July 1, 2025 • 34 mins
In today’s episode, Laura and Sarah share their traditional mid-year review! They revisit 2025 goals in several categories, including personal, career, relationships, and household, and reflect on their chosen words of the year.
In the Q&A, a listener asks for tips about when to fit in more summer reading.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
and speaker.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer,
and course creator. We are two working parents who love
our careers and our families.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
how real women manage work, family, and time for fun.
From figuring out childcare to mapping out long.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Term career goals.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
We want you to get the most out of life.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
This episode is airing at the very beginning of July
of twenty twenty five, July first.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
In fact, we.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Are going to be doing our annual mid year goal
check in. So it turns out that July first is
not the actual midpoint of the year, Sarah, if there
are three hundred sixty five days.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
The middle day is apparently July second. Makes sense that
it's a little bit into that July due to the
shorter months of February, April, and June.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yes, yes, so that is what it is.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
But we were still going to do the midyear checking
and as it turned out, so we record an annual
goal episode that tends to air at the very end
of December every year, but we tend to record it
sort of earlier in December because we're trying to get
ahead of the holidays, both for our production team and
because we're often gone and so we can't record too
(01:33):
close to the event itself. But that means that we
actually were recording this in early June. We are, in
fact six months from when we recorded our goal episode,
even if it's not six months into the year when
we were recording it.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, that's fair. I mean a lot of times we
set up our goals a little bit before kind of
start day, so I feel like this is appropriate.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, yeah, I know, so November and December. I think
of his resolutions pre season where you can try them
out and sort of think about what your your goals
are for the upcoming year. And why do we do this, Sarah,
Why are we checking in midway through the year.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, I mean, it's such a common challenge that people
will be really good about making goals for the year.
It's just sort of part of the cultural zeitgeist at
this point, so they just kind of do it. But
then if you don't actually look at those goals a
year is a really long time and you are going
to lose momentum or even forget what you are aiming for.
(02:29):
Maybe you have a lot of energy go towards things
and from July through January through March, but you know
you want to take advantage of the rest of the
year as well. So I really recommend people look at
their annual goals list every single season. I even do
that like formally with a group and my little planning
by season group. But Laura does not think we need
to have five seasonal goals episodes on the show, which
(02:50):
is fair. So we do a midyear check in, and
I would say this is the bare minimum in terms
of formal check in with your annual goals. If you're
not going to do it every season, at least schedule
a midpoint review.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Well, we do three episodes that our goal related every year,
because we do our goal setting episode, our midyear check in,
and then we do our year in review where we
look at how things went with our goals in mind.
So three out of fifty two episodes is not a
small percentage of goal related content, but yes, that's probably
(03:25):
as high as I think we could go to keep people.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Listening to us.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
So we both listened to our annual Goals episode, you know,
heard past Laura and past Sarah talking about things we
talked about, our year, our word of the year. Sarah,
how is that finite thing going?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
So I entered twenty twenty five kind of like obsessed
with mortality because I had read Jodi Wellmans You Only
Die Once, and I had read Oliver Berkman's second book,
and I was just really into that concept. And I
chose finite for my word of the year, which ended
up being like, you know, if you're gonna end up
in the cardiac, I see you a few months later.
Maybe he was a little too much, but at the
(04:11):
same time, this word is still very meaningful to me,
and I still feel it was very appropriate. Maybe a
little morbid, but like you know, if you're going to
have an event like that, it really does make you
look at the preciousness of the time up ahead, maybe
even more grateful for that time and aware that it's finite.
So I think it was just a coincidence. I don't
(04:31):
think it led me to my event in the March
hours of a Goal episode because I'm just I don't
think of things that way. But yeah, I guess, I
guess I'd say it worked out.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
What about you, You're still thinking about it? You're still
thinking about life in terms of its finitude? Yeah, no,
I well, I my word was influence, not to be
like an influencer on Instagram. I will not be floating
around in little nap dresses with sort of hazy photography
with my children and matching outfits behind me. But I
(05:08):
do want to think about ways to use whatever audience
I have platform. I have to try to change things
to elevate other people, to expand the scope, as it were.
So I've been pondering it.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I think it's kind of a daily thing. I'm not
sure if there's any one particular thing I've done that
would make that obvious. But I do have the word
in mind.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I think all of your soapbox rants are in line
with this goal.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I say, well, hopefully, I mean influence versus hitting people
over the head with stuff. I maybe there's more subtlety
to the influence, but we'll see. We'll see anyways, So,
still thinking about that. So, Sarah, we started with kind
of personal goals in the episode, and you certainly had
some fitness ones.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
How's that going?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yes, So I collected some quotes from our notes for
the show, which I will share. I wanted to strength
train one hundred times, and then I wanted to qualify
for the Boston Marathon with a safe number, meaning like
enough buffer that I could run the race. And then
I also wanted to, assuming that I had this safe
buffer done, to do some five K specific training blocks. Well,
(06:20):
so for listeners who have are just catching up, I
went into VTech after a half marathon in March, and
I have since been diagnosed with something called rhythmogenic riteventricular
cardiomopathy and running is out forever and that's for me,
and that's okay. I've spent a lot of time getting
used to that and have come to a place of peace.
But obviously it means just from a goal standpoint, those
(06:42):
are off the list, but I mean in a very
peaceful way because I have no like, I can't self
flagulate myself over something that I just can't do. So
if I was going to have them removed, I guess
in a way, this is like a good way for
that to happen. Strength training I get an a plus
because strength training was okay and so I've been doing
that very regularly, kind of like how I used to
(07:05):
do it when I didn't run at all, and it's
been really nice. I've been mostly using the Peloton Strength app.
I use, like the Hardcore on the Floor calendar that's
available for free on Facebook or you can actually go
to their website, and I use that to do two
lower body workouts and two upper body workouts a week.
And so I'm definitely going to surpass one hundred. I
(07:27):
don't know if I already have, but like I stop
counting because one hundred percent, I will be over that number.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, you also wanted to update your wardrobe.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah, so number two was that I wanted to get
a couple pairs of jeens, some tops that were not
T shirts, I get a professional speaking outfit, and generally
invest more in clothing that I did in twenty twenty four.
And yeah, I feel like I've actually done pretty well
with this. I've gotten some new tops, some new genes,
even some new scrubs. I'm still on the hunt for
some specific things, and I have not gotten a speaking
(07:58):
outfit yet a new one, but I really want to,
so I will work on that. And I feel very
much on track for this goal. Okay, reading, My reading
habit goal was I wanted to read for ten minutes
of nonfiction and ten minutes fiction daily. Mostly I meet
this goal. I haven't like tracked it. I'm not a streaker.
(08:18):
I don't love to track stuff like this long term.
But honestly, most days, I well almost every day, I
do the nonfiction, and I would say like eighty percent
of the time I read at least a little bit
of fiction, sometimes way more than ten minutes. And interestingly,
I seem to just gravitate towards reading about fifty books
a year, Like you know, I'll have periods where there
(08:39):
are more certain months and certain months where there's less,
but that just seems to be where I am. And
we're recording this in early June, and I'm writ at
twenty books, so like exactly on track for my normal pattern.
