My Current Podcast Line-up

Within the past two years, I’ve been falling more and more in love with Podcasts. There is seriously something for everyone, and I adore that. The common trend with women of my age, are crime junkie podcasts, but I’m going to be real with you… letting that type of evil into my brain is not good for me on so many levels. I notice how depressive it can be for my spirit, so I try to avoid anything that is going to exacerbate my anxiety and stress levels. That being said, most of the podcasts I listen to tend to deal with “self help” or my faith as a Catholic Christian, but there are a couple that are just because I have a weird sense of humor and like the Office.

Minimalism & Clutter Control:

My First & maybe my favorite podcast that I BINGE when I need a real kick in the pants to get to cleaning and decluttering my house, is A SLOB COMES CLEAN with Dana K. White. She is an author and mom, who gives your realistic goals for cleaning for people who really hate cleaning. Some of her concepts were already things I was doing on a weekly basis, but listening to her podcasts really gave me a lot of Lightbulb moments when I realized that you can’t organize anything until you CLEAR OUT THE CLUTTER, otherwise you are just “Stuff shifting” and that doesn’t solve anything. Hello! Her voice is so soothing, and its easily something I can listen to while I make dinner or :gasp: clean and organize my house.

Next up. THE COZY MINIMALIST, MINIMALIST MOM’S PODCAST, WITH INTENTION & WANNABE MINIMALIST. These four are great, but I’m not as quick to click on them because I have so many new podcasts that I’ve been listening to lately, and not a ton of time. But they are good and have a lot of great content. I started focusing on Minimalism a couple years ago when I realized that living with less was a really good idea as we were fighting hard to pay down debts and manage the stuff that was already in our house.

The Cozy Minimalist is great if you don’t have a lot of time and just want short bursts of inspiration. (Her earlier episodes are better) Recently, it feels like she is having trouble distinguishing herself and letting the negative comments get her down.

Minimalist Moms Podcast is great because she talks to a lot of other moms who are dealing with the day to day life of managing kids and a house in addition to working, etc. You get to hear what works and doesn’t work for them. I love to weed through and see what things I can try to implement in my own life, and then go from there.

With Intention Podcast, recently changed to this name, but she focuses on living with intention and will talk about a lot of minimalist ideals. Lots of great ideas to slow down and enjoy the inbetween.

Wannabe Minimalist is also great because it just hammers home this idea of getting away from the consumer mindset and how to look at your house with fresh eyes to pair down on things you don’t use or need.

Life & Self Help

The Chalene Show is my current favorite podcast. She talks all about living with ADD & ADHD and all the ways you can uplevel your life, break bad habits, start new routines, etc. She’s so smart and funny and gets right to the point. A lot of her content is science based, and I’m currently working through her Decluttering series from the beginning of this year. SO MUCH GOOD INFO.

Fresh Exchange is by a Michigan mama, who lives very simply and talks about enjoy the season she is in. She is also talking ALL about gardening and her process behind how she plants and learns in nature. It’s a breath of fresh air from the constant RUSH RUSH RUSH mindset of so many, and I adore seeing the beauty of Michigan through her eyes.

The Mary Marantz Show is solid gold. All of her episodes are amazing and will make you feel like you can take on anything you set your mind to. Mary is an AMAZING interviewer and doesn’t ask superficial questions, but really digs deep and gets to the nitty gritty stuff. And Mary is a wonderful human being in real life as well.

Modern Manners for Moms & Dads is a new one for me that I’ve been really digging through. I heard these ladies on another podcast and was so intrigued by their stance on parenting. It has really made me take a step back and reevaluate myself and my approach to how I react to situations as a mom.

The Purpose Show with Allie Casazza is great for moms who feel like they are stuck in the trap of “Suffering through motherhood”. It helps you realize that in order for us to be our best version of ourselves, as women and mothers, we need to take better care of our mental and physical health first. You can’t pour from an empty cup.

Spiritual Health

Being a Catholic Christian is a big part of my life. It shapes not just how I spend my weekend, but also how I view the world and all aspects of my life. My three favorite podcasts are ironically by the same person.

UMD Newman Catholic Campus- Father Mike Schmitz. He is a priest/campus chaplain at the University of Minnesota Duluth, and before the pandemic, I would listen to his weekly homily on his podcast because it would always dive SO MUCH deeper into the readings than what my own local priest would do during mass. When all the churches closed in March 2020, he took to Youtube and offered weekly mass for his “virtual front pew” as he called us.

The Bible in a Year- In addition to his homilies, he also has a new one that started on January 1st, 2021 and it comes out every morning and Fr. Mike is reading through the entire Bible. There is a whole reading plan based on Jeff Cavin’s study of the Great Adventure Timeline, that addressed the story of Salvation and how we fit into that story. It’s amazing and I have listened every single morning since Jan 1. I make sure that my brain is fully listening and comprehending what I’m hearing, so I do it while I get ready in the morning alone in the bathroom.

