This morning, I was sharing a bit of my end-of-year planning process on my Instagram Story, and I received so many questions that it got overwhelming to share there! I love IG Stories for the simplicity and ease of sharing there, but some things need more space for sharing, and I think planning a new year is one of them. 

I don’t normally feel compelled to share how I do every little thing, but so many of you were struggling and needing ideas for how to go about this, I really want to share. I think getting above an overwhelming task (like setting your intent for a new year), and sort of gaining an aerial perspective is something that comes naturally to me, so I love to plan things like this. However, if that’s not your strong suit, I can imagine it being very difficult, frustrating, and feeling insurmountable. 

I’m actually setting my intent for the year right now, as I type – it makes sense to actually do this and write a blog post about it at the same time 😉

My hope is that seeing me do it will give you some clarity on how to go about it for yourself, or at least inspire you a little. Ready? Let’s do it. 

I just use the Notes App in my iPhone. I’m normally a pen and paper girl, but when I do this in my journal is ends up taking up pages and pages, and I want it all on one page, in one place nice and neat. Lucky for you, that makes it easy to take screen shots and share what I am planning 🙂

The first thing I do is reflect.

What didn’t work for me last year? What made me feel disconnected from my core values? What have Brian and I been talking about doing a lot lately – is this a good year to do those things? What needs to be a higher priority than it’s been?

Here are some things I have realized in the end of this year, and today as I was reflecting…

1. I am not connected to my core values as a mother right now with my children in school. I miss homeschooling, and the best choice for us is to pull the older two out and begin our homeschool year after winter break. 

Note: this was not how I felt in August when I was completely overwhelmed with my business. Things change, seasons come and go, people change their minds. Flexibility is a wonderful trait to possess. It’s okay to go against the grain!
 

2. We really love traveling with our kids and want to take a lot of trips this year. 
 

3. I have slid back into old habits, and my health has not been a priority lately. I don’t feel good, Im sluggish and cranky, and my sugar/junk food addiction is in full swing. I need to make healthy choices a higher priority this year. 
 

4. I am tired from last year’s whirlwind success in our business. I hired new people, delegated everything I can, and need to remain consistent with my new work schedule of two days per week. 

The next thing I do is write out what matters most to me this year. 

This list is based off what came from my time of reflection, and it’s basically a list of priority focus. For example, I noticed that several of the problems I faced (or am currently facing) stem from not spending much time on my walk with the Lord. I have felt disconnected and busy – that’s not how I want to live! So one thing that has made its way to the top of my What Matters Most list is building a closer relationship with Jesus.

See what I mean and how this works?

This is a really helpful soul check that I do every year and it keeps me intentionally focused. Last year, my list looked very different, with a focus on my marriage and learning to manage the business well. Make sure your list is what you need to focus on, not what you wish you needed to focus on. 

Next, I write down what each of these focuses will require from me in terms of time spent.

This is where I see a lot of well-intentioned people fail – they don’t realize that meeting these goals, making these changes in their lives… it requires time from you every week, sometimes every day. If you don’t plan for that, it’s not likely to happen. 

I make bullet points underneath each goal/focus, so there is a list of what it will require from me right next to it. 

Next, I establish what rhythms will make my life easier. 

Time leaks through the cracks without rhythms. Simple things like rhythmically putting a load of laundry in every night, then switching it every morning make my life so much simpler! 

If there are no rhythms, then the day-to-day stuff will end up filling all my time blocks and I will stay still; and I want to be moving forward, accomplishing things, reaching goals. 

There are two types of rhythms in my life: 

1. Calendar

2. Household

Sometimes our rhythms need a reboot, sometimes they stay the same, sometimes new ones are added. It’s all about where you’re at in your life and how happy you are with how things are currently going. 

I have noticed that not getting dressed in the morning (and my “dressed” I just mean under-eye concealer and a bra) I don’t feel very good during the day, even though I work from home and don’t really have to get dressed. 

I’ve also noticed that not having the kids’ outfits laid out makes for a really hectic morning. I haven’t had the head space to make this small change, so by sitting down and planning how things will change this year, I was able to set an intent to lay everyone’s clothes out the night before. It’s a small change that will have us all feeling better and our mornings running more smoothly. 

I will implement new rhythms by writing them in my weekly planner (here’s the one I use) for the first month, and after that they become habits. 

Then, I write down any problems that need to be solved or questions that need to be answered. 

