The Lazy Genius Podcast - Bonus: Summer and the Chuck Norris Effect

Episode Date: June 15, 2023

Today, I'm joined by my sister, Hannah, for our seasonal Lazy Sisters episode. You'll hear our list of how to improve your summer, aka how to bring Chuck Norris energy. It was an AI generated title that made us laugh, so here we are. The title is ridiculous; the list is not. Helpful Companion Links EltaMD Facial Sunscreen (Amazon) Unseen Sunscreen by Supergoop (Ulta) Bubble machine (Amazon) Sign up for the Latest Lazy Listens email. Grab a copy of my book The Lazy Genius Kitchen or The Lazy Genius Way! (Affiliate links) No transcript for this episode since it’s a casual conversation. Thanks for understanding! 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

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Can you hear me? I think so. What a journey. Okay, we're here. Welcome. What's my, how's my intro go? You're listening. Oh my God.

You're 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. The reason that I am so free-spirited today is because I am joined by my sister Hannah. It is a, it is an episode of the Lacey Sisters. entitled, what are we? Summer and the Chuck Norris effect. Get ready. Get ready. I looked up. Chuck Norris is always ready.

I knew we were going to talk about summer in some way because like we, we tend to enjoy seasonal banter. We do. Because we can always find something we hate about it, but also we're both very helpful people. So we have like things. Yeah. So I put the word summer into a title generator. Did you chat GPT that?

I did. Kind of. Maybe that's what I did. I've always, I never really, I still don't fully understand who, who Chad is. No, it's just, it's straight up AI. I mean, I know. Like, did you see the release about how we're all going to be, like it's a, it's a threat to actual humanity? I don't know why I brought this up.

I'm so sorry. No, Koss told me about the, he read one about how the, they, an AI program with like the military was supposed to like shoot drones. Oh yeah, the drone. But then it realized that the, the thing that was. keeping it from shooting down all the drones it wanted was the person. And so it went to in the simulation shop the person. And then when they were like, oh no, you can't do that. You can't shoot the people. Then it just destroyed the whole like communication tower. We're all going to

die. Yeah, no, legitimately. It's fine. I did use chat GPT to help me write a challenging email the other day though. And this is why we're all going to die because of people like me that still use it. And they're like, how do I say this nicer? I literally just copy and paste it an email. I was writing for work. and I said, how do I say this nicer? And honestly, the AI did it for me. Well, as we prepare to die, I mean, maybe you would want to be ready for summer too. We want to be ready for summer. Some of the titles that we could have chosen from were, congratulations.

Your summer is about to stop being relevant. That is the AI telling us we're all going to die. Ten warning signs of your summer demise. They are telling us we're going to die. Apply these five secret techniques to improve your summer. you're going to have fun and then you're going to die exactly they're gaslighting us now death summer and taxes okay and then one of them was summer in the check north chuck norse effect and i was like what is we just we just we go with it but we're going to ride with that because it feels like a good feels like

a good call uh the chuck north effect by the way is when apparently it originated with crypto because people were not into crypto and then chuck north was into crypto which is also i feel like it's in the same, it's in the same category as Chad. It's like, cannot be trusted. It cannot be trusted. I'm concerned. But the Chuck Norris effect is, yeah, when you put a celebrity with a product, people want the product more.

Oh, so everybody, that's just advertising. Right? That's just like, Jennifer Garner for Nutraginia. Right. Because you're going to want to buy it because she's so lovely. Yeah. I mean, she splashed mater on her face and I was like, I have to have this concert. Oh, we all have Capital One cards because of her.

Exactly. We actually have real content today. No, we really do. We really do. We have lists. We do. We have a list. So instead of, not instead of, the, our interpretation of summer and the Chuck Norris effect,

there's nothing to do with Chuck Norris or the Chuck Norris effect. Or crypto. Or crypto. But it is summer. And it is ways that you can improve your summer. Yes. Because, and these are, I have like, legitimate answers. I have legitimate answers too.

