HEARTY (formerly Writing Threads)

Heather and Steph share the ways trauma, hardship, struggle and illness have played a part in their motherhood journeys. Heather opens up about coming to terms with her daughter's latest diagnosis and what it means for the future. Both Heather and Steph share what they've been listening to (books and podcasts) and learning from, and of course, share what they've been watching, just for fun. Join them for a ride through real life, with honest conversation about hard things sprinkled with grace dust. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Better Things (again!)

What Fresh Hell podcast with guest Mary Laura Philpott

Bomb Shelter by Mary Laura Philpott 

Hello Molly! By Molly Shannon

Fresh Air NPR podcast episode with Molly Shannon

Hannah Gadsby 10 Steps to Nanette

Kate Bowler No Cure For Being Human

Be Like Water by Stephanie Wilson

Bad Vegan

Tinder Swindler

Tig and Cheryl (about Bad Vegan) 

Inside Out, the movie

#addition #trauma #lymedisease #chronicillness #motherhood #betterthings #embracingstruggle #phoneaddiction #epilepsy #seizuredisorder

Heather and Steph about the ways every divorce is as different than every marriage, and every single mother's story is unique. Heather shares more about the end of her marriage, what she would do differently, and how it's going now with co-parenting. It's whole lot of facing the truth and keeping it real (and sometimes silly).

SHOW NOTES:

Writing Threads Podcast Facebook Page

Better Things on FX

Heather and Steph talk about motherhood, things that work and don't work with teens, with their usual candid and honest flair. On everything from Mario Kart and Monster drinks, to big failures and coming back from them. Steph shares more about being a mother to a transgender child/teen and what happened on the night she was told her daughter's truth. 

"I think it's time to lower my pain tolerance." - Stephanie Wilson

"Maybe this week feeling hard is a result of my being more mindful of that...of lowering my pain tolerance." - Stephanie 

"As a mom, I'm an over-seer of your life." - Stephanie to Luna

"The most important thing you can do when you're being human and making mistakes is to talk to someone about it. It's not really even about whether or not you did the thing, it's about whether or not you have held it inside, because that doesn't turn out so great." - Heather Westberg King 

"If you want them to keep coming to you and you want them to keep the communication open and you want to be aware of what they're actually doing, you can't freak out." - Stephanie 

"I want them to know my door is open and they can enter it and leave freely...without fear." - Steph

"I need to give them me, and not a version of me that I think I should be." - Steph

"The more I'm open and the more honest and vulnerable, the more open and honest they are with me." - Steph

"I am becoming all the time, I often change my mind about big and small things, about things I think and things I want to do. That used to really bother me, that I'm showing my kids I'm not even really sure of who I am or what I want to do and I'm just showing my kids how to flounder, or something. But now I'm like, no, I'm showing them how to live. This is how life is and we don't ever stop evolving and changing and growing." - Heather 

Steph shared a piece of writing from Kate Baer - 

“It’s never done. If I had a chance now with every book I wrote, every page would be a little different. Commas would be moved, words. And I think that’s beautiful, actually. That’s a good thing. It reminds us that the artist and the mind and the poem still grow. The poem is like a tree, and the book is a photograph of the tree. You take a photograph of the tree, but the next day, the tree has new cells. The next year, it has new branches. We have to make peace with the fact that a book is actually just a photo album, and that the organic psychic life of the poem is already growing somewhere else, somewhere inside you. And we pin it down."

#divorce #motherhood #parentingtranskids #katebaer #depression #anxiety 

Heather and Steph share what resonated with each of them this past week and why. They cover the world of podcasts, movies, books, and more. Listen as Heather and Steph discuss their favorites, and then uncover that most everything they're sharing has some common threads, like deep human connection and how it happens, even with someone who has Alzheimer's (Heather's mom). Thank you for listening! 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Melisa Wells writing at MelisaWells.com with a quote from grief author Shelby Forsythia 

Academy Award winning movie, CODA

Heather's piece on Medium, Going Home

We Can Do Hard Things with Hannah Gadsby 

Hannah Gadsby's Netflix specials Nanette and Douglas

(Steph asked if Douglas is both a Netflix special and a book. In researching, we could not find a Douglas book) 

We Can Do Hard Things with Brene Brown (Atlas of the Heart) 

Psychologist Dr. Susan David

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast

Hannah Gadsby's book Ten Steps to Nanette 

Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford 

Ashley C Ford's interview with Clint Smith is at the end of Somebody's Daughter on Audible

Jared Carmichael comedy special on HBO Max 

Dana at The Kitchen Witch 

Meagan Francis on Facebook 

Heather's ol' blog post, Maybe Not Now and Possibly Never

#Alzheimers #CODA #Grief #writing #alcoholism #addiction #neurodiversity #parentingtransgenderkids #transgender #comingout #divorce #truthtelling 

This week we're making it a little lighter around here. It's Heather's turn to talk as Steph asks some fun questions like "What did you want to be when you grew up?" and "Who were you in high school?" Both Heather & Steph share a church mini skirt story. And so much more! 

Shout outs to Jenny and Kelly this week. You know who you are. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Meagan Francis, our friend from all the blogging years. Meagan Francis is a published author, content marketer, and podcast personality. She lives in Southwest Michigan with her five kids (ages 9-20). After a decade of magazine writing and professional blogging, Meagan created the Life, Listened podcast network in 2015 to bring together shows and hosts around the theme of living a life you love. Find out more about Meagan’s work at her website meaganfrancis.com or follow her personal moments on Twitter and Instagram. Meagan is a well-known podcaster at The Mom Hour.

Flyleaf Book Shops, Heather's bookstores in rural Minnesota. 

We Can Do Hard Things (the podcast) 

The other Heather King - A Heather King we don't know, with the same name as our Heather Westberg King (hence Heather using her maiden name to decipher the difference between the two, both in recovery and both writers. 

Your hosts: 

Stephanie Wilson, now blogging at soveryflaude.blogspot.com and on Instagram (@babysteph), Twitter (@babysteph) and Facebook, Stephanie Wilson. 

Heather Westberg King, now writing on Medium as HeatherJKing. And on Instagram (@heather_westberg_king) and on Facebook as Heather Westberg King. 

Find Writing Threads! Visit our Facebook page, find us on Instagram (@writingthreadspodcast) and join or private Facebook group, A Procrastination of Writers (and those that love them). Email us at writingthreadspodcast (at) gmail (dot) com. 

In this episode, Steph shares more about her history with fundamentalism and how it shaped her. Both Steph and Heather admit that talking about their experiences within religion brings up a lot of fear and anxiety to this day, but they are telling their stories anyway. Steph's bravery and honesty in this episode is central to the "why" of doing this podcast. These are the threads. These are the true stories that make us, sewn into the fabric of our souls. Please join us with open hearts. Bear witness to the pain of staying stuck, and the freedom of letting go. We are pulling at some threads here, unraveling, and it is good.