Torn: Finding a Mom Life Balance

Fall is in full swing, the holidays are approaching, and the family calendar is filling up fast! But what if planning for the season didn't mean adding another overwhelming to-do list?

This week, Athena and Mims continue their Struggling with Fall Overwhelm series by moving from awareness to intentional planning. Instead of trying to do it all, they're inviting families to pause, reflect on what's changed, and have meaningful conversations about what matters most.

From evolving family traditions and children's changing interests to balancing time, energy, and finances, we're exploring how to release, reroute, or redesign our plans to make room for more joy, connection, and memories that last.

Torn ThoughtPlanning isn't about doing everything. It's about making room for what matters most in the season you're in.

In This Episode:✨ What is true now? Reassess your family's interests, priorities, traditions, and changing needs.

✨ What is possible now? Consider everyone's time, energy, commitments, and resources before making plans.

✨ What needs to be released, rerouted, or redesigned? Give yourself permission to let go of traditions or expectations that no longer serve your family.

✨ Plan together. Invite children and partners into the conversation instead of carrying the entire mental load yourself.

✨ Create meaningful experiences. Look beyond checking activities off a list and make space for curiosity, cultural connections, and lasting memories.

Try This: Your Family Fall Planning ConversationSet aside 15 minutes with your family and explore three questions:

1. What is true for our family right now?

2. What is possible with the time, energy, and resources we have?

3. What can we release, reroute, or redesign to enjoy this season more?

Remember, the goal isn't a perfect schedule. It's a season that reflects the people you're becoming together.

Torn Tribe Reflection:What family tradition, expectation, or commitment might you need to release, reroute, or redesign this fall?

We'd love to hear how you're planning together and making room for what matters most.

Share your thoughts on thie week’s focus to 📧 ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠

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💜 Choose Grace, Torn Tribe 💜

Summer is over, routines are back—and somehow we’re already overwhelmed.

This week, Athena and Mims kick off a new series about navigating fall overwhelm. From school schedules, extracurriculars, work responsibilities, family celebrations, holidays, finances, and the everyday mental load, this season can quickly become a whole lot of more. And if you're feeling it, you're not alone.

Instead of jumping straight into fixing everything, we're starting with awareness: What is actually taking your time and energy? What matters most in this season? What can you release? And who else can help carry the load?

Becoming aware of what's overwhelming you gives you the opportunity to choose what deserves your energy.

Take 15 minutes this week and ask yourself:

• What is overwhelming me right now?

• What matters most between now and the end of the year?

• What can I release?

• What can I ask someone else to help carry?

Then share your priorities with the people in your household. You may discover you're carrying something no one else expects—or even wants—you to carry.

Torn Tribe Reflection

What are you becoming aware of this fall—and what are you ready to release?

And if fall isn't overwhelming you, Torn Tribe, tell us your secrets! What systems, boundaries, or choices are helping you protect your time and enjoy the season?

This is just the beginning. Next episode, we're moving from awareness to planning—with practical ways to keep fall overwhelm from becoming our permanent state of being.

Share your thoughts on Your Awareness of Overwhelm to 📧 ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠

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💜 Choose Grace, Torn Tribe 💜

Torn ThoughtTry This: Your 15-Minute Fall Check-In

School just started, so why are we already talking about summer camp and childcare? Because your opportunity to financially plan for next summer may happen months before summer arrives.

This week, Athena and Mims are talking about Dependent Care elections—a benefit many working parents may have available through their employers but may not fully understand or plan for in time. Mims shares how difficult it can be to make an election when you haven't yet figured out next summer's camps, childcare needs, dates, or costs. The takeaway: your benefits-election timeline and your summer-planning timeline need to start talking to each other.

Before open enrollment, start estimating how much childcare you'll actually need, researching programs and their registration timelines, and checking with HR about your employer's Dependent Care benefit—including what expenses are eligible. Then, when it's time to make your election, you can use actual projected costs instead of a guess.

💰 Dependent Care: Put This on Your Fall Checklist

✨ Find out when your employer's election period happens. Don't assume it follows the calendar year.

✨ Ask HR how your Dependent Care benefit works and what types of childcare and summer programs are eligible. Not every camp will necessarily qualify.

✨ Estimate next summer's childcare needs now: number of weeks, children's ages, work schedules, vacations and other coverage.

✨ Research camps and costs before making your election so you're not choosing an amount blindly.

