"People love change. They just hate transition." I heard Matthew Kelly teach that years ago and I think about it every single August. Because right now I'm getting a hundred emails from the school, two of my boys walked out today in socks with giant holes in the heels, and there's a lunchbox in this house that will not zip.

If your body is fritzing out over start dates and supply lists and shoe sizes, nothing has gone wrong. You're not in the change yet. You're in the transition, and I want to give you the exact words to say to your own brain while you're standing in the middle of it. Plus a summer update: our little red golden retriever, the sickness that took my husband down, walking in 87 degrees on purpose, 200 Fulton Sheen rosaries, and the press-on nails I just ordered off an internet ad.

WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE:

• Why change and transition are two different things, and why the yucky feeling belongs to the transition and not to your decision
• What to tell your brain when it starts second-guessing (the feeling is bad, so the choice must be wrong) and why that's backwards
• Who you are in a transition is not who you're going to be, whether that's back-to-school or pregnancy or a move you didn't choose
• The two weeks plus two weeks rhythm I use: get ready, live it, evaluate at the end of the day, tweak, then settle into the change
• Giving equal air time, because your brain will spend all day on what could go wrong and about nine seconds on what you're excited about
• The folder-and-calendar hack that keeps the school email avalanche from hanging over you every hour of the day
• Looking for what was good in a hard season, even when the good thing is just the timing of it

EPISODE TIMELINE:

• [00:00] – Mid-August, the nesting itch, and going from wild open summer to ordered fall
• [05:00] – Annie Avonlea, a sickness that hit everyone one at a time, and what was actually good about it
• [10:00] – Walking in the heat on purpose, France prep, and giving equal air time to the excitement
• [15:00] – Making Fulton Sheen rosaries, why moms need work that gets finished, and yes, the press-on nails
• [20:00] – "People love change. They just hate transition." The emails, the socks, the lunchbox that won't zip
• [25:00] – Talking to your brain in the transition, and the four weeks it actually takes to settle
• [30:00] – The email folder hack, and having peace today in the middle of all of it

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED:

• Join the Catholic Mom Reset: www.catholicmomcalm.com/reset
• Calm Catholic Kids: https://calmcatholickids.com
• Fulton Sheen beatification conference: https://fultonsheenconference.com/

CONNECT WITH STERLING JAQUITH ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/catholicmomcalm