[00:00:00] Speaker A: This is the Morning Journey Rewind with Mark and Brittany. Never miss a moment.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: This week on the Morning Journey Rewind, Mark and Brittany tell you about our upcoming partner Invitation. Brittany wants to go to a cow spa. Mark warns you about Mousetrap Jenga and they both discuss their favorite fall activities. Also, are you struggling with grief? A group exercise class with others that are grieving just might be the perfect thing. And don't forget to try all the fun fall cereals.
[00:00:25] Speaker C: Hey. Our partner invitation is coming up. That'll be September 22nd through the 25th. We hope you can join us. This is the the time of year that we do this twice a year in the fall and then in the spring. And we ask that you would prayerfully consider supporting the journey. You don't have to wait until partner to do that. You can do it right now.
[00:00:45] Speaker D: Yeah, you can do it. Via our website, myjourney fm.com if you're listening via the app, you can tap the app to give as well. We would love for you to join us. It all kicks off for Kids Giving day on the 21st. We'll actually have phone lines available that day. So wherever you're at and if you want to get your kids involved, you can do so. If you're in the Lynchburg area, you can come by the station. We would love to see you and we're just so excited to see what the Lord is going to do during those four days of our Fall Partner Invitation. All the details
[email protected] well, in a
[00:01:14] Speaker C: couple of weeks we'll have our fall partner invitation September 22nd through the 25th. We hope you can join us.
[00:01:21] Speaker D: We say it all the time. Your partnership equals changed lives and we mean that. Lives like Sarah who listens. She said thank you for being a constant stream of positive words and encouragement and a reminder of who really holds the world in his hands. We've been going through some health struggles with the family and I turn the journey on and worship whenever I need to. My heart and my soul has been fed. I've been listening since the beginning. I'm so grateful for this station. Thank you. And I hope that my gift helps to continue to bless others the way that I've been super blessed by you all these last five months. Thank you so much Sarah, Sarah, for sharing and for giving. We love when you share the why behind your gift because your story might just be someone else's and they might might need to know that they're not alone. So join us for our fall partner invitation. September 22nd through the 25th. We hope that you will be praying and that you will be giving right along with us.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: Uplifting and encouraging because you need it now more than ever.
[00:02:17] Speaker C: You betcha.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: The morning journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:02:20] Speaker C: Great to have you along this morning. Well, I thought I would check in with Brittany to see if she's already booked her trip to the organic cow spa.
[00:02:30] Speaker D: I'm thinking about it. So this is at Rainbow Valley Farm in Maine. It's about an hour north of Portland. And this is, like, the coolest thing I've probably ever seen. It's a spa, and the whole concept is treating like humans, the way they treat their cows, which is very well at this spa. And so they give you the opportunity to cuddle with cows, where you get to brush the cows and hang out with them. And then you can have a massage and aromatherapy there as well. And you can also get, like, a pedicure, have some, like, like, crazy, like, green drink. I don't know if I would want to do that, but there's, like, a trail you can walk on, and you get to hang out with cows. So, I mean, I can't think of anything more relaxing than getting a massage and then being able to, like, pet a cow, like, right beside me.
[00:03:13] Speaker C: Yeah, the drink is trying to find it here.
[00:03:18] Speaker D: It's like cucumber, kale, Cucumbers, kale, spinach, lemon, celery, and parsley.
[00:03:24] Speaker C: Yeah. Set you back 120 bucks.
[00:03:27] Speaker D: Yeah, not too, too bad.
[00:03:28] Speaker C: You gonna do it?
[00:03:29] Speaker D: I don't know. Well, I have to go to Maine, so that's kind of my only holdup right now is traveling to Maine.
If I do go to Maine, though, this is on my list of things to do now. Like, new bucket list item. I want to go to the cow spa and be pampered with the cows.
[00:03:44] Speaker C: We're just gonna worship, we're gonna be encouraged, and we're just gonna be together.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: That's the idea. You're on the morning journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:03:54] Speaker C: It is called Mousetrap Jenga.
