Growing Together
Step into a virtual garden of spiritual growth and community connection with the "Growing Together" podcast. This podcast is a nurturing space for individuals seeking to deepen their faith, cultivate relationships, and explore the boundless beauty of a shared spiritual journey.
Each episode of "Growing Together" is a breath of fresh air, where Pastor Michael, Syd, Nic, Pastor Holly, and Pastor Roger try to navigate the twists and turns of life while staying rooted in faith. Their warm and inviting presence makes you feel like you're sitting in a cozy living room, engaged in a heartfelt conversation with old friends.
Diving into topics ranging from personal growth and self-care to building resilient relationships and fostering a sense of community, the podcast aims to equip listeners with the tools to nurture their faith in all aspects of life. Through scripture readings, open discussions, and interviews with experts in various fields, "Growing Together" provides a holistic approach to spiritual development.
Whether you're a lifelong believer, a seeker on the spiritual path, or simply someone curious about how faith can shape lives, "Growing Together" offers a welcoming haven for everyone. Tune in during your morning routine, while taking a leisurely stroll, or even during a quiet moment of reflection – the podcast fits seamlessly into your daily life.
Join the "Growing Together" community and embark on a journey of discovery, growth, and genuine connection. In a world that can sometimes feel disconnected, this podcast reminds us that nurturing our faith and cultivating meaningful relationships can lead to a life that's deeply fulfilling and spiritually abundant. Subscribe now to start your journey of growing together in faith and fellowship.
Growing Together
A New Year Special
Ever wondered why our New Year's resolutions tend to end up as dust collectors, much like that treadmill turned clothes rack? We'll share our comical escapades with forgotten gym memberships and the yearly ritual of holiday overindulgence, all while trying to better ourselves. But it's not just about the physical; the pursuit of mental enrichment through audiobooks and new music also brings its own set of challenges. Balancing these ambitions with life's everyday responsibilities is something we all grapple with, and we’re here to share some laughs and insights about making time for what matters amidst the chaos.
Switching gears, we dive into the spiritual realm with a candid conversation on fasting and self-discipline. It's not all about food; sometimes, giving up technology or that daily soda can be a more meaningful challenge. We discuss how these substitutions can help refocus our spiritual priorities and the ever-present struggle of slipping back into old habits. The journey is all about finding the delicate balance between spiritual dedication and maintaining life's practicalities, all while trying to avoid the disappointment of setting unrealistic goals.
Our culinary explorations take us from the tangy trails of sauerkraut to peculiar food obsessions like cottage cheese with pineapple. You’ll hear quirky anecdotes about local dining scenes and the colorful characters that make these experiences memorable. As the conversation lightens up, we chat about holiday decorations and spirited Monopoly games, sprinkling in stories of permanent lights and potential banker skimming. With a touch of gratitude and a dash of festive spirit, we'll leave you with a heartfelt reflection on embracing the New Year with enthusiasm and joy.
happy new year. That would have been a great time for one of those horns.
Speaker 4:Yeah, just make a bunch of noise scare everybody when they first turn it on give it all away about getting ready to go black friday shopping oh geez oh geez.
Speaker 1:So here we are. Another day, another podcast, new year's, another year, another year yeah, new year new me, oh geez new year, new me.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'll just start then we'll kick it off straight from there. New year, new me. Just like every year, I buy something's gonna make me get healthy. A treadmill never gets used, turns into a clothes rack or a whatever. At this point it's a giant waste of space in the basement. It's right in the way of everything that I need, so I'm going to deliver that to Roger's house, don't bring it to my house.
Speaker 5:I don't have any room for it.
Speaker 4:What is it about the new year?
Speaker 1:I don't know, I haven't decided. Probably, but what is it about the new?
Speaker 2:year. What is it about the new year that creates this behavior?
Speaker 1:I can tell you it's because we have been gluttonous through Thanksgiving and Christmas Like we've every, because, let's be honest, everybody's gained 10 pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas because we done ate three turkeys and 14 hams and 47 pounds of mashed potatoes.
Speaker 5:And it's like it's a refresh. Yes, restart, yep.
Speaker 1:And so there's just this desire. So we part of our hotel chain, we have a fitness club and we always plan a big new year. New me like what's the what's the gimmick this year? So we can get people to sign up. They sign up, they pay for their membership the whole year and I can go back and look nobody comes. They might come once or twice the entire year, but they pay that membership all year long you don't pay your membership, do you?
Speaker 5:no, I just saw someone, um, she posted a picture that said finally got like time to for myself to go to the gym. And then it's the next picture said just kidding, I'm going to cancel my membership. She was paying for it for six years oh my gosh, six years six years I mean it's. Planet Fitness, which is probably the most I don't know budget-friendly, I guess, but still yeah.
Speaker 2:So New Year's, my resolutions are always trying to more enrich my mind than my body.
Speaker 5:So you do have resolutions, like this year, I'm going to listen to a new music album every week that I've never listened to before Good for you and I made it.
Speaker 2:I think through like July doing a new album every week and I would listen to that album.
Speaker 1:Can we send you recommendations? Sure, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anytime that's scary. That's the thing I made it like halfway through the year and then I kind of quit.
Speaker 1:Yeah so.
Speaker 5:I'm going to do it again this year, yeah.
Speaker 2:Or I'll be like I'm going to read 10 more books, you know than I read last year, things like that.
Speaker 1:That would. I would love to be able to read more, but I just be honest with you.
Speaker 2:I'm lazy, it's hard, it's hard. You know what I?
Speaker 1:mean I have started Loretta Lynn's. I love reading that too, because when I read it I hear her voice, because it's very much so written in her voice. I started Riley Keenogh's finish of Lisa Marie's autobiography, her memoirs. That I read about six pages and I'm like, okay, that's fun, and I never pick them back up. I start them and I never finish them.
Speaker 5:Let me go read the Sparknotes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, call me Ishmael, no thanks.
Speaker 4:I found the audio books helps me a lot.
