And self care. Who’s she?

So I did what I always tell you to do. I wrote it all down on paper. Every task or work thing I could think of, I listed it out, and then cut the paper tasks out one by one. On a new sheet of paper I wrote in bold the seven days of the week. Then I started moving my tasks around under the days to see what could fit where.

Instead of approaching each day with what needs to get done, I organized it by what kind of energy does each task require. When I applied this new routine, my days felt a lot smoother. I had breaks and rest times appear out of nowhere. It was as if I had created more time in my day, when really all I was doing was creating more capacity.

Before I share our weekly flow, I want to note:
Different seasons of motherhood require different rhythms.

I’m no longer waking up at with babies. My kids aren’t in diapers. Our afternoons are sports practices and homework instead of naps and quiet time. When I was in the baby stage, waking multiple times a night, time was fluid. The only energy I had was to take care of my baby and our home. Now? My days are marked by both my kids’ schedules and my own. I share all this to say, if you are in a different season, some of this may not be feasible, and that’s okay. Take the principles. Leave the pressure.

Manager Mondays

Mondays are my day to manage things. I manage my inbox, manage administrative meetings for my business, and manage needs for my household. I start the laundry first thing in the morning, send the girls off to school, and pick up groceries from my order the night before (more on that later in this post when we talk about Sunday). Dillon and I connect over Morning Basket time together and then we blast some fun music for what I call Power Hour. 🪩 I give myself one hour and tidy what I can around the house. Dillon is either still playing with something from Morning Basket time, tackling me and the vacuum, or helping me in ways that he can. Then I catch up on admin and emails for my business.

I let it be a very productive day for the mini tasks.

If I can get it started, I start it.

It doesn’t have to be finished but I try to at least build momentum on it. And to be COMPLETELY honest, this day can overwhelm me if I’m not careful. By evening my mind is racing full of ideas of things I want accomplish and I’ve run out of time to do them. That is when I write it down in my planner on a later day of the week. I give myself another day when I think I can accomplish it and I release it from needs for the day.

Creative Tuesdays & Thursdays

These are my sacred days. Tuesdays and Thursdays are where I get to create and invest in becoming the wife, mother, friend, and author I feel called to be. I try to protect at least 3 hours of my day for creative work. Obviously you can’t truly “block out” everything when you have kids at home. At the start of the year I enrolled my youngest in a mom’s morning out program, so I have three hours on these two days to myself. I felt so guilty at first because it felt like I was giving up my role as a full time stay at home mom, but I decided to give this a try at least till May. I have been working from home with the kids since I had my first eight years ago. I have grown a business part time which has given me a sense of purpose outside of laundry duty, but my greatest desire is to become a writer.

I turn 39 this May and more than ever I want to be a published author by 40, so here I am, using creative blocks on Tuesdays and Thursdays kid-free in hopes to achieve that dream some day. Do I still have days with kids at home? Yes. Is it perfectly quiet? No. Do I block out the time anyway? Always.

Here’s how I protect it:

• I turn my phone on DND

• No admin or

• No household tasks that feel stressful

• No multitasking

I only apply my mind and energy to creating.

Clean Wednesdays

Wednesday is cleaning day. Every week I wash sheets, vacuum floors, reset bathrooms, and tidy common areas. Laundry is an every day chore that I use Wednesdays to also catch up on. I shared a post recently on How to Make Laundry More Whimsical which a lot of you found helpful.

Because cleaning takes a lot of energy from the day, I remove cooking from my tasks for the day. I cook every night of the week except Wednesdays and Fridays and I make sure to cook extra food on Monday and Tuesday so we have leftovers for Wednesday. By the evening I have more time to do something else.

This is also a day when my son and I get out of the house to hang with friends or run errands. While I am the primary caretaker of our home, we do share household chores as a family and use these days a guide not as a rulebook. I do not clean up my older kids toys or playroom. I also no longer do their laundry. So on Wednesdays, my older two girls (ages 6 & 8) took that over for an allowance this year ands it’s been super helpful! (more on that below)

Free Fridays

Fridays are free days.

• I finish projects or get to a good stopping point

• Fold some laundry

• Reset trash

• Hang with friends

• Have fun!

I don’t start anything new on Fridays. This is my day to “close up shop”.
If we’re not out and about, Fridays are a pizza and movie night for our family. 🍕

Rest & Refresh Saturdays & Sundays

Saturday is also flexible. Sometimes it’s house projects with my husband. Sometimes it’s sports for the kids. But by Saturday evening, I unplug from work and house tasks. I let the laundry rest, we have kidcuterie board lunches and leftovers, and we enjoy our hobbies.

