192. Simplify for Busy Moms w/ Guest Julie Redmond, Habits to Thrive

Need some new momhacks to simplify life? This mom chat will help! Whether your struggle is overwhelm, a constant messy house, or never-ending negotiations with your kids, Guest Julie Redmond of the Mom Made Plans podcast has some fresh ideas for you. She  shares a game changer that has brought a sense of order to her household. Val & Julie chat about eliminating the stress of constant haggling and other momhacks to simplify life in episode 191, that goes with the occasional theme "Habits to Thrive."

Discover the beauty of assigning specific times for tasks and the immense difference it can make to your stress levels. We also shed light on the significance of teaching our kids the principles behind what we ask them to do. We can teach our kids how to get things done in a way that isn't just issuing commands, but is also preparing our little ones to thrive in life.

Julie also shares about consistency, SIMPLE meal planning, and the stress relief that comes with some basic scheduling tips. Julie shares how you can tune into her podcast and gain more insights. Julie says, "No schedule is going to work until you know how you work." 

Don't forget to join our Intentional Mom, Strong Family private Facebook group and leave a review to help other moms discover us!

Link to Julie's site- Mom Made Plans
Link to Julie's podcast

Chapters

• 0:03 Habits to Thrive
• 7:49 Parenting Strategies and Stress Relief
• 14:45 Parenting Twins and Simplifying Meal Planning
• 27:54 Facilitating Core Goals and Making Changes
• 34:09 Join Our Mom Facebook Group and Review iTunes

Transcript

Val Harrison: 0:03

THIS TRANSCRIPT WAS GENERATED ELECTRONICALLY AND HAS NOT BEEN EDITED. Welcome to the Practically Speaking Mom Podcast. I'm Val Harrison, so today we have Julie Redmond from the Mom Made Plans podcast. I recently had the honor of being on Julie's show and actually next week we will air that episode, but today she is going to meet with us here to help us with our theme of Habits to Thrive. So let's get started with more intentional right now, julie, welcome to the podcast.

Julie Redmund: 0:32

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be talking with you again. I loved our conversation last time, so, yeah, thanks for round two. I get to be on your side of things today.

Val Harrison: 0:44

I love organizations, so I am really excited about this. I want to share a little bit about you with the audience. Julie is a mom of twins and she describes herself as fueled by fun earrings she's wearing right now. I'm like fun earrings, dark chocolate, meaningful conversation and Jesus. Now that is a great combination. She is on a mission to make mom life feel easier and meaningfully productive through the ultimate life hack of self-awareness and intentional living, so I think that's a pretty good fit for our podcast as well.

Julie Redmund: 1:25

Thank you, i love conversations like this, when we were talking about this concept of habits to thrive and I had to think about it, and one of my favorite ones and I wish I had when my kids were younger is I used to call it the five minute pickup. I've kind of shifted to call it the room reset now, but either way it's not necessarily five minutes, but what I have found to work really well, because I feel like one of the big stressors in mom life is just the stuff everywhere, like the toys everywhere are just like things that we're always picking up, like I feel like that's our like full-time job is just picking up things. So I've kind of instituted this like certain time of day, like an hour before bedtime, it's like devices are off and it's room reset time, and so I've built that expectation where my kids know like okay, yep, i'm turning things off, it's that time and I don't get as much pushback on cleaning up when it's an expectation that has been set, and so at this point we try to make it like a whole family thing of like okay, this is mainly focused on your living areas, those common areas that everything gets dragged into throughout the day, and so if you're first implementing this, the first step is until you get into this habit is to, just before you ask your kids to participate is to look around the room and be like, okay, how does this room feel? Is it easy to play in? Is it easy to sit on the couch? Like, how are we feeling in the space? Because I'm like I feel like I'm gonna trip over stuff, we're gonna break your toys.

Julie Redmund: 3:08

So everyone works together to put things away. We're literally resetting the room and it's helpful to be involved with them. It's more than part of this is really understanding why not just being like, oh, go clean your room, go clean up that space, go put those away. We're helping them understand why we're doing it and that it is a team effort and just understanding like everyone lives here. We all have to be responsible for our stuff and take care of our home together, and that's the other thing I say. It's. I would ask, like, what are we taking care of right now? We're taking care of our toys, we're taking care of our home and like, the more they do it and the older they are, the more it sinks in.

