March 5, 2025 • 38 mins
In this episode of Enthusiastic Encouragement and Dubious Advice, Patricia and Nicole discuss their progress (or not) on various 2025 goals and intentions, including decluttering, therapy, and being more social. The episode wraps up with reflections on the importance of revisiting goals with curiosity and adjusting them to better serve one’s current needs.
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Power stations https://www.jackery.com/
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Crochet kits https://thewoobles.com/
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Gentle: Rest More, Stress Less, and Live the Life You Actually Want by Courtney Carver
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
[Intro Music]
(00:15):
Hey there, cavatappi!
Welcome to Enthusiastic Encouragementand Dubious Advice, the podcast for
folks who would rather curl intothe fetal position than lean in.
I'm your host, Patricia Elzie-Tuttle.
And I'm someone the federalgovernment doesn't believe
exists, I'm Nicole Elzie-Tuttle.
We're recording thisshow on March 1st, 2025.
It's March!
(00:36):
It's March.
Which you think is spring.
Yeah, March is a spring month.
It's in the name.
Spring doesn't start forlike almost three weeks.
No, but listen to the name, March.
It sounds like a spring month.
It's not cold.
[Guffaw] That makes nosense to me, but okay.
I'm sure there are otherpeople that will agree with me.
March is a spring month.
Hm.
(00:57):
Have we told them about the seasons?
I think you've told, like, your seasons.
Yeah.
Your seasons run on vibes.
Yeah.
The plants are growing.
The plants are growing.
We'll get to that later.
We recently watched a documentary,another one on a documentary kick.
Butterfly in the Sky, theReading Rainbow documentary.
(01:20):
Oh, y'all.
I cried through the whole thing.
Yeah, it got me at the end.
Yeah, uh, we were just talking abouthow, in retrospect, I was like, oh,
this show has shaped so much of whoI am, and on the other podcast I'm
on, on All The Books, I really amjust channeling my inner book review
(01:41):
kid, like, have I got a book for you?
Yeah, and I know it's been said inother places, and we may have even
said it here, but really, LeVarBurton is an absolute treasure.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I feel so fortunate to be aliveat the same time as LeVar Burton.
(02:01):
Aww.
Also, since therapy is a thing we talkabout on the show, I wanna share that
I'm going through those awkward stagesof getting to know a new therapist.
My old therapist, amazing, phenomenal,wonderful, and she's changing the way
how she's doing her practice, which isa way that isn't going to work for me.
(02:25):
So I have found a new person, it wasactually someone recommended by my
old therapist, who focuses on, um,some things I haven't yet worked
on with myself, which is my OCD.
And so, you know, getting toknow a new therapist is awkward.
I think there's no timeline in which itever feels, like, super normal for anyone.
(02:49):
So if you are also looking to get atherapist, just know, even for those
of us who have been in therapy fora long time, it's kind of awkward.
There, there might be growingpains, but hopefully it's worth it.
Yeah.
I don't know if people know that,that, like, you can, if you're needing
to change therapists, or if youhave someone in your life who has a
therapist, and for, for similar thingsthat you are wanting to seek therapy
(03:14):
for, you can ask for a recommendation.
Yeah!
Yeah, usually therapists have, you know,circles of practice, they know other
people, other therapists, obviously.
And they could reach out and say,hey, I have someone here who's
looking to work on this thing.
They have XYZ insurance or, orthey're paying out of pocket.
(03:34):
You know, and who has spaceand who's up for hearing from
this person or who's available.
Referrals is a greatway to find a therapist.
Yeah.
We went back to the White Elephant Sale.
We did.
We did.
We went on Not My President's Day.
Um.
Yeah.
I did not come home with a typewriter.
(03:56):
You did not.
We looked, but you did notcome home with a typewriter.
Not to say that there's not a typewritereventually in your future someday.
There just wasn't, wasn'tthe one for me there.
Yeah, I did get some paperfor my typewriter though.
You did.
Got some paper, got some cutelittle like coffee cup sets that
(04:18):
yeah
are like very mod, like whitewith like a red orange kind
of circular design on them.
Got a puzzle.
We did get a puzzle.
We got, we got a Hieronymus Bosch puzzle.
Yeah, it's the Garden of EarthlyDelights in jigsaw puzzle form.
Like, with a ridiculous amount of pieces.
(04:38):
Yeah, no, I'm lookingforward to doing that.
You know, it was a lotcalmer than the preview day.
It was.
There were definitely peoplethere, but it wasn't as frantic,
and I got some sheet music.
I got a record.
You did get a record.
Yeah, I got, it's, I just triedto glance at the record shelf,
but it's put away already.
(04:59):
I got a record of Son House, and it's,I pulled it out and looked at it.
It's in almost perfectcondition, which is amazing.
Yeah.
Especially for the age of that record.
Yeah.
It was like 80 bucks.
Like it was.
It was.
Maybe one of the mostwe've spent on a record.
But they're really hard to find,and I think Son House has a really
(05:21):
important place in music history.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, it was pretty cool.
I liked going, and I think, like, I'dlove to go to the preview sale again.
Yeah.
It was fun.
Yeah.
Reminder that we have a Patreon,patreon.com/eedapod, where
you can support us there.
(05:43):
As well as a bookshop affiliate site,which is, the link is available through
our website, eedapod.com, and up atthe top you could go to the bookshop
link where you can shop all kinds ofbooks that we have mentioned on the
show, and also books I've mentionedin my newsletter and elsewhere.
[Transition Music]
(06:09):
So today I was thinking that we wouldtalk about our kind of 2025 goals and
intentions with the acknowledgementthat it feels really weird to still
be thinking about goals right now.
(06:31):
Yeah, especially since it feelslike it has been, I don't know, five
years since we sent those goals?
Yeah, you know, I know that for a lotof people by this time of year, even
in quote unquote normal year, goalsmight have gone out the window already.
And I think it's important toremember that whatever those goals
(06:52):
were that we put into place wereor are for our own well being.
And ideally, if we are working towardssome of them, it's so that we, for ours
specifically, we feel more connected.
Revisiting them gives us anopportunity to really look at them
and see, are these still serving us?
(07:15):
Or if they need to be revisedor thrown out completely.
Remember, we're making our own rules here.
You don't have to keep something thattwo months ago you said you should have.
It's also a good time to think about ifthere's something new you want to add.
You know, reevaluate things.
(07:36):
I mean, this month starts on aSaturday, so it's a great time to
start at the beginning of a month.
If something's not workingfor you, feel free to drop it.
If there's something else that you justlearned about in the last two months
that you're really excited about,feel free to add it to your goals.
Well, and also, I think in the last twomonths, you know, things have changed and
(07:57):
oh gosh
right and people's focuses
yeah
may be less on some things and maybe theirfocuses are more on things like community
and activism and things like that.
And those are things youcould work into your goals.
Sometimes when, when everything feelslike chaos, chaotic, like there's not a
(08:17):
lot of control you have over the world,it's helpful to have anchors and these
goals or resolutions or your intentionsor whatever you have decided to call them,
they can act as these anchors and be kindof a something to hold on to, to bring you
(08:37):
back to where it is you want to be going.
And that's why it's important to thinkabout what ones are working for you, what
ones you've decided are less priority,and if there's new areas you want to be
focusing your intention on, feel free toset them as your new goals or intentions,
so that you have that place to return towhen you are feeling kind of lost in the
(09:04):
Adrift.
Adrift.
I was going to say stuck in thequagmire of whatever is going on.
Well, yeah, I was going to say thatI find just having them can help
unstick me if I'm feeling stuck.
