Out of the Ordinary

Latest Episodes:

127. Signs of an Untrustworthy Narrator May 05, 2021

Show notes

Today's Out of the Ordinary Book:

All Fall Down by Ally Carter
Book 1 in the Embassy Row series
How the Books We Read Help Us Better Understand the Lives we Lead:

Lisa-Jo is suspicious of her own point of view and here is why
Christie asks what YA spy novels have to say about real, ordinary, grown up lives
They dip into Lisa-Jo's former life as a diplomat
Why we learn more from fiction than self help books
What this novel might teach you about yourself and your beliefs even if you never read it

Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast.

_______

Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible.

Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary90 and use code ordinary90 to get $90 off including free shipping!

Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary

Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

126. Understanding the Choices We've Made Apr 28, 2021

Show notes

Today's Out of the Ordinary Book:
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, by Alexander McCall Smith

What this story teaches about your story:

How to understand the choices we've made
What to do when life feels like it's narrowing in, rather than widening out
The power of choosing what you already chose

Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast.

_______

Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible.

Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary90 and use code ordinary90 to get $90 off including free shipping!

Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary

Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

125. Navigating through Hard Headlines Apr 21, 2021

Show notes

Today's Out of the Ordinary Book:
A Prayer for Orion: A Son's Addiction and a Mother's Love, by Katherine James
Key Conversation Points:

Why Lisa-Jo was jealous of a mother living through every parent's worst nightmare?
Whether Lisa-Jo or Christie tends to be the more judgey and what the antidote is
Christie's honest response to hard headlines
How books help us decode our own darkest nights.

Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast.

_______

Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible.

Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary90 and use code ordinary90 to get $90 off including free shipping!

Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary

Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

124. Can You Trust Us? Apr 14, 2021

Show notes

INTRODUCING: Out of the Ordinary BOOKS! Where we believe that the books we read help us better understand the lives we lead.

Every week we will share an out of the ordinary book and how it can help you make sense of your story too.

These aren't book reviews or recommendations, these are conversations about some of our best friends, worst enemies, toughest coaches, most passionate lovers, and kindest teachers that line our book shelves.

As we begin season 3 of the Podcast, we thought it was time for a new twist to our conversations. And letting books be the jumping off point for these chats between two old friends we know you've come to love, adds a fun new dynamic to an old favorite. Whether you're a reader or not, we hope these conversations, as always, help you see the deeper story hidden right in plain sight in your ordinary life too.

WIN A VIRTUAL TEA DATE FOR YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS WITH LISA-JO AND CHRISTIE!

Just share a screenshot of the new podcast on social media and tag with #outoftheordinarybooks

We'll pick one US-based and one International group of friends to join us for a virtual tea date. Tag all your friends you'd invite to join!

Today's Out of the Ordinary Book:
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Key Conversation Points:

How to know if you are reading a trustworthy author?
Why Lisa-Jo has a preference for comfort plots.
Christie's love of puzzles, mysteries, and mazes. And why you might end up loving them too.
That dead-end road in your life decoded.

Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around the podcast.

_______

Sponsor appreciation: We're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible.

Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary90 and use code ordinary90 to get $90 off including free shipping!

Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary

Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package curated by Christie, Lisa-Jo and friends.

123. Something New Is Coming! Apr 07, 2021

Show notes

This is a story about something new growing out of the podcast.

We're entering our third season of The Out of the Ordinary Podcast. Christie and Lisa-Jo have poured out hundreds of stories grown out of the soil of their ordinary lives. Today they share about how the podcast has grown and is about to branch out into a new area.

We're so grateful you've been with us on this journey. And we're excited about this new turn in the road. So don't miss the big reveal next week!

In the meantime, we invite you to read Psalm 126 with us: (as you picture Lisa-Jo arriving with armloads of groceries and goodies for their first time recording in person again after the pandemic year).

It seemed like a dream, too good to be true,
when God returned Zion’s exiles.
We laughed, we sang,
we couldn’t believe our good fortune.
We were the talk of the nations—
“God was wonderful to them!”
God was wonderful to us;
we are one happy people.

And now, God, do it again—
bring rains to our drought-stricken lives
So those who planted their crops in despair
will shout “Yes!” at the harvest,
So those who went off with heavy hearts
will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing.

PS: Have you left us a review yet? Gosh, we'd love if you took a minute to do so!

_______

Sponsor appreciation: In these uncertain times we're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible.

Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package.

Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary90 and use code ordinary90 to get $90 off including free shipping!

