Have you been missing out on the FUN stuff? Annie F. Downs, expert funster, joins me on my podcast today to share with us how to put the FUN back into FUNctional. In a world that's either too busy or - as of late - felt shut-down, it's all too easy to forget to incorporate fun into our daily lives. If you've been wrestling with that lately, Annie has some great tips on bringing merriment back into your life. Join us and you'll soon be reminded of how easy it was to have fun when you were a kid, and how surprisingly easy it can be as an adult too! ~ Delilah
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Hello, my friend. We are back with another episode of Love Someone, and this one is gonna be fun. We've got Nashville, Tennessee's best selling author. She's a popular speaker. She does her own podcast. Her name is Annie f. Downs. She's with us today, and she has written the book on fun. Literally, I'm not kidding. Her book That Sounds Fun, The Joys of being an Amateur, The Power of Falling in Love, and Why You Need a Hobby. It was released in February. She is the host of a very popular podcast, also called That Sounds Fun, as well as the founder of the That Sounds Fun Network. At this point, I'd say it's safe to say she is an expert on the topic of fun. Annie has been described as engaging, honest, a straight shooter who doesn't shy away from really tough topics. Like me, she seems to revel in time shared with friends and family and belly laughs. After the crazy train that we've been on in and into one, I think we need fun. We need to rethink fun. We need more fun, not as something we might get to after all our of our other priorities are taken care of, but something that we must prioritize right up there with our physical and spiritual needs. We need fun, We need laughter. You know the expression laughter is the best medicine. It is, it truly is. We need lots of laughter and joy and fun. Annie speaks to how we need it to survive. That fun is actually life saving medicine, and she's going to share some great tips on how to put the fun and the joy back in our lives. We're going to jump into the necessity of sanity saving Shenanigans. Oh boy, do I like Shenanigan's Right after I give my podcast sponsor the shout out that they deserve. Mercy Ships is our newest sponsor to this podcast. Every conversation we have here is about helping, about loving, about building community. There's a large group a community that support Mercy Ships. This is an organization that sends ships that have been converted into fabulous hospitals to some of the poorest communities in the world and gives free surgeries to people who need it most. I support their work because I know the real difference, the life and death difference they make by their good work. I encourage you to go to Mercy Ships dot org slash love to learn more. Mercy ships dot org slash love. It will do your heart good, it will change your heart, it will speak to your heart and such a powerful way. That's mercy ships dot org slash love. Welcome Annie Downs to love someone. I am so glad that we are talking about this topic because for years, for years, some people I won't mention names, but some people in my immediate family, some people that I was married to once upon a time. Some people think that I am a little Craig Craig because I love to have fun and I will go to great lengths to have fun and to do ridiculous, absolutely stupid, practical jokes to people. And I love that you celebrate corny fun. So which came first? Your book, your podcast, or your passion for belly laughs? Well, you know, for me, Delilah Prazards, thanks for having me on today. But for me, the I think what came first is just my natural love of fun. Like I kind of was just born this way and built this way. And so what I had to face first was when all my friends and I are growing up and becoming adults, why are they stopping talking about fun? But I still want to talk about it. So I really had to go through this season of like, what does it look like to continue to talk about fund? Does that mean I'm not grown up? Does that mean I'm Peter Pan? No. I have a job and I do my responsibilities, and and then I rise like maybe I'm just made this way. Maybe there's something too. There needs to be a few of us still on the planet that talked about the power of fun and what it actually means and what it's actually for. And so that's when the podcast came along, and then five six years later is when the book came along. All right, quick question here. Have you ever been asked to leave a movie theater because you laugh too loud? No? Have you more than once? At? Yeah? Really? Yep? Oh my gosh, so you went on that one, doyla. Yeah. I love to go to corny movies, really goofy, funny movies, and my laugh can be heard like a mile away, which the people sitting next to me don't usually appreciate. I'm glad you were built this way. Did you ever feel any like you were a square peg in a round hole, like like you just didn't fit in because you love to have fun? I think so, I mean, I think all of us can look back to sixth grade right and figure out, Man, I did not feel like I fit in. I mean, I think all of us