Practically Joyful Mom

“She’s so precious!”  “What a precious little guy!” We throw the word “precious” around a  lot when describing babies and children without necessarily thinking about what it means. Precious items (and people) are precious because they come at a high cost, they have a high value. Raising children is not easy, it comes at a high cost, but it’s so very worth it. Join me in this episode to explore some of the implications of this idea that our children are precious (and so are we!) and how that can help us live more joyful mom lives.

It may feel harder than usual to be thankful this Thanksgiving with everything going on in the world, in our homes and in our hearts. So today we’re talking about what it looks like to give thanks even on a 2020 Thanksgiving Day. Because being thankful really does change us. It may not change our circumstances but it changes our hearts. And thanking God reminds us that our circumstances are not the most important thing and that relying on our circumstances for our happiness will never really lead to joy. Check out this episode for a reminder about choosing to give thanks in all circumstances.

Minimalism is a huge cultural trend these days. Decluttering and simplifying are buzz words all over the internet. Simplifying our possessions and our lives can make a huge difference in our stress levels and our happiness. But we have to be careful to not put all of our hope in decluttering or to view minimalism as a substitute for the gospel. Today’s episode is a challenge to look at where we can declutter and simplify while remembering that our ultimate joy is not found in our possessions; either in the abundance of them or in minimizing them.

As moms we can often feel un-listened to or ignored. And we find ourselves saying, “I just want someone to listen to me!” We may mean that we want our kids to follow our instructions and do what we ask them to or we may really mean that we want someone to listen to our hopes and dreams, our stresses and frustrations. We want to be heard. No matter what you are feeling when you say, “I just want someone to listen to me!” There are practical shifts and perspective shifts that we can make to move out of feeling like no one is listening to us.

Are you feeling weary? This year has been full of things that make us weary, worried and weighed down: a global pandemic, social isolation, political division, racial injustice, natural disasters. Add all of those things to the day to day burdens of motherhood - sleepless nights, never ending diapers, laundry and dishes, financial concerns, work stress, worries about our children and their futures, the list goes on and on. Is it any wonder that we feel weary? That life feels heavy? The good news is that we’re not left alone to try to bear all of this weight on our own shoulders. 

After listening to episode 9 and writing out your “Who do I want to be?” statement.You might find yourself wondering, “Now what?” We can feel paralyzed sometimes by how far we are from where we want to be. This usually results in either throwing up our hands and saying, “Oh well, just forget it.” because we’re too overwhelmed, or  spending endless hours trying to plot our whole course and plan for every possibility and follow every bit of advice Instagram has to offer and end up going nowhere because we’re afraid of doing it wrong. 

We can’t know the whole road ahead and we can’t always see how to get to where we want to go. But we can take the next step. Today’s episode is all about what taking the next step looks like and how we can know what the next step should be.

Who do you want to be at the end of your life? What character qualities do you want to have developed? How do you want to spend your one life on this Earth?

It’s so easy to just follow whatever trend is sweeping the internet and get really wrapped up in spending tons of time on this or that without really knowing where you want to be headed. Or to just move through our days from one task that needs to be done to another, from one poopy diaper to the next or one toddler meltdown to the next.

It's so easy to completely lose sight of where we're headed and who we want to be. Join me today to talk about how we can determine how we want to spend our lives and how to remind ourselves who we want to be even in the midst of the chaos of everyday mom life. 

Being someone’s mom means lots of time spent preparing meals (that they may refuse to eat), changing diapers, cleaning up messes, buying new clothes and so many other mundane jobs. It means lots of time spent doing the necessary tasks to keep these small people in our homes fed, reasonably clean and clothed. And when we are solely focused on these things, having kids can really feel like it steals our joy.

But when we take the time to build a strong connection with our children, the inevitable tasks of motherhood feel less like work because we remember that we’re doing these things to love and serve little people who mean so much to us. 

When we have a strong connection with our kids, they feel loved and secure. And then they are able to act from that place of love and security which can transform how they interact with us and others. Connecting with our kids brings so much joy to us and to them. 

But in our busy, electronically “connected” world, it can be hard to build face-to-face connection with the people in our homes. Join me today to talk about a simple practice to build connection with our kids and bring joy to our homes.

What if you could lower your blood pressure, release stress, boost your immune system, connect with your kids and help increase their cooperation all with one simple activity? The good news is that laughing with your kids can actually help with all of these things. And for a bonus: laughing is enjoyable! Join me today to talk about some of the incredible benefits of laughing and being silly with your kids as well as inspiration and ideas for how to build laughter and lightheartedness into your days.

Self care is good. But we can sometimes get the wrong idea about what will really fill us up. 

We can end up thinking that if we could just get a massage, just go get a pedicure, just eat chocolate,  or just watch a movie, it would fix what’s wrong in our lives. Massages and chocolate are good. But these things won’t necessarily nurture our souls.

We can do all sorts of skin-deep self care for our bodies, but end up neglecting soul care. Sometimes when we are soul deep weary what we need is to invest energy in an activity that will refresh and refocus our souls. Something that will not just numb our feelings, but that will bring us deeper peace.