Summer Homemaking Ramble 2026 with Jessica Fisher

Today, I have my honorary co-host, Jessica Fisher, joining me for another seasonal ramble. 

In this Episode:

• Mail Bag & Updates
• Summer Ice-Breaker Questions
• Summer Travel Plans
• What We are Cooking & Eating this Summer
• What We are Watching this Summer
• Our Seasonal Homemaking Projects
• How hormone therapy and viewing aging as stewardship are helping us be gracious as we get older
• How limiting beliefs hinder our homemaking and our progress towards Christ-likeness

SHOW NOTES

All resources and links are on the full show notes post on the blog. Go to theartofhomepodcast.com/blog and search "SUMMER RAMBLE 2026".

https://www.theartofhomepodcast.com/post/summer-ramble-2026-with-jessica-fisher

Connect with Jessica

goodcheapeats.com | lifeasmom.com | @lifeasmomdotcom | @goodcheapeatsblog 

Transcript

Allison 0:02

Hello, homemakers, and welcome to the Art of Home podcast, where we are exploring how homemakers cultivate a place to belong. I'm your host, Allison Weeks. I'm a wife, a mom, a granny, and I've been practicing the Art of Home since 1992. Happy summer to all of you. I hope you are finding space in your summer to enjoy your home and your homemaking. To kick off the summer 2026 season this week, I will be rambling through various summer topics with Jessica Fisher. But before we get to that, let's check the mailbag, shall we? This is the part of the show where I respond to your messages, I answer some questions, and I share your tips and your insights with the audience. This mailbag segment is brought to you by listeners who support the Art of Home through Buy Me a Coffee. Buy Me a Coffee is a virtual tip jar where you can show your appreciation and support for the show by giving a one-time tip or by becoming a Titus 2 Women supporter and setting up a recurring tip of $5 per month. Titus 2 Women supporters receive my undying gratitude and the occasional perk, such as a free digital version of our magazine, Homemaker's Journal, free registration for the holiday recipe exchange, and other fun things. Whichever way you choose to give, I am grateful for your support. Over on Buy Me a Coffee, Mary gave three coffees over on uh while we were on break, and she said, I enjoy all the podcasts and learning about others. May the podcast continue to grow and to reach homes all over the world. Thank you. Yes, Mary, thank you. That is my prayer too. Amanda B joined as a Titus II supporter, and I am so very grateful. Thank you so much, Amanda, and thank you, Mary, for giving over at Buy Me a Coffee. I appreciate your support for the Art of Home. Julia, who listens in Canada, left us a five-star rating and a lovely review about how much she is encouraged by all of the stories of home, saying it's just like making a new friend and sitting and talking with her. Thank you for that, Julia. That is exactly the aim of this show. And over the break, I received some text messages and some Spotify comments. Here are just a couple that I wanted to share. A listener in Ohio sent me this message on our summer travel episode with Ginny Naninga. We just returned from a trip to the Rocky Mountains and Black Hills of South Dakota, camping five nights out of eight. We drove 2,500 miles. My husband also insisted we use the Atlas instead of GPS, and it was so fun. When I got a little bored in the car, I would just open the Atlas and peruse. So fun. Already excited for next year's trip. That sounds like a fantastic trip, and I am all for more perusing of atlases. We talked about the value of paper maps and atlases on that episode with Ginny. And if you haven't heard it, be sure to give it a less a listen, especially if you are road tripping this summer. Ginny has so much wisdom and practical advice to share. I will link it below. Imani sent this message in response to Mindy Heiner's Homemaker Portrait that aired last January, January of 2025. She has some weekly meal rotation tips for us. In your update segment, you talked about using a two-week, seven meal rotation. I just wanted to say that this is the method I've used for the last two years, and I absolutely love it. One small tip I've developed is keeping a note on my phone with all of our regular meals, about 35 in total, organized by protein categories such as chicken, pork, beef, etc. Every two weeks, I put together our seven-meal rotation and I build my shopping list accordingly. I've also adopted what we call grace pizzas, par-baked frozen pizzas that I make ahead of time for when we need a little extra grace or when I have an evening church function and I need to leave my husband with an easy meal. These are great tips, Imani. I love the Grace Pizza idea. You really could do that for any easy freezer meal, but no one is ever disappointed when dinner plans change to include pizza. And making that foundational list of a few dozen go-to meals makes your weekly planning so much easier, whether you do the two-week rotation or not. If you want more details on that system, check out my update at the beginning of Mindy's episode from season 23, January 22nd, 2025, and I will link it below. If you have comments, questions, or tips to share, I would love to hear from you. Text me using the link at the top of this episode description or email me at contact at the artifonepodcast.com or leave a comment on Spotify. Time does not allow me to share all the messages and comments in the mailbag segments, but I do read and reply to every single one. A couple of podcast housekeeping items before we jump into the summer ramble. I will not be able to host a J.R. Miller summer book club this year. I'm sad, but I know that the Lord is helping me to not overcommit myself. You can absolutely do this on your own, though, and I encourage you to gather a few friends and work through the book and the study together. If gathering weekly in person is too challenging, you know, for childcare reasons or your schedules or whatever, or maybe you don't live near the people you want to gather with, consider what we did and gather virtually over Zoom or Teams or some other platform. Everything that you need is available for free on our website. Go to the Artof Home Podcast.com slash summer, I'll link it below, and I will send you the complete eight-week, no, I actually I think it's nine weeks, nine week study guide, which tells you how and where to either read the book or listen to me read it to you on the summer podcast series that I recorded several years ago. If you do decide to do the study with a group, please let me know how it goes. I would love to hear your feedback about what worked and what didn't. As for content this season, I have so much great stuff coming for you, and I will give you a quick rundown at the end of today's episode. Okay, let's get to that ramble, shall we? Today I have my honorary co-host, Jessica Fisher, joining me for another ramble, which y'all seem to really enjoy our spring ramble, so we're gonna do it again. We start off with some summer-related icebreaker questions, then we dive into what our summer travel plans are, what we are cooking and eating right now, what we are watching, and our summer homemaking projects. We discuss how moisturizer hormone therapy and viewing aging as stewardship is helping us be gracious as we get older. And finally, we conclude our ramble with some thoughts on how limiting beliefs hinder our homemaking and our progress toward Christ-likeness. It's a long ramble, but I hope you will stick with us until the end. My prayer is that the next 75 minutes or so will prove to be time well spent for you. And don't forget, you don't have to listen all at once. You can always split it up. Listen to some now and come back for the rest later, but don't forget to come back. Thank you so much for trusting us with your valuable time today. Whatever you are applying your hands to as you listen, I pray that you will be encouraged by this summer homemakers ramble. Welcome to the Art of Home Summer Ramble. We're gonna ramble, we're gonna ramble about summer. I'm very excited. I'm joined here again today with Jessica Fisher of Good Cheap Beats and LifeisMom.com and many, many episodes of The Art of Home. You can go back and listen to all her episodes. We'll link them in the show notes. But today we just get to chat as two friends. Um, she's over there on the West Coast. I'm here in South Texas, and we're gonna talk about how we spend our summers and all kinds of fun things about summer. So, Jessica, welcome back. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Yes, it's always fun to talk to you. Okay, I'm gonna start us off with some summer icebreaker questions. Um I'll ask, we'll just do like we did last time. We'll go one at a time and we'll each answer. And I'll start us off by asking you this question: pool or beach?

SPEAKER_01 8:55

So it's gonna depend on whose pool. Okay. And if the beach has nice bathrooms. Oh, that is important.

Allison 9:05

That's very important.

