Highlights of Our Conversation:

• Favorite children’s books and authors
• How she got into writing when her son was a year old
• What exactly is flash fiction?
• Her inspiration to start her podcast
• Her experiences with NaNoWriMo
• The great thing about being the editor of your own podcast
• Her Christmas serial in December, a fanciful trip to the North Pole at Christmas
• How and why she podcasts while having a toddler
• Keeps her energy up for the things she has to do
• “Writing time” for our kids
• Starting out part time…
• “You kind of wake up one morning and realize you’re running out of somedays, and if you’re gonna do this, you might as well start now.”
• Ira Glass on creativity…
• Doing the work to get better
• Permission to suck, practicing for the time we won’t suck
• What a Native American basket weaver told her that she’s never forgotten
• The value of “productive struggle” and why it’s good to make mistakes
• How are culture is hard on moms
• Starting a blog or podcast when others don’t totally get it
• “You can’t get discouraged by the numbers… If it’s not worth it to you to do for you, then it’s not gonna be worth it because you’re not going to get a huge audience and you’re not gonna get all that right away.”
• What drew her to podcasts and why she became even more into them when her baby was little
• How we listen to podcasts
• The surprising criteria she uses to judge other podcasts
• Too many podcasts, too little time…
• Her main goal in podcasting
• New show idea! Women Belong in Baseball
• Three great pieces of advice for other moms: find your village, trust your instincts, & find moments of joy and creativity in the mundane
• The hardest part of the SAHM gig
• Embracing the “verb” of homemaking

Quotes from This Episode by Kris Baker Dersch:

• “You will fit in what you make a priority.”
• “Stop listening to the negative.”
• “There’s something to be said for just doing it.”
• “It’s nice to not know everything; it’s nice to learn by doing.”
• “Just do a paragraph. Just do a page.”
• “Some days, some months, it just doesn’t happen.”

Links and Books Mentioned In This Episode:

• No Extra Words, Kris’s Website: www.noextrawords.wordpress.com
• Connect with Kris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/noextrawords
• Women Belong in Baseball Facebook Group
• Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History
• Fat Fitness Girl with Katrina M. Thom
• She Podcasts with Elsie Escobar and Jessica Kupferman
• Brain Burps about Books with Katie Davis
• The Brain Science Podcast with Dr. Ginger Campbell
• Marketing for Hippies with Tad Hargrave
• Ira Glass on Creativity
• www.happinessmama.com/mindful-holiday Free Guide to a Mindful Holiday

Spread the Word:

If you enjoyed the podcast and want to help other mamas be happier, too, visit iTunes and kindly leave me a rating, review, and subscribe. More ratings and reviews can lead to more eyes and ears seeing and hearing the podcast. Thank you!

How to Subscribe to the Happiness Mama Podcast:

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• Click here to subscribe via RSS
• Click here to subscribe via Stitcher

Stay in Touch:

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Thank you so much for listening! I hope this podcast helps you be a little bit happier, and helps you go from striving to thriving!

Highlights of Our Conversation

• How Oana got into photography
• Her background in science (She has a PhD in physics!) and web development in the corporate world
• Creativity in software development and working with an international team
• Creativity is problem solving, letting go, releasing inhibitions, and expressing your inner self
• Crafting your own life, through the choices you make every day.
• Tons of tips for how to take good photographs
• How to have a good photo shoot when working with a professional photographer, and what not to do
• Advice for you when you’re taking pictures of your own kids, especially for getting good shots when you’re trying to do “special pictures” such as a family photograph…
• What NOT to do in your family photo shoots
• Murphy’s Law when it comes to group photos
• Oana’s hierarchy of what’s important for how to get the best photograph: expression, light, and background.
• Why you can find Oana in back alleys taking photos instead of out by the pretty fountain…
• Her charities
• What creativity means to her
• Letting go and relaxing and really listening to our children and being responsive to them.
• Why she got into homeschooling and what that looks like for her.
• The benefits of having her own photography business and how she has kept it as something that brings her joy
• How homeschooling allows her to be creative as well
• How she encourages her children to be creative 

Links and Books Mentioned:

• www.shutterview.com
• www.facebook.com/oanahogrefe
• www.facebook.com/OanaHogrefePhotography
• www.happinessmama.com/mindful-holiday (Free Guide to a Mindful Holiday!)
• www.happinessmama.com/my-mindful-holiday (Coaching Program)

Spread the Word:

If you enjoyed the podcast and want to help other mamas be happier, too, visit iTunes and kindly leave me a rating, review, and subscribe. More ratings and reviews can lead to more eyes and ears seeing and hearing the podcast. Thank you!

How to Subscribe to the Happiness Mama Podcast:

• Click here to subscribe via iTunes
• Click here to subscribe via RSS
• Click here to subscribe via Stitcher

Stay in Touch

Never miss an episode!