So we want to improve everyone's summer. because you and I, I feel like we're a little bit of a fraud because we have been a big anti-summer people for so long. Oh, such anti-summer people. And now I don't feel like we are anymore. No, we're not. I kind of like it. My summer ideas are so inspirational.

I never thought I would be inspired during the summer. And all of a sudden, I'm inspired. It's true. It just took a pool membership. It did. It just took a pool membership. I mean, I feel like I still. I still remember the moment.

It was like a few weeks in where we both got memberships at this pool. The same year. The same year. Same pool. We like hang out with each other sometimes. We hang out with other people sometimes. We have this just like, it's just like home.

It just feels like home. Why did I want to say it's like we're all swimming in one big placenta? That actually tracks. And it's gross, but also tracks. It's like we're all just together. We're all just together. Symbiotic. And we did just look at each other where we were like,

Are we, are we, are we pool people now? What is happening? We are pool people. So anyway, all that to say, I do feel like I want to be honest with the people. This is not like, hi, and pro bear summer, because summer sucks. I mean, there are parts of it that are challenging. Absolutely. And also, I'm kind of excited.

Yeah, 100%. Maybe we can help other people be excited. Yeah. Because of this. For sure. I have no idea what's on your list. I don't know what's on your list. I mean, this is a whole, this is a whole vibe.

Yeah. So I'm going to begin with what I love to do with the family on the evening after the last day of school, which for us is in three days. It will have happened when this podcast episode releases. And we go to dinner. Where do you go to dinner? Well, last year we went to the burger spot. We have to go somewhere with fries because none of the children like the same thing. Yes.

But we go to burger spot. The fries are the great equalizer. They are. And then we go to Menchies. But we talk about like, you know, why did you like it on your school year? But then we make our summer bucket list where everybody figures out what it is like one to two things that they really want to have happen and experience or whatever over the summer.

And because there's five of us, like even if everybody says two things, that's 10 things. that's a lot of things. It is. But it helps us know, let's prioritize this. Ben really wants to go to the zoo. Doggone it, we're going to the zoo. Like, that's what we're going to do. So I love that because it's, you know,

it's kind of in my wheelhouse because it's like what matters to everybody. And then I get to like have my, like, activity queue. You know, the bucket list is like an activity queue. And then I get to put it on a calendar. It's like three of my favorite things. It really is. Honestly, there's your summer. That's all I need.

That's all you need. That's all I need. Are you warm in here? I sure am. I would absolutely love it if we could turn the air down. So you can improve your summer with a summer bucket list, which is pretty basic, but also you think that the basic things are so basic you shouldn't do them. And I disagree. Yes. They're there for a reason. Exactly. Okay. What's one of your things? So first thing, pool dinner, PJ night. Pull dinner, PJ night. Pull dinner, PJ night. So the kids are nine, five, and four currently. And last year we couldn't really do this because the youngest would turn into a bit of a pumpkin. He's a very cute pumpkin.

He's so cute. But even the cutest ones, they go dark. They can turn Jacqueline and real fast. Yeah. So the pool dinner, PJ, we're just doing this like twice a week where we have dinner at the pool and then take showers there. and already bring the PJs. And then they just go home and they go to bed. And then we're done with the absolute worst part of the day.

It is the worst part of the day. We did it last night. And while it was a little bit terrible at times, it honestly was incredibly hopeful. Well, and it'll only get better. It'll only get better because they're going to be used to it. They're going to get used to it. They were all like kind of freaked out about like, but the shower, what if people have stepped in here? And like, my children are not super resilient. Neither are mine.

We did not raise resilient children. Any time that we can like stretch their resiliency by taking a shower in a public restroom, we're going to try to do things like that, you know? So that's something I'm really looking forward to. I like that. Is pool dinner, PJ night. Yeah, I like that. I think that you can extrapolate from that for those who are like not going to a pool.

I mean, y'all are smart that are people listening are very smart. But you can think like, oh, the places that we do the hard things are at home generally, like these routines, is there a scenario where part of that or all of that can actually be done somewhere else? Yeah. It can be done off-site so that when you get home, you're just home. You're just home. I mean, there are ways that that can be a thing.

