Summary
In this episode Sasha shares an intentional living conversation with Julie Redmond, a happy wife and twin mom fueled by fun earrings, dark chocolate, meaningful conversations and Jesus!
She is on a mission to make life feel easier and meaningfully productive through the ultimate life hack of self awareness + intentional living. And it’s all built on the foundation of faith.
Julie shares about the importance of self awareness and how big of a role it plays in our ability to live intentionally as busy moms. She shares how understanding ourselves, our giftings, as well as our strengths and weaknesses can help us to find more balance in life.
Julie says that bringing self awareness and intentional living together can prevent us from ‘rolling with the punches’ and instead live with realistic expectations that help foster momlife days of gratefulness and joy.
Connect with Julie:
Podcast: https://tinyurl.com/mommadeplans
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mommadeplans/
Productivity Printables: www.etsy.com/shop/papermadeplans
Transcription
Sasha Star Robertson 0:03
Hello, sisters, and welcome back to another episode here on the Intentional Momlife With Jesus podcast. I have a very special guest with us today. Her name is Julie Redmond, and I’m just super excited because I think you’re gonna find so many similarities in her and I, and she is here talking to us about intentional living. And she brings in a whole different perspective than what you normally hear me talk about in this space, so I’m super excited to have her in the mix. To bring her into this space to help you learn from her. And also check out some of the amazing resources that she has available. Let’s do the jingle and then dive right in.
Sasha Star Robertson 0:58
Jingle
Sasha Star Robertson 2:25
Hello, sisters, and welcome back to another episode of the Intentional Momlife With Jesus Podcast. I’m here with a special guest today, Julie Redmond. She is a happy wife and twin mom fueled by fun earrings, dark chocolate, meaningful conversations, and Jesus. She’s on a mission to make life feel easier and meaningfully productive through the ultimate life hack of self-awareness and intentional living built on a foundation of faith. Sound similar or what? Thank you so much for being here, Julie. Anything you would like to add to that bio?
Julie Redmond 3:02
Oh, thank you for having me on here. It’s so fun that we are like-minded and trying to help everyone and yeah, I mean, I think that really sums it up. It’s just that my goal I always like to say is to be able to get to the end of the day and feel good about how you spend your time. Like it all boils down to all of our frustrations and struggles always boil down to how we’ve spent our time that day. And whether it’s as productive as we want, whether we did the tasks we wanted to do or spent the quality time that we wanted. Yeah, it always boils down to to that. So I’m just here to help everyone feel good at the end of the day. And that doesn’t always mean crazy productivity like we think of checking off a million tasks. It could be a rest day. But if you have intentionally decided like this is going to be a chill day. You can still feel good at the end of the day. So I always like to clarify, it doesn’t always mean checking a million boxes.
Sasha Star Robertson 4:06
Yes and Amen. I love that I actually had, that was my day yesterday, a rest day with family. And so it was just super chill. We went and swam at the pool together and I don’t even remember what else we did all we went and got family photos and it was just like there was nothing really to checkmark off and I ended the day feeling so good. I love that you point that out too. Because I think a lot of times when we, especially talking to moms, can talk about productivity. Like I think people can associate that with like this pressure to do more. And so I love that we’re on the same page with that, like no, there are days where it’s not. Yeah, just rest.
Julie Redmond 4:48
It’s the things you choose not just a list of a million things just for the sake of having a list.
Sasha Star Robertson 4:54
Yeah, right. So we talked about it before hitting record. I love that you’re a twin mom. It’s like I don’t know it’s this weird fantasy of mine. My husband thinks I’m crazy. And those of you who have been around for a while… No, maybe No, I don’t even know actually, I’ve shared it here on the podcast about being matched with twins in our first adoption journey. But I was almost a twin mom. So I’m like, Man, I bet you have so much value to add here. Like just on account of that living that experience that lived wisdom of managing two at the same time, two babies. So I don’t know if that’s part of your story. But I’d love to hear more about your story. And what led you to helping others live intentionally? Like, how did you discover these gifts and skills and all that fun stuff?
Julie Redmond 5:41
Yeah, it’s funny, because I think there’s not, there’s not really like a defining point of like, this happened, and I made this. I think it just sort of organically kind of evolved. And really, with having kids was the most like pivotal point, I ran an event design company before that. And just always working, working, working. And my work-life balance was definitely out of whack. And then having kids and trying to figure out if I could continue this business and realizing very quickly that that was not going to happen and tried to evolve and simplify and always looking for routines, like how do I make this happen and get things done?
