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    Kids & Family

    Thriving In Motherhood Podcast | Productivity, Planning, Family Systems, Time Management, Survival Mode, Mental Health, Vision

    The GO TO Podcast For Moms With Kids At Home!

    Do you want to love motherhood but find yourself in survival mode or burned out more than you’d like to admit?
    Do you feel tugged between enjoying every moment with your kids because it “goes so fast” and feeling mom guilt because you don’t?
    Are you tired of wandering around the house or scrolling social media but don’t know where to find the time or energy to do something that you would enjoy?

    There’s a way to create a life that you are excited to wake up to each day so you enjoy your time with your family, have a smooth running home, and still move forward on your greatest goals.

    Hi! I’m Jessica Jackson, homeschooling mom of four, productivity and time management expert for moms, and project enthusiast.

    In this podcast, I will teach you how to:
    – Navigate survival seasons with a thriving mindset through practical tips
    – Create a vision for your life and get clear about what really matters to YOU
    – Effective planning, productivity, and time management strategies when you have kids at home – they’re different!
    – Build family systems that support the entire family – including mom
    – Establish habits and rhythms that nurture you
    – Become a Soaring Mother so you can live connected with God, use your gifts and talents to bless those in your circle of influence, adventure with your family, and enjoy meaningful relationships

    I began motherhood with hopes and dreams that I could navigate my days confidently with purpose, live intentionally, find joy and contentment in everyday life, and have God’s help and strength in this lifelong journey.

    Reality:

    I was in complete survival mode
    I felt guilty a lot of the time
    I had no clue what my days should look like
    I was snappy and irritable with my family
    Can you relate?

    The good news – I closed the gap between what I hoped was possible and my reality.

    And you can too.

    I can’t wait to help you live life with purpose and joy and see your growth in the everyday moments of motherhood.

    Next Steps:
    Watch the Free Workshop: Plan A Week You Can Win
    https://pages.thrivinginmotherhoodpodcast.com/win

    Get your Thriving in Motherhood Planner

    Planner 2022

    Get your Thriving in Motherhood Journal

    journal

    Advertise

    Copyright: ©2023

    • Apple Podcasts
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    Latest Episodes:
    How I Decided Our Learning Priorities For the Summer [Episode 317] May 15, 2024
    Show notes

    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 keeping up with all of the subjects and curriculum. Everyone is continuing with math and a few of my kids are starting All About Spelling. We started a writing club by buying our own notebooks and writing on our own time, sharing what we write when we are ready.

    We are also working on organizing bedrooms and our school space in May to have our environments set up to make it easy to do what we want to do. I'm prepping the Alveary curriculum in June while getting ready for our annual cross-country road trip.

    Resources We Are Using This Summer:

    Story of the World 4

    Alveary (use code JJACKSON for a $25 discount)

    All About Spelling

    I used the Thriving in Motherhood Journal for 30 Days - What I Discovered [Episode 316] May 08, 2024
    Show notes

    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 weekly pages perfectly ordered.

    When I started this challenge, I was floundering. We've had a hard year on lots of levels - health, jobs, lots of things going on, kids struggling with different things (including surgery), and the unexpected keeps popping up. I have felt exhausted.

    Here are some of the positive impacts I noticed during my 30-day challenge:

    • Using the journal has empowered me through this season. I've been surprised at how much joy I have felt in the last 30 days.

    • I've been able to parent better, more consistently, and more confidently instead of pulling into myself and surviving through the hard days.

    • I've processed some hard emotions/situations so I could truly find peace and let go.

    • I did a lot more service outside of my home in 30 days than I did all year. Small ways, like helping return a grocery cart and carry food out to the car, and bigger things too.

    • I captured many magic moments during the last 30 days and now my days are full of them.

    • My health wasn't great during this window but when I did my monthly review I discovered a miraculous amount of things got accomplished. I attribute this to the power of having the vision in my Thriving in Motherhood Planner and asking the daily questions in the journal about the next three steps for my priorities that week.

    • I got rid of mom guilt which normally rears its ugly head during hard survival times with the question, "What would help me feel successful today?" This question allowed me to pivot to what mattered most each day.

    • I have struggled with anxiety about facing the next day in the past and fret at night about what is to come, especially when I'm sleep-deprived. But this journaling process helped me live more in the moment each day and ending the day with magic moments, gratitude, big wins, and God's involvement in my life made a big difference.

    • This process led me to naturally have a better routine before bed and get rid of tech when I was journaling.

    I'd like to extend an invitation to you to pull out your Thriving in Motherhood Journal (or get yours today) and commit to 30 days of journaling. Watch and see the difference it makes in your life.