Click here for 50% off your first Care/of customized vitamin plan order. Just go to TakeCareOf.com and enter code: ordinary50

Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary

122. A few of our favorite SPRING things! Mar 31, 2021

Show notes

This is a story about a spring tradition.

With each new change of the seasons, it's become our tradition to record a new intro to celebrate what we love about that particular turn of the earth. So come March 20 we had to share a new intro with our favorite ordinary spring things. These are the stories behind them.

Come on in, get comfy, here we go.

Links from this week's episode:

Unicorn converse sneakers
Cookbook: Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables
Brent and Becky's Bulbs

Follow Lisa-Jo on Instagram here
Follow Christie on Instagram here

Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around podcast.

_______

Sponsor appreciation: In these uncertain times we're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible.

Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package.

Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary90 and use code ordinary90 to get $90 off including free shipping!

Click here for 50% off your first Care/of customized vitamin plan order. Just go to TakeCareOf.com and enter code: ordinary50

Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary

121. REUNITED (and it feels so good!) Mar 24, 2021

Show notes

This is a story about finally being back in the same place one year later!

This podcast has always been rooted in a specific place, Christie's 100 year old farmhouse, Maplehurst. It's where all the episodes have been recorded in person until 2020 when everything went into lock down.

Today Lisa-Jo and Christie welcome all their listeners back into this moment of finally being reunited in person, in this special place that holds the DNA of this podcast.

It wasn't what either of them expected. And it's a microcosm of another place they've been building with a community of friends during the lockdown year.

Come on in, get comfy, here we go.

Links from this week's episode:

Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around podcast.

_______

Sponsor appreciation: In these uncertain times we're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible.

Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package.

Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary90 and use code ordinary90 to get $90 off including free shipping!

Click here for 50% off your first Care/of customized vitamin plan order. Just go to TakeCareOf.com and enter code: ordinary50

Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary

120. A Pandemic Year in Review Mar 17, 2021

Show notes

This is a story about crossing the line in the sand, the threshold we've all stepped over that now marks one full year of pandemic life.

This is the third and final installment of our short "Re-entry" series. Here is how two storytellers unpack the complicated feelings surrounding re-entry. By telling the stories of what that line physically looked like for each of us.

Christie and Lisa-Jo clearly recall the moment that a stripe was drawn through time, marking a before and after that we didn't even realize we were stepping over.

Join us as we share those stories - one as bright as balloons and one as stinky as compost. Let's slowly unpick those weird plot twists together.

Links from this week's episode:

Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around podcast.

And Then It's Spring is the book we refer to.

_______

Sponsor appreciation: In these uncertain times we're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible.

Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package.

Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary90 and use code ordinary90 to get $90 off including free shipping!

Click here for 50% off your first Care/of customized vitamin plan order. Just go to TakeCareOf.com and enter code: ordinary50

Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary

119. What Travel Teaches Us About Re-Entry Mar 10, 2021

Show notes

This is a story about what being suspended with toddlers at 30,000 feet teaches you about reentry. And how road trips across states can surprise you into thinking about where you best belong.

As the world slowly steps back into March and crosses the one year mark since it shut down, we're all bound to process that differently. Join us today as we continue our short series of stories about what re-entry looks like. Today it's through the lens of travel ---from back in the pre-COVID day.

Here is how two storytellers unpack the complicated feelings surrounding re-entry.

Links from this week's episode:

Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around podcast.

_______

Sponsor appreciation: In these uncertain times we're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible.

Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package.

Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary90 and use code ordinary90 to get $90 off including free shipping!

Click here for 50% off your first Care/of customized vitamin plan order. Just go to TakeCareOf.com and enter code: ordinary50

Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary

118. How Storytellers Process Re-Entry Mar 03, 2021

Show notes

This is a story about a mom sitting in her car staring into space in the school parking lot surprised by how badly she just needed to sit and cry for a moment.

As the world slowly steps back into March and crosses the one year mark since it shut down, we're all bound to process that differently. Join us today as we begin a short series of stories about what re-entry looks like. Teachers, therapists, and pastors all have different ways of processing this transition.

Here is how two storytellers unpack the complicated feelings surrounding re-entry.

Links from this week's episode:

Click here to join the conversations we have with listeners every week around podcast.

_______

Sponsor appreciation: In these uncertain times we're so grateful to partner with show sponsors that keep making our work possible.

Click here to sign up for your own digital Paper&String care package.

Click here to go to GreenChef.com/ordinary90 and use code ordinary90 to get $90 off including free shipping!

Click here to join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health through the online counseling offered by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month by visiting www.betterhelp.com/ordinary

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