# \[REPLAY\] Less Stuff, More Adventure | Miranda Anderson

An episode of [Minimalist Moms Podcast | Purposeful Life & Parenting Tips](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1159498258), 21 Jul 2026, 45 min.

Audio: https://prefix.up.audio/s/pdst.fm/e/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/clrtpod.com/m/mgln.ai/e/35/audio2.redcircle.com/episodes/7889fa6f-4182-495f-86b5-4cdabfc6a7db/stream.mp3

Join me today as I talk to fellow podcaster and author, Miranda Anderson. Our conversation begins with a chat about her year of 'no spending' and we end with her five-step framework for moms to adopt and implement an adventure mindset. My hope is that you walk away from this conversation with clarity of what an adventure mindset looks like in relation to minimalism and contentment with 'less'. Links Discussed in This Episode | • Checkout the podcast storefront for recommendations from Diane. • Subscribe to the Minimalist Moms Youtube Channel • Connect with Miranda: • Website • Instagram • Book: More Than Enough: How One Family Cultivated A More Abundant Life Through A Year Of Practical Minimalism Episode Sponsors | The Minimalist Moms Podcast would not be possible without the support of weekly sponsors. Choosing brands that I believe in is important to me. I only want to recommend brands that I believe may help you in your daily life. As always, never feel pressured into buying anything. Remember: if you don't need it, it's not a good deal! Enjoy the Podcast? Post a review and share it! If you enjoyed tuning into this podcast, then do not hesitate to write a review. You can also share this with your fellow mothers so that they can be inspired to think more and do with less. Order (or review) my book, Minimalist Moms: Living & Parenting With Simplicity. You can contact me through my website, find me on Instagram, Pinterest or like The Minimalist Moms Page on Facebook. Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out Cure Hydration and use my code MINIMALIST for a great deal: https://www.curehydration.com * Check out DeleteMe and use my code joindeleteme.com/MINIMALIST for a great deal: https://joindeleteme.com * Check out Wayfair: https://www.wayfair.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

## Transcript

[0:07] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Hello and welcome to the minimalist mom's podcast.
[0:10] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I'm Diane, I'm a mother of three living in Columbus, Ohio.
[0:14] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I'm trying to make room in my life for what matters by getting rid of the cutter and living life with purpose.
[0:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I hope you'll join me on the journey to think more and do with plus.
[0:22] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Join me today as I talk to fellow podcaster and author Miranda Anderson.
[0:27] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Our conversation begins with the chat about her year of a no spending, and we end with her five step framework for moms to adopt and implement an adventure mindset.
[0:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: My hope is that you walk away from this conversation with clarity of what an adventure mindset looks like in relation to minimalism and contentment with less.
[0:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Before we get to the conversation, I wanted to, as always, I'm not sound like a broken record, but encourage you to leave a rating and review on items if you haven't done so yet.
[0:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Leaving a rating review is the best way you can help this podcast succeed and grow in this new year.
[0:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And pass along the idea of minimalism, simplifying and living with plus to others.
[1:05] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As for my minimalist moment this week, currently in Ohio, we are, I would, we're not snowed in, but we got some snow and so I was feeling like I wanted to declutter today.
[1:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I also feel like I'm nesting, I'm not pregnant, but I just feel like maybe I'm pre-spring cleaning.
[1:21] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So I tackled a drawer in the hutch.
[1:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: My husband did all the spices and the coffee cabinet and the tea cabinet.
[1:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So we're slowly making our way through just the little areas in our house that
[1:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That said, I wanted to encourage you in your own decluttering as well.
[1:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Maybe you are pre-spring cleaning like me, maybe you're snowed in, maybe you have some extra time on your hands, maybe you want a distraction.
[1:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So I shared a post on social media of 10 things currently causing clutter in your home.
[1:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I had originally shared this last February, but I wanted to repost it today for any of you that we're looking to declutter.
[1:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So, I just want to go through these 10 things really quick.
[2:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The first one is piles of insorted mail, stacks of books on the nightstand, too many shoes gathered near the door, which was us today after playing in the snow.
[2:11] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Dirty dishes in the sink and overflowing toybox, a hamper waiting to be sorted and put away, expired produce in the fridge, athletic gear, slouching outside the garage door.
[2:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: excessive amount of decorative pillows on the bed and couch and chauchka's on the mantle.
[2:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So I said don't let these common areas of clutter building your home and tackle one today.
[2:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I will keep saying it until I'm blue in the face but slowly but surely you will get to a decluttered home if you keep nipping away at it.
[2:42] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Even if you do something like my husband and I have been doing where we both tackle a little area here and there.
[2:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: We know that especially with children, we're never going to come to a place where we arrive with no clutter, because, well, if your children are anything like my children, they constantly are bringing things in, which is totally fine.
[2:57] \[SPEAKER_00\]: We just need to sort through what we want to keep, what's essential, and then what can be donated or tossed aside.
[3:05] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So, I hope some of these areas were helpful to you and they inspire you in some motivation to get to pluttering.
[3:11] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Enjoy this conversation with Miranda.
[3:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: She's a wise woman and I'm so happy to have had her on the show.
[3:16] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Here we go.
[3:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Miranda, thank you so much for joining me today on the minimalist mom's podcast.
[3:29] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I was so happy to be here.
[3:30] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Thank you for having me.
[3:31] \[SPEAKER_00\]: We're going to talk about a variety of topics today in regards to your own minimalist pursuits, your year of no spending, and what you refer to as the adventure mindset.
[3:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So, before we get into all those topics, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself to the listeners?
