September 22, 2020 • 18 mins
This is Amy’s ‘5th Thing’ (a bonus episode). ‘4 Things With Amy Brown’ comes out every Thursday, but on Tuesdays Amy shares emails from you guys and answers questions y’all have sent in. On today’s episode Amy addresses: Finding a therapist that’s right for you, how to cope and support a friend or loved one if they find themselves in a battle with cancer, supporting organizations while you shop on Amazon, Amy’s eating disorder recovery celebration in regards to her partnership with Land O Lakes (listen to OUTWEIGH episodes for more on that), and an awesome and simple dinner recipe for a busy mom that asked, but this recipe is for anyone!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Happy Tuesday. Everybody. Welcome to the Fifth Thing, where we
go over emails that have been sent in for the
four Things podcast. So every Thursday is the four Things
episode and then every Tuesday you get to hear me
share your emails and you never know when yours might
pop up. So a big thank you to everyone that
sends them in. In case you're a new listener for
(00:24):
Things with Amy Brown at gmail dot com is where
you send stuff and we always start Tuesday episodes off
with a quote. And this is something that the shot
Forward put up on their Instagram page and I thought
it was totally appropriate for the times that we're in
and how awful people can be, especially on social media
right now or if you're watching the news or Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
(00:46):
So from zig Ziggler, promote what you love instead of
bashing what you hate. And that is what we try
to be about here on the podcast is let's just
focus on the things that we're about and not harp
on all the things that were against So I really
really like that quote from zig Ziggler. Again, let's promote
what you love instead of bashing what you hate. So
(01:08):
I've got an email here from Jennifer that I'm gonna
get into, and she said, hey me, I've got a
question I would love for you to address. All the
time during quarantine has led to lots of quiet time
and some overthinking, and some issues have come up, and
I think I might benefit from therapy. I'm forty two
and I've never been to a therapist, and I have
no idea how to go about selecting one. Do you
have any tips to share, so, Jennifer, First of all,
(01:29):
I would start with your employer. Where do you work,
Do you have insurance? Is there any way they can
help you out with any of that, because the therapy
can get pretty expensive and some people have plans that
cover certain types of therapy. So I would one look
into that. If you have a health insurance, can your
provider help you find a therapist? But I also would
(01:50):
network with friends and co workers and maybe other professionals
that are in the field are kind of in the
field if they can direct you to the right person
depending on what your needs are. I don't know what
issues have come up for you, but different therapists specialized
in different things. You could google someone in your area
and then maybe look for things that other people have
shared about that therapist online. But for me, I've found
(02:14):
that networking with friends and people that I you know,
I don't even have to be necessarily close to someone
to hear if they have a recommendation with My husband
and I found a marriage counselor a couple of years
ago through someone that we didn't know that well, but
they just raved about this marriage counselor. Now we ended
up going and I think that the person was good,
(02:34):
but then ultimately we decided, Okay, this isn't really for
us anymore. But it wasn't a bad experience at all.
And that's the thing. You kind of maybe will need
to test out a few therapists till you find the
right one. So there maybe one maybe in your network.
Say you've got insurance and there's a therapist that you
think is going to be good, and then you go
a few times you're like, this is just not really
(02:56):
for me. I'm not feeling it, and then find somebody
else in your network. We had friends of ours, like
really close friends of ours actually, that recommended marriage counselor
for us years back, and they loved this person and
we went and we were like, we're not really feeling it.
We went once and we didn't go back, which always
is a little bit awkward, but I'm sure they're used
to it too, And if you don't think they're a
(03:17):
good fit, trust me, they want you to be able
to get help at least. You know my friend Catherine
that's a therapist who was my therapist but isn't anymore.
She's actually going to be on the podcast with me
this Thursday. It's a pretty serious episode on mental health
because September is suicide Awareness Month and I wanted to
bring her on just to help guide me through the conversation.
