Finding Joy in Your Home

The Finding Joy in Your Home podcast exists to give you the tools, inspiration, and encouragement that you need to craft a Gospel-Centered Home (formerly called the Homemaking Foundations Podcast)! Join Jami, creator behind FindingJoyinYourHome.com, as we explore various aspects of homemaking including biblical womanhood, marriage, healthy living, organizing, cooking, and so much more! If you feel like your home is out of control - or if you ever feel overwhelmed in your role as homemaker - then join Jami each week as she stands firm on God’s Word as our path to bringing glory to God and finding true joy and peace in the everyday.

Can You Really Raise a Large Family Well? - BLOG 03/23/2026

Can You Really Raise a Large Family Well? - BLOG Rediscovering God’s design for family in a world that sees children as a burden I have mostly been off of social media entirely since early January when I got my new "dumb-ish" phone for my birthday. But even so, news reached me that Hannah Neeleman from Ballarina Farms had her 9th baby. And that the internet has imploded over it. I'm honestly not sure what is so shocking about a Mormon mom, who's had 8 previous babies, presumably every 1/5 - 2 years for over a decade, now having one more child. Like, don't you expect it by now? But nevertheless, baby #9 is here, and the interwebs have strong feelings about it. Not being a Mormon myself, or particularly interested in what Instagram influencers are up to, I am not here to defend Hannah's family or enter into any debate about their life, their finances, or how they live their life (or portray it online). What I am particularly interested in, however, is this backlash against the simple fact that she would dare to have 9 children. "Hannah, don't you know that you are not supposed to have more than 1.6 children? Anything more is outrageous and clearly immoral!" The outrageous thing is that the United States has fallen to a birthrate of just 1.6 children per woman(1), which is now tragically below the replacement rate, and is a record low. We are seeing this same trend over most of the developed world, including Canada (1.4), virtually all of Europe (with a combined birth rate of 1.4), Japan (1.3), South Korea (0.8), Australia & New Zealand (1.6 each), among others. If you are someone who believes the world is overpopulated and that this change is good because immigrants will come in and do all the jobs needed, or that technology and AI will replace all of the jobs needed, we can still be friends, but we will not agree on this issue. You might want to go on your merry way to a different article. Our two sets of twin boys, back to back! Because of the birth rates that have been falling for decades, when you go outside your home with two cheery, or two cranky, toddlers, you will hear over and over again "Wow, you've got your hands full!" or if anyone is having a tough time being out past naptime or just being a toddler, you will get nasty comments and looks. (This is a topic for another day, but I do think two things are happening here: on the one hand, no one disciplines anymore, and children are allowed to run wild in public spaces and can genuinely be a nuisance. We are tired of parents not teaching and training their children, and so any outburst, noise, or even laughter from someone under 5 feet tall is looked at with a side eye or outright sneering. We, as a society, have forgotten what it's like to have children around. We've forgotten that they are entitled to live and take up space as much as any adult. We've forgotten that children are precious and that they are learning how to be adults and members of society, and such training needs to happen in the real world. It's as if our tiredness of permissive parenting has convinced an entire society of adults that 100% of all children are ill-behaved and a nuisance. But I digress...) Our society can no longer fathom how someone could have 5-9 children, and that it must be impossible. What we forget is that until about 3.5 seconds ago, this was the norm. And don't come at me with "Well, rates of infant mortality were higher." Yes, and families still had a lot of kids who grew to adulthood. You can disagree on the reasons why they had so many children, but the fact remains that generations upon generations of women raised more than 4 children and did it successfully. So, back to Hannah. A viral tweet when the news broke relays the sentiments of a large portion of my generation: “You cannot give nine children adequate time, attention, and connection.” This sparked articles and comments arguing that large families bordered on child abuse, that large families are oppressive or ignorant, and that mothers (and children) in large families are miserable. As someone with a whole lot of experience in this area, I've been mulling this all over for days. But I haven't been mulling it over when it comes to Hannah. I've been mulling it over because moms in this generation need to know that there is another way to have a family than the 1.6 children they see in society. Families need to be encouraged that you can have a large family and that it can be a joy and a blessing. I love looking back through old literature or hearing stories of great-great-grandmas raising their brood, but it's hard for us to connect with these stories on a personal level. We read about Ma Ingalls raising her larger-than-normal family (by today's standards, anyway) in a dugout without electricity, running water, or an urgent care to run to when the cough turns deep in the chest. We are inspired by the rugged courage it took to be a mom back then, and we might even pick up a tip or two. But by and large, we don't know how to connect the lessons we see from Ma Ingalls or Marmee with those of our very modern world, juggling soccer practice, grocery pick-up, social media, dating, lack of community, and so much more. In so many ways we see, we have it so much easier than "back then," and yet in others, it seems impossibly harder. 18 months later, we welcomed our 1 precious girl! If we are firm in the fact that children are a blessing from the Lord, then we also know there IS a way to raise 3-4 children, 5-6 children, or even more in a good, godly, and wonderful way. For the past year or so, it's often been on my mind that American (and Western) women need a better blueprint for raising children. We are now a couple of generations out from larger families being even somewhat common. We don't need to be learning from the Hannah Neeleman's of the world or the latest Instagrammer (I am thankful for some of the good and godly voices there sharing the positive (and the hard) sides of raising kids like Abbie Halberstadt - M.is.for.Mama and Elisha and Katie Voetberg of Now That We're A Family), but rather from the mother sitting a church pew away from you, wrangling her five children, 7 and under. Or the mom fielding college applications and nursing a baby at the same time. Or the experience of the older mom welcoming grandchildren into the family. I launched a project last spring that I think I'm finally ready to pick back up. I am the oldest of 4 siblings (along with a half-sister I sadly did not get to grow up with). Even at the time, I didn't consider myself from a large family, but my mom constantly got comments asking if we were all from the same dad (even though we share such a strong family resemblance) and remarking on what a large family we were! My husband, however, is the oldest of 7 kids, very much a large family by today's standards. I always said I wanted a large family, and 6 was my ideal number of the largest family I could fathom. My husband said he wanted more like 4. So we compromised and said 5 was the perfect number. All young couples are idealistic when they have these conversations because, of course, they have no idea how many children they will indeed one day want, nor indeed the number of children they will actually be able to have! But 5 children came and went, and we realized that the "ideal" number for us kept moving up. Now, we have 8 beautiful children, ages 13 down to 1. So, not quite the 9 that Hannah now has, but I think I'm close enough to speak on this topic. Plus, we have the benefit of Jason having grown up in a large family with all 7 adult children still loving and walking with the Lord - Praise be to God! At the beginning of last year, I read the terrific book, Hannah's Children (totally unrelated to the Hannah mentioned above), and it got my wheels spinning. Hannah's Childr explores why some women in modern Western culture (it might just be centered on the US, I can't remember now) choose large families despite declining birth rates, highlighting their values, motivations, and sense of purpose. The book argues that their choices challenge mainstream assumptions about fulfillment, success, and family life. Overall, great book, and I highly recommend it. However, it interviews any woman with 5 or more children, regardless of faith. And it really only gets into their motivation for having a large family. I would like to go about 5 steps beyond that. I am focusing on Christian women because our faith highly impacts how we raise our children. And I'm not only interested in what motivates Christian women to have 5 or more children, but what common principles we can draw from the families who have raised a large family well. And since then we've added 3 more sons to the mix, making us a family of 10! It's no secret that it takes a lot to raise a large family. There are so many schedules to juggle, education to oversee, finances to count, food to cook, and love and attention to go around. So, as Christian women, how do we do this well? How do we practically and spiritually raise a brood of kids who love the Lord and develop a strong family connection? How do mothers of many do this with health, vitality, and vigor? There are so many flavors of good family cultures, different personalities, and different family sizes (a family with 4 kids will function a bit differently than a family with 12) that I don't think it's a one-size-fits-all answer. But I do think there are so many wise women who are quietly living this out. And until our congregations and neighborhoods are full of larger families again, it's a good thing to be able to learn from those around the country or the globe. How do we steward a large family well? I have collected email addresses from over 100 Christian women (not Mormon, not another faith) with 6 or more children who are going to participate in a study that I'm putting together. We have mothers who are deep in the trenches with 6 kids, 8 and under. We have mothers sandwiched in the middle who are bouncing a baby on their knees and teaching their teens to drive. And most importantly, we have mothers who have raised their 6+ children, and all of those children are still walking with the Lord. I am particularly interested in this segment to see if we can pick up some common threads that contributed to this (I think quality talking time will be a recurring theme, but we'll see)! I have plans of turning this study into a book, and I would love the prayers along the way. This will not be a quick turnaround, but I do think it has the potential to be a very significant project. I will, Lord willing, provide updates as we go into it. This week, I will be formulating the study questions and getting initial information out to study participants (Let me know if you have any burning questions you want me to ask)! So, in the spirit of the Hannah Neeleman controversy and getting inspired for my new study, I'll be doing a series of articles on the topic. Here's what I'll tentatively be covering: The blessings of a large family The pitfalls of a large family You actually get better at this (addressing the concern that one person can't mother this many) Addressing the no-time-for-one-on-one myth Parentification of the kids Mom's health and vitality The question of birth control Educating a brood Finances and what is "the good life?" I am inviting you to join me in this series, not because I have all the answers (far from it), but because I think we need to be asking the questions. (1) https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2026/is-the-us-birth-rate-decliningaud /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/40597110

My 40 Before 40 Reading List - Working on the Western Canon - BLOG 03/06/2026

My 40 Before 40 Reading List - Working on the Western Canon - BLOG For the first time in a couple of years, I've really been enjoying my reading list! I've set a goal of reading 104 books this year, at a clipped pace of 2 books per week. Here at the end of February, I've managed to stay on track with this goal and hope to see it through this year. Part of my renewed vigor with reading is that it has now been 4+ years since I've gone this long without being pregnant. In fact, 2026 might be the first year that I will not have a nursing baby or be pregnant since 2019 (7 years, wow)! In fact, I've only had two years (2013 and 2018) since 2011 that I have not been pregnant or had a baby under 1. Holy moly, when you put it that way, I need to give myself a lot more grace for my failing routines. I say that partially in jest and partially in truth. Only the Lord knows what is ahead but my focus this year is building back up my body, my strength, and hopefully some braincells while I'm at it! It feels like a year wide open for good routines and nurturing parts of my health that have gotten neglected as of late. I know you landed on this post to read my 40 before 40 list of classics I'm attempting to tackle over the next 4 years, but for me, the context matters. I think I'm finally ready to tackle some of these more daunting reads. And more than that, I'm excited to! Jason and I have each taken on a big reading goal. We will turn 40 and 42 just 3 weeks apart from each other. So I made my 40 list and he made a 42 list. We have a lot of overlap but many changes too (books either of us has already read and he replaced the homemaking books on my list with others). This gives us just under 4 years to complete this list. So at a pace of 10 books per year, I think we can do it! Now technically, my list is actually 44 books long. I counted C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy in one spot an then ended up adding two more books to the end of the list. I'm on a big classics binge right now and I want to read those anyway, so might as well add them to my list! My reading list is based on working through the . Also for a crash course in the classics or for starting your own 40 before 40 list. I'm already looking forward to my 50 before 50 list. Jami's 40 Before 40 Reading List: Classic Literature & Story: 1. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë 2. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen 3. East of Eden – John Steinbeck 4. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy 5. Middlemarch – George Eliot 6. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens 7. Bleak House – Charles Dickens 8. Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë 9. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet 10. The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton 11. Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell 12. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier 13. Gullivers Travels - Jonathan Swift 14. Silas Marner – George Eliot Epic & Philosophical Literature: 15. The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri 16. The Aeneid – Virgil 17. The Odyssey – Homer 18. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky 19. The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky 20. The Faerie Queene – Edmund Spenser 21.L es Misérables – Victor Hugo 22. Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes Christian Faith, Family, & Home: 23. The Hidden Art of Homemaking – Edith Schaeffer 24. What Is a Family? – Edith Schaeffer 25. A Chance to Die – Elisabeth Elliot 26. Orthodoxy – G.K. Chesterton 27. Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan 28. The Space Trilogy – C.S. Lewis 29. Life Under Compulsion – Anthony Esolen 30. How Should We Then Live? – Francis Schaeffer 31. On the Incarnation – Athanasius History, Philosophy & Formation: 32. Meditations – Marcus Aurelius 33. Pensées – Blaise Pascal 34. Plutarch’s Lives – Plutarch 35. Church History – Eusebius 36. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs – John Foxe 37. In Defense of Tradition – Richard Weaver 38. The Gulag Archipelago – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 39. Lonesome Dove – Larry McMurtry 40. Kristin Lavransdatter - Sigrid Undset 41. Paradise Lost - John Milton 42. Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer Another goal that I will slowly be working through (without a timeline) is reading all of the works of a few particular authors including: George McDonald C.S. Lewis J.R.R. Tolkien Jane Austen Charles Dickens Edith Schaeffer Franics Schaeffer G. K. Chesterton John Steinbeck Jason and I both just got our lists finalized and I'm off to a good start! I just finished Pride & Prejuide and then dove into Emma. Emma isn't on my list but I am working on reading all of Austen. I took a break from Emma though because my book club is reading Cranford, another book not on my list but well worth a read! I will be diving into What is a Family by Edith Shaeffer next. I started this years ago and never finished it. I'll add some 40 before 40 reading updates for you throughout the year! Have you created a similar reading list? I'd love to know what you think I need to start adding to my 50 before 50 list! /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/40342025