Speaker 1:I agree with you. I read I shouldn't say that I listened to Jeanette McCurdy's I'm glad my mother is dead which is a fantastic book. If you just like ever get the opportunity, you should read it. Yeah, but I love audiobooks and I listen to them in the car like podcasts. My problem is I don't want to turn them off once I start. Yeah, so like I have this hard time disconnecting. It has to be a chapter, it has to be the end of a chapter. I can't just stop in the middle, yeah, and so I get to work and I sit in the car for 30 minutes because that chapter is not over yet.
Speaker 2:So well, that's one of the big for me, a big catch with a book if I would happen to do that like not get through the chapter, then to pick that chapter back up and finish it and move on is hard.
Speaker 5:I gotta get to the end of the chapter to keep it moving. Agreed when I do read a book. That's how I am.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that's fair because once I feel out of structure and it's like, okay, then you get interested in another book. I'll start this one from the beginning and get through it.
Speaker 1:I was going to say, and what's funny is like you walk into my office, there's two books laying on my desk in the office that I'll pick up and I'll start reading through them. One is oh geez, it's a Disney Institute book, so I've got that one there and it's about creating guest experience, things like that. So I'll pick it up, read three or four pages and I'm like what did?
Speaker 4:I just read. I don't remember any of this. I like when I'm putting things in the computer and doing all that at work. I like that. That's when I listen to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I listen to podcasts too With my audio books, stuff like that.
Speaker 5:Well, I guess I would already be starting my new job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, job, yeah, but yeah, so we are pre-recording and I haven't started it yet.
Speaker 5:But technically I've already moved too, but I'm kind of like man now I have to like make time for my podcast because I still want to listen to them yeah but that's when I would listen to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point.
Speaker 5:I listen to mine on my drive to work however, I was like, well, if I just make more time to walk, because I do love listening when I'm walking, so then maybe that'll just make a more healthier me yeah, yeah, maybe it'll get you to walk.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, do you want me to bring you my treadmill? You can just walk in the house.
Speaker 5:At least then it's warm in the winter time well, it's nice that we're by the cemetery too, yeah, so that sounds creepy that is a nice. It's so nice walk through there I see, see Seth in there all the time, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay. So one of the things that I would like to do better and, beth, this will be the first time you're hearing this, because you knew my again, we're dating this podcast. We're recording it early, but last evening I found out that my mortgage was not going to go through. There was some struggles with the church because I'm technically the founding pastor of Organic Church and so it looks like it's a business that belongs to me, and so the mortgage company needs to prove that the church isn't losing money every month. And they want tax filings, they want P&Ls, they want all this stuff, but they want it for two years.
Speaker 1:Well, this church has technically only been using Organic Church for those two years, and we weren't using wisdom over wealth, so we didn't have that. I don't have that paperwork to provide them. So basically, last night they didn't say it directly like this, but basically last night they're like there's really nothing we can do for you. We aren't going to underwrite your loan. I spiral when that stuff happens Like I'm mad, I'm upset, I'm frustrated. I'm trying to explain it to a listen. She's like well, that doesn't make sense. I'm like I get that it doesn't make sense, but it's what they said and they don't answer. They're not answering me now, so I can't change it, I can't fix it Right.
Speaker 2:Right, and when it's like that, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm not surprised Like I feel like her and I share a lot of that personality. So last night I messaged my loan officer, because it wasn't him that emailed me. It was one of the guys that's in between with the underwriter and trying to collect the documents and whatnot. I text him and I was like hey, I'm sorry for the after hours text, but I need some reassurance that we've got this situated, that like that we can figure this out. So the other guy started emailing me. This guy was texting me long and short of it was basically there was nothing they could do last night, but they needed my personal tax returns this morning so that they could go back to the underwriter and show that I wasn't claiming any losses. Um, at about five o'clock today I got the green light that they've got everything straightened out and we're good to go. But for literally almost 24 straight hours I was in absolute meltdown mode because I was like this isn't fair. How are you? How did you not figure this out before six days from closing right?
Speaker 1:yeah so it was freaking out. So if I were to make a resolution, it would be to be less panicked, like to just be able to go. Okay, I know that this is gonna work out, I know it's gonna be fine, and if I don't get it, that's okay too. Yeah, no, my dad's not how I operate. It's got to be my way or the highway. So I've got to Shut up. Roger, you know what? I'm just going to mute his microphone. I don't even want to hear him, but I don't know.
Speaker 5:You had a word last year, didn't you? Yes, yes, yes, I know that's very popular right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I didn't do that because it was popular. I did that because that was for me to just live on that, to hang on to that. I don't do a passage of scripture, like some people do every year, because I feel like that keeps me in a box. It sticks me to just like repeating that which is great.
Speaker 1:But that word of affirmation does nothing. In that time of chaos I need like. My wife is terrible at this too, by the way, and she would not be embarrassed that I'm saying this. My wife is terrible about reassuring me. She just doesn't. She doesn't go, it's going to be okay. She's like, oh, because she knows it's going to be. Like. She's not stressed about it, but she knows that if she says it's going to be fine, I'm going to get mad because I want her to say that to me. I want her to give me encouragement, but at the same time, I don't want her positivity in my world of negativity. Right, it's a fair statement. I want her to be mad with me. I want her to drive.
Speaker 2:Positivity is like stupidity. Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:I want her to drive to to form a posse, but, um, so it's just one of those things that I would love to be able to work on that, but I will not commit to working on that because, honestly, if I say that I will and I don't, that's failure and I don't want to fail. So I would rather say it is my.
Speaker 5:Are you afraid to fail, michael?
Speaker 1:No, I'm not afraid to fail. I'm because I know that I would be setting myself up for it.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because to change a personality, to change a behavior, you have to do something else, and I forget how many times you have to do it before you can break that behavior. 21 times, is it 21? And I know for a fact that I don't have the wherewithal the capacity or the support to do that 21 times. Yeah, Because if I'm at work and I'm upset or frustrated.
Speaker 5:Nobody there's going to tell me I can't be upset or frustrated because I'm the boss.