Jessica 9:07

Especially, I think, um, as a mom of many kids and also girls, at the end, the bathroom issue became more and more important as as time went on. So um, those would be my key. If it's your pool, I'll I'll be at your pool for sure. Um, but typically it it would be the beach these days, just because weather you're close. How close are you to the beach? Like really close. It's like two miles. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's we can drive. It's been a while since I've bought the beach pass um because we're residents of an ocean side community, we can get a discounted beach pass. But I haven't done it for a couple summers because the kids are always so busy that there's plenty of free parking in town, so it's not as critical to get it on the beach. But but yeah, that has been our jam. But but even when they were younger, we always had to pass to the Y. And uh every afternoon we were doing pool at the Y. So where we live now, there's a community pool. I've just never been in it. So Brian keeps threatening. We're gonna get to this in the other questions, but okay. He keeps threatening I need to go to the pool more.

Allison 10:30

Yeah. Um, I am going to say, I mean, if I had my choice, I I I'm definitely gonna choose the beach over the pool. Um, but only certain beaches, like it had like a Gulf Coast beach with white sand. And, you know, I mean, we have the Gulf Coast here. That's where when we go to the beach, we go down to the coast um in Corpus Christi. But it's it's a Texas beach is very, very different that's a Florida beach. Yeah. Um, because of all the just all of the there's lots of reasons, but you know, all the traffic out with all the oil tankers coming in and out and churning up. And I think it's just geography and the way that the geography is, it churns it up a lot more, and so the water is not as pretty. It's tends to be a little more brown. Um but the cool thing about Texas beaches is you can drive on them. So you can drive your vehicle or you can drive your um like your golf cart thingy, and just bring all your stuff with you, and you just park your vehicle and you set up in front.

Jessica 11:36

Sand?

Allison 11:37

Yeah, but it's it's it's compact, like it's hard-packed, and the tide is like from where the dunes are, um, it's a huge distance, you know, as far as how much space you have before you get to the water. There's plenty of room for lots of cars, and yeah, I don't I couldn't give it to you in yards, but there's a lot of things. It's different in Texas. Yes, for sure. It's quite a sight, I must tell you, when you go down to Texas Beach, you see all these huge trucks lined up in a big line. And and the way people find your their their spot, if you leave and you want to come back and or you're somebody's meeting you or whatever, you have flags. Okay, so flags or kites or both, and you will see any number, any manner of flags, you'll see it all. You will see it interesting. Oh, the whole political spectrum will be represented. It does skew, it does tend to skew more uh right. Um, but you'll see it all. Yeah, it's quite a show.

Jessica 12:37

Wow. Okay, yeah, ours would be umbrellas or the beach tower, you know, we'll be at tower 16. Right. Yeah. We've got the blue umbrella kind of thing.

Allison 12:49

Cool. Well, yeah, I'm choose I'm choosing the beach uh for just the atmosphere and the people watching. It's so great. Okay, question number two ice cream or popsicle? Ice cream for sure.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Yeah, okay.

Allison 13:02

Favorite flavor?

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Butter pecan. Really? Hands down, but not certain brands. I was gonna say, is there a brand?

Jessica 13:12

Paganda's would be my favorite. Thrifty is a close second. Okay.

Allison 13:20

But have you had Bluebell before? Uh no. Okay.

Jessica 13:24

That would change and that's another regional.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

That would change your mind that we've got going because it's bad.

SPEAKER_05 13:31

It's so good.

Jessica 13:33

You will it will ruin, it will ruin you for all other ice cream for the rest of your life. I think it's possible that Walmart sells some of the flavors. Oh, they might need to look.

Allison 13:43

You should look. I will need to look.

unknown 13:44

Yeah.

Allison 13:45

I mean, bluebell homemade vanilla is my go-to. Okay. Over it. So I'm an ice cream over popsicle person. And bluebell homemade vanilla because it's so versatile. You can yeah, you can make cookie sandwiches out of it, you can make sundaes, you can make cookie cakes, you can just eat it right out of the tub. I mean, it's the best. It's so good. So yeah.

Jessica 14:07

Oh, if you can find it. It's not Walmart. It looks like the closest thing it's showing me is high V, which is really far away. So I'm guessing that would be a no. Okay. Well, if you come visit me, I I do need to come visit you. We will do a bluebell factor. Going to the beach with testing is great. Yes. For sure.

Allison 14:28

Actually, we're not that far from the from the bluebell factory. It's within a couple hours. So last question, last icebreaker. What was the typical summer like when you were raising your kids?

Jessica 14:39

Lots of swimming lessons. My kids have had lots and lots. Like I made sure. Okay. I made sure that they, you know, and we did um swim schools and and private lessons, and you know, six kids over 11 years. You're you're like, somebody is in swimming lessons.

Allison 15:04

Oh, sure.

Jessica 15:05

All the time. And and today they're they've all at some point or another said thank you. Like they didn't want to do it while they were doing it. Yeah, no. But they know the strokes, they can they can they can definitely, they're strong swimmers and they all love the water and they're safe in the water. And that's good. So yeah, but we um my youngest and I were talking about it because this is her last summer without a job, without adulting to do. And so just talking about that, because we always had some kind of schedule. It would be loose, but full and loose and full of fun things, but some kind of rhythm. Yeah. Like um there was junk food and ice cream and freedom, but still a little bit of structure so we didn't all lose our minds. So we have a reading challenge that we're doing as a family for those who live at home still. Um when they were younger, it was certain hours of the day we're at the pool, certain days of the week we're at the beach, certain days we're at the library. Yeah. Um, and there were even a few years where I did like a day camp with friends and have them all come over, and we had different themes and tie-dying and water stuff outside. And I ended up, I even made a little booklet that I sold for several years, like how to do a summer camp at home kind of thing. So yeah, just tried to make it fun, but yeah, you know, I don't know what my kids have taken away from that, but I enjoyed it. You had fun. That's good.

Allison 16:54

Cool, cool. Um we so ours looked like no homeschool. We did not school year round, we took the summer off. Uh, usually we did a trip somewhere in there to see family in Florida. Always did VBS for the week, you know, like with our church. We didn't, I didn't send them to multiple VBSs, we just did our church's VBS because usually I was volunteering. Um we had a structure, loose structure, similar to your, like we would say, okay, this is gonna be our library day, this will be the day we, you know, do this or whatever. Um, but it was pretty loosey goosey. I think I all I always maintained some kind of quiet time, like everybody had to have a daily go to, you know, everybody go to your own space after lunch for an hour. And you you don't have to sleep, but you cannot come out. Um and then yeah, that that's kind of how our summers went. The boys were always in scouts, so they went to scout camp every year. Um my daughter did a couple of camps later as a when she got into her teen years, but that's pretty much it. It we were very chill in the summer, very chill. Um, are you traveling anywhere this summer?

Jessica 18:09

Any big travel plans? We did Sacramento for my birthday. Um Brian and I are formulating plans to do a Miata road trip for the two of us. Did we talk about this last time? I don't think so.

Allison 18:25

No.

Jessica 18:26

Oh, okay. Yeah. Um, because obviously you can only take two people in a Miata.

Allison 18:33

It's a very small, tiny car.

Jessica 18:36

Um, and there's some lovely driving on Highway One. Oh, I bet. Yeah. Up kind of Northern California. So not really areas we know very well at all. Um, and so we're we're sometime between now and the fall, we're gonna do that. I'm leaning more toward apple season. Oh, yeah, that would be awesome. Would we be like September? It starts as early as August. Okay. So depending on the type of apple. Um, the Central Coast has lots of places that we used to visit when we lived there. So um, so yeah, just trying to figure out where would we go, how far in between stops, how much do we want to spend, but we don't have any big plans other than that. And I have all my alerts for all the things because I would like to know what life looks like outside of California. You have alerts for like plane tickets and stuff for travel. Okay, yeah, yeah. Not just for Europe, but you do that on Google? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So just started tracking um different areas. There's some more I need to add, but how do you do that?

Allison 19:51

Because somebody might be wondering what what exactly you mean by that.

