From chicken breast vs chicken thighs, the challenges of kids and life just all 'round being hard - we're back. It's a tough ass world out there at the minute - for a lot of people - and we're feeling it today. Despite the semi-negativity we might have projected in this episode, we're very excited to be back to our very therapeutic waffle of a podcast. Despite our moaning, please know we're so grateful to you, our community, for your DMs, silent (or loud) support, camaraderie and engagement (in ...
Jul 14, 2025•42 min•Ep. 209
Whenever or if ever Leece mentions being sober/giving up alcohol, she is sent a message of some sort. It's typically something like "gosh you're inspiring - the way you have done this - I'd love to", or "I'm what you call 'sober curious', but I don't know how to do it", and these messages often come with a variety of questions. Last week, Leece was sent one message in particular that held quite a few questions, and we decided it might be useful to approach it in its own podcast episode. So while...
Jun 25, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 208
Hello! Kelly (Founder of Augustine by Kelly Coe) has been listening to the podcast and we decided she should join us for our weekly waffle pod Monday. We think she does what you guys do which is yell and curse and agree and disagree with us from your own abodes, so here she is to make us shook. FUN!! We offer basically zero business chat today - as perhaps you'd expect with our special guest - but instead we're covering off super important topics such as (but not limited to) - other podcast and ...
Jun 23, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 207
Everyone has a story - we hear this everywhere. We're reminded with emotional Instagram posts and the constant stream of such themes, really across all social media platforms. We're reminded not to judge, because everyone has a story. Although we're reminded every day it can sometimes be easy to fall into the trap of thinking other people lead perfect lives. Social media being one end of the spectrum of this and on the other hand, the made up stories and plots we read about in novels. Do we need...
Jun 16, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 206
Leece is short on sleep but we're both quite happy to be house bound to the microphones today, to debrief the weekends antics. Excuse the fact Jess's mic isn't on for the first little bit but we rectify that. From the prospect of burnout and how to avoid it (tips welcome) to kids sending us mad, the relentless of kids sport, full weekends and other such chat. Jess is tired of clumsy kids who bite their fingers and Leece is busy taking toasted sandwich orders and breaking up headlocks. We moan a ...
Jun 09, 2025•49 min•Ep. 204
Here there and everywhere on this Kings Birthday Monday - welcome back to your sparkly (ish) poddy. Literally a second before we hit record we said, "have you got anything to talk about" - and while the collective answer was no, here we are hehe. Accents and names, ants in the house, the weekends events, Leece and her official love status on Marley (Nana's dog), ballet flats, overanalysing all conversations and naturally, a segment on kids. We also spend the back half reflecting on Dan a bit and...
Jun 02, 2025•56 min•Ep. 203
Hello, Leece has her keep cup with her this morning, set up and rearing to go for coffee with her 'gal pal'. Are we divisive? Do any of you actually have any thoughts on coffee etiquette to the extent we do, or are we full of absolute shite and just ridiculous (like mum says after each pod episode)? Genuine question lol. So we start with coffee and alcohol, and quickly get into parenting where we pretty much stay for the duration of the pod. What can we say, it's the *era* we're in. From peer pr...
May 26, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 202
Every so often, we hit a few walls and can't find a funny bone in our body - not that we're here to be funny but we do always love to have a lol. This episode isn't at all full of them all, so consider yourself warned. We're here there and everywhere, which isn't unusual either, is it? From the never-ending state of overwhelm to the general state of the Fong garage, to the teen, his phone and lunch boxes, cooking chat, The Liver King, and the confusion and difficulty that we feel can come from t...
May 19, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 201
Hey pals! A bit of a long one today but it isn't ENTIRELY our fault. Happy belated Mother's Day to those in our audience who celebrate and our thoughts are with those who find the whole day just one big triggering ordeal - to you we send our love. Last week we put it out to you, our community, for ideas on how we might be able to celebrate our 200th episode - a big thank you for your ideas! (Mum isn't here yet but, never say never). After some debrief waffle from the week that was - Samsungs and...
May 12, 2025•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 200
We've hopped into the 'robe a little late in the day today - weirdly it doesn't disrupt our flow too much. In today's episode we unintentionally find ourselves in a reflective mood. We're reflecting over the events of the past year as, with Mother's Day approaching, we're nearly one year since the unravelling of Dan's illness and the events that followed. To say this is triggering is an understatement. A lot of feelings that never really left still boil; festering away at the surface. The year t...
