Latest / The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast / Part 2 of Preventing Summer Brain Drain | A conversation with Dawna Ofstehage (our fav librarian!)

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Part 2 of Preventing Summer Brain Drain | A conversation with Dawna Ofstehage (our fav librarian!) · The Wholehearted Enneagram Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: This episode is sponsored by Super Summer Challenge.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you have one hour a week, one day a week, or 12 full weeks with your kids this summer, Super Summer Challenge is here to help you make the most of every minute.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Our book, templates, online workshop, and personalized coaching will help you create more unplugged, purposeful, and intentional moments this summer.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of fighting against boredom, electronics all day long, or the crazy busy swirl of activities, Supersummer Challenge will help your kids learn new skills, build confidence, and strengthen family relationships.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Find more at SupersummerCallenge.com.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Hi friends, welcome back to the Simply Wholehearted Podcast.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Today is part two of our conversation with Donna Ostinhay, who is a local librarian here in the Kansas area.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: We're having fun talking about all sorts of practical ways that we can engage our kids' minds over the summer months.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope you enjoy the rest of our conversation.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's totally.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: So um, I mean, I think this is a lot of like if I was a parent um with kids at a younger age, I'd be writing notes right now.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a couple of ideas here, because story time, one of my experiences though, actually turned into a good experience, but I didn't realize storytime ended my first year here, like at Cum May.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so I brought a bunch of friends to meet, and then we found out there wasn't story time.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And they actually ended up all being, we all became like really good friends.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: It was kind of our first time to hang out together, and and that's a whole nother story.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: But we ended up going to park and it was fine.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: But um, what are just some ideas that you kind of share to parents to help over the summertime?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because we talk here about summer brain drain and trying to keep up the literacy and stuff like that.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that's a little bit easier with older kids.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's a book list, that book list from the school they're supposed to do, or you know, you can go tell them to read for 10 minutes before they get to play on an electronic.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: But as we're developing these six by six, the summer is a good three long months.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it would be easy for us to be in summer mode ourselves because we're kind of trained that way in our society because of the school calendar.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: How you know you don't have story time.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: So what are some great ways to that is not true?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: So tell me.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: So this is the first summer that we're doing um story times in the summer.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: So we are doing family story times at the Leeway branch on Thursday mornings at 9 30.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: However, we only have a meeting room that seats 50.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: So we may have to offer a second one back to back.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: So if you can't make it into the 9:30 because of too many people, we might have to ask you to wait a couple of minutes, 30, 20, 30 minutes to clear out the room after we're done, reset, and then you can come in into that.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's because I feel like since we have never done this before, yeah, it's going to be huge.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because my story times already are huge.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I know I used to really want that summertime connection for you know, and sometimes I felt like I had more time in the summer and to do that sort of thing.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's a feedback that we've gotten.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: So there are several branches that are essentially piloting this.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: There are other branches that are just too busy and cannot handle the traffic of summer story times, but we're gonna test it out.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um because we can.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, how about those people who are listening in their local library doesn't do story time.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: So um, well, at least at at every library that I've worked at, which is three public libraries thus far, um in my career.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's uh that's pretty good.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's more than I did, so yeah.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: So this is this was actually the first library that I worked at that did not have story times during the summer.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And the theory behind that, because I asked, you know, I asked right away when I realized that this was this was the case.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I said, why is that?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: And they said, Because we have the school age kids and we want to devote our time and energy to providing programs for the school age kids because we don't get them during the school year.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because they're busy, they're in school, so we want to we want to devote a lot of our time and energy to that population because we don't get that population very often.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: We get them for three months.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um so we have a lot of programs available for children during the summer.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: For example, um, at Leewood, we will have a program almost every Monday.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have a program on Wednesdays, either read to a teen or read to a dog.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: So one week, it's every other week.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: What read to dog?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Read to a dog.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, so we have children.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, me too.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_03: Be all over that.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: Bring them in.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: So we have um we have a dog named Monty who is um comes to us from Pets for Life.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: He is a certified therapy dog.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_03: Oh man.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: And Pets for Life is contracted with us, and they provide the dog and the and the dog owner who brings the dog.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: And you just provide your child, and um you can grab a book from the library, and you just go into a room and you read to the dog, and the dog is there to learn new words with you.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: And to be non-judgmental and to help you learn how to read better and more efficient.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Which is a whole nother skill.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it really is.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it's with and it what's so great is that it is, of course, no it's the dog, right?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, everybody loves dogs.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a little h hesitant about dogs, this is a great dog to me.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, if you have a dog, like and your kid, you know, you maybe don't have the patience level and your kid uh doesn't have the confidence.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Read to the dog.