Sometimes, there are decisions that need to be made that I’ve been avoiding or feel really big and overwhelming, so I just do nothing about them. This is a time to sit with Brian and actually make the decisions. 

This year, as we get back to homeschooling, it’s the first year we’ve had a very open-ended schedule. We work from home, we’ll be doing school at home, we can have whatever schedule we want, and that freedom is great but it also stresses me out to an extent. We have to create our own barriers and boundaries. 

One thing we’ve been talking about but hadn’t decided before today was regarding our weekends. There are lots of pros to having “week day weekends”, meaning we can pick two week days to make into our days “off” from school and have a weekend. Less crowds, cheaper prices when you’re out doing stuff, less traffic. 

There are also pros to having a traditional weekend. Everyone else is “off” and ready to do stuff, more places are open, etc. 

Brian and I have been talking about what to do with this issue for weeks and just going in circles. Today we sat down, talked it out, and actually made a decision. You know what happened? It wasn’t as big a deal as we were making it. 

Homeschooling takes about two hours a day, and my new work schedule is only Mondays and Fridays. We came to realize we can kind of have both kinds of weekends! We ultimately decided to make Sundays and Thursdays our days totally “off” of homeschooling (we enjoy not having two days totally off in a row, but spacing them out a bit), but to also enjoy Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays with no work. 

So with this decision, our homeschool week looks like this: 

Monday: school

Tuesday: school

Wednesday: school

Thursday: NO SCHOOL

Friday: school

Saturday: school

Sunday: NO SCHOOL

We really like this because it’s broken up, and we know that the “school days” are only a couple of hours 😉

Do you see how making that one decision gave me so much clarity and I can now see what a typical week will look like for us this year? Such a burden lifted!

Finally, I get detailed. 

The last step is to pick up all the little pieces and put them in place. 

Examples: 

How am I going to get my health in order? (make a list of healthy groceries, pin recipes to pull from on meal-planning Sundays, download a hydration app to remind me to drink water, set workout days, etc)

If the goal is to enjoy homeschooling and not have it feel like a point of stress, what curriculum am I going to choose? (I already went through this step with homeschooling last week, but do you see the breakdown of following through with the goals and intents you set?)

When are we going to have breaks and take trips to ensure we are enjoying this year? (Brian and I sat down and actually penciled in one major vacation, an adults-only getaway, and three small trips to take as a family)

You can do this with any goal or focus, and I encourage you to! Follow-through is something that rarely happens, and I really think this is why! People don’t write out how and when they’re going to do things they’d like to see happen in their lives. This is the difference between a sayer and a doer. 

This is a lot of planning. One thing I want to say here is that flexibility is KEY! 

The heart of man plans his way, but God directs his steps. 

Proverbs 16:9

The goal with this process (for me) is to be intentional, and to use the past year to reflect and learn and grow. I do not want to be stagnant; I want to leave a legacy of purpose behind me when I’m gone. That doesn’t mean being a control freak or unadaptable. In fact, it means just the opposite. 

I hope this helps you guys! Share your planning session with me on Instagram by tagging me! @allie_thatsme

Want to declutter your life this year?

This morning, I was sharing a bit of my end-of-year planning process on my Instagram Story, and I received so many questions that it got overwhelming to share there! I love IG Stories for the simplicity and ease of sharing there, but some things need more space for sharing, and I think planning a new year is one of them. 

I don’t normally feel compelled to share how I do every little thing, but so many of you were struggling and needing ideas for how to go about this, I really want to share. I think getting above an overwhelming task (like setting your intent for a new year), and sort of gaining an aerial perspective is something that comes naturally to me, so I love to plan things like this. However, if that’s not your strong suit, I can imagine it being very difficult, frustrating, and feeling insurmountable. 

I’m actually setting my intent for the year right now, as I type – it makes sense to actually do this and write a blog post about it at the same time 😉

My hope is that seeing me do it will give you some clarity on how to go about it for yourself, or at least inspire you a little. Ready? Let’s do it. 

I just use the Notes App in my iPhone. I’m normally a pen and paper girl, but when I do this in my journal is ends up taking up pages and pages, and I want it all on one page, in one place nice and neat. Lucky for you, that makes it easy to take screen shots and share what I am planning 🙂

The first thing I do is reflect.

What didn’t work for me last year? What made me feel disconnected from my core values? What have Brian and I been talking about doing a lot lately – is this a good year to do those things? What needs to be a higher priority than it’s been?