Jessica 19:54

Okay, so I just search San, which is the airport code for San Diego, um, to whatever just different places I want to go. So say it was um San to San Antonio. San Antonio. There we go. And and it'll show me a list of like it's it it automatically shows me Google flights. It shows me different airlines that have flights. And then if you click something like more information or more flights or see more, something like that, um, then it will has a little toggle button. If you use, if you have a Google account and you use Google, it has it'll track what you searched, okay, and then you can toggle it for specific dates or or just any time. And then you'll get emails when you know every week I get a couple emails for different um destinations. So I'm just kind of keeping a mental note, like what's considered typical for certain seasons, like price-wise, you mean price-wise, yeah. Um and then like apparently San Diego to Boise gets really cheap. Like under 200 bucks round trip. Interesting. So it's like, oh, okay. So then when I get an email and it'll say these dates, this price, and then I just right now I'm just in recon mode to find out um, you know, what's typical. And it usually has at the bottom of the email, it has a bar and it'll say this is typical or this is lower than normal or whatever. So when we came back from Japan, I had had some alerts set for um the different nonstop markets from San Diego, and um we got one for Amsterdam. It was $400 around Japan. What? On a bad airline? I don't remember. And I was just like, oh my gosh, I gotta figure out how much travel money we have left.

SPEAKER_05 22:10

And then I did all the, you know, I did all the accounting for Japan and we had like $300 left. It's like, okay, we're not going to Amsterdam. But but what was the time?

Jessica 22:20

What like it was like for the first week of August. So we came, we came home the end of June. And it was like a month out. It was a month out. Okay. So it was doable. That would be doable. Yeah. You know, I don't know anything. You know, like I did a bunch of research right then, like just so I could see, you know, what would we want to do?

Allison 22:42

How long interesting.

Jessica 22:43

Yeah. Okay. So so I'm just tracking different things, and and we have a little bucket that's building with just a little money every month. Just it's labeled next trip. And cool. So we could, you know, we could go for it if you know something shows up that very cool.

unknown 23:02

Yeah.

Jessica 23:03

Very cool.

Allison 23:04

So all right. Well, we're not going anywhere far. Uh we are going to the beach a couple more times. Um, once for our anniversary, which happens to coincide with a with a work function down on the coast that my husband has to go to. So we just we did this last year too. We just go for like a week. We bring the camper and hang around at the beach for a week, which is so nice. And this is our first ever family. Everybody's gonna be there vacation.

Jessica 23:33

Oh, fun.

Allison 23:34

For the we're doing it at the beach here in Texas because it's just easy. We kind of did it sort of at the last minute planning. Um, and so it's easier for everybody to get there than if we have to figure out flying and stuff. Anyway, so but my kids started calling it weeks week.

SPEAKER_05 23:51

Oh fun. And it's one week, all the weeks. That's great.

Allison 23:57

And I put um, I was like, we really, I was talking to Nate, I was like, we really need what like we need to do shirts. And so I put uh one of my daughters-in-law on it. I said, Hey, and she's this is like right up her alley. I was like, Do you want to design some shirts for us? And she's like, Absolutely. Oh, that's cool. And she had it within like two hours. She's like, What do you think of this? And she totally took it and ran with it and coordinated the whole thing. So I was like, that was amazing. That's awesome. Um, but yeah, this is our first time doing it. I'm taking some pointers from my friend Dana, who's been on the show a couple of times. I think actually we're gonna have her, we're gonna talk about this next summer to kick off next summer. We're gonna talk because they do it every year, like a big beach trip with all their kids and grandkids and all the different things you can do. So we're doing the thing where everybody's gonna have a night that they get to cook. They're responsible for the meal. There will be awards, there will be a trophy, there will be voting, yeah. Um, and all that kind of stuff. So I'm really excited. It's gonna be it's gonna be fun. Yeah. So okay. What are we cooking and eating? What are you cooking and eating lately?

Jessica 25:03

Well, um, I've got my daily um homemade coffee drinks. Um, I kind of dialed up. I got some fun glasses and just kind of said, okay, fine, we're gonna splurge on the syrups and the pumps, um, just so it's there. Like I know I can make it, but they're not good as long. And you know, just just thought this is gonna save us from making any stops at anywhere, and we can still have them. But what has made it most fun is learning how to make a protein latte. Okay. And I don't know why. Maybe the deep I do not know why I did not think of it sooner. Um, and you'll probably hear me talking about Dr. Stacey Sims a lot, but I had seen a video um where she was talking about it, and I was like, oh duh, like of course, because I will pay extra for the protein-boosted latte at Starbucks, and all they do is they have mixed the protein powder in with the milk.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

Yeah.

Jessica 26:14

Um, and so that's what I'm doing, and adding, you know, just making my iced latte like I would normally, but I've already mixed them. I do almond milk, I do Jaro's unflavored whey protein because I do not care for stevia. I don't either. Most things. Um, so I go unflavored whey protein powder. Um what's the brand? Jero's J-A-R-R-O-W-S. Okay. Um it's considered decent. Like I think it's it's not one of your bougie brands, but yeah, but it's solid.

Allison 26:56

Those can be expensive.

Jessica 26:57

Yeah, yeah. And and then um I do a cup of almond milk and a couple pumps of syrup and a shot of espresso. Cool. So tasty. And iced? You do it iced? I I I do it iced, yeah. Because to do it hot, you do it's a little protein powder. Does get a little weird when you cook it. I do it in it's it's fine in baked goods. In baked goods, it's great, it's just a nice way to add a little something. But like in oatmeal making my protein oats, the texture is weird, a little different.

Allison 27:38

Yeah.

Jessica 27:39

Um and so it's it's it's palatable in protein oats, but I I have had um collagen get weird on me in hot. Um, like all of a sudden, it looked great. I put a lid on it, I drove to my location, I look, you know, and it was just chunky. It like got weird. So so heating those things can be uh it's definitely more of a gentle um science experiment than so iced is easier.

Allison 28:13

Okay, but you said you put the protein powder in baked goods, so like like in muffins or something or pancakes, yeah.

Jessica 28:19

I just will substitute like half a cup of protein powder for half a cup of flour. Oh, that's a good recipe, and it blends in fine. Um I haven't tried it, but I've seen um her website is axe acts of sourdough. Um, and she like ace like the axe of the apostles, but it's axe of sourdough. Um, and she mixes the protein powder with the sourdough starter.

Allison 28:52

Interesting. And that's very interesting.

Jessica 28:55

Makes protein sourdough bread. That's amazing.

Allison 28:58

That that still works and doesn't like mess up the chemistry of the yeah.

Jessica 29:02

I haven't tried that particular one, but she's kind of the expert and it's working for her. So um, but I've done it in waffles and muffins and lots of baked goods, not a problem. In protein oats, I still do it, but it is not, you know, it's not the same texture as oats because you've just added a powder to it. So there's gonna be, you know, some weird.

Allison 29:30

I wonder if you could do it in tortillas.

Jessica 29:33

I don't make flour tortillas, so I don't know.

Allison 29:36

Because I I was making them a lot, and then I started getting like a carp, like a carp conscious one, you know. But if I could go back to making, because mine are really good. I do flour. I don't like I don't like corn tortillas.

Jessica 29:50

But I'm wondering if you is that a Texas California thing.

Allison 29:55

Um, what do you mean? That I like flour over corn?

Jessica 29:58

Well, like are homemade flour tortillas more common in Texas, like at restaurants and stuff. Yeah, oh yes, for sure. Because that you would never find that here. Really? Like there are some places I think in Old Town San Diego that make homemade flour, but but you they all make it homemade corn. It's all homemade corn.

Allison 30:18

Okay, I mean it's both here.

Jessica 30:20

Yeah, you wouldn't really that that's not been my experience. I could be wrong, interesting, but that's not been my experience.