    If you've already been using the journal, I would really appreciate it if you left a review on Amazon to help other moms find it and see if it would be a good fit for them. And as a special bonus, if you leave a review on Amazon, you'll be entered to win a 2024 coil-bound Thriving in Motherhood Planner!

    There are some amazing bonuses you can claim when you purchase the journal to help you get the most out of it so don't wait to get yours!

    Goals vs Projects vs Habits in the Thriving in Motherhood Planner [Episode 315] May 01, 2024
    Show notes

    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 Thriving in Motherhood Planner in these different areas.

    • Projects: Projects are things with multiple steps that need or want to happen. For example, on my list are creating a family meal binder, updating our family yearbooks, planting raspberries, planting a medicinal and culinary herb garden, and cleaning out garden pathways.

    • Goals: Goals are a little more personal and stretching—definitely outside of my comfort zone. This year, I put three goals down: write a book, do community service as a family, and do a cooking camp with the kids. These are also multistep goals, but they are also about shaping who we are as people and doing things that are intentionally hard.

    • Habits: Habits are also about becoming—but on a daily level. For me, I wrote about prepping for the next day and knowing what's going to happen so we get a head start, tracking finances, daily exercise, and reading with a commonplace notebook.

    Could some of these be mixed in different places - absolutely.

    Another way to think about it is that Goals are things I want to HAVE, projects are things I want to DO, and Habits are things I want to BECOME.

    Also, I don't fill out page 33 (Goals, Habits, Projects page) for the whole year all at once. I do it quarter by quarter. Sometimes, it is in planning, and sometimes it is in review to just see an overview of what happened.

    Will goals or habits have projects involved? Very possibly! Do I use the goal planning pages for a project? Sometimes! Do I not use a goal planning page for a goal? Yes!

    I like to have my daily, weekly, and quarterly goals funnel down from my vision. Some years, my vision is clearly defined on page 33, and sometimes, it is NOT. But I am picking what I focus on each quarter based on my vision and my month based on the quarter. My big three for the week have at least one thing from my vision on it most weeks (and sometimes it's taken up with homeschooling, celebrating a birthday, or getting the car fixed).

    Focus is usually more about who I want to be, a scripture that I want to remember, a thriving thought that is helping me navigate day-to-day life or something that is challenging me and I want to navigate it better. It is nice to have it as a reminder on my weekly page spread.

    Tracking is for the daily habits I want to keep a record of accomplishing. In some seasons, it is really motivating to check them off, and other times, I think just doing the things is enough and could care less if there is a check in the checkbox.

    If you have any more questions about how I use the Thriving in Motherhood Planner or whether it's right for you, email me at jessica@thrivinginmotherhoodpodcast.com, and I'll get back to you!

    My Number 1 Priority For Cleaning My Home [Episode 314] Apr 24, 2024
    Show notes

    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 because I was so worried about picking the wrong thing.

    My friend Hannah (we were neighbors in grad student housing - true friendship is formed in not ideal living conditions) created a course called Simple Green Cleaning (not available right now) that taught me how to clean the majority of my house with a few basic ingredients like baking soda, vinegar, and dish soap. I thoroughly enjoyed feeling confident cleaning my house and mixing up what I needed when I needed it. But when I started teaching my kids how to do it, they were so inspired by the process that they created their own cleaning supplies by mixing soaps, shampoo, conditioner, and lotions, and it made a pretty big mess. This didn't quite work with my purpose of cleaning with my kids.

    A few years ago, we decided to try Force of Nature, which is completely safe for skin, disinfects, and can be used on all surfaces. It has been a game-changer. We have ONE cleaning product we use on EVERYTHING.

    It makes it simple to teach our children how to use it (plus they LOVE the process of making it and never complain when I ask them to clean) and I never have to worry about what they are breathing in or is touching their skin.

    While I haven't done a petri dish test to confirm how well it disinfects surfaces, but it cleans well enough to remove all smells and clean surfaces, so that is good for me! When it comes to my main priority of cleaning with my kids, this one checks all of the boxes.

    If you want to try Force of Nature yourself, you can get a discount with this link:

    Force of Nature

    Get 40% off bundles in April with code: PLANET40

    Get 60% off Cleaning and Laundry Duo Bundles with PLANET60

    Homeschooling in Hard Seasons | Library System for the Best Books [Episode 313] Apr 17, 2024
    Show notes

    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 once we get there.

    In this week's episode, I'm sharing practical tips for not losing the library books and keeping free books free, bringing some great books into your home, and some of our recent favorites.

    How we avoid fines and the library to keep our books free:

    • We moved all our personal books upstairs to a home library and have a separate bookshelf downstairs for the library books to create separation.

    • We have ONE library card, so we don't lose track of the books we have checked out, what's on hold, and what we have to return.

    • We try to get to the library on the same day every week so that we don't have many different due dates to keep track of.

