Hello and welcome to Spawned, a common sense and hopefully fun discussion, parenting and parenting culture. Hey, I'm Kristen Chase and I'm Liz Gumbener. We're the co-founders of CoolMonkics.com and on today's episode of Spawned, we are talking with a wonderful Amirah Martin about time-saving hacks for families. This is gonna be a good one.
Yes! Our listeners love time-saving hacks. I love them, so I think this is gonna be popular with lots of people. And as always, we're gonna close out our show with our cool picks of the week.
But first, let's talk a little bit about our awesome guests! Yes! So I love Amirah. I met her for the first time a couple years ago and she is amazing.
For those of you who don't know her, she is a mom, a wife. She's a recently retired airman in the US Air Force. Whoo! Yes!
She's an all-around frugal maven and the blogger behind the super popular four hats and frugal blog. Over the past 10 years, her site has become a go-to learning space for Real Talk about family, food, fashion and finance, all the F's. Kristen. All the good F's.
And you may have even seen her on Dr. Oz's GMA, CNN. She's doing some awesome stuff. Yeah, and she's one of my favorite Instagram follows because what I love about her feed is that she's very consistent every morning.
She does her coffee song, like her accountability photos. I love all of it, but she's a firm believer in living a full life on less. And that includes not just money because I think people think living on less. That's money.
You know she's about time as well. So we're so excited. She's got practical tips and mom approved time-saving hacks. I'm ready.
Are you ready Liz? I'm ready. Welcome, Amirah. Thank you for joining us.
Thank you so much for having me. That was an amazing introduction. You ladies are awesome. You give us a lot to work with.
Well, we feel pressured to be like, she's time-saving. We can't take forever on this intro. We got to move it along so we can get to the good stuff. We're going to do more in this podcast with less time, you all.
We're going to be very meta about it. Totally going to do it. I'm excited to talk to you ladies today and just like, chat it up and give some hopeful tips that I can share with some of the moms because I know we're getting into a season where we're going to be really busy. We're already busy every single day.
But this is a great time to have this conversation and just really think about all the things that may be taking up too much of our time and the things that really matter to us and just call it down a little bit with some time hacks. I think that's awesome. We've talked about this. But you started your blog as what you call a hot mess frazzled mom up to, which I have trouble ever seeing you as a hot mess frazzled mom.
That doesn't seem to jog with the whole idea of being in the Air Force. But how did you go from that to where you are now? I decided to finally come to terms with the fact that I was a hot mess and that I wasn't going to be able to do all the things I wanted to do. As moms, we want to do so much.
We want to be able to cook for our kids every night and give them the best and pick the right toy for their birthdays and for holidays and take them on the best vacations and making sure that they are being enriched every single day and becoming these highly intelligent beings that are going to change the world. And sometimes we forget to shower. Sometimes. Sometimes.
I realize that, yeah, you might have to pick and choose what you're going to actually do here and I needed to just reevaluate what my actual values were as a mom. What was really important to me and what could I let go of, which is the real, that's the hardest thing is letting go of what we need to let go of. I was a hot mess because I wanted to do all the things, just be there for my kids and my husband and everything. We just can't do it as humans.
We can't do it all. We have to just come to terms with that. So that's what I did. I came to terms with it and then I decided, you know what, if I'm not going to do everything, I'm going to pick the things I'm going to do and I'm going to rock them out.
And that's what I've been doing ever since. I love that. I think we just get sucked into this multitasking trap. I talk about it.
The other show is like, here she goes again with her single tasking speech. While I check my Twitter. No, just kidding. Here I am again.
No, but I think it's so true that especially new parents, I think it's so overwhelming. There's so many books and resources and you just want to do the best for your kid. And I don't know. I feel like every mom goes through this period where she wants to do everything.
And then hopefully she realizes, you know, I need to shower, like I need to take care of myself. And so like you said, what are my values narrowing that down? I imagine freeze you up, not just physically, but also mentally as well. Absolutely.
Yes. And you're meant for something more. Having children means that we were meant for something more. We were meant to bring these beings into the world.
