Life lately

Sarah has started meditating using the Calm app.

Abby gives an update on her dog, Tonks. Since we recorded this episode several weeks ago, Tonky’s health declined rapidly, and we said goodbye to her on May 31. We miss her lots, and we’re thankful for your support and love.

Reading lately

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Sarah listened to Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery, a non-fiction book about the history of our cities and how we can design and modify them to make the people who live there happier.

Abby listened to two middle-grade historical fiction novels: The War That Saved My Life and The War I Finally Won, both by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.

Food

We share our food philosophies, history with food, thoughts about thin privilege, and how important (or not) the social aspect of eating is for each of us. Here are the resources and links we mentioned this episode:

• Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
• Shrill by Lindy West
• Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
• Tell Me I’m Fat episode of This American Life
• Catherine Newman’s blog and chicken wing recipe
• Caroline Dooner’s F*ck It Diet

Eating lately

Abby made special burritos following a recipe that friends created in honor of their new baby.

Sarah shares her “fancy coffee” recipe: coffee + peppermint tea.

If you’d like to join in the conversation, please leave us a comment, email us at friendlierpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on Instagram @friendlierpodcast. Thanks for listening!

Life lately

Abby describes her plans for a royal wedding watch party.

Sarah shares how terrible she is at choosing paint colors.

Reading lately

Now that we are both up to date, we talk all about our favorite mystery series: Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache.

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A day in our lives

We walk you through the details of a day in our lives, what was atypical, and if it highlighted anything we’d like to change.

Eating lately

Sarah made a broccoli and mushroom casserole:

• 1 lb mushrooms, sliced
• 1 onion, chopped
• juice of one lemon
• 1 large head of cauliflower or broccoli
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• butter
• salt and pepper to taste
• three cups rice, cooked (I cook up two cups of brown rice in the Instant Pot)
• 2 1/2 cups grated cheese of your choice

Saute the mushrooms and onion in butter and lemon juice. When mushrooms and onion are soft, add the garlic and cauliflower. Continue to saute briefly and add salt and pepper to taste. Mix all of the above with rice and cheese. Bake, covered, for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Abby’s been enjoying kringle (a filled pastry treat) from Trader Joe’s.

If you’d like to join in the conversation, please leave us a comment, email us at friendlierpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on Instagram @friendlierpodcast. Thanks for listening!

Life lately

Sarah’s kids are now using her childhood bunk beds.

Abby gave herself a new spring look by cutting bangs into her hair.

Reading lately

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Sarah listened to An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, which follows the marriage of Roy and Celestial before, during, and after Roy’s wrongful incarceration.

Abby loved Beartown by Frederick Backman, a novel about a small Swedish hockey town.

Balance

We chat about how we define balance, if our lives are balanced now, whether we feel over-scheduled, and favorite resources for getting back on track if we’ve gotten off balance. Listeners, we’d love to hear how you find the right balance in your life.

• Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne
• The Joy of Doing Nothing by Rachel Jonat
• Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

Eating lately

Abby is making her own chocolate mousse.

Sarah is eating whole chickpeas (gasp!), as part of a chickpea salad.

If you’d like to join in the conversation, please leave us a comment, email us at friendlierpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on Instagram @friendlierpodcast. Thanks for listening!

Life lately

Abby loved having her sister visit for an entire week.

Sarah is apparently the last person to discover audio on faster speeds.

Reading lately

Abby read This is How It Always Is, a novel by Laurie Frankel about parenting, marriage, and how one couple navigates raising a transgender child.

After having multiple friends recommend it, Sarah read The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne.

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Hosting

We share what makes for a good host, our favorite kinds of hosting, what we love (and don’t love) about hosting, and our stance on hostess gifts.

Eating lately

Sarah’s put “easy enchiladas” into regular rotation in her house. Just use tortillas, refried beans, sauce, cheese, and call it good.

Abby’s been eating deviled eggs, both the fancy and traditional variety. And if you haven’t tried boiling your eggs in the Instant Pot, Sarah recommends it–even the freshest of eggs are easy to peel!

If you’d like to join in the conversation, please leave us a comment, email us at friendlierpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on Instagram @friendlierpodcast. Thanks for listening!


Life lately

Sarah shares about her family’s spring break trip to St. Louis.

Abby is teaching a childbirth education class through her yoga studio.

Reading lately

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Sarah finished The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin, which explores the themes of fate, destiny, and how much control we have over our lives.

Abby listened to Still Me, the third book in a popular fiction series by JoJo Moyes. (The first two are Me Before You and After You.)

Staying Informed

We share how closely we follow the news, our favorite (and least favorite) news sources, and our approach to talking about the news with our kids. We’d love to hear how you consume news and any favorite sources you have to share.