Julie Redmond 6:24
And so I think that’s where things sort of started in my journey of how do you do this? That’s when you start looking at routines? Like what are the mom routines, like the waking up early thing, and what to do, and so I feel like I kind of struggled with that for a few years and working on it. And and then I don’t remember how I first heard about it, I don’t know if it was aneogram or whatever, just kind of discovery of just that self-awareness piece of, okay, how am I made and like my spiritual gifts, and all of those things and just learning more about myself and in turn about other people around me. And just having that awareness, even for my spouse, and like, what makes him happy and what he needs from me and because that’s like, that’s that whole juggle of balancing yourself, and that whole me time thing and being a good wife, and a good mom, and like still having friends, like all of that is where things, you live in that chaotic season of feeling like you can’t ever check any of those boxes well.
Julie Redmond 7:31
And so kind of the self awareness journey is what really took me deeper, just like opened my eyes so much to be like, Oh, I understand, like, I’m a very highly motivated person. So it’s a little more natural for me to want to do the productivity pieces, but there are times where I would just be like, bump on a log, like, I don’t even care and just kind of shutting down and I’m like, What is wrong with me. And I realized that’s a natural tendency you go like the opposite way, when I learned some of these things, it was so eye opening and helped me in like, planning my days and realizing when I’m getting super stressed out and all of that. And so just, it was like I now have this like key in my hand. I’m like, Oh, this is amazing.
Julie Redmond 8:18
Once you know more about yourself, and it’s easier to be more intentional and and that’s when I just love having conversations with other people and other moms and just encouraging them to not settle for the chaos and just feeling like a hot mess and disappointed all the time and not getting things done. And to just be like, Okay, well, what is important to you like how, how do you work, like what makes you happy? Let’s do more of these things and not just doing things because we feel like we should be.
Julie Redmond 8:18
I have this, totally going on a tangent here. But I have this thing I call the should test. And if you find yourself saying, I should be getting up earlier, I should be like meal prepping my lunches. I should be making my kids this, I shouldn’t be spending more time, like this is endless should every time you find yourself saying I should, like stop and question like, is this really something I should be doing? Like? Did I think that’s going to be important to me or my family? Or am I feeling this way because this is just from the outside perspective? Like I saw a Pinterest routine board that said this is what I shouldn’t be doing? Or what I’m hearing other people saying so that’s a lot of one piece of it and how we just determine like wait a second, just stop and evaluate like, why are you stressing out, like why are you feeling bad about your schedule or your routine and yeah, so I love that just stopping and reevaluating and then being able to move forward with intention. So it’s just kind of evolved into this. I love talking to people and this whole philosophy of just getting more intentional in that self awareness combination with it. And just kind of evolved.
Sasha Star Robertson 10:13
I love it. I love that you had pointed out like, I mean, I think it is so much about self awareness and like knowing, like who we are, you know, the Scripture says we’re fearfully and wonderfully made and that we’re like knitted together in our mother’s womb, but I think like God’s not done just in the womb, right? It’s like all these experiences throughout our lives that really form like our characteristics and our personality and, and what matters to us. And I feel like in a lot of that too. I hear values like what are our values, but then also like how do we tick as a person like you were saying, what’s important to you? What makes you happy? Understanding you know, your spiritual gifts, how you like relate to others around you and all these things coming together. And like using all of that information to help you operate in the way that’s like truly most efficient for you. And like you’re saying it’s so different than everyone else and so,
Julie Redmond 11:11
yeah, there’s no cookie cutter option, unfortunately.
Sasha Star Robertson 11:15
Exactly. We’re not cookies’ we’re humans. I love that. I I heard somebody say, I don’t even remember who this was in like this free workshop that I did years ago. Somebody said, Stop “shoulding” all over yourself. And I’m like, I really like that because I think we can get so caught up in like, oh, I should do this. And I should do that. And so I love that should test because I’ve never heard it said like that. But, but taking the time to stop and say, is it really like an evaluating that I’m a huge advocate for evaluating like, what’s working? What’s not? Stop and question this should. Because I think it’s so easy for all of these like outward expectations for us to just like, pick them up and be like, okay, whether it’s a Pinterest board, or something your mom said or what the other lady at church is doing or what the other moms are doing. But really, it being about, you know, what matters to us. And what God is truly calling us to in this season that we’re living in. So I love that I love that you talked about like, we don’t have to settle for this chaos and hot mess. I’m like, Yes and amen over here.
