Episode 163 Summertime Organization with Melissa Stetcher

No need to whine, it's Whiny Palooza! Have some wine and join us on the Whiny Palooza podcast with Rebecca Green.

Welcome to the Whiny Palooza podcast. I'm your host, Rebecca Green. I'm a wife, mother of 3, and licensed clinical social worker. I also have 3 fur babies at home too. My passion has always been to help children and their families. I always dreamed of being a wife and a mother. Parents are always learning through their struggles, failures, and successes and joys. I am no stranger to this wild ride of parenting, and I know behind every great parent lies a team of supportive friends and family. I want to be part of your support system. I want you to know that you are not alone. We are in this parenting world together. Join me every week for insightful discussions with experts on parenting and marriage, as well as as other parents who have found the secret to successes in parenthood. You'll learn tips and tricks to make life with your family better than ever. I hope you will follow along with me while we dive into what it takes to achieve a happy family.

Hello everyone, this is Rebecca Green for the Whiny Pooza podcast, and I am already laughing and having an awesome time with Melissa Stetcher today. Hello, Melissa. I almost said it wrong again. Hi, Melissa.

And cut, take 2. No, I'm kidding.

Oh my God, should we start over? Because I already did it wrong. I've been pronouncing Melissa's name wrong for about a year. And I want to tell you that you should go back to the vault to episode 52 because I did an episode with Melissa about organization that was awesome. And I brought her back to help us some more with the summer. So Melissa, thank you for coming back.

I'm so excited. Thanks for calling me. I'm like, yes, I will come talk to my friends.

I, as I was trying to organize summer in my brain and feeling overwhelmed, I am like, who can help me and others? And I'm like, Melissa, let's go get her. So I want to tell you about Melissa. Melissa is the owner and creator of Hopeful Simplicity. In 2017, she reached her snapping point as a mom, full-time employee, co-parent, blending families, some personal health issues, and still being asked all those at-home questions like, what's for dinner? Don't we love that question? She broke. She was angry and tired all the time. And knew that wasn't the person that she wanted to be. This is when she started swapping. Swapped bad habits for better ones, started making my bed, her bed each morning just to feel like she was accomplishing something each day. She swapped harsh chemical products for natural options and the whole home team started cleaning. She even swapped unsuccessful organizing systems for compromised successes. I love that. In 2018, she took a leap of faith in herself and got certified as a professional organizer. Thank you for doing that. Now, not only does she get to save time, save money, and live less stressed, but she also gets to help others find hope in their chaos and clutter, which is what we all need. So let's do this. I'm very excited. I need you. Oh my God, I— but you know, for those of— for those listeners who didn't hear you on episode 52, tell us what Hopeful Simplicity Organizing is and how you got inspired to start this business. Tell us a little bit about that.

Okay. And now I'm realizing I need to send you a new one because I've shortened my intro.

So I liked— but I liked that intro. I should have asked you for a new one, but I really like that. And it's so heartfelt and honest, and you give a little bit about your journey, but is there anything else that you want to share?

No, I mean, that's, that's us. That's Hopeful Simplicity is basically, I am tired of feeling overwhelmed, like this is all on me when it comes to home team management. And so our focus is shifting that overwhelm from me to we, and that we is our home team. And I don't just mean like I'm going to tell you where to do this and how to do that and what to do. No, no, no, we're going to decide a schedule of how the dirt leaves our house. But hopeful simplicity is, is that lifestyle, right? We think of it as— I'm a big nerd, obviously, and I'm a gaming nerd. So one of the characters of Gears of War is Dom. So that resonated with me because we declutter, we organize, and we maintain systems. And we just do that in 15 minutes a day because, girl, I don't, I don't have more time than that. I don't have more time than that. And so the progress of the journey to live less stressed is really what a hopeful lifestyle is. It's building the systems. After you've decluttered a space, we're going to build a system, and then we just sit back in maintenance mode. But it's not just me sitting in maintenance mode telling you, okay, it's 15 minutes of tidy up time. Oh, did we clean the bathrooms today? Oh, it's your night to cook. No, it's, did you look at the habit chart today? Because I'm taking it off, it's your turn. It's, it's embracing the relaxation and less stress as an entire lifestyle and not just the overwhelming stress that comes with it. And we're done. See you later.

