Snow Days, Perspective & Letting the World Slow Down

Welcome to We Should Probably Edit This, but we won't.

This is about our life's messy journey. It's unscripted, talks about growth, real laughs, sometimes real laughs, sometimes just the chaos.

And, and we think there's a little bit of comedy here.

Everything.

It's about our 37 years of marriage and our experience. I'm Matthew Greger.

And I'm Nancy Greger. And we're your host of We Should Probably Edit This.

But we won't. And we probably should have edited that. So here's our next episode.

Yes.

There we go. And we're on. Ooh, it worked. Hi.

It worked.

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Hello.

So it's a snow day.

A really epic snow day.

Yeah, I think for not just us, for several—

for several people along the east coast.

80% of the country, maybe. I don't know.

So needless to say, we slept in late. We slept in late. We are moving. We're really, really relaxing. We haven't had a really 100% relaxing day in a very long time.

Correct, correct. And not only relaxing day, I mean, this whole weekend was kind of, kind of a, an exhale weekend, you know, because we prepared for this moment because Our first showings were yesterday, and there were 18, 18 showings yesterday.

18 or 20?

18.

18?

18. There were 20 scheduled, but 2 canceled.

Ah, 2 canceled.

That's right.

So 18 people showed up. And we were going to have just as many today.

Yeah, but that got moved.

But the snow came.

Yeah. So we had to cancel and that got moved to Tuesday and Wednesday. So we rented an Airbnb. Mainly for the cat. So the cat didn't have to be involved in the chaos of people coming in and out of the house. So, so, and I think for me, that was a moment that I actually got to exhale. It was just like, okay, we're away from here. And we're away from it. And we can just kind of just like, just let go a little bit.

And then we spent Saturday shopping, doing your favorite, my favorite thing, your favorite thing that by 3 o'clock in the afternoon. We had reached your limit of capacity.

Oh, wait. Well, we went, we went to the—

It sounded familiar, like some, some child that I know.

But it was that, it was, you wanted a closet organizer. So where do we go to maybe get our own do-it-yourself closet organizer? But let's, we haven't been to IKEA in a long time. Oh my goodness. That's a big store. And that took all the rest of my energy away.

If we had just literally—

Went to the closet section.

Went to the closet section.

Instead of go through the maze. It's kind of like Stu Leonard's for shopping.

If you don't know, it's the way they make you go through certain setups and rooms and then you have all these other little things. It was—

And I just thought we could just get out afterwards after we finally got what we wanted for the closet pieces, I thought we'd just go downstairs and pay. Finding the register was another maze once we were downstairs. No, that wasn't as bad.

That wasn't as bad. But I will say that I think for us, probably around the third aisle we went over, we both looked at each other and said, hmm, I think we've outgrown the store. Um, or maybe it's because we've evolved or we've gotten older.

I don't know if I want to put that many pieces of things together. So, so, but I mean, I did, I did, I did write about IKEA in my book because I mean, he has a great concept. It's about making furniture that's affordable and decent quality for what it is. And how do you do it and be able to ship it? You know, so everything was flat packs.

Mm-hmm.

You know, so it's like, yeah, you assembly is required, but you just gotta just make sure that you take your time when you're, when you're assembling it. Otherwise you're gonna have crooked pieces and stuff.

But there is something to be said at some point in your life where you just like, uh, I want you to bring it. I want you to deliver it. I want you to set it up. And take all the garbage with you on your way out.

So it'll be, it'll be fun between the, the couch that's going to come in a box and all the closet pieces that are going to come in a box. It's going to be fun assembling and then removing the cardboard afterwards.

Well, it shouldn't be too bad.

No, but we still have to stack it up and take it out. It's gonna— that's okay.

True. Anyways, still, it was, it was an experience yesterday. Um, and then I feel more at ease now that I'm back in my house than I was leaving my house for the weekend. I mean, don't get me wrong, I think it was a great idea that you came up with when we realized Saturday and Sunday was going to be booked solid that we go somewhere. However, our theories of going somewhere were two different things. You're thinking Airbnb, I'm thinking where is the nearest a spa that we can go to where we can bring the cat.

Um, well, the cat— a spa and the cat are two things that are very contradictory.

People say, 'We accept pets,' but what they really mean is we only take dogs. Um, they're gun-shy when it comes to the cat. And I'm like, okay, well, I'm not— I'd be coming with his litter, you know, box with us. We had more stuff for him to move than you and I. We just had a duffel bag for you and me. We had a whole compartment for him.