Speaker 1:So when I'm frustrated, like, yeah, we're frustrated too. Right, we're allowed to be frustrated. So there's this. I know that that's something I want to work on, but I want to work on it Not just for me personally, but from a business standpoint. It is the worst thing in the world for me to walk into somebody's office one of my you know coworkers office, or one of my employees office and be like hey, listen, you said you were going to do this and you didn't follow through, and I'm really unhappy about it.
Speaker 5:Like cause it's that constant, like almost nagging yes and so and then they see you, and right away they see you and they're like here we go again.
Speaker 5:Well, that's my old job, I would have to go through the schedule and see if they scheduled stuff incorrectly, like based on what they were due for for the following appointments. So I'd always do it right after lunch and I'd have to come in with my stupid slip again was not my thing, like it was in my job description and like I would be so nice, so cool about it. But they knew they're like oh, it's that time of day again. What did I do wrong? And I'm like I don't want to be that person. That's what that reminded me.
Speaker 1:I want to get better at that for everybody around me, not just for myself. I would hope that that would improve quality of life for everybody. But again, I'm not committing to that. I will try, because again it's the one thing that bothers me the most about myself. So I will try, but I'm not going to say that it's going to happen well, there's no guarantees in life anyway 21 days of prayer and that that's going to happen.
Speaker 1:Well, there's no guarantees in life anyway. Right, right, so yeah, 21 days of prayer and fasting. Are we all going to do 21 days of prayer and fasting? We'll put that out in the links again. Quick question for you After the fast, do you go back to whatever it is that you gave up? I do.
Speaker 2:I do, sure I have. That's why I really I'm always working on something throughout the year anyway. So, yeah, I don't want to put myself again in a box. Okay, I'm not going to do this thing for 21 days, because most likely I'm going to do it again anyway, like I'm not going to. For me it has to be a year long thing, like it's got to be something that you're really going to try and stick to.
Speaker 1:The reason I asked is the prayer part is wonderful, but the fasting part? If at the end of the fast you just go back to doing whatever you were doing, you didn't really get what you were supposed to from the fast.
Speaker 4:I did do it. I mean because mine was technology. I had to get on that before I had my time with God.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And so I went beyond the 21 days.
Speaker 2:But, you know how easy it is to pick up that phone in the morning. Well, if you get a lot of prayer through that fasting for 21 days, that's a positive thing, and I think that's what it is supposed to do, you're supposed to start your year giving everything back to God that fast is the one being more centered on Him than anything else.
Speaker 1:My problem is is like I give up things that I know I'm going to pick right back up like soda.
Speaker 5:Yeah soda.
Speaker 1:The likelihood of me ever giving that up entirely is pretty darn slim. Now I'm a lot better than I've ever been, usually because we don't buy it at the house at all anymore. So usually I get one or two at work, depending on the situation, like if I go out for lunch I'll have one. But even I went to dinner with Alyssa the other night and I had a water. I just it's like there's a change in that. But anyhow, I think when you fast, you have to walk out of that fast. At the end, at the end of the 21 days, you have to go. Okay, that wasn't so bad and I don't need to pick that back up. Yeah, but also, you can't, don't be idiotic in your meet. No, you're not. You're going to fail and you're setting yourself up for that failure and then you're disappointed in yourself because you didn't do it. Just don't say it. Pick one thing, make it easy.
Speaker 2:You know what. Maybe I would say it should be something that you know.
Speaker 5:That you struggle.
Speaker 2:Well, no Something that you know deflects your attention from God, correct?
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 2:So I don't think Coke affects your attention with God.
Speaker 1:Well, I agree with you. But the problem is, for me, the reason I always fast coke is because it is the staple of my day. It's like my sun rises and sets and having a Coca-Cola First thing in the morning I have a can of coke, Last thing in the evening I have a can. So that's kind of that. When I go, ooh, I really want one, that stops me and I go, okay, wait a second, I'm fasting because I want to center myself on Christ, so that helps me to remember it through the day. So while, no, it's not like taking away from God, it does force me back into that centering.
Speaker 2:See, mine did like you were saying, nick, like it was social media Right and that's the thing with me, like I think my wife might argue a little bit, but I really think, like I've been doing this no cell phone sunday yeah, yeah, that's really stuck to it for quite a while and it just it's like you don't really, once you do it, you don't even miss it yeah, yeah yeah, like if you leave it, if you put it up in the bedroom somewhere and it's not on you. Yeah, you really don't.
Speaker 1:I wish I didn't have so much work stuff coming through, because it would be so nice to be able to do that. I will say this that for everybody, that fast social media though I miss you guys Because there's no like who. I have nobody to talk to because nobody's on Like I don't have anybody's post to like you fast. Social media how am I ever going to see Cooper, like I'm never going to.
Speaker 4:Well, mine was. I mean, I knew that I would fail with no social media for 21 days, but I did. I had to have my time with God.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's a great Before.
Speaker 4:I allowed myself and I did really really well with it.
Speaker 1:And then afterwards it starts to. I actually stuck with it a little bit longer, but I'm saying, at some point it starts to creep out, it starts to creep, so you know I don't have to worry about that. Yeah, roger, he probably don't even know where his phone's at right now. Yeah, I do In the car.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's on the charger. Yeah, wild to me, absolutely wild.
Speaker 5:So food, food Absolutely wild so food, food Sauerkraut. Ugh.
Speaker 1:Absolutely no, and anybody who eats hot dogs instead of pork.
Speaker 3:I will.
Speaker 2:That's bad Ugh.
Speaker 1:That is not pork, that is pork byproduct.
Speaker 5:My grandma makes the best pork and sauerkraut, and I think she puts hot dogs in it too.
Speaker 2:If she doesn't, I go home and make my own hot dogs and have both Really Sauerkra home and make hot dogs and have both really, oh, sauerkraut sour or sweet sour, sweet sour, I think hers is sweet, that's, that's. No, that ruins it, right the smell is it?
