Family Looking Up

Sam Passey is a stay at home mother of six children. She has developed a weekly cleaning routine that  allows her to deep clean her entire house every week in less than an hour a day. In this interview we talk about her cleaning system and how you can implement it in your own home. So if you are a slob, like us, there is hope for you if you follow her plan.  Here is what we talked about:

1. The importance of  making cleaning a priority in our home.
2. Sam’s cleaning routine.
3. How to schedule a weekly cleaning routine.
4. How much time it takes to deep clean an entire house.
5. Cleaning with little kids around.
6. How to teach your kids to clean.
7. Simplifying your cleaning routine so it is manageable in the beginning.
8. How to make cleaning more enjoyable.
9. Suggested cleaning supplies. (links below)
10. How to stay motivated and encouraged with tasks that never get done (laundry, dishes, etc.)
11. Rewarding yourself for getting your cleaning done.

Mom Squad Challenge: Write down a cleaning schedule that you would like to achieve. Include what you want to clean and when you are going to clean it.

In this episode we had the privilege of talking with twin sisters, two moms who have had extensive experience working on capitol hill and in the white house.  They now run a website called The American Moms, where they teach all about civics, civility and raising our kids to be big proponents of both.

BIOS:

Andrea Reeve worked on Capitol Hill in Washington DC. During her time there she served two U.S. senators as their press secretary, where she acted as their mouth piece to reporters and the public.  Andrea is now living across the country in the other Washington state with her husband and three daughters.

Brittany Richman worked in the Office of Presidential Speechwriting at the White House. She and her husband now live in Rapid City, South Dakota, where she teaches her three kids all about those faces carved into Mount Rushmore, just a few miles from their home.

Here are some of the topics we discussed:

• What led each of them to their career in politics in Washington D.C.

• What led to them leaving Washington D.C., getting married, and having children.

• How they each adjusted to the role of  stay-at-home-mom after such prestigious careers.

• How the website The American Moms was conceived of and what its purpose is.
• Why civility is as much of a component as civics on the website.  Why they feel civility is lacking in our society and what we, as parents, can do to counteract this in our children.
• The six ideas of how we can make the 4th of July mean something to our kids.

If you would like to know more about Andrea and Brittany and The American Moms website visit www.theamericanmoms.com.  You can also visit them on Instagram at @theamericanmoms where they post daily fun, insightful, and positive messages aimed at civics and civility.

We were honored to speak this week with Heidi Tucker.  She is an award-winning author and speaker. Her passion for writing and speaking about light and hope has inspired thousands. Heidi is known as a great storyteller who believes that every story not only teaches a gospel principle, but can make you feel it. She has inspired many to rise up, cling to their faith and position their hearts to recognize God’s hand in their life.

Heidi Tucker won a 2018 Illumination Book Award for her new release Servie’s Song. She also won a similar award for her first inspirational book Finding Hope in the Journey in 2017.

When Heidi isn’t writing her next book, or speaking at a conference, you’ll find her spending time outdoors with her husband, four grown children and eight grandchildren. She loves sunflowers, hiking and ice cream … not necessarily in that order.

Here are some key points of our discussion:

1. Heidi talked about her family and her journey as a mother.
2. Originally a business major, she tells how she was led to the surprising decision to write books.
3. We discussed why and how Heidi compares life to a culmination of hikes, and how this analogy is helpful to mothers and fathers in their own journeys.
4. Heidi discussed some of the trials she has had in her own life and how she has discovered that there is always hope in every journey.
5. She discussed the patterns of behavior we need to follow to be able to see the hope that is there.
6. We discussed the link between knowing about our heritage and receiving an increase of hope in our own circumstances.
7. Heidi told the story of how she came to write the book Servie’s Song, the true story of one mother living in Zimbabwe.  Servie's Song takes you on an emotional journey of tragedy and heartbreak to an inspiring path of hope.

Mom Squad Challenge:  Better your communication with God.  Find a space that you can dedicate to opening yourself up to two-way communication with Him.

