We kick things off with some Christmas mishaps from listeners like you! From kitchen fires to memorable last Christmases with loved ones, you all have seen your fair share of chaos and humor and we have a blast sharing in those experiences this week! We walk through our differing experiences of our house being struck by lightning and have some extended chats about one of Greg's articles this week.
Greg's Reads of the Week
- Ex-IBM CEO: Here's the No. 1 thing my mom did to raise four highly successful executives
- Americans are upset about surviving a pandemic and paying for the privilege: 'They want these prices to be back where they were'
- Recognizing fake news: Media literacy now required subject in California schools
- RENCO USA to Build LEGO-Like Buildings in Florida - Contractor Supply Magazine
- Burnout coach shares tips for better work-life balance
Join us for an episode filled with humor, warmth, memories, and valuable life lessons. We thank you for being a part of our journey and for lending us your ears!
If you've got a voicemail or want our (likely unqualified) advice on something, hit us up at the Speakpipe link below!
http://www.speakpipe.com/oversharingwiththeoverbys
If you'd like to email us you can reach the pod at oversharing@jojohnsonoverby.com!
CONNECT:
TikTok: @jojohnsonoverby / @matt.overby
Instagram: @jojohnsonoverby / @matt.overby
Website: https://jojohnsonoverby.com/
Watch the Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL29Si0ylWz2qj5t6hYHSCxYkvZCDGejGq
We kick things off with some Christmas mishaps from listeners like you! From kitchen fires to memorable last Christmases with loved ones, you all have seen your fair share of chaos and humor and we have a blast sharing in those experiences this week! We walk through our differing experiences of our house being struck by lightning and have some extended chats about one of Greg's articles this week.
Greg's Reads of the Week
- Ex-IBM CEO: Here's the No. 1 thing my mom did to raise four highly successful executives
- Americans are upset about surviving a pandemic and paying for the privilege: 'They want these prices to be back where they were'
- Recognizing fake news: Media literacy now required subject in California schools
- RENCO USA to Build LEGO-Like Buildings in Florida - Contractor Supply Magazine
- Burnout coach shares tips for better work-life balance
Join us for an episode filled with humor, warmth, memories, and valuable life lessons. We thank you for being a part of our journey and for lending us your ears!
If you've got a voicemail or want our (likely unqualified) advice on something, hit us up at the Speakpipe link below!
http://www.speakpipe.com/oversharingwiththeoverbys
If you'd like to email us you can reach the pod at oversharing@jojohnsonoverby.com!
CONNECT:
TikTok: @jojohnsonoverby / @matt.overby
Instagram: @jojohnsonoverby / @matt.overby
Website: https://jojohnsonoverby.com/
Watch the Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL29Si0ylWz2qj5t6hYHSCxYkvZCDGejGq
Welcome to Oversharing with Overbys. I'm Jo.
Matt:And I'm Matt.
Jo:And each week you can tune in to hear us respond to your voicemails, go in-depth on our lives as content creators and hopefully leave you feeling even better than we found you.
Matt:With that being said, let's get to Oversharing.
Jo:We'll listen to this. Asmr Was that good? I feel like that wasn't that good.
Matt:Uh, no, that was solid.
Jo:Um bop um bop. Bop um bop um bop, um bop um bop.
Matt:Take it, we're not starting.
Jo:Um bop, um bop, um bop, um bop, um bop, um bop. Why not? Oh, I don't know. You don't think people want to hear a full rendition of um bop from me?
Matt:Uh, I guess it's going to happen to you. I don't know anything beyond that.
Jo:I think they definitely don't. I loved Hanson.
Matt:Yeah.
Jo:That's the only song.
Matt:I know by then I was about to say one other song. Can't name one One other song, OK.
Jo:Can't name one. I don't know that anyone else can either, but I didn't need another song, that was all I needed. I went on a really deep dive of Hozier, hozier, hozier how do I say it?
Matt:I think it's Hozier. Hozier, you're making me question it though. No, sorry, hozier, I was I don't know.
Jo:I didn't want to be wrong. Well, I knew I was going to be wrong, but I'd rather be confidently wrong. Well, no.
Matt:I wouldn't Try again.
Jo:I'd rather just say it and have somebody correct me, ok, which is the opposite of confidently wrong, I think. No, no, no, or is it you were?
Matt:I'm confident enough that it's.
Jo:OK, that I'm wrong.
Matt:Yeah, you're not upset by it, but you just. No, you were definitely. You were pretty sure you were wrong and you just walked right in. But I like to take a stab, Thinking you were wrong Anyway.
Jo:I went on a deep dive of him today. He's fascinating.
Matt:Tell us more.
Jo:Well, his music just makes you feel things you know.
Matt:Well, it does sure. His first album came out when. When was it? I don't know 14. I was going to say I thought it was in the high school. College, yeah, tail into college, yeah, because I feel like Matt forgets how old he is. Yeah, I really do. I'm 25 forever, that's just a fact.
Jo:Do you think that that was like a peak for you? Not the peak, just a peak.
Matt:I don't think it. I don't, that's a tough question. Like I don't think it was a peak for me, but it was kind of the last birthday where I was like, oh, the age you're changing is significantly different than the last one. Like I think, incrementally, 20 to 25 is a bigger jump, like 25 to 30, that's, there's some big changes for sure.
Jo:But 20 to 25 is like, yeah, a way to. I hear what you're saying, I've never thought about it like that.
Matt:And then like past that I was like I don't really care what my birthday is, I don't care if I turn 26 or 27 or 28.
Jo:30 is really not that different until 50,.
Matt:I feel like yeah, like it all looks better comparatively looking back.
Jo:Well, Like you're, you know, but what I was saying is like if I meet somebody I'm 30 right now, sure, and if I meet somebody anywhere in their 30s or 40s, I'm like peer.
Matt:Sure.
Jo:Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.
Matt:Whereas if I meet somebody in their 50s, I probably wouldn't have said that as much about 40s until I've gotten to know more people in their 40s.
Jo:Yeah.
Matt:And it's like, oh okay, well, yeah, we are peers 100%.
Jo:Just there's that here. Vivan, yeah, doing that 40s thing. Yep, the 40s look like fun. Some of them are younger than us.
Matt:Some of them are much older than us, like metaphorically, not, or like. Yeah, I was waiting for you to describe it, because if all they heard was what you just said yeah, no, like that math doesn't work, but mentally it does. Yeah, I hear what you're saying.
Jo:Yeah, matt has some friends that are in their 40s, that are just Vivan.
Matt:I work out with a friend of mine who's in his 40s.
Jo:Looks like he's about 31.
Matt:Yeah, and like a good 31. Yeah, he's in pretty ridiculous shape, and that's why he's in charge of making me work out. Yeah.
Jo:I have somebody in charge of me working out now. Yeah, yep, she's not in her 40s.
Matt:No she is not yeah.
Jo:But she is also mega hot and absolutely kicking my butt. Yeah, that's good. That's good for you.
Matt:Did you share or replace my cuties hat? Not replaced it, but I've been cleaning out the office and I found a minty, fresh, clean, a minty cuties hat. I did not Cuties hat, I didn't know.
Jo:I'd been holding onto that for you. Well, I'd just been in a bag.
