Fall Favorite Things: Travel, Beverages, Apps + More

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hi. This is Laura Vandercamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist, and speaker.

00:00:08
Speaker 2: And this is Sarah Hartunger. I'm a mother of three, a practicing physician and blogger. On the side, we are two working parents who love our careers and our families. Welcome to best of both worlds.

00:00:19
Speaker 1: Here we talk about how real women manage work, family, and time for fun, from figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals. We want you to get the most out of life.

00:00:32
Speaker 2: Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura.

00:00:35
Speaker 1: This episode is first airing in late September of twenty twenty three. We're calling it our Fall Favorite Things. We like alliteration around here, so we're just going to be talking about a handful of things that we are enjoying right now, even if you don't really get much fall weather there, right Sarah, When does it actually start getting cooler?

00:00:55
Speaker 2: It starts getting cooler. October is a little better than September, and then November starts getting good, which is when best laid plans live is. So I'm going to throw in a little unplanned plug to say that actually, your chance to sign up is going to be over in a couple of weeks from when this airs, So if you're interested in experiencing a Fort Lauderdale fall, then now is the time. But yeah, it starts to get nice in November. Yeah, well, we experienced a little early fall. As we're listing our favorite things, we're recording this right after Labor Day. My family just got back from a week long trip to Norway, where it was definitely already feeling like fall to me, and in fact, some of the leaves were changing When we were biking through an alpine landscape, we got to see some of the yellowing on the aspens and all that. So it was really beautiful, and of course the weather was cooler than it is in at least our parts of the US. We came back to ninety degree weather here, but it.

00:01:51
Speaker 1: Was pretty much fifties and sixties there for the entire time, which turned out to be slightly problematic for my boys. You know, had all packed long pants that then didn't fit them when we tried some of them on in Norway. It turns out that if you haven't worn your jeans since April and you grow at a pretty rapid pubertle rate, rapid face, then your pants don't fit you when you try them on. In late August early September, so you know, there were some shorts wearing despite the cold, and everyone went to Old Navy for an emergency back to school shopping session on Labor Day. But be that as it way, Yeah, Norway is great.

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Speaker 2: How did you pick? I want a little bit more Norway detail? And when you were described if anybody could see my face as she was describing her alpine bike ride, Oh, it just sounds like it just sounds amazing. So tell the listeners a little bit and tell me, like, why did you pick Norway? And you know, would you recommend it for families?

00:02:52
Speaker 1: I absolutely would recommend it for families. I know there's sort of this idea of like the Scandinavian like pair for women and families, and in some ways it isn't. But in some ways it truly is that they're very family friendly. In Norway, people are not surprised to see with multiple children in a way that I think some other destinations might be. Like nobody bat it and I have four children that I brought. I mean I didn't go ahead and tell them I had another kid that I didn't bring. But the Scandic hotels, for instance, you can get a family suite which has room for six people in it, you know, with bunk beds on the wall, and like at museums for instance, often it's the case that you know, the adult pays, but children are completely free up to eighteen, not just like twelve as they do some places. And you know, they're like stroller friendly stuff.

00:03:46
Speaker 2: Everywhere.

00:03:47
Speaker 1: We see a ton of babies. Even like a burger king had a microwave so you could like heat your baby's food while you were getting your other food for other people who are older. I mean, they're just all sorts of stuff like that. So if you are traveling with a family, I can definitely recommend that as a destination. It's probably a little bit more expensive than some of the other places, and it's not on the euro I mean, obviously it's probably correlated strongly with the Europe and the Norwegian kroner is separate from that, and the exchange rate goes up and down. It was better when we were there, but sometimes it can be a little bit rough, but it's just beautiful. Yeah, my husband lived there for five years before we met, and so we'd gone there early in our relationship twice and then hadn't been back, but it was always on the list of places we wanted to bring the kids. So we did this summer and had.

00:04:39
Speaker 2: A lot of fun.

00:04:40
Speaker 1: We did a little short Norwegian fjord cruise going up in the north. We stayed at a couple of little mountain huts that are summer you know, the ski lodge, but it's in the summer and so you can bike and hike and.

00:04:53
Speaker 2: All that great stuff.

00:04:54
Speaker 1: And you know, then saw Oslo of course, with the Edward Mulk Museum and things like that.

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Speaker 2: I bet he has more than just the Scream to offer. He does, in fact.

00:05:05
Speaker 1: Have more than scram although it's just like it's like the Louver people have been there, that people will race through priceless treasures or whatever because they have to see the Mona Lisa, right Like, you know, they're racing through stuff that would be the highlight of any other museum in order to get to this tiny painting of the Mona Lisa and stand with a crowd to see it, and then I guess get back on the tour bus.