Here are some things I have realized in the end of this year, and today as I was reflecting…

1. I am not connected to my core values as a mother right now with my children in school. I miss homeschooling, and the best choice for us is to pull the older two out and begin our homeschool year after winter break. 

Note: this was not how I felt in August when I was completely overwhelmed with my business. Things change, seasons come and go, people change their minds. Flexibility is a wonderful trait to possess. It’s okay to go against the grain!
 

2. We really love traveling with our kids and want to take a lot of trips this year. 
 

3. I have slid back into old habits, and my health has not been a priority lately. I don’t feel good, Im sluggish and cranky, and my sugar/junk food addiction is in full swing. I need to make healthy choices a higher priority this year. 
 

4. I am tired from last year’s whirlwind success in our business. I hired new people, delegated everything I can, and need to remain consistent with my new work schedule of two days per week. 

The next thing I do is write out what matters most to me this year. 

This list is based off what came from my time of reflection, and it’s basically a list of priority focus. For example, I noticed that several of the problems I faced (or am currently facing) stem from not spending much time on my walk with the Lord. I have felt disconnected and busy – that’s not how I want to live! So one thing that has made its way to the top of my What Matters Most list is building a closer relationship with Jesus.

See what I mean and how this works?

This is a really helpful soul check that I do every year and it keeps me intentionally focused. Last year, my list looked very different, with a focus on my marriage and learning to manage the business well. Make sure your list is what you need to focus on, not what you wish you needed to focus on. 

Next, I write down what each of these focuses will require from me in terms of time spent.

This is where I see a lot of well-intentioned people fail – they don’t realize that meeting these goals, making these changes in their lives… it requires time from you every week, sometimes every day. If you don’t plan for that, it’s not likely to happen. 

I make bullet points underneath each goal/focus, so there is a list of what it will require from me right next to it. 

Next, I establish what rhythms will make my life easier. 

Time leaks through the cracks without rhythms. Simple things like rhythmically putting a load of laundry in every night, then switching it every morning make my life so much simpler! 

If there are no rhythms, then the day-to-day stuff will end up filling all my time blocks and I will stay still; and I want to be moving forward, accomplishing things, reaching goals. 

There are two types of rhythms in my life: 

1. Calendar

2. Household

Sometimes our rhythms need a reboot, sometimes they stay the same, sometimes new ones are added. It’s all about where you’re at in your life and how happy you are with how things are currently going. 

I have noticed that not getting dressed in the morning (and my “dressed” I just mean under-eye concealer and a bra) I don’t feel very good during the day, even though I work from home and don’t really have to get dressed. 

I’ve also noticed that not having the kids’ outfits laid out makes for a really hectic morning. I haven’t had the head space to make this small change, so by sitting down and planning how things will change this year, I was able to set an intent to lay everyone’s clothes out the night before. It’s a small change that will have us all feeling better and our mornings running more smoothly. 

I will implement new rhythms by writing them in my weekly planner (here’s the one I use) for the first month, and after that they become habits. 

Then, I write down any problems that need to be solved or questions that need to be answered. 

Sometimes, there are decisions that need to be made that I’ve been avoiding or feel really big and overwhelming, so I just do nothing about them. This is a time to sit with Brian and actually make the decisions. 

This year, as we get back to homeschooling, it’s the first year we’ve had a very open-ended schedule. We work from home, we’ll be doing school at home, we can have whatever schedule we want, and that freedom is great but it also stresses me out to an extent. We have to create our own barriers and boundaries. 

One thing we’ve been talking about but hadn’t decided before today was regarding our weekends. There are lots of pros to having “week day weekends”, meaning we can pick two week days to make into our days “off” from school and have a weekend. Less crowds, cheaper prices when you’re out doing stuff, less traffic. 

There are also pros to having a traditional weekend. Everyone else is “off” and ready to do stuff, more places are open, etc. 

Brian and I have been talking about what to do with this issue for weeks and just going in circles. Today we sat down, talked it out, and actually made a decision. You know what happened? It wasn’t as big a deal as we were making it. 

Homeschooling takes about two hours a day, and my new work schedule is only Mondays and Fridays. We came to realize we can kind of have both kinds of weekends! We ultimately decided to make Sundays and Thursdays our days totally “off” of homeschooling (we enjoy not having two days totally off in a row, but spacing them out a bit), but to also enjoy Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays with no work. 