So I think that's fascinating and I'm happy with that.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, but you are tracking your media right in general.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yes, every day I write in my plant. I just
have a daily layout that works for me really well.
And I've gotten into the habit of writing now. In
the music I listened to the podcast episodes, the TV
shows the movies, the books, and it's actually become very
like second nature, I think, probably the way Laura treks time.
And I love it because it does make me more
conscious of my consumption, and I don't know, it works
(09:21):
really well for me, so check.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Yeah, And I did want to do one run per
week with music only. Obviously I'm not running, but I
do probably a commute per week with music only, so
I'll call that halfway win.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Halfway win, all right, Well, and the running is what
it is, so that's a yeah. No, it's funny you
were saying that, I mean, because it would be different
if you were like, you set time goals and then
you were just like not able to achieve them.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Yeah, I don't feel like doing it, yes, yeah, or.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
You're just slowing for reasons that you couldn't figure out,
and that would be frustrating.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
But it's not that.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
It's that it's completely off the table. So that's a
sometimes that clearly is easier. It's easier, it's easier in
some way. And also the interesting point about things becoming
second nature so you don't even set them as goals.
I mean, so time tracking. I celebrated ten years of
time tracking this April. But I haven't set that as
a goal even in years, even though I continue to
(10:15):
do it.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
It's just that it's something that happens.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
So We're going to take a quick ad break and
then I'll be back with some of my personal goals
for the year. Well, we are back with our annual
as it were, midyear goal check in. Sarah has been
(10:42):
sharing how she did on her personal goals. I had
sort of I think slightly fewer, but one of them,
I did decide to listen to all the works of Beethoven,
working through a calendar that's called Complete Beethoven Online. Somebody
did this a few years ago in twenty twenty for
the two.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his birth.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
They chose the selection to listen to every day, and
in fact chose linked to the particular performance that you
are supposed to listen to as an example of this
particular work of Beethoven. So I've been faithfully moving through that.
I am halfway through the year. As we are halfway
through the year now, I've really been enjoying it. I
(11:23):
didn't think I was going to like it as much
as Bach and I probably don't. But on the other hand,
Beethoven's got a lot of really good work too, and
it's been fun to listen to it because I'm also
getting the commentary. I think I'm learning a little bit
more about him and his life and gosh, even like
his business model, like how was he making money? Like
(11:44):
how did a nineteenth century composer support himself? And there
are various ways you would do that. I mean, you
would write music for balls and then you would sell
the sheet music later, and this is how you would
make your living as an influencer. So far in that
(12:05):
time period is.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
A whole lot.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Like is it in chronological order?
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah, it is an in chronological order, more or less
because some stuff we don't know right, like he didn't
date exactly when he or he was working on things simultaneously.
But it's more or less. I also decided to read
Anna Karnina. I did decide to go for that, and
I am currently six hundred pages into the nine hundred
(12:30):
page book.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
I read a chapter a day.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
It is only about two hundred and seventy chapters, so
I think I will end this summer at some point.
At the end of the summer, I decided to eat
produce for breakfast, and I have stuck with that every
day except for two days. I know exactly which two
days I did not do this, and both were when
I was traveling, so I was less in control of breakfast.
So I haven't entirely figured out how to solve that problem,
(12:57):
but I'm sure I will figure it out eventually.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Get Apple sauce pouch with I don't know if that counts.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Yeah, I don't know. That sounds kind of gross, Yeah
it does.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Sorry, but it's been pretty easy to stick with at home,
and I think it's been good because it's just way
to get a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Fiber in the morning and to have another serving of.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Fruit and vegetables to keep me full a little bit
longer versus just eating my eggs.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
And then strength training.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I am still working out with my I said, like Sarah,
do one hundred a year or sort of at least
do it regularly. I am still training with my virtual
trainer once a week, and then I always do at
least one additional session or two on my own, shorter
than the time I do with him.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
But I do this exercise.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Ye, by the way, because I feel like three years
ago or so before you hired your trainer, you were like,
I don't do strength at all. Then you moved to, Okay,
I'm gonna do a little bit on my own. Then
you did the weekly trainer, but you weren't really doing
the second session. And now you're doing the trainer and
you're doing the second session. So I mean, like, I
think you should appreciate your progress, like slowly.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Slowly building up, which is good.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
And who knows, Like what's I think the back pain
episodes I was I was having have been reduced a lot,
and maybe the strength training, It may be other things.
I don't entirely know because it wasn't a clear cut
coordination with any of this. And I was strength training
pretty regularly before I had my back episode two, So
(14:29):
who knows. But I'm happy that at least that has
gotten better. And then the last thing, I wasn't sure
if I put my sonnets in the personal or professional category.
I don't know that anyone's paying me for my sonnets,
but I have continued to write a weekly sonnet.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
At a rate of two lines a day.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
This is, I mean, my third year of that, so
I guess emutually it will become like time tracking.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Maybe you could like auction off your sonnets.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
I don't know that anyone's going to pay for them,
but okay, commission I don't know, commission sonnets on topics.
Maybe I don't know, all right, Sarah, Professional goals, what
do you have?
Speaker 3 (15:06):
All right? Goal number one was finish and launch book.
I wrote, this is my big twenty twenty five goal,
though I anticipate will be a flurry of work first
two months alone and then a lot of work towards
the end. Yes it was, and yes I did. I
did finish. I mean there's still, like, you know, they
sent me like, oh, here's all the graphics and can
you look at that? And you know there's always gonna
be stuff, probably even once it comes out, there's still
(15:28):
gonna be stuff. But that's okay. The actual, like writing
part was enormous and daunting, and I got it done.
So I give myself a big check for that part.
The launch obviously has not happened yet. It comes out
in December. You can pre order the covers out and
I love it. So if you check out various places
you buy books, you can see what it looks like.
But yeah, I would say I'm kind of I wouldn't
(15:50):
even just say on track like this is happening whether
I want to or not at this point. So yay,
check number two. I said, I put myself out there
more podcast pitches, speaking, et cetera. Okay, I did do
some speaking, although I had been set in twenty twenty
four for twenty twenty five and it went well. It
was actually really fun, Like I did my first talk
(16:11):
to a group of residents, like hired by an outside institution,
so that was a lot of fun. But I don't
think I really have done any self promotion like reaching
out to other podcasters or things like that. That said,
I'm going to be forced to do not forced, but
highly encouraged and motivated to do that as part of
book promotions. I'm kind of giving myself a break for
(16:31):
now since I know there's going to be just a
flurry of that. Plus I kind of want to time
this ride. I don't want to beg people to have
me on and then be like, also, you have to
have be on again when it's time to promote my books.
So I'm gonna just assume we're going to be good
on that for the year. But I haven't made a
ton of progress Number three was I wanted to improve
my shutdown ritual, and I would say, this is not
(16:53):
like perfect, but I'm I'm getting better at like looking
at my planner on this is all my non clinical day.
So my clinical day is my shutdown ritual is easy.
I empty epic and I drive home. But on my
nonclinical days, I get to a place of acceptance and
I kind of migrate forward what didn't happen, if there's anything.