Julie Redmund: 3:48

But you work together and everything gets put away, and ideally this isn't gonna happen every time, but ideally you put things away in their room and it goes where it belongs, not just like chucked into the room. Does that happen sometimes? sure, but within this kind of habit there's some other hacks to it of. I think it helps when you're all involved so they're not just like whining that they don't want to do it, that you're helping some, and so some of it will be literally just making categories of their stuff. I will put all like the toy cars in a pile, i'll put all the dolls or the costumes, so you just kind of categorize so they can pick up a category and go put it where it belongs, without just like gathering a ton of stuff and then it's overwhelming because they it's too much work to figure out where everything goes. So if you like pre-categorize it for them, then it's easier for it to go where it belongs.

Val Harrison: 4:39

I want to pull out some some important truths you have in there. The first thing you talked about was setting a clear expectation. They understand that this room reset time is a non-negotiable. It's just what we do every night. Yeah, and I love that. I think that when we, as moms, make everything negotiable, like if they talk us out of it, then if we have that mindset about everything which I know we don't intentionally do that ever but if moms take an honest reflective, look at how they're allowing the parent child relationship to happen. if everything is negotiable, it's just constant tug of war. Yeah. But when we are clear that I just expect that you're going to do it and this is a non-negotiable not even a stern attitude, but just it's just non-negotiable. This is what we do. That cuts out so much conflict and stress and time.

Val Harrison: 5:43

So I love that first thing that you pulled out. Another thing you clearly don't just have a goal of this moment in time We're cleaning up, but you have a goal of training them to think about the space around them, both in getting perspective of the space. So asking them, how does this feel? And is it hard to do what we want to accomplish with this room when it's like it is Like you have these principles that you're instilling in them, as you are putting this habit in place, which I totally love. Another one that you're doing in that you're helping them think of you know you shared well, i think it's cluttery or I trip over this or whatever. You're helping them think from mom's perspective.

Val Harrison: 6:30

And another great aspect of that you used wording that is really, you know this is kind of an old word to use, but stewardship. You were talking about taking care of our stuff. We're taking care of our cars and we're taking care of our couch and you know we're all these different things. That is stewardship. You're teaching them to steward these things that we have so that they're not destroyed and so that it's pleasant to use them. And you know teamwork.

Val Harrison: 7:01

You brought that up two or three times in that description that we're doing this as a team, and I really love in that teamwork. You are thinking what are they capable of? What is reasonable tasks at this time? So when you are putting stuff in piles, you're making this task possible, rather than what happens so often is we want to say go clean your room, and so we're kind of setting them up for failure and that if we're asking them to do some things that they either haven't been trained well enough or are not capable of by themselves, we're just setting themselves up for failure, setting us both up for conflict. Thank you.

Julie Redmund: 7:49

Yeah, it is true, because I feel like so much of it And I want to go into this I haven't explored more but just literally understanding our brains and like when they actually can process certain things and that our expectations are out of alignment with what they know how to do, and I feel like we just it seems so simple and common of like go put that away or go clean up your room, but like from their perspective, they're always just hearing these demands and maybe never getting the real step by step process or just knowing certain personalities, just having that you're helping a little.

Julie Redmund: 8:23

Like some days you may help more than other days, like this is just that whole nuanced piece And even outside of this I would try and remind too, like we're taking care of our bodies right now, like if you're battling getting them to brush their teeth or do whatever, like reminding them what we're taking care of and like why, so they're understanding that we're not just barking orders around just for the sake of it, that they're understanding the context and why. I think helps a lot And they won't, i mean, depending on the age, but over time. That just I feel like it's really powerful in that communication to have understanding and not just like that's what I said, go do it All the time, just that there is some understanding at some point.

