Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
And we are back with the Kristen Agophian show. And
it might just be me, but does it feel like
winter took forever? And now glorious springtime is already front
and center? And now it feels like summertime is coming
up on us like gangbusters. And around here anyway, maybe
you guys too, We are already counting the days until
(00:26):
school breaks for summer. And my hard working kids they're
ready for a solid break. Maybe the kids in your
life are too. And then I read these amazing statistics.
I never would have thought of these numbers, you guys,
But are you ready for this? The Society of Behavioral
Medicine is reporting that physical activity for children between six
(00:46):
and nine years old drops by fifty three percent during
summer break. What's with that? That is completely the opposite
of what I would have expected? But there it is.
Who knows what caused it? Could have I don't know.
Started with lockdowns a couple of years ago. Who knows
who cares? But along with those poor activity habits comes
(01:07):
poor eating habits. Now that I do know a little
something about the poor eating habits, but here to break
it down for us and share a solid game plan
for motivating kids to stay active and eat healthy during
the summer, you know, and beyond. Back by popular demand,
registered dietitian nutritionist Don Jackson Blattner joining us via our
(01:29):
newsmaker line. Don welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Hey, thank you so much for having me. Yeah, I'm
talking from Chicago, and you're right. In about six weeks
we are starting our summer break, and that statistic of
how much physical activity drops for kids really has me
excited to start talking about ideas of how we can
get kidded back to being active, eating healthy, feeling good,
(01:52):
feeling happy.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah. It's such a great one two punch, isn't it.
You know, you just you try not to be too
parental about it, because the kids can smell that from
a mile away. But when you start, like introducing some
of the easier, healthier nutritional things, it can really have
a fabulous ripple effect where suddenly they're sleeping better, and
suddenly they're outside more and everything else. And I know
I'm preaching to the choir, but this new report issued
(02:16):
by the Society for Behavioral Medicine very revealing. It completely
has my jaw dropping. Tell us what you can about that, please?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, So I mean, bottom line, kids are on their phone,
watching TV, playing video games and they're inside. They're just
not getting outside to be physically active. And you know,
bottom line is if we can get them engaged to
feel more physically active and eat healthier all the time,
they're going to feel more energizing, The're gonna feel happier.
So I do have some ideas of how we can
(02:43):
get our kids engaged that are simple, that are really
easy for us to do.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Outstanding. So before you're right, because before you know it,
we're going to have these beautiful kids out of school.
What are your you know, with your research, what are
you finding to be maybe your top two or three
tips to reverse this crazy trend and get them on
the path to that nice one to two punch of
the smart food moves and keeping them active.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yep, okay, I got you here. First thing, I gotta say,
we all have to get kids in the kitchen helping us.
It's more fun. You know, you have extra hands helping too.
But what we find is that when kids are putting
their own food, they like it more and they're more
likely to eat all the healthy things. So get them
in the kitchen helping and then something I love. I've
(03:28):
been doing since my stepson was young. We put a
snack list on the bridge, so I write out what
the snack options are. There's you know, hard boiled eggs,
there's cheese sticks, there's yogurt, there's apples, there's grapes. And
then when we're hungry, kids and adults, instead of going
all around and trying to figure out what's snack and
you just go to the snack with it tells you're
(03:49):
right there, what's there to snack on, and you can
go grab it and have a more nutritious snack. So
those are great couple of easy things for eating. And
then when it comes to the fitness part, I've been
doing with clients and it is so popular, it is
so great. It's called the Choose your Own Adventure jar,
and this is where you write out on a piece
of paper, you know, GOI the forward, create a scavenger hunt,
(04:11):
a bunch of ideas of what kids could do outside,
and put all these little pieces of paper in a
jump and then when they wake up they can pick
one and they have an idea of what they can
actually do with their summer day and think of with
their own creativity and spin on it. But at least
they have gotten the idea and the direction of where
to go with it and what to do outside.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
They have some fun that is brilliant. And you know,
I'm taking notes as we're talking here. And because I've
been talking to you forever, each year I get to
have you on the air and talking about nutrition everything else,
and we always talk about ways to get the kids
more involved, and you nailed it, because not only is
it more engaging for them, they get a little more
excited about it, but when they start cooking their own food,
(04:53):
it just kind of takes it to a whole new level.
It's like this whole sense of pride for them. They
love it. And what I love more than anything is
that one of the most easiest meals to make, and
one of Katie and Robbie's favorite meals to make is
just simple scrambled eggs, and it's something super healthy, super easy.
You and I've been doing Eggland's Best forever. But you're
(05:13):
ready for this. When I found out I was having
you on the air, don I looked at all of
our past interviews. When I first had you on the air,
my Katie was still in middle school, she's now college.
One of the things she loves is the fact that
she can make scrambled eggs for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner,
she can make it for friends, she can make it
for her boyfriend. It's just this big grown up leap.
(05:34):
And I feel like, if you can introduce kids to
the idea of just making some eggs for dinner or
for a snack or whatever, that's one of your biggest
go to moves to getting them on a healthy path.
What is your research telling you with that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
I gotta say I absolutely love that and the enthusiasm
that you have and helping everybody rattling behind the idea
of getting kids in the kitchen and cookie it's so great.
And I'll tell you one of the biggest things that
I like to do is to make a head thing
so that you know, even if it is easy, it
could be even easier if it's already in the fridge
ready to go. So one of the things I've been
(06:05):
doing and really encouraging people to do our breakfast egg boxes,
and so you put hard boiled eggs, whole grained English
muff and few chunks of cheese, some grapes or any
fruits that your kids like, you put them in a
bunch of different boxes, put them in the fridge, and
then for the whole week you have these ready, grab
and go, healthy, balanced meals. And the only eggs that
(06:26):
I am using are Egglan's Best eggs. And the reason
why we talk about this each time is that they
have more nutrition than an ordinary egg. They have six
times more vitamin B, they have twenty five percent less
battery effect, they have double the Omega three. So all
of this little little swap from an ordinary egg to
Egglan's must egg and you get more nutrition. So that's
(06:47):
a smart move. So make ahead meal and these smart
little swaps like that really make a difference.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
I know you're so right. One of the things we
talked about before as well, love that the kids love
the Egglands Best eggs. But one of the things I
talked both your ears off before about is the fact
that as you reach a delicate age as I am
right now with my two teenage kids and a husband
who should be sainted after all the hormonal stuff he's
witnessed in the last couple of years, one of the
(07:14):
things all kidding aside that they recommend for women going
through their fifties forties. Whatever is moro omega threes? And
I thought it was this whole hoypoloy whatever. And then
I start doing the Egglin's best every day during the
crazy hormonal times as I start ramping up whatever new
hormonal phase in my life. They're a life saver. Every
single person's body is different. I can't say what happened
(07:34):
to me is going to happen to you. But if
someone in your life is going through something hormonal right
now and maybe is of the female persuasion, these things
are a game changer between a decent night's sleep and
not getting a decent night sleep, between keeping your muscle
mass when you go in for checkups, and they kind
of raise the robbrowse. Hey, your muscle mass looks fantastic.
People your age are losing muscle. It's all about the
Egglands' Best eggs and that's one of the things I
(07:57):
love best about it. My husband loves it because he's
a guy. Guys love eggs. He's not going to do
the rocky theme where he's drinking them raw. He loves
them cooked. And this is advice that people need to
hear more about a one stop shop for whatever you
might want to improve in your family nutrition, Well.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
You know what, and yeah, a bottom line is you
see the EV stamped in an agg you know that
those pens have been said a healthier diet, so the
eggs end up having more nutrition. That's what that's the
bottom line with. So no matter why you are seeking
more nutrition, that is a quick thing that you can
do and tell you. You know, this whole idea of
thinking about your kids and this summer can feel daunting attends.
(08:35):
It's like, oh my gosh, there's so many things. You know,
I gotta do this, I gotta do that. You know.
Oh it's like, hey, listen, I have one idea that
can really help guide everybody to one thing to get
us all started on the right track here, and that
it's egg on Best has teamed up with the YMCA
and it's for their Healthy King Day event which is
(08:55):
on April twenty ninth. So market Calendars is coming up
April twenty nine. This is a free event. It's nationwide
and so your family can come and enjoy games and
activities and starting get into that active summer family mindset.
