So it still feels very much like we’re in the thick of summer, although I can feel in my body this itching desire to start getting ready for fall. It feels like nesting, where I wanna declutter a bunch of things. I want to check everyone’s shoe sizes. Do you have enough socks? I wanna pull out all of our school supplies, art supplies.

You know, they’re in a couple different places in the house. They get moved all over for the summer as the kids use them, and so I wanna just do an inventory about which things that we have so that I can buy anything that we need for the start of the school year, and just this general desire to reset things, to go from having wild and free open time in the summer to an ordered time in the fall.

Our puppy is now, I think she’s four months old now. She’s been pretty great. She is not causing me problems, which is kind of amazing. I was prepared for her to cause problems for a year, and she really hasn’t. It’s been such an amazing project for my daughter. Everyone in the family adores her. It’s been really sweet, and we’ve just been enjoying little Annie, little Annie Avonlea, our little red golden retriever puppy.

So that has just been fun all around. We, our family got pretty sick this summer, which was unusual, obviously, for the summer, but it felt kind of like COVID, maybe cough and cold, but lingering, and it hit everybody, slowly over time, of course. We can never all be sick at the same time. It’s like one person would get it, and then four days later someone else would get it.

So it felt like it lasted a really long time, and it took my husband down pretty hard, to the point where, like twice a day I’d be like, “Do we need to take you to the hospital? Like, you look not okay.” But he’s pulled through, and everybody’s better now. So that was an unexpected part for our summer, but it didn’t fall over any trips, so I was really thankful for that.

And any time I go through a really difficult season, and that wasn’t difficult, it was just unexpected, I like to look for what was great about it. Like, “Lord, thank you so much that this happened at this exact time and not earlier and not later, because it was a really good time, actually, that that happened.”

In this instance, it was the timing of it, but I think that there are other aspects of a hard season that you could look at and say, you know, “This really brought our family closer to God,” or, “This really, helped us do something, organize our house because we needed to,” or whatever it is. I think there’s always something good to be learned in a difficult season.

We have some really exciting things coming up. I can’t even talk about them right now. I’m not ready. But we have been working really hard as a team all summer for some things for Catholic Mom Calm and for Calm Catholic Kids, and I am just really excited to share those with you. What else has been going on?

I’ve been walking a lot, which is so fun. I’ve been walking, actually in the heat of the day, which was a big shift for me. I normally wake up early in the summers and walk. I like to do that, but my schedule is such this year that I just chose to use those morning hours for different things, and I just coached myself hard to walk when it was really hot outside.

And I would tell myself, “Hey, this is uncomfortable, but you’re okay. You are indeed hot right now, and that’s okay.” And I just pumped myself up with my UV long-sleeve shirt and my big floppy hat and my sunscreen to walk outside, even though it was 87 degrees.

So I’m very proud of myself for that because I think previously maybe I have pouted a little bit about how I had to walk in the morning because it was impossible for a little redhead Sterling to be walking in the sunshine. But I feel like I conquered that this year, and it made me feel very powerful.

My daughter has been learning French over the summer. I have not. I’m a little embarrassed about that. We are going to France, but, you know, we’re going the touristy way with a pilgrimage, so I don’t really need to learn French.

I will learn the conversational phrases before we go, and I’m really excited about going. We met up with those families online this last weekend, a lot of moms, a lot of daughters. It’s just gonna be a good time and a special thing.

So I’m really excited about that, although I can feel my brain being scared, too. It’s like, “What kind of suitcase do we need? Can we be minimalist Europe travelers? Can we get the suitcase where you suck the air out of the clothes so you can still pack clothes, but then put it in the carry-on?” Like, just, it’s unknown.

And so my brain, of course, is worried about making the right decision. And I share that because any time we do something new, that’s what your brain’s gonna do. It’s gonna worry about doing it right, making the right decision, knowing what you need to know, not falling behind, and it doesn’t spend time usually with excitement or thinking about the good things. It’s really just wired to think about the terrible things and the dangerous things.

