And we're back. Blair was too embarrassed to join me. I. Wasn't embarrassed, I was just like I wanted to give you your time to shine. We're back, guys. We're back. Honey, we need to chat. Season 3 honey you need a chat. That's insane. Absolutely pumped for. It we are actually really, really excited. It has been not easy to get back into it, which is exactly the same as Season 2 when we came
back after our previous break. Not easy, practically speaking, but I think I've been more excited about getting back into the season then I ever have been before so. Yeah. Coming into third season, you get into a rhythm of things and you're like, oh, we've tried that before and like we won't do that again or we should do that again or we should grow in this area. So we're coming with a bit more insight. And so I think that's where the excitement is. It's not starting again from scratch.
It's just growing on what we've been doing for the last two years. Yeah, exactly. And I think I've found at least I don't know what has happened, but I've just really, really settled in terms of the, I guess direction or freedom I'm feeling in terms of our content. So I'm like super chill about it. I'm not really worried. Can you? Tell how? Chilled. She is so chilled. That's great. I'm really not worried about what people think of us anymore. Maybe it's because I'm 35 now. Yeah.
Anyway, welcome back to Dive Right In. We're gonna start with a good old, old school icebreaker. And before we do that, because we are so professional, Yeah. Hey guys, welcome to honey. We need to chat but podcasts all about the importance of communication in a relationship. We believe that when communication dies in a relationship, that's when bad things happens in that relationship. So we're here just to short share our stories. We get different guests coming
in and sharing their stories. We get different, but or just you regular people. Our hope and prayer is that as we grow in our relationship, we're encouraging you guys to as well. It's as simple as a conversation, but a conversation is not always simple. And so that's what we that's what our hearts are is to really keep encouraging and fostering that as we do that in our own relationship. So welcome to you join us. And because we're professed, this is a very clean segue into
our game. Would you rather I would? All right, I'm going to read some would you rather's and we're gonna get some reactions. We haven't done this for a really long time. I. Didn't think we did it last season. We didn't do it last season, we only did it first season, but we're bringing it right back. Yeah. So babe, would you rather always have wet socks or always have a stone in your shoe? Wet socks not. Oh, no. OK, OK, I've got two thoughts.
OK, I've got two thoughts. Alright, first thought. Wet socks. That's my first thought. Great thought, great thought. Yeah, let it cook, Let it cook. The downside to wet socks? It can lead to blisters. Truth. That's where I get caught up, Right? Yeah. Stone in the foot. What? Stone in the chute? Yeah, Which goes in the foot. So that can also cause discomfort and depends how big the stone is, Right. I'm an expert player. You got stuff in your boots all the time as super frustrating.
So most of the time you can suck it up and deal with it. But sometimes you get that niggly one that just, you know, it's in the wrong spot. You can't Kick It Out. You can't, you know, whatever is very annoying. And it can also lead to a blister. Wet sock. I'm stone in the chute. Easy. Yeah, because I got a splinter or like a prickle in my foot yesterday when I was putting the bins out and I couldn't walk on one part of my foot. But you know what I did? Didn't walk on that part of my
foot. And that's what I would do with the stone in my shoe. But wet socks are dangerous. Why? Because they used to send dry socks over to army people because of the risk of gangrene. If you're if your feet are in wet socks, socks for too long. But I can take the wet socks off. What? How long is the time for? I don't always have them. Always not stuff that not not that. You're wrong. But you didn't actually clarify. I said would you rather? Listen to that part. Thank you.
Second one, would you rather sneeze glitter or hiccup bubbles? No, I think hiccup bubbles sneezing anything is really frustrating. Hiccup bubbles is funny I. See. Yeah, and I feel like hiccuping doesn't happen as often than as sneezing. Yeah, exactly, Hiccup bubbles. Also, yeah, what is that? There's like an old Disney movie where someone ate soap and they're hiccup bubbles. In many Disney movies, but. Maybe like Snow White or something like that. One of the dwarfs anyway in.
My head, I'm just picturing I'm sneezing and it's just going to go all through my beard. Yeah. Glitter. It's just going to be glitter beard. I mean that would be kind of cool. It depends if it's mixed with snot I. Was going to say, yeah, exactly right, But you don't just sneeze glitter. Though so glitter would irritate, you'd just keep sneezing because it would just keep irritating.
All right, next one. Would you rather accidentally like every Instagram post you scroll past or accidentally send voice messages instead of texts? Accidentally send voice messages. 100% I already do that. Yeah, I I literally just sent a voice message to someone because
I couldn't be bothered texting. Liking every Instagram post Accidentally liking a post is dangerous enough, but liking every Instagram post you scroll past you don't know what you got a scroll past, you know even looking and you can scroll past it all right so next one. Would you rather all always forget why you walked into a room or always forget what you were about to say mid sentence? I. Literally zoned out halfway through that. Would you rather listen to your Why Instagram?
Thing I'm like, God, no, that's scary. No, like the thing. What are you? Picturing on the Instagram thing, Yeah. OK. Would you rather always forget why you walked into a room or always forget what you were about to say mid sentence? I do both of those things already. It's very frustrating. Or. But no, it has to be walking into a room. I'm such a talker and the thing that hurts my brain the most is trying to remember what it is. I was about to say. Yeah.
I'm exactly with you. I already walk into rooms all the time and I'm like, why did I get up? Why am I here? Why am I here? But yes, I'm the same. It's like a sneeze that doesn't come, a glitter sneeze that doesn't come. And it hurts when you can't think of what, and especially when you got a really good point to make. Yeah, it's like when you got a song, I'm stuck in your head and you just want to sing it. Don't start any songs, I'm
always stuck in my head. I'm already feeling it, I don't even have any songs in my head but just thinking to. Get back to the end of beginning and then we're going to move on quickly because. I can see these. Would you rather have last one? Would you rather have a laugh that sounds fake or a sneeze that sounds like a scream? Fake laugh. I feel like, I feel like I'd
just offend people. I mean, I feel like my laugh is already a little fake sometimes, but a sneeze that sounds like a scream would be pretty entertaining. Dude but people would get frustrated would get so much if he's in like cinema or any other like they would just be annoyed at. Having they. Wouldn't find it funny all. Right. Well, there we go. That's so funny. Well, good ones. Yeah, I know there were good ones. Actually, this time I mean I had to. Weed to do all the other ones.