[3:48] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Sure, so my name is Miranda Anderson.
[3:50] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I'm a mom of three.
[3:51] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I have an eight-year-old, a 10-year-old, a 12-year-old.
[3:54] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We also have a menagerie of animals, chickens, dogs, cats.
[3:59] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We live in a small house in Richmond, Virginia.
[4:02] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I have been a blogger for about 15 years.
[4:06] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I started a podcast almost four years ago, and I had a book about our 12-month
[4:16] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I really love teaching and talking about how to live your life on purpose and I feel like during this conversation and our 12-month challenge really was kind of one of the ways that I feel like our family really started to align with our values in a meaningful way.
[4:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So did you say that you felt
[4:41] \[SPEAKER_00\]: or I should say, do you feel like you've always lived that way?
[4:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I mean, one of my questions I was going to ask you was if you considered yourself to be a minimalist.
[4:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So have you felt like this has always been a priority for you to be more intentional or with that after kids?
[4:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Tell me more about that.
[4:56] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yeah, so I don't think that I would have considered myself a minimalist until
[5:00] \[SPEAKER_01\]: 2013-15 is kind of when I started experimenting with different ideas, like minimalist ideas.
[5:07] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I don't think I really claimed that sort of lifestyle and ideology until the last few years really.
[5:17] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I grew up super creative in a family of many siblings.
[5:22] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I kind of joked that I raised myself in some ways.
[5:25] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Like there were so many kids and
[5:27] \[SPEAKER_01\]: My parents were busy and so I was kind of just left to my own devices a lot and so I was doing a lot of playing in the kitchen and trying things out there and going outside and building stuff in the backyard and just I was probably a little bit of a mini quarter to like a lot of kids are right come home with like pockets filled with treasures from the outside or when to the beach it always like gather all of the pretty shells and so it wasn't until I started having kids and you're living in a small apartment in the DC area while my husband went to school.
[5:56] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I was working part-time as a nurse and a registered nurse as well, although I don't work currently as a nurse fit.
[6:01] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We had this small kind of delineated space and that was fine when it was the two of us and then when we had one baby it was just the three of us and then that another baby and it was the four of us, but they were still little and then it felt like.
[6:15] \[SPEAKER_01\]: things started to kind of spiral like kids come with stuff and we were kind of on this ass track of have a great job, you know, move out of our apartment into a house and and then you need to decorate the house and of course Pinterest and all of the messages that we see about the way that your life could look, you know, this kind of magazine-style lifestyle is really powerful and I was working online as a blogger and so there's spending a lot of time
[6:43] \[SPEAKER_01\]: taking in the ideas, other people's ideas about what my life was supposed to look like and feel like.
[6:48] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I started to feel a little bit behind.
[6:51] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Like I was checking all of the boxes and I wasn't feeling fulfilled.
[6:56] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Like I kept thinking, wait, we're doing all the things we're supposed to do in order to find happiness and success.
[7:02] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And yet, I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed, I'm feeling a little bit
[7:05] \[SPEAKER_01\]: you know, underwhelmed by my life itself.
[7:08] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I think my third child was kind of the tipping point for me when I felt like I had lost any semblance of rhythm control or like ability to do the things that I wanted to do on a daily basis and I realized rather than adding more, which was the message I heard like add this add that that will help you'll be able to get on top of things with this and that.
[7:29] \[SPEAKER_01\]: method, product, whatever it is, I realized that where I needed to find this solution was in taking things away and starting to reduce.
[7:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So that was kind of, I'm sure a lot of your listeners have probably done there and you, it sounds like, you know, in your own experience with minimalism as well, you get to the point where you're like, I just can't do what I'm doing anymore, so there have to be some change and taking stuff away is going to be the change that feels like it makes sense right now.
[7:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Yeah, absolutely.
[7:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And when I heard that you had done this 12 month, no spend challenge, I know it was a couple of years ago, but I want to hear more details about all that, but yeah, I think sometimes we don't always have to be so radical on our decision-making, and I think it's best sometimes to go slow and get the tiny winds under your belt, but then other times, like you experienced, you
[8:16] \[SPEAKER_00\]: you just reach a tipping point and you want to have a huge change and sometimes it does take a really big, monumental money, mental change to establish new routines and new habits.
[8:28] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yeah, you know, it's interesting that no spend, I think of it as a minimalist challenge, it wasn't a no spend challenge, so much as it was a no shopping challenge.
[8:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So I just want to clarify that that we didn't get.
[8:38] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Now it's been money and it wasn't really about our budget so much as it was about adding patients and gratitude and abundance back into our life in a meaningful way.
[8:46] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And the way we thought we could do that was by stopping acquiring new things.
[8:50] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So that wasn't my first jump into minimalism.
[8:54] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I started experimenting in small ways like you're talking about.
[8:57] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And so I reduced my, I had been a meal planner.
[9:00] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I actually really love to cook, but it's really hard to cook in a fun way when you have very little kids.
[9:06] \[SPEAKER_01\]: That's kind of witching hour.
[9:07] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I had my tumblers like pulling at my legs and I was like, I just need to get something on the table.
[9:12] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And so I decided to try out a minimalist meal plan.
[9:15] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And this looked like dramatically reducing my decision making down to where
[9:19] \[SPEAKER_01\]: As a family we chose seven meals and we decided to put those on repeat weekly for an entire season.
[9:24] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So three months worth of the same meals over and over again.
[9:27] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And now it's been
[9:29] \[SPEAKER_01\]: eight years.
[9:29] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And my family still does this.
[9:31] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We do a seasonal minimal meal plan.