How to Grow as a Homemaker (Without Feeling Behind) - BLOG 03/02/2026

How to Grow as a Homemaker (Without Feeling Behind) - BLOG When I first got married, I was behind. Admittedly, I was only nineteen. That alone explains part of it. But if I am completely honest, I do not think that five more years would have made much difference. Even if I had finished college as a single woman instead of a married one, even if I had waited until twenty-four or twenty-five, I do not believe I would have been significantly more prepared to run a home. Like many women of my generation, I had spent my teenage and young adult years focused on school, grades, college applications, part-time jobs, and preparing for a future career. I learned how to write essays and take exams. I learned how to meet deadlines and navigate academic systems. What I did not learn was how to manage a household. No one had intentionally taught me how to plan meals, build cleaning rhythms, grocery shop on a budget, manage my time within the context of a family, or establish spiritual habits inside a home. I stepped into marriage with good intentions, but very few practical skills. Over the years, I have realized that my experience is far from unique. I regularly hear from women in their twenties, thirties, and even forties who are just now coming to the quiet realization that they do not actually know how to run a home well. They feel overwhelmed, scattered, and constantly behind, but they cannot quite identify why. I believe this is one of the great unspoken struggles for modern women. It is not because life is harder than it used to be. (It most ways, it's not! We have ovens, washing machines, dishwashers, grocery delivery, and hot running water.) Nor is it simply because we lack a “village,” though community certainly matters. Ma Ingalls managed an entire homestead, often snowed in for months at a time, without seeing another soul. There were seasons when there truly was no village. Community is a blessing, but it is not the sole explanation for why we struggle. The deeper issue is this: many of us were never taught the skills. Some of us were not shown. Some of us were not interested at the time. Many of us were swept up in a culture that prioritized academic achievement, career preparation, and constant outward productivity. Practical domestic skills were often treated as secondary, optional, or often outdated. As I teach my own children now, I see this gap more clearly than ever. My older children, between the ages of nine and thirteen, already possess more hands-on, practical life skills than I did when I was newly married. They can cook simple meals, manage basic chores independently, and understand the rhythms of our home. Watching them grow in competence has made me realize just how much harder it is to build a stable home when those skills are missing at the beginning. Yet here is the hopeful part of the story. Not having the skills at nineteen did not determine the trajectory of my life. Over time, I chose to learn. I embraced the domestic arts gradually and imperfectly. I learned how to meal plan without panic. I learned how to cook three meals a day. I learned how to garden, preserve food, and ferment kefir and kombucha. I learned how to build systems that keep a household of ten functioning with relative order. It is not flawless—far from it—but it is steady and intentional. And I did not learn these things as a child sitting at my grandmother’s elbow (I wish!). I learned them as an adult. Which means this: if you feel behind, your story is not over. You are not disqualified. You are simply at the beginning of your learning curve. And that is a very hopeful place to be. How to Grow as a Homemaker (Without Feeling Behind) There is a quiet pressure that many women carry in their homemaking. It rarely gets spoken aloud, but it often sounds something like this: I should be further along by now. Why does everyone else seem so organized? Why can’t I keep up? Why does this feel harder than it looks online? If you have ever felt behind in your homemaking, I want to begin by gently reframing that thought. You are not necessarily behind. More often than not, you are simply growing. Growth in homemaking does not happen overnight. It unfolds slowly, intentionally, and often quietly. It is built through faithfulness in ordinary days. Understanding this changes everything. Let’s look at what growth in homemaking actually requires. 1. Recognize That Homemaking Is Learned Very few of us were handed a complete blueprint for running a home. Most of us picked up scattered pieces along the way — perhaps from our mothers, perhaps from observation, perhaps through trial and error. We burned dinners. We tried elaborate systems that failed. We quit, adjusted, and tried again. Homemaking is not instinctive perfection. It is a learned skill set. Cooking is learned. Budgeting is learned. Meal planning is learned. Time management is learned. Even establishing spiritual rhythms in a household is learned. When you understand this, something in your brain shifts. Instead of concluding, “I am bad at this,” you can more accurately say, “I am still learning.” And indeed, "I CAN learn this!" And learning, by definition, takes time (and a little elbow grease). 2. Move from Motivation to Discipline One of the most significant turning points in my own growth as a homemaker came when I realized that motivation is unreliable, but discipline builds homes. There were countless days when I did not feel inspired to cook from scratch, reset the kitchen yet again, plan the week ahead, or wake early to read my Bible. If I had waited for inspiration, very little would have been accomplished. Growth does not come from waiting until we feel ready. It comes from small, repeated acts of obedience. Discipline may sound rigid, but in practice it is deeply freeing. When you build consistent rhythms, you are no longer forced to decide from scratch each day what needs to be done. You stop reinventing your week. You move out of constant reaction and into intentionally using your time well. Discipline creates stability and stability fosters peace. 3. Build Rhythms Instead of Relying on Crisis Much of the feeling of being “behind” comes from randomness. We clean only when the house reaches a breaking point. We plan meals only when the refrigerator is empty. We pray only when we are desperate. We organize only when the clutter becomes unbearable. This cycle creates constant stress. Growth begins when you replace randomness with gentle, repeatable rhythms. This looks like a weekly meal planning time or a simple daily reset habit. It might include a consistent morning routine and a weekly planning session. You do not need dozens of complicated systems. In fact, too many systems can create more overwhelm. What you need are a few faithful rhythms that anchor your home (and most importantly, that your brain can turn on autopilot)! If you've ever felt the mental load of trying to juggle everything, often the overwhelm comes from not knowing how to do any of it well and feeling that constant stress of keeping all these new things in your brain at once! Small consistency over time produces steady progress. 4. Remove What Is Quietly Distracting You One of the more uncomfortable truths I have had to face is this: often it was not that I lacked time, it was that I allowed distractions to consume it. Endless scrolling, constant background noise, comparison. An endless stream of advice and opinions. A sense that I should be doing more, achieving more, or keeping up with someone else’s standard. If you regularly feel behind, it is worth asking what is quietly pulling your attention away from what matters most. And pulling your attention away from your own home. Growth in homemaking often begins with subtraction before addition. Less noise, fewer voices, and clearer priorities. When distraction decreases, clarity increases. 5. Define Success Biblically, Not Culturally Modern culture defines success in ways that are often exhausting. A beautiful home must be spotless. A good mother must do everything flawlessly. Productivity determines worth. Busyness signals importance. But scripture paints a different picture. A faithful homemaker loves her family, serves diligently, builds with wisdom, and fears the Lord. Her faithfulness may be unseen by the world, but it is deeply significant in God’s kingdom. Growth in homemaking is not about achieving a Pinterest-perfect aesthetic or being an instagram influencer. It is about cultivating faithfulness, in the everyday. And faithfulness is rarely dramatic. It is repetitive, it is ordinary, and it is steady. Yet it is powerful beyond measure. 6. Focus on One Area at a Time Another reason many women feel perpetually behind is that they attempt to fix everything at once. They try to overhaul their cleaning routines, health habits, meal planning, spiritual life, and organization systems simultaneously. This approach almost always leads to discouragement. Instead, choose one focus for a season. Perhaps you decide that this month you will learn consistent meal planning. Perhaps this quarter you will establish a workable cleaning rhythm. Perhaps this year you will strengthen your spiritual disciplines. Growth compounds. When you master one skill well, it strengthens every other area of your home. 7. Remember That You Are Building a Legacy Homemaking is not primarily about completing today’s to-do list. It is about shaping the atmosphere and direction of your home over decades. When you have the big picture in mind, it's easier to be faitfhful with today's small load, even if that means trying to learn one new recipe. Your children are unlikely to remember the messy Tuesday or the burnt casserole. They will remember warmth, stability, laughter, and the quiet faithfulness that marked your days. You are not behind. You are building something lasting. If You Want to Grow More Intentionally For over twelve years, I have created courses, conferences, planning systems, and digital tools to help women grow in these exact areas — building rhythms, creating home management systems, meal planning consistently, strengthening spiritual disciplines, setting purposeful goals, simplifying health, and reducing overwhelm. For the first time in two years, our full legacy digital library, the courses, conferences, eBooks, and printable systems that were previously sold individually, is available inside our Vault for lifetime access. Everything is priced at $5 or $10. Or you can purchase the complete Vault bundle for $99. These are the same systems that helped me grow from overwhelmed and inexperienced to steady and intentional. They are not magic solutions, but they are practical tools for real progress. Whether you choose to explore those resources or simply begin where you are today, remember this: Growth is slow. Faithfulness matters. And you are not behind. You are growing. Blessings, Jami 💛 /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/40286740

My Garden Journal: February 2026 - BLOG 02/17/2026

My Garden Journal: February 2026 - BLOG I am deep in the part of my gardening year where I am SUPER excited… and also starting to wonder if maybe I did too much. If you garden, you know this feeling. January and February are all hope and seed packets and plans. Everything feels possible. And then suddenly your dining room table is covered in milk cartons and seed trays and you’re counting how many varieties of peppers you started and thinking, “Oh dear.” But here’s something I’ve learned in my still-limited gardening experience: I would rather feel like I did too much than look back in July and wish I had done more. Because once the moment passes for the year, it’s often too late to go back and start over. You have a small window to restart your pepper plants if they didn’t germinate — but not much time. If you miss it, you miss it. There’s no rewinding the growing season. So this year I’m operating off one big question: What do I want my harvest to look like come mid-summer? Not what feels easy in February. Not what feels manageable in the moment. But what will bless our family in July, August, and September. Right now, it feels like a lot to take on and juggle. But I also know that 2027 Jami is going to GREATLY thank me for the work I’m putting in today as I establish a brand new garden at our new house. What We’ve Started So Far This year I’m leaning hard into what we already have and what costs the least. In milk cartons (because they’re free and we go through 4–6 gallons of milk per week 😅): Utah Celery Chives Peppermint Peppers: Anaheim chili, small red chili, cayenne, early jalapeño, and sweet pickle Rosemary Are milk cartons glamorous? No. Are they free and surprisingly effective? Yes. And when you’re growing this much, free matters. In my cell trays, I just started yesterday: Pink Chinese celery White Creole onions Wild bergamot Bee balm (Spielarten mix) Stevia Agastache Echinacea Garden huckleberries Blackberry huckleberries Tresca strawberries Tomatoes: San Marzano, Caribe, and Chadwick cherry Yarrow Cauliflower Every time I look at the trays I feel that little spark of excitement. Tiny green starts are such a picture of hope. It’s wild to think that in just a few months these fragile little seedlings could be towering tomato plants and baskets of strawberries. This week I still need to: Direct sow cilantro Direct sow broccoli At our new house, we have one raised bed that’s ready to go, so I can at least start there while we get the rest of the garden prepped. And that brings me to the big project… The Lasagna Garden (a.k.a. The Cardboard Situation) This year, because of cost and because of how large I want this garden to be, we decided not to do raised beds. For the first time, we’re trying a lasagna garden. We started by laying down cardboard to smother the grass and build up from there. I thought we had plenty of cardboard. We did not. Not even close. We didn’t even have half of what we need. So now we’re collecting more cardboard, asking friends, saving every box, and picking up soil this weekend to start building the rows. Right now? It looks like a mess. Truly. It looks like we just dumped recycling all over the yard. But I’m trusting the process. I’m reminding myself that most worthwhile things look unimpressive at the beginning. I’m hoping that in a few weeks it starts to actually resemble a garden. My Tasks for Next Week in the Garden Because February energy is high and if I don’t write this down, I will absolutely forget something 😅 Here’s what’s on the agenda for next week: Start my next round of seeds Direct sow everything I need to in my one raised bed outside Finish laying down the cardboard Have Jason pick up a soil/compost mix on Saturday with his truck Lay down the soil and start forming the rows Hope we get a truckload of wood chips from ChipDrop.com soon If not… I’ll probably add the $20 tip and see if that helps move us up the list. Once the soil is down and the wood chips (hopefully!) arrive, the beds should finally start looking like an actual garden instead of a recycling center. And I think that will make everything feel more manageable. There’s something about structure and visible progress that calms the overwhelm. At that point, we’ll be in such a good place: beds prepped, seeds started, direct sowing underway. That’s when it really begins to feel real. A Little Deck Garden, Too I also have this little side mission: I want to create a small container garden on our deck. I’ve been hunting for large containers that are cheap or repurposable. I refuse to pay full price for giant planters if I can help it. So I’m scanning Facebook Marketplace, keeping an eye out at thrift stores, and mentally cataloging anything that could hold soil. Half the fun of gardening on a budget is the creativity. Can it hold dirt? Does it drain? Will it survive the summer heat? Then it’s probably usable. I love the idea of stepping out onto the deck and snipping herbs or grabbing a handful of flowers outside the kitchen door. It feels practical and beautiful at the same time. February feels ambitious. But it also feels hopeful. And I’d much rather stand in the middle of “maybe I did too much” than sit in July wishing I had tried harder when the window was open. We plant in faith. We prepare in faith. And we trust that the small work of today will bless our family in the months (and even years) ahead. Here’s to cardboard chaos, milk cartons, and big garden dreams. 🌱 /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/40137120

