MMP Ep 338: Festive Food and Big Feels

Laura Bruner: Hey friends! Can't wait till Wednesdays to get your Modern Mamas fix? Join us on Patreon. You can choose your tier and when you subscribe you'll get bonus content, early access to Retreat, first peeks at new swag, plus shoutouts and even real time monthly virtual hangs

Jess Gaertner: with us. Visit patreon. com forward slash modern mamas podcast to check it out and support the podcast.

Jess Gaertner: It truly means the world to us. We are so grateful for you and for this community.

Laura Bruner: Hi friends! Welcome to the Modern Mamas Podcast. We

Jess Gaertner: are two modern mamas here to inspire, empowerment, self love, deep physical

Laura Bruner: and spiritual nourishment, holistic health, open [01:09:00] minds, and joy, no matter your journey or perspective. I'm Laura of Radical Roots. I'm a certified CrossFit trainer, certified nutrition consultant, and mama to Evie Wilder and Indie Bow.

Laura Bruner: I love outdoor

Jess Gaertner: adventure, good food,

Laura Bruner: especially sourdough,

Jess Gaertner: and mindful movement. And I'm Jess of Hold the Space Wellness. I am a level one CrossFit trainer, a licensed and certified athletic trainer with a master's in kinesiology, and mama to Bear and Camille. I love food, trying new things, creating art, and being a perpetual learner.

Jess Gaertner: Please note that while we're here to provide advice and insights, we aren't medical practitioners, and always recommend that you check with a trusted provider before implementing any changes. Thanks for joining us. We're so happy you're here. Goodbye.

Laura Bruner: You totally fixed it.

Jess Gaertner: I'm like in and out of like a scratchy throat situation.

Jess Gaertner: So this should be interesting.

Laura Bruner: Meanwhile, I'm deep and rich over

Jess Gaertner: here. Meanwhile, Laura is like, we're after hours with Laura. [01:10:00] Got a

Laura Bruner: new mic. I really dig it.

Jess Gaertner: And I'm very pleased. It sounds amazing. Well, good morning, friends. Hi. Hello. I feel like, yeah, I mean, it hasn't been that long since you recorded, but I feel like it's been a long time because I, I think it's more an anticipation of like, I feel like a lot has happened in your world.

Jess Gaertner: And I'm like, okay, I cannot wait to hear like how the last couple of weeks have been because Rusty's been gone. And I think he's back. He is

Laura Bruner: back. Yes. And we did the festive stuff yesterday. I feel my whole body just like down regulating and it's been really, really nice. He was gone for almost three weeks.

Laura Bruner: Oh my gosh. We'll say 19 days. So, you know, that's closer to three than two. Yeah, that's definitely closer. And it was, I'll be honest. Well, I, I did get on a record week when it was really, really hard. And then the next week was Thanksgiving week. And so things got a little easier. There was lots of joy, but also, you know, some sadness that he wasn't there.[01:11:00]

Laura Bruner: And then the, you know, it's, it's been a lot. So I guess should we just dive in?

Jess Gaertner: Yeah, let's do it. Do we have any, do we have anything to Yeah. Like, I don't, I think we're,

Laura Bruner: I'm sure everyone's waiting at baited, waiting at baited breath to see if we've actually made plans for our, like, family meet up here. Ooh, I have, I have news about them.

Laura Bruner: Oh, well, you want to just, you want to hold them and have it be like a. A nail biter? Yeah, sure. Do you want to just share right

Jess Gaertner: now? No, I mean, there's no, no, there's no, like, actual big plans other than You're like, I booked flights. Surprise! No, I, I mean, I guess I'll just share right now because there's no real plans, but I chatted with Tim about it, like, I guess right after we had chatted about it first.

Jess Gaertner: And he's like, yeah, let's do it. So like getting him on, yeah, getting him on board was like what I thought was going to be Not difficult. Not that he wouldn't want to do it. But. You know, just like being like, this is what we're going to do and we're going to stay and like, do you want to do that? And so he's, he's here for it.

Jess Gaertner: He's here

Laura Bruner: for it. Okay. Now we just need to book a. [01:12:00] Book an Airbnb and pick a, pick a weekend first, I suppose. Yeah. Well, I'm excited. Me too. That's going to be absolutely lovely. Okay. Cool. So now let's continue to wait, everyone, to find out when. And if you're local, we'll do some sort of Patreon local ish Olympic Peninsula Washington meetup.

Laura Bruner: So if you're not Patreon and you want to be a part of that, you can join us. And I do want to share too, because we did this last year and we're doing it again this year, where you can, let's say you're a Patreon member. Or you want to be one. You can gift a loved one a membership, if you'd like, and or you can ask for that and have whoever you're asking reach out to us and we can get you all dialed in.

Laura Bruner: So, if it's something you've been interested in, maybe you're like, I want to be a Patreon member for a year and that sounds like you're like me and you prefer an experiential gift versus a thing, that's definitely an option and just reach out, we can provide all the information, we can get you set up, you know, I'm here for the experience kind of gift versus the stuff.

Laura Bruner: Rusty asked me that when he got back, he's like, so what are you wanting for [01:13:00] Christmas? I was like, I'd like a coupon code for a nice dinner and then a massage with it. I

Jess Gaertner: love that. To be very, very, very specific.

Laura Bruner: It's because while he was gone, I stress purchased. So I like bought myself things that I felt like I wanted and or, you know, what do you actually need?

Laura Bruner: But things that I felt like I was missing, I purchased over the holiday sales. And so I was like, please don't spend money on me because I just, I do that for myself. Yeah. Yeah.

Jess Gaertner: Oh, totally. I feel like I kind of did the same thing. I, it's been, so just because of like finances, we like, I just haven't, I haven't purchased myself in a thing in a long time.

Jess Gaertner: Like literally at least not a new

Laura Bruner: thing. Yeah. Like

Jess Gaertner: not a new thing. And I actually haven't even thrifted like clothing in quite some time, which is bananas because it used to be something that I would do all the time, but we've just been so like budget conscious. And then, you know, things have been a little bit less [01:14:00] tight because of like work and Tim had some projects and, and not to be like, Oh, now we have money.

Jess Gaertner: Let's spend it all. It was more just like, okay, I haven't purchased. Yeah. Like I haven't purchased myself shoes in over a year. Like, I mean, these shoes are like dead because I wear them every single day.

Laura Bruner: Which could be impacting

Jess Gaertner: your back. Yeah, and yes, totally. That was my, of course, that was my thought, but like, I mean, really, I did need like a new pair of shoes.

Jess Gaertner: So I was like, okay, I'm going to shop the sale. And then like, I've been looking to buy a high quality swimsuit or. Like probably three years every year. I'm like, I'm going to do it. And then I'm just like, no, it's too expensive. I can't do it. I can't do it. And finally I did that. And I also like lost a pair.

Jess Gaertner: I haven't had sunglasses in a very long time, but I don't wear them all the time. But in Texas, it's, you know, the sun is out like three, pretty much 365. And so especially like when driving and stuff. So anyways, got my pair. I mean, those weren't expensive. I love the Gooder brand. I don't know. Yeah, they're so [01:15:00] great.

Jess Gaertner: They're so great. They're so inexpensive. They typically last forever if you don't lose them like I did. So I bought that and then it felt like mine over. Did they survive?

Laura Bruner: Absolutely not.

Jess Gaertner: But anyways, they was like it felt I felt out of control also at the end of it. I was like, Oh, I wish because I hadn't purchased like I had not.

Jess Gaertner: I bought things and like such a long time anyways, not to hijack your conversation, but same when Tim asked me what I wanted, like for my 40th birthday, which is right around the corner and for Christmas, I'm like, I don't need anything. Like I have everything that I want. And then I, I also said, what ever happened to like when moms got like coupon books for like a free massage and like a dishwasher, I'm like, I want that.

Laura Bruner: Yeah, bring back the coupon books. I remember making those for my mom. Totally. I'll do the

Jess Gaertner: dishes twice. Yeah. I'm in a season where that sounds amazing, honestly.