Then on Sunday nights, I pour myself a cup of tea and start turning the engines back on. I created a Seasonal House Menu that I use to plan out what we’re eating for the week and then I create a grocery list and put in an order for pickup Monday morning. This feels silly to admit, but I am fasting shopping for Lent. Sundays are technically a “feasting day” so for me, Sundays are also when I buy anything of need for the week.

Family Roles + Chores

Everyone in our family pitches in to help around the house. Not every chore is assigned to a single person. We simply carry the philosophy that we’re all here to help one another. If you made the mess, you’re in charge of cleaning it up when you’re done. You can also ask for help and we will help.

My Girls (ages 6 & 8) earn:

• $3/week for doing their own laundry

• +$2 for extra chores (car cleaning, dishes, etc.)

They are responsible for:

• Getting dressed

• Making their breakfast

• Packing snacks and sports bags

• Washing & putting away laundry

• Putting dishes away

• Tidying their rooms when I ask
  (I personally don’t mind their room being messy. I see a lot of creative work at play and I don’t want to disrupt that. However, if we have guests over, or on some weekends, they do a quick tidy, so it doesn’t linger into chaos.)

My Son (age 3) helps how he can:

• Feeds the dog

• Pushes the buttons for the washer & dryer

• Picks out his clothes

• Sprays/wipes the windows

• Packs snacks for outings

• Sets the table

• Puts dishes in the sink

• Tidies toys

My Husband is very much a team player and simply helps out when he sees a need. In the mornings he gets the girls off to school and unloads the dishwasher. These are some of his routine chores. We joke that I’m in charge of inside the house and he’s in charge of outside of the house, but ultimately we share it all.

Final Thought

I often get asked “how do you get it all done” and the truth is that no one can. It’s never done but we are now working with a routine that feels doable. This weekly rhythm gave me more capacity. In the words of Comer, “attention is the beginning of devotion”. Instead of reacting to my week, I now move through it with focus and intention.

If you’re feeling behind, sluggish, or like your home is running you, do this one thing:

• write it all down

• move it around on paper

• notice your energy

Then you can build a week that supports who you are in this season.

More Joy Of:

❁ 6 Indoor Activities To Keep Your Child Playing so You Don’t Have To Ideas on how to keep your little one busy so you can have more free time.

❁ This tiny ritual helps reset my whole day One habit I keep coming back to as a mom of three.

❁ The Toys That Made the Cut (After letting go of half our playroom)

❁ Morning Basket activities 100+ activity pages that we use to start a morning basket with.

☕︎ Read more joyful articles here

♡ Find me on Instagram here

✏︎ Shop kids activities here

Decision fatigue can be stifling for the joyful spirit. For some reason, I feel it most around mealtime for my family. I truly enjoy cooking! And yet when the four o’clock hour arrives and the children are hanging from the banister, I find myself depleted of energy and less hopeful for the remainder of the day.

It is a strange contradiction to love something and dread the moment it asks something of you.

As someone who seeks joy outside of the fringes of “happiness” I was determined to break the cycle I found myself in. I noticed a pattern in my moods. I begin the day full of sweetness and cuddles, but by late afternoon, I am pouring from an empty cup. I grow short, moody, and distant. The very spirit I want to cultivate in our home begins to wear thin when I need it most.

For a long time I thought the solution was more stamina. More discipline. More balance, perhaps?

But I am beginning to believe the solution to maintaining joy is rhythm.

When I create systems for our days, something in me lightens. I act proactively rather than reactively. I am no longer scrambling to invent dinner at the witching hour. I have already decided. The decision was made by a calmer version of myself.

Recently I was inspired by @PrettyinthePines on Instagram when she shared her seasonal house menu. The menu includes starters, main dishes, and sides you make often. It is printed and framed to hang beautifully in your kitchen. You can keep one master list or rotate them with the seasons.

Once I saw this, I dove right into Canva to create one of my own. (Printable down below) I created both my winter and spring menus in one sitting because the inspiration was flowing.

I hung the winter menu in our kitchen and noticed a difference almost immediately.

When I go to make my grocery list for the week, I find my menu for reference. My girls join in too and place their “orders” as though we are running a small, local restaurant from our kitchen. When Thursday night comes around and I am out of ideas, I turn to the menu to see which selections are left.

Sometimes the most life-giving thing we can do for our homes is decide once and let that decision carry us forward. If you are longing for a bit more steadiness around your family table, I have created a printable version of our house menu for you as well!

