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How I Stopped Yelling at My Kids

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Let me just start off by saying right off the bat that I’m no expert when it comes to not yelling at your kids. It’s something I really have to roll up my sleeves and work at.

It’s a constant struggle. And a constant ongoing discussion between me and my husband and my kids. 

That being said, I’ve come a loooooong way and worked my butt off at not yelling. And I’ve figured out what works for me. 

What centers me and calms me so that I can be the best mom that I can be. So that I can respond to my kids positively instead of reacting to them in anger. 

I’ve worked really hard and really diligently at building a relationship with my kids. A relationship where they can come to me and tell me, “You know… I don’t really like the way what you’re saying is making me feel.” 

And we can press pause. There’s so much power in that. 

And newsflash: I’m not a perfect mom. But I am a good mom. 

Yelling at my kids doesn’t make me a bad mom. If I was a bad mom, I wouldn’t give a crap about not yelling. If you were a bad mom you wouldn’t be reading this article trying to figure out how to stop yelling, either. 

So, let’s just get that straight. You’re a great mom. 

Being a good mom is just trying really freaking hard and showing up. It’s asking the hard questions. It’s researching and reading and trying again. And again. And again. 

And you know what? You will mess up. I mess up all the time. I apologize all the time. 

Because let’s be honest. Motherhood is a lot. 

Especially when you have really little kids. And probably when you have teenagers too (I don’t know. I’m not there yet). 

Motherhood is so constant and there are no days off unless you intentionally set aside time to get away. And even then you’re on call (you know in case the kids try to destroy the babysitter or something). 

So, we’re going to mess up. But we’re not aiming for perfect. We’re just aiming to be the best we can be. 

So, if you’re a chronic yeller (no judgement) here are some tried and true ways that I’ve found help me stop being a reactive mom—a mom who reacts to every little inconvenience. And become a mom who tries dang hard to respond to her kids positively and with a lot of grace. Even when you want to literally lose your sh** because they’re annoying you so bad. 

Create Some Space and Set the Intent for the Day

When my kids were smaller,  I would get them busy in the beginning of the day and take five minutes to breath in and out. Slowly. 

And I would visualize us having a positive day. I would visualize myself being patient with my kids even when they were messy or frustrating or just being kids. I would call that out in myself. 

Then when I was tempted to go scary mommy on my kids, I would remember that I’d already made the decision to respond differently. 

Don’t use the excuse, “Well, I can’t walk away from the kids. They need me. I really can’t just create space to pause.” 

Yes, you can. That’s an excuse. 

I had three kids under three, and then I had four kids under five so I understand how finding time to create space sounds like a friggin’ impossibility. But you’re never going to stop yelling if you don’t find some time to be calm and intentional about your day. 

Take a Breath

I cannot stress enough how just breathing in and out slowly will change your whole mindset. Our breath is God-given. It is so powerful and you can completely change your mood just by breathing. 

Breathwork is the new meditation. Use. Your. Breath.

I think it was Jonathan Edwards’ mother who used to pull her skirt over her head and stand there and take a deep breath and recollect herself. I mean, is there anything that says #momlife more than that? Do something like that. 

When I was frustrated I used to close my eyes and plug my ears really hard and take a deep breath. And I’d quickly remind myself that these moments were going to make up my kids’ childhoods. These moments were going to make up their memories. 

Remember Their Blur

When we look back on our own childhoods we don’t really see a lot of specific situations, do we? It’s more of a general feeling. Like a blur. 

You would say your childhood felt mostly happy or mostly traumatic or mostly lonely or mostly scary. And you might have some specific memories to back up that feeling, but for the most part, it’s a blur. 

Our kids are going to have that same feeling. What will their blur feel like? 

These days that we’re spending doing mundane things—teaching them how to tie their shoes, fixing lunches they won’t eat, picking up, dropping off—are the days that are creating that blur. 

What will their blur feel like. That’s on us. And that’s a big deal. 

Stop Making Excuses

I often hear these excuses from women: “I’m just a yeller. I’m loud. I was raised in a yelling household and I’ve always yelled. That’s just the way I am and I can’t stop.” 

Uhhhh…Yes you can. You can if you want to. 

I’m Cuban and I’ve always been a loud person. But that’s not going to be my excuse. Because that’s ridiculous. 

There’s always a way. The question is: do you want to stop?

You have to decide. You have to figure it out.

Change is made up of how much you want it how willing you are to get over yourself and create space for becoming the woman you want to be. 

Mothers are so freaking bad ass and amazing and strong. You’re a friggin’ warrior. 

And you do have control over how you respond. Own that. 

No one is making you yell. Not your spouse, not your kids, not your mother, not your friends. No one. 

You can stop yelling! You can do whatever you want. 

Let Go of Your Expectations

Kids are kids, so our nerves are still going to get worn out. You’re still going to react sometimes instead of responding. 

You’re allowed to be real. You don’t have to respond perfectly. Just don’t react in anger by yelling. 

And listen, we’re not aiming to be Mrs. Cleaver or some made-up, imaginary perfect mom. So, let go of the expectations of who you think you’re “supposed” to be. 

Do you know what success looks like? It looks like not yelling. That’s it. 

It doesn’t look like being perfect and always responding perfectly. It’s just looks like not yelling.

Practice

Yelling is a habit. And how do you break a habit? By continually choosing to not do it. Over and over and over again. 

You put tools in place to help you get better. At one point I wore a Rubber Band around my wrist and I would snap it whenever I started yelling. 

That little snap would bring me back into the moment. And I would remember what I was doing all of this for. 

I would look at their little faces and I would soak up that guilt. And I used that to propel me forward to change. 

I would snap that rubber band and try again. And try again. And try again. 

It’s just like anything else you’re trying to change: eating healthier, marriage stuff, breathing, you have to practice doing it. The muscle that you don’t flex doesn’t grow. 

I wish I had a sexier, easier answer, but I don’t. It’s a lot of work to change. 

It’s a commitment. And I mess up all the time.

But I keep working at it because I want to change and I’m going to show up again and again until I do. 

I created a list of positive affirmations and phrases that you can start intentionally using to speak life into your children.

Save it in your phone and look at it as often as you need!

SEND ME THE FREE PDF!

Full disclosure, I believe that we are all going to screw up our kids a little bit in some way. No matter how hard we try. No matter how much we read. 

There is going to be something that they look back on later and say, “You know, I always felt like this growing up and I don’t want my kids to feel like that.” And that’s OK! 

We have to find the balance between freaking out and worrying what our kids are going to say about us when they’re grown and not caring at all what they’re going to say. 

We’re going to have to accept that we’re human and we’re going to mess up. There are going to be things that we wish we hadn’t said and hadn’t done. And we need to own that. 

But I think we can all agree that yelling is not good and it’s worth stopping. We want to be able to raise our kids knowing that we’re doing our best. 

And that’s all going to come down to how willing we are to do what it takes to change. 

So, who do you want to be? Do you want to be the mom who showed up, who did the hard work, who did her best? 

Then press pause, take a deep breath, get you a rubber band and go be her! 

Ditch the Working Mom Guilt Because You’re a Badass

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Let’s talk about mom guilt. It’s a real thing and chances are you’ve felt it. Whether you work full time, part time, outside the home, or from your home, everyone has their own version of guilt surrounding motherhood.  

We don’t want to miss the first moments of our kids’ lives or the activities they’re involved in. We don’t want them to think that all we do is sit on our computers or phones all day working. And we definitely don’t want them to resent us for working.

But work is a part of life. So how do we balance work and life? How do we teach our kids to value good work ethic? How do we deal with our guilt?

Recognize what’s causing Guilt for you.

What is the guilt circling around?

Do you always have guilt around the fact that sometimes you miss your kid’s baseball games? If so, is it possible to find a way to make it to the game? Could you work out with your boss to get those nights off? If you work at home, could you structure your schedule to be finished working by then?

If that’s not a possibility then maybe you should just have an honest talk with your kid and say something like, “I want you to know that I love you. I care and I’m supportive of this activity of yours. I can make it to your Monday night practice, I just can’t make it to your Wednesday night games.”

Honestly, often we can find or create solutions for our mom guilt. We just don’t. We let it feel hopeless and we do nothing so it becomes this lifelong struggle.

Do you want to be an action-taking, problem-solving mom? I’ve got a guide for you!

Heck yes! Send me the guide!

I think mom guilt is always going to be there in some amount. But if you chronically feel guilt about something then stop, step back and ask yourself what this guilt is circling around and be creative about a solution.

Decide what’s important to you (not anyone else) and prioritize it.

What would break your heart if you missed it? Don’t miss those things. Just remember that you can’t not miss everything.

That’s the only work/life balance you’re going to get because perfection doesn’t exist. It’s a total lie. It’s such a BS and it’s just fueling the working-mom guilt fire.

There will be seasons.

Sometimes work will be busier and you’ll be less present with your family. Sometimes your home and personal life will be busier and you need to dial down your efforts and hours at work.

It’s all give and take. And that’s ok.

Be grateful for your job and focus on feeling joy and satisfaction in your work.

Use positive words when you’re talking about your job. Have a positive vibe and energy around it. Because how you feel, how you react, how you treat you job, is going to be how your kids feel, react to, and treat your job.

Your kids aren’t going to see it as negative, stressful, or make you feel guilty about it if you don’t. And you shouldn’t!

You’re providing for your family. You should be so proud of that. Step into that awesome role and feel good about what you’re doing. It’s a big deal.

And if you love what you do, don’t you dare feel bad about that. That’s so amazing! Step into that and let yourself feel that completely.

What a freaking gift that is! You get to provide for your family while working a job you love. That’s incredible!  

