Thriving In Motherhood Podcast | Productivity, Planning, Family Systems, Time Management, Survival Mode, Mental Health, Vision – Details, episodes & analysis

Before you jump into holiday plans or new-year goals, there are two things I want you to do, because they will completely change how you feel heading into next year.

In this episode, I walk you through the exact reflection and clarity-building process I'm using right now to close out 2025 and prepare for 2026. It's a simple reset that helps you see what really happened this year, understand where you grew, and get clear about what matters most going forward.

In this episode, I'm sharing three things I want you to start thinking about as we get close to the end of the yar. These things will set you up really well when you sit down to create your vision for the new year.

They come from two books I read in November, and it was really encouraging to see how much of the research lined up with what we've been doing in the Thriving in Motherhood Planner and Journal since 2015. But these books also highlighted a few angles that I think can help us look at things a little differently. 

In this episode, I walk you through:

• Why moms burn out

• Three ways to actually complete the stress cycle

• How to use your part as a tool instead of something that weighs you down

• What makes a future vision powerful enough to influence your present

• Why pausing every 90 days changes everything

These ideas aren't about rushing into goals or "fixing" anything. They're just little shifts that help you understand what's going on inside your days so you can move into the new year with clairty and purpose.

Every 90 days I like to do a Quarterly Review. With five kids, homeschooling, and running a business, I don't have time or energy to chase the latest productivity hacks or add one more thing just because.

If I'm going to make space for something, it has to be intentional. It has to serve a purpose. And it has to fit into the limited time I actually have.

That's why quarterly reviews matter so much to me. They aren't about doing more, they're about creating clarity. A way to step back, look at the last season, and decide what really matters in the next.

In this episode, I'll share:

• The reason I do a quarterly review

• How I know it's time to rest and refocus

• What makes quarterly reviews work for busy moms

• Why 90 days is the sweet spot for clarity and momentum

This practice has helped me become the anchor that helps me make decisions with confidence and keep moving forward, without trying to do it all.

Every month, I write down the books I read or listened to. Today, I'm sharing my 12 favorites that I read this year from a wide variety of topics and subjects. 

Reading lots of books has allowed me to actively learn while being a stay-at-home mom. When designing a planner for my needs, keeping track of the books I read or listened to each month was an essential piece. 

Why? Two reasons: it helped me to read more because I wanted to be able to write things down AND to remember all that I've read, learned, and enjoyed. A Books Read section is still in the official Thriving in Motherhood Planner in the monthly review.

You can get your 2024 planner today and have it arrive by Christmas!

Here are my 12 favorite books of 2023:

1. How to Break up with your phone: https://amzn.to/3sDNw8J

2. The Coddling of the American Mind: https://amzn.to/49L62g8

3. What Happened to You?: https://amzn.to/3unnc3b

4. Habits of a Household: https://amzn.to/3GchGmo

5. Love Life and See Good Days: https://amzn.to/3sy10Tv

6. Grace Where you Are: https://amzn.to/47Dwcj1

7. Good Inside: https://amzn.to/3uo8bOu

8. The Richest Man in Babylon: https://amzn.to/49BzWDk

9. My Side of the Mountain: https://amzn.to/3SPyXJR

10. On the Far Side of the Mountain: https://amzn.to/47m0zKX

11. The Anatomy of Peace: https://amzn.to/49InIZA

12. The Outward Mindset: https://amzn.to/3MRUxK5

I'd love to know your best book recommendations from this year to add to my 2024 reading list! 

In this week's video, I'll take you on a virtual tour of our homeschooling setup for this year. As a homeschooling mom of Kindergarten, 2nd grade, and 4th grade kids, I've tested a variety of resources and materials over the years. 

So, if you're a fellow homeschooling parent looking for inspiration, you're in the right place! We've made a few tweaks to how we are doing school this year. Now that I have three school-aged kids, we are shifting to more of a family school focus with a few individual subjects, instead of primarily individual studies. 

Here is what we are focusing on this year: 

Family Subject Resources

• Science: Science in the Beginning 

• Picture Study 

• Addition Facts That Stick 

• Subtraction Facts that Stick 

• Language Study 

• History - Story of the World 

• Picture books from the library on a variety of subjects

Individual Study

• Busy town Eye Found It Game

• Spot It

• All About Reading 

• Rightstart Math

• Minimalist Math Curriculum Research Parent/ Right start 

• Hoffman Academy  (Get 10% off with code LEARN)

• Good and the Beautiful books/reading for 4th grade 

• The Great Illustrated Classics

Organizational Resources

• Backpacks with pencil and planner

• Hooks for backpacks

• Notebooking pencils 

• Pencil sharpener

• Kids watches

• How to stitch a notebook

I'm often asked what the secret is to being consistent with homeschooling. I've found that consistency in homeschooling is easier to achieve when you have a reset space that makes it easy to do the thing you want to do.