Val Harrison: 9:04

Right. We really don't want to be creating robots of obedience. I want my kids to be obedient, but I want to be expanding their thinking, and that's what you're doing. By setting these principles and teaching them how to look at things and to steward and all these things, you are expanding their thinking and establishing principles behind the behavior, and that is really equipping them for carryover into all the aspects of their future as well, whether they're taking care of a vehicle someday or a pet. You're taking this moment to really equip them for all of those other moments, not just turn off your brains and do what I say. I think you had some other habits, too you were going to share.

Julie Redmund: 9:53

Yes. Another one to relieve some of the mom's stress is assigning a time for something I'm going to say assign a time to do your dishes, because for me we don't have a dishwasher right now. That's even a longer task, but it's just stressful, and this goes with clutter. The purpose of that room reset is just to not be stressed out at night when your kids go to bed and feel like you have to deal with everything. And so one of those things like for me having dishes piling up and the sink stresses me out, and for some of you it may be laundry And maybe whatever that task is that you find yourself just being really stressed out about, like if you visually see that or whatever. And so I implemented picking a time and I kind of played around all of this you have to play around with, with what works and you're going to have to experiment. But I decided to, okay, like after my kids get home from school, shortly after that, i'm going to do dishes and like have it cleared up before dinner time And some will get put away and then some will still be in the drying rack And then in the morning, after my kids get on the bus, i will put the clean dishes, the rest of the clean dishes away, like those are my two. It's a nice little.

Julie Redmund: 11:07

Sometimes we just need a little productivity boost, like first thing in the morning, like to complete a task or do something, that'll give you a little boost for the day, to be like okay, i accomplished something, so there is something powerful about that.

Julie Redmund: 11:19

But so now, if there's dishes in the sink during the day, that doesn't bother me because I know I know my time of when I'm going to handle that And that's an afternoon And and again, it's not perfect. Some days with our schedule it doesn't happen. It's not like it never fills and I don't ever get stressed, but I've removed a lot of the times where it does, whenever I can maintain that habit, and so it's just a really powerful, simple thing to just do a little self awareness check of like, okay, what do I find myself just being really grumpy about and stressing out, and make a time for that, and then you release yourself from stressing out about it and worrying about it because you know, and this can go. We have a whole nother conversation. This goes with your schedule and your and your timing and errands and certain things like just assign a time to it And you can release yourself from having that be just one of the million things rolling around in your brain, identifying what stresses you, getting a game plan for it.

Val Harrison: 12:21

That's fantastic And honestly, i think if you share that with your kids, then you know I've identified this as a stressor for me. When the dishes are messy, that's one of my top stressors. Then that's good for the kids, too, to know that about mom And that helps them get on board with plans when they understand that we don't have to be silent about what stresses us. But it's so good for them to know we are evaluating ourselves and making solutions, and then we can also do the same with our kids.

Val Harrison: 12:59

What about our home is stressful to you, that's a stressor for me, what's a stressor for you, and that can get us kind of all caring about what another stresses. But it's also teaching them the habit of self evaluation and identifying those things and being proactive to deal with it. So I just think that's fabulous that you are setting that example for them.

Julie Redmund: 13:23

Yes, In my view of thinking, self awareness is like a two part yes itself, but it's also awareness. You have to be self aware, but then that allows you to be more aware of others and outward focus. And I love that communication of giving everyone the opportunity to be like, okay, I had to find a time to deal with this task. That stresses me out And I think that's great to bring up. Like I get stressed out when I'm really rushed, like Sunday mornings having a church, like I got to work on a habit for that I'll preach to myself here. I need to have it. But yeah, there's certain things and just that you can vocalize that. So everyone's aware that, like guys, I'm really short tempered right now. I'm sorry this situation really stresses me out. I think that habit of sharing these things is so powerful and communicating that and empowering them to see that you struggle with things and feel okay for them to express they struggle too, So good.

Val Harrison: 14:17

That's a whole nother. Yeah, before we go to the next question, i wanted you to share with the audience what are the age of your twins boys, girls, you know? tell us about that.

Julie Redmund: 14:29

Yeah, they're eight years old and I have a boy and a girl, so a mix of both worlds. And even though they're twins, they are so different, very different personalities, so it's fascinating just to see it. It was interesting. Our pediatrician in the beginning is like they're two separate people that just happen to share the womb at the same time And it was really good insight to be like yes, i had to at one time, but when you have multiples they're very different And you have to pay attention to those differences and how to parent and handle and so much more work, but it's so good to like, get that insight and help.

