New Year Banter & Show Setup

Jenny GK 0:24

Happy New Year.

Caitlin K 0:26

It's Tuesday. Oh, it's 2025. And we're back, right? Yes? Okay. So welcome back to How to Be a Grown Up, the show that teaches you the things that grown-ups need to know. Uh, I'm glad you're here. I've missed you. I missed you too. Yeah, I think we've missed each other. Yeah. And Caitlin, right. I also missed you. We've missed all of you guys, all of our listeners. Um, but also, I don't know about you. I've missed the routine of work in school. I have worked most of the day today, and it I am struggling. Yeah. I'm struggling. But usually getting back on schedule after the holidays means that you are missing the joy, the flexibility, that family time of the holidays. If you have a family that doesn't make you crazy. Um, so today, Jenny's gonna guide us through tie trading off of that holiday spirit. I love that you like the word tie trading is a fun word, um, off of that holiday spirit. So you can get back into the routine with minimal whiplash and I don't know, hangover? Holiday hangover.

Jenny GK 1:38

That's what I was thinking. I was like, you don't want to have like the holiday DTs.

Caitlin K 1:41

Yeah.

Jenny GK 1:42

So, like, what can we do to not just be like DT? Yeah, right. So, okay, but before, let me introduce with you, uh to you. With me as always, is Caitlin. And um, I'm gonna call her a New Year's resolution because I've been waiting all year to make her mine.

Caitlin K 2:00

Oh, hey.

Jenny GK 2:02

Oh no. I did New Year's Eve, uh I did New Year's Eve pickup lines.

Caitlin K 2:07

Yeah. Well, I'm yours, baby. That's Jenny, my tenacious honey badger.

Jenny GK 2:14

Oh, that's a good one.

Caitlin K 2:15

Oh, thanks.

Jenny GK 2:17

One of the lines I decided not to use was the ball isn't the only thing that's dropping tonight. How about your standards? Oh.

Caitlin K 2:33

That's mean to you. Don't talk about my friend like that. I died. I thought it was so funny. Guys, can you tell we're a little rusty with the or something, something's going on. Anyway, okay, so let's go ahead and get started. Again, we're talking about curing that holiday hangover so you don't feel all yucky about going back to work. Yeah? So we have a source.

Jenny GK 3:01

Um, it's called Tips to Help Families Get Back into the School Routine After Winter Break from the Sally B. Howard School in Wilson, North Carolina. Oh. And um, I actually don't remember a lot from the article because I read it a while ago. It actually just spurred this idea of

Framing The Holiday Hangover

Jenny GK 3:19

getting back in the routine and again, tie trading off, like trying to make it a less jarring transition. Um this episode is set to come out on January the 7th, which is possibly your first or second day back to school after break.

Caitlin K 3:37

Did you know? I actually, one of my colleagues um has a daughter going to school in the Northeast, and they went back to school on January 2nd. Can you even imagine? Sorry, that is so early.

Jenny GK 3:53

But also, it makes sense because then it's like two days to get back in the routine, then you have a weekend. Yeah, but like starting school on a Wednesday. It makes sense. I don't like January 2nd. I don't like saying that out loud.

Caitlin K 4:04

No, like no, but I do like the idea of like starting midweek, but like maybe January 3rd, and the teachers go back on the second, so you have a day to make some copies or something. Anyway, sorry, January 7th, you may be back at work, everybody's back.

Jenny GK 4:23

I maybe, or December, I don't know. But I read it a while ago, and basically it just spurred a thought for me. So, yes, there's some information from it, I think, but for the most part, it was just this was the uh impetus for this topic. All right, well, we'll either way, we'll post the link and you guys can afford that if you want to. Um, so first thing is you're getting back into routine. So you need to start by restocking supplies.

Caitlin K 4:48

Uh-oh.

Jenny GK 4:49

And supplies, I'm talking about like pencils, pens, paper, notebooks, the kind of stuff that you normally have around the house for schoolwork, but also it is normal for your kids to run through a year's worth of school supplies in one semester. 100%. I don't know about you, but if someone paid me my whole year's salary in one paycheck, I would be on an all-ramen diet by the end of the year. 100%. There's no way. There's no way that I can be like,

Restocking Supplies And Uniform Check

Jenny GK 5:12

oh, this is all I get.