have those stories from our childhood and from our adult life where we think I just did not fit in the way I wanted to, and I didn't fit in as much as I thought I wanted to to feel accepted and to feel loved and and so I think that's true. But the older I've gotten and the more I've gotten used to being in my body and in my life, and it really come around appreciating that we're each mate so uniquely. The more it doesn't matter what side the whole is, I'm the right tag for it, right. So that's kind of what I've got and what I try to encourage people in the that sounds fun? The book has been like, Man, what do you love and and what matters to you? And what sounds fun to you? Because there's so much power in appreciating the unique way you were made a men sister, So, Annie, when it comes too fun, are you the practical joker kind of fun or are you just somebody who likes to experiment trying new things? I'm probably not the practical joker I probably way more lean on Let's get a group together and go do something fun. Let's take the next thirty minutes and do something fine. Let's take a break from work and do something fun and so practical joking kind of, I'm just maybe not smart enough to pull all those together in time. But I really love doing fun things that invite other people into it, that help people feel connect did and help people feel like man, that was a that was a better moment than I expected. Why does fun matter to you? Like, you know, I wrote a book about love because because that matters. Why does this concept of of levity or laughter or fun matter so much that you would write a book about it? Yeah? I mean for me, I think fun really encompasses a lot of things we're looking for, and there aren't a lot of people talking about it. I like bringing up conversations that people want to be having but may not have the words for quite at the moment. Because when I think about fun, I think about, man, who are the people I want to be around, and who do I love? And and how does that play into what is fun for me? And and where are the places that I want to learn something new? And what are the hobbies I want to pick up. So to me, the idea of fun is is really all encompassing in our lives, and and so I wanted to write about that because it matters so deeply to me. I feel like it's really been an active part of shaping the lights that I have and shaping some of the best parts of my life. And and as I was having conversations about fun on the podcast on that Sounds Fun to Podcast, I realized, like, man, there is more to this conversation that I'm able to have just with these guests. I want to write about this and research this and dig into this, and and so it just kind of became the main thing I wanted to think about and talk about and write about. And there is such a huge void, it seems, especially especially this past year year and a half, this huge void of levity. Everything is so serious. Do you find that that people have been watching the news or being in COVID shutdown of kind of lost that fun bear. Yeah. For me, what I saw over the last year was a lot of us that we had these big dreams of fun that was going to I hadn't on my calendar two trips overseas or trips to Disney World or Disneyland, or or of these big concerts or sporting events you wanted to go to. And and when all of that gets canceled, we either kind of had the choice to to not have fun and to just kind of sit in the loss that we experienced, or we could try to find some simpler fund some easier, more local, more at home grown fun. Now, I'm a big believer in feeling or feeling, so I'm not saying that that we needed to not be disappointed or sad. But at the same time, I mean, how many people got back into puzzles and got into bread making, and got into having conversations with friends over zoom people you hadn't talked to in a long time. And So what I saw over the last year and what I was glad is I was finishing writing that sounds fun, is when the pandemic began. So I got to kind of lay the filter of a worldwide pandemic on top of a book of fun and see if it all stayed true. And what I ended up realizing is, man, this is still a big meat in our lives and in our hearts, and there is a way to do that even when the world is not as you're used to it being. I got a confession to make, Annie, I'm ready. I had a hell of a lot of fun during the COVID shutdown. What did you do? I spent the entire year with my family. I didn't leave the house for weeks. I have never lived with my husband his career and my career since the day we met. We've lived in different states. We got married, we still live in different states, and we just you know, visit, we travel back and forth. But during the COVID shutdown, we lived together. Our whole family lived together on a five acre cattle ranch, and I can tell you it was one of the most fun experiences of my life to spend that kind of intimate time with my kids and my husband doing amazing things, simple things, but amazing things. So, what are some of the most silly or wonderfully spontaneous things that you have ever done? Just like you said, to pull people into the moment, to get them to lighten up, what are