Julie Redmund: 15:07

But it's been a journey. There's definitely a lot, you know you're wiser when you've gone through it And I'm like, oh man, i wish I knew a lot of these things when they were really young and things were just crazy. but two at the same time But yeah, that would be really hard, starting with two. Yeah, as well as things where you don't know any different. So it just is what it is. But I definitely operated out of survival mode for a very long time. that, i think, is a little bit of fuel to what I talk about to help other moms not not be in that mode.

Val Harrison: 15:42

Would you say that's one of your main motivators to being a podcast mom?

Julie Redmund: 15:48

Yeah, i think so, because, just in, whenever anyone's talking or struggling with something, i'm like, oh there's, there's an easier way to do that, like, give yourself more grace, that's if we get some plans in place. It's one of those things I feel like especially kind of. One of my soapbox things, i guess, is that mom.

Julie Redmund: 16:06

So mom life is undevitably hard, incredibly hard, but I feel like we make it even harder than it needs to be, and, especially as Christian moms, i feel like there's this thought that it has to be really hard and sacrificial to do it right. So I mean, it's figuring out that balance of, yes, we are serving and doing all those things, but I feel like it's almost that like martyrdom thing and that and that whole badge of honor of the hot mess mom culture and and all these things, and it's like, well, no, first we just need a realistic expectation that mom life is messy and hard, but to not think that it has to. I feel like it has to, i feel like we think it has to look that way and feel that way if we're doing it right. And so that's where I'm trying to be like, okay, hold on, let's rewrite the script here, and it's okay to make it feel easier and like less stressful, and not be pulling your hair out like that's a better path. Let's, let's do that one.

Val Harrison: 17:09

Yeah, I agree. In fact, I think, as American moms, I think there is almost a badge of honor and being too busy over committed kids involved in everything, being the best in all of the things they're involved in. You know that's a lot of busy pressure that is keeping our kids in a lot of ways from being able to have childhood.

Val Harrison: 17:37

You know, childhood doesn't have to be go, go, go, go, go, go, push, push, push, push, push. You know it can be relaxed. Creative play, you know. All of these things that just stabilizes our growth is really what we want for our kids, instead of that constant pressure and performance.

Julie Redmund: 18:00

So yeah, you never have time to slow down and evaluate how things are going. Are you even happy? Do you even enjoy whatever task you're doing? Or is it just the routine of like, oh, they've always done this, we do this, we force that and you have to slow down to figure out if you're on the right path? You have to slow down to be able to hear God's voice and God's leading. If you're so busy and cluttered and going, going, going it quickly, like I mean preaching to myself here can definitely become just those quick prayers that we fly up and we just kind of go through and I'm all about definitely just like living with Jesus and going through it. But you have to slow down and give time to hear from God, to be still and that's really something he is bringing to my attention right now It's come up a few times and just that silence and to stop, absolutely Stop all the things.

Val Harrison: 18:54

Yeah, yeah, i love it. Yeah, okay. Well, i think I rabbit-trailed this big time, yes, so what? I think you had another habit.

Julie Redmund: 19:03

Yeah, i'll quickly just throw in this other one that I feel like is another kind of went through some top Struggles that we have as moms. And another one is the whole dinner time deal and how stressful that is and figuring out what we're eating and the kids always asking what's for dinner and all of that, and so just one sanity saver habit is just getting down to meal planning and that is separate from meal prepping And I feel like some people group those together and it feels more overwhelming and they don't do it at all because they're like, oh, i don't want to do that. I'm a diehard meal planner but I'm not a meal prepper. I've tried some. Maybe someday I'll be more. I've done a little bit like launches and stuff like that. But just to start somewhere in not feeling that stress that's kind of lingering in the back of your mind of like, oh, what are we going to eat tonight? and, depending on your schedule, it's like five o'clock and you have no idea. And you have an idea but you don't have the ingredients you need and then you're trying to figure out something else and then you're like, oh my gosh, i'm hungry and cooking and oh my goodness, that's not a good scene. So kind of a meal planning one on one.