Allison 30:28

So they have so at HEB, which is where all good things are found, including Blue Bell ice cream.

Jessica 30:35

We're gonna put that on my Texas list of all the things I need to do because grocery stores are my jam.

Allison 30:43

So I would love HEB. Um, they have like you know, in store, they make their own tortillas. Um, some of the stores have them, they're making them in the store, but mostly they're not anymore. But they do one that's a blend. So it's half flour, half corn, and that is my favorite. That one is really good. It just has a really nice texture, but it has that corn flavor, right? But the reason I don't like corn tortillas is because they are they're dry. Like I don't like that, but you know, I don't like tamales.

Jessica 31:13

You had them, oh, so you don't like corn texture, period.

Allison 31:16

It's that texture that I'm not a big fan of, unless it's fry, unless it's fried cornbread, which is a whole different animal. But fried cornbread is kind of like a gordita. It's kind of, but it's southern and you it's thinner, like different than a hush puppy. It's no, it's flat. It's like a oh, it's like a flat corn cake kind of thing. And it's crispy, crispy. All the edges are all crispy. Oh, it's so good. I'll make you some when you come to me.

Jessica 31:42

All right, okay. Yeah, I've tried making homemade flour, and I I am gonna give it another try because Axe of Sourdough did, I'm pretty sure it was her. She uses a pasta machine to flatten them. Um that's a good idea. And that was one of the things that really annoyed me when I tried to make them once was that I could not get them flat.

Allison 32:10

And so I just use a rolling pin. I have a press.

Jessica 32:12

I have a tortilla press, but I have a tortilla press, but I didn't think that worked on flour.

Allison 32:17

It does, but you have to put um, you have to put like something. You have a barrier.

Jessica 32:24

Yeah, yeah, you have to do that for corn too.

Allison 32:27

Yeah, but it we I have found that just rolling them out works the best for me.

Jessica 32:31

But the pasta roll is a good idea. It always bounced back when I tried to.

Allison 32:37

You have to let it, that's the thing though, you do have to let it rest. So, like when I make it, I I make the dough, I make the balls, and then I cover them, I put them on a tray and I cover them with a a a moist towel, and I let them sit and relax. You have to let the dough relax for a bit, or it will it it will not roll out, it'll just keep bouncing out.

Jessica 32:58

Maybe I will give it another try. So my family loves them. They will buy because at Costco you can buy the uncooked ones.

Allison 33:05

Yes, and just cook them, yeah. Um, okay, cooking and eat anything beside protein lattes that you're cooking?

Jessica 33:12

Um, so I've got a summer meal rotation that I just dial in and it's like the same for like the last two summers to just make things easy. We do today. That's a good idea. Grilled pizza, we do grilled chicken, Caesar salad, we do breakfast for dinner, we do, you know, snacky Saturdays. Just easy, easy easy. Um I did dig up all of my old your your magazine is actually what inspired me to dig up all my old cooking magazines.

SPEAKER_06 33:46

Cool.

Jessica 33:47

Because I kept many, not knowing that cooking magazines would completely disappear on the face of the earth. Yeah.

unknown 33:57

Yeah.

Jessica 33:58

I thought, oh, I can always get another one, you know. So I got rid of more than I would have had I known that they would no longer exist. But um gonna I've been browsing and and trying to decide, like maybe once a week, just try something new. And they're old, so they're they're old new. So cool.

Allison 34:21

That's yeah. Um, okay, I am eating all of the stone fruits because it's stone fruit season. I love stone fruits, cherries, peaches, nectarines. I actually prefer nectarines over peaches because I feel like it's just a better peach. It's not fuzzy. Unless it's a Georgia peach, which I can't get here. We get peaches from California. Um, and they're good. And we had Texas peaches, but they are spindy.

Jessica 34:49

They are you care between white or yellow?

Allison 34:53

Yellow, yellow nectarines. That's my top choice.

Jessica 34:57

My stores will have all four white peaches, white nectarines, yellow peaches, yellow nectarines.

Allison 35:04

I prefer yellow, yeah. I even put it, I like I'm putting it in my oatmeal in the morning um instead of apples because I do apples in the fall and the winter. But I'll do stone fruit in the summer and it's delicious. Um, so that, and then doing a lot of bag salads lately because it it reduces a friction point for me. Um, we have calorie goals, and when it's you know, seven o'clock and Nate's like, I need something for lunch, we can put one of those out, throw it together, throw some chicken breast on top, and we're good. Or like a lot, you know, a fast um side dish to go with dinner. It just knowing that I have a few of those in the fridge, it keeps it it, it's I'm less likely to say, Oh, what am what am I doing? I don't know. I don't have, you know. Um, so that's really great. And yes, I could make them way cheaper, but um I would throw no shade if you find one that you love.

Jessica 36:04

Yeah, there's one at Aldi that I adore that is Greek, it's a Greek yogurt dressing. Oh, nice. And it's a Southwest um salad with cilantro, green onions, that sounds good, and a little cheese and tortilla strips. And I beef it up with usually more cabbage and other things. But they were super cheap. They used to be like $2 a bag, and now they're four dollars a bag. So it feels a little bit more like a splurge. It is a splurge for sure.

Allison 36:37

Um, but it's a splurge that's working for us right now. Yeah, I say do what works. Um, okay. What are we watching? What are you watching lately?

Jessica 36:45

So I was really, really excited to watch A Great Awakening. Like I was gonna make my whole family go to the movie theater and then it was gone. So we couldn't go to the movie theater. So we bought it for like 15 bucks on Amazon because I thought, well, that's cheaper than taking six people to the movie there. Yeah. Yeah. But I was a little underwhelmed. Like I think it had really great potential to be. But but maybe maybe it's not have you have you watched it?

Allison 37:21

No, I don't I'm not even familiar with what this is.

Jessica 37:24

No, it is it is a story of previous it's it's it's um Whitfield and Ben Franklin, and it traces their friendship with one another. Um and it's it's told in flashbacks from um did we call the last one the constitutional convention? Whatever the last meeting, the second const was it the second constitutional convention because the first one didn't fail the first meeting failed to create a const so whatever that second and last and final and successful meeting of all the states, um Ben Franklin um uh said, you know, we need to pray. And that had been absent previously, and so it's so it's it's I think it's hinting, it has the potential to hint at a lot of things, and and that has come up a lot. I'm I just finished Isaiah today at my chronological reading, and it it's come up more than once. Like he did not inquire of the Lord, or he inquired of the Lord, you know, and and things went well with him, or he did not, and he blew it all to bits, you know, like so so I think it had a lot of the story has a lot of potential, and and it is there are powerful moments watching Whitfield speak. Um but since I bought it, I can watch it again, and maybe I'll feel different on the second watching. I had really high high hopes for that story. Um, but it's still it prompted like we watched it as a family one pizza night, and and then one kid's off researching Whitfield and reading his sermons, and then my husband's reading um Jonathan Edwards sermons, and so it it spurned an interest. Yeah. In yeah, hey, what was going on back in the day? Because we feel like we've jumped the tracks here as a country. And so yes. Um, so I think the story kind of hints like, yeah, this has happened before. We've we we've we've turned away before and gotten ourselves into some messes. So interesting, you know. Okay, cool. So so that was something. Um, and then we signed up for Hallmark and Acorn on Prime. So more for me and my girl to have our our shows. So um some have been very entertaining and some haven't. And you know, you never know what you're gonna get. Never know on Amazon Prime. Um, we on our trip back from Sacramento, we listened, we we binged a few um stories or soul food um episodes. And Nate asked the question, does God like what you're watching? And I just thought that's that's a really great question, you know. So Stories are Soul Food, that's um that's Andy Wilson and Brian. Sorry, Brian, I don't remember your name. Brian somebody.