Matt:Yeah, I've got the mighties. Hat too, but Our absolute favorite PR package I think we've ever gotten was from Cuties.
Jo:We're a big Cuties household. Yeah, we're. Cutie Stans, it's a Richardson 112 trucker hat.
Matt:I looked that up because I'm like this is one of the better hats I have. Okay, that's good to know, so it can structure your hat.
Jo:Okay, that's good to know Well. I'm glad you told me that, because when we do the late collection I can have them look into that.
Matt:What these would be.
Jo:Yeah.
Matt:Yeah.
Jo:Okay, good to know we're big Cuties. Fans, Yep, love it and the brand, whoever runs their marketing or social, whoever does their gifting fabulous.
Matt:They've done some. Yeah, that's who shipped 60 pounds of oranges to us.
Jo:Yeah, we got to. We donated a bunch of Cuties to yeah.
Matt:Local places. We donated some of them and then just any friends and family that came by. We were like five pounds of Cuties. You want some Cuties? Five pounds of Cuties for you.
Jo:Well, yeah, we couldn't get through 60 pounds fast enough.
Matt:No, no, and it's not like some other PR that you can just wait for somebody to come by and get. It's like we got a couple of weeks till these things are shot.
Jo:We really? What I will say is we really don't get that much PR. No, we're not a PR household, so anytime something comes, it's very exciting yeah.
Matt:It is pretty good.
Jo:G gets really excited to open boxes now.
Matt:She just loves to open a box. Doesn't have to be fair, no, that doesn't have.
Jo:yeah, she just wants to help open the box. She's into the scissors.
Matt:Yeah yeah, that's been tricky figuring out how to let our kid handle scissors. We should probably get children's scissors, like with the tip covered.
Jo:No, they make like the rounded ones.
Matt:You like the end.
Jo:It's not covered.
Matt:I would just meant like it wasn't sharp.
Jo:Okay.
Matt:They do make ones, I guess, with the tips like, Probably Like dipped. Covered. Yeah, I feel like they have like a ball on the. I don't know, it doesn't matter, not important. I sound sick, you do sound sick, I sound bad, I agree.
Jo:So our household, our whole household, went down for the count and Matt should be resting.
Matt:I think we've been varying degrees of sick for the last couple of weeks.
Jo:Yeah.
Matt:We've just somebody's been really sick and somebody else's felt pretty decent, and then we've kind of just passed that all around For sure, and we're all riding different highs and lows Tis the season. I feel okay, but my nose is incapacitated.
Jo:Yeah.
Matt:It's either incapacitated or just flowing freely. Neither one is enjoyable.
Jo:No, that's miserable.
Matt:So, but I sound extra bassy today.
Jo:Yeah. Well we can keep the podcast nice and quick today, but we're doing emails.
Matt:I thought Doing emails, yeah, is that the?
Jo:point, we asked people to send us their holidays.
Matt:Oh, we did, we did.
Jo:Horror stories or they're great stories.
Matt:Yes.
Jo:And I assumed because Matt came this episode. You guys all prepared with everything in a spreadsheet and I made the wrong assumption that he remembered.
Matt:Okay, okay.
Jo:Sorry, did nobody email us.
Matt:No, we have some. I was gonna say that'd be, that'd be. Well, that would be fine, that would be embarrassing.
Jo:All right, our first Christmas mishab. Last Christmas I spent the day with my family and then went over to my boyfriend James' family in the evening around 8 pm, so their gathering had already been underway for several hours by the time I got there, since we'd been dating for a year. At that point I was very comfortable with his immediate family and I wasn't too worried about not knowing anyone. But this Christmas was at his great grandmother's house and all of his extended aunts and uncles were there. I'm an introvert, so I called him to bring me inside so I would not be lost. But as soon as I came inside, james vanished and I was left to fend for myself.
Jo:All of a sudden his drunk grandma takes me by the arm and starts introducing me to the 30 people who were there. This was so awkward for both me and the other people in the room. But after that I found James and all was well Until I came upstairs and his poor great grandma with dementia was constantly asking who I was. I came around the corner and his grandma once again grabbed me by the arm and said I didn't see you. Come in. Let me introduce you to everyone, even though she saw me and introduced me 20 minutes ago. It was terrifying because I'm a quiet person and was lost among 30 people who were there, and it was especially strange and chaotic that I was being shown to every single person, especially since I normally keep to myself, that's hilarious, I don't know.
Matt:I think she was kind of doing you a solid. I know she kept you busy. Yeah, yeah, you were getting re-introed. Everyone got to know you and it wasn't really on you. Everybody was like, well, that's grandma, she's not really with it, so I don't think it reflected on you. So, telling this story secondhand, I think it worked out all right. Yeah, I think so too.
Jo:Okay, here we go. It was Christmas six years ago and my whole extended family was together. It was the vibe of a lot of people in one space, a makeshift table composed of many smaller ones that extended into the living room, chaotic, but great. My grandma had cancer and passed away about three weeks after this. I include this to say that we knew it was the last Christmas with her and the last time the whole family would be together. We were having a great time, but we all definitely had that somber overhang in the back of our minds and were stressed, with so many people around trying to make it the perfect Christmas.
Jo:We were all in the living room, around the corner from the kitchen, when we suddenly started smelling something burning. My dad went in to check it out and the oven was on fire Like he opened the oven door and there were immediately flames pouring out. The three men in their late 40s and early 50s ran in and started filling pots of water to throw on it. I ran in yelling to throw baking soda on it, not water, which is what you're supposed to do with an oven fire the mix of being stressed out and then having a fire and the fact that I was a 15-year-old girl that yelled back that water was fine. Disclaimer my dad and uncles are amazing people. It was a moment of stress and fight or flight. They didn't think they shouldn't listen because I was a girl and didn't know. It was an instinct response. They proceeded to throw water on it. It exploded and I scrambled in the cabinet looking for baking soda. We used that and it went out and everything was fine. Thankfully we were preheating the oven and something that had spoiled or had spilled earlier caught fire. So even though the oven was pretty charred, none of our food was ruined. You know priorities.
Jo:The house was so smoky and smelled awful so we spent the next hour with all the windows and doors open trying to air it out. But it was Christmas in Missouri, with fresh snow and very cold temperatures, so we were also real cold for a while. It was chaos and ended up making us all laugh for the rest of the day Honestly made us relax more. It kind of broke us out of the stress of trying to make a perfect last Christmas and was quite a memorable holiday. My favorite joke is that the teenage girl knew better than the adult men, and I will never stop making fun of them about it and it still comes up every Christmas, thanksgiving and all year long makes us laugh every time. That's my favorite part about stuff like this, yeah.
Matt:It's kind of a nice breaker for the holiday. Always it's like, oh okay, well, that went really really badly. So anything that goes minorly badly from here on out, that's fine.
Jo:Yeah.
Matt:Really smooths the waters.
Jo:I agree. Do you want to try and read one?
Matt:Sure, okay, sure, let's see if I can read.
Jo:All right.
Matt:All right, hi Joan. Matt, you said you wanted funny slash, dramatic holiday mishaps, and boy do I have one for you. So me and my fiance, we're getting married in March 2024, got engaged in December of 22. To give some context, a week before my fiance proposed, my mom told me I shouldn't marry him, so we didn't exactly have a lot of support going into this.