Julie Redmund: 20:10

First, creating a list of like. Go to meals like you can think about what you eat on a regular basis, or just some simple ones. So just have that go to list of meals. So, especially if you are like frantic or your day changed and you're like, oh, i just need a quick, easy meal that I don't have to think about, so just get your list of meals. This is not a Pinterest board of a million ideas and complicated recipes and all that. We're not. We're not going there. This is the simple, non stressful go to meals that are like five to 10 or so, and you can, as you go, i you can create like an overall list of like by category of like. These are some pasta dishes, some some instant pot, instant pot, whatever and just kind of write down ones that are kind of the winning meals that everyone likes or that you're like oh, that was easy, just to keep that go to list. You can go check out your Pinterest board for inspiration when you want to try something new or whatever, but don't overwhelm yourself with all the options. Like, just keep a running list for you and then you can tweak that This gives you something for meal planning, that you can look at a smaller list that you know is good for you And you pull off of that list and put it into your week and I definitely recommend planning out for the whole week. That includes you might have a leftovers night or an eat out night, like that's fine, you don't have to cook a gourmet meal every night. Whatever works for you and no judgment, just figure out what works for you.

Julie Redmund: 21:36

But you cannot this is the key. You cannot meal plan without your calendar. You have to look at your calendar and what's going on, like if you have a super packed day or you have, like the after school, sports or whatever activities you guys are in. If it's a really crammed day, don't put the meal that takes longer to prep and cook. Like don't choose that meal for that day. So look at your calendar and then assign the meals And then, if you get to a day and you don't feel like having pasta that night or whatever, rearrange it.

Julie Redmund: 22:07

I do all the time. You already have the plan, just flip flop it. Make Friday's meal on Wednesday and Wednesday's meal on Friday or whatever. Like it's not written in stone, it just gives you the foundation of like you can shop for the ingredients, you have all the ingredients for that week and you rearrange it as you see fit, and no stress, like you can change it all. Good, but you have that plan and it relieves you from all of that dinner time stress. And if you want to post it up so everyone can see, and if they want to ask you what's for dinner, you said go check the meal plan on the fridge. Save yourself from answering that question as well. But yeah, just making it easier, smoother, intentional and yeah, not stressing about crazy.

Val Harrison: 22:49

That's awesome. Yeah, two questions with that. First one when you meal plan for a week, how long does that usually take?

Julie Redmund: 22:58

I feel, like sometimes it's pretty quick. So if I have like go to, i can even look at. I use an app for my particular use. But I go look at past meals or I look at my list and it can maybe just take like five or 10 minutes to be like, okay, let me look at the schedule and move things over. Then you have to do your grocery list as well. So, yes, it can take more time if you do it all at once, but you don't have to do it all at once. You can do the plan And then, when you have time again do the grocery list. So it's not, you can break it up how you need to, but it's not a big overwhelming thing.

Julie Redmund: 23:29

If you have those go to meals, if you're starting from scratch and going to Pinterest, if I do that, then who knows how long I'm lost in Pinterest and scrolling all things and do I feel like making that or not? And yeah, well. So now I have to ask what is the app? Yes, so it's called any list and I'm a big fan and you can literally drag and move it. So if you change but the big perk if you find a Pinterest meal or wherever that you like, they're directly.

Julie Redmund: 23:58

You can link it up where you just tap on it and it will upload the recipe into the app and have your ingredient list And then you can check. You can go through, just walk around your kitchen real quick, see what you have, what you need, and you check off the things you need and it will go into your grocery list. Wow, so it's all done for you And you can even have it directly upload. To like a Walmart order, like you, just hit the button to like order from Walmart and it will upload your grocery list and app to the Walmart Oh my goodness, it's amazing.

Julie Redmund: 24:28

I'm a big fan.

Val Harrison: 24:29

So is that only available on phones, or can you use it from your computer too?

Julie Redmund: 24:35

I would think it can be. I've done it on my phone. It's probably on computer, but I would say phone would be easier cause you can walk around and make sure that makes sense as you're doing it. But yeah, it's probably on both, but it's been super helpful and you can save recipes in there, so you're just looking within and you can add it to your meal plan straight in the app. So it is very comprehensive. You can use it as much as you want for all those components.

