[00:00:00] Dana Stanley: Welcome back to another report episode, which if you are new here to the podcast. Hello, welcome. These episodes are basically a monthly roundup of what I’ve been reading, eating, playing, obsessing over, recommending and treating.

[00:00:23] Dana Stanley: I love doing these because they are just like a nice break from all of the Disney stuff and more just behind the scenes, uh, my life being a mom and a little bit of like the business side of things too. And I have a feeling if you’re listening to this episode when it airs, this is a very busy week for you.

[00:00:43] Dana Stanley: So we are just going to keep it very relaxed and easy and short this week. And my hope is that you find something new or a recommendation that you would like to try, and I will link everything in the show notes so that you can find everything easily.

[00:01:01] Dana Stanley: First up for reading. I have been in such a rut with reading because by the time my kids are all in bed I am, I am so exhausted that when my head hits the pillow, I am out. And also my 2-year-old, since the time change has been waking up so early, so then. I’m up at like five, and then again, like I’m even more tired.

[00:01:25] Dana Stanley: I kind of have to go to bed early and then the cycle continues. And I’ve been saying for the past month, like I really need just a good fiction book to really suck me in because I love reading and when I’m not in a few books at once, it starts to bother me. So I kind of went on a little bit of a like library.

[00:01:47] Dana Stanley: Hall, if you wanna call it that. Um, so my local library has an app. I don’t know if yours does or if that’s like everywhere. So I went on and just saved a bunch of books that are supposed to be coming in this week. So I’ll tell you about the ones that I have on hold that I’m gonna be picking up this week.

[00:02:07] Dana Stanley: The first one is called Theo of Golden, and I’m pretty sure this is like a massive, I think it’s like a really big book. And I cannot tell you how I found it or who recommended it, but it was definitely something that I saw. Maybe it was, it might have been Walker Family Goods. Um, shout out to Lexi if it was her, but I think someone, I think it was her and she had mentioned that she loves it, unless I’m completely making this up.

[00:02:39] Dana Stanley: But if you go on Amazon and look at the reviews. Very, very good reviews. Number one bestseller in Southern fiction. So the little summary on here says that Theo visits the local coffee house. So Theo is the character. Golden is the place, and it says that Theo visits the local coffee house where 92 pencil portraits hang on the walls.

[00:03:06] Dana Stanley: Portraits of the people of Golden done by a local artist. He begins purchasing them one at a time and putting them back in the hands of their quote rightful owners. And with each exchange a story is told, A friendship is born and a life. It sounds like a like happy book. So I will report back how I liked it.

[00:03:27] Dana Stanley: Um, the other book. One of the other books that I have on hold is called Eat That Frog, and this is a recommendation from my business coach earlier this year, and I kind of just read anything that she recommends, so I have that waiting. For me, it’s essentially just about prioritizing your time and not procrastinating.

[00:03:46] Dana Stanley: And I don’t know what the frog analogy will be, but I can assume it’s just to get the most annoying slash gross slash thing that you’re dreading out of the way. Next book is called Unreasonable Hospitality,

[00:04:07] Dana Stanley: and this again, is another more of a business one and creating, um, very like personal brands that have very good service, making the customer feel good and just going like above and beyond what you actually have to do. I’ve been wanting to read this one for a very long time, and. And finally I will be reading that hopefully this month, and this will make a little bit more sense of why I wanna read this as we get into the episode two.

[00:04:40] Dana Stanley: Next one is just for fun, sharp objects by, I dunno if you say Gillian or Gillian, I think it’s Gillian Flynn. Same person who wrote, gone Girl. This book was turned into a series on I think HBO with Amy Adams. Who did I really, really, really like this show. And it’s one of those shows that you can’t watch twice because once you know the end, it just kind of, ugh.

[00:05:05] Dana Stanley: It’s just one of those shows that you wish you could watch for the first time again, but you can’t. So I am going to read the book that it was based off of. Next Step is E for eating and we have been baking a lot. So fun fact, my 5-year-old, her like. Favorite, like guilty pleasure is watching baking videos on like my reels or TikTok, like cake decorating, baking, and she stumbled across Sarah Fennels Instagram.