And as a proud Sunter, Edlin's Best is providing all
sorts of resources and tips to really make sure that
(09:17):
this is fun, you know, and that's just like, oh gosh,
this is what we have to do. No, it's gonna
be a great time. One of the other things I
gotta say, this is so cool Edwin's Best is giving
families a chance to win five thousand dollars and other
great prizes whoa. Starting right now through May fifth, they
are running a sweep stake. It's called the Recipe for
(09:38):
a Healthy Family Food Stake. Very very very cool. Between
that YMCA Healthy Kids Stand the twenty ninth and this
awesome sweet stakes. I mean, there's a fabulous stuff happening.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
That is fantastic. I love everything you just said. This
is awesome stuff, and I knew the time would fly.
The time always flies when you're on the show. Where
can our listeners go for more information on all that?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Okay, So for all the tips, the summer recipes for
the summer, and the recipe for a Healthy Family sweepstake
that you can actually enter daily, it's all in one
place at Ebfamily sweep dot com.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Outstanding. We'll put a link on our social media as well.
Don Jackson Blattner, Time always flies. Thank you so much
for joining us. He got an open mic anytime. Here's
to an amazing summer. Be good to you, and thanks
for all you do.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
You bet we'll be right back in right after this.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
The best just got.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
And we are back with the Kristin Negophian Show, talking
about ways to beautify and improve your outdoor spaces to
make them a little more livable as the weather starts
to get warmer. We all love the images on either
your favorite home improvement shows. You're reading books on them,
your magazines on them. Maybe you're going to buddies' houses
or friends and families houses, and you're seeing these outdoor
(11:29):
spaces and you know that you could start to recreate
the same sort of thing in your backyard, but you're
kind of wary about the price. You're not alone, man,
I see these gorgeous shows and I'm like, oh, I
want that, I want that, And then you realize that
the cost of putting them in costs more than like
two of my cars put together, and it's just like okay, Bland,
b Well, you're not alone. So we're all in this together,
(11:52):
and we're figuring out ways to beautify. You know, your
front porches, your back patios, and I'm getting tons of stuff,
and all of our thing seem to kind of gel
together with regards to what we're looking to do. We
talked before the break about a trellis, and I'm telling
you right now it's really starting to click with me.
Is it might be a great way, inexpensive way to
(12:12):
obscure the view of my huge you know, the gas
tank outside our house, and I'm kind of psyched about it.
I'll send some pictures. As soon as we have this
thing up and running, I will let you know and
I'll sell. I'll definitely send some pictures in the meantime.
If you have other ideas as to what to do
with that, let me know all right. Next s up
on our list. Oh yeah. One of the biggest things
people like about the outdoor living the idea of having
(12:35):
a fire pit out there. That's genius. I love that.
It's so relaxing, isn't it. You know, forget about staring
at a television screen and that kind of thing. Hang
out around a beautiful, flickering fire in your backyard. There's
nothing like it. It's so relaxing, and you cannot roast marshmallows
over your television screen. It doesn't work that way, but
you can over a fire pit. It's all good, you know.
(12:57):
And again I've seen these fire pits worthy of royalty
that cost a ridiculous pretty penny. But the fact of
the matter is that you can create one in your
own outdoor space for a fraction of the cost of that.
Go on any website you want, start by googling it
if you want to, and talk about, you know, putting
in just an inexpensive firepit sort of scene in your backyard,
(13:19):
and it's all good. We had a question, oh where
did it come from? We had someone sending in a
note about fire pits, and they wanted to know. They've
got a small backyard and they wanted to know if
there were any guidelines for how far you can put
it away from your house, how close? What are the
general guidelines? And I looked this up. This was sent
(13:39):
let's see, this is again another HGTV link. So you know,
they pretty much they got their act together. There. Here
we go. Here's where it is. Fire safety. First things first,
it says here your firepit should be at least ten
feet away from any structure or combustible surface. And that
made me very happy because so many times I'll see
pictures of these people who have done beautiful, gorgeous fire pits,
(14:03):
and I look and I'm like, oh my gosh, is
that too close to a house?
Speaker 2 (14:06):
You know?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Is that going to be you know, safe? And you
find out later it's more than safe. You know. I'm
kind of the safety girl. I'm kind of the safety
spas on the wrong kind of day, I'm just the
safety spas. So it strikes me, oh my god, get
it as far away from the house as you can.
But apparently, according to all of those in the know,
fire authorities and everything else, keeping it ten feet away
(14:26):
or more from any structure or combustible surface and your
golden so there you go. Also says this is so smart,
you guys, because this happens around here. Before lighting an
outdoor fire, check the weather forecast, okay, because windy conditions
can just come out of nowhere here in rural Pennsylvania. Okay,
(14:47):
suddenly you've got a beautiful morning, it turns into this windy,
gusty evening, or vice versa, comes out of nowhere. Check
your weather forecast, okay, and don't be dumb about it.
If it says it's going to be really windy that night,
you're not going to be doing a fire in the
fire pit. Just deal. Also it says stay up to
date on any burn bands or burn ordinances that might
be in effect at different times during the year. You've
(15:09):
got some counties out there that are already under water restrictions. Okay,
so for obvious reasons, you don't want to put any
of the fire companies to use for any reason whatsoever.
But you just don't want to have to go crazy
with the water. And a lot of times, if you
have water you know, whatever you call it, water bands
in your area, water restrictions in your area, don't go fighting,
(15:30):
you know, don't go lighting fires that could get out
of control. Very cool. Let's see here, what else, all right?
Doing some house cleaning like picking up leaves other combustible
materials around the pit. Oh yeah, okay, why not when
you're putting your fire pit in, I realize it's summertime,
most of the vast majority of the leaves are still
in the trees. But when we start doing fire pits,
(15:52):
you know, in the fall a few months down the road,
always keep it clear of that kind of thing you
use your common sense. I find that the listeners of
my shit have an abundance of common sense. So when
I read some of these lines, like make sure there's
nothing combustible around your fire pit, I have to chuckle
because you guys already know this stuff, and you already
know this as well. But it bears me saying anyway,
(16:14):
always have a nice size container of water nearby, and
better yet, the garden hozon standby before starting the fire.
Stuff that you guys already know, but some other people
out there don't thought it was worthwhile saving. Okay, good
stuff to say next neat ideas you guys, this is
so cool making an outdoor kitchen. But it's not some crazy,
(16:37):
over the top, zillion dollar outdoor kitchen. This is charming.
Oh my god, this is great. Here we go. It's
wonderful to have an alfresco lunch or a barbecue in
your backyard every once in a while, if you already
have a barbecue area. And in my house back home,
in my house, the barbecue area is the area at
the top of the driveway where Victor has his barbe grill. There,
(17:01):
that's our barbecue area. These people have taken it to
a fun, little extreme, and there's pictures upon pictures upon
pictures sent to me. Thank you so much. You just
dress up the area a little bit. You've got coolers nearby.
You've got it all set a rolling bar kart or
an outdoor island as a counter space. I love this.
There are also small fridges for just over one hundred
(17:23):
dollars available to add to your outdoor kitchen if you
have any kind of power supply out there. This is
pretty cool making an outdoor kitchen. Why not, man, we've
all been cramped up in our homes wherever you are,
coast to coast, if you're down south, if you're up
northeast or west. We are finally pulling out of a
crazy winter. It's time to spend a lot of time outdoors.
And if that means you've got an outdoor kitchen there
(17:46):
to make it even less of a reason to head indoors,
to stay outdoors, make it happen. I am digging it.
We've got time for one more before the break. This
is beautiful. Okay, so picture you have your deck already
laid out, Okay, your back porch, your front, you're on
your front, maybe your front porch, your back deck, whatever
it is, to add to the finishing touches I am looking.
(18:09):
We had a handful of people who sent on this
subject matter alone. The lighting concept something I hadn't even considered.
I considered, if you have like a wonderful little fire pit,
there in the middle of it, there's your lighting source,
but no people are taking it to amazing gorgeous extremes.
I mentioned last week, I saw a couple of people
who took old fashioned chandeliers that they got at thrift shops,
(18:32):
and they put in solar light bulbs in there that
soaked up the sun's raysed during the day and let
out this beautiful glow at night. So you have these
beautiful back porches with chandelier lighting of all things, and
it costs nothing because it's solar lights. This is the
kind of stuff that just blows me away, all right.
(18:52):
Other people are using what looked like Christmas lights, the
long strings of lights. They too, are solar powered. So
you can interspe first these beautiful strings of solar lights along.