Okay.

But we did find a really decent place very close to home. So we were, but then all of a sudden, was it Thursday or Friday that we realized?

Well, no, I mean, we kept playing out the storm, you know, they kept, obviously the media overhypes everything. What they do. But, you know, just trying to, like, plan out what are we going to get. And then when it really became apparent that we're going to get snow, we don't know how much, but we're going to definitely— Sunday is going to give us the snow day. We decided that we made the executive decision to cancel it, tell our agent. But I already booked the Airbnb for 2 days.

So, but it is what it is. I think in the long run it did work out. So that was okay because there was no way anybody, anybody could come today and we would have not been able to get the house.

Just dealing with the snow. No, it's probably at least 10 inches right now. Yeah. And it's not coming. I don't know. You can kind of see the trees back there, but that's actually not just the glare from here, but that's about what it's like right now. It's pretty white.

It's pretty. It is pretty white. But so we're home and relaxed and in our hoodies and sweats and hoodies and the fireplace is going.

I need to stoke it up a little bit more.

A little cozy. So it is definitely, I think, a downtime that we can just relax today.

I mean, we're fortunate. I know there's a lot of people out there that are probably struggling, and this doesn't make it— make it that much more— this doesn't make it easier with all the snow. And it's amazing what people do. I mean, just like the pandemic, there was a shortage of toilet paper, which I still don't understand to this day how— why that was so important. But with the snowstorm, like the whole bread and milk thing, I don't understand. Are people making milk sandwiches? I don't get it.

No, it was, it's, we went Thursday. We said, we'll get a jump start on it. We'll go Thursday.

Well, I mean, we're busy Friday, both working and doing a few things. And I said, okay, well, yeah, we need our normal weekly grocery shopping to get a few things for the house.

And we walked into the store.

We went to Trader Joe's and it's just like.

Number one, there were a lot of people.

And this was like 7 o'clock at night. We figured, okay, it's a good time to go. We're not going to be. In a rush with a lot of all the people.

And I know we walked in there and there were a lot of people and there was stuff literally empty.

You would think, you would think that we're going to be a month where we can't get out of our house.

We were going to be. Yeah. And when I asked the guy, the guy at the register, I said, has it been this busy all day? He said, oh my God, yes, it's been super busy. But I get it because here's the thing.

What do you get?

States shut down highways so you can't get food delivered.

Weeks?

No, for a couple of days. And those guys are going to be behind schedule. So when you think about it, it's one whole day today they're not driving. They're hoping that by tomorrow they're able to clear the roads enough to get the trucks to come back on the highways, on the state highways.

Yeah, but still, I don't, I don't, I don't understand why people need to go and take so much of things.

Like, you know, I just think you anticipate what it's going to be, and if you're home and you got a bunch of kids, you're going to get a lot of snacks.

Yeah, but you just don't need to wipe the store out. But anyways, I mean, that just goes— that just go— that just goes back to our whole feast or famine, that. And then our, our whole concept of whatever you believe politically. I mean, I don't like to talk about politics really, but it's just like You know, you got— it's just the sides of politics. You've got the extreme left and the extreme right, you know. And the thing about it is, whether you, whether you like who's in office now, or you dislike who's in office, or you don't like what's going on, you know, we've— we're in this country, and every 4 years we get to decide what's going to happen. Who, who do we replace them with?

That's it. That's the beauty of the United States of America. And if you've ever traveled overseas and you ever been to other countries, it's a vast difference in how they run their countries, but also how their politics and their government runs. Um, so that's the beauty, I think, about being a citizen of the United States is that you get to choose and You have options to, to, to do, and that's really what you should go out and do when it's time. Vote, because that is a privilege many people in this world don't have. So vote. Should you speak your mind? Absolutely. If you feel enticed to say something either which way, again, that's the beauty of the United States of America is you have the ability to free speech.

And we have family members and friends who are on different sides, polar sides, polar sides.

And you just kind of sit there and say, okay, I get you're allowed to have your opinions, you're allowed to voice your opinions. However, what you're not allowed to do is put your opinions on me and try to make it seem as though I'm wrong or that I don't care what's going on. I don't care what's going on.