(03:39):
And you don't have to have been close to any
type of suicidal type things in your life to benefit
from this episode, because a lot of times you never
know what those close to you might be thinking, or
what they have been close to doing or anything like that,
or you never know where you are mentally with your
own how and what you need to be doing to
(04:01):
take care of yourself. So it is a heavy topic,
but it's not a totally heavy episode. And then again,
when it comes to kids listening, that's probably an episode
where hopefully the commercials will be clean, but the content
will be a little bit heavier and you may not
want to have kids around when you listen. But mental
health is super important, so it encourage you to find
time to listen anyways, But if you are feeling that
(04:23):
nudge to get therapy, like Jennifer has, I would encourage
you to try to go do it because when issues
are not dealt with, they will manifest in other ways
in your life that are unhealthy, and ultimately, we want
to try to be our best selves. Speaking of Cat,
who's going to join me on Thursday's episode, she has
her own podcast called You Need Therapy, and that is
(04:44):
another way to just hear from a therapist. Depending on
the topic, she may have an episode that pertains to
what you're going through. And you could also google other
therapists that have podcasts because I get it therapy is important.
There's resources out there that can help you process things,
give you tips and tools and books and other things
to take in that could help you if you can't
(05:05):
afford to go to therapy. If you happen to be
a younger person listening to me, or an older and
you're in school or college, there might be stuff on
campus that could help you if you're looking for therapy.
But Jennifer Good luck on your journey. I think it's
a huge step to recognize that you're open and willing
to therapy in itself, so good luck with that. This
next email is from Sarah. She said, Hey, Amy, I
(05:28):
just found out that my mom has stage three calling cancer.
Trying to be so strong as I'm the oldest of
three girls and I have five children, but this is
so hard. While being told this news, the first person
who came to mind was you. We were some things
that helped you with your mom's diagnosis. Any advice you
can give would be so appreciated. I started writing a
journal and I found myself hiding in my car to cry.
To write this to you, I thought of the shot
(05:51):
forward and to make a four things for my mom's
chemo treatment days, and to get her sweatshirt. My mom
is so strong and knowledgeable in this field because she's
a retire Army pediatric oncologists and retired infusion nurse as well.
But I know this is tough. Thank you for taking
the time to read this. Have a great day. First
of all, Sarah, I'm super sorry that you were going
through this. I know that it is so hard to
(06:14):
hear those words. I still remember the night around my
kitchen table, my sister's kitchen table. Excuse me that my
mom sat us down to tell us that she had cancer,
and it was back in two thousand and twelve, and
her battle lasted two years, so I know what that
is like. And if you're a new listener, Ultimately, cancer
took my mom's life in two thousand and fourteen, but
(06:36):
we did have an amazing experience with her. But it
was all about her and her needs. And that's what
my recommendation to you would be, Sarah, that this is
her journey and you're along for the ride and you
want to be there for her. But your mom probably
knows exactly what she needs during all of this, but
she may not want to ask for it. So what
(06:57):
you can do is try to pull that out of her,
you know, as gentle as possible. Depending I don't know
your mom's personality, so it really just depends. My mom
was pretty clear out of the gate that she wanted
to laugh, and she wanted to choose joy, and the
joy of the Lord was going to be her strength,
and she wanted to honor him and find a way
(07:18):
to use the cancer for good. And I feel like
pimp and joy came from that. And I've told you
before any time something pimp and joy is purchased or
talked about, or anything that is an answer to my
mom's prayer, which pimp and join a nutshell is choosing
joy for yourself and then spreading joy to others. A
cancer diagnosis can be extremely difficult, can bring on depression
(07:41):
the person that's going through it and then family members
that are by their side. So I think from the
get go, if you try to make an effort to
stay positive and make that your mantra, that will be
super helpful. Also, just try to find ways to make
your mom feel special, but also she's gonna want to
feel normal too, So not we're doing certain things, but
(08:01):
you know, it's okay to plan nice events and create
memories and try to spend more time together and talk
about real things that maybe you've been avoiding talking about
for years. And then you also have to just know
that like life is different from here on out, things
are going to change. I know that now for my
dad's cancer diagnosis. He was diagnosed a couple of years
ago with throat cancer, a very normal, active man in
(08:25):
his seventies. Yes he's older, but was extremely active, worked
every day, had a girlfriend, and had his own life
in Austin, Texas. And fast forward here we are. Thank goodness,
he's still with us. But now he lives in an
assisted living home down the street for me in Nashville,
because my sister and I couldn't fly to Austin to
continue to take care of him because he no longer
can take care of himself and his life is very
(08:48):
very different. But we adjust and we're still a family.