To weed through but I have looked for would you rather's and had a really difficult time finding good ones. It's not your ones, just previous ones I've done. Maybe that's why we stopped doing them. All right, well, now that we've reestablished who we are and our preferences, the important ones, let's move into the episode. So we're going to talk a little bit about where we've been. We're going to talk about what's coming up. We're going to talk about what we're excited about and what's
changed. And as we already have highlighted in the last things you would have seen from us, the last episode and vlog that we put out, we took a little break. We did and it was necessary. And I feel like it was a really wise choice for the season that we were in. From the podcasts, we took a break from the. Podcast from the podcast. Each other, not each other. No, we didn't take a break from each other.
We took a break from the podcast and content creation and we really took a break and I knew this would happen. That's why I didn't over promise this time when we would be back or what we would be doing. We just pulled right back. We needed to blaze going to talk a little bit more about that season and that sort of thing, but it's just really important and everything has these seasons right. We've got these seasons where life is going pretty cruisy and
routines are going really well. And then there's seasons where it's just maintenance and it's survival mode and it's pulling back to the core things that are important. And that was one of these seasons for us. I think any workplace you get leave and that's important to take when you need it. And we are technically a workplace and this was technically our leave. We're. A workplace that makes 0 money. A workplace that makes 0. We're committed, but we're here.
So that's what that's what we've been through and Blair will explain that a little bit more. But just just highlighting the importance of these seasons for everybody. Everyone has these times where they need to pull back a little bit and it's totally normal and healthy and in fact, important to listen to because the alternative is much worse. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we've done. We've had a couple of breaks now. That's what we do. Seasons.
We actually never intended to do seasons and then we just get to an end of the year. It's just crazy like. This is the season. This is. We're done now. Thank you. This is the season and that's The thing is like we always said that we wanted this podcast to serve us, not us serve it. It's something we've said quite a lot and all of that content, So our vlogs on YouTube and all that YouTube content, we're like, we want to to serve us, you know, we want to bring stuff
out there. We want to support people. We really do have a heart for other people, other marriages and relationships and stuff like that. And not that we lost that, but as our capability, our capacity to do so in a genuine and excited way, we'll just. Help. You. Yeah, we'll just tie it like the Honestly, that was it. There was nothing wrong with Amy and I in our relationship. It wasn't that, you know, we made a joke about us having a break from each other. That's a joke, right?
We were fine and we've had some really big things come up. Work got really intense and it always does at that time of the year, family life was just getting intense and we're just trying to really navigate through the future of what we're doing here. You know, we, we love this. We're so passionate about it and we enjoy it. But like I said, we don't make any money. So trying to do this with the capacity that we have, you know, a family of four, four kids, one toddler is it's a big gig.
Especially while working as well. Exactly. And then we're, they're both working too. So I'm working full time, Amy's working part time. And so we want to do that. We want to do that well. And so we just knew we needed a break, refresh and plan to see what the future holds. Like what do we need to get rid of or what do we need to sacrifice in order to do this more or just sustain doing this
right? And it's always that nervous thing is like when you take a break, like our followers drop, our listeners drop so much like it really does. And it really hurts the the growth you've had in that last season. But again, I mean, we're more about in the enjoyment of this and our passion behind it rather than the making money. The making money is going to create more capacity for us and we'll get there one day.
But in the interim, we're having fun, you know, and well, this is the time for us to connect on this way as well. It's an intentional time for us. It's kind of like a date and you guys are peeking in, so welcome to that. Yeah. So that's what it's about. So a lot of different things were going on. We went overseas as well. So we went over to visit Amy's
sister and her family. And so we just were out of action for a bit there coming to the end of the year and just I was really starting to struggle with a bit of burnout. And we both were to an extent, you know, with trying to juggle all of the things. But me in particular with work, like I said, a lot of things were happening. My role is quite heavily I I catch a lot of the things that they need to be caught in the organisation, which I is fine. I love it. I love my job, I love what we're
about. I love the organisation, I love the people. But when you feel like you're dropping the ball too much, it weighs on me so much. Like I have these expectations on myself, which are unrealistic and I beat myself up. I'm my my worst, my own worst critic. And it just really starts to affect me. It starts affecting my mental health. I get into bad self care habits, like I just don't do it anymore. And so again, we're just
noticing all of these things. I kind of start to go on the spiral now from having like, what is it like 6 years now of mental health struggles and just really navigating through that. You start to identify them early and then you put those things in place to address it. And that's one of the main reasons why we went on the break. I was just not in AI was going down. I was going into a spiral. We identified it. We just had to step back, refresh, just survive.
We go into survival mode and then we come back refreshed and ready to go. So it wasn't anything drastic just to help everyone be at ease, but again, identifying the early signs, putting things in place to not really go down deep and was what what we want to do. Yeah, and really important for for us to listen to our bodies and our minds and our spirit, because we felt really prompted from God to do that as well, to just recognise when things are ebbing and flowing.
And it is a practise that's still still, we catch it too late I would say. But definitely we've become more attuned to it. And it was interesting when we kind of got to this point last year, I started to have like a little bit of like PTS, I guess being like, Oh my gosh, I can't like, I can't go back into blaze burnout. It was just a lot, which I could also just clarifying, I could have like it, you survive and you adjust for what you need to go through. But it was just like, yes, I can
feel that feeling again. And I'm sure you were feeling the same thing on the other on the other side. And it's easier for us to know what to prioritise now than it was back then. That these triggers have happened multiple times. Oh yeah, right. So it's like, again, for those who knew about six years ago, I'm terrible with time frames sometime in my life was it yes, it. Was a 2000.
I'm great at time frames. I had a pretty significant burnout, never really had major mental health struggles until this point. And it was a whole new thing for me and the family and I was down and out like I've, I never struggled that much before in my life. And so it didn't just impact me. As everyone that has a family knows or is in a relationship, when you struggle, everyone around you struggle like your family struggles.