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Speaker 2: And there's some.

00:05:27
Speaker 1: Element of that with the Scream as well, and it's almost kind of theatrical what they've done with it because there are three versions, like there's a print, there's something else, and then a color painting of it, and so they rotate through every thirty minutes to avoid having the light on any of them that long. And so like we were there at eleven o'clock when one was closing and the other was opening.

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Speaker 2: It was funny.

00:05:50
Speaker 1: But there are vampire paintings. There's one overwhel monks had all sorts of dark things he was into.

00:05:57
Speaker 2: But yeah, it sounds like an amazing churn. And I guess you did not bring your youngest as you just mentioned previously that you brought four out of five kids. Did he have a wonderful time at home? And did you feel like that was the right decision at this juncture.

00:06:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like that was the right decision. It was not stress free to travel with four older children, but it was a lot less stressful to travel with them, and you had the possibility of actual downtime while people were playing games on their devices or whatever they were they're doing. And the places that we could get Wi Fi, which most places you could get Wi Fi not universal. There was some whining about that, and the three year old was here and you know, well cared for, and he did all sorts of amazing activities here, like going to the Creola Experience, going to Chuck E Cheese, things that he was going to enjoy a lot more than the Monk Museum. Probably my older children might have enjoyed Chuck E Cheese more than the Monk Museum too, but they could put up with that to do other things. And I mean he couldn't have gone biking, for instance. He wouldn't have been great for hiking. You know, just changed your trip. Even being on a cruise boat like is angsty with a three year old than it is with older children. No, I think it makes total sense. I don't think he lost really anything by not going. And I think your family, as cute as the pictures would have been with all five, like, really got to have some time together where you were actually able to be.

00:07:20
Speaker 2: Completely present because you weren't as focused on the little one.

00:07:23
Speaker 1: That's true. I mean travel does get easier as kids get older, and I feel like we've got a pretty good setup down, and I think you do too. As you took your cruise to in Vancouver and Alaska and all that, and you just get the suitcases for each kid.

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Speaker 2: They all have their travel backpacks.

00:07:40
Speaker 1: I mean at this point, everyone's passports are valid for at least another eighteen months, so we don't have to do anything for a while. It's stuff like that, you could you start to feel like, ooh, we actually can travel.

00:07:51
Speaker 2: Yes, and now I'm like Norway at.

00:07:54
Speaker 1: It to the list. Yeah, Scandinavia is great. Well you go to Denmark and do the lego stuff there.

00:07:59
Speaker 2: That would very true.

00:08:02
Speaker 1: But yeah, one of our favorite things is using that last week of summer to do something like this, and the travel the crowds tend to be less, so there's more flights available places, you know, some places you're not quite a peak season yet, so sometimes rates are going down for things because a lot of schools do start in August, so if yours don't until September, you can have that time leading up to Labor Day and to do other things. And you like to take your sort of victory lap trip right before school.

00:08:30
Speaker 2: Starts as well. I wish we had, you know, up to Labor Day time, because honestly, the idea of like going somewhere where it's already almost a little fall. Sounds just so tantalizing that our school calendar starts well before that, and I don't think that is ever going to change unless we're in a different state. But yes, I feel like to psychologically, and I've even already earmarked next year's trip, like I just like to go towards the end of the summer on our big family trip to have that to look forward to to kind of anchor the summer. And it just sort of like by that point, kids are tired camp and it's just a nice fun palette cleanser before school starts. So I'm with you. I just I wish we could take advantage of being a little bit later in the season, but that's not how the school calendar works here. And pet Peeve like, I feel like, why can't they announce, Like I'm already thinking about next summer, as one does, especially when you have a larger family and you want to like look at all the places to stay, But I can't. I actually don't know when school's going to start, and both the public and the private don't announce until like December January for the twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five year, like there's this whole vote in our county and then I think usually the privates kind of go off of what the public does. So yeah, I won't know for a while. It's kind of annoying. Oh that's interesting.

00:09:39
Speaker 1: I always thought it was part of like the collective bargaining agreement that they would get it earlier for like that they set the dates for the upcoming year far ahead of it.

00:09:46
Speaker 2: But no, interesting, who knew?

