[COVID Crisis Series 24 of 25] Parenting During the COVID-19 Crisis

The following is a full transcript of a Facebook Live, where Susie is speaking  extemporaneously – she is unscripted and unedited.

(00:00):

Allergy. Let’s hear it. First technology, I literally am doing live on Facebook and live on zoom. So neither of you are going to get me to look at you full time, but we are going to do this this way because I have some friends who are international and they sweetly emailed me and said, can you please do it on Facebook so we can share it and use it and all that kind of stuff. So you’re going to be a little bit off, but we’re gonna do the best we can. Thank you for joining tonight. It is recording and we’re going to go from there. Alright. So tonight we’re going to talk about our favorite subject. You me, isn’t our favorite subject. Us. Let’s talk about me. Let’s talk about us. So we’re going to do that tonight. I’m going to try and, and we’ll look back and forth.

(00:39):

If you’re on Facebook, I cannot see your questions. I hopefully can see your your waves it’ll come up, but hopefully, hopefully this will work. Alright. If you’re not muted, go ahead and mute. And I’m going to do some little bit of teaching here to talk about, talk about you because we have got to figure out a way to stay sane. Not, you know, not just tonight, but I think we’re in for a longer haul than we thought. So for your Facebook live people, I’m trying to look kind of at you and at the camera. But because we started this as a zoom thing, I’m going to look at the zoom camera more to honor my zoom, attendees and Facebook lives. Thanks for your grace. All right. So today sanity, 16 Sandy savers. I did want to remind you to download it.

(01:23):

I have this little printable that you can print and put on your refrigerator that are 16 sanity savers for when your peeps are driving you crazy or how to survive the coronavirus season when your cup is empty on a regular basis. So let’s do this. I really, if you follow me at all, you know that I’m all about better relationships with God, yourself and others, but here’s the deal better relationships can not start with others or even with God, I think sometimes without a better relationship with ourselves. And so we’re going to talk about how to have a better relationship with ourself in this time of crazy, crazy craziness, or we’re not sure exactly what to do. One of the things we’re gonna talk about is the fact that we can’t control anything outside of ourselves. We can not control anything. And I don’t know if that makes you more worried or gives you a big sigh of relief.

(02:10):

So here’s permission to feel out of control because you’re out of control. We are out of control, but what we can control is ourselves. So we control our actions, our mindsets, our energy, and that’s what I want to talk to you about tonight. Staying sane in this season, right, is going to require a great deal of strength, a great deal of resilience and work. But here’s the thing. If you invest in yourself, then the yield will be, you know, a win, no matter what, because when the virus is over, you will be a different person. You will have grown through this. And I really want to give you some tools and tips, how to do that, because that will keep you sane in the midst of this season. So the first thing I wanna talk about is your mindset matters partially because people are watching and listening and picking up on your energy.

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And so your mindset matters and a worry full, negative, worry full. Is that a word, a worrisome negative energy zap our immune system. So for nothing else, we want to work on our mindset to strengthen our immune system. Cause we need that right now. We really need to have a strong immune system. And so what I want to share with you is that our mindset is a choice. Now what we think about in the moment that comes into our head, isn’t always a choice. What we allow to stay and take root is a choice. So we can’t control our thoughts necessarily all the time. We can’t control our feelings, but we can control what we do with them. We can control what we plant in our minds. And I remember years ago, a mentor said to me, fear and faith cannot live in the same mind.

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And so we’re going to have to choose what we’re going to allow in our mind. And I did a whole thing on faith the other night. I think a Wednesday it’s down there under a trusting God, feel free to go back and reference that. Here’s one of the things I do to help myself change what I’m thinking. I literally talk to myself. I’ll feel something coming in and I will say to myself, wait a minute. I don’t think that way anymore. I will say it out loud. So I hear it. And then I replace it with a different thought. Let me give you an example. This morning, I was reading an article that my sister sent me and she’s pretty astute and sends like legit, not just crazy articles, but it was about overloaded E RS. And it was talking about literally a walk, this one nurse through somebody coming in, who had a DNR, somebody coming in who thought they had the cold and somebody coming in who had another issue.

