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Guest Janssen of Everyday Reading: Inspiring a love of reading {Episode 30}
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In this episode, we chat with Janssen all about books and reading. An avid reader and book lover, Janssen inspires a love of reading and books in everyone. We also discuss London Littles, audiobooks, and reading in college and as an adult.
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
Introduction to Hosts and Motherhood Chaos
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Outnumber the Podcast. I'm Bonnie. And I'm Audrey. And we're homeschooling moms to a combined total of 18 children. We know firsthand that motherhood is full of crazy chaos and overwhelming obligations, but it should also be full of love and laughter. Regardless of where you are on your journey, come join us as we work together to find joy in the chaos of motherhood.
Guest Introduction: Janssen on Reading and Motherhood
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 30. Today we have a very special guest with us. We're super excited to talk with Janssen. She blogs at Everyday Reading and she's going to talk to us all about books and about encouraging a love of reading in kids and how not to lose a love of reading yourself. So we're super excited to dive in. Welcome Janssen. Before we jump into our interview with Janssen, we have a humor segment for you today. Take it away Bonnie.
00:00:59
Speaker
Okay, yeah, so this one was given to us via Instagram from Erin Michaela. She says, so here is one of my many cringe-worthy mom moments. When my baby was about eight months old and teething, I was cleaning the bathroom while he was playing just outside the room. I just finished cleaning the toilet when my older son comes into the room needing something. While I was focused on him, the baby crawled into the bathroom. When I turned around, I found he'd pulled himself up on the porcelain bowl and was licking it. She says, at least it was clean.
00:01:29
Speaker
So gross. Thank you for sharing it, Erin. And I'm so glad my child is not the only one who has sucked on something that has been where it shouldn't have been. So good times. All right.
Balancing Motherhood: Challenges and Strategies
00:01:40
Speaker
So we are going to dive into our interview with Janssen. We are so glad you're here, Janssen. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Yeah, we are going to start off with two questions that we ask almost all our guests. And the first one is kind of a doozy. We want to know what your biggest weakness is as a mom.
00:01:58
Speaker
I feel like, I mean, I have a million, but the one that I think of first is that I am just naturally not a fun or present mom. I feel like an old soul, like my whole childhood, I was just waiting to be a grownup.
00:02:17
Speaker
I was I'm even now, you know, I'm in my mid 30s and I go to an event or a book club or whatever and I sit around. I think it's so nice to finally be an adult and I get to hang out with adults. So playing with small children is not.
00:02:33
Speaker
what I've been like looking forward to my whole life, necessarily. So that's tricky for me. And with that also, I also just always have a lot going on in my mind, things that I'm thinking about, projects I'm daydreaming about, you know, boring things like laundry and what's for dinner and big things like where are we gonna go on a trip in 2027, you know? So it's challenging for me
00:03:00
Speaker
to really be present with my kids. You were right, this is a doozy. This is like a lot of soul bearing right out of the kitchen. So I feel like as a mom, I have to work really hard to overcome those twin inclinations of not really wanting to play or be a child and be fun. And also having a lot on my mind that makes it hard for me to really dial in and be present.
00:03:27
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. Audrey and I have talked a lot about that as well. We are similar and I'm like exactly the same. If I could just sit in daydream about what I'm going to do when the kids go to sleep instead of playing My Little Ponies, I would be super happy. So to like, you know, disengage my brain and just say, I'm going to sit here and just be present with you with not a million things going on is really difficult.
00:03:50
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, I totally relate to that too. Sometimes I'll kind of like wake up and come out of it and be like, there's a kid saying, mom, mom, mom. And I'll be like, oh, yeah, I have kids. Let's see, where was I? I know that feeling 100%. You were saying, oh yeah, okay, sorry. Go ahead, kid. Okay, so now we want to hear what are your biggest strengths as a mom?
