Growing Home Together Podcast

Do you avoid talking about money with your spouse? Does the mention of a budget make you cringe? Do financial emergencies cause tension to grow in your household? We know how it feels to be stressed about money. When we were first married, we lived on a tight budget with a rotating menu of mac n’ cheese and chili and beans. When it came to conversations about money, they always revolved around how...

Can you still hear the beat of “Pomp and Circumstance” from the day your child crossed the graduation stage? For so many parents, this milestone signifies a big life transition—not only for their child, but for themselves, too. For the child, they’re flying the nest and entering the real world for the first time. For the parent, they will be entering (or approaching) the empty nest season of life....

As parents, we hurt when our children hurt. From those first cries during sleepless nights to the more complex struggles of adolescence and beyond, our hearts tend to ache right alongside theirs. Whether you’re watching your child struggle with bullying at school, battling an eating disorder, or walking through a mental health crisis, their pain can leave you feeling overwhelmed, afraid, or unsure...

Worry and stress can show up in every season of parenting—from the moment we first bring our newborn baby home from the hospital to the day they start preparing to head out into the world on their own. Over the years, we’ve felt the weight of countless uncertainties swirling through our minds as we raised our five children. Thoughts like: When will my baby sleep through the night? Are they hitting...

A few weeks ago, we were sitting around the dinner table, enjoying a simple family meal together. But it felt like our son with ADHD spent less time in his chair and more time moving around the house. During the course of the meal, he got up for water, then the bathroom, then a spoon, then to grab something from his room…the list kept going! By the end, we had lost count of how many times he’d bee...

As we’ve parented our five children through the years, we’ve held them when the tears wouldn’t stop flowing. We’ve listened as they questioned their worth, identity, and if the hard season they were walking through would ever end. We have spent plenty of time in the waiting rooms of counselors and therapists when our children were struggling. And we’ve spent even more time in prayer when we just d...

In a “more is better” culture, how can women live lives that are balanced, not burned out? It’s easy to mistake a busy life for a meaningful one. Often, we don’t realize how exhausted we truly are until we reach a breaking point. I’ve had my own season of burnout, juggling a job, volunteer roles, and homeschooling while Rob traveled extensively for work and we prepared for a cross-country move. Wh...

Every week, we hear from wives who are quietly carrying the weight of a husband’s alcohol addiction. “I am hoping and praying that he gets healed and that his addiction doesn’t kill him.” “I have anxiety. I have fear. I feel stuck.” “Too many times I have felt hopeless and have wanted to be dead so I wouldn’t feel this pain.” “Hopefully my marriage will turn out for God’s glory.” These words refle...

We all know that anxiety can take a big toll on the person who is personally suffering from it. But what we don’t talk about as often is how anxiety can take a toll on a marriage. The truth is, this challenging mental condition can often cause fear, exhaustion, and a sense of isolation that leaves both spouses wondering how to support one another or stay connected. If you and your spouse are navig...

*In this episode, we talk about abortion, pregnancy reduction, potential loss of an unborn baby, and infertility. If you have an aversion or are sensitive to any of these topics, we recommend skipping this episode. How do we approach God with this? Has my view of God changed because of this hardship? Can I still trust God? Will I trust Him? If this doesn’t go well, will I resent Him? These are all...

As we settle into the heart of winter, the world outside our windows carries an unmistakable chill. Unfortunately, during this time of the year, many couples can start to feel like matters inside their household are growing cold, too. Did you know that January is also known as “divorce month” because a surge of separations occur around this time? If this resonates with you, you may have felt the t...

Technology is moving faster and faster every day. As parents, one of our biggest yet most challenging responsibilities is to safeguard our children. But these days, it can often feel like technology is outpacing our efforts. Just when we think we have online safety figured out, another threat comes knocking at our door. You may have even considered whether it’s best to simply block your child from...

