Ep. 120 The Tool Every Mom Needs for a More Peaceful, Intentional Summer

[00:00:00] So if you've ever looked at your summer calendar and felt that mix of excitement and in the same moment, sheer panic, then this episode is for you. You know what I mean. That moment when the school year is winding down and suddenly you're being pulled in a million different directions. Camps, vacations, play dates, summer reading lists, chore charts, VBS signups, and you're wondering, how am I supposed to fit it all in? Or maybe you're on the other end, feeling guilty because you haven't been able to fit it all in.

[00:00:30] You haven't planned anything yet and you're wondering if your kids will remember this summer for all the wrong reasons. Here's the good news. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. This is part two of our summer series all about creating a joy-filled summer and today is all about focusing on practicality and letting these practical steps be so freeing for you this summer.

[00:00:56] Because the truth is that you don't need to plan everything, but you also probably don't need to wing it entirely either. So today I want to walk you through something that I created to help you. It's called the Summer Planning Pyramid. And it's really just a simple way to help you prioritize what matters most without burning out or missing the moments that really actually make summer feel magical.

[00:01:19] So go ahead and grab a notebook or better yet, visit summer.caratracta.com and enter your email and I will send you an instant download of the Summer Planning Pyramid. Grab your cup of coffee or, I don't know, fold a load of laundry while you're listening and let's build your summer with intention and purpose. Welcome to the Nourished to Bloom, where your faith meets your health.

[00:01:48] I'm your host, Kara Trochta, a registered dietitian and certified Catholic coach, and I'm here to help you cultivate a deeper connection with your body, your spirit, and the nourishment that sustains them both. In a world filled with noise and confusion about food, health, and body image, this podcast offers truth and healing from a Christ-centered perspective.

[00:02:08] Together, we'll untangle the deep roots of diet culture and discover what it means to truly care for ourselves through joyful nourishment of mind, body, and soul. We're here to dive into the transformative power of intuitive eating coupled with the rich teachings of our Christian faith. With every episode, I'll be cheering you on, offering insights, inspiration, and practical tools to help you heal your relationship with food and embrace the beauty of your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit.

[00:02:38] With confidence and courage that can only be found in Christ. Join me as we journey together towards a more holistic approach to wellness, one that honors the wisdom of your body as God's creation, the teachings of our faith, and the unique purpose you're called to fulfill. You were made to bloom, to come into full beauty and health in order to bear good fruit for the Lord with your life.

[00:03:03] So if you're ready to nourish your body, feed your soul, and bloom into the best version of yourself, then you're in the right place and I'm so happy you're here. Welcome to Nourish to Bloom, where every day is a sacred invitation to thrive. Hey there, welcome back to the Nourish to Bloom podcast. So happy to be spending time with you this week. I hope that for all of our mom listeners out there that you had a wonderful Mother's Day,

[00:03:32] that maybe you got some rest that you were looking for. Maybe your kids gave you exactly what you wanted, which was not fighting. I don't know. That's what sounded great to me. And then my husband gave me the ultimate gift of not having to make any decisions on Mother's Day, which was all that I really, really wanted. So I hope you had a great Mother's Day. I want to take a moment and just reflect because this past Sunday was not only Mother's Day, but in the church we celebrated Good Shepherd Sunday.

[00:04:01] And the priest in his homily was talking about how some practical ways that we can like look at this imagery of the Good Shepherd and better understand its meaning. And one of the ways that he talked about it was motherhood, how we as moms embody and bear so much resemblance to the Good Shepherd, the way that we really sacrifice our lives for our children,

[00:04:27] the way that we, you know, guide them, the way the shepherd guides the sheep, the way that they know our voice, right? Whether that's good or bad, but they know our voice. But just how the spirit and the imagery of the Good Shepherd and what that means, how much of that plays out in our roles as mothers. And I thought that that was just a really beautiful image to rest in,

[00:04:54] was how much of our role as motherhood is so similar to that of the Good Shepherd. And that kind of plays into what we're talking about this week when we are continuing part two of our summer series, you know, creating that joy-filled summer. And what I really wanted to focus on this week was some practicality, some, a practical tool to really help you really start to think about this summer. Because I know what happens is we can see things on a calendar,