00:09:50
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, no, I mean it's good to take that time, and you know, look back over past August, we can say that both of us have kind of used that last week before schools start for that sort of thing. And you know, we had obviously this huge time change in jet lag, but the direction we were coming, flying west is not as bad for that because people just wake up early, like they get tired early, and they wake up early. And so we made it through the first that we came back Sunday and school started Tuesday, Like people were just very tired, but we stayed up till nine or ten at night on Sunday, and then people some people woke up at four am, but most people made it till at least six. And then the next night you know, people are tired again at nine out of ten, which is what they should be for a school thing. And we didn't have trouble getting people out of bed on the school morning because.

00:10:35
Speaker 2: You know, they were jetlagged, and that's the time where you went the right direction because also you end up on kind of a later vacation schedule, as we absolutely do. I mean, I joked that we were ended up like seven hours ahead instead of three hours ahead because my kids were sleeping until like ten am Pacific time, and it's like, well, that is so far from where we needed to be when we came back.

00:10:55
Speaker 1: Yeah right, Yeah, that direction is harder. So one way to put a shout out for if you are American going to Europe, and I guess if you're European you could go to Asia or something.

00:11:06
Speaker 2: I don't know how that all works to and you can.

00:11:08
Speaker 1: Creation you go to the west coast the US make it. Then there's the dateline in there, so I'm not quite sure how that works out. But yeah, so that was a favorite thing. I guess we'll go ahead and keep going with our list. You are getting really into your library holds as usual.

00:11:25
Speaker 2: Yes, well this was prompted by yours, which we'll get to in a second. But I am still in like major team physical book. I get them mostly from the library, although kind of a recent fun family outing has been to go to the bookstore because I will admit, my kids are more likely to be excited about reading when it's some shiny new book that they've picked up at the bookstore. We don't have a like small indie cool bookstore nearby. We do have a Barnes and Noble that has Hoppen, and I got to say, like that place kind of does a good job. Like they have you know, great displays out, they have a lovely stationary section. They have like a few toys, but it's not like an overwhelming horrible amount of toys. So Genevieve is always excited to go to and I will say it's kind of become one of my favorite like not bribe the kids to get to read, but you know, incentivize them to read by saying, let's go pick out something new. Plus this time I told them, Okay, pick out something new, and we'll take some pictures of some other books and we'll put them on your library holes, Liss and then that way we can kind of stretch things a little farther.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, best of both worlds there, right, get the range of titles that a commercial bookstore has, and then also save the money that the library helps you to do, and then not have all the clutter in your house as well when the kid has read through the book in ninety minutes, yes, which can happen sometimes. Yeah, I think it's funny, like back in the sleep what was it sleepless in Seattle day? Like the major bookstore chains were evil, and of course now there's Amazon, and so they're people are almost willing to treat the physical bookstores as being more like the indies or in the past.

00:12:57
Speaker 2: It's it's funny how these things have changed over time.

00:13:00
Speaker 1: Although speaking of Amazon, I would say my favorite thing here is that if you do read a lot of kindle books, which I do, you can get a free sample. Like Amazon lets you get a free sample of almost any kindle book, and usually it's about ten to fifteen percent of the book. I mean, so it's a pretty substantial amount of it, which means that it's enough for you to tell if you're going to like the book.

00:13:23
Speaker 2: And I have been in the past.

00:13:25
Speaker 1: I've been sometimes I've been like, oh, I know I'm going to like this book, and I order it, and then something happens that there's like, you know, they're not that I'm really into trigger warnings or something, but there's something that just triggers me in the first chapter and I'm like, I'm not going to read this book, Like I.

00:13:37
Speaker 2: Am not going to read this book.

00:13:38
Speaker 1: And so then I'm like, well, I've just wasted the money I'm buying this book. And I guess it's not clutter, but it's still there. And so now I almost always do the sample first, and if I like the book in the first ten to fifteen percent, I will definitely buy it. I buy most of them right that I get the sample from. But then if there is something that I'm just like, you've got to be kidding me, I don't buy it and I don't feel bad and we move on.

00:14:04
Speaker 2: Or if there's just boring or if you're like this is a chore, I don't I'm not having fun with this.

00:14:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's boring, or there's something like ridiculous in the first yeah ten to fifteen percent. Because it turns out that most authors go as they go. They're going to write the rest of the book exactly as they wrote the first ten to fifteen percent of the book. So you're not going to hate the book as a result of something that happened around seventy five percent of the way and most of the time it's going to be revealed to you in the first ten to fifteen percent. So throw that out there is something a little tip for people if you read all at those All, right, Well, we're going to take a little ad break and we will be back in a few minutes with more of our full favorite things. Well, we are back talking our fall favorite things. So Fall is always about special be ridges. Probably a lot of our listeners are in camp PSL or maybe not. But Sarah, what is your fall favorite beverage which is not PSL?

