Episode #206: Hope and Joy
Have you ever met someone and they were ‘different’? They were content and calm and radiated something that made you want to get to know them better? That’s Christian hope and joy. In this episode I speak about how to find hope and joy in our everyday lives and how to live it.
Episode #205: Let Them In
I don’t know about you, but when I was a young mom – and sometimes I still struggle with this – it was hard for me to be vulnerable. This episode explores why we need to allow ourselves to be vulnerable and be nurtured!
Episode #204: Navigating Your Relationship with Your In-laws
Part of forming a family of your own is figuring out how to be in relationship with your spouse’s family of origin. This episode is from “Fairest Love” Podcast where I was interviewed on how to accept and embrace the “in-law” relationship – from both sides!
Episode #203: How to Be Who You Want to Be
Throughout our life and the changes in our relationships, we have the opportunity to decide who we really want to be. We’re not set at a “fixed” point. We can choose who we want to be by first clearly defining our goal.
Episode # 202: Eliminating Resistance
In this episode we look at the concept of resistance and how it hinders personal growth and achievement. Everyone deals with resistance to change or doing something we don’t want to do. This episode gives some concrete examples to for overcoming resistance and achieve the big and little goals in our life.
Episode # 201: Hearts & Flowers
The world wants to tell you what you need to do or expect in order to show your love. But loving requires much more than flowers…
Episode # 200: Truths
In this episode, I share the main thoughts I have about marriage, motherhood, and living God’s call. Marriage, parenting, and creating a home are all works in progress, but these suggestions will help!
Episode # 198: Procrastination
Procrastination makes you feel overwhelmed and feeling incapable of taking charge of your life which, in turn, destroys your self-confidence.
But when you say no to the short, immediate negative feeling…
Episode # 191: How to Get Along Better with Your Mother-in-Law
If you have a relationship with her that is uncomfortable or unpleasant or maybe even combative, I’d like to encourage you to take this opportunity to rethink it and reset it. It only takes one person to change in a relationship for the relationship to change.
Episode # 190: Protecting Our Innocence
Protecting our children’s innocence begins with protecting our own innocence.
Do you want a home full of joy, beauty and truth? Take from the world what you need and then become very intentional about what you don’t take in.
Episode # 189: How to Help Your Child Have a Good Self-Image
Although genetics plays a role in self-image, there are many things we can do to help our child have a good self-image.
Episode # 188: Lessons I have Learned from my Grandchildren
With nineteen going on twenty grandchildren, Michael and I have learned a lot. More often than not, we’ve learned to listen to our intuition rather than to what the world tells us is true.
Episode # 187: Respect: The Foundation of a Happy Home
In the home, respect is a foundational value that must be lived by both parents and children for healthy relationships to develop and thrive.
Episode # 186: The Cost of Low Expectations
Pop Culture wants you to believe that the secret to happiness is to have low expectations. REALLY??? Giving up on goals and dreams is the secret to happiness? I disagree…
Episode # 185: The Devil in Our Midst
The devil is real and his whole purpose is our ruination – especially through the family. But he moves in our lives quietly and sometimes stealthily. Do you ever stop to consider how he is moving in your life?
Episode # 184: Ten Lessons I Learned in My Marriage
After thirty-nine years of marriage, these ten lessons were the most important in how I showed up in my marriage.
Episode # 183: Children and Chores
This isn’t only just about keeping your house clean; it’s about forming the human spirit in virtue. The chores are simply the vehicle for deeper more important lessons and growth in virtue.
Episode # 182: What is God Asking of You?
We might be tempted to think it needs to be something big, something that changes the world in a dramatic way. Or maybe we think it should be something that is worthy of a movie being made about it.
And while movies and big projects are important, the seemingly small insignificant things that God asks us to do ARE important and CAN change the course of history.