Jo:Oh boy.
Matt:His family is super supportive and wonderful and mine has since come around, but it was a tumultuous time. Christmas 2022 was the first Christmas me and my fiance spent together, involved my future in-laws coming to my mom's house and the five of us doing Christmas together. Over the weekend of us all being together, several other things happened that made us all very glad for the large amounts of alcohol my mother-in-law had brought with her. Our families don't really drink a lot at the holidays, so I forget that people get slammed yeah, pretty drunk on the holidays. On Christmas day, she and I ended up splitting a whole bottle of strawberry margarita mix that big frosted bottle with the green lid and then with dinner we all drank blueberry wine mixed with my mother-in-law's homemade lemon cello. Because all of the drinking and heavy food, my mother-in-law spent the evening throwing up in my mom's bathroom, much to my mom's displeasure. That's not great.
Matt:No, been there not not the whole day, but my mom was not at all empathetic to my mother-in-law not feeling well and just made me and my fiance clean the whole bathroom when they went back to the hotel. This incident then launched a whole host of other issues later that have mostly been resolved, but it was definitely a Christmas to remember. That's bad, except probably for your mother-in-law, yeah.
Jo:Probably a little hazy for her.
Matt:That's bad. Or maybe it's not I hope for her sake it is.
Jo:I can't imagine that happening, like I can't fathom. Well, it would be you.
Matt:It'd be me.
Jo:Well, no, I'm thinking about like our parents, I don't think I've ever seen. Oh yeah, I've seen my dad drunk maybe twice in my entire life.
Matt:The beer fest is the only time.
Jo:I was going to say once and that was the only thing I was thinking of, but honestly I would say that's the only time I can think of ever.
Matt:Yeah the beer fest, maybe once at the lake.
Jo:I can't even think of a time at the lake.
Matt:We're playing games.
Jo:My entire life. So yeah, maybe twice. I've never seen my mom drunk. I've never seen your, that's true. I've seen your mom.
Matt:With some drinks.
Jo:With some drinks, but never.
Matt:Not never too. And she wasn't. She wasn't going to throw up all over the bathroom, that's for sure.
Jo:No, no, definitely not. Yeah, I like I just can't fathom. No, no, I do know that Matt got so sick one time, like years ago this was almost 10 years ago that my mom was like concerned for your safety. Yeah, that's the only time I think I can really think of anybody concerned for my safety. You were fine. I was not concerned for your. Yeah, I was okay, but.
Matt:But I just I don't know. Here's what happened. I over served myself and I hadn't eaten anything that day. The combination of the two was a bad mix.
Jo:Okay, this is so bad and hilarious.
Matt:All right.
Jo:Holiday mishap my family has to talk about every year. There was a year that Santa brought a 15 to 20 gallon fish tank to my house. Our dad wasn't aware that there's a fish to gallon ratio and put about 40 goldfish in the tank. We woke up Christmas morning to a fish tank with approximately 20 dead goldfish.
Matt:Short and sweet, but I love it. That's bad, that's yeah, that's pretty rough.
Jo:Why did he put so many? Why did he get so many goldfish?
Matt:He wanted to be full and wanted to have magic. You know.
Jo:That's a lot of goldfish he put as many goldfish as he can fit. Did you have fish growing up?
Matt:Yeah, we for a period of time. For a period of time we had fish.
Jo:I had fish for a while.
Matt:It wouldn't happen to your fish.
Jo:Old age.
Matt:Oh, they died of old age yeah.
Jo:I like, took care of them.
Matt:So it wasn't that the circulation pump backed up and drained all the water out Into your living room. That's not what happened to your fish.
Jo:Is that what happened? Yeah, that's horrible.
Matt:It wasn't a good way for them to go, but it was also not good for the floor.
Jo:Oh, that's so bad. No, my first fish's name was Dobby, and he died at the ripe old age of like four.
Matt:Okay, yeah, I didn't make it that long little neon fish.
Jo:And then I had a beta for a while. Yeah, that eventually Kicked the bucket I had very emotional. Like it was bad I had to bury them in the backyard. I went through a whole morning process for every fish that died like.
Matt:That sounds like you.
Jo:Yeah, it was.
Matt:It was a whole thing ours was not as ceremonial, for sure. Oh, it tended to be.
Jo:I and I only have had outside of fish. I've only had two pets like at home, my childhood home because we had Bailey and she died when I was 13, and then we got Cersei, who just passed away Last year. Yeah, that's crazy.
Matt:We're just doing dead pet talk now.
Jo:No, I'm just thinking about it. I'm like I Don't handle it well.
Matt:No, you don't. You don't handle animals dying at all. Yeah, very well.
Jo:I handle people dying better than I handle animals dying. You sadly, you do, that is yeah and it's not that I handle people well, I just really don't handle animals.
Matt:What's what they don't?
Jo:know what's happening.
Matt:No.
Jo:I feel so bad.
Matt:Yeah, yeah, anyway. You assign a lot of like Agency and thought to animals as well, though I do. You once hit a frog with your car. Oh, never forget and talked about its froggy family, yep, and how he was gonna miss out on his froggy education. Yeah, I, the milestones in his froggy life he was never gonna get to see, and I was like this is ridiculous, and it was probably everything I could do not to say that directly to you were really supportive.
Jo:Yeah, that was yeah that was back in the day when you were still trying to win me over. Yeah, that was I really let my crazy show, didn't I?
Matt:yeah, you weren't afraid to do that. Never have been, nope, nope. You've always let that flag fly.
Jo:Yeah.
Matt:And I was still trying to be really nice.
Jo:I can't believe you still liked me after that. I can't believe that. Yeah, I liked you there was something endearing about it.
Matt:Then not about that. Oh, I don't think. Oh, you know, I liked you in general. That wasn't enough to stop me from liking you.
Jo:Oh, okay, okay, Ouch.
Matt:Ouch we're putting a lot of, a lot of weight on this act. This had much the impact.
Jo:My now husband's family is a live tree family. They go cut down a tree every year and everything.
Matt:I grew his waltz family thing.
Jo:Yeah, you didn't grow up with a tree. No, that's a fun fact about Matt, his family. He doesn't believe in Christmas trees.
Matt:Nope, it's a pagan tradition.
Jo:Yeah, wild, that's so like that's crazy. Yeah, okay, I Grew up with an artificial tree. Every year, our first Christmas together I told him I wanted to join. He asked if I was sure, because it's a whole day affair. I said, of course, in that day I think we hit four farms before landing on the tree. I don't know what makes the tree perfect. After looking at 7,000 of them, they all look the same. The following year we had purchased our first home and I was so excited to get our tree. It took three farms and another full day driving 45 minutes one way to go, an hour and a half the other. We get home, decorate the tree, get the lights on and it's time for the tree topper. I should mention my father-in-law has a history of buying trees that are far too large for their living room.
Matt:This truly is like the griswold tree. This is great.