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Read to the dog.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: And the great thing with that too is it does build confidence because nobody's stopping it.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, stopping the kid.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Correcting saying no, that's not right.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: So based on that, we we currently do that all year round.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we take sometimes our dogs need vacations too.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: So the our dogs take vacation in May, August, and December.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: But other than that, we do it on the second and fourth Wednesdays of every month throughout the year.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: We need to do that.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: I know.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: I should have brought a list of all of our programs for this nice reading.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_03: What did they let grown-ups read to the dog?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_03: Because I personally hate reading out loud.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_03: Do you really?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_03: I do not like reading out loud.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I just don't.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: I have come to embrace it.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: I I did struggle with that first when I knew that was my job as a a homeschool mom or just as a mom in general.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And part of what helped me was going to story time.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And Miss Miss O was the one who was our story time lady, you know.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: I could have been Miss O.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: I am Miss O.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: You are Miss O now.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, but anyway.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Donna.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're it's I don't like the last name thing.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: I did that as a school librarian for so many years.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'd rather just be called Donna.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, no, and so then based on that model, um I have a teen volunteer program where teens apply and be interviewed and my kids can't wait to do that.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you gotta be third friendly.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh be a teen volunteer at the library.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: So um my teen volunteers, I have opened it up for them and I'm gonna have I'm gonna let them sign up to be the teen and just basically be there and to just listen to anybody and everybody who wants to read.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's just another opportunity to have it because we can get I feel like twice a month is a lot of um valuable time that they donate to us.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I don't want to ask for more because I feel like I feel like it's asking too much.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm happy with the two types of things.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great opportunity for people now.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a great opportunity for the teens because then they get to gain those skills that they wouldn't normally have unless they have younger siblings in another.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that will be good and it will help build a build confidence in them too.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm looking at our time and we're running short, and I don't want to not get these last two things over.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's do it.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, real quick, we talked about um what are three things that the people don't know about their library that they should be utilizing?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, genealogy help.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of libraries have ancestry.com and other genealogy genealogy um databases that they pay for.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't have to that's amazing.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to subscribe to it as uh as a personal citizen.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: If you have a library card, you can most of them you can access um off-site.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them you have to be in the library to use it.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: But regardless, it's free and it can save you some money and you can find out all about your ancestry.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't know that's really fun.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_03: I'll use that.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you should.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_03: You should.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's a lot of fun.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: I I've gone down that rabbit hole a lot.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um fascinating.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: And like six hours later, I'm like, where did my name go?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, the next thing.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: So the next thing is a lot of libraries have homework help.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: We have at the Jackson County Library, we have live tutors that are at our central branch Monday through Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, is this free?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: What?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, and all the programs at the library are free.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_03: This is just not known this.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is amazing.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_03: You have an enlightened.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_03: I'm hanging out at the my branch down here at where where do I live?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_03: You live in the 151st.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_03: No, I'm out, I'm at the one way out on a blue valley.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, that one.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: Blue Valley.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_03: That's one of those busy branches.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that is busy.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have all these little You should just come down the road to Leeway.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we'll.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: We're a little less, we're a lot less busy.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, not that we're not busy.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: But but the tutoring's at the Central Library.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we should check our local library for live tutoring.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yes.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: Check to see if they have live tutoring.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: And we also have a contract with tutor.com so you can get live online tutor help.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: I have not known this.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: It's the whole library stuff.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's like most libraries would do things like this.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: We just think about it or to ask.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I do brick talks at schools, like with middle schools, and I'm now just visiting elementary schools.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: I've kind of expanded my horizons.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so I'm going to elementary schools and I'm telling kids about this, and none of them know this.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, granted, I tell I, you know, you tell a middle schooler, I don't know how much of that gets home, but I am letting them know.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: And the great thing about tutor.com, if you go through our website, it's free to you.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: You and it's Sunday through Monday.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's all week.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: All week long from 4 to 11 p.m.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: They have live tutors online that are vetted.