Foreign.

To no Shame in the Home Game, the podcast that cares how your home feels.

I am Lacy, your co host, who feels like she really wasn't around that much this season with our co host, Sarah, who was around.

Hi, Sarah.

Hi, Lacy.

It is so good to see you.

And little behind the scenes for the audience.

We're meeting on a Sunday morning, a snowy Sunday morning.

I mean, virtually.

But it's kind of fun.

I know there may be interruptions.

Who knows who will walk into my room where I'm doing this?

Both Isaac and Iris and Joe are home, so who knows?

But it does.

It feels.

There's.

There's something about it that's like sleepover esque.

That's like, this is not the normal time.

Yes, that's what it is.

Yeah.

It's like we snuck away.

And then it's fun too, because it's a snow day for us here.

I mean, it's not just a snow day.

It is a, like, don't go out, it's dangerous day.

And so I'm still in my pajamas and I'm like, oh.

And then after this, I get to go read my book.

Like, it just, it all feels like so much fun.

I mean, this never feels like work, but doing it on a Sunday makes it feel even more playful.

Like you said, like a sleepover.

This is our season three wrap up episode.

So we're gonna do some reflecting on the season, talk about what we've gotten out of the season, what we hope you've gotten, and then look at kind of into the future and what you can expect from us going forward.

Yeah.

I, as a planner and an organizer, I love this because we take a moment to look back.

Yep.

And then we take a moment to.

To forecast forward.

And so it really tickles something inside of me that feels.

It's fun for me.

It feels like productive and fun at the same time.

So, yeah, I love this, like, snapshot episode when we get to do this.

And also we're so in it all the time that I love looking back at everything we did accomplish because in the moment we're just like, okay, this, this, this.

And it's like, oh, yeah, let's take a moment to think about that joy ripple we put out there and how much we did accomplish.

So that feels really good too.

Yeah.

Where should we dive in?

Well, let's just talk a little bit first about how this season was different than our first two seasons and our decision to kind of do that.

You know, we decided to pivot this season and still have A narrative with our dear friend Amy, who we'll talk more about soon.

We also kind of gave ourselves some space this season, which, as a person who is actively growing, I'm growing another being.

I needed space.

I needed the ability to have that flexibility.

I know we were just talking about, like, looking in the past part.

I feel like this season very much has been past, present, and future.

Right.

So past we've talked with previous participants.

Present, we've been doing these Q&As that have been really fun and surprising and helping, you know, Amy get to where she wants to be.

And I feel like a hug that every episode gets to be a little bit different, and it wrap.

The whole season just wraps you up.

I love that perspective.

And yes, I think that feels so true.

And I just read yesterday on Threads, somebody who does podcasting commented about how it's not a failure to change your format, how that's a reflection of growth.

And I already believed that.

But then hearing somebody else whose job is purely podcasting to say that, I thought, yeah, that's what Lacy and I did.

We looked at it and went, let's try this other thing.

So it really was a bridge season of following a participant, trying some new things.

And I'm really proud of us, because previous me, Sarah would have been, no, we picked this format.

We're going to do this until the day we expire.

And so I'm proud of us for adapting and changing, and I think that's a real sign of growth, and I'm glad we did, because that's also something I say to my clients all the time.

Pick a system, try it, figure out what parts of it worked and what parts of it didn't, and then pick the next system based on that information.

It's all data points.

And so if that's what I say to my clients, and I have to be willing to do that in all areas of my life.

So I'm glad that we did that.

And it was fun.

I really enjoyed the Q and as I thought it would be dry, and it wasn't.

I.

Yeah, I.

I loved every facet.

We'll dive.

We can dive in maybe first with our revisiting of the past of interview or talking to people who you've done.

And I'm very intimately involved with a lot of the people of.

You know, obviously Joe and I are one of them.

And, Alex, do you want to take a quick minute to tell listeners about Sarah?

Yes.

So for those of you who've been following since the beginning, you know, there was one more season one participant, which was Sarah.

And we, we did have every intention of revisiting how things were going.

But if you remember season one Sarah story, then it was full of medical adventures and we were trying to help her figure out food that would easily fit into her ever changing day, minute by minute changing.

And that storyline has held true.

She has continued in her family to experience many unexpected health adventures that have captured every minute of her day.

And so it wasn't for lack of want on either side.

She is continuing to live a very adventurous life.

What a lovely way of saying it.

I'm always, I, I'm always trying to like sugarcoat the things I mean the non pretty way to say it.