I want to do all the things in our homeschooling day - math, science, history, music practice, nature study, language study, etc. - so I often would pick just doing one more thing instead of cleaning up. 

What I've discovered this semester is that if we just do a little less each day and leave time and energy to reset the space, it is SO MUCH EASIER to get into schoolwork the next day. So instead of doing lots of school a few days a week and getting frustrated and burned out by the amount of effort it took to keep going, we do a more measured amount each day and leave time to reset for tomorrow. It has made all the difference in our consistency.

Have you ever felt like it's too late to be the mom you hope to be and you'll be a good grandma instead? In this week's video, Stephanie Stutznegger shares how she has radically changed her life in the last year as she got clear with her vision, took lots of baby steps, and celebrated each month in the Thriving in Motherhood Planner and Soaring Mothers Society.

Stephanie lives in Northern California with her husband, Jeff, and their four kids. They love being outside together and doing woodworking projects. They have a backyard full of chickens, ducks, a beehive, a newly finished treehouse, and a suspension bridge over their creek, connecting them to her brother and sister-in-law's house.

Stephanie loves being a wife and mother, and she's grateful to be part of the Thriving in Motherhood community. Stephanie's favorite type of day is dishes piled high from cooking three meals, children laughing in the backyard, the doors and windows open, and fresh cookies in the oven.

Last fall, Stephanie shared that she was feeling discouraged and like she had missed her opportunity to be the mom she wanted to be. As she watched two of her children play in the backyard, absolutely overwhelmed by the spaces inside and outside her home, she decided if she couldn't be the mom she wanted, she would be a good grandma.

Stephanie began thinking about what makes a good grandma's house: curated rooms of meaningful, special things, favorite blankets, and books to read to make it cozy, and good smells from food baking. 

She realized that she didn't have to wait to be a grandma to give her family this life now, and a fire lit that carried her through a year of massive decluttering and baby steps, including building family systems to support their goals.

It's easy to get caught up comparing our houses to the best of what we see online or the "right way" to declutter, organize, or decorate our homes. But as Stephanie worked through the spaces in her home, she carried the mantra, "Think like a grandma," and let her home become its own unique space with the goal to make space for relationships.

She changed her thinking from what her space should be to what it could be.

Stephanie shows up at our monthly Soaring Mother Society meetings with progress and renewed momentum to keep going as she continues to take action in making her vision for her life a reality.

This week's conversation includes so many amazing stories and learning moments in Stephanie's life - from her oldest child speaking late and going on a 10-year learning journey of working on speech to lessons learned in raising chickens to her specialties of budgeting and making chocolate chip cookies.

It's a refreshing chat with a mom going through the realities of everyday mom life, too!

Do you struggle with manners in your family? Do you wonder if they are outdated and even worth teaching? In this week's episode, Brooke Romney shares her simple system to effectively make manners part of our everyday lives with kids. 

Brooke Romney is a writer, speaker and leader of an online community who helps moms of teens and tweens to create meaningful, healthy, and enjoyable relationships with their children through practical application, education, and community. Her goal is for every family to feel confident and connected.

The mother of four boys ages tween to adult, Brooke knows parenting perfection isn't real and takes an honest and hopeful approach with her audience. Her best-selling book 52 Modern Manners for Today's Teens (Volumes 1 and 2) provides weekly tips to help parents and teens navigate the complexities of today's world. The follow-up 52 Modern Manners for Kids features tips for kids and tweens aged four through 12. 

Brooke and her family live in Utah. You can find her on Instagram HERE.

You'll love Brooke's emphasis on manners that will allow our kids to be aware, kind, and connected. She also shares a glimpse into her own motherhood journey and how she went from being stuck in perfectionism and overwhelm to truly enjoying motherhood and being present and engaged in her own family.

In our conversation, Brooke outlines five ways to teach manners to kids:

1. Focus on one manner a week. You can talk about it directly or leave it out for kids to read so they have some autonomy in learning. Bonus tip - add your manner time to something you are already doing well, like Friday movie night or a weekly family night.

2. Teach the why. Kids are smart and understand.

3. Role Play! It is a way to practice at home and a fun way to prepare.

4. When you are reading books or watching movies together, talk about when the characters are using the manners you've learned about or when they don't. What are the consequences? What's the impact on those around them? 

5. As a parent, look for when you are seeing the manners you've been talking about and reinforce them with a thank you or share around the dinner table when everyone used their manners.

