Family Looking Up

With the 2020 school year upon us, many moms are taking on something they never intended or expected: Homeschool!

For those of us who are new to the world of homeschool, buckle up!  There are so many amazing resources and perks available to us that we probably never knew about.  Alternatively, sometimes the sheer number of choices of things such as curriculum, schedule, and implementation methods is overwhelming.  

Jen is a pro at homeschooling and is here to take the overwhelm away and replace it with excitement!

We are SO excited to be back with new episodes this week!  We're leading off with a fantastic interview with Ceri Payne; a mom, a business owner, a former teacher who is helping us to know how to move our goals and businesses forward during this uncertain time when many of us have kids home and under our feet.

Join us for new stories, laughs and insights!

Lindsay Nielson from @thelindsayreport visits with us today about the mental game of this life.  Dealing with frustration, disappointment, chronic illness, and mundane tasks are a part of our life experience.  Lindsay identifies 6 key phrases that we can use as we live the path we are on that will help to keep putting one foot in front of the other and enjoy the life God has given us! (Originally aired as episode 97).

Mornings,  after school, and bedtime--- these are by far the hardest times for moms to navigate.   Help is here, Mom Squad! On today's show we bring you one of our favorite mom helpers out there: Whitney Archibald from “How She Moms” (www.howshemoms.com).  If you are not familiar with her website, then just know that your life just got better. Whitney's motto, on the website, is “Different moms solving the same problems.”  The premise is that all parents have the same problems we are trying to solve, so why not look at each other's ideas as potential solutions for our own? Whitney came on Family Looking Up to talk about her blog post “Routine Experimentation” which delved into different moms’ ideas on how to deal with morning, after school, and bedtime routines. One thing that I loved about this interview was that the ideas covered a wide spectrum of what works for different kinds of moms.  If you are a “by-the-book-no-frills” kind of mom, we've got you covered. If you're a “snuggly-huggy-lovey-dovey” kind of mom, we've got you covered. If you're somewhere in between bear-hugs and high-fives we’ve STILL got you covered!

Whitney described figuring out what kind of routine works for you as “mom detective work”.   Look at problematic areas in your day to day routines with your kids and start trying to solve those problems by implementing different routine ideas to see if they help.  So many of Whitney's ideas were pure genius! Our very favorite idea solves the never-ending mom problem of sorting socks and having socks that never have matches! She implemented a terrific “sock dispenser” that she keeps in each child's cubby in the mud room. Listen in to hear the full description of how she makes this brilliant little contraption work!   Here's a visual to give you PVC pipe envy:

Listen in for  so many more genius ideas!   In addition to all of that terrific material, listen to hear Beth, Andrea and Camille talk about skinny girl problems... it's actually more like Camille and Beth throwing Andrea under the bus because of our insane jealousy of her metabolism.  If you haven't figured it out by now, Andrea is a SAINT for what she lets Camille and Beth say! And most of all, you do not want to miss Whitney telling us about her brilliant Mom Fail, which she calls, “Street Pizza”!  It’s one of the best I've ever heard!

Liz Edmunds, author of two books and star of the TV show, "The Food Nanny", visited with us today about the quickly disappearing tradition of family dinner. She shared her enthusiasm for her mission to bring it back to families across the world and explained why it’s worth fighting for. Her passion, heart, and down to earth attitude make this an episode you won't want to miss!

(Note this episode originally aired as episode 12 back in 2017)

In this episode, the three of us take it easy and just let the conversation roll!  Some of the things we covered were:

Weird things we do when we get older, things we have learned about ourselves from COVID, embracing our changing bodies, and so much more!  Join us for friends chat!

Nicholeen Peck is a mom of four and a well know speaker on the topic of teaching children self government.  In her words, self government consists of "being able to determine the cause and effect as it relates to your own actions and behaviors".  

In this episode she talks with us about steps we can implement to effectively communicate with our kids.  We hope it's an episode you will enjoy!

We've talked a lot about the perfectionistic world that we live in and parent in.  This is one of our favorite episodes on parenting and on not allowing the perfection perceived in society to dictate how we see our kids.  

We hope you enjoy this witty and fantastic interview with the spectacular Jill Savage!

Why is allowing emotion important?  Well, the answer lies in the idea that there is a difference between pain and suffering.  When we learn to allow emotion, rather than spiraling thoughts we are able to experience the pain of situations without the suffering aspects.

Join us this week as we talk with EmyLee McIntyre about how to train our brains to feel the emotion without allowing the spiraling that leads to more suffering.

I don't know about you, but we need a vacation with a capital V!  As mom's of lots of kids, wives, and ultimately just girls, we talk about girl trips, couple trips, and family trips.  We share our favorite places, favorite memories, and do a little 'outside the box' thinking of how to make it special.  

If you're in the mood for some inspiration on fun times in YOUR future, this is the episode for you!  Enjoy!