    • I try and go to our library account after we get home from the library to renew any books that we might have missed returning.

    • We have a library book bag that holds between 20-30 books, which creates some margin.

    Recent Library Book Favorites That Were So Good We Would By Them

    1. Professor Wooford McPaw's History of Astronomy

    2. Papa is A Poet A Story about Robert Frost

    3. The Planet Hunter: The Story Behind What Happened to Pluto

    4. Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain

    5. Hawk Rising

    6. Send a Girl!: The True Story of How Women Joined the FDNY

    7. Find Me! Adventures in the Forest

    8. The Apartment: A Century of Russian History

    9. Under Your Feet... Soil, Sand and Everything Underground

    10. Charles Dickens (Little People, Big Dreams)

    11. A Walk in London

    12. Cooking Class Global Feast!: 44 Recipes That Celebrate the World's Cultures

    Embracing the Struggle and Adventure of International Travel with Kids with Synthia Simonsen [Episode 312] Apr 10, 2024
    Show notes

    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 into that dream has turned into years of trips all around the world.

    Synthia's Hacks For Traveling Internationally With Kids

    • Plan trips that you are excited about because it is overwhelming and stressful, and you need something to really motivate you to do it because there are so many benefits

    • Each kid has a day bag and night bag (toothbrush, pajamas, night diaper, etc.)

    • Pack a swim bag with everything needed for swimming or a beach day

    • Church bag with everything for church - bows, snacks, activities, etc.

    • Make a customized packing list on the computer, print it out, and modify it according to the trip. Then, hand the list to the older children and have them pack by a deadline. This keeps you organized and lets the kids step up.

    • Bring everything into a dining room or guest bedroom so it is consolidated into one space

    • If going on a two-week international trip, start packing two weeks before because there are going to be that many details and things that go into it.

    • Have a babysitter come over to help with packing

    • Everyone gets their own snack bag that lasts for the entire trip. They get to pack 10 healthy snacks and some candies. She never regrets packing lots of food options to help with hungry moments.

    • Have a restaurant bag with diapers, wipes, and black t-shirts for little kids instead of bibs to cover their clothes, and use it all week to keep them clean

    • Listen to podcasts or YouTube videos about the place you are going to (start 6 months before) to get lots of ideas about what you can do without sitting in front of the computer all the time (though there is plenty of that, too).

    • When I plan trips with kids, I skip over any blog that talks about travel without kids. I only read from sources that include "...with kids."

    • Have a toiletries bag that is 90% ready to go for travel with duplicates of everything

    • Have bags with long handles that go over the headrest in the car to help keep the kids' things organized so things are up off of the ground

    • Always have 10 empty grocery sacks with you - there is always a kid who throws up, or has an accident, or there is garbage - and it helps you feel really prepared

    Traveling with your family might not be your dream, but I hope that this week's episode inspires you to ask the question, "What is something I want more of?" and see where it leads.

    Discover Your True Priorities with 3 Questions [Episode 311] Apr 03, 2024
    Show notes

    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:

    1. What am I consistent at?

    2. What am I almost consistent at but drop the ball quickly when things are hard?

    3. What is done occasionally that you wish was more consistent?

    Once you've written your lists, ask these follow-up questions to help you evaluate and make changes:

    1. Is there anything obvious you would like to change?

    2. Is there an easy swap from something that is more consistent that doesn't matter as much to something that is less consistent and matters more?

    3. What needs more accountability?

    4. What could you create a system around so that it doesn't require as much from you?

    I realized that a lot of the things that I drop in a hard season, I am pretty good at picking up again once I have available energy. But there are some things that are done more occasionally that I realized I need to create systems around to give my kids more responsibility to be consistent in certain areas.

    After going through this process, it clarified to me where I need to devote more time, energy, and resources to make the biggest impact on consistently living out our priorities.

    Figure Out What to Do Next When You Have A Lot to Do | After the Brain Dump [Episode 310] Mar 27, 2024
    Show notes

    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:

    1. Brain Dump

    2. Cross anything off the list that isn't actually really important right now

    3. What on your list has a next action step that is 5 minutes or less?

    4. What on your list is urgent?

    5. What progress have you made on each item (one box for started, two boxes for progress has been made, and three boxes for nearly done)?

    6. Transfer the 5-minute or less next action steps, urgent items, and nearly done items from your list onto your weekly plan.

    For me, there were two next action steps, two urgent items, and two things I was nearly done with. This allowed me to get some quick wins and start to build momentum and bring excitement and joy back into everyday life.

    Watch this week's episode of the podcast for an in-depth walkthrough of this process and what made my list.

    Reflection and Travel Tips From a Family Road Trip + 5 Day Hotel Stay [Episode 309] Mar 20, 2024
    Show notes

    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:

    1. Mindset: This is a grand experiment, and I'm just here to collect data about what is going well and what's not going well so we can make changes. If I go in with expectations other than these, my hopes will usually be dashed.