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Totally. And I read the article and I started feeling nervous. I started feeling anxious. I could feel my heart rate going up. You know, I started wearing my shoulders earrings because for me I’m a high risk person I’m in, you know, not quite at the 68, a couple of years yet, but I’ve had chronic illness. So my immune system’s a little compromised and I have had lung issues for the better part of 18 years. And the last three or four have been really bad. And so I had this fear that began to creep up and I began to be like, okay, what about, what about, and I literally had to stop myself and say, wait a minute, I am not going to choose worry. I am not going to think that way. I’m going to think instead this, I have worked hard to be healthy.

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I have taken the walks. I have increased my lungs. I have I’m eating well. I’m resting. I’m doing all the things. And I’m taking back. My thoughts. I’m pulling out the ugly. We’d have negative thought. I’m replacing it with I’m healthy. I’m strong. My body is, is fighting to do all the things it needs to do to stay healthy. And my husband and I are doing all the things to stay isolated. So you really literally have to start talking to yourself. When my kids were growing up, I would talk to myself and they’d be like, what are you doing? I’m like talking to myself because nobody else listens, but we can talk to ourselves and listen to ourselves. We get to plant good thoughts in our mind. So that every day, multiple times a day, you’re going to bring that into alignment. And here’s the thing that they don’t tell you.

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Our bodies listened to what we say. Our bodies respond to what we, what we think and what we say. And so if you can’t get that thought out of your head, literally talk yourself through it in a way that gets you to a place of positivity of possibility. Okay? I’m gonna give you another tip for that in a minute, but you really want to remember that you’re in charge of what you, what you say to yourself and what you think. And so I really want you to invite you to draw a line in the sand that you’re going to master your mindset during this. And you are going to you’re going to be a role model for your, for yourself and others around you. Fear is going to rear its head. It’s going to happen. And when that happens, what I want you to do is play what I call the what if game, everybody plays the one that gave on the negative side.

(06:31):

Oh, what if I get sick? What if there’s on the ventilators? What if my kids get sick? What if we run out of food for me today? It was what if I run out of my thyroid medication as a cancer survivor, I have to take this medicine every day. I don’t have a thyroid, not having a thyroid and not having the medicine can make you go crazy. And I’ve already had to live with her. My husband, we don’t want that happening. So I started going down the what if road? And I was like, wait a minute. If you’re going to play the what if game Susie, you teach people all the time. There’s I have to play the, what if game on the positive side? What if you call the insurance company and they go, sure, we’ll send you a 90 day supply. What’s your address?

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What if there’s not a problem? Getting the refills? What if all the pharmacies and drug stores stay open? What if it works out well? So I want you to promise me, raise your right hand and say, I promise I will play both sides of the, what if game, if by chance you start down the negative side, you have to start the positive side. So this could be true for any area of your life. What if my client cancels, you know, then you have to go to what if they book more sessions because they need my services during this time. You know what? If my kids are mad at me for saying, no, they can’t go out. And they feel like I’m, you know, the taskmaster and the mean mother, not that that’s ever happened to me, but what if that won’t go to the other side?

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What if my kids learn about resilience and determination and going through hard things and being uncomfortable, by the way I say this, and what if over time they respect me. And I promise you if your kids are in their teens or in their twenties, maybe even tweens, it’ll take them until their late twenties or thirties to say, thank you. But eventually they will say thank you for being an example for me, mom. Okay. Thank you Anna, for saying, I promise to play both sides of the, what if game, you know, what is my spouse? And I fight all the time. What if we use this time to get better communication skills and we grow closer through it. So if you’re going to play the, what if game, if fear comes into your head, you’ve got it. One of the ways you’re going to pull it out the negative thought, and you’re not gonna let it take root.