Expect that kids won't get it right away. That's okay! Think of it as planting seeds that will start to grow when they are ready. This is a proactive approach in parenting to give our children the best chance of success in navigating relationships. When our children know what to do or how to act appropriately, it empowers them and builds their confidence over time.

A great resource to make this simple is Brooke Romney's 52 Modern Manners for Kids book (and her two books for teens). She designed it to stand upright to easily sit on a counter so everyone can read it easily throughout the week. The manner and the why are on the front page, and role plays are included on the back. Talk about setting up the environment to make it easy to do the thing you want to do!

You can find Brooke's books here:

52 Modern Manners for Kids

52 Modern Manners for Today's Teens Volume 1

52 Modern Manners for Today's Teens Volume 2

This week on the podcast, I'm answering a fabulous question about how to use nap time well. Maybe you can relate to hitting the quiet moment of the day and feeling exhausted and wanting to take a nap yourself, but also wanting to be consistent in what you want to do.

It can be hard to figure out what to do when it feels like everything needs to be done while also lacking motivation because you are exhausted. In this week's episode, I'll be sharing strategies and tips so you can feel confident about using nap time in a way that is intentional and productive for you.

How to overcome lack of motivation:

• Keep the time frame short: I just need to make choices for TODAY. I can do anything for a short period of time.

• Write down what you want to be doing: A weekly or daily rhythm or an ideal week plan is a great way to ensure you know what you want to do and when. If you already know what you want to be doing, then it is easier to take the steps to do it than if you have to figure it out every day.

• Every night, write down your big wins for the day: Celebrating yourself builds motivation and makes it easier to keep going.

• Weed out "should" statements: Make it your mission only to do things that really matter to you, not just things you think you "should" be doing.

• Ask God for help: Pray for an increased capacity and for God to help you carry the load. I'm amazed and astounded by how much can happen in a day, even when I don't feel like it, when I pray specifically for this and then act, expecting help to come.

Made to Soar: The Next 90 Days is a program I've created to help you build family systems and automate the essentials so you can enjoy what matters most to you. You need a strategy, and not typical time management and productivity tips either. 

A strategy tailored specifically for the life of a mom with kids at home - full of interruptions, needs, bedtime stories, messes, traditions, silliness, and toddlers.

A strategy that is 100% customizable with inspiration from God for your unique family, circumstances, and dreams.

A strategy that is easily repeated because the reality of motherhood is that things are always changing. 

A strategy that enables YOU to become a Soaring Mother

It's these very systems and skills that have enabled me to homeschool my four kids, run a podcast and business, establish traditions for our family and adventure with them, nurture my marriage, have soul-filling friendships, enjoy many hobbies, and feel the joy of this wonderful life.

Made to Soar: Your Next 90 Days is the antidote to overwhelm. It is designed to help you get clarity on your vision and align your actions, current to-do list, and family systems so you can create a life you love to live.

Learn more and sign up for the waitlist HERE.

This week's question is about how we do Poetry Tea Time in our family. This is an idea I got several years ago from Julie Bogert @bravelearnerhome, and we've incorporated it into our weekly rhythm. 

In this week's episode, I'll share how we set it up to make it easy to do at our house, when we hold our tea time, the books we use, and our favorite snacks that everyone looks forward to.

The What, How, and Where of Poetry Tea Time:

• Poetry Tea Time is basically eating food and reading poems together. Each child picks a poem and either reads it aloud or hands it to me to read. 

• Getting set up is crucial. The easier you make it, the more likely it is to happen. I made a trip to Goodwill and got mugs and tea cups. You could also have a special tablecloth and candles. Often, for us, just sitting down with a snack and a clean table is victory enough. 

• Keep the snacks simple and delicious. My oldest loves going out to gather lemon balm or mint leaves and steeping them in water for our tea. Other common tea-time snacks are green smoothies, popsicles, popcorn, banana ice cream, energy balls, and chickpea chocolate chip cookies. Recipes can be found here.

• We typically build this into our routine in the afternoons after quiet time. One of my favorite things is to pair this with cleaning up the house right after because everyone is fed. Then we can go outside for the rest of the afternoon until dinner (assuming I prepped an Instapot meal ahead of time). We go out and in of doing this. We just begin again when we top.

Books we use: 

1. Ambleside Online Poetry Anthologies

2. Poetry for Young People Series (Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost are great starting points)

3. Children's Book of Virtues

4. The Book of Virtures

5. Anderson's Fairy Tales

6. When We Were Very Young

7. Now We Are Six

8. Children's Anthology of Poetry Edited By Elizabeth Hauge Sword

9. A Family of Poems by Caroline Kennedy

In this week's episode, I'm answering a question from a mom in our Thriving in Motherhood Community about possible routines (besides sitting in bed together, playing with toys, and watching movies) that you can have with severe morning sickness during pregnancy when you have other little kids at home.