The last couple of months I've beenclose to feeling frozen by overwhelm,
but having a plan, having an ideaof a plan in place helps keep me
(09:29):
doing things that I want to do.
Recognizing sometimes thething I want to do is rest.
So sometimes it's just like, uh, I feelstuck, I feel, you know, frozen in that
doom scrolling or things like that,and having a number of things I could
return to of what could I be doing now.
(09:49):
A reminder of what are these thingsthat either bring me joy or I want to be
working towards is really helpful and Ithink it's really important to remember
that your goals are meant to serve you.
You do not live in service to these goals.
(10:10):
If they are not workingfor you, get rid of them.
Find things that work for you.
Okay, so let's talk about some ofour intentions or whatever that
we set at the beginning of 2025.
Yeah.
One of ours was getting ouremergency packs put together
and attending first aid classes.
This is still a priority andmaking a little bit of progress.
(10:33):
I pulled out our, we have like emergencybackpacks with some basics in them
already that we've prepped before.
I've pulled them out.
I checked out what's in them.
We have some walkie talkies.
I made sure we have new rechargeablebatteries and I charged all those up.
I made sure the emergency foodbars in them is not expired.
(10:55):
Yep.
And also got like a second, we have theselike, they're kind of emergency batteries.
They're, they're larger batterypacks where you can actually plug
in USB and even they have likea wall outlet on them so you can
plug in regular electronics things.
I got us a second one and we had oneand it has a solar panel that we can
(11:17):
set up in the daytime to recharge them.
We get them because here in East Oakland?
Yep.
Southeast Oakland?
East Oakland.
East Oakland.
Uh, the power tends to go out sometimes.
It goes out a couple times a year, andit can be out for at least a couple
hours sometimes, and especially inthe summer when we don't have air
conditioning, it's It's helpful tohave things like this that we can
(11:39):
plug a fan into to help us cool off.
Yeah.
It's not only for, you know, thebig, the big bad emergencies, but
just like your regular, your regularemergencies, like the power going out.
Yeah.
Another one of the things I've talked alot about is learning how to crochet, you
know, that was one of my goals this year.
(12:00):
I did take two crochetclasses, and Nicole, you
attended the first one with me.
I did.
I made a little square.
We both made little squares.
I made a very wonky granny squarein the second one, and I have
a plan for continuing crochet.
(12:21):
I had started a little amigurumi dinosaurset that I want to finish, and has like
a video and a pattern and all that.
You know, you've probably, if youare a person in the U.S., you've
probably seen the ads for the Woobles.
It's one of those.
And my plan is to sit and do that.
(12:42):
What I'm running into is themaking the time to do it.
That seems to be like the biggestchallenge for a lot of our goals
absolutely
is the time
mm hmm
aspect.
mm hmm
Speaking of trying to find the timefor things, one of our goals, our
together goals, things to do togetherwas to read an Octavia Butler series.
(13:05):
I think the first step, which we havenot fully taken yet, is to pick one.
Yeah.
I did a little looking intothis in prep for this show.
We seem to mostly be readingher catalogue backwards.
We've read the Parable books.
We've both read Fledgling.
We did both read Kindred,which was an earlier book.
I also read Bloodchild.
(13:26):
Oh, you did read Bloodchild.
Yeah, we have it on the shelf.
Oh, I should read that.
I've looked at a bunch of herarticles when I made your thing.
Yeah, that's true.
But the next, if we're going kind of inreverse chronological order, the next
series would be the Xenogenesis Trilogy,which might be a good place to start.
Three books.
Maybe a little more manageable thanthe other major series she wrote,
(13:48):
which was the Patternist series,which I think technically has five
books, but one of them was withdrawnfrom publication by the author.
Yeah, maybe I think thatsounds like a good idea.
I think we just need to figureout when are we starting.
Yeah.
When, but three soundsmore manageable than four
absolutely
in our reading schedules, especially you.
(14:09):
Especially me.
Um, you know, one of the things wetalk about, I mean, we talk about it
every year, but we're actually gettinginto it this year is decluttering.
Especially because we have a massiveamount of my mother's stuff here.
You know, decluttering, whether it'syour own stuff, whether it is the stuff
(14:32):
of a loved one who has passed away,it can be a very emotional process.
And that's one of the things thatcan keep people from doing it.
And I actually started a newsletter, it'sa free newsletter, I call it Optimistic
Hoarder, where I'm going through mymother's boxes, one box at a time,
(14:58):
and trying to make sense of things.
She, she was that, shewas an optimistic hoarder.
And, you know, it, I feel likesome kind of low budget, Indiana
Jones going through these things.
Uh, I never know what I'm goingto find and it has been a process,
(15:20):
I think, I would like to bemoving through things faster.
I think the issue is not only likebandwidth, but again, finding time.
Finding the time.
Finding the time.
You know, like I mentioned my newtherapist, one of her specialties
or one of her focuses is OCD andhoarding is a big part of OCD.
(15:41):
You know, we have our own boxes of stuff.
It's mostly my stuff.
And it's not garbage, whichI think is part of the issue.
It's not like just boxes of garbage.
I'm almost obsessive aboutopening mail, so it's not that.
It's not necessarily thingsthat need to be thrown out.
There are a lot of decisions that needto be made of what to do with things.
(16:06):
Do I still like this thing?
Am I going to still use this thing?
If we get rid of it, are we going tosell it or are we going to give it away?
If we give it away, is it goingto be donated or do I give it
away on the buy nothing group?
But I think there are some decisionswe can make at the beginning to
help take that constant decisionmaking out of the process.
(16:31):
I recently read a book, the title'sGentle and I can't remember like the,
the subtitle, like the rest of the title.
But it's by Courtney Carver,who writes Be More With Less.
The book just came out.
I'll link it in the show notes.
And only in, part of the book shetalks about decluttering stuff.
And when she and her husband weredoing that, they came up with
(16:54):
a kind of parameter, which isif they could get 50 dollars or
more from it, they would sell it.
If it was under 50 bucks,it would get donated.
And so making that decision up fronthelped alleviate some of the decision
fatigue of working through things.
Yeah.
I'm trying to think of like,would it be helpful to have like
(17:15):
three boxes initially, like actualphysical boxes set up of like, keep
it, think about it, get rid of it.
And then you take the get rid of it stuff.
Over to where there's two more boxes.
It's like an assembly line then and youjust like look at it and be like I feel
like I could get X number of dollars or Idon't and then you just kind of split it.
Yeah, I wonder.
(17:37):
So having actually a physicalplace to put the things to.
Mm hmm.
May be helpful not and I'mliterally just thinking of this
on the fly right now, but like
could be
like a way to help process it soit's not just unpack a box and
then have to like cobble togetherlike groups or piles of things.
Yeah, I'll have to think about thatbecause part of me is like, a lot of me
(18:01):
thinks that makes sense, and a lot ofme is like, I don't want yet more boxes.
I don't just want to be movingfrom one box into three boxes.
Yeah.
Um, but I think also setting upparameters around if I'm selling stuff.
You know, my mother had been given oneof these Squishmallows, the, the big
(18:25):
plushies, and it still has the tags on it.
It is perfectly, like, perfect condition.
And I learned that it's going for likehundreds of dollars on the internet,
because people collect these things.
So, I think I also need to setparameters around like, if I find
something, it needs to be posted oneBay or what have you within the week.
(18:47):
Yeah, that is a bit of labor too though,of looking up to see if it is even
worth getting that much money for.
Yeah
Like, cause we didn't know.
We didn't know, yeah.
Well, I had originally lookedit up when I unpacked it, and it
wasn't on the internet, and thenI posted it in a Facebook group,
and someone responded to me.
She's like, you might notwant to give this away.
