Simple

Christine is a farmer: in this chat, she gets into what she's learning about the value of slowing down, of learning to embrace our full plates (while eschewing "busyness"), and the beauty of "delightfully misplacing our phones." And because Tsh recently wrote about what books she read in March, she gets into the why, how, and what of reading more classics — it doesn't have to be pretentious or hard — it can actually be fun with the right mindset.

Related Posts:

• What Tsh Read in March
• Christine's Day in the Life

Links From This Episode:

• Christine on Instagram
• Christine's blog
• Tsh on Twitter & Instagram
• Ep. 184: Busyness + Gurus
• Ep. 180: Reading More + Mindfulness
• Laura Vanderkam TED Talk
• Joy Clarkson's tweet
• To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
• A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
• Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
• Around the World in 80 Days, by Jules Verne
• Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
• Night, by Elie Wiesel
• Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White
• The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis
• Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery
• Winnie-the-Pooh, by AA Milne
• Pen & Paint
• Pen & Paint on Etsy & Instagram
• The Mindful Catholic by Dr. Gregory Bottaro
• Sign up for my Travels With Tsh Guides!
• Kindly leave a review
• Become a patron
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• Like Your Life is open!
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here
• Download the transcript for this episode

There's this idea that home ownership is the destination that crowns you officially a grown-up. In this chat, Andrea and Tsh agree this simply isn't true. Andrea's in her mid-30s and has rented an apartment with her husband for the past six years — and loves it. Tsh and her husband are two years into renovating a 1935 cottage, and she's learned a lot, too.

In this chat, they talk about lessons learned from where they live: how to shake off a temporary mindset, how to make a less-than ideal house into a home, and practical tips for adding personality to wherever you live.

Related Posts:

• Life in the "During" Phase of a Fixer-Upper by Tsh
• 8 Ways to Make an Apartment Feel Like a Home, by Andrea

Links From This Episode:

• Andrea on Instagram
• Andrea's website
• Tsh on Twitter & Instagram
• Rugs, USA
• Everything you need to know about ZZ plants
• Todoist App
• Ep. 177: Seasons & Do-Able Goals
• Stephanie on Instagram
• Wonderling Family
• Sign up for my Travels With Tsh Guides!
• Kindly leave a review
• Become a patron
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• Like Your Life is open!
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here
• Download the transcript for this episode

Crystal's recently learned stuff about herself via something she's never done before as an adult: decluttering her own closet. She and Tsh talk about discovering personal realizations when you do something as surprisingly vulnerable as weeding out your wardrobe. And to pair Tsh's own recently published Travel Philosophy, she shares what she's learned about herself from the act of travel — things she never realized were true, and little ways she's surprised herself on the road — if you've ever traveled (even on small trips), you'll identify.

In the third segment, Tsh talks with listener Caroline Brookfield, a veterinarian: she shares what it's like when the majority of your patients are dogs and cats.

Related Posts:

• Tsh's Travel Philosophy
• 5 Things I Learned By Tidying Up, by Crystal

Links From This Episode:

• Crystal on Instagram
• Crystal's website
• Tsh on Twitter & Instagram
• Ep. 181: Partial Solutions + Her Good List
• Crystal's My Good List
• Stasia's Style School
• Ep. 74: "Capsule" wardrobes
• Thoughts on Capsule Wardrobes
• At Home in the World, by Tsh Oxenreider
• Sign up for my Travels With Tsh Guides!
• Caroline's website
• The Comedy Bible by Judy Carter
• Subterranean by James Rollins
• Kindly leave a review
• Become a patron
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• Like Your Life is open!
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here
• Download the transcript for this episode

We've got another in our series called My Good List: a thing, a habit, a work of art, and a philosophy. (Don't worry, we're not nixing our new format! We're simply still doing MGLs every now and then...)

I'm talking to my friend Christie Purifoy, a former English professor turned writer and gardener. She's got a new book out called Placemaker, and it's all about what it means to actually lean in to your soul's desire for beauty and the need to create, instead of stuffing or ignoring it — and why the cultivation of good and beautiful places isn't a retreat from the "real world" - it's a response to it.

