Our Organize 365® Dream Team has experienced way more than its fair share of unexpected events this year. Like...A LOT. Nearly every single one of them has dealt with or is dealing with really big life events. I asked a few of them who were willing to share about those unexpected events and how they navigated them.

For episode #5 in this podcast series, it's Virginia's turn! However, this isn't her first time on the Organize 365® Podcast. Virginia lives in Florida with her husband and two boys, and she was with me in Missouri for the Great Homeschool Convention back in March when she realized that being a traveling mom was no longer working for her and her family. She used to travel a lot after she had her first baby, but was living in Maryland at the time and had a lot of family around to support her.

Additionally, the complexity of having so many parents contributed to her not being able to travel any longer. Both her and her husband are products of divorce, and each of their parents are remarried. She also has 2 aunts that consider her to be "their child" (her dad was the only one of his siblings who had children) - so that's a lot of older adults in her life! 

So naturally, Virginia used this opportunity to talk to her parents, step parents and her husband's parents about the Financial and Medical binders that Organize 365® offers. She made it all about her as she said, and showed them how she was organized and then casually asked "How do I do this for you if I need to?" It's not an easy conversation to have, and we know our parents don't want to leave us with any burdens after they're gone...but how do you get people in their 60's and 70's to do their homework so that we can take care of them in their 80's and 90's? 

Living as a powerful, controlled, organized person doesn't happen by accident. It takes proactive anticipation and purposeful planning. Virginia says you have to build in some slack for yourself, that way when someone (or something) pulls on that proverbial leash - you can't feel it and it doesn't hurt! We need to realize that unexpected events are actually expected, you just never know when they are going to come. 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Paper Solution® Medical Binder
• The Paper Solution® Financial Binder
• The Productive Home Solution®
• Home Planning Day (must be a member of The Productive Home Solution® to purchase)
• Sign up for our Newsletter

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU learn the skill of organization, too!

In this episode, I introduce you to Laura M. who is a mom and wife living in Kansas. Once Lisa learned she was also an academic researcher, she wanted to go offline and geek out about research and all the things. Lisa refrained and they continued on about how Laura found Organize 365® in the weeks of homeschooling due to the pandemic while also carrying on with her full time job. She bought the Sunday Basket® and it sat. When she knew the program would no longer include the kids program, she felt urgency to take advantage of The Productive Home Solution® while it still included the kids program. She did her first Planning Day in December of 2021. 

Laura loves the mental capacity she now has. She has since started and uses the Sunday Basket® regularly. Laura then started to think about her work days and how meetings were really hanging her up. She wanted to find a way to not be working deadline to deadline and micromanaging her team. Cue the Meeting Mastermind. She now has an effective way to communicate with her team and meetings are more efficient. She has more capacity and more bandwidth. Our capacities can shift from hour to hour depending on what we have to deal with. Because she is focusing on the right things that day, she has more capacity and it gives her relief that she only has to do those tasks and not worry about things that are earmarked for a different day. She knows it will all get done. 

Laura and Lisa really took a deep dive in the structure of what Organize 365® is building. Laura taught Lisa that Organize 365® is essentially collecting community participatory research!  You all are participating - so thank you! They both agreed that in the long run it is for the benefit of the community, and lives will be transformed as a result of the research and surveys that are being done now. They dissected what generalizations have been made about housework and how they both desire inclusive language. However, little side joke, that academia doesn’t really appreciate corporate speak and vice versa! And with inclusivity, Lisa would love to find a way to help all with their organization and housework; she’s thinking about what that will look like. Organize 365® is really striving to provide an operational definition of housework. There must be no assumptions made like a master bedroom, home owner, or man vs. woman's work (worn out conversation but not the solution!)

Laura’s advice is, “Just get started at whatever pace you can.” She pointed out even if you are just thinking about it, it’s on your radar, and you will start to take baby steps towards your organizational goals. If you miss a lesson in The Productive Home Solution®, no problem. Start on the lesson of the day in the course. The reality is that the lesson will come back around. If you have extra time you can go back. Lisa added they are all loops. Each lesson is designed for you to start and complete it, leaving the space better - not perfect. But if you never get back to it - no harm - no residual mess.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day

• Meeting Mastermind

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter 

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365® community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Our Organize 365® Dream Team has experienced way more than its fair share of unexpected events this year. Like...A LOT. Nearly every single one of them has dealt with or is dealing with really big life events. I asked a few of them who were willing to share about those unexpected events and how they navigated them.