Click here to get the Happiness Mama Newsletter and your free gift.

Thank you so much for listening! I hope this podcast helps you be a little bit happier, and helps you go from striving to thriving!

Highlights of Our Conversation

• What is creativity?
• So many ways we can be creative
• Why, where, and when she dances and how she got started in dance
• A favorite song to get everyone moving in the morning before school
• A key to happiness is accepting that we’re not happy all the time.
• The importance of accepting all feelings and working through emotions through movement
• StoryDance for children
• Sad dances and sad music to channel emotions
• Dancing is like journaling through movement.
• Benefits of dance
• How to get started with dance as a personal practice
• Chakradance: what it is, and what a typical class is like
• “Meditation through movement”
• How she started writing
• Dream journals
• Writing practice.. a little or a lot?
• How to nurture and encourage the innate creativity of children
• The one word that can encourage creativity and help make us all happier
• Advice for those who want to get published
• Ways to be happier

Links and Books Mentioned

www.SoulWakening.com

Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up by Patricia Ryan Madson 

Sledgehammer Writing Contest

The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron 

www.750Words.com

www.happinessmama.com/03

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If you enjoyed the podcast and want to help other mamas be happier, too, please share the blog post on Facebook, Twitter, email, or your favorite platform. To help make the podcast more visible, visit iTunes and kindly leave me a rating, review, and subscribe. Thank you!

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Over to You

• Do you dance or listen to music as a way to move through difficult emotions?
• How are writing and dance a part of your life?
• How do you encourage and support your children in their creativity?
• Do you have a system for keeping track of all of your ideas?

Join the discussion in the community, or leave a comment on the blog.

Thank you so much for listening! I hope this podcast helps you be a little bit happier, and helps you go from striving, to thriving!

Elizabeth Helen Spencer is a mama, freelance writer, and English professor. We had a wonderful conversation about writing, teaching, and finding time for creativity as a busy mom. Listen as we talk about how Elizabeth got into creative writing, what she was doing in a skeevy dive in Philadelphia and who she met there, her experience living abroad in Prague, and the family fantasies we both have in common. Elizabeth shares some great ideas about how to make creativity a part of your life when you have a job (or two!) and a young child to take care of, and even if you’re not an early bird. We also talked about how to deal with fear when it arises, and what NOT to do to be happier.

Highlights of Our Conversation

• How to find time for writing
• Dealing with transitions, such as going back to work or your child starting preschool
• Being creative in the small things
• How Elizabeth got into writing fiction
• The surprising way she found her writing group and whom she met there
• Life as an American woman in Prague
• Writing by hand versus writing on the computer
• Our family fantasies
• How to overcome fears and challenging situations, such as a new school year
• What writing and sports have in common
• What's so great about coaching

Links and Books Mentioned

www.Elizabeth-Helen-Spencer.com

How Toddlers Thrive: What Parents Can Do Today for Children Ages 2-5 to Plant the Seeds of Lifelong Success by Tovah P. Klein

www.happinessmama.com

Spread the Word

If you enjoyed the podcast, visit iTunes and kindly leave me a rating, review, and/or subscribe. Thank you!

Ways to Subscribe to the Happiness Mama Podcast:

• Click here to subscribe via iTunes
• Click here to subscribe via RSS

Stay in Touch

Get more inspiration and encouragement in your inbox!

• Click here to get the Happiness Mama Newsletter and your free gift.

Thank you so much for listening! I hope this podcast helps you be a little bit happier, and helps you go from striving, to thriving!

If you’re a mom who has thought about doing mixed media art or art journaling, today’s episode is sure to inspire and encourage you. I spoke with Iris Fritschi-Cussens, mixed media artist and mom of two who lives in London with her family.

We had a wonderful conversation about how she got started with mixed media, what it means to her, and how she finds time for art while also being the mother of two young boys and working with her husband in their event filming business.

Highlights of Our Conversation

• How Iris finds joy in her art
• What art has taught her about life
• How we art can help us deal with the tough stuff
• The meaning of creativity
• Finding time for creativity
• How we can help our children to be creative
• What Iris does when she makes a “mistake”
• Why she prefers to paint rather than crochet
• How to get started with art journaling
• Why America is a great place to do art
• How we can all be a little bit happier
• Iris’s courses, including her awesome free Inspiration Guide

Links and Books Mentioned

www.iris-impressions.com

NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson (Amazon affiliate link)

www.happinessmama.com

Spread the Word

If you enjoyed the podcast and want to help other mamas be happier, too, visit iTunes and kindly leave me a rating, review, and subscribe. Thank you!

If you need any help with that, visit www.happinessmama.com/itunes-review.

Thank you for listening!