Simple on Purpose | Intentional Living and Parenting

I was asked to share some of our experience with kids doing chores.  I think it is a great subject because a lot of us want to raise kids who know the discipline and skill of chores, but we don’t want it to be this big huge fight that ends up creating a tense and stressful situation for us and our kids.  In this episode, I’m sharing our strategies, tips and mindset for how we...

Raise your hand if you think dishes are dumb. And maybe you’ve googled ‘disposable clothing for kids’ in a desperate hope you could avoid the constant laundry. I know that there are women out there who are rocking chores, and there are women who aren’t’, and there are a lot of us between.  We know that a clean house makes us FEEL peaceful and happy. But we also k...

What would make your life better right now?  It is a wonderful thing to long for change, we can listen closely to that part of us that sees room to explore another way, maybe a better way.  We all have change in our lives – some of it is a change we don’t want, some change we do want, some changes we want but we don’t know how to accomplish.  Our relationship to ch...

We have all been taking stock of what isolation life looks like in comparison on how our life used to look. Sometimes this experience can be painful and disempower us as we move through these days of staying at home.  Going through a lot of things we ‘don’t want to’ can really highlight the things that we DO want and crave.  This episode is part two about the things I&#...

I’ve been hearing this sentiment a lot lately: when we all get back to normal, decide what you want your ‘normal’ to be.  Even if you are someone who pays attention to your life and tries to make it intentional and simple, this time in isolation has changed our routines and patterns enough that we are able to learn new things about how we had been showing up for our lives.&#...

What day is it anymore? We don’t know. But we know we are hungry…..probably…I’m pretty sure. Or bored. Maybe. What day is it again? Imagine this conversation being had by every person in your home. Cause our brain is melting a little bit without some sort of schedule and agenda.  Rather than stay in this fog of wiping chip crumbs off our devices and smelling which swea...

I’ve had requests to talk about resilience and endurance during this time where moms are home with their kids in isolation.  ENDURANCE Endurance is responding to stress for a duration of time. We can endure a certain amount of stress but eventually we burn out.  RESILIENCE Then we turn to resilience: the ability to bounce back from stress. I think this is the place a lot of us moms...

Stepping back to look at your anxiety from a life coaching point of view and tools to help you accept and work through it. Advice from a life coach and mom of three.   What is anxiety? What causes it? The way we react to it, and how it makes the struggle even harder How can we react to it instead: acknowledge it is there  accept that it is with you, without running off with it calm the n...

Think back on this past week, what kind of memories do you have from your motherhood experience? I recently listened to Meik Wiking talk about the Art of Making Memories and it got me thinking about how we treat our memories and how they can impact our motherhood experience in positive or negative ways.    Full transcript at the bottom of this post.  RELATED LINKS Read this episode...

A look at the before and after of how minimalism changed my marriage, my homemaking and my life.  In the last episode (#51) I shared specifically how minimalism changed my motherhood.    IN THIS EPISODE How minimalism has changed my marriage: respect + responsibility, shared vision for our home, being at home How minimalism has changed my homemaking : more manageable, better ‘...

What is different in my mothering since I have decluttered my home.  A reader (Hi Melissa!) asked me to share on this topic. In this episode I’ll share FOUR WAYS minimalism has changed my motherhood.  (In the next one I’ll share how it has changed my marriage, homemaking and life).    IN THIS EPISODE Weird things I am googling : fancy coffees, hot 90s country, celeb...

This is a super FUN episode!  I asked the FB group and Instagram friends for the topics they want to hear me talk about on the 50th episode. I have a couple of great topics I’ll be sharing on today.  The first, and major one, is the topic of things I have done as a mom that I never expected to do. I think we all have those ‘WHAT IS MY ACTUAL LIFE??? moments’ as moms whe...

Change will always be part of our lives. Whether we want it, don’t want, know what to do with it, or how to make the next step – we are always faced with change in and around us.  So how can we move from feeling like a victim, or stuck, or confused – to being proactive with how we show up and handle change in our lives? The growth mindset is something that can really impact...