A Trip to Pennsylvania, A Pause in Blogging, and Some Honest Reflections - BLOG 02/16/2026

A Trip to Pennsylvania, A Pause in Blogging, and Some Honest Reflections - BLOG The kids and I had the opportunity to go visit my family in Pennsylvania this past week, and I’m so incredibly glad we did. We’ve been trying to schedule a trip up there for ages, and it just never seemed to work out. There was always something — a launch, a deadline, a busy season, a reason to push it off. Finally, we picked a time that worked… except Jason was just too busy to take off work. So the kids and I went anyway. And I’m so, so glad we did. With the older boys getting so much older, it was actually such a fun and easy trip. An 8–9 hour drive used to feel monumental, but for us seasoned travelers, it felt like no big deal. We packed snacks, queued up audiobooks, and just went. We stayed at my aunt’s house and spent sweet time with cousins and my grandfather, who lives with them. We haven’t been back to Pennsylvania since my grandmother passed away two years ago this month, so being there felt tender in a way I didn’t fully expect. There was so much snow, the kind we just don’t get here in North Carolina, and the kids probably spent a dozen hours outside sledding. It was pure joy. Rosy cheeks, soaked mittens, frozen fingers, and so much fun! We made our obligatory stop at Hershey and did the free Chocolate World tour (a must if you’re ever in town), swam in their indoor pool while it snowed outside, and watched the Olympics together in the evenings. It was simple, cozy, memory-making kind of days. And because we live on the East Coast now, this isn’t a once-every-few-years kind of trip anymore. We’re already talking about a summer visit! It was exactly the kind of time away that makes you grateful… and then oddly excited to come home and settle back into your routines. It was exactly what I needed as I turn my attention to the Spring and big work and home projects. The Blogging Goal I Didn’t Hit At the beginning of this year, I set a goal to blog at least three times per week. I love blogging. I love long-form writing. I love the space to think clearly and share deeply. And then the past two weeks? I didn’t blog at all. Not once. Part of that is simply because of this trip. But the bigger reason is that we’ve been working on a massive system overhaul for our business. We’ve been moving every single one of our old products into a new system so that customers can access them easily and beautifully. It has been such a good project — the kind that blesses people long-term — but it has taken nearly all of my available work time in January and February. Evenings. Weekends. Every spare hour. And I wasn't expecting it to be quite so large of a task. I’m thrilled about it being finished. (And keep an eye out — we’ll have a special sale this week connected to it.) But in the middle of it all, something deeper has been stirring in my heart. What Is My Time For? I have been praying a lot lately about my time. My work hours are limited. I am first a wife. First a mother. My home and children and marriage are not side projects, they are my primary calling. And yet our business matters too. It supports our family. It serves thousands of women. It is not frivolous. But where does blogging fit? Where does social media fit? Where does marketing fit? Where does being “consistent” fit? I’ve increasingly felt like social media is destroying our society. Yes, there is good to be argued for. Yes, it connects people. Yes, it can be used for truth and encouragement. But it is also fracturing our attention, shortening our focus, amplifying outrage, and shaping our thinking in ways we don’t even realize. I don’t want to feel fractured. I don’t want outside voices constantly shaping the tone of our home. I don’t want my brain trained to live in 30-second bursts of noise. And yet… I also know how hard it is when the good voices disappear. I know how lonely it can feel when encouragement dries up. So I find myself in this tension. If I’m honest, I would delete social media tomorrow and never look back — except that our family relies on it. It’s part of how we reach women. It’s part of how we sustain the business God has entrusted to us. So I am prayerfully evaluating. Not in a dramatic way. Not in a “big announcement” way. But in a quiet, steady, Lord-what-would-You-have-me-do kind of way. What is essential? What is noise? What builds fruit that lasts? What simply feeds the machine? If You Feel Behind… Maybe you set goals this year too. Maybe you were going to be more consistent. More disciplined. More productive. More organized. And maybe the past two weeks (or two months) didn’t look how you imagined. I want you to know something: falling behind on a goal is not the same thing as failing in your calling. Sometimes faithfulness looks like sledding in the snow with your children. Sometimes it looks like sitting with your grandfather. Sometimes it looks like moving systems quietly behind the scenes. Sometimes it looks like not posting. And also sometimes, it's recognizing that God is calling you to be self-disciplined in an area you don't want to be. (Hi, that's me!) God is not impressed by our output. He is concerned with our obedience. For me, right now, that means evaluating where my limited work time goes. It means asking whether my energy is being poured into what will matter five years from now, but also for the short term when there are bills to be paid and a business to be run. I don’t have all the answers yet. But I do know this: I want my days to glorify God. I want my home to feel peaceful. I want my children to remember warmth and presence. And I want whatever work I do to flow from those priorities — not compete with them. So this is just a little life update. A little peek behind the curtain. A gentle reset. I’m excited to be home. Excited to be back in routines. Excited to keep building good things. And prayerfully considering what that building should look like moving forward. Thank you for being here. Truly. We’ll see what the Lord does next. /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/40128640

Homemaking Is Not About Perfection, It’s About Faithfulness - S5, E8 02/02/2026

When the Work Feels Small: Homemaking as Kingdom Work - BLOG 01/30/2026

When the Work Feels Small: Homemaking as Kingdom Work - BLOG There are seasons when the world feels too loud. Too heavy. Too much. And often, that weight doesn’t stay “out there.” It follows us home. It shows up in tired bodies, overflowing sinks, loud kitchens, and hearts that feel stretched thin. In moments like that, it’s easy to wonder if the quiet, repetitive work we do every day really matters. This season, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it truly means to be a homemaker. Not just in the way we often picture it, but in the deeper, truer sense. Homemaking isn’t limited to a job title or a particular life stage. If you are a woman, you are a homemaker. Whether you live in a dorm room, a small apartment, a house full of children, or a quiet home with just yourself, you are cultivating a space. You are shaping an atmosphere. And there are skills, habits, and a mindset worth cultivating in every season. I remember our very first home after getting married at nineteen. It was a tiny one-bedroom apartment built sometime in the seventies, complete with mismatched wood paneling and a giant wall of floor-to-ceiling glass that made absolutely no sense for what was now considered entry-level housing. It wasn’t fancy. It wasn’t beautiful by design standards. But it was our first home. I was so excited to learn how to care for it, to figure out what diligence looked like in that small space, and to take ownership of the work in front of me. That excitement has been tested many times over the years. Because the work of homemaking, especially in a full and busy household, is deeply cyclical. The dishes are never truly finished. The laundry basket never stays empty for long. Floors that were swept this morning somehow need it again by lunchtime. There are days when it feels like everything you do is immediately undone, and the question sneaks in: is this even worthwhile? Colossians 3:23–24 has become an anchor for me in those moments. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” That word “whatever” leaves very little room for exceptions. Dishes count. Diapers count. School lessons, late-night talks, scrubbing toilets, and calming big emotions all count. The work may feel small or unseen, but it is not insignificant when it is done unto the Lord. Right now, our days are full of very ordinary things. A lot of food. A lot of dishes. A lot of schooling. A lot of cleaning on repeat. And while I know I’ll one day miss the noise and closeness of having everyone under one roof, there is no denying the weight of the mundane in this season. Much of what I do will never be photographed, praised, or noticed outside these walls. And that’s okay. I’m not doing it for applause. I’m doing it to love the people God has placed in my care and to create a home where peace, rest, and joy are easier to find. When I remember that I am ultimately serving Christ, something shifts. The work doesn’t magically disappear, but my posture toward it changes. I can approach it with purpose rather than resentment. With gratitude rather than defeat. Even when it’s hard, I can trust that God sees every small act of faithfulness. There are also moments when homemaking becomes ministry in very visible ways. Recently, we had one of those days where disappointment seemed to pile on all at once. After a difficult season already filled with medical expenses and uncertainty, our truck broke down unexpectedly. It felt overwhelming in that moment, like one more thing added to an already heavy load. I didn’t pretend it wasn’t hard, and I didn’t hide my disappointment from the kids. Instead, we talked through it together. We made a plan to encourage their dad when he got home from having the truck towed. And they watched me work through discouragement with honesty and faith. Those moments matter. Our children don’t need perfection, but they do need to see what it looks like to trust the Lord in real life. They need to see repentance when we fail, humility when we fall short, and faith that is lived out, not just talked about. The home becomes a place where grace is practiced, forgiveness is modeled, and the gospel is made visible in everyday decisions. Homemaking really is so much more than chores. The physical work matters, and we shouldn’t dismiss it as unimportant. Those small, repetitive tasks make up our days and, over time, our lives. But beyond that, homemaking is a ministry. When we view our work through the lens of Christ’s death and resurrection, even the most ordinary moments take on eternal weight. Washing dishes becomes an act of service. Reading bedtime stories becomes a chance to shepherd hearts. Late-night conversations with teens become sacred ground. Still, there will always be more to do. More dust. More laundry. More reminders that we cannot keep everything perfectly in order. And the gospel meets us there too. Our worth is not found in how much we accomplish. It is not measured by the state of our homes or the length of our to-do lists. Our value is found in Christ alone. This truth frees us. It frees us from striving for perfection and allows us to serve with joy. Christ has already done the greatest work on our behalf. Because of that, we can work diligently and rest deeply at the same time. Cooking dinner becomes an act of worship as we thank God for provision. Cleaning the bathroom can become a quiet prayer. Rocking a child in the night can remind us of the tender care God shows His own children. Some days will still feel long. Some seasons will feel exhausting. Joy may feel distant at times. But Scripture calls us to lift our eyes and remember who we are serving. We are not just keeping house. We are serving Christ. And the gospel is not a one-time truth tucked away in the past. It is daily hope for the present. When discouragement creeps in and the work feels unseen, we can trust that our labor in the Lord is never in vain. So when homemaking feels heavy, pause and remember the greater story you are part of. You are building more than a clean home. You are shaping a gospel legacy. The grace you extend, the prayers you whisper, and the meals you prepare all point your family toward Christ. That is kingdom work. Keep going. Ask the Lord for strength and wisdom. Ask Him to clarify your priorities and give you peace to let go of what doesn’t matter. Work diligently, rest faithfully, and trust that God is using every seed you plant. Your work is not wasted. It is seen. It is holy. And it matters. Lord, help us to see our homes as places of ministry. Teach us to treasure the gospel in the middle of ordinary tasks and remind us that our work is not wasted when it is done for You. Give us joy in the small things and grace to serve our families with love. Amen. /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/39941735

My reading for January 2026, with a goal of 104 books read this year - BLOG 01/29/2026

