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Ashes, Emotions, and College Commotions: Navigating Life’s Whirlwind ( Ep 63)

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In this special episode, we’re taking a break from our usual format of interviews or a specific topic to dive into a different kind of conversation.

Today I am sharing some personal life updates, reflecting on recent challenges, and discussing the lessons learned along the way. From dealing with a house fire to sending my oldest off to college, this episode is all about embracing change and finding strength through adversity.

This episode will help:

👉anyone who feels like they have to be in control

👉you not feel alone in life’s unexpected twists and turns

👉refocus on the important things and be more present


In this episode:

1:50 House fire recap

6:58 Milestones and my oldest going off to college

16:01 Being careful with our expectations

17:12 Disaster in Mexico

21:40 I can only control me

26:01 Reminder to be present

31:02 Back to school and back to teaching

33:28 Life keeps going whether we are ready or not



When Our Safe Haven Burned

February 3rd was the day we’d never imagined. Our home, our sanctuary, caught fire. Thank God everyone was safe, but that smoke? It lingered, making our walls a memory. We found refuge in a rental, and I clung to hope despite delays that tested every ounce of my patience. It reminded me just how much we can’t control, and the beauty of surrendering when we must.


Our oldest is going off to college (10 hours away!)

Grab some tissues, because this part gets me every time. As we prepared our darling girl for college, my heart felt it all: pride, nostalgia, anxiety heartache. And not being in our own home for her last “kid” year? That hurt.

Through it all, I realized that cherishing the now, each hug and talk, is everything. And as she wavers between college excitement and jitters, my role as her anchor feels more crucial than ever.


Our “Perfect” Vacation Gone Awry

Our family’s summer dream? A slice of paradise in Mexico, meant to be our last big splash before Adi leaves. But life, with its quirky sense of humor, had other plans: a collapsing roof, drenched rooms, and our tech treasures ruined.

Despite the chaos, it dawned on me: there’s magic in everyday moments. Perfection is overrated. It’s the love, laughter, and lessons that truly matter.


A Season of New Beginnings

As the leaves start to fall, it’s not just the season changing. School’s in, Addie’s stepping into her college journey, and my heart is adjusting to the empty space. On top of that, I’m diving back into my treasured role as a seminary teacher. Feeling all the feels? Me too. It’s about embracing the unknown, nurturing our spirit, and being open to life’s unexpected turns.


Embracing Life’s Ebb and Flow

If there’s a mantra I’ve learned, it’s this: I can’t control everything, but I can choose how I respond. And trust me, life’s made sure I’ve learned it well! Yet in all the unpredictability, I’ve found solace in seeking silver linings and holding onto hope. Life is a journey of ups and downs, but with love, resilience, and open arms, we can dance through the rain.


Other Episodes You Might Like:

Ep 59: The Overwhelm Antidote

Ep 37: “Why” Matters More Than “How”

00:00:00] Leah: Hello, it’s Leah Rele and welcome to this episode of The Balancing Busy Podcast, which is going to be very different. From other episodes that I’ve done, because usually we’re either doing interviews or I’ve got a very specific topic and I’m teaching or sharing thoughts on something. But this one is just life updates.

[00:00:48] This is just you and me, friends sitting down and me just telling you what’s been going on. So some of the things we’re gonna talk about is our house fire, where we’re at with that, uh, and how I’m dealing with it. Um, we’re gonna talk about. What that has meant for the podcast. We’re gonna talk about Addie, my oldest is going to college in four weeks, and how I am doing with that.

[00:01:15] Um, we’ll talk about summer, how that’s felt and getting into, you know, going into back to school. I don’t know if anything else will come up, but those are, those are the things I actually wrote down as notes of like, okay, what, what am I going to fill you in on? Like, what are the big things happening in my life?

[00:01:33] So that is its own thing. I work in our house, like our real house, which we call our House Crispy Casa, and then we call our Airbnb current caa. So, If you missed it, you can get the whole details.

[00:01:50] My Instagram stories, I have a story highlight, that is all about the fire, but on February 3rd we had a house fire. It was actually a pretty small area of the house. It was, uh, in our son’s bedroom and. Yet it affected everything because of all the smoke damage, um, and all of the, yeah, just other parts that it creates.