If you have any kind of a ceiling trellis something
along the top of your porch, you can string them
along there and create this beautiful soft ambient lighting. That
(19:13):
is gorgeous. I love these ideas and the best part,
of course, they don't break the bank. This is so cool. Guys,
hang out again. The time is flying. Find me online
during the break www dot brilliantfrugalliving dot com. After the break,
a little bit of real estate coming your way with
John Harriet. Dad and daughter talk real estate up after
(19:34):
the break, you all stay tuned.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Hello again, everybody. It's John Harriet here with Keller William's
Real Estate with another educational entertaining as our objective is
to educate and make sure people have the right kind
of facts about making the biggest single financial decision. And
most people make a lot.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Of headlines out there. You have to break down for
this week again.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Search that's true. There are a lot of headlines about
the real estate business. And I have some interesting news
about the real estate business. Man.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Can't tell your face that this is like good news.
You're being very Pokerpa.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
It's pretty much pretty much good news. Yeah, it's pretty
much good news. It's one thing you and I have
talked about a little bit on the show before, Chrissy,
but about the big government sponsored entities, the banks Fannie
May and Freddie Mac. And most people don't really understand
the function of Fanny May and Freddie Mac. But the
main function of Fanny May and Freddie Mac is to
make sure that the mortgage lending system maintains liquidity. Okay.
(20:39):
So the way that works is that when borrowers go
to a local lender and say, I want to borrow
money to buy this three hundred and fifty thousand dollars house, right,
and I'm going to put ten percent down or three
and a half percent down, whatever it is. Then they
get their credit checked or go through the loan application process,
and they get their money. But then what happens immediately
(21:00):
after settlement is that when the loan has been processed,
the lender will say, okay, now I'm going to resell
this loan to Fannie May or to Freddie Mac, and
they get their money exactly right. Then they don't have
to service the loan, they don't have to do all
the backup work make the loan work, they don't have
to make sure that people are paying it. And they
get there, they get their money from Fanny May and
(21:21):
Freddie Mac. And then what Fanny and Freddy do is
that they repackage these loans as mortgage backed securities, which
is a good deal and as good investment as long
as people keep paying their mortgages. And most of the
time that happens. Most of the time that happens. We
had a great, big problem starting back in about two
thousand and six, two thousand and seven, when the mortgage
(21:43):
lending standards as promulgated by Fanny and Freddy got so
very low. Friend of mine was describing it as ninja loans,
no income, no job, but still you can get a loan.
Come in breathe. Can you fog the mirror fairly?
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Yes, you fogg the mirror. Try that again, she fogged
it twice. Good candidate. But anyway, when was campaigning for office,
one of the things that he had promised was that
he was going to do something to bring Fanny and Freddy,
which is what's called gsees government sponsored entities under better control.
And I think he even promised that he was going
to try to abolish them and go back to private
(22:19):
banking as the source of funds for mortgage lending.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
How did common sense go over in Washington, DC when
he floated that idea.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
Well, I don't think it. Everybody got floated in all
seriousness because when he got into office, I think he
realized he had a lot bigger fish to fry than
Fanny and Freddy at that point in time, So it
kind of got put on the back burner. But I
saw an editorial in the Wall Street Journal where somebody
was raising some concern about, well, maybe loan standards are
getting too loose again.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
I like the idea of shaking things up a bit,
just evolving it. They don't have to scrap it all together,
but if they just want to evolve it. Knowing what
we've known from the past and what we've learned from
the past, I totally in favor of that.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
Yeah, well, back when, back when your mom and I
were in the business of buying houses, you'd go to
a local savings and loan, you'd make your application and
they would scrutinize your income and they'd make sure that
you made that money, and they'd look at your credit rating,
because at that point in time, whether they made money
and survived or lost money and went out of business
was totally dependent upon how many people paid back their loans,
(23:18):
So there was a real built in break on people
getting carried away with wild loan schemes. And one of
the things that came out of that was that we
had never had, up until two thousand and eight, a
countrywide depression crash and housing prices had never happened, had
(23:38):
never happened. But with the advent of Fanny and Freddy
taking over the responsibility and taking the onus off the
local bankers to really police what their loans were doing,
we had a great, big depression crash and housing prices
that created all kinds of pain and gutsy u goodly
(23:59):
bad bad things. I've had a number of friends who
have been in the housing business, around the housing business
for the last twenty or thirty years, and the bankruptcies,
the divorces, it was just awful. So I was encouraged
by the fact that, yes, loan standards are getting a
little bit too low for comfort. But on the other hand,
mister the Secretary of the Treasury is beginning to take
(24:20):
some action to put Fanny and Freddy under better control.
That's exciting, and I think, especially if we get a
conservative majority in the House of Representatives and in the Senate,
we'll be able to make that happen, which will result
in a much more stable economy.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yeah, stay tuned.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Yeah. Now some people will say, well, my god, you
know you're going to freeze the little guy out of
out of mortgage lending, and you're you're not gonna if
you're not a big guy, you're not going to be
able to buy a house.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
And just a little guy with a crappy credit score.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
That's that's right, that's it. Now to President Bush's credit
Bush forty three. He tried to do something to reign
in Fanny and Freddy back in like two thousand and six,
two thousand and seven.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
So he probably he maybe had some behind the doors
meetings where he saw this kind of thing coming up
with the whole housing price.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
I think he did. He realized that Fanny and Frederick
were getting too far extended. But at that point in time,
the Democrats in Congress shouted him down and said, oh,
you're just trying to protect the profits of your rich
buddies in the banking business, and Fanny and Freddie are
just fine, there's no problem there. Then, of course they
collapsed a couple of years later.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
What did Berry Frank have to say after that?
Speaker 4 (25:25):
Just run away with you mean Barney Frank Barney. Frank
he said, well, after strong consideration, I've decided not to
run for office again. Yep, because well, it all goes
to show you that the individual marketplace is a wonderful,
wonderful break and a wonderful, wonderful filter on things getting
too carried away. Not that not that that's going to
(25:45):
be private. You're always going to have recessions and market corrections.
But when you throw in great, big government interference that
ignores a lot of market signals that people know are right,
you're really multiplied the bad effects. And boy, we went
through it, and we went through it in page on
Steroids from like two thousand and eight to twenty twelve,
twenty thirteen, and.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
You detailed it so well, talking about all of the
terrible sideline effects with regards to marriage is ending and
God for been worse stuff than that, And people finally
pulled out of it. You think they'd learned that I
am hearing. On a somewhat related note, the same type
of thing is happening with student loans these days as well,
with the loans that we're given out. When you're hitting
these loans for college degrees that have maybe a five
(26:29):
percent chance of generating the salary needed to pay it back.
That's the kind of stress and stuff that you're finding
these days. Two people are putting off outing, kids, buying houses,
you know, starting their own businesses because of this. I
see a similar potential.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Crist You're right, you know, federal government interference in private business. Certainly.
I'm not saying we don't need government regulation. We do.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
I'm a big fan of government.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
We certainly do sensible government regulations. But well, since twenty ten,
the federal government has been the sole dispenser of college
college loans for people. And here's what. And the standards
for these loans have been very very loose for lots
and lots and lots of years, and people have been
(27:11):
complaining about and this kind of gets together with credit
access as we saw in the housing market too. But
people have been complaining for years about, oh my god,
college costs are going up much like double and triple
the rate of inflation. Well, guess why, because the federal
government was providing the money. Oh yeah, you qualify for this,
and you can pay us back after you graduate. So
(27:32):
here's what was happening. The college administrators were saying, oh,
going back, maybe fifteen twenty years, Well, gee, wizh, you
know our school is full right now, let's raise the
rates by five percent next year and see what happens.
And lo and behold, the school was full again.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
And the next year they said, well that worked out
pretty well. Let's raise the rates again by five percent
or so, and let's see what happens. And the school
was full again. So, as a result of the federal
governm from an interference in the private marketplace, blow up
the price college tuition costs. College costs have gone up
several times the rate of inflation, and now it's recognized
(28:09):
as a great, big crisis. And of course some people
are getting degrees in you know, prehistoric ink of stone mining, juggling, juggling,
minor juggling, something like that. Can't find a job. I
know one very very bright young lady who got a
degree that costs her about sixty five thousand dollars in photography. Ah,
(28:30):
probably not a real good career choice.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Same thing I could do on my phone if.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
I'm probably not a real good career choice. So now
you see people like liberals saying, well, we've got to
do something to alleviate this college debt. I know, So
the government should take over and pay back all this
college debt, relieve the students of it. And the way
we can do this is by having a two percent
tax on the extremely wealthy, extremely wealthy with a net
(28:55):
worth over fifty million dollars.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
It's just funny to me, you know what. I'm grateful
to the showing their true colors prior to the election,
but that kind of thing obviously wouldn't work. Are you
going to retro to all the people who did pay
back their college loans? Are you going to retro to
the people who would have gone to more expensive college
and chose to go wisely to your local community college instead.
