A Common Life
Welcome to A Common Life where Morgan and Taylor offer month-by-month gardening advice to help your garden thrive. We also share our personal journey in seasonal living, aiming to foster a deeper connection with others, nature, and our Creator. Our hope is to encourage and equip others who are on a similar journey and to provide a space for community around these ideals.
A Common Life
July's ERL: Balancing Parental Guidance, Baking Adventures, and Literary Insights
"How do you balance parental guidance with allowing your children to express themselves freely? Tune in to discover our thoughts on this, as we dive into our recent family-friendly listening habits, featuring artists like Jarvis Campbell, Wilder Woods, and Dude Perfect. We also touch on the beautiful intersection of love songs and spiritual themes within their music. This episode is a heartfelt reflection on parenting philosophies and the importance of supporting our kids' unique identities, no matter how many times they insist on wearing that same favorite shirt.
Join us on a flavorful journey as Virginia shares her newfound passion for baking, savoring the joys of seasonal foods like watermelon and a classic tomato, basil, and mozzarella dish. We'll also talk about navigating the challenges of gluten sensitivity and contrasting Virginia's meticulous recipe-following with a more spontaneous cooking style. On the literary front, our reading habits have been revolutionized by Naval Rabakant's liberating approach, currently leading us through "The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History." Don't miss our thoughts on integrating multimedia experiences through our Substack platform and our gratitude for our loyal audience. Until next time, happy gardening!"
Find us Elsewhere:
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Instagram - @RiverFlyFarms - Taylor
Community Newsletter - The Common
Twitter - @Taylor__Myers
LinkedIn - Taylor Myers
Need some help with help with your garden or homestead? Book a 15 minute free consult with Taylor to see if he can help.
DM us on the Socials or email us at Taylor@acommonlife.co
Music on the podcast was composed by Kevin Dailey. The artist is Garden Friend. The track is the instrumental version of “On a Cloud”
Hey everybody, welcome to a common life podcast. I'm your host, morgan, and I'm here with Taylor.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody.
Speaker 1:We are going to talk about what we've been eating and reading and listening to today.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I'm excited Do you want to go first?
Speaker 1:I'm interested in what you've been listening to.
Speaker 2:Oh, you want me to start with what I've been listening to. Well, you know what I've been listening to Forrest Frank. No, he's not on my garden jams list.
Speaker 1:That's all the kids want to listen to.
Speaker 2:So I've just been still jamming to my garden jams playlist. I really like it still. I have not worn it out yet.
Speaker 1:Which is Jarvis Campbell, wilder Woods.
Speaker 2:Jordy Searcy, Ben Rector. Jordy Searcy, Ben Rector. Drew Holcomb. There's a few females in there, but not really. It's just a bunch of middle-aged dudes about my age singing, yeah, singing about life. They're women and I think most of them, I think, are Christians, but they wouldn't, necessarily be considered Christian artists, except for Jervis Campbell.
Speaker 1:Is he considered a Christian artist? Oh yeah, he's got explicit.
Speaker 2:Well, he has explicit Christian albums, and by explicit I mean it's not being implied that he's Christian, it's explicitly Christian. You know, not cursing, not explicit. Right, right, right, I get you albums. And by explicit I mean it's not being implied that he's Christian, is explicitly Christian. You know, not cursing, not explicit all right, but and I just added a song that I've been listening to a lot praise him forever oh, that's him mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:I love that breaks a little bit of the theme with the garden jams, because other than that, I don't really have explicitly Christian songs, but it's just so good. And I think, like I said, some of the theme with the garden jams, because other than that, I don't really have explicitly Christian songs, but it's just so good. And I think, like I said, some of the other songs, it's sometimes hard to tell Is this a love song about a woman or is this a love song about God?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They're pulling some Solomon on us.
Speaker 1:I like that. We jam to that Virginia when we need some chill music. She'll be like put the garden jams on. That's what I'm talking about, but other than that it's lots of Forrest Frank and man. Listen, I'm going to break it down with precision. The mission is to expose pet feed conditions. I'll list them like couples who over say bae, okay, it's like Dude, perfect.
