Learning Well

Spring Cleaning is daunting and often makes a bigger mess than when we began. Cleaning our homes from top to bottom isn't necessary to make our homes sparkle this spring. In this episode, I'm sharing some really doable and simple tasks you can knock out in just a weekend or two. Best of all, these small tasks will make a BIG impact on how your home looks for spring and summer. You'll be ready to host your first backyard dinner party by next weekend!

Get all the details and show notes here: https://www.aliciahutchinson.com/spring-cleaning/

Are you an introverted mom? Do you find yourself having to sneak away to your room for a moment's reprieve from constant talking and noise? Do you feel angry sometimes? Are you constantly giving of yourself, but you know you need more quiet in your life?

Or are you an extrovert but you still need time alone? Do you want to understand your introverted friends and family more?

In episode 27, I'm chatting with author Jamie Martin of the Steady Mom and Simple Homeschool blogs. She's just written and published THE book on introverted moms and it has helped me so much.

In the episode, we're covering what to do if you're finding yourself depleted, how famous women authors of the past can help us learn more about ourselves and what led to Jamie throwing a glass against the wall in anger.

You're going to love this episode.

Get all the show notes here: https://www.aliciahutchinson.com/introverted-mom/

SHOW NOTES: https://www.aliciahutchinson.com/overwhelmed/

A few weeks ago, I shared some self care tips for moms. But not just any self care tips–some sort of tough love tips. Because moms are usually the best at taking care of others and the worst at taking care of themselves. But what happens when your the overwhelmed mom that can't even begin to take better care of herself.

What then?

This motherhood journey includes so many seasons–for better or for worse. And none of us are immune to a few seasons of total overwhelm. In this podcast, I'm getting super basic with you–because if you are in a season of perpetual overwhelm, you need basic, simple advice that you can implement today.

We're talking about those seasons of overwhelm, how we can completely simplify and pare down our calendar and daily checklists. Here's some of the things we're talking about in the episode:

• Simplifying your family dinners
• Making the most of time in the car
• Asking for help or splitting driving time with another parent
• Slimming down other things during the busiest seasons
• Freezer cooking for extra help
• Your STUFF
• Kids and chores

Getting dinner on the table every night can be a struggle. We're busy all day and then it never fails--the family needs to eat. Again. ;) That's where freezer meals come in and save the day.

For this episode, I sat down with my friend Karyn. Karyn also homeschools her kids and we're in the same homeschool group together. I heard about Karyn's Freezer Meal Cooking Club and I (politely) invited myself. Her group needed a sub and I was happy to step in!

We're chatting about how to set up your own club, why it's a good ideas and plenty of other ideas if the club idea isn't possible for you.

Head over to the show notes for video coverage of Cooking Club, a list of tools to make freezer cooking much easier and best of all, a TON of recipes from Karyn's arsenal! THANK YOU, Karyn!

SHOWNOTES: https://www.aliciahutchinson.com/freezer-meals/

They say trying to keep your house clean with little kids is like shoveling while it's still snowing. That's kind of true, but we don't want to end up on the next episode of Hoarders either. ;) Let me show you have you can have a clean home while you still have little kids in your house. On this episode of the podcast, I'm chatting with Liz Quick, homeschool mama of four little ones.

Liz is known on Instagram as someone who has cleaning her home down to an art form. She has a regular cleaning routine, she involves her kids, and she makes it doable for everyone.

In our conversation we talk about specific jobs your kids can do at different ages. We talk about routines and starting to set up your own cleaning systems. If you're struggling to know where to begin, we address that too. And we even hit on the all-demanding question of: laundry!

Liz has just released a brand new course as well! And she's offering a discount for Over at Alicia's listeners!

For all the show notes and details, click over to the show notes page here: www.aliciahutchinson.com/clean-home

Self care can mean a lot of things. We're probably most used to the message that self care means taking a long bath or buying a new candle. While these are good things, sometimes self care is more complicated than that.

In episode 23, I'm laying out six things that you need to STOP doing in order to take better care of yourself.

This might not be my most popular episode--there's a lot of tough love involved. But I'm speaking to myself as much as I am to you. Sometimes taking care means doing hard things--like saying no to our kids or cutting ties from a toxic relationship. But we can do hard things.

For all the show notes and details, click here:

https://www.aliciahutchinson.com/self-care/

Greta Eskridge is here today sharing about something she is passionate about: talking to our kids about pornography and putting systems into place to help protect them against it. Selfishly, I asked her onto the show because this is a topic that I find hard to talk to my kids about--where does a parent even begin?

On the difficult topics, it can be tempting to skim over them, not teaching the hard lessons that are hard to talk about. Who wants to have a discussion about pornography with their teen guys? Not me! But after my conversation with Greta, I felt so much more confident about talking with my kids about pornography. Since gleaning Greta's tips and wisdom, my husband and I have been able to naturally converse with our kids about this topic without feeling awkward or weird.

This is a must-listen for all parents out there!

Greta and I talk about a lot of resources and continued reading in this episode. You can get all those details in the shownotes:

https://www.aliciahutchinson.com/protect-from-pornography/

I know so many people--including myself--that have struggled with the winter blues. It can feel like you're in a cave for months and there's no light at the end of the tunnel. Something clicked in me a few years back and I decided to stop hating winter. Winter in Minnesota is way too long to wish away months and months of the year. In this episode, I'm unpacking seven simple ideas you can do today to help with your winter blues. You don't have to hate winter--it's cold but there's so much beauty! Shownotes and Details: https://www.aliciahutchinson.com/winter/

We all plan our days a little differently, but I find that no planning at all leaves me feeling like I'm flailing. Not a good feeling. The episode covers how those new years goals come back into my day-to-day planning, the tools I use, and my little trick for reminding myself how much I get done in a day...even for those super unproductive days.

Click here for show notes: https://www.aliciahutchinson.com/planning/

Today I get to talk with one of my favorite people, Julie Bogart, and her brand new book, The Brave Learner. In this episode, we're talking about creating an enchanting home--the whole plot behind being a brave learner--and why it's so important to create that magic at home.

The Brave Learner is written as a guidebook for homeschool families, but this episode is for every mom that wants to create enchantment for her child. I was not homeschooled as a child, but my mom was definitely one who created all kinds of imaginative fun for us.

In the episode, Julie and I will cover what it takes to create an enchanting home, the magic of an open art table, making amazing memories with your kids, what that looks like when you have middle-schoolers and teens, and more.

For all the links and show notes: https://www.aliciahutchinson.com/brave-learner/