It's just hilarious how they throw out these ideas with
no answers as to how to answer the tougher questions
(29:19):
are you doing right?
Speaker 4 (29:20):
But the real point of this particular discussion we're having here, Chrissy,
is that government interference and private lending has always led
to real bad impacts, especially in the housing market, because
when the federal government policy was to try and jack
up the home ownership rate, right, the way they did
that was by lowering standards on home mortgage exactly and
(29:41):
that's when we wound up with all of these mortgages
that people couldn't afford. And when the price downturn began,
a lot of people just came through the keys at
the s and IL and said, Okay, here it is, boss,
take it over.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
You entice personalities that we're not going to act responsibly
in a financial downturn. And that's just the kiss of death.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
That's exactly right. And the same thing is happening now
with will to college loans. And I don't know how
you put this genie back on the bottle because it's
out right now and it could be some kind of
a hell of a shock to the system.
Speaker 5 (30:08):
See infitte, guys, be right back right after this. I
(30:33):
just got it, and we are back with a Christian
Agophian show.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Thanks for hanging out. Many thanks again to John Harriet
for another fabulous dad and daughter talk real estate segment.
If you have any questions for him, sell or text him.
I'm telling you he's got The answer is four eight
four five seven four four zero eight eight. It's all
good and it gets me more back in the mood
to swing back to my own real estate stuff. You're
talking about all the various things you can do with
(31:11):
outdoor spaces. My lord, somebody sent me this monster stack.
Who sent me this Chris k listening in from O
Sage Beach, Missouri KRMS eleven fifty, Thank you so much.
And it's all about this backyard space. Let me paint
a picture for you. It's called low maintenance Backyard Design Ideas, okay,
And it started with this complete blank slate. I'm talking blank,
(31:34):
I mean it was. It was pure dirt. Apparently it's
a in an area where it's really tough to grow grass.
It's very blank back there. It's totally a blank slate
waiting to be improved upon. And did they ever holy mackerel,
starting with something that didn't even occur to me. Don't
laugh because it looks amazing, this fake grass, which apparently
you can get installed these days. It looks incredible. It's gorgeous,
(31:58):
it's lifelike, and and you know you see people running
their toes through it. It just feels really good. It
feels nice and cool. Believe it or not. It's perfectly washable, durable,
it stands up to the elements, beautiful lush green for
those areas where either you can't get grass to grow,
or an area of the country where the sun just
beats down so much and the heat is so oppressive.
(32:20):
It's just not conducive to grass. But you want a
nice green backdrop for your backyard areas. This stuff is gorgeous.
So here's what they did with the space. Half the
space they turned into an outdoor gorgeous cabana type thing
for next to nothing with recycled, repurposed materials. Here's another
cool thing that they did. They used all of this
(32:41):
various stuff. They used a gorgeous rug, a beautiful outdoor
rug made all from very tough, durable, washable you know,
you know, you can mess around with it when it's outdoors,
a plastic like material. It doesn't look plastic. This is
not a plastic looking rug. It's a gorgeous, you know,
wonderful look rug. And it's made out of these durable,
(33:02):
recycled plastic materials so that it's ultra you know, washable.
You can hose it down. They got these gorgeous wicker
pieces of furniture made out of again more plastic meant
to look like wicker. They did Craigslist for all of
their cushions, and then they built a cabana type roof
on this thing and put in the solar light you know,
(33:22):
the wonderful Christmas looking lights, the wired lights and long strings,
except that they're solar lights and it's glowing at night.
It's absolutely beautiful. It is absolutely beautiful, and I wish
I had like a full show just for this. They
did it for a patio style challenge in their neighborhood.
They clearly won, and I'm just beyond dazzled. The furniture
(33:44):
they all got on craigslist. She likes to sew. The
wife likes to sew, so she made some wonderful, very
easy going, you know, back cushions, seat cushions, that kind
of thing. They rehabbed an old table that they trash
picked from the side of the road, painted it gorgeous
black and then has a new glass top and the
top of it. They've got Okay, oh my gosh, these
(34:06):
are people after my own heart. Fake potted plants, you go, girl,
fake potted plants, because if you're anything like me, you
just you love the plants. You just can't grow them.
It's all good. This must be in an area. I'm
trying to look to see what area of the country
there in I'm thinking southwestern USA, because it's just not
conducive to lush greenery. Beautiful part of the country, just
(34:28):
tough to grow the you know, the plant life out there.
And this is beyond gorgeous. Okay. They built the cabana,
they got all these rough, older materials and made something
beautiful out of it. But this fake grass is blowing
me away. How long has this been out there? I
do have a life. I mean, I get out there,
I see this stuff. I've never seen this fake grass before.
What would it take to get a couple of acres
(34:49):
of this stuff for my property? Because even though we
live in the beautiful, you know, beautiful Pennsylvania suburbs where
it should be you know, pretty easy to grow grass,
I'm kind of happy at it. So the grass doesn't
look as nice as I'd like, and this fake grass
looks absolutely beautiful. Okay. Another thing that they did with
this outdoor space, half of it is this fake grass,
(35:10):
or you've got that pictured. The other half of the yard,
closest to the house, they made a beautiful outdoor curtained
area with do it yourself pipe curtain rods that look gorgeous.
They strung up the Christmas lights which are solar powered.
They crankslisted all of the furniture, and they just it's
a beautiful living space. Who would not want to spend
(35:31):
time out here? I so dig this stuff. That's what
I'm talking about to you, guys. It's not about spending money.
It's about enjoying the places and the spaces that you
love and not over spending on it. Who's going to
enjoy a backyard space that you ended up going into
debt for. Who's going to enjoy a back space that
you had to spend tens of thousands of dollars on
(35:52):
or any amount that you can't afford. If you can't
afford a five thousand dollars back deck, and I'm not
about to spend money. I'm not about to spend five
grand on that kind of thing. You're not going to
enjoy it. If you spend money too much money on anything,
you name it a dinner out, a fabulous outfit, maybe
a pair of shoes that you like, Oh it's so beautiful,
I'm gonna spend it. You hate it afterwards because of
(36:13):
the money you just spent. You find yourself wishing you
had the money back. These people are doing incredible things
with their outdoor spaces, and they're not breaking the bank
to do it. I totally dig this. It's the people
out there, can I add please, that are adding electronics,
like putting an area where they can put a big
screen TV. I mean, this kind of stuff never even
occurred to me. Holy mackerel, having a movie night outside
(36:36):
with your fire pit going and everything else. Ooh la la,
very cool ideas. You guys are so inspiring. I am
absolutely loving this. And yeah, something I mentioned earlier, we
talked about getting the furniture for this outdoor space. I'm
looking at these beautiful stores and if you're paying full price,
you're paying too much. Keep an eye out for your
local warehouse clubs. The garage sales are really starting to
(36:59):
pick up right now. Well, you're gonna see a lot
of neighborhoods in which other people are buying those full
priced retail sets and they need to get rid of
the older ones. All they want is those older sets gone.
Keep your eyes on Craigslist, keep your eyes on the
local newspaper ads, keep your eyes on any way shape
or form. Put the word out with your buddies at work. Yeah,
(37:19):
we're rehabbing the backyard, a little bit putting in a
back patio. Hey, if you happen to know anybody who's
thrown away an old patio set, need somebody to take
it away, give me a call, let me know, let
them know. It's fine. If it's scuffed up or ruffed up,
or maybe a little rusting a couple of spaces, it's
nothing that a couple of coats of rustolium paint couldn't
take care of. Ask me anything on that score. It
(37:42):
will come back good as new. That's the kind of
thing I'm talking about at If you're like me, a
plant lover but also a plant killer, it's a painful
combination that I myself possess. Put out the fake plants.
Who's telling you not to? It's your back patio. You
decide what you're gonna do, you guys, make the rules.
Is this the year you're going to put in a
beautiful front porch space, a beautiful back patio space. Let
(38:06):
no one tell you different. Get out there, get online,
find what you need to do, and make it happen. Guys,
I love hanging out with you. Thank you so much
for your time. Thanks for hanging out. Thank you for
your outdoor living ideas. You blow me away and inspire
me tremendously. And until next week, save those pennies, pay
with cash, and you all stay frugal out there.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
To the best of all circumstance.