We're still together. I try to make memories with him
and get him time with his grandkids while before coronavirus,
for sure. But he got to come over to my
house this last weekend. He's come over a couple of
times since the pandemic hit, but only very very recently,
and we have to follow strict rules for him to
(09:08):
be here. But I only say that because your mom's
going to be going through this during the pandemic as well,
and life from here on out is very very different.
Do you have to be ready for the curveballs that
are going to come your way? I don't think you
can be prepared, because everybody's cancer journey is different. But
just try to be bendy, try to go with the flow,
try to breathe through it, and take care of yourself.
(09:31):
Don't be afraid to take time for yourself. Don't be
afraid to say how you feel, you know, or ask
for what you need from other family members or your
spouse or if you've got kids, or I don't know
your whole makeup, but I guess I'm just speaking to
everybody because there's others that are going through this as well,
And I would just say to give your self permission
to feel down or confused and think what in the world.
(09:51):
I did that all the time, even though our overall
theme was joy and pimp and joy came out of that.
I never want to confuse people by saying we were
just the super happy a full situation all of the time.
There were really hard days, and there were days my
mom was super down, but we just didn't live in that.
We recognized it, we acknowledged those emotions, we lived through them,
(10:12):
and then we were able to move on. We didn't
suppress them and try to fake it and just act
like everything was fine. And then you know, when it
comes to who knows about this in your life, that's
totally up to you. Don't feel like you have to
tell everybody what's going on, but if there's key people
in your life that need to know, especially if you
have a job, I would highly recommend speaking to your
employer privately because you being able to be there for
(10:33):
your mom is the most important thing. And I felt
super blessed that my job allowed me to be there
for my mom. I know that's not the case for everybody.
That's not lost on me, but the Bobby Bones Show
and I Heart Media Bobby, a lot of my bosses,
everyone said, go do whatever you need to do for
your mom. If something comes up, do not hesitate to
say that you need to be there, and we will
(10:53):
try to make it work. My mom was a MD
Anderson in Houston, and there was times where I would
spend the night with my mom in the hospital in Houston,
and I would wake up at four am off for
hospital couch and I would drive to the radio station
in Houston to the I Heart Media office there and
I would do the show. I didn't don't even know
anybody there, but they reached out to an engineer to
make sure that they got me a key card I
(11:14):
could get through the door. They set up a studio
for me and they made it work. And that way
I was able to still be present on the show,
but still able to be in Houston with my mom.
And you never know how your employer may respond. Maybe
it won't be as wonderful as an experience as I got,
but it's worth asking. And maybe there's days you can
work remotely or work different hours in case you need
(11:34):
to be an appointment with your mom. I just feel
like it's important for someone who's going through that. There
was times I would see people in the waiting room
alone or appointments alone, and my heart would just break
for them because nobody should have to go through any
part of the journey alone. So yeah, if you can
be there, that is my advice. Okay, I feel like
I just threw a lot on you, but hopefully you
(11:54):
got all that and it will be helpful. And again, Sarah,
I'm sorry that you're going through that. Next email is
from Teresa. Hey, Amy, I was curious if shop aspa
pimp and Joy Raven St Jude, if you know, has
(12:16):
an Amazon smile page that could be set up to
contribute each time that we shop on Amazon. And Tessa,
I think I said Teresa in the beginning that it is, Tessa,
I'm sorry about that. We do not, and I don't
know if St Jude does. But Team Haiti is a
foundation that supports the orphanage where my kids gre up
in Haiti, and I do that on Amazon sometimes. If
(12:36):
y'all haven't heard of that, it's a way where your
a portion of your purchases will go to whatever foundation
you choose to support. So go to smile dot Amazon
dot com and then you can search for a foundation.
In fact, you could probably go there in search and
see if St. Jude has one, But if you want
to help out a place in Haiti, then just look
for Team Haiti Foundation and it's t E E M.
(13:00):
And the reason why it's t E M is for
teach and power, equip and mentor so that is my
recommendation there. And then I get messages a lot about
what brand of this I buy? Or where's this? Or
my eye patches? Or what do I cook with here?
