Work and Play with Nancy Ray
256 episodes - English - Latest episode: 18 days ago - ★★★★★ - 638 ratingsWork and Play with Nancy Ray is a weekly podcast all about learning to balance the two most competing areas of our lives: work and play.
She dives into topics like productivity, work life balance, leading a team, time management, contentment, play, sabbath, marriage, parenting, and rest, always pointing back to scripture, the ultimate guide for a life of faith. This is a podcast all about learning to work and play well, which ultimately leads to a healthy soul and a fulfilling life.
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Episodes
195 - The Birds and the Bees with Megan Michelson
May 23, 2023 08:00 - 53 minutes - 36.9 MBHello and welcome to another episode of May is for Mamas. I am so excited about the guest that I have today on the podcast because I kept thinking “If I could choose someone who would deliver a lot of value to my listeners who are mamas this month of May, who would it be?” And I kept thinking about Megan Michelson. Megan is the co-creator and co-host of Birds & Bees, an online course with an amazing woman named Mary Flo Ridley. The two of them teach about sex and how to talk to your kids a...
194 - Being a Loving Mother-in-Law with Grammy
May 16, 2023 13:46 - 29 minutes - 19.9 MBI'm back with another May is for Mama's episode, and today I'm releasing one of my Patreon-only episodes into the world. This episode was published to my Patreon community last year, and it's the first time I've ever done this, but I love this precious woman so much, and I loved what she had to say so much that I knew eventually I had to share it with everyone. Elizabeth Ray, who we affectionately call Grammy in our home, is my husband's mom, so she is my mother-in-law and she is one of my...
193 - Mama Scriptures
May 09, 2023 16:49 - 21 minutes - 16 MBWelcome to another episode of May is for Mamas, and this is Mother's Day Week! We are approaching Mother's Day and I had the thought, I want to create a podcast episode that is a gift to any mom who is listening. And oftentimes for Mother's Day, we wanna get a massage or we wanna get away, or we want a new bag, or we wanna be served breakfast in bed. And all of these things are good and of of course, of course we want most of all those homemade cards from our kids that is the best. And just...
192 - Book | Create Anyway with Ashlee Gadd
May 02, 2023 08:00 - 50 minutes - 34.9 MBWelcome to May is for Mamas, where I dedicate every episode in the month of May to the Mamas listening. We are kicking it off with a beautiful, encouraging conversation with Ashlee Gadd on why it's so important to keep creating in the margins of motherhood. Ashlee is the author of Create Anyway, which is a beautiful book. It just came out and I could not get my hands on it fast enough. Y'all. It's so good. Listen, Ashlee is a wife, a mom of three, a follower of Jesus, a writer, a photograp...
191 - My Top 8 Work Hacks
April 25, 2023 13:26 - 22 minutes - 15.2 MBJumping in right off the bat with a few really fun announcements! Number one, I have a new website as of today and a new brand, new colors new look. Shout out to Sammy Jo, I love you. Thank you for creating such a beautiful space. Head to nancyray.com to see it. Number two, along with the website, I am launching a Mastermind group (!) for a group of women, only 12 women who are business owners in the Raleigh area. I'm so excited. You can go to my website to learn more and I'll talk a lit...
190 - The Work and Play of Family Trips
April 18, 2023 14:47 - 22 minutes - 15.2 MBLet's talk about family trips. Listen, there is so much planning and work that goes into taking a family trip, but there's also these golden memories of play and adventure that come out of that work. Today, I'm going to share with you how we work hard and we play hard on family trips and I'll share my favorite tips to hopefully make your next family trip a little bit easier! Resources from this episode: The Work & Play Weekly Checklist (Free Download!) The Work & Play Patreon
189 - What The Lord Is Teaching Me
April 11, 2023 13:43 - 18 minutes - 12.7 MBToday I have some simple encouragement for you, which is just a glimpse into what God has been teaching me lately. I have found that when I complete another Contentment Challenge, it's good for me to take a minute to recap the biggest lessons the Lord has taught me during this fast of sorts, because I find that every time I give up shopping or extra spending for a limited time—which is what the Contentment Challenge is—it frees up space for him to do things in my life and to address some spi...