My reading for January 2026, with a goal of 104 books read this year - BLOG I have finally — and I mean finally — been really diving into my reading goals and actually enjoying them again. For the last few years, my reading has been a little lackluster. I’ve been reading far below my goals (which in and of itself is totally fine), but I was also lacking excitement and joy in my reading. I read a lot of fiction in ’24–’25, but most of it was throwaway fiction that, once I finished it, I never thought about again. It didn’t linger. It didn’t shape me. It didn’t spark anything. When I made my reading goal for 2026 and started pulling out the book stack I wanted to read, I was honestly shocked to find books I got for last Christmas that I hadn’t read yet. This is unheard of for me, because I usually devour my new Christmas books immediately. In fact, I don’t think I finished a single book from last Christmas. That alone told me something needed to shift. My goal for 2026 is to read 104 books for the year, which breaks down to two books a week. That’s actually a very doable goal for me, since I’ve spent well over a decade cultivating the habit of reading. If you’re just starting out, though, I highly recommend aiming for one book a week — or even one book every two weeks. Consistency matters far more than speed. So for January 2026, that breaks down to ten books for the month, and I’m happy to report that I’m right on track! For me, the goal isn’t really about hitting the exact number as much as it is about inspiring me to read more, put down screens, and pick up actual books again. I’m also developing a “40 before 40” list of classics I want to read by the time I turn forty (four years from now), and I’ll be sharing that list soon! Here are a few things that have made a big difference for me this year. First — my health is doing so much better. I’ve spent the past two years (but really closer to four) with lackluster health and energy. It all came to a head this last year when I had multiple rounds of kidney stones, multiple kidney infections, and the lowest energy I’ve ever experienced. I could barely function. I would start cleaning a room and literally have to sit down after twenty minutes to rest. Eventually, I discovered my body was literally starving for oxygen due to extremely low ferritin (iron) levels. It’s been a long nine-plus months of working on this, and for the first time in years I’m finally starting to feel like myself again. I still have a ways to go, but the increased energy has been such a gift. I can read again in the evenings and find little pockets of time throughout the day — and what a joy and blessing that has been. Second — I’m genuinely excited about my current book stack. This is absolutely essential for me. If I’m excited about what I’m picking up next, it keeps me moving forward. It also allows me to juggle dryer, heavier books because I’ve got something fun waiting in the wings. The last couple of years I tried to force too much reading that simply wasn’t exciting me, and it made reading feel like work instead of delight. I need a good balance. Here’s what I’ve read in January so far. The Family Garden Plan. I’m planning a massive garden this year and needed a refresher. I first read this book four years ago, and it was really fun to revisit it now that I have more gardening experience under my belt. It was the perfect first book for the year and got me excited all over again for this season’s plans. Five stars. Making Vegetables, Book 1. I’ve owned this book for over a decade and this was the first time I actually read it cover to cover. While it’s not groundbreaking, I did pick up some helpful tips. Four stars. Gut Renovation. I’ve been studying gut health extensively for the past two years, so I was excited about this newer release. While there were a few interesting tidbits, overall it wasn’t especially helpful for where I’m at in my learning. Three stars. Gardening for Everyone. Can you sense a theme in my reading so far? There’s nothing I love more than picking a new practical subject and reading everything I can get my hands on. When I was learning to quilt, I checked out every single quilting book from the library and promptly read all of them. When I take something on, I like to do it properly — or obsessively, if you will. This is an excellent book for the home gardener. Four stars. Harry Potter Dramatized Versions, Books 1–3. Audible is currently releasing each Harry Potter book as a full-cast audio drama. It took me a little while to get into the first one, but by the third I was fully engrossed and now I cannot wait for book four coming out in February. Wisdom on Her Tongue. I originally had high hopes for this book, but a friend told me it was very basic and very short, so I went in with very low expectations. I think because of that, I ended up liking it more than I expected. While it is short, there were some wonderful reminders throughout, and I’ll definitely read it again. Four stars. Pride and Prejudice. Okay, don’t kill me — but I have to admit I’ve never read a single Jane Austen book and I’ve never seen any of the movies. I’ve just never been drawn to what I assumed was a silly period romance. I do adore studying history, though, and enough people have told me I’m ridiculous that I finally gave in. I’m reading this as part of my 40 before 40 list, and while it’s not my favorite book by any means, I’m enjoying it far more than I expected. Once I finish it, Jason and I are going to watch the movie (which one?!) since he read it last year. As a rule, we never watch the movie or show first if it’s based on a book. The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis. I’ve somehow never read this very short Lewis book before, but my book club is reading it this month. I’m only at the very beginning so far, so no real notes yet — but I’m looking forward to digging into it. So tell me — what did you read in January? I’ve got my February reading mostly planned out, but not much beyond that yet, so give me some recommendations! /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/39929005

Welcome to My Garden Journal (and Journey) for 2026 - BLOG 01/24/2026

Welcome to My Garden Journal (and Journey) for 2026 - BLOG 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 all in on my garden plans this year. I’m excited… and also, if I’m honest, just a little nervous. Big dreams tend to do that to me. My Big Hairy Audacious Gardening Goal This dream didn’t start this year. It began about five years ago, when a quiet idea started taking root in my heart: what if I could grow a garden big enough to truly feed my family throughout the year? Around that time, I was getting deeper into canning and food preservation. I started dreaming about walking into my backyard and harvesting dinner instead of running to the store. I began to see the value of homegrown potatoes and carrots that could last through the winter. And slowly, that dream took shape into what I now lovingly call my Big Hairy Audacious Goal: I wanted to grow a garden large enough to supply roughly 90% of the fruits and vegetables my family eats in a year. For context, our family is ten people strong… and eight of those are boys, teens, and a mnn. This is not a small-appetite household. It sounded inspiring. It sounded noble. It also sounded completely ridiculous. Because here was the small inconvenience: at that point in my life, I had successfully gardened approximately twice. Once was in our tiny one-bedroom apartment twelve years ago, when I managed a modest collection of container plants. The second time was in California, when I planted a garden from transplants and promptly watched every single plant die in a drought. I had also tried starting seeds once. They all died too. So naturally, with this glowing résumé of gardening success, I did what I always do and decided this massive goal was absolutely achievable and that I was claiming it as my own. When Wisdom Finally Spoke Up As I’ve grown and matured (and learned a few things the hard way), wisdom gently tapped me on the shoulder and whispered something important: “Make sure this goal is actually doable. Don’t jump in with too much, all at once.” So I reframed the dream. Instead of wanting to accomplish this immediately, I gave myself a realistic runway: In ten years, I want to grow a garden large enough to produce about 90% of the produce my family eats in a year. Now that felt ambitious but attainable. Still bold. Still stretching. But grounded in patience and learning. I set that goal four years ago. And I’m happy to report that while I’m nowhere near the final destination, I am absolutely closer than I was when I started. Six more years still feels like a tight timeline for something this big—but steady progress counts for a lot. Learning One Skill at a Time I knew from the beginning that if this dream was going to become reality, it would have to grow slowly and intentionally. My first year, I went all in on learning how to start seeds. Buying plant starts would never be financially sustainable for the scale I eventually wanted, so this felt like the logical foundation. That year, I didn’t worry about pests, harvesting, or even whether the garden would truly thrive. My only goal was to learn everything I possibly could about seed starting—and to do it inexpensively. And guess what? Today, seed starting feels second nature to me. What once felt overwhelming and complicated now feels routine. I’m gearing up to start multiple rounds of seeds over the next eight weeks, and it feels easy. I even managed a decent harvest that first year and learned a hundred small lessons along the way. Not bad for someone who once killed every seed she touched. The following year, I added a few new layers: expanding the garden, dedicating an entire bed to peppers (only mildly successful—note to self: start peppers much earlier), learning how to grow potatoes and onions, and experimenting with a small fall garden. And that’s when I discovered that I absolutely love fall gardening. It might actually be my favorite season to grow. Then life happened. A cross-country move and baby number eight put gardening plans on pause for two full years. Not exactly part of the original timeline—but seasons have a way of doing that. And now here I am again: in a new state, in a new home, with two containers full of seeds and a wide-open backyard waiting to become something beautiful. What’s New for 2026 This year brings a big first for us: we’re creating an entirely new in-ground garden space measuring 20 by 25 feet. Up until now, all of my gardening has been in raised beds. I’m excited to expand more affordably into a larger footprint and experiment with a no-till gardening approach. We’ll be laying down cardboard this week to begin building the soil, and I’m genuinely excited to watch this space come to life. I also have a handful of small “firsts” on my list this year: growing sweet potatoes, experimenting with luffa sponges, doing much more vertical gardening, and starting elderberry cuttings from a friend’s bush—just to name a few. Some of these will go well. Some probably won’t. And that’s part of the joy of learning. Come Garden With Me If you’ve ever dreamed about growing more of your own food—or expanding what you’re already doing—I’d love for you to join me this year. I’ll be blogging throughout the season, sharing what I’m learning, what’s working, what’s flopping, and what’s surprising me along the way. I’m gardening in Zone 8a, but you certainly don’t need to be in the same zone to follow along and grow together. Whether you’re looking for inspiration, encouragement to finally pick up a shovel, beginner-friendly guidance (I’m still far from an expert), or a place to share your own wisdom if you’re a seasoned gardener—this space is for you. Welcome to my garden journal and my gardening journey for 2026. I’m so glad you’re here. /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/39854825

Finding Joy in the Ordinary Days of Home - BLOG 01/23/2026

Finding Joy in the Ordinary Days of Home - BLOG 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 can feel like an impossible luxury. Over time, those small pressures compound, and suddenly we find ourselves moving through the day with clenched teeth instead of open hands. It’s easy for the mundane rhythm of homemaking to drain the life out of us. And yet, those ordinary days don’t have to rob us of joy. Joy is not something you either have or you don’t. It’s something that can be cultivated, practiced, and recovered, sometimes in the smallest, simplest ways. Over the years I’ve found a handful of steady rhythms that help reset my heart when I’m weary, irritable, or tempted to drift into complaint. They don’t magically remove hard circumstances, but they do help me return to a joyful, content posture in the work God has given me. Joy often begins before the day begins How we start our morning doesn’t determine everything, but it shapes more than we realize. When I wake up, I have a choice to make: I can let the mood I’m in dictate the atmosphere of the day, or I can intentionally anchor my heart before the demands start piling up. That choice isn’t always easy, especially after a rough night, an early wake-up, or the anticipation of a hard day. But using the early hours well has repeatedly transformed my heart. Fill the house with worship One of the simplest habits that serves me well is turning on worship music early in the morning. It’s almost automatic now: I step into the kitchen, keep the volume low so I don’t wake everyone (if I’m lucky enough to be the first one up), and let truth fill the background. I love a quiet house. But I’ve also learned that silence doesn’t always produce peace. Sometimes silence gives my thoughts too much room to spiral. Gentle worship does something different: it recenters me. It softens the edge of a tired mood. It reminds me, before I even touch the dishes or check a schedule, that God is already present. And truly, try humming a praise song while holding onto a grudge. It’s surprisingly difficult. Open the Bible (even if it’s not “perfect”) This may sound obvious, but it’s obvious because it’s foundational: there is nothing more steadying than opening God’s Word before the day opens you. If you’re in the thick of little-kid years, your Bible time may not look like deep study with color-coded notes and uninterrupted quiet. Mine often doesn’t. Some mornings I’m simply following a basic reading plan and reading a short devotional. Some mornings I get a few quiet minutes. Other mornings my Bible is open on my lap while little ones climb around my feet. But lately, as my littlest one is 16 months old, I've been cultivating the quiet, steady rhythm of getting up before my kids, coffee in hand, and quietly reading my Bible and praying. This practice never returns void, even if I do get tired in the afternoon! But the Lord uses imperfect, interrupted time. If all you can manage today is a few verses, that is still enough to reset your mind and help you walk into the day with more clarity and hope than you had five minutes earlier. Practice gratitude until your heart catches up Gratitude isn’t a trendy idea, it’s a spiritual discipline. It’s one of the simplest ways to pull your focus off your frustration and place it back where it belongs: on the goodness of God. In my morning prayer journal, I write down two specific things I’m thankful for every day. Two. Not ten. Not a beautifully worded paragraph. Just two gifts from the Lord, especially on mornings when I don’t feel like doing it. And here’s what I’ve found: the moments it’s hardest to name blessings are usually the moments I need to do it most. I’m always surprised how quickly my mood begins to shift once I start. Two blessings often turn into five. And suddenly my heart feels lighter—not because the work disappeared, but because my perspective did. Finding joy in the mundane work of homekeeping Let’s be honest: cleaning is not thrilling. It just isn’t, especially in an active home where messes multiply faster than you can catch up. But “not fun” doesn’t mean “not meaningful.” Part of being a keeper of the home is doing ordinary work faithfully. The goal isn’t to pretend those tasks are exciting; it’s to learn how to do them with a better spirit and a bigger purpose. Here are a few practices that have helped me keep a joyful heart while doing repetitive work. Pray over your home while you care for it When was the last time you prayed over your home, not just in general, but specifically? One of the most powerful shifts I’ve made is praying over the rooms of our house while I clean them. I’ll pray for what happens there and for the people who live under our roof. This matters because I’ve noticed something about myself: when my hands are busy, my thoughts can get dark if I’m not intentional. Cleaning can become the time I replay frustrations, stew over annoyances, or spiral into negativity. Prayer redirects that space. If you’re in the bathroom and potty training is testing your patience, pray for that child and for wisdom. If you’re in the kitchen, pray over meals and conversations. If you’re in the living room, pray that your home would be a place of peace and kindness. Praying this way doesn’t just change my heart. It often changes the atmosphere of the home itself. Listen to something that strengthens you Just like worship music helps in the morning, encouragement helps in the middle of the day. I love listening to podcasts or sermons while I cook dinner or do chores, especially in the late afternoon when my energy is low and I’m tempted to coast in irritation. There’s something restoring about letting your mind take in truth and encouragement while your body does ordinary work. It “fills your cup” in a practical way. It reminds you that the work you’re doing matters, and that you’re not alone in it. Make a simple plan for the day I love a good to-do list. It helps me feel grounded and purposeful. But I’ve also learned that the quickest way to discourage myself is to write a list that assumes I’m living in a silent, uninterrupted world. In my busiest seasons, I can realistically complete about five meaningful tasks in a day, sometimes less. So I keep the plan simple: a short list and a flexible timeline. I often write it the night before, not because I’m trying to be rigid, but because there is freedom in waking up with direction. When I don’t make a plan, I’m much more likely to drift into chaos. I’ll find myself slumped on the couch mid-morning while the kids are unraveling, and then I feel defeated before the day is even half over. But when I have a gentle plan, everything seems to run a little smoother, even when interruptions come. Joy also requires room for delight Sometimes we lose joy at home not because there’s too much work, but because there’s too little fun. When was the last time you got down on the floor with your kids and played? When was the last time you laughed, really laughed, in the middle of an ordinary day? There will always be more work to do. But if we never stop to enjoy the people we are caring for, we will slowly begin to resent the work itself. A home is not meant to be managed like a machine; it’s meant to be lived in with love. This is where your plan can either serve you or enslave you. A plan is a blessing, but it shouldn’t become the mountain you’re willing to die on. Racing through your to-do list while ignoring your family is not the measure of success. Sometimes the most faithful choice is setting the list down to pull out Play-Doh, read a book, sit close, listen, and laugh. Those moments are not “wasted time.” They are part of building a joyful home. And don’t forget your husband in this, either. Homemaking isn’t only about managing tasks, it’s about nurturing relationships. Make room for fun with him too, whether that’s an at-home date night, a walk together, or time out of the house. Joy grows where connection is protected. Ordinary days are where joy is formed Most homemaking is not made up of highlight moments. It’s made up of ordinary ones: meals, messes, interruptions, and the steady, faithful work of loving people. And by God’s grace, those ordinary days can become the very place where joy takes root. Not because every day feels easy, but because joy isn’t dependent on ease. It’s cultivated by truth, gratitude, prayer, worship, wise planning, and intentional delight. One small practice at a time, God can reshape our attitude and restore our contentment, right in the middle of the work. If today is one of “those days,” you’re not alone. Start small. Choose one way to re-center your heart. And ask the Lord to meet you in the ordinary. He does. /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/39854670