[00:02:14] And so we have been out of our house since February 3rd. We were, well, the date has changed so many times, so many times of when we get to get back into our house, and the most recent had been August. So for. Since about May we have been told you get to, you are, you’re gonna be back in in August. You’re gonna be back in in August.

[00:02:39] Well guess what It is July 31st and they have not even started on putting our house back together. Not even started. We um, have to have all of our upstairs hardwood floors. Taken out and replaced. Everything has to be painted. Uh, our son’s room is down to just studs, and it’s been like that for months. I mean, there is nothing been going on in this house for months.

[00:03:05] It’s been discouraging and frustrating, but I’m trying to just be like, it is what it is. It’s okay. But it has been really hard, if I’m being honest. It has been really hard. And the biggest reason being because of our oldest going off to college, and so she’s never gonna get to go back into her bedroom.

[00:03:29] We moved out, you know, on a Friday night on February 3rd because we had a fire. And first we went to a hotel and you know, had to do all that. And then we were able to get our place where we’re staying, which has been such a blessing ’cause it’s in our own neighborhood. So that’s been huge. We live in a pretty small area and I was really worried that we were gonna end up 30, 45 minutes away from.

[00:03:53] The school and our church building and you know, all these things. I’m like, oh my gosh, this can be so hard. And we ended up getting a place in our own neighborhood. We were only supposed to get it till April 15th because they are snowbirds. They were in Arizona and they’d be coming back to Washington.

[00:04:10] But they ended up just being so wonderful and saying that we could stay until. We need to. So we thought we’d be staying till August and we just got our new date of November 30th. And honestly, I don’t even know if I trust that. I mean, that could change also. But here’s, here’s some of what that means for us.

[00:04:30] So our oldest is getting ready to go to college. That is its own thing. We will talk about that. But it means that, you know, her room got all packed up. There’s nothing in this house except for this room. So one of the things that’s really interesting is that. One of the very first things they did is they packed up our entire house to get the smoke smell out of all of the things.

[00:04:52] So the house is just empty. It’s vacant, except for my office. I told them they had to keep my office intact because I still needed to work and I needed to have a space to go. Because our rental house, it’s amazing, but it is two rooms smaller than our home. So it doesn’t have an office and it doesn’t have, um, One more bedroom that we have.

[00:05:17] And so because of all that, it was like, okay, no, I need my office to stay intact. And we thought we’d be getting back in August. So me being, you know, the, the batching Thinking ahead love systems person that I am, I felt so proud of myself because from. March to May. I recorded so many podcasts knowing, okay, at some point my office has to be completely.

[00:05:48] Disassembled and everything’s gonna be taken out because the floor is in the painting and everything will happen in this room too. And so I was thinking, okay, I’m gonna batch all this. I’m gonna have it all ready. And then knowing that Addie was going to college and I’m like, oh, I’m gonna be, you know, feeling really sad.

[00:06:03] And so I had all of our episodes through September, done. Well then when we just found out that in these last few weeks it is not gonna be done in August. Our new, our new date is, The end of November, all of a sudden I’m realizing, oh my gosh, I now need podcasts scheduled all the way out through. December because they’re gonna start doing all the construction.

[00:06:32] There’s no way I’m gonna be able to record in here. It’s gonna be crazy. So now I thought, oh, look at me. I’ve done so amazing. I don’t have to do any podcasts over the summer. I’m gonna be able to just focus on family and September, just focus on getting her off to school and all these things. And now, I am back in my office recording all kinds of episodes.

[00:06:54] ’cause now I need them through the end of the year. So it’s been kind of crazy. Okay, so let’s talk about Addie going off to college. Let’s just talk about, as our kids hit these next milestones, whether it’s yours is maybe going into kindergarten or maybe starting high school or maybe starting college.

[00:07:15] It can be exciting and it can be hard. I will say that I feel like I have really struggled with it all year. Even like the last couple years as we’ve been getting closer this whole year, I kept having these moments where I’d be like, oh, this is the last time we’re gonna have this, and we’re all together.