Maybe you’re not super passionate about your job but you like the environment at work and you’re making good money, let yourself feel that joy.

If you don’t love what you do, I would encourage you to look for a different job. Pray about it. Figure out a way to go a different route.

Girl, it’s OK to take breaks

If you work from home or bring work home from your office, it’s OK to take breaks from work and prioritize your kids for five minutes.

I think a lot of us tend to get into this “all or nothing mode” where we feel like we have to finish a task completely before we can spend time with our kids. Nothing has to be “all or nothing” unless you choose for it to be that way.

Don’t feel weird about working on your phone or using tech at home to work.

We live in an awesome time where work can be done from anywhere. So don’t feel guilty about that. Don’t feel weird about it.

Be grateful that you can work on your phone so easily and it’s something you can do anywhere.

It’s OK to bring in some help.

You absolutely cannot do it all. And if you are doing it all, you’ll see that you won’t be doing all of it very well.

So what does that look like for you? Child care — do you need some help with your kids? Housekeeping help — do you need to hire a housekeeper? A meal delivery service? Get creative and think it through.

If finances are a problem, just do what you can. Every time I’ve delegated something, I have more time and energy and I end up making more money because I feel better.

Stop comparing yourself to other people.

Seriously stop.

You’re making yourself emotionally unhealthy by comparing yourself to other people. You are not them and you are not supposed to be them. You are you.

You’re living your story right now, so focus on that and understand that work is a part of that. At least for now.

Just accepting that work is a part of your life can be so huge for letting go of the mom guilt. If you see an instagram picture of a mom baking cookies with her toddler and you’re at work sitting at your desk like, “Oh my gosh, i feel like the worst right now,” that’s so emotionally and mentally unhealthy.

Don’t let that lie sink in. Sure that mom is doing something awesome. But so are you!

And work at home moms, don’t ever let anyone make you feel “less than” for working from home. Or like it’s less legit than working outside of the house.

That’s total BS. Don’t you dare take that!

I realized that usually, when it comes to working mom guilt, most of the judgment actually comes from ourselves. It only freaks us out when we see a glimpse of it from other people because it’s solidifying what we feel about ourselves. And we need to deal with that.

Reflect on where it comes from—usually it’s our childhood—and just let it go. It doesn’t have to have power over you for one more day. So please deal with it.

Because the reality is that when our kids grow up, it’s very likely that they’re going to work. So it’s important that we model a healthy work/life relationship for them and not act super guilty, stressed, burdened and victimized by our role as a worker.

We’re their example, so let’s change the way we’re treating and talking about our work because that’s how our kids are going to view work in general. Especially if you have girls and they become mothers and they’re working.

Being a mom is such an empowering role and being a working mom is totally badass. And it’s not something you need to feel remotely bad about.

You’re taking care of your kids just as much as the mom who stays at home. So you get out there and you keep kicking butt, mama!

Does motherhood feel more like a hurricane of chaos that you’re surviving rather than the awesome, joy-filled season you want it to be?

Unburdened is exactly what you need. 

This small, straightforward course is everything for the mom who feels like she needs a total overhaul, but is too overwhelmed to start. SIMPLIFY THE THINGS THAT HAVE YOU STUCK AND LEAVE SURVIVAL MODE BEHIND.

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Bonus 004: How I Planned + Organized Our Homeschool This Year

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Our homeschool year has officially started! Since it is the beginning of the school year, I wanted to share this bonus episode to help any of your homeschoolers who are trying to figure it out. Maybe this is your first year; maybe it’s not, and this will still help you. But I have been really wanting to share a couple of things about how I’m organizing our homeschool year this year because a couple of the things are new and they seem to be really helping me so far.

Over the last few months, I have been figuring out how to make my homeschool work better and more streamlined, more fun, and more enjoyable. I am excited to share all kinds of things with you in this episode! From the homeschool schedule we built to the curriculum we are using, and tips on how to make your homeschool schedule feel lighter so you and your kids can breathe a bit. I’m really excited about what our homeschool year looks like this year and really hope this helps you get excited about yours too!

 

 

In This Episode Allie Discusses:

  • Why she is trying year-round schooling and how she hopes it will help her overall family schedule.

  • The platforms and curriculum she uses to plan out and facilitate homeschool.

  • What a typical homeschool day looks like for her kids.

  • How rotating a few subjects each day creates breathing room in the school load and routine.

Mentioned in this Episode:

If you feel like your house is just always out of control, it’s totally crazy and you’d love to take some of the advice I give here on The Purpose Show, and my blog, but you just kind of feel like you’re so frozen and overwhelmed, you can’t even. I created a new challenge. It’s called the 10:10 challenge. It’s super, super simplified (and totally FREE by the way!). 

This is designed for the really overwhelmed mom who wants to kickstart her house and build some momentum, because as I always talk about – momentum is where it’s at to making progress, actually taking action, and having that longevity of action that’s going to change your life in the long run.

So the 10:10 challenge. This whole thing is 10 minutes a day every day for 10 days. It’s going to build a happier mom and a happier home for your family! 

Sign me up for the 10:10 challenge!

who doesn’t love a GIVEAWAY?

Reviews are everything on iTunes! Would you take a minute and click here to leave a review? Email hello@alliecasazza.com with a screenshot of your review on iTunes. You’ll be entered to win one of Allie’s amazing courses for FREE!  

If you have a question, comment or a suggestion about today’s episode, or the podcast in general, send me an email at hello@alliecasazza.com or connect with me over on Facebook & Instagram. 

Mom life. We are surrounded with the message that it’s the tired life. The no-time-for-myself life. The hard life. And while it is hard and full of lots of servitude, the idea that motherhood means a joyless life is something I am passionate about putting a stop to. I’m on a mission to help you stop counting down the minutes till bedtime, at least most days. I want you to stop cleaning up after your kid’s childhood and start being present for it. Start enjoying it. I believe in John 10:10 “that we are called to abundant life” and I know mothers are not excluded from that promise. Join me in conversations about simplicity, minimalism and lots of other good stuff that leads to a life of less for the sake of enjoying more in your motherhood. I’m Allie Casazza and this is The Purpose Show.

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Hey friend! Oh my gosh, I am so drained. It’s 9:00 at night right now. I did a webinar today. We had a full day of homeschooling. I recorded three other podcast episodes today. I’m super tapped out. Brian is too. The kids are in bed but they’re not all asleep yet and Brian’s like, “I’m just going to put my headphones in and listen to a podcast because I’m so done.” He’s inside folding a load of laundry for me and we’re both just super tapped out.

But I’m out here in my office/studio recording this little bonus episode for you because I’ve just really wanted to share this with you since it’s the beginning of the school year and get this out to you to help any of you homeschoolers who are trying to figure it out

Maybe this is your first year; maybe it’s not, and this will still help you. But I have been really wanting to share a couple of things about how I’m organizing our homeschool year this year because a couple of the things are new and they seem to be really helping me so far. I’m really excited about them

I think the podcast, in this way, is a lot like a blog and I like to share whatever I’m learning, whatever I’m doing right now. That will change and evolve as I do and as life goes on. Right now, I’m figuring out how to make my homeschool work better and be more streamlined, more fun and enjoyable, and I think I’ve made a couple of changes this year versus last year that are going to accomplish that. So, I’m going to share them with you

I’m going to go over all kinds of things. I’m going to go over the homeschool schedule we’re on this year, which is different than usual. I’m going to share a couple of changes that I’ve made to the way we’re formatting our year.

I’m going to show you a picture of the online program that I use to organize our homeschool, and kind of use it as our homeschool schedule. It’s called Trello and it’s a free platform. I’ve talked about it quite a bit. I also have a blog post and a video tutorial where I show you how to use it to organize your life and I can link to that in the show notes of this episode for you.

I’m gonna show you a picture of our homeschool board and kind of talk you through it. And then I’m going to talk about the curricula that we’re using and share our schedule, kind of like a typical homeschool day for us this new year.

We have already started our year. We pulled out a couple of things a little bit early because it was like 120 degrees here in southern California in the summer and the kids were just getting super antsy. Too much technology. They weren’t able to play outside. And so, we pulled out some things and created a little bit of routine and order early. So, our new school year has officially started for us.

We actually homeschool through a charter school and they don’t start quite yet. They have another week, but we have started officially. We’ve been going strong and doing good so I’m ready to share what we’re doing.

One new thing that we’re trying this year is hopefully going to help us with our year- round scheduling. So far, we’ve really been fans of the year-round school schedule. Year-round schooling can look a lot of different ways. But basically, you don’t start and end when everyone else does. This year we are starting when most schools do. But we’re going to school through the summer and we’ll be wrapping up our last semester when everyone else is on summer break just because we keep finding that we want to do school in the summer at least a little bit.

So, if we’re wrapping up a couple of the core subjects and we could have a little bit of a lighter schedule in July, I think it will actually really help my kids because like I said, it’s really hot. They can’t really go outside. They can’t swim all day, every day. When they play games and we let them have a video game summer, it’s all fine until it’s been too much and they’re freaking out and their moods are terrible.

So I think that having some time in the summer to do a little bit of school will be really helpful for everybody and keep us structured. I can honestly say that parts of the summer were pretty miserable because we lacked routine completely. So, I’m definitely wanting to really follow the year round schedule this year. We kind of did last year but it was just really lax and we didn’t totally do school over the summer even though we probably should have. So this year I’m planning to really stick with it.

We’re trying a schedule that I actually saw online on a different blog. I think it’s pretty common. It’s six weeks on with school and then one week off and you stay in that pattern. I actually found it last year before we started last year, but I just wasn’t sure. I didn’t commit and I didn’t do it.