You can find out more about Heidi at www.thepickledsunflower.com

Father’s Day was this week.  Did you make the dads in your life feel special?  We wanted to celebrate all the fathers out there. We brought Kirby Heyborne on the podcast to lighten things up.  Kirby is a husband, father, comedian, actor, and audio narrator. With Kirby’s hilarious sense of humor we talk about lessons he has learned as a husband and father and discuss parenting tips that have worked for him. Stick around after the interview because we decided to put our own husbands on the hot seat and talk about dad struggles and get a perspective on parenting from the viewpoint of fathers.  Here is what we talk about during this fun interview:

1. Kirby’s family and career
2. How husbands and wives can connect during their busy lives.
3. How to keep a positive attitude during the rough times of fatherhood.
4. Kirby’s wife’s three finger approach to keeping Kirby in line.
5. Kirby’s dad fail.
6. Lessons Kirby has learned from acting that he has applied to his parenting.
7. How to keep focus on your family during the busy career life.
8. Living a life with high morals when you are working in the movie industry that does not value high morals.
9. The importance of finding ways for a father to connect with their family.

Things we discussed with our husbands:

1. The biggest challenges in fatherhood
2. Things our husbands do to survive the rough times of fatherhood
3. Dad fails

Mom Squad Challenge: Laugh with your husband.  Make him feel like he is the funniest man alive.

Don’t we all want to be happy?  Although we cannot control our happiness 100% we do have some control.  How happy we feel is 50% genetic, 10% circumstance and 40% up to you! Today we talk to Hank Smith, professor, speaker, and author.  We discuss his book, “Be Happy: Simple Secrets to a Happier Life” and talk about the ten things that we can do to make our lives a little bit happier.

Summer is here! Does this create excitement or fear?  I always have a mix of emotions. I’m excited to have a more relaxed schedule, and do some of the things that we don’t have time for during the school year. But, anxiety creeps up in me as I think about how to keep my kids busy ALL DAY.  This week we talk to Jenny Layton, a professional organizer, mother and speaker. She is going to put all your fears to rest. In this conversation all about summer with kids, Jenny gives us great advice about setting expectations for the summer and being purposeful in our summer activities. Listen to this episode to create your best summer yet. Here is what we discussed:

1. How to organize our summer so we embrace the summer season.
2. Recognizing those family seasons (summer and holidays) and personally productive seasons (fall and spring)
3. Designing experiences that are of interest to your kids.
4. How to organize your bucket list and summer activities.
5. Helping kids find balance and mindfulness in their own lives.
6. Teaching your kids valuable life skills during the summer.
7. Being purposeful in your parenting during the summer.
8. Scheduling your fun and educational activities.
9. Setting summer expectations.
10. How to manage screen time.
11. Suggestions for when your kids say they are BORED.
12. Strategies for keeping your house clean with everyone home for the summer.
13. Finding time for ourselves during the summer months.
14. Creating a Power Hour.

Mom Squad Challenge:  Choose something from the areas we discussed and implement it in your life. Take some time to think about what we talked about. The thing that seems to be nagging at you..start there.

Jenny Layton's Website www.thehappygal.com

Link to Top 10 Tips for an organized Life: http://www.thehappygal.com/innercircle/top-10-tips/

B.O.R.E.D. printable: http://www.thehappygal.com/organize-your-summer/

OurPact App: https://ourpact.com/

Let’s go on a trip!  I always say I want to travel, but just don’t make the plans to make it happen.  This week we talk to world travelers Kam and Shani of the popular travel blog and instagram account  “Our Family Passport.” Their goal is to encourage other families to take a “time out” together and go and explore the amazing world.  They travel together as a multi-generational family with ages that range from the very young to the grandparents. In this conversation, Kam and Shani share their travel tips they have learned from their own traveling experiences.  You will feel inspired to get that trip planned and on the calendar. Here is what we talked about.

1. Where their enthusiasm for traveling first started.
2. Finding balance between family members with different interests when traveling.
3. The ages of their children when they first started traveling.
4. Places that would be difficult to travel to with children.
5. How their travel blog first started.
6. How to coordinate family schedules so they can travel together.
7. How to choose a destination.
8. Strategies for appealing to everyone’s interests when traveling.
9. Tips on budgeting for travel.
10. Traveling credit card recommendations
11. Tips for finding cheap airfare.
12. Why it is important to travel with kids.
13. How to pack when traveling with kids.
14. How to prepare kids mentally for a long international trip.
15. Helping your child adjust to time changes and a busy traveling schedule.
16. The importance of not over-scheduling when traveling.
17. Recommended time to spend at each destination.
18. Taking pictures and documenting your travels.
19. Resources found on the “Our Family Passport” travel blog.