So with this decision, our homeschool week looks like this: 

Monday: school

Tuesday: school

Wednesday: school

Thursday: NO SCHOOL

Friday: school

Saturday: school

Sunday: NO SCHOOL

We really like this because it’s broken up, and we know that the “school days” are only a couple of hours 😉

Do you see how making that one decision gave me so much clarity and I can now see what a typical week will look like for us this year? Such a burden lifted!

Finally, I get detailed. 

The last step is to pick up all the little pieces and put them in place. 

Examples: 

How am I going to get my health in order? (make a list of healthy groceries, pin recipes to pull from on meal-planning Sundays, download a hydration app to remind me to drink water, set workout days, etc)

If the goal is to enjoy homeschooling and not have it feel like a point of stress, what curriculum am I going to choose? (I already went through this step with homeschooling last week, but do you see the breakdown of following through with the goals and intents you set?)

When are we going to have breaks and take trips to ensure we are enjoying this year? (Brian and I sat down and actually penciled in one major vacation, an adults-only getaway, and three small trips to take as a family)

You can do this with any goal or focus, and I encourage you to! Follow-through is something that rarely happens, and I really think this is why! People don’t write out how and when they’re going to do things they’d like to see happen in their lives. This is the difference between a sayer and a doer. 

This is a lot of planning. One thing I want to say here is that flexibility is KEY! 

The heart of man plans his way, but God directs his steps. 

Proverbs 16:9

The goal with this process (for me) is to be intentional, and to use the past year to reflect and learn and grow. I do not want to be stagnant; I want to leave a legacy of purpose behind me when I’m gone. That doesn’t mean being a control freak or unadaptable. In fact, it means just the opposite. 

I hope this helps you guys! Share your planning session with me on Instagram by tagging me! @allie_thatsme

Want to declutter your life this year?

At the beginning of this year, I was hopeful, but sort of terrified. I was just a few months in to my blog turning into a business with global reach, going on Good Morning America, ABC News, The Today Show, talking to Jenny McCarthy in my living room, and being featured in every major news site across the world.

I was getting used to (more like trying to get used to) being exposed to the world of virality, living in a fish bowl, and cyber bullies. We were moving out of our little rental in Northwest Arkansas and gearing up to embark on our full-time travel journey in our camper. So much has happened, so many things have changed. I’m looking back on this year and feeling shocked. 

How does so much happen in such a brief period of time?

I thought it might be fun to talk about what happened, what’s changed, and what’s coming in the new year in the different areas of my life and the blog. I’ve been getting lots of questions on Instagram from you guys about what is going on with the podcast, why the blog has been so silent, and all that stuff. So let’s catch up a bit. 

Let’s start with the blog.

To be honest, things have been silent here for longer than I planned. What started as a “quiet month” in October turned into a nearly-three-month hiatus. I needed a break, quite simply.

I was burned out and writing had turned into a source of stress instead of the relief it used to be. I’ve always struggled with spotlights, being seen, and being judged, and I think knowing my posts were being seen by so many people all of a sudden freaked me out. I’m a very vulnerable, open person when I write. What used to be 350 people exploded into millions and that really effected me. Coupled with exhaustion, traveling full time with four kids, and lots of life changes, I just needed to press pause on blogging and not share everything for a bit. 

All in all, the time of rest served me really well. I was able to take a step back, get some perspective, and make some decisions and changes that are going to be better all around. I found a love for Instagram Stories and began sharing my day-to-day life there since I was writing less, and now that’s turned into a super fun community that I look forward to sharing with each day. I got lots of new ideas during that time of no blogging, and God restored me in many ways. 

I’m excited and expectant instead of exhausted now. 

Your Uncluttered Home now has THOUSANDS and thousands of students enrolled, and lives are legit being changed every week – it’s absolutely incredible and invigorating to see! I wake up every day with the best job in the world. I love helping you let go of the clutter that’s been weighing you down. 

I launched Unburdened – a mini course for mothers who are overwhelmed to the extreme and can’t focus on just their homes just yet – and it now has over a thousand mamas enrolled. Crazy!

I launched The Purpose Society – a monthly membership site for moms who want community as they reach their goals. 

Brian and I started and quickly stopped a family vlog – totally not our thing!

I launched Made For This Mom with Kendra Hennessy, and we turned our collaborative project Rock Yo’ Mom Life into its own entity. 

Look at all that good right there! Ahh thank you Jesus!

We grew and grew and GREW. 