Laura Bruner: Great. Oh my gosh. And your kids are getting to the age where they can gift you things like that and [01:16:00] actually like, you don't have to go back and re clean the kitchen.

Laura Bruner: Yeah, totally.

Jess Gaertner: Well, yeah. That's fun. Yeah. They're getting there. They're getting there. They're getting there. Anyway, sorry, not to hijack, but you know, hi Jackie. Yeah. So Rusty came home, asked you what you wanted. Yeah.

Laura Bruner: So let's see. We recorded and the episode went live the day before Thanksgiving and then we took last week off and I am looking forward to hearing how your week went because I know you've been working nonstop and you actually took a week off.

Laura Bruner: So, yeah, then we, that was a very, very hard week. The week we recorded and I was very real about it. I shared the experience. I was sick as all heck. And I think looking back now, I thought it was a really bad cold, but I think I had some sort of a flu because my stomach was also just a wreck. And so not only was I, now that I've reflected, like I was Like, we're talking like fevers, chill, body aches, headache, horrible.

Laura Bruner: And then also like stomach, it wasn't like nausea, it was just every time I ate, I felt pretty shitty. And then I was hard to eat. And meanwhile, Indy was [01:17:00] like, had upticked her nursing because I think she was fighting something. And so I was just, I came out of that week just so depleted, but I'm super grateful for the timing.

Laura Bruner: I mean, it was crappy that I got sick, like the night Rusty left. And then our child, our nanny that we have now and absolutely adore was also sick. And so we just like, I was just in it, but it slowed me down. I look back now, like that week, I think when I really needed it and probably why my body got sick was because I needed to slow down.

Laura Bruner: So it was like a lot of movies and couch time. I was fine with it, where usually I'd be like, kind of conflicted, like I don't want to give them screen time or whatever. It was cool. We ate dinner, um, in front of fun, lovely movies. We sat together. We, you know, and so that was cool. And then I was well by Thanksgiving, which was my big, I'm like, I can't have Rusty gone and be sick.

Laura Bruner: I can't, I cannot. Holiday, that holiday means so much to me. And our Thanksgiving was so special. We, um, on actual Thanksgiving day, like I woke up early and. I got the [01:18:00]stuff that I was contributing to the Thanksgiving dinner baked early. So it was a cornbread and I did a, I had extra pumpkin pie puree, like filling all spiced and sweetened and everything from this local pumpkin I roasted.

Laura Bruner: I had extra. So I baked some of that into our, instead of, I have a sourdough apple butter cake in my festive and fermented book and I swapped in the pumpkin puree. And then I candied pumpkin seeds and put them all over the top, and that's what I brought to the Thanksgiving, and it was, it turned out better than I could have expected.

Jess Gaertner: Candied pumpkin seeds.

Laura Bruner: I need to hear more about that. Yeah, you just put them on a pan and drizzle maple syrup all over them, and then you just let them like cook in the pan until all the maple syrup. candies onto the seeds, and then you, then you move them to parchment, let them cool, maybe sprinkle some flake salt, mm, and then I just sprinkle it all over the top of the cake, um, while, but right, like, five minutes into baking, so they didn't sink all the way in.

Laura Bruner: Anyways, that turned out really well, but I did all that early, plus cornbread. Excuse me. And I just brought wine. And so before the girls even woke up, like [01:19:00] that was done. So they woke up and we did breakfast and they went for our, we always go for a hike in the national park on Thanksgiving. Went for a hike, came home, got Indy down for a nap.

Laura Bruner: And then Ava and I, I made like a, the new element. Chocolate chai is so good. It's so good. I don't

Jess Gaertner: know if you have you tried it here that no, I haven't because I'll I'll be totally honest. I have not loved any of the chocolate flavors or like figure

Laura Bruner: out how to use them. I like adding half a packet to like if I'm doing coffee.

Laura Bruner: with protein powder and like all the things in it. It's really nice to add a half a packet, but you've also seen me down a full packet in like four ounces of water, so I like salt. But the chai one, I don't know, it's something about like the chai spices I think mellows out the salt. And so I made like a chai rasa combo like boosted thing sipped that and we played.

Laura Bruner: Sleeping Queens, which always makes me think of you, and, and then Indy, like, [01:20:00] you know, and then everything was ready, we were dressed and ready to go, we went to our friends, we're like, come over about one, we'll eat at two, Indy was still sleeping, so I just, like, opened the door, and she woke up gently, and, like, came out of the room, and we just, we could have walked, it's, like, a block away, but We had all the baked goods and wine and stuff, so we hopped in the car and drove over there, and it was just lovely.

Laura Bruner: Not that every time, you know, people get together with family there's drama, but I would say there's probably less likelihood of drama or agitation when you're with just really good friends. Right, right. And so, you know, we did Thanksgiving with our, like, our best friends here, and they're at their parents house, who, they come here half the year.

Laura Bruner: And stay on the peninsula half the year and they're just lovely. Like Evie calls her Nan and she's just a wonderful human. And so we just like hung out and sipped dry farm wine and ate really good food and went for a walk and came back and had dessert and Indy and Evie were just blissful and the next morning we woke up early.

Laura Bruner: I had, I baked a pie early that morning and I baked, oh I had a successful, I've always, I've been seeing on Instagram a ton where you bake a [01:21:00] sourdough loaf in the shape of a pumpkin. Oh, yeah. And I finally did it, and it turned out so

Jess Gaertner: cute. How did you do it? Is it string? Like, how do you? It's twine, yeah.

Jess Gaertner: Twine, yeah.

Laura Bruner: So like, after you do the second proof, when you actually like, you know, dump it out onto the parchment to then lower it into the pan at that point, or the pot, at that point you twine it, and because it grows, you know, expands as it bakes, it expands and the twine's there. So then you let it cool, you pull the twine off, stick a little stick on the top.

Laura Bruner: And it was a hit. And we, that was, we went to, so we woke up early that morning, drove to the ferry, got on the ferry, went and had this like magical Friendsgiving on a farm. So our friends that we did Thanksgiving with, they're good friends. So we met on my birthday out at Hamahama and camping. They own this beautiful farm.

Laura Bruner: It's actually owned by the Montessori school on Vashon Island, but they I own five acres of the property and they run the whole farm. Where's Bashan Island? So up where we live, there are a whole splattering of islands. Okay. A splattering? [01:22:00] A splattering. It's like, we live out on this peninsula and then there's like, between us, there's water between us and Seattle, which is bizarre because that's to the west.

Laura Bruner: East. It's like we're surrounded, it's, if you come here and you don't understand it, you're like, it's really hard to tell north from south and east from west because there's like water on all sides. So there's water between us and Seattle and then in between us and Seattle there are also like different islands.

Laura Bruner: So Vashon, you can, it's about an hour and a half, hour 45 to get to the ferry, hop on the ferry. It's like a 20 minute ferry to the island. And there's, from Vashon, then it's a super short or like walk on ferry and you can be right in Seattle. So it's between us. Um, but it's beautiful. It's a small island.

Laura Bruner: Everyone knows each other. There's this amazing

Jess Gaertner: farm. People live there? Like, yeah. Okay.

Laura Bruner: Yeah. It's not like a little, you know, it's not like you can throw a stick across it. Okay. It's a big enough island for a community, but there's, you know, like if you need to go to the doctor, doctor. You gotta walk on the ferry to go to Seattle.

Laura Bruner: Gotcha. Like a hospital. There's no hospital. Gotcha. And [01:23:00] so, yeah, so we did that and we stopped at the grocery store on the way and met this gal. I was like, I listened to her podcast. She was there with her daughter and she actually sent us an email. So I'm looking forward to it. Connecting with her, but it was very fun to like have someone know me on this like, you know, small island.

Laura Bruner: That's so cool. Oh, you know, I'm like literally like chasing Indy down, up and down the island. She's like grabbing stuff. She's, it was so fun. And then we went to the farm. We did like a beautiful farm walk with a glass of dry farm wine. And Indy snoozed on me and we looked at, they have these really cool sheep and Um, chickens and, and then a bunch of my good friend here, so she knows a lot of people from like past time farming with them all and so, or working with them all and so, there was like five different families and all these kids ranging from 13 down to India was the littlest, but all very just like kindred spirits, like immediately comfortable.

