Jacquie Ellis

Parenting a teen can be hard sometimes. Understanding how to help teens with back-to-school anxiety teaches mindfulness and opens communication within the family. There are a few steps we have used over the years to help coach our teens through their back-t0-school anxiety. Starting a new school is never easy and when you are a teen going through hormonal changes everything can seem overwhelming. I didn’t think I was going to be prepared for the teen years, but I found myself more prepared than I thought. I attribute that to having children that hated change most of their lives. We started coaching them through small bouts of anxiety when they…

Does work-life balance exist? Many people believe it is a myth, but it isn’t when you truly look at what balance truly means. Finding balance in your life will help simplify life. Many people will say that balance doesn’t exist and that it is a myth. Honestly, I’ve believed them and even said it recently in an article. I was wrong! I’ll explain why I was wrong and then I will provide more insight into answering the question, “does work-life balance exist?”. If you are struggling to find balance and don’t know where to begin, take the pillars of balance quiz and it will help you figure out what areas of…

The fall mayhem is stressful for busy moms. A family schedule is the single most important organizing tool to prepare for back-to-school schedules. Finding a way to share the planning role simplifies life and saves time for busy moms. As a busy mom myself, I understand how important a family schedule is for keeping my sanity. I also know that preparing for back-to-school is much more than just getting school supplies. August is always filled with mixed feelings for our family. We want to continue enjoying the relaxed schedule but need to start preparing for the school year. The pending school start brings on preparations so we are ready for back-to-school…

There are 5 habits hurting career goals and impeding productivity at work. Most people automatically think habits are always bad, but they aren’t. The truth is we have many habits in our life that help us get through the day without suffering from complete brain exhaustion by lunchtime. Habits are powerful routines that the brain loves, but they can be either extremely good or harmful for you.  There are many habits we can delve into but that would distract me from the goal of this post (see what I did there? – pun intended). Habits Hurting Career Goals Honestly, there are many more habits I could add to this list…

Back-to-school preparation tips for parents are more than what school supplies to get and meet the teacher. Finding ways to simplify life for you and your child is essential for a successful school year. Now that you have found ways to not overschedule your family, I thought you might like some of my back-to-school preparation tips for parents. These are the techniques and tools my family uses to help reduce overwhelm during the school year. I’m a working mother of 3 kids and my husband and I found that life could get pretty crazy during the school year. There were years that we had 3 kids in 3 different schools.…

It is easy to get caught up with the busy life and become overwhelmed with everything that “needs” to get done. It is also easy to live your life doing the same thing day in and day out and find yourself sucked into boredom, potentially leading you to depression. Learning how to slow life down is one way to start living your life again; enjoying life, building strong relationships, and truly be happy. Boredom Depression Overwhelm Anxiety The mind is powerful and when we aren’t enjoying our life, any of these states of mind are very real. When we are in this whirlwind we aren’t living our life fully. Relationships…

You don’t need to uproot the family to simplify your life. There are many ways to simplify life just by clearing the clutter in your mind. When life is busy endless tasks are constantly bombarding us and making it difficult to take small moments to enjoy our life. As a busy working mom myself, I found it difficult to relax long enough to enjoy my family and my life. I was constantly stressed about what needed to get done for the family, the house, work …. the list goes on and on. I found small ways to simplify life for us, and each time I made these changes life got…

Living with stress is a delicate balance between it helping productivity and affecting your career, health, and relationships. Truly learning how to manage stress is the only way to maintain a healthy lifestyle. There are many articles that give you ideas for relieving stress symptoms, but relieving the symptoms doesn’t change why the stress is happening. Don’t get me wrong, self-care is important but it is only one main ingredient when learning how to manage stress. It helps relieve the symptoms but when you only practice self-care you are putting a mask over the issue and not resolving it. As an engineer and a mom of three kids, I know…

There seems to be a misconception that to simplify your life you need to make the big changes like: move the country and start homesteading, sell everything and move into a tiny house, or live in an immaculate home that looks like a magazine cover. If it isn’t about the big lifestyle changes then what is it? Learning how to simplify life is a journey of personal development and small improvements over time. Everyone’s simple life journey is unique. It all starts by sorting through the chaos of your life bit by bit. Sound simple? (I hear you laughing from here…) If life is chaotic at times for you then…