The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey

Happy Hour #31 is with my friend Erin MacPheson. Erin is a stay-at-home mom by day and a writer and amateur chef by night. She is the author of more than nine books, including The Christian Mama's Guide series and the Hot Mama series. She lives in Austin with her three kids (ages 9, 7 and 3), her husband and her trusty Golden Retiever, Jack. Erin and her friend Kathi Lipp have a book coming out in the Fall, but before then they are releasing three ebooks to lead up to the release of their book. The first one released this month and it's called 10 Ideas To Inspire Red Hot Sex and it's $1.99 on Amazon right now. Blog post that Erin wrote: A letter to all parents regarding 50 shades of grey Sexual Sin series from The Austin Stone Community Church What Erin's reading: Rooms by James Rubart What I'm reading: Women Are Scary by Melanie Dale 21 books coming out in movies this year that you should read Jen Hatmaker's post on writing that I referenced: On Becoming A Writer For a full summary and links to this show, click here!

Jessica N. Turner is the founder of the popular lifestyle blog The Mom Creative, where she documents her pursuit of cultivating a life well-crafted. Additionally, she is a writer for HuffPost Parents and DaySpring's (in)courage, an advocate for World Vision, a regular speaker at blogging conferences nationwide, and an award-winning marketing professional. She and her husband, Matthew live with their three young children in Nashville, Tennessee. In this episode we talk about parenting topics such as going from 2 to 3 kids and how hard that could be. How Jessica feels about working outside the home and that she doesn't receive any guilt from doing that instead of being a stay at home mom. How moms tend to put ourselves last in world of taking care of people in our lives. What date nights look like for the Turner family. We also chat about our latest Netflix binges, and books we're reading. Jessica wrote a post that went viral about moms embracing themselves, their bodies, and wearing that swimsuit each year no matter how we feel about our bodies. For a full summary and links to the show, Click here!

Happy Hour #29 is with a friend that I met at the Influence Conference in 2014, and knew that I wanted to have her on the Happy Hour to chat with all of us! Sarah Martin is the author of Just Rise Up. Sarah is originally from Texas, but lives in North Carolina with her husband and son now. You can find her blogging over at her website LiveItOut! Follow Sarah on facebook, twitter, and instagram. Follow Jamie on facebook, twitter, and instagram. For a full summary and links to this show, click here!

Today's guest on the Happy Hour podcast is Lindsey Paschal. Lindsey is a wife to Dan, and momma to two boys, one of which was born a few weeks ago. Previously to staying home full time Lindsey was a teacher. Last year she documented her journey to reading 52 books via her instagram account. She ended up reading 56 books. On this podcast we discuss Lindsey's life as a teacher, and go through all the books that she read. Because of this conversation I decided that I would try and read 36 books in 2015. Eeeekkk. Hopefully I can make that! Lindsey and I both keep up with all of the books that we read on GoodReads. It's an easy way to keep record of books that you have read and a running list of books that you want to read. Whenever I hear about a new book I want to read I just add it to my "to-read" section and when I'm ready for a new book I have a whole list at my disposal. Follow Lindsey's book reading journey via her instagram account HERE. Find all of the Happy Hour Podcast episodes HERE. For the full summary and links to this show, Click Here.

Kat and I met online and we have actually never met in person, but she's been such an encouragement for me in my podcasting journey. I was actually one of the first guests on her podcast for Inspired to Action. After being a guest on her show is when I felt as though podcasting is something I would want to do in life! Kat is a momma, wife, blogger, encourager, podcaster and lots more in life. Her blog is something that you need to get your eyes on if you have not. Her whole gig is to inspire us mommas right where we are, and if you are like me, we need to hear encouragements daily. For a full summary and links to this show, Click Here!

Today’s guest on the Happy Hour Podcast is Rebecca Smith. Rebecca is the creator and owner of Better Life Bags and lives in Detroit with her husband and three kids. Her business has a remarkable impact on women in Detroit, who are earning a living by working for Better Life Bags. On today's podcast we talk about how her business started, things you should do before we turn 30 (we are both past it!!), and how she can't do it all without the help she has - good word for us mommas trying to do it all! We also chat about how we made the decision on where to send our kids to school, why we don't see the news often, and of course our thoughts on Serial. For a full summary and links from this show, Click Here!

Today’s guest on the Happy Hour Podcast is Jessica Thompson and gosh I just love her. I met her for the first time this summer and since then I have loved getting to know her more from afar. Jessica is an author and has some great books out about parenting. Please get your hands on at least one of her books before the end of this year. In this podcast we discuss how neither one of us are good at buying gifts for our husbands. At the time we recorded this I was looking for a gift for Aaron for his birthday, and I had no idea what to get him. He's so hard for me to buy gifts for. We spent a lot of time talking about Jessica's newest book that she co-authored with her mom, ANSWERING YOUR KIDS' TOUGHEST QUESTIONS. We both realize how difficult it is to talk with your kids about things that are so hard, but boy is it so necessary. Of course we talked about SERIAL because we both love it so much. At the time we recorded there were six episodes, and now they are up to ten. If you haven't taken the time to dive into this, we both highly recommend! For a full summary and links to this show, Click Here!

Today’s guest on the Happy Hour Podcast is my friend Tara Livesay. Tara lives in Haiti with her husband, Troy, and five of their seven kids. They have been living in Haiti for many years now and she works with Heartline Ministries and is a midwife. They average about 6-8 births a month at Heartline, and invest in the mom's lives from the beginning of pregnancy, during labor, and for post pregnancy support. On this episode Tara and I discuss a lot about parenting. She's currently mom to seven that range from the age of 7 to early twenties. We also discussed short term missions and what that looks like to us Americans versus the Haitians. She gives us all great advice on how we serve the Haitian people in a healthy way. For a full summary and links for this show, Click here!

Today’s guests on the Happy Hour Podcast are Becca Harris and Maris Bush. Both of these ladies are heroes to me and they exhibit Jesus in their lives so much. I have known Maris for over ten years, and Becca and I met shortly after I moved to Austin six years ago. All of our families have been effected by adoption and during this podcast we dive into Becca & Maris' stories of how their families were brought together. We focus mostly on foster care, since Becca adopted her boys through the foster care system, and Maris and her husband Bush (his real name is Steven, but all his close friends call him Bush, so I'm giving you permission to do that as well) are currently fostering and hoping to adopt again as well. Click here for a full summary and links from this show!

Jamie writes at THE VERY WORST MISSIONARY. Her and her husband live in California and have three boys, one of which has already grown up and lives on his own. Jamie and I met each other a few years ago through some mutual friends, although we have never met in person. Isn’t that cool how in 2014 you can have friends that you have actually never met face to face. Love it! In this podcast we discussed our kids growing up (she says middle school is the hardest), sex trafficking, Jamie’s trips with Exodus Road, and how Jamie is supposed to be writing a book. For a full summary and links from the show, click here!