The Lazy Genius Podcast - #311 What's Saving My Life Right Now

Episode Date: April 24, 2023

This special episode is presented by KFC. KFC chicken nuggets have made their debut and they truly are the perfect chicken nugget. Each one is hand-breaded with KFC’s Original Recipe and absolutely packed with flavor. So basically what I’m saying is...KFC took all the magic that is a bucket of chicken and packed it into one small but equally amazing chicken nugget. And since KFC chicken nuggets are something that saves dinner for my family, I thought I’d share more examples of that in today’s episode.   Helpful Companion Links KFC Chicken Nuggets Merlin App Olive & June press-on nails (Use code KendraA20 for 20% off!) The Essential Calendar (Use code LAZYGENIUS for 10% off!) Poor Bishop Hooper Instagram post of Annie jumping off a curb Sparkle Sounds playlist Download a transcript of this episode.   This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there, you are listening to the Lazy Genius Podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi, and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. This special episode is presented by KFC and ACAST creative. KFC chicken nuggets have made their debut, and they truly are the perfect chicken nugget. Each one is hand-bredded with KFC's original recipe and absolutely packed with flavor. So basically what I'm saying is KFC, they took all the magic that is a bucket of chicken that we love. and packed it into one equally amazing chicken nugget that you will also love. And since KFC chicken nuggets are something that saves dinner for my family,

which anytime you can save dinner, that's saving your life. I thought I would share more examples of that in today's episode, number 311, what's saving my life right now. I love doing these episodes and we do them often. We do them once a quarter. But just in case you're new here, let me briefly explain what this is and why we do it so often. Barbara Brown Taylor, who was an author that I love, she originally asked this question, what is saving your life? And its simplicity, it kind of struck gold. We all realize that not only

are there things in our lives that save us, but it's also so valuable to name those things. And we do an episode like this every quarter or every season because as lazy geniuses, we live in the season, right? That's one of the 13 lazy lazy. genius principles that everything that we do is based on. And what saves your life in one season, it might not in another. So we name and celebrate those things. I love getting messages and seeing Instagram posts about what is saving your life right now. And I hope that this week, if you do share your list anywhere, that you feel encouraged in that process. Also, I want you to tag me. I would love to see it. All right. So let's jump into my list. Today I have seven things that are

saving my life right now. Number one, the Merlin app. Berlin like the wizard. All right, first, let me tell you about my weird relationship with birds. I both love birds and am terrified of birds. I find birds as a concept to be so strange and also spectacular. I never want to touch one, but I will never tire of listening to them if I got a bird caught in my house. I would be terrified and move. And yet when a bird comes to my bird feeder, I make everybody stop moving and talking inside the house so I can stare at that bird for as long as possible and no one scares it away. So me and birds have like a hot and cold thing going, you know, but I would say that mostly I love birds, especially songbirds. I live in a fairly

suburban neighborhood with like, no, a good number of trees, not a lot of city noise. So the bird song, especially in the mornings and the evenings, is so beautiful and actually kind of loud. Now, I don't remember where this actually happened, like where I got this recommendation. I think I mentioned my love of bird song to our lazy genius private community, the neighborhood, and several people in there, I think it was them, suggested the Merlin app. It is an app, it's free. It's an app that helps you identify birds, both visually and with sound. You have to download like the bird pack or whatever for wherever you live. But then you just open the app, you press record when you're like standing outside or with

the window open. And the app will show you what birds are singing. It'll even highlight the name of the bird when that particular bird is chirping, which is a lovely thing when it's like just a cacophony of bird song. I use this app almost every single day. It is pure joy. My kids love it too. We will sit outside on the porch or we'll walk down the street to like,

like a little patch of woods and just listen. We will count how many birds are chirping at once. Our record right now is 15, 15 birds. And it's also super fun when something that's a little more rare pops up. The other day we heard both a Peregrine Falcon and a Baltimore Oriole, which are like not normally around here. I can also now identify the Carolina Wren. Like it's just the most, it is the most fun.

And it's free. It's so fun when fun things are free. So it is a free app that you can just sit and listen to birds. And if you love to do that, it's so good for your soul. So that's the Merlin app. Merlin, like the wizard. Okay, so that's number one. Number two, Olive and June, press on nails, especially for traveling.