Jo:My husband is an air inherited this trait, so we realize we have to cut a bit off the top. I'm on a step stool, my husband's reaching up with the clippers. I see the blades right on the lights. I yelled don't cut the lights, go out. So we drive to Walmart and grab new lights. The lights are cool. The lights I had all over the rest of the tree were warm, so we had to go back again. I will laugh about this whole situation, for the rest of our Christmas is together. It truly felt like a sitcom moment. This is our first Christmas married and we have a baby on the way, so I'm sure we'll have many more with miss habs to come over the next several years. Oh man, that's cute.
Matt:That's so funny. They have treat as Morphea. Yeah they don't comprehend how big a tree is.
Jo:Yeah.
Matt:I can see that happening when you're out there Just like in the open air and you're like that one doesn't look big enough, but then you get it into like an eight foot ceiling area and you're like, oh no, I.
Jo:Think I'd be pretty good at that. That's, yeah, I think. I think I'm fine.
Matt:But I can see how it happens to people that it's like when you go look at TVs at Sam's Club. Oh, I cost a hundred percent and you're like is 85 inches, even that big? And Then if you took that into your house, you'd be like oh, there's no more wall left, got it? Yeah, it's a very similar concept, I think, for sure open air space, trying to gauge what will fit in your house next to a bunch of other trees.
Jo:Yes, and large trees. Yeah, you're like that one's good, that was bigger think that we can grasp how large the trees outside are. Do you know what I mean?
Matt:outside of where just our house. Just like a rounder house.
Jo:Yeah, like the maple out there like it's very, very very 70 feet tall.
Matt:Yeah, I don't think about it often, but I guess so like it's massive. Yeah, yeah, it is really big, like the one that got hit by lightning, is probably 40 50 feet eating 50 somewhere in there? Yeah, maybe not now.
Jo:We haven't told that story yet.
Matt:I was gonna say did we was that. No no, that was post post our last podcast guys.
Jo:Uh wait, do you want to tell the story from your perspective first?
Matt:Sure, yeah, yeah. So last Thursday I was working out and I was working out with my buddy across the road. So just, I Don't know quarter mile from our house. If I leave it 5, 59, I can get there at 6 o'clock.
Jo:It's not even a quarter. Well, maybe sure straight.
Matt:So anyway, I'm working out there, finish up the workout, it's kind of raining outside and we open the garage up and I See a bolt. The lightning hit and it was Roughly. I thought it was a little bit further north of where our house was, but I joked, I was like, wow, that was pretty close. I wonder if that hit my house. It was like I had no big deal. Anyway, I finished getting ready or finishing up the workout and then Get in the car head home, only to find out One night get in the door, our kids yelling about fire. You're on the phone with the guy I work out with, like trying to find out where I am. And again, this is like two minutes Before, like this is right when I normally come home.
Matt:It all happened within a few minutes, all of these things and normally you would not be like where is he if I was even 20 minutes. No so the fact you were already on the phone, I was like okay, something was happened like it wasn't about the time. No, no, no. So clearly something urgent had happened, and so that's when I found out that a I had left his phone at home. Oh, yeah, that too I'd forgotten that.
Jo:I wouldn't have called your friend. You know if I had my phone, I called your phone first and it just buzzed on the kitchen counter.
Matt:Yeah, yeah, I wonder. I actually sat there for a little bit looking in the car, thinking I might have left in the car so I would have been home on time had I Not left my phone. Okay, so fun fact. But turns out lightning hit the head, hit the tree right in front of our house.
Jo:It's in our front garden bed. Yeah, it's so. It is literally like it is. How many feet? Three feet from the foundation.
Matt:Yes, yeah, if it's not gonna hit your house. Hitting a tree two feet away from your house Still pretty bad.
Jo:Yeah so.
Jo:I was home alone with the kids, yeah, and I had just gotten our down for the night and it was like a pretty decent storm, like thunder, lightning, all that kind of jazz, and Jean and I were cuddling up, we were going to watch a show before she went night night and all of a sudden it felt like the house exploded. All the lights turned off and there were sparks. I keep saying there was fire outside, there wasn't fire. A bunch of the electrical outside arc and like sparks were thrown all over our front porch, which I could see through the windows, and our the TV stopped working, the internet went out, the everything was like powering back on.
Matt:So like the whole house is like so, the, so, the okay, duh, duh, Duh.
Jo:Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh.
Matt:Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh.
Jo:Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh.
Matt:Duh.
Jo:Duh, um, it was so bizarre and G scared the ever loving but Jesus out of her. I mean me too, um, but she was like my daddy, my daddy, um, and I. I said, yeah, he's going to be home soon and she was upset. It woke, uh, the baby up, because the trees just outside.
Matt:Uh, yeah, it had to be pretty loud cause it was it was on their side. Pretty loud, yeah, far away.
Jo:And uh so, and it took a big old dent in our gutters and yeah it.
Matt:It knocked a pretty good chunk of the tree off, uh, and that hit the roof on the way down. I guess that probably is what woke up our, our son.
Jo:Yeah, the arcing with the sparks, that's what scared me. Yeah, that's what caused me to call you. Nothing else really concerned me. I was like the internet will come back on whatever.
Matt:It was the sparks that shot out of that, and we didn't know if the house had been hit directly.
Jo:Right At the time I thought that it had hit the house yeah.
Matt:Which it's usually worse when it directly hits your house, because there is a possibility of Attic fire. Yeah, fire somewhere where you were hit.
Jo:And that was my big concern. So I immediately called Matt because I was like I was trying to look around and trying to see if anything was on fire. If, like, cause it was, it was bad. Yeah, it was really, really scary, but I didn't hear. Uh, multiple neighbors texted us and the next day not the day of uh to check in because our tree had been blown apart and there were pieces of the tree, like in neighbors, like we're on three acres, yeah, and it threw pieces of the tree far enough that it was in our neighbors, like driveways and yards, yeah, uh, and they don't have the, that species of tree. And so they, they knew it was ours or there are a couple of them, like across the way, and they saw that our tree was half down.
Matt:Yeah, they saw that just a large piece of it was sitting in front of our tree.
Jo:Yeah, Uh, but it knocked out things in our neighbors homes too.
Matt:Yeah. So uh turns out lightning is like pretty wild and so, uh, people always talk about surge protectors and stuff, but if you get directly hit by lightning there's not really anything you can do. Uh, there's very little to actually protect stuff against lightning. So it hit our house and it knocked out the thermostats for the the radiant floor, it traveled through the ethernet and knocked out the router and knocked out my PlayStation and knocked out a couple of network switches. Is that it?
Matt:through protectors too Right Some of the stuff was on protect. But the thing is, once it goes through your ethernet, like once it goes through the the internet cables in your wall, it's not protected by that kind of stuff, got it? If it was going through the actual wiring of the house then it would see surge protectors. Even still, when you have the voltage that you have with lightning, surge protector won't protect you If, like, it doesn't want to the the. The voltage you get with lightning is not a power surge, it's like off the charts.
Jo:Got it.
Matt:Surge. So most of the time they're like we ensure you know however many thousands of dollars against surges, unless it's lightning. And then if it's lightning, they're like we can't, nobody, you can't stop lightning, it's not, it's not a real thing.
Jo:That's funny, see, I didn't know.
Matt:You can divert lightning. That's really your only hope is like a lightning protection system that reroutes it around your house.