Laura Bruner: You know, we all have very similar focuses in terms of like, like farm to table food and the way we're raising kids and, but also enough differences where it was just very interesting to get to know them all and they all live like relatively locally. [01:24:00] And it was so special because, like, for the moment all the big kids came, Indy was, like, it was cool to see her in that environment where she would, like, run off with the big kids, and I felt very comfortable, all these parents there, all these kids there, no one was getting rowdy, it wasn't, like, a drinking focused party, you know, and, and so, and then, like, one of the big kids would, like, carry her back down the stairs and be like, oh, Indy just wanted to say hi, and then I would snuggle her for a little bit and, like, check in, like, how you doing, you having fun?

Laura Bruner: She'd be like, hey, and then she'd, like, crawl off my lap and run back up the stairs and go play with the big kids, and it was just, like, After the week I had prior of like being so touched out and so exhausted and so depleted to come to this place with all these people who are very just similar and comfortable and it was immediately like lovely and I felt like we were, you know, they had all been friends for years, but it didn't feel like I was there.

Laura Bruner: a newbie. We were just welcomed in with open arms and to feel like my kids are in good hands. They're having fun. They're being loved on. So the next, so then, you know, we had this lovely evening. They raise sheep [01:25:00] and they, she like cooked one of her own lambs. They have hazelnut trees. And so she made a hazelnut pie, like think pecan pie, but with hazelnuts, which is the food was so good.

Laura Bruner: There was so much of it. And then, it was like a big sleepover, we all stayed there, and the next morning, you know, I'm up at four, I like did my yoga blow, I took a shower, whatever, I come down, drink coffee, and then Jen, the owner of the farm, comes out and we just got to chat, just the two of us, which was so lovely, and then we had just like pulled all the leftovers out, had pie, and There's like a local dairy farm there and had yogurt all over pumpkin pie and it was just, it was just lovely.

Laura Bruner: And then we left about 11 to catch the ferry or 10 to catch the ferry because I wanted to get, I needed to sleep on the drive home. And then like totally caught off guard, saying bye and just like started to cry. Because it was just exactly what I needed, you know, and then that, then that was Saturday we came home and our downtown is just awesome that weekend, that Thanksgiving weekend, like all the shops.

Laura Bruner: So we have a, an ice, a winter village that opens up in the winter. This is like the opening weekend [01:26:00] and they basically set up a volunteer run, a whole ice skating rink and you can go there and like buy this tote and then if you cruise downtown over the Thanksgiving weekend, the different shops give you different discounts or whatever if you have that tote.

Laura Bruner: So we grabbed our tote on Saturday and we went downtown. We were, I mean, at this point we were so exhausted, but we still did it. We went down there, a few meltdowns, you know, but shopping and. I got like some, I did some Christmas shopping and they do the tree lighting at five, which we did not make it for.

Laura Bruner: I think we ate dinner at like 4 30 and that night all three of us were asleep before seven. Nice. But we still went like saw the big tree and like saw our friends at the different shops and did a little bit of shopping and came home and just ate. We had leftovers from the actual Thanksgiving because they sent us home with a bunch of turkey and it was just lovely and the next day took Evie ice skating and we did a little more shopping.

Laura Bruner: I got like all my Christmas shopping done. Pretty much all locally, which I loved, and it was just a really nice weekend. And then rolled into Monday, our nanny, so she, we found her through the director of Evie's Forest [01:27:00] School, and she is a sub for them. She's a dream human, just, I adore her. She's 30. They came out from North Carolina.

Laura Bruner: Her partner works at that one of the hospitals here. And she's just like, I consider her a friend already. The girls adore her. She takes Indie out on adventures, but it's, it works well because I'm flexible and she needs flexibility because she's a sub, sub. It just so happened that this week, you know, Rusty got home late Tuesday night, just so happened that she was free Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Laura Bruner: So I got to kick off this, that's like the day after Thanksgiving weekend with her help. And she's the only person, aside from me, Raffy's done it maybe once or twice. Grant, he hasn't tried in a while, but she can get Indy down for a nap. Wow. And you know, like, we bed share, we contact sleep, I nurse her, like, and Moya can do it.

Laura Bruner: She's magic. And so she is able to get Indy down now. And so I can stay out a little bit longer and work a little bit longer. And so I had Monday to just, like, reset. Move my body at the gym, [01:28:00] find my center, and work. And then Rusty got home in time for dinner Tuesday, which was actually a surprise. I thought he wasn't coming home till like Wednesday night, Thursday morning.

Laura Bruner: So then yesterday was Wednesday, and she came still, and Rusty and I got to go. I coach at the CrossFit gym on Wednesday mornings at 9, and so he came and took my class, which was so fun. We've never done that. Like

Jess Gaertner: you coached him? Yeah, I coached him.

Laura Bruner: Aww. That's awesome. And then we stayed out for a little bit, I got some work done, or I left it after.

Laura Bruner: And then we came home and Moya, like, she's so, how cool is this, she's like, I assume you two will need some rest time, so I'm going to take Indy out of the house. I was like, I freaking adore you. So we got to come home and have some rest time, yeah, which was also desperately needed. And then, like, I started just prepping our tomato soup, and he snoozed on the couch because he had a red eye coming back, so he's, he's exhausted.

Laura Bruner: And, and then he went and picked Evie up from school, and they went and picked out his ornament [01:29:00] downtown while Indy snoozed. Then they came home, had the tomato soup, like, simmering, and we went and got our tree, went and cut it down yesterday, which is, like, our favorite tradition. Came home and had tomato soup and grilled cheese, which is another favorite tradition.

Laura Bruner: You know, I'm like so nostalgic about all this stuff. But I've also, this season has taught me to flex. Like usually it's like day after Thanksgiving, we cut down our tree, we eat leftovers and have a sandwiches and I'm like, it's fine. It's gonna be special. It's gonna be different and that's cool. And then came home, grilled cheese, tomato soup, decorated the tree, watched Charlie Brown.

Laura Bruner: No, we watched the old Grinch, got the kids to bed and I'm just like, and then today I just pulled a pumpkin pie out of the oven. And we are gonna do, like, a repeat Thanksgiving, so I'm gonna rotisserie a chicken, I've got cornbread fermenting, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad. And we're gonna eat, like, Evie gets done with school at 1, we're gonna do, like, an early, like, 2 o'clock big meal, go for a walk in the park again, and then come home and have pie and watch the cartoon Grinch.[01:30:00]

Laura Bruner: And the reason why we're doing, first of all, Rusty has, always has two, four stays off after a dispatch. So, he's home. And second of all, he turns around on Friday and leaves for Tacoma for two and a half days to teach a cross discipline there. Oh my gosh.

Jess Gaertner: Let's just like, this is family time. Yes. This is like important.

Jess Gaertner: Make the most of it. Yeah. But

Laura Bruner: then what I did intentionally is I set up, Moya, Moya's going to come over on Friday afternoon, like, when he leaves. And my, one of my best friends here, Katie, is going to bring her son over and Moya's going to watch all three kids. And Katie and I, there's a really fun maker's market at the gym and coffee shop where we train and it's like all these, our favorite like local makers, florists and candle makers and whatnot.

Laura Bruner: So Katie and I are going to go have a glass of wine. And then walk down and like shop the holiday market bazaar and then go have an early dinner. And then she'll come and grab her son and head home and I'll be back with the girls. But I feel like I just, I didn't want to take alone time in the two and a half days we had Rusty here.

Laura Bruner: I [01:31:00] wanted to really focus on family time, but I knew that I needed some alone time before going into another scent of solo parenting. So really grateful for that. And then the weekend should be fun. Evie's got a birthday party with her best buddy. I am going to be fermenting and making 24 sticky buns for my first local pop up on Sunday morning.