some of the really amazing moments that you have had that you would encourage other people not to do the same thing, obviously, but to just take a chance on fun. Well, you know what this is a great part about talking about fun is a lot of times the big and bold and wild fun things are actually not attainable to everybody and aren't necessarily what your fondest memories are. So what really comes to mind is like Friday at work. It got to me about four o'clock and we were all still stay around answering emails, and one of my co workers said, let's order guacamoley, and so we are guacamole just randomly on a Friday afternoon. That's not a big thing, but then it was really fun just to take him in and sit around and laugh and eat guacamole together. I also think about during the pandemic, some other girlfriends and I, you know, we we all live alone separately because we aren't married yet, and so we all live alone across town, and we decided to all watch the same movie at the same time over face time, and so it was a real small moment, but it was really meaningful to me. I'm trying to think of what I mean. One time, some friends and I, you can take a flight from Nashville where I live, down to Panama City to that airport, and we got on that morning flight on Southwest, and all we packed, we had our slim suits on in our clothes on top, and we just took our beach bags down and we flew down for seventy nine dollars and went and laid on the beach for the day and flew back on the evening flight that night for seventy nine dollars. So that was pretty fun. But man, I'm all for doing fun that is manageable as far as financially and time wise, so that instead of putting tons of pressure on a vacation in one week in the summer and said, you've been having fun all the way along A men to that. My mom was the queen of having fun on a shoestring budget. My dad always always worked, had a good job. We weren't poor, but we certainly weren't rich. You know, we lived very simply. They were very thrifty. But my mom could pull together a party on like five bucks, I kid you not, and on a whim. You know, on a Friday night, she'd say, let's go crabbing, and she'd get on the phone and call half the neighborhood and we'd all meet down at the crab dock. And my dad would bring his guitar and we would crab off the end of the dock and catch crab and cook them on the beach and have a party. Not a stupid, get drunk kind of stupid party, but just with four or five of the neighbors, ten of the neighbors, all the kids playing in the sand. My dad played the guitar until midnight or one or two o'clock in the morning. It cost us nothing. Yeah, And that, to me, that was a lot of what has gone sideways with fun is people expect themselves to come up with really grandiose, expensive, big, multi day fun. And I'm just such a fan of the simplicity of making it part of your every week, of your every day, of going back because when you were nine years old, you didn't have to think about fun. You just had it all the time. And now, of course we have more responsibilities, more things we have to worry about and think about, but we can still make that a part of our lives. I think I do that sometimes a little bit too much, so that my kids expect that everything is going to be fun, you know. I try to make games out of learning. I try to make food fun and make you know, pancakes that are the shape of butterflies, or I spell my kids names out with pancakes. Well, it gets to the point where, Mom, this this just a round pancake. What's up? You're not fun today? That's exactly right. When normal life is surprising to your family because they're used to you kind of kicking it up and not that's a pretty good life, It's true. And my my friends and family know that if I'm there, I'm going to kick it. If I'm not kicking it up a notch, if I'm not trying to have fun, there's something drastically wrong with me. I'm either in physical pain or emotional pain. No, just surely that. I think a lot of times we all, I mean, we're all going to have off days, of course, and there are some personalities that are less inclined to showing up and being the party like you and I both are. But the beautiful thing is is we we all gathered together. Everybody wants to feel connected, everybody wants to laugh, Everybody wants to have those kind of memories and those kind of moments. Some of us it's a little bit easier to think them up than others. But part of my hope with the book is that we've set out some ideas and some concepts for people that will help jump start them into what they're thinking about. So, how can we give me some baby steps to take? I think we've become very cynical and very divided as a nation as a society. Give us some annie, some baby steps. Maybe you spell them out and that sounds fun, But give us a starting point, a launching point for incorporating this idea of playfulness or fun back into our day, back into our routine. Yeah. I think it starts with a really simple question that you ask yourself, and you ask the people that you sit around and eat dinner with. And the question is what sounds fun to you? I mean, that's a really simple question. But what happens