And I'm lately just very motivated not to get behind
because I kind of have a better view of how
(17:15):
tight things are and if I get behind, it's going
to be really tough. So that's been less of an issue.
And then finally come up with a fun and different
summer project, Lauren, I have something maybe I think creative
that we might do. And I also kind of added
to my summer docket revamping some of my workbooks because
(17:35):
I'm just doing them all at once, in part because
my designer wants to do the bulk of her work
over the summer, so I feel like, yeah, in a way,
it's nice to just have my summer energies directed towards
like other specific things versus the book which just took
so much mental energy for the last year prior.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Really yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Well, similarly my professional goals, I wanted to finish my
book so big time is in fact into my editor
at my deadline was moved to May first, but I
did in fact meet May first. So I've turned in
the manuscript and I will still need to edit it,
but you know, it's turned in, so yay. I wanted
(18:15):
to grow vander Hack's my substack newsletter. I don't know
that I am quite on pace to hit the eight
hundred to one thousand paid subscribers number by the end
of the year, but it has grown since January, so
that is good, and I guess we still have time
to get to there. So anyone wants to go check
it out. Vander Hacks do substack dot com. You have
(18:36):
to go viral for something and then some people I
don't know what it is, Yeah, who knows.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
It does keep growing. I'm very grateful for that.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
It's been a fun project to launch and to see
how you can turn blogging into something of a newsletter business.
I also want to do a summer project. I thought
we might write a novel. We will see with that
that happens. Unsure on the plot, but I have started
noodling around on my next book, the Golden Hours book,
(19:05):
just thinking about what will be in there, since I
didn't do a formal proposal for that one.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
But yeah, we're working on it. So yeah, Sarah relationships, Yeah,
what was in that one?
Speaker 3 (19:16):
So, and I lumped this with like family, friends, et cetera.
So the first one was a repeat from last year,
seek out opportunities for one on one time.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
So one thing that has really helped with this goal
is the fact that I now have a thirteen year
old and the opportunities to like take one kid with
me and leave other kids at home. I mean there's
certain kids that cannot be left at home alone, of course,
but like they've actually increased substantially, and so I feel
like I'm doing a better job like kind of embracing
(19:46):
that and even things like, oh, my kid is a
doctor's appointment, but can we also like go to Starbucks
after and like chat for a little bit or I
did do a one on one day with Genevieve, and
I'm planning on fitting in days with the other two
over the course of the year. The one with Jenevie
was super memorable too, because we went to the beach.
It was a beautiful day, and then we went to
this place that she loves, and yeah, those days are
(20:08):
are worthwhile. So I look forward to fitting more of
that in. And I've also had some really great one
on one time with Josh, Like we took a couple
of trips, more trips than we planned because I ended up.
He came with me to Hopkins, and he came with
me on a speaking gig because at that point it
was after my hospital stuff. And yeah, just excited to
do more of that. Plus we can go out for
dinner once in a while without a babysitter, which is
great and okay, so that's that. Number two was to
(20:31):
throw a casual neighborhood hang. Did not happen. I still
want to do it. It won't be in January and February
like I planned, but it can still happen.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Oh well, yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Yeah. Number three was to visit friends, including a college
friend meetup overdue since I missed twenty twenty four, and
I wrote possible other friend trip in the works. Would
love it, So both are scheduled. My friends are coming
to me. After a lot of discussion, they decided, you
know what, let's just go to Florida in August. It's
really great weather and I'm just kidding it's not, but
(21:04):
it doesn't matter. We're going to go to a hotel
and go to the spa and eat great food. And
they're coming. So everyone's booked their flights. It's happening. And
then I have another trip booked with a friend and
that one's really really exciting too. So just having those
on the calendar, I think that's eighty percent of the battle,
and if we don't have any total disasters, I will
be able to meet that goal. Plus I saw Laura
(21:26):
in March and I'm going to see her in July.
And yeah, so all good, bonus time, All good. What
about you?
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (21:33):
So I have one goal was to go to three
professional sports games with people. So that was like a
relationship goal there, and I've already hit this because I
went to three. I went to a Sixers game, and
I went to two Eagles games. The Eagles game was
not intended. I sort of started saying, Okay, we'll go
(21:53):
to the Sixers and then the Phillies and then.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
The Eagles in the fall.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
But because the Eagles kept playing as alert football watchers
may have seen, they kept playing through January, so we
wound up going to two of the playoff games and
that that was really cool to see that the Sixers
game was much less cool, But we won't.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
We won't. Let's just not talk about that.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
And then Sarah and I will both be at a
Phillies game in July, so I am excited about that.
I had said I wanted to host a holiday party
if we're talking about the November December holidays, and that
has obviously not happened yet, but it could still happen.
I'm actually hosting a choir party shortly after we're recording this,
but it's not really a holiday party, so it's a party.
(22:39):
And then I wanted to become a musical family. It
has been fun to watch Alex learn the trombone. He
is definitely getting better at it. I need to sort
of sit over him while he practices. But he had
his band concert the other night, and I see that
he enjoyed performing. He will have his first recital coming
up very soon, and so I'm hoping that he gets
(23:00):
kind of bitten by the bug of being a musician
and the good news about being a trombone player. Is
that there aren't a lot of trombone players, and so
if you stick with it, you will have more opportunities
than if you are doing the violin or something like that.
And my timing is to sign Henry up for piano
lessons in the fall and to have him sing in
the church choir in the fall, the kids choir. So
(23:22):
those things have not had an opportunity to start yet
without timing, but I do plan to do them.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
I love it. Yeah, music is so great. I wish
we had more of it than we have, but honestly,
I think there could still be more because Cameron's like
starting guitar and he does like it so and Genevieve
does piano. All right, we're gonna take it.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Take one more quick ad break, yeah, one more quick
ad break, and then we'll.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Be back with our last goals. Well, we are back.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
This is our annual mid year goal check in. So
we had one final category of household Sarah, how did
your household goals go so far?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
I wrote that I have high hopes still of decluttering
and organizing like everything we own, the like was in there.
That is my main household goal and I have started recently,
Like I literally organized a lot of my closet yesterday.
So maybe spurned by making this list, but that's part
(24:29):
of the point of making these lists. Guys. That's okay
that I am getting on my goal because I'm like, oh,
I did have that goal. Okay. I have some opportunistic
time coming up because all three kids are going to
sleep away camp and they're only going Monday through Friday,
so it's limited opportunistic time. But I think I could
actually get a solid amount of organizing done. I don't
think I'm going to quote organize everything we own, but
(24:52):
I think I will be able to continue to make
progress in some key areas. And maybe I'm okay, as
long as this goal gets partially met, I can be
like Laura's weight training, like this year, do my key
areas next year, maybe go a layer deeper, et cetera.
So I'm not going to be all or nothing about
this because I think there's still time to make progress.
I also think our nanny is ready to help if
(25:14):
I give her specific areas pertaining to kids stuff. And yeah,
the year is young, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
The year is young, it could still happen well, and
you don't mind putting stuff on a goal list again
and again, right, I mean, especially sometimes it's the nudge
that makes it happen totally. I mean I talked about
I had flossing on my list for so many years,
and then in like twenty eighteen, I was like, I
floss now, or before that, maybe even I don't even know.