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You’re just gonna plant positive. What ifs in your head? And if you know me, I always talk about a concept and then how to, because all the inspiration, the world doesn’t get me from point a to point B. If I don’t have the tips and tools to do it. So you always get tips and tools from me. So one of the things I want you to do is master your mindset. And one of the ways you’re going to be accountable to that is at the end of every day, you’re going to have a scorecard. I’d love you to just have a little index card and say, what was my energy and mindset for today on a scale of one to 10, was I more positive on the 10 were negative on the one? Did I plant more seeds of worry and fear or wisdom and faith?

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And that’s what I want you to rate and just start writing. Because some days we’re not going to be as good as others, but if we have to be accountable, we’re more likely to, you know, to have it, have us grow a new habit. And if you want to, you can email me, let me know your scorecard. I’m in this with you posted on my Facebook page, let me know that you’re moving forward. And I will try to do that as well. The second thing, the second Sandy saver for you that we’re going to cover today. And I’m talking really fast, cause I’m really excited about all this is you want to stay educated and not inundated. You know, for me, my routine has pretty much stayed the same and I would invite you to do the same thing. I get up. I have coffee a few minutes, have a chat with my hubs, sit down in my chair.

(09:31):

This chair, you see me in every time, spend some time with God because having a spiritual center in this crisis is huge. And then I get on about my day. I have a discipline of not checking email and not checking my phone because the news pops up until I get a good hour or two of my day in. And then I’m like, okay, I will look and see if you know, one of my break, a snack break or coffee break or lunch break when I’ve accomplished something and I will check the news or whatever I need to know. I might allow myself to scroll for 10 or 15 minutes on social media. Here’s why the people who need to get me know how to get me when I’m not on my phone. It’s over here. You know? Any news I need to have the people who need to get me will make sure I get the news.

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So I’m not going to be that person. I’m going to be the person who starts my day with the routine and the productivity of a positive mindset. Okay. When I don’t do that, it wreaks havoc. Because once you start scrolling, you can’t stop once this you know, negative. It’s very hard to stop. Maybe you can stop. Once the negative information starts coming, it really is a momentum killer. And so I want to invite you to do what needs to be done first, you know, in your day, to make sure that you stay in control of your life. We can only control our mindset, our actions, our choices, our energy, okay, this is going to preserve your sanity. Okay. Another way to stay educated and not inundated is to use this time to learn. You know, I have not done that much yet cause I’ve been doing it well.

(10:55):

I guess I’ve learned all this tech stuff, but I set a goal for myself next week to go through one of those courses I paid for that I never, never finished. I’m going invite you to learn with me next week because we’re going to start a new series. That’s going to be just on Facebook live, but I want you to learn. I want you to start to educate yourself, but not get inundated with all the crazy. Okay. I’m inviting you to invest in a new skill in a new idea. Hey Christian McLaughlin. So sorry. You guys Christian McLaughlin. Hi, please tell your mom, Cathy. I said hi. I have been trying to get ahold of her, connect us on Facebook because she has been on my mind a lot recently Catholic and I taught swim team together, raised our kids together. She is a dear friend from when my kids were little and Christian McLaughlin and our son, Zach got in a lot of trouble, you know, smart trouble when they were, when they were younger on swim team.

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So sorry about that little kind of, that’s the beauty of live of live TV by Facebook. So at the end of the day with this scorecard, I want you to say, how did I monitor what came into my mind? Was I inundated or was I educated? Where did I control that? Cause that’s how we get to take charge of what goes on in our mind. Okay? So we’re going to master our mindset. We’re going to stay in educated but not inundated. And then the third thing I want you to do is I want you to create margin in the midst of the chaos. And one of the best stories for this as our daughter, Emily, when she went on the world race, they went in these little pods of 50 and then these little pods of eight and these eight people went everywhere together. And sometimes they literally were sleeping in the airport, waiting for flights.

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And I have this picture of them all in their backpacks, kind of almost like a pack of puppies on top of each other. But here’s what I noticed. Most of them had earbuds because in the midst of all this together time, they had to travel together, eat together, the buddy system, they had to find a way to find quiet in their brains so that they could have margin in the chaos. So I’m going to invite you to get some headphones. So your kids, everybody has them now, but headphones, that work headphones that your kids see, you might be like, Hey, I’m, I’m I’m checking out of the world, Emily in the midst of this chaos had this quiet in her brain and you might even need to get, I’m ask, you know, if you need to have quiet, even if all your people around you cover your eyes.