✨ Track registration fees, weekly costs and receipts so you understand what you're actually spending and have the documentation you need.

Share your thoughts on journaling to 📧 ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠

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💜 Choose Grace, Torn Tribe 💜

The pencils are sharpened, the backpacks are packed, and the calendars are already overflowing—but what about the things that aren’t on the school supply list?

This week, Athena and Mims talk about creating the real back-to-school checklist: the people, systems, boundaries, and communication that help a family navigate the school year without one person carrying it all. From carpools and shared calendars to protecting rest and actually asking for help, we’re figuring out how to move beyond surviving the school-year madness and build rhythms that help the whole family thrive.

The school gives you a supply list. Give yourself permission to create the support list your family actually needs.

✨ Build your help crew before you need them ✨ Sync school, work, activity, and family calendars ✨ Protect downtime instead of filling every open space ✨ Embrace carpools and divide the drop-off/pickup load ✨ Share school communication instead of defaulting to one parent ✨ Speak up when a system isn't working for your family ✨ Give yourself grace when even the best-laid plans go sideways

What’s on your family’s back-to-school checklist that the school never told you you’d need?

Share your thoughts on journaling to 📧 ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠

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💜 Choose Grace, Torn Tribe 💜

Torn ThoughtIn This Episode:Torn Tribe Reflection

Why is asking for help sometimes harder than doing everything ourselves?

This week, we unpack what keeps us from making the ask- from fear of rejection and inconveniencing others to vulnerability, trust, and the pressure to keep all the plates spinning. We reflect on knowing our people, recognizing our limits before we hit overwhelm, and remembering that accepting help can actually deepen our relationships. Sometimes, asking someone to show up isn’t a burden- it’s an invitation into community.

Torn Thought: What could feel lighter this week if you simply asked for help?

Plus, in What’s Mending You?, we talk about the gift of being trusted to help, reconnecting with longtime friends, and finding restoration in moments of reflection.

🎧 Come do parenting with us—because we can do it better together.

Share your thoughts on journaling to 📧 ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠

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💜 Choose Grace, Torn Tribe 💜

Summer learning doesn't have to look like worksheets. The best lessons often happen through curiosity, play, and everyday life.

This week, Athena and Mims share creative ways to keep reading and math alive over summer break—without turning them into chores. From researching the perfect family dog and budgeting expenses to board games, baking, geography, libraries, and following your child's interests, they explore how learning becomes meaningful when kids don't even realize they're doing it.

🌟 Torn ThoughtReading and math aren't school subjects to survive—they're lifelong tools that unlock curiosity, confidence, and opportunity.

In This Episode:

• Creative alternatives to summer packets

• Turning children's interests into reading adventures

• Everyday math through games, budgeting, cooking, and problem-solving

• Raising curious, lifelong learners instead of worksheet completers

• Why learning happens far beyond the classroom

• Giving kids ownership of their summer learning

💛 Torn Tribe ReflectionWhat's one everyday activity your family does that secretly teaches reading, math, or problem-solving?

Torn Tribe Reflection: Who in your family has a story you want to hear while you still can?Share your thoughts on journaling to 📧 ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠

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💜 Choose Grace, Torn Tribe. Choose Grace. 💜

Summer break brings freedom, flexibility… and bedtime battles. This week, Athena and Mims unpack the challenge of balancing late summer nights with the routines everyone needs to thrive. From teenagers staying up until 1:00 a.m. to younger kids catching a “second wind,” they explore how every family can find a rhythm that works without letting comparison steal the joy of summer.

The sisters discuss why one bedtime rule doesn’t have to fit the entire season, how communication and trust can help children develop responsibility, and why parents shouldn’t feel guilty for protecting their own rest. They also reflect on teaching kids to recognize their body’s need for sleep, giving age-appropriate independence, and embracing flexibility for vacations, camps, and special summer memories.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why bedtime often becomes the biggest parenting battle during summer break.
• Creating flexible routines instead of rigid rules.
• Helping children build responsibility and self-awareness around sleep.
• Letting go of comparison and choosing what works for your family.
• Protecting your own rest and self-care as a parent.

Torn Thought:
Summer routines don’t have to look like school-year routines. Find the rhythm that allows your family to enjoy the season while still caring for everyone’s well-being.

What’s Mending Us
Athena shares how coaching basketball camp reminded her why she loves the game and reflects on the motivation she finds through “secret competitions” that keep life fun and purposeful. Mims shares how returning to work with a new team energized her while also embracing the full pace and joy of summertime with her family.