Julie Redmond 12:24
Yes, that is my soapbox. Yes.
Sasha Star Robertson 12:26
Yeah. 100% and I think the more that we speak into that, and like even think about ourselves in that way. Like, the more we foster that identity versus like the identity of like, I am a child of God, I am, you know, there’s so many other things that we can replace into that. And then the other thing that you had said, that I really loved is like you’re a highly motivated person. But then you said, sometimes I’m a bump on the log, and I’m like, Okay, we are all like that. And so I hope the listeners are hearing this, like, give yourself grace, because we are all like, I’ve went through a really rough season lately, where I’m just like, I kind of felt like I was beating myself up a little bit because I did feel like a bump on the log.
Sasha Star Robertson 13:11
But then when I look back, and I’m like, No, I’m actually being like, very productive and living according to my values. I think it was, I almost got caught up in this should, like you’re talking about where I was looking at, like what other people in my industry are doing and what other people, you know, what my peers are doing, or whatever else and just trying to force myself to live up to something that really wasn’t like, wasn’t what God was calling me to, especially in this season. And so I think that’s where a lot of my mindset of being a bump on a log was coming from, because really, if you looked at what I was doing, and like, all the things that I was doing, like amongst like being a good mom, like, simultaneously, it was this should and so I had to do that, stop and evaluate kind of a thing. So I love love, love that. Like, I think you shared a little bit about like, what, what self-awareness means to you like, what does living intentionally mean to you? And why do you believe that so important for just us in general to live off?
Julie Redmond 14:21
Yeah, and I think I definitely put self-awareness plus intentional living, I think they have to, in my opinion, they have to go together to be successful. Because otherwise, like, our default is to just roll with the day and what our kids need. And we constantly are picking up things and like doing the same tasks every day and just like checking those boxes that other people have for us or whatever we have, we’re just kind of in like robot mode. And we may not be like fully like fulfilled or like doing new things or being open to the pulling of the Holy Spirit to have a conversation with someone because we were so caught up in being stressed out in the grocery store with our kids. We can’t see that God brought us a little beacon of light in the grocery line to talk to you like it’s just we get in this automatic mode. And so I think that’s why intentional living is so important that you’re actually choosing like okay, what, what are the priorities like what do I want my life to look like? Is this really like Hot Mess mom or like feeling distracted just, whatever not productive title, is that really what I want? And like settling into that is so easy, like things are busy.
Julie Redmond 15:43
It’s so easy just to stay in the routines and just be like, Well, I’m too busy to do any changes. How can I be I don’t have time to be more productive. And you may not be doing the right things or the right order of things in this season of life. And that’s where this stopping and evaluating is so important. Like you have to pause and be like, Okay, this season of life, whether if you have an infant, or I have seven-year-old twins like that’s a very different season of life and what your time looks like and what you can do and so you have to have realistic expectations. And a lot of times, I don’t think we have those.
Julie Redmond 16:20
And I think that’s why I’m a proponent of writing things down too when we’re figuring out like, Okay, what is important in this season of life, like, making sure I have blocks of like quality time with my kids, time with Jesus, like, I need some fun time with friends or personal hobby or activity, like, I’m really feeling like dreams. And this needs to be a priority right now. Like, figuring out what those things are. And then figuring out the schedule of how to plug them in, and things that you may have thought were important.
Julie Redmond 16:52
And when you look in the scheme of things, you’re like, Oh, well, actually, that can be a good thing like that women’s Bible study is amazing and fulfilling. But when you’re looking at priorities, maybe that’s not where, that sounds crazy. You’re like what you’re trying not to go to a Bible study. Not necessarily, but like you do need to look, it might be good things like “good things “that may need to take a step back right now. And that that’s just what you have to do is just to evaluate and see like, not out of guilt, or of the shoulds or of what you think you should be doing according to everyone else for the season. It’s just like what is important to you and your family right now? And that’s how you’re going to feel like more productive and happy and re energized and not just like dreamed from doing all the time, you’re going to be doing things that matter to you.
