Comedy Through The Chaos:Parenting Edition

Hey everybody, deep breath, Inhale, exhale and good morning. It is a Saturday. If you end up watching this live, if it is some other day in the future, I hope that it is a day that is treating you well. If not, shame on the day, not shame on you. I am Ms. Shannon Paul. A variety of word related things including a comedian, a speaker, a voice actor, an event emcee and a benefit auctioneer. Hubbing out of the great state of Minnesota, which many of you might know. Hello. The witness. Goodness. Good to see you this morning.

I help out of the great state of Minnesota and I'm also the proud jewels. Good to see you as well. The proud parent of an adorable 17 year old kiddo, Jen. Hello as well. Adorable 17 year old kiddo who happens to be high supports on the autism spectrum and he is sleeping right now. Good morning. Good morning JC Good to see you as well. Hello. Hello. Hello. So I am, it is a cold day, but it is a sunshiny day out there and I thought that we could get together worrisome lately from the perspective of a parent.

And that is what I thought we could kind of COVID today because it's very difficult to turn off the fountain of worry when it's not only about you, it's about the people that you care about and you care for. And so that's where I've caught myself a lot lately is waking up in the middle night going, yeah, let me think through this thing that I really can't affect at 3:00am and then again at 4:00am and then again at 4:15 and then maybe at 4:22, we're still thinking about the same thing. So I think what I've been working on, even though that is where my brain tendencies to tend to, tends to default back to, is trying to be very intentional with my energy and deciding where I choose to put that energy and how I choose to have that energy spent.

Because energy, as we all know, is one of our most precious and finite resources. There are a number of things that you can refill more easily than your energy. Your energy is something that once you spray it all out, I use this little pump. Once it's empty, it's not as easy as just going to put more water in it. Sometimes it takes a lot more to refill it. And so that has put me into the land of intentionality as far as my energy goes. And so what I'm trying to do is going, you know, you'll plan for this as best as you can.

You'll do what you can to make sure that some of these things are taken care of. And then try to have those moments where if I can create a sense of normalcy, which we know is a broad definition, especially for my kiddo, that's what I'm choosing to do with my energy right now. And so in order to conserve that energy, I've also had to be very intentional where I'm choosing not to put it. So there are a couple of things that I'm going. You know what? I'm not going to do that right now. I'm going to say no to this particular opportunity.

Although it is an opportunity that may normally. Like, I'm not going to do that one today. So that I have the energy and the resource in that finite bucket to put into other things, like working again on my sleep habits, which is just really one of those things. I know a lot of people, they fall off a variety of things. So maybe you've gone through a variety of different things as you choose to follow. As far as your dieting habits, things you've tried to do with your workout. The thing that I start and stop most often is my sleep routine.

I've been terrible at it for as long as I can remember. I was definitely one of those people that was proud about the fact that I could get by on four hours of sleep. And so it is definitely something that I have to go. That's not something to be proud of, girl. There's other things that you do that you should be proud of, not the fact that you are slowly murdering yourself because you don't sleep enough. So that is something that I am choosing to be intentional about and to continue to work on so that it makes days like today where I'm supposed to go out and hang around a variety of people and be entertaining.

It'll make it a little bit easier because today is one of those days where I have to do my best to try and be normal and lead a group of people. And that is not easy. When you retire. Yeah, Sleep routine. Yeah, it's very that. That's the thing that I always have to, like, hold myself accountable for. Like, it is the thing that I will fall off the quickest. It is much easier for me to stay regimented about. I choose not to eat as much sugar. I'm doing this particular detox right now. I'm not going to do these certain things.

But sleep, that is not one I am good at maintaining my diligence about. So that is what I'm really going to put some energy into for this week. That means re establishing some of my practices that I do at night, trying to reestablish them for my kid because now we're in an empath loop. So I didn't sleep well last night. Even though I wasn't anywhere near his room. I heard him wake up. So it's like he just feel that I just put this awakeness back into the air at 3am and he's like, you up? I'm up.

Okay, that's cool. And I'm like, no, no. So that is why I can speak with you in peace is because he's in there snoozing, but I gotta go do stuff. So he'll probably give his auntie less trouble because he might sleep for quite some time because he was up. He was up for a while last night. So I today, since I did not get enough sleep, we'll be covering all of this up with a concealer and putting some lashes on. I think I'm gonna wear some bigger lashes than I normally do so that I look less sleepy.

So I'm gonna put these on and I'm gonna fake it today. And then tonight when I get home, I'm gonna go back into being intentional with my sleep for this evening so that I do not continue to fall off this wagon and let it get entrenched. So I encourage you to think about that. I'm going to look at my note because I wrote this out in a way that I thought would make sense to say it. And since I said that I'm tired, I'm not going to try and remember it because that's silly. So, you know, as I said, I am going to take something out so that I can put something back in.

