Jubilee Year of Hope

And in a lot of ways, I had a really.  Ordinary year. I didn’t have a baby. I didn’t move.  

I don’t know. There just weren’t a lot of those kinds of like big, shiny things that happened.  This year. There were just a bunch.  Of ordinary. Moments.  And I found myself feeling.  Really pleased by that.  

Just looking back and seeing that. Uh,  my ability to just live an ordinary day in an ordinary week in an ordinary month.  With peace has gotten better.  And. As I look forward into the new year, I realized I just want more of that.  

Instead of hyped up feelings about.  Big and sparkly accomplishments.  

I want.  To live an ordinary life. Well,  Now there’s nothing wrong with wanting to accomplish things. I think humans are wired. For improving themselves. And some of the forms of improving ourselves show up on the outside. Other people see them and that’s wonderful.  But a lot of the ways that we improve ourselves happen on the inside.  And our hearts in our minds and in our souls.  

You guys have not seen.  The improvements that I’ve made in my mind and my heart, my soul. Kind of my experience of my interior life.  

Now in some way, I do explore that publicly on this podcast. So you guys get some, some insight into that, but even if I didn’t have this podcast,  That progress would still be there.  Even if we couldn’t see it on the outside.  

And as I thought about what I wanted.  To do in 2025. And I make a wouldn’t it be coolest. That’s what we call it in our planner. Where you just write down.  The things that.  Would be cool to do. And I wrote down, you know, Peter’s going to learn how to ride a bike this year, which is super fun.  Blaze we’ll begin learning his letters is here.  

My oldest will start high school.  In the fall.  And we don’t have a ton of great.  High school options here where I live. So. I mean, we’ll probably keep homeschooling her, but I’ve never homeschooled high school. I don’t know if it’s different. I don’t know if we will choose to make it different than what we have been doing. That’s something I want to figure out.  I want to spend more time at the lake this year.  

Uh, pardon me would really love to take my older girls and drive to Oregon and visit my parents. 

They’re divorced, but they both live in that state. So visit them’s Everly.  And I dunno if I’ll do that or not. That was just something where I thought, oh, that’d be fun.  

But my list of things, I was surprised that a lot of them were just really ordinary and I think. In the past.  That might’ve bummed me out a little bit.  I really like. Doing things, creating things, moving forward, feeling a sense of progress.  

But even that idea.  Progress.  Kind of arbitrary. It’s kind of made up.  

As I look at this year.  Where I don’t have a lot of external big things to show that changed internally. I feel like I made a lot of progress.  

And I’m very excited about.  This Jubilee year. So every 25 years, the church. Declares a year.  Uh, Jubilee year and they have declared this the Jubilee year with the theme of hope.  

She is so wonderful. We all want hope. I think that’s why we set goals. Right.  

We set goals because we want to have the feeling of hope that this year will be better.  

And here’s what I know.  Now that I’m wise and 40, you guys. Here’s what I know this year. I  will be better. There will be things about your life. That 100% get better in 2025. Than the previous year.  

And there were also be new difficult things that we didn’t see coming.  

There’ll be both of those things.  

And some of the things. That you plan to do? You will do.  

Some of them, you won’t.  

Life will happen and you will reprioritize. It’s not even a matter of failure. You’ll just strategically decide.  Oh, we’re actually not going to remodel the bathroom this year.  

And then there are things that you’re going to do. They are going accomplish beautiful things that haven’t even occurred to you yet. The holy spirit has not even moved your heart to know.  But it’s something that you’re going to do.  

I want us all to step into this new year with a sense of hope.  

And the hope that I want to give you.  

Is it.  You can change the way that you experience your everyday life.  

I just taught the year of calm workshop.  And I could tell for the people who came the first time, they’d never met me and never heard anything. I had said.  

They were most struck. By this idea of how we can change our thinking.  

And that doesn’t surprise me because I remember the first time I heard that I felt very struck. Like wow. What.  

And how we can.  Change our thinking about everyday circumstances. And then when we add up.  The small change of how we’re thinking.  In everyday circumstances, it feels.  Like our life is very different.  

And we were talking about toddlers and teenagers and house messiness and post-Christmas shenanigans.  

And we just kept tweaking the words. About how we wanted to think about it.  

Until it felt better in our bodies.  Because you could look at this last year. And you could think I didn’t do anything. I went backwards. I’m a mess. Everything is terrible.  

Where you can look back and go how we had a lot of really beautiful.  

Ordinary moments.  

And some of you.  Had big external things that everyone could see.  Had a baby.  Moved.  Learned something new.  

But we are living. We are making progress.  

We are learning. We are growing in virtue.  

And by nature every day that we get out of bed, it is an act of hope.  

Every time you put on, put your feet on the floor, you say.  

I hope that today is going to go well.  

It’s interesting that we have this idea.  

That we will wake up tomorrow.  

It’s kind of.  Uh, mass delusion that we all have, like all of us feel pretty certain that we’re going to wake up tomorrow.  

It’s a pervasive kind of hope. Right?  