So Kaz and I went on a European cruise a couple of weeks ago, fancy pants, and I decided to wear pressons. My nails were pretty stubby at the time, and I didn't make the time to give myself a manicure before we left. I also did not want to use coveted space in my, in my court bag, you know, and like for touchups, even a mini bottle. And so I opted for pressons. They were amazing.

I wonder if I might have like unusually shaped nail beds or something, because I do have to file like almost every single press on I ever use whenever I do olive in June pressons. I really do think I have like weird nails. But it's super worth it. It only takes like a second. and I put on the HZ of fantastic neutral for me. I put on HZ pressons in the extra short round. I still had to file them down, y'all.

That is how short my nails and my nail beds are. I don't understand. It's fine. But I got them at Target the day before we left for the trip. I put half of them on in the airport. Like seriously, I brought my little press on glue, and I put them on where we were waiting at the gate. And I wore those things for 10 days, and they did not budge.

And then my nails looked really nice. The whole time we were walking around. you know, Florence and Monaco and the French Riviera, as one does. It was my first real foray and depressons where I actually took my time putting them on and I will always wear them for a trip, like always, always. They save my life then and they absolutely will again. Okay, number three, the essential calendar. Y'all, I love this thing. The essential calendar is the name of the small business, And it's also, you know, the product. It's the product that I love so much.

So this business was started by two busy moms, Crystal and Lindsay, a few years ago. And they make these amazing high-quality wall calendars that span at least three months at a time. I think at first they just had the typical seasons going, you know, spring, summer, fall, and winter. But as they developed the product, they expanded the types of calendars to make it easier for people to really plan and see the season that they are in. A recent new calendar was the summer break calendar that I think they started last year, I think, and it spans Memorial Day to Labor Day. So if you're a teacher or a parent of kids, that is a great way to look at the summer, right? They also have some new calendars that I think they just released this year because I've never seen

them before. I'm literally obsessed with them. One is labeled busiest time ever and spans mid-September through the end of December. You guys. It's like the holiday docket timeframe. If you have ever used the lazy genius resource, the holiday docket, which will be in our digital store once the holidays come around, once September gets here. But it's that time frame in one giant page that you can hang on your wall.

It's amazing. There is also a home stretch calendar for next year for 2024 that covers the last three months before school is over. Like, amazing. And again, you can just get the ones that are standard seasons, right? But the point is these calendars, they span a season. in one glance and they are so helpful. The paper is the highest quality. It's super easy to write on. They're like really modern looking and crisp and clean. And the essential calendar, they sell like

several options for displaying the calendar that you get. There are these giant push pins. The one that we have, how we hang ours, it's a wooden magnetic frame. And it's so easy to use. like I just cannot explain how wonderful this calendar is and how helpful it is. Hours hangs by the back door and my kids, Ben, especially he marks off the day before as part of his morning routine. We use our essential calendar for things that the kids would want to know. So like night meetings that I have that will interrupt, you know, kind of bedtime routine, trips that I have to take for work or fun.

I will just literally write, mom is gone to Nashville on the calendar. We write camps and band performances and when we're going to go see the Harry Potter Symphony in June. It's kind of like our big picture for things that are outside of our ordinary. We don't put anything like that's routine or regular in it. It's just anything that's outside of our ordinary. And I never ever want to live without this calendar. It's so fantastic. So we'll put a link in the show notes to the Essential Calendar Shop.

and you please be sure to use the code lazy genius for 10% off your order. I raved about it so much that they're like, here's a code. It's just the best. So I have never met anyone who got one of these and did not love it. Like truly. They're just fantastic and will absolutely save your life. Okay. Number four, I hired my mom to be my personal assistant.