Val Harrison: 24:59

That's cool. So last question with that What is a favorite go-to meal that you guys have? I would say so.

Julie Redmund: 25:09

There's a couple of things It's been a little bit but a rice bowl, so these are. I'm gonna give you guys a couple of super easy mom cheat meals. So rice bowls are great cause you can put anything on them. You can do the Uncle Ben's 90 second rice in the microwave. Get that done real quick. I like to use hummus as like a sauce and like maybe put a little spinach in there.

Julie Redmund: 25:29

Not all of this. My kids are not great at eating everything. So you can customize, but keeping things separate. So if your kids do like rice or do they do like some chicken or whatever, just don't mix things. Pull their portions out before you mix. But that's a good thing too. You can keep it all separate and let everyone make their own.

Julie Redmund: 25:46

But rice, you can do a steam microwave bag of veggies or you can cut some up and roast them in the oven. However you wanna cook the veggies, mix it in Some ground. Meat is really quick to make. Or if you wanna do chicken in the Instant Pot or whatever to do like shredded chicken, like a bulk meat type of thing, get all your food groups a nice good one. You can turn anything into a quesadilla You do say you do like a simple meat and veggies dinner and you have leftover veggies. But those things in that quesadilla Anything veggies and cheese and that like granite or whatever you want to do, some beans, whatever. Yeah, those are really easy, and taco salad is a good one over here too. So those are a few.

Val Harrison: 26:29

Super easy. We've actually this morning. I've gotten into quesadillas lately because they are super helpful for on the go. You know, yeah, i make up several ahead of time. So, like this morning, i made breakfast quesadillas and I take a full-size burrito and then fold it in half with the stuff in it, and then it's just so simple for us to grab and go on busy days like Sunday mornings. You know, for example, that's also I don't want to miss out on if you had other habits that you wanted to share. But you also, we're gonna share consistency stuff with us.

Julie Redmund: 27:06

So yeah, i think I really want to. That's a huge piece Is how to be consistent, because we can have great ideas and and do something here and there, but that's part of the the mom guilt that comes on if we do something and then we can't follow through and we get frustrated. And my big thing for any habit that you're working on is The ability to be consistent, is the need for changing it up. So it's funny consistency requires change, which seems completely contradictory. So let me explain.

Julie Redmund: 27:38

We will get into these habits and get into routines and we will just say like, okay, this is what I'm doing every day and we can get bored of it, or one day we're not feeling like it and You need to be able to change it up in order to still be interested in how we do that. You have to remember I call it facilitating the core goal and Like, if what you want to be consistent in is, let's say, like time with God, like reading the Bible, you have a plan of maybe you do like the Bible app, daily verse a day or whatever, and you find yourself not really opening the app anymore and you're not into it, instead of abandoning ship and be like, well, i can't get my daily time with God in. You just need to remember that the goal is daily time with God, not that you're going into that app and doing that study. So maybe you need to change it up and do a devotion book or Like I'm doing the Bible recap, where you read the Bible in a year, love, little shout out for that. But like there was a day where I was kind of torn because I get very much like, okay, this is what I'm committed to, this is what I need to do. But there was this other sermon I wanted to listen to and I had a moment where I had to stop and think and I'm like you know what It's okay to release, like the goal here is time with God and his word and learning. So I'm gonna listen to that sermon instead.

Julie Redmund: 29:00

So it's just that reminder to kind of step back and remember what, what is the core goal behind this habit, and Find ways to do that. So, whether it's working out, don't get so fixated on a specific. I must go to the gym or I must go for a walk and that's my workout. There's other ways to move your body. There's other ways to facilitate any of these Habits that we're working on with our home is just to. When you find yourself like skipping or finding excuses, or like feeling guilt about not doing it, that's when you need to pause. That's your little red flag warning of like, okay, i need to make a change, what's the core goal and how do I facilitate that in a different way? Just to mix it up, and so that is really the game-changer, like the key of how to how to keep going, not get fixated on the method of doing it, but the why so good, so important.