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So your mind is only on what’s going on internally. Listen to him, meditation, listen to worship music. There’s a really good app that my friend told me about called Headspace, my friend, Eric do something to get margin in your day. And when all your people around you and maybe you can’t leave your kids in a room by themselves, or maybe it’s just not a space issue, create margin by kind of unplugging from the world by virtually using the tools at hand. Okay. Another way to create margin is of course go outside. You know, even if it’s just to be in your yard, on your porch, smell the fresh air. It was raining the other day. And I opened our door and rain’s coming in a little bit on our mat. And I just wanted to get that fresh rain smell because I’ve been inside our little tiny house.

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And for me I’ve been socially distancing since January. So this is like month three for me. So I get it. You know, I get the crazy, I get the stir crazy. So you’ve got to create margin in the midst of the chaos and it’s okay if your kids want you and you look at them and you say for the next 15 minutes for the next 30 minutes, unless you’re bleeding, that was the rule in our house. Cause John didn’t do blood. Your dad has to handle this. You know, if your phone today earlier, we had a family group text go in and it was ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I turned it off. I just turned off my ringer. So I could have some quiet to center myself, listen to some music, you know, kind of classical music is great for that. You know, close my eyes to get some margin in the midst of the constancy, because whether we are engaged with the world or not, the reality is, is the anxiety is in us, is on us.

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We feel it. And it only takes a minute to take a deep breath and really catch yourself and give yourself some margin, meditate on the things that are above the good things, the positive things. We’re going to talk more about that in a minute for how to do that. But creating margin in the midst of the chaos is key here. If we wait for margin to come, we’re going to be waiting until Jesus comes again because nobody’s going to give us margin. We’re gonna have to take it back and get it from them, get it for ourselves. And here’s the reason that’s so important. And I wanted for us to spend some time talking about us. You know, let’s talk about you is what I called it. You can’t give from an empty cup. You cannot give from negative energy, positive energy to people. We just can’t.

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And our bodies need time to rest and restore our minds. Our souls, our spirits need time to have that moment at a couple moments in the day. I even read recently, branded Burchard, shuts off everything and takes a nap at four o’clock. Even if it’s for 20 minutes. And he runs a multibillion dollar business and is doing that in the midst of everything. Okay. Get some fresh air, physical distancing, social connecting. That’s my new mantra. Maybe margin for you means I need some people time with my colleagues. I need some people who are, you know, my people, my daughter, who is an extrovert. She’s like our, our teachers did lunch on zoom together. And I was like, Oh, you want to get on a zoom call? She was like, no, these are my people, mom, my time for my people that we needed to connect because I’m used to connecting with them.

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So social connecting might be lunch hour with your friends. Actually, no, you can do happy hour with your friends. I’m going to invite you to do lunch hour with me. Cause we’re going to start a new thing coming, starting next week, but call the friends that you might see at work that might be if you have extroverted friends, call them, cause they’re going crazy. I promise you this, but stay connected socially with the people, even though you’re physically distant, that’s really important, but here’s the caveat I want you to be really, really, really careful, really smart about who you talk to. Who is it? Good and helpful for me to be talking to you. If you have a friend who’s a fear-driven friend, it might not be the right time to spend time with them. It might have to be a really quick phone call, a quick check in, cause you don’t wanna drop your friends, but you don’t want to get into that negativity.

(16:40):

Ferris wheel with them. You want to hop off that ride really fast. You know, for me we’ve had a really tough few days with the emotion of my mother-in-law going to be with Jesus and my own personal fears about my being high risk for this coronavirus. And my mom has been a real source of comfort for me, a real measured presence. She’s very educated about what’s happening. She’s not, you know, pie in the sky. But she’s very calm. And, and when I talk with her, I feel myself not just feeling loved and cared for, but I can lean into her. It’s going to be okay, Susie. And you’re doing the right thing. And, and so have somebody in your life. Who’s that voice of reason and that voice of calmness. Okay. I also, yesterday at the end of the day, I called my friend and just said, I need to talk to somebody who’s happy.

