Thriving In Motherhood Podcast

What do you do with all the stuff your kids create? This is something I have struggled with for years with my four very creative children. In this week’s episode, I’m sharing what has been working for us, our current problems and what we are doing about it, and a brand new framework my children and I came up with that is changing how we think about the things they (and I) make. Here are some of the things that have been working for us for a while: Paper management: Each child has a small drawer where we can dump anything they made that is flat. Once the bin is full we go through it and take pictures of things they don’t want to forget and put things they really care about into their paper box (file folder with files from 0-18 years). Everything else gets thrown away. 3-Dimensional projects: Each child has a Maker Box where they can put the things they’ve made that they don’t want to get rid of because they still want to play with it or it’s particularly cool. They are keeping the majority of the project

We have four very creative kids who spend HOURS each day creating things (the most recent was an elaborate tin can phone system complete with bells and wall mounts for the cans to go between the top and bottom bunk).  In this week's episode, I'm sharing the things we've done that have made the biggest impact on raising creative children.   8 Tips For Raising Creative Kids Encourage their interests.  For example, from the time our son was 18 months old, he used our couches to build vehicles. To support this, we built wooden boxes he could combine with stools, chairs, and a nugget couch. This has sparked endless imaginative constructions.  Expose your kids to new experiences Anytime our kids get in a funk and don’t know what to do, we try to take them somewhere and let them experience something new. These experiences provide fresh inspiration to fuel their creative ideas. Have supplies on hand We like to have scissors, glue, cardboard, and paint on hand at our house. Think about the things your kids

Whether you are exhausted, depressed, sick, burned out, or just want a break, in today's episode I'll be sharing my #1 tip that I've used for the last 10.5 years of motherhood to get me through the day when I need some space we still have the day to spend together. The solution has two parts: Go outside and do something creative. When my kids were little and we lived in an apartment, this looked like bringing things I could do with my hands to the playground: whittle spoons or animals out of sticks or scrap wood, crochet blankets, make shoes out of leather, or peel apples to make applesauce.  As my kids got older and we now live in a home, this often looks like doing house projects. Recently we've done major updates in our garden, built a retaining wall, made a bed frame, cut out wood animals for the kids to carve with friends, and we are currently building a rock climbing wall in the garage.  Always I've played instruments, often outside, for a low-energy creative option. A ukulele, guitar, or fiddle is a co

It is so easy to fall into the "all I do is.." trap.  You fill in the blank - change diapers, drive kids to school and activities, feed people, nurse the baby, chase after the toddler. No matter the season of motherhood you are in, there are things that we do over and over again. And when we start to think that it is all we do, we can start to feel miserable and resentful of the people we love the most.  The antidote is simple but incredibly powerful: do a monthly review.  Even after 7 years of this 10-minute exercise, I am still surprised at how it changes my perspective and how I feel about my life.  In this week's episode, I'm sharing my findings from my most recent review in April and show you how you can do it yourself too. 5 Questions To Ask In a Monthly Review: What have I discovered or learned this month? What have I accomplished? Where have we gone? What significant things happened in our family? What books have I read or listened to (or podcasts or shows if that is the season you are in)?

With summer quickly approaching, I needed to refocus on what we are going to make our learning priorities for the next few months. We go year-round in our homeschooling so that we can have the ultimate flexibility to take breaks or just enjoy the nice days outside. And, hot weather here in the South has us indoors more than in the winter months. In this week’s episode, I’m sharing the question I asked to give me the clarity I needed to decide what we are going to focus on in our schooling and home so that we can have confidence in how we are using our time and energy. The question I asked myself is: “What do each of my kids need to be prepared for next fall?” With this question, I was able to narrow down the few things that matter a lot and let go of the rest. For us, we are making a family project of working through Story of the World 4 this summer so we can enjoy modern history when we start Alveary in the fall. We are also focusing on some specific skills tailored to what each child needs, instead of keepi

For the last 30 days, I've been using the Thriving in Motherhood Journal. Before this personal challenge, I would use it about once a week when things were hard and noticed a nice lift to my week. But as this year has continued to surprise us I started to flounder and wanted to see what impact the journal would have in my life.  In this week's episode, I'll share some of the logistics and tips for using the journal, the impact it had on my life, and my invitation for you to give it a try for yourself.  You may be wondering what it actually took for me to stick to my 30-day challenge. Here are some things that I found helpful: Have a pen ready Have multiple windows of when you will use the journal and put it in the next likely spot (next to your bed, office, kitchen, etc.) Be flexible with morning or night (or both). Pick it back up when you miss a day. Don’t pressure yourself to answer every question. Pick the relevant ones for that day and leave the rest. Don’t worry about keeping the daily and