But there's also other things that we are meant to just be passionate about and put our energy into and it allows your mind to really think about what those things are. It gives us this power. We feel a little bit like a real powerhouse just knowing that, okay, I've decided I'm letting this go. But I also decided that this is super important to me.
This relationship that I have with my children is really important to me. And it's going to be so important that I'm going to pick three to five things that I will not waver on when it comes to the relationship I have with my kids. And your mind starts to really work on. Okay.
So I'm going to keep this. How am I going to sustain what I really want and what I view as something that's going to make me happy long term and make my family happy long term. So you can feel it. You can mentally feel that you're moving all of that clutter out of your mind.
Three to five things. I love that. I'm already thinking about it right now. Pardon me, Ayla, as well as I start typing away here.
But you know, I want to talk to you as a former military spouse on the other side of you because you were active. My ex was active. We have a bit of Air Force in common as well. I'm curious to know how that's given you a unique perspective into the lives of other busy parents.
And how you're informed, how you parent and how you see other parents. I feel like the military lifestyle allows many people to realize that all of the things that you have to do in life, they don't trump what is actually important. Being a military member and my husband being a military spouse, we know that things can get to the life or death situation. That's how that works.
I've been deployed many times. So we've actually had those conversations, but all the little things underneath that automatically get washed away when you have to have that serious conversation. So you realize that this is a finite thing, you know, being on this earth and being a vessel for whatever it is that you are passionate about what you want to do while you're here. And all of the little things like, oh my gosh, you know, we didn't give the right lunch today, does it mean as much as it used to?
And I feel like a lot of military families, this is how we live. We just know that, hey, we have to feed our family. That's cool. We have to, you know, make sure that our kids are washed and well dressed and, you know, mentally stable.
But we know that things can get really serious really fast and we know that things can also be temporary. You can move around a lot. You may not be able to stay friends with certain people once you move to a different duty station. So you need to be malleable when it comes to the way that you live, but you also need to make sure you have all of your priorities in check and you know what's truly important to you and you stick to that.
Yeah. I'm not a military mom. They'd kick me out like before the day was through on the first day, but I think that there are a lot of parents today who are in different ways feeling like the preciousness of life without getting too dark, you know, between school shootings. There was like a shooting to Lakshamaykha school a couple days ago, barely in the news.
I know, I know, I know, I know. And between that and like tsunamis and earthquakes and stuff we see in the news like those things always kind of make me reassess the small things and the big things. So I love that you bring that up. And I think a lot of parents, even if we're not in the military, even if we're not in life or death jobs and we are so grateful for your service because that's really intense, especially when you are a parent, I think all of us can find ways to, you know, relate to the preciousness of life and our children and our purpose and our goal in terms of raising them.
And it's a cliche, but not so the small stuff, right? Exactly. I feel like we need to constantly remind ourselves of that. Like you mentioned, things are getting dire.
We're dealing with a lot of heavy things every single day now. It feels like every hour at this point. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah.
But as long as we remember the things that are important and the things that we want to put out into the world and the things we want to do to change the world and what we want to instill in our children to have them change the world, even when we're gone. I feel like that's what we have to bring it back to as moms. I love that you said that. You know what I've been thinking about all day?
You know, there's been a lot of awful stuff in the news about sexual assault, obviously, the last few weeks. And people keep saying to me, my friends who don't have kids are like, oh gosh, it must be so awful to raise kids right now. I can't imagine if I had daughters, but I would say to them, it must be so terrible in this burden. And I'm like, oh, no, it's awesome.
I feel motivated and empowered and like proud that I am raising the next generation to do better. So I don't see it as a burden at all. I see it as this like beautiful responsibility. And I have great faith in the next generation.
They're going to do good things. And I love that we get to be part of that in whatever way we can. Oh, yeah, I totally agree. I'm a good daughter and the conversations that we have been having with her daily, I just feel like she's going to do every single thing that I won't be able to do once I leave this earth.
I know she is because we're preparing this generation to get it done, you know, make a change and just really prioritize what is going to impact their own lives and the lives of others. I just feel it in my bones that we're doing such a good job and they're going to do an even better job. That's so positive and wonderful. And I think that as we factor in all the things that go on into raising our kids and now there's kind of more, you know, awareness of things going on in the world, like we really have to prioritize time more than ever.