No, that was really good. Um, you know, I was— Lily is my youngest and she's the most helpful, and she really likes things clean and tidy. So that's been wonderful. But like, even my snack area that I, you know, you organize something, Melissa, And if you went and looked at my snack area, you would be like, girl, like fix this. And I'm like, really? I have to fix this? I need this to look a certain way and I have to get them to cooperate, which is part of the hard part of this, like cooperate and make the snack area look how I want it to look. It's an issue. It's just one of many issues.

But it's also one of those issues that I'm a hard hopeful leader, and I know you and I have had talks about, okay, are they helping you do it or are you supporting them doing it? That was a big change for us, is I like all the matching containers with all the lids and all the pretty colors and all lined up with perfect labels, but if I put a lid on something, there's no way my son's putting it away. It's going to go on the shelf next to it like it's— I know where it goes, clunk, and I'm like, just Just, I'll just get different bins without the lid. So then you successfully put it away and I'm not—

You're so, you, you have, you are so good at figuring out what works for him so that he can help you. I, yeah, I'm not there.

I ask, I straight ask. Like when he started doing his laundry at 8, yeah, because in my brain I'm like, you know, I don't want to touch a teenage boy's socks ever in my life. I got 5 years to work on this, right? So in my brain, I'm like, this is what's— why, why do these clothes never make it back to the drawer? Why, why? It pisses me off. Why does this not happen? He's like, because it takes too much time. Oh, okay, well, what do you want? Can I just throw them in the thing? Like, I love leaving the drawers open so I just throw them on there. So if I just get you bins, no problem since.

Wow.

Because trigger point for me, I knew this was a trigger point in my head. Why are your shirts not hanging on the hangers? Because it was too many steps to put it away.

Yeah, okay, okay, you're teaching me. I need to have some conversations. I think you need to facilitate some conversations. Here in Buffalo, New York, where I am, school literally just let out. I mean, we— you would be so proud of the mounds of stuff that we have been recycling. But I knew you would be proud of me. But my question for you— oh my God, if you saw my kitchen table that first week, you would have been like, let's go, let's go! So the stuff that we don't want to recycle, okay. Help us with this. All the school stuff comes home. What do we do with the school stuff? Like, some of it, you know, I'm sentimental. Some of it I don't want to recycle. What do I do? Look at your face. You're like, recycle it, recycle it.

Okay, here are the hotspots with kids. Yes, we get involved. Yeah, I need every single handprint you made on 17 pages of colored paper from preschool, kindergarten. First grade and then second grade.

Yes, yes, you know, you know me.

Yes, yes, I know me, I know me, and I'm— and I've only got one.

I—

yep, so create a spot to put it. I am limited to one art box of his stuff, and I've sorted it into year. Because at one point in time I had like 3 boxes and I'm like, I don't even know what this is. I don't know, it's just ripped paper. And I'm looking at him, I'm like, does this mean— he's like, why do you have trash? Oh shoot, okay, let me come back to Jesus with myself. So I created one box and I've got— this is the Pre-K, this is the K folder, and I did the same for— it's actually that green box. Is the important school things. So I always recommend presetting it up. Set up a box for each kid, or a binder if you prefer binders, or even just like a tote, because it's going to be stacked chronologically date anyway, right? Kindergarten's on the bottom.

Yeah, yeah.

But if you set it inside that box, I know there are pre-K through 12. So when report cards come home, testing things come home, his— sometimes a copy of his, you know, sports release, that year's photo goes right into that. That's my— I want to save his progress reports basically is in this box. I've got the same setup for the art box. So then I'm not allowed to keep every handprint. Which one's the— oh, I can actually tell that's a hand this year. Let me save that one. But now I know I have 2 boxes. So once he graduates, I pull out this horrible art from all the things and embarrass him appropriately at a graduation party. I'm like, here you go, I kept the 5 things I wanted to put in a memory book. The rest is yours.