Episode # 181: Important Habits for School Success [Replay]
With many years of teaching in private, public, and homeschool settings, I have come to see that there are some critical habits that can make or break your child’s success in school. Listen to this episode to hear what’s really important for your child and their success in school.
Episode # 180: Being Busy
We all complain that we’re so busy. And there are a growing number of experts who are in agreement that parents with good intentions are creating a generation of stressed, anxious kids thanks in part to their addiction to busyness and – you guessed it – the stresses and anxieties that come with it.
But what is the real harm of all this ‘being busy’? This episode talks about the harm and isolation that is created when we live a life of always being busy.
Episode # 179: Detachment
When we are attached to something, we give away our emotional control to circumstances that either align with our attachment or don’t align with our attachment. Listen to this episode to learn the skill of detachment.
Episode # 178: Thirty-Nine Years and Counting!
Join us in this episode as our daughter-in-law interviews us about the lessons we’ve learned and the ways we keep our marriage alive and thriving!
Episode # 177: Creating Boundaries
Many people think that a boundary is a way of controlling someone else. But that’s not really what a boundary does. We can never control other people’s actions, feelings, or thoughts. But we can set up requests or boundaries that…
Episode # 176: Church and Children
Here are some practical tips for making Sundays and going to church a beautiful part of the day and your family culture rather than a source of conflict.
Episode # 175: The Dangers of Love Languages
Although understanding love languages can be a great tool in developing intimacy and communication in a marriage, there are some dangers in the practice of love languages within a marriage.
Episode # 174: Mindset and Motherhood
Mindful parenting involves recognizing our own limiting beliefs. When we move away from parental expectations and treat children as individuals with unique personalities, we become the mothers we want to be and we raise virtuous children.
Episode # 173: No More Arguing
When we reframe arguments in our marriage into sharing of thoughts and feelings, we let go of the win/lose element. When we reduce the emotional element we actually begin to solve the conflicts and come to resolution.
Bonus Reflection – Happy Mother’s Day! A Mother’s Heart (Replay)
Mothers are capable of more love and intense emotion than they ever imagined. We are strong, faithful, and…
Episode #171: Are You an Angry Mom?
Our child’s behavior is rarely worthy of triggering such an emotional, angry outburst from us. It isn’t their behavior. It’s what is under the surface of our reaction that is the real problem.
Episode #170: The Little Things Add Up
But the truth of life is that it’s in the little things of each day that we create the life we have. What is really important to you?
Episode #169: Teaching Your Children Perseverance and Fortitude Pt 2
What is fortitude? Learn what it is, why it is essential to your child’s happiness, and ways to teach your children this important virtue.
Episode #168: Teaching Your Children Perseverance and Fortitude Pt 1
Perseverance and fortitude are the two pillar virtues in practicing all the other virtues – and ones that we absolutely must teach our children.
Episode #167: The Sorrows & Joys of the Cross
We imagine our cross to be something other than it is. We don’t imagine it will ever be our our husband or our children. They aren’t supposed to be crosses. And yet for most of us, they are the cross that Our Lord says,”Take up”…
Episode #166: The Gift of Grandparents
What kind of relationship do you want to have with your grandchildren? Moms, what kind of relationship do you want your children to have with their grandparents? Think clearly about the actions you’ll need to take to accomplish that outcome, then enjoy, connect, and create beautiful memories.
Episode #165: Are You Raising an Addict?
The world tells us the lie that we can achieve happiness and pleasure all the time. And so when we feel uncomfortable or negative emotions, we quickly jump to something that will distract us or push away the negative emotions.
We also do this to our children, teaching them how to cope with negative feelings by using something else to distract them rather than feeling the negative feelings.
Episode #164: Marriage & Sacrifice
At the core of every happy, long lasting marriage is a spirit of sacrifice – of sacrificial love that is the foundation of our relationship with our husband and our growth in holiness.
Episode #163: Six Steps to Grow Closer to God
Six easy steps to grow closer to God and find peace and joy in your life.