So I mean, I know you're a homeschooler on top of everything. So I'm so fascinated by all your time saving hacks. It's like, you know, wake up, have coffee, teach my kids to save the world, homeschool, a little bit more, do some blogging, a little more saving the world. Like how do you fit everything in?
Like I know you've written about time blocking. Tell me how that works for you. Well time blocking is my saving grace. It keeps me sane.
I am one of those women who gets easily distracted, especially if there's a pretty thing around or a butterfly or a squirrel. It's totally me. So time blocking gives me that chance to really focus. So it gives me one subject to focus on for that certain amount of time.
I do an hour time block and I make myself sit down and I go, okay, for the next hour, for Amira, you need to focus on writing a blog post or writing two blog posts. And then I'll sit and I get myself that hour and it's nice to have that time. For me, I need that extra time to kind of lean into it and really feel my creativity and do that. And I do the same thing for our homeschooling.
So we have homeschooling hours. The kids have their hours during the day and within that hour, they get undivided attention. So it helps that I don't feel the guilt of thinking, okay, well, I really should probably be writing something right now or I should be on social media. It's like, no, it's not time for that.
You know what time you're going to do that. So I set an actual time every single day to do the things that I need to do and to be present with my children. It's important time block for us is our family time block. So between the hours of 4 and 8 p.m.
I am fully being with my family, whether it's sitting on the couch watching a movie, you know, making dinner and they're helping, cleaning the house together. That's the most important time block. So I said to everything else around that time block. And I know you do because when we were trying to book the podcast at one point, I asked you about like 7 o'clock and you're like, nope, that's family time.
And I was like, yeah, she loves this. She's really health. Yes, yeah. That's my non-negotiable, you know, my three to five things that I mentioned, I need to be be able to give my kids that time with me because I don't want the time to pass away.
And they never actually got to spend, you know, real time with their mom, even if it's just sitting down and just chilling. I love that. That's important. I remember that with my dad when we just would sit down and chill, you know, I still think about those times, you know, we want to make Asians and we did all that fun stuff, but sitting on the couch with my dad watching Star Trek, I remember that.
It was really important to me. So non-negotiable on that time block. But time blocking is really good for a lot of us as moms who loved a multitask, but no, we shouldn't. That's how I use it.
I know I really shouldn't multitask. So I take the time to give myself one assignment per hour and I get it done within an hour. Do you set an alarm? Like how do you stick to that?
I have many alarms alarms on my friends. So I have alarms on my phone. I have alarms on my computer, which is my favorite because if I am working and alarm goes off, I go, oh, I got five minutes. So let me finish up what I'm doing.
I need to close my computer, shut it down. And I need to be done with what I'm doing. So alarms are, oh my gosh, I don't think I would survive without my alarms. I love this concept.
I think that's fantastic. I love that you have both like the hourly alarm and the five minute warning. I kind of do that in the morning with my kids. It's like, I have to get up alarmed.
Then I have the 15 minutes later. We didn't get up and I knew we weren't going to. So here's another alarm. And then after that, I have the like, if we're not eating breakfast by now, we're totally screwed alarm.
We have like, I'm trying to have like our secret names for all the alarms to get everybody moving in the morning. Plus we set the kitchen clock five minutes ahead, which helps keep everybody in the schedule. That's a little sad. Yeah, there's those little tricks that I love the idea of time blocking, especially when it comes to family time.
It makes sense you schedule appointments to go to the doctor and the dentist and those are important for your health. And I think scheduling time with your family, it's so easy. That's the time that I think can be most easily scheduled away. And so I like the idea that that that's where you start and then work from that.
I bet if you asked a lot of parents or most parents, they would say that the time with their family is the most important time. So why are we being so distracted during it? Now I have lots to think about. Yeah, I agree.
Like I'm here saying, like I remember the times that I sit and cut on the couch and my kids, do I remember like what I read on Facebook for 15 minutes two weeks ago? No. That helps me prioritize. You know, it's my mom's all blind.
Like, well, this matter in five years. And I think that's not just the negative stuff that we stress about. I think sometimes it's like the good stuff too. Like where are we putting our time?