188 - Making the Most of Limited Work Hours
April 04, 2023 08:00 - 15 minutes - 10.7 MBI currently work one day a week with the occasional help of maybe one to two evenings a month. This episode is all about how I maximize my very limited work hours! Resources from this episode: My Weekly Planning Checklist Download Work & Play Patreon 2 Second Lean, by Paul Akers Deep Work, by Cal Newport Episode 041 - My Plan to Work One Day a Week
187 - Book | Better Than Before
March 28, 2023 11:02 - 15 minutes - 10.6 MBToday is a book club episode where I'm gonna be sharing my three biggest takeaways from the book Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin. I love the tagline of her book, which is "What I learned about making and breaking habits to sleep more, quit sugar, procrastinate less, and generally build a happier life." Doesn't that sound awesome? For a list of all the books that I'm reading this year, head to nancyray.com/bookclub. Sometimes we just need a good kick in the pants from someone to show u...
186 - Making Godly Work Decisions
March 21, 2023 08:00 - 17 minutes - 12.3 MBThere is never a shortage of decisions to be made in regards to your work. What should I be doing for my career? Should I stop working when I have children? Do I go back to work? And if I do, when should I go back to work? How much should I be working? Should I close down my work? Should I start something new? Should I hire someone? Do I need to fire someone? How do I spend my time this year? How do I spend my time today? The decisions go on and on. In today's episode, I'm going to encou...
185 - The Minkies
March 14, 2023 08:00 - 50 minutes - 34.4 MBI've had three best friends for over 20 years: Jess, Heather, and Sam. And the four of us are called The Minkies, and I invited them to do a special episode of the podcast, just me and my best friends sharing our story, sharing our favorite memories and what it's taken for us to maintain a long lasting friendship for over two decades. So it's a very fun, different episode today. There's a lot of laughing and joking and storytelling, and when it comes to work and play, these ladies, they de...
184 - Helpful Habits for Meal Planning
March 07, 2023 09:00 - 12 minutes - 8.59 MBHere's a job description that life handed me that I just didn't really see coming. I have to be a cook like every day and I have to be a fairly good one because the tiny humans that I feed around my table are fairly opinionated about food. Actually, they're very opinionated about food. Also, with that job description, it will affect my mood, whatever I make, whatever I cook, it's gonna affect my mood and theirs. Also, if I feed them and myself unhealthy things, it affects our mood and our ...
183 - Book | Four Thousand Weeks
February 28, 2023 09:00 - 22 minutes - 15.3 MBAlright, it's time for the Nancy Ray Book Club 2023 edition, and in these episodes I'm gonna share my three biggest takeaways from the books that I'm reading. I keep a pace of about a book a month, and it's usually the last episode of the month that you'll find me sharing about that current book on my list. Today I'm gonna be giving an honest review of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mere Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/183. ...
182 - University Model School & Why We Chose It
February 22, 2023 00:47 - 30 minutes - 20.9 MBNow that two of my four kids are school age, I get asked a lot about their education. Where do they go to school? Do you homeschool? And the answer is that they go to school and they homeschool. They do both. We have chosen the route of a University Model Christian School, which means they attend school two days a week in person, and then I homeschool them three days a week. It's a bit of a different take on education, and there aren't a ton of schools out there with this model, although i...
181 - A Day in the Life
February 14, 2023 10:00 - 20 minutes - 14.2 MBThis episode is simply a day in the life of Nancy Ray. This feels a little bit mundane, maybe a little vulnerable to share a day of my life with you, a bit of a peak into our crazy world with raising four kids and work and all of that. But so many people have requested it. So here I am, listen at your own risk or enjoyment. But I'm grateful that so many of you are interested in the simplicity of my life, and that's what I'm gonna share with you today. For the full show notes, head to nan...
180 - You Can Do Fun Things
February 07, 2023 09:00 - 17 minutes - 13.1 MBMy most downloaded episode, maybe ever, was Episode 007 called You Can Do Hard Things. Today, I'm gonna introduce her sister to you: You Can Do Fun Things. I've decided that this year I wanna make more of these Work & Play episodes about play, and I'm gonna try to be a little more lighthearted, which can be kind of hard for me. But that's the goal for this year, and that's what today's episode is all about—encouraging you (and me) to incorporate more play in your life and to do fun things. ...