Caitlin K 5:14

You get a box against it all the time. You get a box of pencils. There's 12 in here, one per month. Make it make it work, child. Like it does, it just doesn't, it's not gonna happen.

Jenny GK 5:24

So check on their supplies. It's okay if they need more pencils, even though you already bought 48 pre-sharpened pencils, T conderoga brand. It is possible that you might need another box in January. Um, but another supply is school clothing. Um, especially if your child goes to a uniformed school. You purchased these in July or August. Yep. And it is very likely that, like most children, they grew. And it's and their clothes may not fit in January the way they were intended to. Yeah. And just because something fits around the waist doesn't necessarily mean it's the right length. Um, just because you can get it on over your head doesn't mean that shirt actually fits. Right.

Caitlin K 6:11

We took we're talking accidental crop tops and clang diggers.

Jenny GK 6:15

My favorite was when a kid came back after break wearing a school polo that was clearly like five sizes too small. It was like he had put on a little kid's clothing. And we said, What happened to your shirt? He puts his hands up, like his Popeye formula showing his biceps and says, I grew. I love kids. Like, yeah, you did grow, but your shirt didn't.

Caitlin K 6:40

Yeah, right. Exactly. If anything, it shrunk in the dryer a little bit. So, yeah, for sure. That makes a lot of sense.

Jenny GK 6:45

Okay. They might have lost their water bottle or their lunchbox. Can they put their hands on their gloves? Like they're gonna have recess whether they have gloves or not. Make sure that you have everything that you need. Yeah. Um, the other thing for going back to school is transitioning back to normal bedtime. Now, I am not telling you anything that you don't know, right? Right. Most people who have someone who is over the age of six and has done the transition one time, it's like, oh, we're backing up the bedtime earlier. Yep. So I know that you're already doing that. But remember episode 121 when we talked about the restraint collapse. And we talked about kids having to work to self-regulate all day long at school. And

Bedtimes, Restraint Collapse, And After-School Decompression

Jenny GK 7:29

then by the time they get in the car, it's meltdown time. And for little kids, it might be crying or going to sleep. For older kids, it might be, hey, I don't want to talk to you and I don't want to have anything to do with you. Um, but that's gonna happen again. So don't just worry about backing up the bedtime. Expect that collapse and build in some extra extra time for transition through that first week back. If you can, hold off on after school activities. A lot of schools won't even offer um their normal sports or clubs or anything that first week, not just for kids, but also so that the teachers can get their lives in order.

Caitlin K 8:07

Right.

Jenny GK 8:08

But try not to do anything after school that first week if you can. Um, create space for the kids to decompress in the afternoon. Maybe it's that you stop at the park on the way home, or you play a board game before you jump into homework, or maybe you take a walk together in the evening while you talk about anything but school. Yeah. Just expect that it's going to take more than just backing up bedtime to get back in that routine.

Caitlin K 8:32

That's absolutely true. I'm really glad you mentioned that because that after school restraint collapse relapse is something I had not wrapped my head around yet. And then that reminder is is very helpful. Yeah.

Jenny GK 8:47

And so the last one about just getting back into your routine is um teachers are also trying to reset. And so it's very possible that with a new semester, you are going to, family grown up, get new homework. Yep. You might have emails to read, newsletters to catch up on. Look over the new syllabi. It's possible that, especially if your child is in middle school or high school, that they have new classes that semester. And whatever forms they send home, fill them out. Yep. All of that is just getting back into the routine. But we didn't really talk about like the titation. We didn't talk about fighting the blues that come with after the holidays. Oh. And you know, it's for adults, it's for kids. Like everybody is noticing because the holiday break is not summer vacation, right? It's summer vacation, there's time for boredom. There's time for, oh my gosh, I'm so tired of you. Right. And I know the song is mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again. That doesn't really happen until after Christmas, right? Like those those first few days. Um, even you know, our family

Parents’ Homework: Syllabi, Emails, New Classes

Jenny GK 10:00

this year celebrated Christmas on New Year's Day. So, like, even then, like leading up to that, it was a 14-day intensive lots of fun, lots of activities, lots of special time. It was not like, hey, go outside and play, and you cannot come back in until I tell you.

Caitlin K 10:15

Right.

Jenny GK 10:16

There was not time for that.

Caitlin K 10:17

That didn't happen.

