ARDL 220: Making Time for Healthy Habits with Katherine Reay

Such a delight to welcome bestselling author Katherine Reay to the podcast today! We chat everything from books to running to kitchen fails and offer up some practical tips for editing your life to include a healthy habit or two.

Meet Katherine

Katherine Reay is a national bestselling and award-winning author of several novels, including DEAR MR KNIGHTLEY, THE PRINTED LETTER BOOKSHOP and her latest, OF LITERATURE AND LATTES. She has enjoyed a lifelong affair with books and brings that love to her contemporary character-driven and literary-rich stories. Katherine’s has also written one full-length nonfiction work, AWFUL BEAUTIFUL LIFE. She holds a BA and MS from Northwestern University and, after seventeen moves, lives outside Chicago, IL.

Links Mentioned

• Vinegar Chicken with Crushed Olive Dressing 
• On Writing by Stephen King
• Couch to 5K (if you want a program)
• Buy Katherine's books
• Katherine on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

And don't forget that you can now have A Rough Draft Life host your virtual celebration! 

Click here for more details. 

ARDL 219: Let It Go

Welcome to the first episode of 2021! Lindsey and Kristi discuss what they want to let go as we head into a new year, and offer some practical solutions for starting new habits. 

What can you let go in 2021? 

• looking for a quick fix (Lindsey)
• chore control (Kristi)
• ruled by numbers (Kristi)
• people's opinions (both)
• HIGH SCHOOL DRAMA (both, note: we aren't in HS)
• not front loading/reacting instead of acting (Lindsey)

Edit Your Life Ideas

• use mini-deadlines to get the stuff done
• have check-in points with an accountability partner (Kristi's is the delightful Regina Jennings who gave great advice one of our first episodes last year!)
• establish boundaries such as non-work days/hours 
• makes a yes/no list for the year or season

Links Mentioned

• Superchick High School 
• Regina Jennings

Join the Community

Be sure to follow us on our socials @aroughdraftlife on Instagram and Facebook as we let it go into the new year! We're planning a LIVE EPISODE and want to hear from you--what should we discuss?

As always, find us each @lindseypbrackett and @kristiannhunter on Instagram or Facebook. Find out more about Lindsey’s and Kristi’s books on their websites,  lindseypbrackett.com and kristiannhunter.com.

If you enjoy A Rough Draft Life please share with a friend and/or leave a review.

ARDL 218: Christmas Fact or Fiction

How much do you know - we mean really know - about the first Christmas? Was there a donkey? Was it on December 25? How many wise men were there? Let's find out. 

Questions Discussed in this Episode:

Were Mary and Joseph living together?

How pregnant was Mary?

Did Mary ride a donkey? 

Why did the innkeeper not let them in?

Did Mary give birth alone?

Is Christmas really on December 25?

What about the shepherds?

Were the Wise Men/Magi kings? Did they come on Christmas Day? How many were there?

What about the Christmas Star? Was it over the stable?

Links Mentioned:

Willow Tree Nativity

Liturgical Calendar

Advent

Air BnB

When Jesus Was Really Born

Christmas Traditions with Elizabeth Musser

In today's episode we chat with bestselling author, Elizabeth Musser, about her family's unique Christmas traditions, influenced by decades spent living abroad in Lyon, France. We'll discuss how 2020 is shaping our perspective on traditions and hopefully inspire you to try some new ones this year!

Meet Elizabeth

ELIZABETH MUSSER writes ‘entertainment with a soul’ from her writing chalet—tool shed—outside Lyon, France. Elizabeth’s highly acclaimed, best-selling novel, The Swan House, was named one of Amazon’s Top Christian Books of the Year and one of Georgia’s Top Ten Novels of the Past 100 Years (Georgia Backroads). All of Elizabeth’s novels have been translated into multiple languages and have been international best-sellers. Two Destinies, the final novel in The Secrets of the Cross trilogy, was a finalist for the 2013 Christy Award. The Long Highway Home was a finalist for the 2018 Carol Awards. Elizabeth’s newest novel, The Promised Land, released in November, 2020.

Elizabeth says, I love faith, family, friends, France, photos, flowers, and penning fiction. (I'm also pretty fond of alliteration.)

For over thirty years, Elizabeth and her husband, Paul, have been involved in missions’ work in Europe with One Collective, formerly International Teams. The Mussers have two sons, a daughter-in-law and four grandchildren. Find more about Elizabeth’s novels at www.elizabethmusser.com and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and her blog.

Links for Christmas Traditions Mentioned

• Christmas Traditions in France
• Advent (Church Liturgical Calendar)
• Almond Tarts
• Santons
• buche

Find other fun Christmas ideas and holiday survival tips on our Pinterest boards!