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She was out for a walk with her dog. It was sunshiny. She lives on Cornado Island, which is like vacation land off the coast of San Diego. And I was like, I just wanna talk to him. He’s happy. Tell me some happy things about you and your puppy today because I needed some happy in my life. So measure who you let in and what you let in. Okay. That’s really important. And the scorecard for that, did I reach out for what I needed today? Did I create margin for myself? You know, so my cup stayed full and I would say, look and go, what worked? What didn’t, you know, I reached out to this friend, wasn’t a great conversation. You know, I tried to set up stuff with colleagues, but most of them were interested. So I got to reinvest that or Hey, we did happy hour and it was great.

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And it was just what I needed. And I’m going to ask for that three times a week, because I’m used to being with these people every day at work, look at your scorecard. What are you in charge of that you can take responsibility for? Because when it comes to talking about you, all we can do is be in charge of what we can control. So that would be your scorecard for that one. A number four have time, make time, grab time, create time for fun or creativity every day. Fun. Laughter I don’t care if you turn on, you know, a TV and watch puppies or you call your friend who has little kids who are, you know, making forts and are young enough that they’re, they’re just that delightful young age of giggles last night. My husband, our daughter, Kate, who has our one grandson called and texted and said, Hey, do you think dad would love to talk to grant today?

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And she, I said, of course that would be really, really helpful. They are on the other side of the country and when they came on FaceTime and I’m gonna try to get through this without crying. She looked at our little 18 month old grandson and Chico say Papa. And he looked at the camera and he pointed and he was like Papa. And John just started to laugh. And after the mixed emotion day we had, it was this delightful moment with our little baby grandson and the thoughtfulness of our daughter to have done that. So laughter is wonderful here. Laughter is such an important thing. Another thing that is helping us laugh is my husband has these fo these wacky, not wacky. They’re kind of a little off color memes that come through. Some of them about homeschooling. Some were about the truckers who are out doing all of the, the toilet paper runs while we’re at home.

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But some funny memes, not necessarily the serious means that caused us to laugh every day. If you have kids at home, I’m sure they’re causing you to laugh at some point the day probably causing you to cry, pull your hair out, all those things, but laughter find a place for laughter in the day. And you can search the hashtag good news. Or I think that’s one of the good news. There’s a good new site where they’re showing all of the fun things that people are doing. You know, Christmas lights being put up, people singing off the balconies in, in Italy, but fun things that are happening. So w the scorecard would be, did I laugh today in the midst of all the heavy, all the pressure, all the work folks, I’m not denying any of that. I’m just saying, can you make room for laughter in the day?

(20:16):

And if not, how do I make sure I laugh tomorrow? Because laughter is good medicine. That’s a scientific fact. It brings up the positive energy cells and makes our blood capillaries put in motion and boosts our immune system. So number five, the other way, you’re going to stay sane and preserve you and fill your cup is to practice gratitude. My friend Ann retail, she has a doctorate in success, psychology, and I texted her earlier today. And I said, in all your years of teaching and expert in this field, what is the number one thing you would say helps people create a positive mind mindset. And she said, practicing gratitude and understand that those two words, practicing gratitude. She said, it opens up you your yourself oneself to more gratitude and so practicing. It means it doesn’t come easy. It’s like lifting weights. You gotta, you gotta practice.

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You gotta do the work. I don’t know about you, but I can do about three military-style pushups. Maybe I got a practice to do more. It’s not an easy habit, but if we begin to practice gratitude, it will become a habit. And over the last number of years, especially as I wrestled with questions about chronic illness to bill a taking days where, you know, I couldn’t talk like this. This was not even an option for me and my work and my ministry just shut down. I began to practice gratitude. What can I be grateful for today? And at the end of every day, I wrote down five things that I was grateful for. And there were days that it was I’m grateful that it was sunshiny. I’m grateful that, you know, I still look can eat peanut butter. You know, whatever those little, little things are, could be big things.