Fr. Mike Schmitz is basically the audio from his youtube channel for Ask Father Mike. Where he will address questions or subjects that people ask him about from a Catholic perspective.

Comic Relief/ Favorite TV Shows

Fake Doctors, Real Friends is a hilarious podcast that is basically Zach Braff & Donald Faison shooting the ish, talking about current events, and occasionally they talk about their old Tv Show SCRUBS. (Which I loved that show in high school/college and owned all the seasons on DVD) yeah, i’m old(er). They are definitely vulgar and talk about a lot of really bizarre things, but I listen when I just need to take my mind off of the crazy and have a good laugh.

The Office Deep Dive with Brian Baumgartner is a new one, but it’s the actor who played Kevin from the Office, talking to all his old castmates about their time on The Office. It’s just fun and mindless to listen to, and I’m enjoying so far.

Office Ladies with Jenna Fischer & Angela Kinsey is great and they really break down every episode. It’s so fun to hear these ladies talk about the show and what was going on behind the scenes as they filmed all of this. Talking about what was improvised and who wrote what lines. No Joke, The Office is my ALL TIME FAVORITE show, and before Netflix took it off, Ryan and I would watch it almost every night.

Okay Folks, That’s it. That’s my current lineup on podcasts. If you have any that you think I might like, leave me a comment below, because I’m always looking for new things to listen to!! Thanks friends and I hope this was helpful!

Finding Joy Right Where I'm Planted...

We’ve all heard the quote “Bloom Where You’re Planted” And if this year has taught me anything, it’s simply that. If you talked to me four years ago, I could tell you a million things I wished we had… things that I wished we could change about our house, our life, our financial situation. I was busy looking left and right and eyeing up all the things I didn’t have, and the lives of others on instagram, wishing for a home that felt “instagram-worthy” and perfect. I’m not generally someone who covets what others have, but I could easily get consumed by petty jealousy and play a mean game of comparison.

In the last few years, I’ve worked pretty hard on this. I’ve become best friends with the “unfollow” button, or the mute button. I’ve stopped picking up magazines, stopped looking for things I want, and focused so much more on what we need, and let everything else fall away. Social media is very good at feeding us a lie that tells us that what we have is never enough and what other people share about having is what we also need to have. Living a life of excess, having an over abundance of stuff, a new wardrobe every season, blah blah blah… but I realized it’s not what is going to bring you happiness. Maybe it will in the moment, but long term, you can’t sustain that. Instead, you need to find the joy right where you are. In your current moment. Look around and pick out a couple things that make you smile. Count the blessings.

My life is far from perfect. My home… far from perfect. Are those homes I see all over Instagram beautiful? You betcha. Would it be nice to have a little more space for our family to spread out a little? You betcha. But I am so proud of the home we do have. I love that we own a home that when people walk in, they feel cozy and welcomed. 2020 was the year we all stayed home, and the fact that I can say, I still love everything about this house, flaws and all, is saying something.

I wrote an instagram post this morning about instead of comparing my life to what others have, I talked about the joy I felt when I made my bed and saw the new Christmas quilt and red pillows. Seeing so cute and put together, I remembered that wish i made three years ago that “one of these years I’m going to bring the Christmas decor to our bedrooms, in order to bring the holiday magic to the whole house.”

Last year, I invested in two very small and inexpensive trees for the kids rooms. Slowly, but surely, I’m creating the dream I had for us with the limited budget we have, but creating something magical for my children has become more of a priority for me than getting likes or follows on instagram.

Yesterday, as Jonathan looked around the house, he told me… “Mama, Christmas is my favorite time. This looks so magical.” I could feel the lump in my throat, and it made me realize that THAT is what it’s all about. Creating magic in the every day. And for me, there is nothing more magical than a home at Christmastime.

A Room Remodel: Wallpaper Makes all the Difference.

Four score and six years ago… we created a fun and creative space for our new little baby boy. Three years later, we added a baby girl, but because Ryan had just graduated with his Masters, we didn’t have the money to give her a whole new room. So… We took down the small shelves, changed the curtains, added a cute rug and called it good for the time being. There was no rhyme or reason to any of the decor choices, but I really loved those yellow curtains and knew that would be my starting point when I figured out a design for this room one day.

Using the curtains as my color inspiration, I found a wallpaper company I loved and after looking through pages and pages of designs, I narrowed it down to a couple favorites. But for obvious reasons, those triangles just called to me. (I have a triangle tattoo on my arm).

I posted an instagram story saying I wish I could do a collaboration with them, and someone actually messaged me back telling me to send them an email! I could NOT believe it! And from there we sent emails back and forth and locked in on a design.