And I don't think Sarah would mind me saying this is, it's been a real shitstorm in her life.

It has been learning a whole different field of the medical world and navigating and learning about the shortage of healthcare providers and learning about how to navigate different medical systems.

It's been really tough.

I send out all the good vibes to Sarah because she is the glue that is holding everything together in her family.

And I hope that one day she gets, or one year, I hope she gets to really relax.

So I really do hope that we get to revisit with Sarah.

But yeah, that's where Sarah is and that's what's going on.

And then we did thankfully get to revisit with our other two season one participants, which, as Lacy said, she is very intimately connected with both of them.

Yeah, one of them was me and my husband Joe.

And it was really good for us to reflect back and be like, oh, we've come a long way, we've used our tools in a lot of other places.

But it's also funny that the original thing that we were struggling with, we still struggle, we're still finding ways to tackle it.

And that is the playroom in our house.

But I think there are so many other wins that we've had that have come out of this system of what we did in season one, especially with moving.

And it's also just nice to take a moment with your spouse to look back and be like, oh, we did some stuff, we're doing pretty good because you don't really get to do that very often, to pause, look back objectively and be able to have like a starting point and an ending point to look at it just.

That was very good for us.

Well, and on that note, that highlights one of the things that I say repeatedly and we do talk about it in home management for everyone is it is so much easier to notice the things that are going wrong.

That is where the spotlight is.

But like you said, to take a moment and reflect back and look at, oh, look at all these wins we had.

When things are running smoothly, we overlook them.

When really, if we focus on those wins, that's where we learn that information of how do we apply that to this other thing that's not working?

Oh, let's actually realize we did get these other systems running smoothly.

And like you said with the move and I mean, you had so much happen between season one and what and now.

And that's the whole thing, right?

Is life keeps happening.

This is never about a picture where you snap a moment in time and say, it's all perfect now.

I mean, that makes my skin crawl saying that it's not.

It's about, okay, I have to keep adapting to every single situation that's coming my way.

And we're going to use these tools, like we say over and over, we're not telling you what to do, we're telling you how to do it.

And then you can apply that to everybody.

Every new situation that comes your way.

And Lacy's a bit of a queen of new situations coming her way.

Yes.

To all of the above.

And I, I think that actually kind of is a nice pivot to talking about Alex and her situation of when we met Alex, she was transitioning to becoming a stay at home mom.

And then when we met Alex again, she was kind of transitioning away from that.

A lot of the principles she was able to use in those transitions and she became this like beacon of light of what we want for people.

When it comes to how this relates back to the joyful support movement of you have these things in place so you can focus on the joys in your life to be able to start a new hobby slash business that is about tintype photography, which if you haven't checked out her Instagram, you totally should.

She is flourishing and I'm so excited and proud of her.

She's having pop ups around the Cincinnati area all the time.

It is so cool and it is so Alex and I'm so happy for her and I'm so happy that we got to be like a little blip of a part of her, her journey to getting there.

Side note, I follow her on Instagram and I adore all of her reels and seeing her work.

And you are right, she is the poster child of what we're doing here.

And one of the biggest Uphill battles is when I try to tell people about my work and they think I'm about making this Pinterest perfect home.

No, look at Alex.

It is about making time for the things that fill you up.

And she perfectly encapsulates that.

That's a big word.

Encapsulate.

Encapsulates.

You said it.

You said it right.

You overthought it.

Over thought.

Stick in the landing.

That would be on my memoir.

I overthought that.

I feel like we can redirect everyone to, like, just listen to Alex Journey.

It's about having that managing the home with such ease that you have time to learn this completely new talent and start a new side business.

Such a joy to see that.

And the other thing we say all the time too is there's all these different seasons to life.

When we talked to her, she was pregnant and she was stay at home.

And now she's got a bigger family and she's not a stay at home mom.

Like, everything's a season of life.

And so again, being able to adapt the systems to what is now your current life and you get to use.

Those nuggets of wisdom that you learned and imply them different ways.

I really appreciated she sent me that voice note afterwards of like, oh, I want you guys to know the fact that you pointed out where do things happen?

That's where you should focus.

Not some arbitrary place.

That is something that I've really implemented in my own home too.

Of like, okay, wait, where is this happening?

This doesn't need to happen in some special land of my home because it's the.

What it was intended for when it was built.

No, how are we using it?

What is happening in each spot?

I think of the tools that we're talking about.

Of like, we're not going to tell you what to do, but that is a nugget of information to tell you how to tackle a problem.

Doing this podcast has really helped me clarify what part of the work I want to help other people with and understanding.