Jenny GK 10:19

So, um one of the ways that you can kind of work on that is building in some anticipation for activities that are not happening anymore. It was like nonstop, there's something special every day. And you know, I've heard you say this before that like Christmas magic, holiday spirit, like all of that comes from mom planning stuff. So like maybe you're not planning things every single day anymore, which is totally normal and human. So, what you can do is build some anticipation around those things. You probably have a visible calendar somewhere in your house, right? There's always some way that you are showing everybody what's going on. Um, we have multiple, one that's just what's for dinner this week. We have one that's actually a month at a glance, and then we have another one that's all icons for when our kids weren't readers yet. But you can put things on there that they can look forward to that are just silly things that you were already gonna do anyway, but now you're building anticipation. Put that into the library on there. Yeah. Family or friends are coming over or you're gonna meet up with them, even if it's just hey, we're gonna have lunch with so-and-so next Sunday, put it on there. And my favorite is like just mark when you're gonna have dinner at the drive-thru. Like, yeah, this is the night we're going to Sonic. Like, let them get excited about that. I'm excited about it. I don't have to cook dinner. This is great. Yeah. So mark it on the calendar. And again, if your kids aren't readers yet, use icons. Like, and do it with them. Say, oh, what day should we go to the library? This day or this day. You don't need to give them all 30 days to choose from. Like, maybe work for you. Right. But still build in some anticipation so that they don't feel like all the magic and the rug has just been pulled out from underneath them. Yeah, I like that idea. That's build in some short and sweet activities. Okay. I am always looking for a cheap and easy and fast good time. Ever since high school. Okay, anyway, no. Um, but seriously, I am looking for something that we can do that only takes a few minutes, that we can do an

Beating Post-Holiday Blues With Anticipation

Jenny GK 12:27

evening or a weekend, that's not an entire activity. It's not like, okay, let's go play putt-putt and drop $150 on two hours worth of fun. Like, let's do something that's pretty cheap. Maybe it takes 15 or 20 minutes at home, but it's a funny little memory. I like it. Okay. So um one that we do a lot in our family, and I've talked about on the show before, is a tasting party. Yes. Over the holidays, we did a brand comparison of powdered hot chocolate mix.

Caitlin K 12:53

Oh, you sent me a picture of this, and I was like, inquiring minds. Like, I need to know.

Jenny GK 12:58

Okay, so we bought like as many single serve pouches as we could to make it cost effective. Yeah. Um, and no one needs to drink that many bottles or that many cups of hot chocolate. So it was good to just like do a sip of each one. Yeah. Um, we sat and we decided like, should we make it with milk or should we make it with water? And we're like, okay, we'll make it with milk because that's like giving it a more fair chance. And yeah. We followed the instructions for each one, and then we did a tape test. Um ironically, the one that tasted the like got the highest score in our family is a brand I've never even heard of, and it was like a little one-off pouch. Oh. Okay. Um, Ghirardelli also scored high. Well, yeah.

Caitlin K 13:40

That's right. Delicious. It's like the only that I only make my chocolate chip cookies and my brownies with Ghiradelli chocolates.

Jenny GK 13:48

Right, yeah. It's funny. Like if we had Godiva, I'm sure it was good too. But anyway, that I mean it was a brand comparison. It was funny. Um, we have also done the different varieties of Mountain Dew. Like our corner store had like seven different flavors one day, and I was like, let's just taste them all. That's hilarious. And really, and for 99 cents or a buck ninety nine a bottle, like it's not expensive for us to do this, and we poured it in tiny little shot glasses, and everyone had to taste all different flavors of mountain dew. Perfect. That's a fun one. We've done different varieties of apple. Okay. And again, one apple is enough to serve the whole family. So we just buy one of a different kind. We're like, hey, tonight we're gonna taste apples. Um, you could do conventional versus organic produce, like, hey, we're just gonna taste bananas. Which one do you think is organic? Um, I was thinking it'd be fun to do different pasta shapes.

Caitlin K 14:40

You know, I have to say this. I'm gonna put I'm gonna put my friend on blast here. This is my new favorite New Year's resolution. Okay. My you we have talked about them before. My girlfriends that are like there's four of us in a little group, and we all just talk all the time. We met when our kids were babies. So um she, this very sweet friend of mine goes, um, what's everybody's New Year's resolution? Like, do you do you have one for this year? And hers, Joey. I love you so much. My number one is to try as many different pasta shapes as I can. My number one is to try as many different shapes of pasta as I can. I found a specialty site, so I'm gonna order in bulk. Oh I just answered her with like, this is my favorite.