I found other inspiration in the Crate & Kids catalog, but knew the only thing I could afford was the adorable clothes hamper. But then we got to work.

When we removed the shelves & the trim on the chalkboard, the dry wall was damaged so we knew we had a lot of work ahead of us before we could start installing the wallpaper.

We received the wallpaper the week before all the stay at home orders went into affect. Ryan was super sick that week (negative for covid-19) and then that sickness spread like wildfire through our house. So not only were we dealing with Ryan working from home, no school and not being able to really leave our house… we also had so many projects in our house hanging over us. We finally started our girls room project at the beginning of April.

We had to patch the holes, as well as skim coat the stripes on the old wall to make sure that you couldn’t see the texture from the paint. This was a tedious process, because my sweet husband is a perfectionist and we kept having weird issues with the plaster not adhering to the wall and fine bubbles. Not to mention, something we would normally get someone to watch the kids so we could focus on the project without interruptions, we didn’t want to risk exposure, so everything we did was either during nap time, in between work days and weekends.

Finally by June, we were ready to hang the wallpaper! And I could not be MORE excited about this. One word of advice: Make sure the entire wall is fully painted white before installation. Regardless of the color on the wallpaper, it isn’t 100% opaque, and that dark shadow from the previous paint color at the ceiling is faintly visible through the paper.

On the ColoRay Decor website, our pattern shows the triangles with the points going down (like bunting), but I really loved the idea of them going the opposite direction, so at the last second we decided to flip it.

This is ABSOLUTELY a two person job. Go slow. Don’t rush. We started by giving a little extra at the top. Peeled back the backing and slowly worked from the inside of the sheet to the edges, squishing out all the air bubbles and making sure we didn’t have any creases. Ryan was on the ladder, and I was behind the wallpaper on the floor, slowly pulling the backing down evenly.

Did I mention, GO SSSLLOOOWWWWW. Match up the seams. And if you need to pull it off and reposition it, you absolutely can!!

When we were all done, using a straight edge and a very sharp Xacto-knife, we trimmed off the excess on the top & bottom and the sides.

We had been planning the room remodel for a couple years, and knew we would need to transition Verona into a big girl bed (Which we had already purchased from Ikea December 2019). I managed to take a chance on a bed spread that I ordered as a Target Drive up, praying it would be the right color, and asked for a new white rug for the girls room for Christmas 2019 in preparation for this upcoming remodel.

All the pieces were falling into place, and I had also dreamed of creating two big canvases as art for the wall to complement the wallpaper. I scored these 24x36 canvases from Michaels for 50% off, and was able to create something custom using my Tombow Dual Brush pens! (After planning it out on a smaller canvas just to make sure I liked the way it looked first). I love these lyrics from JJ Heller, and knew they would be perfect for my little girls room.

Our house is small. Our resources are limited. And money was definitely something we DIDN’T have to throw at this. But I knew creating a fun space for my little girls to grow up in was what was important to me, and here we are!

It turned out better than I could have ever dreamed, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to work with ColoRay Decor on this bedroom. Every time I walk in this room it fills me with so much joy, and these two little ladies LOVE it!

List of links:

Wallpaper -ColoRay Designs

Bedframe -Ikea

Twin Quilt -Target

Shag Rug -Rugs.com

Clothes Hamper- Crate & Kids

Curtains -Target

Floral prints -Lulu Ink Designs

Other Print -Handwritten Hope

Little Girl's Room Reveal- Geometric Design

I remember when we found out that we were going to have a daughter, and visions of a beautiful nursery flooded my head. Floral wallpaper. Floral wreaths. Wooden script names. Soft tones. I had it all pinned on Pinterest, and was planning this big grand reveal. Then the instagram world vs reality sets in, and I knew that what I wanted to do wouldn’t be financially possible with all that we had going on. We don’t tap from a bottomless well of money, and whatever work that needed to be done in that room, we were going to have to do ourselves, because paying a contractor or designer was not in the budget.

So we waited. And waited. And waited. And then I bought some curtains because that tone of yellow just made me happy and from there I decided to design this room. I found this adorable wallpaper from ColoRay Decor and it was off to the races. Triangles make me happy, and these colors fit perfectly in our colorful home aesthetic.

Slowly but surely, we made small purchases here and there until this sweet room was complete. Repurposed an old dresser & nightstand, gave them a fresh coat of white spray paint. Some custom artwork created by me to go on the main wall, and boom! I’ll give links to all the other artwork, and please feel free to comment if you have any questions about anything else!! Enjoy!

List of links:

Wallpaper -ColoRay Designs

Bedframe -Ikea

Twin Quilt -Target

Shag Rug -Rugs.com

Clothes Hamper- Crate & Kids

Curtains -Target

Floral prints -Lulu Ink Designs

Other Print -Handwritten Hope