Julie Redmond 17:45
And it can be simple little things. This doesn’t have to be extravagant over the top things. It’s just being intentional with your time and the season and writing it down allows you to see it, there’s something about seeing it on paper that helps you be like, Oh, okay, this is where I’m spending my time right now. Like, that’s really isn’t that important like that I do say, actually was a lot of time on my phone, like all day, whatever. Like it just helps you writing those things down and when you’re struggling and you get to the end of the day, and you’re like what did I do today and you’re beating yourself up feeling like you’re not productive? When you’ve written it down, You’re like, oh, actually, I did the laundry and the dishes. And I had playtime with my kids at the park and I did this and in a conversation, whenever you can see you may be doing the same thing.
Julie Redmond 18:35
But once you start writing it down, you’re like, oh, okay, like I see I am doing some things. And that’s where you get the freedom to like write down and when you start the day, you’ve written down like okay, it is a priority for me to do the laundry today. and have a quiet time and play with my kids. And like you have a plan for the day you’re not just sort of like spinning your wheels always being like, Okay, I have like 20 minutes right now what should I be doing like you’ve written out like what is important for you to do that day and it frees you up and makes you feel good. feel accomplished.
Sasha Star Robertson 19:13
Yes, yes and Amen. I feel like I say that every time you pause. I love. I love how a huge part of what you said was about being present and like living in that state of awareness and I think you hit the nail right on the head where it’s like when we’re just focused on this busy and like the next thing and the next thing and like living from this hot mess identity, we do miss those almost like God moments at the grocery store or you know, in the coffee line or whatever else, you know, and I think
Julie Redmond 19:43
just listening to your kids laugh and really soaking it in versus just being stressed out.
Sasha Star Robertson 19:47
Yeah, yeah. I love that. And, and I do believe that is that is that selfawareness and just being present, I think that’s really like, the present moment is a gift. Truly like that’s, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it’s called the present, but it’s just like being present in your life and in your days. Another thing that you said that I’m a huge proponent for is writing things down. I know, statistics, say I think you’re 40% more likely to achieve your goals or whatever you set out to do when you write them down because it takes it from one part of your brain I think it’s processes through the hippocampus or something like that. And it literally puts it in like your longer term storage bank. So it’s no longer just like floating around in your brain, you know, this mental to-do list? Yeah. Yes, it actually puts it in a different area of your brain. And so even when you’re not like consciously thinking about it, you’re more likely to take actions to complete it and so I love that I’m a huge huge huge advocate for writing it down as well.
Sasha Star Robertson 21:00
You talked about a essentially like good things versus God things is what like I always say, and I love that you pointed that was like, am I telling you not to go to this Bible study? Not necessarily, you know, you have saying like, don’t spend time with God but maybe these precepts with an hour of homework every day, five days a week is not the season for that. Right? But that doesn’t mean you avoid your relationship with the Lord but like what?
Julie Redmond 21:28
Yeah, there might be a different avenue right now.
Sasha Star Robertson 21:31
Yeah, yeah. And so I love that I there’s, there’s so much goodness to that. And, and then the other thing that you had said that I really loved, was about there’s actually I think, I don’t know if these go together. But you said you were talking about the evaluation again. And I think it goes back to that living in awareness. Where like, sometimes when I think of taking the time to evaluate, I’m like, Okay, what went well today? Or what went well this week? Or what is going well this month and what’s not going well, you know, what do I need to shift but when you were talking I was almost thinking like it’s kind of like all day every day evaluating like in the moment to live in that self-awareness and so
Julie Redmond 22:15
I have a super like practical thing just to interrupt there for like, in that moment, because it is just like check-ins of like, if you notice like man, I just love this moment like you’re just like really soaking it in and like for me a lot of times that’s when my family is outside and just like going for a walk or just playing outside together just like that’s when I’m just like so filled up to like have a little I have a Trello board but like have a little list in your phone of like, just to highlight like hey when I like feel the most alive and just like joyful with my family or whatever it may be like have a little write it down like those are the things you want to carve out more time for.
Julie Redmond 22:56
And when you notice that you’re like soup for stress, super anxiety like feeling unproductive and all the things just sort of spinning in circles like that checking moment as well to be like okay, what’s going on? Like, have I not written down like what my plans were for the days recently or have I overscheduled and said yes to too many things when really it should have been a no or not right now or whatever. Like that practical check-in of yes, that continued throughout the day of just like a little mental note of like, okay, I need more of this or, okay, this is clearly causing a problem. So what can I do to shift this around?
