[00:00:00] Dana Stanley: This is my September report episode, a roundup of everything I’ve been reading, eating, playing, obsessing over, recommending and treating. This month had a lot going on. The girls went back to school, actually a new school for them. I went away to Georgia for three days by myself, which was the first time that I’ve ever left my kids, and we did not go to Disney World.

[00:00:29] Dana Stanley: So this is an episode I like to do every few months, just like a more personal episode about motherhood and business and just kind of life behind the scenes. Motherhood and business and life behind the scenes. My hope is to give your brain and mine a break from the Disney World planning things, and hopefully you will walk away with something new to try.

[00:00:57] Dana Stanley: Okay, so jumping right in with reading, I’m actually very excited because I have not read. A fiction book in a really long time that could hold my attention. So I wanna say like the last five books I’ve read have just been more like documentary or business. And I haven’t really been excited to read a fiction book in a while, just because.

[00:01:25] Dana Stanley: I usually go back to like my favorite authors and see like what they’ve been up to, and none of them have really published anything in a while.

[00:01:34] Dana Stanley: But this one I stumbled across just I think from like Amazon, like 2025 best fiction books. And I was just kind of researching. So the one that I landed on for my trip, I wanted like a fresh book for the plane is called Here. One Moment. By Leanne, I’m gonna attempt the last name. It looks so simple, but it’s hard to say.

[00:01:59] Dana Stanley: Moriarty. Leanne Moriarty, I think is how you say it, but you probably know her from, but you probably know her from past books. She’s written like Big Little Lies, which I actually didn’t read because I just watched the show first. But if you look at her lineup, these probably sound familiar too. So the husband’s secret.

[00:02:22] Dana Stanley: What Alice forgot, nine Perfect Strangers, which I think is also a show, but I haven’t watched that one. So this is her latest novel this year.

[00:02:33] Dana Stanley: So this is her latest novel from 2025. So this one, I’ll be honest, I read the first page like five times. Like I just could not get past the first page. And I think it’s because it starts off like at an airport. And I’m just letting you know right now, like if you happen to be in the same situation as me where you’re reading this before you get on a plane, nothing bad happens.

[00:02:59] Dana Stanley: But I think that was like even subconsciously, like something starting off, like it was literally exactly where I was like she was waiting for her gait and she was doing this, and I was like, wait, like that’s like too freaky. I didn’t even read it until the flight back is when I actually got really into it once I got past that first page, but I just wish I had known that.

[00:03:22] Dana Stanley: So you’re good if you start reading it, nothing bad happens, it’s not gonna freak you out.

[00:03:27] Dana Stanley: And now that I’m over like a hundred pages in, I still have no idea like what direction it’s going, but in a good way. It also has, oh, what is it called? It’s when the perspective changes from chapter to chapter. Like the spotlight goes from one character and then another character and goes back and forth in kind of a loop.

[00:03:53] Dana Stanley: And I really get sucked into books like that because you. Be really into one of the character storylines, and then it goes to the next person. Then you get really into that and it goes to the next person and you kind of wanna keep reading to get back to maybe like one of them has a little bit of a cliffhanger.

[00:04:10] Dana Stanley: So, so far, a hundred pages in very addicting. I have no idea if I will hate the ending, but that wasn’t really like the point of why I wanted to read a fiction book. I just really wanted something to hold my attention. So I’m excited that it is

[00:04:27] Dana Stanley: IE for eating. Nothing too exciting on the eating front, but if you feel like me. Then you might just kind of be over coming up with weekly meal plans every single week when you’re grocery shopping. And I think that is one of the reasons why I don’t get excited about food as much as I used to, is it’s just like a never ending preparing of meals or thinking about meals just over and over and over.

[00:04:57] Dana Stanley: So I actually don’t go crazy with my meal planning. I just like to at least know. What we’re having for dinner and then just kind of rotate between the same things for breakfast and lunch. but the dinners really start to like weigh on my mind.

[00:05:11] Dana Stanley: I know they shouldn’t, but they do. So what I’m trying to do is really just stick to like no-brainer themes for each day of the week. And I’ve been slowly doing this over. And I’ve been slowly doing this for a while. Like for example, story loves tacos, and then one day it was like Taco Tuesday because it was just coincidence.