It's supporting your life, not you supporting your house looking like a magazine photo shoot.

Oh, and I also think it's something that has been so good for me because it's actually taught me how to focus on process, not outcomes.

Like, I feel like everyone's like, oh, live in the moment, Focus on.

It's the journey, it's not the destination.

And it's like, all I can see is the destination.

What are you talking about?

I can see the destination and I know I'm not there.

As you were talking, I'm like, yeah, that's what we're doing, really, in a lot of ways, is learning about how to see and recognize the journey and not prioritize the destination.

You know, we care how your home feels, not looks.

Because how it looks is an outcome.

How it feels is, is the journey.

I see on threads multiple times a day, people talking about laundry, laundry never being done.

They're always being piles of laundry, laundry, laundry.

And in my head, my thought is, I understand that frustration.

I do understand what they're saying, and it is never done.

You're always wearing clothes.

You're always getting something dirty.

It is always in process.

It will never not be in process unless you embrace wearing those disposable gowns from the hospital that are paper and you just throw them away and your.

Butt will always be out.

I always stress out and I'm like, do I put this thing on so my butt is open or so my boobs are open?

Like, I never know which way depends.

Sometimes it's both.

You gotta do both ways.

I love that we are leaning into the process of things, and I want everyone to hear us and be find this big exhale of relaxation of, okay, yes, it's okay if laundry isn't done because it's never done.

But I know what the process is, and I'm okay with knowing this will get done on this day.

Well, I do think that's kind of a good transition to talk about our participants this season, Amy.

Because I feel like Amy had a lot of those shoulds, right?

Of she should be doing certain things, certain ways in her house.

And we all know how I feel about shoulds.

They are the bane of my existence.

But do I use them to beat the crap outta myself all the time?

And I think her journey of her ADHD and how it affects those shoulds is so amazing in so many different ways.

Because as I've talked about in the past, about how like a lot of times, diagnoses or whatnot really have nothing to do with what is happening to you, but really gives the world ways to talk to you about it.

Sometimes it's not helpful, but sometimes it is helpful because it helped link you and Amy to Corrie.

There was just a lot of space for that and for her to be able to adapt to what she needed.

The serendipity of me having already known Corrie and knowing her level of compassion and understanding and the way she can direct clients and then having the opportunity to connect her with Amy, yes, it was exactly what she needed.

She needed to hear that compassion, yes, your brain does work differently.

Yes, you can have compassion, that you need to do things differently.

Yes, there are ways to find these solutions.

And so that was really beautiful because everyone needs that compassion and understanding, and everyone needs unique tools.

And so I do like that.

That highlighted that there are tools, there are answers.

Right.

And that was.

Amy even said, I just don't even know where to look for these tools.

There's so many solutions out there, and just connecting with the right one.

And I did have this feeling that Amy sort of wanted to not give up, but she felt very defeated by the things she had tried.

Didn't work.

And that's what I love about this podcast.

There's no shame.

Let's keep going.

Let's keep trying things.

And we need to be able to be open about what doesn't feel good and be open about that so that we can help one another, because somebody else is going through it.

I.

I've made.

I don't know if it's just recency bias or whatever it is.

I've seen so many things about women who are in their 30s or 40s being diagnosed with either autism or ADHD, and it's so prevalent.

And I'm like, is it just because I've been experiencing Amy story?

I really think that it's a lot.

Of people experiencing this behind the scenes.

I'm not gonna say any names, because some people aren't as open as Amy is about their journey, but there was a very big ripple of me mentioning this to a couple of people and then them going, oh, I think so, and so would benefit.

And then those people listening to it and them instantly going, I'm not alone.

And this is what we said from the beginning.

If everyone opened their front doors and was honest about what was happening, and we didn't all polish it up and throw everything in a closet and pretend like everything's perfect.

It's like, no.

If we all actually just opened up about, this is where things are really tough for me, then you can help other people, because other people will go, I'm not alone.

And then you can talk about those tools together.

So, yeah, that moment of getting the feedback from people who found such solace and also tools from Amy's episode, it helped more than one person.

Like we always say, if it.

As long as it helps one person, and it helped Amy.

But then there were these other people, and I was like, yep, all worth it.

These people, I know firsthand, we're able to get guidance and Solutions and know that Corey is amazing toolbox.

And let's also.

I say this all the time.

If we're honest.

Everyone's got some neurodiversity.

There is no non neurodiversity.

It's just, how much neurodiversity do you have?