I’m going to do it this year because I noticed that we seem to desire a lot of breaks. As a family, we travel a lot. That’s one of the biggest perks for us of homeschooling and owning our own business, that we can do things, have family trips, and take breaks whenever we want, not when we’re told to. And I think that six weeks on/one week off will also help with the burnout that typically comes around the month of February. I think that would help to have a lot of breaks coming up, knowing we’ve always got a break around the corner, and we can plan little family vacations, trips, and things like that.

We’ve got friends and family sprinkled all over the country and we would love to go and visit them and six weeks on/one week off gives us plenty of opportunities to do that. So I’m really excited to try that schedule out this year.

I don’t remember exactly how it breaks down, but basically instead of our school year ending in May or June, it would end in July. And then we’d be ready to start up again in September. You can do whatever you want. A lot of people their new school year starts in January and it goes until December and they have a lot of breaks within that. You can make it work however you want.

But for us, we’re starting our year at the same time as everyone else does and we’re just not really taking the full summer off because it doesn’t seem to serve our kids very well. I hope that makes sense. So, six weeks of school and then one week off.

And then we’re also doing the same thing that we did last year, which is four school days per week instead of five. Monday through Thursday is our normal full school days and then Friday is a really light day for reviewing anything that was difficult for anyone that week. And also to give us a little wiggle room to catch up. So if we maybe didn’t get to finish all of our history that week, we can finish it on Friday. It’s just nice to have some cushion.

That’s also what I like about the six weeks on/one week off schedule is that it ends up giving you a decent cushion. So if you guys get sick or you just need to have a big break that was unplanned, you have the wiggle room to do that. And I feel like the four school days per week schedule gives us that wiggle room as well.

Friday mornings are the mornings that I always have all my team meetings. So I’m usually in meetings from about 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 or 11:00 a.m. So Brian can go over and review anything that the kids need to be reviewed or catch up on anything that didn’t get finished. I can come in if he needs me to and help after my meetings. But pretty much the rest of Friday after my meetings are done are open and we can do whatever we want to do and our weekend starts early, which is great.

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If you feel like your house is just always out of control, it’s totally crazy and you’d love to take some of the advice I give here on The Purpose Show, and my blog, but you just kind of feel like you’re so frozen and overwhelmed, you can’t even. I created a new challenge. It’s called the 10:10 challenge. It’s super, super simplified.

It’s email based so you can open the emails and take it at your own pace. And even the emails are a few sentences. It’s really, really simplified.

This is designed for the really overwhelmed mom who wants to kickstart her house and build some momentum, because as I always talk about – momentum is where it’s at to making progress, actually taking action, and having that longevity of action that’s going to change your life in the long run.

So the 10:10 challenge. This whole thing is 10 minutes a day every day for 10 days.

It’s going to build a happier mom and a happier home for your family.

To take this challenge, (it’s totally free by the way) go to alliecasazza.com/1010.

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Another thing that we’re trying is we’re rotating History and Science to create more breathing room in each school day. We find that it’s really hard to get everything done each day without school taking forever. And Science and History are two things that are time consuming for the curricula that we use, which I’ll share in a second.

History takes about 90 minutes most days, sometimes just an hour. And then Science is pretty much the same. There’s a lot of hands-on stuff, a lot of experiments and really taking time to explain everything to the kids and answer their questions. And when we’re doing that every day for both subjects, or even just a couple times a week for both subjects, it just becomes too much. And then the kids get antsy and the day is too long.  It’s just not how we roll. So, we’re rotating History and Science.

So, what that means is instead of doing History a couple times a week and Science a couple times a week and trying to squeeze those both in, or I think it ended up being a few times a week that it was needed. So, at some point they both landed on the same day and that day was always really stressful. So instead we’re doing a few rounds of the six weeks on/one week off school schedule and we’re just focusing on History and just busting out that curriculum. Getting through the whole year’s worth curriculum because we’re doing it all four school days.

And then when we’re done and we go into the second round of six weeks on/one week off, we’re gonna focus on Science and do Science four school days a week and then be totally done with Science. So, we’re going to try that out. I’m not sure if we’ll like it or not, but I’ll keep you posted and we’ll see how that goes. I know quite a few people who do that and they’ve said good things about it. So, we’ll see.

So basically, we’re working on every core subject, every full school day of the week. And the kids have signed up for a couple of elective classes through the homeschool campus that we have, so they actually go to a homeschool campus in our town. And actually, it’s perfect. I didn’t even do this on purpose. It just worked out that way. I wish I was this savvy. Hudson goes to piano, the same location, the same day and the same time as Bella and Leland go to Spanish. So, on Mondays at 1:00 we will just all go to the homeschool campus. Emmett can run around and play at the park. For an hour Hudson’s in piano and the older two kids are taking Spanish. That’s something that they’re learning that we’re not having to teach them. It kind of breaks up the week and it’s electives that I feel are going to be really, really good for them.

I’ll show you a picture of our homeschool board. I use a platform called Trello. Trello is free and it’s an online platform. It’s also an APP. We use it in my business, my team and I use it for communication to keep up on different projects. You can share Trello boards with different team members. So, the homeschool schedule board is shared between Brian and I.

I’ll link to the video tutorial I’ve made for this and the blog posts that I wrote about how I use Trello for everything and all that good stuff. But basically, if you go to the show notes for this episode, which I will link to (alliecasazza.com/shownotes/bonus04) you’ll be able to see a screenshot of my homeschool Trello board with our schedule on it.

Basically, what I’ve done is I’ve decided to ditch the paper homeschool planner. I just found it really irritating, and time consuming too, to have to fill out each student’s name, the subject, what we’re going to be doing that week over and over again every single week, for every kid. It was just really time consuming. It didn’t seem worth it to me.

So with Trello and the way I’ve laid out our schedule to where we’re doing all the core subjects every school day, it’s pretty cut and dry. It really, really simplified me looking at like, “Okay, what are we supposed to do today?” Now we do all the core subjects every day and I just look at the Trello board and see like what are we supposed to do next?

Instead of spending time organizing on paper what everyone’s doing every week, I spent time really, really thinking through what is going to be the best format for our day. Now we’ve been homeschooling for a while, and last year we did it. The kids are a little older so I was able to get familiar with what’s working and what’s not working and I noticed if we started with something that’s really interactive and makes everybody feel positively or there’s really no wrong answers and everyone can just kind of talk and be involved, then that would be really good.

So, we do our Bible lesson while we have breakfast. Then everybody cleans up and does their chores and gets ready for the day. So chores are out of the way. The house is clean. Everybody’s ready, everyone’s fed. We started with Bible which puts everybody in a good mood. Then school starts around 9:00 and then we go into History, which is similar to Bible in the way that it’s really like a conversation. They call it a “couch subject.” So everybody does History together at the same time. There’s no grade differences for History with our curriculum, and again, I’ll share all that with you in a second. So we all sit on the couch and just go through our History lesson. Then the kids go to the table and they do any of the worksheets that go with the lesson for that day and it’s just a really good start to our day.

And then we do a split-up time and that’s with Math and Reading. So, what that means is Bella and Leland are actually doing the same math even though they are two years apart. Bellah is in fourth grade and she’s actually doing third grade Math because that’s just where she’s at. And Leland is doing a year ahead. He’s advanced in Math. So that worked out to where they’re doing the same Math and it’s much simpler.

So, Bella and Leland do Math together and Hudson sits and has this quiet reading time for 30 minutes. And then we switch. The older kids go and they have their reading time and I sit and do Math with Hudson. Then we do read aloud time. Then we have lunch, clean up, and then we do another split up session with Language Arts and Handwriting.

So same thing. I do Language Arts with Hudson; Bella and Leland work on their Handwriting books, and then we switch. Hudson does Handwriting and I do Language Arts with Bella and Leland. Bella and Leland are in different Language Arts, but they are more independent workers so I can help and oversee them both at the same time. Bella’s doing her fourth grade one and Leland’s doing his second grade one.

Next, we do Vocabulary. I just help Hudson. The older kids don’t really need help with that. And then at the end of the day, if we have time and everything’s going well, we’ll do Music and Art practice.

The boys are musical and Bella’s artistic, so Bella will do an Art lesson or just have free draw time, free painting, whatever, and the boys will practice piano and guitar. Sometimes we don’t do that though, and that’s okay. I don’t require them to do it every single day, but usually they do it.

That’s Monday through Thursday. Friday is a lighter day and we’ll just have review in the morning or catch up on anything that we didn’t get done in the morning. And then they’re done and our weekend feels like three days, which is awesome.

And then I’ve also used the labels that come with Trello to mark, like what’s a core subject, what’s a group subject that we can all do together, what needs to be done individually, what are their electives to keep everything really organized. It’s really, really helpful to have a clean, simplified area where I can see this all in one place. I love Trello for that. And because I do use it for my business, I’m really used to it.

And then what I do is I use Trello in place of a paper planner for what everyone is doing every day. I just put a post-it note on the lesson that we’re on in their curriculum books. I open it up to that day and we do the next lesson. And when we’re done I write in a normal, basic journal that I got from Target, and every day I would put the date at the top and then I put Bella, LA for Language Arts, Lesson 31, and just keep track of what we did get done.

That helps me with the school records and it just helps me know what are we behind on and what we need to do still. And also in the thick of it, in that day, sometimes I’ll forget what we actually did and what we still have left to do, so I can look at that and know.

But it’s better and less time consuming than me sitting down once a week and planning ahead and going over every day – “Okay, this Tuesday we’re going to do Lesson 29…” Then what if something changes? What if we don’t do it? Then I have to erase and the whole plan is shot, so I find that this just works better for me.