Speaker 5:oh my god, we've already had it yeah, she made it the other day, I didn't have any of it but my mom, did too yeah, I was walking in when she was making it like in her crock pot, my my, my wife used to go to her mom's house and her mom would always make pork and sauerkraut.
Speaker 2:I would assume that's a German thing I would assume, so I would love to know how that kind of like took over Well here.
Speaker 5:Let me find out Chat. Gbt to know, contrary, it's got to be a Polish or German.
Speaker 2:Sauerkraut is not a German thing, huh.
Speaker 5:No, what thing what?
Speaker 3:is it? It's a different dish.
Speaker 4:I don't know, Is it Polish Might be Well. What does Google say?
Speaker 2:Because you know they used to call Germans krauts it was. German yeah, krauts, because they call them krauts.
Speaker 1:It says eating pork and sauerkraut for New Year's is a tradition with deep roots in Central and Eastern European cultures, particularly among Germans and Pennsylvania Dutch.
Speaker 5:The Amish. The meal symbolizes good luck and prosperity in the coming year, and you've got to have dumplings in it too, pigs represent process or progress.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry.
Speaker 3:Yeah, process Sorry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then cabbages for prosperity, okay, wow.
Speaker 2:There you go, there you go Progress and prosperity.
Speaker 4:Somebody lied to me then yeah, there you go, there you go progress. Somebody lied to me then yeah, there you go well.
Speaker 1:That doesn't mean that sauerkraut is specifically from germany. Germany, it just that's it. That tradition of eating pork and sauerkraut together is german it's.
Speaker 4:my girlfriend moved from here to louisiana and they do like black eyed peas and all that. She was horrified that they don't do sauerkraut. She's like you don't, and they're like what?
Speaker 1:So the and we probably do it here because the Pennsylvania Dutch, the Amish have come here and like it just becomes a time honored tradition. Uh, the other thing that did you know that cream chicken is not a normal thing through the whole country, most thing through the whole country? Most places call that ohio chicken really, because here it's like a staple food for us, yes, but most places it is not.
Speaker 5:I just learned that the other day, mind blown, I heard that the other day, or not a few months ago, the podcast I listened to. They were saying like yeah, that's apparently because I think they were talking about it, and then, like in their discord, people were like what is cream chicken?
Speaker 2:yeah, I feel sorry for the other four. I know Right.
Speaker 1:Right, where are you at? Why are you not eating cream chicken? So?
Speaker 5:should we explain what it is, just in case, trail bologna is another one. Oh, trail bologna, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, so, and I will tell you the trail, bologna and get some of that that stuff is that's what my uncle Peter I'm pretty sure that's what he does. You can get like cheese in it go to trail, go to trail.
Speaker 1:So you have just confirmed that Troyer is not Amish no, it is Amish, but it's mass produced, so it's not the same. If you go, there's a place called trail trail Ohio. They've got a little diner. This is not me being mean, this is me being very honest. The lady has a hook hand that works there. I don't know if she lost it in the trail processing or what, but I'm just saying they make you a trail and cheese sandwich and you know that that is not trail bologna that you're getting from anywhere else it's a bigger slice, a big slice.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, it is so good, it is so much better than any trail. Yeah, and I will eat regular trail bologna, the horseshoe style like right off the. I don't even need to, I'd almost eat the skin. I'd almost eat the. I love it.
Speaker 4:I like the big slice.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 4:But I don't like the smaller.
Speaker 1:Because it's not real. Is it the?
Speaker 2:Captain Hook version, or like a clamp style.
Speaker 1:Oh her hook. It's actually very strange. It looks like the clamp style but it doesn't clamp. It's got a hook on the bottom and then two hooks on the top so she can pick up bags with it. It's very strange. I was mesmerized by it and I'm sure I looked rude and was staring, but it was not because I was like, oh, she's different.
Speaker 2:I was absolutely fascinated to watch her still be able to function with a hook that's wild to see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anyhow, cream chicken is basically shredded chicken, chicken breast usually it's usually white meat.
Speaker 3:White meat.
Speaker 1:A lot of people use canned chicken, which I am perfectly okay with because it's softer and I like that a little bit better.
Speaker 3:I make it both ways.
Speaker 1:I don't like it when I will eat it, but I don't like it when it's shredded chicken breast because sometimes it gets a little tough depending on how you cook it. I like it when it's shredded chicken breast because sometimes it gets a little tough depending on how you cook it. But it's that. It's basically cream of chicken soup and some people put cream of mushroom in it yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3:But that's really it, isn't it. It's crackers. If you want it to go farther, you can put crackers in it or stovetop stuffing. Yes.
Speaker 1:And the stovetop stuffing, in my opinion, is the best option because it gives it flavor, it gives it a little extra pizzazz. I don't like it to be crunchy, though I want that stovetop stuffing to be soft.
Speaker 5:Yes, yes, I had to but that's very accurate, courtney, if you're listening, we love you, that see, that is the accurate way to use the word it is a lot of people don't yeah yes, so you said you don't like the shredded chicken breast.
Speaker 1:Correct.
Speaker 4:But if you use a mixer to hold, it up.
Speaker 1:It's not even that you have to make it in a crock pot. It has to be moist, it has to be tender, because I want to be able to shred it quickly.
Speaker 4:But if you do it with that mixer, you can get it so fast.
Speaker 1:We have those claws that we use.
Speaker 4:Oh, but the mixer gets it.
Speaker 1:Really, I've never tried it. I'll have to give that a shot.
Speaker 4:I did that last year Because it almost looks like by the time you're done with it.
Speaker 1:We need to make sure that, when we post this one, that we post a recipe for cream chicken.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that anybody who's listening, who doesn't know what it is they chicken dip.
Speaker 5:Oh yes, you know, I started trying to.
Speaker 1:That's one of my faves that you make too, but your mac and cheese will always beat everything.
Speaker 4:I'm on board with her mac and cheese.