[00:07:34] Because the truth is she’s going off to college and things are going to be different. It feels like it’s the end of an era. It’s the end of us five being able to for sure be together. All the time. And that’s hard and it’s makes me sad. And you can’t help but think about the things that maybe you wish you would’ve done better or you just see could have had other outcomes.

[00:08:02] And I’ll say all of that comes down. Every single one of those thoughts comes down to being more present and intentional as a mom with my family. Every single one of those thoughts. So just know if you’re way earlier on. The best way to have less regret is to choose them, is to be more purposeful, more present with them.

[00:08:27] That is the thing that you are never, ever going to regret. That’s just what it is. So we’re getting ready and. I was really struggling and she was so ready, like, so excited for the next chapter, for the next phase. She’s been like, I can’t wait to go. I can’t wait to go. And I’d be like, no. And just really, really struggling.

[00:08:51] And then in the last couple weeks, or I guess maybe the last, yeah, two weeks it shifted and now she’s like, I was wrong. I’m not ready. And so now I’ve taken the role of, of course you are. You’ve got this. It’s gonna be amazing. So I’m actually doing so much better now than I have been all year because we shifted roles.

[00:09:12] You know how only one person can panic when one person panics, the other one has to have it together. So she was so confident and ready and couldn’t wait to go that it was making me like, Just wanna hold on so tight. Now that she is coming back and being like, oh my gosh, mom. No, I’m, I’m scared. I’m not ready.

[00:09:29] Now I am the one that’s like, no, no, no, you’ve got this. So, I don’t know. I don’t know what exactly this is going to look like versus what it would have looked like, because it’s not like we have her room to pack up. In fact, I actually need to reach out to our. Contractors, the people who have all our stuff, we don’t have access to all our stuff.

[00:09:51] That’s its own. Very, very weird and interesting part of this. They packed up our entire house within the first two weeks. I mean, I, they have been so slow to do everything except for take all our stuff. So all of our stuff has been gone since the beginning of February, I mean, way before Valentine’s Day, and.

[00:10:12] There was still feet of snow on the ground back in February. Right. We’ve now gone through winter, spring, full blown summer. Our summers we’re in the hundreds. Okay. So full summer, and now we’re gonna go into fall into winter, and we didn’t grab a lot of our stuff because we are in a rental and we don’t want to have, you know, too much stuff.

[00:10:38] So, It’s been really crazy. So Addie, her room has been packed up. For months and months now, and there’s things that she wants to bring, but we can’t access it. What you do is you basically say, okay, there’s these things. Can you try to find them? And so far my success rate with that has not been good. Like at summertime, I was like, I need all of my hats.

[00:11:01] I need all of my straw like bags and purses and clutches. We were going, when we were going on our trip to Mexico at the beginning of the summer, at the very end of the school year. You know, I wanted all of my fun. Mexico things and it totally failed. They brought half of it and it wasn’t the half that I was more excited about.

[00:11:19] So I don’t know. I don’t know how that’s gonna work because we need to start, actually, it’s gonna be so weird. Like we need to go through her boxes to then pick out the things she wants and then, I don’t know. So that’s its own very weird thing. And then, The other thing was, my intention was to stalk her dorm, her apartment, with all of these different things from our house, and then I was gonna replace ’em and buy new ones for me.

[00:11:47] Right? I’m like, perfect. I’m gonna send you with our crockpot ’cause I want a new one. There’s this one at Walmart. I don’t know if you’ve seen it. I think it’s called The Beautiful. Collection. It’s by Drew Barrymore. Anyways, they’re all white. They’re so pretty. I saw them on Instagram and I really want them, I want all the chafing dishes.

[00:12:04] I want the crockpots. And so I had this whole plan. I’m like, oh, this is great. I’m gonna send her off with my old ones and I’ll buy the new ones for me. But I don’t even have access to any of ours. So yeah, that’s, that’s becoming its own weird, interesting thing. But going back to just. Sending your kiddo off to the next stage.