Episode #162: Ten Ways to Damage Your Marriage
What really harms marriages? Check out this podcast episode for a list of 10 typical things that people do that really does harm their marriage.
Episode #161: Who Taught You How to Love?
Who taught you how to love? For many of us, our parents were the model for teaching us how to love. For some, parents were a great teacher, for others…
Episode #160: Five Keys to a Successful Marriage (Replay)
These five keys are still the most important reasons marriages survive and thrive.
Episode #159: Prioritizing Your Marriage
Is your marriage your top priority, or is it just one more thing you have to worry about or make time for? Do you focus all of your nurturing on your children and leave your husband out in the cold?
Episode #158: Be useful. Blaze a Trail.
Don’t let your life be sterile. Be useful. Blaze a trail. Shine forth with the light of your faith and of your love. (St. Josemaria Escriva The Way, #1)
Exactly how do we do this when we’re “just a wife and mother”. Find out…
Episode #157: Creating Boundaries for Your Children
This episode explores the importance of setting boundaries for children to teach them self-discipline, increase self-esteem, and build virtues.
Episode #156: Your #1 New Year’s Resolution
So many of us love to create big goals and yet often we don’t achieve them. After a few weeks, maybe even a few days, we give up. Why? Because…
Episode #155: Are You Past or Future Focused?
Set goals for your future, rather than living in the comfort or discomfort of the past. The past doesn’t define us, but when we’re past-focused we allow it to limit us.
Episode #154: Thoughts on Christmas
If you find yourself doing ALL.THE.THINGS. for Christmas and not really preparing spiritually for Christmas, this episode will help you refocus.
Episode #152: Embracing Femininity
As women, we have tremendous power and influence – the right kind of power and influence which is not for personal gain. Rather our power and influence is within our family and friends.
Episode #151: Reframing Arguments with Your Husband
Conflict in marriage is a natural occurrence. How we work through conflict with our spouse can make or break the relationship. Rather than seeing each conflict as an “argument” with a winner and a loser…
Episode #150: Being Thankful for the Unexpected
As a Catholic wife, mother, and life coach, one thing I’ve learned is that the unexpected surprises, challenges, and gifts can be the ones I’m most grateful for.
Episode #149: Falling in Love During the Holidays
As a Catholic life coach, one of the questions I am asked often is, “How do I make sure my children will grow up practicing the faith?”
Episode #148: The Power of Self-Image
Who are you? What is your main thought about yourself? How do you see yourself on the outside? How do you see yourself on the inside? Your life is a reflection of your self-image. Find out how….
Episode #147: The One Change I made That Saved My Marriage
There is a lot that goes into a long, happy marriage. I believe this one change helped save my marriage and can save your marriage too!
Episode #146: Who Do You Want to Be?
“Don’t let your life be barren. Be useful. Blaze a trail. Shine forth with the light of your faith and your love.” St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way
When we hear those words, sometimes we think we have to go do something bigger in the world than be where we are right now.
But understanding the profound importance of your role in the world…
Episode #145: The Four Essential Elements of a Happy Home Life and Family
The world wants to tell you what is important to your happiness and the happiness of your marriage and your family.
But the world is wrong. Sports teams, elite colleges, and massive ‘doing’ does not make happy children or a peaceful content home life. Here’s what does…
Episode #144: The Messy Mom Syndrome
What are your thoughts about your motherhood? Do you believe that you can have both a clean, well-ordered home AND happy well behaved children or have you bought into the idea that to be a mom MEANS to be a mess?
Find out in this episode why buying into the “messy mom syndrome” is ruining your motherhood.
Episode #143: The Importance of Beauty in the Home
Our physical environment has a profound affect on what we think and how we feel. Adding a touch of beauty in the home can change our thoughts, our mood, and can inspire us to action – to keep a home that serves and soothes us rather than one that stresses us out.