(19:08):
It's worth hundreds of dollars.
So,
Which is wild.
Which is wild.
But anyway, you know, I think eitheryou know what you're doing, like some
people are out here, very neurotypical,like, what do you mean decluttering?
You can just get rid ofthings or, or what have you.
And then there are some of uswho just recognize the both joys
(19:33):
and burdens of having stuff.
So just, if you're one of those people,just say, I see you, I'm with you.
It is an emotional process andwe'll go through it together.
And I'll link my other newsletterin the show notes too, if you're
interested in being nosy about all thesethings I'm finding in my mom's boxes.
(19:53):
One of our goals was to schedule a timeeach month to talk about our goals.
Well, but also to look atthe whole month calendar
Yes, yes.
And schedule the month.
It's also for like planning on whenwe're going to work on the goals
and planning for when we're goingto talk about them the next time.
We set this at the beginning of Januaryand it didn't happen in January.
(20:18):
At all.
It kind of happened in January, like,Inauguration just derailed everything.
Yeah, January kind of turned into, like,A Mess, like, capital M E S S, mess.
Mhm.
And that really derailedus for a little while.
We, uh, we just, a lot of stuffdidn't happen for a couple of weeks.
(20:40):
Oof.
Yeah.
Gettin back to it, this is part ofit, and also today is the first of a
month, so we really should sit downand look at the calendar together and
look at what our month is gonna be.
Absolutely.
And we should also post on Patreonour check in for everyone, too.
Oh yeah.
One of our really big goals thatactually I think we've been doing a
(21:01):
great job at is being more social.
And one of them was hostingguests once a month.
We didn't do that in Januarybecause scheduling was weird.
However, we have been outto dinner with friends.
We did host friends in February.
I went to campus and had likecoffee and lunch with mentees.
(21:21):
We went to that French vintage marketand we asked our friend to go with us.
And so we took her and we went to that.
I think we're doing a fairlygood job at being social.
You've gone to a meetup.
Yeah, I think we're, we'redoing pretty good at it.
February was really, really good at it.
Yeah.
It does take some effort to, like,plan and schedule these things,
(21:42):
but what we're finding is thatit, it really fills our cups.
Yeah, I think what we getout of it is worth the effort
yeah
we put into it.
Yeah, definitely.
You know, I did talk about,um, one of our goals being
leveling up this podcast, right?
Finding a way to maybe make itweekly, finding some things to
(22:06):
add another paid tier, as well asmore paid content on the Patreon.
We have a long list of ideas, whatwe are bumping up against is time.
When are we going to do these things?
What are the balls that need todrop so that we could pick up the
(22:29):
ones of doing more with this show?
This is starting to soundlike a recurrent theme.
We have more than we... More thingswe want to do and more goals and
plans have the time and energy for.
Yeah, and so I think it comesdown to re-evaluating, like,
how am I spending my time?
(22:50):
And not that every momentneeds to be filled with
productivity or things like that.
Oh gosh, no.
But it's like, even if that time, like,some of these things are rest, right?
Some of these things Iwant to be doing are rest.
And.
If I am scrolling the horrors on my phone,is that time that could be better used?
(23:12):
Even just sitting here withmy eyes shut, honestly, right?
It doesn't have to be likesuper productivity, like it
could just be quiet time.
mm hmm
It could be singing.
It could be piano.
It could be crochet.
Or it could be writing mail.
It could be podcast stuff.
But I think really looking athow I'm using my time, and is
(23:35):
what I'm doing bringing me joy?
Or should you delegate it to Oscar?
Delegate it to Oscar.
One of mine was to get more involved withthe Patreon, the show's Patreon, start
making a little of my presence there.
I have started participating inwriting our weekly check-ins.
So I am there.
(23:55):
I think I can stillmake more of an effort.
I've, I've not been very goodabout participating in the comment
discussions and sections, so I can try.
Maybe that's March.
Maybe that's March.
We'll see.
You know, one of my things that Iknow fills my cup is learning piano
and learning a song on the ukulele.
(24:18):
I haven't done that.
However, again, I'mtrying to find my on ramp.
I'm trying to find a way that makes thisnot feel like a slog and feels more fun.
I did, you know what?
I was like, why don't I givemyself an easy win with piano?
So I bought some sheet music onthe internet and they send you a
(24:41):
PDF and then you can print it out.
So we went to the library and printedout sheet music of some really
easy piano songs, like easy songs.
I'm working on taking my pencil and likelooking through the music and seeing what
I remember because I know just enoughpiano to be able to work things out.
If they are easy enough.
(25:01):
So some songs I already know andreally just like learning the
songs and seeing how it goes.
Another thing though, is I havebeen trying to just sing more.
I do have an entire playlist on Spotify,but I'm gonna, we're probably going to
move away from Spotify, but an entireplaylist of songs I like to sing.
(25:27):
And so I've been doing, I was singingwhile I was cooking the other day,
but I've also been doing some ofthat during my breaks during the
work day when Nicole's not home so Idon't bother her when she's working.
Is this a playlist you made or?
I made.
Will you share it?
Of all the songs I like to sing?
Yeah.
It's not of me singing.
(25:47):
I know, but maybe people want tolisten to the songs you like to sing.
Okay, it's a lot of musicals.
I'm sure we have musicals fans.
That's fair.
Okay, I could, I could share it.
This is kind of likePatricia's Greatest Hits.
[Laughing]
One of mine was workingon an exercise plan.
I was actually getting into it.
(26:10):
Those first three weeks of January,you were solid, moving, but also,
then you were sleeping well.
I was sleeping well.
There was one time I did some,like, I really exercised, like,
I, I came up near my limit.
I didn't push too hard, but I just,I got a good, a good exercise in,
mm hmm
I guess.
I felt so good after,like, I, I was so mad.
(26:33):
I had so much more energy and everything.
I was so mad about it, um,
[Laughing]
I know it seems like fake news, right?
Yeah,
[Laughing]
and I was enjoying it.
I did push myself too hard one time.
I almost had an asthma attack.
I had to climb off thebike, sit on the floor.
I got you water and a fan.
(26:55):
Yeah, it was not good.
And I gave you dirty looks.
Yeah,
yep
you did.
You gave me a
I did
lot of dirty looks.
Yep.
I tried.
I tried too hard.
mm hmm
But also I've been working way toohard lately and it has completely
been draining me and so I haven'thad the time or the energy or the
(27:15):
will to get on the bike again.
That should be getting better soon,and I hope to get back into it.
Yeah.
One of my other goals for this year,which was part of decluttering,
is to read 15 physical books.
You know, I read a lot of audiobooks,I get a lot of advanced copies, both
in physical form as well as ebooks.
(27:37):
And some of the physical bookswe have, I want to read them so
then I could get rid of them.
I could either sell themat the used bookstore.
I could put them in a little freelibrary or something like that.
But I need to read them first.
So I have read already maybe threeor four physical books this year.
(27:57):
I have a little bookmark I'musing to track my physical books.
And also part of this though is gettingback to not looking at my phone after 9pm,
so I could stand to be better at that.
I'm kind of like 50 percent at that.
Some nights I'm good, some nights I'm bad.
(28:17):
Yeah, we're working on findingways to help with that.
Yeah, sometimes I don't even realize it's
yeah
after 9, so I think one of themmight just be like, set a reminder.
Yeah, might just have a reminder, sosomething pops up and is like, stop it.
Knock it off.
My highly dreamed of, uh,fancy mail, um, project.
(28:38):
I have yet to get a mail out, but Idid take an important step in that,
uh, I, I finally got the photo printerhooked back up and I got it set
up, connected to the Wi Fi so I canprint to it straight from my laptop.