Well, this matter in five years. I keep coming back to Amir's really smart line about prioritizing and not starting the small stuff. And like, I'm really, you're giving me lots of things about it. We're not even half way through.
It's a talk about how you plan your whole week in less than 15 minutes. That just sounds ridiculous. So I'm ready to hear this because I want to be able to do this too. Well, okay.
So here's the thing about planning your week and 15 minutes. This is something that our brains actually want us to do. And I've done all the research. I went down a giant rabbit hole when it comes to how our brains work and how we prioritize things and how we get things done on a to do list when we make it.
But I didn't start out with that. I just knew that I had 15 minutes to make my to do list for the whole week. So I told my brain brain, and listen, you have 15 minutes. The kids are finally in the bed.
You need to go to bed. It's Sunday night. I don't have time to sit and write a to do list. So how about we sit down right now and write a to do list and my brain's like, okay, cool, let's do it.
So that's how this all started is just that I had this agreement with my brain to actually sit down and focus and write down what I need to do for the week. And that's what I do every Sunday night. I just sit down and I allot that time. And it sounds super silly, but our brains are extremely smart.
And if we give them the way to actually sit and give us everything that we need to do for the week, it will literally have us write down a to do list where we can tackle every single thing that needs to be done within the week. And I sit there and I just allow my brain the time to tell me what needs to get done. And I have yet to have a week where something isn't on the list that actually needed to get done and I got it done. I think that's brilliant.
It's Parkinson's Law. Have you ever that? No. It's the adage that work expands to fill all the available time.
In other words, like if you have time to get something done, it'll take 10 minutes. If you have an hour to get something done, it'll take an hour. There's an actual theory about this. Parkinson's Law.
Like I like that you put it in this positive way. Like your brain is really smart and can do this. Yes, it is. As opposed to time expands and ruins you.
And it's super funny because when I did my research, I realized that our brain wants us to do the things that are the most important because that's what it does. It wants us to take care of our bodies. It wants us to do all the things that will release the stress, the unwanted stress from our system. So what you do or what your brain does when you allot that 15 minute time before the week even starts is your brain automatically lists the things in priority order.
It does it just for you. As long as you allow yourself to write down what is popping into your head, it's already listing it in the order where things need to get done to release the stress that you're feeling. And I researched this way after I had done my little routine. I think it was maybe about three years after I had started to do it.
I love that you researched it. Oh yeah. Oh, girl, it's my own heart. I'm one of those people.
Yeah. I'm not a researcher, but yeah, that's shot to me to actually hear that my brain already wanted me to do this. And this is something that we should do for our brains. And if we allow this to happen, especially as moms, because we have so much on our plate, we'll feel more accomplished.
We'll feel more accomplished on Monday morning when we wake up and we know that list is done and I call it the long list. And then you create tiny little shortlist from your long list. So you pick three things. There's three random things from that list and you tap all those three at a time.
So you don't do one at a time. You click it off and you go back to your long list, you pick three and then you put that long list on like a sticky note and then once those three are done, you can go back and pick three more. and brains love small wins as well. So it's a great little system for moms who are super busy, but you know that you need to get these things done.
It's just getting this off your plate, even that little to-do list, getting it off your plate right at the beginning of the week and then tackling it little bites at a time. So you're eating the elephant little bites at a time. Ah, that's a good segue to talk about meal planning. Oh, I love food.
So we're really into meal planning. We do a weekly meal plan every Friday, as I'm sure you know, on cool monies, which is really awesome. We look around at the best of the web and we help people figure out five meals to plan, so that over the weekend when they're doing their shopping, they can get everything together. But I'd like to know how you talk to your readers about meal planning in less than five minutes, because I'm all for anything that can be done in five minutes.
How? How does that happen? I don't even think I can pee in five minutes. So wait, maybe I could do this while I was peeing.
I thought you could. That would be a little too tasking. I think you could pee in five minutes. If somebody's banging at the door and you're at a festival, I bet you you could get it done.
I have to set my bathroom up so that it looks like a porta-potty at Coachella so that I can get things done. That's what you're saying. I love that tip. Oh my gosh, you're cracking.