00:04:18
Speaker
I think one of my biggest strengths is that I'm organized. So it's easy for me to have routines. And maybe that's on the flip side of the coin of not being present is that I can kind of set things up to go through the motions easily so that I don't have to spend a lot of time thinking about that. So we have pizza and movie night virtually every single Friday. If we're home on Friday night, that's what we're doing. And we have birthday traditions that
00:04:48
Speaker
make it really easy for us to have these family traditions that are fun that my kids look forward to so I don't feel like I'm reinventing the wheel every time. We almost never miss story time at the library so if there's a routine in place I'm really good at sticking to those so I think we have a pretty calm family life and that those routines help me put in fun things into our lives that I wouldn't do if I had to come up with them.
00:05:13
Speaker
If I had to think of something new and fun to do every Friday night, I'd be in trouble. But I can make pizza and I can put in a movie and snuggle on the couch with my kids every Friday. Yeah, I love that. I love routines too. Once you have a routine in place, then you can hook something new onto your routine and work more fun stuff in. So yeah, I'm a big routine person too. Yeah, I think essentially the three of us are basically triplets.
00:05:40
Speaker
And I've noticed that when it's hard for me to stop my own projects or my own organization or whatever and be with the kids, if it's up to me, I'll push it off and push it off. But if they're expecting, you know, this is the thing we do, mom, it's movie time or whatever. I go, okay, it's time to pack it up and go be with my kids. Like that's like this external, you know, motivator that gets me being present when I otherwise might not have been, you know.
00:06:03
Speaker
Yes, I feel that exactly that if there's nothing I'm like, well, I'll just keep working on my phone or posting on Instagram or, you know, whatever it is. But if there's something, you know, basically on the calendar, then it's much easier for me to pull away. Right. Exactly. Exactly.
00:06:18
Speaker
Yeah, so we just wanted to really thank you for being here and taking time out of your day. We really love following you on Instagram and your blog. I have to admit, I do not subscribe to a lot of newsletters, but I love everyday readings newsletter because I'm a big... Oh, you're so nice. I love opening every email. So yeah, we're gonna start with some other questions specifically about reading and you'll have for that. Perfect.
Influence of Reading: Childhood and Beyond
00:06:43
Speaker
OK, so you are a big book lover and you blog mainly about reading. But give us the backstory. Where does your love of books come from? So I have a mom who loves to read. She was an English major and then just a lifelong book lover. And then she homeschooled us from the time I started kindergarten. I never went to elementary school all the way up until I went to high school. And
00:07:11
Speaker
So, and the main thing that we did in homeschool, I mean, we did, she was a legit homeschooler. I mean, this was not kind of a like, oh, we do a little, you know, cooking, making cookies. And that's math. I mean, we did serious homeschool, but the really serious part of homeschool was that we did a ton of reading. And she read out loud individually with all three of us every single day and usually classic. So, I mean, I read Jane Eyre and A Tale of Two Cities and
00:07:39
Speaker
Of course, now I can't think of another single classic ever written when I'm on the spot here. But I mean, most major classics I read with my mom allowed somewhere between about fifth grade. And she kept doing it even after I went to high school. We'd do it when I got home from school. So, you know, I remember doing my anatomy homework.
00:07:58
Speaker
and in 11th grade while we read Jane Eyre. So I think that was huge is that reading was such a big part of my life I'll grow up and then in addition to that then she'd read to us you know kind of more fun things at night all together before we went to bed. So reading was a massive part of my growing up. So you know sometimes you're like oh I don't really know where that came from. I know where my love of reading came from.
00:08:23
Speaker
That is so awesome. I think one of my fondest childhood memories is my mom reading to us at night as well and the whole family gathered around. It's just, you know, really special time. So that's that's pretty cool. I can relate to that too. Yeah. And I think that for for busy moms that like to have other stuff going on like us, reading can be a really, really awesome way to connect with our kids because I found that's one thing that
00:08:44
Speaker
no one has to convince me to do. I will sit down and read with my kids just about any time because it's so fun for me. And I was the same way I had a mom who read to me a lot. In fact, there was never any playing going on with mom, but if you wanted to spend one-on-one time with her, it was with a book. And I definitely think that there's nothing wrong with that. I loved it.
00:09:02
Speaker
Yes, actually, maybe this is a little off track, but one of the things that I learned from my mom about parenting is she said, I didn't do things with you guys that weren't fun for me. You know, I was not the kind of mom that was gonna be like, I hate playing with dolls, but I'm gonna do it anyway. She was like, I picked the things that were fun for me to do with you guys, and that's what we did. So we read a lot. We went to the park a lot. You know, the things that she really liked, that's what we did. That's how we spent time together.
