Reframing Me - Self-Development & Parenting Teens for Midlife Moms

Send us Fan Mail Thank you for being here with me! Yesterday's quick check in made me feel so good that I found myself thinking of y'all again this morning. Today, when I asked myself what I want to bring into the day, I was primed by the upcoming Olympics and following Lindsay Vonn and her injury, and I immediately thought of resilience and perseverance and where I fall in that intricat...

Send us Fan Mail I'm so happy you're here. This isn't our weekly episode - it's me just reaching out - a touchstone, if you will - to remind you that even though things are crazy and you may feel frustrated or sad or angry or emotional - you're not alone! We need a sense of community now more than ever. And I'm here to remind you that I am here - we are here - and som...

Send us Fan Mail Thank you so much for being here! This episode reflects on how my understanding of confidence has changed over time. What once felt tied to performance, comparison, and getting things “right” now feels quieter and more stable, rooted in self-trust rather than validation. I talk about the difference between arrogance and confidence, why confident people used to bother me, and how c...

Send us Fan Mail Senioritis, often dismissed as a mere case of laziness in high school seniors, is a complex phenomenon affecting both students and those around them. With symptoms ranging from lack of motivation to irritability, senioritis can disrupt households during the final months of high school. As college decisions loom and the future feels uncertain, seniors may struggle with feelings of...

Send us Fan Mail Thank you for being here today! Topping my list of "50 things that would have made my life a lot easier if I had known sooner:" Only you need to see your potential. Only you need to understand. Only you need to believe it’s possible. Your opinion is literally the only one that matters. You need to be your own cheerleader. Grieving the life you thought you'd have see...

Send us Fan Mail We are complex enough beings to experience multiple emotions at once, and as parents of teens - and oftentimes, also caregiving for aging parents - two of those emotions that we're constantly balancing are gratitude and grief. Gratitude and grief coexist because parents are holding two timelines at once: the past version of the relationship that worked, and the future version...

Send us Fan Mail Thank you so much for being here! What does it look like for you to reclaim a sense of control in your life? This Jen is Zen episode explores what it truly means to reclaim a sense of control when life feels overwhelming. Rather than focusing on fixing everything or forcing positivity, the episode reframes control as creating steadiness and orientation in the midst of uncertainty....

Send us Fan Mail Right now, many of us are being asked to function normally while living through ongoing instability, fear, and institutional breakdown, and that disconnect is exhausting. If you’re struggling to focus, feeling emotionally overwhelmed or numb, pulling back socially, or finding yourself more irritable or fatigued than usual, this isn’t a personal failure. It’s a nervous system respo...

Send us Fan Mail  Thank you so much for being here! The only two people whose opinions should matter are the 9-year-old version of you and the 90-year-old version of you. In this first Jen is Zen episode of 2026 - my 50th birthday year! - I reflect on aging, identity, and why I look and feel better now than I did four years ago despite cultural narratives that tell us midlife should look like decl...

Send us Fan Mail Happy Holidays! Merry Twixtmas! Happy 2026! I am so grateful to have you here! In this New Year’s episode of Reframing Me , I reflect on Twixtmas - that quiet, in-between week where time has no meaning and our perspective widens. My family’s New Year’s traditions have evolved, making me really think about what it means to grow alongside our children, to grieve what was while embra...

Send us Fan Mail Thank you for being here!  This episode is an honest reflection on feeling deeply connected yet quietly alone – a place many women find themselves in during midlife and parenting the teen years. Moving between lived experience, parenting observations, and relational insight, the episode explores the surprising parallel between teen loneliness and adult invisibility in a hyper-conn...

Send us Fan Mail Thank you so much for being here! Today, I'd like you to think about this: You can begin again anytime. Not next week. Not next semester. Not when life “calms down” because we all know that’s never. Not when the kids launch or when the holidays end or when the stars realign. Just… begin again. What if beginning again is simply the next breath you take? The next thought you ch...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to the show! I’m so grateful you’re here! And I’m so happy to have my voice back to normal after an icky cold that I may have rambled a bit more than usual – hahaha! But today, we’re talking about something many families do without ever naming itn - recreational arguing. You know the dynamic: nothing is actually wrong, but yet somehow you’re in a debate about tone, or...

