Mother Forking Podcast

We're getting a better handle on how to navigate life through a pandemic, so things have picked up speed again and are back to feeling very overwhelming... and the burnout has never felt more real. Celeste and Magen share their thoughts on this very topic and discuss how they've been tackling saying no more, taking a step back from things, and making themselves a priority.

Get caught up with Celeste and Magen on this episode and see where life has taken them.

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On today's episode, we chat with Barbara Clarke, author of the recently published memoir, THE RED KITCHEN.

Barbara shares with us how she has handled many challenges in her life including: memories of family trauma specifically, overcoming a broken mother-daughter relationship, the role of women in families and the workplace, and more! Barbara opens up about how it's never too late to mend relationships with others and with ourselves. Her memoir shows her readers, that hope for harmony and discovering forgiveness can be possible with lots of work and laughs along the way.  

What is your definition of success? Does it include the cost of your happiness? Join us as we chat with Dr. Jeff Dutremble on how he found his happiness and purpose as a writer. In today's episode, Jeff opens up about the difficulties of walking away from two hard-earned careers, battling depression, fatherhood, and how he hopes others stay true to themselves through his children book, Find a Lost Smile. 

We are back and we have missed you, Mother Forkers! Parenting during the pandemic has been so challenging and has felt like a form of isolation for many of us. Join us as we chat with the author of American Rapture, Jordan Claire McCraw. Her book shares her incredible journey of self-love and healing through poetry. We discuss what it is like to struggle with mental health, feel disconnected with your partner after kids, and so much more! (Very similar to what some of us are experiencing now.) We couldn't unpack it all, so stay tuned for a part two!

What would you do if you checked on your 3-month-old son in his nursery and discovered it wasn't your son? 

Join us as we chat with Rea Frey, the multi-published, award-winning bestselling author of three suspense novels and four non-fiction books, and CEO & Founder of WriteWay . In today's episode, Rea sheds a light on the bond between mothers and their children in her new book “UNTIL I FIND YOU", which is a thriller about Rebecca Gray, a single mother who is losing her eyesight, and her journey to finding her son. 

We also briefly chat about a kidnapping scare with her own child, homeschooling, starting a brand-new company amidst the pandemic, behind-the-scenes struggles of writing and publishing a book, and tons more!

Synopsis for UNTIL I FIND YOU:

"Since Rebecca Gray was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease, everything in her life consists of numbers. Each day her world grows a little darker and each step becomes a little more dangerous. Following days of feeling like someone’s watching her, Bec awakes at home to the cries of her son in his nursery. When it’s clear he’s not going to settle, Bec goes to check on him. She reaches in. Picks him up. But he’s not her son. And no one believes her. One woman’s desperate search for her son...In a world where seeing is believing, Bec must rely on her own conviction and a mother’s instinct to uncover the truth about what happened to her baby and bring him home for good."

RESOURCES:

We wanted to share with you how we are keeping our children and ourselves busy and sane during the COVID-19 quarantine.

Resources

In the midst of what our entire world is going through, Celeste and Magen have found some light through it all. They recently sat down (virtually and in their own homes, of course) with Aileen and Felicia, two best friends of 33+ years, who created the website, Persistiny, and later created the app, Tend, to supplement the site. Two stay-at-home moms, Aileen and Felicia constantly felt judged and disconnected from most when they were asked what they do. As if "I'm a stay-at-home mom" wasn't a good enough answer for people, Aileen and Felicia wanted to make other women feel valued and appreciated that their work as a SAHM is valuable. They also wanted to translate the hard work SAHMs face on a daily basis to that of skills that can be used in the corporate world when they decided to go back to work outside of the home. This is where Persistiny and Tend were born. Aileen and Felicia provided Celeste and Magen with plenty of laughs during their chat because everything they said were extremely relatable to the parenting world, especially being a mom.