[9:32] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We eat the same things weekly for the whole season.
[9:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And so that was one way that I was like, whoa, this actually works.
[9:39] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I tried it out like thinking, let's try it for a month or two and see what happens.
[9:43] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And then when you find success with something, you just keep doing it, right?
[9:46] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So the other place that I experimented was with my wardrobe.
[9:49] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I around this is like 2013, 2014.
[9:52] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I had just had another baby, you know, your body changed just so much through those years.
[9:57] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I looked in my closet every day and thought I have nothing to wear even though it was overflowing with clothing, some of which I had since high school and college, you know.
[10:05] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So I decided rather than like a little, like, take a couple things down to donate, I was going to do a full capsule wardrobe clean out.
[10:12] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I did that.
[10:13] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And there was a block that I read about it and I was a cool time to follow all her steps.
[10:16] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I took every single thing out of my closet.
[10:19] \[SPEAKER_01\]: shoes, belts, underwear, exercise clothes, coats, I mean, everything.
[10:23] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I laid it out all in my room.
[10:25] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I went through it one by one and this of course is like a big commitment to there was some time involved in like trying everything on and I asked myself the question, do I love this?
[10:33] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Does that fit?
[10:34] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Do I feel like myself in it?
[10:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I paired down by like 75, 80% to about 60 items, top bottoms and shoes, and then I had, you know, underwear exercise clothes and seasonal like coats and stuff to the side, but I would dramatically reduce that and again, same thing as with the minimal meal plan, I realized that
[10:54] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It works like it felt good for me and I know some people have tried different minimalist challenges or they've tried kind of doing these steps toward reducing in an area They're like that it doesn't actually feel good that they actually prefer to have more variety in this or that area of their life and that's great.
[11:09] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I think that the purpose of minimalism for me is figuring out
[11:12] \[SPEAKER_01\]: what I need, what I love and my family, you know, the family lifestyle that we want individually and being able to align our decisions with that even if it doesn't make sense for someone else, if it makes sense for us, that's the way I want to live, right?
[11:25] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So I tried these small things out and I also, I'm a big reader and I had read a couple books that
[11:32] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I thought we're super interesting.
[11:33] \[SPEAKER_01\]: One of them is the by Greg McEwen.
[11:37] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yeah, essentialism.
[11:39] \[SPEAKER_01\]: He just came up with a new one effort list, which is also fantastic.
[11:42] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But I think essentialism is like standard Bible bedside for anyone who wants to live their life more on purpose.
[11:49] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I had read that and I had read a book also by Erin Lockner called Chasing Slow and I really resonated with that too because she was in a similar industry to me and felt a lot of those same external pressures that I did and reading about her decision to
[12:05] \[SPEAKER_01\]: make a different look to live differently, was really inspiring.
[12:10] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And so all of that combined and kind of climaxed in watching the minimalist documentary on Netflix, which came out the year right before we decided to, you know, undergo this challenge.
[12:20] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I watched it and I was enamored by some of the ideas and the values involved.
[12:26] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And as a mom of three with animals and a house that we owned and like a job that was stationary, I felt like it was super unrealistic
[12:34] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I thought, how, with what are the things from this we can use without selling everything we own and, you know, becoming digital nomads or living in a trailer off the grid?
[12:43] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Like, how can we use some of these ideas from the different things that we've been gathering in the different experiences that we've had kind of smaller experiences.
[13:02] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In our home and our closets and our garage that we could go 12 months without adding anything else.
[13:09] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And of course, I wasn't talking about consumable things like food and gas for the cars and like like bulbs that need to be replaced, but clothing shoes.
[13:19] \[SPEAKER_01\]: you know, betting, electronics, games, books, toys, we had bikes, we had scooters, we had a trampoline in the backyard.
[13:26] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You know, I was like, I think that we've kind of done it.
[13:28] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Like we have all of these things.
[13:31] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And of course, there will always be more that you think you can have.
[13:34] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But when we stopped and did kind of a mental walk through of our house, we realized that we had so much stuff, a lot of which we weren't even using currently.
[13:44] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Like things in closets
[13:47] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And he said, yeah, you know, I think we could.
[13:50] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I said, it was the beginning of, it was this time of view.
[13:53] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It was like December to January-ish, where you're thinking about, at least we are kind of big bullsetters.
[13:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And we were thinking about how are we going to make positive changes to see what our bulls resolution is.
[14:02] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I said, why don't we just try it?
[14:04] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Why don't we need, and this is where the adventure mindset comes in?
[14:07] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Mm-hmm.
[14:08] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I didn't say we are going to go 12 months without buying a single thing.
[14:13] \[SPEAKER_01\]: that period, explanation mark, that's the end of it.
[14:16] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We approached it with this idea of what would happen if we put down the shopping right here?
[14:24] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Well, what would it feel like?
[14:26] \[SPEAKER_01\]: What would it look like?
[14:27] \[SPEAKER_01\]: How would our life be different at the end of a year where we instead of going to the store every time we think we need something new?
[14:34] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We turned around and looked at what we already have in a new way.
[14:37] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And that,
[14:39] \[SPEAKER_01\]: idea of experimenting and exploring with curiosity was kind of the first step in this process, where we said, you know what, we are open to whatever this experience holds.
[14:54] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It can crash and burn like in three months, we can say, there's no way we're going to do this.
[14:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Like we
[14:59] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It's our life.
[15:00] \[SPEAKER_01\]: These are our rules.
[15:01] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So we kind of loosely defined our own rules for what this year would look like and that included buying, being able to buy consumable things.
[15:08] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We would buy groceries.
