Don't Call Me Midlife
Join Alix and Nicole, the coffee-addicted, wine-loving, Amazon-obsessed mom squad, as they take you on a hilarious and heartfelt journey through the ups and downs of mid-life. With six boys and a knack for keeping it real, these two friends bring you more than just mom tales – they're on a mission to help you reclaim your identity beyond motherhood.
Discover the joy of embracing mid-life with these relatable hosts who are keen to learn, grow, and laugh along with their listeners. From navigating Pinterest-worthy fashion to mastering the art of leggings, from meal planning to avoiding life's chaos, they've got you covered.
But here's the kicker – they don't have all the answers, and they're proud of it. Alix and Nicole are in the trenches right alongside you, sharing their genuine experiences and bringing you along as they learn and laugh their way through life's twists and turns.
So grab your favorite drink, whether it's a trusty Stanley, an oat milk latte from Starbucks, or a glass of Whispering Angel, and prepare to be entertained, inspired, and empowered. Don't Call Me Mid-Life is the podcast where the fun begins, and mid-life gets a whole lot cooler.
Subscribe now and join the mid-life squad on this incredible adventure. Life is an adventure worth sharing, especially in mid-life!
Don't Call Me Midlife
☀️ Summer Minimalism for More Joy
What if embracing simplicity could radically change your summer? Join us as we explore the challenges of decluttering, embracing a "less is more" philosophy, and finding balance between personal organization goals and family life. Discover how two busy moms approach summer cleaning and learn tips for tackling those tricky keepsakes!
In this episode, we cover:
1. Summer organization and decluttering.
2. The concept of "less is more".
3. Balancing personal tasks with family responsibilities.
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Welcome to. Don't Call Me Midlife. This summer we're shaking things up a bit with our special series called Survive or Thrive. We know moms are extra busy during the summer, so we're bringing you shorter, bite-sized episodes, focused on one hot topic at a time. Join us as we share tips, stories and laughs, helping you decide if you're just getting by or truly thriving this summer.
Speaker 1:Hi Nicole, how are you? I'm good. I'm just here sipping some bone broth. Love that. Get your protein in. Yes, trying to do that instead of, you know, coffee or tea. So you are so good, you're so good. I need to get on the bone broth.
Speaker 1:I think that's a good like habit to start in the fall, not right now. Yeah, it's, it's a little warm, but it's. You know, the air conditioning doesn't make it gross. I love that. So listen to this.
Speaker 1:I started this habit in London, where I would go and get a flat white. You know their coffee there is so much better, even from the Starbucks, even from, like, pret a Manger, which is a chain, right. So I went to Starbucks thinking I was like going to be feel like I was back in London and I got a flat white and it doesn't taste the same. But I have to say it's like making me happy. So I have a flat white with almond milk and I just love it, so I am super happy. This morning Did you go to Starbucks a lot there. Did you check out local? You know we were. We had an apartment right across from the Tower of London where it is like very touristy, and I loved it because I would see the Tower of London different times of day, right, I'd see it first thing in the morning and it was fun for me to see. My kids saw it like one time. But there was a Starbucks across the street and so it was very easy and Walker fell in love with their ham and cheese croissants there, which are really, really good. Again, like I sort of like going to chains like that in Europe because the food is different, right. And you know what I loved about the Starbucks there, nicole, is they didn't have like an advertisement for like a million drinks. You know, here it's like get the fruity, this caramel or creme brulee. It was fairly simple of what they had. So I would get a flat white and Walker's ham and cheese croissants every morning after my walk. Yum, sounds so good. Right now. It does sound good. I did not eat the ham and cheese croissants.
Speaker 1:So one thing that has to do with our topic today that we're going to talk about is I have a lot of lessons that I learned from London. Right, it was great with my kids. John definitely looked at all the pictures. I was like I missed out. I'm like no, you're fine, you were at camp.
