the Blog

"We are treating ourselves like machines who operate the same way every day, with replaceable parts, and valuable only for what they can do. But we are not machines. We are God’s trees, for whom He lovingly cares. Trees are not the same every day, and neither are people." — Joy Clarkson

Our culture has conditioned us to believe that efficiency matters more than wholehearted connection.

This has deeply impacted our relationship with time. We see our minutes as something to be sliced up and atomized so we can be in the right place at the right time to stamp next right mold on the next right widget.

"Uh oh, Elizabeth, be careful. You're sloshing it out."
 

My four-year-old stops her stirring for a second, processing my words. She sees where a small puddle of batter has splatted on the countertop. She adjusts her grip, then begins to mix again, slower this time.
 

"It's okay, Mom," she says confidently. Then, under her breath, more to herself than to me, "It's all a part of learning."

Studies are showing that children who are given responsibilities at a young age are happier and more successful in life- a true reflection of their God-given calling to bring order from chaos, and to stewardship! This blog post discusses the particulars of how we (McCauley and I, Shelby) involve our children in keeping the home...

They even have ways to earn significant money beyond their daily chores, which is very motivating for them to keep maturing and gaining skills. And while cheerful diligence is a habit that everyone has to work on, at the end of the day, they really do LOVE being involved and are constantly coming up with ways to be more helpful on their own!

The cliff was approaching rapidly.
 

We had just arrived in North Carolina for the week, and I'd woken up to a quiet house. The baby was still sleeping, so I tiptoed out of the room and explored our little AirBnB—seeing it in the daylight for the first time. The curtains of the big picture window were open, the table was set, and the children had made their beds.
 

Clearly, besides the baby, I was the last one awake. And yet it was so delightfully still. Walking into the kitchen, I decided that my husband must have taken the children to the store for breakfast ingredients.
 

Opening my thermos to find my husband had filled it with steaming fresh pour over, I smiled, feeling very cared for by him. Gathering my Bible and pens, I considered the treat I had stretching out before me. We had no set plans for the day, except to recover from the 15 hour drive we'd had the day before.
 

I was well rested. The children had apparently completed their morning chores unprompted. I was going to get to read my Bible and drink my coffee in silence.

*cue the ominous music* 

This week, the calling to faithfully pursue my children's hearts has been heavy on my mind.

I'm just about six weeks postpartum at the time of writing this, and between a new baby, a house that hasn't been fully put back together after renovations, coming back to work, and an out of state trip this month—there has been a lot to navigate!

I've found myself fretting that there just "isn't enough time" to pour more into the emotional side of my relationship with my two older children.

My husband and I want to build a home culture where long, lingering conversations at the table are felt to be welcome. We want to laugh, enjoy music, really taste our food, and clear ample space for anyone in our home to comfortably ask wondering questions about God's Word and world...

Story time.

When I was seven months pregnant with my first, I decided I wanted to be a work-at-home mom. My husband and I had been discussing all of our options, and I had been dabbling in the family business for a few months. While I'd always imagined that I wouldn't take on any serious income-earning projects until my kids were totally self-sufficient (like in high school, or something), certain life events combining with my studies of Scripture had me looking at things from another angle. My husband and I started charting out financial goals for our family. I looked over them with excitement because I was starting to believe that I would be able to help us reach our goals through grit, determination, and good old fashioned hard work.

At the time, designing my own planner was nowhere on my radar. I had a complex system of todo lists and digital calendars that honestly makes my head spin to think back on. But what was worse than my lack of a cohesive system of organization, was my total lack of understanding about the concept of trade-offs.

That's why, at seven months pregnant...

Effective yet flexible rhythms are one of the key building blocks in a sustainable and intentional lifestyle. But trying to copy a guru’s routine, whether for work or home life, quickly becomes overwhelming. There are dozens of “best practices” out there, so where do you start? How do you decide what you need in your personal rhythms?

Create a rhythm for your unique lifestyle

In this episode of the podcast, you'll get long look into how each of us approaches our morning and evening rhythms. Although we all have similar values—and we're even in similar stages of life—each of our rhythms look different.

Here's the thing about rhythms: they have to be crafted for your lifestyle, congruent with your season of life, and based on what you and your family value. I remember listening to a podcast years ago that said that "'should' is not a sustainable why." This idea holds true for rhythms. Feeling like you "should" get up before the kids, will not be a strong enough "why" when your alarm goes off at 6am. But if you begin to know in your core—because you've taken the time to reflect on your personal experience—that getting up before the kids sets you up for a better, more peaceful morning, this core knowing can easily become a very strong "why."

You know that we are passionate about encouraging and empowering women to craft lifestyles that fuel their most life-giving goals. Culture likes to tell us that we can either have a thriving business or be home-loving women, but not both. We simply don't buy this. We believe we can honor the business responsibilities we've been given, and also serve our families by being fully present, especially this Christmas week.

That's why we're going to shut things down and take time off from business activities so we don't have the pressure of being on our phones, pulling out our laptops, or cramming in work blocks into our holiday plans. Instead, we're going to cozy up with our families, slow down to soak in the goodness of the season, and fully celebrate the joy of the birth of Christ.

When we think about Christmas, we are often consumed by thinking about everything we need to get done between now and the end of December, while being caught up in our idealistic dream of a cozy and peaceful Christmas.

We all know the feeling of bouncing back and forth between frenzied activity and staring emptily around us, longing for a moment of peace.

In November, I (Clari) taught a live masterclass Clari taught for the Evergreen Collective.This free replay (& workbook) will help you with all the practical skills needed to tackle your to-do lists and honor your Christmas vision.

Advent and Christmas are my favorite times of the year, but it also happens to be the one of the busiest times for the business, which means I need planning strategies that are easy to implement and help me do what I most want: to celebrate the birth of Christ in very meaningful ways with my family and to be a person who exudes peace while doing it.

You can access the free workbook here.

May this Christmas be your most peaceful yet!

Recently, I (McCauley) have been doing the hard work of shifting my rhythms. Seasons are changing, and I've felt scattered because of how much time I was allowing for overlap between focused time with my kids and time that needed to be set aside for business tasks. 

I know that the best way for me to get business work done later in the day is to make sure I connect with my kids in the morning. Whether it's working together through school, doing a craft, or going outside, I know I have to tend to my children first to help them feel grounded. This also helps them know what they need to do for the rest of the day.

So when I started tweaking my week rhythms, I knew it was important to not allow overlap between my focused time with my kids, and business work.