The curriculum that we’re using is called The Good and the Beautiful. We used it last year. So far it is the only homeschool curriculum that we have reused. I’ve always wanted to try something else after I have purchased something but not with this. It’s beautiful. Very, very image heavy, which my kids really love. I absolutely love it.

It’s definitely a Christian curriculum so if that doesn’t float your boat this won’t be for you. But it’s not in an annoying way and I mean that in the best way possible. I just really, really like it.

And then for Math we’re actually using Saxon this year and so far I like it.

So yeah, that’s pretty much it. That’s how I’ve organized our homeschool year this year. If you’re not a homeschooler, I don’t even know why you listened because it’s a super snooze fest and it’s kinda boring anyway, so thanks for listening if you got to this point.

Again, if you want the links to anything that I shared and all the Trello stuff, just go to alliecasazza.com/shownotes/bonus04 and you’ll get it all there.

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This was an episode of The Purpose Show. Did you know there is an exclusive community created solely for the purpose of continuing discussions surrounding The Purpose Show episodes? And to get you to actually take action and make positive changes on the things that you learn here? Go be a part of it. To join go to facebook.com/groups/purposefulmamas.

Thank you so much for tuning in. If you are ready to uplevel and really take action on the things I talk about on my show, and get step-by-step help from me, head to alliecasazza.com. There are free downloads, courses, classes, and ways to learn more about what the next step might look like for you and to focus on whatever you might need help with in whatever season you are in right now.  

I am always rooting for you, friend!

See ya next time!

Hey mama! Just a quick note, this post may contain affiliate links.

Bonus 004: How I Planned + Organized Our Homeschool This Year

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Our homeschool year has officially started! Since it is the beginning of the school year, I wanted to share this bonus episode to help any of your homeschoolers who are trying to figure it out. Maybe this is your first year; maybe it’s not, and this will still help you. But I have been really wanting to share a couple of things about how I’m organizing our homeschool year this year because a couple of the things are new and they seem to be really helping me so far.

Over the last few months, I have been figuring out how to make my homeschool work better and more streamlined, more fun, and more enjoyable. I am excited to share all kinds of things with you in this episode! From the homeschool schedule we built to the curriculum we are using, and tips on how to make your homeschool schedule feel lighter so you and your kids can breathe a bit. I’m really excited about what our homeschool year looks like this year and really hope this helps you get excited about yours too!

 

 

In This Episode Allie Discusses:

  • Why she is trying year-round schooling and how she hopes it will help her overall family schedule.

  • The platforms and curriculum she uses to plan out and facilitate homeschool.

  • What a typical homeschool day looks like for her kids.

  • How rotating a few subjects each day creates breathing room in the school load and routine.

Mentioned in this Episode:

If you feel like your house is just always out of control, it’s totally crazy and you’d love to take some of the advice I give here on The Purpose Show, and my blog, but you just kind of feel like you’re so frozen and overwhelmed, you can’t even. I created a new challenge. It’s called the 10:10 challenge. It’s super, super simplified (and totally FREE by the way!). 

This is designed for the really overwhelmed mom who wants to kickstart her house and build some momentum, because as I always talk about – momentum is where it’s at to making progress, actually taking action, and having that longevity of action that’s going to change your life in the long run.

So the 10:10 challenge. This whole thing is 10 minutes a day every day for 10 days. It’s going to build a happier mom and a happier home for your family! 

Sign me up for the 10:10 challenge!

who doesn’t love a GIVEAWAY?

Reviews are everything on iTunes! Would you take a minute and click here to leave a review? Email hello@alliecasazza.com with a screenshot of your review on iTunes. You’ll be entered to win one of Allie’s amazing courses for FREE!  

If you have a question, comment or a suggestion about today’s episode, or the podcast in general, send me an email at hello@alliecasazza.com or connect with me over on Facebook & Instagram. 

Mom life. We are surrounded with the message that it’s the tired life. The no-time-for-myself life. The hard life. And while it is hard and full of lots of servitude, the idea that motherhood means a joyless life is something I am passionate about putting a stop to. I’m on a mission to help you stop counting down the minutes till bedtime, at least most days. I want you to stop cleaning up after your kid’s childhood and start being present for it. Start enjoying it. I believe in John 10:10 “that we are called to abundant life” and I know mothers are not excluded from that promise. Join me in conversations about simplicity, minimalism and lots of other good stuff that leads to a life of less for the sake of enjoying more in your motherhood. I’m Allie Casazza and this is The Purpose Show.

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Hey friend! Oh my gosh, I am so drained. It’s 9:00 at night right now. I did a webinar today. We had a full day of homeschooling. I recorded three other podcast episodes today. I’m super tapped out. Brian is too. The kids are in bed but they’re not all asleep yet and Brian’s like, “I’m just going to put my headphones in and listen to a podcast because I’m so done.” He’s inside folding a load of laundry for me and we’re both just super tapped out.

But I’m out here in my office/studio recording this little bonus episode for you because I’ve just really wanted to share this with you since it’s the beginning of the school year and get this out to you to help any of you homeschoolers who are trying to figure it out

Maybe this is your first year; maybe it’s not, and this will still help you. But I have been really wanting to share a couple of things about how I’m organizing our homeschool year this year because a couple of the things are new and they seem to be really helping me so far. I’m really excited about them

I think the podcast, in this way, is a lot like a blog and I like to share whatever I’m learning, whatever I’m doing right now. That will change and evolve as I do and as life goes on. Right now, I’m figuring out how to make my homeschool work better and be more streamlined, more fun and enjoyable, and I think I’ve made a couple of changes this year versus last year that are going to accomplish that. So, I’m going to share them with you

I’m going to go over all kinds of things. I’m going to go over the homeschool schedule we’re on this year, which is different than usual. I’m going to share a couple of changes that I’ve made to the way we’re formatting our year.

I’m going to show you a picture of the online program that I use to organize our homeschool, and kind of use it as our homeschool schedule. It’s called Trello and it’s a free platform. I’ve talked about it quite a bit. I also have a blog post and a video tutorial where I show you how to use it to organize your life and I can link to that in the show notes of this episode for you.

I’m gonna show you a picture of our homeschool board and kind of talk you through it. And then I’m going to talk about the curricula that we’re using and share our schedule, kind of like a typical homeschool day for us this new year.

We have already started our year. We pulled out a couple of things a little bit early because it was like 120 degrees here in southern California in the summer and the kids were just getting super antsy. Too much technology. They weren’t able to play outside. And so, we pulled out some things and created a little bit of routine and order early. So, our new school year has officially started for us.

We actually homeschool through a charter school and they don’t start quite yet. They have another week, but we have started officially. We’ve been going strong and doing good so I’m ready to share what we’re doing.

One new thing that we’re trying this year is hopefully going to help us with our year- round scheduling. So far, we’ve really been fans of the year-round school schedule. Year-round schooling can look a lot of different ways. But basically, you don’t start and end when everyone else does. This year we are starting when most schools do. But we’re going to school through the summer and we’ll be wrapping up our last semester when everyone else is on summer break just because we keep finding that we want to do school in the summer at least a little bit.

So, if we’re wrapping up a couple of the core subjects and we could have a little bit of a lighter schedule in July, I think it will actually really help my kids because like I said, it’s really hot. They can’t really go outside. They can’t swim all day, every day. When they play games and we let them have a video game summer, it’s all fine until it’s been too much and they’re freaking out and their moods are terrible.

So I think that having some time in the summer to do a little bit of school will be really helpful for everybody and keep us structured. I can honestly say that parts of the summer were pretty miserable because we lacked routine completely. So, I’m definitely wanting to really follow the year round schedule this year. We kind of did last year but it was just really lax and we didn’t totally do school over the summer even though we probably should have. So this year I’m planning to really stick with it.

We’re trying a schedule that I actually saw online on a different blog. I think it’s pretty common. It’s six weeks on with school and then one week off and you stay in that pattern. I actually found it last year before we started last year, but I just wasn’t sure. I didn’t commit and I didn’t do it.

I’m going to do it this year because I noticed that we seem to desire a lot of breaks. As a family, we travel a lot. That’s one of the biggest perks for us of homeschooling and owning our own business, that we can do things, have family trips, and take breaks whenever we want, not when we’re told to. And I think that six weeks on/one week off will also help with the burnout that typically comes around the month of February. I think that would help to have a lot of breaks coming up, knowing we’ve always got a break around the corner, and we can plan little family vacations, trips, and things like that.

We’ve got friends and family sprinkled all over the country and we would love to go and visit them and six weeks on/one week off gives us plenty of opportunities to do that. So I’m really excited to try that schedule out this year.

I don’t remember exactly how it breaks down, but basically instead of our school year ending in May or June, it would end in July. And then we’d be ready to start up again in September. You can do whatever you want. A lot of people their new school year starts in January and it goes until December and they have a lot of breaks within that. You can make it work however you want.

But for us, we’re starting our year at the same time as everyone else does and we’re just not really taking the full summer off because it doesn’t seem to serve our kids very well. I hope that makes sense. So, six weeks of school and then one week off.

And then we’re also doing the same thing that we did last year, which is four school days per week instead of five. Monday through Thursday is our normal full school days and then Friday is a really light day for reviewing anything that was difficult for anyone that week. And also to give us a little wiggle room to catch up. So if we maybe didn’t get to finish all of our history that week, we can finish it on Friday. It’s just nice to have some cushion.

That’s also what I like about the six weeks on/one week off schedule is that it ends up giving you a decent cushion. So if you guys get sick or you just need to have a big break that was unplanned, you have the wiggle room to do that. And I feel like the four school days per week schedule gives us that wiggle room as well.