Speaker 1:But, being there for three weeks, I'm going to tell you something and I know you're going to be shocked my philosophy for the rest of the year is I almost said it wrong. Actually, less is more. I'm shocked to hear that you are definitely a more is more girl. I am a more is more girl. More sprinkles, more fun, more everything. Yes, I'm still more fun. I don't think any of that is going away. Still more sprinkles In terms of actual stuff, and I realized when I was in London I had like five dresses that I wore.
Speaker 1:I had two workout outfits. I had sneakers. I wore sneakers every day and so, coming back, I want to bring that sort of philosophy with me. So I've been doing some, like I was going to say, spring cleaning, summer cleaning, right, I've been going through my office, I've been going through my closet and thinking you know how we don't need that much stuff, right? I think we just get in this habit I know Well, I do buying lots of things, especially when you see them on Instagram and it's so easy to buy on Amazon and all that.
Speaker 1:So I am wondering, with this, less is more again, I almost said it wrong what, during the summertime, ladies, do you use this as an opportunity to clean out, to organize, or is it like you know what? No, that's like a fall or winter thing, like what is your sort of MO for this? I don't do it in the summertime. I typically save it. I'm trying to think, if I do it seasonally, I feel like I do my food pretty regularly. Yeah, so like pantry, but like closet.
Speaker 1:I think I'm a spring clean out kind of girl. I don't know. I'm trying to think of what I've been organizing. I kind of organize a lot throughout the year. I go through phases. Yeah, I go through phases, like I wanted to get rid of all the plastic in my house, and so it's not really seasonally, but I think it's more like when I get a wild hair. I'm like, okay, I'll do it Right, and then we get on a tear, but my closet's pretty organized from the spring.
Speaker 1:I think I need to go through some drawers or do jewelry, but typically I save it for when the kids aren't around because, honestly, I feel bad. It's that guilt of doing something and not having something for them like an activity or another thing about me I don't know if you know this I don't like being interrupted. So if I'm like doing something, like I don't want to be interrupted, I get really irritated. So if I'm like in the middle of something, like if I'm in the zone and somebody's like mom, can you make me a blah, blah, blah, you know? Or can you take me here? I'm just like I'm thrown off. Forget it, I'm not doing it. I think you know what I think because I have been doing a lot of traveling, because I was living with less. It goes down to your jewelry. It goes down to I was even looking at my makeup.
Speaker 1:You sort of think, well, I wasn't feeling in Europe like, oh, and I was living on a suitcase. I need more, right. I was thinking well, and it was living in a smaller space. It was sort of like when I lived in my condo. Like when you have bigger spaces, we tend to fill them up. Right, like you grow into the space that you have. Because I remember when we were, we had our starter home and one kid and then we bought another one and we were I was pregnant with Stavi the house was like twice the size, if not more. I'm like, how are we going to fill it? He's like, don't worry, everybody grows into the space that they live in and I was just like, wow, and we have collected some things over the years. Oh for sure, for sure.
Speaker 1:Well, I am using this summer as more of an opportunity to go through all my stuff. Now I do feel that mom guilt too if my kids aren't in a camp or whatever, but I feel like our kids are old enough that I can go drop them off at the pool or they can, you know, do stuff on their own. I'm trying to give John chores or things like that to help me out a little bit, but I am definitely using this time as an opportunity to clean stuff. I may even actually get my kids to do stuff too, because that way, when it comes fall, when everything is crazy right, like September is like December, may-cember that we're ready to go right Every month is like May-cember or December, but September is especially busy. I mean, I know that you're already back in school, but we still have three weeks where we still have off. Yeah, I mean, you've got some stay at home momming to do. We still have some time.
