Getting to Good Enough

We have all heard how important it is to stay hydrated. But for some of us, taking in the water our bodies need can feel challenging. This week, Janine and Shanon discuss some strategies for getting and staying hydrated.

Discussion topics include:

•How hydration is important year-round

• The origin of this week's episode title

• The importance of sipping water frequently, rather than chugging a lot of water at once

• How the amount of water you need depends on various factors, like how active you are and what you eat

• Selecting a water bottle that is easy to drink out of

• Shannon's favorite water bottle

• Flavoring water to make it more enjoying (including with fresh fruit!)

• The effect of water temperature (bottom line: drink it at the temperature that appeals to you in the moment)

• The perils of dehydration

• The clear IKEA carafe that helps Janine (and Shannon's husband Mike!) stay hydrated

• The encouraging water bottle Janine's employee Beth uses

• Drinking water first thing in the morning

• Offsetting caffeine or alcohol in your water intake

• Avoiding drinking too much water

• The value of adding electrolytes to water if you're not feeling hydrated by plain water

• Chapped lips as a clue to dehydration

• Creating a strategy for taking in enough water

Visit the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com for lots of links!

We all get stressed from time to time, and some times are worse than others. In this episode Shannon and Janine discuss some stress-relief techniques, as well as some ideas for keeping stress levels low.

Discussion topics include:

• Janine's litany of things that are stressing her out right now

• Shannon's husband's recent surgery and its resulting stress

• How we feel stress in our bodies

• Chronic vs acute stress

• The terrific talk on stress relief that Janine heard from Kathy Willis of Lewis and Clark Community College

• Kathy's Stay or Go stress assessment tool

• The power of recognizing those things you can change and those you can't

• The physiological changes in your body created by stress and relieved by breathing

• Kathy's breathing-while-counting technique

• The importance of hydration, healthy eating and a good night's sleep for relieving stress

• Another stress reliever: Moving your body

• Becoming aware of the stressors in your life and changing the way they affect you

• The value of talking or writing about the things that stress you

• Releasing yourself from perfectionism and being kind to yourself in order to lower your general stress levels

• How keeping your stress levels low makes it easier to handle acute stressors

• Recognizing that you do have a choice about things that stress you and letting that recognition relieve some of the stress

Visit the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com for links!

Shannon's robust meal-planning and food inventorying system that she shared in Episode 209 wasn't created in one fell swoop. In this episode we discuss how incremental problem solving can help you create systems that make you happy.

Discussion topics include:

• Monarch butterflies!

• How complex systems are often built a little at a time

• How incremental problem solving led to Shannon's system of inventorying her pantry and freezer and her meal-planning Trello board

• A flashback to Deal A Meal

• How Shannon uses Trello to store her recipes

• Looking for the bottleneck that's causing a problem and then addressing it

• What's the one thing that points you in the direction you want to go?

• Adopting just part of the thing that sparks a little envy

• Taking the emotions away from challenges

• Be kind to yourself!

Visit the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com for lots of links.

Do you have a tendency to run late? Shannon and Janine used to run perpetually late, but no more. This week we discuss the strategies we've used to go from tardy to early (or at least on time).

Discussion topics include:

• Our past challenges with punctuality

• How perfectionism played into it

• Taking into account all the time it takes to get somewhere (door to door)

• Building in a 15-minute buffer in order to get places on time with ease

• The life-changing value of calendar alerts

• How easy it is to discount the time between getting ready to walk out the door and pulling away in your car

• Janine's realization that being early is not a waste of time

• How easy it is for a built-in buffer to be used up

• Calculating a standard amount of time needed before leaving the house so you get up early enough to ward off stress

• Running early = self care

• Considering the buffer you create as a gift to yourself

• The only place a buffer isn't needed: Walla Walla

Visit the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com

Janine and Shannon love reading novels for pleasure and we have found ways to fit it into our busy lives. If you like to read but don't seem to have time to read as much as you'd like, this episode might give you some ideas for squeezing in some enjoyable reading.

Discussion topics include:

• Our usual complaining about summer weather

• Reading: A great activity no matter what the weather

• Getting lost in a good book

• Our reading habits and frequency (we both read at least once a day)

• Reading while doing chores, thanks to audiobooks

• One benefit of having a Kindle: Not having to turn a light on

• Avoiding perfectionism when it comes to enjoying your reading

• Why we're big advocates of e-books

• Shannon's peculiar reading position

• Shannon's foray into dystopian novels and psychological suspense

• Janine's love for genealogical mysteries

• Using Trello to organize reading lists

• How the Libby app makes borrowing ebooks and audiobooks from your library so easy

• Reading Insights on the Kindle app

• Reading as a hobby, rather than a guilty pleasure

Visit the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com for links!

What's for dinner? Wouldn't you like to have a ready answer for that question? Shannon is living the meal planning dream and in this episode she and Janine talk about the benefits of meal planning and how Shannon goes about doing it. Be ready to be inspired!

Discussion topics include:

• Janine's challenges with meal planning (which revolve around the fact she doesn't cook)

• Shannon's helpful husband, Mike

• How Shannon's meal planning makes her week better

• Planning shopping as well as meals

• Shannon's jumping off point: What she already has in the freezer

• How Shannon's basement freezer is organized (an inventory is involved!)