Yes, and they're going to be like, Mom, I don't want this. Yeah, yeah, that's what, that's what they're going to tell me. They're like, why? They're going to be like, why did you save this? This is horrible. So we need spots, which brings me to summer. Okay, deep breaths over here. So my kids are home more. We're not, we're not in, like, we're gonna get into a summer routine because they all have camp starting and activities starting. And I mean, I'm going to be honest with you, the sunscreen, the bathing suits, the towels, like, We're not in summer organization mode. I need some summer organization tips, please. Open the door, push, push all the summer stuff into the garage.

Sorry, neighbors. No. So summer organizing tips, it's actually a seasonal thing is how we approach it in our drop zone area. I actually took the door off of the closet because it was never closed. And, and so I'll put my crazy down for just a second, but at the top of that we have boxes because I live in the Midwest, so we have all four seasons sometimes.

Yeah, exactly.

The, the mittens and scarves box gets rotated out for the swimsuits and covers.

Yeah, each year.

So now I know where did I put my cover, where's that, where's it? And it gets stored like that. I actually keep it in a big beach bag because it's polka-dotted and pretty and I could tote it if we go on vacation easier. So it's got a home where I know all the swim trunks are there, all the covers are there. Next to that I have all the bug sprays and sunscreens and aloe vera because, you know, we fell asleep on the raft kind of stuff. But then I can just swap them out when the seasons change. And so then the secondhand storage that I actually keep in a spare closet— switch— and then it's done. The only, the only real stress we have of, how did you grow 7 inches again this summer, and why am I seeing your booty crack? Those are the biggest struggles we have. But you know, that's all about like, I know we're gonna buy him a new suit and swim season in the fall, so suck it up, buddy, kind of thing. So having those rotational systems eliminates it year round.

That's great. That's really helpful. How tall is your son now?

He's about, he's gotta be, let's see, I'm 5'8", 5'9" at 13. I come up to his shoulder and he's like, "Mom." I'm like, "Ah." Oh my goodness, our boys are getting so tall.

I can't keep up with the snails. The swimsuits, none of it. He needs new sneakers again. I'm like, your foot really is, is never gonna stop growing, right?

Here's a flip-flop, make it work, right?

Here's your slides, Max. You can wear those today. We'll get you sneakers tomorrow. So personally, from all the moms that you talk to, what do you think that our biggest summer challenge is with organization? Entertainment.

Oh, I do, because we, we as moms and parents— I'm not going to just say moms, but that's most of both of our communities are moms because we haven't fully shifted out of the everybody looks to mom for all the answers mindset, but we're getting there. Entertainment. I don't want my son plugged in all the time, but I work at 9 to 5 and I run a business and I'm tired. I'm just freaking tired after staring at a screen for 13 hours, right? So entertainment is probably one of the biggest things. How do I get my kids unplugged? Okay, well, what are we doing? Do we have— I have reminders and I have alarms and I have habits to be like, okay, did we get our 10 minutes of reading in today? Oh, do you want to play a board game? Your pick. Or even if it's let's watch a movie together, we'll still plug Den, but then you can have the conversations. My son and I watched Encanto like a week ago. I've seen it multiple times because, oh my gosh, I loved it. So good. He's just like, how, how are we already to the end of this movie? I didn't even think I'd like it. I'm like, here we'll go. But that's still something we can talk about over family time on Friday when we gather at the table. Now we put a pool in this year, so every day I'm like, 4 o'clock, let's go grab the cord.

Awesome.

So it's, it's building in the activities, but I also don't harp on them. And I know that sounds like I'm, I'm not judging and I'm not a B word and I'm not trying to be like that, but they work hard at school and then we send them to camp and then they have activities and then they're tired too. Sometimes they just need to numb out and play a video game for an hour.

Agree.