Elizabeth kindly shared these pictures of her nativity set with all its Santons. Be sure to follow her on Facebook or Instagram for more glimpses into a French-inspired Christmas that's all about Jesus.

What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions? Are you celebrating any differently this year?

Edit Your Life with Us

Be sure to follow us on our socials @aroughdraftlife on Instagram and Facebook as we share our own Christmas traditions as well as how we're surviving the holiday family dynamics, scheduling, and gifting. 

As always, find us @lindseypbrackett and @kristiannhunter on Instagram or Facebook. Find out more about Lindsey’s and Kristi’s books on their websites,  lindseypbrackett.com and kristiannhunter.com.

If you enjoy A Rough Draft Life please share with a friend and/or leave a review.

ARDL 216: Holiday Survival Guide: Family Dynamics

Join us as we discuss the hard topic of family dynamics in the holiday season. No matter if you're together in person or on Zoom, there's bound to be some family tension surrounding your holidays. So how do you survive--and thrive--when everyone doesn't share all the same opinions or emotions or preference for cranberry sauce??

One of our best tools for figuring out how to handle family dynamics is the Enneagram. Some of our favorite resources for using the Enneagram as a tool to understand people's motivations:

• The Art of Growth
• @enneagramandcoffee on Instagram (Sarah Jane Case)
• this article on flourishing during the holidays

Edit Your Life With Us

Name your absolutes for the holiday season and commit to walking away when the family dynamic might be too much. 

Maybe your absolute is ...

• time together
• maintaining family ties
• one good meal
• opportunity to see extended family
• safe gathering

These don't have to be big, but they are the motivators you have for keeping the family dynamic from melting down if someone brings up the three Ps: politics, pandemic, pumpkin pie. 

If you don't think pie is controversial, Lindsey invites you to her family Thanksgiving.

When in doubt, you can always play this.

We are thankful for our listeners!

Be sure to follow us on our socials @aroughdraftlife on Instagram and Facebook as we share our own Christmas traditions as well as how we're surviving the holiday family dynamics, scheduling, and gifting. 

As always, find us @lindseypbrackett and @kristiannhunter on Instagram or Facebook. Find out more about Lindsey’s and Kristi’s books on their websites,  lindseypbrackett.com and kristiannhunter.com.

If you enjoy A Rough Draft Life please share with a friend and/or leave a review.

ARDL 215: Holiday Survival Guide: Gift Giving

Ah, gifts. They can be one of the most joyous and stressful part of the holidays. 

Do you shop early like Kristi or last minute like Lindsey? (We suggest avoiding last minute to avoid a little stress.)

How do you decide who goes on the list? (Hint: Just say no works on this as well.)

Once you have that list, how do find a gift that fits the budget and the recipient? (Think a little bit outside the gift box.) 

We discuss all things gift planning related as well as why books make the best gifts and our ongoing Most Annoying Christmas Song voting bracket on Instagram. 

Come enjoy the fun! 

ARDL 214: Holiday Survival Guide: Schedules

There's no question your 2020 holiday schedule will look different than it normally does. Kristi and Lindsey discuss how you can use that to your advantage to make next year even better and how you can make this year awesome in the meantime. 

Brought to you from our make-it-work basement offices where Lindsey is launching a new book. Magnolia Mistletoe is available everywhere in print and ebook November 10!

You can celebrate with us and fellow author, Elizabeth Musser, at the live launch party on Facebook. 

Holiday schedules are tough. That's why we're here to help you PRIORITIZE, PLAN, and PONDER how you can keep from being a Schedule Scrooge. To keep us all from being Scrooges, be sure to follow us on Instagram for some fun stories next week!

Episode Highlights

ARDL 213: Escape with Teresa Tysinger

How do you find a way to give your thoughts and emotions a little rest? In these stressful, noisy times, how do you find little moments to escape? We discuss the power of books, drives, walks, and mental jaunts to our happy place (Kristi apparently doesn't have one). 

Welcome guest Teresa Tysinger as we discuss the power of escaping. 

ARDL 212: What We’re Loving - Fall 2020

Lindsey and Kristi wanted to share all the wonderful things they've been loving for the past few months. Books. Music. Food. Gadgets. Podcasts. Get a rundown of our current fave things and hear a two big new announcements. 

ARDL 211: Fruits of the Spirit Wrap-Up

Lindsey and Kristi have spent the past ten weeks looking at the Fruits of the Spirit, seeing how interdependent they are, and facing the struggles they have living them out in their own lives. 

In this episode they recap what they learned, discuss what a litmus test is, and say the word "exactly" a lot. 

There may even be t-shirts.