Because I got so much out of that episode with Corey when she was talking about, okay, you worked all day, you were interacting with people like your nervous system was basically a little heightened.

And then to go directly into the grocery store was not setting up for success.

And when she said that, I thought, oh, my gosh, yeah, I need to learn how to transition my nervous system from something stimulating.

We're so focused on efficiency.

Mini pivot to our Martha episode.

As soon as you were talking about that, I'm like, oh, it's the Martha Stewardification of there's a right way to do things.

And so you have to do it that way.

Of course, you try to go to the grocery store on your way home, because that's the most efficient.

Right.

That you know, that's what you're supposed to do.

You're already out.

You should use that opportunity.

And so, yeah, there is no one right way.

Maybe going home, resetting, and then going to the grocery store.

Yes.

Are you driving two times that there and back?

Yep.

But you're gonna be able to do it a lot easier by.

By making that extra.

By forgetting that quote, unquote efficiency.

I have two thoughts, one of which is bursting out of me.

Oh, my gosh.

Is our new tagline putting humanity back into the home?

Oh, because yeah, it's.

It's not efficiency, but it's very human.

You check in with the human first.

What does the human need?

The human needs to calm their nervous system before they go to the grocery store.

Right.

And that reminds me, too, years ago, I used to listen to this podcast, and it was essentially efficiency.

And she had a lot of great ideas.

And I am not poo pooing.

Like, I.

I'm.

I learned a lot from listening to her.

But I remember the tipping point for me was when she was talking about, when you're waiting for something in the microwave, use that time to open your mail.

And I remember thinking, that sounds exhausting.

I was like, no, I.

I actually enjoy staring off in the distance when I've got something in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Think of the task switching with that.

I know to go from that.

Sorry.

My brain exploded with no.

And here's the thing.

I think some people, again, everyone is different.

We're all on a variety of neurodiversity.

Some people, that might be the perfect thing.

But when it was said as though if you're not checking your mail while you're waiting for the microwave, then somehow you are failing, that's when I was like, no, actually I enjoy that time.

I remember hearing about how there's these big companies where they want the workers to be so productive that they give them on site dry cleaning, they have on site meal prep, they're trying to remove those things.

And what they learned was it was actually detrimental because so much of our brain needs that downtime of going to the dry cleaner, standing in line and you know, Einstein famously would take these long walks and play.

I can't remember what musical instrument he played.

Maybe it was the trumpet.

And how he knew that that was the time his brain needed to actually digest things.

And so going back to Amy, yeah, if she needs to go home and pet her cats for 10 minutes on the outside, it doesn't look efficient, but it is actually because then when she goes to the grocery store, she's not wandering around for 20 minutes, not doing anything.

She's actually going to go and be in a more efficient place to complete her task, to zoom out and actually look at it for the individual.

Look at the process, look at the outcome, Put the human back in the home.

Absolutely.

Efficiency is not objective, it's subjective.

And also, I mean, it also goes back to who freaking cares how efficient you are if it feels shitty at the end of the day?

Oh yeah.

I mean, that's the whole thing.

And, and I think how we approach things is very important.

Right.

I've said this in social media before of like, when you approach someone with the solution, stating it as, hey, this has worked for me, maybe it'd be a good try for you.

Is so different than saying, do we'll do this.

It sounds like it's just semantics or whatnot, but the world of a difference that can make of, hey, this worked for me.

It is an option.

It is not.

The answer is huge in how somebody can receive it because it may not be the answer for them.

On one of our cleaning videos, the dry toilet cleaning one, someone commented, do it every day.

And my brain, like vacuum around the toilet every day.

My brain went, hell no.

And that's all, that's all it said was do it every day.

And then, so then I had this moment of judgment towards them and I had to stop myself.

And I literally said, I'm glad that works for you.

That is not realistic for Everybody, if you've got more than one toilet, maybe it takes you 15 minutes to do it.

15 minutes in my world is huge.

Don't even get me started on having to bend over.

15 minutes of bending over, and then I've got four toilets and one.

We have three toilets in this house.

45 minutes of bending over, I would be past out.

That's not possible for me.

And that goes back to.

We're not telling you what to do.

We're telling you how to do it.

If you know, oh, one of the steps is getting the dust and the dry items away from the toilet.

If it's 4, 8, 12 weeks, I don't care.

12 months, I don't care.

You know, that is one of the steps.

Here's a tool.

You can do it any other way you want.

I mean, you could take a hose and spray down the whole bathroom and then try to, like, suck it all up in a wet bag.

I don't care.

And like you said, it is just presenting tools.