To me, it kind of is reminiscent of the popsicle bath. We, what? You've never heard of the popsicle bath? I've never heard of the popsicle bath. Oh my gosh, I love a popsicle bath. You eat a popsicle and then you can just get clean because you're there. Yeah. What a great idea.

You're eating a popsicle. And so the kids like want to take a bath because, oh, we're going to have a popsicle bath. But this can be like not even to get clean. Like put your bathing suits on. Get in the tub. Uh-huh. Get some regulation. Sure.

And get some sugar. Right. Regulation sugar is all we all. And enjoy your popsicle bath. And then if you get all sticky, then we just wipe your face off with some water and then you're done. Right. Exactly. That you can combine things.

You can combine things. That you can't combine in other seasons. Summer is the season of combining weird things. Exactly. And it's all acceptable and lovely. Exactly. It's like you can put everything on the grill. Yeah, I love that.

I love that. One of the things that I would also like to encourage people to do, to think about on purpose. And this is whether you have kids, whether you work full time, whether you work from home, whether you, like, it doesn't matter. But it is, well, it is the lazy genius principle of scheduling rest. But I think in summertime, at first I was going to say time alone, plan time alone. But for some people, being alone is not restful. Or not possible. Or not possible, exactly.

And so that's not really a fair descriptor of what is important, I think. But because of that rudderless feeling that a lot of us experience in the summer, and for sure if you do have kids at home, and more than likely they are around a lot, or like if you, if your kids, I mean, I even think about people whose kids have graduated, have left the house, and they come home for the summer, and all of a sudden there are people everywhere, like what just happened, it's really important to think intentionally about how you're going to rest for yourself. For me, it's being alone. I didn't to be alone. But it's also not like, how am I going to do that this summer? No, that's too big. It's more about how am I going to do that

today. Maybe if you're if you do look ahead at your week and you put a couple anchors in place, you know, that's a question you can ask on your Sunday evening if that's when you're looking at your week. Totally. Where can I schedule rest this week for me? I mean, and you can also think about the people in your, in your, in your crew, you know, if they need rest and you're sort of like, in some ways responsible for helping them find it. But I feel like that has to be a regular question in your rhythm because otherwise you're going to have a lot of fun, but then you're going to get two to three weeks into summer and you're going to want to burn everything down

because you have not been resting. You've been having fun, but fun is not the same as rest. Correct. So schedule rest on purpose. That is a very important way to improve your summer. Interestingly enough, my next thing is exactly that. Look at that. Double up. Eating lunch outside.

Oh, eating lunch outside. So I Not exactly that No But it is It is how I Yes Get rest for myself

So I work full time From home And when all the kids are home It's very challenging To feel like I'm getting a mental break From being needed Because at work I'm being needed When I'm with the kids I'm being needed

And that's something that I know that I need a little bit of a break from, a little bit of a respite. And so what I have started doing instead of having lunch with the kids because I'm like, well, I should because I work from home. And this is such a gift and like all the things. And that's true. But I just go outside. Yeah. I just go outside. And I listen to my audio book or I watch TikToks and I just eat my lunch outside.

and then I have like 30 minutes of doing that and then maybe I'll go inside for that last 15 and hang out with the kids or I'll just stay outside. Sure. And it has been absolutely lovely. The day it rains, I usually have bad days. Which is because you love rainy days.

I love rainy days. That's telling, that's telling right there. I love rainy days. That you're like sad that it's raining because you can eat your lunch outside. Yeah, because it's become, it is something that I absolutely love. And I really love, I've discovered that I really love the feeling of just having super hot sun just on me, but not for super long. Sure.

Just a little bit. And then I can go inside and then I feel like I just got toasted by the sun. Mm-hmm. So relaxing. It's so relaxing. I love that. It's so good. Eating lunch outside.

That's the thing that I do sometimes too. Although now I just eat lunch while I watch a show or read. because it's already, it's already too hot for me. In the shade, it's already too hot. I don't like to get toasted on the inside. It makes me sweat. I sat outside today and worked a little bit this morning before it even got hot. And then I had a Zoom call.