when you sit down and kind of ask around the table tonight at dinner. Okay, we're gonna answer everyone, want everybody answer this question? What sounds fun to you? What happens is it does get your brain spinning. I'm like, well, hey, I don't know, I haven't thought about fun in a really long time. Okay, well think about it now, start thinking up. What does sound fun to you? Is it a particular band you want to see live in concert when we're able to do that again hopefully really soon. Or or is it a game you want to play? Is it an instrument you want to learn? Is it a recipe you want to cook? Is it a sport you want to try it for yourself? Like, there are so many answers to what sounds funky? Maybe it's just resting. Maybe what sounds fun for you is reading a book quietly for an hour. That's a great answer, And so I think asking yourself that question, it really is the first step in listening to your friends and family. Who you eat dinner with, or maybe you eat lunch with after church on Sunday, or maybe you're in small group with or you your co workers do you eat lunch with every day? But when you ask that question, it really stirs up something in you. It stirs up something and the people that are eating with you. And in fact, if you start, if you follow up that question with, well tell me why, that is almost always Delilah, You'll think this is so interesting. Almost always, as you get down deeper into the why behind what sounds fun to people, almost always points back to while when I was a kid dot dot dot because there's a simplicity that we miss and our adult lives and we want to taste that again. And one of the ways we get to have those moments is by finding fun in the life we have. This podcast is brought to you by my friends at the Home Depot. Listen up. If you are a do it yourself for the Home Depot has given you a not so super secret tool to taking on your next project. It's the home Depot app and it's on your phone, downloaded for free, and then use it when you're starting your next project. You can take a picture of what you're working on and what you need to replace or repair, and the home Depot's app technology gives you all their options. Is it in the store closest to you or would you prefer it shipped to you the home Depot how doers get more done? So it seems to me a lot of people are worried about looking foolish. They don't want to be not good at something. Like you said, when we were kids, I didn't care if I was the best soccer player. Well we didn't play soccer, but you know, the best volleyball player, the best swimmer, I just wanted to go to the pool and swim. I didn't care if I was wearing the best hiking boots and could hike ten miles without stopping. I just wanted to go climb on the hills behind our house. But then something happens where we judge ourselves or we have expectations of ourselves. How do you get past that and just go have fun again? Yeah? I mean part of that. In the book, the first section is actually titled the Joys of being an Amateur and how much it matters that we allow ourselves to begin at new things, to start something we've never done before, to give ourselves permission to be new at today where we are in our lives today. The only thing I want to be a professional act is my job. Everything else I want to stay an amateur I and being an amateur kind of gets a bad rap, But the reality is being an amateur just means you're trying something new, and you're doing things that you're not trying to be a professional act. Well, I'm never gonna be a professional athlete, but I don't want to play sports, and I'm never gonna be a professional like knitter, but I love cross fitting, and so we've got to give ourselves this permission of like, what if you are new at something, What if you aren't professional at something, do you still want to try? I'm never gonna be a professional chef, but I love cooking, So how do we go back and give ourselves permission to do that? It literally is just that Delilah of literally saying to yourself, it is okay if I don't know how to do everything and to be very good at everything. There is a lot of fun that comes from trying new things. But if you put the pressure on yourself to be a professional all the time, you're gonna miss out. How can people break out of their habits? It seems like the older we get, the more set in our ways. Where we have a routine where you know, this is my morning, this is my mid day, this is my afternoon, this is what I do in evening. That doesn't leave a whole lot of room for creativity and fun. How can we start to break out of that routine and invite fun back into our hearts, into our day, into our life. So to me, one of the real way to break out of our routine is actually not to ruin the routine you have. Just add fun to your calendar. I mean I encourage people all the time, Delilah, put thirty minutes of fun on your calendar this Saturday, for your whole family, for you and your partner, for you and your friends. Just say hey, will you block off two to two thirty on Saturday for us to have fun? Because everything you put on your calendar is what really matters to you and what you will prioritize and not just