Today's episode with Tanya talks about how she stepped up to the challenge of traveling to the Homeschool Convention and Paper Organizing Retreat in Greenville, SC without hesitation. During this recording, I found out about some other things that took place in her personal life right around this time - I had no idea!

Tanya made the move to Florida in January 2023 to combine households with her in-laws. We discussed this multigenerational living in a previous episode (check that out here). The timing of this move was incredible, because by the time they were all settling in and her mother-in-law started visiting new doctors and establishing relationships with them, they discovered that she needed to have a heart catheter and surgeries quickly followed.

Let's rewind back to March for a second - we decided not to do the booth at the convention, but we still had to make sure the Paper Organizing Retreat went off without a hitch. Tanya was all in, but then something happened right before she was scheduled to fly to South Carolina. On Tuesday night of that week, her son fell during football practice and hurt his arm. The next day they decided to take him to the ER because he was still in pain. Tanya felt guilty she wasn't the one to take him, but her husband was able to since his schedule was more flexible. Turns out he had a broken arm! Tanya reluctantly flew out the next day to join me in Greenville, but knew her son was fine and would be taken care of.

As an owner and manager, I find it important to spend as much time as possible in person with my remote staff to problem solve. This worked out great for Tanya and I on this trip. We spent as much time together as we could to discuss how we were going to handle our company finances, move our website, and which of our existing programs were going to work on WordPress without breaking!

During the rapid changes with her work role, she was still dealing with the medical situation with her mother-in-law at home. Her in-laws helped a lot with the kids, so logistics changed for a while with school drop offs and pickups. They had no other family in the area, and hadn't made any new friends yet since moving to Florida. Her husband had also just started a new job about a month before, but thankfully his schedule was flexible. Tanya and her husband were doing what was most necessary to keep their heads above water and focusing on the day-to-day essential tasks. She knew she could leave the rest because when she was ready, it would still be there to deal with.

I asked what would've helped at the time if anyone could have or would have offered - and she said three things: food, a clean house, and childcare. She also brought up pet care, because her in-laws have a cat. Sometimes you forget how much work pets can be; they definitely are an added chore on top of all the other things!

So if you've been paying attention and wondering why all the sudden the Paper Organizing Retreats are only being hosted in Cincinnati at our headquarters - now you get it! If you aren't able to come to Cincinnati, please visit our Certified Organizer Directory on the website to find a virtual or in person retreat near you!

Next week we'll hear about Virginia's unexpected event. Stay tuned for series episode #5!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Friday Workbox®

• Certified Organizer Directory

• Cincinnati Paper Organizing Retreat

• Sign up for our Newsletter

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU learn the skill of organization, too!

In this episode, I introduce you to Chelle D. Listen in as we discuss change, how to plan for it, and the shift in mindset Chelle has experienced since doing The Productive Home Solution®. So way way back in 2019 when times were different, Chelle found Organize 365® listening to a different podcast. She then realized she was already a fan when she saw she’d pinned some things in Pinterest. And of course, she had the ebook. What really caught Chelle’s attention was that I had a solution for paper.  

Chelle and her husband were both previously nurses and now are real estate agents. She’s been married for 32 years and recently completed her 14th move - that’s what you do when you are in the military. Through all those moves, it’s the paper she has not been able to get under control. Chelle started with 4 boxes that reflected the binders. She shared a few stories where she was able to get whatever she needed without extra stress. She had the paperwork she needed and could readily provide answers. We really dug into the Medical and Financial Binders for her personal life and how they can help her potential home sellers. Having medical knowledge is power, she pointed out. It gives you the power to communicate without a power struggle, to collaborate with healthcare providers, and to get to answers sooner. Also for your own annual visits, you can show up prepared and get your burning questions answered. 