[00:05:22] but it doesn't really give us like this overall like visual, right? Because we're flipping back and forth between pages, or we have this whole long list of stuff in it. It just kind of seems like chaos, or there's just all this noise. And maybe it's just stuck in our head, and we haven't actually written it down. And so I wanted to create something for you that was going to help you get everything, all the noise, all the chaos, all the plans out of your head and onto a piece of paper

[00:05:49] to really look at it from the perspective of, am I planning a summer? Am I shepherding my flock in a way that is really meaningful, in a way that is intentional and has purpose and meaning, that is not only enjoyable for your kids, but also enjoyable for you. Instead of feeling like it's just either planned down to a T,

[00:06:18] and you end up burning out, or it's just chaos. This is just going to really help you find that middle ground. And like I said, I created a PDF for you to go ahead and use. You have access to it. Visit summer.careattractor.com. Enter in your email, and you'll get access to an instant download for your summer planning pyramid worksheet is what I am calling this.

[00:06:45] So let's go ahead and kind of break down this pyramid and understand what we are actually building here. So I want you to imagine a pyramid. You have that base, right? It's that foundation. It's where we're going to start. And it's that point in which everything else is built on. And we kind of did some work around this last week and really talking about what our summer vibe is. But this bottom layer isn't about to-dos or logistics.

[00:07:14] It's really about your vibe, the values that you want to hold on to this summer, and your vision for this summer. So before you are planning anything, right? I mean, I'm sure you've already signed up for camps and booked that beach trip because, gosh, we've got to do this all six months in advance. But really understanding, I want you to ask yourself, go back to last week. What do you want this summer to feel like?

[00:07:42] What is that one word emotion that you want to describe this summer for you and for your family? And like I said, this is something we touched on in the last episode, but it really does bear repeating because this is your anchor. It's that foundation. If you skip this step, everything else becomes noise. Everything else just becomes stuff. It's not intentional and it's not meaningful.

[00:08:10] So maybe you want your summer to feel peaceful or maybe you want to focus on connection. Maybe you want it to be more playful or slower paced or adventurous. Y'all, there's no wrong answer. But the thing is, is that there is value in having an answer because remember, that is your anchor. That is your foundation. If it's not strong, nothing else is going to hold up. You're going to get two weeks into summer and you're going to be like, yeah, I just, is it time for them to go back to school?

[00:08:40] Right? So let's really focus on that one word or that vibe that you want to really embody what this summer is about. And once you have named that word or that vibe, I want you to write down kind of your top three values for this summer. And what I mean by values are things like kind of your, the areas of focus for you this summer. Maybe it's family connection.

[00:09:06] Maybe it's rest and rhythm, outdoor time, faith in worship, simplicity, or flexibility, or just some ideas that you can draw from. But this is really what's shaping everything else. And this is that compass that you're going to use when you're making decisions. So throughout the summer, if you're trying to decide between different things, you can come back to this foundation. You can come back to that one word emotion that you want to feel

[00:09:32] or these top three values that you have for this summer and say, is this thing that I'm about to do or I want to do or this decision I'm having to make, is that going to help me have this playful summer or this peaceful summer? Or is that going to promote family connection or simplicity? And then you use that to help you guide yourself in making those decisions throughout the summer. So that's why this base part of our pyramid is so important.

[00:10:02] So now we're going to move up the pyramid. We're going to move up to that middle layer of the pyramid. And this is what I'm calling your essentials. So these are the things that you need to consider this summer. Key dates, commitments that you already have, maybe routines that you want to keep in place to keep your household running. And I want you to think of these as kind of your non-negotiables, but not in the super strict or rigid way, but more like a scaffolding, right? It's a support.

[00:10:30] It's going to kind of keep things, for lack of better terms, a little bit structured, right? But what does your family actually need this summer to function well? And maybe it's something like a consistent mealtime rhythm, right? That if everybody is, like you're going to focus on making sure that everybody is fueled throughout the day. Or maybe it's you need to have really some sort of bedtime structure, bedtime routine.

[00:10:59] I know that in the summer my kids do get to stay up a little bit later, but I also know that if we do not have any sort of bedtime, the next day nobody can function. So one of the things that is a non-negotiable for us is having someone at a reasonable bedtime when we are home throughout, you know, the week. If we're on vacation, there's a little more wiggle room. But when everybody gets good quality sleep, not only my kids, but myself included, our family just functions better.