Episode #142: Mom Guilt and the Power of Saying No
What is “enough”? What should you be doing for your husband, your children, and your home?
Episode #141: Important Habits for School Success
As a former elementary teacher and homeschooling mom for 14 years, there are three really important habits that will help your children succeed in school. You may be surprised that these habits are critical to your child’s success.
Episode #140: I Get to Love You
There are many thoughts we have about love throughout our marriage:
I choose to love you, I must love you, I don’t want to love you.
Do we ever consider love as a privilege? A gift we have been given?
Episode #139: New Year’s Resolutions
A new school year always feels like a great time to make new year’s resolutions – even more so than on Jan 1st of an actual new year.
Here are some great new year’s resolutions you can make now, so that when 2023 hits, you’re self-development is way ahead of the game!
Episode #138: Choosing to Be Happy
What are you doing for professional development? Whether you are a full-time mom or juggling a career and motherhood you are a professional.
Take your job seriously. Don’t give in to overwhelm and anxiety. Find the professional development you need to be the best mom you can be and to honor the profession of motherhood.
Episode #137: Planting the Seeds
Raising children, nurturing a strong happy marriage, and developing a faith life that makes you strong in adversity is all about the daily planting of seeds and dying to self so that God has a place to create abundance!
Episode #136: Fueled by Emotions
We have grown up conditioned to think that others can hurt our feelings.
No one can “make us feel” anything. We choose our emotions by choosing what we think about any given circumstance. It’s a shift in our habits, but it gives us back the power to decide how we want to feel and act in our every day life.
Episode #135: When You Feel Stuck
Instead of focusing on what makes you feel stuck, focus on what your big picture goal is for your family. What are you offering to your family in terms of family life and connection, and what are you giving?
Episode #134: Our Anniversary Special
In this episode, Michael and I celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary by sharing what we have found creates a long-lasting marriage.
Episode #133: How to Become a Better Mom
**Spoiler Alert! You already have what it takes!
Episode #132: Why Reading to Your Children is So Important
The benefits of reading to your children are more than just a way to quiet them down before bedtime.
In fact, if you embrace the habit of reading to your children throughout the day, you’ll find a number of excellent side-effects!
Episode #131: Technology & Children
Have you stopped and asked yourself lately how technology is affecting your children or how the tech and kids combo is changing your home life?
For all the benefits technology may bring into our lives, the cost to our family, our relationships, and the human person must be evaluated…
Episode #130: The Short Life of a Bride
As I look back over our almost 38 years of marriage, I find that more often than not, I was “the mom”, “the enforcer”, “the money-minder”, “the wife”, sometimes “my husband’s mother” (although I don’t like to claim that one) but not his bride as much as I would have liked.
It seemed that my many different roles in our marriage and family took over who I had been before I realized it…
Episode #129: What Makes a Marriage Last?
I used to see an old couple walking hand in hand every day. I would think, “They must not have had any troubles during their marriage. That’s why they are here in old age walking hand in hand. They were lucky. They must have had it easy. Certainly, they didn’t experience the miscommunications, the anger, or the disappointments.”
Now, after 38 years of being married, I realize that…
Episode #128: Are You Responsible for Your Child’s Misbehavior?
While it is easier to believe that our children’s misbehavior is because of their shortcomings, strong wills, or “just the way they’re wired”, often our children’s bad behavior is because of something we are or are not doing.
Yeah, that’s not going to make your day shine with rainbows and unicorns, but listen to this episode with a sense of curiosity rather than self-recrimination…
Episode #127: Two Key Habits to Teach Your Children
There’s a lot of parenting advice out there about what to teach toddlers and what will make a happy child. With my seven children now grown, I have a different perspective about what is really important when raising children, than when I was a young mom in the middle of the battlefield. These two habits, or virtues, are essential in raising happy adults.