“I could use a caddy like that” Chelle’s husband said to her. This is where functional organization comes into play. Functional organization can be complemented with Pinterest, but it’s the functionality that provides the routines and systems to keep you moving through your day. Chelle knows once she’s completed that caddy, she’s ready for the next part of her day and it all goes away neatly and ready for tomorrow. Chelle started The Productive Home Solution® before this last move. She has been able to transfer those skills she learned to the new house for functionality. Functionality is what provides the extra time. Now she’s got the extra time and knows how to plan chunks of time in advance. So when the camp put out the S.O.S. that they needed more ice cream sandwiches, Chelle had the peace of mind to be able to help! It’s not about being perfect, just being better. She has let go of her perfectionist mindset and now just plans as best as she can.

 If you find yourself in the season of life of selling your home, Chelle offered advice on how to achieve a smoother sale by:

• Decluttering - We can help with that (we agree it’s safe to start before the selling process)
• De-personalizing - Your home becomes a commodity for others when selling
• Paint! - Help all the realtors out there and document the paint color in your Household Reference Binder. The #1 question realtors get: “What paint color is that?”

Chelle’s advice is, “Take the time to plan.”  She’s been using Organize 365® in combination with “The One Thing” process to do this.  It doesn’t change the fact that change will come your way, it just changes how you show up for that change. 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®
• Friday Workbox®
• The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day
• The Paper Solution®
• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter 

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365® community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Our Organize 365® Dream Team has experienced way more than its fair share of unexpected events this year. Like...A LOT. Nearly every single one of them has dealt with or is dealing with really big life events. I asked a few of them who were willing to share about those unexpected events and how they navigated them.

Today's podcast features Stefanie and her daughters Haleigh and Hannah. It was definitely a family affair on this episode! Stefanie lives in a multigenerational house - consisting of herself, her husband Adam, Betty (the dog), their daughter Haleigh and husband Kaleb - and their 6 children!

Haleigh and Kaleb have been married 11 years and met at ministry school in South Carolina. They have 4 biological and 2 adopted children - their names are Manchan, Parris, Olivia (Liv), Frances (Fran), Charlotte (Lottie), Isaac (Ike). Kaleb is the Lead Pastor at their church (Christian Renewal - Hilton Head and Bluffton, SC) and Haleigh is the creator of the Foster Care Ministry, Free Homeschool Co-op and Kids Ministry at the church. They are also foster parents and Haleigh is on the Foster Parent Advisory Council for the state of South Carolina.

Hannah and Sean have been married 7 years and also met at the same ministry school! They were missionaries for 5 years and served in China, Ecuador and Costa Rica. A few years ago, Hannah started experiencing some health and infertility issues, so they decided to move back to the states to focus on her health. She's the Children's Director at the Bluffton campus of Christian Renewal Church and her husband also works for the church as their Media Director.

Late 2022, after receiving their fostering license, Hannah and Sean found out they were expecting. What a surprise and what a miracle.

Back in March, Stefanie was gearing up to travel for a few Organize 365 events. She says it seems as if every time she travels, something happens - someone in the family gets sick, her daughter has a new foster placement, or someone needs her more than usual. Stefanie was enjoying a Wednesday off with her youngest grandchild (Ike) when she got a call from Hannah. She was having serious back pains, but was only about 5 months along in her pregnancy. Hannah is a self-proclaimed “worrier” - so she called the doctor and went to get checked out. When she arrived at the hospital, she was 3cm dilated. They immediately called an ambulance and had her transported to Charleston to the closest hospital with a NICU.

Gabe was born at 26 weeks 6 days, and weighed 2 pounds 11 ounces. The first 20 minutes of his life he was unresponsive and was getting no oxygen to his brain. The doctors told them they would have a very long road ahead of them, and at first weren't sure if he was going to survive. They only got to see him for a few seconds before they whisked him off to the NICU floor.

Gabe was definitely a miracle, he blew everyone away just in his first week of life. He was moved off the ventilator within days and all respiratory support on Mother's Day. Hannah kept track of all of his progress and needs with the Warrior MAMA and Medical binders, plus a journal that Stefanie had given her. They left the hospital with him on June 26 - 4 days after his actual due date.