And we are back with the Kristen Agophian show. And
it might just be me, but does it feel like
winter took forever? And now glorious springtime is already front
and center? And now it feels like summertime is coming
up on us like gangbusters. And around here anyway, maybe
you guys too, We are already counting the days until
(00:26):
school breaks for summer. And my hard working kids they're
ready for a solid break. Maybe the kids in your
life are too. And then I read these amazing statistics.
I never would have thought of these numbers, you guys,
But are you ready for this? The Society of Behavioral
Medicine is reporting that physical activity for children between six
(00:46):
and nine years old drops by fifty three percent during
summer break. What's with that? That is completely the opposite
of what I would have expected? But there it is.
Who knows what caused it? Could have I don't know.
Started with lockdowns a couple of years ago. Who knows
who cares? But along with those poor activity habits comes
(01:07):
poor eating habits. Now that I do know a little
something about the poor eating habits, but here to break
it down for us and share a solid game plan
for motivating kids to stay active and eat healthy during
the summer, you know, and beyond. Back by popular demand,
registered dietitian nutritionist Don Jackson Blattner joining us via our
(01:29):
newsmaker line. Don welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Hey, thank you so much for having me. Yeah, I'm
talking from Chicago, and you're right. In about six weeks
we are starting our summer break, and that statistic of
how much physical activity drops for kids really has me
excited to start talking about ideas of how we can
get kidded back to being active, eating healthy, feeling good,
(01:52):
feeling happy.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah. It's such a great one two punch, isn't it.
You know, you just you try not to be too
parental about it, because the kids can smell that from
a mile away. But when you start, like introducing some
of the easier, healthier nutritional things, it can really have
a fabulous ripple effect where suddenly they're sleeping better, and
suddenly they're outside more and everything else. And I know
I'm preaching to the choir, but this new report issued
(02:16):
by the Society for Behavioral Medicine very revealing. It completely
has my jaw dropping. Tell us what you can about that, please?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, So I mean, bottom line, kids are on their phone,
watching TV, playing video games and they're inside. They're just
not getting outside to be physically active. And you know,
bottom line is if we can get them engaged to
feel more physically active and eat healthier all the time,
they're going to feel more energizing, The're gonna feel happier.
So I do have some ideas of how we can
(02:43):
get our kids engaged that are simple, that are really
easy for us to do.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Outstanding. So before you're right, because before you know it,
we're going to have these beautiful kids out of school.
What are your you know, with your research, what are
you finding to be maybe your top two or three
tips to reverse this crazy trend and get them on
the path to that nice one to two punch of
the smart food moves and keeping them active.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yep, okay, I got you here. First thing, I gotta say,
we all have to get kids in the kitchen helping us.
It's more fun. You know, you have extra hands helping too.
But what we find is that when kids are putting
their own food, they like it more and they're more
likely to eat all the healthy things. So get them
in the kitchen helping and then something I love. I've
(03:28):
been doing since my stepson was young. We put a
snack list on the bridge, so I write out what
the snack options are. There's you know, hard boiled eggs,
there's cheese sticks, there's yogurt, there's apples, there's grapes. And
then when we're hungry, kids and adults, instead of going
all around and trying to figure out what's snack and
you just go to the snack with it tells you're
(03:49):
right there, what's there to snack on, and you can
go grab it and have a more nutritious snack. So
those are great couple of easy things for eating. And
then when it comes to the fitness part, I've been
doing with clients and it is so popular, it is
so great. It's called the Choose your Own Adventure jar,
and this is where you write out on a piece
of paper, you know, GOI the forward, create a scavenger hunt,
(04:11):
a bunch of ideas of what kids could do outside,
and put all these little pieces of paper in a
jump and then when they wake up they can pick
one and they have an idea of what they can
actually do with their summer day and think of with
their own creativity and spin on it. But at least
they have gotten the idea and the direction of where
to go with it and what to do outside.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
They have some fun that is brilliant. And you know,
I'm taking notes as we're talking here. And because I've
been talking to you forever, each year I get to
have you on the air and talking about nutrition everything else,
and we always talk about ways to get the kids
more involved, and you nailed it, because not only is
it more engaging for them, they get a little more
excited about it, but when they start cooking their own food,
(04:53):
it just kind of takes it to a whole new level.
It's like this whole sense of pride for them. They
love it. And what I love more than anything is
that one of the most easiest meals to make, and
one of Katie and Robbie's favorite meals to make is
just simple scrambled eggs, and it's something super healthy, super easy.
You and I've been doing Eggland's Best forever. But you're
(05:13):
ready for this. When I found out I was having
you on the air, don I looked at all of
our past interviews. When I first had you on the air,
my Katie was still in middle school, she's now college.
One of the things she loves is the fact that
she can make scrambled eggs for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner,
she can make it for friends, she can make it
for her boyfriend. It's just this big grown up leap.
(05:34):
And I feel like, if you can introduce kids to
the idea of just making some eggs for dinner or
for a snack or whatever, that's one of your biggest
go to moves to getting them on a healthy path.
What is your research telling you with that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
I gotta say I absolutely love that and the enthusiasm
that you have and helping everybody rattling behind the idea
of getting kids in the kitchen and cookie it's so great.
And I'll tell you one of the biggest things that
I like to do is to make a head thing
so that you know, even if it is easy, it
could be even easier if it's already in the fridge
ready to go. So one of the things I've been
(06:05):
doing and really encouraging people to do our breakfast egg boxes,
and so you put hard boiled eggs, whole grained English
muff and few chunks of cheese, some grapes or any
fruits that your kids like, you put them in a
bunch of different boxes, put them in the fridge, and
then for the whole week you have these ready, grab
and go, healthy, balanced meals. And the only eggs that
(06:26):
I am using are Egglan's Best eggs. And the reason
why we talk about this each time is that they
have more nutrition than an ordinary egg. They have six
times more vitamin B, they have twenty five percent less
battery effect, they have double the Omega three. So all
of this little little swap from an ordinary egg to
Egglan's must egg and you get more nutrition. So that's
(06:47):
a smart move. So make ahead meal and these smart
little swaps like that really make a difference.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
I know you're so right. One of the things we
talked about before as well, love that the kids love
the Egglands Best eggs. But one of the things I
talked both your ears off before about is the fact
that as you reach a delicate age as I am
right now with my two teenage kids and a husband
who should be sainted after all the hormonal stuff he's
witnessed in the last couple of years, one of the
(07:14):
things all kidding aside that they recommend for women going
through their fifties forties. Whatever is moro omega threes? And
I thought it was this whole hoypoloy whatever. And then
I start doing the Egglin's best every day during the
crazy hormonal times as I start ramping up whatever new
hormonal phase in my life. They're a life saver. Every
single person's body is different. I can't say what happened
(07:34):
to me is going to happen to you. But if
someone in your life is going through something hormonal right
now and maybe is of the female persuasion, these things
are a game changer between a decent night's sleep and
not getting a decent night sleep, between keeping your muscle
mass when you go in for checkups, and they kind
of raise the robbrowse. Hey, your muscle mass looks fantastic.
People your age are losing muscle. It's all about the
Egglands' Best eggs and that's one of the things I
(07:57):
love best about it. My husband loves it because he's
a guy. Guys love eggs. He's not going to do
the rocky theme where he's drinking them raw. He loves
them cooked. And this is advice that people need to
hear more about a one stop shop for whatever you
might want to improve in your family nutrition, Well.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
You know what, and yeah, a bottom line is you
see the EV stamped in an agg you know that
those pens have been said a healthier diet, so the
eggs end up having more nutrition. That's what that's the
bottom line with. So no matter why you are seeking
more nutrition, that is a quick thing that you can
do and tell you. You know, this whole idea of
thinking about your kids and this summer can feel daunting attends.
(08:35):
It's like, oh my gosh, there's so many things. You know,
I gotta do this, I gotta do that. You know.
Oh it's like, hey, listen, I have one idea that
can really help guide everybody to one thing to get
us all started on the right track here, and that
it's egg on Best has teamed up with the YMCA
and it's for their Healthy King Day event which is
(08:55):
on April twenty ninth. So market Calendars is coming up
April twenty nine. This is a free event. It's nationwide
and so your family can come and enjoy games and
activities and starting get into that active summer family mindset.