00:09:30
Speaker
And I feel like that's been very freeing for me as a parent to feel like, you know, I'm not going to play My Little Ponies in the basement or build giant forts, but I am going to create these opportunities for us to spend times in ways that are enjoyable for both of us, which is kind of this perpetuating cycle as we do it more, we do it more.
00:09:50
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. Wow. Yeah. Well, remember, Audrey, in our interview with Rachel Kovac, she said something similar. She said, when I talk to people about what I emphasize in my homeschooling journey, and she talks specifically about poetry and music and art, oftentimes people just feel bad, like, oh, we're not doing any poetry or we don't do any art. I'm not artistic. She says, that's not what I'm trying to say. What she was trying to say was that you do what is important to you, and that will be your family culture.
00:10:15
Speaker
And it doesn't have to look like somebody else's. In fact, it probably shouldn't because that's not your strengths. And your kids are going to know if you're not having a good time, because you're going to be disengaged and your mind is going to be somewhere else. So if you're doing something that you really love, they will love to be with you no matter what it is, you know? I love that. Yeah, little truth detectors.
00:10:35
Speaker
Seriously. Okay, so moving on, I was wondering if your reading habits have kind of ebbed and flowed throughout life or if you've always made reading a priority and always had the motivation to read for yourself.
00:10:47
Speaker
Uh, it's totally ebbed and flow. I remember when I went to high school, you know, in ninth grade, and of course I'd never been in public school before. After a month or two, I said to my mom, I actually have no memory of this. So she just has repeated this back to me several times over the years. So maybe it's not even true. But she said that I said, um, I don't even feel like myself anymore because I don't have any time to read now.
00:11:11
Speaker
And I feel that way, you know, still as an adult, if I am not, if I go for too long of a period without making reading a priority, I start to feel like I'm not really myself anymore. But, you know, I'd say like most of high school and then through college, I did hardly any reading for fun. I remember when I graduated, we moved.
00:11:32
Speaker
to a new city in Texas and the first thing I did like the first day was I went and got a library card and I had not checked out a book for fun at the library in you know seven years and I remember like looking at the shelves like what is even there to read like I had no idea of course now my reading is so long I can just read full time for the next 30 years and not run out but you know it had gotten away from me for a number of years and I just was
00:11:59
Speaker
out of the zone for sure. Well, I think college does a really good job of purging any desire to read out of you. I thought the same way I was like, if I have to open another book, I'm going to kill somebody. This is the worst. So, yeah, it takes a while. Textbooks, I mean, just are really the worst. I had, you know, the history major and I had one or two teachers specifically who most of their syllabus syllabi, I'm going to sound like I didn't even graduate from college.
00:12:26
Speaker
Um, but they had, um, mostly, you know, original texts. So, you know, I took a Chinese history class and it was all these books written by people who'd lived through the cultural revolution or, you know, things like that. And that was really engaging. That was kind of toward the end of, you know, those were more upper level classes toward the end when I was like,
00:12:45
Speaker
Oh yeah, I really do like to read when it's not a 1,400 page textbook written by someone who's just trying to cram in as much information as possible with no sight to how readable or interesting it is. Right, and charge you $700 for it. For the privilege of reading this dull book.
00:13:04
Speaker
My oldest daughter is a really really avid reader and she's in college as well and I know when college is like when her classes are getting intense because she no longer is reading anything outside of her classwork. Yeah, it's too bad. I know it's a sad time for sure. Okay, so we want to know your best tips for instilling a love of reading in your little kids.
Encouraging a Love for Reading
00:13:29
Speaker
So my number one tip, and I say this all the time, is to make it fun. You know, I think naturally as humans, we gravitate towards things that are fun and enjoyable. That's why almost all of us are really good at eating dessert, and less of us are really good about eating vegetables. Like, it's just fun to eat dessert. It just feels really good.