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I’m grateful that I had a healthy day. I’m grateful that my children didn’t fight for seven minutes. You know, while we were homeschooling today, I’m grateful that my spouse and I navigated a tense situation without it being bad. I’m grateful for a God who loves me and sees me and knows me. I’m so grateful for Susie’s lives because we’ve learned some stuff this week and I can’t wait till next week. Whatever you can do to be grateful for. I’m grateful for a friend who reached out to me, you know one of the things I’ll write down tonight is I’m grateful for all of you and this journey we’ve had this week, as we’ve deep dived into surviving the coronavirus, and we are going to do more together. I promise. But if your, so your scorecard at the end of the day would be just to write them down.

(22:25):

Did I write down practice gratitude today? I would invite you to get a gratitude journal and start a list because it’s really amazing when you look back and see the things to be grateful for that we forget. And so if you just jot them down at the end of the day, three days from now, three weeks from now, you’re going to go back and go, right. You know, and I look at that as such a sign of God’s faithfulness to me and his presence in our life and the little things to be grateful for. Today there a friend posted the cherry bloods and they’re cherry blossoms. The Bradford pears are blooming in Virginia. And if you’ve ever been down that white those streets with the white trees, that’s a really big deal where we used to live. And somebody posted that. And I was like, Oh, I’m so grateful for that picture because they don’t have those in Arizona.

(23:10):

So it doesn’t have to be big work, grateful things, because sometimes we only have this much gratitude, but a little bit of gratitude. I want a little bit of gratitude upon a little bit of gratitude will grow and we will be grateful people. Those are some things we can do. And again, your scorecard would be every single night. Did I practice gratitude today throughout the day and taking the time to write them down, it might seem silly to write them down, but I promise you, I promise, promise, promise you that it will be worth it because you will be able to go back and see the things to be grateful for and see the goodness of God and see the places that you might have dragged yourself into gratitude after a really crappy day, after a really trying hard day. And you can again, take a deep breath, find a few things to be grateful for, and I promise it will, it will lower your stress level.

(23:57):

Here’s the thing friends, self care is so important right now. You know, it is so important that we take care of ourselves so that we have the energy to love other people, to love the people in our world, as we’re in these close quarters, to, to love the people who are making us angry, because they’re out on the beaches or pray for the self healthcare workers who are on the front lines, you know, to have the energy, to deal with the tension that we might have with a spouse or a kid or disappointment in what has been taken away from us from this. If we take care of ourselves, we will not be running on our very last nerve. We will not be frazzled. We will not be trying to give out from an empty cup. And so when I talk about, let’s talk about you, it really is how can I take care of myself?

(24:41):

So I have the energy and the margin to love the people that God’s put in my life for me to love and care for and do the work for. Cause that really is what it’s all about. It really is all about relationships. So why lo long today, because clearly I’m very excited and passionate about this. I am grateful for each of you. And I am going to look and see if there’s any questions here before we hop off. And then I’m going to tell you two things. One, I’ll tell you them. Now one go on I gotta put this in the chat. There’s a 16. And I’ll put it in the comments on Facebook when I get off. Cause I’m doing zoom and chat at the same time. But if you go to bit dot L Y Ford slash Susie 16 S U S I E, I’m putting in the chat here, Susie’s 16.

(25:28):

You can download these 16 spindly to the 16. You can download the 16 sanity savers. If that’s wrong, just Facebook message me or DME. And tell me, Susie, you screw that up, but I will pop it on my Facebook page as well. You’ll get the 16th Saturday savers. I made them this size on purpose. You could print them off and read them every day. The other thing I love for you to do is email me or Facebook message me. I’m Susie Miller, coaching@gmail.com. And let me know how you’re doing with the scorecard. If you’re struggling, if you need more support, let me know. And finally, next week, every day, next week at 12 Eastern, I’m going to hop on Facebook, live the zoom thing and all the cameras and all that has been a bit of a challenge. And because more people can get on via Facebook and there wasn’t a whole lot of people who wanted to really talk on zoom, I’m going to move over to Facebook and we’re going to do let’s talk with Susie Miller, survive, surviving the coronavirus addition.