Episode #126: How Prayer Will Change Your Motherhood
As a parenting coach, so many moms I deal with are looking for answers that will help their children be obedient, keep the home running smoothly, and take them from daily tears to enjoying their motherhood. I often ask if they are praying daily. The answer is usually no, and I remember when my answer was no. Then I was challenged by a mom further down the road….
Bonus Episode for Mother’s Day: A Mother’s Heart
The spiritual environment of your home is an essential pillar for a bright and cheerful, happy and joy-filled home. Bringing faith alive in our homes is what brings peace and joy to all who live there…
Episode #125: How to Create a Bright and Cheerful Home, Part III The Spiritual Environment
The spiritual environment of your home is an essential pillar for a bright and cheerful, happy and joy-filled home. Bringing faith alive in our homes is what brings peace and joy to all who live there…
Episode #124: How to Create a Bright and Cheerful Home, Part II The Emotional Environment
We want to create a home where everyone feels loved, respected, and valued. It should be a place where all are listened to and not unjustly judged. Your home should be a sanctuary from the constant attacks from the world…
Episode #123: How to Create a Bright and Cheerful Home, Part 1
A home should be a place where each person, children and adults, knows they are respected, accepted, and loved for who they are.
Our home should be a shelter from a world that tries to impose values on us that are not our own. Our home is our oasis. There are three parts….
Episode #122: Teaching Your Child to Manage Their Emotions
Helping our children, especially our teenagers, manage their thoughts about their circumstances, other people, and their own negative thoughts is a game changer in how they learn to approach life.
Episode #121: For the Empty-Nest Mom
My mommy time is over, but my motherhood journey is still ongoing and has added some new dimensions: learning to be a good mother-in-law and Grandma Jan and a mother to independent adult “children”. Truth be told, I’m still unsure how to navigate this new life. Here’s what I’ve learned so far…
Episode #120: Our Heroic Sisterhood
If you are ever tempted to believe the lie of the world that women are not important in bringing about the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, see how the resurrection story would not have been the same without women…
Episode #119: Protecting Innocence
We have a tremendous responsibility to protect the innocence of children.
Once it’s gone you cannot get it back, and there are no do-overs.
Episode #118: Lent and Life
Lent is 40 days of reflection. Reflect on Jesus and His infinite gift of self for us. Reflect on your relationship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And reflect on how you bring Jesus and His sacrificial love to your marriage and your motherhood.
Episode #117: How You Create Your Results
For most of life we believe that our results are completely within our control:
- Take a test
- Commit to a workout regimen
- Get up at a set time every morning
- Save money or spend money
But when it comes to our marriage or the way our children behave or even the state of cleanliness or clutter in our home, we think it’s out of our control. We detach from our results…
Episode #116: How to Help Your Child Succeed
As an elementary school teacher, I was often asked by parents of my students, “How do I help my child be successful?” They expected I would answer with the correct homework tactics, math enrichment games, or ‘tricks of the trade’.
While there are educational methods that can help children academically, without these five foundational pillars in a child’s life, they will always struggle in the pursuit of success.
Episode #115: What is Love?
As women, we are naturally inclined to relationships and the giving and receiving of love. But in the thick of the day to day, we forget and lose perspective about how we give and receive love. We often fall into the trap of thinking we’re not really offering much to the world.
This episode is dedicated to all you older women who have loved to the point of the cross, and to you younger moms who are just beginning the journey.
Episode #114: Are You Contributing to Your Marital Problems?
Often we want to blame our spouse for our problems. “If only he would….(fill in the blank).” When we spend our time focusing on what he’s not doing or saying, we completely ignore are actions or in-actions.
Although we’d like to control our spouse and his actions, we can’t. We can only control our actions – and our actions come from what we’re thinking and feeling. Get curious about your actions. Are they actions you would want shown to you? Are they loving, accepting of the other, empathetic, or curious about your spouse, or are they filled with judgment, resentments, anger, and hurt?