00:15:11
Speaker 2: My fall favorite beverages are like as far from Fall as it gets. I guess I will say I do enjoy oat milk cappuccinos from Starbucks, but I'm not a big PSL fan because I think it tastes really really sweet and kind of weird. But if you love them, that's awesome. And my fall beverages right now are trying to find some magical electrolyte containing beverage that will magically help with my migraines, which may be a little bit of a pipe dream, but we'll get into it. I'm taking this, and this is actually relevant to two bullet points here, but I'm taking the Marathon Training nutrition course with Megan Featherston, who was a guest on this podcast. This is a non sponsored mention. I am paying for her course like a regular participant, and it's been useful. And I actually asked a question in the group, is there any magical thing that helps with hydration if you suffer migraines? And they recommended Element LMNT, which is like a super salty sports drink. It doesn't have any carbohydrate, but it's like beyond salty. And I tried it. I did have to kind of like dilute it because I full strength I could not deal. But I did not get a migraine and I had a pretty long run, So I mean, I don't know. Maybe it is magic. I don't think it's gonna wipe them all away, but if it's one factor that helps, then it may be worth trying. So had it yesterday and had it today, and I may keep having it if I keep not having migraines.

00:16:31
Speaker 1: Because you're you're like ten mile plus runs are triggering that for you.

00:16:35
Speaker 2: That's like a even just they can be shorter, but it tends to be like runs that are more intense or longer. But I think it's like some of it's like the dehydration and the overheating factor, and maybe if the dehydration is part of it and the salty stuff kind of helps you keep more of your blood volume within your blood vessels, then.

00:16:54
Speaker 1: Great, great, well sounds good. We'll hope that keeps working.

00:16:59
Speaker 2: I'm going to do.

00:17:00
Speaker 1: My favorite thing is a Starbucks drink. It is the Strawberry Asi Lemonade Refresher, which is I guess more of a summer drink, but they carry it year round, and Jasper really got me into these over the past year.

00:17:13
Speaker 2: But now we have them like two.

00:17:15
Speaker 1: To three times a week, and so it's become a pretty common beverage for me. He and I both get the Vinti size with light ice, asking for light ice so you get a little bit more of the juice in there. Sometimes he gets other things with the Dragon drink or any other of that, but I'm pretty hooked on the Strawberry Asi ones.

00:17:34
Speaker 2: It's a good thing.

00:17:35
Speaker 1: I like to have it in the afternoon makes me feel a little bit more hydrated, and I think it may be lightly caffeinated, it turns out, and so I'm sure that helps with the hook like, ooh, I think I'd like that. It's not that I'm having an extra cup of coffee, even if I sort of kind of am. So yeah, I really have gotten into those. And turns out you can order head on the app and go pick it up and that makes it less of the app thing. The Starbucks that we go to frequently has a really terrible, terrible parking lot, so spending as little time in that parking lot as possible. It really helps to go with two people because then you don't have to park legally like you have a driver with you, right, because they can circle around, or you can circle, or you could park somewhere that you can't really park, but there's somebody there.

00:18:17
Speaker 2: You could move it if you had to.

00:18:18
Speaker 1: And yeah, you don't want to go there solo because you'll never find a spot and you'll ever be able to pull out. So it's all good anyway. The strawberry size is still good, mostly worth it. I also like Blueberry sodas, though I'll throw that out if anyone likes Main Root soda. It's like a small brand out of Maine. I think Whole Foods may carry them. Sometimes you can order them through Amazon, although they're kind of expensive. They cost just as much through there as they would if you got them as a fountain drink in the stores. So they sell them at Cousins Main Lobster, which is also a win for me, but in the food trucks or in their restaurants, and I always love getting those.

00:18:59
Speaker 2: How is Cousin's Main Lobster because I've never seen a truck with that on it, So they I think mostly on the East Coast.

00:19:09
Speaker 1: There's you have to track them down like, and they're loyal people who do. But there's a truck that comes to our area about once every two weeks, like to a mall that's near us, so we'll go on occasion. And then that is sort of a beach treat as well, because there is an actual physical restaurant, Cousins Main Lobster Restaurant on the Asbury Park boardwalk. So when we go to Ocean Grove, we go there a couple times. I think we went three times while we were there for two weeks. So yeah, but you do not have to be in Maine. No, you do not have to be in Maine. And actually I don't know if there really are that many in Maine because in Main there are a ton of lobster shacks right where they sell lobster rolls, and so they would be competing with all these tiny places. And whereas if you are in suburban Pennsylvania, you don't have a lobster shack around the corner every where, and so this is your equivalent, and so they could brand it and make different outposts various place.