Send us Fan Mail What if it wasn’t you after all? What if that rejection was a redirection to something better or to where you are supposed to be? Thank you so much for being here! In today’s Jen is Zen, I’m inviting you to look at rejection through a completely different lens. What if the “no” you got wasn’t about you at all? What if it wasn’t a failure or a flaw or proof that you’re not enough, ...

Send us Fan Mail In this Thanksgiving episode, I am extra thankful for you being here! Many moms (including me!) are anxious to have their college students home for the holiday, but that doesn't mean it won't be without its possible challenges. We'll have a conversation exploring the joys and challenges of welcoming college freshmen back home for the holidays. As our families reconn...

Send us Fan Mail Thank you so much for being here!  You can create your own magic.  You can create your own future.  You do not have to be chosen.  You do not have to wait to be chosen.  You are the creator of your own life. There's a moment that so many midlife moms quietly fear: the one where they sense that their purpose is fading just as their children’s lives are expanding. Being caregiv...

Send us Fan Mail It's the home stretch for my years as a "Football Mom," and I am feeling the feels. When your kids are involved in an activity that becomes consuming of your time, energy, and money, and when we find ourselves on the sideline or in the stands or seats watching day after day, week after week, year after year, there comes a point when it all ends. For many, senior yea...

Send us Fan Mail  This month, the focus will be on gratitude. To show my gratitude to all of you, I've unlocked this November meditation, so you can have a peek inside, and because gratitude is something that you must have before you can receive. It’s not simply something you feel after something good happens. So today we’re going to cultivate that feeling of gratitude for what we do have so...

Send us Fan Mail What does it really take to build openness, honesty, and trust with our kids as they grow into teens? It's not by becoming the "cool mom" and loosening all boundaries, but it is by evolving right alongside them. As kids grow up, parent–child relationships shift from vertical to horizontal -from top-down authority to side-by-side connection - and this change asks us...

Send us Fan Mail In this bonus episode, we continue our weekly series, reading and discussing excerpts from my new book, Reframe the Moment. It's super fun and appropriate because each essay grew out of a Jen is Zen episode, so why not bring it full circle. Today we talk about Chapter 8 - Our Discontent.  Our discontent often comes from our desire to control the situation and to predict the o...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to the show! I hope you enjoy this episode - it's not a typical episode; instead, it's more of a guided walk-through of the ReFRAME process , a six-phase model for personal and identity transformation. Do you feel like you're not quite sure who you're becoming, but you know you're not who you were? Identity discovery is a fluid, ongoing practi...

Send us Fan Mail In this bonus episode, we continue our weekly series, reading and discussing excerpts from my new book,  Reframe the Moment.  It's super fun and appropriate because each essay grew out of a Jen is Zen episode, so why not bring it full circle. Today we talk about Chapter 6 - Feeling the Feels. We waste so much energy avoiding uncomfortable emotions. Whether it’s sadness, worry...

Send us Fan Mail I hope you enjoy this episode! Teen friendships can be beautiful -and brutal. This episode explores why some kids become “mean girls,” how exclusion and gossip take root, and what’s really happening beneath the surface. Drawing from Relational Aggression and Social Identity Theory , it explains how insecurity, power dynamics, and the need to belong shape behavior in middle and hig...

Send us Fan Mail In this bonus episode, we continue our weekly series, reading and discussing excerpts from my new book, Reframe the Moment. It's super fun and appropriate because each essay grew out of a Jen is Zen episode, so why not bring it full circle. Today we talk about Chapter 5 - The In Between. This episode feels a little different — more like a page from my journal than a polished...

Send us Fan Mail In this bonus episode, we continue our weekly series, reading and discussing excerpts from my new book,  Reframe the Moment.  It's super fun and appropriate because each essay grew out of a Jen is Zen episode, so why not bring it full circle. Today we talk about Chapter 4 - Underneath the Emotions. It's ok to feel all of the feels, but we just can't live there. We a...