Speaker 1:It's the best I'm telling you. And I don't know what she does. I don't know if it's just a whole block of Velveeta melted or what, but like it's a ton of different it here. Oh my gosh, like I could live on that alone. Man does not live on bread alone, but it can live on Sid's mac and cheese alone.
Speaker 5:Is there cream cheese in it? No, there's not, okay, nope.
Speaker 1:That was so good. And when she brings it like so I have a rule. I don't like, I just keep the whole crock pot. You guys don't get any.
Speaker 5:I'm sorry, it's so good I think I like ended up mixing two recipes.
Speaker 1:So good, now I'm thinking, I want some. Can you make me some?
Speaker 2:Sure, is there more than one cheese in it. Oh yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, I think there's like four.
Speaker 1:Also as a side note, this has nothing to do with New Year's or even what we're talking about right now, but do you prefer ricotta cheese or cottage cheese In your lasagna?
Speaker 2:Cottage.
Speaker 1:Cottage cheese. Both Do you not like it?
Speaker 3:Well, I was never a fan of cottage cheese.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, I don't like cottage cheese either. I can't stand cottage cheese, so the first time I ever ate lasagna that had cottage.
Speaker 3:when somebody said that's cottage cheese I was like, oh, but that works. Yeah, it works in that. It works in lasagna, sid Cottage cheese Cottage cheese.
Speaker 1:Okay. So at my house, adeline and I eat cottage cheese right out of the container.
Speaker 5:Yeah, me too, Now I do cheese right out of the container.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too. Now I do like to put everything bagel seasoning in it, every whip stitch and like, oh, I'm telling you, it just changes it. It's a whole whole new world. It just opens up new possibilities for cottage cheese. I'm just telling you you should try it.
Speaker 3:Okay, now I'm judging really badly diet together one time cottage cheese and beets, and I don't like either one. That's a pitiful diet.
Speaker 1:It was, it was awful, but we eat it just regularly. But I went to Carrabba's with Alyssa the other night and I got a lasagna and I don't know what was it, but it was the best lasagna.
Speaker 5:Really.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, it was so good and I like I can't stop thinking about it. And I was listening to Armchair Experts Dax Shepard's podcast and he said that he has a steakhouse in Texas that he likes and he went down there for a trip to do a panel interview and he went there the first night he got a steak, but he's an addict. And he said the next night he had to go back and he got two more because he just couldn't process it being over. That's kind of the way I am with that lasagna Like I keep thinking I need to go back and get a whole. Like can I get a whole lasagna? Like what does it cost to buy a whole lasagna?
Speaker 5:I bet you could.
Speaker 1:I bet I could too, but I bet it cost me a whole lot of money. That meal was $19 and I got a piece of uh lasagna and a salad. That was terrible. They didn't wash it tasted like chemicals it tasted like chemicals.
Speaker 1:It was just not good. Also, fun fact about me I don't like any other ranch dressing other than Hidden Valley. Don't try to pull that crap. Where you give me great value, don't give me any other brand. It's Hidden Valley or bust, okay, and they don't use Hidden Valley there, so that ruined it too. That's terrible, I know.
Speaker 4:Have you ever eaten?
Speaker 5:cottage cheese on a boiled potato?
Speaker 1:No, have you ever put it on a baked potato. Same thing as sour cream. Yeah, I was going to say I could put cottage cheese.
Speaker 4:I can put it, I like it on toast.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. I've never heard that.
Speaker 5:Especially if you happen to have the one that has a little bit of pineapple or some fruit in it. Cottage cheese with fruit.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Like with pineapple, because the sour part of the pineapple accents the cottage cheese really well. I love cottage cheese on my salad with ranch dressing. So fun story. I went to Bueller's in Cushockton and they have a salad bar and I was like, oh, I really want a salad. So I went in there and I made my own salad. Did not know they weighed it. It was a $22 salad.
Speaker 5:There's a lot of cottage cheese on that salad.
Speaker 2:That's all I'm going to say that was a lot of cottage cheese. I should have just went and bought a tub of cottage cheese. It would have been way cheaper.
Speaker 5:That's why they made a lot of carabas. Yeah, wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it was a salad. Now, mind you, I ate that whole thing too. Like I sat there and I ate that whole salad. I love cottage cheese on a salad, love it, it's one of my favorites.
Speaker 5:Jerry's cottage cheese. Mmm, the large curd thing or something oh yeah, large curd, two percent.
Speaker 1:Don't give it to me any other way. I'm very particular about my cottage cheese. Yeah, yeah, adeline and I, I'm telling you we just crush a container of cottage cheese. The other new thing that I've got this is not good for new year's. This is not healthy for anybody, so don't do this. But I do this. Uh, did you know? Blue bunny makes soft serve in a container now, yes, so I prefer soft serve ice cream over hand dipped any day of the week. So now that they make this in soft serve, they make it in mint chip, which is both my favorites. So now every night I have two great big scoops of mint chip soft serve blueberry bunny. And when it isn't in the house, I'm like I don't know who you are anymore and I need you to move out to my wife because, like we, this, this marriage is built on lies. If you are not buying me when you see me get to a half a container, buy two more. I don't know why this is difficult and you wonder why your Elvis suits don't fit.
Speaker 4:Yes, no, I know why it's Blue Bunny. Your life is going to change?
Speaker 1:No, because we pick it up at Walmart. We'll just do grocery pickup rather than Well. I drive right by on my way home from work every day and I can actually pick them up in Millersburg too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the only thing that we're going to. I'm saying this out loud to try to make myself feel better, because, again, I think Jeanette and Hutton's are third world country at this point. I can't get a freaking package delivered to my house. I can't have mail delivered to my house. The post office is only open 9 am to 5 pm, monday through Friday, until noon it's 8 to 5.
Speaker 1:He's trying to change it. He's trying to get it to 9? Chuck and I will have to have a conversation, chuck, if you're listening, buddy, you don't want to do that.
Speaker 4:It's not going to work either.