I got on my Zoom call and I could see the color of my skin progressively getting redder and redder simply because my internal temperature was like, Hey, we don't do that here. That was too hot. We're going to warn you now and we're going to give you a Rudolph nose and a grease red face because you weren't listening. You weren't listening. Yeah.

We're not dewy. Like, there's no glow. Yeah. It is, is melt. There's only melt. I lean into my sweaty glow for sure. We'll be right back. It's something else here now.

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I think that leaning hard into snacks, if that feels resonant to you is really good because summer meals are feel extra challenging. Yes. They, I don't think they're as, I don't want to generalize this, but I found summer meals far less challenging when I did not have children who refused vegetables. Because I would just throw vegetables on the grill. Yeah. It was so delicious.

It was so great. It is a delight to eat in the summer when you're an adult person. Yes. But if you have children who also are eating, they're not interested in slabs of grilled zucchini and onion. No. I'm just like, I'll eat that with non and satsiki for days. They don't care.

So summer, feeding a family, especially in the summer, does feel a little extra challenging. It does. So because of that, there are lots of ways to kind of not get around that, but there are a lot of ways to embrace the challenge and make it work for you in the season of the summer. But one of the things that I like naming is that, like, we, just snack more. And that does mean that I need to have like snacks around and I need to figure out how to bring those snacks into the lives of the children without those snacks being managed too much

without it, you know, needing a lot for me. Lean into the snacking for this season. Tonight when I was making myself dinner, Miles goes, mom, mom, I need help. And I go into the laundry room and he's, sitting on top of our washing machine with his little baby dinosaur left. This is the four-year-old, by the way. Yeah, he's got like his little dinosaur PJs on. And he has the entire Tupperware container of Old Bay Season Goldfish.

Oh, ooh. Really? Yeah. Apparently they're delicious. Oh, okay. I trust somebody. Continue. And he's like, I got a snack.

He's like, I still hungry. I still hungry after my dinner. And I was like, okay, dude, can you just ask me for it next time instead of climbing on top of the washing machine? Sure. But yeah, no, we're leaning into the snacks heavily, clearly. I do think naming that when you make a decision like snack life, summer snack life, we're leaning into it and it's going to be fine. You accept that there are going to be some challenges to that. You need to release, I need to release a little bit of the frustration about like if kids are not as hungry at dinner.

I mean, it's not like I'm going to let them run feral and just like eat with. whatever they want whenever they want. Like I, we're trying, you know, we continue to try to teach like listening to your body and all the things. But also understanding that when you do things that are different for a season, there is a transition time going into the next one. So just be aware of that. You know, like you can just know this is not forever.

This is only for right now. You're going to have to sort of get back into the hang of things. But we do that with all kinds of transitions all the time. Exactly. So just to sort of like. And it builds resiliency. Which both of our children desperately need. Okay. What's something else you got?

One thing that I really would like to do this summer is have intentional friend hangs that don't surround going out. Okay. Like, come over. Yeah. Sit outside with me. Come overs. You know, with my little baby Tiki torch. Yes.

And let's just hang out for 30 minutes or an hour. I feel like summer is the perfect time to do that because I feel like people naturally are a little bit more flexible with their schedules and stuff. And then also, I just feel like I haven't been able to spend time with friends as much as I would like to because even though I've been working full time for a year, it's still a bit of a transition. And I feel like I still don't have much of a life like outside of work and then three sweet baby children. But I think sometimes there's like pressure to, okay, we're going to go out. we're going to do. Right. And like, I don't know, just this idea of like, just come over.

Just come over. Yeah. For a glass of ice team. Right. And that's the thing. The Nestor has taught us to think about seasonal supplies. And if part of your season is you want to be a come over friend, think about like, I need ice tea.

I need ice tea. I need a big bin of a lemonade mix. You know, like whatever it is. Like you can think about how you want to, the tiki torch, you know, like, oh, make sure my tiki torch is out there. Yep. Or I'm going to wipe down the chairs or something so that we can, you know, because they've been like for us, you don't want to sit in our chairs.