There was one year when it clicked, and then it's
clicked ever since. Strength training, book writing, estate planning. These
(25:44):
are all like giant things that went on multiple yearly
lists before coming to fruition. So I'm not the kind
of person who thinks it's not okay to put something
on there that might not happen because you might get closer.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
And closer, or you might make zero progress at all.
But then the star's kind of like come into line
and you realize the time is right and you can
move on something. So yeah, yeah, what about your household? Well,
you didn't have a household goal, but you did do
something fun for your household.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Well, I bought miniature household stuff. I wanted to add
to my miniature's collection. Although I need to think about
it because I might the two shelves in my office
that I can sort of see eye level from my
desk are now actually completely full. They're starting to get
cluttered with miniature furniture. So I like dollhouse furniture, and
I've been creating miniature scenes in my office and so
(26:32):
I wanted to add to that over the course of
the year, and I have. I ordered some farmhouse like
bathroom miniatures from this place in Australia, and they finally
showed up like I ordered them, like when this episode
we were recording our Annual Goals episode low back in
November December of twenty twenty four. I don't know what happened,
(26:53):
but they finally showed up like now, like May of
twenty twenty five. But they're there, are cute, and I
will probably buy some accessories for the bathroom to make
it look a little bit more inhabited, and then who knows,
maybe I'll add to the scene. But I did sign
up for there are these webinars like the Thorn Miniature
(27:15):
rooms in the Art Institute of Chicago. There's going to
be a webinar online about them shortly after this we're
recording this episode, So I signed up for that, Like
why not I can learn about it.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
And we'll beating at six am, just so Laura can
make her I'm just kidding, We're not.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
No, no, it's an evening hour that will be a
golden hour thing one day.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
I think it's great. It's like a new deep dive.
It's like a like it's a fun hobby, like why not?
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (27:38):
I the fun part of getting older is you can
sometimes make space for these completely random interests of yours.
All right, So that's how we've done so far on
our goals. We'll obviously be talking more about this in December.
See if we've achieved the ones we haven't or made
more progress on the ones we are working on.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
So this question.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Is about summer, So the listener writes in I see
all this talk about summer reading. When do people have
time to read, especially over the summer when the kids
are home. I want to curate this habit, but I struggle. So, Sarah,
what's your advice for this person?
Speaker 3 (28:18):
My first piece of advice is to make sure you
are choosing books that you really want to read and
aren't assigning yourself things that are like homework. Because if
you're excited about picking up a book, or if you're
in the middle of one. That's that's great. You will
just kind of like sneak it in just the way
that you probably I mean, I'm not judging you, but
(28:38):
maybe you currently sneak in peak at social media or
things like that. Instead you'll be like, I want to
know what's going to happen in this juicy novel or
memoir or whatever it is. So I think that's my
number one. Number two is anytime anyone's struggling to do anything,
I'm like, why don't you consider the early morning? I mean,
that doesn't work in all cases. Maybe you're in a
season where you have a baby wit you up all
(29:00):
night and you're like, early morning no, isn't just hard no.
But if it is available to you, then reading can
be done in the morning. You can read a novel
in the morning no one is stopping you. Or you
could do an audiobooks. If you're trying to fit an exercise,
you could exercise while you have that book going and
do that juicy summer reading that way. And then finally,
(29:23):
I would say, if you're like an obliger and you
which is a Gretchen Rubin personality tendency, that means you
respond better to outer expectations. You might want to think
about joining a book club. If there is not one
socially available to you in your area, you could always
find a virtual book club. There's a ton of like
book podcasts and book talk and a lot of those
kind of creators and book influencers have their own book
(29:46):
clubs that you can pay a nominal amount to join.
So maybe that would be a motivator, kind of give
you some deadlines and ideas around you're reading.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
What do you think, Laura, Yeah, I think the reading
books you want to read is huge, and you should
knowledge this about yourself, Like there's no reason you should
not pretend to be into books that you aren't like.
And if you're not into whatever the hot summer reads are,
then don't read it.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Like that's I tend not to be.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Actually that those are not books on my summer list,
And that's fine. You want to read books that you
are excited that you're like looking like, oh, I can't
wait till that comes out, or I love that author.
I can't wait to read that one, because then you
will make more space for it than if you are
just trying to make yourself read stuff you're not as
into that said, I think you can look at your
(30:37):
time and see where structurally you can fit it. As
Sarah mentioned the early mornings, but for a lot of
people that's time before bed, and it doesn't have to
be a ton of time. But if you can swing
fifteen twenty minutes before bed, I think a lot of
people can do that. If you look at what you
are doing in this time, you might be just sort
of puttering around the house doing random stuff that doesn't
(31:00):
truly need to be done. Then sometimes people are doing
screen time, which can be fun, but maybe you don't
need to do that every night, or you could cut
it off a little bit earlier and use some time
for reading. And I'm a broken record on this, but
e readers on your phone.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Put ebooks on your.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Phone because you always have your book, you always have
the phone with you, and then you can read in
little pockets of time that you would have been scrolling
around reading headlines. And it's just as easy. You just
have to get in the habit of doing it. So
Sarah Love of the Week, I so.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
The opposite of reading a screen a TV show. I
was in a mood because one of my kids broke
their finger and it was like a ordeal, and I
was like, I need candy. I need digital candy. I
just need to lose myself in something that's incredibly easy
to watch right now. And I found Sirens on Netflix,
and five minutes in I'm like, this is exactly what
(32:00):
I need. So it's a TV show, it's like five
episodes total. Each episode is about an hour, and it's
kind of a White Lotus knockoff. I mean, it wasn't
the world's most original show, but man, it sucked you
in nicely and it just was exactly what I needed
at that moment. So I don't know, like juicy TV
(32:20):
can be such a balm sometimes, and I recommend Sirens
if you're in that place. Also, Emily in Paris, that
was my last summer when I had a lot of
drama with something. There were a lot of episodes and
I had a lot of drama, so it was perfect.
But this was a short thing, so that was exactly
what I needed.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Yeah, So mine is like knowing yourself here. I have
been reading consuming of great many books on early Earth history.
I just find this endlessly fascinating. Along time my miniature rooms,
like I have these multiple obsessions. One is like dollhouse furniture.
The other is like early Earth history, and I've just
(32:59):
been reading through about the science and the chemistry of
the early Earth and all this stuff. We learn new
things all the time, even though these things happened billions
or millions of years ago, and so there is something
new to learn about it, often a lot new to
(33:19):
learn as things come up. So I've been reading a
lot of books on that topic, and I continue to
work my way through the literature, and that's what I've
been reading at night.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
So that's what I like.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
I think the theme is to boldly and unapologetically choose
the things you like.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Yes, absolutely and whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
The mix of random things that you like can bring
joy into your life, and you know they'll be more
likely to stick with it. Well, this has been best
of both worlds. We've been doing our annual mid year
goal check in a lot of things going well, some pivots,
but that's life. We will be back next week with
more on making work and life fit together.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram,
and you can.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has
been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join us
next time for more on making work and life work together.