That's okay. But building in activities. When he was younger, we had, I had, we had 2 boys in the house at the time. And I swear to Pete, if I was asked, "Um, boy, what do we do one more time?" It was like the whole what's for dinner thing. I don't care. I don't, just get out of my face and entertain yourself. But they're kids, right? They need that spark of activity. So we took an old coffee can, Folgers can thingy, whatever, ripped the label off, made it cute. And we took popsicle sticks, which I got at the Dollar Tree, but they've been repurposed so many times it's hilarious. And we wrote activities on them. So build, build a building using only red blocks. Go play in the dirt and see how dirty your hands can get. And so anytime somebody is like, I'm bored, go get a stick. Let's do a stick.

Such a good idea.

It takes, it takes that stress off of, oh my God, I, I don't have the brain space to think of something that you might not argue with. But then there wasn't the, I don't like this stick, I put it back. No, no, no, let's go do the stick.

You are going to love this. My daughters keep picking up a book and my heart goes pitter-patter every time I see them on the couch with a book. And I'm like, they're not on their phone, they're not on the TV, they're reading a book, and my heart is happy, right? That makes me happy. Um, have you seen Doctor Strange with the multiverse?

Yeah, yes, only multiple times. Yes, it was good.

Well, just because that's a movie that my whole family will watch together, and you know that's rare in my house, so when I find one, I'm like Score! Family movie. I love it.

I love it. But it's something that'll spark the conversation. Like, it's something we go back— anything that's going to be a conversation, be it a book. Like, I read the books he read last year in school, but I read them to have a conversation later. Do I care? No. Are they my flavor? No. Did it take me 5 seconds to read because he's a lot younger than me? Yes. Am I interested and will read it again? No. But, hey Mom, you remember when we read that book and this happened to the character? That's the goal. Even if it's just a movie. Hey, why do you think people think Wanda's the bad guy when really she's just a heartbroken mom? It's those moments, be it a movie or a book or a game you played. Those are the moments we look for as moms.

I felt like the movie was very close to WandaVision the series. Yes, but I still really enjoyed it.

Yes, she's one of my favorite characters. So I mean, we could do a whole—

I know we could just talk about this. I know, I love it too. I really do. What do you think that moms are doing? I know what you're gonna say. What do you think moms are doing to contribute to their own stress? I keep laughing.

I don't know, what do you think moms are doing to contribute to our own stress?

Okay, I'm gonna answer this question because I know what you're gonna say, and then if you have more, please chime in. But one of the things that Melissa has taught me— I feel like I've known you, has it been like a year? I feel like it's been maybe a year, and over this last year She catches me when she hears me talking because Melissa's fabulous and she'll like tune into my vlog on Wednesday nights, which I love and appreciate, and she'll say, no, Rebecca, it's not my house, my chore, my dinner, my work. It's the team. I think that's what we're doing wrong. I still fall into the trap of I have to make dinner, I have to clean up dinner. I still put a lot of it on me. That's my answer. Is that what you were going to say?

Yeah, we, we have control issues, and it's not a negative thing. It's a societal concept. It was the way I was raised. It's my job to make sure he's fed every day at 5. Even when I was in the hospital with— just after having my son, and my in-laws came down and they're like, Um, we noticed you had molded bread on the counter and there weren't meals prepped for Isaac's dad. And I'm like, I'm sorry, I just had massive surgery and I don't care what he's eating. And so it's the, it's the world that we live in and the conversations that need to have because more and more women are leading businesses and being corporate you know, be A's. And we can no longer expect a woman to— I'm going to get up, I'm going to take the kids, I'm going to work 9 to 5, and then I'm going to come home, put on my pearls and my high heels and make dinner and make sure everybody's happy. And it's not a reality. And so we need to come to Jesus with ourselves, have the control. Okay, why is this controlling? Oh, because that's how I was raised. It's not good. It's not bad. It's just what it is. And so we need to step out of our own ways, let it go like a princess, and just be like, okay, but why is this a trigger point for me? And does it really matter? It doesn't matter. It does not matter if you're cooking the meal or if the kids have learned the tool to be successful as adults and make their own meal. Because I will tell you right now, if my child calls me from college because he doesn't know how to cut a potato or turn a washing machine on, that's on me.