So you’ll often hear me say, “Just give equal air time.” Give equal air time in your brain to, ” Oh. But I’m really excited to do these things in France and to travel internationally and to spend this time with my daughter.” Like, just give equal air time to the, “Okay, I’m worried about these things and I’m gonna take care of them” list as the, “I’m excited about these things and this is gonna be such an amazing opportunity.”

I have also been making rosaries a lot. I did this months and months ago, and then I didn’t have any more rosary-making supplies, so I went back to making puzzles, but I’ve been making Fulton Sheen rosaries actually for the Fulton Sheen Conference, and it is the most soothing activity, you guys. I just love it so much. I have this tray, and all the stuff is on the tray.

And I listen to music or an audiobook, and I just put the beads on the wire, and it is so soothing, so rhythmic. It makes me feel so good to accomplish the end, right? Like, I make a rosary, and I’m like, “It’s done. I made that thing,” and it is done, and I think there’s just something for moms because so much of the work of motherhood is never-ending, it’s never really done, to have a thing that’s done and beautiful. I’m so proud of them. They’re just stunning.

So if you are going to the beatification of Fulton Sheen, and you come to the conference the day before. The conference I’m going to is the day before. There’s another conference happening the day after. They’re both gonna be great, but I’m gonna be at the one at, the day before, along with 200 Fulton Sheen rosaries. Fulton Sheen outlined this very specific rosary with very specific colors to pray for all the countries of the world. It’s really cool.

So that is what I have been doing. I also just purchased short, hopefully thin press-on nails. Okay, you guys? I just… I’m gonna try it. So they just came in the mail, and I will let you know next week how it goes.

And I will let you know, did I just fall for an internet ad and really they look terrible? Or are they indeed simple and minimalist? I don’t wanna look like a clickety-clackety dinosaur, okay? I don’t know what I think about dinosaurs. I’m not sure that they had nails, but I don’t want that.

I want to just, I want it to be subtle and short. I don’t want claws. That’s what it is. I think dinosaurs have claws. I don’t want long claws. I just want short nails, and I wanna try them. So I will let you know how they go.

All right, let’s talk about transitions. And of course, this is true when you transition in any chapter of your life, whether it was expected or not, okay? You might have an unexpected pregnancy or an unexpected job change or an unexpected reason why you have to move. Some transitions happen to us, and then some of them we choose.

But pretty much everybody right now is transitioning from school. Sorry, from summer to school, whatever form of school you’re doing. And even though we know this is happening, when we start being in the transition period, it feels terrible, and then we think something has gone wrong. But nothing has gone wrong.

Transition feels terrible. This is an OG Matthew Kelly teaching from back in the day, and he said, “People love change. They just hate transition.” And that’s so true, because I don’t know about you, but right now I’m getting approximately 100 emails from the school, the two-day hybrid school, which I’m a part of, so I’ve approved these emails, but there’s so many. It’s like, we kinda want the kids to wear this.

We’re not enforcing a dress code, but we have one that we’re like, “Pretty please, send your kids wearing things like this.” And then there’s books that we need to buy and school supplies and new protocol. Like, everything about the school is new, so everyone has so many questions.

And then actually the farm school has not sent me one email. Oh, I’m sorry, like a month ago, the teacher sent one email and they were like, “Here’s the class schedule and the supply list.” But bless them for being a minimalist kind of school, and I really love that.

So I was thinking about those of you, though, that have kids in multiple schools and how many emails you must be getting. And that feels terrible. They start coming, and I don’t know about you, but there’s so much text. I’m like, “What? Who’s reading these emails? I’m not reading these emails. That’s too much text for my brain.”

And there’s 12 of them, you know? So it can feel really overwhelming, and then we just think, “This is so crazy.” Then we think, “Maybe I shouldn’t put my kids in school,” whatever version it is. Or this is true even of a homeschooling co-op. We did Classical Conversations last year and it was the same thing, gobs and gobs of emails and instructions.