What a “Good Homemaker” Really Is (and What She Isn’t) - BLOG 01/19/2026

What a “Good Homemaker” Really Is (and What She Isn’t) - BLOG 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 homemaking is not a modern job description. It’s a calling of stewardship, love, and spiritual formation that looks different in different seasons. And the sooner we stop treating homemaking like a narrow label, the sooner we can actually live it with freedom, clarity, and joy. I didn’t grow up training for home I got married at nineteen, which still makes me laugh because I truly didn’t see that coming. I wasn’t raised in a culture that was telling me to marry young. I was the typical public school kid: college plans, big ideas, and a quiet assumption that “real life” would begin after a degree. But then God wrote a different story. I met Jason when I was sixteen, we started dating when I was seventeen, and I was married before I ever felt remotely “prepared.” And to be honest? I had almost no homemaking skills. Okay no, actually zero homemaking skills. I didn’t know how to cook. I didn’t know how to manage a home. I barely knew how to do my own laundry, and I certainly wasn’t walking into marriage with some kind of mental framework for how a household runs. There wasn’t a built-in “curriculum” for real life skills where I grew up, and I know I’m not alone in that. A lot of millennials were well-trained to take tests, write papers, get into college… and then suddenly found themselves staring at adulthood thinking, Wait—how do I feed people every day? How do I budget? How do I keep a home from slowly falling apart? So those early years of my blog (back when it was The Young Wife’s Guide) and the earliest days of the podcast were really me working this out in real time. I was trying to answer basic but weighty questions: What does it mean to care for a family? What is a wife responsible for? What does a biblical vision of home even look like when both spouses are working and in school full-time, as we were? How do you build a life that honors God when you don’t feel naturally gifted at managing the practical side of a household? I didn’t have this figured out when I started. I was learning while I lived it. Homemaking is a calling for women in every season Here’s my “controversial” take, and I’ll say it plainly: if you are a woman, you are a homemaker. Not because every woman is called to the exact same routine, or because every woman’s life will look like mine, or because your worth is somehow tied to whether you are home full-time. But because God has designed women with a particular bent toward nurture, care, and cultivation and He places us, in every season, in spheres where that calling is meant to show up. For some women, home right now is a house filled with children. For others, it’s a small apartment. For others, it’s a dorm room. For some, it’s their parents’ home. For some, it’s a home shared with roommates. For some, it’s a season of caring for grandparents or aging parents. For some, it's juggling several of these and being in a place you really don't want to be but God is calling you to be faithful in none-the-less. But in every one of those scenarios, God has given you a “home base” and a set of relationships, whether that’s family, roommates, church community, neighbors, coworkers, or friends, that you have the privilege of loving well. Homemaking, at its heart, is using what God has entrusted to you to cultivate a place where people are cared for, where peace is pursued, where love is practiced, and where Christ is honored. That’s why Scripture’s call in Titus 2 isn’t framed as a lifestyle aesthetic. It’s about character and love: loving family, being self-controlled, being kind, and being a keeper of the home. That doesn’t box women into one rigid shape; it gives women a direction. We have to stop shrinking homemaking down to chores One of the biggest misunderstandings about homemaking is that it’s mainly about tasks: dishes, dusting, laundry, meals, organization. And yes, those things matter. A home can’t function well if it’s chronically chaotic. It’s hard to feel peace when your environment is stressful and neglected. But homemaking is not defined by whether your counters are clear at 7:00 p.m. It’s also not defined by how crafty you are, how beautiful your meals look, whether you make sourdough, whether your home resembles a magazine spread, or whether your systems are color-coded and Pinterest-perfect (or Instagram-perfect, since that’s the modern version). A home is not a performance. Homemaking is about building a place of peace for your family and cultivating Christlikeness in the middle of a loud, chaotic world. And right now, the world is loud. Many of us feel that heaviness: news cycles, cultural confusion, fear about the future, the sense that everything is fragile and uncertain. You cannot control all of that. But you can shape the atmosphere of your home. You can turn whatever “four walls” God has given you into a haven: imperfect, lived-in, sometimes noisy, often messy, but oriented toward what is good and true. You can build a home where people walk in and feel warmth. Not because everything is spotless, but because love lives there. The goal isn’t perfection: The goal is a home that nurtures hearts I want to be careful here, because whenever we talk about peaceful homes, it can sound like I’m describing a quiet, angelic household where children never argue and moms never lose patience. That’s not real life. I have eight kids. We homeschool. We are together a lot. My home is not peaceful all the time. We have days where I think, It is disgusting in here, and we have days where we have to stop and address attitudes, kindness, tone, how we speak to one another. There are big feelings, real conflicts, and regular opportunities for sanctification. So when I say homemaking is about creating peace, I don’t mean creating a fake version of peace. I mean pursuing the kind of peace that is rooted in Christ: order where we can, gentleness where we should, repentance when we fail, and grace in the middle of it all. And that’s why I don’t think a good homemaker can be measured by a checklist. Because faithfulness to the Lord has never been a simple checklist, either. Still, when I boil it down, I come back to three markers that matter far more than aesthetics: A good homemaker keeps her eyes fixed on Christ daily. She intentionally sets priorities that honor God. And she builds a home that nurtures her family’s hearts, not just their stomachs. That last part is where things get practical in a way we don’t always expect. Sometimes nurturing hearts means you leave the dishes for later and take a walk with your kids. Sometimes it means you do the opposite, saying no to distractions because your home needs attention and your family needs the stability of order. Wisdom is knowing which one matters today. There is a tension we all have to learn to navigate. Some of us grew up under pressure to keep a perfect house, so we swing hard in the other direction and tell ourselves mess doesn’t matter at all. But God doesn’t call us to either extreme. He calls us to stewardship and love, with discernment. There’s a line I’ve repeated for years because it helps me recalibrate: the home needs to be clean enough to serve the family, but not so clean that the family is serving the house. That’s the balance. And it looks different in every household. Proverbs 31 isn’t a checklist, it’s a portrait Whenever homemaking comes up, Proverbs 31 comes up too, and I think it’s important to read it the right way. That passage isn’t meant to crush you under an impossible standard where every woman needs to buy a field, wake before dawn, sew clothing, and run multiple businesses while making organic bread from scratch. It’s not a checklist; it’s a portrait. It shows the heart of a woman who serves her household with joy, wisdom, and strength rooted in the Lord. Her work is meaningful because it’s anchored in fear of the Lord, not in human applause. And yes, her situation included resources that many of us don’t have. But what stands out is not that she had help, it’s that she was diligent, intentional, and joyful in serving the good of her household. If your circumstances were different, your Proverbs 31 would look different too. The particulars change. The heart does not. Choosing joy is not denial, it’s discipleship One of the most honest parts of homemaking is admitting that the work is often repetitive, sometimes exhausting, and occasionally overwhelming. Even when you love your family deeply, there are weeks where you feel like you’re dragging yourself through the basics. Recently I had a week like that. We were dealing with sickness, patience was thin, and everything felt harder than it needed to. And I realized something simple but important: I needed to choose joy on purpose. Not the fake joy of pretending things are fine. Not the shallow joy of ignoring real problems. But the rooted joy of saying, Lord, today might be hard, but help me be faithful in it. Help me serve with gladness. Help me love the people in front of me. I sat my kids down and told them plainly that I’d been struggling. And then I told them what we were going to do about it: we were going to choose joy, tackle our work with diligence, and move forward with a different spirit. That’s homemaking, too. Not just the meals and the laundry, but the spiritual tone in your home. The willingness to repent when you’ve been short-tempered. The choice to pursue peace and kindness when the easiest option would be to keep snapping and survive the day. Homemaking is discipleship. It’s formation. It’s worship in work clothes. You’re not failing, you’re learning If you hear all of this and think, Okay, but I still feel behind, let me encourage you: you are not expected to be perfect at this. I tell my kids this all the time with school—especially math. You’re not supposed to walk into seventh grade and already know how to do everything. You’re learning. That’s the point. And it’s the same with homemaking. You are learning how to steward what God has given you. You are learning how to love people well. You are learning how to manage a household in your particular season. You are learning how to be joyful, how to be diligent, how to be peaceful, and how to be patient. It’s not about perfection. It’s about progress. There are practical skills that make homemaking easier: learning to cook, building simple cleaning rhythms, creating routines that support your days instead of fighting them. But even beneath the practical, there are deeper skills too: learning contentment, learning self-control, learning how to set priorities without guilt, and learning how to return to Christ again and again when you feel depleted. So wherever you are right now—whether you’re in a full house, a quiet apartment, a dorm room, or a season you didn’t expect—ask the Lord the question that changes everything: What does it look like to serve You diligently today? What does it look like to love the people You’ve placed in my care? What does faithfulness look like in this season? And then take one small step forward. That’s how homes are built. That’s how hearts are nurtured. That’s how joy grows—one ordinary day at a time. /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/39789595

How We Built a Simple Food System That Taught Our Kids Real Skills (and Took Pressure Off Me) - BLOG 01/16/2026