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
and speaker.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer,
and course creator. We are two working parents who love
our careers and our families.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
how real women manage work, family, and time for fun.
From figuring out childcare to mapping out long.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Term career goals.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
We want you to get the most out of life.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
This episode is airing at the very beginning of July
of twenty twenty five, July first.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
In fact, we.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Are going to be doing our annual mid year goal
check in. So it turns out that July first is
not the actual midpoint of the year, Sarah, if there
are three hundred sixty five days.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
The middle day is apparently July second. Makes sense that
it's a little bit into that July due to the
shorter months of February, April, and June.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yes, yes, so that is what it is.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
But we were still going to do the midyear checking
and as it turned out, so we record an annual
goal episode that tends to air at the very end
of December every year, but we tend to record it
sort of earlier in December because we're trying to get
ahead of the holidays, both for our production team and
because we're often gone and so we can't record too
(01:33):
close to the event itself. But that means that we
actually were recording this in early June. We are, in
fact six months from when we recorded our goal episode,
even if it's not six months into the year when
we were recording it.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, that's fair. I mean a lot of times we
set up our goals a little bit before kind of
start day, so I feel like this is appropriate.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, yeah, I know, so November and December. I think
of his resolutions pre season where you can try them
out and sort of think about what your your goals
are for the upcoming year. And why do we do this, Sarah,
Why are we checking in midway through the year.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, I mean, it's such a common challenge that people
will be really good about making goals for the year.
It's just sort of part of the cultural zeitgeist at
this point, so they just kind of do it. But
then if you don't actually look at those goals a
year is a really long time and you are going
to lose momentum or even forget what you are aiming for.
(02:29):
Maybe you have a lot of energy go towards things
and from July through January through March, but you know
you want to take advantage of the rest of the
year as well. So I really recommend people look at
their annual goals list every single season. I even do
that like formally with a group and my little planning
by season group. But Laura does not think we need
to have five seasonal goals episodes on the show, which
(02:50):
is fair. So we do a midyear check in, and
I would say this is the bare minimum in terms
of formal check in with your annual goals. If you're
not going to do it every season, at least schedule
a midpoint review.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Well, we do three episodes that our goal related every year,
because we do our goal setting episode, our midyear check in,
and then we do our year in review where we
look at how things went with our goals in mind.
So three out of fifty two episodes is not a
small percentage of goal related content, but yes, that's probably
(03:25):
as high as I think we could go to keep people.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Listening to us.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
So we both listened to our annual Goals episode, you know,
heard past Laura and past Sarah talking about things we
talked about, our year, our word of the year. Sarah,
how is that finite thing going?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
So I entered twenty twenty five kind of like obsessed
with mortality because I had read Jodi Wellmans You Only
Die Once, and I had read Oliver Berkman's second book,
and I was just really into that concept. And I
chose finite for my word of the year, which ended
up being like, you know, if you're gonna end up
in the cardiac, I see you a few months later.
Maybe he was a little too much, but at the
(04:11):
same time, this word is still very meaningful to me,
and I still feel it was very appropriate. Maybe a
little morbid, but like you know, if you're going to
have an event like that, it really does make you
look at the preciousness of the time up ahead, maybe
even more grateful for that time and aware that it's finite.
So I think it was just a coincidence. I don't
(04:31):
think it led me to my event in the March
hours of a Goal episode because I'm just I don't
think of things that way. But yeah, I guess, I
guess I'd say it worked out.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
What about you, You're still thinking about it? You're still
thinking about life in terms of its finitude? Yeah, no,
I well, I my word was influence, not to be
like an influencer on Instagram. I will not be floating
around in little nap dresses with sort of hazy photography
with my children and matching outfits behind me. But I
(05:08):
do want to think about ways to use whatever audience
I have platform. I have to try to change things
to elevate other people, to expand the scope, as it were.
So I've been pondering it.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I think it's kind of a daily thing. I'm not
sure if there's any one particular thing I've done that
would make that obvious. But I do have the word
in mind.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I think all of your soapbox rants are in line
with this goal.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I say, well, hopefully, I mean influence versus hitting people
over the head with stuff. I maybe there's more subtlety
to the influence, but we'll see. We'll see anyways, So,
still thinking about that. So, Sarah, we started with kind
of personal goals in the episode, and you certainly had
some fitness ones.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
How's that going?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yes, So I collected some quotes from our notes for
the show, which I will share. I wanted to strength
train one hundred times, and then I wanted to qualify
for the Boston Marathon with a safe number, meaning like
enough buffer that I could run the race. And then
I also wanted to, assuming that I had this safe
buffer done, to do some five K specific training blocks. Well,
(06:20):
so for listeners who have are just catching up, I
went into VTech after a half marathon in March, and
I have since been diagnosed with something called rhythmogenic riteventricular
cardiomopathy and running is out forever and that's for me,
and that's okay. I've spent a lot of time getting
used to that and have come to a place of peace.
But obviously it means just from a goal standpoint, those
(06:42):
are off the list, but I mean in a very
peaceful way because I have no like, I can't self
flagulate myself over something that I just can't do. So
if I was going to have them removed, I guess
in a way, this is like a good way for
that to happen. Strength training I get an a plus
because strength training was okay and so I've been doing
that very regularly, kind of like how I used to
(07:05):
do it when I didn't run at all, and it's
been really nice. I've been mostly using the Peloton Strength app.
I use, like the Hardcore on the Floor calendar that's
available for free on Facebook or you can actually go
to their website, and I use that to do two
lower body workouts and two upper body workouts a week.
And so I'm definitely going to surpass one hundred. I
(07:27):
don't know if I already have, but like I stop
counting because one hundred percent, I will be over that number.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, you also wanted to update your wardrobe.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah, so number two was that I wanted to get
a couple pairs of jeens, some tops that were not
T shirts, I get a professional speaking outfit, and generally
invest more in clothing that I did in twenty twenty four.
And yeah, I feel like I've actually done pretty well
with this. I've gotten some new tops, some new genes,
even some new scrubs. I'm still on the hunt for
some specific things, and I have not gotten a speaking
(07:58):
outfit yet a new one, but I really want to,
so I will work on that. And I feel very
much on track for this goal. Okay, reading, My reading
habit goal was I wanted to read for ten minutes
of nonfiction and ten minutes fiction daily. Mostly I meet
this goal. I haven't like tracked it. I'm not a streaker.
(08:18):
I don't love to track stuff like this long term.
But honestly, most days, I well almost every day, I
do the nonfiction, and I would say like eighty percent
of the time I read at least a little bit
of fiction, sometimes way more than ten minutes. And interestingly,
I seem to just gravitate towards reading about fifty books
a year, Like you know, I'll have periods where there
(08:39):
are more certain months and certain months where there's less,
but that just seems to be where I am. And
we're recording this in early June, and I'm writ at
twenty books, so like exactly on track for my normal pattern.
So I think that's fascinating and I'm happy with that.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, but you are tracking your media right in general.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yes, every day I write in my plant. I just
have a daily layout that works for me really well.