I've had four really challenging pregnancies, the last three with kids at home, and in this episode, I'll share what worked for us during those hard months and principles you can apply to make the best of an honestly challenging situation and feel some joy along the way too.

Routines for Mom:

1. Monthly reviews in the Thriving in Motherhood Planner: These monthly reviews are ESSENTIAL. It helps you reality-check what is actually happening. I told myself, "All I do is lie on the couch, grow a baby, and hang out with the kids." Not a helpful story. Once I started writing down what I learned and discovered, accomplished, places we went, significant things for our family, and books I read or listened to, I had a more accurate picture of my life, and it was much better than I thought.

2. Ask the questions in the Thriving in Motherhood Journal: These questions are so important for changing the focus of your days and what you think about them. Here are four to get you started:

   1. What am I grateful for? 

   2. How have I seen the hand of God in my life today?

   3. What were my big wins today?

   4. What were my magic moments today?

3. Have something you are excited about: It can be as simple as a story you like reading to your kids (I recommend Winnie the Pooh), a date with your husband, or getting together with friends.

4. Have a simple, creative project that you can see progress on: I crochet a blanket for each of my kids - single crochet 10 up, 3 in the hole, 10 down, skip two, 10 up, etc.- in the evening. It keeps my mind focused on not thinking about how I don't want to face the next day or even a rough night. And I get to make progress on something for the baby that connects me to why I'm sick and feel a little bit of excitement and love in this season of sacrifice.

5. Use this slower season to be intentional with your input and get clear on your vision: I've never totally stopped making progress on the things that matter to me because I always knew my next little baby step and could keep moving forward. Making progress - even sllooowww progress - does wonders for the soul.

6. Look and pray for ways to serve others: It might seem impossible when you are struggling yourself, but even a phone call can make someone's day, and it will lift your spirits too.

Routines for your Family:

1. Listen to audiobooks/musical stories: We invested $5 in a CD player from Goodwill during my pregnancy with some audiobooks or musical stories for the kids to listen to. Each day, when I needed some space, they would set it up across the room with some play dough or coloring and listen. This gave me a bit of a breather. As my kids got older, we graduated to a Kindle, but the only thing they have access to is the library audiobook app, and it's password-protected.

2. Go outside: During my pregnancies, we often lived outside at the playground by our house, or the kids spent a lot of time in our yard during my last pregnancy. I took a blanket to lay on and, if I was feeling a little better, a project (I carved wooden animals and made leather shoes - again coping with misery with creation). For two of my pregnancies, we had friends who would meet us outside or even help us get to the playground, and it was wonderful. Bring water and snacks for you and the kids to last for hours. I think that's why my kids play outside so much because once we were out, I wasn't mobile again for a long time. It wasn't my most graceful season - I threw in every bush on the way to the park and surrounding areas by the end of pregnancy - but we survived!

3. Pray for help or to know who to ask for help: I had many miracles in this department. I'll share three:

• I was talking to a friend from college, and her roommate and mutual friend didn't have to work for a week when Andrew was traveling. She flew out and took care of me and my kids. She made us food and cleaned my microwave. It was good for the soul as much as the body.

• On a really rough night, I needed to go to the ER, and a friend who had just moved out to Indiana for school took me so Andrew could stay with the kids and get some sleep before a huge day with his graduate studies. It was after midnight before I got home, and Andrew was gone all day. We were both under a lot of stress, and things felt strained, and I was in the depths of despair. That was the day of angels. I had people unexpectedly show up at my door all day. First, a mom with six kids whose youngest was my oldest's age felt like she should just stop by on her way to preschool drop-off, and she sat with me for a bit and just listened. Then another knock on the door came, and a friend with older children came by, and power cleaned my house. Then a homeschooling mom stopped by, and she and her kids had gone to the grocery store and bought loads of snacks that were different for us to try. It just kept going like this all day. I was so grateful for everything they did individually and felt so seen by God.

• With this last pregnancy during COVID, we rarely saw people, but a few times, we had new friends drop by with food, a quick sweep of the floor, and tidying of our main living space, and they listened to the many things my kids wanted to share. That was such a blessing.

Once I understood I needed help (I don't think I had that figured out yet), I started praying to know who to ask. We've had seasons where it's been so hard and uncomfortable, but it was essential, and I reached out for help. If you aren't sure what to ask for, consider:

• someone to come over and play with your kids at your house and engage with them

• someone who can have your kids go play for an afternoon

• meals or snacks

• help with bedtime if your spouse isn't there