• 1440
• The Skimm
• NPR Politics Podcast and Up First
• Raising Race Conscious Children

Eating lately

Abby is making fancy bagels: copious amounts of cream cheese, capers, and pastrami flavored smoked salmon (thanks, Trader Joe’s!).

Sarah found the perfect naan recipe.

If you’d like to join in the conversation, please leave us a comment, email us at friendlierpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on Instagram @friendlierpodcast. Thanks for listening!

Life lately

Abby met her new niece on a recent trip to Portland.

Sarah is looking for listener tips on how to make the walk home from school more fun.

Reading lately

Abby read Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper, and while she found value there she is also realizing that she may need to take a break from fiction for younger readers.

Sarah finished We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates. If you aren’t ready to commit to the whole book, she recommends reading The Case for Reparations.

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Exercise and fitness

We discuss our philosophy around fitness, what we like to do for exercise, how we incorporate movement in our families, and what we do to get back on track when we’re in a slump. Last year we talked about our participation in organized activities and sports, so if you’d like to hear more about that you can listen here.

• Yoga with Adriene
• Mr. Money Mustache on biking in the cold

Eating lately

Sarah’s been instituting casual dinners when Neil is working late–snacky food, fewer rules.

Abby made an udon noodle soup that was okay, but what she really wants is an easy-to-make yet amazingly delicious ramen recipe. If listeners know of such a thing, please share!

If you’d like to join in the conversation, please leave us a comment, email us at friendlierpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on Instagram @friendlierpodcast. Thanks for listening!



If you like our reading section, check out the Girl Next Door Podcast Book Club! Erica and Kelsey do a book discussion every quarter, and if you’re listening, you’re in the book club. In their latest episode (out tomorrow), they’re chatting about The Keeper of Lost Things. You can also find them on iTunes and Stitcher. Happy listening!

Life lately

Abby shares two shows she’s been enjoying:The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Suits (because, Meghan Markle).

Sarah complains about Valentine’s Day, specifically the need for HP to make dozens (and dozens) of valentines for his class.

Reading lately

Abby tried sci-fi for the first time for book club: Seveneves by Neal Stephenson.

Sarah was looking for an escapist read, and found it in The Assistants by Camille Perri.

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Favorites

This week we have a reprise of a previous episode: favorites. This time around we talk about favorite comfort foods, podcasts, french fries, and dates.

• Imaginary Worlds
• When Harry Met Meghan
• We Live Here
• More Perfect, especially Adoptive Couple vs. Baby Girl
• Sylvan Esso
• Mumford & Sons

FRE

Friendlier Reading Experience is almost here! We are putting the first groups together this week, so if you are interested you still have time to fill out the form. If you’ve already signed up, you will hear from us in the next week.

Eating lately

Sarah tried making baked potatoes in the Instant Pot and Abby indulged her craving for a meatball sub.

If you’d like to join in the conversation, please leave us a comment, email us at friendlierpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on Instagram @friendlierpodcast. Thanks for listening!

This episode is part of a #podcollab with the Reading Women Podcast. This week both of our shows are releasing an episode about social reading. We think Friendlier listeners will love hearing from Kendra and Autumn as they “reclaim half the bookshelf” and discuss books by or about women. Be sure to listen to their episodes, follow their beautifully curated Instagram feed, and subscribe to their show! Life lately

Abby is thankful the snow has finally melted, while Sarah regrets that she caused a glass casserole dish to explode in her kitchen.

Reading lately

Abby listened to, and highly recommends, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, a YA novel about a white police officer shooting and killing an unarmed black teenager during a traffic stop. We also discussed this book during our reading round-up episode in December.

Sarah read Heating and Cooling: 52 Micromemoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly, which she found through Anne Bogel’s episode of The Best of Both Worlds.

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Social Reading

Do you consider reading to be a solitary or social activity? We discuss our experiences in book clubs–both virtual and in-person, how we use social media as it relates to reading, and what we love about talking with friends about books.

Books we mentioned in this episode:

• Bossypants by Tina Fey
• Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

We also have an exciting announcement: We are launching the Friendlier Reading Experience! If you would like to join a virtual book club of your very own, fill out this form. We’ll group you with four or five other listeners and give you a virtual book club guide with information to help make your club a success. We can’t wait to connect you all with each other. (Special thank to listener Allison for encouraging us to develop this idea!)

Eating lately

Sarah is buying pistachios and blueberries for HP’s lunch in an effort to make it more enticing.

Abby ate countless sugar cookies and has no regrets.

If you’d like to join in the conversation, please leave us a comment, email us at friendlierpodcast@gmail.com, or find us on Instagram @friendlierpodcast. Thanks for listening!