Or Here's the thing about it is that I can't necessarily change what's going on. And I think the whole thing about this show that we have, it's not about trying to change things. It's about trying to change ourselves so that we can do better, so we can be better.

The only thing you have that you can control is you.

Right.

You can control your ideas. You can control your goals. You can set your goals. You can set your tone to what it is that you yourself are willing to accept, what your boundaries for yourself of what you want to— willing to, to, to place. And the ability to just improve yourself because you can't always control what everybody else is doing. And you shouldn't want to control what everybody else is doing because you will be a very unhappy person. No different than in a marriage. Your partners are going to come with their own, you know, sets of biases and their own sets of things that they—

Well, you were raised different than I was. Completely. And I had different beliefs bestowed to me, you know, before I began to create my own. You know, just like you did too. And, and sometimes now it's just about blending it together and being able to give and take. And I think what's— yes. And I think what's really important that you are able to put yourself in the shoes of the other person because so many times we see things, we see the truth our own way within our own little world, you know, and we don't think about how the other person might be they might see it or what they've been through. Um, because your life experience is different than my life experience, and your life experience out there is different than ours and different than your neighbors. And those experiences sometimes shape what you think, how you do things.

They will shape it. They're not that— they, they will shape it, right? The point of it all is, is that though you can evolve You can improve, you can grow, you can learn. And these are the things that if you're open and willing to do, that's really what the change factor here is, is how do you blend two very different sides of the spectrum in order to make things work? And fundamentally, you got to really want it first of all, because if you don't really want it, then you shouldn't have gone into it to begin with. But You have to be open to those things. You have to be open to what the other person is doing. And I think that holds true for anybody in a political atmosphere. I don't necessarily have to agree with what it is you're saying, um, but I respect the fact that you have said it, and I'll listen to what it is you're saying as long as you're calm. About it.

Right.

I'll listen to what it is you're saying and hear what your point of view might be.

Right.

But understand that even after I've heard it won't necessarily mean that I will agree with it. I may find aspects to it that I could agree with. And then there might be other things where I will just say to you, no, I don't think that was the intent. That's right.

I think what we need to have in this world a lot more of is a little bit more empathy and understanding for others instead of flying off the handle and saying, oh, that other person's just wrong or whatever. Why don't you try to understand what they are? But it's like we're in this vicious cycle of blaming each other, people, and then we just get so upset about things that I think we lose sense of reality because we get upset.

And so I don't know whether you get fixated, you get so fixated and it's kind of like, okay, I need you to come back down to reality because again, what you're controlling is what's around you.

Right.

And it's not very big.

That doesn't mean you can't have influence. That doesn't mean that you yourself couldn't run for politics and make a change or be on a board or be in a group or something like that.

Or volunteer in some other way or get more involved. No one is saying that those aren't things, but they're more constructive than sitting back and posting things on social media about how bad things are. When I would challenge to see, did you go out and really see?

Have you been out volunteering and helping others before you say how bad things really are?

Have you had direct contact with how it's not only affected your life, but people in your immediate hemisphere's life? Is there that been that much of a dramatic change? Knowledge is, is critical, and we have to experience it ourselves. There's something about doing your own due diligence and learning and figuring things out and going deeper into topics before you take on a certain position or really voice your position, saying, you guys are wrong. You don't know what you're doing. You don't know what you're saying. And so on and so forth.

Maybe they don't. But, you know, it's, it's like if we would all just work on ourselves a little bit more, I think those other things would— you'll see them fixing themselves because now we have a better understanding of who we are and we have a better understanding and patience for other people. Yeah, that doesn't mean there aren't stupid people in the world.

And it doesn't mean that you won't get mad at your spouse because they did something that you've told them numerous times. Okay, I don't like it. As I always say, what do I usually say nowadays? I've been married to you for 37 years. At what point in time did you ever see me do that?

You mean you weren't gonna go camping? We weren't gonna go and bring an air What was the idea? Oh no, the idea was to go to the new condo and bring in air mattress and just hang out there.

And what was my immediate response?

I've never been a camper. Yeah, and that's what you kind of felt like you would be doing.

And I said, in all the years we've been married, have I given you the— have we ever done that before? No, no, really.

I mean, the closest was when we went to the Adirondacks and we um, for Thanksgiving, and we went to the camp— the cabin. That was a fairly rustic cabin.

You mean when Ben was a baby?

Yeah, that was the closest to camping, I think.

And we took the dog.