[15:09] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We would put gas in the cars.
[15:11] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We would buy experiences.
[15:12] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So we could take the kids to movies, but we couldn't go buy them a movie at Target to bring home and like accumulate a new thing, right?
[15:19] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And then we just got started.
[15:20] \[SPEAKER_01\]: we said okay let's see let's see what happens and because I'm a blogger I started sharing it on my blog and of course had a lot of questions and interest in it which was motivating for me because I thought okay the questions became clarifying and then people being very curious and interested in how this would go was also motivated because I felt the same way that kind of enthusiasm and the steep interest in what is going to happen okay let's see let's figure this out
[15:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This was effectively a huge practice of gratitude for you, just focusing on being grateful and having fun and adventure with your family, and I'm rendering, though, what was maybe tougher than you expected during this time, and then was there anything that just felt really simple?
[16:07] \[SPEAKER_00\]: What was maybe something that was surprisingly easy for you?
[16:10] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yeah, I love I love those questions and I think that it's it almost ends up being the same thing.
[16:14] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So what was really tough initially was just breaking habits like I would drive to target out of habit.
[16:20] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Because sometimes when we didn't have something to do, we would go to target to like wander and like, you know, see if there was anything new that we might possibly need and add to the cart, you know, so I had to break those habits.
[16:32] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I found myself.
[16:34] \[SPEAKER_01\]: like going to the store or like automatically looking at stuff on when you're clicking on an ad on Instagram that I'm like, I would click on it and then think, oh, I'm not buying things, I don't need it, you know, and it would kind of redirect.
[16:44] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And so it took a couple weeks to kind of redirect.
[16:49] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I also will say that a big challenge was that not all of our family understood.
[16:56] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And so while we didn't buy many things during the year, we had all explain that a couple instances where it was necessary,
[17:04] \[SPEAKER_01\]: you know, my mom stayed, came to stay with us because I was going to a conference like early in the year and my mom came to stay with us.
[17:11] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And while I was at the conference and she was watching my kids, she ordered them like a bunch of random stuff on Amazon.
[17:17] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Like I came home to like a new basketball thing, like a standard in the driveway and they all had their own individual colored basketballs, which
[17:25] \[SPEAKER_01\]: is so generous that totally what against the point of what we were trying to embark on.
[17:30] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And so while I did have kind of like a chat with her about like this is so nice and I love it so much.
[17:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And like we're really trying to kind of pair down the things that we're, do we own?
[17:42] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I also use that as an experience, I just kind of decided we're going to every time someone gives us something, we're going to accept those gifts with gratitude because that's a whole point is gratitude and then we're going to fill those boxes up with stuff that we have.
[17:53] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So I have the kids take those Amazon boxes and fill them up with toys and things they weren't using to take to donation.
[17:59] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So at least even though we weren't the ones buying the new toys, if someone else gave us them, then at least we're balancing out by getting more stuff out.
[18:09] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And so that works effectively, but that was kind of a challenge that just like when people give you things how do you handle a gift if you're trying to be a minimalist and I think that anyone even if you're not doing no shopping challenge this is something you have to deal with like do you I I've decided as a general rule for me I accept anything that someone gives me with gratitude if it's a direct gift, but if I'm like walking through a conference or something where there's just a bunch of random free swag I choose to leave it there rather than to be you know collected all and
[18:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I also I don't feel bad like regifting something or donating something that's been given to me as a gift if it doesn't serve my current value system, you know, if it's not something I'm going to use or not something I love then I feel like I'm not indebted to keep a gift simply because it was given to me, you know, so that was a good it was a good year to practice that now the thing that was the simplest about it was how as soon as those habits were changed.
[19:03] \[SPEAKER_01\]: it was like the light had gone on and it was and everything else felt easy like for the rest of the year as soon as we started to identify like what to do instead of shopping like when I'm bored with the kids at home instead of going to walk through Target or running to Costco you know for like milk and then accidentally bringing home like a pile of coloring books and a new printer.
[19:26] \[SPEAKER_01\]: like, what am I going to do?
[19:28] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And when I started to come up with some of those ideas of the hikes that were nearby that I had always wanted to explore and never quite found time to explore, or this really cool sculpture garden that that was downtown.
[19:39] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Here in Richmond there's a free art museum that
[19:43] \[SPEAKER_01\]: When we move to Richmond, we're like, oh, this is so cool.
[19:45] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We can take, I can take the kids there any day of the week and wander around and expose them to the just beautiful art and sometimes there's you know rotating exhibits and so there's something new and what are the things I'm going to do instead of the thing that I'm trying to not do and I think have it replaced and it's just a good thing in general, but.
[20:04] \[SPEAKER_01\]: These days, you know, years after like a definitive no shopping challenge, shopping is definitely not a habit anymore.
[20:11] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It's something that I only do when I have something that I need that I've planned in advance.
[20:15] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And so all of the other free time, I feel like I've reclaimed so much time that I used to spend browsing that now I read books on the front porch.
[20:23] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I take my kids on walks and we just have so much more space for the things that really add meaning to our everyday.
[20:31] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Yeah, absolutely.
[20:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And another question I had for you was, how has this changed you and your family moving forward?
[20:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Obviously now we're several years post that time, but I do want to say one thing.
[20:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I don't know.
[20:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I guess it's relevant.
[20:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But I think when you
[20:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: realize that there's always going to be something new that you could buy.
[20:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I mean, whether it's online or it's on Instagram or it's on Target, something will catch your eye.
[21:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And that's never going to go away.
[21:02] \[SPEAKER_00\]: There's always going to be something so I should just be more content with what I have.