What books? Where's it? Linked? Radiomea dot com is where
you can find my Amazon favorites, which is if you
(13:22):
can buy it on Amazon and linked it there, or
you can get links to shop a spoa the shop
forward for pimp and joy stuff or four things stuff, oh,
which I know in your email. Let me go back
to Sarah's no, because I didn't address this. Sarah, you
talked about maybe getting your mom or customizing her tote
for her chemo treatment days. We do have a tote
(13:43):
that says chemo radiation cancer Suck it. My dad was
the inspiration behind those. We also have t shirts that
say chemo radiation cancer. Second, I don't know, with stage
three calling cancer, what your mom's treatment plan is going
to be, if she's gonna have chemo and radiation either
or or oath, but that one's already made, or you
could customize her something. Mary just posted, actually yesterday, the
(14:06):
printed version of It's fine, I'm fine, everything is fine,
which I feel like that. I don't know if that
would be I would if I had cancer, I'd kind
of want the cancer suck at one. But also if
I had cancer, I probably would support the I'm fine,
it's fine, everything is fine here, I am getting my
chemo or my radiation, but don't know about me. I'm fine.
That might be a good one. Which we came up
(14:28):
with that and mocked it up and started selling it
before we even printed it because we just thought of
it and thought it would be cute. But they finally
got printed yesterday, so I should be getting mine in
the mail soon and I can't wait to wear it.
But suck sweatshirt that would be fine. So that stuff's
at the shop for shop this spoa. But I know
it gets confusing, especially if you're a new listener, so
(14:48):
I just say radio amy dot com to find links
to all of that. Okay. Last question is from Gina Hey,
fellow busy mama here, and I was wondering if you
had any favorite dinner recipes that are super easy and
family friendly. And Gina, I'm about to hook you up
with some chicken salsa because all you need is too
chicken breasts frozen or thaled, one jar of salsa. We
(15:09):
do mild, if you like spicier, you could do medium,
and then one can of black beans. That's it. You
put the chicken in the crock pot, you dump a
jar salsa on top of it. You set it on
high for four hours or low for seven hours. Then
you shred the chicken with a fork. You dump in
a drained can of black beans and serve over rice.
And then maybe even put inside a burrito if you
(15:31):
want to. But it's amazing. I also sliced up some
avocados on the side, maybe have a little cilantro available.
It's seriously, it is so easy. We have it every week.
And then my son had a little play date over
this girl from our church and she told me when
she was eating it, she said, this is the best
meal I've had at any play date ever. And she
(15:53):
liked spicy things. So we threw a little chillula on
top and crumbled up some tortilla chips. Home girl was
in heaven. So it's a winner. My husband loves it.
I love it, the kids love it, and it definitely
is easy. And I think when you add the little
avocado cilantro crumpled up chips, it just makes it even better.
But honestly, that stuff is not even necessary. Oh shoot,
(16:17):
I forgot. I had one more question from Andrea. I
thought that was my last one, but Andrew was asking
about my Lando Lake steel and my disordered eating days.
She said, I saw an instagram that you partner with
Lando Lakes and how that was a recovery celebration for
you from your disordered eating days. And I guess I
have missed what you struggled with. I'm a new listener,
so I was hoping you could share that on the
fifth thing. Hey, Andrea, Yes, if you would like to
(16:39):
hear my entire story, I shared it on Outweigh, a
special series that we did inside this podcast back in April.
So every Saturday in April released a new episode. In
an episode two of the Outweigh series, I shared my
story specifically it does. It's a four part series, so
little bits and pieces of my story come up probably
(16:59):
in the other or episodes two, but specifically an episode
two at the beginning, I share my story. So if
you're more curious about that, just searching Outweigh where you
listen to podcasts, and those episodes should pop up from
the Four Things with Amy Brown special series that I
did with Lisa, who is awesome, and Lisa and I
have some really exciting news about Outweigh very very very soon.
(17:21):
That's the final email, but I do want to shout
out to Gary, who emailed me that I think now
is my oldest known listener. If you're older than Gary,
you can email and let me know because the other
day an episode I said I've heard from listeners as
young as twelve, and then I heard from someone that
was sixty one. But Gary emailed me and said he's
sixty two and listens and he's a guy, which I
(17:42):
never think that men are listening, but I guess they are.