00:20:06
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna seek this out next time I'm up north or see if they have any Southern I love lobster roles. They're so good, but you don't only get them done here.

00:20:14
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, although there is, I mean there's Caribbean lobster. It's just a little different. I guess it doesn't do people don't do it with the mayonnaise and stuff anyway. Correct, speaking of lobster, which is a protein, So you are into protein, I guess far too.

00:20:29
Speaker 2: I don't think I'm the only one. Well, we both read Peter Attia's outlive and it was an interesting book. I probably with a little bit of distance. I'm like, you know, I see a lot of benefits to the stuff he says, and then there are some limitations as well. However, one of the takeaways that I felt he did sell really, really well was that it helps to get a good amount of protein to just function optimally maintain muscle mass. I'm being much more vague than he was in his but I guess I will just say I came away fairly convinced or at least convinced that it wouldn't be a harmful.

00:21:05
Speaker 1: Thing to do.

00:21:05
Speaker 2: Plus, I was really struggling with just being like obscenely hungry with my marathon training, and it turns out once I actually focused on eating more protein, the satiety of what I was eating really improved a lot. And so I'm just team protein. Like I've never looked at labels in my life to be like how many grams is that or whatever, But now I'm like conscious of trying to get like at least twenty to thirty grams in most of my meals. And so it turns out you have to like be intent You're not going to accidently do that I guess unless you're like a crazy carnivore and eat like a lot of meat for every meal. So yeah, I told Josh, I was like, I feel like I've crossed a chasm of people who buy protein powder versus people who don't. Like this weekend like I bought, you crossed the chasm.

00:21:48
Speaker 1: You became one of the Like, I don't know whether the tech pros buying their protein powder that.

00:21:53
Speaker 2: They basically And I even made peanut butter protein balls from this random recipe.

00:21:59
Speaker 1: I found one and they were really really good. So I'll have to try those out into protein maybe make some of those. Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to eat eggs for breakfast. Other than that, I don't know if I'm gonna but maybe I should be thinking more about protein that would probably be good for me.

00:22:15
Speaker 2: Eggs are good. I like eggs more. I don't know if you're can have way protein or not with the dough. Yeah, that's that's the experiment, you know.

00:22:22
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, well, I really I realized I will occasionally have dairy if it's something that's really truly worth it, and then some you just pay the piper afterwards, you know. I when we went to our favorite ice cream parlor days in Ocean Grove. I was like, Okay, the oat milk ice cream is just making me sad, so I'm going to try the chocolate peanut butter real ice cream. I'll get the short shot and just you know, see how it goes. And the first night I hadn't wasn't that bad. I was like, then, you know, I didn't feel terrible, so I was like, oh, you know, maybe my medication means I won't have to worry about this.

00:22:57
Speaker 2: This is awesome. So I was like, I had another one and then I was.

00:23:00
Speaker 1: Like, oh, two nights in a row was a bad idea. It was a really really bad idea.

00:23:07
Speaker 2: So now I know.

00:23:08
Speaker 1: I mean it's very limited. So as like I said, I have the lobster roll with a tiny like bit of I'm sure they put a little bit of butter on the roll itself. It's mostly manniseed based in the sandwich, but you know, I just try to keep as little as possible. And way protein powder does not sound worth it.

00:23:24
Speaker 2: Right, I just don't know, since it's just that one extracted part of the dairy, if it would that's true.

00:23:29
Speaker 1: Trigger you were not so that, Yeah, like, would goat cheese be better or whatever? Oh, there you go.

00:23:35
Speaker 2: We'll see anyway.

00:23:37
Speaker 1: So one another favorite thing early morning shopping. So we'll throw this out there as a strategy for anyone who hates being in crowded stores, wants to get in get out, and you know you're not doing delivery for whatever reason. So I went to Target at eight am on Labor Day because I was jet lagged and up and hadn't gotten Alex's school supplies yet. And the store was empty. I mean, they're literally the ratio of workers to people shopping was like three to one at that point, and so it was it was a lovely experience, you know, that just had the store to myself. And I've had that at Wagman's, which is a I think ours is opened twenty four hours, or if it's not open twenty four hours, it opens at like five am or something ridiculous like that.

00:24:24
Speaker 2: And one night I was up really early.

00:24:26
Speaker 1: Because of a kid, and so I was like, I'm just gonna go do our grocery shopping now, and we do your grocery shopping at five thirty six am. Again, nobody there. You need something, There's plenty of people to help because that's when they're stocking shelves. So yeah, it's pretty blissful to stop shopping in an empty store.