I started this year with two part-time sub-contractors helping me with emails and social media. I thought that was a lot! God must have been laughing when I thought that…

We are ending this year with SIX contractors working for us plus a full team of creatives managing Facebook and Pinterest. 

We were able to take our friend (who’s also an amazing husband and father) out of a terrible job that was sucking the life out of him, exceed his pay, and bring him over to do what he loves and work for us from the comfort of his home as our designer. 

We were able to fly my Chief of Staff from North Carolina to San Diego and spend three days in a seaside hotel and plan out the entirety of 2018 while also figuring out how to get my weekly work hours from 38 to 6. SIX! 

This year, I left “blogger” behind me and stepped into being a CEO. It’s been dang hard. 

Firing people sucks. Giving bad news is so hard. Laying down the law feels weird sometimes.

But you know what? This business isn’t mine, it’s God’s, and I have a responsibility to run it well. I am still learning and have such a long way to go, but I do feel like I’m getting the hang of this more and more every week. 

What’s changing in the new year?

Last month, Kelsey and I made the announcement in our final episode together that The Purposeful Home Podcast is becoming The Purpose Show (with just me) and Kelsey’s starting her own podcast next year. 

It’s been weird and sad, but also incredibly exciting. The split needed to happen and was covered in prayer (Kelsey and I are friends and our relationship had nothing to do with this decision), but it’s always more fun to record with another person. 

The Purpose Show has been getting situated behind the scenes and it’s been so fun! There’s been lots of branding, photo-shooting, planning, editing and recording. 

I will be producing two episodes a week, and a special Friday segment with Kendra Hennessy is making its way into the schedule in February. 

The new show launches January 1st with new episodes every Monday and Wednesday. 

One thing you can really look forward to with the new podcast is the fact that I get pretty vulnerable and am opening up a lot to share stories and experiences I’ve never shared anywhere else, including the story I’ve had the hardest time sharing – the story of the blog and Brian leaving his job and how my business saved our family. I end that episode literally sobbing into the microphone, and I can’t wait for you to hear it. 

If you were subscribed to The Purposeful Home podcast on iTunes, you won’t need to do anything to find The Purpose Show – it’s the same thing on there, I’m just taking over it. If you’re not subscribed and you want to be, click here. (you can still listen to all of me and kelsey’s episodes, but just subscribe and you’ll see my new show when it starts! i’m just taking over the old show)

What’s going on with us…

Our family has gone through so much this year, and for the first time I don’t mean that in a negative or difficult way. Of course, we had hard days and problems, but this year was really great! It was our first year in the green pastures God promised us a long time ago after wandering in the desert in a lot of ways. 

We pursued our dream of traveling full-time while also taking on sort of a dare and seeing how small our family could live. We did our traveling in a 26-foot travel trailer with no pop-outs. You can read my very honest post about it here. 

We prayerfully decided to stop homeschooling and enrolled the kids in school in August. That was hard and weird and a relief all at once. I’ll be really honest with you… I’ve cried a lot, questioned myself a lot, and run to the feet of Jesus a lot.

Here’s what I know: 

Sometimes God gives you peace and asks you to do something, and it’s our humanness that causes us to feel like the decision is final.

He never told me homeschooling was over for me. I took the peace I felt about public school and read it that way – final. Now that we’re on winter break and I’ve run to Him a thousand times with tears on my face, I see that I needed my kids in school for a period of time. I needed to work extra for a little while. I needed to get the business ahead of schedule. I needed it to be able to run without me every day. I needed to hire and train people to take over so that I could get back to my roots and handle homeschooling and business owning at the same time. 

Before we hired six new people, I was overwhelmed. I couldn’t run my business and do all the work I was doing AND home educate four kids at the same time. There are only so many hours in a day and there weren’t enough for me. 

Having the kids in school was a relief and a wake up call for me. It gave me the time and space I needed and it lit a fire under me that had me moving quickly, delegating everything I could, and working hard towards a meaningful goal. 

We will be getting back to homeschooling very soon (I’ll share more with you when the time is right), but my message for you readers for now is this: 

Don’t put your own meaning or limitations on what God tells you. Just listen. 

2018, here I come. 

I am so freaking excited for this year, you guys. There’s going to be so much good!

Don’t think that the blog is going to die now that the podcast is my main source of content. Each episode is being transcribed into a blog post, so you can still read my voice if you prefer. I’ll also be writing posts that aren’t podcast episodes as the inspiration strikes (like right now… it feels so good to be inspired and not forced!). 

