michael, but I spoke at the Sean fair tour, and I spoke on tea, of course, and my journey, and my story and my journey on how I'm just a different woman who wants to come to the table and make a difference. I just want to show people that if as long as we're trying, we can make a difference, as long as we're showing up, tired, broke, frustrated, we're making a difference, you know? And that's, that's my message to everybody, is just show up, just be you, and not everybody needs to like you, you know. I'm not everyone's cup of tea, and I don't want to be everyone's cup of tea.   Michael Hingson ** 51:38 Mm, hmm. You can only do and should only do what you do, yeah, but   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 51:44 And yeah. And then I'll be speaking in October. I just spoke at an event here in Cornwall, in my local area, for empowered to recovery with Jay Bernard. Bernard, and in October, I'll be speaking in North Bay for an elementary student, my sister and she actually went to school with my sister. She actually found me through my books. And she's she runs this youth group, and she'd like me to go speak to the youths on empowerment and and and the tea, of course,   Michael Hingson ** 52:16 always worth talking to kids. It's so much fun. Yeah. Yeah. And the neat thing about the most neat thing about speaking to children is there's so much more uninhibited. They're not afraid to ask questions, which is so great.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 52:32 I love questions like, I I love when I talk to people and they have some questions like, What? What is this tea that you keep talking about? And I'm just like, the tea is just the grab guys. It's just to get you hooked. It's like going fishing and catching a good fish, like, I put the hook in the water, and you all come and you join and you have a tea with me.   Michael Hingson ** 52:56 But still, children are so much more uninhibited. If, if I deliver a talk, mainly to kids, even kindergarten through sixth or seventh grade, they're much more open to asking questions. Sometimes they have to be encouraged a little bit. But boy, when the questions start, the kids just keep coming up with them, which is so great.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 53:20 Great. It's that ripple effect that first person to break the ice, to ask the first question, and then it just rolls.   Michael Hingson ** 53:26 It's a lot harder with adults to get them to to do that. Yeah, and it is. It is, even then, though, when adults start to ask questions, and the questions open up, then we get a lot of good interactions, but it is more of a challenge to get adults to open and ask questions than it is children. And it's so much fun because you never know what question a child is going to ask, which is what makes it so fun, too, because there's so much more uninhibited   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 54:01 and the imagination of a child. I love speaking like what my granddaughter, she's four, and the conversations we have about dragons and tooth fairies and and good monsters, because I don't like bad monsters, she knows grandma doesn't like bad monsters, so we talk about good monsters. And it's just the stories, the imagination, that opens up new, new ways of seeing things and seeing life. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 54:29 you've gotten a number of awards, humanitarian awards, and and other kinds of awards. Tell me a little bit about those.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 54:36 Honestly, Michael, I don't know how I got those awards. I was just being myself, and I guess a lot of people nominated me for stuff, and they were just like, you gotta check this. Miss Liz out, you know, and even some awards, I'm just like, Why me? You know, all I did was be myself. I'm grateful for them, I and I appreciate the awards. But. I don't, I don't want to be known for the awards, if that makes any sense.   Michael Hingson ** 55:03 Mm, hmm, I understand well, but you've been successful. What does success mean to you?   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 55:10 Success means showing up for myself.   Michael Hingson ** 55:14 Tell me more about that.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 55:17 Of course. You know, success is different for everybody, right? Some people want the million dollars they want. They want the best seller they want. You know, they want the big business. They want the big house. For me, success is just showing up. Growing up. Nobody showed up for me. So I knew at a young age I had to show up for myself, and that was my success story. Was just showing up. There's days I really don't want to be here. I'm just tired of showing up, but I still show up tired, you know. So that's my success story, and I think that's going to be my success story until the day I die. Michael is just show up.   Michael Hingson ** 55:58 Well, there's a lot to be said for showing up, and as long as you do show up, then people get to see you, right? Yeah, which is, which is the whole point. And again, as we talked about earlier, that's the choice that you made. So you decided that you were going to show up and you were going to be you, and you also talk about it, which is, I think, extremely important, because so many people won't, not a criticism. But last year, I spoke at the Marshfield, Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival in April of 2024 and it was a and every year they hold this festival, and it's a celebration of American history. One of the people there was a secret service agent who rode in the car right behind JFK when he was assassinated, and it took him 45 years before he could talk about it. It was that traumatic for him, and he just wasn't able to move on. Eventually he was able to talk about it, and he was at the festival, as I was last year, and did speak about it. But it's it is hard, it is a major endeavor and effort to make the choice to show up, to to face whatever you have to deal with and move on from it or move on with it. I, you know, I talk about Karen, my wife passing, and I will never say I move on from Karen. I continue to move forward, but I don't want to move on. I don't want to forget her Absolutely. And there's a big difference between moving on and moving forward. I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, no, go ahead. Michael, no, that's it.