Visit their website: Our Family Passport

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ourfamilypassport/

Instagram: @ourfamilypassport

Feeling overwhelmed with your home, family and life?  ME TOO! Luckily this week we talk to Angie Calderwood. She is a professional organizer, designer and loves to inspire others to get organized and find a proper place for everything in their life.  This episode is full of practical tips to get our homes, families, and life organized. Here is what we talked about:

1. How Angie become a professional organizer.
2. Why it is important to be organized.
3. Angie’s shift in mindset that organization is more than arranging physical clutter, it is a way of life.
4. What to do when you are not a naturally organized person.
5. Organization can be a learned skill for everyone.
6. Where to begin organizing your house.
7. How to organize an area without making a bigger mess somewhere else.
8. Strategies for decluttering. Getting over the emotional attachment to our possessions.
9. We walk through the process of deep organizing an area.  
10. Why it is important to work on a project from start to FINISH.
11. How to maintain a clean area after we have invested time to organize it.
12. Angie’s best tips for mothers to get organized.
13. The family car tends to be an extension of the house.  Angie discusses strategies for keeping your van clean and organized.
14. Keeping your life and house organized during the summer months.
15. Teaching our kids to keep their room clean.

Mom Squad Challenge: Take a few minutes and sit down in your home. Close your eyes and imagine what you want your home to look like, feel like, and even smell like.  You can envision what your ideal is. Think about who lives in your home and why you want to make living an organized life something that benefits your entire family.

 Angie's Website: aproperplaceorganizing.com

Every Tuesday morning we wake up to a new episode of Family Looking Up with an amazing guest on the podcast.  They share their knowledge and experiences with all of us and hopefully give us some ideas of how to make our families a little better.  At the end of each episode we ask them for a “Mom Squad Challenge.” These challenges are meant to give us something plausible we can think about, work on, and apply to our lives each week.  This is one of my favorite parts of the episode. Instead of just hearing information and then moving on, we have the chance to make small changes for the better.

In this episode Andrea, Beth, and Camille talk about some of our favorite “Mom squad Challenges” from past episodes and what we have done to apply them to our own lives.  We share the challenges that have made positive impacts in our lives and the ones that we completely failed at.

Hey Mom squad!  This week is Mother’s Day.  YAY!!!! We wanted to celebrate YOU this week, so we brought on three very special guests.  This week we talk to Calee Reed, Hilary Weeks and Shawna Edwards. All three women are talented musicians.  And all three women have written beautiful songs about motherhood. This week we get to talk to these fun ladies about their families, their mom fails, their musical talent and the inspiration behind their beautiful songs. Get ready to learn, laugh, and cry.

Our first interview was with Calee Reed.  Calee is a mother of five kids. She is a Christian singer and songwriter.  She travels the country spreading her message of faith and hope through music. Here is what we talked with Calee about:

1. Calee’s blended family.
2. Advice Calee would give to new moms.
3. The hardest part of being a mom.
4. Lessons Calee has learned from her experience as a mother.
5. Calee’s hilarious mom fail.
6. Where Calee learned to sing and her family’s musical talent.
7. Where Calee gets inspiration for her songs.
8. When Calee first started writing songs.
9. When Calee finds the time to write with her busy, young family.
10. The inspiration behind  “She Put the Music in Me.”

Hilary Weeks is a mother of four daughters.  She is a Christian Billboard chart-topping singer and songwriter.  She is a frequent performer at Deseret Book’s “Time Out For Women.” In our fun conversation with Hilary we talked about the following:

1. Hilary’s family.
2. Lessons Hilary has learned from motherhood.
3. Lessons Hilary learned from her mother.
4. What did your mom do really well?
5. Hilary’s funny mom fail.
6. When Hilary first started writing songs.  
7. The inspiration behind the song “Stand Still.”

Shawna Edwards is an accomplished pianist, and an award-winning writer and songwriter. Her most well-known songs, “Do You Have Room?” and “The Miracle” have been performed all over the world.  She is a mother of 5 and grandmother to ten grandkids.

1. Shawna’s  family.
2. The joys of being a grandmother.
3. Shawna’s creative birthday gift to her grandkids.
4. The hardest part of being a grandma for Shawna.
5. Things Shawna learned from her mother.
6. Shawna’s mom fails.
7. What made Shawna start writing music just ten years ago.
8. How has music impacted Shawna’s family
9. The inspiration behind Shawna’s song “More than Enough”