I have big goals both in business and in my personal life. I’ve found myself slipping back into some old habits that don’t make me feel very good, and I’m really looking forward to breaking them again and stepping into more joy in those areas!

I am so grateful for the place that Brian and I are in as a married couple after this year. We celebrated ten years of marriage in September and I feel like it was a pivotal turning point for us. Something just clicked and we are more in sync than ever. God is so good. It has NOT always been this way! We have a ton of episodes on marriage coming in February and lots of them feature the two of us talking together about this kind of stuff!

We have some big announcements coming soon about our family and where we’re headed and how we’re growing in the coming months. There’s just a lot of GOOD, and no matter what happens or how life tosses and turns as it always does, there is always grace, love, hope, and the joy of Christ. 

Merry Christmas, my friends and happy new year!

xo Allie

At the beginning of this year, I was hopeful, but sort of terrified. I was just a few months in to my blog turning into a business with global reach, going on Good Morning America, ABC News, The Today Show, talking to Jenny McCarthy in my living room, and being featured in every major news site across the world.

I was getting used to (more like trying to get used to) being exposed to the world of virality, living in a fish bowl, and cyber bullies. We were moving out of our little rental in Northwest Arkansas and gearing up to embark on our full-time travel journey in our camper. So much has happened, so many things have changed. I’m looking back on this year and feeling shocked. 

How does so much happen in such a brief period of time?

I thought it might be fun to talk about what happened, what’s changed, and what’s coming in the new year in the different areas of my life and the blog. I’ve been getting lots of questions on Instagram from you guys about what is going on with the podcast, why the blog has been so silent, and all that stuff. So let’s catch up a bit. 

Let’s start with the blog.

To be honest, things have been silent here for longer than I planned. What started as a “quiet month” in October turned into a nearly-three-month hiatus. I needed a break, quite simply.

I was burned out and writing had turned into a source of stress instead of the relief it used to be. I’ve always struggled with spotlights, being seen, and being judged, and I think knowing my posts were being seen by so many people all of a sudden freaked me out. I’m a very vulnerable, open person when I write. What used to be 350 people exploded into millions and that really effected me. Coupled with exhaustion, traveling full time with four kids, and lots of life changes, I just needed to press pause on blogging and not share everything for a bit. 

All in all, the time of rest served me really well. I was able to take a step back, get some perspective, and make some decisions and changes that are going to be better all around. I found a love for Instagram Stories and began sharing my day-to-day life there since I was writing less, and now that’s turned into a super fun community that I look forward to sharing with each day. I got lots of new ideas during that time of no blogging, and God restored me in many ways. 

I’m excited and expectant instead of exhausted now. 

Your Uncluttered Home now has THOUSANDS and thousands of students enrolled, and lives are legit being changed every week – it’s absolutely incredible and invigorating to see! I wake up every day with the best job in the world. I love helping you let go of the clutter that’s been weighing you down. 

I launched Unburdened – a mini course for mothers who are overwhelmed to the extreme and can’t focus on just their homes just yet – and it now has over a thousand mamas enrolled. Crazy!

I launched The Purpose Society – a monthly membership site for moms who want community as they reach their goals. 

Brian and I started and quickly stopped a family vlog – totally not our thing!

I launched Made For This Mom with Kendra Hennessy, and we turned our collaborative project Rock Yo’ Mom Life into its own entity. 

Look at all that good right there! Ahh thank you Jesus!

We grew and grew and GREW. 

I started this year with two part-time sub-contractors helping me with emails and social media. I thought that was a lot! God must have been laughing when I thought that…

We are ending this year with SIX contractors working for us plus a full team of creatives managing Facebook and Pinterest. 

We were able to take our friend (who’s also an amazing husband and father) out of a terrible job that was sucking the life out of him, exceed his pay, and bring him over to do what he loves and work for us from the comfort of his home as our designer. 

We were able to fly my Chief of Staff from North Carolina to San Diego and spend three days in a seaside hotel and plan out the entirety of 2018 while also figuring out how to get my weekly work hours from 38 to 6. SIX! 

This year, I left “blogger” behind me and stepped into being a CEO. It’s been dang hard. 

Firing people sucks. Giving bad news is so hard. Laying down the law feels weird sometimes.