We crack ourselves up a lot if you don't know this. Okay, so we should- You're going to meal planning. You're going to meal planning five minutes. Basically what you're going to focus on are the proteins.
The hardest part really of making a meal plan is the proteins. You got to know are we having chicken or are we having fish? So you focus on the proteins and what night you want to have that protein, you completely narrow down your meal planning. So for our family, we're pretty boring.
We have pretty much the same thing every week. So on Mondays we do mac and cheese Monday. We love mac and cheese. I'm coming over on Mondays.
Yes, you need to saute spinach on top. It's amazing. It's an amazing meal. And so that's our veggie day.
So we do a vegetarian quote meal on Mondays. So meatless Monday, people know meatless Monday already. And then on Tuesdays is our beef dish. On Wednesdays is our chicken dish.
Thursdays is a fish dish of some sort. And then Friday is pizza night. So we do pizza and salad. And then Saturday we can do either leftovers.
Or if I don't want to do straight leftovers, I can dock something up and make a meal. And then Sunday is a roast of some type. So we're roasting something. It could just be roasted veggies with baked potatoes and whatever.
But we roast something. That's how we do it. And I just meal plan our next week and 90 minutes. So if you focus on what the protein is, and then plug that protein on the day when you want to have it, that totally cuts down on your meal planning.
Then you can go to Pinterest and you can find a cool little chicken dish that you want to have. Or cool mommy is. But it makes it so much easier. As soon as you have that written down, and you can write it in your little planner if you have one, and you just look at it and you go, OK, I just literally planned.
What we're going to eat. And then all you have to do is figure out, all right, what beef dish do I want to do? I can look at a circular and see if it's a ground beef. Be still.
What's on sale? And then you just plug that in. But that's how you get it done in five minutes. Side or nothing.
The kids don't care. Just give them a veggie, quinoa, or rice, or whatever you want to do. It's really the protein. The protein is what people are getting caught up on.
So once you can just write that out, plug it in on whatever day you want to, you'll find that you are cutting down all of the time that it used to take you to meal plan down to five minutes. And what it sounds like to me is that you don't worry too much about having a completely different food every single day for 30 days. I think a lot of parents get really caught up. I'm like, oh, I have to change things up so much.
We can't do taco Tuesdays because they'll get bored on Tuesdays. My kids are creatures of habit. They could eat pizza four nights in a row. We can let that happen.
So I like that it sounds like you're comfortable with having a food routine and changing it up a little bit. But you don't feel like you have to go crazy and surprise everybody every night with something new. No, never. I mean, if we do, I do love to cook.
So I love trying out new recipes. I have a ton of cookbooks. So Saturday would be our cookbook day. So if I really want to try a new recipe instead of leftovers, I'll try that new recipe on Saturday because if they don't like it, it's the weekend.
Like I could, they'll be OK. During the week, they were way too busy. So for me to try out a new recipe and have like half of the house like it and the other half not Saturdays, I'm cool with it. Because I can just like lounge into it.
I can have a glass of wine while I'm cooking. And I can try a new meal and see if they like it then. It's way less pressure on a Saturday or a Sunday night. If you are one of those families that love to try new things, I say try it on a weekend.
Plug it in, right into your meal plan. And you'll know every week on a Saturday, I can try a new recipe. So smart. I think that's brilliant.
We have a recipe rescue. Facebook group and people in there, they're so ambitious. And I go, I'm like, oh my gosh, trying all these new things. And I think you're right.
My kids have the veggies that they'll eat. And they really don't vary those too much, which is fine. They like salad. They like green beans and they're like, they're certain things.
And it doesn't matter. They would eat those every day. But it's the protein for us too. So I have to say, my husband does all the cooking and all the meal planning.
And I think he does it pretty quickly. I'm going to ask him if this is what he does. Because he actually, I hear him. He works in the food industry.
And he always talks about what proteins we're going to have. So he might be doing this trick. And I just don't know. I'm sweeping the benefits of it.
Yes, you are. I find out. But that's really smart. There is something awesome about having a cook in the family.
That's not you. I will say that is a big time saver. That is the thing I get there one day. My husband wants to cook.
So I have to go with the reins and not micromanage. But I feel like he might be really good at it. So I think that might be my new time saving hack. I think that's good.