Yeah, or, or the island in, in Maine where we took the dog, the cat, all 3 children, and, and my brother and sister-in-law. And, and we My brother and I, we use the outhouse. You guys use the actual marine toilet.

So, yeah, full disclosure, no one really explained to me what that really meant. And having to use salt water to bathe in, to bathe in again, nobody explained to me what that really is.

And so it's really hard to get the shampoo out of your hair with salt water.

Um, so that was a fun week. It was, it was, it was a fun—

that was the, that was the week I also took a plunge. I thought that, you know, it's August, it's pretty warm outside. I didn't think the water was going to be that cold. Well, getting— yeah, getting, getting out of, back out of the water after I locked up was a challenge.

So we all watched you from the shoreline. Yeah. So anyway, if he sinks Then won't come. So hopefully the rest of the week will be, um, it's supposed to be really cold, frigidly cold, but the snow should stop.

And hopefully you've prepared well enough that you'll survive the cold that's there. Um, you know, and hopefully you'll help— neighbors will help each other. Um, because I mean, there are some people that that, you know, count on others, yep, or have other health issues that can't get out, you know, so.

But it should be, it should still be, it's pretty.

Yeah. Nothing like being in New York City either in a big snowstorm like this because never will you hear the city so quiet, so quiet as when in a snowstorm.

In a snowstorm. You do see people go out and walk.

Well, I'm sure in the pandemic it was pretty quiet too.

But it's quiet.

But yeah.

It's like whispers. You can, you can hear the snow. That's how much it is. Now, tomorrow you will not like this city. Right? As the snow becomes a brown mush.

As the snow becomes brown. Brown and then gray and then.

And gray mush.

Yeah. And then as they put the garbage out and it mixes in with it too.

It's gonna be so much fun. So, so, so much fun.

But, um, right now at the moment, it's probably nice.

That's what you take advantage of though, is when you're— when we lived in the city and we did have snowstorms, you took advantage of that moment in time. The, the really, to me, the most fantastical thing is, is that you can still find stores open and restaurants opened because people commute not via car, they'll take the train in, so they're not having to navigate the rough roads. They can simply grab on a train and get to where they need to get to. So more is open.

Well, I mean, just like with, as the pastor said this morning in the remote church service, you know, about, you know, to take the time in a storm like this to just enjoy it, relax a moment and feel it out there. If you have kids and you have family, get out there and have some fun, you know. Take, take a little extra time and just, and just take in the calmness of it. Take in the white of it before it becomes more chaos again.

Yes, but I mean, and when you do have to go outside and do shovel, you're going to find yourself singing a fabulous song that will—

don't start it again. No, and I'm not going to build a snowman. Maybe I will. It—

I've heard that song so many times that you cannot not do that as you're shoveling.

Do you want to build a snowman? No.

But I will say to you—

That's going to be your song.

No, no. But what I will say to you is by doing, by singing that song, it makes the process that much like, do I want to build a snowman? As you're going through.

You're shoveling.

And you're shoveling, you're like, Yeah, I can build a snowman. Thank you to my grandchildren, I appreciate it.

I think this snow will, um, we will not appreciate the shoveling aspect to it. Well, luckily we don't have to do too much because we'll have to do cleanup. We'll do areas that, yeah, we'll have to do cleanup, but not the extensive part. Because we're showing the house. We're gonna have to do more.

We're gonna have to really make sure.

I'm gonna have to go out to the screen room and blow all the snow out of there. And we've got sifted snow through the screen.

It looks like when you put flour in this, in a, in one of the, uh, sifters, sifter things, and it comes out.

Yeah, I said we go make some snow cream. No, no, no. Okay, we don't need to do that, right?

So it's been a good day.

Good. So far we haven't done anything today.

I know, that's the best part, right? We don't have to do anything. We can really just be ourselves and be this—

look, you can see the snow blowing in the background.

Just relax. Boy, that's, it's a long time coming.

Yep. But, um, yeah, so now we come to this dead space.

No, it's dead space. That means it's over.

Well, we have a few more minutes.

No, we don't have— there's no rule that says we have to go for the whole 30 minutes.

Okay. Well, on that note, um, I guess we should probably edit this.

But we won't.

So until next time, send us your comments, um, let us know what you want to talk about.

And if you're in the snow, stay safe.

And if you're in the snow with your kids, have fun.

Yeah.

All right, bye.

Bye.