[21:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Does that make sense to you?
[21:07] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yeah, absolutely.
[21:08] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I think that that is like one of the primary places where a piece resides is in a feeling of abundance that when you recognize that what you have right now is more than enough that you have the things that you need that for today, for this moment, you can be content and fulfilled.
[21:25] \[SPEAKER_01\]: and successful and you know all of those all of the feelings that we hope for are available to us right now and when we get caught up in the idea that it's behind the next door or that it's behind the next purchase that's when we are then eternally.
[21:41] \[SPEAKER_01\]: discontented and eternally feeling where that we lack.
[21:45] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So I think that you've, I mean, that's exactly right.
[21:47] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The abundance in the present is a buffer against always needing more, which more is, I mean, the even just the word more is so funny because there's not a definition to it, right?
[21:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: More means adding, like it just means adding, more to what you then what you have.
[22:04] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And one of my favorite kind of minimalist quotes is from a 18th century British author,
[22:09] \[SPEAKER_01\]: who said there are two ways to have enough.
[22:13] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The first is to continue to acquire more and more.
[22:16] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The second is to desire less.
[22:20] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Those are the two ways to have enough.
[22:21] \[SPEAKER_01\]: That was G.K. Chesterton, who said that.
[22:23] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I have always thought about that because it's so true.
[22:27] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You either will always want more or you come to a place where you find contentment with where you are.
[22:33] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And that doesn't mean that you can't want to progress and want to improve your lifestyle and want to expand.
[22:39] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But that you know that it's okay if you don't.
[22:42] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You know that where you are right now, like you don't have to be discontent on the way to that next thing, you get to be happy and fulfilled and excited about your life today as you are pursuing more as you're pursuing something different as you're saving money for that next thing or that next trip or whatever your content now and along the way.
[23:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Yeah, it's, it's just a shift in focus.
[23:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And I mean, that's a lifeless and in general.
[23:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If you focus on the negative, you're probably not going to feel so great.
[23:10] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But again, if you focus on the things that you're great before, I guess you don't focus on the things that you want and you don't have.
[23:17] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That's only going to breed more discontentment.
[23:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But when you focus on the abundance and the things that you do have, and obviously that's going to look different for everyone because abundance for me is not going to be the same for you, but it's more so that shift in focus.
[23:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I mean, just think about people all over the world that have far less than we do, and a lot of them are, I guess seemingly a lot more grateful and content than we seem to be, but it's because they're focused on that.
[23:47] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yeah, you know, it's so interesting, there is, there's a really fascinating study about happiness in relation to financial success, to money.
[23:57] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I think that, you know, whatever more people are pursuing money is usually kind of behind some of it, at least, you know, you want a bigger house, or you want a nicer car, you want more clothes, you whatever.
[24:08] \[SPEAKER_01\]: for a lot of people money is what they feel the reason that they can't.
[24:11] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Like, they're, you know, or that they're kind of it's taken too long.
[24:14] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And the study shows that after a certain point where all of your physical needs are met.
[24:20] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So obviously someone who is not able to provide food for their family or who's struggling to pay their rent every month.
[24:26] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Like, there's going to be some stress and anxiety involved with that.
[24:30] \[SPEAKER_01\]: There comes a level where your needs are met, where you can start to feel gratitude, and then there's a point a little bit later along the curve, where the as your revenue or your finances, your financial success, you know, quote unquote success increases.
[24:45] \[SPEAKER_01\]: As the amount of money you have increases, your satisfaction with your life actually decreases.
[24:49] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So it's not like I think the lie that we're taught to believe is that the more you have the better you feel and the truth is that there's a curve here where there's a point at which you get to feel content and that's of course like I mentioned when your physical needs are met, when you have you know some sort of a support system and those things that we actively need to be like working to
[25:10] \[SPEAKER_01\]: provide for ourselves and our family, but also for members of our community and, you know, hopefully be civically engaged in some ways that we can spill that over and to helping other people feel well.
[25:19] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But there's a point at which the more you have the worse you feel.
[25:23] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I think that's something that doesn't click in a lot of people's heads that we just assume we should be in this like rocket ship pursuit of more in order to be happier.
[25:32] \[SPEAKER_01\]: When actually, you can have too much.
[25:34] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You can have so much that you're discontent.
[25:37] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You can have so much that you feel overwhelmed that you feel frustrated.
[25:41] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And when we acknowledge that as a truth as well, it helps us kind of find that middle for us, that balance for us where I really like when my house doesn't feel like it's overflowing with junk.
[25:52] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So I try to only keep on hand the things that we're actively using right now.
[25:57] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I know that I get rid of some things that someone else would say you're going to need that someday and I think to myself yeah I might need it someday but I don't need it now and so I'm going to keep it I'm going to donate it until I actually need it because I like to practice the idea that I will have the things that I need or the ability to get them when I need them I don't have to hold on to everything just in case I someday use it right because I like my house to feel.
[26:23] \[SPEAKER_01\]: a little bit lighter and more open and less cluttered now, you know, I think that I'm a very visual person.
[26:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So if I think back and right down, I guess we'll say the times that I felt happy, that seems kind of silly to me, but we'll say when I felt the most fulfilled, I like to just test
[26:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: feel that experience more than the thing, the thing that I own.
[26:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Because I look back and I'm like, the things aren't the things that make me happy or the what we say, the most fulfilled.
[26:59] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yeah, I think that that's true.
[27:01] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And even, I've noticed so our family motto coming out of our year of not shopping is less stuff more adventure.