Jenny GK 15:36

I mean like a field guide, like notes situation where she like draws the noodle and then like labels the things that she knows about it. I love this.

Caitlin K 15:45

I do have a new favorite pasta. It's Didalini. Have you ever seen it? It's like super teeny tiny. Oh, it's adorable pasta. It looks, it's like smaller than like a um a risotto, like a or one of those little like orzo pastas. They're really little and I love them. They're so good.

Jenny GK 16:01

It makes me think of chicken and star soup. I'm sure it's yes, that's what it's

Quick, Cheap, Fun: Tasting Parties And Games

Jenny GK 16:04

like.

Caitlin K 16:04

It's like that tiny though. Oh, it oh, I love it. It looks, it reminds me of like if you took like a macaroni noodle and then you chopped it up, like to even smaller little macaroni bits. Like little holes, little tiny. Oh, I love them. They may it makes me so happy.

Jenny GK 16:21

Okay, but taste different like I don't know, but yeah, and like you're also I have talked about this on the show before too. Like, we did not do a tasting party, but we did the Oreo slam dunk contest. Like that morning I said, Hey, tonight we're gonna do this, so practice your moves because you get to dunk your Oreo one time. Um, like what did it cost? A glackage of Oreo milk and a bag of Oreos. And because there's only four of us, I could even buy like the sixth set of Oreos from the gas station if I wanted to. But I know that that's the same price as the full size one from H E B. So okay, so here's another game that I like to play. You are familiar with the game that we will call Kiss Mary Kill. Yes, yes, okay. Um so this is the diners, drive-ins and dives version of it. Oh okay, so it can be any TV show where they eat a lot of food. Yeah. Or you can even use a cookbook. Okay. The name of the game is Scarf, Share, or Skip. Okay. All right. Either you would eat it all, you would share it with someone, or you don't want to eat it at all. Okay. I like that. That's a fun one. We play one, two, three, and then you call it like rock, paper, scissors. So you cannot call for the same thing. So if you're looking at the hot chocolate and um the uh off-brand, nobody knew it would be that good, hot chocolate, and we call one, two, three, and someone says scarf, and another person says scarf, they now have to duke it out. Oh, okay. So that's a fun way to do it.

Caitlin K 17:59

You are even the games, you guys are so good.

Jenny GK 18:02

We're always playing games. Okay. Um, another one, again, nice and easy. 10-minute costume contest.

Caitlin K 18:09

Okay.

Jenny GK 18:10

Okay, I'm gonna set a timer in 10 minutes. You have to come down in a costume, we're gonna vote. Um, it's helpful if you have a theme. You could do things like movie characters, famous people, specific time periods. Um, depending on the age of your kids, you can get pretty snarky and do people in your family.

Caitlin K 18:24

Oh.

Jenny GK 18:24

Um, how cute would dad look in Lulu's and a crop sweatshirt?

Caitlin K 18:28

There was one that I saw that was a one-minute everybody in the family has to run into Nanny's pantry and find the oldest possible thing they can find. Oh, that's amazing. And it it was hysteric. It was like a bottle of olive oil from like 1987. It was hilariously disgusting and so, so good. But something like that would be really, really fun.

Jenny GK 18:49

Zero dollars. A zero dollars amount of time, right?

Caitlin K 18:52

Exactly.

Jenny GK 18:53

Okay, so um, not campy, not a game, timed read aloud. Okay. And I say timed, that's very important. Okay, so pick a book that you think the whole family will enjoy, which is a lot easier to do when you know it's going to be read aloud, everyone in the same space, and it's not an independent silent reading that you're then gonna have to do a book report on. Yeah, totally. Okay, right. Even though my daughter is 13, she enjoys having Ramona read aloud. Because the story's a hell of a lot of it.

Caitlin K 19:20

Oh, Ramona's is the best.