(26:23):

And we’re just going to have conversations. I’m going to do quick five minute videos to answer your questions. I’m going to have some experts on who know way more about me to answer some of your questions so we can connect there. My goal is to serve and to help us get through this together, because if we can do it together, it will be much, much easier than if we try to do it separately. You are not. I’m here to be with you, help you serve you in any way I can in this kind of chaotic, unknown, uncharted time. We’re learning to navigate a new normal folks and these five self care tips, sanity tips, I think will really help you. Let me look and see if there’s any messages. There’s one question. Okay. This is a great question. How do I create margin? When my kids are climbing over me all the time and I’m a single mom.

(27:08):

Oh my goodness. Girlfriend I’m. So I I’m so sorry to hear that. I feel your pain. There were seasons when John was, would work and in the business and I would call it in his Framestore. And like from September to December, I would call myself a Christmas widow. I don’t think I would use that term now, but I was young and cavalier with words at times. But I felt like a single parent at times. I know it’s not the same, but I remember once I got the kids in bed, like here’s where you get your, your time. You gotta be crafty. You can do it in the morning before they get up. You can do it in the evening when they go to bed. If there’s so little that they require your attention all the time I’m a big fan of contained spaces.

(27:49):

Playpens are rooms for if their littles and they have to be monitored, that you could put them in there with some toys and put your earbuds in and put dry mask on and let the music play. Maybe have something on the screen so that they are entertained. So you can get some margin. You’re going to be really creative here. If it, you know, I used to get up real early in the morning to go for a run just so I could get it in. Cause that was a restful time for me. So it’s going to be hard. Let me say that. But if you get really creative, you can find just even 15 minutes to fill up your cup, to listen to some music, you might get them hooked on classical music or on, you know, a TV show that has the ocean playing in the background on your screen.

(28:24):

One of my clients had a screensaver of the ocean today when I was talking to them was their backdrop. So I don’t think that’s the best answer for you cause not gonna make it easy, but it is something that you can do that would at least create a little bit of margin in your life. And your people are not going to be happy with you for picking yourself. Okay. It’s okay. One of my favorite verses in the scriptures is Jesus went off to a quiet place to pray, which meant to me, Jesus needed to get away from everybody and get alone. And so it’s okay for you to find a way to get alone and let your kiddos know. Mama just need some time right now. If you can get your spouse on board is not a single mom, honey, get him on board and get him helping you and then give the same thing to him.

(29:05):

But even you for the single mom, Linda, I’m just going to say you you got a challenge there and let’s see what we can do to figure out just a little bit of margin and yours might be stacked up margins, little places where you might get 15 minutes, 15 minutes, 15 minutes. And that may be the best you can do for now. Reach out to you can’t even reach out to a friend and trade that’s. What’s really hard right now because you are alone in your home with your people. So if anybody has any creative ideas, pop them in the chat box or pop them at the bottom of the Facebook live because there are lots of people doing creative things out there. I don’t have all the answers. I’ll try to curate answers for you, but here’s the thing I want to say to you all, thanks for being with me this week.

(29:44):

I really appreciate it. We can do hard things together. We can learn, we can grow. It’s going to be a choice. And sometimes that choice is going to be easy. And sometimes it’s going to be as hard as pulling off your fingernails, but you’re not in it alone. And making hard choices always, always pays off. And I believe in you, I’m here for you. Don’t forget to download the Susie 16 and please don’t forget if you email me, I’ll put you on a reminder list. Maybe in Facebook, I’ll ask my tech guy to send out messages about that. 12 o’clock Eastern Facebook live. I’m going to be answering your questions one by one and bringing on an expert. And so let’s talk about how to survive this together. Thanks for being here and I’ll see you next week, Monday at 12 Eastern. Thanks for being here. Thanks Linda. Thanks. Thanks Colleen. Thanks everyone. You’re the best.