[00:05:37] Dana Stanley: This is Broma Bakery, and that’s like her favorite girl to watch. She calls them Makey and we’ll just swipe through all the reels and be like, Ooh, that looks so good. She just loves watching people bake. And one day we were in Barnes and Noble and I saw Sarah’s new book. I saw Sarah’s new book, it’s called Sweet Tooth on the Shelf, and Sailor my five-year-old recognized it from seeing her permit on Instagram.

[00:06:09] Dana Stanley: She was like blown away, like, oh my gosh, this person who I’m a fan of, like on your phone. Made a book and it has like pictures and pages and I can see her like, look, that’s her. It just was really cool to see her like connect the dots of being like a content creator and then like landing a book deal.

[00:06:30] Dana Stanley: And I know that’s not what she’s thinking in her five-year-old mind. Long story short, I surprised her with the cookbook and we’ve been going through and baking different things, so we’ve baked. Like a coconut caramel cookie, which are like the Girl Scout Samoas, which are very good. And we also did a sugar cookie so far, so, and when you flip through the book, you can’t even choose like what to bake.

[00:06:59] Dana Stanley: Everything looks amazing. Oh, and I used her pancake recipe too, which was really good.

[00:07:12] Dana Stanley: For playing. I actually mentioned this in my last episode, and that is opia. It is a kind of card game with a Disney theme where you have images on one side of different characters and on the other side the person can ask, it’ll be like, what two characters had their hearts broken? It’d be like A and C or.

[00:07:35] Dana Stanley: Which character does not have powers or something like that. And it’s fun for us as a group, like from, and it’s fun for us as a family because there’s some characters that my kids aren’t super familiar with. And then there’s older characters that my kids aren’t super familiar with, and they’re kind of learning the names or like, oh, that’s from, you know, Aristo Cats or something.

[00:08:00] Dana Stanley: And then the newer characters that I’m not super familiar with. My daughters can tell me who they’re from.

[00:08:08] Dana Stanley: Story actually brought that to school today and I hope she brings it back and doesn’t use it because she knew that they were gonna have indoor recess. So just like an easy thing to bring around, travel with, throw it in your bag, uh, bring it to a restaurant is really nice. It’s just been easy and we’ve been, it’s just easy and we’ve been pulling that out a lot.

[00:08:31] Dana Stanley: I’ve been thinking about what I’ve been obsessing over, and specifically today, I woke up truly obsessing. I actually had a hard time falling asleep last night because I’m obsessing over. My husband Colton is going down to a Lutheran in The Bahamas, and it’s like, I haven’t been keeping this a secret.

[00:08:54] Dana Stanley: Like it’s not intentional. But so much time has passed that I don’t really know how to bring it up. So I’m just gonna tell you why he’s going is about two, almost three years ago, so like this coming February will be three years. We bought a piece of land on a Luther. And this is kind of a wild story, especially if you have no idea what I’m talking about.

[00:09:19] Dana Stanley: So I am going to link to an episode about Eleuthera, why we love Eleuthera, and just kind of the backstory and gist of this island and why we like vacationing there. Why I think you would like vacationing there. But just to tell you fairly quickly and what you need to know is that. Owning some type of land or property or home has been my husband’s dream since he was like, I don’t know, 16, 17.

[00:09:53] Dana Stanley: Like he’s just always been looking at, I know like Zillow didn’t exist back then, but whenever that started becoming a thing, that’s what he does for fun.

[00:10:09] Dana Stanley: He is always scoping out different properties and places and anywhere that we’ve ever traveled. That has been amazing, is because he took me there or he found it, he read it in a magazine or so, a photo of it. He’s just always looking for these special places and. To own something eventually one day. I think the original plan, at least in my mind, would be to buy a home.