Speaker 2:Crazy songs. What is it?
Speaker 1:Dude Perfect Pet Peeves song. But I mean it's like we just listen to this stuff.
Speaker 2:I mean, we've got young kids.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'd rather them be listening to that, you know. So Dude Perfect is definitely a part of our lives now it is thanks to our oldest boy which it replaced. Another influencer that's out there that shall not be named. That's very popular and I'm glad that Dude.
Speaker 1:Perfect is out there me too. Yeah, today. Well, wendell tries to get away with wearing that. Dude Perfect is out there, yeah, today. Well, wendell tries to get away with wearing his Dude Perfect shirt every day.
Speaker 2:Every single day, yesterday, he wore it, the kid would wear the same clothes, underwear, shorts. He would never change.
Speaker 1:I know, I know, which is really great for me because it means less laundry. But he's into the chains. These days.
Speaker 2:Oh man, he's got his own style.
Speaker 1:He's got his chain and he's got his Dude Perfect shirt and his Party at the Point hat. So, like hat chain, dude Perfect shirt, like Nike shorts, that's his look For better or worse.
Speaker 2:right or wrong's my where my head is at.
Speaker 2:On parenting okay, I think it's really important to let your kids express themselves yeah even if, like, I'm not a huge fan of the gold chain and the hat and like his style, it's like I'm like, bro, I really wish you had a different style. But, dude, express yourself, he'll get there. I mean, maybe he won't and that's why I've got to be okay with that. Maybe. Maybe he's going to have his own style.
Speaker 2:That doesn't mesh with me, but I want him to feel safe to express himself. I really don't want him to hold anything back. Now if the expression turns into, you know, debauchery, like that's a problem, but that's the whole point. I think of letting a kid my I'm warning me. I want to let my kids express themselves in a safe place and not like, hold that back and try to guide it down, because in the in in a kid's heart, you know, I just personally feel like if you don't let a kid express himself and even dabble in the gray, right, they have to learn how to live and exist in the gray, because life is gray.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:I grew up very black and white, and I think there's some pros to that and also there's some cons to that, and so Wendell doesn't have a problem living in the gray, though.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:It's our older, our only daughter. That is like totally black and white that I think we should almost push her into the gray. That is like totally black and white that I think we should almost push her into the gray.
Speaker 1:But it's not like, yeah, you're just saying, you know, if you say no, you can never dye your hair. No, you can never do this. No, you can never do that, then it's like they don't feel like they can express themselves in any area of life. So right now it's like what's the harm in wearing a gold chain? Nothing, right, you know. It's like All the time he wants to wear his gold chain, but you know what's funny.
Speaker 2:But not only is it okay for him to do it, I want him to know. I affirm him in it yeah, you know it's not like I'm just putting up with it, but like dude that I love the chain because that's him it's like you and you're a 36 year old man wearing an amber necklace not everybody's cup of tea.
Speaker 1:I love it not everybody's going to wear an amber necklace but you and I right now we have amber necklaces.
Speaker 2:That's so funny. I wonder yeah, I think it's awesome, I think it's cool, anyway, alright. So I wonder yeah, I think it's awesome, I think it's cool, anyway, anyway, all right. So cool.
Speaker 1:How did we get on that? We were talking about what we were listening to. Okay, what are you?
Speaker 2:listening to besides, hey, my pet peeves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have the bickering of brothers.
Speaker 2:Oh, I always love your listening to the bickering man. They've been bickering of brothers. Oh, I always love you're listening to the bickering man. They've been bickering. That's a tough one right now.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't know what to do.
Speaker 2:So with bickering brothers, I do think that there's value in letting kids learn how to argue and not just squash it Almost like expressing themselves, Like I have a tendency to, anytime I hear bickering now, to just squash it and like force them into this robotic as opposed to. I would rather. This is the harder path. I feel like as a dad and I'm just talking out loud here, I'm not giving advice, this is just and I'm just talking out loud here. I'm not giving advice, this is just me, I'm just talking out loud.