And I even printed off somepictures to get ready to send,
so I'm, I'm making steps.
(29:00):
Yeah, I had a mail goal to of writeone piece of mail a week, at least,
and I think I've averaged that.
I found that I was tracking it.
But I've actually been kindof crap at tracking it.
You know, the tracking section in ourplanners is on a different page than
(29:20):
like that weekly space that we have open.
You know, there's like a habit trackerup at the front or what have you.
And so I think I just need to trackit on the pages we have open, right?
And it's either, you know, I havea little mail rubber stamp, maybe
I just stamp the day, right?
I don't have to use theofficial habit tracker.
(29:43):
Again, the planner is there to serveus, uh, we don't serve the planner.
We could use it any way we want to.
So.
What if you put the little envelopestamps on each day and colored
them in when you sent the mail?
Oh, but it's only onea week, not one a day.
Oh, okay.
But could do that, too.
(30:04):
Yeah
If I get good at one a week, who knows?
Yeah.
One of mine was to hangup art around the home.
Uh, I have not hung upany art around the home.
But, we did purchase some frames.
So, that was a good first step.
I am now feeling intimidated by thenext step of picking out what art
(30:24):
goes into the frames and then takingthe frames to get glass and matting
and backing and everything else.
So I've talked to you Patricia aboutthis a little bit about maybe this is
the next step is a do it together step.
Yeah, I think it should be a teamproject, especially since I used
to work in a custom framing shop.
Yeah, whereas I'm just like oh my goshthe idea of getting all these frames
(30:45):
out of the bag and like [exhale]
Yeah.
Yeah, no, we'll do it together.
We'll make a project.
We'll like clean up the living roomfloor and we'll lay everything out.
Yeah.
It'll be fine.
Finally, last time we talked about goals,I mentioned I picked kind of three words,
three themes for the year that a lotof my goals fit into, and those were
(31:06):
connection, creation, and reclamation.
Connection, we definitely talked about notonly hanging out with people in person,
but I've been trying to text people more.
I found the long text with like,were making my thumbs tired
and were making my hands hurt.
So I've actually been leavinga lot of voice notes lately.
(31:28):
I, I love this idea and Iwant to try doing it more.
I think it's fun getting theselittle voice notes, so, I don't
know, I might try sending someto friends and see what happens.
Yeah, sure.
I, you know, one of my friends, weleave voice notes back and forth, but
another one of my friends will sendreally long texts with really big
(31:49):
questions about things like separatingart from the artist or something like
that, and I'm like, you know what,I'm not gonna have this conversation,
like, texting, with my thumbs.
So I'm just gonna leave you,like, three 40 second voice notes.
So that was connection.
Another one of my words was creation.
You know, when I chose thisword, I was thinking like, oh,
(32:11):
music, crochet, snail mail.
But actually, where this hasbeen popping up has been food.
I've been making some new recipes.
I cooked chickpeas from scratch,and then I made my own hummus.
I also made like a curry chickpearice situation that you really liked.
(32:32):
I also made Mexican rice fromscratch, which one, was surprisingly
easy, and two, turned out amazing.
Like, rivaling any restaurant.
Like, so good.
And kind of dangerously easy, becausenow I want to make it all the time.
(32:52):
Oh, is this the day...?
This was also the first time youmade rice on the stove successfully.
Yes.
No, I made the curry ricewas on the stove too.
Was it?
Oh, but maybe that wasn't successful.
That was a little underdone.
yeah
That was a little underdone.
Yeah, because I'm, I'm a rice cooker girl.
I'm Filipino.
I'm a rice cooker girl.
So, yeah, it was, it was great.
(33:15):
I, I want to make it again already.
And the other word was reclamation.
Returning to those things I usedto love about myself, or those
things I used to love to do.
So one of those was archery, which Ihaven't done yet, because, you know,
time, like we were talking about.
Although I did do some researchand found a place to go.
But one of the ways this has beenpopping up is we have watched a few
(33:37):
documentaries and I had forgottenhow much I love documentaries.
Which makes sense becauseI read a lot of nonfiction.
So again, having these words, andyou could pick a word now, you could
pick a word at any time, but again,it helps by being my North Star.
It helps by giving me focus and direction.
(33:58):
[Transition Music]
Ah, well.
Again, that was a lot, like we do.
Like we do.
What do you want people totake away from this episode?
I say, revisit your goals withcuriosity, you know, not looking to
(34:22):
shame yourself, not looking to beatyourself up, looking at them with
a, huh, does this still work for me?
Who made this goal?
And remembering that, I've said thisa couple times already, your goals
serve you, you do not serve them.
Nicole, what's yourtakeaway for this week?
(34:43):
I think it's important to remember thatnot all goals are successful immediately,
and not all need to have even started yet.
It's okay to still be looking for youron ramp or deciding that some goals just
aren't going to be quickly successful.
Yeah, I think it's also, you know,we didn't mention this, but it's
(35:04):
also okay to say like, you know what,this one's not happening until the
second half of the year, push itout to July or something like that.
Yeah.
Well, that's all the goals talk.
What has been filling yourcup this last week or two?
Um, hanging out with people.
Friends, new and old.
[Chuckle]
Uh, it's been really great.
(35:26):
And as much as I tend to be introverted,as much as I just wanna hole up
in our home and just curl up witha book and hide under a blanket.
I'm coming to terms with how much,how good it is for us to be peopling.
(35:49):
And then the other thing is that thepink lemons from my tree are delicious.
They're such good lemons.
I don't know.
They're... and, and maybe I'm biased.
Maybe it's just because, like,we, we got this tree when it
was tiny and now we have lemons.
But I don't know.
They seem really good.
(36:09):
They are really good.
When you just mentioned this, my brainwanted to call them professional lemons.
Professional.
Because they're that good at being lemons.
They're so good and lemony.
They're professional lemons.
Ah, business lemons.
No, I don't think they're business lemons.
They're not business lemons?
No.
Just professional lemons.
Yeah.
Okay.
(36:30):
Nicole, what's filling your cup?
The plants are growing, as Imentioned at the top of the show.
mm hmm
Which means I can go visit them and hangout with them, talk to them, pet them.
I don't know.
It's just really nice.
As I mentioned, I'm working way toomuch lately, so taking some plant
breaks has been really good for me.
(36:51):
mm hmm mm hmm
Step out and tinker with the plants,or even the indoor plants, some of
them are incredibly happy right now.
Yeah, you've, you've been taking such goodcare of our plants, and I appreciate you.
They bring me a lot of joy.
Well, that's our show for today.
We'd like to thank our awesomeaudio editor, Jen Zink.
(37:14):
You can find her at loopdilou.com.
We'll leave a link tothat in our show notes.
You can find the full show notesand transcript at eedapod.com,
that's E E D A P O D dot com.
There you can also find a link to ourPatreon, our Bookshop link, and a link
to the ongoing Enthusiastic Encouragementand Dubious Advice newsletter.
(37:34):
You can also find us on Instagram andBlueSky at just eedapod, not dot com.
[laugh]
and email us at eedapod@gmail.com.
We are nothing if not consistent.
We would also appreciate it so much ifyou would subscribe and rate us on Apple
Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you getyour podcasts that allow for ratings.
(37:55):
It really goes far inhelping other people find us.
We would also appreciate anyonewho can subscribe to us on Patreon.
Support is going to help us keep thisshow going, especially without ads.
You can find us at patreon.com/eedapod.
In the meantime, we hope youfind ways to be kind to yourself.
Drink some water and read a book.
(38:16):
We'll be talking to you soon.
Let's get whimsical.
Let's get whimsical, whimsical.