And as a proud Sunter, Edlin's Best is providing all
sorts of resources and tips to really make sure that
(09:17):
this is fun, you know, and that's just like, oh gosh,
this is what we have to do. No, it's gonna
be a great time. One of the other things I
gotta say, this is so cool Edwin's Best is giving
families a chance to win five thousand dollars and other
great prizes whoa. Starting right now through May fifth, they
are running a sweep stake. It's called the Recipe for
(09:38):
a Healthy Family Food Stake. Very very very cool. Between
that YMCA Healthy Kids Stand the twenty ninth and this
awesome sweet stakes. I mean, there's a fabulous stuff happening.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
That is fantastic. I love everything you just said. This
is awesome stuff, and I knew the time would fly.
The time always flies when you're on the show. Where
can our listeners go for more information on all that?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Okay, So for all the tips, the summer recipes for
the summer, and the recipe for a Healthy Family sweepstake
that you can actually enter daily, it's all in one
place at Ebfamily sweep dot com.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Outstanding. We'll put a link on our social media as well.
Don Jackson Blattner, Time always flies. Thank you so much
for joining us. He got an open mic anytime. Here's
to an amazing summer. Be good to you, and thanks
for all you do.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
You bet we'll be right back in right after this.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
The best just got.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
And we are back with the Kristin Negophian Show, talking
about ways to beautify and improve your outdoor spaces to
make them a little more livable as the weather starts
to get warmer. We all love the images on either
your favorite home improvement shows. You're reading books on them,
your magazines on them. Maybe you're going to buddies' houses
or friends and families houses, and you're seeing these outdoor
(11:29):
spaces and you know that you could start to recreate
the same sort of thing in your backyard, but you're
kind of wary about the price. You're not alone, man,
I see these gorgeous shows and I'm like, oh, I
want that, I want that, And then you realize that
the cost of putting them in costs more than like
two of my cars put together, and it's just like okay, Bland,
b Well, you're not alone. So we're all in this together,
(11:52):
and we're figuring out ways to beautify. You know, your
front porches, your back patios, and I'm getting tons of stuff,
and all of our thing seem to kind of gel
together with regards to what we're looking to do. We
talked before the break about a trellis, and I'm telling
you right now it's really starting to click with me.
Is it might be a great way, inexpensive way to
(12:12):
obscure the view of my huge you know, the gas
tank outside our house, and I'm kind of psyched about it.
I'll send some pictures. As soon as we have this
thing up and running, I will let you know and
I'll sell. I'll definitely send some pictures in the meantime.
If you have other ideas as to what to do
with that, let me know all right. Next s up
on our list. Oh yeah. One of the biggest things
people like about the outdoor living the idea of having
(12:35):
a fire pit out there. That's genius. I love that.
It's so relaxing, isn't it. You know, forget about staring
at a television screen and that kind of thing. Hang
out around a beautiful, flickering fire in your backyard. There's
nothing like it. It's so relaxing, and you cannot roast marshmallows
over your television screen. It doesn't work that way, but
you can over a fire pit. It's all good, you know.
(12:57):
And again I've seen these fire pits worthy of royalty
that cost a ridiculous pretty penny. But the fact of
the matter is that you can create one in your
own outdoor space for a fraction of the cost of that.
Go on any website you want, start by googling it
if you want to, and talk about, you know, putting
in just an inexpensive firepit sort of scene in your backyard,
(13:19):
and it's all good. We had a question, oh where
did it come from? We had someone sending in a
note about fire pits, and they wanted to know. They've
got a small backyard and they wanted to know if
there were any guidelines for how far you can put
it away from your house, how close? What are the
general guidelines? And I looked this up. This was sent
(13:39):
let's see, this is again another HGTV link. So you know,
they pretty much they got their act together. There. Here
we go. Here's where it is. Fire safety. First things first,
it says here your firepit should be at least ten
feet away from any structure or combustible surface. And that
made me very happy because so many times I'll see
pictures of these people who have done beautiful, gorgeous fire pits,
(14:03):
and I look and I'm like, oh my gosh, is
that too close to a house?
Speaker 2 (14:06):
You know?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Is that going to be you know, safe? And you
find out later it's more than safe. You know. I'm
kind of the safety girl. I'm kind of the safety
spas on the wrong kind of day, I'm just the
safety spas. So it strikes me, oh my god, get
it as far away from the house as you can.
But apparently, according to all of those in the know,
fire authorities and everything else, keeping it ten feet away
(14:26):
or more from any structure or combustible surface and your
golden so there you go. Also says this is so smart,
you guys, because this happens around here. Before lighting an
outdoor fire, check the weather forecast, okay, because windy conditions
can just come out of nowhere here in rural Pennsylvania. Okay,
(14:47):
suddenly you've got a beautiful morning, it turns into this windy,
gusty evening, or vice versa, comes out of nowhere. Check
your weather forecast, okay, and don't be dumb about it.
If it says it's going to be really windy that night,
you're not going to be doing a fire in the
fire pit. Just deal. Also it says stay up to
date on any burn bands or burn ordinances that might
be in effect at different times during the year. You've
(15:09):
got some counties out there that are already under water restrictions. Okay,
so for obvious reasons, you don't want to put any
of the fire companies to use for any reason whatsoever.
But you just don't want to have to go crazy
with the water. And a lot of times, if you
have water you know, whatever you call it, water bands
in your area, water restrictions in your area, don't go fighting,
(15:30):
you know, don't go lighting fires that could get out
of control. Very cool. Let's see here, what else, all right?
Doing some house cleaning like picking up leaves other combustible
materials around the pit. Oh yeah, okay, why not when
you're putting your fire pit in, I realize it's summertime,
most of the vast majority of the leaves are still
in the trees. But when we start doing fire pits,
(15:52):
you know, in the fall a few months down the road,
always keep it clear of that kind of thing you
use your common sense. I find that the listeners of
my shit have an abundance of common sense. So when
I read some of these lines, like make sure there's
nothing combustible around your fire pit, I have to chuckle
because you guys already know this stuff, and you already
know this as well. But it bears me saying anyway,
(16:14):
always have a nice size container of water nearby, and
better yet, the garden hozon standby before starting the fire.
Stuff that you guys already know, but some other people
out there don't thought it was worthwhile saving. Okay, good
stuff to say next neat ideas you guys, this is
so cool making an outdoor kitchen. But it's not some crazy,
(16:37):
over the top, zillion dollar outdoor kitchen. This is charming.
Oh my god, this is great. Here we go. It's
wonderful to have an alfresco lunch or a barbecue in
your backyard every once in a while, if you already
have a barbecue area. And in my house back home,
in my house, the barbecue area is the area at
the top of the driveway where Victor has his barbe grill. There,
(17:01):
that's our barbecue area. These people have taken it to
a fun, little extreme, and there's pictures upon pictures upon
pictures sent to me. Thank you so much. You just
dress up the area a little bit. You've got coolers nearby.
You've got it all set a rolling bar kart or
an outdoor island as a counter space. I love this.
There are also small fridges for just over one hundred
(17:23):
dollars available to add to your outdoor kitchen if you
have any kind of power supply out there. This is
pretty cool making an outdoor kitchen. Why not, man, we've
all been cramped up in our homes wherever you are,
coast to coast, if you're down south, if you're up
northeast or west. We are finally pulling out of a
crazy winter. It's time to spend a lot of time outdoors.
And if that means you've got an outdoor kitchen there
(17:46):
to make it even less of a reason to head indoors,
to stay outdoors, make it happen. I am digging it.
We've got time for one more before the break. This
is beautiful. Okay, so picture you have your deck already
laid out, Okay, your back porch, your front, you're on
your front, maybe your front porch, your back deck, whatever
it is, to add to the finishing touches I am looking.
(18:09):
We had a handful of people who sent on this
subject matter alone. The lighting concept something I hadn't even considered.
I considered, if you have like a wonderful little fire pit,
there in the middle of it, there's your lighting source,
but no people are taking it to amazing gorgeous extremes.
I mentioned last week, I saw a couple of people
who took old fashioned chandeliers that they got at thrift shops,
(18:32):
and they put in solar light bulbs in there that
soaked up the sun's raysed during the day and let
out this beautiful glow at night. So you have these
beautiful back porches with chandelier lighting of all things, and
it costs nothing because it's solar lights. This is the
kind of stuff that just blows me away, all right.
(18:52):
Other people are using what looked like Christmas lights, the
long strings of lights. They too, are solar powered. So
you can interspe first these beautiful strings of solar lights along.
