The school year is here and it is time to get in that mode. I feel like today’s episode is a pep talk for us mamas who are getting ready to start the school year and we want to start it strong. This episode is called “School Prep and Play” because we are going to be talking about how to prepare well for the school year and also how to play more this school year.

Abraham Lincoln said,

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.”

Well, I had this thought: What if we took that quote and applied it to motherhood? I thought of a few examples, but not many. But man, when I took it to Instagram and my email list, you guys delivered! I have a whole list of ways that this quote can apply to motherhood and you are in for a treat. Get ready to make your life a whole lot more practical and easier in this last “May is for Mamas” episode.

I don’t know if you’re like me in this way, but I love to sit around and picture the time that I am a grandmother. It’s something about the legacy that we are leaving right now, in the thick of motherhood and keeping the vision of me as a grandmother. It just keeps me going. Today, I am going to share a little secret. I have a note on my phone (in the Notes app) that I have been writing down all of the things that I don’t want to forget when I’m a grandma. Notes to myself, advice to myself that I will never forget and will hopefully be the grandma that I want to be someday. Today, I am going to share everything that I’ve written down in that little Notes app with you.

Well, it is back to school for the Ray family this week. I know everybody starts school at different times, but for us, school starts back this week. I’m so excited. And with school comes a lot of different ideas about new rhythms and routines that we wanna implement as a family. I personally get really excited about it, but one thing that God has been putting on my heart over and over again this year is implementing rhythms of faith to go alongside our rhythms of school and that is what today’s episode is all about.

I'm back with another May is for Mama's episode, and today I'm releasing one of my Patreon-only episodes into the world. This episode was published to my Patreon community last year, and it's the first time I've ever done this, but I love this precious woman so much, and I loved what she had to say so much that I knew eventually I had to share it with everyone.

Elizabeth Ray, who we affectionately call Grammy in our home, is my husband's mom, so she is my mother-in-law and she is one of my favorite people on this earth. Now, it's not lost on me that I am calling my mother-in-law one of my favorite people. I realize this is very rare and it is truly the greatest gift. Now, she always told me that she had the privilege of having an incredible mother-in-law herself who modeled that to her and now I am receiving that gift because she's now passing it down to me and I'm learning what that looks like.

I'm learning it because I'm watching it in action and I love that we have such a good, healthy relationship. But let me just say, whether you have a great relationship with your mother-in-law, a mediocre one, or maybe even a terribly painful one, I know you'll be encouraged today as Grammy simply shares about what she's learned from her mother-in-law—the power of words. And we can all take notes and decide now the kind of mother-in-law that we want to be one day.

I am so excited about the guest that I have today on the podcast because I kept thinking “If I could choose someone who would deliver a lot of value to my listeners who are mamas this month of May, who would it be?” And I kept thinking about Megan Michelson.

Megan is the co-creator and co-host of Birds & Bees, an online course with an amazing woman named Mary Flo Ridley. The two of them teach about sex and how to talk to your kids about sex in a healthy way. Let me just say—it is such a fabulous resource. Will and I have watched the course, we have taken so many notes, and I have even watched it a second time. It is such a great resource that I thought “You know, if I could have her on the podcast to share this information with you guys, it would be a game changer.” Megan has three kids of her own, is married, and lives in Dallas, Texas, and she is just a wonderful human being. I am very grateful to their generosity to you and I hope you enjoy!

I'm back with another May is for Mama's episode, and today I'm releasing one of my Patreon-only episodes into the world. This episode was published to my Patreon community last year, and it's the first time I've ever done this, but I love this precious woman so much, and I loved what she had to say so much that I knew eventually I had to share it with everyone.

Elizabeth Ray, who we affectionately call Grammy in our home, is my husband's mom, so she is my mother-in-law and she is one of my favorite people on this earth. Now, it's not lost on me that I am calling my mother-in-law one of my favorite people. I realize this is very rare and it is truly the greatest gift. Now, she always told me that she had the privilege of having an incredible mother-in-law herself who modeled that to her and now I am receiving that gift because she's now passing it down to me and I'm learning what that looks like.

I'm learning it because I'm watching it in action and I love that we have such a good, healthy relationship. But let me just say, whether you have a great relationship with your mother-in-law, a mediocre one, or maybe even a terribly painful one, I know you'll be encouraged today as Grammy simply shares about what she's learned from her mother-in-law—the power of words. And we can all take notes and decide now the kind of mother-in-law that we want to be one day.