[Laughing]
Pink lemon tree.
[Quietley Laughing]
We get our lemons fromthe pink lemon tree.
(38:38):
Um, that's one of the songs Igot for easy piano, by the way.
Really?
Yeah?
The pink lemon tree song?
Yeah!
[Intro Music]
(00:15):
Hey there, cavatappi!
Welcome to Enthusiastic Encouragementand Dubious Advice, the podcast for
folks who would rather curl intothe fetal position than lean in.
I'm your host, Patricia Elzie-Tuttle.
And I'm someone the federalgovernment doesn't believe
exists, I'm Nicole Elzie-Tuttle.
We're recording thisshow on March 1st, 2025.
It's March!
(00:36):
It's March.
Which you think is spring.
Yeah, March is a spring month.
It's in the name.
Spring doesn't start forlike almost three weeks.
No, but listen to the name, March.
It sounds like a spring month.
It's not cold.
[Guffaw] That makes nosense to me, but okay.
I'm sure there are otherpeople that will agree with me.
March is a spring month.
Hm.
(00:57):
Have we told them about the seasons?
I think you've told, like, your seasons.
Yeah.
Your seasons run on vibes.
Yeah.
The plants are growing.
The plants are growing.
We'll get to that later.
We recently watched a documentary,another one on a documentary kick.
Butterfly in the Sky, theReading Rainbow documentary.
(01:20):
Oh, y'all.
I cried through the whole thing.
Yeah, it got me at the end.
Yeah, uh, we were just talking abouthow, in retrospect, I was like, oh,
this show has shaped so much of whoI am, and on the other podcast I'm
on, on All The Books, I really amjust channeling my inner book review
(01:41):
kid, like, have I got a book for you?
Yeah, and I know it's been said inother places, and we may have even
said it here, but really, LeVarBurton is an absolute treasure.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I feel so fortunate to be aliveat the same time as LeVar Burton.
(02:01):
Aww.
Also, since therapy is a thing we talkabout on the show, I wanna share that
I'm going through those awkward stagesof getting to know a new therapist.
My old therapist, amazing, phenomenal,wonderful, and she's changing the way
how she's doing her practice, which isa way that isn't going to work for me.
(02:25):
So I have found a new person, it wasactually someone recommended by my
old therapist, who focuses on, um,some things I haven't yet worked
on with myself, which is my OCD.
And so, you know, getting toknow a new therapist is awkward.
I think there's no timeline in which itever feels, like, super normal for anyone.
(02:49):
So if you are also looking to get atherapist, just know, even for those
of us who have been in therapy fora long time, it's kind of awkward.
There, there might be growingpains, but hopefully it's worth it.
Yeah.
I don't know if people know that,that, like, you can, if you're needing
to change therapists, or if youhave someone in your life who has a
therapist, and for, for similar thingsthat you are wanting to seek therapy
(03:14):
for, you can ask for a recommendation.
Yeah!
Yeah, usually therapists have, you know,circles of practice, they know other
people, other therapists, obviously.
And they could reach out and say,hey, I have someone here who's
looking to work on this thing.
They have XYZ insurance or, orthey're paying out of pocket.
(03:34):
You know, and who has spaceand who's up for hearing from
this person or who's available.
Referrals is a greatway to find a therapist.
Yeah.
We went back to the White Elephant Sale.
We did.
We did.
We went on Not My President's Day.
Um.
Yeah.
I did not come home with a typewriter.
(03:56):
You did not.
We looked, but you did notcome home with a typewriter.
Not to say that there's not a typewritereventually in your future someday.
There just wasn't, wasn'tthe one for me there.
Yeah, I did get some paperfor my typewriter though.
You did.
Got some paper, got some cutelittle like coffee cup sets that
(04:18):
yeah
are like very mod, like whitewith like a red orange kind
of circular design on them.
Got a puzzle.
We did get a puzzle.
We got, we got a Hieronymus Bosch puzzle.
Yeah, it's the Garden of EarthlyDelights in jigsaw puzzle form.
Like, with a ridiculous amount of pieces.
(04:38):
Yeah, no, I'm lookingforward to doing that.
You know, it was a lotcalmer than the preview day.
It was.
There were definitely peoplethere, but it wasn't as frantic,
and I got some sheet music.
I got a record.
You did get a record.
Yeah, I got, it's, I just triedto glance at the record shelf,
but it's put away already.
(04:59):
I got a record of Son House, and it's,I pulled it out and looked at it.
It's in almost perfectcondition, which is amazing.
Yeah.
Especially for the age of that record.
Yeah.
It was like 80 bucks.
Like it was.
It was.
Maybe one of the mostwe've spent on a record.
But they're really hard to find,and I think Son House has a really
(05:21):
important place in music history.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, it was pretty cool.
I liked going, and I think, like, I'dlove to go to the preview sale again.
Yeah.
It was fun.
Yeah.
Reminder that we have a Patreon,patreon.com/eedapod, where
you can support us there.
(05:43):
As well as a bookshop affiliate site,which is, the link is available through
our website, eedapod.com, and up atthe top you could go to the bookshop
link where you can shop all kinds ofbooks that we have mentioned on the
show, and also books I've mentionedin my newsletter and elsewhere.
[Transition Music]
(06:09):
So today I was thinking that we wouldtalk about our kind of 2025 goals and
intentions with the acknowledgementthat it feels really weird to still
be thinking about goals right now.
(06:31):
Yeah, especially since it feelslike it has been, I don't know, five
years since we sent those goals?
Yeah, you know, I know that for a lotof people by this time of year, even
in quote unquote normal year, goalsmight have gone out the window already.
And I think it's important toremember that whatever those goals
(06:52):
were that we put into place wereor are for our own well being.
And ideally, if we are working towardssome of them, it's so that we, for ours
specifically, we feel more connected.
Revisiting them gives us anopportunity to really look at them
and see, are these still serving us?
(07:15):
Or if they need to be revisedor thrown out completely.
Remember, we're making our own rules here.
You don't have to keep something thattwo months ago you said you should have.
It's also a good time to think about ifthere's something new you want to add.
You know, reevaluate things.
(07:36):
I mean, this month starts on aSaturday, so it's a great time to
start at the beginning of a month.
If something's not workingfor you, feel free to drop it.
If there's something else that you justlearned about in the last two months
that you're really excited about,feel free to add it to your goals.
Well, and also, I think in the last twomonths, you know, things have changed and
(07:57):
oh gosh
right and people's focuses
yeah
may be less on some things and maybe theirfocuses are more on things like community
and activism and things like that.
And those are things youcould work into your goals.
Sometimes when, when everything feelslike chaos, chaotic, like there's not a
(08:17):
lot of control you have over the world,it's helpful to have anchors and these
goals or resolutions or your intentionsor whatever you have decided to call them,
they can act as these anchors and be kindof a something to hold on to, to bring you
(08:37):
back to where it is you want to be going.
And that's why it's important to thinkabout what ones are working for you, what
ones you've decided are less priority,and if there's new areas you want to be
focusing your intention on, feel free toset them as your new goals or intentions,
so that you have that place to return towhen you are feeling kind of lost in the
(09:04):
Adrift.
Adrift.
I was going to say stuck in thequagmire of whatever is going on.
Well, yeah, I was going to say thatI find just having them can help
unstick me if I'm feeling stuck.
The last couple of months I've beenclose to feeling frozen by overwhelm,
but having a plan, having an ideaof a plan in place helps keep me
(09:29):
doing things that I want to do.
Recognizing sometimes thething I want to do is rest.
So sometimes it's just like, uh, I feelstuck, I feel, you know, frozen in that
doom scrolling or things like that,and having a number of things I could
return to of what could I be doing now.