So I'll try to be more aware of that when
it comes to content. But shout out Gary. If you
can beat Gary and you're older and sixty two and
you're listening, send me an email. Four Things with Amy
Brown at gmail dot com. And yeah, I'll be back
on Thursday with that episode on mental health, So I
hope you will check it out because I think it's
(18:03):
important that we take care of ourselves but then also
equip ourselves and be prepared to take care of others
in our life, because you really never know what's going
on with someone. All right, y'all, have a great week.
Talk to you later. By
Happy Tuesday. Everybody. Welcome to the Fifth Thing, where we
go over emails that have been sent in for the
four Things podcast. So every Thursday is the four Things
episode and then every Tuesday you get to hear me
share your emails and you never know when yours might
pop up. So a big thank you to everyone that
sends them in. In case you're a new listener for
(00:24):
Things with Amy Brown at gmail dot com is where
you send stuff and we always start Tuesday episodes off
with a quote. And this is something that the shot
Forward put up on their Instagram page and I thought
it was totally appropriate for the times that we're in
and how awful people can be, especially on social media
right now or if you're watching the news or Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
(00:46):
So from zig Ziggler, promote what you love instead of
bashing what you hate. And that is what we try
to be about here on the podcast is let's just
focus on the things that we're about and not harp
on all the things that were against So I really
really like that quote from zig Ziggler. Again, let's promote
what you love instead of bashing what you hate. So
(01:08):
I've got an email here from Jennifer that I'm gonna
get into, and she said, hey me, I've got a
question I would love for you to address. All the
time during quarantine has led to lots of quiet time
and some overthinking, and some issues have come up, and
I think I might benefit from therapy. I'm forty two
and I've never been to a therapist, and I have
no idea how to go about selecting one. Do you
have any tips to share, so, Jennifer, First of all,
(01:29):
I would start with your employer. Where do you work,
Do you have insurance? Is there any way they can
help you out with any of that, because the therapy
can get pretty expensive and some people have plans that
cover certain types of therapy. So I would one look
into that. If you have a health insurance, can your
provider help you find a therapist? But I also would
(01:50):
network with friends and co workers and maybe other professionals
that are in the field are kind of in the
field if they can direct you to the right person
depending on what your needs are. I don't know what
issues have come up for you, but different therapists specialized
in different things. You could google someone in your area
and then maybe look for things that other people have
shared about that therapist online. But for me, I've found
(02:14):
that networking with friends and people that I you know,
I don't even have to be necessarily close to someone
to hear if they have a recommendation with My husband
and I found a marriage counselor a couple of years
ago through someone that we didn't know that well, but
they just raved about this marriage counselor. Now we ended
up going and I think that the person was good,
(02:34):
but then ultimately we decided, Okay, this isn't really for
us anymore. But it wasn't a bad experience at all.
And that's the thing. You kind of maybe will need
to test out a few therapists till you find the
right one. So there maybe one maybe in your network.
Say you've got insurance and there's a therapist that you
think is going to be good, and then you go
a few times you're like, this is just not really
(02:56):
for me. I'm not feeling it, and then find somebody
else in your network. We had friends of ours, like
really close friends of ours actually, that recommended marriage counselor
for us years back, and they loved this person and
we went and we were like, we're not really feeling it.
We went once and we didn't go back, which always
is a little bit awkward, but I'm sure they're used
to it too, And if you don't think they're a
(03:17):
good fit, trust me, they want you to be able
to get help at least. You know my friend Catherine
that's a therapist who was my therapist but isn't anymore.
She's actually going to be on the podcast with me
this Thursday. It's a pretty serious episode on mental health
because September is suicide Awareness Month and I wanted to
bring her on just to help guide me through the conversation.
(03:39):
And you don't have to have been close to any
type of suicidal type things in your life to benefit
from this episode, because a lot of times you never
know what those close to you might be thinking, or
what they have been close to doing or anything like that,
or you never know where you are mentally with your
own how and what you need to be doing to
(04:01):
take care of yourself. So it is a heavy topic,
but it's not a totally heavy episode. And then again,
when it comes to kids listening, that's probably an episode
where hopefully the commercials will be clean, but the content
will be a little bit heavier and you may not
want to have kids around when you listen. But mental
health is super important, so it encourage you to find
time to listen anyways, But if you are feeling that
(04:23):
nudge to get therapy, like Jennifer has, I would encourage
you to try to go do it because when issues
are not dealt with, they will manifest in other ways
in your life that are unhealthy, and ultimately, we want
to try to be our best selves. Speaking of Cat,
who's going to join me on Thursday's episode, she has
her own podcast called You Need Therapy, and that is
(04:44):
another way to just hear from a therapist. Depending on
the topic, she may have an episode that pertains to
what you're going through. And you could also google other
therapists that have podcasts because I get it therapy is important.