[27:08] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And we just really, my husband and I both recognize that we much prefer to spend our resources of time and money and
[27:18] \[SPEAKER_01\]: activities together than on adding belongings to our arsenal.
[27:23] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So what I was going to say is that I noticed though that even in the experiences world, like you can still get in the cut in the mindset that I'm going to be happy as soon as I can afford that trip to Hawaii, or I'm going to be happy as soon as my, you know, as soon as we go see this new movie or I can't wait until this, you know, X, Y and Z.
[27:42] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It's the same thing, but just transpose into activities and experiences, and that thing is the lie that you need more in order to feel better.
[27:52] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I think that we can do that with anything, you know, anything that you think you need to have in order to feel better.
[27:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: is probably not entirely true.
[28:01] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You know, like it coming back to gratitude, coming back to abundance, coming back to say, it will be so fun to go on that trip as soon as we save up the money or whatever it is, plan it and go.
[28:12] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And we can enjoy little moments with our family every single day.
[28:16] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We can go on a walk together in our neighborhood.
[28:18] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We can go visit the library.
[28:19] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We can, you know, go feed the ducks at the pond.
[28:22] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Like there are things that we can do every single day or every week where we live,
[28:29] \[SPEAKER_01\]: All of that same connection that we experience when we're traveling the world, we can experience right here at home, which is something that I definitely have learned over the last couple years with the pandemic.
[28:39] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I love to travel.
[28:41] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It's one of my highest priorities.
[28:43] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And when the whole world shut down, I was like, wait a second, what am I going to do?
[28:51] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Those are the things that I go do in order to feel like I'm exploring the world.
[28:55] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I'm opening my perspective, and that I'm showing my kids new things.
[28:59] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And then I'm stuck at home for like 18 months.
[29:01] \[SPEAKER_01\]: What do I do?
[29:02] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And we started to get to know our neighborhood better.
[29:06] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We started to get to know our city better.
[29:07] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We started going on day trips to places that we had thought about.
[29:11] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But we always put our focus on doing something a little bit bigger, I guess.
[29:16] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And all of the sudden, we feel so much more connected to where we are.
[29:20] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Because we got to use all the same excitement and enthusiasm for what had previously been
[29:29] \[SPEAKER_01\]: our home going down and that has been really powerful too.
[29:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I live that too, and I have actually explored Ohio in a similar way.
[29:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I have lived here my entire life, and over the last two years, I have explored it in far different ways than I ever had prior to being able to go, I want to say it like wherever I want, even though I've not ever been able to go wherever I want, but you know what I mean.
[29:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But yeah, just the ability to explore nature and that sense of this is my own backyard here as they say.
[30:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But I also wanted to share there is a website called RoadTrippers on all of including the link in the show notes for it, but basically you can just put in your destination from wherever your starting point is and you can put a price point in and it will tell you different locations along your path.
[30:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: and you can put in a few different stops along the way.
[30:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But anyways, it gives you the opportunity to see things and do things that maybe, again, like we were talking about different experiences that isn't the trip to Hawaii or the trip to Europe, but it's just things that are simple and not...
[30:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: the normal things that we would think to be adventurous or exciting, I guess.
[30:42] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yeah, so so incredible to recognize how much we already have available to us.
[30:48] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It's just a shift in perspective.
[30:49] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It's like, instead of always looking out kind of turning around to where we are right now, what exists in our lives and our homes in our cities right now that we're maybe not.
[31:02] \[SPEAKER_01\]: using or taking advantage of in a way that we could, it's a really cool practice.
[31:08] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It's a really cool mindset to realize that like there is so much available to us right now.
[31:14] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So for people listening and maybe some of them are like, I want to try this year of no shopping.
[31:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Maybe that does seem overwhelming, but where would you say someone could start?
[31:24] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It's shifting their focus like we said and focusing on gratitude to having more experiences,
[31:31] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yeah, so I think that there's kind of a mindset that you use going into trying something like this.
[31:40] \[SPEAKER_01\]: That it can also be applied to other things like going and exploring your city or like really experimenting with anything.
[31:45] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I call it adventure mindset and just has these.
[31:48] \[SPEAKER_01\]: five components that when you put them all together, I feel like you can just really conquer the world, you can try something like a no shopping challenge, you can try like a capsule wardrobe, you can take your kids on a road trip.
[32:02] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So let me share these five ideas.
[32:04] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The first one is explore and we talked a little bit about that with exploring where you live.
[32:09] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Also, as we got started on our no shopping challenge, just the idea of being curious and knowing that we don't know what's going to happen and that's okay.
[32:15] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Like we didn't have to plan the whole thing out, we just took one step at a time and kind of gave ourselves a framework and we're open to needing to change as we went.
[32:23] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The second one is experience and that is just a reminder to be present.
[32:28] \[SPEAKER_01\]: whatever you're doing.
[32:29] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So taking it day by day, checking with your senses.
[32:32] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I think a lot of times we prevent ourselves from doing things we want to do because we get too carried away with what could happen or you know we would stop ourselves before we even start because we don't think we can do it but if you stay present and take it one day at a time with whatever your challenges and think about it more as an adventure then you're more likely to succeed.
[32:55] \[SPEAKER_01\]: the third component is enjoyment.
[32:57] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I think that positive emotion is just one of the most powerful things that we can call upon and ways that I like to do this.
[33:06] \[SPEAKER_01\]: If I'm not enjoying something, I try to add something that I know I do enjoy to it.
[33:10] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So an easy example is like I don't super love doing the dishes, but if I turn on some great music and the kitchen while I'm doing it, it makes it a lot more fun.
