The Bog of Mind: Self Help + Problem Solving

Years ago I was running. Then I had pain. Then I tried to get stronger. Then I just got fatter. Then I said no more. Then I lost 10 pounds.

If you listened to the episode in Season 4, Beautiful Sundays, I'm about to tell you how that's going. I also have some more thoughts on how to help kids sit in church and maybe even listen. Surely that would be helpful to someone out there. 

Let's talk about some new things I have made lately and how easy it was!!! If you are looking for easy recipes for sauces and bread or feeling a little too basic in your cooking, let me tell you what's been on my mind. You know I've been thinking outside the box if you've been checking out my monthly menu episodes, but I'm still going! I have many culinary aspirations at the moment and I want to s...

Right now I have a job list for the kids that is working. It gets modified from time to time, but these are all things I really really need done and I find that they are worth the money I pay the kids to do them. I even pay the kids for things I would like to see them doing for their own personal development! My kids know how much money they have, what it took to earn it, and what it will take to...

Here is another month of meals! This is quite a long episode all about cooking and there is quite a variety of meals this month. Listen along to grab some ideas and bring some creativity into your kichen. Listen further to catch all the details and fails. I cook Asian, Polish, Italian and a bit of Irish. Get some tips about using up leftovers and recycling previous meals. Even my kids helped in th...

It's happened to me. I didn't want it to, but I'm now the mom in a minivan just driving everywhere all the time. Sometimes it's soccer practice (hello fellow volunteer coaches!), sometimes it's softball practice, and sometimes it is piano and flute lessons. Chauffeuring is not what I envisioned for myself. It's not what I ever thought would be the best thing for my kids, and yet here we are, crazy...

If you are dragging today but have to make some kind of progress, listen in for a few minutes. I will keep this short and give you a quick list of ways you can keep yourself going, even if you are slow. I am always trying to self-motivate and I have a few strategies to share today.

In this really fun episode I interview my 3 youngest to find out what jobs they enjoy doing (from our list of chores) and what they plan to spend their money on. Kids say funny and surprising things! Sometimes you just have to ask the right questions. Getting kids to do regular work is a constant struggle but right now things are clicking along and we have been following this job list/plan for abo...

I am battling seasonal allergies but there is one thing that is helping me so much! It is the very comforting and satisfying bone broth I have been perfecting lately. There are several containers of this nourishing liquid in my fridge and freezer, packed with protein, nutrients and warm spices. I will tell you everything I have been adding to it lately! You may be surprised at what I'm throwing in...

It really is raining as I sit in my van recording. I hope you find the rain soothing and not just annoying background noise! This calming, relaxed episode is hopefully one you can listen to over and over again while you are - maybe on a rainy day - trying to clear out your pantry that you thought you just organized last week! I have a short list of ideas to share about how to use up those almost-g...

Isn't it great to find out what's really to blame for your personal shortcomings?? Haha. Well, maybe I can't really lay the blame elsewhere but I can see how awkward social interactions come to be based on social media. Social media is great, but do I expect people to know all about me based on a photo posted once a month? Do I hold myself to those standards when I run into friends? Something is w...

Hey! More about reading today because I think it's important for our brains and ability to communicate! I have talked about the benefits of reading, but maybe you didn't need convincing on that. Maybe you don't know which book to pick up. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you make strides towards your reading goals! If you choose poorly you may sabotage your potential to keep reading. Let's...

I was pondering why I could not sit myself down to read history when I needed to do it for a class, and these days I really enjoy it. If only, right? What could my GPA have looked like? So I compared circumstances and thought about it a while and then recorded it for you. There are many MANY hobbies and goals that I would like to focus on but timing and circumstances affect all that. Maybe if I pi...

Ever pick up a book based on another book by the same author that you enjoyed and find yourself totally surprised? I first read The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. I enjoyed his writing style and the story. I chose another of his books at the library that looked pretty different, but I had no idea! I really branched out in my reading choices here and I am glad. This is good for discussion! I...

My biggest source of guilt right now? Sunday. Sunday is the Lord's Day, and lately it's become a recovery day for me. I have attacked this problem before but it looks like the fight is still on. Do you struggle to get out the door and follow through on commitments outside the home? Are you so over-booked that important things get canceled and neglected? For me, it's time to take a serious look at...

I anticipated pain this past weekend and got through it with prayer and pain meds. I am still treating the migraine, but this milder case has me thinking about how I can better deal with it in the future.

This is my personal story of migraines. Mine are hormonal. Here's my treatment plan when the pain strikes.

Those mundane tasks will build up and cause serious inconvenience if you don't figure out a way to get them done. Here are two things to consider when you have a pile of socks to match and just don't wanna.

I keep having these epiphanies while I am cooking and they all seem to pertain to sauces, so here's an episode directly related to all of that.

So "Part 2" of the list of things that work for us includes what calendars I use and how I use them, my planners, and also how I make time to do my stuff (like this podcast, for instance). It's not all that profound, but in my experience just being reminded about obvious options is often just what I need. 

The reason I started this podcast was initially to share tips on my fitness habits because for the first time in years I felt like I was accomplishing something good and achieving my goals. Today I would like to share some info about some household stuff that seems to be working for the moment. Certain household hacks and incentives for kids to help have been successful lately and I just have to s...

Is it obvious that I'm a homebody? I'm not upset that we generally don't travel during Spring Break, but after I stop smiling about getting to sleep in all week I am terrorized by the images of whining children lamenting their boredom every day for an entire week. So here's my plan for the week so that everyone gets what they want. Is that possible? I have to think so, otherwise it's going to be a...

I think we all understand that we cannot do all the things and that we need to learn to say no. Here are the really great things that I have had to decline lately in favor of what is best. How can we know what is best and be assured we made the right call? Let's talk about that, too.

In this episode I will tell you about our rather difficult first experience having a puppy, my changed perspective looking back, and a dogsitting opportunity that was just the thing we needed. I get more and more excited about new and unexpected things that happen these days and I will tell you why.

Do you have the car line blues? I used to dread afternoon school pickups, but now it's a very pleasant and calming part of my day! Let's talk about how I transformed the worst part of my afternoon into some wonderfully rare (and productive!) ME time.