After all the temple/gathering celebration in Utah festivities, Claire got settled in with the friends she wanted to hang with before leaving. My sisters and I utilized that next morning so that we could do some prep work for our “In the Arena” podcast. Because a new podcast season begins TOMORROW!!
In the early morning while Char got her big kids off to school, the mountains were calling for the rest of us. So Saren, Saydi, Eli and I headed to Rock Canyon.
This is honestly one of my favorite places ever.
It takes my whole breath away.
Something about the way that early-morning sun hit on those craggy rock mountains just moves me like no other.
See it just hitting the tippy-tops in these photos down below?
Oh my goodness.
It makes my heart hurt it’s so beautiful.
Pictures cannot do it justice, but that sun lighting up the edges of those cliffs was simply magnificent.
I could not stop trying to capture it all.
Like, really I have a problem.
It was just so incredibly beautiful.
It was fitting that we recorded a podcast episode about how much we adore nature collectively and individually in our family later that morning.
We got back to help Char with the twins before they left for Joy School:
Love that “spiritual creation” award from the reunion displayed there up above Eve:) (Char and Ian were the lucky winners this year.)
Then we got down to business. See that snazzy new microphone down there in the middle? You’ll have to be the judge as to whether it helped our sound or not.
We recorded a new intro for this year, and a few new episodes.
Gosh I sure love to discuss with these women. And it makes it even better when we can do it in person. Usually we record separate from each other on a joint recording in our closets where there’s more fabrics to cushion the sound…which works too. It’s just fun to be together.
These are some of the wisest women I know.
And I loved talking to them about nature and whether our kids are “lumps of clay” or “seedlings” and gleaning all kinds of wisdom and insights from what they shared.
Saydi brought fresh tomatoes from her garden and some burrata cheese and we had a little feast before we all had to separate ways.
Better get a closer look at that. It was so delicious!
I headed on home, filled with so much love and gratitude for family and the temple and God.
Please give us any feedback or advice, or topics you want us to cover this season over on our Instagram page.
We LOVE any feedback we can get at the beginning of this new season. Hope you can tune in tomorrow!
I’ve absolutely loved the previous seasons! I love to “ binge listen” When I’m on a road trip to see my daughter, it makes 9hrs go really fast lol
I love how you don’t always agree with each other and I love hearing different perspectives, you can really hear your personalities come out ! I’d say if anything to tweak ( my own opinion) is just a little less of the “ what my parents did” I’d way rather hear what you guys are doing in the now, and what you are dealing with in your families in todays world than a trip down memory lane.
Can’t wait for this season!
Great feedback, thank you Heidi!
xoxo
So looking forward to the new season! Thank you for doing this, Shawni & sister. 😉
I would love for you to dig more into the topic of marriage/dating – any insights you have about dating to marry, marriage itself, navigating children marrying.
And I personally love anything religion/Mormonism. I know that you already did an episode on that, but maybe there is more angles from which you can explore it.
Also, a little bit more of your self care strategies – how do you take care of yoursel/your mental (spiritual, physical …) health in your everyday lives?
Thanks for the input, Lina! We did do an episode that touches on self care here: https://pod.link/1642405195/episode/2bacd17ea0170f00d3c0196298a81411
And here’s “parenting with your valentine” that has some marriage stuff in it: https://pod.link/1642405195/episode/776f5b81091129e2397da51192e714a1
But we will work on doing more on these two! Also religion. We always have so much to say about that!
xoxo
Thanks so much for another great episode! I learned so much while listening to it today. Even though our family backgrounds are really different, I would love to use some of the strategies that have worked for your families. I really appreciate your work!
Thank you Anne Marie! So glad if it helped.
xoxo
This is a little random, but I would love to hear Saydi (I think this phrase is Saydi’s?) talk more about the concept of the glistening whole. It’s a mantra I have adopted and would love to hear more.
Oh I love that concept. I’ll add that idea to “the list!”
xoxo
Always love hearing what you all have to say, but there’s still so much talking over/interrupting each other that it’s hard to keep up. I know the purpose of this is to have a genuine conversation and maybe that’s how you all truly relate to each other, but it’s gotten very difficult to listen to. Also seems like one person (can’t tell whom) is doing much of the talking/talking over/interjecting which is too bad because I’d really love to hear from all of you! Otherwise im very excited for the new season!
I agree with both of these points too. I feel like we hardly hear from a couple of the ladies and I would love to hear from them as they are in a similar stage of life as I am with with kids leaving the house! There is definitely one of the ladies who talks more and interrupts a lot…but I know it is hard in a group setting too but just something to think about.
This is great feedback too. Thank you Jan and Aub! We will take a dive into this and try to figure out how to balance a little better. So appreciate any advice like this as we are still learning so much with every recording.
XOXO