Friday mornings are the mornings that I always have all my team meetings. So I’m usually in meetings from about 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 or 11:00 a.m. So Brian can go over and review anything that the kids need to be reviewed or catch up on anything that didn’t get finished. I can come in if he needs me to and help after my meetings. But pretty much the rest of Friday after my meetings are done are open and we can do whatever we want to do and our weekend starts early, which is great.

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If you feel like your house is just always out of control, it’s totally crazy and you’d love to take some of the advice I give here on The Purpose Show, and my blog, but you just kind of feel like you’re so frozen and overwhelmed, you can’t even. I created a new challenge. It’s called the 10:10 challenge. It’s super, super simplified.

It’s email based so you can open the emails and take it at your own pace. And even the emails are a few sentences. It’s really, really simplified.

This is designed for the really overwhelmed mom who wants to kickstart her house and build some momentum, because as I always talk about – momentum is where it’s at to making progress, actually taking action, and having that longevity of action that’s going to change your life in the long run.

So the 10:10 challenge. This whole thing is 10 minutes a day every day for 10 days.

It’s going to build a happier mom and a happier home for your family.

To take this challenge, (it’s totally free by the way) go to alliecasazza.com/1010.

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Another thing that we’re trying is we’re rotating History and Science to create more breathing room in each school day. We find that it’s really hard to get everything done each day without school taking forever. And Science and History are two things that are time consuming for the curricula that we use, which I’ll share in a second.

History takes about 90 minutes most days, sometimes just an hour. And then Science is pretty much the same. There’s a lot of hands-on stuff, a lot of experiments and really taking time to explain everything to the kids and answer their questions. And when we’re doing that every day for both subjects, or even just a couple times a week for both subjects, it just becomes too much. And then the kids get antsy and the day is too long.  It’s just not how we roll. So, we’re rotating History and Science.

So, what that means is instead of doing History a couple times a week and Science a couple times a week and trying to squeeze those both in, or I think it ended up being a few times a week that it was needed. So, at some point they both landed on the same day and that day was always really stressful. So instead we’re doing a few rounds of the six weeks on/one week off school schedule and we’re just focusing on History and just busting out that curriculum. Getting through the whole year’s worth curriculum because we’re doing it all four school days.

And then when we’re done and we go into the second round of six weeks on/one week off, we’re gonna focus on Science and do Science four school days a week and then be totally done with Science. So, we’re going to try that out. I’m not sure if we’ll like it or not, but I’ll keep you posted and we’ll see how that goes. I know quite a few people who do that and they’ve said good things about it. So, we’ll see.

So basically, we’re working on every core subject, every full school day of the week. And the kids have signed up for a couple of elective classes through the homeschool campus that we have, so they actually go to a homeschool campus in our town. And actually, it’s perfect. I didn’t even do this on purpose. It just worked out that way. I wish I was this savvy. Hudson goes to piano, the same location, the same day and the same time as Bella and Leland go to Spanish. So, on Mondays at 1:00 we will just all go to the homeschool campus. Emmett can run around and play at the park. For an hour Hudson’s in piano and the older two kids are taking Spanish. That’s something that they’re learning that we’re not having to teach them. It kind of breaks up the week and it’s electives that I feel are going to be really, really good for them.

I’ll show you a picture of our homeschool board. I use a platform called Trello. Trello is free and it’s an online platform. It’s also an APP. We use it in my business, my team and I use it for communication to keep up on different projects. You can share Trello boards with different team members. So, the homeschool schedule board is shared between Brian and I.

I’ll link to the video tutorial I’ve made for this and the blog posts that I wrote about how I use Trello for everything and all that good stuff. But basically, if you go to the show notes for this episode, which I will link to (alliecasazza.com/shownotes/bonus04) you’ll be able to see a screenshot of my homeschool Trello board with our schedule on it.

Basically, what I’ve done is I’ve decided to ditch the paper homeschool planner. I just found it really irritating, and time consuming too, to have to fill out each student’s name, the subject, what we’re going to be doing that week over and over again every single week, for every kid. It was just really time consuming. It didn’t seem worth it to me.

So with Trello and the way I’ve laid out our schedule to where we’re doing all the core subjects every school day, it’s pretty cut and dry. It really, really simplified me looking at like, “Okay, what are we supposed to do today?” Now we do all the core subjects every day and I just look at the Trello board and see like what are we supposed to do next?

Instead of spending time organizing on paper what everyone’s doing every week, I spent time really, really thinking through what is going to be the best format for our day. Now we’ve been homeschooling for a while, and last year we did it. The kids are a little older so I was able to get familiar with what’s working and what’s not working and I noticed if we started with something that’s really interactive and makes everybody feel positively or there’s really no wrong answers and everyone can just kind of talk and be involved, then that would be really good.

So, we do our Bible lesson while we have breakfast. Then everybody cleans up and does their chores and gets ready for the day. So chores are out of the way. The house is clean. Everybody’s ready, everyone’s fed. We started with Bible which puts everybody in a good mood. Then school starts around 9:00 and then we go into History, which is similar to Bible in the way that it’s really like a conversation. They call it a “couch subject.” So everybody does History together at the same time. There’s no grade differences for History with our curriculum, and again, I’ll share all that with you in a second. So we all sit on the couch and just go through our History lesson. Then the kids go to the table and they do any of the worksheets that go with the lesson for that day and it’s just a really good start to our day.

And then we do a split-up time and that’s with Math and Reading. So, what that means is Bella and Leland are actually doing the same math even though they are two years apart. Bellah is in fourth grade and she’s actually doing third grade Math because that’s just where she’s at. And Leland is doing a year ahead. He’s advanced in Math. So that worked out to where they’re doing the same Math and it’s much simpler.

So, Bella and Leland do Math together and Hudson sits and has this quiet reading time for 30 minutes. And then we switch. The older kids go and they have their reading time and I sit and do Math with Hudson. Then we do read aloud time. Then we have lunch, clean up, and then we do another split up session with Language Arts and Handwriting.

So same thing. I do Language Arts with Hudson; Bella and Leland work on their Handwriting books, and then we switch. Hudson does Handwriting and I do Language Arts with Bella and Leland. Bella and Leland are in different Language Arts, but they are more independent workers so I can help and oversee them both at the same time. Bella’s doing her fourth grade one and Leland’s doing his second grade one.

Next, we do Vocabulary. I just help Hudson. The older kids don’t really need help with that. And then at the end of the day, if we have time and everything’s going well, we’ll do Music and Art practice.

The boys are musical and Bella’s artistic, so Bella will do an Art lesson or just have free draw time, free painting, whatever, and the boys will practice piano and guitar. Sometimes we don’t do that though, and that’s okay. I don’t require them to do it every single day, but usually they do it.

That’s Monday through Thursday. Friday is a lighter day and we’ll just have review in the morning or catch up on anything that we didn’t get done in the morning. And then they’re done and our weekend feels like three days, which is awesome.

And then I’ve also used the labels that come with Trello to mark, like what’s a core subject, what’s a group subject that we can all do together, what needs to be done individually, what are their electives to keep everything really organized. It’s really, really helpful to have a clean, simplified area where I can see this all in one place. I love Trello for that. And because I do use it for my business, I’m really used to it.

And then what I do is I use Trello in place of a paper planner for what everyone is doing every day. I just put a post-it note on the lesson that we’re on in their curriculum books. I open it up to that day and we do the next lesson. And when we’re done I write in a normal, basic journal that I got from Target, and every day I would put the date at the top and then I put Bella, LA for Language Arts, Lesson 31, and just keep track of what we did get done.

That helps me with the school records and it just helps me know what are we behind on and what we need to do still. And also in the thick of it, in that day, sometimes I’ll forget what we actually did and what we still have left to do, so I can look at that and know.

But it’s better and less time consuming than me sitting down once a week and planning ahead and going over every day – “Okay, this Tuesday we’re going to do Lesson 29…” Then what if something changes? What if we don’t do it? Then I have to erase and the whole plan is shot, so I find that this just works better for me.

The curriculum that we’re using is called The Good and the Beautiful. We used it last year. So far it is the only homeschool curriculum that we have reused. I’ve always wanted to try something else after I have purchased something but not with this. It’s beautiful. Very, very image heavy, which my kids really love. I absolutely love it.

It’s definitely a Christian curriculum so if that doesn’t float your boat this won’t be for you. But it’s not in an annoying way and I mean that in the best way possible. I just really, really like it.

And then for Math we’re actually using Saxon this year and so far I like it.

So yeah, that’s pretty much it. That’s how I’ve organized our homeschool year this year. If you’re not a homeschooler, I don’t even know why you listened because it’s a super snooze fest and it’s kinda boring anyway, so thanks for listening if you got to this point.

Again, if you want the links to anything that I shared and all the Trello stuff, just go to alliecasazza.com/shownotes/bonus04 and you’ll get it all there.

_______________________________________________________________

This was an episode of The Purpose Show. Did you know there is an exclusive community created solely for the purpose of continuing discussions surrounding The Purpose Show episodes? And to get you to actually take action and make positive changes on the things that you learn here? Go be a part of it. To join go to facebook.com/groups/purposefulmamas.

Thank you so much for tuning in. If you are ready to uplevel and really take action on the things I talk about on my show, and get step-by-step help from me, head to alliecasazza.com. There are free downloads, courses, classes, and ways to learn more about what the next step might look like for you and to focus on whatever you might need help with in whatever season you are in right now.  

I am always rooting for you, friend!

See ya next time!

Hey mama! Just a quick note, this post may contain affiliate links.