Before playing, I would recommend that you
[00:03:59] Speaker D: watch the video Mousetrap Jenga might lose your finger.
It's intense, man. This family has stacked a bunch of live mousetraps. And so it's not like the typical jingle where you're pulling stuff out so the tower doesn't fall. It's who can stack the next mousetrap without setting them all off.
[00:04:17] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:04:18] Speaker D: And poor grandpa didn't go so well. Did not go so well for him.
[00:04:23] Speaker C: It went all over the place.
[00:04:24] Speaker D: I will say in the video we can't tell. But I don't think anyone was actually harmed in the making of the video.
[00:04:29] Speaker C: No, I don't think so.
[00:04:30] Speaker D: But I will not be playing Mousetrap Jenga. I value my fingers a lot.
[00:04:33] Speaker C: Not gonna try that one.
[00:04:34] Speaker D: I don't think so. I think I'm gonna pass on that. It looks painful and very, very scary.
I just kind of channel surfing through the radio.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: Families are catching on and I'm like, wow, this is pretty cool to the best way. But now this is the only thing I listen to now to wake up.
[00:04:48] Speaker D: My style of everything is starting to change.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: It' Journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:04:53] Speaker C: Well, fall is coming up. It'll be Tuesday, September 22nd. That is the first day of fall.
[00:05:00] Speaker D: Which is funny because we always think about it being in the 90s still. And it should be fall. And it's really the official start to fall isn't until mid September. And so we still have a little bit of time. And I got me thinking about like fall activities. Do you have a favorite fall activity?
[00:05:14] Speaker C: I think getting outside.
I like early fall because temperatures are around here. We get that it's a few weeks of where temperatures are like in the 70s, very low humidity. That's one of my favorite times. So anything outdoors?
[00:05:30] Speaker D: Yeah, I love like hiking during the fall is perfect. Cause you can see the leaves. Corn mazes are back. So that's always fun. Getting pumpkins, like pumpkin picking. We go apple picking with our friends every year. So that's become one of my favorite activities. I guess I'm just saying that I really like fall. Cause I don't think I can pick like a favorite activity. Like hayrides are fun. Who doesn't love a hay ride?
[00:05:51] Speaker C: You've been waiting to put on the fall sweaters now for like the last several weeks.
[00:05:54] Speaker D: I'm ready for sweaters. And football's back. And it's just. It's just a fun time of the year. And so if the weather would just cooperate. I'm trying to rush it a little bit now. I know September 22nd. So the start of our fall partner invitation is the actual start of fall. So there you go.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: Start on a positive note. You're on the morning journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:06:16] Speaker C: Well, science has long supported the idea that exercise can improve our mental health. But people now are starting to work out together to help get over grief and loss.
[00:06:29] Speaker D: Yeah, I love this idea because we already know that working out, like you said, improves our mental health. It releases Endorphins and serotonin and dopamine, all those chemicals that make us feel better naturally.
But I love this because we all deal with grief differently. And I feel like working out already puts you in that happier mental state. And then if you're working out with other people in these classes that are also dealing with that, then you can bond with them. So there's a class that's called Grief. It's like a grief share exercise class where you work out. And one of the things they do, and I thought this was so cool, is she says, pick up a weight and pretend like it's on your back, and then do as many deadlifts with that weight as you can for the amount of time that the person has passed. So you're thinking of that person, you're honoring that person, but you're also getting that release of emotions at the same time, especially if it's a hard, challenging workout. And then after the workout's over, it's. She's meeting with the workout class people, and they're all getting to share and talk about their loved one that's passed. I think that's a great way to heal both mentally, but also get you a little physical boost as well.
[00:07:31] Speaker C: Yeah. That class is called Grief, Sweat and Tears.
[00:07:34] Speaker D: So cool. I love it. I love this idea of coming together as a community, like, doing something positive even in the midst of, like, a tragedy.