[00:12:26] Here’s the thing, new is always scary. Always. I mean, how can it not be? We actually, we were having a conversation as a family last night and we were talking about how you’re not ready for new, you can’t really be ready for new because you haven’t experienced it yet. You can’t feel confident. About new because there’s so much unknown.

[00:12:55] But the only way that you become capable, confident, ready, and able is by doing the new thing, by being willing to get uncomfortable until it becomes comfortable. And so that’s where we’re at right now. She’s. Going off and she’s doing these really big, scary new things that I know she’s so ready for and that she’s gonna do so amazing at.

[00:13:27] But as parents, when we’re thinking about how we help them, we give them as many tools as possible. So that they can feel like they can do this. And that’s, you know, when you’re talking about sending a kid off to college, that’s things like, at least I can make sure she knows I can feed myself. I know how to go get my own prescription or make a doctor’s appointment if I need to.

[00:13:53] I know how to do my laundry. I know how to clean and live with people and take care of errands and different things. Earning money and having it in her bank account so that she knows what her budget’s gonna be and she knows how much, you know, she’ll be able to spend for her extra things. Um, so just looking at, if you have a kiddo going into the next stage, ask yourself what things would help them feel a little bit more confident, a little bit more ready, a little bit more like, okay, well at least I know this.

[00:14:28] I remember. When I started high school, my friend, she was my neighbor, uh, she was so wonderful. I was so, so scared, and I was scared about the logistics. That’s always what seems to make me nervous is the logistics of things, and I was so scared of having to find my classes, find my locker. And open the locker.

[00:14:52] I was so scared of those things, and so she took me to the school and she walked me my route over and over and over. She helped me find little things to memorize that I was at the right spot. If you see this poster, you know you’re by this, this classroom. She helped me find my locker. She helped me make a plan of here’s when you could stop at your locker.

[00:15:15] The best time will be. After this class and before this class, ’cause you’ll be the closest. And just her doing that with me, it made that first day still terrifying, but at least that one part wasn’t quite as scary. So Kim. Thank you so much for taking me to Bothell High School and walking me through there all the time, all those times, and showing me so that it didn’t have to be quite as scary.

[00:15:48] So, okay. Summertime, summer has been different than what I had hoped, than what I had wanted, but I still think it’s been really good. And I think we gotta be careful because I have a tendency to put these expectations on trips or experiences or you know, things like summer where I want it to be all these things.

[00:16:16] And maybe I’m, I’m overhyping it, maybe I’m making it too much, and we can’t live up to that. And then I end up disappointed and that’s the last thing that I want. And so it’s. It’s a balance, right? It’s this balance of wanting it to be something great and looking forward to that and trying to create that, but not so much that you’re just setting yourself up to be disappointed.

[00:16:45] So I feel like the beginning of the summer kind of started out. A lot rougher than we were hoping and we thought, um, our trip to Mexico, that is definitely one of those things where I really, really over-hyped it in my head. I mean, it felt like this is the last big hurrah before, you know, she’s gonna go off to school and it has to be perfect and it’s gonna be this amazing thing.

[00:17:12] And we had a crazy experience, crazy experience. The ceiling in our room collapsed and yeah, it literally collapsed. There was some sort of like a, a water pipe maybe or something that broke. This is a really, really, really high end, all inclusive resort in Mexico. And I walk into our room to grab a t-shirt.

[00:17:42] Uh, for one of the girls so that we can go have lunch at a restaurant. And I’m like, what is happening? And it looked like our entire bed had been dropped in the pool and put back in our room. I mean, there is water everywhere. And our electronics, like my husband’s laptop, iPad, um, I pro maxes remarkable.

[00:18:08] They are sopping wet. That was all in May. It is. July 31st when I’m recording this. And they still have not reimbursed us. They still have not taken care of it. Moon Palace, you really have not done amazing. So, yeah, so that did, that was a lot different than what I expected. And then on top of that, We, our flight got canceled on our way home.

[00:18:33] We were on the flight for hours before they finally deboarded us. Then we were in the airport for hours. Then they finally shuttle us to a hotel. They say, be ready in the lobby at 5:30 AM I get everybody up. I have everybody out there. That flight got canceled. Come back at 10:00 AM so. There was a lot of things that went wrong.