    2. Food: We stuck to our usual road trip staples on the way out (bagel sandwiches, fruits, veggies, something special - goldfish and veggie straws - and stopped for dinner at Chipotle). The rest of the trip was a little bit rocky. Hotel breakfast takes an hour, which means it is both an activity and a lot to manage, but that is just the new expectation. We packed lunches (sandwiches, fruits, and veggies) and grabbed dinner at a restaurant, but we were all just a little bit hungry. Next time we are going to be in a hotel for a long period of time, we think we'll bring an Instapot so we can have more food that we are used to that is more filling.

    3. Quiet Time: I got some activities at the dollar store (coloring book, sticker book, playdough, standup) as an experiment to see if having a little novelty could get me a short nap in the middle of the day. It worked about 50% of the time, but the activities were a big hit and did get me about 20 minutes of rest. It also gave the kids something to do while we were waiting around in the morning for everyone to get ready with one bathroom. This was something that went well, and I would add more intentional effort into it next time because it was a budding success.

    4. Activities: I started by looking at the weather to get a general idea of what we were facing and saw some rainy days and clear days with generally cooler weather. My conclusion was we needed a mix of indoor and outdoor activities, leaning heavily on indoor options. We went to a few paid museums (National Civil Rights Museum, Cotton Museum, Flight Museum, and Children's Museum), and a few of those had groupons with huge discounts. We took advantage of local parks and found some awesome gems, and it also gave us outside time in spaces where the kids could just run and play and not be corrected by us. We also found things we would do things in our town anyway, like going to the public library.

    5. Took me off guard: I had zero moments without the kids. In the past, when the kids were little I would be awake an hour or two before them and work in the bathroom in the morning, but this trip, we went to bed together, woke up together, and spent every waking moment together (except for my 20 minutes of quiet time when they were one bed away). On the last night, Andrew took the kids after he finished working so I could go on a walk by myself (and then I found something fun and invited them to join me because it was too good not to share), but even that 15 minutes really rejuvenated me and is something we will be more strategic about next time we join Andrew on a work trip.

    6. Public Transportation was a huge hit: It saved a lot of hassle with parking. It was a fun activity that the kids enjoyed, and it helped them build some confidence in navigating a new place. We got a day pass for a few dollars each, so it was very economical.

    7. Include your kids in the entire process. Instead of adventures being all on mom's shoulders, use trips to build family unity and help the kids learn from and own the effort and the joy of adventures. My oldest created the packing list a few days before the trip. Everyone helped clean out the car, gather activities, shop and prepare food, and pack clothes. We might have gone a little slower, but it kept everyone doing the same thing, and there were fewer messes in other spaces around the house. When I started to get a little frazzled at the end of the trip packing things up to go home and everyone running around, I remembered I could ask the kids for help, and they did - with joy. Involving the children in the process of family adventures is something I want to get better at with future trips.

    8. Keep Similar Rhythms to What We Do At Home: Friday night was still pizza and movie night (with Papa Johns Pizza). At night, we had the same bedtime routine and morning routine. Every day, we came back to the hotel in the middle of the day for quiet time. We kept the basic anchors in our day and week so everyone knew what to expect and didn't start from scratch. We could have brought in a few more daily habits

    Overwhelmed? Write a "Yes" List [Episode 308] Mar 13, 2024
    Show notes

    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 things and seeing them through to the end, it was very helpful for me to put things on paper and look at them objectively. Then, I could sift through everything and simplify those "yeses" to the absolute essential. I used a Think and Process page in my Thriving in Motherhood Planner and carried it around with me during the day so I could add to it.

    Here are five areas from my Yes List that I'm currently simplifying:

    1. Books: I revisited my reading list and wrote down all the books I wanted to come back to in the future. For now, I'm focusing on reading this that builds my character and less on books that require me to take action.

    2. Gardening: Instead of an all-or-nothing approach, I'm simplifying our gardening activities and making progress without making it too complicated.

    3. Rooms: We are continuing our journey to simplify our living spaces, focusing on reducing clutter without getting too overwhelmed with perfection.

    4. Programs/Commitments: I evaluated all the programs I'm a part of and sorted through what is time-sensitive and what can wait. I've also re-evaluated my commitments, saying no to some things I had previously said yes to.

    5. Homeschooling: We are embracing our current homeschool and focusing on relationships over perfection. This approach fosters a deeper and more meaningful learning experience.

    In a nutshell, I'm on a quest to get really clear on what really matters RIGHT NOW and redirecting my energy and focus where it counts the most. Writing in my Thriving in Motherhood Journal every day is really helping me find the guidance I'm seeking.

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