[00:05:35] Dana Stanley: And now we have Taco Tuesday, every Tuesday, and I don’t have to think about that on Fridays. We usually go out to dinner or we get takeout. I don’t have to think about that. So I’ve been trying to implement that feeling with the other days of the week.

[00:05:48] Dana Stanley: And this all starts on Friday since that’s the day that I don’t have to make dinner because we’re going out. That’s the day that I like to meal plan. So I’m not like meal planning and writing a list. And then I’m also like cooking up dinner.

[00:06:06] Dana Stanley: I don’t know why that just makes me feel better, but it just does. So Friday, my brain is free. Because we’re ordering out, I write my meal plan and then I’ll usually just order groceries for Saturday morning, like a pickup order. That way I don’t have, like I am not going to the grocery store with the three kids.

[00:06:25] Dana Stanley: I’ve done it I think twice in the last two years, and now it is like pickup only.

[00:06:31] Dana Stanley: And then after we get the groceries on Saturday, we’re having something simple like maybe something on the grill. Because it’s the weekend and Colton’s home. So if it is nice out, he can handle the grill, some easy sides. And then Sunday I’m going to try to do it as like a double day. So this is something easy that I can make a huge batch of on Sunday.

[00:06:56] Dana Stanley: And this is really great. ’cause now that it’s getting cooler, it’ll most likely be like soup, or we did chili this past Sunday. So, you know, think something in the crockpot, a curry would be great. Something that might even taste better the next day. That way. On Monday we just have leftovers. Mondays are just hard ’cause the kids are back in school.

[00:07:21] Dana Stanley: My podcast episodes are due on Mondays. You know, it’s just a busy day and I don’t want to think about dinner or have like a bunch of ingredients out and making a mess. So leftovers. I feel like people go either way with leftovers. Like I have friends and family that hate them and love them. I personally love them.

[00:07:41] Dana Stanley: So I know that we’re having chili tonight and I don’t have to do anything except maybe like grate a little bit of cheese and do some toppings, and I love that.

[00:07:50] Dana Stanley: Tuesday again, easy one. Taco Tuesday, and I don’t change anything here. Like I don’t do like quesadillas or like different Mexican foods like. It’s just the same tacos every Tuesday. I call them mom tacos because I feel like all of our moms, you know, it’s like the taco seasoning with ground beef, lettuce, cheese, salsa.

[00:08:09] Dana Stanley: And then if I wanna do a bowl and I can add avocado, we’ll do black beans on the side. It’s very easy to like modify for each kid. Some of them have like deconstructed tacos, as sailor calls it. Some of them do like little tiny rollup tacos, but they’re tacos.

[00:08:28] Dana Stanley: Wednesday usually ends up being a pasta day. It depends usually on like the weather, I think like there’s some days where it’s hot and sunny. I’m like, Ooh, I do not want pasta. And then I’ll usually kind of pivot a little bit and make something else. But

[00:08:43] Dana Stanley: I at least like to just have some like frozen meatballs in the freezer. A good jarred pasta sauce and some pasta. And then lately I’ve been having like a separate batch, like I’ll do a gluten-free pasta for me, which is great and fine, but doesn’t taste as good. So then the kids will just have regular pasta.

[00:09:03] Dana Stanley: Thursday is sheet pan day. So think like chicken and zucchini with onion or like chicken sausage and vegetables, just like any type of protein. And then a bunch of vegetables. There’s some onion and garlic on there and pop that in the oven. And we usually always have leftovers, so sometimes I’ll have that leftovers for lunch, and then I’ll make like just some rice on the side, like an easy.

[00:09:30] Dana Stanley: Like something stupid easy on the side, nothing fancy, and the only thing I really need to remember usually for this ahead of time is marinate the chicken, and if I can remember that, then it’s very easy. Other than that, like it’s not a lot of dishes. I just washed the sheet pan and it’s been great. And then we’re back to Friday and we’re going out and I’m doing my meal plan again.

[00:09:55] Dana Stanley: So this has been working. Obviously things happen, but just to recap, it would be Friday going out Saturday, something easy, hopefully on the grill. Sunday is double day Monday leftovers. Tuesday tacos Wednesday. Pasta. And Thursday, a sheet pan day.

[00:10:19] Dana Stanley: Okay. I’m excited to talk about this one for playing, and I actually haven’t had time to play this in a while, but like a few months ago, but like if you asked me this two months ago, I was playing it a lot and it’s a game called Dream Light Valley on the Nintendo Switch. And I mean, I’m sure that it’s on.

