Catholic Mom Calm

It's Friday night, I'm home alone, and I'm recording a completely ridiculous episode. No coaching, no reframe, just me wanting to talk to someone about episode one of the new Elle Woods show on Amazon Prime. My husband took the kids to the beach, I opened Prime, and this little show whisked me right back to being a '90s Seattle grunge girl. Fair warning: this one is pure nostalgia. If you grew up...

I just got back from driving six kids and two dogs (including an eight-week-old puppy) from northern Idaho to northern Wisconsin, and the trip left me with a takeaway I didn't expect. I am so in love with my ordinary, day-to-day life. Watching cousins become friends and swimming and puppy chaos was wonderful, and it made me more grateful than ever for the life I've built at home. So in this episod...

It usually hits right about now. You started summer with high hopes, pushed through the chaotic first couple of weeks, and now you're yelling more, feeling stressed, and wondering what happened to the magical season you pictured. Sterling Jaquith says it's not because you lack a plan. It's your window of tolerance, and summer quietly shrinks it. Drawing on a concept from her book Catholic Mom Calm...

Sterling Jaquith caught herself feeling a very particular brand of summer jealousy. Friends whose parents are stable enough, healthy enough, and trusted enough to take the grandkids for a week or two. And watching that feeling rise was a perfect window into something we all do: we never question why we feel good, but the moment a negative feeling shows up, we start poking at it, and the poking spi...

We're handed a script that summer is supposed to be fun and relaxing, beach days and popsicles and bucket lists. Then the fantasy meets the reality of little kids off their routine, eating sugar, tracking sand everywhere, and a lot of moms find themselves feeling something they didn't expect: angry. Sterling Jaquith says that's not a sign you're doing it wrong. It's cognitive dissonance, and it's...

  Every summer it happens. You pack up the little kids, drive to the beach or the grandparents, and somewhere around day three in an unfamiliar Airbnb with no blackout curtains and a toddler who won't sleep, you wonder why you thought this would be fun. Sterling Jaquith has a reframe that changes the whole thing: stop calling it a vacation. In this evergreen episode you can come back to before any...

It's a wild claim, and Sterling Jaquith makes it anyway. After asking her email list what they're struggling with right now, she read more than 200 responses, and reading every single one she kept thinking the same thing: oh, I could help her feel so much better about that. Not because the hard things aren't real. They are. But because underneath every one of them is the same skill, the number one...

We all say we want our lives to be better. But what if most of us don't actually want to do the one thing that would make it better? This episode is the mirror-moment question, plus a summer update on closing loops, a 30-second way to make decisions, a new puppy, and the letter that changed how she thinks about holy water. WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE: Why no amount of thinking makes a decision f...

Six kids home for summer, a pilgrimage to France, a schooling decision on a deadline, and a Goodwill trip that produced an accidental gel bead gun. Sterling Jaquith walks through what's actually on her plate right now and shows the move that keeps her calm in the middle of it: stop trying to engineer a simple life, simplify your thinking instead. WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE: Why "just live simpl...

⛱️ Fun & Simple Summer: https://catholicmomcalm.com/fun-simple-summer 😎 Good Mom Summer: https://catholicmomcalm.com/good-mom-summer 🥰 Catholic Finishing School: https://catholicfinishingschool.com/ I'm a good mom. (And so are you. We're going to practice that all summer.) Sterling had a light bulb moment while recording the Fun & Simple Summer program — and it changed her entire summer plan. Al...

A Fun and Simple Summer (How to Decide Right Now What Kind of Summer You're Going to Have) Grab FREE Fun & Simple Summer Here: https://catholicmomcalm.com/fun-simple-summer You've seen "analog summer" all over the internet — but Sterling's going with fun and simple . Because when you choose simplicity, especially simplicity in your mind, you stop yelling at the kids so much. Funny how that works....

What are you doing with your life? (The answer is simpler than you think.) Sterling's 15 and 12-year-old came to her in genuine distress. They didn't know if they were going to be nuns or moms, and their brains were convinced that figuring out the future was the key to feeling settled today. Sound familiar? In this episode, Sterling shares the conversation she had with her girls — and what she tol...