May 05, 2025•58 min•Ep. 199
And we're back. An un expected, unplanned week off, but here we are back to it this week for a full hour of debriefing (cue waffle). Leece is currently a 'whether-she-likes-it-or-not' owner of a dog (/sole trader), and as a result we surprise even ourselves by how long we discuss the animal lol. From dog and kid toileting and bedtime routines, to kids saying the darnedest things, Leece's itch and the neck oil saga (an acknowledgement/nod here to our recent discussions - a good reminder to us), g...
Apr 28, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 198
Just before we recorded this morning, a friend of Move it Mama sent us an article about Facebook scam ads. It was pretty alarming in general, but especially alarming in relation to Leece's recent neck oil purchase and consumers being sucked in left right and centre. We know a few of you might also have gone on to purchase said oil - maybe it won't be problematic to everyone but it's absolutely a PSA worth taking note of. The world is becoming such a confusing place to live; trying to decipher wh...
Apr 14, 2025•48 min•Ep. 197
OK please allow us at least 24 minutes of your time before we start to chat about anything interesting and with any enthusiasm! Not sure why but as we had to record on a Sunday this week, we definitely felt a bit off and take a bit to get started. Straight into phone chat again. I know, can we stop? Jess tells a shocking account of an article sent in on that topic and naturally we talk more about it - from phones and screens to misogyny (without knowing the definition) and parenting this phone *...
Apr 07, 2025•58 min•Ep. 196
Not quite sure where it was we went wrong this morning but the general consensus post recording was that we might have been somewhat lacklustre today. So - apologies for that from the outset if that's the vibe at your end! In this episode we kick things off with more parenting chat - it feels super relevant at the moment off the back of the Netflix series Adolescence - thoughts on parenting in this era where we're more stretched for time than ever before. We talk about connection, in terms of tr...
Mar 31, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 195
Now here's a question - IS the Feijoa a polarising fruit? We'd love to hear your thoughts lol. Hitting the mic with some big questions for our waffle pod Monday. We actually start the episode on a bit of a social media high horse right from the get go [to be "honest"]. But really if we - as grown adults - can have our own little wobbles and battles with social media, how can we expect the brains of our under developed kids to navigate such a world?!?! Where do we stand? It is both eye-opening an...
Mar 24, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 194
As you'd be aware, we were waiting on some big news last week and given we're back to the mic this week, you know it was good :) we can hear it in Leece's mood today which is so nice to see/hear, am I right. Once again our gas bagging ways get the better of us today. For the record, we've tried to lure our mother to the mic a billion times over and we are no closer to breaking her. One day. One day? Let's say 'one day', in an attempt to manifest the dream. Well, we start our chat talking kids th...
Mar 17, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 193
Hello, it's a big week here at MIM HQ (for the Fongs), and so today's episode felt a bit tough for Leece, but as always, we made it. We'll hope to be back next Monday with more waffle pod - things all going to plan. This week, as per, we're all over the show - from childhood mems and siblings, to lunchbox and baking woes, matcha and black coffee, book club, the idea of a parasite cleanse and in turn the problem with health podcasts and other random tangents. We were interrupted once or twice tod...
Mar 10, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 192
Unsurprisingly, we're a little all over the show today - it felt good (lol). We go from rooting and dogs as kids, or kids being like dogs, to how to try to enjoy facials with trauma; the stress and angst of the next wee patch with Dan and life, marriage and pondering whether there is such thing as perfect (can't be) - to being over stimulated, kids again and a big story about Snapchat. And for the record of COURSE NZ legalised gay marriage first - shame on us for forgetting this!! Thanks for lis...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 191
WARNING - there are a LOT of F bombs in here and also a lot of drug and alcohol chat. Needless to say this episode is absolutely not suitable for smaller ears. With that, let us preface that we firmly understand we're all different - we have different views, morals, and so on. We all have different ways of living, different tastes and different interests and that's OK - or even wonderful - so to be clear, we discuss these topics without judgement. On this podcast we find ourselves opening up abo...
Feb 24, 2025•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 190
To be honest - we don't know how we got here. Only a few moments before the podcast we were both trying to go to the toilet questioning the topics of our conversation. 'What do you have to talk about today?', 'I don't know', was basically the extent of it. So here is a list of what we went on to discuss lol - the name Lisa and email signatures, our American accents and the Sunny Coast destination, the festival scene, sticks and stones, AirPod epiphanies, car cleaning etiquette, tracking your cyc...