(09:49):
A reminder of what are these thingsthat either bring me joy or I want to be
working towards is really helpful and Ithink it's really important to remember
that your goals are meant to serve you.
You do not live in service to these goals.
(10:10):
If they are not workingfor you, get rid of them.
Find things that work for you.
Okay, so let's talk about some ofour intentions or whatever that
we set at the beginning of 2025.
Yeah.
One of ours was getting ouremergency packs put together
and attending first aid classes.
This is still a priority andmaking a little bit of progress.
(10:33):
I pulled out our, we have like emergencybackpacks with some basics in them
already that we've prepped before.
I've pulled them out.
I checked out what's in them.
We have some walkie talkies.
I made sure we have new rechargeablebatteries and I charged all those up.
I made sure the emergency foodbars in them is not expired.
(10:55):
Yep.
And also got like a second, we have theselike, they're kind of emergency batteries.
They're, they're larger batterypacks where you can actually plug
in USB and even they have likea wall outlet on them so you can
plug in regular electronics things.
I got us a second one and we had oneand it has a solar panel that we can
(11:17):
set up in the daytime to recharge them.
We get them because here in East Oakland?
Yep.
Southeast Oakland?
East Oakland.
East Oakland.
Uh, the power tends to go out sometimes.
It goes out a couple times a year, andit can be out for at least a couple
hours sometimes, and especially inthe summer when we don't have air
conditioning, it's It's helpful tohave things like this that we can
(11:39):
plug a fan into to help us cool off.
Yeah.
It's not only for, you know, thebig, the big bad emergencies, but
just like your regular, your regularemergencies, like the power going out.
Yeah.
Another one of the things I've talked alot about is learning how to crochet, you
know, that was one of my goals this year.
(12:00):
I did take two crochetclasses, and Nicole, you
attended the first one with me.
I did.
I made a little square.
We both made little squares.
I made a very wonky granny squarein the second one, and I have
a plan for continuing crochet.
(12:21):
I had started a little amigurumi dinosaurset that I want to finish, and has like
a video and a pattern and all that.
You know, you've probably, if youare a person in the U.S., you've
probably seen the ads for the Woobles.
It's one of those.
And my plan is to sit and do that.
(12:42):
What I'm running into is themaking the time to do it.
That seems to be like the biggestchallenge for a lot of our goals
absolutely
is the time
mm hmm
aspect.
mm hmm
Speaking of trying to find the timefor things, one of our goals, our
together goals, things to do togetherwas to read an Octavia Butler series.
(13:05):
I think the first step, which we havenot fully taken yet, is to pick one.
Yeah.
I did a little looking intothis in prep for this show.
We seem to mostly be readingher catalogue backwards.
We've read the Parable books.
We've both read Fledgling.
We did both read Kindred,which was an earlier book.
I also read Bloodchild.
(13:26):
Oh, you did read Bloodchild.
Yeah, we have it on the shelf.
Oh, I should read that.
I've looked at a bunch of herarticles when I made your thing.
Yeah, that's true.
But the next, if we're going kind of inreverse chronological order, the next
series would be the Xenogenesis Trilogy,which might be a good place to start.
Three books.
Maybe a little more manageable thanthe other major series she wrote,
(13:48):
which was the Patternist series,which I think technically has five
books, but one of them was withdrawnfrom publication by the author.
Yeah, maybe I think thatsounds like a good idea.
I think we just need to figureout when are we starting.
Yeah.
When, but three soundsmore manageable than four
absolutely
in our reading schedules, especially you.
(14:09):
Especially me.
Um, you know, one of the things wetalk about, I mean, we talk about it
every year, but we're actually gettinginto it this year is decluttering.
Especially because we have a massiveamount of my mother's stuff here.
You know, decluttering, whether it'syour own stuff, whether it is the stuff
(14:32):
of a loved one who has passed away,it can be a very emotional process.
And that's one of the things thatcan keep people from doing it.
And I actually started a newsletter, it'sa free newsletter, I call it Optimistic
Hoarder, where I'm going through mymother's boxes, one box at a time,
(14:58):
and trying to make sense of things.
She, she was that, shewas an optimistic hoarder.
And, you know, it, I feel likesome kind of low budget, Indiana
Jones going through these things.
Uh, I never know what I'm goingto find and it has been a process,
(15:20):
I think, I would like to bemoving through things faster.
I think the issue is not only likebandwidth, but again, finding time.
Finding the time.
Finding the time.
You know, like I mentioned my newtherapist, one of her specialties
or one of her focuses is OCD andhoarding is a big part of OCD.
(15:41):
You know, we have our own boxes of stuff.
It's mostly my stuff.
And it's not garbage, whichI think is part of the issue.
It's not like just boxes of garbage.
I'm almost obsessive aboutopening mail, so it's not that.
It's not necessarily thingsthat need to be thrown out.
There are a lot of decisions that needto be made of what to do with things.
(16:06):
Do I still like this thing?
Am I going to still use this thing?
If we get rid of it, are we going tosell it or are we going to give it away?
If we give it away, is it goingto be donated or do I give it
away on the buy nothing group?
But I think there are some decisionswe can make at the beginning to
help take that constant decisionmaking out of the process.
(16:31):
I recently read a book, the title'sGentle and I can't remember like the,
the subtitle, like the rest of the title.
But it's by Courtney Carver,who writes Be More With Less.
The book just came out.
I'll link it in the show notes.
And only in, part of the book shetalks about decluttering stuff.
And when she and her husband weredoing that, they came up with
(16:54):
a kind of parameter, which isif they could get 50 dollars or
more from it, they would sell it.
If it was under 50 bucks,it would get donated.
And so making that decision up fronthelped alleviate some of the decision
fatigue of working through things.
Yeah.
I'm trying to think of like,would it be helpful to have like
(17:15):
three boxes initially, like actualphysical boxes set up of like, keep
it, think about it, get rid of it.
And then you take the get rid of it stuff.
Over to where there's two more boxes.
It's like an assembly line then and youjust like look at it and be like I feel
like I could get X number of dollars or Idon't and then you just kind of split it.
Yeah, I wonder.
(17:37):
So having actually a physicalplace to put the things to.
Mm hmm.
May be helpful not and I'mliterally just thinking of this
on the fly right now, but like
could be
like a way to help process it soit's not just unpack a box and
then have to like cobble togetherlike groups or piles of things.
Yeah, I'll have to think about thatbecause part of me is like, a lot of me
(18:01):
thinks that makes sense, and a lot ofme is like, I don't want yet more boxes.
I don't just want to be movingfrom one box into three boxes.
Yeah.
Um, but I think also setting upparameters around if I'm selling stuff.
You know, my mother had been given oneof these Squishmallows, the, the big
(18:25):
plushies, and it still has the tags on it.
It is perfectly, like, perfect condition.
And I learned that it's going for likehundreds of dollars on the internet,
because people collect these things.
So, I think I also need to setparameters around like, if I find
something, it needs to be posted oneBay or what have you within the week.
(18:47):
Yeah, that is a bit of labor too though,of looking up to see if it is even
worth getting that much money for.
Yeah
Like, cause we didn't know.
We didn't know, yeah.
Well, I had originally lookedit up when I unpacked it, and it
wasn't on the internet, and thenI posted it in a Facebook group,
and someone responded to me.
She's like, you might notwant to give this away.
(19:08):
It's worth hundreds of dollars.
So,
Which is wild.
Which is wild.
But anyway, you know, I think eitheryou know what you're doing, like some
people are out here, very neurotypical,like, what do you mean decluttering?
You can just get rid ofthings or, or what have you.