Jo:Okay. You can't like but now I feel like we don't need that. That's one of the chances that we get hit again.
Matt:We should probably take that tree out of the front, yeah, otherwise the chet. The chances might still be pretty decent, but yeah, yeah.
Jo:Yeah, we had to have the tree. People are coming to take the tree down. I think yeah, so.
Matt:I was. I was kind of bummed once I found out everything was okay and like everybody was safe and that I wasn't home.
Jo:I know I wanted to.
Matt:I wanted to experience our house getting hit by lightning.
Jo:It was very fast. A lot happened all at once but I don't.
Matt:I'll probably never get to see that again.
Jo:It was crazy.
Matt:I don't want to like lose half the stuff I did, but yeah it would be cool to see.
Jo:Yeah, but it knocked out the TV on mom and dad's side, but that knocked out just the little streaming, uh dongle.
Matt:Got it, the TV's okay. Okay, we thought the TV had been killed, but the TV was okay. That's the other thing I got. Yeah, I got the little Google TV hooked into the TV. It's funny.
Jo:We're like discovering things, oh yeah.
Matt:You're walking through like a week later and you're like oh, but I guess that lights dead.
Jo:It fried weird things because, like, it didn't fry the garage door opener but it fried the sensors for the garage door to close.
Matt:Yeah, yeah, some of that makes sense to me.
Jo:So you have to manually close the garage now.
Matt:Yep, yep, we're back to just lifting it by hand.
Jo:Which is fine. Yeah, we'll get it fixed. Anyway, it was a whole process.
Matt:Uh-huh, yeah, so lightning, it's scary. It really is. It's magical.
Jo:It really is. Yeah, I wonder I have so many questions about lightning.
Matt:All right, and about like what?
Jo:no, I'm just thinking to myself what it used to be like when people didn't have electricity like they do now.
Matt:Like before electricity.
Jo:Yeah.
Matt:Well, you were just worried about the fire. I think Right, or being directly hit, right yeah.
Jo:But do you think they saw that and were like that's what is that?
Matt:What Are you talking about? Like cave people? That's crazy. How far back are you talking?
Jo:I don't know.
Matt:Like if they had language they probably could understand. Like, oh, it's lightning.
Jo:No, I know Like Ben Franklin and his kite and the key and whatever, but do you think they understood what was happening with the lightning, like why the lightning was coming?
Matt:out of the sky. What year is it? I don't know.
Jo:Like way back when.
Matt:How way back Cave people, cave people, no, cave people didn't understand squat.
Jo:That's crazy.
Matt:No, like we needed science, like it was like the 1800s, 1900s, before people were really In like the 1400s.
Jo:It wasn't cave people.
Matt:No, I get that.
Jo:So do you think they were terrified of you said?
Matt:cave people. They were probably worried about lightning. Yeah, granted, they lived in like castles and stuff, some of them.
Jo:I know that's why I have so many questions.
Matt:Yeah Well, those would have been probably fine. Okay, it's tough to conduct a big hunk of rock.
Jo:Well, on that note, but they were tall Greg's reads of the week. Greg, greg, greg.
Matt:I got you dad. He reads a lot of news. He sends some of that news to us and then sometimes you read it, sometimes we don't, but we always rate how much anxiety it gives us on this podcast Just based on the article titles. Of course Sometimes we'll talk about the actual articles, but rarely.
Jo:Sometimes. Matt made notes from one of the articles because he's so excited to talk about it, I did so.
Matt:One of the articles made me laugh, and then I saw the list and it made me laugh even more.
Jo:All right, go ahead Article number one X IBM CEO.
Matt:Here's the number one thing my mom did to raise four highly successful executives.
Jo:Two out of five yeah.
Matt:Yeah, two out of five it doesn't give me too much.
Jo:I'm happy that mom has so much confidence that she thinks it was her yeah. I'm glad she has a happy, healthy family.
Matt:Well, I think, yeah, yeah, this is actually one of the kids, though Pretty sure, because it says my mom did to raise four highly oh. Highly successful executives.
Jo:Well, that makes it even better. I'm still happy for him, yeah.
Matt:Yeah, I didn't read it.
Jo:No anxiety.
Matt:Yeah, ok. Americans are upset about surviving a pandemic and paying for the privilege. They want these prices to be back where they were.
Jo:Gosh dang it. Americans, you should be appreciative for being alive, surviving yeah.
Matt:Yeah.
Jo:That gives me no anxiety, but it does irritate me.
Matt:You know? What's funny is Americans have had some of the least inflation of any country. Yeah yeah, we've managed our inflation better than most places.
Jo:Really, where'd you read that? Tell me more.
Matt:Europe has much higher inflation than us.
Jo:OK, that's not most places.
Matt:Europe is a lot of places.
Jo:I didn't say it wasn't a lot, most OK.
Matt:Globally we have very low inflation compared to. Fascinating Most countries. So what you're?
Jo:saying is everybody's dying.
Matt:Well, everybody is experiencing inflation.
Jo:Yes, ok.
Matt:It's an inflationary period, Anyway. Next article Wait, how much anxiety.
Jo:None.
Matt:None, not at all.
Jo:No, not really. I think I'm just having a chill day, you're having a chill day.
Matt:Yeah, Can't be phased. Yeah, maybe a one, maybe a two.
Jo:OK.
Matt:Recognizing fake news Media literacy now required subject in California schools.
Jo:Thank goodness. Yeah, it probably should be everywhere. Zero out of five. I'm no anxiety, but really glad they're doing that.
Matt:Yeah, it doesn't give me anxiety, but it is like, oh yeah, we should probably be doing that.
Jo:You were taught how to find reliable sources in school right.
Matt:I mean, I guess so More in a research capacity though.
Jo:But how is it any different?
Matt:I think it's much more unlike.
Jo:No, no, no.
Matt:No.
Jo:I'm not talking about their course. I'm not saying that.
Matt:Sure.
Jo:I was saying that. Don't you feel like, if you paid attention in that class, you can use the tools you were given in order to see if an article has proper citation and like new sources?
Matt:Sure. That's what I was asking, but relying on high school kids to pay attention in class is a.
Jo:I barely, I don't know.
Matt:Okay, see yeah.
Jo:I hear you.
Matt:And how much of how much did you absorb from many of those classes?
Jo:I don't know any chemistry, so there you go.
Matt:You took some science, though I did, so, yeah, this is a focused class on just like okay, hey.
Jo:I think that's good, I'm not on news is real.
Matt:Yeah, okay, next article next article Renko, usa to build Lego like buildings in Florida. That's from contractor supply magazine wait To build what? Lego like buildings. So I looked, I looked up a little bit more about this Lego like. Lego like yes.
Jo:Okay. So, like a five out of five.
Matt:Interesting. This is what gets you going. Okay, so there's a company that is making like recycled material, like glass, fiber and plastics, and they're making them into like bricks, think kind of cinder block ish. Okay and they're gonna make buildings out of them, okay, that are rated to survive category five hurricanes. Okay and it won't waste a lot of material because it'll be like Lego instructions, like they will be color-coded, all the blocks Locked together. I don't know.