We also get lots of emails for the government program that we’re part of where we get $1,700 to homeschool the kids, but we have to fill out all this documentation, and there’s so many emails. So you’re gonna start getting emails or school supplies or whatever it is that you’re going through right now.

Maybe you’re buying a homeschool curriculum, although let’s be honest, most of you spent your money in May. You bought a bunch of homeschooling stuff in May. Maybe you’re also buying things in August, but then it arrives, and there’s all this homeschooling curriculum.

So we’ve got emails, we’ve got homeschooling curriculum. We’re like, “What kind of school supplies are we buying?” And then I don’t know about you, but my kids, just today, two of my boys came out in their socks, and there were just holes, giant holes in the heel of their socks.

And I said, “You guys, why are you wearing those socks?” And they go, “Mom, I don’t really care.” I was like, “Well, I’m your mom and I care. We’re not gonna be wearing socks with giant holes in them.” They told me they don’t have any socks.

First of all, shenanigans on that. I’m gonna find 11 socks under their bed when I move it. I don’t know how the socks get under the bed, but they do. And so I’m gonna find all those socks. But if they didn’t, I just order new socks for them.

So it’s all of these little things, and then they freak your body out ’cause your body kind of fritzes out on having to make lots of decisions and manage lots of details. This is everybody. And then your brain is like, “This is terrible. Maybe we’ve made the wrong decision.”

And a lot of times at this moment in transition, you second-guess your decision. And you start thinking, “This feels bad, so maybe the change is wrong.” And instead, I just want you to tell your brain, “Hey, brain. Hey, come here. I love you. The transition is always uncomfortable. It is always not a good time.” That’s why we label it different. It’s like a different phase than the change.

So we don’t like transition. It’s supposed to feel yucky. I mean, I don’t know about supposed to, but it just does. And if you tell your brain that, it can relax and make a game plan for the transition, and then be thinking about and getting ready for the actual change.

The other thing I like to remind people is who you are and how you live in transition isn’t how it’s going to be. Right? This is true when you’re pregnant and you’re so exhausted or you’re throwing up, and you think, “Oh my gosh, I’m not doing any of the things that I wanna be doing with my kids ’cause I’m so sick and tired.”

Like, yeah, who you are as a mom when you’re pregnant is not who you are as a mom all the rest of the time. It is a beautiful and wonderful sacrifice that you’re making. And yes, you’re probably not gonna be nature journaling with the kids as much when you’re pregnant, and that’s okay. You’re giving them a sibling, which is better than nature journaling.

But then I remind myself, “Hey, on the flip side, you’re gonna come back to you. We’re gonna have some rhythms. We’re gonna have some systems, and then we’re gonna live the way that we want.” So that’s true about this back to school transition, which is, it’s a flurry of activity. A lot of questions need to be answered.

A lot of things need to be procured. Maybe we’re organizing our house. You know, you’re either setting up your schooling room, or you’re like, “Where are the backpacks gonna go?” I already know right now, this is so silly, but I already know that one of my Forest’s lunchbox doesn’t zip. I don’t know what he did to it, but there’s just yucky stuff in it, and it doesn’t zip, and I’m pretty sure for $8 I can get him a new one, and I need to do that.

So I just have these things in my mind where I’m like, “Okay, I gotta take care of that.” But I know that once we get into the rhythm of it, which for me probably takes two weeks, it’s probably two weeks of us living out a schedule. And then I evaluate it, and then I tweak it, and then we keep living it out, and by the end of two weeks, it’s pretty good.

So for example, your mornings are gonna be different. Whatever you’re doing morning-wise in the summer, it’s probably different when you transition over to schooling. And everybody’s gonna be kind of crunchy those first couple days, especially if you’re waking them up earlier and if they need to get ready in a certain amount of time.

And then transitions from being done with school, again, whether it’s at home or at school, it doesn’t matter. The transition from being done with that to moving back into play and family life can be tricky.

