Choosing Practical Over Flashy Sparks A Lesson In Gratitude And Balance

A pair of boots can say a lot about a season. We start with a sparkly temptation at the Discovery Shop—where every purchase supports the American Cancer Society—and a choice between glossy gold drama and everyday practicality. That fun fork in the road opens into a bigger reflection on how we navigate the holidays: balancing what dazzles with what truly serves us, honoring traditions, and making space for gratitude when the calendar is full.

I walk you through a day that looks ordinary on paper—school support, podcasting, errands, gym time, a dental cleaning—but feels meaningful because it’s woven with community. Working as a special education aide demands patience, warmth, and a steady presence, and I share how those moments in the classroom echo into life outside the bell. From students who tune in to colleagues who feel like family, to volunteers who text about “your boots,” these small gestures remind us that showing up for each other is the best holiday energy there is.

We also wander into the rituals that mark this week: Black Friday nostalgia, the early Starbucks runs of years past, and the question of whether deals are better online or in line. I invite you to share your traditions—favorite recipes, must-bake desserts, crafts, playlists, and the quiet rituals that keep you grounded. Along the way, there’s comic relief courtesy of a very determined woodpecker testing our décor defenses and our patience in equal measure, a lighthearted stand-in for the persistent stressors that tap at our windows during busy seasons.

Threaded through it all is a simple mindset: practice gratitude on purpose. Thank the helpers, name the supporters, celebrate the tiny wins. Whether you’re choosing between gold and practical, juggling a packed schedule, or engineering a creative solution to a tapping problem, gratitude shifts the day from hectic to hopeful. If this resonates, share it with someone who could use a lift, hit follow so you never miss a Mindful Monday, and drop a comment with your favorite holiday tradition—we’d love to learn from you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome To Mindful Monday
• 1:16 Life As A Special Ed Aide
• 3:20 Community And Classroom Support
• 5:20 Discovery Shop And Family Ties
• 7:28 The Great Boot Dilemma
• 10:43 Holiday Shopping Rituals
• 14:03 Shoutouts And Scorpio Birthdays
• 15:35 Woody The Woodpecker Saga
• 17:10 Break Day Routine And Self-Care
• 19:10 Listeners’ Thanksgiving Traditions
• 22:05 Gratitude For Supporters
• 25:15 Growth, Reach, And Final Gratitude