And I've gotten into the habit of writing now. In
the music I listened to the podcast episodes, the TV
shows the movies, the books, and it's actually become very
like second nature, I think, probably the way Laura treks time.
And I love it because it does make me more
conscious of my consumption, and I don't know, it works
(09:21):
really well for me, so check.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Yeah, And I did want to do one run per
week with music only. Obviously I'm not running, but I
do probably a commute per week with music only, so
I'll call that halfway win.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Halfway win, all right, Well, and the running is what
it is, so that's a yeah. No, it's funny you
were saying that, I mean, because it would be different
if you were like, you set time goals and then
you were just like not able to achieve them.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Yeah, I don't feel like doing it, yes, yeah, or.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
You're just slowing for reasons that you couldn't figure out,
and that would be frustrating.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
But it's not that.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
It's that it's completely off the table. So that's a
sometimes that clearly is easier. It's easier, it's easier in
some way. And also the interesting point about things becoming
second nature so you don't even set them as goals.
I mean, so time tracking. I celebrated ten years of
time tracking this April. But I haven't set that as
a goal even in years, even though I continue to
(10:15):
do it.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
It's just that it's something that happens.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
So We're going to take a quick ad break and
then I'll be back with some of my personal goals
for the year. Well, we are back with our annual
as it were, midyear goal check in. Sarah has been
(10:42):
sharing how she did on her personal goals. I had
sort of I think slightly fewer, but one of them,
I did decide to listen to all the works of Beethoven,
working through a calendar that's called Complete Beethoven Online. Somebody
did this a few years ago in twenty twenty for
the two.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his birth.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
They chose the selection to listen to every day, and
in fact chose linked to the particular performance that you
are supposed to listen to as an example of this
particular work of Beethoven. So I've been faithfully moving through that.
I am halfway through the year. As we are halfway
through the year now, I've really been enjoying it. I
(11:23):
didn't think I was going to like it as much
as Bach and I probably don't. But on the other hand,
Beethoven's got a lot of really good work too, and
it's been fun to listen to it because I'm also
getting the commentary. I think I'm learning a little bit
more about him and his life and gosh, even like
his business model, like how was he making money? Like
(11:44):
how did a nineteenth century composer support himself? And there
are various ways you would do that. I mean, you
would write music for balls and then you would sell
the sheet music later, and this is how you would
make your living as an influencer. So far in that
(12:05):
time period is.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
A whole lot.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Like is it in chronological order?
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah, it is an in chronological order, more or less
because some stuff we don't know right, like he didn't
date exactly when he or he was working on things simultaneously.
But it's more or less. I also decided to read
Anna Karnina. I did decide to go for that, and
I am currently six hundred pages into the nine hundred
(12:30):
page book.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
I read a chapter a day.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
It is only about two hundred and seventy chapters, so
I think I will end this summer at some point.
At the end of the summer, I decided to eat
produce for breakfast, and I have stuck with that every
day except for two days. I know exactly which two
days I did not do this, and both were when
I was traveling, so I was less in control of breakfast.
So I haven't entirely figured out how to solve that problem,
(12:57):
but I'm sure I will figure it out eventually.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Get Apple sauce pouch with I don't know if that counts.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Yeah, I don't know. That sounds kind of gross, Yeah
it does.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Sorry, but it's been pretty easy to stick with at home,
and I think it's been good because it's just way
to get a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Fiber in the morning and to have another serving of.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Fruit and vegetables to keep me full a little bit
longer versus just eating my eggs.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
And then strength training.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I am still working out with my I said, like Sarah,
do one hundred a year or sort of at least
do it regularly. I am still training with my virtual
trainer once a week, and then I always do at
least one additional session or two on my own, shorter
than the time I do with him.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
But I do this exercise.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Ye, by the way, because I feel like three years
ago or so before you hired your trainer, you were like,
I don't do strength at all. Then you moved to, Okay,
I'm gonna do a little bit on my own. Then
you did the weekly trainer, but you weren't really doing
the second session. And now you're doing the trainer and
you're doing the second session. So I mean, like, I
think you should appreciate your progress, like slowly.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Slowly building up, which is good.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
And who knows, Like what's I think the back pain
episodes I was I was having have been reduced a lot,
and maybe the strength training, It may be other things.
I don't entirely know because it wasn't a clear cut
coordination with any of this. And I was strength training
pretty regularly before I had my back episode two, So
(14:29):
who knows. But I'm happy that at least that has
gotten better. And then the last thing, I wasn't sure
if I put my sonnets in the personal or professional category.
I don't know that anyone's paying me for my sonnets,
but I have continued to write a weekly sonnet.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
At a rate of two lines a day.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
This is, I mean, my third year of that, so
I guess emutually it will become like time tracking.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Maybe you could like auction off your sonnets.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
I don't know that anyone's going to pay for them,
but okay, commission I don't know, commission sonnets on topics.
Maybe I don't know, all right, Sarah, Professional goals, what
do you have?
Speaker 3 (15:06):
All right? Goal number one was finish and launch book.
I wrote, this is my big twenty twenty five goal,
though I anticipate will be a flurry of work first
two months alone and then a lot of work towards
the end. Yes it was, and yes I did. I
did finish. I mean there's still, like, you know, they
sent me like, oh, here's all the graphics and can
you look at that? And you know there's always gonna
be stuff, probably even once it comes out, there's still
(15:28):
gonna be stuff. But that's okay. The actual, like writing
part was enormous and daunting, and I got it done.
So I give myself a big check for that part.
The launch obviously has not happened yet. It comes out
in December. You can pre order the covers out and
I love it. So if you check out various places
you buy books, you can see what it looks like.
But yeah, I would say I'm kind of I wouldn't
(15:50):
even just say on track like this is happening whether
I want to or not at this point. So yay,
check number two. I said, I put myself out there
more podcast pitches, speaking, et cetera. Okay, I did do
some speaking, although I had been set in twenty twenty
four for twenty twenty five and it went well. It
was actually really fun, Like I did my first talk
(16:11):
to a group of residents, like hired by an outside institution,
so that was a lot of fun. But I don't
think I really have done any self promotion like reaching
out to other podcasters or things like that. That said,
I'm going to be forced to do not forced, but
highly encouraged and motivated to do that as part of
book promotions. I'm kind of giving myself a break for
(16:31):
now since I know there's going to be just a
flurry of that. Plus I kind of want to time
this ride. I don't want to beg people to have
me on and then be like, also, you have to
have be on again when it's time to promote my books.
So I'm gonna just assume we're going to be good
on that for the year. But I haven't made a
ton of progress Number three was I wanted to improve
my shutdown ritual, and I would say, this is not
(16:53):
like perfect, but I'm I'm getting better at like looking
at my planner on this is all my non clinical day.
So my clinical day is my shutdown ritual is easy.
I empty epic and I drive home. But on my
nonclinical days, I get to a place of acceptance and
I kind of migrate forward what didn't happen, if there's anything.
And I'm lately just very motivated not to get behind
because I kind of have a better view of how
(17:15):
tight things are and if I get behind, it's going
to be really tough. So that's been less of an issue.