179 - The State of the Podcast 2023
January 10, 2023 09:00 - 13 minutes - 9.59 MBIt is the first podcast episode of 2023. I'm so grateful for you. I'm so grateful that you're listening right now, that you keep listening, and that somehow my voice has found a place in your life. One thing’s for sure: you keep me coming back. You keep me coming back to record podcasts again and again. The fact that you're listening keeps me coming back and I just want to say thank you. I wanna thank you and just let you know how grateful I am to have like-minded friends out there to conn...
178 - My Top 10 Books of 2022
January 01, 2023 06:10 - 21 minutes - 14.9 MBToday I'm sharing my top 10 books of 2022, and why I love them. Listen, I had a great list of books I was gonna read this year, and I read a lot of them, I did, but then I kept getting sidetracked with recommendations from friends, and I would read other books instead. And let me just pause and say I'm so glad that I did. It led to some of the most wonderful books, and I cannot wait to share them with you today. Resources from this Episode: Join the Contentment Challenge! The Work ...
177 - 10 Years of the Contentment Challenge
December 20, 2022 09:00 - 21 minutes - 16.4 MBJust a few months from now, in the start of 2023, that will mark 10 years since I did my first Contentment Challenge, where I give up shopping for three months straight to pursue a more content life and a closer walk with the Lord. 10 years! That's a long time, and you may or may not know this, but it had such a great impact on my life that I have done the Contentment Challenge almost every year since then—I think I skipped one year, maybe two. So, today I'm gonna share the lessons that I ...
176 - End of Year Planning + Finish Strong
December 14, 2022 13:57 - 14 minutes - 9.76 MBAt the end of every year, I plan time to do three simple things to plan for the year ahead. I take time to look back, reviewing the previous year. I set aside time to celebrate the previous year in God's faithfulness, and I take time to look ahead and set goals for the year to come. This episode's gonna give you more of a behind the scenes look at what that actually looks like for me. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/176. Resources from this episode: “Finish Yo...
175 - Integrated Living
December 07, 2022 17:52 - 22 minutes - 15.6 MBA few years ago, I came up with a core purpose statement for my work and this podcast, and that is: Practical tools for an integrated life. That is what I'm after. I want my teachings, my content, everything that I give to you or anyone who's listening to be very practica, and I want them to be implemented into an integrated life. But first you have to answer the question: What is an integrated life? What does that even mean? Well, the word integrate means to combine one thing with another...
174 - Cultivating Contentment During the Holidays
November 26, 2022 20:55 - 19 minutes - 13.1 MBFrom gift guides to Instagram Ads, to those Amazon kids toy magazines, to Black Friday deals—everyone right now is telling us that we should be buying more, that we should have more, that we should be dressing in cuter clothes and decorating more perfectly. And today, I just want to be a voice that says: You don't. You don't! You don't have to buy all of those things. You don't have to do more. The good stuff, the really good stuff of this holiday season, is found in the quiet, grateful mo...
173 - How We Sabbath
November 15, 2022 14:21 - 16 minutes - 11.5 MBGod created the world in six days, and on the seventh day He completely rested and enjoyed his work. He created this cadence for all of us to work six days and to rest one, and then repeat. We have a hard time doing this, don't we? I do. It's hard. It's not surprising why of all the 10 Commandments, this one was the longest with the most emphasis in the Bible. He designed us to do life this way. And when we do, life is refreshing and when we don't, it's exhausting. So today, I am gonna sha...
172 - My Christmas Gameplan
November 08, 2022 12:59 - 15 minutes - 10.5 MBIt is that time of the year where we are starting to think all about the holidays. And in my opinion, you can't start planning too early for Christmas. So, today I am telling you all about my Christmas gameplan, which is simply the planning that goes in to making Christmas a wonderful, peaceful time of year—because let's face it, it can be very stressful and very hectic if you don't thoughtfully plan ahead. So I'm just gonna share with you my approach and my strategy, and hopefully it will...