skip over. And so if you'll put fun on your calendar, then what happens is every day between now and Saturday, you're going, what are we gonna do in that thirty minutes? What are we gonna do that sounds fun? Well, what sounds fun to them? What sounds fun to me? And then as it gets closer, you've really done kind of a deep dive in your own heart and in your own life about what you want to do in that thirty minutes. And then what happens. I love this is you do your thirty minutes of fun. You're playing outside, you do a puzzle together, you you do whatever the fun thing is you and your friends decided to do together or you do alone. And then you reflect on it, just like we do with everything else. Well, that was really fun, but I wish the cookie recipe would have had more chocolate chips in it. We'll do it different next time. Or I wish we'd play soccer instead of tennis. Well next week, let's play soccer. And suddenly, instead of having to reshape your life because you're trying to add fun, you just make space for it on your calendar like you make space for everything else. You're also talk in your book about having hobbies. I have way, way, way, way too many hobbies. I am buried under stacks of projects that are fun hobbies that I start. But a lot of people I know don't have hobbies. Talk about why you think it's important that folks pick up a hobby. That's awesome. I like that you have a lot of hobbies. I think that's really great. I think one of the reasons we need those hobbies that you experienced this in your life probably as much as anybody, Delila, is if it really matters that we have some space away from our phones, away from technology. Because I hate to break it to all of our friends listening, but scrolling is not a hobby. Scrolling on Instagram is not a hobby. Hobbies are things where you create something, or you make something, or you invest your time and your your energy into something important like a cookie recipe or cross stitching or learning a new instrument, and so a lot of times the reason we need those is we need something that helps us to rest our brains. And so if we work with our brains all week, we need to rest with our hands and make things, create things, It really helps your brains to rest. So I think hobbies matter for that reason that they help us to rest in a really deep and I think profound way. So what are some of your hobbies? What do I love to do well? To me? Right now? I'm working my way through one of Danielle Walker's cookbooks, So I'm cooking on the weekends through in that cookbook and sharing the toils of my labor with my friends and family, and so that's one that I'm doing right now. I love playing outside and just being outside, So anything I can do like that is a hobby for me, whether it's playing frisbee or soccer whatever. And as I meant to a couple of times, I'm kind of getting back into cross fitting Dewila, like my grandmother taught me thirty years ago, and I just hadn't picked it up in a really long time. And I realized a couple of months ago that I was kind of tired of watching TV and rolling on my phone. I feel like I was wasting my life, and so I decided to start making something. So I started making some new patterns, some crosstitch patterns, and making gifts for my friends. And I absolutely am having the best time. Do you know, Annie, the average American spins between six and fourteen hours a day on screens. Yeah, it's wild. It is absolutely wild and so one. I mean, I think that's why it matters so much. I take on. There's a day a week every week that I am not. I am not on technology at all. I just needed my brain to rest. I need to not take in so much information. And so even this week on Saturday, I finished reading a book that I loved by Charles Martin called The water Keeper, and I just sat on my couch and had music playing through my speakers and rent for a couple of hours. And and of course the temptation was there to check my phone and check Instagram and for all the science that they tell us behind the dopamine rush that having that little red notification. Give that. But I have learned that my my life is healthier when I take some separations from screens. That is hard. And as a parent with kids, it's really hard to try to impress upon them to put put it down, put it away, but the computer away, turn it off, walk away, let's go have fun. You would think that young people would be the one saying, mom, let's go out fun. But it's it's sad how addicted youth are today to that dopamine that you get on screen time. Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean it is, it is for all of us. It's addicting. I think I'm grateful that I did not have to be a teenager with social media. I think it is probably one of the highest pressure times in the life of a teenager is right now trying to maneuver, I mean, with as much trouble is I have Delilah, not getting my my identity and my joy out of social media. I can't imagine trying to do this at fort in fifteen sixteen, and so I really and as you as a parent, I mean, I just honor y'all who are parenting teenagers and young adults through social media um and teaching them that, you know, there are so much life outside of your phone, and so much life outside of video games, and we need need to get out there and see it and experience it. That is the biggest challenge I think I face as a parent is keeping my kids engaged in life instead of addicted to to a fake life. This this alternative reality. M hmm, that's right, that's right. That's reminding them that, you know, there's there is real bread to be made in the kitchen, and they're real friends to be made out in the world, and and there's real relationships and real connection and and you know, real beautiful things we can do. Even in a garden, there's real things to grow. The video games where you're growing things are fun, but man, let's get outside and actually make errant, you know. And I think that that I see a lot of my friends who are parenting really working towards that and working on that and helping their children and even themselves see a life outside of their phone that is really worth investing in. Well, Lucky for me, I am very blessed with the land and the gardens and the carrots um. But it is pulling teeth to get my kids to put the damned devices down and go outside and jump. They even want to take them on the trampoline. I'm like, are you insane? I mean, I don't feel the same pressure sometimes to myself where I have to say to my I mean, I have all these boundaries set on my phone, all these limits that so that I can parent myself and parent my phone and how I want to interact with my phone, so I don't en be any of y'all who are raising other people. I'm working on raising myself using technology. So you talk about that a little bit in your book about raising yourself About difficulty is about about tough times and vulnerable times in your life. Uh, which is it would seem strange to have that in a book called you know that sounds fun, but you're very honest and very transparent. Yeah, it just really mattered to me when I was writing this, and and this is how I am with my book, says, it just matters that the friends who are reading it on the other side feel like I'm telling the truth. Now I don't have to tell every single detail, and that's the beauty of having editors and people on my team who helped read manuscript before they become public, and they say to me like, hey, Annie, this is probably too much detail or the They also sometimes go, hey, you started this story, but I actually know there's more here for you to tell. And they pushed me and encouraged me to be more vulnerable. But it mattered to me that in a book about fun people, people don't feel like I'm Pollyanna, like I'm trying to write this from a life that does not know pain or loss or disappointment or heartbreak. Instead, like we learned the movie inside Out, what's actually true is they go better hand in hand, joy and suffering, joy and sadness. They're actually both brighter when they are both held together. And so I wanted to write a book that said, Hey, I'm inviting you to fun, and I'm inviting you to prioritize this, but I'm inviting you from a place of a real life that knows real pain, not from you know, not a Disney Channel princess kind of life. You also mentioned in the book that sounds fun that living by faith isn't always fun. M hm hm yeah. And I think the problem is is whether it's your faith or the career path you're on, or even though you know what your favorite hobbies are, there's always a risk that people are going to look at your life and for whatever is going on inside their life, they're gonna determine they need to judge your life so they feel better about themselves. And that is just I mean, sadly, that's the nature of being surrounded by humans, right, But that's I think that's why it matters so much that we each really focus on and get a real handle on that you're not an accident, that your uniqueness is really important to our planet being as colorful and wonderful and vibrant as it is. And so the things you love and the faith you hold tight to, don't let it go just because someone's judging you. Remember that you're bringing a unique collection of personality traits to this planet and we need that. I love the expression. I saw it years ago. God looked around and realized the world needed you. Yeah that's beautiful. I love that. And boy, that makes you think differently about your neighbors and the person who cuts you off in traffic, and you know, of was going like, man, the world needed them. The world needed them. And I think that's what makes falling in love so special, and loving people, as you talk about so much like loving people is so special because you go, man, I I can't imagine lie without knowing you, Like God knew the world needed you and knew that I needed you. And it's why lost is so profound and deep is because love and lost goes so close hand in hand. But I think that's a beautiful thought and reminds me of so many people that I love. If we can take that posture, how much more fun is life if we look around and go, man, what it gifts all these people are and really living with them? And God, that's that's a beautiful thought. It makes me more excited than ever to think about the people that I love. Well, you go love