That's for sure saving my life. You might remember that like a year or so ago, I did the same thing. for my sister and it was amazing. And then my sister got an actual job with like a salary and benefits and stuff, which was great for her. And I thought that I would be able to swing it without that extra help. And I can. But the swinging took so much energy from other things that matter. Like trying to do everything. You guys, we just can't. We cannot do everything without significant cost. So I asked my mom who doesn't work if she would want to be my mind. assistant. Y'all, my mom was made to solve my problems. Every week, like after I do my brain dump for the

upcoming week and I look at my calendar and, you know, I plan all the things that are going on and see what I need to do, I will pull out the things from that list that my mom could do for me instead. She goes to Costco for me. She returns packages and checks my PO box. She organized my pantry. She got quotes from tree guys to come and take down the dead trees in our yard. She's going to defrost my freezer. I told her that one of Sam's blinds and his room was broken and she measured the windows and is getting new treatments and we'll install them. Our vacuum is on the fritz and I'm literally going to pay her to research vacuums for us and find the best one for our needs.

She solved problems I didn't ask for. She's like, I'm going to get some rug tape because your dining room rug keeps carling and we're tripping on it. Holy moly. It's amazing. Now, this is an excellent place to remind everybody that I am not sharing a list of things that will save everyone's life. these are the things that save mine.

I also realize that not everyone can get an assistant or has a willing family member three minutes away who has the space to do these kinds of things. You know, I share this not to flaunt. I recognize that it is absolutely a privilege. Absolutely. My mom is here and I can pay her. Now that is not true for everyone.

But I am here to share the types of things that are saving my life in the hopes that it will spark ideas and recognition for you. Even hearing me say that I have outsourced someone to fix my son's broken blinds can be a comfort to you as to why your broken blinds are still hanging there. Broken blinds and whatever else you want to put in that category, those kinds of things are annoying, right?

And they are hard to fit into regular life. And will often then just exist because you do not have the margin to fix them. Neither do I. I would rather read or go to bed early or play Monopoly deal with my kids or just do the regular things in the house that need to be done than fix Sam's broken blind that functions well enough. Basically, you cannot do everything. You can't. So if you can just notice that I am outsourcing, I have to ask for help with these things. Otherwise, they're really not going to get done or they're going to get done at the expense of other things that matter more. So just recognize that, that none of us can do everything, right?

Now, for sure, I am enjoying the benefit of having those broken, blind-like things tended to. Now, maybe your tending is going to look different than mine does, but the tending to those things is totally saving my life. also what could save your life though is releasing and being lazy about those kinds of things that do need tending to but not right now as i mentioned at the top of this episode today's show is presented by kFC and a cast creative thanks to the magic that is kFC chicken nuggets so to celebrate this special episode i thought it would be cool to introduce you to wait for it three of the nuggets in my life, my kids, Sam, Ben, and Annie to share just a highlight or two from the week as we catch up over some KFC.

My precious children. Welcome to the show. Hello. Hello. Can you just say quickly your name with your voice so people know who's talking? I am Sam Adachi as my friends call me. My friends call me by my whole name. Okay.

Hello, my name is Ben. My name is Annie. Annie has chicken nugget in her mouth right now. Okay. people might not know how we spend our days after school. Everybody does things kind of differently. Anybody want to share kind of what happens when we get home from school? Annie, you're usually the first person home from school. You get out of school the soonest most of the time. What is your favorite part about after school? What a responsible answer. So you do your homework and then you play after. Do you have a favorite subject in school? You're super good at math. Do you? Ben, give Annie a math problem she can do. Just a quick addition problem.

She's ready. What's a million plus a million and one plus 10? That feels too big. What's 21 plus 22? Ooh, here we go. What's 21 plus 22? You got it. Yes!

Thanks job. Well done. Ben, you usually get home next. What is one of your favorite things about after school? Getting out of there. Did you say getting out of there? Yeah. Like as in school?

Yeah. Oh man. Okay. So without disparaging your school or your classmates, tell me why it is that you have such a hard time at school, Ben. People cannot stop doing the thing I'm doing right now. Which is what? Talking. Talking.

Would you describe yourself as a responsible person, Ben? Yes. Yeah. So maybe it can be hard to find a highlight of the school day because. You feel like you're a lot more responsible than your classmates are? Yes. What is it that you love about coming home, buddy? I enjoy getting my homework out of the way, so I don't have to do it at night.