No, I really don't. I almost did actually tonight. And then I decided not to. Yeah, it's not pleasant. You need to maybe sand those and throw a coat of rostoleum. Yeah, they're a little rough. They're a bit of a hazard. It's fine.

So I love that. Come over time. Yeah, just having some come over time. come over time. I love it. I love it. One of the things that I have never done before in a summer, but I would like to I think this would improve my summer. Okay. And I think that it would

others, if they choose to, and that is kind of a self-maintenance day, meaning the like just getting into a rhythm of sure the hair things, but also like

painting the nails and maybe doing like, you know, like our skin, our poor face skin out in the sun so much. Yeah. Do your mask. It's like, we just need a little. Summer requires more maintenance. It really does. And so to kind of just put it, put it in a rhythm somewhere where it's like, you know what,

we're usually home on this night or on this morning or whatever. And I'm going to claim that is my self-maintenance day. Exactly. And I feel like I would be, I would be grateful. I will be grateful to myself for prioritizing. such a thing as summer continues. I love that. That's that one.

So my, I'm going to combine the next two because they're kind of quick. And they're actually along the same lines as yours a little bit. I was at the lake a couple weekends ago and someone had unseen sunscreen. You got unseen sunscreen. And I tried it. And I put it on my face. And I was like, this felt like Carmex. It does feel like Carmex.

But in the best way. Yes, it's Carmex for your face. And it didn't burn my eyes. Nope. and I absolutely loved it. I'm so glad. And I've used like the glow screen before, but I've never tried the unseen.

Yeah, the glow is different than the unseen. And the glow is great, but sometimes I'm like, because in the summer I don't usually wear makeup because I'm usually reapplying sunscreen. So I'm like, it's a waste. And so I just don't do it. Right.

But this was magical. And I think what I'm going to do is get a bottle of it. You should get a bottle of it. I think I'm going to get a bottle of it. Yeah, that's great. Because it was such a delightful thing. And I realized that that day, I felt so calm. Oh, look at that.

I don't know. There was something about it. I didn't realize how much stress reapplying sunscreen was causing to me when I'm doing like water activities. Sure. I think it's because I have such heightened stress with water activities. That's fair. It is, it has been.

And so I'm like, you know what? If you're going to be out in the water, you need to have some sunscreen. We need a pleasant sunscreen experience. That doesn't make your eyes burn. Absolutely. And I found it. And I'm thrilled. It is.

the best, in my opinion, it's the best. I did get a spray face sunscreen to try this summer. Oh, nice. Because sometimes if I just want to go faster, and I don't want to look necessarily, and I'm just like, get out of here. So we'll see. It's from a Korean skincare brand. I don't remember the name of it. If it's good, it'll show up in an episode or a newsletter sometime. But, uh, LTA MD in the morning. And I swear, at that unseen throughout, I mean, just all the time.

Like it's so. Yeah, I think I'm going to have to get a bottle of it. It's really great. Along the same lines. I have an eye doctor appointment. You do? What's wrong in your eyes? Well, I can't see very well. And so I'm going to, I think I'm going to try to get contacts again. Are you really?

Yes. Because one of the things that really. Actually, I feel like that would, people probably intuit it that. Yes. But I am one of those people that wears glasses all the time. And your glasses are very, like, it's a very much so a part of me. It's a part of your style. It is your face pants.

It feels strange to me. It does. But I'm excited for you. So I was able to try the daily contacts and they didn't hurt my eyes. And I was like, oh, well, maybe I could talk to my eye doctor about this. So I'm seeing my eye doctor next week. What is the? And I'm going to see if I can do that because in the summertime, my glasses always slipped all the way down to my nose because I'm so sweaty.

Yes, got it. And if I could just have contacts where I don't have to do that and then I could buy actual, like, high quality. quality sunglasses. When I say high quality, I mean, like, I could get some at Target. Like, the ones that I have right now are from the gas station. So I could, like, level it up and get, you know, new day sunglasses or something. And then you also don't have to pay for prescription sunglasses like I have. Exactly.