And so Amy caught a lot of that and carried a lot of that through that period of time that was through COVID and things. It was just absolutely messy. So now we've gone through multiple times of, yeah, PTSD of like, oh man, is that gonna happen again? Is that gonna happen again? And we're in a very different place. We learned a lot of things through that, and we're not as naive to how, you know, mortal we are. If you're gonna put it that way, What's the opposite of
invincible? Vulnerable maybe? Let's go with that. Yeah. So that was just again learning so much of that. When we again point point of the break was we identified that we're not going back there. We're putting in the brakes when we need to, family first, everything else second. Yeah. We put up, we put a pause on
discretionary spending. I don't know if that's a phrase, but I needed to say it. Like businesses do when they need to tighten things up, they just pause discretionary spending or external whatevers, and that's what we did. People are laughing at me now because they're like, that's not how you say it, but that's what I'm saying. Get. Back off, guys. Also, we have a whole episode about burnout and and we have talked about it multiple times on the podcast.
So if you want to hear more about that or if you have felt like that's something that you're wrestling with, we have put together an episode with resources that have helped us going through it. So anyway, we are good. We're really excited to be back and things feel like they've shifted and we just have a new energy to bring to the podcast, which we're excited about. But to talk about what happened while we were gone did. Catch you guys up. So we also put a pause in our vlogging as well.
So we invented a bit of a game. Mm hmm. Well, I think I've seen it, so I don't. I can't say we. I haven't seen it, so we invented it. All right, so it's called bingo check in or bingo update as the cool kids call it cool, which is me I. Love you say cool because that makes sense. Yeah. All right, So bingo, check insurance catch up update. There we go. So how it goes is I. We've got some a list of five things each, OK.
And so if it's the first person to take off, like if I say something and Amy's got that and then she ticks it off as well, right. So and then you share something. If I've got that on my list, I tick it off and the person with the most ticked off things in the end the. Person who gets to say the most things wins. So I lose a point. If you say the same thing I've got written before I say it, I have to cross it off.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So the person who gets to vocalise the most things on their list before it gets ticked off. Yeah. Wins. OK, Nailed. I nailed it. And you're gonna help me understand it when we're done. Yeah. But that's cool. And the prize is. High 5 No. What did I say? What did we say? Look under the part. It says prize. The prize is. But no but. And the prize is. That's like a you. Came up with that. Prize. But Neil, I'm taking a bath. A winner gets a massage with the
massage gun. Thank you. OK all. Right, so you go first. OK, well we bought a cat. We did Ferguson, Michael Jordan, a key ball. Where is he? I don't even know you will have seen him on our socials. I'm sure if he comes around he's a lot less. He chooses when He loves us and when He. Does Bonnie forces her love? That's our Gordon retriever. She is like you will love me. No. No, Bonnie. Well, yes, but she's also at our beck and call like she is at our mercy.
Yeah, and she's right here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ferguson chooses if he showed himself. That's Ferguson, Michael Jordan, Keeble. And if you know that reference, then you're out. Then you know, yeah. All right, so that I did have that one and. Yeah, to cross it off. Where are we? I'm crossing it off. Well, I was gonna say it was really funny, actually. During COVID, we got into these really bad habits and I'm gonna
go through all of them. But one of them was when we got really low, we'll just buy something extravagant. It's like, even if you couldn't afford it, it's like we just went into these really, really bad habits. We also had like more money at that stage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so anyway, it's essentially what happened here. Yeah. So as I mentioned, things were getting a bit hard at the end of last year. And we've talked about cats before, but I'm allergic to cats, right?
And so I've always been like against it. We like, I've had my eyes swell up and just sneezing kind like full on hay fever or cat fever and it's intense. Anyway this one time I was really low and I'm like Bonnie is she's amazing dog but I'm feeling bad because we've got 4 kids and she just gets neglected but sometimes like our dog gets neglected sometimes and I feel bad my man I want to get her another companion but my I can't handle another dog. Like, there's so much craziness happening.
Around this house. Yeah, we got so much craziness around this house. I can't do another dog. So I'm like, look, I'm just going to look. I'm not going to do anything. I'm just looking at the sort of cats that would be good with dogs. And so anyway, we found this cat. I'm like, oh, that's a good idea. And then I just went deeper and deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole. Hole without talking to her. Talking to Amy and then I and I said to Amy, eventually I think
we need to get a cat. One morning I wake up and he's like, I think we need to get a cat. Yeah, blew my mind. Yeah, and I've always been so anti cats. Not a fan. Not at all. They're just snobs, right. Anyway, long story shorter, we've got a cat. And then I was allergic to the cat. Like, makes sense for one day. That is it. For one, it was honestly like I was healed from cat allergies. Like it was that intense. The next day I grabbed Ferguson.
I rubbed him all over my like I'm like inhaling every fibre of him to make sure that I'm no longer allergic. No issues, 0 zilch issues and I am now a cat fan. He's he has converted. I've converted and people like non cat fans are like, oh, I can't believe you've like I'm like you don't understand. Like this cat is amazing when he
loves us back. Bonnie and Ferguson are really good friends, and they play and wrestle and they sleep together and they they cuddle and then they get at each other. But they are so. Bonnie is amazing. She's so gentle. Like, I don't know what it would have been like with a different dog. Yeah, she is so gentle. And he's really cute and fun. Yeah, it was honestly the reason why we got him. Worked like it actually happened, which was awesome.
When when he told me he wanted a cat, a couldn't believe it. BI had had there's multiple times where I'm like, we could get a cat, we could get a cat and he's like, heck no. So I had thought in my head, genuinely, I'm never going to bring up a cat again. And so when he told me he wanted a cat, I was like, this is on you.
This is on you. Like he needed me to research because, you know, ADHD or whatever and find it and pay for it and buy it and go get it. But I was like every step of the way I was like, this is your thing. Yeah, this is if this goes pear shaped. I just fixated way too much and it's like, I'll go to a point like, Amy, I have to hand this over to you. I can't get it out of my brain. I need to just give it to you now at this point. Yeah, anyway, we've got him.