00:24:43
Speaker 2: It really is. And even honestly, like nine nine to thirty could be a million times better than afternoon I took. I also did a Labor day shopping trip fairly early yesterday with two kids, and it was like, chill, It's easy. Chill.

00:24:57
Speaker 1: Chill shopping is always good as opposed to non chill shopping. Although the problem of doing you know, if it's like the first part of your work day shopping and then just like you might need a break in the afternoon, it's better to do it as a break in the afternoon versus the productive time. You know, there's always a trade off. But speaking of trade offs, are actually trading in. Another favorite thing for me is the Toyota Sienna minivan. We bought our first one in twenty fourteen. It has had the normal wear and tear. It's almost one hundred twenty thousand miles now and we were looking to get a new one. But as longtime listeners know, this has been a not terribly fruitful pursuit over the past almost two years eighteen months here is that Toyota had massive supply chain issues or I don't know, they decided to purposely make them rare, like shop I mean, like purses or something. I don't know, designer persons that they only make a few and so everybody wants them. And they've done that with Toyota Santamnavans. Who knows you could not get one like you could not get one for a period if at least a year, and then they were charging massive markups over the price, the list price. That has started to come down, and we finally decided it was low enough that we could make the leap and so we bought one. We will get it in October early November. So very exciting to have a brand new minivan that hopefully will not trash in the first week.

00:26:25
Speaker 2: Very very exciting.

00:26:26
Speaker 1: It's the minivan that has all wheel drive. So in case anyone's wondering, like, why do you care so much about the stand, it's because it's got all wheel drive and some other things like that that make it.

00:26:36
Speaker 2: We couldn't not have all wheel drive. We live up a big hill and you can't get up it WITHOUTCV characteristics. But minivan into minivan that's nice. So yeah, that's why we wanted one one. Now we're going to get one very Toyota can feel free to sponsor us because that's all we have at our house and we like them. All. Toyota podcast here all right, Scanning stuff, scanning stuff, scanning stuff. I'm so excited that you finally that you like discovered this, because tell our listeners about it. Yes. So, I've long used it like a scanning app to scan documents and then I would like put them in Apple Notes. But now, like in the last year or so, Apple Notes introduced a feature where you can scan it directly into Apple Notes. Like you just click on the little I don't know, like take image or whatever, and then you just scan it and it works really really well, and then you can forward it to whoever you want. You can air drop it, you can just keep it in there, you can email it to somebody for school. So it is so useful to do this with like school health forms or I don't know, anything that needs to be turned in but that you might want to copy of, I you know, like anything. Really, I wish I should tell all of my patients that always lose all their like lab orders and X ray orders.

00:27:52
Speaker 1: To like scan it right now while you're here.

00:27:58
Speaker 2: Yes, I'll show you how to do it. So just incredibly useful. Of course you could always have taken a picture before, but the scanning works better. It turns it into a PDF. It kind of fixes the shape so it looks good. And if you haven't tried it, yeah, recommend it. I would say.

00:28:13
Speaker 1: The one downside, if you have certain formats of overhead lighting in your room, occasionally you get the shadow of your phone as you are scanning the documents, so you might want to experiment with different locations, like if you're doing this often in your home office, for instance, perhaps there are certain corners where you are less likely to get the shadow of your phone on the PDF when you are scanning it, because that's not something that would happen if you're using a real scanner, you know, loading it onto it, which is what I had to do, Like every time somebody had a permission form that I then had to email back or I would you know, I would print it, I would sign it, I would scan it on the scanner on my printer onto a USB stick. I would put the USB stick into my laptop, open it up, then email it as an attachment to somebody.

00:28:56
Speaker 2: It's just so many more steps.

00:28:57
Speaker 1: It was just a pain, and this is like, you know, I still I print it. It's better if people are doing like docu sign type things, but if they haven't gotten to that point yet, then you just print it, sign it, do the scan on your phone. It's there, so you can just email it directly back to somebody who's probably in your contact list if you're talking like your kid's teacher or whatever, and it's done. It takes you know, half the time and feels a lot easier. So in case there is anyone listening, maybe even ninety nine out of one hundred people listening to this podcast already knew about this. But if you didn't like this is probably the most useful podcast you will have heard in the last month.

00:29:34
Speaker 2: So please you can also use it for like editing. So I had to, like I wanted to revamp the workbook and the course book for Besily Plan's Academy. And it wasn't every page that needed something, but I just literally handwrote it and every time I made a change, scanned it, and then I was able to just bulk email them all to the person who makes them pretty so it was very easy.