[00:18:56] Delta moon palaces. Come on, people. And you know what was so frustrating to me was that neither one of them. Stepped up and we’re like, we are going to make this right and we’re gonna go above and beyond. And being a business owner myself, you can’t control. Sometimes things just go wrong. That is just the truth of it.

[00:19:16] Like you can’t control everything. Some crazy pipers it, it happens. But a ceiling collapsed in our bedroom. Thank goodness we were not asleep ’cause it collapsed over the bed. And had we been taking a nap or had it been at night and we were sleeping, I mean, we would’ve been seriously, seriously injured.

[00:19:36] The entire, a huge, huge thing of sopping, wet sheet sheet rock just collapses there. I mean, I’m, there’s, there was sheet rock everywhere in every single thing that we brought the suitcase. Uh, we used it again recently for Taylor and I, and I was still trying to shake out more of the sheet rock. It was crazy, and they tried to do nothing.

[00:20:01] I mean, they tried to tell us to bring our electronics back, and they’re like, just, you know, let us know if they’re not working. We’re like, they’re soaking wet. What are you talking about? It’s been crazy. So, you know, as these different things happen, I, I really had to sit and talk with myself and be like, okay, all right.

[00:20:18] Make the best of this, like don’t, don’t get caught up in it. Don’t get stuck because you’re just gonna spiral and the real goal is family time. And yes, things are getting in the way of making that happen, but I can only control me. That’s probably been one of my biggest lessons throughout everything with the fire.

[00:20:43] Uh, and it’s a hard one for me to learn, and I’m still trying to learn it, but it’s that I can only control me. That’s, that is the only, the only thing I have control over. I have no control over getting the contractors into our house and getting them to actually make things happen. I have no control over how the resort chooses to handle that experience.

[00:21:09] I have no control over. The fact that, you know, we’re coming to the end of having all three kids in our home all the time. I can’t control those things. I can’t stop the kids from growing up. I can’t stop bad things from happening. At least not all of them. I can’t stop a lot of things that honestly, I wish I could, but I can control me.

[00:21:38] And that is its own feat. Here’s the thing, just trying to keep me in check and in control is really, really hard, which makes me realize why on earth do we think we can control other people when it is so hard to just control myself, I mean, just to get myself to be like, okay, see the positive. Think good.

[00:21:57] Don’t spiral. Be grateful That has been its own feet. For these last several months and that, I mean, that’s the honest truth. I would love to say that, oh, I have stayed so positive and so just at peace and patient through all this, but I haven’t, it’s been really frustrating. I’m someone who loves to be in control.

[00:22:23] I don’t like feeling out of control. I don’t think anyone likes feeling out of control, but. Just from some deep rooted stuff from my childhood and not getting to have control over a lot of things that were really painful. It is a huge thing for me to not have to feel like I am at other people’s whims.

[00:22:52] I want to. And feel the need, I guess, to protect myself and count on myself. And there are so many things in our life right now that I can’t do a thing about whether I want to or not, I can’t. And so trying to be okay with that and be patient with the process and believe, believe that this will work for our good.

[00:23:23] That all things work for our good. And I say that and I do believe that, but there are moments where it’s really hard and where you have to push yourself and be like, okay, okay. Where have you seen good? Where have you seen tender mercies? Where have you seen blessings? Where have you seen God coming through and showing up?

[00:23:51] And the thing is, is. I have to be looking for it. If I’m not looking for it, I will miss it, and it doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. It just means my eyes weren’t open for it. And so I’m trying, I’m trying to see where he is and that he is, and that he is always showing up for me, and it’s just that sometimes I miss it.

[00:24:17] So. Summer, we have about a month left in Washington State. We typically go back to school the very end of August, very beginning of September. So we have one month left of summer, and you know, I’m really asking myself, okay, what do I want these last four weeks? To feel like, not even to look like, but just to feel like what do I want them to feel like?

[00:24:44] And I want there to be so much laughter. I want there to be so much cuddling time. I want there to be just regular simple moments. That we make the most of it. It doesn’t have to be about big hurrahs and huge giant things. Right? We tried that. We tried that with our trip to Mexico. We tried that. We’ve actually, I tried that several times.