It was like a song stuck in my head but. It was like, and then we got the cat. Well, yes, that's my one. What's your first one? Awesome. My first one is, so I've been really, really challenged recently about I wanted to be more of a role model for my family and especially my wife. And so I came out with this really, really cool idea where I thought I would lead by example. So what I've started to do is wake up at 5:30 in the morning and I'm just like, look, Amy, if
I can do it, you can do it too. I'm just being there. I'm present. I'm up at 5:30 in the morning being that rock. Do you have that on your? Do we? Cross the mark? No, I don't have that. Exactly. So I'm one up. But I started it, thank you very much. And it's been 2 days. Yeah, but I did it the first day. Blair joined me this morning. And it was a success. But it actually I genuinely love it. Yeah, well, I did and I didn't. I was lost. I'm like, what am I even doing up at this time?
Yeah, like what have I been do with myself right now? Because all the kids were asleep and it's so rare for us to be up and the kids not just take every ounce of our energy. So it was really, it was nice at that point.
But I'm like, I don't want to waste this, but I don't know what to do. So anyway, you like we've talked a bit like I've been, we've both been really trying to be more intentional this year with our time with God and in the word and just growing in our faith in that aspect of it. Just just the disciplines, right? And so it took me a little bit of a rhythm, but me reading at 5:30 in the morning, like I have a short attention span as it is.
So just trying to find like a nice YouTube video to watch and to do it in that way. I found this guy. He was reading scripture. That was great. And that was my quiet time this morning, so that'd be good. I went to go for a walk with Bonnie, and then I opened the door because our toddler was in our bed. He came into our bed last night and I started waking him up. So I'm like, well, that's not gonna happen. Abort. Abort. Yeah. So I just went out and just sat
on the. Lesson learned though, because you'll put your clothes out tomorrow. Yeah, whatever day. Well, no, tomorrow's the weekend. We're not.
Doing on the weekend. So what I've decided is it just came across me quickly, like I hadn't had this thought, but there's a lot of rhythms I'm wanting to be more intentional with and I thought this is what I can do because I like being up early when I'm up early and I saw some people talking about on Instagram. I have gone in with 0 Agenda because I want to get into the rhythm of it and I want to see what happens with that extra time so I'm not scrolling.
That's one thing I'm not doing, but just seeing what happens with that extra time. For now, it's been really good for quiet time. I did some vlogging the first day, so we'll pull that together in a vlog soon. But what I did learn is doing your quiet time and then praying doesn't always work because then you fall asleep. Did it happen Almost. My prayers just started to turn into dreams and I was like sorry, I'll pray with my eyes
open next time. Hey guys, we're going to jump back into this episode really soon. But before we do, we just want to ask you to jump over to YouTube specifically. But wherever you are, whatever platform, hit that subscribe button. Our growth heavily relies on your involvement. So the more that you subscribe or like or comment, all the stuff you always hear people say is super true.
And so we'd love that support from you guys if you could please subscribe, like, share, comment and just send us some love. That would be fantastic. YouTube is our biggest platform that we can actually grow on here in Australia. So we're putting a lot of emphasis on YouTube this year. So if you're not on YouTube, head to YouTube. You can see a lot more content over there. Upper brother out. You know what I'm saying? And the sister? And the sister. Thanks. Bye. Back to the episode.
Alright, my next one. My next one. OK, so Stranger Things on Broadway. Oh, I didn't have that. There we go. That show was amazing. That show was so well done. And I don't know if it's going to tour the world, but hello. Hello, are you paying attention? Oh no, I'm writing it down. So now it's on my list. I've got it. I don't know if it's going to tour the world or not, but it was really, really good and I, I don't want to get into it, but anyway. We've talked about it a lot.
Our disappoint. Was really let's just, it was really good. Really, really good. If it comes around, worth watching. It was just very impressive how they did it. Surprising, I think 'cause we went in with 0 expectations or understanding of how they were going to put Stranger Things into a Broadway show. But it was really good. Yeah. So that was mine. What was your next one? All right, so my next one was,
yeah, there was this thing. Amy came in to me one day and she's like, I mean, I've got this amazing new TikTok recipe and I want you to try it. And I'm in a meeting, by the way. And she comes in and so I pause my meeting while I'm in there, she comes in with this new TikTok recipe and she's like loving it. It was literally and I, I ate it mid meeting. So I pause my meeting. I said, sorry, I'm going to do something. It does not matter.
A meeting is a meeting. A meeting is a meeting and don't call him not important. He's important. The meeting wasn't. OK, so I paused the morning, the morning, the meeting with my Co worker and she had to fill my reaction and everything because she just loved it. It was literally sweet potato, a whole sweet potato with cheese stuffed in it. That was it. It wasn't bad, I'll give you that. It was not bad. It was super overrated. Super overrated. I was so underwhelmed.
I'm like oh OK, this must be amazing. It's literally sweet potato and cheese. That's an update if you have that. On your list more TikTok. Then you'll know. No, you've gone real niche. Yeah, yeah. No, I did not have that on my list. Yeah, OK, Well, but. You're welcome. Give Amy credit, I've had it multiple times. Yeah, and it was yummy. It's I don't, I haven't actually made it for a little while. But if you've been on Instagram, you've probably seen the girl that did this.
And I made a reel that I haven't put together yet because I was a bit like, it's weird. Maybe you'll bring it up. The next one I had on my list is we tried Chick-fil-A. I've got that. You do. Cool. How you? Spell it. Did you actually have? It I do, it's right there. Why do you ask how you spell it? Because I was typing it in. OK, yeah, we tried Chick-fil-A, which was amazing in America. Our food, the food just did not work with us. I don't, I don't know what it is. I'm not gonna bad.