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, of course.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Good to know.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and subject specialists.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: So you can also turn in papers.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, like if you know that you have uh an assignment, like a an essay due for your history class, um, and it's due on Friday, and it's Monday and you're finished, you can submit it to them and they will take a look at it and they will give you, they will do, you know, like spell check, grammar check, that kind of stuff.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: They'll look at your sentence structure.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: And that is usually like a 24 to 48 hour turnaround.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: That's not bad.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: So as long as you're not the procrastinator, right, and doing it the night before.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: You can get, I mean, you can get help.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, and if you are the procrastinator, as long as it's before 11 p.m., you can get live help.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: But it might be a little bit dicey to have them try and read through a whole paper at the moment.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's amazing.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then the third one, this one is my favorite, and nobody knows about this.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, how many people like audiobooks and ebooks?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so many.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: So if you have it downloaded to a device, okay, and that device is not connected to Wi-Fi.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like if you turn the Wi-Fi off, right?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: Your three weeks is up and your book's getting ready to return.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: If it is not on Wi-Fi, it will automatically return it.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: So it will it will check itself off of your off of your account.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: But until that device connects to Wi-Fi, it'll stay there.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: It will stay there and you can finish reading it.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's handy, except man, that's hard though.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_03: I have to remember.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: So if you see that your book is about due and you're like, oh no, I have like 100 pages left, and rather than staying up all night to read it, which I have done many, many, many times.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: Just take it off.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: It is never a good idea because then it is real rough the next day.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Especially when you gotta jump around and do story time, and you just stayed up all night reading this really great YA book, and you're just like, I can't have enough coffee.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: You're like pretty much eating coffee gowns at this point because you've got to stay awake to jump around with the kids.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um turn your Wi-Fi off before it checks itself back in.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: It will automatically check in.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: So you're not keeping it from anybody else.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
• 13:24
  unknown: Yeah.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_03: You can just finish listening or just finish reading.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Listening or reading it.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is awesome.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: That is good to know.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is really good to know.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of people can really appreciate this tip.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is really great.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that kind of thing you want to check.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Last thing here.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: I know this isn't gonna be a short story, but all I know is that you one time we were talking about something, and you're like, oh yeah.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: I got to be part of a test group to try out these Bluetooth hearing aids.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, What?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, one, Bluetooth hearing aids.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds so cool.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second thing is like, I had no idea you had hearing aids and had a need for them.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I know this is probably a long story, but I would love to know a little bit just some of your journey of hearing loss and all of that.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: So when I was three years old, I fell into a pool.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: And um some teenagers happened to see something.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: They were playing in the pool, and they happened to see something, and they picked and you know, they went down to see what it was, and it was me.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: And they brought me up, and I got rushed to the hospital, and um I was in a coma and that ruined my hearing.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um apparently three days later I woke up and um they had given me a drug that was supposed to like calm and relax.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I was like one of those very few rare birds that had the adverse effect.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: So you were like rabbit.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so here I am.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like my mom has told this story a bazillion times, and I was like bouncing off the walls, like literally.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like she said, I would throw myself into a wall and run and throw myself into another role.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I was just like doing this throughout this room, and they like didn't know what to do because this was the drug that was supposed to like not make me do this, right?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, thank you.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then all of a sudden, I stop.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: And my mom said I looked up and there's like a picture.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: It was a Catholic hospital, so there was a picture of Jesus on the wall.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I looked at that picture, and my mom said I looked at it, and I was just calm.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I looked at it and I was like, that's Jesus.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: He died just like I did, and went back to like throwing myself off the walls.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, Zana.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's like, whoa.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so very interesting.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I probably have false memories, but I feel like I I remember things that probably actually stories and all those sort of things.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: But you can remember things from when you were three.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: I do anyway.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't know.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like, so I remember I don't remember any of that, but I do remember like there is this like vivid memory in my brain of um walking towards this light, and I kept walking towards it, I kept walking towards it, and there were three figures in front of me, and they were all like waving me like to go back.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: And it was very interesting because the three people were my great-grandmother, Jesus, who died just like I did.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and wow, and my brother.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: But the strange thing was is that my brother was not dead.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: My brother died several years later.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: But it was very odd.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: And very I mean, like I don't know.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: I am sure it was not odd at the time.