And then there are some of uswho just recognize the both joys
(19:33):
and burdens of having stuff.
So just, if you're one of those people,just say, I see you, I'm with you.
It is an emotional process andwe'll go through it together.
And I'll link my other newsletterin the show notes too, if you're
interested in being nosy about all thesethings I'm finding in my mom's boxes.
(19:53):
One of our goals was to schedule a timeeach month to talk about our goals.
Well, but also to look atthe whole month calendar
Yes, yes.
And schedule the month.
It's also for like planning on whenwe're going to work on the goals
and planning for when we're goingto talk about them the next time.
We set this at the beginning of Januaryand it didn't happen in January.
(20:18):
At all.
It kind of happened in January, like,Inauguration just derailed everything.
Yeah, January kind of turned into, like,A Mess, like, capital M E S S, mess.
Mhm.
And that really derailedus for a little while.
We, uh, we just, a lot of stuffdidn't happen for a couple of weeks.
(20:40):
Oof.
Yeah.
Gettin back to it, this is part ofit, and also today is the first of a
month, so we really should sit downand look at the calendar together and
look at what our month is gonna be.
Absolutely.
And we should also post on Patreonour check in for everyone, too.
Oh yeah.
One of our really big goals thatactually I think we've been doing a
(21:01):
great job at is being more social.
And one of them was hostingguests once a month.
We didn't do that in Januarybecause scheduling was weird.
However, we have been outto dinner with friends.
We did host friends in February.
I went to campus and had likecoffee and lunch with mentees.
(21:21):
We went to that French vintage marketand we asked our friend to go with us.
And so we took her and we went to that.
I think we're doing a fairlygood job at being social.
You've gone to a meetup.
Yeah, I think we're, we'redoing pretty good at it.
February was really, really good at it.
Yeah.
It does take some effort to, like,plan and schedule these things,
(21:42):
but what we're finding is thatit, it really fills our cups.
Yeah, I think what we getout of it is worth the effort
yeah
we put into it.
Yeah, definitely.
You know, I did talk about,um, one of our goals being
leveling up this podcast, right?
Finding a way to maybe make itweekly, finding some things to
(22:06):
add another paid tier, as well asmore paid content on the Patreon.
We have a long list of ideas, whatwe are bumping up against is time.
When are we going to do these things?
What are the balls that need todrop so that we could pick up the
(22:29):
ones of doing more with this show?
This is starting to soundlike a recurrent theme.
We have more than we... More thingswe want to do and more goals and
plans have the time and energy for.
Yeah, and so I think it comesdown to re-evaluating, like,
how am I spending my time?
(22:50):
And not that every momentneeds to be filled with
productivity or things like that.
Oh gosh, no.
But it's like, even if that time, like,some of these things are rest, right?
Some of these things Iwant to be doing are rest.
And.
If I am scrolling the horrors on my phone,is that time that could be better used?
(23:12):
Even just sitting here withmy eyes shut, honestly, right?
It doesn't have to be likesuper productivity, like it
could just be quiet time.
mm hmm
It could be singing.
It could be piano.
It could be crochet.
Or it could be writing mail.
It could be podcast stuff.
But I think really looking athow I'm using my time, and is
(23:35):
what I'm doing bringing me joy?
Or should you delegate it to Oscar?
Delegate it to Oscar.
One of mine was to get more involved withthe Patreon, the show's Patreon, start
making a little of my presence there.
I have started participating inwriting our weekly check-ins.
So I am there.
(23:55):
I think I can stillmake more of an effort.
I've, I've not been very goodabout participating in the comment
discussions and sections, so I can try.
Maybe that's March.
Maybe that's March.
We'll see.
You know, one of my things that Iknow fills my cup is learning piano
and learning a song on the ukulele.
(24:18):
I haven't done that.
However, again, I'mtrying to find my on ramp.
I'm trying to find a way that makes thisnot feel like a slog and feels more fun.
I did, you know what?
I was like, why don't I givemyself an easy win with piano?
So I bought some sheet music onthe internet and they send you a
(24:41):
PDF and then you can print it out.
So we went to the library and printedout sheet music of some really
easy piano songs, like easy songs.
I'm working on taking my pencil and likelooking through the music and seeing what
I remember because I know just enoughpiano to be able to work things out.
If they are easy enough.
(25:01):
So some songs I already know andreally just like learning the
songs and seeing how it goes.
Another thing though, is I havebeen trying to just sing more.
I do have an entire playlist on Spotify,but I'm gonna, we're probably going to
move away from Spotify, but an entireplaylist of songs I like to sing.
(25:27):
And so I've been doing, I was singingwhile I was cooking the other day,
but I've also been doing some ofthat during my breaks during the
work day when Nicole's not home so Idon't bother her when she's working.
Is this a playlist you made or?
I made.
Will you share it?
Of all the songs I like to sing?
Yeah.
It's not of me singing.
(25:47):
I know, but maybe people want tolisten to the songs you like to sing.
Okay, it's a lot of musicals.
I'm sure we have musicals fans.
That's fair.
Okay, I could, I could share it.
This is kind of likePatricia's Greatest Hits.
[Laughing]
One of mine was workingon an exercise plan.
I was actually getting into it.
(26:10):
Those first three weeks of January,you were solid, moving, but also,
then you were sleeping well.
I was sleeping well.
There was one time I did some,like, I really exercised, like,
I, I came up near my limit.
I didn't push too hard, but I just,I got a good, a good exercise in,
mm hmm
I guess.
I felt so good after,like, I, I was so mad.
(26:33):
I had so much more energy and everything.
I was so mad about it, um,
[Laughing]
I know it seems like fake news, right?
Yeah,
[Laughing]
and I was enjoying it.
I did push myself too hard one time.
I almost had an asthma attack.
I had to climb off thebike, sit on the floor.
I got you water and a fan.
(26:55):
Yeah, it was not good.
And I gave you dirty looks.
Yeah,
yep
you did.
You gave me a
I did
lot of dirty looks.
Yep.
I tried.
I tried too hard.
mm hmm
But also I've been working way toohard lately and it has completely
been draining me and so I haven'thad the time or the energy or the
(27:15):
will to get on the bike again.
That should be getting better soon,and I hope to get back into it.
Yeah.
One of my other goals for this year,which was part of decluttering,
is to read 15 physical books.
You know, I read a lot of audiobooks,I get a lot of advanced copies, both
in physical form as well as ebooks.
(27:37):
And some of the physical bookswe have, I want to read them so
then I could get rid of them.
I could either sell themat the used bookstore.
I could put them in a little freelibrary or something like that.
But I need to read them first.
So I have read already maybe threeor four physical books this year.
(27:57):
I have a little bookmark I'musing to track my physical books.
And also part of this though is gettingback to not looking at my phone after 9pm,
so I could stand to be better at that.
I'm kind of like 50 percent at that.
Some nights I'm good, some nights I'm bad.
(28:17):
Yeah, we're working on findingways to help with that.
Yeah, sometimes I don't even realize it's
yeah
after 9, so I think one of themmight just be like, set a reminder.
Yeah, might just have a reminder, sosomething pops up and is like, stop it.
Knock it off.
My highly dreamed of, uh,fancy mail, um, project.
(28:38):
I have yet to get a mail out, but Idid take an important step in that,
uh, I, I finally got the photo printerhooked back up and I got it set
up, connected to the Wi Fi so I canprint to it straight from my laptop.
And I even printed off somepictures to get ready to send,
so I'm, I'm making steps.
(29:00):
Yeah, I had a mail goal to of writeone piece of mail a week, at least,
and I think I've averaged that.
I found that I was tracking it.