"The melancholy side of me just isn't having it." A mom wrote in with paragraphs of feelings — the wounds work, the hormones, the hard days, the confusion about why she still can't seem to get on top of it all. Sterling read every word. And then she said something that might surprise you. In this episode, Sterling breaks down one of the most common ways we use self-help work against ourselves — an...

He spent $1,500 on her for Mother's Day. She felt terrible. A mom wrote in with a situation that sounds simple on the surface — her husband surprised her with an expensive gift she'd actually been wanting. So why did it feel so bad? In this episode, Sterling breaks down exactly why a generous gift can land all wrong, and what it reveals about the thoughts we've been carrying for months without rea...

Something feels off right now — and you're not imagining it. In this unplanned episode, Sterling sits down to say out loud what so many moms are feeling but don't have language for: it is genuinely weird to be raising kids right now. In this episode: Why so many of us feel unsettled but can't articulate it What skills actually matter to teach our kids when we can't see the future Why scrolling to...

You get to decide how Mother's Day goes. All of it. In this episode, Sterling gets honest about why Mother's Day feels so loaded — and why no amount of flowers, brunch, or Pandora bracelets will fix the real problem. In this episode: Why your family can't give you what you actually want on Mother's Day (and whose job it actually is) The thoughts that turn a mediocre Sunday into a devastating one —...

Do you struggle when someone believes something about you that isn't true? Do you feel the need to correct them… defend yourself… convince them… make them understand? One of the fastest ways to improve your relationships is this: Let them be wrong about you. In this episode, we talk about: Why we desperately want others to understand us How the need to control someone's opinion creates anger and d...

Should you have another baby… or not? This is one of the most tender and weighty discernment questions a Catholic mom can face. If you're waking up thinking about another baby… If your heart feels pulled toward growing your family… Or if you feel confused because your husband isn't on the same page… Let's slow it down. In this episode, we talk about: Whether desire for a baby comes from the Lord A...

You want to homeschool your kids… but your husband isn't on board. Now what? This is one of the most emotionally charged decisions a Catholic mom can face — because underneath the schooling question is something deeper: "Am I doing a good job?" "Are my kids going to be okay?" "What if something bad happens?" In this episode, we slow it down. We talk about: Why you want to homeschool (and what feel...

Are you struggling to hear God's voice? If you're trying to discern a decision — about your family, your home, your work, or something deeper — and you're not getting clarity, it may not be because God isn't speaking. It may be because something is blocking Him. In this episode, we talk about four common ways we unintentionally block God's voice: Hardness of heart and lack of forgiveness Asking Go...

Are you constantly snapping at your kids… and then immediately thinking, "I'm a bad mom" ? There are two thoughts that quietly destroy a Catholic mom's interior peace: "This shouldn't be happening." "I'm a bad mom." In this episode, we break down what I call the Mad Bad Mom model — how resistance turns into anger, and anger turns into shame. You'll learn: Why resisting reality creates instant stre...

Calming Down Won't Make Your Life Easy (The Cross Still Remains) | Catholic Mom Learning how to calm your nervous system is powerful. Breathing slowly. Stepping outside. Drinking water. Getting out of fight-or-flight. These tools matter. But they do not mean your life will suddenly become easy. In this episode, we talk about where psychology meets Catholicism — and why even the most regulated, pea...

The Mental Load of a Catholic Mom (And What You Can Let Go Of) The "mental load" of motherhood has been all over the internet lately — and often the conversation turns into women vs. men. But before we talk about who should share the load… We need to ask a harder question: Should you be carrying all of it in the first place? In this episode, we take a deeper look at the invisible weight Catholic m...

Accepting the Day You're Given | Interior Peace for the Catholic Mom Part of having real interior peace as a Catholic mom comes from accepting your day the way it actually is — not the way you planned it. You wake up with a picture in your mind: Quiet morning prayer Kids waking at reasonable times Smooth breakfast Shoes on, backpacks packed Maybe even a little cleaning done And then… A child wakes...

How to Let Go of Perfectionism at Mass (Especially with Little Kids) | Catholic Mom If you've ever brought small children to Mass and silently panicked about the noise, the wiggling, the outfits, or what everyone else thinks… this episode is for you. Today we're answering a tender, honest question from a Catholic mom with four very little kids: How do you stop expecting perfection from your childr...