00:13:50
Speaker
And so I think if you can make reading something that your child looks forward to, that's undivided attention they get from you, or you pick books that are really enjoyable for them that are funny or have great illustrations. And I think that's what's hard for a lot of parents.
00:14:08
Speaker
You know, I was lucky because I have a master's in library and information studies. So I took a bunch of picture book classes. But before that, I hadn't, you know, I was like 22 or something. I hadn't read a picture book in 15 years. I had no idea, you know, maybe like Brown Bear, Brown Bear. What do you see? Like I couldn't remember any picture books I'd even read for my childhood. And I think that's really challenging for parents is that they're like, I don't even know what books out there are good or that my kid would like. And then you go to the library and what does your child pull off the shelf like?
00:14:38
Speaker
the Star Wars books or, you know, Dora the Explorer, like the words, you know, it doesn't even have an author on the front, which is never a good sign. Yeah. Can you apply a large faceless company? Oh, this is going to be fantastic literature. And I'm going to love reading this with my child. So I think if you can make it fun, both
00:14:57
Speaker
from an experience with you snuggling up on the couch or stay up a few minutes late or whatever that is, and have books that are really enjoyable both for you as a parent to read and for your child to read. That's a really strong combo to help reading feel enjoyable. And one of my friends who homeschooled her kids, they're mostly all grown now, but she talked about how her youngest son didn't start to read until quite late.
00:15:26
Speaker
And she's like, but because he wasn't in public school, he didn't have a sense that he was a slow reader and that he was having a hard time learning to read because he had nobody to benchmark against. And she's like, so reading stayed very positive for him the whole time because we kept reading together. And so while he was building those skills, he was also continuing that love of reading fun books with his mom that kind of helped bridge that gap. And I think that's also a really big pain point for a lot of parents is that, you know,
00:15:54
Speaker
they read board books with their little baby or, you know, their toddler picture books with their preschooler. And then when it gets into the reading, learning to actually read time, all of that other fun stuff kind of stops and all the focus is on sounding out and phonics and which obviously you need. But if that's the only thing, reading quickly becomes very unpleasant. And so I think
00:16:19
Speaker
as your child is learning to read you also want to make sure to really stay strong on that making reading a pleasant experience where you still read to them you listen to audiobooks together you know you're not stopping every three words say can you read this word and like can you just read me the story mom
00:16:38
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely agree with that about choosing your own pace on learning to read and homeschooling, allowing you to do that. I had one kid that was, he could read, but he just didn't enjoy reading himself. But we just kept on reading to him, like you said, and making it enjoyable and lots of audio books. And now he's a very avid reader, but it just came later for him. So I definitely love that tip.
00:17:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's hard. You know, obviously my kids go to public school. I don't homeschool my own children. But I think that that is tricky in a public school situation is that you're so aware of how you stack up to everyone else. And so it's easy to feel like, oh, I'm behind or I'm a really good reader and don't need to keep practicing or whatever that is. And I think that's a challenge.
00:17:25
Speaker
Yeah, and I think even parents can do that to our kids too. We can get so caught up in where we think our kids should be. And I feel like I almost ruined my oldest this way because I was like, you're behind, you're behind, you're behind. And there was the pressure of him being my first homeschooled child. And I thought everyone was going to be looking at me and judging me. And I finally just stepped away and said, he will read eventually.
00:17:46
Speaker
it's if I ruin the relationship with reading that's going to be so much more detrimental than if it takes him 10 years to learn to read. And so I step back and wouldn't you know it he picks it up eventually and is a voracious reader now but it's just it can be so easy for us to let our own pressures you know dictate their relationship with reading and that's not really our business. We should make it as fun as possible.
00:18:09
Speaker
you know, so challenging, you know, just even in a home situation not to compare them to your other kids. Well, you know, Susie was reading by the time she was four and a half and you're six and a half and, you know, make them feel like, oh, I'm not the reader. And of course, that's not what you want. Well, yeah, it actually worked out really well for us because my two older boys were a little bit on the I don't want to say slower side, but they just took a little bit longer. And then my daughter, yeah, I read it for the one right after them and they were like, shoot.