[00:25:11] Okay. And it failed. So now I’m really just focusing on making the regular remarkable by just. Being more present and enjoying it more. So we’ll work on finishing, getting the rest of the stuff for Addie for her dorm. So she’s all prepared for that. She is also preparing for a mission right now. So, uh, she has chosen and really wants to serve.

[00:25:42] An 18 month mission for our church. And so she is preparing and doing all the steps that she needs to do for that to get to do that. And that would be something she’d do at the beginning of 2024. And we’re just gonna focus on those things and focus on just being together and laughing. And I feel like we did that really well last night.

[00:26:07] So I’m recording this on a Monday morning. Last night was Sunday and my, we have a, a family group chat, right. That’s like us five. And so my husband texts into it. We had, had several different activities. We had church in the morning and then we were all home for a while, and then we had, uh, two different baptisms, two go to, and then some friends were having, you know, little like desserts at their house after, um, one of the baptisms.

[00:26:37] And then, The kids went off to their friend’s house and so my husband texts them and is like, I really want to play a game. Bring your friends. I want to play a game. And so they, three of their friends came and there was eight of us, and we were all sitting around the table and you know, we were playing this board game and just cracking up, laughing.

[00:27:00] And it was like, this is, this is what it’s about. These are the good old days happening right now. This is the moment and I want to be more aware of when those moments are happening and savor them and be present for them and not miss them because I am sidetracked with things I’m stressing about or things that need to be get.

[00:27:22] Need to get done or, you know, maybe looking at, at your phone or I’m just not there at all because I thought something else was urgent that really wasn’t. So that’s, that’s where I’m at right now. And then we’ll head back to school. , and that’s actually not just for my kids in our house. I go back to school as well in a very different capacity. So a lot of you might know this, but for some of you who don’t, I am a seminary teacher. This is a volunteer thing that I do.

[00:27:51] It brings me so much joy. I mean, it truly is. One of my favorite things, and I’ve gotten to do it for four years. I think this will be my fifth set of students. Oh my gosh, that’s so crazy. That is so crazy. I think that’s right. And. I, I absolutely love it. So just to explain what it is, I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and our kids, um, members of, of our church students.

[00:28:22] They have the opportunity to go to seminary from ninth grade to their senior year. So it’s four years it, in where we live, it is a zero period class. There are some areas where they do it right in the high school. But that’s not where we live. So they get up extra early, class starts at six 20 and they are there for an hour, and then, uh, they head over to the high school and by showing up every day for all four years, they earn a seminary degree in addition to their high school diploma.

[00:28:59] And so, This is, is something that they do and one of the reasons, the number one reason is to just set them up for the day thinking about and knowing that who they are, that they are loved, that, that are Jesus’s, that like they are children of God, right? Like that that is, The best reason for them to come because let’s be honest, high school is hard and there is a lot of hard stuff in those schools, and the fact that, we get to come together and just focus on the savior every morning is so amazing.

[00:29:43] The other thing that is really cool is that it prepares them if they choose to serve a mission. So you have. Probably seen kids, young adults in, you know, the boys in their white shirts and suits. They’ve got their little name tag or cute girls, uh, in their little dresses and they’ve got their, their name tags and it says, elder so-and-so, or sister so-and-so.

[00:30:08] Well those kids, I mean, get emotional. Sorry. Those kids have chosen to leave everything for 18 months to two years. Just because they wanna serve God because they love him so much. They recognize how blessed they are and they wanna give other people that happiness. They want to share that with other people.

[00:30:33] And think about an 18 or a 19 year old giving up their friends, giving up time at college, giving up so much and saying, Hey, send me anywhere you want. Like they don’t get to choose. They’re like, you send me where you think I’m needed and I will go and. It’s incredible. And so to help them prepare. They can take seminary.

[00:30:54] And so I teach the high school juniors and seniors, and we, get to focus on Jesus Christ. And so back to school means that I go back to teaching seminaries. So it means I am gonna. Shift myself and be getting up a whole lot earlier. Um, and, and there’s a lot of prep time. I spend a lot, a lot of time prepping for all my lessons.