171 - Let Your Yes Be Yes
November 02, 2022 18:42 - 17 minutes - 13.6 MB“Priorities are what we do, everything else is just talk.” I love that phrase. My husband works for an organization called C12, and they say that all the time, and it just re-centers you and re-grounds you on the fact that what we do matters. It's not what we say, it's what we do. I had a hard time coming up with the title of this episode and I landed on “Let Your Yes Be Yes,” because that's the biblical truth I just kept coming back to, but I also thought about naming it “Saying vs. Doing...
170 - Created to Create
October 25, 2022 13:37 - 23 minutes - 16.3 MBSomeone once told me that we are most like God when we are creating. He is after all the creator of everything, and we are after all made in his image. Today's episode has me feeling, I don't know, a bit weepy, inspired, ultimately, grateful. Fair warning: might cry by the end of this. I don't know, we'll see. But this content today was inspired by a children's book that left me in tears and the simple truth that I've been kind of mulling over that we were created to create. For the full s...
169 - Book | Take Back Your Joy with Nicole Jacobsmeyer
September 27, 2022 13:27 - 47 minutes - 32.6 MBToday I'm talking with my dear friend Nicole Jacobsmeyer, who is a fellow mama of four. She is an author and a kindred spirit. Fun little backstory— she and I met when we went to Great Wolf Lodge and she had three kids and I had three kids and we experienced it together and then connected on Instagram, then connected on Marco Polo, and we have stayed in touch and has been so sweet to find out how connected we are and like-minded we are in so many areas of our lives! Nicole loves Jesus and ...
168 - Theme Days
September 13, 2022 09:00 - 17 minutes - 12.1 MBHave you ever heard of having theme days? It's this idea that you choose different themes to focus on for different days and it helps you batch things or just simply not switch back and forth mentally between tasks so much. I have found them very helpful and I wanted to share a few different ways to approach creating your own theme days throughout your week, or even breaking them down into theme hours, to maximize productivity and enjoyment—AKA maximizing your work and your play. For the f...
167 - Book | How To Get Paid For What You Know with Graham Cochrane
August 30, 2022 09:00 - 55 minutes - 38 MBToday, I had the absolute privilege of talking to my friend Graham Cochrane. He is the author of How To Get Paid For What You Know, and we talk all about his book! I've read the whole thing cover to cover and it's so good. If I could describe it in any way, it would be practical and helpful. You know, sometimes you read business books and you think, “Oh, that's great, but that doesn't really apply to me.” It's not that way with his book. He really makes you feel like you can do this—it's a...
166 - The Numbers of Business with Shanna, Kayse & Kait
August 16, 2022 09:00 - 58 minutes - 40.5 MBListen, this episode is so good. I say that because I get to sit down and talk with three of my good friends, women who I adore and admire, who run businesses, who are moms. They are so special to me, and you get to hear the inside scoop about their lives and their businesses, but all throughout the conversations, we're going to be talking about this thing called The Blueprint Model. And I first want to tell you what that is before you listen in, because otherwise you're going to be really...
165 - The Weekly Plan
August 02, 2022 12:00 - 22 minutes - 15.6 MBWell, I'm back from taking a month off of the podcast!! And this episode is going to be a little bit of a catch-up of what I've been up to, what's coming in August, a little bit of a change of plans with the podcast, but as all good. And I'm going to break down at my favorite weekly rhythm for you, which is my Sunday plan. I'm so excited to share all this with you. I'm excited to be back—it just feels so good. I've missed you guys and I'm so grateful that you are here listening today! Fo...
164 - 10 Things That Are Saving My Life Right Now
June 28, 2022 14:02 - 16 minutes - 11 MBWell, today is my last episode before I take a month off of the podcast in July! So, I'll look forward to connecting with you again here in August, and I thought I'd end these fun summer-y episodes with just a mix of lighthearted and serious recommendations of sorts—I'm sharing 10 things that are saving my life right now. I hope you enjoy. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/164. Resources from this episode: The Legacy Photo System Work and Play Patreon Emily ...
163 - The Summer Photo Challenge
June 21, 2022 11:02 - 22 minutes - 15.2 MBOur photos, whether they're digital, printed, on our phones, framed, in albums—all of them in a word can feel overwhelming. Which is why I want to lighten your load just a little bit this summer and I came up with the Summer Photo Challenge. Now, the Summer Photo Challenge is simply this: I am challenging you and myself during the month of July to tackle ONE photo project, just one, that's it. And today I'm going to give you three options, three different photo projects to tackle and exact...