Jenny GK 19:22

Um, but set a timer, decide on a time that is reasonable and sustainable. Say, okay, we're gonna read for 10 minutes a night, or we're gonna read for 15 minutes every other night, or on Tuesdays we're doing 20 minutes, whatever it is, but set the timer and honor it. When the timer goes, you as a family can decide whether or not you want to read more, oh, just one more chapter or whatever, or stop it. Because it does give you an out if the the patience and interest is waning. Yeah. If someone's getting antsy and you can tell they're not enjoying it, say, okay, well, the timer went. I guess we're done. Yeah. Like it's not one of those things, okay. Well, there's still 15 more pages in this chapter. We have to get to the end of it. No, you don't. No, you don't. But yeah, you can just I love that. Okay, and then um try and make something routine, an event. Okay. We're in playoff season. You watching a playoff game, whether it be um college or an at uh NFL football, make it a Party. Gear up. Decorate your living room. Make special snacks. You don't have to invite other people, but you can still like throw yourself a football watching party. You were going to watch it anyway. If you're making a meal plan for the week, I love this. Okay. Have everyone put their ideas in a hat. And then you pull out 10. And I say 10 because that gives you, as the meal plannerslash prepper, a chance to decline some of the ideas. Because I know my kids, I know 16-hour smoked brisket is going to be one of the things they put on there, or there's going to be 17 requests for pizza. Right? So I pull out more than there are days in the week, but I can say, okay, everyone had a say. Oh yeah, this one, that's a no. We're we're not gonna have um just host of snowballs for dinner, so I'm taking that one out. But um it it turns it into a game. If you're hanging out at the school bus stop, waiting um for the bus to pick you up in the morning, bring chalk and play tic-tac-toe until the bus comes. Oh, that's cute, right? I mean, it doesn't cost anything. Right. Um running errands on a Saturday afternoon, bring a scavenger hunt list with you and listen to what I said. Bring a scavenger hunt list. I did not say make one. No. A quick Google found one for the grocery store, for Target, and for Costco. And I've linked those.

Caitlin K 21:41

Oh I will put them in the blog post for this episode for sure. Go get those.

Jenny GK 21:45

All I did was just write Google or I just wrote grocery store, scavenger hunt list. And they have some for kids, they have some for teens, whatever, whatever. But you don't have to buy these things, you're just looking for them. And then um the last thing that you can do to kind of like wind down that holiday spirit is leave some notes. You may already be putting a note in a lunchbox, but think of some other places around the house that that might be meaningful. Um, put it on the bathroom mirror, put it in between their sheets and their bed, put it in their shoes or their gloves or their hats, or put it right on the fridge. And it can be something sweet and encouraging, or it can be a snarky little comment, or it can be a dad joke, but like just bringing that connection because that's really what happened during this two-week intensive family time. Exactly. Kind of bring that connection back, and it's something that's really easy to like stop doing if you wrote five in the first week and you write two in the second week, and then the third week, people forget about it. It's fine. Um earlier this week, Abigail was making a joke about the difference between 79 and 80. She's like, Oh, you get a 79 on something. You're like, Meh, you get an 80, you're like, Yes. Well, guess what? I drove down a road

Read-Alouds, Make Routine An Event, Scavenger Hunts

Jenny GK 23:04

today called Highway 79, took a picture of it, sent it to her. Uh meh. Like, that's it. Like that's so serious. Like that, that's that's it. It's just like a little funny she knows that we're laughing about that difference between one point.

Caitlin K 23:21

Right. Okay and it's uh just a little way to let her know that you thought about her and remembered what she said. Yeah, I love that.

Jenny GK 23:27

And I'm making fun of her. Um she likes it. Okay, so here's the thing the number one recommendation that I have is do not expect too much from yourself. All of this was about the kids, all of this was about the family like feeling that switch, but you might also want more attention or more family time or more holiday spirit and magic or more of those holiday foods. It's okay for you to be sad or disappointed. Yeah, and these are the types of feelings that using age-appropriate techniques, you can actually discuss with your family. Yeah, you can say this week, guys, I really liked all the extra time we had during the holidays. I'm so glad to be back in our routine. But I need a family date. What do you think we could do this weekend to reconnect?

Caitlin K 24:16

Oh, that's a sweet thing to say. I think that everybody would be like, let's let's do this. They would all have some ideas. I think that's a great idea.

Jenny GK 24:24

I love that. And it's just the idea of expressing, like, hey, I don't know if you feel this way, but I do. And the reason I feel this way is because I miss how close we were.

Caitlin K 24:36

Yeah.