Ingredients. It's just it's a different ingredients. It's didn't work with. Us so the soda has corn syrup in it. We don't do corn syrup in Australia. So you like any and like the bread was sweet like everything's a bit. Sweeter and yeah. Beer, yeah. And. We just weren't used to it. So we yeah, just struggled with
the the differences of food. To be fair, it was a lot of take out slash restauranty food because we were on our trip, but we did try Chick-fil-A and we loved it and I wish that Australia would get Chick-fil-A. No Chick-fil-A sauce. I don't get that. You keep repeating that. Yeah, the Chief Flies sauce was amazing. Was so yummy. So that was that was a highlight. Yeah, the other one was, Oh, what's it called? Miss Maples? No. No, no, Auntie, Auntie and.
That's our step, brother. Annians keeps on saying brother in law. Brother. Anyway, Annians are hot. Pretzels. Yeah, that was delicious. Really, really good. In that sauce. And we had hot pretzels from an Amish market as well. The area where we're at was very Amishy. And in Pennsylvania? Yeah, delicious. Like the pastries, they're like that sort of stuff was really yummy. Yeah. It's actually a vibe.
So yeah, so mine was, we went to America and that was, like I said before, that was a trip and it was just going to Pennsylvania. Like people were on horse and carts and stuff. And you go to like an Amish, like an Amish farm to do your shopping you. Go to get milk and. Eggs and meat and whatever else is. It's really cool actually. And it's like all honour system type stuff. Yeah, so there's no one in the shop. You just go get it and pay and then walk out, which was really,
really cool. Now the thing that I had, so I was in America, so we were in New York was our first night and one of the first things we said, we can't not go to New York and get a New York pizza. So we were super jet lagged. You know, we've left from it was 24 hour flight or something like that. Like, yeah, it's a travel 24 hours. And we finally got there. We had the craziest taxi driver. And then we're like, look, let's just Uber Eats a New York pizza, like a classic New York, NY
pizza. We were super hungry and super pumped and super tired and, you know, it took like ages to get to us. We're just not expecting that. The guy was on a bike, which is fair, but. Which is fair, it's not his fault. But by the time we got it, I was drooling. I was ready. The pizza was cold and it was terrible. Stone cold it was. It was still yummy for cold people. Yeah, but it was, it was like just so. Stone Cold. We just. Disappointing. Just, and the pizza probably
would have been great. Oh yeah. New York was like essentially double the cost of anything here, you know, like everything costs. Like if you do the conversion and everything, it's about double the price. And so I just like I cried every time we bought something. It was hard to appreciate the experience when you're feeling. Like every kind of you did better at that. You kept on trying to remind me of like, look, we're on a holiday.
This is a once in a lifetime thing or twice in a lifetime thing. Just enjoy it. And I found that very hard to do, but I was, I was really having internal wrestles of like, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. We'll go broke, we'll be bankrupt, but we'll be our comeback from it. It surprised me actually because the last time I was there, I feel like it was cheaper. But also I was there with my mum. Yeah, she. Probably paid for. Everything but yeah, it was,
yeah. We went to New York, we went to America. We yeah, called pizza all. Right, So how many items did you have? Hang on, I'm not done. Oh yeah, here you go again. It's your turn. I can't believe the ones you've put on your list and the ones you haven't. OK, so we bought a 3D printer. Yeah. Yeah, I've got the one too. So Blair's lost this game already, no? I've got it on my list. Yeah, but I'm winning because I'm the one that's got to vocalise it. Yeah, but you cross it off.
If you've got it on your list, that means you lose that point. Obviously I've got it on my list. Baby, you don't have it on your list. It's literally just typed it. Yeah, it's on my list. You don't know on my players last plot. Anyway, we bought a 3D printer and that has been the best purchase. One of the best purchases we've ever made in our entire lives it. Was it's been a lot. Of had something here to show you guys but it has been a lot of fun.
We have hyper fixated like nothing else also. More than others, some more. Than others. The week that we bought it was I think it was the week after Christmas that that that like weird week where you don't know what any day is. We watched, we just like vegged out that week. We bought the printer, we watched a lot of TV, we watched like tablets and none of this is healthy routines, but it was just like the best.
We had quiet on nothing hot weather outside and we just printed stuff and like learned about this new printer. We bought it as a family, which was really cool. Like the kids chose how much of their Christmas money to put into it, like how much they wanted to invest in it. And then that was reflective of how much they've been able to use it. And it just was a really cool family purchase. Yeah, yeah, you go get something if you want and I'll keep talking.
If I get up, I'll trip over one of these wires. But yeah, it's been really fun. So we've been talking to them about like trying to get like more creativity out of them for it, which has been a lot of fun. So designing like something for to be attached to their bed, like a drink bottle holder or a bookshelf or whatever else, since, you know, we're getting them to learn how to design things, which is a lot of fun. So we've started designing stuff too.
It's been, it's quite can be quite complicated because it's just I'm not used to it. I haven't done it before. So there I was. It's been fun, man. Like is the first purchase that we have all put into as a family. Even our toddler put like 10 bucks into it or something like that. And we just, we just make him like dinosaurs. That's all he wants in life is dinosaurs. So that's fine. I'm just going to show you what I could find quickly, but this is not even scratching the
surface. So this is Amy's most recent print. So this is a sugar glider thing that moves, make the noise in the microphone. This is the whole IS smart stuff that I hate, but others like it. OK, so that's, that's what it sounds like. And then she's made. Oh, so that's our oldest son's birthday coming up. So the little Christmas bags that we're making, we're making the stuff. So that's a little shark thing for the party bags. Yeah. And that's, that's the sound.
And then we made Tron train horns, train whistles. We made that. This is Amy's little fidget thing she made for her desk. It's a little octopus and she puts it on her head and she likes that. And then the. I don't understand this one. This is. Yeah, you explain. It's not a fan of this one, but I just don't get a bean bag for my phone. But that you don't even put your phone on it, you put your octopus. On now it's for my Octopus anyway. We've done so many other things, but.
Yeah, that's the highlights. So Amy actually made me because again, undiagnosed ADHD, she's made me fidget toys as well for while I'm in meetings and stuff. I actually use them so much it's crazy. They've been really good. You. Got any more fresh ones? You cross too many off. You've got three things on that list. No, I've got five. I've five things. I've got the cold pizza. You didn't have that on your list. I've got the cat. I said the cat.