Laura Bruner: I'm gonna go to the coffee shop and just set up the shop and have, 24 of them. I figured that's a good number to start with. Yeah. And once they're gone, they're gone. And I'll probably end up doing it again. And so, and then it will be Monday and the rest of it will get back Sunday night. And then I was like, you need to block off.

Laura Bruner: No more CrossFit seminars this month. Like I need you here for the rest of the year. Yeah. I'm putting my foot down. Um, the following weekend, the weekend of the eight, my parents are. Coming up from California, rented an Airbnb on Bainbridge Island, we're gonna meet them there and have like a festive weekend just with my parents and, and the girls and whatnot.

Laura Bruner: And in Port Gamble, which is just like 20 minutes from Bainbridge, there's a whole festive weekend. So it's like tree lighting, fireworks, Santa [01:32:00] comes, all the things. So we'll do that and just really getting into the spirit, which feels really good. And then it's like that next weekend's what, the 16th? And we have our gym holiday party and then like the next weekend's Christmas, like batshit.

Laura Bruner: But I'm really excited. And it feels like. I don't, I don't feel, I had a moment this past week where I'm like, we gotta get our tree, we gotta get the lights, you know, but I'm like, it's not even December, take a deep breath, I'm looking at the tree right now, I feel like, butterfly happy, and everything's gonna be okay, you know, so, and then for CrossFit work, we always take, we get that week, from like, Christmas Eve, all the way through New Year's, Like, it's a company wide shutdown.

Laura Bruner: Nice. So, I'll have that whole time away. I won't be on social much at all. Rusty and I are getting another night away. We're actually doing our, like, anticipated 10 year anniversary trip to Victoria. And so, Moya will come and spend the night with the girls, and we're really looking

Jess Gaertner: forward to that. Yeah.

Jess Gaertner: What a blessing that you already know that she can get Indy down, too. Like, you won't have to worry about that. That's

Laura Bruner: so great. Yeah. Because it was when my mother [01:33:00] in law stayed with her. the beginning of November and we had that night away. It wasn't a super smooth night. Everyone was safe and fine and he was like happy when we got home, but there wasn't a lot of sleep he had.

Laura Bruner: So I look forward to that. I imagine this will go a little bit easier. So it'll be a 90 minute ferry ride across the water in a different country. Yeah, that I feel like that's the latest here. I've got an ornament. I love that you shared the ornament in your story. That made my heart so happy. I'm actually looking at mine on our tree right now, but I'm doing a new, the only like, you know, I launched the croissant guide.

Laura Bruner: or croissant recipe book pre holidays. And then I've got, I do have an ornament coming, like a very limited run, only 30 of them that I'm super excited about. So that should launch this week. And then I'm just going to like cruise through the holiday in hopes that, you know, just the shop, I'm just so grateful.

Laura Bruner: Like the support that I've seen this year with the sourdough sisterhood stuff has just been, it's been very, very fulfilling. It makes my heart very happy. So I'm super grateful for that, you know, and I'm like, it's, Am I making as [01:34:00] much from all the affiliates and all that this year? Probably not. I'm not working as hard at it.

Laura Bruner: But it feels good. It feels like a good balance and I'm sharing where I can and just feel like our community here that we've built really like shows up to support us through all the season. So just feeling very grateful and like back, you know, it's like every other episode I'm like a little manic, but I mean, I feel like I handled last, the, that whole situation pretty well.

Laura Bruner: But I feel back in balance. And I think I knew what made. The hard week easier was knowing that like, okay, on the other side of this, he's home again, where everything's fine and I can do hard things for a chunk and, and then things will be less

Jess Gaertner: hard. Yeah, it's almost like you have to compartmentalize a little bit like, or else it just feels like you can't make it through if you're like, okay, this is for a short time, like this will be over soon.

Jess Gaertner: Yeah, you can do anything for like a few weeks, right? And, and then it probably gives you a lot of perspective for people who's [01:35:00] significant others like, Oh my gosh, just gone for like, you know, like months at a time or years like in the military. Oh my gosh. I'm just like,

Laura Bruner: yeah, it makes me, I've been talking, you know, one of my best friends in the whole world, Nicole, she lost her husband to suicide.

Laura Bruner: Gosh, it's been like two and a half years now. And I'm talking to her through all of this and she, you know, with understanding that like she does this solo all the time, but she just such a. Beautiful voice it reads and I've kind of came to her with some struggles I'm having with like holding space and Patience and you know like we talk all the time on the podcast about the importance of holding space for our kids and how it's so important to give Them space to cry and ourselves space to cry and like I understand that rationally But sometimes and I've done some digging over the past few weeks I think it's been pretty clarifying where it's like sometimes Evie will be having big feelings And everything in me, mentally, is like, go just be with her and sit with her and hold her and listen.

Laura Bruner: Mm hmm. But there's also a tug, like a push, like a discomfort, and a chit's a challenge for me sometimes. And I'm like, kind of like, so as a part of myself, like, just [01:36:00] go sit with her, you know? And I do. I will. But then I get frustrated with myself. Like, why is it, why am I, like, why am I, why is there a beat here where I pause?

Jess Gaertner: And why do you have to talk yourself into doing this? Yeah.

Laura Bruner: Yeah. And it's, you know, and I think about, and I adore my mom. She's wonderful. But, like, I wasn't given that as a kid, period. Like, it's just, I don't need to dive too deep into it, but I wasn't. And so, of course, it's going to be triggering for me. Of course, I wasn't, that wasn't modeled for me.

Laura Bruner: I wasn't taught that in the way that I want to do that for her. And so, it not only is it something that I, I have had to, like, learn, but it's also, I'm realizing, challenging, I think, because of the trigger of, like, there are probably some deep hurt, you know? And so, just like, understanding that has helped me rationalize and like, lean in more to it, because I think I was just like, bumming my, like a little bummed out that it was a challenge sometimes, especially in those times when I'm like depleted and exhausted and whatnot.[01:37:00]

Laura Bruner: And so, just a lot of clarification. Hi. Someone just came out. I don't think daddy knows I'm recording. Anyways, what is the latest with you?

Jess Gaertner: That's a good transition time.

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Jess Gaertner: And I wanted to say, um, when I think about, and this is not something I've thought about often lately, but early on, When, like, we first had, like, first had babies and, like, we were early parents, I felt like a lot of, it's like, almost like you are parenting yourself, giving yourself the things and giving Evie the things that you needed as a kid, and it's like healing, even though it's hard, I feel like it's not only healing for her because you're doing something in a different way and giving her what she probably needs in that moment that you didn't maybe potentially receive.

Jess Gaertner: And so it's also, I think it's like a two way healing street, like when you are, you're like parenting yourself as well. You know, does that make any sense whatsoever? I know we've had experts on top talk about like how a lot of times when we choose differently, when we're breaking, you know, generational [01:39:00] cycles and stuff, it's, it's not only positive for the kiddos, it's, it's a healing process for us as well.

Jess Gaertner: So, I mean, it's hard, but you're doing it, friend. I know you're on mute over there. I'll dive in. Okay. Gosh, rewind. I feel like just so much has happened since the last time we recorded. So we, I think when we recorded, we were, I think we had confirmed that we were going to go up to my dad's family's for Thanksgiving.

Jess Gaertner: I think that's what, I think that's where we left off. So we did go, we took a road trip. We planned it. We, you know, drove, gosh, I think it was like six or seven hours, like six or seven hours there and then six or seven hours back in the car. And we, it was like a super fast trip. We went up, we left Wednesday morning, spent Thursday day and then came back Friday morning.

Jess Gaertner: So it was like just a whirlwind trip. And it was, it was [01:40:00] good. It was really, really, really good. It went better than I expected, honestly. We packed up the car on Wednesday morning, left a little bit later. So there was like a miscommunication. And so my sister was like, Oh, we're probably not going to leave because they're in San Antonio to tilt till like 10 or 11.

Jess Gaertner: We were like, okay, look, we were planning on getting up like super early driving and getting there as soon as we could. So we could just maximize time. But then she like her and like my nieces and nephews. Like really a lot of this, obviously I'm excited to see family, but a lot of this was like just getting the kids together, which we don't often get to do and spending like the holidays together.