These are the tools I use.

I'm offering them to you.

If you want to pick up one of these tools and try it and see if it works for you, and if it doesn't, it's not the tool for you, and that's fine.

Removing the judgment piece.

I know how to do it the best.

I don't like that sentence.

And I would hope that anyone listening to us would know.

The thing that we're trying to encourage is there's a lot of ways to get it done.

And even what you want to get done, it's going to make everyone feel differently.

There's no one formula, because every component is different for each person.

And the more ways that we can share how something is done, the more, like, the wealth of information is so valuable.

It just.

There are so many different things that's like, oh, I didn't think about trying it that way or that way.

I actually was in our bathroom this morning, and I looked over, and there was a buildup of, like, hair and whatnot on the shower lip, like, where you go in, but it's not the side that you usually would go in.

So it's not getting used often.

And I'm looking at it, and I was like, I guess I could wipe that down.

And then I had this moment where I was like, in about an hour, I'll come back with a vacuum and I'll do it.

So Sarah was right.

That's gonna make it go faster than me getting angry with this.

What?

What?

And all these different things.

And it's like, okay.

And I could use that information however I want it.

You know, I love on threads or anywhere where you find people who have this weird one little thing that's similar that you thought you were the only one.

And this whole side tangent went off with me and other people who, if you use a Kleenex for something, but 90% of the Kleenex is or tissue is still available to be used, then what do you do with that?

And we talked about the different things that you do in a bathroom, and that's the perfect example.

Like, if I needed the corner of a tissue to wipe off, you know, something on my eyeliner pencil or something, and then the rest of it's fine.

I'll use that clean part and I'll just run it on that lip.

And I know for you bending over, it's not the right solution, but you can also just, like, run it around your sink where the faucet sits.

Just go around that.

That rim.

And so I found these people who all were talking about what they do with that tissue.

And again, it's not telling you this is what you should do.

It's telling you like, oh, this is actually a little shortcut if you want to do this.

And that actually brings us beautifully into us pivoting and adapting and changing with your arms.

I'm over here.

Like, we are nailing these transitions.

Sarah.

Yeah.

When you don't try to.

So I was gonna highlight Q and A's and the cleaning videos.

I am realizing I'm kind of jumping ahead on giving people information.

When I'm like, oh, there's a lot of people who just need help with the basics, which is fine.

I can talk about this stuff all day long.

I'm loving the Q and A's because I love when you say, like, oh, I've never even thought about that.

And I'm like, oh, yeah, that's right.

Everyone has different life experiences and they may not know or that thought about this aspect.

And so I love coming back to, yeah, let's talk about this one on one.

Let's talk about cleaning products.

Let's talk about what is a multipurpose cleaner.

Let's talk about why there are so many different products available and how you don't actually need all of them and how many of them are just marketing.

Anyone who has a question, you can submit anonymously, but you can also submit not anonymously.

There is no question that is too little, too big, too fundamental, too small.

Every question is valid.

If you don't know you don't know.

And there is an answer.

I was so blown away by the people who answered my post about tell me your cleaning questions and the vulnerability of people saying, oh, my mom already always had a house cleaner so I never learned.

Why would you know if nobody taught you?

Why would you know?

Where do you learn?

Yeah.

So Lacy, you take over thoughts.

I love that we have found a way to bring more voices into these discussions and I think that is something we're going to be transitioning to.

Future by the way we're using this to that we want to do more of of figuring out ways to bring more voices into this.

I think when we're looking at our format going forward, I want to be very clear, like I'm having a baby in like three or four weeks.

We'll see.

We're going to do a little bit of maternity downtime for me, but not a whole lot because I am who I am.

So one of the things that we are going to be doing is continuing doing these Q and A answer sessions is in between seasons as like mini Q and A's like hey, we got this question.

Here's a 10 minute episode about this that will be monthly, bi, weekly, I don't know.

We haven't figured it out yet.

We'll see between episodes and I also think so that's something that you can expect is us bringing more of those voices and we've had those in our in between seasons and we'll certainly continue to do those working with the Hot Mess Express organization and all the amazing things that they do and how excited we are about them.

So moving forward, we really want to ensure that this is a space that we can highlight as many perspectives as possible and bring in as many voices as possible.

I still love our participant seasons and bringing in participants as well.

I think those will be our traditional seasons as we do some of those stories, but you can expect expert and Q and A episodes from us going forward no matter what.

Yes.

Have we talked about Hot Mess Express on here?

Does our audience know?

I don't think so.