Also very responsible. Do you know what we call that? Day work. I was going to say it's like you're asking the magic question, Ben. You're being a lazy genius. You're doing something now to make something easier later, which is pretty rad. Sam, what about you? What's your vibe after school?

your favorite part about being home i like composed music like as a hobby that hobby like started over the summer and then it's turned to a thing where i had to make like theme songs for a project thing that we did like in the beginning of the school year you made a podcast wasn't that your project yes yes like a podcast that would never get released like one episode uh-huh with my friend and you you compose the theme music right mm-hmm and then i made like and then i made like i think three other theme songs for three other groups. That's amazing. It sounds like you all three really love being home, though.

Would you say that's true? Yes. Is it because of your mother that you love being home with your mother? Yes. And I'm also happy just to get out of school. Yes, in my bed and Ellie. In your bed. Yes.

We have a cozy home, don't we? Yes. And also, y'all just finished every single one of those chicken nuggets. They're all gone. That did not take very long. Can you read with that box? This finger. Very good.

Thank you, everybody, for listening to this weekly nugget brought to you in partnership with KFC and ACAS Creative. If you are looking to bring a little flavor to bonding time with the kiddos in your life, not necessarily over a microphone, run, don't walk to the nearest KFC and try the new Kentucky Fried Chicken Nuggets with 100% white meat, perfectly hand-bredded with KFC's original. recipe. I promise you have never had nuggets like these. Prices and participation may vary. Okay, back to what is saving my life. Number five, strawberry season. Holy mulli strawberry season.

Strawberry season might be one of the best times of the year for the Adachi family. We are obsessed, particularly with Rudd Farm Strawberries. If you are local-ish to Greensboro, you probably feel the same way. There is nothing like a Rudd Strawberry. and we buy at least one bucket a week. I have photos of my kids sitting on the farmer's market floor, like when they were little, the minute we got our first bucket and they were just going to town. Like this is just something we look forward to every year. So strawberry season just started.

And this past week, we tried going twice. We had plans. Like, we're going to get our first bucket of strawberries. But the rain kept us away and no strawberries were available. So this past week was the real first week that they were out. But I did not have a free morning to run to their farm stand because it's almost 30 minutes away. And they sell out usually before lunch. So I asked my personal assistant mother to go get us some.

Best decision ever. The kids came home from school last week, all three at three different times. And every single one threw their arms into the air and shouted like very very, very exclamations of joy at the side of our first bucket of strawberries. Strawberry season, it saves my life because it reminds me of life in the way that seasonal food does, you know? It just kind of roots you. It grounds you.

It also saves snacks and lunches and sides at dinner because everybody just wants to eat strawberries all the time. And it saves my life because it unites our family around something that we all love, which honestly is a tough thing these days. as our kids year year difference? Like it stays the same. You know, Sam is still two years older than Ben. Ben is still four years older than Annie.

But their age difference feels wider and wider. So strawberry season just like brings us all together. And it's definitely saving my life. Number six. Number six is the band Poor Bishop Hooper. Poor Bishop Hooper. Now there's always something music related for me. on these lists, like almost always. So this is no surprise. Now, this is a Christian band, a husband and wife

duo. And they started a project in 2022, as many of us did, where they would record one song a week from the Psalms. They would write and record a song for each Psalm. Now, the longest chapter of Psalms, chapter 119, it has several songs part of it because it's like such a long chapter. But they wanted to make every psalm singable as it was meant to be. Now, I don't talk about my faith a ton on the show. If you want to know why, there is a recent Instagram post where my daughter Annie is jumping off a curb says a few words about that. But I am a Christian and my faith is the most important thing to me. Listening to these songs, these Psalms, has been more impactful than I expected them to be. The presence of scripture in my thinking, it matters to me and adding it to my life in the

form of these really beautiful songs. It's just been really great. So that's the band, poor Bishop Hooper. Somebody made a playlist of every psalm since there's not really an album of all of them. So we'll put a link in the show notes for that playlist. And whether you're a Jesus person or not, there is a bonus link in there of my Sparkle Sounds playlist, which is a short little playlist that I really do not want you to shuffle you guys that just adds the best sparkle to any day. It has Harry Styles and Bill Withers and you cannot help but smile. when you listen to it, that link will be in the show notes too. And then finally, the number seven thing that is saving my life is night braid time.