Jess Gaertner: And so I was like, okay, well they're not going to be there. So we'll just, we dilly dally and we left later. We like stopped at Starbucks and like, instead of just like going through the drive through, we like got food and like sat around and like charged up, you know, devices and all that. And then we also, I don't, I don't think this is a, I don't think Buc ee's is anywhere else [01:41:00] but Texas right now.

Jess Gaertner: It might be expanding somewhere else, but we have this, it's like, I don't know how to describe what Buc ee's is, and the obsession that people in this state have with Buc ee's, but it is a gas station, but unlike any gas station you have ever seen, it is like, I don't know, maybe there's like a hundred gas pumps at this place, maybe more.

Jess Gaertner: I don't know. It's, it's bananas. And then it's huge. It's the size of maybe a Walmart, a small Walmart or like an H E B, which is our grocery store, like a supermarket. And in it is the best restrooms you've ever seen. I mean, like just, just top tier restrooms. Which is enough to make me want to stop there and put up with all the other BS that's there.

Jess Gaertner: But, top tier restrooms, and then also it's like, a

Laura Bruner: store. Are we talking like, showers

Jess Gaertner: too, or? [01:42:00] I don't know if there's showers actually, I've never actually looked. I don't know if there's a rest, like a separate section for like, truck, like, you know, people who need like, the showers, but. The restrooms in and of themselves are like, walled, closed stalls with like, it's like a door, there's no like, space between it, and then it's like, super clean, and it smells good, and it's fresh, and there's like, attendants there like, 24 7 to keep it that way, and the line is so long, but like, you're moving, like, it's like, moving so quickly, because there's so many stalls, it's just bananas, I was telling Cammy and Bear about it, I was like, okay, These restrooms.

Jess Gaertner: I'm telling you. And then when we left, they were like, those were the best restrooms ever. So I don't know. It's just, it's like a whole other place. It's just packed with people, which is in and of itself a little bit like, I don't know, stressful because the energy is crazy. But they have like specialty food items.

Jess Gaertner: They've got jerky. They've got Like [01:43:00] food made to order and then like you can buy like, I mean, you can get anything you could get like keto packs, like there's boiled eggs and like fresh meat and fruit. There's like cookbooks and you can buy like a Staub cast iron pan and you can buy clothes. You can buy like Bucky's branded stuff.

Jess Gaertner: It is just bananas and people do wear like Bucky's. gear here. And it's a beaver. So that's what makes it funny.

Laura Bruner: We have a little market called Agnew and like everywhere you go, people wear Agnew. It's like a very, very tiny, not like that. Very tiny. They do like like Christmas tree farm in the winter, pumpkin patch in the summer or in the fall.

Laura Bruner: Not the same though. This

Jess Gaertner: is not the same. This is like, I can't even describe it. It's like this beaver with a hat on and Bucky's, I guess because of his teeth. I don't even know that stalled weird and it's just like a Texas phenomenon. I think it's branching out into some other state. So maybe there's a Bucky's coming to you anyways.

Jess Gaertner: So off kilter here, but we stopped at [01:44:00] Bucky's. We had like, we spent time there. We like got food and Anyways, so we ended up arriving later and the car, actually the traffic, like I was really nervous about the traffic because we had to drive up 35, which is like a major interstate in Texas going from like south to north.

Jess Gaertner: And it wasn't actually that bad. And the kids did pretty good. We all get car sick. And so, I shared

Laura Bruner: about this. Oh yeah, how'd the glasses

Jess Gaertner: go? Actually, I think that they did help. I had a couple people ask me, like, my thoughts. I think that they did help. Full transparency though, I did take Dramamine. Because I was not about to mess around with, like, the, like, motion sickness on that long of a car ride.

Jess Gaertner: But I did feel like, so basically like you, you're not supposed to wear the glasses the whole time. You're supposed to put them on when you start to feel sick and then take them off after like 10 or 15 minutes. And so I did do that a couple times where I felt like maybe the Dramamine wasn't actually working well.

Jess Gaertner: And so I put [01:45:00] them on, take them off and I was fine. I actually, I'm like, I normally cannot look at my phone at all. Like I'm normally just like. Or read or do anything, and I was able to do that. I mean, for better or worse, it probably would have been better if I couldn't have looked at my phone. I wouldn't have spent so much time, you know, consuming on social media, but like I was able to do that, and I felt like it helped.

Jess Gaertner: Cammy refuses to take Dramamine, and so she did use the glasses, and I think it did help. She begrudgingly used them, but I think she, she, she did use them because I think it actually helped. She was like, okay, fine. And I think she felt a difference and then Bear actually, strangely, didn't really have to use anything and was fine and played his video game like pretty much the whole time when we were in the car.

Jess Gaertner: But it was good. We, we survived. Sweet. We survived. No one threw up. Is

Laura Bruner: it usually that bad where someone actually throws up? I haven't thrown

Jess Gaertner: up in a long time, just because I will take Tramamine, and Bear hasn't, but Cammie has a couple times. And mostly when she was younger, [01:46:00] and now she kind of knows, like, oh, I can't read, I can't do anything.

Jess Gaertner: She'll, like, just try and go to sleep pretty much, which is what I did as a kid. Two in the car. I was just like, can't do anything. I'm going to go to sleep. So, so yeah, it was the drive was pretty uneventful. We got there. We hung out. We have like, so the town that my family lives in is like, like, there is nothing there like at all.

Jess Gaertner: And I mean, there's stuff there, obviously, but it's not like I don't even know. I don't think there's a grocery store. I think there's like one gas station. There's maybe like one restaurant. And we had, like, the only Airbnb in this town, and it was, it was not bad, it was clean, it was, it had beds that were clean, and that is, like, the utmost priority, because we didn't really spend a lot of our time there while we were there, but it was the tiniest little thing, it was slanted, like, inward, the, the, uh, floors, like, kind of, I don't know, it was like a V [01:47:00] shape, the house, like, all the way to the middle, and so you could even see, like, our coffee, the coffee maker, the water, like, everything was tilted.

Jess Gaertner: If you rolled a marble, it would have like rolled down the floor to the middle of the house. It was just interesting. It's this little tiny little Airbnb and you know, it's just like I it had a bunch of like air fresheners in there, which is fine Like that's that's fine. That's someone that's what they want to do It was I hadn't realized how Because I like we don't use like plugins or anything like that.

Jess Gaertner: We haven't used them in a really long time and so just being there I was like, oh my gosh, like this is like i'm getting a headache from like the fragrance. It was bananas. So we kind of like hid it while we were there, but it was nice. It was clean. It was really close by. Like Kamiya and Tim walked one of the mornings over to my family's house.

Jess Gaertner: And so it was like, it was just perfect and the kids were super excited about staying at the Airbnb because we [01:48:00] don't, I mean, they haven't done that like often because we don't travel often with them. So it was all a fun, exciting experience and Thursday we, it was just really nice to see family. It was nice to see my grandmother.

Jess Gaertner: It was nice, like everyone came, especially because like we were there and they hadn't seen us in a while. So people were stopping by constantly. We were just chit chatting. And the kids were just like. I don't know. It's like, I remember this with my cousins, we would just literally play outside all day, just rough and tumble wrestling, fighting, you know, fighting air quotes, like just getting dirty.

Jess Gaertner: And like, they never came inside really ever, which was great to just watch them, like all be together. And my sister brought, my sister is actually a really talented cake pop artist. I don't even know if that's a thing, but. She got into doing cake pops because my niece wanted to do this like little maker's market for kids.

Jess Gaertner: And so they're like, okay, we'll do cake pops. And so she helped Maddie do some [01:49:00] and now like it's almost like that kind of grew and she's like done orders for people for their birthday or for like weddings like little stuff here and there but she's gotten so good at it and her cake pops are like Amazing.

Jess Gaertner: They taste so good. And the flavors are like, I know it's like none of it. I think there's some science behind getting like actual cake pops to be the way that you know that they are like soft and flavorful. And so it's I wouldn't say it's like the most natural health conscious dessert, but they're so good.