[00:10:39] Dana Stanley: Other things maybe, I’m not sure. But I play on the Nintendo Switch and I discovered recently after talking to some of my friends that not every Disney fan is playing this. So I kind of need everyone to be playing this Okay. So that we can like talk about it.

[00:10:55] Dana Stanley: And I don’t. I don’t wanna like botch up the gist of the game. So here is how the interwebs describe it. Okay? It’s a life simulation slash adventure game. The game lets you wander around a magical valley, meet and befriend Disney and Pixar characters. Build and decorate your homes garden. You craft cook.

[00:11:22] Dana Stanley: That’s my favorite part. Like I like cooking and making the different dishes. The storyline is that something called quote, the forgetting left many of the characters with no memories. And it’s your job with the help from Merlin to restore the valley by removing night thorns. They’re called unlocking different realms and helping characters remember who they are.

[00:11:46] Dana Stanley: So you are not playing a Disney character, you are just a human being person. That you are controlling and you can change the look of what you look like. So to unlock these characters within the valley, you have to earn and do certain things to collect something called dream light. And then when you reach enough dream light, you unlock these different realms.

[00:12:16] Dana Stanley: And then there’s like a character inside.

[00:12:18] Dana Stanley: S and this is like the most fun part. So when I say I’m playing this, it’s like we are playing this, like we kind of take turns, like story plays it, she’s nine, and then my five-year-old will play and we, we play the same person. We don’t have like different profiles. So it’s kind of like a team effort. And it’s funny because like you can sell and trade different things and you’ll be collecting them and I’m like, don’t sell my.

[00:12:43] Dana Stanley: Soft wood, like I need that for a quest. Like it’s just really funny. But the best part is you’re like all working to collect, let’s say, 10,000 dream light for this character that you’re working really hard to earn enough for, and then you unlock it and it’s like so exciting and everyone’s freaking out.

[00:13:02] Dana Stanley: But I will say it’s one of those games that the girls will like mainly stick together. Like they’re not fighting,

[00:13:13] Dana Stanley: like they’re helping each other out. ’cause like obviously my 9-year-old reads better than the 5-year-old. So it’s really nice having something like that where versus like. I don’t know, Mario Kart or something where sometimes the kids are like more like fighting or like pitted against each other. So it’s really nice having something like that that everyone can kind of get into, especially going into like the end of the year and it’s gonna be getting like, and the weather’s gonna be getting gross and colder and things like that.

[00:13:41] Dana Stanley: So yeah, I love it. Dream Light Valley.

[00:13:44] Dana Stanley: For obsessing, I put two things. So the first one is my phone. I’m obsessed with my phone in the sense of like, I need like a full phone detox. And I think this will make more sense when I get to the end of the episode and I talk more about the treating things. But long story short, I haven’t been feeling great.

[00:14:04] Dana Stanley: And when you don’t feel good, the easiest thing to do is like sit on your phone because it doesn’t require you to move and it’s very low effort. And because the algorithm algorithms, I’ve been seeing a lot of things about this thing called brick. Have you heard of it? It’s this little gray square. It’s a physical thing, but it has a companion app that you download onto your phone.

[00:14:33] Dana Stanley: You can set it however you want of like what it actually blocks on your phone, but once you brick your phone. You can only un brick it, meaning you can only unlock certain things when you’re physically at the like tangible little square. I know that’s like hard to explain in a podcast. For example, if you didn’t wanna be on your phone from like 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM you would brick your phone and the only thing that would work on your phone is the things that you want to work.

[00:15:07] Dana Stanley: So for me, that would be like. Maybe just my phone and my texts and photos or something like that, but all of your social media or your email if you wanted to, is locked and you can’t unlock it until you physically go to the location and un brick your phone. So if you were going out, if you had like a date night, you would brick your phone before you left, or if it was the weekend and you were taking the kids to the park, you could brick your phone before you leave.

[00:15:35] Dana Stanley: That is very enticing to me when I have my phone. When I have my phone, it is just like a default to open Instagram and my work is on Instagram and then it’s like dumb I mean, everyone knows how it feels to not be able to get off your phone as much as you want to. I have been doing better about not scrolling at night, especially thanks to this book that I’m reading and just keeping my phone out of my bedroom.

