Finally, after five tumultuous years, it felt like we were standing on level ground.

My husband and I had already faced more challenges than we could’ve imagined. We suffered the loss of twin girls when I was five months pregnant – a complete shock and an utterly devastating loss.

A year after that loss, we had our beautiful healthy firstborn, Farrell. Pregnant with my second, one month before her birth, my tween stepdaughter moved in basically overnight. I adore my stepdaughter. At 32, however, I was ill prepared to raise a tween right in the middle of raising babies.

We were bursting at the seams and sold our house, moving from the city to the suburbs to raise our growing family. My husband had also just taken a new job.

When it came to top stressors in life, we checked a lot of boxes.

After living in our new home just about a year, our lives had settled down. Though we had suffered a lot of heartbreak, we truly came from the depths of despair strengthened.

Things were so good, we decided to go on a romantic weekend getaway to the beach…Continue Reading at Jodi Rosser’s Blog

Why Not Make a Vision Board to Help You Savor the Summer?

A vision board is a powerful tool for helping you articulate what is most important to you.

A Vision Board helps you:

• Reflect what you desire most for your life

• Display the words, pictures, quotes, scriptures that represent your goals and dreams

• Remember where you are headed, which can be really inspiring along the way

• Picture and move toward the success you imagine

For the month of June, I’ve been sharing ways to savor the summer. Because one of the laments I often hear from moms is that it goes so fast…and they had so many things in mind. Not just for their families, but for themselves.

Savoring the Summer is all about slowing down enough to put together a plan.

Have you ever experienced summer disappointment?

I frequently talk to moms who are in the middle of raising kids. At the end of the summer, they often share with me a long list of the things they thought they were going to get done, but didn’t.

As is often the case with mothers, they end up feeling guilt, shame, and disappointment. They lament how quickly the summer passed.

I get that! Because I remember many summers that went by in the blink of an eye. And I felt badly that I hadn’t accomplished many if any of my goals. And I also didn’t spend as much time relaxing with my kids because I was stressing about what I didn’t get done.

Your summer goals can be as simple and personal as reading a predetermined number of books, making sure you get to the beach x number of times, or cutting back on social media since you want to be present for the kids.

Your goals might be more challenging, like “I’m going to work every day on my memoir.” “I’m going to put together my eCourse.” Or “I’m going to get more serious about a new job search.”

No matter what your goals are, they have to be looked at in the context of the summer reality. And that reality often includes…

Are you having trouble sticking to your goals?

I’ve talked to many people about this (including myself!) and it seems we’ve all got a lot of obstacles to overcome when it comes to meeting our goals.

Obstacles might feel like excuses.

And to some extent, they are excuses. Because, for the most part, they are not insurmountable reasons for why we’re not getting to the place we want to go.

But they are reasons nonetheless. And certainly the pandemic is still very much a big reason why we’re not progressing as we’d like to.

My big goal is to be more fit.

I’ve taken steps forward. They feel small.

Have you experienced a heightened sense of stress through the pandemic?

Life is stressful enough without layering on a pandemic. And moms, in particular, have beared the brunt. We’re stressed out, locked down, and feeling locked up too, breeding a sense of isolation and ”Yes, I actually am alone in this.”

Just when a mom of a couple of young kids may have figured out how to juggle getting the kids off to school or childcare…just when she was starting to establish a little life/work balance, the pandemic took over

The burden is real. The sense of responsibility a heavy weight. No wonder impatience is growing among moms how are feeling exhausted and burned out.

And the truth is on a large scale, there is not much we can do about this right now. However, with increased vaccination, kids heading back to school, and spring in the air, change is on the horizon.

In the meantime, there are small steps you can take to ensure just a few minutes of self-care, which due to the current climate is actually mental-health care.

How do you feel by the end of the Christmas Season? Does the following resonate…

“The stockings were hung by the chimney with care…

In hopes that Christmas would be over soon so I can slow down, step away from the Holidaze, and take a long winter’s nap!!”