How We Built a Simple Food System That Taught Our Kids Real Skills (and Took Pressure Off Me) - BLOG 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 Remington (10) makes 1–2 gallons of yogurt each week Ryder (10) makes 1–2 sandwich loaves in the breadmaker Magnolia (almost 9) keeps us stocked with muffins, brownies, cookies, and other healthy treats that supplement meals Mom (36) makes ½ gallon of kefir daily and is slowly working toward a full gallon It’s become this beautiful rhythm where food is coming from many hands instead of just one and everyone feels invested in what they’re making. But this didn’t start as some grand household system or perfectly thought-out plan. It started with kombucha. The Lightbulb Moment Malachi kept begging me every week to make a fresh batch of kombucha. The problem was… kombucha can easily sit and ferment away, and with everything else going on in our house, I was usually only getting to it every couple of weeks. He loved it so much and honestly, it’s so good for you that I wanted the whole family drinking it more consistently. One day it finally clicked. This kid was highly motivated to drink it. He had already helped me make it plenty of times. He understood the process. So I turned to him and said, “What if I train you how to make it completely by yourself? Then you can just make it every week and it doesn’t depend on me.” His face lit up. He thought that was a brilliant idea. So we trained together. I slowly stepped back. And before long, he owned it. The very next day, Micah wandered in asking when we were going to make more granola. And I had another lightbulb moment. BOOM. Now he has a weekly task too and he’s thrilled because granola magically appears whenever he wants it. Once that door opened, it just kept unfolding naturally. Why This System Has Worked So Well for Our Family 1. Motivation is built in. Each child is responsible for something they genuinely love to eat. They’re not being assigned random chores that feel disconnected from their life (although they are assigned plenty of those as well)! They’re contributing in a way that directly blesses them and the whole family. Ownership changes everything. When kids care about the outcome, they’re willing to practice, troubleshoot, and keep improving. 2. Training once saves energy forever. Yes — training takes time upfront. There are messes. There are mistakes. There are moments where it would absolutely be faster to just do it yourself. But once the skill is learned, it multiplies. Instead of me personally making all of these foods week after week for years, the responsibility now lives in the household. That’s not just helpful today. That’s shaping capable adults. 3. It supports how we actually eat. We eat a lot of simple, from-scratch foods. My daily focus is often on getting beans cooking, managing dinner in the Instant Pot, and keeping the core meals moving forward. We love having things like granola, yogurt, bread, kombucha, and baked treats, but realistically, I couldn’t keep up with making all of it myself every single week. This system allows everyone to enjoy the foods they love without piling more work onto one person. It’s truly a win-win-win: The kids get ownership and pride in their work. Our home stays well-fed with nourishing food. My mental and physical workload is lighter. 4. Skills compound faster than you expect. Once kids learn how to measure, follow steps, manage time, clean up after themselves, and problem-solve when something doesn’t turn out quite right, everything else becomes easier to teach. And in turn, the siblings can then teach eachother! Cooking stops feeling intimidating and starts feeling familiar. Confidence grows quietly, one batch at a time. What Training Actually Looks Like in Real Life Training isn’t formal lessons or rigid systems in our house. It looks like: Cooking alongside them at first Talking through each step Explaining why we do things a certain way Letting them try Letting them mess up Slowly stepping back At first I’m very hands-on. Then I’m coaching from the side. Eventually, I’m just nearby if questions pop up. And then one day you realize… they’ve got it. If This Feels Intimidating — You’re Not Alone If the idea of teaching your kids to cook feels overwhelming, I understand that deeply. Many of us didn’t grow up learning these skills ourselves. We’re figuring it out as we go. Sometimes the kitchen already feels like survival mode. So start small. It might be just one food, one child, one new skill! Let confidence build naturally. You don’t need perfection, you need consistency and patience. Why This Matters Beyond Food This isn’t really about kombucha or bread or muffins. It’s about: Raising capable kids Sharing responsibility inside the home Teaching stewardship Building rhythms that support family life instead of draining it Giving children meaningful ways to contribute These small systems shape a household culture over time. If you’ve ever wished your kids could help more in the kitchen, this is your invitation to start. Small steps. Real skills. Big payoff over time. /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/39763560

Kids in the Kitchen: What I Teach at Each Age (and Why It Matters So Much to Me) - BLOG 01/15/2026

Kids in the Kitchen: What I Teach at Each Age (and Why It Matters So Much to Me) - BLOG 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 married… and I had zero cooking or kitchen management skills. I didn’t know how to grocery shop well. I didn’t know how to plan meals. I didn’t know how to cook anything. It was a steep uphill learning curve. Over the years, though, something shifted. I absolutely fell in love with cooking. And now, somehow, I’ve written five cookbooks (something newlywed Jami never could have dreamed of). But here’s the thing: I want something different for my kids. I don’t want food to feel like a constant uphill battle when they become adults. I want them to be confident in the kitchen. I want them to know how to feed themselves and others well. And honestly? The kids have a TON of fun doing it. If you’re ever looking for ways to keep kids busy without screens, teach them how to cook and let them whip up treats whenever they like. It’s one of the best investments you can make. Why Kids Have Always Been in My Kitchen Inviting my children into the kitchen has always felt very natural to me. I love being in the kitchen experimenting, baking, and creating. So what do you do when you’ve got a 1-year-old, a 3-year-old, and a 5-year-old who just want to be wherever you are? You hand them a spatula, a spoon, a few chocolate chips and let them “cook” right alongside you. You invite them into the good work set before you. Whenever I post about cooking with my kids or them learning new kitchen skills, I get asked, without fail, “How do you actually do this?” What’s age-appropriate? How do you manage the mess? Is it safe? So let me share what this has looked like in our home, age by age. 👶 Toddlers (1–3 years old) At this age, the goal is simple: invite them into the work. Yes, it’s messier. Yes, it takes longer. No, I don’t say yes every single time. But whenever possible, I invite them into the kitchen with me. I’ll hand them a measuring cup and gently guide their hands as they dump flour into the bowl. They throw berries into batter. They hold the salt until it’s time to pour. They stir and sample far more than they help. 😉 And here’s my secret trick for the days when you really just need dinner done: Set them up next to you with their own little station. A small bowl. A spoon. A little flour. A few chocolate chips. Let them mix up their own delightful creation while you get the real cooking done. Everyone feels included — and you still get dinner on the table. [caption id="attachment_24076" align="alignnone" width="700"] I looked away for a moment too long and this guy poured flour all over himself. Oh well![/caption] 🧒 Preschool / Early Elementary (4–7 years old) This is where the real fun begins. When you invite toddlers into the kitchen consistently, they pick up far more than you realize. By ages 4–5, kids are genuinely capable helpers. They can: Run to the fridge to grab eggs Measure out oil or water Mix ingredients Help pour Roll out dough They will still make messes, probably a lot of them, but little by little the spills decrease and their confidence grows. My son Maverick (age 5) has been helping me in the kitchen since he was about one. Just this past week, I started teaching him how to make his own eggs on the stove. He did about 95% of it himself while I instructed. The second time, I stayed nearby while he led the steps. In another week or so, he’ll likely be able to make his own eggs start to finish. This age is perfect for learning how to crack eggs, measure, pour, stir, and roll out dough. They won’t be making full meals on their own yet — but you are laying the groundwork for lifelong skills. And as a homeschool mom, I’ll just say this: one of the best ways to learn fractions is by measuring ingredients. 👦 Older Elementary (8–11 years old) This is when kids can start taking ownership of full recipes. My daughter (almost 9) makes a recipe completely on her own at least 3–4 times a week. Yesterday she made snickerdoodles. Today she made brownies. When she was 6–7, she cooked alongside me. I explained why we did certain steps. Slowly, I let her start reading recipes, gathering ingredients, and thinking through the process. Over time, she needed less and less help. Now she mostly comes to me only if she has questions or needs clarification, but she’s capable of making a lot on her own. Her older brothers (10–13) can also make quite a bit independently. Their training now focuses on more advanced skills like cheesecake, apple pie, soup stock, and all the bread. This isn’t formal “lessons.” It’s simply teaching as we cook together. If you have kids over 8–9 years old — start teaching them full recipes. They truly can do it. 🧑‍🍳 Teens My next step with our older boys will be teaching them how to: Plan full menus Build grocery lists Manage multiple dishes at once Think through timing and budgeting They’ll take the foundation they’ve built and begin managing the full process of feeding a household. This is real life preparation. 🔥 Safety (Because Everyone Asks) Kids absolutely need to learn how to handle real kitchen tools, appropriately and gradually. My toddlers are watched constantly and never near knives or hot stoves. But my 5-year-old is learning basic knife skills and how to cook eggs on a skillet with supervision. Could he nick a finger or get a small burn? Possibly. We minimize risk as much as we reasonably can — but learning always involves some risk, just like riding bikes or rollerblading. A small mistake often teaches caution faster than a lecture ever could. Use wisdom. Supervise closely. Build skills slowly. Trust your instincts. Why This Matters So Much to Me I didn’t grow up learning these skills. I had to learn them as an adult, the hard way. I want my kids to step into adulthood confident, capable, and joyful in the kitchen. I want them to bless their future families and communities through hospitality and practical skill. And honestly? I just love watching their confidence grow. Mess fades. Skills remain. Memories multiply. If You’re Nervous to Start Start small. Let them stir. Let them pour. Let them crack eggs. Let them “cook” beside you. It will be slower at first. It will be messier at first. It will be imperfect at first. But it will be worth it. You’re not just making food — you’re forming capable humans. /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/39748440

Sword in One Hand, Spatula in the Other: Homemaking Isn’t Small - BLOG 01/14/2026

Sword in One Hand, Spatula in the Other: Homemaking Isn’t Small - BLOG 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 day. I rounded the corner into the living room and just stood there. Flour. Everywhere. The boys were deliriously happy, covered head to toe in white powder. The dining room was coated. The kitchen counters were coated. The floor looked like it had snowed indoors overnight. I snapped a picture to send to Jason and laughed — and then promptly cried. It was barely 6am. How could the day already be this off the rails? You don’t need to have twins back-to-back while nine months pregnant to understand this part: making a home is hard sometimes. It’s exhausting. It’s discouraging. It’s often thankless. There are days where it feels like everything you just cleaned gets undone in five minutes flat and no one even notices the effort. And yet… when I look back on that day now, I feel something very different. The labor pains are long gone. The swollen feet are back to normal. The boys wipe their own bottoms now. (I truly never thought I’d miss those early years… but here we are.) I wouldn’t necessarily want to relive that exact morning again 😅 but with a little perspective, I can see the joy in it. The life in it. The sweetness hidden inside the mess and exhaustion. That day wasn’t wasted. It was building something. ⸻ The World Says This Work Is Small The world has a lot of opinions about homemaking. It tells us it’s outdated. That it’s small. That it’s soft. That it’s a fallback plan instead of a calling. We’re told the real heroes are the ones climbing ladders, collecting titles, stacking promotions, building something that can be measured and applauded and posted online. If you stay home, don’t you know that’s risky? Don’t you know you should protect yourself more? Don’t you know you could be doing something “bigger”? What we rarely talk about is the sacrifice it takes to care deeply for a home. The emotional energy. The physical labor. The constant decision-making. The invisible leadership. The way your heart is constantly poured out in tiny, daily ways. And we almost never talk about the joy and quiet accomplishment that lives here too. We’ve stopped seeing the glory in the ordinary. The beat-up minivan. The hand-me-down clothes. The frugal meals. The sticky counters. The tired evenings. The repetitive rhythms. But there is something sacred happening inside all of it. ⸻ This Isn’t Soft Work Homemaking isn’t cute. It isn’t always aesthetic. It isn’t slow mornings and perfect sourdough and filtered sunlight, at least, not always! Sometimes it’s sanctifying. Sometimes it takes grit. Sometimes it takes a lot of grace on repeat. Every time you choose patience instead of snapping. Every time you choose prayer instead of panic. Every time you choose faithfulness when no one is clapping. Every time you clean the same mess again and still choose joy. Every time you train a heart instead of just managing behavior. You are pushing back darkness. You are shaping souls. You are guarding the tone of your home. You are cultivating peace and order and truth in a world that desperately lacks it. That is not small work. That is Kingdom work. ⸻ Sword in One Hand, Spatula in the Other There’s this beautiful picture in Scripture of builders working with a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other: building while staying alert, grounded, and ready. I think about that often in homemaking. We’re wiping counters while praying for hearts. We’re folding laundry while teaching obedience and gratitude. We’re breaking up sibling fights while modeling forgiveness. We’re feeding bodies while nurturing souls. It looks ordinary on the outside. But spiritually? It’s deeply significant. You are not “just” a mom. You are not “just” a homemaker. You are guarding the gates of your home. ⸻ Rooted, Not Perfect You don’t need to be Pinterest-perfect. You don’t need the cleanest house, the prettiest meals, or the most impressive routines. You need to be rooted in Christ. That’s what makes your work powerful. That’s what steadies you when the work feels unseen. That’s what anchors you when the days blur together. That’s what keeps your joy from being dependent on circumstances. When the enemy whispers, “This doesn’t matter,” you get to whisper back: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” ⸻ So Sister, Keep Building If you’re tired today… If you feel unseen… If the work feels repetitive or overwhelming… If you’re wondering whether it’s really making a difference… Let me remind you: You are doing holy work. Don’t quit. Don’t shrink back. Pick up your sword — and your spatula — and keep building. The fruit of faithful homemaking often grows quietly. But it grows deep. /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/39734210

