Notes from this Episode:

Background

• We have been socialized to think that it is big things that create all the difference in our life.
  • If we find the right diet, the best school, the best cleaning routine, or maybe the perfect date night, then all will be well or be as good as it will ever be.
• The truth of life is that it is in the little things of each day that we create the life we have.
• Stop or pause at some point and commit to spending some time to determine what is really important to you.
  • We need to clarify this because we get so busy in our life that we forget what is really important to us.
• If we live our life on autopilot, then we will not achieve the things that are really important.

Nurturing Your Marriage

• If your husband is important to you (and he should be), greet him every day with a hug and a kiss.  Tell him you appreciate him and love him.
  • Find ways every day to show him affection and connection, even when he has disappointed you or does not show up in the way you would have like.
• Continue to give to your husband what you would like to have him give to you.
• Ask your husband if there is anything he needs from you today.

It is Not Your Job to Make Your Children Happy

• Are you children important to you?  If so, show up for them as a confident, strong mother, embracing your role as teacher, leader, and nurturer.
• Your job is not to make them happy all the time.  Your job is to teach them to be independent, virtuous, self-regulated, disciplined humans.
• Hug and kiss your children, even if they balk.  Spend time with them, connecting with them and showing and telling them that you value, appreciate, and love them.

Caring for Your Home Environment

• If your home environment is important to you, then commit to keeping it clean and tidy.  Do not give in to your limiting beliefs that you are just not good at it.  You can be good at it.
  • You can figure it out and make time for it, but you have to make the time.
• Decide what five things need to be done, either by you or delegated to your husband and children, to keep the major living areas clean and picked up.
  • Create a job schedule and teach your children to help clean up.
  • Participating in keeping the home environment clean is more important than any outside activities your children do because they take on responsibility.
• Do not let your children give in to the overwhelming thoughts, just like you are going to control your thoughts and not let them overwhelm you.

Taking Care of Yourself

• Are you important to you?  For some, the answer, honestly, may be no.  For others, the answer is yes, but actions do not support that.
• Live a life of including God in your day.
  • Pray daily, for at least 15 minutes.  Simply talk to God and bring Him to the places where you are grateful for His gifts and blessings.
  • Read the New Testament for a few minutes, and ask, “How can I apply this to my life?”
  • If possible, go to Mass during the week.  Receive Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist and ask Him to help you be the woman you really want to be.
• Commit to eating well, sleeping well, and exercising.
• Put your phone out of sight and out of mind.  Create silence in your life to nurture yourself.

Final Thoughts

• All the little things add up over the years to create the relationships and the life you want.
• “Have you seen how that imposing building was built?  One brick upon another.  Thousands.  But, one by one.  And bags of cement, one by one.  And blocks of stone, each of them insignificant compared with the massive whole.  And beams of steel.  And men working, the same hours, day after day…Have you seen how that imposing building was built?…By dint of little things!” – St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way, point 823
• Pay attention to the little things.  It is in the little things that you will create the connection, the joy, and the life you really want.