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Bow Chick Wow Wow. What's up, party people? Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Elkie Vate Your Life. I am your hostess with the most death. L is in the letter L and key as in the key to your heart. As I go to take a drink, sorry about that, ladies and gents. So welcome to Mindful Monday. If you are a new listener, thank you for tuning in and joining us this evening. If you are a return listener, a loyal listener, thank you. Thank you for tuning in. How's everyone's Mindful Monday going? Um it is for me. I am on Thanksgiving break. And for those of you that are return listeners, you can imagine it's a much needed break. I know, I know. I work for the school district. I get a million days off. Yes. But let me just tell you, working as a special ed aide by day, doing podcasts at night, and also helping individuals and families with my other job is no easy feat. So while you are all thinking that I am spoiled and I get all kinds of days off, well, you're right. I do. But it comes with a price. Working with special education kids and doing my podcast a couple days a week and my other job. There's not a lot of time for downtime. And while I don't work a typical job like the nine-to-fivers or the doctors or the nurses, my job is a very demanding job. And I hear a lot of the time, God bless you for what you do, because it takes a special kind of person. And I'm beginning to realize that that is very true. Because not everyone can be a nurse or a doctor or have the patience to work with different personalities, different needs, to have the patience. I'm always being told by my good nurse friend, nurse Keisha, that patience is a virtue and that I am virtuous. And back at you, Sister. I mean, it is. It is a very challenging position. And I love a challenge. And I love my kiddos. I look forward to going to work every day and working with the staff that I work with. And they're like my second family. And then working with my kids, being in the classroom, having everybody greet me with Miss Elkie, hi, Miss Elkie. I listened to your podcast or I watched your TikTok or I took your advice. Or Mama Elkie, do you have any candy today? Any of those things go such a long way and mean so much to me. So thank you to all of you who support me and listen to me and follow me on social media, whether it be my Instagram, my TikToks, my Facebook, or listening to my podcast. Thank you. That means the world to me when you when you share those things with me. So it means a lot. So one of the things I want to remember to share with you is that Mondays are always filled with multiple things, whether it's walk my dog, go to the gym, do my podcast. Well, now since I'm on break, it's no different. I added a lot more things to my list. Uh, a dear friend of mine had told me, oh, you have to go to the discovery shop, which is where I donate a lot of my clothes, all the proceeds go to cancer. So shout out to American Cancer Society Discovery Shop. I've been going there for many years because my several of the women in my family were cancer survivors. Um my deceased grandma being one of them, uh, worked or volunteered for American Cancer Society Discovery Shop. And she's the one that introduced me to them. And so now I'm if I'm not donating things there, then I'm shopping there. And all the proceeds go to a good cause. And several of the ladies in my life, my mom had overcome colon cancer prior to her passing. And then my grandma endured breast cancer and volunteered for them. So they hold a special place in my heart. I know all the ladies there. And one of the ladies who's a volunteer reached out to me and told me, Oh my gosh, you Elkie, you have to go and check these out. These boots have your name all over them. And things like that mean so much to me that that someone knows me well enough to know my style and what I like and what I like to wear. And she was very much right. So thank you, Jody person. She told me these boots have your name all over them, and it's because one of them was this beautiful pair of red high-heeled cherry, red, um, glossy patent leather red boots, perfect for the holidays. And so, of course, I had to follow up on her lead. So I went to check out the red boots, they were too pointy for my liking and too big. And then we move over to the gold thigh high boots that had my name all over them. And those were a perfect fit, size six, thigh-high boots, and I thought, oh my god, these are perfect for the holidays, the shiny patent leather, gold thigh-high boots. But then I saw these practical boots, and I'm like, how often am I gonna wear these flashy gold boots? Sure, I can wear them for the holidays and to go to a holiday party for Christmas or New Year's or whatever. And then I thought, okay, what do I do? Do I go the practical route or the glossy, flashy? Yeah, so this time I went for the practical ones. Oh, excuse me. And of course, now I'm having the whole buyer's remorse. Did I make the right decision? Why didn't I get both? Why didn't I do this? Why didn't I put them on hold and ask my husband? Or put him on hold and say, oh, family members, I would love to get these. Why? I don't know. I suppose because I was trying to be smart and practical and thinking of, well, the practical ones I'll get more use out of, and I can wear these to school and with several more outfits. And well, like I said, I'm over here having buyer's remorse and regret about the whole thing, and I'm thinking, hmm. Maybe I should tell one of the family members, I would love to have these for Christmas, if they're even still there. Because at the time that I looked at them, it was early on, early day. So who knows, somebody might have snatched them up. That's the thing. American Cancer Society, they have great deals, great prices, and yeah, now I'm kind of regretting that I didn't get them. So, Mister, if you're listening, a pair of gold boots, my size for$20 at the Discovery Shop. And during the week they're open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Just saying, perfect, easy Christmas gift. Anyway, moving right along, what I wanted to ask all of you on this mindful Monday is have you started your Christmas shopping? Have you started your holiday traditions? It is the week of Thanksgiving, and I'm wondering, what do all of you do for Thanksgiving? What are your traditions? Do you do the whole Black Friday shopping? Have you started that? Do you Black Friday shop online? Are you an Amazon online shopper or do you get up early on Black Friday and go and get a lot of your holiday shopping out of the way through the Black Friday deals? Are you one of those people that gets up at 4 a.m. and goes and yeah, starts your Christmas shopping? I personally have not done that since my son worked for Starbucks so long ago. Uh, but there was a time where I remember Brooklyn and I drove to pick him up at the wee hours of the morning and then said, okay, now we're gonna go Black Friday shopping since we're already up and you just got off work and you provided us with Starbucks. Let's go tackle the sales. And it was an experience that I will never forget. I don't even know if my now 24-year-old daughter, Brooklyn, remembers that she was very young. But Brandon and I definitely remember it. And it uh it was an experience, I'll say that. I personally am not one of those people that likes to go and deal with crowds and all of that. But who doesn't love a good sale, right? So I didn't want to talk too much about Thanksgiving. I want to remember to give a shout out to all my Scorpio birthdays. I reached out and wished them happy birthdays. So