[00:31:19] And so it makes some big shifts when, when back to school happens in our house, not just for the kids, but for me too. And this particular year I think the reason that I felt emotional is because. I actually have a kiddo, our oldest, right? She heads to college in September, but she’s gonna go for one term and then her goal is to then go and serve a mission for 18 months and then she’ll come back and, and finish school.

[00:31:51] And, um, you know, just her being willing to and want to make that sacrifice is just so incredible to me. And then our middle one will be a senior this year and she’ll be in my class, and then our youngest won’t be in my class until next year. He’s in a different class, which is awesome. And so that’s, that is back to school for us.

[00:32:16] It’s, it’s a big shift for me. And I mean, this is gonna be the biggest shift of all this is gonna be the biggest shift because. This time one of us back to school is in a completely different state and different house. And gosh, it’s gonna be so crazy. We got these lamps. Um, I’ll post ’em in the show notes just in case you happen to have a, a student going to school.

[00:32:45] But Addie and I got these lamps and, um, She’ll have one in her dorm room and I’ll have one, and they’re color coded, and so we’re making up a code of what each color means. And then when she gets into her dorm or when I walk in, I don’t know where I’m gonna put my, I don’t know if I put it in my bedroom or my office.

[00:33:05] I can’t decide where it should go. Um, but I’ll be able to see, right? So maybe yellow means, uh, I’m home safe for the night, or red means I love you or, Green means it’s been a really great day. Or blue means, mom, it’s been really hard today. Ah,

[00:33:27] It is crazy. Life keeps going whether we are ready or not, and I think really the best thing we can do is try to prop ourselves up, right? Try to do everything we can to. Help ourself handle it with as much grace and

[00:33:51] goodness as possible. So really taking care of ourselves, making sure that we’re focused on gratitude, on looking for the good, on taking care of ourselves, you know, getting enough sleep, moving our bodies, just whatever you have to do. To give yourself any advantage you can as, as life rushes forward even when you’re not ready.

[00:34:23] So, wow. That, huh? Ah, that took a turn. I did not expect to get so emotional, but there you go. Those are the updates. It has been a year, I mean, this is all just since February. What is that? Five months, six months almost. Okay. It’s been a half a year. It’s been a half a year. There’s been so many, so many things, but um, we got this because we don’t have to do it alone, and we’ve got this because we can do hard things and we’ve got this because we’re going to use all the little needle movers we can to help ourselves.

[00:35:10] And make it as peaceful and purpose-driven and ourselves as powerful as possible. So there you go. Okay. That is Li Leah’s life update. This is such a different episode. I’m sorry that I cried and, and got, got all emotional. Um, if you want more of these, if you enjoy like actually hearing, just, you know, me kind of sharing real life, there’s two ways you can let me know.

[00:35:39] The first is leave a review this week. So. You know, this week as this podcast comes out, if I’m like, oh my gosh, we got an up, up, up, uptick, an influx. That’s what I’m trying to say of five star reviews and I’m gonna, that is gonna be you guys telling me you like these and they’re not gonna happen often, but you know, every once in a while, or just.

[00:36:02] Reply to the newsletter and tell me that you enjoyed it. Or Leah Rele Instagram. L e a h r e M I L L E T. Uh, send me a dmm. I’m gonna be honest, five star reviews would be my favorite way to find out. Not even gonna lie, but any of those would be so great. So, um, Just let me know if you enjoyed this and maybe we can make this like a once a quarter thing or something like that.

[00:36:29] And if you didn’t and I don’t hear from anybody, well then I’ll never do it again. Okay. . Thank you so much for being part of the Balancing Busy podcast and letting me share my life and my experiences, and just ideas and strategies and inspiration that I truly hope will help you to just have more bliss, feel less of that busy and more bliss, less of the chaos, more calm, less of the frantic and more.

[00:37:01] Fulfilled, and I like saying the word fulfilled because it doesn’t mean like full. Full is in that word. Life is still gonna be full. It’s just gonna feel better. That’s my goal for me and for you. All right, I’ll see you next week. 

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