Episode #113: The Key to Less Stress
St. Augustine says, “The peace of all things is the tranquility of order.” In this episode I speak about the two different types of order: external and interior order. It’s difficult to have one without the order. I help you see how to create interior order which will result in an orderly home and life.
Episode #112: Changing Your Story
It is important to see what stories from the past we have accepted as our current beliefs about ourselves so that we can decide if that’s WHO we are and who we want to be.
Episode #111: Two Reasons You Don’t Complete Your Goals
In this episode, you’ll hear two simple reasons why you may not complete your goals. Whether your goal is about losing weight, sticking to a financial budget, or any other personal/professional goal, these two issues can stop you in your tracks. Find out what they are so you can find solutions before you give up your goal.
Episode #110: Running Your Home Like a Business
Many years ago I went on a retreat – the priest gave meditations throughout the day on how to nurture and live a better interior life – a life of prayer. But then we had a talk from a woman/wife/mother about how to live our exterior life with prayer but also with professionalism. The talk was particularly directed to mothers and how they run their home.
The idea was that we should run our home like a business.
Episode #109: The Importance of a Strong Family Life
When you hear this, there will be two days until we’ll be celebrating Christmas.
Then in the Catholic Church, the Sunday after Christmas, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, where we really recognize Jesus, Mary and Joseph as a family unit and pray about why God would send His Son into a family.
Episode #108: What Motherhood Means to Me
As I turned to say my final good-bye to my last child packed off to college, I could barely look at him, much less speak. We hugged a good long time, then I whispered, “Good-bye, I love you. Be good.” I went out to the car, away from his sight and cried that ugly cry. And just like that, the hardest and best time of my life was ending.
Episode #107: How to Have a Marriage that Lasts
So many people have the mistaken idea that marriages that last are marriages that are easy or don’t have big issues to deal with. With many friends and family who have had long-term marriages, I have never known anyone who has a lasting marriage that didn’t work through struggles and sacrifices along the way.
Episode #106: Raising Self-Sufficient Children
I’m not sure when the whole notion of doing everything for your child began, but it has been devastating to the last couple of generations. It used to be that raising self-sufficient children was the goal. Now it seems to be “mean”.
Episode #105: Celebrating One Year with the “Why”
Well, I just celebrated my 1 year anniversary of publishing this podcast and I wanted to go back and listen to the first episode which was really telling you all my why of beginning the podcast.
Episode #104: What Do You Want for the Holidays?
Here they come….Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years
Do you find you’re beginning to feel the holiday spirit or the holiday headache?
Episode #103: Virtue Based Parenting
What human virtues do you want your children to own – really own, so that when someone says their name, people think, “Oh, I know who that person is.” And they click off the virtues that they have.
Here’s what we wanted for our children…
Bonus Episode: Reimagine Motherhood Membership
Episode #102: You Have to Want It
So many women feel stuck, trapped, unfulfilled, and often hopeless that things will ever truly change. What they don’t realize is that their best future is literally a thought away.
Let me tell you a few stories about how things can change–
Episode #101: What is Your Greatest Fear?
Fear is a human emotion that is triggered by a perceived threat. Fear kept us safe – from wild animals from terrain that could harm us. But I would like to talk about emotional fear.
Emotional fear holds us back from all we want and all we can be.
Episode #100: A Little About Me and Q & A
Episode #99: Silencing Your Inner Critic
Our inner critic creates stories that we tell ourselves over and over again, which become the framework of our beliefs – even if they may be untrue.
Episode #98: Independent Children are Happy Children
It is our primary job as parents to give our children the tools to become independent adults. Among other benefits, independence creates self-confidence.
Episode #97: When Motherhood is Hard
When motherhood is hard, we have to be able to clearly identify our why and grab onto it whenever you need it. Why did you become a mother?
Episode #96: Faith & Flexibility in Achieving Your Goals
Learn how practicing faith in yourself and a spirit of flexibility is the primary mover in achieving your goals.