I mean I mentioned it in a newsletter.

Oh, okay.

Well, I am so excited.

Why don't you talk about how you came to know Hot Mess Express and what you know about the organization and then we can go into what that's going to look like going forward.

Well, we really don't know what it looks like going forward.

We'll be honest, we're still working out those details.

We've connected with the Hot Mess Express organization, A dear friend of mine sent me a video that was by Jen Hamilton.

She's a big tiktoker, and she has a labor and delivery nurse.

Big fan of hers.

And she helped start this organization where they do what Sarah and I wish we had the time and energy to do.

And that's just go into somebody's house who needs help, like just a total reset and clean whatever they need cleaned for that day.

So it's all volunteers going in and doing this.

And their tagline is, it's not a handout.

It's just a helping hand because we all need this support.

From times you guys have heard me talk about how much support I get from, like, my mom and my friends and my family, I hope and wish other people can have that.

And it is kind of sending a group of Carolyns in to get stuff to a point of of clean.

There are chapters popping up all over the country.

It's so cool to see, and it's exciting, and they are doing some really awesome things with that.

I saw this video and I was like, these are our people.

We need to figure out how to work with them.

So we've done an initial meeting with them to see how we can help support them moving forward.

Brittany and whomever from their board on our podcast to talk about it more.

In depth and to just lay it out a little bit more understanding of the Hot Mess Express.

So people are nominated.

You can either nominate yourself or somebody else.

And then this group, Hot Mess Express, it is a nonprofit, they select their nominees, and then they go in with a crew of.

I don't want to assume, but I think they're all moms volunteering, right?

I think a large majority are.

And then they come in for a set amount of time as a crew, and they decide ahead of time what spaces they're resetting, what they need help with.

That person is an overwhelmed moment who there is just more than they keep on top of.

So that that crew comes in for a designated amount of time, resets, and it is for free.

And then they hope that by giving them that reset that that nominee can then keep going forward from a different place.

And then what Hot Mess Express was saying to us was, we don't like that.

We walk away and there's no bridge.

And so we're coming in saying our courses can be the bridge and we can provide a platform for these people to come and talk about.

This is what I'm struggling with.

Now that things are reset, I don't know how to do X, Y, Z.

And so we Are very excited because, like Lacy said, these are our people.

We are looking at the fundamentals.

If your house runs smoother, you will feel better.

You will have more time with your kids and your loved ones.

You will show up in the world with just a little bit more energy and a little bit more joy, and that will make the joy ripple.

So we don't care how your house looks, but by Hot Mess Express and us showing, like, let's just help your home run better so that you feel better.

That is all we care about.

And so I am so excited to see what this collaboration can be and will be.

And side note, anyone listening who wants to produce a reality TV show?

Oh, my gosh.

Could you imagine our two organizations going into a home, and the person's vulnerable, willing to show what it is?

Hot Mess Express does their thing, and then I could come in and say, like, let's talk about what.

How did it get here?

What was frustrating?

What was the hiccup?

What kind of systems?

And then I could be that bridge of like, let's talk about how it so it doesn't get like this again.

And then checking back in with that person every few months.

And that would be an amazing reality TV show.

And I think that would really help people to see I'm not alone.

It is okay.

It is a lot.

It is overwhelming.

Like you said, you've got your mom and you've got so much support, but for people who don't have those support systems, it's a lot.

So much so that's something that's coming down the pike that we're excited about.

This is a little bit of a maternity break that you'll see from us.

I don't have a specific date on when you'll start to see the in between episodes, but you will from Sarah and I.

Sarah does a great job of keeping us moving forward as I can.

Well, but let's be honest, we don't always have to move forward.

This is a great time for everyone.

Like, we were talking about Einstein taking his walks to process.

We're gonna take a little break, and Lacy is gonna keep growing a human being and then get that human being into this world.

We're all gonna pause and digest everything from this previous season.

And yes, we will continue to drip out a little bit, but we're gonna also just take a little bit of a pause.

And we all need that sometimes.

I am loving making these cleaning videos.

I'm loving it too.

It's weirdly creatively fulfilling that Sarah gets to go like, Film stuff.

And then she sends me the videos, and then I get to have creative fun editing them.

It's a very great combination of our skills that is been a joyful thing for us.

I encourage people.

If there's something that you were like, I don't know how to clean fill in the blank.

Or am I supposed to clean fill in the blank?

Ooh, I have one.

I just thought of.

We had a Lego fall into a vent, like, an air vent.

And Joe got it out, and he was like, man, we need to clean that air vent.

