Thriving In Motherhood Podcast

I love making big goals - and you’ve seen me do some of them here with things like the Soaring Mothers Summit. But this year, I wanted to try something that I read about years ago in Atomic Habits: making 1% Better Changes. Each month of the year, I’m picking one tiny thing to focus on, and so far, the impact has far exceeded my homes. When I’m deciding on what to focus on each month, I start with this question that is found in the quarterly review pages of the Thriving in Motherhood Planner: “What is the ONE thing that will make the biggest difference in all areas of my life?” It allows me to get honest with myself about what my current habits are and where I would like to make things better for myself.  What I love about this question is that whatever season of motherhood you’re in - even the super hard ones - you can find things to make 1% better instead of staying stuck and feeling like a victim. Here are the changes I’ve made so far in quarter one of 2023: January: Charge my phone away from my bed at nig

For the last few weeks, I had the experience of feeling like I was running in circles without a clear direction - endlessly researching but not sure what to do next. I told myself that I had gotten to the end of the road on my vision. In reality, things weren’t that dire - I just forgot what phase I was in and how to keep myself anchored.  There are three phases to creating and living out your vision for the year:  Caterpillar: exploring and building systems to support bringing more of what you want into your life. Cocoon: simplifying and building systems to support bringing more of what you want into your life. Butterfly: Doing more of what you want in your everyday life. The research phase is supposed to be a fun season of exploring. I had lost my way a bit, NOT because I was spending hours learning without creating, but because I had pushed out the daily practices that anchor me to God and creating my life with Him.  Once I put my morning routine where I connect with God at the top of my list, it b

I recently listened to a group of mothers share their feelings of overwhelm, and I absolutely identified with their thoughts.  The things that they found overwhelming fell into three levels of overwhelm: Getting Things Done Our Homes and Keeping People Alive Our Thoughts When we feel overwhelmed, it can be hard to slow down and identify what is really causing our stress. Over the years, as I’ve peeled back the layer, I’ve realized that there were lots of different skill sets that I needed to develop.  All three of these can come with a pretty steep learning curve (at least it was for me) when you have a child.  I’ve learned over the years that when I find myself struggling to slow down and look at how I’m doing with my foundation, the three pillars of thriving. First, Vision. Do I have clarity about where I actually want to go next and what my next baby steps are? If not, I need to slow down and prayerfully consider what is next with God and then start moving in a clear direction. Second, Structure. W

Have you had the experience of committing to a hard goal but found yourself miserable along the way?  Arielle shared with me that she had made it through her first semester of grad school as a mom with four young kids, but it was a miserable experience. Instead of seeing it as a failure, I shared the 5-Step Path From Curious To Committed.  5 Step Path From Curious To Committed: Curious - Identify what you would like to try or start (like grad school or a podcast). Consistent - Set a timeframe to try (podcast for one year or do a semester of grad school). Clarity - Come back to the drawing board and see how this thing fits in your life. Look at the data (podcasting is great, and I have tons of ideas to keep going; grad school was incredibly hard on my family - how big is my why?). Confidence - Now, you can either move forward or let go. Committed - Your goals can now be more specific as you are committed to the long-term process and what really matters in that field (a certain number of downloads, fo

Today I’m sharing how I involve the kids in cleaning our home - how we do it, why we do it, and what we use. We are going beyond picking up or tidying and addressing things like scrubbing toilets and mopping floors.  (My kids are ages 9, 7, 5, and 2.5 for reference, but this is something I’ve done with them since they were babies)  Here are the four phases of getting kids to clean at home that we use: Watch me do it. Do it with me. Do it with me watching you. Do it yourself. Working through the phases starts when my kids are crawling around on the floor and pulling themselves up on the dyer to “help” put wet clothes in. Doing it themselves emerges years later.  This process is a long game, but also about more than just making sure the house gets clean. We use the time to talk with each other, sing songs, and instill values of working together, putting our “big rocks” first (from 7 Habits of Highly effective people), and contributing to our family. It’s important that my kids know that cleaning at ho

If you worked through the Create Your Vision Challenge, one of the last exercises was choosing your word for the year. Your word of the year helps remind you of your vision for the year and what you hope to accomplish. But now that you have your word, what are you going to do with it?  There are three ways I’ve found that are really effective for using your word for the year.  1 - Remind you of who you are trying to become You can do this in any season of motherhood, but it is especially powerful in the hard seasons when you don’t have much control over your circumstances. Write your word on the bathroom mirror, put a reminder in your phone, or end the day reflecting on how you lived up to your word throughout the day. 2 - Help you at a decision point Use your word to guide the choices you make each day. For example, if your word was “generous,” it could help you decide to share your lunch with friends or be generous with your time and attention at bedtime. 3 - Guide your thoughts Use your word to help boss y