And for most of us, it’ll be true.  And when we keep having these ordinary moments.  

And I think that the world could use a year of prayer and hope.  

One of the things that I’m going to do this year.  Is I’m significantly cutting down on my phone usage and calling it a screen sabbatical.  

And I already started doing it. I would say I started doing it at the beginning of December. I took almost all the apps off my phone.  And I really controlled how I.  

Check things digitally.  For example before.  

If I was having a conversation with someone and we couldn’t remember an actress’s name, I would pull up my phone and I would Google. Uh, moving. I knew she was in and I’d go, oh, this is her name, which literally happened to me last week. Except I don’t want to touch my phone. And so I just said, oh, I guess we won’t remember her name. And I didn’t pull out my phone and I didn’t Google her name and the world. I kept turning my friends.  

I am not checking my phone for Zillow houses.  

I am not playing Sudoku on my phone.  I bought.  A paper booklet of Sudoku puzzles.  

I am forcing myself to find other ways to entertain myself that do not involve my phone. And particularly it was around my phone. I don’t use my laptop or my computer a lot. I. Those things. I usually sit down and I work. And I am working.  And then I’m done working and I leave my office. So I don’t find that for me personally, I had a lot of.  Fuzzy boundaries or compulsion around.  My computer.  

If I did, I would put some rules in there.  And I’m allowing myself to feel out the rules and change them as I live with them.  

So on my home screen right now for my phone.  

I have the camera on the calculator and the phone and texting and the clock.  The weather.  My calendar.  But I don’t, I don’t find that I’m compulsively checking my calendar. Google maps.  And.  

Uh, rosary up.  

That’s what’s on the home screen on my phone. And then if I swipe, there are some more apps, but my challenge to myself is that I really don’t use them unless they’re necessary.  

And so far. I’ve been doing a pretty good job about that.  It’s like just having that one layer of, oh, I have to swipe makes my brain stop and go, wait, why are we doing this?  

And one thing I did do often on my phone was check my work email. And I wouldn’t even answer it, which is so funny. Like, I didn’t feel like I was a slave to the email to answering it, but I would check it.  And I’ve really been working with my brain to go, Hey, we just don’t have the kind of business where I need to check it. There’s almost nothing.  That is time-sensitive via email.  For my work.  

And then.  I haven’t a hundred percent decided if I’m going to go to zero fiction for the year.  

Or low fiction or only fiction that I’m like reading with the kids.  

But either zero or very little fiction. And my goal is to read.  Religious books.  And first up is going to be confessions. I’ve never read confessions.  

And it sounds great. And I’m really excited to read it.  

I also want to read.  Again, the fulfillment of all desire by Ralph Martin.  It’s such a great book. And it’s big.  

But I want to read it again.  

And I just.  I want to soak up beautiful things in my mind.  

And so I’ll hold this for me. Kind of feels like it goes together. I want to have kind of a quiet year or an ordinary year. I’m always working on cultivating more peace. Being at peace with what’s happening around me.  

I want to live my everyday life really well.  

And I think that that.  Maps so well with this Jubilee year of hope.  

I don’t want to hope for.  Big flashy milestones.  And then feel bad about myself. If I’m not doing that.  And maybe this is just a stage of life that I’m in. That it’s going to feel a bit ordinary for awhile. But I want to love that.  

And it’s not that I don’t intend to grow. I just think I’m going to grow on a bunch of internal things this year.  

And I do think one of the reasons that I’m. Pursuing this kind of screen sabbatical is I just want to limit.  The voices.  In my mind and just what my eyes are.  Subjected to.  

Just want to quiet the noise a little bit.  And not everybody can do that.  

Some of us.  Have to have more plugged in lives than others, but.  

I’ve been doing it for a month and it turns out if I don’t check still every day.  My life is fine. And so.  I don’t need to be doing that.  

I want to invite you into a Jubilee year of hope.  

I will probably talk about that all year.  

And I’m telling you. The biggest hope that you can have for your life is to learn how to control.  

How you show up in your life?  

And we control how we show up in our life.  

By how we speak to ourselves in our minds.  

And you get a, a mini test right now. You get to think about the year and see what your brain tells you about it.  What is your brain going to tell you about this year?  

Do you like what it said? Was it kind.  

Does your brain sound like someone who believes in you and is proud of you?  

Would take me five minutes to pull out of you.  What an incredible year you had.  

You had a heroic year.  

You had a year where you poured so much love into the world.  

You had a year where you toiled.  The good respectable kind of work.  

And this is how we can begin.  

To change the world.  

It’s hard to change the world. If we’re angry and bitter and sad and stressed.  It really is. It’s hard to have good ideas. It’s hard to have relationships.  

But when we begin.  

To manage what we think about to challenge that voice in our head. So that if it sounds kind of mean, and self-deprecating that we go, I don’t know. I kind of think we did some good things this year.  

The better you are at that. The more hope you will have for tomorrow and the next week and the whole year.  I know that I am a person who is capable. Of being nice to myself, no matter what is happening around me. No matter what my kids throw me no matter what my husband says.  