on the people that you love. Annie. Tell my audience how they can find you, how they can find your book, how they can find your podcast, how they can find your infectious joy for living. You're trying to live to thank you, Okay, so I'm embarrassingly easy to find. It's Annie f Downs everywhere, just like Fun. Annie f Downs on all the social media places that sounds. Fun's podcast releases on Mondays and Thursdays, and you can find that wherever you love to listen to podcasts. And the book That Sounds Fun is available everywhere. It's been out for about two months. It's been really fun to see people embracing new hobbies telling me that they laughed and cried when they read it. So you can grab it from your local bookstore. They can order it for you if they don't have it on the shelf, or you can go online and get it where you love to buy books. I'm gonna leave you with this one thought that we started doing when COVID hit, and I'm gonna give it this. This is my present to you. Okay, okay, I'm ready. So you said that you live alone. You're going to have to do this over skypeer zoom until things open up. But every night at dinner since COVID hit, we've been having family dinners just like we had grown up. And every night at dinner we ask a question and go around the table and everybody responds. So the questions are as ridiculous as you can imagine, or as poignant as you could imagine, and it has given me such insights into the people that God has placed in my life that it just boggles my mind. It blows my mind. And it's to the point now that if we sit down for dinner and I don't have a question or Papa doesn't have a question, the kids are like, what, what's what's the question? Where's the question? We need the question? I'm like, Okay, you guys come up with the question, and they've come up with some really good ones. Favorite one, well, uh, if you could travel back in time and have a conversation with yourself at twelve, what would you say? Or if you could have one meal with anybody in history, who would you choose to have a meal with? Great question, I mean, amazing, talk about fun that those meals we'll live in my heart forever because you know, as the is open up and we get busy again, I know we won't have those opportunities. But what a blessing mum. Huh. So that's my gift to you, the meal question. I'm going for that question tonight. If you get have dinner with anybody in history, hug with I can't wait to ask my friends up my parting gift to you, And you've been so generous with your time and with your love and with your fun. Whenever you're with family or friends, come up with a really good question. What one of the questions was, if you could go to Mars, knowing you would never get to return to Earth, would you go? Oh wow? What was your answer? I don't know. Of the people at my table, there were nine of us said not just no, but hail no. Why would I leave my family? Yeah? Wow? Yeah? Good? Thank you Piah, you got you got my brain spinning. Now, all right, Annie f Downs any Fun Downs. The book is called that Sounds Fun, the same name of the podcast. I imagine if somebody wanted to look you up on Instagram or Facebook, they would look up Annie f Downs. Yes, ma'am, that's it, all right, Thank you go have fun. Thanks, thanks for having me. All right, bubbye, sweetheart. Right talking to Annie f As in Fun Downs was indeed fun. I can understand why she's considered an expert on the topic of fun. Her voice bubbling over with enthusiasm, personality, and she had some very solid information to back up her assertion that we need we need fun in our lives. Like Annie said, we need to make time for fun by actually putting it on our calendar. Prioritizing it just as you would a business meeting, a dentist appointment, a school conference. Another tip she shared that I appreciated, and I know this to be true, is that hobbies making, doing things with your hands, creating helps to put our over active mind at ease. Coloring those coloring books they make that have such beautiful pictures and are whimsical, those put your mind at ease right away. And finally, my favorite takeaway from this whole conversation, give yourself necessary breaks from the electronics, necessary breaks from texting, emailing, scrolling, going on social media. Resist the temptation. Instead, pick up a book, take a walk, talk to a friend that remember what it's like to be engaged with the real, the tangible, the authentic world, and be yourself. These experiences, the things you do with your hands, the things you make, the conversations you have with your kids so much better than anything you're going to find on Twitter. It truly is, and it gave us the information we need. You can find her podcast or her books by the same name. That sounds fun. I encourage you to spend a little time gathering ideas and inspiration. I also got to encourage you to join me every single night on the radio as I play your request and dedications and find all of my podcast loves Someone, where I will continue my mission, my unending mission of shining a light in your direction to help dispel some of the darkness, and maybe, just maybe we'll have a whole lot of fun.