I absolutely 100%. I know I was just telling Max that he has a lot more to learn, but he has started cooking, so I'm making progress. I'm making progress. We were at the grocery store and Seth was— my husband was loading the groceries wrong. I'm quoting. He was— and I have gotten so good at keeping my mouth shut. Like, there's so many things, like the control, there's so many things that I'm quiet about, and I catch myself and I'm like, there's not a right way to do things. Your way is not the right way.

Like, let it go.

And I caught myself doing it again at the grocery store, and he was like, really? So here my husband came with me to help me at the grocery store, and I'm criticizing how he's loading the groceries.

What was he doing? He was not helping you, right? I know I heard that wrong.

Okay, he was helping our family, right? He was being a part of our family. Oh, you gotta keep catching me, Melissa. So I was very aware of the fact that that is not how I want it to go down. And I need to realize that my way is not the right way, that there's other ways to do things, and I need to keep my mouth shut and let everybody help me. And some people are going to have ways of help us, help us. Do you see how I'm programmed though? I'm not alone in this. I know there's other mothers listening And we think it's all our work. We do.

We think caregivers, I want to take care of my baby. It's so hard. That's what we do.

Well, I don't know if you've heard mothers complaining about this. I certainly have. And I'm one of them. You know, I started to organize our summer, which I probably should have done, you know, a while ago. Putting everything in the phone, organizing who's going where. Any tips on the multiple directions of organizational chaos going on right now?

This is my third cup of coffee. I will share.

I have one. This is, this is my second cup right here.

This is my third meeting of the day though, and I'm like But I know visual reminders, I have found, are the best support system for home teams. That way, when am I going to Nan and Pose? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Now, it just happens to be the first of a month, so like I've actually got my planner and my schedule and my planner and my calendar right here. So I'm booking out, I'm looking at— now, mind you, it's the 5th, and I'm just doing it because I took the whole weekend to work on my tan and celebrate my mom's birthday. I'm like, I ain't doing nothing.

Agree. Awesome.

But those visual reminders, be it a calendar, be it a schedule page, like if you have a Monday through Friday routine, just have one schedule page up for that. Be like, okay, they're normally up by 10, so we're going to have breakfast by noon. And just block it out. I love it. That— those are— that way, that way, the— it filters all the what's when questions.

Yes.

Or reminder, anybody can go look.

Oh, I'm, I'm, I'm going to go do that right after this because I have a beautiful dry erase calendar in my kitchen, and I can just write out the week, and we can focus on one week at a time. I absolutely love that. Is there anyone's organizational skills that you admire? Is there anyone that you look up to? You could say no, but I'm curious.

I— okay, so organizing is kind of like my happy spot. Yes, it brings me chaos in my— it gives me control. In a way. So there's not one person. I love the, the ideal and the tag phrase of spark joy that Marie Kondo brings. I mean, the rainbow system. So I mean, I don't— hold on. Yeah, it's over there. I don't know if you could see it, but for years now my color paper has been in rainbow order. So I love it that the Home Edit brings rainbow organizing to the timelines, right? I love The Cass at The Clutterbug, who analyzes everybody's style. I love Alejandra Casillo, who's a very visual person but loves binders. She introduced me to binders and I'm like, woohoo, shiny! And then there's Catherine at, uh, shoot, Do It On A Dime. I've never spent so much time at the Dollar Tree until I started following her stuff. So it's It's all these little things that, oh, I really like how they do this. Oh, I really like that. But it's being open to seeing stuff a different way. Not everybody's going to be like, no, Mama, you got to take it off you and give it to everyone. Not everybody's going to be, let's delegate that, because it's not the thing. Some people— I used to prefer to just follow them around and put things away correctly. And if that works for you, that works for you. So the pick and choose the parts of people that are trying to help are really what I love.