Stefanie loves that all her family members consistently use The Sunday Basket®, Friday Workbox®, binders and even the Education Friday Workbox® for homeschool. Haleigh with her diagnosis of ADHD took the longest to implement the products because the implementation felt very overwhelming; but just recently one of the kids found their birth certificate for her within minutes because it was in his binder (where it was supposed to be!). Hannah has had a lot of relief with the mental load of all of Gabe's medical needs, insurance claims and appointments by using the Sunday Basket®.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®
• Friday Workbox®
• The Paper Solution® Binders
• Education Friday Workbox®
• Warrior MAMA Binder

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU learn the skill of organization, too!

In this episode, I introduce you to Stefanie Ardoin. She has been part of our Organize 365® Dream Team since 2021 and one of our Certified Organizers since 2018. We are talking about Stef’s transition from empty nester to multigenerational living. We are also talking about her previous roles which transitioned her into her roles inside of the Organize 365® Dream Team - one of those being the administrator of a medical & surgical practice. Once she moved from Louisiana to South Carolina though, we renegotiated Stef’s role within Organize 365® because I definitely wanted to keep her!. Stef and her husband Adam moved next door to her daughter and son in law for two years in South Carolina. Stef wanted to do things a little different with her grandchildren than she had done with her children and this move provided that opportunity. Being neighbors gave them confidence that they could cohabitate. So the two families bought a house together! Stef, her husband, and her daughter’s family (which includes 6 grandchildren) all live together now.

Listen in as we discuss the necessity of planning and creating routines. As we talk, you can hear how the process of using the Friday Workbox® is something that productive people naturally lean into. Once Stef was acclimated to Organize 365®, it dawned on her she’d been doing her own form of the Friday Workbox® in the medical practice. Productive people have this natural cadence to reflect on their week, see what’s left to do with pressing deadlines, what can wait, and then plan their next week. Stef shared how she used similar systems in her previous position as an administrator of a medical & surgical practice and how using the Friday Workbox® and Planning Days really helped her to move into the next level of productivity.

Once she was on the employee side of things instead of the administrator side, she realized the slash pockets flow in a different order. When you are the business owner and visionary, the slash pockets go pink → purple → blue → green. However when you are the employee, they flow more like green → blue → purple → pink. She was no longer the one coming up or implementing the pink stuff, so it put a different spin on the slash pockets for her. Stef shared how and why there was that shift with her use of the workbox. Stef really took over the Friday Workbox® Club and ran with it!

This got us talking about the business owner/administrator’s day, and all the work that is completed before the rest of the employees show up. The keeper of ideas and how those get implemented. The relationship with the employees. It’s important to know them, but not spend so much time getting to know them that you lose chunks of time to work on the business. Offer the element of caring about them, but not that you talk everyday. If they want more time with the CEO, let them learn while you earn. They can always help you at an event or sit in on a presentation. This way you aren't taking away from your valuable time and they are still getting the benefit. Business owners have hard numbers they need to hit to keep the business running, after all. We talked about what that CEO day looks like and the thoughts that are guiding their days. 

We then discussed meetings. At Organize 365®, how we have a kind of digital workbox for in between meetings. Everyone can see everything that is going on and what the meeting will cover. We use Google Docs and team members can add to it in between meetings to cut down on texts, Voxer messages, and instant messaging. I discovered the other benefit to this system…ideas aren’t being sprung on employees at the meetings. Everyone has time to process and think. This leads to productive and actionable meetings. And that’s why we started  to share our meeting structures and agendas inside the Meeting Mastermind, to help other businesses accomplish productive meetings. The idea is that your team should be effectively using the Friday Workbox® and Planning Days, now you need effective meetings to make that action take place. Your teams will also be able to look back at the projects you have previously discussed. Projects maybe you started and then halted, only to realize now may be a better time to try again. 

You all know I love to spend time in pink work and being the visionary for Organize 365®. I also love to hand things off once I have hatched the idea. The digital systems we have in place allow me to do that and keep ideating on what I was uniquely created to do. After 4 years, this little dream team we have in place allows each team member to step up in their zones of strength and almost be me. This has created more time for me, the business owner, time I am using to get my PhD. What would you do with the extra time? 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Friday Workbox®
• Meeting Mastermind
• Certified Organizer Directory
• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter 

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365® community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Our Organize 365® Dream Team has experienced way more than its fair share of unexpected events this year. Like...A LOT. Nearly every single one of them has dealt with or is dealing with really big life events. I asked a few of them who were willing to share about those unexpected events and how they navigated them.