Speaker 2:I would rather right now push our two oldest boys, Wendell and Wheeler, down a path of it's okay to argue and bicker, but you got to do it respectfully and you got to do it where you're being kind and honoring the other person. It's fine to argue and bicker, but you got to do it respectfully and you got to do it where you're being kind and honoring the other person. It's fine to argue, but the whining I don't know. But I don't know. How do I do that? How do I steward that? Because I do think there's real value in learning how to what do you think the value is?
Speaker 2:In life you're not always going to get your way. Life is not fair. Other people aren't going to always treat you the way you want to be treated, and other people are going to be annoying. Other people are going to not want to share you know, like all these little things that they're experiencing with each other right now. You know, and other people are going to figure out what bugs you and then they're going to do that. Yeah, because that's just the way people are.
Speaker 2:And so learning like if I just squash every single argument and I don't let them learn how to deal with it, they're going to stuff all that stuff. They're not ever going to deal with it. They're not ever going to learn to get to a resolution, to bring back like connection. That's what I want. I want them to be able to learn to look each other in the face, communicate to each other, communicate their needs, how each other is affecting one another, and then come to a resolution and have connection. And that seems like a pipe dream, but I know that will never happen if I just constantly squash it.
Speaker 1:Well, I think the difference too like something this summer that I did that I thought really helped was they were bickering so much inside. I was like I'm sick of this. Y'all are going to brother bond and you're. I'm locking you outside.
Speaker 1:So instead of saying you go to your room and you go to your space and we're going to take a timeout or whatever, I was like no, we're brother bonding, get your backpack. They just both loaded their backpacks with snacks and books and I locked them outside and they pretended like they were camping in the backyard and they came back in telling me about what they did.
Speaker 2:Love it.
Speaker 1:You know so not in a. But then there's times when it's like y'all can't talk to each other.
Speaker 2:that way, correct, I but then there's times when it's like y'all can't talk to each other.
Speaker 1:That way, correct, I agree. So I think it's situation by situation. Yeah, you have to learn.
Speaker 2:You got to teach them like again. You can't just if something goes wrong. You can't just smack your brother. You can't yell at your brother.
Speaker 1:Or snatch something and run away Right.
Speaker 2:Right, but there's also room for having disagreements and having some arguments and some bickering, but there's a proper way to do it and a wrong way to do it, and that takes as a like. I think it would be much easier for me because I'm not with them all day. I leave to go to work and then come back, but that wears on you after it's been going on day after day and it feels like it's constantly. I love the idea of just instead of, if you have the alternative putting them outside, locking the door, as opposed to separating them. Yeah, yeah, but hey, what do we know?
Speaker 1:Any ideas? Yeah, we're welcome.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, the other thing I put for listening to is clanging around in the kitchen, but it's not me.
Speaker 2:Wilder.
Speaker 1:No, virginia Clanging around in the kitchen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh my goodness, that's amazing. Yeah, I wrote about that. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1:She is like one. She does the dishes, which this is a game changer, guys. I have heard older moms talk about this. They get to a phase where they start to help you and I'm like yeah, yeah, yeah, it is a game changer. Just for the. And they've been unloading the dishwasher for a while, but now Virginia does the dishes in the sink, stacks them to dry and then puts the ones she stacked away.
Speaker 2:It just takes off.
Speaker 1:one of the times that I have to do that during the day, it's just great.
Speaker 2:And the best part is that, I see, is like you haven't really asked her. No, I mean, I know she's doing it. She told us actually she's doing it. To bless us To bless us. Yeah, and she's definitely. She wants people to be happy with her. She is a people pleaser. She's very black and white, right and wrong, but I also see her in health and it's just a real blessing, like it's a gift. She has acts of service. It's definitely one way she's trying to love us.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it is a blessing she's clacking clangons not only is she?