Then in the third segment, Stephanie Langford and I answer another one of your travel questions.

(p.s. - Yes, there's a faint clicking sound in the background... we're aware, and we apologize.)

Links From This Episode:

• Christie's website
• Christie on Instagram
• Tsh on Twitter & Instagram
• Placemaker, by Christie Purifoy
• Roots & Sky, by Christie Purifoy
• Hario V60 Olive Wood Stand Set
• The Inner Voice of Love, by Henri Nouwen
• "The Summer Day" by Mary Oliver
• Living Prayer, by Robert Benson
• Stephanie on Instagram
• Wonderling Family
• Willing Workers On Organic Farms
• Thrifty Nomads
• Ep. 118, where Steph & Tsh talk about saving money to travel
• Kindly leave a review
• Become a patron
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• Like Your Life is open!
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here
• Download this episode's transcript

What happens when you're hit with the truth that you're WAY busier than you thought you were? Katherine shares real-talk truth she gleaned after she wrote out a recent day-in-the-life recap — seeing her day broken down by the hour helped her realize a truth lots of us can relate to: she's busier than she wants to be.

Then Tsh shares what she's learned about why she's felt overwhelmed by reading more non-fiction recently: too many gurus. She shares four ways to keep these smart-but-distant people at arm's length.

Related Posts:

• Katherine's Day in the Life
• The books Tsh read in February

Links From This Episode:

• Katherine on Twitter
• Katherine's website
• Tsh on Twitter & Instagram
• Maker vs. Manager schedule
• "How to Gain Control of Your Free Time", a TED Talk with Laura Vanderkam
• "The Unbusy Pastor", by Eugene Peterson
• On Reading Well, by Karen Swallow Prior
• Atomic Habits, by James Clear
• What I Read in January, by Tsh
• Dunbar's number
• Yes, Please, by Amy Poehler
• Haley's blog, Carrots for Michaelmas
• Haley on Instagram and Twitter
• The Liturgical Calendar (2/3) - Episode 165
• Radio transcripts of Oscar Romero: The Scandal of Redemption
• Romero
• Kindly leave a review
• Become a patron
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• Like Your Life is open!
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here
• Download this episode's transcript

Even if you're not a writer — or even in a sort of work where you create — you'll find wisdom and inspiration in Andrea's life lessons she's learned from writing. And because I wrote about podcasts I'm currently into, in this chat I'm talking about the beauty and necessity of silence — why we all need it more than ever in our information-overloaded culture, and how the science backs me up on this.

Related Posts:

• Andrea's writing lessons
• 8 great podcasts by Tsh

Links From This Episode:

• Andrea on Instagram
• Andrea's website
• Tsh on Twitter & Instagram
• Episode 142: A Magazine Editor
• Under the Wide and Starry Sky, by Nancy Horan
• Shawn Smucker
• Ep. 177, where we mention Seinfeld's chain method
• The Loft Literary Center, University of Minnesota
• Because of Winn-Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo
• At Home in the World, by Tsh Oxenreider
• Laity Lodge
• Daily Rituals, by Mason Currey
• Highly Sensitive Person quiz
• The Nature Fix, by Florence Williams
• The Power of Silence for Highly Sensitive People
• How to Find Inspiration When You're Uninspired
• Stephanie on Instagram
• Wonderling Family
• Antigua, Guatemala - Lake Atitlan
• Costa Rica
• Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico: Merida; Valladolid
• San Miguel Allende
• London; countryside UK
• Iceland
• Thailand
• Cambodia (Siem Reap)
• Japan
• Munich/Bavaria
• Kindly leave a review
• Become a patron
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• Like Your Life is open!
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here
• Download this episode's transcript

Cultivating a healthy marriage sometimes looks different when kids are at different ages. Christine and her husband have kids under 8, so she shares how they find ways to date in the nooks and crannies of their life. Tsh and her husband have kids 8 and up, so she shares how they model their marriage at home, right in front of their kids.