Jenny GK 24:37

Now, also, I'm glad you're back at school.

Caitlin K 24:41

I'm a better parent when you go to school, but still.

Jenny GK 24:45

So the biggest thing here is going back into routine has a lot of steps that you already have done. You have already backed up bedtime and you've checked backpacks, and you you know all of that stuff is there. But there's some sneaky things like making sure that you have the right number of pencils, even though you already bought them all in August. Um, and this feeling of you know, the post-holiday blues. What can you do to beat it? You can play games, you can make uh routine things special. Um you can play Scarf, Share, or Skip next time you watch Triple D.

Caitlin K 25:20

I watch that show way too often. It's always 20 years of this.

Jenny GK 25:27

And there's like 95 seasons on Netflix. Yep. Yeah. Okay, that's all I got. Let's take a break. I love it.

Caitlin K 25:35

For links to resources mentioned in this episode, head on over to ck and gkpodcast.com slash blog to find everything you need. And be sure to follow us on social media. Head over to your favorite social media network and find us at CKNGK Podcast. And now back to the show.

Jenny GK 25:53

Okay, we're back. Yeah. We're back, and it's time to talk about what we're obsessed with. Tell me. Dill pickle hummus. What?

Caitlin K 26:02

That's a thing.

Jenny GK 26:04

Okay, so it's uh limited edition, according to the container, which makes me laugh because it makes me feel like it's a tennis shoe. Um not available for a limited time, but limited edition. Like people are gonna collect this. I don't know. Anyway, um, it's made by Boarshead, which you know makes like pretty much everything in the deli. Um but it's pickle-flavored hummus, and it is so good. Okay, all right. I feel healthy that I'm eating it. Well, because it's hummus. It's hummus, and I'm eating it with celery. Like that that is food. That's like healthy food.

Caitlin K 26:35

Right. It's celery's negative calories.

Jenny GK 26:37

See, so it's gotta be fine. I'm actually working out, right?

Caitlin K 26:42

And then I get my protein from Arisa's Christmas tree. Right. There's protein in that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Notes Of Connection And Managing Your Own Feelings

Caitlin K 26:50

Um, mine is also food. It's Austin Nuts Christmas tree pretzels. Have you had these? No. Well, I've already looked for them again at the store post-Christmas, and they are not there. But it's Christmas tree pretzels covered in that like yogurt, like yogurt-covered pretzels, right? But then they put like green and red sprinkles on them. You could make them at home if you wanted to, but they won't be as good. They're so good. I went through two bags of them.

Jenny GK 27:17

Oh my gosh, that's amazing.

Caitlin K 27:19

In the two weeks, I mean, it was two weeks.

Jenny GK 27:21

Yeah, that's like that's nothing.

Caitlin K 27:23

And the bags are small, but I still went through two bags.

Jenny GK 27:26

No, I don't care if they're big. That's one bag a week. That's normal. They're so good. Gosh, that's mine. Okay. So um, my break was not fabulous. No, there were parts of it that were incredible, but there was something that was really not. Yeah.

Caitlin K 27:44

And tell everybody what it is.

Jenny GK 27:46

As I was um jumping for joy, celebrating Christmas, passing out Christmas presents to teachers. I thought it would be cute for me to leap into someone's classroom. And when I did, my knee made a noise. And um, it hasn't worked since. Yeah, gotta love being 40. Right? I mean, and that's it. Like it has to be funny. And luckily, um, it happened like not the last day of school, but like the second to last. So the next day at school, I'm like hobbling around and everyone's laughing at me. I'm like, yeah, I'm just old. Um, but I have been on the phone with insurance. There was one day where I'm not kidding you, I spent five hours and 47 minutes on the phone with them. I and you know I'm not kidding because it is that specific.

Caitlin K 28:32

Right. I am not condoning any of the behavior we have seen towards healthcare officials. Not at all. That said, the frustration is real and the backlash is incredibly relatable. Yes. Yeah. Okay.

Jenny GK 28:52

So at one point, it's like six o'clock in the evening. I'm working on hour four at this point. Oh, gosh. And uh William is not being helpful. And my husband starts telling him, like, hey, William. William. William, you just gotta ask how it does, William. You just need to bring us to the next person. I just you just need to find the highest level of supervisor who is online right now and give us their call. Yep. And I hear myself say out loud, I don't care if you have to change my name to Karen in my profile, you will give me the manager.