Speaker 1:cleaning, she's been cooking baking baking, which is she's made some peach cobbler blueberry crisp hey, how did the pasta? She made homemade pasta she's doing that today for lunch for them because she wants to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so cool. And bread she's making bread for the first time today.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So How'd that turn out? It was in pans when I left. It hasn't been baked yet, so we'll see it rises for two hours in the pans and then you put it in. Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it rises for two hours in the pans and then you put it in. Okay, yeah, so. Yeah, I wrote about Virginia. I was going to talk about that with eating. Are you done with listening? What else are you listening to?
Speaker 1:The last thing I just said was little feet on hardwood floors, wilder just walking everywhere, that's pretty awesome, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:yeah. So with Virginia cooking, it's just one of those things seeing your kids grow up is it like what you said with other moms, hearing them where they start helping you around the house and it's a game changer. I just have so much joy seeing our kids grow up, and it also definitely comes with sadness because I'm losing some of some of them as they grow and mature and see them blossom. So with Virginia cooking, like you said, the peach cobbler was incredible and baking fits her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because she's a rule follower and you follow rules with baking and give her a recipe.
Speaker 1:Loves the measuring.
Speaker 2:I do like a recipe to get started, but then I like to put it away and just wing it and kind of make it my own. I feel like with her she's very happy with the recipe following it yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1:Okay, what about for eating? Is that what you were going to talk about? Eating, yeah.
Speaker 2:Eating what Virginia's been making yeah.
Speaker 1:I said we've been eating. It seems like we've been eating a lot of watermelons. A lot of watermelon. I've really enjoyed watermelon this season Me too and the way you tell if a watermelon is ready is if the underbelly is faded and it sounds hollow when you hit it man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I never really know.
Speaker 1:This is what morgan wright, tells me so, okay, um I've been doing that and we've gotten good ones so far. We got a really good one from market a week or so ago, but uh that. And then I said I've done this for myself, for lunch some. I think I did it for us once. But you know little tomatoes, cutting them in half, mm-hmm. Chop up some basil, olive oil drizzle, balsamic drizzle, add mozzarella if you have it, and it's just a good side.
Speaker 2:The best cheese is the burrata. The creamy, that's the way to go, those little balls.
Speaker 1:Or balls of mozzarella too.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's just so good. And if you had some of that wild yeast bread from Continental Bakery in Birmingham, shout out y'all. If y'all ever go through Birmingham or if you're in Birmingham, continental Bakery's wild yeast sourdough is off the chain. I really think it depends. If Virginia starts baking us bread, boom. But if not, I think going down there like once a month and just buying like 12 loaves and freezing them is not a bad idea. It's that good. It's good.
Speaker 1:It is that good.
Speaker 2:Sandwiches, toast, just open face. What I was thinking is buttering it and then putting what you just said on it, like a slice of tomato, some basil and some mozzarella. I mean, yeah, that is money.
Speaker 1:The only thing is, we both have realized that we're sensitive to gluten, so what a bummer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thankfully it's not like full blown celiac, although I don't, I don't know. I think for you it really affects you. For me it makes me super tired and probably has some other delirious effects that I would feel way better if I just totally got off of it. But right now it's not bad enough for me to not partake every so often.
Speaker 1:Yeah, will, oh reading, what have you been?
Speaker 2:reading. So I have been reading the great wave, price revolutions and rhythm and the rhythm of history by david hackett, fisher fun stuff but also a lot of other.
Speaker 1:I feel like you're constantly picking up books.
Speaker 2:Well, there's this guy. His name is Naval Rabakant and he is like this Indian pagan philosopher. Well, he is. I mean, what else am I saying? He is okay, I'm just throwing that out there, just so. He is philosopher kind of guy, but he has some great insights that I really appreciate, and one of the insights is like, hey, you don't have to be married to a book from start to finish, like the way he does it is. He would just pick up books to learn, to read, to enjoy, and if he didn't like something he would put it down. Or if he wasn't feeling it, he would put it down and then pick it up. He might start in the middle, he might start at the end, right. So for me that was really liberating, because a lot of times I wouldn't even start a book because I would be so afraid if I knew if I started a book I had to finish it, and I would, I would get bored with it and I'd be halfway through it.