And so I’m just gonna do it one way, but then at the end of the day, I’m gonna evaluate it. I’m gonna go, “How did today go? Do we wanna switch anything up?” Like, we might need to start getting the kids ready five minutes earlier because I underestimated how much time it took from them having their shoes on to being buckled in the car and driving away, right? Like, that’s a good example of, like, maybe you just misestimated that time.

So you’re gonna evaluate what’s going on, you’re gonna tweak it, then you’re gonna settle into the change. And it’ll be like, oh, by the second week of September, I’m thinking for us, we’ve got a good rhythm. And now we’re gonna enjoy this new rhythm. And for us, that rhythm pretty much stays the same until snow comes. And then when snow comes, ski season starts, and that really changes how we live.

So I might have two weeks, maybe four weeks of transition to then have it be pretty smooth sailing until January. And that doesn’t mean that we won’t have busy weeks or sports or music or something else that kind of crops up that we have to work around.

But in general, the biggest transition from the craziness of summer to the rhythm of fall is the two weeks getting ready for the thing, and then I think another two weeks of living through the thing and tweaking it until it starts to feel settled.

And I want you to know that your kids are gonna experience this too. Like, for those of you that are sending a kid off to school, particularly kindergarten, for the first time, I’ve heard it takes them six weeks for their bodies to adjust to that new schedule, and that they’re just kind of cranky in between that time.

So we never really did that. I don’t think I ever sent anybody to kindergarten. So I don’t personally know, but I’ve heard that many times from parents. So we’re getting ready to do this transition, and it’s okay that it feels uncomfortable. It doesn’t mean that you’ve done anything wrong.

And the way that you talk to yourself in that time is so important. Tell your brain, “Hey, this is a transition. It’s going to be okay. I love you.” And then I really like to ham up the change. Like, “Soon we’re gonna have this locked. We’re gonna have some great systems. I’m so excited.” I love change. I love fall. It’s my favorite season. September, October, and November are my favorite months.

And all the bugs die then, which I think is fantastic. And I know that this part isn’t how it’s going to feel the whole time. So you’ve gotta tell your brain that. This part is transition. We are gonna like the change. I’ve got you. And if we get into the change and there’s something we don’t like, you can trust yourself to tweak it. You’re gonna make small tweaks for sure.

So I give myself that space or that grace to know that there are things I don’t know yet, but I’m gonna love myself through those changes and I’m not gonna tell myself that I did it wrong or anything is wrong with me or I’m failing whatever new plan I wanted to have. We have to make a plan and then live with it for a little while, then tweak it, then it ends up being the plan that we want.

So you can see the more we come with curiosity and openness and flexibility, the nicer we’re gonna treat ourselves. When we come being very rigid and very black and white and very, “You have to get this right and you better enjoy this and nothing about this should be hard,” we just feel terrible.

And then your experience of this, I’m gonna call it four weeks of transition, will be terrible, and I don’t want that for you. I want you to have peace. Jesus wants you to have peace right now, today, with all the emails and all the school supplies and the schedule changes. You can have peace in any of those moments.

Small hack. One of the things that I do is I make a folder for the school and I put all the emails in there, and then I put time on my calendar to look at them. So as soon as they come in, I just pop them in that folder so they’re not in my inbox. ‘Cause you know, like when you open your inbox, if there’s a bunch of bold unread emails or a bunch of school things or whatever it is, I don’t know about you, my body kind of freaks out.

So I put them in this folder so I don’t have to see them, and then I put on my calendar, Wednesday at 10:00 AM, we’re gonna spend an hour going through those emails, and then I pep talk myself. I’m like, “Girl, you can go through these emails.” And I have a notebook in front of me and I write down the things that I need to do, and some of those end up on my calendar. Like, okay, we’re gonna go get school supplies at this time.