Allison 41:02

Stories are soul food. Okay, that's uh canon yeah they put that okay. We'll we'll link it below. Okay. How about you? Um well, okay. We watched we we watched Hail Mary, which is the sci-fi movie Project Hail Mary. Project Hail Mary Hill Mary. Yes, Project Hail Mary, which um it was very entertaining. Like we I love The Martian, which is by the same author, and I don't remember his name. Andy something weird. We're weird, yeah. Um, I didn't read the books. I love the movie. That's one of my favorite movies. And this one was it had some similar themes, but it was different. You know, it it it was less the way that Nate, my husband, describes it is he's like he could go back to Earth. Like if he could, if they could get him, you know, back and the Martian, it was like he gets to go back to Earth. Earth is not dying. Whereas in Project Hail Mary, it's more apocalyptic. You know, he it's like save the earth kind of thing. Um, which was a a little bit of a different angle. But it was so it was it was really entertaining, very clean. Like there was no, I don't think there was any language at all. Um I can't remember, but I don't think so. And certainly no, no sex or anything, but it was good. It was worth the it was worth the time to watch it.

Jessica 42:24

I've heard it, I've heard good things. I've heard that it's better than the book, but I still wanted to read the book first.

Allison 42:31

I've heard that the book is very, very difficult, like scientific. Yeah, it's hard, yeah, it's challenging reading. Um, I've heard that from quite a lot of people who are science-y people.

SPEAKER_01 42:42

So all right, maybe I should just watch the movie.

SPEAKER_05 42:46

Just saying, I don't I don't doubt your ability. I have total confidence in you, but just might want to keep that in mind.

Allison 42:57

Um, okay, and then we are because we're just trying to find something to watch. We just started, so again, I'll have to report back. Um, the Miss Marple series, but the old one because there's a newer one that we tried to watch and we were like, eh. Um I've seen them both too many modern themes. We liked the older one from like the 80s. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, so we're watching that, which is so far so good. Um, yeah. And then we watched Lunatic Farmer. And now we're and now we're going to grow all of our food.

Jessica 43:32

No, just kidding. That that all that Joel Saladin stuff really, like Brian's like, let's get a truck and let's move to the country.

SPEAKER_05 43:41

It's like he's inspiring. It's so inspiring.

Allison 43:46

But I have to say, what I appreciated about that, it it was really well done, like beautifully shot, beautifully done. Um Um, food ink. So I was, you know, familiar with Joel Salatin and like what he does and everything. But what was interesting about Lunatic Farmer was to see his entire story of his parents. You know, going back to how that farm began, like it started in Argentina when his dad was living there, and then they ended up losing everything because of a coup, essentially, and had to leave with nothing after they had built up a farm there. I think it was Argentina. Anyway, um, comes and has nothing and starts, buys the piece of property that eventually becomes Polyface Farms, which is his farm that they have now that's in his that his son runs. And but it took 60 years, like 60 years to get it from when his dad first bought it to where they are today, which is profitable and running well and all of that. So it's sustainable and yeah, that timeline is what we often don't think about when we have sort of the homesteading dream. I'm gonna buy some chickens and I'm gonna get some land and everything's gonna be great, and I'm gonna be fully self-sustaining, you know, in three years. Well, that's pretty lofty and not realistic.

Jessica 45:10

I think most of the people I know who've done that kind of thing have have purchased, established something that was already places where where maybe the the the chicken coops are already there and and then there's some some infrastructure already, like they've improved it. Right. But um, you know, to be able to buy something where it's like, oh, somebody's retiring and they want to move off their farm. And and so there's the basics.

Allison 45:40

Yes, that would be ideal. Yeah, that would be an ideal situation. But the more like just for kicks and giggles, Nate was looking around, you know, land around here, and he's like, You cannot grow anything here, you can grow cows, and that's it.

Jessica 45:56

It's just we don't have so there are no farmers markets in San Antonio.

Allison 46:01

Yeah, there are because if you go south of San Antonio and and you get the closer you get to Mexico in the valley, they grow a lot down there. Um, but up here where we are, we are in the hill country and we we we live on top of a limestone rock. I mean, we have two inches of topsoil, and then you're hitting solid limestone. So, I mean, we have lots of quarries around here, that's why it's so dusty. Uh if you go a little bit further north, you can get into some um, you know, that's where they grow the grapes for the wine. All the California people have moved here and started growing wine up in Fredericksburg.

SPEAKER_05 46:35

We're all gonna be leaving pretty soon.

unknown 46:38

Yeah.

Allison 46:39

They grow the peaches up there, they grow olives, you know, things that if you think like what do they grow in the Mediterranean, it's kind of similar, kind of, kind of, but it's just yeah, water is a problem, soil is a problem.

SPEAKER_01 46:52

Yeah.

Allison 46:53

So to think that you could have like a full full-fledged farm and grow everything here, that's just not that's not realistic. No. So right now we're growing tomatoes and peppers.

Jessica 47:05

And here where all the fertile land, like I'm listening, I can hear the bulldozers, like it was all farmland, and now they're turning it into houses. Houses.

Allison 47:16

Yeah. Which is sad. So how are we gonna feed the nation? Because a lot of a lot of the food comes from California.

Jessica 47:28

Yeah.

Allison 47:28

Do you know the percentage? It's a lot.

Jessica 47:30

Yeah, yeah. We just drove through it all. That's all still there. Like you go to Central Valley, it's all just yeah, there's like a lot of nothing in the middle. But farms, but it's it's near, you know, the cities. Yeah, like it's it's I can't even begin to problem solve. So and that's kind of why I would like to like we've we've traveled domestically, we've lived someplace else, but the Midwest, maybe and no shade to the Midwest. I know people who are born and raised and absolutely love it, but terror tornadoes absolutely terrify me. Give me an earthquake any day.

SPEAKER_05 48:23

Like, I would much rather have the earthquake.

Jessica 48:28

Um, you don't see it coming.

SPEAKER_05 48:30

You don't have time to sweat about it. That that I don't follow that logic at all. That freaks me out.

Allison 48:38

I I think I can think about it. It's like in the Bible where it's the earth opened up and swallowed them whole. You know, that's the imagery I have in my mind.

Jessica 48:46

I think just growing up with them, knowing how what to do, like some of it is just and and and points to public school for for the drills, right? Um, so so I don't know that the Midwest isn't is in our future, but I would like to see other places. And I would like to see, is it as not so other places? Because if it's just the same, okay, fine. I will make it work here, but but um just just yeah, just want to see what and Brian's all, how could we find that out just going to visit someplace? And well, I think we have to like not be where the tourists go, like yeah, yeah, go to the grocery stores and and go to Walmart and check it out. I don't know. Okay, what do you think? Um you're looking at me skeptical.

Allison 49:42

No, I don't know. I mean, does that exist? Is there is there anywhere in the the US that is not like a cauldron of I don't even know how to describe it. Like it's it's just it's every every place seems very in instable, unstable. Is that the right word? The stability that used to be there when we were growing up. Yeah, but maybe we were just kids and we didn't know any better. Because the 70s were not the most stable time in our country either.

Jessica 50:15

No, I think I think some of it is just public safety issues, you know. Yeah, that's true. You know, do you have homeless encampments everywhere you drive?

Allison 50:27

No, but if you go in down to the city, there's a lot more.

Jessica 50:32

So it's it's just you guys like the stuff, like is this normal? Is this is this what's going on other places?

Allison 50:40

And and I just wanting to puzzle that out a little bit because maybe people can chime in on that and let us know because we have people all over listening. Tell us what's normal where you live.

SPEAKER_01 50:56

Yeah.

Allison 50:57

Does it feel stable? Does it feel is that the right word? Stable, like more, does it feel safe?

