Finding Joy in Motherhood, Janet Quinlan

What thoughts do you have that create joy and what thoughts do you have that create anxiety, stress, or discontent?

Do you approach your life with confidence or have you decided that you’ll never be enough or you’re stuck or a victim? 

Learning the skills of marriage, motherhood, and keeping a home are important, but whatever you think, will be your reality.

Choose your thoughts to serve you rather than enslave you.

Stop believing the past defines you and know that you have the power to define yourself now.

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Make sure to listen to the previous Episode 83 "What Your Daughter Needs" to give you the basics of what all your children need.  This episode is for the boy moms!

On our wedding day, many of us came to our marriage with expectations – our book of instructions for our husband about the kind of husband he is supposed to be -what he is supposed to think, do, and say:  The Husband Manual.

Uncover and choose the thoughts that will empower you with positive feelings so that you can work towards creating the motherhood you have always dreamed of with confidence rather than with feelings of defeat.

Did you know that your feelings come directly from your thoughts?

They don’t come from what someone else did or didn’t do to you.

They don’t come from what your parents said to you many years ago.

They come from what you think about the actions or words of another.

If you want to enjoy positive, happy feelings create thoughts that bring those feelings.

Don’t let yourself be a victim of the world and its arbitrary expectations.  Resist the temptation to judge yourself according to other people’s standards and fall victim to mom guilt.

 Ask God to help you do your best, love your best, and live His will for you the best you can.  He loves you, your husband, and your children more than you do.  He will give you all that you need to love them, care for them, and find your generous spirit in your motherhood. 

Sibling Arguments don't have to result in full blown hate speak and physical violence.  People who live together will always disagree from time to time.  As parents, our job is to teach our children how to disagree with respect for their sibling.

St Josemaria says that you can tell a great deal about the state of one’s soul by looking in her closet.

Whether we’re talking about our relationship with our spouse, the way we parent, or the how we keep our home, in order to be effective we need to attend to 3 tools in our lives.

CS Lewis said, “Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.”

During this time of Lent, I often think about Jesus’ mother, Mary.  I think about the conflicting thoughts and feelings she must have had about His life.

Sometimes, it’s hard to identify with the suffering of Jesus because it is just so much. But surely as women we can identify with empathy and compassion, the suffering of His mother.

Give an emotional boost to your children and to you and commit to reading together every day.

Freezer Meals are the greatest invention to save time, money, and your sanity!

Not forgiving someone doesn’t punish them, it punishes us.

Our gifts are super powers.  When we use them for the good the potential for change is unlimited.

The spirit of detachment doesn’t mean that we don’t care about our life or the people in it, it simply means that we don’t depend on the exteriors of our life for our happiness.

We try to do EVERYTHING everyday and often that leaves us with getting nothing done because we’ve given into the feeling of overwhelm, and procrastinated the day away.

Decide the night before what the one thing is that you must do the next day to feel like a success.