00:18:35
Speaker
If she can read that, I can read that. Sometimes a little friendly competition helps out. All right, a little pushing them from behind. Yeah. OK, so having kids who love reading, which I'm sure you do now, what do you think or what have you seen to be the biggest pros of having a kid who loves loves to read on their own?
00:18:55
Speaker
The thing that I think is amazing about kids that read independently or that love books is that they're just not bored. I mean, not that my kids are never like, there's nothing to do, but you do have kind of a built-in easy thing for them to do on a car trip or while you're sitting around waiting at the DMV or whatever that is. And I think that's amazing. And since you guys both have multiple children, you'll know this, when your older children can read to your younger children, that is like,
00:19:24
Speaker
parent gold right there. Yeah, I definitely feel like once I have my kid reading that I've, you know, like they're well on their way to being able to do anything in the world, but it's like getting them to read, learning. Yeah, such a big, big hurdle.
00:19:44
Speaker
Yeah. And then and then just to read comfortably so they're not struggling with every book they pick up. I love that face. We actually we actually worked the reading of little reading to little siblings into our summer schedule. And it's been the best because I know the little kids are getting read to even if I don't get to them and the other ones are practicing. And I love it. We're going to continue it all year long. Do it.
00:20:06
Speaker
So you, I'm going back a little bit talking about kids who are struggling to read or just don't like reading. So would you recommend required reading time or could they do like audio books in that time or what are your suggestions? You've just accidentally stepped on my favorite topic of all time, which is audio books.
00:20:25
Speaker
I feel like they are such an underutilized secret weapon for parents that if your child has quiet time, my girls do quiet time in the afternoon while my baby naps during the summer.
00:20:42
Speaker
that is such a thing that keeps them entertained or even you know just during the day we were living with my in-laws for a few months last summer while we were looking for a house and my one of my daughters was just having the worst morning she was just being so challenging and my mother in law you know they have one of those
00:21:01
Speaker
really nice old school speakers you know where the speakers are like the size of a small car and you know turned on bread and jam for Francis I was just like a miracle she just laid down on the couch and quietly listened there I think there were five books on the CD and you know for like 25 minutes what it was done she was just happy and calm and I feel like
00:21:20
Speaker
That is, I am not anti-screens, but I think for many kids, they really rile your kids up or have a kind of addictive piece to them where you pay for that 30 minutes of quiet for the rest of the afternoon and they're just begging for more and more and more. I feel like audiobooks, you get that little bit of downtime or something to distract them without those negative repercussions, kind of calms them down or makes long road trips.
00:21:50
Speaker
We just started listening to Little House in the Big Woods in the car together. And you just run into Sam's Club or Costco or the library. Even for 10 minutes in the car, it's like, oh, we get to listen for another 10 minutes. And everyone's happy and pleasant. And then we can talk about it. And that's really fun and enjoyable. And I think also audio books help kids. Well, there's so many skills that you can learn from audio books that help with reading.
00:22:16
Speaker
I kind of understand how a plot works, following different characters and following a plot arc, your vocabulary that you wouldn't be exposed to in books that you could read on your own. And I think also for kids who don't yet read or struggling with reading or have learning disabilities, it helps them feel like a reader, even if they're struggling with the mechanical part of reading at that point. They can still listen to
00:22:44
Speaker
what all their friends are reading or what older siblings are reading and feel like, oh, I'm part of this, you know, book community, whether that's in your family or at school or the playground or whatever, instead of feeling like left out of those conversations.
00:23:01
Speaker
Oh yeah, that is. I love to have my kids listen to an audiobook that's too advanced for them to read for all those exact reasons. Vocabulary building and plot and all that. Like, you know, Charles Dickens or something. Have my little kids listen into that.
00:23:16
Speaker
and they love it and they get into it and they're getting all these great things that you just listed off. So yeah, that's really cool. One of the nice things too about audiobooks is that you, you know, with a book, there's kind of a lot of clues if it's quote unquote too hard for you, you know, the print is really small or the, you know, there's no pictures or it's fat or whatever it is that, you know, you
00:23:38
Speaker
your child might pick up that book and be like, I couldn't do this book. But if they, you know, an audio book doesn't really have that same thing because you're not looking at anything. And so I think, you know, you can give Charles Dickens, you know, you hand, you know, A Christmas Carol to your child, your child's like, yeah, pass on that. But if you just pop it in the CD player or stream it on your echo or whatever, I think then they don't know. And they're like, oh, I can listen to what's going on.