Speaker 1:And you know what I was thinking and I was telling my husband this Alex, I was saying the philosophy of more is less. He's like well, that's great that you're saying that. I love that because I go through these stages and when I clean things up and it looks really neat, but it's actually the buying of more stuff, right. So I want to be it's not so much what's already in my house, I'm feeling like it's more conscious of what you're bringing in your house. I've heard that with like closets and things like that. But yeah, like I have cupboards full of like little tchotchke things like decor and I'm just like, why am I holding on to it? Yes, like, am I going to swap it out later? Right, holding on to it, yes, like, am I going to swap it out later? Right, well, I need it one day, but I do. I'm trying to get on the bandwagon of less is more for sure.
Speaker 1:And also, I don't know, like being an 80s kid, like, don't you kind of feel like you hate clutter? I do For me. It's like my environment is very important for me, like my car and my desk and I think I've. Just because the end of the year was so crazy and I left right after that, it got a little bit out of control with graduation and birthdays and Mother's Day and stuff. So, yes, I think you know what, nicole, we should get an organizer on the podcast this fall, because, as I am cleaning out stuff, the one thing that is really like a thorn in my side of stuff, the one thing that is really like a thorn in my side of I don't know what to organize, is like your tchotchkes, like keepsakes.
Speaker 1:Like I just found Walker's graduation cards, like what do I do with that? Like I still have kids' artwork, like it's not so much like my clothes or my stuff or the kitchen stuff. That stuff for me I can do if I just put my mind to it, but it's like these, like extra things that I want to save, like the memories. Now I don't know. We had an organizer come into our basement a couple years ago and she, she put everybody's stuff in a box. I mean it was organized within the box, but it was, like you know, iris's keepsake, and now I just go and like put little things. I feel like when they're little there's just like so much keepsake. But like, as they, as they get older, it's just, like you know, like a graduation card or something I don't know, like a beautiful card that they picked out for you, like special. So maybe it's like a box for each kid, is what you're saying.
Speaker 1:I think, okay, so that that'll be my mission in the fall. I'm just going to put it all in one box right now, but okay, so I feel like coming off of vacation, coming off from traveling like suitcases, like living with less, I feel like, in terms of organization, like I'm on a mission before the fall. I'm not going to keep this for the fall. And guess what? If my kids are like playing games or whatever, I don't feel guilty, I just can't, and I'm going to incorporate them into help cleaning their room, because I've got three different kids. I don't feel guilty, I just can't, and I'm going to incorporate them into help cleaning their room, because I've got three different kids. I've got one that's a hoarder, one that's an organized hoarder and one that doesn't want to keep anything. So I've got three different kiddos so I'm going to have them help. I'm going to have them help, but I say, in terms of organizing, less is more. Now you've got to hold me to this, nicole. I'm thriving. I'm putting it on the back burner.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you want to call that surviving, but I don't know. I really got to tackle my room. I don't know what it is, but that's the one room in the house that just gets. It looks like, I don't know, like a Marshall's on a Sunday night or TJ Maxx on a Sunday night. I don't know what type of organization system that I need for my bedroom. But I just shut the door and I'm like, oh, okay, as long as the bed is made, I can't push things off to the side, but man. So I'm going to tell Alex that so he feels more normalized, but he's super organized. It's almost like I just need the bed in our bedroom and I need a whole nother bedroom just for my stuff. So Alex doesn't see it and then just shut the door, exactly Yay, that'll be my next house, all right.
Speaker 1:I think we're both thriving in different ways. We're choosing how to thrive with the organization. But if any ladies have any tips for us, definitely let us know, especially about these little tchotchkes and keepsakes. Um, but yeah, no, I'm like energized now. I'm like motivated to do this now. Okay, get off this, get off this and go organize. All right, I'll talk to you later. And that's a wrap for today's episode of don't call me midlife. We hope you had as much fun as we did. If you're just waiting in the carpool line, don't forget to follow the show, and if you're feeling extra spicy today, leave us a rating and review Before we part ways. Join our newsletter to stay in the loop with all things midlife, magic, bonus content and more. Head on over to the show notes for how to sign up. We can't wait to keep the conversation going and, of course, don't forget to fill up your own cup first. Cheers.