[33:18] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So this is just a good tip for getting through anything, but also I major component of adventure mindset is that there might be things that you don't expect that you come up against that feel like a challenge.
[33:28] \[SPEAKER_01\]: If you can add something to help you enjoy it a little bit more, you'll feel better off.
[33:33] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The foric component of adventure mindset is enthusiasm.
[33:37] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I love the definition of enthusiasm.
[33:40] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I think we all have like an idea of what it is.
[33:42] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The enthusiasm means
[33:47] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I love that definition, I think it's kind of funny.
[33:50] \[SPEAKER_01\]: This energetic interest in something.
[33:52] \[SPEAKER_01\]: How interested are you in the things you're trying to do?
[33:55] \[SPEAKER_01\]: How excited are you about them?
[33:57] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Can you shift into like a movement energy, like a kind of tangible energy and enthusiasm for the project or the challenge?
[34:08] \[SPEAKER_01\]: As soon as you get there, you'll be much further down the road.
[34:13] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I was so enthusiastic about this challenge when we started on her no shopping challenge.
[34:17] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I was telling my neighbor about it.
[34:18] \[SPEAKER_01\]: She was kind of laughing.
[34:19] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And she said, I wonder if you have enough stuff in your house.
[34:21] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You could build a lamp, which is like very random.
[34:24] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But I was like, I wonder if I do.
[34:26] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I went home and went through like our drawers and all of our stuff and found that I did in fact have all the components to build a lamp between like a piece of an old, what is that thing called the puno and a wall?
[34:38] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It's like a
[34:39] \[SPEAKER_01\]: like a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month, a month,
[35:03] \[SPEAKER_01\]: make your adventure work.
[35:05] \[SPEAKER_01\]: One short story of this that my middle son at the beginning of the challenge said mom what if I want a toy and I said don't like we'll be able to make a toy just come tell me when you want a new toy and we'll figure out what to do so a few days into the challenge he said mom I want a new toy and we went into the craft room and we started digging out supplies and we were able to find some modeling clay and paints and we made him
[35:28] \[SPEAKER_01\]: a little car using stuff that we had on hand and it was just a good exercise right at the beginning of this challenge that we really did have everything we needed.
[35:38] \[SPEAKER_01\]: If we hadn't had modeling clay I mean I know that's not a totally common thing to have on hand and kind of a crafter so I like having that kind of random crafter around we could have gone outside and built it, built something out of sticks we could have used you know things readily available in nature
[35:56] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We were able to use what we had in order to take care of all the things that we needed from talk to bottom during the year, which was really a fun, a fun practice is really fun to be creative.
[36:07] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I mean, it's really feels energizing to make something
[36:12] \[SPEAKER_01\]: new that didn't exist before of things that you just happen to have around.
[36:16] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So those five exploring experience, enjoyment, enthusiasm, and enterprise are all pieces that I try to add to my life to keep me on the path of less-death more adventure.
[36:30] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And also, if I'm ever trying a new sort of embarking on a new endeavor, I want to try out something at home with the kids, I want to go on.
[36:38] \[SPEAKER_01\]: a trip that we haven't been on before.
[36:40] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I'm right now.
[36:41] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I'm in the middle of kind of a fitness challenge.
[36:42] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I told me has been I do three months of CrossFit with him.
[36:45] \[SPEAKER_01\]: He's he loves doing CrossFit and I'm not really a gym person.
[36:49] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I like going on runs and walks but I've never really been a gym person and I used these five components of adventure mainset to say, okay, I'll do it for three months.
[36:56] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I'm going to just see what it's like.
[36:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I don't know how I'm going to feel but I'm just going to try it and do it all the way with enthusiasm and excitement and and so far it's been amazing.
[37:05] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So for anyone who's listening
[37:08] \[SPEAKER_01\]: a no shopping challenge, understanding that so much of it is mental and emotional, so little of it is actually physical, with these five components and the mindset of adventure, I think that you'll be absolutely successful.
[37:24] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I also want to mention that I a couple times a year I run a decluttered course, it's kind of like a guided course and we do five weeks of a shopping pause in addition to, you know, the calls and lessons and things like that it is not nothing to say I'm not going to shop for a week or I'm not going to shop for a month like it absolutely requires you to exercise the same.
[37:49] \[SPEAKER_01\]: self-control, the same questioning and sticking to your values and your motives, and practicing patience and gratitude, which is what I all, you know, is about anyway.
[37:59] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Absolutely.
[38:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Uh, Miranda, this was so good.
[38:02] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Where can listeners find you if they want to connect with you for further information and hear more from you?
[38:09] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yeah, so I have a weekly podcast that's called Liv Free Creative Podcast.
[38:14] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It comes out every Thursday morning, and I talk about practical ways to live on purpose.
[38:20] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I am also on Instagram at Liv Free Miranda, and I check in every day and post every a couple times a week.
[38:27] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I'm actively working on my relationship with technology and trying to spend more time offline than online.
[38:34] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And so, but that is a great place.
[38:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I do check in there at least once or twice a week and I'm able to, you know, get to messages and things like that.
[38:41] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So either one of those two places is a great place to be in touch.
[38:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Well, as we wrap things up here, I'm gonna ask you the two questions that I ask every guest.
[38:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And the first one is, what is a resource that has been beneficial to you that you'd like to share with the listeners?
[38:55] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Everyone knows about this, but I'm curious how many people actually use them.
[38:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I feel like one of the most impactful resources
[39:05] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I know these vary a little bit, you know, city to city, but I think pretty much every city in the country has a public library nearby.