The Right Way to Have A “No Gifts” Birthday Party

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There are a few questions that make their way into my inbox on a near-daily basis.

“How do you handle gifts for birthdays?” is definitely one of them!

And I totally get it.

You’re trying to simplify, you’re letting go of all kinds of junk that made its way into your home quietly and sneakily, and here comes a birthday party. More clutter on its way posthaste.

What do you do?

You don’t want to undo all your hard work, but you also don’t want to deal with push-back from relatives who want to give your kid gifts.

Don’t stress out! I’m gonna go over how I handle gifts and a couple other options that would work too. As my girl Marie Forleo says, everything is figureoutable 🙂

In this post, I’m specifically talking about birthdays. If you’re finding this post around the holidays and would like help with that specifically, click here.

HOW I [USUALLY] DO BIRTHDAYS

I don’t usually do “no gifts” for my kids’ parties, although I like the idea and see why people do it. We did it one time for Hudson’s first birthday, but I’ll get into that in a minute.

What we normally do is one of two things:

  1. Celebrate without a traditional birthday party (go somewhere awesome or go out for a nice dinner and dessert)

    OR

  2. Have a traditional party, get gifts, smile and be grateful.

I’m not super strict when it comes to people getting my kids presents. I think it’s nice and my kids love it. Most people ask what the birthday kid wants, and I take advantage of that and tell them!

“Bella is really into using charcoal to create art right now. If you got her a nice charcoal art set or a new easel, she would be ecstatic!”

It’s not rude, it’s honest. It’s also helpful for both parties when you come forward and answer this question. Now they don’t have to play guessing games and worry about wasting their money on junk your kid won’t care about, and you can rest easy knowing the new “clutter” coming into your home will at least be loved and used by your kid.

Sometimes I do a registry on Amazon or at Target and give it to people when they ask. That’s always super clear and helpful.

We have regular toy purges throughout the year (we try to do them seasonally), so I can relax and know that a few times a year, any toys that aren’t getting played with will get donated and out of my hair. So who really cares if we get some new ones for a birthday party?

My kids have been raised on minimalism and are very used to our lifestyle of simple. Their toys and getting them to let go of things isn’t a point of stress for me.

Side note: with consistency and practicing what you preach, your family will get to this point too!

Hosting A Party?

Ever wonder what to do with all that stuff leftover from hosting a party? Let’s talk about what I keep and what I don’t keep after I host a party.   

Let’s Chat Mama!

THE TIME WE DID NO GIFTS

When we passed on gifts for Hudson’s first birthday, it was mainly because it alleviated stress during that period of our lives. We had just moved into a new house and were going through a miscarriage, and Hudson was way too young to miss his presents (or even know that his party was about him).

On our invitation, we simply said “no gifts please!” and asked friends to please consider bringing a gift to donate to a local children’s hospital instead. At the party, we had an empty box for donations in lieu of a gift table.

I might do “no gifts” again in the future – I have nothing against the idea – it’s the attitude behind it sometimes that I think is wrong.

I see a lot of moms coming at this with an almost aggressive attitude – seemingly angry that loved ones want to give their kids presents.

I’m of the mindset that it’s incredibly narcissistic to expect everyone else to get on the same page as you.

Sure, it’s your kid, your home, and your family’s party (and that’s why you can have boundaries and do whatever you want to do), but do you have to be a jerk about it? Not really.

I like letting people bless my kids – it makes them happy, it makes my kids happy, and like I said, it’s not like it’s causing me a ton of extra stress.

My kids like gifts, and I don’t feel particularly compelled to get super minimal here. Also, I’m minimal in most other areas of my life, so I don’t feel like I need to get crazy with this.

Plus it’s a chance for me to have the kids practice gratitude and writing with their thank you notes, which I really like.

I also feel very strongly that I never want my kids to look back on our simple lifestyle and hate it or become hoarders. I’m careful about not creating a joyless life of deprivation. Most of the time, there’s no real reason to pass on gifts, so why do it? That’s where I’ve landed 🙂

Want to get totally uncluttered?

 Your Uncluttered Home is my signature e-course, designed by me for overwhelmed moms who are sick and tired of cleaning up all the time. 

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WHY YOU MAY WANT TO SAY “NO GIFTS PLEASE”

>> If you’re new-ish to minimalism and your kids are not like mine are now (you’re worried they’ll get new things and never let them go).

>> If you’ve got a relative who goes completely out of control and you feel passing on gifts as a whole will solve this problem.

>> If the thought of more stuff truly stresses you out and is coming at a bad time for your family (like a super hard season where you can’t even handle one more thing – like I was during the move and miscarriage).

>> Because you can do what you want and you just don’t want to deal with gifts. Maybe toys is an area you’re choosing to really simplify so you can feel freer in other areas of your life. That’s your perogative, mama! You do you!

HOW TO DO THE “NO GIFTS” THING WITHOUT BEING RUDE/ANNOYING/HURTFUL

You’re not an awful person for wanting to say “no thanks” to people’s gifts, it’s just that it’s really easy to come off that way. Ultimately, you’re the mother of your kids and it’s your call.

In fact, there are perks for your guests when you say “no gifts” on your child’s party invite. For one thing, you never know who’s struggling financially, and toys ain’t cheap! Lots of people will feel the sweet waves of relief when they read your party invitation – one less thing on their to do list!

No gifts at parties can feel really annoying, rude, ungrateful, and steal joy from family and friends who want to love your kids. I DO think there’s a way to do “no gifts” parties right though!

1. Don’t have a party.

Do something with your kid instead. No party usually means no gifts. You might get a few straggler gifts from super close relatives who go out of their way to bring your child a present or two, but that is far less than you’d get with a party!

2. Have the party, and say simply on the invitation “no gifts please”.

That’s it. You don’t have to explain yourself or say anything more.

If Grandma calls hysterical, have the conversation with her about your reasons and how you feel. You can decide if you’d like to tell her she can bring a gift and give it to Sally aside from the other guests or not.

Personally, I have seen people make a fuss and use their love for your child as an excuse to be the favorite relative and show up with an outpouring of clutter. Set your boundaries where YOU feel they should be, and stick with them!

You could also ask for an experience gift from relatives who just can’t deal with this sentence on your invite. Say something like, “look, we’ve really been wanting a zoo pass. If you really want to get something, that would be incredible.”

Sometimes we overthink things and feel like it has to be a big deal. It doesn’t. You can simply say “no gifts” and let that be that. How other people respond isn’t something you have to let stress you out.

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

— Eleanor Roosevelt

Do you have a creative solution for birthday party gifts? Share in the comments!

BONUS 02: Transitioning Between Home and Public School

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For our family, we take it year by year when it comes to whether we homeschool our kids or send them to public school. And I get asked a lot about how we handle the transitions. It is such an adjustment for everyone. Sometimes the adjustment is easy + other times it is a little more challenging. In this episode I want to share my experiences with the transitions but also want to give you some tips on how to make public school or homeschool easier on you + your family. And remember that no matters what decisions you make about schooling for your kids, you are an amazing mother!

 

 

In This Episode, Allie Discusses:

  • Tips for transitioning between homeschool + public school and vice versa.

  • Her experience with transitioning kids in the middle of the school year.

  • Different ways to make the most out of your schooling experience, whether it is public school or homeschool.

 

Mentioned in this Episode:

The Developing Rhythms Workbook will help you figure out what rhythms are, how they are going to help you, what yours should be, and when you should do them. The whole shebang! If you go through this workbook you will end up with an amazing set of rhythms that will help you in your life and in your role! 

send me the free guide!

who doesn’t love a GIVEAWAY?

Reviews are everything on iTunes! Would you take a minute and click here to leave a review? Email hello@alliecasazza.com with a screenshot of your review on iTunes. You’ll be entered to win one of Allie’s amazing courses for FREE!  

If you have a question, comment or a suggestion about today’s episode, or the podcast in general, send me an email at hello@alliecasazza.com or connect with me over on Facebook & Instagram. 

Mom life. We are surrounded with the message that it’s the tired life. The no-time-for-myself life. The hard life. And while it is hard and full of lots of servitude, the idea that motherhood means a joyless life is something I am passionate about putting a stop to.  I’m on a mission to help you stop counting down the minutes till bedtime, at least most days.  I want you to stop cleaning up after your kid’s childhood and start being present for it.  Start enjoying it. I believe in John 10:10 “that we are called to abundant life” and i know mothers are not excluded from that promise. Join me in conversations about simplicity, minimalism and lots of other good stuff that leads to a life of less for the sake of enjoying more in your motherhood.  I’m Allie Casazza and this is the The Purpose Show.

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Hello ladies! Welcome to another Bonus Episode of The Purpose Show! This is Bonus Episode 2 and I am really excited to dive into this one. I am going to be talking about transitioning between homeschool and public school.

Whether that’s from public to homeschool or from homeschool to public. We are going to cover all the things that I think are most important about that. We have done both. I get asked about it all of the time and I want to lend a hand.

In case you are not sure (maybe you haven’t listened to one yet), Bonus Episodes are really neat. They are episodes that are so exciting for me, and so full of good stuff for you, that I can’t wait to release the content. As you probably know, the podcast is planned out pretty far in advance. Sometimes I get a good idea and I don’t want to wait until three months from now to release that episode, so I will make a bonus episode. Or if I get asked about something so often I will make it a bonus episode.

This one is the latter. You guys have asked about this so much because I have been somewhat open about sharing our journey between home and public school and back again over the last year or so. I am going to talk about that.

First, let’s discuss going from homeschool to public school. I first want to say to those of you who have been homeschooling and have decided to put your kids in public school that I am not here to help you make that decision. I am not going to be addressing that.