And I have prescription sunglasses, but every year, they get ruined by being in the pool. So I want some sunglasses that I'm not afraid to wear in the pool. Yeah. And I just think that's going to make my summer better. I think that's a great idea. And what's great about that is, again, this is the key about seasonal decisions. It is not forever. It is not forever.

And you could be like, you know what, I'm going to wear day at least during the summer. Or on days that you know you're going to the pool. Like, it's not that you're not committed for the rest of your actual life to wear contacts. It's just helpful. It's a helpful option for this season. Exactly. And then you can just like do whatever. It's like some days I may want to see my face and I may just want to block off the sun.

Right. And those are the days that I'm very excited. I love it. I love that so much. I want to also supply my children and my life. Actually, not just my children. This is for all people. Silly supplies.

I have a teenager. I have an almost teenager who also is like an old, you know, he's my 73-year-old poet in his heart. And Annie who is very good at being silly, but she's also very good at trying to be 18. Yes. And I want to make sure that summer has as much silliness as I can provide. And so another seasonal supply are silly supplies.

So things like silly string bubbles, like bouncy balls, just sort of disposable. They're not, we don't have to be fragile with these things, that things that we can put in a bucket on the front porch or by the back door or whatever where it's just like, okay, grab a silly, we're going to get a silly thing. Like, they can just get the silly thing. Whenever we have, like, a silly string around, they all fight over it, you know?

I mean, we didn't have to clean it up out of the grass so it doesn't hurt the birds because I love my birds. Of course. But I think, I always think about Ingrid Fetell Lee's book, Joyful. Yes. And thinking about the, like, the surprise and the rainbow colors and, like, all of these different, like things that are translucent,

like a lot of those things that are scientifically measured to produce joy in us are summer things. Yes. There are a lot of summer things that automatically bring joy. Yep. So to prioritize those, yeah, I think I want to have silly supplies around to improve the summer. You know, our, we have some, we live in a neighborhood with a lot of older folks and they have their regular walks, you know, every single day, regular roots.

And it's so sweet because whenever we're outside in the summertime, every summer at the beginning of the summer, we buy a new bubble machine. Right. That's like our tradition. Yeah. Bubble machines are the best. And the reason why we have to buy new one every summer is because by the end of the summer it's dead because it has used up its $10 of life over and over and over again.

but whenever people walk by one of my favorite elderly neighbors always walks by and he throws up a hand and waves and he goes bubble house is back bubble house bubble house that is so dear

because we have it we always have in the front yard and so it's so precious because when the wind blows it blows it into the street and so people get to like walk through bubbles yeah there's a store downtown it's so delightful Like there's something about bubbles that's just so magical. It's so magical.

Well, they cover like three of the ten joyful criteria, which is why that, you know, Just Be downtown, this little gift boutique store, they've got a bubble machine in the wall that literally blows bubbles onto the street. It's like... It's so precious. It does not matter who you are.

If you walk through bubbles and you do not... Well, actually, it does matter you are. If you walk through bubbles and you do not smile. It should change. your brain chemistry. It actually should. It should. I love that.

I love that. Yeah. One thing that I would really like to do this summer is I would like to reset my kitchen. I just had a heart pitter pattern. I'm sure you did. I love that sentence. I would love to reset my kitchen. And I would love to because, you know, normally like during the school year, you kind of have to reset things because like lunchbox.

need to be cleaned and like, you know, all the things, blah, blah, blah. But I feel like in the summer, you kind of lose some of that structure because it's a lot of snacking. It's a lot of, you know, like all the things. It's more plastic dishes because you're going outside. It's like less fragile things. Exactly. It's just kind of a different vibe in the kitchen in the summer.

Yeah. But I want to maintain that nightly routine of kitchen reset. Gotcha. And one thing that I've started doing since it got warmer is opening up my kitchen window. I have a kitchen window above my sink. And I'm like listening to the crickets and I'm just sort of like resetting my kitchen. And it's just a light a candle and it's just a really lovely thing. And it's it's brought some structure into my evenings, which is really helpful.