Speaker 2:And I always finished, though, and I always finished, and if I did it, I would just the shame that I was so black and white like Virginia.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but now I've kind of gone the other round and I have like 40 books beside my chair that I just dabble in. You know, when I feel like it's like, oh yeah, this was good, let me, tonight I'll read some of this. But and it's great, but the most consistent book that I am going kind of from beginning to end because I'm interested in I want to finish it is the Great Wave, price, price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History by David Hackett Fisher, and I like the story behind this book because I was in an abandoned school. It wasn't abandoned, but it was closed down and been closed down for like five, six years. I think we might have talked about my new job in the podcast, but anyways, I do have a new role, a new job, and it's bringing this facility back online. It's going to be something really awesome, something special.
Speaker 1:It involves cleaning out an old library.
Speaker 2:It involves cleaning out an old library, yeah, and there's this one classroom and I just stumbled in it because we're checking power, we're doing all these other things, and and it's the, it's like the constitution room, it's the. It's the history, us history, and I'm pretty sure it's US history too. And in this room there's this bookshelf that has books by Ayn Rand. Uh, and, if you're not familiar with who Ayn Rand is, she is a. Is it Ayn Rand, ayn Rand? I'm probably saying it wrong.
Speaker 1:Most people know that book. What's the book?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's, atlas Shrugged is her most famous book and she escaped, fled the Soviet Union, communist Russia and came to the US in like the 50s and wrote this book called Atlas Shrugged, which is a fictional look into the future, as if the US was going the way of Soviet Russia and where the government was taking over all of industry. And she just lays out the society and what happens in the society. And man reading that like six, five, four, three years ago I don't remember how long ago it was, it wasn't that long ago and now seeing what's going on in the world has been really eye-opening.
Speaker 2:It's really good I really enjoyed it and I feel like more people should be reading it. So when I see this bookshelf of a bunch of Ayn Rand books, I'm like who is this guy teaching US history and the Constitution? Because those things tie together, like our Constitution and the history of the US, it's important to know. And now he's tying in at Ayn Rand. I'm like I want to meet this guy. So then I just that piqued my interest with the rest of the books on the bookshelf and I've also been really interested in history as well.
Speaker 2:So when I saw this book the Great Wave, and it talks about price revolutions and also like what's going on in our world right now with we're in a price revolution right now, with the way inflation is going and I think we really the narrative is it's kind of local in the US, but that's not true Like globally we're in a global price revolution, and so I was fascinated with it and it goes all the way back to like the 10th and 11th, 12th century, talking about the cycles and rhythms of history, and oh man, it's good, it's really good. I've just been eating up history. So that's what I'm reading and anytime now when I pick up a book and it captures my interest that much where I just keep coming back. It stays by my bedside. I'm plugging through it because you know I don't get a lot to read. I get like 30 minutes here yeah 20 minutes there.
Speaker 2:That's one I'm reading, so if you're not into it, it's probably it's more very textbook like, but it's great yeah it was written in 1999.
Speaker 2:That was the even better part that I was like oh yeah, I gotta read this because it was for before the dot further back. It's like somebody's take on history. That's a part of our history, yeah, you know. Yeah, it would be like a historian in the late 1800s writing about the Civil War or the Revolutionary War, like what was the narrative then and what did they come across. I think that's important.
Speaker 1:Sorry, wake up. All right, I just couldn't especially, you read it right before bed and it's like I don't know how you do that. I have decided that I think right before bed.
Speaker 2:Well, you know how I read right before bed, it's like I get like 10 minutes, morgan gets like 10 seconds.
Speaker 1:And it's just like two sentences in my head. I'm out, so I can't imagine reading something like that before bed.
Speaker 2:I don't necessarily recommend it.