Yeah, but I talked about how I was allergic to it. I said the cat. OK, we're talking about points for the game. Yeah, but you didn't say I was allergic. What else did you say then? I said about my really good early morning routine and how I'm such a role model for. You lied blatantly. And then your sweet potato. Trick. Very true. So you did. You said three things. And then the American cold pizza. Cold pizza, morning routine and my potato were the things you said right?
Anyway, Yeah, I've got three. I've got four so far and I've got one more, and it's necessary. How many of you said? I've said four. I just said that I. Think I've forgotten one of them. This is the necessary one that needs to be said. We mourned the Stranger Things finale. We've talked about this on our socials, we being me. But Oh my gosh, I I still love the show so much. I still love the show. This has stranger. Things mug. I've got Stranger Things nightgown.
We printed Stranger Things Things. We love the Broadway show. Yeah, I I just don't wanna watch it again. I wanna really. Turn me off like watching it again. Oh. My gosh, like some people loved it and I honestly, I wish I could take their brains and put it in my brain. If you're listening. To this, if you're listening to this and you actually legitimately like the last. Legit like not just make yourself like it. Yeah, and the last episode. Can you type in the comments please?
What did you actually like about We wanna know? I want so so confused on how people actually enjoyed it. Yeah, not dissing you. No, no, no. You, you do you. That's completely fine, but I would like we're genuinely confused why people like it. Near the end, halfway through, Blair was like, this is gonna be whatever. And I was like just just up. And then like the last minute or so or last couple minutes of it, we were just both like, what on earth? And anger finished. I actually got angry.
Anger. Like I know this is so not important in the grand scheme of relationships, but. But at the same time, like, I, I, I find myself in this, the Duffer Brothers have made it. Yeah. Like, that's part of me. Like, look, man, I'm sorry. They're getting a lot of criticism over it. And I feel really sorry. I feel bad. Like, I feel very, very bad. It would suck. But yeah, like, I mean, they did such an amazing job on every season up until this one, and then it's all fallen over.
But I I genuinely had an anger when we watched our last episode. And like no way is this. I've heard people be like it wasn't that bad. Every season finale has plot holes, which I 100% agree. Like all of our favourite shows have kind of weak endings, but I don't mind them. Like The Office I don't mind. I know some people feel strongly about that. The New Girl finale, Parks and Rec is a little bit like it's
just a little weaker. Almost every single series has a weaker finale because how do you wrap up a series that's been over years? So I was fully, fully expecting it to be weaker. Was I expecting there to be like 60 plus plot holes or like big gaping discrepancies or those? Kind of no. And so I've had people be like, it's just, that's just what finales are like, yeah, I didn't get it. But that wasn't even this. I would take that for this anyway, but that's all I've got
to say. Granted, a lot about it. Especially, I think our feelings are clear and genuinely, no offence to anyone who liked it, I want to hear from you because I want to understand why you thought it was good and help me. All right, so that's what we've been doing. Very vague summary. I'm actually really surprised at some of the stuff that didn't get put on there, but I think we covered most of it actually. So much. There's so much stuff that's happened.
How long was our break like? For like 4 months, yeah. So there was lots of things that happened. Probably nothing super needed to be shared. And if it is, it'll come out in the woodwork. We'll share on our vlogs all. Yeah, But we're moving into Season 3 and we're really excited about what that's going to bring. There's going to be some shifts in how the content is coming out. So one thing is I'm actually finishing up my role at Dad's
group on Monday is my last day. So when this episode comes out, and that is an intentional move so that I can continue to grow my coaching, which has been also really exciting and going really well, and focus on our content. And it's just a little bit of a step of faith to see like we're jumping out or I'm stepping out and where we land, we land. But we just want to put intentional time into growing this and seeing what it can
become. Yeah. So we're kind of taking a step back so we can take a step forward, but also Amy's taking a step back so we can take a step forward. Yeah, we she remember how I said things, you know, we're looking at where do we need to make a sacrifice to keep doing this? And this is one of those we're taking a bit of a financial sacrifice for Amy, cutting down her hours to focus more on where we're where we.
Quality, quality. Yeah, yeah, quality of of our content, but of your coaching too. So giving your clients you want to give them the attention that they need as well. Including my further developments, I'm I'm now doing more study for it and that kind of thing, which is exciting. And one of the focuses for this, this season of the podcast or our content in general is going
to be practical tips. Like we've talked about practical things all the way through the podcast, but we want actual things you can implement like right now if this is something that you're wrestling with or if it if you want to refresher all these sorts of things. So we're going to be coming out with more resources. Check out our website and sign up there if you're not on it, because we will start to send them out. But also that's where you'll find them.
And throughout the year, that's going to be a focus is creating really practical hands on resources for people to do in their homes straight away sort of thing. That's going to include more coaching, waving into this stuff, into our content on socials. That's going to be a real big push this this season as well and more reflection on how we're going, more guests. If you have guest recommendations, shoot em our way. We are always keen to hear who you wanna hear from and who we can have.
Join us on the podcast. Another big area that we're focusing on, so you know, we squeeze all of our stuff into the limited time that we have. It's one of the big areas that's taken a hit for us over the last couple of years is our social media. And it's probably the most important part of our marketing is social media. So we've actually got a team member now. So shout out to Josh and I'm gonna listen this one, Bud.
Great to have you on. Josh is going to be helping us with our social media, taking care of all that content, taking our vlogs and our podcasts and putting it out on across all of our different socials. For us, that's again, is helping us with time and really focusing on the things that only we can do. So we're the only ones that can do this podcast because it's our podcast. We're the only ones that can come out with the content for the podcast because that's what we're doing.
That's why we're doing this, is to bring that intentional sessions to you guys based on feedback or, you know, writings and all that sort of stuff too. So we're the ones that get that. So yeah, we're really trying to outsource as much as we can of the little things that we don't need to do. So we're excited about that to bring something practical into
this episode. We wanted to talk about something that we've done as a focus for our family this year and something that I'm really, really bringing into my coaching this year. And something that has been just very empowering in the face of a new year, New Year's resolutions, all of these sorts of things that people try to implement every year when it's fresh. So instead of focusing on a resolution, which which tends to be something that you want to do better.