[00:16:04] Dana Stanley: But if you have been using this or you’ve heard of Brick and you bought it and you like it or don’t like it, I would love if you dmd me on Instagram and let me know if it helps at all. ’cause I’m, pretty sure I’m gonna get it.

[00:16:17] Dana Stanley: And the second thing I’m obsessing over is when we’re going back to Disney World I’m honestly like not really itching to go quite yet. Like I don’t, I’m not having like FOMO yet, but as you know, things come up fast. So you have to really plan ahead, especially with Disney World. And I know that a lot of our trips end up being last minute.

[00:16:39] Dana Stanley: And I wish that they weren’t. I would like to plan further out. So that’s something I’ve been really thinking about and obsessing over is just like 2026 in general. From vacations to, from vacations to like business things to personal things, how to stagger things out when we wanna go where.

[00:17:05] Dana Stanley: And that way as soon as I know the dates, I can start putting in requests for renting DBC points, which is my favorite way to stay at Disney. Because whenever I go to Disney World’s website and I look at the prices to stay deluxe, I am reminded, oh yeah, this is why we always have to rent DVC points because we save like 40%.

[00:17:27] Dana Stanley: And that’s just been on my mind to get it down on paper and just like have something in the books R for recommending is a total shameless plug, and I’m recommending you join Laid Back Magic, and I’m going to tell you why. I mentioned in the beginning of the episode that I was away for three days in Georgia.

[00:17:50] Dana Stanley: And this was actually a retreat with my business coach and other people in her mastermind. We spent about two and a half days just talking about our business and working on our businesses. And at one point on the retreat we did kind of like a switch. So like we would find a partner and we would give advice on our businesses, and then we would switch.

[00:18:16] Dana Stanley: And at one point I asked my partner, okay, like what would you do if your husband gifted you a Disney World trip this year? Like he does it as a surprise. And she said, well, first I would laugh and say like, well, I hope this is all planned for me because I’m not doing it. I don’t have time. And then she said that she would use my Walt Disney World Guide for once she was in the park.

[00:18:43] Dana Stanley: I was like, oh, okay. Like I, now I’m seeing a problem here and you’ve probably heard before and like we said it so many times on the retreat of quote, you don’t know what you don’t know. And I realized planning a Disney trip once you get there is kind of like trying to have dinner ready when everyone wants to eat, when all your guests have already arrived.

[00:19:11] Dana Stanley: And I’ll give you an example for my own life. My mom comes over to watch the kids once in a while, so it’s not last minute. Like I know she’s coming, she knows she’s coming and because she doesn’t live super close, she usually stays all day. So I’ll make dinner. We have like a little dessert, nothing crazy, but I want to have something homecooked.

[00:19:32] Dana Stanley: And because I know she’s coming, I’ll do a lot of prep beforehand. So whether that is preheating the oven or marinating the chicken or just like shopping for the ingredients or chilling the bottle of wine that I get her. But if I waited until she got there, literally nothing would be ready. And we wouldn’t have anything home cooked.

[00:19:58] Dana Stanley: I could scramble and just get something from DoorDash, and of course it would not be like a life or death situation, but it would not match what I envisioned in my mind of sharing a glass of wine with my mom over a home, home-cooked meal versus like just some soggy pizza that I randomly ordered from DoorDash.

[00:20:23] Dana Stanley: And it would not feel as thoughtful and it wouldn’t feel special to me. And having this conversation with her at the retreat, I felt like, okay, there might be some people that don’t join Laidback Magic just because they think they don’t need it. So I want to tell you that this could be the you didn’t know you need it, type of guide that teaches you how to plan and not just what to do.

[00:20:52] Dana Stanley: So from sketching your park days before you even buy tickets to understanding the difference between the regular line and something called the lightning lane, it’s all the behind the scenes prep. Just like me prepping for my mom coming over for dinner. That makes the trip actually feel a hundred percent finished once you get there and frees up your brain that you can actually feel like laid back and present with your kids.

[00:21:20] Dana Stanley: And I know that’s the whole reason you’re going to Disney World because once you’re there, like once you. Land in Orlando and you check into your resort. I’m telling you, my goal is that you should not be researching anything once you’re there. Like I just want it completely done for you. Like me putting something in the Crock Pot.