And then finally come up with a fun and different
summer project, Lauren, I have something maybe I think creative
that we might do. And I also kind of added
to my summer docket revamping some of my workbooks because
(17:35):
I'm just doing them all at once, in part because
my designer wants to do the bulk of her work
over the summer, so I feel like, yeah, in a way,
it's nice to just have my summer energies directed towards
like other specific things versus the book which just took
so much mental energy for the last year prior.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Really yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Well, similarly my professional goals, I wanted to finish my
book so big time is in fact into my editor
at my deadline was moved to May first, but I
did in fact meet May first. So I've turned in
the manuscript and I will still need to edit it,
but you know, it's turned in, so yay. I wanted
(18:15):
to grow vander Hack's my substack newsletter. I don't know
that I am quite on pace to hit the eight
hundred to one thousand paid subscribers number by the end
of the year, but it has grown since January, so
that is good, and I guess we still have time
to get to there. So anyone wants to go check
it out. Vander Hacks do substack dot com. You have
(18:36):
to go viral for something and then some people I
don't know what it is, Yeah, who knows.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
It does keep growing. I'm very grateful for that.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
It's been a fun project to launch and to see
how you can turn blogging into something of a newsletter business.
I also want to do a summer project. I thought
we might write a novel. We will see with that
that happens. Unsure on the plot, but I have started
noodling around on my next book, the Golden Hours book,
(19:05):
just thinking about what will be in there, since I
didn't do a formal proposal for that one.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
But yeah, we're working on it. So yeah, Sarah relationships, Yeah,
what was in that one?
Speaker 3 (19:16):
So, and I lumped this with like family, friends, et cetera.
So the first one was a repeat from last year,
seek out opportunities for one on one time.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
So one thing that has really helped with this goal
is the fact that I now have a thirteen year
old and the opportunities to like take one kid with
me and leave other kids at home. I mean there's
certain kids that cannot be left at home alone, of course,
but like they've actually increased substantially, and so I feel
like I'm doing a better job like kind of embracing
(19:46):
that and even things like, oh, my kid is a
doctor's appointment, but can we also like go to Starbucks
after and like chat for a little bit or I
did do a one on one day with Genevieve, and
I'm planning on fitting in days with the other two
over the course of the year. The one with Jenevie
was super memorable too, because we went to the beach.
It was a beautiful day, and then we went to
this place that she loves, and yeah, those days are
(20:08):
are worthwhile. So I look forward to fitting more of
that in. And I've also had some really great one
on one time with Josh, Like we took a couple
of trips, more trips than we planned because I ended up.
He came with me to Hopkins, and he came with
me on a speaking gig because at that point it
was after my hospital stuff. And yeah, just excited to
do more of that. Plus we can go out for
dinner once in a while without a babysitter, which is
great and okay, so that's that. Number two was to
(20:31):
throw a casual neighborhood hang. Did not happen. I still
want to do it. It won't be in January and February
like I planned, but it can still happen.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Oh well, yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Yeah. Number three was to visit friends, including a college
friend meetup overdue since I missed twenty twenty four, and
I wrote possible other friend trip in the works. Would
love it, So both are scheduled. My friends are coming
to me. After a lot of discussion, they decided, you
know what, let's just go to Florida in August. It's
really great weather and I'm just kidding it's not, but
(21:04):
it doesn't matter. We're going to go to a hotel
and go to the spa and eat great food. And
they're coming. So everyone's booked their flights. It's happening. And
then I have another trip booked with a friend and
that one's really really exciting too. So just having those
on the calendar, I think that's eighty percent of the battle,
and if we don't have any total disasters, I will
be able to meet that goal. Plus I saw Laura
(21:26):
in March and I'm going to see her in July.
And yeah, so all good, bonus time, All good. What
about you?
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (21:33):
So I have one goal was to go to three
professional sports games with people. So that was like a
relationship goal there, and I've already hit this because I
went to three. I went to a Sixers game, and
I went to two Eagles games. The Eagles game was
not intended. I sort of started saying, Okay, we'll go
(21:53):
to the Sixers and then the Phillies and then.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
The Eagles in the fall.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
But because the Eagles kept playing as alert football watchers
may have seen, they kept playing through January, so we
wound up going to two of the playoff games and
that that was really cool to see that the Sixers
game was much less cool, But we won't.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
We won't. Let's just not talk about that.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
And then Sarah and I will both be at a
Phillies game in July, so I am excited about that.
I had said I wanted to host a holiday party
if we're talking about the November December holidays, and that
has obviously not happened yet, but it could still happen.
I'm actually hosting a choir party shortly after we're recording this,
but it's not really a holiday party, so it's a party.
(22:39):
And then I wanted to become a musical family. It
has been fun to watch Alex learn the trombone. He
is definitely getting better at it. I need to sort
of sit over him while he practices. But he had
his band concert the other night, and I see that
he enjoyed performing. He will have his first recital coming
up very soon, and so I'm hoping that he gets
(23:00):
kind of bitten by the bug of being a musician
and the good news about being a trombone player. Is
that there aren't a lot of trombone players, and so
if you stick with it, you will have more opportunities
than if you are doing the violin or something like that.
And my timing is to sign Henry up for piano
lessons in the fall and to have him sing in
the church choir in the fall, the kids choir. So
(23:22):
those things have not had an opportunity to start yet
without timing, but I do plan to do them.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
I love it. Yeah, music is so great. I wish
we had more of it than we have, but honestly,
I think there could still be more because Cameron's like
starting guitar and he does like it so and Genevieve
does piano. All right, we're gonna take it.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Take one more quick ad break, yeah, one more quick
ad break, and then we'll.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Be back with our last goals. Well, we are back.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
This is our annual mid year goal check in. So
we had one final category of household Sarah, how did
your household goals go so far?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
I wrote that I have high hopes still of decluttering
and organizing like everything we own, the like was in there.
That is my main household goal and I have started recently,
Like I literally organized a lot of my closet yesterday.
So maybe spurned by making this list, but that's part
(24:29):
of the point of making these lists. Guys. That's okay
that I am getting on my goal because I'm like, oh,
I did have that goal. Okay. I have some opportunistic
time coming up because all three kids are going to
sleep away camp and they're only going Monday through Friday,
so it's limited opportunistic time. But I think I could
actually get a solid amount of organizing done. I don't
think I'm going to quote organize everything we own, but
(24:52):
I think I will be able to continue to make
progress in some key areas. And maybe I'm okay, as
long as this goal gets partially met, I can be
like Laura's weight training, like this year, do my key
areas next year, maybe go a layer deeper, et cetera.
So I'm not going to be all or nothing about
this because I think there's still time to make progress.
I also think our nanny is ready to help if
(25:14):
I give her specific areas pertaining to kids stuff. And yeah,
the year is young, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
The year is young, it could still happen well, and
you don't mind putting stuff on a goal list again
and again, right, I mean, especially sometimes it's the nudge
that makes it happen totally. I mean I talked about
I had flossing on my list for so many years,
and then in like twenty eighteen, I was like, I
floss now, or before that, maybe even I don't even know.