But I've actually been kindof crap at tracking it.
You know, the tracking section in ourplanners is on a different page than
(29:20):
like that weekly space that we have open.
You know, there's like a habit trackerup at the front or what have you.
And so I think I just need to trackit on the pages we have open, right?
And it's either, you know, I havea little mail rubber stamp, maybe
I just stamp the day, right?
I don't have to use theofficial habit tracker.
(29:43):
Again, the planner is there to serveus, uh, we don't serve the planner.
We could use it any way we want to.
So.
What if you put the little envelopestamps on each day and colored
them in when you sent the mail?
Oh, but it's only onea week, not one a day.
Oh, okay.
But could do that, too.
(30:04):
Yeah
If I get good at one a week, who knows?
Yeah.
One of mine was to hangup art around the home.
Uh, I have not hung upany art around the home.
But, we did purchase some frames.
So, that was a good first step.
I am now feeling intimidated by thenext step of picking out what art
(30:24):
goes into the frames and then takingthe frames to get glass and matting
and backing and everything else.
So I've talked to you Patricia aboutthis a little bit about maybe this is
the next step is a do it together step.
Yeah, I think it should be a teamproject, especially since I used
to work in a custom framing shop.
Yeah, whereas I'm just like oh my goshthe idea of getting all these frames
(30:45):
out of the bag and like [exhale]
Yeah.
Yeah, no, we'll do it together.
We'll make a project.
We'll like clean up the living roomfloor and we'll lay everything out.
Yeah.
It'll be fine.
Finally, last time we talked about goals,I mentioned I picked kind of three words,
three themes for the year that a lotof my goals fit into, and those were
(31:06):
connection, creation, and reclamation.
Connection, we definitely talked about notonly hanging out with people in person,
but I've been trying to text people more.
I found the long text with like,were making my thumbs tired
and were making my hands hurt.
So I've actually been leavinga lot of voice notes lately.
(31:28):
I, I love this idea and Iwant to try doing it more.
I think it's fun getting theselittle voice notes, so, I don't
know, I might try sending someto friends and see what happens.
Yeah, sure.
I, you know, one of my friends, weleave voice notes back and forth, but
another one of my friends will sendreally long texts with really big
(31:49):
questions about things like separatingart from the artist or something like
that, and I'm like, you know what,I'm not gonna have this conversation,
like, texting, with my thumbs.
So I'm just gonna leave you,like, three 40 second voice notes.
So that was connection.
Another one of my words was creation.
You know, when I chose thisword, I was thinking like, oh,
(32:11):
music, crochet, snail mail.
But actually, where this hasbeen popping up has been food.
I've been making some new recipes.
I cooked chickpeas from scratch,and then I made my own hummus.
I also made like a curry chickpearice situation that you really liked.
(32:32):
I also made Mexican rice fromscratch, which one, was surprisingly
easy, and two, turned out amazing.
Like, rivaling any restaurant.
Like, so good.
And kind of dangerously easy, becausenow I want to make it all the time.
(32:52):
Oh, is this the day...?
This was also the first time youmade rice on the stove successfully.
Yes.
No, I made the curry ricewas on the stove too.
Was it?
Oh, but maybe that wasn't successful.
That was a little underdone.
yeah
That was a little underdone.
Yeah, because I'm, I'm a rice cooker girl.
I'm Filipino.
I'm a rice cooker girl.
So, yeah, it was, it was great.
(33:15):
I, I want to make it again already.
And the other word was reclamation.
Returning to those things I usedto love about myself, or those
things I used to love to do.
So one of those was archery, which Ihaven't done yet, because, you know,
time, like we were talking about.
Although I did do some researchand found a place to go.
But one of the ways this has beenpopping up is we have watched a few
(33:37):
documentaries and I had forgottenhow much I love documentaries.
Which makes sense becauseI read a lot of nonfiction.
So again, having these words, andyou could pick a word now, you could
pick a word at any time, but again,it helps by being my North Star.
It helps by giving me focus and direction.
(33:58):
[Transition Music]
Ah, well.
Again, that was a lot, like we do.
Like we do.
What do you want people totake away from this episode?
I say, revisit your goals withcuriosity, you know, not looking to
(34:22):
shame yourself, not looking to beatyourself up, looking at them with
a, huh, does this still work for me?
Who made this goal?
And remembering that, I've said thisa couple times already, your goals
serve you, you do not serve them.
Nicole, what's yourtakeaway for this week?
(34:43):
I think it's important to remember thatnot all goals are successful immediately,
and not all need to have even started yet.
It's okay to still be looking for youron ramp or deciding that some goals just
aren't going to be quickly successful.
Yeah, I think it's also, you know,we didn't mention this, but it's
(35:04):
also okay to say like, you know what,this one's not happening until the
second half of the year, push itout to July or something like that.
Yeah.
Well, that's all the goals talk.
What has been filling yourcup this last week or two?
Um, hanging out with people.
Friends, new and old.
[Chuckle]
Uh, it's been really great.
(35:26):
And as much as I tend to be introverted,as much as I just wanna hole up
in our home and just curl up witha book and hide under a blanket.
I'm coming to terms with how much,how good it is for us to be peopling.
(35:49):
And then the other thing is that thepink lemons from my tree are delicious.
They're such good lemons.
I don't know.
They're... and, and maybe I'm biased.
Maybe it's just because, like,we, we got this tree when it
was tiny and now we have lemons.
But I don't know.
They seem really good.
(36:09):
They are really good.
When you just mentioned this, my brainwanted to call them professional lemons.
Professional.
Because they're that good at being lemons.
They're so good and lemony.
They're professional lemons.
Ah, business lemons.
No, I don't think they're business lemons.
They're not business lemons?
No.
Just professional lemons.
Yeah.
Okay.
(36:30):
Nicole, what's filling your cup?
The plants are growing, as Imentioned at the top of the show.
mm hmm
Which means I can go visit them and hangout with them, talk to them, pet them.
I don't know.
It's just really nice.
As I mentioned, I'm working way toomuch lately, so taking some plant
breaks has been really good for me.
(36:51):
mm hmm mm hmm
Step out and tinker with the plants,or even the indoor plants, some of
them are incredibly happy right now.
Yeah, you've, you've been taking such goodcare of our plants, and I appreciate you.
They bring me a lot of joy.
Well, that's our show for today.
We'd like to thank our awesomeaudio editor, Jen Zink.
(37:14):
You can find her at loopdilou.com.
We'll leave a link tothat in our show notes.
You can find the full show notesand transcript at eedapod.com,
that's E E D A P O D dot com.
There you can also find a link to ourPatreon, our Bookshop link, and a link
to the ongoing Enthusiastic Encouragementand Dubious Advice newsletter.
(37:34):
You can also find us on Instagram andBlueSky at just eedapod, not dot com.
[laugh]
and email us at eedapod@gmail.com.
We are nothing if not consistent.
We would also appreciate it so much ifyou would subscribe and rate us on Apple
Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you getyour podcasts that allow for ratings.
(37:55):
It really goes far inhelping other people find us.
We would also appreciate anyonewho can subscribe to us on Patreon.
Support is going to help us keep thisshow going, especially without ads.
You can find us at patreon.com/eedapod.
In the meantime, we hope youfind ways to be kind to yourself.
Drink some water and read a book.
(38:16):
We'll be talking to you soon.
Let's get whimsical.
Let's get whimsical, whimsical.
[Laughing]
Pink lemon tree.
[Quietley Laughing]
We get our lemons fromthe pink lemon tree.
(38:38):
Um, that's one of the songs Igot for easy piano, by the way.
Really?
Yeah?
The pink lemon tree song?
Yeah!
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