Today By The Way

If you never homeschooled before, just know, this isn’t it. This is hard and not at all ideal, so give yourself a lot of grace. For #FollowFriday, Hannah Winslow of Why Didn’t Anyone Tell Me comes on TBTW to share some practical tips for getting work done at home with little ones underfoot. Don’t forget! My friend Katie @Leipprandt and I will be live tonight on Instagram chatting about friendship, motherhood, homeschooling, and life during social distancing. We’ll also be wearing face masks… the beauty kind, not the hospital kind or Jason kind. Join us at 9 pm EST. Today’s episode is brought to you by Better Help, the largest online counseling platform, worldwide. You can get 10% off your first month of counseling by visiting BetterHelp.com/indiana. Find the full show notes at TodayByTheWay.com/episodes and connect with me on Instagram at  @indianaadams.

92% of TBTW listeners report that they have at least one child who is home this week because their school is closed, and no matter if you’re a mom with a color-coded schedule or one that’s going to rely heavily on Disney+, there is grace for you. My news feed is full of data points and uncertainties and political discourse surrounding COVID-19. My inbox is full of every corporation that has my email address telling me how they’re handling the virus (fun fact: I don’t care unless you’re our family doctor or my children’s school), so in addition to social distancing, may I also recommend social media distancing? I’m sharing three places where you can go online to get the good when it comes to this pandemic.  Today’s episode is brought to you by Better Help, the largest online counseling platform, worldwide. You can get 10% off your first month of counseling by visiting BetterHelp.com/indiana. Find the full show notes at TodayByTheWay.com/episodes and connect with me on Instagram at  @indianaadams.

What a week! Daylight Saving Time. Bachelor finale. Coronavirus is officially a pandemic and it got Tom Hanks. And now: Friday the 13th. Today we chat about how wonderful Tom Hanks is, how great it is that The Baby-Sitters Club is getting a new tv series (co-starring Alicia Silverstone?), and we discuss what to do with our kids if we’re out of school for an extended period, and how healthy people can be helpers during this Covid-19 recovery.  Today’s episode is brought to you by all the launch sponsors at TodayByTheWay.com/loves where you can quickly grab all the previous / active deals and promos we've discussed. Find the full show notes at TodayByTheWay.com/episodes and connect with me on Instagram at  @indianaadams.

We lost an hour of sleep yesterday. Thanks, Daylight Saving Time. But not to worry, today is National Nap Day! There are tons of reasons why you should celebrate this. Today I also reveal how I take my coffee (spoiler: I can’t do it black). I share the one website I check daily for free food for my kids and I share what’s in the pipeline for Today By The Way.  Today’s sponsor spotlight is Noonday Collection, a socially responsible jewelry and accessories brand committed to fair trade and empowering artisans, women, and families living in vulnerable communities. I’m an independent ambassador and you can shop at IndianaAdams.noondaycollection.com. Find the full show notes at TodayByTheWay.com/episodes and connect with me on Instagram at  @indianaadams.

If we’re online sharing about our children, how do we decide what to share versus what to keep private? Should we be concerned about the narrative we create for them and tie to their named online, possibly forever? We talk about how our family is working through this and what I wish I would have done differently. After that TBTW Friend Hannah shares an easy hack that gets you free Chick-fil-A. Plus we talk a lighthearted look at the Coronavirus to balance out all the panic-inducing Covid-19 stories filling up your newsfeed.   Instead of working with a sponsor this week, I wanted to take an opportunity to encourage you to support a family whose 8-year-old son Aiden is battling a rare form of leukemia. If you're a mother or if you hate cancer, would you honor my dear friend Erica by lifting up her family in prayer and consider donating to a GoFundMe set up for them? Any amount helps. Maybe $8 for Aiden's age or a dollar amount representing the ages of your children? Together we can make a big impact for this friend of mine. Give at: TBTW.in/Aiden Find the full show notes at TodayByTheWay.com/episodes and connect with me on Instagram at  @indianaadams.