Sasha Star Robertson 23:35
I love that. I love you had pointed out Trello. I love Trello I also use workflowy a lot. I don’t know if you’ve heard it’s like, never ending bullet points. It’s really cool. I’m kind of obsessed. That’s my favorite app right now because I have it on Both of my computers and my iPad and my phone like it all syncs together you can go to on the you know just the I don’t know Safari on the desktop or whaever so I can access it anywhere then it’s just kind of like that perpetual brain dump space for me. So yeah I love that I’ve never thought of that before to just like, in the moment, if you’re feeling anxious, write down why. And in the moment, if you’re feeling grateful and like, super filled with joy, write down why. And so then you can consistently go back to those things that are bringing you joy, and have a tendency to like avoid, or try and work around the things that are creating that anxiety and overcome them. So
Julie Redmond 24:35
find solutions for those and maybe be like, Okay, I need to hit the pause button, take a break and go do one of those, like joyfilled moments.
Sasha Star Robertson 24:43
Yes, yes. Super cool. I know I was going to ask you about a few practical tips. But I love you’ve just been like littering them all throughout this conversation. And so, ladies, if you don’t have a notebook handy, go back and re-listen to this and write down some of those powerful questions and powerful strategies that you can put into place. One of the other things that you said and well, I just wrote down a note here, but like Brian Fretwell is a guy that I found on Tik Tok. And I just love like most of his content, but he asked this question of what went well, today because of you. And I think that’s just such an incredibly powerful question to ask.
Sasha Star Robertson 25:29
And I don’t know why I wrote down something you were talking about of like, being in awareness and that gratefulness maybe and like, what brings you joy, and oh, now I remember kind of the end of the day when you feel like you just didn’t really get anything done. You know, sitting down and even asking yourself that before you go to bed at night I think can be so helpful because you’re like, I didn’t get anything done what went well today because of me, and it’s like, my son was like fed paying attention to like we play together. You know, I met his needs I comforted him when he was sad and In whatever else, and I think even just bringing yourself into that awareness of like, Okay, what did I actually do really well today
Julie Redmond 26:10
can be hard to ask that question. It feels weird sometimes to be like, Oh, what did I do? Well, but it’s such a I love that perspective of it’s that impact. It’s all those little things even when you feel unproductive. And all those things like, you still are. And like, if you feel like all you did was pick up toys all day? Well, we can have another conversation about that to help you with that problem. It’s still like, Okay, if you didn’t do that your house would be more chaotic, with like toys everywhere in a mess, and you wouldn’t be able to have quality time. And so it’s like, no matter what it is, yeah, no matter how small or big just to have that perspective of like, your impact. And that’s challenging in a great way to think about to spur you on to, I love the verse spur you on towards love and good deeds. And that just reminded me of that perspective. Yeah.
Sasha Star Robertson 27:06
Awesome. I love it. Well, I feel like we could go on talking and talking, talking for like, ever. Yeah. Julie, if people want to connect with you and hear more from you, where can they find you?
Sasha Star Robertson 27:20
Yeah, I love to always insert lots of practical things for your day. And so I have a podcast Mom-made Plans, and where I talk more about this. So Sasha and I are in that the same lane of just helping Yeah, feel more productive. And I have some productivity printables over on Etsy. And that’s, that’s in my show notes as well, just to help all those practical tools to get us living more intentionally. So yeah.
Sasha Star Robertson 27:50
Awesome. Well, I will certainly be dropping those links in the show notes. So you guys can have that quick click to go over there. Subscribe to her podcast, follow her on Instagram, and even find those productivity printables which I should probably go check out because I’m a huge fan of productivity and printables Well, thank you so much, Julie. I appreciate your time. I love all the tips that you’ve given us today. And man, I feel like this just went by way too fast. So don’t hesitate if I reach out to you to be a guest here again, the Intentional Momlife With Jesus podcast. Hope y’all have a blessed day. Thank you
More about your Podcast Host
Sasha Star Robertson is an Intentional Living & Biblical Mindset Coach for busy Christian moms, wife of 13 years to her best friend, boy mom (blessed by adoption), travel addict, and Jesus freak. She is the founder of The Intentional Abundance Co., curator of the Life & Goals Planner, & host of the Intentional Momlife with Jesus Podcast.
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