I remember a few years back, when I had four young kids at home, holiday seasons left me so wiped out, I felt like I needed a month off from life.

Part of the problem was I loved Christmas.

Now that doesn’t seem like a problem, unless, like me, loving Christmas leads to doing and buying and eating “all the things.” And I could get pretty legalistic about it. So, if I didn’t do “it” all, Christmas was a disappointment.

Have you ever felt like there is just no good time to start that thing you’ve been putting off?
Or maybe you believe you’ve gotten to that elusive goal a time or two, but you’ll never get there again?
Well let’s call out these thoughts for what they are...
LIES!!
A few days ago, and about two weeks after my hip replacement surgery, I was listening to myself. (It’s so important to pay attention to our thoughts!)
And I realized I was talking trash to me. Saying things like:
- Oh well...I guess I’m really not supposed to maintain that level of fitness.
- I really felt great back then, but obviously it’s just too hard to maintain.
- Who really cares - I am 62 after all.
Say what?
Yeah...no. This is not going to be my story!!

Are you dealing with a constant cycle of cleaning up after your kids?

Due to COVID, kids’ activities are limited and family rhythms are dismantled or at least disrupted. Some of you have kids who would normally be at school, but are now home learning remotely. The kids actually never leave…and you never get a break. Keeping your home neat and organized can feel like a hopeless, endless effort.

• Just as you’ve tidied up the kids’ work stations for tomorrow’s school day, they pull out their toys and scatter them all over the floor.

• Or, you want to encourage their reading. But do they have to take every book off the bookshelf that, truth be told, you’d like to organize by color?

• And, of course, one meal, one snack, one meal, one snack, and on and on means you pretty much have something to do in the kitchen at all times – whether it’s preparing the next meal or cleaning up the last one.

What is the problem? Is it you? Is it your kids? Why can’t you have a home that looks like all those other homes on Pinterest?

What if I told you by shifting one word, you could more effectively communicate and have better relationships with the ones you love?

How is your relationship with your spouse, kids, parents, siblings going? Are you feeling an extra dose of tension as you navigate this season filled with added stress from a global pandemic, political polarization, racial injustice to name just a few? Has it taken some getting used to have your spouse home and, in many cases, you too, while also trying to raise and educate a family from home?

With this one word shift you can:

• Go from being dismissed to feeling heard.

• Stop shutting down conversations through blame and shame and start experiencing better relationships

• Take more ownership and feel more empowered through clearer communication

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received is throw away your To-Do list and start making a Got-Done list.

I learned this in my childbirth classes from my teacher. I’m not sure I really believed her. I was a multi-tasker who was accustomed to getting many things done each day, often several things at a time. Those were the days…

However, my birth teacher was right. Once I became a mom, at the end of the day, I was often frustrated at how little I had accomplished and yet how exhausted I was. Now I pass on this wisdom to you – especially to you mom in the middle of raising kids. Especially now, during this pandemic, when you are caring for kids who would normally be going to school, having playdates, running off steam through after-school activities.

Anybody here ready to regroup?

Though not quite back to the level of busy before COVID, it is a season to regroup and prepare for a busier and more intentional season ahead. That can be bad news, or good news depending on how you look at it.

I’m looking at Fall as an opportunity to regroup, to carve out a new normal.

I’d like to suggest each and every day, whether we “feel” happy or not, we choose something to be happy about, or choose to do something that brings us happiness. This does not have to be a big investment of time or energy. However, this small deposit, will reap the rewards of a more positive attitude over time. And honestly, that kind of attitude adjustment is good for you…good for those you’re close to…and even good for the whole world.

I think it’s safe to say we’ve all heard about the power of intentionally giving thanks each day.

Did You Make a Gratitude List Today?

Are you making sure you give thanks each day for what you have? If not, you are missing out on one of the most powerful things you can do to feel happier and healthier every day. Why not make today the day to start?