Jessica 51:03

Well, if if like for we went we went to Balboa Island uh last month for our anniversary, and it's in Orange County, which Orange County is lovely. Like I'm sure that there are pockets of Orange County that are not lovely, but most of the places I've seen are you know they enforce the laws and it's relatively clean and you don't see people camped everywhere. Yeah. Whereas you do see that in LA County fairly often, and you do see that in San Diego County very frequently, and and the Orange County is sandwiched in between them. So it's like, okay. And and what I've heard is that Orange County enforces the laws, and these other places don't. So it's it's not that we need more laws, it's like we how do we enforce them? And that's not my job, that's the government's job. But I just have lots of questions.

Allison 52:08

Yeah. Okay. Well, chime in. Let us know, you guys. Um, that all that from what we were watching, Lunatic Farmer. Um, there we went. All right, we have we have a couple more questions. And it's okay. Give me a project. What do you do and what's your homemaking goals for the summer? Anything in particular?

Jessica 52:33

Um general de junking, organizing, figuring out a workout routine. So those are not that one, the workout routines, not really homemaking. Um, probably the biggest one, which I thought was kind of funny. Um we've got probably four years before Brian retires, and we have a lot a lot of questions. Um, you know, he has a pension, we have social security, we have some business income. I had already been playing it in my mind, and then he texted me one morning from work and said, Hey, I was thinking maybe we could make that one of your projects to figure out all the details for retirement. Like what are the what are the questions we need to get answered? Sure. Kind of thing. Um, because where we retire, like we don't have these big dreams like we're moving to Florida, or something, yeah, Arizona. We don't have these big plans. We want to be where our kids are, but at the same time, our kids are still figuring that out for themselves, and we don't want them to feel this burden of us. So, so what you know, some states don't have state income tax, some states don't have property taxes, some states don't have sales tax. Like how what are the what are the benefits? It kind of tails into the I want to see what other places are like question. I see a theme here. Yeah. Yeah. Just to know, like, like because California is tax heavy. And yeah, and what we've saved, what we've worked really, really hard to save, you know, we want it to go as far as if it can go in retirement. Right. I don't think we're either one gonna stop making money, but but in the same way that you and I, when we were early homemakers, it's like our time is well spent figuring out ways to save money while we're raising our kids. My time will be well spent figuring out our retirement, how to maximize our retirement money.

Allison 54:40

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's a that's a good, that's a good thought process to go through, even you know, considering relocating, like how would that make how would that impact because it could be pretty significant.

Jessica 54:55

So because California wants to tax you after you move away, and wow, fun things like that. So we can't control the future, but we can get the lily of the land. So it's it's it's uh it is homemaking, and by accepting, you know, where is our home gonna be? Yeah, you know, and to my children listening, we're not planning to move, we're just thinking this looking at all the options, yeah.

Allison 55:26

Yeah, which is wise. That is wisdom. That is wisdom. Really, I'm just doing my thing, keeping the house running. Um, I am about to start doing probably the the big project for the summer is teaching my daughter-in-law how to sew. So she asked and has wanted to learn, and she got my grandmother's machine. Um, and so it's now currently being serviced. Um, we actually had an article about this in the magazine that Naomi wrote. If you inherit a machine and it hasn't been used in the last probably five years, you need to go get it cleaned and serviced and you know, checked, get give the once over. So it's currently being serviced as soon as it gets back. She is going to be coming over here with one of her sisters, actually, because her sister wants to learn too. So we're we're gonna have sewing class at my house.

Jessica 56:22

Oh, that's very fun.

Allison 56:24

Um okay, how are we aging with Grace this summer?

Jessica 56:29

I really loved I sent it to you. Um it's Kate goes creating, and Sarah Sparks music had this carousel on on Instagram, a prayer for when your body feels broken. Um, this body is a gift. What can it do even in this sin sick world is miraculous, but every day it decays. Another test, another ache, another pain reminds me that this is not my home and this body is not ultimate. This body is my armor in a battlefield on loan. I am not my own, but bought with a price. The daily actions of this body are a living sacrifice, and it is an honor to grow old, to fight the good fight, and keep fighting. For one day I'll be called home, this lowly body transformed into a glorious one, done with sickness, sin, and death. Until then, I do not expect to be comfortable. And every ache and dent, every reminder of imperfection in this body reminds me not to worship it. So I read that right around, it was posted on my birthday. Oh appropriate. So on my 54th birthday, that showed up in my feed, and I went, oh, okay then. That needs to be the lens that I view all of my protein lattes and workout plans and whatever, not to make this an idol. This is this is a blessing, this is a form of wealth. The world is not my home. Um, so you know, every burning tongue, every, you know, numb hands, all these different symptoms.

Allison 58:17

Menopause symptoms, yeah.

Jessica 58:19

Um, just reminding, like, okay, like this isn't this isn't the goal. And and I think, you know, some of the menopause we've we're getting like this rich bank of information for menopause, yeah, compared to what our our moms had. Yes, for sure. Huge amount of information, but along that comes two ditches, maybe more than one, but one ditch that that just really beats the feminist drum. And look how sexist all this past research was, and it was all done by the man to bring us women down. And it's like, no. And and then this other voice that says, we can live forever, right? You know, the longevity, you know, it's like, no, it's stewardship. It's stewardship. How can I steward my body well, even though it feels like it's falling apart, and I didn't know 30 years ago what I could have done to be in a better shape today. What do I do now? Yeah, yeah, kind of thing.

Allison 59:43

For sure. Okay. Um anything specific you're doing?

Jessica 59:49

Looking at how to lift more weight um safely, yes. Seriously leveraging resistance training in a positive way. Um getting more protein.

Allison 1:00:07

I was just gonna say, and getting that protein to build muscles, getting more gut diversity, gut biome diversity.

Jessica 1:00:16

Dr. Stacey Sims, her video, it was an article on fiber, and it just made sense to me. Like, oh, the fiber makes the estrogen more effective. Like, oh, okay, like I'm on board then. Yeah. Um she I watched her master class on creatine, and and I've started loading, um, starting with one gram a day for a week, then moving up because the goal is to have three to five a day, but it's not just for muscle, it's for gut, it's for brain. Like I've I've I've read enough different things, not just from her, but from other um people in the field, like subject matter experts. Like this will help you with cognitive operations. We want our brains to continue to function. It it helps with gut operations, you know, like it's it's a multi-purpose kind of thing. So I finally made an appointment for the doctor and my new doctor, and that's not till July. So I have a month to do all the right things so that maybe my blood tests will show that I get a B on my great report.

Allison 1:01:42

Okay, yeah, I don't know. I don't do mine until September. I do it during on my birthday month. That's how I remember to do it. Yeah. And I am just very hopeful, very hopeful. It sounds like you're doing the work. I'm well, I'm hopeful that the estrogen also is doing the work to get the because my cholesterol, my cholesterol was really high, and I've never had my cholesterol. Never.

Jessica 1:02:08

Did you do the patch or cream?

Allison 1:02:10

I do the cream, it's a gel, yeah. Okay, it's a gel every day. Um, also, okay, this is TMI people, but I'm gonna say this because your big sister mom, whatever grandma.

Jessica 1:02:23

Bring the big sister energy here, yes.

Allison 1:02:26

And you need to hear this. Um the the estrogen, there's two different types of estrogen. Well, there's three. There's oral estrogen, which you might be familiar with, like birth control, there's the topical estrogen, which is like a gel or a cream or a patch. You do the patch, but there's also vaginal estrogen. So that is an insert. And as you get older, and especially if you've had some babies delivered vaginally, you you you you lose that estrogen, which kind of keeps everything tight and in the right place and functioning properly and less inclined to have a UTI and all of those fun things. You lose all of that. Um, and so I was having issues that I'd never had before. And then my doctor put me on that about six, eight months ago, and it has helped tremendously, tremendously. Haven't had a UTI, you know, like all the things that were bothering me before, everything is getting better. And it that is one, you guys, if you have any issues with not being able to take other forms of estrogen, you can take that because you can use it because it does not enter the bloodstream. It stays local. So highly recommend.