Welcome to another episode of May is for Mamas, and this is Mother's Day Week! We are approaching Mother's Day and I had the thought, I want to create a podcast episode that is a gift to any mom who is listening. And oftentimes for Mother's Day, we wanna get a massage or we wanna get away, or we want a new bag, or we wanna be served breakfast in bed. And all of these things are good and of of course, of course we want most of all those homemade cards from our kids that is the best. And just the acknowledgement of all the work and love that we pour into our families and all of that is so good and right and wonderful to want and receive those things.

But sometimes, sometimes more than anything, I just want some words of life spoken over me. I need a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit to empower my steps. I want to to hear scripture and words that can speak to me in the dark moments that hold me together when I feel like I'm falling apart. The words that give me patience when I lose my temper, the words that give me wisdom when I need it most.

And so today I am gonna be sharing my favorite scripture verses for mamas. And of course there are endless scriptures that I could share. There are so many more that I could pull from, but these are some of my personal favorites that I just want to read over you and share with you today.

Welcome to May is for Mamas, where I dedicate every episode in the month of May to the Mamas listening. We are kicking it off with a beautiful, encouraging conversation with Ashlee Gadd on why it's so important to keep creating in the margins of motherhood. Ashlee is the author of Create Anyway, which is a beautiful book. It just came out and I could not get my hands on it fast enough.

Y'all. It's so good. Listen, Ashlee is a wife, a mom of three, a follower of Jesus, a writer, a photographer, and she founded Coffee and Crumbs, which is a beautiful online space that brings mothers together through storytelling. Ashlee is just the kind of person who has a beautiful heart, and I'm so grateful I got to spend time with her today.

Also, side note, Coffee and Crumbs has a podcast and it's one of the very few podcasts I actually listen to regularly, and what a gift it was to just to get to know Ashlee, to get to know her heart. I know you're gonna love our conversation on creating in motherhood.

Today I'm sharing our philosophy on educating our kids why we chose the University Model route, and a little peak into what a typical day in the life looks like for us on one of those homeschool days.

Welcome to the summer episode where I'm doing something I've never done before—having a little fun with this episode and I'll be sharing everything that reminds me of summer, including some great recommendations. I hope this episode makes you really happy!

Today, we have the privilege of hearing from my friend and mama mentor, Renee Swope, who is a wife and a mama of three and an author and speaker. She's so wise and I love that she is ahead of me in the motherhood journey, she has so much to offer.

Today, I am continuing my conversation with my dear friend, Shay Cochrane. She's a wife, a momma of two girls. We tackle all kinds of topics and I just couldn't leave anything out so I decided to split it up into two episodes. I hope you enjoy the rest of our conversation.

Welcome to May is for Mamas, where every episode in the month of May is dedicated to all the mamas out there with topics and conversations specifically for you. Today, I'm chatting with my friend Shay Cochrane, who is a wife and an entrepreneur, and a mama of two daughters. She owns Social Squares, which supplies elevated stock images and digital marketing education for female owned online brands.

Her vision as a creator is to enable more women to find greater success, sharing their ideas and businesses with the world, and she does all that and just 16 hours a week. I love how she models her life and her parenting and I have loved this conversation with her today.

We jumped into some hard stuff like, what it looks like to raise daughters in 2022—body image, style, confidence, work ethic, technology, teaching your kids about money. You are going to leave this conversation with some really practical parenting conversations and decisions, as well as some solid encouragement to keep up the good hard work we are doing as mamas.

Today's episode for May is for Mamas is all about using a timer in motherhood. This is going to be fun.

This is the first episode of May is for Mamas, which is one of my favorite things I do on the podcast every May. This first episode is all about speaking scripture over your children and how powerful that can be for your kids and for you.

There's something about meeting regularly as a family that brings you together. You can talk about the calendar and your schedules and your plans, but emotionally you can connect and you can share things you're looking forward to or problems that you're having. Today, I'm going to share with you the simple outline that we follow for our family meeting and I hope it's helpful to you.

Having four small children six and under simply means that over the last six years there has been a lot of sickness in our house. And while there's really no right or wrong way to be sick, because you're just sick. I have learned a few ways to cope with sickness, ways to cling to Jesus, ways to pray over your children during sickness, ways to perhaps make sickness a little less miserable and that's what I'm going to share with you today.

Now, today I'm going to be talking about The Self-Driven Child, which is a book that's going to stay with me throughout the rest of my parenting journey.