00:29:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, speaking of bulk messaging, your tech current favorite thing, my tech current thing. Uh oh give me, I'm trying to do transitions here.

00:30:07
Speaker 2: Sorry, that's a good transition. I thought you were talking about the thing above that thing, and I was like, okay, it does hold get there, We'll get there. But yes, my fall app of choice. And when you mentioned the scanner is I think What's Up is just a very like Yes, it is owned by Meta, Yes they may do stuff with your data, but it is such a streamlined app for group chatting and I just love that it doesn't unlike Facebook, Instagram, there's really not a lot of dopamine happening and WhatsApp because there's no suggested anything. It's just the threads that you're subscribed to. There are no ads, there's no What's Up stars like trying to try to make it on What's Up and you know this isn't up to me. But just like coincidentally, our school uses it, so like every single classroom there's a thread. Cameron's soccer team uses it, which is great because that's like one of our most frequented like kind of last minute changes type of thing and the coach and the parent manager can always just like reach everyone that way. I've now started using it for some of my like group things and it's just I use for my book club, Like it's just so easy. So I'm worried that something could happen to it because I googled, like, how does What's Up make any money? Apparently it's like there's a business integration and payments and stuff, and I don't use any of those features, but I guess that's how they stay afloat. But regardless, right now it's I find it very useful and streamlined and easy. Yeah, well there you go.

00:31:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I'm using it for Sarah's best liked Plans Live. She's had us create a little group there, and I use it for a few other things and totally seems good. It's you know, the group chat, but without I don't know, you can always just group chat some people from your phone, but I think it makes it easier for certain.

00:31:43
Speaker 2: Easier, especially if you have a mixed bag of Android and iPhone users, because like, when stuff goes green, it's just and my husband is green, like he's Android, Like it just it never works great, never work. That is so bizarre.

00:31:59
Speaker 1: Why can't these things play together? I don't know anyway. Final favorite thing for me is fall. This is airing in late September, which is not fully fall here, like really the peak leaves as mid to late October, but it's definitely you start feeling a little bit of Christmas in the morning and some of the leaves are changing a bit on the edge, and it's always just exciting to me. I love that change of seasons. One of the reasons we often go someplace sort of northern or mountainous in that last week of August into September is I like getting a little glimpse of the beginning of fall that we did in Norway with the yellowing aspens on our mountain bike ride. But we've definitely gone places like you know, Yellowstone or Yosemite, which also starts to get in our harbor Maine two years ago, and there was a little bit of change underfoot in Acadia National Park and it's just I love.

00:32:48
Speaker 2: That changing of seasons.

00:32:49
Speaker 1: Is one of the upsides of living in a place with four seasons is that you feel that sense of momentum and change as time goes on, and if you go outside a lot and your backyard. Even you'll start to see things like that, and it's really I find that just I would have a hard time I think living somewhere that didn't have seasons, even though winter is always no fun whatsoever.

00:33:13
Speaker 2: No, I agree, I miss them. I have to use things like external cues like my phone background to like remember where we are in the year, as crazy as that sounds, and like it's not quite the same if you have seasons, be grateful, yeah, yeah, tell yourself that at least while you're shoveling snow.

00:33:30
Speaker 1: And finally, Sarah, you have one with that's more of a fashion one.

00:33:33
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's fashion or non fashion, but it's like the most basic accessory known to momhood right now, which is like the hands free like wastebag. Of course, extra points if it's like Lula lemon and a neutral color and mine checks every single one of those boxes. But being hands free is amazing. I mean it's amazing at the grocery store, is amazing, going to soccer, like especially because I have to carry the giant chair, which is like another quasi favorite thing, like having my keys, my phone and like a couple of credit cards just attached to me without anything swinging for my arms. I mean, it's great, it's great.

00:34:09
Speaker 1: You feel free and all you need is like the kissick shoes that you don't have to tie, and it's like you have complete and total I know, you never even have to like bend over or anything.

00:34:19
Speaker 2: I feel like I wear birkenstocks most of the time, so that, yeah, that's true. I guess you're in the land of sandals, so that's not a thing.

00:34:24
Speaker 1: But I have increasing number of my children in those Kizzic shoes because that you could just slide them on and then there's less of an issue of people being late because they're tying shoes or have knots in their shoelaces and you don't have to tie them for anyone if they forgot how to tie overnight or they I can't get it anyway.

00:34:41
Speaker 2: That's something we like as well.

00:34:44
Speaker 1: All right, Well, so bringing us to the question part of this, This is actually a question posed in our Patreon group, which if you're new around here, we have a Patreon community, the best of both worlds Patreon community that we'd love to have you join with.