I turn y' all on in the morning when I get in my truck. It's helpful when I'm taking the kids to school. Here we go.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: It's the morning journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:07:52] Speaker C: There is a debate going on in Brittany's household which is better, Count Chocula or Frankenberry.
[00:07:59] Speaker D: So I've never actually tried any of the other ones. There's three cereals that come out in the fall. There's Count Chocula, Frankenberry, and Booberry Crunch. I've never tried the other two. I've always just done Count Chocula. But my daughter wanted to try Frankenberry, so we went around looking, and, like, I think Walmart has got, like, the exclusive deal on these cereals now because I can never find them anywhere else.
So we found Frankenberry and she tried it the other morning. And when I picked her up from school yesterday, she was like, mom, you have to try Frankenberry. And I was like, well, I like the Count Chocula, the chocolate one. And she's like, but Frankenberry's better.
[00:08:31] Speaker C: Gotta try it.
[00:08:32] Speaker D: Strawberries. And I'm like, I really don't want to, but I also now have four boxes of this cereal in my house. I have two Count Chocula ones and two Franken boxes.
[00:08:44] Speaker C: A lot of cereal.
[00:08:44] Speaker D: It's a lot of cereal and I don't like, none of us need to be eating that cereal every day, but it is that time of year. I'm excited. I'm excited for Count Chocula and maybe if she twists my arm enough, maybe I'll try Frankenberry.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: A great way to start your day. The Morning Journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:09:05] Speaker C: Hey, thank you for listening to the Journey. We appreciate that and thank you for voting for us for Lynchburg Living's Best of. We are nominated in the category for best radio DJs.
[00:09:18] Speaker D: Once again, thank you for your votes. In the preliminary round, we made it to the finals, so you have until September 15th. We would ask for you to just vote again one more time for us and we would so, so appreciate it. They do this every year and so this is for 2027. We had a great exchanging of the banner. We had a trumpet player come last time, so that was a lot of fun. So we would love to win again if you would give us your votes. All the details
[email protected] start on a positive note.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: You're on the Morning Journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:09:48] Speaker C: If you go to myjourneyfm.com and take a look at our hometown events page, you will see there are all kind of activities in our communities, including a lot of concerts.
[00:09:59] Speaker D: Yep. Lots of concerts coming up, women's conferences coming up. There's just a lot going on. A lot of fall festivals at churches as well. If you have one, you want to get the word out, you can always submit your event there.
Also, MyJourney FM.com, click on Hometown Events.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: Turn on hope and encouragement. It's the Morning Journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:10:21] Speaker C: Well, founder Rebecca McMullen says the Sunday Letter project is giving thousands of strangers an opportunity to handwrite letters in a global effort to make people feel less alone.
[00:10:34] Speaker D: I love this idea. So basically the concept is you get to maintain your privacy. You don't have to give anyone your home address, but you go to like a designated letterkeeper store, whether it's a coffee shop, a bookstore, somewhere where they will keep the letters. You write a handwritten note, somebody else comes in, they read it, they write you one back, it goes there. And it's cool because you can generate all these conversations. The letters stay at the store so everyone gets a chance to read whatever letters are there yeah.
[00:11:02] Speaker C: More than 15,000 people a week are now participating in this. And as Brittany mentioned, sometimes your letter may go to somebody that you know, but often it's someone that you do not know.
[00:11:15] Speaker D: It's such a cool way to, like, make people feel less alone. But it's also fun because I love handwriting cards. It's something that I still do because I always joke about, like, how much stamps cost and, like, getting stamps and things, because I just feel like there's something so personal about writing a handwritten letter to someone. And so I love the idea of kind of bringing back, like, the lost art of letter writing and pen pals, too, because, like, some of these are in Scotland. So, like, if I ship a letter to Scotland, then I could have, like, a friend over there that I would probably never get to actually meet but could find out some cool things about.
[00:11:46] Speaker C: Yep. Put down the phone, put down the texting, and pick up pen and paper.