Caitlin K 29:34

And ladies and gentlemen, this is not any offense

What We’re Obsessed With: Snack Talk

Caitlin K 29:37

to my lovely mother-in-law whose name is Karen. She is wonderful. No, no, no. She is a Karen for good. She really is. Oh my god.

Jenny GK 29:47

I feel badly that that's what this has become. Like, if your name is Karen, like, you are not necessarily this type of person.

Caitlin K 29:55

No, you are not.

Jenny GK 29:56

But I was not gonna handle it anymore. And I actually said that phrase out loud.

Caitlin K 30:03

The fr for what, five hours and 47 minutes? That's five hours and you were four hours in. No, I know. You were four hours in, like the frustration had to come out somehow. Right. It just had to. Oh gosh. Okay, well, uh, then I'm gonna I'm gonna share two gems that I have this week, then. And the first one is um, one of the Christmas gifts that we worked on this year was a new bike for my child.

Jenny GK 30:33

Love it.

Caitlin K 30:34

We worked really hard to make this happen. And um it, I don't want to say the name of the bike company, but it is one of those kids' bike companies that I'm seeing in Instagram feeds a lot. So right, right, right. There's that. It's that. Um, and my child was very good at riding his balance bike during the pandemic. We were out on it all the time. He was little. It's like, you know, those are the cute little tiny bikes that there have no pedals, the kids just go on them. And I think just somewhere along the way, when we switched to a bigger bike, he lost confidence in his ability to balance. And like the brakes are different, right? Because you on a balance bike, there are no brakes, you just put your feet down and you drag your shoes and destroy the bottom of your shoes, and that's how you stop. But it's like Fred Flintstone. But that's not what these newer, these bigger bikes are like, right? There's the handbrake and the back pedal, and

Real-Life Grown-Up Moments: Insurance, Injuries, Bikes, And Grace

Caitlin K 31:26

it's just a lot. So it is a lot. We switched to a bike that only has a handbrake, and it's a very responsive handbrake. And within an hour and a half of practice, like, and not even all at once, like 30 minutes here, stop and take a break, another, you know, 32 minutes, another day. He was up and getting himself going on his bike, on his two-wheeler, and now he's obsessed. It's so cute. The other day he's like riding by and he's like, Mom, this is the best. And I like my baby's grinding and bike, like, you know, it's one of those moments where you're just like, My kid is growing up. And when they're riding a two-wheeler, it just is one of those moments where you're like, my kid's grown up. It's it's a it was a very cool moment. But the other gem I have to share is to just give a little shout out to Karen in my life. Um, so I have I have a baby blanket that um was in a pile of linens that had been stored at her house. She went through the pile of linens to see what she could donate. She found the baby blanket. It was something that had been handmade for me by one of my mom's very best friends, and I had forgotten it was in there. And I um, and I maybe Karen told me that she had found it or not. I couldn't remember, but she restored it. She restored the whole thing, she put in new batting, she um it had all been hand stitched, so it was pretty loose stitching for the border. She fixed all of it, and I she was like, I would just like you to open up your Christmas gift. And I opened, I saw that I saw it from the edge, I knew exactly what it was, and immediately burst into tears. I sat there crying for like 15, 20 minutes. Took a picture of it, sent it to my mom. She was like, This is made by one of my best friends in the whole wide world. Like she handmade this for you. And I was like, No, you can tell. Like, but the only thing that she that she replaced, I mean, she had to replace some of it, but like the front is all exactly the same. She she just zhuzged it up and then cleaned, like, it took so much work, it was such a labor of love. So she's a Karen for good for sure. Oh my god, it was the nicest, it might be one of the nicest gifts I've ever received in my life, just in terms of kindness and effort and don't you love that? The love that had to go into it. It was very special. So, Karen, thank you so much. She's a Karen for good.

Jenny GK 33:55

Karen for good.

Caitlin K 33:56

They they are there, they exist.

Jenny GK 34:01

Alright, guys. When you are watching Triple D. Oh my goodness, and the burger made out of ground bacon comes up, you count three, two, one, you have a chance. Scarf, share, or skip. Make a good choice. Scarf. Right.

Caitlin K 34:22

I'll battle you for that one. Rocky or further. And go. Bye.