But you know what? This business isn’t mine, it’s God’s, and I have a responsibility to run it well. I am still learning and have such a long way to go, but I do feel like I’m getting the hang of this more and more every week. 

What’s changing in the new year?

Last month, Kelsey and I made the announcement in our final episode together that The Purposeful Home Podcast is becoming The Purpose Show (with just me) and Kelsey’s starting her own podcast next year. 

It’s been weird and sad, but also incredibly exciting. The split needed to happen and was covered in prayer (Kelsey and I are friends and our relationship had nothing to do with this decision), but it’s always more fun to record with another person. 

The Purpose Show has been getting situated behind the scenes and it’s been so fun! There’s been lots of branding, photo-shooting, planning, editing and recording. 

I will be producing two episodes a week, and a special Friday segment with Kendra Hennessy is making its way into the schedule in February. 

The new show launches January 1st with new episodes every Monday and Wednesday. 

One thing you can really look forward to with the new podcast is the fact that I get pretty vulnerable and am opening up a lot to share stories and experiences I’ve never shared anywhere else, including the story I’ve had the hardest time sharing – the story of the blog and Brian leaving his job and how my business saved our family. I end that episode literally sobbing into the microphone, and I can’t wait for you to hear it. 

If you were subscribed to The Purposeful Home podcast on iTunes, you won’t need to do anything to find The Purpose Show – it’s the same thing on there, I’m just taking over it. If you’re not subscribed and you want to be, click here. (you can still listen to all of me and kelsey’s episodes, but just subscribe and you’ll see my new show when it starts! i’m just taking over the old show)

What’s going on with us…

Our family has gone through so much this year, and for the first time I don’t mean that in a negative or difficult way. Of course, we had hard days and problems, but this year was really great! It was our first year in the green pastures God promised us a long time ago after wandering in the desert in a lot of ways. 

We pursued our dream of traveling full-time while also taking on sort of a dare and seeing how small our family could live. We did our traveling in a 26-foot travel trailer with no pop-outs. You can read my very honest post about it here. 

We prayerfully decided to stop homeschooling and enrolled the kids in school in August. That was hard and weird and a relief all at once. I’ll be really honest with you… I’ve cried a lot, questioned myself a lot, and run to the feet of Jesus a lot.

Here’s what I know: 

Sometimes God gives you peace and asks you to do something, and it’s our humanness that causes us to feel like the decision is final.

He never told me homeschooling was over for me. I took the peace I felt about public school and read it that way – final. Now that we’re on winter break and I’ve run to Him a thousand times with tears on my face, I see that I needed my kids in school for a period of time. I needed to work extra for a little while. I needed to get the business ahead of schedule. I needed it to be able to run without me every day. I needed to hire and train people to take over so that I could get back to my roots and handle homeschooling and business owning at the same time. 

Before we hired six new people, I was overwhelmed. I couldn’t run my business and do all the work I was doing AND home educate four kids at the same time. There are only so many hours in a day and there weren’t enough for me. 

Having the kids in school was a relief and a wake up call for me. It gave me the time and space I needed and it lit a fire under me that had me moving quickly, delegating everything I could, and working hard towards a meaningful goal. 

We will be getting back to homeschooling very soon (I’ll share more with you when the time is right), but my message for you readers for now is this: 

Don’t put your own meaning or limitations on what God tells you. Just listen. 

2018, here I come. 

I am so freaking excited for this year, you guys. There’s going to be so much good!

Don’t think that the blog is going to die now that the podcast is my main source of content. Each episode is being transcribed into a blog post, so you can still read my voice if you prefer. I’ll also be writing posts that aren’t podcast episodes as the inspiration strikes (like right now… it feels so good to be inspired and not forced!). 

I have big goals both in business and in my personal life. I’ve found myself slipping back into some old habits that don’t make me feel very good, and I’m really looking forward to breaking them again and stepping into more joy in those areas!

I am so grateful for the place that Brian and I are in as a married couple after this year. We celebrated ten years of marriage in September and I feel like it was a pivotal turning point for us. Something just clicked and we are more in sync than ever. God is so good. It has NOT always been this way! We have a ton of episodes on marriage coming in February and lots of them feature the two of us talking together about this kind of stuff!

We have some big announcements coming soon about our family and where we’re headed and how we’re growing in the coming months. There’s just a lot of GOOD, and no matter what happens or how life tosses and turns as it always does, there is always grace, love, hope, and the joy of Christ. 

Merry Christmas, my friends and happy new year!

xo Allie