shout out to Keisha, Lisa, Lulu, Lori. A lot of L's there. Um, yeah, shout out to my Scorpio girls and guys. Um, yeah, hopefully you had an amazing birthday and you got all the things that were on your list. And um, for those of you who have been listening, Woody Woodpecker is still coming to visit despite all of the obstacles and things that we put up. Woody is relentless and determined to come and reclaim his home outside my bedroom window, even though we have put up wind chimes and the little spirally silver deterrents. And now we're putting up Christmas lights. So let's see. I just hope the apartments don't continue to take back down all of the things that we've put up. I have gone to them multiple days in a row explaining, hey, if you want to put up some mesh netting around the awning above, which is the neighbor's bedroom window. I mean, if you don't like all of these things that were hanging, then by all means, take it into your own hands and see what you can do to deter Woody the Woodpecker. I don't know if Woody is trying to reclaim his home because babies, food, good home. I don't know. But um yeah, Woody is determined to get back in there. Anyway, as for me, what have I been doing on my Thanksgiving break? Well, as I mentioned, today started off with going to Discovery Shop and trying on the boots that my dear friend told me had my name on them, and she wasn't wrong. And then went to the gym. I am diligently keeping up my every other day gym routine, and after that it was a dental cleaning, shout out to Persimmon Dental, and shout out to Yalene. I think that's how she said you pronounce it in her language. A Puerto Rican sweetheart who cleaned my teeth ever so gently. Thank you so much to she said, not Jalen, but Yaleen. Yay Lyn, but in her language, Yaleen. Anyway, she did a fabulous job and persimmon dental. Love them. They always take great care of me. And if you heard noises in the background, well, that was my fur baby, Chanel. To my loyal listeners out there, you know that Chanel has Cushing's disease. So she's often doing her little cough or sneeze or struggling to breathe. Huh, babies? You okay? You doing okay? Yeah, my little co-host over here. Uh, I kind of steered away from the videos, but I'll get back to it. I think I just um fell off and got lazy, and today was kind of a no makeup day and rushed to get on my podcast. So I wanted to make sure that um I get on here at a timely manner before traffic is going up and down my street, which I kind of beat it, but not really. It's I mean, it's 640 and here I am. So there's definitely traffic going by. Hobbies. Yeah. You're over here sniffing and sneezing in my background, aren't you? And I'm talking in my Chanel voice, so forgive me. Uh so yes, my loyal listeners and to my new listeners, please share with me what are you doing on this Thanksgiving break if you are on a Thanksgiving break or a Thanksgiving holiday? What do you do the week of Thanksgiving? Are you shopping? Are you cooking? Are you baking? Do you have any traditions that you would like to share? And if so, what do those traditions look like? Would love to hear your input and your feedback, especially to my cooks and bakers out there, for example, Kara, the talented Kara at lovemyartist.etsy.com. This girl cooks, bakes, creates, paints, uh video montages, you name it, this girl can do it. I mean, talk about Jack and Jill of all traits. She's one of them. She definitely fits in the category. So, Kara, I would love to hear. What do you do during the week of Thanksgiving? Are you cooking? Are you baking? Are you crafting? Um, yeah, I'd love to hear. Thank you for being a loyal subscriber and listener to LK Wait Your Life. I appreciate you. Moving right along to Lisa Roberts Corbello. Thank you for being a loyal subscriber and supporting my podcast. Hope that you're having an amazing week. Um, she was actually one of my loyal listeners, birthday girls, all of that. Um then who's next? Mike Kaufman, Miss AKA Mister. Thank you for being a loyal subscriber. Moving right along to Angie Germer at Thrive Lavel. If you are looking to boost your energy, to lose weight, to increase muscle. Angie Germer at ThriveLavelle, you can find her link in my podcast. This girl has something for all of your nutritional needs: skin care, health care, weight loss, weight gain, muscle retention, muscle gain. Check out, check out her link. You can find it in my podcast description. Angie, I haven't seen that you've been listening or liking or commenting on my podcast. What's up with that? And then moving right along to Jeff Potta, Jeff Para, Namaste. Thank you for being a loyal listener and supporting me. I do hope that you are enjoying your retirement and doing all of the things that you love, enjoying your travels. And yeah, thank you for supporting me, friend. I appreciate you. Moving right along to Roger, Roger Havens. Thank you for being a loyal listener, subscriber. And yes, hoping to see you out during the holidays, out on the dance floor. I haven't been out that much this season, but I'm hoping to get back out there this week, whether it's singing, dancing, something. And let's see. Have I mentioned everyone? Oh yes. Kyle Few. Kyle, thank you for being a loyal listener, subscriber, occasional liker, and commenter. Thank you. I appreciate you. I'm always talking about Kyle's audible commitment to love. Love is a verb. And it can be found on Amazon. Hmm. Thank you to my loyal listeners. Travis, Dory, Miss Amina, some of my students out there. Lily, Myra. Trying to think of everybody's name. It's hard when you're doing a live to remember everyone that follows you and listens to you. Well, to all of my Fallon students who follow me on TikTok and or try to listen to my podcast, Atish. Caleb, thank you. Thank you for being loyal to me and liking and commenting. Speaking of, it helps the algorithm when you do like, comment, share. Maybe this podcast isn't always for you, but maybe you know somebody that would enjoy listening to it and or could benefit from it. I didn't really have any mindful Monday tips other than asking what do you do during your Thanksgiving time, whether you are taking time off to travel, to see family, to cook, to bake, to just be thankful for these times. Uh, I do want to give a shout out to my daughter Brooklyn and a Jay in Arizona, to the occasional listener Carly, also in Arizona, to my son Brandon. I don't know if he'll be listening to this episode, but I certainly hope so. I always cross my fingers and toes that he will. And um, Andrew, thank you for being a loyal listener, liker, commenter. It means a lot when you guys take the time to like and comment. It helps the algorithm, it helps get my name and podcast out there. As I've been telling you, I am now in 33 countries, and I think it's 306 cities. So, you know, I'm getting there. I'm getting my name and my voice out there, and that means a lot, and it's all due to the likes of you, my loyal listeners. So thank you. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for listening. I guess my mindful Monday tip would be take time to enjoy this holiday season, be thankful, go out there with gratitude. An attitude of gratitude is a magnet for miracles. Uh, and thank you to Rhonda, who usually makes it a point to listen to me. Thank you for to the ladies out there who make it a point to listen to me and support me. And to the gentleman. I appreciate you. Thank you so much. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for listening. I hope you were able to take away something positive from tonight's episode. Until next time, thank you for tuning in and ciao for now.