I got a fantastic question from a mother who is using the 2024 Thriving in Motherhood Planner this year: "I get confused sometimes about the distinction between things like goals  (quarterly vs. yearly) vs. projects vs. habits vs. Big 3 vs. focus vs. tracking.  Should these things all be related or not necessarily?  For example, on page 31, I'm not sure what goals vs projects are.  Do I choose a big goal and then break that down into projects, or are goals and projects different? Should my daily, weekly, and quarterly goals all go back to my 10-12 goals for the year?  I guess I'm just not clear on how these things are different or if they should all be connected!"  In this week's episode are going to do a deep dive on the difference between Projects, Goals, and Habits and how you can practically organize your ideas to make things happen with the Thriving in Motherhood Planner. First, use this how it works best for you!  There are no grades or right or wrong answers. But, if you’re curious, here’s how I use my

Cleaning my home with my children has always been my number one priority. When they were babies this looked like using cleaning supplies that would be safe while they were in a baby carrier on me. As they were toddlers, it meant they could clean with me, and I wasn't worried about what they were touching. As they get older it means having materials I'm confident they can use safely by themselves.  But knowing that this is what I wanted and executing it were two different things. In this week's episode, I'm sharing all the things I've tried and what worked, what didn't work, and what we are doing now that has been the right fit for us. I tried many things over the years. The first was to walk through the cleaning aisle at the store to find the products we needed. But due to overwhelm (the number of options, not knowing which products were actually safe, and calculating the expense of it all), I always walked out of there with nothing. This also meant that for years, the actual cleaning in our home was minimal

When I had three kids, four and under, I learned about Charlotte Mason and her principle of spreading a wide feast of ideas. Practically, this looks like 20 different subjects in a Charlotte Mason classroom that get covered during the week.  Before we were in the formal school years, I got into the habit of discovering where all the different sections of books were at the library so I could just walk the shelves and grab some that covered a wide range of ideas without any preplanning. For years, we have had this system in place that has provided an educational cushion through all the ups and downs in our lives and given our kids a lot of learning in a very natural way. For years, we have had this system in place that has provided an educational cushion through all the ups and downs in our lives and given our kids a lot of learning in a very natural way. I also supplement by putting books on hold at the library that deep-dive into what my kids want to learn more about so that I’m not hunting for specific books

Synthia Simenson is a mother of five (almost six) children ages 10 and under. She went through the struggles that I think we can all relate to when we first become moms—overwhelm, unsure of where to focus her time and energy, and not even sure what she wanted life to look like. I hope you are as inspired by her journey as I am, from those survival years to making intentional changes that created space for her to dream.  Things like minimum baselines for taking care of herself and her home, weekly out-of-the-house dates with her husband (a minimum of 3 hours!), and creating a schedule so she wasn't reinventing the wheel every single day (notice the 3 pillars of thriving there?!).  She also began asking this life-changing question: "What is something you want more of?" As she and her husband discussed this on their weekly dates, their answer was travel. They both love being in new places, connecting with people, and spending time together as a family while having new experiences and discovering things. Leaning

Have you done those exercises where you write out your priorities or values? It is easy for me to put on paper what I care about, but where are my time and energy really going?  In this season of survival mode for our family, we have really stripped away a lot of what we usually do, and it is easy for me to say that we aren't very consistent in things that I wish we were better at. But as I sat pondering this one morning during my scripture study, I realized that I actually AM consistent at some things, even in survival mode, and those things are my true priorities. I wrote three different lists to help me get a more realistic picture of what I care about with not just my words but my actions, and then I evaluated and made changes from there.  In this week's episode, I walk you through the entire process, using my answers as an example to get you started. Once again, I just used a Think and Process page in my Thriving in Motherhood Planner for this exercise. 3 Questions to Determine Your True Priorities: Wh

When you’ve lost momentum in every area of your life, and it feels overwhelming because there is so much to do, what do you do? Often, the answer is to do a brain dump—write everything you can possibly think of on a piece of paper to clear your head.  The problem is, what do you do after that? How do you actually gain the clarity you need to move forward?  This last week, I sat down and prayerfully asked that question, and a new process unfolded that made it very clear where to put my time and energy to start making progress on the things that really mattered most to me, even though we were still sliding between survival mode and re-entry. I thought about making it fancy, but in the end, I just used a Think and Process page in the Thriving in Motherhood planner to complete this entire process. Steps For Clarity When There is Too Much to Do: Brain Dump Cross anything off the list that isn’t actually really important right now What on your list has a next action step that is 5 minutes or less? What on y

Last week, we spent a week in Memphis, Tennessee, as a family while Andrew attended a conference. It was a great trip with lots of amazing moments and some really hard ones, too. In this week’s episode, I’m sharing the reflection process that I did after this trip so that we can take in all the data, evaluate the wins, what we loved, and what we would do to make things a little bit better next time.   Some of the specific tips might be applicable to your family and travel situation, and some of them won’t, but either way, I hope that you will use this process after you have an adventure—big or small—with your family.   It takes a lot of effort to pull off family adventures, and reflection is the essential step that allows us to do it again as we figure out what worked and what didn’t.   Here are some things we reflected on that went well, didn’t go well, and what we would do differently next time:   Mindset: This is a grand experiment, and I’m just here to collect data about what is going well and what’s no