If you have any kind of a ceiling trellis something
along the top of your porch, you can string them
along there and create this beautiful soft ambient lighting. That
(19:13):
is gorgeous. I love these ideas and the best part,
of course, they don't break the bank. This is so cool. Guys,
hang out again. The time is flying. Find me online
during the break www dot brilliantfrugalliving dot com. After the break,
a little bit of real estate coming your way with
John Harriet. Dad and daughter talk real estate up after
(19:34):
the break, you all stay tuned.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Hello again, everybody. It's John Harriet here with Keller William's
Real Estate with another educational entertaining as our objective is
to educate and make sure people have the right kind
of facts about making the biggest single financial decision. And
most people make a lot.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Of headlines out there. You have to break down for
this week again.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Search that's true. There are a lot of headlines about
the real estate business. And I have some interesting news
about the real estate business. Man.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Can't tell your face that this is like good news.
You're being very Pokerpa.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
It's pretty much pretty much good news. Yeah, it's pretty
much good news. It's one thing you and I have
talked about a little bit on the show before, Chrissy,
but about the big government sponsored entities, the banks Fannie
May and Freddie Mac. And most people don't really understand
the function of Fanny May and Freddie Mac. But the
main function of Fanny May and Freddie Mac is to
make sure that the mortgage lending system maintains liquidity. Okay.
(20:39):
So the way that works is that when borrowers go
to a local lender and say, I want to borrow
money to buy this three hundred and fifty thousand dollars house, right,
and I'm going to put ten percent down or three
and a half percent down, whatever it is. Then they
get their credit checked or go through the loan application process,
and they get their money. But then what happens immediately
(21:00):
after settlement is that when the loan has been processed,
the lender will say, okay, now I'm going to resell
this loan to Fannie May or to Freddie Mac, and
they get their money exactly right. Then they don't have
to service the loan, they don't have to do all
the backup work make the loan work, they don't have
to make sure that people are paying it. And they
get there, they get their money from Fanny May and
(21:21):
Freddie Mac. And then what Fanny and Freddy do is
that they repackage these loans as mortgage backed securities, which
is a good deal and as good investment as long
as people keep paying their mortgages. And most of the
time that happens. Most of the time that happens. We
had a great, big problem starting back in about two
thousand and six, two thousand and seven, when the mortgage
(21:43):
lending standards as promulgated by Fanny and Freddy got so
very low. Friend of mine was describing it as ninja loans,
no income, no job, but still you can get a loan.
Come in breathe. Can you fog the mirror fairly?
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Yes, you fogg the mirror. Try that again, she fogged
it twice. Good candidate. But anyway, when was campaigning for office,
one of the things that he had promised was that
he was going to do something to bring Fanny and Freddy,
which is what's called gsees government sponsored entities under better control.
And I think he even promised that he was going
to try to abolish them and go back to private
(22:19):
banking as the source of funds for mortgage lending.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
How did common sense go over in Washington, DC when
he floated that idea.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
Well, I don't think it. Everybody got floated in all
seriousness because when he got into office, I think he
realized he had a lot bigger fish to fry than
Fanny and Freddy at that point in time, So it
kind of got put on the back burner. But I
saw an editorial in the Wall Street Journal where somebody
was raising some concern about, well, maybe loan standards are
getting too loose again.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
I like the idea of shaking things up a bit,
just evolving it. They don't have to scrap it all together,
but if they just want to evolve it. Knowing what
we've known from the past and what we've learned from
the past, I totally in favor of that.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
Yeah, well, back when, back when your mom and I
were in the business of buying houses, you'd go to
a local savings and loan, you'd make your application and
they would scrutinize your income and they'd make sure that
you made that money, and they'd look at your credit rating,
because at that point in time, whether they made money
and survived or lost money and went out of business
was totally dependent upon how many people paid back their loans,
(23:18):
So there was a real built in break on people
getting carried away with wild loan schemes. And one of
the things that came out of that was that we
had never had, up until two thousand and eight, a
countrywide depression crash and housing prices had never happened, had
(23:38):
never happened. But with the advent of Fanny and Freddy
taking over the responsibility and taking the onus off the
local bankers to really police what their loans were doing,
we had a great, big depression crash and housing prices
that created all kinds of pain and gutsy u goodly
(23:59):
bad bad things. I've had a number of friends who
have been in the housing business, around the housing business
for the last twenty or thirty years, and the bankruptcies,
the divorces, it was just awful. So I was encouraged
by the fact that, yes, loan standards are getting a
little bit too low for comfort. But on the other hand,
mister the Secretary of the Treasury is beginning to take
(24:20):
some action to put Fanny and Freddy under better control.
That's exciting, and I think, especially if we get a
conservative majority in the House of Representatives and in the Senate,
we'll be able to make that happen, which will result
in a much more stable economy.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yeah, stay tuned.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Yeah. Now some people will say, well, my god, you
know you're going to freeze the little guy out of
out of mortgage lending, and you're you're not gonna if
you're not a big guy, you're not going to be
able to buy a house.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
And just a little guy with a crappy credit score.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
That's that's right, that's it. Now to President Bush's credit
Bush forty three. He tried to do something to reign
in Fanny and Freddy back in like two thousand and six,
two thousand and seven.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
So he probably he maybe had some behind the doors
meetings where he saw this kind of thing coming up
with the whole housing price.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
I think he did. He realized that Fanny and Frederick
were getting too far extended. But at that point in time,
the Democrats in Congress shouted him down and said, oh,
you're just trying to protect the profits of your rich
buddies in the banking business, and Fanny and Freddie are
just fine, there's no problem there. Then, of course they
collapsed a couple of years later.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
What did Berry Frank have to say after that?
Speaker 4 (25:25):
Just run away with you mean Barney Frank Barney. Frank
he said, well, after strong consideration, I've decided not to
run for office again. Yep, because well, it all goes
to show you that the individual marketplace is a wonderful,
wonderful break and a wonderful, wonderful filter on things getting
too carried away. Not that not that that's going to
(25:45):
be private. You're always going to have recessions and market corrections.
But when you throw in great, big government interference that
ignores a lot of market signals that people know are right,
you're really multiplied the bad effects. And boy, we went
through it, and we went through it in page on
Steroids from like two thousand and eight to twenty twelve,
twenty thirteen, and.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
You detailed it so well, talking about all of the
terrible sideline effects with regards to marriage is ending and
God for been worse stuff than that, And people finally
pulled out of it. You think they'd learned that I
am hearing. On a somewhat related note, the same type
of thing is happening with student loans these days as well,
with the loans that we're given out. When you're hitting
these loans for college degrees that have maybe a five
(26:29):
percent chance of generating the salary needed to pay it back.
That's the kind of stress and stuff that you're finding
these days. Two people are putting off outing, kids, buying houses,
you know, starting their own businesses because of this. I
see a similar potential.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Crist You're right, you know, federal government interference in private business. Certainly.
I'm not saying we don't need government regulation. We do.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
I'm a big fan of government.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
We certainly do sensible government regulations. But well, since twenty ten,
the federal government has been the sole dispenser of college
college loans for people. And here's what. And the standards
for these loans have been very very loose for lots
and lots and lots of years, and people have been
(27:11):
complaining about and this kind of gets together with credit
access as we saw in the housing market too. But
people have been complaining for years about, oh my god,
college costs are going up much like double and triple
the rate of inflation. Well, guess why, because the federal
government was providing the money. Oh yeah, you qualify for this,
and you can pay us back after you graduate. So
(27:32):
here's what was happening. The college administrators were saying, oh,
going back, maybe fifteen twenty years, Well, gee, wizh, you
know our school is full right now, let's raise the
rates by five percent next year and see what happens.
And lo and behold, the school was full again.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
And the next year they said, well that worked out
pretty well. Let's raise the rates again by five percent
or so, and let's see what happens. And the school
was full again. So, as a result of the federal
governm from an interference in the private marketplace, blow up
the price college tuition costs. College costs have gone up
several times the rate of inflation, and now it's recognized
(28:09):
as a great, big crisis. And of course some people
are getting degrees in you know, prehistoric ink of stone mining, juggling, juggling,
minor juggling, something like that. Can't find a job. I
know one very very bright young lady who got a
degree that costs her about sixty five thousand dollars in photography. Ah,
(28:30):
probably not a real good career choice.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Same thing I could do on my phone if.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
I'm probably not a real good career choice. So now
you see people like liberals saying, well, we've got to
do something to alleviate this college debt. I know, So
the government should take over and pay back all this
college debt, relieve the students of it. And the way
we can do this is by having a two percent
tax on the extremely wealthy, extremely wealthy with a net
(28:55):
worth over fifty million dollars.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
It's just funny to me, you know what. I'm grateful
to the showing their true colors prior to the election,
but that kind of thing obviously wouldn't work. Are you
going to retro to all the people who did pay
back their college loans? Are you going to retro to
the people who would have gone to more expensive college
and chose to go wisely to your local community college instead.