How to be brave with your life when you a mom who sometimes goes a whole day before realizing your shirt is on inside out.  Welcome to the Simple Saturdays Podcast. I’m Shawna, mom of three living in small-town Canada. I have been blogging for about seven years on my journey to simplify my home and life – and to live my life on purpose.  I have been writing about the journey and li...

Want to live life with more purpose? 5 years ago we stumbled upon our first ‘life on purpose’ conversation and since then we spend time each New Year to talk about how the year went and what we want in the year to come.   I asked Conor if we could have some of this conversation in front of the microphone and share it on the podcast. . . .    Things we covered on thi...

Do you long to be more present, more mindful, more intentional in your life? A major step in this is listening to your life, to your heart and to others in your life. This is the third part of the SHOW UP FOR YOUR LIFE SERIES Step one: Pay attention Step two: Listen closer Step three: Be brave Today we are talking about: what it means to LISTEN to your life, to those around you, to your heart how...

Dear mama, do you feel like you are on autopilot, overwhelmed, and losing passion for your life? How would it change things if you decided to SHOW UP FOR YOUR LIFE? You know, the life you DO have.  I want to give you some guidance and strategies to help you do this.  This is PART TWO to the Show Up For Your Life Series.  In the first part , we talked about what it means to show up f...

From one mom to another, showing up for our life is the hard work of being present, proactive and purposeful.  I’m sharing my journey in showing up for my own life and giving you steps and insights to use that will help you SHOW UP FOR YOUR LIFE.  Read the full post here on Showing Up For Your Life   What does it mean to show up for your life? It means being responsible It mea...

Do you want to simplify your Christmas?  We’re talking about strategies to both simplify Christmas and make it a special season for you and your family. This is part two of a two-part episode on this topic. Missed part one? Listen to Simplify Christmas (gifts, decor, mindsets). Episode 42 Simplify Your Christmas (kids, clutter, traditions, hosting, festivities) Kids We feel this tension...

What issues do you have when you attempt to simplify Christmas? I asked this question in the Facebook group and on Instagram and was sent so many thoughtful questions—which tells me that I have the best readers, women who can feel the changes they want to make and see it right there and will take steps to get there! This is part one of a two-part episode addressing these issues. Simplify Your Chri...

Overwhelm in motherhood is often part of the role. There is so much to keep track of, manage, plan for, do.  When we feel overwhelmed we often think we are doing something wrong, or we need to try harder, or our life is just too hard.  Often the overwhelm causes us to stress and act from this stress response which gives us a negative outcome in our lives and homes.  But overwhelm is...

In this episode we’re talking about the ‘not-enough’ mindset. AKA how to spot a scarcity mindset and shift it to an abundance mindset. The ‘not-enough’ mindset believes there is not enough to go around Not enough… Money Time Food Energy Attention Readers Friends Spotlight Praise Etcetera ‘Not-enough’ mindset says if they have some, there must be less...

Hygge is a Danish word describing the atmosphere of connection, contentment and coziness.  Once I had decluttered my house, I felt really drawn to bringing hygge into my home and life.  In reading about it, I learned that there are some differences between hygge and minimalism. Knowing the difference helps me see where I am directing my intentions on how I set up my space and life. ...

Today on the podcast we’re talking about visualization (it’s really wild) and three mindset shifts to help you declutter your home. I’m also giving you a sneak peek of my upcoming masterclass! Simple Life Visualization. The practice of sitting there, thinking about what you want, imagining how it feels and smells and looks, getting very detailed, running yourself through the spac...

Do you tell yourself that you suck at organizing? And you will never get organized? Being mindful of the story we tell about ourselves of the story we tell ourselves about how we suck at organizing – and being mindful of the mistakes we might be making that trip us up.  I have decluttered my home and worked on finding systems, routines and ways to organize our home that doesn’t re...