[00:21:42] Dana Stanley: It is just done. You’ve done the work, and now you can actually relax when you get there. Moving on to treating for this, I’m using treating as in like how you would treat an ailment, like treating a problem instead of treating like a dessert, treating like a dessert or something, like a spa day. And I’ll tell you why.

[00:22:06] Dana Stanley: So if you remember. Well, I don’t know why you would remember, but just in case you didn’t know, I’ve been feeling like absolute trash for about four months and like slowly not great for, I’d say probably like the last year, like since last October. So after just trying to fix myself with supplements and like self diagnosing, trying to eat better and do all the normal things like.

[00:22:37] Dana Stanley: We all do. I finally turned to a functional nutritionist who she actually specializes in like gut and hormones, and I could have done some testing on my own or gone through my doctor, but I knew that I definitely wouldn’t be able to read the results and then I would just start Googling and go down the wrong path.

[00:23:00] Dana Stanley: So I wanted someone that could gimme a protocol. Of exactly what to do, which is what she did. But I also didn’t want to do blood work right off the bat because whenever I get my blood work done, I feel like it just always comes back normal, which is really frustrating. So the test I had done was something called a Dutch test, and long story short, it’s because blood work doesn’t show how your body is like using or metabolizing certain hormones and then it can miss certain things.

[00:23:31] Dana Stanley: If your hormones are like fluctuating throughout your cycle or even the time of day, it’s hard to get a good read from blood work.

[00:23:40] Dana Stanley: So I got this testing done and I’m not gonna tell you what I was low in because I don’t want you to think like, oh my God, that’s so me. And then kind of self-diagnose yourself because it does seem like everyone I talk to who is kind of in this phase of life of me like. Like they’ve had a bunch of kids and now they’re in their mid to late thirties and we all just like don’t feel great, which is like lovely for us, but we can’t not feel good.

[00:24:07] Dana Stanley: Like we just can’t. I did come back with severely like off kilter results, so that was actually a good thing. Like my worst fear was it coming back normal. I am gonna leave a link to the Instagram of the functional nutritionist that I used, as well as the test that I took. Highly recommend her, like I loved having someone explain my results and then give me just like, do this and take this.

[00:24:37] Dana Stanley: And it is helping. Like I do definitely feel way better than I felt, I wanna say a month ago. I’m just still not great. Like I’m not a hundred percent, but I hope that I’m on the right path. So I’m treating myself with this protocol and the top two things of how to fix this naturally are number one, strength training.

[00:25:02] Dana Stanley: Not just exercise, but like really hard weight training, like heavy weights, not like Pilates or high intensity interval training, like strength training and walking. Number two is prioritizing sleep. And I thought that I already was, ’cause I’ve been so exhausted. I am getting like a full eight hours. It’s not like I’m going to bed late, I’m waking up early.

[00:25:27] Dana Stanley: But it’s really about the quality of sleep. So before I’m going to bed, that means like no blue light at all, like no screens. I’m thinking about getting some blue light glasses in case we watch tv. I’m not sure yet. But for sure like no phone before bed and taking magnesium. I know there’s like other things I could take, but for now.

[00:25:48] Dana Stanley: I’m just taking magnesium, also, avoiding eating two hours before bed, which I was for sure not doing before, but it makes sense because your blood sugar can spike in the middle of the night when you eat late and then you can’t fall back asleep, which sometimes happens to me. Everything in my protocol is like not glamorous.

[00:26:09] Dana Stanley: Like they, it’s not just like, oh my gosh, do this one thing and you’ll be cured. It’s like very small things that I think most of us all know are the quote, like healthy or right thing to do. But I do notice like when I don’t do them, I feel a difference. Like it’s the difference between feeling like kind of okay and like absolute garbage.

[00:26:32] Dana Stanley: So this is my life now. And I’m hoping I can get back at least within the normal range soon. And then when one of these things doesn’t happen, it won’t be that big of a deal. But right now, this is like my number one priority is just getting my levels up so I feel better.

[00:26:52] Dana Stanley: So like I said, a very personal episode, but I hope that there is something that you can take away from this. I’ll leave links in the show notes like for the book I’m reading and anything else that I mentioned.

[00:27:04] Dana Stanley: And if you did have a takeaway from this episode, I’d love if you left a quick review on the podcast. It only takes a few minutes, but it really helps more people find the show so that I can keep bringing you episodes every week like this one.