So like I want to get to the gym three days a week or I want to only eat. I don't want to eat take away all year or something like that. We always have these things that we bring in in the new year as a resolution. And most of the time the resolutions are things we want to be better at, do better, start like things that are new and separate from how we already were. And so you've probably done this before. You've probably seen this play out.
It's tends to be something that you set up for yourself with, you know, a great deal of motivation and you're all hyped up to do it and then within a week it kind of falls apart or within a month it falls apart or you realise it's not sustainable or whatever it might be. They tend not to stick around for very long. That's kind of the classic story that you hear with resolutions. So instead what we've been
focusing on is declarations. And I went through this process with our kids, and then I went through it with you. And I've done it with myself as well, including also some of my clients, and just done a process of really, really stripping back to one what kind of person I want to be.
But more than that, stripping it back into who I already am, that reinforces that and turning it into a phrase that we can declare over ourselves on a regular basis so that our brains know this is important to us and puts the energy there. I've spoken about this so many times, how our brains listen to what we tell it is important. So if we're telling it a negative story, it's going to actually listen to that and think, oh, they think this is really important.
If we're saying we're really bad at cleaning, our brains just going to think it's very important that Amy thinks she's bad at cleaning. So I'm going to show her everything I can that points to the evidence that she's bad at cleaning instead of pointing out the things that contradict that. So like actually you clean this all the time or you do this all the time. So it actually starts to wire your brain what the story that you tell.
And it's a very important thing. And so when you're going into a year and you want to bring in some new rhythms or you want to bring in patterns that are more helpful for you in terms of moving towards the kind of lifestyle or the goals or whatever that you have for yourself. Instead of telling your brain, I, I'm really bad at exercise. So I'm going to, I'm going to make myself go to the gym and I'm going to sign up for a gym and I'm going to go three days a
week. And that's what I'm going to do. And it's this new thing you're trying to obtain, which is possible. It just shuts your brain down and reinforces the story that you already have, instead of finding the things that already align with who you are and declaring them as a truth over and over to move you further towards what you're wanting to work towards. So Amy's like, I love watching Amy in her coaching space, like she's so she just gets things that I just don't understand.
So gifted at just drawing out from other people, like the things that they already know they want to work on. And she just comes with a calm way of, you know, coaching them through those processes, which is awesome. And so I see that with her clients because they're going to be here stuff. And I said to her the other week, I'm like, I want you to to coach us. Like I, I want us to be able to work through this as a family as
well, right? Because we want to be raising our kids in ways where they can navigate through their things themselves, but also we want to do this as a family as well. So the reason why I mentioned that is because even when I'm the one that suggested like as I've been encouraging Amy to do that with our family, but then Amy started doing this session with me and I was not ready for that conversation.
So just want to say this like it's, it's an amazing tool, but you need to be ready for it. So if you hear something like this, it's like, oh, my partner should do this, You know, I'll do this and my partner should do it too. Just you've got to be in that space to do it. It's sometimes a hard thing, especially if you're already struggling or you're tired or you're anxious or whatever, because seeing through that fog in that time can be quite hard.
And it wasn't, I don't feel like it was a good conversation we had. You were doing your job like you were doing what I actually asked you to do. I just wasn't showing up to the conversation. My mind wasn't able to breakthrough the fog that I was in to really articulate or even really want to do it. I genuinely didn't want to do it in that time. And then like the day later, I'm like, oh man, I I wish I showed up in that moment better. I wish I input it into that
better. So, you know, I still talking to Amy. I've still been encouraging you to bring that back to our family. So you've talked about with the kids, you've talked about with me. But don't leave it there. Like, let's keep revisiting it because it needs I I need that. I need that revisit and that ongoing check in. Not the. All right, give me everything right now. Yeah, because it feels too big, you know, especially if I'm struggling. It feels too big, that conversation to have all at
once. But breaking it up and continually coming back to it, it's more manageable. Yeah, well, and I made a worksheet for this because I've sent it out to my clients and I will put it out on our website as well so you guys can and download it and go through it.
But that's The thing is it and it really breaks it down because it is if you if you come about it the wrong way, for one thing, it shuts your brain down and you go into survival mode and you don't want to think about things, especially when it's big and you don't have any idea. So you want to be you want to bring it right back to the basics to then walk yourself through it or be walked through it if you're going through it
with other people also. I all the time have coaching stuff come up that I like, I'm really good at coaching somebody else on and then I like sit down to do it myself and I'm like, Oh my gosh, or I'll just be off in La La land. So it's it's not just something that's natural even for people that do it for other people, just to be clear. But this is something that one of the ways that we start this process is you do look at what you wish you did better.
So for me, I was or for the kids, we sat down and said, what do you wish or what do you want to do better this year or what do you wish you could be doing better at school specifically is what we kind of focused on. And a few of the things that come out, they sound negative and you don't want to stay there. You don't want to be like, oh, I wish I was better at this. I wish I was better at this.
What you want to do is take that prompt and that reflection on like, look, I'm actually, I am not good at maths, for example, I'm not good at maths. So you don't sit there and say I'm not good at maths. That's not going to help your brain at all. Instead you say, actually I've got everything I need to learn this maths. Like I've got everything I need in my brain and resource wise to learn it and it then starts to shift the mood of it.
So our oldest struggles when he gets overwhelmed, he's actually very good at school, but he struggles when he gets overwhelmed with specifically maths. And I think it's because he can see it all on this page and it's super overwhelming. So his story has started to be that he is not very good at maths. So when we first did this process, that was one of the things that he listed out that he wants to do better at maths.
He's not very good at maths. He wishes he could be better at it. And we don't stay there. We then start to point out actually you, you have done really well when you're calm and your brain is not stressed and you're in a good environment. So it's not that you're not good at maths. You have you learn things really well. Look at how much you've learned since the first time. And so it's not that you're not
able to learn, you can learn. And so instead of being like, I want to be better at maths, reminding him that he is capable of learning everything that comes his way. He is capable of learning, showing him what he's done before and having that as his declaration is what helps move him towards what he wants to be doing stronger.