Our Family & Personal Goals for 2026 - BLOG 01/10/2026

Our Family & Personal Goals for 2026 - BLOG 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 I'll share our family's goals for 2026. Start Small (Really Small) If you’re just getting started, I highly recommend choosing only a couple of small goals. When we try to pile on too much at once, it quickly becomes overwhelming, and overwhelm almost always leads to quitting. Big change rarely happens all at once. It happens through small, steady habits built over time. For example, rebuilding my reading habit has been more than a decade in the making. I was always a big reader as a kid, but something about college knocked reading right out of my everyday rhythms. Years later, Jason and I decided to intentionally pick it back up again, and I was thrilled when I managed to read 20 books that first year. Eventually, that became 45 books… then 60… and now my slightly insane goal of 104 books (which breaks down to two books a week). That goal feels challenging but realistic for me now, because the habit has been built slowly over many years. And just to keep things honest: in 2025, I absolutely did not hit that goal. And that’s okay. But exercise? That’s a completely different story for me. That’s a habit I’m still actively trying to cultivate. I’m working on rebuilding strength, finding workouts I actually enjoy, protecting my body from injury, and strengthening my pelvic floor again. Some days it feels like a victory just to fit in a short walk or stretch. This is not the season for me to sign up for a marathon. This is the season for small, steady consistency. And that’s exactly how goal setting should work. There’s No One “Right” Way to Set Goals If you’re a goal-setting olympian who loves mapping out big dreams across lots of areas, have fun and go for it. If you’re brand new to planning, maybe start with just one or two small goals this month and gently build from there as the year allows. There truly is no one right way to do this. In fact, one of my friends, Crystal (who is an absolute mega-planner), isn’t setting any formal goals at all this year. Her season simply calls for margin and flexibility instead of targets and benchmarks. And that’s wise. Honor the Season You’re In The most important thing is this: do what is right for your family in the season you’re currently in. Some seasons are for building and stretching. Some seasons are for healing and stabilizing. Some seasons are for dreaming big. Some seasons are for simplifying and catching your breath. All of them are valuable. Planning isn’t about pressure or performance, it’s about stewardship, clarity, and making small intentional choices that support the life God has placed in front of you. Start where you are. Take the next small step. And trust that steady faithfulness adds up more than you realize. Our Family Goals for 2026: READING: Jason and Jami both set the goal of reading 104 books this year J&J both set an additional goal of reading 35,000 pages overall Jami wants to read both The Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as The Wheel of Time series this year Jason has set a goal of reading 50% fiction and 50% non-fiction this year BIBLE READING: Jason is doing the Bible in a Year via the Bible App Jason has timers set throughout his day that remind him to stop and pray for various things Jami is reading the Bible in a Year by reading through the ESV Reader's Bible. A special version of the Bible that contains no chapter or verse titles or references. So it looks and reads like a regular book. Jami does her devotional time after Bible reading by praying through the Psalms and writing in her prayer journal. For family worship, Jason's goal is 5 nights a week. He reads a chapter of his current devotional book, reads a Proverb per day, practices catechisms, and sings a hymn. HEALTH: Jami's goal is to lose 30lbs Jami will be starting off the year following the Trim Healthy Mama diet and will reevaluate as needed Jami's exercise plan is to do the Nourish Move Love 30 Day Beginner Workout plan in January. Then to repeat it in February with heavier weights. Jami's goal is to start weight lifting at some point this year. Jason's health goals include losing weight, eating Carnivore diet, and weight lifting at the gym 3 times per week. Jami's goal is for the whole family to eat 3-5 probitoic rich foods a day like yogurt, kefir, kombucha, fermented veggies, etc. FAMILY GOALS: Restart monthly date nights with individual kids Weekly family worship Better schedules for kids bedtimes No sugar January to reset after sickness MORNING ROUTINES: Jami's goal is up by 6am during weekdays: coffee, Bible reading & prayer, workout, shower and dress Jason's goal is out the door by 5am, 3 times per week to do the gym. Otherwise out the door by 6:15am Kids up by 7:30am, school starts by 8:10am! JAMI'S PERSONAL GOALS: Start a garden at their new house Grow 3 new things Start beekeeping by catching a wild swarm Start meat rabbits Finish setting up her office/craft room Finish the punch needle stockings Make a rug for the little kids room If this list feels inspiring — wonderful. If it feels overwhelming — please hear this with grace: these are our goals for our season, not a template for anyone else to copy. Your season, your capacity, your family rhythms, and your energy levels may look completely different, and that’s exactly as it should be. The point of sharing this isn’t comparison. It’s simply to show what intentionality can look like when two people sit down, dream together, and commit to small faithful steps over time. You don’t need a perfect plan or a packed goal list to move forward. You just need one small step in the right direction. So maybe today that looks like jotting down one thing you’d love to grow in this year. Maybe it’s having a simple conversation with your spouse over coffee. Maybe it’s choosing one tiny habit to practice consistently for the next month. Start where you are. Stay faithful in the small things. And trust that God will multiply your steady obedience in ways you can’t yet see. Want more hands-on help planning this year? If you’d like hands-on help with planning and goal setting, I’m hosting live trainings January 12–16 inside our Planning & Goal Setting course. Each day we’ll meet live, I’ll teach you how to: set realistic goals break them into action steps plan in a way that works with your life (not against it) You’ll also receive all of my planning worksheets so you can take immediate action. If you’ve struggled to make goals that stick—and you want 2026 to be different—join me for our 3rd annual planning retreat. We’ll do it together. /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/39680190

How Jason and I Plan Our Family Goals Each Year - BLOG 01/09/2026

How Jason and I Plan Our Family Goals Each Year - BLOG 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 get flooded with messages asking how we actually do it. So today, I’m pulling back the curtain and sharing exactly how Jason and I plan our family goals and why this rhythm has become one of the most grounding practices in our home. 1. Jason was not always a big planner. For years, I did this planning mostly on my own. I would ask for his input or run ideas by him, but he just wasn’t a natural planner in the same way I was. I hear this often from wives who wish their husbands were into planning like Jason is now. But don’t push it. Everyone’s personalities are different, and some people naturally find more value in planning than others. Eventually your husband may come around and get on board, but invite him into it gently, and don’t be upset if he doesn’t want to jump in right away. You can absolutly plan and goal set by yourself! 2. The timing doesn’t matter. We do a big meeting every New Year, but we also do “big picture” check-ins throughout the year as needed. Don’t fret if this doesn’t happen on January 1st, or even February 1st. It is never a bad time to pause, plan, and be intentional with your time and your family. 3. Grab a notebook, a pen, and some coffee. Your planning session doesn’t need to be fancy or follow any sort of curriculum. We’ve slowly developed a system that works well for us simply through trial and error. We sit down together and just start chatting about our year. We take turns sharing what worked really well in the previous year that we want to carry forward and what didn’t work so well and needs a new solution (like eating out less, getting more consistent with school rhythms, etc.). At this stage, we’re not looking for all the answers yet. We’re simply opening the conversation and getting ideas flowing. It can sometimes take us a while to hit our groove with planning. 4. Review last year’s goals. From there, Jason pulls up our goals from the previous year on his phone, and we go through them one by one. This year, there were several goals I never even started. 2025 ended up looking very different than we anticipated, and some of those goals just didn’t fit anymore and that’s okay. Release those goals and move on… or carry them into the new year if they still feel worth pursuing. We break our goals down into categories, so we review them category by category and decide what we want to adjust or set fresh. For example, we always set reading goals. So we talk through how we did last year, which books we loved, what didn’t work, and what we want to change moving forward. As we talk, we write down the new goals for the year. 5. Every goal and idea gets written down. You think you’ll remember everything you talked about… but you won’t. Write it all down so your goals are actually usable and not just floating around in your head. We keep our goals in shared notes so we can easily pull them up throughout the year and review them together. It’s actually really fun to look back and see several years of goals listed out — you can see growth, patterns, answered prayers, and seasons of change. Why Planning Has Become a Must for Our Family As we enter 2026, life feels full and busy in the very real sense of the word. We have eight kids ranging from 13 down to 1. We’re juggling doctor’s appointments, more surgeries for Radley, eye appointments, everyday life, and school. We also run our business together, which tends to fill any spare moments we thought we had. And oh yeah — we also want to prioritize our marriage, exercise, eating well…you get it. Life moves at a breakneck speed. And those of us who are parents know how quickly the years fly by. There’s no room to drift through life unintentionally. A few years ago, we realized we were saying yes to almost everything, opportunities, commitments, projects, and quietly wondering why we felt so exhausted and disconnected. When we finally slowed down and really talked through our priorities, it became clear that some good things were crowding out the best things. That one planning conversation reshaped our entire year. Slowing down to plan together helps us stay on the same page, which is huge for our marriage and our family. It also helps us clearly see what we need to say yes to…and what we need to lovingly say no to. In a full schedule, there are so many good things that simply don’t fit the season we’re in. Planning helps us recognize that with clarity and peace. Ultimately, our planning isn’t about productivity. It’s about stewardship. These years with our children are precious and fleeting, and we want to walk through them awake, grateful, and aligned, trusting God to guide our steps even when the plan changes. Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing what our family goals are for 2026 as well as my personal goals for the year. Want to Try This With Your Family? If you’ve never done a planning conversation with your spouse before, start simple. Pick a quiet evening or weekend morning. Make coffee or tea. Grab a notebook and pen. Ask each other: What worked well this past year? What felt heavy or stressful? What rhythms do we want to protect? What is one area we want to grow in as a family? What new skill do you want to learn this year? What are you currently excited about for the year ahead? You don’t need a perfect system. You just need a willingness to start the conversation. Want more hands-on help planning this year? If you’d like hands-on help with planning and goal setting, I’m hosting live trainings January 12–16 inside our Planning & Goal Setting course. Each day we’ll meet live, I’ll teach you how to: set realistic goals break them into action steps plan in a way that works with your life (not against it) You’ll also receive all of my planning worksheets so you can take immediate action. If you’ve struggled to make goals that stick—and you want 2026 to be different—join me for our 3rd annual planning retreat. We’ll do it together. Sign up at: FindingJoyinYourHome.com/Planning /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/39680045

The Year-End Review That Actually Helps You Plan Your Next Year - BLOG 01/08/2026