You can edit it to include your own family recipes based on the season you are in.
A way to preserve your energy for what matters most. Download it below 👇

Read more

One of the ways I like to celebrate the season with my kids is with a themed show or movie. I gather the kids under a cozy blanket, fill their snack bowls with yogurt pretzels and strawberries and turn on a Valentine’s Day show. My goal with screen time is to find cozy, slower-paced features that do not overstimulate them. I’ve narrowed it down to 12 of our favorites. If you’re craving a slower February rhythm, this list is for you and it includes links to where you can watch them.

On Disney+

Winnie the Pooh: A Valentine For You
A calm, cozy classic little kids adore
👉 Watch here

Lady and the Tramp Movie
A gentle love story between dogs
👉 Watch here

On Amazon Prime Video

Guess How Much I Love You
👉 Watch here

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie: Valentine’s Day Special
👉 Watch here

On Apple TV

Be My Valentine Charlie Brown
Slow, simple, sweet… and a total classic.
👉 Watch here

A Charlie Brown Valentine
👉Watch here

On PBS

Happy Valentine’s Day Curious George
👉 Watch here

It’s Love Day: Daniel Tiger’s Love Surprise
Calm pacing and familiar characters. My kids love this one.
👉 Watch here

On Youtube

Little Bear Valentine
👉 Watch here

Berenstain Bears Comic Valentine
👉 Watch here

Clifford Has the Biggest Heart
👉Watch here

On Mister Rogers Website

What Is Love
👉 Watch here

What would you add to the list?

As a mom of three, we have tried just about everything when it comes to screens and screen time. I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t to develop a screen-time rhythm that works for us.

Grab my February Activity Pack and get instant access to
10 themed printables and 6 easy ideas you can create from home!

The Myth of What Makes a Person Creative

For a long time, I thought being an organized creative person meant I wasn’t truly a creative. I pictured true creatives as this elite society of moody, brilliant, unpredictable free spirits. They could spend days pouring into their craft until they were empty of it. And then other weeks coping with self-destructive habits until creativity strikes again.

I thought that to be a creative, meant I had to live wildly and chaotically. But then I became a mom and discovered that the wild, unpredictable days were the ones that drained me the most.

Motherhood forced me to find beauty in rhythm and structure. I realized that creativity doesn’t have to compete with motherhood. They can build on one another. I can have creativity and organize ways to protect it, grow it, and nourish it, just like I do for my family.

1. Lean into the creative moment when it comes.

This may or may not be good advice, but this one habit has changed the way I parent. I can’t plan when inspiration hits, and I’ve stopped trying. Sometimes it is sparked by a conversation with a friend, other times it wakes me in the middle of the night. Early on as a mother, I was desperate for sleep, so I would jot down the idea on my notes tab and go back to sleep. Now, I forfeit sleep altogether. I know, it’ sounds a little unhinged, especially since sleep is so important for a mother, but I’ve found more freedom by leaning into that creative idea in the middle of the night than being haunted by it for days in my notes app.

So if I wake up with an idea, I put on a cozy sweater, pour myself some tea, and burn the midnight oil, working away (creating, writing, whatever it is) until I feel I got it all out on paper. When it sparks mid-day, I give it every moment of attention I can and set the house chores aside. My kids might get PB&Js on the porch for dinner, and the house gets a little out of control, but my kids also see a mom who’s brightened with purpose. To me, that is the kind of mother I hope they remember growing up.

2. Step away to see it clearly.

The next step is also a little unhinged, but once I feel free from that creative idea, I ignore it for days. I let it sit on my computer or my desk, and I give myself time to regain rest and return my attention back to my role as a mother and homemaker. When I finally come back to it, after I’ve forgotten some of the details, that’s when I can see it clearly. This practice is like going outside in the morning to bare my feet in the grass. This rhythm of creating > resting > returning has become my method of organized creativity.

I can’t schedule creativity, but I can schedule refinement. So I give myself at least two weeks between creating something and sharing it publicly. During that time, I rest, refresh, and plan the rollout. This is the buffer I need to protect my joy from being tied to the performance.

Because as a content creator, when I post something right in the middle of my creative high, I tend to expect everyone to feel what I’m feeling. And when they don’t? Ouch. It hurts. Now I release my creative work with a calm detachment. I’m proud of what I made, but I don’t hinge it’s worth on whether or not it goes viral.

Being an Organized Creative

Being an organized creative mom doesn’t make you less inspired, it makes you sustainable. It means you’ve learned to honor both your spark and your season of life.