We kind of have different things we focus on. John is really good at steaming the vegetables. And he's like the king of scrambled eggs. And I'm really good with the chicken nuggets.
We just have different things that we do. And so we kind of jump in whenever. But we're not as organized as you. I think we need to start following some of these tips.
So every night, it's not like seven o'clock. And we're like, what are we doing? What are we eating? We're starving.
Because that happens a little bit. That's awesome. Yeah, I think just a few tips. Once you start incorporating them, you'll feel like, oh my, this actually goes with the flow of our family.
This isn't something that's awkward or feels weird. We already meal plan kind of. We know eventually what we're going to have for dinner. If we could figure it out for five minutes before the week starts, why not?
Just plug in a protein and then that'll help us that night to kind of cull it down. OK, so we know it's chicken tonight. Let's figure out what type of chicken dish we really want to do. Perfect.
All right, so let's talk about self-care. Because it's a big thing for a lot of us to be days for various reasons. And we're curious how that factors into your schedule. And how do you do it on a budget or like all, I want to say busy moms.
People are busy. Everyone's busy. Not just moms. But how do you factor that in when you have limited time?
Well, I totally cheat when it comes to self-care. I am frugal. So I make myself pay for it. Because I know if I pay a bill for my self-care, I'm going to actually utilize it.
It's a monthly thing that I have to pay for with my own money. And I know that once they take that money out, I have to go utilize it. Or I'm going to be really angry with myself that I'm not using the money that I'm putting out. Oh, that's how I trip to myself.
I've tried all the other things where, OK, well, I'm going to take myself out for a pedicure. Or I'm going to go to the park. For me, I need it to be pushed. And I think a lot of us, we need that push.
We need that friend that's going to push us. That reminder that's going to pop up in our phone or that subscription service that says, hey, it's time to make your appointment. So we're at that point where self-care is so vital. If we don't do it, we will feel a breakdown happen within us that we need to basically make it kind of like a bill.
Like you have to pay your bills. It has to happen. You have to do self-care. And you need to figure out what that is for you, whatever it is, whatever makes you happy.
But it needs to be done on a regular basis. Not every three months, not when you need to set it. Like when you go to the gym, you're going to set yourself care. It has to be done because we're just so bogged down with so much right now.
Mentally, physically, spiritually, that at this point, as women, if we don't do this, our bodies are going to give out. They're going to give out. And I've seen so many women. I've seen a lot of women lately, which is interesting to me, that they're having a lot of health issues.
And with everything that's going on. We're raising our hand here. It's kind of insane. The amount of my friends that are really not feeling, they're just not feeling good.
They're going to the doctor and the doctor's like, I don't know what to tell you. And it's because it's that toxic. It's not even the usual stress. We're moms.
We have that usual stress. We've got to get everything done. We're feeling toxic stress at this point. So we need to actually budget in our self-care.
We need to do something once a week, once a month. I think once a month is probably a little bit too far at this point. I feel like we need a once a week something. A once a week, 30 minute, one hour something, where we are just replenishing ourselves.
I agree with you completely. I feel like what happens to us is that we don't take care of ourselves and then the stress is there. And then it's kind of like our body's way of getting our attention. It's like, OK, you don't feel you're back tensing up.
I'm going to give you the wickedest cold. Is that word, wickedest? I don't know. The worst cold that we have.
Boston listeners, please write to us. Let us know if wickedest can be used as a superlative. Wickedest. I'm like wickedest.
But you know, your body is screaming at you. And it happens to me all the time where I'll be like, oh, I feel like crap. And it was totally brought on by stress. So it's funny.
I'm also a member of Salon who and Spa. And I joined with my friend. And that is our thing. We get a massage or a facial or something every month.
We go together. We sit in the steam room after we do it. And it has been the best thing because we hold each other accountable. And I wish it was more than once a month.
But I tell everyone, it is a great investment. And it's not super expensive. And it forces you to go. Because I'm like, it's on my credit card.
I better go. Yeah. And Amira, I really appreciate, especially you, as a frugal mom, talking about the importance of this. Because we've certainly had on a lot of guests over the years, some of whom are well off.