Have you ever had the feeling of excitedly buying a planner and using it with great enthusiasm in the beginning but after a few days, weeks, or maybe even months, it starts to collect dust and end up in the back of the closet?   Or, maybe it’s led to paralyzing planning guilt, and you’ve abandoned the exercise entirely and sworn off buying planners.   In this week’s episode, I talk about what it looks like to use a planner in different seasons of motherhood. Spoiler alert: sometimes there are a lot of blank pages, and that’s okay!   Your planner is meant to support you, not give you anxiety or guilt! Depending on where you are in your life and your motherhood journey, there are so many ways to approach planning that make your life better.  I’ve found there are four phases when it comes to planning. These work best when you’re using the Thriving in Motherhood Planner, but you can also implement them into your planning system. 4 Phases of Planning in Motherhood Reality check - This is a great place to start if

Do you feel the pressure to set big goals and achieve them quickly? In January, I feel bombarded by all the messaging about “doubling,” “accelerating,” and “2X faster/better” in all areas of life. Productivity, homeschooling, business, decluttering our homes, and the list goes on. It’s enough to make me want to give up or not even start. Early one morning, as I was praying about my discouragement, I ended up in The New Testament. In Luke 1, the angel Gabriel shared with Zacharias that his son, John, would be “great in the sight of the Lord…and many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.” (verses 12-16). This prophecy would take decades to fulfill. The same angel told Mary that her son, Jesus, “shall be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father, David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom, there shall be no end. (verses 30-33). The fulfillment of that prophecy is taking millenniums.  As I

All of my kids stopped napping around age two. When we went through the transition the first time with my oldest, I was reading one of Sally Clarkson’s books (I’ve read so many, I’m not sure which one mentioned this), and she said that every day they had quiet time to read and be in their own space to recharge. From that day forward, we rebranded “nap time” to ‘rest and read time,” and we’ve had this as an anchor for our day ever since. Read and rest time isn’t boring at our house. Sometimes there are creative messes, and sometimes, my 9-year-old has organized and deep-cleaned a kitchen cabinet. I never know what I’m going to find when I come back out of my room. Regardless, because of this routine, I will be recharged and ready for what’s next On today’s episode, I’m sharing what is working now for the kids and me as a homeschooling family of six to be successful. Have you created your vision for 2023 yet? Now is the perfect time to get clarity about what matters to you so you can spend your days on things y

One of the questions that has emerged for me as a mother with less physical energy than I’d like is, “What really matters when it comes to parenting?” For a long time, my tactic was don’t engage if I can’t be nice or I can’t enforce (which has been the case off and on with challenging pregnancies or recovering from surgeries). But, as my kids get older, I realize that isn’t an effective long-term plan. I came across The Collapse of Parenting which provided a lot of clarity as to where to focus my time, energy, and attention in parenting. One of my first big takeaways came in the very first chapter, “Our job as parents is to pass on culture to our children.” If we let our kids learn the culture of their peers, it is one Irampant of disrespect. As a parent, my job is to decide what culture I want to pass on to my children and lead by example. Check out this week’s episode for more of my favorite takeaways from the book and how it is shaping my day-to-day interactions with my kids.

This week’s episode is a peek into one of the incredible groups in Soaring Mothers Society. They were the first women to go through the Made To Soar: Next 90-Days program in 2020, and we’ve been meeting every month for the last two years to do monthly planning and reviews together. The transformation and growth of these women is incredible, and it was a real treat to take a few minutes to celebrate their journeys and growth in household management, family relationships, strengthening community, completing projects, and growing businesses. The secret has been consistently taking baby steps and having people to celebrate with along the way.  Here is the experience one of the members has had: “Before I got the Thriving in Motherhood Planner and joined the Next 90-Days Course, I lacked clarity. The first time I went through the Create Your Vision Challenge, my word for the year was clarity. We had no structure in our days, no routines, no systems in our house, and my wheels were spinning. I wasn’t moving forward

It’s amazing the impact looking back can have on how I feel about the year. In this week’s Thriving in Motherhood podcast episode, I am reviewing my 2022 with you and giving some tips for how you can look at your year as well.  Spoiler alert - I started this activity thinking things weren’t that great and ended feeling like I was on top of the world and could do anything). As a close friend recently said, “You are very good at not seeing all that you are not doing.”  Looking back tells the story of your growth and allows you to see what is real. It gives you a chance to celebrate your learning, growth, family adventures, progress, milestones, and important memories.  From this place, you can gather clues about what is important to you, what’s missing in your life, and how you want to grow and change during the next year. This also brings you to a place of momentum, energy, and enthusiasm for your life. That is a place that is fun to think about possibilities of the next year from. Whatever season of motherhoo