Jessica 1:03:37

And and I I feel like there's a lot of confusing information out there. And so for listeners, like we are not doctors.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:46

No, we are not.

Jessica 1:03:47

We we medical disclaimer, not doctors, but find the subject matter expert that you feel you can trust. Um and and may the Lord bless you with a personal physician who actually knows their stuff. I I've been really tempted to order a copy of this book and send to my old doctor. Really tempted. Um, but you know, doctors aren't trained in this. It's it's really hard. There's been a lot of misinformation about menopause, and and the study that was done on menopause was grossly misinterpreted by the media.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:29

Yep.

Jessica 1:04:29

Um, and and a whole generation of women lost out on the benefits of of MHT.

Allison 1:04:35

So and this, I have to say, is why I think we have the idea of Karen. I'm telling you that's why. It's because they're raging with uncontrolled menopausal rage symptoms.

Jessica 1:04:50

Yeah.

Allison 1:04:50

Some of them are just mean and they have bad manners.

Jessica 1:04:54

But I'm telling you, that whole they all have sin nature in them.

Allison 1:04:58

But a lot of women a lot of women, they used they would say she has a nervous condition. Yeah, they would put them in asylums. That I mean, if you go back and do some of the research on that, anyway, I cut you off. What were you saying?

Jessica 1:05:10

No, no, I think I think that just just do don't I trusted my doctor for a really long time and he gave me grossly inaccurate information.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:25

Okay.

Jessica 1:05:25

And and then I asked my endocrinologist, and he didn't, he wasn't necessarily misinformed, but he wasn't willing to go the extra inch. Yeah. It wasn't even a mile. He wasn't willing to go the extra inch to think of how he could help me. And he's busy and he's got, you know, I'm I'm a low risk person, but but I went to my cardiologist and she said, get on MHT. The the the midwife who I saw for gynecology said, get on. MHT. The physician's assistant to the first doctor said get on M MHD. And interestingly, it was all the women said do it. And the men weren't informed. So it is now my mission to make sure my sons are informed. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:18

Yes.

Jessica 1:06:18

About this stuff because they need to be supportive to their wives. Right. 30 years from now, when they're in this situation. And my husband has been amazing. Like just whatever you need, whatever, you know, super patient, super, super understanding. And and and I think men need to be taught. They need, yeah, they need to as much as we do.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:42

As much as we do.

Allison 1:06:44

Because you need they need to understand why all of a sudden they're married to a different woman. Yeah. For a lot of us, it's it's that extreme, you know, until we sort it out and do the MHT. Which you're calling MHT. MHT HRT is the same thing, uh, hormone replacement therapy, but they're calling it MHT now.

Jessica 1:07:03

Menopausal hormone therapy.

Allison 1:07:05

Hormone therapy. Yes, that's the more modern term that people are starting to use. So yeah.

Jessica 1:07:11

I think it's more specific.

unknown 1:07:13

Yeah.

Jessica 1:07:14

Because people are taking hormones for different reasons. For a variety of reasons. And so this one is specifically menopause and for the uninitiated. Menopause is one day in a woman's life. The one day that she has been one year free of having a period. And so you are perimenopause or pre-menopausal up until that one day. And then after that, you are postmenopausal. So I have not hit that day yet.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:48

But we will see. Me neither.

Jessica 1:07:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:52

Good job. Um, we will save the rest of the list for next season.

Allison 1:07:59

We do have one more question. Do we want to go there? Do we want to talk about it?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:04

You can cut it out later. Okay.

Allison 1:08:07

Let's talk about this. Might have to be a two-parter. Um, thoughts, thoughts, and and ideas on limiting beliefs. Um, we were gonna have a clap back section where we just like directly responded to some craziness that we see on the gram and other places, but we decided to be more just magnanimous and Christ-like and just growth-minded, yes, and speak instead to the concept, not call people out directly. So, um, thoughts. Tell me, tell me your thoughts on limiting beliefs or how you got to this topic.

Jessica 1:08:48

So I would say a limiting belief is something that you think is true, that may or may not be true. And so that that plays itself out when you say I'm just a mom or I want to be more than just a mom. It was like, oh, what's the just in that? What does what does that have to do with anything? Um, limiting beliefs can apply to a variety of things. So so you may find yourself, I could never XYZ. I could never cook from scratch. I could never save money on, you know, spend less on such and such. I could never do without such and such. I could never spend all day with my children. Like, so I could never just uh those are two of the two of the things that I think limit you from thinking creatively and and really leaning into what what God has for you. Um so reframing those limiting beliefs can be a way of taking every thought captive. Go what does just a mom, what does God say about just a mom? Uh-huh, right? Um what does God say about I could never change my ex habit? Right? Um, well, all things are possible with him who believes, yeah, right. And if it is um, you know, whether we think about ourselves, if if it's how we think about ourselves or we're responding to other people's perceptions of us, there are many, many thoughts to be taken captive. Um and if God has called you to a certain role, just uh whatever, um the just doesn't really exist, right? Like if God's called you to that, then that's that's good work. Because do I believe that any and all work that God assigns to me is worthy of my best and worthy of my respect? And if I don't respect the work that God has given me to do, certainly no one else will. And I think a reframing is necessary for ourselves and how we talk about it, how we model it to our children, how we what are the stories we're telling ourselves about a certain situation.

Allison 1:11:36

Yes, I agree. We all have narratives running in our heads, and I think what is something that is unique to modern homemakers is not only do they have the false narratives that or the limiting beliefs that are running through their head that their own head is making up, but they have all of the stuff that they see out there, you know, on social media. So um you see certain narratives, and and I'm not saying that they all have that they're all untrue or they have, you know, bad motives or whatever, but it's all marketing. I saw the best thing today. Like it's it's it was like uh, I don't even remember the the account, but she was saying, You're not behind, you're not, you know, I know you're because she was calling out some Trentons that she had been noticing. She's a longtime homesteader. And she was like, Look, I see like all these people talking about how they're making all this money selling sourdough and they're doing this many thousands of dollars a month with this part of homesteading and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And she's like, and you think, what the heck am I doing wrong? Like, we're just barely keeping this place afloat here. And how are they doing this? And I and I you can put that scenario not just into homesteading, but homemaking, you know, whatever. Pick your niche, right? It exists out there. Somebody is saying how they make all this money doing this side gig, this side hustle. And her point was you are comparing your daily life to somebody else's marketing. And I thought, oh, that is so good. Because that's exactly what it is. I'm not saying it's bad necessarily, but it's marketing. They are selling something. And whether it's their course on how you can have this too in your life or their product that they're that they're selling, they're selling something to you. And at the heart of it is this narrative. And you really always need to step back and say, okay, is that true? Is that true for me? Is that something that I need to apply to my life and look at through that lens? Um, because if we when we start to do that, that's where we really get into trouble and the limiting beliefs come in because we're thinking, well, I could never do that because I don't have the resources that she has, and I don't have the the land that she has to do that thing, or or I don't get to stay home full time. So I can't have the little side gig going, you know, to make all this money while I'm home doing all the homemaking things. Um that's just my observation.

Jessica 1:14:20

We call it selling the dream because really people don't Americans don't often buy something to use that moment. We often buy something because we plan to put it to use at some point in the future. Sewists, you know what I'm talking about. But but it's not just people who sew, it's it's not just crafters. We buy stuff because we want that lifestyle, we want that identity.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:04

I want to be the person who that it has these things and right, but who does that thing or creates that thing?