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 57:45 You know, we look at life differently, right? Different perspectives and, and that's the whole thing with the T is looking at life differently. We all have a past, we all have a present, and we all have a future, right? And it's how we look at our past. Do we stay stuck in our past, like a lot of people are, mislead your in the past? No, I'm not. I speak of the past, but I'm not in the past. I'm in the present moment, and my trauma is real and it's raw, and I'm dealing with it, and I'm healing from it. And the future, I don't know where the future's taking me. I just buckle up and go for the adventure and see where it takes me. If it means writing another book or it means taking a trip or getting a job in a third world country, that's where I go. I'm, you know, moving forward from all of the trauma that I've lived through. I don't want to forget it. Mm, hmm. A lot of people like I would you change anything? No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't change a single thing.   Michael Hingson ** 58:45 There's a difference between remembering and being aware of it and being bitter and hating it. And I think that's the important part,   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 58:53 yeah. And speaking of the past is not it's not a bad thing. It because the past is part of us, right? We were little kids once upon a time like there, you know, not everything was all bad. There was good moments. You know, there was more bad times for me than there was good, but there were good moments. I had good memories of spending with my grandparents on the farm and, you know, playing in the wrecked up cars and pretending I was a race car driver and stuff like that, you know, playing in the mud, making mud pies, putting them in the oven. You know, these were good memories that I have, you know, so those are what I hold on to. I hold on to the good stuff. I don't hold on to that heavy stuff.   Michael Hingson ** 59:33 Well, at least at this point, what do you see in the future for Miss Liz   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 59:39 travel? I so want to travel. I, you know, I've traveled the world, well, 72 countries, in this rocking chair. I would like to take this rocking chair in person. I would like to have a stage. I would like to have people come and talk and share their stories on a miss Liz's platform stage. That is the goal for Miss Liz.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:01 To travel and to really meet people from a lot of new and different places,   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 1:00:07 absolutely, and meet all the guests I had on Tea Time. That is one of my goals. So when the universe gets on my good side, maybe I'll be traveling and meeting you face to face one day, Michael,   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:18 or we'll travel up there when, when we can, I know right now there are many challenges because of our governments putting roadblocks in the way. I've applied to speak at several events in Canada, and I've been told right now, well, the political situation, political situation is such that we can't really bring anybody in from the United States. And, you know, I understand that. I I think that there's so much to add, but I also understand that they don't want to take those chances, and that's fine.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 1:00:48 Yeah, we've been told the same, no traveling, vice versa. There's so, you know, it will calm itself down. We just got to give it some   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:57 time. It will, you know, it isn't going to go on forever, and we'll just have to deal with it. Well, if you had the opportunity to go back and give your younger Miss Liz some advice, what would it be? Drink More tea. Drink More tea of the liquid kind or the other kind.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 1:01:17 No. Drink the real stuff like drink, the beverage, drink the real stuff. Like, you know, speaking of tea all the time, you know, my favorite tea is jasmine tea. I wish I could drink more jasmine tea, but when I drink jasmine tea, it brings it brings back a memory of my Uma, and it it's hard for me so but drink more tea, like, actually sit down and have more conversations with OMA and see what else OMA had in   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:44 the back there for her. Yeah. Well, there you go. Well, I, I must say, I've never been a coffee drinker, but I got converted to drinking tea years ago, and I've been doing it ever since. My favorite is PG Tips, black tea, and I can get it from Amazon, so we do it.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 1:01:59 That's a good one too. Yeah, I'm not a real big tea drinker, but guys, I do know a little bit about tea.   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:06 Well, I drink it more because it's a hot drink and it's got less calories than hot chocolate. Otherwise, I would be drinking hot chocolate all the time. But after September 11, I tend to clear my throat a lot, so drinking hot beverages helps, and I've just never liked coffee like I've learned to like tea, so I drink tea.   Elizabeth Gagnon ** 1:02:26 Yeah. What's for you? Yeah, he's good for you. Look what it did to me. It made me who I am today.   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:32 There you are in so many ways. Well, I want to than

Kathy Griffin joined a dating website, Pickleball movie coming soon, Mom of the week, never happened story, Man sees Pink when he has an orgasm and a teacher has a students baby.   Support our sponsor:  Start your free online Hims visit today at https://www.hims.com/AWFUL  

Welcome to the Gospel in a Year on the Catholic Sprouts Podcast. This year we will walk together through all 4 Gospels. The fun officially starts next week. This week we are preparing by discussing what to expect from the Gospel in a Year. We suggest you do two things to prepare. :one: PRINT THE GOSPEL IN A YEAR NOTEBOOK. It's free and ready for you right here :arrow_right:: http://catholicsprouts.com/the-gospels-in-a-year-on-the-catholic-sprouts-podcast :two: LOCATE A BIBLE! We will be reading from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE), so that is the best translation to follow along with for young Catholics. However, if you have older Catholics, it's fun to follow along in another great Catholic translation (we recommend either the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (RSV-CE) and the New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (NRSV-CE)).     Thank you for joining us!     Come Lord Jesus!    