• AnyList, the app Shannon uses to inventory her freezer and pantry

• Shannon's favorite tools for pre-portioned food in her freezer: vacuum sealer machine + Souper Cubes

• Trello, Shannon's secret weapon for meal planning

• The value of meal kits for bringing new recipes into our lives

• What's for dinner at Shannon's house: Burst Cherry Tomato Pasta

• How meal planning is a great form of self care

Visit the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com for a screenshot of Shannon's Trello board as well as links!

It's the podcast's fourth anniversary! We published our first three episodes on June 15, 2018. On our third anniversary, we published a post called Three Pillars for Three years and this year we decided to add a fourth pillar for our fourth anniversary. It's Let It Be Easy, and it's focus of our episode today.

Discussion topics include:

• Our fourth anniversary!

• The three pillars of good enough that we identified for our third anniversary

• The supreme value of knowing your why

• The "fruit and flower anniversary"

• The fourth pillar: Let It Be Easy

• How we embraced ease in creating this podcast

• How Let It Be Easy now feels beneficial to Shannon, rather than like cheating

• Incorporating Let It Be Easy into challenges

• Shannon's decision to seek some help in her challenge of walking 175 miles in Portugal this fall

• How we embraced Let It Be Easy by recording shorter episodes

• Letting it be easy in bullet journaling

Visit the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com for links!

Shannon and Janine have experienced first-hand the challenges (and rewards) of caring for elderly parents. In this episode (recorded right after Janine returned from helping her father move into assisted living), we discuss ways to make it easier to help your elderly relatives when they need your help.

Note: We had some audio difficulties with this episode, but felt the topic was important enough to publish anyway.

Discussion topics include:

• Janine's journey with her father's diminishing memory

• Shannon's reflection on the bonding time with her mother after she moved to assisted living

• Janine's good fortune that her father has a sweet and sunny personality

• Allowing people with memory issues to talk without correcting them

• Stepping into a larger role with our parents

• How calling her father daily is self-care for Janine

• The joy of getting past dreaded events

• Giving your elders and yourself peace of mind

• Handling elders' finances

• Using YNAB to help elderly relatives

• Using the term "back up plan" to help elderly relatives accept help with finances

• Taking over finances sooner rather than later (or laying the groundwork)

• Helping elders feel independent

• Keeping communication open

• Discussing final arrangements with elderly parents in advance

• Making your own decisions about your estate (now!)

• Having conversations about family history with elderly relatives while you can

• Letting go of the idea that there is a perfect way to help your elders

• How any effort you make to help is better than no effort

Deciding what family member will be the responsible party for an elderly family member

• Janine's enthusiasm for the final season of This Is Us

Visit the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com

Back in 2020, Janine and Shannon had a robust conversation about our passion for the budgeting software You Need a Budget (YNAB). Our enthusiasm has not dimmed in the slightest, so we wanted to run it again.

Money is a source of stress for so many people. One tool that both Janine and Shannon use to help them take the stress out of money and create financial peace is the software You Need a Budget (YNAB). Shannon is a YNAB master! In this episode we discuss YNAB and other strategies for creating financial peace. (And Shannon offers to help any listener  who needs help with YNAB!)

Discussion topics include:

• The key to Shannon’s financial peace: YNAB (You Need a Budget) software

• Rule 1 with YNAB: Give each dollar a job!

• How YNAB can help you manage an irregular income by creating a buffer

• Budgeting for next month’s expenses

• Shannon’s addiction to interacting with her money every day in YNAB (it takes less than 15 minutes!)

• Budgeting for annual expenses monthly to eliminate big surprise payments

• How YNAB can help create peace in relationships when people share money

• Reading a book about YNAB vs trying it out first

• How Janine is pairing YNAB and Quickbooks to help her stay on top of her bookkeeping

• The peace that comes with being on top of your money

• Using Undebt.it to help with debt payoff

• How YNAB can help with automatic credit card payments

• Shannon’s offer to help out anyone who’s trying out YNAB in our Facebook group

• A strategy for creating a buffer so that this month’s income pays next month’s expenses

• Making money feel supportive rather than stressful

Note: Since this was recorded two and a half years ago, Janine has achieved the financial peace she sought, thanks to YNAB. She is now debt-free and happily handles four budgets daily. She is grateful for YNAB (and Shannon's YNAB mentorship) literally every day.

Visit the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com for links!

Taking care of ourselves is always important. But it's especially important during stressful times. This week Shannon and Janine discuss prioritizing self care so it's there for you when you need it the most.

Discussion topics include:

• The fact that self-care doesn't have to take a lot of time

• The fallacy that you will get more done if you skip self care

• The reality that by taking care of yourself you actually become more productive

• The wisdom of Gandhi: "I have so much to accomplish today that I must meditate for two hours instead of one."

• The more hectic life gets, the harder it is to prioritize self care

• Contemplating self care before you need it

Building in a few breaks per day

• An energizing half minute: Knocking on Heaven's Door from Yoga with Adriene

• Simple ways to take care of yourself (like drinking plenty of water)

• An important point: Anything you can do to alleviate stress is self care

• Recognizing the things you do throughout the day that are actually self care

• Meal planning as self care (watch out for a future episode on this topic!)

• Incorporating self care into a morning routine

• Planning and task management to reduce stress (and provide self care)

• Giving yourself credit for taking care of yourself

See the show notes at www.gettingtogoodenough.com for links!