162 - The Summer Episode
June 14, 2022 08:00 - 9 minutes - 6.26 MBWelcome to the summer episode where I'm doing something I've never done before—having a little fun with this episode and I'll be sharing everything that reminds me of summer, including some great recommendations. I'll cover places to go, feelings to feel, sites to see, books to read, music to listen to, things to wear, memories to make. I hope this episode makes you really happy. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/posdcast/162. Resources from this episode: Legacy Photo S...
161 - Book | The 4 Disciplines of Execution
June 07, 2022 08:00 - 21 minutes - 14.5 MBHello and happy June! Today is a full and exciting episode because I have some updates for you for the Summer and it's a book club episode, which are always my favorites. This book kind of has a funny story with it—which I'll get to. We are out of school, we're getting used to new rhythms with all the kids home and I've got some fun Summer episodes coming up. Lots to talk about today, but today's book is called The 4 Disciplines of Execution and it was a doozy of a business book. There was...
160 - Book | A Confident Mom with Renee Swope
May 31, 2022 10:00 - 48 minutes - 33.3 MBWelcome to May is for Mama's, when every episode in the month of May is dedicated to all you mamas listening with topics and conversations specifically designed for you! Today, we have the privilege of hearing from my friend and mama mentor, Renee Swope, who is a wife and a mama of three and an author and speaker and she loves Jesus so much! We are going to be talking all about her latest book, A Confident Mom, which is the perfect fit for my book club and May is for Mamas. You can get all...
159 - Raising Daughters with Shay Cochrane, Part II
May 24, 2022 08:00 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MBWelcome to May is for Mamas, when every episode in the month of May on the Work and Play Podcast is dedicated to all you mamas listening. Today, I am continuing my conversation with my dear friend, Shay Cochrane. She's a wife, a mom of two girls. We tackle all kinds of topics and I just couldn't leave anything out so I decided to split it up into two episodes. I hope you enjoy the rest of our conversation! For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/159. Resources from ...
158 - Raising Daughters with Shay Cochrane, Part I
May 17, 2022 08:00 - 30 minutes - 20.9 MBWelcome to May is for Mamas, where every episode in the month of May is dedicated to all the mamas out there, with topics and conversations specifically for you. Today, I'm chatting with my friend Shay Cochrane, who is a wife and an entrepreneur, and a mama of two daughters. She owns Social Squares, which supplies elevated stock images and digital marketing education for female owned online brands. Her vision as a creator is to enable more women to find greater success, sharing their ideas...
158 - Raising Daughters with Shay Cochrane
May 17, 2022 08:00 - 30 minutes - 20.9 MBWelcome to May is for Mamas, where every episode in the month of May is dedicated to all the mamas out there, with topics and conversations specifically for you. Today, I'm chatting with my friend Shay Cochrane, who is a wife and an entrepreneur, and a mama of two daughters. She owns Social Squares, which supplies elevated stock images and digital marketing education for female owned online brands. Her vision as a creator is to enable more women to find greater success, sharing their ideas...
157 - Using a Timer in Motherhood
May 10, 2022 08:00 - 18 minutes - 12.4 MBThis is the epitome of combining Work and Play for mamas there's work to be done. Plenty of it. Folding clothes, meal planning, unloading the dishwasher, picking up toys, tackling the junk drawer, cleaning out the pantry, cleaning up the kitchen and on and on and on. Well, why not turn those work items that are not optional in our lives into some play? The magic missing link for you could be using a timer. When you set a timer before tackling a task, you turn it into a game. And before y...
156 - Speak Scripture Over Your Children
May 03, 2022 08:00 - 14 minutes - 10.2 MBThis is the first episode of May is for Mamas, which is one of my favorite things I do on the podcast every May! Each episode this month will be made for the mamas listening and I hope it will be a mix of uplifting, helpful, encouraging, and maybe even a little lighthearted cause we all need that right now. This first episode is all about speaking scripture over your children and how powerful that can be for your kids and for you. Today is also the day I'm launching my Patreon page(!), whi...