Jess Gaertner: They're better than Starbucks, which is kind of like the standard I have for cake pops. And so she made a bunch and brought them and then she brought all the stuff so that like we could make some and so me and Cammie and Maddie, my niece and Sam, we make cake pops. The morning of Thanksgiving so people could have them for dessert and then I brought a bunch of stuff up to make some sides because I was like, I want to, I want to contribute something.

Jess Gaertner: I want to make sure I have things that I like to eat. And so, and [01:50:00] also, again, it's just, you know, the season that we're in and the crowd that I was feeding, we did like the good old fashioned, like traditional, like canned mushroom soup, green bean casserole. With like canned green beans because, okay, this might be a hot take and I know, Laura, I'm pretty sure you'll disagree with me and probably 90 percent of the population, but like, I really love, A, I really love green bean casserole, which I wonder, I always think about this during Thanksgiving, like who thought I'm going to take this can of green beans And this can of mushroom soup and mix it together and then pour a bunch of like, and then I'm going to fry these onions and then I'm going to top them with it and bake it.

Jess Gaertner: I'm like, who, who came up with that idea? Because I never

Laura Bruner: would have thought of it. I don't know. Do you think that the original, so here's where I'm curious, honestly, this, this past, this Thanksgiving last week was like the first time I can even [01:51:00] remember eating green bean casserole in my life. It was always there.

Laura Bruner: I never touched it. My friend, Jill, she made it with. Local green beans and locally foraged mushrooms and like real heavy cream and you know, just from scratch. Yeah. And it was divine. So my question would be, whoever thought of it, the initial creator of green bean casserole, was it, was it fresh? Was it fresh?

Laura Bruner: Or was it? You know, in that season of like depression, where everything was coming from a can or whatever. And that's, I'm just curious, like, if anyone's listening and knows the inception of grainy casserole. What's

Jess Gaertner: the history of grainy casserole? Yeah. Let us know.

Laura Bruner: But you like it. I like it. My friend Jill, for her, it's very nostalgic.

Laura Bruner: And she, she's like, I would, I would happily eat the can version. Yeah. I mean, what she did was better. Yeah. And I'm biased because I also have never tried the other one, but I just, I won't cause you know me. But. I think it's a nostalgia

Jess Gaertner: thing, too. Yeah, it is. And that's what it was for me. I was like, and I've like doing like the blogging and the food photography.

Jess Gaertner: I've actually cooked a couple different kinds of green, green bean [01:52:00]casseroles over the last couple of weeks and photographed them. And it was just like something in the past, like more recently, I've tried to do like a healthier version. And they're good, they're, they're good in a different way, but it was like, I actually had the like, like, it was called grandma's green bean casserole, this blogger that I shot up for.

Jess Gaertner: And it was like, well, it was just like straight out of the can, everything from a can. And it was so good. And I was like, okay, it's nostalgia. Like, I remember eating this as a kid, like it's nothing, it's like mushy, it's weird, but it's good. And it brought back a lot of happy memories. So I made, I made her my, the blogger is Kim's Cravings.

Jess Gaertner: I made her green bean casserole. And then I like, it's, I don't know if it's like a, maybe it's a regional thing, but we oftentimes will eat something like a corn pudding or like a corn bake. And it's not cornbread. It's softer. It's almost like, yeah, it's like

Laura Bruner: corn. I'm here for that. I do a corn, sourdough cornbread.

Laura Bruner: I love that at holiday meals. And then [01:53:00] our friends did a, like a, kind of like a cream corn. So maybe what you had is somewhere in

Jess Gaertner: between. It's, it's actually combining. So it has cream corn in it. So you can make this essentially from scratch. We just used can, but it's like cornbread, like a corn meal.

Jess Gaertner: whole kernels, cream corn, there's some like yogurt in it. So it actually had a good amount of protein and some eggs in it. And it's like, you mix it all together and you bake it. And it's like cornbread and cream corn had a baby and it's just like so good. I, uh, I made it. And so I made that and it was amazing.

Jess Gaertner: And then I made one thing for, that's also nostalgic for me is chocolate cream pie. We used to get it. When I was little, we would get it from this barbecue place, randomly, so weird, this barbecue place that makes amazing pies here in Texas called Bill Miller's. And we used to get it for Thanksgiving, but I made one from scratch and it was so easy.

Jess Gaertner: And it was like, it was, I would say probably the most natural, healthy thing that I made [01:54:00] in terms of just like whole fresh ingredients. And so it was like, Whole heavy cream and chopped like dark chocolate and you make cut and you add a little bit of like arrowroot or cornstarch if you want and you make like the pudding and it sets in the fridge with a pie crust and then I whipped up heavy whipping cream and maple syrup and made this like beautiful whipped cream coffee and it was like demolished.

Jess Gaertner: So those are my contributions. I could talk about food for hours, I feel like, but it was, and, and like, the whole spread was so good. We had, like, a smoked turkey, we had ham, but actually, like, hot take also. I'm just done with turkey. I don't, I don't like turkey. I try it. And I know Thanksgiving is about turkey, and the smoked turkey was really good.

Jess Gaertner: It was, it was different than like traditional, like oven baked turkey. It had a lot more flavor. But like, I just never enjoy it. It's like, I have to. [01:55:00] Like, all of my plate is filled up with sides, and there's like one little tiny sad slice of turkey. I do love ham though, so I'm like, I don't know, I was talking to Tim on the way home, and I'm like, Can we just?

Jess Gaertner: Can we just? Like, not do turkey, like, do we have to? Can we just do ham? And I say that as we have a giant turkey defrosting in our refrigerator right now, because that was the sad part about going up there was that we didn't have any leftovers to eat, and so the kids were like, we want, we want turkey, I guess they like turkey or maybe it's just the nostalgia.

Jess Gaertner: But we're making a turkey this weekend to have leftovers. But I like it, I like it if we can like, I like it in the leftover state, like, I'll put it in a sandwich or I'll Like, chop it up and we'll make like a turkey pot pie or like a turkey soup. But I just don't like slabs

Laura Bruner: of turkey. I like turkey. What I was trying to say is that I like load my plate with a bunch of turkey as long as it's cooked white.

Laura Bruner: Yeah. Because protein. And I just, I really enjoy it. But I get it. Uh, breast is not a big turkey. We have a wild, [01:56:00] no, a U. S. Wellness Meats turkey defrosting or in our freezer. Because we're doing a, a holiday feast with our, our like, family friends here. They're friends that are like family. I'm looking forward to it and I, and what I've decided to do, sorry, I'm just quick tangent here.

Laura Bruner: I've been trying to figure out what I want to do for Christmas dinner. Because last year, we do Christmas just us. Like, at this point, EB very specifically requests that. And last Christmas, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen preparing a meal, when I wish I kind of just like, better. So we do like cinnamon rolls in the morning, and then what we're going to do is, we're having like a feast with friends on the Saturday, Friday or Saturday before Christmas.

Laura Bruner: We're going to have a bunch of leftover turkey. And so we're going to do Christmas dinner, lunch, dinner is going to be like just really delicious festive paninis. Which I'm super excited about. That's easy. We'll have leftover chicken, we'll probably like buy some ham, cranberry sauce, Rusty loves mashed potatoes on his sandwiches, gravy, like all the things.

Laura Bruner: And then we'll just have like a big post outdoor adventure sledding [01:57:00] panini like lunner. And then we'll go on a, you know, watch, look at the, like just hang out, chill, and then come back and have, Christmas is when I do like my real deal, big ass loaded top and bottom crust. Apple pie. Mmm. I can just smash some apple pie and I'm excited.

Laura Bruner: So you just got me excited about it because yes, the turkey is, I like it fresh. I do. Rusty's not as big of a fan. But then the leftovers are like, it's

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Jess Gaertner: com forward slash modernmamas or use code modernmamas at checkout. That's F O R I A wellness dot com forward slash modern mamas for 20 percent off your first order. I recommend trying their awakening arousal oil and sex oil. You'll thank me later. I think really what it comes down to is that like if the turkey is not cooked perfectly, it's gross to me.