And that's, it's the process like when when Blair was talking about that conversation, if you're in a bad head space, it can be hard to reframe those things and just be gracious to yourself. Give yourself space like that's not, you don't want to force things. The moment you start to force it, it doesn't work well. But it is a really interesting process to go through and then not leave it there. Like I said, you can't just identify it and then not do anything with it.
And I've got them written on our notebook and I need to write it out on papers and stick up on the wall. That's what I've been intending to do this whole time and I haven't done it. But it's the repetition of those things that actually brings in the change. So you identify it and then you intentionally implement it.
Yeah, and that's why I wanna say if this is like this sort of stuff, if we come up with these sort of topics and you just like, look, I want to do that, but it's just overwhelming or it's just too big for me to work on that. Reach out. This is literally what Amy does. And it's not even just a job. It's actually a gift that she has. And I, I know I'm biassed, but I genuinely mean this because I experienced it in our marriage. I experienced it in my personal life.
I experienced Amy's gift in the way of walking you through to make it manageable, knowing that you've already got everything that you need to work through this situation. And if you don't, you know where to get it. You know how to obtain it. So I just want to like put that in here because it's so important. That story that I shared then was exactly that. She is literally coaching me still on how to go through these declarations because I found it too hard.
I found it too overwhelming. Wasn't it was a too big of a asked to get my doubts to be non doubts, you know, and my negative thinking to be positive to help me move through the barriers that I was facing. And I'm still going through them and that's why we're continually going through them. It's not allowing you to do that. So anyway, reach out, go to our website, go to our socials, you
can reach out. And if you want to know more information of opportunities that are coming up from these courses and and services do that. I highly recommend it. Yeah, yeah, I'm definitely passionate about making things easy and accessible. If something's too flowery, lofty, doesn't make sense, it's too big picture, I want to fix it. So let us know. So we'll say we'll share that declarations worksheet. You guys can go through it if
you like. There's going to be more coaching content that comes through just naturally in the episodes and the content that we come out with. And we will be getting back to vlogging. I've actually started our America vlog. We've been vlogging, we just haven't been editing. So we've got. Like massive. Yeah, we've got. Like 3 vlogs ready to go of content. We just got to do the editing side things. We've actually what another
thing we didn't share. Actually I. Won't spend too much time on this because we're, we're going on for a bit now, but we, our passion, a passion of ours is that our content will become more of a family project in the future. Right now we're quite strict. We don't want our kids faces on socials as much as possible. Sometimes we might slip by accident and more or less something go through. But we, we don't want our kids faces on socials. We want to wait till they're
older and be able to do that. But we, they want to be so involved in this, what we've allowed them to do every now and again, they can edit a vlog or they can direct it or they tell us the props. So probably the second vlog coming out this year will be their one. So we've, they've already been editing it and directing us and you know, like, oh, we want to capture this or we want to do this activity one day and all that. It's been a lot of, actually. Done a really, they've done a
really good job. Really good job and they're only using like basic software on the iPad and things, but it's fun. It's been so fun. So anyway, we've got like 3 vlogs worth of, we've just got to get it out and edit it. The big America one is the blockage for me. I just need to get it done because it's like 23 gigs of videos. But anyway, it's coming.
All right, so some quick questions for you before we wrap up. Just to reflect on what your last four months have been like because we've just shared about ours and what you want. 2026 even though we're in Feb, it's not too late 2026. What do you want that to look like? Ask yourself to reflect on some of these things. So where is something feeling like it's not working or serving you well?
Is there anything in your relationship, in your home life, in your work that's just not fitting, sits uncomfortably, weighs on you, or just isn't feeling like it's serving you and moving you towards where you want to be? And write those things down. Just identify them and be okay just having them out on paper. They don't have to be worded well or anything. And then take those things and reinforce for yourself your abilities in this space. Where have you done this well before?
There will be an example of you doing something in this kind of space well before. Even if it's as simple as I'm really bad at putting in routines, but I know I make a coffee for myself every morning. That's a good routine example. Reinforce those things for you so you can recognise where you have done well before and then what could shift if you were to just slightly adjust your patterns to be more constructive for you in that if it's your relationship, this is a really
good one. If you're finding communication is really hard right now, don't be like, we have to like sit down and have a really big heart to heart. What's 1 tiny little shift that you can implement there? One tiny little difference in how you communicate, one tiny little difference in in what you ask your partner at the end of the day or the time you set aside, all of those sorts of things. One tiny thing you can implement and just commit to doing that. One tiny thing this week.
It's a small little thing you can do to actually see change. And every time we see change and feel a win, it helps reinforce that for our brain that we're we're capable of doing that. Awesome, that is episode 1 of season 3. That was fun man. I was actually so excited for this. Like I think last week I was kind of like oh we're gonna get do we've gotta do it again. But then we prepared for the next 4 episodes or something.
But then like this morning I'm like Oh yeah, we had to do this and my mind started getting back into it. I'm like yeah we're gonna do this It's good I'm keen. So anyway, I am legit pumped about this season and just so keen to go on this year with you guys. We would love again. We love writing, so writing things that you're struggling with or things that you're working on. And we would love to encourage you, we'd love to celebrate with you, share with us.
How are you going with these reality check sessions? Like are you actually getting stuff from them? What would you like to see better? All of the stuff, guys. Anything and everything. Anything and every. Troll us if you want. Troll us. Yeah, yeah, we're here for the trolls. You've already been trolling us, so get back on it. We're back. I just have to say, assume more than they get really into the trolling. Yeah, yeah.
Just want to say one more time, if you do want to support us, please like share, subscribe and especially on YouTube. So if you're listening to us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, great, do it there. But then also, if you can help a brother and a sister out, go to YouTube, like share, subscribe helps us way more on YouTube than any other platform. And there's a lot more cooler stuff out there. But thank you so much guys. Thanks guys, good chat, good chat.