Val Harrison: 29:54

I love it. I'll ask a specific question here about so I also like the Bible recap and we have mentioned it before on here and The other day. You know what, when I evaluate that habit that I tried to, you know I'm not a hundred percent consistent on it. So when I was evaluating what is a roadblock in this for me, what I identified was that it's kind of a pain to go Look up what like It does a new plan every year and so staying on the year that she's on, and what scripture Am I supposed to be looking at before I listen to her? Because it's a podcast. For those who don't know the Bible recap is this really short little podcast That goes along with a reading plan. So my question for you is do you Find the reading plan like? do you print it out or do you look it up every day?

Julie Redmund: 30:52

You know, like so I started out, i printed it out and I have it. And I started out just looking at my printout because it was right next to where. Make it easy For yourself wherever you're going to do the activity, put the thing. So I had the reading plan right there so I could look and I would check it off. But I found for me what I do is I just I've subscribed to the podcast, so it's in my feed and it uploads every day, so it's not a lot of effort to find. So It pops up, i tap on it and I see what, like if I am behind or if you're on that day, you just see whichever one is bold, whatever one you haven't listened to last, like you can see which chapters to read. So then I switch over.

Julie Redmund: 31:27

I use my Bible app. I do twofold. I do the audio version, i play it and, like, read it at the same time. I don't know that works for me. So how are you do it, whether you have your physical Bible or whatever, but I just double-check that I am reading the right chapters and then listen to the podcast, which is so incredibly helpful. I always have the printout there too. But yeah, i just go by the. I really go by the podcast to see what's today's reading, and then yeah, Swap over okay.

Val Harrison: 31:54

Well, i'm gonna give your method a try for For just looking at that, because I think that would help me, because I get mixed up on what year we, on What you know which year plan are, are we are right now.

Julie Redmund: 32:06

I think they're all the same because I went back really different year, because it's the same chapters, i think it's basically the same. But, yeah, if you're just doing the current, i think you just go with the current year. Don't try and like dig through your mind trying to find your three.

Val Harrison: 32:21

Complicating things. Okay, yes, stop over. Complicated me, it's simple, yes, well, this was awesome. I think we really think a lot alike, and I enjoy being able to chat with you, so we definitely will have to do this again.

Julie Redmund: 32:36

Yes, I love it so much. Thank you.

Val Harrison: 32:39

Julie, in wrapping this up, can you please share with them how to Connect with you and listen to your podcast and find your resources? I will also put links to all of this in the show notes that I'd love for you to tell them also.

Julie Redmund: 32:53

Sure, my podcast is Mom Made Plans and the website is mommadeplanscom, so you can connect to the podcast, or I have some helpful printables to go along with all of this intentional productivity that you can find from there as well. But I always love talking and hearing from moms and just sharing real life and figuring out some solutions.

Val Harrison: 33:16

Awesome. Well, i am loving getting to know you better and I really enjoyed being on your podcast and I'm so glad you were online. So fun as always. Well, mom Friends, i hope you enjoyed today's episode because next week you will hear another conversation between Julie and I when I was on her podcast. So we'll see you again right here next week on the Practically Speaking Mom podcast the place for an intentional mom to build a strong family.

Val Harrison: 33:44

I hope you enjoyed today's episode of the Practically Speaking Mom. You can find lots more from me. My blog books the six rooms of the intentional mom's home at my website, practicallyspeakingmomcom. If you found this podcast to be helpful, i would be so honored if you would share it with other people. Subscribe to the podcast, follow my blog and join in the Practically Speaking Mom's online community through Instagram and Facebook. We also have a wonderful private Facebook group where you can share your ideas.

Val Harrison: 34:15

You can give your feedback about the podcast. You can ask me personal questions about it. There's so many wonderful intentional moms in this group and I would love for you to be one of them. The name of that private Facebook group is Intentional Mom, strong Family, so I hope you'll join that today. And let me get to know you If you think other moms would benefit from this podcast. Would you please take a few minutes to leave a review on iTunes so that iTunes will recommend this podcast to moms when they search. I'm looking forward to spending time with you again next week right here on the Practically Speaking Mom podcast, the place for an intentional mom to build a strong family. See you soon.