And then it’s there and I just know it’s there and I’m gonna do it. So that is how I handle things where there are lots of details. I kind of compartmentalize the details somewhere, and then I schedule on my calendar the time that I do it, and that’s how I don’t feel like it’s hanging over me all the time.

Because before the time I put on my calendar, I’m not walking around going, “Oh no, I gotta get to those school supplies. I gotta figure that out. I’ve already. I gotta read those emails.” I don’t do that because I know, I’m gonna think about that at this other time. And so it just, it compartmentalizes it a little bit more.

Okay, mamas. Catholic Mom Reset starts September 6th. I am going to help you to remake your calendar so you can crush your to-do list. I’m going to help you get rid of the negative voice inside your brain. This is my favorite thing to teach moms because I think it is so, so, so important that we stop trash-talking ourselves inside of our brains.

Then in week three, I’m gonna help you reclaim your prayer life, no matter how crazy your life is, whether your kids sleep through the night or not. I’m going to sell you so hard on my system for praying every day so that you actually grow in your relationship with the Lord, and you don’t feel like that part of your life is being sacrificed because of all the mom stuff.

And then in week four, I’m going to teach you some very simple tools that you can use to improve any relationship. So it could be with your husband, with your kids, with your mom, with a coworker, with a neighbor, with your sister, just any person in your life where you’re like, “I wish this relationship was better,” I’m gonna teach you how to do that.

So we’re gonna spend four weeks doing those things, and by the end, you will feel like your life is so much more ordered. Now, this starts the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. So some of you are living your best life on a boat or camping or whatever you guys do on Labor Day weekend.

And so we made the first week really light, so if you don’t do anything until Thursday of that week, so you have a magical Labor Day weekend if you do that, and then you can come back, and you can reintegrate into your life. And then I need you to pop up on Thursday, and somewhere between that Thursday and that Saturday, I need you to give me an hour of your time.

So that’s all you have to do for week one. It is very doable, I promise. But if you’re like me, and you’re not doing anything for Labor Day weekend, you can start on September 6th, and you can learn some things and dive in and start putting the things into practice.

And we are also including some bonuses if you want. Very few moms are raising their hand saying, “Could you give me more things to do?” Okay? Very few of you. But some of you have a little bit more time, and it’s the season where you wanna tackle something else, so I’m gonna give you decluttering, and screen less, and how to teach your kids how to do chores without whining.

So those are three totally optional, off here in the corner, don’t look over there if you don’t want to, don’t look, things that you could do if you wanted. I think that a lot of us have the desire to get off our phones, and to declutter our house, and to redo kind of the cleaning systems of our home when it comes to the fall, so I just wanted you guys to have access to that if you wanted.

So come join us. We are doing two months in the membership for the price of one, so you’re gonna have two amazing months with us for $25. And listen, we just did the math, and the number of women who have stayed longer than three years is crazy. I was putting those stats into AI, and it was like, “Girl, people do not stay in memberships this long.”

And I’m like, “I know.” Because once they come, it’s the most supportive and loving thing that I think moms can do for themselves is be in a coaching membership with other moms, doing the work together. And yes, we do practical things, but really, the way that we love and support each other is by helping each other see what we’re thinking, and the brain drama that we’re having while we’re doing those practical things.

So I love fall. You guys know it’s my favorite thing. This is the most popular program that we do every year. And it’s four weeks, and then you’ll have another four weeks to do anything else, ’cause there are other things in the membership that are magical.

But I want to help you to transition from summer to fall with peace, and grace, and being kind to the people in your life, and not raising your voice, and feeling like you are organized, and have control over how you show up.

I know that we think we want to control the people and the things around us, but really, the deepest desire of your heart is to control how you show up emotionally to these things, and that’s what I’m gonna teach you in the four weeks of Catholic Mom Reset. So click the link in the show notes or go to catholicmomcom.com and you can sign up. I am very excited, and I would love to see you there.

All right, my friends, thank you so much for listening. I’m praying for you. Please pray for me, and have a blessed day.