Jo:I you know what? I'm giving you a look like that's not gonna work, but actually I mean, like those are strong. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, great, just knock over like it's still like a five out of five Just because I think something about and this is probably like misogyny deeply rooted in me or something I Don't like the idea of a children's toy being compared to something that I'm expected to go inside of and stay safe, you know, okay. Okay, that's fair, and but I think that's my own, my own issue.
Matt:Yeah, no, no, no, that's. That's interesting. I love that, that's. I gave me absolutely no anxiety. I was just curious, yeah, what we were dealing with and what these bricks were made out of valid valid All right.
Jo:next one last article.
Matt:Burnout coach shares tips for better work life balance on its face.
Jo:Two out of five two out of five. Yeah, cuz it reminds me that I'm burned out Fair and it reminds me that that is not in any way a unique Experience. I think it is actually very widespread right now, I think so which makes me that's what makes me feel a little panicked.
Matt:Okay. Yeah, it didn't give me a lot of anxiety, maybe a one out of five, but there was a list and so the whole. The point of the article was basically One of the keys to treating burnout is to be boring like Reduce your decision. Fatigue is kind of what the idea is, so I'm gonna read you the list here of the boring list by sets of outfits. So they said by three, three data or Indoor sets and three outdoor sets, and so you don't choose what you're wearing.
Jo:I don't necessarily understand why you need to buy new like why can't you just make that out of the things you already have?
Matt:I think there's supposed to be the same. Okay, three redundant sets.
Jo:Okay, like you're a cartoon character, what do we know?
Matt:I'm really into that you're like, I only wear a black turtleneck and jeans.
Jo:Yeah, I don't. I think that that's not a bad. No, no, I honestly think that's how the world should operate. Is we're all like?
Matt:we Lego characters and we have our Lego outfit. You're like, I'm Lego sheriff.
Jo:Yeah, and then like if you want, you can accessorize or you can switch.
Matt:I've got my fancy hat on today, right? Sure, this is my casual hat, right, but that's it. Yes, you're identified by your clothes. Yes, not problematic at all.
Jo:Okay, you're right, I want the simplicity of the decision-making.
Matt:That's the idea. Yeah, you're coming around.
Jo:No, I understand what she's saying.
Matt:I just I don't she took a peek at the list before this and was not.
Jo:I'm not impressed. I'm not.
Matt:I've been excited to talk about this, okay.
Jo:Go ahead.
Matt:Number two create a phone focus mode. That's that.
Jo:Probably makes sense. I have one of those, yeah.
Matt:number three use paper plates and disposable cutler I hate that one so that you don't have to wash the dishes dumb. Now I understand, environmentally not the way to go horrible but the the justification in the article was you can't save the planet unless you save yourself.
Jo:Okay, but by throwing away that much trash, that gives you that you're gonna have to empty the trash more, and that's just as much work as cleaning a dish food for thought.
Matt:Food for thought.
Jo:I don't know.
Matt:I can't get on my garbage. I don't know.
Jo:Okay.
Matt:Okay, create a group chat with need to know people. No, I think that's just like a yeah, communication like, hey, these are important, things need to be done in my life.
Jo:I.
Matt:Don't hate that. I didn't understand that one, but that's cuz I don't do any of the communication in your life. Okay, okay, moving on.
Jo:Okay, show us your phone, Show us who you've texted in the last week.
Matt:Okay, I don't text yeah that seems, concerning Make a clean laundry basket as well as a dirty one, which I think is just saying, like you know how we have a dirty laundry hamper. Don't do your laundry, just throw it in a clean laundry hamper.
Jo:Matt has 68 unread texts and the only person he's texted that's not family. Oh, matt, was September. November 7th was the last time you texted somebody that wasn't family.
Matt:Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Matt:I Well, to be fair, I use a different app to communicate to some of my friends, but yeah, you do, but that's wild. It's not great Any feelings on the clean laundry hamper. So instead of doing your laundry, you just throw it in the clean basket.
Jo:No, I don't get.
Matt:I don't know if I understand that one either, but I think our problem is that sometimes we have like four clean baskets at which point, see, maybe this is why you need the matching clothes. So when all your clothes match, you just throw them in the clean basket and you know that what's in there is clean. I Don't know, I'm trying to justify this list. I don't know why I'm on the side of the list, but that's what I've been doing here.
Jo:I like I I can see how, I guess I Don't know.
Matt:Just philosophical. You're like I'm trying to get better, not do this stuff.
Jo:Well, that's. That's the thing about me. Feeling burned out is Is I? All of this stuff seems like I'm making more work for myself in the long run. Do you know what I mean? Sure and you know I'm not a good, I'm not a one cookie now, no, and this feels very one cookie now. So it doesn't make sense to me.
Matt:This is some real Matt.
Jo:Like I.
Matt:That's the clean basket. That is very much like when I live by myself how things operate. I was like, oh, that's my clean plate and fork. And well, actually it wasn't even clean. It was like, no, that's the fork and plate that I use and I just wash it before my meals so that it's clean for when I eat. Same with the pan that I would use for everything. Yeah, I had streamlined my life in many ways similar to this.
Jo:Well, that's how you do everything Like you are a very like the road, the path of least resistance. Yes, and that's just. I actually read this thing this week about trying to encourage people to really live for themselves, so like acting and caring for future you, and how much better that makes your life.
Matt:I have a tough time conceptualizing future me.
Jo:but yeah, you do. I don't know what to tell you about that, but I don't think that these burnout things for the boring list are going to help you at all. No, because I don't think your problem is burnout. I think your problem is the opposite of burnout. Yeah, I think you're bored, unburned. I think you need to.
Matt:I need to be burned.
Jo:No, that's not. I don't like that. I don't like that at all.
Matt:Add your favorite dish on food delivery apps.
Jo:That just sounds expensive.
Matt:You know what? This didn't say the most cost effective way.
Jo:No, like that sounds really expensive.
Matt:Remove the middle sheet from your bed.
Jo:And don't get me wrong, Also I don't understand what does that do.
Matt:I think it just means making your bed is now just like flipping the blanket up.
Jo:Okay, but if I don't have the middle sheet, I have to wash the comforter.
Matt:Yes, that's what I was thinking. I was like this is gross, I can't stop laughing. I was waiting for your reaction.
Jo:Okay, keep going Buy a 10 pack of identical socks. I subscribed to that.
Matt:That's a good idea, as someone who has 10,000 different socks you would feel better if you had two. You would feel better if you had 10 pairs of identical socks.
Jo:I would, that's real advice. I'm somebody who has a ton of different socks but does not wear mismatched socks.
Matt:Well, you have.
Jo:If I absolutely have to, you're right I have. I'd be lying if I said I have never worn.
Matt:Okay, okay, but you don't regularly wear mismatched socks. No Got it Not unless I'm like rushing out of the house and I cannot find You're not wearing a Tuesday and a Sunday sock.
Jo:No.
Matt:Got it Take pictures of items in the supermarket to help with your next shop. I don't know what that would do.
Jo:Well then, that would require me having to go on my phone and find the things.
Matt:That's true, I was thinking I was like who's looking through their phone for the next thing they're going to buy next. Like what did I see last time I was at the grocery store? This I'm going to need explained to me better. Maybe there's a real system to it here. Maybe it's like it helps you remember where things are.
