Did you complete the chore challenge?

It just died on me. I pulled out in the middle of the intersection to turn left and it died. I could get nothing out of it. Our faithful little car left me stranded in the middle of the intersection, cars honking and desperately needing to make it to an appointment in time. I would like to say I remained cool calm and collected but the truth is, I panicked. Full-on froze, cried, and could not think logically about my next steps. As a kind gentleman walked me through what I should do to get my car out of oncoming traffic, he did not give me any instructions that I could not have given someone else. But when I was embarrassed, scared, and a million other things in my mind I could not think of what to do. 

When life is the craziest and we look around and realize none of the things that we put in place to take care of the crazy are in place anymore. Often this is when systems fail. Late-night practices throw your evening routine. A...

You want to keep the peace in your home and minimize arguing with your child... but you need (and WANT) them to do their chores. You have tried both positive reinforcement and negative consequences, and nothing seems to work. You might have even heard of gentle parenting, where the premise is to listen to, give voice to, and for sure not give consequences to your children.

I think the both/and theory here is a strong one. It is important to listen to our kids, stay curious, and find out what is behind the battle/tantrum/fit/disrespect. And at the same time, the children do not get to call the shots in your home. There is a reason God designed families this way! For one, it shows us as His children how to be wise, discerning parents. And TWO... there are only one or two people with fully developed frontal lobes in charge... those aren't functioning in the kiddos yet for a reason. They need you, Mama, to mold and shape them.

While they are in your home and you are pushing...

How many times have you answered, “I am just a mom” to the fantastic question: “ So what do you do?”

I am guilty. There have been so many times I have shrunk back and sheepishly ashamed said “I am just a mom”. I know I am not the only one. For the past few weeks, I have been reading Fair Play and have loved it. It is a book about the invisible load that we as mothers carry and helpful tools and strategies to build better systems with your hubs to get some of these things off of your plate. 

Something that I (and a lot of my clients) struggle with is wanting to be respectful of our husbands and simultaneously living in the truth that they are far from helpful. It might look something like this: 

“Well, my husband is not really that helpful. He works long hours and has a lot of stress at work. I mean, he is a great father. He loves our kids but seems kind of checked-out on our day-to-day life.” 

There have been so many times I have shrunk back and sheepishly ashamed said “I am just a mom”. I know I am not the only one. For the past few weeks, I have been reading Fair Play and have loved it. It is a book about the invisible load that we as mothers carry and helpful tools and strategies to build better systems with your hubs to get some of these things off of your plate. 

Something that I (and a lot of my clients) struggle with is wanting to be respectful of our husbands and simultaneously living in the truth that they are far from helpful. It might look something like this: 

“Well, my husband is not really that helpful. He works long hours and has a lot of stress at work. I mean, he is a great father. He loves our kids but seems kind of checked-out on our day-to-day life.” 

 For most of us what we are saying is, “I work my tail off, I am super stressed and overwhelmed, I mean, that is why we are talking, right?...

 Do you know what I get asked often? What kind of calendaring system do you use? 

I know we are in full-school mode now.  All the schedules have been handed out, and things have been put on the calendar. I know for many of us, juggling school activities, school, and extracurriculars can feel like you need a personal assistant. Maybe it is just me, but there are weeks when the logistics alone make me want to pull out my hair. 

Please note, there are so many things that never make it to the calendar because it falls into one of two categories: 1. I do not NEED to be there and it is not important to my kids that I am there. 2. Our kids do not need to go to an activity/party/event just because they were invited, we can teach our kids the value of saying no now and drawing those boundaries. 

Hear me say loud and clear WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT what works for me may not work for you, but I would love to share what has helped our family make it to the important things...

Did you know the average woman spends 55 minutes daily looking for things? I make up that the more kids you have, the more that number rises. 

You have probably heard the saying, “A place for everything and Everything in its place.” While I believe that we should all strive for this with everything in our home, I would like to also acknowledge that this can feel like a daunting, unachievable task. 

So let’s break it down. 

1. Know this is very achievable and that it will help your sanity throughout the day to strive and make this happen. It will lessen that decision fatigue and will allow you to be more efficient with your time. 
2. Decide what needs a home. Think about the things in your day-to-day life that get lost regularly (shoes, keys, etc.) and think about the things that pile up in several spaces around the house that could be simplified and need JUST 1 central location (like bills, paperwork, shoes) 
3. Decide right now where the most...

Do you ever feel like you are barely surviving?

If you're anything like me, you want to be an amazing mama being present with your children, meeting all of their needs, and filling up their little love tanks, all while keeping up with all the household tasks. You put pressure on yourself to do it all, but there is no way you can because you don't have the systems in place. You have tried Pinterest, and parenting books and attempted to put others' systems in place, but they all have failed. 

The dishes are still piled high, there are loads of laundry that still need to be done, the house is a mess, your countertops are overflowing with paperwork, and you just need to catch up. You might feel that this makes you a failure. The good news is: YOU are not. You just have yet to find the systems that work in your home and for you. I know this all too well because I have been there before.

Can you imagine at the end of the day putting your feet up, knowing that not only did all the...

Not enough clothes to make it? 

You know I love a good laundry day. I love getting all the clothes washed and put away in one space in my week. When this system is in full play I am not constantly thinking about getting things started, switching out the loads, and getting it all put away. Instead, I just have one day dedicated to getting it all done. 

Often when I talk to mamas about implementing a system like this, of either doing all laundry in one day or even just doing a select group of people’s laundry 1x a week, something I hear from mamas is that they don’t think they could, or their kids could make it a week without doing laundry. 

If not having enough socks or underwear makes you have to interrupt your day to do a load to make it through the week, I would like to permit you to buy some more. This is one thing that I feel deserves to break my hard line that less is always more, when it becomes more stressful to have less, it is not worth it....

In Texas, August 1st means school is just around the corner.  If you are lucky enough to start school after labor day,(you know, how the world is supposed to be) hang with me. Because the start of school is coming up quickly. 

One universal truth is that EVERY SINGLE PERSON loves to be prepared for school. That is why school supply shopping is so fun, right? Today I want to help you get prepared so that you can enter your school year feeling confident.

While freshly sharpened pencils, a new planner, and a new box of crayons can literally make anyone's day, a home with no systems in place can quickly destroy it, for everyone. Racing around on a school morning looking for the lost shoe or the paper your child promises they printed out the night before can leave us feeling short-tempered and frustrated, leaving our people feeling anything but prepared for school that day. 

Can I ask a question? It’s not rhetorical. I would love to hear back from you on this,...

I know, it makes me smile every time I say it but it's true.

Somewhere along the way of my expanding vocabulary as an adult words like thingy, plugger, and hooker have become a part of my everyday language. I know that all of these words have more appropriate names but sometimes in the middle of life the word “outlet” is not as readily available as the word “plugger”. Or the words “command hook” won’t roll off the tongue like “hooker”. 

Anyway, one of my favorite ways to get things organized and off surfaces is by using hookers. We use them for the typical “hang up your backpack and coat when you walk in the front door” but also for organizing the bags I designated for different things in my closet. These bags serve as a filing system for different projects that I'm working on. In our laundry room, they hold up small fabric baskets in that we put extra supplies. And the kid's bathrooms they are used...