Related Posts:

• Tsh's letter to her (slightly younger) self
• And the two shall become one, separately, by Christine

Links From This Episode:

• Christine on Instagram
• Christine's blog
• Tsh on Twitter & Instagram
• Episode 140, Work: A Farmer
• Episode 169: Christine's good list
• Episode 93: Dating (in Marriage)
• Episode 181: Partial Solutions + Her Good List
• Date night & Tate nights
• Thistle Farms
• Becca Stevens
• Becca Stevens on Twitter
• Love Heals by Becca Stevens
• Find Your Way Home by The Women of Magdalene and Becca Stevens
• As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
• The Odyssey by Homer
• Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry
• Kindly leave a review
• Become a patron
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• Like Your Life is open!
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here
• Download this episode's transcript

Crystal and Tsh get into Marie Kondo, a new book they're both excited to read, and something Crystal's been doing weekly with her husband (and then Kyle & Tsh started doing this right after this conversation). And then springboarding off her somewhat-vulnerable post she shared this week, Tsh talks about the beauty of good ol' partial solutions.

To round things out in the third segment, Stephanie and Tsh once more tackle another one of your travel questions.

Related Posts:

• Crystal's Good List
• Tsh's things she's reading about, learning about, and writing about lately

Links From This Episode:

• Crystal on Instagram
• Crystal's website
• Tsh on Twitter & Instagram
• All of Me, by Chris Baron
• Outer Order, Inner Calm, by Gretchen Rubin
• Four Tendencies Quiz
• Organized Simplicity, by Tsh Oxenreider
• Tidying Up, Marie Kondo's show on Netflix
• The Balanced Life
• Stephanie on Instagram
• Wonderling Family
• Tuscany Writer's Retreat
• Literary London
• Kindly leave a review
• Become a patron
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• Like Your Life is open!
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here
• Download this episode's transcript

Anxiety plagues a ton of people, and Andrea has been on quite a journey the past decade-plus learning how to live with it. In this episode, she shares a practice that helps her float through it (instead of fight or flight). Tsh talks about simple ways she incorporates more reading in her life, helping her inch through her TBR dust instead of watching it collect dust.

In the third segment (since it's the start of a new month), Tsh talks with Haley as she learn from her about what's on the liturgical calendar in February. Good stuff.

Related Posts:

• Andrea's How I stopped fighting anxiety
• Tsh's What I read in January

Links From This Episode:

• Andrea on Instagram
• Andrea's website
• Tsh on Twitter & Instagram
• Calm app
• Headspace app
• Tsh's earbuds
• Libro.fm
• Tsh's alarm clock
• Sign up for an Audible trial (and get a free audiobook!)
• Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
• One Day in December, by Josie Silver
• 84 Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff
• Your Best Year Ever, by Michael Hyatt
• Atomic Habits, by James Clear
• Inferno, by Max Hastings
• Christmas Eve, 1914, by Charles Olivier
• Haley's blog, Carrots for Michaelmas
• Haley on Instagram and Twitter
• Jamie Martin's candle tutorial
• Ep. 59 on Silence
• A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park
• Kindly leave a review
• Become a patron
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• Like Your Life is open!
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here
• Download this episode's transcript

What's it like to be a full-time pastor of a local church, then decide to also become a certified yoga instructor? In this chat, Katherine talks about the misconceptions she had about yoga before she began a few years ago, as well as what it's like to find fun surprises you didn't know you needed in unexpected places.

Then Tsh expands on her Good List post she wrote this week — why she loves creating playlists (and considers it a form of art), a new-to-her veggie delivery service that's hitting all the right buttons, and the beauty of making time for hobbies, even when you have no time.

Related Posts:

• Katherine's Lessons from the yoga mat
• Tsh's My good list

Links From This Episode:

• Katherine on Twitter
• Katherine's website
• Tsh on Twitter & Instagram
• Enneagram
• Imperfect Produce
• Current Winter Spotify playlist
• 5-year diary
• Stephanie on Instagram
• Wonderling Family
• Kindly leave a review
• Become a patron
• Sign up for 5 Quick Things, the weekly email
• Like Your Life is open!
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here
• Download this episode's transcript