Jo:I go back to I. Just here's the thing. I don't know that this is bad advice. I just don't think it's advice for us.
Matt:Sure, sure, sure. I mainly I thought many of these things would trigger you, so I was waiting to tell you. Buy an automatic food or a dog food bowl.
Jo:I like that our dogs get our undivided attention twice a day minimum.
Matt:Can you imagine how much our dogs wouldn't care about us if we didn't feed them their food, if they just got it automatically from the bowl?
Jo:My grandparents got one for Cersei for a while and she would walk over to it like 10 minutes because it was on a timer. So it always spent the same time. So she knew man and she would walk over. She's like it's time, baby. I'm like, and just wait for that food dispenser to go.
Matt:She'd go early yeah.
Jo:And she would just sit and wait and then it would go. She was waiting in line and she's like she loved that thing.
Matt:Our dogs would be.
Jo:They wouldn't love us anymore.
Matt:I was going to say they wouldn't. They wouldn't even look at us, no, unless we were eating.
Jo:Yeah.
Matt:Yeah, all right, what else? That's it. That's the whole list. I and do that, you'll be fixed.
Jo:You know what? I'm not an expert, so I can't really say that my opinion matters, but I just genuinely think this is not meant for us.
Matt:No, I don't think we're burned out.
Jo:I think. I don't think that's the problem.
Matt:No, I can't stop laughing, I'm just. I'm imagining proposing half of these ideas to you as, like you know what I think we need to do? Only use paper plates.
Jo:You know what and be like I hate you. That's that one would be a hard line for me. But the rest of them I think if any of the other ideas you came and you were really excited about, I would probably be like all right, you'd be excited about the clean basket of clothes, If you, if you came to me and you were like okay, so I've decided how I'm going to solve this and this is the system I'm working from. I'm going to do this for this long in order to. I'd be like sure.
Matt:You'd just be excited that I had a forward looking plan.
Jo:Exactly, that's what I mean.
Matt:But if you walked in and I was using the clean basket method, you would be like what the hell is this? There's no way that it would be an approved. And you're like it's the clean basket. I've got the dirty basket over there and the clean basket over there that way when. I get my clothes off, they go in the dirty basket and I put the all my laundry into the clean basket. For one we have too much laundry, so it would be like I don't know the clean bathtub for either one of us.
Jo:Clean bathtub, yeah, yeah. Oh, my God.
Matt:What if I just removed the middle sheet?
Jo:Do you have a word of the week?
Matt:this week, the word of the week, I think, the word of the year was released this year. I was going to see what that was.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Matt:It's probably going to be something silly. I feel like it always is Yep Word of the year. Oxford's word of the year is Riz.
Jo:I love that.
Matt:Yeah.
Jo:Yeah.
Matt:Should we see how they define it?
Jo:Yeah, okay, I can say Riz. I can spell Riz Got it.
Matt:I mean, yeah, because the previous winners were Goblin Mode.
Jo:Goblin Mode was good. Matt used that today actually.
Matt:But that's because of the word of the year. But that's two words. That's what I don't get.
Jo:Okay, define Riz.
Matt:Current word of the year is Riz. I mean it's short for Charisma for those who people don't know.
Jo:I actually don't know that I had put that together.
Matt:Riz, it's a noun Style, charm or attractiveness, the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner.
Jo:I got none. I just cry over dead frogs.
Matt:Yeah, that's not the most Rizmost Riz-y thing you can do.
Jo:No, all right, voice Mills, we only have I believe we only have a voicemail from one person. Okay, but there are two of them, so I don't know if they, I don't know. Are you ready? Sure, hi guys.
Speaker 3:I just got done listening to your holiday traditions and so I'm in a long-term relationship and we're working on like establishing what our traditions are. You know what's important to us, what's our priorities and everything we move every year. So, like I definitely understand the feeling of like gotta be an adult. We have to be the people and we don't I mean we don't have kids, we have a lot of kids in our lives and we're like, ooh, we better get some crap together here, just like to be those people.
Speaker 3:But also the biggest thing that I wanted to really comment on is you guys are always so sweet to each other, even when you're like kind of binkering I guess, if you're this hard, like you're not having a fight on the pod, but like y'all are, you know, trying some things out but y'all are also genuine with each other and I really love it and I'm super here for it. I also just really appreciate how, even when Jo says something that might be maybe slightly controversial or slightly off-putting, you know, she really makes an effort to be like I didn't intend to make it, you know, bad, I didn't intend to put anyone down, I didn't intend and I really appreciate the conscientiousness to be like good people, so I really appreciate you guys in general and I hope you guys have a wonderful holiday.
Jo:That was so nice, that was really nice.
Matt:Thanks, Hi guys.
Speaker 3:I just left an earlier voicemail, but I wanted to share a little mishap.
Speaker 3:So last year at Thanksgiving we went to a little friend's giving with friends and when we were coming back into the house we had about half of a pumpkin pie left and my fiance was carrying it for the door and my 65-pound dog like brushed out the door and knocked him over a little bit not too much, but the pie fell and fell on the dog's head and so then I had my 65-pound dog with half of a pumpkin pie on his head. It was really sad, as it was like a homemade pumpkin pie, it was really really good, like we were super looking forward to having it for breakfast and like having it throughout the week finishing it up, and then there was no more pumpkin pie. So there's always that joke because unfortunately that dog ended up passing very shortly after that, and so we always make that joke that that was his last little bit of mischievous sense before he crossed the road bridge and that was a fond memory and it was a really good pie, even though it ended up on the porch.
Matt:Tell our pie story. That was his last meal. I guess One of them.
Jo:Do you remember our pie story?
Matt:What was our pie story?
Jo:At Thanksgiving the blueberry pie.
Matt:Oh yeah, there was some pie drama.
Jo:And that's family Thanksgiving. I forgot about that. Matt's cousin decided, I think, out of nowhere. He was like what, 19 at the time he was in college, I think yeah probably 19-20. And he decided out of nowhere that he was going to make a blueberry pie for Thanksgiving. Like the night before, he wanted to do it himself. I think he handed the crust like he did the whole thing starts to finish himself, and somewhere along the way something wasn't quite right. And then the blueberry pie never set.
Matt:I think it just didn't. I don't know if it didn't cook long enough or however it was prepared, it didn't set.
Jo:I'm wondering if it didn't have like cornstarch or something that would make it set.
Matt:Maybe, maybe it didn't cool long enough. It was out in the garage. It was out in the garage to cool it didn't set.
Jo:Anyway, we don't know why it was, but we had just gotten a new puppy and I was sitting on the floor in my brand new white sweater that I had purchased for Thanksgiving. I still have that sweater.
Matt:I still wear it White white sweater for. Thanksgiving Optical white.
Jo:Yeah, and Matt's aunt went outside to get the pie and walked back in and I was sitting on the floor and she walked over me and spilled the blueberry pie all over me in my white sweater. Yep, oh.
Matt:So we were trying to do an emergency stain treatment for.
Jo:We did. Your mom slayed yeah, she slayed the house down. No wonder you're so good at stains, yeah.
Matt:What was she? Treating it? With Lemon.