Resources 

Effective March 25, a Stay Home Work Safe order was put into place for Harris County in Houston, TX. This means only leaving the house for essential items: groceries, diapers, etc., and continuing the practice of social distancing. In this episode, Magen hops on to do a check-in of how she and her family are faring during this pandemic and how they're staying positive through practicing gratitude. Plus, Magen reveals a new project she recently launched as she's focusing on things she's passionate about during this time.

Calling all Mamas! If your self-care needs an upgrade, then this episode and this app is for you! Celeste and Magen chat with Carina Devi, Head of Mindfulness, from the Mindful Mamas Club about mindfulness and a brand-new app that will be launching on March 19, 2020. Carina and Founder and CEO of the Mindful Mamas Club, Terra LaRock, created the Mindful Mamas App, which is a self-care and mindfulness app for moms and moms-to-be. Mindful Mamas are helping to shift the narrative from what we need to buy as mothers to how we want to be in motherhood with a touch of a button. Their mobile app for iOS and Android teaches how to fit mindfulness and self-care into busy lives. Whether mothers have 60 seconds or 10 minutes, they created content that will help you get in “sips” of self-care anytime, anywhere. If you pre-order the app before it launches, you'll save 50% off in the app store!

Resources

What's the best way to discipline your child? What happens when your child will not listen to you? Celeste and Magen have gone through this – and continue to go through this – several times a day. It's part of parenting. We are constantly repeating ourselves and our children are constantly fighting us. We share how we tackle irrational toddler behaviors and our struggles with our independent mini me kids. SPOILER ALERT: IT ISN'T EASY. It's also not a one-size-fits-all approach. At the end of the day, it's what works best for you and your children. Period. Join us as we navigate these rough waters and the approach we take along with what resources we've found along the way to help us. 

Resources in this episode:
Book: "WILD THINGS: the art of nurturing boys" by Stephen James and David Thomas

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Happy Mother Forking New Year! Still can't get over the fact that 2019 is behind us and we are looking forward to 2020! A brand-new decade - a time to make mistakes, fuck shit up, get back up, dust yourself off, learn from your mistakes, and move on to better. Are we right or are we right? Celeste and Magen are super excited to bring you the first episode of 2020 where they are finally back in the same room together, this time with their youngest guest ever! They share with you updates on their lives, including Celeste's breastfeeding journey, Niko's tongue tie, Magen's transition to vegetarianism and veganism, and – the main focus of the episode – setting and crushing their 2020 goals. 

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Magen and her husband, Christo, reveal themselves a bit more and poke fun at themselves through a series of questions they ask each other, including the weirdest thing they've ever Googled, their first AIM screen name, where they want to retire, the last time they felt genuinely proud of themselves, which self-help book has helped them, the mottos they live by, and more!

Get to know Magen and Christo, parents of two very active toddler boys, during this episode!

Things we reference during the episode:

Jess knows cancer all too well. In 2017, she lost her mother to it and in 2019, her then 4-month-old son, Landon, was diagnosed with it. With September being Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Celeste and Magen wanted to get Jess on to discuss her first-hand account with it and how she's been coping, what's become their new normal, and how it affects the entire family. 

Friendships are all built on connection, but what happens when two people are at different stages in life which often include marriage, children, unfortunate circumstances, etc., Friendships are just like plants that need to be nourished and maintained. Celeste and Maggie (Celeste’s Cousin) discuss their personal experiences when it comes to staying connected with friends during different periods in life.

All work and no play? We don't think so! Whether you work from home, work outside of the home, or you're a stay-at-home parent, it's all work and it's tough! How do you balance that with time for your kids, your significant other, and yourself? Celeste and Magen share their experiences and perspectives as a stay-at-home mom and a work-from-home mom. 

It's summertime, which means the perfect relief from the heat is swimming! Being aware of water safety is a smart way to approach water activities, and Celeste and Magen dive head first into the statistics of drowning and they come back up for air to talk about preventative measures to keep your family safe.