[00:11:50] Speaker D: There you go. Learn how to write in cursive, too. Good luck with that.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: We just wanted to say thanks for making us part of your day. It's the morning journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:12:02] Speaker C: Well, this is encouraging. Gen Z is reading and they are preferring books. Real books printed, not tablets. Back in 2024, there was an article written titled the age of reading is over, but that does not appear to be the case.
[00:12:17] Speaker D: Thank goodness. I love to read. My husband loves to read. I think our daughter is really starting to love to read, even though she's only four, because we've been reading to her since birth. And so she's been reading to her brother now. And it's just nice. It's nice to just sit back with a book. Now I will say I tend to like, I have a Kindle and that's where I tend to do most of my reading because I don't want to buy a bunch of books and have to store them. But I do prefer actually, like a print. Like a paperback book.
[00:12:45] Speaker C: Yeah. New research shows that Among Gen Z, 66% identify as readers, which is up 14% from 2022. And then printed reading is where the real growth is.65% say they read at least one printed book in the previous 12 months.
[00:13:02] Speaker D: Do you prefer print or do you like.
[00:13:05] Speaker C: I prefer print.
[00:13:06] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:13:07] Speaker C: I have a digital reader and I will use it on occasion, but I actually prefer a book.
[00:13:15] Speaker D: Me too. I feel like it's just easier for me. And it's so funny because my friends joke me, like, it's hard for me to navigate the Kindle because if I'M in the middle of a chapter, and I want to see, like, what chapter I'm on or how far to the. Like, I really struggle with, like, finding the table contents and figuring out how long is in the book. And my husband's like, if you just tap the bottom, it'll change all the stuff. And I'm like, oh, I don't know how to do that. Whereas, like, a physical book, I can just flip through and be like, oh. Or I can physically see where I'm at in the book. And I think I tend to read faster because of that.
But again, I don't want to store a bunch of books, so I tend to read most of my books on my Kindle. But I'm glad to see that other people are enjoying reading as much as us.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: Start on a positive note. You're on the Morning Journey with Mark and Brittany.
[00:13:59] Speaker C: So here's the question. Is it rude to skip small talk and get right to the point?
[00:14:04] Speaker D: I don't think so. I honestly prefer it. I'm really bad with small talk, and I don't like wasting time with, like, oh, how's the weather today? Like, it just. I would rather just know, like, what kept you up at night? Like, this is what happened to me today, and I am very much as awkward as it is. I will jump right into it. My husband's like, that's why you struggle making new friends. And I'm like, it's true. It's true. I do, because I will go right into the deep stuff.
[00:14:28] Speaker C: Somebody that you don't even know.
[00:14:30] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:14:31] Speaker C: Really?
[00:14:32] Speaker D: We were at a restaurant one time, and somebody asked us if we had a dog, and I was like, well, we did, and he died. And I went into the whole story, and Phil's like, oh, my goodness, Brittany, just say no, because we don't have a dog anymore.
So, yeah. Even with strangers, I would say that
[00:14:46] Speaker C: I'm kind of mixed on it. I don't mind small talk, except at work.
At work, I like to get right to the point.
Yeah. I think it comes down to tone.
[00:15:00] Speaker D: True.
[00:15:00] Speaker C: Okay. And then your relationship with the person that you're talking to.
[00:15:05] Speaker D: That's true.
[00:15:06] Speaker C: You know, like, if it's the checkout person at the grocery store who you probably don't really know.
[00:15:12] Speaker D: Right, right.
[00:15:13] Speaker C: You know, then it's okay to have a little small talk.
[00:15:16] Speaker D: Yeah, I guess that's true. Yeah. I don't know. I'm really bad at it. I love it when a friendship gets past that phase where you can actually talk about, like, real stuff because then it. It's more meaningful to me. But my husband, we always say he's the one who's good at, like, making new friends, and I'm the one that's good at keeping new.
I will have the deep conversations, and he will get us to meet new people, and so it works really well together. But I could skip small talk altogether.
[00:15:40] Speaker A: Thanks for catching up on the morning Journey Rewind podcast with Mark and Brittany.