[00:11:27] Or maybe it's something like you need one quiet home day per week with no plans, where everybody just kind of gets to do what they want to do. Maybe it does mean more screen time than normal, or maybe it's focused on board games or reading, but maybe you need that one quiet home day per week. Or maybe it's blocks of time where you aren't in the car all day, right? Maybe it's weeks where your kids aren't in camp and you're not having to drop off and pick up every single day.

[00:11:55] Or maybe it's that time for rest, like real rest for you and not just the kids. One of the things that I try to do in the summer is, you know, not everybody naps, but maybe we just have an hour of quiet time that just allows us to kind of reset in the hottest part of the day. People can read, they can draw, they can, you know, play puzzles, craft, whatever. But it's just that hour of just quiet time.

[00:12:22] And I know that helps me too, because then I don't feel like I'm always like having to be on, if that makes sense. Like I'm not having to constantly entertain or I'm not having to constantly break up fights or whatever it is, right? So it's just this time, like this reset period for us. So really thinking about these essentials as your non-negotiables, that structure that's going to give your summer some support, and start blocking these out first on your calendar or your to-do list,

[00:12:51] or just having them in mind as you're starting to plan things out. Because this is really going to help you see where there's margin, where you have some wiggle room and where there really isn't. And so now we're going to move on to that top layer of the pyramid, the fun extras, what I call the sprinkles, right? And this is kind of that like Pinterest-y stuff or the things that we see on Instagram, kind of like these bucket list moments that everybody promotes,

[00:13:20] those spontaneous road trips or letting your kids have that lemonade stand or the outdoor movie nights, the crafts, just that kind of stuff. And I want to be clear here. Like these things do matter. They're the sprinkles. They add that extra joy. And they probably are some of those moments that your kids might remember forever, not because of like what it was that you actually did, but how it made them feel.

[00:13:49] But remember that the key is that these belong on the top of the pyramid. They're not on the bottom. When we have that strong foundation, they're supported. These sprinkles are supported by your values and your rhythms. They're supported by that vibe and those essentials. And when we start to flip that pyramid where we start with all of the fun stuff and then just try to squeeze in everything else, that's what's led us to burnout in the past.

[00:14:18] Or we get to August wondering like what just happened. And instead, we need to start by anchoring our summer with those values and those essentials so you can really enjoy the extras guilt-free instead of feeling like you are just burned out two weeks in. So maybe making a flexible family bucket list is your thing. But just remember to hold it loosely. Let this pyramid help to serve you,

[00:14:48] to help you be the mom you want to be this summer instead of it stressing you out. So here's your challenge this week. Go to summer.careattractor.com, get your summer planning pyramid, and spend 15 minutes just to sketch this out. Start with your foundation. What's that summer vibe and values? Next, go to your essentials, those supportive rhythms and routines that you need so that you can bring those extras in.

[00:15:17] And what are those extras that are going to bring that delight, not pressure, to you and your family? You can stick it on the fridge. You can put it in your planner. You can talk about it with your kids. Like, let this be something that helps you shape your yeses and your nos. Heck, maybe even give your kids their own summer planning pyramid and you'll walk through it together and see what is really a priority for them. You know, what is that foundation? What are those essentials?

[00:15:45] What is that routine and rhythm that they need? And then what are the extras that they want? And maybe this, you bring this together and you kind of have this master plan. Because when your summer is built this way, you're not chasing that picture perfect season, but you're creating one. It's not just a snapshot, right? But you're creating that feeling. And it's rooted and it's restful and it's real.

[00:16:12] So if this episode has given you any sort of fresh perspective for this summer, which I hope it has, would you do me a quick favor and share it with a friend? Let's help more moms ditch this overwhelm and this comparison and this picture perfect mentality that we have held for far too long about summer. And let's work together. Let's help each mom build a summer that they will actually enjoy and their kids will love.

[00:16:43] So go to summer.careattractor.com, sign up for your summer planning pyramid and work on building this summer. I thank you so much for joining me this week. I hope you continue to have a beautiful and blessed week as we continue to travel through what we know as May Simber and all the things that you are trying to get through. I promise just take 15 minutes. That's all you need for the summer planning pyramid.

[00:17:11] But I hope you continue to have a great week. Remember, beauty held is the seed. Beauty shared is the flower. It's your time to bloom. We'll talk soon. Bye. Bye.