Jessica 1:15:11

Like it and it can all come from a well of really good intentions, right? Like, and and that's why one of my things with meal planning and grocery shopping is one of the key points is use what you have. Like go shop your kitchen. You don't need to go out and buy new stuff to meal plan, to meal prep, to whatever. It's like you probably have some stuff.

Allison 1:15:35

Like become that person that you want to be with what you have and where you are. Don't go buy all of the trappings and things and accessories and whatever to say, oh, I am now I am this person. I'm not an artist because I have a cabinet full of paint and art supplies right here.

Jessica 1:15:54

Right.

Allison 1:15:55

That does not make me an artist.

Jessica 1:15:56

Right. Like, like our son and daughter-in-law bought a new house, and the backyard is a it is a blank slate, but it is also a blank slate. Like, yeah, like when you talk about the infrastructure, you know, it's like it's gonna take some work and some time to lay down the the drip lines and the the plumbing and the concrete and all the things. But Brian said, why don't you guys just get a raised bed and we can set up a temporary line, you know, and you can just try it out and see if you like this placement.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:32

Yes.

Jessica 1:16:33

You know, you don't have to decide today where we're gonna put everything in forever. Right. You know, like when we we re we bought and remodeled two homes and we spent demo is cheap. Yes, demo is cheap, and soap and elbow grease are cheap. And so you can kind of rearrange life a little bit. You know, you can try something out and see if you'll actually do it. Try it out with a thing that you have and then upgrade as you make that thing right a habit.

Allison 1:17:06

Right. Well, we talked about that like when we talked about the when we did the So You Wanna Be a Full-Time Homemaker series, and we talked about like how important it is to live on one income before you have to live on one income. Like you need to try this. And is this gonna work for your family? Are you willing to make the sacrifices that are gonna be required for you to live on one income? Do it before you quit your job. Yeah. And see how that's gonna work out for you. Right. Because the stakes are less high, I guess is what I'm saying.

Jessica 1:17:40

Yeah, the stakes, the stakes are lower, and you see what you would need. Yeah, right. What would I need? Well, I might need more time if I'm gonna cook from scratch more often than getting takeout, right? I was like, well, you know that that would be baked in to moving to one income, is that you would free up some hours to do that. But if the you know, you can go through the mental exercise, are there other things that I would need to make these numbers work? Um and then maybe that's selling stuff that's changing different habits and getting those, getting used to those kind of thing.

Allison 1:18:23

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Did we cover that? Did we talk limiting beliefs? I think there were we ended up there because we were talking about how the role of narrative, the role that narratives play, yeah, in both our limiting beliefs. Like I could never, I could never stay home with my kids. I could never homeschool my kids. I could never, you know, fill in the blank, um, quit my job so I could stay home full time. Right. That can, because we're believing a certain narrative, um, that can lead us to a place where we're sort of paralyzed and not reaching the goals that we maybe could otherwise reach, if that's what's valuable and important to us or what God is calling us to. But then also being limited by what we see other people doing or the narratives, the marketing narratives that we see all around us, whether it's at the grocery store checkout in the magazines or on your Instagram feed or your neighbor next door, I don't know. You know, you're observing some other story, and then you're telling yourself stories about that story. Right. So Right.

Jessica 1:19:33

And I think a lot of this is cultural. Yeah, that's true. What does the word say about this? What does God say about this thing? And and if God's saying it's pop, and I'm not just saying pie in the sky, like all things are possible. I can make a million dollars. Like I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about this thing that that we're gonna pursue. What does God think about pursuing that thing?

Allison 1:20:00

Right.

Jessica 1:20:00

And and shifting our minds. And I think that's what renewing our minds and taking every thought captive is about is making my mind like Christ's, yeah, and not like the world's.

Allison 1:20:12

Well, because there's some thoughts, it's it's examining every thought and saying, is this from the Lord or is this from somewhere else? And because it may be, it may be wisdom from him coming in, you know, to sl to caution you against a decision or you know, get you to slow down or whatever. But um definitely not just letting the thoughts flow in and out and the narratives flow in and out without like investigating, stopping, holding it, looking at it, saying, What is this? What is this story that I'm believing, or this thought that I'm believing? Is this true? What does the word say about it?

Jessica 1:20:52

And I think that that does bring up a summer project I had not put in my notes is that my youngest and I are gonna unplug for a week. Like we did this when they were kids, and I had forgotten that we had done it with when we're they were kids because she's all oh, I hated it when we did that. But just to reset our brains, okay. Unplug with no phones, no um, we we talked about deleting deleting the apps, you know, and and yes, we would get phone calls or be able to use the map or you know, yeah, like to be able to function in the 21st century, but not to be consuming that which is digital.

unknown 1:21:42

Okay.

Jessica 1:21:44

And I think that that that may sound um drastic to some people, but when I've done it in the past, it really did reset my brain. Yes. To be thinking more in line, you know. Obviously, it's what you're gonna consume. What you are you gonna consume when you're not consuming digital, but if you are journaling and reading good books and reading the Bible, yeah, um, you're just gonna slow down the the the the concept stuff isn't gonna be flashing in front of your face, which does change. It does change the way that you think, yeah, like physiologically, it changes your brain, it changes how your brain works, yeah.

Allison 1:22:33

Yeah, so that is a very worthy uh endeavor to unplug, have a screen-free week or two, or even if somebody can do it for the weekend, yeah.

Jessica 1:22:46

You know, like I think it can be like a regular kind of resetting, like slowing down, being able to listen to God because I've been struggling to hear God, and I wonder if that's because I'm hearing so much else.

Allison 1:23:00

And your attention span has been trained to move ahead constantly to the next thing by looking at it. So yeah. Okay, good goal. Tell us later next time about how that went. Um you're unplugging with your daughter. Yeah, okay. I think we should probably stop now.

Jessica 1:23:20

Yeah, because you're gonna have so much fun editing this.

Allison 1:23:25

Well, thank you for rambling with us. It was quite the ramble. I'm not sure if this will be one part or two parts, but uh we'll see after I do the edit.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:33

But it's been fun. Thank you. Thank you. Bye guys.

Allison 1:23:39

Thank you for listening to this summer homemaker's ramble with me and Jessica Fisher. If you have made it this far, you are a trooper. I would love to know about your limiting beliefs and how you are challenging them so that Christ can renew your mind. Let's make this episode's emoji a brain. Drop one in a comment, text, or email and let me know your current biggest limiting belief and the truth Christ is giving you to combat that false belief and renew your mind. Be sure to connect with Jessica on Instagram and over at goodcheeats.com and lifeasmom.com. I will put her links below. I will also link andor post as many of the things we referenced in today's episode as I can on the show notes post on the blog. You can find it at theartofhome podcast.com slash blog and search Summer Ramble 2026. If there's something specific you are looking for that I did not post, just drop me a text or email and let me know. Okay, I told you at the beginning that I would give you a quick rundown of what's coming this season. So here you go, real fast. Monday motivation this season will be a mixture of magazine sneak peek articles and a new type of episode, homemaker content creator spotlights, where I will talk to women who are making content that benefits homemakers and supports the art of homemaking. On Wednesdays, you will hear six brand new homemaker portraits, a deep dive with former guest Brittany Shepherd, all about sentimental decorating, and it is so good. I can't wait to share that with you. And after five years of interviewing women for homemaker portraits, I will switch places and become the subject of a homemaker portrait. Hannah Stewart of the Sugar and Spice Mom Life podcast, who was our last guest last season, asked to interview me for her show using my questions, and I agreed. So we will be doing a crossover episode. In a few weeks, I will air on The Art of Home, Hannah's interview of me for her show. Look for that in mid-July. Well, that is all for this episode, finally. Don't forget to like, subscribe, rate, and review, and text me the brain emoji and your limiting belief. I will be back on Monday with another sneak peek homemaker's journal article, and next Wednesday with a brand new homemaker portrait. Until then, keep practicing your art of making a home.