There's resources out there that can help you process things,
give you tips and tools and books and other things
to take in that could help you if you can't
(05:05):
afford to go to therapy. If you happen to be
a younger person listening to me, or an older and
you're in school or college, there might be stuff on
campus that could help you if you're looking for therapy.
But Jennifer Good luck on your journey. I think it's
a huge step to recognize that you're open and willing
to therapy in itself, so good luck with that. This
next email is from Sarah. She said, Hey, Amy, I
(05:28):
just found out that my mom has stage three calling cancer.
Trying to be so strong as I'm the oldest of
three girls and I have five children, but this is
so hard. While being told this news, the first person
who came to mind was you. We were some things
that helped you with your mom's diagnosis. Any advice you
can give would be so appreciated. I started writing a
journal and I found myself hiding in my car to cry.
To write this to you, I thought of the shot
(05:51):
forward and to make a four things for my mom's
chemo treatment days, and to get her sweatshirt. My mom
is so strong and knowledgeable in this field because she's
a retire Army pediatric oncologists and retired infusion nurse as well.
But I know this is tough. Thank you for taking
the time to read this. Have a great day. First
of all, Sarah, I'm super sorry that you were going
through this. I know that it is so hard to
(06:14):
hear those words. I still remember the night around my
kitchen table, my sister's kitchen table. Excuse me that my
mom sat us down to tell us that she had cancer,
and it was back in two thousand and twelve, and
her battle lasted two years, so I know what that
is like. And if you're a new listener, Ultimately, cancer
took my mom's life in two thousand and fourteen, but
(06:36):
we did have an amazing experience with her. But it
was all about her and her needs. And that's what
my recommendation to you would be, Sarah, that this is
her journey and you're along for the ride and you
want to be there for her. But your mom probably
knows exactly what she needs during all of this, but
she may not want to ask for it. So what
(06:57):
you can do is try to pull that out of her,
you know, as gentle as possible. Depending I don't know
your mom's personality, so it really just depends. My mom
was pretty clear out of the gate that she wanted
to laugh, and she wanted to choose joy, and the
joy of the Lord was going to be her strength,
and she wanted to honor him and find a way
(07:18):
to use the cancer for good. And I feel like
pimp and joy came from that. And I've told you
before any time something pimp and joy is purchased or
talked about, or anything that is an answer to my
mom's prayer, which pimp and join a nutshell is choosing
joy for yourself and then spreading joy to others. A
cancer diagnosis can be extremely difficult, can bring on depression
(07:41):
the person that's going through it and then family members
that are by their side. So I think from the
get go, if you try to make an effort to
stay positive and make that your mantra, that will be
super helpful. Also, just try to find ways to make
your mom feel special, but also she's gonna want to
feel normal too, So not we're doing certain things, but
(08:01):
you know, it's okay to plan nice events and create
memories and try to spend more time together and talk
about real things that maybe you've been avoiding talking about
for years. And then you also have to just know
that like life is different from here on out, things
are going to change. I know that now for my
dad's cancer diagnosis. He was diagnosed a couple of years
ago with throat cancer, a very normal, active man in
(08:25):
his seventies. Yes he's older, but was extremely active, worked
every day, had a girlfriend, and had his own life
in Austin, Texas. And fast forward here we are. Thank goodness,
he's still with us. But now he lives in an
assisted living home down the street for me in Nashville,
because my sister and I couldn't fly to Austin to
continue to take care of him because he no longer
can take care of himself and his life is very
(08:48):
very different. But we adjust and we're still a family.
We're still together. I try to make memories with him
and get him time with his grandkids while before coronavirus,
for sure. But he got to come over to my
house this last weekend. He's come over a couple of
times since the pandemic hit, but only very very recently,
and we have to follow strict rules for him to
(09:08):
be here. But I only say that because your mom's
going to be going through this during the pandemic as well,
and life from here on out is very very different.