I like that you're taking a little bit from a lot of people. And I love that you said organization gives us a sense of control, because I forget that organizing stuff makes me feel less chaotic. Right? I forget that. I'm not the organizational master that you are, like, by any means. I'm telling you, this is not— I have my strengths. I would not say that this is one of my number one strengths. Now, should I bring up back to school for a second, or do you want me to save that? Should we talk about it, or should we wait? What do you think?

I mean, I think I'm already in back-to-school mode because I just wrote the newsletter, but we also got out of school a month ago.

It's crazy. When did your, when did your son get out of school?

Just before Memorial Day. He was, so over a month ago. So I mean, he go back, uh, I don't know, I haven't done that month yet. No, it's the first week of August.

Okay, so you are in a totally different stage than me. We literally just got out of school and they go back after Labor Day, so totally different schedule. So I'm going to guess that a lot of our listeners are going to be on your schedule. Okay, so let's talk about back to school for a second, and if you're like me, we can store this until we're ready to think about back to school. But as moms are getting back into that mode, like, what do you find you're doing to get organized for school?

Hmm, I love, I love this because we're, we're already printing the checklist from the school supply page, right? Yeah, already budgeting for that. I've already decluttered. It's funny because this, this month is actually starts the conversation of a command center. So I've already taken off the last year's school schedule, the last year's bus route information. I've already shredded all of that. So when I have his new bus route, I can just plug that in its place. When I have the new schedule, block schedule for his actual classes, I can just plug that in its place. So I'm I'm— as I'm seeing it, I'm like, oh nope, we don't need that. And so if I'm working in a space like our command center, I'm updating habit pages. Like, we don't have a pet, right? So, oh, I don't need that anymore. Or there's only the two of us now instead of multiple people because somebody goes off to college or somebody moves out or whatever. It's like, oh, okay, let's, let's go ahead and rip that habit page off. And then I, you know, I normally send myself an email or write myself a note in my planner of print new habit page to bring to the table next time we sit down for dinner or family catch up or anything like that. And so I'm already making those spaces and decluttering the spaces, so then it's just a drop and go when I have the available information.

I still can't believe you've been off of school for a month. I'm— I am so freaking jealous over here. Why is the schedule so different in all the different states? It's crazy.

I don't know. And why does it keep changing? Like, when we were kids, we were out before Memorial Day and didn't start until after Labor Day. Now I'm like, 180 days?

They do keep— and my daughter is so scared that they're going to start making them go in the summer. They're starting to put air conditionings in the school. We don't have air conditionings in all the schools. And she's like, I hope that's not a sign that they're going to make us go to school all summer. That would suck.

That would be horrible, right?

Let's not do that. But at least they won't be like passing out in June with the heat in their classroom.

Yeah, yeah, because those two fans— no, no, no, that's how it is.

I wonder if your temperature is similar to Buffalo. Feel like—

I don't know, I feel like it's too humid to bother straining my hair and too hot to not wear a bra. Yep, yep, it's that kind of weather.

It's that kind of weather. Oh my gosh. Okay, well, I mean, I could talk to you all day, but I'm not going to talk to you all day because I know you need a break after 3 of these conversations.

But, um, I love this. I love it because you are so supportive. Been the ideal of not only Hopeful Simplicity and always supporting me in my business, which I can't even express how much I appreciate that, but you are my flavor of person to being open. We are always growing and we are always learning. And so I'll talk to you— wait, I've only got like 3 sips left. That's how much longer you get.

I just— oh my God, I just love you. You know, sometimes you connect with people through stuff like this who you just absolutely adore. And you're one of those people who I couldn't talk to just once. You know, you know, we're going to, you know, we're going to do this once in a while. And I was— I have in my notes here, like, I can't believe you just said what you said. I literally typed out how supportive you are of me. I mean, Melissa likes all my stuff, comments. Shares. I, I wrote— I literally wrote down what you just said. I can't even tell you how supported I feel from you, by you, and it, it— you just, you warm my heart every time I see you pop up on my vlog. My— I get like so excited. I'm like, Melissa's here!

I just dropped the hearts.