And I had this brain thing of like, what does that mean?

Like, I'm like, is it just vacuuming it, or is there something else that we should be doing?

My brain exploded of, holy crap, what's going on there?

Well, that is a great question, first of all.

And not everyone knows that is a great example of good, better, best of what you can do.

And I am.

It's like a horse who's ready to, like, run.

I am trying to hold myself back from answering it right now.

So let's make sure we put that in our notion document.

Everyone on the edge of their seats.

Yes, we will talk about that.

Okay.

And again, it's okay to not know.

We're not all taught this stuff.

And there's so much to know in life.

How could one person possibly know all of this?

Well, out of sight, out of mind.

Like, I don't open up the vents and look at them.

I'm not.

That's not constantly on my mind.

Well, again, good, better, best.

Like, we only have so much time in a day.

You looking inside of your vents, giving your energy and your time, not really a priority.

And that's okay.

So we will.

We will pin that for another episode.

Yes.

I am so excited at how we have evolved over three seasons.

I'm so excited at these new opportunities and seeing how we can grow.

And I'm appreciative to our audience that is seeing value in this.

And just remember, at the end of the day, we truly don't care how your house looks.

We truly care how you feel and that you feel like you're not alone.

And that there are tools and solutions and that by managing your home easier, you have more time for joy.

And that joy goes out in the world.

That's what we care about.

One last thing that I want to say about this season.

This season felt a lot easier.

I think ease is one of my words for the year that I'm focusing on.

Love that we have found a way to work together.

With ease, to produce content with ease, to put these things out with ease.

Is there an instinct in me to be a content factory, just pushing stuff out to get more people on whatever list account or all these different things?

Absolutely.

I do not have capacity for that.

Neither does Sarah.

That is just not who we are as people.

And I think season three has been a beautiful lesson for both of us of actually living and learning to operate with ease and still deliver.

We only did episodes every other week this.

This season, and that felt great.

Will it increase in the future, become less in the future?

I don't know.

But I feel great about the season that we've put together and our partnership.

I know, like, it's probably boring to listen to somebody talk on a podcast about how they make their podcast, but I take such genuine pride in how far we've come in our partnership and how we make things and how we do things.

And really, as we've talked about before, the joyful support movement, and this came from me being like, oh, my gosh, this partnership between Sarah and I is something special that I want everyone to have.

I want to make sure that we're being transparent about those things so that people can see it is possible to do a lot of different things with ease.

And I think this.

This season, we were able to.

Yes, we.

We.

Yeah, we say a lot behind the scenes, like, it'll work out when it needs to work out.

It'll happen when it needs to happen.

I've pushed most of my life, and I've learned the difference between what it feels like to push and not push.

And we know that the people who have that same mentality, as usual, they will find us.

And for anyone who doesn't know, there's never a lack of content.

By the way, there's the podcast, there's the newsletter, and Lacy is always pushing out socials in places I don't even know about, to be honest.

And if you do want to stay in touch, during Lacy's maternity leave, the newsletter will continue to come out.

And so that is a great touchstone, especially if you want to know when the podcast is going to be being released again.

That's where you're going to get the most updates, is in our newsletter, which, if you go to Joyful Support movement dot com, that is where you will get all those updates and information.

And don't worry, we'll be back.

I mean, we love this too much to not be back.

Absolutely.

I was thinking somebody was saying, like, if you had all the money in the world, Available to you.

What would you do?

I'm like, this.

I love this.

I would still do this.

We would hire a podcast editor.

We would hire a social media manager.

I kind of like the producing side of things because I like having the control of.

Of that.

Maybe a virtual assistant to help with the producing side.

But, yeah, I would be doing this, too.

If we had all the money in the world, we would just pay people to do the things we don't like doing.

Yes.

That is one thing that's so great, is Laifey and I are both very aware of where our natural energies are, and we know where our zones of acceleration are and where they are not of deceleration.

And, yes, there are a lot of things that we would hire out.

We will hire out.

We will.

It's gonna happen.

We will.

Yeah.

Cause this is just too darn fun.

I love the joy that's going out there.

It's just so beautiful.

I'm gonna give you a little.

This is my moment of gratitude.

And I'm gonna give you a little Joe moment, because I know you love a Joe moment.

I was doing our taxes, which is a fun statement to say.

And I'll be honest.

I did not make that much money this past year.

And I was very down on myself about it, feeling like I'm not contributing to our household.

I've been doing this now for two years.

How am I not making really any money doing this?