Bible Reading: Psalms 104:24-28; 117:1-2"I'm ahead of you, Mom!" Kenzie called as she paddled down the river in her kayak."Kenzie, stop and look ahead of you!" Mom called back.Kenzie slowed down her kayak, noticing a bunch of branches ahead of her on the water. "What are those?" Mom moved her kayak beside Kenzie's. "I think it's a beaver dam. Let's sit here for a little bit and see if anything comes out." "Okay," Kenzie replied. She kept her eyes on the dam as she took a sip of her water. A couple minutes later, Kenzie noticed some movement. "Look, Mom.""It's an otter," Mom whispered as the pair watched the tiny animal. "Otters sometimes take over abandoned beaver dams." "It's so cute." Kenzie smiled as the otter dove into the water and swam away. "God's creation is beautiful," Mom agreed. "I love kayaking. It gives us a chance to admire all the wonderful things God has created.""We learned about that in Sunday school yesterday!" Kenzie exclaimed. "In Psalms, there's a verse that says the earth is full of the creatures God made." Mom nodded. "Another verse in Psalms says, 'Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.'" She smiled as she looked at the beaver dam. "Both verses are great reminders that God made so many things for us, and we should take the time to admire them. One way to praise God is by admiring His creation.""A lot of verses in Psalms tell us to praise God, don't they?" said Kenzie. "Yes," Mom replied. "We have so many reasons to praise God. Not only did He create the earth and all the creatures in it, He created us in His own image and sent Jesus to save us from sin and give us a relationship with Him that lasts forever. He has done so much for us, and He wants us to praise Him and enjoy the good things He's given us."Kenzie grabbed her paddle. "Let's praise Him right now by admiring His creation as we race on this nice water He made for us!" she called as she began to paddle down the river.–Kimberly BrokishHow About You?Do you take time to admire God's creation? Maybe you take walks, play in the yard, or look through the windows of your bedroom. He has made so many things for us to admire and enjoy. We can see God's power in creation and praise Him for all the things He made and for the love He has for us. What is your favorite thing that God created?Today's Key Verse:Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. (NIV) (Psalm 150:6)Today's Key Thought:Praise God for His creation

"Mind Over Murder" podcast co-hosts Kristin Dilley and Bill Thomas discuss three shocking cases across the Commonwealth of Virginia, including the murder of Holly Hatcher in Rockingham County, attempted murder by torching of City Councilman Lee Vogler in Danville, and the mysterious murder of Navy sailor Angelina Resendez at the Norfolk Navy Base.Mom of Country Musician Is Stabbed to Death in Home Invasion Before Dad Kills the Assailantttps://people.com/holly-hatcher-stabbed-fatally-mom-country-star-11788741Councilman Lee Vogler severely burned over half his body after sadistic attack by maniac who wanted him dead: copshttps://nypost.com/2025/07/31/us-news/councilman-lee-vogler-severely-burned-over-half-his-body-after-sadistic-attack/New Details Revealed in Case of Sailor Who Vanished from Navy Base and Was Later Found Dead: ‘Betrayal of Trust, of Duty'https://people.com/angelina-resendiz-new-details-alleged-suspect-s-name-revealed-in-death-of-navy-sailor-11758854https://people.com/holly-hatcher-stabbed-fatally-mom-country-star-1178874CrimeCon:  We're going to CrimeCon again, folks! Join us in Denver for new merch, some MOM listener hangouts, and a lot of fun! Use the code MINDOVERMURDER to get 10% off your tickets between now and September! See you there!WTKR News 3: One year after development in Colonial Parkway Murders, where do things stand?https://www.wtkr.com/news/in-the-community/historic-triangle/one-year-after-development-in-colonial-parkway-murders-where-do-things-standWon't you help the Mind Over Murder podcast increase our visibility and shine the spotlight on the "Colonial Parkway Murders" and other unsolved cases? Contribute any amount you can here:https://www.gofundme.com/f/mind-over-murder-podcast-expenses?