So here's the way I thought it would make sense. What is one thing you're intentionally not giving your energy to right now? So what is one thing that you are intentionally not giving your energy to right now? And so in order to save that energy for something that deserves more of your energy than it has been getting. So what is something that you are intentionally not going to give your energy to right now so that it can go to something that deserves more of your energy than it has been getting?

So for me, what I am choosing to not get my energy to right now is. That sounds so silly. I've been working on, you know, like a couple of, like little revamped things in my career. I'm putting a couple of those things on pause. So I just put a couple of things. I'm not. I'M not showing them completely. It's just one of those things where you can't get everything done all simultaneously, although you can get everything done eventually. So there's this thing I'm a little put a pin in it. I'll come back to it in a little bit so that I'm not up until 2am working on this stuff when I can actually be washing my face, doing my, my, my wind down routine for me and my kiddo.

Some things that have started to work overtime. So I'm just to intentionally take the time from this particular bucket and then I'm going to put the energy back into that because I know it's good for over. Our health, our mental health, our physical health, our spiritual health is so much better when we are getting more rest. Yeah, draining collaboration works on my book. Yeah, yeah, I understand that. I've gone through that before Jen, so I totally understand that. And it's being able to set that intention so that you really understand where that energy is going to go into.

I think makes it easier to get that time back when if you don't set that intention it's easy to have that our version of scope creep, which is energy creep. You start going back to oh yeah, I can do all this. I can spread myself a little bit thinner, I'll get it all done, it'll be fine. When that's just really not the reality, you know, it's not that. Hello Junk food Junkie. I appreciated your post that I saw earlier in the app. So good to see you. So where I am talking about right now, Junkie Junkie, is that the homework assignment I was leaving for us all to ponder on for the week and good friend Jen already put hers in to the chat.

Is what is one thing that you're intentionally not giving your energy to right now so that it can go to another bucket that deserves more of your energy than it has been getting. And mine is my sleep habits. And so I'm like I'm giving up, not giving up. That's not what I'm doing at all. I put a pin in something, I put a pen in something. It still happened. It just doesn't need to happen right now. And it's also something that if I'm being realistic with myself, the timing of forcing this other thing that I could be putting a lot of energy in, it really isn't good timing for it right now because of a bunch of factors that are outside of my control anyway.

But what I can control is, you know what, instead of staying up until the middle of the night, working on that thing where you're forcing it, you can use that energy into something that will actually benefit you overall. Because trust me, I mean, all of us know as caregivers, as parents, even if you're like parenting your plants or your, or your pets, the more energy you can put into making sure that they are calm and rested and all of those things, the better it works out for both of you. And so that is where I'm at.

The more rested my kiddo is, the more everything does. And I could feel it starting to creep up because there was a time earlier this week, and maybe you saw a video that I posted about this, there was a time earlier this week, same thing, didn't sleep well. Woke up in the morning preemptively ready to just, just go, you know, today, not trying, not. It was gonna be cold, not the coldest like it is now. It's gonna be cold. I heard my kid was still asleep and I'm like, you know, just the effort of getting up and getting him ready, getting myself ready, doing all that.

Hello, Speak, wonder. Good to see you though. Never late. The timing is the timing. But earlier this week I, I woke up, up ready to just throw in the towel. I can go. I don't feel like getting ready. I want to take a shower. I don't want him to get to take a shower. I don't want to get him dressed and then worry about whether today is going to be the day that he's going to easily go see his friends at school. I'm just gonna just. I was already ready to just go, just, just text his teacher and say you're not coming and let him stay asleep.

And then I thought about it and I said, but why? Like, why are you so ready to. Ready to just go? Today is just nope. When there really wasn't anything wrong other than I just woke up tired, I said, you know what? You need to save that nope for when it really is a nope. Because there will be days when you're like, yeah, I honestly cannot do this. And so that was a good wake up call for me to go. Are you putting your energy into too many places right now based upon the scenario that you're living in?

And the answer for me was yes, I was putting my energy into too many places. So we'll pare down a little bit. We'll pull it in a little bit. We'll make sure that we can now make decisions from a position of abundance and abundance of energy versus that position. Of lack and that moment of I'm spread so thin, so I'm given just wisps, wisps to everything instead of being able to give it the energy and attention that it deserves. So that is what I do not. Oh, my gosh. I. You know what? I do my best.

Thank you very much for that. That junk food junkie. I do my best. And you're right, most days, I do kind of live on the land of hashtag positivity. So when I don't, when I feel myself going towards that other. That other side, I know where it comes from for me. So you might have that feeling as well. I know how it feels when I start to overextend myself, but that's because of trial and error and situations where I've been in before, where I'm like, you know what? Now I can name it better than I did before.