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I just turned around and then, you know, whatever.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then you woke up three years ago.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: I woke up and everything was everything was fine.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: But my teeth my hearing had been damaged.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it had been damaged quite a bit.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um But we were poor.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so we didn't I mean we did our best.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um this is why I say words weird sometimes.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Or I'll pull.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really notice though.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh I yeah, I just otherwise, unless you had mentioned it, I wouldn't have thought about it.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: My my mom, as soon as I got here, so flash forward, you know, 33 years.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I get my first set of hearing aids.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it was like magical.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh it was so magical.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I get them and I I'm just getting these testers, right?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because I went to the audiologist.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: It got had gotten so bad that I could I kept asking everybody, like, I'm sorry, what did you say?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: And when you have to ask somebody to repeat it like four times, you just stop asking and you have no idea and you're left in the dark.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, I was getting really annoyed with that.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so I just I had asked a coworker who had hearing aids, and he said, Oh, I go to this audiologist.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so I went and set up an appointment with the audiologist.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I go in and he's like, Oh yeah, no, you you've got some damage there.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, I would definitely recommend hearing aids.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: And he goes, and with somebody of your age, you know, um, being so young, you can really benefit from this.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and more so than somebody who's 60.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, because you can really.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so um he's like, however, I don't want to tell you you need to buy these because they're very expensive if you're not gonna wear them.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: So he's like, I've got these testers, I'll let you wear them for a couple weeks, you come back, we'll we'll reevaluate, we'll see how much you're wearing them.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so I wore them for like three weeks, then I went back and I but I remember I was I went into work after putting these testers in, and I was like, I I got in my car and I was like, Oh gosh, that's really loud, and I turned my radio way down.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I walked into work and I heard this noise, and I was like, what is that?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh well.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: I figured it out.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: It was somebody putting coins in the chip in the like a coat machine or something like that.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: No, not like copier.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: It was like the vending machine.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Which, if you know, the vending machine is not near the door.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's not the door.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: This is a sound I had never heard before.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, how have I lived?
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: So long without this.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I of course mentioned this to the audiologist, and he kind of laughs.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, you know, I when I when he was in college, he went to school in Lawrence and he was telling me the story about how he had rented this house that um was next to the railroad.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: And his brother came to stay with him, and he was like, How can you live here?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's so loud, because the train would go by often.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, honestly, I don't hear it anymore.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so he told me, You're you're only gonna hear that like once.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Right, you won't notice anymore.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: I don't notice it anymore.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: But it was it was there, there were so many different things that happened like within that period of like adjusting to hearing of things that I didn't know that I yeah, what you were saying, and I was just so amazed.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm still very amazed.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: So um I ended up buying hearing aids, and then and the reason I bought the ones I want was because it was supposed to have this Bluetooth capability.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I've been I had been pestering him for a a good year about this, and he finally like I went in in December of last year, and I was like, Okay, tell me about this because I need this, like this is what I need in my life, and he's like, I knew you were gonna say that.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, I'm so sorry, the ones you bought just they're not doing it, and they're unable, and they just decided to scrap the whole idea.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I was just like, No.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, but they decided that since that wasn't working, they have been working on a a new one specifically for this, and so it's got like a like they realized all the problems that were wrong, like it worked, but it didn't work well, and so they perfected those things with a whole new hearing aid.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: So the ones I had weren't gonna work.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, however, since you bought yours within the last year, they will buy them back.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: Oh well, so you can get your new ones at a deep discount.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, Yes, line me up, and he was like, Oh, yeah, by the way, we have a pair for you to test to see if you like them before you buy them.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: This is what I like about my audiologist.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, try it.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Try it before you die.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: I like it.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's awesome.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I tried them out, and I mean, I knew I was gonna love these things.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: And um, he was the only person in Kansas City that had the these testers.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: They had they had been launched like literally the two like two days before I went in.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: And he it was just like fortuitous that I happened to be in on that day.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: And um perhaps maybe it was a blessing.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Because I feel blessed having these.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh huh.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I've had them since um the end of December and I well, so then I ended up buying them and I got to keep the test repair because those are the ones I bought since nobody had used them before.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: It was me.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: I bought them.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: They're mine.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I've had them and I enjoy them.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: So what is so fantastic about this is that I am a runner and I have always listened to audiobooks while running.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people run or walk and they like to do things around the house listening to audiobooks.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: This is me.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: This is the way that I am.