Speaker 1:Chuck, you don't want to do that. Those needs to have like a vip prepaid access or something. Those of us who need to get our stuff can pay an hour early. I don't know, grease the palms. Yes, yes, exactly yeah. Oh, that's another just fun, fun story softies ice cream in dover, also my favorite. We love softies, we eat softies all the time they at the end of the season.
Speaker 1:They had this like little secret knock you could do on the back door and they would give you specialty ice creams. It was like an ice cream cookie. It was two cookies with ice cream in the middle, but you had to know about it and you had to do the special knock on the back door in order to get it, which was super fun. We didn't do it, but it was really fun to the people that I work for own softies really the new owners, or the old, didn't, didn't they?
Speaker 5:I don't think so. No, I don't think so.
Speaker 2:No, no, I don't think so. I'm going to have to ask them about this backdoor business.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was so much fun Because they would post videos of, like it was how you knew. On Facebook they would post a video that, hey, tonight only secret knock and you can get the specialty cookie sandwich.
Speaker 4:You'll learn to love the Tuskegee dugout oh we already do. But us that we just don't go. So now it won't be?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, I'll call dawn. Hey, you want some ice cream, do they? Do they have soft serve? Yes, okay, that's all that matters, I'm like I'm like let's go to tuskegee okay, I'll pick you up. I'm not even particular about it I'll take anything. So yeah, is there a shortcut to tusky from janayton?
Speaker 5:416.
Speaker 5:I was thinking yeah, there is what 416, yeah but it's, you got a boat yeah, yeah, I was so mad the one day I missed a package paddling up river in tusky. It was like the cul-de-sac in tusky and I couldn't find it. I spent the like 10 minutes at that house. I'm like I know I have a package and I couldn't find it. So I and that's like towards the beginning of the route and I finished for the day and Chuck's like I'm sorry, like this one that you missed is like an express or I don't know what. It was priority something. He's like you're gonna have to go back and deliver it and it was like 4 45 and I'm like they need to have a stinking road through these fields. Like I get it. There's 36 and 416, but it either way it's too long.
Speaker 4:Too long. 416 is not a shortcut. No, it's too windy. Yeah, I put it in my GPS and it said do 36, but yeah, it is too windy yeah.
Speaker 1:So we're just excited to like. The whole experience is going to be a world of difference for us. So we're kind of excited and apprehensive all at the same time.
Speaker 5:I think the the small town like vibe I would just love that was part of the attraction for us.
Speaker 1:Like when we first went again we were no to this house hardcore, but mainly because elisa didn't like the way the front of the house looked. But then she realized you drive up beside it and you can't see the front of it, like from a distance. She didn't like three peaks on the front of the house um, so we're excited about that.
Speaker 1:I am a little bit nervous because the yard is so much smaller than the yard that we have right now, but with the big open lot next to it and I'm told that all of the neighborhood kids play in that lot anyway and the guy doesn't mind, but we'll clear that with him. But we're excited that we're so close to the park and all of the things, because in dover we don't have that. We're not super close, but now they can walk to the library versus having to drive 15 minutes to get there because traffic, yeah, like even there were so many people that would walk to get their mail.
Speaker 5:And that's what we'll do.
Speaker 1:Although I did say we're going to have to send my kids with a wagon three times a day because Chuck's going to be like you have to come get this crap out of here, dude. Seriously, to get this crap out of you dude, seriously between us and the church. One day I got home and there were like six stacks of packages out front and I was like I don't even know what's mine and what's the church's at this point.
Speaker 4:So I don't feel, I'm not gonna feel bad. No, I warned him.
Speaker 1:I told him I was like listen, you're gonna have to build on Like I don't know what to tell you, man. I'm looking forward to you experiencing the Christmas thing no, not me and Tyler and Courtney are like oh, now you have to come to the Christmas tree lighting. I'm like no, I don't. You think I do, but no, I don't.
Speaker 4:Your kids will enjoy it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and we'll end up going anyway, even like what they did for Halloween, you know, like so many people, didn't they have music on the square?
Speaker 1:Like all summer long, right Like.
Speaker 4:I don't know if it's on, it's they've. Now it's down to like one Friday in month, yeah Well, but even then I mean, every month they have something.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited about that because we don't get to experience that in Dover while they do end of summer celebration and some of that stuff.
Speaker 4:It's kind of filtered out since COVID's over. Yeah, I mean that lawn will be packed.
Speaker 1:Okay, now let me tell you why I'm excited. Why am I excited, Beth? Why do you think I'm excited?
Speaker 4:I think you need to be up there.
Speaker 1:Because I am going to figure out a way to be involved in this and I am totes doing Elvis on the square in Jenayton, looking forward to it, Looking forward to it.
Speaker 4:I mean, maybe you can increase the music output.
Speaker 1:Oh, I can probably take my stuff down there and blow anything they got out of the water.
Speaker 4:You know, I cause, I think it's just. You know, we sing Christmas carols and they light the tree but you know they have the hayride through town at all the lights and Tyler cause. That's why Tyler's like um, you are putting lights up this year, but we'll see. Listen, I looked at those lights.
Speaker 1:I'm like yeah, no, I'm not spending that money, but, beth, you never put them up again. They're there forever.
Speaker 4:Listen, I don't put them up now, so Tyler's going to do it.
Speaker 1:Well then, tell Tyler to buy them. So what we're talking about is the on my house. It's permanent outdoor lighting. You put it up, you never have to take it down again. You can make it do whatever you want, Like last year, our house was red and white candy canes, Like it was candy cane stripes across the top, and then we did red and white spotlights on the side that we couldn't put the the.
Speaker 1:Govee lights on. So I'm I want to do the new house the same way, but we'll see the new house the same way, but we'll see. We'll see. It's expensive. I mean, a box of those lights is $400 for 150 feet, $427, something like that. It's expensive.