This is part 2 of Monique’s story. I have a feeling this part of her story will resonate with many of you, and my hope is that someone out there listening might be able to help Monique with this unique situation, or possibly give her answers. Please reach out if you have any similar experiences you could share, resources she may find useful, or anything that might point her in the right direction. 

Monique’s 21 year old daughter fell and hit her head on a Friday evening back in March. She has a history of migraines, so by Sunday when she still wasn’t acting like herself they went to the ER to have her checked for a concussion. Monique has dealt with concussions before, when her son (who was 13 at the time) got hit with a baseball in the head and suffered a concussion along with cavernous hemangiomas that had to be surgically removed. If they hadn’t sought help right away, he could have died from the hemangiomas. That was a year-long battle, resulting in 2 surgeries for him. The last thing she wanted was for history to repeat itself with her daughter. 

Alina was living her best life. She's 21 years old, had a full time job at Ulta, was a nanny, and was involved in the YA Group at church. Suddenly she couldn’t even take 10 steps to the bathroom without help. The doctors gave them 3 options - take her home and hire a home therapist, start taking her to physical therapy, or get her into a rehabilitation facility. Monique chose the rehab. She knew she couldn’t take care of her the way she needed to, she’s not a physical therapist or a nurse! 

As part of Monique’s story, she wanted to give advice to anyone out there who ever finds themselves in a place to help someone else who is dealing with a traumatic life event. Here are some tips on things to do that are helpful. 

• Give them a place to stay, gas money, or food money if they have to travel.
• Help with meals/snacks for any other people at home. Mealtrain.com is great for this! 
• Hire or ask someone to come clean the house, do laundry, or grocery shop for them and their family.
• Ask the person in need “when would you like my help?” instead of “what do you need?” It takes the pressure off of the person who’s already dealing with a lot to have to ask for help or make more decisions. 
• Just send money if you don’t know what else to do. Cash, gift cards, Venmo, Paypal.
• Write a nice handwritten note or card to let them know you’re thinking of them.
• Sending a text to let them know you’re thinking of them, without expecting a response right away.

Zenon finally came home from Ukraine, and Monique was able to travel for work and attend the Missouri Paper Organizing Retreat. She needed to laugh and have some fun, and let her brain and her body be “somewhere else” since she was so weighed down from the stress of the entire situation. She also went to host the Certification in South Carolina 2 weeks later. Other Organize 365® Dream Team members were asked to help fill in for Monique at the event, then one of them had their own unexpected event arise at the last minute. 

Listen in next week to hear the reason why Stef, another Dream Team member, couldn’t attend the South Carolina event like she planned to. 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

The Sunday Basket®

The Friday Workbox®

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU learn the skill of organization, too!

In this episode, I introduce you to Norma C. who is welcoming the next chapter of her life as she gets ready to retire and start a new business with her hubby! Norma was fed up with her disorganization and wanted to get organized as she felt life slowing down. Norma found Organize 365® on YouTube which surprised me, but then it clicked when Norma said she had read the book, too! Now Norma also listens to the podcast for continued learning and motivation.  Listen in as we discuss the golden window Norma is about to experience and how she is taking advantage of it!

She’s already conquered her closet and a portion of her storage space so it feels like Norma’s goal is realistic. We talked about a lot of internal conversations that take place when you go through your closet in regards to our weight, what fits, what used to fit, the monetary value of clothes you want to get rid of and how to donate or toss items without it haunting you. What is the right amount of clothes anyway? Remember too, styles change, our taste changes, and so do our bodies - so you don’t need to keep things even if they fit or you could fit in them soon. Norma and I have in common that we have lived in our homes for a long time. We discussed the closets and the reality of emptying a room to declutter and get organized. Lots of times people go through those phases when they move, but when you don’t move, this is another way to accomplish that. She shared that her handyman husband has been able to maximize the use of their closets and anything else necessary for organization.

Norma and her husband did a lot of traveling this year so far and have been able to organize it all through the Sunday Basket®; she even took her slash pockets on the road! Norma has a countdown on her phone for the day she’s retiring in 2024, and it’s also the countdown to get organized! Now that she has the hang of the Sunday Basket® and can appreciate all the time she has because of it, she’s doing the whole house. She wants this area of her life settled so she can focus on the next chapter. I reminded Norma that in a slower phase of life you may not have to process your Sunday Basket® as often. But once they start their business, it can serve them and keep them on track.