For me and my husband, we have followed the peace of God each year. We take it year by year. We never say, “O, we are always going to homeschool”, or “this is how we are going to do things in our family when it comes to the kid’s school.”

It’s a lot to homeschool. It’s a lot to have the kids in public school for different reasons. There is a lot that goes into it. There have been a lot of different things that have led to us homeschooling, putting a pause on that, putting the kids in public school. We always knew that it would be temporary, but we weren’t really sure. We thought it would be for a whole school year, but it ended up being much shorter, and was just for one semester.

We do our best to be spirit-led parents. We prayerfully make our decisions. I will not be addressing that – that’s all your decision. But I will be talking about if you have already made the decision to switch from one to the other. I will help in all the ways that I can think of.

So, going from homeschool to public school: The first thing I want to say is the whole point of homeschooling is to go slow and lean towards child-led learning in order to give your kids a passion for knowledge and learning. This is not the way the public school system in most states is set up.

Nothing negative about them. Nothing against the public school system. I am definitely not one of those homeschool moms who has terribly hard feelings about the public school system. I really think that it is a lot to handle over there. And I think they do a great job on a lot of things. I think teachers are some of the most amazing human beings on the planet. I am very grateful for them. I don’t homeschool because I am trying to keep my kids from something.

Having said that, giving your kids a passion for learning, going really slow, leaning into each kids individual needs and what they want to learn about, and doing that child-led learning is not the way the public school system is set up. Homeschooling generally is.

You are probably going to encounter some push back from the way you did things as a homeschooling mom as you transition your child or children into public school, and that’s OK.  You were doing what you believed was best for your child during that homeschooling time. That’s the best thing you could have done.

Now here you are with life happening and things changing, shifting, and again you are doing what you believe to be the best thing for your child and your family in a different school year, or half way through the school year. It is just an adjustment for everyone, and it’s OK if it is a little hard. It is OK if people let out a sigh, or make a passive aggressive comment, or make a face. Maybe they aren’t rude, but they don’t seem like they really get it when it comes to you homeschooling, where you are at, what they learned and how you taught them.

I think it is important to remember that it is your teacher’s job to help your child. She works for you and for your child, so don’t let anyone put you down or make you feel badly. You are an excellent mother.

I feel like some of you need to hear me say that to you. I feel that with my whole heart. If you’ve even listened to this podcast. If you have even attempted to homeschool your kids. If you’ve even taken your kids to public school, kissed them on the cheek and bid them goodbye, you are an excellent mother. Don’t let anyone make you feel otherwise.

I think it is really important to be as available as possible for your kids after school, especially if you are worrying about how this is going to go. Maybe you are used to spending all of your day with your kids, but now this (afternoon’s) is now your time together. I know it is near the end of the day and you are all exhausted, but this is a crucial time for creating a safe space for your kids to talk with you and for them to connect with you after a day spent apart.

Set up a system for all the things that come with going to public school. There is going to be more paperwork than you could ever imagine. Set up a system for that. For me, I had a wooden paper sorter, that I got at Target, right by the door. When the kids walked in the door, they had a job. They had to hang their backpacks on the hooks and get out any paperwork that the teacher put in their backpacks and put it in their file.

You will have a lot of paperwork; come up with a system that works for that. You will have backpacks, shoes, jackets, and just stuff. When the kids get home, the first thing they are going to want to do is strip it all off and dump it. That will be their habit unless you set up a system beforehand. Get a system for paperwork. I highly recommend that you keep it by the door where the kids come in, even if it is not super pretty.

Have a system for the paperwork. Hooks for backpacks. A bin for shoes. Where do you want your kids to put their things when they come home? What system do you want to set in place so that your house isn’t overwhelmed with the things that the teacher sends home?

The other thing I would say is set alarms for pick up times. I know it might seem silly and obvious to pick up your kids from school, but when they are gone and you get into your own quiet-time headspace, or you get caught up in a younger child, it is amazing how easily you can get busy and almost miss leaving in time for pick up. Or totally miss it like I did once for Hudson. Poor little guy was sitting in the office with his little feet dangling from the chair because I was ten minutes late to get him.

Set up alarms for pick up times. Set a really annoying ringtone. Make it a repeat alarm every day, if even it gets annoying. There will come a day you will be thankful you set that alarm.

Speaking of pick up times, make use of them if you can. These were some of my favorite moments when my kids were in public school. I would leave early so I could get a great parking spot. I would use that time waiting for my kids to read a book, or listen to a podcast, and have some amazing self-care and personal growth time. It was a great in-between-the-day time for me.

It would have been easy to work and leave at the last minute to get the kids. Or send my husband and keep doing the housework. But it was a really great anchor for me in the day for self-care. It was a great time to hit the reset button for the rest of my day.

Establish open communication with your kid’s teacher. Be pleasant and friendly, not harsh and judgmental. Not every teacher, but some teachers have reservations about homeschooled kids.  It has become a kind of “war zone”.

I think being really sweet, kind, and establishing a good relationship with your child’s teacher from the beginning is incredibly helpful. It will serve you and your child well throughout the year for your teacher to like you, and to have open communication.

With each of the kid’s teachers, I sent an email after the first day to thank them for being there, ask if they had any questions. I included a little note about each child that I thought would be helpful for the teacher. I made myself available and that really helped to establish a good relationship for us.

Also, establish a set time every day that you help your kid with their homework, especially in the beginning of this transition from homeschooling. Maybe your child will be further ahead than the school, or maybe the school will be further ahead than your child. This is a transition. You are used to doing school together.

One mistake that I made was thinking all the school stuff would be off of me, and I wouldn’t have to do anything. Maybe that sounds self-centered but that’s what I thought.

Being available to help your kids with this transition during the time that you are with them, is really important because they are going to have questions. They may not be used to the different curriculum, especially if it is common core and you haven’t been using that. They may feel really dumb and feel like the school is way ahead of them. They may feel incredibly bored and unchallenged because you were further ahead than the public school system is.

I wish that I had scheduled time in my afternoon. I wish I had done more crockpot meals so I had nothing else to do when the kids got home from school but just sit with them. Be with them. Help them with their homework. Everyone was in a different level. Each child, in different ways, struggled with this transition.

Block out some time and don’t schedule any other things. Create a couple hours of space to be available to help with their homework.

Also, figure out what you want to do with your weekends. Homeschoolers are used to being together more than public schoolers are. You might find that during the weekend you are excited for some awesome, much-needed family time. You might find that your kids are bogged down with a giant load of homework that the teacher has sent home for the weekend. Set up a system for doing homework on Friday nights so that your weekends are free. Or you can have a fun family night on Friday and dedication a portion of your weekend to homework, like maybe Sunday evening.

Either way, plan ahead. Realize what you are dealing with. Maybe there will be a weekend where they won’t have any homework and that would be great. But more often than not, they will have homework. Decide and plan ahead of time so you are not feeling disappointed. That negativity and negative emotions about your kid’s school, teachers, and their homework will rub off on your kids.

Also, Bento Boxes for your kids lunches. I am going to share my affiliate link in the show notes for these because they are AMAZING. I cannot say enough about them. I shared them on my Instagram story when my kids were in school. I still have them and we use them a lot for park days.

They are basically metal boxes that have dividers in them. There’s a sandwich area, fruit area, crackers, etc. They are just awesome. They slip right inside basically any lunch box that you can get at Target, or anywhere.

They are a little pricey but we really love them. I found them from Robin Long of A Balanced Life. I saw her making her kids’ lunches in them and thought, “that’s super handy!”  They are worth the money and are so helpful. I love that my kids aren’t eating out of plastic every day. I love that they are divided. My son, Leland, hates when his food touches. I am like, so I totally get it. They keep his food separated. They are just really, really handy.

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When you buy something, you buy it with your time. With minutes from your life. Not just with your money. Studies show us that less clutter equals less stress and more time. It is really as simple as that.

This was the founding reason that I created Your Uncluttered Home. It has become my most popular, globally-praised, decluttering course that I designed for moms who want to live their lives more than they want to clean up after it.

It is truly the A-Z of minimalism.  Every room. Every area. Every nook and cranny of your house totally uncluttered.  This super extensive, extremely detailed course is literally everything you need to become a minimalist momma who is able to be a lot more present for what matters most.

To learn more about the course, go to alliecasazza.com/allcourses.  

This really is the short-cut version. The exact journey that I took as a mom, 5-6 years ago, that got me to this point of an uncluttered, minimalistic motherhood where I am spending the least amount of time on my house every day.

Motherhood is just way too sweet a time to be spent struggling so hard and living in survival mode day in and day out.  Our stuff is really the cause of that.

If you want to start this lifestyle, if you want to simplify your life… I believe that it all starts at home.

Simplify your life.  alliecasazza.com/allcourses.

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Enjoy your new-found time without your kids. I just want to give you permission. It is OK to enjoy it. It is OK to be sad that they are gone. Trust me. I balled my eyes out for the first day the kids went to school. I didn’t know for sure if there was an end in sight. I didn’t really have a strong desire to send my kids to public school. I have always had homeschooling on my heart.

But I couldn’t do everything and the business was very overwhelming. Brian and I had both made that decision that we needed something to give so we could focus and not be stretched so thin. It was very sad. It is OK to be sad. It is also OK to be happier. To enjoy the quiet time. To love it. To have some time for yourself. Time to be caught up on the housework and other things in your life. It’s OK to have a job. It’s OK to have something other than your children and enjoy this time away from them.

So now, let’s talk about going from public school to homeschooling. The first thing that I always say is to encourage you before you make the switch to research the different types of homeschooling. There are so many different styles. Find the one or two that really appeals to you. The one you feel would go with your personality and your family style.