Speaker 4:It was like $150, some dollars just for 50 feet.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, but it's more expensive to buy the shorter strands than it is to buy the longer strands. Yes, but now you don't need that many, so it's silly to buy the front porch. Yeah, not me. I want the whole house, the whole house. But you can only put 150 feet together and then you have to start a separate run because they can only you don't like that do you. Uh, it's not that I don't like it, it's that they, if you don't get them to sync up, just right, then it's all like cattywampus yeah so
Speaker 4:yeah, you. You go down there and you see what I can never say. Their names Lickin', sturvers, lickin'.
Speaker 1:Sturvers.
Speaker 4:You'll move up in the world.
Speaker 1:No, I won't. I'm telling you I don't like doing it.
Speaker 4:I don't like putting up Christmas decorations.
Speaker 3:You'll put up LED lights and all that.
Speaker 1:Nope, nope.
Speaker 3:He's even moved his display across the oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm moving into my neighbor's yard this year she gave me permission. What is?
Speaker 1:your electric bill.
Speaker 2:You know, it's really not that bad. He plugs into the neighbor's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's been running power cord across the street for a month. It's really not that bad, Really. I mean it's not like I mean.
Speaker 2:I guess it'll almost double.
Speaker 1:But still it's a month.
Speaker 5:Yeah, but he does it, for Halloween Is.
Speaker 1:Halloween about the same number of lights it's getting there.
Speaker 2:Don't let it go.
Speaker 1:See, if you did those Govee lights though, you could change them for Halloween straight into Christmas. You wouldn't have to put them up again.
Speaker 2:We'd want them for July 4th. We'd love to do red white and blue.
Speaker 1:You could. We've talked about it.
Speaker 2:They're really cool. I do like my classic C9 lights on the house for Christmas.
Speaker 1:You hear that Alyssa C9 is classic. It's the way to go.
Speaker 2:I hate you.
Speaker 1:She won't let me put up C9s.
Speaker 2:She thinks they're ugly oh no, that's the only way to go. I know You're not going to. What's the point? Yeah, don't do it.
Speaker 1:What's the point Exactly? Why even do it if you're not going to do it right? Yeah, her and I fight about it all the time.
Speaker 2:I don't want those tacky great big bulbs. I'm like it's all going to be white candles in the windows and white lights, a couple spotlights. It's going to be clean.
Speaker 1:Like what? Yeah, and that's fine if that's what you like, and I like a clean look too, but I want mine to at least be somewhat festive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I can give you it's something to get the kids excited about?
Speaker 4:Yes, exactly.
Speaker 3:Two or three big boxes of those lights, are they?
Speaker 1:colored or are they white? I'll take them Deal, bring them, bet you won't, because if you bring those, I'm putting them up on the house this year. I don't care what it takes, I will put up. I don't care if it is so. It's going to be 40 degrees when we move, by the way, super excited about that.
Speaker 1:Yay 40 or 48? It's supposed to be 40. It could be worse, I know, and I don't want it to snow, that's not fun. So are you like gonna sleep there the first night? No, we won't be able to and we'll. We'll probably sleep there starting saturday night after we move. But we'll have wednesday, tuesday, we get, we close tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday to move as much as we can, and then saturday we'll move all the bedroom furniture. I mean, if we get, if alissa and I are good enough to be able to get it all out by ourselves, we may, if we can get all the bedroom furniture. But I wouldn't count on that Because she has, she still has to have. She still has homeschool on Friday, which is co-op, and she teaches a class, so she has that and then she has. They have a lunch afterwards. So the first part of Friday I'll be by myself.
Speaker 5:How are you going to get?
Speaker 1:them mattresses in the Tesla. Well, fun fact, adeline's full-size mattress came home in that Tesla, so it can be done. I moved a king-size mattress in the back of my wife's minivan once it can be done.
Speaker 5:California king or just a normal king, just a regular king.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you have to get a little creative. Yeah, yeah, you have to get a little creative.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this corner folds that way this corner folds, this way, that just will the box springs do not, yes, but because they come in two pieces in a king size bag. Yes, Much easier to move. Absolutely yes.
Speaker 2:Much easier to move? Is everybody on board with keeping their tree up until after New Year's Always?
Speaker 1:Well, hmm Well yes, yes. Typically yes.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 1:However, in the three years that we've been in the current house four years we've been in the current house we almost always take it down on Christmas Day. Christmas Day. I know, I know, I know, listen, that house is small and there's not enough. Like you're tripping over that Christmas tree the entire time it's up and by that point I'm ready to have my house back.
Speaker 5:I don't know where I'm going to put my Christmas tree. This year, cooper has our whole house. Not whole house, but the whole living room.
Speaker 1:By the time you've got bouncers.
Speaker 2:It's been that way at our house With a grandbaby. She's like what am I going to do with all?
Speaker 5:Brimley stuff.
Speaker 1:Enjoy it this year, because next year he'll be tearing it down, putting it inside the playpen, the baby in the playpen.
Speaker 4:Put the tree in the playpen, the baby in the playpen, put the tree in the playpen.
Speaker 1:That's true, that's funny, that's so funny. Well, this was about New Year's. We've talked about everything, but that's okay.
Speaker 4:That's all right. That's all right. It's not New Year's if you're eating sweet sauerkraut, though.
Speaker 1:It's not New Year's if you're eating sauerkraut at all. It's Chinese Torture or German torture, I guess Sauerkraut mashed potatoes.
Speaker 5:That sauerkraut's got to be on the mashed potatoes.
Speaker 3:Yes, for sure. Why would you guys ruin A slice of bread and butter with it?
Speaker 1:Why would you guys ruin perfectly good mashed potatoes?
Speaker 4:Oh, and then the pork's got to be cooked enough that it's just shredded.
Speaker 1:I agree with that I do agree with that. The pork should be, but my mother-in-law used to make it all together. She would make the pork and then put the sauerkraut in with it. I'm like you've ruined the pork.
Speaker 2:That's all the only part I want.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh gosh. Sauerkraut stinks. It smells like a giant fart. There's nothing good about sauerkraut.
Speaker 2:So real quick, what's everybody's New Year's Eve routine?
Speaker 1:Go to bed at 8 o'clock.