00:34:58
Speaker 2: We have ongoing discussion.

00:35:00
Speaker 1: We have about three discussion threads every week that people chime in with various career advice or how they're managing family schedules, all sorts of perennial best of both worlds topics. And because it's you know, a fairly private group. I mean, anyone who's listening can join. But it's not just out on the internet, not just out on social media where you're getting ads for everything. I think there's a lot of generosity and sharing. So please come join us. We'd love to have you anyway. One of the questions we discussed there recently was is there an off ramp to outsourcing? So when we have young kids, many of us wind up having a lot of time saving services because we're just short on time as we're working and spending time with young kids, dealing with their needs, trying to have some semblance of personal life, plus sleep as well. So you know, people getting stuff delivered, the cleaning service, obviously, extra childcare at various points. Is there an off ramp to it? This person was wondering as her kids got older, was there a point where she would meet less of that? So, Sarah, what are you thinking? Yeah, it was a great discussion. I mean, people had different thoughts about different things. I can see off ramps to some things and then others. It's like very unclear and blurry to me, and there's like a lot of variables, so I guess I just can't see it as much from this juncture.

00:36:16
Speaker 2: The things that I could think of that feel like they have some kind of an expiration date are date night, babysitting. I mean, we still get a babysitter, but I'm like Annabel's looking closer and closer to the age of the babysitter and at some point, like I think they would be okay, especially if it was a time limited amount of time. The upside of the babysitter is generally they can get them all to go to bed, but I mean maybe that with the right incentive, maybe they would put themselves to bed. We'll see. So that I can see an expiration date too, not tomorrow, but like probably within the next two years. We've got laundry and making lunches. I feel like at some point the kids will be able to do some of that, particularly the lunches. Even though I know I'm not as much of a stickler for any age caught off as Laura is. I you know Annabel does it without any problem, and I think Cameron probably could start doing it soon. And then there's things that like could have an off ramp maybe, but like cleaning, like heavy duty cleaning, which we only we have somebody come twice a month for that. I feel that as long as I am working full time, I plan to outsource that. I think if there ever becomes a time in my life that I'm like semi retired and I don't have kids in the house, then I wouldn't mind doing some of that like myself or like figuring out you know whatever. But right now, I think, as long as I'm working full time hours, that's not what I want to be spending my time doing. And then the thing that I really don't see a great off ramp for is the like having another person in the afternoons and helping with activity, driving and such, just because again, like I have too many kids going in too many different directions. I don't want them not to do things because I can't drive them and I don't have a reliable second driver, not because he's not reliable, but because like this week, he's on call Tuesday and Thursday, and that means he could come home anytime or not. And if I have like a kid that finishes ballet on one side of town and soccer on the other side of town at the same time, like, it just doesn't work. So unless our circumstances were to change, like if the kids were at a school where all their activities were based there or some I don't know, then I don't see an end in sight for that portion.

00:38:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of people were saying that the occasional babysitting, certainly even needing after school care for people, at some point that might end. Now again, if you have a lot of driving, that's a different matter. But you know kids will be sixteen at some point. You might have years where at least an older child could help with younger children. And certainly you don't need a sitter for teenagers who are there on their own. The cleaning is a different matter because many people are like, well, I just don't want to devote the time to it if there's somebody who's willing to do it for a reasonable price, And there are other things I'd like to do, like hobbies that maybe those got short shrift while I was spending so much time with young children. I would rather take that time that is now available because the kids don't need as much intensive care, and do my hobbies with it as opposed to putting it into I don't know whatever sort of household chores and errands were outsourced originally.

00:39:11
Speaker 2: You just keep doing that forever.

00:39:14
Speaker 1: But obviously even you know, saving money on full time childcare. Eventually, we always are counseling people don't get rid of it too early. But eventually there will be the time when you don't need it full time, and so that will be at least an off ramp for that.

00:39:28
Speaker 2: Such an interesting question.

00:39:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I guess this has kind of all been a love of the Week episode, right, and we don't have a.

00:39:34
Speaker 2: I don't think we have an additional additional one. Hopefully you found something in here useful, from beverages to try to the scanning app to a really basic fanny pack.

00:39:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, fanny pack, yes exactly, or that you should take a trip that if you're going to take a big time train time change trip, you want to come fly west right before school starts. But using that last week before school is a great thing too. All right, well, this has been best of both worlds. We've been talking about our fall favorite Things. We will be back next week with more on making work and life fit together.

00:40:10
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram, and you.

00:40:17
Speaker 1: Can find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join us next time for more on making work and life work together.