It's just hilarious how they throw out these ideas with
no answers as to how to answer the tougher questions
(29:19):
are you doing right?
Speaker 4 (29:20):
But the real point of this particular discussion we're having here, Chrissy,
is that government interference and private lending has always led
to real bad impacts, especially in the housing market, because
when the federal government policy was to try and jack
up the home ownership rate, right, the way they did
that was by lowering standards on home mortgage exactly and
(29:41):
that's when we wound up with all of these mortgages
that people couldn't afford. And when the price downturn began,
a lot of people just came through the keys at
the s and IL and said, Okay, here it is, boss,
take it over.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
You entice personalities that we're not going to act responsibly
in a financial downturn. And that's just the kiss of death.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
That's exactly right. And the same thing is happening now
with will to college loans. And I don't know how
you put this genie back on the bottle because it's
out right now and it could be some kind of
a hell of a shock to the system.
Speaker 5 (30:08):
See infitte, guys, be right back right after this. I
(30:33):
just got it, and we are back with a Christian
Agophian show.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Thanks for hanging out. Many thanks again to John Harriet
for another fabulous dad and daughter talk real estate segment.
If you have any questions for him, sell or text him.
I'm telling you he's got The answer is four eight
four five seven four four zero eight eight. It's all
good and it gets me more back in the mood
to swing back to my own real estate stuff. You're
talking about all the various things you can do with
(31:11):
outdoor spaces. My lord, somebody sent me this monster stack.
Who sent me this Chris k listening in from O
Sage Beach, Missouri KRMS eleven fifty, Thank you so much.
And it's all about this backyard space. Let me paint
a picture for you. It's called low maintenance Backyard Design Ideas, okay,
And it started with this complete blank slate. I'm talking blank,
(31:34):
I mean it was. It was pure dirt. Apparently it's
a in an area where it's really tough to grow grass.
It's very blank back there. It's totally a blank slate
waiting to be improved upon. And did they ever holy mackerel,
starting with something that didn't even occur to me. Don't
laugh because it looks amazing, this fake grass, which apparently
you can get installed these days. It looks incredible. It's gorgeous,
(31:58):
it's lifelike, and and you know you see people running
their toes through it. It just feels really good. It
feels nice and cool. Believe it or not. It's perfectly washable, durable,
it stands up to the elements, beautiful lush green for
those areas where either you can't get grass to grow,
or an area of the country where the sun just
beats down so much and the heat is so oppressive.
(32:20):
It's just not conducive to grass. But you want a
nice green backdrop for your backyard areas. This stuff is gorgeous.
So here's what they did with the space. Half the
space they turned into an outdoor gorgeous cabana type thing
for next to nothing with recycled, repurposed materials. Here's another
cool thing that they did. They used all of this
(32:41):
various stuff. They used a gorgeous rug, a beautiful outdoor
rug made all from very tough, durable, washable you know,
you know, you can mess around with it when it's outdoors,
a plastic like material. It doesn't look plastic. This is
not a plastic looking rug. It's a gorgeous, you know,
wonderful look rug. And it's made out of these durable,
(33:02):
recycled plastic materials so that it's ultra you know, washable.
You can hose it down. They got these gorgeous wicker
pieces of furniture made out of again more plastic meant
to look like wicker. They did Craigslist for all of
their cushions, and then they built a cabana type roof
on this thing and put in the solar light you know,
(33:22):
the wonderful Christmas looking lights, the wired lights and long strings,
except that they're solar lights and it's glowing at night.
It's absolutely beautiful. It is absolutely beautiful, and I wish
I had like a full show just for this. They
did it for a patio style challenge in their neighborhood.
They clearly won, and I'm just beyond dazzled. The furniture
(33:44):
they all got on craigslist. She likes to sew. The
wife likes to sew, so she made some wonderful, very
easy going, you know, back cushions, seat cushions, that kind
of thing. They rehabbed an old table that they trash
picked from the side of the road, painted it gorgeous
black and then has a new glass top and the
top of it. They've got Okay, oh my gosh, these
(34:06):
are people after my own heart. Fake potted plants, you go, girl,
fake potted plants, because if you're anything like me, you
just you love the plants. You just can't grow them.
It's all good. This must be in an area. I'm
trying to look to see what area of the country
there in I'm thinking southwestern USA, because it's just not
conducive to lush greenery. Beautiful part of the country, just
(34:28):
tough to grow the you know, the plant life out there.
And this is beyond gorgeous. Okay. They built the cabana,
they got all these rough, older materials and made something
beautiful out of it. But this fake grass is blowing
me away. How long has this been out there? I
do have a life. I mean, I get out there,
I see this stuff. I've never seen this fake grass before.
What would it take to get a couple of acres
(34:49):
of this stuff for my property? Because even though we
live in the beautiful, you know, beautiful Pennsylvania suburbs where
it should be you know, pretty easy to grow grass,
I'm kind of happy at it. So the grass doesn't
look as nice as I'd like, and this fake grass
looks absolutely beautiful. Okay. Another thing that they did with
this outdoor space, half of it is this fake grass,
(35:10):
or you've got that pictured. The other half of the yard,
closest to the house, they made a beautiful outdoor curtained
area with do it yourself pipe curtain rods that look gorgeous.
They strung up the Christmas lights which are solar powered.
They crankslisted all of the furniture, and they just it's
a beautiful living space. Who would not want to spend
(35:31):
time out here? I so dig this stuff. That's what
I'm talking about to you, guys. It's not about spending money.
It's about enjoying the places and the spaces that you
love and not over spending on it. Who's going to
enjoy a backyard space that you ended up going into
debt for. Who's going to enjoy a back space that
you had to spend tens of thousands of dollars on
(35:52):
or any amount that you can't afford. If you can't
afford a five thousand dollars back deck, and I'm not
about to spend money. I'm not about to spend five
grand on that kind of thing. You're not going to
enjoy it. If you spend money too much money on anything,
you name it a dinner out, a fabulous outfit, maybe
a pair of shoes that you like, Oh it's so beautiful,
I'm gonna spend it. You hate it afterwards because of
(36:13):
the money you just spent. You find yourself wishing you
had the money back. These people are doing incredible things
with their outdoor spaces, and they're not breaking the bank
to do it. I totally dig this. It's the people
out there, can I add please, that are adding electronics,
like putting an area where they can put a big
screen TV. I mean, this kind of stuff never even
occurred to me. Holy mackerel, having a movie night outside
(36:36):
with your fire pit going and everything else. Ooh la la,
very cool ideas. You guys are so inspiring. I am
absolutely loving this. And yeah, something I mentioned earlier, we
talked about getting the furniture for this outdoor space. I'm
looking at these beautiful stores and if you're paying full price,
you're paying too much. Keep an eye out for your
local warehouse clubs. The garage sales are really starting to
(36:59):
pick up right now. Well, you're gonna see a lot
of neighborhoods in which other people are buying those full
priced retail sets and they need to get rid of
the older ones. All they want is those older sets gone.
Keep your eyes on Craigslist, keep your eyes on the
local newspaper ads, keep your eyes on any way shape
or form. Put the word out with your buddies at work. Yeah,
(37:19):
we're rehabbing the backyard, a little bit putting in a
back patio. Hey, if you happen to know anybody who's
thrown away an old patio set, need somebody to take
it away, give me a call, let me know, let
them know. It's fine. If it's scuffed up or ruffed up,
or maybe a little rusting a couple of spaces, it's
nothing that a couple of coats of rustolium paint couldn't
take care of. Ask me anything on that score. It
(37:42):
will come back good as new. That's the kind of
thing I'm talking about at If you're like me, a
plant lover but also a plant killer, it's a painful
combination that I myself possess. Put out the fake plants.
Who's telling you not to? It's your back patio. You
decide what you're gonna do, you guys, make the rules.
Is this the year you're going to put in a
beautiful front porch space, a beautiful back patio space. Let
(38:06):
no one tell you different. Get out there, get online,
find what you need to do, and make it happen. Guys,
I love hanging out with you. Thank you so much
for your time. Thanks for hanging out. Thank you for
your outdoor living ideas. You blow me away and inspire
me tremendously. And until next week, save those pennies, pay
with cash, and you all stay frugal out there.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
To the best of all circumstance.
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