And they're like, I have to get a weekly facial and pedicure. And I'm like, that's awesome. I can't afford that. So I really do appreciate hearing a regular mom who's also budgeting and saving money and being responsible, talking about the importance of self-care.
And it's not a silly indulgence. It's important. It's really, really, really important in terms of our physical and mental well-being now more than ever. And so I'm really grateful to hear you talk about it, the way you talk about it.
Oh, thank you. Yeah. It's a tough subject, especially when you're in the frugal community. I do get a lot of looks when I say that to people.
They're like, wait, what? It's like, yeah, I need that time. Well, we can't put ourselves last. Moms put ourselves last a lot.
So we look at that as something that's unimportant relative to our kids having lots of new sneakers or like piano lessons or whatever it is. But you know what? If we're not happy, we're not going to have a happy family. So I think that's really, really good.
I'm so glad to hear that. Well, listen, we're going to link up so many of these great tips that you had. I know they're all over your blog mirror. So we'll make sure we put all those posts up on our podcast page and tell our listeners where can they find you all over the social medias?
Well, OK. So you can find me. I'm Amira Martin over on Twitter. I love Twitter.
I still love it. I know. I know. It's our cake, but I do.
I'm on their tip. Look, I see you. I'm on their own. And then you can find me over on Facebook.
It's 4 Hats and Frugal. That's our Facebook page for the blog. And if you guys are into Instagram, like I am, you can find me over there. I'm Amira M.
M. The letter M over there. That's someone squatting on my name. And like Kristen said, you have one of my favorite Instagram people.
Like your stories. Give me joys. You always start like, hi. I'm always ready to.
Like, I love seeing your face pop up on my Instagram. I love your coffee. Yes, I'm a big old nerd over on Instagram stories. So listen, Amira, I'm so glad you're going to join us for Cool, big sweet.
Cool, big sweet. Yes, I'm ready. Well, since you're our guest, you get to go first. Oh, yay.
OK, so my cool pick of the week is a YouTube channel. Her name is Sarah. And her channel is called Our Tribe of Many. She is a mom of nine children.
What? I know. I can't stop watching. I just can't stop watching.
Oh my gosh, that's even more than Kristen and me combined. We have six between us that we know of. Nine. She has nine and they homeschool.
And she does her grocery halls. And she does day to day. She talks about when they go on vacation to visit her parents, how they handle all of that. It's just fascinating to me.
I can't stop watching. And I don't know why. I guess because she has nine kids. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I need to get my life together.
But she can try to do YouTube. That's all her videos. I'm like, oh my gosh, this woman. She's like my dream woman.
It's like, I want to be this one day. So she is amazing. She's putting those kids to work, isn't she? She's like raising them to start editing months.
I feel like that might be it. I think maybe that's their jam. I think some of the kids actually do cooking. So I think some of the kids cook some of the meals as well, which is really smart on her part.
But I'm fascinated by her. So you guys need to go over there, check out her videos. They're amazing. She's very sweet.
And her kids are so adorable. And her husband's from Kenya. So they get to eat really fancy Kenyan food every once in a while too, which I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued.
I'm entranced. I'm fascinated. Well, that's a new channel to me. So I'm excited to check it out.
That's a great cool pack. And I love that you promoted another content creator. That's always nice. And we love supporting moms of all kinds.
So that's super cool. Kristen, how about you? Well, speaking of supporting moms, I have to give a shout out to one tough bitch. I just made this an e-rated podcast.
So I think we were clean for the whole time. And I just made it explicit. But I am actually working with them on their social media. And I'm so excited.
It's such a great company. It's founded by a woman who is also a mom. She's a two-time cancer survivor. She had this phrase engraved on a necklace after she found out she was diagnosed for the second time.
And was feeling like crap, feeling down. She wore it towards her, actually. So no one ever saw those three words, because she's actually not someone who would be wearing that outward. She just wanted it because it was all about giving her strength and power, right?
So she ended up on the Modern Hero Facebook page and told her story. And then all of her friends are calling her going, where can we get this necklace? We want one of these. We've got that one tough bitch inside us.
So Fast forward a year. And she has launched her company. And it's really exciting to see, mostly because she's really about supporting other women and the community of women out there, not just cancer survivors, but women who are struggling every single day with whatever it is. It could be chronic illness.