What do I mean by that? There’s Charlotte Mason homeschool. There’s unschooling. There’s traditional homeschooling where you are basically bringing the classroom into your home. Find what works for you.

I would say you naturally gravitate towards things. For example, at first, I shied away from the traditional homeschool of bringing the school into the home. I really felt a pull towards Charlotte Mason, and unschooling. That really appealed to me.

My next point is to keep in mind that your homeschool style may change as you evolve as a homeschool mom and you get more comfortable. This happened to me. I was so drawn to the idea of unschooling. We did that for a couple of years and struggled through it.

That may sound funny, especially if you research what unschooling is. But what I ended up finding is that it just didn’t work for us. I love it. I think it is a great idea. I know a lot of people what it works well for. It just wasn’t working for us at all. I wasn’t happy. The kids weren’t happy. It just wasn’t working.

We moved away from unschooling. We kind of kept the Charlotte Mason style and I threw myself more into that. It is OK for you to change, shift, evolve. You don’t have to know it all right now.

Also, do not get sucked into the lie that you have to spend a billion dollars and have everything in the world right now. You don’t have to have everything figured out right now. I encourage you to have minimal school supplies. A minimal curriculum.

Stay away from homeschool conventions for now. I know they may seem really helpful. When we decided to pull the kids, there was a very popular homeschool convention really close to my house. I was so tempted to go.  You know what? I just got this feeling in my gut not to go.

I already knew what I was doing. I was simplifying this process for myself. If I went, I was afraid I would get falsely inspired by the wrong things. I was afraid I would be pulled to buy all this curriculum and spend money on things that are just going to overcomplicate this for me.  That was my problem in the past – that I tended to overcomplicate things, which made me overwhelmed.

I will link to a book that has been integral in shaping my homeschooling experience and philosophy since we pulled the kids out of public school and brought them back home. It is called Minimalist Homeschooling. It is by a doctor who is amazing. It is such a good book. I encourage you to read it.

The curriculum that I found had a couple of things that drew me to it. A friend, whom I really admire and I respect the way she homeschools her two boys, recommended The Good and The Beautiful by Jenny Phillips. If you go to their website you will see how homeschooling moms went from these massive piles of curriculum down to this one stack of books. It was basically a minimalist homeschool curriculum.

Of course, that drew me to it. When I researched it, I saw that, yes, it was a minimalist curriculum. They are getting a rich curriculum with amazing photos, beautiful stories and pictures. It is very Charlotte Mason inspired.

You can get digital products or paper products. I do well with paper so I ordered the physical curriculum, actual books. When I got it in the mail, it truly is as minimal as I think you can get.  I definitely have the least amount of books and stuff that I have ever had with homeschooling my kids. Bella is in third grade and we are getting to the levels where there tends to be more stuff, and there just isn’t. I have been extremely pleased with this curriculum.

Don’t get sucked into the lie that you need to spend all this money and have this “stuff.” (Check out my blog post How to Bring Minimalism into your Homeschool).

I want to talk about pulling your kids out mid-year. Perhaps you are feeling led, feeling that something just isn’t right. “I want my kids at home, but I feel like they should just finish out the school year.” Weigh that out.

It was really hard for me. It was in December. Winter break was coming.  We had put our kids into public school so we could take a year off. We didn’t want to try to be like Jesus and do it all perfectly.  We were both stretched really thin with work and schooling the kids. Tensions were really high at our house and it wasn’t working. We knew we needed to make a choice.

We took a year off of homeschooling to grow the business, delegate, and hire a bunch of new people to lessen our workload. We thought it would take us all school year but it ended up only taking us a few months. By December we were pretty much done. We had hired 6-7 new people. We were both working just a few hours a week and it was great.

We really wanted our kids home. We were torn between finishing out the school year or not. We prayerfully decided to let them get to winter break and then pull them out. They wouldn’t go back after winter break. That’s what we did and it has been the best decision that we had made so far.  I was so nervous about it. I didn’t want to damage the kids or hurt them. I didn’t want to hurt their teacher’s feelings. It was really hard.

Follow that peace. What’s going to work for you? Does it feel better to finish the year? To give yourself time and space to plan things out? Does it feel better to get them home and then figure it out? You have to prayerfully make that call.

I do want to say that I have pulled my kids out mid-year. If that is what is feeling best for you, I want to give you that empowerment/permission. You’re their mom. You know what’s best.

I would encourage you to talk to your kids openly about this transition and encourage them to be open with you in return. I think being really easy to talk to about the hard parts and not taking things personally is huge.

For example, if your kids say something like, “I miss my friends from school” or “I don’t like this homeschooling day” in the middle of a frustrating math class session, don’t take that personally. Don’t snap back at them. Don’t make them regret being open with you.

Encourage openness. Be easy to talk to. Take it as constructive criticism. Take a deep breath. Make appropriate changes. You guys are in this together. You are not perfect. You are not going to be perfect ever. You are going to make mistakes.

Everything is “figureoutable” as Marie Forleo says. This is “figureoutable” too. Take a break. Stop teaching if it gets tense. Listen to your child. Look them in the eye. Get down to their level. Talk to them. You can make changes as necessary together. You are not going to be perfect and have it all figured out right off the bat.

Also, let the kids’ previous teachers know that you are thankful for them. Whether you are pulling them out mid-year or not, I think it is important to keep that peace. Let them know that your decision to homeschool them doesn’t have anything to do with them failing or not taking care of your kids. Let them know that you are thankful for what they did for your child.

Allow time for “de-schooling” if your kids were in public school for a year or longer. Your kids get into rhythms. Kids respond really well to rhythms for homeschooling.

The schools are set up in a way that really does a good job of highlighting the fact that kids thrive under routine. It is very routine – you start school at a certain time of day, then circle time, language arts, break, then math, science, lunch, playtime. It is very regimented and scheduled and never changes.

Also group learning is totally different learning than homeschooling, even if you have a lot of siblings. It is a lot more one-on-one than a classroom setting is. You have to allow some time for your kids to adjust. That’s called “de-schooling” in the homeschooling community.

Let them get un-used to public school. Research. Look up the word “de-schooling” and find different ways you can do that. For us, it was an extended period of winter break. My kids were only in school for one semester, but I did feel like they needed a period of de-schooling, especially my son, Leland.

We had a 3 ½ winter break. It was great. We slowly eased in to homeschooling. I also have a blog post about “Why We Chose to “Soft Start’ Our Homeschool + How It Works  which I will link to. It talks about how you don’t have to hid it hard. Ease into this.

Find ways to bring those routines that worked well for your kids in public school into homeschooling without it being too regimented to where everyone is miserable.

On that note, I encourage you guys to come up with a flexible school schedule. We do a 5-day schedule. We school 5 days a week. If we skip a day here or there, it doesn’t make us fall behind in where we are supposed to be with the curriculum. It gives us some cushion.

We do homeschool through a charter school because I do really well with accountability. I like the idea that somebody is keeping records for me. That someone is watching me, making sure I do what I am supposed to do.

One of the problems with homeschooling was that I tend to get a little bit too lax, a little too focused on other things. I need that accountability. I need that checklist. “You guys need to be here by this date.” That is how I thrive in anything, but especially with homeschooling my kids. We have guidelines and deadlines. “You should be at this lesson and this subject by this date.”

We have a 5-day schedule but we don’t always do 5 days of school. Most weeks we do, but there are plenty of weeks where we do 3 or 4 days. That’s fine. It ends up all working out to where we are supposed to be when we are supposed to be there.

Decide if you want to do a 4-day school week every week. Or do you want to do a 5-day school week and be able to have some cushion. Look up different types of homeschool schedules. There are a lot of ideas. Six weeks on and one week off. Ten months on and two months off. Year-round or traditional schedule.

We do 5-days a week and year- round because we have seen our kids get completely out of the loop with a summer break. Also, we believe that learning should be happening all of the time and be child-led. It feels weird to us, as parents and teachers, to teach during the school year and then just stop during the summer.

We do a lot of unit studies, beach-themed studies during the summer, but technically we are doing school year-round, although our charter school is not.

To wrap up, let’s talk about rhythms. Rhythms will help you tremendously no matter where your kids go to school, but things can get chaotic in a difficult way when you homeschool. You need rhythms set up for basically everything. Your housework. Your work schedule, whether you work at home or outside of the home. Your laundry. Your schooling. Everything that has to do with you and your role.

Rhythms are going to cut your to-do list more than in half. Because it is no longer a to-do list.  You have rhythms set up for things that just need to happen for your life to flow smoothly. It is no longer a to-do list; it is just habit. That is mentally freeing.

I want you to get my free Developing Rhythms Workbook. It is one of my Fan Favorite free downloads from me. It is a workbook that will help you figure out what rhythms are. How they are going to help you. What yours should be. When you should do them. The whole shebang.  If you go through this Free Rhythms Workbook, you will end up with an amazing set of rhythms that will help you in your life and in your role.

Go get that!

I am excited for you guys! No matter why you are listening to this. If there is a transition possibly coming. If you are in a transition. If you just did a transition and it went terribly or it went amazing. I am praying for you guys. I know how hard this can be.

Remember, no matter what’s going on, what decisions you have made so far, or what decisions you are thinking about making, YOU ARE AN AMAZING MOTHER!!

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This was an episode of The Purpose Show.  Thank you so much for tuning in.  If you are ready to uplevel and really take action on the things I talk about on my show, head to alliecasazza.com for free downloads, courses, classes and to learn more about what the next step might look like for you.  I am always rooting for you. See ya next time!