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customerWTVR CBS News:  Colonial Parkway murders victims' families keep hope cases will be solved:https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/colonial-parkway-murders-update-april-19-2024WAVY TV 10 News:  New questions raised in Colonial Parkway murders:https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/new-questions-raised-in-colonial-parkway-murders/Alan Wade Wilmer, Sr. has been named as the killer of Robin Edwards and David Knobling in the Colonial Parkway Murders in September 1987, as well as the murderer of Teresa Howell in June 1989. He has also been linked to the April 1988 disappearance and likely murder of Keith Call and Cassandra Hailey, another pair in the Colonial Parkway Murders.13News Now investigates: A serial killer's DNA will not be entered into CODIS database:https://www.13newsnow.com/video/news/local/13news-now-investigates/291-e82a9e0b-38e3-4f95-982a-40e960a71e49WAVY TV 10 on the Colonial Parkway Murders Announcement with photos:https://www.wavy.com/news/crime/deceased-man-identified-as-suspect-in-decades-old-homicides/WTKR News 3https://www.wtkr.com/news/is-man-linked-to-one-of-the-colonial-parkway-murders-connected-to-the-other-casesVirginian Pilot: Who was Alan Wade Wilmer Sr.? Man suspected in two ‘Colonial Parkway' murders died alone in 2017https://www.pilotonline.com/2024/01/14/who-was-alan-wade-wilmer-sr-man-suspected-in-colonial-parkway-murders-died-alone-in-2017/Colonial Parkway Murders Facebook page with more than 18,000 followers: https://www.facebook.com/ColonialParkwayCaseYou can also participate in an in-depth discussion of the Colonial Parkway Murders here:https://earonsgsk.proboards.com/board/50/colonial-parkway-murdersMind Over Murder is proud to be a Spreaker Prime Podcaster:https://www.spreaker.comJoin the discussion on our Mind Over MurderColonial Parkway Murders website: https://colonialparkwaymurders.com Mind Over Murder Podcast website: https://mindovermurderpodcast.comPlease subscribe and rate us at your favorite podcast sites. Ratings and reviews are very important. Please share and tell your friends!We launch a new episode of "Mind Over Murder" every Monday morning, and a bonus episode every Thursday morning.Sponsors: Othram and DNAsolves.comContribute Your DNA to help solve cases: https://dnasolves.com/user/registerFollow "Mind Over Murder" on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MurderOverFollow Bill Thomas on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillThomas56Follow "Colonial Parkway Murders" on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColonialParkwayCase/Follow us on InstaGram:: https://www.instagram.com/colonialparkwaymurders/Check out the entire Crawlspace Media network at http://crawlspace-media.com/All rights reserved. Mind Over Murder, Copyright Bill Thomas and Kristin Dilley, Another Dog Productions/Absolute Zero ProductionsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/mind-over-murder--4847179/support.

Ellen and Mom discuss the girl code, girlfriends, and girl magic in Can't Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan.  Plus, new Taylor and new school year.  Come hang out with us! Twitter/Instagram: @notyourmomsromFacebook Group: Not Your Mom's Facebook GroupEmail: notyourmomsromancebookclub@gmail.comNot Your Mom's Romance Book Club is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find more outstanding podcasts to subscribe to at Frolic.media/podcast 

This week I speak with Kim Wyse who is a Mom to one, Stepmom to four, and Grama of four. She is Happily Married and living life in the mountains. Kim says she has become a “ridiculous dog-mom” in her older years, and enjoys her days as best as she can although she struggles with pain and still has bad days from her stroke. She is a relentless renovator and has supervised her way through a complete re-haul of her home. Kim's physical strength is not what it used to be, but she can still boss the trades around and put a design plan into place! She is a freelance writer and real estate assistant, and works on personal branding materials and videos for clients. Kim is proud to be a first-time author of her book, “Tails of Kindness.” We look at her childhood up to the present to find the beautiful thread of Jesus in her life. You won't want to miss this encouraging episode! https://www.facebook.com/share/14JXaJz2x3F/?mibextid=wwXIfr*Theme Music "Blessed Time" by Ketsa