When I shared 3 Thriving Thoughts for Hard Days a few weeks ago, we were not at the end of the unexpected and hard around here. The reality is that my capacity and desire for doing things and running the household are shrinking as my energy is being diverted toward the emotional and physical realities and reactions to our circumstances. I’ve also realized that my physical energy and health vary greatly every month, and I have some ongoing health challenges. I want to have a more realistic handle on what I’m committing to. When I created my vision at the beginning of the year, I had no clue what the first few months would throw at us, and I very excitedly jumped into lots of things, but now I’m finding myself stressed by these self-imposed expectations. As I was pondering this situation earlier this week, I had the inspiration (in my usual place, the shower) to write a Yes List. What is a Yes List, you ask?  A yes list is a list of everything you’ve said yes to. Because I really don’t like not finishing thing

If you’ve been stuck on Exploring on the 5 Step Path from Surviving to Thriving, this week’s episode is for you! Monica Packer shares how a Do Something List can be a powerful tool for exploring and discovering who you are and what you love. It’s a practical push to find fulfillment in your everyday life. It is separate from a goals or resolutions list. It’s more about exploration than competition.  Monica is also no stranger to struggles and survival seasons and you will hear how she has learned to navigate those seasons a little more gracefully and find peace with things looking differently when life gets hard. For Monica, the biggest lesson from the Do Something List is that the transformation lies in the process, not the outcome. It’s not completing the list that brings fulfillment. It’s in the trying that you rediscover who you are, be more of yourself, and experience the trickle-down effect that comes from that. Monica’s Tips for a Do Something List Pick a timeframe that this list applies to (for exam

We’ve had an intense few months over at our house, and it has taken its toll. But the wonderful thing is that with breakdowns come breakthroughs. Today, I’m sharing three new Thriving Thoughts (what I call the new way of thinking I like to hold onto) I’ve had that are helping me in this season.  Whether these thoughts resonate with you or not, I hope that when you are struggling, you will follow this pattern that allows you to find more empowering and helpful thoughts. Pattern for Creating Thriving Thoughts: Notice when you are feeling negative emotions and uncover the thoughts you are thinking. This takes practice and may take some pondering. Write down the unhelpful thought Pray for a paradigm shift - how can you look at this situation differently? What is another way to think about it? For me, prayer is essential because only God truly understands my brain and how it would be helpful for me to approach my own struggles Ponder better ways of thinking. Write down the new thriving thoughts.  Here ar

If decorating your home feels overwhelming and you don’t know where to start, this conversation with Myquillyn Smith will bring clarity and hope. We discuss house rules (and how to break them), how to fix things when they don’t look right, how to decorate on a budget, and how to figure out what your next step is when it comes to creating a home that you love being in and feels good. I have personally read and implemented what Myquillyn has taught in her books and community since 2018, and I’m so grateful to be able to introduce you to some whom I’ve learned a lot from when it comes to creating rooms in my home that I truly love. One of the decorating principles that has made the biggest difference in my home is Myquillyn’s decorating trinity. The Homey Trinity: Rugs, Drapes, and Lighting As someone who doesn’t love a lot of trinkets to care of, understanding the impact of these three items has set me free and allowed me to to confidently create spaces I love to be in. If you are just getting started putting r

I’ve been meal planning for years in pretty much the same way. I’ve put my process into seven steps for today’s episode.  As my 6-year-old said when she sat next to me while I edited this episode, “Mom, just because it works for you doesn’t mean it will work for anyone else.” She’s 100% right. But I hope that seeing my exact process will give you some inspiration and a starting place to figure out a meal planning system that works for you. My 7-Step Weekly Meal Planning System: Determine what stores you shop for groceries at. What is the schedule for ads?  Look at the weekly ads. What is on sale that you can use in your meal plan? If you have themed nights, pick that first (e.g., Pizza nights on Friday) Look at your calendar and figure out what meals need to be fast/simple. What needs to be prepped ahead in a crockpot or Instapot? What nights do you have to cook more (maybe a bulk recipe to have leftovers for lunch)? Fill in with your favorites. I pick maybe one or two new recipes each week, but no

I’ve started this year by reading a lot from many different genres and areas of interest. Today, I’m sharing six of the books I read in January and my takeaways from each. How To Grow Your Small Business Awaking Wonder Hidden Potential Habits of the Household The Psychology of Money The Penderwicks on Gram Street  

I’ve had three challenging pregnancies with other kids at home. I was very intentional with the time in between pregnancies to prepare for the next one, figuring it would also be a challenge.    Today, I’m covering what I did, what worked, what didn’t, and tips to help you figure out where to put your time and energy. These are the same tips I’d give you even if you aren’t planning another pregnancy but in a season where things are going well. You can put your efforts to use in a challenging pregnancy or enjoy the increased capacity in other pursuits. 1 - Establish Strong Anchors In Your Day Begin and end your day with consistency. Having set routines for mornings, quiet time, and bedtime creates a predictable routine for everyone. 2 - Create Family Systems During non-pregnancy times, set up family systems. While they may not always run smoothly when you’re feeling sick during pregnancy, having these systems in place allows for a quicker return to order when you’re feeling better.  In My Made to Soar: Next 90