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💜 Choose Grace, Torn Tribe. Choose Grace. 💜

Revisiting a previous episode from May 2025!

In Episode 160 of Torn: Finding a Mom-Life Balance, Athena and Mims return for the second installment of their summer planning series, equipping the Torn Tribe with a practical and heartfelt Summer Toolkit designed to support families in three core areas: Supplies, Sanity, and Structure.

🧠 Torn Thought: “Preparedness brings presence. Let’s enjoy the season instead of surviving it.”

🧺 Supplies to Have on Hand- Summer essentials: sunscreen, water toys, snacks, notebooks, art supplies, and first-aid items- Household items for parents working from home: kid-friendly snacks, books at the right reading level, a stocked art station, screen-time boundaries, and outdoor activity options- Pool/beach bags packed and ready: cooler, towels, goggles, flip flops, backup clothes, and snacks- Reusable tote filled with portable snacks (chips, fruit, pretzels) to reduce the “I’m starving” moments

🧘‍♀️ Sanity Savers- Schedule one friend meet-up per child each week—build in social outlets to reduce tension and encourage independence- Identify your “buffer days” where there’s minimal running around- Plan ahead for medical needs: physicals, prescriptions, and locations of nearest clinics when traveling- Try a parent hobby: painting, reading, writing, learning a language, or summer reading challenges for YOU

📅 Structure for Summer Days- Theme Days: Rotate through reading, science, cooking, art, or adventure days- Free Play Days: Let your child choose how they spend the day to balance out structured time- Skill or sport exploration: Use the summer to try something new as a family or per child- Craft & Game Zones: Reorganize home spaces to highlight engaging options and reduce screen time- Library trips, cultural reads, and storytelling podcasts to keep imagination and curiosity alive

📣 Stay Connected & ShareAthena and Mims also encourage the Torn Tribe to share their favorite summer tips and download the ⁠Torn Tribe Summer Prep List⁠ (linked in show notes and on social).

💌 Got Torn Moments or Mends to share? Drop us a line at [email protected].

🎧 Listen, Follow, Subscribe & Share!

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💜 Choose Grace, Torn Tribe 💜

Legacy comes alive when we ask questions, listen closely, and make space for the stories our elders carry.

In this special episode, Zeke and Sophie Grace join Torn for a legacy interview after speaking with their grandpas. From childhood memories in Jamaica and Chicago to hard work, patience, perseverance, retirement, karate, family businesses, and life lessons, their conversations remind us that legacy is not only what we inherit—it is what we notice, name, and carry forward.

Torn Thought:

Legacy can be passed down in everyday conversations. The gems are already there—we just have to ask.

In This Episode:

✨ Zeke and Sophie Grace make their Torn debut

✨ What they learned from interviewing their grandpas/ abuelos

✨ Family values like perseverance, planning, hard work, patience, and listening

✨ Why elders’ stories matter

✨ How simple questions can open meaningful conversations

✨ The joy of preserving family memories in their own voices

Torn Tribe Reflection: Who in your family has a story you want to hear while you still can?

Share your thoughts on journaling to 📧 ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠

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💜 Choose Grace, Torn Tribe. Choose Grace. 💜

Legacy is not just something we leave behind—it is something we build every day through our stories, values, relationships, traditions, and the way we show up for one another.

In this episode, Athena and Mims reflect on the legacies that shaped them, from the strength of abuelas to the family stories, cultural traditions, faith, food, and lessons that continue to ground them. Inspired by themes from Encanto and Coco, they explore how each family member adds their own thread to the legacy being created.

They also share why they are inviting their kids into the conversation next—to hear what legacy looks and feels like through their eyes.

Torn Thought: Legacy starts at home. It lives in the stories we tell, the values we model, and the memories we intentionally create.

In This Episode:

✨ The values and traditions we inherit

✨ How family stories shape identity

✨ Honoring those who came before us

✨ Helping kids recognize the legacy they carry

✨ Creating memories through photos, stories, scrapbooks, and shared experiences

✨ Why every family member’s “thread” matters

Torn Tribe Reflection: What story, value, or tradition do you hope your children carry forward?

Share your thoughts on journaling to 📧 ⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠

📲 Follow @TornMLB on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠.

💜 Choose Grace, Torn Tribe. Choose Grace. 💜