The Year-End Review That Actually Helps You Plan Your Next Year - BLOG 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 “I should’ve done more.” But with honesty, gratitude, and wisdom, so we can see what really worked, what quietly wasn’t working, and what God may be inviting us into next. Because you don’t need a perfect fresh start date to move forward. You need clarity. And clarity almost always begins by looking back. Why a Year-End Review Matters (Before You Set Goals) Most of us skip straight to the “new year plan.” New routines! New schedules! New systems! New goals! But if you don’t pause to look back first, you’ll almost always do one of two things: Repeat the same patterns (because you never identified what actually wasn’t working), or Make an unrealistic plan that looks great on paper and falls apart by week two (ME! I do this!!) A year-end review helps you slow down and ask: What actually helped our home feel peaceful? What consistently made things feel chaotic? Where did my priorities drift? What’s one small change that would make life noticeably better? That’s where real planning begins. Step 1: Start With Gratitude (This Matters More Than You Think) Before you evaluate what needs to change, start with what’s good. Not because everything was easy, but because gratitude reorients your heart. It helps you see that God was present, even in a hard year. Try writing down: A few things you’re thankful for from this past year A handful of answered prayers (big or small) Small joys you don’t want to forget And if you have the energy? Keep going. Some of the sweetest year-end reviews happen when you turn the paper over and just keep writing. Gratitude doesn’t erase the hard things. But it keeps your review from becoming grumbling, complaining, or self-condemnation. Step 2: Ask Your Family What They Remember This part surprises people every time. Because we tend to assume we know what mattered most, what made the year “good” or “hard”, but your husband and kids might remember something completely different. Ask them: “What was your favorite memory this year?” “What are you thankful for from this year?” “What did you love doing as a family?” And don’t be surprised if their answer is something simple. Not the big trip or the elaborate holiday moment. Sometimes it’s: “Remember when you played Legos with me?” And you’re like… Really? That’s the moment you held onto? Yes. And that’s such a sweet reminder of what actually lands in your kids’ hearts. Step 3: Name the Hardest Thing (Without Over-Explaining It) A year-end review isn’t complete without honesty. Write down the hardest thing about the year: just a sentence or two. Was it a hard season emotionally? Health issues? A new baby? A move? A stressful schedule? A lack of routine that slowly turned into chaos? You don’t have to process your whole life on one sheet of paper. The goal is simply to acknowledge reality. Because naming the hard thing helps you stop carrying it like a fog you can’t explain. Step 4: Evaluate Your Life in the Right Order This is where year-end review becomes deeply grounding. Instead of starting with “my home” (which is where many of us start), evaluate in this order: My relationship with God My marriage and parenting My home and homemaking Because you can have the most perfectly clean house in the world… and if your heart is dry and your relationships are hurting, a sparkling kitchen doesn’t fix that. So ask three simple questions in each category: 1) My relationship with God What worked? What didn’t work? What needs to shift? This doesn’t have to be dramatic. It might be: What worked: “I found a Bible reading plan I actually liked.” What didn’t work: “I didn’t make time for it consistently.” Even that insight is valuable, because now you’re not stuck in vague guilt, you’re seeing a clear next step. 2) My marriage and parenting What strengthened connection this year? What consistently caused tension? What rhythms do we need more of? Sometimes the issue isn’t that you need a better routine. Sometimes you need more margin, more communication, or more intentional time together. 3) My home and homemaking This is where you can finally get practical: What routines brought peace? What areas spiraled into overwhelm? What one or two “pain points” made everything feel harder? For many women, the big culprits are: Laundry Meal planning / kitchen rhythm Bedtime / sleep habits Morning routine (which is often tied to evening routine) And here’s what I’ve found: often there are one or two small changes that would make your whole home feel lighter. But you can’t see them when you’re overwhelmed and thinking, “Everything is awful.” A year-end review helps you pinpoint what’s actually happening. Step 5: Look for Patterns (Not Perfection) You’re not doing this review to judge yourself. You’re doing it to notice patterns. For example: If you’re always stressed in the morning, check your evening routine. If your home feels chaotic, look for one “keystone habit” (like laundry or dishes) that affects everything else. If you keep falling off routines when life gets hard, your next plan needs more flexibility, not more intensity. This is where a lot of women have a breakthrough: They don’t need a bigger plan. They need a smaller plan they can actually stick to. Step 6: Choose “Small and Sustainable” for the New Year This is the part that changes everything. Because many of us want to set a 30-point checklist… or a 130-point checklist… and overhaul our whole life in one week. And it doesn’t work. (Ask me how I know.) Instead, as you plan your next year, ask: What’s one priority God is putting on my heart right now? What’s one routine that would serve my family well in this season? What’s one tiny habit that would make the biggest difference? Small changes feel insignificant in the moment, but over time they build a completely different home. A Gentle Reminder If You Feel Behind If you read this and realize, “Wow, I really didn’t do the planning I wanted to do,” let me remind you: It’s not too late. Not even a little bit. Today is a new day. God’s mercies are new every morning. So don’t beat yourself up. Don’t wallow in guilt. Don’t throw in the towel because you missed an “ideal” start date. Just take the next faithful step. Your Simple Year-End Review Prompts: If you want a quick place to start, here you go: What am I thankful for from this past year? What are my 5 favorite memories? What was the hardest thing about this year? What worked in my relationship with God? What didn’t? What worked in my marriage/parenting? What didn’t? What worked in my home/homemaking? What didn’t? What is one small change that would make the next season feel more peaceful? Then pray: “Lord, give me clarity and wisdom. Show me what matters most. Help me take action with humility and joy.” Want to Do This Together? If you’d like hands-on help with planning and goal setting, I’m hosting live trainings January 12–16 inside our Planning & Goal Setting course. Each day we’ll meet live, I’ll teach you how to: set realistic goals break them into action steps plan in a way that works with your life (not against it) You’ll also receive all of my planning worksheets so you can take immediate action. If you’ve struggled to make goals that stick—and you want 2026 to be different—join me for our 3rd annual planning retreat. We’ll do it together. 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 “I should’ve done more.” But with honesty, gratitude, and wisdom, so we can see what really worked, what quietly wasn’t working, and what God may be inviting us into next. Because you don’t need a perfect fresh start date to move forward. You need clarity. And clarity almost always begins by looking back. Why a Year-End Review Matters (Before You Set Goals) Most of us skip straight to the “new year plan.” New routines! New schedules! New systems! New goals! But if you don’t pause to look back first, you’ll almost always do one of two things: Repeat the same patterns (because you never identified what actually wasn’t working), or Make an unrealistic plan that looks great on paper and falls apart by week two (ME! I do this!!) A year-end review helps you slow down and ask: What actually helped our home feel peaceful? What consistently made things feel chaotic? Where did my priorities drift? What’s one small change that would make life noticeably better? That’s where real planning begins. Step 1: Start With Gratitude (This Matters More Than You Think) Before you evaluate what needs to change, start with what’s good. Not because everything was easy, but because gratitude reorients your heart. It helps you see that God was present, even in a hard year. Try writing down: A few things you’re thankful for from this past year A handful of answered prayers (big or small) Small joys you don’t want to forget And if you have the energy? Keep going. Some of the sweetest year-end reviews happen when you turn the paper over and just keep writing. Gratitude doesn’t erase the hard things. But it keeps your review from becoming grumbling, complaining, or self-condemnation. Step 2: Ask Your Family What They Remember This part surprises people every time. Because we tend to assume we know what mattered most, what made the year “good” or “hard”, but your husband and kids might remember something completely different. Ask them: “What was your favorite memory this year?” “What are you thankful for from this year?” “What did you love doing as a family?” And don’t be surprised if their answer is something simple. Not the big trip or the elaborate holiday moment. Sometimes it’s: “Remember when you played Legos with me?” And you’re like… Really? That’s the moment you held onto? Yes. And that’s such a sweet reminder of what actually lands in your kids’ hearts. Step 3: Name the Hardest Thing (Without Over-Explaining It) A year-end review isn’t complete without honesty. Write down the hardest thing about the year: just a sentence or two. Was it a hard season emotionally? Health issues? A new baby? A move? A stressful schedule? A lack of routine that slowly turned into chaos? You don’t have to process your whole life on one sheet of paper. The goal is simply to acknowledge reality. Because naming the hard thing helps you stop carrying it like a fog you can’t explain. Step 4: Evaluate Your Life in the Right Order This is where year-end review becomes deeply grounding. Instead of starting with “my home” (which is where many of us start), evaluate in this order: My relationship with God My marriage and parenting My home and homemaking Because you can have the most perfectly clean house in the world… and if your heart is dry and your relationships are hurting, a sparkling kitchen doesn’t fix that. So ask three simple questions in each category: 1) My relationship with God What worked? What didn’t work? What needs to shift? This doesn’t have to be dramatic. It might be: What worked: “I found a Bible reading plan I actually liked.” What didn’t work: “I didn’t make time for it consistently.” Even that insight is valuable, because now you’re not stuck in vague guilt, you’re seeing a clear next step. 2) My marriage and parenting What strengthened connection this year? What consistently caused tension? What rhythms do we need more of? Sometimes the issue isn’t that you need a better routine. Sometimes you need more margin, more communication, or more intentional time together. 3) My home and homemaking This is where you can finally get practical: What routines brought peace? What areas spiraled into overwhelm? What one or two “pain points” made everything feel harder? For many women, the big culprits are: Laundry Meal planning / kitchen rhythm Bedtime / sleep habits Morning routine (which is often tied to evening routine) And here’s what I’ve found: often there are one or two small changes that would make your whole home feel lighter. But you can’t see them when you’re overwhelmed and thinking, “Everything is awful.” A year-end review helps you pinpoint what’s actually happening. Step 5: Look for Patterns (Not Perfection) You’re not doing this review to judge yourself. You’re doing it to notice patterns. For example: If you’re always stressed in the morning, check your evening routine. If your home feels chaotic, look for one “keystone habit” (like laundry or dishes) that affects everything else. If you keep falling off routines when life gets hard, your next plan needs more flexibility, not more intensity. This is where a lot of women have a breakthrough: They don’t need a bigger plan. They need a smaller plan they can actually stick to. Step 6: Choose “Small and Sustainable” for the New Year This is the part that changes everything. Because many of us want to set a 30-point checklist… or a 130-point checklist… and overhaul our whole life in one week. And it doesn’t work. (Ask me how I know.) Instead, as you plan your next year, ask: What’s one priority God is putting on my heart right now? What’s one routine that would serve my family well in this season? What’s one tiny habit that would make the biggest difference? Small changes feel insignificant in the moment, but over time they build a completely different home. A Gentle Reminder If You Feel Behind If you read this and realize, “Wow, I really didn’t do the planning I wanted to do,” let me remind you: It’s not too late. Not even a little bit. Today is a new day. God’s mercies are new every morning. So don’t beat yourself up. Don’t wallow in guilt. Don’t throw in the towel because you missed an “ideal” start date. Just take the next faithful step. Your Simple Year-End Review Prompts: If you want a quick place to start, here you go: What am I thankful for from this past year? What are my 5 favorite memories? What was the hardest thing about this year? What worked in my relationship with God? What didn’t? What worked in my marriage/parenting? What didn’t? What worked in my home/homemaking? What didn’t? What is one small change that would make the next season feel more peaceful? Then pray: “Lord, give me clarity and wisdom. Show me what matters most. Help me take action with humility and joy.” Want to Do This Together? If you’d like hands-on help with planning and goal setting, I’m hosting live trainings January 12–16 inside our Planning & Goal Setting course. Each day we’ll meet live, I’ll teach you how to: set realistic goals break them into action steps plan in a way that works with your life (not against it) You’ll also receive all of my planning worksheets so you can take immediate action. If you’ve struggled to make goals that stick—and you want 2026 to be different—join me for our 3rd annual planning retreat. We’ll do it together. sign up here: https://findingjoyinyourhome.com/planning /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/39665305

Why I Still Believe in New Year Goals (Even Though I Don’t Do Resolutions) - BLOG 01/05/2026

Why I Still Believe in New Year Goals (Even Though I Don’t Do Resolutions) - BLOG 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 don’t actually think it’s the answer either. You don’t have to set New Year goals, but I do think thoughtful planning and goal setting is a very good and very healthy practice. The key isn’t whether you plan. It’s how. The “Magic” of January 1st (And Why It’s Not Actually Magical) When people talk about New Year’s resolutions, there’s usually an assumption that January 1st is somehow magical. Like you wake up as a brand-new person who suddenly has more discipline, motivation, and willpower than you did on December 31st. That’s obviously ridiculous. So instead of trying and failing again, many of us swear off making changes altogether. But here’s the thing: the New Year is a natural time to reassess, not because it’s magical, but because of what comes right before it. We’re coming off Christmas. A season of feasting, celebrating, late nights, disrupted routines, and full calendars. By the time January rolls around, most of us are craving rhythm again. Simplicity. Structure. Normal bedtimes. Regular meals. It’s completely natural, after a season of celebration, to want to reestablish healthy routines. That’s often when we start thinking about things like: eating better moving our bodies getting up earlier having more energy being more intentional with our time diving back into Bible reading cleaning routines and household management and more That desire isn’t shallow. It’s human. The problem isn’t wanting change. The problem is how we’ve been taught to pursue it. Why I Don’t Do Resolutions (But Do Set Goals) I’ve never set a New Year’s resolution in my life. Why? Because resolutions feel like wishes you throw into the universe and hope will somehow happen on their own. “I want to lose weight.” “I want to get fit.” “I want to be healthier.” Those aren’t bad desires, but they’re not plans. Let’s say someone makes a resolution to “lose weight.” By December, they’re often frustrated, discouraged, and sometimes heavier than when they started. Not because they’re lazy, but because there was never a clear target or a path forward. A goal, on the other hand, changes everything. Is it semantics? Maybe. But it’s semantics that matter. A Real Example From My Life One of my personal goals for 2026 is to lose 30 pounds. The number itself is somewhat arbitrary. What I really want is to: fit into my pre–baby #8 clothes again have less pain and stiffness regain my energy rebuild my strength If that happens at 25 pounds or 35 pounds, that’s fine. But having a concrete number gives me something to aim for. More importantly, making this a goal instead of a resolution allows me to create action steps—and that’s where real change happens. My end goal is simple: Be down 30 pounds by December 31, 2026. That tells me two important things: This isn’t going to happen overnight. I don’t need to rush or punish my body to get there. So instead of demanding instant results, I ask a better question: "What small, realistic steps can I take consistently over time?" How I’m Breaking This Goal Down Here’s what that looks like for me right now: Step #1: Diet I had good success with Trim Healthy Mama in 2025 (and in years past), so I’m starting there again. This feels doable because it’s familiar. If it weren’t, I’d make only diet my focus for January and add other steps later as I got this into an easy to manage habit. Step #2: Strength training I’m doing Nourish Move Love’s 30-day beginner workout. And yes, it’s humbling. I’m using 2.5lb weights (don't laugh!) and taking it slow. After baby #8, my core and pelvic floor need rebuilding. My goal for February is to repeat the program with 5lb weights. Eventually, I want to get into weight lifting this year, but not at the expense of healing. Step #3: Walking I’m walking the two-mile loop at our local lake two to three times per week, weather permitting. Nothing fancy. Just movement and getting outside with the kids! Step #4: Gut health I’m back to daily kefir (December took me off track) and plan to slowly reintroduce cultured vegetables in February and beyond. This is a key piece for me right now. But I'll take this one slowly with all my other goals I have. That’s it. Four steps. No perfection required. Why This Works (And Resolutions Don’t) As I move through January, February, and March, I’ll reassess. Do I need to adjust my eating? Increase strength training? Pull back and rebuild basics? Check iron levels again? (Getting my iron up helped me lose 10 pounds at the end of 2025.) I would have loved to lose all 40 pounds in 2025. That didn’t happen. And instead of spiraling, I learned something important: my body needed support first. Now I feel poised to make real progress in 2026, not because I’m forcing change, but because I’m working with my season, not against it. This Week on the Blog: A Mini Goal-Setting Series Throughout this week, I’m sharing a short series on planning and goal setting. Here’s what’s coming: How to evaluate last year without guilt or discouragement How Jason and I plan family goals A breakdown of our family goals and my personal for 2026 My word for 2026 and a prayer for the future If there’s an area of goal planning you’re struggling with, or a goal you don’t know how to break down, tell me. I’d love to address it in this series. Want to Do This Together? If you’d like hands-on help with planning and goal setting, I’m hosting live trainings January 12–16 inside our Planning & Goal Setting course. Each day we’ll meet live, I’ll teach you how to: set realistic goals break them into action steps plan in a way that works with your life (not against it) You’ll also receive all of my planning worksheets so you can take immediate action. If you’ve struggled to make goals that stick—and you want 2026 to be different—join me for our 3rd annual planning retreat. We’ll do it together. Sign U Here: /episode/index/show/homemakingfoundations/id/39620010