The other thing that I've been doing is doing constant laundry instead of, you know, on Saturdays. We do all of our laundry because in the summertime, I feel like we have more laundry. Yeah. And because there's so much more, I get really overwhelmed if I'm like doing everybody's laundry all at the same time. And so I've been doing like one load a day. And it also makes things easier to like when we got home from the pool tonight. I just threw all the towels in the washing machine. Right.

And it's like waiting for a day. Exactly. And then I'm like, okay, great. All the pool towels will be ready to go when we go back on Thursday. Like it's just nice to have that done. it's really important to name that different things create peace and unrest and or unrest in different brains. Exactly. Because for some people listening, they're like, oh, doing a load of laundry every day would break me.

And so that's why if you hear ideas or hacks or tips or whatever without sort of an understanding, not just of what matters to you because that obviously matters, but like how. you operate. Like, don't just assume that because, you know, because I, I love a laundry day. I don't even do laundry anymore, though. Cause does the laundry. So like, it doesn't matter how we do laundry because he's doing it. He gets to decide. Just because, you know, I would do it one way. It doesn't really matter anymore. The reason why I still do the laundry is because putting, like actually running the washing machine is one of my favorite things to do. And I refuse to give it up. Okay. I love it so much. I don't know what it is about it. But I really love the.

act of like pouring the detergent and smelling it and like oh it's just i don't know i love it the folding sure gets me every time if i fold warm laundry i am transported to a fairy tale land oh my gosh and that is my hack as soon as the dryer goes off to do it i just immediately start folding the warm laundry and i leave it in the dryer and then i just like put it on top of like the pantry shelves and it's the old bagel fish exactly and i think that's why constant laundry works for me. Because I only have one load. I only have one load.

I don't have to worry about doing it again. It's like, I just completed something and this was fun and I feel so adult. That's really good. We'll be right back. I was hoping to have a little bit more specificity too, but I don't yet. But that is simply to have my summer reading stack kind of ready to go for myself. But I think also for the kids, because especially for the older. or two for the boys, there is a lot

of resistance to extracurricular reading right now. Really just in spirit. Yeah. Like it's just in like we as a 13 year old one must take the position that reading is boring. Correct. Even though I gave him the hunger games.

And three days later he asked for catching fire. But it was like, and I said, who's your favorite character? He said, I'm not really paying attention. That was his answer. Of course he's not. Of course he's not. I said if you're not, paying attention that I want a book report. And he goes, Heymich. It's like, okay, great.

Because he's kind of weird. Hamish is kind of weird. So anyway, all that to say, having books, I really have tried to have books around for the boys, for Sam especially. But if I choose them, even if I don't even really say anything, if I have books available to him

that came from my hand to his shelf, he's resistant to them. And so I noticed in my one line of day journal that last year, the first Monday after school, the first Monday of summer, because Khaas still works for like the first two weeks after school. He's a school counselor for those listening who do not know. So he's home for like four to six weeks in the summertime, but not for the first couple of weeks after school is out. The first Monday, we went to McKays. We went to the youth bookstore and we went to the library.

And we also got ice cream. But it was like, let's get our reading. you all let's go find some books you want books go get them like i'm kind of like we'll get we'll get whatever you want to get a book around let's get it yeah and then i also want to do the same for me because you know you have so kindly given me my own reframe that i'm not a book order i'm a book collector exactly and i'm absolutely a book collector my collection has grown to a level that it is becoming a smidgen overwhelming. And so I want to go through my shelves and pull out my summer stack so that I have like a smaller cue to pull from. Yes. When it's time to when it's time to read. So that's going to be

one of the, but I think that's the thing that 100% can improve your summer. Yes. Is to just like big broad categories like reading and memories and dinner. They're too big. They're too big. So the smaller you can make them, the better for your season. I love it. My last one is I would like to let my kids get bored the summer. I realize that I feel like in summer the goal is let's keep the activities up. We don't want to let the kids get bored because then they get annoyed and then it's all downhill from there. Right. But I'm kind of seeing.

that I feel like, you know, as we discussed previously, my kids are not very resilient. And boredom helps with resiliency. Right. And also it helps them be creative. And so I would like to be increase my patience. Mm-hmm. That's the thing.