155 - State of the Podcast
April 26, 2022 08:00 - 16 minutes - 11.5 MBToday, I'm veering off the normal podcast course and I'm breaking a few rules and I just want to share some of where I am in my own work and play and how that affects this podcast moving forward. I'm really excited about where I'm headed and I want to be very honest with you and take you along in this journey with me. I value you, I'm grateful for you listening, especially those of you who listen every week. I'm so, so grateful and I'm excited just to share my heart with you today. For the...
154 - My Two Favorite Work Routines
April 19, 2022 08:00 - 8 minutes - 6.09 MBToday, I'm going to share my two favorite work habits and that is: how I start my workday and how I finish my workday. I'm just going to go ahead and put this out there—they're pretty nerdy. Some of you are probably going to laugh and be like, I'm never going to do that, and that's fine, but they've worked for me and I really like them. I'm trying to get back to them after this fourth baby, it takes a little bit to kind of get them in your system again, but I tell you what, when you can ro...
153 - Getting Past Tension
April 12, 2022 10:00 - 26 minutes - 19.5 MBWe all have tension in our lives. And a lot of times that manifests itself in anxious thoughts and just feeling like we can't get our heads around something or we can't move through it and that's just part of being human. It's just part of living life and this isn't the episode that I had planned for today, but it's the episode that God put on my heart. So I'm just going to talk about tension and anxiety and how to get through that, how to get past it, how to get through to the other side....
152 - The Family Meeting
April 05, 2022 08:00 - 10 minutes - 6.95 MBThere's something about meeting regularly as a family that brings you together, not only in a practical way—which it does—you can talk about the calendar and your schedules and your plans, but emotionally you can connect and you can share things you're looking forward to or problems that you're having and I didn't have this growing up. We didn't meet regularly as a family, but it's something that we've started to do recently and it has been such a joy. Today I'm going to share with you the...
151 - Book | The Psychology of Money
March 29, 2022 08:00 - 19 minutes - 13.3 MBWelcome to the Nancy Ray Book Club, where every month I read a book and then I share my three biggest takeaways from that book with you here. This month, I read the Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. A book that came really highly recommended to me by a few trusted friends and it did not disappoint. So yes, today we are talking all about money and our relationship with it. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/151. Resources from this episode: The Pyschology of M...
150 - Two Parts to Being Truly Productive
March 22, 2022 08:00 - 25 minutes - 17.4 MBI have been doing a lot of thinking lately on productivity and how to be productive, mostly because right now I have very limited amounts of time that I can devote to projects. As a breastfeeding mama, my windows of time are very limited—they're limited when I need to feed the baby next. So in a lot of ways it forces me to think strategically about my time. As I manage a household with four little kids and a lot of stuff, as well as my online business, I've realized there are two parts to ...
149 - 5 Ways to Make the Most of Being Sick
March 15, 2022 08:00 - 24 minutes - 16.9 MBHaving four small children six and under simply means that over the last six years there has been a lot of sickness in our house. And for two and a half years of that time, we have lived through the pandemic, our culture has been hyper-vigilant and very fearful of any kind of sickness because of COVID. And while there's really no right or wrong way to be sick, because you're just sick, I have learned a few things. I've learned ways to cope with sickness, ways to cling to Jesus, ways to pra...
148 - A Time for Bold Faith
March 08, 2022 09:00 - 10 minutes - 7.53 MBWe are living in a tense time. Cultural pressures are really high. Our nation feels like it's falling apart some days and is super divided and it's hard, and more than anything, the dark world around us is begging for light and truth. I sense there's just so much spiritual confusion and a drought in people's lives spiritually. This episode is simply an encouragement for you to be bold and strong and to live out your faith in every aspect of your life, and to cling to Jesus every day. I ho...
147 - Book | The Self-Driven Child
March 01, 2022 09:00 - 23 minutes - 15.9 MBWelcome to the Nancy Ray Book Club, where once a month I tell you about a book I'm reading and loving and I share my top three takeaways from that book. To learn more about the books I'm reading this year head to nancyray.com/bookclub. And to get even more out of these episodes, I encourage you pick up these books, join me and read them alongside me. Now, today I'm going to be talking about The Self-Driven Child, which is a book that's going to stay with me throughout the rest of my paren...