It wasn’t too many months ago that I (Joanna) decided to give up on coloring my hair to cover up all the grey. But you want to know something funny? When I look in the mirror, I sometimes laugh to myself and wonder: How many of these grey hairs are from the stress of parenting our youngest daughter as a toddler? She was fearless, and one of her favorite phrases was, “I do it myself!” We know we ar...

“But I don’t want to try that!” How many times have you heard this cry ring out whenever your child is faced with something new? Whether it be a new sport, trying to learn an instrument, or simply taking a bite of an unfamiliar food on their plate, our children can often resist new things—even if we know that they’ll eventually be grateful that they pushed through their anxious hesitations. We wan...

Do you ever struggle to bridge the gap between your hearts in your marriage? Does deep connection feel always out of reach? Whether in your marriage, your relationship with your kids, or even with an old friend, many of us can feel at a loss for how to express our care and empathy for the people we love. And when we’re overwhelmed or hurting, we end up hiding the pain we feel inside. We settle for...

Years ago, when our oldest son was just a toddler, I (Joanna) was deep in the trenches as a stay-at-home mom. I had become engrossed in motherhood, and my world had shrunk to diaper changes and late-night wakings. I could not imagine the world beyond our front door. While motherhood is absolutely a priceless gift from God, it’s important to remember that before we are mothers, we are daughters of...

If you’re married, you don’t need us to tell you that understanding your personalities is key—because the differences between you and your spouse can sometimes collide. In our marriage, we experienced this recently when a concert was coming to our town. What sounded like a fun date night to one of us sounded like a miserable night to the other. In the end, we each walked away feeling a little misu...

Of our five children, the oldest and the youngest are both boys—with a 17-year age gap between them! They’ve shown us that boys are a bit different to raise than girls, since they both seemed to thrive chaos, dirt, and taking big risks along the way. But time and time again, we’ve recognized that our oldest son’s childhood looked much different from our youngest son’s. Our oldest grew up near dead...

The great thing about birthdays is that they encourage us to pause and reflect on everything that has brought us to this point in life. Recently, Joanna celebrated her birthday, but coming soon is an even more important celebration—her spiritual birthday. This is the day that she accepted Christ as her Savior and committed to living for him. As we remember our new birth in Jesus, we’re reminded of...

The longer you share life with your spouse, the more you can struggle with frustrations and disappointments that chip away at your love. Through the years, we’ve heard from many couples who sincerely love one another but struggle to like each other or feel satisfied in their marriage anymore. Every couple goes through seasons of feeling hurt or let down. They begin to pull apart. Joy fades. They l...

Three and a half years ago, we stepped into a whole new world with the birth of our first grandchild. Everyone told us that this new chapter would be full of joy, laughter, and love for this tiny person. And they weren’t wrong! Still, we had no idea just how amazing grandparenting would be, and soon we were dropping everything for the chance to see him and make memories together. Today, we are the...

One of the hardest moments I (Joanna) can remember as a mom is when our six-year-old daughter refused, to the point of tears, to wear her blue pants with a butterfly on the pocket. Thinking she was just being stubborn, I refused to back down—and it wasn’t until two hours later that I finally gave up on trying to convince her. Well, a few months later, I learned that our daughter has a significant...

Do you have a dog who panics on a trip to the vet or groomer? It can be quite an ordeal! It’s something we experienced recently with our Bernedoodle, Jovy, on grooming day. While the perceived threat wasn’t real, her reaction to it could have put her (and Joanna!) in real danger. We can sometimes react just like Jovy as we interact with our spouse. Something that seems simple on the surface can tr...

On this podcast, we usually sit down with guests to talk about marriage and family life. But in this episode, we wanted to get personal and share a piece of our own story—specifically, how depression has impacted our marriage. We have been married for over 30 years and have five children together, but what we didn’t know until the birth of our third child is that one in seven women experience post...

For parents, March can often feel like the last calm before the storm. Once April arrives, family calendars are inevitably flooded with school exams, spring sports, band concerts and dance recitals, and a whirlwind of other end-of-school-year obligations. Even if our days are full of good things, this hectic time of the year can make us feel tired, stressed, and disconnected from God and one anoth...