Oh my gosh, the hearts start coming in and I'm like, Melissa has entered the room. So tell us how we can support you and your business. I want to keep supporting you however I can. Tell us what myself and my listeners, our listeners, can do. And tell everyone where to find you.

So hopefulsimplicity.com is the best way to find all the things. But our focus is to help you be hopeful. And so if, if you go to there, you'll find complimentary pages for habit building, for schedules, because not every— like, I can't use a dry erase board for my calendar. I just, I can't process it, huh? Because I need to— like, my planner breaks down my day to day so I can actually go into my each day. But these schedules, you can do a daily schedule. It's block or hourly, especially with kids home now. I mean, like, it's time to practice your sax. It's 2 o'clock, let's go. But those are complementary tools to bring to your home team and start conversations because that's, that's where it starts. It starts with a conversation with yourself and then your home team. And all of that is on hopefulsimplicity.com. But when you're there, Join the community. And it's, it's right, I think it's right in the middle-ish. I don't know, I took off the pop-up thing because that was pissing me off. When you pull it up on your phone, you can't find the X unless you're like, you know, hard to look for. So if you join the community, you're going to get our emails, which this month we actually dive into the details of decluttering your vacation spaces. Does that swimsuit really fit? Do you need to keep it, right? Did the straps fall out, right? Those kinds of things. You're decluttering your vacation spaces. You're decluttering your— you're starting the declutter of your drop zones. I know the backpack that came home over a month ago is still sitting there full and gross, but it's not my responsibility to go through it. But I know that's a focus of this month, and all those details are in the newsletter. And you only get— you get the details of decluttering, and then you get the details of organizing. We're only working in those small spaces. I don't spam it or sell it or anything like that. I just— here's a tool, join our community and start your hopeful journey. Love it.

I love it. And I love that you bring us hope because when we look at some of the stuff that we need to attack, we can feel hopeless. I mean, I have been there where I'm like, oh, how am I going to do this? But I think what you brought to me today See, I need to hear this from you over and over again, is that I'm still owning that I should be doing everything. And I'm not, I'm still not owning that we're a team in my house. So I appreciate you reminding me several times because I do forget many times. And anything else that you want to share?

Okay, so how can we help you Yeah, shift like it's all— do you have habits that everybody does visually put somewhere?

No.

Maybe that's our next step for you, because we love color coordinating. I know I can go color a bubble red and that's my day. Every other day is not my day. I know his day is Thursday because of the color on there. I don't have to touch the washer, right? So I'm wondering if building some visual habits that the home team can create when and when, when and what they want to do.

Yeah.

Maybe that's our next step for you.

Yeah. I like that. But it's a journey. This is a journey. And I appreciate, I will tell everybody that I have made progress. I don't do absolutely everything like I used to. Um, and I still have a long ways to go. I feel like We all grow every day. I try to, right? Mm-hmm.

Yes.

But I can't thank you enough for your time. I know how busy you are. I know that I threw you at— I threw this at you and said, come help me with the summer.

Anytime. I love talking with you.

I do too. I do too. I think you are wonderful. Please go find Melissa, Hopeful Simplicity. She's amazing. I follow her. I learn from her. She reminds me of things that I forget on a daily basis. So thank you, Melissa. This is Rebecca Green reminding everyone to spend every day laughing, learning, and loving. No need to whine and whiney blues. Have some wine and join us on the Winey Blues podcast.

Welcome to the Winey Palooza podcast. I'm your host, Rebecca Green. I'm a wife, mother of 3, and licensed clinical social worker. I also have 3 fur babies at home too. My passion has always been to help children and their families. I always dreamed of being a wife and a mother. Parents are always learning through their struggles, failures, and successes. Successes and joys. I am no stranger to this wild ride of parenting, and I know behind every great parent lies a team of supportive friends and family. I want to be part of your support system. I want you to know that you are not alone. We are in this parenting world together. Join me every week for insightful discussions with experts on parenting and marriage, as well as other parents who have found the secret to successes in parenthood. You'll learn tips and tricks to make life with your family better than ever. I hope you will follow along with me while we dive into what it takes to achieve a happy family.