There was one year when it clicked, and then it's
clicked ever since. Strength training, book writing, estate planning. These
(25:44):
are all like giant things that went on multiple yearly
lists before coming to fruition. So I'm not the kind
of person who thinks it's not okay to put something
on there that might not happen because you might get closer.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
And closer, or you might make zero progress at all.
But then the star's kind of like come into line
and you realize the time is right and you can
move on something. So yeah, yeah, what about your household? Well,
you didn't have a household goal, but you did do
something fun for your household.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Well, I bought miniature household stuff. I wanted to add
to my miniature's collection. Although I need to think about
it because I might the two shelves in my office
that I can sort of see eye level from my
desk are now actually completely full. They're starting to get
cluttered with miniature furniture. So I like dollhouse furniture, and
I've been creating miniature scenes in my office and so
(26:32):
I wanted to add to that over the course of
the year, and I have. I ordered some farmhouse like
bathroom miniatures from this place in Australia, and they finally
showed up like I ordered them, like when this episode
we were recording our Annual Goals episode low back in
November December of twenty twenty four. I don't know what happened,
(26:53):
but they finally showed up like now, like May of
twenty twenty five. But they're there, are cute, and I
will probably buy some accessories for the bathroom to make
it look a little bit more inhabited, and then who knows,
maybe I'll add to the scene. But I did sign
up for there are these webinars like the Thorn Miniature
(27:15):
rooms in the Art Institute of Chicago. There's going to
be a webinar online about them shortly after this we're
recording this episode, So I signed up for that, Like
why not I can learn about it.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
And we'll beating at six am, just so Laura can
make her I'm just kidding, We're not.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
No, no, it's an evening hour that will be a
golden hour thing one day.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
I think it's great. It's like a new deep dive.
It's like a like it's a fun hobby, like why not?
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (27:38):
I the fun part of getting older is you can
sometimes make space for these completely random interests of yours.
All right, So that's how we've done so far on
our goals. We'll obviously be talking more about this in December.
See if we've achieved the ones we haven't or made
more progress on the ones we are working on.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
So this question.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Is about summer, So the listener writes in I see
all this talk about summer reading. When do people have
time to read, especially over the summer when the kids
are home. I want to curate this habit, but I struggle. So, Sarah,
what's your advice for this person?
Speaker 3 (28:18):
My first piece of advice is to make sure you
are choosing books that you really want to read and
aren't assigning yourself things that are like homework. Because if
you're excited about picking up a book, or if you're
in the middle of one. That's that's great. You will
just kind of like sneak it in just the way
that you probably I mean, I'm not judging you, but
(28:38):
maybe you currently sneak in peak at social media or
things like that. Instead you'll be like, I want to
know what's going to happen in this juicy novel or
memoir or whatever it is. So I think that's my
number one. Number two is anytime anyone's struggling to do anything,
I'm like, why don't you consider the early morning? I mean,
that doesn't work in all cases. Maybe you're in a
season where you have a baby wit you up all
(29:00):
night and you're like, early morning no, isn't just hard no.
But if it is available to you, then reading can
be done in the morning. You can read a novel
in the morning no one is stopping you. Or you
could do an audiobooks. If you're trying to fit an exercise,
you could exercise while you have that book going and
do that juicy summer reading that way. And then finally,
(29:23):
I would say, if you're like an obliger and you
which is a Gretchen Rubin personality tendency, that means you
respond better to outer expectations. You might want to think
about joining a book club. If there is not one
socially available to you in your area, you could always
find a virtual book club. There's a ton of like
book podcasts and book talk and a lot of those
kind of creators and book influencers have their own book
(29:46):
clubs that you can pay a nominal amount to join.
So maybe that would be a motivator, kind of give
you some deadlines and ideas around you're reading.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
What do you think, Laura, Yeah, I think the reading
books you want to read is huge, and you should
knowledge this about yourself, Like there's no reason you should
not pretend to be into books that you aren't like.
And if you're not into whatever the hot summer reads are,
then don't read it.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Like that's I tend not to be.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Actually that those are not books on my summer list,
And that's fine. You want to read books that you
are excited that you're like looking like, oh, I can't
wait till that comes out, or I love that author.
I can't wait to read that one, because then you
will make more space for it than if you are
just trying to make yourself read stuff you're not as
into that said, I think you can look at your
(30:37):
time and see where structurally you can fit it. As
Sarah mentioned the early mornings, but for a lot of
people that's time before bed, and it doesn't have to
be a ton of time. But if you can swing
fifteen twenty minutes before bed, I think a lot of
people can do that. If you look at what you
are doing in this time, you might be just sort
of puttering around the house doing random stuff that doesn't
(31:00):
truly need to be done. Then sometimes people are doing
screen time, which can be fun, but maybe you don't
need to do that every night, or you could cut
it off a little bit earlier and use some time
for reading. And I'm a broken record on this, but
e readers on your phone.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Put ebooks on your.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Phone because you always have your book, you always have
the phone with you, and then you can read in
little pockets of time that you would have been scrolling
around reading headlines. And it's just as easy. You just
have to get in the habit of doing it. So
Sarah Love of the Week, I so.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
The opposite of reading a screen a TV show. I
was in a mood because one of my kids broke
their finger and it was like a ordeal, and I
was like, I need candy. I need digital candy. I
just need to lose myself in something that's incredibly easy
to watch right now. And I found Sirens on Netflix,
and five minutes in I'm like, this is exactly what
(32:00):
I need. So it's a TV show, it's like five
episodes total. Each episode is about an hour, and it's
kind of a White Lotus knockoff. I mean, it wasn't
the world's most original show, but man, it sucked you
in nicely and it just was exactly what I needed
at that moment. So I don't know, like juicy TV
(32:20):
can be such a balm sometimes, and I recommend Sirens
if you're in that place. Also, Emily in Paris, that
was my last summer when I had a lot of
drama with something. There were a lot of episodes and
I had a lot of drama, so it was perfect.
But this was a short thing, so that was exactly
what I needed.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Yeah, So mine is like knowing yourself here. I have
been reading consuming of great many books on early Earth history.
I just find this endlessly fascinating. Along time my miniature rooms,
like I have these multiple obsessions. One is like dollhouse furniture.
The other is like early Earth history, and I've just
(32:59):
been reading through about the science and the chemistry of
the early Earth and all this stuff. We learn new
things all the time, even though these things happened billions
or millions of years ago, and so there is something
new to learn about it, often a lot new to
(33:19):
learn as things come up. So I've been reading a
lot of books on that topic, and I continue to
work my way through the literature, and that's what I've
been reading at night.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
So that's what I like.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
I think the theme is to boldly and unapologetically choose
the things you like.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Yes, absolutely and whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
The mix of random things that you like can bring
joy into your life, and you know they'll be more
likely to stick with it. Well, this has been best
of both worlds. We've been doing our annual mid year
goal check in a lot of things going well, some pivots,
but that's life. We will be back next week with
more on making work and life fit together.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram,
and you can.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has
been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join us
next time for more on making work and life work together.
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