00:24:04
Speaker
Yeah, I really feel like you really get every benefit of reading aloud to your child without completely wearing out your voice. My mom actually lost her voice completely for about a year when I was a child from, you know, wilder at night. Wow. She is a trooper.
00:24:22
Speaker
I know it. You're not a real mom unless you've lost your voice from reading your kids. That's right. And I also feel like every time, you know, the question I always get is how do I introduce my child to audiobooks? And I think the car is hands down the best way because there's nothing else to do anyway. You can't escape. Exactly.
00:24:44
Speaker
Yeah, they're strapped in. Yeah. Whether that's a younger child or an older child. Yeah. And, you know, sometimes your kids put up resistance, you know, or at least mine do like, Oh, I don't think I'm going to like this or whatever. And it's like, you know, I learned this from, um, I think Sarah McKenzie from read a louder Bible who says, I'm just going to listen to this and you're welcome to not listen. Of course, you know, then your kids like, Oh, if mom's listening, I want to know what mom's listening to. That's not for me. You know? And so I think that's a good little trick to kind of ease them in. But instead of it being like,
00:25:14
Speaker
We're all going to listen to this and you all better pay perfect attention. There's a quiz at the end.
00:25:27
Speaker
OK, so we talked a little bit about your blog and how it's about reading about books, but I just wanted to say that every once in a while you post a recipe and you know, you have a little bit of a talent for writing.
Personal Interests: Cooking and Blogging
00:25:39
Speaker
Maybe it's from all these books you read because every single time you post a recipe, it's I've got to have it. It's the one brownie recipe or the one chocolate chip cookie recipe that I'm going to die if I don't have it.
00:25:53
Speaker
I do love to cook. And that's maybe because if I'm cooking, I can listen to an audio book while I'm cooking. Hey, good idea.
00:26:04
Speaker
So besides the block, then you also own London Littles. So tell us a little bit about London Littles, like how it got started, and what is London Littles? So London Littles is a children's apparel brand. We launched with rain boots in the fall of 2017, and then we just added children's sunglasses to our lineup this summer.
00:26:24
Speaker
So my husband and I started it. We lived in London for a semester. Well, both of us did study abroad in London when we were undergrads separately. And so we both just loved London. And then when he was doing grad school, there was an opportunity for him to do a semester exchange at the London Business School. And the idea of going back to London with our little, we had two little girls at the time was just, and we just could not resist.
00:26:53
Speaker
And you kind of think, is it going to be as fun as when I was a single college student and all the freedom in the world and tons of friends around? It was actually, I think both of us would say, even more fun to go back with our girls. We had such a great experience there. But of course, it rains tons. And we needed rain boots for our girls. And it's actually really challenging to find rain boots
00:27:16
Speaker
even in England that are small enough like the smallest size I could order from one of the big manufacturers was a size 10 and my children were like an 8 and a 5 and and then if you could find them you know they were just like
00:27:34
Speaker
characters, really tacky designs that were really unappealing. And so, you know, we wanted to, my husband is very entrepreneurial and, you know, I've come along the entrepreneurial road, maybe a little kicking and screaming along the way. But I fully drunk the Kool-Aid at this point. And so, you know, we, you know, we were kind of doing our own separate things, me with everyday reading and him with his full time job. We thought,
00:27:58
Speaker
This feels like the time that we'd really like to start a business together. And this felt like this is a need that we experienced ourselves. We love the idea of something that kind of tied into our love for London, which rain boots is an easy, natural fit there. And the fun thing about rain boots is that
00:28:17
Speaker
You know, you could put any design on a rainbow. I mean, they're just basically this perfect canvas for any cute designer. We felt like, you know, there's so many beautiful colors and patterns that we could do. So that was really fun. And so that's been going for almost two years now.
Entrepreneurial Journey with London Littles
00:28:33
Speaker
And that has been a really fun project for us to work on together. And it's been
00:28:38
Speaker
much more successful than I expected, which is a happy way for that to go rather than the opposite. I thought it was gonna be wildly successful and we're just losing money like crazy over here.
