A little more from THE Things We Don’t Say—the companion guides, bonus conversations, and extras that don’t make it into the regular feed.
THIS WEEK’S EXTRAS
EPISODE SEVEN: I’ve got it: The mental load We carry
What’s Open In Your Browser? (Companion Guide)
MENTAL LOAD TEST from Initiative equal care
fair play by Eve Rodsky
What’s taking up space in your brain right now?
This week we’re talking about the mental load—the things we’re remembering, anticipating, monitoring, preventing, and waiting on while still trying to live our actual lives. But we’re also taking the conversation one step further: just because we’re still functioning, does that mean we actually have the capacity to carry everything we’re carrying?
This week’s Backstage Pass includes the What’s Open in Your Browser? Mental Load Check-In to help you get those tabs out of your head and decide what needs to stay, be shared, handed off, waited on—or closed completely.
Because the goal isn’t to get better at carrying everything. It’s to get better at knowing what actually deserves to stay open.
COMPANION GUIDES AND PAST EXTRAS
EPISODE six: The cost of making it work
DOWNLOAD THE COMPANION guide
What if the problem isn’t that our calendars are full— but that we’ve gotten really good at making everything fit? Use this guide to take an honest look at what your yeses are costing you, what might need protecting, and whether making it all work is actually working.
EPISODE Five: I Need you to know…
DOWNLOAD THE COMPANION GUIDE
The people who know us best still can’t read our minds. This guide helps you look at the things you’ve been hoping someone would just know— and what might change if you actually said them out loud.
EPISODE FOUR: I HOPE SHE WINS
DOWNLOAD THE COMPANION GUIDE
What happens when someone else gets the thing you wanted? This week, we’re talking scoreboards, comparison, and learning to celebrate someone else without calculating what their win means about you. Because your disappointment can be real and you can still become someone who cheers obnoxiously loud.
A little note from Mom:
Hannah and Elsie were excited to share this with you, and I’m protective of the fact that these are their little voices and their stories. Please enjoy this bonus here on the Backstage Pass, but don’t download, record, repost, or share clips of their audio elsewhere. Thanks for helping me keep this safe place for them to be themselves.
THE LAUNCH EPISODES
Episode 1: FIVE MORE MINUTES
Download the companion guide here.
What if the moments we’re rushing through are the very ones we’ll someday wish we could get back? In the very first episode of Things We Don’t Say, I invite you into an ordinary morning—the snooze button, the unfinished plans, the cold coffee, and the interruptions that feel inconvenient in the moment. Maybe the ordinary moments aren’t interruptions at all. Maybe they’re invitations—to slow down, pay attention, and notice the people and stories right in front of us.
Sometimes the words come later. And sometimes… all it takes is five more minutes.
Episode 2: The best yes
Download the companion guide here.
I know exactly where you think this episode is going. Trust me. You’re wrong. Somewhere between Betty (yes, I named my phone), a swim meet, and one very inconvenient parenting moment, I discovered this conversation had almost nothing to do with my phone.
Every day we’re giving our “yes” to something. The question isn’t whether we’re saying yes—it’s who or what is getting it. The things that deserve our best often lose to the things that are simply easiest to reach. But when we intentionally choose who gets our attention, we become the kind of people who make others feel seen.
Episode 3: Who I thought I’d Be
Download the companion guide here.
Who did you think you’d be by now? On my 40th birthday, I’m looking back at the versions of myself I thought I’d become—and the expectations, disappointments, and unexpected turns that shaped who I actually am.
From a questionable relationship with anti-aging cream to career changes, church ministry, old birthday blogs, and the quiet grief of a life that didn’t go exactly as planned, I’m asking what might be underneath our tendency to compare.