Jess Gaertner: [01:59:00] Like if it's dry and you feel like you're choking it down. Oh yeah. I'm like, it just there's so much you have to get right with the turkey, at least in my opinion, for it to like really be enjoyable to eat. And so it's like, I'd much rather just like eat a chicken, which to me is a little bit easier to handle and a little bit more flavorful.

Jess Gaertner: So anyways, hot take, you can disagree. That's totally fine. You're entitled to your opinion. Yeah, that's my new, my new hot

Laura Bruner: take. I don't think you're alone.

Jess Gaertner: But yeah, so the food was just amazing. And we're going to make some turkey. So we have leftovers. Have you seen this? I don't have a waffle maker, which it makes me kind of sad and I feel like I need to get one, but I've seen this going around the interwebs where it's like, you take your, your leftover stuffing and you make waffles with it and then you use that as like the bread for your turkey sandwich.

Jess Gaertner: So like you put like the cranberry sauce on and like whatever else do you want to live in mashed potatoes? And it looks like it holds up well as the bread. I mean, I know you guys have beautiful sourdough, so it may not [02:00:00] make that much sense, but like, I'm intrigued. It's like this, this stuffing sandwich.

Jess Gaertner: Yeah, we don't really do

Laura Bruner: stuffing. Oh.

Jess Gaertner: Stuffing is one of my favorite.

Laura Bruner: I've never been a big fan. I, we, I have a cornbread, a sourdough cornbread stuffing recipe on my, in my Festive and Fermented book, but I, We like, that's a stand alone meal because there's like a bunch of sausage and stuff in there. So we don't actually typically make that like with a holiday feast.

Laura Bruner: We just kind of, for a while, it was actually our breakfast on Please do breakfast sausage and it would be our Christmas Eve breakfast. But yeah, I've never, I have like a wild rice and mushroom and fig one too that I like, but it's a lot of work. And it's just, I'd rather just have like cornbread and cranberry, like simple, you know, anyways, not a stuffing person, but.

Laura Bruner: I keep getting excited about food stuff and taking over.

Jess Gaertner: It's amazing. I feel like we'll probably in the podcast talking about food, but my sister makes, well, and that's, I like, I don't like, I'm not as big a fan of just like a breaded stuffing, but like, if it has, [02:01:00] my sister made this one, it was like maple and sage sausage with like fresh sage in it and like, uh, celery and onions and like, there's cornbread in it, but like.

Jess Gaertner: It had a lot more like, it was kind of like, I guess you're right. It's like a complete meal almost. Cause there's veggies, a lot of veggies, some carbs, some protein. And it's just like I could get down on that forever. But anyways, food. I mean, it's just I'm actually

Laura Bruner: writing like I'm like taking some notes for show notes.

Laura Bruner: I'm like, well, I guess this one's gonna be called. I guess we're talking food.

Jess Gaertner: I feel like it's been a while since we just went ham on a food like food during an entire episode. But the food was phenomenal. I'll leave it at that. And then we drove back and we had Friday, Saturday, Sunday to kind of like recoup.

Laura Bruner: I'm trying to think what we did. Did we have

Jess Gaertner: something? I don't think we did. I think we was mostly like hanging out. I feel like we did have something, but I'm, it's totally escaped my mind. And prepped for the week on Sunday, [02:02:00] came back, and then, oh, this, the beauty counter sale was like a huge, I don't know how it ended with you, but like, it ended.

Jess Gaertner: Strangely, just amazing and like, I am just so grateful and that was a fun thing that I was kind of actually hired Mallory to help me a little bit, who is our old podcast assistant. And she just helped so much where I was able to kind of show up and do some things that I really thought, honestly, I wasn't gonna be able to do this year just because of time, but the offer was like just incredible.

Jess Gaertner: It was like the best, smartest gift, like Black Friday offer. And then with following like a really excellent Cyber Monday deal that I think, I think that was the like magic where I felt like I didn't have to work that hard and it was just a really. Really generous offer and people took advantage of it, which was really, really nice.

Jess Gaertner: And so kind of wrapped up Black Friday, Cyber Monday on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and that's been nice and then hit the ground running. So I'm [02:03:00] trying to ideologically, ideally, no, not ideologically. Ideally, I'm trying, I really want to take at least a week. Maybe two weeks off of recipe photography in December, which is bananas because I basically have to cram four weeks of recipes, which is already a lot into two weeks of recipes.

Jess Gaertner: I think I'm gonna lose my mind at the end, but at least I'll have two weeks off to recover. So I have been doing three recipes a day pretty much for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and just trying to like head down work as much as I can and get all that accomplished so I can take Two weeks off because I did.

Jess Gaertner: I took the whole week off of Thanksgiving and it was so good. Not only was it just good. I like I didn't do I didn't really go to the gym mostly because I hurt my neck, which is really weird. I literally woke up from a dead sleep with net like searing neck pain like I had like cramped my neck so hard while [02:04:00] I was sleeping that it woke me up.

Jess Gaertner: And so I was kind of doing it out a little bit and I was like, just we didn't have time and we were gone half the week. So I like by Tuesday was like, okay, intentionally, I'm going to just take the week off of movement because my body's like talking to me. And so it was just mentally amazing, physically amazing to rest and like creatively needed because what I'm finding is that like there's just creative burnout.

Jess Gaertner: It's like a very real thing and it's like trying to pump out beautiful. Imaginative content 24 seven without any rest is like really hard. And so that was much, much needed. Um, I am, although I'm doing a lot this week, I'm jumping back in. I feel like my capacity for that creative load is a lot higher. So I'm looking forward to cramming everything in the next two weeks and trying to take those two weeks off.

Jess Gaertner: And yeah, that's [02:05:00] the plan. We. are celebrating Advent, the Advent season here in our family. And so for the first time, we're really like leaning into that, that Advent period for our faith. So we ordered some candles. We got like an Advent study that we're going to do together with the kids and really like try and focus on like the reason for the season for us being Jesus's birth.

Jess Gaertner: So. The kids are really excited about it. We're all excited about it. We got our tree. Oh, we got our tree on Sunday, which because of COVID the last couple of years, they've not had the tree farm where we could go and like actually pick out a tree. They just like deliver it like you pay for one online, they bring it to your house.

Jess Gaertner: You know, it's all I mean, it's wonderful, but it's all kind of like missing that like, nostalgic, like, which tree should we get? And finding the, like, little funky one that, like, kind of isn't perfect, but, like, has character. And so we went to the tree farm, picked out a tree. It's, it's perfect. It's [02:06:00] wonderful.

Jess Gaertner: It's got character. I just love it so much. We kept saying while we were decorating it, we decorated it, was it Monday night or Tuesday night? Monday or Tuesday night, we decorated it and we just kept saying this is such a good tree and everyone would just like stare at it. So the tree is, is wonderful and it's so fun like pulling out all the ornaments like when I pulled out the sourdough sisterhood one, I was like, oh, and then I thought of you and I was like, okay, I hung it.

Jess Gaertner: And we have a tradition in our house where we get a new ornament for every person each year. And that's been so cool because now we've been doing that for like, I guess, I mean, probably started when Cammie was a baby. I don't think we had done it when Bear was littler, but you know, seven years of four ornaments a year.

Jess Gaertner: And so it's like, we've got, we barely put up any of the like place filler ball like ornaments. And a lot of the, the ornaments on our tree are like handpicked special ornaments that have meaning to everyone. And so it was fun when [02:07:00] everyone would pull one out of the box. It was like, Oh, this is theirs. You get to hang it.

Jess Gaertner: I know. We do

Laura Bruner: the same. And we also are, so in the past, we've like gone to the forest to cut one down. But this year, the past couple of years, we're like, we, you do have a spoon. Very cool. Could you go show that spoon to daddy? Like it's 80 bucks to cut one down, all the trees, but then there's white tag trees.