No matter what’s happening. In the news or the world.  

No matter what my house looks like.  

A lot of you are living beautiful ordinary lives with a soundtrack telling yourself. That you’re screwing it up.  

Why are we doing that?  Let’s stop doing that. Let us collectively stop telling ourselves that we’re bad at living.  

I want to feel good at living.  

I want to keep.  Going to the Lord for answers.  

I want to have hope.  

And I really do. I really feel a quiet sense of hope about this next year.  And I’m excited to see what I create from that place.  

Be encouraging to each other.  

When you see your friends. When you see the moms  and they say, ah, it’s hard and we’re busy and everyone’s been sick.  

Maybe touch her hand and say, you’re doing a great job.  

Um, is, are heroes aren’t we.  Wouldn’t that be amazing. We just started saying that to each other.  

So if you want.  To work.  

And how you think about your life so that you enjoy your everyday life.  

I want you to come join us at Catholic mom com.  

Our lineup for the year is incredible. It’s perfectly tailored to moms.  

We start off with a year of calm and we practice that.  For January and February.  Praying for 10 minutes, a day, planning for 10 minutes a day, creating systems that make your life better.  

And then for lent.  We declutter the house and we make it better every year.  Let’s get stuff out and organize the stuff that stays.  

And we hold your heart for mayhem. Mayhem is in may.  In my opinion, it’s even more bananas than.  December. And it kind of catches us off guard, but we’re going to plan it ahead of time. We’re going to say no to the things that.  Don’t make sense this year.  

And we’re going to.  Take care of ourselves. We’re an Olympic athletes at the Olympics.  For the month of may. That’s what we do in mayhem.  

Then we have a lovely program over the summer called keep your cool summer problems. Whether you homeschool your kids or not, or just totally different.  There’s sunscreen and snacks all the time. And can we watch a movie and can I go to this neighbor’s house and have a sleep over in summer, camping, all sorts of things.  

We help you plan that we also.  Do some training the kids, how to do chores over the summer. Which I just think is a great practice.  

Then we have a lovely back to school program.  

And again, whether you send your kids to school or not. Most of the drama’s pretty similar actually. And so we just help you make decisions and make a really good plan and transition. Well,  Because it really is a transition.  

And it is a skill to transition well, and I teach you how to do that.  

And then in September,  We have a really.  Wonderful a new we’ve only done it one time, but it was so successful. Program called Mary’s heart and Martha’s order.  Were we.  

Organize the house it’s different than decluttering. It’s more like we had everyone clean out their car and.  

Go to confession. I don’t know. It’s just different. It’s it’s a really lovely eight week. We kind of have these challenges every week.  

And it was so encouraging and uplifting. It’s like in September, we want to get back to work. We want some structure, we want some routine. And that’s what that program is about.  

And then of course we do less stress for the holidays, which is my favorite program.  I just love holding everyone’s hearts.  Through all the family stuff and the holiday stuff and the traveling and the money and the presence and the.  Drama. All of it.  

And then we wrap up the year with a really quiet and lovely.  I had met program.  

So I want to invite you to come join us for the year.  It’s $300 and you can break that up into payments if you need to.  

But it is a life changing. Year.  

And I know because.  Every time somebody joins and does one of our programs. They say, oh my goodness, that completely changed.  How I viewed motherhood in my day-to-day life.  

And it never goes back. This is one of those things where when you learn it,  You’re never.  The same, you are changed.  

A lot of us are seeking.  

To grow in very specific ways.  But I will tell you.  That if you have not learned this, if you have not learned how to change the soundtrack in your mind, the voice that runs through your head all day long.  

We’ll be very hard to do anything else.  Sure you can train for a marathon or lose weight or clean out your house, but if you’re mean to yourself the whole time.  Your enjoyment of it will be a lot less.  

I want to help moms. Enjoy their day-to-day life to be calm, to be at peace.  To live ordinary lives. Well,  

And I think that that.  

Is the hope that Christ gives us.  

That will me. Believe that he is who he said he is.  And then he died for our sins.  

And we feel really chosen and loved.  We can just handle our lives.  

I want to help you handle your life.  

And it doesn’t take a lot of times. Number one, everybody asks me, is it going to take a lot of time? It doesn’t. You can listen to it on a private podcast on your phone while you’re doing other things.  

But I will tell you that as soon as you start doing any one of our programs,  And as soon as you see how much it changes your life, you want to listen to more of the programs.  

It’s just what happens.  

But you can do it on your own time.  

And it really.  

Really we’ll bring you a lot of hope.  Because you will see. Oh,  I control how I experienced my life.  I cannot control what happens around me, but I control how I show up in it.  

Am I called to all of us is let’s be nicer to ourselves in 2025.  

All right. My friends, if you’re interested in joining us, Check out Catholic mom, calm.com/annual. Come join us for the year.  I’ll put the link in the show notes. I’d love to see you.  

Happy new year, Merry Christmas.  

I’m praying for you. Please pray for me. Thank you so much for listening and have a blessed day.