00:28:50
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Your your little rain boots are definitely the cutest out there. I mean, so cute. And I'm going to have to try your sunglasses because I am so tired of kids sunglasses that break. Oh, I know. That's the worst. We have had many broken sunglasses pair in our family. So, you know, we did we have two styles of sunglasses. One's metal and one is bamboo because plastic ones are just really hard to not step on and break or your child, you know, wrestles them off their face.
00:29:19
Speaker
You mean your kids don't take meticulous care of their belongings? It's very strange. They just don't seem to have that ownership that I would hope for. Maybe someday. So along those lines, I want to know what, in your opinion, is the best or your most favorite part about running an online retail business? Because it's not all sunshine and rainbows, I'm assuming. What's your favorite part? Truly, it's not.
00:29:44
Speaker
The thing that has been so gratifying to me that's so different, you know, I had been running my blog for 11 years when we started, almost 11 years, I think, when we launched London Littles. So, you know, I had a lot of experience with like running an online business, but doing
00:30:00
Speaker
product business is so different and it has been so gratifying to see you know it's really fun when people go out and you know make your brownie recipe or cookie recipe or whatever and you know send you a note say this is amazing but it is like a to the next level to see somebody's you know that you you have no connection with that you don't know they don't know you on the other side of the country that posts a picture and says you know we ordered these rain boots and my child never takes them off they always want to wear them and they're just the best thing ever that is
00:30:29
Speaker
So fun and so gratifying has been really a unexpected perk that I did that I wasn't that I did not know was coming. Oh, I bet. Especially, you know, some cute print that you worked hard on or a color that took you forever to pick out to see some cute little kid, you know, that you've never met enjoying. I bet that's a blast. It really has been so fun.
00:30:51
Speaker
OK, so on the flip side, what would you say is the most difficult part or your least favorite part of running the business? For sure, the hardest part. Well, you know, I feel like I had a big boost to London Littles because I had this blog and this good size audience out of the gate.
00:31:06
Speaker
So I think that's a blessing at the beginning, but as it, down the road, it really, that is the most challenging part for me is juggling these two. Anytime I'm spending on London Littles is time I'm not spending on everyday reading and vice versa. So the juggle between those two, you know, when people talk about like balancing being a mom and working, I feel that it's like my two children, London Littles and everyday reading is this just constant struggle to make sure they both get enough attention.
00:31:35
Speaker
and that one of them isn't cannibalizing the other.
00:31:40
Speaker
Yeah, I bet. Like your two children, I love that. Which one is your favorite right now? We don't have favorites. Whichever's easier. Yes, exactly. So what do you think the future holds for London Littles? Can you reveal anything that's coming up? We do have some new products that we're hoping to launch over the next year, which I'm excited about. And I will not tell you what those are right now. So keep your eyes peeled.
00:32:09
Speaker
You know, they always take forever. We started working on the sunglasses last spring, you know, hoping to launch like mid-summer last year. And of course, that was so unrealistic to make that happen in like a three month period, you know, so a year later. So I feel like if I told you like, oh, in the fall, we're going to launch this is like maybe fall of 2020, you know, we'll see how it goes. But
00:32:31
Speaker
You know, I feel like London Littles is a good spot as kind of a lifestyle business right now. You know, it's not like we're trying to grow this thing massive. You know, it's growing at a nice steady pace that we can maintain without losing all semblance of sanity. So I feel like I think there's steady growth ahead. I don't know that there's like huge, big things in the pipeline. And that feels really good to me.
00:32:58
Speaker
Yeah, I'm so glad that it's growing and successful for you. So do you have any other business plans or dreams up your sleeve or is two kids enough?
Future Projects: Podcasting and Book Recommendations
00:33:08
Speaker
Well, my husband and I actually are tossing around the idea right now of doing a podcast together. So that is a possible third child. And but I think other than that, I think three is enough for now.
00:33:24
Speaker
I think Bonnie and I would totally encourage you to do a podcast. It's very rewarding. It's pretty darn fun. Everyone I've talked to who has a podcast says that same thing. It's like my favorite thing I do. So I think that this one might happen for us.