Laura Bruner: And they're like anywhere from 20 to 40 because there's something. They're a little more sparse or like, whatever, but we love seeking out the white ones. And I am looking at ours right now and like, it's a little bit sparse, like in between the, I want to say like the rungs of where the branches come out, but it's sturdy and you can actually see all the ornaments because there's a little bit of space.

Laura Bruner: And similarly, like we get an ornament every year and we had to, I have these tiny little mushroom ones that, you know, are kind of like the quote unquote filler ones that go all around. But outside of that. It's just all our, I love looking at it. I just, I

Jess Gaertner: don't know. I love having the triage. It just like makes you, I mean, and I'm always also ready for it to come down by the time it's time to take it [02:08:00] down, but like, this whole month.

Jess Gaertner: Oh yeah, December 26th for us. We usually do it till like January 1st, but it's like, in the morning we turn the light on, like, I'll turn the light on if I'm like, Sipping coffee and doing work or something in the morning before the kids get up. It's like quiet and the glow of the tree and the like, it's just, it's such a special time.

Jess Gaertner: I love it so much. So anyways, we, we did that and I will say while we were doing it, I had this like, kind of anxious feeling because I'm watching the kids do it and they're all so excited, but at the same time, Bear's like, no, he's 10 and he's, it's not, I feel like, I know Santa's a controversial topic.

Jess Gaertner: We're not going to go there. You do you, whatever feels right. But like in our house, like we, that's Santa is a thing, but this is the last year, I think that he, he already has been saying little, it's like, he wants to know, but he hasn't asked, but he wants to know, or he knows, but he doesn't yet want to ask so that we'll confirm or deny for him.

Jess Gaertner: Cause he, like the other day he was like, if Santa's [02:09:00] even real, like, he's like, you know, like made a little like joke and you know, he didn't ask me. So I was like, okay, I feel like. This is the last year and then I'm going to sit him down after because there's still, it's just like something about like the magic and he, I don't know, I don't think he wants to like know yet or else he would ask me and so anyways, he was like, you know, it was still magical and special for him but like not like it was with Kami where she was like so excited and just like in it and so there was a little bit of like bittersweet Feelings there because I was like, okay, like how much longer are they actually want to do this with us?

Jess Gaertner: Like, even in their teens, like, will they want to do this? Like, this is something that's like very, very important to me. And I feel like there's maybe not that much time left where we get to do this as a family. And then it got me thinking, you know, spiraling, like, and then they're going to leave. And then what is Tim and I going to do?

Jess Gaertner: We're just going to decorate the tree by ourself. Like I was all in [02:10:00] my feels. Like, You know, and Tim was like, well, just make them. And I was like, we can't make them. He's like, we can make them. I mean, jokey, it was kind of tongue in cheek. But like,

Laura Bruner: I don't know. You know, I've thought a lot about that, too, because Rusty and I have, and, I mean, Evie's like, a big part of it, too.

Laura Bruner: Like, we don't, we're not going to travel on Christmas. Like, period. Hard no. Yeah. I'm grateful my parents are coming next weekend. We get to do that festive thing, but like if we are welcome to join our kids and their families for Christmas, like I will travel every once, once my kids are grown and out of the house, you know, like I want to go and be there to help them decorate their tree if they want, you know, it's like, yeah, I want to be a part of their world versus the expectation of them coming and doing it with us.

Laura Bruner: We'll still put up a little tree like that's kind of fun, like a little glass of wine and just the two of us with our like little Charlie Brown tree. I don't know. Yeah. Yes, totally. I've been having a lot of these thoughts as well. Yeah. And it's, I think a lot, our plans and like our aspirations and our dreams for what it's gonna look like then, I think are very dependent on what we did or didn't get and what we, you know, that kind of thing.

Laura Bruner: It's just

Jess Gaertner: so [02:11:00] interesting. Oh, totally. And that's like 100 percent the reality of

Laura Bruner: like, they're getting older and you're like, what? Yeah. This is very real. You know, I'm not, I'm not

Jess Gaertner: there yet. Oh, it's like, it's getting me like hard. I mean, in many ways, I think it's just the season that we're in, but it was, it hit me You know, bears just, oh, it's just.

Jess Gaertner: I wish, I, I can't, it's not like I can't, I can definitely wait for you to be there, but it's like almost like I wish I had a close person to commiserate with in this like loss of like, it feels like a loss like of not necessarily innocence, but just kind of like, there's a much, I have a much more mature child on my hands.

Jess Gaertner: I mean, he's still. Freaking sits on his sister and like farts in her face and stuff. So the study's not that mature but like there's a lot of things where it's like just very glaringly obvious that like my

Laura Bruner: brother is 36 and Or 33 and he's so fast. I don't know if they ever

Jess Gaertner: grow out of that You're probably right anyways so there's just some thoughts on my mind [02:12:00] and it's just a special season and I feel like this season always kind of gets me in my feels with stuff like that and so it's just Another, it kind of like marks the passing of time to me, especially because obviously it's my birthday season.

Jess Gaertner: It's our anniversary. It's like Tim's birthday. There's so much going on that it's just very front and center. Like it's like time is moving. Time is moving, you know? I, Tim and I talk about all the time how we hope, hope and pray that we are fostering a relationship in our kids that where when they get older, we are welcome.

Jess Gaertner: And I mean, our parents are obviously welcome to in our home, but it's just different. Like I hope our kids want, want us there. And like look forward to it. And you know, 100 percent like I'm gonna if our kids have kids like Tim and I talk about all the time, like we're gonna be active grandparents. Like we're gonna be like, we're taking them on a trip.

Jess Gaertner: Like when can when can we come over? And like, [02:13:00] when can they come spend the night? Like how much time can we get with them? You know, like it could be very intense. When are you gonna tell us you need a

Laura Bruner: break? When are they going? Yes. Yes, totally. But then also, like, I know as a parent, I also want some boundaries, so it's like finding that line of, like, be there, be fun, be helpful, be there when you're really needed, and know that, like, the offer is always there.

Laura Bruner: But then also understanding, like, they're gonna have their own families and they're gonna want time just with their families. That's gonna be probably hard, but also important, you know? Yeah, totally. And then Ruay talk a lot about like relishing each other in that season. Mm-Hmm. like, you know, there's, and for silver linings and you know, it's gonna be sad when they're older and needing space, but then like we get that time just us.

Laura Bruner: Mm-Hmm. . And so we have to remind ourselves constantly when we're like, oh my God, I just wish we could finish some sentences or like have some more time together. It's like this season is short and it is fleeting and we just try and we have that conversation often. And

Jess Gaertner: it goes to, [02:14:00] I know we're kind of, we've been talking for a while, but.

Jess Gaertner: It goes to, like, that I never want to get so, air quotes, busy, focused on myself or the kids where, like, I still want to make sure that, like, Tim and I's relationship is strong so that when the kids are gone, it's not like, oh, like, who are you? Yeah, like, what? And so it's this, like, weird, delicate balance of, like, Staying present and relishing that time with the kids, but also like making sure that we still like each other and we're still connected and oh, it's hard, but like, I don't know.

Jess Gaertner: I think we're we're trying our best and I think we're doing it. So it sounds like you guys are too. So One day at a time. Ugh. One day at a time. Anyways, I feel like that's enough for me. I'm sure there's more I could chat about, but. Yeah, I should probably

Laura Bruner: do the morning

Jess Gaertner: things. Yeah, you could. Same here.

Jess Gaertner: I'm gonna, I've got seafood pasta that I'm shooting this morning, which is, sounds amazing. [02:15:00] Peanut butter cups and cookies. That's quite the spread. I probably should get working on those. A balanced meal. In my opinion, yes. I love it. Alright friends, well thanks for tuning in. We hope that your holidays, we know the holidays are tricky.

Jess Gaertner: There's a lot, but we hope that you are Finding time for peace and connection, whatever that looks like. And we are sending you big hugs. Love you all.

Laura Bruner: Happy holidays. Love you. Bye. Okay, bye. Thanks for listening to our

Jess Gaertner: podcast. See you next time. Thanks for listening to our podcast. See you next time. Bye.[02:16:00]