[00:10:47] Dana Stanley: I have not had, um, the specific dream of having property or a home down in the Caribbean or the islands, but I have always dreamed of running something in the realm. Of hospitality, so like a bed and breakfast, uh, Airbnb, something along those lines. And over the years of being together and traveling together, we kind of exclusively only visit homes and rent homes when we’re on vacation.

[00:11:18] Dana Stanley: We aren’t resort type people except for Disney World, of course. And this dream has turned into having a. And this dream has slowly turned into having a short term rental. And in our travels, before we had kids, we visited Harbor Island again because Colton took me there, which is a very, very tiny island down in The Bahamas.

[00:11:46] Dana Stanley: And we love it like that’s. Like that’s one of Colton’s favorite spots. But then when we were looking for property, specifically beachfront property, it gets hard because the island is very small. We had played with the idea of buying an already existing property on Harbor Island in town that was already being rented out, but it wasn’t on the beach.

[00:12:10] Dana Stanley: And if you listened to my Luther episode earlier, you’ll know that if you visit Harbor Island, there is a bigger island. That you fly into. It’s called Eleuthera, and it’s actually the same island that Disney opened up a cruise ship port on the south end.

[00:12:32] Dana Stanley: So a few years ago, we took like a long two week kind of trip to get the feel of like different areas. Of Eleuthera because it’s very skinny, but it’s very long. So you can be anywhere on the island and it feels completely different. So we stayed in two or three different places to nail down the location of where we liked on the island.

[00:12:57] Dana Stanley: We decided where we liked, which is around Governor’s Harbor. So the next time we went back, we actually rented a house very similar to what we would like to own right next to a piece of land. That was for sale. We’re like, okay, we know that we like this area. Now, how would it feel being on this specific beach, which is called French Leave Beach?

[00:13:28] Dana Stanley: And we rented this house on purpose because it was so close to a spot that was for sale. But Colton also did visit like a handful of other lots that were for sale. Like some were more like up higher, like the elevation was higher, more like a cliff, um, where there was like a lot of steps going down to the beach.

[00:13:51] Dana Stanley: Some, some were on the other side of the island with more property, but like less of a good beach. But what we both agreed was the best spot was the one that was right. Next to the home we were renting.

[00:14:10] Dana Stanley: And you have to know too, like we are not spontaneous at all. Like we’re both very thoughtful, especially when it comes to like big decisions. So, so we had been talking to anyone we could over the years who we knew owned rental properties on the island. People that lived there, um, people that owned houses down there, people that, people that lived there and owned houses, people that lived in different countries and owned houses, and no one, not one of them regretted it at all.

[00:14:51] Dana Stanley: And they all said yes. Like, if you can, you should definitely do it.

[00:14:58] Dana Stanley: So on that trip, after walking the property, we put in an offer while we were on vacation, which was very cool and exciting and scary ’cause we have no idea what we’re doing. We’ve never done this before. And I woke up the day after putting in the offer and took a pregnancy test. In that house that we were renting on French leave Beach, and I was pregnant with my son Cruso.

[00:15:28] Dana Stanley: So in my mind, like when I think of the timelines of things like this house that we will eventually build on Eleuthra and my son, like their stories started truly like at the exact same time actually for a minute. Colton was like, wait, like let me call him and like we’ll back out of the deal when he found out I was pregnant and thank goodness we didn’t because we still have the land and now we just need to figure out how to put a house on it.

[00:15:59] Dana Stanley: And that’s where Colton is going to be going down to Eleuthra. He’s meeting with the builder to stake out. Where to put like the first structure where everything’s going to be, um, because it sounds like maybe there’s going to be like three structures total. Um, two of them will be available to rent like then one smaller, almost like a carriage house that we can stay in ourselves when it’s just us.

[00:16:29] Dana Stanley: So I’m definitely obsessing thinking about like all the decisions that we’re going to have to make, and I don’t want to make the wrong. Decisions. Um, if you are listening and by any chance have done this, please, I’m hello@summerearthwild.com. I would love to chat with you.