Do you ever feel bored as a mom? Do you have full, busy days, but at the end of them, you don’t feel fulfilled? Are you bummed because you don’t feel like you’re able to make progress on the things you want to do?  I’ve been there, and in this week’s podcast episode, we talk about what to do when you find yourself in this place. The very first step to getting out of this rut is getting more clarity about what matters to you by creating your vision for the year. Until you know who you want to be and what you want to do, it is going to be very challenging to change feeling bored, bummed, or busy.  This isn’t going to be a one-and-done thing, either. For me, it has become a yearly practice where I brain dump, reflect on the previous year and work through a process of uncovering where I need to focus my time and energy. 2023 is just around the corner and if you’re ready to have your best year ever, come join us for the Create Your Vision Challenge. This is designed specifically for mothers with children at home w

Does anyone else have moments where it feels overwhelming, no matter how much progress you've made with your home?  I've been there the last few weeks, searching for a way through our upstairs bedrooms. I've read dozens of books over the years about decluttering, organizing, and maintaining your home, but the reality is when I walk into a messy bedroom, I'm not sure what to do next and back away slowly.   Then I look through the Ikea website for organizational furniture, google how far away the closest Ikea is (it's 2 hours - every time!) and then realize it's time to make the next meal.   Well, after a breakdown (yep, it happened) follows a breakthrough, and in this week's episode, I'm sharing my recently developed framework that is empowering me to face these much-used rooms head-on! This breakthrough led me to develop the four principles of creating a home that supports you:  Simplify - remove what doesn't belong in the room or isn't being used.  You can throw it away, donate it, put it in a “time will t

Typically at the end of the year, when there is so much going on, I start to feel like I’m not seeing a lot of progress on my projects and goals.  This leads me to feel discouraged and want to give up - which is not an option when managing a household.  One thing I like to do when I notice this feeling creeping is to create a “Finish List” to create some momentum.  Dave Ramsey has a principle he calls the “debt snowball.” The idea is that if you have multiple lines of debt, you pay off the smallest amount of debt first to see some quick wins and stay committed to making progress.  This same principle can work with our projects!  Sit down and write a list of all the unfinished projects currently taking up brain space. Now evaluate that list and see if there are things you could knock out today or in a few hours.  Start to build momentum by seeing progress and watch how much you can accomplish in your small pockets of time before the end of the year (or not, if that stresses you out instead of motivating you). 

I read Tiago Fortne’s, Building Your Second Brain and immediately saw how the time I was wasting online was because it was too hard to do the things I really wanted to do on my phone or computer. In this episode, I share the behind-the-scenes of how I organize my digital life as a mom so that I am not wasting time on social media and getting way more done by being effective when I’m on my computer.  I love my physical planner and journals to keep my day-to-day life organized and my brain working and emptied. However, a lot happens digitally that, for me, was a complete mess. With my second brain system, I now have a place for everything - a place for things I want to read, a place for things I want to reference, a place for things I need to do on the computer, and easy systems to get everything where it needs to go. I have great systems for knowing what I want to do and getting those things done (hint, hint, The Thriving In Motherhood Planner), but I needed a way to organize knowledge.  That was one of the h

I read so many great books this year that I can’t wait to share with you! And since the year isn’t over, I’m not done reading yet and have even more favorites to add  (How Not To Die and The Collapse of Parenting are a couple of recent favorites.) I love to keep track of the books I read to prove to myself that I’m learning. There are loads of ways to track your books, but I like to keep it low-tech in the Thriving in Motherhood Planner monthly review page. Keeping track helps me get a better picture of where my time and energy went as a whole, and it is part of my game plan for combatting the lie that “all I do is…” Plus, what you focus on grows - and I want reading to be a foundational part of who I am because it makes life richer, deeper, and much more interesting. So, without further ado, here are my 12 favorite books I read this year: Forty Autumns Building Your Second Brain What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid Mothering By The Book How The Word Is Passed Think Again The Self-Driven Child The Sleep Fi

We all have hard things in our life that we get to keep learning from again and again. Mine is physical pain and health challenges.  In this week’s episode, I’m sharing some practical tips for parenting while in physical pain (which can be applied to mental and emotional health challenges, too), as well as some principles and lessons I’ve been learning over the last few months. For me, one of the biggest things this challenge has taught me is to rely more fully on God. I’ve chosen to look at the pain as an opportunity to grow closer to Him.  Whenever the fear starts to creep in because of pain or the unknown underlying causes, I try to remember who does know. God is all-knowing, and He is the only one with all of the answers. I try to remain focused on the fact that I can trust Him to walk with me through all the ups and downs. I’ve also discovered some helpful practices that make mothering easier when I have painful days: Play music to match the mood you want in your home. Instead of focusing on what is not

Would you like more support from your husband with your projects and goals? This week on the podcast, I’m sharing the principles and practices that help Andrew and me be effective in communicating and supporting each other in making our priorities happen.

As I’ve looked back over the last few years, I’ve been able to see the simple things that have really made a difference in making life joyful and meaningful in everyday life.  The great news is that you don’t necessarily have to look outside of your current responsibilities and plans to increase fulfillment.  Listen to this week’s episode for ideas on how to recognize and create more moments of joy and meaning in your life and ways that you can celebrate your everyday accomplishments more fully.