Feb 17, 2025•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 189
Well hello, what do we have here? A bonus Wednesday episode! This time we're bringing someone else on the pod - exciting to hear another tone of voice don't we think? Agreed. Leece's sister in law Nat (Dan's sister) is currently visiting the Sunshine Coast, so we thought it would be fun to bring a bit of her story to the podcast. Side note - she actually left quite a few details out, including some pretty interesting chat on the first boyfriend, as well an additional Uluru love affair she didn't...
Feb 12, 2025•57 min•Ep. 188
Hello! Welcome back. We're a little all over the show today for your waffle pod Monday. From a potential outfit fail (I'm trying not to care), to compliments and ear stories; to gut health and issues, a Dan update and current state of affairs, kids and bribes, kids and stages and just kids in general and how they're always hard lol. To add to that, a bit too about kids judging you for wearing skimpy stuff!!!! You know every week our listenership is going up with more and more people downloading ...
Feb 10, 2025•57 min•Ep. 187
There's a show called 'Nobody wants this' on Netflix based on two sisters who host a podcast. They sit on a cool looking couch in a cool looking warehouse kinda set up and chat openly and honestly about whatever's on their mind. On a few occasions, Morgan, one of the sister's, says to Joanne, 'save it for the podcast'. As in, save your chat for when we're recording because this sh*t needs to go to our podcast community and not be wasted between us. All this to say, by the time Monday rolls aroun...
Feb 03, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 186
In today's episode of The Sparkle Pod, Tei and Nina pop their podcast cherry. We thought it'd be cute for them to join us for some quick fire questions. In reality, it probably didn't pan out as we thought it'd go in our heads (does it ever), but nonetheless it's a little bit cute (biased). We otherwise cover a few bits and pieces today. Somehow we end up discussing phones again, Jess's insecurities at the moment, and for some time we talk about weight and managing our weight. People often come ...
Jan 27, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 185
Hello! I kinda wish I could write a flashy intro to our first episode of 2025 all about how motivating and inspiring our conversation is BUUUUUT... no. We simply pick up where we left off and without a plan, mull over our top of the mind thoughts. From social media and phone use in our kids (topical today with a post to our MIM socials on just this), school holiday faff, a night away for Leece and an update on Dan; we go here, there and everywhere. We're excited to bring you the podcast again th...
Jan 20, 2025•56 min•Ep. 184
Kia ora! We're back for our final episode of the 2024 year. Well, what a total f**king trip. Our final episode of 2023 was titled '2023, the year of the ick'. If only this year felt as simple... it didn't. The ick still stands as one of the worst things ever though let us not forget lol (assuming you guys also binged 'Nobody wants this' and got the ick from the sports jacket 'cos same). Anyway, you all know the story - what has happened this year has flipped the world on its axis and suddenly ev...
Dec 20, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 183
Hello friends! We're back for what will likely be the last podcast between us for the rest of the year. For reasons you'd know, we're glad to see the back end of 2024, and are hopeful for a better 2025. It's been a f**king hell of a year, and one that has hit like a tonne of tortuous bricks (which is an understatement). I just want to take a moment to acknowledge Leece and her ability to show up here most weeks, in the midst of a year where it would be quite nice to hide away underground until t...
Dec 16, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 182
Hey pals, we've impressed even ourselves in making it back to the mic after what was a fairly topsy turvy week. It was so good to debrief today after an eventful time - recording the podcast is always therapeutic for us and we appreciate you for coming along for the ride. In this episode we're waffling away on a few things - from naming kids to the weeks synopsis for the Fongs, the pressures of Christmas, phones, social media and kids again, and sparkle spreaders like Elf on the Shelf or rather ...
Dec 09, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 181
Hey pals, thank you for sticking with us, in what is often a bit of a treacherous or difficult listen - this episode being of no exception. We actually hit the mic both feeling a little grim and grumpy, and as a result kinda moan a lot. SORRY. Although, is this a new thing, or standard? Kinda unsure. One positive is that Leece has reigned in the use of profanities so that's a classy win (Jess not so). We seem to dive here there and every where today (def standard), from why we're grumpy, the pod...
Dec 02, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 180
Surpriiiiiiise! We thought we wouldn't make it today however the plans changed, so here we are. A bit of a sh*tty weekend for the Fongs, full of stress and worry, and Leece was meant to be in Brisbane today. But, a little last minute things changed course, which meant we were able to get here when a few hours prior we thought we couldn't! Celebrating that. So, as a result of the events that have unfolded in the past week, we're not full beans today with a huge amount to offer but 'it is what it ...
Nov 25, 2024•45 min•Ep. 179