Do you have to be ready for the curveballs that
are going to come your way? I don't think you
can be prepared, because everybody's cancer journey is different. But
just try to be bendy, try to go with the flow,
try to breathe through it, and take care of yourself.
(09:31):
Don't be afraid to take time for yourself. Don't be
afraid to say how you feel, you know, or ask
for what you need from other family members or your
spouse or if you've got kids, or I don't know
your whole makeup, but I guess I'm just speaking to
everybody because there's others that are going through this as well,
And I would just say to give your self permission
to feel down or confused and think what in the world.
(09:51):
I did that all the time, even though our overall
theme was joy and pimp and joy came out of that.
I never want to confuse people by saying we were
just the super happy a full situation all of the time.
There were really hard days, and there were days my
mom was super down, but we just didn't live in that.
We recognized it, we acknowledged those emotions, we lived through them,
(10:12):
and then we were able to move on. We didn't
suppress them and try to fake it and just act
like everything was fine. And then you know, when it
comes to who knows about this in your life, that's
totally up to you. Don't feel like you have to
tell everybody what's going on, but if there's key people
in your life that need to know, especially if you
have a job, I would highly recommend speaking to your
employer privately because you being able to be there for
(10:33):
your mom is the most important thing. And I felt
super blessed that my job allowed me to be there
for my mom. I know that's not the case for everybody.
That's not lost on me, but the Bobby Bones Show
and I Heart Media Bobby, a lot of my bosses,
everyone said, go do whatever you need to do for
your mom. If something comes up, do not hesitate to
say that you need to be there, and we will
(10:53):
try to make it work. My mom was a MD
Anderson in Houston, and there was times where I would
spend the night with my mom in the hospital in Houston,
and I would wake up at four am off for
hospital couch and I would drive to the radio station
in Houston to the I Heart Media office there and
I would do the show. I didn't don't even know
anybody there, but they reached out to an engineer to
make sure that they got me a key card I
(11:14):
could get through the door. They set up a studio
for me and they made it work. And that way
I was able to still be present on the show,
but still able to be in Houston with my mom.
And you never know how your employer may respond. Maybe
it won't be as wonderful as an experience as I got,
but it's worth asking. And maybe there's days you can
work remotely or work different hours in case you need
(11:34):
to be an appointment with your mom. I just feel
like it's important for someone who's going through that. There
was times I would see people in the waiting room
alone or appointments alone, and my heart would just break
for them because nobody should have to go through any
part of the journey alone. So yeah, if you can
be there, that is my advice. Okay, I feel like
I just threw a lot on you, but hopefully you
(11:54):
got all that and it will be helpful. And again, Sarah,
I'm sorry that you're going through that. Next email is
from Teresa. Hey, Amy, I was curious if shop aspa
pimp and Joy Raven St Jude, if you know, has
(12:16):
an Amazon smile page that could be set up to
contribute each time that we shop on Amazon. And Tessa,
I think I said Teresa in the beginning that it is, Tessa,
I'm sorry about that. We do not, and I don't
know if St Jude does. But Team Haiti is a
foundation that supports the orphanage where my kids gre up
in Haiti, and I do that on Amazon sometimes. If
(12:36):
y'all haven't heard of that, it's a way where your
a portion of your purchases will go to whatever foundation
you choose to support. So go to smile dot Amazon
dot com and then you can search for a foundation.
In fact, you could probably go there in search and
see if St. Jude has one, But if you want
to help out a place in Haiti, then just look
for Team Haiti Foundation and it's t E E M.
(13:00):
And the reason why it's t E M is for
teach and power, equip and mentor so that is my
recommendation there. And then I get messages a lot about
what brand of this I buy? Or where's this? Or
my eye patches? Or what do I cook with here?