Free Egg McMuffins because McDonald’s is feeling insecure about the launch of Wendy’s breakfast today! McDonald’s, what in the world? I mean, I’m going to get my free McMuffin, but you have nothing to worry about in this house. I’ve loved you since childhood and have probably passed that on to at least one of my children. Speaking of kids: today I talk about our hopes and hardlines for sports schedules in our family.  Instead of working with a sponsor this week, I wanted to take an opportunity to encourage you to support a family whose 8-year-old son Aiden is battling a rare form of leukemia. If you're a mother or someone who loves laughing, or if you hate cancer, would you honor my dear friend Erica by lifting up her family in prayer and consider donating to a GoFundMe set up for them? Any amount helps. Maybe $8 for Aiden's age or a dollar amount representing the ages of your children? Together we can make a big impact for this friend of mine. Give at: TBTW.in/Aiden Find the full show notes at TodayByTheWay.com/episodes and connect with me on Instagram at  @indianaadams.

Leap year is more complicated than I thought, and I make a strong case to have leap day moved to October. There are some leap day deals out there, but even MORE if your birthday is Feb. 29th. Our first ever listener survey went out and I found out that you guys like this show very much, just the way it is. As promised, I answer some of the questions you have about how we parent.  Today’s episode is brought to you by Better Help, the largest online counseling platform, worldwide. You can get 10% off your first month of counseling by visiting BetterHelp.com/indiana. Find the full show notes at TodayByTheWay.com/episodes and connect with me on Instagram at  @indianaadams.

I often describe motherhood the way Bilbo Baggins describes getting older, “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.” If motherhood is exhausting you, I wish I could take that away from you, I really do, but sadly, I can’t. Motherhood causes a deep down tiredness like we haven’t known before, but take heart: you are not alone in that. Today I offer no solutions, only solidarity. My friend Sarah shares some tips for those thinking about going to counseling as I share that I started seeing someone on BetterHelp. Sweet bonus? Tomorrow is National Pancake Day and IHOP has free pancakes starting at 7 am. And they’re giving one lucky winner pancakes for life… or 2057 original full stacks, whatever comes first. Today’s episode is brought to you by Better Help, a service I use and the largest online counseling platform, worldwide. You can get 10% off your first month of counseling by visiting BetterHelp.com/indiana. Find the full show notes at TodayByTheWay.com/episodes and connect with me on Instagram at  @indianaadams.

“Fun fact: some people have an internal narrative and some don't. As in, some people's thoughts are like sentences they ‘hear’ and some people just have abstract non-verbal thoughts and have to consciously verbalize them… And most people aren't aware of the other type of person.” -@KylePlantEmoji via Twitter My mind was blown when I learned this. I do not have an inner monologue and it turns out that so many of you with one have so many questions. Plus, it’s Wendy’s Unlimited Frosty Key Tag time, and to go along with this, our #TBTWChallenge this week is to try some new (to you) food combos. Surely you’ve dipped your fries in your Frosty before, right?  Today’s episode is brought to you by Better Help, a service I use and the largest online counseling platform, worldwide. You can get 10% off your first month of counseling by visiting BetterHelp.com/indiana. Find the full show notes at TodayByTheWay.com/episodes and connect with me on Instagram at  @indianaadams.

Today is Presidents Day or President’s Day or Presidents’ Day or is just a regular Monday depending on the state where you live, but regardless, there are some pretty sweet deals happening for this long weekend. If you’re stuck in bed with a relentless cold like I am and you need to whittle down your Netflix queue, I review my three most recent watches: Miss Americana, Cheer, and To All The Boys P.S. I Still Love You. Spoiler alert: I’m not team Peter or John Ambrose. Today’s episode is brought to you by Better Help, a service I use and the largest online counseling platform, worldwide. You can get 10% off your first month of counseling by visiting BetterHelp.com/indiana. Find the full show notes at TodayByTheWay.com/episodes and connect with me on Instagram at  @indianaadams.