Because that's the thing. Because listen, they're going to hate being bored. They're going to hate being bored. They're going to hate it. They're going to hate it. But I really feel like, even if it's just you have to be bored for, you know, this amount of time, you're not going to have screens.

You're not going to go play with someone. You're not going to go to the pool. Like, you have to learn how to just kind of exist as a human being. Right. Like Ben's whole life is boredom and he loves it. He's like super into it. He doesn't have a problem. But Sam and Annie hate being bored and they will complain about it.

And I will say, I will look them in the face with a. smile, biggest I can make, and I will say, I love you so much, I don't care. You're being bored is not my problem. You can figure this out. I believe in you. I believe in you. Yeah.

And then I go and do what I'm doing. Yeah. But you are 100% right. Again, that could be terrible parenting. I don't know. Well, I hope it's not because I do the same thing. Okay, great. I tell them, I say, I love you so much, but you can do hard things.

Yeah. And honestly, this is not hard. That feels nicer than I don't care. I'm like, you can do hard things. But then if I'm feeling really sassy, I'm like, and this is not hard. Right. This is also, yeah. Although I do remember someone saying this was about like adolescence.

You know, like when kids are teenagers, for many teenagers when they are like, this is the worst day of my life. It is. For a lot of them it is. It really is. Because they haven't really experienced terrible things yet. Exactly. And so it's trying to, you know, I try to have a lot of patience for like the, regulation of their own like this is the worst and you're like guy man you've not lived much but

yeah i'm glad this is the worst thing if someone told me if someone told me tomorrow Hannah you can't do anything except stare at a wall or you could read sure i would be like thank you so much thank you so much that would be the greatest gift ever yes i mean they they have no idea what we're offering them no they're offering them they really don't i think we offered a lot of uh summer inspiration I sure hope so. With big Chuck Norris energy. I hope so. I feel like we brought our biggest Walker, Texas, Ranger vibes as best as we possibly could to this conversation.

Can we close this episode with a story? Do you recall? So on my first day of seventh grade at a new middle school. Yes. I had been homeschooled previously. Yes, you had. I've always been like this. but less fun.

So as a seventh grader, it's a struggle. Yes. I go into my home room. I sit next to Katie polling, who was wearing a t-shirt with a bunch of wolf heads on it with cuffed black denim shorts

and she was the coolest person ever. She was blonde. I was like, I've hit the lottery. She was late and she sat next to me because it was empty because of course it was empty because no one wanted to sit next to the weird homeschool girl that had just got.

to school. Yes. Well, we were told by our homeroom teacher to pair up and we were going to interview each other and then do like reports on each other so we could get to know each other in home room. Yeah. So Katie and I were partners because we were next to each other. And one of the questions was what is your favorite TV show? I gave her my answer with much enthusiasm. We walked to the front of the room. She goes, this is Kendra. This is her first year here. Her favorite food is cookies and cream ice cream.

And her favorite TV show is Walker, Texas Ranger. I thought I'd done it. Yeah. I thought I was like, I'm in. This is my end. Yeah, this is your end. They have no idea how sophisticated and cool I am. I was incorrect.

Yeah. Yeah. Like so aggressively correct. I will say, though, Katie and I stayed friends along with Whitney and I went to a sleepover at Whitney's house with Katie

and I made them watch an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger, and they asked to watch a second one. They loved it. There you go. So Chuck Norris for the win. Chuck Norris for the win. But it was one of the most humiliating moments

of my middle school. I do remember this. I do remember this story. and it will never get old. It's so sad. Thank you for bringing your summer Chuck Norris energy to the episode today. Absolutely.

Thank you for having me. It's always lovely having you. And how do I close the show? Thank you for listening. I was about to do the podcast closing. If you have thoughts and opinions about our thoughts and opinions, let us know Jamie.com. That's incorrect.

That is plagiarism. I'm so glad to. you listened until next time. Be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I am Kendra, not Knox and Jamie. She is Hannah and we'll see you next time. 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.