What books? Where's it? Linked? Radiomea dot com is where
you can find my Amazon favorites, which is if you
(13:22):
can buy it on Amazon and linked it there, or
you can get links to shop a spoa the shop
forward for pimp and joy stuff or four things stuff, oh,
which I know in your email. Let me go back
to Sarah's no, because I didn't address this. Sarah, you
talked about maybe getting your mom or customizing her tote
for her chemo treatment days. We do have a tote
(13:43):
that says chemo radiation cancer Suck it. My dad was
the inspiration behind those. We also have t shirts that
say chemo radiation cancer. Second, I don't know, with stage
three calling cancer, what your mom's treatment plan is going
to be, if she's gonna have chemo and radiation either
or or oath, but that one's already made, or you
could customize her something. Mary just posted, actually yesterday, the
(14:06):
printed version of It's fine, I'm fine, everything is fine,
which I feel like that. I don't know if that
would be I would if I had cancer, I'd kind
of want the cancer suck at one. But also if
I had cancer, I probably would support the I'm fine,
it's fine, everything is fine here, I am getting my
chemo or my radiation, but don't know about me. I'm fine.
That might be a good one. Which we came up
(14:28):
with that and mocked it up and started selling it
before we even printed it because we just thought of
it and thought it would be cute. But they finally
got printed yesterday, so I should be getting mine in
the mail soon and I can't wait to wear it.
But suck sweatshirt that would be fine. So that stuff's
at the shop for shop this spoa. But I know
it gets confusing, especially if you're a new listener, so
(14:48):
I just say radio amy dot com to find links
to all of that. Okay. Last question is from Gina Hey,
fellow busy mama here, and I was wondering if you
had any favorite dinner recipes that are super easy and
family friendly. And Gina, I'm about to hook you up
with some chicken salsa because all you need is too
chicken breasts frozen or thaled, one jar of salsa. We
(15:09):
do mild, if you like spicier, you could do medium,
and then one can of black beans. That's it. You
put the chicken in the crock pot, you dump a
jar salsa on top of it. You set it on
high for four hours or low for seven hours. Then
you shred the chicken with a fork. You dump in
a drained can of black beans and serve over rice.
And then maybe even put inside a burrito if you
(15:31):
want to. But it's amazing. I also sliced up some
avocados on the side, maybe have a little cilantro available.
It's seriously, it is so easy. We have it every week.
And then my son had a little play date over
this girl from our church and she told me when
she was eating it, she said, this is the best
meal I've had at any play date ever. And she
(15:53):
liked spicy things. So we threw a little chillula on
top and crumbled up some tortilla chips. Home girl was
in heaven. So it's a winner. My husband loves it.
I love it, the kids love it, and it definitely
is easy. And I think when you add the little
avocado cilantro crumpled up chips, it just makes it even better.
But honestly, that stuff is not even necessary. Oh shoot,
(16:17):
I forgot. I had one more question from Andrea. I
thought that was my last one, but Andrew was asking
about my Lando Lake steel and my disordered eating days.
She said, I saw an instagram that you partner with
Lando Lakes and how that was a recovery celebration for
you from your disordered eating days. And I guess I
have missed what you struggled with. I'm a new listener,
so I was hoping you could share that on the
fifth thing. Hey, Andrea, Yes, if you would like to
(16:39):
hear my entire story, I shared it on Outweigh, a
special series that we did inside this podcast back in April.
So every Saturday in April released a new episode. In
an episode two of the Outweigh series, I shared my
story specifically it does. It's a four part series, so
little bits and pieces of my story come up probably
(16:59):
in the other or episodes two, but specifically an episode
two at the beginning, I share my story. So if
you're more curious about that, just searching Outweigh where you
listen to podcasts, and those episodes should pop up from
the Four Things with Amy Brown special series that I
did with Lisa, who is awesome, and Lisa and I
have some really exciting news about Outweigh very very very soon.
(17:21):
That's the final email, but I do want to shout
out to Gary, who emailed me that I think now
is my oldest known listener. If you're older than Gary,
you can email and let me know because the other
day an episode I said I've heard from listeners as
young as twelve, and then I heard from someone that
was sixty one. But Gary emailed me and said he's
sixty two and listens and he's a guy, which I
(17:42):
never think that men are listening, but I guess they are.
So I'll try to be more aware of that when
it comes to content. But shout out Gary. If you
can beat Gary and you're older and sixty two and
you're listening, send me an email. Four Things with Amy
Brown at gmail dot com. And yeah, I'll be back
on Thursday with that episode on mental health, So I
hope you will check it out because I think it's
(18:03):
important that we take care of ourselves but then also
equip ourselves and be prepared to take care of others
in our life, because you really never know what's going
on with someone. All right, y'all, have a great week.
Talk to you later. By
4 Things with Amy Brown News
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