Welcome to My Garden Journal (and Journey) for 2026 - BLOG
Finding Joy in Your Home
It’s been two long years since I’ve been able to grow a garden. Life shifted in big ways during that season. We relocated to North Carolina, and for a while I didn’t even have a yard, just a moving target and a lot of transition. Gardening simply wasn’t possible. And while that season held good things, I missed the soil deeply. Now, though, everything has changed. We’re on three-quarters of an acre. It’s flat. It’s usable. And my backyard is absolutely begging for a garden. Every time I look out the window, I can practically see the rows already forming in my imagination. I am...
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Finding Joy in the Ordinary Days of Home - BLOG
Finding Joy in Your Home
Do you ever have one of those days? The kind where you wake up already irritated, before anything has even happened. You’re short on patience, easily overwhelmed, and it feels like joy is nowhere to be found. If I’m honest, when I was a young mom those days came more often than I care to admit, and I usually felt a little ashamed that my attitude could sour so quickly. But motherhood has a way of pressing on every weak spot at once. The needs are constant. The to-do list never truly ends. The house doesn’t stay clean for long, sleep is often interrupted, and a quiet moment to yourself...
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What a “Good Homemaker” Really Is (and What She Isn’t) - BLOG
Finding Joy in Your Home
Homemaking Is Bigger Than a Job Title When most people hear the word homemaker, they picture one specific life: a stay-at-home mom, in an apron, with dinner simmering and a spotless house to match. And if that’s your life right now, I hope you feel encouraged in it (this is my life, more or less with the spotless house). But if that’s not your life, if you work outside the home, if you’re a student, if you live with your parents, if you’re single, if you’re caring for aging family members, if your season feels anything but neat and tidy—I want you to stay with me. Because...
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How We Built a Simple Food System That Taught Our Kids Real Skills (and Took Pressure Off Me) - BLOG
Finding Joy in Your Home
We’ve started a new system in our home the last couple of years and it’s been one of those changes that quietly ends up touching everything. It's not flashy. It's not complicated. But it's steady, practical, and surprisingly life-giving. Each of our kids is now trained on one special food that they’re fully responsible for making each week. They are not helping me make it. They are not reminding me to get around to it. They make it. Here’s what that looks like in our house right now: Malachi (13) makes 2 gallons of kombucha each week Micah (13) makes a huge batch of crockpot granola...
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Kids in the Kitchen: What I Teach at Each Age (and Why It Matters So Much to Me) - BLOG
Finding Joy in Your Home
I grew up in the 90s with divorced parents who both worked full time and did their best to provide in two separate households. My mom was a rockstar. Our house was always clean, and she never failed to have dinner on the table, even when it was simple. But in the 90s and early 2000s, it just wasn’t on anyone’s radar, at least not ours, that kids should be learning homemaking skills along the way. I was busy with high school, working, and getting into a good college on scholarship. It honestly never crossed my mind that there were important home skills I was missing. Fast forward to getting...
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Sword in One Hand, Spatula in the Other: Homemaking Isn’t Small - BLOG
Finding Joy in Your Home
Homemaking Isn’t Cute. It’s Holy. I woke up to wicked laughter coming from the living room. Not the sweet kind of laughter. The suspicious kind. The kind that makes your eyes fly open and your stomach immediately drop. The two-year-old twins had clearly escaped their beds and were up to something. I groaned and dragged my very pregnant body out of bed. I was 38 weeks along with our second set of twin boys, my feet already swollen before the day had even begun, contractions rolling in and out like background noise. I knew before my feet even hit the floor that this was going to be a long...
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Our Family & Personal Goals for 2026 - BLOG
Finding Joy in Your Home
Last week, Jason and I sat down for our annual planning and goal-setting meeting. This has become a long-standing tradition for us, and it has made such a difference in keeping us on the same page and making sure our top priorities truly stay our top priorities. If you’d like to peek behind the scenes, you can read about how we do our annual planning session here — and how we do a year-end review (which is honestly one of the most important steps in the whole process). Today, though, I wanted to share a few encouragements for those of you who are newer to planning or goal setting and then...
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How Jason and I Plan Our Family Goals Each Year - BLOG
Finding Joy in Your Home
There’s something about a fresh notebook, a warm cup of coffee, and a quiet conversation with your husband that makes you believe anything is possible. Once a year, Jason and I carve out intentional time to sit down together and talk through our family — what worked, what didn’t, what God might be inviting us into next, and what needs to gently be laid down. It’s not fancy. There’s no color-coded planner system or perfect spreadsheet. Just two tired parents, a lot of dreaming, and a deep desire to steward our family well. Every time I share a glimpse of these planning days online, I...
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The Year-End Review That Actually Helps You Plan Your Next Year - BLOG
Finding Joy in Your Home
If you’ve been following along in this goal-setting series, you already know I’m not interested in hype-y, pressure-filled planning that burns you out by week two. I want plans that actually fit your real life and help you grow in faithfulness, peace, and purpose. And that starts with something most of us skip. Before we make new goals… before we build new routines… before we write a single list for the year ahead… we need to do the very first (and honestly, most clarifying) step: Look back on last year with an accurate view. Not through the lens of guilt. Not through the lens of...
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Why I Still Believe in New Year Goals (Even Though I Don’t Do Resolutions) - BLOG
Finding Joy in Your Home
Boom. It’s January. The month where we all set wildly impossible New Year’s resolutions… burn out by January 3rd… and then spend the rest of the year feeling vaguely guilty about it. Obviously, that’s not the way we’re meant to approach change. But what I’ve noticed this year is something interesting. After years of failed resolutions, a lot of people have swung hard in the opposite direction. They’re done trying. Done planning. Done setting goals altogether. “No resolutions.” “No goals.” “No pressure.” And while I understand the exhaustion behind that response, I...
info_outlineWhat does it really mean to have a rightly ordered home? In this episode, I’m diving into a topic that’s been heavy on my heart: how we as Christian women can faithfully order our homes according to God’s design while recognizing that every family looks a little different.
I share some of my own story of working from home, balancing homeschooling, business, and motherhood, and what it’s looked like for Jason and me to wrestle through these questions together. We’ll talk about biblical principles for family life, the beauty of unique family cultures, and the importance of being faithful in the exact season God has given us.
If you’ve ever wrestled with questions about priorities, work, comparison, or what “ordering your home” should practically look like, this episode is for you.
Links and Resources:
- Join our private community to chat about this podcast episode: FindingJoyCommunity.com
- Watch the podcast on YouTube if you want! Finding Joy in Your Home on YouTube
- Check out our amazing new app at https://joyfulhomeapp.com/
- We are undergoing a huge website redesign. We will be moving things up a ton and will have a super fun relaunch soon - big giveaways and other fun stuff. Stay tuned!
- Sponsor: For a limited time, you can try OneSkin with 15% off using code HOME at oneskin.co.