Norma’s advice is, “Definitely start with the Sunday Basket®. Make it part of your life and start with bite sized pieces. In the long run, you will start to see that it saves you time.” 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®
• Organization is a Learnable Skill
• The Paper Solution®
• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter 

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365® community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Our Organize 365® Dream Team has experienced way more than its fair share of unexpected events this year. Like...A LOT. Nearly every single one of them has dealt with or is dealing with really big life events. I asked a few of them who were willing to share about those unexpected events and how they are navigating them.

Monique is the first to share, but this isn't her first time on the podcast! I love how open, honest, and willing to share her story for the benefit of others she is. Monique has 6 adult children - 3 are biological, and 3 are adopted from Ukraine. Her husband Zenon is a first generation Ukrainian. Within the last 18 months, Monique and her husband have moved to a different state, welcomed their first grandbaby, one of their daughter's got married, and dealt with Zenon losing his job. WHOA!

They lived in the same home in Valparaiso, Indiana for 20 years. They also just celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary! The move was the best change for their marriage and their family. Then the first wave of unfortunate events hit. Their son and daughter in law who lived in Wisconsin were expecting a baby and he lost his job. Shortly thereafter, her son lost his job. It was then they decided to follow Monique and Zenon to Tennessee and start a new chapter of their lives.

Monique stepped in to help as much as possible like any good parent would - on top of dealing with all of life's normal challenges. She quickly learned it was a mistake to assume that adult children know how to do things that they've actually never done on their own! It's a whole different ballgame stepping back into a teaching role as a parent when they are adults.

Monique & her husband also have a few children with special needs. Teaching adulting skills to those children who have a different processing ability can be a challenge. They know this will require a lifetime of mentoring, and they might not be moving out someday and will most likely have a different future than their other children. They really had to do a mindset shift and readjust their expectations once they realized they might not become “empty nesters” like they once thought they would.

Lisa and Monique also shared about how much they love being grandparents. Monique's grandson Gabe was 4 months old at the time, and Grayson is about to turn 2! The impact you can have on your grandchildren's lives is so unique and different than what you had on your own children. They both hope they can make better choices this time around, and do things differently with them. Monique's husband can't wait until Gabe is 2 so he can take him to Home Depot, and Greg can't wait until Grayson is 5 so he can take him fishing!

Next up in Monique's life was her daughter's wedding in May. She still lives in Indiana, and Monique was trying to be supportive in helping her plan the wedding long distance. She would make weekend trips from Tennessee to Indiana to do all the wedding preparations she could along with her daughter. Monique spent the entire week leading up to the wedding with her as well, and was intentional about carving out special time with her before she became a married woman.

How does she do it all? As if a move, a grandbaby, and a wedding wasn't enough to make her head spin - she was also working full time at Organize 365®. Along with her full time job, she was taking out of town organizing jobs and coaching sessions in the evenings and on the weekends to earn extra money. She says she and Zenon had to "get scrappy" in their old age to deal with all the extra expenses in order to invest in their children's lives as much as possible.

Monique wastes no time feeling sorry for herself or worrying about how she will get it all done. She simply gets up and gets dressed. She figures out what the next step is and problem solves along the way. She uses her Sunday Basket® and Friday Workbox® - and focuses on only 7 days at a time. It feels like a game of Tetris to her; fitting all the pieces in, figuring out what the most critical things to get done are for the next 7 days, and flexing that time when something out of the ordinary does come along.

Then she experienced another blow - Zenon lost his job. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise - because he was able to go on a trip to Ukraine in March shortly after the war began. He focused his energy on this experience and giving back to his home country. He drove 25 hours in a caravan and made multiple stops along the way, delivering supplies from the western side to the eastern side where people were stuck in war zones. He experienced a once in a lifetime chance to be involved with organizations that help children, bringing people from east to west, taking things that people need from west to east because they couldn't get it, and meeting a relative for the first time.

Listen in next week to hear Part 2 of Monique's incredible story - it's unbelievable to think even more unexpected events were right around the corner.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®
• The Friday Workbox®

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!