Speaker 2:No 8.30.
Speaker 1:I mean it's getting harder every year. No, I straight up go to bed. I don't like.
Speaker 3:Now I don't ring in the New.
Speaker 1:Year no.
Speaker 2:I don't have any reason to. We play board games. We play board games.
Speaker 5:Yes, that's what we would do growing up.
Speaker 1:I can get behind that, but again at 8 o'clock.
Speaker 5:I'm going to bed. I can get the ball drop now.
Speaker 1:Beyond that, I am not in for it.
Speaker 5:Well, I know a lot of people do the ball drop like a video and they have the kids watch it For their kids.
Speaker 1:You play it at 10 pm and it's last year's and it does a countdown and they're like go to bed now, and then the adults enjoy the rest of the party.
Speaker 3:We're in bed early.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and mine's usually, because I get up and go to work on New Year's Day Like I don't have to, but usually I do.
Speaker 3:For me it depends on the year. You know if I have to work or what's going on.
Speaker 1:Staying up and playing games. That might be fun this year.
Speaker 3:Invite some friends over and stay up and play games.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what we always do, I thought— and a game of Monopoly.
Speaker 1:at our house you have to, because if Monopoly is taking you more than two hours, you're not playing by the rules. Flat out, flat out. If you're playing by the rules.
Speaker 2:What do you consider not the rules?
Speaker 1:Whatever the rule book says, that's the rules. No, no, okay, that's not the rules. Okay, there is no free ride in Monopoly. No free ride in Monopoly.
Speaker 4:Jarvie is the most cutthroat person playing.
Speaker 1:I will punch my wife in the face playing no I wouldn't, because she'd whoop me. But I'm a sore winner and a sore loser, y'all.
Speaker 4:I refuse to play with him, I refuse.
Speaker 1:So part of the rules is if you roll and you land on an unowned property and you choose not to buy it, that property goes up for auction. Really, it does not stay unsold when it gets landed on, it goes up for sale. So if you land on Boardwalk and you don't want it, it immediately goes up for auction and everybody around the table can bid on that property.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's in the rules.
Speaker 4:No, don't tell my husband, it is.
Speaker 1:Yes, ha, you missed that. Yes, yes, there is no like so Monopoly, we and we play with speed dice too, which will help speed up the game a little bit. But basically speed dice has three or, I'm sorry, two additional sides on it. That so it's a dice and it's numbered, one through five, I think. And then six and seven are one is a bus and one is Mr Pennybags, mr Monopoly.
Speaker 1:And when you roll that, if you get prior to all of the properties being purchased, if you get a Mr Monopoly, you get to go to the next unowned property and decide whether or not you want to buy it. So you get to buy the one you landed on, if it's available, plus the next one. If you get the bus ticket or the bus, you get to decide whether you want to split the numbers. So let's say, if you rolled an 8 and it's a 5 and a 3, and you move 5 or move 8, it lands you on somebody's property. You would pay rent. You can either go 3 or 5 instead of doing the whole thing.
Speaker 1:So, but then if you get the 1 through 5, you move those additional spaces. So it speeds the game up. But the Mr Monopoly, if you roll him. After everything is bought, he actually forces you to the next place you would pay rent. So in the beginning it's a good thing, in the end it's a bad thing, but it takes the strategy out of the game, so I don't like it I think that's how the smartphone plays, like the monopoly it's a possibility and yeah that's another thing.
Speaker 5:I don't know how people like I think my stepmom she'll like she just like sits there and like holds it in and like. I've seen other people doing it, like at bowling yeah, but they're playing like monopoly go. They're not playing like the real, but even that I'm like what I don't get that dude like they're just holding it and like not even paying attention and just like man. It must just be like a adrenaline junkie thing, I don't know.
Speaker 1:But if you read the rules to Monopoly, that game actually should not take more than two hours. And it takes two hours if everybody's like I'm not trading, I'm not trading and nobody has a Monopoly and you're just nickel and diming each other and nobody can ever win. Yeah, that doesn't happen in my house. I'm a shrewd negotiator. See that look in his eye happen in my house. I'm a shrewd negotiator.
Speaker 2:You see that? Look in his eye.
Speaker 1:I know right, Like I'm sitting here fiending for some lasagna and a game of Monopoly now.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I got an itch. You're forcing him to play.
Speaker 1:No, my oldest two boys. When they get there, when they get in the car, when I pick them up from their mom's house, they're like are we playing Monopoly tonight? They love to play every friday night, but when they were with us. But now sometimes you have to bump to saturday or maybe sunday after church because schedules have gotten so hectic.
Speaker 2:But yeah, we love monopoly, love it I'm surprised there's something like uh well, maybe there is, like you know, like on espn3. I wonder if there's like monopoly challenges, like is it? Do they, do they have like a national challenge? Oh yes, there is.
Speaker 1:There is a yeah, a national competition. There's actually, it's a world competition. Yeah, you can go and play, but they the. They play by the rules and then they use the. It's all luck If I roll a Mr Monopoly. That's luck. That is not strategy To me. When you play two dice straight through the game, you have to be strategic about what you buy, how you spend your money. Yeah, my wife's always the banker in our game and I'm confident that's the only reason she ever wins. I'm not calling her a liar, I'm just not calling her a truther.
Speaker 1:Yes, she skims. You pay the bank $200, $100 for the bank, $100 for me. Yeah, I'm confident.
Speaker 2:Her interest rates are high. Yes, yes, interest rates are high, yeah.
Speaker 1:All right. Anybody else have anything for our New Year's episode? Button up. No, nada, nada, all right.
Speaker 3:Dawn. You want to pray for us this evening, dear precious Heavenly Father. We come to you, dear Lord, to thank you for this day, lord, lord, we thank you that there will be a new year coming, lord, and if we do set resolutions, lord, let us focus on you. Yes, and Lord, god, we just ask and pray that you take us all home safely and bring us back to our next appointed time, and all these things we ask and pray in your son's most precious and holy name.
Speaker 4:Amen Amen.