00:33:39
Speaker
Yeah, especially if you're the kind of person like me who likes to talk and just make people listen. I know, when children don't listen, you can make other people listen. Fantastic. Exactly. Exactly. Okay, so to wrap up, we just wanted to ask you off the top of your head, do you have any great book recommendations for big families or about big families since that's kind of our niche?
00:34:01
Speaker
So, this is a book I read a couple of years ago and I will preface this by saying it is not for everyone. But how not to hate your husband after kids, I thought was so fantastic. And, you know, content alert that there is some swearing in there, which I didn't even notice and didn't mention in my review. And then one person in the comments was like, I can't believe you didn't mention that there was some swearing and I felt bad about that.
00:34:25
Speaker
heads up, but I thought it was just such a helpful look at how your relationship changes when you have children and you're trying to balance, you know, instead of kind of this lot, you know, seesaw between you. It's now like this triangle of trying to meet your children's needs and your spouse's needs and your own needs and how to
00:34:45
Speaker
how to make that happen in a productive way that, you know, brings everybody up instead of pulling everybody down. So, of course, you know, I will say you asked about big families, the couple in this has one entire child. So, you know, the principles that they learn as they kind of work through these issues as they
00:35:03
Speaker
you know, talk to marriage experts and go to some marriage therapy is really helpful. It's such a clickbaity title. It was such a funny, engaging and useful book that I have highly recommended to many people. Oh, cool. I'll have to check that one out. That sounds fun. I would definitely pick it up with that title, too. I know, I know. I don't even remember who recommended it to me, but I certainly did not forget that title.
00:35:31
Speaker
Right. Hey, Janssen, do you have any books that like kids books that have lots of like a family with big kids in it that you would recommend? Well, I do. I am partial to all of a kind family, you know, especially because I have my own all of a kind family. Have you read those books? No.
00:35:50
Speaker
No. Oh, I feel like they're not that well known. But I didn't know that until a couple of years ago because I grew up with them. And so they just, you know, checked them out of the library and they seemed mainstream to me. But it's this Jewish family that lives in New York around the turn of like
00:36:07
Speaker
you know, 1910s maybe, I'm gonna be off by a few years, but around that time. And they have five girls, eventually they have a little boy also. And it is, they are just the most delightful books. My girls have loved listening to them over the last couple of years.
00:36:24
Speaker
They're just kind of this sweet guy. They don't have a lot of money, but, you know, they go to the candy store and like pick out these candies. It's like this whole thing about how they're going to spend there. It's just like so delightful and kind of a, you know, I mean, there's so many like, I mean, I love Laura Ingalls Wilder, but lots of like settler kinds of books. And this is kind of a different era that, you know, in New York City living in this little apartment that is so
00:36:51
Speaker
Sweet and fun. I just love those books and they're fantastic read alouds. Oh, that sounds really fun. Yeah, I'm going to have to get my those for my kids to listen to really good. They actually just this like the last year or two, a picture book, you know, based on them came out. I think it's all the kind family Thanksgiving, possibly. Anyway, so I think they're they're gaining a little more popularity because they're quite old.
00:37:22
Speaker
Well, that's cool. That is some really fun. Yeah. We will link both of those books in the show notes for you guys. And then, Jansen, just to wrap up, we want to thank you so much for your time and also ask you to let our listeners know where they can find you on Instagram and on the web. Oh, perfect. So on Instagram, it's everydayreading, and then my blog is everyday-reading.com. So I'm on those all the time.
00:37:47
Speaker
Yeah, if you are a reader, you definitely need to check her out. And if you want to read more, she also has great tips for when to sneak it in, which I use a lot. So thanks so much for being here. Thanks for having me. This was so fun. Yeah, this has been really enjoyable to talk to you about all these different topics. Well, it's all my favorite things to talk about. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you've enjoyed this episode, we'd be so grateful if you'd leave us a written review on iTunes.
00:38:15
Speaker
If you have any questions or ideas for future episodes, you can reach us at outnumberthepodcastatgmail.com and find us on Instagram at outnumberthepodcast. See you next week.