It could be a loss of a child. It could be just that you had a shitty day and you don't think you're going to be able to make it tomorrow. So there's really pretty necklaces and bracelets. They're affordable.
And they make great gifts. So head to head. I mean, I've been reading so much about them, obviously, since you've been working with them. It's such a cool company.
I love their story. I love everything they're doing. That's a great pick. Really nice.
Awesome. All right, Liz, how about you? OK, I'm going to break the chain of mom run businesses here. But so we're talking about little indulgences.
And for me, sometimes a little indulgence is shopping to make me happy. And I was thinking about, you know, like Amir, you were talking about how stressed we all are late. And I was thinking about a cool pick of the week. I'm like, what is just making me happy?
Do you know what's making me happy? Socks. I have these socks from a company called Chaddie Feet. Like Chaddie.
Like a chat. Chaddie Feet. They're so awesome. We've covered them on our site.
And they're hilarious. And they're the kinds of things. Like when I pull off my boots at the end of the day. And I look down and I totally forgot that I'm wearing a sock that looks like Pablo Picasso.
A little feet-aso. Or a frita callo. Or frita callos. called Frida Callis.
Vincent Vanto. Like they're so awesome. And they make me smile every time. I have like an Andy Warhol one.
And you know, someone who gets someone's house. And it's a shoes-off house. And I'm always so happy when I'm wearing the chaddie. Because they're so fun.
They just make people smile. So I love this company. They're in England. So you'll be a little bit for shipping.
But they're so cool. And Kristin, you know what? I love, well, they had this modern artist series. They also, because they're based in England, they have now the royals.
And they have heroes of STEM. But when we wrote about their new modern artist series, they had like Mondrian, Dolly, Basquiat. And I was like, that's really nice. But I'd love to see some more women artists.
I was like, you know, I wrote in the review. Like what could you do with like Carrie Mae Weems? Or a Yoyo, Kostama, or Cindy Sherman? And Frida Callo.
And guess what? They did it. I can't take credit for it. That's amazing.
But when I was checking their site today, they added so many of these people, they've got like a Georgia O'Coffee mug. Oh my god. And they have the one mugs and phone cases too. Who else do they have the two mugs?
They have Yoyo, Tostama. They're really cool. They have Frida Callo on. They have Roy Lichtenstein.
So I'd like to see more diversity. But they're getting there. And they're really fun. They're funny.
They're cute. It's Chatterfeet.com. And we'll put that link on Colomomomom Pics as well. Because it's just a cool little company.
And I like smiling when I pull off my shoes at the end of the day. It's like a little joy. It's so cute. Well, Amira, this was awesome.
Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. This was so much fun.
You ladies are amazing. I'm a listener. So this is kind of like an honor to be a guest on spawn. Well, you're a pro.
You're an awesome guy. So thank you so much. You just give such a practical, clear, detailed tips. Like, it's so helpful.
I can't wait to go back and listen to this myself. Oh, thank you. This was so much fun. I'm so excited.
Well, that was amazing. I hope you all thought it was amazing too. I really like this episode. So thank you so much for joining us for another episode of spawn.
Thanks to our amazing guest, Amira Martin, and huge thanks to our engineer, John Bowen. We love hearing from you listeners. So please leave us a review on iTunes. And make sure to subscribe.
In fact, do it right now while you're listening. And then be sure to download our episodes. And speaking of reviews, Liz, we got an awesome review. I know this was the nicest one I've seen in a while.
No, I mean, all of your reviews are really nice, except for the two that aren't. But you know, that's cool too. You know, so many people are like, oh, you're too political. I'm like, that's OK, because then another people who are political will be like, oh, good.
That's good for me. But I love this review from Lindsey Beatty, who said she just found our show a week ago. And she's already addicted, which is awesome. We're addictive.
And she already bought three bucks that we've recommended. She has four more on her wish list. And she said she loves Bond. And in TV, we love you too.
Thank you for the really nice review. We really appreciate you taking the time. Yes, that's awesome. And thanks so much to everyone for listening to Bond.
This is Kristen. And this is Liz. Have a great day. Bye.