And if you’re a creative mom, let this be your sign to lean into the moments that matter most for you. You don’t have to choose between the art and the ordinary. You can be both the dreamer and the doer. You can make PB&Js for dinner and still be the kind of mom who models the pursuit of joy for your family. The laundry can wait. The spark can’t.

Your mornings with kids at home feel chaotic because of one of two reasons...

You don’t have a rhythm yet.

I get it. There’s something dreamy about the idea of an unhurried, unplanned life. But when you have little ones running around, that freedom turns into frustration quickly. The day feels like it’s happening to you instead of with you. When there is no rhythm, there is reaction. I’m not talking about having a minute-by-minute schedule that sucks the life out of your day. I’m talking about a simple, predictable flow your family can lean on. Because when you have something gentle to follow, your kids feel safe. They know what’s coming, and you don’t have to run on fumes or guesswork.

You are allowing things that go against your core values.

Sometimes chaos is a result of little compromises.

”Just one more episode.”
”Just five more minutes.”
”Just one more day of doing it this way.”

It’s easy to fall into a pattern, especially when you are already running on empty. But if you pause for a moment, I know you have a picture in your head what you really want your home and mornings to feel like. And friend, it’s not this.

If you continue to accept these temporary compromises, you may also be accepting a more permanent future that is different than the life you want to live. I don’t think that will happen for you because you are reading this. Right now, you are at a crossroads. And that’s actually a really hopeful place to be.

So what now?

Start with two small shifts:

If you want to move from chaotic mornings to calmer mornings, the change is simple. Not easy… sometimes change in life is hard… but the ability to reach it is simple.

1. Revisit your values

This takes some inner heart work. One evening, grab a notebook and write out:

• What kind of mornings do I actually want?

• What core values do I want to shape our home life?

• What’s getting in the way?

If screen time is taking over your mornings but you don’t want to go cold turkey, swap it for something just as fun and engaging. Try a morning basket filled with books, activities, and art supplies. Let it be a joy-filled alternative, not a punishment.

2. Create a daily rhythm you can follow

Nothing elaborate or far off from your norm. Just a flow that your family can follow and can align with your values. Something like…

wake up > breakfast > morning basket > get ready > outdoor play

Give it 10 days. That’s it.
Stick with it the best you can and see what changes.

Your daily rhythm doesn’t have to box you into a strict schedule or rules. It is meant to be a guide you follow to make your mornings flow. This will bring more calm and less chaos. Why? Because your kids want the predictability. They're wired for it. Having a rhythm helps them make sense of their world and feel safer in the midst of it. When they know what to expect, they become secure and more grounded. We carry so much knowledge and probably somewhat of an idea of a schedule in our minds, but we don’t always voice it. Kids, on the other hand, are along for the ride. The more we can guide and equip them to experience their day, the more confidence and independence they will gain. You’ll begin to notice little shifts… less pushback, more independence, fewer meltdowns, and hopefully even some pockets of peace you didn’t know were possible.

If you’re looking to start a morning basket, I have an all-in-one guide with activities to help you start smoothly. Grab my free 10-day journal to help you get started!

You don’t have to survive your mornings, you can start shaping them with purpose.
I’m cheering you on every step of the way!

• Allowing toys in my home that collect dust

• Letting "no time" be my excuse

• Cleaning during nap time instead of resting

• Worrying if I’m doing enough

Instead, I’m focusing on the things that truly matter: being intentional with my time, creating meaningful moments with my kids, and giving myself grace along the way.

This Spring I plan to do a full reset of my kids’ spaces, letting go of any thing that does not spark joy. I will set out 4 bins labeled
1. Keep
2. Donate/Sell
3. Fix
4. Maybe

I will divide all of our toys into those four areas. If I get stuck making a decision on whether to keep or get rid of something, I add it to the maybe pile to decide on later. This helps make the decluttering process move faster & more efficient.

It’s hard to let go, but I truly believe that is what the Winter season is for. I’ve seen statements like “Winter is not for setting goals or starting something new because nature is resting and so should we”, but I disagree. Nature is resting, but the caretaker of the land is not. Winter is a season for farmers to reset the harvest, clear out the old, repair what’s broken, and plan for the new season ahead. As caretakers of our homes, this is a good time for us to do the same. If we want to have a peaceful and fruitful Spring, we need to simplify and repair the parts of our daily lives that feel broken.

I’ve realized how much peace comes from simplifying, letting go of the pressure to "do it all," and showing up fully in the moments that count. And you know what? It feels so good to trade chaos for calm and guilt for joy.

What are you leaving behind this year?