Before, I'm like, well, what is that feeling? Is it this? Is that. How's your anxiety working now? I know what these little signs are. And so me waking up the morning and just going, the towel has been thrown in. I am done. And I'm like, you barely even got started. And so I caught myself. I was like, you know what? Just start the process. I went in, I started washing my face. I started the little process. The way that we work through the process now is since I've learned with my team teenager, if I encourage him to do stuff, I will get a lot of pushback and teenage nose in the morning.

But if I kind of just d***, like, what would I do? Is I just narrate what I'm doing that he should be doing as well, like, hey, I'm getting dressed. Here's some clothes for you. And then I just dip. Or I'm in here washing my face. Maybe it's time to wash her face. Or let's brush our teeth. I think that's a good idea. And then he will eventually mush into the process when I do it that way. When, before, when I went in there and I said, hey, you want to eat? You want to do this? Everything was no.

So just like, I have had to learn how his. How he ticks. I had to learn how I ticked my. How I tick myself. And that's probably what you have to do is that, you know, over living in your head, living in your body, being able to evaluate and go, this is what this means. This is why I feel this way. This is why I'm doing this. This is why I felt triggered today. And that's or again, that intentionality can help all of us. So, Jen Junk Food Jungie Speak Won Jules, jc, I encourage you to do that over the next couple days.

Think about if you're spreading yourself a little bit too thin, because right now a lot of things are making things. The world was already chaotic and now we are in the land of. It's even harder. It's literally unsafe for a lot of us. And if it's not unsafe for you specifically, it might be unsafe for people that you love and you care about. And that needs to be addressed. And you need to understand that rolling along with this, trying to act like things are normal when they're not normal, won't serve any of us.

It's figuring out how do we navigate where we are now and how do we continue to move forward in where we are now in a collective manner, in a community manner, in the way that we keep. Keep finding ways to support and amplify one another, to know that we are here for each other and to be able to see some of those things and go, you know what, here's the way. I saw this post I had from Speak Wonder or Jan and maybe I need to reach out to them. You know, maybe this is what I, you know, I need to touch base with Junk Food Junkie.

C. and everybody needs to check in with each other now more than we ever did. And to remember to feel in a sense of community and not in a sense of isolation. So don't let that community turn into those wisps. Speak Wonder. Figure out a way to make it that robust that, that, that, that. That current of air versus those tiny, tiny fragments. And that's how we're going to continue to get through all of this stuff. Yeah, snowstorm is going to hit you hard. Okay, please go. You know, be safe, get your provisions, do what you can, you know.

Yeah, a lot of they're just doing that. We aren't getting the powerful snow. We're still in the midst of cold. Like it was minus 40 with the wind chill here in the Twin Cities yesterday. So it was a lot. And it's going to stay that. But we will make it through. So do what is appropriate for your community so that you are safe. Check in on the other people if you can. If there's somebody in your community that you can just touch base. I've been checking on a couple of my neighbors just to make sure they're okay.

So if you have the energy to do that, continue to do that as well. I have every intention of joining you next Thursday. Last Thursday, the app still didn't like my Android, so I talked to myself for a little while, which is good. Sometimes. Sometimes I need to check in with myself as much as I love checking in with y'. All. Sometimes it's like I just need you to say the words for me as much as they were planned for you as well. Sometimes I just gotta say for me. So that's what it turned out on Thursday.

But I should be home. And so whether it needs me to use my phone or the iPad, I should be able to do that this Thursday so I can check in with you, because I do want to let you know that you are my community, you're my family. I care about all of you. Please be safe. If there's anything I could do to continue support and amplify throughout the week, please let me know. And I am sure that a number of the contributors that we have here feel exactly the same. So let us know what we can do to continue to support you.

Just to, like, ping you every once in a while, just to check and make sure that, you know, you're keeping on as best as you can. So I am going to get ready to go to a nerd convention today and talk to some people about some Doctor who stuff, so we'll see. I have my TARDIS necklace on today to go hang out with some nerds and I'm hoping that there's a sense of joy and geekery, family and community at this thing and that the day is peaceful. And I hope the same for you. I hope that your day is peaceful.

I hope that the day treats you well. If it does not, shame on it. Not shame on you. You are correct. Remember, your happiness has found us inner peace. And I also want to remind us that finding your personal joy is also a path of the resistance. And so you need to continue that. So, yes. So nerds, all of family, community, joy is a. Is an act of resistance. So find yours and we will help you continue to do that. So be well, everybody. I will see you. Fingers crossed. The positivity on Thursday. Talk to you soon.

Sa.