And Joe, being the awesome person he is, you know, I started crying.

Cause I'm hormonal.

Like, I.

I could cry about anything right now.

And Joe and the kids came up for bedtime and was like, what's wrong?

And I, you know, I'm like, it's okay.

Don't worry about it.

We'll talk later.

And after the kids get in bed, and he's like, what's going on?

And I told him this did a great job of, like, validating.

Like, you are growing a human being today.

I am not.

Let's talk about everything that goes into that for you.

And he's like, lacy, I listen to the podcast.

I hear people telling you guys that you have helped them.

He's like, that's not me.

Just saying that.

That's.

It's an objective truth.

Because I've heard that.

First of all, when Joe, like, pays attention to anything that I do, like, I'm instantly praying, like, you listen to it.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

I.

I needed to hear that, and I needed to know that somebody saw it.

I needed to know that some it was Validated.

And I just.

I guess my gratitude's for Joe.

My gratitude's for this space to be able to help people in a way that feels authentic and good for me in a way that I can.

Cause there's a lot of ways that I can't.

You know, we were talking about Hot Mess Express earlier.

I would love to be one of the volunteers to go into somebody's house and do that for them.

I would love to be that.

I cannot be that.

That's just an objective.

True for me right now in my world.

So I'm.

I'm grateful for this season for anybody that we've helped that has taken time to listen to.

To this and.

And see some of the things that we do put out there, because it's really freaking cool, and I'm very proud of it.

Thank you for sharing.

I know other people are going to hear that and they're gonna.

They're gonna relate to that.

I do understand that feeling of when you look at it on paper and it's hard because our society makes it seem like that is so important.

But, yeah, I love that Joe was able to reframe that in such a beautiful and meaningful way.

And truthful, like, he wasn't blowing smoke.

It was truthful.

Anything Joe says, he is not there to make.

To coddle me.

That's why I joke.

It took Joe five years to ask me to marry him, but when he did, I'm like, this is life, man.

He has made up his mind.

He knows.

I gotta admit, my takeaway from that whole story was Joe listens to the podcast.

I know.

I didn't know that.

And that's all prompting.

It's not like, I'm like, did you listen to it?

Did you do this?

Every once in a while, we'll get in the van and my voice would come on and I'm like, oh, my God, you were listening to me.

I'm blushing right now.

I can see myself blushing.

For anyone listening who hasn't been with us since the beginning, you may not know.

I am the president of the fan club of Hashtag.

We want more.

Jo.

I really enjoy Joe's insight on everything.

We appreciate you, Joe.

We do.

My gratitude, I mean, I'm thankful for so much.

And I'm going to go in a completely different direction, which is cookies.

I just want to say I.

I don't know what you're going to say, but I'm grateful for cookies too.

And it's not actually gratitude for cookies, it's gratitude for kindness.

My son Had a friend over yesterday, and then the friend's mom, who we're friends with, came to pick him up, and she walks into the door with this bowl and there's these mounds inside.

And I didn't know what I was looking at at first.

And then she hands it to me and she said, oh, I brought you some cookies, but they're so much better when they're fresh.

So just put em in the oven for 10 minutes.

At 400, she brought me cookies ready to go in the oven.

And so after dinner I put them in the oven and we had fresh cookies.

And it was the most delightful surprise.

I couldn't believe that she showed up with these cookies and then also like, oh, they're better when they're fresh.

It was such an unexpected surprise and it was so beautiful and they were delicious.

I mean, she is such a baker.

Oh my gosh.

I just realized her maiden name is Baker.

Oh my God.

That just hit me.

In her bones.

It is in her bones.

So I'm just thankful for random acts of kindness.

And when those random acts of kindness include cookies, I mean, it's like a.

It's.

What is it?

When it's greater than the sum of its parts, it's synergistic.

Wait, why is synergistic making you laugh?

Because it's such a businessy word like synergy.

And that is not RMO at all.

Just, we love.

We're all about synergy here.

Joyful support movement.

I'm impressed that you I would have eaten the cookie dough.

Well, yeah, that is actually my M.O.

to be honest, when once I realized I was looking at cookie dough, I did was like, can I just pop that in my mouth right now?

But I'm also a rule follower.

So when she told me to put them in the oven, I was like, yeah, I guess I gotta put em in the oven.

Oh, well, I think this is a great note to end on for season three of no Shame in the home game.

We appreciate all of you listeners so much.

And as usual, thank you, Sarah.

Thank you, Lacey, and best of luck with everything.

Yeah, however this baby comes out, it's gonna happen.