2019 was an exclamation point on a series of big challenges for our little family of 5 (now 6).  With my dislocated shoulder, hernia surgery and a miscarriage sandwiched between two cross country moves for my husband to start new jobs in a period of 9 months after finishing his PhD, we were very familiar with living in survival mode.  

I spent a lot of time that year wishing that we had more money so we could eat out to simplify the amount of time and energy I spent doing meal planning and food prep (we were on a grad school budget), grandparents nearby to help me with the kids (they were driving 30 hours away), and more options than screen time to get a break (because it just created grumpy kids).  

But we were also getting pretty good at fighting our way back to feeling like we were thriving.

In the same nine months we also made incredible friends, went on lots of adventures to the beach, historical sites, and children’s museums, checked off some diy projects, homeschooled our young children, I released a podcast episode every week, and created and launched the Thriving in Motherhood Planner and Journal.

As I sat in our house surrounded by moving boxes that were yet to be unpacked at our new home and talked with a friend as I processed all that we had been going through, I realized that there were five clear phases along the path from Surviving to Thriving, each with it’s own focus, skills, and systems. 

During the next 5 years of living in our home and more challenges coming our way, I had time and space to really learn and develop those systems and skills to help us manage much more gracefully through the ups and downs of real life.

Instead of just wishing I had three possible tools to help me when things got hard (fast food, grandparents, and screen time) I discovered there was A LOT I could do to make things easier and approach the necessary things of life in a way that worked for the season I was in.  

Instead of being scared of the hard seasons - whether planned or surprised - and the effort it would take to get us back out of it, I became empowered because I knew how to manage each day no matter where I was along the path from surviving to thriving and how to make tomorrow a little bit better too.

And all these tools, skills and systems that I took a decade to earn and learn the hard way are what I've filled the Soaring Mothers Toolkit with for you.