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's weird that I'm an auditory learner with an audit with an audio.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: So but that's the way I learned best, or one of the many, many ways I learned best, I guess.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and so it was always hard for me, like after having hearing aids, because I'd have to take them out to put in earbuds.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I could never really hear what was going on around me because the sound is going into my ear, but I don't have any of that external stuff.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's just being blocked out.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: So the great thing about these is I'm still able to hear what's going on around me as well as hear whatever's going on in my ear.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it's very nice.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I can be sitting at the youth services desk listening to soft music.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's so amazing that it's in your head.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: And um, even before I got these ones, and these ones have it, but I use it a lot less.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I have a Zen setting.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it just plays Zen music.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: What?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: And is like three three different like stations and those are just built in.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: So those don't go through my phone, they're just built into the hearing aim.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: And the the thing with Zen music is that it doesn't repeat a melody.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what's so relaxing.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so I can always tell like when I'm having like a you know, maybe a stressful morning, or something is not going right, or I haven't had chance to do it.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: So wakes up in at the library.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, you guys don't come until the afternoon.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um or like I'm running late for work because my dog was being silly and didn't want to go downstairs.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: She was pretending she was hurt, so she she does this every morning.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: She just like pretends like she's 90 and can't move.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: She just doesn't want to go downstairs.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um like our children sometimes.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just like, you know, okay, Josie, let's go.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so we finally get her downstairs.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: But then of course I'm running late and then traffic at the door terrible.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: I just turned that on and seriously, it's probably a placebo, but I feel calm when I get to learn.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it's and what's so great is like I don't even hear it when it's playing.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's so low.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's just subtle.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: But it's so subtle.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: That I can hear that I like I hear it, but I don't actually hear it.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: You don't really notice it.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: I don't notice it.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: And you can still hear whatever's around you too.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: What a life changer.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: So we do feel a lot more safe, you know, coming from rural South Dakota, and I would go out and run in ten miles in the country and not worry about anything.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: I live in Kansas City now, and you can't do that.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's nice because I can now hear my surroundings and I can still listen to books and not feel uh feel like I'm out of it.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: You're still in tune with everything.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Donna, thank you for sharing with us.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's such a cool story.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: And um I know I heard a part of it before, but this the whole story is really cool.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: I sent you a link to a list of books that I made that are popular books of April 2017.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I realize we're now in May.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, but that's all right.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: We will definitely make all those links available on the podcast notes and then also in the blog post that we go ahead and um write for each of these.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: If you need anything else for me, let me know.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we will.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we might just have to have you back for more stuff.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think this was a lot of good fun information that people can use every day.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks for being here.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: You can learn something new about me every day.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's true.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: We go to the library and we we enjoy our conversations with Donna.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: I am often told I need to write my memoirs because I will like I will get into a conversation with somebody who I've known for years, and then I'll say something and they're like, I never knew that.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me more, you know, and then I tell them.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe it's just because I find comedy in everyday situations.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and the best way to make light of a situation is to make fun of yourself in that situation.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then you're not um you're not sad.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's a way of staying optimistic.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me, ladies.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: This one's really good for me.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, friends, I hope you got some fantastic and practical ideas how to encourage your young reader not only to love reading more, but to have some fun at your local library during these summer months, and maybe some excitement too, as we start thinking, oh yeah, school's starting next month, which I know is hard for some of us to imagine.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we won't go there yet.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: But in the meantime, I hope you find some great um new books to enjoy the rest of your summer.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you enjoyed this podcast and you are looking for more ways and encouragement to get your kids to read, I encourage you to listen to episode number seven, the Super Summer Challenge, an interview with Linda Wicks, and you can hear the story of how the Super Summer Challenge began, which is your tradition.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: I have continued on with my kids and so many other families.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we also talk about how you could do a super summer challenge with your family and what that might look like in today's families in episode number 11.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're looking for some ideas to continue to encourage your kids to not be bored the rest of the summer, you might want to pop on over there and listen to those and get some great ideas that you can implement today and now, especially if you really need it.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: So be sure and leave a review for us on the Simply Wholehearted podcast after you subscribe.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: It helps others find out kind of what we're all about and just you know, hey, if you hated it, don't write it.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: But if you enjoyed it, be sure and just leave a little comment that would help others uh find this encouraging and inspiring podcast.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: So until next time, I hope you find more ways to live simply wholehearted, unplugged, purposeful, and intentional.