Speaker 1:I don't know how much I'm actually taking in but it's like the only time I have, so I do it. Yeah, I've decided I need fiction in my life at especially. So I think in the morning when I wake up reading, you know, I usually read some in the bible and then I read like, like if we're doing a study with our small group, we're reading through james, so I'll read some of that. And then then if there's any kind of book on the body that I want to read or a book about retaining knowledge.
Speaker 1:I need to do it in the morning, highlighting all that, and then at night I feel like if I want to read it, it should be fiction, so it's just enjoyable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good fiction book is good. Yeah, you just got to find the right ones. Just gotta find the right ones.
Speaker 1:True, for the right season, for the right season yeah, so read any fiction earlier this summer I did a book club and read fantasties by george mcdonald. Fantasies or fantasties, fantasties with a P-H Mm-hmm, how was that? So it was really good. It was different. Well, it was written. So he influenced CS Lewis. So it was written a long time ago and I had the annotated version. So, like a lot of things he would say, I would have to go to the footnote and to understand the full history of what he was talking about, you know. So that was really helpful. I don't think I would have understood nearly as much if I didn't have the annotated version um, that's cool that he influenced cs lewis yeah I'm always trying to tell Wendell who's into music.
Speaker 2:I want to introduce him to the folks that influenced the people that are making music today.
Speaker 1:Right, like you were talking about, Because don't we have an album by Stevie Ray Vaughan?
Speaker 2:We do, yeah, and he's influenced so many artists that have become very popular since his time that I listened to, but I just like think that's important you know, if you're into music, to know the roots of where some you know your music comes from yeah so it's the same with literature. I think that's that's good yeah, so he.
Speaker 1:So it was a fairy tale and you know it's like it can seem disjointed, like you know. Oh, and you can tell with him, with George McDonald, that Pilgrim's Progress really influenced him, pilgrim's progress really influenced him, and so, you know, it can seem like, okay, this character is going on adventure and there's all these disjointed people that he meets and places that he goes. But actually there's a whole lot more depth to it than you realize and so many life lessons out of a fairy tale. Like I said for the newsletter, I said, uh, you know it's typically I like to focus on reading for information or improving life or to dive deep into a specific topic, but a fairy tale does something different. On the inside, it's almost like you're gaining knowledge, seeing beauty and learning the deeper truths of life and having fun all at the same time. Wow. So I love that. Yeah, and doing it in a book club where you know you're going to be discussing it with people.
Speaker 2:A little bit of accountability.
Speaker 1:Yes, and hearing all the depth that other people got out of it.
Speaker 1:You're like, whoa, okay, yeah, yeah, that's good. I'm not really reading anything else right now. So, um, I'm not really reading anything else right now. I'm actually I'll. I'm reading the gentle ways of a beautiful woman by Ann Ortlund and a lot of things in it are really dated, but there's also a lot of really good nuggets. She encourages me in being a mom and a wife and just kind of like buckle in your bootstraps for everyday mom life, and she talks a lot about order.
Speaker 2:She's very I like this lady.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know she's very practical in this book but keeps the most important things first. 'll give a couple quotes for the newsletter to you in it, but well, now's a great time for a plug for the newsletter if you're not subscribed to the common.
Speaker 2:You should check it out. It's on substack, a common life dot substackcom, and uh, it's usually me who writes the newsletter weekly and we talk about all kinds of things that are going on and every month we send out a seasonal guide of what to look for coming up in the next month and what's going on in our garden, and I've really enjoyed writing it.
Speaker 1:It's been really good a lot of people enjoy reading it and I'm so happy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that makes me really really glad. So if you're one of the listeners out there that is also a reader, we really appreciate you. And if you're only a listener and that's your jam, we appreciate you too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if you know someone who would rather read than listen, send them the Substack. Know someone who would?
Speaker 2:rather read than listen. Send them the Substack.
Speaker 1:Yeah and Substack, there's ways to integrate both of them, but that's something else for another day.
Speaker 2:Okay, Well until next time, happy gardening, thank you, thank you.