What is a night braid? You might ask. A night braid is the braid that I put into Annie's hair every single night before she goes to bed. She watches her weird YouTube videos and then I comb her always just ridiculously tangly hair and then I put it into a braid so it's less tangly when she wakes up. And it's just the sweetest thing that I get to do every day. I sit up in her bunk bed with her.

I take my time. I get to be close to her. And we both miss it if it doesn't happen. It's like just as natural and regular as brushing teeth at night. Now the reason that I'm listing this is because of the realization of how much it saves my life. When Kaz and I went on the cruise, my mom stayed with my kids. and she said that night braid time was like one of her favorite things that she got to do.

And I totally understand why. I missed it when I was gone. Those like tender little moments with the people that we love that become so regular that we can forget about them. Those things need to be remembered. So this is your reminder to notice those things that probably do save your life that you just might not even notice anymore. So those are the. seven things that are saving my life right now. The Marlin app, Olive and June pressons, especially for traveling, the essential calendar, hiring my mom as my assistant, strawberry season,

music obviously, particularly the band, Poor Bishop Hooper, and Nightbraid time. Okay, so before we go, let's celebrate the lazy genius of the week. This week, it's a dude, you guys. It's Ryan Ine? Sorry if I'm mispronouncing your name, Ryan. It is kind of fun to have a dude, lazy genius of the week. Okay. I think this is the first time, actually. So Ryan, Ryan sent a recipe for lazy homemade mac and cheese. And I would be the worst person if I did not share it with you. Now, granted, I have not made this. But when you hear the ingredients, I just do not think you're going to be upset. So Ryan first writes this. I love homemade mac and cheese. Like really love it, but hate making it because it's such a long process.

but if you're like me follow this recipe and thank me later it's seriously a huge hit and my family begs me to bring it every time okay y'all you have a pen here we go like pause the episode go grab a pin in a 13 by nine baking pan or disposable foil pan mixed together the following ingredients 16 ounces of uncooked uncooked elbow macaroni 24 ounces of shredded cheese whatever cheeses you like for mac and cheese 16 ounces of heavy cream yep three cups of milk and a half a stick or four tablespoons of melted butter. You just stir it all together, either in a bowl or directly in the pan. I vote directly in the pan.

And then you bake it at 375 for an hour. You can add extra shredded cheese on top and boil it at the end too, I bet. I would also cover it. I don't know if Ryan said this or not. I think if I tried this, I would cover it first and then maybe take foil off for the last like 15 minutes. But then you let it sit for a few minutes, as you always should, with mac and cheese before serving. Ryan says, well, thank him. I think he's probably right. This recipe, it actually reminds me of Ina Gartens, mac and cheese that I made for Thanksgiving

last year. It was really similar, except you could let the pan of uncooked mac and cheese sit in the fridge overnight. I think that even helps the noodles, like soak up the liquid a little bit, and then you bake it. And it was the best mac and cheese I've ever had. My only thing I would probably add because I'm me is a little bit of salt. The only salt in this recipe is from the cheese and like frankly that's not going to cut it for me. I have I have a pillow with a word salt on it so I will probably add I will add more salt. But thank you for this definitely lazy recipe Ryan and congratulations on being the lazy genius of the week. All right now if you did not have a pen to write down this recipe or you lose the piece of paper you write it on or something, remember that is why

we have the latest lazy listens email. It is an email that goes out every other Friday and it has the most robust summary of episodes and even tips from the lazy geniuses of the week. So in the next one that goes out, you will have the list of the seven things, saving my life, plus Ryan's lazy mac and cheese recipe written out. It is a great email, super consumable, short. It's easy to know what you need and skip what you don't. I think you'll really like it. So sign up at the lazy genius collective.com slash listens to get on the list so you can have

Ryan's recipe and all the other good things that come out of the podcast. And thank you again to KFC and ACAST creative for making this episode possible. I loved getting to chat with my kids after school over chicken nuggets as part of my job this week. So fun. And thank you for listening. Until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra. I'll see you next week.

Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that. More dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life? because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You.

People think, okay, an A plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.