[39:12] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I just love to read and I don't want to be constantly buying books, and so going to the library,
[39:21] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I really value our local librarians like library and pick shelves.
[39:25] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I read fiction and non-fiction.
[39:27] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I'm always learning something new or being entertained in a fun way as I design a library.
[39:32] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And it's just like a way to have all of this knowledge and entertainment and enrichment in my life without adding stuff to my life, which is really great.
[39:40] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And my kids love it too, which is great.
[39:41] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I try to go to the library at least every two weeks.
[39:43] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And it's one of my favorite, very simple, easily accessible resources.
[39:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I totally agree.
[39:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: We are at the library at least once a week if not twice a week.
[39:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: My kids are big readers.
[39:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I am as well and I know here in Columbus we have a great library system and I know not everywhere.
[40:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Might have as accessible of a system but if you do it is such a great resource to utilize.
[40:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Alright, my last question for you is what is something that you can't stop talking about.
[40:14] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But I have a hard time in the cold weather and it's starting to get cold here in Richmond.
[40:20] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I've been like trying to prep myself mentally to go outside every day and to like make sure I have the the right gear people.
[40:28] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I read a book about there's no such thing as bad weather.
[40:31] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It's been written by a sweetish mom.
[40:35] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And anyway, so the thing that I keep talking about because I just fold them back and go out.
[40:40] \[SPEAKER_01\]: are my electric heated socks that I bought last year.
[40:44] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You can find them online.
[40:46] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You can get them at REI.
[40:47] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You can get them actually a lot of online retailers have them.
[40:51] \[SPEAKER_01\]: There are these rechargeable socks winter socks and they have like a little copper thread that goes through the top of the footbed.
[40:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Recharge the little batteries in the wall and then when you put the socks on, you plug in the little battery pack and it has like a mini pocket on the top of the
[41:09] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I made it through the winter, exploring the outdoors the way that I want to, and I could feel my feet the whole time, which is traumatic for me, because I usually move sensation in my feet within like minutes and being outside of the cold.
[41:21] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So if you suffer from cold or have offered time going outside, then the cold letter hits.
[41:27] \[SPEAKER_01\]: these electric batter operated rechargeable socks will change your life and it's just so funny because I just keep talking about them and I have friends who are like, what?
[41:34] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I didn't know such a thing existed.
[41:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I'm like, I know they're the best.
[41:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That is one of the first things they always get called on me too, which could be because I'm six feet tall, but maybe it's just that circulation.
[41:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So you're glad?
[41:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Yeah, I have to get all the way down there.
[41:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But no, I'm glad you shared that book.
[41:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I had Linda McGurk on the podcast.
[41:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I think, oh, no, it was the beginning of last year of 2021.
[41:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But yeah, her message is one that I just want everyone to hear and to believe because there really is no such thing as bad weather.
[42:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It really is just poor clothing.
[42:07] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Exactly.
[42:08] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And not so we're trying to
[42:11] \[SPEAKER_01\]: We're trying to do it every day, committed.
[42:12] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I mean, I have a dog, we're getting another puppy this week.
[42:15] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Even so we're going to have two dogs soon.
[42:17] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I feel like when I got her five years ago, we just said, she's going to help us get outside every day.
[42:23] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And then it's really easy to run around with a yard, you know, like send her out.
[42:27] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And so we're going outside every day.
[42:29] \[SPEAKER_01\]: My kids walk them by to school.
[42:31] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Like we're trying to actually,
[42:33] \[SPEAKER_01\]: commit in a meaningful way to spending.
[42:35] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I mean, we already spend a lot of time outside, but to spend it even more time outside, and right now, like today's going to be only 50 degrees, which I don't know if people that Ohio's probably a lot colder than it is in red.
[42:46] \[SPEAKER_01\]: 50 degrees is cold to me, and I'm like, oh, I got to have the wool socks, he did socks the downcoat, and then I can live my best outdoor life.
[42:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Yeah, but like you said, if you are consistent with it, it's not as shocking.
[43:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So I just try to get myself out there is early enough in the season so that my body just regulates with the decrease and temperatures.
[43:08] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I also feel like getting out, maybe there's Linda would no more about this, but I feel like getting outside first thing in the morning, like taking my dog and a walk in the morning or taking it like walking or biking into the school in the morning, the earlier I get out,
[43:19] \[SPEAKER_01\]: the more easy it feels for the rest of the day to go back outside because we only get to warmer, right?
[43:26] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yeah, I think there's something to that, to just be like committing to going outside and so I just feel like there's a whole other topic.
[43:31] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I feel like it's so good for my kids to spend the 15 minutes outside walking a school every day, like it changes their whole day.
[43:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So oh yeah.
[43:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: nature really does change everything.
[43:41] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But Miranda, this was a great conversation.
[43:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I appreciate you chatting here with me about your story and I appreciate the encouragement that you've given us today.
[43:51] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Thank you so much.
[43:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It's been so fun chatting.
[43:53] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I appreciate it.
[43:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: What did you think of the episode?
[43:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I hope you enjoyed the conversation.
[44:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: To learn more about today's guest, including links, resources related to everything discussed today, visit the episode page at minimalismomspodcast.com where you can find the entire podcast archive, as well as my book Minimalismoms Living and Parenting with Simplicity, or other ways to connect or work with me online.
[44:18] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If you'd like to support the podcast, the easiest and most impactful thing you can do is subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify, or YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and leave a rating or review of your favorite episode.
[44:31] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Lastly, sharing the show or your favorite episode with friends and social media is very helpful and will encourage others on their journey to think more and do with plus.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.