[00:16:53] Dana Stanley: Next step is R for recommending and I am recommending is that if you are planning on visiting Disney World in 2026. You need to book it like immediately, like obviously it’s December, so like travel is on your mind for next year. But if you’re thinking like maybe December of 2026 and you’re like, oh, I have time, that’s a year away.

[00:17:17] Dana Stanley: I just need to wait. I’m telling you like go online when you can and just start looking at the rooms. Rooms are going really fast and you can book, and all of the packages are available for next year, so. Learn from me who always waits until the last minute and usually ends up staying in a resort that I didn’t necessarily have my heart set on, which I will admit can be like kind of a happy accident and always works out somehow, but there is no downside to starting now.

[00:17:55] Dana Stanley: So if you are used to visiting. If you are used to, you know, going to Mexico for spring break or you go down to South Carolina and you book six months out and it’s never an issue, I encourage you Disney is different. And just start getting that ball rolling now, please. IT for treating is funny because when I first started the monthly.

[00:18:23] Dana Stanley: When I first started these monthly reports, tea was treating as in like a treat, like a snack, a sugary dessert, and then it slowly turned into treating like almost like an ailment, like I am treating myself to something that is going to make me feel good and give me energy, and help my brain and my mood, and all of those things.

[00:18:53] Dana Stanley: And it has really all been about my hormones for me this past six months. I’ve been getting a lot of tests done, um, blood work tracking things and experimenting with different, um, natural supplements and. Removing things and adding things, and while I do definitely feel better, I found out that I have very, very low testosterone.

[00:19:29] Dana Stanley: And I’ve known this for a while now. And, and at first, like if you’re like me, you’re just thinking like testosterone is like a man thing. Uh, turns out women need it too, because if you’re very, very low in any hormone, but especially testosterone. Even if you’re normal and everything else, it makes you dominant in those other hormones and it stinks.

[00:19:55] Dana Stanley: So my main complaint slash symptom is energy. Like it’s been really, really hard, um, over, I’d say it’s gotten worse over the last two or three months of exercising because the number one thing. That you can do to raise your testosterone naturally is exercise, especially, um, weight training, like strength training, really heavy weights.

[00:20:25] Dana Stanley: And that’s usually like right up my alley. I, you know, struggle like anyone to exercise, but once I do, like, once I hit play on the video or get my sneakers on, I’m fine. But this is like, it’s. True. Like I’m working out and it’s a struggle, like I almost can’t get through a warmup. It’s a very hard thing to describe.

[00:20:50] Dana Stanley: It kind of feels like I have the flu kind of all the time. You know, when you don’t have like symptoms necessarily, like outward symptoms, you just feel it like in your body of just like very bad fatigue. That’s kind of how I feel all the time. Um, and the next thing that helps with that is really good sleep.

[00:21:12] Dana Stanley: And ironically, the low testosterone can make it hard to get very good restful sleep. But then also my son has been waking up really early, which I mentioned. I just have been needing a lot of sleep, and it’s just like a vicious cycle when you’re not. Getting perfect sleep all the time, but you need the sleep and then you can’t exercise and that makes you tired.

[00:21:36] Dana Stanley: So all that being said, I am treating this with hopefully in the next month or so, um, like some type of hormone replacement therapy. I am too young really to be doing this, but I’ve tried the natural route for over 12 weeks. And while I feel like I’ve kind of improved in some things, the energy thing is just so bad.

[00:22:05] Dana Stanley: So my body has been moving like a snail. So again, I know I’m like kind of.

[00:22:20] Dana Stanley: And again, if you have any experience with this, if it didn’t help you, don’t tell me, but if it did help you tell me. Uh, no, really, I would be anxious to hear the good and bad of this. I am hoping to start at a very, very, very low dose just to get me over this hump that I can start exercising and getting that going, and then hopefully be able to raise it on.

[00:22:48] Dana Stanley: My own,

[00:22:53] Dana Stanley: this was a very different kind of episode than I normally record, so, so I promise I will be back with a Disney related episode, including all the things I got right and all the things I got wrong when it came to Disney World this year. I will see you next week.