Jo:I don't know, lemon juice or something, I don't remember she was all over it.
Matt:We were doing all the Googling, figuring out how to get blueberry out of. Yeah, because the whole pie was just liquidy underneath.
Jo:Yeah. There was a top crust and a bottom crust in between and Matt's aunt was so upset with Matt. It was no big deal but your aunt was so upset.
Matt:She was upset with my cousin, yeah.
Jo:I was like I was impressed that he even made the pie.
Matt:Yeah, he tried.
Jo:He really did.
Matt:It was probably good it was good, we did, we ate it with ice cream.
Jo:It just didn't set.
Matt:It was more of a sauce. Yeah, it was a sauce with crust.
Jo:Yeah. But, Crust was good.
Matt:But yeah, she kind of read him the riot act for a little bit.
Jo:Yeah.
Matt:She really blamed him, even though she dropped the pie.
Jo:It was pretty funny.
Matt:Yeah, In retrospect, it was funny At the time. It was a little dramatic, but we made it through. Everybody's still here.
Jo:Okay, yeah, I have a few questions not voicemail that are on the email.
Matt:Should we hit some emails? Yeah, just people have questions. Yep, all right.
Jo:Hi Joan. Matt, I recently listened to some of your morals and religious topic podcasts from a few episodes ago and had a question about the holidays coming up. Since you mentioned not being super religious, what does Christmas look like in your immediate family and does your extended family still practice religion? Slash, observe religious aspects of the holiday season.
Matt:Hmm, okay.
Jo:Comprompted.
Matt:Kind of yeah. So again, my family believed like a lot of the decorating and the Christmas tree stuff, a lot of that side of things was a pagan tradition and so Christmas wasn't a big holiday in my house. Like we observed it and we did gifts and whatever, and but they weren't super Santa heavy, just cause I think they I don't know, I come from a very rational group of people, so Santa wasn't wasn't hyped up a whole lot, it just kind of was. But it also means that now there isn't a bunch of holiday things that we're not doing, even though we don't align religious views. Wise yeah. And they've kind of embraced doing more of the traditional holiday stuff with us now that we have kids, I think is the big part, yeah.
Jo:They're around on Christmas. I like I don't I'm not criticizing in any capacity, but no, they didn't like all of a sudden. There aren't big traditions. My family's never been huge Christmas people. The only thing we did was we went to church on Christmas and then we did gifts and stuff exchanged.
Matt:But that was really it wasn't.
Jo:I mean we did too, but neither of us had super heavily traditional Christmas families, no. So now we just kind of practice the, the, the Christmas card aspects of it, I don't know.
Matt:Holiday, holiday celebration, what do you?
Jo:think I feel like we still do Christmas because culturally it's such a big thing, you know. So I don't know.
Matt:They're also really young, so we haven't had to discuss too much of like what people are celebrating on a fundamental level and the religious backing of it.
Jo:Yeah, a lot of that, so we're not quite there yet, because Santa's not religious.
Matt:No, Santa's not, but Christmas is celebrating the birth of Christ.
Jo:Right.
Matt:Which I think technically didn't happen when they say it happened. But it's what it is.
Jo:I don't know. We'll see. I don't know how we're going to handle it. I'm sure we'll just talk about it.
Matt:Yeah, I think, like most things.
Jo:We'll just have open discussion and, who knows, maybe our kids will be interested in Christianity. I don't know. I don't know If they are. They are, we'll be along for the journey. Some big stories in there.
Matt:Yeah, I don't know, no, but we haven't. I would just say we haven't really crossed that bridge necessarily on like how it compares culturally and we don't come from families that have uh, you know, super rigid Christmas traditions especially folks around religion.
Jo:We open gifts on Christmas Eve and we do um a little stocking stuff around Christmas morning. And on Christmas day we usually do like a fun movie marathon, um, and snuggle up and do hot chocolate. And you know it's just, it's not anyway. Okay, one more email. Hey, jo and Matt, I'm a 24 year old mom of three a three and a half year old little girl and almost seven week old twins.
Jo:Ironically, I started listening to your podcast about eight weeks ago, at 33 weeks pregnant, and just caught up with the latest episode this morning. I had bit uh, I had a bit of a tumble at 34 weeks and, long story short, one emergency C C section later and boom, twins almost six weeks early. The last few weeks have been nuts, but binge listening to your podcast has gotten me through so much. Thank you. Listening has me resonating. Did I spell that right? Hello, dumb dumb with you while you try to do better, relearn things for the sake of your kids. And it's gotten me out of my head. Thanks, greg. Anyways, now to me. Now to my question. Money this year is a wee bit tight, thanks to being off work six weeks earlier than I expected, and we really are focusing on getting our kids gifts, so I don't have much leftover for family. I can't be the only one, because the economy lately is insert cringe face.
Jo:Do you have any DIY craft gifts you like to give or received that you recommend? So much for being my rock during this up and down and postpartum. That's so kind. Uh yeah, I actually posted a tutorial uh this week of how to make uh salt dough with well, I don't even know if it's salt dough still with the recipe I did, but it's uh baking soda corn starch and water mix over heat and it makes a dough texture and then you can either leave them out to dry or you can put them in the oven to dry them out quick, quickly.
Jo:Uh, and you can do hand prints with that and all kinds of little crafts with that and you could paint them and make ornaments for people.
Matt:Yeah, I think you get, I think you get the kids involved. Yeah, you have your, your older child, especially your, uh, you're, you're doing a team effort to make, make stuff for the family this year.
Jo:Yeah, and I I think that, among many other things, I think uh crafted ornament, I think uh, maybe putting together things for a simmer pot for somebody in a jar could be a really cool gift to give around the holiday season. So putting like uh, an orange, cinnamon stick, a few other things, uh everything you need to put into a simmering pot to make the house smell good, that could be a really good gift. That you're DIYing, that would be pretty uh reasonable budget wise.
Jo:I'm trying to think, yeah, you can. If you look on Pinterest, there are tons of stuff. There's simmer pot recipes. Uh, I don't know, you make garlands.
Matt:Yeah, yeah.
Jo:That's what we did. That was fun. I don't know what else. Endless options.
Matt:Yeah, there's probably great, great things you can look up, but those are a couple of the things that we've uh, we've done that are very we're not big gift people. No, that's the tough part is like we're not. Uh, I think both of our we like to do food yeah.
Jo:Like desserts, fudges, candies, things like that, and package them up in a cute little bow.
Matt:Yep.
Jo:And I. I think that's always a great gift and I like food as a gift because it's you eat it and then it's gone. It's not an additional thing to find a place for yeah, which I like. Yeah, um, and congratulations on adding to you're in the thick of it.
Matt:I was going to say I think people should lower their expectations from you in general this year.
Jo:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Matt:You've got a lot going on, a lot.
Jo:And very small children itty bitty multiples. Yeah, I can't fathom. I don't know how you're doing it. I'm proud of you. You're rocking it.
Matt:And, on that note, honored to be part of your podcast routine in this time.
Jo:Yeah.
Matt:So shots to you.
Jo:Subscribe. Follow us on YouTube. Follow us on tiktok follow us up on Instagram. We love y'all.
Matt:We'll do it again.
Jo:Bye, bye, bye.